Stuck In The Past | Five Hargreeves

Chapter 6: New Home?

It has been almost 6 months since Cassie got herself stuck in the 60s and 6 months since she moved in with the Lauders. The girl never expected to stay this long with the family but as the weeks and months passed by that little spark of hope she had on finding at least someone from the academy faded away.

No amount of training could have ever prepared Cassie for everything that she had been through this past 6 months. Meeting the Lauders was the best thing that could have happened to her, considering the situation she was in, so she was very grateful to them, but mostly Nathan.

Over time Nathan had grown very attached to Cassie, especially after what had happened during the first game of the season. Cassie tried to completely erase the day that Jake tried to sexually harass her but she still had nightmares about it. That very same day while walking home with Nathan she made him promise to not say a word about what had happened, not even to his parents, with the excuse that she just wanted to forget it. Unfortunately for Cassie that was easier said than done.

Nathan completely understood where Cassie was coming from the moment she asked him not to mention the events of that day to anyone. Cassie had told him what Jake tried to do to her, and he couldn't help but think that part of it was also his fault. Nathan felt like he should have been there the exact moment to stop Jake from even laying a finger on Cassie. But one thing was for certain after that day, and that was that he couldn't be friends with Jake anymore, so he just stopped hanging around with him overall.

Jake had told the whole school a twisted story of what had happened that day. Somehow he convinced everyone that Cassie had kissed him outside the locker rooms and that Nathan saw them and got angry at him. Jake told everyone that Cassie played the victim making him and Nathan get into a huge fight. Trying to paint himself in a good light, he also convinced everyone that he refused to punch Nathan because he was his best friend but Nathan didn't care and just went at him. Of course, none of that was true but people in school completely bought his story.

Nathan couldn't believe Jake would make something like that up. He wanted to tell everyone that Jake was a liar but he didn't, because if he opened his mouth about it he would have to tell the truth and he had promised Cassie not to. Nathan had noticed how Cassie was unfazed by the rumors that were being spread about her so he figured that if she didn't care and wasn't giving it attention neither should he. Luckily everyone in school forgot about it only a few weeks later and they moved on to the latest gossip going around.

Cassie knew that Jake's intention in spreading a false story was to gain pity from others and also get under her skin about how he still managed to get away with what he tried to do to her while gaining sympathy. Maybe 45 years ago other people's words and thoughts about her would have hurt her feelings but after dealing with much worse than pitiful high school drama she couldn't care less about what Jake was trying to do. So instead of giving Jake attention, which was what he wanted, she just ignored him and decided to heal in silence from the crude truth of the event that took place that day. She considered that what Jake had tried to do to her was much worse than any rumor he could spread to cover his ass.

What truly hurt Cassie was how all these years she tried to come to terms with what had happened to her when she was 8, only for someone to reopen the wound in a matter of seconds. She felt like she couldn't trust anyone new other than the Lauders.

Going to school was pretty much the same every day after the rumors Jake tried to spread around died down. Both Nathan and Cassie would wake up, eat breakfast and walk to school. Then the girl would follow her class schedule and hang out with Nathan during break and lunchtime and once school was over they would head home.

Even though Nathan's friends weren't the nicest people on the planet, Cassie felt bad for being the reason Nathan ended his friendship with them. She knew that her presence in this timeline was what took the last blow on Nathan's friendship with Jake and everyone else.