Chapter 1:
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or have any affiliation with the show. I wish I did, that would be awesome. Sadly, I am just a fan. The characters Nora, Sal and Tanya are my creations
"Um hello? Earth to Nora!" A petite strawberry blonde girl said as tossed a brown suede bootie at Nora who was sitting on the bed.
"Ugh, Lydia! Those things are like weapons!" Nora said as she narrowly avoided the shoe. She closed the book she had been reading to give a dirty look to her friend.
"Well if you could please focus! This is important and I need you!" Lydia spat back with desperation.
Tomorrow was the start of the girls' sophomore year and Lydia was in full-on freak out as she tried to decide her outfit.
"So what do you think of this?" Lydia held up a high-waisted plaid skirt and a blue sweater.
"It's perfect. You'll look amazing, as always." Nora responded, already exhausted from the conversation. Her response didn't seem to appease Lydia. She threw down the outfit and began to shuffle through the clothes hanging in her enormous closet once more.
Nora glanced down at her cell phone, checking the time. "Look, Lydia. I don't know why you even ask for my opinion. Clearly, style is not my strong suite." She said as she gestured to her outfit. A pair of jean shorts and a simple black tee.
Nora, unlike Lydia, preferred to spend the minimum amount of time on her clothing. She was a t-shirt, jeans and converse kind of girl. It drove Lydia crazy, but she had long since given up on trying to convince Nora to wear anything else.
"Well, Lydia, it's been real. I need to get home before Sal orders a search party. I'll see you tomorrow!" And with a wave, Nora made her exit.
Nora moved into her aunt and uncle's house four years prior. Her mother passed away from breast cancer that summer and she had never known her father. Her mother's brother, Sal and his wife, Tanya, graciously opened up their home to the newly-orphaned girl. Sal and Tanya did not have any children of their own, but they were naturals at parenting. Her mother could never be replaced, but Nora found Sal and Tanya to be the next best thing.
Sal spent most of his adult life as a detective working on cases all over Northern California. After he met Tanya, the two settled in Beacon Hills where Tanya was a teacher at the elementary school. Beacon Hills was, for the most part, a quiet town with very little crime. And although that made residing in Beacon Hills preferable, it was not the best place for a detective to find work. Sal continued to travel, working on cases in more crime-ridden cities. This meant that he was away from home quite a bit. Somehow, this didn't stop Sal from being an overbearing and overprotective parent. Nora was to be home by 9 pm every night. Tanya, the more care-free of the two, was a little more flexible with the curfew time. Tonight, however, Sal was home, which meant Nora, too, needed to be home.
Nora didn't mind the imposed curfew, but she often wished Sal would lighten up. Nothing ever happened in Beacon Hills.
As Nora pulled into the drive way, she saw a worried looking Sal emerge from inside. She looked at the clock in the car, which read 8:46. Furrowing her brow, Nora climbed out of the car.
"I'm not late! Stop looking at me like that!" Nora said as she walked up to the house.
"I know, Nora. It's just…" Sal hesitated. "…there was a body found in the woods today."
"What!? And here I was thinking nothing exciting ever happened in Beacon Hills!" Nora said entering the house.
"Nora! This is nothing to joke about! The killer is still out there!" Sal growled.
"Sorry. I know this is serious." Nora could tell Sal was worried.
Nora began to climb the stairs when Sal said, "Nora. Just promise me to stay away from the Preserve. Just in case."
"Yeah, sure. It'll be tough though. You know me, the woods and I are like this." Nora said as she held up her hand to shown her pointer and middle finger twisted together. Sal laughed without feeling. Nora couldn't go two minutes without a sarcastic remark.
Upstairs in her bedroom, Nora collapsed on her bed. She grabbed her phone from her bag to send a text to Lydia about the body in the woods. "Sal said they found a body on the preserve today. Wth!" she typed. Picturing Sal's concerned face, she groaned. His overprotective nature was only going to worsen. She laughed coldly at herself. Someone had been murdered and here she was mourning what little freedom she had. 'Award for most coldhearted goes to Nora' she thought to herself.
...
A loud beeping awoke Nora the next morning. Groaning, she swatted several times at the alarm clock trying to make the noise stop. Finally, she made contact with the correct button and the beeping stopped, allowing Nora to fall back onto her mattress. The peace did not last long as her door busted open showing a bright faced Tanya. Tanya flipped the light switch, illuminating Nora's room with light. "Up and at 'em, kid! You've got school!" Tanya announced cheerily.
'Ugh morning people.' Nora thought. Wrestling with the covers for a second, she swung her feet to the side of the bed and gingerly stood up. Rubbing her eyes, she made her way to the bathroom to prepare for the day.
After showering, she quickly blow-dried her blonde hair. She applied a minimal amount of makeup. Stepping back, she took a long look at her appearance in the mirror. The black liner on her eyes made her blue-green eyes seem less tired, she decided. 'That'll do.' Nora said aloud to herself. She had been compared to her best friend Lydia for as long as she knew her. Nora told herself she didn't mind, but living in Lydia's shadow was not always easy. Lydia was beautiful and had incredible fashion sense. Nora supposed she herself could be considered pretty, if not standing next to Lydia, that is. Nora could have tried harder with her clothes and appearance, but at what cost? She didn't want to compete with her best friend – especially when she knew she would lose.
Dressed in dark indigo jeans rolled up slightly and a grey v-neck, she headed downstairs with her white converse and school bag in hand. After a quick breakfast of a toasted bagel and cream cheese, she climbed into her white Toyota Camry and headed to school.
Nora pulled into a vacant parking space and made her way to the front of the school where Lydia was waiting, looking impatient.
"Seriously, Nora, must you always be late?" Lydia tutted.
"It's 8:40. Class doesn't start until 9." Nora gave a pointed look to the strawberry blonde.
"Yeah, but I'm supposed to meet Jackson before class." Lydia responded as if it were obvious. Nora rolled her eyes. Lydia and Jackson were pretty inseperable. Nora herself didn't really know about relationships. Her one and only "relationship" had occurred in elementary school and lasted a week. Nora didn't think that really counted.
Sighing, she linked arms with Lydia and headed towards the school.
"… best thing that's happened to this town since… since the birth of Lydia Martin. Hey Lydia, you look…look like you gonna ignore me." A boy – Stiles Stilinski – said as the two marched by.
"Lydia, seriously? You could at least say hi" Nora said to her friend and she looked behind her shoulder to give Stiles an apologetic look. She'd never really spoken to the him, but it was clear by his lingering glances and attempts at getting Lydia's attention that he was in love with her and had been for as long as Nora could remember.
"To who?" Lydia said looking confused. The thing about Lydia was she often came across as a total bitch. Nora knew better. Lydia's parents divorced when she was in middle school. Nora hadn't known the girl for very long, but one day while hanging out, Lydia broke down in tears. She confessed how she felt about their divorce and how her dad decided that was a get out of jail free card. She had barely heard from the man since he'd moved out of their family home. But, as soon as the break down had begun, Lydia wiped her eyes and changed the subject.
For the next week, Nora would ask Lydia how she was feeling. All attempts were meet with 'I'm fine, Nora!' Eventually, Nora stopped asking. Since then Lydia had put on even more layers of protection. Now, she had created an image for herself – the wealthy, popular, beautiful, and ditsy Lydia Martin with her all-star lacrosse player boyfriend. Talking to people like Stiles was not good for said image. In all honesty, Nora felt bad for the boy. Stiles, although kind of socially awkward, was genuinely kind.
The two girls entered the school and Lydia made a beeline for her locker. Nora, seeing Jackson waiting with his signature smirk, opted to head straight for her first class.
Nora took a open seat near the front of the classroom. "As you all know, there was indeed a body found in the woods last night." Her English teacher began, never once looking away from the chalkboard he was writing on. "I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened. But I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody, which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk outlining the semester."
Nora's face contorted into a confused look. She was relatively sure the police had not found a suspect yet. Sal was just as relentless this morning about the whole ordeal. Nora had barely looked down at the syllabus before the classroom door opened. The vice principal entered, followed by a tall slender girl. She had long dark brown curly hair and porcelain colored skin. Nora had to admit the new girl was really pretty.
"Class, this is our new student, Allison Argent. Please do your best to make her feel welcome." He announced and the girl – Allison – promptly took an empty seat behind Scott McCall.
...
"That jacket is absolutely killer. Where'd you get it?" Lydia asked. They had made it through the first day back and Nora was opening her locker while Lydia chatted up the new girl.
"My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco." Allison returned.
"And you just became my new best friend" Lydia said pointing at Allison and giving a quick smirk to Nora, who rolled her eyes. A second later, Jackson arrived and Lydia waited all of two seconds to plant a kiss on his lips. Nora chose this moment to look away, hoping her face didn't echo her feeling of disgust. Jackson, quite frankly, was an asshole and Lydia could do so much better. Nora decided Jackson must have some redeeming qualities because Lydia seemed to really love him.
"So this weekend, there's a party." Lydia started.
"A party?" Repeated an unsure Allison.
"Yeah, Friday night. You should come." Jackson said.
"Uh, I can't. It's family night this Friday." Nora looked at Allison solemnly. Lydia and Jackson could be a little overbearing. Heck, if Lydia didn't know Nora so well, she too would have come up with an excuse to avoid the upcoming party.
The four headed out to the lacrosse field, Lydia dragging Allison by the hand. Lacrosse was a big deal in Beacon Hills. Mostly because there was nothing really to do in Beacon Hills on a Friday night, but also because the team was pretty good. Even practices drew a crowd.
Nora, Allison and Lydia sat down in the bleachers onlooking the field.
"Nora!" Coach Finstock yelled, startling her. "Come here!" Confused, Nora headed towards the field.
"Um, yes Coach?" Nora said timidly. Coach Finstock could be really intense. Nora backtracked through the day trying to remember if she'd done anything. She came up blank.
"Have you given any thought to which AP classes you'd want to take next year?" He said to her. Nora relaxed. Each student was assigned a teacher to be their academic adviser and Coach Finstock was hers.
"Shouldn't we be having this conversation in your office or something?" Nora asked.
Coach just shrugged. "I'm multitasking, Nora. It's what incredibly amazing teachers slash coaches do..Hold on a sec. McCall! You're in goal."
"I've never played" Scott responded looking hesitant.
"I know. Scoring some points will give the boys a confidence boost. It's a first day back thing! Get 'em energized…fired up!" Coach said enthusiastically.
"What about me?" Scott said looking even more worried by the second.
"Try not to take any in the face." Coach said as he lightly slapped Scott's face. Finstock blew his whistle signaling to the team to huddle up around him.
"Coach?" Nora asked, unsure if their conversation was over.
"Hold on Nora, I'm not done talking to you yet." Coach returned as the players made their way over to where they were standing.
Stiles jogged up next to her holding his lacrosse stick in front of him, almost hitting Nora when she turned her head.
"Oops, sorry." Stiles said to her as he pulled the stick in close to his body. "Hey Nora, are you trying out for Lacrosse?" He asked.
"Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm wearing the right outfit… what do you think?" She said and gestured to her clothes.
Stiles looked down at her jeans and converse. "Right. That was a dumb question." Nora's mouth formed a grin, which Stiles returned hesitantly.
Nora waited patiently while Coach gave the boys huddled around him the best pep talk he could muster. Nora wasn't sure it was very inspirational since it was mostly filled with phrases like "Don't suck".
With another blow of his whistle, the gaggle of boys spread out and began a drill. He turned to her.
"Okay, Nora. Where were we? … Right, AP classes."
"Coach, it's literally the first day of school and you are asking me about next year?" Nora groaned.
"Hmm. Well think about it. I'm trying to get my advising work done early this year so I can ignore you kids next semester." He laughed at himself.
Nora gave him look and walked back to the bleachers to watch the rest of the try-out.
"Who is that?" Allison asked looking at Scott standing in the goal.
"Him? I'm not sure who he is. Why?" Lydia gave her a puzzled look.
Allison shrugged and said, "He's in my English class."
Nora turned to Allison. "That's Scott McCall. Lydia, he's gone to school with us forever."
"Hmpf" was Lydia's only response.
As the practice progressed, it became clear that Scott was definitely someone to be remembered. In the goal, he caught every ball shot at him, even the one by Jackson. Jackson, on top of being an asshole, was incredibly competitive. Matters were only made worse when Lydia jumped up to cheer as Scott caught Jackson's ball. Nora couldn't recall Scott even playing in any of the games the previous year. 'Maybe he got bit by a radioactive spider' she thought. Catching herself, she looked to Lydia, afraid she could somehow read minds. Lydia would've hated the joke. It hinted at the nerdier side of Nora that Lydia was determined to keep hidden.
Lydia stayed behind to wait for Jackson as Allison and Nora headed towards the parking lot and their respective cars.
When Nora got home, she was surprised to see Sal's car still parked in the drive way. He had been home for two weeks now. Usually, he would have been gone on another case by now.
She entered the house and smelled food cooking in the kitchen. Sal sat watching TV on the couch in the living room. Letting out a breath, Nora plopped down beside him.
"Hey Nor. How was school?" Sal asked.
"Torturous. Can you believe Coach Finstock asked me about what AP classes I am going to take next year?" Nora said incredulously.
"That seems like a compliment if you ask me." Sal shrugged.
"I would've thought so too, but turns out he is just trying to avoid doing it in the spring…" Nora turned back to the TV which was set to a news channel. "Are they talking about the dead body? Speaking of which, why are you still home? Shouldn't you be on a new case?"
"Actually, the Sheriff called me today and asked if I'd give him a hand with the murder case." Sal responded. "Looks like you're stuck with me for a while, kid."
"Sheriff…Stilinski, right?" She asked.
"Uh yeah, why?" Sal looked questioningly at her.
"Oh, I just know his son…Stiles." She said, getting up to see what Tanya was cooking.
"Mm, smells good! What are we having?" Nora said as she entered the room. Tanya turned around and Nora stopped dead seeing what she was wearing.
"Where did you get that blouse?" Nora asking trying to keep her voice even.
Tanya looked down at the blouse. "Oh... It was in some of your mom's stuff. .It's just been sitting in the garage for years. I'm sorry I didn't know you'd mind." She looked at her niece with a look of sincerity.
"You have no right to wear that! It was hers!" Nora lost the battle and her voice rose as she spoke. Hot tears fell from her eyes. Nora turned on her heel and ran out the kitchen. She flew open the front door and started running down the street, ignoring Sal's calls.
Eventually, the tears ran out and Nora stopped running. She looked around and saw dense trees. She had unknowingly ran into the very forest Sal asked her to stay away from. 'Nice going Nora!' She thought. She turned around and headed in the opposite direction and hoped that was the way out of the forest in which people were murdered in.
Nora stopped in her tracks, hearing voices. "I know! You're a werewolf, grrr!" She recognized that voice.
"Okay, obviously I'm kidding. But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's cause Friday is a –" Stiles stopped seeing Nora as he and Scott approached.
"Uh hey Nora. What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I could ask you two the same question." And suddenly it hit her. They were looking for the body. "Are you guys looking for the dead body? I'm pretty sure the police would have removed it by now. I'm surprised you didn't know that Stiles, with your dad being the Sheriff and all." She said crossing her arms across her chest.
"Right, your dad is working on the investigation now." Stiles said.
"Uh my uncle. But yeah, he is." Nora said wondering if he really did know everything about the police department of Beacon Hills.
Stiles looked uncomfortable, but continued. "Well, anyway, he probably didn't want to tell you because it's pretty gruesome. But they only found half of a girls' body. And Scott, here, found the second half last night." He said proudly grabbing Scott's shoulder.
"So you two are coming to get a better look?" She questioned the two boys as she narrowed her eyes. Nora didn't wait for them to answer. "Do you guys know which direction is out? I don't really feel like being the second victim."
They both pointed in different directions. "Great, really helpful thanks." She said sarcastically as she headed the way the boys came from.
As she passed them, Stiles' grabbed her wrist gently and she turned to face him. "Nora, have you been crying?" Stiles asked in a quiet voice.
Yanking her wrist from his grasp, she turned back. "Most definitely not!" She laughed without humor and quickly disappeared into the thick trees.
Author's Note:
Well there she is in all her glory: the first chapter of my first fanfic. I envision Nora as girl in this picture .
. . Google tells me she is Martina Dimitrova and she is apparently older than 16, but I think she looks like a teenager in this picture. Anywho, I'm not sure how often I'll update this story. Hope you enjoyed :)
