The Call of the Wilder
Chapter 1: Teenage Wasteland
"Stiles, I swear to God, I am going to end you."
Because, really, Dagny doesn't ask for much from him and Scott; she deals with horror movie marathons, endless lacrosse talk, and teenage-boy-smell, all without complaining... Most of the time- some of the time. Okay, like, forty-percent of the time? And that's on a good day?
Still, she's ticked, and rightfully so.
"It's not like I cancelled completely," Stiles tries to protest, and Dagny can hear the whine of his Jeep's engine on the other end of the phone. "I just said that we should do something else."
"I wanted to spend the last night of summer drinking beer next to a campfire," Dagny dead-pans, "not hunting down a dead body."
"Um, correction, half of a dead body. And what's wrong with hunting them down? It's fun!"
Dagny is silent for a minute. Then: "You do know that I want to kill you right now, right?"
"You've made that very clear, yes."
Dagny thinks that she probably could have made a crack about Stiles becoming a dead body, but also acknowledges that while she can out-sarcasm him at times, she isn't nearly as quick-witted as he is. So, staring down at the mixing bowl full of batter she's holding, she decides to use her ultimate weapon.
"You know, I was going to bring you and Scott snicker doodles tomorrow," she begins conversationally.
"Really?" Stiles says cheerfully.
"I'm not anymore."
Dagny hears Scott groan and feels a little twinge of guilt because the two boys really do mean well, they just don't get that she's not as invested in the morbid and generally horrific as they are. (Read: Really Stiles is the only one completely interested in it- Scott is just a glorified puppy dog who enjoys tagging along.) Dagny knows that she's going to bring them cookies anyways but doesn't say so because she really is pretty annoyed and likes to hold grudges.
She hears Stiles sigh deeply on the other line. "So I'm guessing that you don't want us to come pick you up?"
Dagny hangs up on him.
The next day, the first day of school, they tell her that something bit Scott last night- an animal- and he rolls up his shirt to show her the wound, and she's really about to throw up all over the plate of cookies she's brought them because-
"It's gone," Stiles says excitedly. "Your bite mark. It's gone!"
"What?" Scott demands. He glances down at his blindingly-pale rib cage. "How can it be gone?"
"Okay," Dagny says placatingly, in her I'm-trying-so-hard-not-to-panic voice. "I really hope you two are just joking around with me-"
"We aren't, Dagny," Scott tells her with that honest, scared look in his eyes.
Later, Scott will do amazingly in lacrosse practice and Dagny will cheer- even if she's a little weirded out by where his sudden hand-eye coordination came from.
Later, Scott will tell them that his senses have improved and prove it by sniffing out the blueberry bagel in Dagny's bag.
Later, Stiles will suggest that Scott has lycanthropy.
Later, Dagny will realize that means he thinks that Scott is a werewolf.
Later, she'll want to laugh it off, but something will tell her not to.
"You so have a crush on her!" Dagny gushes that night when Scott tells her and Stiles about his encounter with Alison-the-new-girl at the animal shelter. "My hard work has finally paid off!"
"What- what hard work?" Scott asks curiously.
"U-um..." Dagny trails off and smiles slightly, even though she knows neither of the boys can see her. "Nothing. For-forget it." She doesn't think that they'll take too kindly to the fact that she's spent the past three years trying to turn them into actually-datable human beings. "I'm really happy for you, Scott."
Stiles makes a noise of agreement on the other line and then curses. There's a dying sound-effect, and she knows he's playing one of his video games.
There's silence for a few minutes. Dagny wants to bring up the extremely weird confrontation with Derek Hale in the woods earlier that day but doesn't. A few minutes later, they hang up for the night.
Scott calls them back at five in the morning to tell them that he's just woken up in the middle of the woods and has no idea how he got there.
"And you saw a wolf?" Dagny whispers the next day. She's sitting behind Scott in their AP World Literature class, and Scott is shakier and quieter than usual that day, and she knows he's seriously freaked out.
Scott nods imperceptibly. Dagny sees his grip tighten around his pencil. The bell rings a few minutes later and they start packing up.
"Jackson thinks I'm on steroids," Scott divulges as Dagny stuffs her notebook in her bag. "He wants to know where I'm getting them from."
Dagny frowns. "Are you on steroids?" she asks lightly, because, really, he's been acting like more of a freak than usual lately and it's really starting to scare her.
Lycanthropy, a voice in her head that sounds remarkably like Stiles whispers, but Dagny shakes it off.
No, that's impossible.
"I'm not on steroids," Scott tells her tentatively, "but there's definitely something wrong with me that I don't know about."
Dagny couldn't agree more.
She's already halfway home when she gets the phone call from a panicking Stiles.
"Oh my God, what?" she says, annoyed by the ridiculous amount of traffic on Main Street. "Did you forget your locker combination again? Because I have it written in my journal but it's in my backpack-"
"No!" Stiles snaps, and that's how Dagny knows there's something wrong.
And then he tells her.
That dead body they found? There was animal fur on it. Wolf fur, to be more specific.
Scott thinks that he was bitten by a wolf that night in the woods. And Scott is at lacrosse practice right now, and something could maybe possibly go very, very wrong.
And even though she knows it's crazy and impossible and she's probably going insane, Dagny turns the car around.
Dagny runs onto the lacrosse field just in time to see Scott literally do a somersault over three players to score a goal. Her mouth drops open as everyone cheers and Coach Finstock walks over and says something to Scott. She glances at Stiles. His eyes are so wide she thinks that they might actually pop, if that's possible.
Someone taps her lightly on the shoulder and she turns around to see the Lydia Martin standing behind her, new-girl-Allison at her side.
"Hi!" Lydia says with this fake-looking smile that Dagny doesn't think she likes too much. "You're Scott's girlfriend, right?"
Dagny almost laughs. "What?" she says incredulously. "Oh my God, no! No- God, no! We-we're just friends."
Lydia and Allison exchange a glance. Dagny thinks Allison looks kind of relieved for some reason.
"Well then," Lydia continues delicately, "you're probably really proud of him, aren't you?"
"That shot was incredible!" Allison adds, shooting a not-so-subtle look at Scott, who has just been announced is on first line this season.
"Yeah," Dagny says, even if there's something a lot like fear curdling in the pit of her stomach. "Yeah, it- it really was."
"Scott's a werewolf," Stiles tells her that Friday night. "Our best friend is a werewolf, he doesn't believe me, and tonight's the full moon. Someone is going to die, Dagny. Someone is going to die!"
"Okay- just-!" Dagny takes a deep breath and rakes her hand through her blonde hair. "Just calm down, alright?"
She glances out the window in her living room, at the setting sun, and dimly registers that neither of her parents are home from work yet and it's already close to eight.
She doesn't really know what to believe. Because werewolves- werewolves don't exist. But the thing is, all the signs are there. And Scott becoming some kind of... athletic god overnight just doesn't make any sense!
So Dagny takes a deep breath, throws herself onto the couch, and says, "I'm not saying I completely believe you, but if I did..." She sticks her finger in her mouth and bites down. "If I did," she continues hesitantly, "what do you think we should do about it?"
And Stiles lets out a harsh breath and says, "That's just it, Dagny, I don't know. For the first time in my life, I don't know, and Scott might kill someone because of it."
Later, they will drive past the party in time to see Scott peel away frantically and Allison get into a car with Derek Hale.
Later, Scott will tell them that he thinks Derek is the one who bit him and killed the girl in the woods.
Later, Dagny and Stiles will drive to Allison's house. She'll be perfectly fine, and Dagny will blurt out some lie about Scott having an asthma attack which is why he left her at the party.
Later, Scott will tell them about Derek and the werewolf hunters.
Later, Dagny will realize that nothing will ever be the same again.
A/N: Hey everyone! I know what those of you who follow me are thinking: "Why is she starting a new story when she should be working on The Damsel in Distress Diaries"? But don't worry, this is just a side project that I'll work on when I need to clear my head, and I'm already halfway through the next chapter. But, if you like this story (or don't like it. Criticism can be constructive, too!) leave a review and tell me what you think!