Cassie sighed as she looked up at the ceiling of her bedroom, her first day being out of school. No more education, no more hanging with people she thought were her friends, no more teachers, no more homework. Her best friend had left to spend a few months overseas with his family, she was offered to come with him, but she didn't want to.

Cassie was starting to feel a tinge of regret for saying no but she knew her mother would be funny about it. She sighed again as she listened to the sounds outside of her room, listening to the cars drive past her bedroom window and listening to her mother shut the front door.

Cassie didn't understand her mother, she didn't understand how a woman cared so little about her own daughter and how a woman preferred the company of strange men than her own daughter.

She listened to her mother turn on the shower taps.

Cassie slowly sat up; she wasn't sure how she was going to cope with everything. She wanted out of home but had no money, she had to spend it trying to keep the roof over their head and food in the kitchen even though her mother's loud company liked to grab what they wanted.

She placed her feet on her carpeted floor, she lowered her head as she struggled to figure out how to spend her days.

Cassie wanted to spend the last few weeks of 2011 doing something, but she wasn't sure what. She had planned to spend 2012 as a gap year but she didn't know what.

She slowly pushed herself up off her bed, she stepped towards her struggling to stay closed cupboard, she carefully opened the doors of the cupboard.

Cassie had had her cupboard for too long, it was barely keeping together, there was no back to the cupboard, overflowing shelves stuffed with her clothes always got stuck between the wall and the shelves of the cupboard, peeling stickers of animals and band logos which added some colour to the white cupboard. The cupboard only had one door handle which she had to constantly struggle to re-screw back in.

Cassie stared at her clothes; she wasn't sure what to wear.

The top shelf of her cupboard was covered in her underwear, bras, and folded singlets. The second shelf was overflowing with various types of dresses. The third shelf was overflowing with various shirts. The forth shelf held folded tracksuit pants, jumpers, cardigans, skirts, and leggings. The fifth and final shelf was overflowing with her pyjamas.

"CASSANDRA!"

Cassie rolled her eyes as she heard her mother's voice. She tried to ignore it as she began to search through her cupboard for something to wear. She chucked a pair of underwear on her bed, chucked a singlet on her bed, she chucked a cardigan on her bed. She chewed down on her lip as she debated with herself on what else she wanted to wear.

"CASSANDRA!" Her mother's voice grew louder.

Cassie grabbed the first dress her hand landed on and threw it on her bed just as her mother opened Cassie's bedroom door.

"You forgot to buy milk."

Cassie closed her cupboard doors "It's not my fault that someone drank it all. I brought two bottles on Thursday."

"Well, there both gone" Toni leaned against the door with her arms folded across her chest. Her blonde hair pulled up into a high ponytail. A white singlet struggled to cover the cups of her bra. A pair of ¾ clung tightly to her lower body. Toni didn't look like she was a mother, no ounce of her showed that she had a 17-year-old daughter.

Cassie sighed as she picked up the clothes off her bed.

Toni rolled her eyes "Don't you have school today?"

Cassie shook her head as she dug her nails into the clothes in her arms "I graduated on Friday, remember?" Cassie paused for a moment "You didn't go, remember?"

Toni thought for a moment "Oh right, you didn't want me there" She watched her daughter push past.

"No, you didn't want to be there." Cassie sighed as she walked to the bathroom.

"Hey. Look at me."

Cassie stopped at the bathroom door and turned to face her mother.

"I would.." Toni began.

"You would've been there if it wasn't at 9am, you weren't hungover and you didn't have company. I know" Cassie pushed open the bathroom door, stepped inside the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

Toni rolled her eyes.

The two of them were completely different. Toni was a 35-year-old woman who wished she was childless; she was glad that her baby girl was old enough to look after herself which now meant that Toni could do as she pleased. Toni wasn't good at parenting, she was left alone with Cassie a few short months after marrying Cassie's dad. Toni wanted out of the toxic relationship her now ex-husband had put her through, she wanted Cassie to have a safe home. By the time Cassie was 6, Toni pushed her daughter aside to allow someone to keep Toni's bed warm when she got lonely.

Cassie didn't see her mother as a role model, she didn't understand how a mother could treat her daughter like this. She didn't understand how her mother could dress like a horny teenager; she didn't understand how her mother couldn't just be a mother instead of being a horny woman. She vowed to herself that she'd never be like her mother. Because of Toni, Cassie struggled to have friends, she struggled to bring friends home, especially struggled to let her male friends come over.

When Cassie introduced Michael to Toni, Toni tried to hit on him and tried to convince Michael that Toni was better than Cassie. Michael thankfully didn't budge, he just tried to keep Cassie by his side whenever he was over her home. Whenever the opportunity rose, Michael would invite Cassie over to his house, his parents didn't mind Cassie, but they hated her mother.

Cassie stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed. Her blonde hair was pulled back into two braids.

The house was awfully quiet.

Cassie didn't dare to say anything as she walked back to her room. She grabbed a pair of ballet flats from out under her bed and placed them on her bed. She picked up her bag and placed it on her bed, she searched through it checking to see if her purse was still in her bag.

Cassie was smart enough not to keep cash in her bag, she was also smart enough to not give her mother the pin to her key card. Cassie smiled a little as she saw her key card still in her purse, she looked around her room trying to find her digital camera.

Cassie stepped closer to her medium sized wall unit. She picked up her digital camera in its case, she pulled her camera out, turned it on and checked the images on the memory card. She rolled her eyes as she noticed her mother's near naked images on the camera.

Cassie turned off the camera, she pulled out the memory card and placed it down on the wall unit. She reached down to her bedside table that was next to the wall unit and opened the top draw, she shuffled her socks and stockings around as she searched for an unopened packet of a memory card.

She pulled out a 30gb card, ripped open the packaging before placing the memory card in the camera.

Cassie had gotten used to her mother oversharing the photos her mother took with Cassie's camera.

She grabbed her handbag, shoved her camera in her bag than slipped her shoes on.

Cassie picked up her phone from under her bed where it laid charging.

She closed her bedroom door behind her as she walked out of her room.

Cassie grabbed her keys off the kitchen bench before walking out the front door.

She rolled her eyes as she noticed the car in the driveway gone.

Cassie held back her groan as she walked towards and out the front gate.

Another downfall of being Toni's daughter meant that she never told Cassie if she was going to use a shared item. Cassie always had to find out at last minute.

She followed the footpath down to the bus stop across the road from her house. She watched for traffic before quickly jay walking across the road.

Cassie sat down on the bus stop bench. She tried to keep her focus on waiting for the bus, but she struggled.

Cassie wasn't sure what she was supposed to do now. She didn't have a job, she was trying but everyone kept knocking her back, she was trying to get off government benefits, but it wasn't working in her favour.

She jumped a little as someone walked from behind her focus. Cassie calmed her beating heart down as the person sat down at the bus stop.

Cassie tried not to let her mind wonder, wonder if the person knew her and her mother. Cassie and Toni had lived in the neighbourhood long enough, 11 years to be exact. Cassie tried not wonder if the person knew what type of person her mother was.

She quickly shook her head from her thoughts as she noticed the bus pull up at the bus stop.