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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.
