CHAPTER THREE
"Class, we've got a new student today." The
teacher said, I didn't catch her name, "Who's going to help Jessie around
today?"
I couple of hands went up, I noticed that most were
boys.
"Shelby." The teacher grinned at me. "There you
go, you've got a tour guide."
There just so happen to be an empty desk beside Shelby.
I took the desk, "Hi." I murmured.
"Hi." She replied. Shelby was one of the students
that hadn't raised her hand.
I spent most of the day with Shelby, she was great
actually, although a little on the quite side.
I arranged to meet her at the mall. It turned out that
both of us were short of new outfits. Although I was a little okay because no
one saw me wearing 'repeat' outfits. After all, it is my first day to
school.
It was only when I left school started the long walk
'home' did I realize that school ended quickly, I mean, I could remember
getting up and feeling all queasy.
I guess the day was okay.
I neared to the house and found out that Cassie is
already there, I decided against going into the house and dropped my backpack
near the barn. I started to look for Jade.
I didn't need to look for too long, she was sitting
near a tree beside the back of the barn I headed towards her.
"Hey there."
I sat on a tree stump, I had my back to the barn, and
the field in front of me, "Nice place huh?"
Jade barked and then ran off, "Where you going?"
I didn't follow her, instead I just sat and enjoyed
the scenery. I heard Jade barking and then some other dog.
Jade came to me with the other dog trailing her, he was
a golden retriever, I think.
I petted his head and then continued to watch the
field, I didn't hear the footsteps approaching.
A hand rested on my shoulder and a voice said,
"Cassie, I-"
"Ah!" I yelped, startled, I fell off the stump. I
stared at the boy who was standing there blushing like mad.
"Sorry." He said hastily, "I thought you were
Cassie…em, here, let me help you up."
I reached out for his hand and he pulled me up, I
couldn't stop staring at him. I mean, I was gawping like an idiot!
I finally managed to get a grip on myself and said,
"Who are you?"
He scratched his head, "Jake, em, I'm Cassie's
friend."
"I see," I sat down again, "I'm Jessie,
Cassie's cousin."
"She didn't tell me anything about you, sorry, when
I - its just that you look like her from behind, I didn't now-"
"It okay." Know I was starting to blush.
"Jake man!" A voice yelled. "Is that Cassie?"
A Hispanic boy trotted up to us, he looked at Jake,
then at me, he folded his arms, "Man Jake, Cassie's going to be jealous,
wait till she hears that you decided to swap girlfriends with her cousi-"
"Shut up, Marco." Jake was blushing again, "I
though it was Cassie, why didn't you guys tell me Cassie's cousin was
visiting?"
"Sorry man, forgot, I was suppose to tell you." He
grinned.
"I'm not visiting." I said.
"What?" Marco asked.
"I'm staying here."
"What?" Jake echoed.
Again, I flicked my long hair over my shoulder,
"I'm staying with uncle Will, both my parents had passed away, and I don't
have a place to stay."
"What?" Jake and Marco said at the same time, like
they couldn't believe what I was saying.
"You heard me." I said sounding annoyed, "This is
my home too."
***
*** ***
"You have got to try this skirt on!" A voice said.
"Yeah. Like I'll ever wear that." A mellow voice
replied. "Look at the color, neon red? Red! I wouldn't wear a red
skirt."
"You always have an excuse against whatever I point
at." The first voice said, "You now Cassie, it comes in different colors,
most skirts do. Look, there's a dark blue of there. And a lime green, see?"
"Look how short that thing is! All I have to do is
bend a little and-"
"See, you found another excuse."
"Leave her alone Rachel," A familiar voice said,
"If she doesn't like it then she doesn't like it."
I grabbed Shelby's arm. "Hey, Shelby. I want you to
meet this good looking boy I met today."
"Really? Is he from our school?" She asked me,
still admiring the jacket she had pulled over her clothes.
"Yeah." I said. "Do you know a boy named Jake?"
She turned round to stare at me, "Yeah."
"What do you think of him?"
She grinned, "He isn't a jerk like the others, but
he's a little slow with the names."
"Cool," I said, "He's suppose to be my cousin
Cassie's boyfriend."
"What?" She hissed, "I didn't know Jake
was hooked with someone? And of all people Cassie?"
"Yeah what's wrong with her?"
"Look at the way she dresses, girl. Those jeans of
hers look like they were bought six years ago. She's lucky she's short and
she hadn't grown taller, if she had then god help her, god help us."
"She's not that bad." I said taken back.
She shrugged. Then she grinned again, "Where's
he?"
"Over the other side." I whispered.
"Who asked your opinion." The first voice I had
heard earlier snapped, "Besides, its about time she bought something new."
Shelby froze. She grabbed my arm and yanked me
backwards. "Hey." I hissed, "What are you doing?"
She dragged me out of The Gap and started to
walk away yanking me along. After walking for a few more seconds she turned
around to check if someone was behind us then said, "Phew."
"What?"
"Didn't you know how that is?"
"Who?
That girl that was with them? No I hadn't had the chance to see her let alone
meet her."
"Good thing we didn't." Shelby said, "That's
Rachel, stuck-up witch."
"Whoa." I said, "She isn't that bad."
"I hate her." Shelby said, "Everyone does, except
of course Cassie and Jake."
"What? Why?"
"She's Rachel's best friend." I nodded, I knew
that, "She's also Jake's cousin."
"She isn't that bad."
"Trust me, she's worse than that. I've had this
nasty incident with her at lunch, man, she blew up."
"Why?"
"Just because I was accidentally shoved into her."
She rolled her eyes. "She used to be an okay person, now I don't know. She
used to be Melissa Chapman's best friend, everyone knew that, now she's with
Cassie, and her attitude went berserk."
I shrugged my shoulders, I still had to meet the girl
to judge her. And what did Shelby mean when she said 'now she's with Cassie,
and her attitude went berserk'?
Did that mean Cassie did something to Rachel?
Or maybe Rachel did something to Cassie, I remembered
something Cassie's mom said, 'And you tell me there's nothing wrong with
her!'
I also noticed that Cassie was a little different. I
mean, she used to pay more attention to you if you were around her, now it was
like she's dying to get out of her house.
And then there was those birds, Cassie reacted
strangely that night, at first it was like she was anxious for something, or
worried, then when she looked out of the window she was all calm. What's going
on?
And what's that thing with coming home late? It
doesn't look like this was the first time she did it.
And she was lying, Cassie wasn't at the beach. She
even wasn't at Rachel's. The phone call confirmed that.
The question is, if she weren't were she said she
was, were did she go? And why was she so late? Why did she need to lie?
I didn't know, but I was going to find out.