Silent Strength [On Hold Cuz School]

Chapter Three.

 Cassidy's POV:

I had always dreaded school, somewhat. Don't get me wrong, I was grateful to be away from Carl and Melinda, away from the small room that had become my prison over the years, away from the constant fear.

I loved learning, I thought it was the most important thing ever, but school was still a major source of stress for me. School was better than my home life by far, but that doesn't mean it's heaven for me. Oh no, far from it.

Sadly, I only have one friend. But that's semi-good, considering I'm a very anti-social person. Imagine that, the abused girl having trust issues that make her anti-social, that's not expected at all is it?

Anyway, people ignored me for the most part, which was how I liked it. A lot of those people would stare at me in the halls though, and whisper to their friends. They were harmless though, they were more curious than anything. Wondering who I was, why I didn't say much, why all the teachers called on me for answers when the rest of the class couldn't provide a correct answer.

I didn't mind the people like that, they were harmless. However, there were some people that annoyed me. There was this group of people who found nothing more amusing than teasing me and tormenting me. For the most part, everything they said was unoriginal and didn't faze me at all, but every now and then they would come up with something new, or something that was almost accurate, and it would cut me straight to my core.

Even if it was killing me inside, I never gave them the satisfaction of seeing me hurt. I knew how to control myself, so even if it hurt I acted like it was nothing and hadn't fazed me.

Honestly, I guess being alone isn't all that bad. Only having one good friend left less of a chance of getting backstabbed, and I seen girls backstabbing each other on an almost daily basis. I didn't understand why they would get upset over such petty things when there are much bigger issues in the world than jealousy over a boyfriend, or something else that was just as stupid.

One thing about being anti-social did suck though: group projects. I was always the one person that wouldn't be able to find a group, and would get placed into a group by the teacher. That wasn't the worst though. Most of the time the group would grumble about it a little bit, but then they'd decide it was all right because they now had another person to split the work with. They'd try giving me work to do, which is when I'd have to tell them that I'd do all the work I could, but I wouldn't be able to communicate with them at all outside of school. They'd look at me slightly confused, and ask if I had internet or a phone.

Once again, I'd have to inform them that I didn't. Needless to say, I wasn't popular when it came to group projects. I mean, of course I'd always work hard and make sure that my contribution was flawless and done on time, but that didn't seem to matter to my classmates. I was the odd one out; that one quiet girl that was somehow best friends with one of the most popular girls in school.

Even if I tried to make more friends at school, I was never accepted. I didn't have any of the same interests as the girls, and whenever they'd talk about various bands or shows I would look at them blankly becuase I had no idea what they were so animadetly talking about. I could easily see that they were wondering why I had no idea about anything in the media, but I wasn't willing to come up with a reason, so I just chose to stay away from it all.

Rose was amazing though, she had stuck by me through everything. Even though Rose was beautiful and extremely popular, she would always be sure to sit with me in the classes we shared and sit by me at lunch. Very few of Rose's friends would even bother to sit at our lunch table. Our table was usually pretty empty, it consisted of me, Rose, and three of her friends - Laura, M'Kenzie, and Chelsea. Damien would only sit with us if there was some kind of "special" occasion. Damien prefered to sit with the football jocks and all the cheerleaders. I guess it made sense, he was our school's start quaterback after all.