Dead & Forgotten

Ch. 9

The next day, I felt like I've woken up to the portal of hell—-literally! Through the morning, I noticed a lot of people staring at me in an unusual way and whispering to each other, and I thought it was suspicious. It also made me feel a little awkward because I then realized that everyone was talking about me, for some reason. I thought, Wow, I must really be that popular, huh? But then in the hallway, I felt as if I were hallucinating—-there were about a million pictures of me hung up on all the walls. I looked at one picture that read, "Spread your love, not your legs," with the image below the words of me that seemed—-how do I put this?—-sexually explicit.

Then I saw another picture that read, "Playing hooky from school—-or playing hooky with men?" I heard whispers and laughter coming from everyone in the hall, and I noticed that some of them were pointing at me. Which made me wonder, what was going on? What's this all about? There were plenty more pictures of me, but I stumbled across one that read, "Oh, virginity, wherefore art thou? Dedicated to the tragic loss of sweet, innocent purity."

Was this some kind of an early April Fool's prank? I took down three of the pictures; somebody was doing this to me. I didn't know who, or how, or why, but something told me that this was bad news, and I would not like it one bit. Every single picture of me was explicit. Then one guy whistled to me and said tauntingly, "Yo, hot stuff, how about you and I take it over to Serenity 6 tonight for a one-night stand?" Serenity 6 was the teen club across from the building. And of course he didn't mean it. He and his male crew laughed and snorted.

"Ha, ha, very funny," I snapped.

One girl came up to me, laughing, and said, "Next time, wait until your wedding day. Which is in like, oh I don't know, never in a million years!" Then she walked on off, laughing.

I had the guts to call after her. "Hey! Now what's the big idea?" I said angrily. "Can someone please tell me what's going on here? What are these pictures doing here?"

I started taking down each picture one by one and throwing them out into the garbage. I didn't know what this was about—-and must I even find out at all?—-but I didn't really care. She came back and said, "Don't you get it? Cassandra Fuller, you may be the new girl, but you're also a slut."

I was so stunned, I nearly passed out. A slut??!!

I had stayed inside my dorm room all throughout the rest of the day, never gone to any of my classes, and I felt tempted to lock myself in the room—-isolate myself from the cold bitterness of the human world. Humans were evil monsters sometimes, and I had no idea what human being, so cruel and heartless, would do this to me. I went from being the most well-liked kid in school to being the....laughingstock within just the first two months of school. It felt horrible. I wanted to leave Marshall Academy, but I realized that Mom and Dad had spent so much money just to enroll me here. So I could not escape, no matter what. I could hear hell calling my name right now. And I never even considered going to Headmistress Rogers at all—-oh right, she probably wouldn't do anything about it.

There was a knock on the door. "Cassandra, please open up. It's me, Donna," called Donna through the door.

"Keep knocking, but you'll never get in," I called, tears rolling down my face.

"Why not? I'm your roommate!" she called.

"Then be honest—-do you really believe that about me?" I asked, meaning if she thought I was a "slut", of course.

"Cassandra Fuller, I am your roommate and your best friend. I will never consider you like that," she answered, and I could tell from her voice that she meant it. She also sounded a tad peeved. Might as well open the door for her then. "Don't be ridiculous; I want you to let me help you out."