Introducing Cassie

House Of Wolves

Keira had a thing with music. She didn't listen to the songs... she listened to the words. Which was probably the reason for her obscure taste in music. She related to and understood the lyrics, she felt her own life story through the words. So as the lead singer from Keira's favourite band brought the words to life, Keira didn't just listen to the lyrics... She understood them. Keira pulled out her sketchbook and a fine liner, killing time while she waited for the school day to end. She thought back to the locker room incident. Picturing the scene in her mind, she started scratching down vague forms onto the page, sketching out the room, inspired by the song. A bell rang out, a warning that lessons would be resuming in 5 minutes. The bathroom filled with noise as girls hurried to get their hair and make up fixed before going back to class.

"Did you hear about the fight?" One girls voice called inquiringly over the noise.

"Yeah... didn't that weird Kiara girl bash Courtney and all them...?" Another voice answered.

"Isn't her name Kiana? I swear it is... or Kirsty... yeah anyways apparently she just raged and started hitting Courtney and Brittany for no reason! I never liked her... always thought she was a bit... odd... probably has mental problems... attacking those two girls!"

"Aw poor things! They never deserved that! I hope they're okay! Let's hope that Kelly get's suspended or expelled... then we won't have to put up with her moping about on her own anymore..."

"Yeah... come on... let's go... Brittany and Courtney are probably going to tell the teacher and I don't want to miss her getting told off!"

The high pitched voices gradually faded, and Keira unclenched her fists. She looked down at her palms, four red indents from where her jagged nails had been digging into her skin. She hadn't even realised that her hands were clenched, but now she had noticed, they started to sting. Keira gave her drawing a quick look over before continuing. A crudely drawn sketch of a cat, surrounded by dogs and wolves of all shapes and sizes, teeth bared. The cat was barely half the size of the surrounding hounds, it's dark, blurred form blending with the dirty black floor, barely noticeable except for it's piercing eyes. The two wolves nearest to the cat were bigger and meaner looking than the rest, with their long sharp teeth dripping what could be saliva or blood, and their malicious eyes bearing down onto the cat. Keira shut her sketch book and closed her eyes. She still had over an hour until her bus would come. But she really didn't want to get on that bus. By now the teachers would probably know about the incident, so faking sick and going home was out of the question. Keira stood up, packed her things back into her bag, and listened at the door for a moment before slipping out of the cubicle and looking at herself in the mirror. Messy hair, tired eyes, smudged eyeliner. She shot her reflection a hostile glare before opening the door as quietly as possible and wandered through the hallway toward the locker room. She managed to avoid passing any students, as it was a nearly ten minutes into fifth lesson, so everyone was in class, probably gossiping about the fight. Keira sighed when she got to her locker and found a fresh dent and several scuff marks decorating the lower half of the dull metal. She didn't even bother packing any of her books, she just grabbed her bag and headed to the oval, where she followed the fence, hidden behind a line of trees, before slipping through a human sized gap in the mesh, and trudging home. 

Keira's stomach rumbled obnoxiously as she walked over to the fridge. She opened it and reached in to grab some food, then let her arm drop with a sigh as her eyes took in the contents of the fridge. Alcohol. Bottles upon bottles. No food, no drinks she liked. Just beer, vodka and whiskey. She slammed the fridge door and tried the cupboard. Pills. Non prescription pain killers, and all sots of meds. Keira downed a glass of warm, metallic tasting tap water, before grabbing her sketch book and dragging herself up the stairs to her usual spot on the roof. After drawing for a few minutes, Keira tensed as she felt a presence behind her. She slammed her book shut and looked up, her hair falling across her eyes as Cassie sat down delicately behind her. Cassie stretched her arms out and gave Keira a soft smile before bringing two chocolate bars out of her pocket and tossing one to her.

"Hungry?" She asked, biting into hers.

"Starving. Nothing but sleeping pills and Jack Daniels at my house." Keira said, tearing open the wrapper. "Thanks."

"I heard about today..." Cassie started hesitantly.

"Yeah." Keira scoffed between mouthfuls. "What did you hear? Cus' I'll tell you straight out it's probably a mile from the truth."

"I heard... that you gave Brittany and Courtney a taste of their own medicine, scared the living daylights out of half of the school, then disappeared."

"Hmpf. Seems your sources are reliable."

"My sources?" Cassie laughed, " Almost ALL the teachers were talking about it..."

Keira looked up sharply, but Cassie waved her off.

"Don't worry about it, they all hate those barbies as much as we do. You'll hardly be punished."

A moment of silence floated between them, as the two girls admired the gray sky, disrupted only by the snippets of traffic and conversation snatched up by the wind from the streets far below. 

"I can't believe you came up here again..." Cassie said, "after you nearly fell yesterday... I'd be petrified." She leaned forward a bit from her position, a safe distance from the parapet, to look down at the road.

"Doesn't bother me. I know I won't fall." Keira replied, swinging her legs around so they were on the inner side of the parapet, and so she faced Cassie. "I've been on the edge too long to make a stupid mistake like that." She tore strips from the wrapper and watched them sail down to the ground, dancing on the breeze.

"So where were you today anyhow?" Keira challenged.

"Oh... you know..." Cassie hesitated, "...around."

Keira raised an eyebrow but Cassie looked away and quickly changed the subject.

"Warped Tour's coming up..."

"Yeah..." Keira said skeptically.

"Well,are you going?"

"Me? I wish. How the hell do you think I'm supposed to get a ticket? I don't have a job, and when I do get money somehow, it will go missing that night, and their will be a few more bottles in the fridge." Keira spat.

"Oh... would you go if you could get a ticket?" Cassie asked, "you could enter a competition... or... something..."

"Ha. When has luck ever favored me, Cass?"

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, watching the bright flashes of light from the traffic below mingling with the neon street signs and dull lamp light.

"So... are you going back tomorrow? To school, like? I mean... after what happened today I wouldn't blame you for wanting a few days off..."

"Are you?" Keira asked back. Cassie hesitated.

"We'll just have to wait and see..."