The Real World: Degrassi

Author's Note: Sorry again about skipping a week of the story. After I got back from my vacation, I was so tired and I had to go right back into work the day after I got back and my schedule has been all flip-flopped so my internal body clock is all screwed up (all I wanted to do is sleep when I was home) so it's taken me awhile to get back in the rhythm. But now I'm back. Hope this chapter is worth the wait. Please remember the two R's...READ AND REVIEW! Enjoy as well.

I don't own any of the Degrassi characters nor do I own the Real World concept.

Previously on The Real World: Degrassi

"Are you going to be on the phone long?" Manny asks Paige.

Manny slams down the phone. "I missed him!" she shouts. "Thanks alot, Paige!"

"It's not my fault you didn't get up earlier to call your boyfriend, hon," Paige retorts.

Jimmy in confessional: "My roommates are pigs," he announces.

To the others in a house meeting, Jimmy tells them, "the bathroom is a mess."

"I didn't do it," Paige defends herself.

"I think we all will be a little more diligent about cleaning up after ourselves," Marco assures Jimmy.

Paige and Manny make up.

Emma in confessional: "I'm so glad they made up," she says, "we start our internship tomorrow so tonight we're going to celebrate."

Sean watches Emma dance then goes to join her.

Spinner comes home drunk and looks for food. "I'm hungry!"

Chapter Three: First day at work

It is almost nine o'clock in the morning and the kids are leaving the house.

Marco's confessional

"Today's the first day of our internship with the Toronto Sun," he says. "We have to be there at nine and already we're running late."

"Does someone have the directions to the office," Marco asks as Sean locks the door behind them.

Emma waves the computer printout in the air. "Right here," she calls out. "It's just a few blocks away so we don't need a taxi."

As they begin walking, Spinner lags behind. His head is down, hands in his pockets and he generally looks miserable.

"Spinner, hon, you're gonna get left if you don't keep up," Paige tells him.

Spinner mumbles, "that's fine with me. I can go back to sleep."

Spinner's confessional

"I could care less about this internship thing or whatever it is," he relates. "I have a headache, my body hurts all over and I feel like crap." He pauses and grins. "In other words, I had a blast last night and I didn't want to get up today."

Soon, they arrive at a small storefront office. The words "Toronto Sun" are emblazoned in red block letters on the glass door.

"This is it!" Emma announces and the seven of them troop in the door.

The receptionist looks up at them. "Hello, are you here to see Mr. StClair?" At their collective nods, she continues. "He'll be with you in just a moment, if you'll have a seat."

She motions them toward a waiting room with comfortable couches and chairs. Spinner slumps on the couch and leans his head back. "I want to be buried on this couch," he moans.

Jimmy rolls his eyes at him. "Spinner, why don't you just go home if you're going to complain all day?"

Before Spinner can answer, a well-dressed man of thirty-six approaches them. "Hello, all," he greets them. "My name is Jean-Luc StClair and if you'll come with me, I'll tell you what you'll be doing with us for the next few weeks."

As they walk to a conference room, he asks them to introduce themselves. When they are all seated, he addresses them again. "First of all, welcome to Toronto," he begins. "It's nice to see you all here. I understand one of you is from our fair city?"

Emma raises her hand. "I was born and raised here."

"Good, good," he says, "that'll be an asset you can work to your advantage on this job." He pauses before continuing, "so about this job, what it entails is publishing the very first neighborhood paper on Degrassi street. This is a project that we here at the Toronto Sun have been wanting to get off the ground and now you're going to help us."

He looked around at their faces. All were smiling, with the exception of Spinner.

Jean-Luc continues. "I will be your liason to the Toronto Sun and I will help you design and circulate the paper. If you have any questions, problems or anything, come to me and I'll offer any questions and advice. Are there any questions?"

Emma raised her hand again. When he nods to her, she asks, "will we be writing the articles and stories ourselves?"

"That's a good question," he remarks. "Yes, in addition to publishing the paper, you will be reporting and writing for it. That's why I said that being a native will help you. Since you know the area, you'll know what stories to publish."

Emma's confessional

"Oh, my God, this is so cool!" she squeals. "This is going to be so much fun! I've always wanted to be a journalist."

After Jean-Luc filled them in on their job, he left them on their own to being the task of delegating jobs.

Spinner lays his head on the table and groans. "Oh, I feel like crap. Now that he's gone, can I go home now?"

The rest decided that Spinner would be of no use to them in his current condition and told him he could leave. As he was walking back toward the exit, Marco caught up with him.

"Listen, Spin, buddy," he begins, putting his arm around his shoulder, "this is going to be a big job for us so I think I speak for everyone when I say, let's not have a repeat performance of last night, okay? We're going to need everyone at the top of their game if we're going to get this paper started."

Spinner nods glumly and leaves the building.

Spinner's confessional

"I'm kind of pissed at Marco right now," he begins, "who does he think he is telling me not to party anymore? He's lucky I didn't say anything at the time but all I wanted to do is get home and go back to sleep. But I don't need him or anybody telling me what to do."

Four hours later...

Marco led the way into the house as they returned from the office. Everyone was in high spirits and were carrying styrofoam cups from Starbucks.

Spinner looks up from his video game. "Hey, how do you feel, hon?" Paige asks him, sitting next to him on the couch.

He shrugs. "Alright," he begins, "so what did you guys do after I left?"

They filled them in on their activities at the office. Jean-Luc had taken them on a tour of the building. They saw how the paper gets started with the layout department, stories editors, advertising department, and then finally at the printers.

"Wow, I wouldn't have minded seeing the printing press," Spinner remarks. "Do you think Jean-Luc will show me next time I see him?"

Since it was past noon, they decided to order in chinese food and called the restaurant. When it arrived, they continued filling in Spinner on what they had done that day, starting with what tasks they had delegated to him.

"I think with your personality, Spinner," Jimmy tells him, "you'd be a natural at sales. I bet you can get anybody to buy advertising space in the paper."

Spinner grinned. "Thanks, I'll try."

Their meeting was interrupted by the telephone. Manny raced to answer and when she didn't return, the others surmised that her boyfriend, Craig, was the caller.

"Hey baby," Craig greets, "how are you?"

"Hi Craig! I miss you so much," Manny begins rambling, "but oh my God, today was so cool! We got to meet our boss at the paper and oh my God, he is so awesome!"

Craig listened patiently as she continued talking. They had a good relationship where they balanced each other out. Where she was excitable, he was laidback. Where he was moody, she was happy-go-lucky and didn't let him take himself or life to seriously. They had been together for the past two years and he constantly told her that she was his muse for his songwriting. Craig was an aspiring musician with a construction job on the side to make money. He worked during the day and played music at night in bars and clubs with his band.

"So how was your day?" Manny finally asks him, catching her breath.

"I'm about to head out for the night," he replys, "we got a gig at Duke's tonight."

"Oh, I wish I could be there with you," Manny pouts. "Well, good luck tonight, not that you need it."

Craig thanked her and they said goodbye, exchanging I love you's before they hung up.

Manny returned to the living room but found only Sean and Emma. "Where did everybody go?" she asks the budding couple.

"To get showered and changed," Emma answers. "We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate our first day."

"Cool, I better start now if I'm gonna be ready in time," Manny giggles.

After she left, Emma smiles at Sean. "I guess I better start getting ready too."

"You already look great to me," Sean says softly.

An hour and one internet search for Toronto steakhouses later, they headed out the door and into two cabs.

After dinner, Spinner wanted to go out to a club. Paige, Manny, Sean and Emma agreed to go but Marco and Jimmy decided to head back to the house.

The two groups split up into two more cabs with Marco reminding Spinner what he had told him earlier.

Marco's confessional

"I don't know why I'm acting like Spinner's keeper," he says, "but I think someone has to keep an eye on him because the boy is liable to get into alot of trouble on his own."

Next time on The Real World: Degrassi

"I love this song!" Spinner shouts as he runs onto the dance floor and starts jumping up and down.

Manny screams. "Oh, my God, someone help!"

A policeman walks up to Manny, Emma and Sean. "Is he your friend?"

Sean in confessional: "Spinner's in trouble. I don't know what we're going to do."

(Author's note: Wow! I'm back with a vengeance. LOL! Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope it wasn't too boring. I don't know alot about how newspapers are printed or what, so I appreciate any ideas you might have. Remember to click on that little button below that reads "review". I'd greatly appreciate it. Reviews make me write faster, just to let you know. :winks:)