Thunk. Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Tap.
Groaning in frustration, Riley pushed herself up and out of bed to deal with the source of the annoying sounds outside her window. She hadn't been asleep, too busy tossing and turning and trying to get there, but people—person—throwing pebbles at her window never meant anything good.
With a few scoots and hops, she was off her bed and taking that last step to get to her window. She could have opened it with her eyes closed and still known precisely what she would see: Stiles with a handful of pebbles stolen from her neighbour's yard, looking every bit the little shit he always was, and Scott with a guilty look on his face as he scanned around to see if the idiots would be caught in her yard.
She was exactly right, of course. As much as she was tempted to just throw them back the finger and slide her curtain closed, Riley knew that it wouldn't stop the sounds of tiny rocks hitting her window and the walls around it. Stiles' aim had only barely improved from when he first decided to Romeo and Idiot it up outside her house in the middle of the night.
Riley unlocked and slid the window open just in time to watch disdainfully as one last pebble bounced off the wall next to her. Turning her unimpressed gaze to the boys below her, Riley leaned out of her window enough to talk down to them. "What do you want?"
Stiles dropped all his pebbles so he could properly flail his arms at her, trying to convey his excitement through his movements rather than volume. "There's a body in the woods!" He whisper-shouted up to her, and Riley had to admit that it peaked her interest.
"A dead one?" She asked, earning a huff from Stiles and an excited smack to Stiles' arm from Scott.
"Yes, a dead one! Am I surrounded by idiots here?!" Riley let Scott squawk in offense for them both, using her time that would usually be spewing out some dry remark to instead to pull herself back inside and begin locating a pair of pants.
Looks like she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.
"We're seriously doing this?" Scott asked as he and Stiles exited the jeep, Riley a few frustrated moments behind as she ungracefully crawled out of the vehicle.
Shoving her hands into her sweater's pockets, she hurried her pace for a quick moment to align herself with her friends. "No, there's a tea party waiting for us ten trees in. You caught us," she dryly teased the boy, though Riley could admit that she was a bit nervous as well. Three unarmed teens wouldn't do well against a maniac who managed to cut a person in two, she bet.
Scott bumped his arm against hers in response to her teasing, but as usual, easily bowled on. "I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow," he confessed, earning a snort from Stiles as the three began to hike through the woods. Stiles took the lead while Scott lingered behind Riley. He was either prepared to help her back up if she tripped over a root or trying to make the girl feel safer by being between her two boys. Either way, Riley was thankful she wasn't the one with the dark of the forest at her back.
"Right! 'cause sitting on the bench is such a grueling effort," Stiles mocked, earning an unseen smirk from Riley. Scott and Stiles got the same amount of action at the games as she did watching it from the stands.
"No, because I'm playing this year," Scott was quick to defend, though even he sounded doubtful. "In fact, I'm making first line."
"Hey, that's the spirit!" Stiles glanced back, catching sight of Riley's silent laughter, and quickly turned his gaze back ahead of him. "Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one. Just don't start crying on us in the way of the flying-Riley of '05."
Riley rolled her eyes, though she instantly regretted it as she stumbled over a rock. She steadied herself quickly without the help of Scott's delayed hand at her elbow, but muttered a quick 'thanks' to the teen regardless. He gave no response and with a few strides, he was next to Stiles to continue their conversation. The brunette scowled at their backs and glanced behind her to the depth of the woods before picking up her own pace.
She did her best to look bored and careless as she followed the two, not wanting to be mocked for her fear. "Which half of the body are we looking for?" She drawled, shoving her hands back into her pockets.
"Huh. I didn't even think about that," Stiles admitted with a breathy chuckle as he powered on ahead again, giving Riley a chance to scoot herself into the middle of the makeshift line again. Her shoulders had only a second to relax before Scott voiced the question she herself had been worried about.
"And, uh—what if whatever killed the body is still out here?"
A pause. "Also something I didn't think about."
Riley's scowl deepened. Of course he hadn't. Stiles had always been the type to rush forward without thinking, something Riley hated about him in the way that everyone hates reflections of themselves in people. Left alone without Scott's admittedly only occasional rationality, Stiles and Riley had gotten into more than their share of trouble. In fact, they had likely gotten into enough trouble that the entire teenage population of Beacon Hills could rest easy knowing that there were people fucking up out there on their behalf.
"If I die out here, I'm going to haunt your ass so goddamn hard, Stilinski," she vowed as the trio began fumbling their way up the hill, Scott lagging behind to take a hit from his inhaler. Stiles was saved from needing to respond to her threats, however, as when they reached the top, he immediately had to flatten himself to the ground at the sight of a dozen other people with flashlights.
Riley was not as lucky, and could do nothing but wince as a flashlight was shone towards her bright red sweater. Busted. The person holding the flashlight quickly approached, and Riley wasn't surprised to see the Sheriff was the one shining a light in her face. He had a sixth sense for their shenanigans.
"Riley?" He questioned disapprovingly, thankfully lowering the beam of light from her face to her shoes. Knowing that the boy at her feet would be next to be discovered, Riley plastered on a cheery smile and kicked out to the side to hit his ribs.
"And Stiles!" She exclaimed over his yelp, and watched with satisfaction as the light was shone into his face instead. With all the usual Stilinski grace, he stumbled his way into standing and greeted his father with a wave.
"Dad! How ya doin'?"
"So, do you listen in to all my phones calls?" Sheriff Stilinski questioned his son with an air of defeated agitation to him, once again lowering his light.
Stiles let out a small laugh as if the question was preposterous. "No!" And after a moment, "Not the boring ones." Riley bit her lip to keep from smirking, but the sheriff knew her well enough to spot her amusement. He shot her a look which hadn't succeeded in wiping any sort of look off her face since she was twelve before returning his attention to his son.
"And where is your usual partner in crime?" He questioned him. Stiles immediately pointed his finger to Riley, who in turn pointed to herself, but the sheriff wasn't buying it. Taking a new route, Riley dropped her hand and instead clapped it onto Stiles' shoulder.
"He's at home, Sheriff. Tonight's date night, you know," Riley said with a wink. As expected, the man didn't buy it and began shining his flashlight through the trees in search of the last member of the troublesome trio.
"Scott! You out there?" He hollered into the silence, receiving no response but a howl of the wind. "Scott!" He yelled once more before giving up and turning his attention back to the two in front of him. He let out a sigh before closing the distance between them and putting a firm hand on Stiles' nape, beginning to lead them back out of the woods. Both he and Riley knew that the girl would follow silently, and so the girl did. "I'm going to walk you back to your car, and then we're all going to have a little talk about something called invasion of privacy."
"Kevin mentioned something like that when I read his diary," Riley quipped, always happy to tease the sheriff regardless of the situation she was in.
"And I'll mention something like that to Kevin after I take you home," the man retorted, wiping the grin off Riley's face. Fuck.
She definitely wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
"I bought some lunch meats if you wanna make yourself a sandwich for lunch," Kevin offered as he bustled around the kitchen making himself breakfast the next day, not needing to turn around to notice Riley as she shuffled down the stairs into the kitchen. Their house was old with floors that creaked with every step, the stairs especially loud unless one knew where to step. Both knew that Riley had long since memorized those spots and simply didn't care to walk them first thing in the morning.
Riley mumbled an affirmative to Kevin's suggestion and walked near-blindly to the fridge to start making her lunch. She had been right the night before, and she barely got four hours of sleep after the scolding Kevin had given her. There were power points involved. It still wasn't particularly memorable.
For the next three minutes, the kitchen was full of noise but no conversation. The toaster ticked annoyingly as it prepared two bagels, one for Kevin and one for Riley, and the coffee machine made its usual angry bubbling noises. The two moved around each other easily as they prepared breakfast and lunch, and as the coffee machine beeped its finality and Riley went upstairs to get dressed, Kevin stayed to finish.
The routine was old now. The only time it was ever disturbed were the days Kevin left early or Riley slept in, and both could admit—only to themselves—that mornings weren't the same unless they were squeezing past the other to get to the cutlery drawer.
"Wear a sweater today," Kevin said up the stairs, and didn't wait for a response before grabbing his share of the consumables in the kitchen and leaving the house.
Riley couldn't remember the last time Kevin told her he loved her, or when she last said it to him. There were others ways of reminding each other, after all. And as Riley grabbed a cardigan to wear for the day, she said I love you, too.
"Don't tell me you started the strip show without me," Riley said in the place of a greeting as she approached Scott and Stiles half an hour later in front of the school, having witnessed from a few yard away Scott pulling his shirt up. Her humor was lost when she saw the blood-stained bandage covering up her friend's abdomen, however. "Holy shit, Scott," she swore in disbelief before raising her hand to smack Stiles upside the head.
"Ow! What was that for?!" He hollered as he rubbed the back of his head, glaring at the girl while Scott let his shirt drop with a surprised laugh.
"That's your fault!" Riley accused, pointing a finger towards the now covered wound. "You brought poor, defenseless Scotty into the scary woods and left him there by his lonesome!" Scott's smile fell into a pout as he realized Riley was making fun of him, though Stiles couldn't seem to decide what emotion to show on his face. For now, it was a mix of outrage and amusement.
"I don't think I would have been much help against the wolf that bit him," Stiles finally responded, mockery clear in his tone and finally, on his face. The group began moving towards the doors to the school, their pace decidedly leisurely next to the rushed ones of the freshman bolting towards the doors.
Riley's brows raised as she gave her attention back to Scott. "You think a wolf bit you?" She asked disbelievingly. "California hasn't had wolves for like fifty years."
"Sixty," Stiles corrected, quite needlessly in Riley's affronted opinion. The girl snorted and rolled her eyes in response to the smartass, and sensing an incoming verbal brawl or another smack to Stiles' head, Scott spoke up again.
"If you guys don't believe me about the wolf, then you're definitely not going to believe me when I tell you that I found the body." At his words, Stiles flailed to a stop, his companions halting a well to avoid walking into a flying fist.
"Are you kidding me?" He asked, his smile wide enough to break his face and his eyes hopefully wide.
Scott shook his head and looked away from Stiles, not sharing his friend's excitement. "I wish I was. I'm going to have nightmares for a month."
"Maybe it was the dead body that bit you and now you're going to become a zombie," Riley offered up with a laugh, making Scott chuckle with her. Stiles, however, was too lost in his amazement to respond to the girl's humor, instead continuing on with his own train of thought.
"This is amazing. This has got to be the best thing that's happened to this town since—" his eyes strayed to the side and lit up in a way that both Scott and Riley were more than used to. A redhead was clearly coming this way, Riley thought, and was proved correct when Stiles stuttered his sentence in another direction. "—since the birth of Lydia Martin."
Riley raised a hand to cover her mouth, and therefore, her laugh, as Lydia continued her power strut right passed them without sparing the boy talking to her even a single glance. Poor Stiles had been in love with the girl since the third grade, which was a true show of dedication seeing as she had never given him even a second of her time. Riley had long since stopped feeling sorry for the boy's unrequited feelings.
"Lydia, you look… like you're going to ignore me…" Stiles trailed off and turned his attention back to his snickering friends. He scowled at the two and raised a hand to gesture between them. "You're the cause of this, you know. Dragging me down to your nerd depths," he accused.
Riley took that as her cue to roll her eyes and begin leading the group into the school once more, leaving Scott to good-naturedly agree with Stiles and follow. The lanky boy continued to complain as he trailed after the two, but both knew he didn't mean it. Besides, Riley thought to herself, she wasn't the one wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.
Riley expertly weaved her way through the hallway after first period, her backpack slung over one shoulder held there with a hand—too many times had it been shouldered off by some asshole who couldn't watch where they were going. Not needing to go to her locker, her feet led her instead towards Scott's, which was apparently a popular choice. Already she could see both Stiles and Abbie there, the three already in conversation.
"—beautiful people flock together," she heard Stiles say once she was within earshot, and she quickly took her chance to integrate herself into whatever they were talking about.
"Why am I hanging around you hobos, then?" She mocked. Stiles gave her a fake, breathy laugh and a scowl, but Scott seemed to be off in his own world. She followed his gaze to see Lydia Martin, Jackson Whittmore, and a girl she didn't recognize. A single eyebrow raised in confusion—usually Stiles was the one she caught staring at pretty girls. "What's up with him?" She inquired as she pointed a thumb to the boy in question.
"He's got a thing for the new girl. Allison something," Stiles explained and jerked his head towards the pretty girl talking to Lydia and Jackson. Riley let her own gaze linger, scrutinizing the brunette. She really was quite beautiful, with gorgeous curly hair Riley would kill for. Her own hair never looked so expertly styled, though that was likely because she was too tired in the morning to bother with a curling iron. She wondered if Allison had any tips for getting it done quickly? She didn't seem like the type who would want to spend an hour getting ready, so maybe— "Don't tell me we've lost you, too."
Her attention snapped back to Stiles who was giving her a knowing look, and Riley scowled at him. "Shut up," she replied intelligently before turning on her heel and beginning off in the direction of her next class, Stiles' laugh following her. The boy himself followed a second after, easily catching up to Riley with his much longer strides.
"They have a suspect in custody," he shared with her, and Riley turned her head just enough to give him a confused look. "For the body," he added on in explanation, and Riley's mouth parted in a small 'o'.
"I guess that means we can venture into the woods at night again without the fear of being cut in half," she mused, and realized her mistake a moment later as Stile's arm wrapped around her shoulder and his condescending coo reached her ear.
"Aw, I knew you were scared!"
The yelp he let out after Riley shoved him off of her and into a locker was music to her ears.