After Dawn

Cassandra felt her scars sting against the rushing tap water. She flinched at the jarring motion of the water and the moldy wallpaper that seemed to glare at her with its tearing body.

Cassie felt her nerves trembling as the gashes on her palm seemed to grow deeper and bloodier.

Perhaps she should have seen it coming. Cassie could still feel the rough grasp of her mother's hand on her chin, pushing her head against the wall. Cassie gulped the impending tears as she tried to bite away the pain. 

She had deserved it.

Cassie shouldn't have thrown that bucket of water over him. She shouldn't have called him names. She shouldn't have let herself get caught doing it.

Cassie scoffed as she recalled the oh-so-innocent faces of her partners in crime.

She remembered the shame weighing her down as her mother sobbed in front of the principal to not expel her.

Cassie recalled the way her nails peeled into her skin, the pain of betrayal and resentment towards him doubled as she stared at her worn out shoes on the polished tiles.

Cassie remembered how she pleaded the principal not to throw her out 

She wasn't the only one who slammed him into his locker and locked it shut for the whole hour.

But Cassie was the only one with a scholarship in a prestigious school. The gaze of a thousand eyes used to overwhelm her in a suffocating embrace.

She remembered how that felt.

Like she had to better. Like she was the one responsible dragging her family out of poverty.

Cassie really didn't care now. She shouldn't have bullied him, she shouldn't have fallen into the honey traps of her allies. 

And she did owe him an apology. 

That moment Cassie sobbed, remorse and anger spilling out. But the next moment, Cassandra Evans set out, with a hand in the pocket and a letter in another.

An apology was made. A leave of Transfer taken.

Cassie hoped this was the last time as the scholarship girl in the out-of-bounds school.