September 2013

"You have to be kidding me," Stiles said, nearly growling out of frustration.

"What is it? Did you accidentally hit nudes on Tumblr again?" Scott replied, a half grin already forming on his face.

The two boys were sitting at a table in a cafe. It was 12 p.m., and the two had met up to work on their papers for their summer reading before school started the following Monday.

"No, I wish," Stiles replied. "I just got a text Lydia. Apparently, my lovely co-Editor-in-Chief decided to schedule a meeting with the other seniors to discuss the literary magazine for our writing class. Without notifying me."

"Wait, you're not leaving, are you?" Scott asked, an expression of distraught overtaking his face. "But I need help on this paper, man. We both agreed."

"I know, I know. And I'll be back after the meeting, I promise," Stiles replied, starting to pack his things. "But I can't miss this meeting. Well, anymore than I already have."

Stiles had put away all of his belongings when Scott began to groan.

"Well, at least try and hurry," Scott pleaded. "I don't know if I can really finish this paper about Pride & Prejudice. It was so boring."

"We both know you love the book. You made me marathon The Lizzie Bennet Diaries with you. Write your paper, I'll be back soon, bro," Stiles replied, to which Scott smiled again and rolled his eyes.

"Look who finally showed up," a voice, a familiar, despicable voice stated, as Stiles walked into the classroom. At the origin of the sound, standing in the front of the room, was his co-Editor, Aiden.

"Yeah, wonder why that would be," Stiles muttered under his breath. 'Ass.'

Stiles hadn't known Aiden for that long. He and his twin brother transferred to their high school at the beginning of their Junior year. And yet, as soon he arrived, Stiles immediately grew to despise the boy.

Aiden had a crush on Lydia when he first started school here, and to try and get closer to her, he started moving his schedule around and taking the same classes Lydia was. Stiles wasn't even sure how he managed that, though he guessed it involved his arrogance and conceited nature and inability to not flirt with any moving woman.

Stiles had never been so grateful for Jackson's presence when he returned from his trip to England. Lydia had used Aiden to make Jackson jealous, and it worked. They got back together immediately, and Stiles was happy. He had a thing once for Lydia, but when he saw how happy she was with Jackson, he realized that he wanted her to be happy above everything else, and soon, his feelings melted away.

He also helped get Lydia and Jackson back together, since the idea of her being with the trainwreck that was Aiden made him gag. He knew Aiden knew about it, and he figured that was where their real hostility for each other had started.

Stiles hated him even more for Aiden becoming his co-Editor for their writing class' literary magazine when Aiden hadn't even cared about writing and only wanted to be with Lydia. Only now that Lydia wasn't an option, Aiden seemed to cling to writing and was, unfortunately, pretty good.

Stiles wondered if it was only to spite him.

"You almost missed a very important meeting, you know, but it's so good you could make it," Aiden said. "We're discussing themes today."

"Wonderful," Stiles replied, a fake smile on his face. Leave it to Aiden to take the joy out of making a literary magazine with his fellow senior writers. Stiles set his stuff at a table by Lydia, who smiled reassuringly at him, and he nodded. He then walked to the front of the room to join Aiden.

"Alrighty, let's hear everyone's ideas," Stiles said, rubbing his hands together and smiling at his fellow classmates.

"Is it wrong to say I hate him?" Stiles confessed to Lydia once they were the only ones left in the classroom.

"You can't hate him, Stiles," Lydia replied, simply shaking her head.

"Why not? He's pompous, he's rude, he's a control-freak, and he has this weird beady eye look, like he's some weird wolf on the prowl."

"If I didn't know who we were talking about, I would swear you meant Jackson," Lydia replied with a faint smile.

"Oh please, Jackson may be an ass sometimes-"

"Love the use of present tense and not past."

"-but he was never and is never as bad as Aiden. He shouldn't even be here! Why couldn't it have been his brother instead of him. There's a reason they have the saying 'good twin and evil twin'," Stiles replied, sighing.

"Look, not that I want to give him more credit than he's worth, but he's trying to get under your skin, Stiles. And you're letting him. Just ignore him. Or I could always have Jackson threaten him."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather not have your boyfriend fight my battles for me," Stiles said, gathering papers and stacking them neatly into a pile. He placed them in his backpack carefully.

"We could always have Allison go get her crossbow and shoot him," Lydia said nonchalantly. Stiles' head jerked up to stare at her immediately with an look of awe. "I was joking. Can you really see Allison using that crossbow on someone?"

"No, I guess not," Stiles replied. Once he had everything he needed, he looked at the time on his phone, and saw that it was 4:12. He also had several missed texts from Scott, one of which read "I hope you find your Mr. Darcy."

Stiles felt like he should have been offended, but the idea of being cast as Elizabeth Bennet in any sense was enough of a compliment to overpower the insult.

The duo were about to leave the classroom, when Ms. Blake appeared on the doorway, slightly out of breath. Stiles wonder if she had ran down the hall to get to the classroom before they left.

"Ms. Blake, what are you doing here? I thought you had a meeting?" Stiles asked.

"Just got out of it. I came back here because I nearly forgot my phone charger. That would have been pretty stupid of me," Ms. Blake replied, chuckling.

"What was your meeting for, Ms. Blake? From what I could tell, there wasn't any other faculty here, other than the janitors," Lydia replied.

"Well, a few of the other teachers were getting TAs for their classes, so I was meeting one for an interview to join us in our class," Ms. Blake replied.

"TA? Wait, like a teacher's assistant?" Stiles asked.

"Looks like the school is letting students from the university nearby in as TAs. If only I were single," Lydia muttered, shaking her head and sighing wistfully. "Oh well," she said, and followed it up with a smile.

Once Ms. Blake had what she needed, the three left, and each went their separate ways in the parking lot.

Stiles was walking toward his jeep, taking just a second to send a text to Scott that he was on his way, when he felt a car rushing toward him. He froze and saw the back of a black Camaro just inches from him as it began to turn. Stiles looked into the window on the passenger's side as the car continued turning, and saw a man.

He couldn't be that much older than Stiles. Maybe even early twenties, at most. His face wasn't entirely visible, since he was wearing black shades and had a bit of scruff, but just from the outline of the man's face, Stiles could tell he was attractive. It didn't help he had a leather jacket.

The man just barely registered Stiles' presence and looked at him with no readable emotions on his face.

"You should watch were you're going, kid," the man said, before he turned back to the road and drove off in a hurry.

Attractive or not, Stiles already knew the guy was an ass, and in no way his type, no matter how cute he may be.

Returning from his thoughts, Stiles regained his composure and walked toward his Jeep that was on the other side of the parking lot.

Why was it always his duty in the world to deal with asses?