"What did you bring Cassie for? You know she isn't welcome here after everything her wicked mother did to my family! You take her home, or even better, leave her in a ditch to die somewhere!" Jenny sneered to Becki as she looked up and down at me in disgust. "I've told you before, and I'll say it again you want to be friends with her, then you will have nothing to do with me!". Becki glanced towards me with a reassuring smile, however I could tell she had sadness in her eyes and longed to be liked by everyone. You see, the thing is we were all so friendly when we went to primary school, which was not that many years ago.
I lived in a small village on the outskirts of a huge town, we were privileged to live alongside gorgeous open fields, vast expanse of farmland and a rural landscape. It was picturesque, charming and the great outdoors. We would take a short walk from our houses and the views would be admirable as we looked out towards more greenery and forestry land. We were really very lucky to live in this part of the country, and I couldn't imagine ever living anywhere else.
I have lived here all my life and have also loved being so close to my friends and family, all my friends went to the same school as me which was located at the bottom of a narrow county lane and after the school bell rang at 3:30pm, we would run home up the hill towards our houses, undress and put on different clothes and all meet on the wall opposite the local chicken factory, this was the place to be, and if you were not invited there then unfortunately you were known as one of the unpopular kids living in the village! Luckily for me, I was always invited and would normally be one of the first to be there, closely followed by Jenny and Becki, who at the time were my best mates.
Fourteen years of age with our whole life's ahead of us, we would daydream about our futures and careers, we would reminisce about our younger years, and we were busily working towards our exam grades at school ready to leave the following year. Jenny had the most glorious blonde locks that reached down to her bottom (which was an asset she was very proud off), she was of slim build and very pretty looking, she always looked after her appearance and would often go for treatments at the local salon alongside her mum.
Becki was curvier, her hair shoulder-length and the most beautiful ginger colour I had seen - although Becki was adamant it was 'Strawberry Blonde!'.
My black hair fell loosely over my shoulders and halfway down my back, I was proud of my body and at a comfortable size 14 I was confident in my appearance. We all looked so different, but our personalities and interests were all relatively the same.
Growing up in a 3 bedroom semi-detached house, I always had the littlest bedroom out of the three as I was the youngest, therefore apparently didn't need much space for my belongings and whatever belongings I had were always hand-me-downs from my older sister Amy! Amy was 2 years older than me at 16 years of age and by heck she used to make that very clear, she would boss me around, demand me to do her jobs on the weekends and to be honest she was a right cow! Although she had plenty of faults, I always knew that deep down she would protect me at all costs and be the big sister that I would someday need her to be. Amy had taken my dad's genes, she had short blonde wavy hair, she was taller than me and of slim build. She was gorgeous, and her freckles would enhance all of her facial features.
My mum Annette was always busy at work as a Social worker; she worked gruelling hours and most of the time came home really late at night, always utterly exhausted that more often than not she would sit in front of the television with a 7-minute microwavable meal half-eaten and within five minutes she would be asleep in her little armchair. The job was really starting to take its toll on mum, beforehand, she was always fun, energetic, she always had a positive outlook on life and definitely the life and soul of the party, to now being shy, overworked, stressed and a shell of the woman she once was, it was like a vampire was slowly sucking away at her blood leaving her drained, her body remained but her personality and appearance had completely vanished. My dad Roger, well, although he was named on our birth certificates, he walked in and out of our life's as many times as we went on family fun days out and that was very rare, maybe three-to-four times a year! He finally left when I was 7 years old and Amy was 9 years old, it was coming up to Christmas, and he was spending all of his time at the local pub called the 'Lion's Den', he had stopped answering the phone to my mum one evening, and she had gone to see where he was, she found him and one of our neighbours up against the wall in the alley way having sexual intercourse. She always knew he was a cheat, but she had never been able to prove it before, so this was her perfect chance to kick him out and start our lifes again. Although he did eventually move out, he only decided to live about five streets away from us, but Amy and I knew exactly where we stood with him, and the contact was immediately cut off.
"Cassie, Cassie!" Jenny shouted one day in the school corridor, she was always so happy and bubbly and everyone enjoyed being in her company as she would light up a room as soon as she entered just by saying hello!, "Cass" she called again and this time over the excitement of everyone else I was able to hear her calling out to me. "Did you know that a new boy called Adam is moving onto our street, at long last we've finally got something good to look at, I mean Becki's brother Mitch is ok to look at, but this Adam looks fit", Jenny then gave Becki a reassuring smile as she was finally catching up with her after being left behind at the entrance after Jenny's army of fans swarmed by. Becki looked all hot and flustered "they do this every time, why do you have to be so popular Jenny!" she exclaimed, "I thought they were totally going to steam-roll me and leave me flattened on the floor". Jenny and I looked at each other, and after several minutes we both burst out belly laughing, "Why do you always have to be so dramatic? I can't help being popular, and maybe next time you should hold on to something tight!" Jenny playfully commented back.
Adam, the boy that Jenny had mentioned at school was in fact moving into the house next door to me on our street, the previous owners Mr and Mrs Wall were unfortunately both old now and their family had chosen to put them into the local nursing home which was situated around 10 miles away from the village. I honestly got so very sad when I heard the news, as they both had kept their selves relatively healthy, and they were only both maintaining the garden a week before they were quite forcefully moved from their home. Amy said the family had used the 'dementia' card because they wanted the money and as the house was so very well-kept, they knew they would get a fair few thousand pounds from the sale. As much as I knew it wasn't their fault, it made my body shiver in anger and I was disgusted with Adam's family for giving Mr and Mrs Wall's family money for buying the house! In fact, I was that disgusted that when Adam had said hello to me, I completely and intendedly ignored him.
Jenny had rung my mobile several times during the course of the evening, her name repeatedly flashing on my screen, and when I didn't answer it would follow with a text message beep. I was so angry that someone's family were able to treat their own mum and dad this way that it made me feel physically sick to the stomach, but then looking at it now, it's no different to how my own dad had treated me and Amy! I knew that Jenny wanted to discuss Adam but the mood I was in and plus I could feel my period looming, I was in no right mind to speak to anyone until I had calmed myself down. I knew Amy was out with her friend Tara and mum was slaving away at work so, I ran myself a bath, lit some scented candles and played some music on Alexa, I was hoping and praying this would do the trick and luckily to my delight it worked, and I felt so much calmer, I had come to my senses that of course it wasn't Adam's fault and in fact I was a complete bitch by ignoring him earlier in the day. I had to apologise, what must he think of me?
I decided that I would give Jenny a call back and instead of being honest as to why I ignored the calls I told a little white lie that I had 'lost' my phone for a while, and it had disappeared down the side of the sofa! She would have only thought I was being silly, and at the risk of Adam not finding out the truth it was easily for me to lie. As soon as she answered she sounded pissed off, Jenny was the type of person that hated being ignored - I would know having been best mates with her for a majority of my life!, however once I had explained she eased off the pissed off act and let out a squeal "so did you see him earlier, omg he's so handsome, did you see his body?" I thought for a moment and then carefully planned my answer, "no I haven't seen him yet, you like him them?" "Like him, like him, I want to have his babies" Jenny laughably replied. "I expect I'll see him at school tomorrow, how are you?" I replied, hoping that if I changed the subject we would talk about something different from Adam, "you must have been the only girl from our street who wasn't looking out their window at him!"
Jenny also lived on the same street as me, however her house was tucked away in the corner and covered in the most beautiful flowers you would ever see. Jenny was from a rich family, her dad was a top earner in the local bank and her mother had her own business making and selling cakes, she also had two little twin brothers called Thomas and Elias who were 10 years old, and had only started at our school recently in year seven. Becki also lived in our street alongside her dad and little sister Bryony who was also 10 years old, she had an older brother Mitch who was 17 years of age however he prefered to stay at his girlfriends house, where he is able to ride his moped around, not wash for days, game until the early hours of the morning and eat rubbish, something that Becki's dad wouldn't have put up with if he was living under the same roof as them, which actually worked out quite well as Becki lived in a little two-bedroom house, I was able to see her back garden from my bedroom window. Unfortunately Becki had lost her mum during a tragic motorbike accident when Becki was only five years old, so she had stepped up as helper of the house and looked after her dad and sister who was only one at the time, as well as the local community who all pitched in, in their time of need.