Authors Note: As promised, another update! I really hope you guys like it, any feedback, ideas, questions, criticism, anything at all, you have just message me them, or put it in the reviews section. Also, in case anyone was wondering, this takes place in season one.
"She didn't want to be considered a woman yet, wasn't ready to be the recipient of jewelry from men." ― Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, Red Riding Hood
Chapter Two
Valerie spent an hour down there, just playing with the weapons, trying to get a feel for all of them, deciding which ones she felt comfortable with, and which ones she didn't. Eventually, with a couple bruises, and scratches, she was forced to return. She shimmied up one ladder, after another, and made her way back to her bedroom, but not before safely placing her cloak and bestiary in the cellar. She went to dinner, took a shower, and continued as if nothing had happened.
Finally, when morning came, Valerie was extremely upbeat. She had a new lease on life, with an amazing secret for her to keep, and a completely new town, the possibilities were endless. Despite all of that, her stomach pooled with butterflies. She'd never been to a new school, what if she got lost? or didn't make any friends? or they thought she was a freak? but then again, she kind of was a bit of a freak.
She stood in front of the mirror, biting her lip, and scrutinizing her appearance. Was this the proper outfit for a first day? her mom always said that she should dress as she would any day, because otherwise, they would expect her to dress like that everyday. She was wearing a red plaid shirt, unbuttoned, a black tank top, and a pair of blue jeans, along with sneakers. Valerie looked casual, the only thing she really focused on was her hair and her face.
Her long honey colored hair was curly, but not frizzy, she then applied lash serum, and lip balm. That's it. She could do that everyday, and so that's what she chose to wear. Her fingers twitched and she turned from the mirror, grabbing the perfume bottle off of her desk, applying it to her veins, as her grandmother deemed necissary. Everything she needed was in her black, over the shoulder, messanger bag. Books, journals, pencils, and lunch.
Valerie was having trouble deciding whether or not to bring her cloak to school, should something happen, she needed to be able to protect herself.
Instead she settled for putting some knifes in her bag, if she had brought the cloak, and someone were to see it, her and her family's safety would be at risk. She'd rather not risk it.
6:00 AM She still had thirty minutes before she had to leave. Even though she itched to go play with the weapons in the Cellar, she knew better. She'd just get sweaty and messy, and probably tear some article of clothing in the process. So instead, Valerie made her way over to the balcony. With a small stack of paper in hand, she doodled, and then folded the doodles into paper airplanes, and threw them out to the harsh world.
Valerie was drawing some random symbols, when something hit her in the forehead. She blinked, just sitting there for a second, before reaching for the object. It was a paper airplane. Like hers, only the paper wasn't lined. She furrowed her brow and wrinkled her nose, unfolding it.
Hi, I'm Stiles
Just as she was about to glance up and see who had thrown it, and who was given such a ridiculous name, her mother interupted her.
"Valerie! Lets get a move on, you said 6:30 right?" Sienna stood next to her car, smiling up at her daughter on the balcony.
Valerie licked her lips nervously and nodded her head, she grabbed her bag, and slung it over her shoulder. Just as she went to leave, she had a wild thought. She wanted to become a hunter, and if she really was gonna do it, she would need to start somewhere. Before she could convince herself otherwise, Valerie climbed ontop of the railing, ignoring her mother's worried shouts.
Just like the ladder she thought to herself, closing her eyes, just like the ladder.
She jumped. The minute she felt air, she thrust out her arm, grasping the bar. She let out a shaky sigh of relief, before swinging her body around, to face her mother, and letting go. She landed on her feet, and this time, her ankles didn't hurt as bad. Valerie let out the sound of pure and utter joy, laughter.
The adrenaline made her heart pump, and she completely forgot about the mysterious man or woman named Stiles.
"VALERIE ROSALYNN VENATOR!" her mother's enraged shout squashed Valerie's buzz. She flinched and opened her eyes, grinning sheepishly at Sienna. Sienna's face was flushed, lips pouted, and brow furrowed. Obviously upset.
"Don't you ever do that to me again, ever! You could have broken something!"
That's how the entire car ride went, but even her mother's worry couldn't break the spell that seemed to entice Valerie. The thrill of doing that, and living to see the day, was worth it.
Valerie never realized what the first day of school meant, people would tease her. They did every day, because she was mute. She'd forgotten all about that. Her heart hammered in her chest. At the moment, she was waiting outside the school on the bench, one hand shoved in her bag, just holding the knife, feeling its tip, was comforting. A sense of calm. However, Valerie wasn't the only new student.
A girl by the name of Allison Argent sat next to her, both were waiting for the principle to take them to their classes. Apparently, Valerie had made the wrong choice for clothing. Allison's clothes were indie and gorgeous, and almost every other girl had on heals and mini skirts. It was like the uniform in Beacon Hills to be gorgeous.
How silly she must look...
Allison tried to make conversation with Valerie, but Valerie didn't speak back. She wanted to let Allison know that she wasn't ignoring her. There was no real way to make friends at this school, because she was mute. At least at her last school she already knew everyone. Eventually, Valerie moved past her knife, and instead pulled out a pen.
She tapped Allison's shoulder, who had been preoccupied with talking to her mother on the phone, and rifling through her bag trying to find a pencil. Allison turned and mouthed a thank you, grabbing the pen from Valerie, and then turning back to the conversation. Valerie's head peeked up and she smiled warmly at the approaching man. The principle.
Allison closed her phone, and stood, next to Valerie, they began towards their destination, which just so happened to be the same place. They had first period together. The class was full, except for one desk. Which Allison took, after introducing herself.
"Class?" the principle interupted their chatter "this is Valerie Veenahtor" he mispronounced her last name, to which Valerie scowled and shook her head. After a series of guesses, and the class room's laughter, the principle left and a blushing Valerie stook next to the teacher, not sure where to sit. Once again she settled herself with the knife.
"Until we find a seat for you, Valerie, pull that chair over there" he pointed a long finger over to a light blue, scratched up, chair in the back "and seat yourself between and " her eyes searched for the raised hands, narrowing on two people in the back of the class. The girl had poofy blonde hair, kind of similar to Valerie's (in a way), and a gentle expression, as to where the boy had really pretty bedhead styled hair, and sparkly blue eyes, which looked pale in contrast to his black eye.
And so that's what she did the whole period. She sat between the two of them, offering a friendly smile, and folded herself into her chest, trying to look as small as possible, and shy away from the gazes. The once, bright, energetic, confident hunter had been replaced by a nervous shell.
Valerie never thought she'd react like this, but none the less she did. At one point, the whispers of 'how totally hideous her shirt was' had gotten so bad that she let out a tiny whimper and pushed down too hard on the knife. Her thumb was pricked, but she didn't dare pull it out of the bag. Both, as she learned their names, Isaac and Erica shot her sympathetic looks, but did nothing to help.
Even though the whole class was staring at her and Allison, one boy twitched and blinked and waved at Valerie. Her neighbor, she recognized, and over close to him was the other boy from the window. She was too shaky to give a proper wave, so she settled for a tiny nod and smile. As she did so, giggles bursted out of the room, and she openly buried her head into the collar of her shirt.
Pagebreak
She was happy to get a break, but that meant one thing. It was lunch. Everyone seemed to have bought lunch from the cafeteria, Valerie tried to remember to ask her mom for lunch money later, but right now she was preoccupied with trying to find a seat. Everyone had broken off into cliques. Her eyes scanned all the crowds, but she just stood awkwardly next to the water fountain. After about five minutes, she saw one boy sitting alone at a table, he was large, and looked like good protection from the judgement.
Valerie walked fast, taking long strides, and efficiently avoiding the feet trying to trip her. After what felt like forever, the table came into view, and she plopped herself down next to the large man, pulling out a notebook. She wrote something down and pushed it towards him.
Can I sit here? that's all, written in a little scrawl. The mans large fingers pulled the white paper over to him, he stared at it for a second, before looking up and giving her a friendly smile. Or, what she thought to be friendly. He held out a hand, and she shook it, her little pale hand looked so small next to his.
"I'm Boyd"
And that was how she spent the rest of lunch, nibbling on her sandwhich, drinking her gatorade, and hiding against Boyd's form. A large smile sat on her face the whole time.
She'd accomplished something in one day, something she wasn't expecting to have done by even the end of the year. Valerie made a friend.
By the time the day was over, Valerie was still smiling. Even though the whispers were still there, her neighbor still stared at her, and most of her classes didn't have room for her, she'd made a friend. And that was all the counted. After Boyd ate lunch with her, she pulled out her schedule and compared it to his. They had every class together except for first and last.
Valerie pushed past all the kids, ran down the hall, and practically flew into her father's car. Kyle Venator gave his daughter a warm smile and kissed her forehead, not questioning her at all. That's what she loved about him. He didn't need her to speak, he always just assumed, and never hovered, it was a good thing in Valerie's book. A very good thing.
Her car pulled into the driveway, and just as her father went to enter the house, Valerie stopped him. She held up a piece of notebook paper, large letters scrawled in thick black ink, from a sharpie to be exact.
Can I go running? I'll be back before dinner? I need to change and stuff first, but pleeeeease?
They had dinner every night at the same time, an unspoken agreement. Now that Valerie thought about it, a lot of things in their house was unspoken. Oh the secret's between them all...
Kyle gave her a confused look, but nodded none the less, ruffling his daughters curly hair, and giving her one of his usual looks that practically screamed 'be careful.'
And so Valerie fled up the stairs, to her bedroom, and geared up. She pulled on a pair of black, mid calf, yoga bottoms, and a red sports bra. She left her sneakers on, though, not having any running shoes. Valerie hated running, but as she said before, if she wanted to become a hunter, it would take serious training. Her grandmother's bestiary mentioned that much, going running every day, substituing one snack a day for fruit, and all around excercizing daily.
It was to be expected.
She pulled out a small backpack from the fourfth grade, shoving a gatorade, and a water bottle inside of it. Valerie needed one more thing before she left, her ipod. Tucking it into her bra, she shoved in her earbuds, and hit shuffle.
With her bag on, a little too tight, she made her way back to the balcony. Looking both ways down the street, just to make sure her mom didn't show up at the last minute, especially after this mornings freakout, Valerie did the same thing as this morning. Standing on the edge of the railing, jumping straight down, grabbing the railing, and then dropping again. Grabbing the railing shortened the fall.
It felt like each time she jumped like that, it hurt less. Valerie was just glad it was paying off.
And so she took off, into the woods, not worrying about time, her ipod had an alarm.
Valerie wasn't sure how long she was out running, but she sweating like crazy. Her bra was soaked, and even though she put her hair up in a poney tail, her neck was covered in sweat. Eventually she just stared at her feet, watching them move, an unknown voice in her head repeating left, right, left, right.
Instead of coming to a stop, she ran into something. Whatever it was, was incredibly soft and mushy, because it folded and hit the floor with her, so it couldn't have been a tree. Her face turned tomato red. Lucky, she braced herself by her hands on the forest floor, breathing heavily she pinned whatevr it was, and staring straight into wide, innocent, doe brown eyes.
Valerie blinked at the boy.
He blinked back.
It was her neighbor, but what was he doing out in the woods?
"Hi, I'm Stiles"
She blinked again.
Just as she was about to help Stiles up, a violent coughing sounded behind her and she turned her head, only to see the other boy from the window. He was crouched over, his hands digging into the floor, floppy hair covering his face.
Her Perfume
And in that moment, Valerie wished she had her cloak.
Authors Note: ASDFGHJKL, what did you guys think? I finished this earlier then I expected, so I figured I'd post it as a treat instead of waiting for tomorrow morning. Anyway, that just means I'm ahead of schedule, and have a day of free time to write the third chapter.
I was gonna end it where Derek shows up, but I was too worried about how to write what would happen if he smelt her perfume and realize she was a hunter, and so yeah. I ended it with a Stalerie scene, and itty bitty puppy wolf Scott reacting to the wolfsbane, because well lets just say it, as a baby mongrel, he won't hurt Valerie.
Anyway, in the next chapter she'll probably run off, and then meet Derek at the party with Allison. Eventually I'm hoping for Allison and Little Red to become sort of friends, kind of. Eventually when Valerie gets better at being a hunter, she'll put on her cloak and show up at the big events to help or whatever, ya know? and then she'll be this mystery super hero kind of person, like she wants to be.
At first I was thinking of doing like an Erica/Valerie friendship, but then I decided I'd like it better if Valeire and Boyd, aka Voyd, had a kind of Fred/Bree twilight kind of relationship ya know? like an over protective brother?
I still need to choose a pairing so send requests!
xoxo, Iliana.