Chapter 1: Welcome to Degrassi
Savtaj Bhandari could not believe how things had turned out. He had started his 10th grade year at Lakehurst Secondary School and wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary. Everything seemed mundane and uninteresting. But then two months into the school year, one of the older boys at Lakehurst, Nic, had declared war on Degrassi Community School. It was an ugly conflict. A Degrassi senior, Toby Isaacs, had been injured and eventually his best friend, Degrassi senior J.T. Yorke, had been stabbed and killed by Drake Lempkey, a psychotic Lakehurst student who had been drunk at that party. Sav felt bad for the Degrassi students that were friends with J.T., even though he never knew or spoke with J.T. personally. Sav was never fond of Drake or Nic, he thought they were completely insane and crazy. In a way, Sav was glad when Nic had been expelled for getting in more fights at Lakehurst and for accidentally burning down the school. The guy was a total nutcase.
But Sav wasn't thinking about any of that right now. He was slowly transitioning to his current life at Degrassi. It wasn't perfect, or anything like that, but it was similar to what he had experienced at Lakehurst. Sav had other thoughts in his mind.
Sav had been thinking of Holly J. Sinclair, who was definitely the prettiest girl and the most popular student in his grade. Sav felt attracted to Holly J. during their freshman year. When they had first met, Sav felt like Holly J. was everything he ever wanted. He had wanted to tell Holly J. how he had felt several times, but he never seemed to be able to work up the courage. Also, Sav knew his parents were going to try to set up an arranged marriage with a Muslim girl. Sav obviously didn't agree with this, but it wasn't like he had the power to go against his parents. His plan was to get a part-time job somewhere. If he made enough money, he could probably carry out his plans and maybe ask out Holly J., so that way he wouldn't suffer materially.
Sav had to admit he was slightly afraid, but he knew that eventually he had to grow a spine and stop acting like a coward. Then again, that only needed to happen if Holly J. actually reciprocated his romantic feelings. Holly J. was beautiful, but she was a mean girl. Sav also knew that if he asked her out and if she didn't like the way he did it, he could suffer backlash and abuse. And he wasn't prepared for that kind of stress. He had way too much to think about at the moment.
Anya MacPherson smiled at Sav. The latter suspected the girl had a crush on him, but Sav knew he had to shut her down before she got the wrong idea. Sav already had feelings for Holly J., and no one else. He wasn't going to say that publicly of course, but he had to make it clear that he wasn't interested.
"Hey, Sav", Anya said.
"Uh, hi Anya."
"There's a new movie coming out next week. You want to go see it?"
Sav noticed that several other Lakehurst students were looking in their direction, wondering what would happen. Sav had to make his decision known and obvious.
"Thanks, Anya, but…", Sav hesitated. He didn't want to hurt Anya's feelings, but he didn't want her to take it the wrong way.
"But what?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in you. I don't have the same feelings for you like you have for me."
"Oh", Anya said. "But may I ask why?"
"I have feelings for someone else", Sav said.
"Who, if I may ask?", Anya asked.
"Uh, I can't say."
"Oh. Well, good luck. Sorry to bother."
"Not a bother at all."
After Anya walked away, Sav breathed a sigh of relief. Now that that was taken care of, Sav could focus on his priorities.
One day, he vowed. One day I will let Holly J. know how I feel.
