Seven years ago.

For the first time in a long time, Rachel Hale was undeniably overjoyed.

The smile on her face was unbreakable, not even by the (slightly terrifying) teenagers herding across the front of Beacon Hills High School's courtyard. Everywhere, there seemed to be someone either laughing, stressing or focusing on something to do with the people & various work around them. Rachel couldn't help but imagine herself as one of them, working on an assignment she'd accidentally forgotten on the coffee table; much like her brother had forgotten his math book.

A purple bike, equipped with the ten year old's favourite pink streamers, had been parked at a slight angle in the bike rack, sitting nearly a foot lower than the rest. The light shade of lavender stood out all on it's own, but with the help of the shiny streamers stemming from each handle, it looked more than out of place. As did Rachel, a tenth grade math book clutched in her small hands, skipping along the sidewalk happily.

She wasn't quite sure where she was going, but she was so outrageously excited just to be there that she couldn't care less. She was in a school— a real one, not just the one she'd created in her mind based off the various types she'd seen in movies. It was everything she'd imagined & more. Through heightened senses, she could practically feel the emotions radiating off the building; mostly boredom & loathing. The dislike was understandable— she knew some weren't particularly fond of learning— but how could anyone possibly be bored amongst so many people? Rachel had only seen a fraction of this at most, and that was when she'd secretly followed her mother to meet with other packs.

There was someone new to meet around every corner, and she could only hope to become friends with every last one. Rachel had always wanted friends— of course she'd always have her sister, but when they were in the midst of one of their very occasional fights, she wanted someone she could tell about it. Even if she had to tell fictional stories in place of her supernatural truth. Her world was one filled with remarkable creatures (such as herself) & endless possibilities, but telling a human the truth often had consequences, and Rachel never wanted someone to be hurt because of her.

The brunette hurried into the school, knowing if she didn't hurry up, she was going to get lost amongst a crowd of teenagers. It was around 2:50pm according to velcro watch around her wrist, and she knew the school buses would arrive around 3:20. She always heard them driving by her house whenever she was out in the yard. Rachel stopped shortly after getting inside of the building, looking for a sign or something to direct her to the gym (she knew by now Derek would be out of class for basketball practice; he had a two hour practice every Wednesday. She had chosen to leave that information out when telling her mom how important it was that Derek have his math book) but soon found that there was nothing but a bulletin board pinned with various college brochures, driver's ed classes & other miscellaneous.

Someday those would be of interest to her (more so than they are now). She would stand here with her sister, discussing what college she planned on attending so she could one day go out into the world on her own. They'd complain about how much schoolwork there was, how much college costed & every other thing they could possibly complain about, but Rachel wouldn't trade it for the world. She wanted high school to be the best & most memorable years of her life, as every movie had led her to believe they should be.

"Rachel?" A familiar voice called softly, whilst a hand lightly touched her shoulder. Rachel jumped, startled, but quickly calmed as she spun around to see her older sister.

"Laura!" The young girl smiled, wrapping her arms around her sisters' waist in a tight hug. She'd almost forgot that Laura had no afternoon classes on Wednesdays, and would sometimes come home to watch television with Cora & Rachel if she didn't feel like watching basketball practice.

"What are you doing here?" The older Hale questioned, concerned. "Did you sneak out?"

"No!" Rachel quickly responded, holding up the tenth grade math book. "Derek forgot this, mom said I could bring it to him!"

"You know Derek doesn't have math class on Wednesdays." Laura raised a brow, a smile slowly forming on her lips. "Did Cora come with you?"

"No, she's at home watching Bugs Bunny."

"You're missing Bugsy for this?"

"Cora said she'll tell me what happens. Can we go watch Derek practice for a little while?" The reflector asked, making the pouty face she'd always use to get what she wanted. "Pretty pleeeeease?"

"I suppose, but only for a few minutes— Remember we've got company coming over tonight. Uncle Peter's gonna be there." Laura reminded, holding the small girl's hand so she wouldn't get lost or sidetracked as they headed towards the gym. "You can tell him about your adventure today."

"Yay!" She cheered, smiling widely as they rounded a corner into the gymnasium; which was by far the largest room Rachel had ever seen. If it weren't for Laura pulling her along with her over to the bleachers, Rachel would have stayed standing in the doorway staring in awe. She'd seen gyms on television, but had never been in a real one— it stunk like sweat. Badly. It was a good thing she'd become fairly used to the scent, living with werewolves who loved to run.

"Look, there's Derek." Laura patted her shoulder to gain the ten year old's attention as she pointed out to her brother on the court. "Wave!"

Rachel did as instructed, waving non-stop until she was noticed by the teenage boy. He waved back, but shot a confused look at his older sister; which was promptly returned with a simple head shake as if to say "don't worry about it." The exchange went unnoticed by Rachel, whose gaze had shifted from the basketball practice to back at the bleachers. They were practically halfway to the ceiling, in her eyes, and no doubt the highest row had the best view of the court.

"Can I go sit at the top?" She asked her sister, bringing back her signature pouty face once more. "Please?"

"As long as all you do is sit. No running or jumping." The older Hale told her, knowing Rachel was always a ball of energy. The young girl barely managed to sit through a thirty-minute episode of her favourite show without chasing her twin around the house on commercials. "I mean it. I've got some homework, so if you want to stay a little longer & watch them play, then I'll do it here."

"Yes!" The brunette shrieked, a little too loudly.

"Okay, calm down." Laura laughed, removing some books from her backpack & setting them on the bench beside her. "I'll go call mom & let her know you're with me. You, be good."

Rachel nodded, hurrying up the bleachers to the top row before taking a seat, following her sister's instructions of being good. As much as she did want to jump down to the floor level, climb back up & do it over again, she didn't want to risk getting in trouble— and she knew doing that without getting hurt would cause suspicion. It was okay at home, where the forest surrounded her yard & prevented anyone who wasn't trespassing from witnessing anything supernatural, but here, she had to pretend she was human.

It was like playing pretend, she'd seen kids her age doing it in movies. Pretending they were princesses, fairies & such; Rachel had never taken an interest in that. Sure, she & her sister had occasionally thrown pillows around the living room & jumped on them, pretending the floor was lava, but that was the extent of exaggeration in her life. The way she saw it, there was no need to pretend she was a fairy princess when she was a reflector (a name her sister had thought of, as they'd never been able to find a true specification of what the young girl was), capable of becoming any supernatural creature she laid eyes on.

She did, however, want to play human for a few hours. She wasn't actually human & to this day, she never had been, nor was she planning on trying to become one; she merely wanted to be amongst them, and act as though she fit in. It was riveting, just sitting there— was this how Laura & Derek felt every day? Going about life, pretending as though they were the same as everyone else here, but really, they were so much more & no one around them was ever the wiser.

Just like no one was ever the wiser of just how inhuman the seemingly normal little girl was. No one knew of her remarkable abilities, the way a mercury-like substance flowed through her veins, ready to become a carbon copy of whichever creature she made eye contact with at any given moment. To everyone around her excluding her two supernatural siblings, she was a normal person, and Rachel loved every second of it. She was just a normal, human little girl— here watching her big brother play basketball, much like the boy sitting on the other side of the top row was likely doing.

She hadn't noticed him before, but now that she had, she couldn't not pay attention to him. He was like her, no more than 10 years old, sitting alone on the top row & watching the practice intently. He looked lonely, almost sad— Rachel didn't like seeing people sad. Especially not when there was so much to be happy about; for her, at least. Derek had sunken 4 baskets already & was more than likely going to get the team a victory at their next tournament, which if Rachel was lucky, she'd get to go see. She had everything to look forward to & a hundred & one reasons to be happy; but the boy clearly didn't.

She wanted to know why.

The brunette got up from her spot, walked across the top row & sat down beside the boy, as if they were friends. She liked to think there was a possibility they could be— she hadn't expected to meet someone her age at a high school, but making a friend would make her day a thousand times better than it already was. He looked confused by her unexplained attention. There was an entire bench, and she chose to sit beside him; no one ever did that unless they were going to make fun of him for something, or just laugh.

"Hi. I'm Rachel." The girl introduced herself cheerfully, avoiding looking directly at him & instead looking past. He said nothing in response & simply looked at her, surprised, so she opted to speak again. "Do you have a brother on the team?"

"No." The boy answered softly. He had a brother, but not one on the basketball team— his brother had previously been a member of the swim team, but graduated this year & enlisted in the military. He was deployed to Iraq last week. "I'm Isaac, by the way."

"I do." She continued, ignoring his quiet introduction & pointing out on the court to the black-haired teen with Hale written on the back of his jersey. "That's him."

"He's really good."

"Do you like basketball?" Rachel asked altering the topic slightly. She loved talking, especially to new people & didn't want to risk the conversation dying; even if it wasn't exactly alive to begin with.

"Yeah." Isaac nodded unenthusiastically. It wasn't his favourite— but if it was still what the school was mostly known for in sports by the time he was old enough to attend, he'd more than likely play it. That, or follow in his brother's footsteps & join the swim team. He didn't spend a lot of time thinking about school, or the future.

"Do you go to Beacon Hills' Elementary School?" She carried on with her questions, curious of whether or not he knew Cora. Her twin wasn't exactly Lydia Martin's best friend or anything, but she fell in with a crowd of athletic, sport-loving kids & had quite a few friends. If he played sports at school, he'd definitely know her.

"You ask a lot of questions." He commented, turning to look at her & see that she was watching the game intently. "But yeah, do you? You look kinda familiar."

"No. My sister does. We're twins. Not like, identical twins, we kinda look alike but I'm taller & she's— uh, she's faster. Either that, or I'm really bad at tag." Rachel laughed softly, trying to hide the fact that she almost said her sister was a werewolf. She wasn't used to excluding that word & many other supernatural terms from her everyday vocabulary. "Her name's Cora, have you met her?"

"I think Matt asked her to the school dance last week & she said no."

"Oh, yeah." Rachel tried not to laugh, remembering Cora had told her about the strange kid. He'd asked her by passing a note around the entire classroom before eventually landing it on her desk & nearly getting her a lunchtime detention. "That was Thursday, right? Thursday's movie night. It's a family thing we do— last week was my choice. We watched Godzilla. It was awesome."

"I've never seen it. Is it like that other movie with the dinosaur park?" Isaac inquired, opting not to talk anymore about his friend Matt; who wasn't exactly his friend anymore, after his brother Camden threw him in the pool at their party a few months ago. They were still on speaking terms & worked together on class projects when no one else wanted to be their partners, but they never went to each other's houses anymore.

"Jurassic Park? No way! Godzilla is about the King of the monsters terrorizing New York City." Rachel explained, finally putting her dinosaur knowledge to good use. She loved both Jurassic Park & Godzilla— but if she had to pick a favourite, it would always be the King. Even though technically he was just a mutated lizard, not an actual dinosaur. "Jurassic Park is a bunch of dumbo humans trying to make a dino petting zoo."

"Sounds cool. I'll ask my dad if I can rent it from the video store next time we're there." He responded, knowing it likely wouldn't be for awhile. He mostly got movies from Matt— his dad was always busy with the swim team, especially this past week— but surely once his brother returned they'd have a reason to rent a few.

"You can just borrow my copy if you want, I'll tell Cora to bring it to school tomorrow."

"Really?"

"Yeah! And if you like basketball you should go to the court at lunch— she's always either there or on the monkey bars." Rachel smiled, knowing how whenever Cora wasn't beating everyone at basketball, she was showing off her gymnast skills; most of which she learned from Rachel, who spent her free time climbing a big tree in their backyard & doing flips off the lower branches. It was a wonder they ever slept, with the amount of energy they had throughout the day.

"What about you?" He asked, curious of where Rachel spent her time at school.

"Oh— um, I do school at home— but I might be coming to Beacon Elementary this year! I hope." She answered, choosing to change the topic as quickly as possible. She didn't want to have to lie, so avoiding truths had become her go-to. "Do you come here everyday? To watch basketball?"

"I used to go watch the swim team but without my brother there's no point. It's just my dad yelling at one kid who swims slower than a turtle." Isaac laughed softly, knowing the boy was only kept on the team as they had no replacements left. Without him, they wouldn't have enough swimmers to compete in competitions. "Do you come here often? To watch your brother play."

"No, not really. But I think I'm gonna start to." The brunette replied, a small smile on her face. Surely her mother would let her return— even if she had to stay with Laura or Derek the whole time, that was more than okay.

"Rachel!" The familiar voice of her sister, Laura, called from her spot on the bottom row. "Time to go."

"Will you be here tomorrow?" Rachel asked Isaac, ignoring her sister for a moment. She didn't want to leave, but practice was coming to an end & they couldn't be late getting home.

"Yeah, will you?"

"Isaac! Time to go." A raspy voice, more than likely belonging to the boy's father, yelled from the doorway.

"Yeah." She nodded, getting up from her spot & running back across the top row. Even if she had to sneak out & get Cora to cover for her, she was most definitely coming back tomorrow.

She hopped down the bleachers, one row at a time (as any normal human 10 year old would do), meeting her sister & Derek (who had already changed & retrieved his gym bg from the locker room) at the floor. She turned back & cheerfully waved at Isaac, who smiled & waved back before exiting the gym with his father.

"You made a friend." Laura raised a brow, patting the girl's shoulder. "And you didn't say werewolf once."

"Shhhhh!" Rachel hushed over-dramatically, mocking something her sister had done in the past when they'd been at an ice cream shop when she was younger. It wasn't like someone would pay too much attention to a four-year-old bragging about her sister the werewolf. "We don't use the W word in public!"

Derek laughed, whilst Laura rolled her eyes, knowing Rachel would never let that one go. "Alright, alright. Let's get home— it's gonna take a lot of nagging to get mom to let you come back tomorrow. Better get a jumpstart on it."

Rachel huffed, but nonetheless stayed quiet as she followed her siblings out of the school. She couldn't help but think of coming back tomorrow & seeing Isaac again; she finally had a friend— or at least, someone human that was willing to talk to her. Her mind was constantly jumping from topic to topic; particularly sticking on one day attending school with her sister. She was okay to be around people now, and this was proof for her mom— she could go to school, and she could be normal. Just like her siblings.

What she didn't know, was that the minute she arrived home, all chances of that would be shattered.

—

Ouch.

I wanted to end this differently but it's 4:20am. I'm not exactly happy with how it turned out, but what I wanted to do contradicts with something I wrote earlier in Unspoken; and I'm not about to go changing things. (Except in the Intro of this, I made a mistake. Two months is now four). There is in fact more to this flashback, but unfortunately none of you will be reading it for a little while. I didn't name the book Unbroken just to shatter her in the first chapter. I like to think I'm saving the real heartbreak for later. Anyways, I hope this isn't disappointing.

I couldn't find much info on the wikia about when Camden was deployed to Iraq, so I improvised & made it shortly after graduation. It's only been a week since he left here, so this is before Isaac's father started being a total douchebag (& in my opinion, totally deserved to be Kanima chow).

Can you spot the various references to things in Unspoken & future seasons in this chapter? Godzilla? Mercury? Fun times.