New story time!

As always, I don't own Degrassi, but I do own the 4 or so original characters in this story (you will see who I mean) and I made up the titles of Eli's books.

I hope you enjoy :)

"We will never get back together; you really need to give up trying!" Clare yelled at a very distraught Eli.

"I was just going to ask you if you wanted to work together to finish this English project. I guess not." Eli said sadly.

Just then she and Eli were transported. They were standing at the altar of a rather large church right now. Eli was holding her hands and wearing the biggest smile that Clare had ever seen; and a lovely black suit. Eli was wearing a suit. Clare looked around to take in the rest of the scene. All of the friends and family were there. Her mom and dad were actually sitting together in the front row. Darcy and Alli were standing right behind Clare wearing matching blue dresses. Clare was not sure how she had gotten here, but she was sure that she was loving every little thing about what was happening right now.

While the preacher was going through his usual sermon, Clare couldn't take her eyes off of Eli. It seemed so strange to her to see him in a church setting, but she knew that Eli would do anything to make her happy. When it came to the part where the preacher said "you may kiss the bride" Eli lifted her veil and leaned in to kiss her.

Clare had never had a more meaningful kiss in her entire life. Every ounce of her was poured into that kiss. Every fear, every hope for the future; Clare did not hold back. She wanted Eli forever and now her wish was coming true.

When Clare pulled out of the kiss something was wrong. She should have been hearing cheers and applause from her family and friends, instead there was only silence. Clare looked up to see that she was no longer in a church. She was standing in a courthouse in front of a tired looking judge. What was even more shocking was who she was with now. Standing next to her, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, was Jake. He had no real emotion on his face. This should have been the happiest day of his life, but he just stood there quietly.

buzz,buzz,buzz

Clare awoke with a start. It was all a dream; Clare had dreamt that she was marrying Eli. Eli, her ex-boyfriend that she hadn't seen in many, many years. It was only a dream, but it was one of those dreams that you would have sworn were really happening. Clare could still feel Eli's kiss on her lips. She could still feel the extreme disappointment that had washed over her when Eli had morphed into Jake.

It was at that moment when Clare's eyes started to tear up. She loved her husband, why was she feeling like this right now? She looked over at her still sleeping husband. He had not aged well. The stress had been getting to him lately and she could see new wrinkles forming around his eyes every day. His once toned stomach was now starting to form a small bulge over his jeans. She had tried to get him to take care of himself more, but he just laughed it off.

Clare leaned over to wake him up and give him a good morning kiss. He hadn't been shaving as often lately and his scruffy face felt like needles stabbing her lips and cheeks when she kissed him. She really hated that feeling.

"Ughhh. It is morning already? I feel like I JUST got to sleep. What time is it?" Jake asked his wife, not bothering to open his eyes.

"It's 6:15. Dad wants you to meet him at seven-thirty to go over the client list, remember? You need to see if you can pick up any new jobs. We really need the money, so you had better get moving!" Clare sternly told her husband.

After high school Jake had two years of schooling in a construction trade school and then he had eventually taken over his father's contracting business. Glen still stayed on as a manager of sorts; it was clear that Jake needed him for that. Jake was never good at dealing with clients, but he was a whiz when it came to construction. He could pretty much do anything with a hammer and nails.

Jake's quality of work was never a problem. The main problem was that no one in the city of Toronto was really building or remodeling anything at the moment. There were always booming years and lean years in the construction business, these past few years had just happened to be extremely lean years.

Jake groaned and rolled over, away from Clare, "Give me fifteen more minutes!"

Clare knew that she shouldn't - Glen would kill them is Jake showed up late again today - but she just did not feel like arguing today. Clare just wanted one day a week that she didn't have to deal with an argument.

As Clare got herself out of bed and started to get ready for the day, she couldn't help but think back to the dream that she just had. What had it meant? She knew that she didn't have the happiest marriage around, but why, after all these years, would she be having a dream about Eli. It must mean something.

By the time she was showered and dressed, Clare still couldn't get the thoughts of Eli out of her mind. She went back into her bedroom to see if Jake was getting dressed yet, and sure enough, he was still lying in bed. At least he was actually awake today, Clare thought to herself.

"Come here, babe!" Jake grinned from his side of the bed.

"Not today, Jacob," Clare said sternly, "You need to get dressed and go meet your father. Right now."

"Oh come on. Five minutes," Jake had tried to give his best sad puppy face, but Clare wasn't falling for it.

"Oh, believe me, I know it would only take five minutes, but you need to go to work early and I need to get the kids up and ready for school. So you can get that out of your mind, it is not happening right now!" Clare was on the verge of yelling, but she tried to keep her voice down so that the kids would not overhear their conversation.

How could Jake even think of sex at a time like this? Oh, right, he wasn't the one having dreams about marrying his ex. That was all in Clare's mind.

Clare left Jake lying in their bed and headed to the living room. She still had a few minutes to kill before she had to wake up her children, so she thought she would watch some television. She wanted to get caught up on the local news.

Clare was hoping to hear something about the economy turning back around. Maybe people would start building again. Jake needed more work; the business wasn't doing very well. If only he could find some new clients.

"...And coming up at the top of the hour: hometown author now rumored to be gay. We have an exclusive interview." blasted from the television when Clare turned it on.

"Oh who cares?" Clare said out loud.

After that Clare sat and watched a series of commercials. The news finally returned and the only thing that the newscasters seemed to want to talk about was the weather. When it became obvious to Clare that she wasn't going to hear anything worthwhile, she decided to get a head start on making breakfast.

Just as Clare was putting the pancakes and bacon on the table she realized that her oldest child, Elisa, was already awake and sitting on the couch watching TV.

Elisa was fifteen years old already. Clare could not believe how quickly the time had passed since she first got pregnant with Elisa. Her daughter was growing up so fast! Clare's mom had always said that Elisa had Clare's eyes. It was true. Elisa had the most beautiful blue eyes. Clare's only daughter also had the same light brown, curly hair and the same short haircut that Clare had when she was fifteen. Sometimes Clare did a double take when she saw her daughter. To Clare, it was as if she was looking at a mirror into the past. There were times when Clare could not even believe how much Elisa looked like her when she was younger.

"Leelee, honey, can you please wake up your brothers for me?" Clare asked her daughter.

"Moooommmmm, my favorite author is going to be on soon! I woke up early just so I could watch this before school. I really, really, really don't want to miss it. He rarely gives TV interviews. My brothers never want to get up; they'll make me miss it. Please mom?" Elisa begged her mother.

"Yes, fine. I'll get them. Breakfast is ready if you want some," Clare was just happy that her daughter was still interested in reading and authors instead of those violent video games that her sons loved so much.

"Junior. Thomas. Daniel. Time to wake up!" Clare yelled as she walked down the hall to start the tiring process of waking up her sons; two teenage boys and one pre-teen boy. Clare wondered how she had ended up with such difficult children. They were adorable, though, she had to admit it.

Her three boys were the spitting image of their father. Clare thought back to how handsome their father was when he was younger; the light brown hair, the cocky smile. He was so tall and muscular; no wonder Clare fell for him.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Elisa was settled on the couch with her pancakes and bacon. She was so excited to watch her favorite author. This was the first television interview that she had ever seen him give.

"We are here with Eli Goldsworthy, author with local roots. He has just released his fifth book and he is here with us today to give us an exclusive interview. So Eli, is it okay if I call you Eli?" The interviewer, a pretty young girl with long, dark hair, started. Eli just shook his head yes, "So, Eli, your fifth book. How does it feel?"

"It's strange, you know. People recognize me on the street now. Even when I'm in Manhattan, where my publisher is, people recognize me. It is such a surreal experience to be in the busiest city in the world, with people rushing by left and right and to get pick out of a crowd. People are always coming up to me telling me how much they love my books," Eli paused and a smirk spread across his face, "That's not why I got into this business, but I have to admit, it pretty damn awesome."

The interviewer laughed at Eli. It was pretty obvious that she was taken by his charm.

"New York is huge. It is pretty amazing that people are able to spot you. Do you get to spend much time in Toronto anymore?"

"Yes, actually. As much as I love New York, Toronto will always be my home. I still own a house here and my parents still live here. I try to spend all of my free time here, when I'm not on book tours or working on editing in New York. I actually can't write in any other city. Toronto just gets my creativity flowing I guess." Eli smirked again.

"What is your new book about, Eli?"

"It's about love and loss." Eli was very short with his answer. His face kind of dropped for a milli-second before he recovered and resumed his signature smirk.

"That's pretty vague. Can you elaborate?" The interviewer pushed.

Eli shrugged, "I guess you are just going to have to read it."

"Okay, okay. I can see we're not going to be able to get it out of you. How about we talk about your recent philanthropy? You have recently donated a great sum of money to many wonderful LGBT organizations in both Canada and the United States. Would you like to tell us about that?" The interviewer asked.

"There isn't much to tell. I have made a lot more money than I need. I cannot justify spending all of this money on myself so I donated it to some worthy causes." Eli responded politely.

"All of these 'worthy causes' have been transgender and gay rights organizations. A lot of people have assumed that means that you are gay. Do you have anything to say about that?"

"I am not going to confirm nor deny those accusations. That is my personal life and I do not really feel comfortable sharing that with the entire world. As for the donations, I choose organizations that were near to my heart." Eli should have known that question was going to come up.

"Well, I sure hope you're not gay!" The interviewer blurted out then became visually embarrassed with herself. "I just mean that you are a very attractive and sensitive man. You are probably making some lucky girl - or guy I suppose - very happy." The interviewer looked over at Eli as if begging him to help her.

When Eli just smiled back at her, the interviewer continued, "Well, I guess that is all the time we have for today. Eli Goldsworthy; go buy his newest book, 'Anything But A Love Story'. It's now in stores everywhere. Thanks, Eli." The interviewer finished and the camera started to pan zoom out.

The channel went to commercial just as Clare finally followed all three of her sons into the kitchen for breakfast. Her husband was not far behind.

Jake grabbed his breakfast and went to join his daughter on the couch, leaving Clare at the breakfast table with the three boys.

"What are we watching this morning, Lee?" Jake asked his only daughter. Jake still didn't know how to talk to young girls. He usually just treated her as if she were a boy. He called her Lee because, to him, it was a male name. Jake could not really deal with the fact that he had a girl.

"Just the news. My favorite author was giving an interview, but I think it's over now," Elisa told her father.

"Did you happen to catch the score of the game? I think it might have gone into over time, I fell asleep before it was over," Jake wondered why he had to have such a strange daughter. If he was going to have a daughter couldn't she have at least been a tomboy? Nope, instead Elisa loved to read and write and all that lame stuff that Jake couldn't stand. She never liked to get her hands dirty or play sports with the boys.

"No, Dad, sorry. They haven't shown it yet."

"Dad?" Elisa asked hesitantly, "Could I... could I possibly have some money to buy a new book?"

"You have a library card. You can go after school and borrow as many books as you want," Jake was mentally rolling his eyes. Books, always more books.

"It's just... it's just that the book I want is brand new. The library won't have it yet. Plus, it's my favorite author. I'd love to own one of his books." Elisa explained.

"New means expensive. I'm sorry; we don't have that kind of money to be wasting on books right now."

"Okay," Elisa was disappointed. She knew her parents weren't really doing that great with money right now, but at least she wasn't like her brothers. They were always asking for a new fifty or sixty dollar video game every month. If her father could afford new video games, certainly he could afford one silly little book.

Elisa was becoming so upset with her father. She knew she just had to walk away before she said anything that might get her in trouble. Her friend, Seth, would be here soon to walk her to school, anyway. She needed to be ready when he got here so that her father wouldn't have time to question him, like he always tried to do.

Elisa walked back out to the living room, after getting ready for school, to find her father standing in the front doorway questioning Seth. Poor Seth. They were only friends. No need for her father to harass him like he always did.

"DAD!" Elias yelled, "Leave Seth alone! He's not my boyfriend. We are JUST FRIENDS. We have been friends for years now. When are you going to leave him alone?"

"I will leave you both alone when my only daughter stops having a weird little boy as her best friend. What is wrong with girls your age? Please, just get some girlfriends. It would save your poor father a lot of worry." Jake told his daughter. If she was going to act like a little girl, Jake was going to treat her like a little girl. And there was no way that he was letting his little girl near boys without putting up a fight. Jake was fifteen once. He knew what fifteen year old boys wanted. This Seth kid may be really strange, but he was still a fifteen year old boy. He was not letting his daughter get mixed up with any of that.

"You are so ridiculous, Dad! You really need to -"

"Come on, Eli. Time for school, let's go," Seth interrupted his best friend and dragged her out the door before she could say anything that would make her father even more mad. "Goodbye Mr. Martin. Have a nice day!" Seth called out as he continued to lead Elisa away from her house.

Jake was fuming, "Who does that boy think he is?" He called out to his wife.

"He's just her friend, dear," Clare answered.

"And why in the hell does he call her Eli? Her name is Elisa, dammit! Elisa, or Lee, or Lisa, NOT Eli! I will not have my grandmother's good name associated with that freak we went to Degrassi with." Jake was raising his voice in anger at the thought of his daughter being called THAT name.

"At least I have my boys to keep me sane, right boys?" Jake laughed at his sons shoveling pancakes in their mouths.

"Right Dad!" They all answered back.

"When do I get to meet that new girlfriend of yours, Junior?" Jake asked his oldest son.

"Soon, Dad, real soon. Just got to make it official, if you know what I mean." Jacob told his father.

"That's my boy!" Jake said, beaming with pride at his oldest son.