[Z] [7:12am]
Need a ride?
[Art] [7:14am]
Do you have an extra seat?
[Z] [7:14am]
Yeah, why?
I closed the text messages on my phone and locked it with it's usual passcode, and stepped down the stairs two at a time, humming softly.
"Cass, ready for school?!" I yell, looking around the empty living room. Shit, where'd she go?
Cass, or Cassie, is actually my Mom's best friend's daughter. But since her mom got killed in a car wreck (a texting driver's fault), and she doesn't have a dad, Mom took it upon herself to say Cassie was my cousin, and suddenly Cassie is permanently attached to my hip because she's fourteen and apparently doesn't know how to go through life.
Okay, her Mom did just die, I get it.
But Z is probably almost here, so Cassie better already be on the way to school via Dad or just hiding out in the bathroom pretending to be sick so she doesn't have to go to school.
I yank open the door to the bathroom. No Cassie. Z's car beeps outside, so I just roll my eyes and push outside, and take the backseat behind Dick Grayson.
[Momm] [7:35am]
Where are you?
[Sweetie] [7:35am]
School?
[Momm] [7:36am]
I'm dropping Cass off at the office, will you show her around, please?
[Sweetie] [7:37am]
Fine...
I look around, closing my locker while Z fiddles with her school jacket uncomfortably. There has to be someone else I can latch the job to or at least pay off to show Cass around, preferably a Freshman so I can pin the Student Liaison thing to them.
"Art?"
I look over to Z who is holding out her hands expectantly. I drop her first hour binder into her hands, resuming my expedition to find someone else to take over my "watch over your Freshman cousin" job.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing," I lie, and then turn to Z. Perfect student liaison, ever, and she's right in front of me! "Z, want to do me a favor?"
"I don't like that look."
[Dickwad] [8:54am]
Are we meeting for lunch?
[Goddess of Hunt] [9:12am]
We aren't friends?
[Dickwad] [9:12am]
We carpool together!
[Goddess of Hunt] [9:34am]
You share saliva w/ Z. No.
[Dickwad] [9:35am]
We've been besties since Kindergarten! :'(
Z stomps over to me at lunch, and literally begins pulling my hair.
"He-ey! Ow! Stop!"
"That's for making your cousin cry!" she says angrily, before sitting down next to me and stealing an apple off my tray. Dick is suddenly suctioned right next to her, ignoring me.
Jeez, did I piss everybody off?
"What did she do?"
"She adores you, Art, and you walk all over her!"
I push my mashed potatoes around, "okay, where is she? I'll go apologize."
"Probably with her friends," Megan says cheerfully, setting her tray down across from me, "what are we talking about?"
"Artemis is being a bitch," Dick supplies, he catches me glaring, "hey, you said we aren't friends, I don't have to be nice!"
I roll my eyes. Megan is splitting her pie with Z, and Dick is suddenly engaged in conversation with Kal.
Fabulous, so I can just sneak off, blurt out a quick apology and...
"Art, where you going?"
[Arty] [12:24pm]
Sorry about ditching you earlier. I'll take you out for Ice-Cream later.
[Annoying Cousin] [12:26pm]
Apology accepted :) And thanks, but I'm going over to Suzanne's tonight.
[Arty] [12:27pm]
Ok.
[Change Contacts]
[Annoying Cousin] [EDIT] [Cass]
-Would you like to save changes?
[Yes]
"Mind if I sit here," I ask, putting my binder down at a table. Each table will have enough room for four people, and Z and Dick have this class this hour too. But since I got here late, and I assume they're making out in a bathroom somewhere, all the tables already had two or three people at them, besides this one.
"Go ahead," the red head, says. He's reading through an English book- The Catcher and the Rye- I should know, I have a copy from it being issued in my English class.
Dick chooses then to make his entrance, hopping over the table and into his chair to show off his acrobatic skills- having been in that stupid class since he was like three.
Zatanna slides next to him, grumbling about Algebra Two. I can't help but smile at that.
"Artemis, you pick the best seats," Dick says, before high-fiving the red head.
[Unknown Number] [3:45pm]
Be nice to my cousin.
[Freshman] [3:45pm]
Who is this?
[Unknown Number] [3:46pm]
Artemis Crock. Cassandra Sandsmark cousin. Be nice to her, or I'll castrate you. You filthy Freshman.
[Freshman] [3:46pm]
I'm a Sophomore...
[Artemis Crock] [3:48pm]
Oh.
[Artemis Crock] [3:49pm]
Filthy sophomore.
I shut my phone off and turn to Z, who's trying on different dresses in front of my full-length mirror. She smooths down the hip of the yellow one she's wearing, and turns on her heel to me.
"How do I look?"
"Fabulous," I say with a wiggle of my eyebrow. My phone lights up with a text from Dick, wondering where Z is.
"Who were you texting?" she asks, shimmying out of the yellow dress and trying on a red one.
I watch her zip up the back of the dress, her fingers scrabbling around the zipper, "some sophomore who's hanging out with Cass."
Her nose wrinkles, and she looks at the dress in the mirror.
"Are you going to be ready in the next week?" I ask.
She tries on the yellow dress again, "it's not everyday you go out with your boyfriend to dinner with his entire family."
"Jason will look down your shirt again," I say lazily, causing her to change dresses again.
[Filthy sophomore] [8:29pm]
Where do you live?
[Artemis Crock] [8:30pm]
?
[Filthy sophomore] [8:30pm]
I was going to walk Cassie home...
[Artemis Crock] [8:31pm]
That's sweet, but I'll come pick her up.