V. 1.05. 'PARENT'S DAY'

There came a trivial point in the average academic school year that reigned heavy in importance for every teacher, and existed to merely make or break the students. Long chats in an empty classroom discussing grades, idle empty chatter between two adults who beyond the caged classroom they found themselves in, would've spark up a conversation.

Improve on this. Do more of that. Syllabus. Marking Scheme. Blah. Blah. Blah

Normal kids dreaded that. They hid the reminder letters with the schools emblem on the top from their parents till it was too late to hide it anymore. Even if their attendance was pristine and their grades were even more marvellous, a lining of anxiety that even an inkling of your school character leaking to your parent's still existed.

But in Arlee's case, when she'd gotten reminder about Parent's Day from Mr Simpson the first time around, she had been the first person to remind her father about it when he'd dropped his briefcase on the couch and every single day after that till it was just a day away. Much to Federico's gruelling dismay.

And every single day when she'd tell him about it, he'd form or a rare case of amenesia that made him forget about it. But not about the meeting he needed to attend that afternoon just an hour prior to it, or the groceries, couldn't forget that either.

Arlee waited for her moment to swoop in as she sat at the kitchen table with her bag strewn across it, mindlessly swirling the soggy left other bits of off-brand cornflakes that lined her bowl. Turning edible goodness into a condensed gloop of mess.

Thunderous footsteps came from the staircase and she peered up in anticipation, only to be disappointed by Federico and his heavy invisible cloud of cologne descending. With his unfinished homework and bags cluttered in his hands, he dumped it all on her side of the table and went on his merry way to scavenge for something to pick-up that counted as breakfast.

"Don't touch that, it's for your father."

Abuela warned him lowly from her place at the helm of the kitchen island without having to break concentration from pleating Talita's hair for school.

Federico still meandered in the hopes of her changing her mind about forfeiting their father's breakfast to him. "Then what am I supposed to eat?"

Her gaze not-so subtly shifted towards the box of cornflakes next to Arlee. Federico stared over like he'd been told to just eat rocks, but still went for the cornflakes anyways. Only to tip them over and find that there was nothing more than a couple crumbs left of him, courteous of Arlee and her gluttonous appetite. "The box is empty."

"Ponte creativo, entonces Federico !" exclaimed Pilar, slamming down the picking comb that had once been wedged into Talita's hair. "En serio, necesito enseñarles a cocinar a los niños, tal vez podría evitar que piensen que soy su sirvienta en vivo."

Arlee scooted her chair back at the opportunity to get in her Federico dig of the day. "I could never think that about you Abuela."

Perturbed, Federico glanced away from their grandmother and weaved his way behind her seat in defeat at scoring a cooked breakfast. But not without a measly shove to the shoulder. "Suck-up."

There was never a dull day in their house. That's what she loved about it. But, there was always somebody missing from all the chaos.

Another set of lighter footsteps creaked against the staircase, and this time, Araceli came sauntering in with an egregiously large amount of hair rollers in her already naturally sheen of curls, a tattered bathrobe, and a slightly pained expression from whatever beauty routine she'd just subjected herself to in the bathroom prior to making her guest appearance at breakfast.

The hilarity of her disarrayed appearance was clearly felt, as Arlee drank a spoonful of the darkened milk on her spoon to suppress her flicker of amusement. Talita didn't take the same sentiments in hiding her beaming grin, and Pilar was already ready to hit Araceli with her sardonic, yet blunt, commentary about how she looked. "Mi bella durmiente."

"Mamá..." Araceli mumbled with a trace of fatigue. She picked up a stary fork that had been left right next to the plated breakfast meant for Ignacio and didn't think twice about starting on it. Which prompted Federico to immediately stare at their Abuela slightly dumbfounded and disgruntled at what he was witnessing. "Kids."

Finally, the man of the hour, and the least seen in the humble abode, came crashing through the door that led into the living room already prepped for work in a height of stifled urgency.

"Keys, Keys, Keys." A lift of Arlee's bag. A peel back of old mail left unattended. And not a single good morning from Ignacio. "Has anyone seen the keys to my car? I'm running late for an early conference."

"Well they're not in the fridge." stated Araceli when Ignacio went to open the fridge doors and sort through the stacks of vegetables and half-open cartoons of juice. "Have you checked around the computer?"

In his guided eurika moment, Ignacio shut the doors to the fridge and wasted no time heading right back out from where he came from like he was in the midst of a hot pursuit.

"Dad...wait—"

Arlee basically had to spring into action to get his attention. Or what was left of it.

"What is it Arlena?"

She cleared her throat. For her father. Not normal kid stuff, she could definitely say that. "Are you gonna come to Parent's Day tomorrow?"

Federico sent a warning glare at her to stop whilst she was ahead. "Arlee."

"Parent's Day?"

It seemed like he didn't have much to worry about though.

"Yeah, remember, I told you about it." Arlee hiked up the enthusiasm in her tone. "The teachers tell you about how you're doing and stuff. You've never really gone for any of ours before, and I just thought, maybe you could try it this year."

Federico jumped to block her promising advertisement. "He, uh, went to mine last year, don't think he needs to relive the experience a second time round."

"It also falls during my working hours." stated Ignacio in toe, his hand still pressed against the door.

Arlee's lips fell flat. "But you get off work at 6:45. And Mr Simpson said that Parent's Day starts at 4:30."

"There's always next year." He compromised due diligently. "I trust you two enough to know that you're succeeding in school without me having to sit across from your teacher on one of those rickety plastic chairs. And anyway, it's a little early in the year for a Parent-Teacher conference, you're barely into the 7th Grade."

And without breaking a sweat, he was gone again. Just like he did every morning. And every evening once his 20 millionth meeting of the eve had wrapped for the day and he needed a minute to 'himself'. Arlee couldn't really remember a time since, well, since her Mom, where she'd actually managed to catch her father in a moment. Most times it felt like she'd have a better chance properly talking to him if she got pencilled in for an appointment along with his other 10 clientele.

When Arlee migrated back to the kitchen table and briefly took her seat, Federico immediately taped her shoulder. Already knowing what he was about to whisper-scold her over, she didn't bother to give him her undivided attention and reached for her school bag.

"Hey, what was that all about?"

"What?"

Federico tutted at her purposefully faked coyness. "Campaigning for Dad to show at Parent's Day like any of us are top students?"

Arlee rose from her chair, pushing her bowl away and placing one strap of her bag against her shoulder. "It's not about that."

His mouth fell open to counter that claim with his hard doubt about her not having an unseen ulterior motive, but Federico was beaten to the punch by their Dad's loud brazen voice projecting from beyond the kitchen walls.

"Arlena! Federico! your friends are at the door!"

At least that was something. Arlee could let JT and his never-ending talking make her shake off the unwarranted dejectedness she was feeling. Tell a corny pun or ten. Complain for a solid 5 minutes straight about how his grandma diminished the amount of hours he was allowed to stay up late again just for kicks. She'd even take hearing Toby trying to explain the programming of an online computer game that none of them had asked him to detail.

However, upon vacating the kitchen first with her backpack drooping from one shoulder and mood in murky waters, the first person Arlee came across just inches from her front door wasn't JT. Or Toby. It was Spinner. And for a flighting second, something caught In the back of her throat and stagnated her movements.

Spinner had been in distant chatter with Jimmy, peering back briefly at JT and Toby between it to snicker something about them being 'spocky' and from another planet to him. Whatever that meant.

He clocked Arlee soon enough, and, without missing a beat, let the beginnings of a smirk form against his blotchy features.

"Federina."

They were back to the way things were. Square One. But what had changed was their tolerance for being within the same vicinity as one another for longer than a couple seconds. A clear friendship perhaps? No, she couldn't say that. The events of the dance had been nothing more then him acting out of delayed panic over the idea of dancing with Paige, a girl who he obviously had some sort of an attraction to, by taking the easier bait. That was the only logical solution.

Arlee had only been in Degrassi for 3 weeks, sure, but even she was aware of the prowess and allure that Paige Michealchck had in their school. Girls wanted her notoriety and guys couldn't help but stop and stare whenever she wore one of her many distinct baby-tees. Paige was ideal junior high hierarchy. Who Arlee was hoping had the ability to forget faces.

"Blockhead."

She kept walking without turning back towards the sidewalk. Putting up the same brazen defence wall of fake bitterness and a 'I don't like you, and you tolerate me' attitude that had existed between them before that Friday's eve. And as far as she was concerned she was okay with putting them both back in that glass framed box...maybe. Not for certain. Whenever her stupid flurry of confused feelings would shut up and let her see things for what they were.

Yeah, that was better.

"What took you so long?" complained JT the moment Arlee got to his side, one foot on the ground, the other planted against the torn plastic sheeth of the deck of his scooter. "We had to make small talk with Pit Bull Boy and Jimmy Brooks."

"Small talk?" Arlee let out a strenuous chuckle, and made the choice to turn back around again. Federico had come out after straggling behind her and instantly went to Spinner to do their high five-low five handshake. Bro shake. According to her darling of a big brother, the term handshake sounded to kid on a playground and was embarrassing.

Just in the corner of her eye, she spotted her father get into his new Buik Rendezvous that he'd managed to get from the three years of quick-saves, a hefty bonus and way too many extra hours. It was all their car, he'd say. Our pride and joy.

He shut the driver's side behind him with a large thud and threw his briefcase to the back, waved Federico, Spinner and Jimmy off just to be courteous, then backed out of their tiny cracked driveway and drove away with all the alertness he'd been displaying at breakfast.

A new day, A new customer, The same old blank canvas of a background to stare at.

JT let out a rather dramatic huff that snapped Arlee out of her daze. "Okay, less small talk and more them ominously standing behind us and laughing. But it was still really uncomfortable."

"I would pay good money to see that." stated Arlee, her concentration veered swiftly as the three had began their trek to school when she'd noticed how hyper-focused Toby had been on his watch. "Why do you keep intensely staring at your watch?"

Her prevailing query fell deaf to Toby's ears, so JT decided to answer it instead. "He's counting down the hours till Parent's Day."

"Wow, a countdown?" Arlee arched a brow in exclamation, even though she'd been basically doing the complete opposite with her Dad. "I didn't know you were that excited."

"The opposite, actually." corrected Toby. "Parent's Day is going to be a day of ultimate carnage and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself before I have to live through it."

Arlee tsked in reaction to his overreaction. "You get one C in Math and now you think it's the end of the world."

"You wouldn't get it." was all Toby could mutter in reply. "28 hours, 20 minutes, 6.001 seconds till my hell scape starts. Now it's 28 hours, 19 minutes..."

"I'm gonna scoot myself into the road if you keep doing that." grumbled JT, loosining the grip on his scooter handle.

"6.00 seconds."

"28 hours, 14 minutes, 7 seconds. 28 hours, 14 minutes—" Toby was still in a constant mumbling loop to himself even after they'd made it to school, dropped what they needed to discard in their respected lockers, and were on pursuit to their first

It took JT all of 30 seconds to finally reach his breaking point. "Would you stop with the countdown please?"

Snappishly, Toby lowered his arm from his perpherial and stuck his attention to JT in immediate defence mode. "Sure, you've got Parents' Day in the bag."

"What?" said JT at his sardonic jape, and severed it right back to him when Toby gave him an 'you know exactly what i'm talking about' stare and head tilt. "Ok, you Einstein. Me, brain-dead."

Arlee adjusted the strap of her bag when it began to sag from her shoulder. "At least your parents want to come, my one is actively choosing to stay late at work to avoid Parent's Day."

Toby looked over at her as if she was insane. Quite possibly, she was. She had gotten way less then sleep then normal the night prior to school. "And you're seriously complaining about that?"

"Yeah, you should be grateful that he didn't wanna show." agreed JT. "After that F you got on the World History quiz, he'd blow his top."

"At least he'd have a clear enough schedule to blow his top at me." lamented Arlee weakly.

JT's nose scrunched in perplexity. "That made zero sense."

"At least your parents aren't homicidal maniacs." contested Toby back.

At that sudden news, JT gave him all his undivided attention. "I thought Kate and Jeff were getting along great."

"I'm not talking about Kate."

"Your mom's coming tomorrow?" JT came to a halting pause in sheer shock. Evidently, Toby's mom being on the scene was a massive mega deal. "Oh, man. I should sell tickets. Remember that time at camp when they both came to pick you up?"

Toby winced at the displeasure of that buried memory. "Don't remind me."

"Can't you just ask your mom not to come?" suggested JT. "Or hope she pulls an Arlee's Dad and decides to work over-time instead of coming tomorrow?"

Naturally, Arlee shot a seething glare at him silently but didn't find it in herself to escalate her annoyance at his unwarranted jab by giving him a jab to his elbow. If anything, him bringing it up again made her rewind back to the moment she'd so politely asked him to try and make the effort to attend and he'd more or less told her that he'd rather listen to a bunch of suits tell him about their haywire stocks then listen to her

Again, she was fully aware that most kids would count that as some blessed miracle. And that maybe, just maybe, Arlee had to start being a little more reasonable.

"My mom's a casting agent, working over time isn't a thing for her." explained Toby. "And if I asked her not to come then it would start the ultimate nuclear custody war. All carnage and super messy on both sides."

"Maybe they won't start screaming this time."

A light scoff fell from Toby's lips. "Yeah. And maybe Mr. Armstrong won't tell your parents about the D on your last math test."

At that aghast reminder, JT was overcome with sudden worry. "How much time do we have left?"

"28 hours, 13 minutes, and 17 seconds. 28 hours, 13 minutes, and 16 seconds. 28 hours, 13 minutes, and 15 seconds....."

Both boys scurried along the hall in a new rush of anxiousness and disappeared into the quickening teems of grouped kids swamping the halls, leaving Arlee about 10 paces behind them and 10 miles deep in her own let-down about good ol' Parent's Day.

"Okay Class, Quiet Down." Mr Simpson stood at his ajar classroom door as more of his students traipsed inside of the class in slow numbers. Arlee tossed her book bag aimlessly on the empty chair beside Sean since her usual space beside JT had been already taken by Liberty for today. Not that she cared, of course, there was no designated seating plan after all.

The sudden thud made Sean look up from the forum that he had been surfing on. "Uh, you alright?"

"Yeah," Arlee responded, forgetting to lower her own voice. "No.." she slung her book bag on the chair's frame. "Honestly, I don't know."

Sean's gaze flickered back to the computer screen, "Well, that sucks," he mused a little flatly, closing a tab.

The classroom lights dimmed around them before Arlee could have her moment to even explain what had been bugging her. Which in her case, was probably for the best.

"Alright. We don't have Ashley today, but we do have this weeks News About Kids broadcast." announced Mr Simpson with a sense of jubilee that was severally lacking in the rest of the class once he'd managed to finally adjust and steady the AV trolley and the array of tripable wires that were at risk of tangling beneath his feet.

The News About Kids. A show that was made to not only educate pre-teen's on the global issues that were currently happening around them, but was also invented to bore children half to death. She didn't hate the program per se, in fact, Arlee had found the boy presenter rather endearingly appealing at one point. Which made her tune in a little bit closer whenever a teacher would turn it on as a substitute for actual classes.

But there was someone who did dislike them highly with a pure passion.

"Uh, not NAK again." Emma lamented in the form of a mumble.

Mr Simpson picked up the tiny remote control from the corner of the cart and beelined his attention to her at that. "Em? Something you wanna share?"

Emma let out a crestfallen sigh. "No, Mr Simpson," she simply remarked, before slipping into her normal seat behind Sean.  Arlee spared the girl a glance one last time, and judging by her sudden change in demeanour, she knew she'd be having to listen to one of Emma's infamous rants about whatever topic was going to be brought up during today's broadcast.

Pivoting his lanky frame to face the screen, Mr Simpson turned on the TV.  And in an instant, two abnormally happy teenagers flashed onto the once blank space.

"Hi, I'm Ryan and This is Nicole!"

Their voices were nauseatingly cheery.  Artificial. Yet, Arlee still perked up in her seat slightly to look at Ryan's face, more specifically his dimples that deepened as he talked. "And Welcome to the NAK: News About Kids. Today we'll be talking about something that infests major cities everywhere."

She tried to guess what the answer would be before Nicole could have the chance to spring it on her. Pollution? Over-Population? Bizarre Fashion Sense? It definitely had to be something about their choices in accessories, or lack their of.

"And we're not talking cockroaches—"

Extra Food Courts in Malls ?

"We're talking squeegee kids."

Close enough

Ryan made sure to brighten his grin to infinity when the camera panned back to him again. "Stalking street corners, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting cars,"

At this, Arlee couldn't help but roll her eyes. They made squeegee kids seem like ravenous pests, and not children who were trying to make a living even if they got nothing in return. "Hijacking your hard earned money for drugs and tattoos."

Her dwindling interest and mixed reaction to that mislabelling on kids who any slightly more empathetic person could see were in unasked for desperation, made Arlee completely check out from there on out and focus on other things. Like discreetly drawing up a sheet of X's and O's and roping Sean Cameron into it of all people.

He'd been stand-offish at her request at first, like she'd expected. That was just his nature with people who weren't in his comfort orbit. But eventually, after several minutes, she received a tap on the shoulder and her crumbled piece of lined paper back with an ink blot of an o right below her X.

They continued like that for a couple rounds. 6, specifically. So much so that by the time she'd finally managed to get her three in a row and flip it around to show him in silent triumph, the broadcast had completly come to a close and the lights to the classroom lit up again.

"Remember guys, you're here for media studies after lunch."

Arlee swiftly shot out of her chair and grabbed her bag upon hearing those words, throwing out one last rushed thanks towards Mr Simpson before leaving the classroom.

Just like she'd expected, NAK had managed to push more than several of Emma's buttons.  And this time, it didn't seem as though she was going to seize in airing out her 1 million reasons why it was ruthless child propaganda, as well as their lack of care in presenting sensitive topics to their dimly and distracted viewers across the school nation.

"Em, it was just a tv show." Manny was the one to take the reins in calming Emma down a little as they winded and weaved their way through the school halls.

"A boring TV show at that." Truthfully, Arlee also hadn't appreciate the way they'd portrayed squeegee kids, but unlike her over outspoken friend, she didn't have the energy nor the passion to actually say anything. The only thing that raced her mind currently was what would be on the Cafeteria menu for the day.

Plus, their reasoning for showing the program every other day was ultimately for a good cause. Arlee had learned that a large percentage of the profits made from the company behind NAK went to keeping school computers available for children who couldn't afford to have technology. A main source that was beneficial for education, and in some cases, survival.

Liberty tutted lightly from her position beside Emma. "Those kids are very annoying,"

Emma threw a look of pure offence towards her, brows drawing nearer. "No, they're poor, they live on the streets and they wash windows. It's their living."

"My father says, that if one more of those raggamuffins tries to dirty up his windows, he'll call the mayor. He knows the mayor," Liberty stated matter of factly. Whether that was really true was a debate in of itself.

Choosing to gloss over acknowledging Liberty's overconfident conformation about her father being in close cahoots with the mayor, Arlee saw Emma open her mouth to continue, and rushed at the chance to speak first.  "Em, I get that you're mad about the broadcast and the way they portrayed squeegee kids, but those videos are actually really resourceful to the school."

Emma sent a puzzled look her way.  "You just said it was boring a couple minutes ago."

"Things can be boring and resourceful at the same time, kinda like teachers." She refuted with a simple shoulder shrug.

"And homework." added Manny in support on her more double entandra stance.

"That too." nodded Arlee. "Those weirdo infomercials are the only reason why we even have computers in the first place, from what I've heard. NAK funds for Public school technology around our area, technology that not all of us have access to 24/7."

Emma chewed on the corner of lower lip for a moment, trying to figure out how to dig herself out of the hole she was burying herself in. "Yeah,  I obviously know that. But why can't they get their funding from another, less brainwashy corporation? I mean, Last week NAK told us to join the army. What's tomorrow? A hole in the O-Zone is good because it makes a better tan?" she was a broken record, forever looped to the same mundane tune that could drive a person insane after awhile.

But that was Emma all over really. She was a bull to the colour red. When she saw something that she was against, she did anything in her power to refute the messages and take her stance to stop it. Her target of the day? NAK.

With all her means for extra debating,  Arlee could definitely see her friend passing debate in high school with flying colours. And maybe even taking up a position in politics one day.

"Imagine being a squeegee kid, out in the cold. No school, No parents."

Toby, who'd just began to walk behind the trio along with JT,  perched up at the mention of vacant parents. "No parents?"

Emma took a large step backwards to face him. "This isn't a joke,  Toby," as she moved back one last time again, she suddenly collided into Sean's side. The pair looked at one another with awkward blank stares, and both Manny and Arlee took that opportunity to give each other an all to knowing side glance.

"He stared right at you," Manny remarked ecstatically when Sean was completly out of ear-shot.

Emma kept her eye contact fixed on him as he rounded the corner. "Yeah, because I bumped right into him."

ronnie speaks ! i'm back after, 8 months...ooft. haven't really been on wattpad the app in general that much anymore for numerous reasons, one of them being that i sunk down the ao3 unapologetically + have been going through some ish in my personal life, but I thought about updating this cuz its a cute story that deserves some love love love.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter ! tell me what ur feeling so far. this is just the first part btw, the second and if I can't fit everything in one place, third will be posted separately like I did with other chapters too.

but, uh, yeah, if u wanna see more pwese comment 🫶🫶 comments are motivation fuel for me. and unlike my other stories that have fan attention on here that is still kinda alive the degrassi one wavers from here to there. anyway, thank u for reading ;)