The roar of her brother's bike filled her ears as she held on for dear life, the wind whipping through her long brunette hair on their way to their first day back at school after their winter break. At first, she had disapproved of Scott buying a motorcycle, but when he first gave her a ride she found that the noise of the motor drowned out everything, and she fell in love. The morning ride to school was her favorite time of day — a clear mind? That's something she only achieves on the motorcycle.

"What are you thinking about?" Scott's thoughts seep into her mind and bring her back to reality. It was like he always knew what she was thinking, even if she was the one who could actually read minds.

"I'm thinking about how much I don't want to go to school." She answers. She could hear him chuckling.

"You'll be fine, Caitlin."

"Yeah? You try going through a day filled with hormones, drama, and overall stupidity and then come and tell me I'll be fine."

"You're forgetting I can hear every sound anyone makes — but you can tune them out if you concentrate hard enough."

"Not in a school with over five hundred minds to drown out."

"Just….try. Find your an-"

"Yeah, yeah, anchor, got it. Blah, blah, blah."

And with that, they'd arrived. Scott parked and Caitlin hopped off, pulling off her helmet and shaking her head to let her hair settle. She raked her fingers through her waves and smiled at a passing senior boy. She giggled to herself as she heard Scott's low growl — he'd always been overprotective, and Caitlin liked to annoy him with a little harmless flirting every now and again.

"Don't forget, lacrosse tryouts are today so I won't be able to give you a ride home, okay?" Scott reminded her. Ugh, lacrosse. Sure, she liked the action of the game, but she hated having to find a ride home.

She smiled politely. "Yeah. See you later."

Her brother grinned and hurried off, catching sight of his girlfriend, Kira, who waved at Caitlin before turning to follow Scott.

Caitlin took a deep breath and walked calmly into the school. "You can do this." She thought to herself. She pushed the doors open and was immediately met with emotions. She heard yelling, crying, excitement, depression, anxiety — it was too much after radio silence for the past week. Her mom had had to work almost every day, and Scott was often away with Kira, so she was left with only thoughts of her own. It had been heaven. Stopping and closing her eyes, Caitlin tried to think of an anchor (something she'd desperately been searching for for sixteen years). Her first thought went to her mother and Scott, and after a few minutes the noise began to fade. She could only hear one voice, and it sounded quite familiar.

"Caitlin? Are you okay?" A voice said as a hand touched her arm. She recognized the voice, and opened her eyes to reveal a tall, lanky teenager. His chocolate brown eyes bore into hers.

"I'm fine, Stiles, thanks." Caitlin breathed. "Just a bit overwhelmed, you know?"

"Actually, not really…the whole hearing-voices-in-my-head isn't really my thing." Stiles joked. His lopsided grin fell and his eyebrows scrunched together when Caitlin smacked his arm. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Don't be such a wuss, Stilinski. Besides, that's for leaving me without a ride today."

"What? I thought Lydia usually takes you home on lacrosse days."

"She's not here."

Stiles' face dropped and his voice lowered. "Caitlin…what do you mean she's not here?"

"I can't get a read on her which means she's not here."

"Where do you think she is? Do you think she's okay? What if she's —" His mind was racing.

"Oh for the love of God, what are you, her boyfriend? She's probably sick or just doesn't wanna show up to school. Can't blame her for that." She noted the look of desperation on his face and sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll try to send her a message and tell her to call you."

With a sigh of relief, Stiles hugged her tightly. "Thanks, Caitlin. You're the best."

"I know. Ugh, you're suffocating me!"

He let go. "Sorry. But thanks. See you later!" He exclaimed before stumbling off, knocking over a trash can in the process. Caitlin laughed and shook her head.

She walked into her first period class and took a seat in the back. She closed her eyes and concentrated on an image of Lydia.

"Lydia? Lydia, if you can hear this, Stiles wants you to call him to make sure you're alright."

"Ms. McCall?" Her teacher, Mr. Yukimura, called out to her and she opened her eyes to see the class looking at her — some were smiling, others were laughing. She opened her mind to hear the snickers in their thoughts.

"Yes?" She replied.

Mr. Yukimura raised his eyebrows. "Break is over. Let's try to stay awake long enough to make it through first period, shall we?"

She faked a smile. "Sorry," she apologized as he nodded and continued the lesson. To be fair, she found history to be boring anyway.

"I'm fine. Just feel a little off." Lydia's voice was faint in her mind. "But I'll still call Stiles." She added quickly, and Caitlin smiled.

After a long and painful lesson on the Romans, class ended, and she went through another boring day the same as all the others. Soon it was last period, and Scott's thoughts penetrated the barrier that Caitlin had created in her mind.

"Did you find a ride home yet?"

"Yeah, Derek's gonna come get me."

"Derek?! How did you get Derek to agree to come pick you up from school? Isn't he busy? I thought I told you I didn't want you to bother him."

"Oh, please. He said he had time and that he'd be glad to pick me up and drop me off at home."

"When did you talk to him?"

"Uhhh…I haven't yet."

"What?! Caitlin-"

"Calm down, Scott, it'll be fine. And by the way, your eyes are glowing. I can tell."

There was no reply. Caitlin snickered. She could always tell when her brother was in wolf form, but she assumed it was just a twin thing and not her powers. She decided it was a good time to actually ask Derek for a ride. To save herself from further embarrassment, she asked to use the restroom. When she got there, she went into the first stall and closed her eyes and focused on the former alpha.

"Derek?"

There was silence for almost a minute. Caitlin worried that maybe he was too far away to receive her message. Or maybe he's just ignoring her.

"Yeah?" His deep voice finally came.

"Can you pick me up from school? Everyone's at lacrosse tryouts and I'd rather not hear yelling two different ways. Please?"

"I have so much to deal with, Caitlin. There's Kate, the murders, I don't have time to come pick you up from school."

"So…three o'clock? I did save your life from the kanima last year, just saying."

All she heard was a growl in response. He hated it when she brought up the time she saved him by letting him know that the kanima was behind him during a fight and diving in to save him after he fell in the pool while paralyzed.

"Thanks, Derek."

"Yeah, sure."

She headed back to class for the rest of the day. When the bell rang, Caitlin rushed to her locker, anxious to get away from everyone. She grabbed the books she needed and turned around quickly, her locker slamming behind her. She walked around the corner…straight into someone. All of her books dropped and she immediately got on her knees and started gathering her papers. The figure brushed past her, not even stopping to apologize. She looked back to see a lean boy with golden brown hair rushing through the halls, pushing past everyone in his way.

"Asshole." She thought. Suddenly, the boy stopped and turned, as if someone had called his name. She saw the confused look on his, admittedly, cute face, and he kept walking. Caitlin's jaw dropped. "There's no way he could have heard me." She shook it off and went outside where she saw Derek in his car, waiting.

He smiled when she opened the door. "Hey, someone call a taxi?"

Caitlin grinned. "Yeah, but I didn't know the smartass driver was included. Is that an extra charge?"

Derek scowled jokingly. "Very funny. Just get in."

"Well, if you insist."

Their ride consisted of mostly silence. Caitlin didn't mind, though. She liked the quiet, and she could tell Derek had a lot on his mind — Braeden, Kate, his eyes, being sixteen again for a few days, just to name a few. Now there was an axe murderer running around. Shivers ran down her spine as she imagined what the surviving boy must be going through, what with his entire family being brutally murdered, and all. She tried not to think about it. Her mind went back to the boy that bumped her in the hall - did he hear her? If he did, how? And who did he think he was, anyway, bumping into her like that?

"Caitlin?"

Her head snapped to the side to look at her driver. "Yeah?"

Derek raised his eyebrows and she looked around, noticing the car had stopped and that they were in her driveway. "We've been sitting here for five minutes."

"Oh, sorry. Blanked out." She laughed half-heartedly and Derek gave her a polite smile. "Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime. Well, not anytime. Don't ask me every day, okay?"

Caitlin laughed. "Yeah, okay. See you."

"See you later."

She went inside and set her bag down, determined not to do any homework until she heard how tryouts went for the boys. She watched tv and waited. It was nearly six o'clock when Scott finally contacted her.

"I'm at the hospital. One of the players got hurt and Stiles and I offered to take him, something about his ankle. Anyway, I know you're worried but I'm fine and tryouts went…okay. I should be home soon."

"Okay, see you when you get home." She replied.

An hour later, she was snuggled in her bed, her mind exhausted from the day. All of a sudden she was woken up by a loud crash. Immediately she concentrated on the minds in the house. There was Scott, Stiles, and…someone else? He was scared, angry, and confused. There was a lot of yelling and it was hard to make out what anyone was thinking.

"Scott?!" She sent out frantically. There was no answer.

Next chapter coming 7/23-7/24, thank you so much for the kind words and follows/favorites!