"Oh my God, please save me." Ariana dropped into her regular seat on the school bus, letting her bag swing under her feet as she sat down. It was way too early to be awake, and this bus was way too crowded which meant Ariana's morning crankiness was even worse than usual. There was nothing more annoying than piling onto an overcrowded bus, especially on the first day back. Luckily for Ariana, she could always count on a spot being saved for her towards the back of the bus and she had a certain dark skinned boy to thank for that.

"Sure. What am I saving you from?" Mason Hewitt asked from his spot beside her, sitting back against the window so he could face her properly. He had been leaning forward to talk to a super cute guy Ariana didn't recognise, probably a sophomore, but he sat back once Ariana arrived. She felt partly bad for interrupting Mason's flirting but at the same time, this crisis took priority.

"The two lovebirds-oh gross." Ariana answered, following that immediately with a loud groan as Violet and Garrett slid into the seats directly behind them, Garrett's arm automatically slinging itself across Violet's shoulder. "You two are disgusting," Ariana added. "It's officially too early for PDA."

"Love does not recognise the boundaries of time!" Violet declared dramatically, grabbing Garett's face and planting a kiss on his lips. He responded willingly, causing another groan from Ariana. She turned away from them, pointedly facing Mason instead.

"See what I put up with?" Ariana furrowed her brow at Mason who was already half way through a laugh. "Mason! You're supposed to be single and miserable like me. Don't encourage them."

"Sorry, sorry. Right, single and miserable. Got it. " Mason pulled his face into a serious expression for roughly five seconds before breaking back into a grin. His dark eyes twinkled at Ariana and within seconds she found herself grinning back at him.

Ariana wasn't sure how she had done anything worthy of being friends with Mason, especially given her extracurricular activities. But somehow he had ended up one of her closest friends outside of Violet and Garrett. Not that he was aware of their situation of course, they were careful to keep him out of the loop in that area. As far as he knew, The Orphans' apartment was only Ariana's and her foster brother's, which was partly true. His absence was easily explained by his long and weird hours for his nursing duties at Beacon Hills Hospital. Mason didn't need to know that Lucas was actually only the owner of the apartment for legal purposes. Ariana barely spoke to him unless it was about the rent. As far as Violet and Garrett's living arrangements went, they managed to evade the questions enough and Mason wasn't nosy enough to push any further so it worked out just fine. Luckily Mason's house was super nice and he was always willing to have them over to hang out so they were able to hang out outside school without any awkward questions arising.

The rest of the ride to school was fairly uneventful aside from the occasional gag-worthy PDA from behind Ariana. It was bad enough having to put up with their mushiness when they were home and it only seemed to get worse when they went out in public. Part of it was for appearances obviously, Ariana knew that. Nobody was going to suspect the cute freshman couple of being murderers. But Violet and Garrett were just naturally affectionate anyway, unlike Ariana who felt like nobody needed declarations of love in their face every day. She loved her two best friends more than anything, but she didn't need the constant reminder that she was technically living the life of a third wheel.

Once the bus finally pulled up at the school Ariana pulled herself out of her seat, backpack already half slung over her shoulder as she followed Mason towards the exit, Garrett and Violet trailing along behind her. Mason stepped off the last step of the bus, immediately turning around to hold a hand out to Ariana to help her down. She grinned down at him, taking his hand, and jumped off onto the hard concrete. Her lack of height gave her a significant enough distance from the ground that she landed with a bit of a thud.

"Right then, so what's your first class?" She asked, smoothing down her red plaid dress and linking her arm through Mason's as they began to walk. She could hear Violet and Mason's chatter a few steps behind and ducked her head behind to flash them both a smile.

"Ah first period? Chemistry." Mason replied with a groan.

"Ah yes, same! Awesome!" Ariana knew that advertising the fact that she was excited about Chemistry was probably the last thing she should be doing on the first day back, but the little nerd inside her was too keen to bother about her cool factor right now.

"I'll say. Chem with you? I might actually pass." Mason beamed down at Ariana.

"Well if you're extra nice I might lend you my notes, but you'll owe me." Ariana raised an eyebrow at him. Surely he knew by now that her Chemistry notes were highly sought out amongst half the freshman class. She couldn't just go handing them out to anybody.

"I will pay you with my everlasting friendship?"

"I'll take it!" Ariana flashed Mason a wide smile, clutching his arm tighter to hers as they walked.

The two of them ambled through the school yard, arm in arm, falling into an easy discussion about Mason's issue with Chemistry and how confusing he found Ariana's excitement over it. By the time they made it to the main hallway it was already flooded with students. The tiny brunette glared at a few students who clearly thought she was too small to see and just walked right into her. Ariana knew she was short but honestly this was ridiculous. Mason had tried to shield her for the most part but they parted ways at his locker and she was on her own for the last few metres, doing her best to dodge any tall seniors.

"Oh, crap. My bad."

Ariana felt her shoulder collide against something solid and her head shot up in time to notice the body it belonged to. The guy, who looked around her age, had stopped in his tracks to apologise. He almost looked like a deer caught in headlights with his big wide eyes staring at her. Ariana froze for a moment as she stared back.

The guy looked vaguely stunned, like bumping into her had knocked the wind out of him. Not to mention he had really nice blue eyes, although she only noticed them because he was looking so intently at her. That was the only reason. Ariana quickly composed herself, shaking her head as if she could shake out that trail of thoughts. Her ponytail bounced back and forth, brushing against her reddening cheeks slightly.

"No, it's fine," she said quickly, pulling her face into a somewhat composed expression. "All good!" Without waiting to see his response, Ariana turned on her heels and hurried off, zipping around the corner of the corridor, completely missing her locker and almost having a second collision. Luckily it was only Violet, books already in her arms.

"Whoop! Sorry. Oh my God. This is the worst first day back," Ariana blurted out, reaching out a hand to steady herself on Violet's arm.

"Woah, why? Who did you murder?" Violet joked. Ariana jerked her head up to glare at her best friend. Seriously? She was going to joke about that just out in the open, in front of hundreds of nosy students who thrived off eavesdropping? Violet seemed to catch herself though, her eyes quickly darting around her. "Sorry. Kidding. Sort of. Your morning temper can be questionable. What did you do? Did you talk about your love of science loudly and out yourself as a Science Dork?"

"Rude. No, I just crashed into someone, well he crashed into me, and it was just really awkward. Ugh." Ariana gave her entire body a shiver as if she was shaking off the entire encounter. "Anyway, now I've gone past my locker and I can't go back because I might bump into him again and that would just raise the awkwardness to a level I don't need right now."

"You're being crazy. Give it a minute and then I will walk with you and protect you from any awkwardness."

Ariana gave a sigh of relief, nodding her head. "Yes, good plan. Oh where did Garrett get to?"

"He ran into a bunch of jocks and there was too much sport talk so I bailed." Violet shrugged as the two girls began to move back around the corner. Violet had her eyes peeled as they walked along. "So who was the guy? Was he cute? What did he look like? Was he a freshman?"

Ariana frowned at the sudden influx of questions. "What? I don't know. I was too busy recovering from his clumsiness to pay attention to his face." Well that was a blatant lie.

"This why you're single. Ugh, honestly." Violet rolled her eyes as they arrived at Ariana's locker, now clumsy boy free. "Okay, grab your crap and let's go. If we miss the beginning of Chem I'll have to hear about it from you all day."

They strolled into the lab with plenty of time luckily, giving them time to pick a good bench near the window. Ariana slid onto the first stool, Violet slotting in next to her, her partner as always. They had been partners in every subject that required partners since they had become friends back in Ariana's third foster home when they were only ten years old. Even when Garrett came along, Violet made it clear that Ariana was her first partner in crime. The fact that Violet would probably fail Chemistry without Ariana was beside the point.

"Good morning class, welcome back. Now this week's topic will be Chemical Reactions, which you would have known if you read the board when you walked in." Mrs Martin stepped up in front of the class, her hands clasped in front of her as she began the lesson. Ariana was already leaning forward, her brain suddenly wide awake and ready.

"You look like a nerd," Violet muttered under her breath, her body tilting slightly towards Ariana.

"Shut up. Chemicals and reactions. Aka how do chemicals react. Aka how can my poison work better," Ariana shot back quietly, her lips barely moving as she tried to focus on the rest of Mrs Martin's introduction. It was true, the more she learned about chemicals, the more she could learn how to rework her poisons to help her friends. It was perfect.

The rest of the class flew by about as easily as Ariana had expected. She already had a lot of basic knowledge and most of the class was just theory based, giving a brief overview of the different types of reactions, with a lot of quiet reading and then a quiz to fill out. Ariana breezed through the quiz, giving her a bit of time to glance around the room. She hadn't paid much attention to anyone else when she had first entered the classroom, too eager to get a good bench before the room filled up, but now she had a chance to gaze around.

She could see a few other familiar freshman from last term, although she still hadn't talked to half of them. But there were a few notable exceptions. Sitting a row across she could see Genevieve in all her fiery haired glory, another girl from her foster care days. Genevieve and Ariana had known each other since their first foster home together back when they were barely out of diapers. Not that they talked much anymore. Ariana ducked her eyes away before Genevieve could look up and create an awkward moment. One awkward moment was enough for today.

Ariana's eyes continued to trail across the room until she spotted Mason, sitting on the other side of the room across from her, his head bent down as he focused on the quiz. He had thrown Ariana a wide grin when she walked in but they were sitting too far apart to talk properly. And sitting next to him…well speaking of awkward moments, it was the boy from the hallway. So he was a freshman after all, but she definitely hadn't seen him at school last term. She was sure she would have remembered him. He was staring down at the paper as if he could just make it disappear with sheer force of will. Ariana took this opportunity to look at him properly now, her eyes taking in his golden brown hair, styled into a look that half the freshman boys seemed to think looked cool right now, sticking up slightly as if he had just rolled out of bed, but somehow he made it look endearing. Ariana's eyes lingered over his frame, tense and tight as he leaned over the paper, but clearly in good shape.

"Are you right there?" Violet hissed suddenly, breaking Ariana's very important trail of thoughts.

"Huh?" Ariana snapped her head back to face Violet. She squinted slightly as the sun decided to shove itself in her face. Ugh. Even Ariana's love of science couldn't remove the irritation of mornings.

"You're practically drooling," Violet hissed back, raising an eyebrow at Ariana.

The smaller girl threw a glare at Violet, tugging her quiz away so Violet wouldn't be able to copy her answers as she had been doing for the last few minutes. "Was not. Shut up."

Before Violet could throw back another retort, the sound of the bell pulled the girls' conversation to a halt. Ariana quickly grabbed the quizzes from their bench, bringing them up to Mrs Martin as she exited the classroom, Violet several steps behind.

"So? Who were you staring at?" She asked, nudging Ariana as she fell into step with her.

"No one!"

Violet raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Fine. It was just the guy sitting next to Mason. He was the one who crashed into me before. The klutz who nearly made us late to Chem." Ariana blurted out finally, crossing her arms and hugging them to her chest as she walked.

"Ooh that guy? The one with the light brown hair? Damn, I barely got a good look at him." Violet jerked her head back as if moving to head back into the classroom and Ariana hurriedly grabbed her arm to stop her, tugging Violet until she gave up and fell back into step with her as they headed off to English class together.

Considering it was the first day back, Ariana was a little disappointed in how dull her day was shaping up to be after the chaotic morning. But lunchtime always brightened up the day, mostly because it meant she got to see Garrett for the first time since the bus. Somehow this term the two of them had ended up with different morning schedules but identical afternoon classes, which was a shame but Ariana took what she could get. At least it meant History would be semi interesting for once, with Garrett's hilarious commentary provided free of charge. He always managed to take the most boring subject she had and turned into something amusing. Ariana really didn't know what she would do without him and his sense of humour sometimes.

Lunchtime though, that was anything but dull. It was the first time the orphans were all together so far today and Ariana felt her mood instantly lifting as she spotted Garrett sitting at an otherwise empty table, food loaded on his lunch tray, Violet already sliding into the seat next to him. Ariana made eye contact with Garrett, giving him a quick wave as she jumped in line to grab her own lunch. She was just stepping back out of the line, tray filled up with some salad and a bread roll, when she was stopped in her tracks, her shoulder colliding with someone for the second time today.

"Watch where you're going!" A male voice came from beside her, aggression clear in its tone.

Ariana frowned as she steadied herself, miraculously managing to keep her tray balanced. She looked up to glare at the aggressive voice. It was the guy from the hallway. Really? Twice in one day? Was she cursed or something? She locked eyes with him and was mildly pleased to see the aggression in his eyes slip away, replaced with a look of surprise.

"Oh."

"Twice in one day. I'm starting to think you're doing this on purpose," Ariana said, shifting her weight across onto one foot as she looked up at him. Damn, he had really ridiculously blue eyes. Forcing herself not to stare into them too much, she quickly glanced around the cafeteria to where Violet and Garrett were engaged in a deep conversation. Great, they were lost in their own world while she was stuck crashing into strangers.

"I wasn't- I didn't mean to-" The guy was fumbling with his words, his hands clutching his own tray so tightly she could see his knuckles whitening. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You're in Mrs Martin's morning Chemistry class, right?" She asked, her head cocked slightly as if she hadn't been staring at him for half of the class earlier.

"Uh yeah. I am." He nodded awkwardly, his eyes still locked on hers. "Oh, um. I'm Liam."

"Ariana." She allowed lips to curl into the beginning of a smile, any irritation from his collision slipping away from her mind. But before Ariana could say anything else, Liam turned on his heels and hurried off. Apparently they were taking turns running off from each other. Fantastic. Pulling herself together, Ariana hurriedly made her way over to her friends before she could run into any more awkward situations.

"What was that all about?" Garrett asked, a roguish grin on his face as he watched Ariana slip into the seat opposite him.

"What do you mean? What was what about?" Ariana asked innocently, praying that Garrett hadn't seen her awkward encounter.

"You and the new guy."

"Nothing. We have Chemistry together," Ariana shrugged.

"Damn straight, they do." Violet interjected, a smirk on her lips. Honestly she and Garrett were perfectly matched. They were both the worst.

"Violet!"

"Sorry, but it's true! I saw the way you two staring at each other. You were gazing. And you thought Garrett and I were embarrassing." Violet said, raising an eyebrow. Turning to Garrett, she grinned. "That's the guy who crashed into Ari this morning as well."

Garrett leaned back slightly as he toyed with the apple in his hand. "Aha."

Ariana rolled her eyes at the two of them as she began digging into her lunch. "Aha nothing." She fiddled with her lettuce, pushing it around the plate in hopes that moving it around would somehow make it look more appealing. "Wait, you said he was the new guy?" She perked her head up to look at Garrett. That would explain why she hadn't seen him around before.

"Yeah, apparently he just transferred from Devenford this term." Garrett waggled his eyebrows at Ariana and she promptly looked away from him, instead choosing to focus on the careful layout of the salad on the tray in front of her.

"Cool. Right. Irrelevant." Ariana filed that information away to deal with later. "Anyway can we please talk about something more important? Like the list?" Ariana watched as Garrett immediately straightened up, his eyes gleaming.

"Oh, yes. Right. Lucky for us, I have mad detective skills." He was talking quietly now, not that it mattered in the crowded and noisy cafeteria. It was mostly for dramatic effect, knowing Garrett.

Ariana and Violet both threw each other a look, rolling their eyes in sync.

"I saw that, you two. Anyway, I found managed to track down a couple of werewolves already. I think I found our first target." Garrett's eyes flickered between the two girls. "We've got to plan it out properly though. Werewolves are strong. Stronger than what we're used to. We need to be prepared."

Ariana furrowed her brows as her brain whirled into action. "They must have a weakness though. They have to. Maybe we can use that."

"What kind of weakness? Are we planning on taking them down with silver bullets or something?" Violet asked, her mocking tone was hushed but the frustration still seeped through loud and clear.

"No, but maybe there's something that can make them weak. Maybe I can alter my poison for them..." Ariana mused aloud. "Add in something to weaken them."

"Like what?" Violet pressed on. She always was the one who hated formulating the plans when there were so many unknown variables. She liked things to be clear and well set out.

Garrett on the other hand looked almost overly excited, like a kid on Christmas Day. "I like it. Look into it, Ari. There's got to be something you can throw in that will help us take them down. You can do it." He looked across at Ariana, who could already feel her brain whirling away with a million possibilities.

"I'll figure it out. Give me a bit of time and I'll find something. We'll take them down." She nodded firmly, steely eyed as she looked at the two other orphans. They both nodded back, their eyes mirroring her own. This was it. Ariana had been mulling over the idea of the hit list overnight. This was different to their usual mercenary jobs. There was no knowledge of providing revenge on behalf for someone who had been wronged. There was no motive beyond the money, so Ariana had her doubts. But now that they were talking about it and she had a little scientific mission to work on, she could feel the excitement kicking in. They were doing this.

They were going to take down the werewolves one at a time until the list was empty.

A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for getting through this slightly longer chapter! I really wanted to highlight Ariana's relationships with the orphans a little more as well as her connections outside of them, and of course introducing Liam who is going to have a lot more to do with Ariana as we go along :) Also thank you for all the support I've had for Ariana already! I'm really excited about her story and I hope you all enjoy it too! Please /favourite/follow if you want to keep updated and feel free to leave a review about your thoughts so far! Reviews really do help me stay motivated to keep writing so if you have a minute that would be amazing. You can also check out to my tumblr (hailargent) for Ariana edits and chapter sneak peeks, and chat to me about her there!