SHIFT

Chapter 3

"Stop hogging the bathroom, Cassie!" Yelled Jade from behind the sound of running water. "I'm almost done," I answered spitting out toothpaste. I washed my face next and turned to the mirror to see my tired grey eyes and messy brown curls going everywhere.

I sighed when I found that I didn't have any more contact lenses. I'm going to have to use my glasses. I pulled my hair up in a bun, put some eyeliner and lip gloss then fit my glasses to my face and went out the door. "No contacts?" Asked Jade. "Yup." I grabbed my bag and left to find my first class.

I kind of feel like yesterday I wasted all my energy and today I just crashed. Nathan came up to me and looped his arm around mine. "We're off to see the witch, the horrible witch of computer du dum di dum," sang Nat fruitlessly trying to make me skip down the hall with him. "That's not how the song goes," I stated. "That's the point," he said cheerfully.

"Isn't that audition today?" He asked running the hand that wasn't connected to mine through his hair. "What audition?" I asked lazily. "Wake up Cassie, I thought for sure you'd be peeing your pants by now, but you can't even keep your eyes open," he said peering down at me. "To be completely honest I missed probably a whole sentence of what he just said so I just nodded and continued forward. "The Romeo and Juliet audition," Nat said finally.

Edgar Allan Poe once said that "Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of reality," I now take that quote to heart because at that exact moment reality slapped me hard in the face, and with it the words Nathan was telling me finally took form. "Oh my gosh, that's today? Oh no, the sheer cringe of it all," I gasped out while clutching his arm. I could just picture unknown faces of the judges with mixtures of pity and repulsion. 

"I knew you were in there somewhere," he answered giving me a big bear hug. I laughed nervously. "Aw come on your going to do fine, and if that doesn't work, I'll just streak across the stage in nothing but my shower curtain." He laughs. "Ha Ha, hilarious." I deadpanned. "What about you, aren't you auditioning?" "Yeah and?" 

"Wow, well you sound awfully confident. Shouldn't you be nervous too? Actually, you should be way more nervous than me because you actually have competition. I don't." I said recalling the fact that there were other boys auditioning but no other girls. "Nah, I don't do nervous. Besides if we think about it. It's probably just going to be a couple of middle-aged adults that have nothing better to do than watch teenagers audition for a high school play." I mean he wasn't wrong but that didn't stop the uneasy feeling to grow in my stomach. 

I fell asleep while the teacher was explaining how to hardwire something. Nat woke me up thankfully before the teacher noticed. We both have first period computer together which is quite honestly the most boring class of the day. The bell rang and I released a thankful breath. 

Nat had his English class to go to next and I was heading towards my advanced math class. The only good part about this class is that the teacher never used the math book, so we never had to lug it around with us. "I expect full cash recovery for my missing chocolate bar," stated Tessa catching up with me in the hall. "Did we have math homework?" I asked airily. "Yes, and I still expect the money," answered Tessa.

"We finished it in class," said a dirty blonde headed boy to my right. I smiled at Alvin and entered the classroom. "I heard we're having a quiz today," he said as we sat down. "If it's anything like what we had to do yesterday than I don't think we have a problem," I answered. Alvin has been in every math class I've ever had here and because of our last names, we're always situated next to each other.

Sure enough Mr. Thomson passed out the quizzes with a wicked smile. Alvin grinned at me, and I smiled as I shook my head, this teacher takes way too much pride into torturing us. Tessa poked me from the back with her pencil. I turned around and saw her waggling her eyebrows and looking from me to Alvin. I glared at her and looked at Alvin to make sure he wasn't watching.