On her third day in Beacon Hills, Mari was less than pleased to find Isaac Lahey sitting at her table in her French class. As if ending the day with Stiles wasn't bad enough. Now she had to begin the day with the curly-haired boy that had speckled her dreams last night (though she would never admit such a thing aloud). His blue eyes were twinkling as she walked towards their apparently shared desk, with her arms folded and lips pursed.

"Lovely to see you again," he said as she slid into her seat. She refused to look at him, flicking her hair over her shoulder to create a sort of barrier. She began to rummage through her bag as he chuckled. "That's not the best way to make friends, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't, so kindly keep your words of wisdom to yourself," she sneered, still not looking his way. He snorted.

"Have I done something to offend you, then? We've only just met."

"Maybe I just don't find it worth my time to engage with boys who think they're God's gift to the world."

Feminine laughter had Mari twisting around, only to discover Cora and Lydia at the table behind her.

"You two are here as well? Why didn't I see any of you in class yesterday? Or the day before?"

"Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough," Isaac replied, winking as he spoke. All three girls snorted, and a small frown replaced his smirk.

"Bonjour, classe!" Madamoiselle Collette chirped as she strode into the classroom. Mari had only known the older woman for half a week now, but she had already noticed the teacher's penchant for pencil skirts and Mary Jane heels. She dressed like a grown-up school girl, and the witch wasn't sure whether the aesthetic was adorable or creepy. Possibly both.

As the teacher began to outline the day's lesson, Isaac slipped a note to his deskmate.

Seriously, though, what's your problem with me?

Mari scowled at the paper before quickly writing, I don't have a problem with you.

I never would have guessed.

Why do you care?

Why should I care about the beautiful new girl hating me? I wonder...

She couldn't help the small flush that swept across her cheeks at his latest line. There was no way she would look at him now. He couldn't know he affected her. It was only a small change, anyway.

Whatever. Now shut up. I'd like to pass this class.

Technically, I wasn't actually saying anything...

Mari groaned quietly after reading Isaac's latest response, softly banging her head on the table. Cora and Lydia giggled a little louder than they should have, causing some of their classmates to give them all confused looks.

A pleased smile on his face, Isaac didn't bother her for the rest of the class period, something that Mari was extremely thankful for. French was a Romance language like Italian, but the two were different in many ways. For one thing, they had some fairly large pronunciation differences, and she was worried that her fluency in Italian might end up hurting - rather than helping - her ability to learn French. As much as she tried to maintain a sort of "bad girl" image, Mari was actually very conscientious when it came to her grades. She was hoping to have her pick of colleges come spring, and she refused to lower her GPA as she came into the final stretch of her high school career.


The rest of the school day passed mostly without incident. Lydia and Kira invited her to sit with them at lunch again, but Mari opted out. Instead, she spent the period in the library, reading a book on the Salem Witch Trials she'd pulled from the shelves. She hadn't sought the topic out purposefully, but the book felt like it called to her, so she went with it.

Cora and Malia weren't in PE, which she assumed had to do with the basketball incident from the day before. Sadly, Stiles was very much present in their science class, but she elected to ignore him. Her plan worked out well, since Mrs Pendrall spent the class lecturing. Unlike Isaac, Stiles didn't try to pass notes with her, which made her dislike him just a little bit less.

After school, Mari decided to bike into town. Jon had declared his need for the car after school at breakfast that morning, and so she had dutifully shoved her bike into the trunk. She was on the hunt for a job. She'd had one as a tutor back in Italy, and she really didn't want to deal with questions from Blue when she needed money for spell ingredients.

As it turned out, Beacon Hills was even smaller than she'd realized, and there didn't seem to be any places hiring. It probably didn't help that every business in town seemed to be locally-owned and extremely tight-knit. From the looks she was getting as she made her way through town, Mari decided that outsiders weren't really welcomed in this community.

Eventually, the girl found herself outside a small diner near the sheriff's station, a hole-in-the-wall joint called Woodlands. The place didn't seem very busy, and there wasn't any sort of "Help Wanted" sign in the window, but she went inside anyway. She walked up to the register, where a bored-looking waitress with dark red hair was popping gum and reading a book.

"How can I help you?" the girl droned, barely looking up.

"I was wondering if you might have any job openings? I just moved here and..." Mari began, but the girl cut her off.

"Grace! There's a girl out here that wants to talk to you!" she called behind her. An older woman came out of a back room, a smile painted on her face.

"Hello there! How can I help you, dear?" the woman - Grace - asked when she reached the counter. Up close, Mari could see that the smile didn't quite reach Grace's eyes. It was a typical expression for people in the service industry, she'd noticed.

"My name is Mari Lane. I just moved to town, and I was wondering if you might have any job openings? I know there isn't a sign up or anything..." She found herself interrupted once more, this time by a crash from the kitchen. A waitress came stomping through the swinging door, followed closely by a startled cook.

"I can't take this anymore!" the waitress yelled, throwing her hands up.

"Lynn, it's not what you think," the cook said in as soothing a tone as possible, "I wasn't doing anything!"

The cook's tone didn't help the waitress' mood, and perhaps even aggravated it, based on her response. "That's bullshit, Sam! You were flirting with the delivery guy! You're always flirting with the delivery guy!" Lynn the waitress had spun around at this point and was stabbing Sam the cook in the chest with a finger.

"I was just being nice! I grew up next door to Tom! It'd be rude of me to ignore him!" the cook protested, her soothing tone falling away.

"If you have so much history with him, and you care so much about his feelings, then maybe you should date him instead!" Lynn pulled off her apron and threw it at Sam's face. She then proceeded to slam her nametag on the counter before flinging up the counter gate. "I quit!"

Grace was wide-eyed as Lynn stormed out of the diner, the cheerfully-chiming bell above the door ringing in her wake. Mari looked back at Sam as Lynn disappeared around the corner. The cook was blinking in shock as Grace kindly pulled the apron off her head. The two had a quick whispered conversation before Sam silently returned to the kitchen.

The older woman returned her attention to Mari, her smile much softer and more genuine than before. "Well, I guess we have an opening after all."


Mari left the diner an hour and a half later, after filling out a bunch of paperwork and going through a quick training session. She would mostly be working after school Monday through Thursday, as well as the brunch shift on Sunday. She was pretty happy with her prospective schedule, especially after she was informed by the girl at the register - now known to be named Tessa - that most of her weekday shifts would be slow. So it'd be highly unlikely that her new job would interfere with her schoolwork. She would be sure to mention that when she broke the news to Blue.

As she made her way back home, Mari considered her new life. She'd only been in Beacon Hills for three days now, but she felt like a lot had happened. She'd kind of made new friends, she'd gotten a new job, and she'd discovered that there were at least a few other supernaturals in the area. It was the last topic that occupied her thoughts for most of the trip. Unless they were complete newbies to the whole supernatural thing, they'd probably discovered that a witch had been in their lair. They would be coming for her any day now, if not today. Should she find them first, or wait for them to come to her? It'd be less effort on her part if she waited for them, but would that be taken as an insult?

She was dragged out of thought when the sun was suddenly blocked, draping the road in shadow. Looking up, Mari caught a quick glimpse of something dark in the sky, but it was gone before she could really notice anything about it. She would have been more concerned if she didn't already have a notion of what it was. But that was a concern for later. For now, she'd arrived back home and she had a lot of homework waiting for her.

Back in Italy, the Liceo had joined the ranks of many other schools by adopting a settimana corta. Now they operated much like American schools, with classes only going Monday through Friday, rather than through Saturday. So a usual Friday night would've featured Mari and Liz going out with other people from school. Alternatively, they might have had a sleepover and stayed up all night watching movies. But this was California, not Italy. Here, Mari would study on a Friday night. Jon had told her about some party going on that night, but it wouldn't feel right going out without her best friend. So she didn't.


A/N: It took me two months to update. I'm sorry! But you can take comfort in knowing that I already have the next chapter done, and have the chapter after that halfway written. So I should be updating next week or the week after.

I know this was just kind of filler, but I need a few bridging chapters. Don't you worry your heads, the real plot will be starting soon enough. I hope you all enjoyed anyway!