Hey guys!
So I started this fanfic a few months ago and I'll try to post once a week. before you start reading check out the trailer to this fiction on my youtube channel (link in my profile) or just type in "how she got away with murder trailer" and you should find it (the thumbnail is the same as this story's cover)
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It was dark and cold, tension filling the winter air.
"Stop acting like a little bitch baby." Connor cussed at Michaela who had tear-smeared mascara all over her face. Although everyone froze and shivered, they were covered in sweat.
"Do not tell me how to feel right now!" Michaela retorted while fast footsteps approached the group. She let out a short scream when Wes stopped in his tracks as he reached them.
"Hey! Sorry it took so long." He excused his delay as he searched for something in his bag. Laurel looked around as though she was waiting for someone. "I went back for this." He pulled out a statue of Justitia, the goddess of justice. The groups eyes widened at the sight of the evidence.
"No, you-you take that back right now!" Michaela stuttered and fear was written all over her face.
"No, it´s smart." Laurel broke off her search and explained calmly. "Commonwealth v. Deloatche, a case the prosecution should have won but lost because there was no murder weapon."
"So, what are you saying?" Connor asked, knowing damn well what she was saying, however, not wanting for it to be true.
"We clean it and we put it back. Hide it in plain sight." The Latina meant. "After we bury the body."
"No!" Michaela denied "absolutely not!"
"Yeah, I-I-I-I´m with Michaela." Connor stuttered, his lips already blue and shivering from either the cold or fear.
"No, Connor think." Laurel insisted but Connor shook his head.
"The trophy we need, yes. But the body stays where it is." He meant but neither Laurel nor Wes thought about giving up on this.
"No, the body is what gets us caught." She insisted
"You´re not thinking straight." Michaela hissed and Laurel quickly snapped back at her while Connor tried to defend Michaela and convince Laurel of how bad the idea was. They were all talking at once until Wes eventually stopped them and suggested to flip a coin. Connor scoffed shaking his head, regretting what he has gotten himself into.
"Wait a minute…Why is it two against two?" Laurel suddenly realized and remembered what she was looking for earlier.
"Because we´re four, you dumbass." Michaela retorted while Laurel continued looking around.
"Wes, where is she?" the woman asked and Connor and Michaela looked at each other in confusion.
"He brought her to a motel. He told us!" Connor whispered angrily but Laurel continued to look at Wes who seemed to now also realize what she was talking about.
"No not her…Cassy." Wes suddenly said.
3 months earlier:
Connor searched for his name on a list to find his seat in the huge class room.
"Hey." A girl greeted him. He turned his head to get a better look of the petite woman. She had long, brown, wavy hair and a trendy half up-half down hair-do and ocean-blue eyes, a small, flirty smirk on her lips. She seemed classy but not expensive. "I´m Cassidy, but everyone calls me Cassy." She held out her hand but Connor didn´t react and continued looking for his name. "So, I heard she´s really tough."
"Yeah, seems like only the strong survive her class." He replied not looking up to her, his finger gliding down the paper on the search for Walsh.
"But I´m sure she can teach us quite a lot, she has a really good reputation." Cassy continued talking when Connor found his name on the list and turned around to get to it. Wes walked up to the table and took the spot Connor was.
"Nice try, player." The handsome man in the suit told Wes who tried to tell him that he wasn´t hitting on Michaela. Cassy eventually found her name on the list too and sat down.
"Good morning." Suddenly Annalise Keating´s voice filled the room and everyone got quiet and rushed to their seats. "I don´t know what terrible things you´ve done in your life up to this point, but clearly your karma´s out of balance to get assigned to my class." Cassy took her notebook out of her bag and placed on the little desk on the side of her seat. "I am professor Annalise Keating and this is criminal law 100. Or as I prefer to call it…" the lawyer took a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard behind her "…How to get away with murder."
Unlike many other classes, Cassy had attended this one already started with a case study and not a simple orientation and what to expect in the semester. Professor Keating presented the case of the aspirin assassin. Fortunately, Cassy has downloaded everything she got so far about the case and prepared something at home to impress the demanding teacher.
"The facts…Connor Walsh." Annalise asked and Connor stood up clearing his throat, presenting what he had prepared. Cassy was glad to see that he was sitting in the row in front of her, just a few seats away. Although she would never admit it, she had a secret crush on him since the day she first saw him at orientation but just never got the courage to talk to him. The professor asked another few questions like what happened after the victim, Mr. Kaufman, had ingested the aspirin he reacted allergic to. Cassy raised her hand, hoping she would get a chance to also show off her medical knowledge, when suddenly Michaela stood up and answered unasked.
"I already hate her." Cassy whispered to the person next to her with an eye-roll and the girl on her right nodded annoyed. Next Annalise asked Wes what the Mens Rea was and the guy Liv now thanks to Connor knew as player stood up, stuttering that he came unprepared because he was on the waitlist and didn´t get in until two days ago. When after a brief explanation of Actus Reus – the guilty act – he still struggled to answer her question a brunette behind her stood up and answered for him. It turned out to be Laurel, who didn´t get much praise for answering correctly. As it soon turned out after Connor asked about the verdict, this wasn´t a past case but a case the lawyer represented right now. The class soon found themselves at her house which was also her office, listening to the defendant telling her story. Cassy took notes, while Annalise explained that she wanted every student present a defense the next day in one minute. Then she pointed at the two employees of hers and they stepped forward.
"Name´s Frank." A tall man in a suit, hair sleeked back with gel and his beard thick and full, stepped forward. He looked around the students with a smug expression. "And unlike every teacher you´ve had, I do believe there are stupid questions." He turned so everyone would get a good glimpse of him. As he finished his sentence his eyes landed on Cassy and the smugness left his face. "So if you got ´em please see my lovely colleague Bonnie." He said without breaking his gaze. In the meantime a skinny blonde with short hair introduced herself as Bonnie and Annalise explained that every year she chose four students to work for her firm and that the top student would get a trophy – the statue of Justitia. Frank continued to stare at Cassy who was unsure if she should look back, say something or just ignore it. Something felt off but he couldn´t decide what…he just felt like he knew her from somewhere.
Cassy was sitting on the bed in her room, books open and carefully writing down different defenses when her roommate Kendall opened the door smooching a guy and falling back onto her bed, not paying attention to Cassy.
"Um…excuse me…I´m trying to study." The brunette let her drunk roommate know but she couldn´t care less. The pair quickly removed some clothes and threw them over to Cassy´s bed, burying her school work underneath. "Hello?!" the woman repeated herself and the guy lying on top of the girl looked up with a smirk.
"You can join if you want." He chuckled eying her up and down, while Cassy looked at him with disgust.
"I rather not." She threw the clothes to the ground and packed her things in a bag.
"Where are you going?" Kendall asked, however, not looking up and trying to unbutton his pants.
"The library…" Cassy murmured and furrowed her eyebrows at how gross they were kissing each other.
"Just be careful…" the footballer meant in between kisses. "Girls disappear on this campus." Cassy turned back to them with a stern look and Kendall also pulled back and looked at him.
"Are you being serious?" the girl pushed him off of her and buttoned up her blouse. "Lila was a friend of ours. She´s in our sorority actually, you dumb jock."
"Wait…Oh my god I´m so wasted, I didn´t even notice I was in the Kappa Kappa Theta house." The guy laughed but Cassy pulled him up from the bed and pushed him towards the door.
"Yeah and now you´re gonna leave the Kappa Kappa Theta house." She meant pushing him out of the room and closing the door. "You okay?" she asked and Kendall nodded, tears in her eyes. "How about we order a pizza and watch a movie?"
"Don´t you have to study?" her roommate asked and Cassy smiled, shaking her head softly.
"I think I studied enough for tonight…and if not I´m gonna wing it tomorrow." She giggled making Kendall smile a little. "Pepperoni pizza okay?"
Connor, Wes and Cassy rolled the body into a carpet while Michaela stood there, back turned to them and arms crossed over her chest.
"Where were you Cassy? Did you snitch on us?" she asked the girl who joined them only moments ago. Cassy exhaled due to the physical labor and annoyance by Michaela asking her those questions.
"Maybe if you´d help us I´ll tell you." She replied and Connor who was next to her glanced over suspiciously. "Oh get over yourself. I wasn´t ratting anyone out. I´m not that type of girl. I just had a really rough night, had to blow off some steam and needed an alibi that´s all." Now that Cassy was explaining her situation Connor and her stopped working, giving Wes no other choice but to stop too.
"And what exactly does blow off some steam mean, huh?" Connor asked angrily but before Cassy could reply Wes interrupted them.
"Guys. We don´t have much time. Let´s go." He got them to continue working again and they rolled the body further.
"Michaela!" Connor meant exhausted but the woman was having none of it.
"I didn´t agree to this, the coin did, so I´m gonna stand here and not see anything, so, when I´m called to testify I can say just that." She meant not moving an inch.
"I just want you to move your feet." The handsome man said nodding to her standing on the carpet. With an annoyed sigh Michaela stepped away and the three could finish rolling up the body.
"Reminds me of my summer job at Taco Bell." Cassy joked when she stood up and stretched, however, she didn´t get more than a shocked face from Michaela and an eye-roll from Connor as a reply. Laurel came in handing them the trophy, saying, she washed it and wiped the sink out with bleach afterwards. Laurel joined the three with trying to pick up the carpet but even with her help they failed. All eyes went to Michaela who was standing by the doorframe refusing to do anything.
"Fine." She meant grudgingly as she helped them and they tried to get to Connor´s car without attracting attention. However, once they stepped outside a campus cop stopped them, asking who´s car the one in the driveway was. The five of them stepped outside, everyone believing this was their end and getting goosebumps all over their bodies.
"It´s my car, sir." Connor tried to sound as normal as possible but even a deaf could have heard the anxiety in his voice.
"You´re blocking the sidewalk." The cop let them know and everyone sighed relieved while Connor meant he could correct that easily. But the cop got closer, seemingly wanting to peek inside at what their doing when Michaela suddenly spoke up normally, as though she had never had a breakdown.
"Yes, Professor Keating. We´re her law students, but she´s out of town and told us to take this old rug to the bonfire." She smiled and the other four just simply looked at her, surprised by how well she seemed. Moreover, even after the cop questioned her story she played along and managed to get him to leave them be. Thankfully some drunk students ran by and he had to get to them and ran off.
"Where the hell has that girl been all night?" Connor wanted to know but Michaela just rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, let´s just get this over with." Wes ordered and the group got ready to put the body into their car.
"Guys…" Cassy suddenly spoke up while everyone else was already bowing down to pick it up. "There´s only five seats in the car."
"Yeah so? We´re five people." Connor meant annoyed.
"Did you forget about our little buddy there?" Cassy asked patting the carpet.
"Let´s just load him in first and then we´ll see okay?" Wes suggested and the group picked the body up and put it in the car. Laurel and Cassy sat on each side on the rear bench, Wes on the passenger seat and Connor was the driver. Odd man out was Michaela.
"There´s no way I can sit on one of your laps and we won´t get pulled over." She stated while Laurel and Cassy tried to convince her to sit on them.
"Well, you´re not gonna stay here, you´re coming with us…so, you gotta sit in the trunk." Laurel said and Michaela burst out laughing.
"Are you insane woman? I will not sit in a trunk next to a dead man´s face." She whispered harshly while Wes and Cassy quickly shushed her.
"Fine. I´ll do it." Cassy offered and soon they were driving away from the crime scene.
The next day in class everyone presented their idea of the defense for the client. Cassy heard everything from presenting a new suspect, to corruption, to a prank, everything was included until it was her turn.
"Ms. Sadowski didn´t plant the aspirin, she lost it." Cassy started improvising as all her other strategies had already been presented by others and no idea gets to be presented twice. Some of her peers murmured and Frank looked up at her, interested in what was going to come next. "Having to work in such a toxic environment, under a demanding boss, long hours in front of a computer screen? I´d get a headache too. She probably had the aspirin in her bag, taking it when her head started hurting and it might have fallen out of her handbag when Mr. Kaufman called her to his office to have sex with her." She explained and some giggled which made Cassy smile too. "I mean who knows maybe they like it rough or wild…"
"Bet she loves it rough." Asher whispered to the guy sitting next him and they chuckled giving each other a fist-bump
"She could have kicked over her bag and the packaging could have fallen out and when the cleaning staff cleaned his office during lunch break, they put the aspirin on Mr. Kaufman´s desk." Cassy finished just in time when the timer rang.
"There were many could have´s and might in your defense…" Annalise noticed and Cassy inhaled deeply. "I´m sorry but if I was a juror…this might not convince me." Cassy nodded walking to the staircase as her idea was dismissed by the professor
After everyone had presented what they worked out Annalise showed them how to get away with murder.
"Step one: Discredit the witnesses." She wrote on the blackboard. "Step two: Introduce a new suspect. And step three: We bury the evidence." After shortly explaining who the new suspect was she ordered everyone to come to the courthouse the following day and watch the trial.
The trial had already started and Cassy sat next to Laurel carefully examining Annalise´s work, when Michaela stormed in and shared some information with the defense.
"Well, now we know who´s the first to flame out." Connor remarked and Cassy chuckled nervously as she blushed into a deep red, sitting so close to her secret crush. However, apparently the information Michaela passed along wasn´t something to make fun of. Turned out the witness on the stand, Mr. Kaufman´s first assistant was color blind and mistook the pills on the defendant´s desk which were the most vital evidence.
Cassy rubbed her eyes. She was tired and exhausted and sitting next to a dead body made her back ache and her stomach hurt even more. The car parked at a gas station where Wes bought all the needed materials for burning the body while the rest remained in the car. Connor, who was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown sang to every single song that came on the radio.
"Connor, please stop." Cassy begged when he sang jingle bells like a happy kid. Michaela repeated after her but Connor just turned back and told them he wouldn´t stop, especially if it annoyed them. Wes got into the car and threw some snacks to the back, saying, that it was less suspicious if he bought other things as well.
"Why? We can just kill the store owner if we need to, right? Hey!" Connor meant before continuing to sing and the rest of the car just silently rolled their eyes.
"I got no appetite." Cassy meant looking at a pack of M&Ms.
"Yeah me neither." Michaela looked out of the window to avoid puking at the very thought of a dead body lying next to her.
A few days later the university was throwing a gala, where the first years had the chance to meet all professors and talk to them outside of school. Cassy and Michaela stood at the bar, chatting, although, it was mostly Michaela who talked about her perfect life and her perfect fiancé and her perfect grades.
"Don´t you want something to drink?" she suddenly asked, noticing that Cassy had a sparkling water standing next to her.
"Oh no…I´m still twenty." She smiled and soon noticed Michaela´s confused look. "I skipped a few grades…"
"Oh so you´re super smart, huh?" she suddenly got more interested in the young woman. "Tell me, do you still need a study buddy?" Michaela placed her arm around Cassy and meant they could be great friends and talk about boys and stuff. "Tell me, are you seeing someone?"
"No, um…huh…but I actually do have a crush on one of our classmates." Cassy blushed heavily and put a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Really? Who? You´ve got to tell me!" Michaela acted super friendly and nice and Cassy glanced over to Connor who was a few feet away ordering a drink.
"Connor´s kinda hot." She admitted and Michaela quickly lost her smile.
"You do know that he´s gay right?" she asked worried but Cassy just quickly brushed it off.
"No he´s not. Just because he wears nice clothes and cares about his looks, doesn´t mean he´s gay." She meant and gave Michaela her glass to look after it after she gave her an unsure look "He´s not gay. Here let me show you." She walked over to Connor, a flirty smile on her lips as she softly played with her hair.
"Can I get you a drink?" she asked and Conner eyed her up and down with a smirk.
"Thanks but, um…I´m actually just getting something." He pointed at the bartender mixing his drinks with a soft smile.
"Right, yeah…so um, you look good today…really good." Cassy said placing her hand on his arm and softly running her fingers down to his hand.
"Um…I´m sorry…I feel really flattered but…I´m not interested." He pulled away and scoffed awkwardly while Cassy pulled back a little. "It has nothing to do with you just…I´m not interested in you…I´m gay."
"Oh…oh no, yeah of course you are um…good for you- I mean…can we just pretend this never happened?" Cassy pressed her eyes together in embarrassment as Connor took the drink the bartender has put in front of him.
"Yeah sure…" he said as Cassy turned around and walked back to Michaela. "But thanks anyway." He called after her and she just gave him a thumbs up, too embarrassed to look at anybody.
"Told ya." Michaela teased her when Cassy arrived back. The girl just quickly reached for Michaela´s drink and emptied it at once.
"Let´s just not talk about it." She begged making a grimace at the burning tingle at the back of her throat. The two women went to the rest of their peers, talking to a white man.
"Hey, I´m Cassy." She held out her hand and the man shook it with a friendly smile.
"Sam Keating." He introduced himself and Cassy raised her eyebrows surprised.
"Oh you´re Mrs. Keating´s husband. It´s so great to meet you." She continued smiling through her surprise. She supposed Annalise was too much to handle to be in a relationship.
"What gave it away, haha." Sam joked and the rest of the group around them laughed. He glanced over to the brunette girl from the corner of his eyes but Cassy could clearly notice that he wasn´t looking at her face.
The group was carrying the body through the woods, trying not get any attention. They were breathing heavily as everyone concentrated on not tripping over a branch or root, when suddenly a woman´s voice appeared in near distance. Not soon after a male voice answered her. The five of them quickly hid behind a tree, turning their flashlights off and trying to breathe as quietly as possible. Cassy looked at her phone after turning off the flashlight and saw 10 texts from Frank. She didn´t want to be bothered by him, when Connor, who was in front of her, looked back to where the light source came from.
"What are you doing?" he whispered harshly but really quietly, even Wes didn´t hear him.
"Nothing." Cassy turned her phone off before he could see who was texting her.
"Are you texting someone? A cell tower could pick up your location – our location." He started to get scared but Cassy simply rolled her eyes.
"I´m not dumb, I know not to text or call anyone when doing something illegal. Now stop being worried about me-" Cassy got interrupted by a phone ringing in someone´s pocket and Connor gave her an angry glance. "Not mine." She mouthed as she turned back to Laurel who was behind her. The woman quickly pulled out her phone and declined the call. The pair they could hear before got scared and left the woods.
"Why is Frank calling you?" Michaela asked after some time.
"What?" Laurel acted clueless while putting her phone back into her pocket. Cassy watched her do so, as she wondered as well why Frank was calling her friend.
"I saw your phone, Laurel. What the hell is going on?" Michaela got angry, thinking about how Laurel forbade her to call her fiancé earlier.
Annalise´s law students found themselves in the courtroom again where a police officer was taking the stand. The prosecutor showed a video of the suspect buying aspirin. The spectators gasped and Cassy could clearly see that Annalise hadn´t expected this to show up.
"Someone´s screwed." Cassy whispered to Wes who was sitting right next to her. He nodded, also shocked by the developments of this case. After a brief break where the lawyer discussed it with her client, she called detective Nate Lahey to the stand. Cassy didn´t know who that was but noticed that the minute the big black man walked in, Wes got tense and looked to Annalise.
"You know him?" Cassy asked worried when she saw confusion in Wes´ eyes.
"No. No, I don´t…why would I." he denied but she could sense that there was more to it than he cared to admit. Annalise grilled him on the stand and he admitted that he had knowledge of his department doctoring with evidence for the prosecution´s benefits, which threw the whole Aspirin argument over board. After the jury discussed, Gina Sadowski was found not guilty of attempted murder and Annalise won the case. The students were impressed and wanted to become just like her after seeing how intense and exciting it was to be in a court room. They soon found themselves in the classroom again, where Annalise announced the people who would work for her.
"First, the standout in the class. And the one you should all make it your mission to destroy.…" she picked up the trophy and showed it to them once more. "Come get your prize Mister Walsh." Everyone watched as Connor stood up and walked to the friend to take the trophy.
"The other ones joining us will be…Asher Millstone." She continued and Asher stood up, shouting "yeah" really loudly before sitting down again. "Michaela Pratt." Annalise said and Cassy rolled her eyes, annoyed by how much she would have to hear about it from her. "Laurel Castillo." Was the last name the professor called and Cassy glanced over to the brunette girl who seemingly didn´t expect this. She could also see that all the other students got a little sad about not being picked but Cassy herself didn´t have much hope. After screwing up the defense strategy and not being able to impress Annalise with the case she didn´t expect anything.
"And because our workload as grown, I decided to hire two more of you." Annalise said with a smirk and the whole class immediately got more attentive. "And those two will be…Wes Gibbins and Cassidy Robinson." Cassy looked up from her block where she was doodling around and then quickly looked over to Wes who also looked at her. The Keating 6, as the group was now called, stayed a little longer after class so Annalise, Frank and Bonnie could quickly discuss the details. Again, Cassy noticed Frank´s gaze on her. She looked back at him and he quickly looked away. She didn´t know what it was but apparently, she had something about her that he needed to figure out.
Cassy stood under the shower, letting the water run over her head. She was happy she got the spot at Middleton and the job at Annalise´s firm but she wondered how this year would be. How she would do what she came here to do. Suddenly the water pressure got really low. The girl tried to get it going more but it was at its fullest.
"What the hell?" she thought out loud, taking a towel and wrapping it around her body. Cassy went downstairs to the kitchen where the other girls of the sorority were eating dinner and chatting. "Hey guys…Could we call someone to fix the showers? The pressure´s really low." She meant taking an apple and biting into it.
"I´ve noticed that too." Another girl agreed and took her phone. "I´ll call someone." Not long after a plumber arrived and the girls sent him onto the roof where the water tank was. Cassy went to her room, listening to some music while studying the notes she made in TORTS. After some time she noticed flashing lights outside her window and went to it to inspect where the red and blue flashes were coming from. Once she looked outside, she saw police cars and a coroner´s car at their front and quickly made her way downstairs where the girls were crying and one was vomiting into the sink.
"What´s happening?" she asked around but no one gave her an answer. "Kendall." She asked once she got hold of her roommate. "What happened?"
"They found Lila." She sobbed, pulling Cassy into a hug. "She was in our water tank. Someone´s murdered her." Cassy´s eyes widened at the very thought of her washing her hands, her body, drinking the water her friend was swimming in the whole time.
"We´re out far enough, let´s do this here." Cassy was out of breath from their long walk through the woods.
"No- no- no- we need to go further." Connor insisted but the others let the body down.
"If we go further the bonfire will not cover the smoke. Also with every further step we risk getting caught." Laurel agreed with Cassy and inhaled deeply to cover up her exhaustion. The group rolled the body out of the carpet, while Wes and Cassy picked up some dry wood to put over it. Wes took the spirit he bought at the gas station and pour some over their crime.
"Okay last chance." He meant. "Either we all agree, or we stop right now."
"Just do it." Connor rushed him and Laurel finished his sentence.
"Before the Bonfire ends." She meant and Wes looked to Cassy who nodded softly.
"Michaela?" he asked and all eyes were set on her.
"It´s the only way to destroy the DNA." She meant with a hoarse voice and Cassy handed Wes a pack of matches. He lit one and the light coming from it revealed Sam Keating´s face. Cassy looked away, a tear running down her cheek as Wes threw the match onto the heap of wood and Sam. The five of them watched as it flamed up immediately and burned the evidence of the crime they committed away.
"What did we do." Cassy mumbled to herself as she watched her professor´s husband´s body burn.