AN: I must confess, I'm gonna rewatch Degrassi again soon now that I've gotten back into picking up these fics and I am so excited about that. Might even go all the way back to Junior High and start from back there this time. Or maybe I'll just jump around and do some favorite episodes, who knows?

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi, or its characters. I own this idea for this story.

Chapter Six: Is This a Date?

Leaving the house in their holiday sweaters is definitely something. Clare and Jake have to pose for photos that Helen insists on taking, which Clare thinks is definitely annoying but she's not going to argue with her mother. It's just another thing to put up with, but at least the two of them are getting out of the house.

"So, what are you doing tonight?" Jake asks once they're in the car and pulling away from the house.

"I'm having dinner at KC's. I'm bringing desserts, mom insisted on me bringing more than I was originally going to, though." Clare says, tapping the tupperware that she's been holding on to. She's got nearly half the tray of the apple tarts her mom had made, as well as six cupcakes and a handful of brownies too. Though, Helen does believe Clare's heading to a party not just dinner for three. "Where are you going to go?"

"I think I'm going to head to Mo's for a bit. Maybe play a game or something." Jake shrugs his shoulders. "Just text me when you're ready to head home. Helen's curfew is strict, but I think dad would help if we were late or something."

Clare nods her head, "Alright, but I don't think I'll be too late. I'm just having dinner with KC and his mom."

"Oh, and here I was thinking you were going on a date or something." Jake laughs, rolling his eyes at Clare as he looks at her when they hit a red light on the drive. "With the way you were acting when we were leaving and beforehand. It seemed like you were nervous I just figured." He shrugs his shoulders, trailing off and continuing to drive when the light turns green once more.

"Well, you figured wrong." Clare assures Jake with a punctuated nod of her head. When Jake looks at her, she sighs a bit and then she adds, "Okay, fine. I am...I'm nervous, but it's because I've never met his mom before, that's all."

Jake side eyes Clare as she talks but lets the comment go. He's sure that there's more to it that just the reasoning she was saying, but it wasn't his place to push. After all, aside from being the step-brother he was also an ex-boyfriend and the lines were hard to draw sometimes. Besides, he never really got the full Clare Edwards dating history. He knew the tumultuous Clare and Eli love saga, but that was mostly because he had been quasi involved in it. But her other boyfriends? He didn't know much of anything else, other than hearsay from people at school.

"Okay. Well, I'm sure it'll go great, Clare. You've got nothing to worry about. Did you worry when you met Alli's parents? Or Dave's?"

Clare turns her head and looks at Jake pointedly, "Dave's dad is a cop and Alli's parents are strict like my own, so yes I was."

"Like this?"

"Well…no." How could she explain this to Jake? How was it supposed to make any sense to anyone when the nervousness barely made sense to herself? Clare bites her lip as she trails off her thought, taping on the tupperware container and sighing, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter."

"I think it does, but if you don't want to talk about it with me then that's fine. I'm just trying my best to offer some big brother advice." Jake pulls up in front of the apartment complex and parks the truck, dramatically turning to face Clare when he's all parked and settled. "Now, you know to call me if you need anything at all, right? No funny business." He's making a joke out of the whole big brother advice comment that Clare can't help but to laugh at.

"Have fun with Mo. I'll text you when I'm ready to be picked up." Clare says when her laughter subsides, shaking her head as she unbuckles and goes to hop out of the car.

She stops when Jake calls out her name and turns back to look at him. "Seriously, Clare, you don't need to be nervous about anything. Except that sweater."

Looking down at herself Clare realizes she's still got on the ridiculous holiday sweater and nods her head, shifting the tupperware in her lap so that she can take the sweater off and she puts it on the seat as she gets out of the truck. "Thanks Jake. Now head on and have a good night yourself." Jake honks the horn of the truck as he pulls out of the parking lot, waving a hand to Clare out the window before she turns around to pull her phone out of her pocket.

CLARE: Hey! I just got here. Can I head up or do you need to come and let me in?

KC: No worries, I'll be right down

Clare nods her head to herself and stands in the doorway of the apartment complex, waiting for a sign that KC's figure is heading down to greet her. She's almost about ready to regret giving up the sweater (because while it might be an ugly holiday sweater at least it was kind of warm and cozy in the cool winter air) when she spots KC walking toward the door. It's weird, Clare's got nervous butterflies in her stomach-a feeling she never thought she'd feel again in regards to KC Guthrie, yet here she stands watching him walk toward her and the anxiety bubbles in her stomach.

Despite it all, she's not really nervous to spend time with him either. It's more nervous to meet his mom, she's heard so much about the woman. But she's not sure if the stories she's heard from grade nine are what she needs to worry about or everything that she's heard since then from their group of friends. Both stories sound totally different, and Clare is entirely curious to meet KC's mom.

KC smiles when he sees Clare, opening the door, "So, how did you get out of the family bonding?"

"Apparently Alli is hosting an ugly Christmas sweater party." Clare replies, laughing as she walked into the apartment complex, following KC to the stairs. "It helped Jake out too. I think we both needed the break. It's already just too much."

"Is it really that bad?" KC asks, glancing at Clare as he guides her through the stairway and toward the apartment building. Admittedly, he seems fine. Not nervous at all, but he's definitely nervous. He's not had the best relationships and he screwed up with Clare in the past, which is probably getting ahead of himself. Of course, his mom had asked about his friends, and he'd mentioned Clare a lot, so Lisa had been asking to meet her.

Clare shrugs her shoulders, "Sort of. I mean, it's crowded. I didn't expect everyone to be around so much, and I love the family, and even Jake's family is nice. I never expected everyone to be over all the time. Plus, the house is barely renovated, so the space isn't even that big for everyone who's staying. I feel like I'm stepping on everyone. Like we're all in each other's personal space."

KC knew what that was like, in some capacity. He'd lived in the group home that was a bit crowded for a while, but in the apartment with his mom at least there was space. It was just difficult to handle sometimes. "Maybe it'll get better as the days go on." He tries to sound optimistic, but having met Clare's parents back in grade nine and knowing a bit of her home life from then he could only begin to imagine what things were like with the added Martin side of the family. While Jake was a bit more relaxed, compared to Clare and certainly compared to her mom, KC could only wonder how that all meshed together at the house. He pauses at the apartment door and looks back at Clare, "I know you're nervous," he pauses, seeing her nervously gaze around the hallway and avoid looking at him which he takes to mean he's right, "but you don't have to be."

"I feel like I remember saying the same thing to you when you met my parents in grade nine." Clare laughs softly, shaking her head at the thought. She remembers that day like it was just the day before - even though they'd met KC as her friend working on the robot project, meeting KC as her boyfriend was totally different. Darcy had warned her, but actually having her parents meet a boyfriend and not a friend who happened to be a boy for the first time was a surreal experience.

"Yes, but my mom isn't Helen or Randall Edwards. Or, did your mom take Jake's dad's name?" KC asks, a slight grimace as he remembers the way her parents had practically interrogated him that first dinner he'd had at their house. He remembers Clare's apology after everything, how she said that if Darcy was there maybe it would have felt less like an interrogation. Having only met Darcy briefly, and only hearing stories about her from Clare and people on sports teams he was on, he didn't know if that was entirely true but he couldn't exactly disprove the theory either.

"She is fully Mrs. Helen Martin now." Clare nods, and there's not a grimace when she says it either. For a long time she struggled saying the words. "And I'm actually happy about it." Clare makes a face when KC's brows raise at the comment, shaking her head she speaks again, "Don't look at me like that KC, I mean it. Or, fine, I'm getting there at least."

KC knows that the second part of that sentence, the getting there is more truthful than anything she's said previously. She hadn't said anything about Randall, though, which made him question where she stood with her father, but he wouldn't question it yet. Opening the door to the apartment, KC spots his mom behind the counter moving things around and smiles. He never thought that he would be living with his mom, and actually enjoying it. He'd been so nervous about it, so worried that it would be like when he was a kid. But everything was exactly the opposite, nothing like what he had expected.

Clare's looking around the apartment, her eyes on everything. She'd never visited the group home much, maybe a few times, but this already feels different. Back then, KC always felt just slightly uncomfortable at home, and now she can see that he's at ease even just in the doorway with her. She can see his mom too, the way she's moving around the apartment. Clare had a lot of time in grade nine to think about what KC's parents might be like from the bits and pieces she'd heard from him about them, and the woman across the room was definitely different than what she expected.

"KC, are you going to just stand in the doorway all night, or are we going to let Clare come in?" Lisa asks, coming from behind the counter with a grin on her face. "Hi Clare. KC's told me all about you." That part of her sentence both scares Clare and excites her. She's not ready to delve into her feelings regarding it right then, but she knows she'll get it all out when she's home later. "I didn't know what you might like so I just made some of KC's favorites, and he said you'd bring dessert. I hope that wasn't too much trouble."

"No trouble at all! My mom's been baking all week. We have all this family in town for the holidays, especially since her and my step-father Glen's wedding was pretty small, they're all here now, so we have a ton of sweets at the house." Clare says, holding up the tupperware with a smile. "I asked KC what you might like and kind of brought a whole bunch of everything too. Mom insisted." Which was true, her mom had insisted she bring a bunch of snacks, but she'd left a whole second tupperware in the truck with Jake. That way it wasn't too overwhelming for the Guthrie house, and so that Jake would have some snacks wherever he wound up that night as well.

"Please tell her we said thank you." Lisa takes the tupperware from Clare, watching as Clare and KC awkwardly move around the apartment. She knew only a small bit of their history, as KC was still opening up to her about his past, and she wasn't about to press about it all. Despite being KC's mom, she was still new to being a mom in so many ways, and she didn't want to screw it up this time around. She had been trying her best. "Do you want to show Clare around? It'll just be a few more minutes."

KC shuffles around, showing Clare the apartment. Suddenly, everything feels smaller than it really was. It's like it's not the apartment he's been used to. The space is smaller than it ever was, even smaller than when it was the two of them and Jenna and Tyson all staying in one space. He's not sure how that works, how all of it feels so small, but it does. Does it feel like that for Clare too, as he walks her around on the glorified one, two, barely a few steps tour of the apartment that they have to show her what's around the space? Can she tell that it feels like the world is caving in on him?

Maybe she shouldn't feel as nervous as she does in that moment, she tells herself. It's weird to be in KC's place, sure, but it's a good kind of weird. Even his mother, whom she had been worried about meeting seemed so much different than what she expected. Of course Clare knew that the mother she heard a few half stories about their grade nine year and the Lisa Guthrie in the apartment with her now were the same person, but it all felt like a different setting, a different time, like she was in a wormhole and put in another dimension where she got a second chance to do all of this-KC and her-again. The thing she had been looking forward to for a while and had wanted for some time-okay, sure, since they worked on the Daily together, but really could anyone blame her? She hadn't really been thinking of boys since the whole Jake thing had gone sour. Clare had been focusing on school, on everything totally unrelationship related.

"What do you think?" KC asks, standing in the doorway of his room. The tour over, not that it was really much of a tour to begin with. The apartment was big enough for the two of them, and they didn't have that much space.

"I like it." Clare says, and her answer is so honest and genuine that KC really does believe her. Anyone else might have just said it to say it, to placate them with an answer if they thought that was something they needed to hear, but Clare's tone showed the honesty of her words. "You saw how my room was when Darcy's stuff was all over it, but withe the renovations we kind of moved things around. That second bed is gone and things are moved. You'll have to come see all the changes at the house. It's basically the same, but new wallpapers and there's a second room." She takes a tentative step into KC's room, looking around. It's different than his room at the group home, not that she remembers it well, but she does have some memory if she thinks about it. Like a faint thought in the back of her head. This feels more homey to her, like he's more settled in this space. "I think the more important question is, what do you think?" Clare keeps her voice quiet when she asks, looking at KC with a bit of concern. All Clare's ever wanted was for KC to be happy, even when she was angry or jealous, or any of the hateful emotions she felt toward him. She worries about him, and just hopes that this is all something that he feels has been good for him.

He's not sure if he's surprised by the question, or just unsure how to answer the question. Thinking for a moment, he shrugs his shoulder as he looks around the room. "It was weird at first. Living here, mostly because it was adjusting to living with my mom. Being here with her and everything. But we're in a good place now. Both of us, I'm really glad to have her back in my life." KC shook his head, a small smile and a little bit of a laugh as he added an afterthought, "Never thought I'd be saying that."

"I'm so happy for you. I think we've both come a long way from grade nine, but maybe some of us...me, really, have a way go to with everything." She always wanted to be honest, Clare had never planned on being boy crazy or anything like her sister Darcy-maybe the better phrasing was how she perceived her sister Darcy to be like-but it was different once she was at a school where she was surrounded by people who were normal, who treated her like a person. She feels like she has a lot more to grow for everything.

KC laughs at Clare's comment, "Well, I don't know if you'll be singing another hymn in the school caf. Glad you didn't do that for the coffee house by the way." Clare rolls her eyes at that. KC shrugs, a small spark in his eyes, and speaks again, "I know, but i had to say it. I'm done making fun, I promise."

Before Clare can comment back, and there is something on the tip of her tongue that she wants to say, Lisa calls them back and says that the food is ready for them. The two go back to the kitchen, taking a seat with Lisa at the table and everything already feels normal. Like they could have been doing this for years, not just for the first time this night. The conversation doesn't feel awkward, it was going well. Clare and KC had both been nervous, for different reasons and the same reason too, for her being over for dinner to meet his mom.

But, truthfully, neither of them should have worried.

While so much time had passed since they really shared a true meal, sitting at that table neither one of them feels like any tine had passed at all. KC and Clare weren't as awkward as either of them felt like they might have been, and Lisa, who continually watches the conversation flowing between the two teens, sits in wonder, thinking if she should make herself scarce. As if either of them were really paying much attention to her input at all.

It's not as if the teens were ignoring KC's mom, but the way the two of them are speaking Lisa has little time to get her own comments in edge wise between their constant back and forth. It's a sight to see for his mother, watching the two teens volley commentary back and forth. She settles in, and rather focuses on her own meal and observing everything instead.

And, suddenly, it's like a spark is there before Lisa's eyes. Except, she's not quite sure that the two kids at the table are really seeing it yet.

AN: Thanks for reading, reviewing, and setting up alerts everybody! It means the world to me!