Chapter 1

"Get off. Off! O-F-F. OFF. Cassie Camile Carson, get OFF the couch and get your butt outside!" Cassie sighed and propped herself up on the worn gray couch in her room - also known as the attic - and lowered the magazine she was holding. Her cousin Lisa was towering over her, her bulky form altering the light leaking through the one tiny window in Cassie's room. "Fine, Lisa Anna-Marie Hill," Cassie began, producing a glare from Lisa. "But right now? It's so hot. I'll melt!" Not even a heartbeat after Cassie had finished did Lisa pipe up in her ever-so-annoying high-pitched voice, "Stop whining and do what I said! Mom told me to tell you to get outside, so you have to go outside! Do something productive instead of sitting here reading this garbage." Lisa snatched up the magazine in her pudgy hands. "Give it back, Lisa." Cassie put as much 'I-hate-you-so- much' as she could into the glare she threw at her cousin. She knew that she wouldn't get it back, and that all Lisa would do with her new garbage was tear out pages of celebrities she was obsessed with and plaster them to her wall. Lisa stood, unshaken, and her held her head high, wisps of frizzy, dark ginger hair sticking out in all directions. "This," Lisa shook the magazine for emphasis. "Is mine. Now suck it up and go outside. Don't be such a wimp." Rolling her eyes, Cassie gave in and stood up, following the bouncing puff of hair down the stairs.

Once outside, Cassie knew exactly where she would go - to her tree. It was an old weeping willow she found one day. It was the day she came home from school crying because Drew Sanders had teased her about her parents. Sure, everyone at school knew that her parents had left her on her aunt and uncles doorstep at three months old and fled, but nobody had ever teased her. They all knew that Cassie wasn't someone to be messed with, or at least that's what she thought, right up until John Morano came over with his stupid posse at lunch and said, "Do you know why they left you? Do you think they thought you were such a horrible baby that they just left you at someone else's place? Do you?" It had taken a moment for all this to sink in, and Cassie had felt her face grow bright red. She stood up, and John (and friends) had taken a step back. She opened her mouth to shout something at him, something her adreniline pumped mind just hadn't had he time to come up with yet, and all that came out was a choked sob. Tears streaming down both sides of her face, she ran into the girls bathroom, locked herself in a stall, and broke down. Why had John said all those things to her, right out of the blue? Really, what had brought that on? After no answers came to mind, Cassie collected herself, and, positive that her eyes were no longer red and puffy, walked right up to John, who was laughing along with the rest of his gang, and punched him. Right in the nose. That had felt better than punching a pillow. A lot better. But even though she had punched him, the smallest bit of insecurity still lingered.

Cassie, unwilling to come home to her unsupportive relatives, had dashed deep into the woods, farther back than she had ever gone. She stopped at a small clearing with a large, old weeping willow in the middle. Content with the spot, Cassie had just sat in silence, contemplating her encounter with John. Every time after that whenever she got mad, irritated, or put in a 'mood', she just came to that spot and sketched. Sketching was what she did to calm herself down. She would sketch the willow almost every time, but if not the the willow she would sketch random landscapes from around the world that she had seen in pictures. Traveling was Cassie's dream. "If I could travel," Cassie muttered to herself, "I would go by myself, without a chaperone." But deep inside, she knew that the chance of that happening was one in a million. So she settled for sketching the places where she wanted to go. Today, she decided, was a freestyle day. She would let her hand draw whatever she wanted. So she grabbed a pen and paper out from the little hole in the tree, plopped down on the lawn chair she had snuck out months ago, and began to draw. Within minutes she had penciled in the Eiffel Tower. However, she had also

sketched in people at the bottom. One of them was very unusual. Cassie realized that she had drawn a guy who, on top, looked like a human with an Abercrombie tee and navy blue baseball cap. But on the bottom were hairy animal legs. Squinting, Cassie double- checked this. Yep. She had drawn something seriously weird. Running her eyes over the creature several more times, she realized that the face of the monster was familiar. However, she couldn't put her finger on who it was. Choosing to ignore it, Cassie shoved her peculiar picture under a rock and sketched the the willow.

Cassie walked to science the next day. Tossed around by older, bigger kids in the narrow hallways, changing classes was never fun. But that was not at the front of her mind. The monster she drew the previous day dominated even the most catchy songs stuck in her head. Cassie was brought to a stop when three girls decided to have a catting session in the middle of the hallway. "Who's face was that?" Cassie whispered to herself. A cruel voice interrupted her thoughts. "You shouldn't stand in the middle of the hallway, genius. You'll make a traffic jam." Looking up, Cassie discovered John and two of his friends standing right in front of her. Cassie stared Drew down, and for a moment her looked insecure. But that look dissappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "Come on, guys." John stalked off and his friends followed him. The first one, Mikey Roca, shouldered past Cassie, smirking, as he followed the pack leader. The second one, Andrew Gonzalas, smiled apologetically as he slipped Cassie a note. Cassie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before the bell rang and she hurried to science, putting the note in her pocket.

Once home, Cassie didn't waste time back at her house. She ran straight to her tree, plopped herself down in the old lawn chair and tore the note out of her pocket. Opening it hastily, she scanned her eyes across it. The note read:

Cassie:

Sorry about John. He's just all worked up about how Renee Hill turned him down when he asked her to the winter dance. I Saw your picture. It was very good. You really got the shadow and highlights of my face. Meet me after school tomorrow behind the portables and you can tell me why you drew what you did. Or, better yet, I'll tell you, since you seem to have no clue.

See you, Andrew

"What the heck?" Cassie shouted. This was completely bizarre . Cassie thought that John was just worked up because they were paired together for a history project. She couldn't believe that he had the nerve to ask Renee to the dance. Renee was perfect. Pretty, smart, nice, and on the girls school soccer team. Well, why wouldn't he want to ask her? And what was up with Andrew being so nice all of a sudden? Was it all just some stupid prank? Tired and confused, Cassie trudged home, plopped down on her bed and almost instantly fell asleep.