Cassidy carefully set the Glock she’d been using back into the rack where the practice weapons were kept. The cartridges they used in the simulator didn’t actually contain the silver bullets or silver liquid they used outside of the facility, but she was always careful to put them away properly as well. Once, early on, she’d seen another trainee casually toss one into the bin and thought Shane was going to lose his mind. Since he was already in a foul mood, she didn’t want to tempt him, although she was pretty certain he wouldn’t mess with her unless he wanted to stir things up with a whole lot of people more powerful than he was.
She supposed he might have been bent out of shape because Aurora was invited to meet with Cadence and Aaron and a few other select Guardians, and he wasn’t part of the cool kids’ club. He spent the entire hour of their simulation practice huffing and puffing, yelling at new recruits for silly reasons. He’d been about to shout at Cassidy once, and she turned around and gave him a death stare, shutting him up immediately. She knew he wasn’t actually afraid of her, but he had to be at least a little bit afraid of the people she lived with.
“All right, get in a line. We’ve got about five minutes, and we need to go over a few more things before we’re done for the night.” Shane was standing near the exit, his bulging biceps crossed against his Hulk-like chest. He had the same scowl on his face he’d worn all night, and Cassidy was very much over it.
Nevertheless, she took a spot between one of the clumsier recruits, a Hunter named Tara Cline, and Dax. A glance up at the new boy told her he was more than a little unnerved. Shane had been easier on him than most considering it was his very first day, but he hadn’t been completely spared. Cassidy offered him a small grin. His blue eyes were wide, but he managed a hesitant smile. He was tall and lanky, with a shock of reddish blond hair and a horrible habit of picking at his face when he was nervous, which made her think he must’ve had bad skin at some point, though Transformation serum had a way of clearing that up. He was nice and Cassidy liked him. She could definitely see why the team had brought him on; he was pretty good for being brand new. If she didn’t have a boyfriend, she might’ve also thought he was attractive--but since she did, there was no point in thinking along those lines.
Shane began to drone on about weapon safety and how this isn’t as easy as some Hunters and Guardians make it look. Cassidy tried to tune him out, having heard this lecture several times before. She was one of the more experienced trainees at this point, and since there were only a couple others who had even been on observations, she was light years ahead of them as far as actual hunting was concerned, but she didn’t really want to be. The more she heard Shane talk about the proper way to kill a Vampire, the more she wanted to run out of the room.
In fact, tonight had been her worst in the simulator in a while. She still hit the percentages she was required to in order to maintain her status, but something about pointing her weapon at a Vampire and pulling the trigger had become more difficult, even if they weren’t real Vampires. Her thoughts wandered to Bonnie. Hopefully, Lena had given her a good home, and she was doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Thoughts of Mina’s face filled her mind, and she had to cover her eyes with her hand for a moment to fight back the tears.
“Are you okay?” she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Dax, a concerned expression on his face.
Cassidy nodded, pulling her shoulder away. Shane had stopped speaking and was looking directly at them, as if he was a teacher waiting for their attention. Without thinking, Cassidy opened her mouth slightly in a silent hiss. The trainer’s face contorted as his eyebrows arched. He shook his head in shock and stammered through the last of whatever it was he had to say.
Almost as quickly as she’d opened it, Cassidy closed her mouth. She had no idea what had gotten into her. Never before had she used her fangs to intimidate a team member—or anyone else for that matter. She hoped no one else had seen, but once Shane dismissed them, she turned to see Dax staring at her in disbelief.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I don’t… that’s never happened before.”
“No, it’s fine,” he replied, though he was a good two feet away from her and not moving any closer. “Are you all right, though? You looked… upset.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, managing a smile, but as Dax nodded and headed off with the other dozen recruits to the showers, Shane shouted her name. With a sigh, Cassidy turned and ambled in his direction, slowly.
“Findley—what the hell was that?” he asked, his arms still crossed. He towered over her, and she was certain to anyone gazing at them from a distance, they looked like a perfect example of an illustration of opposites one might find in a children’s book.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to--”
“Don’t let it happen again!” he demanded, cutting her off.
Cassidy felt her fangs dropping once more. Part of her wanted to nod and run off; the other wanted to scratch his eyes out. Realizing that opening her mouth would probably be in direct violation of what he’d just ordered, she managed to mumble, “‘Kay,” and then met his eyes long enough to know he was done with her. She took off toward the girls’ locker room so fast she passed half of the kids who’d left at the same time as Dax.
“What happened?” Tara asked as Cassidy dodged past her. The other girl reached out and gently grabbed Cassidy’s elbow, causing her to pause.
Cassidy turned back to look at her. Sweat had plastered the baby hairs that had slipped free from her ponytail onto her forehead, thin tendrils of brown hair standing out against her pale skin. She had a concerned expression in her chocolate eyes, and Cassidy felt she could potentially confide in her, though she wouldn’t have necessarily counted her as a friend. Still, she knew Tara would never make her team and would be transferred off somewhere, possibly to another continent, soon enough. “Nothing. Shane is just… Shane.”
“Right?” Tara asked as the two of them followed a tall blonde girl named Addy into the locker room. “I don’t know what Meagan sees in that dick.”
“I think you answered your own question,” Addy said over her shoulder as she opened her own locker.
“Hey speaking of getting some,” another girl, Gina, who was almost completely undressed began, “why didn’t Brandon come with you tonight?”
“Yeah, where was Mr. Keen this evening?” Addy inquired, slipping out of her shorts.
“Oh, he, uh, he didn’t need to come. And… I think he… was busy.” Cassidy didn’t like how the conversation had gone from dick to getting some to her and Brandon, but then all of these girls were at least a year or two older than her, and she assumed sometimes they forgot she was only sixteen. An inexperienced pubescent compared to them.
“Well, if that new guy hadn’t been here, we would’ve been all out of eye candy.” Gina headed for the shower, leaving her sweaty clothes strewn about the floor as she went.
“He is kinda cute isn’t he?” Addy called following her. “Much better than Kip or Antonio.”
“Much better than all of the other guys in our group,” Gina agreed.
Cassidy did her best to stop thinking about their conversation, though she had to admit Dax wasn’t bad looking. Not that it mattered. She had a boyfriend. Even if she was extremely angry at him presently.
“Cass?”
She looked up to see wide brown eyes staring at her. “I asked if you’re sure you’re okay.” Tara looked concerned. She hadn’t begun to undress yet, and Cassidy had noticed she usually waited until the other girls were done. She had a feeling the girl had a bit of a self-esteem problem because she was slightly curvier than the rest of them, which Cassidy wished she could help her get over. She was just as attractive as any of the other girls and had a sweet personality.
Reflecting on her question, Cassidy sat down on the bench in front of her locker, and Tara dropped down beside her. “I’m… pretty upset about the hunt we went on last night,” she said quietly, feeling the other girl out.
“I heard there was some crazy stuff happening,” Tara replied, leaning in closely, as if they were sharing a secret.
Since the other girl hadn’t even gone on an observation yet, Cassidy hesitated to tell her much of anything. Besides, if she wanted to disclose her feelings about the hunt, this person she hardly knew probably wasn’t the one to confide in. “Yeah, it was intense,” Cassidy replied as a couple of girls who had gotten to the locker room first stepped out of the showers. It seemed like the perfect reason to bite her tongue.
“It must be so cool to get to see all of that stuff. I can hardly wait,” Tara said, smiling. Almost as an aside she added, “But if something happened that was upsetting, you know you can talk to me, right?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Cassidy replied, smiling. She stood and grabbed her shower items out of her locker deciding to undress in the stall as there was already too much bare flesh in the room for her liking.
Once she was under the warm water, she realized that the thoughts that were eating at her weren’t going to go away until she talked to someone about them. Who, exactly, she felt comfortable confiding in, was another story. Cadence didn’t make enough time for her, she was irrationally angry at both Brandon and Elliott—and even more so at Aaron. A few other faces flickered through her brain, but none of them seemed like the right person.
She ran her hands through her hair, trying to chase out the last bits of shampoo residue and decided if she couldn’t talk to any adults about all of this, maybe there was someone else she needed to see who could help her start to straighten it out. She turned off the water, resolved to see if she could chase down a few of her own demons.
