Page 65 of Kane

SYDNEY: Awesome! Can’t wait to see you. The Three Littles together. Fun will be just around the corner! S XoXo

Cassie smiled. It was always good to talk with her best Little friends. Both Katie and Sydney were always good at knowing just what to say.

Right then, the thing that Cassie needed most was to take her mind off the drama in her life.

Kane.

Lyle.

One was far worse than the other, of course. But neither situation was ideal in this moment in time.

Cassie was upset that Kane had reacted so angrily. It was scary. What Cassie had needed was understanding, not a bad temper.

That was the thing, Cassie knew she was sensitive.

It was a throwback to her upbringing and those useless and often super-grumpy stepdads. As the traffic worsened and slowly ground to a halt, Cassie cast her mind back in time.

It was a memory she didn’t want to think about, but it just wouldn’t leave her mind.

Cassie had been in her late teens.

Her drawing and creative writing had improved massively. Cassie had been encouraged by one of her art teachers to seriously consider giving art college a shot. It would be expensive, but the teacher told Cassie that for talented individuals like her from less well-off backgrounds, there were things such as scholarships or bursaries that could cover some of the cost.

Occasionally, there could even be full scholarships which would mean access for nothing.

This was the kind of thing that Cassie had seen in movies and on TV, and here was a teacher saying that she should go for it.

As a result of these words of encouragement, Cassie doubled down her efforts. She began to get even more creative.

Putting hours and hours in after school to re-work her illustrations and think of funny one-liners and interesting plot twists. It all seemed to be coming together.

Her mom even told Cassie that if she could get a fifty percent scholarship or higher, she would work out a way of covering the remaining costs.

In that moment, everything appeared to be coming up Cassie.

Enter Derreck.

Derreck was her mom’s fiancé at that time. He was a total jerk. Selfish, loud, and often would take out his frustrations on Cassie or her mom. It was never anything violent or physical. But Derreck could be mean. Critical. He wouldn’t care who he hurt with one of his comments as long as it made him feel less bad about whatever had annoyed him that day at the power plant.

Itsucked.

Cassie ended up trying to avoid Derreck as much as possible.

But one day, with Derreck in an even worse mood than usual, Cassie accidentally forgot to do one of her chores. Derreck began insulting her, making personal comments about her slim build and the fact she wasn’t in the super-cool gang at school who had tons of friends and hung out with the jocks on the football team.

Cassie had begun to tear up, trying as hard as she could to not cry.

This only motivated Derreck to take things further.

As a final verbal grenade, Derreck began to insult and mock Cassie’s scholarship submission.

Cassie’s scripts and drawings were laid out over the kitchen table and in a rage, Derreck crumpled them all up and tossed them in the trash – ‘where they belong!’

Cassie was heartbroken.

Derreck didn’t last much longer, Cassie’s mom finally wising up to him.

But as far as the scholarship went, it was too late.