What Changed Cassie Gates?

What Changed Cassie Gates - Chapter 3 - The Big Reveal

Chapter 3 - The Big Reveal

I pulled into the parking lot at school and parked my motorbike under the elm tree. There was nobody to be seen, so I must have been really late. Usually there were some stragglers but because it was the first day of school no-one was late except for me, not even the druggies who were usually smoking underneath the elm tree at this time. I clipped my helmet onto my bike and bolted into school. I passed one kid on my way, who looked a bit lost, probably a freshman, but I didn’t stop to help, like Cassie would have.

When I reached homeroom I waited outside for a few seconds so that I could catch my breath. I didn’t want to rush in as the new me, all out of breath and flustered. After all, this was the big reveal. Once I had composed myself I was ready to go inside and show everyone the new me, Casey. This was it. There was no turning back now. I braced myself as I put my hand on the door and pushed it open.

Cassie would have politely apologised for being late and rushed to her seat as quickly as possible to avoid the stares. Casey, on the other hand, would relish in the moment and not give a damn if she was late. That was the new me and I loved it. I strode in to the class, sat down in the only empty seat left and waited for Mr. Fyson to ask me why I was late, while feeling quietly confident.

“How nice of you to join us miss, but I think that you have the wrong class. The only person missing here is Cassie Gates. You must be new. Do you need someone to help you find your class?” Mr. Fyson was being his usual helpful self, but I was surprised that he didn’t recognise me. I mean, yeah I dyed my hair deep brown, from its angelic blond, much to my Mom’s dismay, but could it really be that hard to tell that it was me? I suddenly realised that I had my hood up still, but I decided to use this to my advantage. It actually gave the whole scene suspense, like in the scream movies when you wait for the killer to remove their mask.

I left a brief pause after Mr. Fyson’s question and I sat up from my chair. I replied slowly and clearly, “No, I’m not new. I am Cassie gates, but you can all call me Casey now.” I pulled my hood down, folded my arms and cocked my head to the side in a way that said bring it on as I watched the mouths of my classmates drop. There was a moment of pure silence when everybody, including Mr. Fyson, looked at me with utter astonishment. All eyes on me and I was savouring every second of it.

As in most classes the silence didn’t last long and before I knew it everyone was whispering, all be it rather loudly, about me. I heard people saying things like; “Is that really her?”, “I love her new look!”, “That can’t be Cassie, she would never dress like that.” and even “Man she got hot over the summer.”

Mr. Fyson, after getting over his shock, eventually managed to calm the class down. However, I could see people texting under their desks and some people, especially the cheerleaders, kept trying to sneak a glance at me without it looking like they were too interested. Hallie on the other hand sat there, with her mouth wide open, gawking at me.

After Freshman year when my closest friend Matty left to move to Canada, I felt a bit isolated. I had always drifted between groups at school, but I didn’t feel up to it without Matty. Not many girls were still like me, dressing like they were Amish or something. Hallie was quite similar to me because she dressed a bit like a nun, but that was because she was extremely Christian. We became friends because she kept following me around, but it didn’t feel like a proper friendship. I know this sounds really mean, but I had nobody else, so I was only friends with her so that I didn’t look like a total loner. Hallie and I had stared to grow apart towards the end of the year as I got closer to Dave anyway, so I wasn’t really abandoning her or anything. Although, after the way she was looking at me, I don’t think she wanted to be friends anymore.

After fifteen minutes of sideways glances, more whispering, note passing and Mr. Fyson reading out the announcements, the bell finally rang. I had trig first, according to my schedule, so I got up and headed for the door. I don’t think anyone knew what to say to me. They obviously all wanted to know why I had changed and when I had changed and what made me change and probably a ton of other questions, but they didn’t know how to ask me. I was about to leave when Alex, the head cheerleader, came over to me.

 “So Cassie…”

“It’s Casey” I interrupted.

“Right. Well, you have changed quite a lot over summer.”

“I’m glad you noticed.”

“I see you took my advice and got rid of those frumpy old blouses.” She smiled insincerely and looked around to her fellow cheerleaders standing behind her, who all giggled quietly. Typical for Alex to think that she's the reason why I changed so drastically, she had always thought that the world revolved around her. She wasn't really mean, none of the cheerleaders were, but she was extremely conceited which sometimes came across as bitchiness.

“I didn’t do this for you, Alex, or anyone else. I did it for me.” I replied radiating confidence. Cassie would have probably looked down at the floor and mutter something that agreed with Alex as to avoid any conflict, but Casey was having none of it. 

Alex obviously wasn’t expecting that reply and said with a bemused look on her face, “So why did you do it then?”

“You will have to wait until lunch because right now I’m going to be late for trig and I don’t want to be late twice in one day.” I flashed her a quick smile and sauntered out of the room.

Everyone was talking about me in the hallway and I was getting plenty of looks. I just smiled back and said hey to some people to let them all know that it wasn’t just my appearance that had changed, but my personality had changed to. I was also getting different sort of looks from guys too, compared to what I was used to. None of those guys would have taken a second look at Cassie, but with Casey it was a totally different story. Was this what it was like to be hot? If so then why the hell didn’t I do this sooner? I was loving it.

I was getting my trig stuff out of my locker when Hallie popped out from nowhere, like she always did. “Hey Cassie” she said.

“Its Casey now and hello to you too.”

“Oh right. Erm… Why are you dressed like that?” Hallie held her books up to her chest and stared at me in earnest with her big blue eyes. Is that really what I’d looked like when I was Cassie? She looked like a little porcelain doll that could break so easily at the slip of a hand.

I knew she would ask me that question, so I thought I’d entertain myself for a while. “Dressed like what?” I said feigning surprise.

“Its just that you don’t normally dress like that Cassie, I mean Casey.” She corrected herself quickly.

“Yeah, well I thought I’d try something different this year.”

“Oh I see. Its just that you look a bit… erm… slutty.” She whispered the slutty part.

“I’m not so innocent anymore Hallie. Now if you don’t mind I need to get to trig.” I slammed my locker and edged past her. I realised afterwards that she probably thought that I had changed because had lost my virginity, because lets be honest, I didn’t phrase that well. Oh well, I’d rather her think that than know the truth.

The second bell rang so I rushed off to trig and sat down in my usual seat when I heard a deep voice behind me saying, “Hey Cass, so what happened to you this summer?”

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This is my first time writing a note after a chapter, but I was hoping that I could get some feedback.

I'm not sure if I'm making the story clear enough or interesting enough. The first two chapters are more a setting the scene kind of thing. This one contains more dialogue and so does the next one. Thank you to anyone who reads my story, but some feedback would be really useful. 

Thanks guys, I will post the next chapter either today or tomorrow.

xx