Summary: Hallucination: an unfounded or mistaken impression or notion.
A/N: I'm not dead. I have PM's to answer from last year. I'm horrible. Thank thecivilunrest for this getting done. First finished thing of this new fandom.
Noble One
Lydia Martin has made many false assumptions in her life. The first was in third grade when she convinced herself that mother and father weren't fighting. Not all communication was calm and orderly. Sometimes to get a point across, voices must be raised.
Or china thrown against the wall.
Things spiraled from that moment forward in her life. But Lydia is not about hindsight or regret because that would mean second-guessing herself.
(She has read all the articles on how children compensate after divorce and need to be reassured it isn't their fault. Lydia knows this. She has always wanted to be perfect, even before.)
She believed everyone loved her. When Lydia takes a run through the woods that she can't (refuses to) remember (acknowledge), everyone gives her the looks reserved for Greenberg.
If Greenberg must be defined, it would be as 'invisible' or 'one who serves to be dismissed' and perhaps most sadly, 'one who is overlooked except for in times of failure'.
Lydia thought of herself as 'powerful' or 'one who causes everyone to halt all activities' and most importantly 'one who allows people to see only what she wishes.'
Lydia finds Stiles infuriating because he blew a hole in that last theory. He punctured one of the layers of Lydia.
For this same reason, Allison becomes her best friend. But Allison does it subtlety and never announces it like Stiles. Really, it was the public confrontation that Lydia found aggravating.
But Lydia is nothing if not fair, and Stiles receives his prize for being so observant and clever.
(There was a thrill to being open and free with him during that dance. But then the universe righted itself as she was savaged by Peter on the field. A clear sign that Lydia needed to stay on the road of perfection. Any illusions of happiness with Stiles died that night.)
And because Lydia and Allison's relationship revolves around privacy and acceptance, she translates the bestiary, no questions asked.
The paradox of Lydia's life is Jackson. Their relationship started off as a simple, clean equation. Popular, gorgeous underclassman plus hot, athletic upperclassman was a sure formula for social success.
(Six months in when Lydia receives a key, she realized that relationships were complicated, messy things; for her, it was the first sign she was losing control of her carefully crafted life.)
But even the best must revise their plans, yes? Or so she reassured herself. Lydia Martin could do far worse than Jackson Whittemore, who is popular, rich, and headed down the same track as his father. Lydia finds the idea of a lawyer in her pocket useful and agreeable.
There is a weakness in her brilliance: she can argue herself into one of twenty different lies as it suits her.