Series Title: The Kids Aren't Alright
One-shot Title: London Calling
Rated: T, over all; light T this time.
Summary for this one-shot: For Ashley Kerwin, it's between true love and the chance of a life time.
Disclaimer: I own no characters from the show, but I own any titles or ideas used.
Author's Note: This series is basically a bunch of one shots about the graduating class of '06 and the class of '07 three-eleven years after 2006.
Author's Note Two: I would also like to thank all those that reviewed. I'm really having fun with these stories. Also, this one is fairly short (less then 1000 words; it's 542 words, actually), but I really could think of anything more for Ashley. At least at this time. ;)
May 15, 2007
Ashley Kerwin knew what she wanted, or she thought that she knew. The truth was, she was slightly confused. She could stay in Canada and go off to college with Jimmy Brooks or she could go to college in London. It was the hardest choice she had ever had to make. Lover versus career; they wrote songs about that sort of thing. But, in a strange way it all made perfect sense. Her senior year had been fairly boring compared to everyone else's, it was her turn for drama.
Jimmy or college in London. College in London or Jimmy.
She had gone so far as to make a pro and con list for each. Jimmy had won, of course. Yet, she still thought about it. Long distance was hard, but it could work. Okay, so it hadn't worked for Ellie Nash and Sean Cameron. But, it had worked for others. Hadn't it? Of course it had! Manny Santos and Craig Manning were still together and he had left for a few months the year before. Still, a few months wasn't a few years.
When Ashley had asked Jimmy about it, he had told her that she should do what she thought was right. Ashley knew he wanted her to pick him and going to a local school over the call of London. But, Ashley loved London and she had been offered a chance to study at one of the best schools. Degrees in music and literature didn't just fall from trees. Jimmy knew that. He knew that she had to do what was right for her future. For their future.
By the first of May, Ashley had made her choice in the great debate of love versus future career. And yet, she still spent weeks trying to figure out how to tell everyone; half her friends had wanted her to stay and the other half had told her London was the best bet.
She told her mom, stepdad, and Toby first. Of course, they had all been thrilled. She had emailed Paige, Hazel, Ellie, and Marco second; their reactions had been mixed. Finally, she met Jimmy at the steps of Degrassi.
"I've decided." She had told him softly. "I'm going to London, Jimmy. I'm going and I want you to come. They have really great art schools there."
Jimmy had simply shook his head. He had to stay close to home. He wanted to stay close to home. They could do the long distance thing. No matter what, no one would be able to come between them and their true love.
Ashley was less sure. After all, she had tried that with Craig and ended up dumping him less then four months later. So, to save Jimmy some heartache, she broke up with him on the steps of Degrassi.
A month later, she slept with Craig after a concert in Boston. Two months later, she was in London. A year after she slept with Craig, Jimmy died. When Ashley found out, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. If she hadn't broken it off, he would have never…he wouldn't have died. Ashley chose a place over a boy, and that boy died; she blamed herself for the rest of her life.