I do not own anything in the Teenwolf world. This story is just for fun.
Lydia
Lydia sat watching the morning sun stream through the classroom window. Rays fell across the text books open on her desk, illuminating paragraphs on the advantages and disadvantages of a free market economy. The golden glow begging her to find some motivation in the topic.
Coach was marching between the desks spouting rhetoric on the injustices of the rich getting richer. Somehow poor Greenberg yet again managed to feature amid the animated rants.
The whole thing made her smile. It seemed so long ago since she had experienced a day like this. Normal. Boring. Average. Her supernatural alter ego was on hiatus, no funny feelings, no wanting to scream, no finding dead bodies. For once she was just plain old Lydia Martin, high school senior.
In reality nothing had changed. Scott was trying to control Liam who was still struggling coming to terms with his new abilities. Deputy Parrish was working his way through the bestiary trying to discover what he was. Derek was off somewhere figuring out his new transformation skills and Kira was trying to hide her bad-ass skills behind the facade of awkward teen. She was their very own Clark Kent.
But the important thing was that for the first time in what felt like years, no one was trying to kill them. Lydia breathed in the surrounding calm with the knowledge that no-one was hunting them down and tried to concentrate on the lesson.
The heavenly beams gradually moved as the sun crossed the sky and Lydia found herself following their trajectory. Turning a little to her right she watched the glow fall on Stiles, reflecting off his pale skin. The whole day was reminding her of how life used to be before everything started to change. How she dated the captain of the Lacrosse team, how her life revolved around designer shoes and throwing the town's best birthday party. And how she spent her days trying to ignore the boy currently sat next to her.
Stiles Stilinski had always been a bit of a loser. A social outcast, a nobody. But one thing she couldn't deny was that he'd never been easy to ignore. The boy was always there. A blur in her peripheral vision, like a persistent wasp buzzing frantically in every direction or an over wound clockwork toy, a mass of unstoppable energy.
But as she looked across at him now, bathed in sunlight, she suddenly realised just how much he'd changed. That round baby face that framed his immaturity was gone. Replaced instead with lean angles that matched the sombre expression he now often wore.
His head rested, propped up on an elbow, eyes half closed trying desperately to feign interest in Coach's lecture. There Lydia noted another change. The arm holding up his head flexed with muscle. The boy who was once all gangly limbs unable to hold the weight of his own backpack now held himself with such strength.
Lastly there were those dark freckles, those moles that dotted his face and neck. They were like a signature on his pale skin. Lydia's eyes followed them across his neckline until she couldn't stop her self wondering just how far down his body they went. She pulled herself away from the images after realising she was biting her bottom lip.
Stiles took that moment to look over and smile at her. Not a quick fleeting smirk but that big goofy grin he'd had since the third grade. Lydia couldn't help but mirror it back to him. It seemed that some thing's hadn't changed about the boy that she'd known since forever. She breathed in that familiar sight of him , returning his gaze until it began to linger. Stiles too held the stare, that grin losing some of its childishness, changing into something that held a little more depth. The growing intensity caused a blush to rise in Lydia's cheeks halted only by a sudden interruption.
"Stilinski!" Coach's voice boomed out across the room making Stiles almost fall off his chair at the outburst.
"What have I just been talking about?" he challenged the daydreaming youth.
Stiles sat up straight looking a little uncomfortable at being singled out in the class. He managed one last quick glance over at the beautiful girl to his left before turning his attention to the Coach.
"You were telling us, you were the one who actually invented the stay-on ring tab on soda cans and that you should be reaping the benefits of that discovery and getting the praise for reducing litter worldwide".
Lydia allowed herself a little smirk. Life had changed so much for them over the last few years but Stiles had always had an answer for everything. That 'smart mouth' of his getting him in more trouble than everything else combined.
Coach just stared down at the 'know-it-all' kid, his cold eyes refusing to let the barely average lacrosse player get the last word.
"Ok, then smart-ass. Can you tell me why your little girlfriend is not in class today?"
That light, mischievous twinkle that Stiles had been wearing changed to something a little darker at the mention of Malia. He shook his head at the Coaches question.
"No I can't, I don't know where she is." came his honest answer in a tone clearly filled with unease.
Lydia watched as Stiles slouched down in this chair. His mood taking a darker feel as his thoughts obviously turned to Malia.
The strawberry blonde momentarily felt a strange emotion in the pit of her stomach at the mention of Stiles girlfriend. She couldn't put a name to the sensation, but most people would have called it jealousy.
Lydia had convinced herself that she'd never looked at Stiles in a romantic way. He had always been a kind of lost puppy that followed her around school waiting to be noticed. Her mind wasn't ready to accept the way she had just been looking at him in class.
She reasoned that any strange feelings must be side effects of being without a boyfriend for so long. Maybe it was time to remedy that. There was a certain deputy down at the station that had caught her eye and he conveniently needed help in discovering who he was. Lydia felt she would be able to offer him some assistance in that department.
The bell rang ending the lesson and she watched Stiles bolt out of the door before the last chimes could be heard. Lydia followed in a more orderly fashion stopping by her locker just a few steps down the corridor. She watched as Scott approached Stiles while putting away her books.
"Hey!" Scott called out to his best friend.
Stiles was already on his phone trying to get hold of Malia. He looked back to Scott as the call just continued to ring out.
"I don't know what to do Scott" he began, concern stretched across his face.
"She's becoming obsessed in finding her mother. I can't ….I can't control her, one minute she's there beside me and then I wake up and she's gone and I don't see her for days." His hand brushed across his forehead, an act of frustration.
Lydia watched from a distance guessing the phone call had gone to voice mail and seeing Stiles physically stop himself from throwing the handset across the hallway in anger. Scott placed a hand of his friend's shoulder trying to calm him a little.
"Listen, if she's not home by this evening, I'll call the gang and we'll go out and find her" Scott said trying to offer Stiles some hope.
Stiles nodded in gratitude and his shoulders relaxed a little knowing that he had his best friend had his back as always. Then he noticed Lydia over by the locker.
"Hey, Lydia!" he called out, jogging a little to catch up as she closed her locker to move to the next class.
"Got any plans tonight?" he asked, stumbling to keep up as Lydia marched ahead in her usual confident manner. Her long hair bouncing around her shoulders as she glided down the hall.
"I said I would help the deputy read through the bestiary tonight" she answered not stopping to engage in conversation with him.
"You are going to see Parrish again?, You know for a fairly intelligent guy, he seems to need a hell of a lot of help and taking an awful long time figuring out what he is" he said, some of the words spoken with a little venom in them.
Now Lydia did stop walking and turned to face him for a moment. Her eyes narrowed, easily noting the jealous tone to his words even though she struggled to notice the same sensation within herself. She watched him take a step back, a lump in this throat formed as he swallowed hard realising how inappropriate his words sounded when he had a girlfriend that he cared about, a lot.
"It's just that we are going to go and search for Malia tonight and could really do with all the help we can get. If you finish early with the deputy maybe you can swing by" this time his words were quiet and a little pleading.
"I'll try to see what I can do" Lydia replied weakly and watched as Stiles turned and jogged back up to Scott who was waiting for him to go on the Lacrosse Practice.
'I'll try to see what I can do' Who was she kidding? Of course she would be there helping him find Malia. That boy made it his life's work to help his friends when they needed it, who was she to offer anything less in return.