Chapter Three
The bright morning sunlight peeked in through the cracks in the blinds covering the window above Heaven's bed, and warmed her face up, so to that she got up, now awake. Of course, she shouldn't have thought she was the first person up, because already many of the other girls were stirring and getting changed for the up coming hard gruelling day where they would be forced to do cartwheels and the splits. Tiredly, Heaven swung her legs off the bed and pushed her black hair out of her eyes. First task, get changed. After all, Heaven Leigh Casteel is a girl with class. Not just scum from the Willies. She made her way to the bathroom adjoining the cabin…and of course, someone was already in there. BANG! On the door Heaven's fist slammed.
"Whoever's in there, open up, 'cause I need the bathroom," she yelled at the occupant.
"Excuse me?" came the indignant muffled reply.
"I said, open up. I want the bathroom!" she yelled again, and leaned forward to slam on the door again. Funny thing is, the door and her fist never made contact, and that's because, instead, it was her face and the cold tile floor of the bathroom that did. Argh! Above her a gasp, and not a very sympathetic one, mind you, was let out. But she was in too much pain to really notice. Oh, she couldn't tell you the shock that she got that went straight up her nose (the fist to make contact) and into her head. Heaven was in utter agony! Urgh! She rolled over and lay on her back with her hands clutching her nose. Around her, the other girls howled with laughter. Especially Fanny. But right above her loomed the image of a freshly showered and sweet smelling blue eyed, and flaxen haired ballerina.
"Oh," she said between spasms of laughter, "did you want the bathroom? Well it's all yours now." She let out another chortle of laughter. "And I really think you ought to clean yourself up." The other girls let out more peals of laughter at this. Heaven was seeing red. Struggling to her feet, she stood up and glared at Cathy, still clutching her nose.
"You," she said, holding her nose with one hand and pointing with the other at Cathy. "You did that purposely, didn't you?"
"Purposely? I wish I had, but with all that banging, how was I supposed to know you were going to fall through the door. Ha! It's your own fault!" She smirked. Heaven was speechless. Maybe because she really had nothing to say, but most likely because she was in too much pain to think of a good comeback.
Sitting on the benches at the edge of the grassy field where the other girls were practising their moves, and getting yelled at by a certain bossy instructor, Heaven sat and pondered what was happening back at Farthy. Behind her she heard a rustle. Whipping around on her seat, (and yes she was out on 'injuries') she turned around to face the sight of a real live male angel, lying in the bushes, just waking up. The boy looked oddly familiar, but from where, she was not sure. The boy sat up and smiled charmingly at her.
"Hi there." he said.
"Er, hi." Well, what would you have said if you had just been spoken to by a divine looking male, who looked like he had spent the night sleeping in a bush?
"Did you spend the night sleeping in a bush?" she asked.
He smiled at her even more charmingly. "Why, yes I have." He replied, like it was a normal thing to do. "It's quite comfy too, much better than the roof of an attic…but that's another story.
"Oh," Heaven said. "Ah, why, may I ask you, did you spend the night sleeping in a bush, and what are you doing here? This is a cheerleading camp."
"Well, Cathy said she wouldn't leave me behind, so instead, she took me with her. So here I am. The camp directors wouldn't let me sleep in the cabin with Cathy…so I found the next best thing. Oh, I'm Chris by the way."
"Chris. Well, I'm Heaven."
"That's a pretty name. But not nearly as pretty as Catherine, I have to say."
"Catherine…Cathy. Wait, did you say you came here with Cathy?" Heaven asked in utter disbelief.
"Yep. She's my darling sister." Chris smiled widely at this.
Heaven could see the resemblances now, in fact, she couldn't believe she hadn't been able to see them before. So Chris was Cathy's brother. Oh, oh! But Heaven hated Cathy. Especially after she had broken her nose this morning. Well, nearly, it was really more squished then broken, but you get the picture. But how could Chris be Cathy's brother when he was so nice, and she was so…well, in Heaven's opinion, she was a bitch! Sigh. Why couldn't things in life ever be simple? Especially now that Heaven had eyes only for Chris, how was she ever going to get around Cathy? Not when by the way Chris spoke about her, she could tell he clearly adored her.
Cathy sat on her bed religiously brushing her long golden hair, taking care to start right at the roots, and end at the tips. It was the end of yet another full day of cheerleading…and a stupid thing it was too, she thought. If you couldn't get through life without a group of twenty or so girls in tight tops and mini skirts doing ridiculous dance moves and silly chants, then you shouldn't be trying in the first place. You had to be made of tough stuff. Like me, she thought proudly. From across the room, she could see Heaven staring at her. Cathy tried to ignore it, but it was pretty hard to when she was staring at her with such intensity. Such concentration. I wonder what she's thinking, Cathy thought to herself. Probably planning some kind of revenge. Well, it wasn't her fault that she was so impatient. Besides, she had deserved it, and it was pretty funny too. Watching her go down like that. Suddenly, she saw Heaven get and was staring to walk her way. Cathy braced herself for a fight. If Heaven was going to have a go at her, well, she could take it. She was going to fight right back. No matter what Chris would say, she thought. Heaven stop in front of her. There was hardly any space between them. They could reach out and touch each other…if they wanted to.
"Yes?" Cathy said coldly, after Heaven hadn't said anything for a while. Heaven, Cathy thought, looked hesitant, as if she was fighting with another voice inside her head.
"C-Cathy," Heaven finally said after a while. She forced a smile. It showed up crooked on her lips, and looked out of place on her pretty face. Well, with the exception of her nose, of course "Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened this morning. Even though it wasn't my fault," she added.
"You're sorry?" Cathy said incredulously. "Really, because I thought you hated me?"
"I said I was sorry," Heaven said annoyed. "I'm not here to start a fight, okay? At least you could acknowledge that. It's more than you've done for me."
Cathy laughed, but not kindly. "Well, apology accepted then. At least you can now see that it was you in the fault. I don't think I need to apologise, since it was entirely not my fault." Cathy was satisfied at this. She never thought Heaven was going to apologise, and why she did, Cathy didn't know, but she was glad she had. Things were turning out a lot better than she thought. Because now she would always have this to hold against Heaven in the future.
That night, after everyone else had fallen asleep, Heaven had quietly sneaked out of the cabin, and went down to the lake on the edge of the camp grounds to think in private. It was a warm night, but the occasional breezes were enough to cool her down after the hot, hot day they had had. Apologising to Cathy had been a hard thing to do, and not a pleasant one at that either. But she knew she had to. If she wanted to get what she wanted, then she had to play her cards right. Chris was what she wanted. And Cathy had stood in her way. She had hated the way Cathy had gloated after she had swallowed her pride to apologise, and then she hadn't been able to say anything in her own defence either! But it was either be nice, and make friends with Cathy, or be reduced to drastic measures. And the girls at Winterhaven had given her plenty of ideas for what she could do. As long as Cathy played along too, then she wouldn't get hurt, and Heaven would get Chris, but if she didn't, then Heaven would just have to do what she had to do…