AN: Welcome to the next chapter, though if you're reading this from the beginning to now then I guess it's kind of like "hey cool thanks for continuing right on through to the next one right away" instead. Also, I'm thinking of doing a bit of a time jump or something like that in the next chapters. I'll have more details about that info at the end of the chapter, though. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi, I only own this idea.
Chapter Ten: Showing up on Doorsteps
The sleepover at the Bhandari's was definitely something that Clare needed. The worry she's been feeling over the past couple of weeks had been overwhelming and she hadn't been able to get out of her own head while she was thinking of everything she needed to do. But getting to spend time with Alli and Jenna Clare barely thought about the worry she'd been dealing with. She was especially grateful that Alli and Jenna were keeping everything quiet around the Bhandari parents.
Clare knew how strict Alli's parents were, they were very much like how her own parents had always been, and if Mr. and Mrs. Bhandari knew what was going on with Clare she doesn't know what they would think. Though, considering they knew about Jenna's past and still let her move into their house, albeit under strict rules, it could go better than telling her own parents. But neither of the three girls were willing to risk that. It was best if they kept things hush around Mr. and Mrs. Bhandari, at least for now.
Alli and Jenna wake Clare up early Sunday morning, which Clare hadn't been expecting. She'd told them the previous night, multiple times in fact, that she wasn't even thinking about going to church. Explained that she was struggling with her own faith and didn't want to go to her church, but her friend's told her that it wasn't an option. That the three of them were all going together, and Mrs. Bhandari dropped them off.
To a church that wasn't the one Clare's family usually went to.
Clare lets out a breath at the sight of the church, looking at Alli and Jenna on either side of her. She's visibly relieved to see that it's not the church she's gone to since as far back as she can remember. The church she knows so well, that she remembers running up and down the aisles of and playing an angel in the Christmas play years on end in.
Nobody will know her here. Nobody will expect anything of her, or ask her questions, or look at her with pity because they know her whole life story (or think they do, at least).
"See, nobody will even know who you are here. We can even sit in the way, way, back." Jenna assures Clare with a smile, tugging her friends arm and walking into the church building with the other two.
"Yeah, and we'll be with you the whole time. It's like the time you made me sit with your mom during the Christmas pageant at your old church our grade nine year." Alli explains, waving her hand with a shrug of her shoulders and laughing.
"I told you guys I wasn't going to go to church, though." Clare says, stopping at the top of the church steps before entering the building and looking at them. She's overwhelmed by the gesture, truthfully.
"Yeah, sure, but you're Saint Clare." Alli nudges her friend's side with her elbow lightly and smiles at her. "Plus, my mom always says that Allah has helped her through so much in life. With everything going on for you Clare, your parents and," Alli pauses and looks around lowering her voice for a short moment to say the next phrase, "being pregnant," then Alli's voice returns to her normal tone, "I think you need to keep your faith in God especially now. You might not think that, and it might be different than the Jesus Club and Bible Camp that you're used to, but I think you need to do this."
"But, Alli, you're not even really religious." Clare says, before turning to look at Jenna, shaking her head. "Neither are you, Jenna."
"So? What does it matter if we are or aren't!" Alli exclaims with a sigh, rolling her eyes at Clare, pulling away from her friend and crossing her arms. "Clare, when I met you you were wearing a catholic school uniform to a public school. You sang a hymn in the middle of the cafeteria and you talked about religion and your parents strict rules because of church all the time."
"Clare, we're not trying to force you to be as religious as you were raised. We just...we don't want to see you give up everything you've held so close because of what's going on." Jenna adds with a nod of her head.
"Come on, mass is starting soon, let's go inside and take a seat." Alli holds out her hand and looks at Clare with pleading eyes for a long moment before Clare finally reaches forward and put her hand in Alli's and allows her two friends to lead her into the church building.
It's a similar size church to the one she's used to going with her parents, but different all the same. She's used to sitting up front with her mother and father, sitting in between the two of them and hoping they won't argue above her head at any points during the mass. Now the three girls take a seat relatively towards the back, Clare sitting in between her two best girl friends and looking around the church. She feels underdressed for the occasion, thinking of her typical nice attire that she always had to wear for Sunday mass at church. She can almost hear her mother's comment in her head, "At least you're not wearing jeans."
Usually Clare is far more lively during mass, standing and kneeling and singing along with every hymn. This time she sits back in the pew with her friends, reading along the bible verses and listening to the sermon that's being spoken aloud. She's still unsure of how she feels, but it's definitely comforting that her friends brought her here, that they cared enough to bring her here and want her to keep her faith. Clare's grateful for that because of all of it makes her feel less alone in all of this. The minute she thought she was pregnant, Clare's conceptions of everything changed. She realized that things would be different, but now with everything that's going on maybe she needs to rethink all of that.
Leaving from the church, Clare looks around. Alli and Jenna wait patiently for Clare to talk first. The girls told Mrs. Bhandari that after the mass they would go get something to eat at The Dot and then probably make their own way home later on in the afternoon, or call if they wanted to be picked up. Clare at least had her bag with her with her clothes and things in case they stayed out late and decided to part ways then.
"Thank you, guys." Clare speaks softly first, looking down from where she'd been looking at the church building.
"No problem, Clarebear." Jenna nods her head with a smile.
"Anytime. Except, maybe not the super early time because I'm starving now. We should have had breakfast before we left the house." Alli says, laughing and looking around. "I think The Dot's not too far of a walk if you want to head there? Please say yes, because I'm dying." Alli's over dramatics make both Jenna and Clare laugh at her and shake their heads.
"Oh my God, Alli. You're the most dramatic person I know." Jenna teases, walking over to her friend and linking her arm through hers before turning to hold out her other arm for Clare.
Alli gasps, completely playing into the dramatics, "I am not. There's totally more dramatic people out there. I mean, have you met the girl on your other side?"
"Me? Dramatic? Alli, come on. I'm not nearly as dramatic as the two of you." Clare jokes, shaking her head. Though it's definitely true. The three of them have their dramatic moments for sure.
It was nice to joke, just the three of them. Clare feels like she can really relax with her friends, walking down the street heading towards The Dot. It's like no time has passed at all, the awkwardness of the past couple weeks revelations are completely gone. They're falling back into their routine and joking, laughing, smiling together as they walk down the sidewalk. They're talking about all of their old dramatic moments, calling each other out and laughing about it too. Teasing each other. It's fun, it's easy. It makes the three of them feel like every worry they've had doesn't matter, even as they walk into the cafe laughing still.
"I'm gonna grab an open table for us, okay? Alli, you know what kinds of breakfast I like and how I like my coffee." Jenna says, holding out her arms to take the other girls things to the table. Thankfully it's still fairly early in the morning and The Dot isn't too crowded. It's not like a school day, a Sunday is usually much quieter no matter what time.
"Of course." Alli grins, walking with Clare to the register and looking up at the specials.
As the worker behind the register begins to take their order, there's a commotion moving behind the counter as someone comes out from the back holding a box and moving to put things away. When the person finally turns to look at the cafe, wiping his hands off on his jeans he grins, "Whoa, Baby Edwards! Long time."
Clare grins back, "Hey Peter. I heard Spinner mention you guys bought the place, but I hadn't seen you around. I guess we're running in different circles now with time."
"Yeah, I've been taking the super early shifts lately, cause my classes at TU are during the afternoon. Then I work basically all weekend either here or at Above the Dot." Peter explains with a nod of his head, leaning on the counter. "What grade are you in now, eleven?"
"Yup."
"Oh, man. God, I feel old now, I remember when you were still like..." Peter trails off, shaking his head and sighing. His mind is filled for a brief moment of thoughts of a young Clare and then of Darcy and him, which he's doing his best to avoid. So, in doing his best to do that, he distracts himself. "And Sav's little sister's here too." Peter says, turning his attention to Alli, who had taken over ordering for everybody. She's always been good with knowing what everybody's orders were anyway and paying attention to that kind of thing when they go out. She turns to look at Peter and waves, though glaring at him. "Come on, Alli, I know your name." Peter sighs, leaning back and turning to the cashier with a wave of his hand. "Go give the order to the kitchen, I'll take care of it out here."
"How's TU?" Clare asks, pulling out her wallet from her bag and going to hand what's owed to Peter.
"It's good. Y'know, school was never my thing. But college is kinda different, I think." Peter explains, shaking his head with a shrug of his shoulders before looking at Clare and Alli looking around at the nearly empty cafe. He lowers his voice. "This one's on the house, but if you tell anybody I did this, I have to kill you." Peter makes a motion of zipping his lips and looks between the two girls, repeating the motion again.
"Peter, that's ridiculous." Clare sighs.
At the same time as Clare's near rejection of the offer, Alli puts her hand on Clare's arm and speaks up, "Uh, Clare, don't be crazy. You don't say no to free food. Thanks Peter. I'll tell Sav you said hi. We're sitting over there." Alli points toward the table Jenna's taken over and starts walking away.
"Alli, that's too much." Clare sighs, looking back over her shoulder at Peter who's getting together their drink order. She takes a seat across from Jenna while Alli sits beside her and she looks at Alli harshly. "We should have insisted."
"Insisted on what?" Jenna asks, clearly confused.
"Insisted? Clare! He's basically like an older brother to both of us after everything. I think he's just being nice. It's been forever since he's seen either of us anyway." Alli says, crossing her arms and leaning back on her chair as she studies Clare. "I say one free meal is fine."
"It's too much." Clare continues to insist.
"The Dot Guy gave us free food?" Jenna asks, whispering but not bothering to look over her shoulder and she doesn't notice that he's headed their way with the drinks.
"The Dot Guy? Seriously? Is that the nickname I'm stuck with now?" Peter chuckles, shaking his head as he puts the drink tray down and passing out the drinks. "I guess it serves me right for staying around this place for so long."
"I think it's better than That Guy From The Studz." Alli laughs, rolling her eyes as she takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Peter.
"Hey, I'm telling Sav you're making fun of our band." Peter says, pointing at the table before walking back to behind the counter and shaking his head at them while he holds back laughter.
The Dot on a Sunday has always been fairly quiet, and could be almost unsettling at times, but with Alli and Jenna to keep her company it's anything but on this particular day. The three of them spend more time than just eating, letting the time roll as they're laughing and chatting, as if they hadn't just spent an entire weekend together at Alli's house catching up and getting out of their heads. If it was possible for the girls to run out of things to talk to, it certainly didn't look like it was going to happen any time soon. The three took up the same table throughout the time as many other people came and went through the cafe.
By the time Peter's heading out to leave for the day, getting some much needed rest, the girls figure it's time for them to get out of the cafe as well. Peter waves to them as he drives off in his car and then the girls are standing on their own outside The Dot.
"Do you want a ride back to the Torres?" Alli asks, pulling her phone out of her purse and glancing up at Clare. "Mom won't mind driving out of the way."
Clare shakes her head, waving her hand and brushing off the offer with a smile, "Tell your parents thanks for letting me stay. They were great, as always." Clare leans over to hug both Alli and Jenna and smiles. "And you guys, it was amazing. I'd offer the Torres house for the next sleepover but something tells me that the three of us in the Torres basement we'd wake up to Drew and Adam trying to prank us." Clare laughs.
"Yeah, uh, sleepovers are definitely a Bhandari house thing." Alli laughs, nodding her head.
"Are you okay to walk home?" Jenna asks.
Clare nods, "Yeah, I'm gonna walk around for a bit first too. But I'll text you guys when I get home."
"I'll let you know when we get back to the house. See you tomorrow." Alli says, before taking a step to the side and talking on the phone when her mother answers on the other end.
"See you at school tomorrow Clarebear." Jenna says, grinning and waving to her as Clare walks off.
Clare figures that the best thing to do is to see if she can head to the Simpson-Nelson household. She's not really been around the house a bunch, but she's been around enough that showing up probably won't be too out of the blue. She just hopes that showing up unannounced won't be too much. Though, maybe after the little scene in Mr. Simpson's office on Friday it'll be like they're expecting her to show up outside of school hours. She's not sure, but Clare knows that there's some history that Darcy doesn't like to talk about with Mr. Simpson, that her older sister has major regrets. But everyone's put it behind them by now. No one even mentions it, or likes to allude to it, much to Clare's curious mind. But she'd given up asking about that a long time ago.
Showing up at the green house Clare knocks on the door and takes a step back, shifting on her feet and looking around.
"Hi Clare." Mrs. Nelson opens the door, looking a bit confused to see Clare standing at her doorstep. "Connor went to play basketball with KC and Dave, I think. He won't be back until late."
"Hi, actually, I'm not here to see Connor. Is Mr. Simpson home?" Clare asks.
Christine pulls away from the door and gestures for Clare to come inside as she calls out, "Snake, sweetheart, the door's for you."
Mr. Simpson comes into the doorway from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a rag and his eyebrows raising, "Clare? Hi. Uh, is everything alright?"
"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry to show up here. But everyone always says...Darcy and Manny, Spinner and Emma, they always say that I can talk to you guys about anything. And this is weird, cause you're my principal..." Clare pauses, shaking her head lightly and sighing. "Though, then again, you'll also need to know because of that reason? But I wanted to talk to you here."
"Of course, come in, we're just getting ready for our weekly dinner with Spinner and Emma. They should be over soon. Why don't you come into the kitchen and take a seat at the table?" Christine smiles kindly, looking back to her husband and nodding, "I'll take over cooking."
"You just need to stir in a few minutes." He replies with a nod, walking back with his wife to the kitchen and pulling out one of the chairs at the round table for Clare to take a seat while he goes to the cabinet. "Do you want something to drink? Water?"
"Sure, thanks. Water would be fine, thanks." Clare nods, clearly nervous as she's fidgeting with the sleeves of her jacket as she shrugs it off and puts it on the back of her chair. She looks between the two adults and sighs again. "You guys look busy, I can come back. I'm so sorry for just barging in and completely unannounced."
"Clare, please, when Emma was at Degrassi we were used to some of her friends just showing up whenever. It's fine." Christine says from the stove, looking at Clare and sighing softly. "Is everything okay, Clare?"
"I don't know what Mr. Simpson's told you," Clare pauses when a glass of water is placed in front of her and she turns to look at Mr. Simpson when he takes the seat opposite her. "Thank you." Then she continues on with her story. "But my parents are getting a divorce and I've been living with my friend's family due to everything that's happening. Mom's staying with her family and dad's...well, it's a long story."
"You don't have to tell us everything, if you don't want to." Mr. Simpson says, and then clearing his throat he looks at Clare. "And, Clare, outside of school you can call me Archie."
"I'm just...there's a lot going on, and my parent's kicked me out before that all came to light. Uh, that's why I'm staying at the Torres house. Audra and Omar opened their doors for me with everything I'm going through." Clare began explaining, biting her lip and looking down at the table top and sighing. "It's also, kind of why Eli and I got into that fight in the halls. And, as the school principal you're going to have to know because of arrangements that might have to be made."
"Arrangements?" Archie asks.
Christine walks over to the table, looking at Clare, "Clare, are you pregnant?"
Clare looks up and nods her head. "Yeah, about eleven weeks. Maybe a bit more now. Uh…well, my parents freaked out, and so did Eli. And I felt so alone, literally, like the whole world was this crushing weight on top of me and I knew I had my friends. I had Adam, and I had his family. And when I told Alli, I had her and Jenna. But I still feel so alone. And scared of everything that's going to happen, and that can happen. But I'm gonna keep the baby, and I know that'll affect school work probably and I don't know how much or what but I thought you would need to know and I just...I'm rambling." Clare stops herself abruptly, covering her mouth with her hands and shaking her head before pulling back and looking between the two adults and sighing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just...tell you all of that. Like that."
"Clare, sweetheart, it's okay." Christine says, taking a seat at the table and looking at Clare with a slight smile. "I mean, it's scary. I think being pregnant is always scary, but doing it when you're still a kid is scary. I mean, I was even younger than you when I had Emma. And she turned out pretty great." Christine puts her hands on top of Clare's as she continues to speak. She hopes to offer the young teen some advice, some help if she can. "I can help you out, give you advice if you want. Though maybe my advice might be a little bit dated."
Clare manages to laugh a bit with Christine. "Thank you. I think that might help, actually." Clare wipes at her eyes, shaking her head to get the tears away with a smile. She looks over at Mr. Simpson and notices that he seems a bit shocked, but looks like he's nodding along with what his wife has just offered.
"Mom, Snake, we're here. We used the spare key, and we brought some vegan cookies I made for dessert." Emma's voice calls through the house as the two pairs of footsteps echo through the house.
"Hey mom, dad, I brought you some wine." Spinner says, holding up a bottle of wine when he and Emma get into the kitchen and then he pauses, noticing Clare. "Hey Clare."
"Hi Clare." Emma says, greeting the younger girl with a smile. "Is everything alright? Are you here for dinner?"
"Yes, Clare, stay for dinner." Archie suggests, getting back up from the table to go check on the stovetop.
"Oh, no, it's a family dinner, I shouldn't intrude." Clare says, shaking her head.
"Clare, I insist you stay for dinner. And Spinner and Emma will drop you back at the Torres house when we're done, won't you two?" Christine smiles at Clare, getting up from the table to get everything else ready for dinner.
"The Torres house? Isn't that the boy who dropped you off last time you stopped by here?" Emma asks, taking a seat at the table, after putting the cookies she made on the counter and looking at Clare with a smile. "New boyfriend?"
Clare can't help the laugh, shaking her head. "No, neither of them. Adam's one of my best friends and Drew's got a girlfriend of his own, Bianca. I'm staying with them for a while, actually."
"What? Why?" Emma looks confused at Clare, while Spinner busies himself around the room doing his best not to look directly at Clare and give away what he'd overheard at Above the Dot a couple of weeks ago.
"It's a long story." Clare says.
"Dinner's ready." Archie announces, turning back to the table.
Everyone's still looking at Clare, well, Spinner and Emma at least. Spinner has at least somewhat of an idea as to what this long story is that Clare might be about to tell them, recalling what he overheard at The Dot not too long ago and still never told anybody. But Emma's completely clueless as she busies herself with the napkins on the table and waits for everybody to sit down.
"Okay, I feel a bit bad repeating what I just told your parents but here it goes…" Clare dives in as they all begin to eat their dinner.
AN: Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave me a review and let me know what you're thinking! I'm debating between doing a complete time skip or doing a couple of time jumps in a chapter or two to get a bit farther in the storyline time wise. If you'd prefer either way, let me know! I'm still trying to be a couple of chapters ahead so I'll be working on writing both editions out and seeing which way I like better, but if I get some reviews or even a PM or something with reader suggestions it could influence the way I sway with the time jump. Thanks again for reading.