Chapter two

"Mum! Guess what, guess what, guess what?!" Scott rambled excitedly as he raced over to her, Stiles hand in his and running alongside him as normal.

"Hi Mrs McCall!" Stiles said brightly.

"Guess What mum!" Scott was practically wriggling with excitement making her and Claudia laugh.

"Hello Stiles, what is it Scott?"

"Me and Stiles are going to be in the same class next year!" Scott squealed happily.

"That's wonderful!" Melissa smiled even as her brain short circuited for a moment.

"Oh that poor teacher," Claudia of course just said exactly what Melissa had been thinking making both boys pout at her.

- Teen Wolf

"Mrs Stilinski, I don't think that you are taking this seriously enough!" The Headteacher looked like his was about to burst a blood vessel, Stiles and Scott were standing outside the window looking contrite, and her first time in meeting Stiles' dad, the Sheriff, was for this!

"Oh come on! I am taking it seriously, what they did was very very wrong," Claudia rolled her eyes. The Sheriff dropped his forehead to his palm with a groan, clearly also reckognising the tone in Claudia's voice.

"This is not a laughing matter!" The Headteacher fumed.

"Claudia!" The Sheriff asked plaintively.

"Oh come on John!" Claudia rolled her eyes still snickering. "Of course it is serious, and we're goin to punish Stiles, but come on! Its a little impressive that two 6 year olds managed to blow up a toilet!" She said before bursting out laughing. Melissa noticed the Sheriff's lips twitching even as he tried to maintain a straight face as he looked at the Headteacher.

"We will make sure they understand the seriousness of what they have done," He said firmly. The Headteacher seemed to give them up as a lost cause considering Melissa was biting her lip torn between laughing herself and shouting.

When they stepped out the office her and the Sheriff herded the boys outside and to the cars.

"We're sorry," Scott said quickly as the three adults crossed their arms and looked down at them.

"We didn't expect it to explode!" Stiles nodded.

"Yes! We wouldn't have done it if we had known!" Scott said anxiously.

"Even though it was really cool..." Stiles trailed off when Claudia cleared her throat and Scott nudged him in the side. "But it was very very bad and we shouldn't have done it and we feel terrible,"

Scott and the Sheriff both rolled their eyes while Melissa bit her lip again and Claudia descended back into giggles, it couldn't be more obvious that Scott had instructed Stiles to say that to any questions asked of their guilt.

"Alright, as punishment, no seeing each other for three days!" The Sheriff declared, and oh he was good, he knew where to hit where it hurt. Both the boys were gawping at them as though they had heard the worst declaration of their young lives. They hadn't spent more than a day apart sinc ethey had met each other in the park two years ago.

"Dad! You can't do that!" Stiles protested.

"It will go up a day every time you argue! Now both of you into your car," The Sheriff said firmly.

"But...but...I can't survive without Scotty!" Stiles whined even as he moved towards his mum's car, clearly not willing to test his dad's threat, Scott was doing the same heading towards their car pouting.

"Well maybe that will teach you not to blow up toilets in the future!" The Sheriff scolded.

"Or to run away faster so you don't get caught in the future,"

"Claudia!" The Sheriff and Melissa said exasperatedly at the same time while the boys scrambled into the cars to hide their laughter. Melissa met the Sheriff's eyes across the car doors, and right there a friendship was born, and friendship forged of both of them loving Claudia to bits, and being trailed along in her chaotic love for life.

- Teen wolf

Scott was eight it happened, the thing that Melissa had always feared, and always knew she would never be able to forgive. Rafe's drinking hurt their son. She reckoned as long as she lived the sight of Scott tumbling down the stairs and not getting up would be burned into her memory, into her worst nightmares.

They had both raced downstairs, and those ten seconds she had counted where he wouldn't wake up were the longest of her life. When his eyes had opened she had nearly felt sick with relief, and she had quickly bundled him into the car, slapping Rafe's hand away when he reached out to help her.

She had called John in tears from the hospital when she had been told that he had a concussion and some memory loss from the fall but no real damage. Claudia had taken Scott home with her while Melissa and John went back to her house. He had helped her bag up all of Rafe's things, and he had stood to the side when he had come back home, surprisingly not drunk for once. He had promised her he would never drink again and had apologised over and over, but she couldn't trust him, and she had told him to get out of her house.

He had gone with little fuss, looking so down and scared of himself, he had looked sick when he had glanced to the some dent at the bottom of the stairs where their son had landed the night before.

She had been worried that once he calmed down he would be back and arguing with her about being kicked out the house, but she had turned down Claudia's offer for her and Scott to stay at the Stilinski house for a few days, she knew if she did that she would never want to go back. But instead she grew angrier when it seemed Rafe had decided to just run away all together.

Scott was of course heartbroken when it became clear that his dad wasn't coming home, for all the bad there were some good as well, and Scott loved his dad. She had had to sit him down and explain that she wasn't sure how long his dad would be away for, but she was sure that he loved Scott.

It was a week and a half after the incident that she had received a phone call at 4 in the morning, stumbling down the stairs in a panic to answer the phone. Claudia had been beside herself on the other line, and it had taken Melissa a good three or four minutes to calm her down to get out of her what the problem was.

Stiles was missing, he had been there when Claudia and John had gone to bed the night before, but when John got up for his early shift that morning and poked his head into Stiles' room as was habit their son wasn't there. The sheets were cold, and there was no sign of a struggle. Melissa narrowed her eyes and told Claudia to hang on for a moment, and she run up stairs to Scott's room.

"Call off the search party, I got him," Melissa sighed.

"He's there?! John! He's at Melissa's!" Claudia shouted.

Melissa shook her head as she took in the sight in front of her. The two of them were lying in the middle of Scott's bed wrapped tightly around each other. It looked like Stiles had brought with him all of Scott's favourite treats as their wrappers were lying all over the room, and a small pile of all Scott's favourite videos were in a pile by the bed.

"I think he came over to cheer Scott up," Melissa said softly backing out the room so she didn't wake them.

"He walked all the way there by himself!" The Sheriff was thundering in the back ground.

"Do they look cute?" Claudia asked, a lot calmer now.

"Claudia!"

"Oh simmer down, we will tell him off. But we all know hell or high water Stiles won't be kept from Scott if he thinks he's hurting!" Claudia huffed. "Melissa are you crying?" She asked concerned as she heard the sniff down the line.

"We're lucky to have you all!" Melissa admitted.

"That's it, John you are dropping me off at Melissa's! I have some of that juice you like in, and some mix for your favourite chocolate chip pancakes, I also have that film we have been wanting to see, I will bring that around, John, where is my dressing gown!"

Melissa listened to Claudia rambling on with a smile, and to the playful bickering between her and John as she thought on just how alike her and Stiles were.

That morning they sat curled up on the sofa with their pancakes in their pyjamas watching their film and giggling like 13 year old girls again. The look of horror on the boys faces when they had snuck downstairs, obviously hoping to smuggle Stiles out the house without anyone being the wiser, and spotted the two of them had made them burst out laughing.