A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the wait, these past few weeks have been super busy, but I'm back! :) And about the new season of Degrassi, let me just say: AHHHHHHHHH! :D These two make me so happy! Anyway, to the story!

"Clare. Clare. Clare-bear?"

"Huh? Wha? I'm awake!"

"You almost fell asleep in your pancakes." Tonight, the two had decided to tackle pancakes at 3 in the morning, right after night swimming.

"It's not my fault you're making me stay up late!" Clare retaliated, stabbing her chocolate chip pancakes rather violently.

Eli laughed, turning back to his own blueberry pancakes, remembering their earlier swimming in a nearby lake.

"It's not that cold," Eli said, having already jumped in the lake. The sun had just recently went down and Clare was standing at the edge of the dock, looking down into the water.

"It looks freezing!"

"How can something look freezing?"

"I don't know! It just does!"

"Jump in, it's not bad!"

"I don't want to!"

"Fine. You leave me no choice." Eli hauled himself back onto the dock and to Clare's surprise, picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.

"No!" she said, her voice filled with terror. "Eli, do-"

It was too late. He'd already taken her and thrown her into the depths below. When she came up a minute later, gasping for air, he had jumped in too.

"I hate you," she hissed.

"No you don't."

"It is freezing, you liar!"

"No it's not!"

"You're insane."

"So I've been told." He swam around behind her and grabbed her waist under the water. In return, she turned around and punched him in the chest. "Uh, ow!"

"That's what you get for throwing me in the lake!"

"How else were we supposed to night swim?"

"I wanted to ease into it!"

"You never would have gotten in."

"Hey, I-nevermind."

"That's what I thought."

The two spent over an hour in the water, Clare mostly because she knew it'd be cold when she got out. They had splash fights, swam, or just floated on their backs and looked at the stars.

"You know what else we haven't done?" Eli asked.

"What?"

"Send a message in a bottle."

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that."

"You up for it now?"

"Do we have a bottle?"

"And paper, and a pen. Come on," he said, pulling her from the water and towards the shore. Handing her a towel, he ran to where Morty was parked and fished around in the trunk for a while before pulling out a notebook and pen, as well as an empty beer bottle.

"Classy," Clare teased as he set it in front of her on the sand.

"Bullfrog asked me to drive him home last week after he got drunk. He's not the cleanest person to have in a car, let's just say that," Eli responded, rinsing out the bottle in the lake. "I forgot it was there until now."

"What should we say?" Clare asked, opening the notebook to a clean page.

"Who said you get to write it?"

"Me."

"And you get to because…?"

"You have chicken scratch for handwriting."

"Touché, Edwards."

Clare giggled lightly. "So what should our amazing message in a bottle say?"

"Hmm…" Eli thought for a moment, tapping his chin with his finger. "Dear you, who is reading this letter…"

"You really want to start it like that?"

"How else do we start it? Dear random stranger who we've never met before?"

"Fine!" Clare scribbled their introduction onto the page. They argued a few more times over what to write before deciding on a short and to the point letter, shoved it in the bottle and sent it away in the lake.

Dear You, who is reading this letter,

Our names are Clare and Eli and we are from Toronto, Canada. We wanted to send a message in a bottle to see how far it gets from here, and if you could please respond to the address listed on the back of the page, we'd appreciate that. Eli would like to inform you of the pending zombie apocalypse, but I (Clare) just say to ignore my psycho boyfriend.

Hey! She loves me! –Eli

Of course I do. Anyway, thank you very much for your time and I hope that you respond to our message.

And watch out for zombies!

Eli, shut up!

Sincerely,

Clare and Eli (who is not psycho)

Eli was about to say something to Clare about their letter, but then noticed she was passed out on the table. Quietly, he called the waiter over for a check and paid, picking Clare up bridal style and carrying her out to Morty. Having earlier talked to her mother, he asked if Clare could stay the night, promising he would sleep on the couch, due to their staying out late. Once they had reached his house, he carried her up the stairs and laid her gently in his bed and tucking the covers around her.

"Goodnight, beautiful," he whispered, kissing her forehead and turning out the light.

A/N: The next chapter should come sooner than this one did! Hope you all enjoyed and please review!