Chapter Five: Cassie gets a new school

Despite the now-constant awkwardness between Lily and I, she still stuck to her promise to help Cassie out. She was over at my place nearly every second day. She avoided me like the plague though and used the excuse, “I want Cassie to think I’m her friend, not Dimitri’s” when Maggie asked her.

Of course, I was fairly sure that by this point in time she didn’t just want Cassie to think that she wasn’t my friend. She wasn’t my friend, or at least, she didn’t want to be. Of course, my insane crush on her continued and Magenta continued to tell me it was my own fault that we weren’t going out now. She was like an annoying tape-recorder on repeat, I knew that I’d stuffed up and I felt bad enough about it without her telling me every three seconds.

Still my strange best friend was always there for me, she may tell me that I’d stuffed up every three seconds, but in between those times she’d tell me that I could still fix this mess. Of course, I didn’t believe her.

The only times that I saw Lily these days and spoke to her, was band practice. It was the highlight of my week – we’d agreed that it was a weekly thing – sad I know, but it’s the truth. It’s not just because when we’re in that practice room Lily and I forget all of our awkwardness, it’s because of the music. It’s passionate and it’s hectic.

I never did get comfortable with the whole singing my own songs thing, so in the end Maggie did have to do it. She didn’t use words though, she just croaked out gibberish that she felt suited the music. I was still forced to be the front man though. Maggie would stand off to the side, croaking and rocking out on her bass, but she’d never approach the front of the stage, or shall I say practice room?

No, that was my domain to perform crazy guitar solos and generally just rock out, performing my heart out to the walls. The music would pulse around me and I’d be lost, except for that niggling suspicion at the back of my mind that the girls wouldn’t be happy with playing to the walls forever. I was right.

One Wednesday evening after band practice we ran up to the lounge, ready to collapse onto the couch. Unfortunately when we did get there, who should be sitting on the couch but David. I glared at my father, running a hand through my hair nervously. Why the hell did he have to pick the one day I have friends over to be home?

“Hi,” his voice was slurred, very slurred. “Who are you?” Great he was being rude too.

“These are my friends, Magenta and Lily.” I marvelled at the fact that he didn't know who my best friend was, though I'd known her five years now.

He waved at them half-heartedly. “Heard you guys playing. You’re amazing. I didn’t think you had that in you Dimitri,” he was drunk, but it was the most praise my father had given me for a while. I couldn’t help but feel my spirits lift a little.

“You should play a gig somewhere.”

Did I just say my spirits had risen? Well, they were crashing right back down now. He had to go and plant the seed of evil in their minds. I didn’t want to play a gig, but I knew that now the idea had been put out there, there was no going back.

“You think we’re good enough Mr. McAdams?” Maggie asked enthusiastically, completely ignoring the fact that David was drunk.

“Course you’re good enough. You’ve got Dimi, haven’t you?” David replied lazily.

Meanwhile, Lily was nudging me and I looked at her questioningly, “Cassie,” she mouthed at me.

“Oh yeah,” I said out loud.

“Is that you’re girlfriend?” David asked, now looking at Lily and I.

“Uh, no,” I said awkwardly, trying to keep this discussion as short as possible. First of all there was the whole awkward thing between Lily and I. Secondly there was the fact that the word girlfriend from out of David’s mouth brought up a whole lot of painful memories. Memories of my ex, Aileen telling me that she’d only gone out with me to get David’s signature when she broke up with me.

“Look, dad,” I gritted my teeth, I hated calling David dad. “I think Cassie needs to swap schools. The kids are making fun of her because...well because of you,” it was a bit harsh, but he was drunk. It wouldn’t have too much impact on him.

“Oh,” he sounded a little hurt, but not much. “Um, You sort it out Dimitri,” he leaned back against the sofa, “The account number’s 4133.”

Lily and Maggie had their mouths open in horror. You do not just give out your bank account details like that. Especially not if it’s an account with over three million dollars in it. “Oops,” David said, “I guess that’s why your mother sent me home. Said I’d had too much to drink, even for me.”

I had to admit that though my mother wasn’t the most perceptive person in the world, she’d been right about that one. “Go to sleep,” I said coldly and to my surprise David obeyed. He slunk out of the room throwing a curse at me as he went.

Once he was gone again I turned to Maggie and Lily, they were both still looking at me in shock. I tried to smile brightly, “It’s ok, right? Neither of you two are going to steal David’s money. If you do, you’ll be in big trouble with me.” I was lying, in fact, anything short of clearing out the bank account I wouldn’t care about. My father had far too much money, that was why he wasted it on booze.

“Well, no,” Lily chewed her lip, “And I guess you can sort out Cassie’s schooling now,” she said trying to sound enthusiastic after a meeting with my father.

I laughed, “There’s always a plus side to things,” I said happily.

“We also know that we’re good enough to play a show according to a professional musician,” Maggie pointed out.

“He was drunk, Magenta,” I all but hissed at her.

“Look, Dimitri, I know that you don’t want to do this. But it’s clearly what you were born to do. Music is what you were born to do. It doesn’t have to be a big show. It could be a little one.”

“I don’t want to,” I gritted my teeth.

“Just think about it Dimitri,” Lily said softly, touching my arm. This was the most she’d dropped her guard down with me for weeks. I looked at her, surprised out of my anger and without thinking about what I was doing, I nodded. Dammit, now I was going to have to think about it. Or at least pretend to.

“Ok, c’mon let’s get dinner and Cassie, so you can ask her about where she wants to go to school.” Maggie seemed hungry, so I led the way to the kitchen and popped out a nachos making kit.

“I’ll be doing the cooking tonight,” Lily said, taking over from me. “It’s my turn.” The girls had also started a tradition where we took it in turns to cook each week. We didn’t eat junk anymore though, or sit up too late, not after what had happened the first time.

I would have protested, but I was just too tired to argue. Instead I pushed the box over to her and headed over to the kitchen bench. Maggie had gone to get Cass and I had nothing better to do but sit and watch Lily. She was working industriously and looking pretty as per usual. I watched her with a small smile as she pulled out saucepans, poured sauces and sprinkled spices.

Eventually she caught me looking at her and I wrenched my eyes away, clearing my throat awkwardly. Her brown eyes seemed to bore into me, asking me why? And I couldn’t answer them, because I didn’t know why I couldn’t have just said I liked her too and gotten it over and done with. Maybe I was a prick. Maybe I was just excruciatingly shy. I didn't know.

Thankfully we were saved from our awkward little moment by the arrival of Maggie and Cassie, “Dimitri’s got something he wants to say to you,” Magenta told Cass as they walked in.

I smiled at my baby sister, “I know you want to change schools Cassie," I noticed how she glared at Lily here and I nearly laughed out loud. There was something so cute about Cassie when she was glaring, "I just want to know where you want to go to now?"

"Meriton," she said and I nodded, unsurprised. Meriton was a top-notch arts school. Heaps of celebrities' kids went there. I'd wanted to go there myself when I was younger, but I was happier with my school now and I didn't think I could bring myself to leave Maggie behind. My little sister would fit in perfectly at Meriton.

"Sure thing," I told her with a smile. "Dinner'll be ready in a minute and I'll be calling up your new school tomorrow morning to see what we can do to secure you a place."

I ruffled her hair as she sat down at the kitchen bench and she glared up at me before turning to Lily with a huge pout. "Why'd you blab to Dimi?" she asked her andI impulsively hugged her.

"She didn't blab to me," I said with my arms would tightly around her, "She blabbed to Maggie who blabbed to me." At this, Cassie was laughing and I was laughing and all of a sudden I felt happier again. I felt like I had a family again, it wasn't a typical one, but it was a family. Me, Cass, Maggie and Lily. We were a family.