Title: When Stiles Stilinski stopped talking
AN: This is set after they have dealt with the alpha pack, but before the nogitsune. Derek and Cora are still gone, and in this universe they aren't coming back to Beacon Hills. Might turn into a series.
Beta: Many thanks to jwmelmoth, for keeping up with my crazy.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never were
"Okay, that was the last of the school cases we have to discuss, does anyone have anything they need to say about the students?" The principal, Anna Cleary, looked around at her fellow staff and teachers of Beacon Hills High, and was a little surprised when one of them stood up. It was , the English teacher.
"Yes, I do." He walked up in front of everyone and took a deep sigh before he started talking. "It's about Stiles Stilinski." Several of the teachers who didn't have him in class anymore rolled their eyes, but Anna noticed that some of the teachers nodded, and looked a little relieved.
"Well… I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has noticed this, but he has stopped talking. He came back after the summer looking like death, and I haven't heard him say a word in four weeks."
Anna looked at the man in surprise. She had had Stiles when he was younger, before she became principal, and he was not one to stay silent. One of the other teachers, who didn't have Stiles, spoke up.
"No offence, but isn't that just a relief. I mean, the kid couldn't shut up before. Maybe his medicine just started working better?"
"No, it's not like that." Mrs. Langley, the math teacher, took the word. "It's not that he's more concentrated or less for that matter, as he still has impeccable grades. He isn't only not talking, but he doesn't communicate at all. Not even, as far as I can tell, with his group of friends. You have all seen how he and Scott McCall seem to talk without talking? Well, it's stopped. And McCall doesn't seem to notice, or care, I don't know which."
Mrs. Bull rose up in the back. "It's true. There is clearly something very wrong with Stiles. I have even heard other students talk about it. But what can we do about it?"
Anna stood up, effectively shutting off the chatter. "I suggest we make Mr. Stilinski an appointment with Mrs. Merry, the new counselor, and see if she can help him out in any way. We should also call in the Sheriff for a talk, see if he is aware of what is happening, which he likely is, and ask if he might know what is going on. Also, I want everyone to keep an extra eye on Mr. Stilinski. Don't force him to talk, but try to encourage him."
It took John a couple weeks before he realized that something was off about Stiles, but to be fair, he had been working strange shifts and barely saw his kid enough to say hi, let alone notice that something was wrong. When he first did however, it became glaringly obvious that something was very much not right.
Stiles had stopped talking. Not only that, but his spastic and fumbling son was all but gone. Left in his wake was a too quiet, wound-up boy that John had no idea how to deal with. He had been trying to think of some way to get through to Stiles, when they called from school, and asked to have a meeting with him.
John sat looking at the counselor, his eyes blank with unshed tears. The words she had just said rang in his brain.
"Stiles only said one thing when he was in session with me. When I asked him why he stopped talking, he said: what's the point of talking, when no one is listening."
When John came home that night, he changed into his civil clothes and asked Stiles to sit down on the couch with him. He took Stile's face between his hands carefully and looked him in the eye.
"Son, I don't know who made you think that no one was listening, but I will always listen. I will always be on your side, no matter what. I wish you would tell me what is going on with you. I know you've been through crap, but I also know that this whole no talking thing didn't happen until a few weeks ago, and as far as I know there hasn't been any supernatural shit. So please, let me help you." John could see the tears building up in his sons eyes, and he knew his own were already spilling over, and suddenly he had an armful of crying son. He held him as tightly as he could, and listened to the words that spilled out of his mouth.
At the end of the night, when they were still sitting on the same couch, Stiles resting his head on John's shoulder, he finally knew everything.
"You can't go on like this, Stiles. We need to figure something out."
Stiles raised his head. "Actually, I have been working on something…"
It was the first day back to school after winter break, and Lily and Sarah was sitting in the cafeteria. They had happened to pick the table next to McCall and his crew, which always made for fun, if somewhat strange eavesdropping. They hadn't been talking about anything interesting so far, but both girls perked up when they heard the name "Stiles". The whole school had talked about him last year, and no one seemed to know what was going on, but if anyone knew, it would be these people, right?
Martin was the one who brought him up, and the two girls slowly ate their food whilst they listened.
"Hey, have any of you seen Stiles? I thought he'd be in my class, but he wasn't, and I want to give him back this book I borrowed."
"Uhm, no. He wasn't in any of my classes." Lahey replied.
"Nope, not in mine." Mahealani added.
"Huh… he wasn't in any of mine either." McCall said.
"Seriously? No one?" Martin looked around the table at them all. They all shook their heads.
"Then where is he? Maybe he's home sick?"
"He hasn't sent me a message or anything…" McCall pulled out his phone as if to check it.
"Hang on, I'll check the school, see which classes he should have been in. We can at least grab his homework for him." Mahealani tinkered around with his phone for a while; the girls guessed he was hacking into the school database.
"What… that can't be right." The boy looked down at his phone with a frown.
"What? What is it?" McCall tried to grab the phone from Mahealani, but he held it out of reach.
"It says that Stiles graduated early, that he doesn't go here anymore."
"What?" McCall, Martin and Lahey all looked at Mahealani in shock.
McCall grabbed his own phone again, and quickly dialed a number. As he listened to the other end, his face grew pale. "It's disconnected. His number, it isn't working anymore."¨
He quickly dialed another number and waited as it rang. "Hi, sheriff, it's Scott, I was just wondering…" He took the phone away from his ear and looked down at it incredulously. "He hung up on me."
"What the fuck is going on? Why would he leave without telling us? Did something happen before Christmas?" Martin was clearly getting very frustrated, and the girls realized that these people seemed to have no clue about what was going on with Stiles. They were not surprised that Stiles had left, though they were surprised his so called friends didn't know.
"He was a little quieter, but we all went through hell and back, I didn't think much of it. Did he say anything to you guys?" McCall's words were riddled with confusion, and Lily had suddenly had enough. She stood up and walked towards them, and leaned her arms on their table.
"Seriously? This is ridiculous, how can you not have noticed? Are you blind?"
"Who the hell are you? And what are you talking about?" McCall sneered at her. Lily was unimpressed. An army brat, she had seen a lot scarier than him.
"I am talking about the fact that you, who are supposedly his friends, are the only ones in the whole school who didn't catch up to the fact that something was wrong with Stiles."