Rebel Wrong

Chapter Three: Moving In

Cade glanced around her new bedroom. It was large, almost as large as the apartment back in Michigan. The walls were a light cream color as was the massive area rug that covered the dark hardwood floor at the foot of the Queen sized bed. Most of the room was decorated in brown and pastels. Cade wasn't impressed. Who needed three dressers and a walk-in closet? She'd gotten by just fine with sharing one dresser with her mom. 

Winny, who was the live-in cook, kept hovering around her, wanting to know if she were settling in fine. She'd be a lot better if people just left her alone. No one had ever really taken care of her, not even her own parents, and it was honestly kind of annoying.

The day after Christmas, at around five in the morning, she got an angry phone call from her father. This was the first time they had spoken in well over a year and he was very upset with her. That wasn't surprising at all. 

"Cadey, why'd you skip the flight to Switzerland yesterday?" her father demanded as soon as she answered the phone.

"I don't know, probably the same reason why you left without me," she retorted, crawling out of bed and heading to her on-suite bathroom. "Neither one of us really wants to be with the other," she explained before hanging up the phone.

She didn't want to talk to her father. She didn't want to see him or his wonderful new wife and her children. She just wanted to finish out her ten months in this hell hole until her eighteenth birthday when she could legally move out on her own.

She took a cool shower in the enormous walk-in shower that was larger than the entire bathroom at Axel's apartment. When she was finished, she towel dried her dirty blonde hair and left it to finish drying naturally so that it would retain some of the natural waves.

Then she came back out into the bedroom and rifled through her belongings for some clothes. She hadn't bothered to unpack and she wasn't going to wear any of the clothes that were already in the closet. There were nothing but skirts, flashy tops, and high heels. That was definitely not her style.

She planned on looking for a job so she did dress up a bit. She wore jean shorts that didn't have any rips in them and a short sleeved blue blouse that she tucked into the waistband of her shorts. Nothing said fancy more than a tucked in shirt.

Cade had been all for walking around the neighborhood to find herself a job, but then she remembered the pristine, white BMW in the garage with her name on it. Literally. Her dad was going to give it to her as a Christmas present once they got back from Switzerland. Well, it was after Christmas and she wasn't in Switzerland so she figured it was safe to take it.

She had never had her own car. She had been stuck driving her mom's old car until her mom decided it would be a good idea to go for a joyride while she was high. The car had gotten totaled and she was stuck riding the bus after that. Her mom wasn't exactly responsible when it came to life.

She was going to enjoy the car for the day because she knew that her dad would probably take it away from her once he got back from his holiday trip. She really didn't care. The weather was nice all year in California; it wouldn't kill her to have to walk a few blocks to work everyday.

There weren't really any shops or stores around her father's house, unless you count the Starbucks every three blocks, but there was a shopping mall just over a mile away. There had to be one store in there that was willing to hire a seventeen-year-old girl from Michigan.

Cade had no sooner pulled out of the circular drive and onto the quiet little street when someone walked out in front of her car.

She slammed on the brakes, her heart pounding heavily against her chest. Did she hit the person? She peered over the steering wheel. There was no one there. Oh great. Her first day out on her own and she kills some rich kid. She'd probably be all over the news for this.

Cade immediately put the car in park and got out to check the damage. It was still early enough in the day that maybe she could drag the lifeless body and dump it in the ocean and no one would be awake to see her. Now there was a thought.

A young girl, somewhere around Cade's age was bent over, grabbing at piles of notebooks and textbooks that must have fallen out of her backpack, which was laying on the pavement next to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Cade asked, fearing she had bumped the girl with her car.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't think anyone would be on the road this early. I didn't look," the dark haired girl mumbled, quickly rising to her feet. She was staring at the ground as she spoke.

"It's okay," Cade replied, slowly.

The girl was wearing clean clothes and her backpack was in good quality and probably cost at least three hundred dollars, and yet she was acting like some homeless orphan that was being talked to by the cops. Her behavior intrigued Cade.

"Hi, I'm Cade. Do you live around here?" Cade greeted, pouring on the charm. She could be sweet and helpful when she needed to be, but she very rarely felt the need for it.

"Wh-what?" The girl looked up at her this time. The first thing that Cade noticed was that she wasn't wearing any makeup, which was a surprising thing to see.

"I was asking if you live here, since you were prowling the area at six in the morning," Cade laughed.

"I'm not a prowler!" the girl objected quickly. 

"Okay, okay," Cade laughed, holding her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to make some casual conversation." This girl was definitely acting weird.

"No, I'm sorry for my outburst," the girl apologized, clutching her backpack tightly to her chest.

"Really, it's okay," Cade assured her. She seemed to relax a bit at that. "Hey, so, uh, I never caught your name," Cade tried to casually ask for the girl's name again.

"It's Makayla," she replied, her voice soft and quiet. "Makayla Winslow. I live there." She pointed to the large, blue Victorian style home that was two houses down from where Cade was staying.

"Hey, Makayla, I'm Cade. I think I already said that a few times," Cade laughed. 

"Yeah," Makayla mumbled her agreement.

Cade wasn't used to having to keep the conversation going. Usually Trevor would talk enough for the both of them and she'd just have to tell him to shut up. Talking to Makayla was like trying to pull teeth and she didn't make a very good dentist.

"So, uh, what were you doing out this early?" Cade asked, trying to start another conversation with Makayla.

"I was going to the library." Her grip tightened more on the backpack clutched to her chest.

"Oh, cool," Cade replied, lamely. She wasn't very good at making new friends.

"I'm sorry I walked in front of your car. I'll just leave now," Makayla apologized as she started to walk back towards the sidewalk.

"Hey, wait a minute," Cade stopped her from leaving. Makayla tensed up. "Do you wanna hang out with me for a bit? I could drop you off at the library."

Makayla's dark blue eyes slowly lifted and met Cade's for the briefest of seconds, before she quickly looked away again. "I don't want to be a bother," she protested.

"Oh, please," Cade scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Come on, get in." She ushered Makayla around to the passenger side and practically shoved the girl in.

"I'm going job hunting today," Cade explained as she got back in behind the wheel.

"But aren't you Holly and Wesley Carmichael's step-sister?" Makayla asked, giving her a confused look.

"Yeah, I guess," she shrugged. She put the car in drive and started off down the road again.

The name Carmichael rang a bell, but honestly she didn't know the names of anyone in her dad's new family. She didn't care enough to ask. She didn't plan on being with them for that long anyways. 

"Why would you need a job? I mean, your dad should be able to buy you anything you need," Makayla, being raised in a wealthy family herself, was having a hard time wrapping her head around that.

"I don't want to have to be dependent on my dad," she explained to Makayla. "I don't want him to be able to use the, 'I pay for this and this, so you have to do this for me,'" Cade said in a low, gravelly voice, trying to impersonate her father.

"But shouldn't you be focusing on your schoolwork? Aren't you going to Northbend High? They have a pretty tough curriculum," Makayla really got heated when she talked about school.

"I got mostly A's and B's at my old school without really even trying. I think I'll be okay," she shrugged, unconcerned.

She had already taken a look at Northbend High's school website. Compared to her school back in Michigan, the grading system was much easier. In Michigan, anything below a 70 was failing. At Northbend, the fail system didn't start until below 60. She was confident that she could slide by pretty easily.

Cade and Makayla ended up going to the library first. It turns out the mall wasn't going to open until later in the afternoon. Cade really didn't mind though. Watching Makayla do extra homework was a lot more exciting than watching Trevor try and put together a model airplane that was meant for a six-year-old.

Being with Makayla made her think of Trevor. She was worried about him. He was even worse at making small talk than she was. It was hard leaving someone she loved behind and a small part of her wondered if she was being nice to Makayla because she genuinely liked the girl or just because she was trying to fill some void left from being so far away from her best friend.