Cassandra

After the bathroom incident, I sped-walked as fast as I could to the school doors and burst out of them.

Since it was mid November and the temperature was just starting to dip, I became engulfed in the cold air as I felt a shiver go down my spine.

Taking my phone out of one pocket and my earbuds out of the other, I decided to listen to some music as I walked in the direction of my little sister's school.

I pulled up Spotify from my phone, clicked on my playlist and hit shuffle play.

The first song that played was One Day by Tate McRae.

She stares at the ceiling once again, with a hundred thoughts.
Maybe he knows who I am, actually, probably not.

I was sure Andrew barely even knew my name, nonetheless anything about me.

She walks down the halls with her head down low, scared to meet his eyes.
Even when she hears his voice, she swarmed with butterflies.

I silently chuckled to myself because that was exactly what happened when I had bumped into him in the hallway. I wasn't paying attention and was too busy looking at my sneakers when we collided.

It's impossible to get you off my mind.
I think about 100 thoughts and you are 99.
I've understood that you will never be mine,
And that's fine, I'm just breaking inside.

I thought about Andrew... a lot. Some days way more than others, but the probability of him liking me back was 0 to nothing.

And with Victoria still in the picture, I don't think I could handle having her on my case all the time.

She has a habit of ruining other people's reputations, so everyone tries their hardest to stay on her good side and I don't think she'd take me dating her boyfriend too kindly as I replayed what happened in the bathroom in my head and shuddered.

I sighed to myself. I guess some things just aren't meant to be, I concluded.

Listening to the rest of the song, plus a couple more after; before I knew it, I was in front of my sister's school.

I scanned the premises to see if I could find her in the massive swarm of small children around me, when behind me I heard, "Cassie! Over here!"

I turned around to see my younger sister, Evangeline, smiles and all, run up to me and give me a huge bear hug.

Because she was so short though, she was only able to come up to my mid thighs which I thought was adorable.

Laughing and hugging her back I said "Hi Eva! When I didn't see you in your usual spot, I started to worry a little bit."

To that, she exclaimed "I wanted to surprise you, big silly! Were you surprised?" I could hear the trace of hope in her voice.

I chuckled softly. "Very."

Grabbing her hand, we started to walk home in union.

As we walked, I looked down at Eva.

"How was your day?" I asked, preparing myself for the usual long and energetic ramble that came with asking this question. She beamed up at me.

"It was AWESOME!"

"Oh really? What made it so awesome?"

"I learned how to do adding! Ask me what 12 plus 12 is?"

"What's 12+12?" I asked.

"24!" She announced. I clapped.

"Good job! Can I ask another one?"

"Yup!" She proudly responded, causing me to smirk, an idea forming in my head.

"What's 19+23?" I quizzed. Eva's face fell and her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure it out.

"Umm.." she stalled nervously. " it's... it's..." I laughed a little

"It's okay, you'll get better. Was that all you did today?" She shook her head.

"No! We played Kahoot," she added. "Aannddd I won first place!"

"That's great!" I smiled, but she wasn't finished.

"Guess what else happened?" She jumped up and down excitedly.

"What?"

"I lost my tooth!"

She smiled widely to show me the gap in between what used to be her 2 front teeth.

I was about to comment on how that wasn't such a big deal, but then I remembered the excitement of losing my first tooth. I fondly smiled as I remembered waking up the next morning to $2.50 under my pillow.

"Wow Eva, that's great!" I exclaimed, genuinely happy for her. She was practically bursting with excitement. "Do you still have the tooth?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. There was no way that she would've let it out of her sight.

"Yup! It's in my backpack. I'm going to be so rich tomorrow!" She boasted. I laughed out loud.

"Yes, I'm sure you will-"

I was saying before I got interrupted for the 3rd time by Eva (This was getting redundant).

"Jaxon!!!" She squealed to a boy around her age across the street.

And you won't believe who this 'Jaxon' kid was with.

Of course it had to be Andrew.

Our eyes met and I felt my face heat up.

'You're lucky it's cold or you'd probably look ridiculous right now,' I told myself, since rosy cheeks were common in colder weather.

'Wait no, remember what Victoria said? I can't let him (or her)find out I have a crush on him. And even if he did find out, let's be real: would he really break up with his soccer star girlfriend just to date me? Exactly, he wouldn't. Maybe if I act distant and stuff he won't suspect anything. I'll keep the conversation strictly professional and I'll stick with one-word answers.'

Content with my plan, I allowed Eva to drag me across the street to them and I mentally shoo'd away any butterflies I had in my stomach.

"Hi, Jaxon! Cheered Eva happily. Jaxon beamed at her.

"Hi, Eva!" He exclaimed. She grinned and I knew what she would say next.

"I lost my first tooth today! Look!" She opened her mouth widely to show off the gap between her two front teeth.

Called it.

"Wooahh" Jaxon cried. "I lost mine last week." He said proudly, opening his own mouth and stuck out his jaw to display his own missing tooth.

"How much money did you get?!" She asked excitedly.

"Two dollars!" He boasted as if he was a millionaire. Eva's eyes widened in awe.

"Wow!" She practically shouted. "You're so rich! What're you going to buy?"

"Hmm..." He contemplated with a serious face, deep in thought. His expression suddenly brightened. "I know! The new LEGO Astronauts set."

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I noticed Andrew starring at me.

I tried my hardest to not get sucked into those beautiful, kind eyes.

"Hi," he greeted politely.

"Hey," I responded back with as little emotion as possible

I could tell he was taken aback with my response so he playfully added "You're that girl I helped up earlier today, Cassandra right?

My heart swelled. He remembered my name!

"Yup," I continued with a small smile "That's me"

Welp... there goes my strictly professional and one-word-answer plan.

Suddenly, Eva's attention shifted to me and she asked, "Cassie, how much money did you get when you lost your first tooth?"

"Around $2.50 I think," I answered.

"Ha!" Yelled Eva triumphantly. "Jaxon, I'll be richer than you!" Jaxon stuck out his tongue at her.

"How much money did you get for your first tooth?" Jaxon asked Andrew.

He thought for a moment.

"$2.00," Andrew replied.

Jaxon's facial expression became very mischievous in a matter of seconds.

"Hey, Eva? Guess what?" He asked Eva. Eva looked at him curiously.

"What?" She urged him to continue. He giggled.

"My mom told me that when Andrew was little and lost his two front teeth, he kept sticking his finger through the hole."

Andrews' eyes widened in horror at his little brother. Jaxon continued.

"And he had to stop because one time his finger was all muddy and he ate mud!" He said like it was the funniest thing ever.

Andrew's face turned pink as Jaxon and Eva dissolved into high pitched giggles.

"Jaxon!" Andrew scolded his sibling.

"What!" Jaxon replied nervously."

"You weren't supposed to say that!"

"Oops." Andrew sighed and turned to face me.

"Sorry, you weren't supposed to hear that..." he trailed off. I chortled.

"Don't worry, your dirty secret, literally and figuratively, is safe with me." He laughed.

"Thanks. I don't know why it's so funny to them."

"Don't worry about it, they're kids. They'll laugh at anything."

I chuckled and then there was an awkward silence between us. The type of silence that comes when two people run out of things to say to each other in a conversation.

"I'm really sorry about how I knocked you over earlier," he blurted out apologetically for the second time today with one hand behind his neck as a pink hue bloomed on his cheeks in embarrassment.

He was blushing! I don't know how much more of his cuteness I can take.

"Don't sweat it," I said coolly and waved my hand at him to demonstrate that it was ok.

Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath because I was going to ask Andrew something.

"Soo... did you uh... hear the rumours... about us?" I turned redder with every word.

"Ugh... about that, it was just some stupid thing my girlfriend's friends made up," he said as he rolled his eyes.

'Allison and Scarlette did this!' I felt a rush of anger go through me and my teeth clenched but I controlled myself.

"Girlfriend?" I asked innocently, trying to act as if I didn't know already.

"Yeah, Victoria Deloris," he said with a small smile like even the thought of her made him happy. I didn't know if I should've been disgusted or hurt but all I could muster up was an "Oh."

We stood in silence for a while waiting for our siblings to round up their conversations.

"Well, bye Eva!" Jason waved at her.

"Bye Jaxon!" She responded happily and waved back.

Then the two did the most adorable thing; they hugged!

"Aww aren't they cute together," I cooed.

"Yeah... together," he said as he gave me this... look.

I don't know how to describe it, but it was the kind of look the was so strong and intense it made your stomach drop to the floor.

Then I had to drop my gaze because I felt my face turn beet red and I didn't want him to see me like that.

"Well, later!" Andrew said cheerfully. Then he turned to my sister. "And bye Eva." He bopped her on the nose. She giggled.

"Bye," I waved to Andrew and I high-fived Jaxon.

They walked the other way and I and Eva kept going straight.

She was going on and on about the astronaut Lego set she now wanted for Christmas too, but I was too busy thinking about Andrew.

'You know what, screw Victoria.' I thought to myself

I'm going to talk to whoever I want and nobody's going to stand in my way.