Adeline Duke was pretty sure this school year was gonna be absolutely fan-freaking-tastic.

Or, she would be, if she held any semblance of optimism in her teenage brain for this situation.

Okay, logically she knew that the move would probably be good for her and her dad in the long run, change of scenery and blah blah. But she couldn't just let go of the life she had before her dad decided a move would be good for her without even asking her if she'd be okay with it.

She didn't really like change. So, what?

So, everything, apparently.

Ever since her dad had told her about his swanky new cop job in Beacon Hills, it seemed like her life was filled with nothing but change.

Not only did her dad get a new job in a new town where she knew no one and she'd have to start school in a new place where everyone knew each other and she'd be treated as some kind of new novelty knick-knack, but.

Actually, that was all of it. Just a whole bunch of unnecessary, unwanted New.

The word 'new' and all it's variants had actually begun to lose all meaning to her at this point.

Her dad cleared his throat from where he sat next to her in the driver's seat, breaking the heavy silence that had settled inside the car from the moment they'd left their old apartment for good. "Adi, I know this is-"

Adeline cut him off, crossing her arms and staring straight ahead. "Difficult? Annoying? Completely unfair? Yeah, I know."

He gave her a tight smile. "Adeline, I know you weren't thrilled about this-"

She snorted. "'Weren't'? I'm still not."

He shot her a warning look and she raised her hands in mock surrender, staring out the window moodily. "Thank you. Adi, this is a fresh start. I found a good job at the station, and we can actually live in a real house now instead of that shoebox apartment. I thought you'd be thrilled at all the extra space."

She focused her eyes on the street lights, staring unblinkingly. "There's only two of us. We don't exactly need the space."

More space just brings attention to the emptiness.

Her dad looked pained. "Adi, I'm sorry. I know you miss her. I do, too. It's just..."

She shook her head and sighed, shooting him a quick, tightlipped little smile. "Dad, it's fine. Really. It's not like you getting a job and moving us out of the slums of Northern California is a bad thing. She probably would've wanted us to leave that shithole anyway."

"Adeline!"

"Sorry." She shrugged. "You know it's true, though."

He sighed and gave her a wry smile. "I would've preferred you to say something like 'dump' or 'rathole', but I suppose that gets the point across."

Adi let a small smile cross her lips as they passed the 'Welcome to Beacon Hills' sign.

-~*•*~-

Adi looked awkwardly at the extremely attractive girl sat to her right in the administration office and tried to think of something to say that wouldn't come across as weird and unlikable. "Have you ever noticed that if you took the 'e' out of Beacon Hills it would be Bacon Hills? I've been thinking about that a lot."

The dark haired girl jerked slightly in her seat and looked at her in alarm, obviously not expecting her to make conversation.

Adi smiled and nodded awkwardly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear before facing straight ahead again and clenching her fists in the fabric of her skirt.

Well. She tried.

The girl cleared her throat and spoke quietly. "I, uh, hadn't noticed that, actually."

Adi shrugged, smiling easily enough. "No one else has either, apparently."

The girl giggled quietly. "So, what, is that you're go-to icebreaker?"

Abi played with her braid in an attempt to appear casual. "Since I moved here, yeah. Apparently small town people are really receptive to bacon as a conversation topic."

The girl snorted and then covered her mouth, looking at Adi with wide eyes.

Adi snorted at her expression and then made the same one.

It took about three seconds more for them to dissolve into laughter.

When they both had control of themselves again and had checked that their makeup wasn't running, Adi looked back at the girl. "So, what's your name?"

The girl blushed and her eyes widened. "Oh! Oh, right, sorry. I'm Allison. Argent. Allison Argent." She stuck out her hand and used her other one to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. "And you are?"

Adi grinned at her, already finding her endearing, and shook her hand. "Adeline Duke, but I go by Adi. Nice to meet you, Allison."

Allison smiled back tentatively. "Likewise."

"Ah, so you've met, good."

The girls jumped and looked up at the man standing in front of them.

Adi smiled. "Yes, sir."

Allison smiled and nodded.

The man nodded. "My name is Mr. Harris, and I'll be your chemistry teacher. You won't see me until whenever it says on your schedules, which I have here."

Mr. Harris handed them each a piece of paper and then turned around. "You both have English first period, so if you don't want to be late, I recommend you follow me."

Adi and Allison shared a look behind his back before following.

As soon as they got to their class, Adi tried to get to a seat quickly so she could avoid the inevitable embarrassment of the public introduction to her peers for the next three years.

As she expected, it wasn't successful.

Mr. Harris informed the teacher of their status new students and then made an unceremonious exit.

Adi tried very hard not to dislike him as the teacher prompted them to introduce themselves. She looked at Allison, who had her head tipped forward so that her frankly magnificent hair covered her face.

Adi sighed and waved, plastering on a smile and avoiding making eye contact with anyone. "Hi, I'm Adi. I moved here from San Francisco about two weeks ago."

She was ready to stop there, but the teacher gestured for her to continue, so she did. "Have you ever noticed that if you take the 'e' out of Beacon Hills you get Bacon Hills?"

Allison and the teacher looked at her in disbelief as some of the students chuckled.

Adi shrugged and gestured for Allison to go next, which she did, in her sweet endearing way. Apparently she was also from San Francisco, which was neat.

As soon as they were allowed to sit, Adi dragged Allison to the only two empty seats that were together, which so happened to be behind a couple of guys. One had big Bambi eyes, lips Adi was fleetingly jealous of, moles scattered on his cheek, and a buzz cut, while the other had a strong, slightly crooked jaw, shaggy mop hair that was kind of endearing, and adorable puppy eyes that Allison almost tripped over air staring at.

Interesting.

Adi smirked and twirled a pen in her hand and was about to comment on this little not-yet-a-development to her not-yet-a-friend when Crooked Jaw turned around apropos of nothing and handed Allison a pen.

She blinked and tilted her head when Allison, blushing but confused, took it with a quiet 'thank you' and C.J. grinned dopily before turning back around.

Okay. Kinda weird.

Adi felt a tap on her arm and looked down at the note near her elbow in confusion.

She looked around in confusion before nonchalantly opening it.

'Welcome to Bacon Hills.'

She almost snorted at it and then resolved to stop snorting in public before looking up and meeting the eyes of Buzz Cut, who grinned at her and sent her finger guns before turning back around to face the front of the class.

Adi bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing (because finger guns? Really?) and pocketed the note before she turned her attention to the teacher.

If, at the end of class, she winked and sent finger guns at Buzz Cut while dragging Allison away from making dopey eye contact with Crooked Jaw, well.

The shocked look on his face before the door closed behind her was pretty much worth the questioning stare from Allison and the promise to talk about it at lunch.

-~*•*~-

They didn't talk about it at lunch.

Because they sat with Lydia Martin, an unfairly attractive redhead who, before declaring Allison and Adi her new best friends, had made a slightly terrifying introduction with her kind-of douchey but still unfairly attractive boyfriend and weedled them into going to the school lacrosse team's practice.

Adi didn't even know what lacrosse was, but out of self preservation, she didn't voice this fact.

Allison did, though, which didn't go terribly, so that was nice.

Lydia was now trying to peer pressure them into going to her party on Friday.

The fact that everyone she had met so far was drop dead gorgeous did nothing for Adi's self esteem.

Lydia pouted her ridiculously full lips. "Oh, come on. Everyone's going to be there, you guys have to come. Right, Jackson?"

Jackson, the aforementioned douchey boyfriend, gave a noncommittal grunt and then, at her look, fixed his face into a charming smile that reminded Adi unnervingly of Stepford. "Yeah, totally, you guys should come." His smile turned into a smirk. "I'll be there."

Lydia narrowed her eyes and a boy from lacrosse whose name Abi thought was Daniel snorted from beside her.

Abi contemplated writing a paper on why teenagers snort before deciding that that would be stupid and if she couldn't turn it in than there was no point.

Allison gave a terse smile. "Er, I, uh, have a family thing. Maybe next time?"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Fine. But there will be so many cute boys there."

Adi grinned and opened her mouth before Allison kicked her under the table and she snapped it shut again.

Lydia turned her attention to her and looked calculating before she dropped it and smiled. "What about you, Adi? You're coming, right?"

Adi shrugged and took a sip of her milk. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do."

Lydia's smile turned sharp. "Damn right you don't. Wear red. It'll look good with your skin tone."

Adi grinned back, but before she could reply the bell rang for the end of lunch.

Lydia strutted ahead of them before she turned around, flipped her hair, put a hand on her hip, and cocked a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "Girls? You coming?"

Adi and Allison shared a look and followed after her.

They'd only been to this school for not even a day, but they had already learned that one did not keep Lydia Martin waiting.

-~*•*~-

Adi didn't understand lacrosse. To be fair, she didn't really understand any sport that involved dudes shoving into each other to get some balls into a net. Soccer, basketball, lacrosse.

There were a lot of sports like that, actually. Huh.

Lydia huffed from beside her and snapped a finger in front of her face while Allison looked at her in slight concern. "Hello? Earth to Adi? Hot lacrosse guys are currently sweating and running into each other on the field. Why are you staring at the benchwarmers?"

Adi blinked a few times before she turned toward Lydia. "Sorry. Spaced out."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Obviously. What's so interesting that you're not watching my boyfriend beat all these losers to the ground?"

Adi looked at her oddly. Allison spoke. "Why would he do that? Aren't they all on the same team?"

Lydia smiled condescendingly. "Yes, but Jackson's team captain-"

Adi muttered. "So you've mentioned."

Lydia sent her a look but otherwise ignored the interruption. "And that means he has to assert his dominance on the field so that no one tries to usurp him."

Adi and Allison shared a wide-eyed look. "'Usurp'?"

Lydia waved her hand dismissively and turned her attention back to the field.

Adi decided that Lydia was justifiably terrifying.

After a while, Adi spotted Crooked Jaw and nudged Allison awkwardly, as Lydia was sat between them.

Allison gave her a questioning look until Adi jerked her head in his direction.

"Number eleven," she mouthed.

Allison looked at him and blushed before turning to Lydia. "Who's that?"

"Hm?"

Allison shifted. "Number eleven."

Lydia looked at him and made a face. "The benchwarmer? Why do you want to know who he is?"

Allison blushed darker. "He gave me a pen in English."

Adi coughed to hide a laugh and watched as he made his way onto the field. "Hey, look, Crooked Jaw's gonna make a shot."

Allison looked scandalized. "You call him that? His jaw is fine! Why would you call him that?"

Adi held her hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry! No making fun of your puppy. Got it."

Allison sputtered. "He's not my puppy!"

Lydia scoffed and brought the topic back to lacrosse. "Yeah, whatever, he's not your puppy. As if he could get past Jackson. He has asthma."

Adi nodded in understanding. "Ohh. Poor kid. I used to get asthma attacks in fourth grade. They sucked."

Lydia waved her hand at her. "Shhh!"

Adi rolled her eyes and looked at Allison, but found her eyes glued to the field. She huffed and followed her gaze just in time to see Crooked Jaw do an incredibly improbable flip thing and score against Jackson, who looked kind of affronted.

She felt her jaw drop and turned to see Lydia and Allison mirroring her expression.

Adi cackled and stood up, cupping her hands around her mouth. "YEAH, YOU GO NUMBER ELEVEN!"

Him and Buzz Cut, who she now noticed was number twenty four, whipped their heads toward her.

She grinned and waved before cupping her mouth again. "ALLISON'S KEEPING YOUR PEN!"

That got her a slap on the arm from both of the girls she was sitting with.

Lydia hissed. "Adi, what are you doing? You can't just cheer for the kid who got a shot against my boyfriend!"

Adi shrugged. "Sorry. But neither of them are my boyfriend so I figured it'd be fine."

Allison looked uneasy and Lydia rolled her eyes again before speaking. "What, do you have a thing for McCall or something?"

Adi rolled her eyes back. "No, but Allison does."

Allison squeaked. "Adi!"

Adi shrugged. "Calm down, babe, it's not like he can hear us. Plus, now you know his last name. You're welcome."

The other two looked at her oddly. "It's on the back of his jersey."

Adi mouthed 'oh' before looking back at Buzz Cut and reading his jersey.

She almost choked because 'Bilinski'? Who's last name is Bilinski?

Oh, that poor boy.

After practice and the announcement that McCall had made first line (whatever that meant), the girls were walking onto the field so that Lydia could gift Jackson a congratulatory 'you-better-not-get-usurped' make out session, even though he was the captain and therefore would've made first line anyway.

McCall and Bilinski had quickly made their way off the field as soon as Coach No-Indoor-Voice had blown the whistle. Adi decided that that was none of her business and went to the parking lot to wait with Allison for their fathers to pick them up.

Adi kicked a rock and smirked over at Allison. "So. You gonna talk to McCall tomorrow?"

Allison smirked back. "That depends. You going to talk to, uh... his friend?"

Adi raised an eyebrow. "Bilinski."

Allison balked. "Oh my god, really?"

Adi nodded solemnly. "Really."

Allison giggled and then looked apologetic, even though Bilinski was nowhere near them and therefore could not see nor hear her. "Oh, wow, that's awful."

Adi grimaced and shrugged. "I think it's Polish. Or Czech."

"I think it's a mistake."

They jumped and spun around to see Bilinski behind them. He waved awkwardly and almost knocked over the garbage can next to him when he tried to lean on it.

Allison stuttered and blushed while Adi hid a grin behind her hand. "Oh? What's the mistake, than, Buzz?"

He looked a bit bewildered before he ran a hand over his head and got it. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, ha ha. You're hilarious."

"And you haven't answered my question, Bilinski."

"Stilinski. With a 'st' sound."

Adi nodded and decided not to point out that a change that minor didn't really help as Allison looked between them oddly. "Ah. Okay. Do you have a first name? Preferably one that's less than three syllables?"

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "It's Stiles."

Adi blinked at him. "Seriously?"

He flailed defensively. "It's a nickname!"

"Oh, thank god, otherwise I'd be really questioning both your parents' creativity along with whether or not they love you."

Stiles Stilinski (snort) was opening his mouth to reply when Allison cleared her throat and they turned to her, Stiles almost falling over air in surprise.

She waved and smiled prettily, because everything she did was pretty. "Hi, there."

Adi grinned. "Right. Stiles Stilinski, meet Allison Argent. You both have alliterative names and probably at least a slightly romantic interest in Puppy McCall."

"Puppy? Why would you say puppy?"

"Adi! Girl code! You're breaking it!"

"And Scott's just a friend! Totally platonic!"

"Maybe I should go around telling your crush's best friend that you like them!"

Adi held her hands up in surprise at the onslaught of her acquaintances' separate indignations and tried to keep the amusement off of her face. "Joke! Jokey joke! Super jokey joke! Buzz, stop looking so oddly terrified. Allison, stop glaring at me."

Stiles did not stop looking so oddly terrified, though the effort was there.

Allison did not stop glaring at her. The effort wasn't there.

After a moment of just looking between the two girls awkwardly, Stiles chuckled nervously. "Right! Well, nice to meet you, Allison and Abby-"

"Adi."

"-Adi, but, frankly, you both kind of scare me and-"

Allison made an affronted noise.

Adi giggled.

He backtracked. "By you both, I mostly meant Adi!"

Adi made an affronted noise.

Allison giggled.

Stiles looked between them before he threw his hands up. "I'm not taking it back! Because it's very true. And before I shove my foot even farther into my mouth, I'm going to leave. Right now. Because if I don't leave right now I'll be late for making dinner and I am not walking into my own house to the smell of pizza of the highest cholesterol and you don't care at all about what I'm saying so I'm just gonna shut up now."

Adi looked at him blankly while Allison kept her smile sweet because she was a nice person.

Stiles Stilinski nodded once. "Right. So."

He gestured between them and they shifted to one side, watching as he walked to the drivers door of a blue jeep, fumbled with his keys, dropped them twice, and finally managed to open the door.

Adi looked at him and didn't even make an effort to hold back the amusement on her face. "Hey, Buzz."

He looked at her from inside the jeep. "Uh, yes?"

She grinned and held up a fist. Because why the hell not. "To infinity!"

Stiles looked surprised for a moment before he grinned and held up a fist, almost hitting his front mirror. "And beyond!"

Adi cackled and waved as he drove away.

Allison groaned.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes. "You like him."

Abi thought about it for a moment before she shook her head. "Nah."

"You do."

"No, I don't. You, however, are super into his puppy dog bestie."

Allison blushed. "I'm not super into him! I'm just... mildly into him."

Abi cocked her hip and crossed her arms. "He wooed you with a pen."

Allison pouted. "Who uses the word 'wooed' anymore?"

"I do, and don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject!"

Abi threw her hands up. "You changed the subject by talking about changing the subject!"

HONK!

They jumped and looked over to where both of their dads were sitting in their cars and watching. Adi's dad was grinning while Allison's looked more subdued but still pleased.

The girls waved sheepishly at their respective fathers before turning back to each other, hugging quickly, and getting into their cars.

Her dad grinned at her as he pulled out of the parking lot behind the Argents. "I didn't know you knew Chris's daughter."

"What?"

"Allison. She's Chris's daughter. I used to go hunting with him when you were little."

Adi nodded. "Oh. Well, why'd you stop?"

His smile kind of tightened around the edges. "We didn't exactly see eye to eye on how to hunt. I felt it was more humane to hunt only when necessary, and he just kind of liked killing things."

Adi nodded slowly. "Oh. Should I be worried?"

He shook his head. "No. His sister was worse, but even she wasn't terrible. At least, not that I remember."

"Gee, that's reassuring."

Her father chuckled and patted her knee. "Relax. They're hunters, Adi, they don't kill humans."

Adi contemplated this as she watched the trees pass the window. "Wait."

"Hm?"

She looked at him accusingly. "So. You're saying I could've known Allison and been her best friend this whole time and I wasn't? You couldn't have even just shot a few ducks or whatever and let me bond with the super cool chick? What can you even hunt in San Francisco?"

Her father fixed her with a look, and suddenly she remembered why everyone she'd ever found romantically interesting had refused to return her calls after they met her father. "Adeline. We don't kill just to kill."

James Duke was not one to be messed with.

She pouted and crossed her arms, blowing her hair out of her face. "I was joking, dad."

He nodded curtly before facing forward. "I know. But you know how your mother felt about unnecessary violence."

Adi grit her teeth and sat up, staring straight ahead as the car pulled into the driveway of their house. She unbuckled her seatbelt as soon as they the car stopped. "Right. I can't make a joke without you pulling the dead mom card. Got it."

Her father closed his eyes, pulling the keys from the ignition before he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Adi-"

She cut him off with her hand on the door. "You're making dinner tonight. I have homework."

"Adi!"

She slammed the door and went inside, leaving the door open behind her.