"Sophie! I'm going to be late!" that was the thing about my mom, her job always made me ridiculously early for school every morning, but she wouldn't buy me my own car. I was still putting on my makeup. Finally I was finished. I checked the mirror one last time to make sure I looked ok. My long black hair was straightened, and my blue eyes were surrounded by dark eye liner. I was wearing my usual black attire, which my mother hated. "God I'm coming!" I yelled grabbing my purse. I headed downstairs to the kitchen where my dad was sitting. He handed me a cup of coffee which I took gratefully, I was far from a morning person, and it showed. My dad looked at me again and then called "I'll take her Clare." My mom appeared in the kitchen doorway

"Are you sure?" she asked slowly

"Yeah," He replied "I'm meeting Adam today anyway."

My mom took one more look at me and then nodded "Ok, thanks." "No problem." Then he stood up and kissed her forehead and she was gone. "Thank you! You saved me, I mean talk about crazy." I said putting my empty cup in the sink. "Your mom is just stressed, she's working on a" "big case" I finished for him. "As always." He smiled at me, and I smiled back. My dad and I always just seemed to understand each other. "So what are you and Adam doing?" I asked. Adam was my dad's best friend and I knew him well. He was like a second father to me. "Oh, just hanging out." My dad answered. I nodded. Then there was silence, not an awkward one, just a nice silence. There were a lot of these moments with my dad, which was nice because there was never any with my mother, who always seemed to be talking.

"Well better get you to school then." My dad said finally. I sighed. "I know you hate it, but you only have another year and a half left."

"Yeah but that's way too long…" I muttered, but still I was grabbing my backpack and getting into my dad's car. On my way to Degrassi to survive another week…

"Sophie!" I heard Scarlett call as soon as my dad pulled up to drop me off. I looked up to see her, Luke, and Angelina sitting on the front steps of Degrassi. I tightened my grip on my backpack then looked at my dad. "Oh God… please kill me now." I muttered.

"You'll be fine." My dad said.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door. For a minute I just sat there and then I turned back to my dad "Are you sure I can't come with you?" I asked hopefully.

"I wish you could." He replied "But your mother,"

"Would kill you." I cut him off. "I know."

He smiled at me and I shut the door. He waved once before driving away. I had half a mind to run in the opposite direction. No one would miss me, but Scarlett had seen me, and you always had to worry about her.

Angelina Mason was my first and best friend at Degrassi. We were both what I guess you could call outcasts. Angelina was always fighting for a cause, whether it was saving the animals, or curing cancer she was there. And she always had a strong opinion. She had blond hair and dark brown eyes. Luke Daniels joined soon afterword. He was quiet, wise, and mostly a loner. That was our group for two years, it was a group I loved until Scarlett Thomas decided to join us. At the beginning of the year Scarlett found out what her "friends" were saying about her. She confronted them, and of course ended up an outcast. Where she got the idea it would be nice to hang with us, I'll never know. It started out as a temporary thing but grew into her thinking we were best friends. I hated her. "Oh Sophie!" she cried when I came up to them, her high pitched voice giving me a head ache. "You look great today! It's a really nice change!" I looked at Angelina who shrugged. "Thanks." I said through clenched teeth, holding back what I really wanted to say. The only reason we were nice to her is because Angelina demanded. Angelina felt sorry for her, and I really didn't need another fight with Angelina, so I did what I was told. Which was be nice, and don't kill her. And most days that was really hard to do, but I could handle it for the most part. And I guess part of me felt sorry for her too, I just wished it didn't. After that we just stood there for a couple minutes. Scarlett going on and on about her weekend, then the bell rang and we headed inside.

I just had to be born smart. I had to take upper lever Math and English. That meant for two periods I had to deal with the 12th graders. I had English before lunch and Math last period. I hated it. English I could handle, because I actually liked the subject, but Math was a completely different story. When I walked into Math that day I wasn't expecting it to be a good day, but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it was. As soon as I walked in, the teacher called us to attention, I wasn't one for arriving early, especially to this class.

"Because of your recent behavior, I am now assigning seats. So stand off to the side until I call your name." He said and the whole class groaned. Lucky us, he put us in alphabetical order.

"Ok so Miss Goldsworthy here," he said pointing to a seat in the back. "and Mr. Guthrie beside her."

Tyson Guthrie smiled as he walked past me, and I rolled my eyes. Tyson Guthrie was the dirty blond, green eyed, football, basketball and every other sport star, popular jerk that I had luckily never had to talk to before. Now he was sitting beside me, stupid last name. Class went on as normal.
"OK, so I checked your tests from last week. Some were less than impressive." He said as he put a paper with a big D on it on my desk. Great, another fail. I was too smart for the juniors but too dumb for the seniors. I rolled my eyes as I pushed the paper under my notebook.

Finally the bell rang and I was saved. Well I thought I was saved. As I was passing the teachers desk he put up a hand to stop me. "Miss Goldsworthy, can I speak with you a moment?"

"Sure Mr. James."

After all the other students had cleared he spoke. "Sophie, I'm concerned about your grade in this class. If you don't get it up soon, you'll have to move back down to the lower level."

"I know, I know. I'm trying." I answered, thinking that going back down wouldn't be so bad. I was already a freak enough, being extra smart didn't help. And it's not like I actually fit in with the smart kids.

"Sophie, I think you need a tutor."

"A tutor?" I asked taking a step back. "Yes, I think it would be best. You can meet on your free period here. I'll get you a tutor, and you guys can meet tomorrow." He said smiling at me. "Great." I answered starting for the door. Great so now some geek from my class is going to know I'm stupid. So I went to my locker and got my stuff, hoping to see Angelina, but she was already gone. So I headed out the door to my dad's car, which I knew was waiting for me down the street. Glad to be out but it was still only Monday.

"Sophie, your teacher called today." My mom said to me that night at dinner.

"Which one!" I asked a little too quickly. My dad smirked at me, my mother however frowned, a serious look on her face. "Your math teacher… But is there something else I should know about?" I shook my head trying to look innocent. I mean I had occasionally skipped a couple classes, but they didn't need to know about that.

"He says that you need a tutor." She said. "That if you don't get your grades up, you're going to get moved down."

"I know, he talked to me after class." I answered, bored of this conversation already.

"Well you do plan to meet with a tutor right?" My mother asked.

"I don't really have another choice do I?" I said rolling my eyes. "Well I just wanted to make sure. Your education is important Sophie." She said and then there was silence, an awkward one this time. And then dinner was over.

The next day I was walking down the hallway trying to handle carrying five heavy textbooks and my binder. I was already running late, but to make things worse someone slammed into me. Successfully knocking all my books out of my hands. "Watch where you're going!" I managed to shout in the general direction of whoever knocked me over. As I started trying to pick up all my books, the bell rang. I sighed, I had already been late for History 3 times this month. I was contemplating my options when I looked up to see someone standing in front of me, holding one of my books. I stood up quickly, and realized I was looking at Tyson Guthrie, he was smiling as usual, which irritated me so much.

"You ok?" he asked handing me my book which I took quickly. "I'm fine." I said pushing past him.

"What no thank you?" He said coming up beside me.

"I didn't need your help." I snapped

"You sure looked like you did." I looked up at him. Of course he was still smiling.

"Well I didn't. So just leave me alone." My History room was getting closer, thank god.

"Fine. I'm gone." He said putting his hands up, looking offended. And then he was gone, and I was in History.

My free period came quickly, too quickly. Before I knew it I was stepping into Mr. James's room.

"Hello Miss Goldsworthy." Mr. James said as soon as I walked in.

"Hi…" I answered, already hating being here.

"Your tutor should be here soon, he must just be running a few minutes late." I nodded, and sat down at my desk at the back of the room. Then there was that awkward silence. There were a lot of these in my life. Then who should walk in but Tyson Guthrie.

"Ah, Mr. Guthrie, nice of you to join us." Mr. James said, then he looked at me. "Sophie, Mr. Guthrie will be your tutor."

"Great." I said rolling my eyes. "That is just great."

AN: I know, I know. I seriously promise this is going somewhere. Their love starts in the next chapter! :)