August 27th, Monday - Casey Silpetti
Today is a good day.
Funny, most people don’t always associate the first day of school as a good day. But for Casey Silpetti, it certainly is. For one, she doesn’t mind school. She’s always been good at it, finding that the lessons come easy to her.
Sure, sometimes the school itself wasn’t the best. But even that’s been taken care of. Two years ago she managed to somehow score a scholarship to one of the premier prep schools on the East Coast. The chances of that little achievement has made her college options open up, as long as she graduates from Blake Holsey with good grades and no more disciplinary events. No one with a Mors Foundation Scholarship has ever dropped through the cracks, that’s for sure!
Not only that, but while Blake Holsey High isn’t a true boarding school, it has students from all across the country. That means dorms, and usually there’s enough empty spots that she can find a place to squat for the semester. Having a roof over her head is a big weight off of her back. Her foster family doesn’t care, for they still get the assistance checks from the state for her scholarship, it just means they can’t report that she is missing. But for them not to have to worry about her and to be able to keep the money coming in because of her, well that works out just fine for them. And now that the school grounds are open, she can try and find a place to hole up for the semester. Hopefully some of the seniors’ dorms are open. There aren’t too many of them, but they’re almost like apartments instead of dorms.
She thinks to herself that she does need to get a little money together, some of her uniforms (of which there are only a few) are getting a little threadbare. It was tough to scrounge up enough to get them in the first place, and she had gotten quite good at repairing them. Maybe if she could get access to a real sewing machine, she could do a better job and save them.
Casey looks over her schedule on the way in. This year is important, if she can nail her grades this year then she can get out of here and not look back. Thankfully, the drop they had last year didn’t affect her GPA too much, but they can’t drop any more. The schedule doesn’t look too bad. Mr. Norman is movie nut, and she had heard that his Literature in Film class is pretty amusing. It’s certainly hard enough to get an open spot in it. Mr. Zachary, or Prof. Z as everyone seems to call him, is one of the smartest people she’s ever met. At least where science is involved. The Science Club has won some major awards under his teaching. He should make the Advanced Chemistry class she has easily understandable. Ms. Beaupre; on the other hand, is a hard-ass. She’s only missed one day of school in the 8 years she’s worked here, and that was due to breaking her wrist. She’s fair, but expects perfect discipline. Trig with her is going to be tough. Mr. Rapsas is dry as the Gobi Desert, but his quirky sense of humor should be interesting to see during American History. Mr. Boyd is an Art teacher, not really a Photography teacher. But it’s not like she has much more to learn about that art, anyway. Sometimes it seems as though she were born with a camera in her hands. It’s even managed to put money in her pockets!
“Wow, I’ve really been on my own for a whole year,” Casey thinks to herself as she walks into the auditorium for the annual “kick off” assembly. It’s supposed to get everybody energized for the year. For the 3rd year in a row she sits in the back row of the balcony, watching everyone reunite with their friends. Her first year she sat in the main auditorium. Everyone was nice and seemed to want to know more about her, until they found out she was a “scholarship kid.” Then they ignored her. Oh well, she’s used to it now.
She pulls out her camera and snaps a few wide shots. Maybe the new Yearbook teacher will want them, or Mr. Norman will need them for the school paper.
The same old cast of characters is here. May Weathers, the pretty, popular cheerleader who couldn’t be more of a cliché if she tried. She’s a world-class gold digger, and the biggest prima-donna who ever snobbed her way into these halls. Her assorted hangers on, all trying to find popularity because of their friendship with her. The jocks, led by Aidan Dennison. He’s pretty much the Big Man on Campus, although in his case he’s actually cast against type. He’s pretty friendly once she got to know him, and definitely not “class conscious.” Probably why he and May broke up last year, the way she treats other people seemed to get under his skin. He was her lab partner for Chem last semester. The two of them made a pretty good team and she wonders if he’s taking Advanced Chem this semester. The rest of the soccer team is a mix. Some are your typical jocks, but others seem to be ok people.
The Science Club is a tight-knit group. Corrine Baxter is the student leader, she’s pretty friendly and she’s the smartest of the group. Lucas Randall is a conspiracy theory nut, and she wonders if that’s why the club has been acting weird lately, too bad he’s kinda clueless. Marshal Wheeler is a rather social guy, even playing in a band. He and Lucas are best friends. Vaughn Pearson is one of the soccer team members, and while not the brightest bulb in the bunch, he tries hard. Josie Trent joined them when she transferred here last year, she’s more than a little stubborn but is nice enough if you can get to know her. Casey was in the Science Club freshman year, but no matter how good at science she was, it still didn’t quite let her fit in.
Then there are the Carlin-Kane sisters, they’re almost what passes for royalty around here. The oldest, Bianca, is a senior along with Casey. Her younger sister Veronica is a sophomore. Their mother is a Senator, and it’s rumored that she might try for President. She’s also known to be one of the worst mothers around, unless she’s trying to gain points in an election. Maybe that’s why Bianca, along with Aidan, is one of the few people who ever talks to her – she senses she has similar family problems…or lack of parent problems. Veronica even seems to warm up to Casey, knowing that her sister likes her. Bianca is pretty down to earth and friendly, and does everything she can to watch out for her sister. Veronica is special; the girl is probably one of the brightest people Casey has ever heard of. She seems to be able to grasp ideas and concepts just by seeing them. She’s actually in a few of Casey’s advanced classes! “She’s not gifted, she’s a gift,” is how Bianca puts it. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Veronica is very shy. She’s one of the sweetest people at the school, but she doesn’t have much in the way of friends. It’s also her shyness that’s kept her out of the Science Club, although they’ve been trying to get her to join them.
Speaking of royalty, there is also Chance Mors. Son of David Mors, billionaire extreme. It’s due to his father’s foundation that Casey has the scholarship to go here. Chance is quietly arrogant, but has the brilliance to also back it up. No one in their right mind would deny Chance anything he asks.
In her Advanced Chem class, she’s also introduced to a new student who just moved here: Cadence Connor. She’s a quiet girl, who has a look Casey knows all too well, that of a fish out of water. Casey doubts she’s ever been to a school quite like this before, but it seems that her mom has started teaching Drama here, and that’s how she got in. She sits in her seat and tries not to call any attention to herself.
And lucky her, Aidan is in her Advanced Chem class, and so is Veronica. Tomorrow Prof. Z is assigning lab partners. She secretly hopes one of them will be her partner. As for her Photography class, it looks like Mr. Boyd got some new equipment for color printing. At least it’s something new. She was a little worried about not having anything new to do in that class. Plus, Mr. Boyd gave her a set of keys for the dark room, so she has a place to crash if she can’t find anything else. And since she has a free period right after her photography class, she can either leave for the day or finish up a project.
The rest of the day is standard first day: announcements, club invitations, staking out a good locker and trying to figure out how she’s going to manage the metric ton of books and papers she’ll need over the semester. She notices another new face around campus; the groundskeeper is a new guy she’s never seen before. He must have started sometime over the summer.
She hangs out at the library for a while after classes, using their computers to hit the net and surf. When it finally gets a little dark, she heads out and makes her way to the seniors’ dorms. Behind them is a smaller building that generally never gets used, except for temporary housing for visiting staff. It was a seniors’ dorm, but they made two apartments out of it instead. It’s pretty nice, and she managed to live there all of last year without getting caught.
Unfortunately, as Casey walks up, she sees lights on in half the building. There’s an old Mustang convertible pulled up in the parking spot, she can see a school ID sticker on the front windshield. Her eyes are drawn to the bench on the outside patio, and she sees Cadence sitting there in the dim light. Seems she just got back from running or something the way she’s dressed. The earbuds from her iPod kept her from hearing Casey walk up, and she doesn’t seem to have noticed her yet.
The other half of the building still looks empty. Casey decides to risk it and, staying in the shadows, quietly heads over to the empty half of the building. The apartment is a good place to crash, and hopefully she won’t get caught staying there. She manages to jimmy open the door and get inside before she hears a noise on the porch. She freezes and hopes whoever it is goes away, or at least doesn’t rat on her if they saw her breaking in.
After a few seconds that seem to stretch out into long minutes, the noise outside passes. Casey will have to be a little careful with the lights she turns on, but at least for now she has a place to stay.
This place is nice. Downstairs is a common room with a desk and table and some chairs, with a front door and a side patio door. There is also a small kitchen area with a small, stacked washer and dryer, a stove, fridge, microwave and small prep area. Upstairs is two bedrooms that share a bath and balcony. Each room has a small flatscreen TV on the wall, which makes up for the fact that there is none downstairs. All in all a cozy little pad.
