SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO

Clutching her books to her chest, thirteen-year-old Cassandra Hayes walked down the hall quickly. She could feel eyes staring at her and it sounded like their laughter was because of her.

Cassandra did her best to avoid eye contact with anyone, so she walked to her locker with her head faced down, wondering why everyone was staring at her. Maybe she was being paranoid as usual; after all, it was her second week at Norville High School, and nobody really noticed or knew her, so how could they be laughing at her?

She was self-conscious and withdrawn from others because she was fat and a bit too much of a nerd. The only friend she had was Emily, and she was still having a hard time believing a pretty, slim girl like her was her friend.

"Look who it is!" 

Cassie turned her head sharply to see the school's popular playboy, Travis Wane [also known as Mr dick for brains.] 

"Cassandra Hayes," he drawled out looking at me slowly from head to toe. "Wanna come to my party tonight so we can have a nice time?" The kids in the corner giggled.

"No thank you!" Cassandra said quickly before she turned away and kept walking. She didn't want to know why Travis was suddenly inviting her to one of his parties, it couldn't be a good reason.

Reaching her locker, she sighed and rested her head on the locker as she tried to unlock it. She was starting to get a bad feeling. 

"Hey, Cassie!"

Cassandra jerked back, her heart racing. She calmed down when she saw it was just Emily.

"Are you okay Cass? You don't look good." 

"I'm fine; I was just startled" Cassandra forced a smile and then opened her locker.

Emily watched her carefully. From her body language, she could tell Cassie was tense and worried about something. If only she could trust her and open up, things would be better. She knew Cassie still had doubts about their friendship but she was going to prove to her that she'd always be her friend.

Emily decided to probe further, "It seems like something is bothering you, Cass. Are you really okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine, Em." Cassie said softly, "Nothing ha--" She stopped halfway as a pink, lavender-scented paper fell from the middle of her Algebra textbook.

Emily picked it up and handed it to her with a questioning look and Cassie replied, "I don't know what that is."

"Well, it looks like a love letter, so read it already", Emily squealed excitedly.

Cassie choked on her saliva as she read the note. It wasn't a love letter, it was a letter from the hospital. Dumbfounded, she looked at Emily and shook her head to stop herself from crying.

"Is the letter so sweet you're speechless and on the brink of tears? That's so cute! Who is it from?" Emily smiled as Cassie passed the letter to her.

Then she cleared her throat and began to read it in a teasing voice, "Dear Miss Cassandra Hayes, this letter is being sent to you because you need to come to the hospital as soon as possible--", Emily stopped reading and looked at her equally shocked friend, "- because your partner has confirmed he has syphilis and seeing as you're the only person he's slept with, he got it from you?!.....what the fuck is this Cass?" Emily looked at her friend in disbelief.

"It's not what you think Em. I haven't even held hands with or kissed a guy so--"

"You get syphilis by doing the boombayah, not holding hands!"

"I know that but this isn't...I mean...I haven't had sex." Cassandra felt nauseous.

"The hospital sent this letter to you though, why?." Emily studied the letter again. "But wait a minute, what kind of hospital uses pink, lavender-scented notes to write to a patient? And there's no official stamp or signature, hell! There isn't even a hospital name on this shit! This has to be a dumb prank by someone."

"A prank? I haven't done anything to be on bad terms with anyone so who would try to prank me?"

"I don't know who but we need to find out." 

"Emily No! Please. We shouldn't make a huge deal about this by trying to find out who did it. I don't want to get attention from anyone. Please just let it go."

"How can you just let it slide?" Emily asked in frustration, "Okay then if that's what you want, I'll be quiet about it for now. Let's go to class."

Inside their Algebra classroom, Cassandra and Emily sat at the back, waiting for their teacher, who was called to the principal's office earlier.

Emily whispered to Cassie, "I'm pretty sure it was Mia over there, you know she keeps giving you dirty looks whenever a teacher praises you. Or maybe it's Dan weasel, that guy you rejected."

Cassie rolled her eyes before responding quietly. "Mia wouldn't do something like that, neither would Dan. Just because I rejected him, it doesn't mean he'd do something as mean as that to me."

"Yeah right. Imagine you were in his shoes, and the fat nerdy girl rejected a hottie like him. Wouldn't you want some sort of revenge?"

Cassandra winced at her words but decided to ignore them; it wasn't the first time Emily reminded her she was a fattie. 

"Hey, Cassie!" Emily and Cassandra looked up to see Nicholas West. The hottest, tallest, most athletic boy in class, who's also a billionaire heir, was standing over her.

"Uh..hi", she replied shyly. Cassie was shocked and scared at the same time. Nicholas West was popular, and he'd never even looked at her before, but here he was, standing there talking to her, of all people. Like most of the girls in their grade, she had a huge crush on Nicholas but she did her best to keep it hidden. It was like a dream come true to have him talk to her but she couldn't help but be wary of him.

"Can I tell you something really important Cass?" He said softly and she liked the way he called her name.

"Uh..yes..yes.. sorry…What do you have to tell me?"

"You shouldn't be ashamed that you have syphilis at 13. Just try to be careful when you're fucking around. Here, have this." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a condom, waving it in her face. The next minute, the whole class started laughing.

Looking up, she noticed the pink note she'd found in her locker was being passed around but that shouldn't be possible because she was with it.

Nicholas joined the class to laugh at her, making her feel more humiliated. Emily stood in her seat and started yelling. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? Stop it! This isn't funny." 

Cassandra couldn't take it anymore so she screamed so loud and burst into tears. The class fell silent.

"Whatever you read isn't true!" She sniffed. "If youguys had half a brain, you'd know that letter is fake but you all just want to be mean to me for no reason. Why me?" 

She gathered her books and left the classroom in tears.