Chapter Six of Strength to Make it Through
"Clare, this is Dr. Lee. I just wanted to let you know that I got in touch with my friend from the states and he has agreed to look at your charts, but it might take a couple of weeks before he can come to Toronto." I sighed as I listened to Dr. Lee's message. Does she honestly thing I can wait that long? And when she said 'a couple of' did she mean two weeks or more? "Call me back when you can. You need another checkup." With that, Dr. Lee hung up and I closed my eyes and felt tears well up behind my eye lids. Why do I need to go back to that dreadful hospital and get even worse news that I had before?
"Clare," Eli called, grabbing my attention. "We got the booths set up and are ready give out the ribbons."
I smiled. This morning I had left school after the huge mob fight and ate breakfast at the Dot with Eli, Adam, Alli and Dave. It WAS going to be just us until Bianca told Drew that she was hungry and the next thing I know, they were coming with us. I know that Bianca wanted to come to keep an eye on me and I ignored her for most of the breakfast.
Soon, I ignored everyone as I saw Emma walk into the Dot. I got up and gave her a hug and then made small talk until she asked me why I wasn't in school. So I told her about the fight as school and what happened with Becky. Emma reminded me of a story she told me a while back and I decided to make the 2012 version of her protest to kick Rick-the guy who put his girlfriend, Terri MacGregor, in a coma and is the reason she never came back to Degrassi-out of school.
When the gang and I got back to Degrassi and told Mr. Simpson what we planned to do, he looked a little proud and gave us an okay, but a warning to be careful because of the Bakers parents.
"Before we go over there, I just want to ask you, what Dallas is doing here?" Eli said with a glare at Dallas. Dallas smirked at Eli and I shook my head at him with a glare of my own.
"We…talked the other morning and we…apologized for the things we did to each other. Dallas and I are fine; it's just you that he has a problem with." I smiled at him sweetly. Eli rolled his eyes but smirked at me before he leaned down and kissed me.
We turned and walked towards everyone. They looked at us and smiled. I smiled back at them; everyone I know was there with the exception of Becky, Jenna and Luke. Tears came to my eyes as I looked at everyone. "This is amazing," I said, clearly in awe. I couldn't explain to them how much this meant to me. "Before we begin, I just want to let you know that we might…ummm," I fumbled with my words.
"Piss some people off," Bianca filled in for me.
I smiled gratefully at her, "Yes."
"It's okay Clare. We know from experience what some of your schemes get us into." Alli laughed looking at K.C. and Conner. I blushed.
"Okay, so maybe we went a little extreme with the Shep, but he had it coming!" I defended.
"Yeah, and it made you a legend. In the good sense, unlike the other niners: Backwoods, mother, father, and nerd." Owen said with a smirk. "It was also what drew Fitz's attention to you." Eli glared at Owen, but Owen just smiled back.
"Okay," I said breaking the tension. "I just wanted to thank you for this. It means a lot and I hope that our efforts really do change Degrassi." I looked at my watch and then smiled at everyone. "Will you guys go take your positions?" Everyone nodded and took off in their designated directions.
I walked behind the booth, taking one last look at the sign that said "Stop bullying, accept everyone." It wasn't the best slogan ever heard, but it was the only thing everyone could agree on with such little time. I also got Conner and K.C. to create and print out posters, and with the help of Drew and Adam to set them up around the school. Katie and Marisol are going to be handing out flyers in the Cafeteria. Also, there were other booths set up; Fiona and Imogen were running the booth in the west hall and Bianca and Owen were running the east hall, just in case students didn't see ours set up in the front of the school.
"This is going to be so much fun," Tori cried, clapping her hands. I smiled as Eli rolled his eyes and moved to stand beside me. He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. I smiled and leaned into him. Eli kissed my temple before stepping away. I pouted at him and he chuckled.
"We have company," Eli pointed to somewhere of my shoulder and I turned and saw a bunch of girls and athletes following Dallas towards the booth.
"This is Clare. She is the one who came up with the idea to start the protest." Most of the girls gave me dirty and I smiled back at them. "I personally don't want to be in a school where there is a bunch of bullying." Dallas said, giving most of the girls who glared at me a pointed look.
I chuckled as the girls looked down in shame. That's what you get, I thought viciously.
Dallas nodded at me; this was our signal for me to take over the reins. I cleared my throat to gain everyone's attention. They turned to look at me and I immediately felt stage fright. How was I supposed to get through this? Why were they looking at me like that?
"We don't want another thing like what happened with Rick Murry to happen again," I heard gasps go throughout the room and mumbles as soon as I mentioned his name. "Remember the victims of bullying: Jimmy Brooks, Emma Nelson, Toby Isaacs, Sean Cameron and Rick Murry himself. Rick brought the gun to school because he was constantly being made fun of and on one of the happiest days of his life, a group of student's spilt yellow paint and feathers all over him." I took a deep breath and watched as the crowd grew bigger.
"J.T. York was killed because of hate. Adam Torres was thrown through a window because of hate; Drew Torres was attacked by gang members because of HATE. Hate is what tears this world apart and I for one, am sick of it," I picked up one of the golden ribbons and clipped it on to my jacket. "This ribbon says what I can't put into words. I am against the violence, I am against the teasing, the singling out, the bullying." I saw Dallas and Eli both clip on one of the ribbons as well as Tori, Zig, Maya and Cam. Soon others began to clip on the golden ribbons. Tears of pride welled into my eyes.
"Keep going. More students just arrived." Eli whispered to me in encouragement.
"A friend told me once that we fear what we don't understand. That fear of the unknown turns to hate. It is so easy to hate something you don't understand." I smiled as I remembered Zane trying to explain to me why Riley wouldn't admit that he was gay. "Also, it is very hard to teach an old dog new tricks-but not impossible."
The crowd was getting bigger and bigger, "Becky Baker is scared of the unknown. Becky Baker is afraid of what she does not understand. People like Becky hide behind the Bible as a way to hate against others-others who have done absolutely nothing to them. If Becky REALLY wanted to rid this school of 'sin', then she should start with herself because today, Becky Baker did the ultimate sin. Today she created hate. I don't know about you, but I never want to see a fight like this morning to ever enter the halls of Degrassi-no, ever enter our lives again." Man, I was so worked up from my speech I was breathing heavily and my heart was racing. It took me a moment to actually hear the cheering and the applause. Soon everyone was grabbing ribbons and Dallas, Eli and I had to constantly remind them that there were other booths to get the golden ribbons from.
"You did it," Alli cried as she ran towards our booth with Bianca, Katie and Marisol in toe. They were all smiling at me and I could see tears in their eyes. If they started crying, there is no way I would be able to hold my own tears.
"That was a beautiful speech, Clare." Katie stated with pride. I smiled at her and returned her hug.
"I'm just glad I stayed here and was able to get it all on camera," Tristan cheered happily. He was tapping me? Ugh, I'm so glad that I didn't know I was being recorded or I wouldn't have been able to go through with it. Tristan smiled at Katie and Marisol, "Shall we show this to the whole school?" Katie and Marisol smirked at each other before they raced off to the student council room with the niners following.
"Clare," Bianca whispered next to me. I turned and looked into her concerned eyes. "You need to take your medicine." She handed me a granola bar and a Gatorade. I looked around to see if anyone was watching us, but they were all too busy talking about Becky's reaction.
I rolled my eyes but nodded. "Yes dear," I said in a fake obedient voice. Bianca smiled at me and crossed her arms. Great, she was going to watch me as I ate and took my medicine.
Dr. Lee would be proud.
