First Down

Chapter 1

Cassie

St. Bernard’s was a private school for exclusive people. It was so exclusionary that they didn’t even advertise. You either knew about it or you didn’t. They didn’t offer scholarships. If you wanted to attend to St. Bernard’s, you had to have the money in the bank. Cassie was lucky. Her father had created a new type of super strength glass. It was being used to make phone screens all over the world. They were loaded. It was new money, but it was money just the same and that opened .

St. Bernard’s accepted Cassie’s application on the spot. She’d spent her life believing that she’d need a scholarship to get into college, so her grades were above average. It wasn’t just her above average grades and new money that got her into the place though. It was the samples of her writing that she’d brought to show them. They knew that she was exactly what they needed to for the school paper. they offered her a position on it, before she’d even set foot on campus.

She started on the first of September. She drove up the curvy driveway, which led to the impressive, stately looking main building. Honeydew sweetened the air from the sprawling meadows that kept St. Bernard’s separated from the rest of the world. It was like nothing Cassie had ever seen before. She stepped out of her sky blue Bentley Continental and felt like she was going back in time.

It was so quiet. A huge contrast to the city living that she’d become used to. Her parents owed several different pieces of real estate throughout the states, but most often, Cassie had stayed at their Manhattan apartment. She’d liked being able to look out over the busy city streets that never slowed or darkened. The loose gravel in the parking lot crunched under her feet, as she walked over to the main building that had aged ivy growing up its walls.

Cassie spent the rest of her morning filling out forms. It wasn’t until lunchtime that she got her dorm room key and was able to leave reception. She looked down at the basic looking map the receptionist had given her. There were seven buildings on the campus. She was looking for her dorm room, which was behind the building marked down as dining.

Cassie was eager to get to her room, but she didn’t rush. She was too busy taking in the trees and perfectly kept gardens, which sat between her and her room. Before Cassie had come to St. Bernard’s she’d been in public school. Public school was good. It had given her the grades she’d needed to get into St. Bernard’s. It wasn’t the same though. Everything at St. Bernard’s was perfect. The trees were pruned; the grass cut even, there’s wasn’t a leaf out of place. Cassie could almost see the money that had been spent to keep the gardens looking so pristine--like something out of a glossy magazine.

She found her dorm room without a problem. It was three floors and all girls. The guys had their dorm at the other side of campus. Cassie was on the second floor. Her room was right at the end and had been built into a corner. It gave the room a slightly off L shape, which blocked the view of the door from her bed. She liked it. She walked over to the bed and threw down the rucksack she’d been carrying on her back.

“Um, what do you think you’re doing?” an accusing voice asked behind her.

Cassie turned and found herself facing a tall, blonde girl with huge boobs and a flat stomach. “Can I help you?” Cassie asked her a little apprehensively. Who was that girl? Why had she come into Cassie’s room without even knocking?

“Can you help me?” the girl smirked. “Look, you’re clearly new here, so I’m going to give you a pass,” the girl inspected Cassie quickly and then smiled with a false sweetness that gave Cassie toothache just from looking at it. “But, here’s the thing. This is my room, so you’re going to need to get out of it.” She walked over to the window and pushed it open, before pulling out a pack of smokes and lighting one.

“No, this is my room,” Cassie shook her head. “I’ve just unlocked the door with the key that the reception gave me.”

The girl laughed. “You’re going to need to go back down there then, because this room is taken.”

Cassie stared at the girl. Even though she’d opened a window, the room was still filling up with smoke. Cassie could feel it starting to cling to the inside of her lungs, as she tried to breathe.  “Look, if you’ve got a problem then you can go down,” she said firmly, because she wasn’t going to get pushed around by smoky girl. “I got here first.”

The girl’s eyes narrowed and she stubbed her smoke out on the windowsill. She breathed out the last of the smoke in her lungs slowly. “Look, I know you’re new here, so I guess you don’t know who I am yet,” the girl said with an icy tone that was poorly disguised with a friendly smile. “But, I’m not moving out of my room because of a new girl who thinks she’s going to call the shots.”

“I guess you better go tell reception that,” Cassie smiled sweetly. “If you don’t mind, I’ve had a super long drive, so I wouldn’t mind catching some shut eye.”

The girl’s perfectly tanned cheeks burned red. She looked like she was about to throw a full blown toddler tantrum. Cassie wondered when the girl had last heard the word no. It didn’t seem like something she was used to. She opened her mouth as though she going to speak, but then she closed it again and walked over to the door. “Don’t get comfy,” she turned back to Cassie, before she’d pulled the door open. “You won’t be staying here.”

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