Emma sat in her room, she was only two months away from meeting the children she'd been carrying for the last several months. She still felt so unprepared at the same time so she had invited Mia and Isabella over to discuss baby prepping and the future.
"I don't know, I just feel like even though I have everything they say you need like I'm doing something wrong." Emma said despondent.
"There's really no way to be hundred percent prepared, no matter what there's always going to be something you didn't prepare for. Like when you tell the dad she's coming and his reaction is to just ditch you completely. Guess you know what that's like huh?" Mia said bluntly.
"I...I'd rather not talk about him." Emma cringed.
"Sorry, but you got so many people trying to help, even if I had time for a social life none of my old friends kept in touch. Consider yourself lucky you have friends" Mia said.
"Have you thought about transferring? Degrassi is going to have an in school daycare starting in the fall." Emma suggested.
"That really sounds nice actually." Mia said, surprised a school would offer that.
"Yeah and you'd have at least one friend, and maybe chances to make new ones too." Emma offered.
Mia didn't know how to reply, as much as she loved her daughter she missed having friends, ever since she came it was just the two of them and Mia's mom.
"I'm going to look into it, I really want to get out of that school and away from him, he doesn't want anything to do with us but doesn't want any other guys getting involved, the hypocrite." Mia said, interested.
The door at the top of the stairs opened and Paige walked in, descending the stairs.
"Hey Emma, you must be Mia, Emma told us alot about you." Paige said, looking at Mia for the first time. Somehow Mia wasn't what Paige thought she would be like.
"Yeah and this is Isabella." She motioned to the child playing on the floor near them.
Paige crouched down until she was eye level with Isabella. "Hi Isabella."
"Be careful, she's getting over a..." before Mia could finish her sentence Isabella had sneezed right in Paige's face "...cold. I'm sorry." She said handing Paige a tissue. Mia tensed up, what a great way to meet someone, urgh. Emma stared in mild disgust and shock.
"It's okay, she didn't mean it." She said annoyed but trying to remain calm. Paige tried to untense herself by breathing slowly and deeply
The next day at school, Ellie rushed to meet her girlfriend at her locker, excited for the competition tomorrow night. She leaned against the lockers as Paige had her face in her locker.
"So tomorrow is the big night, huh. Get out there and show everyone what we've been working on." Ellie said, eager to showcase their work.
Paige turned to face her girlfriend, Ellie winced when she saw her, Paige looked visibly sick.
"Are you feeling okay? What happened? Heather Sinclair spreading more disease?"
"I caught a cold from Emma's friend's daughter." Paige said she sounded very congested.
"I'm sorry you're sick ,but are you okay enough for battle of the bands? Maybe we can fix you up enough?" Ellie asked, worried for Paige's health.
"I don't know if I can still play, but I know I won't be singing. Sorry." Paige said sadly.
"We should probably tell the others and figure out what to do." Ellie said, disappointed but understanding the issue.
As the bell rang Ellie went to kiss her girlfriend goodbye but stopped when she couldn't remember if she could catch her cold through kissing. She instead kissed the tip of her finger then booping Paige on the cheek with it before walking away. As horrible as Paige was feeling she couldn't help but smile.
That afternoon they met at the usual rehearsal spot. Paige had told the rest of the group she couldn't sing or even play but Ashley said she had an idea but didn't say anything else. Paige, Ellie, and Hazel waited for her impatiently, they didn't want to have all that time rehearsing go to waste.
Eventually Ashley arrived and she had someone with her, she looked different since they last saw her but they knew it was her.
"Hey guys." Terri said entering the garage. The other three girls gasped.
Terri was no longer the shy girl she was before, she seemed much more confident from the way she walked to the way she dressed, the clothing accentuating her curves rather than hiding them.
Ashley told the others the plan. Ashley would cover the vocals while Terri would play drums and Ellie would cover guitar. Much as Paige wished she could compete she had faith in the new line up, they had chosen one of her songs to play to still include her in spirit. After rehearsal they stuck around to catch up with Terri.
"That's amazing you started writing your own music, what inspired you?" Terri asked, impressed.
"Well actually...she did." Paige said, reaching for her girlfriend's hand."
"You two? When did this happen?" Terri was surprised.
Paige didn't know how to reply since it happened when she screwed up the lyrics to a song she wrote about another girl. Fortunately Ellie answered for them.
"It was at the winter formal, watching Paige while she was up there singing, the pretty girl who forced me to counselling even back when we weren't even really friends, then seeing her all alone afterwards..." Paige blushed as Ellie recounted the story.
"If I wasn't possibly contagious I'd kiss every inch of that adorable face." Paige said, causing Ellie to blush now.
"You two are so cute! So what's Degrassi like since...ya know?" Terri asked, cautious about the question.
"I think Jimmy is coming to terms with what happened, he was the one who had it the worst." Hazel said, not knowing the whole story.
"It's hard to think he could do something like that even after everything he did when we were together. If he could do that, what else could he have done?" Terri said the shooting happened after she had transferred but she heard the details from Ashley.
"Yeah...who knows." Paige said, Ellie and Ashley could tell she was tensing up.
"How's Spinner been...is he seeing anyone?" Terri asked the second part nervously.
Paige drowned the conversation out, it made her think of too much from the last year she wanted to forget about. She felt Ellie's hand squeeze her hand, it snapped her back to reality and helped calm her.