Chapter 2

The next morning Ellie struggled to get out of bed. She had set her alarm for 7 o'clock so she had time for a run but now she wasn't too keen on it. Still she dragged herself out of bed and put on her spandex, t-shirt and trainers. She let herself out through the sliding door and out into the cool morning air. She had looked up some forest tracks online and there was one close by that she would most likely be able to cut across to. Putting on a playlist and tucking her phone into her pants she took off in search on the pathway. Soon she had found it at was running smoothly through the forest. The sun was just beginning to rise and rays of light were streaming through the trees. In no time Ellie was halfway through her run and it was time to turn around.

She rested her hands on her knees for a breather. She was getting ready to turn around when something caught her eye. A large print in the dirt, nearly twice the size of a normal wolf paw. She searched in the direction and found there were more leading away from the path and into the woods. Checking the time she decided she had a few minutes to explore and so she followed the prints further into the wood, confident she would be able to find her way back. After a short while she came to a clearing where a large house once stood. Its remains were charred and it became obvious to Ellie that it was obviously a fire that had destroyed this house. Stepping carefully onto the porch she tried to look through the clouded windows. She desperately wanted to go inside but she was aware that she had school in less than an hour. Promising herself she would come back and explore, she turned around to leave and smacked into a large, muscular chest. Startled, she looked up at a man in his mid-twenties who was regarding her with suspicious eyes.

"This is private property" he said calmly.

"Maybe you should put a sign up" she said confidently, not fazed by his powerful demeanour.

"What were you doing?" he asked, pretending to be authoritative but Ellie could clearly hear the amusement in his voice.

"I was just, umm... exploring?" it turned out as more of a question than an answer. "I was out running" she tried again. This seemed to spark an interest in him.

"You shouldn't run in the forest. It's not safe." Ellie found this most curious, and she would have pressed more if she hadn't noticed the time and practically fled. At the edge of the clearing she turned back towards the house but the mysterious man was gone. Ellie frowned, she would find out who that man was.

She made it back home in time for a shower. She quickly changed into light-wash skinny jeans, a loose black t-shirt and her black Doc Martins. Shoving her laptop, Iphone, Credit card, IPod and a sketch pad into a large handbag, she pulled on her leather jacket and ran down stairs. She grabbed the set of keys on the bench and, locking the door behind her, climbed in her jeep and took off for school. She pulled into school with 5 minutes to spare and headed towards the main building. A few late students were still drifting in to school and looked her up and down as she made her way to the main doors. She followed the signs to the office and, finally, stood in front of a small old looking lady with about 1 minute to spare. The lady looked up at her and smiled. It was the kind of smile that you couldn't help smiling back at.

"You must be Ellie Queen. Welcome to Beacon Hills" she already had the timetable ready and had just started running through the classes with Ellie before two boys were dragged into the office by what looked like the gym teacher.

"Billinski. Whittemore. You can sort this out with the principle, not on my own damn time." the teacher practically threw them into the chairs lining one wall of the office. Ellie noticed the boy who had been staring at her the precious night. Another boy sat beside him with an arrogant look on his face. She figured he must be popular because he was really good looking. The office lady coughed to get Ellie's attention and they went back to talking about her schedule. Once she had practically memorized her timetable she thanked the kind lady; Barbara her name was, and began to exit the office. She turned slightly as she was leaving and caught the boys stare again, this time he didn't look away. When she was out of sight she just shook her head. What was this boy doing to her?

Making her way down the hallways Ellie easily found her way to her first class; English. She could see that the class was already under way when she knocked lightly on the door and opened it. She felt the whole class's eyes on her as she handed the teacher her note and felt her cheeks pinking.

"Class, this is our new student Ellie Queen. Please make her feel welcome." The teacher said to the class. Ellie turned towards the stares and located a spare desk right at the back of the class. Making her way down the row she was greeted with a smiling Lydia beside her desk. She sat down and turned to Lydia.

"Hi" she whispered.

"Hi" Lydia whispered back, before turning her attention back to the teacher.

The class was quite boring. Ellie had already read all the reading material for this year so she practically slept. The teacher gave her disapproving looks when she pulled out her phone and started texting but didn't say anything. Ellie settled for texting Brandon.

Hey Bran, in English. Soo bored. What you up to? Xx

She had hardly pressed send before her phone was snatched out of her hand by Lydia. She typed away furiously then handed the phone back, giving Ellie a cheeky smile.

"I added my number" Lydia whispered. Ellie just smiled back at her and went back to scrolling through her phone. A minute later she got a message from Brandon and Lydia. Before she had time to check it the bell rang, signalling the end of the class. She was just leaving the class when the teacher called her back.

"I'd appreciate you not texting in class or talking to other students. You don't want a bad report from your first day." The teacher said, looking down her nose at Ellie. She was just about to retort but her mother's words flashed through her mind;"Don't piss off the teachers. I know how you get."

With a sigh she forced a smile.

"Sorry, it won't happen again". She practically ran from the class to keep herself from saying anything else. To her surprise Lydia was waiting outside for her.

"What do you have now?" she asked, swiping the timetable out of Ellie's hands. "Free period, same. You should come join us in the library" she said with a smile. Ellie began to follow Lydia down the hallways.

"So how did you find English?" Lydia asked as they walked.

"Pretty easy. I've already read the reading requirements" Ellie said.

"Same. Don't tell anyone but I'm actually really smart" she said with a wink. Ellie just chuckled.

Before they could say anything else they were at the library. Lydia pushed the door open and led the way to a table at the far side of the library. There were 3 people already there, 2 boys and a girl. Of course one of the boys was the guy who had been staring at her. She forced the blush from her cheeks and followed behind Lydia.

"Hey guys" Lydia whisper yelled. Everyone looked up.

"This is Ellie. Ellie this is Scott" Lydia gestured to the other boy who gave her a small smile, "This is Allison" gesturing to the girl who smiled too, "And this is Stiles" gesturing to the boy who had been caught staring 3 times now. He smiled, blushed, and then looked back down at her work. Lydia sat down at the end of the table, forcing Ellie to sit right next to Stiles. Ellie didn't mind too much.

"So what was the deal with you and the other guy in the office this morning?" Ellie asked Stiles with a nudge to his shoulder. He turned to her, shocked that she was talking to him. He quickly composed himself and gave her a cheeky smile.

"Jackson got what was coming to him" he said proudly, before turning back to his work. Was he going to leave it and not tell her what happened?

"What happened?" she asked again.

"I may have switched his underwear with a g-string..." he said cheekily with a wink. Lydia muttered something under her breath about Stiles getting what was coming to him at lunch too which Scott and Allison seemed to find funny but Stiles didn't seem to hear her. Ellie just laughed and looked at the message from Brandon.

Free period! Shame bitchzz!

Ellie chuckled at his bluntness and typed out a reply.

I am now too so suck it! Skype? Xx

Ellie sent it and looked up.

"Hey guys, is there somewhere I can Skype my friend?"

"You can probably just do it here, there's like no one else in here" Lydia said, before turning back to her work. Ellie nodded and opened up her laptop. She had just logged onto Skype when her phone buzzed.

Do it now!

Ellie laughed at Brandon's text and called him on Skype. He picked up quickly and soon she was looking at her crazy friend.

"Hey!" he said excitedly. They did imaginary air kisses and started talking. Nothing much had changed with Brandon, and apart from the pregnancy rumour there was no more gossip to report. Ellie huffed in annoyance.

"I always like a good gossip" she said with a whine. Brandon laughed.

"So how is the mysterious Beacon Hills? You haven't seriously offended anyone yet have you?" he asked bluntly. Ellie mock gasped.

"Who do you think I am? Some kind of bully?" she asked with fake hurt.

"That's exactly what you are" he said back with a chuckle. At this point Ellie noticed that everyone at the table was looking at her with slight concern. She laughed.

"He is totally kidding" she tried to reassure them. "Brandon, you're scaring my new friends." Ellie said, looking back at the screen.

"You have friends? I must meet them right away!" he said with amusement. She looked up at the others but they were already standing behind her to get in the shot. Ellie introduced each one. Brandon got extremely flirty with the two boys, making for a very entertaining time for the girls. Allison instinctively put her arm around Scott; Ellie had already guessed they were together. Brandon groaned when she did that, then turned his attention to Stiles instead, who gave Ellie a pleading look.

"Okay Brandon, that's enough making my friends uncomfortable, I got to go, free period is nearly over. You're gonna come see me in the break yea?" Ellie asked, trying to distract Brandon from Stiles.

"Of course! And make sure that mother of yours is away on one of her many work trips so we can throw an epic party!" he said with enthusiasm. She just laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Goodbye Brandon" she said, before disconnecting the call. She didn't wait for Brandon's reply; she knew he could talk for hours. She looked up at the others and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry about that, he was dropped as an infant." The others just laughed.

"Did he say you live alone?" Lydia asked.

"Well technically I live with my mother but she works a lot so she is hardly ever home"

"Where abouts do you live?" Scott asked.

"About 5 minutes from the edge of the Beacon Hills forest. It's kinda remote." Ellie said. Scott and Stiles looked at each other with worried glances for a second.

"What? Is that bad?" Ellie asked, unsure of their reaction.

"You just have to be careful in the forest. There have been a lot of 'mountain lion' attacks recently" Stiles said. Ellie hadn't missed the odd way he said mountain lions. She narrowed her eyes slightly at him but he looked away.

"So Ellie, are you coming to the formal on Saturday night?" Lydia asked. She was obviously trying to detract from the previous subject. Ellie let it go, this time. Something else was going on and she wanted to find out what.

"I didn't even know it was on" she said sheepishly. Lydia just looked at her is shock.

"Well then we have so much to organise!" She squealed in excitement. The rest of free period was spent talking over plans for the formal.