Make sure you visit the DeGrassi Saviors website homepage for a new coupling tournament. This one is Clare Degrassi Crackships vs. Clare x-over crackships. The winners will be featured in a new love triangle story, so get those votes in.
Also, on my page of the DeGrassi Saviors site you can vote on the story that will replace Swirling Storm Inside. Four stories to choose from:
1) We've Got to Learn with these Ghosts ~ a future fic inspired by the television show Cold Case.
2) Undercover as the Lover ~ a Clallas FWB story.
3) I Love You More than the Sins of My Youth ~ A Jay/Clare slow burn.
4) In No Particular City ~ Greatly inspired by the show Dawson's Creek it intertwines many DeGrassi storylines and Dawson's Creek story lines including an Owen/Clare/Drew love triangle. I'll leave the poll up until I post the last chapter of SSI, so get those votes in now!
Finally, please see my profile page on this site. There have been some changes made to the upcoming stories list. You'll see that One Shots are virtually gone. As I'm no longer posting one shots regularly they were just hanging out there which seemed pointless. Many of my one shots never stayed one shots and many of them were three chapters already or got more chapters.
So, I went through the list and got rid of ones I didn't think I'd ever write for whatever reason. If, based on the plots, I already thought the one shot would be a two or three shot I simply moved it to the short stories list. I extended the plots if necessary and now it will be a short story and I'm going through those at a pretty decent pace. If I really wanted to write the one shot I added more to the plots to make it a short story.
That's all the announcements, please enjoy the chapter!
Ch. 4 Troubled Hearts & Minds
(DREW)
"If you feel dizzy or your head starts to hurt you call me right away," Mom asserts dropping me at school Thursday morning. The doc gave me permission to come back to school, but only for half days. Of course, Mom arranged it so that I was here for second and third period, math and geography. At least, I get to stay for lunch with my friends.
"I'll be fine Mom," I huff. She's said this at least twenty times since yesterday and she won't let me drive even though the school's only a few blocks away.
"I'm serious Andrew, the first sign of a headache or dizziness and you call me to come home," she says.
"I will Mom," I reply before closing the car door. "Maybe if you hadn't had me come back just for my hardest classes I'd be less likely to get a headache," I grumble to myself as I walk into school.
I have a few minutes before class, so I go to my locker and put in my winter coat. I'm waiting outside my math class when the bell rings. As the first period students begin filtering out I go in.
"Good to see you back Torres, how do you feel?" Armstrong asks as I sit at my desk.
"Feeling good Sir, but I don't think the knock to my head made me any better at math."
"If you're struggling let me know, I can tutor you or find you a tutor to help you grasp the material," Armstrong offers, and I nod.
"Hey Drew, how's the noggin?" Eli smirks walking into class with Jake Eli and Mo.
"Good to see you back, heard you were feeling better," Jake smiles.
"Yeah, thanks. Believe it or not happy to be back to school, can't return to work until Monday though."
"Probably better to rest, Clare said it was a nasty fall. She can take my truck when she needs to," Jake says.
"Or I could drive my girlfriend to work," Eli says with clenched teeth. His tone, his emphasis on "my" are to say that Clare belongs to him.
"You have play practice after school," Jake reminds him. "She can take the truck, Katie can drop me at home."
I'm tempted to tell Eli that if he's so insistent on staking out his territory then he should go with her and watch Asher. I'm not trying to move in on his territory, and neither is Jake, they already dated and now they're stepsiblings. Asher on the other hand may be trying to move in on his territory. I don't say this, but it's tempting.
Not that I normally concentrate in math, but today I really don't concentrate. It's not that my head hurts or anything, I just don't like math, and mostly that I'm thinking about Clare. I'll probably have to get a math tutor, maybe get B and Adam to help me. It's lunch now, so I go to my locker to stash my math book.
"Welcome back," Bianca smiles greeting me with a kiss.
"Thanks, never thought I'd want to be back at school."
"Sweet you're back," Owen grins.
"Just for second and third period, but that means I get to be here for lunch."
"I'm sorry about yesterday, I didn't mean for your mom to catch me. I just wanted to see you, I didn't think she'd get so mad, or look at me that way," Bianca comments.
"She hasn't let me do anything but lie down all week. I'm not supposed to have visitors at all. I barely even saw Dallas all week and he lives there," I reply.
"That's it? You're not even going to defend me? Your mom makes me feel like a whore and that's all you say?" Bianca snaps. When I don't respond she storms off.
"What was that about?" Owen questions as I close my locker.
Before I can answer Clare comes over, she's smiling, wearing a red sweater, it's modest but scoops a little to show this lovely peek at her cleavage. Two thoughts come to mind; my dreams about her yesterday and seeing her breasts, then I realize she wore that to co-op and Asher saw her in it, I clench my fists without realizing it.
"It's good to see you back," she says and hugs me, this is not helping the thoughts in my head.
"Uh yeah, just for second and third, how was co-op?" I question pulling out of the hug, but having trouble taking my eyes from her cleavage. In the back of my mind I'm imagining what's under that sweater, wondering if they're anything like I saw in my dream.
"It was good, I'm going back this afternoon," she says. My jaw tightens thinking about Asher watching her in that sweater again.
"I'm returning to work on Monday, you can ride with me again in the afternoons," I tell Clare.
"I'm glad to hear it. I have to go, meeting Eli and Adam for lunch. Good to have you back Drew, bye Owen," Clare waves turning on her heel to go down the hall.
"Okay, explanations now. Why did you look so angry when talking to Clare, why couldn't you take her eyes from her chest, and what's with you and B?" Owen demands as soon as Clare is gone.
"I'll tell you, but somewhere private," I reply.
"Come on," Owen says waving for me to follow him. We both have our lunches and he takes us to the storage room. I hear voices in here, Dallas among them, so I assume the Ice Hounds are in here. In fact, they are sitting in the back on the sofa, drinking beer. "Everyone out," Owen demands, "I need to talk to Drew."
"Why should we leave?" Luke asks.
"I said out Baker, don't make me force you out," Owen responds.
"What's up?" Dallas questions.
"Doesn't involve you, need to talk to my friend in private, now out or I'll throw you all out one at a time," Owen tells them.
"You heard him guys, let's go eat," Dallas orders. I'm sure Dallas will ask me about it later, but at least they all leave now, so I can talk to Owen alone.
"Bianca came over yesterday, surprised me while Mom was out. I had just been dreaming and was hard, kind of from the dream. She was kissing my neck and stuff, she was just about to open my jeans, it was nice, until my mom caught her. She got angry and told Bianca to leave, she didn't say anything rude, she was just angry, but she was looking at Bianca like…well like she didn't think much of her. I guess I could have defended her more, I know Mom doesn't really like Bianca though. I didn't want to get into another fight with my mom. We ended up arguing after the doctor anyway, because Mom found out about my MMA fighting. Bianca shouldn't have come over though, I don't why she got so angry."
"Probably because your mom made her feel like a whore, and by not standing up for her you were silently saying that's how you feel."
"But it's not, I'll talk to Bianca later. She should know that's not how I feel about her at all."
"Okay, what about you and Clare? You looked like you wanted to hit someone when you were talking to her, but I don't think it was Clare."
"You can't tell anyone, because I don't even know that there is anything to tell. I don't like her co-op boss, more precisely I don't like how he looks at her. I don't trust him, I've caught him looking at her breasts more than once. So, when I saw her sweater today I was thinking that he would see her in it. It's not like I've caught him doing something outright inappropriate, it's just a feeling I have. Something about him, the way he is with her, makes me uneasy. Not sure I can really explain it, but I don't like him. I felt this way from the first day we started, he ignored me completely and when he was escorting her back to her desk he put a hand at the small of her back. I didn't think about it at the time, but it did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Then later I overheard him call her Newsie, it seemed weird to me that he had a nickname for her that first day. Okay, so he wasn't calling her Baby or something, still it didn't sit right with me."
"Have you talked to Clare about it?" Owen questions.
"No, she practically worships the guy, and she doesn't seem to notice."
"What about Adam?"
"No, I don't want to worry him when there may not be anything to worry about."
"Okay, so why were you staring at Clare's chest? And don't tell me you were thinking about Asher seeing her in the sweater because I'm sure that's not it."
"I had a dream about Clare being topless yesterday. Even though it was a dream about Asher controlling her, she was still topless. I've never even seen Clare's breasts, so they couldn't really have been her breasts. When I saw her today I was worried about Asher seeing her in the sweater, I was also imagining her breasts from the dream. Kind of wondering what her breasts really look like. I couldn't help it, I saw them in my dream and her sweater shows just a peek."
"Can't blame you there," Owen says after taking a bite of his sandwich. "So, talk to B and make sure she knows that how your mom feels is not how you feel. Then everything should be set right with the world."
"Yeah," I nod.
We finish our lunches in the storage room, toss our trash in the hallways when we leave, and I go looking for Bianca. I'll have class with her, but I don't want to talk to her in class, and Mom is picking me up right after class. I look all over school, but I can't find her, I do find Clare however, just leaving the girl's washroom near the caf.
"Hey Clare, is Bianca in there?"
"No, I haven't seen her. Everything okay?" She asks.
"Not really, I wanted to talk to her, before class. She's mad at me because…" I stop when another girl comes out of the washroom and looks at us. I put a hand on Clare's shoulder and pull her around the corner, so we can talk. "Because she came over yesterday, woke me up from a dream, we were kissing, and my mom caught us. She got angry at Bianca, she didn't say anything, but Mom looked at Bianca like she was a whore. She said some nasty things about her later too, Bianca wasn't there to hear them. It was after the doctor because Mom found out about the MMA fighting. I hate when Mom talks about her like that, I know she doesn't like Bianca because she still thinks of her as the girl that got Adam thrown into a door. Then today, Bianca got mad at me when she felt I wasn't defending her like I should."
"Maybe you should talk to your mom. Audra can be intense, but she's fiercely protective of you and Adam. Like a mama grizzly bear protecting her cubs. She might still see Bianca as the bad girl from last year, but you know she's not. Tell Audra how you feel about Bianca, and how it makes you feel when your mom talks about her like that. You probably won't change your mom's mind overnight, but she should know how it makes you feel when she puts Bianca down like that. Whether it be a look or a word."
"That's a great idea, thanks Clare," I smile just as the bell rings.
Clare grins and we part ways to get to class. I slip into class just before the late bell and open my book. I wait until the teacher's back is turned and lean over to whisper to Bianca.
"I'm going to talk to my mom as soon as she picks me up, tell her how it makes me feel when she treats you like that."
She doesn't say anything, but she does give me an appreciative smile. After class Bianca walks out with me, when we're away from the doorway she links her arms around my neck and crushes her lips to mine for a passionate kiss.
"Good luck with your mom," she grins.
She leaves me to go to class, I grab what I need from my locker, including my coat before I go out to meet Mom. She's waiting in the van by the steps, I get in and Mom starts driving. I want to talk to her now, but the drive home will only take a few minutes, and I decide it's better to wait until we're home.
"We need to talk," I tell Mom as soon as we've come in the door.
"Alright," Mom nods locking the front door and walking to the sofa in the living room. "What do you want to talk about?" Mom asks after we both sit down.
"Bianca, I know you don't like Bianca and maybe you never will, but I do. This is not just a crush Mom, I really like Bianca, I really care about her, so when you look at her like she's not worth anything it hurts me. Or when you talk about her like she's less than human it hurts me. I know she's made mistakes, but you have to forgive those, she's not the girl she was last year. She's made up for a lot of what happened, she apologized to Adam, they're friends now. You can't keep blaming her for things that were out of her control either. Anson was going to rape her, and Vince intimidated me into doing things, he did the same to Bianca. She handled it wrong, but if I can forgive her then you should be able to as well. You don't have to like her, but you do have to treat her like a person, she's my girlfriend and I care about her."
Mom sighs heavily and looks down for a moment before looking back at me, "You're right Andrew. It's your relationship and my feelings towards Bianca are my own. I'm still judging her by last year. I can't promise to instantly like her, but I'll work on getting to know the person Bianca is now."
"Thanks Mom," I smile. I hug her and go upstairs, Bianca and Clare will both be in class, but I text them anyway. I text Bianca first.
Drew: I told my mom how it makes me feel when she treats you that way and she actually admitted she was wrong. She admitted she was judging you by last year and that she'd work on getting to know who you are now.
After sending the text to Bianca I text Clare.
Drew: Thanks for the suggestion. I talked to my mom and told her how I feel when she talks to Bianca that way, treats her that way and she really listened. She's going to get to know who Bianca is now. It never would have been this easy without your suggestion, I don't think my mom really would have listened otherwise.
I know I won't hear from either of them until they're out of class, so I set my phone down. I feel pretty good, until I remember that Clare is going to Co-op again this afternoon. Then, I start getting a kind of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. At least I'll be back on Monday and can watch them again.
(ADAM)
"Hi Adam, sorry I didn't get your message last night," Clare says greeting me at my locker Friday morning.
"That's okay, I figured you were busy," I shrug closing my locker. I lean on my locker to wait for Clare.
"I was out with Asher until late and…"
"What do you mean you were out with Asher late?" I inquire before she can continue.
"Helping him with an assignment Adam, anyway I forgot to turn my phone back on. even after he brought me home. He didn't get me home until after 11 and had to do all my homework still. I finished the summary for our physics project though. Asher's taking me to lunch or I'd help you put it all together at lunch," she says closing her locker.
"He's taking you to lunch? Is that normal?"
"He says I have real potential to be a brilliant journalist and he wants to cultivate that. He's such a great mentor. Last night he said he loves to teach when the student is as eager as I am," she tells me with a smile.
Clare doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with this, but in the back of my mind alarm bells are going off. It just doesn't sound right, yet it's not as though he was being straightforwardly sleazy. In the context of being out with her late and taking her to lunch however, it just seems wrong and creepy.
"Yeah, I'll bet he does," I reply. My voice is dripping with sarcasm, but she doesn't notice or ignores it.
"I'm going to pitch ideas to him, I have so many wonderful ideas for articles. It will be great to know what a real journalist thinks of them. Here's everything for our project, gotta run to co-op, see you after lunch Adam," Clare says handing me a bunch of stuff before running off.
I stand there bewildered for a moment before I put the stuff in my locker and head for class. I see Eli in the hall talking with Imogen and Fiona, about the play I'm sure. He nods to me and I nod back. I'd talk to him about my concerns, but I'm not sure how he'd take it, and I don't really know that there's anything to be concerned about. I walk to math class and sit down, Dave comes in a minute later and smiles at me.
"How's your brother?"
"Huh? Oh fine, he'll be back today for second and third period. He should be back full time Monday."
"Cool, we miss him on the basketball court, but at least he'll be back at school. If Drew's fine, then why do you look so worried?" Dave questions.
"Just something Clare told me," I reply.
"Everything okay?" Dave inquires.
"I'm not really sure," I respond. I don't know what else to tell him. Dave gives me a look, but doesn't say anything, mostly because class is starting.
What Clare said plays over and over in my head all morning. I can't help it, something about it just isn't sitting right with me. By lunch time I can't eat because I'm waiting for Clare's return. I spend the whole time in the media room getting our project together anyway. Clare returns right before classes start, we both have English this period and she slips into class just as the bell rings.
"How'd your lunch go?" I inquire trying to be nonchalant.
"Amazing, I'll tell you about it after class. Sorry, you had to put our whole project together, I'll buy you lunch this weekend to make up for it."
"It's fine, it wasn't that hard to put together."
Miss Dawes has us writing for all of class, so it's quiet for most of the period and just gives me more time to think. I keep glancing over at Clare, though I don't think she notices. When the bell rings Clare and I leave together and start walking to physics.
"Lunch was amazing, Asher is so brilliant. He liked some of my ideas, we're going to talk more about them tonight after my shift. He said I have a real mind for news and I'm his most promising intern in years," she grins delightedly. "He said he was more than happy to take extra time to teach me whenever I wanted it. Isn't that great?"
"Yeah, great," I respond slowly.
"I am so lucky to have such an amazing mentor. Someone who is willing and eager to take so much time with me," she grins as we walk into physics class.
"So, what exactly did you talk about at lunch?" I inquire.
"Oh, all kinds of things; how he got started, what he was like at my age when he was just starting to think about being a journalist. My pitches for articles, my other hobbies, all kinds of things."
I want to ask her more, I want more details on what Asher probed out of her, but the bell rings. Everyone is presenting projects today, Clare and I do ours about halfway through class. Even though we've both been pretty busy this week and had to work separately a lot we just work really well together, and the presentation goes very well. Mr. Bettenkamp is very impressed when we're done.
"I have to run, Asher's picking me up, bye Adam," Clare calls as she runs out of class.
I don't even have time to question the fact that he's picking her up before she's gone. I go to my locker and out to the parking lot, with Drew unable to drive I've been driving his car. I park in the driveway and go in through the front, greeting Mom before going up to my room. I set my backpack down then knock on my brother's door. I want to check on him of course, but I also want to ask him about Asher.
"Yeah?" He calls.
"How do you feel?" I question closing his bedroom door behind me.
"Fine, ready to be back at school full time, and work. The doc said I was ready, Mom is still making me rest for the weekend though."
"Probably best," I comment sitting down on his bed. "Uh, speaking of work, you've seen Clare's co-op boss Asher, right?"
Drew sits up with his mouth twisted and his eyebrows pinched together, "Yeah, why?"
"She was telling me some stuff today that just made me uneasy. For example; she was out with him very late last night. Working with him for co-op, but he brought her home late, she didn't drive herself. She told me he said that he loves to teach when the student is as eager as Clare. She didn't seem to think it was bad, for me though it…"
"Set off alarms in your head?" Drew finishes for me.
"Exactly! He took her to lunch today, she was…"
"Wait, he took her to lunch? Just the two of them?"
"Yeah, she was pitching ideas, I guess technically it was a working lunch. It just seemed odd to me, inappropriate I guess. I don't know, I've never even seen the guy, but the more Clare talks about him the more I feel like something isn't right with this guy. She was glowing when she told me about the lunch today. He told her that she has a mind for news and is his most promising intern in years. He liked some of her ideas and they're going to talk about them more tonight, after her shift. She's back at co-op right now, he even picked her up from school. I know it's not like anything she told me he said was inappropriate, still the guy gives me the creeps. Even worse is that Clare is so enamored with him that I worry if he does do something unequivocally inappropriate she won't even notice. Or by that time he'll have somehow entrapped her because he's got such sway over her now," I confess to my brother.
"I know, I've been feeling it for a while," he sighs.
"Why didn't you tell me her boss was probably a pedophile creep!"
"What did you want me to say Adam? This Asher guy Clare is so excited to work for might be a sleaze ball. Even though he really hasn't done anything I can report him for, and it's really more of a feeling I have. I didn't want to worry you when I didn't know for sure that there was anything to worry about. I didn't want you telling Eli, or Clare for that matter and her getting mad at me."
"Yeah, she probably would have felt like you were butting in and you guys weren't friends. I guess I understand why you didn't, I haven't told Eli any of this, I still wish you'd have said something. I feel like my best friend is at the hands of a pedophile, she doesn't see it, and I can't do anything about it."
"I know Adam, I've been watching them though, since the first day. If he does anything at all that I think I can actually report I will. I'm only there in the afternoons, but I won't let him hurt her."
"I know, I'm glad you're there. What else has he done?"
"The first day I noticed something maybe wasn't right was our first day there. Not at first, not until later when I'd gone to the washroom, I pass Clare's desk to get there. On my way back, Asher was leaning over her to look at her screen I guess. Only from my view it looked like he was looking down her shirt, and he had his hand on her shoulder, which just seemed weird to me. It was just a little too friendly for someone he'd known for an hour. I lingered in the hallway watching him, pretending to look at this wall where they hang awards. I stayed until they left to go cover the protest. It wasn't until I was back at my desk that I thought about when he first greeted her. He escorted her in by putting his hand at the small of her back, I wasn't really paying attention when he first came to get her because Martin came right after. And, he calls her Newsie, he did from that very first day. It's not like he's calling her Baby or Sugar or something, still the fact that he had a pet name for her at all just didn't sit right with me."
"Yeah, none of that sits right with me. It doesn't bother her though, none of it is concerning to her, and that worries me. Has he done anything else?" I question.
"I didn't like when he first offered her a ride a home either. At least, that I know of. I offered to stay late and take her home, he was almost insistent that I leave. I honestly thought he'd try something that night. I did mention to Eli that he should go pick her up though, that's when I got Bianca from his place. That's really all I've been witness to. Nothing I can report, nothing I can even really explain to people, just this gut feeling that Asher is not to be trusted. I'm back at work on Monday, if she goes after school then I'll be watching," Drew assures me.
"Yeah, I'm glad you're there. I just wish some of this was setting off alarms for Clare like it does for us. I'll start talking to her about co-op, checking in with her about it, she'll tell me what you're not there to see. At least, I hope she will," I sigh.
"Hey, we both know Asher's a creep now. Maybe between the two of us we can get Clare to see it," Drew says putting a hand on my shoulder.
"I just hope we get her to see it before Asher does something."
Update soon will probably pick up with Drew back at school and work full time. Next story to be updated is Alone on a School Night.