A/N: Hey everyone! This is a story I've been thinking about for almost a year now but it wasn't until a month ago when I decided to go ahead and write it. I've done a lot of writing and fanfiction before but this is the first time I actually post it online so I'm kind of nervous, I hope you like it or at least don't hate it. The story starts on Season 2 between episodes 3 and 4, Ice Pick and Abomination, although the first chapter is going to be more like an introduction of the OC. I wanted to start on season 2 because with the arrival of the OC I will not always follow along with the show and I didn't want to change anything from season 1. Like I say on my profile, english is not my mother language so I apologize if there's any mistake. Make sure to review to let me know what you think!
A pair of big, deep blue eyes looked outside of the car's window without paying much attention. The owner of those eyes was a small, thin redhead with a face way too childish for being sixteen. Her name was Gretchen Martin, and she never was a fan of traveling. In fact, she hated traveling. It gave her too many hours to think about what was she leaving behind and what was waiting ahead; two things she didn't like to think about. Five years back, when Gretchen, her mom and her little brother moved to another town due to her parent's divorce, she made a plan. She would attend to high school in her new town in North Carolina and she would never have to go back to Beacon Hills again. But being future as unpredictable as it is, her plan didn't turn out exactly as she expected. And now there she was, sitting on the back seat of a cab, waiting hopelessly for her arrival to the town she was raised in.
"I'm bored!" The voice of her brother took the girl out of her thoughts.
"We've been in this cab forever." Max complained, looking at his sister. Despite her bad mood, Gretchen couldn't help but smiling seeing Max's impatience.
"We were on the plane for longer and you didn't seem to care." Gretchen said, running a hand through the ten-year-old boy's hair.
"A plane flies, Gretch, a car doesn't. God, sometimes I can't believe you're six years older than me." Max rolled his eyes, as if what he just said was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Alright, smarty pants." Gretchen laughed, shaking her head. "We're almost there."
Her eyes went back to the window, starting to recognize some of the houses of the town they just had stepped in. She pulled a little note out of her pocket and started reading it for the millionth time since she got it. She still had a hard time believing those words her mother had written, they were so vague and so heartbreaking that it almost seemed like someone else had written them. Some day you will understand, I hope you will be able to forgive me then. Take care of your brother. But it was definitely her handwriting, she would recognize it anywhere.
She sighted, closing her hand around the note before noticing her brother jump in excitement. The car they were in was now stopped, and a familiar looking house was standing right in front of them. That was it; it was time to face reality. She was back. Max didn't waste his time, he opened the door and started running towards the man who was waiting for them on the house's porch.
"Dad!" He screamed, throwing himself into his father's arms, who held him tight.
"Hey buddy! How was the flight?" Mr. Martin let go of his son's hug and looked at him with a smile on his face.
"They gave us free peanuts and let us watch Despicable Me, it was awesome!" Max was clearly too excited to stand still, so he started to make weird movements with his arms.
"If you're still hungry there are cookies in the kitchen." Gretchen heard her father say while she stepped out of the car and grabbed their suitcases, after having paid the driver.
"Yay, cookies!" Max got quickly inside of the house.
"You only brought two suitcases?" Her dad asked, approaching her.
"Yeah, the rest of our stuff will arriv—oh" She was cut by her dad pulling her into a really, really tight hug.
"George, I can't breathe." She teased.
"Would it kill you calling me dad for once?" He pulled apart and looked at her with a grin on his face.
"You know I like George better." She shrugged.
"Yeah, I know." He took one of Gretchen's suitcases and put his free arm around the redhead's shoulders.
"I missed you." Gretchen looked up and smiled at him.
"I missed you too, baby." George said before kissing the top of his daughter's head. "Now let's get inside before your brother gets a sugar rush."
When they got inside Max had already eaten half of the cookies and had his mouth full of chocolate.
"Maybe you should save some space for dinner, big guy." George said, leaving his son's suitcase on the floor.
"Why? What's for dinner?" Max eyed his dad, wondering if there could be anything better than cookies.
"I believe Melissa is bringing lasagna." George answered making Gretchen frown.
"Melissa? As in Melissa McCall?" She asked.
"Yeah, didn't I mention it? The McCalls are coming over for dinner." George answered, grabbing a cookie.
"George!" Gretchen said in disbelief. It wasn't like she didn't want Scott and her mom to come over, but she was so not ready to deal with everyone yet. She hadn't even been able to think a proper excuse for not having called or written during the last four years.
"What?" George asked.
"Well, we just got here, literally, like three minutes ago. Don't you think it's a little soon to start socializing?" She tried to talk some sense into his father.
"I figured since you're starting at Beacon Hills High in a couple of days you could use a friend. You like Scott, right?" Her father asked, eating the cookie.
"Yeah, I guess, I don't know! We used to be good friends, yes, but we kind of lost touch when I moved." Gretchen really didn't know if Scott would want to be friends with her again, she wouldn't blame him if he didn't.
"Then this is the perfect occasion to catch up." George said.
"We have school for that." She tried to argue, but she was almost sure it wasn't going to work.
"Come on kid, Melissa told me that Scott was thrilled to know you were back, I'm sure it'll be fun." George was going to win the argument and he knew it.
Gretchen rolled her eyes and sighted. She was sure it was going to be the most awkward dinner she had ever been at. "Fine."
"Maybe we could invite Lydia too." George suggested.
"What? No." She shook her head, releasing a sarcastic laugh. "No, no. Absolutely not."
No. She wasn't going to have dinner with Lydia. She didn't care that she was family, or that they had the same last name, she was probably the meanest girl Gretchen had ever met. They would always argue about anything when they were kids. Literally, anything, even about whether the sky was clear blue or cyan. They were just too different to get along. Her cousin had been through hell in the last couple of weeks, she was aware. Being bitten by some animal, almost bleeding out and running through the woods naked for two days was no picnic, Gretchen was sure about that. She was sorry for Lydia, of course she was, but that didn't mean she wanted to face her sharpen tongue on her first night.
"Cousin Lydia? The one that wears high heels and a lot of perfume?" asked Max.
"Yep, the same." Gretchen nodded.
"I don't like her." He simply said. Gretchen put her hand up and high fived her brother.
"See? It's not just me." She said, looking back at her dad.
"She's your cousin, and you know what she's been through." George said.
"I know, and I will talk to her eventually." Or ever. "But not today, I'm not psychologically ready for that."
George put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, it'll be us and the McCalls then." He looked at his watch. "I gotta go get some groceries, who wants to come with me?" He asked, looking at his son.
"Me!" Max lifted his hands, as if going to the grocery shop was the most amazing thing in the world. He looked at his sister. "Gretch?"
"You two go, I'm gonna start unpacking." Gretchen smiled.
"Okay, to the grocery shop!" George said with a deep voice, reaching out his arm with his fist closed pretending that he was a superhero.
"To the grocery shop!" Max repeated, imitating his father. They both got out of the kitchen and run towards the garage.
Gretchen just watched them leave and smiled at how alike her father and her brother were. It felt really good to be with her dad. Since the divorce she only got to see him when he went to North Carolina to visit, and that didn't happen very often. She never truly understood the reason her parents got divorced. Whenever she asked her mom she got the same answer; it was necessary. At first she though, as it was her mom the one that got the children's custody, that her dad had somehow screwed things up. But when they talked it didn't seem like they were divorced at all, Gretchen would actually say that they looked like they were in love. But what did she know about love, right? She had never even had a boyfriend. There had been guys, of course, but never an actual boyfriend, no one she could say she was close to love.
She grabbed her suitcase and got out of the kitchen, beginning to slowly walk around the house. It was exactly as she remembered it, same wall paper, same pictures, same furniture. It made her feel like time hadn't pass, like she was still twelve and never left town. She stopped to look at some of the pictures hanging on the living room's wall. Gretchen as a baby, Max as a baby, a smiley George posing with his two children, her mom...She felt a lump on her chest looking at the picture of her mom. She looked so young, so beautiful, so carefree. So not like the kind of woman who would abandon her own children. She closed her eyes for a moment and stepped away, trying to get her mother out of her head. She went upstairs, finding the way to her old bedroom. Except for a sheetless bed and a closet, the room was empty, which made it look incredibly sad. The walls were still covered with the pink and white wallpaper her parents put when she was born. She frowned, almost in disgust. That was way too girly for the sixteen-year-old redhead. She walked towards the window to glance over it and, seeing what was on the other side, she felt her heart beat raise. What she saw was the bedroom of the boy who lived next door, which was in front of her own bedroom. Lucky for her, he didn't seem to be at home on that moment, so he wouldn't see her creeping through the window. His roomed had changed since the last time she saw it. It was no longer a child's room, it was a teenager's room. She could see a lot of pictures and newspaper's articles pinned to the wall, with multiple red strings joining each other, which she found odd. Maybe he was training for being a private investigator some time. She let out a heavy sight, wondering what that boy would say when he saw she was back. He probably hated her now, he had every right to. She shook her head and walked away from the window to start unpacking, she couldn't worry about him in that moment.
...
An hour or so later Gretchen heard her dad and her brother come back from the grocery store. She had already put some sheets on her bed and finished unpacking, so now she was sitting on a chair reading the book she had bought for the plane. Some minutes after her father and brother arrived, she heard a knock on her door. Knowing it was probably her dad, she told him he could come in.
"You busy?" He asked, opening the door without entering the room.
"No, I was just reading." She closed her book and left it on the table.
George nodded and entered the room, closing the door behind him.
"Where's Max?" The redhead girl asked.
"Downstairs, playing some video games." George answered.
He stayed quiet for a moment, before sitting on his daughter's bed.
"So...What's up?" Gretchen asked, wanting to know if her father needed something.
"I just wanted to check on you, seeing if you were ok." George said, looking at her.
Gretchen raised her eyebrows. She knew what he was trying to do, what conversation he wanted to lead them to, and she really wasn't in the mood for that just yet. "I'm fine."
"You sure? I mean, don't you want to talk about it?" George frowned.
"Talk about what? About the fact that my mother abandoned me and my brother? No thanks." Gretchen got up. She was starting to get angry and she couldn't stay still.
"She didn't abandon you, Gretchen, you know that." Her dad argued.
"Really? Where is she then?" She snapped, a little more harshly than she intended.
"It's complicated." George wasn't very comfortable, but he knew he had to have that conversation with his daughter sooner or later. Max was still a child, after all, he was too young to understand what was going on. But Gretchen was different.
"Well, I think it's very simple." Gretchen answered, giving George her back for a second. Her mother left, just like that,there was no other explanation, and she didn't understand how George was capable of defending her. She turned around to look at her father again. "You know George, you really don't have to defend her. After all, she did the same thing to you, right? When you two got divorced, instead of moving to another house she took Max and me and moved to the other side of the country. She abandoned you, and now she did the same thing to Max and I. It's just what she does." She finally let everything she had been thinking for the last couple of days out of her chest, feeling an immediate relief.
George frowned, looking at his daughter with pity. "Does that really sound like your mother?" He asked, trying to talk some sense into her.
Gretchen didn't answer right away, she stayed quiet looking at the floor instead. It really didn't sound like her mother, but it was her the one that left without warning, leaving nothing more than a note. She finally looked back at her father and shrugged. "I guess people change."
George pressed his lips against each other and nodded, deciding to leave it alone for the moment. Maybe it was too soon, maybe Gretchen wasn't ready to open her mind yet, maybe he had to wait to tell her the real story. "I guess you're right." He said, getting up from the bed and approaching the door. "I'm really sorry about everything kid. If you ever feel ready to talk about it, I'm here for you." He opened the door and looked at her with an understanding look.
Gretchen gave him a small smile and nodded. "I know, thanks dad."
George couldn't help but smiling hearing Gretchen calling him dad. After one last look at his redhead daughter he got out of the room closing the door behind him.
...
A couple of hours later Gretchen got out of her room when she heard the doorbell ringing. She assumed it was Melissa and Scott and she couldn't help but feeling anxious, she had no idea of how to act in front of her old friend. She ran into George at the beginning of the stairs and she winked. "Let's get this party started." She said with a sarcastic smile.
"Hey, be nice."George warned as they began to go down the stairs.
"What are you talking about? I'm always nice." She said, with an innocent look on her face. She saw the look her father shot her and sighted. "Alright, I'll be nice."
Before any of them could reach the door, Max opened it, looking up at their guests. "Good evening." He simply said.
Melissa McCall widened her eyes looking at the ten-year-old boy in front of her. "I can't believe my eyes. Is this handsome young man Max Martin?" She asked with a smile, looking down at him. Max nodded. "Do you remember me?" She asked again.
"You're the lady who always gave me candy behind my parent's back." He answered before pointing at Scott. "I remember him too, he had the coolest Scalextric."
Melissa laughed and grabbed a chocolate bar from her bag. "To follow the tradition I'll give you this if you promise to save it for after dinner." She whispered.
Max widened his eyes, with an excitement look all over his face. "Yes, yes, I promise!" Melissa handed him the chocolate bar and he run upstairs smiling in joy.
George shook his head smiling and he approached the door. Melissa smiled at him. "Sorry we're late, George. This little delinquent I have for a son wouldn't answer his phone when he was supposed to be home." She said, looking at Scott.
Scott shrugged. "Sorry, I got caught up at work."
"Don't worry about it." George waved a hand before his face. He grabbed the lasagna Melissa was holding and stepped aside to let them come inside the house. "Nice to see you, Scott."
"Nice to see you too, sir." Scott answered.
It had been a long time since he hadn't seen Mr. Martin. When he was little he spent a lot of time on that house and he and Ms. Martin were almost like his relatives. But since Ms. Martin left town with Gretchen and Max, he didn't have a lot of reasons to go to there anymore. That's why it was weird for him to get inside of that house again. He was excited though, he had missed Gretchen a lot over the last four years. They used to do everything together when they were kids, Gretchen, Stiles and himself. Even though Stiles and Gretchen never got along very well and were always fighting, they somehow found a way to stand each other when they were around Scott, because they knew how important the both of them were for him. When he went through the door the first thing he saw was his mom hugging Gretchen at the bottom of the staircase. The redhead girl looked exactly as she did the last time Scott saw her, only a little older. She still was short for her age, she still had a childish smile and she still had her red hair reaching her shoulders. When she pulled out of his mother's hug she looked at Scott and a huge smile appeared on her face.
Neither one of them said anything, instead of that they walked towards each other and met in a tight hug. "I've missed you so much." Scott said, still hugging his friend.
"Me too." She whispered.
When they pulled back Scott frowned in pain, as Gretchen accidentally touched the wound on his abdomen, which hadn't totally healed yet. She saw the look on his face and got concerned. She had barely touched him but it seemed like she had hurt him. "Are you okay?"
Scott nodded. "Yeah, just a little sore from lacrosse practice." He lied, making Gretchen raise her eyebrows.
"You play lacrosse now?" She asked in disbelief. She knew Scott liked sports, but he never had been specially good at them. He always seemed too small and too skinny, although she had to recognize he had grown up pretty decently.
"Co-captain." Scott smiled.
Gretchen raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh my God, Scott, that's awesome!" She said while gently rubbing his arm.
George gave the lasagna to Gretchen and asked them to go to the kitchen to warm it while he and Melissa set up the table. The two teenagers did as they were asked and continued catching up while they got everything ready for dinner. Gretchen was surprised by how easy talking to Scott was. It was like those four years they spent without seeing each other never happened, like their friendship was right where they left it, and she was extremely happy about it. He told her everything about how he made first line at the beginning of the school year, how he was later named co-captain and Jackson was not happy about it. He also told her about his first serious girlfriend, a brunette called Allison Argent, who has recently moved from San Francisco. Unfortunately they weren't together anymore, but they remained friends. They spent the whole time they were at the kitchen talking and laughing, and for the first time since she got to Beacon Hills, she was genuinely happy of being back.