Yay! I actually got some reviews! And they were pretty positive so I thought I'd keep going with this story. On to Eli and Clare's great love affair!

Disclaimer: It was my birthday Friday and no one bought me Munro...so I guess I can't say I own any of Degrassi, much to my dismay.

Eli and I walked in silence to English, that smirk still plastered on his face. Every now and again I'd sneak a look up at him, but mostly I just stared at the ground. How do you speak to someone like this anyway? Hi, thank you for scaring the daylights out of some guy that really was absolutely no threat to me at all, but you are rather handsome so I guess I'll let it slide. You were only trying to help after all, but please next time let me fight my own battles. I do not need you to protect me.

As I ran over this monologue in my head, I kept thinking that there must be something, anything I could say. Eli didn't seem to mind the silence so much, but the silence to me became all the more deafening with my inner thoughts racing and trying to make sense of what just happened. It was only after a few minutes that I realized we'd never actually introduced ourselves.

I looked up at him and gave him a smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't really ever introduce myself. I'm..."

"Clare Edwards," he finished, looking down upon me, his green eyes sparking with what seemed like a strange mix of mischief and kindness. "I know, we had Chemistry together this morning."

I blushed, embarrassed that I had I hadn't been paying attention. How had I not noticed this boy earlier?

"Oh, don't beat yourself up about it," he said, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. "I wasn't actually in that class. I was in the office, you know, because of the fight and all."

"So how did you know who I was then?"

"My councilor told me that if there was anyone in my classes who I should try to befriend, it would be Clare Edwards. She seems to think I've started off on the 'wrong foot,'" he explained, staring straight ahead, putting air quotes around wrong foot. "She wants me to get a fresh start and she seems to think I could do that by making friends with the do-gooder, Christian girl."

I played with the cross at my neck, looking up at him, not knowing what to make of him. It was easy to tell that he wasn't putting much stock in what the councilor said. He wasn't interested in any right foot and I doubted that the councilor had forced him into befriending me. He didn't seem like the type who could be forced into anything. So why did he try to help me? Why was he standing here, carrying my books and walking me to class?

As I was lost in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that he'd stopped walking. "Ready?" he said, motioning towards the door. Inside, my, or rather our, English class was well underway. I was going to be marked tardy on my first day back. I hesitated walking in and letting Ms. Dawes put a black mark on my record and Eli seemed to notice my hesitation. "Or we can skip."

I looked up at him, his small smirk growing more prominent. "You do what you want," I declared, strangely disheartened when I saw his face fall. "I'm not that type of girl."

The mischief was back in his eyes in an instant and his smirk grew again. "Yeah, we'll see."

I chose to ignore his little statement and pushed past him, knowing that every second I stood and argued this was another second I was late to class. I walked in and the entire class looked towards the door, all eyes on me.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Dawes, I got lost," I quickly explained, a blush creeping up on my cheeks, my eyes flickering towards the floor and back to her. She gave a small smile and had kind eyes, but, nonetheless, she moved towards her desk to mark me tardy.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Edwards, but that's no excuse. You're fifteen minutes late. Surely you couldn't be that lost." If only she knew.

Suddenly, I could feel a presence behind me, Eli crossing the threshold into the classroom. He placed an oddly protective hand on the small of my back and I heard him say in a voice that was both his and not his, "Oh, I don't think you want to do that Ms. Dawes. Cut her a little slack."

To everyone else in the room, it was a simple, rather cocky statement from the new guy; I however felt a chill go down my spine. There was a weird power in those words, but for some reason I was the only one who knew. I was the only one who he let know. There was more to Eli than just the new guy, just the guy who liked to fight, who liked trouble. There was something about him that made me feel like he wasn't just a guy at all.

For a moment, Ms. Dawes just looked above my head, to Eli, a little dazed. "Already, Ms. Edwards," she said, her eyes still on Eli. "Just this one time. Go take a seat."

Eli's hand removed itself from my back and I heard him step down the aisle. I turned my neck, like everyone else in the room, to watch as he placed my bag and books on a desk and he took the seat next to it. He motioned me to the back with him and, without hesitation, I walked back to meet him.

My cheeks burned as I felt every eye in that room boring into me. I looked around at who I'd be having English with for the next semester and met the confused eyes of Alli and a nice boy who I'd met this morning, who I had Chemistry and Algebra II with, Adam. They were the only confused, moderately kind eyes in the room other than Ms. Dawes. Everyone else in the room were Juniors, who I barely knew and who barely knew me enough to make a judgment call on who I was. But they had made up their minds about me in an instant. A girl named Marisol, a boy named Owen, along with Fitz and his lackeys, all glared at me. I was the traitor who had befriended the new guy. Eli was crazy, Eli was the new school bully, Eli was the one to be feared. Fitz was a teddy bear in comparison to Eli. Everybody knew that. I was beginning to suspect that they may have been right. Yet all the same, I gave Eli a quick smile, enamored by his smirk, and took the seat next to him.

I'd always been the outcast, may as well start to have a little fun with it.

Hope you liked it! I'd love a few reviews (belated birthday presents?)! I gave myself a little present and took a mental health day, which is why I'm updating so early in the morning. I doubt I'll be updating this as frequently after this, but I'll be updating at least each weekend.

Also, 8 days and counting to the new season! My predictions based on the promos (especially the MuchMusic promo): Cam is definitely jumping off the roof after Maya cheats on him with that new guy, Dallas's daughter, who he had with his old castmate from The Latest Buzz, is coming to stay with Dallas for a time, Eli and Clare will be pushed apart by Eli's ecstasy addiction and his short affair with Talia who is also his dealer, Eli is not going to graduate and is going to rehab, Adam is either going to die at the hands of someone by accident or will kill himself or is harassed to the point that he will leave Degrassi. I definitely think something big is going to happen to Adam within the first few episodes. He supposedly has a huge plot in the first two episodes, yet he's not even shown in the promos. I think the writers are trying to cover up the plot so that no one suspects that he's going to have a huge change.

But these are all predictions after all. I guess we will all just have to wait and see next Friday!