Sealed with a Kiss | ✓

january 26th

Saturday came quickly, and Mia found herself outside Cassie and Phoebe's room at nine in the morning, trying to rub the tired out of her eyes. She knocked a few times on the door, but to no answer. Carefully, Mia pushed over the door, and found the usual mess on Cassie's side of the room. Phoebe's bed was empty and freshly made up. Cassie, however, was still in bed and was snoring loudly. Treading softly, Mia crept over to Cassie's bed and lent over Cassie's sleeping form. Gently, she reached down and shook Cassie, who groaned in her sleep and batted Mia's arm away. Mia rolled her eyes and shook her arm again, more firmly this time, which earned her a slap across the face as Cassie regained consciousness. Mia winced and put her hand to her face, more surprised than hurt by the slap. Cassie rubbed her eyes slowly, before registering what she had done and she sat bolt upright in bed.

"Oh my god Mia, I'm sorry, I was half asleep! Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry." Cassie apologised and held Mia's face, looking for any signs of bruising. Mia laughed and gently pulled Cassie's hands away from her face, ignoring the tingling sensation her hands left on her skin.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm sure it was an accident. Sorry for barging in like this but you didn't answer when I knocked, so I wanted to see if you were even still here or if you had rugby practise of something." She gestured to Phoebe's empty bed. "Do you know where Phoebe is?" Cassie blinked a few times at the bed, and then looked as if the relevant information had presented itself to her in her brain.

"She's meeting her parents in a town about an hour away from here. Her parents work outside the country a lot, so she's visiting them while they are in England. After that I'm pretty sure she's got rehearsals with Robbie." Mia nodded. Then a thought occurred to her.

"What about your parents? Why are you at a boarding school?" Cassie blinked a few more times at Mia. Her brain was obviously not yet functioning properly this early on a Saturday morning. She rubbed her eyes and sighed.

"My parents have a lot of money and they're very busy. They figured it was better if I went to a boarding school, that way they didn't have to worry about caring for me all the time." Cassie noticed Mia's look of pity and waved her off. "It sounds worse than it actually is. They're both incredibly busy and barely remember to look after themselves, let alone a child. It's alright, being at boarding school means that I actually get on with my parents better than I did when I went to regular school." Cassie looked up at Mia. "What about you, little Miss Head Girl?" Mia took a deep breath.

"I'm here on a scholarship." She said simply. Cassie's eyes went out on stalks.

"Woah, really?" Cassie said, impressed. "I had no idea. No wonder you work so damn hard." Mia laughed humorlessly.

"Yeah, I kind of have to. This school is one of the best for what I wanted to do, so I applied for the scholarship and was lucky enough to get it. I had to reapply each year though, which sucked. My parents would not be able to afford to send me here without the scholarship."

Cassie looked at Mia for a bit.

"What do you want to do? Like, once you finish here, where do you want to go, what do you want to do? I'm supposed to be your fake girlfriend but I barely know anything about you." Cassie said, sitting up in her bed and resting against her pillows. Mia bit her lip and thought for a bit.

"To be honest, I've not told anyone here that I'm on a scholarship, not even Angie, but I'm pretty sure she's figured it out anyway, even if I haven't told her explicitly. As for what I want to do after this? I'm going to go to the University of Paris to study French history, hopefully." She said, smiling wistfully. "It's been a dream of mine for a long time to live and study in Paris, and now I might actually have the chance. What about you Cassie?" She shrugged.