A much slower and less dramatic chapter this time around, especially since the next chapter will probably give some people some shivers. Unless you haven't watched Degrassi, you know what I'm talking about.


Toby's POV

The next day

"argh..." I groaned at the contact of Emma hugging me, the cuts on my body from the fight still present.

She obviously noticed and stepped back, "Are you okay?" I heard her ask concerningly , which was somewhat surprising.

I scratched my head when she gave me space, "Yeah, I'm alright, better than those other kids."

I heard Craig chuckle behind my back, causing Emma looked towards him, to which he replied, "Trust me, they looked beaten up."

Emma looked at Manny, expecting some sort of joke, but her face was too serious. Looking at me in shock, she mumbled, "How bad..."

"He knocked a kid unconscious, fractured another's neck, bruised another's abdomen, and broke one's nose."

She looked back at me once Craig had finished his sentence. Whether the look was in shock, disbelief or fear, however I didn't know.

"What the hell, Toby, I mean, good job for defending yourself, but how do you think Lakehurst is going to react when they find out you beat up 4 of their students?"

I shrugged, "Hey, they were provoking me and trying to beat me up, so I did what was necessary."

Craig nodded in acknowledgement.

"You beat up four kids? I want to see that."

The contents of the sentence were dwarfed by the voice who said those words, Sean, who had just entered the school, brought his elbow on Craig and Emma's shoulder.

I was mildly shocked, "How did-"

Craig interrupted me, "Emma got him out of the slammer, and I showed proof that the pot wasn't his doing."

I looked to Sean, then back to Craig, clearly confused, which was really weird, "So who-"

I was interrupted yet again, this time by the sound of Ms. Hatzilakos almost shouting, "Peter Stone!" Well that answered my question.

I saw him being berated by his mother, who was also the principle. Huh, that made more sense as to why he got away with some bullshit others would get reprimanded for.

Looking back, I watched in awe as she pretty much pulled him out of the school, into her car before driving off, probably to a dungeon or jail.

"So, no special treatment for even her son? Well then I have no chance." I heard Craig remark, to which got the rest of us laughing.

"You got suspended?" I heard Sean ask, to which Craig chuckled in response.

"The school fight, I was there, and so was Toby, Jt and Manny." He stated, pointing Manny and I out,

Sean in response smirked at us.

"Even you Tobes? even you were suspended?" Sean pointed the question to me, to which I laughed.

"Yeah, even Manny got herself a bad mark." She seemingly huffed at that remark, her taking the suspension more seriously than Craig and I.

Laughing at all the funny things that had happened in a relatively short amount of time since we came back, we were all taking ourselves away from the reality of how much was and is truly going on.

Eventually, we were heading to class, with the notification, the bell, being a reminder of the atmosphere and environment, we were in.

Heading my separate way, I was stopped by a tap on my shoulder. Looking behind me, I saw Jt looking somewhat stern at me, Mia not far behind him.

I was rather confused as Jt was almost never serious, even during work time, he was always a jokester, "What's going on?"

He seemed more frantic actually, "You might want to look outside at the front."

He started running towards the doors, to which I followed him.

"What am I supposed to expect?"

"You'll see."

"Are they-" I was stopped mid sentence when I saw out the door, a group of Lakehurst students just standing outside the door.

I was rather confused, but stern, "What are they doing?"

Jt didn't answer, instead letting out a heavy breath, "They're just standing there, menacingly."

I rolled my eyes, "I mean yeah, but why?"

Jt seemed to not know the answer neither, but when a boy with a bandaged nose began going up the steps, alongside him was what appeared to be a red-headed boy with a black hoodie, and a guy I recognized during the fight.

I immediately recognized the first of the trio as Nic, as he had a bandaged nose probably from the fight.

I gulped, watching as Jt noticeably tensed, preparing for a worst-case scenario.

I quickly heard footsteps from behind, and I quickly looked back to see Craig and Sean approaching behind us.

Once Nic and his group opened the door, they merely smirked.

"What are you guys doing?" Sean pretty much demanded.

"Well, that's a rude way to greet your guests, huh Degrassi nerd?" Nice remarked, smirking, playing with all of us.

"You were never a guest of Degrassi once you started that fight." Craig seethed in anger. "Get out of here right now."

This only made them laugh, "What are you going to do, Rockstar? Tell your fans to hunt us?"

Craig smiled, rather darkly and sinister-like, which actually terrified me, "You want to see what I'll do?" He dared, bluntly, taking his phone into view, which made the Lakehurst students shut up.

"You're going to call guards? What are you, an FBI agent?" One of the guys asked.

"Nope, but I am a Rockstar, and I always need guards to defend from obsessed fans and threats, and if you three don't tell your friends to get away from Degrassi, I won't hesitate to call them."

They remained silent, and so had I, and I knew I had to break this silence.

I stepped forward suddenly, which made the three flinch in union. Nic was the first to leave, following the guy I recognized during the fight.

However, the red-headed guy, before leaving remarked, "I swear on my life, I'll make you pay, especially you, you, and you," pointing to Jt, Craig and I.

Once he left, a loud deep exhale was present.

Eventually, we all went our own ways, with Sean and Craig going one way, and Jt and I another.

"What the crap was that?" I asked Jt, to which he sighed.

"They've been getting increasingly violent towards us, especially Mia."

I sighed, "It's probably that fight."

Jt nodded in response, "I know, but on a better note, Liberty's birthday is soon, and Manny and I have decided we should throw a party for her."

I was certainly interested, while I always had a weird relation with parties, they were a nice way to get rid of all your problems.

Shrugging and smiling I told Jt, "Sure, I think it's a good idea, who are you going to invite?"

He pulled me towards him, to which I flinched at due to the sudden touch. He seemed to notice my discomfort and he let go, "uhh sorry."

"It's okay," I assured him,

He chuckled, "Anyways, it'll probably just be some Degrassi students, Manny is telling Liberty about this, and they and Emma will plan the rest, the party will probably be at Emma's house."

I nodded in acknowledgement. A party for Liberty's birthday? Sounds interesting.

"So is Mia coming?" At that statement I noticed Jt's sudden quietness. "Jt."

"She won't be there; she'll be out of town." He stated, which got me a bit suspicious, but I ultimately didn't ask further.

I was always known as the nerd, and even now when people didn't see me as one, I was still, at some aspects, still a nerd. While I was ashamed of that, I realized the benefits of it.

I was always the type to analyze what was going on around me, always operating in the background, studying the obstacles and ways.

I was never the type to jump into something drastic, unless the timing was strict, otherwise I would always take my time and perform when I thought was the best course of time and action.

Even when I was quiet alongside the people I hung around, I was always watching, studying their walls.

Watching Jt, I knew something was up, not just between him, but rather between him, Mia and Liberty. I could tell very easily that Liberty was jealous, going as far as to throwing dirt about Jt towards Mia.

So, this party was clearly going to be interesting, not just for Liberty, but possibly for all of us.

And I knew that Jt and Liberty were definitely going to have some sort of drama. But for now, I only hoped that everything would go okay, it's not like nothing bad is going to happen, right?


Craig's POV

"So, you took her out, and found out she had a boyfriend?" Sean asked me, which put me out of my thoughts.

I sighed, getting sad at the thought of it, "Yeah, she didn't even warn me about that."

Sean whistled, "That is hard, what are you going to do?"

I shrugged, not really knowing, "I don't know."

He looked at me, "Well, are you going to go back to Manny?"

I shook my head, "No thanks, after everything, we're done."

I was stopped in my tracks by Sean, "You know what you need?"

I tilted my head, "What do I need?"

He smiled, "A party."

Oh god, "A party?" I asked, a bit uncomfortable that Sean didn't notice.

"Yeah, something to get your mind off Ellie."

I shrugged, "I don't know, I mean where the hell are, we supposed to find a party?"

Sean laughed at me, "Come on, you're a Rockstar, you mean to tell me during your time you haven't gone out partying?"

I shrugged again, "I mean, yeah I did, but I spent most of my time making music."

Sean patted my back, "Well you need to find a party, get a girl for a bit to get your mind off."

As if fate wanted to play with me, I got a message from my phone, and I looked at mine, Sean, who had gotten a message as well, did the same.

"Party at Emma's house tomorrow, huh." I read.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I heard Sean reply.

I smirked, "Staying home and being boring, instead going to the race track?"

Sean playfully smacked the back of my head, "No! We're going to that party tomorrow."

I sighed, I didn't really know whether or not if I wanted to go. On the one hand, I still wanted to remember Ellie and be with her, but on the other, I knew that she was gone, and that I had to move on.

Taking a big breather, I nodded to Sean, "Alright, we'll go."

He simply grinned before we did our handshake, "See you at the party Rockstar."

I sighed; I wasn't sure about this, but knowing Sean, he'll probably find a way to get me to go.

Making my way to my apartment, I began to ponder. I was supposed to call Joey and Angela to check up on them, but so much was on my mind I simply just sat there, thinking as if I had all the time in the world.

Maybe the party would be a nice distraction, but I wanted to do something to let her now.

I didn't just want to forget about her, I wanted her to know we still had a connection.

Alright, screw it, I wanted her. I wanted Ellie, and I needed her. I had all of those chances to take everything we were seriously, and I screwed it up, my fear took hold, and it prevented me from getting something great.

Shaking my head, slightly in anger, I knew what I wanted to do.

Usually during anger, I would go to the studio out of my times and just record extra songs. Some were just unpolished and raw, but some would get passed that and through some editing could become actual songs.

The first song I had involved a R&B atmosphere to it, but my vocals were definitely alternative rock styled.

"When the sun goes down, and the lights turn off,

Girl I got you now, let your body talk,

When the moon comes out,

Turn the base up loud,

When the wolves howl,

You'll never feel my way, yeah

We've been up all day,

See me with the wolves dancing in the flashing lights,

Don't get in her way,

She say she gon' stay,

Moonlight made her change, yeah

Fast life it don't wait, yeah

She said she gon' ride on it, yeah yeah yeah

Come vibe on it, yeah

Break your spine on it,

Ooh yeah, ease your mind on it,

She said she gon' ride on it, yeah yeah yeah

Come vibe on it, yeah

Break your spine on it,

Ooh yeah, ease your mind on it,

(Moonlight made me change)

(Moonlight made me change)

(Moonlight made me change)

(Moonlight made me change)"

Music was always my way to heal myself from my thoughts, whether it was based on regret or desire, I always needed a scapegoat, and music provided that for me. But then I quickly realized that song was for Ellie, and I smacked myself.

The next song, was less completed, but I ultimately knew what I wanted to do with this song. If you thought that these songs were about Ellie, then you were kind of wrong. While I wanted to use music as a scapegoat to suppress all the wrongs and regrets in my life, I also wanted to acknowledge them. It was weird, I know, but that's how I worked.

And maybe that first song was kind of about Ellie, with the idea of her joining me alongside the wolves, in being the leader and dancing in the moonlight.

But I promise! This song isn't about Ellie, rather it's sort of the opposite, about a toxic relationship that one of my closest producers went through. I had been there through his struggles of his now ex threatening him to stay with her, or else she will do some stuff that they both would regret, it was honesty uncomfortable talking about.

It was kind of ironic, thinking that if anything, I was the toxic influence on Ellie, leading her on before rejecting her. Now I wanted her when she clearly was happy, what was wrong with me.

I shook my head, this song was for my producer, not Ellie! Focus Craig.

"Better on my own, so much better on my own,

If you need me there, I don't care,

Took over my mind

Till my thoughts turned black,

Water into wine, there's no turning back,

Poison in my lungs it's a heart attack,

I won't come back,

I'll be anywhere but there, there, there."

I loved it, the production alongside the almost hypnotic vocals was amazing, and I knew what I wanted to do, and this was a song not about Ellie in the slightest, and with Ellie being the center of my mind, yet again, I put more of my time into writing more for this song.

"So you tell me that you're coming down,

And you tell me that you need me around,

And you blame it on the drugs,

I don't give a fuck cause the damage is done,

You got secrets I don't need to ask,

You only tell me that it's in the past,

Another bullet in the gun,

I don't give a fuck,

Cause the damage is done,

Now we're hollow on the inside,

Now it defines us,

And you talk about suicide,

It's the way you manipulate,

And you want me right back there,

This time I'm not scared,

I don't care."

Huh, maybe the suicide part was too vulgar. But Afterall, that was what had happened through their relationship and I wanted to address it, and maybe help him. He was there for me, helping in adjusting and staying away from all the trouble.

It was one of these nights where I found myself in a spree of writing music, and it was something I occasionally did when I had a lot on my mind.

With the studio pretty much empty, I was free to do whatever I wanted, and not worry about any threats or managers during the day.

I had made sure to text the guards to stand near all the doors, in case someone was watching me. While it may seem a bit overprotective, I had a scary altercation before where I almost was attacked by an obsessed fan with a deadly weapon, it was after that I had gotten security.

And before I knew it, I was into my music spree, and I was creating new songs that I would probably forget about tomorrow until I stumbled across them. Oh well.

"When the sun goes down,

And we come alive,

Who really got you now?

Who really down to ride?

Watch the way they come around,

When they see your lane switch,

Might cut you off,

I'm young and dangerous,

It's never been a race,

They still be chasing,

Couldn't keep the pace,

They too complacent,

Fast life on the low,

Yeah, this the lifestyle I chose."

"You see that I see you eying me,

You look, yeah you look so lonely,

I hope you don't take me lightly,

We can get lose in mentality,

Take you under the neon lights,

Just forget about the world baby it's you and I,

Give you all that you deserve,

If I'm with your piece of mind,

Let's forget our words under the neon lights, neon lights yeah."

Eventually, as late as 1 AM, I had calmed down, and after all of those writing and processing, I had three complete songs. Getting up, I looked at my phone to see a lot of messages from Toby, Sean and Marco.

"Huh, Marco."

I opened their messages to see what was happening.

Sean: We're going to this party, man, make sure you actually get there, or I'll drag you there.

Toby: So, I heard you were coming alongside Sean? That's totally fine, I'm for.

Marco: Party? As in good times?! I'm bringing Ellie.

I gulped, of course Marco was bringing Ellie, of fricken course.

Looks like I'll need the studio more.

...

The next day...

Saturday, I wish I could stay in bed all day or even go to the studio, but of course there was this stupid party, that Sean is forcing me to go to, and now will have Ellie attending. I did not want to go knowing I'd have the probably see her and her boyfriend kiss and maybe accidentally walk in on the two in bed.

I shuddered at that thought, and I immediately cleaned myself up. Not for the saint or anything, but just to get my mind off of my thoughts.

Luckily, Sean and I agreed to meet up with each other early morning and hang out before the party began.

Because of the music mania I had went on, I was surprised, but also not really to see that I had awoken as late as 11 PM. Once I had gotten up, I went out, with my motorcycle to meet up with Sean.

It was weird, seeing Sean and Emma live together knowing there was clearly stuff going on between them, but I digressed.

"Alright Emma, I'll get you some drinks." I heard Sean mumble somewhat unimpressively.

When he got out, he wasn't as happy as he was when I had first showed up.

"What happened man?"

He snorted, "Emma saw me sneaking out and told me to buy some drinks for the party."

I laughed, "That's what you get for sneaking out." I patted his shoulder as we headed towards Sean's car.

"Emma! I'm leaving my motorcycle here! If it's stolen, I'm asking for reparations!" I yelled to Emma which she heard.

"Your motorcycle, your loss!" She replied

I scoffed playfully, "So selfish, am I right?"

Sean laughed alongside me, "You don't see all of it."

"I don't think I want to."

We stayed quiet for a minute before I spoke up again, "Hey, so where are we going?"

"We're picking up the drinks for Emma and then we can be on our way."

I shrugged, putting in some wired headphones, I laid down in the soft cushion of the passenger seat and let the music take me into another world.

My mind was brought out of my shelter when Sean tapped me on my shoulder, notifying me that we were getting out of the car. Getting out and into the store, we got what Emma wanted. Aside from a nearby buyer noticing me and asking for a signature, we got out relatively smoothly.

Once we got back to Emma's house, Sean plopped on the couch, exhausted.

"Seriously? That's all it takes to bring you down?" I joked with him, causing him to get back up and playfully punch me.

"I'm still hurt from the prison attack man." I remained quiet after that, which thankfully wasn't made awkward due to Emma showing up after.

"Hey guys! Did you get the cups I asked for?" She asked gleefully.

Sean picked the plastic bags up, "Here they are." He said bluntly.

To my amazement, Emma made a noise of surprise, "We're not having a whole school over man, just some friends!"

I shrugged in response, answering for Sean, "You never know, it's a party." My phone began to ring, causing me to look back to Emma and Sean, "I'll be right back I got to take this."

They nodded in acknowledgement before I left outside of Emma's residence.

To my surprise, it was one of the record producers, "Hey Craig, you available?"

"Yeah, what's going on?"

I heard him chuckle in the background, "Your recent album has been doing great, and the couple of singles are really popping out."

"Okay, where are you going with this?"

He cleared his throat, "We want you to create another album."

Well that was blunt, but I didn't mind, "Sure, I can make some more songs."

"Really? No problem with that?"

I nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, I just thought that you were going to have a problem with school."

I smiled realizing what I could do, "No it's fine, I've actually been making a lot more songs than I realized I could, so I have plenty of songs for an album."

"Well, that's great! When do you plan to release it?"

I sighed, "Well, I actually have two albums in the making, well the first one is halfway done, but the other is a thought."

"Okay, that's great, we'll talk again if you either need help or we haven't talked in a while."

"Okay, thanks for the help and notifications."

"No problem, and hey, what do you want to do about your security?"

I thought to myself, I didn't really want to go to this party, so maybe I could use them to my advantage.

"Keep them on alert, but for now they have the day off."

"Okay, take care of yourself Craig."

"Thanks man."

Ending the call, I looked up and saw that the sky had darkened. Turning back, I was mildly shocked to see that Emma's house was clearly over-capacity with partygoers. How many people did Emma and them invite?

Making my way down towards the entrance, I saw something that made me sneer.

Lakehurst students, drinking and smoking, that was trouble. There was no way anyone from Degrassi invited them, so why were they here, drinking and smoking like partygoers no less?

Sighing, I made my way to the back door, not wanting to be around Lakehurst at all, maybe if I could either find Sean or Toby, maybe this party could get better.

As I opened the back door however, a number of partygoers began to pour out like a liquid.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as I dodged the bodies losing balance, clearly leaning on the door prior to me opening it.

"What the hell!"

"Sorry." I mumbled as I made my way through the party. Geez, they were trashing up the place, where the hell was Emma and Sean? Toby? Marco and Ellie? I don't know, even though I had met multiple unknown people, at least these people adored me, Here, these unknown people didn't like me.

"Why are there so many Lakehurst students here in the first place?"

"News of parties spread like wildfire," I jumped slightly when I found Marco.

"Holy crap, you scared me."

He simply laughed, "I know, it's hard to see me because I'm around people taller than me."

I laughed alongside him, "Hey, do you know where anyone is? Sean? Emma? Toby?"

Marco simply shrugged, "I saw Emma and Sean hanging around each other, huddling to protect each other from the overcrowd mess, Toby's probably hanging out with Jt and Liberty.

I shrugged, not really surprising, "All right, thanks man."

"No problem, hey nice to see you!"

I nodded, before turning back. Luckily, I managed to find a nice room where not a lot of people were in.

Sighing, before taking a seat on a couch, I closed my eyes and put on my wired headphones, trying to silence and distance myself from this party. I heard the sound of footsteps, mainly with heels, which snapped me out.

Looking to the source, I saw the one person I was conflicted on seeing here: Ellie.

I held in my breathe, analyzing her from top to bottom. Her hair had gone back to striped red and black, which alongside her freckles made her look gorgeous. The typical black dress on her made her surprisingly stand out from the crowd, and her rather slim pants showed her leg frame. Her feet, covered in black heels made me staring slightly longer.

I snapped out of my trance, reminding myself that she had a boyfriend, it was hopeless.

Noticing that we both were silently looking at each other, I was the first to break it, "Hey."

She snapped out of her trance as well, before waving back, "I didn't know you were coming."

I shrugged, "Didn't want to, but Sean forced me."

"Sean?"

I somewhat froze, forgetting the connection those two had, "Yeah, he returned to Degrassi."

She seemed surprised but she let it slide.

"You got any room on the couch you're hoarding?"

I laughed, "Not really." I grinned, which caused Ellie to roll her eyes, such a sarcastic girl, but that's what I liked about her.

But to my surprise, she pushed me back further into the couch, before putting her slim figure near the edge, lying down next to me.

"Whoa." I exclaimed, trying to get some distance between us.

"Are you really going to let Jesse get in the way of our friendship?"

Friendship, I just got friend zoned, by Ellie. Damnit. "Yeah, friendship, yeah we're not going to let him ruin that."

As I let Ellie lie down next to me in the couch, I was very conflicted about this. On the one hand I wanted her near me, but on the other, she wasn't free.

This party was going to be something else, I know it will.

"Goddamnit."