A/N: So today and yesterday were very special days for me. Yesterday was my birthday, I turned 20. Sure I still can't drink legally but I'm one year closer =) And today was a VERY special birthday for someone very special in my life. So I don't know if I have told you guys this before but hte character Matisse (or Major as he goes by) is based off of my cousin, Matisse and today was his birthday. He turned three years old today and to me it seems like just yesterday that he was born. So as a bday present to myself and to Matisse I decided to update the story today =) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or its characters.

When I was in the eighth grade someone started a nasty rumor about me. The rumor was that I made out with some random guy at a party. A rumor that was not only untrue but also completely ridiculous. Then in the tenth grade there was a rumor about me and how I got this one girl drunk at a party and that's why she made out with me. I did not need to get that girl or any girls for that matter drunk to make out with me; people naturally just want to make out with me. So the point is that rumors can be bad and quite nasty.

So right now I'm at work about to sign my six month contract. Mark Lee explained that not all new morning shows work out so for right now everyone is signed to a six month contract as like a trial run. Once I was handed the contracts I did the smart thing and faxed them over to Grandpa Johnson so he could look over them. I knew him being a lawyer would come in handy eventually. He told me everything looked good and that he was proud of me. He also told me he was excited for a new Johnson to enter the world.

Peter, our station's general manager, hands me the pen. This isn't just a regular pen though; this is a special pen, this pen is sealing my fate for the next six months. This pen is sealing my dreams. I press the pen to the paper and sign my name.

Mark Lee claps his hands excitedly. "Alright!" he cheers. "Toronto, get ready for the hottest morning show this city has ever heard."

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.

Thump!

"Maybe he or she will be a soccer player," I say excitedly.

"Well he or she is definitely getting a lot of practice with my spleen," Beth says.

I kiss Beth's stomach. Back before this whole pregnancy thing I use to think that people kissing pregnant women's stomachs were weird but now I totally understand it. My baby is like chillin in there and this is my way to show him/her that I love 'em.

"You know that in about fifteen weeks we're going to meet our bundle of joy?" I ask Beth excitedly.

Beth smiles. "I know and I am really excited and sort of anxious."

I look at Beth with curious and questioning eyes. "Why are you anxious?" I ask. "You're going to be a FANTASTIC mother. Plus because of you our child will be super smart and super bilingual."

"It's not the parenting that scares me," she says. "It's the whole pushing thing. Jordan, those videos we watched last week were slightly scary."

Yeah so Beth and I decided to watch some birthing videos. I mean granted I was in the room when Paige gave birth to AJ, I wasn't at the other end of the bed the whole time so watching the videos sort of made me throw up a little. I'm just being honest.

I take Beth's hand in mine. "Well I give you permission to break all my fingers if you need to while giving life to the greatest baby in the world."

"I love you."

Though we've been together for years and we've said those three words to each other hundreds of times, every time she says them feels like the first time all over again.

"I love you too," I tell her.

I lean up and kiss her.

Everybody, yeah. Rock your body, yeah. Everybody, yeah. Rock your body right. Backstreet's back, alright.

Beth and I look at each other, asking each other the same question. Why in the world is Kelly calling me?

"Isn't Kelly and Paige in France this week?" I ask Beth.

Beth nods her head. I walk over to the coffee table and pick up my phone.

"Hi Kelly," I say into the phone.

"Jordan, what the hell is going on over there?" Kelly whisper yells.

"Kelly, why are you whispering?"

"Because it's three in the morning over here and I am not waking Paige up."

"Why are you up if it's three in the morning?"

"Go to Perez's website Jordan."

What? What the hell is this girl talking about? I hand Beth my phone and run up the stairs to the office. I grab my laptop and head back downstairs. Beth is talking to Kelly over the phone.

"Kelly I have no idea what you're talking aboot," Beth says into the phone. Beth sees that I have return. "Ok I'm going to give you back to Jordan."

Beth hands me the phone as I sit down on the couch and open up my laptop.

"Ok so what exactly am I doing?" I ask.

"You're going to ," Kelly says.

"I'm surprised that site is still running."

"Focus Jordan! Are you there or what?"

"Jesus, yes I'm on the site. Though I don't exactly know what I'm looking for."

I'm scrolling down the site. Oh look, another story about Rihanna and her boyfriend. Ugh, how the hell is Lindsay Lohan still relevant? I'm still scrolling and I'm not quite seeing what has Kelly's panties in the bunch. Wait… is that?

"Oh shit," I say out loud.

"What?" Beth asks.

"You see what I was talking aboot now?" Kelly asks.

Yeah I can see now why Kelly called me. On my screen on is an article that reads 'Is Paige's Wife Playing While She's Gone?' and there's a picture of Alex and Sage having lunch. At the bottom of the article are five more pictures of Alex and Sage hanging out. It's like someone is stalking them.

"Have you read the actual "article" yet?" Kelly asks, making sure to say the word "article" sarcastically.

"Is Paige's wife, Alex, having an affair?" I read the article out loud. "Mrs. Nuñez-Michalchuk, the wife of great fashion designer Paige Michalchuk, has been spending a lot of time with a mystery woman. One source says that Alex has been having lunch AND dinner with the mysterious woman and that they had a romantic evening out a couple of nights ago and seemed to be really close."

"What the hell?" Beth asks.

"One source says that the mystery woman is Alex's ex girlfriend," I continue reading. "The only question we have is what is Alex doing hanging out with her ex-girlfriend while her wife is away?" I stop reading the article. "Ok, who the hell is this so-called source?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Kelly says. "I'm also trying to figure out why there are pictures of Alex and Sage together and why Alex is spending so much time with Sage in the first place. What the hell is going on over there Jordan?"

"Nothing!" I exclaim. "I'll admit that Alex has been spending some time with Sage lately but nothing has been going on."

"I didn't even know Sage was in Toronto," Kelly says, sounding slightly angry. "And to my knowledge neither does Paige. Jordan, I have fashion magazines and almost every show on Fashion Weekly calling me, asking me to comment on this."

"Well what do you want me to do? I mean Alex and Sage are friends! I can't just make Alex stop hanging out with her. You know as well as I do that the only one that can remotely make Alex do anything is Paige… and AJ but I don't think AJ can really help in this case."

"Jordan! FOCUS!" Kelly yells. "YOU need to take care of this! You promised Paige that you would take care of Alex and AJ while she's gone and this is not taking care of them."

"What the hell do you expect me to do?"

"I don't know but whatever you're going to do you need to do it fast. Paige cannot come home next week to these stories flying around. So squash them."

CLICK!

Wow, Kelly just hung up on me. I pull the phone away from my ear and place down at the coffee table. I turn my head to look at Beth.

"Ya know, Kelly can be really bossy and mean sometimes," I tell her.

"So what are you going to do?" Beth asks.

"Well number one I'm going to tell you and Alex that I told ya so. Number two, I'm going to have to figure out some way to squash these rumors in ONE week because for some reason I have to fix EVERYTHING."

Beth kisses me on the cheek. "Well good luck with that," she says nonchalantly. "I'm going to bed. Night."

I roll my eyes at Beth but help her off the couch and up the stairs to our bedroom. Once Beth is in bed I go back downstairs to grab my car keys. I get into my car as I press the number two on my speed dial.

"I'm putting AJ to bed so whatever this is it better be good," Alex says.

"I'm coming over now. No discussion about this. We need to do some major damage control."

"Damage control? Jordan, what the hell are you talking aboot this time?"

"Just be up when I get there! And get on the internet and go to Perez's website!"

I slam my phone shut and floor it to Palex's house. I pull up into the driveway screeching my brakes in the process. I see the front door fly open as I get out of my car.

"You know this neighborhood has neighborhood watch right?" Alex asks.

I wave her off. "The only neighbor watching is old nosey Mrs. Levine," I tell her.

I walk into the house and Alex closes the door and follows me into the living room. I turn around and face her with my hands on my hips.

"Ok what's so important that you just had to come over tonight?"

"Did you go to the website?"

Alex nods her head. "Yeah and all I saw was the same celebrity gossip."

I roll my eyes. I run up the stairs to the office with Alex right behind me. Her computer is still on the website. I start scrolling down the page. It seems that within the past ten minutes I haven't been on this site enough stuff has bumped Alex's story to another page. I click the button that takes me to the next page. I scroll down to half way down the page. Found it!

"THIS is why I came over," I tell Alex, while pointing at the screen.

I move over so Alex can see the picture. A look of confusion appears on Alex's face when she sees the picture. I see her eyes moving down line by line as she reads the article and her face turns from confusion to anger.

Alex stands up and looks at me. "That is complete bull poopy," Alex says angrily while pointing at the computer screen.

I raise my eyebrow. "Bull poopy?" I ask.

"Sorry, I'm using to saying G rated words in front of AJ. But that's beside the point! You know this story is completely false right?"

"It's not totally false since you have been spending a lot of time with Sage," I point out. "And she is your ex-girlfriend. But you know that I know that's all it's been, hanging out. The problem is that the WORLD doesn't know that."

"So what am I suppose to do, hold a press conference?"

I shake my head no. "If this was Manny and Jay then I would possibly say yes since Manny is an international actress but since Paige is a fashion designer and is the public eye less than Manny I think we could possibly do damage control on this."

"Well why can't we just let the story die? Like you said, Paige isn't in the public eye that much."

"Because Kelly called me and told me that fashion TV shows and magazines keep calling her for a comment on this whole "situation" and also because right now Paige is in the public eye right now because she's doing this whole comeback fashion tour."

Alex sighs. "So what exactly do you expect me to do? I didn't do anything wrong! I haven't done anything wrong and I don't plan on it."

I place my hands on Alex's shoulders to calm her down. "I know this but Alex, if you don't think you're not doing anything wrong then why haven't you told Paige that you've been hanging out with Sage?"

Alex opens her mouth to say something but then closes it. Why is a guilty look appearing on her face? I take my hands off of her shoulders.

"Please tell me the reason you haven't told Paige is because you don't want her to yell at you over Skype and not because you've done something with Sage."

Anger quickly replaces guilt on Alex's face. "I just told you I haven't and will not do anything with Sage!" she yells. "I love my wife and I love my family. I would never do ANYTHING to jeopardize my marriage with Paige."

"Then why haven't you told her?"

"Because maybe you were right!"

I raise my eyebrow. "Right about what?" I ask.

Alex clenches her teeth. "Aboot Paige potentially killing me," she says through her clenched teeth. Alex unclenches her teeth. "After the dinner Sage and I had with you and Beth I started thinking more aboot it and Paige would kill me. Plus I don't want Paige to worry about me hanging out with Sage while she's travelling all over the world. This fashion tour is important to Paige and I don't want anything to distract her from it."

"Alex if you don't tell Paige what's going on then when she finds out she will be hurt… And then she will kill you and potentially me."

Alex puts up her hands. "Ok," she says. "But in the mean time I need you to do something to squash these stories."

"Why do I have to do something?"

Now it's Alex's turn to place her hands on my shoulders. "Because you're my sister and best friend and you're one of Paige's best friends. This has you written all over it."

"That may be true but I don't know what you expect me to do. It's not like I have super radio connection powers."

"Can't we call Kevin or something?"

"You mean as in Kevin Smith? Alex, Kevin has been doing indie movies for the past four years. What kind of connections do you think he has? And neither one of us have talked to Kevin since AJ was born when he sent you and Paige that baby basket."

"Well use your Jordan super powers."

I groan. "Ugh! Fine, I'll see what I can do but I'm not promising anything."

Alex hugs me. "Thank you," she says. "You're the best sister ever!"

"Yeah I bet I am," I say while patting her back.

Alex and I pull away from each other. I point at her in an authoritative manner.

"But the next time you talk to Paige you tell her what's going on here," I order. "We have one week to sort this mess out and the only way we're going to be able to do it is if you tell Paige that you've been hanging out with Sage. But make sure to tell her that usually it's me, you, and Sage all hanging out together."

"That would be lying," Alex points out.

"Well you've already been lying to Paige for about a month now so don't try to say lying is wrong now. Now I have some calls to go make now. I will talk to you in the morning."

"Ok, I'll talk to you in the morning."

I go downstairs and leave the house. I pull out my cell phone and start dialing numbers. It's going to be a long night.

Next Day:

Zzzzzz. Zzzzzzz. Zzzzzz. Ah! Earthquake!

"Jordan," I hear a distant voice. "Jordan, get up."

Who is shaking me? I open my eyes and Beth is standing over top of me, looking down.

"Did you fall asleep on the couch last night?" she asks.

I look around and realize that I'm still in the living room, on the couch. On the floor and all over me are pieces of paper and my cell phone is still on my stomach and for some reason I'm holding a pen in my hand.

"Yeah… I guess I did," I answer groggily.

I stretch my arms out. I'm so glad we bought a comfy couch. I move the papers and my cell phone off of me and stand up and continue my stretching.
"Why did you sleep on the couch last night?" Beth asks me.

"I was making so many calls last night," I answer. "And there were certain calls that I had to wait to call because of time zone differences and stuff."

"So I'm guessing you got the situation controlled?"

"Kind of. I called some of the fashion shows and TMZ and told them that Sage was an old friend of you and mine and that her and Alex were reconnecting."

"So you lied?"

I shake my head no. "No, I did not lie," I tell her. "Sage is an old friend of ours and she and Alex are just reconnecting."

"Oh, yeah you're right, you didn't lie. You just failed to mention that Sage is also an old friend of Alex."

"Sage is not Alex's old friend, she is Alex's ex-girlfriend. There is quite a difference."

Beth places her hand on my cheek. "If that's what gets you through the night then ok. So you're done right? I mean Kelly will take care of the rest right?"

"Well Kelly will take more care of the fashion people and gossips," I tell Beth. "I mean all I could really say was that I'm Alex's sister and the rumors are false. But first I have to put a stop to the biggest gossip. Perez."

"You have Perez Hilton's number?"

"Well remember when that story about Paige being the cause of Mewesical High filming to halt appeared on his site?"

Beth nods her head. "Of course I remember."

"Umm yeah… I'm kind of the one to leak the story to Perez."

Ow! I just got punched by a pregnant woman and don't think that just because she's pregnant doesn't mean she can't hit hard. Does this count as domestic violence?

"Jordan Johnson-Perez, we don't sell out our friends!" Beth yells.

"Well ya know Paige was being a real you-know-what and she needed to fall from her high horse, hard. The point is that I have his number from eight years ago but I highly doubt it's the same."

"Well did you try it?"

"Not yet."

"Well go ahead and call. At least this time the call will be for good and not evil. Now I'm going to go to the kitchen because I'm in the mood to eat some Cocoa Puffs."

Beth starts walking to the kitchen. I rub the spot on my arm where she hit me.

"I didn't call for evil last time!" I yell after her. "And you hit like a man." I definitely muttered that last part.

I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts. I stop on the name of the person who could potentially make these rumors go away. I just hope he kept the same number. The phone is ringing.

"Hello?" someone answers the phone.

"Hi, is Mario there?" I ask.

"That depends on who's calling."

"This Jordan Johnson-Perez. Tell Mario the person calling him is the same person who gave him the juicy audio on Paige Michalchuk eight years ago."

"Hold on."

I hear shuffling in the background. Does Perez have an assistant that answers his phone now?

"Hello," a new voice says into the phone.

"Is this Mario? Or Perez? I don't really know what you go by."

"Only my family calls me Mario. You may call me Perez. So what do you have for me?"

"Those rumors about Alex Nuñez-Michalchuk cheating on Paige are one hundred percent false."

"Really? You called to tell me that?" he asks, sounding bored. "Listen honey, I have sources saying that Alex is definitely doing something, and it's not with her wife."

Remember to control your anger Jordan. Yelling at him or cursing him out is not going to do anyone any good.

"Perez, Alex is my sister and my best friend in the whole world," I tell him. "I would know if she's having an affair and trust me, she's not."

"Well then who is the mystery woman that she's been spending so much time with?"

Alright think this through before you say anything stupid Jordan. You need to give him something good and something believable.

"The woman Alex has been hanging out with is an old college friend of mine."

"Oh is that so? I heard that she's Alex's ex-girlfriend. If she's your friend then why is she spending so much time with Alex and not you?"

Think Jordan think. "It is true Alex and our friend dated but it was only for a short amount of time and it was because sophomore year of college the woman saved Alex's life."

Yeah, let's go with that. Because the life saving lie has worked so well all those other times. Actually… I've never used the life saving lie before.

"Really?" Perez asks, sounding interested but not quite believing it. "How did she save Alex's life?"

Damn it! This is why I don't use the life saving lie! Because this lie ALWAYS requires a background story.

"Well during our sophomore year of college Alex was crossing the street without looking and right as a bus was about to hit her when our friend pulled her out of the way."

Ok so I kind of went with the season five finale of Grey's Anatomy except that in my story Sage doesn't get hit by the bus. I mean this is totally a believable story.

"Mhm," Perez says, sounding like he doesn't really believe me. "So you're telling me that this mystery woman is Alex's ex-girlfriend/life savior?"

"That is EXACTLY what I'm saying. Also I don't know who's taking these photos but they suck because for some reason I'm not in ANY of them yet I'm always hanging out with Alex and our friend."

"Well does this friend have a name?"

"Perez, I think you'd understand that my friend does not want her name all over the internet. Just know that Alex is not having an affair. Alex loves Paige and is very committed to her."

"Ok I get it, I get it. There's no story here. Good-bye."

Click.

I let out a breath of relief and collapse on the couch. This whole doing damage control thing is quite tiring. The things you do for friends and family. I just hope this doesn't end up blowing up in our faces.

A/N: Will the rumors hurt Palex? hmm...