{~~Chapter 2~~}

A/N: Shoutout to skittlelover20 for being my first ever reviewer!

Freya:

Trees and shrubbery whizzed by as the car sped along the highway. The SUV jolted as the wheels hit an uneven patch of road, Natalia's body lolled to the right, her bony elbow jutting into Freya's side. Wincing, Freya carefully repositioned her little sister, laying her so that she could rest comfortably against her shoulder.

Freya had originally planned on sitting in the passenger seat so she could catch up with her older brother Aimeric. The last time she had seen him was three years ago, when he had graduated from high school a year early and left for college in Germany. Much to maman's relief, the twenty year old had finally resurfaced after being relatively unavailable for the majority of his college tenure to help them move out of the city.

The main reason Juliette Girard had decided to move was because her superiors had promoted her to work as the bank director of the new Rosewood bank. As director, she had many benefits, including an entire house for her family. With only a three year old and a fourteen year old to care for, a big house in a nice suburban town seemed superior to a small, cramped flat in a crowded city.

Freya's mother had decided to move her family out of the city also due to the unpleasant schooling experience her children had faced for the past two years. Freya grimaced at the thought of school, not because she disliked learning, but more because of her fellow students; her outlandishly green eyes and dark hair made her stand out from other students, and her reserved attitude made her an even easier target for bullying.

The house was huge, Freya stood in front of their new home, awed beyond words.

"Maman! You didn't say we were gonna live in a castle!" Natalia's voice shook Freya's out of her awestruck stupor. Tali had her arms spread out as far as possible, trying to show her mother just how BIG their new house was. "Do I get my own room? What about a swing set, or a sandbox?"

Before they moved to the US, when all family members were still present, the Girard family had lived in a spacious apartment London, but this was an entirely different luxury. Freya could relate to Natalia, with a house at least three times the size of their flat in New York, everyone could have their own room and maybe even their own bathroom!

"Well, I guess I 'forgot' to mention that we were going to live in a big house, no? I wanted to surprise you!" Maman's French accent became even more evident as she got excited. "And no, Talia you're not getting a sandbox or a swing set, that is what going to the park is for, no?" She lectured her youngest daughter sternly.

Freya grinned at her mom and hugged her gratefully, with Natalia following suit, although she seemed a bit disgruntled about maman's previous words. Aimeric had already started to unpack the moving van that their mother had rented online and was gesturing for them to help him. With three pairs of hands (and occasionally two smaller hands) unloading the van, the boxes were all inside the house and distributed to their respective rooms within a few hours.

Freya let out a breath as she lowered herself onto her bed, it had been a long day, with the car ride, moving in, and meeting Mona… Mona was nice, Freya had decided that the moment she had met her, a group of five girls around her age had been observing the Girard's move, but none of them had offered to help nor introduced themselves; yet Mona had rung the doorbell and offered her friendship.

Natalia had immediately taken a liking to her too, Freya had noticed how at ease the Tali was with Mona, usually Tali was shy around new people and observed them from afar before deeming them trustworthy enough to open up to. Fraya's second notion was that Mona was something of a kindred soul, the way she talked and held herself felt strangely relatable and she felt that with time Mona would become one of her closest and best friends.

Maman interrupted her thoughts with a knock at her door, "cheri, in which room should I put Angelique's things?" Angelique, Freya's older sister, had just finished her last two years of high school in New York. Deciding that she wanted to go abroad like Aimeric, she had gone back to Britain to study accounting, hoping to follow in her mother's footsteps into the world of finance. She had left some of her things behind, and would need a room to stay in when she came to visit.

"How about the downstairs bedroom? Then it can double as a guest room when Angelique isn't here." Freya suggested.

Juliette thanked her with a nod and left the room. Freya had chosen one of the four upstairs bedrooms, it faced their backyard and was large and spacious, Natalia had chosen the room beside hers. Currently, only her bed and a mirror adorned the room, the few boxes with Freya's belongings sat at the foot of her bed, waiting to be unpacked. The family didn't have much furniture, but Juliette had promised to go shopping with her daughters the following day.

Freya stood up and decided to start unpacking. Her room had a built in closet, so she could unpack her clothes already, stooping down, she grabbed the box with her clothes from the floor, and began to sort them into piles on her bed. Multiple pairs of jeans, a few solid coloured shirts -both long and short sleeved- underclothes, and two jackets and three black hoodies.

It wasn't that the Girards didn't have the money to buy fashionable clothing, on the contrary, with her mother's salary and her father paying child support, Freya could have bought any type clothing she wanted, but she preferred to dress low-key to escape unwanted attention at school.

Freya reached into the box to check for more clothes when her knuckles hit something hard. Frowning, she looked into the cardboard box in confusion, spotting a wooden box underneath a red raincoat. Recognizing it as her jewelry box, she lifted it out and opened it, a few chokers, bracelets, and rings lay in the main compartment of the small box.

Freya pulled open the little drawer that held her two necklaces, they had been gifted to her by her parents. Maman had given her the silver necklace, it looked like someone had interwoven dark green thread into the double rope chain. Freya smiled at the memory of her sixth birthday when her mother had surprised her with the extra gift.

Her smile vanished when she looked at the necklace her father had given her two years ago. It was a silver charm necklace, papa had given it to her as a sorry-I-cheated-on-your-mother-and-am-leaving-the-family-here's-something-shiny-to-compensate present when he had left. Freya rarely wore it anymore, she used to wear it everyday, but with time, hurt had been replaced by anger and resentment against her father and his blasted necklace.

Shoving the necklace back into drawer, she stood up and started to put her clothes into closet. Too many unpleasant memories had been stirred up today, hopefully tomorrow would prove to be a better day.

A/N: Black hoodies and red raincoats! Sound familiar to anyone? By the way, here's a list of OCs that have been mentioned as of yet:

Natalia Girard (3)

Freya Girard (14)

Angelique Girard (18)

Aimeric Girard (20)

Juliette Girard (41)

Freya is the Norse goddess for love, beauty, war, and death. I thought it would be befitting of how Freya changes and develops as she faces the physical and mental obstacles thrown in her way while growing up and being involved with 'A'.

Currently the first couple chapters will be some build up to get the plot up and running, but soon more familiar faces will come into the picture (get ready for some pre-'A' Alison!).