Thanks to all of you who have asked me to continue writing about Malia Tate.
Well here is chapter 2.
New territory - Chapter 2 - 1st Period (History) - Mr. Yukimura
Malia got out of Scott's jeep. It was strange as this was the first time since her transformation back to being a human… well were-human that she didn't feel alone. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose and sniffed out the individual scents in the air.
The spring rains were coming.
She could smell sweat off of the band field along with freshly cut grass.
Human, human, human, female human menstruating, human with a heavy bad smelling body odor, human that smelled like doughnuts... gopher that smelled like candy bars… Malia licked her lips at that taste.
The Malia liked the taste of Prairie dog and Gopher back when she was a Coyote. It took forever to get them, but they tasted good with a branch of female thine leaves bush to chew on while eating once you got them. She sighed at that memory as she searched out more scents to sense what was in the area.
Banshee with musk…. Lydia.
Malia's eyes shot open.
Searching around where Lydia was at Malia locked onto the car pulling into the school parking lot.
Lydia looked to be a little better. Malia remembered spending the night at Lydia's house and the bonding they had done. Somehow sharing a bubble bath with the Banshee and just exposing their issues to one another had taken some of the sting of losing Aiden and Alison away.
Malia didn't have an issue with nudity, but Lydia was a little shy when it came to showing her body. Well unless you were an attractive male interested in fornicating with her. Malia hadn't smelled that much baby juice, no matter how faint, since that pride of cougars moved into the area around where her old den had been when she was twelve. As long as they were making little cougars, they left her alone. Though Malia was glad when that herd of deer came through the area and the cougars left to eat them instead of trying to eat her. Boy did she have to run like crazy during those days.
But it was Aiden's scent on Lydia's mattress that Malia made stop cold.
Lydia and Aiden had been mates. Lydia hadn't lost a friend; this was a person she wanted to have pups with.
Deciding right then and there, Malia knew that having Lydia take a bath would make her feel better. It worked for her even as a child, so it might work for her friend.
After searching the cabinets in the bathroom for bubble bath, Malia finally found some and kept pouring until there was a frothy crest nearly overflowing the top of the tub of warm water. Once that was done Malia literally forced Lydia to undress before her as she blocked her path out of the bathroom and she wouldn't leave the door until Lydia was in the tub.
Once Lydia was under the bubbles… Lydia felt comfortable even with Malia undressing and getting into the tub with her. Lydia was willing to let Malia bathe with her even as she rubbed the sadness from her body but Lydia considered this something as something Malia's "kid brain" went to as a reference of how things worked for humans.
It wasn't sexual… it was it was simple grooming, rubbing dirt off into the water and sharing scents. Malia didn't mind feeling Lydia' hair on her chest as she frothed the Banshee's hair up into all sorts of strange shapes as Lydia lay back against her friend. That was when Malia saw a series of puncture marks on the back of Lydia's neck. They looked to be fresh, but recently healed. Lydia winced as Malia cleaned at them, but she calmed down as Malia moved away from them. When Malia asked how Lydia got the injury she learned that Scott had used his Werewolf claws on Stiles and Lydia to establish a link between their minds so that they could kick out the Nogitsune from Stiles' mind. Lydia broke down remembering the incident.
Malia hugged Lydia in the tub and let know she wasn't alone as the Banshee started to sob against her.
It was like when Stiles dried her hair while she was staying at his place… the desire to feel warm and safe. Lydia needed the feeling more than the others did, given the level of pain she had felt about losing two of her pack mates.
Malia had slowly washed away Lydia's makeup to see her true Banshee face. It wasn't ugly, but it sure would need a lot of lotion to make it look better. Lydia's face looked a little like a picture Malia had seen in a celebrity magazine of Mila Kunis without any makeup. But Lydia wasn't that bad with her makeup removed. It would take a month of rubbing lotion onto Lydia's face to repair the damage from the layers of makeup she had been wearing over the last few weeks but as Lydia became more comfortable with Malia touching her face that most of the weight of the world she had been carrying started to fade away.
In the Banshee's view of things she had been the reason for two of her friends' deaths. Being taken and used as bait in the events that had gotten Alison killed, and not being well versed in combat so that she could fight beside Scott and Kira to take down the Nogitsune before he had killed Aiden still weighed heavy on her. Malia just moved in and hugged the Banshee again as she brushed out the tears from the Banshee's eyes.
"I miss him too. Aiden was like an older brother to me. He let me know that I could keep my coyote nature and still be a human girl too." Malia said as she stroked Lydia's hair as she proceeded to wash it with the baby shampoo she had brought with her. The rubbing of Lydia's mane with her fingers relaxed the Banshee enough to open up about her time with Aiden and Alison. How Lydia had met Aiden and how she didn't see him as being evil, he had to do evil to survive, but he cared about others. He cared about her. She missed those times where he had held her in his arms and let her pull in his scent.
"The mating wasn't half bad either." Lydia said as Malia giggled at that image as the water started to turn cold and their fingers started to look raisins.
Somehow the bath they had shared had somehow forced the Banshee to tap into her powers and for a little while so she could talk with Aiden and Alison as she heard the voices from the other side start to speak to her as they dried off and got dressed in their pajamas.
The rest of the night was spent with Lydia giving her side of the conversation to the two disembodied spirits. It was strange but soothing for the Banshee to speak with her friends. Malia just sat back and did the occasional run out of the bedroom to grab a refill of snacks or drinks and just listened to Lydia speak to the spirits of her deceased friends.
"Alison, I know that I miss you and Aiden... Yeah... It is strange to hear you talk to me like this... You are not the only dead person that has talked to me like this. Wait... you watched me and Malia bathe? Did Aiden? Wait… he liked how I looked nude..."
"You know you have a nice body for a non-shape shifter." Malia added. "But if I were you, I would put on some extra weight if you were ever going to go anywhere naked again."
"Malia!" Lydia had taken the statement as an insult but in Malia's case a few extra pounds on Lydia couldn't hurt. Lydia's body just didn't feel all that healthy from the stress she had gone through. Malia had felt Lydia's ribs when they had bathed, and Lydia would need the additional body mass if she was to stay healthy if she was ever to carry puppy Banshees in the future.
But as either Alison or Aiden spoke to Lydia from the other side, Lydia became a bit sadder from the direction of the dialogue taking place. "Malia has been making sure that I eat." A pause: "Oatmeal... Peanut Butter and Jelly… tuna fish..." Lydia grinned. "Yeah, that pretty much describes her." Malia moved over and sat near Lydia and let her eyes turn blue as she studied Lydia like the Coyote she was as she looked out to a side of her bedroom. "You have to check on the others don't you?" Lydia felt said, but as the Banshee looked at Malia. "Yeah... Malia will keep an eye on me; she has been like a guard dog checking the house every fifteen minutes. You go and do what you need to do on the other side. I promise to make sure that the GPS to my car is on while I am driving." Lydia said raising her hand. "I promise." With that Alison and Aiden's spirits left and the Banshee started to chew through the plate of sandwiches Malia had laid down before her.
The rest of the night just felt quiet, even with Malia going around and checking Lydia's territory for danger in the middle of the night as the house creaked from the shifts in the weather. There was none... Well any that had decided to enter on the physical level. Though she did smoosh to death a few flies. Malia made sure that those "dead" flies were trapped and wrapped duct tape to ensure their containment even if they did attempt to rise from the dead. Those little buggers were not going to get out and causing any harm anytime soon even if they weren't connected to the Nogitsune.
Today seeing Lydia get out of her car, she looked better. A bit less makeup, but a lot more lotion, aloe scented with roses and some other scent that Malia couldn't place that smelled great.
"Hey Malia..." Lydia said as she came up to the young were-coyote. "So, ready for you first day back?"
"I am a little nervous." Malia said as she looked at the set of buildings before her.
"Worry a little, but at least you are not going to have anything try to eat you here." Lydia said as leaned against Scott's jeep.
"Worry about what?" Malia said concerned.
"The New Kid always gets seen as being weak, but you are stronger than they think. Though I wouldn't growl at anyone right away…" This is when Lydia reached over to look at Malia's schedule. "Hey we have English together." Lydia said as she noticed the teacher Malia had.
"Yeah, and I have Gym with Kira." Malia said shrugging.
"Just don't try to eat her... again." Malia winced at Lydia's words. This was one of those things that she wished she hadn't done. Malia had been so angry back then. Now in this pack... After all that had happened she had to make up for it. She would do her best to apologize to Kira.
That's if Kira didn't run away from her.
"Hey how about I walk you to class?" Lydia said as she noticed how Malia was feeling.
"Okay." Malia said as she picked up her book bag and walked with Lydia to her first class.
"Hey Malia... See you around lunch?" Stiles called out forcing Malia to turn around.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Malia said grinning before she had to run to catch up with Lydia.
As Malia walked into the room the smell of fox was overwhelming. As each student took a seat, Malia took a seat where she could escape quickly if something came to attack. That was when the teacher came up to her and spoke.
"Ms. Tate," The Asian man said as Malia started to put her book bag down in her chair.
"Yes..." Malia said looking around the room searching for danger.
"Could you stay after class, I need to speak to you about some things." Malia nodded as she smelled the strong scent of fox... Wait foxes...
"Okay, what about?" Malia felt worried, this was Fox Girl's dad. Did he not want her in his class? Stiles said that he had requested to be her advisor, but what if there was another reason. Malia's defenses were up.
"Heritage." He said cryptically.
Heritage? Did he mean her heritage? She was a Ware-Coyote, what did he know about her? Was there some history book about were-coyotes that she didn't know about that she had to read? She was in the room only three minutes and she was worried.
That was when the last of the students flooded into the room.
As the bell rang Malia felt several eyes looking at her.
"Who's the new girl?" A voice spoke in a hushed whisper.
"I don't know, but at least the teacher knows she is here. Remember that girl from Eichen House that showed up in Coach Finstock's room."
"Yeah... From what I head the staff from the place sent to get her were more messed up than the patients, who the hell tries to Taser senseless a calm patient plucking at a piano? No wonder she ran away."
"Yeah, I heard those guys got fired after Coach wrestled away a live Taser from one of those guys and hit him with it."
"Well given what all has happened with Coach this past year, I think he's had his limit on the crap that has taken place to the students and youth around here, that he decided to start taking names and kicking ass."
"Understatement. I heard that he chased after a sports recruiter with a lacrosse staff after the guy tried to get onto the field thinking the guy was a pedophile."
"Well given from what I heard from the grapevine is that we are going to get lanyards with GPS chips in them to make sure that we and anyone that comes onto campus can be tracked if something goes wrong."
"Given all of the crap lately, we might have a closed campus by the time I hit senior year." One of the voices said as the sounds started to shift to her direction. "Talk about Homeland School Security."
"So, what is with the new girl?" Malia listened in as the third voice spoke up. "She looks like she is listening to us." That was when Malia turned in the direction of the voices as she saw how far away they were. The three students were sitting in the far back of the classroom. Malia winced. Great Super Hearing has now kicked in. Good news no one around here is carrying a dog whistle or else I be screwed. "Well she better watch out for that large creepy spider that is crawling up her back because it is about to..." Spider! Spiders were itchy creatures. Malia shot out of her chair and pulled her jacket off and started hitting it across her desk to kill the damn creature. Malia felt the back of her neck to sense if the spider was there when there were smooshed spider remains present on the desk or her jacket.
"Oh, Crap…" Malia said as she realized that the three students in the back had tested to see if she could hear them… Well it had worked. Malia quickly looked at Mr. Yukimura who just rolled his eyes as she shook his head and pointed at her to sit down. There was a cleared throat from Mr. Yukimura as he glared at the trio in the corner.
"I see that we've just tested our new student Ms. Tate's hearing and know how well she can hear lets, see how well she can listen like the rest of you to today's lesson." Malia got the feeling that this was going to be a long class. Malia put her jacket on and pulled it closer around her as she pulled out her notebook and pencils and started to take notes as Mr. Yukimura asked them to open their text books to a specific page number and look at the map on the page.
"Now given that fifteen century Europe was on an expansion phase throughout the world. The…"
Malia's brain hurt as the class came to an end. So far Malia had to read about thirty pages covering the expansion of England around the world and answer three questions. That was when Mr. Yukimura walked over to her desk and handed her a sheet of paper.
"This is a project I want you to work on with your friends for the rest of the year." Mr. Yukimura said as Malia looked at it. "It might help you figure out some things about yourself and your friends."
Do a comparative history of the myths and legends pertaining to Asian Foxes (Kitsune), Wolves and American Coyotes. How are they alike and how are they different in how have they influenced the development of their respective cultures. (500 points)
Malia looked at the strange word: Kitsune. She had heard the word several times from Scott and Stiles, but to see it spelled out before her caught her attention.
"Sure…" Malia didn't know what this meant, but she got the feeling that Mr. Yukimura wanted her to learn more about what she was as well as the other members of her pack and some of the history that went with it.
"Good." With that Mr. Yukimura walked back to his desk. This was when one of her classmates leaned over and tapped her on her shoulder.
"So, I take it you got some extra credit work to take up?" Malia nodded. "Well, the project he gave me was a list of 200 hundred names of individuals throughout history that I have to write two to three sentences on whenever we have a library day." With that the student pulled out his extra credit project. "I have about one hundred and thirty-three done so far." Malia looked at the list and cringed and the twelve pages before her.
"You had to do that?!" The boy looked at the list of hand written information.
"Yeah," there was a long sigh from him. "Took me awhile, but I am still trudging through it. I hit about five Wikipedia pages a night to summarize to get this thing done. So what is your project?" Malia was hesitant in letting someone outside of the pack see what this was. Would she be laughed at? Hounded for being a wild girl? That was when the boy looked over her shoulder at the paper.
"Comparative history on…" Then there was a quizzical look on the boy and then a shrug. "He wants you do a comparative analysis on those myths and their cultural impact… figures." Did the boy know who she was? Malia winced. "Ah, let's see… Foxes are known as being a major influence on Japanese and Asian cultures, Coyotes are a major influence on the Native American mythos and mind set. I lived in Arizona for six years and I saw a lot of symbols around them all over the place. Wolves are referenced in the mythology in Europe, mainly the Roman Empire." Malia blinked a few times.
"What?"
"Grab a sheet of paper and start writing this up for notes." Malia shuffled onto a page of her notebook paper and started scribbling away. "Foxes have influenced Asian culture, Wolves are a major influence on European culture, and Coyotes are a major influence on the Native American culture." There was a pause from the boy, "Coyotes and Foxes are seen as tricksters, Wolves are seen along with Foxes as mother figures. All three are sort of seen as warriors and teachers. Wolves are often seen in Roman mythology, in a few references… Um…" The boy closed his eyes to search his mind for that tidbit of information he was looking for. A few references have them showing up being around the goddess Artemis, but I think that is confusion with them being linked to hunting dogs."
"Artemis?" Malia spoke up looking at the boy.
"The Greek Goddess of the hunt, she was pictured in a short skirt, and carrying a bow." Malia stopped cold. Alison. He was talking about Alison or probably an ancestor of her's? Malia had seen the police report about Alison's death. She winced. "You okay, Tate?" Malia nodded.
"Alison… Alison Argent was a friend." Malia said as the boy put the facts together.
"Tate… wait I remember you from the memorial service." That was when he put the pieces together. "Malia Tate." He whispered out.
Malia nodded.
"You are not going to call me Wild girl or Coyote girl?" Malia shank down into her chair.
"No, No... Crap..." There was a realization with the boy. "I remember Lydia Martin walking you into class. Given that she sort of helped save your life, I kind of figured that given how you two have been hanging together, I sort of figured out that you both went through the same type of dissociative fugue. Lydia thought she was a naked forest nymph for a few days and you thought you were a coyote for a couple of years. Trust me the last thing I want to do is make you feel worse about yourself that you already feel." The boy spoke as he nudged her on the shoulder. "That and I saw you walking into school together after you got out of Scott McCall's jeep. Plus, I was in Coach Finstock's class at the time and he offered up an "A" for the course if we helped in tracking down and locating Lydia Martin when she went missing from the hospital."
"So, you're not freaked out?!" Malia said surprised.
"Given all the craziness that has been taking place around here I am not surprised that it happens more." The boy said. "Lydia went through a pretty violent animal attack, and you went through a car accident. Your brain tends to lock up at times; sometimes you need someone to give you a nudged reboot." With that the boy leaned closer. "Plus I have been through two car accidents. All I remember from both cases is the seatbelt slapping me across the chest and my front teeth hurting along with my molars." Malia remembered the way her teeth hurt after the accent. All this time, she had thought it had been from her changing into her coyote form. What if it had been from the actual accident during the car's roll?
"How long did your fugue last?"
"The first time when I was kid, it lasted about a few minutes... the good news was that I was locked in place by the seatbelt snapping me back into the seat. So I couldn't get out of the car until the seatbelt lock disengaged after what felt like a few minutes after we came to a stop. Other than hurting like hell, most of what I remember is the sound. Still can't play racing games with the sound effects on during the wreck scenes." Malia winced. "So what was it like when you got stuck in your own body? Listen I know that you probably don't want to talk about it..."
"Thanks... But I do want to talk about it, because for the longest time while I was trapped in that state, I wanted to be a girl again." Malia wanted to tell more, but given that he had known about what Lydia had gone through, maybe a little fudging of facts might help. "All I pretty much remember is that I didn't see my face. All I saw was this..." Malia chewed on the words hard.
"Creature... You know looked completely alien, didn't move the way that you remembered your body moving. Like your face wasn't your own..." Malia nodded. Well at least Lydia's little run through the woods did have some benefit to keeping Malia's Wild child status in check. "I did a lot of research online after the mess, plus a character during a Doctor Who Christmas Special went through a Fugue state after he witnessed the death of his wife at the hands of the monster of the week during that episode."
"Doctor who?" Malia wasn't up to speed on a lot of the cultural slang many of the fellow kids were using in the school.
"It's a TV show. It is about an alien that has this time machine slash spaceship that he travels around in and has adventures in."
"And he is a doctor?" Malia said getting the feeling that she might like this show.
"The guy is over nine hundred years old. So picking up the occasional degree in genetic electrical work, telepathic computing, military tactics, warp drive mechanics, and being able to build a quantum computer out of car battery, a refrigerator and a trashed electron microscope in under fifteen minutes with duct tape. Yeah the guy has a few doctorates under his belt."
"Wow, a guy like that must have a really big and powerful ship to fly around in. So what does his ship look like?"
"For the last fifty years, his ship has been disguised as a Blue British Police Call Box. But the inside is larger than it is on the outside by a factor of a few million. The Guy put a beach in for goodness sake when he decided to expand his swimming pool."
"So how big is a Police Call Box?" Malia said trying to get a size reference.
"Think about the size of four Superman sized phone booths."
"Oh..." With that the bell rang and the class was over. "He must have a lot of folks knocking on his door to use his phone."
"That is why he keeps the phone access on the outside of the ship."
"So how does he use the phone while he is in space?"
"Well, I will show you sometime after I download an episode or two to my phone later this week."
"Thanks." Malia said as she put her papers up and put them into her book bag. "So what is your name?"
"Tommy Baker Cooper." The boy said getting up from his desk.
"Thanks Tommy." Malia said feeling that there was one person other than the Pack she could not feel like a freak around. She was a little unsure about the entire him knowing she was a Were-Coyote, but that she could play by ear.
Next: 2nd period - Mrs. Wagner (Math)
I hope that you liked the Doctor Who references that I sprinkled throughout the end of the chapter. The entire Lydia Martin/Forest Nymph comes up from me looking at a lot of Lydia Martin fanart while writing this up. Amazing what turns up when you click on "find more images like this" on .
If any of you have ideas of what should take place in the next chapter let me know. I am searching for any High School Experiences from you all to help craft this day for Malia so she has some highs and some lows throughout this story. Please send them to me via PM and please post a review below.
I already have a fairly cringe worthy scene set up for Mr. Hearn's science class even before I hit the bathroom Chekov gun scene I am setting up for Chapters 3 and 4.
Till Next chapter,
Hearns
