Cassandra smiled, for today was Halloween and her birthday, for which she was excited. She was going to be a young adult, and be able to finally tell Don Lothario about her feelings, which of course would be acheived by travelling all the way to Oasis Springs in the bus, which is currently the only method of travel which would arouse the least suspicion in the family of where Cassandra had been. She would just have to wait until everyone was at school or work, and Bella was left to take care of the toddlers herself, or had taken the children to the park, which meant Cassandra could quickly sneak off to the bus stop and wait for the next bus. She walked downstairs, got the birthday cake out of the fridge, carefully placed eighteen candles on it, and blew all eighteen of them out, signifying the beginning of her time as a young adult. She tied her hair into a braid that laid on her left shoulder, which she thought looked beautiful. She smiled, spun, changed into her everyday outfit, which was a pair of short overalls over a black shirt, trudged carefully back into her room, and began selling all the old stuff she couldn't use anymore, like her homework book and diary, and began purchasing a laptop, a new desk, some speakers and stereo which was placed near to the now extremely cluttered desk. She then waited for the rest of the household to wake up from their eleven hour slumbers, which happened very gradually. Mortimer left for work, Alexander left for school and Bella left with the twins to go to the nearest playground, leaving a young adult Cassandra Goth all by herself. Cassandra ran, caught the tram, waited as it stopped at each stop, and it had finally stopped at Don Lothario's house after a one and a half hour tram ride, where she had a thousand men asking for her name and address. She ran out of the tram, paused for a panting fit at the doorstep, took a really deep breath, and knocked on the door. A young adult male, who was none other than Don Lothario, answered the door. Cassandra was anxious and panicked about the man that she had had this secret crush on for a while now, without her parents knowing. Don smiled at Cassandra, which made her eighteen year old heart skip a beat. Don waved the poor young adult female inside, and made the two of them pancakes. She had heard poorly said rumours that Don was a womaniser and dangerous, but she didn't believe either of those for a second. Don smiled as both of them sat down with a pancake stack and ate it. Cassandra told Don, in a nervous flurry, that she had had a crush on him since she was thirteen years old, but she hadn't been able to tell him about it until today, when she aged up into a young adult, snuck out of the house and caught the tram all the way to his house. He embraced her after being told this, and whispered into her ear that he also loves her, but truly, not a fake love that lasts for two months and then they dump you as soon as they find someone who they consider better. Don exchanged numbers with Cassandra, typing his number carefully into her phone, while Cassandra anxiously typed in her number in his contacts. They then got back their own phones, added names to eachothers contacts, and had their first kiss right there and then.

Cassandra smiled as they both pulled away from the kiss they had just had on Don Lothario's front doorstep and were about to walk back inside, when Bella stopped them from going any further in, and she was firing questions at Don as fast as any human could. Bella marched Cassandra all the way back home, with the twins in tow, which took approximately three hours to do so. Before Bella could say anything when they got home, Cassandra had rushed upstairs to her bedroom, hid under her bed, and began sobbing her heart out very loudly.

She couldn't believe her mother had forced her away from the love of her life, Don Lothario, just because she couldn't trust her and him together. To Cassandra, it had shown her and the twins what their mother could do in a situation like this one. She angrily came out from under her bed, hid under her bed covers, began crying again, and thought of her Mum separating her from the love of her life. This, and the fact that Don wasn't her first love, this guy that her friends set her up with was, Matt—but he had dumped her three weeks after the duo had begun dating, and it broke her heart.

"Cassa, are you okay in there?" Alexander asked a shut door.

"No," Cassandra whispered, but loud enough for it to be heard from the other side of the door.

Cassandra began crying into her pillow again as soon as she had let her brother inside her newly decorated bedroom, and barely looked up at him when he asked what was wrong. She didn't want to tell her brother about what happened with her and Don, because she knew he would be a little ticked off too, so she had said nothing. She sat on the edge of her bed, sobbing into her hands, barely bothering to answer his questions about her welfare.

She was glad her little brother was concerned about her, but it was hard to explain the premise of forbidden love to a child, whether they were your brother or not. It was just really difficult explaining your forbidden love experience. She just needed a hug, a shoulder to cry on, and someone of appropriate age to explain it to, but out of all her younger siblings, Alexander was the one who would best understand. In fact, out of the whole household, there was nobody who could understand her better than he did. Maybe she should brave it and tell him.

"Cassa, please tell me what's going on in your head," Alexander pleaded.

"Well, early in the morning, I snuck off to tell Don my feelings," Cassandra began. "Mum and the twins were at the park, you were at school and Dad was at work. I thought it was the perfect time to catch the next tram to Oasis Springs, where Don lived, so I did..."

"Then?" Alexander questioned, raising his left eyebrow.

"Well, he let me inside, gave me breakfast, and then I, over our breakfast, owned up about my feelings for him. I'm a foolish young adult that wanted to meet the love of her life," Cassandra continued. "I— well we sort of exchanged numbers and kissed."

"And then Mum caught you with him, asked him a heap of questions, and marched you back home," Alexander finished.

Cassandra cracked a smile. "Yeah, it was about that," she admitted.

She and her younger brother gave eachother hugs, and then split up to look for the twins.

Maybe today wasn't so bad after all.