September 1st, 8pm

Allison slammed the door of her car as she stepped out on the driveway of the Martin house. She was still exhausted from their trip, having only arrived back in Beacon Hills earlier that day, but she wanted to see Lydia before school started in the morning. Their new apartment was still a mess, and didn't feel very homely yet. Boxes everywhere, bare walls and furniture standing around in the corners waiting for them to decide where to put it all. She knew Lydia would have come over if she asked, but Allison needed a break from unpacking. 

Besides, it gave her a reason to drive through Beacon Hills. Strangely enough she had missed it, despite everything that had gone down before the summer. It held a lot of bad memories for her, but also good ones. Not to mention she felt responsible to try and maybe make up for some of it, and keep the town and her friends safe. Allison was determined not to run from any of it. A gust of wind takes hold of her hair as she walks up to the front door. She rings the doorbell, brushing the hair out of her face as she waits for Lydia to open. 

Lydia was lying on her bed flicking though TV channels and finding nothing of interest. She was bored, she'd spent most of the summer being bored and she didn't like it. She was completely ready for school the next day and she'd already picked out what she was going to wear, decided on a hairstyle and painted her nails. She'd tried drawing for a bit, but she'd done a lot of that already this summer and she quickly tired of that. No one was online, and by this time London-based Jackson would be in bed right now anyway, not that he'd spoken to her all summer anyway. She'd not heard from Allison in a while either and she had to wonder if either of them would be coming back to beacon hills in time for school to start, if they were coming back at all.

She was currently watching a TV show about wedding dresses and rolling her eyes at the family members who seemed to enjoy hating on the Bride's dream dress and trying to force her into the dress that they would wear of it was them. "It's not your wedding though is it genius, when it is you can wear that hideous sack if you really want." She sighed and flicked over to the next channel, which wasn't really any more interesting/less mind numbing than the last. She turned off the television and slid off the bed, padding barefoot across the room to her wardrobe. She hadn't chosen her shoes yet.

Without warning, how else would a it happen unless you were waiting for someone at a specific time, the doorbell rang. Her mother was drinking on the patio so she wouldn't hear it, Lydia shut the closet door she had just opened and walked down the hallway to the stairs skipping down them she walked across the wood panel flooring to the door and took hold of the doorknob, twisting as she pulled. She didn't know who she was expecting to see on the other side of the door, but it wasn't Allison. Before Allison could say anything Lydia stepped over the threshold and pulled her into a brief hug. "You could have told me you were coming back." she said as she stepped back and into the house. "Come on in, do you want something to drink?"

Allison returned the hug, grinning at her friend. Seeing Lydia again really did lighten her mood, she knew it would definitely make it easier to return to school in the morning to have her best friend with her. "Yeah, sorry. Everything got a bit hectic once we decided to make it back by the first day of school. Besides, I wanted to surprise you." Allison shrugged a little, crossing the treshold as Lydia stepped back. 

"A drink would be nice. A soda or something maybe? Just something cold." Allison said to Lydia's offer. "Dad is all about wanting to make the new place a home, so we've been unpacking a few boxes already. It's gonna be nice though, I think. At least he's letting me decide where most things are going. You have to come help me decorate my room though, it needs the Lydia touch." Allison gave Lydia a smile, following her friend further into the house. 

Lydia couldn't help but smile when Allison said she'd wanted to surprise her. "Mission accomplished." she said with an amused tone as she walked smoothly to the kitchen, letting Allison shut the door herself. She may be a guest but Allison had become as much a part of the house hold as anyone else ever had, she was perfectly capable of shutting the front door, in fact she'd answered it a few times too.

"Soda is it." she said as she pulled open the fridge and grabbed the bottle of coke before grabbing a couple of glasses and half filling them. She put the coke back in the fridge and picked up her glass. "Let's go back up to my room, I still need to pick my shoes for tomorrow." she said purposefully, nothing got in the way of her knowing exactly what she was wearing for any given occasion, not even her best friend's return from god knows where. She hoped Allison would at least appreciate that she was treating her the same as normal, there was no reason for her to do otherwise unless she wanted to make things awkward for the both of them.

She padded back up the stairs, barefoot and pushed her bedroom door open, placed her glass on a coaster and headed back over to her closet, where she had been before Allison rang the doorbell. "So how was your summer?" she asked casually, wanting to let Allison decide exactly how much of everything she was going to reveal.

Allison closed the door and followed Lydia to the kitchen. Her friend seemed in a good mood, but you couldn't always tell with Lydia. Everything that had happened before the summer must have taken its toll on her. Allison had no objections to following Lydia to her room, so she grabbed her glass and did just that. She felt fairly at home in the house, and she couldn't help but be relieved that everything seemed to ease back into normal already. At least with Lydia. She knew there would be enough awkwardness to come when meeting the others, but Lydia had made it go away in an instant. She was tempted to just grab her and hug her, but had a feeling that would ruin it. 

Allison sat down in the chair instead, holding her glass in her hand, watching Lydia move over to her closet. At her question, Allison gave a small sigh. "I don't know. It was nice I guess, for the most part. Me and dad hanging out in France and pretending to be normal." She leaned against the back of the chair, pausing for a moment. "You know, dad was considering us moving. He talked about getting me into a school over there, get far away from all of this. He wants to walk away from everything, the whole hunter business. But I wanted to come back. I couldn't just leave everything behind, not again." 

Lydia picked up a pair of heels and regarded them, then glanced at the dress she had chosen as she waited for Allison's response. She held them up to it. Wrong colour pink. She put them back and let her gaze run over her shoes, out of all items of clothing, it was shoes she loved the most. She listened as he friend sighed and responded. Lydia smiled over her shoulder when Allison said she couldn't leave everything behind again.

"I'm glad," she said honestly. A lot of shit had gone down before the summer and Lydia had struggled to get her head around it, especially with Jackson and Allison both leaving. Then there had been Scott and Stiles running around with Derek all summer freaking out because some 'were-coyote' was going to start killing people. Apparently they hadn't needed her assistance, for which she was grateful, but they'd kept too much from her about this kind of thing already so she was a little annoyed that she'd only found out about it once they'd turned her back into a human and had needed to borrow some clothes. "I'd gotten used to having you around." she said she said with a nonchalant tone and a smile, but hoping the look in her eyes as she regarded Allison from the other side of the room was enough to let her best friend know just how glad she was that she had decided to come back.

She turned back to the racks of shoes before her. Turning her gaze onto the selection of black ones, she considered her options. Boots, the weather wasn't cold enough yet, and she didn't wants to wear pumps. Heels it was. She picked up the Betsey Johnson Blairre Sanadals and smiled. She turned back to Allison. "What do you think?"

Allison returned Lydia's smile, then gave a soft laugh at her next words. "Well, good. Cause I plan on hanging around you a lot. I mean, who else is gonna help me with my homework?" She teased, giving Lydia a warm look back. She really had missed her. If she was honest, the redhead in front of her was one of the main reasons she had decided to come back. They had both been through so much before the summer, and Allison knew she needed Lydia. And she had a feeling Lydia really needed a friend now to. 

Allison watched Lydia as she considered her many shoe options, before she finally picked out a pair and asked for Allison's opinion. She got up from the chair, moving closer to her friend. "With this dress?" She asked, looking between the dress and the shoes. "Looks good. You can definitely pull it off." Allison smiled, knowing Lydia had a way of pulling off outfits that Allison herself wouldn't have dared try on. She sat down on the bed, watching her friend for a moment. 

"So what's new in Beacon Hills? Any monsters I should know about?" It was a joke, though she knew perfectly well there might actually be monsters around. Even though she had quickly gotten used to the idea of being from a family of hunters, it still struck her sometimes just how bizarre it all was. In France it had seemed so far away as well, it was almost strange to think of werewolves and kanimas as real things. 

Lydia smiled, Allison had taken the comment in the way she had intended. "My notes are legendary..." she said with a smile. She was glad Allison had said that because she wasn't sure exactly what she'd be walking into tomorrow morning. Most people were nervous about the first day back, but never before had Lydia felt those nerves, not to this extent at any rate. The events of the summer and before had thrown her whole world into confusion. Some of the things she'd been so sure about had fallen out from under her and she didn't know how she'd have had the strength to drive through the gates tomorrow without Allison. Not that any one else would ever have known that, but she had a feeling Allison did.

Lydia made a small 'mmhmmm' of confirmation when Allison queried which dress it needed to go with. She smiled when Allison said she approved. "Well of course I can, I've got to make a statement on the first day of school, haven't I?" she said letting her vain side out a little as she placed the shoes on the floor next to the wardrobe door. She smiled as she turned back to her friend, picked up her own glass of soda and took a sip before sitting at the desk chair with her right leg crossed over her left.

Allison's question was a joke, but actually it was a question worth asking. "Funny you should ask." she said slowly. It still hadn't really sunk in, everything she'd learned before the summer, but she was coming to terms with it, slowly. "We have a were-coyote in town. Long story short, she couldn't turn back, so Derek roared her back and now she can't control it at all. She had to borrow some clothes." Lydia said with a roll of her eyes, wondering how the boys hadn't thought of something like that before they'd turned her back. If she'd been kept in the loop she would have thought of that and gona out and bought the poor girl something to wear.

"I suppose so," Allison replied, sighing. "Most of my clothes are still in boxes or my suitcase. I definitely won't be upstaging you, that's for sure." She gave Lydia a smile. Not that she ever could, even if she wanted to. Lydia just had that air about her, she'd walk down the halls and the path would clear in front of her. When she walked into a room, everyone's attention would be on her. When Lydia first declared Allison her new best friend and insisted they hang out together, Allison had been flattered. Girls like Lydia tended to either ignore her or see her as competition to take down at schools she had gone to before. But Lydia was different, Allison had learned that quickly. Allison was lucky to have her as her best friend, and she'd always be grateful that Lydia had made that decision for them. 

"Ah, here it comes," Allison leaned forward as Lydia moved to her desk chair, beginning to explain about the summer. Her eyes widened. "A were-coyote? And here I thought I was starting to have some idea of the things lurking around Beacon Hills. " Allison shook her head. "And its a she? Is she with Derek?" She tried to ignore the sting of guilt mixed with anger as she thought of the Alpha. She still blamed him for her mother's death, but she knew what she had done to his pack had been going too far. She hoped Scott had taken the girl under his wings, but she had a feeling that also a were-coyote not in control would need an alpha. "What's the situation there anyway, are Boyd and Erica really still missing?" She had seen the posters in town when they returned, that sinking feeling in her stomach still hadn't really gone away. She looked away as she asked, as if taking in a room she had seen many times before. 

Lydia raised her eyebrow slightly at Allison before letting it fall again, keeping a small smirk on her face. There weren’t many people who could upstage her, Allison could have if she’d wanted to, but it never seemed to bother her. Lydia was glad she’d decided to make the ‘new girl’s’ life easier when she’d first started, it had been a good decision all round.

”Mmmm, I was pretty surprised too to be honest, but I suppose why call them werewolves if there’s no reason to make a distinction about the type of animal.” she pondered out loud. She regarded Allison’s expression when she mentioned Derek. ”Well I don’t know what she’s doing now… I haven’t seen her since she turned up here wrapped in a blanket accompanied by Scott and Stiles, but Derek had to roar her back, he’s the only Alpha in town after all.” she said with a shrug. ”I think she’s back with her dad, it was Malia Tate, the girl whose been missing for 8 years after the car crash that killed her mum and little sister.” she continued to explain. ”I think she’ll be starting school tomorrow, although lord knows how she’s going to catch up with everything she missed.” She said as she turned and booted up her laptop to check for the third time that day that she really had done all her summer work.

Lydia sighed when Allison asked about Erica and Boyd. ”Yes, they are, and no one has any idea where to look any more. The Sherrif has run all his leads dry and I have no idea about what Derek has been doing to look for them, no one tells me much.” she said the last bit with an almost bitter edge to her voice. Sometimes she wished they’d tell her things because she might be able to help. Lord knows she was one of the smartest in the group, and she was sure she’d be in less danger not more if she had a few more facts to go on.

"I guess," Allison agreed, though the thought of a were-coyote still confused her. She would have to do some research on that, figure out how different another were-animal could be from a werewolf. And maybe if there were other animals people could turn into. It all had to be done in secret though, no running to daddy for help. They weren't supposed to be working on this anymore. She stayed quiet as Lydia explained, the name Malia Tate sounded familiar, it was one of those stories that got whispered about when new weird things happened. "Poor girl. I suppose we should try and help her out. Doesn't sound like she has a lot of female influence in her life." 

Allison watched Lydia boot up her laptop, for a moment beginning to go over everything she was supposed to have done that summer. She knew she was in route, but with their new apartment being a mess of boxes and things everywhere, she kept feeling like everything was in flux still. She knew it would take a few days at least, if not weeks, for her to feel settled again. She frowned at Lydia's comment, shaking her head slightly. It was typical of the boys to forget to include her, and she felt a pang of guilt at her own habit of keeping secrets from Lydia before the summer. It had been to protect her, but now she knew all about them all, so why keep her out of the loop? 

"Well, that's not good enough." Allison said with a hint of annoyance to her voice. She knew she wouldn't be able to ease her own guilt over Erica and Boyd unless she did what she could to find them, and she needed Lydia's help with that. As well as some others, but the thought of going to Derek Hale repulsed her. "I say tomorrow we find Scott and Stiles and we make them keep us updated. They need us to figure this all out, we just have to remind them." She gave Lydia a smirk, knowing she could count on her friend to help her do just that. 

Lydia shrugged when Allison said they should help her out. "I suppose my notes really will be doing the rounds this year." she said. "Although she seemed to know that she doesn't like girly stuff straight off the bat, she'd probably have been better with something from your wardrobe, she's more your dhape than mine anyway, but we had to make do considering I had no notice what so ever, I guess we could see if she wants to go shopping, but if I remember rightly her dad doesn't have a lot of money so that might be a problem." she didn't mean that in a bitchy way at all it was a fact, the Tate family had never had a big amounts of money even when their farm was thriving and it hadn't been doing quite so well lately. And by lately she meant since the infamous car accident.

"Good enough or not there's only so much we can do, especially now we're going to be back at school." she glanced over her shoulder as she waited for the next document to load. "I was going to let it slide, but you're right, they need us." There really was nothing quite so amusing as making a boy squirm as he realised you were right and he needed your help. Of course there were some things it was more fun to help with than others but that was beside the point.

"So which car are we taking tomorrow, no point us wasting gas going seperately." she said, despite the fact that driving between their houses would use almost as much gas as them going in seperately.