A/N: Thank you for all your awesome reviews, and I hope this chapter moves along a little faster. We should be getting to the good parts soon! And remember, gentlepeople, this is FANFICTION. Not everything is just like Degrassi!
"Miss Dawes is a wonderful teacher," the principal, whose name was Simpson, Clare discovered, said as he walked her down the hall. She was having trouble keeping up with his long stride without banging into kids passing by, so she just stopped paying attention to what he was saying and focused on walking. He seemed to have figured out that she didn't really want to talk, because he didn't say another word as he escorted her to her first classroom of the day. "Here we are," he said as they stopped outside the door. He opened it for her and she hesitantly smiled her thanks before stepping inside and being met with twenty four pairs of eyes.
Miss Dawes looked up and smiled, setting down her coffee cup long enough to ask, "Is this our new student?"
Simpson nodded. "Everyone, this is Clare Edwards. She'll be in several of your classes, so please do all you can to welcome her here."
Clare swallowed and gazed at Miss Dawes for a moment before she smiled shyly and said, "Hello." However, as she went to stare at the floor once again, her eyes locked with a dark-haired boy sitting towards the back.
The moment Eli heard the door open and he watched her walk in, his heart had given a slight jump. This girl was small compared to Simpson, and she looked so nervous and fragile that she reminded Eli of a china doll that could break at any moment. He stared at her, barely catching her name as he watched her eyes flutter up to meet Miss Dawes's, and when those same eyes had caught his, he felt like something had struck him. Her eyes were like the ocean water of Hawaii, blue and deep, but it was her voice caught his attention. Her voice was rusty, as though she talked very little. She sounded like she had a lisp, or a speech impediment, but Eli could see plainly that her eyes shone with intelligence and deep understanding. She was most definitely not handicapped.
But her eyes held an interesting, captivating amount of sadness in them, and Eli's thoughts immediately shifted back to Julia, and he scowled.
Why was he glaring at her? What had she done? Did she sound stupid or something to him? Clare's mouth immediately drew into a hard line as a number of well-used insults came back to her mind and she turned her attention back to whatever Miss Dawes was currently saying about taking her seat…oh yes, next to the dark-haired boy. Excellent. Just fantastic.
Simpson was moving toward the door behind her, and there was nothing else that Clare could do, save to actually move towards her seat. She hesitated again, painfully aware that everyone was watching her closely as she moved toward her seat. She considered making a face, but then thought better of it. People seemed to think that she was strange already. No need to solidify their belief. She sat down, ignoring the watchful glance of the dark-haired boy, and wondered what his problem was. However, once Miss Dawes began speaking, she had to struggle simply to keep up, and forgot all about the dark-haired boy.
He couldn't take his eyes off her, for some reason. Every time he tried to pay attention, Eli found his mind wandering back to the girl sitting next to him. Clare. He wanted to know about her, what was under the shy surface that this girl held up like a shield. He found himself watching the odd way she leaned forward slightly in her seat, the way her eyes stayed glued at all times to Miss Dawes, and the way she unconsciously looked pained whenever Miss Dawes whirled around to face the board. This girl was beautiful, even more beautiful than Ju-
Immediately, Eli jerked back, startled by his train of thought. He couldn't betray Julia like that. And he most certainly didn't deserve to be happy again after what he had done.. "Get away from her, Eli. Don't you dare try to get to know her." He clenched his jaw and turned as far away from her as he could, ignoring Adam's questioning glances. He didn't need questions right now. All he wanted to do was focus on Romeo and Juliet. Romeo killed himself. How appropriate.
"I will be splitting you into groups of three," Miss Dawes was saying as she turned around from writing on the chalkboard. "Some of you gentlepeople will be acting out different variations of Romeo and Juliet, but I want some of you to do your own variation of some other Shakespeare plays like A Midsummer Night's Dream, which we discussed before graduation, and Macbeth. So here are the groups…" She began reading off people's names, but Eli didn't start paying attention again until she called out, "Mr. Goldsworthy, Mr. Torres, and Miss Edwards. Romeo and Juliet."
Oh no.
"I realize that you're new to our school, Miss Edwards, but your file says that you are well-versed in English literature, so you and Mr. Goldsworthy should get along very well," Miss Dawes added kindly. "For the rest of you, be advised that these are the groups that you will be working in during the entire school year, so get to know your partners very well."
Eli could have strangled her. This was not what he wanted. Clare couldn't be his partner! He would have to get close to her then. He would have to spend time working on their project with her. Damn it! Miss Dawes had a horrible sense of who should be paired together. "Miss Dawes?" he asked, giving it one last effort as he politely raised his hand and hoped that somewhere, there was a god that would have mercy on him.
"Yes, Mr. Goldsworthy?"
"Could I not work with the people from my group from last year?"
Miss Dawes regarded him for a moment before shaking her head. "No, Mr. Goldswrothy, you cannot. Miss Edwards is a very good writer, and you would do well to learn from her. You're still a little wordy, and I think you two will be good for each other." She smiled at Clare and then added, "I've read some of your work from your previous school, Miss Edwards, and I have to say that I am very impressed with your structure and advanced vocabulary, but towards the end of the year, you seem to have lost your muse. I believe that Eli can help you with that. I'm assigning you to be each other's editors after your group projects have been completed." She thought for a moment and then clapped her hands together. "We may have a very special partnership on our hands, people. Oh! Like Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes!"
"Sylvia Plath killed herself," said a soft voice next to Eli, and he once again was struck with the strange sound of Clare Edwards's voice.
Eli shook his head and resolved to have as little to do with this girl as possible.
So far, this school had not been pleasant. Clare sighed as she shoved her English books into her locker and pulled out her math workbook. She was paired with the dark-haired boy, Eli, and someone else that she didn't know, he didn't like her, and everyone now knew that her creative juices were no longer flowing through her synaptic nerve endings. She bit her lip hard enough to make her wince, and held back a groan. This was definitely payback from God, and she hated it. No matter how many times she had returned to church with her family, and had prayed for forgiveness, she still felt like God was ignoring her pleas, and was trying to punish her in every way possible as retribution.
Payback was a bitch.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and Clare had to stop herself from jumping. As she turned, she found the other boy from her English group standing there, shifting nervously. "Hey," he said softly. "I'm Adam."
"Clare," she responded. The less she said, the better.
Adam smiled when she didn't brush him off, and said, "I'm glad we're going to be working together. Eli's one of my friends, and I don't know many other people at school that would want to work with me." He shrugged, glancing at her to see if he had said too much.
"Why?" Clare asked without thinking. "What's wrong with you?" Immediately, she regretted her choice of words, and the look on her face must have shown that, because Adam started laughing.
"Don't worry about it," he assured her when she tried to apologize. "There's nothing wrong with me, I guess," he amended. "Depends on who you talk to. I'm an FTM."
Clare knew exactly what he was talking about, and shook her head. "That's not 'something wrong,'" she said easily. Inside, she was pleased. There was someone else who wasn't what the world considered "normal." There was someone like her.
"So it won't be a problem?" Adam asked cautiously.
Clare shook her head and tried out a small smile on the taller boy. "Not at all."
"Great," Adam said. "Well, I'll see you later!" He turned and left, and Clare was surprised that she felt so alone once he disappeared down the hallway. Hmm, had she actually made a friend already?
She made her way to math class and was surprised when an Indian girl began talking to her and giving her pointers throughout class. What was this, Make a Friend with Clare day? But deep down, she knew that she was excited, and she smiled and answered when absolutely necessary. The girl, Alli, didn't seem to mind at all, and Clare found herself watching expectantly, because Alli inevitably wanted to talk each time the teacher turned around to face the board. Math had never been so much fun before.
"See you at lunch, Clare!" Alli called with a wave once math was over. Clare waved back and could not suppress a grin of satisfaction. Perhaps Degrassi wouldn't be too bad after all….
Someone brushed past her in the hallway, and Clare stumbled back, surprised. That boy-Eli, glanced back at her and narrowed his eyes as he kept walking. How rude of him! She continued on her way to her next class, desperately telling herself that the tingling she felt in her shoulder was from anger, and not anything else. She resolved right then to stay away from Eli Goldsworthy as much as she could throughout the year.
That was, until she ran into something….
Oh God, she smelled so good, and Eli couldn't help but remember the way his whole body had come alive when he had brushed against her. He had been trying to scare her off, to push her as far away from him as he could, but he sincerely hoped that she couldn't feel the tremble that went through him when he actually touched her. It felt like he had brushed up against a live wire, and the feeling scared him to the very core of his being. He turned around to scowl at her, hoping that his grimace might disillusion her into believing that he didn't want to touch her, and then headed on his way. He couldn't help shivering once more as his thoughts turned back to moments before, and this small addiction scared him too.
But he was not as scared of his thoughts as he was when he turned around once more and saw Clare pressed up against a row of lockers.
And Fitz and Owen were towering over her.
A/N: I hope that leaves you guys hanging! lol! Have an awesome Halloween!