Then the bell rang, and reality struck again. School might have been hers in small victories, but home was a battlefield of a different kind.
The moment she walked through the front door, the familiar tension hit like a wall. Her mom, arms crossed, face tight with disapproval, was waiting.
“You think running your mouth at school is going to solve anything?” her mother snapped, eyes flashing. “Do you know how worried I am? Your father left, and now you’re acting like the world owes you something.”
Cass clenched her fists, the anger from school mixing with the resentment she had carried for months. “I’m not asking the world to owe me anything,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m standing up for myself. Something you apparently never taught me.”
Her mother’s face twisted, voice rising.
