Chapter 1: The Beginning…

It was finally perfect after hours of work. The towers were even and tall, made for a royal family. Not anything like the his family, but a real family that didn't fight, whose father didn't smell funny, and whose mother didn't have to work too much and look so tired all the time. This sand castle was perfect, just like the family Scott also imagined himself having. But only seconds after putting the finally touch (a leaf flag) on it, a fountain of fluid came crashing over it sending it to ruins.

"Hey!" Scott jumped up in the sandbox, obviously furious at the brown-haired, brown eyed boy now standing before him as two older women came running over to the conflict. "That was my castle you jerk! My perfect castle and you ruined it! Why would you ruin it?" Everything seemed to keep being ruined. Even at such a young age Scott knew how tough life could be.

The boy smiled back at Scott. "I was saving you." He pointed down at the castle at something Scott had obviously not seen. "That bug. I heard the moms talking about lice. It sounds awful. I couldn't let the lice attack you, so I drowned it." He smiled proudly as the boys' mothers caught the conversation, reaching the sandbox exchanging smiles. They both had dark circles under their eyes but their faces were kind and understanding.

"Lice?" Scott looked at the bug in horror, he'd heard of the bug and instantly changed his mind about the castle. It couldn't have been perfect if it was infected. This would become something of a tradition: Scott being shown how something he once thought was perfect was flawed.

Melissa, Scott's mother, laughed as she knelt down by the boys. "That's really sweet of you sweetie, but that bug isn't lice, it's a beetle. And you can't just drown lice by peeing on it. You really should do your research before you go around trying to save people's lives." She didn't know it, but with that statement she had made an important impact, made a character trait for the little boy.

"Yeah, do your research." Scott smiled and held out his hand. "I'm Scott."

The little boy took Scott's hand and shook it a little too eagerly; he always seemed to have too much energy he couldn't control. Soon his parents would realize that maybe a run around the park wasn't enough to settle this energy. "I don't like my name, you can call me Stiles." He looked up at his mom as if to ask if that was okay and she nodded slightly with a smiled on her face. "Hey, do you want to go check the jungle gym?"

"Yeah!" Scott started to take off but stopped but Stiles held him back. "What?"

Stiles turned to Melissa. "How do you kill lice?"

The other woman laughed. "Don't worry about saving people Stiles, you're a kid. Just go play."

"But mom, we want to save people!" Scott stomped his foot a little and moaned before the two took off, fully prepared to ignore her statement and rid the playground of any evil, lice or worse, that threatened to hurt the children of Beacon Hills.

"Just when I was beginning to worry he was never going to make any friends." The blonde woman smiled at the two boys who seemed to instantly mesh. "I'm Claudia Stilinski." She held her thin, pale hand out for the other woman.

Melissa smiled and shook her hand gently. "Melissa. Wait, Stilinski? I think I was pulled over by a cop named Stilinski last week…"

Claudia smiled. "That was probably my husband. Sorry."

"No, he let me off with a warning. He was probably the most understanding cop I've ever met." She smiled and looked out at the boys who were now investigating the swings. "I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of each other. Scott is usually so shy. I've never seen him like this. I think Stiles will be good for him." She looked over in time to see Claudia's eyes flutter and her body sway just a little bit. Melissa, ever the dutiful nurse, reached over to give a helpful hand to the other mother before helping her to a bench. "Are you alright?"

Claudia smiled innocently. "Yeah, I'm sure I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping the best recently." She looked out to her son. "You know, I think those two will be good for each other." There was a feeling deep in her chest that those two would be best friends, soul mates in a sense. And she wasn't wrong, thank goodness, because in the next few years they were really going to need each other…