AN: Hello all, two chapters so soon after each other! Don't hold me to this kind of posting schedule, please, haha! But, to be fair, I don't know how I'll be posting in the next week with the holiday and my birthday coming up so I wanted to make sure I got another chapter up sooner rather than later. Plus I got this chapter done sooner than I expected so I figured I'd give it to you all now rather than wait on it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or it's characters, just this idea.

Chapter Seven: What is Going On?

The dial tone rings through the house when her mother hangs up the phone and Clare's frozen. It feels like a nightmare. Like a terrible, horrible, freaking dream that she's going to wake up from. All of this is a dream...the pregnancy, getting kicked out, her father's infidelity, her mother divorcing him and leaving him. Even Drew and Bianca don't know what to do, they're looking at Clare who's so still in the middle of the living room that they don't know if she's even breathing.

Her cell phone vibrates and rings in her pocket and before she can get it out, she knows that it's her mother. Knows that Helen's probably trying to reach Clare during school hours so that she can leave Clare a voicemail like she'd just left Randall, but Clare's determined not to let her mother have that satisfaction. Tugging the phone out of her pocket, Clare sits down on the couch of her living room and rests her hands on the last box. With a shaky hand, and probably a shaking voice, Clare answers her phone, "Hi mom."

"Clarebear," Helen gasps before continuing, "honey, I didn't expect you to answer. Aren't you in school? Tell me you're not skipping your classes." Helen's voice is scolding, like the mother Clare expects to be speaking to her. She's not sure what to say, how to handle that. She looks over at Drew and Bianca who are still standing in the corner of the room, both of whom are avoiding looking directly at Clare but have sympathetic glances in her direction.

"No mom, it's lunch time. What's up?" Clare decides it's best to play dumb to the fact she's just overheard her mother's plans to divorce her father. Something that the teenager is still processing, that she never expected. Even when her parents were fighting, were at their worst with fighting, she never thought that things would be as bad as a divorce. Perhaps that was naive of Clare to believe, but it was what she was raised to believe. Divorce was a sin, divorce was something that you did not do. And yet, here she was, sitting in her family living room where her mother just left her father a voicemail telling him she was leaving him.

"Oh, well, sweetheart, I was...I was expecting to leave you a voicemail not to talk to you. I, uh," Helen pauses and stops talking like she doesn't know what to say and Clare doesn't know what to say either.

"Is everything okay, mom? Are you at work, it sounds echoy wherever you are." Clare replies, shrugging her shoulders. If she's going to have to talk to her mother on the phone and have this conversation and beat around the bush, she's going to poke the bush with a stick to get it to tell her exactly what's going on.

"I'm at the airport." Helen answers quickly. "Everything's fine. I'm going to stay with Nana and Pop for a while. They're fine, everybody is fine."

"Then why are you going to Nana and Pop's?" Clare asks. She's doing her best to play dumb, but there's so much going through her mind. Her own problems are swirling through her thoughts as well as the words she just heard on the answering machine, leaving you, divorce, cheating. Clare doesn't know what to think. Her Christian parents, her super Christian raised by the bible and made their children go to Church camp every summer Christian parents were getting divorced and her father was cheating on her mother for years apparently. But, no, Clare's not supposed to know that. Clare has to play dumb.

"There's a lot you don't know, Clarebear. I love you so much, sweetheart, and I am a phone call away if you need anything." Helen's voice breaks, like she might start crying and it only brings tears to Clare's eyes. Clare isn't sure if the tears come to her own eyes because she's sad or angry or hurt or all of the above, but she just nods her head and listens while her mother continues to speak to her. "But your father and I are separating, and it's best if I stay somewhere else right now."

"But Nana and Pop live in Calgary." Clare argues with her mother, shaking her head. "I want you here. I...I know I'm staying with the Torres' and you and dad kicked me out but I didn't expect that you'd be going all the way to Calgary and separating from dad! What's going on?"

"There's a lot of things you just wouldn't understand, Clarebear." Helen sighs, and Clare can tell her mother is getting frustrated with the conversation, but Clare has more questions. She wants to know more about this and she needs to know what's going on with everything.

"Look, I'm not a baby. I'm not going to break so easily with every little thing like you and dad think I am, I can handle a lot more than you think. So whatever it is that you're keeping from me, just tell me. I think I can handle it." Clare insists, biting her lip and toying with the top of the box she's been leaning on. She just wants her mother to tell her the truth, so she doesn't have to act like she doesn't know already from overhearing the voicemail from before.

"But you're my baby, Clare." Helen explains. "And I don't want you to think any differently of..."

Clare cuts her mom off, "Of you? Of dad? Because I already feel like you're pushing me away for wanting to keep this baby, and I don't know what's going on. I just want to know what's going on, mom."

There's a long pause. Clare knows her mother's debating between telling her and not telling her, she hopes that she tells her, because Clare just wants to have everything out in the open between them. She doesn't want to have to pretend to not know, and walk on eggshells around her parents for the next few months while things are being sorted out and go back and forth between all of this.

Finally, after what Clare feels is the longest pause of her whole life, "We're not separating. I've gotten a lawyer, sweetheart. I'm sending your father divorce papers, he's been cheating on me for some time."

Clare nods her head, because she already knew the information, but she's glad to hear her mother tell her herself. "Okay. Um. Okay."

"I didn't want you to hear that, but you asked what was going on Clarebear."

"Thank you for telling me, mom."

"I love you so much, sweetheart." Helen says, and then she's cut off by a loud echoing announcement that Clare only hears part of before she comes back on the phone. "Alright, they're boarding my plane. I'll call you when I get to Nana and Pop's later, and I'll be in touch with Audra constantly."

"I love you too mom." Clare says, and then hangs her phone up before looking down at her hands. She takes in a deep breath.

Her relationship is nowhere near perfect with her mother, not that it ever has been, and it's not fixed yet either from everything that had happened. But, Clare cannot help but to feel like Helen wants to work on their relationship, which is something Clare feared would never happen after everything that had gone down the other day when her pregnancy was revealed to her parents. She feels almost a bit of a relief in her chest when she stands back up and turns to Drew and Bianca, nodding her head and grabbing the last box to head out the door.

Clare's thankful that neither Drew nor Bianca mention the phone call or voicemail on the drive back to school, and that Bianca seems cool enough about Clare leaving her boxes of things in her car. Clare trails behind the couple on the way back to school, the three of them having gotten back before the late bell rings for the class after lunch and Clare rushes into her next class period, to be met with Alli's questioning gaze that she immediately knows they'll be talking when Ms. Oh is done explaining everything for the upcoming grade eleven co-op.

Alli leans over to look at Clare, "What the hell is going on Clare? Did I see you walking into school with Drew Torres and Boiler Room Bianca just now?"

Clare shrugs her shoulders, looking as Ms. Oh explains how to get to the form to fill out what you're interested in in doing for the job opportunities the school can possibly provide while Clare focuses on the computer work.

Alli taps Clare's hand harshly with her manicured nails and Clare squeaks at the impact, turning to her best friend as Alli raises her eyebrows at Clare once more when she talks, "Seriously Clare, you're still expecting me to wait until the end of the day to hear about this? First you have a meeting with Mr. Simpson and Audra freaking Torres this morning before school and now you're coming back from lunch with Drew and Bianca? Did you get switched with a pod person or something this weekend?" Alli laughs as she tries to joke, but her eyes are clearly showing the worry she's got for her best friend. She's not sure what's going on, but the cryptic text message conversations she's had with Clare this past weekend didn't give her much information to go off of either.

They didn't talk much, but from the gist of everything they did talk about Alli knew she wasn't getting any information until she saw Clare in person and that she couldn't see Clare in person until Monday at school for some reason that Clare couldn't really explain over texts. Clare's texts were still detailed and longer than Alli's, but Clare was cryptic and continued to say that she needed to tell Alli all about it in person.

"Alli, please, school is practically over. Let's just get through this and then we'll go to The Dot and I will tell you and Jenna everything." Clare sighs, puffing out her cheeks as she looks through the form she's pulled up on the computer, scrolling through the questions before she begins to fill it out.

"Clare, there's still hours left in the school day. This is torture. Why won't you tell me now." Alli whines in the chair next to Clare, practically giggling as she teases and jokes with her friend, even if she's also being completely serious. Waiting until the end of the school day is totally useless from Alli's perspective. "I mean, everybody's going to be at The Dot after school anyway, what's the difference between telling me here and telling me there."

Clare turns to face Alli in the chair and is about to respond when both of them are cut off by a sharp clearing of the throat by Ms. Oh from the front of the classroom. "Miss Edwards, Miss Bhandari, I'll assume you're both asking each other questions about the form I'm going over and not about something personal?"

Both girls nods their head while the rest of the class lets out chuckles to the two of them being called out, but it does shut them up for the rest of the class. Alli is still looking at Clare weirdly for the rest of the class period, but Clare ignores her and focuses on everything that needs to be done for the schoolwork. While she knows that it isn't likely to get a co-op placement until after the winter break, she still wants to get all of the forms done and handed in in order to be prepared. Clare has always been the kind of person who wants to have everything ready as soon as it was handed to her, rather than wait until the last minute.

At the end of the school day, Clare finds Alli and Jenna waiting for her by her locker and she rolled her eyes. "Wow, you guys really could not wait one more second, huh?" Clare asks, shaking her head as she unlocks her locker and swaps the books she had in her bag with the ones she needs for her homework.

"Alli used hall passes to get us out of gym early so we could go to our lockers and get our books before," Jenna's cut off when Alli pinches her side and Jenna yelps at the touch before turning to glare at Alli and sigh, "What? It's true."

Clare can only laugh at that image passing through her mind as she closes her locker and turns back to look at her friends, "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go."

The three girls walk in a line to The Dot, almost huddled in the November chill. It's not yet super cold out, but they can all tell that winter is right around the corner. The Dot is filled with kids from school and it's busy enough that when they walk in they all need to push through to manage to look around to see if there's a spot open. Clare realizes that this isn't the best idea to tell everybody what was happening now.

In such a crowded place everybody around them is surely bound to overhear them all, but she didn't think it through. She does, however, spot a possible saving grace in a brunet worker behind the counter when she's almost resigned to take everything and order things to go and walk to the Torres house. Though that would need some explaining on its own. "Hey, uh, I'm gonna ask Spinner for a favor while I see him." Clare gestures to him behind the counter before turning back to Alli and Jenna, shuffling for her change in her pocket. "Can you get me a spice tea and one of those paninis with the mozzarella?" Clare asks, passing the money to Alli with a grin as her friend nods and she excuses herself between the crowded counter to lean up and call out for Spinner before he can head back into the employees only room.

"How can I help you?" Spinner's not used to being on site at the cafe lately, so the after school rush is like learning everything all over again. Though when he finally turns around and sees that it's Clare and not some random customer that's called his name he relaxes, letting out a breath before realizing that clearly she wants something. "What's up Baby Edwards?"

"Any chance you'll let me and my friends study up in Above the Dot?" Clare asks. She can see Spinner's apprehension in his gaze and before he can respond she holds up her hands and clears her throat. "Hold on, hold on. We're super responsible, we'll clean up after ourselves, and we really really just need some place quiet and we can be done in an hour? Please, Spinner. Please."

Spinner sighs, shaking his head, "I swear if this is like the time I left Emma in charge of The Dot and there's a fire upstairs I'm going to regret this." he responds before tilting his head to the door and gesturing for Clare to follow.

"Alli, Jenna! C'mon!" Clare turns around and calls to her friends, grabbing her food and drink from Alli's hands before following Spinner out the door and towards Above the Dot.

"You have one hour, Baby Edwards. I'll come up to check on you three in twenty minutes, so no funny business." Spinner does his best to make everything sound threatening, but Clare can't help but look at him and roll her eyes. She's known Spinner for so long and he's not threatening to her in the least. In fact, it kind of makes her want to laugh at the way he seems so protective of it all. But she gets it too, The Dot and Above the Dot are his work and he should be protective of it.

"Uh, Spinner, it's almost like you don't trust us." Alli comments, gasping with over the top dramatics in her tone.

Rolling his eyes as he looks at the three of them Spinner replies, "I was a teenager once, so yeah, I don't trust you." Spinner goes to close the door and then opens it back up again, looking at Clare and adding, "Don't make this a habit, Above the Dot isn't open for everybody, okay?"

"Thanks Spinner. We'll see you in twenty minutes when you come check on us or whatever it is you'll pretend you're checking on up here." Clare waves him off with a smile before sitting down on one of the chairs in Above the Dot.

She has to admit that the club is comfortable too, though she hasn't really spent that much time here during it's actual hours of operation. She's been here a few times over the summer with Alli and Adam and everybody and some times during school but going out has never been Clare's scene. If Above the Dot could be like this it would be a place she could see herself spending time, though.

"Okay, uh, so Spinner just let us up here for no reason?" Jenna asks, taking a sip of her coffee with a shrug.

"He dated Darcy for a bit, but always kind of looked after Clare when he's in town at least." Alli explains, opening up her take out box of wings and turning to look at Clare. "But if he knows what's going on and I don't I'm going to be so offended and you'll never hear the end of it!" Alli says it with a laugh, like she's joking, but she is worried about what's going on.

Clare takes a sip of her tea and leans back in the chair, attempting to get comfortable. She knows she needs to tell her friends what's going on, that they'll be there for her no matter what and that they can help her think things through and be there for her. But it doesn't help the nerves in her stomach and the fear of everything coming to the surface when she worries about telling them. "Spinner doesn't know a thing, Alli, don't worry."

"Okay, but...Audra Torres? Drew? Bianca?" Alli scoffs at Bianca's name, but all of the names are said with disdain. Even if they've all seemingly made peace with each other over the year since everything had happened, Alli can hold a grudge like she can hold onto a good pair of shoes.

"Yeah, I mean...I'm not judging you Clarebear, but...what's going on? We're worried. And confused." Jenna comments, looking up at her friend.

Clare takes a bite of her panini, mainly to put more time between telling them and thinking it all through. "So, uh, you guys remember that Eli and I have, uh, well...that I'm not a virgin anymore." Clare starts explaining the story.

Alli looks up, forgetting about everything else and dropping her food back onto the plate and blinking. "Yeah, we covered for you a few times with that this summer. But are you... Clare you're not saying..."

"Clare!" Jenna exclaims with a gasp. "Are you pregnant?"

"I took a test and then I told Eli and he freaked out and then my parents found the test and then they kicked me out so basically I'm living at the Torres house now, which is why Audra and I had a meeting with Mr. Simpson this morning because we needed to tell him about that. Oh, and then at lunch I brought Bianca and Drew to my house to sneak in and help me pack the rest of my things from my room up because Adam was busy and I hadn't told you guys yet, and then I found out that my mom's divorcing my dad because he's been sleeping with his secretary for years in a voicemail she left for him because she's going home to her parent's house." Clare explains the rest of the story all in one breath, unsure how else to explain it. If she waited any longer to tell the story, she would have been waiting too long to tell the story and it would have been too huddled and too broken up. This way she at least got it all out, even if it was a bit rambled and in one breath and quick.

"That's...that's so much." Alli says, standing up and pacing around the couch she and Jenna had been standing on. "I mean, your mom and dad? You're living with the Torres brothers?" Alli continues to ask a couple of questions like that, repeating what Clare just said back to her in question form, mainly quieter and to herself as she paces back and forth letting the information set in.

"O-kay." Jenna says slowly, putting her coffee down on the table and leaning back. She had been fine with giving up her son for adoption, despite it taking a while to make the choice, it was a choice she knew she had to make. Jenna looks at Clare and speaks softly, "What are you going to do?"

"I think I'm keeping the baby. I think I want to, and I know that's crazy." Clare starts to say, but she's cut off by Alli speaking again.

"Crazy? Crazy? Clare we're in grade eleven! We're still in high school. Having a baby is crazy." Alli exclaims, taking a seat back on the couch and looking at her friend before taking in a deep breath.

"But," Jenna says, looking at Alli sternly for a moment and then looking at Clare as she continues her thought, "it is Clare's choice."

"Yeah, of course. No, I know it's Clare's choice. But...Clare. It's insane. We're barely seventeen and you want to keep the baby? Have you like...really thought about this?" Alli asks seriously.

Clare shrugs her shoulders and looks at her friends, "I never thought I would get pregnant in high school, because I never considered the thought that I'd have sex before marriage. Really, I never thought that. But I really thought I loved Eli, and I don't regret it. My gut is telling me that I should keep the baby." Clare nods her head, her hands resting in her lap as she speaks, before she shakes her head and speaks again. "I know that sounds crazy, believe me. But when I think about the other options I just...I don't think I could go through with either of them, but that's my own personal choice and opinion."

Jenna nods her head at Clare's words, understanding everything that she says. She thought that she would be able to have Tyson and raise him, but in the end she knew that adoption would be the best option for her, KC, and their baby. It was just how it worked out best for them, but she could understand Clare's personal thoughts on the matter. "I get that." Jenna comments. "We're here for you, Clarebear, no matter what."

"Of course we're here for you." Alli snaps out of her own thoughts, which had been revolving around putting herself in Clare's shoes and not thinking about Clare's situation. Alli offers her friend a sympathetic smile and she holds out her hand to grab Clare's with a grin. "We love you so much, always."

"I love you guys too." Clare says, taking her friend's hands and giving them a squeeze as her eyes fill with tears.

"Wait, what happened with Eli?" Jenna asks after a few moments.

"Yeah, and what about your parents?" Alli adds.

"Oh, okay, so let me tell you guys the whole story." Clare explains, moving to sit on the couch with the two friends and sitting in between them and settling down in and looking between the two girls as she tells them the whole story of the day she found out she was pregnant from getting the test with Adam and having Drew drive them, to telling Eli and his reaction, to her father finding the test on the floor from where it had fallen and everything else. It felt good to tell her friend's the story and let them in and tell them without fearing they would freak out, to just know that they were there for her and that she could count on them. Clare was happy to know that she could count on them, and she left them with the knowledge that they would meet up after her doctors appointment to go over everything that happened at that Alli and Jenna would be there for her every step of the way.

Spinner never came back into Above the Dot to check in on them, until their hour was up, which none of the girl's had noticed because they'd been too busy talking about everything with Clare's situation. So they didn't even notice when there had been footsteps on the stairs and the door had opened a bit when they'd been up only twenty minutes, having been too deep in the conversation to pay any attention to the doorway. They'd even forgotten their food and drink for the most part too. Spinner had left nearly as quickly as he'd opened the door, a deep breath as he went down the stairs and decided to just wait to go back up until he needed to kick them out of Above the Dot to start setting up for the night. And now he didn't know what to do with the information he'd overheard.

AN: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this chapter. Happy Holidays if you celebrate, I probably won't post an update for this story until after the New Year, so have a Happy New Year too! Guess what, that gives me time to write more ahead of my schedule too. Please leave me a review with your thoughts and maybe let me know what's on your mind, and if there's anything you'd like to see with the future chapters or questions you might have about the story! I'd love to hear from all of the readers what you're thinking and if there's anything specific you'd like to see or what you're thinking about for the story. Thanks again for all your favorites and reviews and everything else and I hope everyone is well.