Recently Adjacent

RA 18: Cassandra

WARNING: VERY OFFENSIVE MATERIAL AHEAD

I entered my next class with a frown on my face.

Everyone looked at me strangely the entirety of last hour. I figured it was because of my hair or because of the clothes or even because they were trying to crack my skull open with their minds, but thank God that didn't happen.

It was definitely because of my new look.

My hair reached just past my chin and it was dry, very dry. When I combed my hair this morning I didn't know what to do with it. I haven't done my own hair since '90 and let me tell you that it was a disaster.

I tried to make myself less seen as I entered my Global Studies classroom. I was kind of looking forward to it. This was the only easy A class the school had and I was very fortunate to be in it, especially with my current situation.

As I walked through the light brown door I looked down the entire time, avoiding any eyes that were on me.

"My cousin's boyfriend's sister's friend from college came over and was showing us this thing he was testing. He told us it was called 'Google'. It was different, I'll tell you that. It might even be special," a voice said cutely. I immediately recognized it. That voice belonged to Walt.

My heart beat fast. Maybe here we'll talk and maybe I can join him and the others in the cafeteria today or even forever.

My slight giddiness came to a halt when I came up to a table that held Henry at it.

Immediately my mind went back to the time his supposed sister threatened me to stay away from him. All my thoughts from before were ruined.

I can't do anything anymore can I?

He didn't seem to notice me and neither did Walt, so I went off to a corner where a chair was and brought it up to a table with no one at it.

I sat and listened as the lecture started. I forgot to take notes because I was lost in my thoughts. Everything from earlier came to me when some people started talking slyly about me.

They wouldn't be so brave to say some of those things if I had my hair. It kind of showed people that I was different and that I was no one to mess with.

With it gone, I was stranded.

" Well, what if I was wherever I was supposed to be - with my real parents? " I thought.

I was brought out of my head when I heard the snickering again.

Narration:

Andrea turned around and looked straight at Henry and Walt as they talked about her. Her eyes widened when she noticed who was talking about her behind her back.

It was the very people she wanted to become friends with not even a minute ago and in a way, she felt betrayed.

She turned back around and continued to listen to their loud conversation.

"I thought it was a boy at first," Henry said as he tried to hold back a snicker, waiting for Andrea's next reaction.

He was trying to get her upset. It was a sort of revenge he had to justify to get through. When he saw her after she walked in, he remembered what his sister told him about Shaylin.

This girl from the museum that he barely knew managed to hurt two people, physically and emotionally. He really did think that she was a boy when she walked in and he didn't refrain from saying it. In his young mind he thought that maybe she'd be just as hurt as his sister, or maybe Shaylin, by use of words.