Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Teen Wolf characters, but the OCs are mine and the story is mine. This won't be following the Teen Wolf plot anyways.
This is a taste test for a story I'm currently working on. If you like it, let me know and I'll publish the rest of it.
I was rushing around the house in preparation to go pick up Carmen and Andy from school when the doorbell rang.
Not expecting visitors, I went to the door and glanced through the peep hole. Surprised to see Stiles, I hesitated before opening the door and ushering him in.
"Hey, um, what are you doing here?" I asked as he walked in and I shut the door behind him.
"Just wanted to hang out and see you," he said. "You haven't been to school since last week. That, and my dad is working a major case right now, so I was wondering if I could stay here for a while?"
"Yeah, sorry for not telling you, but the principal said that I only have to show up for exams and whenever a teacher wants to talk to me about something. And yeah, you can stay here."
"Oh. We miss you at lunch. It gets pretty quiet without you there," he looked down as he said this. "So, what's up? Thanks, by the way for letting me stay."
"No problem. I was about to make some cookies for when Carmen and Andy do their homework tonight. Wanna help?"
"Sure," he replied. "Just tell me what to do. When do you have to go pick them up, anyway?"
"Um..." I hesitated, glancing at my watch. "Now. Could you pick them up for me? It would be a huge help and I still have some stuff to do before they get home."
He shrugged, but then shook his head.
"How about you get them and I do whatever it is that needs to be done?"
"Are you sure," I asked. When he nodded, I told that the table needed to be cleared and the cookies needed to be put in the oven. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah," he assured. "Just leave it to me and go get them."
I nodded and grabbed my purse and keys, heading out to the garage door to my precious 2013 GMC Acadia. It wasn't my favorite vehicle, rather the most useful. It was safe, big enough for us to pack up and leave at a moment's notice, relatively good gas mileage, and it wasn't a car that would need replaced for quite some time.
I pulled out of the garage and drove in silence to the kids' elementary school for pick up. I had to wait in the long line of cars for about fifteen minutes before Andy saw me and dragged Carmen over to hop in so we could go.
"Hey guys. How was school today?" Neither looked upset, but it was hard to tell with these two.
"We were called down to the office again today," Andy said.
"They think we're insane," Carmen muttered from the back seat. "They think we'll flip out in the middle of class."
"Really," I questioned. I had told the school to leave them alone unless they deliberately acted out and, in that case, the school was to call me first. "What did they talk to you about?"
Andy hesitated before opening his mouth, before he could say anything though, Carmen cut across and started talking.
"They kept asking if we were happy living with you and if you were taking good care of us," she said quickly. "They wanted to know how you planned to take care for us."
I nodded, figuring that the school would go behind my back to try and take my siblings away with dirty tricks. "And what did you two tell them?"
"We said that we liked living with you," Andy volunteered.
"And that our lives really hadn't changed from before the fire," Carmen added. "We told them how you had always been the only person taking care of us."
"We told them that you made money by writing and publishing stuff," Andy commented.
"And that nothing they said would make us leave you," they said together. It's no wonder that they're twins at times like this.
"Well, I'm glad that you feel that way and that you were honest," I said, stressing the word honest. They hadn't lied, but I didn't want them to think they had to lie for me if ever they felt the need to. "By the way, Stiles is going to be staying at the house for the next week or so since his dad is busy on a case, so try to be nice."
"Is he there now?" Carmen asked, sharing a look with Andy.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
They shrugged in unison. "No reason," they said simultaneously.
By then, we had arrived back at the house and they jumped out of the car and dashed to the front door with me following calmly.
"Hey kids, welcome home," I heard Stiles say from inside. "Hey Ava, you okay? You're blanking out on us."
"Huh,"I looked up and say him waving his hand in my face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for holding down the fort till I got back. And you two," I started, turning my gaze to my siblings. "Homework at the dining room table now or you can't have any of the cookies Stiles made." With that, Carmen and Andy almost sprinted to the dining room and dug out their homework. Soon the long table was covered in papers, pencils, and workbooks.
"We'll be in the kitchen or living room," I said as I walked out of the room. "Holler if you need help and you can each have a cookie after I see a completed assignment from each of you." I grabbed Stiles' arm and dragged him with me towards the kitchen and the beeping oven.
"Thanks for helping out today,"I said as I got the cookies out of the oven.
Stiles stared at my hands as I held onto the tray. "Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"
"What?" I looked at my hands and realized that I had forgotten to grab the mitts. "It's fine. The nerves in my hands were pretty much destroyed in the fire. I can't feel-" He reached around me and grabbed the tray with a single mit covered hand. "-the heat. Thanks, I guess."
"Just because you can't feel it doesn't mean that it can't hurt you," he chided as he placed the tray on the stove. "Besides, I thought you said the damage was limited."
"I did and it is. The nerves in my hands just don't recognize heat or pain," I argued. "I can still use them."
"That's not really limited," he admonished. "That's pretty severe nerve damage. Have you seen a doctor about it?"
"No, and I don't plan to either,"I shrugged when he glared. "It's not a big on, thanks for helping today."
He smiled at me and said, "Anytime, especially since I get to stay here." He grinned and ran off to Andy's call from the dining room, leaving me to load the dishwasher.
"Ava!" Carmen called from somewhere in the age old house. "I need your help!"
With a wave of my hand, the dishes were all in their places and the ones from the sink loaded into the machine. Nodding at my handiwork, I wiped my hands on my jeans and headed to her voice.
"What's wro-" I started to ask until I saw her standing in the middle of the den surrounded by piles of laundry. "What did you do?"
"I think the house got tired of our laziness," she grinned until she saw that I was not amused. Sobering up she said, "I walked in and the clothes fell from the ceiling. Is the laundry room even on this floor?"
"No," I answered. "It's on the main floor. Why did you come down here anyway? You have homework that's not done yet."
"I thought I heard something."
"So you came down here by yourself to see? You do understand that you can't do anything until you're thirteen, right?" She huffed and went over to the stairs before looking over her shoulder at me and grinning.
"You're just worried that Stiles is gonna figure out the family secret before you tell him,"she joked.
"Yes I am worried that he'll figure it out," I confessed. "But he's going to at some point, just not by having laundry magickally dropped on his head."
She stared at me for a second before spinning and dashing upstairs. I followed more slowly, but stopped at the base of the stairs. Turning back to the mess, I hesitated before snapping my fingers and watching the clothes fly around my head before vanishing into their rightful places. Satisfied, I continued walking up the stairs and back into the dining room.
Stiles was still helping Andy when I walked in, but looked up and smiled before quickly looking back down. He didn't notice that his student wasn't paying attention since Andy was staring at me before glancing at Stiles and looking back again. He must have seen something because he shook his head before tuning back in to whatever Stiles was saying.