Chapter Text
Sitting on her bed, book in hand, Bryn begins to feel a familiar tingling pang inside of her skull, distracting her from what she is reading. Putting her book down, she inhales slowly before getting off her bed and heading toward her bedroom door. She needs to find her fathers and quickly; nothing good ever comes out of what she is feeling now and she needs to let them know. As she steps over the threshold of her room, the pain intensifies, forcing her to her knees.
This is not good, not good at all, she thinks.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she opens her mouth to call for help but does not feel her voice reverberating through her throat. Her body becomes weightless momentarily before her open mouth fills with chlorinated water as she sinks into the pool.
The sensation within her mind vanishes as she makes her way toward the surface in a slight panic. Never before has she ever experienced anything like this when she felt what she just did. It's startling and scary, and as she breaches the water, she can see her fathers hoovering at the concrete edge with expressions mirroring her feelings.
"Out for a late-night swim, are we?" Thomas asks, his Swedish accent thick as he speaks.
"Oh yes. You know me. I love my late-night swims." She mutters, heading toward the steps. She is glad that where she fell in was not that far from the shallow end.
"What happened?" Ola frowns.
"No fucking clue. One minute I'm reading, and the next, I'm in the fucking pool."
"Language." He tuts.
Taking her thick, pale hair in her palms, she wrings her strands out as she walks up the steps and mutters an apology. Her swearing and half-assed apology have given them a slight sense of normalcy despite her situation being anything but. Though she has experienced the tingling pains before, they have never been this intense, nor have they ever resulted in her blacking out. She hadn't even experienced blackouts in the immediate aftermath of her brain injury nearly a decade prior, and it scares her.
"Someone's died." She says suddenly as she nears the back patio door.
"Do you know who?" Ola asks.
Thomas does not listen; instead, he ignores his husband and daughter as they speak. His life is not of the supernatural, though he has married into it. He wants nothing to do with it, something he knows Ola and Bryn want as well, and he feels horrible that they will never be able to escape it.
"No. It's never felt this intense before."
"Maybe there's been a massive car accident or a building fire," Thomas says after a moment.
Ola doesn't disagree. Given what has been described to him, it makes the most sense.
"Perhaps. I'm going to go grab some towels."
Ola leaves them be, causing Bryn to sigh and start wringing her pyjamas out to make things a bit easier for herself once the towels come. She can feel Thomas's icy blue eyes on her and turns her gaze toward him. Though worry is on his long face, there is also a warmth.
"You okay there, Bryny?"
She snorts at his nickname for her. She dislikes it immensely, but she loves him and lets him use it.
"No idea." She shrugs.
Nothing else is said between them as Ola returns with a couple of towels for her to dry off with.
"Thanks."
Taking a towel, she starts to dry off, trying to keep her mind off of what happened by thinking over what she needs to prepare for her first day back in school the next day. First day of the second semester of sophomore year, and it has to start off like this.
"Well, gentlemen, it's been a pleasure. The help was much appreciated, and I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I am soaking and need to get to bed, so good night. I love you both, and I will see you in the morning." Bryn chirps, plastering a fake smile on her face. Turning on her heels, she heads into the house and hopes it will be an unpleasant memory by tomorrow.
A body has been found in the woods. Well, half a body. Why people were out jogging in the woods past sunset, Bryn does not know, but they did, and she cannot help but wonder if the corpse's death is what caused her blackout. She doesn't understand why a single person's death would cause a reaction like this in her, but there was nothing in the news or social media about anything else death-related, so it has to be.
Walking into the kitchen, she sees both of her fathers sitting at the island, eating their breakfast before they turn their attention towards her as she heads toward the coffee pot.
"And how are we this morning?" Ola asks. She cannot help but squirm under his gaze; he is trying to determine her feelings and thoughts. It's an unfortunate side effect of him being a therapist is that she always feels as if he is trying to look at her as if she is a puzzle to be solved. She knows it is not intentional, and he does not actively do it, but she feels that way, especially after last night.
"What do you think?"
Ola sighs and takes a bite of his toast. "Will you be okay to go to school?"
"Have I ever not been?"
"No, but you've never experienced something like this before.
"Enough of this talk, eh?" Thomas grunts. "Everyone needs to eat their breakfast and get ready for the day. Especially if a certain someone wants me to drive them to school."
"Not working the night shift then?"
It is a slight surprise that he is not, especially as he likes to lead his staff by example and never schedules them for a shift he would never do himself, often leading to him working a week full of nights at least once a month. It'll be a nice change of pace for him to drive her to school instead of Ola, especially as she is sure he would be asking about last night if he did.
"Well, let's do this shit." Bryn nods, grabbing her freshly poured cup of coffee before taking a sip.
Walking up to her locker, she looks over the semester's class schedule, only to be distracted by a group of her popular classmates passing by. There is only one person within that group that she likes in any sort of capacity; everyone else, in her very humble opinion, can go fuck themselves. Especially Jackson Whittemore. She wants nothing more than to punch him in his smug face. Luckily for her, the feeling is mutual.
"I don't know why you let him get to you." A voice huffs behind her.
Turning around, Bryn sees her friend (and perhaps more), Victoria, standing alongside their other friend Levin.
Victoria places her head on Bryn's shoulder and she gently scratches her fake golden hair in turn.
"I can't help it. Sometimes people have nemesis', nemesi? Anyway, that for me is Jackson. He is my nemesis."
"He's just some guy." Victoria snorts. "He's a dumb jock who will be nothing once he graduates."
"He's the star of the lacrosse team and the captain of the swim team. And he's a sophomore! He'll get a scholarship and go to a good university, and even if he fails, his dad will hire him at his law firm because he can." She states shrilly.
Victoria rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to say something, but the bell rings, causing their conversation to be shelved for later.
Walking into the English classroom, Bryn finds a seat and plops herself onto the chair before placing her binder down with a thunk. She is being a bit louder than she would like, but it is what it is, though she feels a set of eyes on her. Looking around, she sees Scott McCall sitting to her one side, staring at her slightly confusedly. Giving him an apologetic smile, she looks away and starts to dig the blunt fingernail of her middle finger into the soft flesh of her thumb beside her nail bed.
There is something wrong with Scott. Not wrong, per se; off is a better word. Something is off and not exactly right with him. Frowning, she turns her attention toward him, only for her eyes to meet those of his best friend, Stiles.
Her feelings toward Stiles could be labelled generally as indifference, especially when compared to Scott. While Scott is someone she can converse with, she cannot say the same for Stiles. He can be hyperfocused and rather intense when he is actually interested in something. Otherwise, it is like talking to a brick wall. And his only interest is Lydia Martin, Jackson fucking Whittemore's girlfriend. She appears to have all but consumed his thoughts. It makes sense to a degree, after all, Lydia is the Queen Bee not only of their grade but is generally considered to be for the entire high school as well. If she were not dating Jackson, she could understand Lydia's appeal, but Bryn's hatred for their classmate has significantly infected her opinions of the other girl.
Turning away from Stiles, she opens her binder and writes down the day's date. She needs to focus on what is before her and not what is happening with her classmates. Focusing on others will not get her good grades.
Just as she finishes writing out the date, the final bell rings, and the teacher walks into the classroom alongside someone none seem to recognize. The new girl, Allison Argent, is beautiful, and Bryn cannot take her eyes off her as she walks down the aisle toward the spare desk not far behind her. She is everything she likes in a girl; she is everything Bryn is not, tall and willowy with a soft, angular face and large dark eyes that match her long, wavy brown blow-dried curls.
Scott seems just as enamoured with Allison as she is, and she cannot help but feel a slight pang of jealousy. The other girl is way above both of their leagues, but nothing about her screams that she is into girls, making it more likely that Scott could earn her affection. She watches as Scott holds out a pencil for her and then turns away, much to Allison's pleasure and then confusion. She notices her staring and looks up with a friendly smile, exposing her dimples, causing her to blush furiously and look away.
That was embarrassing, like super embarrassing.
Bryn rests her forehead against the nearly empty page and inwardly groans. She'll never be able to live this down. She tries not to think of it (Victoria will be pissed if she finds out Bryn finds someone else attractive. Ola tells her that their friendship is unhealthy, and she does not disagree, but it is not always like that. Besides, Victoria and Levin are the only friends she really has; Jackson made sure of that.) She thinks of Allison, though. And of her blackout and the dead person from the woods. Soon Scott joins her rotation of thoughts as well. His head is whipping around at every single noise within the classroom, and his nose wrinkled something awful for a brief moment, making her curious as to what he smelt that was so bad that no one else has.
The way the thoughts are swirling around in her mind, Bryn is sure they are trying to connect themselves together in some way or another. The only possible connection her brain can make is that perhaps, just perhaps, Allison is an Argent of the infamous hunter family. It's a possibility, given the dead body from last night, though it would mean they arrived and became relatively settled in Beacon Hills relatively quickly. Though perhaps they were already on their way into town.
Shaking her head, she tries to rid herself of these thoughts. She cannot think about whether Allison's last name really means anything or what Scott's sudden oddness could mean. And she definitely cannot think about what the half-corpse means. All Bryn allows herself to think of as she starts to focus on the lesson is how things are about to get interesting.