The next morning, as Clare climbed the few steps that led to Degrassi and walked the familiar path to her locker, she was distracted; making to-do lists in her mind for the day. She wasn't paying attention as to where she was walking, seeing as she'd walked that path multiple times a day for the past month. As she was adding yet another task to the already long list, she painfully collided with another body.

"OH!" Both bodies yelled; startled, as they fell to the floor.

As the two tried to right themselves and collect their scattered belongings, they both finally looked at each other, looking to the cause of the disruption's in their mornings.

Clare looked up to find a pair of emerald eyes piercing into her baby blues. Who was this? Clare was involved in many things at Degrassi, but never had she seen this boy. She would have remembered those eyes.

Dammit Clare! She thought to herself. You're staring! Pull yourself together! Clare stood up quickly, and before this stranger had the chance to speak, she explained;

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I wasn't paying attention. I should have looked-"

"Hey, don't worry about it. No permanent damage. I'm new here, I was just looking at my schedule and didn't look where I was going, so no worries. We can just blame gravity for the bruises." The dark stranger interrupted charmingly.

Clare chuckled, "Okay, you're sure you're alright though?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm pretty tough, a cement floor can't scare me." He said as his eyes met her's for a second time.

Clare was instantly lost in those eyes again. What was happening to her? She'd known this boy for 2 minutes, one of which was spent awkwardly trying to recover from an abrupt encounter with the floor. She moved her hand to her uniform skirt and smoothed out the non-existent wrinkles.

"Umm... well, I should get going. I'll, uh, see you around." Clare finally said after a brief awkward silence. The boy nodded and she started to move past him in the direction of her locker when he gently grabbed her arm.

As she slowly spun around, meeting his emerald eyes once again, he spoke quietly.

"Hey, umm... you wouldn't happen to know where room 207 is, would you?" He said this almost as if he were embarrassed, which was odd to Clare considering how confident he seemed just a few seconds ago.

As quickly as she got lost in her own thoughts, she pulled herself back out. Room 207. That's what he asked. Answer him Clare! He's going to think you're brain dead!

"Room 207? Advanced Grade 12 English?" Clare asked the boy.

"Yeah... that's what this course code means. I think." The boy responded, looking down to his schedule while bringing a little of his previous charm with him.

"Oh, well I have that this period too. Just follow me." Clare said, rather confidently, given her previous inner freak out.

Clare led the boy to her locker, put her book bag away and grabbed her purple binder and began to search for a pen from the top shelf of her locker. The boy stood there, leaning with his back against the next locker, patiently waiting for her to gather her things. Clare peaked out of the corner of her eye at him as she was trying to reach for her pen.

The boy was very interesting in appearance. Not excessively tall, or short, average height. He only appeared to be a few inches taller than Clare's 5'4 height. He had a mess of dark hair that just brushed past his eyebrows, slightly hooding his deep emerald eyes. He wore the usual Degrassi uniform, khaki pants and a blue polo shirt. Blue. Hmmm... he was a grade ahead of her. Clare, who was a junior herself was fitted in a red polo. Although, where she had thrown a navy blazer over her own red polo, he wore his with what looked like a dark suit jacket without it's sleeves and a black tie.

That was intriguing to Clare. At first glance, he seemed rather dark and unapproachable, but after only a few moments of awkward apologies a few minutes ago, she held a different opinion of him. Yes, he dressed darkly, but his personality suggested otherwise. He was witty and charming. And those eyes... my goodness. CLARE! HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO FIND A FLIPPING PEN! He's going to notice you peering at him! STOP IT!

Clare was constantly at war with her thoughts. Always telling herself to stop letting her emotions and impulses take the lead. So she stopped analyzing the boy's appearance in that moment, grabbed her pen, and led him to Room 207.