"Excuse me?" Were the only two words Rachel could manage to form as she stared at her brother in both shock & anger. She couldn't even begin to comprehend, let alone believe what he'd just revealed. "You're making me go to school? Public high school?"

Disgust was laced in her tone, and Rachel was surprised the words themselves hadn't caused her to instantaneously vomit. Whilst living far from the town of damnation, Laura had homeschooled Rachel to the best of her abilities, leaving the young Hale very unacquainted with the average teen lifestyle.

She'd easily mastered the art of laziness, but regular human interaction wasn't her strongest subject. While lacking the canine appearance, she made up for it in her personality. Short tempered, sarcastic, hostile & violent. An exact replica of her twin sister Cora, who'd perished within the fire alongside many other Hales.

"You're sixteen, Rachel." Derek answered casually, taking the magazine from her hands & tossing it on the smoke-stained coffee table. "You need an education."

"What will that get me? I don't need a job." Rachel laughed quietly, reaching for her magazine. Before she could get it, Derek flung it across the room, earning a growl from the lazy brunette.

"If you think you're living here forever, you're out of your mind."

"You see this?" Rachel sat up, waving her hands in front of her face. "It's a pretty face, and Der, you of all people should know that it'll get me everything I need."

"You're going, Rachel. I'll drag you there if I have to." The older Hale stated, taking the mug of coffee off the table & heading towards the door. "I'll be in the car."

Rachel took that as her cue to pull her lazy ass off the ash-coated couch & practically crawl up the creaky old stairs. Her single suitcase had been stored on the non-burned side of the house, in the room once shared between herself & Cora.

Stepping into the faded purple room sent a pang of sadness through her chest, one that was quickly forced to the darkest depths of her heart as Rachel blinked back tears. Her twin was dead & gone. Her other half, reduced to nothing but ash. Rachel wondered momentarily what it'd been like. She wasn't there to see it, but by the horrific recounts she'd picked up pretty fast that the death wasn't slow. The few partial witnesses had emphasized of the spine-chilling screams of her trapped family members as they slowly burned to death, unable to escape the fiery flames.

The young Hale shook faintly, her hands running over her bare arms as goosebumps began to appear. Before they could fully form, Rachel slung on a black leather jacket over her fitted grey t-shirt. Her outfit wasn't entirely suitable for a first day back, but it fit perfectly to her mood; careless. She left her brown hair down, the loose curls she'd done last night nearly gone. A golden half-moon charm hung around her neck, hidden underneath her t-shirt. Rachel never took it off, no matter what; it was a gift from her mother.

The brunette dug through various drawers & cabinets, attempting to salvage the supplies left from her elementary school days. Her black bucket bag had been turned into a backpack, replacing the pink flowery one that no longer fit on her shoulders. Out of all the aged & smoke damaged supplies, Rachel had ended up with a few folders, a package of paper, a possibly mouldy binder & a Hannah Montana pencil.

She was pretty sure that'd been Cora's.

With her supplies stocked up, Rachel hooked the bag over her shoulder & headed back downstairs. One last look at the old house & she was outside, the door remaining unlocked as always. Nobody would dare invade the home, especially not with the infamous Hale siblings back with vengeance.

Rachel took her time striding over to the Camaro & climbing inside, purposely leaving the door open as she buckled her seat belt. If she was forced to attend the atrocity that is high school, she was at least going to benefit from something. If annoying Derek was all she could get, then she'd take it. After closing the door, Rachel smiled slyly as she reached for the radio button, preparing to blast her favourite CD at a deafening volume. Before her hand could touch the dashboard, Derek had already caught it, without even looking away from the road.

"I swear to god, if I have to listen to that boyband one more time, I'm going to hunt them down-"

"-and rip out their vocal chords, I know. It was a six hour drive, Der. I ran out of techno." Rachel finished, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"I hate techno." The werewolf deadpanned, momentarily glancing at his sister with an unamused expression.

"You hate everything." Rachel sighed loudly, leaning back in her seat. "If I'm expected to tolerate teenagers for an entire six hours, I'm going to need all the brain-blasting music I can get. So suck it up, I'm playing the Tiësto CD."

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

Rachel didn't exactly receive the welcome she'd initially expected.

The brunette had forced her brother to park the eye-catching Camaro far enough away to avoid drawing attention, but she'd done that as she predicted her face would catch the spotlight all on it's own. Without the assistance of her wealth or terrifying sibling. Apparently that wasn't so, as Rachel casually walked towards the front entrance of Beacon Hills High School.

A first day was said be the worst; which was indeed a true statement for Rachel Hale. Despite her former residency in the town, the young Hale knew next to no one. The fire had happened when she was just ten years old, and pre-fire, she hadn't spent much time in the company of others.

Rachel's unique & tough to control abilities made human contact a very dangerous activity in her younger years.

The young Hale hurried her way around the school, nearly finding herself lost a few times as she searched for the office. After passing the same strawberry blonde twice, she finally stopped & questioned the girl of her current location.

"Do you know where the office is?" Rachel asked, borderline agitated. All she wanted to do was be on time for homeroom, and of course she found herself lost in a maze of hallways & hormonal teens.

"You've passed it twice." The girl replied, pointing a perfectly manicured nail towards the hallway Rachel had just exited.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Rachel grumbled, annoyance laced in her tone. "I'm Rachel, by the way. Not that you care- I just felt the need to tell someone."

The girl laughed softly, staring at Rachel for a moment in curiosity. "I'm Lydia, and since you look beyond lost - I'm going to do you a favour. I'm going to show you where the office is, and you're going to tell me where you got those boots because they are absolutely gorgeous."

Lydia strutted off, leaving Rachel to follow along & find the office's location. As much as the young Hale despised the idea of being a follower, she quickly chose to jog after Lydia. Since the strawberry blonde seemed relatively popular, Rachel wasn't going to make an enemy of her just yet.

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

The day passed by moderately quick after Rachel obtained her schedule & map. With the assistance of Lydia Martin, her troubles navigating the halls had nearly vanished entirely.

"Her." Lydia pointed to Allison Argent, the new girl that'd been introduced in Rachel's homeroom class.

"Her?" Rachel questioned, unsure of what the strawberry blonde meant. She wasn't particularly fond of her fellow newbie, especially due to her last name; Argent. The name sounded dangerously like one of a werewolf hunter, and the girl herself looked eerily familiar. Nevertheless, she still followed as Lydia walked over to Allison.

"That jacket is absolutely killer." Lydia smiled. "Where'd you get it?"

"My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco." Allison answered, delighted that someone had taken notice. Rachel didn't exactly see anything amazing about the jacket, but if it got her a few friends; she'd say it was phenomenal.

"And you are my new best friend." The strawberry blonde's grin only widened, remaining the same as she turned to see her boyfriend approaching. "Hey, Jackson."

And that was when Rachel completely zoned out, seconds after the hallway make-out session had begun. She wasn't entirely up on the average teen's behaviour, but if doing that in public was a normal trait - Rachel wanted to go back to the time when boys were gross. With her hearing tuned out & on whatever else was happening around her, she managed to hear the gawking of a jealous girl down the hallway. "Can someone tell me how the new girls are here all of five minutes, and they're already hanging out with Lydia's clique?"

"Because they're hot. Beautiful people herd together." A boy with a buzz cut answered, looking longingly towards Lydia who'd finally finished with Jackson.

Rachel squinted her eyes, unsure if the boy was Scott or Stiles - both of them being guys who'd introduced themselves in homeroom. Whether he was Scott or Stiles, he was certainly something. She wasn't entirely sure if that something was cute or downright strange, but she wanted to know. The fact that he'd called both her & Allison hot didn't even register in her brain, due to how fascinated she'd become with watching him struggle to open a locker.

"Rachel?" Lydia questioned, snapping her fingers in front of Rachel's face.

"Oh, uh- sorry." Rachel half-smiled, sighing quietly. "Zoned out for a second."

Lydia ignored Rachel's explanation, instead opting for a more exciting topic. "So, this weekend, there's a party."

"A party?" Allison repeated, hoping Lydia wasn't going where she thought she was. In Rachel's eyes, Allison didn't exactly look to be the type of girl who enjoyed crazy parties. Especially ones thrown by the infamous Lydia Martin. Rachel had known the girl's name prior to this day, but she hadn't been able to put a face to it. She had various memories of nagging Derek to drive through Beacon just to see how many guests had shown up for the strawberry blonde's extravagant birthday party.

Even as a ten year old, Lydia still managed to one-up every high schooler.

"Yeah- Friday night. You two should come." Jackson suggested, glancing between Allison & Rachel.

"Uh, I can't. It's family night this Friday." Allison declined. The answer was an obvious lie, particularly to Rachel, who'd heard the girl's heart skip a beat loud & clear. "Thanks for asking."

"Me either." Rachel smiled, adding in a hint of fake sadness to her tone. Much like Allison had done, she mustered up her best acting skills & sold a fake excuse. "I'm visiting my uncle."

Rachel's excuse hadn't totally been a lie, in reality. She & Derek had indeed been planning on making a trip to see Peter sometime in the near future. It was an obvious dead end, but Derek seemed to think that the melted remains of their uncle may know something about the new alpha.

"You sure? Everyone's going after the scrimmage."

"You mean like football?" Allison asked cluelessly. Even Rachel knew that Beacon Hills High School had never, and would never be the home of a football team. In Derek's day, it had been all about basketball - and now, the sport was lacrosse.

Jackson scoffed. "Football's a joke in Beacon. The sport here is lacrosse. We've won the state championship for the past three years."

"Because of a certain team captain." Lydia added, smiling flirtatiously at her boyfriend.

"Sounds... Interesting." Rachel muttered, her voice distance as she searched the halls for Stiles - who was now nowhere to be found. There goes her shot of befriending someone other than the popular clique.

"Well, we have practice in a few minutes, that is, if you don't have anywhere else-"

"Actually, I was going to-" Rachel interrupted Jackson, only to be cut off by the lacrosse player's preppy girlfriend.

"Perfect- you're coming." Lydia cheered, dragging both Allison & Rachel along with her to the lacrosse field.

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

Rachel sat in the stands with both Allison & Lydia, rather uncomfortable. Due to the lack of space in the spot Lydia had chosen, Rachel ended up sandwiching herself between the two. To add to her discomfort, an eerily familiar scent lingered over the lacrosse field. One she loathed even more than then stench of sweat or animal.

Blood.

With the increasing number of students flooding onto the field, determining the exact source was relatively impossible. The only thing Rachel could relate it to, was the blood her & Derek had found in the woods whilst searching for the other half of their sister's body. Rachel couldn't stand the memory of Laura's shredded corpse burned into her mind. It was like a scar, something she couldn't seem to fade no matter how many cute puppy photos she scrolled through. With every ounce of self control, the brunette forced herself to pry her thoughts away from the previous night's events & back onto her current settings. Lacrosse practice.

The boys were still in the process of lining up, a familiar face from english class taking a place in the goal. Rachel was still unsure exactly of what his name was, but nonetheless Allison seemed to have taken quite the interest in the little time she'd known him.

"Who is that?" Allison questioned, her sights still set on Scott. It was well beyond obvious that the interest was a two way street, especially by the way he'd occasionally glance their way.

"Him? I'm not sure who he is." Lydia answered, a curious expression on her face. "Why?"

"He's in my english class." Allison shrugged.

As the conversation died down, a whistle blew loudly - nearly causing Rachel to fly off the bench. At the same time, across the field, Scott had been equally - if not more - startled by the loud noise, leading him to immediately cover his ears. Rachel raised a brow in confusion, wondering how the whistle could've been so harmful to normal human ears. Nevertheless, she watched as the boy hesitantly stood back up. In a haze of disorientation, a player took that as their chance to nail a lacrosse ball at him - knocking him flat on his back.

"Hey, way to catch with your face, McCall!" Jackson yelled across the field.

Rachel swore at that moment, she heard a distant growl sound through the air. Pinpointing it's exact source in her current crowd wasn't possible, but that didn't stop the girl from trying.

All three girls watched from the stands, both Rachel & Allison unable to look away from Scott as he got back up. After a momentary glare, a player charged forward & nailed the lacrosse ball with what seemed to be all of their strength; though it was useless. Scott caught it with ease, earning various cheers from the crowd.

The field only got louder as Scott caught three more attempted shots. By the third, even Lydia had joined in on cheering with Rachel & Allison.

"He seems like he's pretty good." Allison smiled, still applauding.

"Oh, very good." Lydia mumbled, momentarily making eye contact with her boyfriend - who seemed less than impressed.

With what she'd seen, Rachel now began to feel the pieces forming a picture in her mind; clear as day. The expressions on the players' faces at McCall's sudden amazing lacrosse skills, his sensitivity to loud noises.. The lingering scent of eerily familiar blood & not to mention the distant growls. Everything about it screamed teenage Derek Hale.

Rachel sat back down on the stands, ignoring the way the crowd cheered & Lydia tugged at her wrist, trying to get the girl to rejoin her cheering squad. As she remained seated, from her pocket she retrieved the phone she'd gotten from Derek upon returned to Beacon Hills. Without a moment of hesitation, she typed across the screen as quickly as possible without being seen.

To: Wolverine
I think I know who's blood we found in the woods.

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

Unedited.

Chapter one is officially done. Rachel is so different from any character I've ever written, and I really love her. I hope everyone likes the story so far, because I certainly like writing it.