CHAPTER ONE: SASSY CASSY!

Cassie has always had what you call a normal life. But what exactly is considered normal these days? She sees her life as though it's a set of fixed activities. She wakes up in the morning and is already pissed. She sighs "here we go again". She gets up and out of bed. She always has a hot shower every morning, she enjoyed the feeling of the heat on her face while she tries to fathom the reasons why she was always sad. "It's all so depressing, how can I be sad and not know the reason," she asks herself.

"Cassie honey come and have breakfast quickly, you'll be late for school" her mom calls out. She has always loved her mom. Although there were times her mom made her feel like she could rip her hair off her scalp. Her dad... She felt something for him. Love... The kind that is better expressed at a distance. They were never too close or too apart. But her Dad always said that he could feel her slipping away as she got older. Breakfast was a mess. Mom tried one of her online recipes again. It was terrible. But she couldn't say that to her mom.

She looks up at her mom's anxious face with eyebags from staying up late and working all night. She smiles "this is amazing mom". That sentence alone, she was sure made her mom's whole day. Cassie was an only child. We all know the perks of that but people don't really know the downsides. Cassie always felt different... Not the bad different though, the confusing kind. The type when you know you're loved but there are times when you don't feel it on some days. She often drowns herself in thoughts and music and most recently "food".... Which is where her recent problems begin. Cassie had always been a perfect body kind of girl.

Everyone knew this, including Cassie. That was one of the things she was confident about. She wasn't skinny nor was she plus-sized. She just had the flesh in the right places. She recently started to put on some visibly notable weight due to her recent obsession. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? She picks up her things and calls her best friend, Natalia, they agree to meet up by the creamery to get milkshakes before they head off.

She takes a final look at her outfit for the day. She feels like she is showing too much skin, Insecurity hits and she frowns and picks up a hoodie. Crimson High. The shit hole of a school. Cassie was glad at least that she would be done soon. This was her year like she would always say. She was a senior and was going to graduate that year. She was excited mainly for prom. She wasn't too smart, just smart enough, an average student if you observed closely.

She felt she tried her best, but her Dad always said she could do better and, to be honest, it pissed her off. Not that she did study hard enough just that it was hard to remember and she knew she wasn't to blame. She blamed ADHD. She had struggled with it since she was 14 years old. She had biology in the first period. And boy was she excited...and No, it wasn't because science was "fun", It was because she would get to spend time with Brian.

Brian was everything Cassie wanted in a guy, kind, trustworthy, polite, honest and yeah he was hot!!! "What more could a girl need" she often said to herself. But Brian was just her friend or something like that. They were more or less in a situationship. They both knew they liked each other, she was waiting for him to make the move while he was scared of rejection. He didn't want to ruin their relationship as friends. So he decided to play it safe.

She walked into class with her head high. She felt confident. Taking her time walking elegantly to her seat right beside Brian. He smiled at her and said, "someone's in a good mood" she could feel her ears heat up in a blush. "How can someone be so hot yet so kind" Cassie had always known hot dudes at her school to be sons of bitches. The no-good doodle heads had nothing good in them. But Brian was different.

A special breed. Her teacher walked in and greeted the class. Everything went on pretty smooth after that. It was the middle of the day, almost time for history classes. Cassie always wondered why she had to learn about old dudes all the time. She usually passed time making sketches in her books during class. She got caught one day and the whole class laughed at her for it.

But today was going to be different. She sat down and looked around at the familiar yet unfamiliar faces in her class. "Wow! I've had a history with all these people yet I don't really know any of them" That wasn't nice she thought, but she didn't feel up to it anyways. The door suddenly flung open and an unfamiliar sight met her gaze. Her curious eyes scanned the girl from head to toe. She was pretty.

Really pretty, like effortlessly pretty. And she had good taste in clothes. The newbie walked in after taking a good look at everyone in the class and took the empty seat beside Cass. Mr Fredrick walked in a few moments later, before he started the class he called out "everyone pay attention, we have someone new with us here today" he looks over at the new girl and says with his weird smile " would you like to come up here and say hi to the class"

She seemed genuinely uninterested, but she got up regardless and walked to the front of the class looked around and said "Hi, I'm Maddie", some douchebag named Nate whistled at the back of the class and everyone chucked, well except Cass and Maddie took note of that. She glared at Nate and that shut him up for the rest of the class. Nate was one of those guys... The ones who thought they were cool but they were definitely trying too hard with no results. Maddie walked back and took her seat, then she turned around and said to Cass "you seem like a nice person, what's your name?".

Cass was stunned for a minute, she snapped out of it and finally said "Uhmm I'm Cassie". "Ouuu sassy Cassie" Maddie said with a smile and turned to face the projector at the front of the class. Cassie couldn't place a finger on it but something felt different in her. She was curious, intrigued even. What was it about Maddie that made her feel this way? Soon it was time for lunch and they all left for the cafeteria, Cass had met up with Natalia after history.

But she didn't tell her about Maddie and what happened in class, and she definitely felt guilty about it. They went to get their food and moved to their favourite spot in the cafeteria. All of a sudden Kate came up to her and said with a sly smile" that's a pretty top you have on Cass" and then gave her a soft hug. Cass was confused, she had never known Kate to be nice to her, so what changed? She decided to ignore it, but she could hear people snickering behind her as they passed by.

Cass and Nattie looked around confused, what was so funny, they both thought. Maddie walked in and Cassie's eyes lit up, she brought up her hands and waved shyly to her. Maddie responded with a soft smile, and Cass could feel her stomach flutter in excitement. But something changed after Maddie got her food from the line the smile faded. She looked around and found Kate with a sly smile. She walked up to her and poured her portion of soda over her which left light red marks on her white shirt.

"What the hell!!!" Kate screamed, fuming, she looked like she was about to explode. "That would teach you not to play silly pranks on people," Maddie said and casually walked over to Cass and pulled off the note stuck to her back and crumpled it up. Cass took the note and opened it up, it read " No.1 LOSER". Cass could feel tears well up in her eyes But it was at least comforting to know that Maddie stood up for her.

Maddie turned to Nattie, smiling stretching forth her hand "Hey, I'm Maddie, Cassie's friend"Uh Oh! Cass knew Natalia didn't like surprises. They hadn't kept anything from each other since 6th Grade. She looked over at her. Trying to read the look on her face all to no avail. But Nattie had always been a nice person, she faked a smile to cover up and said "I'm Natalia, nice to meet you. Are you new here?" Luckily everything else was cool after that. But Cass knew this year was going to be more eventful than she thought.