Yay! So this is my first fan fiction ever, hope you enjoy it. Sorry for any grammar mistakes, I decided to change this from first to third person, so there may be a couple things I missed. I'd love it if you guys had time to review. I need all the help I can get, since I'm pretty new at all this.
Hey guys, shocker: I don't own Teen Wolf.
Relax. Deep breaths. C'mon Caro. You're a big girl now. Head up.
Carolina sucked in a gulp of crisp air, taking small steps in the direction of the high school. The brunette turned back in the direction she'd come for a moment, giving her dad a small wave and watching as he pulled out of the parking lot. Wonderful. There went her one hope of avoiding the horribly awkward first day that was in store for her. She turned on her heel and headed into the building, trying to put a confident pep in her step. Carolina managed to make a couple of turns in the hallways of the unfamiliar school before realizing she had no clue as to where she was going. Not wanting to talk to anyone just yet, she wandered around for a good five minutes in search of the main office, where she was supposed to pick up her schedule. She passed through several different wings, skipping by classroom after classroom. By this time, the halls had become considerably more crowded, and she hunched over slightly, letting her hair curtain her face. She wasn't usually so antisocial, but it was much too early in the morning for actual social interaction. She decided she'd rather wait until the teacher introduced her. At least, if they still did those horribly awkward introductions in high school. She could distinctly remember that happening once in middle school. But that was back across the country, in New York.
New state, new town, new life. At least, that's what she was hoping for.
Thankfully, Carolina managed to stumble upon the main office in a small side hallway. For some reason, whatever architects designed high schools always seemed to think it was a good idea to plop the main office in the most obscure hiding place. Genius. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and made her way over to the secretary's desk, where a plump blond woman of about forty was typing away at her computer. She held up a well manicured finger as she finished up whatever she was doing. Typing the last letter with a flourish, she looked up at Carolina expectantly.
"Hi. Um... I was told to come here to get my schedule?" Carolina gave the woman a tentative smile, which she thankfully returned.
"Of course! Are you... Allison?" She sifted through a few papers on the side of her desk, reading off of one of the top ones.
"Nope. I'm Carolina. Carolina Whitney."
"Darn. Had a 50/50 chance to get that right. Okay Carolina, here is your schedule, locker information is at the top of the page. You can just sit right outside while you wait for Mr. Williams to get back. He'll be taking you to your first class." She motioned over to the open door, where a small metal bench was visible. Carolina nodded slightly to show her understanding. Flipping through another stack of papers, the secretary pulled out blue paper and a white paper.
"That's the map of the school. The school isn't too big, so it shouldn't give you much trouble, but if you ever get lost, don't hesitate to ask any of the staff. You could ask a student, but they often aren't the most reliable sources. I've heard of freshman who have been sent to search for the third floor pool." The woman let out a laugh. The joke went right over Carolina's head, as she knew next to nothing about the layout of the school, but she gave a light chuckle to appease the older lady.
Carolina took the papers and thanked Mrs. Beasley, as her name plate read, before heading outside and plopping down onto the cold bench. She let her backpack slide off her arm and fall to the ground beside her. The bell sounded, and most of the kids hanging around outside filtered into the school, grumbling things about school and how they wished it were summer. Carolina unzipped her bag and grabbed her phone out of the front pocket, checking her texts while she was waiting. She opened the single text that was waiting for her.
To: Carolina
From: Padre
Hope today is everything you ever hoped for and more! (to be read sarcastically)
She grinned as she read the message. Her dad was such a nerd, always putting little comments and recommendations in parenthesis after his text messages. Sometimes he even put cringe worthy emoticons and abbreviations like 'kk' or 'lol.' Carolina slid her phone open, typing in a quick little response.
To: Padre
From: Carolina
Aw, schmanks Dad. I'll try my best to not totally hate today, but no promises. Wish me luck! Love you.
As she tapped send, she felt the bench shake slightly, indicating that someone had sat down next to her. Carolina looked up to see a pretty girl, around her age, perched on the other end of the bench. She shot the girl a grin, hoping that she'd respond well to it.
"Hey. It's Allison, right?" Carolina offered the girl her hand, which she took, giving her a shy smile. The girl's handshake was surprisingly firm, and she was wearing a somewhat quizzical look. Carolina let out a breathy laugh.
"Ah, sorry, I'm not a stalker, I swear. It's just... The secretary lady mistook me for you when I first walked in, that's all, and I figured you had to be the other new kid."
Allison's smile grew as Carolina struggled to explain, revealing some killer dimples. Wow. She was definitely jealous. Carolina ran her hand through her hair, a nervous tick of hers that she never could kick.
"I'm Carolina. " Allison nodded. She was still pretty timid, so Carolina decided to try and make a little small talk while waiting for the teacher. Might as well try and make a few friends on her first day, and who better than the fellow new girl?
"So, Allison, what brings you to Beacon Hills?"
"Well, my dad's job requires us to move around a lot. And I mean a lot. I'm lucky if we stick around one place for even one year. What about you?"
Carolina nodded in understanding before saying, "For... A fresh start. Clean slate."
She knew it was a vague, fairly terrible answer, but it was her fault for bringing it up. Her hand went up to her necklace, and she toyed with it a little before glancing up at Allison. The girl had a curious expression on her face, but thankfully didn't press for a different answer. She shifted a little, opening her mouth before closing it, as if she wanted to say something but didn't know how to properly convey it. Taking a breath, she spoke.
"Where are you from, Carolina?"
"New York. more specifically, Long Island City."
Allison's eyes grew wide. "Wow, that's quite the move."
"Yeah, it's definitely different. But I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you've had to do." Carolina shrugged, "The east coast feels like it's worlds away. But I'm glad to know I'm not the only newbie."
Allison let out a laugh, "Same. I've been the new kid countless times, and it never gets any less awkward."
They both giggled, some of their first-day nerves relaxed, and chatted a little more about their experiences while moving. Carolina jumped as Allison's phone suddenly went off, ringing loudly.
"Sorry." The girl muttered, digging through her bag. She rummaged around a little, as it continued to ring. Finally successful in retrieving the device, she picked it up quickly. She rolled her eyes, but there was a playful smile on her face and Allison chuckled into the phone.
"Mom, three calls on my first day is a little overdoing it." She sifted through the bag. "Everything except a pen. Oh, my God, I didn't actually forget a pen."
Carolina shot her a sympathetic look before searching her own bag for a writing utensil. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought to pack more than one pencil, as per her usual organizational skills. Which were less than satisfactory, to say the least. There was a scuffling to her right, and Carolina looked up to see an official looking man approaching the pair.
"Okay, okay, I gotta go. Love ya."
"Sorry to keep you waiting," The man motioned for the two to follow him.
They both quickly got up from the bench. Carolina hoisted her backpack onto one shoulder and followed the other two into the school.
"So you were saying that San Francisco isn't where you grew up?" Carolina glanced between Allison and the man, whom she could only assume was Mr. Williams. She figured they had been talking while she was wandering around like a bumbling idiot in search of the main office.
Allison shook her head, "No, but we lived there for more than a year, which is unusual for my family."
"Well, hopefully Beacon Hills will be your last stop for a while."
Carolina nodded in agreement. She liked Allison, and as of right now she was her only friend in Beacon Hills. It'd be a shame for her to leave after a few months. Carolina couldn't imagine moving around so much. It had been hard enough for she and her dad to make the decision to move to California. To be forced to relocate would be exceedingly difficult.
They continued to walk through the hallways, and Mr. Williams ushered the new students into a room that was mostly full. Carolina let out a small sigh of relief to find that she and Allison were in the same class. Upon entering the room, she stood in the front, next to Allison. She fidgeted and felt her face grow warm as everyone's eyes skated over the new girls. Carolina pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her hands and plastered a nervous smile over her face that ended up looking more like a grimace.
"Class, these are our new students, Allison Argent and Carolina Whitney. Please do your best to make them feel welcome"
"No, it's Carolina," She blurted out.
"What?" Mr. Williams gave the girl an odd look, and she let her hair curtain her face, feeling her ears grow warm.
"It... It's pronounced Caroleena. Not like the state North Carolina. Or South Carolina, for that matter. But y-yeah. It's pronounced Caroleena."
As she continued to stammer, Carolina felt the embarrassment build. Her cheeks grew bright red and splotchy, and she desired to just melt into a puddle on the floor more than anything. She tended to vomit words when she was nervous, and having the class stare at her unimpressed wasn't exactly helping. Allison gave her a sympathetic look. Carolina bit her lip as she heard a few snickers throughout the classroom. Letting out a shaky sigh, she quickly walked over to the first empty seat that caught her eye, at the back of the classroom. Allison made her way to the seat next to her, and Carolina watched as a cute, puppy-like boy in front of the girl turned around and handed her a pen.
Weird... How could he have possibly known Allison needed a pen? Carolina shook my head and watched as he turned back around in his seat so that only his dark brown mop of hair was visible. She shook off the suspicion and smirked a little. Already, Allison was getting the attention of other students. Carolina suspected that within a week or two, Allison would have forgotten about her. After all, she wasn't as pretty as the other girl, and she'd pretty much blown her chances at making a good first impression. Carolina was tall, standing at 5'8", and awkward. She preferred to avoid huge crowds, and was easily intimidated by popular kids. No doubt, popular was the direction Allison was moving in. As for Carolina, she liked to stick around with a more unassuming crowd. They were friendlier, and less high maintenance. In her previous school, she hadn't been unpopular, but she wasn't terribly popular either. She was just at a comfortable medium. Hopefully, the same was in store for her here.
Carolina spent the rest of the period hiding behind a curtain of hair, chewing on her sweatshirt sleeve as they studied Kafka. There were far and few strange looks and mocking snickers thrown her way, but she managed to ignore them. Once the bell rang, she managed to find her next class without too much trouble. She found that the secretary was telling the truth when she said it wasn't too hard to navigate through the school. Carolina had a few other classes with Allison, but they only managed to snag seats next to each other in French. During Chemistry, she was paired up with Harley, an outgoing girl who tried to make her feel better about her disaster in English. Though Carolina didn't believe her when she said it hadn't been too bad, the girl appreciated her attempts to boost her confidence. Harley made the class almost bearable. But no matter how nice her lab partner was, the teacher, Mr. Harris, was still a complete and utter asshole. Carolina could already tell that she wouldn't like him. For some reason, he was already picking on kids, the most prominent victim being a pale, lanky boy with a plethora of moles scattered across his face. He was in most of her classes, and had caught her attention, mostly because of his very spastic, loud way of speaking and sarcastic quips he occasionally muttered. The rest of the day was uneventful, thankfully. Once last period was finally over, Harley approached her at her locker.
"Hey Carolina!"
Carolina grinned, glad that she seemed to have made yet another friend.
"Hey Harley."
"Listen, how about I introduce you to a couple of my friends?" Without waiting for a reply, Harley grabbed her by the shoulder and steered her down the hallway to where two boys were hanging around their lockers. Harley seemed to get momentarily sidetracked by the interaction between Allison and a smaller girl Carolina had seen in a couple of her classes.
"Can someone tell me how new girl is here all of five minutes, and she's already hanging out with Lydia's clique?" Harley glanced over to Allison, obviously peeved.
The taller of the two, the lanky boy with a buzz cut from my chemistry class, sighed, "Because she's hot. Beautiful people herd together."
Carolina scoffed, smiling slightly, "Huh, I'll try not to take that to offense." She gave the pair a wave, "I'm Carolina. New girl number two."
"Yeah, I know. I'm in your English class," Buzz cut answered, smirking slightly.
She let out a groan. Of course, just her luck. She hadn't noticed him first period, but that was probably because she'd been trying to avoid looking at anyone in that class. Carolina suddenly recognized the other boy, with olive skin and that mop of brown hair, from her English class as well. Great. So much for making more friends. They now knew just how awkward she was.
Puppy boy smiled warmly, "Aw, c'mon, it wasn't that bad. I'm Scott, by the way, and this is Stiles." Scott jerked his thumb at the taller boy, who gave her a clumsy little wave.
"Thanks, but I'm fairly certain it was that bad," Carolina shook her head, running her hand through her hair, "It's okay, it's not the most awkward thing to happen to me by far."
"And that would be...?" Stiles looked at her, a goofy grin on his face.
Carolina rolled her eyes, a smirk gracing her face, "Wouldn't you like to know? That is confidential information that is not meant for anyone but myself and the witnesses."
"Pretty please?" Stiles fluttered his eyelids, gaze locked onto hers.
"No can do, tiger. I'm going to be taking that story to my grave."
Letting out a huff, he gave up and got into a very animated conversation with Harley about Lydia's clique shortly after. Carolina tuned them out, mostly because all of the names they mentioned were completely foreign to her. She noticed that Scott was also spacing out, staring at where Allison and Lydia were talking. She fingered her necklace, starting to get lost in her thoughts. But soon Scott's eyes grew wide, and he hunched over slightly, blushing furiously and tapping the brunette on the shoulder. Carolina turned to him, confused. Scott pointed to where Allison was standing. Allison gave her a wave, motioning her over. Carolina turned back around, smiling at Scott, Stiles, and Harley.
"Well, duty calls. I'll see you guys later?" She headed across the hallway, leaving Harley and Stiles spluttering, wondering how she managed to know the new girl. She was grateful that Allison hadn't forgotten about her.
"What's up?" Carolina shouldered her backpack, suddenly self-conscious under the judgmental gazes of Lydia and a boy who appeared to be her boyfriend. Lydia's eyes swept her up and down, taking in the girl's worn sweatshirt and dirty converse. She let out a sigh of distaste, which Allison tactfully ignored. Allison lead Carolina a few feet away from the couple.
"Listen, Lydia and Jackson are pressuring me into going to watch lacrosse practice, so if I have to suffer through it, so do you."
"Wha? Where's the logic in that? No thank you, I'd rather not sit and listen to the Barbie doll's mindless chatter."
Allison pouted, giving her a pleading look, "Please, Carolina? I promise, I'll make it up to you."
Carolina let out a huff, grumbling, "You better."
Allison let out a cheer, and Carolina let Lydia lead them out to the fields as she thought of all the things she'd have Allison do to repay her.