Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Degrassi.

Hello there, lovely readers!

First off, thanks so much for such a positive response, guys! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review ,follow, and/or fav! Don't worry, I am definitely continuing this story. :)

So this next chapter is focused on Clare. It's at night, the same day Alli and Jenna soaked Clare and Eli noticed "the girl with the curls" for the first time. Happy reading!

Clare's POV

"Clare, come on!" Alli whined. "We said we were sorry!"

Clare just continued to type on her laptop, working on her History essay. Alli and Jenna were currently pestering her to go with them to a movie tonight, after what they had done this afternoon.

"Clare, please, what we did wasn't that bad," Jenna tried to reason.

Clare turned in her desk chair to look at the two of them, Alli sitting on Clare's bed and Jenna in her beanbag. "Need I remind you that you threw a water balloon at me? When I was wearing a white shirt? Outside? Across from all those boys having lunch? Outside?"

"Okay, maybe we didn't think it all the way through," Alli reluctantly admitted. Clare snorted. "But we're sorry! We promise, we'll never do it again."

"Never," Jenna agreed.

"Just come to the movies with us tonight," Alli begged. "Please! It'll be so fun."

"What would we see?" Clare inquired, very slightly opening up to the idea.

"Glitter, Not Gold," Jenna said excitedly. "It just came out."

"It sounds like a terrible chick flick," Clare protested.

"Which is why it'll be so fun!" Alli insisted. "Come on, Clare, we haven't done anything fun in weeks!"

This was true. The three of them had had so much work to do and so many personal problems to deal with that they didn't have any time for fun. For Ali and Jenna, "personal problems" meant boys. For Clare, it meant her parents.

They were the reason she was here, at Marie Hamilton Institute for Girls. They'd sent her off once they decided to get a divorce, because they "didn't want to disrupt her life." Right. Because sending her off to a boarding school where she had to meet all new people and have all new classes and make all new friends and have an all new home definitely wasn't disruptive.

She tried to be reasonable, though. It wasn't that terrible. She did like all her classes and the school in general. And she loved Alli and Jenna; they were great friends. And the school newspaper was fun, and overall, everything was great. On the surface, everything looked perfect.

But that didn't change the fact that Clare was falling apart on the inside, no matter how many times she tried to convince others and herself that she was fine. How could she be fine? Her whole world, everything she had ever known, had been completely changed. All her life, she'd believed that her parents were true love, and now she was being told that they were just a mistake, a bump along the way on the road of finding their real soulmates. The ground beneath her had crumbled; it felt like a rug had been yanked right out from under her feet, slowly at first, then crashing down on her all at once. It was all just...fake. None of what they'd told her all her life had been real. She couldn't believe anything they'd ever said to her! So she knew nothing about love. Or anything at all.

Clare sighed. She had to do something; she couldn't just sit around in the girls' dorm and listen to sad songs and eat ice cream while her roommates went out. Her life was not a romantic comedy, and she had to keep moving.

"All right," she finally acquiesced. "I'll go." Alli and Jenna squealed. "But you're paying for me." It was only fair; Clare still wasn't totally over the water balloon incident.

"Deal," her two friends instantly agreed.

"Now let's go!" Alli yanked Clare out of her chair and marched her out the door. Jenna locked it behind them.

After the movie, Alli and Jenna were in awe. "And I just loved when Emma Stone said that one line about the burrito," Alli gushed as she, Clare, and Jenna exited the theater. "She is so hilarious!"

"But the whole speech about all the glitz and glam not being what you need was so powerful," Jenna extolled. "Definitely my favorite part."

Clare rolled her eyes and just kept walking a little behind her two friends. Personally, she'd thought the movie was horribly cliché and overdone, but decided not to contribute this opinion to the current conversation.

As Alli and Jenna continued on with their bubbly tones, Clare let her mind wander. Then her eyes, once she'd had enough of thinking about the past, and...well, the present.

She watched as a little girl jumped with two feet into a dirty puddle, then as a woman who was probably her mother ran after and scolded her. Clare observed three middle school boys coming out of the town diner, kicking a can and laughing. She saw a young couple walking and gazing at each other in the glow cast upon them by a streetlight.

She felt a pang hit her heart. A young couple. That was just what she and KC had been. Well, younger than the couple on the streets now, but just as in love. Or so Clare had thought. It had apparently all been a lie, just like the rest of her life. Because when she'd told KC she was leaving and had proposed the idea of a long-term relationship, he'd responded with a breakup.

Clare was quite honestly sick of love. It just hurt so much, and she wasn't even sure what it was anymore! She supposed she'd never really known what it was, actually. She'd thought what her parents had had been love; she'd been wrong. She'd thought what her and KC had had been love; she'd been wrong. She was left wrong and without a clue as to what was right.

Just then, one half of the young couple, a girl with bright red hair, giggled so loudly everyone on the street could hear her. The girl didn't care at all. Clare missed that: not caring. Being so in love that nothing else matters.

Suddenly the sound of loud laughter made its way across the street. Only different laughter than the girl's. Not couple laughter. Best friend laughter. Mocking best friend laughter.

Clare peered into the night and saw that the boy laughing was now doubled-over. He was guffawing and pointing at the guy Clare assumed was his best friend. He was scowling at the boy who was snickering.

"Oh, come on, lighten up, Goldsworthy!" the boy who was pointing exclaimed.

This "Goldsworthy," Clare noticed, was actually rather attractive. He had dark hair and piercing eyes she could see through the night and across the street. Not the color, but the intensity in them. He wasn't exactly her "type," but he really was good-looking, she had to admit.

But Clare had to stop thinking about stuff like that, because she definitely was not about to be starting a relationship with him or any other guy. Relationships and love always led to hurt. She was done with all that.

She realized that love, whatever it was, really wasn't worth all its trouble.

So, as you've probably noticed, Clare and Eli still have not met. They have only noticed each other, and just in passing, really. These first two chapters have been set-up chapters; they've given a peek into the lives and struggles of the characters (struggles that will, of course, be further explored throughout the course of the story).

The next chapter, I plan on having them meet. So look forward to that!

P.S. Don't get used to such early updates. I just figured I better get this up fast or people would come at me with pitchforks and torches, thinking that I wasn't continuing. I am, though, don't worry! I will just probably take longer updating now. Sorry!

P.P.S. Sorry I'm talking so much, but just a reminder that if you review, you're awesome! *Hint hint* *Nudge nudge* :D