Tangled Fates

chapter five.

C A S S I A

The next day arrives and I go to school early for cheer practice. Since it was cut short due to my injury yesterday, we decided to continue early this morning before school starts. I didn't participate this time for safety measures and instead helped lead the team with Sofia while conversing with the coach about our new uniforms for this school year.

School starts and I go to my locker to grab my stuff for the day. I am a bit early and Soleil and Liliana haven't arrived yet so I just stayed with Sofia for the time being. "How are the new uniforms going? I've seen some of the designs from coach but I haven't seen most." She says, typing away on her computer.

We're in the lunchroom, waiting for the breakfast period to pass. "Yeah, they're so cute! This year we have both long-sleeve and short-sleeved tops, so you can pick whichever you want." I reach for my phone and send the attachments to her on iMessage. She gets the notification from her computer and nods in approval while making an "o" shape with her lips.

I put my phone down, and look around to see if my friends have arrived. I notice that the lunchroom has gone quiet, so I look toward the doors and I see someone I haven't seen since school started, looking around. I tap Sofia's computer, gesturing for her to look up. "Hm?" She looks up and raises her eyebrows. "She's new, isn't she?" I nod at Sofia's statement. She has long black hair flowing to her back, with a name-plate necklace coated in gold & silver. She also has the school blouse on with a skirt that is not school uniform but can pretty much pass by.

The school bell rings and first period starts. Sofia gets up and starts packing her things into her schoolbag while hugging me and disappearing into the crowd. I also get up and start walking to class, passing by the new girl which I give a kind smile that she returns. I go to English and sit next to Soleil.

"Have you seen the new girl? Everyone is talking about her but I haven't seen her yet." She's sharpening her pencil and turns towards me. "Yeah I have, she's pretty," I reply. The teacher walks in with a stack of papers, in which we all groan because it is literally the second day of school. Give me a break.

Lunch arrives and we sit at our table as usual. I look at Lorenzo's table and see that he and his friends are all talking and laughing. I also look around for the new girl only to find her walking towards us.

"Hey, I'm Mikaela. I'm new, I just moved here from Fresno." She says, with a soft smile on her face. "Is it okay if I sit here? You guys seem friendly and approachable, Not to be weird or anything but-"

"Yeah, you're good!" Liliana chuckles and signals for her to sit, in which she sits next to me. "My name is Cassia, this is Liliana and Soleil." They both wave and smile at her. "You're in the same grade as us, 12th right?" Soleil asks, and Mikaela nods. "Yeah, we only moved because we needed a bigger space. It didn't make sense for me to switch schools because I had one more year left but, I didn't mind." She shrugs her bag off and puts it to the side. We all talk for a bit when Mikaela looks up from behind her.

"Hey, Mikaela right? I'm Lorenzo, nice to meet you." He puts his hand out for her to shake. I internally groan in my head, and look towards my friends. We all look at each other, almost as if we're speaking to each other in our minds, and smile awkwardly. She shakes Lorenzo's hand and they immediately start engaging in a conversation. While they were talking, I gained a bit of information about her. She's Mexican, Spanish was her first language, and she used to play volleyball in her old school. She also has an older sister in college. I notice how similar she and Lorenzo are. They should surely get along well.

That's the thing with Lorenzo. He has this type of charm that has these girls in a chokehold. I don't know if it's his looks or popularity - maybe both, but he is held to a very high standard regarding these students in Bayside. "Hey, why don't we go over to my table? I can introduce you to my friends." He looks towards me briefly and turns back to her. She glances at us, before grabbing her stuff and getting up. "Yeah, sure." She completely disregards us and gets up as Lorenzo puts his arm over her shoulder which she hooks into hers.

"Bitch." Liliana says, biting on an apple. "Quite literally, all it takes is a good face to sweep you away," Soleil adds.

Weird.

The second bell for the last period rings, and I'm running late. I quickly re-sort my locker before speed walking to class. Mrs. Cherith better not be on my ass. Lorenzo was 15 minutes late and he didn't hear a peep so I don't want to hear anything. I enter her classroom and smile at her. Thankful at the fact that she didn't say anything, I walk to my seat only to find Lorenzo and the new girl - sorry, Mikaela laughing it up in the back of the classroom. Lorenzo knows that that's my seat. Oh, he's gonna feel my wrath.

I stand in front of them and clear my throat while smiling. "Excuse me, Mikaela but that's my seat. Lorenzo should've informed you, considering he is well aware of that." I look towards Lorenzo, glaring at him before returning to her. She looks at me, then to Lorenzo, then to me. "Oh, my bad. Are there any more free seats?" She looks around the classroom. I also look, finding one. "Yeah, there's one right next to him." I point towards Zaire, not even bothering to look at where I'm pointing. Can she get up?

"Oh, then you can go sit there." She rubs her lips together and turns back to Lorenzo. He raises his eyebrows, not expecting her to say that. And I sure as hell didn't either.

I chuckle. "I don't know if you didn't hear me but, I said you were in my seat. If I wasn't planning on sitting here, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Lord, give me the strength.

"Cassia it's just a seat," Lorenzo adds. "Did I ask you?" I turn towards him. He glares at me and smirks as he plays with his pencil.

"Williams, is everything okay?" Mrs. Cherith pauses her lessons and turns towards us. "Yes Miss, it just seems as if we've had a little misunderstanding here," I say, gripping my notebook. I am so irritated right now. "Is it about seats? Just to make it clear guys, there will be no assigned seats but if it becomes a problem I might have to do just that." Mrs. Cherith addresses the class before turning to us. "If it's okay, can you just sit next to Zaire for the time being? I have to continue with my lesson, dear." I turn back to her and smile. "Sure, Miss." I walk towards Zaire in which he smirks at me. "Williams. Causing trouble on the second day?" I mock what he says and sit down. "Your friend is a dick," I say, writing in my notebook.

He chuckles and grabs my pencil. "Hey!" I snap at him. "What's the problem now? You know, when Enz came over yesterday he straight up told me that he dropped you home. I thought he was joking at first 'cause, you know - but he was deadass. Shit had me shook." He shakes his head and chuckles. "Yeah well, I had no other choice. I wouldn't have gone willingly." I sigh, and rest my face on my hand while explaining what happened to Zaire. I bumped into him freshman year, which he was mad about because I stained his clothes with juice. But after a while, we somehow became good friends occasionally hanging out in school and we've had a few classes together.

"Damn. It's her first day, is it not?" He leans his head on my shoulder and I shimmy it off. "Whatever. I'm over it."

I turn back to look at them and see that she's covering her mouth while giggling. "Bitch." I whisper to myself before giving my full attention to the board.

The bell rings for this period, and I quickly grab my things and pack up. "Cassia, hey." I turn around and see Mikaela. I hear Zaire try not to laugh behind me before he leaves the class with Lorenzo. I give her a tight-lipped smile before returning to my things. "I don't want there to be a misunderstanding or anything, I knew that was your seat but Enzo was just persisting on me sitting there so..." She rambles off as I glare at her. Of course, she knew it was my seat.

Not even caring about the situation anymore, I simply nod my head and leave the classroom. I don't have time for it, quite frankly. I meet up with my cheer team and follow up with what we did earlier.

a/n

hey everyoneee how are we feelin abt the story so far?

also how do we feel abt the new girl 😭 shes going to be a real pain in the ass sorryyyyyy

other mcs will also be included more/have more dialogue, these chapters have mainly been focused on Cass and enzo & i'm not sure if i want to do the other mcs povs but i'll see anyways next 😇