the amnesiac

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I open the car door and swing my legs to the cement sidewalk.

"Are you sure you want to go?"

I nod in reply. She gives me a worried look. "I'll be fine, Mom. I'm not even going to pay attention to any of them. I'll make new friends." I kiss her on the cheek and jump out of the car, my backpack slung over my shoulder.

The truth was, I was pretty worried, too. Usually, everyone that wasn't in the popular crowd was either jealous of them or hated them. It would be pretty hard to find new friends if everyone knew I was once popular. I sighed. Don't worry. You'll find someone to talk to, I tell myself. I tighten the strap on my backpack and walk a little faster.

I walk as far away from the cheerleaders as possible, but that doesn't stop them from noticing me. Dammit. I should've hid my face.

"Hannah? Where'd you run off to yesterday?" I turned to see the extra slutty cheerleader that cussed out my wardrobe choices yesterday standing in front of me. "You know we had cheer practice, right?"

I was speechless. "I, uhm, well..."

"I, uhm, well, what?!" she half screeched-half spit.

I cleared my throat. "I quit."

She stared at me in horror, then brushed her hair to her back and laughed, taking my arm in hers and leading me towards the rest of the cheerleaders. "Hannah, Hannah Hannah. You have always been the most cheeky girl on the cheerleading team. Always fooling around." She gasped in realization. "Speaking of fooling around-" she spun me around so I could face her and stopped walking. "What happened with Aaron yesterday?" Her face shone with desperation for details.

I looked at her quizzically, but there was no way I can escape her now. I sighed in defeat and said, "I kind of broke up with him."

She squealed in excitement. "Yes!! I've been telling you to drop him for weeks now. Why'd you all do a sudden take my advice?"

"I, sorry," I stuttered. She giggles and shakes her head, then turns back around and starts to drag me across the wide lawn again.

It was then that I noticed she wasn't wearing her cheerleading uniform again today. Instead, she had a slutty crop top on that revealed her cleavage and pierced belly button, short shorts that left her butt cheeks highly noticeable, and bitchy combat boots. I hated her even more. And I didn't think that was possible.

I rolled my eyes and let her keep dragging me. We finally stopped by the rest of the cheerleaders (they weren't in their uniforms either). "Cassie!!" someone said to my right.

"Kate."

The girl ran up to the slutty girl that still had her hand in my wrist. Cassie? CASSIE!! That's the girl that my mom said was a "little angel." Dammit, dammit, dammit.

No, Mom, she is far from it.

The girl, Kate, stopped when she saw me, a ghost expression in her face. Then, her face lit up and she smiled brightly. "Hannah!! You're back!!" She threw her arms around me. "Oh, God, I've missed you!!" I already like this one better than the others.

She finally let me go and sighed, still smiling. "It's so good to see you. I tired calling your house and asking where you were. Your mom said that you were in the hospital. Ugh!! I tried to visit you but the doctors kept saying, 'No you can't'!!" Yes, I definitely like her better. I smiled. "Oh, it's alright. I thought that was stupid, too. I'm fine now. Really." She nodded, and I could see the invisible weight get lifted off of her shoulders. I smiled again- on the outside and on the inside.

"Wait, what?" Cassie the Devil in Disguise interrupted.

I focused on every muscle in my body to stop my eyes from rolling.

Kate, however, didn't. "Well, if you cared at all about Hannah, you would've kip noticed that she was missing from school for quite a long time. But from your lack of knowledge, I'm guessing you didn't." Damn.

I held my smile and glanced at Cassie, wondering what she would do.

She glared at Kate, real hard, and stalked right up near her face. "If you ever snap at me like that again, you'll regret it. Bitch."

I scrunched up my nose, furious that she said that to Kate, that she called her a bitch. Which, clearly she was one. But she was a cool, brave bitch, not a slutty bitch.

But Kate just stood there, smirking. I started to like her even more.

Cassie recollected herself and said, "You came over here for something?"

Kate mouths, Oh, and digs in her bag for something. She pulls out a wrinkled cheer uniform. "Yeah, you asked for my uniform back? Well, here it is." She thrusts the uniform in Cassie's hand. "Bitch."