Pure × Isaac Lahey

10.

"El, are you okay?" Isaac lifted an eyebrow, watching her.

"I'm fine." Elora reassured, "Did you want me to try to barter with Derek or do you want my couch for another night?"

"If I ever want to get back into your cousin's good graces, I should probably find another place to stay at."

"Are you sure what he thinks matters?" El realized she'd said what she meant to keep to herself. "I just mean, as much as you seem to think."

Isaac looked a little confused but tinted with slight amusement. "I guess not, but he is my alpha."

"Right," El was trying to save herself from the grave her words were digging, "uh, but if you can't, then..." she fell away with her voice, hesitant as she looked over to him, "you know where to find me."

Isaac looked down, smiling as he reached for the door handle. "Thanks, El."

Elora just held a soft smile, waiting for him to walk up to the school. She groaned inwardly, parking her car despite her want to go see her cousins.

There was still something about this school that was tripping her up.

Elora got out of her car, brown oxfords nearly silent on the ground. She walked to the building, looking more like a student than an adult.

Perks of being twenty: being twenty

Downfall of being twenty: you can still look seventeen at first glance

With it only a little after seven, just the teachers were in the building and athletics were outside.

Elora had been here before in the school. She was supposed to go here; her parents were about to settle before they got chased out of town. El tried getting her mom to let her live with her aunt - Talia was all for it, as were the kids - but there was a stiff battle and a compromise of summers and spring breaks.

So instead of Beacon Hills High School; Home of the Cyclones, she was homeschooled and bounced country to country until she was eighteen.

To anyone around, despite the halls being empty, it would've seemed like this older than high school girl was revisting memories when really she was following a bad feeling.

Then again, those could be the same thing in some cases.

Elora found herself at a standstill outside of a classroom, her eyebrows furrowing as she couldn't recall getting there.

"Can I help you?"

Elora turned her head, a black haired woman within the classroom looking at her curiously as she set English books out on desks. "Oh," She looked awfully young to be a teacher, "sorry, uh, I-"

But the feeling was there again.

"Are you the new sub for the sciences?" Ms Blake, composed and sweet, set down the last book on a corner desk.

Elora made a flash decision. "Yes." She smiled, "I'm Ellen, I'm a bit lost."

Why the hell did I just do that?

"Are you looking for the front office or your classroom?"

"Office. Would you be able to point me in the right direction?"

"No problem." Nice enough, Ms. Blake gave her a route. "Back down the hall to your left, take the first right and it's the glass windows at the end of the hall.