Wings

Chapter 1: Seasons of Love (Rent)

Cassie rolled over in bed and immediately knocked over the blaring alarm clock with the tip of her wing. It clattered to the floor, scaring away Percival the cat, and lay upside down, still obnoxiously blaring. Cassie wormed her way out of her warm lavender sheets and duvet and swung her legs over the side of the small bed, leaning over to pick up the clock and turn it off. Finally, silence filled the room and she relaxed, slumping backwards and promptly whacking the back of her head on the wall behind her. Her wings flared out in annoyance behind her as she cursed.

"Fucking hell!" She exclaimed quietly to herself. "Bloody fucking hell."

It was 5:30 in the morning, much too early to be properly functioning. However, she had practice, and volleyball was one of the things she loved.

Cassie dragged herself over to the dresser, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she went. She stood in front of the mirror, and scowled at her reflection. "Nothing much we can do about that," she muttered, ripping a comb through her wavy brown locks. Brushing her hair still, she turned to her stereo and Seasons of Love from Rent filled the silence. Softly humming along, she turned back to the mirror and proceeded to pop in her contacts, then grabbed the first clean clothes she could find, a red and black plaid flannel, and faded blue jeggings with artfully ripped holes up and down the legs. She fixed her hair with one hand, and groomed her wings with the other. Cassie's wings were an inky blue-black, shimmering green where the light hit them, and they started from her shoulderblades and extended down just to the back of her thighs. They were quite soft, and preening her feathers always calmed her. She took the time to stroke on some waterproof mascara, rubbed deoderant under her arms, sprayed a hint of perfume in the air, and walked through the vanilla-scented cloud on her way downstairs.

Already downstairs, her sister Jaclyn reclined in front of the TV, eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch out of a bowl in her lap, her newly-dyed obnoxiously bright green wings messily crumpled under her butt.

"That can't be comfortable," Cassie said dryly. "Or good for your teeth."

"Shut up," snapped Jaclyn. "Why do you care?"

Cassie rolled her eyes as she turned away, not wanting to engage her sister in the verbal battle of wills. She walked to the pantry, and pulled out a plain bagel and Nutella, popping the bagel in the toaster and sitting down at the counter to wait. The sun was just rising outside the kitchen window, a chinook arch harshly cutting the sky in two. Cassie unplugged her phone from the charger, and browsed on Instagram and Snapchat while waiting for her bagel. Her crush, Jason, had posted another pic on Instagram, and her heart involuntarily skipped a beat. There he was, in all of his hazel-eyed, brown-haired, indigo-winged glory. His head was slightly tilted to the side, a faint smile on his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. Beside him, Cassie's best friend Kelsey's hand rested on his shoulder, her annoyingly gorgeous face smirking beside him, her perfectly plucked pink wings just visible behind her shoulders.. Cassie winced at the possessive way she leaned over Jason, as she seemed to taunt the camera, saying, he's mine and not yours. They were the school's golden couple, the most popular boy and the most popular girl. Kelsey, of course, had no idea of the crush Cassie had on Jason. No one did. What was the point of telling anyone anything? It just gave them ammunition to use against you. Kelsey was still Cassie's best friend, and was a lot fun to be around. Cassie and her had a lot in common. They liked the same books, the same movies, the same clothes, and, as luck would have it, the same boys. But of course Kelsey always got what she wanted, after all, she was the prettier of the both, the more popular one, the more charismatic one. Cassie's train of thought was interrupted as her bagel popped from the toaster, and Cassie found that concentrating very hard on one thing, like spreading the Nutella evenly in a thick layer over the bagel, or taking precise bites of the bagel, kept her mind off Jason and Kelsey. Glancing up at the clock, she swallowed the last bite of bagel and made her way back upstairs, to brush her teeth and fetch her completed homework from her desk as well as her iPod from the speakers. She went back downstairs and grabbed her lunch from the fridge, shoved everything into her backpack, and made her way out the door. Placing her headphones over her hair, she took off on her way to school.

A/N Personally, these notes always annoy me. So they probably won't become a regular thing. This is just to assure you that yes, there is someone behind the wheel of this story.