Running

I fought myself to stay awake as I sat in my last class of the day. I tapped my pencil along my desk, keeping my hands busy, as Mr. Strumpnick went over the class syllabus as if we couldn’t read them ourselves. From what I had gathered, this was going to be an extremely boring and time consuming english class and I wasn’t very excited about it. Papers, books, tests, quizzes, group projects… I wanted an easy senior year, but I also needed to get into a good school and couldn’t let my grades slip up. I could’ve taken an easier english course, but of course the harder one looked better on my resume as well. The shit us kids have to go in order to create a good future was insane.

All I could think about as my eighty-year-old teacher rambled on and on about was the two most important things in my life: cheer and Mike. After class, Mission Bay was holding the freshman team cheer tryouts. Seeing as I am a varsity cheerleader, and I am also head captain of the varsity squad, I was able to be one of the judges for the freshman team. Now that I was really excited for. I wanted to make an impact on Mission Bay since it is my last year, and the best way to do that would be to bring in some little freshies under my wings and show them how it’s done around here. After try outs, Mike was going to meet me at my house for dinner. He was able to finagle his way out of working till close so that he could spend the evening with me. To him, it was a big day at the Merjos household… I was entering my senior year of high school and Frankie was starting his first day of elementary school.

Finally, after what felt like four hours, the final bell of the day rang, signaling that school hours were officially over. Happy as could be, I shoved my planner full of syllabuses into my book bag and made my way down the hallway towards Tony’s locker.

“How was your first day at Mission Bay?” I smiled as I approached Tony, embracing him in a hug once I reached him.

He let out a laugh, “It wasn’t so bad. A lot of people saw us walk in together this morning and at lunch… I had questions from people on how I knew you and if I was a friend of Mike’s.”

I rolled my eyes, “Everyone is so damn nosey.”

“Hey, it’s not always that the kid with long, black hair and piercings walks in with the most popular girl in high school!” Tony smiled, “It’s pretty nice though. At my old high school I just blended in with everyone else.”

“I am not the most popular girl here,” I laughed. “And you’re taking over my copilot position! Everyone loved Mike, they’ll love you… well, except the jocks… they hated Mike. But I’m really glad you had a good first day.” I saw Abbey and Julie approaching and I gave Tony a sad smile, “I’ve got to get going to tryouts, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nodded and smiled, “Alright. Tell Mike I said hey!”

I gave him a quick hug and then walked in the direction of Abbey and Julie, linking my arms in theirs and heading towards the gym.

“So how does it feel to be queen B?” Julie laughed as we strutted down the hallway. “Stephanie graduated and you took the crown.”

I rolled my eyes, “I’m only popular because I’m Mike’s girlfriend. For some reason his stupid ass is a Mission Bay legend.”

Abbey snickered, “You’re not standing in Mike’s limelight anymore, Cassie. Face it, everyone in this school either wants to be you or wants to be with you.”

“Oh shut up,” I laughed and unlinked my arms from them, pushing open the door to the girls’ locker room. “I’m sure there’s plenty of people here that don’t even know me or like me.”

As we walked into the locker room, all eyes fell on me. There stood a bunch of freshman that were waiting to try out, as well as girls on the JV and Varsity team. Everyone smiled as I walked past them, and it was pretty fucking strange.

“Hey, Cassie,” one of the JV cheerleaders, Danica, smiled at me. “I love your hair lighter like this.”

One freshman looked at another and nearly squealed, “She is so freaking pretty!”

Stacey, a varsity cheerleader that was one of Stephanie’s old friends smiled at me and pulled me into a hug, “Hey, girly! How was your summer?”

Taken back at her actions I stuttered, “I.. uh… It was pretty good.”

“Are you still dating your boyfriend? This transfer, Mark Jones, was staring at you during lunch! His jaw was practically on the floor he was so awe-struck by how pretty you are!” She cheered, “You are so lucky. He’s gorgeous and told me to give you his number.”

I gave her a small smile, “Mike and I are still together. I’m going to have to decline on Mark’s number. I can’t imagine myself with anyone other than my man.”

I stepped away from her and shot Abbey a weird look. She just shrugged and followed me out towards the door that led into the gym. Julie had stopped and got into conversation with another varsity girl. I walked out into the gym to find Coach Marcie, Tiffany and the JV captain, Becca, all standing in a group, huddled together. I made my way over there, leaving Abbey to go sit on the bleachers.

“There’s my star!” Coach Marcie smiled as I walked up. She placed her arm on my shoulders and pulled me in for a side hug, “How was your summer?”

“It was pretty good! My knee is back to nearly perfect. I’m just going to have to wear my brace during practice. How was yours? How was the wedding!” I beamed, happy to finally see my coach.

“Oh, it was amazing! I cannot believe I am officially Mrs. Haddoc! I’m glad to hear that your knee is doing much better. I’m hoping we can push it all the way through States again this year without having to turn down Nationals.”

I nodded, “So… This may be a weird question… But does anyone know why everyone and their mother knows who I am and is being so nice to me today? I walked into the locker room and everyone stopped and smiled at me, or tried to make conversation.” I looked at Tiff, “Even fucking Stacey Cooper greeted me with a hug and a smile.”

Tiffany cringed, “Gross… I really don’t know… I’ve heard your name a lot today, though. Everyone was talking about how summer did you really good.”

“All of the freshman look up to you. They all heard the story about States and how you still competed with your knee like that. They’re like in love with you,” Becca added.

I shrugged, “People were even becoming friends with Tony because they saw him walk into school with me! This is weird. I don’t like all this attention…”

“Maybe it will die down once we get further into the year?” Tiffany suggested. “At least attention from all the girls… you know all the guys are going to be pressed on you since Mike is gone.”

I frowned, she was right. Mike was gone. He wasn’t here to stop all the creeps from hitting on me. He wasn’t here to kiss me in between classes, or hold my hand, or let me rest my head on his shoulder at lunch. Maybe Abbey was right… These past three years, Mike was always in the spotlight of Mission Bay. Everyone knew who he was and you either loved him or hated him. Everyone knew me as his girlfriend, the cheerleader named Cassie. Mike graduated and I pushed Mission Bay into first place at a competition for the first time in years… I had stolen the spotlight that Mike once had, and I didn’t really know how I felt about it. He never seemed to care when girls would stop and drool over him, or when random people would try to grab his attention. All of this attention bothered me… I don’t know how he ever put up with it.

“You deserve the popularity, Cassie,” Coach Marcie smiled. “Now let’s get these damn tryouts undergone so that I can get my ass out of here. Rodney is making steak and mashed potatoes for dinner.”

Tiffany, Becca and myself all laughed at her reasoning for wanting to get everything over with. We all took our seats at the “judging table” and mentally prepared ourselves for this position as the freshman walked out of the locker room. I remember this day when I was a freshman. I was scared shitless because I had to cheer in front of the school’s “best” cheerleaders and because I hadn’t made friends with any other girls that were trying out to be on the team. That was a really rough day for me, but I made it through and am now in the top spot… shocking to say the least.


Tryouts went better than expected. A lot of the girls had talent and I gave my feedback to Coach Marcie, who ultimately is the one who gets to decide who she wants on her team. I was extremely thankful for the day to end so I could go home. All I had thought about on my drive home was flopping down on my bed, in my underwear and one of Mike’s hoodies and waiting for him to arrive to my house with cigarettes and a couple beers. Of course, things never go as planned, and my mom wanted to ask a million questions about my first day of senior year, so I was stuck standing in the kitchen with my book bag still on my back speaking to her for at least forty-five minutes as Frankie drowned himself with Spongebob in the living room.

“Hey, when I was in high school I would’ve killed to be in your position,” my mom laughed as she checked the chicken in the oven.

I shrugged, “Yeah, freshman year I would’ve killed for this… just not now… It’s a little much for me.”

“I understand, Cassie. Maybe it’s just a first day thing! You did come back from summer break looking better than ever,” she smiled and then turned her back to me as she cut up vegetables for a salad.

“Hell yeah she did,” Mike’s voice sounded from behind me.

A huge smile broke across my face as I turned around and folded my arms behind his neck. I leaned up and pressed my lips to his softly. His hands came down and rested on my lower back, pulling me closer to him and pressing our chests up against each other. He pulled his lips away from me and rested his forehead on mine with a grin on his face.

I stared into his eyes and blushed, “I officially hate school without you there.”

Mike shook his head and chuckled, “Babe, it can’t be that bad.”

“It is that bad,” I pouted.

Mike rolled his eyes and kissed my forehead before pulling his arms from my body. “Well, let’s go upstairs and you can tell me all about why you hate school.”

“I’ll call you two when dinner is ready,” my mom shouted as we walked out of the kitchen and up the steps towards my bedroom.

I laid down on my bed as Mike locked my door. He took his backpack off his shoulders and opened it up, pulling out two Corona’s and a pack of Newports. He threw the pack at me and set the two bottles down on my bedside table, then laid down next to me.

His left hand brushed up and down my side lightly rubbing it as he propped his head up with his right, “Is it really that bad?”

“Yes,” I groaned. “Everyone knows who I am. Everyone stops and says hi and compliments me. People that never gave two shits about me all of a sudden like me. I’m getting referred to as the most popular person at Mission Bay. How the hell did you put up with this?”

Mike smiled and pinched my cheek, “My little baby took my crown.” I glared at him and he ran his hand through my hair, “Enjoy it, Cass. You deserve it.”

“I can’t enjoy something so fucking annoying,” I huffed. “There are guys drooling over me, Mike! Guys who just knew me as some cheerleader last year!”

He raised an eyebrow, “I can fix that.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed, “No. You’re not getting into anymore trouble. Just tell me how to make all this attention stop.”

“Just smile and ignore them, Cass. It isn’t that hard,” Mike laughed. “But now I need to talk to Tony and tell him to keep an eye out…”

“Oh shut up,” I hit his chest then ran my hands through his messy hair, “Are you spending the night?” He nodded and I smiled, “Good.”

“Why?” He pulled me closer to him.

“Because the more you spend the night, the less Lucy sleeps on my pillows,” I giggled as my little kitten perked her head up from Mike’s designated pillow.

He looked up at her and groaned, “Lucy! That’s Daddy’s pillow!” He grabbed her and held her in the air above him, “You’re too cute to be mad at.”

“I always thought you hated cats,” I smiled while watching him play with her.

“I do,” he laughed and shook Lucy lightly, “But I love our little baby. She inherited my good looks.”

I rolled my eyes and sat up, taking Lucy from his hands. “You wish you were as cute as her.” I pressed a kiss on her forehead then looked at Mike, “I’m sure dinner is almost ready, so let’s go.”


Dinner went by as usual, other than hearing all about Frankie’s first day of school. He was so excited to talk about it, and how he had a “sexy” teacher, a word he just so happened to pick up from Mike. My mom looked like she was ready to smack him every time Frankie said sexy. It was hysterical in my opinion. After Frankie talked for a good half hour about school, I was lectured on how Lucy wasn’t allowed to sit on my lap during dinner. I had let her sit on my lap throughout the beginning of dinner, my mom being too wrapped in Frankie’s speech about school to even notice. I tried to challenge her, of course, saying that my child should be allowed at the dinner table. Then there was another lecture on how Mike and I needed to stop calling her our kid because she doesn’t want to think about the two of us as parents for a long time.

I climbed off the bed and out of Mike’s arms, a small whine escaping his lips once he realized I was gone. I laughed quietly, trying not to wake him up. After dinner, we decided to take a “nap”. Which was our way of nicely telling my mom that we would be locked in my room for a few hours and to not bother us. We had sex for probably forty-five minutes, and then did end up taking a nap afterwards. Mike was worn out from work and then performing his duties as my boyfriend, and hell, I will take any sleep I can get!

I stretched in front of the mirror, cracking my knees, elbows and wrists. That big hickey Mike gave me a few days ago was still dark purple and had yet to begin to fade. I shook my head after looking at it and then grabbed my towel off my desk chair and wrapped it around myself. My shower was short and sweet. I had shaved last night, so all I really had to do was wash my hair and body.

When I walked out of the bathroom and back into my room, Mike was still sound asleep in my bed, the sheet wrapped around his naked body and his mouth was wide open. I smiled at the scene, he was probably drooling like a baby. I closed and locked my door behind me and then pulled my towel from my body, wrapping my hair in it. I lotioned my entire body, then put on a pair of underwear and a tank top. I towel dried my hair for a couple minutes and then put the towel back on my desk chair, letting my wet hair fall down my back.

I climbed onto the bed and laid on top of the sheet next to Mike. He was lying on his stomach, his face facing the opposite direction of me. I ran my fingers lightly up his spine, and then back down. After repeating the action about five times, I felt his breathing change.

“Baby, wake up,” I kissed his left shoulder and lightly rubbed his right. He shook his head like a little kid. I kissed his shoulder again, “Mikey.”

“Noooo,” he whined.

“It’s nine! I thought you wanted to watch the VMA’s.”

He laughed, “They don’t come on till next week, don’t try to lie to me to get me out of bed.”

I grinned, I knew he would catch my lie, “Get in the shower. I need to put new sheets on.”

“Do it tomorrow.”

“These are covered with semen, Mike. I am not sleeping on them one more time,” I laughed and pushed him lightly. “Get your ass up and get in the shower. You smell.”

“What’s so bad about sleeping in my semen,” he flipped over and looked at me with a smirk.

I pursed my lips and pointed at the door, “Shower.”

Notes

So Cassie is now getting a lot of attention at school?
What the hell is up with that? Do you think she'll handle it?

This chapter was pretty boring, I know I know.
But I need some fillers here and there, lol.

I know it's been forever since I updated.
I'm going to keep trying to update soon.

Give me your opinion!
xoxoxxo

Cassie's Outfit
http://www.polyvore.com/22/set?id=109900191