Riley walked in the front doors of Beacon Hills High School and immediately rolled her eyes when the first thing she saw was Olivia talking to a boy who looked like a freshmen. Trust me, Riley definitely thought that the freshmen in Beacon Hills were good looking, but they were 14 and 15. She was turning 17 and so was Olivia. She shuffled over towards Olivia slowly; hoping that by the time she got there, the boy had left. Thankfully, Riley's plan had worked and she was alone with her best friend.
"Really, Olivia? You're a predator!" Riley groaned, watching as the boy walked away. Olivia looked at Riley and cocked her head.
"I'm the predator? Tell that to your million werewolf friends." She retorted, opening up her locker and taking a few folders out. "And I wasn't pursuing him; I was telling him where the chemistry room was."
Riley raised her eyebrow and looked down the hall, pointing at the classroom door that had the words 'chemistry classroom' labelled boldly on the front.
"You mean that room?" She asked, pointing at it. Olivia froze for a second as she looked over, then nodded.
"Yeah, that room. He said he forgot his glasses." She explained, and secretly smiled at herself for thinking of that great lie.
"Right. Whatever, let's just go to class." Riley chuckled, opening the locker beside Olivia's and putting her stuff inside. The bell sounded throughout the school and Riley slammed her locker shut, Olivia repeating her actions. The two girls headed off to their first class together, grateful that they were both in the same English class, despite their different intellectual levels.
They both sat down in the corner of the room. Riley scored a seat behind Lydia while Olivia sat behind Stiles. They sat next to each other with a space in between them so the teacher could annoyingly walk up and down and eventually shoving their asses in your face when they help the kid next to you. They looked at each other happily and slightly squealed, but their happiness was abruptly cut off as everyone's phones vibrated and sounded at the same time. Riley dug through her bag while Olivia's was already in her hands as she looked at her screen. It looked to be a passage out of a book.
"'The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under over an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'"
Their new teacher, Ms. Blake, walked into the class as she read, stopping at the top of her desk as she smiled at her confused and slightly creeped out students. Was it legal to take 20 students' phone numbers and personally text them? Riley did not think so. She leaned back onto the desk and put her phone on it, as all the students followed her actions and put them on the desk in front of them.
"This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text that you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone." She instructed, and Riley turned hers on silent and returned it to her bag on the floor. "Could everyone please open your books to the first page and silently read the first chapter. Make notes as you go, commenting on the style of the author and how he uses descriptive words."
Everyone took out their various English things and Riley made a start to reading the small book that was stuffed in her over-stuffed bag. She never even touched the book during the holidays, which was a good thing; she didn't want to reread a book that she didn't need to. While they were doing their work, the new principal came into the classroom and whispered to the teacher, pointing at Scott.
"Mr. McCall." Ms. Blake announced, and Scott looked frightened. The teacher raised her finger and motioned for him to come over. He packed his things and left the class with the teacher, who came back in a minute later.
While they were writing, Riley took notice of Stiles who was sighing loudly. She rolled her eyes and was just about to tell him to be quiet when he whispered to Lydia. She looked at him annoyingly and he pointed to her ankle.
"Is that from the accident?" He whispered, and Riley looked down to a thick Band-Aid wrapped around her right ankle. Riley remembered the text that Lydia had sent her a few days prior regarding a 'crazy suicidal deer', that ran into the front of her car when Allison and her were driving to her house.
"No, Prada bit me." She replied, and went back to her work.
"Your dog?" He asked, frowning at the information. Riley thought that if a dog bit someone, it would be put down. She's seen Lydia's dog before, and it was really small and cute. There was no way it would have bitten her; it was too nice.
"No, my designer handbag." She sarcastically responded, then rolled her eyes. "Yes, my dog."
"Has it ever bitten you before?" He asked, and Lydia shook her head. She seemed upset about it, but who wouldn't be? "Okay, what if it's the same thing as the deer? You know, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"
Lydia frowned and looked at him. "Meaning what? There's going to be an earthquake?"
"Or something." He reassured, and Riley thought that what she was doing was wrong. Is eavesdropping on their conversation wrong even though she's friends with them? "Maybe it means something is coming. Something bad."
"It was a deer and a dog." Lydia shot. Stiles leaned down in his seat. "What's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice--"
A crow slammed into the wall of windows of the classroom right next to Riley and shook everyone awake. The crow slid off the window, leaving a smudge of blood trailing behind it. Ms. Blake put her chalk down and slowly walked over to the large windows, looking out at the large swarm flying towards them. There must have been hundreds of them, and it certainly did not look very good.
She looked back at the kids shortly, only to be frightened to death as they all starting to fly into the windows, cracking them. The windows finally smashed through and crows started to fly inside the room. Ms. Blake yelled for everyone to get down and Riley heard Olivia among with everyone else screaming as the crows scraped and pecked their bodies. She jumped down under the table with Olivia as they both clung to each other in fear. Riley's eyes were wide open as she noticed blood on the ground and on herself, realizing a few crows had scratched her. She spotted Stiles protecting Lydia and Allison on her own as everyone sat under their desks, crows squawking and people shouting as they kept flying in. The crows started to attack the people and everyone had deep cuts all over their skin as the teacher kept yelling.
"What's happening?" Olivia yelled, the situation getting to her. Riley didn't know how to respond; she didn't know what was happening. She only knew that it was just the beginning.