"Emma, your late! Unusual." Mrs Kwan joked as the blonde walked in and gave a sympathetic look.

"Sorry."

Mrs Kwan nodded and pointed to the left over seat… great, in the back beside Jay.

Emma slowly went over and carefully sat down. Don't get too close… remember what we talked about. God. Emma sounded insane.

Emma opened her binder and looked around to see everyone working. Working on what?

What were they doing?

Emma was never this disorganized before. Late? Lost?

Jay noticed her confused and coughed lightly, "We're doing chapter 3." He said quietly to her.

Emma looked at him and then nodded, scanning through her book, she snuck another glance at him and saw him working… weird.

Announcements suddenly came on.

"Listen up kids of Degrassi, this year we're looking for a new school president. Please sign up now or forever hold your peace! Lata."

"You should do it." Jt said, turning around to Emma.

"Not into that anymore…" Emma drifted off, trying to work. Jay snuck a glance at her now. Since when? She loved this stuff. It's what he … loved, about her.

"What do you mean?" Jt asked shaking his head.

Emma scoffed and looked up replying, "Meaning.. I don't want to."

"Sucks… cause I already signed you up!" he happily said.

"JT!" She whined.

Jay snuck a smirk as the bell rang.

"Emma!" Raditch greeted as the blonde ran straight to the office, "Good to see you. We were just going over speeches for president running." He confirmed.

Emma shook her head quick, "That's what I came to talk to you about, I don't-"

"Luckily, you only have one competitor." Raditch interrupted her and pointed at Alex.

"Alex." Emma said out loud.

GREAT.

Alex walked around Raditch who was grabbing something off his desk and whispered to Emma, "Going down princess." With that, she left.

Emma bit the end of her tounge in madness.

"What was it you came for?" Raditch asked, turning back to Emma who changed her mind.

"Nothing. Can't wait for Voting day." She said with a fake smile and stormed off.

MATH CLASS.

"I'm going to vote for Alex." Ellie said, walking into class with Sean.

"No way, Emma." Sean replied.

Ellie explained, "But It's in the friend rule book, me and Alex are best friends… I gotta vote for her." She shrugged.

"If you vote for her, expect our prom to be like Carrie." Sean joked and she laughed.

OUTSIDE IN THE HALLS

"Vote for Emma!" Manny happily cheered, handing out cupcakes to people.

"Vote for…." Manny stopped and stared up, "….Emma…"

Jay stood there and she coughed awkardly

"thought she wasn't doing this?" Jay asked Manny lowly.

"How'd you know she didn't want to?" Manny asked then rolled her eyes, these two knew everything about another. "Changed her mind I guess." She answered.

He nodded at her and then walked around her, leaving. Manny curiously watched him go. He really liked Emma. Why couldn't Emma admit she really liked him too?

"Can't believe I'm doing this." Emma told Toby and JT, walking toward the cafeteria.

"You'll win. I'm brilliant, knew you would." Jt confirms with a shrug and she laughed.

"I could kill you Jt." Emma confirms and the tripped…. Over Alex's feet. Wow! Wonder if that was on purpose.

"I'll help with the posters!" Toby insists as Emma regained her balance.

"Watch it." Hissed Alex, standing up and going nose to nose with Emma, starting a fight.

"can't help it, there's so many bugs on the floor." Emma taunted back.

"Talking about bugs… be prepared to be squished tomorrow." Alex shot and snickered, walking off.

THE NEXT DAY:

"You ready for this tiger?" Manny teased as her and Emma walked into school, Alex and Emma signs everywhere. Today was going to be interesting.

"No. This was a mistake." Emma groaned. She wasn't this Emma anymore, she didn't have the… spark… or whatever it was.

Manny nudged her and said, "That's not the Emma we know and love."

"I know… I don't know where she went." Emma sadly admits.

"She'll come back… I promise. Do what you can today- Oh my god." Manny got lost in her sentence as she stared behind Emma.

Emma turned and saw what she was staring at, everyone worse the gold metal stars, they were actually pretty cool, they must have had pins on back because people wore them on their shirts. It had VOTE written in cool Script letters and then a picture of her grade 9 photo on it, which was a little embarrassing but still amazing.

She then saw her two friends slowly walking down the hall, Toby and Jt.

"Toby! JT! It's amazing. Thankyou!" Emma smiled, hugging them and running off.

"Really went out guys." Manny joked.

Toby blinked and replied, "We didn't do that." Jt nodded.

AUTO CLASS

Jay leaned over his working desk and looked exhausted, he ran his hand over his shaggy hair and put his hat back on as Cameron came in

"What's with all the scraps?" Sean asked, glancing at the metal parts around Jay.

"nothing." Snapped Jay, putting things away and whipping his hands on a white cloth.

"If it's nothing why are you painting them gold?" Sean asked, seeing Jay throw paint away.

Jay lied, "Boredom. Lets get out of here." He headed for the door.

"Alright. I gotta go sign out. I'll pretend I have cancer or something. They never believe me anyways…" Sean joked.

Jay just snickered, he barely laughed anymore. He nodded and waited as Sean went to the office and sat against the lockers until his return… that is until Emma walked on past, her heels clapping against the floor. God… she looked really, really good today with her yellow strapless summer dress. Her long hair curled and sun shining off of her.

"Hey…" she greeted. Wow. She was talking to him?

Then again… she probably noticed him staring. That was pretty weird.

"Waiting for Cameron." Jay explained and she nodded, and bit her lower lip until she sat beside him. Jay raised an eyebrow and teased, "If your running for president you might not wana be seen with a criminal like me."

She laughed lightly and answered, "You're probably right but…" she drifts looking down until up at him,"I'm up against Alex and you probably know what that means."

"It's fine, you kicked her ass last time." He joked and she smiled.

She shook her head and then asked, "Got anything I can use against her?"

Jay sat in thought. Playing dirty, this wasn't very Emma-ish.

"Use the vending machine against her." Jay said with a shrug.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked.

"Day we first meant remember?" Jay replied. How could he forget? Couldn't get her out of his mind since that day.

Emma remembered too and replied back, "You were stealing." That would get Alex no votes for sure! "Do you think it's wrong to use that?" Emma asked him

"It's you, Emma. You'll do the right thing in the end." He confirms, looking down at his hands. It was hard to look at her, not be able to have her, or even just hang out with her.

Emma nodded and then stood up, glancing down at him once more before leaving for trial time.

Alex was on stage and did her speech, "Who wants someone who cares more about the dolphins and liter then us to run our school? Not me. That's all. Oh. And I'm not a stuck up prude, parties once a week in the gym! And no taxes on food in the cafeteria." She smiled and left, the crowd clapped.

Emma rolled her pretty brown eyes and got up onto the stage. Thanks Alex…

Emma nervously looked around and thought she couldn't do this. Until Jay's words came into her head. You always do the right thing..

Emma began, "Well… I can't make promises I can't keep like Alex here… but… I do have one thing." She paused and smiled, "Brains."

"Bitch." Alex muttered at her spot.

Emma spoke to the crowd, "You can trust me with anything… and I think most of you know that. Leave it to me and everything will turn out good and I swear you'll all be happy. I'll do anything I can for you, just vote for me. Trust me."

"Will you have sex with me?" a random voice called out.

Yup… people have defiantly noticed her 'maturing'.. damn ! she could use it.

"Well, that's enough." Raditch confirms, coming beside her.

"Vote for Emma." Emma smiled before handing the microphone to him.

"Your votes will be taken in the back of the gym!" Raditch directed.

"So how'd it go?" Jay asked Emma later that day, everyone was leaving the school and he was having a smoke on the steps.

"I won." Emma said after grabbing his smoke and throwing it away.

"And you didn't use evil." He teased, eyeing her up and down as she sat next to him.

"Thought about it." She sadly admitted.

He shrugged, "Everybody thinks about it. In the end, you didn't." he said.

"Thanks for helping…" she confirmed, little did she know he helped even more than that… those stars were him.

"Anytime…" he smiled at her.

Silence.

"I know it doesn't matter… but again, I'm sorry." He mumbled, looking out at the dark sky.

Emma looked over at him and thought about it. "I forgive you." She felt a spark in her.

There it was, she felt like Emma again.

… emma blinked… It was Jay.. Jay made her feel like her.

He nodded sincerely at her and they looked back into the night deep in thought. Oh god… how were they suppose to pretend to be friends?