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sirens, sirens
( teen wolf. s3A )

chapter two.
a different understanding

ALANI dreamt that night, again.

     This time had been shorter━━a lot shorter. At first, Alani Mordor hadn't even fully realised that what she was dreaming could've been a premonition, until she felt pain.

     She had been walking forwards, the darkness encasing her vision completely, the point where she was only walking for the sake of finding something. Her arms were placed forward, stretched out to find something to land on, something that could possibly let her know where she was and what was surrounding her.

     Her bare feet pushed her onwards, and her fingertips barely grazed against something wooden when a sharp pain shot through her foot. Alani hissed out suddenly, tears beginning to prick behind her eyes as she instantly backed away from whatever she stepped on.

Giving herself a moment to catch her breath, Alani bent down, gently placing her hand against the bottom of her feet to check without her sight. An unknown liquid substance was met against her fingertips, and Alani sighed in defeat━━she must've stepped on something sharp enough to cut her.

So, with that mind, she slowly dropped her hands to the ground where she presumed the culprits would be, and found what felt to be glass.

She sighed━━she could really do with some light.

     A light gust of wind rushed past her, and she snapped her head in the direction she thought it came from. She was only met with completely darkness, once more. Only her breathing could be heard, and her heart began to pick up speed out of fear of the unknown.

     To her left, the opposite of before, another gust of wind rushed past━━this time, much heavier. It surprised Alani greatly━━it didn't help that she was scared tenfold, causing her reactions to be a lot quicker━━and she felt her back smack itself against something wooden behind her.

     A gasp left her lips at the sudden contact, and she could only tightly shut her eyes in fear, stinging tears desperate to cascade down her cheeks. She repeated a mantra within her head, telling herself that everything was fine, it wasn't really happening━━

     And, that was when a scream tore through the atmosphere.

     Thanks to that, Alani Mordor was sporting light bags under eyes, ones she had attempted to cover up. Her eyes were droopy with lack of sleep (she didn't even try to go to sleep after that━━could you blame her? She was terrified!), and her movements were almost sloppy, without a grace of energy involved within each one. She was pretty sure she continued to bump into random students, but she didn't show any signs of actually caring.

That dream wouldn't leave her mind.

Alani desperately hoped that that's all it was━━a dream. A very realistic one, but a dream, regardless. She hoped and prayed that it was one that felt too real, and sometimes you didn't even want to wake up from it, because, for a while, it could've been your reality. Alani didn't want this one to be reality, though━━if it was, where was she, why was it so dark, who had screamed?

Her thoughts erupted from her mind when she suddenly realised she was in the same place she found herself in the day before━━in front of the noticeboard. She sighed in mock defeat, barely sparing the flyers and posters pinned against it a second glance, but then her eyes spotted something that caused a tickle to shoot up her spine. Alani's head did a double-take, and her heart seemed to falter in her chest.

     It was a picture of a group of teens, students from Beacon Hills High School, their names plastered underneath. One of them━━Heather. She didn't recognise her, but something in the back of her mind told her that she should.

     Some kind of tingle shot through her mind, and she leaned in to get a closer look at the girl. Heather seemed like the type of girl to be considered preppy, someone who was popular with every group there was. Something in the back of her mind told her something had happened, and she knew.

     But, that wasn't possible━━Alani had never seen or heard of this Heather in her life.

     Her eyes stayed trained on the picture when she felt a presence near her, expectant. Alani slowly turned, not wanting to automatically assume they were looking at her, and found that they were. It was Lydia and Allison, the two girls who she shared an English class with, but Alani had only spoken to the former at that moment in time.

Lydia wore what Alani deduced as an over-excited expression upon her features, a tight smile adorning her lips that met her eyes a little too much. The girl next to her━━Allison━━seemed a bit more hesitant in whatever they were doing. Her eyes constantly flittered between Alani and Lydia, silently asking if they should be talking to her.

It caused Alani to sigh internally, already understanding what was going to come. Maybe Lydia was intrigued━━Alani had practically told the girl and her friend that she had known the birds were coming before they even arrived, the day before!━━and maybe Allison was creeped out. She wouldn't blame either reaction, in all fairness. She'd seen them all, by that point.

"Alani," Lydia breathed out, not even bothering to spare a single glance at her friend next to her, who continued to seem anxious as she attempted to smile through, "everything okay? We noticed you went home yesterday, and we just wanted to check up on you."

Alani didn't know what to make of that. Ever time someone questioned her weird actions and her questionable words, they instantly got to the point. They were desperate to know how she knew things, and when Alani wouldn't tell them, couldn't tell them, they'd call her weird or a freak and walking away. After that, everyone seemed to know about it.

     But, this time was different. No one had actually tried to check up on her. Maybe it was because the situation had been different, too━━like, they had been attacked by a flurry of birds. Or, maybe it was the hope slowly beginning to increase within Alani, so desperate for someone to just understand, someone to not instantly knock her down her pedestal and deem her an outsider.

     She was hesitant to even answer, but ran with it, nonetheless. "Um, yeah━━yeah, thanks. What about you two? Any cuts?" Alani tried to act as normal as possible, and for a moment, she believed it worked.

     The two girls situated in front of her shared a brief look with one another, one they possibly didn't believe Alani had noticed, but she did. Granted, she didn't know what it entailed, but it worried her. Had they been talking about her? What were they talking about━━how crazy she was?

     Just as Alani's thoughts began to spiral out of control, to the point of no return, Allison replied to her question. "Yeah, we're good, thankfully." The girl paused, before pointing to herself. "I'm Allison, by the way."

Alani didn't know how to respond━━she already knew her name, so there was no point in introducing herself. Allison probably knew more about Alani than she should. So, she just nodded in return.

A brief moment of silence passed between the trio of girls, and automatically, Alani's head looked back at the picture, with Heather's face plastered across it. Her features seemed to change to worth, and confusion, and desperation as she tried to understand where she had seen her before. Why did the girl seen so familiar?

Back in front of her, one of the girls cleared their throats in order to gain her attention, again. Alani looked back, to find them both look at her expectantly, eyes narrowed slightly as they tried to figure something out.

The next thing either of them uttered seemed to take Alani aback.

Lydia smiled tightly, but her eyes showed she meant her words. "We were just gonna meet up with some friends━━why don't you come with us?"

Alani Mordor seemed to struggle when it came to the concept of friends. The girl of premonitions had never had a friend for longer than a few months━━they always left once they got wind of how weird she was, thanks to every school figuring it out she go her recklessness. So, when the girls in front of her suddenly invited her along with the others, she couldn't help but feel even more confused. Alani had given herself away on the first day, and she knew both Lydia and Stiles knew something was wrong, so why would they continue to interact with her?

Maybe this was some form of elaborate plan━━get her to think she fits in, that she belongs, that they like her, until they eventually pried something out of her and realised what a freak she was.

Alani tilted her head to the side, an uncertain look on her face, scrunching up her features as she thought it out. "I don't know━━I don't exactly want to intrude━━"

It was Allison who cut her off, shaking her head in defiance. She suddenly seemed a lot more involved with whatever they were doing, wanting Alani to agree. "You wouldn't be intruding, trust us. We want you there."

     The way Allison said those words made Alani feel different. There was still a small part of her that knew she shouldn't go along with it, because it would only end with her heart broken and herself in tears. But, an even smaller part of her said she should go through with it, that there was more to it than just joining in with a friend group.

     Something told her she was meant to join them.

     She was still hesitant, still a little worried, but when no words were able to tumble from her lips, she only nodded in response, a very small, tight smile showing up. Lydia beamed in response, clapping her hands and instantly winding their arms together. Allison seemed to sigh, almost in relief that something had worked, and the three of them made their way to where Alani presumed their other friends were.

     It was a classroom they stopped by, empty thanks to the fact that school hadn't necessarily started just yet. As they walked in, the other waiting patiently inside turned to look at the incomers, and Alani felt her heartbeat pick up.

     Inside, was Stiles and Scott, along with someone else━━someone older━━standing next to them. Alani began to grow a little worried about what they were really going to be doing inside, what they were going to be talking about. But, as Allison walked past her and up to Scott, Lydia placed a reassuring hand on Alani's arm, coaxing her forwards. When she was in front of the group, she noticed some of them trying not to make something too obvious, not directly looking into her eyes. As she looked at Scott, he sent a smile in her direction, and, weirdly, Alani felt a little better.

     The older guy━━who Alani didn't know the name of, but was way too scared to even begin to ask (why the hell is he even here, anyway?)━━turned away from Alani, giving her one last look and turning to the other two girls present.

     He cleared his throat deeply, gesturing for the two to do something, before they pulled their arms forwards, and allowed them to come together. His eyes scanned over their arms, before sighing, and turning to Scott. "I don't see anything."

     "Look again."

     But, the guy didn't even bother, already disagreeing with whatever was going on. "How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"

     Alani was standing a little ways in the back, just off to the side of where Stiles was sitting against one of the tables, and her head instantly shot up st those names. She recognised them to be the two missing students she saw on the posters the day before, and wondered why she was involved in this. Alani hadn't exactly known them, had she? She barely knew the people who wanted her involved, now.

From her left, she felt eyes staring at the side of her face, and turned to see Stiles. His eyes were completely fixated on her, eyes slightly narrowed, until she noticed him staring, and he quickly looked away as if he hadn't been in the first place. Alani only grew more suspicious of what was really happening around her.

"It's the same on both sides." Scott insisted. "Exactly the same."

"It's nothing." The man deadpanned.

Allison continuously stared at the man, almost in apprehension, almost challenging him to defy something she knew to be true. It made Alani feel a little tense, and she shifted uncomfortably. Scott noticed, looking back at her and sending her another smile. This time, Alani sent one back, hoping to finally find out why she was there, but he only looked back at the group in front of him.

Lydia pursed her lips. "Pareidolia━━seeing patterns that aren't there." She spoke very matter-of-factly, and noticed everyone's confused gazes looking back at her, before attempting to explain further. "It's a subset of apophenia."

Under her breath, Alani muttered quietly to herself, "Oh, yeah, of course." She looked up when she heard nothing but silence, and saw them all staring at her, taking her in. They were smiling slightly at her comment; everyone except the older guy, that was.

He sharply turned to Scott, but his eyes never left her figure. It left Alani feeling completely unnerved. "I'm sorry━━what's she doing here, again?"

     Scott looked at Alani, taking her in, sending her another reassuring and comforting smile, before looking back at Derek, his eyes almost a warning. "We think we need her."

     Alani didn't know if she liked the way he said those words, or the words, in general. What did that mean? We think we need her. Alani had no clue as to what was going on, what they were talking about━━Boyd and Erica, two people she had never met before they went missing, and patterns on arms that made no sense to her, no resemblance.

The girl herself didn't think she was needed like Scott had said, but she seemed too scared, too worried and on-edge, to say anything otherwise. Especially when she was under the scrutinising gaze of the older guy in front of her.

Whether Scott noticed the girl's sudden discomfort with the conversation being about her, or he simply just wanted to go back to their original topic, the boy sighed. "They're trying to help," he commented, gesturing back to the other two girls.

"These two?" He looked incredulous, before pointing his finger about. "This one," he looked at Lydia, "who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle. Thank you. And, this one," he gestured to Allison, who's gaze never once seemed to leave him, "who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

Alani's face scrunched up in confusion━━she had never felt so out of the loop then she did in that moment. There was so much in just a short amount of words that made no sense to the girl. Resurrection. Arrows. Pack. It seemed like there was a completely other world that Alani was suddenly being thrown into without realising, and she didn't know if she was intrigued, or all the more terrified.

Before anything was said, Allison looked at the girl, taking in her confused expression and smiling towards her. Alani didn't have it in her to smile back.

"Okay, alright, now, come on." Stiles spoke, hoping to diffuse the tension. "No one died, alright?" Alani looked down at him━━died? "Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay, a little mangling━━but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."

     Alani's mouth cell open in shock, eyes fluttering close as she tried slightly to distinguish what the hell he just said, like it was normal! Why were they talking about death, and maiming and mangling? What did this group of people get up to in their spare time, for it to involve all of those? Alani wasn't sure she wanted to know.

     "My mother died." Allison's voice was just a whisper, but her words seemed to bring everyone back to their seriousness. Alani felt sympathetic towards the girl.

     Someone who didn't feel sympathetic, though, was the older guy, who barely let a single second pass before he shut her down. "Your family's little honour code killed your mother━━not me."

     Alani only wondered more, but she wasn't given time when Allison didn't seem faltered by his words. "That girl was looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you."

     The more they spoke, the more Alani felt like she was intruding in some family argument, the worst time to intrude upon something, and Alani wished she hadn't taken the girls up on their offer earlier. But, they said they wanted her there, and Scott had said that they might need her. So far, she hadn't gotten involved; from her own will, and everyone else's. She wanted to leave, but she felt as though she couldn't. Something was keeping her rooted in her place.

"You wanna help?" He asked, almost threateningly. "Find something real." He began to walk away, out of the door, and Scott followed him, the two speaking in hushed tones so as for the others to not hear their words.

Alani's gaze was only fixated on the ground in thought, in contemplation, trying to understand everything that had just happened. When she came up short, she sighed, bringing her hand up to rub roughly against her face. Maybe this was just another dream━━yeah, that was it. It had to be.

The bell rang out above them all.

At her slightly distressed state, the others all turned to her. They shared apprehensive looks, and no one seemed to want to say anything. So, it was Scott who spoke once the other guy left, walking forwards and making sure his tone was soft, gentle. He didn't want to scare her off, but he wasn't so sure he was too late. With everything that had just happened suddenly piled onto her plate, he wouldn't exactly be surprised.

"Alani━━"

But, she was suddenly moving away, heading to the door. She muttered a quiet I need to go, but was stopped when he forced himself to continue.

"You can do things," he paused as he watched her falter, her hand just moments away from twisting the door knob open and fleeing away, "can't you?"

Alani didn't know what to do━━his voice made it out like he believed her, but he couldn't, because what she could do should be impossible. People shouldn't be able to see things they were going to happen, or things that did happen, but she didn't experience herself. It should've been impossible, and yet, it was the opposite.

     Because there stood the girl who could do all those things, and possibly more. There she stood, slowly turning round to gaze upon the four remaining teens as they looked at her expectantly, like they were waiting for her to confirm their suspicions.

     With tears hesitantly beginning to form behind her eyes, her breathing slightly shaky as she grew a little more scared, she left, not allowing herself to hear them call out her name or attempt to follow her. Suddenly, she was one with the crowd, as students all around tried to get to their first class.

     But, Alani Mordor didn't know that her actions were practically confirmation enough.

Alani's first class was Economics━━something she had no business in being interested in. She didn't particularly care about the topic when it came to studying and understanding people━━she didn't necessarily like people, so why would she care?

Now, Alani Mordor would like to blame that on the fact that she seemed to be a little late to the class, simply because she'd rather be anywhere else. But, in actuality, she had no clue as to where she was going.

At her old schools, the building was either just one, or two separate ones. Here, at Beacon Hills High School, there seemed to be one too many. It confused her to no end. How were people who had never been there before supposed to know which classrooms were situated where?

So, after a few minutes of complete disarray swirling within Alani's irises as she continued to search for her intended destination, Alani stumbled upon the classroom. Unfortunately, she found the majority of her classmates already there.

     God, kill her now.

     "Yes, McCall, you can go to━━"

     The teacher, and also the school's lacrosse coach━━Coach Finstock━━stopped mid-sentence when he noticed his students' heads turning away and their attention beginning to limit. He turned, and ultimately found Alani standing awkwardly within the doorway.

     She gave him a tight smile, eyes completely darting around as she took everyone else in. Within the room, she also noticed Scott and Stiles━━two people she wished to stay away from, especially after having a little awkward encounter earlier on.

     "Right, um," Coach started, clearing his throat to get her attention again, a small laugh bubbling from his mouth, "are you gonna find a seat, newbie?"

     Alani finally came back to reality, and quickly stumbled through the full seats until she found an empty one off to the side. Unfortunately, it was precisely in line with the other two she wanted to be away from.

     Perfect.

     Her head automatically turned to their direction, noticing them looking her way, too, whereas everyone else had gone back to waiting for their teacher to continue his lesson. Alani defied, keeping her stare between the two of them as no one seemed to want to back down. Scott simply sent her a small smile, one she appreciated a little━━Stiles, on the other hand, only continued to narrow his eyes in suspicion and confusion.

"So, what was I saying?" Coach Finstock's voice reverberated back through the air, causing the three teens' attention to slowly trickle back to where it was supposed to be. "Ah, yes," he looked towards Scott, a scoff resonating from his lips, "McCall, you can go to the bathroom. Anybody else?"

Their teacher continued to look around the room━━Alani assumed he previously asked them a question, before the new girl had interrupted them without really meaning to━━everyone continuing to look as bored as anything. Scott seemed downtrodden at the assumption, and Alani bit back a small laugh.

"No, Coach, I know the answer."

As one wouldn't normally expect from a teacher, Coach Finstock immediately burst out laughing, weezy and almost breathless. Students around one another continued looking on at him in complete confusion, wondering where his sudden mood change had bursted from. Alani was glad she wasn't the only one in slight bewilderment.

     But, it wasn't until Alani turned her head to the right and found Scott's dejected expression filtered upon his features. Coach Finstock hadn't been expecting Scott McCall to have an answer to one of his questions, and for some ungodly reason, Alani felt a little bad for the boy.

     She'd never admit that, though.

As Scott continued to keep a stern, almost expressionless face, Coach suddenly stopped laughing, brows furrowed in seriousness. "Oh," he sounded shocked, "you're... serious."

Scott began to stammer, not daring to move his eyes away from his teacher, knowing he'd find everyone else's expectant gazes upon him, too, waiting. "Yes. Risk and reward."

"Wow!" Their teacher let out, slowly beginning to walk towards Scott's desk with a little excitement appearing in his movements. "Who are you━━and, what have you done to McCall?" Scott chuckled at the praise he was receiving, others around him showing teasing smiles, and Alani had to wonder if he really was that bad. "Don't answer that. I like you better. I like you better."

With his eyes somewhat widened due to something he clearly hadn't expected, Coach Finstock began to walk back to the front. Alani kept her eyes trained towards Scott, watching his bright eyes continue to shine, and smile never wanting to falter. Without even realising it, a small smile of her own overtook her features, and it wasn't until Scott turned his head towards her, almost as though he knew she was looking at him in the first place, when Alani pretended like she'd been normal the whole time.

     From the other side of the classroom, Scoff McCall began to believe that maybe there was someone else who could join their pack.

     "Does anybody have a quarter?" Coach's voice boomed throughout the room, bringing both Alani and Scott out of their thoughts and back where they were supposed to be. "A quarter?"

     "Yep." Stiles muttered quickly, flinging his hand out to present their teacher his offering of a quarter━━except Alani, and everyone else in the room, noticed something else come out of his pocket, too.

     Alani watched as Stiles' eyes widened in disbelief, a pink blush beginning to coat his pale cheeks, and Scott chuckled quietly behind his hand, attempting to muffle it. From where she was sat, Alani struggled to see what had both boys reacting that way, especially when everyone else tried to get a peek, too.

     Coach bent down, retrieving the item. "Stilinski, I think you..." Standing up fully again, he handed it back to Stiles. And, that's when Alani was able to see what it was━━a condom. "You dropped this. And, congratulations."

     Alani hadn't really had the chance to fully understand that Coach had said Stilinski━━an extremely unusual last name. But, then again, Stiles wasn't exactly a common first name, either, was it?

Immediately, a burst of laughter tore through Alani's lips, unable to even try to hide it because it was so loud. It was one single laugh, before she was able to comprehend she had done that out loud, and smacked her hand across her mouth to stop anything else from falling out. No one seemed too fussed with her loud interruption, because their fellow students began to join in, too (just nowhere near as loud). Although, as soon as the sound emanated from her, Stiles' head whipped around to her direction, a glare piercing into her. It only wanted to make her laugh more━━and, it seemed Scott agreed, too.

Thankfully, Coach Finstock was quick to rush back into their topic for their lesson, walking back up to the front with the quarter Stiles had given him. Everyone's attention went back to their teacher, but some of their minds were elsewhere.

"Risk and reward. Put the quarter in the mug, win the reward." He presented his porcelain mug to his class of students, before placing it gently on the floor. "Okay, watch Coach."

He stepped back, blowing on the quarter like it was going to give him all the luck the world had to offer. Training his eyes solely upon the mug, everyone in the seats strained a little forwards, intent eyes watching, waiting for the outcome. Even Alani was a little intrigued━━he seemed to be... different... to how a teacher normally is.

     In the next second, Coach flung the quarter to the floor, and everyone watched as it bounced against the ground, before landing in the mug like he had wanted it to. "Huh? Huh?" Eruptions of applause sounded out around them as Coach soaked in the praise. Alani had to admit, even she was slightly impressed. "That's how you do it." Then, he directed his words to someone at the front. "Okay, Danny━━risk or reward?"

     As Alani watched this Danny person catch the quarter that was thrown to him, tossing it around in contemplation to the question, Alani took him in. He seemed like a fairly nice guy━━but that might just have been because he continued to tease Stiles after the whole condom incident, and Alani found that she enjoyed that activity.

Stiles was way too easy to tease.

Danny looked up to their enthusiastic teacher. "What's the reward?"

Coach shrugged. "You don't have to do the pop quiz tomorrow."

The girl of premonitions sighed in defeat, along with some others who groaned at this newfound information. A pop quiz? It was only the second day, and already, teachers were trying to torture her. A small lilt of hope filtered through her veins━━maybe she wouldn't have to do it, because she was new, and technically, this was her first class of Economics. Surely, Coach Finstock wouldn't be so harsh.

"Uh, Coach?" Danny chuckled. "It's not a pop quiz if you tell us about it."

Sighing, Coach leant down, tapping the boy's desk. "Danny, you know, I really expect more from you at this point." He shook his head, before moving on. "Really."

A small laugh bubbled in the back of Alani's throat at the way he was reacting, and, unfortunately for her, their teacher had heard it. His head immediately snapped towards her, and Alani's eyes slightly widened in surprise, wondering what the hell he was going to say to her. (Because, let's be honest, this man was the most unpredictable.)

"Newbie," he directed, a small smile appearing on his lips, and Alani began to feel dread through her system. "What about━━wait, hang on," he shook his hands about, a furrow of his brows, "what did you say your name was?"

"Alani Mordor."

"Where the hell is that from?"

Alani's face scrunched in confusion as she took in the gazes staring solely on her, and wished she was anywhere else. "Um," she shook her head softly, "I don't know. It's━━it's just a name."

     A chuckle passed Coach's lips, and he motioned towards Stiles. "It's almost as bad as his one." Stiles seemed offended, but their teacher clearly didn't show an ounce of care. "Almost." He sighed.

     There was a very brief second of silence where the students continued to stare at their teacher, eyes darting around to one another as he sat there, staring at the ground in thought. Then, just as suddenly as his mood had changed to begin with, he shot back up, eyes back on Alani. "So, newbie━━I'm gonna stick with newbie; it's easier━━what about you. Risk or reward?"

     Newbie barely gave it a second of thought, pursing her lips, and shaking her head. "I think I'm good."

But, Coach continued to try. "You won't have to take the quiz tomorrow."

She shrugged. "Surely, I shouldn't, anyway━━you know, considering I'm new."

Coach only laughed, barely a hint of sympathy and remorse within his tone. "Oh, you're funny, I like you." And, then, he walked forwards once more, taking Alani's original answer into consideration and carrying on with his search for someone else.

Alani sighed, dejected.

There was a smile plastered on Scott's features, looking in Alani's direction, before Coach came before him. "McCall? Risk or reward? The risk━━if you don't put that quarter in the mug, you have to take the pop━━" he paused, looking at Danny quickly and realising that his student had been right before, "━━the quiz. And, you have to write an essay. Risk━━more work. Reward━━no work at all." Alani had to admit, it was a tempting offer, and if Coach had said those words to her originally, she knew she'd have thought a little longer about it. "Or, choose not to play, like newbie over here."

     Scott turned his head in Alani's direction, and the girl in question only tightly smiled and sent the boy a wave. He chuckled, and looked back at his teacher. "But, isn't this just chance?"

     "No." Coach scoffed. "You know your abilities, your coordination, your focus, past experience. All factors affecting the outcome." His words caused Scott to bring the quarter closed to his face, inspecting it like it was going to tell him the outcome if he went through with the risk. "So, what's it gonna be, McCall━━more work, no work, or choose not to play?"

     It seemed like Scott was going through with it, but, in the end, he simply placed the quarter back down to his desk.

Alani began to wonder what this lesson was actually about.

Coach seemed almost disappointed, too. "No play." He stood back up straight, looking around at his students. "Okay, who's next? Who wants the quarter?"

From her right, Alani noticed Stiles looking around him, wondering if anyone else was going to have a go, before drumming his hands against the table excitedly.

"There you go! There's a gambling man!" Coach exclaimed as Stiles went to the front with the quarter clasped tightly in his hands.

Alani began to sit up a little straighter, a little curious as to how this one was going to play out. She wasn't going to pass up the opportunity of being able to tease him for something else, was she?

Coach clapped loudly, watching from the front as his student got into position, and that was when the door opened. A few police officers walked through the doorway, and Alani tensed a little. She hadn't done anything wrong, but the sight of officers made her feel a little tense, a little on-edge. It was something that always happened to her, something she couldn't help.

     "Stiles." Coach Finstock stood back up, attempting to get the boy's attention back as their lesson turned sour.

     But, Stiles hadn't even noticed the new incomers, continuing to prepare himself to throw the quarter into the mug. "Yeah, Coach, I got it."

     This time, it was one of the officers who spoke up, voice demanding and stern all the same. "Stiles." At the new voice, Stiles then looked up, and something in his features changed. Alani wondered if the boy knew him; from the way his back instantly straightened back up, and went slack and back to his side, determined expression falling from his face.

Both officers had taken Stiles out of their class in order to speak to him, and Alani could only begin to wonder what they were speaking about. At the surprise encounter with both officers, Coach went back to being somewhat normal, handing out books and telling them to take notes on a certain subject. So, Alani did just that.

     She sighed, swinging her head down to her desk in an attempt to stay focused and not worry about the presence of police in their school. But, someone who didn't seem to try and focus was Scott McCall. His eyes were trained at the door, eyes narrowed and head tilted a little to the side. Alani looked at him in confusion━━it was like he was trying to listen. But, that was impossible.

     Out of the corner of her peripheral vision, Danny finally began attempting the risk and reward task once Coach finally got through to him, getting ready and perching himself into position.

     As the coin dropped into the mug, the sound clattering throughout the room, Scott seemed to come back to his senses, shaking his head to try and focus on what he needed to, once more. But, at the sound, he also noticed something else filling within his eardrums━━an increasing, worried heartbeat.

Because, at the sound, something came into Alani's head━━her dream, the night before... as she continued to play it over and over in her mind, she realised there was a high possibility of her having been in someone's house. And, that scream━━a girl's scream━━she hadn't seen them, she wasn't even sure she was near them, but that sound reverberated throughout her skull until she felt like she was bleeding.

     Could that have been a missing person? Maybe it was one of the one's she saw on the noticeboard yesterday━━Vernon Boyd and Erica Reyes. Was it them? Could it have been? Was there even a slight possibility?

     As Alani's focus dissipated by the millisecond, Scott's eardrums banged with the sound of her increasing heartbeat. He looked over towards her, noticing her head hung low, grip tightening around her pen, eyes a little teary.

Alani felt a little tingle on the back of her neck and looked up, only to find Scott McCall staring straight back at her. Neither of them moved their gazes away━━they drunk one another in, wondering beginning to consume both of them.

     Scott McCall━━who was he? How did he know she was able to do things, how did she know she was beginning to panic then?

     And, Alani Mordor━━what did she know, what could she do, how was she involved?

     One thing was for sure... only one of them wanted to find out the answers to their questions.

♡

After lunch, Alani had managed to snag a free period, meaning she had absolutely nothing to do. It was times like these where Alani began to wish a little that she had a friend or two to hang around with, but as soon as that thought appeared, it demolished. She couldn't━━it wouldn't be right.

     So, Alani took her free period to the library; a place where she hoped no one would bother her or ask questions she was too scared to answer.

     But, it seemed as though fate just wanted to fuck her over.

     Alani stepped into the library, her eyes roaming over the tables filled with people and shelves stacked with books, searching for a place to hide, a place to lay low for a short while.

     And, Alani hadn't even noticed a certain strawberry blonde's eyes widen at the new girl's and making her way over to her. "Alani."

With her name being called, and the girl didn't notice the familiarity of the voice, she turned her head, only to find Lydia, a tight smile pursing her lips. The girl was walking towards her, beckoning her to join them (them, being Lydia and Allison, who continued to stay situated at their table, looking over and waiting).

Alani panicked━━her own eyes widened in short disbelief, and her brain told her to leave as quickly as she could. She turned around on the spot, and attempted to make her way back through the door, not exactly in the mood for awkward encounters and potential relentless questions.

"Alani━━no━━" Lydia stumbled upon her words, picking up her pace and merging Alani just before she could get her second foot through the door. The strawberry blonde's arm was grasped gently within her own, lightly tugging her back.

     Turning, Alani sighed in defeat, knowing there was clearly no way out of it━━they'd already known something was going on, and the more she tried to ignore it, there was the possibility it would only come out with a worse outcome.

     That was something Alani Mordor didn't exactly want.

     Lydia smiled brightly, her shining presence hoping to calm down the new girl's nerves and coax her into joining them. "Come and sit with me and Allison."

     Alani looked around the two of them━━there weren't too many people around, so many she could make a run for it, but would that be pointless? It seemed wherever she went, she ended up being somewhere  near or cornered by this particular group, who were somewhat desperate to understand the truth behind Alani Mordor.

     She looked at the ground, trying (and failing) to not meet Lydia's expectant and awaiting gaze. "Uh, I don't know━━"

     But, Alani's attempted excuse hadn't even finished its execution when Lydia took Alani's hand within her own grasp, repeating her previous offer. "Come and sit with us." 

     Alani didn't say anything as they made their way back to the table, Allison looking up with a slightly more comforting smile upon her lips, before dragging her eyes back down to whatever she was doing before.

     She looked around at the things that littered the table, taking notes of the open books, scribbled-upon notepads and shining laptop. Alani didn't understand the details of what all three entailed━━other than the notepad, which held a rough sketch of some sort of symbol that Allison continued to look intently at━━and furrowed her brows, feeling invasive. "Um," she shook her head, looking towards both girls and slowly began sitting in the seat next to Lydia, "I don't want to intrude━━"

     "Nonsense," Lydia waved her hand, "we like you." The strawberry blonde noticed Alani's tense stature, and chided, "Relax, we don't bite."

     Allison, finally looking back up, scoffed. "Well, we don't."

     Alani furrowed her brows again, her once calm energy turning back into its original state of being tense. She didn't understand what Allison's words meant, but it caused her heart to pick up its pace again, for the third time that day, and she looked around herself awkwardly, not exactly know what to say after that.

     On the table, Lydia and Allison were sharing looks, too, exchanging silent words of a conversation involving the new girl, who definitely knew more than she let on.

     From behind her, Lydia cleared her throat, gaining Alani's attention and causing Allison's head to hang low, but her eyes continued to flitter, like they weren't concentrating on what they wanted to. "Alani; about yesterday━━"

"I don't really wanna talk about it."

"But, we need to." Allison finally spoke, eyes boring into Alani's, something reassuring swimming within them. With just one look, the girl of premonitions began to feel like she could share her story with the few people who were more interested than anyone before. "There's something━━things you can do, isn't there? Like Scott said."

Alani sat for a moment, looking back and forth between two pairs of awaiting irises. By the looks on their faces, they already knew the answer━━she'd been able to predict something before it had happened!━━but they didn't know the details.

They wanted to know, but why? From the little amount of time Alani had been around them or spoken a few words between them, she got the impression that they were intrigued, rather than awaiting a time to tease her, expose her to the rest of the school and drive her out.

Maybe this was her chance to finally fit in.

But, could she risk it like that? Could she risk telling a few strangers the truth, just because they were acting a little different to the others?

With those thoughts in mind, Alani breathed deeply through her mouth, hanging her head in defeat. Her hands came up to rifle through her hair, tearing through the notes, making sure to feel the pain to ground her back to reality━━she was scared.

     Looking back up, both girls' gazes were already upon her like before, more concerned than last time. "Yeah," she breathed out, and watched as Lydia and Allison shared another look, like they were confirming their suspicions to be true. "Yeah, I can do... things."

     Allison leant a little forward, whatever she was originally doing going over her head now they had found someone else a part of the supernatural world. "Like what?"

     There it was━━the question that would potentially decide how the rest of her life ran its course. Should she tell them, or not?

     "Um," she began, her voice beginning to quiver a little. Alani had never actually admitted what she could do out loud━━only to her mother, after she had gotten way too suspicious and the teen simply couldn't hide it away anymore. But, this was different. She didn't know these people━━maybe after a while (if they still stuck around), things would change. But, for now, she couldn't do it. "I'd rather not... you know━━it's just that━━"

     She continued to stammer over her words, and that's when both girls realised she wouldn't be telling them just yet. Lydia sent her a smile, hand resting gently on her arm in a comforting manner. "Hey, it's fine. You don't need to tell us━━you already took one step, and that's enough."

"Yeah," Allison chimed in, taking in the relieved expression upon Alani's features at how nice they were being, "we know how hard it can be."

Alani feigned confusion. "Wait━━you do?"

Lydia chuckled. "Yeah, you'd have no idea what we've been through this past year."

Alani continued to look between the two girls situated in front of her━━Lydia, twirling her hair with a dazed, happy expression upon her features, and Allison, going back to looking down at her arm and tracing her finger over it. She took in Lydia's words, and wondered what the meaning behind them was.

Scrunching her face up in contemplation, Alani shook her head a little, chuckling in disbelief. "What you've been through?" she echoed. "What have you been through? Are you trying to tell me there are more people that can do... things?"

She couldn't help herself━━she couldn't help the words and questions that had tumbled from her lips. Alani had been waiting for some understanding for the entirety of her life that she knew she could do things that were supposed to be impossible.

Sue her for wanting to know more.

Sue her for wanting to be accepted with people who actually understood.

A sympathetic smile etched itself into Allison's face as she saw the excitement begin to build up within Alani's words, with each question she grew more intrigued. "Yeah━━you're not alone, Alani."

Warmth spread into Alani's heart, and for the first time in her life, she had never really felt so happy. She wasn't used to this━━she had her mother, yes, but her mother didn't understand, did she? Alani could talk to her mother about her problems forever, but it wouldn't be the same. Rose Mordor didn't know what it was like to have dreams that were practically considered visions of people you'd never met or things you'd never experienced. Rose Mordor didn't understand the pain of seeing someone else's life turn upside down, the headaches all these different voices caused, how much Alani wished for everything to just stop.

Now, Alani was beginning to feel like there were others like her.

She couldn't help but feel over-the-moon.

Instantly, Alani felt a lot more relaxed around the two. A comfortable silence was welcomed between the trio of girls, after they had briefly explained there was a lot more happening around the town of Beacon Hills (which made sense━━ever since she arrived, Alani had been experiencing a lot more visions that she was used to), and others within their school were aware of it, too━━namely Scott and Stiles. That didn't necessarily surprise the girl━━they had been giving her weird looks during their Economics class.

They'd also briefly explained what Allison was up to━━the bruising on her arm, and, similarly on Lydia's, was something they were determined to investigate. Both marks were too alike in shape and form for them to have simply just been bruises, and they believed them to have a much deeper meaning behind it. (That was also the conversation they were having earlier that very morning, where Alani didn't have a clue as to what was going on━━now, everything add a lot more sense.)

So, that's what Allison was doing, as her eyes continued to clicked back and forth between her sketch and the laptop positioned in front of her. Alani spent her time filing through the books Allison grabbed earlier before her arrival, searching for something that may help them. Although, Alani knew she wouldn't be too much help━━how could she, when she'd only just learnt about all of this?

     It was only when they noticed Lydia to be gazing off behind Allison's shoulder, her eyes dazed and dreaming. "I want one," she sighed.

     The other two girls looked up from what they were doing, following their friend's gaze and finding two twins standing beside the bookshelves, seemingly doing anything but searching for books.

     Allison turned her head back, smiling mischievously. "Which one?" she whispered.

     "The straight one━━obviously."

     Alani looked back at the two boys, eyes gazing over them. She furrowed her brows, before turning her head back to Lydia. "How do you know which one's straight━━?"

     But, Alani barely finished her question to the strawberry blonde, when they looked back over and found one of the twins to be checking out Danny━━the boy who was in her Economics class earlier. They watched the latter boy stumble into somebody, clearly not looking where he was going. Alani chuckled, finding it to be kind of cute.

     Sighing, Lydia turned back to Alani. "You're gonna need to start paying closer attention to boys if we're gonna be best friends, my dear Alani," she paused, eyeing her friend, "unless you already have one...?"

     Alani stuttered upon her words, shaking her head quickly. "Oh, um━━no, definitely not. No."

     Lydia rolled her eyes subtly at the way Alani was reacting to such a simple question, a moment of chuckles and happy smiles shared between the trio, before the latter and Allison went back to their searching.

It wasn't until Lydia dropped her coffee cup to the table, eyes determined, and left to speak to one of the twins. Alani could only sigh in amusement━━Lydia was definitely someone she would need to get used to.

Allison took the coffee cup into her hands, fingers gently tracing the side of the material in thought. She didn't look up when she spoke. "What if it's not a symbol? What if it's actually a logo?"

"Um, Allison?" Alani voiced, light amusement laced within her tone, causing said girl's gaze to fall upon her, "Lydia's gone."

"Gone where?"

With a teasing smile on her face, Alani pointed behind Allison's shoulder, finding Lydia flirtatiously leaning against one of the bookshelves, the twin clearly enjoying her presence.

Both girls chuckled at their friend's antics, going back to their searches. "So, what did you say about it being a logo?"

After Lydia had successfully gotten the number of the twin she had been flirting with, she returned, as prideful as ever, a sway to her hips and a bounce in her step, showing off her success. It wasn't long after that where the trio of girls parted ways, leaving for their next classes, putting the search on hold.

But, something told Alani that Allison had found something else out.

She wasn't going to judge the girl for not telling them━━Alani Mordor hadn't exactly been completely truthful the entire time, had she? Maybe it was a little different, but still.

     The rest of the day passed by with nothing out-of-the-blue happening━━her original mission of attempting to stay as far from the group as she could had ended up succeeding without her really wanting it to. Now, thanks to Lydia and Allison, Alani knew there was more than they were letting on, just like herself. These people knew of things that were alike Alani, and she wanted to know more.

At the end of the day, Lydia had managed to catch Alani leaving the main building, about to start her journey walking home. But, Lydia had other plans. The girl wanted Alani to go over to her house, so they could spend more time together━━Lydia mentioned that she wanted to know more about her, because she had a feeling they were going to be seeing one another a lot more, from then on.

Whilst the thought used to scare her, it also brought her a bit of excitement.

So, arms linked within the other's (due to Lydia's insistent request), they walked towards her car, wherein Alani made sure to text her mother, telling her there was a chance she might not be home until later, or at all, depending on how their night went. Being able to tell her mother she was staying at a friend's house was new ground for Alani, but she wasn't opposed to it.

For hours, the two girls stayed within her room, snacks discarded over Lydia's bed, sheets slightly crumpled as they risked getting comfortable around one another, movie after movie playing almost silently in the background. They spoke about everything they could━━their pasts, how both iv them came to be where they were now, and their hopes and dreams of the future. Despite the new territory, Alani had never felt so at home.

Someone finally understood it.

After a while, Lydia had ended up dozing off, her head tilted slightly onto Alani's shoulder, the latter's eyes beginning to droop, too. A movie continued to play in the background, its colours lighting up the otherwise dark room.

     Alani was close to falling asleep, following after Lydia, when she felt the girl next to her tense, then begin to shiver a little. She didn't pay much attention to it━━she guessed she was just having a nightmare, or something, and didn't want to disturb the girl from it in case she'd injure her, or something.

     The movie carried on, words inaudible and actions blurry, and that was the only thing to be heard...

     Until Lydia shot up, eyes scrunched so tight, and a scream, one unlike ever heard before, tore through the air, enough to cause eardrums to burst and bleed with no end in sight.

NOTE.
cue my favourite girlies. when i tell u CANNOT WAIT for them to be besties <33 alani is now kinda involved,,, but from this point on, she will be. this basically means chapters are gonna look around this length, maybe even longer for some chapters, bc she'll be all over the place in particular episodes. (motel california━━i already know you're gonna be the death of me.)