And so Juliet is in homeroom. She does seem to be wearing men's clothes that are much too big for her, but she is unbothered by this fact.

Her good friend Tracy doesn't comment on it, either.

The TV is on today! Apparently, their morning announcements will now be delivered to them by one of the sophmores.

They're serving mac and cheese in the cafeteria today! If anyone lost a purple jacket, it's in the Lost & Found. There's going to be a fundraiser this weekend for the school's rotary club! And that's the morning announcements.

Oooh. Mac and cheese. Yum.

Is her snarky blonde friend around?

There she is.

She isn't seeking Juliet out, but she's there.

Look at Juliet seeking her out. She moves over to her.

"Good morning. Get up to anything interesting after school yesterday?"

"Uh, no, not really. Did you?"

"Went on my first date with Matt. Which ended with Coach Finstock driving us home," she laughs.

"Your life sounds more exciting than mine."

"Well, you're in my life now. You get benefits."

"I guess so. Thanks. Was it fun? Matt seems like a nice guy."

"So fun, great kisser." She does not mention the very not fun part in the middle there. Obviously.

"Good to know. I'll be rooting for you two."

They say the Pledge of Alliegiance, and then they're off.

Science!

"Thanks. I do really like him. I hope I'm not... overstepping myself? Scare him away or something."

"I don't know him that well, but I don't think so. Boys are hard to scare off."

"Maybe. But I have been known to be scary..."

See: Werewolf.

"It's your budding romance, not mine. I still think you shouldn't worry until you meet each other's parents."

She puts on a deep voice, "Stay away from my daughter. You are not to get involved."

Pause.

"They've already kinda met. My dad and Matt."

"How was it?"

"That what pretty much the entirety of it. So, not great."

"It's not bad for your first date. Let him set the pace, if he's skittish."

"You give good advice, Erica. I think I'm going to have to keep you forever."

"Sure, I'll just reschedule dying."

"It's cool. I have it handled."

"Sure, sweetie. I'll believe it when I see it."

Science proceeds apace.

Juliet Does Science.

And then science gets done.

"Try something more public, or more private than you did. Usually it's that."

"So I should either give into some PDA or keep it all behind closed doors..."

"Sounds fun to me."

"This relationship thing is fun. So many unknowns. Keeps me on my feet."

"I wouldn't know. See you at lunch?"

"I'll bring Matt along with me, maybe? Or would you rather I didn't? I mean, I probably talk about him too much as is."

"You don't think he'll be intimidated? I hear I'm intimidating."

"Even if he is, he should get used to it."

And then, Juliet has art.

Matt waves tentatively at her.

Juliet waves back and then sits next to him.

"Good morning, my prince."

"Parting is such sweet sorrow. How'd it go last night? You look okay."

"Apart from looking ridiculous in these clothes, you mean?"

She laughs.

"It went fine. I got to indulge in a little B&E, that was fun."

"What's some mild law-breaking betwen friends?"

"Exactly. Though in this case, it was between cousins. Damon will be cool with it though. He'd probably be proud of me."

"He seems like an interesting guy. When do I meet him?"

"He's interesting, yeah. But he also mostly lives out of town, which is why I had to break into his apartment. You can meet Stefan though. He lives in the Boarding House with me and my dad. Though I think he's out of town right now."

"I've never met most of my extended family. Is it nice having him so close?"

"Yeah, he's always lived with us, it's never been any different. I- yeah, I like it. He's a really good person and he loves me. I wouldn't have it any other way. You're going to get along so well.

"Can't wait."

Art class is mostly an excuse for Matt to play around with his camera, so he does that.

Hmm. She stands from her seat and walks over to the teacher's desk.

"Excuse me, would you mind if we go into the darkroom? I read this really cool technique in this magazine and I was hoping to give it a try. Matt was hoping to see it too..."

"Oh. Of course. You can show it to everyone. Three students at a time?"

Not all of the students look interested.

"Well, just you two to start. Go ahead."

Juliet walks over and grabs Matt hand, pulling him over to the other room.

Once inside she switches on the Darkroom In Use sign and turns to look at Matt.

"Hi."

"You do have plans, don't you."

"Many many many plans." She steps right up to him. "But mostly I just wanna see how long it takes for you to kiss me."

Well, he kisses her, then. No need to keep the lady waiting.

Juliet makes a pleased noise and pulls away slightly. "I wasn't sure if I was allowed to do that in front of everyone..." She kisses him again without waiting for his response.

Kissing it is!

Matt won't stop until she does.

Juliet threads her fingers through his hair and pulls him closer, deepening the kiss.

He doesn't know where to put his hands.

Waist?

Waist is good.

Kissing can go on a good while.

Eventually, Matt takes advantage of a break to say, "We should probably do some actual photography." 

She makes a noise of agreement before giving him another kiss.

"Probably. I actually did read about this technique we could try..."

"I'm curious. How does it go?"

She explains.

"Mostly I was hoping to be able to have a black and white image on a colour film- without having to use digital processing." She points to a print she prepared earlier. "It didn't quite work there. The magazine said to just cut out the bleach, but I think for the best result we're going to have to experiment with the amount of the other chemicals that we use..."

She continues to talk about the process.

He happily listens to her talk about the process, and offers his input.

Eventually they settle on a good combination and she is very pleased with the result.

"That would have taken me ages to figure out alone. We should make this a regular thing."

"Sounds good to me."

One more for the road?

One for the road, and another for good luck.

"So, thoughts on PDA? Yes/No/Please-Stay-Away-From-Me-As-I-Run-Away-Screaming?"

"It sounds like fun. Maybe not too often. I like having you to myself."

"Being had is a nice feeling too."

"We should probably get going," he adds reluctantly.

"Yup. That is definitely a thing we should be doing."

See Juliet Not Doing.

That's apparently all the self-control Matt can muster.

Kisses?

Kisses! Eventually she starts laughing.

"They're going to ban us from the darkroom."

"Fine, fine. Let's go."

And they go.

The teacher just nods at them, since class is about to let out.

Juliet grabs her things.

"Do you wanna meet my friends at lunch? You probably already know them. Erica Reyes and Firstname Boyd?"

"Yeah, I know them. You and Erica are friends?"

"Yeah, we're friends. Very friendly. Is that so surprising?"

"I guess not. You're really something. I'll see you guys at lunch."

One final kiss. Really, this is the last one.

She makes the most of it.

"I'll be waiting with bated breath."

Math!

It seems there's someone who wants to talk to her.

He wordlessly sits next to her. 

"Mister President, hey. Come here often?"

"More than you, obviously. How was your vacation?"

"As a vacation it sucked. Did get to spend a lot of time catching up on my reading though. Not much else to do when you're grounded and room bound."

"Lydia mentioned something like that. You're okay?"

"I'm good. Managed to break loose. I'm a fugitive now, very dangerous."

"I bet you are."

Beat.

"Did Brian talk to you?"

"I mean, I saw and spoke to him yesterday. We didn't talk about much other than him driving Matt and I to the Preserve."

"...really. I'm glad you made it to the Preserve okay. How was that?"

"Woodsy," she jokes. "Was there anything in particular Brian was supposed to mention?"

"He was supposed to check on you. I guess giving you a ride counts."

"Check on me? That's... he hardly knows me."

"You're the most interesting thing happening to this town, and you vanished mysteriously. Me, Lydia, and Brian spent all weekend trying to figure it out."

Juliet laughs. "I'm flattered. Maybe I should just give you all my phone number to ease your worries. Or would you rather that I keep up the mystique?"

"The number could help. I think you'll be able to keep some of your mystique anyway."

She writes it down for him. "I notice Danny was left out there. He still not a Juliet fan?"

"He wasn't that curious. Figured your parents are just strict. I didn't buy that. Still don't, but if you want to play it that way, we will."

"Parent, singular. What's not to buy about it? Teenagers get grounded all the time."

"Lydia doesn't get a good vibe off your dad, and I trust her."

"Hmm. I suppose he would give off a weird vibe. He's never been quite the same since my birth and my moms death," she deflects.

"Like I said, we'll stick to your story until you say otherwise, or the evidence stacks up."

"I don't really know what you want me to say. Dad is overprotective and I have a mood disorder. Theres really not much more to it..."

"I'm not accusing you of anything. So, you and Matt?"

"Me and Matt. Matt and I. Yup, that's a thing. Why, do you have dibs too?"

"No one has dibs. I'm just surprised. He's never been a very social guy."

"He seems social enough to me. Why, does he not have many friends?"

"Hm. I know the feeling. I've never had any friends either, if you exclude my cousin and dad. And Sean Walcott, I suppose. But he's more a family friend, really."

"Walcott's a decent guy. What's your problem with him?"

"He told his parents about my episode last weak in gym, who in turn told my cousin and dad. Which got me grounded. I'm being petty."

"Right."

Quiet math-ing.

Math. She does it.

"Do you know if lacrosse tryouts have been announced yet? I was still hoping to take some pictures."

"I'm not sure, but I'll text you when I know something."

"So accommodating, I'm starting to think you wanna be my friend or something," she jokes. "Despite all the suspicion and everything."

"I think you meant 'because' of all the suspicion. How am I going to learn anything if we don't get along?"

"Ahhh. That makes sense then. Why do you really want to know? Is this town so mundane that you need a little mystery to spice things up?"

"And here I thought I was at least a little hard to figure out."

She laughs. "You seem to be a pretty open book kind of person actually. Or I'm good at reading people."

"You can test that theory. Try reading someone you've never met."

"Try me. You have anyone picked out?"

"What about...him?"

Her quarry is currently talking to the student in front of him, who's ignoring him.

Juliet focusses all her senses on him. What does she notice?

Well, he's currently talking to another student, but she's not really listening.

She can hear everything he's saying, and smell whatever cocktail of drugs he's taking. She could discern the specifics if she had any prior exposure.

"-next time, I promise. C'mon, you know you want to. Nobody passes up on a Diaz shindig."

"Okay, so. He's self-conscious about something that results in overcompensation and the relentless need to hit on anyone and everyone. Maybe has ADD? I mean, I'm not sure, but he's definitely taking something."

"Sounds about right. Maybe you should investigate."

"I mean, I don't really care enough to go talk to him. Is there any particular reason you want me to or are you just curious?"

"I'm trying to see how useful you'll be when we start campaigning."

"And who said I'm interested in campaigning? Maybe I just wanna reap the end result."

"You and Matt don't have to do politics, but if you're good at reading people and photography, I wouldn't mind using both skills. We can pay you for it, later, I'm just looking for a test run right now."

Juliet laughs. "I really don't have such a monopoly on Matt that I can pin him down for a political campaign that won't happen for at least twenty years... but. Sounds fun. I'll do it."

She looks for a spot near Josh.

Josh spots her, and turns away from the girl who was ignoring him.

"Hey, Salvatore. How was your night?"

She sits next to him and smiles.

"It was good. Spent the night at my cousins house and he has this awesome sound system. Spent most of it just listening to music, chilling out, you know?"

She starts listening to his heartbeat.

"What about you, get up to anything interesting?"

"I always get up to something interesting. Threw a party, got wasted, regretted it not at all."

Juliet laughs. "How are you even functional right now. I get the worst hangovers. I'm dead on my feet for like two days. Unless I take something for it."

"I'm used to it by now. Perks of being one of the rich and famous."

"Rich and famous?"

She raises an eyebrow.

"What exactly are you famous for?"

"Oh, not me. My dad. Famous filmmaker, woo. I'm not officially allowed to watch his stuff, since I'm such a doe-eyed little lamb, but I've seen them all by now."

"Would I have seen any of his movies?"

"You a big horror buff?"

"My favourite genre, yeah."

"Second Door Down, Welcome Home, Elephant in the Room...?"

"Oh! I've seen them. Elephant in the Room is really gory one? With that scene in the bathtub? That was awesome. Special effects were insane."

"I tried to recreate it when I was twelve, but my younger sister walked in. Last time I ever left a door unlocked."

"I can just imagine."

She laughs.

"You should host a movie night! Ohhh. Halloween is soon. I could dress up as the demon. Scare everyone shitless."

"You could. I probably have some priestly vestments in my basement somewhere, my dad keeps all his old props..."

"Lets do it then. It'll be my first high school party, have to make it memorable."

"Opinions on libations? Live music, smoke machine?"

"Smoke machine for sure. I'm not sure about live music, are there any good Halloween appropriate bands in town? No opinion on drinks: I was raised on bourbon which is probably not quite right for the occasion."

"I'll find us experts on the choice of alcohol. Bands who are willing to stick to the theme are easy, I'll scrounge one up."

"You've got this sorted already. Who would you invite?"

"My friends, your friends, people who want to go to a Diaz party...we're kind of known for our parties."

"I have like four friends. But I'm working on it."

"Now you have me. So I was thinking I'd need help with the decorating- not the big stuff, that'll we can pay people for, but the smaller stuff, and the setup. Grab one or two of your friends and come early."

"I can pitch in with any of the funds. But yes, I can cash in my newly earned friendship points and get them to be our unpaid labor," she jokes.

"Alright! This was a more productive math session than I expected, glad I showed up."

"I still could have done without the math."

"Math is super important for your future, though. You'll use calculus all the time."

She laughs. "You sound like my old tutor. He was constantly saying that everytime I tried to skip our math lessons."

"Yeah, math's not really my thing. I might pass the class, but I'm not retaining anything, and that's a promise."

"I'll pass. Handy perk of having such an great memory. But that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it."

She looks out the window. "I mean, I could be doing so much more interesting things right now. Taking pictures, kissing Matt, running or even, I don't know, fighting crime. You know, fun stuff."

"Why don't you?"

"I'm trying to prove a point, mostly. To my dad. That I can be a normal school attending teenager. Which requires math." She makes a face.

"Your dad doesn't want you here and you still come? I guess teenage rebellion is universal."

"Yup. He's definitely got it backwards. Next thing I know I'll be doing homework or my chores. Oh my god. This could just be a huge set up in order to get be to be a model daughter. That's genius."

"Sounds way too subtle. Not that I've met your dad, but I think it takes a special kind of person to forbid going to school."

"He doesn't disapprove of learning. He was very encouraging of my home schooling. He just needs to get used to me being out of the house. Didn't happen much before."

"That's the point of school. If you can't meet kids your own age, you might as well go in for self-mutilation."

"I wasn't completely cut out from people. I had the Walcotts, my cousins and some of their friends. Plus all my tutors. But yeah, there is a reason I'm doing this."

She pauses.

"Yeah. I'm staying and I'm gonna do well and I'm going to have so many friends and there's really nothing my dad can do about it."

"See, that's what I want to hear. You'll fit right in."

Josh attempts math. It goes.

Juliet begrudgingly does math. It's very math-y.

"Hey, so what's up with you and Whittemore?"

"Him and his friends are stalking me."

"What's a guy gotta do to get in on that action?"

"You're already half way there! Though you need to step up your interrogation of my home life another notch. Maybe some accusations of child abuse? That's a good start."

"I'm more into the getting stalked. Why'd he go and accuse anyone of that?"

"Lydia showed up unannounced at my house on Friday after I missed school. Then got a weird vibe from my dad after he didn't let her see me. So, must be abuse!"

Beat.

"I could take some pictures of you from outside your house if you want. I'll even draw love hearts on them and pin them to your locker! Very stalker-y."

"Could you? I've always wanted someone like that in my life, but my friends never seem to like it when I suggest it."

"Sounds like fun! I can work on my sneaking skills and see if I can do some creative stuff with my zoom lens."

"You too, Diaz. Also, here."

She writes down her number and gives it to him.

"For party prep and stalking purposes?"

"My two favorite activities."

He bows dramatically, one arm flinging out to the side. It hits a passing student, who glares at them.

"Catch you later."

She laughs and packs up her things.

"Later."

Is Jackson still around or can she hurry off to English?

She can hurry along!

And hurry she does.

She looks for Boyd when she arrives.

Boyd: exists.

Juliet will exist next to him then.

"Hey. So, question. How do you feel about parties and/or party decorating?"

"Am I invited to the party?"

"Of course you are invited to the party. This is me inviting you and also trying to recruit you to help with it. You can do either or both or none, your choice."

“I can help. When is it?”

"Halloween. Josh Diaz and I are planning it. I think he plans for us to mostly just set up the small stuff. I will compensate you with free alcohol and also my eternal friendship. Though, that's already a given."

“Obviously. I’ll help however I’m needed.”

"Thank you, Boyd."

She starts in on English.

"Do you have any thoughts on your costume? I really wanna go all out."

“I’m not usually into the whole dressing up thing.”

"Usually is not never. I could shop around for the both of us if you want. That way you don't have to stress?"

“Nothing too complicated, but if you want some kind of theme, I’ll be part of it if you need people. Should twenty dollars be enough?”

"Sure. I'll try to keep it cheap, but I warn you I might get inspired and spend a lot more. Of my own money, obviously. Would you be cool with that?"

“I can cover all of my own costume. Go nuts.”

"Kay. I'll take note of what I spend and you can pay me back whenever." She pauses. "I'm thinking Dracula. Ohhh. Maybe even Nosferatu. All old school and fancy looking. You could be my brides, if Erica and Matt want to join too."

"Sure. If you're going for a theme, you should probably find out everyone who's going, first."

"Mostly I was thinking everyone can pick their own theme. But. That's an idea. Universal Monsters, maybe?"

"I'll take whatever's left over."

"It'll be fun, don't worry. I mean, it's my first party ever. I'm going to make the most of it. Including costumes."

"I'll make sure to give you a lot of forewarning."

She does English.

"I invited Matt to hang with us at lunch, by the way. Figured he should meet you and Erica so you can both judge him appropriately," she jokes.

"I'll bring my most judgmental face."

"I'll expect nothing but your best then."

"Who's going to be joining us?"

"At lunch? Probably just Matt and Erica. Though Jackson, Lydia and Brian have been attempting to stalk me, so I wouldn't be suprised if they made an appearence."

"I don't think I'll stick around if we get a crowd, but I can handle Matt."

"I can tell them to leave. I might have to compromise and have lunch with them tomorrow though. Big groups aren't really my thing either."

"This is going to be the biggest group of anti-social people ever," he predicts.

"I think we can all make it work. How are you liking Erica?'

"I don't think I'm as charmed as you are, but she's fine."

"She's charming, so I am charmed. That's the process."

She continues with English, speeding through it.

Grammar does not, in fact, change year to year.

Thus passes English.

And then they can go to lunch.

Boyd goes to keep Erica company while Juliet collects Matt.

...Juliet doesn't actually know where Matt is. She looks around the the most obvious places first.

Matt manages to find his way to the cafeteria like everyone else.

Convenient! She goes up and greets him with a kiss.

"Hello again."

"Hello. Is that how we say hello, now?"

She smiles at him and nods once. "Unless you'd prefer a different method?"

"I think I like it. Shall we?"

And they go.

"I'm glad. It would have been difficult to restrain myself otherwise."

She detours them to grab their food.

Food is grabbed, seats taken.

Erica judges.

He kisses her again, and then he'll allow her to enjoy her food.

"So who am I trying to impress here? Besides you, Juliet. I assume I'm always trying to impress you."

"You really don't have to try very hard. Your very existance impresses me."

She smiles and addresses Erica. "You'll probably need more than that though, right?"

“He’s your boyfriend. If you want us to be friends, yeah, I’m gonna need more to work with.”

"I would like you to be friends. Hm."

She stares at Matt. "I'm pretty sure this is a job interview type situation. This is the part where you tell us about yourself," she says mock seriously.

"I like photography. I'm not sure there's much else to say."

"Uh huh. I guess I can give him a trial run."

"Are you interesting in going further with it? Do you want to do it professionally?"

"I'll at least take a class on it, if I make it to college."

"I'm hoping to apply for a course in the next year or so. What college do you like?"

"I didn't have anything picked out yet. I always figured I'd stay local."

"Is Beacon Hills really so appealing? My dad has had me pegged for Duke since I was three years old."

"I'm not wedded to it."

"Duke's art program is really good. My dad is an alumnus, as well. We have an apartment in town."

"You're a legacy? That's nice."

"Yeah, no kidding. I wouldn't want to go to my dad's school, though."

"I'm not wedded to it."

"We don't have to commit to anything now. We have time."

She smiles at him. "So much time. All of our high school career. But still. Photography courses are a thing I wanna look into sooner rather than later."

She looks to Boyd.

"What are the requirements for the military? What division are you interested in?"

He happily talks her ear off for a few minutes.

Erica eats her lunch.

Matt looks at Juliet. For a few minutes.

Juliet listens attentively to Boyd, pitching in with questions when needed.

She takes a hold of Matts hand in the meanwhile.

Handholding!

Awww! Barf. Sigh.

"I'm not sure I really get the military thing."

"You're rich, and you're an artist."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's fine that you don't get it. You wouldn't."

"I'm rich and an artist."

"And the fact that you get it is an impressive exercise in empathy. Or maybe it's that you like sports."

"Yeah, I'm not a huge sports fan. Unless Juliet's playing."

"I do like sport. I'm hoping my dad will let me try out for the swim team or track, maybe. Non-contact type stuff. Can't hurt anyone that way, right?"

To Matt: "You did say you were going to try out for lacrosse."

"Good luck. It must be hard having a strict dad."

"He's not so bad. Just a little over protective. I'm working on it."

"How long do you have to go to school before he realizes everything's fine?"

"Until I have a long track record of not- having an episode. Maybe a month or so."

Fullmoon is on the weekend, so. Not really a chance to show any sort of improvement during school hours.

"I pretty much broke out of the house yesterday without speaking to him about it."

"It sounds like a lot, though."

"My parents didn't want me to go to high school either. I had to beg to come."

"...you begged? Even though..."

"I wasn't going to miss out on high school."

"I begged and bribed and was a model daughter for a whole year. Worst year of my life," she jokes. "Stefan had my back though."

She looks to Erica.

"You have a thing too?"

"Epileptic seizures. People poke fun, laugh in the hallways, the usual. I wasn't going to let that stop me."

She frowns. "Me roughing them up probably wouldn't go well for any of us, right?"

"If you want to burn all your bridges now, you can try it. I was planning on keeping my head down."

"It's always been like that. That's what kids do."

"I don't care about bridges with idiots on them. Mostly I was talking about taking away any chance of being able to convince my dad of staying in school. Still tempted though."

"Beating people up won't help," he says firmly.

"The voice of reason," she sighs.

And then they must move on from lunch.

The rest of the day passes with little incident.

Juliet heads back to Damons apartment after school, texts Matt with her new phone and attempts to work out all her excess energy. The treadmill is boring, but better than running out in the street where anyone can see her. She gives his punching bag a workout.

Eventually frustration wins out and she speeds through her homework and leaves the house to take a long walk to the Preserve. There she can transform and run.

She heads back to the apartment just after midnight, though not before snapping a picture of the moon and surrounding trees and sending it to Matt.

Sleep takes her quickly. She does not think about her father. Nope.

She wakes up to a photo of his room, apparently taken from the window.

His bookshelf is too distant for her to see any specific books, but her view of his photography equipment is much clearer. There are posters on the wall. Most of the imagery is either gruesome or depressing.

Matt himself is sitting on his bed, fiddling with his camera.

She stares at the picture for a few minutes, fondness blooming in her chest. Since she has a little while before she needs to leave for school, she takes another picture. This one of the view from the balcony of the apartment, the sun rising and the town spread out behind her. She's still in her pajamas. They have little cartoon sushis on them.

She sends it off to him and then quickly has breakfast, gets dressed and starts on her walk to school.

She receives no further texts.

Instead, she receives a surprise kiss when she walks into school.

She is suprised!

"Hello to you too," she laughs. "Did you miss me that much?"

"If you didn't like it, I can try something different next time."

She shakes her head and gives him another kiss. "I liked it. I was just suprised. A nice suprise."

Another kiss. "You have a good night? I hope I didn't wake you with my midnight escapades."

"Don't worry. Can't scare me."

"Maybe. I can be pretty scary."

"You should show me some time. See you around, Juliet."

This startles her but she immediately responds, "Okay."

And they go off to their respective homerooms.

Juliet sits blindly into a seat. Aaand starts to freak out.

Is she.. going to tell Matt everything? Because that's what that felt like... can she do that? Her whole life she's been keeping her secret. She stayed away from any sort of life she could of had because of it. And now she's just going to... 

She hates lying. This is what she's doing. To Matt. She's lying to him and she doesn't want to. But. She's afraid.

Juliet is blind to everything going on around her, she can't focus...

Erica waves a hand in front of her face.

This catches her attention somewhat. She looks up at Erica, unfocused.

"Are you okay? You look a little spaced out."

"I- no." She notices her nails and her hands start shaking, she pulls her sleeves over them.

"No. I need to leave."

She can't breathe.

"Ms. Harrison? I need to go see the nurse. Can Juliet take me?"

"Of course, Ms. Reyes. Have her back in time for first period."

Erica stands, gesturing for Juliet to follow her.

Juliet stands and follows her into the hall. Her whole body starts shaking and she stops.

Her eyes flash red, she closes them. She takes ahold of her arm and breaks the skin, attempting control.

"...do what you need to do."

The pain doesn't work. Her arm heals so she does more damage, needs more pain.

She claws into her arm, blood erupting. It doesn't work.

So she runs.

Erica doesn't stop her.

Nothing stops her.

She's free to rampage on her own time.

She keeps running and running until she can't hold it any longer.

The transformation is violent and painful and then release.

She loses herself. The woods are her home and this is where she stays.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But she isn't alone.

There's something there, in the trees. It doesn't approach, but merely watches.

It looks human, besides the yellow eyes.

This is her place. They shouldn't be here. 

She growls at them in warning.

Good. She continues running and hunting and running.

This will go on for a while.

The woods are hers. The rabbits that flee from her are hers. The birds that fly away are hers. The leaves crunching underfoot are hers.

This is her forest. Her town.

Hers. The day passes into night and eventually her mind starts to clear.

Night turns to day.

No one bothers the newest alpha in Beacon Hills.

So she stays where she is and sleeps.

When she wakes her thoughts begin to race and she paces.

She'd lost control. At school. In front of Erica. She doesn't know what to do. What can she do? Go home?

No. She can't deal with whatever judgement and concern her dad would bring. Doesn't want to go back in her cell.

She needs to think of something to tell Erica... but lying. Not something she ever wanted.

And Matt. Lying to Matt is what got her into this. She wants to tell him everything. Why? She's only known him a week.

She needs to see him.

She transforms back into her human form and goes hunting for her clothes. It doesn't take long.

And then she starts walking. To Matt.

Matt's house looks the same as it always does.

There's a tree within reach of his window, for werewolf definitions of 'within reach'.

She listens first. Where is everyone in the house?

There are two people in the same room, sleeping.

There's another in Matt's room, clearly awake.

So she climbs up to his window. And knocks softly.

He answers, opening it.  She can hear the sound of piano music playing, along with something else.

It's discordant, but not loud. That, or this room is soundproofed.

"What are you doing here," he hisses quietly.

"I needed to see you," she whispers.

He steps aside, leaving the window open.

She climbs through the window, into his room and stands before him. Silent.

"What happened?"

"I-" her voice breaks, "I want to tell you. I'm scared."

"Whatever it is, it can't be worse than my secrets."

He hugs her, murmuring, "Juliet" into her hair.

She clings to him and continues to cry.

She's welcome to cry along.

The music eventually stops, but Matt doesn't let go.

The tears don't stop but she looks up at him and whispers, "I don't know what to do."

"Whatever's going on, you can tell me. You're the Hamlet to my Ophelia, right? The Cathy to my Heathcliff. Two hearts, one soul."

She kisses him.

She stops crying. For the first time in two days, she feels... calm. Everything about her relaxes and all her thoughts are of him.

Kissing worked. He tries it again.

This time she fully gives into it and pulls him closer, enthralled.

!!!

He pulls back eventually, because he doesn't want things to escalate too fast.

She's silent for a long time, just looking at him.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks..."

He closes his window.

"Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon," she quotes back, with a completely different meaning.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me."

Juliet sits on his bed, looks down at herself and immediately stands up again. Her clothes are dirty and her shirt sleeve is ripped and bloody.

She moves from the bed and away from him, nervous.

"Did Erica mention anything about... yesterday?" She looks out the window. "What day is it?"

"Still the same day, at least for another few minutes."

"Okay, okay. Um."

She starts pacing.

"I- I," she stutters, "I've never told this to anyone before. The people who know have always known and everyone else. There hasn't been anyone else," she starts rambling.

"Just start at the beginning."

"The beggining?" She looks at him. "Okay."

She looks down at her hands, examining them. "I was five years old when I first transformed. It was painful and messy and I nearly killed my dad. And from then on, every month on the full moon, it happens."

"Okay. You transform. Into what? The Incredible Hulk?"

"A wolf."

"Okay. Just on full moons? That seems pretty on-brand."

"The full moon forces the transformation, but I can change at any time. I don't have the best control of my emotions, which is a trigger..."

"Feelings are dangerous?"

"Yes and no? If I get too overwhelmed I can start to lose control. But then other things, emotions or sensation, can help me be calm. Pain helps..." she pauses, "and I think you help? I mean. I feel... calm and in control when I'm around you."

"At least that makes one of us?"

It's probably meant to be a joke, although his delivery is off.

"You make me feel safe. Like... myself. Everything is better when you're around."

Hug? Hug.

He'll hug her until she stops wanting to be hugged, really.

Hug. She tucks her head into his chest. Eventually she looks up at him.

"I can show you? I heal really quickly."