Title: WHERE ARE YOU NOW? / Author: Brimi
Online presence: Tumblr: seancamerons / Fanfiction: andthecosmogirl A03: thecosmogirl
Category Romance/Drama/Holiday/Fluff / Rating: T
Fandom Degrassi, Degrassi The Next Generation / Relationships: EmmaSean, CraigManny
Status: Incomplete/multichapter
Short summary: If there's nothing missing in my life, why do these tears come at night?
Major characters:
Emma Nelson b.1988
The main character/heroine/successful musical artist and activist and more recently begrudgingly coming home for the holidays and has been away for a long time. She still has reservations despite it being long overdue. She's rich, the godmother of Craig and Manny's now late-teen daughter, and hard to deal with their clashing personalities. She's changed a lot in the years that passed and is no stranger to heartbreak and the positives and the negatives to her life and superstardom.
Sean Cameron b. October 30, 1988
A mysterious biker and neighborhood good guy, reformed bad boy, and secondary main character. He works as a mechanic and stays in town. He currently runs Tony's Garage and works with Jay and remains friendly with supporting characters such as Craig and Manny.
Manny Santos b. August 15, 1989
Manny is a mom, and supporting character who is best friends with Emma, she works at a diner to pay the bills, does do local community theatre productions, teaches first grade, and wears many hats. She has been with Craig since they were teens, they are high school sweethearts.
Craig Manning b. September 7, 1988
Craig is a father, and supporting character friends with Sean and Emma. He worked in construction and does some of the carpentry for Manny's local community theatre productions and volunteers. He does work with music and is a substitute music teacher at his alma mater. Sometimes does wedding singing gigs with a band.
Ellie Nash b. August 21, 1988
Ellie is a persuasive writer, passionate about the arts, and on the other hand has horrible habits a dependence on substances, and an even worse case of procrastination most of the time. In so many words she's a trainwreck, a hot mess, and jeopardizing everything she loves, worked for, and achieved between burnouts and benders. In relationships, she's clingy and codependent. She has limited potential, makes great money, but she's far from thrifty and can blow a grand in a weekend and struggle the next two weeks. She's broke by Monday. Impulsive shopaholic but not lipstick or makeup but everything under the sun. She treats herself as personified. She's resorting back to old and bad habits. It's like a rollercoaster for her up down corkscrew downhill and back 'til the thrill ride ends or breaks down, and then the cycle starts again, getting back in line to ride it again. She rarely learns her lessons. She and Sean are off and on and have been for a long time, but they're roommates and live together their love and admiration have faded to black, and there's little hope they can get back on track. She's not stupid, but can't seem to dig herself out of this mess. She's made a lot of mistakes, but her heart is still good but has a funny way of showing it.
Joey Jeremiah b. August 1973
Father to Craig and Angela and grandfather to Craig and Manny's daughter, and takes care of everybody, he is a used car salesman and widower. He made sure Craig and Manny had a home for their daughter, and also took good care of them, and made sure they both stayed in school to set a good example.
Jay Hogart b. March 21, 1987
The mechanic at Tony's Garage graduated with Sean, has a criminal record, has been in and out of lock-up from 2006-2008 for theft, attended school at the technical institute, and was instructed by his current employer, Tony after graduation despite his criminal record in the past. Reformed bad boy, kind of a flirt and lover boy but still remains friends with Alex and Sean.
Alex Nunez b. August 12, 1988
In and out of the story, she is friends with Ellie, Sean's friend, and Jay's ex-girlfriend who has wanderlust and is in and out of drugs is essentially a conditional user but can go long periods and is relatively okay and under control with no dependency does it for fun/recreationally, cigarettes and such is an everyday thing. Not the best influence on Ellie who is her closest friend and drinks with her. Sean isn't so keen on Alex's influence on his sometimes girlfriend and roommate. She is the opposite of neat as a pin, and kind of uses people because of her past. She isn't integral she is mentioned mostly and seldom a major player in the story. Her former now-deceased best friend Amy who for no reason other than circumstances tearing them apart dropped out of school for a time of about 6 years after high school when Amy died she lived with an aunt in Ajax and attended school there but would visit her mom out of a moral obligation and would naturally spend time with Ellie stay for weeks and such and doesn't have many friends outside of that.
Angela Jeremiah b.1996
Joey's daughter Julia, a dancer, and Degrassi alumni are about to graduate from university. Close with Katrina, Craig, and Manny's daughter. Also, Emma was her babysitter pre-fame and remained close to her when she visited her out in LA. Has a future goal to work with Emma professionally in her music career. Was instrumental in helping Joey Craig and Manny in their Full House. Friend and unofficial big sister relationship with Jack Simpson, Emma's half-brother who is younger than her. Katrina and Jack grew apart after a time, but still are considered family.
Katrina "Kat" Manning - Original character b. July 13th, 2004
Craig and Manny's daughter, a result of an affair is a grade 12 student preparing for life in the "real world" and has a lot of opinions about political/current events. She has a a loving boyfriend named Paul Sheilds who her parents don't exactly approve of. Her life hasn't been easy despite having a rough go the past school year. Smart and driven but disillusioned and fighting everyone, self-sab togue and experimenting with drinking and some drugs and often sneaks out, and skips school Craig and Manny can't get through to her at this time.
As a child, she was obsessed with her Auntie Em and as years went by they saw one another less and less and their dynamics shifted coupled with a traumatic moment to be revealed later. She is artistic and easily influenced by her peers. She grew up and has a sisterly bond with Joey's daughter, and Craig's half-sister Angela. She often compares herself to "perfect" Angela and lives in her shadow and feels a certain way about that but still loves her, but has issues with her as well as a result. Sees herself as this screw-up, unplanned, accident/mistake, and burden and acts accordingly.
Shout out to Degrassiwiki for extra information and birthdays!
Tropes and relevant tags:
Alternate universe
Soulmates
Enemies to lovers
One true love
Mutual Pining
Everyone Can See It
Common-law Marriage
Full House
Loves my Alterego
Holiday
Christmas
New old flame
Oblivious to Love
One Normal Night
Loving Details
Precious Photo
Dance of Romance
Memories
Love Hurts
Home for the Holidays
High School Sweethearts
Love Nostalgia Song
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other
Found family
Screw This, I'm Outta Here
Idol Singer
Humiliation Conga
Ineffectual Loner
Intoxication Ensues
The Alcoholic
The one who got away
Notes:
A few past tense ships are mentioned that had since split after a certain time and are canon divergent and could be considered a true AU.
Follows up until the ass end of Holiday (Season 3, Episode 12) a few days before Christmas break, and picks up from there and flashbacks are pretty much explained accordingly. The story is set between December of 2003 and the present. Most of these characters are adults and cycle between their old and new lives with the exception of a few.
So that being said if you're a child under 14 years. I don't know if you should read this. It has some dark themes but is dramatic, romantic, and has some comedic tossed about. A lot of creative liberties were taken, some characters were embellished and others grew up into widely and vastly different kinds of people. Use good judgment. Don't be too harsh on me.
One thing to mention that is important, this story is based on music. Music is an instrumental and integral part of this plot. It's also set during Christmas but touches on the past years leading up to today, as previously mentioned jumps around. There is more than one relationship, just Emma and Sean are the most important, Manny and Craig are beta-coded, and their child (aborted in canon during the third season is alive and they've raised her) other differences will be noted as we go along. I was deeply inspired by several styles and romantic ballads spanning from the 1980s until today, as well as contemporary music of a romantic persuasion and the work and life of young female solo artists, names mentioned when relevant or I feel like I should say something in regards to that. It does fall into fanon, head canonons and such so not all of this is 100 percent true and is played up for dramatics. So yeah. I'm so excited to post this. I should update weekly, the chapters are long so a week is enough time to digest.
Changes to canon:
Sean never left town, the shooting never happened, never spoke to his parents, or returned to Wasaga Beach for any reason. As far as he and his brother, he and Tracker still talk seldom, and sometimes Sean holds a small bit of salty bitter grudge for certain things that happened with his own family, and obviously he and Ellie remained in contact, but have a very off-and-on relationship. Right now, they're firmly on off. It is complicated because they live together.
Spinner and Jay are closer than Sean and Jay, in fact, Sean is closer to Craig.
Craig has minor mental illnesses, no real diagnosis but has insurance through the workplace. He graduated a year ahead of Craig.
Sean and Craig didn't really grow apart and instead became good friends after 2nd term. Sean reconnected with Craig and helped him pass Autoshop that year despite Sean's grades being bad. He does remain friends for a time with the rest of the candy bandits. Alex shifts to be closer to Ellie. Jay is the only Candy Bandit Sean remains in touch with because they work together and still live close by.
There is less of a friendship between the Candy Bandits present day, off doing different things and Amy's death, Alex's eventual departure to Ajax, Jay going legit for the most part with cars, but still in trouble kind of? The Candy Bandits are often mentioned but not integral to the plot and are minor characters who are typically in the rearview/past tense.
The title is inspired by the 2000, 2nd studio album of American recording artist Britney Spears, …Oops I Did It Again. It is track 9 (at least in the United States' initial release), WHERE ARE YOU NOW? It is worth noting: track number 7 titled Lucky is also a relevant track and a plays big part and role in part of the story inspiration I tied in a complimentary playlist for the vibes and the tone of the type of story on Spotify. Enjoy!
I dedicate this story to older fans of Degrassi who have a penchant for Sean and Emma obviously and like to see alternative stories with not-so-black-and-white old-fashioned ways of thinking. I properly tagged things to protect people. It's very older teens and pg-esque, 14+ to be safe. There isn't sex, just implied, and cutaways are gonna be used bc I can't smut to save my life. If there is an issue, don't be afraid to reach out otherwise, enjoy.
I of course appreciate kind words, encouragement, questions welcome reviews, and even CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, as well as anything else that seems to be a topic to discuss. Thanks for reading.
Do not be mean. Do not interact if you're gonna be. I will not tolerate that. This was purely for fun, and a lovefest so if you're not on board, walk the plank or whatever. I don't see it being a big old issue, but I am dealing with differing things, and topics, experimenting with different writing styles and references, and I wanna cover my ass just in case, and make sure it's good for everyone's readers and Degrassi fans alike.
Rated T / Mentions of descriptions of abuse, death mention, pregnancy, sexual assault (implied), mental health and instability, suicidal ideation, self-harm (no detail but mentioned, or implied), drugs, relapse, and overdose mentioned past tense I decided upon rating the story T (to be safe and my go-to) for subtle and sometimes coarse language, smoking (cigarettes)
As well as some additional warnings: Some of the content laid out here is chapter by chapter, and not all chapters are these things mentioned. Please show caution if these things happen to upset you. If something does upset you and you feel uncomfortable please do let me know so I can properly tag it appropriately. Otherwise, tread lightly and such. I do not normally do any of this.
Disclaimer: I do not own the long-running Canadian drama Degrassi or any of its iterations through time. This is a work of fiction, any resemblance or whatever to reality is purely unintentional and loosely based on an outline from about 15 years ago, but largely exists in an alternate universe with some reversals and such. Music credits are given when due and are usually at the top. Pay close attention sometimes the timeline jumps a bit from past to present. There will be subject matter (like backtrack - an earlier work I've kind of taken a break from but have lots to do with that, but I'll never abandon it!) that is kind of dark yet cheesy, extreme fluff, and originally the brainchild by a young impressional fourteen-year-old girl, that girl was me. ( Of course, a lot of things with age and maturity were added from my original outline, but a lot of things remain in this story from that. )
Be nice. I love feedback. I would be down for collabs. Hit me up, or don't but the offer is there.
Okay with all that being said, I'll begin.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy with love, the author, artist, designer, print operator, and sometimes amateur typographer hand lettering hobbyist!
Brimi