"I'm in so much trouble," Scott McCall groaned as he sat down across from Stiles in the lunchroom.

"Are we still on the Allison's-grandfather-cutting-people-in-half-with-a-sword problem?" Stiles asked around a mouthful of meatloaf.

"No. Well, I mean, yes, but there's something else."

"You're kidding. What, is there a giant kraken living in the ocean we have to kill?"

"I have a cousin!"

"Oh. That's it? Good, I thought we were going to add another life threatening event to the seventeen we're already dealing with." Relieved, Stiles shoveled another bite into his mouth. 

"No, no, you don't understand!" Scott laid his head on the table and sighed dramatically. "I have an actual cousin and we only met last night and she hates me!"

"Come on, Scotty. Who could ever hate that cute little baby face of yours?" Stiles leaned forward and tried to ruffle his best friend's hair, but Scott slapped his hand away.

"Vinia can, because I was supposed to welcome her home last night while Mom was at work, but instead we were searching for Lydia! And so she had to search for our key and let herself in and fell asleep on the couch, where Mom found her." 

"Okay, well, I'm sorry we forgot about your long-lost cousin but at least she's safe, right? Besides, we also kinda have more important things to worry about-- like the fact that lacrosse practice starts in 30 minutes?" Stiles shoved three more bites of meatloaf into his mouth then stood up. "Hesh ro!" He swallowed and tried again. "Come on, Scott, let's go!"

"I don't understand how you can eat all that before practice," Scott said, shaking his head in wonder. 

"It's what makes me special, wolf-boy."

"Don't say that so loud!"

"What, that my secret talent is eating ungodly amounts of meatloaf? Why on earth would I want to hide that from the world?"

"You're the worst, Stiles." Scott shook his head, but he was smiling. Stiles grinned, his mission accomplished. 

"And that's why you love meeeeeeeeee," Stiles sang as the two walked down the hallway towards the locker room.

******O******O******O******

The popcorn ceiling above Vinny's bed was not particularly interesting but that wasn't stopping her from staring blankly at it, trying to forget the lingering screams in her nightmares. Slowly, she sat up to see if Jake was still asleep in the other bed-- but there was no other bed, and there was no Jake. For a moment Vinny was ready to leap out of bed and tear down the whole world to find him, but then she remembered where he was.

Somehow, that was almost worse. 

"I have to go see him," Vinny mumbled, her voice shaking. "I can't leave him alone."

Her suitcase was still on the floor, clothes spilling out onto the carpet. Vinia grabbed whatever was on top, not bothering to check if it was even clean. Once her teeth (but not her hair) were brushed, Vinny headed downstairs.

"Hello?" She called softly into the empty kitchen. "Is anyone home?" The clock on the microwave was flashing a bright green 1:00. A yellow sticky note on the counter read, Good morning Vinia! I am at work and Scott is at school. Make yourself at home while we're away. We will talk about important things this evening. :) Melissa. 

Vinny groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to her aunt about anything. She opened cupboards until she found a sufficient snack of Ritz crackers and Cheese Whiz, then tugged on her shoes and headed out the front door. 

It was sunny out, but it was a strange kind of light that still gave Vinny the chills. She started down the road, wishing that she would have paid more attention to direction when the taxi driver had taken her home. She got to a stop sign, and turned right.

No, wait. Was it left instead? Vinny stopped and stared at the road, desperately trying to remember. The driver had stopped on that side of the road and turned... right. It was definitely right. Which meant that she had to go left. 

******O******O******O******

She should have gone right.

Vinny stared at the sign hanging across the road. "Beacon Hills Preserve. No entry after dark," she read aloud to convince herself it was real. She swore, kicking the ground with her shoe. The sun was slowly getting lower in the sky, she had no idea where she was, and for all she knew Jake was panicking in that stupid insane asylum. Tears began pricking at her eyes and she wiped them away fiercely. 

"I hate this!" She screamed at the sky, balling her hands into fists. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! I just want things to be normal again! I HATE IT HERE!" All of the sudden there were too many tears on her face. Vinny squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep, shuddering breaths as she regained her composure. She had to get back to her aunt's house before Melissa or Scott got back to avoid any unnecessary questions. Plus, if she died out in the woods now she would never get to see Jake again-- and she couldn't leave him alone, not after everything. 

She spun around and-- "What the!!" Vinny yelped, stumbling backwards, heart racing at the sight of the black silhouette in front of her. "Stay back! I have pepper spray!" 

"Pepper spray? But Vinia, I thought we were friends."

"Friends? Who..." Vinia stared at the man for a moment, trying to place him in her memories. "Oh. The weird guy from last night."

"Considering both times we've crossed paths you've been screaming into the void, I'd call you the weird one." Derek raised one eyebrow

"Whatever. You're creepy."

"I prefer Derek to creepy, but you're not the first to call me that." Vinny stared at him, the hair on the back of her neck prickling. "Anyways," Derek continued, "I couldn't help but notice that you seem a little... should I say... distressed? And I wanted to offer you a solution."

"Absolutely not," Vinny cut him off. "I don't even want to hear it. Good bye." She began walking home again as fast as she could. Thankfully no footsteps followed her down the road, and when she dared to chance a look back at the preserve, Derek had vanished. "What a creep," she muttered as she trudged on. 

By the time she got back to the house it was late. The sun was just barely brushing the edge of the horizon, painting the few clouds in the sky an orange so vivid that if they started raining orange juice Vinny wouldn't be surprised. 

She walked into the kitchen, where Scott was pulling out a frozen pizza out of the oven. "Um, hi, Vinia. Where were you?"

"Taking a walk," Vinny replied shortly, "and it's Vinny."

"Vinny. Got it." There was an awkward silence. "Want some pizza?"

"Sure."

Scott cut the pizza into slices, set two of them on a napkin, and slid it over to Vinny without making eye contact. They ate in silence for a bit, an uncomfortable tension hanging in the room like a thick fog.

Finally Scott spoke up. "Look, I'm really sorry about last night. There was a girl missing, and she's one of my friends, kinda, and so I was helping look for her and I just... forgot you were even coming. I'm really sorry you had to figure everything out alone your first night."

Vinny shrugged. "Did you find her?"

"What? Oh, yeah, we did. She basically just walked out of the woods."

"That's good."

"Yeah, it was. My friend Stiles was very glad she wasn't dead."

"Oh. Me too."

"Thanks."

They ate the rest of their pizza in silence again, but some of the tension had dissipated. As Scott got up to clean the kitchen, Vinny asked "Hey, is your mom gonna be home soon?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you! She picked up another shift tonight-- someone called in sick, and so she won't be back until super super late."

"You forget a lot of stuff, don't you?"

Scott smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess. I don't mean to though, not that it means much. Anyways, my mom was hoping to tell you this herself, but I'm supposed to let you know that you're gonna be going to school with me tomorrow! We're the same age, so you can just use my schedule if you want and be in all my classes."

"Do I have to?" Vinny leaned her head back against the chair in disgust. "Seriously, why was high school even invented?"

"You tell me," Scott grinned. "Believe me, Beacon High is its own form of torture, but somehow we'll make it."

"Somehow," Vinny agreed. "I think I'll take a shower and head to bed early then. See you in the morning?"

"See you then, Vinny."

TEN YEARS LATER

Here we go! Chapter Two! Finally!!!!

Let me know what you guys think, I love hearing your feedback! 

Thanks for being so incredibly patient with me :)