I sit at the table, leaning my head on the hard surface.
"Someone's wide awake," Barbara says. I groan as she slides a mug of coffee across the counter. "Go get dressed, kiddo! You got school!" I groan again and flop off the chair. "Please don't hurt yourself before you even get there." I grab the table and pull myself up. "Go get dressed." I run back up the stairs and flop onto my bed, looking into my closet, trying to decide. In the end, I roll forward off the end of the bed and grab a black metallica shirt, faded blue jeans, black converses, a maroon hoodie, and green fishnet gloves and run back downstairs, throwing my hair into a messy ponytail and grabbing my phone, headphones, and walkman.
"Much better," Barbara said. "Little grungy, but altogether, nice." I flash her a smile as I sit back down and grab my coffee. "So, I'm gonna drop you off at school on my way to work. After school, you gotta head to the station, 'kay?" I freeze mid-drink. "What?" I put the mug down.
"Do I have to go back to the station?" I ask. "Why can't I just come back here?"
"Because you don't have a key yet, and both of us need ours." I shrug.
"Yeah, I got it." She smiles.
"Good, 'cause we gotta leave in like five minutes." She points at the pile of school supplies on the coffee table in the living room. "That's all the stuff you're gonna need. Go put it in your backpack, and I think you're ready." I run upstairs and grab my bag, running back downstairs and over to the pile of supplies, shoving them all in wherever they'll fit.
"You ready?" Barbara calls from the kitchen. She walks out, carrying her purse and pulling on a coat. I nod and stand up, slinging the bag over my shoulder. "Let's go." We listen to ACDC on the way, but as soon as the car stops, I think my breathing does too.
"I don't know if I can do this," I say. She looks over at me.
"Sure, you can," she says. "You're Cassidy Alexandra! You've fought people twice your size and won! You avoided the cops for three years! Maybe not something to be proud of, but it's still impressive." I smile uneasily at her. "You can do this." I take a deep breath and step out of the car. As I walk inside, I'm painfully aware of the people staring at me. I walk in the front door and over to the desk.
"You need something?" the lady asks. I nod.
"I, uh...I'm a new student," I tell her. She smiles.
"Of course. Can I get your name?" I gulp.
"C-Cassie Gordon." She opens a large notebook and looks through it. After a while, she pulls out a piece of paper.
"Here's your schedule," she says, handing me the paper. "And your locker is number four twenty-seven." I nod. "You need any help getting to know the building, just ask me, and I'll see if I can get someone to show you around better." I nod and walk out of the office. I look at the numbers on the dark red lockers and count my way towards locker four twenty-seven. I eventually find it and pull it open, pulling my bag off my shoulder.
"Hi!" I hear. I look over to see a girl my height with light brown hair and these weird blueish-greenish grey eyes. Freckles covered the entirety of her face. "I'm Allie. You're new here, right?" I roll my eyes and go back to putting books in my locker. "Not a talker? That's okay. I mean, if I hadn't gone to school for three years and suddenly got thrown back in the mix, I guess I'd be a little shy, too."
"What did you say?" I ask, my voice laced with poison. She gulps.
"Which part?"
"The part where you said I hadn't gone to school for three years." I close the door to my locker, and she nods.
"I mean, you're Cassidy Alexandra, aren't you? The famed street fighter?" I groan and hit my head on the locker.
"Great," I say. "Everyone here knows I'm a street rat."
"I'm sorry," Allie says. "I guess no one really thought about what you'd feel like, being surrounded by people who've known each other for years, while you don't know anybody." I look at her, smiling tightly.
"Yeah, that's a great way to put it." She sighs, then smiles.
"If you want, I can help you out today. Show you your classes and stuff." I think about it but eventually shrug. "Here. Give me your schedule." I hand her the small piece of paper. "Okay, so we have almost all the same classes except I don't have gym. I have band." I nod.
"Should be easy enough." She nods, and we head off to first period: Algebra 2.
~~~
I can't believe how gullible the kids here are. Just a few well-placed glares are enough to get people to leave me alone.
Well, most people anyway. There's one exception: Tony Murray, the school playboy. He follows me everywhere! And when I reach the gym for my last class, I am...unpleasantly surprised to find him in there, already wearing the uniform. Unfortunately, the boys' uniform consists of shorts and a muscle tee.
"Oh, Cassie!" he yells across the gym. "You're in here too!" I glare at him, gritting my teeth. "Where's your friend?" I roll my eyes and walk around him to the girls' locker room, changing into my uniform (and choosing to wear the sweatpants over the shorts to avoid any unneeded comments from Tony), taking as much time as physically possible. When I walk back into the gym, he's leaning on the wall by the doorway. "Hey, sweetheart." I sigh and walk around to stand in front of him, my back facing the teachers. He smirks, but it drops when I growl and knee him in the balls. I walk away, leaving him in pain.
"Alright, guys!" Coach Williams, the boys' coach, yells. "We're testing arm strength today, so we'll be doing a few stations: rope climb, push ups, pull ups, and sparring. To make it a little more interesting, we'll be doing competitions. Boys against girls."
"The winning team," Coach Elam, the girls' coach, says, "will get to choose a punishment for the losing team to do. This should only take about half the class, so the winning team will get to change early and relax the rest of class too." I smile. Arm strength is something I know I have. "You will have the same competitors for all three stations, so you'll be going against the same person every time."
"You guys have been pretty good recently," Williams says, "so you will get the luxury of choosing your partners today. Any preferences?" He looks towards the back of the group. "Yes, Tony?" I inwardly groan. Oh god.
"Can I be partnered with Cassie, Coach Williams?" he asks. "She's new here, so I figure someone should show her how this works." I look back at him.
"I think I know how to climb a rope," I say. "You, on the other hand..." He narrows his eyes at me, and I turn back around, smirking.
"Alright, you guys can be partnered." I facepalm as Tony walks over to me.
"Hey, gorgeous," Tony says. "Ready to cooperate?" Part of me is disturbed by this, but the other part, while still disturbed, is busy coming up with a plan to get back at him for this. As if kicking him in the nuts wasn't bad enough.
I do not own Gotham or its characters. I do, however, own Cassie Gordon, Gracelyn Ventura, Ice, etc. so don't steal. It's not nice.
CZYTASZ
Bullets and Brainpower
Fanfiction"Why are you wearing two watches?" "One for kicks . . . and one for ticks." It's normal to see a teenage girl living on the streets of Gotham, and even normal for her to steal from a cop. But is it normal for her to have never been caught? Or for he...
