Scott failed to get more information out of his boss, who seemed to be a master of talking around things. He really needed to find a chance to talk to Derek about all this, but he had promised to get it together at school. So for the time, he was stuck. It would be great if Derek could answer a text like a normal person.

His thoughts were interrupted as he arrived. He pulled his new bike into the parking lot.

As he made his way towards Beacon High, Scott watched a familiar truck pull in.

He watched Cole Hale get out of the car, same huge boots and black graphic shirt, as he expected. To his surprise though, another girl got out of the other side. Scott had to do a double take of the girl, thinking for a moment Allison had dyed her hair. The girl was almost the spitting image of his ex but with light brown hair and generally smaller. His first hint it was someone else was the outfit.

He didn't think Allison had ever worn pink to school, or heels. The girls were an odd couple to say the least.

The unknown girl wore overall shorts with a long sleeve pink shirt. Her hair was thrown up in a bun and a bandana headband. She looked very put together and prepared based on mass amounts of books and supplies she had visibly STUFFED in her fairly nice looking black shoulder bag. On the other hand Cole was dragging along an empty looking black backpack, and a well oversized white and black flannel that based on the state of it, she wore everywhere.

Neither spoke as they both walked inside and down the halls, only 10 feet behind him. When he stopped outside english at his locker, he watched them continue down the hall before walking into a class at the end. A freshman class. A few moments later, Cole exits, coming back his way. He thinks she's coming to him, but at the last second, she turns into Ms. Blake's class, not once acknowledging him. Scott closes his locker and follows.

He takes his seat in the second row, giving Allison a small smile. A few rows back, next to the windows, Cole had taken the previously empty seat next to Lydia. He turns to call over Stiles from his seat in front of Lydia, intending to tell him about the freshman, and talk more than they could through text about their connection to the Hale's. He's interrupted by the teacher walking in. She walks straight towards him.

"Mr. McCall? Your mother called. You've been excused from class." He nods, but before he can begin putting his things away she continues. "Uh, I'm sure it's an emergency if your mother needs you to leave school, but I'm gonna give you a warning in the nicest possible way. I am well aware of your attendance record. I don't wanna see you slip back into old habits." Scott smiled sheepishly

"I won't. It's gonna be different this year."He assures her.

"Resolutions are only good if you stick with them, Scott." She replies.

"I will. I promise it won't be ephemeral."

As Scott leaves, Cole watches Stiles twist his body in the small chair attached to the desk, to face Lydia. She listens to their conversation, leaning against the bar holding her desk and chair together, where her flannel hung.

"Hey, Lydia." She looks up at him and he points to her ankle, concern evident by the sudden speed of his words. "What is that? Is that from the accident?"

"No. Prada bit me." Lydia replies. Cole's face twists in confusion until Stiles speaks.

"Your dog?" Lydia looks at him completely serious.

"No, my designer handbag." Stiles looks confused until she rolls her eyes. "Yes, my dog."

"Has it ever bitten you before?" Lydia shakes her head no.

"Okay. What if it's, like, the same thing as the deer?" Stiles tone becomes hushed, but somehow more frantic. "You know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?". Cole's interest peaks at the mention of a second animal acting out.

"What happened with the deer?" She cut in. They both turned towards her. Stiles looked as if he was about to say something snarky towards her, but Lydia spoke first.

"A deer ran head first into my windshield the last night of vacation." Cole raises her eyebrows.

"Stilinski could be right."

He shoots her a distrusting look. Cole continues.

"The deer must have been spooked to do that, and same thing for the dog biting its owner."

"Meaning what? There's gonna be an earthquake?"Lydia bit sarcastically. Cole shrugs in response.

"Or something. I just... maybe it means something's coming. Something bad." Stiles adds.

"Or something bad is already here." Cole suggests, leaning back in her uncomfortable chair, causing it to groan. Stiles looked at her suspiciously again and she sneered at him.

"It was a deer and a dog." Lydia cut in. "What's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice…"

A loud bang sounds from the window next to them. Cole jumped from her seat instantly, tensely eyeing the bird falling away from the window, dead.

Ms. Blake tries to laugh it off, saying something about windows being a cruel joke for birds, distracting most of the teens.

She's interrupted by another bird hitting the window. The whole class's attention is drawn outside now. They can see hundreds of crows flying in their direction. Another hits the window, then another. They begin to smash through.

"Get down, everyone!" Ms Blake yells as crows begin diving at the students. Cole drops low, throwing her desk out of her way. She grabs for Lydia at the same time as Stiles does. She manages to force them both under the small desk Lydia had been sitting at.

Cole dragged another desk over, tipping it to block their side better. For each bird that came close enough, Cole just punched it. What else was she really gonna do? She didn't want to kill them if she didn't have to. She managed with only a few scratches that quickly healed.

The classroom was finally calm after five minutes, which had seemed to go on for hours in the chaos.

Cole pushed the desks away and rose carefully, eyes darting around the room. In the chaos, nobody seemed to notice her fighting the birds off. She gave a silent prayer at that. She had gotten pretty sloppy in the heat of the moment.

Stiles unwrapped himself from Lydia, and sat next to her on the floor. Cole offered a hand to both of them, as she surveyed the broken windows and beyond. Lydia stood, shaky on her feet. Stiles pulled himself to his feet, and moved to Lydia's side. Cole kept hold of Lydia's hand, helping her until she was firmly seated atop one of the desks, Stiles watching them closely.

"Are you ok?" Cole asks, tone more gentle than Stiles thought her capable of. Lydia nodded slowly.

At the sound of the door opening, they all turned, still jumpy. A short girl stood in the doorway, scanning the class, eyes evidently wide with worry.

"Leila." Cole called out to her, catching her attention. Her eyes narrowed, but the tension visibly dissolved from her expression.

"What the hell just happened?" She demanded, making her way over to them at the back of the class as if she didn't notice the people and dead birds she was stepping over.

"This is why I hate birds." Cole muttered bitterly. "Nobody was hurt." She spoke in her normal tone.

As if the girl's resemblance to Allison wasn't strange enough, as soon as Cole said that, she turned to look directly at her. Allison began walking over, oblivious to look.

"What is wrong with this school?"

Mara was first on the scene, alongside the cops. She stormed through the school behind them with a handful of other parents and the sheriff at the head. The second she made her way through the crowd into the class, she caught sight of her girls. She walked straight to the back where they stood in a group of familiar faces. As she approached, the teens around them moved to meet with their own parents.

"What happened?" She asked urgently.

"Birds. Dozens of them. They smashed through the windows and attacked some of the students. Lei wasn't here, she came after." Mara nodded slowly as Cole gave her the rundown.

"Anyone hurt?" They knew who she meant.

"I was on it." She replied.

"Good." The serious tone dropped, and she let out a breath. "I'm glad you two are ok."

"Animals have been acting out all over town." Leila spoke, her voice low. "It's more than they could cause. Something else is here."

"I know." Mara agreed. "We should discuss this at home. We both came since we didn't know what was happening. Let's go before he thinks we're all in trouble." The younger girls both laugh and nod. They all turned to the exit and Mara walked closely behind them.

Walking down the halls, they spotted Allison and Lydia again. They were with someone else as well. The two girls had their backs to them, and facing the trio was Chris Argent.

Leila averted her eyes, jaw tight and expression emotionless. Mara looked at him knowingly. Cole however fixed the man with a nasty sneer, even barring her teeth slightly.

His eyes look past the shaken girls in front of him to seek out the eyes he felt on him. When he saw, his jaw tightened as well. Allison and Lydia both notice his attention moved elsewhere. Turning around, they see all the girls turn their focus forward, The oldest with one hand on Cole and one on Leila, steering them forwards. Lydia lost her train of thought, eyes following the brunette slightly behind the teens.

They all walked out of the school and before they could reach the road, the silver Cobra pulled up in front of them.

Lei slides into the backseat first, followed by Cole, and they both shove their bags into the middle. Mara hopped into the passenger side at the same time, and the second the doors all closed, they were speeding off. The car is quiet for the first few minutes.

"So, girls.." Peter looks at them in the rear view mirror with a smirk. "How was school?"

Mara rolls her eyes at him, listening to the string of mutters from Cole about demon birds, causing Leila to snort.

"Everyone is alive." Lei points out with a grin. "That's a pretty good first day in my books." Mara shakes her head, and speaks towards Peter.

"They spend way too much time with you." She teases. He smiles at her, taking her hand in his, and pressing a kiss to it.

"Eww Mara now you have worm boy cooties." Cole mocked, sending both other girls into a fit of laughter. Peter scowled.

"You're all worse than me."

Flashback

"There's clothes in the trunk. I don't want you scarring the girls for life." She said, pulling the keys to her truck out of her pocket.

"More than they already have been." He replies, grabbing the clothes, and moving back to the passenger door. It was locked. Mara cracked the window.

"No way in hell you're coming in here like that." She says, eyeing the dirt covering him. "Hop in the back."

He opens his mouth to argue, but the look she gives him sends him right into the truck bed. The drive out of the forest is rough, but he manages to pull on the track pants and longsleeve. It's a short drive from the forest to a big property right on the forest and town line. They pull into the driveway, behind his silver Shelby 1000 Cobra. A decent sized house, with plenty of backyard and a room for everyone currently. It seemed a bit small , but it was nice.

As Mara got out, he hopped over the side landing firmly on the ground. He could hear Cerberus barking wildly and scratching at the door. As they walked towards the front entrance, the door suddenly opened, and Rus bolted out. Behind him, both Cole and Leila followed.

He was hit by one body, then the other two quickly after. Arms encircled him tightly and he felt the dog curl up at his feet. He wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them into his chest. He rested his chin on top of Lei's head, closing his eyes. He inhaled their scents, listened to the familiar beating of their hearts. He let himself embrace his family for the first time in six years.

Mara gave a resigned sigh from in front of him, where she was leaned against the driver side door of the truck. She straightened up, and walked over to join in. Peter unwrapped his arm from Lei, who shifted over slightly, without releasing her grip.

He wrapped his free arm around Mara, pulling her close. She slid her arm around his waist, and he pressed a kiss to her temple.

Cole steps back suddenly, lips pressed together in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress a smile. Leila stepped back as well, watching Cole curiously, Rus following. Cole lets the wide grin spread across her face.

"I think you need a shower, wormboy." She snickered, stepping closer to him. Peter watched her carefully as she raised her arm up. He felt her pull something from his hair, and she moved her open palm right in front of his face. In the center sat a wriggling earthworm. He grimaced.

Mara laughed, ducking out from under his arm. Leila took another step back scrunching up her face in disgust. Cole laughed as well, carefully placing the worm on the lawn.

"You definitely need a shower." Leila states from her spot a few feet away, arms crossed over her chest. Mara hums in agreement.

"Yup" Cole said, rubbing her hand on his shirt. "Better wash off all those cooties, wormboy.". Even Leila laughed at that, all three girls going off, earning a glower from Peter. Lei jumped out of his way, still laughing, as he marched up to the house, muttering something about staying dead.

End of flashback

This chapter was longer than usual but I hope you don't mind. I feel like these first few chapters are rocky but it gets better from now. Hope you enjoyed! Leave a review and let me know.