Mia Jones had been through more than most girls her age — and it showed in the way she carried herself. With quiet strength, with the kind of exhaustion that came from balancing formula schedules and algebra homework. After JT’s death, everything felt heavier. The halls of Degrassi felt colder. And when she reached for someone to lean on, Peter was already slipping away, lost in band rehearsals, new gigs, and late-night parties.

She tried. She really did. Tried to make space in her life for him, tried to remind him that she was still a girl who needed to be seen — not just a mother juggling diaper bags and math tests. But Peter was always somewhere else, always chasing the next moment that didn’t include her or her daughter.

So Mia stopped trying to fit into someone else’s rhythm. She started waking up earlier to study, staying up late to finish assignments, spending her lunch breaks in the childcare center at Degrassi reading to Isabella instead of scrolling through texts Peter never answered.

And that’s when it happened.

He wasn’t part of the in-crowd. No band, no attitude. Just a guy in her history class who offered her his notes without asking for anything in return. Someone who didn’t flinch when she mentioned she had a daughter — who actually smiled when Isabella waddled up to him and tugged on his hoodie.

He didn’t make her feel like she was “too much.” He made her feel like she was already more than enough.

And for the first time at Degrassi, surrounded by rumors, drama, and loss — Mia felt like maybe, just maybe, she was allowed to have something good.

Something real.