CHAPTER 1
Moving from the bustling streets of Chicago to the suburban lifestyle of Beacon Hills, California had been planned by the George family for months. The fateful day had been marked on every calendar of their family home in a garish bright red, circled three times for good measure. Packing and shipping had begun early, four weeks and three days in advance to be precise, soon leaving the four members of the George family with nothing but their two cars to drive into their future.
And they did precisely that. With their final boxes of belongings packed in their orange Volkswagen Type 181, the family set off for the thirty one hour road trip that would take them to a brighter future, to a brighter town. Friends were left and co-workers forgotten, a fresh slate awaiting them in their new home.
The George family consisted of four simple characters who lived four simple lives. Amy George was the mother to the two George siblings. With her curly-sandy-blonde hair and proper posture, she could've easily stepped right out of a cookbook. Always flanked at her side was her loyal husband Matthew George, a perfect contrast with his dark brown hair and deep hazel eyes.
Then came Jack George, the youngest of the family (but only a few months younger than his sister, thank you very much). He sported the same dark hair as his father, but with a foreign cocky smirk plastered to his face. He was the odd one out of the family, a black sheep if you may, with his undying need to rebel and love for anything out of the ordinary.
And finally, Mia George. The eldest of the two George siblings, and also the most charming. With her sunshine smile and golden hair, she was most definetly her mothers daughter. She knew how to blend into the crowds, yet still shine as bright as anyone else with her warm heart. She was fearless, yet never overly bold and always kind.
The George family were as normal as could be, just an ordinary family living an ordinary life.
An old Beatles song, Come Together, echoed through the car from the CD player, Mia drumming her fingers to the beat on her knees. It was only when her eyes caught the 'Welcome To Beacon Hills' sign that her fingers halted, the song only on it's second verse.
"We're here," she realised, turning to her brother with wide eyes, "We're in Beacon Hills."
Jack peered out of his own window, eyes scanning the seemingly never-ending forest surrounding them, frowning, "Honestly? It doesn't look like much."
"Don't judge a town by its foliage," Matthew George joked, keeping his eyes on the road diligently, "It won't be long until we reach the actual town now, don't worry."
A wide smile spread across Mia's face as she sat forwards in her seat, eagerly trying to look around through the windshield, "Do you know what our house is going to look like?"
"That's a surprise honey," Amy George teased, making sure the sat-nav had been set up properly for her husband.
"Honestly? This place looks perfect for a horror movie," Jack joked, eyes still glued at the deep dark forestry, "Do you think someone's died in these woods before?"
"That's enough of that Jack," His father snapped immediately, scolding him harshly, "There's no need to be morbid."
"Just making conversation, nothing wrong with that," Jack defended, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms.
Mia smiled to herself, toying with the antique amethyst ring on her finger, the one her mother had given her all those years ago. She'd worn it every day since, like an anchor reminding her who she was. It was her way of remembering all of the things she'd experienced in Chicago, and something told her that she'd be making many more memories in Beacon Hills. And quite frankly, she couldn't wait.
First day of school. She could do this, right? It wasn't like she was going to be the only new student. Her brother would be with her, which was meant to be somewhat reassuring, yet she couldn't find it in herself to calm her nerves. High school is the same in every state, right?
She'd only been driving her yellow Volkswagen for a few minutes, yet she could already feel the jitters of the first day of school creeping in on her. She nervously tapped her fingers against the steering wheel, the sound muffled by Jack's attempts at working the radio. It was somewhat comforting being able to drive again, to control where she was going and when, but that comfort had been overrun by the prospect of the new school.
"You know, if you don't chill out you might end up crashing us," Jack joked nonchalantly from the passenger seat, tilting his head to his sister, "Wouldn't want to be on the front of the paper on our first day here."
"On the contrary, that would be a great way to start our lives here," Mia joked back, trying to ease her nerves, "But honestly, aren't you at least a little nervous?"
"Why should I be? It won't be any different than Chicago was," Jack shrugged, turning his head away from his sister.
"Aren't you nervous about, you know... Making new friends?" Mia tried as she took a left turn on the road.
Jack snorted, "That's the last of my worries."
"That confident in your social skills?"
"More like lack of," Jack replied, "I'm not looking to make new friends, I'm looking to get out of high school alive. Also, you missed a turn."
Mia cursed to herself, deciding to properly pay attention to the GPS on her phone, "Fine. If you want to be the brooding, mysterious, hostile type then be my guest."
"With pleasure," Jack smirked.
In Mia's opinion, Jack was a little… Defensive. He'd never been great at socialising, and spent most of his time nosing through old books or writing in those hidden journals of his. And sure, Mia had never been super popular. In fact, she prided herself on, well, staying herself. She wasn't prone to crack against social pressure. She wasn't one to follow the trends for the sake of fitting in. Instead, she was a family girl. But regardless of that, at least she'd had friends.
And Jack, well… Jack only had her.
It was only a few minutes later that the two siblings found themselves outside the school, driving into the parking lot silently, as if they were driving to their own funerals. Even Jack's face fell when his eyes landed on the groups of students, realising he no longer had his loner reputation to protect him. Mia was also silently freaking out. She wasn't cool. Heck, she wasn't even close to cool,and she could already tell that Beacon Hills High would not take kindly to her un-coolness simply from the way people had begun looking at her car. With disgust.
The moment she parked the car and removed her car key, she knew there was no going back. They had come this far already, so what else could they do? Run back to Chicago. That would take far too long and far too much effort.
"You know, leaving doesn't actually sound like such a bad idea," Jack mused, Mia glaring at him briefly. She refused to back down now.
"Come on," Mia called as she opened her door, leaning back in to grab her backpack from the backseat, "Hell awaits."
As the two siblings slammed the car doors shut, they noticed a green motorcycle driving into the parking space next to them, rather noisily too. Even though Mia didn't particularly notice boys, nor cared to do so, she could tell that the driver of the bike was at least mildly cute. She made her way over to the passenger side of the car to stand with her brother, both watching the boy curiously.
That was one of their more subconscious flaws. They were both observers, intent observers for that matter. They were brought up in a family of intellectuals, after all. They were bound to pick up a few odd habits here and there. They solved puzzles by paying attention, and right now, they were paying attention to an ordinary boy parking his ordinary motorcycle, for some unknown reason.
The boy pulled his helmet off, a smile on his face. Mia had been right, he was definetly at least a little cute. However, those thoughts were wiped away by the way he stared at himself in the reflection of the helmet, as if he was seeing a monster. Jack raised his eyebrow at that, but the boy shook it off, and was soon gone, leaving two very perplex new students.
"That was odd," Jack commented, hiking up his shoulder bag. "A bit freaky too?"
"More than odd," Mia agreed, shaking off the encounter before turning to her brother, "Come on, we need to pick up our schedules."
Walking through the halls of Beacon High was more daunting than expected.
For one, Mia hadn't expected every single student in the school to be impeccably dressed. It was like stepping into a teen movie, every girl with perfectly combed hair and every boy with perfectly ironed t-shirts. She regretted not paying a little more attention to her appearance that morning, but she hadn't deemed it important at the time. Who made an effort in high school anyway? She certainly didn't, nor had time to.
Her hair was down as usual, slightly wavy and a little untamed from the open car window she'd driven to school with. She'd opted for wearing her favourite black leggings and a long red wide-knitted jumper, ending at her mid thigh. Her classic pair of black boots were at her feet, just the smallest hint of her red socks visible. Overall, she looked like she'd just rolled out of bed after a very cosy winter sleep.
Her brother on the other hand looked like he'd put the most effort in looking effortless. He wore black skinny jeans with a black t-shirt, a grey checked flannel shirt tied around his waist. The whole look was topped off with his signature black denim jacket and boots, his hair barely touched. Like Mia, he too had an 'anchor' in the form of jewellery, also gifted by their mother. Instead of a ring, he wore a thin chain around his neck with a small amethyst pendant, similar to Mia's ring. He looked like trouble, and well, Mia just looked like the aftermath of a Home Alone marathon.
Compared to the other students, the siblings knew they stood out. However, Mia bit her lip in determination, double-checking her schedule.
"We have history together first thing," she explained to her brother, grabbing his wrist, "Come on, we'll be late."
"And we so wouldn't want that," her brother joked, letting himself be dragged away by her anyway.
The two found their classroom fairly easily, to both of their surprise, slipping in unnoticed at first. They took two seats at the back of the classroom, Mia on the left and Jack on the right in the corner. Students began filing in quickly, rendering them practically invisible to the rest of the class. Their presence was shielded by the buzz of students talking and greeting old friends, giving them a few minutes of undisturbed peace. However, that peace was soon interrupted by a teacher entering the room, every student now sat down in front of a desk.
"Good morning, everyone," the Professor began, "My name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous History Teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago."
Jack raised his eyebrow at that statement. Two new families in such a small town in the space of a month?
"I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter," Yukimura continued innocently, Mia internally cringing for whoever his daughter was.
Suddenly, a muffled thump echoed from the other side of the classroom, causing everyone to turn around. A girl, she assumed the teachers daughter, had loudly and understandably dropped her head onto her desk in embarrassment.
Mia spotted the odd guy from the motorcycle that morning, staring at her more intently than anyone else in the class. What was it with him and staring at people? Was it a problem he had?
"Either way, there she is," Yukimura continued, confirming Mia's assumption, "We also have two new students joining us from Chicago. I believe it's Mia and Jack?"
Mia groaned quietly to herself, waving awkwardly as people began turning to her and her brother. Jack shrugged, turning away from prying eyes and looking out of the window of the classroom.
This time, not only did she notice motorcycle guy staring at her, but another boy too held the stare a little too long. An awkward-looking boy with a couple of moles on his face and wide observing eyes. Mia pulled her eyes away from their stare a second after spotting them, turning back to the teacher. She didn't plan on introducing herself any time soon, and she was sure Jack wasn't either.
"Alright. Now that we've all been introduced, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century."
"Most boring first lesson ever," Jack exclaimed once they left the classroom, making their way to his locker, "I love history, but I could not stay awake for a second more."
"You should get used to it if you're planning on passing any exam," Mia pointed out, stopping in front of his locker, "It could've been a lot worse."
"I doubt it," Jack snorted, turning to unlock his locker.
"We could've been studying Greek theatre."
"Touché," Jack eventually agreed.
"I thought you said you wanted to make friends."
The siblings turned around at the now familiar sound of their teachers voice. Mr Yukimura was talking to his daughter, Kira, if Mia remembered correctly. She seemed embarrassed, and the two siblings weren't sure if it was from speaking to her dad or from the classrooms events.
"Not like that," Kira argued, looking around nervously.
"You said you wanted to be noticed," her father pointed out.
"I could set myself on fire and be noticed."
"Well, then you'd be dead."
"Exactly," Kira finished, causing Jack to snort to himself quietly. He liked this girl.
Mia didn't know what it was that made her do it. She didn't know if it was her genuine need of friends, or if she'd just been ingrained with good manners, or if she felt pity towards Kira. Nevertheless, one look to her brother and he knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Oh no," he instantly protested in vain as Mia made her way over to Kira, "No way in hell-"
"Hi," Mia began, Kira turning in surprise, far too peppy for her own liking, "I'm Mia. You're Kira, right?"
"Oh, yeah. Hi!" she replied, her hesitation soon replaced with excitement.
"I'm Mia, and this is my brother Jack," Mia continued, gesturing to Jack who had reluctantly followed her, "Now, I don't know about you Kira, but personally I'm a strong believer that the new kids should stick together, and since we've all already come together now in this gloriously busy hallway, how about we swap numbers and all have lunch together?"
"I'd like that," Kira agreed after a moment with an excited smile, completely missing the incredulous look Jack was shooting Mia.
After the two girls quickly exchanged numbers, they parted ways in the hallway just as the final bell for class rang. Jack hastily followed, clutching at his bag.
"If you want to get involved with people, fine," Jack began, "But if you love and respect me as a brother, don't drag me into it."
"If you don't make any friends you'll become a recluse," Mia teased.
"And I'm perfectly fine with that," Jack stressed, his pleas drowned by the jolly sound of his sister laughing.
Sure, they felt like fish out of water now, but High School couldn't be that bad, could it?