"Is this really okay?" Emily asked apprehensively, eyeing the door in front of her. Meghan, standing next to her just grinned slyly.
"Yeah, of course. I did warn her to get up after all, if she loses some face that's on her", Meghan stated proudly before inconsiderately barging in.
Walking in, Emily found the room to be rather neat, especially considering how Meghan had enthusiastically bad mouthed the poor state of the room the whole way here. It was not cluttered, yet she found it had an air of suffocation, likely owing to the poor circulation.
The large desk however, seemed as though it had been burdened with the room's entire contents, piles of papers stacked high and subtly slanting towards the figure asleep in their midst.
The girl was neatly dressed in a cream coloured silk blouse and jeans, her braided hair curling around her shoulder. She slept with one hand supporting her temple, the other limply holding a pen, a fat blob of ink already formed on the paper.
Sighing, Meghan walked over and gently took the pen out of her hand before briefly glancing at the documents below it. She tugged them out from under her elbow and stepped to the side, studying them more carefully. Emily however, gaining more confidence, gradually approaching the sleeping figure. She noticed she had quite pretty features, a high bridged nose, slightly tinged pink from the cold, slim, soft lips and fairly long eyelashes. Just as she was wondering what colour her eyes would be, the girl's eyes lazily opened.
Startled, realising she might've gone a little too close, Emily darted backwards, tripping over something on the floor in the process. The girl sat up, rubbing tiredly at her eyes before she jolted, finally noticing Meghan's piercing gaze from the opposite side of the room.
Meghan raised an eyebrow at her, before mocking "Who was it that said they'd get up on time?". Startled the girl looked at her watch before facepalming and jumping out of the chair. She then noticed Emily who sat wide-eyed looking up at her.
She spoke, her voice still slightly hoarse "Who's this? Is she the..." she then paused embarrassed and scratched her head and laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha, sorry you had to meet me like this" she said before extending out a hand to help her up. "My name's Cassandra I'm the uh-" lost for words she looked expectantly at Meghan for help, only to receive another eyebrow.
Emily however remained transfixed by her hazel eyes and only nodded dumbly in return before standing up and dusting her clothes off. After a moment's pause she then abruptly turned towards Meghan before exclaiming "Why did you lead me here! To meet the actual leader! In this state!" She gestured to her own unkempt appearance. "Not to mention my manners I'm..." Emily was at a loss for words, embarrassed by her own poor conduct.
Meghan however looked stunned, it seemed she never expected the calm, hesitant girl she led here to become all flustered on the spot, even trying to shift the blame onto her. Cassandra however merely chuckled, "Sorry for the trouble, I got up properly, I really did! But then I was doing paperwork and I must've..." she left the sentence unfinished and laughed dryly again.
After the moments shock, Meghan recovered and deliberately waved the stack of papers slowly in front of Cassandra's face, "I'll be taking these" she said and walked out. Cassandra gave her a firm nod before turning her attention back to Emily. "So uh", she said after a moment's pause, "how are you finding it so far?"
"Its, well, bigger than I expected" she replied after a moment's consideration. "But the buildings are not as old as they said they would be. They look quite modern".
Cassandra just nodded, "yeah they did some work just before the previous intake I heard, renovation and that, you know". She lowered her voice slightly, "But there was a rumour going around that the previous generation had caused some trouble, so they had to tweak a few things here and there you know". Seeing Emily's widened eyes, she laughed. "It's a rumour, a rumour okay. Don't take things so seriously, you're as bad as Meghan".
Emily was fortunate enough to have done her research on the institute beforehand and knew of the "previous generation" Cassandra had referred to. She had read that their "leader" was domineering and strict, and she had the impression they were like a teenage dictator. So, when she heard that Cassandra in front of her was the leader she was immediately struck with fear and was mentally begging to not get on her bad side. Yet, the youth in front of her seemed laid back and had a certain air of childishness that Emily admired. This however, only made her more curious as to what crime she had committed to end up here.
Emily laughed lightly after hearing Cassandra's remark, then she dared to ask curiously, "You seem close with Meghan, is she your right hand man or something?". Cassandra replied cheerfully "Yep, something like that, Meghan takes care of my stuff better than I do. You remember that paper right? She's gonna go help me edit it before we send it to the big guys".
"Big guys?"
"Its nothing much, you know, just a monthly report. It was a pain in the ass this time around because a certain someone decided to stir up trouble with me again. Speaking of which she didn't harass you on the way here right?"
Emily sighed lightly, "She tried, but Meghan intervened pretty quickly".
Cassandra sighed, clearly relieved, "that's good, you're the first one we've had come in after the initial intake." Cassandra sat on the edge of the table and folded her arms. "I'm sure Meghan's informed you about our privacy policy right? Isabelle and them are so intent on finding out everyone's you know..." she coughed lightly "reason."
Emily pondered this for a moment before asking, "you're not curious? As to what crime I committed to end up here?"
Cassandra nodded, "Yep, if you don't tell I wont ask. People came here for all different sorts of things you know, some came here voluntarily some well .... involuntarily I guess. This centre is for reform not to guilt trip or hold prejudice against someone because of their past. You know?"
Emily nodded enthusiastically, agreeing wholeheartedly, "You have a way with words" she said admirably. Cassandra only chucked before asking, "and you? You're not curious about my crime?" she posed.
Emily only shook her head. "As curious as I am, I won't ask." She looked Cassandra straight in the eyes, "Someone as likeable as you, I can't fathom it could have been something that bad".
Cassandra hesitated, before avoiding her eye contact and saying, "I wouldn't be too sure about that". After a moment's awkwardness, she brightened up exclaiming "Tour time, let's go. I'll show you everywhere even if you've already seen it because Meghan is certainly lacking in the enthusiasm department".
And saying that, she grabbed a still flustered Emily's hand and dragged her out of the room.
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Cassandra dedicated herself wholeheartedly to the role of "tour guide" , showing Emily all the buildings, adding a few complementary anecdotes on the way to which Emily laughed uncontrollably. She felt her admiration for Cassandra only grow as the two walked around.
The centre ended up being bigger than Emily had originally imagined and so, finally, after 2 hours of touring they circled back to the dining hall. Being early afternoon, the dining hall was deserted, save a few cooks working devotedly behind the scenes. The two walked over to the water cooler and grabbed some refreshments before taking a seat at one of the long tables.
Cassandra prompted "Pretty nice hey?"
"Its way nicer than I thought. There's no one patrolling or anything?"
Cassandra raised her eyebrows, "of course not, we do the patrolling ourselves, its called an independent facility for a reason".
The Centre for Independent Problematic Youths or CIPY was an unconventional establishment indeed, Emily mused. It was the first of its kind, designed to have those inside regulate both themselves and others in an attempt to "correct" their behaviour. Due to its unregulated nature, unsurprisingly, there were many regulations regarding the entry of these individuals yet, once the "generational intake" had been decided they are able to be independent of outside authorities for the dedicated 5 year internment. Of course, failures would be inevitable, and Emily couldn't help but wonder whether that was what had occurred in the previous generation.
Seeing Emily ponder, Cassandra asked "What's on your mind? I thought you did some research it shouldn't be that surprising, as long as you can read, the meaning behind the name is pretty self-explanatory I would have thought..."
Emily just shook her head, "It's nothing. By the way, you have a limp on your left leg right?"
Cassandra, caught off guard, almost spat out her water and coughed a few times before replying "Yeah. It's an old injury though, rarely hurts anymore it's just an inconvenience".
"That's good" Emily replied, before continuing to drink her water.
Cassandra propped her head on her hand again, watching her intently.
Emily felt her ears go red from the staring and averted her eyes, placing her glass down she asked, "What is it?"
Cassandra sat up, "You aren't curious as to how I injured it?"
Emily shook her head, "If you don't tell me I won't ask. Is what you said right? Same goes for injuries or anything of that sort." Calmly she picked up her glass of water and started to drink again.
Cassandra pondered for a moment before replying "Then I won't ask about your broken knuckle on your left hand, and we'll call it even ok?".
Hearing this it was Emily's turn to get caught off guard, instead she actually choked on her water, causing her to go into a coughing fit. Cassandra stood up and went around to pat her back. "There, there, my bad my bad".
Emily glanced down at her left hand and said after a moment's pause, "This is also an old injury. It doesn't hurt it just looks ugly". Cassandra stared at her hand before replying, "it doesn't look that bad, I didn't notice it because it was ugly. You just have a strange way of using it that's all. You held things like this." She made an awkward crab claw with her hand.
Emily refuted "I do not!".
"Yeah?" Cassandra teased waving her imitation crab claws around. However, before she could continue much further they heard an impatient cough come from the doorway. Both turned around to see a woman standing in the doorway.