chapter one

12 years later.....

“Cassie? Cassie, wake up....Cassie....CASSANDRA!!!!”

I bolted upright in my bed, scared half out of my mind. At my bedside was my older sister, Keri, shaking her head in disbelief.

“How can it be humanly possible for someone to sleep so much?” she asked me.

Still too sleepy to answer her, I waved her away as I made my way to the bathroom. She followed.

“Are you ready for the interview today?” she asked, leaning against the door frame. I nodded as I splashed cold water on my face.

Today was my day. I was the new intern at the radio station my sister worked at. She was the set director, and when word went out about an internship, she sprung the idea on me, and I took it. I had been there for two months so far, and I already had an hour and a half long segment all to myself, and the response from the listeners was great. The guys I worked with were amazing:

Jay, the guy I worked with on the air, was the sweetest man in the world. I was his “kid sister” and boy did he look out for me.

Then there was “Midnight Mike” the after hours guy. I was always prepared for his smooth talking ways, and he always managed to get a laugh out of me, even on my down days.

Gina, the station manager, was like another sister, always bossing me around yet being kind at the same time.

Laurel, Jeff and Mark, the morning crew, were always on hand, ready to play a prank on anyone. And today was no exception.

The interview I was scheduled to do today was a part of the “Intern Initiation” process that the morning crew came up with. They were basically going to throw me into an interview with someone, and have my segment be the whole interview. They refused to tell me who I was interviewing, and they convinced everyone else to keep mum about it as well.

I wasn’t ready, to be honest. I was nervous and had no questions prepared for the interviewee, thanks to the wonderful cast of co-workers I had. I couldn’t do background checks on the musician, I didn’t know who it was, and Laurel got a kick out of that! She came up with the idea of me being the interviewer all on her own, and when the guys all accepted her idea, she beamed.

“Its just a test to finally get you into the 'clique.'” Jeff had said jokingly. “This is the last one, scouts honor!”

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the morning crew dearly, but they get carried away sometimes.

So here I was, Friday morning, nervous as hell, getting ready to go into work.

Before leaving the bathroom, I glanced in the mirror and took a long look at myself.

“You’ve come a long way, Cass.” I told myself. I had long left the overweight pre-teen behind, and now, at 20, I was at a reasonable weight, and as slender as the best of them. “Not too skinny,” my sister had told me. “You got the right stuff in the right places.”

Before I could reminisce back to my painful childhood years, I slipped out of the bathroom and headed downstairs. The butterflies in my stomach were working over time, and I couldn’t get any food in me, for fear that it may come rushing back up later.

[prologue | chapter index | chapter 02]