The IV League [EDITING]

Chapter 3

Cassandra rolled her eyes for what seemed to be the fiftieth time in that hour. Every single thing on the planet annoyed her. And she couldn't even interact with the real world.

Most people would think that being the daughter of a three-time Oscar nominee and a Golden Globe winner would have its perks, but Cassandra hated her life. And it was mainly because of her mother.

Cassandra had hated her mother before she was even born. Melanie Mahoney may have been a famous movie star, but she was pretty reckless. When she had just landed her breakthrough role, Melanie thanked her agent with an unprotected one-night-stand, leading to the creation of Cassandra Mahoney. What the actress didn't know was that her agent was haemophilic, and she was a carrier of the disease. Cassandra was born with it, and the rest is pretty much really bad luck.

When she was one, Cassandra rolled down the stairs and injured herself pretty badly. She had a huge gash on her head, and lost a lot of blood. She had to be given blood by an unknown donor. Unfortunately for her, the donor was HIV positive. Cassandra contracted the virus, and her life was miserable after that.

Bad enough, her mother had kept her a secret, because "If the media got a hold of this, my reputation would be ruined." And now, since she had a daughter with AIDS, she had to keep her identity low-key. Cassandra was pretty much neglected. She was admitted to River View Hospital when she was two. She had literally grown-up in the hospital. Even though her situation had actually started worsening only a year ago, she had been kept in seclusion. Her mother hardly visited her, and when she did, it was to make sure that the hospital was giving her Hollywood treatment. Cassandra knew her mother never loved her, she was only worried about her own reputation. But at least she cared enough to sue the hospital that put her in this mess in the first place.

Because of all the crap Cassandra faced, her character became permanently embittered. She loathed human beings in general. She even hated her doctors and nurses, except one: Nurse Harrison.

Nurse Harrison was Cassandra's best friend. She was the only one in the hospital who didn't empathise with her. She didn't give Cassandra any of the "It's going to get better, I promise" nonsense. She'd very bluntly told Cassandra she was going to die, and there was no way to cure her. Cassandra wanted to hear that. She didn't want hope, she wanted closure. And knowing that she would eventually die, mostly at an early age, gave her a sense of pleasant ease. It made her feel at peace. And every time she was with Nurse Harrison, she felt better, because there was somebody in this stupid IV League who didn't lie to her.

But then Nurse Harrison was relocated to the Oncology department, which was on the eighth floor. Cassandra saw her once in a while, but it wasn't very often. Now, she had to hang out with Kennedy, which wasn't so bad since he was hot. But Cassandra was sure he wasn't straight.

Cassandra logged out of Twitter and locked her phone. She was so bored of celebrity twitter feuds. And she most certainly did not want to know about another of her mother's fake Red-Ribbon campaigns. She looked out of her secluded hospital room. The guy with anorexia and his new girlfriend were walking towards the elevators. This new girl was different. The fact that she wasn't in a hospital gown told Cassandra that she was from the rehab centre. Cassandra normally didn't care about others, but she wanted to know about this girl.

She banged on the glass walls of her room. Heads turned in her direction.

"Hey, ED Dude!" she yelled, so that her voice could be heard through the glass. The boy sighed and walked towards her room. The girl followed him.

He stood on the other side of the glass wall and crossed his arms. "What do you want, Cass?" Since they were close, he didn't have to yell and Cassandra could hear him clearly.