Sorry for the long wait, school was crazy. Calculus and physics were a real hurdle in life, coupled with the pandemic. It hit pretty hard where I live so there wasn't much I could do outside of calculus and physics school.


Toby's POV

I could see them. Their glares. Spinner and Jay's. They both clearly are not happy with me.

For the longest time, I was confused. Whereas before it was the fact that I was an easy target for their torture and bullying. But for a long time, I was actually confused at why they were staring at me.

I would see Jay near the end of school with Spinner, and as I would take the bus, I would see them staring at me.

Then there was the Dot, where Alex and I would continue to hang out. Turns out Spinner now works there, and with frequent visits it was rather common for Jay to approach us.

But by the time that, I now understood Jay's glares. He was jealous, of Alex and I, which I understood why. I knew those two were a thing back then, but after the gonorrhea outbreak which Jay was partly to blame for, she dumped him. It didn't help with the fact that he basically cheated on her with other girls, like Emma, that one to this day haunts me.

So, it confused me a bit why he wanted to get back with Alex, didn't he cheat on her with every other girl?

Regardless, it was clear that me hanging out with Alex got him pissed off.

And with rebuttals such as, "So nerds are your type now, huh?" Only further cemented my suspicions. Which made me wonder, didn't Jay know of Alex's sexuality?

Maybe he didn't, which made sense. I myself hadn't learnt until roughly a month to two months ago, so it made sense. Besides, I knew she had taken a liken to Paige, which certainly surprised me. I thought those two were bitter rivals, but whatever.

But I knew they couldn't do anything about it, at least in school, I knew if Spinner committed one questionable act that could get him in trouble, then he was out.

However, it was only in school where these rules were in effect, outside he and Jay could do anything they wanted, and that both intrigued and terrified me. Would they try and start a fight with me outside of school? If so, then I was confident I could at least defend myself from their pursuit.

Besides, Jay made it clear he wasn't done with me. That incident in the cafeteria had not been forgotten, and I was sure he wanted a rematch of some sorts, a thought that, again both intrigued and terrified me.

I hadn't had an altercation since the other student who insulted Emma, and while it was nice to fight, I also didn't want to.

I could still feel the adrenaline from the simple possibility of a fight, and while I knew it was bad, that was also sort of the reason why I kind of desired for one.

It wasn't that I wanted to fight a random person, I wasn't a tyrant like them, but the possibility of actually feeling confident in taking on a tyrant made me excited. Despite that, I knew that I had to let him be the instigator, I was just defending myself and not letting others pick on me.

I wanted to give the message to those who had teased me throughout my childhood to know I was no longer an easy target. If you wanted a fight, I would give you one.

Right now, I was in my little gym, or garage weightlifting and practicing punches. Despite all of the drama, I still continued to spend some time working out. I still ran 5-10 km, still went to the health club and still ate well. I was taking care of myself.

While many may see me as completely different, change is necessary and I knew I had to change myself to officially fit into Degrassi, whether they had Spinner and Jay or not.

My session ended by a text from Alex yet again.

Alex: Can we meet at the Dot again? Math is a pain.

I chuckled slightly at Alex's hatred of math. I was good with the subject, so it was natural we would work well to help each other.

But I also liked doing this just to piss Jay and Spinner off. It may sound rude, but I was entitled to do what I wanted to do, and them threatening me would not change my mind.

Changing into more suitable clothes, I hopped out before riding a bicycle to the Dot, I was seriously debating on learning to drive, I mean, I got my G1 already, I would be able to get my G2 eventually.

Locking my bicycle, I was approached by none other than Jay. At that moment, my adrenaline started to peak, as I saw from the look of him, I knew he was at least going to talk to me like a child, but I wouldn't let him.

I couldn't let him.

"We need to talk," was all I heard from him, to which I shrugged and nodded.

Following him to a nearby back trial, I already knew this was bad, I never was street smart, but whenever you were led to a quiet dark area, it was never good.

I had gotten a story from Craig on how he was robbed of his guitar. It was stories like these that made me realize how little I knew about the outdoor world, after all, I was an introverted geek.

Nonetheless, I followed Jay out of the entrance of the Dot, while I knew Alex was waiting inside, I didn't really care cause unless Jay had a weapon, I knew I could handle him. From dealing with the constant attacks from him, I had become adjusted and accustomed to Jay's moves. It was more of anticipating and feeling where he would strike, rather than fast reflexes.

Eventually we stopped, and he looked at me with a stern look, the kind of look that made you know you were going to get yelled at. I didn't care in the slightest.

"What's up with you and Alex?" He started, to which I shrugged.

"Why should you care?" Was all I replied back.

He simply continued to glare at me. At that glare, I was anticipating a sucker punch, the typical I will walk away and suddenly swing back.

And that's what happened.

Jay took a swing towards my jaw, which I stepped back from. I quickly retaliated by swinging my own fist right towards his chest, but he barely got out of the way.

He wasn't done, instead he took another swing, this time at my neck, to which I ducked down, and swung my leg across, with the intent on making him lose balance.

It worked, and he fell to the ground with a thud. I wasted no time to get on top of him, but he pushed me off before I could trap him, and continued to swing at me. I sidestepped, but he still got a hit on me from the shoulder. I got out unscathed, and got a little distance between us.

Of course, Jay tried to close it, by continuing to swing at me, but I kept just enough distance to strike him with a kick to his side, which got him off balance. I then tackled him, once again pinning him to the ground, punching his torso repeatedly.

But where I had stamina, Jay had experience. It was no secret that he knew how to handle himself in situations like this, and he mildly surprised me, when he flipped me over, his hands pressed against my neck, in an attempt to choke me.

But thankfully I knew exactly myself how to get out of situations like this. Putting my hands onto his elbow, his grip on my throat weakened, and I pushed my knee towards his abdomen.

Making a gasp of pain, Jay rolled over gripping his abs tightly. I had kneed him. On the one hand, it was nice to see Jay on the floor, in pain from a fight from Toby Isaacs, but it was also concerning, had I hit him in the kidney?

I concluded I didn't because after a minute, he had gotten up and charged me at speed I hadn't expected. I had let my guard down.

He had successfully connected his fist, hitting my ribs, which definitely hurt. He wasn't done, trying to grab my throat to push me to the wall just behind me, I side stepped, causing him to misstep, and put his hand on the wall for balance.

This left him open for a side kick to his side, which connected with a hard slam. The force caused Jay to clearly step back in pain, but he seemed to shrug it off.

Blow for blow, kick to grab, we continued for God knows how long. Jay's experience mixed with my stamina resulted in the long period of fighting we did, but we were neck for neck. Like a stalemate in an arm wrestle, the only way to end it was for one party to close their guard down, and with both of us eyeing each other with pure hatred, none of us were going to any time soon.

But that distraction came.

"What the fuck is going on?!" That voice stopped Jay and I right in our trails, as we saw Spinner and Alex looking at us, eyes widened and in shock. The voice became the distraction that ended our fight.

That's when I took a good look at Jay, and I realized the damage I had truly done. His nose had gotten red, with blood pouring out from his nostrils, meaning I could've broken his nose, his eye had turned purple, and two of his teeth were chipped. His shirt, which was off due to the tussle, showed a very red chest and side, most likely from the kicks, with some blood pouring from them. The worst injury seemed to be to his abdomen, however, which had turned a shade of purple, with blood also pouring from there as well.

As for me, I had a bloodied jaw from Jay's punch, a red neck from him attempting to choke me, some small cuts on my head with bits of blood pouring out. My chest had turned red from the lack of oxygen during the tussle, and my thighs were red. However, I began to feel pain in my ribcage, which meant he probably at least fractured it. Overall, we both looked worse than I anticipated.

"I'll take care of Toby, you take care of Jay," was all Alex said before leading me away from the back of the Dot. That was the last I saw from Jay and Spinner, because Alex lead me towards her car. Sitting in the passenger seat slowly, with pain present around my body, Alex began to drive towards the nearby hospital.

It was rather silence, which for some reason was more suspenseful than Jay and I's fight.

"Do I have to go to the hospital?" I asked mildly to which she nodded.

"Of course, you dumbass, that was really stupid, picking a fight with Jay." I could hear from the tone of her voice she was in a mix of shock and disappointment.

"Hey, he started it first!"

But she didn't reply, instead she continued driving until we made it. Pretty much dragging me in the hospital, the one I had actually went to when Jay hit me with the glass, I didn't want to be here, and I swear I saw Jay and Spinner nearby. Maybe I was paranoid, or the fact that Jay was the reason I kept coming back here, I didn't know.

All I knew was that I had some serious explaining to do for Alex, and the rest of the school when they saw me. At least I showed that punk what I was capable of, and I knew he wouldn't try to attack me again, I mean it looked like I did more damage to him.

"Toby Isaacs?" Was what the doctor said before he looked at me, "Again? The last time you came in was from you bleeding on your forehead, what happened now?"

"He got attacked by a wild animal," Alex said shortly after, looking at me intently from the doctor's remark, "A bear I think, I don't know I just found him like this."

"Mmmhmm." Was all he said before he brought me in a room.

He then began, "Kind of funny how I had to treat a young teenager for stuff like a broken nose, purple eye and bloodied torso. Now I got another teenager with, bloodied jaw, red chest probably from a lack of oxygen, and a fractured rib."

"Haha," was all I said before I sat down on the chair.

"Uhh, Toby you'll need to get up here," The doctor said, pointing towards a higher stand, "And make sure you lie down."

Getting up slowly, due to the pain from my ribs, I made my way there, eventually lying down, which made my ribs hurt even more.

"Alright," was all the doctor said as he inspected me throughout my body.

"Uhm, so what's wrong, doc?" Alex interrupted as he seemed to walk away from me.

"Well," He lifted up his glasses, "We'll have to clean the bruises on his jaw, head and thighs, and his red chest will heal with time. However, he has a fractured rib, so we'll prescribe acetaminophen for the pain, take deep breathes and don't do any vigorous activities."

I looked at him, a sense of dread coming out of my facial tone, "Does that include exercise?"

He looked at me, "Especially that, which exercise do you do?"

I scratched my head, I hadn't really told anyone what I do besides Craig, "Well, I do bench presses, deadlifts, cardio like running, punching bags, skip ropes, and there's probably more I'm missing.

"Well, I especially caution you against the cardio and weightlifting, but you can do bits of punching and skip ropes, for at least 4 weeks."

"Fine, give me the medication."

Not much that I could remember happened, besides Alex asking me what happened.

"Well once I got to the Dot, Jay wanted me to talk to me, and he led me to the back of the area. We talked and then he tried to sucker punch me, to which I retaliated."

She gave me a look that I couldn't actually comprehend. One the one hand, she seemed impressed, shocked and understanding. On the other, she looked pissed and concerned.

Once that ended, I then had my father and Kate to deal with, seeing a damaged jaw was pretty easy to see. While I was a bit surprised at Kate's sudden concern, I just let it happen. Then at school was another story. Oh god. Literally I could see the looks everyone gave me, and it was pretty annoying. While it was nice to see people care about me, it got repetitive and I got sick of it.

Craig's reaction was pretty normal, and aside from a joke, he asked, "What the crap happened?"

"Jay," was what I replied with, "you should've seen him though."

At that he gave me a pat, "At least you showed him."

Craig understood and didn't pressure me with any more information which was a nice break, and true to his character. I didn't want anyone else making the situation worse, but it turns out everyone loves drama.

"Toby, what happened to your face?" I groaned in annoyance once I heard Paige's voice. I just explained to Marco and Ellie what happened, I didn't need to give another run down of the same story I would share.

"Nothing worth your time!" was all I said before I stormed off into my classroom. I was so used to people giving me the stares. They did it in the aftermath of the shooting, they did it in the aftermath of the altercation of the cafeteria, and they did it when people realized my physical change.

But with those, nobody really cared to ask me on what happened. With those instances many people would just look at me and ignore me, but now with a bruised jaw, everyone seemed intrigued to ask me on my wellbeing, and it annoyed me.

But atlas, people had sources, and they would eventually find out what happened. By the time lunch occurred, some of the Degrassi cast found out what happened, and they were truly impressed yet disappointed in me at the same time, which confused me.

"How could you pick a fight with him?" That was one of the most reoccurring questions I've heard throughout my day at Degrassi, and I couldn't have been more pissed.

At this point, I didn't care. I showed Jay what I was capable of, and I knew he wouldn't try and do anything physical with me again.


Craig's POV


It's been so successful. The show had garnished many thousands in cash, and in the span of weeks, I had gone from a typical school teenager to a local Rockstar, which I was happy about. Most, especially from the younger spectrum, was well aware of who I was.

Maybe I was being a bit to egotistical, but I was impressed by the exponential growth I had experienced.

To make matters better for me, the rest of my friends were also impressed and satisfied with my passion in music.

The look Marco and Jimmy gave me filled me with happiness.

"You killed it." Was what Jimmy told me, with Marco giving me a smile of approval.

Toby was just happy I was making something from my passion, and he instead encouraged me to make it go further.

"Just because you're going up quickly doesn't mean there's always more room." That advice Toby gave me had stuck to me recently, as I could understand where he was going. Don't mess up this opportunity.

However, it was Ellie who made me the most worrisome. The possible thought of leaving her broke me, and I knew it would hurt her. I didn't want to leave, I mean we're a band, at least behind the scenes.

I didn't want to leave Toronto for the sole purpose of Ellie. Our time together made me realize how much Ellie truly meant to me, her smile, something she rarely did, she had done so much with me. It was nice to see I could be the shining light for someone, even if I had fucked up so many times before.

Regardless, I knew I would have to move somewhere else if a contract were to spot me. Toronto simply was not the big music spotlight as other places, especially in the United States.

When I had spoken to Ellie after the stage, we talked, laughed and then fell into silence. The silence wasn't awkwardness, but rather composure, as if we wanted to make sure we didn't say anything dumb. Those silences were also filled with wanted feelings we wanted to spill onto each other, but didn't have the confidence.

I remember during our after-stage conversation what she told me.

"Follow what you truly want to do."

"But what about you all? What about you, Ellie?"

She gave me that look, "Our place isn't the stage, but yours is, make the most of this."

I sighed at that memory. Suddenly I was so unsure on whether or not I wanted to go now.

"Uhh, why is my mind so conflicted!"

Taking a walk out, I decided to head to the studio. Whenever I had a conflicted mind, I'd always go and sort of freestyle and start a rhythm as the foundation of my songs. That was where most of the songs got their feeling from. Confusion, hope and faith.

I was welcomed by the rest of the members, who had recognized me in the aftermath of my first gig. I waved back at them before heading into a quiet room, filled with notebooks and recording equipment.

It was this room where I could create more of my newer music, which I felt was more professional than my last. Purple Rain, Nowhere and Don't Play were all nice, but I saw some flaws in them that I wanted to fix, but knew with time and experience I could flesh them out.

At the moment, the outside world was non-existent, and it was just me in this enclosed room, making lyrics with my mind. A mind filled with torment, confusion and uncertainty. The person who had done so much wrong that you wouldn't sympathize with him.

I had texted Ellie that I was in the studio, so if she wanted to talk I would later. It wasn't that I didn't want to, I really wanted to, but with my mind going through so much conflicts, I decided it would be best if I waited it out.

Once I had begun my lyrics, I had gazed off. The studio had become filled with other smaller local musicians, but with my recent single, it was easier to identify me rather than anyone else, and I knew it.

Within these musicians were singers, rappers, other rock stars, even producers who were trying to get their music to greater lengths.

Young, old, male, female, tall, bulky, they all varied, and of course the girls all liked me. I could see the lust in their eyes, looking at Craig Manning, the local Rockstar who was blowing up at least in Ontario. I wasn't sure if I was throughout the country, but province wide was a nice start for me at least.

"Hey cutie." My mind was snapped shut when I heard the voice of another girl. Judging from the clothes she had on, she was a local rapper. She looked a year younger than me, had jet black hair flowing down her pale skin. Her eyes covered in the colour blue, was also filled with lust, and judging from her posture and the way she held herself, also her breathe, she was clearly on some substance.

"Hey," was all I replied, before she stuck up a white substance for me.

I looked at her suspiciously, before the white stuff, "What is that?"

"It's coke, for you."

I quickly, yet slowly pushed her hands away, "No thanks," before I swiftly tried to get away from her.

Unfortunately, she followed me, "Oh come on! You'll love it!"

She clearly wasn't getting the message; I wasn't interested in both the cocaine and herself.

"Listen, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not interested in both of you!"

Thinking it was the end, I walked away before she grabbed my hand, and pulled me closer to her.

She then whispered in my ear, "You're not going anywhere until I get what I want." Her whispered, seductive tone actually made me shiver, as she was clearly too intoxicated to be realizing what she was doing.

It wasn't until she brought the white powder back into my eyesight before I forcibly pushed her away, the white powder spilling across the floor. I didn't want to do that, but she was trying to get me high so we could have sex. I knew those tricks and I knew the consequences of that, especially since I was a year older than her.

Walking outside, I stayed close to the building, watching the dimming skies become a reddish colour. I took a sigh as I watched as the sun slowly went down, not directly of course.

"Craig Manning?" I turned my eyes to meet a man, clearly in his thirties, his beard, short hair and earring standing out from the crowd. He had a plain red shirt, that was covered by a thick black shirt. His clean jeans were also popping out from the crowd.

"Yes?"

"Let me introduce myself, I'm Leo Davies, and I'm a record producer, and I am looking for a great musician."

It was at those words that my world began to change. This was the destined record producer I was waiting for once my single had blown up province-wide. I kept my composure, before replying back to him.

"You're looking for a great musician, eh? Well I wish you luck in your mission."

He took a hearty laugh at my response. "Okay Craig, I'll just cut straight to the chase, I heard your single and have seen videos of your performance, it's amazing."

I nodded in response, "Yeah, a lot of people have told me how successful it truly was."

"That is specifically why I want you to fly to Vancouver, so we can record you some albums."

I was shocked. This was it. My big moment to truly make it big.

Too caught up in the moment, I, without any thinking, told Leo, "Yes, I would like to."

He smiled at me, "Great." He passed me a note he had written down, "Here's my phone number, call me and we can discuss further, I would like to try and fly out as soon as a month's time."

As he left, I could feel the wide grin I had on my face, this was it, the time to get big and become the Rockstar.

But suddenly, I thought of the band. Marco, Ellie and Jimmy. I had failed to mention to Leo about them.

"Crap!"