September 19th, Wednesday - Casey Silpetti
The next morning, Aiden fixes Casey breakfast in bed again. They quietly get ready for school, and sneak out without his parents seeing them. They ride together in a familiar and intimate quiet on the way to school, each comfortable just being in the other’s presence.
Once there, Aiden reminds Casey that he’ll be running later than even last night probably for practice, but he’ll try to get out early. They make it to their homerooms right as the bell rings.
During homeroom, the announcement is made that all Seniors are not required to wear uniforms anymore on Fridays. If there are no problems, they might extend it to the rest of the week for those Seniors who are keeping a certain GPA. Casey sighs quietly to herself. Her small collection of clothes might be bigger than it was when the semester started, but it’s still not enough to get by without uniforms.
In second period, they’re split up with their lab partners to do work, keeping Casey from talking to Aiden. Veronica spends the period asking Casey’s advice about what she should do with Tom, who talked with her until late last night on Friend Agenda. “I’m not sure what I should do, I’ve never been on a date before, and I don’t even know if my mom will let me go on one. You think maybe I should invite him to the carnival Saturday? I’ll be with everyone, so I won’t need to tell her, cause I’ll be safe. You are going, right? You just gotta!”
“Wasn’t the dance a date Roni? Your parents let you go with him to that, I’m sure they’ll let you go to the carnival with him too. You could work your way down to a one-on-one date…you know, like do a couple double dates too - I’m sure B…”
“You’d go on a double date with me and Tom?!?” Veronica leans over and gives Casey a hug tighter than she would’ve thought possible. “We’ll have to figure out when. And you can come over and we can get ready together…” she continues as Casey tunes her rambling out, wondering what Aiden will say about her inadvertent volunteering for a double date.
Next period, Casey comes to a halt as soon as she walks through the door, causing someone behind her to run into her. “Sorry,” she mutters as she makes her way to her seat, the entire time staring at the guy sitting at Ms. Beaupre’s desk.
‘A sub? But Ms. Beaupre’s never absent!’ she thinks to herself, and with good reason. Even the day she broke her wrist, she still managed to come in after the doctor set it. She makes it a point at the beginning of each year to remind students that she’s never missed a day, so she’ll take no pity on anyone in her class who doesn’t make it, and on time at that – as she locks the door as soon as the bell rings.
The bell rings, and the sub looks up from his notebook and clears his throat. He’s only a few years older than the kids in class, probably a college student from the look of him. He stands. “Ok class, sorry to tell you but Ms. Beaupre won’t be in today.” He pauses, letting the class’s reaction die down before continuing. “I know, I know. I was rather surprised when I found out, I waited four years in those chairs waiting for this day, and it had to come after I got out of here.”
He grins and the class laughs with him. “Ok, I’m Christian Rice, and I’ll be your sub for today. I looked over Ms. Beaupre’s notes, and I think I’ve got what ya’ll are currently working on. However, math has never been one of my favorite subjects, so I’m going to let ya’ll pair off and work on some example problems together, that way I don’t have to sit up here and try not to nod off myself.”
Casey and the class are completely blown away by his statement. The class is used to laboring under a virtual gag order; any hint of anything resembling communication by someone who hasn’t been called upon by Ms. Beaupre is tantamount to begging for punishment.
Harmony steals someone’s desk next to Casey’s, and pushes them together. “Can you believe this?”
Casey just shakes her head no. She’d almost forgotten Harmony was even in this class with her. For the past two years they’ve shared class with Ms. Beaupre, but between assigned seating and the inability to look anywhere but down at her desk and up at the board, it’s not like they had an experience in class to share. One time a bird flew into the window, causing everyone to look out the window in sympathy, commenting on whether anyone should do something.
Ms. Beaupre kept everyone late, causing them all to get in trouble with their next class. She also took 10 points off everyone’s next quiz. She had well earned the animosity that the students had for her.
Casey turns to Harmony. “I wonder what happened to her? I figured even if she was run over by a bus, she’d get them to just scrape her up and wheel her in here.”
“I don’t know. But look who’s subbing!” When Casey just shrugs at her, she sighs. “I forgot, you didn’t go here until last year. Chris graduated the year before. I had such a crush on him; we actually kissed at Sarah Harmin’s party after the Spring Fling dance. He was on the soccer team, but he actually got a science scholarship to AU!”
She stops talking as he walks closer, going from table to table handing out problem papers. He stops next to them. “Here you go ladies…now wait a minute.” Harmony smiles up at him, faintly blushing. “My word, Harmony Roberts? Haven’t you gone and gotten all grown up?”
She play hits his arm. “Please, it was only a few years ago since you saw me, not that long.” She giggles, and Casey tries to keep from smiling.
“Well, it’s certainly nice seeing you again. We’ll have to catch up, later.”
He walks off as Harmony giggles again, and then seeing Casey’s face finally turns even redder. “What? He’s a total hotty!”
“Harm, if he only graduated 2 years ago, how can he be a sub? You don’t get through college that fast.”
“Oh, you don’t need to have graduated to be a temp sub. We’ve had plenty that are just college students before; I think there’s some kinda program for them at AU that they can sign up for. Or something. Anyway, hellooooo… he wants to ‘catch up’ later!” She smiles at Casey, who just shakes her head and smiles back.
The bell rings, and everyone starts to grab their things and stand. “Ok, I don’t know if Ms. Beaupre will be back tomorrow, but go over those pages I told you about, and get ready for a quiz in case she does show back up.”
Everyone files past, dropping off their papers on his desk. Harm nudges Casey. “I’ll meet you out at lunch later, I’m gonna ‘catch up’ with him.” She smiles and moves to the back of the line, upsetting a few of the other girls who had similar ideas.
Casey makes her way outside and through the lunch room, before heading over to their usual table. Veronica and Cadence are already there, and Aiden jogs up as she goes to sit, taking a seat on the bench and pulling her into his lap.
Veronica puts down the chocolate-chocolate chip cookie she was eating, and turns to them. “So we’re all going to the Kick-Off Carnival Saturday, ya’ll are gonna come to, right?”
Aiden steals a fry off Casey’s tray. “Me and a whole bunch of hot girls, hell yeah I’ll be there!”
Casey slaps his hand playfully, and then remembers something. “Oh, Harm wanted me to warn you that May put Caitlyn in charge of the kissing booth, so they’d probably try to get you to work it.”
Veronica giggles. “Ooo, I guess I should save my allowance then?”
Aiden chokes on his fry, and Casey punches his arm when he waggles his eyebrows at Roni. He pulls her close and whispers in her ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll still be all yours, for free.” He pulls her into a kiss, and she vaguely hears Cadence and Veronica clapping and hooting in the background.
They break apart for air, and she can feel her skin burning red as she turns and sees the looks on her two friends faces. Just then someone clears their throat to her side, and they all turn. A guy is standing there, looking a little nervous. Casey recognizes him, but only just. He’s a junior, she knows, but not much more about him. Actually, he might be in some of her classes…
“Hey, er, Casey?” He looks over at Aiden, back at her, then back at Aiden. “Oh, hey, ah, I’m Kale. Kale Stevens?” He sticks out his hand, almost hitting Casey, which causes him to jump back. “Sorry!”
Aiden takes his hand and shakes it, and Casey does a moment later, telling him “It’s ok. What can I do for you?”
“Oh, ahh… Mr. Norman said you might be able to help me out? I’m doing an article for the school paper, and he said you might be willing to come along and take pictures? It’s tonight, the mayor is having a conference, and the article is on him. So I mean, if you’re not busy or anything and wanted the photographer’s byline, I mean, like it would totally be yours. We could go straight after school, and I’d get you home early. I mean, if you think you might want to do it, or anything.”
Veronica makes a face when Kale mentions the mayor. Cadence is just steadily staring at him, her eyes silently judging him and causing him now to nervously look between her and Aiden.
Casey turns to Aiden, who shrugs. “Sounds good to me honey, I know you could do getting your name on a few more things. I’ll be practicing late, but we can meet up after. But I better bounce now; I need to go check on this kissing booth thing before I head to practice.”
He pulls her into a steamy kiss, and when they break he leans forward to whisper in her ear, “Just be careful if you go. Txt me.”
He stands and gives Kale – who’s studiously ignoring them both – a look, then heads off.
She turns to Kale. “Let me get your number, and I’ll let you know.”
“My number, sure… ok, ahh… here we…” He fumbles with his phone, and it shoots out of his grasp, hits the table, and bounces. Cadence catches it before it flies past her, and hands it over to him. “Whoa, err… sorry about that. Thanks…”
He txts over his number to Casey, who saves it. “Yeah, uh, just let me know if you want to go. It’ll be great. I mean the conference.” He smiles sickly for a long moment, then nods and turns and walks away quickly.
Cadence, who has been watching the whole scene silently, reaches out and takes the half of Roni’s cookie that’s left. Nodding sagely as she munches it down, she mutters, “Damn, that boy’s got it bad.”
“Got what bad?” Roni asks.
“V – he’s totally crushing on Casey. He’s nervous, wouldn’t look her in the eye, but couldn’t stop looking at her. Case, you’d make his week if you went to this thing with him.”
Casey blushes as Roni giggles, and then turns serious. “Bleh, I could go a while without seeing the mayor again. I mean, I know he did a lot to try and help find me, but he’s so…. creepy! I mean, he keeps coming over and asking to sit and talk with me, and all.” She squinches up her face and sticks her tongue out.
“That seems weird, Roni. What does he want to talk about?”
“Ugh, everything. What I like, my hobbies, what I’m doing in school. I keep expecting him to ask mom and dad for their blessing to take me out or something. Ick!”
Cadence shoots Casey a look that speaks volumes.
“Well, then I think we should just all keep you so busy you’re only home to eat, sleep and do homework. Then you don’t have time to talk to him, right?”
Harmony picks that moment to flounce down in an empty seat next to Casey. “Whoo! Go me, go me!” She cuts a little dance in her seat. “I’m gonna have coffee with Chris tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, who’s still got it?” Casey laughs, and Cadence and Veronica both look confused.
“Chris…Ward? Binks’s date from the dance?” Roni asks.
“No, mini-Kane. Christian Rice, the sub for Ms. Beaupre.” At their still confused looks she continues. “He used to go here. I had the biggest crush on him. So did I miss anything?”
Veronica jumps in, telling Harmony about what happened with Kale. Finally Casey interrupts, “So, do any of you know anything about him? I mean, I kinda recognized him enough to know he goes here and he’s a junior, but that’s it.”
Veronica gets a solemn look, and leans forward. “It was so sad. His family was in a car wreck a few years ago. His mom was killed, and his dad hurt real bad. I think he kinda supports his dad now, he can’t work or anything. We went to his mom’s wake. I know he has a few jobs, because he’s paying to come here and help keep his house and all.”
Her empathy gets the best of her and she falls quiet, her eyes shining bright as she blinks to clear them. Cadence rests her hand on top of Veronica’s, squeezing it.
She smiles blearily, and then continues in a slightly stronger tone. “He’s real good with computers, and seems to write pretty well. I know he’s written several articles for the paper that Mr. Norman actually sent in to the Arkham Chronicles or other places to be published.”
“That sounds like a good gig for you Case.” And with one of her typical lightning-quick changes of subject, Harmony’s off. “So, since Casey will be working after school, and I need a new outfit for tomorrow morning, who wants to go shopping with me?” She looks from Veronica to Cadence, and when neither one replies continues, “Come on…Connor, mini-Kane…I need someone to rate the outfits I try on. I’m gonna need something hot, but not too sexy, since he is a teacher now, say you’ll come with…”
Casey jumps in. “Uh, Harm. I haven’t decided yet if I’m doing this shoot, but about your outfit for tomorrow…aren’t you going straight from coffee to school?”
“Yeah. Your point?”
“Well, won’t you be wearing your uniform?”
Harmony looks horrified at the thought, “Not on a date! I mean, I know it’s only coffee, but it’s still a date. I’ll change in the bathroom when I get here.”
The other three girls laugh and Cadence softly says, “I’ll go with if you want.” Veronica chimes in at the same time, laughing as she says, “I’ll go, Harmony.”
“Sweet! Meet me at my car after school, and we’ll all go change and then hit the mall.”
“Um, Harmony,” Veronica quietly says, “I’ll have to have secret service with. They won’t let me go alone.”
“Girl, you won’t be alone…but if they have to follow along, they’d better be able to keep up!” Harmony answers just as the bell rings and she bounces off toward her locker.
“I’d better go tell Fetch. I’ll see you later.” She gives each of them a quick hug and heads off to dump her tray and find the secret service.
Casey and Cadence follow suit, dumping their lunch trays and heading toward the lockers, Casey nervously biting her lip. “So, Cade, ummm, this thing with the Mayor tonight. After what happened with Shelly do you…ummm…do you think it’s safe for me to go?”
“Well, if it’s public you shouldn’t have any problems. And we’re still not sure what’s up with the whole Shelly thing anyway, we really need to look into that. I’ll see what I can find out, I guess. She might not be tied in with the Mayor at all, in which case you shouldn’t even be on his radar, I guess. It would be a good chance to recon him out, though.”
She stops, and Casey stops too. “Speaking of, how sure are you that you can trust this Faust guy about what he says? I mean, hearing what V said about the mayor certainly doesn’t put me in a trusting mood, and neither does the people he assigned to protect V… but are we really sure he’s a bad guy and all? What if Faust is playing you, and making you think that?”
She starts walking again. “I mean, I’m paranoid, but I have reasons to be. But you need to figure out if you can really trust that guy I guess. I mean, do you?
Casey follows. “I don’t really know him, but he knows my mom…” Casey trails off, realizing that’s not much of an argument for her to trust him. “There’s just something about him that makes me think he’s a straight shooter. He gave me back the money Bianca paid to find Roni, minus expenses and he didn’t have to. Plus, I owe him, so until my debt is paid he can’t let anything really bad happen to me. I suppose I trust Faust as much as I can trust anybody.” They get to Cadence’s locker and Casey keeps going, but swings back around, “Hey, is there anything I can do or something to keep from being…controlled or whatever like Shelly did?”
Cadence looks at her for a long minute, and then sets her purse inside her locker so she can open it and look through it. Casey gets a glance inside and sees the knife she gave back to her and another military style bandage – still sealed – mixing it up with her phone and other items. She pulls out a small plastic tube, like the kind you might keep vitamins or aspirin in, and shows it to Casey. She opens the top, and lets the contents slip out into her open palm.
Lying there is a flower, perfectly formed in glass. It’s a snowdrop, and it’s so exquisitely crafted that it appears as though it had just been picked from a field of crystal flowers, and had not been made at all.
“This is a charm, and a powerful one at that. Its power is protective, and while I don’t know if it would help versus a vampire’s charm, it might. It’s certainly better than nothing. Wear it in a buttonhole, and it will help keep you safe.”
She carefully slides it back into the tube, and stoppers it up. She hesitates a moment, then hands it over to Casey. “Please be careful with it, it… it means a lot to me.”
Casey shakes her head, “Cadence, you don’t need to, here, take it back. I’ll find some other-“
Cadence shakes her head no and turns away. “No, keep it for now. I’ll get it back from you, I trust you.”
“Thank you Cadence. Have fun shopping this afternoon. I think I am going to take this assignment.”
After her next class, Casey calls Owen Spiner. “Hi, it’s Casey Silpetti. Um, I’m doing a photo shoot this afternoon for the school paper and I’ll upload the photos tonight for Mr. Mors. Can you please relay to him that uh, it’d be nice if he could give me the go ahead on the ones he doesn’t want as soon as possible?”
“I certainly will, Ms. Silpetti. I’m sure he’ll be able to accommodate you on that, he tends to stay up late most nights.”
“Oh, and thanks for your help with the bank.” She gives him her account info for future payments and finishes the call as she gets to her next class. She quickly texts Kale to tell him she’s in for the conference and asks where she should meet him after school.
He texts back quickly: Car is in student lot. Meet at Student Center?
Sounds good. Cya there.
After Casey’s last class she heads out to see if Aiden is practicing yet. She sees him on the field doing drills with a few other members of the soccer team. She sits down and texts him that she’s going to the conference and will call him later, then starts on some homework until it’s time to go meet Kale.
The cheerleaders head out onto the field and start stretching, and it doesn’t take long for May to see Casey sitting there. She stalks a little closer over, Caitlyn and Shelby right behind her.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be getting to the park, before all the good benches are taken for the night? We don’t feel comfortable out here doing routines in front of you; we saw what you’re like in that video.” Her little group makes their clucking noise in approval of her venom.
“At least I know how to have fun…I’d hate to live life with a stick up my ass,” Casey says, just loud enough for the girls to hear, neglecting to mention that she still doesn’t actually remember anything that happened on the video.
“What did you say?” May steps closer to Casey, the other two girls stepping right up along with her.
“I know you heard me. Now why don’t you go back and work on your jumps and kicks and stuff…you need the practice.” Casey turns back to her homework, ignoring May. Next thing she knows, May is in her face, grabbing her wrist and pulling Casey to her feet. She can’t help but let out a little yelp of pain.
“You don’t want to mess with me,” May hisses. “I will make your life hell. What you’ve seen so far will seem like a daydream.”
Casey laughs and May twists her wrist harder. She turns serious, speaking in a low, tone. “My life will never be confused with a daydream, and short of actually killing me, I don’t think there’s anything you can do that’s worse than what I’ve been through. Now. Let. Go. Of. My. Wrist.” Casey can hear the cheerleading coach calling to the girls in the background, and knows May can hear it too. She roughly drops Casey’s wrist and glares at her before pasting on a fake smile and flouncing with the other two girls back down to the field while Casey rubs her sore wrist, noticing that it’s already starting to bruise, before turning back to her homework.
Casey meets up with Kale and they head out to his car. Between his stuttering and stammering, he manages to apologize for the state of his car. It’s a beat-up, old classic car. It’s obvious he’s been fixing it up, but it still has a lot of work left to be done. They make small talk for a little bit until Casey finally asks, “So, what’s this conference about anyway?”
“Oh, ahh… the mayor is petitioning for some new laws and taxes that he says will ‘benefit the public safety,’ if you believe that one. He’s just trying to put together his own personal army of jackbooted thugs, and to be allowed to get away with breaking civil liberties that he doesn’t like.”
“Did you know that there have already been like three incidents where he had no-knock warrants served, only for it to be found out that the warrants weren’t even real?” His stammering disappears as he starts getting worked up. “He keeps painting all the crime and all on the City Council not letting him pass laws that need to be passed, but it’s like he’s trying to throw the Constitution out of the window!”
“And have you seen some of the thugs he has hired on his retinue as ‘personal bodyguards and assistants?’” He even makes the quotes finger gesture. “None of them have any paperwork from any law department I can find, some of them don’t even show up in any public records!”
“’Cuz they’ve been dead for a couple hundred years,” Casey says under her breath.
“What?”
“Maybe he had all their records sealed…or something,” she tries to cover.
He looks over at Casey, and calms down. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to ramble, but the man is at the heart of so much wrong that has happened in this city. My dad was a cop. He still tells me how it used to be, when he grew up. It’s why he became a cop in the first place, to keep the city like that. Now… you see a cop and you wonder how corrupt he is, if he’ll try to shake you down.”
He’s quiet for a while, eventually pulling into one of the large parking lots at Grand Terminus. He runs around to try and get the door for her, but she already beat him to the punch, not expecting it. He covers by reaching into the back seat and grabbing his bag out. He looks inside, and pulls out a PRESS ID for Casey.
She starts to wave him off, but stops herself and takes it. Sure, she had already managed to acquire one, but with everything going on, who knows how helpful it might be to have two of them.
They walk through the cavernous parking garage, eventually making their way into the building itself. It’s a grand place, but then that’s why it’s world famous. Casey could wander for hours in here, taking in the sights and people. Families, business people, tourists… it seems as though every kind of person had at one time taken a train that passed through this station.
“Err, we’re still early, so I figured we could grab a bite to eat. I managed to pull in a favor and get a seat reserved at Chew Chew Mama’s, if you’re hungry?”
“Sure!”
Chew Chew Mama’s is another world famous icon. A popular eatery on one of the lower levels, the place is extremely hard to get a seat in. They get there, and as usual the place is crowded. There are almost no walls around the seating area, though the kitchen itself is walled in. The rest of the area is broken up by columns soaring up to the arched, curved ceiling above. The ceiling itself is something to be seen, the entire thing coated in small colored tiles in intricate patterns and images.
Conversations in almost every tongue from around the world fill the air, though through some magic of the acoustics it’s still possible to hold a conversation at the table and hear each other.
They get their burgers – and for once all the hype about a place is correct when it comes to how good they are – and make more small talk. Kale asks Casey about herself, what she wants to do after school, how’d she get into photography, etc.
“Um, you said your dad was a cop…what happened?” Casey asks, before rambling on, “I mean, if it’s too personal that’s fine, I was just…curious.”
He looks down at the table, then back up at her. “No, its fine. Just surprised you didn’t know it already. Three years ago my family was coming back from a fishing trip, and my mom got distracted, and we were in a car wreck. We flipped and spun a few times down the road. Another truck was coming and didn’t have time to stop, and hit us.
“My mom was killed, and my dad is mostly paralyzed. He gets some pension, and disability, and I work a few jobs to make up the rest.”
Kale looks at his watch. “It’s getting close to that time; we better go see if we can get in yet.” He pays for their dinner, shaking his head and not allowing Casey to pay for hers.
They head up to one of the upper levels, where a giant ballroom has been turned into a conference hall for tonight. The City Council is already there, sitting at a large table and facing towards the seating arranged for everyone else. The Press Pool is filling up quickly, and Kale and Casey mouth good luck to each other as they go their separate ways, each trying to find a good spot.
Casey manages to squeeze in at the front of the photo pool, thankfully short enough to not really block the guys behind her. She quickly gets her gear set up, and with her monopod and remote button manages to get her camera up high enough over the back of the press pool to get some decent shots of the crowd coming in. She checks them and is satisfied, switching to a zoom lens to quickly get some shots of the ornate details of the room.
The hall is filling quickly, the city’s finest turning out in their top hats, suit and ties and evening gowns. After they fill in, the rest of the crowd is allowed to enter. These are the middle class and lower citizens, quietly murmuring amongst themselves.
Casey gasps as she notices Faust walk in with a beautiful black woman she’s never seen before, and they both take a seat in the back and to the side, close to the doors. His eyes scan over the room, but it looks like he doesn’t see Casey thanks to all the people jockeying around her to get a better position. She remembers the charm Cadence gave her and hesitates to get it out, afraid to break it, but self-preservation wins and she slips it carefully out of its tube and places it in a the lapel buttonhole in her uniform jacket. It doesn’t look too secure, so she takes a safety pin off her bag and hooks the flower onto her jacket better. Satisfied that it’s not going to fall off if she gets bumped, she turns her attention back to the people in the room.
Madison Carlin-Kane shows up, without her normal entourage. Just the one Secret Service man, Agent Walker – the one that gave Casey the hard time when he questioned her. Madison walks up to Mayor Delacroix and talks to him warmly, laughing at something he says. She sits next to him, Agent Walker fading into the background as usual. He notices Casey, but his eyes pass over her after he regards her coldly for a long moment. Casey snaps off some photos of the Mayor and Senator, along with the Council members in their raised seats.
Several of the high up police officers are there too, in full dress uniform. Besides the Chief of Police, Casey recognizes the STARS officer who rescued Veronica, and is now on her protection detail. She takes photos of each of them as well.
The meeting itself goes about how she expected. The City Council questions the mayor on several of his proposed ordinances, and he gives carefully polished, charismatic answers to try and appease them. He manages to slip and slime his way out of every corner, it seems. Even on the one thing Kale had expected to stick – the false warrants for the no-knock searches – he has a story that the crowd buys hook, line and sinker.
A little over halfway through the conference, once Casey is sure she has enough usable photos for the paper, she switches to her film camera and snaps off some photos of the major players again with a regular lens. She quickly changes the roll of film and swaps the lens for the cobalt one from Faust. Again, she snaps off photos of the major players on different settings, hoping they turn out. She takes a full roll and then swaps out the lenses again before putting the 35mm away and getting out the digital camera again. The used rolls going into her pocket, hidden beneath her camera bag.
“Those warrants were issued by me, in an emergency situation. They directly led to the rescue of Veronica Carlin-Kane, and were instrumental in getting her home safely. Did I act rashly? Perhaps improperly? Maybe. But did I get that sweet, young girl home safely to her family? Yes, I did. And I would do it again. Or perhaps you think that allowing a fifteen year old girl to remain kidnapped by drug abusing, murderous gang-bangers is a worthy price to be paid for lip service to laws and rules that clearly have problems, and need to be rethought and reworked. Well I’m sorry, on that issue I will not apologize.”
The crowd raises their normal protests, which are met with all the regular answers by the City Council. In the end, they pledge to look into the ordinances that the Mayor wishes to pass, and give them the utmost scrutiny.
Kale looks properly disgusted as he walks up to Casey. “I should’ve known better than to expect anything different. The whole Council eats out of either his hand, or Senator Kane’s. And she’s in league with him, so it’s hopeless.”
Casey looks toward where Faust was sitting to see if he’s still there. He’s not in his seat, but isn’t able to move too quickly toward the door, due to the crowd. “Hey Kale, I see someone I know, I’m gonna try and catch him real quick to say hi. I’ll be right back, kay?” He nods and Casey waves through the crowd toward Faust. She gets to where he was just in time to see him slip out the door with the woman he came in with. She keeps following, and doesn’t see him as she goes through the door. She looks around and is about to head back in when she’s pulled off to the side.
“What are you doing here?”
She looks up to see Faust with the woman. “Taking photos for the school paper. You?”
“Keeping tabs.”
They stand without speaking for a minute before Casey breaks in. “Um, I have some more questions for you about…vam…about things, but um, I don’t want to ask them here. Can I stop by this weekend? I won’t take much time, I promise.”
“I guess-“ He cuts himself off abruptly, looking over Casey’s shoulder. Casey feels a chill run down her back, and turns to see the mayor stepping out into the hallway, still smiling and shaking hands.
He turns and looks at the little group as they stand there, his eyes flicking over Casey before turning to Faust. His smile widens, and he cocks his finger at Faust, and play shoots at him. He turns back to the crowd surrounding him, the large bodyguard standing next to him glaring down at them in his place.
“Shit. Yeah, you better come see me, no later than this weekend. Be careful, Casey.”
He turns and the two of them walk briskly away.
She finishes with Faust and heads back inside to find Kale, which doesn’t take long since he’s waiting for her just inside the door. “Did you find your friend?”
“Yeah. Sorry it took so long. You ready to head back to school?”
“Yup. And, uh, thanks for asking me to do this. I really do need to get my name on more stuff.”
Kale immediately turns beet red and stammers, “Y..you…you’re welcome,” before turning and speed walking to the car. Casey even has to jog a little bit to keep up. They ride back to school barely speaking, mainly just listening to the radio. They’re almost back to school when Kale speaks up again. “Uhh, did you want me to take you home? I mean, I know you don’t have a car, so I can, um, drop you off if you need me to…”
Casey checks her watch, “No, school should be fine. Aiden’s probably still at practice. Thanks though.” She smiles at Kale.
“No…no problem.”
He pulls into the student parking lot and Casey sees Aiden’s SUV is still there. “Hey, thanks again for asking me to do this. Let me know if there’s anything else you need help with. Oh, and just so you know, I have a contract with Mr. Mors. He gets first look at all my photos, but I try to take enough extras that if he picks one, I should have something similar that I can use. I’ll upload them for him tonight and then I should know tomorrow which ones are available for you to use. I’ll burn you a disk or shoot you a link or something. Let me know which you want.” She climbs out of the car. “See ya Kale, drive home safe.” She waves over her shoulder as she walks toward the soccer field, finally hearing him drive off once she’s out of sight.
Casey sees the team just starting to finish up practice. She sits on the bleachers and texts Aiden. Back at school, on the bleachers. Come find me when you’re done. She realizes she’s still wearing the crystal flower and carefully unpins it, checking for any damage. Seeing none, she carefully puts it back in the tube and slips it into her bag. She turns around so she has a “desk,” pulls out her laptop and connects to the internet to upload the photos she just took for Mr. Mors to review. After they’re uploaded she checks her email to see if anyone has bought anything.
The mother from the park had ended up buying some of the pictures, and a local not-for-profit had paid for a few shots, but nothing really worth getting excited over. Still, it would end up being about $75 or so in her pocket, so she can’t complain either!
She hears footsteps on the bleachers and starts to turn around when Aiden’s arms snake around her waist and he kisses the crook of her neck. “How’d it go sweetheart?”
She disconnects from the internet and closes her laptop, turning around. “It went well. I got a lot of pictures.” She kisses him on the lips. “Saw Faust. I’m gonna go see him this weekend, try and figure out more about what happened with Shelly.”
Aiden grabs her camera bag as she puts her laptop away and, taking her wrist, he gently pulls her to her feet. She winces slightly at the pressure. Aiden notices and asks, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Case, it looked like I hurt you. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, um…” She holds up her arm, and even in the dim light he can see the bruise circling her wrist. She manages to grab her other bag as he practically drags her under a light for a better look.
“Casey, how did this happen?”
“Um, well, I sort of got into a little fight with May. It’s my fault, I pushed her buttons a little too hard.” She can see Aiden’s jaw lock as he tries not to get furious. She reaches up and tilts his face down so he’s looking at her. “Really Aiden. I made a couple comments I probably shouldn’t have, especially since she already is out to get me. It was dumb, and it’s just a bruise. It’ll go away.” She strokes his jaw with her thumb until he starts to relax.
“A couple of comments shouldn’t get you a bruised wrist.”
Casey can see he’s still angry, and looking over his shoulder notices that the parking lot is almost empty. “It’ll be fine. Come on, the lot’s almost empty. We should go.” He looks like he’s going to argue, but finally shakes his head and takes her hand, walking over to his car. He puts all their bags in the back and opens the door for Casey. Kissing her again before he shuts it, his thumb stroking her bruised wrist.
Aiden climbs into the driver’s seat and starts the car. “You hungry?”
“Um, not really. Kale got us seats at Chew Chew Mama’s. I had a burger. But if you’re hungry I’ll go with, munch on some fries or something.”
“Yeah, hungry, but I’m also exhausted. Are you coming over tonight?”
“No, I should probably get back to Harm’s. She got a new outfit today for her coffee date in the morning. She’s probably chomping at the bit to show it to me. I’ll come over Friday, after the game if you want…”
His face drops a little, “Good. And Saturday’s the carnival.” He takes off toward Harmony’s house.
“Yup. Oh, did they talk you into doing the kissing booth?”
He blushes a little. “Yeah, but only because May’s working it at the same time I am, which means she can’t be in line for kisses if she’s getting kissed herself. I don’t think she thought that part out at all, and I didn’t mention it. Plus, it’s for a good cause, it raises money for the social events for the rest of the year. And it’s only for an hour, so the rest of the carnival I get to spend with you.” He smiles over at her before turning his attention back to the road.
“Oh, umm, I was gonna tell you. I uh, accidentally volunteered us to go on at least one double date with Roni and Tom, probably more than one.”
“How do you accidentally volunteer for a double date?”
“Well, I guess she’s been talking to Tom until all hours on Friend Agenda and she wants to go on a date with him, but doesn’t think her mom will let her. She wants to invite him to the carnival with all of us, and I suggested that maybe she work her way down to a regular date. I suggested a double date and was about to say I was sure Bianca would love to go with, but she thought I meant us and I didn’t have the heart to correct her. I don’t know when or for what yet…but she really seems to like Tom, and I…I just thought…”
“It’s OK Case. As long as we don’t have to go on every date with them, a couple of doubles is fine. We’ll have fun.” He pulls into Harmony’s driveway and turns off the car, grabbing her bags from the back and walking Casey up to the door. He gives her a long kiss. “Sweet dreams honey. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She starts to go in and turns around, “Hey, will you pick me up in the morning? Harm’s got that coffee date, and I don’t really want to go hang around school that long if I catch a ride with her.”
“I’ll be here.” He gives her another quick kiss and heads to her car, not driving off until she’s inside.
Casey drops her bags off in her room and heads in to see Harmony. “Hey girl, how was shopping?”
“It was a blast! You wanna see my outfit?”
Casey grins, “Do I have a choice?” Harmony play punches her arm. “Of course I want to see the killer outfit for your teacher’s pet coffee date tomorrow.”
Harmony quickly changes and parades around the room, turning and vogue-ing to show off all the different views of the outfit. She found a fitted black, loose-weave crocheted long sleeve top with a tight, hot pink cami underneath. Both leaving a slight swath of her midriff showing. She also found a loose pale pink skirt with big black and hot pink graphic flowers on it. The skirt hits mid-thigh, which makes it long for Harmony. She even found new shoes, black espadrilles that lace up her calves.
“Sexy, Harm. But not slutty. Very appropriate for a date with a teacher,” Casey teases. “I like it. You look really good. You should knock him dead.”
Harmony changes back into her PJs. “Oh, we’ll have to leave early so I can drop you off before. Sorry.”
“It’s ok. Aiden’s picking me up. Didn’t feel like hanging at school for that long in the morning anyway.”
“Cool. Well off to bed with you. I need to get my beauty sleep, dah-ling,” Harmony says in her best Scarlett O’Hara impression.
“Night Harm.” Casey gives her a quick hug before heading off to bed herself.
