Chapter 1
Beacon Hills was small. Much smaller than the big cities Ellie was used to. Her mother, Jenny, was a corporate CEO, a job which involved her and Ellie moving around a lot of the time. Interestingly enough Beacon Hills was where Ellie's mother had decided that they were going to live more permanently, well at least where Ellie would live more permanently.
Ellie had never been in one school longer than 6 months so her mother had decided it was time for her to make some proper friends. Beacon Hills just happened to be somewhere in between the two large cities which she worked the most, making it the most practical place to live. Ellie knew that Jenny probably wouldn't be home for long periods of time but she was okay with it. Living in a big city had made her more independent; she was used to doing all the cooking and cleaning and she liked to be alone.
Ellie watched as the houses blurred past them. Houses soon turned into forest, and in no time at all they were pulling into a driveway some 5 minutes from the forest edge. The house was unlike anything Ellie had lived in before. Compared to the large, modern hotels and apartments they had stayed in the small cottage seemed tiny. Ellie never liked the cities, although she never showed it she had always dreamed of moving to the country side. This was probably the closest she was going to get.
The small cottage was in the back corner of a large clearing in the forest. Ivy and roses crawled up the white beams and walls and the large front door had one of those old brass knockers in the shape of a lion's head. The moving in truck was already parked in the drive with the men pulling out beds and drawers and bookshelves, carting them into the house. Jenny parked the car to the side of the house and turned to Ellie with a giant smile on her face.
"Come on Ellie, I have a surprise for you!" she said excitedly. Ellie got out of the car and followed her into the house. The interior was modest, suiting the outside of the house. The ceiling was surprisingly high and although the cottage seemed small from the outside, it was much more spacious and open from the inside. Her mother led her down the end of the hallway and stopped in front of a large set of double doors. She motioned for Ellie to go in. Ellie braced herself and pushed the doors open. A large room with a high ceiling greeted her first; the smell of books greeted her second. Covering the far wall, ceiling to floor, were books. Every type of book you could imagine. A ladder was pushed up against the wall for the higher up books. In the middle of the room was a large table with many chairs around it and on the adjacent wall was a large open fire place. The thing that Ellie had her eyes glued to however was by the far end of the wall of books; a grand piano. Ellie contained her excitement, not wanting to give away her nonchalant attitude, and walked over to the piano. She ran her hand over the keys; the sound was so much better than her electric one she had been stuck with. She turned to her mother and frowned.
"Is there a catch for me getting all this?" Ellie said, gesturing around her. Her mother walked up to her and placed her hands either side of Ellie's face.
"I know I haven't been there for you lately," Ellie snorted at this but her mother continued, "but I am trying my hardest to make it up to you. I am going to try and come home as often as I can but you know how unreliable I can be, so I want you to be comfortable in this house. I want you to have everything you want." She said with a smile. Ellie couldn't argue with that, she knew her mother cared, even if she wasn't always there to show it. Her mother pulled Ellie into a hug and she surprised herself by hugging her back. Jenny pulled back and gestured towards a spiral staircase in the corner of the room.
"You're room is up there, go get settled in and I'll call you down for dinner". Ellie climbed the spiral staircase. It led directly to a room, her bedroom she guessed as her bed and bags were already there waiting for her. A large window with a seat joined to it faced out into the forest on the far side of the room. Her large queen bed was pushed up against the adjoining wall and her desk was against the opposite wall to the bed. The last wall held 2 doors. Ellie opened one into a large bathroom complete with shower, bathtub and matching sink. She opened the other door to a walk in wardrobe. She sighed and fell back on her bed. Her room was more than she had imagined. She would have to do something big to thank her mother; maybe a surprise party when she next got back from her next work trip.
For the next 2 hours Ellie unpacked all her stuff. She put all her clothes into her spacious new wardrobe and made several trips to add her own books to the library down stairs. Twice she stopped to play a few pieces on the piano but decided it best not to get too lost in it as she could be there for hours. Just as she had opened her laptop to connect to the wifi she heard her mother call from somewhere in the house. Going down the stairs and through the library she found the kitchen at the end of the hallway, complete with a helpless looking mother and a smoking oven. Ellie laughed as her mother ran around trying to swish the smoke away from the smoke detector. Ellie walked over and turned the oven off, opened several windows and carefully opened the oven door. She was overcome with smoke as it filled her mouth and eyes. Stepping away from the oven she cleared her eyes to see her mother furiously waving a tea towel in below the smoke detector. Ellie couldn't help it; she burst out laughing. This set off her mother and soon they were both lying on the ground with tears in their eyes. They hadn't laughed together like that in year and Ellie had missed it.
"I guess I'll go get us some takeaways from town" Ellie said when they had finally stopped laughing. Jenny just nodded and started to clear the charred remains of the... Chicken?
After Ellie had grabbed her leather jacket and wallet she climbed into her black jeep and began to pull out onto the road. Before she pulled out her eyes caught sight of something in the trees; two yellow orbs, like eyes, stared out to her. She shook her head and looked back, they were gone. She didn't think anything of it; there were probably owls or something out in the forest anyways.
She pulled out onto the road and headed towards town. The drive was short and soon she was pulling into a park at the local pub; Bernie's bar and takeaways. Stepping out of her jeep she pulled her jacket around her. She pulled the door to the bar open she was greeted with warmth and noise. Making her way over to the bar to order she felt some eyes on her. She turned and noticed a boy around her age staring at her. When he saw her looking her turned his head away in embarrassment, his cheeks tinted red. She felt her own cheeks blush; she had never been affected by boys and she couldn't understand why she was now. She turned back towards the bar and looked down towards her outfit. She was suddenly a little embarrassed she hadn't dressed a bit nicer; she was just wearing her light-wash jeans, oversized t-shirt and leather jacket, along with her Doc Martins. She shrugged, trying to get the boys face out of her mind, and signalled the barman over. She ordered her food and a drink and sat down to wait for her order. She sipped at her drink and scrolled through her phone for a while until she felt someone sit down beside her and looked up at the person. It was a strawberry blond haired girl that had been sitting in the same group the boy had been in.
"Hi, my name is Lydia. You must be new here; I haven't seen you around before." She said confidently.
"Ellie. I suppose your friend over there asked you to come over?" Ellie asked, gesturing over to the boy. He had been watching and turned away again, turning an even darker shade of red. Lydia just laughed.
"I'm always the one that gets conned into doing things. Stiles can never do his own dirty work." She said rolling her eyes. Ellie laughed, she liked this girl, and she rarely liked people upon first meeting them.
"Did you want to join us?" Lydia offered, gesturing over to the table full of people.
"Thanks for the offer but I'm just waiting for my order." Ellie said politely, she didn't really do well with new people. She tended to offend people more often than not.
"That's okay. Will we see you at school tomorrow?" she asked again, getting ready to go back to the group.
"Umm, yea. It's my first day." Ellie said, a little nervous at another new school. She never made friends well and always seemed to get on the teachers bad sides. She couldn't help it if she was too smart for the classes, got bored and then started talking back. She had promised her mother she wouldn't get suspended from this school but she doubted that the promise would be kept with a history like hers.
"Cool, well I'll see you then. You can sit with us at lunch if you like?" she said with a friendly smile.
"We'll see" Ellie said. She liked Lydia, maybe she would end up sitting with them tomorrow. Lydia gave a little wave and retreated back to her table, no doubt to recount the entire conversation. Right then her order was placed in front of her. Grabbing her food she placed her now empty glass on the bar, along with a tip. Making her way back out to the door she looked back at the group who were all watching her leave. She gave a small wave at the group, chuckling as they all turned away embarrassed that they got caught, before heading back into the cold and over to her jeep. Getting in her jeep she drove home, returning to a much cleaner kitchen, still with a faint smell of burnt chicken.
"Thank god, I'm starving" her mother greeted her as she walked in the door. Typical greeting. They spread the food out onto the table and dug in.
"Meet anyone nice?" her mother asked with a mouthful of fried rice. Her mother was a professional at her job, but at home she was as much a slob as a teenage boy.
"Just this girl, Lydia. She seemed nice. Offered to let me sit with her group tomorrow at school" Ellie said with a small smile.
"Wow, you never like people when you first meet them. Are you feeling okay? Need me to call a doctor?" her mother said sarcastically, acting shocked. Ellie just gave her a look and they both laughed.
"Very funny."
"Seriously though, are you gonna sit with them?" she pressed.
"Hmm, maybe. The rest of the group seem okay..." Ellie said, remembering the boy. Jenny noticed the slight blush on her cheeks and smirked.
"Does Ellie Queen have a crush?" she said teasingly.
"No!" Ellie said, blushing a little harder as she started to pack away the dinner dishes.
"If you say so..." Her mother said doubtfully. Ellie shut her up with a look and they both laughed. They hadn't spoken like this in years. It made Ellie happy that they were getting along after the incident of her Jenny's last boyfriend. Jenny's face turned serious again as she looked down at the table.
"Ellie, I leave for work tomorrow morning" she said sadly. Ellie frowned.
"So soon?"
"Afraid so" her mother said regretfully. "I wish I could stay longer, help you get settled in..."
"It's okay; you know I can look after myself. How long?" Ellie asked, hoping it would only be a week or so. She was enjoying getting along with Jenny.
"A month" her mother said after some hesitation.
"That's so long..." Ellie said sadly. Her mother pulled her into a hug.
"I'll be back before you know it, I promise."
"Okay, well I'm gonna ahead to bed. First day of school tomorrow" Ellie said, pulling away from the hug. Her mother looked at her face.
"Good luck, you'll be fine. Don't piss anyone off, especially not the teachers. I know how you get. You know the house rules as well!" Jenny said, pretending to be serious.
"What house rules?" Ellie said with a snort.
"Exactly" her mother said with a laugh. Ellie was always known for having parties when her mother was away and she always ended up with naked boys in the house one way or another; usually due to her excessive skill in strip poker. They hugged again and Ellie went up to her room to get ready for bed. She stripped out of her clothes into a t-shirt and underwear and climbed into her bed, pulling her laptop onto her lap. She opened up her email to see a new email from Brandon.
Dear Ellie,
I miss you already! Everyone is driving me crazy at school and the gossip mill has started up as to why you left. Apparently you're pregnant with my baby... congrats! Anyways, email me when you have a moment. And don't you dare forget about me!
Love Brandon xxx
She chuckled at the email. Brandon was her best (and only) friend from her last school. The funny part was that he was 100% gay, not that anyone else knew that. She yawned widely and closed her laptop, deciding to email him back tomorrow, or better yet she would Skype him. Tomorrow was the first day at the school that she was going to graduate from. Excitement and nervousness ran through her, before she finally drifted off to bed.
