YA - Coming of Age
Chapter One
The end of summer always sucked.
Returning to the world of education wasn't exactly something I wanted to do, but more like something I had to do.
Legally.
Long gone were the days where teens could decide to leave school at sixteen if they wanted, and believe me, it was something I very much wanted.
Spending another two years with arseholes I couldn't care less about would settle somewhere really low down on the priority list, if I ever were to make an actual priority list. Did people even really do that? Or was it one of those things we all said just to seem more interesting than we truly are?
Oof! The bus driver, seemingly never having driven this route before, didn't miss the famous pothole on Brooks every driving instructor warned about, and sent every person on the bus forward in their seats.
My wrist, trapped between my rib cage and the seat in front, throbbed on impact.
Fuck, that was gonna smart for the rest of the day. Wonderful. Just what I wanted.
The shouts of the other people on the bus aimed at the driver warmed me, their ire settling mine, and I couldn't stop a smile from gracing my lips as I looked out the window.
School coming into view quickly wiped it away.
The ding of the bell stopped my mind from sinking further.
Clusters of students in school uniform stood on the pavement outside the gates chatting to each other, most likely about their summers, as the bus stopped beside the shelter.
I made my way to join one of the clusters. The one that consisted of the people I called my friends; even though the term friends was being quite liberally applied.
My true friends had swanned off to the local college to study hair, so I was left at the sixth form of the school I'd attended since age eleven without them.
'Yo, Cass,' Lara called. 'Over here!' She waved, gesturing me towards the group, and it took a lot to bite my tongue to stop the vitriol wanting to pour out.
The inner me wanted to snap: You really think I didn't spot your hair from a mile away?
But what I did instead was say, 'Oh, hey!' as I made my way over to the three of them.
Lara, Mellie, and Nix were... Hm, how to put this delicately? Eccentric.
That's a good word for it.
Eccentric.
Our friendship came about sort of by accident really. Back in July at the prom after party not only did I become very drunk, but I also became extremely maudlin.
As in sat in the garden on the floor by myself nursing a red cup filled with a pint of vodka and red bull, mascara running down my face in clumps, all while I cried and told anybody within hearing distance how alone I was going to be once school started back up stuck with all the other losers who weren't moving away from Hatcham High.
Yeah, it wasn't my best look.
Anyway, during one of the loudest wails, Lara, Mellie, and Nix came and sat beside me.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit I wailed even louder when I noted who had sat down to comfort me. Might have even shrieked something along the lines of 'I'm gonna die a loser with loser friends.'
But honestly, the whole night's still a bit of a blur, what with all the alcohol consumed, so I'd like to think that I wasn't that dramatic.
'We'll be your friends, Cass,' Lara said, choosing to ignore my cries. 'If you want?'
I must've said yes, because the next day I woke up added to a group chat with the three of them and that was that. We've spoke every day since, and at least once a week we headed into town, or to the cinema, or the bowling alley to hang out.
And the rest as they say was history.
Lara's hair, somehow an even brighter shade of aqua than it had been the week before, waggled her eyebrows. 'He's new. Moved here from Europe I heard.'
'I heard America,' Mellie said, nodding her head in a way reminiscent of her golden retriever puppy, Marlow. Her blonde eyebrows soared high up to her forehead. 'Isn't it thrilling though? New people always make this dump more exciting.'
'There's loads of new people for sixth form,' Nix pointed out. 'What makes this one so special?'
Clearly I'd missed some big gossip while on the bus. The group chat hadn't blown up and the fact I hadn't had a good luck message from Pilar or Alex had me stuffing my phone into my inside blazer pocket to stop me from staring at the screen.
Fine, I'd bite. 'Who are you talking about?'
'Are you telling us that you don't know about the new boy, Cass?' Lara's voice, a little too smug, irked me. 'How very unlike you.'
'How very unlike me,' I mocked. 'Are you gonna tell me or not?'
Nix smiled, their features brightening at the knowledge they knew something I didn't. 'There's a new lad in our year. Henry I think his name is. Apparently, he's to die for.'
'Is the apparently because you haven't seen him yet, or because you don't agree?' I weighed up Nix's facial expression, but I couldn't determine the answer. Over the summer, Nix had got themselves a partner, but had barely given us any juicy details about it. What was the point in having friends if you weren't even going to confide in them?
'I haven't seen him yet,' Nix confirmed. 'But Mellie saw him talking to Mr Long at the entrance—'
'—and he's gorgeousssss.' Mellie cut in, nodding her head once more. Her dirty blonde hair fell into her eyes and she swiped it away. 'Just your type, Cass.'
I brushed it off. I highly doubted that.
The guy could be as good looking as sin and it wouldn't matter.
After the events of last year I'd written boys off forever, thank you very much.
Chapter Two
English class with Mr Peers had to be the class I was looking forward to most.
Somehow, he'd been my teacher ever since year seven, and an English class wouldn't feel the same if I had to stare up at any other face. It also helped that the man was pretty good looking, not gonna lie.
'Hey, Sir,' I said, walking into the classroom with the confidence of a star walking out for their curtain call curtsey. The classroom was empty. Clearly nobody had left form on the first peel of the bell like I had. I gestured to the empty room. 'Can I just sit anywhere?'
'Actually, Cassandra, I've created a seating plan.' He wasn't the only teacher who called me Cassandra, but he was the only one I didn't mind hearing it from.
I rolled my eyes. A seating plan. Jeez, what were we, twelve?
'But I wanted to sit at the back on my own,' I said, giving him only a tiny amount of sass. 'You know I don't like people and I work better left alone.'
'Cassandra.' He let out an exaggerated put upon sigh. 'Do we have to have this talk every year?'
I pretended to think about it, but only for a moment. 'Why yes, yes we do.'
'Cassie,' he said, and I knew he meant business the moment he used my nickname. 'Usually I'd let you get your way, we both know it, but this year I'm under strict instruction from Mrs James to...' He trailed off, shifting his weight, before brushing his tattooed hand through his dark black hair.
Mrs James was the former physical education teacher turned head of year. She also happened to be one of my enemies. The woman never took to me ever since I refused to take part in PE in year seven because I hate all kinds of exercise. It pissed her off that I wouldn't apply myself. She wanted me to try because it was mandatory. Why would I care whether it was mandatory? If I didn't want to do it, I wasn't going to do it.
'Mrs James has told you to not bow down to me, hasn't she?' I tapped my pump covered foot against the sticky blue carpet, trying to keep my anger inside. Ever since I could remember, I'd found it hard to keep my temper in. Literally any small thing could set me off; a red mist could descend within seconds. 'Sir, don't let her dictate to you how you should act in your own classroom.'
A commotion at the classroom door stopped Mr Peers from replying to me. He gave me the look. The one that said, 'Please, Cassandra. Do this for me.'
I gave a brief nod and waited for him to tell me where to go.
There were now eleven other kids in the room with us, all standing near the door, hovering, waiting to be told what to do and where to go. The nerves seeping out of their acne ridden pores irritated me to my core. Because English was my best subject, I was always put into the high ability sets, alongside other kids I had nothing in common with.
'Hello class,' Mr Peers said, addressing us all. 'I've put together a seating plan for you so...' I tuned his words out, bored, and looked around the room to see what he'd covered the walls with this year. One wall had a shrine to Shakespeare. All quotes and posters and bubble letter names. Another wall was filled with fantasy book covers and student's reviews of them underneath. Then there was the wall made up of windows that looked out over the school field. The September day was fairly warm and the sun shone on to the rugby posts, catching my eye.
'...Cassandra Winston, you're in the back' — Mr Peers pointed at the table to my right — 'and you'll be sitting with Henry Laurier.'
I blinked at the newcomer, not having seen him behind the others when they entered. This must be the boy everybody was talking about by the gates. And Mellie was right. The boy was gorgeous.
He was tall, at least a few inches taller than me, and he had dark brown hair that swept across his forehead like he'd spent a gazillion hours styling it just so.
The way he wore the school blazer was doing something to my insides and I needed to look away before I did something uber embarrassing like, oh I don't know, going as red as a tomato or something equally horrifying.
Without saying anything, I took a seat at the table Mr Peers had pointed at, and started pulling my notebooks and pens out of my satchel. The whole situation would go a lot better if I just stayed silent.
I wasn't good with new people. Or any people really.
My head would sabotage me before I even had a chance.
So I sat in silence with the new boy sitting next to me, doing my best to ignore the fact he kept glancing over at me, probably waiting for an introduction that would never come.
After the lesson started and Mr Peers was writing the plan for the term on the smart whiteboard, he leaned into my personal bubble and whispered, 'Cassandra, isn't it?'
I bristled at my full name leaving his way too perfect lips.
'Cassie,' I hissed back.
'Cassie,' he repeated with a nod. 'I'm Henry.'
'I heard.'
'I take it you're not new here this year.'
'Nope.'
'Do you ever talk in full sentences?'
'Sometimes.' I wrote down the information from the board, noticing that Macbeth was a part of the curriculum again. At this rate I wouldn't need to attend half the lessons, seeing as I'd studied Macbeth with Mr Peers twice already since year seven and wasn't sure there was much else to learn when it came to the Scottish play.
'Well, fun talk, Cassie.' Henry turned his body to face the front again. 'So glad you're my study buddy this year.'
You and me both, buddy.
If you enjoyed this little snippet, and would want to read more of it, send me an email: katielowrie@klspublishing.com