Disclaimer: I don't own Scream or any of the characters. I only own my OC.

A/N: This story has been on my mind for a while now. Those who follow me on Tumblr know this. I figured with Scream 5 being released in January 2022 this would be a great time to release this story. It is also spooky season right now and I've been re-watching all the Scream movies. In case you guys don't already know, Scarlett's face-claim is the actress Alicia Witt. She was great in the movie Urban Legend a guilty pleasure horror movie of mine. I do plan on covering Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, and Scream 5 with this story. Scream 3 and Scream 4 may not be as long or detailed as Scream and Scream 2 but I will do my best with adding my OC into the plot(s). And I have to wait what happens in Scream 5 but I know I do want to include Scarlett.

Also I'll try to update this story soon but I recently got a job (finally!) and the hours are from 5AM to 1-2ish. I get home tired and want to be lazy but after I get used to the schedule I'll start writing the next chapter.

Chapter 1: The calm before the storm

October, 1996

AP English class was definitely Scarlett Mitchell's favorite class.

She loved to read and Mrs. Tate, her English teacher, always assigned engrossing reads.

The book the class just finished reading was Frankenstein. Scarlett actually already read the book in eighth grade, way before Mrs. Tate had assigned it. That didn't mean she didn't read it again. It really was a good book. In her opinion it was more tragic than scary, and although she loved horror, the tragedy of the story overall is what made it one of her favorite books.

Scarlett looked up from her notes as Mrs. Tate was finishing explaining the class assignment.

"For this upcoming essay you can work by yourself or you can work in pairs." Mrs. Tate announced to the class. "And it is due a week from today."

Well, that was different. Not the writing the essay part but the option to work with a partner. Still...Scarlett considered it.

The bell rang and students began leaving. Scarlett stood up and turned behind her. She hoped that Sidney was still in class. She wanted to ask if she wanted to pair up. Years from having classes together proved they worked well together.

Except Scarlett didn't get a chance to lock eyes with Sidney. Instead she was taken by surprise by what, actually by who, was in her point of view.

Casey Becker stood there with all her beauty. Her smile was blinding to Scarlett and she was beyond bewildered. Surely there was someone behind her that was the person who this beautiful smile was directed to. However, after quickly looking behind her, Scarlett realized she was wrong. There was no one else behind her. Casey's bright smile was for Scarlett after all.

Scarlett tried her best to return the smile. Her shyness got the better of her and her smile in return was small, and awkward. What was the matter with her? Casey and her have known each other for years, and although they weren't as close as before, there was no reason the blonde should affect her this much. Surely her past crush on the blonde wasn't still lingering around.

Besides, it wasn't like Casey never smiled at Scarlett. She would give her a polite smile when they'd see each in the hallway or even in the classroom. This particular smile though reminded Scarlett of the smiles Casey would give her back when they used to be close friends. A real smile.

God, that felt like forever ago.

"Hi...Casey." Scarlett managed to finally say.

"Hey Scarlett." Casey greeted. "How are you?"

Scarlett gulped, her heartbeat started to pick up. "I'm good...you?"

"Same." Casey answered. She paused and then looked right into her brown eyes.

Scarlett couldn't believe she forgot the way Casey's eyes would sparkle in a way. Wait sparkle? She nearly shook her head. How lame was she being right now...super lame that's for sure.

"So I was wondering...do you want to work on this essay assignment together?"

Scarlett's brown eyes widened. "Really?"

"I promise I'll do my fair share of my work." Casey reassured her with a giggle.

"Casey I know you'll do your fair share of the work. You are an honor roll student." Not to mention she was also in the same AP English class as Scarlett.

"So are you."

Scarlett bit her lip. "Which makes me wonder why you want to work on this together? Technically we both would be fine on our own."

"True...but it would be more fun if we both worked on it as a team? Don't you think? Like old times?" Casey brought up with a hopeful smile.

Scarlett had old memories of them in middle school. She felt her lips go upwards. "We did have a way with making homework more fun than it should."

"So is that a yes?" Casey asked, looking as if she was ready to jump in place.

Scarlett released a smile. "Yes. We can work on it at my place. You can stay for dinner. I'm making spaghetti tonight. Lindsey would be happy to see you. My mom would too but she works night shifts now." She looked bashful admitting that. "They ask about you at times."

"It'll be nice to see them. I mean, I see them around town but to actually catch up. It'll be great. And catching up with you too." Casey playfully bumped her shoulder to hers as she passed by. "It feels like forever since we hung out."

That's because it has.

Scarlett threw aside that thought. "You can come over then. Do you need me to write down my address?" She asked in fake seriousness. Although if Casey did say she needed it because she forgot that would have hurt.

Casey shook her head. "No need. I remember."

"Okay, cool." Scarlett replied.

"See you later, Letty." Casey waved goodbye.

Scarlett watched her walk away. She was left with a smile on her face and her cheeks warm. Casey had used the old nickname she had for her. Only Casey had ever called her that. Not even Sidney or Tatum did.

Mrs. Tate calling out to Scarlett to hurry along to her next class brought her out of her thoughts. Smile dropping and cheeks cooling down, Scarlett said goodbye to her English teacher and rushed to her next class. She hated being late to class but she almost contemplated it since it was Pre-Calculus.

Despite her good grade in that class she still hated math.

At least Randy and Billy were in that class with her. That made the class a bit more bearable.

"So Miss Popularity asked you to pair up with her?"

It was lunch time now and Scarlett was with her usual group of friends on a grassy area in front of the school. She was sitting in the middle with her horror movie loving friend Randy by her right side. On the left side to Scarlett was her friend Tatum and Stu. On Randy's other side was Sidney and Billy. The sitting placements made sense since those four were a couple.

Randy and her were not a couple but instead really good friends. Out of the friend group it was Randy who Scarlett befriended first when she had moved to Woodsboro in the third grade. She befriended the others eventually but Randy was the easiest to talk to. They instantly connected when she saw his Munsters lunch box and it wasn't long until they both found out they had a love for scary movies.

Lately, well for a while now, unknown to Scarlett, Randy had been crushing on her badly. Everyone in their friend group pretty much knew...except for Scarlett. For the most part they thought his crush on Scarlett was cute in a kind of pathetic way. Along with it being hilarious for one of them. But one person in particular thought it was annoying...and frustrating.

"For an English assignment." Scarlett clarified quickly. She really didn't need to clarify...she knew what Tatum meant. Yet there she was thinking of the impossible. As if Casey Becker would ever want to pair up with her in that way.

Tatum gave her an odd look that lasted way longer than Scarlett liked. "Hmm, I wonder why?"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Stu gazed at them. One of his arms was wrapped around Tatum while the other arm he used to sneakily reach over to take a Red Vine from the pack on Scarlett's lap. "It's because our Little Red here..." He cooed, pinching her cheek. Scarlett pushed his hand away with a frown. Her upset face just made him laugh. "Is a genius and obviously Casey wants to get an easy A.'' All his friends' eyes were on him. He shrugged his shoulders. "It's what I'd do."

Billy picked at a piece of grass before throwing it away from him. He shook his head. "That's nice, Stu."

"Yeah, thanks for the honesty." Scarlett responded sarcastically to the tall dark blond.

Stu remained waggish with her. "You're welcome."

"And anyways Casey doesn't need me for an A. She's already smart." Scarlett said without thinking. From the side she could see Billy looking at her in what she thought was curiosity.

"Why'd you stop being friends with her again?" Sidney quietly asked Scarlett.

The seventeen year old picked at her unpolished nails. Tatum earlier had been trying to convince her to use this purple color she got. She was never one to be into stuff like nail polish or makeup but Tatum always found ways in getting her to try.

"We entered high school and things changed." Scarlett started telling her friends. "She got hit with the pretty stick...hard. And I stayed the same." It wasn't that she thought she was ugly. She knew she wasn't ugly...but she also knew she wasn't beautiful either. Not like Casey. Or even Sidney and Tatum. She was just ordinary. Really the only intriguing thing about her was her red hair. She lucked out on that thanks to her mom. The rest of her features were her father's. Including her brown eyes.

"That's absurd, you're really pretty." Sidney kindly assured her friend.

Tatum rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you're making it sound like you're a total dog, which you're not. You're a total doll."

"She's right." Stu chuckled. "If this little vixen didn't already have my arm so twisted―" He yelped as Tatum began hitting him with the Red Vine he had taken from Scarlett. "Easy! I was only half serious."

Scarlett felt comfortable enough to laugh a little. She knew Stu wasn't being really serious. He was just being himself. He was a natural goof and a flirt. He never meant anything with his flirty comments towards Scarlett. There were times (okay a lot of times) where he crossed the line with his humor in general but Tatum was always there to set him straight.

"You shouldn't sell yourself so short." Billy suddenly said, staring right at her. His own brown eyes didn't shy away from her. She'd been friends with him so long that the intensity of them hardly bothered her.

Scarlett let out a small smile at her friends' comments. Billy's solemnity had her personally offering a Red Vine to him. His lip quirked before taking one.

The only person who hadn't said anything was Randy. He was looking down at the grass, his face looked really red. Scarlett wondered if it was because of the sun. Though that seemed unlikely because it wasn't that hot today. It was pretty cool.

"Randy?" Scarlett called out to him. "You alright? You're unusually quiet."

Randy quickly looked at her, mouth wide open. He looked like a fish out of water. Scarlett furrowed her eyebrows.

"Oh, look..." Tatum called out, making Scarlett look her way. Unknown to her Randy had released a sigh as she redirected her gaze. Out of all of them, Billy noticed. "Your BFF is calling for you." She announced in a teasing way.

Scarlett followed to where she was staring and sure enough there was Casey waving at Scarlett. It was obviously a gesture for her to come over. She probably didn't want to come over because of Stu. Scarlett was aware that Stu and Casey briefly dated before he started going out with Tatum. Stu claimed he dumped Casey for Tatum but as Randy theorized to her it was Casey who dumped Stu for Steve Orth.

Neither of them appealed to Scarlett but if she had to choose one she'd choose Steve. Unlike most of the football players at Woodsboro High he was actually nice. They'd only spoken a few times but during those few times Scarlett got the impression that he was a good person. And despite not being attracted to him, she had to admit he was handsome. No wonder Casey was going out with him.

"Hush." Scarlett answered, throwing a Red Vine at Tatum as she stood up. She felt her friends' eyes on her as she made her way over to Casey.

"What's up?" Scarlett asked once in front of her.

Casey looked to be bashful which threw Scarlett off. "So listen about our after school plans, I'm going to have to cancel."

"Oh." Scarlett muttered, disappointed. "Um, alright. Can I ask why?"

"It's just that Steve asked me to hang out tonight and I was going to say no but then..." Casey seemed reserved, not sure how to end that sentence.

"He gave you puppy dog eyes didn't he?" Scarlett guessed trying to be lighthearted. It worked because Casey laughed.

"Pretty much. I promise we can work on it tomorrow."

Even though Scarlett was disappointed that they weren't going to hang out today, she assured herself their time together wouldn't be lost. "It's okay." She began telling the blonde. "I get it. If I had a boyfriend I would cancel too to hang out with him." Scarlett told her with a smile. Or even if I had a girlfriend. Either way.

Casey laughed. "Tomorrow for sure. I'll see you later, Letty."

"Bye, Casey." Scarlett waved goodbye as the blonde began walking away. Her eyes lingered on how the sun hit Casey's blonde hair before walking back to her friends.

"What did she want?" Tatum bluntly asked once Scarlett sat down on the grass.

Scarlett pursed her lips. "Wanted to let me know our homework plans for tonight are a no go."

"Oh?" Billy tilted his head at her. "Why's that?"

"She made plans with her boyfriend instead." Scarlett answered, trying her best to sound not bothered by it all. "It's whatever, we can always work on it tomorrow." She reached for another Red Vine. "Guess it's another movie night with Lindsey."

Knowing her younger sister, Lindsey was probably going to want to watch a romantic comedy movie. Lindsey was at that age now where she was finding romance to be interesting. She used to love horror movies as much as Scarlett but not so much anymore. Scarlett didn't hate romantic comedies but if it was between that and a horror movie she'd rather watch a horror movie.

Maybe if she promised to wash the dishes in the sink tonight her sister may let her be the one to choose the movie.

"Well, at least your little sister isn't a brat." Randy grumbled.

Scarlett almost raised her eyebrows from hearing Randy speak. He'd been so quiet before but now he was starting to be himself again. She wondered what had him in such a stupor.

"Martha isn't a brat." She came to the defense of Randy's little sister. Martha was the same age as Lindsey and funny enough the two pre-teen girls were good friends themselves. "She's really sweet."

Randy scoffed. "To you."

"You do tend to bring out the worst in people." Scarlett said in a serious tone. She took a good look at Randy and then laughed at his wide-eyed expression. "I'm kidding...obviously. And FYI, Lindsey has her bratty moments too."

Before Randy had a chance to reply, Stu let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Well I am beyond thrilled that my lame older sister is off at college. I don't need to deal with my sibling getting on my nerves for now." He added with a huge grin.

Scarlett smiled before it slowly fell. "Anyways, I'd rather deal with my sister's sometimes annoying personality than my dad."

"Your dad? Has he been trying to contact you?" Sidney softly asked her. She, along with her friend group, knew about the history between Scarlett and her father. It wasn't the best.

Scarlett appeared somber. "Yeah but I do my best to not answer his calls. And If I do, I will keep the conversation short."

"And how does that go?" Billy questioned.

"Oh you know like I'd say, dad I can't talk right now a meteor just crashed through the living room roof. Or my personal favorite...I can't talk because my refrigerator is running." Scarlett gave a cheesy smile before dropping it.

"You're shitting me." Stu shook his head, amused by how awful those excuses were. "Tell me you don't actually say that to him."

Scarlett became more serious. "No. My responses to him are way less random and whimsical. They're pretty sharp and I'm hoping he'll get the hint soon."

"Maybe he will." Billy evenly said.

Scarlett said nothing to that, just continued eating her last Red Vine.

The school bell rang then and everybody started to get up. Scarlett said her goodbyes to her friends and watched Stu and Tatum leave together as did Sidney and Billy. It was only Randy and her left.

"Hey, you should come by the video store if you're just going to watch a movie with your sister." Randy said as they walked to their classes.

Scarlett nodded her head, liking that idea. "Sure...wait didn't you get fired from the video store?"

"I sure did. Two times actually." Randy cheekily answered.

The redhead laughed at his response. "Whatever I rent it sadly can't be horror. Lindsey's been into romantic comedies lately."

Randy waved that off. "Easy fix. Just rent Misery and then tell her it's a love story gone wrong."

Scarlett laughed loudly. "More like a one-sided love story gone wrong."

Randy cheered. "There you go!"

"I'll stop by then." Scarlett said after calming down from her laughter.

"Cool! Awesome! Fantastic!" Randy fervently responded.

His excitement was contagious but as much as she wanted to stay and converse with him she couldn't be late to Economics. "Okay...I'm going to class now." She waved goodbye to her horror movie loving friend.

When it came to Randy, one of the things Scarlett could count on was that he always found some way to make her laugh.