Shattered

Chapter Three

"Mom!"Cass shouted through the house, "Have you seen my copy of The Selection Series? They were right here on the desk."
"You were going to have those with you? Sorry, Sweetie, but I put them in one of the boxes than went in the moving van." Her mother's voice responded.
"Uggggghhhhhh!" Cass let out a frustrated groan. She was already having a hard enough time having to move across the country, and the only way she was going to survive the flight was with her books and sad songs playlist. But without her favorite series she would have to resort to sleep.
Sleep. She wished this was all a dream and she was just asleep and as soon as they would board the plane she would wake up. But no. She tried so many times, that night her parents told her they were moving, to wake herself up from the awful nightmare. Sadly, it turned out to be a reality, her reality, and she wanted none of it.
Cass glanced at the clock still on the wall, 1:38 p.m., they would have to leave in fifteen minutes if they wanted to catch their flight out of Myrtle, Mississippi, where they lived, all the way to Tahoe City, California. She had thought about a million ways that they might not have to leave but none of them would end up working. If they missed this flight they would just take a different one, if she was injured then that would just delay their departure by a week or two.
Now the wall clock read 1:49, her parents would start start calling for her to come downstairs soon. So to avoid the trouble, she just gathered her things and put them into her favorite, blue backpack and slowly sulked down the stairs.
"Hey, Pumpkin. You ready to go?" Cass's mom asked in a peppy voice.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Cass let out a depressed sigh. How did they expect her to just drop everything to go live across the country?
She was suddenly jarred from her thoughts by a few short honks. It was time to leave. Ugh, was she going to hate this trip. She normally loved traveling and going to new places, but she did not like it when they went on vacation permanently! That's not how these things worked.
As she walked out to the family car, she let all of the memories of her time in Mississippi resurface. For the last few days she had been trying to forget about her time here - like it would dull the pain, but it didn't help so she just let the memories trickle back through. She remembered the first time she had met each of her friends. She couldn't even remember how she met Angela. They had been friends since they were babies. They had always been together, they had had every class together, every birthday, they had shared every moment together. And now they would be separated by over 2,000 miles, it would be agonizing not being able to talk to her everyday.
Mark was next, they had met in first grade and had been friends ever since. Mark was the one if she was mad and needed to yell at something, would let her eat all of the food in his house and play video games until three in the morning. And she was going to need something like that more than ever at the rate her life was going right now. And that brought her to the twins, Andrew and Ana. They always had just the right joke to make you smile, even if it is just a twitch of the lips, they can make it happen. They had joined their circle of friends in third grade, when private school came to be too expensive. They were so shy and when they looked around the cafeteria with wide eyes trying to find a safe spot to sit. Angela, Mark and Cass all smiled warmly at them and beckoned them over, they all connected instantly. And this is how the group stayed until sixth grade, and then Cloe showed up.
Cloe had been in the foster care system since she was born, her parents had just left her on the front doorstep with only a note telling them to take car of their little Cloe. That was it. Luckily, one of the people heard the quick, tentative knock and opened the door to see little Cloe lying on the step with her deep green eyes open wide. And after going to school at the orphanage for five years with all older kids who were all bullies, she was put into the foster care system. But every time a family would take her in, a month later she would end up back at the orphanage. It wasn't that she was a bad kid, she was just really smart and none of the adults could seem to handle a six year old who is a genius. So they would send her back. It was a pretty crappy life for a little kid. And then she was finally adopted by a nice looking couple when she was eleven. Of course she now was going to yet another new school and had no idea how it was going to turn out. An when Cass, Angela, Andrew, Ana and Mark saw her, they immediately gave her the warmest smiles they could and invited her to sit with them. It was the first good thing that had happened to her ever. And after that everything clicked, she had been with the same family for six years now and could not imagine a happier life.
Cass felt like a piece of her was going to stay with her friends in Mississippi. And she just couldn't believe she was going to have to leave them all.