III. 1.03 'FAMILY POLITICS'
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First day jitters are a hard pill to swallow. They can form in one of two ways. The first being, a restless night in excited agony from the momentum built up throughout the course of the last month. Or, it can form into a corrosive sense of placid dread at the concept of having to readjust into an unfamiliar orbit with people who were strangers. Longer halls, Longer lessons, higher inner expectations. Agony.

At least Arlee had Emma and Manny. And JT. And Toby, who she'd gotten to know a little better throughout the last remaining week or so towards the lead-up of their first day. He had invited them all round for some form of a pizza hang-out session. Which was more or less just her and the other two girls sitting on one side of Toby's couch observing him and JT go progressively insane over a game of Crash Bandicoot on his PlayStation.

They would've done more, but after Emma's nightmare run-in, they'd collectively decided to harbour on the side of caution and engage in activities that weren't stranger-danger prone.

In a morbid messed up way, what had happened to Emma had brought them closer together. Close enough that Toby had agreed to go along with JT to her place on their way to school so they could walk into campus together. Her aunt had suggested trailing alongside Federico for 'safe measure' but that would've meant having to loomingly trudged behind him. And he wouldn't give her the time of day because out in the open, he had this unspoken rule.

You don't know me, and I don't know you——unless it's to borrow something. Or if you're in need of dire rescuing.

He still wanted to look out for her, just, from an arms lengths distance. And if anything, she didn't really need his guiding hand to shield her from the periling heights that Junior High had to offer. It was school. And it sucked, sure, but nothing overly terrifying was going to happen in the course of her two year stay at Degrassi. Well, not enough for her to need someone to swoop in.

It was a normal school. In a normal place. With equally normal people. Even if her apprehensive thoughts were telling her the complete opposite.

"Look at you, cute as ever." Araceli observed  Arlee walk down the steps to the kitchen with a container full of last night's dinner firmly in her grasp. Everyone, for the most part, had already gotten themselves situated and were 3 portions deep into a shared box of Raisin Bran.

"I didn't want to go all out." In reality, what she'd really meant to say was that she  went all the way, then realised she wasn't comfortable enough to wear what she'd wanted to show up in on the first day, and decided to wing it with the closest semi-comfortable thing in her closet.

Federico lowered the spoon from his lips as he rose from his position at the kitchen table, his mouth still full with food. "Doubt that's possible with you."

In the moment, Arlee threw a tiny glare in his path, then directed her attention swiftly over to her father when he descended into the kitchen brandishing a newspaper from outside whilst looking dishevelled and slightly dejected. Which gave her a quick hint that he'd been hauled up at the office till the late again, by his own choice. He let his work consume him because he had to. In his mind, it was his God's honest obligation. And everyone else around him just had to let him strive. "Good Morning Dad."

"Morning Papá." Federico greeted simultaneously, dropping his milk stained bowl into the sink.

Ignacio slid into the chair beside Pilar and her new macrame project. His eyes puffed up from the lack of sleep, and more. "What day is it today?"

"Tuesday." Araceli responded, placing Talita's lunchbox infront of her.

A heaved sigh ballooned from within him like he'd just been given the worst news known to mankind. "Crap, I've got the late shift again."

A subtle tsk rolled from the tip of Abuela's tongue in discernment for the expletive. "Ah, cuida tu lengua."

He sent a worn apologetic look over to her. Hasten down by the ebbing lethargy that still fell predominantly dormant in his features, reaching over soon after to pull the cut up box of raisin bran closer and pouring in a small portion for himself. Topped off with an even smaller amount of milk. Arlee unfastened the pleat she'd messily made in her tangled hair by his side with a stealth of observation. "But on the bright side, it's my first day of Grade 7."

Ignacio's eyes widened at the news, a small puff of air expelling from his mouth in course. "Already? Scary"

"I heard the Grade 8's stick the Grade 7's heads down the toilets." Talita piped up out of the blue, her concentration plastered onto the game of Dig Dug she was playing on Federico's Game Boy Advanced, instead of finishing the remainder of her condensed raisin bran. "Like an initiation."

"Oh really? From who?" questioned Arlee blankly, pouring a minisucal bowl of cereal for herself. There was t-minus 5 minutes till she needed to get her stuff, and t-minus two minutes till JT would be begrudgingly knocking at her front door trying to rush her out. The walk to Degrassi from her place was at least 30 minutes at large, 15 through the thicket of leaves and branches that twined into her neighbours back entryway.

"Mia." informed Talita translucently, her thumb mashing harshly onto the centre button of the Gamboy haphazardly.

"—Well, she's like 7 she wouldn't know."

    "9"

"Same thing."

Leaning over Talita, Federico kindly took his game boy off her hands and stuck it down the side of his backpack. Which she less than appreciated. "Gotta go."

"You're not gonna give Lena any advice?" Araceli prompted, gesturing the spatula she'd retrieved from the piling dishes within the sink over in Arlee's direction.

Advice. That was the last thing she needed. And visibly, Federico could tell that too. "Uh, Respect the rules of the hallway, and don't draw attention to yourself. Those are the big two." He shuffled his way around the mounds of laundry that were stock piled across the outer circumference of the tiny kitchen archway.  "Oh, and most importantly, don't get on the wrong side of the wrong people I guess."

Understandly, Araceli found many faults with his words of grandieous wisdom. "Wrong people? It's middle school Fede."

"Hey, I don't make the rules." He shrugged. "Grade 7 can be brutal, it's a universal fact."

Arlee rolled her eyes at his need to emphasise the importance of not getting on the wrong side of the wrong people like she was preparing to risk her life on some bloodless battlefield. The real carnage was high school, according to every tween movie made in existence.

Federico slung his bag on his shoulder and opened the back door that passed through their yard, whilst a string of constant knocking shrilled out from their front door. Through the billowed light fuisha of their kitchen curtains, Arlee could see three people already idling outside.

She recognised one of them as Jimmy Brooks from his streetwear, and the girl wrapped around his arm rather clunkily was his girlfriend Ashley. A high achiever and a people person, or more so, a person who had an affinity for pleasing people. She also happened to be Toby's 'dreadful' step-sister ( his words, not hers )

Arlee didn't know much else about her beyond the personal things she'd overhear Federico say about her. But from the couple of times she'd come to their house with Jimmy along with their other friends, she had seemed nice enough. The last girl on Ashley's left, a brunette keeping a substantial small distance between herself and the doting couple, didn't look all too familiar.

"Later dad." amicably bid Federico, plucking a ripe orange out of the fruit bowl on the side consul.

Ignacio straightened the morning paper in his grip, coffee on standby and impatience peeking slightly from the continuous knocking from the main door. "Keep the detentions to a minimum."

"Loud and clear, Pops!"

And just like that the door snapped shut behind him. Arlee quickly glimpsed one last time and saw Federico greet Jimmy with a paced hand-shake. Their handshake. Then, he said hi to the other girl by Ashley's side and from the looks of things, rushed through a greeting with her. From there, the four made their way through the small padlock gate behind their even more claustrophobic home.
Disappearing out onto the open road.

"Would someone go check who's at the door? If it's the mailman, tell him that he doesn't need to knock. There's a doorbell for a reason." requested Ignacio with an underlying tangency of exasperation.

Taking that as her prompt to check, seeing as nobody else had made the moves to go, Araceli wiped her hands against a stray kitchen cloth and wrenched open the many locks on their front door. A safety precaution requested specifically by Pilar, from her own anxieties from past experiences back home.

"It's not the mailman, but they are here to pick up something special from us!"

Arlee's brows furrowed at Araceli's vague statement. She took in one last singular spoonful of her raisin bran before dumping it down on a stray kitchen counter, rolling her hair tie back onto her nimble wrist, and peeking through the ajar door to the kitchen to see who it was.

"Hey boys."

JT and Toby. Surprisingly, they'd been a lot earlier than Arlee had expected them to be. And unsurprisingly, JT had already lost all his senses at the sight of her aunt standing in-front of him. "Uh...hey."

Pivoting around in a rush, Arlee took her backpack off the back of Talita's chair and clenched onto the bulk handle of it with her hand. She approached Pilar and bent to give her a small parting kiss on the cheek, a sign of respect, then, with a stomach invaded with corrosive butterflies, started heading out front to go meet the boys. "I'll see you guys after school."

"Arlee." Ignacio's unintentionally loud voice managed to stop her right in her tracks. She turned to face him, the strap of her bag sagging on her shoulder. "Have a good first day, mija."

A softened smile bloomed on the horizon of her glossed lips. "Thanks dad. Try not to stab yourself with your work pen during the late shift."

He stifled a small chuckle, which he managed to successfully hide by choosing to take a sip from the coffee that had been sat by his elbow for a good few minutes. "Go on, you'll be late."

Arlee adjusted herself one last time in the glimmer of a reflection that was gleaming from the fridge in a last attempt effort to assure herself that she was okay. That this...the first day, the trying to readjust, was going to be fine. She didn't get why exactly she was going through so many tumultuous emotions about today. One second, being fine, the next, being worried about having to navigate her way through a partially foreign atmosphere.

This was the paradigm of adolescence.

Ascending into the clustered compound of their front living and migrating over to where Araceli was awaiting her, Arlee gave her a small hug goodbye. Toby was more than ready to leave. On the other hand, JT seemingly didn't mind the delay. "I'd personally just like to say you're looking really——"

Arlee sighed and pulled on the back of JT's shirt once she stepped over the threshold of the front door. "C'mon."

When JT had ceased his incessant oogling and they'd made it down Arlee's small flight of rickety porch steps onto the deserted pavement, Toby turned to Arlee first and foremost. "How is she your aunt?"

Riddled with an onset of instant perplexity, Arlee blankly stared over at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, she's cool." clarified Toby, his hands disappearing into his pockets.

"And hot." interjected JT from the sidelines under his breath.

"She seems funny too—" Toby placidly continued. There was an obvious point attached to his string of compliments that went way beyond her aunt's personality, and his interests as to why she was the way she as. But what exactly that point was still laid a great mystery

"....And hot."

"She says her 30's are for living, and not resurrecting yourself to a boring, non-fulfilling lifestyle. So I guess that's why." Arlee indulged, fixing her backpack strap when it started to sag off her shoulder. She then swiveld her attention over to JT and lightly jabbed his shoulder. He didn't choose to retaliate, and only let out a silent startled gasp. "And you need to put your tongue back in your mouth or I'll ban you from my property for life, pervo."

JT dramatically rubbed at the area that she'd hit. "So brutal, this one."

A solemn sigh fell from the cusp of Toby's lips, pace slowing down. "Yeah, well, I'd trade your aunt for Ashley anyday."

Arlee raised a brow as if she didn't already know who he was talking about. "Ashley? As in your step-sister?"

"She's not my step-sister, she's a pain in the butt who just happens to live in the same house as me." sternly corrected Toby with a huff. Anything Ashley related had the tendency of always sending him into the beginning stages of aggravation. "I'd say satan too, but, that would an insult to Satan."

JT's nose scrunched at the exaggeration to Ashley's apparent devilish character behind closed doors. "How?"

"Where do I begin?!"

What ensued next was a 15 minute tangent filled rant that seemed to never have an ending point. In Toby's perspective, Ashley saw him as an invader in her life who had no business being around. She didn't like that he was now a student at her school, and lived in her home, and had disturbed the quaint little utopia she'd retained for herself. And clearly, his feelings were just as mutual too. "—I mean, I hadn't even spit out my toothpaste and she wanted in."

  JT placed a hand on Toby's shoulder as they ascended onto school grounds. Their school grounds. Arlee, for all intents and purposes, didn't pay that much attention to her outer surroundings. The floods of kids pooling into the crammed double doors of Degrassi. "Maybe you should explain to Ashley that bathroom time is private time."

Toby politely brushed off his hand, before he then returned JT's solid advice with a head shake and a scalping snare. "She'd probably go crying to her mommy."

Arlee tutted at his need to blow everything out of proportion. "C'mon, she doesn't seem all that bad."

"Like you'd know." He muttered mundanely, the sole of his bruised trainers kicking aside a clump of gravel in his path.

"From what I've heard, she's on the scale of cool once you get to know her." assumed Arlee. Realistically, she was only repeating what she'd heard in passing in the front yard whenever Federico had Spinner over.

She'd purposefully left out the part where he'd once gone into extensive detail about why he thought Ashley was a bit much. Much meaning, over zealous for her own good. Or in his words, an all around perfect pentagram of perfection. Perfect life, Perfect house, pristine and pure. And her being Jimmy's girlfriend only solidified that, for some reason.

"Cool isn't the word I'd use." Toby lightly scoffed. "She has no sense of humour and she's a neat-o-holic. Yesterday, I left my gym socks on the couch, and she totally freaked."

Arlee's nose scrunched immensly as she flicked a portion of her sable coloured hair back when it intruded her peripheral. "I don't blame her, that's nasty."

"Yeah." JT agreed in toe, a smirk curled on his upper lip momentarily. "Your gym socks can reek something fierce."

Toby chose to ignore his friends attempts to add a comedic effect to his situation by continuing on with his Ashley-hate speech. "Just 'cause me and dad move into their house, Ashley treats me like...."

"Dirt?" JT suggested."Gum stuck on her shoe ?"

Toby adjusted his glasses. "All of the above."

Arlee couldn't see what his deal was, why he despised Ashley so much. She would've given anything to trade having an older sister who could understand her, be there for her and give advice on boys and self-worth over an older brother who made it his mission to wind her up. " Well, Welcome to the Younger Siblings Club, it's one hell of a ride."

Just as she uttered those last words, the three of them aligned with the front door. The starting line for 2 years of a whirlwind of confusion. "So, ready for Day 1 of the rest of our junior high lives ?" Toby addressed to the two who stood at either side of him, both their gazes glued to the voluminous amount of students who were already moving around the front.

"What do you think ?" JT questioned sardonically, before they then ascended into the school. Once they'd officially entered, Arlee waved the two boys off to wait for Emma and Manny at the front doors. Her pushed back nerves returning in full swing. Junior High. She yearned to be encompassed in her cocoon back in her old school again, just for a moment in time. A familiar environment, with a foyer that was small and people that were smaller.

With stealth of observation, Arlee kept to the entrance door closest to the fire escape exit. If push came to shove, she would be closet to the nearest and safest darting point. She analysed all the swathes of kids that were haphazardly meandering through the front in packs, or in twos, never threes. Idle chatter glistened the tips of their tongues, and for the most part, nobody had a gruelling air to them.

This was Junior High. Not warfare.

Soon enough, both Manny and Emma emerged from outside and sped past Arlee without a glance. Ouch. She could only simply shrug it of as them being so scared that they didn't want to look at anyone, or anything. And honestly, Arlee couldn't blame them one bit.

"Manny, there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Nothing but the Grade 8's," Manny reasoned in a quiver laced murmur.

When Arlee managed to finally catch up with them both, she slung an arm around her shoulder, which made Manny slightly flinch given her current nerved state. "What did I tell you guys over the phone? They're not scary, they're the least bit intimidating."

"Exactly, and they're also only a year older than us." reasoned Emma further.

Manny's teeth sharply tugged at the bottom of her lip. "Yeah, a whole year to think of ways to make us suffer."

As if one cue, Emma's papers went flying and they slammed straight onto the scuffed linoleum. Manny and Arlee bent to help retrieve what had fallen from the ground, and whilst they were down there, shadow overtook the once tranquil light that had been in their surroundings. Vastly ominous till Arlee rose to her feet again and realised that it was only Spinner Mason and his friend, Jimmy. Her brother's friends plural. 

This was phase one. Get past the two freshly new Grade 8's who thought a year age gap meant they had some form of a superiority hold on underclassmen. Hopefully the second phase wasn't as bizarre as the first was about to be.

"Hall Pass."

Arlee watched Spinner stick out his hand to them and his ever so convincingly demand them to hand over a slip. "So funny, Gavin."

Spinner's glance shot ever to her's in a beat, his hand lowering and brow shooting up. "Oh, there she is. Federina. Finally made it out of Pre School, huh?"

"And you got held back for another year, right?" Arlee muttered under her breath. Or at least, she'd assumed so till she saw the expression rapidly switch on Spinner's face.

"Ouch, mega burn. Probably gonna take me all of 5 seconds to recover from that. You know, I honestly thought we were starting to become friends Federina, I've gotta say I'm hurt by your cruelty." Spinner tsked, before he then turned his attention back onto Emma, who was still impotently mortified, "Hall pass."

"What ?" Emma sputtered in confusion, her feet still glued stiff to the spot that she had been standing in for the last 5 minutes.

Spinner smirked callously, his arms crossing and snide look growing immensly. This was half time entertainment to him. "You're not allowed on school property without a hall pass."

"But we didn't get one." Emma argued softly, her dear in headlights look now starting to emit Arlee's own softened glare.

"Then you'll have to leave," he demanded in his best fake sterned tone, pointer finger moving straight to the exit door.

A silent beat passed as both boys glanced at one another, before bursting wildly into ropes of upfront laughter at the frightened looks of Arlee's two best friends. She peered through Spinner and Jimmy's shoulders and spotted Federico standing against the blotchy graffiti mural a couple feet away, staring anywhere but the triage of a mess that was currently ensuing.

"Grade sevens are such geeks." Spinner teased through a chuckle, smitten. "Later Federina." He turned to give Jimmy a high five and walked away with a giddy bounce in his step. His looming eyes trailed over to throw one last look in Arlee's path. Like he was really trying to throw his point home.

You're a geek, even if I didn't think you were one summer ago when we hung out and played basketball without Federico knowing. Talked.

That was just the way things worked. But his lack of acknowledgment about a flagrant friendship that they had started and ended in one consecutive day didn't really bother her at all. He was Spinner and Spinner was ignorant depending on who you asked, stupid at times too. He taunts, and he likes to be the bigger person, and once in a blue moon, he'll crack a whimsical 'yo mama' jokes that would crash and burn atrociously.

But Federico, he was her brother. And even if he didn't really want to acknowledge her that much on her first day at his school, she still expected him to say something at least. Tell him to lay off.

Emma and Manny didn't waste any time in heading off, their heads down and disdain with being at school heightend slightly. Arlee, on the other hand, didn't want to leave in the preservance of the moment without throwing in her two cents about it. Especially when she stiffly approached and saw Federico already clambering down the steps to meet her halfway.

She spoke first when he finally approached, and he could already tell that he'd made the wrong call by not intervening. "When you said 'don't get on the wrong side of the wrong people', I didn't know that you were one of those people."

Federico just hadn't expected her words to scorn him that badly. "Hey, c'mon, it was nothing. Just playful banter." A small chuckle jutted out from his lips, his hand falling to her shoulder tentivly. Basic big brother protocol? Right? He seemed to clearly think so. "You know Spin, always gotta go over the top."

A terse beat of silence mulled over between the pair for a slicing second. A millisecond. Deflected when Arlee sighed and rolled her eyes. There were still 6 more hours left in the school day and she wanted to only look ahead. "Whatever."

Without giving the situation anymore attention, she stormed away back to Manny and Emma, disappearing into the trails of people that were still lingering. Federico felt a jaded pang flare in his chest. And when Spinner and Jimmy sauntered over, he transferred the worness of it by lightly wacking Spinner on the shoulder. "Nice going, moron."

"Ah, What?" Spinner explained in perplexity, his hand moving to caress the area of landing impact.

"—I told you to leave her alone specifically, literally any other Grade 7 but my own sister stupid."

He glanced aback to find Arlee in the distance, who'd now reached the sign boards, then shot his gaze over to Federico. "Hey, I was going for her two friends, not my fault she also happened to be there too."

"Can you believe that?" Emma lamented when Arlee reached her and Manny, adjusting the papers that had spilled from her binder.

Arlee peered over her shoulder one last time, and caught Spinner's gaze on her. He, of course, instantly turned right around to face Federico, and she, for the second time that day, rolled her eyes in dismay. Even though he wasn't the person she was mainly annoyed at. "They're losers, ignore them."

Manny adjusted her backpack strap. "And there was me thinking your brother was nice"

"Same."

"He's got this weird split personality. A school him, and a home him." Arlee tried to explain, and in retrospective, also convince herself in the process. "Kinda wish they'd just merge into one person so I didn't have to deal with that version every single week."

"And those other two? Who were they?" Emma further inquired.

"The Nelson Munce wannabe? That's Spinner." Arlee spared one last glance in their direction, her nose scrunching when she watched them all walk away in the other direction. "Him and my brother have been friends since Elementary. Jimmy too, but like, later on."

"I just hope they're not the blueprint for how the rest of the student population is at this place"

After trying to navigate the in's and out's of the complicated maze that was Degrassi's halls, the trio had finally managed to situate themselves by finding the locations of their lockers, and eventually tried to navigate their way to where the Grade 7 homeroom was. On the way, they'd picked up JT and Toby. "Hey guys."

"Hi." Emma replied, attention focusing on trying to pilot her way through the narrowing thicket of students that were poring out from every available corner of the school. Another new rare comrodery that they had to get used to. People. A crushing, overflow.

Arlee was still mulling over the after-effects of everything that had occurred in the outer foyer, on top of the sudden revelation that she'd been given in a slip of small blue paper. That mudded revaluation being the person who she had been assigned a locker next to. Hint: It wasn't Manny or Emma.

JT was quick to catch onto her unusual quietness, and didn't waste anytime in making light of her soured mood. "Did someone kick a puppy infront of you?"

She wadded the slip of paper in her grasp. "No."

"Then why do you look like you just witness someone kick a puppy in broad daylight?"

"She got a locker next to the boy who was terrorising us earlier." Emma took on the liberty of explaining instead. "Apparently it was some weird mix-up but they can't change it anymore."

Toby, for obvious reasons, felt the need to highlight the serious undertones of what she'd just uttered. "Terrorising?"

"Yeah, he kept asking us for a hall pass, then him and his friend laughed in our faces for no reason." indulged Manny. "It was so embarrassing."

"Stupid Gavin and his stupid Limp Biskit stupidness." Arlee mumbled under her breath, slightly perturbed.

JT's gaze flitted over to Arlee's own in a reccord speed of light when he finally put-two and two together on who they'd been talking about. "As in pitbull boy?" Arlee nodded, and he shuddered immensly. "Oh, I am never walking with you to your locker."

Wanting to quickly switch to something a lot more lighthearted then her many qualms over Spinner's ...Spinnerness, Arlee chose to delve into school matters. "How's your first day been so far?"

JT pulled out his crumbled schedule from his blotchy jeans pocket. "Well, the place is nice, but the girls? Not so nice." coldly, Arlee bumped his shoulder for the comment and delicately plucked his schedule from his fingertips. "Ah, watch it."

Arlee quickly scanned the contents of the yellow notice. "Gimme your schedule, I wanna see if we have any classes together so I can make immediate changes to mine."

In reality, Arlee had felt a somewhat sense of relief to know that he was in mostly all of the same classes with her for their first year. Math, MI, Biology, PE, the only thing that they didn't share a classroom in was World History. For her sake, she hoped one of the others took that class so she wouldn't have to try and make small talk. Anything but small talk.

Politely, JT snatched it back again. "Real funny. You know you can't survive here without me. I'm your crutch."

Arlee scaled her glance at his frame like she was analysing his height, or lack thereof. Even though realistically speaking, they were the same height when she didn't wear her pumps. "Being a crutch requires you to actually be tall."

He feigned offence at her obliviousness. "I'm not having this debate again, we're literally the same height."

"The door lies JT, the door lies all the time."

Their squabbling was promptly interrupted when Manny stopped in her tracks and turned briefly to the others when they came across the computer lab they'd been in not-so long ago. "Is this our homeroom?"

The school bell harped across the hall and surely but quickly, Mr Simpson came pacing down it, swiftly approaching the cesspool of kids that had slowly began to gather outside his classroom. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late." the tall statured man digged around in his pocket for awhile before he then pulled out the keys to unlock the classroom door. "Hey Em."

In a matter of mere moments, everyone partially collided into one another to try and snag a good spot in the computer lab. Their computer lab.

"All right, just choose your own seats for the time being

Arlee faltered in her steps before sitting down, she had to pick wisely. She could either pick option A, which was a free seat next to a girl with tousled curly hair and rounded turquoise glasses right up front next to the teacher.

Or option B, the back seat across from Emma and right behind JT. Her gaze bounced back and forth. Be up front, or goof of; be in Simpsons eye view or sit back and throw things at JT's abnormally large head?

Her train of thought was suddenly broken by the warm hand that was pressed against her shoulder. "Uh..Arlee, right ?" Mr Simpson asked, tone low and mellow. Arlee nodded as her embarrassed gaze met the wheat blonde haired man's. "You okay?"

" I....uhm, yeah, sorry." She cracked a smiled, quickly darting right to option B. After that interaction, there was no way she could sit in two inches of Mr. Simpson now for the entire hour, let alone the rest of the school year.

JT let out a bemused chuckle at what he'd witnessed, making Arlee kick the back of his chair so it spun and stopped to smack him in the leg.

She could feel herself sink in her own chair when Mr Simpson finally began to introduce himself to everyone. "Okay, welcome to Degrassi Community School. I'm Mr Simpson, I'm your homeroom and media immersions teacher. And I gotta say you guys really lucked out, I mean it. This is by far the coolest homeroom in the entire school."

Arlee had to give it to him, he was a pretty fun teacher. A bit scrawny, sure, but very sweet none the less.

She'd always imagined Junior High and High School teachers to be more mundane, boring, and a little less satisfied with their jobs. "First order of business: These are the code of conduct forms," He walked around the room as he handed out information slips and forms at the same time. "Concerning the computers, and the internet. alright ? I wanna get these out the way before we get to know one another."

Ms.Kwan's Grade 8 homeroom was bustling with the overlapped idle chatter of those who currently occupied, which wasn't many in comparison to the year previously. It hadn't really hit Federico that this was his last full ride at Degrassi, in Junior High.

The concept of having to migrate in such a short space of time to an entirely different school and fall into a more pact routine was a reality that felt almost, surreal, to some extent. Light years away he'd argue. But for now, 11 months of repetitive homework and trying to keep his concentration in check for at least one lesson were the main begrugence on his measly agenda.

"So, my Dad said if I get an A in at least one of my classes this year....I'll get the new NBA Live." Federico fixed his posture as he loosely sat atop his self-assigned desk right for the year, a pen loosely intertwining between his fingertips.

Spinner turned around in his chair a row infront of Federico and stared at him with raised brows, a waver of disbelief marring his expression. "That's not even out yet."

"I know, but when it does, he said he'd take me to the video store to buy it. Not rent." emphasised Federico ecstatically. New things, cool things, had become nothing short of a rarity as of late in his household. "Buy."

Unlike Spinner, Jimmy didn't seem all too convinced. "Don't you need a PlayStation for that?"

"They've got it on PC."

"—That you don't own."

Federico didn't let Jimmy's small sprinkles of realism deter him away from his excitement. NBA Live, fresh off the press. If he were dramatic he would've likened it to winning the lottery.

Spinner placed his elbow against the rough oxidised bark of his chair. "Well all you gotta do is forge your report card when it comes out eventually, and you'll be in the bag."

"Like he has the skills to pull that off." Jimmy, once more, retorted. With quick aviation, Federico lightly thumped him on the shoulder for the constant negative commentary and he not-so subtly rolled his eyes for his overreaction.

"Or you could kiss Kwan's butt." teased Spinner jokingly, his glance leniently cascading over to the teacher in question when she momentarily made her entrance into the classroom with a paper stack and a pin-thin smile. In the abundance of teachers that worked for Degrassi, she was one of the more no-nonsense ones. An avid lover of poetry, detention sentences, and harsh marking. But nice all the same.

"Too late for that, my rep with her's already tanked." shot down Federico. "10 detentions and a very brutal parent-teacher talk with my Dad during Parent's Day last year's got me on her look-out list."

"Nothing beat on me, I got 14." Spinner proudly shared with a glint of a smirk. If there was anything he specialised in, it was recreational delinquency with a side hobby of occasional shoving. Of course, to people who weren't on the high-grade scale radar.

Federico jovially shook his head at his attempt to turn consistent detentions into a pride thing. Then again, he wasn't any better. "Who'd you guys get lockers next to?"

"Ash." Jimmy was quick to answer, he glance scaling over to Ashley, who was indulged in a conversation with Terri McGregor.

He playfully sneered, feigning astonishment at that revelation, his thumb and forefinger still attentive on the ballpoint pen. "Course you did."

"What about you?"

"Heather Sinclair." Federico revealed. Heather Sinclair was, some may say, an unreckoned it-girl in their somewhat tiny little school. People knew her but didn't at the same time, and those who did have the opportunity to grace her line of fire often regretted it right afterwards. "She actually said hi to me for the first time since the 6th Grade. But she called me Diego."

"Lucky." Spinner expressed, wading up the piece of paper on his desk.

Judging from his reaction, Jimmy had gaged that his locker neighbour was someone he wasn't all too fond of. "Who'd you get?"

Spinner motioned back to Federico. "His annoying sister."

"Okay, A, I'm the only one who gets to call my sister annoying." Federico began first and foremost. "And B, how did that even happen? Thought they usually put all the newbies in like one contained zone."

"Think it was an accident, not sure." He shrugged passively.

Federico slumped a little, his brow following suit. Since what had happened earlier occurred with Arlee and her friends, he'd been ruminating in a sliver of wavering guilt over not acting fast enough to squander Spinner's need to haze his sister & her friends. But then again, it was just some meaningless prank. And there was no doubt in his mind that Arlee had vastly gotten over it already.

"Boys."

Federico's pen fidgeting came to a noticeable pause at the sight of Paige Michealchck and her new look. Saturated candy floss body mist ruminating in her flowing movements. Not that he cared enough to take note of any of that, obviously. It just stuck out to him a little. "Paige, Hazel." He cleared his throat. "Nice summer?"

"Oh, for sure." Paige crossed her arms, head tilting in motion. "Me and Hazel practically spent all of July at the beach. Then we waited in line to catch a screening of that old Drew Barrymore flick, Never Been Kissed?" She averted her frame to Hazel, who nodded in confirmation. "Romance, deception, lies and slander. It was like watching modern Shakespeare without Romeo or Juliet."

"And the ending? Even more of a twister." added Hazel softly from beside her, glossy lips cracking into a smile.

"Shakespere and the beach, best combo." Every single syllable that had come out of Federico's mouth felt unnatural.

Paige looked him up and down. "You'd know something about that." His brow shot up in perplextion, which she was quick to quell with clarification. "That necklace totally matches your clothes. Very with the times...kinda like, taboo streetstyle."

"Oh it's a chain, actually," He corrected rather clunkily. "Not a necklace."

She seemed to find the utmost amusement in that. "Right, chain, sorry. I forgot that the male ego can't fathom the thought of being accused of wearing jewellery."

Spinner hid his guffaw in a cough, as did Jimmy, thought not as pronounced or obvious. Paige might've changed her looks over the summer holiday, but there was something about her that would probably never cease to despair. Her sugar-coated bluntness.

In an orderly fashion, both Paige and Hazel departed the conversation faster then it had started, and ventured away to sit at two desks just a row across of him. Federico's stare lingered for a little longer. Summer had a way of clearing the mind. Of making things that were once unrecognisable more emphasised. No. He couldn't. Not this year, or the next. Or freaking ever.

With a breathless sigh, he returned his attention back to his two friends, where Spinner was waiting in the wings ready to abrasively mock him for that ten-second long Paige interaction that he'd just had. "Ooh, nice summer? Oh Princess Paige, please let me kiss your feet and bow down to you."

Feigning agitation, Federico properly sat in his chair and plucked the pen cap off his pen, before he then proceeded to flick it at him. "Shut up."

Before Spinner could have the opportunity to retaliate in any capacity, Miss Kwan stepped a front of the class and in turn, signalled for everybody to start to wrap up their discussions. "Alright, settle down, I'm sure all of you will get the time to reacquaint outside in the hallway after lessons."

From that point forward, Miss Kwan began her short yet formal introductory speech. Delving into many areas such as who she was, in the shortest form, what this year had to offer as a whole, which thankfully wasn't that much but was still a little more then the last, and finally, the more basic topics such as the Degrassi rules of conduct that kept changing every other 5-10 business days whenever they didn't work for Mr.Raditch. Another infamous face within the druid halls of Degrassi.

"Some of you I know already and a few of you are new faces all together." Miss Kwan carefully weaved her way around the classroom in an effort to warmly greet everyone. That is, everyone apart from one particular person. "Welcome. Gavin Reginald Mason."

He sheepily smiled up at her. The same couldn't be same for Miss Kwan. "Um, I prefer Spinner."

"This year will I have to give, what was it, another fourteen detentions?" mused Miss Kwan with a head-tilt.

       "Not if you don't want to."

Soft barrels of laughter erupted throught the classroom in response to his remark.

Miss Kwan amicably shook her head in good faith from the interaction before subsequently moving on to what she'd been previously discussing. "Learning and good grades are all important here at Degrassi, but so is getting involved in the school."

Paige's hand instantly sprung to attention. "That's why I'm starting a spirit squad this year Ms. Kwan. We so need one."

"Great, Paige." She appreciated. "That's so industrious of you. And speaking of industrious, Ashley?"

Ashley perked up slightly, attention vastly drawing away from whatever she was allusively daydreaming about. "Yes?"

"The first day of school and you already have a professional campaign underway? Excellent start." congratulated Miss Kwan, a pin-thin smile dawning across her face.

Ashley Kerwin. Jack of all Trades. There wasn't anything that she couldn't do when she put her mind to it. "Thank you"

Soon enough, the school bell chimed loudly, and everyone didn't hesitate to stampede their way out of homeroom back into the halls again. Federico took his time to gather most of the things he'd dumped out onto his desk, before heading out the door just loosely behind Jimmy and Spinner.

"Federico."

He came to a halt at the utterance of his name, contentment coaxing his demeanour. When he turned, Federico came face to face with Terri and her ensemble of papers. Vote for Ash ones.

Seemingly, she was her campaign manager....assistant? Whatever it was, she'd been partially responsible for clipping in the masses of amounts of posters that had started to appear on some notice boards near the foyer. "Hey Terri. How was your summer?"

She nodded, passing her binder dotted in peel-able gems to the other side of her arm. "Real nice, except for when my dad took me fishing. That wasn't so nice."

Federico scrunched his nose. "A grubby lake, a dock that reeks of fish bait? sounds like my worse nightmare."

"Yeah...it was pretty nightmare-ish." Terri stifled a laugh that mellowed out into a softening smile. "But at least I was able to catch up with Ash."

"Cool." He hummed, his hands plunging into his patchwork pockets. Throughout the duration of last year, Federico had grown somewhat closer to Terri. Which was partly due to her lending him a hand with English or subjects that pertained him to break-down written material when his consistent note-borrowing got tedious.

She didn't exhibit similar traits to Ashley, nor did she really align with air of confidence that Paige strutted down the halls in day in and out. Terri was, well, simple. Good simple. And surprisingly, to the surprise of Federico, shared a common interest with him. Except the only difference was that she was more vocal about it. "Did you still want your chart from last year?"

"Oh, that." Federico words tumbled on top of one another in a dissary. His hand found its way to his neck, eyes trailing over to the side where Spinner and Jimmy were awaiting for his and Terri's conversation to wrap up. "Yeah, uhm, sure."

  Terri still filed through her plastic folder for the sheet and slotted it out. They'd talked about retrograde, and how astronomical bodies have influence on people's lives beyond basic weather patterns. Continued it scatteredly after that during that one time when her and Ashley had met up with him, Jimmy & Spinner at the skatepark. This was bound to happen. "I got it done last night, I put a key so you'll understand some of the terms. But...it's a little messy."

When she handed it to him, Federico took the time to quickly scope through what she'd accomplished. Written boldly at the top in what looked to be gel pen was his birthday February 11th 1988. Next to that were the different tags about astrological signs that correlated with numbers that he couldn't register in the moment. But, he still showed gratitude for the gesture. "It's fine."

Federico continued to look it over even after Terri had departed away to meet back up with Ash, and was replaced by Jimmy and Spinner on either end of him. "Dude, you're into astronomy?"

"So?" He questioned back mundanley, folding the sheet in half.

"So....that's a total girl thing."

"I was curious, sue me." Federico muttered evasively. "And Terri said that your star sign can tell you a lot about yourself. Also astronomy? It's astrology, dummy."

Spinner rolled his eyes at Federico's need to correct him, before a half-twined smirk recoiled itself at the corner of his lip. "Really? Can it influence this?" He proceeded to lift his arm up and make a fart noise with his hand.

"No, minimal braincells influences that." Jimmy harpooned from the sidelines.

"How're you feeling?" Federico prompted, adjusting his backpack strap.

"About what?"

He motioned over to the giant poster of Ashley when they came across it in the hall. "About your girlfriend running for president, First Lady."

Jimmy didn't break contact with the poster for a good minute. "Ash has got it in the bag, I'm not worried."

"Well, there's no competition there, nobody else was bothered to run against her."

Arlee was already in need of a nap break, and the day had barley even started yet. There were perks about being in Junior High. Like feeling more mature, getting things that weren't accessible in Elementary like more clubs, and dances.

But being in Junior High also meant that you had to do more homework, and in class work, and projects that were meant to be fun; but were actually excuses for teachers to let you figure out the rest by yourself.

" Students are reminded that 3:15 today is the deadline for student council nominations."

The PA's monotonous echo of a voice had completely fazed Arlee as she rubbed her eyes whilst walking down the corridor with Emma and Manny.

"See, Manny, this isn't so bad, isn't it?"

"As long as we don't run into that jerk again," Manny's comment made Arlee's attention immediately paddle towards her. "Who? My brother ?"

Manny shook her head, "No, his blonde friend with the spikes. You really are tired today, aren't you?"

" Exhausted more like," Arlee rubbed her eyes once more, before running a hand through her hair. "You try living with a little sister who bangs on your walls at any given moment. Day in, and day out."

A scoff suddenly ejected from the end of the hall, a scoff that Arlee could instantly recognise as Toby's from the amount of times he'd complained today. "Here's a challenge, try living with that," he'd been standing rather close to his step-sister's campaign poster, or throwing immense daggers at it till his wish for Ashley to will away into nothingness forever came true.

Emma moved closer to the neatly thumb tacked poster. "Is that your step-sister ?"

A grumble fell from Toby's lips. "She's not my step-sister." he sternly corrected. "We just happen to be stuck in a forced living arrangement."

"Well, I think she's pretty," Manny appreciatively complimented, admiring the medium 4 by 5 portrait of Ashley that had been pasted in the middle, With Vote for Ash scribed nearly around the parameter.

"I second that," Arlee agreed with a head nod. "She looks like one of those catalog girls from Limited Too."

"Ashley hates that I live in her house, and she hates that I go to her school," Toby expressed, crossing his arms. "Which has obviously never heard of democracy."

Emma raised a brow in confusion. "What are you talking about ?"

Toby reached towards Ashley's poster to yank it off the wall, before he then handed it over to Arlee for some odd reason, "This election. No one's even running against her, she's a shoe in."

"Okay, why don't you run then?" Arlee questioned in a quizzical tone.

Toby let out a silent huff, shaking his head in tune, "Because it would provoke a rupture in our family dynamic," he declared, taking the poster back from Arlee's grasp.

Everyone's features fell into the same puzzled expression, before Toby then went onto further elaborate that it was family counciling speak for 'my dad would kill me'.

Manny shrugged her shoulders. "So? Get someone else to run," and with that, her and Emma were off down the corridor. Arlee would've gone chasing after them, but she could still feel herself getting heavier and more groggy by the minute. So she chose to stay behind with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Four Eyes.

"Yeah right, Who'd wanna run for student council ?" JT quipped as he adjusted his backpack strap. "The whole things a joke."

In that moment, it seemed like both Arlee and Toby's inner light bulb's sparked with similar ideas. They both glanced at one another, before Toby shifted his gaze back to JT. "Did you say joke ?"

JT, Toby, and Arlee continued to move down the semi-packed corridors of Degrassi, trying to spot the boys lockers. She wished that hers was next to theirs, or Manny and Emma's, instead of Spinner Mason. Apparently, it was an accidental mix-up, her name had been cross wired with another random 8th Grader named Allie Barber. But she liked to think that it was intentional, another way to dampen her day.

"No way Toby, I am not doing a joke campaign."

"Come on, JT," Toby shook at the boys shoulders, "It's the perfect way to stick it to Ashley."

"And it'd also be pretty hilarious." Arlee encouraged, softly nudging the boy at his side.

JT still was skeptical, but partially on board with their plan as well. "But it's my first day of Degrassi."

"Exactly. You're in the same boat as a large percentage of the student body. Which is why they'll love you," Toby looked to JT like his life dependend on his sup-par comedic chops and effervescent charisma."Come on, JT, this is your once of a lifetime opportunity."

"—To stick it to Ashley."

Arlee swung her arm around JT's shoulders, "No," she responded, pausing inbetween her words to give Toby a smile before continuing. "It's a chance for you to practice your stand up material on a large percentage of the student body."

"You said my stand up was lame." He deflected with a brow raise.

She flashed an irreverent smile to try and combat her past words. "What do I know about the art of comedy ?"

JT's gaze flickered onto Arlee's arising encouraging smirk, his own reflecting in suit. If he wasn't convinced before, then he was most certainly convinced now. "Keep talking."

"You want to be famous, right ?" Toby questioned, to which JT quickly nodded. "This. Is instant fame. Just think, Assembly..the whole school hanging onto every word."

JT looked back at Arlee once she had removed her arm from his shoulder, as if she was his final push on the right direction. "And you'll do all the work ?" he questioned once more, attention swinging to Toby, who gave him a more than sincere head nod.

"Deal." smiled JT, shaking his hand to seal their solid deal before they then spotted their lockers. "Here we are, right here," JT and Toby approached their lockers and began to try and decode it's combination, whilst Arlee aimlessly stood beside JT. "What if I win ?"

"Trust me, you don't stand a chance."

ronnie speaks ! hey sorry this took a decade to update ‼️ this episode is over 14k words, so the next chapter ( with no number ) is the second part to the family politics episode. but in the mean time, what are we thinking about arlee? federico? y'all ik fede's being a little shit rn but truss me, right now he's supposed to be the embodiment of every 'tries to be cool' middle school boy you ever met in your childhood. well, he's modeld after all the one's who graced my life anyway.