A Mother's Word

Chapter One

"What did you bring Cassie for? You know she isn't welcome here after everything her wicked mother did to my family! You take her home, or even better, leave her in a ditch to die somewhere!" Jenny sneered to Becki as she looked up and down at me in disgust. "I've told you before, and I'll say it again you want to be friends with her, then you will have nothing to do with me!". Becki glanced towards me with a reassuring smile, however I could tell she had sadness in her eyes and longed to be liked by everyone. You see, the thing is we were all so friendly when we went to primary school, which was not that many years ago.

I lived in a small village on the outskirts of a huge town, we were privileged to live alongside gorgeous open fields, vast expanse of farmland and a rural landscape. It was picturesque, charming and the great outdoors. We would take a short walk from our houses and the views would be admirable as we looked out towards more greenery and forestry land. We were really very lucky to live in this part of the country, and I couldn't imagine ever living anywhere else.

I have lived here all my life and have also loved being so close to my friends and family, all my friends went to the same school as me which was located at the bottom of a narrow county lane and after the school bell rang at 3:30pm, we would run home up the hill towards our houses, undress and put on different clothes and all meet on the wall opposite the local chicken factory, this was the place to be, and if you were not invited there then unfortunately you were known as one of the unpopular kids living in the village! Luckily for me, I was always invited and would normally be one of the first to be there, closely followed by Jenny and Becki, who at the time were my best mates.

Fourteen years of age with our whole life's ahead of us, we would daydream about our futures and careers, we would reminisce about our younger years, and we were busily working towards our exam grades at school ready to leave the following year. Jenny had the most glorious blonde locks that reached down to her bottom (which was an asset she was very proud off), she was of slim build and very pretty looking, she always looked after her appearance and would often go for treatments at the local salon alongside her mum.
Becki was curvier, her hair shoulder-length and the most beautiful ginger colour I had seen - although Becki was adamant it was 'Strawberry Blonde!'.
My black hair fell loosely over my shoulders and halfway down my back, I was proud of my body and at a comfortable size 14 I was confident in my appearance. We all looked so different, but our personalities and interests were all relatively the same.

Growing up in a 3 bedroom semi-detached house, I always had the littlest bedroom out of the three as I was the youngest, therefore apparently didn't need much space for my belongings and whatever belongings I had were always hand-me-downs from my older sister Amy! Amy was 2 years older than me at 16 years of age and by heck she used to make that very clear, she would boss me around, demand me to do her jobs on the weekends and to be honest she was a right cow! Although she had plenty of faults, I always knew that deep down she would protect me at all costs and be the big sister that I would someday need her to be. Amy had taken my dad's genes, she had short blonde wavy hair, she was taller than me and of slim build. She was gorgeous, and her freckles would enhance all of her facial features.

My mum Annette was always busy at work as a Social worker; she worked gruelling hours and most of the time came home really late at night, always utterly exhausted that more often than not she would sit in front of the television with a 7-minute microwavable meal half-eaten and within five minutes she would be asleep in her little armchair. The job was really starting to take its toll on mum, beforehand, she was always fun, energetic, she always had a positive outlook on life and definitely the life and soul of the party, to now being shy, overworked, stressed and a shell of the woman she once was, it was like a vampire was slowly sucking away at her blood leaving her drained, her body remained but her personality and appearance had completely vanished. My dad Roger, well, although he was named on our birth certificates, he walked in and out of our life's as many times as we went on family fun days out and that was very rare, maybe three-to-four times a year! He finally left when I was 7 years old and Amy was 9 years old, it was coming up to Christmas, and he was spending all of his time at the local pub called the 'Lion's Den', he had stopped answering the phone to my mum one evening, and she had gone to see where he was, she found him and one of our neighbours up against the wall in the alley way having sexual intercourse. She always knew he was a cheat, but she had never been able to prove it before, so this was her perfect chance to kick him out and start our lifes again. Although he did eventually move out, he only decided to live about five streets away from us, but Amy and I knew exactly where we stood with him, and the contact was immediately cut off.