Sorry it's been a while. I've been doing so much testing for school my brain is basically fried. But I am in a writing mood so let's see how this goes.

This chapter is in third person omniscient in order to provide a little Eli backstory. The rest of the chapters will continue in Clare's POV.

Also, is anybody else really pissed at Eli right now? Although I do have to admit I'm more than happen to watch a naked Eli streak across Degrassi.

Disclaimer: If I owned Degrassi, I wouldn't have spent three hours every day for the past three days writing essays and doing reading comprehension and answering math questions that I learned how to do several years ago. I would've been out with Munro.

Eli Goldsworthy always liked religion. In a way at least. There was a strange beauty of the one thing you knew you could never have.

Everywhere he moved, which happened about twice a year, he found a way to the nearest church. He had stopped trying to go in, the last time having been when he was five. That was the first and final time, when his skin had burned and itched, leaving an unbearable ache that no child could endure. He sat in the pew squirming, his mother on his right telling him to shush and be a good boy while his father on his left chuckled under his breath. He couldn't sit still though, but he wanted to be a good boy for his mother. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore and tears began to streak silently down his cheeks. He stared straight ahead, his jaw set firmly, as he felt his insides burning and the tears just flew faster and faster. But the ached, itched, but mostly burned, especially burned, like someone had set fire to all of his limbs and organs.

The fire just kept growing, encasing him and making it hard to breathe. Then he saw the burn marks begin to show in his arms. He saw his reflection in one of the stained glass windows, seeing the beginning of a scar forming across his face, the fire ravishing his features. That was when he ran. In the middle of the sermon, he jumped from his seat, over his parents, and didn't stop running until he made it home.

His mother was angry at first. She was raised a good Christian and no son of hers would make such a mockery of her family in church. But then she saw the scars, the tearstains, the pain in his eyes. That was the last time anyone in the Goldsworthy family went to church.

At least as far as Cece and Bullfrog were concerned. Eli just couldn't stay away. In every new town he went to, he would find his way to church every Sunday. Most of the time, he hid away behind some stained glass window, just watching the preacher give his sermons, his animated movements as the congregation watched. Sometimes the congregations he found were clearly there out of some duty and force and they stared back bored. Sometimes the congregations were just as animated as the preacher. Eli could hear their "Amens" and hymns through the glass then. He liked that.

But Eli had thought he'd hit the jackpot when he arrived at Degrassi. Our Lady of Holy Angels was a church that had been built long, long ago, rumored to have been during the time of the Great Awakening. Just standing near it, Eli could feel the history in the bricks and mortar. Yet, the church had been falling apart for some time and had been recently refurbished. On Eli's first Sunday in town, he made his way to the church and found that a skylight had been added overtop, a way, they said, to let God's light in. Instead of having to watch the sermons from behind a stained glass window, barely able to make out figures, he could watch from overhead.

By the time he'd found the fire escape and climbed his way to the roof, mass had just begun.

The father, who's name Eli had not known, had already begun his sermon. "And I ask you, do you deny that we are all sinners?"

Eli chuckled. "This guy is already speaking my language."

The congregation answered, "No, Father."

"The only true human being that was not a sinner was Jesus, but he was more than human, a divinity himself. We are all born of Adam and Eve, a great shame we must bear, but He, the ever merciful, absolves us of these sins and lets us be reborn. Shall we take this absolution for granted and continue the way of the serpent?"

Eli grinned, but his eyes were sad. "You, Father, truly know nothing. Some of us don't have such a choice."

"No, Father!" they chanted back.

It was as if he hadn't heard them. He'd only seem to have heard Eli and was answering directly. "He graced us all, each and every one, with a soul and in that soul is the ability to choose. To choose good and evil, heaven and hell. He is merciful. Should you repent, you open the doorway to heaven, a doorway that is open to any of God's loyal servants. It is never too late to become one. He is waiting for you to become one. Will you let the Lord down?"

Eli remained silent.

"No, Father!"

"And will you repent?"

Eli whispered, "I would," just as the congregation shouted back, "Yes, Father!"

The organ began to echo through the church as the congregation stood, hymn books open. He had heard this hymn before and hummed along.

"Earthly pleasures vainly call me. I would be like Jesus; nothing worldly shall enthrall me. I would be like Jesus," they sung in unison. This was the type of congregation Eli liked, the ones that sang loud and clear. Such faith, could give even the damned hope. Even Eli. He smiled down upon them, humming, occasionally taking up the cry as well. "That His words 'Well done' may greet me," he whispered.

At the end of the hymn, the father invited the everyone up for the Eucharist, to take a sip of the wine and a bite of the bread. Eli never quite understood why they did that; it never seemed to make any sense to him so he moved to climb down from the fire escape before anyone caught him, while they were all too busy to notice.

That's when he first saw her. Her curly hair was cropped in a bob, bangs falling sweetly over her eye. She was tucking in shyly behind her ears as she took the bread of Christ. She wasn't very tall and the way she tried to hide, ducking down and avoiding eyes, made her look even smaller. She looked young, but not much younger than him, and she had curves of a girl much older. The only way that Eli could describe her was much the same as the religion she practiced, a word he'd never used to describe another girl. Beautiful.

"Clare Edward," he could hear the priest say, a smile in his voice. "So good to see you. I can always count on you to be here every Sunday. Such a good girl. And I hear you've signed up to teach bible camp this summer. This congregation is lucky to have you."

Eli could see her lips move but couldn't hear anything. She was obvious a little quiet, which matched her soft exterior. Her quiet voice could not match up with the father's booming one.

Within a moment or two, she saw her turn to leave and Eli decided then and there that she was the one. He had to meet her. Before his mind decided that, his legs had already carried him down the steps of the fire escape and down to the church entrance.

He searched frantically through the crowd of church-goers as they exited, looking left and right for the girl, all the while thinking, I can change this. She can change me.

But she was already gone.

Thoughts? I hope the church scenes were ok. I don't know all that much about religion but I really wanted to explain why Eli was so obsessed with meeting Clare.

Okay, thanks for reading and I would really appreciate a few reviews. It would make my week!