"Alright. I worked everything out with the headmaster, you're enrolled and you're rooming with Cora." "Hi! You must be Erica." A small brown haired girl leaped her way to where Talia and Erica were standing. She squeezed Erica tight in a hug and kissed her mom on the cheek. "I'm Cora. You'll be graced by my presence while here at BHA," she laughed. "Hi." Erica responded timidly. "Oh, don't be scared! We're gonna have loads of fun." "Cora's usually a bit, overenthusiastic about things. She'll calm down eventually." Talia grabbed her bag and handed a key to Erica. "This goes to your room. I know you didn't get a chance to get anything from your house, so Cora's gonna take you shopping later, okay?" "Oh, no I couldn't-" "You can, and you will. Now, I have to go. You two have a wonderful time at school." Talia kissed both girls on the forehead before leaving the room.
"I know you're scared; starting a new school can be tough for anyone, but you have an entirely different set of things to worry about on top of that. I was born into this, but you were bitten. It's different for us. I've been around it my whole life and you're only just now stepping into it. It's going to take a lot of getting used to. But don't worry," Cora stepped towards Erica and reached for her hand, "me, my family, we'll help you through this. We'll always have your back." Cora smiled and pulled Erica out of the office and headed towards their room.
"Dude, how am I supposed to remember the difference between a druid and a darach? Both of them sound like potentially homicidal maniacs to me." Stiles threw his books into his bag and started walking back to Guardian Hall with Scott. "Dude it's not that hard. The Darach is a druid who went down the dark path." Scott gave Stiles a light slap to the head. "Whatever. They both sound like bad news to me." "Stiles. Until Laura bit you, YOU were technically training to be a new age druid?"
"Whoa, who's that?" Scott stopped walking and Stiles nearly ran into him. "Who's wh-" Stiles was interrupted by a kiss from Lydia. "Scott, Stiles, this is Allison. Allison, this is-" "You're dating a werewolf?" Allison's tone was calm, but there was a hint of disgust. "Oh, yeah, I didn't even think to mention that. Is that awkward? I feel like it's awkward.." Lydia trailed off and tried to study her friend's face. If I have to watch my boyfriend tear apart my roommate because she tried to kill him, I literally will not be able to function properly. "Why would it be awkward?" Scott and Stiles both looked confused. Scott extended his hand, "I'm Scott, Scott McCall." "I'm Allison..Argent" the girl said, not returning the hand offer. Scott was still confused for a moment until he remembered his run in with the Argent family last year. When they were chasing Peter for biting a human, who turned out to be Scott, they got to him first. Gerard Argent tortured Scott for days before he was able to escape. "Oh.." "Well this is sufficiently awkward. Scott, let's go. See ya in class Lyd." Stiles gave Lydia a kiss and waved goodbye to Allison who gave him an unamused smile back.
"Well, that was fun.." Lydia started walking again, Allison close behind. "I can't believe you're dating one of the mutts.." "Hey. Mutt or not, he's still my boyfriend." "Right. Sorry.." Allison genuinely was sorry. She knew the slurs were going to be hard to stop, but for the sake of her friendship and having to live with her for a year, she was going to work on not using them around Lydia. "At least he's cute?" Allison tried to say with a straight face, failing miserably. Lydia knew she was trying and started laughing. "Come on. Let's get to class or Ms. Blake will kill us."
"Who can tell me what a three-fold death is?" Ms. Blake walked into her classroom and sat on the edge of her desk. "Anyone?" Ms. Blake looked around the room at blank faces and came across the back of one student's head. "Mr. Stilinski. Can you tell me what a three-fold death is?" Danny slapped his friend who wasn't paying attention. "Dude, answer her," he whispered. "Oh, uh, a three-fold death.. Uh, a three-fold death is usually seen in sacrificial murders where the victims are strangled with a garrote, their throats are cut open, and there's blunt force trauma to the skull." "Very good Mr. Stilinski," Ms. Blake smiled. "Stiles, actually. I prefer Stiles," he said as he gave Ms. Blake a wink. "Well, Stiles, I prefer my students not to inappropriately sass me. So I hope this isn't going to become a habit?" "Actually miss, his middle name is sarcasm." "Ah, Mr. McCall. I heard I would be having you two together. This is going to be one interesting year," she sighed as she turned her back to the class and began writing on the board.
Stiles tapped Allison on the back, "So, you're a hunter, huh?" Why me? Allison turned around, "Yes," she sighed, "Problem?" Stiles shook his head. "Nope, no problem, I just wanted to ask if I should be prepared to be shot with a .45 every time I try to visit my girlfriend." This made Allison laugh. "Actually," she leaned in, "I use a bow." Allison turned back around and Stiles turned to Scott who was staring at the girl. "Dude, you okay?" "Huh? Yeah, yeah. I just.." "You just what?" Scott never took his eyes off of the girl. "Uh, I don't know. Nevermind." Stiles shrugged it off and the boys went back to work, Scott still taking the time to glance up at Allison every few minutes.
"You're gonna be fine!" Cora pleaded with Erica. "I just, I don't know anything about any of this stuff. What am I supposed to do if someone asks me a question. What if-" "Erica! Seriously, you will be fine." Cora picked up a stack of books and threw them into her bag, "Plus, we have class together right now, then you have 2 with Derek. Don't worry!" How can I possibly not worry when I'm going to be surrounded by werewolves and vampires and witches and hunters all day long? Erica reluctantly grabbed her bag and let Cora push her through the door.
"I just don't understand why you're so nervous." Cora said between bites of a pop-tart and sips of an iced coffee drink with a smell that made Erica want to vomit. "I mean, I get that this kinda stuff is new and all but-" she was cut off by Erica's sigh. "I'm just worried this will be like any other school I've ever attended. What if the bite didn't follow through on Derek's promises?" Cora showed a look of confusion before shoveling more of the pastry into her mouth. "What do you mean?" I guess no one told her about how I used to be.
"Did no one tell you about before?" Cora shook her head. "Oh, well, the whole reason Derek even offered the bite to me-" "Because he needed another member for his pack," Cora cut her off. "No, no. Well," Erica thought for a moment, "Yeah, that too. But also because the night he met me, I was robbed by some creep while I was having a seizure." "A seizure?! From what?" "I suffered from a severe case of epilepsy, your brother saved my life that night." Cora smiled at this. Though her and Derek fought a lot, she still loved her brother more than anything in the entire world. "Derek thought that the bite would cure it all." "Did it?" "Well..usually by now, I would have seized a few more times, had another hospital visit..I suppose it did.." "See! So no-" "It wasn't the seizures that I was still worried about." Cora looked confused again as Erica pulled out a tablet and searched for a video on YouTube. "Why ar-" "You'll see." Erica flipped through some pages and eventually found what she was looking for. She handed the tablet to Cora who took it with at first a look of puzzlement, "It's just you in-" then her expression shifted into shock and finally disgust. "How could they do this to you," Cora said through gritted teeth. "Give me-" as Cora turned to Erica she saw the girl was picking at her jacket sleeve, and when Cora tilted her head up, Erica was in tears.
"Hey, hey, don't do that.." Cora moved to the other side of the table and wrapped her arm around Erica. Cora wiped a tear off of Erica's cheek and smiled at her. "Are you afraid that that's going to happen again? That you're going to get made fun of again?" Erica shook her head yes. "I just, for once, want to be normal and to have friends and not have people make fun of the way I look or the things that I can't control about myself." Cora laughed, "You wanted to be normal and you thought becoming a werewolf and coming to a school for the supernatural was the way to do that?" They looked at each other and this time both of the girls laughed. "I guess that does sound kind of insane doesn't it?" Cora stood up and pulled Erica to her feet. "Listen here. Just like it does for everyone, the bite has enhanced everything good about you before. You are the most beautiful girl in this school! You're intelligent, and you have a kind heart. There's no reason for you to think anything different." Cora grabbed her bag and the girls started walking. "Where are we going?" Erica struggled to keep up with Cora's pace. "I'm gonna show you how to own your new self and be all that you can be and more."
