Link to part 1:
https://degrassi.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:MichelleHollingsworth/Degrassi:_The_Next_Next_Generation
The four friends sat around Eli and Marisol’s elegant dining room table, chatting happily over drinks. They had only been reunited for 15 minutes, but it already felt like they’d never been separated. They’d easily broken into the hangout as if no time had passed. In fact, Marisol would go as far as to say that whenever the four of them got together, it felt like they were back in high school.
Except, of course, they were now in their thirties with kids.
Right now, they were laughing about a story Eli was telling about his second-to-youngest daughter, Evie. “She literally would not go to sleep unless I told her a scary story,” he was saying. “It got to a point where I was having to write new ones every day. I always had to cram to get them done before her bedtime. I wrote a lot during my breaks at work.” He remembered those days well; carrying a notepad with him to the studio and beginning to jot down ideas (some of which came from whatever movie he had been working on at the time) as soon as he yelled the word CUT. He also spent a lot of evenings on the couch, cramming to get a story done in time. Marisol frequently told him he could just Google “scary stories”, but he insisted on writing them himself. Horror stories would mean a lot more to Evie coming from her dad than random people on the Internet.
“That’s dedication,” Drew remarked, reaching for what had to be his fifth cookie from the plate in front of him.
“It is,” Marisol agreed. She set her glass of wine down on a coaster. “She’s our only daughter who shares his interests, so he goes above and beyond.”
“In other words, she’s the favorite,” Bianca teased.
Eli just held his hands up defensively. “I don’t play favorites,” he insisted. “But it is nice to have a daughter to watch scary movies with instead of princess ones.” He eyed Marisol pointedly.
She just sighed. She had to admit, as concerning as it was sometimes to have an 8-year-old daughter who had skull bed sheets and was obsessed with vampires and heavy metal, she was glad Eli had a kid who was exactly like him. The other three girls—especially Dawn—took after her. Needless to say, the Lewis-Goldsworthys always separated for family movie nights. Eli and Evie went to one room to watch their scary movies (which Marisol just knew Eli spent the whole time picking apart), while Marisol cuddled up on the couch with Alex, Dawn, and Wilma as they enjoyed a happy princess movie.
“Rosie would always want us to tell her popular love stories,” Bianca threw in, gesturing to herself and Drew. “And use ourselves as the characters.”
“Yeah, let’s see, we’ve been Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, Ariel and Eric, Cinderella and Prince Charming, and…what was the other one, B?” Drew asked as he counted the stories with his fingers.
“Snow White and Prince Florian,” Bianca supplied.
“Ah. That’s right.”
“I thought his name was Ferdinand,” Eli commented.
Drew just shrugged. He’d never been much of an expert on fairy tales, but until he had a daughter, he hadn’t even known the prince from Snow White had a name.
“We did Cinderella the most,” Bianca added. “Except we changed it to where the prince searches for the only girl in the village who wears high tops.”
“A modern twist,” Eli observed, lifting his glass for a quick sip of Coca-Cola. “I like it.”
Bianca’s lips curled up into a proud, nostalgic smile. Rosanna was nine now and no longer needed tucked in, and Bianca sometimes found herself missing the fairytale days. Her personal favorite re-enactment was The Little Mermaid, because in that one, Rosie had a role to play as Melody.
She glanced over at the baby carriage next to her, where Adrianna lay sleeping peacefully. Maybe she would get to play Ariel again in a few years.
“Rosie’s a gem,” Marisol commented suddenly. “She’s like the perfect blend of the two of you.”
Drew and Bianca exchanged a look, and then they both laughed. “Yeah, we love her,” Bianca said.
“She’s pretty amazing,” Drew added with a smile.
“Your mom must be thrilled,” Eli noted, knowing how over-the-moon his own mother was about his four daughters.
“Oh, yeah,” Drew confirmed. “Our girls really are like daughters she never had. Of course, B already filled that role first.” He slid his arm around his wife’s shoulders. Bianca smiled through her blush.
“Rosie’s definitely a handful,” she added. “Especially in school. She brings home straight A’s, but she gives her teachers a hard time.”
“She’s the type of kid who raises her hand for every question,” Drew said. “And at our last meeting, her teacher told us she almost always challenges the questions in her math book.”
“Oh, I used to do that, too,” Eli said.
“Why am I not surprised?” Marisol quipped.
Eli looked at her innocently. “What? I mean, seriously, who just goes out and buys 75 apples?”
“Maybe they’re making a bunch of pies,” Marisol suggested.
Drew and Bianca laughed again. Eli just rolled his eyes.
“Anyway,” Bianca said, collecting herself. “She’s definitely a star student. She just talks a lot and gets in trouble.”
“Again, I repeat: a perfect blend.” Marisol raised her eyebrows teasingly.
“How’s Alex doing?” Bianca asked. “She’s gonna be starting Grade 6, yeah?”
“Yep,” Eli confirmed. “She’s doing great. She has a lot of friends, does well in school…she’s a good kid.”
“She is so sweet,” Bianca said. “I noticed she was really taken with Adrianna.” For a few minutes earlier, Alex had remained downstairs with the baby, but had since gone upstairs.
“Yeah, having three younger sisters, she’s good with babies,” Marisol said. “I kind of think she misses having one around.”
“We could always change that,” Eli joked.
“No thank you,” Marisol replied immediately.
The two couples spent the next several minutes sharing stories (and occasionally bragging) about their kids. Eli and Marisol talked about how Alex was the lead in her school play a couple months ago. Drew and Bianca discussed some of Rosie’s soccer adventures. They all took turns sharing their favorite memories of their kids, and then started getting into their favorite memories with each other—including the joint trip they’d taken to an amusement park four years earlier.
As they got deeper and deeper into their conversation, it became harder to believe that the two pairs had not been close in high school.
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Rosie had never seen so much pink in her life.
Dawn’s bedroom, along with being super big, was covered in pink. Her walls, her bed, even her TV, were all various shades of pink. Rosie knew Dawn was a girly-girl (they had been family friends for several years now), but now she was finding out just how much.
“Come on,” Dawn urged, gesturing for Rosie to follow her around the room. She complied, taking in the grandness of the place. The ceiling was very high above her head—she was pretty tall for her age, but standing here, she felt much closer to the ground. There was plenty of space on either side of the pink bed, which—she noticed with envy—had one of those brand new giant stuffed unicorns laying in the middle of it. Rosie asked her parents for one, but her mom said no as they were too expensive and she tended to get bored with new items pretty quickly. She was tempted to try and sweet-talk her dad into it sometime; after all, he had bought her several dolls and other toys against her mother’s wishes before. It probably wouldn’t be too long before she had a unicorn best friend of her own.
The rest of the room was just as appealing. All of Dawn’s furniture was seemingly brand new and very high quality; her dresser especially looked like it had been pulled straight from a fairytale. Her walk-in closet was full of the latest fashion items. The hot pink TV, although muted, was playing a cheer-routine practice video. The golden floor was shining, and Rosie looked down as her feet sank into what had to be the softest pink rug ever.
She was in awe. As much as Rosie loved the cozy cottage she lived in, Uncle Eli and Aunt Marisol really had a dreamhouse.
Dawn jumped up onto her bed and patted the spot next to her. Rosie hopped up too and was taken aback when she found herself sinking into a pile of pink pillows. She struggled to sit up, brushing her dark curls away from her face.
“I am so glad I don’t have to share a room with Evie anymore,” Dawn said, leaning back against her headboard. “She kept trying to put creepy posters up everywhere.”
“I remember that,” Rosie said. She’d visited Dawn’s old house once a few years ago, and she remembered that half of her room was painted pink and the other half was painted black. She also remembered seeing a bunch of strange posters on Evie’s side of the room but posters of cute pop singers on Dawn’s. It was a weird contrast.
“I used to think you were lucky, not having a little sister,” Dawn said. “But, now that’s not true anymore.”
Rosie didn’t usually keep her mouth shut, but right now she simply had no response. Contrary to what a lot of people had predicted, she actually enjoyed having a baby sister. She’s been an only child for 8 years and she’d always wanted a sibling to play with. Sure, Adrianna waking everyone up in the middle of the night with her crying wasn’t the most fun thing ever, but the pure joy she expressed whenever Rosie brought her a toy or spoke to her made up for it.
“Anyway,” Dawn continued, folding her hands together with interest. “Are you dating anyone yet?”
Rosie just stared back at her, trying to figure out if she was serious. “Dating?” she repeated doubtfully. “I’m only going into Grade 4.”
“So? I’m going into Grade 5 and I already know a lot of people who are dating,” Dawn insisted. “I think it’d be fun.”
Rosie just shook her head. “I don’t really want to date. Plus, my parents say I’m not allowed to until I’m older.”
Dawn smirked. “Your parents really should not be giving relationship advice,” she said. “After all, I heard they started off with a PB&J.”
“A what?”
Dawn just shrugged. “I don’t know what it means, but I know it’s bad.”
Rosie rolled her eyes. She loved Dawn, but sometimes she truly had no idea what she was talking about. “My parents met when my dad helped my mom fix her jacket zipper,” she informed Dawn. “And then they fell in love.”
“Okay, whatever you say.” Dawn just stared at her TV screen, clearly not convinced.
Slightly annoyed, Rosie said, “Didn’t your parents meet when your dad wrote a play about his ex-girlfriend?”
Dawn grabbed her TV remote—which was also pink—from her bedside table and began flipping through the channels. “He cast Mom as the makeup artist,” she replied. “And then they fell in love and Dad forgot all about the other girl.” She flipped her hair nonchalantly.
“Wasn’t the other girl Aunt Clare?” Rosie asked.
“Yeeeppp.” Dawn settled on a random TV show. “Did you know she used to date Uncle Jake?”
Rosie immediately whipped around to face her friend. “Aren’t they siblings?” she asked, her mouth dropping open in both shock and disgust.
“Step-siblings. But apparently that didn’t stop them at the time.”
Rosie had no idea what to think about that. She’d always been under the impression that Aunt Clare and Uncle Jake were blood-related; not only did they look exactly alike, but no one had ever told her they were only steps. And now to find out that they apparently dated? …It was too weird to be true.
“How do you even know all this stuff?” she questioned, raising her eyebrows skeptically.
“I hear my parents talking,” Dawn said. “Whenever they say the word ‘Degrassi’, I stick around because I know I’m about to hear something good.”
Rosie crossed her arms and leaned back against the headboard as well, so that she and Dawn were now sitting parallel to each other. She supposed she couldn’t argue with that. She’d overheard her parents talking about their experiences at the Degrassi school many times, and she had to admit, it sounded like a pretty wild place.
“Degrassi is weird,” she declared.
“It totally is,” Dawn agreed.