The Bad Girl

Chapter 3

Ashton, Lucas and I spent the next day looking everywhere we could for some kind of record of Anastasia Stake. It was like the women didn't exist. Lucas had school today, so did Ashton but he didn't go, which was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Were can we look now?" I asked Ashton.

"I'm completely out of ideas" he answered.

I groaned and rolled out of his bed. I walked into his en-suite and looked at my reflection in the mirror, I could barely recognise myself, my hair was a tangled mess on top of my head, I had been wearing the same sweat pants and over -sized jumper for almost 2 days without even showering and my face was makeup-less. I didn't only look different, I also felt different. Because I had been spending all my time with my two best friends I didn't need to put up the stupid "bad girl" façade that I normally have. It's not that it's an act or anything, it's just that I'm not a complete bitch that rebels and has sex 24/7. I stripped down my clothes and turned on the hot water of the shower. I stepped into the shower and let the scalding water cascade down my body. I scrubbed my body down thoroughly and washed my birds nest, somehow managing to get the nots out without pulling the hair out of my head.

I climbed out of the shower and the cold air hit me like a punch in the face. I realised I had forgotten to bring clothes into the room. I wrapped a fluffy white towel around me and walked into Ashton's room.

"Hey Cassy, you get a text from a random number saying 'look in the phone book for San Francisco and it will help you find your mother'"

"Um that's really weird, does the number look familiar to you?"

"Not at all."

"Well it is a good idea, I mean we looked in the Boston one but we never really thought that she would be on the other side of the country." I spoke the thoughts that were running through my head out loud.

"I'll go buy one quickly and you can, uh, put some clothes on?" Ashton suggested. I laughed at his awkwardness and quickly choose some clothes to change into.

Once Ashton got back with 3 copies of the 'San Francisco Yellow Pages' we began to search through them, calling anyone named Anastasia in case she had remarried and changed her last name or anyone with the last name Stake in case it was a relative. I had tried to avoid using my phone since the news of me being adopted had come out, only because of the abundant amount of calls I got from my parents but after one day I decided on blocking their numbers.

"Any success?" Ashton asked me from the other side of the room.

"No, did you know how many Anastasia's there are in San Francisco?"

"No, but I'm guessing a lot," he replied.

"You got that right"

"STOP!" Ashton legitimately screamed.

"WHAT!" I screamed back sarcastically.

"I found an Anastasia Stake" he said breathlessly.

"Oh my fucking god are you serious."

"Yeah look, right here!" He said pointing at the phone book, I shuffled over to him following the line of his finger, my heart overflowing with excitement as I saw the name in black and white print.

"Oh my god, oh my god, lets call right now!" I exclaimed.

"ok" he muttered, handing me over the book.

I quickly dialled in the numbers and held my phone up to my ear. Each ring that followed without answer made me more and more anxious that she wouldn't pick up. Finally after a dozen rings, I heard a croaky voice on the other side of the line.