Chapter Five: You Had Somebody Else

"You ready?" Ellie stepped in between the two of them, kissing Sean softly. He gave Kendra an apologetic look.

"Go ahead." She forced herself to smile, knowing that she had lost her chance. Sean had someone else.

"I'll call you later Koki." Sean promised, walking off with Ellie, but keeping her at a distance.

Ellie pressed her lips against Sean's convincingly once again, catching him off guard. It wasn't exactly forced per say, but there was a look of surprise and later utter disgust coming from Sean. He didn't want to hurt Ellie's feelings though so he waited until they were out of Kendra's ear shot before asking, "What the hell was that?"

"God Sean, have you forgotten what a kiss is? I can refresh your memory." Ellie went in for more, convinced that this was the way to win him back for sure.

Sean pulled away, slightly. "Oh, so you don't want me to kiss you?" Ellie let her hand drop, no longer attaching herself to Sean in the same way as before.

"No." He pressed his lips together firmly. "I just don't want to rush anything."

"We've lived together before Sean. Nothing can be more rushed than that." She answered, tucking her hair behind her ear. "And I get it. You don't want to commit to me because you're still into Emma or whatever but…" Ellie bit her lip, determined not to be the type of girl that won the fight by playing dirty.

She could always tell Sean about what really happened in Degrassi while he was away … how Emma went down on Jay and contributed to the Gonorrhea outbreak. He would never look at her the same way again.

"I'm not into Emma." Sean breathed confidently. "I want to be with you. I am with you but, I want it to be natural and that kiss was--"

"Totally out of character. I got it… be myself." Ellie looked back at Sean who kissed her this time, assuring her that they would get back there. He took her hand in hers as they decided on what they were going to do … it was pretty difficult since the two of them really had nothing in common, except their intense chemistry for one another, a fact Sean had never really noticed until, well … now.

"I can't believe that you're still a vegetarian." Ellie commented, bummed that Chinese was definitely out. They sat in her small hand-me-down car, not knowing where to go.

"Well, you don't want to go to the Indian restaurant so--"

"Come over to my place. We'll cook, watch a movie." Ellie beamed. She could show Sean her new life while included her mother now.

"Don't you mean our place? I know I left suddenly, but I didn't think I'd be kicked out so soon." Sean joked with a smile.

"Actually, I'm back with my mom now." Ellie started popping her rubber bands, nervously awaiting his reaction.

"Have you cut since--"

"Yes." Ellie admitted. "But only right after you left for a while. I haven't cut since being here with my mom… well, not much."

Seam ignored the last part of her phrase, knowing they'd get to the cutting again later. He was more fixated on her mother's involvement in Ellie's life, asking, "Will Ms. Nash approve me going to your house?"

Ellie parked the car in front of her house and took in a deep breath. "Let's find out."

"Ready…. Break!" Kendra exhaled deeply. Practice was kicking her butt today, now that she didn't have Sean to back her up. She was focused and trying not to show that she was hurting, but her mind kept wondering back to the fact that she was a girl and the football team didn't allow girls.

What if they found out who she was before the contract was signed? She sighed. There was no time to think about this. She had to book it to the 60 yard line and then out-run the opposite team so that she could make another touchdown, and hopefully be invited to join the Varsity team.

When Kendra made it to the line, she was thrilled. The pass was complete; the guys were looking at her in awe. She was on top of the world until suddenly she felt something forceful throw her onto her back, bringing her back down to earth, literally.

"Dude!" She heard Danny yell. A couple of the guys came over to help her. Maybe it was Danny again or his sidekick Derek or Sav … whatever. She could barely breathe that this point.

When Kendra was finally to her feet, every part of her body throbbed and she would be feeling it for the rest of the day, definitely. A groan escaped her mouth, something she couldn't hold back. It was her only outward expression of pain, but enough to make the guys laugh at her anyway.

So, she was on their radar. Kendra shook her head, preparing for the last few minutes of practice, which just seemed to drag on and on. And despite her feelings and worries about a possible torn ligament, Kendra pushed through.

As the other guys rushed to the locker room, Kendra was left to face a one-on-one with her soon-to-be coach. "Mason!" He called as she tried to scurry past him.

"Coach."

"You took quite a hit out there son." Kendra nodded, afraid to say anything else for fear of sounding like a girl. "Oh, so you're a quiet one…"

"Yessir."

"Fine then. Keep your head in the game … that tackle back there was a cheap shot. The guys have been noticing you, and so have I." He confessed. "You make sure and bring your consent form back by tomorrow, got it son?" Giving Kendra a swift pat on the back, she started to get it.

He was not-so-subtly telling her that she made the team. "Will do."

"And tell that Cameron boy that one missed practice is one too many."

Kendra nodded again and then jogged back into the building, heading into the boys locker room to grab her stuff. If she was quick, no one would notice her and she'd be able to sneak into the girls' locker room without being noticed.

After successfully grabbing her duffel bag, Kendra headed for the door with her helmet still on and everything, hoping that the boys decided to take extra long showers today. "Yo Mason!" Danny greeted her with a towel wrapped around his waist.

She sighed, relieved; one because he wasn't completely naked and two because he was one of the nicer guys from football.

"What's up dude?" She asked, continuing to walk towards the door.

"You're not taking a shower man?" Derek appeared by Danny's side with his towel half on, half off.

"No. I'm busy." She answered shortly, hoping she hadn't lost the forced bass in her voice.

"And what's with the helmet?" Derek lifted the top of the protective cap, but it was still firmly placed on Kendra's head.

"Yeah, what are you hiding under there?" Danny chimed in.

"Can't a guy have an ugly face?" Kendra shot back lamely, shoving them out of the way before escaping without any other problems. It was when Kendra had safely made it into the bathroom and had taken her shower, that she realized that the other guys were more than just a little jealous of her football talents.

Someone had removed her jeans from the duffel bag and Kendra's only option was to go back and there, with her grimy baseball cap and dirty sweatpants from practice back over to the locker room and figure it out.

She burst into the locker room in a fury. "Where the hell is my shit?" She asked, keeping her voice deep. There were a couple of snickers and she could see that they were hanging from the exposed ceiling with some type of writing on it.

"I'm sorry man." Danny apologized, shaking his heads at the other guys' stupidity. Derek was laughing with the rest of them.

"Is there any way to get them down?"

"They got it up there, so must be."

"Who did it?" She wondered, balling up her fists. But Kendra already knew it was the guy who tackled her unnecessarily and a couple of his friends. "This is war." She stalked back out of the locker room, this time hoping to run into Manny or someone to give her a ride home. Being fifteen and carless really sucked right now.

"You don't have to lurk. Lurking is creepy." Emma stated as Jay came out of his hiding place. Today, he was pretty bold standing directly in front of her in Degrassi Community School.

But he was in luck too since she didn't feel like denying him any longer.

"I was looking for you Greenpeace."

"Stalking is the more appropriate word." She looked him up and down trying to make herself understand how she could be attracted to someone that was so categorically disgusting and destructive, someone that oozed deception.

"Need a ride home?" He asked innocently as Emma started to walk down the hallway.

"That's really smooth, but … I'm not falling for it." She retorted, referring to a previous time where she had taken a ride from him and ended up anywhere but home.

"Come on Emma. Don't be a prude." Jay begged. She walked into an empty classroom, waiting for Jay to follow.

"Let's get one thing straight." She started, closing the door behind her. "I am not a prude."

Jay grinned, knowing that he hit a nerve and reached for the light switch.

"Don't. They might catch us." Emma stated looking down at the ground, trying to find that part of her that would have at one point in time screamed out that she was doing the wrong thing. She dug deep, trying to find that virtuous Emma that Jay had fallen for.

She was dead, Emma decided once Jay's lips met hers. That Emma would have never allowed herself to feel this way about Jay, to kiss him like this and that was something that the Now Emma wasn't going to give up, no matter how empty it made her feel inside.

When Kendra got home, she was pissed. So pissed. The first thing she did was yank off those disgusting football practice pants and head up the stairs loudly.

"Can you keep it down?" Spinner complained, coming out of his room.

"You don't work tonight?"

"Obviously not. Hey, what happened to your pants?"

"You don't want to know." Kendra rolled her eyes and answered back sassily.

"If it involves my kid sister losing her pants, then it's my business to know." Spinner pressed, playing the overprotective brother role a little too well.

"Look, some guys thought it'd be funny if … they took my gym clothes and--"

"Who did it?" He practically yelled and Kendra waited until he had calmed down to give a succinct, yet not really accurate list of the culprits. After all, she hadn't seen anything and this would just be speculation. "Those guys are dead."

When it was over, Spinner rushed down the steps and his little sister felt redeemed. She decided to do her homework before calling Manny to find out what else she needed for her sociology project, which Kendra still didn't know much about.

Kwan's assignment took longer than she thought and that website for Simpson was due in two days. Plus, Kendra still had to get that signature in order to play football and there was only one person she knew that could help her with that. Sean Cameron.

But Kendra was stubborn. She wasn't going to break down until realized it was almost midnight, she was just wrapping up her work, and obviously Manny was staying over tonight. Even with the television on, she could still hear the noises and thuds.

Disgusting. She would tell them to get a room, but they were in one and it just happened to be right next door to Kendra's. By five minutes past midnight, she couldn't take it anymore.

"What's up Koki?"

"I need a favor from you." She explained, making sure to use a tone that revealed how angry she was about being dissed.

"You've forgiven me already?"

"No, but I need you to … sign something for me…" She sighed.

"If I come over now, there's no way I'm going to want to drive back."

"Then stay over. Manny and Spinner are going at it like hamsters and you owe me."

Sean let himself in, since he customarily stayed over … before the big runaway to Wasaga ordeal.

"What's up Koki?"

"Here." Kendra handed him a short group of papers. "Sign it with my mom's name. I put in my legal name, Koki Mason. I don't think they'll know that that's a girl's name so…" She tossed the papers and a pen into Sean's chest.

Using the kitchen counter, he signed it immediately and then joined her on the couch.

"You're really mad at me, aren't you?"

"Do you even need to ask that? You ditched me at practice today. I almost got killed by the way and they took my pants."

"They what?" Sean tried not to laugh.

"They put it in the ceiling rafters or whatever and wrote some shit on them."

"And I could have prevented that?"

"Someone almost found out that I'm not a he and--"

"I'll be at practice tomorrow." He promised, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for a hug. "I'll protect you from the football team."

"Thanks." She breathed, her head resting on his chest. It felt so good to be this close to him, to feel his body heat, to smell him. It almost made Kendra want to grin like a love sick High School Musical fan. "Okay … you're choking me." She complained, wanting to get away from him before she drooled, literally.

"So that's it? I drove this whole way to sign your paper?"

"You tell me." Kendra shot back, cocking her head to the side. "You've been calling me all day about something, so … what it is?"

"Ellie."

"Uh-oh." What did the vampire do this time, she secretly added in her mind.

"It's only a small thing. Actually, maybe it's sort of big …" Sean smiled brightly. "We're getting a place together."

"Didn't you already do that and what happened to the old apartment?"

"This time she wants to live with roommates. Not just me."

"And you're happy about that?" I rolled my eyes. "I predict more drama with her than good times, but … don't let me stop you."

"Aw … are you jealous?"

"Maybe a little." Kendra confessed. "But that's just because you'll turn into a clone of Spinner and Manny who spend every second together and you're the one guy friend Spinner had permitted me to have and there are just some things that … that I need to ask you that I can't ask anyone else."

"In other words, you love me." Sean joked completely platonically and unaware of how close that was to being the truth.

"Maybe this much." She held out her hand and revealed two fingers that were two inches apart. "Maybe a little less." Kendra rested her head on his shoulder and it was completely natural.

"No one can replace you Koki. You're like a little sister to me." He promised, kissing her forehead carefully. She rolled her eyes up and looked at the ceiling. Was Sean serious? A kiss was a kiss, but a kiss on the forehead was like the kiss of death. Kendra was sooo in the friend zone.

"Good, that's settled now …" She searched for a way to think about something else, anything besides Sean's arm which was resting on the back of the couch. Her mind instantly went back to football. "Can you give me some tips about not getting killed at practice?"

"I know a couple of tricks or two, if you're willing to work for it."

"Yeah. Sign me up for Cameron Bootcamp."

(A/N: I love to have reviews on what I write, even if you don't like it. Reviewing let's me know that you care enough to say something ... and even if you don't humor me and stroke my ego. I'm never satisfied when it comes to reviews [i.e. I can never get enough]. --NL)