The Tales of Whispering Hills

Chapter Six

Cassandra got Monnie's mom to drive her home. 

She got home from the Friendsgiving and walked into her house. Her father was passed out at the kitchen table, drunk. He had his work suite on, he was a business man, a lousy one.

She walked over to the table and put up his liquor for him. She tried to wake him up, but he was in a deep sleep. She quietly checked him for and cuts or injuries. He had none, and she thanked God.

Cassandra gently picked him up, he was very thin and weighed almost nothing, and sat him down on the couch. She covered him in a blanket and kissed his forehead. She still loved him even though he let himself go after her mom died. She still had faith that he could change, they did only been living in whispering hills for a week, everything could still change for the better.

Cassandra walked into her room and took of her mascara in the mirror. She washed her face and put her black hair into a braid. She put on her pajamas and went to sleep.

. . .

The next morning, she woke up to her phone alarm at 9:30. Cassandra got up and got her best clothes out of the dryer. She fixed her hair and put on some light makeup before she walked into her living room.

Her father was still asleep on the couch. So, she wrote a note on the fridge telling him where she was going. She finished writing the note and kissed his forehead and slipped out the door. She stepped into a bright Sunday morning. Cassandra started down the sidewalk to downtown.

She walked through the town and said hello to her neighbor, the kindest old woman she knew. Cassandra walked up to Ms. Collin's porch and put her elbows on the porch fence, covered in chipped white paint.

Ms. Collin sat up in her rocking chair and waved at Cassandra.

"How are you doing?" A cold wind flew past and Cassandra shivered, "I'm doing fine." She smiled at the old woman.

Ms. Collin asked a few more question and then checked her watch, "Oh! I guess we better start walking."

Ms. Collin got up from her chair and walked down her porch steps to meet Cassandra. They walked down the sidewalk and cut shortcuts, talking the whole time. After a few minutes they reached their destination, the downtown Catholic church. They walked up the stairs and entered the simple building.

They gathered with their friends before the service, their friends consisted of Ms. Dunberry, a very old lady with long, gray hair and bright green eyes, her daughter, Catherine, an intimidating woman in her mid-30's with short blonde hair and her mothers green eyes, Catherine's daughter, Isabelle, who was Cassandra's age and had dark brown eyes and hair, and Penelope Clark, a teen around 17 years old who helped with the Sunday School and the local Girl Scouts.

The girls exchanged gossip and sipped on some coffee that Ms. Dunberry brought for them.

"Are you guys going to go to the summer camp?" Penelope asked Cassandra and Isabelle.

"I might if my dad let's me." Cassandra replied. "I'm going, and I'm so excited to see all of my friends." Isabella told Penelope. Penelope smiled and started talking about helping with the camp. She was telling them all about the activities they had planned for the camp, when Cassandra got a notification on her phone.

@hul53105 commented on your post. Once Cassandra saw the username she felt a wave of dread wash over her. She put her phone back in her pocket and sipped her coffee. She felt more vibrations from her phone and ignored them for a few minutes.

"This year we're going to host a lot of clubs you can join and visit during your free time around the camp and I'll be working at the art station." Penelope was saying as Cassandra tuned back into the conversation. Isabelle was excited, she loved painting and talked about it every Sunday morning and every Communion they went to.

"What paints will they have?" Isabelle was so exited it made Cassandra happy. Although Cassandra loved the deep conversations she had with Monnie, Hazel, Gabe, and Solomon, she also enjoyed talking about simpler subjects with her church friends. It always amazed Cassandra how happy painting made Isabelle.

"They'll have some acrylic, water color, gouache-" Buzz.

Cassandra finally checked her phone. 7 notifications from Instagram, all comments on her posts, all from @hul53105. She opened her phone and read the comments, dreading every moment. They were all comments on her most recent post of her in her clothes for the First Communion she went to the other day.

"your dad should come with you next time" "you wear that dress every time get a new one its uglyyyy" "is your dad drunk again" "smelly" "poor Cassandra" "iim a bible girl look at me" These were the nicest hate comments she'd gotten from that person. She deleted the comments and blocked the account, knowing they'd make another account to comment with. She'd gotten so many hate comments since she moved to Whispering Hills Middle School.

Cassandra's first day in Whispering Hills was the worst day of her life. Her and her father had just gotten settled in their new house when he decided to go get some groceries. She said bye and he got into his Toyota and pulled out of the driveway. He was having a bad day and she thought that it was getting better for him, he had the courage to get groceries, but she was very wrong. Cassandra was worried sick that nick, her father never came home with the groceries. She called him, texted him, and even called the grocery store, but couldn't contact him. She only figured out what he was up to late that night when he was delivered to the front door by two police officers. Cassandra was so angry, confused, and sad. She didn't know what to do and just talked to the police officers about what happened. He had been leaving the grocery store when he decided to drink some of the liquor he bought at the grocery store, in his car, parked in the parking lot. He went overboard and was determined to drive himself home. One bad choice led to another and he ran into a tree in the outskirts of the town. Naturally, someone called the police and he was arrested and given his first DUI of many. Lucky for her, the next day the local news covered the story and she had her first day of school.

Now she was the new girl with the alcoholic father. She was the perfect person to make fun of and many of the edgier kids at the school took up the opportunity and made her first day of school horrible. Once kid had loved making fun of her a little too much and had quickly become her bully.

The thing was, she didn't know who they were. All she knew was that their name started with HUL. Sure, they screamed at her in the halls and left mean comments on her social media accounts, but they were always hidden in a crowd or hiding behind an account with no information, making it impossible to pinpoint the person.

Most of the time, she wasn't really affected by the torment, unless it was at school. Online, she could just delete the comment, but in school, it just reminded everyone around her that she was the weird kid that didn't fit in. She hated being called at in the halls, everyone would glance at her and stare, like they remembered her father's 4 DUI's. All she could do at school was keep her head down and run to her next class.

Cassandra put her phone back in her pocket and went to get some refreshments.

She was looking at the cookies and brownies the members of the community had brought, when she felt her phone vibrate again. Cassandra already knew who it was, she didn't have to look. After a few seconds her curiosity got the best of her and she checked her phone.

Cassandra looked away from the notification and tried not to cry. How could someone say that to another person? She felt another vibration and started walking towards the girl's bathroom.

She got into the bathroom and cried until she could hear everyone shuffling across the floor to get into the church for the service. She wiped the smeared mascara from under her eyes, smearing the mascara more, and walked into the church as confidently as she could.