xx
"No, why?" Elora was up beyond early, the wolf fast asleep on her sofa as she was in her back room. She kept her phone pinched between her ear and shoulder, waving burning sage. "I haven't seen him."
Birds chirped outside but with the curtains drawn shut, Elora failed the acknowledge the morning.
Wafting the sage, El set it in the clamps of a chemistry ring stand. She needed the herb to burn but she also needed her hands. She set her phone into a levitation, it not threatening to drop as she kept it by her ear.
"I'm not sure if he knows. I doubt it." Elora's hands released a spark like lightning, frying a figure comprised of straw and twigs. "He'll be thrilled to see me."
"What about the girl?"
"Who, Allison?" El asked, using a flame emerging from her fingertip to keep the sage burning. "She won't be a problem."
Not too far away, a curly haired boy too long for the couch he was on stirred awake. It was a slow opening of his eyes followed by a soft sense of unsureness. He'd gotten so used to his room at Derek's that he was momentarily startled by being in Elora's apartment.
The other slightly odd thing was that he couldn't hear any sign of the owner.
Isaac sat up, stretching and cracking his back. Sighing lightly, he ruffled his hair as he stood.
The apartment held signs of Elora - coffee in the pot, a bowl in the sink and a towel still damp as it hung in the bathroom.
But she didn't seem to be there.
Isaac wandered past the bathroom, finding a door slightly cracked. Pushing it open, he'd come across Elora's room, but no Elora. He stepped in a little, glancing around in case she was tucked away.
"Morning." El was behind him, the sound of a door shutting being his only way of knowing. She looked insanely good for being up before six, her hair wavy and her body clad in flattering clothes. "Apartment tour?"
"Sorry, I couldn't find you." Isaac came out of her room, noticing the calls of birds that hadn't been there before.
"I'm here." She smiled lightly, "Hungry? I can cook."
"Uh, sure." Isaac followed her to the kitchen, finding the bag he brought with him. "I'm gonna change first."
"Hall bathroom's all yours." Elora said, pulling a mug down from the cabinet for extra coffee.
"Hey, and thanks again for letting me stay here, El."
Elora smiled, leaning on the counter and facing him. "No problem, Isaac."
After a moment of Isaac's slight awkwardness, he vanished to the bathroom.
Elora pulled out her phone, opening a new message. She deleted it as soon as she read it.
Blocked:
Don't tell Deucalion
xx
"What do you do while we're all in school?" Isaac unbuckled his seatbelt, sitting in the passenger's seat of Elora's car. "I've always wondered that. Derek seems like he just brutes, but you don't come off as the bruting type."
"That's a fair assessment." El replied with a light laugh, "But I guess I'll find out. I'm always around, so," she found her eyes lingering towards the school. "uh," she pulled herself back, "so don't be late for practice."
"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.
"Thank you so much." Elora replied, pretending the English teacher didn't give her a bad vibe.
"I'm Jennifer by the way. Feel free to find me on your lunch break." She tucked a wave of curly hair behind her ear, giving El a friendly smile.
"Thank you, I might take you up on that." Elora left the English room mentally punching herself in the face.
But she knew she was in too deep. She had to do this. If anything, she wanted to keep an eye on this Jennifer character.
Elora went into the bathroom a hall down, recalling her Black Sabbath shirt underneath her blazer. I wouldn't exactly pass as 'teacher appropriate'.
"I hate myself." She muttered, whirling a finger around her and changing her clothes. She winced a little in the mirror, even though she still looked good. She was in a black knee length skirt, black pumps and a silky white blouse.
"Oh my god I look like I belong in a cubical." El said before conjuring a bag that doubled as a briefcase.
If she was going to do this, she was really going to do it.
Elora left the bathroom, walking with a confidence that let her pass for at least twenty four, which was helpful seeing as twenty might not do it when it came to a teaching job.
She went through the main office doors, a receptionist seeming to know her already.
"You must be here in place of Mr. Harris." She said, new to her own job. She'd take over for a woman named Victoria Argent. Nothing was strange when she first took the job except for a drawer full of pencils nubs.
"That's me, I'm Ellen Winchester." Elora almost coughed, mixing names from a series of books she read a few years ago.
"Well Ms. Winchester, I just need your driver's license and i'll give you the keys to your room."
"No problem." Elora reached into her bag, retrieving a card from thin air but out of the receptionist's sight. "There you go."
The receptionist took the license, checking it over. "Only 24. You're so young. It's lovely to see women of your age working. And a Nevada license, very nice. Welcome to Beacon Hills."
"Thank you." El smiled, taking back the fake driver's license.
"He's a tidy guy, so everything has a place." She spoke about Harris, grabbing a binder labelled for a sub. "These are his guidelines, directions for attendence, everything you need. And your keys." She handed over a set, "Your schedule and lesson plan are in there. Are you comfortable with the subjects?"
"Completely." Elora replied, tucking the binder under her arm.
The receptionist gave 'Ellen' a room number, "And school has first bell in half an hour."
"Thanks so much." Elora kindly said, leaving the front office and going down another hall. "I screwed up." She muttered, letting out a breath before finding the right classroom.
She let the door shut behind her, going to the desk at the front of the room. She looked around, vibes feeding into her. "You weren't a great guy, were you, Adrain?" She asked, moving her eyes from his name plate and looking out on the empty black topped tables.
Elora set down her bag on the desk, taking off her jacket and draping it over the back of the chair. She furrowed her eyebrows, touching the desk.
A darkness was radiating off of it.
"Who took you?" She quietly asked, hesitating. "Who is the Darach?"
"Who are you?"
Elora looked up, finding a petite girl in the doorway. "I'm the sub for Mr. Harris."
With strawberry blonde hair and an expensive dress, a lilac shade tried to blind Elora's sight. "Are you a sub-sub or do you actually know about science enough to teach it?"
"Thankfully enough to teach it." El replied, the teen taking a seat near the back at one of the lab tables.
"Finally," she said in relief. "Most of the time we get subs who don't know what the hell they're doing."
Elora picked up a piece of chalk, writing her 'name' on the board in curled letters.
"Winchester?"
"That's me," Elora said, setting the chalk down and turning around. "Who are you?"
"Lydia Martin."
They both seemed suspicious of each other, but Elora's was borderline frustration.
Lydia had a purple aura, and Elora couldn't remember what it meant.
But it was there in the back of her mind, she just couldn't pull it out.
Banshee.
-I'm two days away from being sixteen and it's a hella weird feeling - Mel xx