Prologue: Crash Landing

Alexandra Winchester had absolutely no time for this bullshit. Seriously, she was supposed to be having the time of her life, drinking far too much and flirting with all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons but oh, no. No, instead she was currently freezing her ass off as she stumbled through the pitch black woods. She doesn't even remember how she got here. One minute she was doing a tequila shot out of Becky Hammond's belly button to the delight of several college boys around her and the next she was eating a mouthful of dirt. She'd no idea where the hell she was, she'd literally never seen this place in her entire life. She swore violently as her stiletto wobbled over a tree root and she nearly took a header into the trunk. She caught herself in time but her hands took a serious scraping against the bark, she whimpered at the sting and pushed herself upright only to trip over god knows what and fall straight onto her back. She lay there stunned for a minute before screaming in pure frustration.

"Oh, fuck off!"

She held her breath, half hoping that someone, anyone, was going to reply to her deafening cuss but clearly luck was not on her side tonight because there wasn't so much of an owl hoot in reply. Just more dead silence. Seriously, there was not one sound, it was by far the creepiest thing she'd ever not heard. With an irritated huff she pushed herself back onto her feet, hissing as dirt pushed itself into her cut up hands. She straightened her spine and started walking again, giving herself a mental pep talk that she could absolutely make it out of this weird ass place and that any minute she would find a house, or a road or at the very least a gas station. She startled as someone moved to the left and she swore blind that it was a little girl in a pink dress. She paused in her stomping and squinted into the darkness, nothing moved and she let out a little nervous giggle. Why would a young girl be out here at this time of night. She wasn't even supposed to be out here this time of night.

"I've went insane."

Forty minutes and one humiliating pee in a bush later she was about ready to sit in the dirt and weep until someone found her or she died of exposure. Frankly at this point in time she wasn't even sure what one she would prefer. She was still half drunk, hungry, tired, cold and her feet were killing her. She was never wearing a pair of high heels again, even if you paid her. Perhaps she was becoming delirious but she actually was beginning to think that she could make out a car just ahead of her. She gave a little shout of excitement and hurried towards it, a new found energy at the prospect of finally, finally being rescued. However, on par with her luck this evening that was not going to happen. While, yes there was a car ahead, there was also another and another and a goddamn school bus but every single one of them was gutted and rusted and utterly useless. Of course she'd found a scrap yard and not a car park or a building or anything remotely useful to her right now. Screw her life. She was done. Done.

She stomped her way into the school bus and bitterly rejoiced that at least the stupid thing had functional seats. She took a seat onto the one with the most padding, her fingers angrily undoing her shoes and she kicked them haphazardly against the opposite window before flopping back across the bench, her now bare and swollen feet hanging over the edge. She could admit to herself that she was more than likely going to be murdered for taking a nap here but honestly right now she would have welcomed sweet death. She flung an arm over her eyes and started to count, she'd barely hit ten before she was out for the count.

At first when she woke she'd kind of forgot where she was or maybe she just hoping that it had been a horribly vivid dream but as her head made contact rather harshly with the solid metal behind her she realised that was a fruitless hope. She yelped and cradled the back of her head, the dull ache had her gritting her teeth before letting out a string of curse words that would have made a stripper blush.

"Oh, wow."

Her eyes shot open and she scrambled to sit up at the sound of a voice that was not her own. She squinted harshly at the sun streaming in through the window before her eyes fell on a young boy. He was gaping at her, mouth wide and she spotted several teeth missing. He had a compass clutched in one hand and a half eaten candy bar in the other. Her hand shot out and grabbed the candy and she shoved the remainder of the bar into her mouth with no remorse, a quiet moan leaving her at the sweet taste. Her stomach grumbled violently not satisfied with the little amount of food that it was receiving.

"Dude..."

She coughed a slight flush on her cheeks, "Sorry." Before deciding no she wasn't, "Actually, no. I'm starving and frankly I needed it more than you."

He looked like he was about to protest but she didn't give him the chance as she staggered to her feet and griped his shoulder, a momentarily relief shooting through her at realising he was in fact real. She gave herself a minute before griping him firmly and leaning down into his personal space.

"Where the hell am I?"

"How do you not know?" He scoffed, "Are you wasted?"

She glared at him, eyes wide and hair wild, "Look you little shithead -"

"Rude."

"Do I look like I'm fucking around right now? Look at me! Do I look like I belong here?"

He took her ranting as a literal direction and actually took a moment to look at her and deduced that no she clearly did not look like she belonged here. Bare feet, high rise leather pants, a cropped white top, make up smeared around her eyes and long tangled blonde hair. He would have called her pretty if not for the sheer murderous look in her eyes.

"Jesus, calm down." His eyes widened as she sucked in a sharp breath, her fingernails digging into his shoulder before she visibly reined in her temper and a soft smile replaced the crazy snarl she was previously sporting. Okay, wow, she actually was pretty.

"I'm sorry." She smoothed out the wrinkles she'd created on his top, "What's your name?"

He blinked at the new calm and soothing tone, "Dustin."

"Okay, Dusty. Can you just help a girl out? Please?" The fake tone took a real turn on the last word and he kind of felt sorry for her.

"Hawkins." She stared at him blankly, "Hawkins? You know Indiana?"

She kept staring before her gaze fell to his side and she frowned. He followed her gaze and saw she was staring at his radio. He shuffled a little uncomfortably at the intense attention.

"Do you have a phone?"

"Sure, at the house."

"You don't have an Iphone?" She trailed off at his look and smirked, "What? You more of a samsung kid?"

Now it was his turn to stare at her, "What?"

Lexa was officially nauseous and it didn't have anything to with the volume of booze she had consumed last night. Nothing was making sense, this little weird kid, his stupid radio, his lack of Apple vs Samsung rage. What kid didn't have a cell? She was one step away from hyperventilating. One more thing was about to set her off and she felt insane for even forming the thought never mind the words but she had to know for sure.

"What..what year is it?"

"Did you hit your head?"

"Kid, I swear to god!"

He flinches back from her shrieking voice, "Holy shit. It's 1984!"

Her grip goes slack and she sits with a thud back onto the seat behind her, her face stark white, eyes wide as she goes into a full on panic attack. Dustin eyes the door debating whether to make a run for it while he can but helping out weird girls has worked out well for him in the past so he decides to go with it.

"Are you okay?"

She laughs hysterically as she pants for air, "Well either I'm crazy, you're crazy or I've somehow time travelled to the past." She nods at nothing in particular, "No, clearly one of us is crazy. Don't worry, it's probably me."

Dustin is inclined to agree with her but then remembers Eleven and all the weird and awesome stuff she can do. No way. No way. What if she actually was? She seems pretty sure she is or she's insane but he's really hoping that it's the first one. His mind is currently blown right now. Not only did he meet someone with superpowers but now he's met some crazy girl that can literally move through time. Sure she seems a little mean but he can't judge her for it. It must be pretty mental when you first discover your powers, although he'd like to think he'd handle it a little better. Can you imagine being friends with an actual time traveller, he could go anywhere at any time whenever he wanted. Oh, he was so glad he left his compass here or he would have never met this pretty and completely psycho girl. It was fate.

He grinned a wide and toothless smile at her bent head, "You're awesome. I can't wait to show you to all my friends. I met a real life time traveller. Hah, suck it, Mike." He turns, easily finding her shoes and all but shoves them at her and impatiently gestures for her to follow him, "C'mon, let's go!"

She stares up at him as if he's the most stupid person she's ever come across, hysterical tears still flowing down her face, snot dripping from her nose and by god if she's not the most glorious thing he's ever seen.

Best day ever.