Hey guys I'm back from the dead. Sorry I haven't been online for a while. School and finals kinda kicked my butt. But I'm all finished now! YAY! Anyway this is the prequel to my first story. It's kind of a background on how the characters came to be and how Juliet ended up in Hiddenville with no memory. I hope you guys like!
I don't own Victorious. Juliet and the Pack are my own creation.
Chapter 1
The New Kids on the Block
"Dex! Be careful with that!" I yelled as my best friend since childhood knocked one of my many cardboard boxes off of a shelf.
"Sorry Juliet," he said while he ran a hand through his scruffy brown hair. He picked up the box and put it back on my desk that we had just lugged up the steps and into my new room. I walked over to the sliding glass doors and opened the door, letting the fresh sea breeze in.
I blew out a breath, "No I'm sorry Dex. I'm just kinda stressed about the whole move. I mean we lived in Australia for most of our lives and now we just picked up and came to L.A. I mean we haven't been here since we were kids."
'I know I can't really complain, the seven of us are moving into a gigantic beach side mansion. With plenty of room for all of us to have our privacy. Plus we were right next to a forest so we could run all we want without fear of getting caught. And living next to a beach means I don't have to give up surfing. But we haven't been here since we were 7, just over 10 years.'
He grabbed my shoulders, effectively stopping my inner monologue. His mossy eyes met my golden ones and I immediately calmed down. It's weird how he's always been able to do that.
"Juliet calm down. You're an Alpha, our pack leader come on. We look to you for strength, if you freak out what do you think everyone else is going to do?"
'He's right. I have to be strong for the pack'
'If you guys haven't figured it out yet, we aren't your run of the mill teenagers. We are werewolves, but don't get confused we aren't like those stupid movie werewolves like in Twilight or the classic Wolf man movie. We are normal teenagers that can control their inner wolf – well most of the time anyway. The moon doesn't affect us, except that we do get a little wild on a full moon, but hey – who doesn't. And most importantly, we don't lose our human side. Mostly thanks to a little spell from a friendly warlock. Anyway there's six of us in the pack, well seven if you include dad, but he's a pure blooded human so it depends on how you look at it. There's the Alpha – that's me, my Beta – my childhood friend Dexter, my little brother – Jake, Dex's sister – Alyssa and the twins – Nathan and Charlotte.'
"Thanks Dex, your right," I said shaking my head, "Honestly I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Crash and burn?" He smirked.
I laughed and punched him in the arm, "Speaking of which, where is everyone?"
"Jake and Alyssa are out helping your dad with some boxes."
"Yeah I know, I meant where are Nate and Charlie. You know how they can get into trouble without trying."
He stiffened, "Your right, we'd better find him," he said before he ran out of my room and down the stairs to find them.
I walked out on the balcony and quickly scanned the area for the trouble making twins. A flash of blue streaked black hair on the edge of the woods caught my attention. It was quickly followed by another flash of black hair before they both disappeared into the brush.
"Dex!" I called down. Seconds later he came running out of the back door and looked at me. I pointed in the direction I saw them disappear. He nodded and took off towards the woods. I vaulted over the ledge, landed in a crouch and took off after him.
'For any normal person, falling from a third story balcony might hurt. For a wolf it's no big deal.'
It didn't take much to find the twins. They weren't exactly quiet or fast considering they were still fairly new to the pack. It isn't a problem to follow their path of destruction through the woods.
They were wrestling in a clearing. Seriously? Sometimes they acted like total pups. Leaning my weight against the nearest tree, I looked at Dex and gave him a "They are total kids" look. He smiled and nodded.
"I thought you two were suppose to be helping unpack," I said causing them to jump apart with a surprised yelp.
"Sorry Juliet," Nate said. It was still kind of hard to understand what either of them were saying some of the time due to their thick Italian accents and the they weren't fluent in English.
"Yeah we got… How do you say bored?"Charlie finished.
"I realize that you guys got bored, but you need to help and you can't go running off where ever you guys want to – it could be dangerous. There normally aren't wolves in California, so if someone sees any of us in wolf form-"
"That could raise suspicion," Dex finished for me.
"Exactly," I said gesturing at Dex, "Come on. You guys need to go unpack your boxes."
I helped Charlie up while Dex helped Nate.
They both bolted back to the house.
"They're such pups," I rolled my eyes.
"You're telling me," Dex replied.
~~~~~~BTB~~~~~~~
By the time we got back to the house all of the boxes were unloaded and everyone was sitting on the deck.
"There you guys are," dad said holding out a glass of lemonade out. His dirty blonde hair was messy from the wind, but his amber eyes were lit up with happiness.
"Yeah, we were scoping out the woods,"I said giving a sideways smirk to the twins, "Is everything unloaded?"
"Yeah no thanks to you guys," Jake said
"Hey. Dex and I did our part," I said checking the time, "Oh crap we're going to be late."
"Tell me again why you two are going to this party when you haven't even gone to the school yet?" Jake said, his amber eyes staring at me over the rim of his glass.
"I actually did go to the school for a day. Juliet only missed because of that loan wolf that wandered onto our territory," Dex yelled from inside.
"Plus, Tori told me how awesome these Hollywood Arts parties are," I added
"Does Tori even know your back in the states?" my blonde haired brother asked.
"No, I wanted to surprise her. I haven't seen her since I was 7."
"Juliet come on," came Dex's voice from the front followed by a car horn.
"Later guys, I'll see you tonight," I called before running to the car out front.
~~~~~~~BTB~~~~~~~~~
Dexter pulled to a stop and shut the car off.
"You ready?" He asks
I didn't answer, instead I got out of the car and start walking towards the school. The loud thump of the bass only added to my nerves. I made it to the edge of the Asphalt Café before Dex caught up to me.
"Hey," he said leaning his forehead on mine, a thing we always do to make the other feel better, "It's going to be fine. I know new crowds make you nervous, I'll be there with you the whole time."
I smiled at him and brushed my nose against his.
'For anyone who would happen to see us, they might think we were a couple. You guys might have thought the same thing, but no we aren't. We never actually bonded like that even though we've known each other since we were born. Yes, we've bonded as friends, but not as mates. Part of me wishes that we did bond with him like that. He's a great guy, sweet, caring and handsome. His chiseled jaw, and muscular body alone made all the girls weak in the knees.'
"Ready?" He asked brushing some of my blonde hair out of my face.
"Yeah, let's go," I said grabbing his hand. We found a table at the edge of the Asphalt Café. He pulled off his jacket and hung it over the back of the chair and I did the same with my black leather jacket. "You want something to drink?" I asked him over the loud music. He nodded and I move through the crowd to try and find the drink table.
Letting out a frustrated growl because there was no drink table in sight, not that I could see over the sea of people. If that wasn't bad enough something wet and cold hit my back causing me to let out a yelp of surprise. I whirled around ready to deck the person who just spilled their soda on me, but stopped when I saw it was a really cute guy with fluffy black hair and dark eyes.
"Sorry. I didn't see you," the cute boy said.
"No worries, I just love it when strangers spill their sodas down my back," I replied with a sarcastic smirk, which caused him to laugh.
Dex, who had heard my surprised outburst, pushed through the crowd of people to see what was going on.
"Are you alright?" He asked eyeing the guy suspiciously.
"Yeah I'm just fine," I said putting a hand on his chest and stopping him, "It was an accident"
"I'm sorry," the cute guy repeated, "I'm Beck, by the way."
"Juliet and this is Dexter," I introduced us.
"Oh you guys are the new students aren't you?"
"Guilty. Hey where's the bathroom around here? I don't really like being sticky."
"Go inside, down the hall and it's on the right. You can't miss it," Beck said pointing to a set of doors.
"Thanks," I said running into the building.
The bathroom was right were Beck said it would be. I stripped off my soaked shirt, revealing my toned, tan stomach and my paw print shaped birthmark on my right hip. After scrubbing the soda out of my shirt, I hung it on the sink to dry and moved on to my sticky hair. Slowly rinsing the soda out of my long blonde hair, I stopped at the Auburn streaks in my bangs. They match my wolf exactly. The streaks along with my birthmark are the only things that can differentiate my bloodline from the rest.
'My brother and I are different, some would even call us special. We are direct descendants of Lupa. Yeah you heard me right, I'm from the same bloodline as the first wolf. The one who raised Romulus and Remus, and because of that I became the Alpha of all Alphas. A wolf queen, you might call me.
You think your life is hard. I'm only 17 and I'm expected to be able to lead all the packs and be and be a teenager at the same time. And not to mention, the people who are always trying to kill me. Just because of my bloodline.'
My grip tightened on the sink causing it to groan. I met my own eyes in the mirror. My normally golden eyes were now electric blue, a sign that my wolf was close to the surface.
The door creaked open and I instantly reined in my wolf. A girl with long brown hair, deep brown eyes and high cheekbones walked in. She's definitely gotten older since I've last seen her, but it was definitely her. My old friend that I haven't seen since I was 7.
The brown haired girl froze when she saw me, probably because I was only in my bra and jeans.
"Um... Hi," she said nervously.
"Hey Tori," I replied as I started braiding my hair.
She looked confused, "Do I know you?"
'It was understandable that she didn't recognize me. We've only emailed back and forth and I did change a lot since I was 7. I didn't wear glasses anymore, my streaks didn't show up until my first change and I was definitely tanner and more fit. Not to mention the accent I picked up from living in Australia. If I was in her place I'd probably be confused too.'
I pretended to be offended, "Wow Tori that hurts. You don't remember an old friend?"
The confusion didn't fall from her face. She was totally lost.
A smile crept across my face, "Come on Songbird."
Her jaw dropped, "Juliet, is that you?"
"The one and only," I replied leaning against the sink. The bear hug came a second later.
"Oh my God! I haven't seen you in..."
"Almost 11 years," I finished.
She nodded vigorously still smiling, "I gotta say you've changed a lot."
"Yeah life kinda happened. You haven't really changed at all," I teased.
She pouted, "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"
"Some idiot spilled his soda on me," I said slipping my now dry shirt over my head.
"Oh. That makes sense, I guess."
I grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the bathroom, "Come on, let's get back to the rage."
"What? Who's mad?," she stopped looking confused.
My brow furrowed, then it hit me, "Rage means party you dork. I picked up more than an accent when I lived down under."
Relief passed over her face, "Oh. You've gotta warn me next time," then she realized what I called her, "And I'm not a dork."
"Yes you are. Now come on," I said pulling her onto my back and giving her a piggy back.
"Hey!" She squealed in surprise. I had gotten a lot stronger, "Put me down!"
"Nope, you were being too slow," I said carrying her outside.
"What are you doing?" Dex asked when I found him.
"I found an old friend," I said
"Yeah and your old friend would like you put her down," Tori said from my back.
'Oh right, I totally forgot'
I put her back down, "Tori do you remember Dexter?"
"Wasn't he the little dorky kid that use to follow you around everywhere?"
"Hey I resent that. Juliet was more of a dork than I was!" Dex said as he threw an arm over my shoulder.
Tori's jaw dropped for a second time in about 20 minutes. "Dexter? Wow you really… changed."
Yeah… "changed" in more ways than one. The look on Dexter's face told me that he was thinking the same thing. We shared a smirk.
"So what usually goes on at one of these?" I said pulling Tori's attention away from Dex's body.
"It's just like any school dance, I guess. Except some of the students perform songs on stage," she said gesturing to the stage.
A boy with dark skin and dreads walked up to us with two plastic cups in his hand.
"Hey," he said handing one of the cups to Tori.
"G'Day," I replied which earned me a look from Dex. "What?"
"You did not just say that."
"So what if I did, I'm Australian. What are you going to do about it?" I taunted.
Dex looked like he was about to do something but he was interrupted by a very energetic red head, "Hi everybody!"
"Who's the bluey?" I asked Tori.
"What?"
I pointed at the little red head.
"Oh. That's Cat," then she pointed at the dark skinned boy, "and this is Andre."
"Nice to meet you guys," I said
"Where's Robbie?" Cat asked
"Right here," a boy holding a puppet said as he walked up, "Who are these guys?"
"I could ask you the same thing," I said, "I'm Juliet and this is Dexter. You must be Robbie."
"Hey what am I chopped liver," the puppet piped up.
"Sorry. And this is Rex," Robbie continued. Dex and I shared a confused look.
The others continued talking, but Dex and I were having a conversation of our own.
"Did the puppet just talk?" came Dex's voice in my head.
"I think so. And why are they treating it like a person?" I thought back.
Dex's brow furrowed, "I have no idea. This is a performing arts school after all."
"Weird is what it is."
Dex smiled.
"Hey did you guys see the new OzzieIntrumental video?" Andre asked.
That caught my attention for two reasons; one, I didn't think that people in the US. had heard about OzzieIntrumental and two the person who uploaded the videos in question was me. I raised my eyebrows at Dex, who only smiled.
"Yeah it was awesome! Defiantly my favorite so far," Cat said.
"I don't know I really liked the cover she did of Stand by You," Tori said.
"You really like those videos?" I asked all of them.
"Yeah. Why you seem surprised," Tori said
"I am. I didn't think anybody outside of Australia saw my videos," my eyes widened the second it came out of my mouth.
"Your videos?" Tori asked. Then busted out laughing. Okay ouch that hurt.
"You don't believe me?" I asked getting irritated.
"Sorry. Sorry it's just hard to believe," she said between giggles.
'Okay she doesn't believe me. I'll prove it to her, I'll prove it to all of them,' I turned and started walking towards the parking lot.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Dex called as he caught up to me. He caught my look of determination. "You're going to prove it aren't you?"
"Yup. You know that thing that I've been working on with the drums?"
"You mean the-"
"Yeah. Do we still have the stuff in the car?"
"I think so, but I don't think you should be starting any fires at the school. Especially since we're both new here."
"Dex. Please can you just get the stage set up?"
"Alright. Just be careful," he said before heading off to the stage.
I quickly popped the trunk and found everything that I'd need. You see I've been working on this compound that I spray on a set of sticks and then I light them on fire and I'm able to play without burning my hands off. Unfortunately it hasn't worked so far. But before I had to make sure that people believed that it was OzzieIntrumental, so I put on the pair of aviators and the fedora that I usually wear in my videos, along with the black leather jacket I had on originally.
"I hope this works," I said as I sprayed a set of sticks and grabbed two buckets and a lighter. Closing the trunk, I made my way back to the stage where I found Dex had just finished setting everything up.
"Ready?" he asked.
"I think so. I just have to fill one of these up with water," I said hefting the buckets.
"I got it. Go get ready," he said before taking a bucket to go fill it up.
I set the other bucket down and put the lighter next to it and made sure it was easy to grab quickly. Making some slight adjustments to the kick and snare, I tested the sound of a few of the cymbals, making sure nothing was too tight.
Dex came back with the bucket now filled with water and set it to my left.
"Good luck. I hope it works," he said clapping his hand on my shoulder.
"You and me both," I said smiling at him before he hopped off stage.
Taking a deep breath and stepping up to the mic I said using the voice I normally use in the videos, "Excuse me can I have your attention?"
The crowd noise slowly dropped to quiet murmurs.
"Hey everyone. Some of you might know who I am-"
"It's OzzieIntrumental!" someone from the crowd yelled.
"Yeah I am. And I'd actually like to perform a little something for you guys if you'd like." I was met with excited cheering.
"Alright, alright. I've actually been working on this little trick and I'd like to show it to you. I hope your ready," I said stepping back from the mic and going to sit behind the drum set.
Adjusting my headphones, I started playing Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark(Light Em Up). As soon as I got to the last bridge in the song I ducked down and grabbed the lighter.
'Please work, please work,' I thought as flicked the lighter. The sticks caught as soon as the flame touched the chemical soaked wood. Varied cries of shock and awe came from the crowd when they saw my sticks go up.
'I just hope they don't go out as soon as I hit the drums.'
When the bridge ended I smashed the flaming sticks on the cymbals. Each impact sent up miniature explosions that looked so cool. I was so happy that it worked and ended up breaking one of my sticks by the end of the song.
The crowd erupted in applause.
I tossed the flaming bits of the sticks in the water before getting up and walking up to the mic.
"So what did you guys think?" a frenzy of applause followed, "You liked that? I'm happy that it actually worked," Dex jumped onstage to give me a hug.
"Okay, okay. There's actually a reason I performed for you guys. I'm transferring to Hollywood Arts," I said switching to my normal voice, "and an old friend of mine didn't believe me when I said who I was." I took off my hat and aviators.
"G'day my name's Juliet Grace and I'm OzzieInstrumental."
The crowd was silent as I hopped off the stage and walked toward Tori, "Believe me now?"
She nodded her head dumbly with her jaw hanging open.
Chuckling I closed her jaw with one finger and patted her cheek.
"That was awesome!" Beck said walking up to me. A goth girl was right behind him with a scowl on her face.
"Thanks," I said and he smiled at me. That's when I felt it, a slight clench in my stomach. It felt like I had indigestion but it was odd because I hadn't eaten since lunch.
"That was so cool," Cat said bouncing up and down, "The fire scared me a little. I thought you were going to get hurt. But you didn't, so that's good."
"Yeah, yeah that was cool. Are you going to help me or are you just going to stand there?" Dex said swinging an empty bucket at me.
"Alright, alright don't get your skivvies in a twist," I said hopping onstage. Dex had already cleaned up most of the stage from the performance. Thankfully nothing caught fire like last time.
'Don't ask. Lets just say I'm not welcome back at an old Aussie bar.'
I fished out the charred sticks from the bucket before dumping the water in the grass.
'I should just throw these away,' I thought looking at the sticks.
"That was actually impressive and I don't say that to anyone around here," a voice behind me said causing me to jump. It was the goth girl that was with Beck earlier.
"Huh?"
She rolled her blue-green eyes, "I said your little fire thing was kinda impressive."
"Uh… Thanks," I replied still in shock. One, because she scared the living shit out of me and two, I was still feeling the clenching. Weird, I'd have to ask dad about it later.
"Are those the sticks you used?"
"Um… yeah they are. Do you want them? I was going to toss them anyway."
"Seriously?"
I nodded and extended the sticks towards her. She rolled them in her hands with a slight smile.
"I'm Juliet by the way," I said
"Yeah I know," she smirked, "I think the whole school knows. You did just announce it."
'Oh right,' I mentally face palmed
"Juliet!" Dex's voice came in my head, "I know your making friends and getting cozy but we have to get home. It's getting late and your dad's expecting us."
"Alright I'm coming. You didn't have to use pack telepathy. You could have called me."
"Whatever"
"Hey are you okay?" She put her hand on my arm, "You kinda zoned out for a second."
"Yeah I'm fine. I just remembered that my dad expects us to get home," I said turning to walk away.
"Jade," she said suddenly.
"What?"
"My name's Jade."
I smiled, "It was nice to meet you Jade."
Maybe this school isn't going to be as bad as I thought.
There you guys. I got the fire drumming idea from Cooperdrummer and his cover of Burn by Ellie Goulding. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend watching it. Thanks for reading.