Don't shoot but in order to fit the story I had to change Eli and Clare's way of meeting (but he still says she has pretty eyes!) Also, fair warning, this may turn in to M in later chapters.
Disclaimer: If only I owned Munro and Justin, my life would be wonderful. Alas….
On the day that Eli Goldsworthy arrived at Degrassi, I was just getting back to my sophomore year of high school after a spring break of doing nothing more than volunteer work and hanging out with my best, and perhaps my only, friend, Alli. I was just that quiet girl no one noticed, the one that kept her voice down in class and her head down in the hallways.
Eli did none of these things. On his first day, he picked a fight with the school bully. Although he was a good six inches shorter and appeared to lack Fitz's muscle mass, Eli sent him soaring into the dumpsters within the first sixty seconds of the fight. I wasn't there to see the fight, violence never having been my style, but those who did see it were shaking from fear of the new boy. They said he was demented, they said he was dangerous. They shunned him right away and I was torn between sticking with my penchant for non-violence and condemning this boy with everyone else or embracing this boy, whose life at Degrassi wouldn't be simple with everyone already deciding that they hated him.
But my decision was made for me when I met this boy myself.
As the invisible underclassman I was, I was making my way to English, a new classroom thanks to the schedule change I had to do in order to take Creative Writing in the second semester. I was rushing through the halls, frantically looking this way and that for room 731, which seemed like it was not appearing just out of spite for me. I cradled my English notebook in my arms, my plaid, heavy backpack slung over my shoulder. The halls seemed to be emptying out now, as everyone else shuffled off class. Within a moment or so, I stood in the hall of the 700 wing, cursing myself for not knowing which way to go. I tried to count off in my head how much longer I had until the bell rang as I shuffled down the hall, but I was suddenly on the ground, my backpack having been pushed and it acting as a weight, throwing me off balance and bringing me down with it.
I looked up at my assaulter and Drew Torres's brown eyes looked back at me. Drew was a year older than me but had come to this school only a year before, as a sophomore. I'd spoken to him once or twice. He was in lower classes, occasionally in sophomore classes, so I'd worked with him on a couple projects. Essentially, he was a jock with an ego and a desire to get ever girl in school. Not really a good mix, but he wasn't such a bad guy.
"Watch it Edwards," he muttered, looking past me and looking at the numbers on the classrooms next to us. He just wasn't thinking about what he was saying, he was just as frazzled as I was to get to class on time.
I muttered back a sorry and pushed off the ground to stand up and steady myself. As if from nowhere, I black nailed hand reached out towards mine and it pulled me up. I scrambled to my feet an brushed myself off, avoiding making eye contact with the boy. As I reached for my backpack, I heard a smooth tenor voice saying, "'Excuse me, I believe you owe her an apology."
Drew snorted. "What's it to you, emo boy?"
The boy gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Emo boy. That's pretty good." He kept laughing, point a black nailed finger at Drew. "And hear I thought jocks had no wit."
"You think you're funny, tough guy? Everybody talks like you're Eli the Invincible. Like you're some kind of threat. Fitz is a weakling, but I'd like to see you go up against a real man."
"When you find one let me know."
Drew's fist was clenched around Eli's collar in an instant, lifting him off the ground so that they were eye level. "Do not underestimate me, little man," Drew growled.
But the voice that replied to Drew's threat could not be called a growl. I could not be described in mere words, the closest thing that it could possibly be compared to being the shrieks of a thousand ghosts, wailing, all in unison to say, "You know nothing of strength, boy."
Overhead, a light shattered and I reached up to cover my head from the falling shards. The sparks sprayed down upon Drew as Eli was spared, all the while watching Drew with a demonic smile as Drew dropped him back to his feet. Drew moved to cover his head as the shards broke his skin, leaving small rivets of blood in their place all over his body.
Eli just kept smiling. He kept smiling as Drew turned tail and ran, looking back behind him to be sure Eli wasn't following, occasionally stumbling over his own two feet.
Eli's smile only broke when Drew was out of sight. His smile was no longer a demonic one. Instead it was a sort of sweet, lopsided smirk. I looked him over. His hair was shaggy and a deep black and, when he reached up to push a strand out of his face, I saw an onyx ring on his thumb, matching the black of his nails. He was dressed in head to toe black, from his Dead Hand shirt and coat to his skinny jeans and combat boots. His eyes were a deep emerald, with a ring of black making them stand out even further.
I stumbled over my words as I reached to grab my backpack, trying to thank him, but not quite getting it right. I tried to sling my bag over my shoulder and grab my books but suddenly they were both in his hands.
"Allow me. I believe we both have English to get to anyway."
Again I tried to thank him, but failed miserably.
Eli smirked. "No problem." He started off in the direction he knew our class to be in, but stopped to look at me. "By the way, you have pretty eyes."
So…..yes, no, maybe. Also I happen to like Drew but this story was based back in 2010, so there's no Dallas to fight. It had to be either Drew or Owen and Owen has gotten so much better recently I just couldn't do that to him. Drew will get over it.
So what do you think? I'd love to get a little feedback on this.
