Conjunction

Cassidy sees the world through a whole new lens now. So much so she decides to start taking her camera to school with her. It’s finally Friday, half the day has flown by and Cassidy is excited for it to be over. Amber told her at lunch that she got her check yesterday and she wanted to treat Cassidy to a night out bowling at an alley downtown. Amber said Jason could also come as they met Wednesday when they offered her a ride to work and they hit it off, sharing an interest in the same music and T.V. shows. Even Adam was a fan of Amber and kept telling her how pretty she was and complementing her gray eyes.

Cassidy is in science class, her second to last class of the day, she’s ready to get home to pick out an outfit and go have fun with her new friend. The two girls were sitting next to each other with their goggles on, sticking a thermometer inside a beaker full of boiling water. They kept giggling about beating each other in bowling and who’s better, earning a few looks and throat clearings from their teacher. Cassidy feels a buzzing in her pocket as her phone goes off, but of course, she ignores it, focusing on recording the temperature at which the water boils. Cassidy’s arms are cold, the thin hairs rising on her skin. She wants to put her red sweater back on, but according to her teacher, it was against lab safety. Still, she couldn’t shake the chill that brushes her skin.

Her fingers itch to draw, but she takes out her camera instead for convenience. She checks to see if the teacher is watching before she aims her camera towards the school play-field where a class is going through exercises. When she looks through the lens she can see her brother running through the field, his hair tied up and bouncing behind him. She moves her camera and aims it further back. Tyler is staring back at her. The field is well over a mile away from the window Cassidy is pointing out of and yet she can still see the intense blue of Tyler’s eyes watching her. She presses the shutter.

Her face is hot when she turns back towards Amber and their assignment, she puts her camera away and slides her goggles back down her face.

“A moment of inspiration?” Amber asks while writing down temperatures in her lab book.

“Something like that.” Cassidy gives a disjointed laugh, unable to focus for the rest of the class.

Nicholas shows up to history class, he takes the seat behind Cassidy before the girl that usually sits there shows up for class. He leans up in his seat to whisper to her.

“Smells like someone found their light.” His yellow eyes shine gold when Cassidy quickly turns in her chair. She summons her light for a quick second, a quick flash of green just to show him that she in fact did. Luckily no one is watching to see their supernatural display, everyone is too busy talking with their partners about their upcoming project.

“You’re right,” Cassidy says. “And I know how to use it.” Nicholas squints at her.

“‘s everything alright over here?” It’s Tyler. Of course it is. Cassidy’s face heats up again.

“Cassie,” Tyler says in a pseudo sad voice. “You didn’t answer my text earlier.” His eyes flick to Nicholas briefly. “You’re not switching partners on me are you?

“Fuck off, Hemming,” Nicholas says under his breath.

“Back at ‘ya, Chun,” Tyler growls.

“Unlike you I was paying attention in class,” Cassidy quips, ignoring their exchange. Tyler gives her a knowing smile, telling her that he can’t fool her. It makes Cassidy’s gut twist up and her cheeks flare with heat.

“Well, partner, since you were oh so busy focusing in class, I guess I’ll ask you in person.” He leans down against her table desk, a smirk playing on his face, blue boring into green. “Let’s go to the city library after school today.”

“Not much of a question, is it?” Cassidy quips, a smile of her own sneaking on her face. She sighs a faux regretful sigh. “Too bad, though. I have plans after school, sorry.”

“Oh is that so?” Tyler was so close to her now, she could see the details of his face, a faint scar resting on the left side of his cheek. They look at each other for what seems like hours. Just then the bell rings, breaking the spell and Tyler walks slowly to his desk, yet they didn’t break eye contact until Mrs. Carter demands their attention.

As promised, Mrs. Carter gives them the last ten minutes of class to work together. Mrs. Carter approaches Cassidy and Tyler where they sit together going over their notes and creating an outline.

“Is it okay if Mr. Chun joins you two,” She asks. Cassidy blubbers momentarily, before Tyler chimes in.

“It’s no problem Mrs. C, he’ll be a big help,” Tyler gives a people pleasing smile, one that he clearly reserved for people in authority.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Carter says. She leaves the three of them to look at each other in silence.

“Well…” Cassidy drawls, peeking through her lashes at the two boys. They look at her and she immediately casts her eyes down to her notes.

“Have you guys even started working on the report yet?” Nicholas asks, voice full of condescension.

Tyler breathes in to say something, but Cassidy quickly cuts him off.

“We have, actually.” Cassidy passes him the outline the two have created. Nicholas looks it over in silence. Cassidy looks towards Tyler who is glaring daggers at Nicholas’ burnt-orange hair. As usual, her pen is on paper, sketching away. She doesn’t know how to feel, sitting between a guy she’s trying to figure out her feelings for and a guy who threatened to kill her. Against her own wishes, she ends up laughing. She laps a hand over her mouth when both pairs of eyes snap to her. She waves them off while holding back an extra giggle.

Nicholas sighs and rolls his eyes. “I guess this will have to do.” He passes their notes back to Cassidy who is still moving her pen across a separate notebook she decided to get for this occasion. They have a stilted conversation about the assignment, Nicholas staring at Cassidy's notebook. Now that Cassidy was looking at Nicholas and wasn’t afraid he was going to kill her she could recognize he was pretty handsome. His skin was smooth like a doll’s. His short, straight orange hair framed his slim, chiseled face. His cat-like eyes were striking with their yellow color and had they had met under different circumstances she might’ve even gained a crush on him. Instead, she kind of just finds his attractiveness annoying.

“So, am I invited to the library date, then,” Nicholas asks once they ran out of things to talk about for the assignment. Tyler lets out a ‘tch’ sound and Cassidy does her best to hold in another laugh. This is so absurd, everything is so goddamn absurd.

“Sure Nick, why not,” she says just make sure you bring your share of the work.

Before the bell rings to dismiss the class, they make an agreement to meet at the city library the following afternoon at 3. Neither Tyler nor Cassidy exchange numbers with Nicholas, but Cassidy has this feeling they have no need to. While she packs up to leave for the weekend, she looks over her drawing. It’s a cat and a dog, head to head with each other one hissing the other growling. One has yellow eyes, one has blue. Another smile passes Cassidy’s face. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Amy ^-^:

You ready to be destroyed in bowling tonight xD

3:15pm

Me:

In your dreams xP

3:16pm

Cassidy’s thumbs move at the speed of light texting Amber.

“You excited for tonight?” Jason asks as they pull up to Adam’s school.

“Yeah, Amber says she’s gonna smoke both of us tonight, as if,” Cassidy responds amused, thumbs still moving over her keyboard.

“Oh she has no idea how the Masons get down,” Jason says back with a smile of his own.

Adam gets in the car all huffy, arms crossed and staring out the window. Cassidy and Jason look at each other. Cassidy turns around in the passenger seat.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” She already knows, but she gives him an opportunity to express himself.

“Nothing,” He says, huffing again.

“C’mon, talk to us,” Jason says, pulling out of the lot.

Adam grumbles something unintelligible.

“What’s that?”

“How come you guys get to hang out with Amber tonight and I can’t? It’s not fair!” Adam sits back in his seat with a lot of force. He rubs at his stinging eyes, willing them not to shed tears.

Cassidy and Jason look at each other once again.

“Well, Adam,” Cassidy says. “You know how it is when we hang out with our friends.”

“I never get to go!”

“I know, and we’re sorry, but we hang out with you all the time,” Cassidy tries.

“I wanna go bowling with Amber too.” Big, fat tears roll down the pre-teen’s eyes, his gaze staring at the colorful, fallen leaves and naked trees that they pass by.

Cassidy and Jason share another knowing look. Adam has a crush on Amber.

“Listen, buddy how about while we’re out tonight we’ll ask if Amber wants to make plans with all three of us and we can hang out together next weekend, how does that sound?”

Adam wipes at his eyes and cheeks. “Really?” He asks, sounding pitiful, yet hopeful.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll go see if there’s a mini-golf course here.” It was the right thing to say as Adam has loved mini-golf ever since his 9th birthday.

“You have to promise, okay.” Adam holds out his pinky finger. “On the light.”

It’s a new thing he had adopted when they found out about their powers. Tanya had offhandedly mentioned that her and their Aunty Grace used to do it when they were kids. Cassidy rolls her eyes playfully, but sticks out her pink finger and summons her light. “On the light.” Their pinkies entwine and Cassidy feels that jolt of electricity.

Adam is in a less sour mood when they get home. Cassidy and Jason breeze through their homework and go to their respective rooms to start getting ready.

Cassidy stands in front of her closet, already having an idea of what she wants to wear. She pulls out a cropped knit sweater and a black shirt to go underneath. She looks through her skirts and a pleated black one with distressed, black tights to match. She goes to her bathroom, brushes out her hair and applies light makeup to her face. The red headband she affixes on top of her head had a medium sized bow on top. She looks at herself in the mirror and decides the headband was a bit too immature, like she’s dressing for Easter Sunday. She takes off the headband and decides to tie a thick, black ribbon across her head instead leaving it in a simple knot. There. She likes this instead. She goes looking for a coat, her closet is all out of sorts from searching for clothes earlier. She’s looking for a specific shirt when she comes by a bag she forgot about after her shopping spree with her mother.

It’s a tiny bag and something heavy sits inside it. She opens it to find the moon necklace inside. How could she have forgotten about this? She clips the necklace behind her neck. The large moon pendant sits draped perfectly over her shirt and as she twirls in the mirror to get a look at her full outfit she feels a joy come over her. Her face lights up in a smile and at her core she can feel the warmth of her light heating up. She quells her emotions and wills her light to simmer before picking out a long, dark brown pea coat and head downstairs. She pulls on her chunky boots and waits at the door for Tyler to come downstairs.

“Hurry up, slow poke, it’s almost 5:30 we reserved a lane for 6!” Cassidy yells up the stairs.

Yeah, yeah I’m comin’. I’m comin’.” Jason’s bedroom door closes and socked feet can be heard hitting the hardwood floor at the top of the stairs.

Cassidy doesn’t see Jason until he reaches the landing. He’s wearing straight, dark wash denim jeans, a casual button up and his old varsity jacket with his ‘special occasion’ high top sneakers held between his fingers. It’s their first night out on the town since they moved, of course the siblings are going to dress their best even if all they’re doing is going out bowling. Jason pulls his keys out his pocket and tosses them to Cassidy.

“Don’t feel like driving,” he says while he pulls on his shoes.

Adam is there in his house clothes watching them as they’re about to leave. Jason turns to him with his arms out. He does a slow spin. “How do I look?” He asks Adam.

“You’re a nerd,” Adam says grumpily. “You look fine. Cass, don’t forget, okay? You promised on the light, remember?”

“On the light,” Cassidy says to her little brother, wiggling her pinky finger. “Love you, buddy! See you later.”

“Later, bud, love you.”

And the two teenagers shut the door behind them.

Amber had texted Cassidy the directions to the bowling alley and Jason was reading them off to her as they drove.

“Wanna bet on who’s gonna win?” Cassidy asks, turning a corner.

“Ten bucks says I win the first game,” Jason says smugly.

“Oh you’re so on,” Cassidy laughs.

In no time Cassidy is turning into the parking lot, they see Amber standing at the entrance. Her hair is curled and she’s wearing a pair of high rise plaid shorts, a white, short sleeve button up shirt underneath a cropped vest with a pair of Converse shoes. Again, she has that ribbon around her neck. Cassidy has just accepted the fact that it’s just a part of her everyday wardrobe, like a pair of glasses or a hair clip. Her bright eyes light up when she sees the two of them walking up to her.

“You’re not freezing?” Jason asks when they get in front of her.

“Nah, I just stepped out for a quick second just in case you guys lost your way,” She says with the wave of her hand. “I already checked us in for the lane, you guys just have to get your shoes and we can get this show on the road.” They head inside. The low music of a jukebox can be heard throughout. The sound of billiard balls clacking and pins crashing fill the place with a familiar ambiance. There’s a lot of people, but the place is big enough to where it isn’t crowded.

Cassidy and Jason go and pay for their shoes: Cassidy getting a size 6 and Jason, a size 13.

The trio spend a couple minutes to replace the shoes on their feet and pick a bowling ball that fits perfectly for each of them. Cassidy types in her name on the screen followed by Jason and Amber. The pins cue and Cassidy bowls a strike off the bat.

Cassidy doesn’t remember the last time she’s had this much fun. She and Jason smack-talk each other and Amber eventually joins in after they both lightheartedly berate her for getting a spare when the ball should’ve gone to the gutter. Cassidy’s been laughing nonstop for the past 45-minutes and her throat is going dry.

As if reading her mind, Amber asks the two of them if they want drinks. Cassidy waves her off to say she would get them drinks and asks Amber what she wants instead.

Cassidy walks to the concession stand, it’s close to the pool tables that are mostly occupied by men in their late 40’s and early 50’s, except for a group of rowdy teens. Cassidy pays them no mind and politely asks the worker for a couple cans of soda along with a few snacks. There’s a loud clack of a cue ball making a break followed by the telltale noise of a few balls falling into a pocket. The teens exclaim loudly at that. Cassidy wants to ignore them, but she’s unable to keep her head from turning towards the group of guys. There, she sees a few kids she recognizes from school, each wearing a football varsity jacket. There are five she could see from where she stood and they are all crowded around someone else that she has to strain her next to see.

She leans over the counter and stretches her neck and just as she suspected; it's Tyler.