"I'll pay for dinner."

"Yeah, with my money."

"I'll never complain again."-

"Have you met you?"

"Have you met you?" Eve slumped her shoulders. She turned her head, resting it against the rattling bus window. Her head came back and landed against it once more, with a resounding, thunk when it rolled over the potholes. With a sigh, she turned her head back to gaze at her father. "It's not too late to change your mind."

Perino lifted his gaze from his phone. Finally. What was it with parents and Sudoku? It wasn't that fun of a game. Crosswords were, at least, a little more interesting, you had to know things for that. At least, that's what Perino was always saying to Eve, she had no idea if it was the stress of her first day getting to him…or just her. She hoped it was her.

Hoped he would stop the bus and turn around and drop her off at Bardell and things would go back to normal. But, no. The scratchiness of the collar of her red polo shirt and the stiffness of her khaki pants let Eve know that she truly was stuck in the decision to take her to Degrassi.

"Eve, trust me, if I could change my mind at this point, I would," he said. "Just so you would shut up."

There was a snorting sound from behind them, a nosey-nuisance that was eavesdropping on their conversation when most normal people would have headphones plugged so far in their ears they drowned out the living. At the same time, Perino and Eve turned and glared at the man behind them, who immediately lowered his chin, going back to the reading he was supposed to be doing.

They turned back at the same time, with Dom folding his newspaper and tucking it into his briefcase. The bus slowed. Eve groaned, seeing a sea of purple, blue, red, and yellow flowing up the street towards the school.

"Is there any other sound you can make than that annoying groaning?" Perino asked.

Eve turned her glare toward him. Unfortunately, she was his child, so he was unphased. Even when she was an infant and could do no more than dribble and spit up, when Eve was unhappy it was known through the 'Dom Perino' glare. It used to make her mom laugh. When her mom was still around.

"Guess not." Perino reached out and put his arm around Eve's shoulders, hugging her to his side. "If I can survive Degrassi, so can you."

"The only way you survive Degrassi is by not getting involved." Eve stood with Perino as he pulled the signal for the bus to stop. It slowed, creaking along the sidewalk to the covered bus stop across the street from the school. The two stood and shuffled down to the front of the bus, being careful not to get hit by the rickety doors when the jerkily swung open. "Isn't that what you told me?"

"Yes, but I'm a teacher. I don't need to get involved. I get paid to teach."

"And what about me?"

"You don't get paid to do anything, but chores and you don't even do that." Eve and Perino waited for the bus to leave, similar semi-scowls on their faces. Finally, with the smog cloud cleared from in front of them, they walked towards the school, only stopping when a Mercedes being erratically through the parking lot whizzed by them, two polo shirts and a yellow polo shirt as passengers.

"I'm busy paitning."

"Yeah, finger-painting."

At that, Eve managed a smile. She hip-bumped her father to the side, making him chuckle. "Eve, I know things are going to be hard, especially changing to a new school for a new year. And I understand Degrassi has it's…quirks…" He voice trailed off for a moment, looking over toward a young couple kissing sweetly on the front steps.

Eve followed his gaze, a little confused. All she saw was a red polo and a blue polo kissing each other—a junior and a senior, what was wrong with that? Other than the little girl silk ribbon the girl had in her short, curly hair.

"Gross," the African-American girl said. "Those two are step-siblings! Shouldn't that be illegal?"

"Step…" Eve's gaze turned back toward the couple again. Then, eyes widening, she whipped around toward Perino, practically squealing, "Dad!"

Perino shrugged. "Not my business. If I bothered to get caught up in the goings on of every single teenager and their petty problems, I wouldn't get anything done."

Eve folded her arms. She lifted an eyebrow. "Weren't you at the school dance where someone was shot?"

"I think I was getting my coat checked in at the coat closet at the time," Perino said sarcastically. He turned his head and lifted his chin, seeing two teenage girls walking his way. "Ah, just who I was looking for!" They turned toward him with bright smiles and somewhat, confused greetings of "Hey, Mr. Perino."

Eve didn't blame them; she couldn't remember the last time her father had been nice and easy-going about anything school related. It was scary, sometimes, to see how his grumpy demeanor changed to one of pure bliss of having the workday erased from him the second he walked through the front door of their home. She remembered when he had gotten suspended from school, after treating students badly, and while he did regret taking out his home frustrations on said students, he enjoyed the time he was away from school. Eve had never seen him smile so much when they weren't on vacation.

It had to be horrifying to see Perino smiling and actually excited to see students.

He really wants to get rid of me, Eve thought.

"This is my daughter, Eve," Perino continued. At that, the girls' eyes widened as they looked at each other, looked at Perino, looked at Eve, then looked back at each other. "Shocking, I know. But she's new here and could use some friends." Eve scowled. He was messing with her. "Eve, this is Jenna and Ali, they'll take care of you."

"Uh…yeah," Ali said with a strained smile.

"Just…call us the welcoming committee," Jenna agreed. Her smile was a little more real, but still hesitant.

Eve's eyebrows rose. She looked to her dad and asked in a completely flat tone, "They have these here?" Ali's smile stayed glued to her face. Jenna's eyelashes fluttered. Perino simply held up his hands, walking away. "Hey! You can't just leave me here!"

At that, Perino turned and smirked back towards his daughter. "You student, me teacher. I have work to do." He turned back around and waved his hand in the air. Of which Eve wished the lid on his coffee tumbler would open and pour everywhere. "See you in class!"

A/N: Thanks to CeruleanMusings for helping me figure out that Eve should be in 11th grade in this fic considering some plot points I have in mind to touch upon. As well as the fact that this is going to be set in season 11, episode 32 "Underneath It All Part 1".

I already love writing Eve's and Perino's sarcasm with each other. Also, I know I continuously called him "Dom" last chapter, I'm just going to refer to him as "Perino" from now on. I'll go back and edit the last chapter when I can.

Chapters will get longer.

-Riles