It was soon decided that Rachel, Tobias, and Marco would go along with Cassie the next day, after school was over. The six of them went their separate ways, not wanting any Controller who might have caught sight of them to start thinking of them as a group. Cassie and Rachel left together, as they had planned to do.

Borrowing a quarter from Rachel, Cassie called her father and told him that they were ready to leave. Picking up the bags filled with smaller bags, that were in turn filled with the clothes Rachel had bought for her, Cassie put the payphone's receiver back in its cradle and headed off to meet her father when he arrived.

"So, did you buy out the whole store?" Walter asked, once Cassie and Rachel were within earshot.

"Nothing like that, dad, but I still think Rachel went a bit overboard."

Rachel gave Cassie a friendly shove. "I did not. You need all these clothes, to compensate for your complete lack of decent-looking outfits."

Cassie rolled her eyes, and Walter laughed heartily. The rest of the ride was filled with laughter and teasing, mostly directed at Rachel, but the blonde girl did manage to get in quite a few jibes of her own. Dropping Rachel off at home, Walter and Cassie spent the rest of the ride laughingly debating the possibility that people might not recognize her if she dressed in something that Rachel picked out.

Once they arrived at their house, Walter offered to carry Cassie's bags of new clothes up to her room for her. They ended up compromising, with Cassie carrying one bag and Walter carrying the other.

"Well Cass, I hope people can still tell you and Rachel apart when you wear these," Walter said, grinning.

"Yeah, dad, so do I." Cassie grinned at her dad; he could act almost like Marco when he put his mind to it.

Yawning, Cassie decided to put off hanging her new clothes in her closet until tomorrow. Pulling off her day clothes and dumping them in her hamper, Cassie pulled on a pair of pajamas and crawled into bed.

***

The next day began much like the last. Cassie kissed her mother goodbye and started to walk out the door, heading for the garage.

"That's a nice outfit you have on, Cassie," Aisha said.

"Thanks." Cassie spread her arms, adopting a pose Rachel often took when modeling outfits for her. "It's a fashion statement."

They both laughed, and Cassie blew her mom another kiss before heading out to the garage where her father was waiting with his truck. Hopping into the passenger seat, Cassie buckled herself in and waited for her dad to start the car.

Soon, the two of them were off, on the road leading to the school. When they arrived, and after her dad had found a place to park, Cassie unbuckled herself, kissed her dad on the cheek, and opened the passenger-side door so she could step out onto the curb.

"Bye dad, thanks for the ride. I'll meet you here after school."

Walter smiled. "Just think of it this way, Cass, there's only one more day of school left."

Cassie grinned. "That helps," she paused. "I was wondering if Rachel could come over after school today."

"Of course she can," Walter said. "You know that any of your friends are welcome to come over any time. I'll pick you both up after school."

"Thanks." Cassie closed the door, and waved to her father as he drove away.

Sighing, Cassie walked up to the school. Dad's right, it's only one more day till the weekend. This thought made Cassie feel a bit better. Reaching the door, Cassie wondered if people would even notice what she was wearing. Usually, Cassie knew that she was pretty much invisible to the majority of the kids at school.

Cassie didn't really mind, since she knew that she didn't have much – if anything – in common with them. Cassie made it to her locker without running into anyone, and found Rachel standing in front of her, leaning against her own locker. Rachel smiled at her best friend as Cassie walked up to her.

"Hey, Cass, it's good to see you wearing something besides those old rags you usually wear."

Cassie laughed. "Since it's pretty much your doing that got me these clothes, you'd better be happy that I'm wearing them," Cassie teased.

Rachel and Cassie both laughed. Sobering, Rachel took Cassie by the shoulder and started to lead her away. "C'mon, Cassie, let's go show you off."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Cassie grumbled half-heartedly, still grinning. "The human art-piece, that's me."

"Not an art-piece." Rachel rolled her eyes, resisting an urge to tweak Cassie's nose. "More like a fashion model."

Cassie shook her head in fond exasperation, but she didn't say anything else.

"C'mon Cassie smile, you look great."