𝟎𝟏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈

✯☾✯

'𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 on the street is always the one with the most life in it.'

A quote the Brown family stood by. Their house was in fact the smallest on a shabby street on the edge of Beacon Hills and yet you could feel the most love and hear the most laughter from anywhere in the quaint town.

That morning was no different. A 16-year-old girl sat on an old chair next to the round wooden table in her kitchen, pondering at the fullness of her glass of orange juice. Her light brown hair was carefully curled and sat neatly just past her breasts. Her eyelashes, that hung above her beautiful blue eyes, were laced with a little mascara and her lids were dabbed with her favourite eyeshadow. It was a faint, tinted pink with a small amount shimmer and glitter. The same shimmer and glitter as the specs in the gloss she'd so carefully applied to her lips ten minutes ago.

Her 5,2 frame was covered with a low-neck cotton t-shirt dotted with miniature blue flowers. On her bottom half she wore a pair of simple beige, baggy pants which were held up curtesy of a brown belt with a gold buckle. A crescent moon necklace hung from her neck, her mothers.

Every year on the first day of school, the girl's mother would lend her the necklace for good luck. And even after she had passed, the girl still carried on the tradition of wearing her mother's lucky piece of jewellery.

The girls mind flicked back to the incredible woman she called her mother as she brought the last of her orange juice up to her lips. She remembered the same cheesy thing her mom would say to her and her brother before they left for school.

"If you smile and be yourself, how could anyone not love you?" She'd say with her own grin the seemed to be permanently plastered on her lips. Amelia Brown had a smile that could end wars.

The brunette's thoughts were interrupted by a loud screech coming from the living room.

"No! I don't want to!"

"Davis, Davis come and be a good boy for daddy."

The girl sighed and pushed herself up from the table. She placed her empty glass in the sink and followed the complaining into the living room. There, she was met with her red-faced father who was trying and failing to pull her little brother away from the couch. Davis had latched his clammy hands to the leg of the couch and refused to let go.

Her dad looked up to the new presence in the room and gave his daughter a forced smile as if to say- Everything's okay don't worry, not going to throw this little shit out the house or anything.

The girl laughed at the very one-sided battle going on before her. "Dad!" She yelled over the commotion. "Dad, leave him. I'll deal with it."

The man breathed a sigh of relief and let go of his son's legs. He stood up, his back cracking as he did so. "You're a star Lizzie. I don't know what happened. He was absolutely fine with it last night." He shook his head despairingly.

Lizzie turned to look at her brother who was now switching through the tv channels, completely oblivious to the two people a few feet away from him. She had a sneaky suspicion that she knew what was going on.

"I'll see what I can do." She said but her gaze didn't leave Davis.

"Okay, pumpkin, we'll leave in 10, okay? Is Bobby up yet?" Her dad asked as he sidled past Lizzie to leave.

"I think I heard him in the bathroom not long ago." She replied before moving to crouch down in front of her little brother. He automatically jerked his head past Lizzie to get a better view of the stupid cartoon he was watching.

The girl sighed and reached out to take the remote from him. He moved his arm away from her reach and shook his head.

"Davis, please can you turn it off for a sec, we need to talk." She asked as sweetly as possible. Davis let out a little whine of annoyance but complied anyway. He angrily pressed the red off button and chucked the remote across the room although it took a detour and whistled past Lizzie's head.

"Hey! You almost decapitated me." Lizzie scolded endearingly. Davis looked confused at the big word she had just used. The brunette girl sighed once more and sat down next to him. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, and he cuddled into her side.

"Why don't you wanna go to school, buddy?" Lizzie asked quietly whilst she stroked the boy's shaggy blonde hair with her free hand.

"Just don't want to." Davis replied with arrogance that Lizzie knew he had gotten from their older brother.

The pair of siblings were quiet for a few moments. One was debating whether or not her brother's troubles were coming from the death of their mother or if he just really didn't want to go. The other was thinking about what it would be like to be a ninja turtle.

"Do you miss mommy? Is that what this is?" Lizzie finally asked and when Davis didn't answer she internally cursed herself for bringing her up. Even though Amelia Brown had died five years ago she was still a touchy subject for all of the family. Davis didn't remember much of the woman, but his face would still scrunch up and his eyes would glaze over whenever she was mentioned.

"I just wanted to do this with her." He mumbled. Lizzie's heart broke at his words. She had known he was especially down when he came home from the induction day at his Middle School. Her dad had said he'd started crying when he saw all the other kids who had turned up with their mothers.

"Oh honey, you still are." Lizzie soothed. She removed the hand stroking his hair and wiped underneath her eye. She was doing her best not to cry. She feared if she did, she'd only upset Davis more.

"No, I'm not because- because she's dead." Davis said. His words were muffled, his face was pressed into his sister's side and his arms were flung around her body.

"Davey, you are. She's still here, she will always be here." The taller brunette told both the boy and her. "Remember what daddy said? She's still here. She's in-" Lizzie pressed her hand to Davis's chest on the side where his heart was. "-here. Yeah?"

Davis nodded slowly and clung onto Lizzie tighter. "Mommy would want you to be brave. You're gonna be brave for mommy, right?"

Davis nodded again.

"You're gonna go into that school and you're gonna be brave."

Davis nodded for the third time. This time it was a much cheerier nod. "Can I say bye to Mimi first?"

Lizzie chuckled at her brother's cute attachment to the family cat Mimi whom they had named after their mom.

"Of course, go say bye to Mimi and then grab your backpack from your room."

Davis gave his sister one last squeeze before untangling himself from her embrace and rushing to find the cat. Lizzie soon followed. She smiled slightly at her brother's newfound excitement. She took a long deep breath before she stood from the couch. Her suspicion was right, she had known that Davis was upset about their mom. And she'd known exactly how to calm him down as she'd done it for herself many times.

She'd get panic attacks often. Mostly they were over school, tests, people, her mom. She'd never wanted to burden her father with them, so she'd hide in her room and keep quiet for the ones she'd had at home. Andrew Brown was rushed off his feet 24/7 and Lizzie knew that the last thing he needed was a daughter who gets frequent panic attacks over tiny stupid stuff. So, she ended up teaching herself ways to calm down, what to tell herself, how to control her breathing.

Lizzie shook her hands a little and took another deep breath. Deciding she was okay, she left the living room and retreated back the kitchen. Her older brother Bobby was up now, sat at the table munching on a bowl of cornflakes which he obviously didn't make himself.

She pushed the back of his head down a little as she passed him.

"Bitch." He mumbled over his cereal. However, the curse word wasn't heard by their nearby father who was frantically hurrying around and grabbing all sorts of food for Davis's lunch box.

Lizzie grabbed her bag from underneath the table and unzipped it. Pulling out her timetable, she groaned. She had an awful first day.

Chem, English, Math, Ooh free period, French.

During her free period were Soccer try-outs which Lizzie would be attending. She'd been playing soccer since she was Davis's age and she loved it. Although, she'd only just made the team last year, undoubtedly making her nervous for the outcome of this year. She brushed the thought off and put her timetable back in her bag along with her soccer boots.

"Did you manage to get everything sorted out, pumpkin?" Her dad asked. He reached in the cupboard above him, grabbing a granola bar and handing it to Lizzie to shove it in her bag too.

Lizzie looked up. "Oh- yeah. He should be down with his bag in a second."

Andy sighed dramatically and leaned down to pinch his daughter's cheek. "What would I do without you?"

"Oh, I dunno dad, I reckon you'd be living on the streets connecting with your inner hobo nature." Lizzie replied cheekily.

Andy pointed at her and gave her a stern look. "Oi!"

Lizzie giggled innocently before turning back to her bag and zipping it up.

The sound of pattering feet entered the kitchen. Davis stood in the doorway, his over-sized Star Wars backpack hanging down his back and Mimi in his arms.

"Dadddd, can I please bring Mimi with me?" He asked with his best puppy dog eyes.

Andy let out his infamous Santa laugh and shook his head. "I don't think they'd let you in with her, bud."

Davis pouted and put Mimi down on the ground. She gave the family a relieved mew and then scurried away. Davis skipped into the kitchen, high-fiving Bobby and giving him finger guns as he did.

"Woah, woah, where has this cool dude come from?" Lizzie joked.

"Haven't you heard? I'm brave now." Davis grinned at his sister.

"Hell yeah you are." Bobby gave him another high five. The family's moods were all lifted. Davis always found a way to make them smile. Lizzie recalled one-night last year when they were really struggling money and none of them felt like they had anything to be happy for. Davis wandered into the living room covered head to two with Lizzie's nail polish. He'd wanted to make his family laugh and had mistaken the nail polish for makeup. Even if his joke took the wrong turn, it had still sent them into fits of laughter.

Andy clapped his hands together. "Okay kids, are we ready to get going?"

Davis yelled a yes, Lizzie nodded her head with a smile and Bobby straight up grunted.

Andy handed Davis his lunch. "Lets-a-go-a." He said in an awful Italian accent which made the two oldest kids smile.

Lizzie picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Bobby did the same and both of their hands were grabbed by Davis and yanked out into the hallway. Lizzie stuffed her feet in her old faded blue converse flats and glanced at herself in the mirror. She'd never thought of herself as pretty, in fact she'd probably give herself a solid 5/10. She brushed her hair out of her freckled face and left the house, shutting the door behind her.

Bobby and Lizzie both raced to the car in a desperate attempt to get to shotgun. Lizzie reached it first and opened the door only to reveal Davis sat there happily eating a piece of toast.

"You-" Lizzie started.

"-little shit." Bobby finished. They both groaned but took their respective places in the back seat of the car.

Lizzie pulled her iPod and headphones out of her pocket and plugged them in. She started racking through the song options as her dad sat down in the front seat.

"Alright kiddos, lets rock and roll."

✯☾✯

The black Volo pulled up just outside of the parking lot at Beacon Hills High School. Andy couldn't drive in and actually find a parking space seeing as he had to rush off to work as soon as possible.

Davis had been dropped off just before. Lizzie and Bobby had both stuck their heads out the window. Bobby wolf-whistled whilst Davis strutted to join the rest of the class and Lizzie yelled "You go, Davey."

Once their little brother had disappeared out of sight, they had stuck their heads back through the window. Andy was sat watching Davis walk away with tears in his eyes. His final kid was growing up. He choked on a loud sob making Bobby and Lizzie cringe.

The same tears filled his eyes as his two remaining kids stepped out the car. He wound his window down so he could say goodbye.

"Bye Dad. Have a great day at work." Lizzie said. She bent down a little and kissed his cheek.

"See you later Dad." Bobby said. The two started to walk away from the car.

"No wait! Remember to smile and be yourself!" Andy called after them. His shout made them both turn around and send him smiles. The duo carried on walking in the direction of the huge building.

"You got soccer try-outs today?" Bobby asked the shorter girl next to him.

"Yup. Fourth period. Lacrosse?" Lizzie replied.

Bobby nodded. "I got 'em after school. You coming?"

"Sure." His sister smiled. As they got closer to the steps up to the high school, a voice yelled Bobby's name.

"Hey! Bobby! Over here man!"

Lizzie and Bobby snapped their heads in the direction of the voice.

Jackson Whittmore. The most cliché, jock, popular whatever that you would meet. Lizzie hated him for that reason but also for how he treated to women of this school. He'd stare at them as if they were pieces of meat even though he had a perfectly beautiful girlfriend to oggle.

"Sorry L, I gotta go." Bobby said as started to walk away still facing Lizzie.

"I'm sorry, am I bringing you down to my nerdy depths? Is that what is?" Lizzie yelled to him as he got further away.

"Yeah totally. You're a total nerd, Elizabeth." Bobby yelled back loud enough for the whole courtyard to hear.

Lizzie raised her middle finger at him, and he placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt. The brunette turned away from her brother and continued to walk into school. She entered the school hallway she regrettably recognised from last year.

She found herself moving with the crowd of students towards the reception desk. She pushed through the people to stand at the back of what looked like the line for the locker arrangements. After a little while of waiting, she made it to the front.

"Name and Grade?" The surly woman barked from behind the reception desk.

"Uh- Elizabeth Brown, Sophomore." Lizzie replied. Her voice quivered. She hated talking to adults she didn't know, especially ones who worked at schools. She had never met one person that worked at a school who actually enjoyed their job.

The woman stamped a piece of card and slipped it across the desk towards Lizzie. "Locker 234."

"Thank you." Lizzie smiled sweetly and took the card. She walked through the bustled hallways with her blue eyes following the numbers on the lockers. Too busy watching the lockers, Lizzie didn't take notice of the tall boy heading in her direction. It wasn't long before the girl's head collided with a firm chest causing her to jump back and drop her card.

Lizzie craned her neck to look up at the boy. He was very tall. Very, very tall, it was almost intimidating. However, all forms of intimidation disappeared when she noticed his soft features, warm blue eyes and dirty blonde curls.

"I'm really sorry." Lizzie said with gasp and immediately looked down to where her locker card had fallen. "I wasn't looking."

"Oh no it's fine don't worry about it." The boy gushed. Lizzie smiled slightly.
"Here, let me-" The boy bent down to pick up the piece of paper from the floor.

"You don't have to do that-oh." He handed it to her with a small smile.

"Thanks."

"We're locker buddies I think." He pointed to the numbers on the card. "I'm 235."

Lizzie scratched the top of her head awkwardly. "Do you think you can show me where it is? My second year here and I still don't know where everything is."

The boy chuckled and gestured for her to follow him. "It's fine, I'm the same. In fact, I got here early just so I'd have time to find my locker."

"Smart-thinking." Lizzie said as they both walked. Neither of them spoke, they were too busy dodging through the teens dotted around the corridor, not to mention how extremely socially awkward they both seemed to be

When they arrived at their little block of lockers, the boy leaned against his and watched Lizzie fiddle with the passcode.

"I'm Lizzie, by the way." The small brunette introduced herself when she finally got the locker door open.

"Isaac." The boy simply stated. His eyes followed her as she unpacked all of her stuff into her locker. He noticed that she didn't organise it neatly like most of the other girls did nor had she smothered it hideous wallpaper. She just chucked her books and stationery in randomly. Lastly, Lizzie placed her soccer boots and kit on the bottom shelf of the locker.

"You play Soccer?" Isaac questioned. The girl whipped her head up to face him. She wasn't aware he had been watching her as she'd put her stuff away.

"Uh yeah. I do." Lizzie bobbed her head up and down before she shut her locker and slung her bag back over her shoulder.

"That's pretty cool." Isaac said. He obviously wasn't the best at small talk.

"It will be if I get on the team." Lizzie replied. That was a mistake. All her nerves about making that stupid team flooded back into her stomach. She thought she was most afraid of how embarrassing it would be if she didn't get in but maybe it would be how she would feel if she didn't. If she wasn't good enough.

Isaac was about to reply before a girl a little taller than Lizzie crashed into her and tackled her into a hug.

"Beth, oh my god, I haven't seen you all summer!" She squealed. Lizzie's cheeks went slightly pink.

"Hey Kayla." Lizzie greeted her friend through the embrace. Kayla pulled away and placed her hand on Lizzie's shoulders.

Kayla and Lizzie had been friends since about halfway through freshmen year. They weren't super close, they just chatted and hung out from time to time. Usually, Kayla used Lizzie as someone to fall back on when she couldn't find any of her closer friends or if she needed help with something. Lizzie knew that Kayla mainly used her, but she actually didn't mind. She was the only girl that had shown even the slightest bit of interest in being her friend last year. It may all be fake, but Lizzie would take it.

"Damn girl, you look cute." Kayla said with a smirk which caused Lizzie's cheeks to change from pink to red.

It didn't take long for Kayla to notice the tall boy standing awkwardly next to the two girls with his hands shoved down his pockets.

"Cute locker buddy. I've got that Miles kid again." Kayla rolled her eyes and Isaac raised an eyebrow.

He was surprised at the fact someone found him cute. No one ever called him cute. No one ever really looked at him at all.

"It's Stiles and he's not even that bad." Lizzie corrected. "Remember I had Jackson last year?"

Kayla groaned loudly. Multiple pairs of teenage eyes turned to her in surprise. Lizzie giggled at her friend's reaction to the asshole's name.

Isaac cleared his throat and Lizzie's attention switched to him. She felt bad. She opened her mouth to apologize but the screech of the bell beat her to it. Lizzie gazed at him as his shifted, so he wasn't leaning on the lockers anymore. Her eyes followed him as he stood up to his full height. He was extremely attractive.

Kayla frantically tapped on Lizzie's shoulder to grasp back her attention. "Beth, Beth, Beth!"

Lizzie blinked and snapped out of her weird trance. "Hm?"

"What do you have first? Please say English. Please. Please." She said, grasping her hands.

"No sorry, I got Chem." Lizzie gave her an apologetic look. Kayla scrunched her face up and dropped her hands.

"See you at lunch then I guess." She drilled and turned on her heels, marching off in another direction. Lizzie rolled her eyes in a loving way before she could finally turn her attention back to Isaac.

"Sorry about that." The brunette twisted her lips into a smile.

"It's, okay? So, you say you have chem?"

Lizzie nodded and the two started to walk down the hallway.

"Me too." Isaac said and Lizzie couldn't help the fuzzy feeling that formed in her stomach. The duo turned a corner. Lizzie lifted her hand into a wave as they passed Bobby who mouthed nerd at her.

They reached the final door on the corridor and stopped. Lizzie froze. That all too familiar, annoying sound filled her ears.

"No." she whispered. Isaac turned to her wondering why she had stopped.

"What?

Lizzie moved from her spot and peered through the glass sliver in the middle of the door. "Shit!" She yelled.

"What's wrong?" Isaac asked moving to look through the glass too.

"We have Harris." Lizzie fake sobbed against the glass.

"Ah." Isaac immediately acknowledged. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and her heartbeat quickened. She glanced at his hand on her shoulder and then up at the curly haired boy.

"Come on, you'll be fine." Isaac said and pulled Lizzie into the classroom. A few people were already in and sat down in their seats but other than that, they were pretty early.

Mr Harris turned to the newcomers. "Miss Brown, lovely to see I have you again this year. Take a seat."

Lizzie rolled her eyes although she desperately wanted to flip him off. Lizzie and Harris had had an ongoing feud since the first week of Freshmen year when Harris made some snarky comment about women and weakness, Lizzie had snapped straight back at him which led to an argument that she definitely won and thus beginning their war.

The brunette sighed and turned towards the tall boy next to her. "You wanna sit together?"

Isaac's eyes widened. "Y-you want to sit with me?" To which Lizzie nodded.

"Okay sure- I mean yeah. Cool." Isaac replied, flustered. His cheeks had gone a little pink which Lizzie found incredibly cute.

"Where do you wanna sit?" Lizzie asked with a smile and Isaac made a gesture towards the back of the lab. The two made their way to the seats and sat themselves down as more students filtered in. Lizzie slipped her bag off her shoulder and unzipped it. She pulled out her books and colourful pens.

"Alright you miserable lot, shut up." Harris hissed at the class, and everyone fell silent

And so, the torture begins.

✯☾✯

English was Lizzie's second class of the day and luckily for her the teacher was a lot more bearable. Her an Isaac had parted ways after Chem finished leaving her on her own for the next lesson. Mr Westover had placed Lizzie on a desk next to some random guy called Matt Daehler.

The lesson started and Mr Westover turned his back on the class to write something on the chalk board.

"As you all know there was indeed a body found in the woods last night." He said whilst writing. Lizzie's eye caught a movement in front of her and she watched a shaggy haired boy glance knowingly at a boy with a buzz-cut.

"And I'm sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened. But I am here to tell you-"

The plump man finished his writing on the board.

"-that the police have a suspect in custody. Which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk outlining the semester."

Lizzie watched as the two boys shared another look however this time it was more confused. Then, she picked up the sheet on her desk and scanned it. Her mouth opened into a yawn as she read through the words. She didn't like many classes. She didn't like school. The only class she could be remotely bothered to do was shop and art. And what do you know? They were also her best subjects too.

She gave up on reading the syllabus, scared if she read anymore, she would definitely fall asleep. She found her attention drifting to the cute blue-eyed, curly-haired boy she had met this morning. She thought about how adorably awkward he was and how when he smiled his eyes glistened a little.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened and in entered the principal along with a tall, nervous looking brunette who was incredibly gorgeous.

"Class this our new student Allison Argent, please do your best to make her feel welcome."

Allison flashed a worried smile at the class and tried to not make eye-contact with anyone. She failed. For a brief second, Allison caught Lizzie's eye and she gave her a sweet smile before her gaze flicked elsewhere. She walked to take a seat in front of Lizzie and behind the shaggy haired boy from earlier. The boy immediately turned round to give Allison a pen which Lizzie cringed at.

Random.

She lifted her attention from the back of the beautiful dark haired girl's head to page 133 of her textbook. Kafka's Metamorphosis.

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮
ahh, so this is it  i guess. hope you guys liked to first chapter.

i'm really excited for this.

don't forget to vote and comment!

stay safe <33

edited ✓