Cassandra

My keys jangled as I opened the door to me and Eva's house.

"Hey Mom, I'm home" I yelled to the empty space around us.

"Me too!" Eva called after me.

"Oh, my 2 sweethearts!" I heard my mom say from upstairs

She raced down the stairs and gave us each a hug.

"So tell me, you guys do anything interesting today?" Mom asked quizzically.

I replayed today's events in my head and decided that I didn't want her to worry so I shrugged and replied with a "nothing much."

It didn't feel right to lie to my mom but it was the only way to keep her from freaking out and having some panic attack about "her precious little snowflake getting hurt at school"

She already had enough on her plate and I didn't want to add anything more.

"I did a lot today, mom!" Eva beamed as she recited her day the same way she did for me.

While that was happening, I took my dark brown uggs off and hung up my baby blue winter coat.

As I started up the stairs, I called to my mom, " I'm heading to my room to do my homework now."

"Ok honey." she replied, "Dinner will be ready in an hour!"

"Ok!" I called back.

I ran up the stairs 2 at a time and got to my room.

Closing the door slowly so I wouldn't make much sound, I trudged to my full-body mirror beside my bed.

I wanted to see how bad the damage Allison and Scarlette did to me was.

Deciding to start from the bottom up, I sat on my bed and slowly peeled my sock off my foot to get a good look at it.

The sight was horrifying.

The part that Allison stepped on had spread around my foot and formed into a huge purple and black bruise.

When I lightly grazed the injury with the tips of my fingers, pain exploded in my brain and I winced. Also (and this is the grossest part)... I think the bruise was throbbing!

That alone was enough to get me to tear my eyes away from the wound and focus on literally anything else.

Standing up, I went back to staring at my reflection in the mirror.

I lifted my shirt a little to see how bad the bruise Scarlette gave me on my ribs was.

Luckily though, that didn't look too bad and was ought to heal in a day or two, a week at most.

I dropped my shirt and decided that I should take a shower before I started to do my homework to soothe myself and my foot and because, why not?

After the shower, I felt better and I smelled great, like flowers actually.

Putting on my unicorn PJ's (a bit childish for sure but I didn't care), I started on my calculus homework. After I finished that, I moved on to my latest English project.

"Instructions:" I read out loud to myself.

"Because Christmas is the best time for making unforgettable memories and looking back on them for everyone, I want you to write a 3 page essay that compares a past Christmas from an earlier age (five or six years of age, for example) to a more recent Christmas (maxim is 3 years ago). What was the same about the two and what was different? Extra credit will be given if you add extra details. Good luck!"

I frowned.

I didn't like the sound of this project one bit.

Yeah, I guess it was simple but that wasn't the problem.

It was what we had to talk about that bugged me.

I decided that I would procrastinate on it for a while and I tucked it neatly into my drawer. I flopped on my bed and picked up my phone to text Bella because I was bored and needed her bubbly personality to lift my spirits a little.

She responded a while later.

Feeling much better, l put my phone down and stared at my ceiling.

We ended the conversation just in time because a couple of seconds later, mom sounded:

"Cassie, dinners ready."

"Coming mom!" I hollered back.

I slipped on some new socks to hide my bruise and practically slid down the stairs.

My mom glanced at my socks and looked at me questioningly but I just smiled sheepishly back at her and prayed she wouldn't ask me about it after.

She just shrugged, shook her head and motioned us all to sit at the table with her

As always, we ate in silence

I glanced at the empty seat in front of us.

I sighed.

I kept on eating.