Math was horrible.
Many things in the "human" world, or reality as Stiles called it, were very confusing, and didn't make too much sense. But if there was one thing that Malia understood perfectly it was that math was horrible. Sure Lydia and Stiles had attempted to explain the benefits of knowing the subject, and how it applied to real life to her many times, but Malia could honestly careless about it. It was hard, and if she didn't need it to survive eight years of being a coyote and living in the forest, then she didn't need to learn it now.
Yes, it was true that she detested the subject, but there was one advantage to being forced to take Algebra two, and it was getting to study with Stiles. Now, logically Malia knew that she could hang out with her boyfriend whenever she wanted, as it was he already hardly complained when she would sneak into his room distracting him from whatever it was he was doing at the time. However it had been several days since she had been able to see him, it was nice to have a solid excuse as to why she was over so often.
So grumbling with eyebrows furrowed, she gathered up her textbooks and highlighters, stuffed them into her book-bag, and made her way to the Stilinski household. The usually short trek seemed unbearably long as she swiftly moved down the street, attempting to ignore the looks of curiosity, and suspicion being thrown her way by the people she passed. Despite it being over half a year since she had been found, the people were still cautious around the "feral woods girl". Stiles and her pack had encouraged her to ignore the whispers, they were adamant that they would go away with time, and that something new would come along to peak their interest. But Malia, even before her first shift, was always quick tempered, and so was often found screaming at a random citizen of Beacon Hills, while Stiles attempted to calm her down, and pull her away from the situation. After her many outbursts, the people believed that they had plenty of reasons to be scared of her, and so the looks continued.
Subconsciously, she let her feet carry her down the streets, turning left and right with little thought, having traveled the path so often that it was now ingrained into her brain. It only took a few minutes to get to his street, and she felt a sense of calmness instantly wash over her as she saw the familiar blue jeep sitting in his drive. The police cruiser was surprisingly also there, signaling that the Sheriff had either come home early, or that he had the late shift again, seeing him step out of the house in his uniform she guessed the latter.
Walking up the drive, she sent a small smile to the man who had already become more of a father to her then both Peter or Tate had ever been or ever will be. A warm wide smile emerged on his face, and he pulled her into a quick hug as soon as she reached his cruiser.
"Hey kid, how have you been? I haven't seen you for a while." Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she gently pulled herself from his embrace, never one for physical contact, unless it was with Stiles of course.
"I'm okay, Henry's been difficult since I've been out a lot lately, so I figured I should stay at the house for the weekend until he simmered down." The sheriff gave her a sympathetic look, all too familiar with Tate's anger, and the tense relationship between him and his daughter. Malia had still not let loose the information that Peter was biologically her father, but the knowledge had slowly begun to push her even further away from the man she once called Dad. She knew it was only a matter of time before their already strained relationship would break. Putting his hand on her shoulder, the sheriff gave her a soft smile.
"Well you always know that you have a home with us Malia." Pulling away he turned back to his car and opened the door, "I have to get to work, but Stiles should still be in his room, I know he'll be happy to see you." Giving him a small smile and a nod of thanks, she turned away and walked the rest of the way up the drive to the front door. Pulling it softly open she turned around just in time to see the Sheriff pulling out of the driveway, before shutting it once more. Turning around she let the familiar scents wash over her, and inhaled deeply, instantly smelling Stiles up in his room, just as she had been told. Moving quietly up the stairs she turned right and peered through the open doorway, the sight that met her eyes made her smile softly to herself.
Stiles was hunched over his desk eyes glued to the bright computer screen only inches from his face. A pencil dangled loosely in his right hand, pointed over a notebook that was already filled with what she assumed was research. A clan of Wendigo's had been sniffing around Beacon Hills, attacking and killing campers and hikers who had ventured out into the woods. Stiles, of course, had promised Scott and Derek that he would look into them before tonight's pack meeting. Shaking her head fondly she crossed into the room, and peered discreetly over his shoulder, cringing at the particularly violent article about cannibalism he was reading.
"So is this why you missed school today, you've been researching about flesh-eating monsters all day?" Stiles jumped violently at the sudden noise, and fell clumsily out of his desk chair, his body sprawling onto the ground. Looking up with a glare, his face morphed into a look of happiness as he noticed it was Malia standing there, biting her lip to keep from laughing at his plight. Bouncing up with energy she had come to miss during their few days apart, he pulled her gently towards him and kissed her lightly on the lips. Letting out a snort of humor at his gentleness, she laced her fingers into his hair, and pulled him into a deeper kiss, one he meet with enthusiasm. After a few moments he pulled away from her lips, but not from her embrace.
"Why are you here?" Malia tensed and looked down, a little hurt at the question, noticing her look Stiles hurriedly pressed forward "Not that I'm not happy to see you! I just meant I thought you were hanging with Henry until he calmed down about you leaving so often?" Relaxing slightly, she moved at of his arms and pulling her book-bag off she flopped gracelessly onto his bed, depositing the bag onto the floor with a thump.
"I told him we had planned a study date, which is technically true, besides I couldn't stand another minute in that house. He always yells at me for going out, but then when I'm there he goes out of his way to avoid me, its aggravating." Flopping down next to her, Stiles pulled at the hand she had folded over her stomach and grasped it with his own, rubbing circles on the back of it with his thumb. He didn't say anything and he didn't have to, Malia knew that he was there for her, just like he had always been. Sitting up she pushed thoughts of Tate from her mind, and glanced back up at the computer screen Stiles had abandoned. Following her gaze, he strode over and picked up the notebook he had previously been writing on.
"To answer your earlier question, yes, this is why I missed school today, you know there is surprisingly a lot of information out there about Wendigo's. They basically exist in every culture just under different names, but they all seem relatively similar there's windago, windiga, witiko, wihtikow, etc., etc. Some believe that Wendigo's were once humans, who under terrible circumstances had to resort to cannibalism to keep from starving, but then they grew an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Other's however think they are demons, or at least humans possessed by demons, either way to survive they need to eat people. Which explains why the campers, and hikers bodies haven't been found, because there is no body to find!" Malia laughed softly at his rambling, most would be disturbed at his obvious excitement, but she knew that it was caused by learning new things, and piecing all the information together, and not by the idea of cannibalism. Stiles stopped talking noticing her laugh, and set the notebook down.
"What so funny?" He asked, looking slightly abashed as he realized he had been rambling, pulling him back down onto the bed she captured his hand with hers once more.
"Only you would get this excited about flesh eating monsters". He smiled back at her and picked up the notebook, handing it to her with a grin.
"It's actually pretty interesting, I mean not only are there so many stories about these creatures dating back to several centuries ago, but there is also a physiological phenomenon named after them called Wendigo psychosis, which occurs when someone is literally craving humans, Hannibal Lector style with a side of fava beans, or when they think they might be a cannibal. You should read it you might find it interesting." Malia groaned and pushed the notebook back to him.
"Stiles I love you, and you may like to do extra work outside school, for whatever reason, but I struggle when I have to do homework that is actually assigned to us. So I think I'll pass, you can just fill me in when we talk to the others at the pack meeting later." Stiles grinned and glanced quickly at her previously forgotten book-bag sitting on the floor near the edge of his bed.
"That's right we have a study date, and judging by your look of disdain I'm going to go ahead a guess that the subject we are working on has an abundance of equations that need to be solved?" Malia groaned again.
"I hate math, can't I just go back to being a coyote? Coyotes don't need to learn math, you know what they need to learn? Basic survival skills, I lived all of my life without algebra two, and I think I can live the rest of my life without it as well." Stiles laughed, and picked up her book-bag from the ground, pulling it in-between them.
"Unfortunately Beacon Hills curriculum disagrees with you, so for now we should probably just focus on getting you to pass the class." Malia frowned, but pulled out the textbook and flipped it open to the assigned page, letting her eyes scan it briefly she felt disgust rile up within her.
"I hate slope." Stiles rolled his eyes and pulled out his own book-bag.
"I thought you hated all of math?"
"I do, but I hate slope specifically." I small chuckle escaped his lips and he looked down at the page she was glaring at.
"Don't worry Malia, these problems are all actually relatively easy." In what universe was this considered easy? She wondered. Seeing her look of confusion he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down the equation. "Slope = m, remember? And m= y/x, or more specifically y2-y1 over x2-x1, so to find slope you just need to find both of the y's and x's."
"But there isn't a y or an x on the page, there are just coordinates!" She shouted in frustration, Stiles patiently pointed to the two sets of numbers she was speaking about.
"Those are x and y, remember the first one is always x and the second number is always y." That she seemed to understand, and with Stiles directing her on where she had to put what, she managed to put the numbers in the right places and get m.
"Am I done now?" She asked her aggravation towards math still bubbling slightly under the surface, and her mind still confused on how exactly she managed to get slope. Stills checked her paper, and shook his head slightly.
"Not yet, now you have to find tan."
"WHAT THE HELL IS A TAN?"