── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ──
―
Mickey sat in her homeroom class leaning back in her chair, chipping away at the nail polish on her fingernails as she watched Liberty on the announcements. "Congratulations to Toby Isaacs and the rest of the computer programming team. Thanks to them, Degrassi placed third in the regionals," Liberty announced.
"Nice work, Toby," Ms. Kwan said, clapping. The rest of the class clapped politely along with her.
"That's it?" Toby said, sadly hoping he would get more of that congratulation.
"What did you except Tobs, A marching band," Mickey joked, from her seat next to Toby.
"Yeah, Nascar's exciting. Britney in a hot tub, that's exciting. Third place in some geek contest... no," JT said, making Emma, Mickey and Manny laugh.
"In sports, for all boys interested in the wrestling team, there's a meeting after school in the gym. Speaking of wrestling, last year's champion, Sean Cameron, has been named this month's overall sports MVP by the students,"
"That's fantastic Sean," Ms. Kwan said, and the class clapped, far more enthusiastically than when they clapped for Toby.
"Nice to be him," Toby commented, laying his head on his desk. "Forget it. Just forget it," Mickey rolled her eyes at her friend's mopiness as she turned back to what Liberty was saying on the screen.
★
"This is deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA and DNA makes up your genes. Take one and pass them back," Ms.Hatzilakos said, in science class handing a stack of papers to Toby, who took one and turned to hand them to Mickey who sat behind him.
"You done sulking?" JT asked as Toby turned around.
"I'm not," Toby said, "I just expected something, some kind of reaction,"
"What did you expect?" Mickey said, "the people here don't really care about that kind of thing,"
"Was it something like this," JT started jokingly speaking in a girly voice, "Oh, Toby. I just love a man who can write binary code," Mickey laughed.
"Don't be mean, he'll find that girl someday, it just probably won't be till college," Mickey said.
"Mickey. Boys, want to share with the class?" Ms. Hatzilakos said, getting the three kids' attention.
"I was just wondering if everything about us was decided by DNA," Toby asked, turning to face their teacher.
"Some things, like your eye colour. But there are other things about us that we have the power to change," She explained, as the bell rang. Everyone got up to leave. "Remember to bring back these diagrams for tomorrow's class,"
"But no one notices me," Toby complained as the three left the classroom.
"Sure they do. You're the loveable, if forgettable, computer expert," JT said to Toby.
"That's it," Toby said.
"So what if it is, Tobs, I notice you, JT notices you, all the really important people," Mickey said, looking down at her diagram. "Speaking of which wanna do my diagram for me,"
"No," Toby answered.
"Damn, I figured that's what you'd say, but oh well. Anyway, I have to go, I've got a meeting with the principal and Coach Armstrong," Mickey said, starting to walk away from to two boys towards the office, "but if you change your mind about the diagram thing, call me,"
"She notices me, long enough to ask me to do her homework," She heard Toby complain as she walked away.
"Yeah, well. No big deal. You could change your image," JT suggested, as Mickey turned the turner towards the office.
★
"Okay so, I totally did not mean to skip gym class, in fact, I was in the library studying for your math test when I fell asleep. so if anything it's your fault," Mickey said to Coach Armstrong and Principal Raditch. She was currently sitting in Raditches office, after getting caught skipping class a few days prior. Armstrong laughed slightly as Raditch gave Mickey a disapproving look for blaming her teacher for her skipping class. "So, how long do I have detention for?" Mickey asked, sinking into her seat.
"None," Raditch answered.
"What?" Mickey questioned, jumping up in her seat.
"If," Armstrong started. "If you help me, but becoming the team manager for the boys wrestling team,"
"Deal," Mickey quickly answered, figuring anything was better than another boring detention.
★
As Mickey sat on the bleachers holding a clipboard to take down the boys' weights, she started to think maybe detection would have been more fun. but, at least Sean was here. "Oh, man," A voice said, beside her.
Wait I know that voice, she thought turning to see Toby. "Toby, what are you doing here?" Mickey asked, walking over to the boy.
"I'm trying out for wrestling," Toby explained.
"You're trying out for wrestling, That's a good one. Really, what are you doing here?" Mickey laughed. Toby didn't laugh, he just looked at her. "Oh, you're serious,"
"Toby? You lost?" Sean asked, noticing Toby.
"No, uh, I'm here for wrestling," Toby explained, again. Sean looked over to Mickey, who just shrugged.
"Ok, guys. Listen up. The try-outs are next week and as you know, we only have room for one wrestler per weight class. So let's get started. Mickey take down everyone's weight," Coach Armstrong said.
"Right," Mickey said, grabbing her clipboard and moving over to stand next to the scale.
"Andrews," Coach said, and Andrews walked up and stepped onto the scale.
"51 kilos," Mickey read, writing it down next to his name.
"Good. Isaacs," Coach said, and Andrews and Toby switched places, toby stepping onto the scale.
"55," Mickey said, writing it down.
"Should Toby and I start?" Andrews asked.
"No, you guys are in different weight classes. Isaacs, you're in the 54 to 57.5-kilo class up against..." Coach said, looking over to Mickey for the answer.
Mickey looked down her list of boys and weights, a smile growing on her face as she answered. "Sean,". Toby looked nervously to where Sean had just finished pinning a guy, and for a moment looking at Sean's muscles, Mickey understood why Emma had been so into him. "Good luck,"
Sean and Toby wrestled, although Mickey wasn't sure it could be considered wrestling as Toby was pinned down within a few seconds.
★
Mickey sat on the bleachers tapping her foot nervously, today was the day Sean and Toby would wrestle to make the team. At first, she thought it was funny and Toby would be up against Sean, but then Toby got super serious about making the team. Mickey noticed Toby standing at the side of the gym holding his stomach, and blinking a lot, so she figured he must be really nervous as well. "Try not to break him," Mickey commented to Sean as she headed towards the scale to weigh Toby again before he wrestled.
"Isaacs. Scale," Armstrong called, and Toby made his way onto the scale.
"53 kilos?" Mickey read, writing it down. She said it more like a question than a statement, starting to worry about how Toby lost that much weight that fast.
"That's quite a loss," Armstrong commented, voicing Mickey's thoughts.
"Been training hard, coach," Toby said.
"Mmm-hmm. You know any player caught making weight will be cut," Armstrong said to him. Once she agreed to be the teams' manager, Armstrong explained to Mickey what Making Weight was and why it was bad, so if she even suspected someone of doing it to tell him.
"Would I do anything so stupid?" Toby asked.
"You better not, because if you end up in the hospital, I'll give you a real reason to need a doctor," Mickey said, grabbing Toby by the shoulder before letting him go.
"Andrews, it looks like you've got some competition. Let's go," Armstrong said, either not hearing or just ignoring Mickey's comment to Toby and Andrews and Toby went to the mate.
The two boys shook hands, wished each other luck and started to wrestle and before too long, Toby had Andrews pinned and had made the team. "Isaacs. Welcome to the team," Mickey cheered for Toby, even Sean smiled over at him.
★
Mickey was growing really worried about Toby, she had been watching him the past few days leading up to the match, and she was starting to think he wasn't eating, in order to make weight. And as it turned out she wasn't the only one, as Ashley came to her with the same concern, saying she already talked to JT about it too. So, Now Mickey was watching Toby wait for his weight class to be called.
Mickey walked over to the bench sitting down next to Toby. "You can't wrestle," She said to Toby, not loud enough for anyone around them to hear.
"What did JT and Ashley say to you," Toby said, sounding kind of hurt.
"That you haven't been eating," Mickey said. Toby started to get up to move away from Mickey but Mickey grabbed his arm pulling him back down. "But they didn't have to tell me anything, I can tell something is wrong with you,"
"I'm fine," Toby insisted.
"You are not fine, and I won't let you wrestle," Mickey said, "I'm telling Armstrong everything."
"You can't he'll kick me off the team,"
"Good," Mickey said, "this team isn't good for you,"
"Next up for Degrassi, Toby Isaacs," Armstrong called, and Toby got up as the crowd cheered for him. Mickey got up as Toby and his opponent entered the mat, shaking hands.
"Coach, Can I talk to you for a moment," Mickey asked, walking up to Armstrong.
"After this match, Okay, Mickey," Armstrong said, blowing his whistle and starting the match. Mickey stepped back, a pit growing in her stomach, as the two boys started wrestling. Toby was pinning down but he managed to get back up, only to collapse.
"Toby?" Mickey yelled, running over to her passed-out friends, with Armstrong. Ashley and JT coming over to meet them as well.
★
Toby was fine. And the next day Mickey and JT went over to his and Ashley's house just to make sure. Toby was sitting at the kitchen table holding an ice pack to his injured wrist. "Hey. You ok?" JT asked as he and Mickey entered the building.
"Ash is on the phone with my dad. He's on his way," Toby explained.
"You're off the team, right?" JT asked.
"You better be, I think I'd end up having a heart attack if I have to watch you wrestle ever again," Mickey said.
"Mr. Armstrong chewed me out. He said I was playing with my life," Toby said, sadly.
"Listen Tobes. You can cry if you want, but I'm not giving you a hug," JT said.
"I will," Mickey said, wrapping her arms around Toby, making him smile. "But if you ever do anything so stupid, you won't get off with just a hurt wrist," she threatened, hitting toby's shoulder lightly.
"At least I gave everyone a good laugh," Toby said.
"Hardly. Word got out, people freaked. Even Sean asked if you were ok," JT explained. "The whole school was worried"
"We even had a little chat with Kendra," Mickey said, happily. "She was really worried.
"Yeah, she was like," JT put on his girl's voice. "I hope he's ok, I'm so worried," The three kids smiled.
"So... still think you're invisible Tobes?" JT asked.