As soon as my History class let out, I rushed for the door. The entire hour Declan kept subtly passing me notes, never showing even a hint of the act to the Ms. Gartner. Eventually, I broke down and read a few of them, which were mostly pleads for me to answer and tell him why I just sort of ran off. I knew he might have deserved an explanation, but I just didn't feel like giving one.

"Hey!"

I heard a voice I didn't recognize from behind me. Afraid that my mind might just be playing tricks on me and it really was Declan, I turned around slowly, dreading whose face I might see. Instead, it was a girl with a silver nose ring and darkly lined eyes. I stopped a she tried to catch up with me.

"Hi," I replied warily, not sure why she was coming up to me. Maybe she had seen the encounter in the hallway this morning I just hadn't seen her. My stomach sunk in fear.

"Are you alright? You seemed a little flustered in class." The girl looked at me with true concern. I suppose I probably did look like something was wrong even though I attempted to seem calm.

"Yeah, it's just my first day, even though you most likely know that. I'm Norah." Once again, I gave my formal introduction, but thankfully, this time there was no risk of the same sort of happening which occurred earlier in the morning.

"Jane. It's good to meet you," she answered and shook my hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, before I mean, I was just curious because I've seen that face before."

I shook my head and slightly gasped incredulously. Maybe I wasn't as safe as I thought.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked. In my effort to seem calm and casual, my question came out with an incriminating stutter. I could feel heat flaring up my neck and to my cheeks.

"It's a guy, right?" she asked with a smile. Relief flooded me for a moment as at least she might not know who it was.

"Uh, yeah," I said and laughed weakly. "You know, boys. They'll get you every time."

"I know, right? My boyfriend, Spinner, he…we've had our problems, but still, I can't help but get butterflies every time I see him," Jane gushed. It made me sad that I couldn't relate. I'd never had a boyfriend who I actually and truly wanted to be with. Before, it had all been for show, just because.

"You must be really lucky to have him."

"Like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm sure you've had tons of guys after you. Obviously you do, otherwise you wouldn't be acting like this."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Seriously? You're kidding."

Jane looked at me with such wonder. I suppose it was strange for a girl my age to not have been in love at least once.

"No, I mean, I've had boyfriends, but I've never really liked any of them. Just unlucky in love, I guess."

"Well, since you're new here and I'm guessing don't have any friends yet, I'm assigning myself to you as friend and matchmaker."

"You really sure you want to do that? After all, I could be a terrible friend," I teased, but wondered if Jane was the exception or the rule when it came to the niceness of Degrassi High students.

"We'll see, but so far you seem like a decent person and you've got more common sense than most girls in this school. You're practically the only one who's not boy crazy."

"Is that right?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't let her down as time went on.

"Yeah, seriously. That's all anyone here ever thinks about is who they're going to date or get in bed with by the weekend. Thank goodness for someone else like me. Now I won't feel so alone," she told me with a laugh. "But we do need to get you a boyfriend, someone who can keep you grounded."

"Who did you have in mind?" I asked curiously.

"Well," she began. "There's a few guys in the band I'm in and then a couple besides, but there's so many who already have a boyfriend so it's pretty slim in choices. But outside of school there's tons of boys, for sure. You should come to one our shows sometime and maybe I can score you a date."

"You're in a band? That's awesome. What do you do?"

"Lead vocals. It used to be Peter's job, but things happened. Are you into music?"

"So much, yeah. I'm such a music junkie. Actually, I've been trying for years to land a place in a band," I told her, excited that we had truly found some common ground.

"Seriously? What do you do? Maybe I or one of my band mates could hook you up with guys," she said looking interested.

"I sing, too. And yeah, that would be great. Any other time I've always been told it wouldn't work because I'm a girl and apparently rock and roll is a man's world."

"Dude, don't I know it. I can't tell you how many times I've been heckled at our shows because I'm a girl. So, are you any good?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess. I've been told I'm really good, but I guess I'd just have to get more people to tell me that before I believed it."

"I think you would be. You seem like the sort of person who's truly dedicated to their craft. Oh, hey, we need to get to class. The bell's about to ring."

I followed where Jane led me down the hallway and then pointed towards a door that led to the auditorium. In there were many students either sitting around or walking around messing with props. Apparently, it was Drama class. I hadn't remembered what was next on my schedule, so I just had to trust my new friend had memorized it.

"Okay, let's go, let's go!"

The Drama teacher stood in front of all of us as we sat down on the stage and on the ground. I took a perch near Jane and put my bag beside me. As soon as everyone had settled and were for the most part quiet, she began to instruct us once again.

"Alright, you might expect to get off easy today since it's your first day, but I'm here to inform you that's not the case. A large part of you are seniors and the rest should be ready to get to work without complaint."

Of course everyone began to grumble, but oddly enough I was comforted by having a teacher who really knew what she was doing and was unapologetic about her frankness.

"Just in case you were wondering, she's always like this."

A voice that I fully recognized came from my right. Suddenly, I felt sick, but knew I should have expected it. If Jane was in almost all my classes why wouldn't he be?

"Really?" I said softly, keeping my eyes focused straight in front of me and trying to ignore the fact that Declan being close was electrifying.

I desperately wished that no one noticed my reaction. Out of the corner of my eye I searched for his girlfriend, but even if I did, I might not even recognize her since it was only for about a split second that I saw her face and from a distance. Somehow, in the back of my mind, I sensed that Jane was watching the exchange between Declan Coyne and I. I was mortified. Now, she just had to know that he was the guy she was unconsciously talking about earlier. Or maybe it was only obvious to me.

"Yeah, but it seems like not all of us are predictable. Why did you run away this morning? I was just trying to be friendly…Norah," he whispered, once again saying my name in such a way that sent shivers down to my toes.

I didn't dare turn my head to face him. Though I still looked straight ahead – most likely looked like a freak who was talking to herself – I could feel his eyes watching me, searching my face and beyond. If I did turn to see his eyes, I just might not be able to pull myself way.

"I didn't run away, okay? But even if I did, I had good reason. Maybe you're just a little too friendly for a guy with a girlfriend," I said softly, but with a fierceness in my voice. I wanted to let him know just how offended I was.

He paused for a few moments before answering. In my peripheral vision, I saw him roll his eyes, then trained them straight ahead just as I did. Finally, he got the hint that I didn't want to appear as though I had contact with him.

"How do you know that I have a girlfriend?"

Suddenly, I was at a loss for words. So maybe I had been wrong. But I couldn't have been. The girl I saw was clearly his girlfriend, otherwise, she wouldn't have kissed him and he wouldn't have walked away with her with his arm around her.

"Uh, I saw you with here? I have eyes, you know."

"Ah, so you were watching me." I could practically hear him smirk.

"Yes, obviously because I simply saw that you clearly have a girlfriend makes me your new stalker. I could say the same thing about you when I walked away. You stared me down like I was —"

"Ms. Johansson? Do you have something you'd like to say?"

When Mrs. Grayson called attention to me, the entire class jerked around to see who I was. Caught off guard as I was, there was one thing I'd learned from going to so many schools and that was a little flattery goes a long way.

"Just that I'm really excited to be here. Degrassi has a lovely auditorium, way better than any other school I've been to."

Mrs. Grayson smiled genuinely. "Well, thank you for the compliment, but please, from now on let's pay complete attention, okay? And…welcome to Degrassi. We're very glad to have you here," she told me in a kind voice.

For the rest of class, we did mirroring exercises and I was successful in warding off Declan. Though the time when he tried to get me to be his partner was avoided, the same couldn't be said for when Jane and I were doing our exercises.

"So, Norah" she began as I followed where she put up her right hand. "Who were you talking to?"

I felt stupid for even thinking about trying to cover up who it was, but it was nearly an instinct with me.

"Um, Declan, I think?" I said, trying to seem nonchalant. It probably wasn't working as well as I hoped.

She looked directly in my eyes.

"I'm surprised he's talking to you, I mean, Declan's usually sort of snobby around new people unless they can do something for him. But I guess you could be the exception. He does have a weakness for hot girls, after all."

I scoffed incredulously. "Uh, yeah, thanks, but I'm not hot. Like, at all. But…he just talked to me in the hallway this morning, almost as soon as I got here. Maybe he's nicer than he used to be?" I offered, secretly hoping for some inside information on him. At least if I knew more about him I might be able to keep the ball in my court for a while.

"Okay, if you think so, you're so lying to yourself, but whatever. But about him, just watch out. Even though he's got a girlfriend, he has a tendency to still be a little too friendly when he shouldn't," she warned.

So, he does have a girlfriend, I thought silently.

"Good to know. I guess that's one guy to check off the list."

She laughed. "What list?"

"You know, the 'Potential Guys' list. We've all got one, even if it's only mental."

"Ah, I get it. So, who else is on there so far?" Jane asked.

"Honestly, no one yet. I guess you've got to help me with that."

"Sure, I will. Just give me a little time. Right now, I just want to get senior year started off right."

"I know the feeling. It's nice to know there's only just a few months ahead."

By the time class ended, I began to feel more at ease. The only thing which compromised that were the every-so-often, yet noticeable feeling of Declan's eyes on me. He'd made a point to stay in the part of the room from where he could see me, but remain undetected. Only once did I make eye contact with him for a very brief second and when I did, it was a rush I couldn't deny.

The guilt ate at me for the rest of the day for the fact that I knew he had a girlfriend, Jane had warned me against being near him, and still, somehow I was alert each time he passed by or looked my way. I wished their was someone who, like in old movies, would throw a bucket of cold water on my head and maybe it would deaden my nerves enough to absolutely ignore him.

But I realized that no matter how hard I tried, it would still be a matter of his ignoring me that would keep anything from happening. As long as he insisted on keeping in contact with me, even as subtle as his methods seemed, nothing would change. And that's when I knew I would have to do something about it. I would have to speak to him and sever all ties, no matter what the cost.