CHAPTER 1 : Regulation
[disclaimer ; few of the following characters original characters. property rights belong to the mtv tv show TEEN WOLF.]
[this story is set in early April of 2006. Both Scott and Stiles are 10 years of age. (in mind that Stiles' birthday is in late April, and Scott's is in late August).]
Scott gripped the seat in front of him. The brown, cheap leather warm under his touch from how much he'd been worrying on it, the lovely backlash of body heat and all. Not more than two minute ago, their teacher had called out that they were almost there. Of course, to a bunch of ten year olds 'almost there' still felt like an eternity. Scott was no different - they'd been on this bus for far too long. He could barely imagine what it must have felt like to Stiles who wasn't known for his controlled behavior even in the best environments.
And Like Scott had started to imagine, things were not going alright for the boy. He'd climbed up on his seat far too many times to count, riling up students and poking his head out the bus windows, before trying to make some sort of game up to keep himself from dying from a fire of energy that was causing him to want to run faster than the bus outside. He'd started to pick off parts of the torn bus seat, and throw them out the window and try to hit the cars next to him. He found a penny on the floor and did the same thing, and it hit the car behind them, which caused a bit of a commotion amongst him and the teachers.
You can imagine how quickly Stiles got stopped. From his desired seat next to Scott, he was quickly removed and sat next to a chaperone at the front of the bus. It was bad enough being in a seat for longer than he wanted to ever be in a single place at one time, and now he couldn't be with Scott!? Course, only a few kids were playing his games with him, and Scott wasn't one of those kids, but it didn't matter. Stiles tried to stand on his knees in his seat to look back and see Scott, but the Chaperon kept him down in his seat. Stiles glared at the woman, not even sure who it was, before looking from the side of the seat, where he could see Scott's shoes. He was almost completely in the back, and Stiles could have tried to yell back at him, but what were the chances he would hear him over the other kids talking and singing on the bus.
Stiles sighed, looking at the Chaperone beside him, and crossing his arms. "Are we there yet!?" Stiles complained, sinking into his seat, and moving around to try to get up on his knees again, but the Chaperone simply continued to push him down on the seat. "I promise I won't throw things out the window again, can I please go sit by Scott again!?" Stiles complained.
"It wasn't just the throwing things out the windows. It was the standing on your seats, and throwing things at your classmates, and kicking the seat in front of you, and getting up from your seat, and pulling Carmen's hair, and putting your gum on the floor. Stiles, you're gonna sit here until we get there." The Chaperon had started.
Stiles groaned loudly, and then looked back to try and see Scott again. He noticed that toward the front of the bus was Lydia sitting next to another girl. They were talking about something that Stiles didn't know anything about, but the boy turned an ear in to listen. He leaned forward in his seat, too far until he fell right back off the seat, and then flew forward as the bus came to a rushed stop. Stiles laughed nervously as he picked himself up, and a chaperone took hold of his arm again, and then brought him back to his seat next to Scott. "Make sure he doesn't get up, alright." At least they could trust Scott.
Stiles smiled. "Hi buddy! That woman is so mean." Stiles said, rubbing his arm after being gripped really hard. "I didn't even do anything!" Stiles stated. The bus continued to run forward, traffic picking up a bit.
"You put a crack in that person's window with the penny, Stiles," Scott tried to remind him. "And nearly fell out of your seat standing up...five times." Even that kind of seemed like an understatement.
"Yeah, but that's it, I don't think that was that bad. I didn't mean to put the crack on her window. . . or was it a man I didn't look. Aaaaand I didn't fall out of my seat, I just almost did." Stiles argued.
"They could get in a lot of trouble if you got hurt, Stiles. Remember your dad almost didn't want to sign the slip to begin with but you promised him you'd behave. I promised him you wouldn't get into a lot of trouble too." Scott admitted. His face held a level of seriousness, that no ten year would have been able to muster other than Scott McCall.
The awkward boy fell just a tad bit silent, before guilt caused him to pass the blame. "I wouldn't be in trouble if that lady wasn't so mean. She's like, extra mean! What am I supposed to do on the bus? We've been on here for like a million hours." Stiles complained. Hyperbole was a common language for the sarcastic boy.
"Try counting the metal bumps on the floor," Scott suggested in a helpful tone.
"Knowing that wouldn't benefit me!" Stiles said. "No one cares how many metal bumps are on the floor. I just want to get there already. I don't like bus rides, or car rides, or boring stuff." Stiles continued.
"I know. But think about all the fun things we'll get to do when we get there," the ten year old said, trying to cheer up his friend. "Maybe we'll even find some real gold!"
Stiles' eyes widened and he looked over to his friend. "Oh, we'll find real gold, alright." the boy said with intention, looking around the bus.
There really wasn't much to do on a bus. In fact, there was almost nothing to do on a bus. Stiles could think of a million things he could improvise to do, but it seemed that everything he tried, got him deeper into trouble. The boy started to think of a few ways to leave his seat, with out anyone finding out. Then it came to him. "Do you wanna play a game, right now?" Stiles asked.
"No, you always cheat," Scott grumbled with a small frown popping up at the reminder.
"I do not! Hear me out! Okay, so the game is we try to see how many seats we can crawl under without anyone saying we're under the seats, we'll go one at a time, and then see who can go the most. Okay!" It sounded brilliant to Stiles. And being hidden would keep him out of his teacher's sight.
"...have you looked under the seats? It's dirty," Scott said, his frown turning into a disgusted grimace.
Dirty? Stiles scoffed at the word. "It's not that bad! It's not like there is poop on the floor." Stiles joked. "I remember one time I peed on the bus, but not poop ever. It's not that bad, I'll go first."
Stiles pushed himself down onto the floor, but before he could get under the seat in front of him, someone caught his arm again.
"What do you think you're doing?" their teacher said, who had no repositioned herself right next to Scott and Stiles.
Stiles turned his attention to her and groaned. "We're just gonna play a game. Is that so bad?" Stiles asked.
"If it involves moving from your seat then yes." the woman said.
"I just wanna crawl on the floor, that's not gonna bother anyone!" Stiles said.
"It's dangerous for you to leave your seat, now sit down, and stay still for the rest of the bus ride."
Stiles groaned, climbing back up in his seat, and turning to Scott. "How am I supposed to stay in my seat, that's like impossible." Stiles complained. "Are we there yet?"
"No," Scott said as he looked around. "But I think we're almost there. Hey, look at that old building!"
Old would have been an understatement all things considering. It looked turn of the century at youngest and there were parts of it that were missing. yet from what they could faintly make out it had been mostly made out of strong pine wood. The wood, of course, had been aged and weathered to a dingy color but somehow that made it all the better.
A few rows down there was a renovated building, a renovation that tried to keep it looking old obviously. It had the word "Mercantile" on it and Scott wondered if it still worked - well, worked in the sense of selling things to people. But what was really interesting was the building on the other side that they could only catch a glimpse of. It was an old Sheriff's station built onto a small hill. From what Scott could see as they passed it looked like they had a whole noose set up out back. His wide eyed expression made the question in his mind obvious - Did they still hang people?
Stiles couldn't keep himself in his seat as they started upon the scenery, He pushed past Scott to see out the window, and with wide eyes he smiled. "Wow! We're here now! No more Stupid bus!" Stiles exclaimed excitedly. Stiles moved back to his seat, and started to gather his backpack up, and then stood up from his seat to move to the front of the bus, but the teacher caught his arm again.
"Not so fast, Stilinski, sit back down." she told him, pulling him back to his seat, and forcing him back into it.
Stiles glared at the teacher before pushing past Scott to look out the window again. "What if we find old tools, and money and stuff! We can see if there is gold under some of the untouched stuff." Stiles said excitedly.
"Stiles, the untouched places are untouched for a reason," Scott said; ever the voice of reason and responsibility. "So let's keep it that way okay? You don't want to get into trouble and have them call your m-dad right?"
Stiles flinched quickly to Scott when he stumbled over the word, his heart still sore, and emotions still tightly strung.
Four short months before, Stiles lost his mom to a slow moving disease, FTD, or Frontal-temporal Dementia. Because of this tragic event, the boy had been sent into a long period of turmoil, and despair. Panic attacks, nightmares, and uncontrollable levels of emotion had consumed the boy.
These were all things Scott knew, and because of it, he'd felt a little stunned, knowing he'd said the wrong thing.
"I can do whatever I want." Stiles stated, working to avoid potential breakdowns. Tears threatened Stiles' eyes but he pretended like nothing was wrong. He forced a smile, and forced a laugh, holding on tightly to his backpack. "We'll just find gold somewhere else." Stiles said.
Scott's grin was apologetic as they tried to push past what was almost the biggest verbal blunder of the month. "We will. What are you going to do when we find some?"
Hopefully this was a distracting enough conversation for the ten, nearly eleven, year old boy as they started to file out of the bus. After that would be one of those head counts and whole lecture on what they were going to do for the day. One which Scott would listen to as best he could and one that Stiles had no doubt already somehow memorized but wouldn't actually pay attention to.
"I'm gonna buy an Elephant." Stiles said, clearly sarcastic.
"But Stiles, what would you do with an Elephant?" Scott asked with wide, innocent eyes. Yes he knew what sarcasm was but he also knew this was the best way to distract his best friend.
"Enter it into the next Elephant show case competition, and win more money." Stiles continued, jumping of the bus, and swinging his backpack over his shoulders.
Scott followed suit, jumping off the last step as well instead of stepping down. As he walked beside Stiles to make room for the other students, he asked: "How are you going to feed it? They're massive."
"I'll buy one that doesn't eat or poop." Stiles continued. "Or I'll just feed it all the homework Mrs. Clark gives us, that way I can tell her my Elephant ate my homework, and she'll have to believe me."
From the look that they got by the teacher as she passed, Scott doubted that was going to go over well. Especially considering the fact that Scott knew there was no way Stiles could buy one that didn't eat or poop - at least not one that was healthy anyways. Eating and going to the bathroom were very important parts of life - he couldn't remember the name of the bodily system at the moment but he was sure it was an important sounding name too.
"Where would it live?" Scott brought up as everyone started to line up so they could start the trek to where they'd be learning about the gold rush first hand.
Stiles was getting kind of annoyed now, and sighed. "I don't know, In my closet." He said, following the class to where they would begin. He let his eyes wander a little, and it was then when he thought he saw something shiny off in the distance. "What's that?" Stiles said, stopping in his trek to try to get a better look.
He watched the group keep walking forward, and leaned over a post with a rope that said 'Do Not Cross' on it, and leaned over it to try and get a better look, but when the Sun didn't reflect off of it the way it did before, it stopped shining. Stiles took a few steps back and saw it shining again. "There is something over there." Stiles said, pointing to where he saw the thing sparkling. The class had gone up just a little ways ahead now, but Stiles stayed back to try and figure out what it was.
"Stiles..."
Scott's concern probably didn't factor into everything that Stiles had planned for the momentarily shiny object in the distance. In fact, considering that there was a roped off area telling people (students in particular) to stay away from that area it was probably as good as gift wrapped. Stiles always had a touch and go relationship with what they should and shouldn't do. Which was ironic considering that he was the Sheriff's son and all.
"We should just stay with the group," Scott said in a 'please don't drag me into the woods again' type of voice.
Stiles wanted to check it out, and he could see that Scott was skeptical about it. "I wanna see what it is really quick! If you wanna catch up to the rest you can, I'll be right there in just a sec." stiles said, jumping over the ropes, and then looking around to make sure he was in the clear before walking off toward the shiny object. He had an idea about where it was, and he just took off, no questions asked in that direction, walking kind of speedily.
Scott looked back to the group for only a moment before following after the older boy. It wasn't like he was going to let Stiles wonder off in an unfamiliar area by himself after all. Especially considering that Scott was going to get partially blamed for it if they were caught regardless if he actually went or not. This way at least he could keep an eye on his friend...and see what that shiny object had been.