Cassie didn't have the energy to get out of bed, but she forced herself out of bed.
When she got out of her room, the phone rang. "Hello." she answered, void of any emotion.
"Cassie, thank heavens you're alright." She hears her mom sigh in relief on the other side. This was the first time in a few months that Cassie has heard from her mom.
In fact, it was her mother's idea to relocate her daughter to Hawkins to live with Bob in the first place.
In early April at around 1:00 in the morning, Bob Newby received a phone call from his older sister, Felicity. Her panicked state was enough to make Bob feel worried about her, knowing full well that she didn't take the unexpected passing of her husband very well.
There are two things that are important to Bob: his sister and his sister's daughter.
All that Bob knows is that Cassie met someone, and that person was destroying her from the inside out. Bob wasted no time in allowing Cassie to move in with him.
"Hi, mom." Cassie chokes out.
"Your Uncle called me last night and told me what happened. How are you feeling, sweetie?" Felicity asks.
"Do you want me to lie or tell the truth?" Cassie numbly asks.
"This is no time for your sarcasm, Cassandra. I thought Hawkins would be safe. I thought that nothing ever happened in that town." Felicity continues to rant.
"And nothing happened until recently. If I'm being honest with you, I'd rather deal with the madness that is going on right now than deal with what I did back in San Diego." Cassie responds.
"As much as I hate to say this, I do too." Felicity gets out. "You better not get another job, while you're at it. You need time to process everything." her mom continues.
"Are you a psychologist now, mom?" Cassie inquires, sarcasm.
"What did I say about the sarcasm, Cassie?" her mom scolds. "Listen, I need to leave for work. I love you so much." Felicity parts ways with her daughter.
"Love you too, mom." Cassie replies, softly, before hanging up.
Bob is getting ready to leave when he spots his daughter near the landline.
"Hey, Cass. Look, I was just thinking, and I think it's a good idea if you stay home today." Bob advises her.
"It's fine, Uncle Bob, really." Cassie attempts to reassure her uncle.
"Are you sure?" Bob asks, warily, to which she nods.
"I need to focus on something else. If I stay here, it's just gonna repeat over and over again." Cassie explained to him.
That is how Cassie Grant was able to go to school. Throughout her entire day, she has been tense and on-edge.
She then thought about Steve Harrington, about how he was there for her when she was at her most vulnerable. It was the first time that she saw a glimpse of the Steve that she used to know.
While at her locker to gather up some stuff before going home, someone tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump and slam her locker. She got attention, and all it took was one glare at everyone to get it off of her.
She turns to see who the culprit was, and it was Nancy, who instantly notices Cassie being on-edge. "Are you okay?" she asks her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Cassie brushes off, trying to catch her breath. "Just let me know what times you need me to babysit." she assumes, thinking that she is going out with Steve, as she's walking away from her locker, causing Nancy to follow her.
"No, it's not that. Did Barb leave with you last night?" Nancy asked, causing the taller brunette to raise her eyebrows. "And you're asking me because?" she trails off.
"It's just I haven't seen her all day and you were also at Steve's house." Nancy insinuates as they exit the school.
"Look, all I did was invite her to leave with me while you four were getting possible hypothermia. She refused and insisted that she waits on you, like the good, concerned best friend that she is." Cassie snaps at her.
The two brunettes look up to see Steve and his group cornering Jonathan at the parking lot.
"Oh, fuck." Cassie mutters under her as she and Nancy go up to the group.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks, trying to diffuse the tension.
"Here's the starring lady." Tommy taunts.
"Okay, he has an IQ of 2, and I'm even confused." Cassie raises her suspicions, pointing at Tommy.
"This creep was spying on us last night. He was probably gonna save this one for later." Carol tells Nancy, handing her one of the pictures.
Cassie took a look at it, and it was Nancy stripping out of her shirt. Most likely from the aftermath of splashing around with Steve, Tommy, and Carol in the pool.
"Okay, yeah, totally not concerning at all." Cassie mused sarcastically.
"There's even one of you as well." Steve told Cassie as Carol handed her a picture. Cassie got a good look at it, and it was of her, bored out of her mind, leaning up against the fence, and smoking a cigarette.
Cassie couldn't get a word out before Steve spoke up. "See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but, man, that's the thing about perverts, it's hardwired into them. You know, they just can't help themselves." Steve antagonizes, ripping up some of the pictures that he is holding.
"So, we'll just have to take away his toy." Steve adds in, regarding Jonathan's camera. "No, please, not the camera." Jonathan pleads.
Okay, now this was going a little too far.
"Look, not all of us have a rich mommy and daddy like you, Harrington, so leave him alone." Cassie snarls at Steve, who just gives her a bewildered look.
"Are you serious, Cass? He took pictures of us, of you, and here you are defending him?" Steve asks her in shock.
"Are you surprised, Steve? All freaks have to stick together." Carol taunts, to which Cassie rolls her eyes.
Tommy was also holding Jonathan back from getting the camera.
"It's okay." Steve tells Tommy, preemptively stopping him, handing Jonathan the camera. "Here you go, man."
However, when Jonathan reaches out for it, Steve drops it, the camera shattering. "Come on, the game's about to start." Steve tells his group, as they all left.
"Here, let me help." Cassie offers Jonathan as she helps him clean up the pieces of the shattered camera.
"Hey, Nance! C'mon." Steve calls out to Nancy, who is picking up one of the shredded pictures that Carol ripped up.
Nancy joins Steve as he notices Cassie still near Jonathan.
"Cass, you coming with us?" Steve asks her, his smirk disappearing when he sees the unamused expression on Cassie.
"Freaks gotta stick together, right?" she asks, pointedly, as she continues to help out Jonathan.
"Look, quite frankly, I don't know why you did what you did, and I don't want to, but he shouldn't have broken your camera." Cassie states.
The two were about to dispose of everything, instead of the parts that are being blown away by wind, and before Cassie leaves, she turns to Jonathan.
"Do you mind if I keep this? I mean, despite the creepy context of it all, it does look pretty cool." Cassie admits.
"Yeah, it's fine." Jonathan replies, shyly.
Cassie got home from school, and as the night went on along with her mom preventing her from finding a job, all she can replay in her mind is finding Benny's body.
She felt a panic attack coming up, so she fixed herself up a glass of water and took small sips to calm her down.
She hears the door open and close, spotting her uncle with a solemn expression.
"What happened?" she asks, feeling a sense of worry.
"That kid you used to babysit, they found his body." Bob tells her.
The whole week for Cassie now just went from bad to worse.
REVIEWS:
MyRandomThoughts: To quote the brilliant Erica Sinclair, 'Just the facts!'. I'm kind of leaving subtle but not subtle hints about one of the characters (if you know, you know)
xLiteratureLoverx: Yeahh...Cassie's journey is going to be filled with trauma (like stated above, if you seen Season 4, if you know, you know).