THIS TIME AROUND

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi but, I made up some of the characters in this story

Things can change within a matter of seconds. It always seems like the end of the world when they do and in certain circumstances, it simply is. However, what most people usually overlook is that things can change back at anytime. Somehow it's usually when you least expect it.

Chapter One: Could I Be You?

Colleen Bicknell knew what to expect. The first day back at school after winter break was always consistent for her. Since it was her Senior year, the only change were things would be better. She was a lot like her mother was at her age. She was beautiful, well-liked, well-feared, attractive to the eye and she was on top of the gossip without fail. A lot of girls who hadn't climbed the social ladder like Colleen did were warned not to befriend her, though. Their mothers had known her mother, Paige, or their dads had dated her mother. Colleen didn't mind a single bit, though. She looked at her mom as a goddess. Since her mom had graduated from Degrassi, she had become a successful partner and had now founded her own law firm in the Degrassi community. She had managed to give birth to two beautiful daughters and still look like she stepped off the cover of Teen Vogue. Plus, in Colleen's eyes, her mother had a tremendous relationship with her father.

"Hurry up, Giselle!" Colleen zipped her winter coat to the top and played with the fur on the collar to make sure her look appeared the way she wanted it to. "I said I wanted to arrive fashionably late, not a week later." She sighed exasperated, giving herself one more look in the mirror.

"Be nice to your sister, Collie. She's not fitting in as well as you manage to." Her mother, Paige, warned her with a casual look.
"What do we think of the coat?" Colleen danced around to face her mom and then struck a pose. "Too bulky?"
"You know that I like it. I bought it for you."
"Right. I just don't know, it takes away my figure and makes me look like a giant box."
"Winter coats will do that without fail, my dear." Paige gave a little tug on the fur around her daughter's collar to fix it, slightly. "Giselle! What's taking you?" She called out for her youngest daughter.

Strolling out of the hallway, the youngest Bicknell daughter went to slide on her sneakers. She was all done up, jean skirt, rouched tank top, and enough glitter eye shadow to blind a small country. Both, Colleen and Paige had to laugh.

"What?" Giselle didn't understand what was so comedic.
"It's January, Giselle. You're going to turn into a human popsicle. Go put on pants and a sweater."

Giselle huffed but was too tired to make a fuss. She turned around and dragged her feet back into her room.

"Plus, that's my shirt!" Colleen called.
"Colleen, honey, why don't you start on your way to school? I'll drive Giselle."
"It's fine, Mom."
"No, you're going to be late."
"See, we wouldn't hve this problem if you and dad would loosen up and buy me a car."
"Forget about it." She turned her oldest girl around to face the door. "Have a great day."
"Bye, Mom." Colleen opened their front door with ease and graced the world with her presence.

Paige couldn't figure out how her life had turned out so fantastically but somehow, she was still really disapointed with things. She tried to shake it from her mind and help Giselle with finding something approriate to wear.

On the other end of Degrassi things had never been as glamourus. The Cameron house was about one tenth the size of the Michaelchuck/Bicknell residence and it never ran nearly as smoothly.

Sean was running late for work at his autobody shop. He never bothered to buy an alarm clock because with three grown children in the house, they usually made enough noise to wake him up at the butt crack of dawn but, lately, things hadn't been as noisy. They were still plenty chaotic.

He rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms out. He wandered out of the curtins that were being used as his bedroom door into his pigsty of a living room.

"What time is it?" He yawned at the middle Cameron kid, Cody. Cody was slouched down on the tattered chesterfield watching television in the same clothes he wore yesterday.
"I don't know. Eight thirty, maybe." He shrugged, not averting his eyes from the television screen.
"Shit!" He cursed himself, mostly.
"Dad!" His youngest kid and only daughter called from the kitchen. The Cameron kitchen looked about Polly Pocket sized compared to Paige's kitchen.
"What?" Sean called, still in the living room. He picked up a few random objects from the floor, dirty laundry, CD's, remotes, food wrappers, the usual.
"Your lawyer called this morning. I told him you'd call him."
"Damnit." He cursed himself again, while stubbing his foot on a DVD case. "Did you get his number?"
"Yeah, it's on the fridge."
"Thanks, Penny." He finally surfaced into the kitchen.
"No problem. He said something about scheduling you in for four o'clock."
Sean took a seat on one of the kitchen table chairs and dumped the pile of junk on the table top. His eyes were shut again and he used one hand to rub his eyes. He had been awake a total of four minutes and he was already stressed out.

"Mom called, too." Penny added. She stared down at her dad, who up until the recent days, she'd always idolized as a hero. The man who would take her for ice cream runs at two am when she had a nightmare, who taught her how to fix spark plugs, drive a stick, and even how to hit a home run. Nowadays, he was worn out, grumpy and hostile. She felt like she was living with a completely different father. Sean groaned at the sound of his soon to be ex-wife.

"She wants you to call her back."
"Yeah." He snuffed.
"Anyways, I got to get going to school. I made you some bacon, you might want to re-heat it. I'm going to try and pick up some groceries after school, alright?" She threw one strap of her handy me down backpack over her shoulder.
"Thanks, Penny." He felt ridculous sometimes, the way his fifteen year old daughter did almost everything sensiable around their house.
"I love you, pop." She reached around him and planted a peck on his cheek. "Have a good day." She walked into the living room and shut the television off. "Let's go, Cody."
"I was watching that, you know."
"Just assume that Wylie E. Coyote gets tricked by Road Runner and falls for his own trap." She tossed his backpack at him.

Sean got out of the kitchen chair and picked up the phone that had been left off the hook all night, so it was completely dead.

"Hey! Where's your brother?" He yelled, as Cody and Penny wandered towards the door. "I need to borrow his cellphone." How his oldest son had enough money for a cellphone Sean didn't even want to figure out.
"I don't think he's home." Penny called back. "Do you know where Zac is?" Penny whispered to Cody.
"He didn't come home last night."
"Uh oh." Penny knew what this would bring. It was almost routine to her now.
"Cody, where's your brother?" Cody should know, Sean figured, after all the two boys shared a bedroom.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"He wasn't in his bed this morning."
"Was he when you went to sleep?"
Cody knew he should lie but he also knew his dad was smarter than that.
"No."
"Shit! I swear i'm going to kill that brother of yours."
"Look, we're late for school. Bye, Dad." Penny waved as she and her brother hustled out the door. "It's like a constant war zone in there."
"Whatever." Cody didn't seem to care.
"Maybe, we should stay at mom's new place."

Cody had to snicker, he turned aorund to face his little sister. He couldn't believe how naive she was, ecspecially after everything they had lived though.

"Yeah, Penny, that would go over well with Dad."
He sped up ahead to catch up with his friends, leaving Penny to walk to school alone.

The front lot of Degrassi Community School was packed. Students trenching through the snow and laughing with each other, snowballs being thrown furiously across the fields, cars honking and zig zagging everywhere. It was crazy, you'd think it was a mall at Christmas time.

"You going to be okay, Sydney?" Gavin "Spinner" Mason faced his daughter who was unbuckling herself in the passenger seat. "If it's too soon, you can stay home today. I know your teachers would understand."
"Dad, it's cool."
"Are you sure? You haven't really been as..." He searched for the right word. He wasn't every very good relating to his teenage daughter. Plus, these days he had to be both a father and a mother. "Well, you aren't going out with your friends or anything, I'm just looking out for you."
"Thanks for playing concerned parent, but I'm really fine." Sydney wasn't ever very good at convincing her father. When she was little she told him that Cookie Elves ate all his walnut butterscotch chip cookie dough even without washing her hands. The evidence was clear.
"It's just- Your mom died- Well, Sydney," He kept cutting himself off, this was harder for him it would seem. He noticed his daughter leaning foreword and staring out his window. She looked frazzled by what was going on outside. Gavin turned his head around to check the sights out, too. He came face to face with his old friend, Marco.

Marco was waving like a madman out his window, he was trying his hardest to get Gavins attention. Gavin rolled his window down and chuckled.

"Marco, how are you doing?"
"Great, and you? How was your Christmas?" Gavin was still figuring out how to answer that. Marco right away corrected his error. "Sorry, uh," He leaned foreword in awkwardness. "Hey Sydney, how you doing?" He smiled at Gavin's daughter.
"I'm fine, Mr. Del Rossi, how are you?"
"Great, thanks. Hey, you know my son, right? Spencer?"
She reclined foreword more to check to see if it was the kid she thought it was. Sure enough it was. He was shy and as meek as a church mouse. It was understandable though. He was always ostrasized at school since he had two dads. That wasn't why Sydney didn't interact with him though. Their paths just rarely crossed, they had Applied Math together but that was all and they never spoke during it.

"Yeah, Hey Spencer." She waved, a little weirded out by this whole ordeal.
"Hi." He peeped and waved back. He didn't look her in the eye once, though.
"Why don't you two go inside together? Spencer still doesn't really know his way around."
"Okay." Sydney didn't really care. "Thanks for the ride, Dad." She opened the car door and took her backpack from the car floor.
"Hey, where's my kiss?" Gavin asked, cluelessly. Sydney checked around before leaning in and giving her Dad a quick kiss on the cheek. "Have a good day, Syd." He waved as she slammed the car door.

"What are you doing, Dad?" Spencer couldn't believe how embaressing both his fathers could be.
"I'm trying to help you. You said you weren't any good at making friends."
"You're not any help." Spencer stepped out of the car with his backpack already on his back.
"Look, I've known Mr. Mason since I was a kid, I've known Sydney since she was a baby. She's nice, just try and be friendly, okay?"
"Whatever."

Marco sighed, feeling like a complete and total failure.

Spencer walked away from the vechile and in complete silence he and Sydney Mason wandered into the hectic halls of Degrassi.

"So, seriously, Gavin, how you doing?" Marco hadn't seen Gavin since Gavin's wife funeral at the begining of Winter Break.
"I'm okay." He nodded, trying to be assuring.
"Val was such a fabulous girl."
"Yes, she was." Staring out his dashboard, he nodded. This whole conversation was reeking of awkwardness but, somehow, Marco was oblivious to that.
Thankfully, an impaitent driver behind Marco began to honk non-stop.
"I better go." He checked in his rear view mirror. "I'll see you around, though?"
"Sure. Bye, Marco."
"Bye Gavin." He drove away as quick as he could.

Gavin rested his head back on the chair. He thought he was doing alright but the truth was, he did miss his wife. He was fine when he didn't think about it but that was a rare occasion. He opened his eyes and stared out the windshield only to see the familiar face of Paige Michaealchuck now Paige Bicknell walking over to his car.

"Good morning, your honour." He teased. He was proud that she had fufilled her job of becoming a lawyer. Not to mention, an extremly successful one.
"Hey Chef Mason." She smiled. She reached inside the vechile and wrapped her arms around him to give him a comforting hug. It was akin to the one she gave him at Val's funeral. He patted her on the back, touched but again, awkwarded out. "How's Sydney doin'?" She asked, as she pulled out of the window.
"Actually, I don't really know. She doesn't leave the house at all, really. Occasionally, but not really." He tried to explain but he finally admitted the truth, "I'm worried about her."
"Me too." Paige looked ahead and watched Giselle trench up the stairs and into her school. "She hasn't come over in awhile and Giselle says that she won't return her phone calls." Both Paige and Gavin were happy that though they'd been through thousands of hardships through their teenage years that their kids could become best friends. Giselle and Sydney had been best buddies since daycare.
"I'm encouraging to go out with her friends but, she doesn't seem interested."
"What if I could conjure up a girls night for them? I could take them to the spa, get their nails done, maybe talk to her."
"That'd be great if you could get her to agree, too."
"Are you doubting my convincing skills? You should know of all people, Gavin, nobody refuses Paige."
He chuckled.
"Alright, you work your magic because I haven't been able to do anything with mine."
"I will. I have to rush to work though. I'll see you around?"
"Goodbye, Paige."
"Have a good day." She waved as she trotted back to her car.

"Sydney!" Giselle called while running through the crowded hallways. She shoved her way through the masses of students. It was a miracle she didn't slip on any slude, since her winter boots had no traction whatsoever. She finally caught Sydney at the locker they shared. "What do I have to do to get your attention?"
"Sorry, I'm just preoccupied."
"It's the first day back, what could be on your mind already?"
Giselle and Sydney had always been best friends and Sydney hoonestly believed nothing would ever change that but, lately she really felt like she was growing apart from her best friend. Giselle didn't know how to be empathetic and Sydney didn't know how to pretend she didn't need support.
"Anyways," Giselle babbled on. "I tried calling you a lot over the break. Where'd you banish to?"
"I was just busy."
"I'll say. So, do you want to hang out tonight, maybe?"
"Giselle, It's Wendsday."
"You and I have pulled all nighters on Monday's, what's gotten into you?" Sydney wasn't ready to confess. She burrowed her head in her locker in search of a textbook. "Is it your mom, Syd?" Giselle couldn't understand that. She'd never lost anyone close to her, before. "Shouldn't you be over that by now? It's been, like, a month."

Sydney couldn't believe she was hearing those words in reality, ecspecially from her best friend.
"You're right." She shook her head and the feeling of disbelief. "I'm just being selfish." She tried to convince herself.
"Hey girls!" Colleen yelled from accross the hallway. Giselle and Sydney were the only two sophmores who ever got to hang out with Colleen and her posse. Usually, Sydney glorified that truth but lately, she didn't care.
"I'm going to first period." Sydney wandered away leaving the locker free for Giselle's use.

"See, Alex, now we're late. Great." Jay Hogart, not your typical family man, threw his hands on the steering wheel.
"It's not mom's fault, Dad." Jayson Jr spoke up from the backseat. "I screwed up the gasket on her car." All four of the Hogart family were squishedinto Jay's sunfire.
Alex shot her son a look to shut up through the mirror. She cared too much for her son to let him deal with the wrath of his father.
"Do you want to pay for it then? Do you want to do the labour on it?"
Jayson bit his tounge to the side and averted his eyes away from the angry eyes on his dad.
Alex pulled a pack of cigarettes from the glove compartment and handed one to her husband. He wasn't always like this, she said to herself.
He lit it between his lips and let the smoke smooth it's path through out the vechile.
"I didn't think so. Now get out, you two are late."
"Bye Mom." Tori slid out of the car and reached for her purse. "Bye Dad."
Alex waved meekly at her baby girl but Jay didn't mutter a word. Tori would never know it but her Dad cared for her.
"You want to be a drop out or something?" Jay hissed at his son who had surprisingly made his way to his senior year in high school.
"Don't go wishful thinking now, I don't want to be anything like you." He shot and then reached for the car door, quickly.
Jay tossed his head around with one shot and grabbed Jayson Jr by the collar.
"You think you're a tough guy? Cause you can talk shit but you sure as hell are still a pansy."
"Jay, please." Alex tugged at her husband's arm. "We both have to go to work."
Reluctantly, Jay let go of his son. Jayson freed himself from the car and kicking snow up the front steps he wandered into Degrassi.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jay?!" Alex hissed. She knew she shouldn't start anything but standing up for her children was the only thing she was doing right these days.
"Now, you're going to get on my case? This should be cute." He teased her.
"I should know better. I should call Paige Michaelchuck-Bicknell up right now and follow in the steps of your friend Sean's wife and file for divorce."
Jay slammed his breaks down and they both jolted foreword.
"First of all, Sean Cameron is not my friend and secondly, you wouldn't divorce me because no lawyer is going to let two children stay with a mother who can't manage to stay off the bottle."
"I wouldn't drink, if I hadn't married you."
Jay pulled over on the side of the freeway, cutting off two speeding cars.
"Get out." He commanded.
"My office is on the otherside of town."
"You should've thought about that before you fucked up your car."
"Jay, I know you're too cowardly to talk about this but you need help. You can't keep beating on Jayson-"
"I don't beat our son!" He objected.
"Or picking on Tori."
"I don't - Oh," He sighed deeply. "Alex, you have a very active imagination. It shocks me that you're not more than just sales clerk."
"I can handle you using me as a punching bag but if you so much as lay a hand on my kids again, you will consider yourself lucky to be in jail, alright?" She set her midnight eyes into his. She gave him her death stare and thought it scared him a little, he just reached foreword and pushed her door open.
"Get out, you're already late." He spat out.
Without a thought, she unlatched the seatbelt and stepped out of the car. He didn't even wait for her to close the door, he just sped off, smoke still between his lips.

Read and review please. I've got a lot of ideas for this so I hope somebody enjoys it.

This Time Around - Helen Stellar

Could I Be You - Matchbox 20