***
'Miss Casandra Adams?'
The crystal voice pierced through my thoughts. The voice belonged to a woman, standing at the front of the class. She was wearing a black skirt that reached just below her knees, with a pale green blouse. Loose strands of hair that had escaped from the tight clutches of her ponytail were being kept from falling in front of her face by a white headband. Light makeup accentuated her eyes and her smile. To many she looked warm and welcoming, but to me she was just another sign of bad things to come.
It was always the same; I come, they find me, I leave, hating it all the while. Then everything in my life changes and the cycle repeats again. Sighing as I looked at my new teacher, I nodded.
'Yes, I'm Cassie Adams.'
Inside I cringed. I hated that name. Out of all the names I'd used each time we moved, Cassandra was the worst.
The blond woman looked delighted, though I couldn't think why. There wasn't a single thing about this scenario that made me want to smile. In fact, I had a hard time keeping the emotion off my face. Lachlan had been nagging me about that, saying it was a deterrent. Apparently people don't like approaching you when you look angry or annoyed.
'Come in Cassie,' she invited. 'You can introduce yourself to the class.'
Seriously, you have got to be kidding me. Isn't there a single school in the country that doesn't like to petrify the new kid on their first day of school? Well, I suppose I had been expecting it, it wasn't exactly new to me.
I came out from the doorway. Behind me the poor kid that had been randomly selected to take me to my first class looked unsure of what to do. He was so tiny, he looked like he was in grade eight or something. His mind was undecided and I could almost hear the thoughts ticking through his head. Should he leave me in the hands of the blonde and go to class, or should he wait around and risk a detention for being late? Recalling the name the office worker had called him, I decided to put him out of his misery.
'Thanks for showing me the way Matt. I'll see ya round.'
Looking relieved, Matt smiled uncertainly and scampered off. Now I turned to face the blonde teacher. She stepped to the side of the room indicating for me to stand in the middle. While I walked I tried to remember the story this time. Cassie Adams. I live in... what was it called again? It was either Bellbowrie or Bellbrownie. I was leaning towards the first one as I couldn't remember my new address giving me cravings for desserts.
I couldn't tell them that my brother and I had just evacuated Sydney, with 'just' being the keyword. It was a close call. Mentioning Sydney would be equivalent to putting up an over-sized signpost and broadcasting it on the news as it pointed to me saying 'Here I am!'. So we'd just moved from... what was the name I saw on the map again? I realised the whole class was staring at me, waiting for me to start. I took a deep breath and began my tangled web of lies.
'Hey... As you mighta heard, my name's Cassandra Adams.' I cringed again. 'Call me Cassie. I've just moved to... ah...' I paused. 'This area. I moved last week. I'll be seventeen in...' What date did Lachlan say again? Oops. Oh well. 'Seventeen next month and...' And what? No matter how many times I do this it doesn't get any easier. Or any less stupider.
That's when the teacher interrupted. Until that point I'd managed to avoid eye contact with any of the students infront of me, but I could tell there was somebody staring. Well, the whole class was staring, but there's a difference between staring with a vague amount of interest and barely taking the time to blink. My face felt hot and I knew I was blushing. It was stupid really, I'd never have to worry about what any of these people thought soon. Even so, I turned my body slightly towards the teacher, trying to block them out of my line of view.
