Ditched

[Joel Rodgers]

Joel headed down to the Briarcliff Village. He didn't really need anything, but he and his friends had agreed to meet up there and hang out for a little bit, maybe catch a movie at a nearby theater or something. Actually they pretty much had a plan where they would go catch a movie and then go shopping for a bit (usually he was just looking and never buying) and then head back to the restaurants that were around. He actually knew which movies that he wanted to see himself, though he wasn't sure why he even bothered trying to pick out the movie. Often times his friends would get into arguments about which movie to go see and they'd all end up agreeing on something that he wasn't even remotely interested in watching, however he just learned to deal with it. Maybe it would be one of the off days where he did actually get to choose the movie choice. Those days were the days when his friends just couldn't come to an agreement so he always stepped in as a peacemaker and suggested something else. On those rare occasions he usually ended up pretty happy. Otherwise he just settled on seeing whatever movie they wanted and didn't really complain about it.

He headed into an area that was just behind most of the shops and took a seat on one of the benches that were there. He glanced at his watch and saw that he was about ten minutes early. He was almost always early though so he didn't really care that much. He always figured that it was better to be early than late, that way he didn't miss anything important. His friends knew about his habit and therefore usually told him that he had to be somewhere later than they were actually planning to get there, that way he wasn't waiting around for too long. It seemed like they hadn't remembered to do that with him at that point in time, but he didn't really care all that much. Instead he watched the various people as they walked by, finding them more interesting than having to sit on a bench with nothing to do. He wasn't sure how long he sat there like that until he looked back down at his watch and saw that he'd been sitting there for a half an hour. They were twenty minutes late. He frowned slightly and wondered what was going on. It was possible that they'd just forgotten... or they could have been planning to bail out on him, something that was much too common for his liking. Sometimes his friends annoyed him with the fact that they seemed to be fine with changing plans last minute and never informing him.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number of his friend that had suggested the plan. On the fourth ring he answered. "Hey man where are you?" Joel asked into the phone confused. He waited as his friend explained to him that there'd been a change in plans and that he was sorry that he'd forgotten to call him. "No it's cool. Honestly, go have fun," he said and then paused as something else was said. "Yeah yeah. I'm sure that I can find something to do." Another pause that caused him to look a bit horrified. "No! I do not want you to try and send Michelle over to keep me company! I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and got up off the bench looking around and wondering what he was going to do now that his plans were canceled. He wasn't exactly sure what he even wanted to do anymore, after all he wasn't quite hungry yet and he didn't feel like shopping. So he thought that the best thing to do would be to just walk around for a little bit and then wait and see what happened. Hopefully something would.

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[Cassandra Graham]

Cass had been walking around the Village for a few hours now, mainly looking at everything here and there without actually buying anything, which wasn't something overly usual for her. Most of the time, when she came back from a shopping trip or anything close to it, her credit card was actually warm. Of course, her parents payed for it and checked the account almost every day to pay the money due on the card, so it wasn't something she worried about, and her credit limit was very high, so she never really came back from a shopping trip without having spent less than a hundred dollar, and that was on bad days. Today, however, she'd only bought a pair of shoe that were worth about seventy-five dollars, plus a CD that was on sale at about fifteen dollars, so she was ten dollars under her usual minimum spent. She was a bit surprised at that herself, but she just wasn't in the mood for buying any more things. She didn't really have much space for new things in the room back at the academy anyway, even though it was larger than everybody else's, except her roommate's obviously. She didn't want the room to be so cluttered they wouldn't even have space to walk around anymore.

Glancing around, she decided she might as well stay here a little longer seeing as she didn't really have anything to do back at the Academy and didn't feel like seeing the girl she was forced to room with. She'd really have to talk to her parents about that, she didn't like being thrown into a room with a stranger and having to spend the entire year with them, especially since nobody could meet her standarts by even a little. She was greatly annoyed at the fact that she couldn't do all she wanted because she always had to take in consideration the fact that she was not alone, which was not to please her. Plus, Moira was without a doubt a spoiled girl, though of course nowhere near her own level, but still, they were both used to getting things their way, and it seemed to Cass that the war between the two was an unspoken agreement they'd made the very minute they'd met. Cassandra had the advantage of having a brother that'd been around the school a lot longer, and so she knew a few things as to how it worked, and how to get out of trouble if the need came. Especially when it came to sneaking out - she'd figured that out the second she'd seen how things worked there. Shrugging lightly to herself, she sat on a bench and decided she might as well put her light shopping to use, taking the shoe box out of her bag and placing it on the bench beside her.

After switching her snickers for the new pair of sandals and admiring them for a few seconds, she placed the old shoes in the box and put it back in the bag, looking around as she leaned back on the bench with a bored sigh. Obviously, there wasn't much to do here either, and for some reason, she had too much energy to just stay still and sit on a bench for the next few hours. She could always try shopping again, but she wasn't sure how well that would turn out and so she didn't know if that was really a good option. Shaking her head, she got back to her feet, figuring she might as well walk a little while she thought of it, seeing as she'd most likely go crazy if she sat for one more second. Reaching into her purse to take out her iPod, deciding to listen to some music to try and chase the boredom away, she looked down in order to find it and ended up bumping into somebody, not looking where she was going. Taking a step back, she managed to catch her balance and looked up to see who she'd collided with, not exactly recognizing the boy but getting the feeling that she'd seen him before. "I'm sorry," she said in a casual yet bored tone which most likely indicated she wasn't all that sorry or didn't care if she'd bothered him by bumping into him. Of course, had it been the opposite, she'd thrown a fit, but now she knew she was at fault. Not that it mattered. "Didn't see you there," she added, brushing her hair off her shoulders and tilting her head slightly.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He walked for a while still trying to figure out what his plans were. He wasn't very good at making plans himself, as he often changed his mind several times before he could decide for certain what he actually wanted to do. He'd been walking in circles actually, trying to just find something that he wanted to do. He was leaning a lot more toward food by that point. All his indecision and walking was actually making him hungry. There were a couple of restaurants that he could go to, now he had the fun task of choosing which. The one that was closest was the one that he was most likely going to end up going to, yeah that sounded good. He wasn't a picky eater so he was sure that he could find something to eat wherever he actually ended up going. He just had to figure out where exactly the closest restaurant was, he was pretty sure that he'd passed a few on his walk in circles. All he had to do was go in the same path again and he was sure that he'd manage to come across one, he just hoped that he'd brought enough money. He was really counting on Mike to pay for his meal because he was suppose to that time. Usually he wouldn't have counted on his friend to actually do what he said and pay but he was broke, so he only had enough money to see the movie.

He walked straight ahead and found himself thrown back slightly within a few minutes. Someone had ran into him. He looked up to see who it was. Cassandra Preston. Of course he knew who she was, it was hard not to. After all she was the little sister to the infamous Andrew Preston. Plus, she was possibly the only person in the history of the Academy that had actually asked for a bigger dorm room. From what he'd heard she'd combined two of them just for her and her roommate. He could understand that he guessed. After all if he had money like that he might have done something similar, not that he would have added quite that much room but it would have been better to not be as crammed in as he was at that point in time. He felt a bit of pity for her roommate though, because Cassandra was obviously quite spoiled if she could have her parents buy her a bigger dorm room. His own personal experience had taught him that people who were spoiled weren't generally the nicest people to be around. They tended to have a bad attitude.

His thoughts were right when he heard her apologize, she didn't even sound like she meant it. If anything she sounded bored by the situation, he could guess though that if he had been the one that had ran into her the whole situation would have turned out quite a bit different. Still, he couldn't bring himself to be mean to her after all he didn't want her to have something against him when they'd just met. "It's alright," he said, honesty rang through his words. As there hadn't been any real problem that occurred. He hadn't dropped anything, and he believed that she hadn't seen him there. It was something that happened quite frequently actually. "No harm, no foul," he said politely offering her a small smile. "I wasn't exactly paying attention that well to where I was going either. So it's all good." He heard the voice of his friend in his mind asking him why he'd make excuses for what other people did and he wondered if the current situation fell into that category. It was just an accident after all, it wasn't like she'd done something horrible to him and he was defending her. She'd simply just bumped into him.

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[Cassandra Graham]

Cassandra examined the boy a little as he stood in front of her, while waiting for his reaction to her unenthousiastic apology, figuring he might get a bit offensed at it but not caring. Then again, people sometimes have ways of surprising you, but to be completely honest, Cass rarely expected surprises from people. She tended to judge without knowing them, or to base her impressions on what her brother told her about this or that person. That was basically why she hated people like Aidan Steele or Addison Blythe, people she hadn't even met yet, but disliked just for the sake of it and as a way of showing her loyalty to her brother. People never really believed it when anybody mentionned that Cassandra was a very loyal person, because it seemed to most as though there was absolutely nothing good about her personality. She was just the spoiled bitchy 15 year old girl who was already getting herself a bad reputation after not even a month spent at Gordon Parks' Academy. For all she cared, people could have been saying she was personally sent from Hell to make their lives miserable and she most likely wouldn't deny it. But whenever she made friends with somebody, as rare as that was, she stuck to them til the end, unless they betrayed her, then there was no such thing as a second chance. Until now, her brother was pretty much the only close friend she'd had, but she didn't feel lonely. It was just the way she was.

After a little while, she recognized the person who was standing before her. She didn't exactly know him, but she'd seen him around and heard about him. She couldn't quite remember his last name, but she was pretty sure his name was Joel. From what she heard, he was an overly nice person who hardly knew how to say no. That pretty much sucked for him, but if he liked being used, she supposed it was his own choice in ways of living. He seemed nice enough though, true to the words she'd heard, and though she wasn't sure if he was really someone she could see herself hanging out with, there were definitely more possibilities there than with anyone else. After all, if she didn't get lonely, she did get bored from time to time. Back at home, it didn't matter whether she had real friends or not because she still had people to hang out with, but at GPA, it was just her, which most of the time was a good thing, but right now she felt like being with someone. If anything, she might actually try to be friends with this guy, though she wasn't exactly sure of the procedure for something like that.

She was slightly shocked when he accepted her apology with no apparent annoyance or anything of the sort, even she could hear the honesty, obvious in his words and tone of voice. Well, she shouldn't really have been all that surprised at it, especially if he was like she thought he was, but she couldn't quite help it. People who knew her at the very least rarely reacted in a good way when confronted to her. They tended to grunt an answer and go away as fast as possible. This guy, however, was taking her apology nicely and even making excuses for the accident. That was definitely something new. She gave a small nod as he spoke, thought there was no smile on her face - that would be extremely unusual for her and she wasn't there yet. "I've seen you around," she pointed out, deciding that might be a good way to start the conversation, seeing as she didn't want to go on and on about the fact that she'd bumped into him. "You go to Gordon Parks', don't you?" she asked, already knowing the answer to that question, just like she was pretty sure he might return the question just to be polite, even though the fact that she asked herself was a pretty obvious sign that she indeed was a student at the Academy.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He was a bit surprised when she decided to say more, he was just expecting her to move on after she heard what he said and that would be that. He couldn't say that he was disappointed in her choice. After all what else did he have to look forward to besides eating? Maybe a conversation, no matter how brief would do him some good at that point in time. It wasn't like it could do him any bad, the worst that could happen was that he'd answer her question and a few more and then she'd walk away and he'd be able to go eat out. Not overall that horrible, in fact it wasn't even bad. It was just a possible way for the conversation to play out, just an option as to what could have happened. It wasn't like he was going to be ditched all over again. Mainly, because he would have had to have plans with her for her to ditch him. And he couldn't exactly see himself making plans with her anyway, unless she'd asked which was also something that he just couldn't see happening. The two of them were just different people from everything that he'd heard, and just by the way that she was standing in front of him at that moment proved that they were. Which led him to wonder why she even wanted to talk to him anyway.

"Yeah I go to the Academy," he said with a nod. "The names Joel. I'm a sophomore music student." He already knew about her of course. That she was a freshman theater student, who didn't know. Everyone seemed to be talking about Andrew Preston's younger sister around the school. People wanted to see if she was like her brother, but it seemed that she was a different type of mean. No one quite knew yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Possibly because they'd have to see something really bad for them to make a decision. Everyone seemed to be waiting for an action to come out of her, for something other than the expansion of her dorm room to judge her by. He couldn't deny that he was curious as well, but he wasn't waiting for it. When something happened it happened. It wasn't like waiting for it to happen was going to make it happen any faster. Plus, he didn't pity the person who was talking about Cassandra when Andrew came about. From the things that were said he was an overprotective big brother, which was sort of hard to imagine considering who the person was, but there had to be something that was really good about the guy. It appeared that that something was the way that he cared for his little sister, which made him seem not as bad as he was made out to be.

"You're a theater student right?" he asked, just to be polite. And another reason, that he didn't quite want to admit out loud was that he didn't want to let her know that everyone knew everything about her already. He wasn't sure how she'd react to being talked about, but something told him that she'd probably like it. "And you're Andrew's younger sister right?" Another question that he already knew the answer to. It was basically asked for the shake of asking, that way the could be conversation might go on a little longer. He wanted to use up as much time as possible in the day now that he was thinking about it. He'd changed his mind, he'd rather the conversation go on. That way he could use up as much time as possible during the day and there would be less down time. He couldn't stand down time at all. It'd probably make him upset with his friends too, for just leaving him with nothing to do for the day. And he didn't want to be upset with his friends, so he just needed something that would keep his mind off of everything. The solution - however temporary it may have been - was standing directly in front of him.

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[Cassandra Graham]

As Cassandra examined Joel with a bit of interest, she was slightly shocked at the mere fact that he was even holding her attention, by the way he looked if not by what he said. Not that she thought he was actually handsome or anything - though he was not ugly either, that was for sure. He wasn't really the type of guy Cass usually went for, she prefered guys with darker hair and complexion, and also most of the time, much older than she was. Well, usually about five years older, so it wasn't necessarily too bad either, though then again there weren't many twenty years old guys out there who were ready to date fifteen years old, but she knew a few, and besides it wasn't as though she would be one to complain. If anything, the guy usually got scared away, not the opposite. Her brother didn't usually approve of this, though then again, she usually managed to keep it from him - she wasn't one to flaunt around when she was in something close to a relationship, mainly because it was never someone she necessarily wanted to be seen with but often because she just needed to have someone at that point. It was almost shocking that these guys even went for it, but there might be the fact that they weren't necessarily aware of it in the first place that encouraged that behavior.

When he answered her question just the way she'd thought he would, she gave a slight nod, glad that he'd at least bothered to give her some more informations than what she'd asked for. The Sophomore didn't come as a surprise - she knew he couldn't be a Freshman because she hadn't seen him around her classes at all, then again that could have only meant that he wasn't in the same group as hers, but still, she hadn't seen him during the meeting with the Principal on the very first day of school, so the Freshman option had been out for him the moment she'd seen him. She hadn't expected him to be a Junior either. He didn't seem old enough to be, though that was a bit weird seeing as there was only one year of different between the Sophs and the Juniors, but no matter how lame her reason had been, she'd been right about that part still. She couldn't remember ever hearing the name Joel around the school, so he probably wasn't someone that was talked about a lot or that brought lots of attention on himself. Or maybe he just hadn't been able to make his place in the Academy yet, which she thought after two years probably meant he never really would - she was actually proud about the fact that most people seemed to know who she was after hardly a month. Of course, the dorm room incident had gone around fast, just as much as the fact that Andrew Preston's kid sister was coming to the Academy. She knew her brother had a reputation just as bad as hers, if not for the same reasons.

"Yes I am," she said with a nod when he asked if she was a Theater student, a bit surprised that that was known. Most people knew her name, her brother, what year she was in and how bitchy she was considered to be, but she usually still had to point out the talent she was studying, which was shocking considering the fact that she was extremely good at the art of lying and manipulating, which greatly helped her theater skills. Once he asked if she was Andrew's sister, however, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. That was to be expected, of course, and she'd known when she'd signed up for the school that most people would know her as that at first, but it was still amazing. After all, nobody liked to be recognized as to what they were and not who they were. Some people probably didn't like the prospect of 'who she was', but she was actually proud of it. "Yes, I am," she said, annoyance quite easy to read in her tone, though at the same time she couldn't exactly blame him for it. "My name is Cassandra," she then said. "Just in case you wanted to call me something else than Andrew's sister," she added a bit sarcastically, though there was a hint - however small it might be - of teasing in her voice.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He noticed that she looked slightly surprised that he knew that she was a theater student. Which he guessed that he could understand, after all it probably wasn't something that a lot of people knew about her. Most people knew who people were and not what they were at the academy for. He knew that a lot of people didn't know what even the more popular students had as a talent that brought them to the school in the first place. He figured that it was always important to know that though, because it was something that he had to talk to them about. True there was always that question 'What's your talent?' that could be asked to start a conversation. However, he preferred to just go right out and tell people that he already knew. Sure, some people found that slightly weird and others even thought that it was a bit stalkerish or something, but it always made good conversation. Plus it displayed right up front that he was the type of person that paid attention to details. It was something that he prided himself on. So he was a bit braggy about it, as bad as that sounded. But he had to have something that he was proud of in himself other than his music, and he just happened to pride himself on that particular point.

He heard the annoyance in her tone slightly as she said that she was Andrew's sister, and he could tell that he probably hit a sore point. After all, with a brother like hers it was probably what she was getting recognized for without actually having done anything yet. He could see where it would be annoying for someone to just recognize a person by who they were related to and not who they were as a person. He was just lucky in the fact that that had never happened with his older sisters. Maybe it was because there was such an age gap between them. Sure, four years was a bit of a gap, too. But his sisters were eight and ten years apart. By the time that he was in first grade his closest sister was a freshman in high school. So people didn't really know either one of them, therefore they couldn't have judgments about him biased on who they were. He'd keep that in mind and maybe not do something like that to the next person who was related to someone he knew. True, there were those few odd balls who liked to be recognized as their sibling's sibling. But so far it seemed like the general consensus was just to not do it.

"I'm sorry Cassandra," he said with a small smile. "I'll remember that for next time. I suppose it wouldn't be fun to go around getting called your brother's sister all the time." He thought that he might have heard something under the sarcasm in her tone, but he was pretty sure that it was in his head. He still was giving her a warm smile though, like he didn't care that she was annoyed with him a few seconds earlier, or rather what he had said a few seconds earlier. Which he wasn't, people got annoyed there wasn't any reason for him to take it personally. It wasn't a personal matter after all, it was just a matter of him being the one who'd said it last. He didn't understand those people who just got mad at people because they seemed mad at them, there seemed to be so many of them. It didn't make any sense to him. If more people just calmed down and thought about what was going on for a minute there wouldn't be nearly as much arguing and fighting as there was in the world. Just no one liked to take the time to try and see the other person's point of view.

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[Cassandra Graham]

The more Cass talked to Joel, the more surprised she got at how he reacted to what she said and how she said it. That was something rare in itself, too - people very rarely surprised her. She wasn't necessarily overly intuitive, but most people were extremely predictable once you got to know them. Of course, she didn't actually know Joel yet, so that could explain it too. To be completely honest, she rarely actually got to talk to someone long enough to get to know them, unless they were for some reason interesting to her. Most of the time, they were either people she was attracted to or people who she could get something from by hanging out with them. She wasn't someone who just made friends with people unless there was something in it for her, which wasn't necessarily the best of ways to decide who to hang out with, but she lived with it pretty well. She wasn't someone who needed to be constantly surrounded by people anyway. She wasn't necessarily a loner, but she was very independant, and she loved to have her own space. It was actually rare that she let someone in, for whatever reason it might be, and when that happened for whatever reason, it meant there was surely something special about that person, in her opinion anyway. Even the people she 'used', she mostly managed to keep them at least at an arm's length. She didn't want people knowing about her private life, and she was okay with keeping it to herself if it meant being by herself most of the time.

This guy, however, was starting to hold her attention more and more. And he was, for some reason, surprising her too. The way he spoke, not as though she was just the last daddy's bitchy girl on earth, he was actually talking to her like he'd talk to anybody else, or so she supposed. The mere fact that she was still there, talking to him and listening to what he was saying, though there was no trace of interest on her features whatsoever, meant that there was something different about him that made her stay there. She couldn't quite say what just now, and she wouldn't have been able to point it out either if anyone had asked her. It was definitely something though. Something she wasn't used to, aside from being talked to like she was a normal girl. Coming from anybody, Cassandra would have taken that as an insult - being considered like someone normal, someone low class perhaps. Someone who didn't matter. That was one of her biggest frights, actually. Not being noticed. Being invisible, remaining unseen. Maybe it was one of the reasons why she had to be so bitchy, so controlling. She needed, craved the attention, and she thought that there was nothing very extraordinary about her that would hold anybody's attention. Not even her acting skills - there was talent like that everywhere, this Academy was a good proof of it. Her way of acting in real life though, her attitude, that was hers entirely though.

As he gave her a warm smile - another first -, a hint of a light smile appeared on her own face and she gave a little nod. It was definitely not something usual for her, smiling, but it was as though the one on his face was contagious and she couldn't help but answer to it. "It isn't at all," she then said, answering to his comment that it was probably no fun to be known as Andrew's sister. Her main goal of being who she was was to have her own identity, to be recognized as who she was and not as somebody's sister, or more often, somebody's daughter. Her parents were well known, and whenever she was introduced to somebody in a social circle back at home, the inevitable 'she is this man's daughter' always followed her name. As though the last name of Preston wouldn't give that fact out already, it was as though people were too dumb to understand it on their own. "Andrew is indeed my brother, and I am his sister. But that's not all I am, either," she added, frowning. "People can't seem to understand that fact, though. As though I'm just like him or something like that." She gave a small annoyed gesture of her hand, looking at him.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He was happy to see that he'd managed to get a small smile on her face. He was guessing that it was something that didn't exactly happen often, but he was glad that he was being able to manage to be the one that got her to smile. Even if it wasn't a full out smile, part of a smile was better than nothing right? He was sure that she did smile sometimes and laugh too, but there was something about her that just told him that it wasn't something that happened very often. It had to be a rare occurrence for her to smile without a real reason to other than the fact that there was someone else smiling at her. Maybe it was something that ran in the family. As much as he was trying to keep in his mind her words that she wasn't just like her older brother he couldn't help but wonder if it was one of the things that they had in common. In the handful of times that he had seen Andrew Preston he hadn't been a happy fellow. Not really anyway, he looked a bit annoyed or otherwise just indifferent. Sort of like she first had when he bumped into her. Perhaps it had to do with their home lives.

He wasn't going to ask either way, because that would be prying too much. If he listened to gossip he'd be inclined to believe that she just lead a generally unhappy home life. From what was said about the Preston household it wasn't exactly a pleasant place to be apparently. Not that many households that were rich were, from what he'd heard anyway. He supposed that could probably be because the parents didn't really care about the children as much. After all they had jobs and money that they had to pay attention to, well that and social standings and other useless stuff that he never really understood. He couldn't see how a parent would be able to put anything about their children. After all they were products of their creation and one day they'd have to rely on those children to take care of them. He figured that people like that probably didn't even really love the person that they had their children with either. He was actually curious if they could love. With everything that was said about them, they all sounded like they were heartless monsters who didn't care in the slightest what happened to anyone or anything besides themselves.

"I can understand that," he said. "But I can also understand the other side of it to an extent, too." He shrugged slightly. One again he managed to stay in the middle of something that he really wasn't involved with. It must have been a hidden skill with him or something. He was pretty sure that most people weren't able to do so quite so frequently, nor so easily as he seemed to be able to. "I mean if either one of my older sisters were closer in age then I probably would have gone through the same type of situation. People just assume that because you're related to someone you're going to be just like them or very similiar but that makes sense doesn't it?" he asked. "Because you and your brother were both brought up in the same household. Usually people believe that it means that you two will have been brought up in the same way and will have some of the same morals and basic view of right and wrong." He explained to her hoping that maybe it would make her feel a bit less annoyance toward the people that did it. "But I do see your point too. I'd probably be pretty annoyed too if all people knew me as was Lindsay's brother. Well.. maybe not. I think it's probably be a good thing to be associated with my sister like that. It wouldn't bug me all that much."

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[Cassandra Graham]

As he spoke, Cassandra listened to him with a light thoughtful frown. She knew he was right to some extent, and that it was to be expected that she was, in some ways, similar to her brother. And truth be told, she was. She couldn't exactly deny that, they'd had the same upbringing and though they'd both reacted very differently to it, it didn't change the fact that they still had some points in common. Sadly enough, the biggest point in common they had was their bad reputation, but neither of them really cared about that. They were both a bit blaze too, rarely cared about something if it didn't concern them. Indifference was a big part of their life, of how they'd been raised. The indifference that radiated off their parents when it came to their children had been passed on to them, except that for them, it was about practically every single thing instead of just one in particular. It was very clear that their parents' biggest concern was money, and their offspring only came second to that, because obviously, children wouldn't make them live, money would though. Neither Cassandra or Andrew had the same love of money their parents did though. Of course, Cass spent a lot of it, because it wasn't her own. The moment she'd start owing her own money however, she knew there wouldn't be as much shopping for her.

The main reason for which she was happy to have been accepted at Gordon Parks' was pretty much the fact that she didn't have to see them everyday now, or to come face to face with their obvious lack of interest. She knew it was also why Andrew loved the Academy so much, and after merely a few days spent here, she already understood why. The atmosphere here was very different to what they were used to back at home, even when it came to their school back at home, because obviously they'd both been in private schools. The opposite wouldn't have been possible for either of the notorious Prestons' children. And even then, Cassandra had prefered being in school to being at home, which wasn't overly normal for a teenager. She hated holidays, despised those periods of time during which she had to stay at home for more than two days in a row. Long weekends were no fun to her. Homework in middle school was nothing compared to what she got now, and then she'd always managed to finish it early. So after a whole Saturday afternoon spent doing maths problems and writing a short essay for a lousy book for English Lit., that left her with Saturday evening, Sunday and Monday to have nothing to do at all. You can have all the amusement in the world, when you've had it for five years it's not very interesting anymore.

"I guess so," she said to him with a shrug, the thoughtful look still on her face though the frown had left by then. There was no trace of expression as to what she'd just been thinking of either - Cass didn't talk about her home life, nor did she want to have anything hint at it. She couldn't help but wonder why people even knew about the smallest facts, because Andrew wasn't very talkative either. Maybe he'd said a thing or two, and most people had assumed the rest, which explained why most of it was false as well, and why there were random informations going here that contradicted one another. Most people didn't think their way of acting was due to unhappiness or anything of the sort, they were just too spoiled to react properly to anything. "But those people would be annoyed just the same if I called them as to something they were instead of who they are. Nobody likes to be called by a title unless you're the Queen of England or whatever," she said with a shrug. "If I go around calling people this person's sister or brother, they won't like it either, yet they do it anyway," she added, knowing that she had a point there. "And that's the dumbest thing ever. People always say don't do to others what you wouldn't like to have done to you, yet the next thing you know, they're doing something unpleasant to someone," she shrugged, rolling her eyes.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He watched her as she seemed to be thinking about something and couldn't help but wonder exactly what it was that had her in such a thoughtful mood, but it had to be something. He hadn't really said all that much, but sometimes he'd found that it only took the smallest amount of talking to get a person to really think about something. Well that was if the person had a lot to think about with the subject, or if they had been thinking about it in the back of their mind all along. Otherwise it could just be something really random, that something that he was saying was somehow connecting to something else that the person had on their mind. He didn't do anything as he watched, but waited patiently observing her as he did. When people thought about things they seemed to revel things about themselves, a lot more than they knew. Of course there were the obvious things, like if they were frowning or smiling or simply staring off into space that usually dropped a few small hints about the general feeling of whatever their thoughts were. But the way that they stood and simply moved in general gave a way a lot. It told as much about the thoughts as it did about the person. He'd noticed that the frown she'd been sporting before seemed to vanish, which was probably a good thing.

He listened to her next point and gave her a small shrug. "You've got a point," he said with a nod. "But people don't live by that rule most of the time obviously. Everyone can dish things out but they can never handle taking them back in." It was something that he'd simply come to learn to accept. People always were willing to do things to other people, but no one was ever willing to handle having the same exact things done to them. People were selfish, it was a plain part of life. Everyone was self involved and they didn't care if it didn't affect them. Survival of the fittest was a motto that almost everyone seemed to live by. He didn't see the point of it, after all people needed each other to get along with life. And if everyone was rotten to the people around them, how could they count on those people to be there when they needed them? It was something no one thought of anymore. He supposed it was part of teenager hood, not worrying about what was going to happen next. It was something that they should have worried about though. Then again... maybe he shouldn't have been worried about it. He cared too much about what other people thought, it was easy to see. Just by the way that he chose to live his life, he cared about other people's thoughts. More than he should have, which was why he just allowed himself to be walked all over. Maybe someday he'd change, maybe but it was doubtful.

"I'm usually an optimist myself," he admitted to her. "But I think that people have a selfish nature. Most people will only care about themselves usually unless they have a reason to care about someone else. So they don't care how much they hurt others as long as things are fine with them." In most cases he wouldn't share his not so optimistic view about people, but for some reason he had a feeling that she wasn't going to disagree or anything. Maybe she'd noticed the same thing that he had about people. It was easily noticed if anyone was willing to spend the time to watch other people and their actions. Just a few days of watching various people would revival that. He usually thought that it led back to the ultimate pessimist vs. optimist question. Which was if people were basically good or basically evil. There wasn't a proper answer to the question, it was comparable to the glass half full glass half empty scenario, because it told more about the person that answered the question then the actual object involved in the question. Which was what made it the optimist vs. the pessimist because each were expected to have certain answers to the question.

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[Cassandra Graham]

"Well, of course," she said with a small sigh as he mentionned most people didn't actually live by that rule, figuring it was hypocritical but knowing there wasn't much that could be done about it. It was always easier to actually be critical of someone else or tell them things you didn't want to hear, then actually having to hear those things. Cassandra really hated people who did that, but she knew that there was no way around it. They were there, and they would always be. Most of the time, she managed to push away her annoyance at whatever was said to her, like the whole issue about being called Andrew's sister, or Andrew's daughter, because well, her father and brother had the same name. Even one of her middle names, Andrea, was a feminine version of her father's name. Talk about being conceited. The old man had had to give both of his kids his name even if one was actually a girl. But in the world where she came from, there was no way of avoiding being called something like that, because all the formal events she was forced to going to, all the parties, the evenings, the boring tea afternoons, people didn't know who she was herself, and they didn't care. They knew she was that Preston kid, the youngest of the family, rich and spoiled, and that was enough for them. The name said it all, why find out about the actually person hidden underneath?

The reason she was the way she was was mainly because it was a way of being an individual. Whenever people told her off about something, said to her that she didn't live her life in a proper way, that she should change her behavior, be nicer, more social, more approachable, all that crap she didn't give a damn about, she was able to shrug it off without a care in the world because she knew what was the very exact reason as to why she was that way. She wasn't necessarily all that high on people who were complete freaks to be different from other people, and she didn't necessarily like those who stood to far away from being normal either. Of course, she was a bit hypocritical herself, disliking people for not being the way she expected them to be when her very own way of living was actually meant for that, being different. But that was another part of her personality which she was aware of, and yet something else which she didn't care if other people thought it was bad or anything like that. And more importantly, she didn't want to be used because of who she was, because of her status and her money. It was partly the reason why she'd never really had close friends - she didn't trust people. What told her they were actually her friend because they wanted to be, and not because they just wanted to get some favors from the rich kid? She'd figured early in her life than the best way around that was to just not have friends, and so far so good.

"I wouldn't really call myself an utter pessimist," she said with a thoughtful look as he said he was an optimist, which, all things considered, was definitely not surprising. She couldn't help but smirk a bit when he mentionned that most people had a selfish nature. Well, she wasn't going to deny or argue with that one - how could she when she herself was pretty much a selfish girl? She hardly ever did anything that wouldn't give her something in the end, and she didn't really care about other people's feelings or well beings. She did what she wanted to do, and if that wasn't fine with other people, if it upset or annoyed them, then that was just too bad. She wouldn't stop herself from enjoying her own life just because some people around her were being hurt from her actions. Well, she never really did anything that was entirely hurtful to someone, unless it was on purpose. "I guess that's something nobody can really deny," she said with a light shrug. "I'm pretty selfish myself, but I can somewhat blame it on my upbringing," she added with a light sarcastic laugh. She was rarely bitter in the presence of someone else, especially a stranger, but she hadn't really been able to restrain that one.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He'd figured that Cassandra was probably more on the pessimist side of life before she said that she couldn't call herself an utter pessimist. It was just the kind of thing that he'd noticed about her, the way that she seemed to be before she even opened her mouth. Usually, that would have bugged him a bit. He didn't like to associate himself with pessimists, it would have a bad effect on him. The negative thinking of the person would spread to him and that was never a possibility that he much enjoyed. He liked having a happier outlook on life, it made things easier to stand - well it made them more bearable at least. However, he couldn't find himself unhappy with the fact that he was talking to a pessimist before him. It was probably because he figured that there was probably a legitimate reason for her outlook on life. And though everyone, had a reason (or most everyone anyway) he found that he was curious to know exactly what it was that had caused it for her. Well, more than he already sort of guessed. Her brother didn't quite seem like an optimist either.

He saw that she still looked pretty thoughtful about something and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking again, he always wanted to hear peoples thoughts. It annoyed him just slightly when someone sat there and thought about something for a long time but didn't say anything, at the same time he understood why someone would want to keep certian things to themselves, but that never stopped him from wondered. She spoke again he realized that he'd been pretty right about the upbringing having effected her, it was hard not to hear the bitterness in her tone as she spoke about it. And if even half the things that were said around the school were true than he could understand why she might have been a bit bitter. At least she wasn't one of those people who enjoyed being selfish from the sounds of her bitterness. Though it was mostly more toward her upbringing than who she was, at least it was in there somewhere. Maybe that explained why he wasn't just stopping his conversation with her, that little bit of something that was kind of hard to see but it was definitely present.

"Upbringing does play an important part in how we are," he said. "I always find it interesting how people in the same enviornment can be such different people, though." Those siblings who were drastically different, who chose something else for themselves than what was presented in front of them, and those that took what they were given and used it to make themselves into a person who they thought that they could be proud of. He thought a lot, he liked thinking about other people and trying to figure out how things worked. Which was something that made him wish that he could go to a normal high school sometimes, so that he could take classes on things like sociology. If he didn't love his music so much he could have easily been working with and for people his whole life without a problem. People were interesting, and he'd learned over time that if he managed to stay on the good side of people he could see the bad side without actually having to experience it himself. Plus, it was easier to ask questions to people who liked you than to people who didn't.

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[Cassandra Graham]

Cass nodded slightly when he talked about people being raised in the same environment but being completely different people. She knew she and Andrew were very different on some aspects, though they were also alike on others. Andrew wasn't quite as bad off as she was in all honesty. He'd taken the wrong path out of rebellion and anger and he'd gotten stuck on it since then, but he was nothing like the young boy he used to be before that. She knew most of what was said about him around school, all the bad stuff, was true, but she also knew it wasn't really him. Screwing around with girls... well, he was a teenage boy, what could be done about that. Of course, it was probably more the way he treated those girls that got other people talking, but she knew he wasn't really a mean guy. Hurt, in many many ways, but not bad. It was just his way of showing his anger toward life and all that crap. It might not be the best way, but Cassandra understood her older brother. On top of having had the same kind of life as her, he'd been given even less attention because she stole it all from him. She never really felt guilty about it, but she knew she'd played a part in the way he'd evolved.

"Well it's a bit normal too," she said with a light shrug. "I mean, even if we have the same upbringing and grow up in the same environment, we don't have the same personality, so we can't really grow to be the same person either," she added. She always thought it a bit funny how people expected siblings to be a lot alike just because they'd been raised the same way. She and Andrew didn't have the same personality at all - he was more of a quiet boy really, angry at the world at the same time though he'd surely outgrow that sooner or later. He didn't talk much, very few people knew him well. She was more of a drama queen. She was an attention seeker, craved it, she was loud, very extroverted but turned bitter and mean. They could have been nice kids, really, they could have been very different from how they were today. Andrew could have been a shy boy who wouldn't hurt a fly, she could have been... well, non-bitter and nice. But the way things had turned out just didn't allow that, and she wasn't really one to dwell in the past and try to see how they could have avoided it. It didn't matter at this point. Besides, they were pretty much both too far gone to turn back now and become someone else - they could still try, but the chances they'd succeed were small, and besides, Cass herself didn't really want to. If people were not comfortable with who she was, they could just go see somewhere else.

She glanced down at her watch with a light sigh before looking back at him. "I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit hungry," she said, frowning a bit. She didn't really plan on asking him to go eat with her, though if he suggested they went to eat together she wouldn't turn down the offer because all in all she didn't mind his presence. It was rare she got to talk to someone without it being a fight, so it was kind of nice. But at this point she didn't really care, she hadn't eaten much that day and she just wanted to get something for dinner. She hadn't really done a lot of exploring yet when it came to food around Kansas City, but from what she'd heard there were a lot of nice restaurants around so that could be interesting to go and check out. And then of course, it was always nicer to have someone to go with when it came to restaurants, because eating alone in those places was kind of boring, and she didn't like boring. "I heard there was a nice sea food restaurant around, do you know where it is?" she asked, not hinting at the fact that she wanted him to come - she really didn't know where it was and she simply loved sea food. On top of it, she hadn't had any in a while.

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[Joel Rodgers]

He gave her a small smile. "True, I guess personality would probably play an even bigger part than the environment itself." After all, everyone could be put into a situation but it was the personality that made them react to the situations the way that they did. Therefore it'd make more sense than he thought before that the two could be completely different people, there was his explanation about the previous wondering right there. Personality was the difference between everyone in the world. Even though personality was something that was partly learned behavior, each person was still going to react to an important event (or even a not so important event) in a way that was different from another person, even if they'd been raised in the exact same environment. It was just part of being an individual person, so maybe he'd been wrong to assume that she was going to be like her older brother, but at least now he knew that he could be wrong about it and therefore now had the opportunity to change his thinking. He always liked it when people managed to prove him wrong in a good way.

"I'm kinda hungry, too. I was looking for a place to go eat before I bumped into you," he admitted to her with a shrug. He wasn't quite sure how to take her words, were they an invitation or where they just her telling him that she was going to go off and leave him. There wasn't any implication either way in her words that he could hear so he was completely undecided on what he was suppose to do. He really wished that she would have made the meaning in her words more clear than it was. He listened as she asked where the sea food restaurant was. "Oh Trezo Mare? It's downtown." He knew where it was in more exact direction than that of course, he'd been there a couple of times. Sea food wasn't his favorite type of food, but he did enjoy having some from time to time, he knew where most of the more well known restaurants where in Kansas City because he'd been to all of them at least once before in the previous year. Well, not all of them, but the one's that had food that he was interested in he'd been to, which were quite a few of them. And he still did know where the one's he hadn't been to where as well.

He thought for a minute before deciding on which would be the best way to try and both spend more time with her and get her to the place that she wanted to go without getting her lost or anything. The best way would probably be just to show her the way. "I could try and explain how to get it from here," he offered. "But it'd probably be easier for me to just walk with you there." There, that way he wasn't saying that he'd join her but there was the option that he could once they got there. It was more subtle and would probably work better that way, it'd give him more time to figure out if he was actually going to join her. "Just follow me and I'll lead the way," he said. He waited for her before he started walking with her, actually finding that he was quite happy that she wasn't just leaving and having that be that. It was interesting to talk to the younger freshman girl, she wasn't like anyone he'd really talked to in a while. He was enjoying getting a look into her thoughts, even if she wasn't one that really expressed her thoughts.

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