AN: Hello! Welcome to the newest chapter. I'm excited to continue this story and see where we go from here. I've got a lot planned and some things I'm still working out so that's why I'm a couple of chapters ahead with my writing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi, I only own this idea.

Chapter Twelve: Stressing Out

School's coming to an end for the semester, and Clare's no stranger to the stress of finals week. It's always been one of the most stressful times of the school year for her, exams. This year is no exception, except that on top of worrying about exams she's also got to worry about her own personal issues.

In the past, Clare had been able to push the thoughts of whatever was going on personally away from her mind during exams. She'd been able to leave that all behind and focus solely on the exams themselves and work on school work and only school.

This year? Well, unfortunately this wasn't the case. On top of studying for the exams hanging over her head in the coming school week, Clare's also dealing with the pregnancy and the anxiety that comes with that. She's always been a natural worrier, but Clare's been worrying a lot more with everything else on her plate. Given how exam weeks have gone in the past ( last school year she set of a stink bomb to stop Fitz from beating up Adam outside of the school building ) Clare's generally wary of everything that comes along with exams.

Studying with the Torres brother's was interesting, as it involves Adam and Clare basically quizzing Drew on what he needs to know before their exams take place. Adam and Clare have been studying on their own for days, while Drew comes in at the last minute.

"I've been studying with Bianca." He's said multiple times, after he's gotten questions wrong. Or when Audra comes down and talks to them about how they're all feeling about their upcoming exams Drew will specifically add in, "Still got a lot of work to do, but we're getting there!" His confidence is astounding, though it's clear to see in his eyes that Drew is the absolute opposite. He is not confident at all. He's completely worried about what the exams mean for his grades.

Once Audra is back up the stairs, Adam looks between his brother and Clare and laughs, "The only thing Drew's really looking forward to is the fact that break is around the corner. He just wants to pass exams so that mom doesn't kill him when grades come in over break."

Drew glares at Adam and tosses his pencil in his brother's direction, making a face. "Shut up. I want to do more than pass. But mom keeps putting me in those university track math and science classes. And I'm not smart."

"Don't sell yourself short, Drew." Clare asserts with a nod of her head, smiling at him. "You're plenty smart, even if it's not with school work."

"Except school work is what's important for exams, Clare." Drew retorts, looking back over at Clare with a sigh. He runs his hand over his face and looks down at the notebook in his lap and groaning as he falls from the couch to the floor not bothering to look up and see Clare and Adam share a look.

"You'll pass exams, Drew." Clare assures him, getting up from where she'd been sitting to move to comfort him. "Adam and I will help you. Promise." Halfway across to where Drew was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, Clare begins to feel sick and runs toward the bathroom. She has more things to say, more words of encouragement and what she would hope would be helpful thoughts, but she's busy retching up her lunch instead of offering to help.

"Clare, what's wrong?" Adam's voice is filled with worry on the other side of the basement's bathroom door, he's already there and knocking lightly to check on his friend.

"Clare?" Drew's voice is definitely farther away from the door but still loud enough that Clare feels like it's coming from right outside of the door. "Do you need anything?" He must look at Adam because he adds a quick, "Should we get her something? Should we…get mom?"

"No, don't get Audra I'm fine." Clare sounds anything but fine as her muffled voice calls back to the Torres brothers from the bathroom once she's done throwing up. Leaning back against the wall, Clare closes her eyes and takes in a couple of deep breaths.

"Uh, she doesn't sound fine." Drew's voice sounds softer than it did the first time, like he'd been attempting to be quieter, but Clare can still hear him from behind the bathroom door.

"Dude, she can probably still hear you." Adam points out, and Clare can picture him waving at the bathroom door or even smacking Drew's arm from the idiotic comment. A pause and some motion cause Clare to sit up straighter on the floor as she looks around the bathroom, not wanting to move yet just in case. "Are you sure you don't want anything, Clare?"

She thinks for a few moments, because Clare's sure she's fine. Morning sickness, nausea were listed as possible symptoms of pregnancy. She'd felt them before then too, but had been feeling rather fine the past couple of days and had convinced herself that it was already over with. Then there's Adam and Drew on the other side of the door, hoping they could possibly help. So, Clare answers, "Maybe a glass of water or something?"

"Okay, I'll grab that. Do you need Drew to help you out of the bathroom or something?" Adam asks, a worried edge still in his voice as he speaks.

"No, I'm fine. I'll get up in a bit. Thanks Adam." Clare responds back, still not moving from where she sits on the floor of the bathroom. She wants to get up and go back out, proving that she's actually doing alright, but Clare also cannot make herself get up off the floor just yet. She worries that if she moves just yet she'll have to run right back in even if she doesn't feel sick again.

It's been quiet for a long few minutes while Adam's off to get Clare some water and Clare's still in the bathroom. Drew's left awkwardly waiting in the basement, shifting on his feet as he looks at the closed bathroom door to the open basement door to see if Adam's anywhere near close to coming back down.

"Uh…do you want some, uh, gum or something?" Drew calls after a few moments to Clare, mostly because he can't stand waiting in the quiet any longer. "Like, for…for your breath."

Clare can't help but feel a bit like laughing at the comment. She's grateful that he mentioned it, because she doesn't want to run all the way up the stairs and brush her teeth right away, especially when she feels like she's still sick. But she's not sure she should answer Drew either.

"Clare?" Drew's voice is closer, more worried as she hears him shuffling closer to the door.

"Yeah, uh, gum. Sure. I just…I don't feel so good still." Clare answers softly, even though she makes sure Drew can hear her through the closed door. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's…" Drew trails off and the doorknob moves slightly. "Do you want me to come in? Do you need a hand?"

"I don't…" Clare starts to protest, but she stops herself. She might not want a hand, but it's clear that she does actually need help getting up and getting herself back onto her feet. Clare's never been good with being sick, always thinking she can take on everything even if she's sick as can be. So, after a long pause she sighs and finally admits to needing help. "Do you mind?"

Just like that, the bathroom door swings open and Drew's at her side. He's smiling and looking at her with compassion, and maybe a little bit of pity. The pity is what hurts more than anything, because Clare hates feeling helpless in any way. But she allows Drew to help pull her up to her feet and balance with her as the pair walks back over to the couches and Clare takes a seat.

By the time Drew sits down beside Clare, pulling their books up and sitting down with her Adam's come down the stairs with a glass of water and a wash cloth that's been covered I water to hopefully help their friend.

Studying is forgotten for some time while Clare catches her breath, and she sits back listening to everything else in the room. Drew and Adam are just talking for a while before they decide to put on a video game to kill some time.

It was nice to not have to talk about everything and just let it all pass. If she had been at home with her own parents, there was no way Helen or Randall would let this sort of thing slide without talking it all out or constant worrying about Clare's health. With Adam and Drew, it was clear that they cared and were still worrying about everything, but they were going to let Clare take time to herself and tell them when she was ready for everything to continue.

While she may not be family, she felt like she certainly was family in this moment. Like they saw her as such. And she saw them like that too. She was definitely comfortable.

Exams have always been something looming over their heads. It's one of the first things they think about in class…or maybe that's just Clare. Clare thinks about exams and the final exams the moment she begins working in a class. What she'll need to know, what she needs to study. She marks things in her notebooks to study for later, prepares and overprepares herself for the months to come.

This year she's ready to go in, take her exams, and get out. Last year at this time she was worried about Eli and Adam and Fitz, worried about the dance. Worried about too much. This year, Clare wants to keep her head focused on her own exams. Mostly. She's going to keep her mind open to helping her friends study too.

The Torres basement has been a prime study spot for everybody the week of finals. Everyone coming in and out studying for their exams and spending time with each other. It's comforting, since Clare's morning sickness has been acting up this week she doesn't want to be too far from her own place.

Aside from the first time everyone came over it's been quiet and no one has asked about Clare staying. The first time KC and Wes both asked about Clare staying with the Torres family when they first got there. Clare's been keeping everything still hush-hush. While she trusts her friends won't go blabbing her secrets around to everybody at school, she doesn't need to think about them all knowing while she's busy working on exams.

After exams, she keeps telling herself. That's when she'll tell the rest of her friends who she hasn't told yet. After exams when the only thing she has to worry about is getting up and buying presents for the holidays. After exams when she can relax and feel like she can breathe again. After exams when the break is happening and she can tell people in her own pace. After exams…maybe after her next doctors appointment, even. Yeah. When she has more information to tell. That's when she can tell everybody else.

Clare's never had this many people in her house before. Her own home was never big enough to have this many people at once, except for family events where the house was packed to the brim with family members. Here, the basement could be filled with people and Clare still feels like there's room enough to have more friends over.

She's surprised how calm she feels surrounded by so many people and conversations. There's a group studying for mathematics, a group studying for chemistry, and a group she's working with who are studying for their French exam. Rotations have been helpful, since everyone's complained a few times that they get bored sitting in one place for too long.

"So, Clare," Alli begins, and Clare knows that this conversation has nothing to do with the conjugation of the verbs they've been studying all hour and yet she still lifts her head up from the index cards she'd been working with to look at her best friend and listen to the rest of her words. "Have you spoken to your parents?"

Clare bites her lip and shrugs her shoulders, "Mom says she'll call before she gets on the plane. She should be here a day or two before Christmas Eve."

"You still haven't spoken to your dad?" Alli asks, a bit louder than Clare would have liked as it grabs the attention of Hannah and Wes who have also been studying in their small group looking up at them. Alli waves a manicured hand and rolls her eyes at the couple, "Nothing to see here. Focus on the cities and we'll get back to you about the verbs!"

"Uh huh." The two of them mumble, not really paying much mind to the command, but looking between Alli and Clare before their heads go back toward the textbook.

"Alli!" Clare scowls at her friend, dropping her hands down onto the textbook. "Could you please not say anything else? I really don't need everybody down here knowing all of my business right now. I just...I want to study and get exams over with. I want this year to be over with."

"Fine." Alli sits back down and looks down at her textbook before glancing back up at her friend worriedly, shaking her head when she realizes Clare's already gone back to work so quickly on what they've been working on.

It's a long day of studying, but by the time everyone's done they feel fairly confident about the exams. For the most part, at least.

And by this time next week, they'll all be done with school for the year and on break. A break that Clare has been looking forward to since all of this drama has been coming up. She needs the time to think everything out. To talk with her mother, and maybe email her sister again and see if Darcy will actually be coming home like she mentioned in her last email. Clare's hoping that this break from school with give her perspective.

Perspective about her situation with everybody, not just with her own situation. But it's been a lot of time coming to actually think about it all. Clare's been weighing everything since her conversation with Eli. She wants to reach out to him, to really talk to him about everything, but she worries that maybe he won't want to talk to her, or that he'll have a reaction like he did the other day in the school hallway. She knows that he's always been a bit hotheaded, a bit actions before thought at times, but seeing that happen with her scared her.

She knows she needs to talk to him, though. To figure things out at least. And that brings up so many more questions… Do Eli's parents know? Do Bullfrog and CeCe who, despite their rather odd way of showing their affections toward Clare, had always been nice to her and welcomed her into their home every time she'd dropped by even know that she's pregnant? If they do, do they care? Would they care? There's a lot of questions to think about, and Clare's tried to keep those thoughts away.

Just get through finals week.

After finals week.

After break.

Then she can finally focus on everything else that needs to be dealt with, right? By then everything will have a time and a place. When the new semester starts with school things will be calmer (she hopes) and things will be easier to deal with in her spare time (that she hopes she'll have).

Finals is the current hurdle Clare Edwards needs to face. But the next semester brings quite a bit of hurdles as well. Not only is she going to be dealing with co-op placement and working as an intern for somebody on top of her pregnancy, but she'll have school work to deal with as well. It wouldn't be easy on it's own let alone with everything else on her plate.

A phone call disturbs Clare as she's getting ready for bed later on that night, finally settling in for the night Clare hadn't been expecting anything. She'd turned everything off and was reading by the light of her nightstand, one of the old Fortnight books she used to love as a simple escape from all the studying she'd been doing earlier.

Without thinking, Clare picks up the phone before it vibrates off the nightstand and answers right away. A sleepy, "Hello?" as she sits up on the bed, carefully marking her page with a bookmark that says nevertheless she persisted.

No answer.

"Hello?" Clare repeats herself as she pulls the phone away from her face to look at the screen to see who called. Biting her lip she puts it back and her voice catches when she speaks again, "Eli…are you there? If you're there you can say something. Please say something."

"Clare." His voice is dark, gravelly, like he'd been sleeping for some time when he called her.

"Eli are you alright? Why are you calling me?" Now Clare's worried about everything and she's getting out of bed, moving to the door of her bedroom quietly so she doesn't wake up Audra and Omar.

Eli doesn't respond to her, or if he's talking she can't really hear him.

Clare goes to Adam's room and knocks on the door lightly as she speaks again softly, "Elijah Goldsworthy, if this is some sick trick. Please talk to me."

"I just…I wanted to say I'm sorry for the school the other day."

Adam opens his door confused and Clare mouths that it's Eli on the phone before Clare walks in, brushing past Adam in the door frame and goes to sit on his bed. She waits for Adam to close the door and motions for him to keep quiet while she puts Eli on speaker.

"Clare…are you still there?" Eli asks when he hasn't heard anything back.

"I'm here Eli. I'm…surprised you're calling me. It's late. Is that the only reason you're calling me? Is everything alright?" Clare's tone is filled with worry, and she's curled herself up on Adam's bed looking at her friend.

"I don't know what to do Clare. I'm sorry I hurt you. You made a promise that you'd never leave me Clare. And…look at us now."

"Look at us now? Eli…" Clare pauses, biting her tongue for a moment before sighing and continuing with, "you're the one who left me."

"I'm not ready to be…" Eli trails off, and Clare can picture him right then while he's talking too. She knows. She heard this the day she told him.

"I heard you before, Eli." Clare shakes her head at the thought, running her free hand on her eyes as she blinks back tears and looks at Adam. She doesn't know what to expect from this conversation, which is why she came into Adam's room. Just in case Eli says anything that she needs someone to hear. "But I gave you an out and you took it. We're through." It pains Clare to say it, because she wishes that things were different. That it could be better between her and Eli, but she knows that it's going to have to be this way. She has to accept it. She sighs and adds, "We have to… we both have to accept that."

Eli seems to pause for a moment, but when he speaks again he's agitated, "But I love you."

"That doesn't change things, Eli." Clare insists.

"We're supposed to be together. We're soulmates."

"Eli…I can't talk to you when you're like this." There was no sense in reasoning with him at this point. She feels just as heartbroken as he does, maybe even more heartbroken. But Clare's taking time to focus on what's going on. "I think we need space. Please, let me have space."

"But we can't just be over. Not like this!" Eli raises his voice.

Clare looks at Adam, unsure what to say next. She doesn't want to upset Eli, but she doesn't know what else to say about it. She's said the same thing over and over, and over, again and Eli still hasn't gotten it. Finally, Clare thinks for a moment and sighs, "Eli…have you even told your parents about the baby?"

"The baby?" Eli seems shocked that she'd even mention it. "Why are you…why are you bringing that up?"

"Because that's important. Have you told Bullfrog and CeCe about the baby?"

"No. No. No, of course not." Eli repeats himself a couple more times.

"I don't know what to say, Eli. But that's important. I don't know how you could even think that we could be together if you haven't told them about the baby." Clare puts the phone down on her lap and sighs. It's not like she didn't think this was exactly what happened with Eli, but hearing it confirmed. That Eli has yet to tell his parents when she'd been kicked out of the house the moment she confirmed to her parents that she even considered wanting to keep the baby herself, it's disheartening to say the least. "I can't do this. I can't…I can't do this Eli." Clare takes in a deep breath, doing her best to hold back tears that are threatening to come streaming out of her eyes right then. "Please, please. Just leave me alone. Let me do this alone. I gave you the out you wanted, so please, take it. I can't…I don't want to talk about this anymore. You're breaking my heart again and again. Please, give me space. Give me time."

With that, Adam presses the end button on the phone for Clare as Clare falls back on Adam's bed and lets it out, crying. She's been trying her best not to cry so much, not to let everything out. Afraid if she cries a bit, she'll cry too much. Cry for herself, for her relationship, for her family. But now, sitting in one of her best friend's bedrooms she can't help but feel the most alone she's ever felt in her entire life.

Even Adam's corny jokes about exams the next day don't help Clare crack a smile.

She winds up falling asleep in Adam's bed after she's cried too many tears about everything that's happened the past few weeks with Adam taking the floor instead so that he can stay close in case Clare needs anything in the middle of the night.

AN: Thank you for reading! I look forward to hearing anything you might have to say about the story thus far.