Before The Start

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.

Author's Note: This is my first time writing anything for this fandom also it's been a few years since I've seen the show though I do plan to re-watch it at some point now that I have the whole series on DVD. Also, I tried to be accurate with ages, in third grade, Lydia and co would be eight or nine, right? This chapter is unbeta'd all mistakes are mine! Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Childhood Take-Two

Lydia's eyes fluttered open to see a very particular sight; it was a child's bedroom.

But not just any child's room it was her childhood bedroom. Sitting up she was suddenly very much awake her eyes took in what they could through the dim light shining behind her periwinkle curtains.

Her walls were aquamarine with dolphins, sea horses and other sea creatures decorating it. She must be dreaming; it was the only thing that made any sense. At that thought she looked down to see that even her bedsheets were accurate for the time setting, they were designed to look like waves.

This was clearly the bedroom she had during her mermaid phase or as she told everyone else to sound more grown up, her marine biology themed room.

Nine-year-old Lydia had big dreams.

Lydia had wanted to be a mermaid when she grew up.

And if that didn't pan out, she would simply find a mermaid and be 'fabulously' rich and famous. Those were her words to herself at the time because just being plain rich and famous wasn't enough obviously.

The strawberry blonde girl had not told her mother of this dream though, no she let her believe that her idea career was to 'study fish' as her mom called it.

Her mother only humored her because she knew her daughter would outgrow it before she got serious about it and like most other times, the older woman had been right. By the time she was eleven Lydia had fantastic dreams of becoming a hairstylist with her own salon. However, that crashed and burned early once she gave herself a rather horrible burn with her mother's curling iron.

Worse than the burn though was her mother's reaction at the possible scarring, luckily it healed nicely.

Her trip down memory lane was cut short when she caught sight of hands. Her hands.

She didn't panic not even when she saw how tiny her hands appeared. Lydia simply raised them up and wiggled her fingers as if to prove that they were really hers. It was hard to believe her hands had ever been so small.

Now Lydia was no stranger to dreams that were ultra-realistic and obviously that's what was going on.

Usually, it had to do with being a Banshee, but this didn't seem like one of those.

But the girl was still sure that it was a dream. Afterall there was no other explanation.

Using her newly tiny hands she gripped the soft covers and pulled them away all the while rubbing her thumb across them and marveling at how real it felt.

She blinked as she saw what she was dressed in.

Even her pajamas were mermaid themed; she didn't remember going all out like this but apparently, she had even if only in her mind.

Getting out of bed made her stumble as if not used to the distance her legs to the floor now made, her entire balance seemed to be off as well. It was way too much detail even for the most realistic of dreams. Still, it must be a dream, it had to be.

But the more she focused on her senses the more real it all appeared. She was standing just beside her bed on the soft rug made to look like seaweed, it felt way too real. Lydia wiggled her toes feeling the soft plushness of the fake seaweed and tried to keep from panicking.

It was just a dream, get a grip, Lydia.

What had Stiles done to prove to himself that he was asleep again? Her gaze left the rug and found her bookshelf, there weren't a lot of books it, mostly it had stuffed animals and other trinkets she could only vaguely remember.

Lydia walked somewhat awkwardly over to the shelf and grabbed a random book; it was a well-worn one.

You can't read words when you're asleep.

Stiles had said that.

Lydia took a deep breath and opened her eyes that she didn't remember closing and lowered her gaze to the cover.

It had a unicorn on it and read 'The Last Unicorn.'

The book slid from her hands.

The corner of the book hit her foot and she winced, it hurt.

Nothing horrible but it was noticeable as was the slightly red spot on top of her foot but that was forgotten as her eyes once again followed the words and read them.

She read them.

This wasn't a dream…

That meant it was something supernatural.

"What type of hellish creature are we dealing with now!?" Her voice was so young and childish but in her frustration she hardly noticed.

Her mother seemed so young as Lydia's eyes followed her while she bustled around getting ready for the day. "Lydia dear eat your breakfast." She told her daughter while putting on an earring.

"Yes, mama." Lydia brought her spoon up to her mouth and took a bite not really tasting the oatmeal, her stomach was in knots and she didn't want to eat but she couldn't draw attention to herself either.

This supernatural hallucination or worse time traveling nonsense had sent her back to the early 2000s.

Back to a time when her parents had only divorced a year or two prior and when her mom was still young, not as young as herself of course but how had she never noticed how truly young her mother had been back then?

Raising her all on her own at an age not too far off from Lydia's real age, the strawberry blond didn't think that she could handle such a thing. Lydia blinked as that thought hit her, how old was she?

What was the last thing that she recalled?

"Lydia?"

The girl jerked up and meet her mother's tired eyes, "Yes?"

"What's wrong, you're awfully quiet this morning."

Lydia shrugged only to receive a frown in response, "That's not an answer." The young woman pulls out a chair and sits across from her, "Now what are you thinking so hard about?"

Had her mother always been so watchful? Maybe? Lydia couldn't recall but she had become busy with work and they rarely just sat and talked especially when she was this young.

Usually they'd speak on the phone… oh right this was when she was too young to have a cellphone. In fact, most people didn't have them, yet did they? What year had it become normal for everyone to carry one? The history of cellphones wasn't something she was well versed in but she hadn't received her own until her tenth birthday and she was pretty sure her first had been a monstrosity with buttons all over the front of it, not even a flip phone.

Lydia had loved it for the first year or so then she upgraded to the previously mentioned flip phone, it was pink. What had she been thinking? Maybe it was her Barbie phase… no that's no excuse.

Focusing back on the present, or at least what appeared to be her new present she bit her lip and tried to think of a good response but just then the house phone rang saving her from having to think up something, "Sorry Lydia, I need to get that."

Lydia nodded and watched her mother leave the room, thankfully there wasn't a phone on the kitchen wall but in the hallway leading to it so the young girl carefully got up still not used to her own limbs and proceeded to throw away the oatmeal before trying to rinse it out and only somewhat succeeding due to her height or rather her lack of height.

Being short was something she was used to but not this short, she would never complain about her height again if whatever force just sent her back into her actual body.

After that she went back to her room to get dressed as much to the girl's displeasure it was a school day.

Of course, she couldn't have been sent back during the summer or at least on a weekend, it would've helped her get her barring and that was simply too much to ask for it seemed.

Lydia walked quickly to her closet trying not to think of anything else for the sake of not wearing herself out first thing in the morning. The now-child figured she'd have more than enough time during grade school today.

As that would clearly require no real brainpower.

Opening her closet, the little girl looked over her outfits and came to a startling realization. She wasn't the same girl that wore these outfits. Obviously, she was older in her mind but it was more than that. Lydia ran her hand over some of the dresses and frowned at them.

She was well on her way to becoming someone that she wasn't, that she didn't want to be… again.

Being the pretty popular girl with all the most in fashion clothes and hair didn't mean anything to her, it hadn't made her happy. Lydia liked to look nice it was true but there were more important things than that.

She had been covered in blood both her own and others with her hair messed up and her makeup smeared from tears and sweat more than once and it hadn't registered. Because whatever else was happening to her and her friends was the most important thing during those times.

She missed them and wished they were here, but they weren't. She was in this, whatever this was alone. Tears started to well up in her eyes but she hastily wiped them away knowing that she didn't have time to break down right now and didn't have a way to explain it to her mother if she did.

Still she wasn't ashamed of her tears because Lydia had gotten past the need to hide her face away when she cried.

"Because I think you look really beautiful when you cry."

"Stiles…" Lydia whispered watery as his words came back to her.

She didn't know what to do about this and wished that she didn't have to deal with it all alone.

She wanted to wake up.

Lydia never admitted it aloud but she had been lonely and knew her friendships were fake before she met Allison and opened up to Stiles and the rest.

Her eyes widened.

Allison… she was alive.

If this was really the past then her first best friend was alive and well and… wait the Hale fire! Has that happened yet? Sure, she wanted to go back to her own time, with her own friends and be herself again but if she could change things, make them better then she had to try right?

Her mind was overflowing with events and dates and suddenly her wardrobe was forgotten as she scoured around for her schoolbag and upon finding it grabbed out a notebook and a pencil.

From there she began to make as accurate of a time flow chart as she could. She did this until a knock on her door startled her, "Lydia," The door opened revealing her mother who looked at her daughter perplexed, "why aren't you dressed? We have to leave in a few minutes or you'll be late for school."

"Oh right, I'm getting dressed now!" She jumped off her bed and shoved her notebook back into her bag before running into her closet and grabbing whatever touched her hand first and pulling it out before she proceeded to undress and put it on.

"…Lydia are you okay?"

Lydia paused in her dressing and looked towards her worried mother, "Why wouldn't I be?"

The girl hoped her previously wet eyes had cleared up and didn't show that she had nearly cried but her mom wasn't looking at her face instead at the mismatched outfit she had chosen, "Opps, my bad." Lydia laughed nervously before heading back into the closet and choosing more carefully.

A simple yellow sundress with some white flats and showing it to her mom, Natalie nodded and walked away still unsure of her daughter's rushed behavior regarding her clothes.

After getting her dress on she looked to just above her knees where it fell and then went back into her closet and found a simple pair of white capris and put them on underneath, they were a bit longer than her dress but looked alright with it.

While Lydia still liked to wear dresses having a pair of shorts under had become a bit of a habit with all of the supernatural shenanigans that went on around her. It was better than flashing her friends and enemies. Which had happened on more than one occasion, live and learn.

Slipping on her shoes she grabbed her Little Mermaid backpack to zip it up only now noticing the theme as she did so and hurried to meet her mom.

During the ride to school, Lydia had looked outside at the familiar surroundings, it was strange not to be the one driving herself to school. Sure, there were times when she rode with her friends but it was surreal that it was her mother driving her.

Also, she was too worried about slipping up with her mom further so she kept quiet, this unfortunately for her didn't have the effect she wanted as instead of ignoring her the older woman kept glancing at her as if trying to figure her out.

It was unnerving.

When they arrived Lydia all but jumped out of the car when her mother called out, "Lydia remember I work late today so you have to take the bus!"

She didn't bother to hide her distaste at the idea, her mom smiled at seeing a normal reaction from her daughter but drove away with a wave.

The school bus, when was the last time she had been forced to take that when it wasn't for a school trip? It wasn't the worse thing but it wasn't a pleasant way to start off her first day in the past either…

Lydia turned around and headed into the slightly familiar building and as she did the girl found herself with a new problem.

She didn't remember what room was her classroom.

Looking around she tried to find a familiar face, one that she possibly had a class with but all she saw were children. They didn't look like anyone she knew; she couldn't see any of her friends in their young faces. Maybe that was because at this point her real future friends hadn't been here.

Well, except for Stiles.

As if summoned by thought a small familiar boy stumbled into the hallway, it was Stiles.

Lydia couldn't help but stop and stare at the little boy, it hit her then that while she recognized him, she didn't at the same time. Back in their shared past, she had never once interacted with him, no that's not right.

Lydia had ignored him.

Watching the awkward, clumsy boy that was one of her best friends she couldn't see why. No that's not right, she knew why.

Because he was awkward and clumsy, as well as loud and clearly a lower-middle-class boy if even that and certainly not destined to be popular.

Why had that mattered? It shouldn't have.

But it had.

She had not seen how smart, kind, funny, and loyal Stiles was when they were children. Nearly missed it in her teenage years but now she knew better.

Back then all Lydia had seen was what she wanted to see. She wanted to be popularity, wanted everyone to envy her. Wanted people to want to be her, want to have the things that she had. None of that even really mattered, it never did and never will.

Lydia had decided when she pulled out that notebook to change the past for the better, she wanted her friends safe and happy. For once she wanted something that wasn't just about her. But looking at this small boy who would one day be the Stiles she knew she wanted one last thing for herself.

Because what could be better than becoming Stiles' friend? And this time without all the supernatural stuff right at the start, at least hopefully without it.

But this was Beacon Hills so there was no guarantee.

That didn't matter though for while she didn't have any concrete plans before she arrived at school, she now had one.

Befriend Stiles.

Author's Note: I'm marking this as complete for now, but one day I think I'll come back and make it into a multi-chapter fic! Anyways, review maybe?