A/N: So, I probably went overboard and did too much casual conversation in the beginning but like I said before, the point of the story is that they are all going to be living together so I didn't want to skimp on the 'real life' details of what it might be like if you move in with people you don't know. But I promise, that isn't the only thing in the chapter, the whole second half is the Pack coming over and meeting Allison :D I could almost cut this chapter in half since it's so long but I didn't want the first part to stand on it's own as a chapter because that felt a little boring... so it's all together lol. It's a little hectic since there are so many people and they are all talking to each other but I think it feels real. If you're with a group of friends, you'll all talking to each other and over each other XD that's just the way it is. I did try to keep all the characters as accurate as I could but since they weren't all alive at the same time, I did have to guess at how they'd interact, as well as keeping my slightly altered history in mind too! Anyways, I hope you like the Pack interactions and for sure the next chapter should be interesting ;)
*Wednesday Afternoon*
Stiles rushed home, knowing that he was running late… debriefing took longer than usual and Allison liked to be early… they were probably waiting on him. But as he came up to the front door, there she was, standing awkwardly beside the building. "Hey, Scott didn't let you in? He's supposed to be home…"
"I buzzed him but he didn't answer… oh, you're a deputy?" she asked with a tilted head. She almost hadn't recognized him, he'd walked around the corner with such purpose. He really didn't seem like the type to wear a uniform, he was so not rigid. But she saw him start to relax when he noticed her- it must be the 'cop mode' she heard people talking about all the time. Strange how he hadn't mentioned it yesterday when she'd asked if they were weirdos; most people would consider an officer to be a trustworthy person. They probably weren't the kind of people that let their profession speak for them and that was why they wanted her to meet their friends more than anything.
He looked down at himself, even with his cover on, his duty belt was still visible from the top of his work bag and the pants were a dead giveaway, they were an unusual green color. "Yup, newbie deputy, that's me. Oh that's right, we never went over that yesterday did we?" Stiles took out his key, opening the door open for her. After seeing the look of surprise on her face, Stiles was worried that his occupation might be a deal breaker for her but thankfully she just seemed curious and not defensive. But how could he forget to mention it in the first place?! Things had just gone so well that he didn't think he needed to pass any sort of test with her.
She shook her head, "No, there wasn't a lot of time for questions, I was in a rush. Does that mean you're all done with school and stuff?"
"Mhmm, got my degree and finished my training- I'm a fully fledged adult! Well, I'm trying to be. I know you mentioned a steady income so I just assumed you were working, are you taking classes somewhere on top of that?"
"Yea, just 2 course at the community college. Money is kinda important so I can only go to school part time right now, and I'm not 100% sure what I want to do so I'm only taking the gen ed courses which are kinda boring. I'll figure it out eventually though. What about Scott?"
Stiles smiled widely as he let them into the apartment, "He just finished his last course a few months ago. I mean, he's still working at the same place but now he can officially be Deaton's vet assistant instead of just a technician that fills prescriptions and trims nails. He's been working for Deaton since high school; he knew what he wanted to do but didn't have the money to go to college full time so it's taken him longer to get his degree. And that's with a few scholarships. But he did it!"
"You sound proud of him," Allison noted quietly, smiling a bit herself. They hadn't been lying when they said they were like brothers- Stiles wasn't putting on a show, he really felt so proud for his friend.
"Oh yea, very proud. Scott went through a rough period; life took a complicated turn in high school and his grades tanked… he almost had to be held back. It wasn't that he wasn't trying, there was just a lot of stress. By graduation his grades were a lot better but other students had more extra-curricular stuff so the colleges didn't want to give him any big scholarships. He felt like maybe he wasn't meant to become a vet after all. It took a lot of encouraging, a few semesters at the community college, lots of letters from his professors, but he eventually got his scholarship for the veterinarian program and completed it. I wasn't about to let him walk away from it just because of a few bumps in the road."
As Stiles spoke, she wondered if she'd really fit in when the two of them were already so close… surely she was going to be the odd one out most of the time. At least it wouldn't be weird for her, to be the outsider, that was how it was for most of her high school career. They'd moved so much back then that she didn't have time to make any friends. Really, Allison only had one really close friend at the moment… and no matter how close they were, she was keeping secrets from Lydia and felt awful about it. She got so caught up in the sudden memories that she had almost missed what Stiles had said. "You said that you've known Scott for a long time now, he's like a brother? It's good that he has friends that believe in him!"
Stiles dropped his bag off by the couch and looked around, "Well normally I do but I can't understand why he didn't let you in!" His voice raised in volume as he finished his sentence. He'd seen the motorcycle in the parking lot, Scott was home.
"I'm in the shower!" Scott called out, "Sorry!"
"What… the shower, this late in the afternoon?" Stiles mumbled to himself. Whatever, maybe he woke up late or lost track of time… he did that a lot on his days off. "Well, I hope you weren't waiting too long out there and after today, you should have your own key and everything so it'll be fine."
She shrugged, "Maybe 5 or 6 minutes, not very long… does Scott take long showers or something?"
"Not in the mornings when he's getting ready for work but there are times when he's taking a leisurely shower that he can be in there for a long time. And of course he takes a shower the one day I'm running late and you're coming over."
"I didn't realize I was in the shower that long, my bad," Scott said as he popped his head into the hallway. "I thought I had time to hop in and out and… well… I stayed longer than I thought. The water felt really good, sue me."
"Well hurry up and get dressed so we can go over everything with her before the gang gets here."
Allison walked into the kitchen, checking out the cabinet space that she'd be using; it was kinda small but there wasn't a lot of cabinet space to start with and they were trying to split it between three people. At least she didn't have complete dinner sets to be bringing with her, she only needed enough dishes to last her a couple of days between washing. "What do you guys do for food storage? Or are all of your leftovers just wrapped in plastic wrap and stuffed in the fridge?"
"We share the food containers we have since we've kinda got a mish-mash of sizes and shapes… Somehow Isaac remembered which ones he's bought over the years… or he just grabbed the ones that he liked best, I'm really not sure. But yea, we share those and if you want to call dibs on something, like you know you're going to eat it and it's not up for grabs, just put your name on it. We also try to date everything that we put in there, to make cleaning out the old food easier… but different foods last longer so it's all up in the air. We try but of course there are times when we're in a hurry so we forget to write down the day we made it, or we don't care who eats it so we don't think to put a note on it."
"Okay, because I have a lot of these same containers so I wasn't sure if that would be an issue or not. I'm not going to be in charge of dishes just because I'm a girl right?" Allison asked, raising a brow. She was only slightly joking, not sure how they might actually feel about it.
"No, we've got a whole system set up for that, I can explain that in just a second, once Scott finishes getting dressed. I was going to ask what kind of stuff you were thinking about bringing? If you had friends to help you move in? I'm not off again until Saturday so I wouldn't be available to help, or you could wait until the afternoon once I get home too. I know you said that you're glad you didn't get the small room but there's still only so much that will fit in them. The closets aren't that big so you barely fit a normal sized dresser in them… and if you have a desk and a big dresser, that doesn't leave a lot of floor space because of the bed. Scott has his bed on top of the dresser but that means he has to climb into bed every night and I wasn't about to try to do that."
"Well, I don't have a lot of stuff with me right now… When I got kicked out of my last apartment, my dad put my bigger items into his storage unit and I moved in with the Martins. Now that they ended up selling their house, it was time for me to move out, I mean that was always my plan anyways, to find another apartment," Allison explained. "But my dad is out of town and I don't have a key to the storage place so I won't have my desk or my dresser for awhile… I also have a mini fridge and a microwave but I don't know if I'll need those here or not. I will need my vanity table though, which takes up room… but that's because I don't want to take up all the bathroom space. I might have to do the same thing as Scott and put my bed up in the air… my dresser might be too big… but I won't have that for a week or so, so I've got time to figure out how I want to organize my room."
Stiles frowned, "Don't tell me all your clothes are in storage too? Or are you living out of garbage bags?"
"No," she laughed, "those I put at my dad's apartment. He's got a single bedroom apartment so I couldn't stay with him unless I was on the couch. He had room in the closet for my clothes though, and I have a key for his place. For now I think I can get by with having clothes in my suitcase so they don't get too wrinkled. Thanks, by the way, for the offer to help me move in. Right now it would only be my dad and I, not that I have anything too heavy to move, they aren't antique pieces."
"Yea, of course, Scott and I are both only children with single parents so we know how hard moving can be, although, we always helped each other out too so I guess we weren't really alone. Just let us know and I'm sure we can figure something out. I mean, at least the elevators work in this place, it would suck to have to take them up 3 flights of stairs."
"Hey, what do you know, we're all more alike than we thought. Who knows what else we might find in common with each other?" Allison mused. She scrambled to come up with a different topic, not wanting to think about the fact that she only had her father left… Stiles definitely seemed like the kind of person that could ask an insensitive question without meaning to. If he brought up the subject of why her mom wasn't in the picture anymore, she'd break down. "What about the real test of friendship, pineapples on pizza, yes or no?"
"I love pineapples, I don't care what it's on or in," Scott called out as he walked into the kitchen.
Stiles held a hand out and wiggled it in front of him, "It's not the worst thing to have on pizza but I think that's just because I've been around Scotty for so long. You eat something enough and it stops being gross. It isn't my topping of choice though, I'll admit that."
"I'm the same way, it's kinda like whatever. I find it weird that people are either so against it or for it, I rarely meet anyone that has a casual opinion about it. I've eaten it, it wasn't awful, wasn't my favorite, and that's about it. And at least Scott admits he just loves pineapples in general. So we shouldn't have any issues when it comes to ordering pizza, right?"
"Naw, as much as I love pineapples, I'm not a pushy kind of person- Isaac wouldn't say that he hated it but we knew he never liked it on his pizza. So whenever we were eating together, I wouldn't get it just because I didn't want him to feel forced to eat it," Scott told her. "How far as Stiles gotten with the schedules and stuff?"
"We were waiting on you, so not very far at all," Stiles told him. Then he turned back to Allison, "Don't be alarmed but we have all sorts of notes and boards and schedules in this apartment. But it's not like a strict regimen because we're control freaks, it's in place to make sure we don't fall into chaos. I have ADHD and Scott can just be scatterbrained, especially if he's got a lot on his plate. We found out fast that if the two of us are living together, we needed some sort of plan. Isaac just kept to himself, he felt weird about reminding us to do things so he just waded through the chaos as best he could. So, the schedules and all that aren't set in stone, you won't get yelled at if you change something, nothing like that," he assured her.
She nodded her head, looking around, "I do see a lot of notes, they're on the fridge, I see a big white board on the wall there and I think I saw one by the bathroom yesterday?" Truthfully she had been a little curious- neither of them had seemed like the super organized type! It was a relief that they weren't going to be super strict about rules and stuff. Allison liked to relax when she was at home and if she had to worry about remembering hundreds of rules, it would just be stressful.
"Yea, that big one over there is the chore chart, we can start there if you want?" Stiles asked. When she nodded her head, they all stepped into the living room and he took the board off the wall and set it on the coffee table. At least that way, she could sit on the couch while he explained everything. "So, it's kind of a complicated system to explain but once you get the hang of it, it really works! There are individual chores and communal chores-"
"Oh, now that Isaac is gone we'll have to re-divide those since it really isn't fair for her to just inherit his share," Scott interrupted.
"Very true, we don't want to forget to do that," he agreed. "We can do that after I finish explaining, so she at least has some understanding of our system. We each have a section of the board with different colored sticky notes, I'm blue, Scott is yellow, and Isaac was green but we also have the pink sticky notes left in the pack if you really don't like green. I am not giving up blue, sorry. Anyways, my chores are up in this section, these are Scott's, and down here will be your section."
Allison looked at the board, easily following along for the moment. Stiles's section had vacuuming, kitchen cleaning, and trash duty while Scott's had dusting, mopping the kitchen, and mail duty. For now, bathroom cleaning, fridge cleaning, and living room cleaning were in her section. It seemed like Isaac didn't trust them to stay on top of the 'important' cleanings. Or he got the bad jobs because he got the short straw, depending on who disliked doing what.
"The complicated part comes from my system for the individual chores, Isaac hated it at first, said it was annoying but let me tell you, once he actually got the hang of it he exploited the system! So, individual chores are laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and meals- kinda, I'll get back to that last one. We all take care of our own messes because that's just the best way to avoid fights. We have color-coded dishes and we each have a cabinet for our things, so basically, Scott doesn't have to do my dishes since he knows mine are the blue plastic ones. But if for some reason, Scott does do my dishes for me, he writes it down! So, as you see on the board, Scott has 2 yellow notes that say 'Stiles, dishes' because he's done my dishes for me twice now. At any point in the future, he can use those as a favor. He gives me one of the chores I owe him and tells me to do his dishes for him that day and we get rid of the note."
"If you have a note that says Scott owes you for dishes, can you cancel out his favor?" Allison asked as she quickly looked over all the notes on the board. It wasn't complicated at all, at least not to her. It was basically a big trade/counter system; if you didn't stay on top of your own chores and others had to do them for you, you'd get bogged down with additional chores later on.
"Yes!" Stiles said, glad she was following along.
Scott smirked, "Yea, Stiles really pushed for us to accept that rule when he first made the chore chart because he doesn't like owing favors. But it backfired on him because Isaac did a lot of the chores before we ever had a chance to… and he never forgot to do his individual chores so we had nothing to counter with… like ever."
"Like I said, he exploited the system! It's supposed to be casual, as a way to keep us all accountable, not for one roomie to hog the chores and then call in favor after favor so he doesn't have to do anything for a whole month!" Stiles ranted.
"He still had his communal chores, don't make him sound like a bad person Stiles," Scott frowned. Personally, he'd thought it was funny how quickly Isaac had taken over the chores. It sucked when he made them do all of his chores of course but Isaac made sure not to do it on days when they were stressed out or just too busy. Although… that was probably what made Stiles so mad- he had to do chores on days he had planned to sleep in.
"I like this- it's a great idea! And it's organized so no one can really argue about if the favor has been repaid or if so-and-so hasn't kept up with their personal chores. But how does Scott owe you for groceries… he doesn't just give you the money he owes you for his items?"
Stiles blinked, not expecting the praise- she liked the system! It had taken Stiles forever to get on top of his own bad habits, but once he realized that if he kept a chart for himself, it helped remind him to get things done. Most of his life was still very unorganized but he wasn't a pain to live with because he shrugged off his responsibilities! "Um, that one is the actual trip to the store. We all just leave our lists on the fridge, with our names at the top, writing down what we need as we get low. If I know that Scott's going to be busy and I have extra money to spend, I'll just grab his list when I go to the store for myself. I tape his receipt to the fridge and he pays me back but he also owes me a trip to the store. So if one week I know I'll be too busy to go, I can ask him to go for me and buy my stuff."
"Oh, I get it; I was about to say, if it was just the money for groceries that he owed you, you'd have a hard time making sure everyone was being fair with the cost of the groceries."
Scott nodded in agreement, "Yea, we like to stay on top of the money stuff. So when it comes to cleaning supplies, we all set aside a day to go, we buy only what we need for cleaning and just evenly split the cost. It doesn't make sense that we each have to buy our own handsoaps for the kitchen or that whoever cleans the bathroom has to spend more money on toilet cleaner when the person who mops only has to spend money every once in awhile for floor cleaner. And we have the bagless vacuum cleaner so Stiles wouldn't ever spend money on bags for his communal chore."
"One last thing, meals are classified as individual chores because it doesn't work to assign one roomie with dinner all the time, y'know?" Stiles said, "But we do try to split up the cooking evenly, which is another dry-erase board that's on the fridge. We love dry-erase boards if you couldn't tell. We're on our own for breakfast and lunch since we usually aren't together for those most days but we're each assigned dinner two nights a week and the 7th day we're all on our own. What you do for dinner on your night is up to you, Scott and I don't have allergies, we aren't on diets. I'm slightly picky but I have no issue with just heating up some leftovers if I don't like what's been made for dinner; there's no reason to argue that you didn't take your turn at cooking just because I didn't like it. If you decide to do take-out, the cost is on you, it's just easier that way. Don't feel pressured to buy take-out if you don't have the money just because maybe you think you owe me money for when I buy take-out. Same concept with 'oh, when I buy take-out, it's from a fancy Italian place and when you buy take-out it's off the dollar menu' like, it's just what you can afford and what you might want to eat that night. There's no complaining and no comparing."
"Yea, on days that you might decide to do take-out, just text us to let us know where you're going and we'll reply with what we like from that place so you don't waste money by buying the wrong thing," Scott finished.
"I can see how Isaac might've thought it was all annoying when you first proposed the idea, it is kind of a lot to take in but I think I've got it," Allison answered. "I don't mind cooking and I eat all kinds of food so I think I'll be open to whatever you might do on your nights. I'm definitely glad that I found you guys! I work so much better with organization and honestly, if you guys didn't have a system in place, I would've been coming up with a polite way of suggesting that we figure one out!"
The three of them laughed and they quickly went about re-sorting the chore list because Allison admitted that she wasn't good at deciding when to throw food out so she didn't want to be responsible for the fridge. She traded with Scott, taking dusting instead since he admitted that he hated it but that was the only thing they changed. Allison did say that she would clean the bathroom unless they proved to be beyond messy. Her bathroom at home very rarely got dirty, even though she used makeup every day, so if they left the bathroom nasty, she was going to demand a trade.
"Oh, speaking of bathrooms, we're also going to have to adjust that schedule too," Scott reminded them.
"Please tell me you just mean the showering and stuff, because I can't promise when I might have to pee," Allison joked.
Stiles smiled, "I like her sense of humor already! Yea, it's just the morning schedule. We didn't want to fight over who got to shower first or have someone hogging the hot water. That's what you saw by the bathroom door yesterday. We'll just have to know your work and school schedule so we can adjust who showers first and whatnot."
"I'll make it easy, I prefer to shower before I go to bed. I love sleeping in too much and if I shower in the morning, that means I have to dry my hair and make sure it doesn't frizz and whatnot. I try to take as little time as possible in the morning since makeup already takes up a chunk of it."
"Thank goodness, Isaac took forever in the mornings for some reason- as far as I know he didn't wear makeup. That will make things easier, but we'll still write everything down just so we can get used to the new routine and make sure the timing doesn't clash." Stiles went to grab the board, wanting to get all the 'planning' stuff out of the way. "I work mornings, I'm a deputy at the department and my shift starts at 6 in the morning. I've never had to worry about competing for shower time. Scott and Isaac left at similar times though so we had to juggle their schedules."
Allison looked over the weekly schedule they had set up, "I have classes three times a week and I usually get ready at around 8 but I can do my makeup in my room. The bathroom is small and I don't want to add too much clutter. I'd just need a moment for brushing my teeth and whatnot before I head out the door. Aside from that, I work part time as a cashier so my hours are a little irregular. I get the week's schedule a few days in advance but I'm almost always mid-day shifts and occasionally night shifts… never morning. I think I'll get called in after Scott goes to work so hopefully it won't be an issue?"
"Great! I mean, we can make just about anything work. If need be, I have no issue waking up a little earlier and showering, just to make sure the bathroom is clear for you. Sometimes I might take a shower when I get home because I work at a vet clinic so there are days when I just stink but that's almost always before dinner so it shouldn't interfere with your evening showers anyways."
Stiles smiled to himself, surprised at how well everything was going. Allison meshed so perfectly with their schedules and seemed like a genuinely nice person. She put up with their antics and didn't seem put off by his over-the-top personality! It was a good thing that Stiles hadn't specified that they needed a male roommate since he sincerely doubted that they would've found anyone to fill in like Allison. It was better than he could've hoped for!
"Okay, so aside from all the scheduling, is there anything else I should know?"
They looked at each other, trying to think of anything they might have missed. Stiles thought of one first, "Um, company! You're obviously free to bring whoever you want over because it's your home now too. We haven't had issues yet of disagreements but that's because Isaac's friends were also our friends. Do you have any friends that would dislike the fact I'm in law enforcement?"
"No… I only have a few and as far as I know, they don't break the law," Allison lied smoothly. Most of the weapons she owned, she wasn't allowed to have, and hunting down murderers, even though they were Weres, wasn't a right given to the average citizen. But they weren't ever going to find out about that, she was going to keep her secret life out of the apartment, period. She did feel bad about lying but she'd told the lie so many times now, it was second nature… Stiles didn't even look suspicious and he was trained to spot lies!
"Yea, since you don't seem to be the law-breaking type and you don't have issues with him being a deputy, it makes sense that your friends also shouldn't mind." Scott turned and pointed to the entertainment center, "The gaming systems are ours but we keep them out here to share so you're free to play games if you want, or even add to the collection. Umm… I can't really think of any other rules, we're pretty laid back. I mean, as long as you do your chores and stuff, that's all that really matters. I guess if you have any issues, please speak up- we're approachable, I promise. We want this to work out as much as you do so if any annoying habits come up, just let us know and we can sit down and discuss the problem."
"The same goes for me, I'm sure I probably have some habits that could be considered annoying so it's only fair that you bring it to my attention. I can't promise to just fix the issue, depending on what it is, but I can at least be more mindful of it. Resentment can poison a relationship quickly and we don't want that!"
Since neither one of the guys could think of any other solid rules for the apartment, Scott asked Allison if she wanted to play video games while they waited for everyone else to show up. And she didn't shy away from the offer, eagerly going over to their pile of games to see what they had. All three of them were standing up in front of the couch yelling at the television when Isaac came over two hours later.
"C'mon Mario, don't let me down!" Scott shouted as he mashed his controller as fast as he could.
"NO! I was way faster than you, that's not fair!" Stiles called out at the same time as his character was pushed over the edge of the platform.
Allison was louder than both of them, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, you aren't stronger than me Mr. CPU version of Walugi! YES!" she exclaimed as she finally won. Then she collapsed onto the couch with a groan, "My thumbs hurt so bad… are we almost done?" She'd forgotten just how long a game like Mario Party can take.
"I mean, if you want to give me a star, we can be done," Stiles teased.
"Oh no, I worked hard for my stars, thank you very much!"
Isaac tilted his head for a minute and watched them play another minigame before he cleared his throat, "Good thing I'm not a thief I suppose. You guys didn't even know I was in here."
All three of them jumped, Stiles turning and automatically throwing the controller in his hand, which ended up flying back at him because of the safety strap around his wrist. "Dude, Isaac, when the heck did you get here?!" he shouted.
"Like seven minutes ago, I called out a hello but you guys were yelling so much you didn't hear me. So I stood here and waited for a quieter moment to say hello. Thank god you remembered the safety strap or you'd be buying another controller," Isaac smirked.
"Are you saying you wouldn't have been able to catch it?" he countered before turning to pause the game.
Isaac laughed and shook his head, "I'm saying you would've missed. Anyways, I can't stay long since I'm still trying to organize the new place but, I'm here. I'm Isaac, the one moving out if you didn't guess."
Allison leaned over the back of the couch to shake his hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Allison. Before long you're going to have to give up that key mister! Then you won't be able to sneak in anymore."
"I don't know, you haven't met the rest of the… gang yet," he murmured, barely catching himself before calling them a Pack. It had been awhile since he'd really talked with a stranger with the intent of becoming their friend.
"Oh I'm sure they aren't that bad, beside, the reason I'm meeting them is so I can be reassured about these two, not scared away."
Stiles and Scott looked at each other, "Well, that's the plan… we'll see how well that goes."
"I already know the girls are going to try and butter you up so I'll say right now, Scott snores, be glad that his room is the furthest from yours," Isaac said, trying to keep a straight face.
"Dude, you're supposed to be on our side! Do you want us to go broke trying to afford this place without a third person?" Stiles whined.
Scott rolled his eyes as Isaac continued to try and 'bad mouth' them, saying that he wasn't going to lie to a girl just so they can impress her. He knew that before he left, he'd pull her aside and tell her that he was just joking. Stiles had to know he'd do that too but he was probably still nervous about Allison getting the right impression and there was always the chance that she'd take Isaac way too seriously. She was pretty chill though, Scott could tell that she knew he was just being a jerk to upset Stiles. Isaac tried to be stoic like Derek but he got a mischievous glint in his eye whenever he was being facetious. The fact that he was evening joking around with her surprised him; he was usually so serious around strangers. But he had stood there and watched them yell at each other for a few minutes… was that really enough? Thankfully before Stiles could get too riled up, the buzzer went off and Scott pushed him to go answer it.
"Who is it?"
"Malia, and I've got the food so let me in."
Stiles pressed the button to unlock the door and told her that their apartment door was unlocked for her. Then he hurried into the kitchen to grab a stack of paper plates to put on the counter beside the paper towels.
Isaac took a moment to study the woman as she talked to Scott about whether to turn the game off or not. He could tell that she was feeling slightly nervous; aside from the surprise at his sudden appearance, she'd been pretty relaxed so far. But now it was crunch time, the food was arriving and that meant the others would be showing up before long and she'd be the center of attention. Only she had no idea of what she was really in store for… Generally speaking, they were all much more disciplined now when it came to hiding their Were-ness from strangers. At least they were on the street, or in public spaces. But the apartment was considered Pack property and Isaac knew that everyone would be hyper-critical- he'd been hyper-critical when he'd first come in… that was why he'd stayed quiet, so he could gauge her scent without needing to be overly sneaky about it. Weres didn't like to welcome strangers into their 'dens', if their Pack was anything to go by, so he hoped no one acted too aggressively towards her. Isaac still couldn't believe that this was even happening. Scott and Stiles were going to be living with a complete stranger? All of them had a habit of just calling out important information when it came to 'cases' they were dealing with, because their home was safe. It couldn't be considered safe after she moved in, they'd have to watch everything they said and did from now on. He remembered all the close calls he and Erica had, back in high school before they'd found Anchors; and he remembered how nice it was to for him and Scott to have a safe place to just shift at times. Would Scott remember to rein himself in? What if Allison came home early and surprised him? There were so many things that could go wrong but he could also understand why the boys were willing to take a chance with her. In those few moments he'd watched them, she fit right in, she didn't seem new at all. In the end, it would be up to Derek if he thought they should be taking the risk or not, so he'd be nice and leave the judging to the Alpha.
"Alright, where's the new roommate, let's get this out of the way so we can eat!" Cora called out as she opened the door for her cousin. "Name, major, occupation, weird habits, all that, let's go!"
Scott hung his head, they were already off to a great start. He couldn't help but be disappointed that Kira hadn't shown up with them- she would've been more inviting about it. But thankfully Allison took it in stride, hurrying to the front door to help with the bags of food.
"Right, that's what this get-together is about after all," she agreed. "I'm Allison, and one of you is Malia?" She'd only heard one of them over the intercom and hadn't been expecting to see two women in the hallway.
"That'd be me, nice to meet you, hope you like Chinese food because we brought a lot of that and not much else," she stated as she came into the apartment. "This is my cousin Cora, she's like Stiles and can be rude so-"
"I can be rude?" Cora interrupted, raising her brows. "Who was the one that was a forest child for like 8 years and forgot all of her manners?! I was just getting to the point, aren't you curious about who's going to be moving in with those two?"
"Hey, at least I have an excuse, you don't," Malia said with a grin. "And I thought I was the one that was too blunt?" The two of them continued to bicker back and forth as they carried the food into the kitchen and started unbagging it all. Of course she was curious but Derek had warned them very sternly to not Wolf-out on the poor girl because he knew just how protective they felt around the Human member of their Pack. How was it that she was handling it better than Cora?
"Forest child?" Allison mumbled quietly, looking around in confusion. She still had 2 bags of food in her hand but hadn't made a move to the kitchen after that weird statement. Were they just being weird to make her nervous? She knew Isaac had been joking around earlier, trying to talk her out of moving in but with those two… she wasn't as certain.
"You'll have to forgive them, they really don't understand the finer points of being cordial with strangers. They don't even know how to be cordial with their own family… like the brother that always foots the food bill for these kinds of occasions," a tall dark-haired man said, coming into the apartment behind her.
"It's not our fault you didn't get to the door fast enough Derek, our hands were full of food," one of the girls shouted from the kitchen while the other snorted with laughter. For some reason they thought it was hilarious that the Alpha got stuck outside and had to wait for someone to open the door for him.
Allison turned as she cleared her throat, ready to introduce herself. She lost her nerve the moment she saw the deep scowl on his face. "I-I'm uh… Allison… Ar-Argent, um, sir…" she stammered out, suddenly feeling like she was facing some pissed off authority figure.
Derek reached out to shake her hand, ignoring the pang of fear in his chest when he was given flashbacks of a young Kate. Even if she hadn't given her last name, he couldn't have missed the family resemblance. If she was anything like her aunt, he would've been worried that she 'just happened' to be moving in with his Beta. But it wasn't a complete surprise to him, he'd heard that Chris and his daughter had moved back to California a few years ago; they were bound to run into each other at some point. It did seem like he and Chris had tried harder than necessary to avoid each other though, neither one had reached out to the other, despite Beacon Hills being Hale territory. But Chris had no real reason to interact with his Pack, not anymore; and because of that, it seemed like Allison knew nothing about them. "Argent huh?" he asked, pausing a moment and watching the apprehension grow on her face. So she did realize that her last name was famous, or at least infamous within some circles. Her heartbeat remained steady though, it was only her face she had trouble controlling; it was usually the opposite for young Hunters. "That's French right?"
"Oh, um yea, I think it means silver or something like that? You can bet that as soon as I realized our family was from France a few years ago, I had to go and visit!" she gushed, hoping the relief didn't show on her face too much. That pause had felt like an eternity and the way he'd been studying her face… she'd been scared that he knew her family. It was no secret that she and her dad had made a few enemies over the years… ever since they'd officially stepped away from her grandfather. Hunters didn't like to be told they were wrong when it came to hunting Weres. It would be dangerous to run into a hostile Hunter while caught off guard and completely vulnerable. But he'd only recognized the origin of her name, no big deal.
"I'm Derek, Cora's older brother, it's nice to meet you. The others should be here soon and I promise you won't feel like such a fish-out-of-water for long." He closed the door behind him and nodded towards the kitchen so she could set the food down.
"Oh, there's more coming?" Allison asked, suddenly not sure if she was ready for anyone else. She was still wondering about the two women that had arrived with the food. It made sense that his friends would be a little protective but Allison wasn't all that confident in her skills at friendship building… she had to try and impress more than the 4 people that were already here?
"I told you Derek wasn't the best person for her to meet first," Stiles groaned as he looked over and saw the look on her face. He should've realized that he had driven Malia and Cora… he did always buy food for them in mass quantities. But he'd been so focused on the food that he hadn't heard him come in. Now Allison was stuck standing by him and she looked beyond intimidated. "I promise, he's really not that mean, it's like Scott said yesterday, that's just his face…"
"Huh? Oh, no, he's fine, I'm more confused about the 'forest child' thing…? And I'm also wondering how many more we can fit in the living room if more people are planning on coming." Although, she had been very intimidated when she first saw him… she didn't want to admit it, that didn't seem nice.
Stiles sighed and dropped his head back so he could stare helplessly at the ceiling. "I thought I mentioned that we wanted to keep things lowkey Malia!" Seriously, she was already bringing up her tragic history… Malia really needed to learn that it wasn't something that should be shared right away. She was just too candid sometimes, not realizing that the story was awkward for people to hear.
The accused girl narrowed her eyes and threw a plastic fork at him, "Cora was the one that said something! Don't blame me, I didn't bring it up!"
"Stiles, there's no point in keeping these things from her… besides, I didn't realize she wasn't from the area… it was really big news back then," Cora said, the closest thing he'd get to an apology from her. She wanted to know how the woman would react to Malia's past, it wasn't exactly a secret to the townspeople. If she looked at Malia weird then they wouldn't need her around… although she'd also heard Derek call her an Argent? Maybe Chris was finally checking up on them… Derek wasn't going to be a fan of that!
Scott held his hands out to quiet everyone before things got too loud, "How about we start with the food, sit down and just do a more complete round of introductions before we start in on all the stories? Besides, we're still waiting on Kira right?"
"Yea, she's coming after work so it'll be awhile still. That means we can't eat all the food, we have to save some for her."
There was a low hum of chatter as everyone grabbed plates and got food, the whole group moving into the living room. Scott had taken a moment to move the table and pull out the extra chairs from the hall closet… a few of them would have to sit on the floor though. Derek immediately piled into one of the chairs, not wanting to get squished on the couch as everyone tried to sit there. Malia just dropped onto the floor by the table and started eating while the others slowly found a place. They spent a few minutes introducing themselves, talking about how they all met each other in high school (which was basically the whole truth anyways) and what they were doing currently. It turned out that Allison wasn't the only one still going to school, trying to figure out what they wanted to do- Isaac and Malia had no idea either. She was actually surprised she hadn't recognized them from campus but there were a lot of people that went to the community college.
"Okay so, to explain my random comment from earlier, now that I know you don't know…" Cora started after finishing most of her plate. "Malia was literally lost as a child. There was a car accident and everyone just assumed that she'd been eaten by a wild animal-"
"No joke, she's being 100% serious," Derek confirmed when Allison started to frown in disbelief. It was weird that Chris hadn't told her anything about them, but he could tell that she wasn't faking her reaction. Cora was skeptical of her ignorance, he could tell but thankfully she hadn't tried to call her out on it. If she was in the dark about Malia, then it wasn't hard to imagine that she just thought they were trying to pull her leg. He wanted her to know they were telling her the truth and since he was older than the rest of them, he figured she might believe him if vouched for the story.
"Her mom and sister were dead and there were animal tracks around the car, it made sense," Cora continued. "The family looked for her of course, just in case, but we never found her so Uncle Peter assumed the worst… he took it really badly too. And 8 years later she just… reappeared. She'd somehow survived and had been living in the woods the whole time- a legit forest child. It took forever to rehabilitate her, we're still working on it actually. Just look at her…"
Allison automatically turned to look at Malia, almost choking on her food when she saw the way Malia was attacking her plate. "Some habits are probably hard to break," she chortled, laughing around the food in her mouth.
Malia shrugged, remembering not to talk with food in her mouth at the very least. Most things had come back to her fairly quickly but not everything. Food still brought out her wild side, after having to compete for her food for so long, it was hard to not wolf it all down right away. And politeness still wasn't her strong suit, she just didn't see any reason to not get right to the point when talking to someone. The Pack accepted her though and she couldn't be happier to have her family back. "Like I said, at least I have a reason to be tactless, what's your excuse Cora?"
"Someone has to counter Kira's bright and bubbly personality."
"Speaking of manners and being messy," Isaac said as he got up to throw his plate away, "don't let the complicated chore chart mislead you. Stiles and Scott often slack off on their chores- don't let them get away with it."
"That's not what I heard," she countered, playfully narrowing her eyes at him. "I heard you just rushed through their stuff to take advantage of the trade system. Didn't even give them a chance to do their chores."
Isaac laughed, giving her a cheeky grin, "Okay, so sometimes I did that, but not all the time." He shouldn't have been surprised that Stiles had already gone over the whole system with her and told her about how well he'd utilized the favors. When he looked over, he saw her name in his old corner of the board… she really was planning on moving in. And he was really moving out… "I'm going to go put the last of my boxes in the car; can someone help with a box or two? I've got to leave but I'll say bye after everything's in the car."
Cora nodded and got up to help him, since most of the others were still working on seconds. Now that the most shocking story had been told, Stiles was more than happy to share a few others, carefully sticking to the normal stories. The mood was relaxed and there were a few close calls as they were talking, most of them forgetting that she didn't know the truth about their little gang. But no one flubbed up too badly, Allison didn't seem to notice anything off when they'd hurry to cover their tracks. And as Scott expected, before Isaac left, as he was saying goodbye, he told Allison that he'd only been joking earlier. Which of course she had guessed as much, it had been obvious that he wasn't moving out on bad terms.
After Isaac left, things were calm and quiet for about ten minutes before there was another knock on the door. "I hope you brought some extra food, Erica and Boyd are with me!" Kira called out as she let herself in.
"Oh yea, there's still plenty in the kitchen, help yourself," Scott answered.
Stiles got up to go hug Erica, excited at her arrival. "Catwoman? I thought you and Boyd were too busy to come! Dude, awesome!"
"Hey Batman, our teacher cancelled the test tomorrow so we didn't have to cram and we definitely didn't want to miss out on a P-um big group hangout!" she replied, hugging him tightly in return. As she followed her friend into the kitchen, she turned and whispered, "She hasn't been scared away yet?"
"Please say she's toughing it out, I bet her 20 bucks that she'd still be here," Boyd snickered.
"Yea, she's taking it all surprisingly well. Malia and Cora almost ruined it the first like 4 seconds they were here but, Scott managed to calm everyone down and it's been cool." Stiles turned to look back into the living room, "I have no idea what Derek thinks though… Isaac was cracking jokes with her which was surprising- he's going to be sad that he missed you by the way."
"Yea, we tried to text him to let him know we were coming but he sent back a pouty face and said that he'd already left. Let's go meet her shall we?" Boyd prompted, plate already filled with food.
Stiles led them back into the living room, "Okay, it turns out you get to meet the whole gang- except Peter I guess…"
"My dad doesn't really count," Malia shrugged. Everyone knew that Peter was kind of on the outskirts of the Pack. He wasn't as bad as before but things were still strained between them all. His biggest redeeming quality was that he had been the one to finally find her so Derek could help her shift back to Human. The fact that he was so much older than the rest of them pretty much set him apart. Scott and Stiles both tried to avoid him as much as possible because of their history too.
"True, I suppose. Anyways, this is the Catwoman to my Batman, Erica, the one I can talk comics with. He's Vernon but everyone just calls him Boyd because he was in ROTC in high school and it feels weird to call him Vernon now. And the friendly one over there is Kira."
Allison waved to them all, "I'm Allison, the new roommate. It's so crazy to know you have this many close friends- I am so jealous!" The whole group seemed like a lot of fun, once she got past the shock of it.
"I'm sure you'll become a part of the group soon enough, it's really easy," Kira assured her. "When I met them, they all felt really close knit but they welcomed me easily enough. Scott and I shared AP Bio our junior year so we so started out as classmates but I started hanging around the group and we all just clicked! If Cora's attitude hasn't scared you off yet then I'll think we'll all get along fine. And since I'm late, I missed what it is you do, are you a student?"
"Kinda, I'm slowly working towards a degree in something… and I'm a cashier part time so I'm making money. I still have to decide what I want to do, or at least a direction to go in but I've got time."
Kira nodded in understanding, "Yea, that can be hard. I had no idea what I wanted to do for awhile and my mom pushed for me to become her assistant at the museum. She's a curator there, big history buff like my dad. At first I thought it was just because she wanted me to get experience, I mean, since she's one of the higher ups, it wasn't hard to get me a position… and I thought it was going to be so boring… but it wasn't, at all. I love it! I guess my mom figured I'd have a passion for history too, which is weird because I didn't really care for it in high school. But working in a museum is different for me, it's so different from reading a book while sitting in a class. I'm glad she pushed me into it, and I know if I did hate it, I could've left. I just never would've thought of it on my own."
Allison smiled, asking her about what her job entailed. She couldn't help but think of her dad… He'd offered to let her work for him, a federally licensed firearms dealer. It would be the perfect cover, they'd be free to move around without her having to give notice to employers or making up excuses if she got hurt. But it was too much for Allison, she wasn't ready to fully embrace that life- she needed some part of their life to be normal still. She'd seen what it had done to the rest of her family and she didn't want to lose her father too because they got too consumed again. Maybe later in life she could pick up her dad's semi-legitimate business, but not right now. But since Kira brought up the subject of school again, it prompted Erica to start sharing stories about some of the stuff she'd seen while they were up at Sac state.
That was the point where Derek excused himself, "I'm older than the rest of you, I don't have any fun college stories to share, thank you very much. Have fun, it was nice to meet you, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around." He turned and nodded to Scott and Stiles, letting them know that he approved of her. He knew Chris, had heard about what had happened to Victoria… how it changed him and his daughter, pushed them away from Gerard for good (and Kate too). At first he hadn't wanted to believe that any Hunter, let alone an Argent, could be sympathetic to his kind, but the stories continued to circulate and Weres were willing to defend Chris's actions. The two of them had proven to be friends to innocent Weres and their new Code was spread around. So Derek knew that Allison wasn't a threat to Scott, or any of them, because none of them were murderers. It was still strange though, knowing that two of his Betas were going to be living with a Hunter… but if it had to be a Hunter, he was glad it was her. Not that they even knew who Allison was- he'd never told them about the Argents and she smelled clean, like a normal Human. Derek smirked to himself as he walked into the hallway, thinking about how everyone would react when they finally found out. Because there was no way the three of them could live together and keep a secret for long, someone was going to mess up eventually. The three of them could probably use the wake-up call as experience on judging strangers in the future. It should be at least a little entertaining to watch them freak out for a bit, to make up with all the stress they put him through over the years! It wasn't like they were in any real danger after all.
