Cass' POV ------ setting: Cass' house. (Just a taste)

It's official. I'm going to kick the crackhead who decided to have school at seven fifteen in the morning in the balls when I run into him someday, right after I kick the idiot who made my alarm clock in the balls too. I lifted my head and saw my alarm decided to not go off (AGAIN!) and that Lise was picking me up in twenty minutes.

I jumped up in a panic and ran into the hallway to my bathroom. I was going to have to pee, brush my hair and do my make-up and brush my teeth simultaneously if I was ever going to get outside in time so me and Elisa weren't late for school. Fuck. Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Luckily Sue-Ann was done with the bathroom- the bitch- and I could run in and try and look presentable from the neck up. Stupid eighth graders think they need to look good. Who gives a shit what some stupid eighth grader looks like. They just figured out what sex was last week- they don't need mascara or to straighten their hair. I was in a rush anyways. I didn't have time to think about Sue-Ann and her fried straight hair and clear mascara she bought whenever we went to the mall. In fact I didn't have time to think.

I washed my hands at lightening speed and looked up at myself in the mirror. My hair wasn't that crazy. It was curly but it was tame. I'd pull it back though anyways. I wasn't in the mood for Matt Fryer to reach out and play with my banana curls gawking about how my hair was the eighth wonder of the world. I put on make-up to cover the grey circles that would be sure to form around my eyes and enough eye-liner to make my eyes pop.

In seven minutes I emerge and hurry to my room. I don't have any outfit planned I just throw on the first pair of jeans find and the first grey shirt on my dresser. Then I throw on one of those button-down sweaters and call it a day. I grab an elastic, my math textbook, my backpack, my iPod, my cell phone, Miles' book I never read, and a History book and head downstairs. Who the fuck invented text-books. I look forward to when we have computers for everything like that.

Packing is easy now. I can stop rushing. I look at my new schedule. Thank god I dropped that fucking English class. I have a free ride this year. I'm all set. I have all average classes but now I have no classes with Elisa. She would never say it but, in all honesty, she's pissed. We've been all of the same classes since the eighth grade and now I'm ditching her for average classes with kids my own age.

I mean, Elisa's smart. She's got English down pat and a few others Honors. But me? I haven't read a book in a year unless it was Dr. Suess (Don't ask.) and I don't plan to. Who cares about Mocking Bird and Expectations (even if they are Great). I'm going to a State School and I'm proud of it.

I run into the kitchen and see Sue-Ann putting on her shitty furry boots and slipping her backpack over her shoulders. "Late again?" She looks up. We look the same. It's creepy. But that's what my families like. We all look the same.

"Shut up," I say. I grab a pop-tart and look over my shoulder and see Elisa's car parked out front. Then I rush grabbing my bag and the stuff I haven't crammed into it and head out the front door.

Elisa's car's really nice. Her mom bought is last June when she got her license. It's new and everything and Elisa was probably one of the best drivers in our Driver's Ed class. I failed it and I don't have a car so it doesn't matter. She has a license and Miles has one. I'm golden.

I open the passenger door and pile in. "Hey," I say. I shut the door and try to disentangle myself from my mess of things hanging out of my arms.

She looks over. "Hi," She says. She looks tired for once. She leans over and looks at me. I would give anything to have her hair. Its a nice dark brown with a little red in it. Plus it's nice and stick straight. She barely even has make-up on today and she looks fine. I have to cake it all on to look like her. Geez.

"Sorry, alarm didn't go off," I said.

"It's fine," She said. "Mine went off early."

I settle and reach forward opening my pop-tart. I break off a good sized piece and pass it to her. She takes it awkwardly and I go on eating it without watching her. She nibbles at it soon enough. "So," I say. "Guess who called me last night?"

"Kevin," She says smiling a little for me.

"Yes," I say smiling. "We talked until like two, I'm exhausted." She smiles a little and turns her car back on. Her stereo is playing- of course- Sunday Drive. If you don't know Elisa- her favorite thing in the entire world is music. Out of that huge catagory she listens to Sunday Drive religiously. She's wearing a Sunday Drive t-shirt she bought this past August today and she has every song they ever wrote and has been a fan since the third year they were together. Die-hard doesn't even cover how crazy she is for them. But you'd never know. She's a closet music addict.

"When's he going to ask you out?" She asks.

"Never," I said rolling my eyes. "He likes Liz Castro."

"She's so ugly," Elisa says. Then she looks over. "He'll like you eventually."

I shrug. "I hope so," I say. I hope she's right. In some weird way Elisa always tends to be right. At least from what I've seen in the past she is.

But who really knows.