Cassie Ainsworth

Cassie Ainsworth is the tritagonist of the E4 Teen Drama series Skins acting as the deuteragonist of series one and the main protagonist of series two and Skins: Pure. She is an eccentric and friendly girl struggling with several mental issues including anorexia nervosa and drug addiction. She is the on and off girlfriend of the dopey Sid Jenkins.

She was portrayed by Hannah Murray.

Series One
During the debut of the first series, Cassie was recently discharged from hospital after a suicide attempt off-screen and was forbidden to handle knives for the time being. Her friend Michelle then arranges for her to have sex with Sid at a party. Once arriving at the party however Cassie immediately heads for the kitchen to seek out food before heading outside to play on a trampoline, shortly followed by Sid.The two then talk with each other and even briefly kiss, with a drowsy Cassie revealing that she knows Sid is attracted to both her and Michelle and says that she'll let him have sex with her but he'd have to do it quickly as she took a great number of pills sometime before and passes out only for a panic ridden to Sid to carry her body back into the house to demand they head to the hospital. After chaos ensues the entire gang leave the party and steal a car aiming to get Cassie to the hospital. By the time they finally arrive however Cassie awakens.

Sometime later Cassie begins struggling with anorexia again and attends a support group which unbeknownst to her was attended by the wrathful and insecure drug dealer Madison Twatter who expressed his interest in seeking vengeance on Sid even revealing that he has obtained the latter's student card and intends on heading to Roundview College to confront him.

Coincidentally Cassie grows much closer to Sid of whom she has now fallen for and to his request demonstrates to him how she is able to get away with hiding the fact that she is not eating, but he is not impressed with it, and expresses concern and mild disgust. Cassie then relents on how nobody seems to care about her condition for Sid to protest and say he does, something which made Cassie feel happier. Sid's best friend Tony Stonem then arrives and begins belittling a disheveled and unclean Sid before Cassie in a fit of rage pushes Sid's eaten food towards Tony's lap dripping water all over his crotch much to his frustration and Sid's amusement. Before he leaves Cassie warns Sid that Mad also has his ID card. Over the course of the rest of the day Cassie keeps hallucinating seeing the word EAT constantly, something which climaxes when she decides to call her taxi driver friend who convinces her into eating a burger at a local diner.

Sometime later Cassie finally decides to ask out Sid who awkwardly agrees only to be grounded shortly after. As a comprise Cassie requests she come over to his house to which Sid allows. However Sid is distracted thanks to Tony manipulating Sid to accompany him and Michelle to his choir performance, and when an exhausted Sid admits he was with Michelle, Cassie lashes out at him in fury before kissing him and leaving. The following day Sid calls Michelle to meet her in an attempt to make amends something which prompts a hurt Cassie to attempt suicide once again by in-taking a large amount of pills mixed with vodka. When Sid tries to visit her in hospital, Jal Frazer angrily rebuffs him and tells him to leave.

After recovering in rehab Sid and Michelle visit Cassie and make amends with her in spite of her being in a new relationship. A few nights later Sid calls her late at night to meet in a diner after having grown tired of Tony's behavior and the two kiss each other happily, this is short lived however as Sid needs to leave to rescue Tony and his sister Effy from an overdose and the perverted Josh Stock something which although she understands she is still upset over.

A while later she prepares to move from Bristol to Elgin Scotland, which she delays after discovering Sid's true feelings for her and she awaits him on a bench looking over the center of Bristol and the two hold hands and develop a relationship.

Series 2
In the second series, Cassie is in a long-distance relationship with Sid which soon becomes strained when Sid begins to think Cassie has been unfaithful. He angrily accuses her of cheating, mistaking her closeness with her gay Scottish friend, something which hurts Cassie and leaves an angry Sid to smash his laptop in frustration. After Sid's father Mark dies, Sid travels to Scotland to meet her as Cassie simultaneously travels back to Bristol to meet Sid. Frustrated at Cassie's disappearance and emotionally confused by his father's death, Sid attempts suicide before being saved by Michelle who he develops a relationship with out of her pity. However, Cassie awaiting in Sid's bedroom spots the two and angrily leaves Sid.

From this point on Cassie becomes extremely promiscuous with people and mentally unstable something which eventually leads to her roomate Chris Miles losing his job as a junior property salesman and cause a significant amount of tension between him and his now girlfriend Jal. Soon following this she sells drugs to Effy and Pandora Moon shortly after adopting two pet slugs who she names Sidley and Mischeca in an attempt at mockery of Sid and Michelle. Sid thanks to Effy some becomes aware of Cassie's behavior and, he confronts her emotionally leading to a reconciliation of the two.

Cassie continues living with Chris and develops a close friendship with him. Her emotional instability is worsened after witnessing him suffer from two subarachnoid hemorrhages, the second of which kills him leaving a traumatized Cassie to flee the country to New York City There Cassie gets a job as a waitress at a diner in Manhatten, oblivious to Sid Jenkins searching for her.

Between Series 2 and Skins: Pure
Sid eventually found Cassie and the two travelled America together before eventually breaking off their relationship for unknown reasons.

Skins: Pure
Cassie moves to London in 2013 and has growing concern over learning that she has a stalker currently taking photos of her and putting them on a website, she eventually encounters the man named Jakob who is revealed to be her stalker and after several negative circumstances she blows away from him and instead develops a modelling career after reconciling with her family and looking after her brother Ruben.

Personality
Cassie was a friendly and quirky girl with many idiosyncrasies and odd mannerisms. In spite of this however Cassie was a reasonably smart and often times spiritual and artistic with a deep caring nature for those around her, she could also identify many issues people had by merely listening to descriptions of them. Cassie also contained a very fragile mind however and was immensely insecure and suicidal with issues such as BDI and anorexia plaguing her constantly.