Westbrook Academy for Metahumans: Forums

THE FIRST NIGHT

Parental Unit

• I said:
  Hey, dad, are you awake?
  sent: 2:04am

Brother David

• I said:
  Still up?
  sent: 2:17am
  
  Brother David said:
  Just barely, Cass. Why are you still awake? They not give you classes for in the morning yet?
  received: 2:19am
  
  I said:
  I don't know. I can't sleep. I'm not used to the noises of this new room.
  sent: 2:20am
  
  Brother David said:
  Things alright?
  received: 2:24am
  
  I said:
  Yeah, I guess, alright enough.
  sent: 2:26am
  
  Brother David said:
  Gone soft on us, Cass?
  received: 2:27am
  
  I said:
  Only as soft as your left hook.
  sent: 2:27am
  
  Brother David said:
  I knew it, hard as a rock. I gotta get to bed. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?
  received: 2:29am

Brother Joseph

• I said:
  Hey, you awake?
  sent: 2:34am

Brother Thomas

• I said:
  Wake up and write me back.
  sent: 2:41am

Delete His Number

• I said:
  Hey.
  sent: 3:02am
  
  Delete His Number said:
  ... You still have my number?
  received: 3:06am
  
  I said:
  Yes.
  sent: 3:11am
  
  Delete His Number said:
  Cassie, you broke up with me. That happened. & that means you don't get to text me at three in the morning.
  received: 3:13am
  
  Delete His Number said:
  Cassie?
  received: 3:32am
  
  I said:
  Don't call me Cassie.
  sent: 4:11am

Brother Mark

• I said:
  Hey.
  sent: 3:17am

Brother Jason

• I said:
  Hey.
  sent: 3:28am

THE FIRST DAY

First Period

She should have turned her phone off and tried harder at sleep. She knew it before she even wrote the first text.

Now she was late, and her hair was a mess; but it was a due sacrifice to have the time she needed to do up her makeup.

Still fidgeting to put her uniform on straight, she came running down the halls of Westbrook, reading off room numbers while keeping her book bag from hitting her in the ass too hard with one hand and tucking the rest of her shirt into her skirt with the other. Her pendant was bouncing off the sweater vest so high it threatened to hit her it the face.

One room after another she continued until finding the class, and came to a sudden stop at the door to take a breath and finish with her uniform; preparing herself for the tardiness lecture.

Today was not going to be a good day.

Second Period

After the class, she broke into the hall with half contained composure; but this time, she had a whole ten minutes to find her class. She could take her time.

The other student broke into the hall around her, and slowly it became a crowded sea of unfamiliar faces, a few that had barely a resemblance to human anymore. She pushed pass those she could and waited behind those she couldn't, trying to make her way down what seemed to be a never ending hallway.

She shouldn't have took her time.

At one lull in the crowd she turned a corner to find an upperclassman couple leaned against a locker; a girl and a man. He had dark skin and darker hair, with features that would make him almost handsome if not for that scowl he gave Cassandra as she passed. The girl was close to the same; tall enough and attractive enough, but the smile she gave him was almost too perfect, and the turn on her brow when she looked at Cassandra gave them away. They were the school bullies.

She gave them back a sour sneer through a snicker to herself, and knew right after she would be made to suffer for that later.

Wicked.

After she had turned another corner she heard the bell. It was the warning bell, it had to have been. What kind of school did not have a warning bell. Unless she missed the first one; that could be why the halls were so much emptier now. She started to walk faster.

When she finally found her room, in a hall she had come through twice before, she opened the door with a hope, and saw the clock on the opposite wall read 9:03.

Lunch

She struggled to get back into her uniform after P.E. The fabric was new and tight and itched on her now warm skin after the class; she was the last one out of the locker room, taking all the time she could now that she did not have to rush to be late to another class.

(to read what happened at lunch, please see this post in the Ghost Hunt thread)
http://www.westbrooksg.com/forums/viewt ... =50#p12795

In the bathroom, Cassandra went through near a whole roll of paper towels, working to clean what best she could of the milk off of herself. There were obvious stains on the vest, and her hair had clumped in parts. In her rush out of her dorm this morning, she wasn't thinking about bringing a brush.

She could hear the bell ringing in the hall outside the door. With a feeble little sigh, she collected herself and her things and starting running for the next class.

Seventh Period

There they were again, in her way. She almost knocked them down; for how short she was, these two were still shorter. And maybe it was her imagination, but they seemed to be getting uglier too; uglier than she remembered them from lunch.

Their large, bug like eyes looked up at her with two blank stares, while each of them breathed in a synchronized wheeze. She moved one way to walk past them, but they stepped sideways into her way again, the same as they did when she went the other.

" ... What?"

"We're sorry we blamed you for the milk." "Yeah, you seem like a nice witch." "She seems like a nice witch." "That's why we said we're sorry."

She watched each of them talk between each other, giving them a higher raise of her brow, while she waited for her turn.

"Yeah, its fine. Now move, I need to find my last class before I'm late to being late again."

One of them raised his arm to point to the door next to them, while the other spoke. "Here it is."

"How did... ?"

She stopped short, putting her hand to the bridge of her nose for a short moment, before throwing it forward for emphasis.

"No, nope. I don't even care anymore."

She readjusted her book bag around her shoulder, and made for the door, opening it to read the clock at 2:57. As an afterthought, she turn to stop the door from closing behind her, giving the brothers a little, soft smile.

"And thanks, I guess, you guys." She finished her sentance on a wink, and let loose of the door to shut its self.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad day.

"Detention on your second day, Cass?"

She looked in through the window from the patio at Westly's to the other students all sat around the corner booth with their food, holding her phone to her ear.

"Well, its not as if they caught me casting a curse on that blond girl so her chest would develop lopsided or anything."

"Cass..."

She continued after she shared a short laugh with herself, interrupting him. "I was out after curfew was all."

"Cass, I have the letter in front of me, I know what it was for. I'm not mad. Maybe a little disappointed. You're losing your touch. You never got caught sneaking out when you still lived here."

She paused with a smile, crossing an arm over the other and looking down to her boots. "I need a stronger sigil."

She paused again, before continuing with her thought. "Well, I wasn't going to cast a summoning ritual in my room. I didn't want to miss pronounce my consonants and trap the ghost in there for the rest of the semester. Then I'd be that weird girl who changes in the bathroom."

"You summoned a ghost on your first night?" He didn't sound convinced. "Wouldn't that make you the strange girl who talks to ghosts?"

"There is nothing strange about talking to a ghost in Westbrook. I wasn't even the first one to talk to him. Chris was. Like usual, I was the last to know."

"So you really summoned something, than. You talked to a ghost. I don't know, Cass. You still sound like that strange girl at school, to me."

They each laughed, between eachother, before he broke the falling silence afterward. "I miss you, kid."

"I miss you back, old man."

"You made any friends who are still alive?"

She looked back again through the window to Chris, to find him looking out after her, too, giving him a soft smile. "A couple."

"Oh. I see. Well, don't tell me anything about him yet. I want to have a genuine look of disappointment on parent's day when I found out he's as bad as the last one you brought home."

"Only half as bad. This one keeps his mouth shut."

He chuckled some, with a thoughtful sigh. "Just be careful, Cass."

"So I'll see you on parent's day?"

"I wouldn't miss it."

"Love you, old man."

"Love you back, kid."

She shut her phone with a contented smile as she made her way back inside the diner, to rejoin her new friends at the booth.