Sorry this is my first fanfic and I'm just testing it out so if you have any suggestions they would be much appreciated! Tell me what you think!
She walked over to us after we emerged from the locker room.
"You guys look like you have a good team," she said.
"We do when Stiles is on the bench," Liam teased.
"Yeah, yeah, see who's laughing when I make you walk home from school," I retorted. We made our way to the parking lot.
"This is me," Blake said, patting the hood of a '96 Bronco with matte black paint. It was a badass car.
"How is the monster?" Liam asked, mimicking her pat as if the car was a dog.
"Still running," Blake said with a sigh. "For now, at least."
"I'm in the blue Jeep," I said and she nodded. She parked on the street in front of my house after following me the short distance home. I was surprised to see my dad at home.
"Dad, I brought some friends over!" I yelled as I opened the door. Blake looked around the house. I was about to apologize for the slight mess and the obvious lack of a woman's touch but then I noticed that her eyes weren't critical. They were in awe.
"Any one more dangerous than a were—" my dad cut off as he walked into the foyer and saw Blake but she didn't seem to notice. She was staring at his badge.
"Dad, this is Blake, she just transferred here," I introduced.
"Blake Everett?" dad asked. I glanced at Blake, confused, as she gulped and nodded.
"Sheriff Shepherd has talked to you?" she guessed and seemed ready to bolt. My dad watched her but shook his head.
"No, actually Deputy Valentine called about you," he responded and Blake let out a visible sigh of relief. "He asked me to watch out for you while you were in Beacon Hills. Said you were a good kid but that you tended to find trouble." I glared at my dad as Blake awkwardly shifted her feet and cleared her throat.
"Guilty as charged," she said hesitantly. My dad smiled at her and she seemed to relax a bit.
"Well it must be true if you're hanging out with my son," he teased and she smiled back at him and then at me. "Just make sure you tell me if you need anything," he prompted.
"I will," she said with a confusingly firm tone. "Thanks, Sheriff." She gave him one more smile and then followed Liam into the kitchen. Scott and I blocked my dad's way as he tried to go out the open door.
"Thanks for freaking her out," I reprimanded.
"What kind of trouble is she in?" Scott said at the same time.
"Nothing that concerns you two," Dad said firmly and pushed past us, closing the door in our faces. We both frowned and then made our way into the kitchen. Blake was already opening one of her notebooks, to work on while she was helping Liam.
"I'm starving!" groaned Scott.
"I can make us some food," I offered.
"No!" Scott and Liam yelled simultaneously. Blake jumped a bit in her chair but Liam turned to her quickly.
"Stiles is the worst cook on the planet!" he exclaimed.
"I can handle frozen burritos or something," I protested but both Scott and Liam shook their heads vigorously. Blake just laughed.
"I can make us something if you want," she proposed.
"You can cook?" I asked, getting out my school stuff.
"Well, yeah," Blake shifted uneasily, tucking her hair behind an ear. "I've been living alone for a while now so I know enough to feed myself," she explained.
"I don't know what we have but you can definitely try," I said. She stood up from the table and opened the fridge, learning over to get a view of the contents. As she did this, we got a view of her butt. Which was, objectively, very nice. Out stares were interrupted by Blake straightening up, carrying some supplies over to the counter. As she talked to Liam quietly about his problems with algebra, I found it hard to concentrate on my own homework. Her fingers were long and thin and carefully folded turkey and ham slices onto tortillas. Her brows furrowed as she worked through a problem in her head for Liam. I almost fell out of my seat when she licked a drop of salad dressing off her finger, her lips pursing as she went back to the sandwiches. Scott kicked me under the table and leaned close to my face.
"It's a good thing she's oblivious or she'd be running away from your house," he hissed quietly.
"What?" I asked.
"You're looking at her like you want to eat her for dinner," Scott accused. This sent Liam, who could hear us with his werewolf hearing, into a coughing fit trying to cover his laughter. Blake immediately looked to get him a glass of water, turning her face away from all of us. I glared at Scott but tried to focus better on my work, but not before I saw the light flush on Blake's cheeks.
A half hour later Liam was clearly grasping the material for his quiz the next day and Blake was setting finished sandwiches in front of us. It was turkey and ham wraps with lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese with salad dressing instead of mayo, which I was pretty sure we were out of. She had toasted them on the stove and grilled some cucumbers on the side.
"This looks delicious," Scott said before taking a huge bite and nodding appreciatively. We all had our mouths full within seconds, to which Blake laughed.
"Yeah, thanks B," Liam mumbled through his food and Scott and I echoed him.
"You're welcome," Blake said with a smile.
"So what classes are you taking this year, Blake?" I asked
"Physics, Biology, Chemistry, US History, yoga and Government," she listed.
"Are those all AP courses?" Scott asked. Blake nodded.
"Well, except for yoga," she added.
"You aren't taking a math or English?" I asked.
"Blake took BC Calculus and Statistics last year. We don't offer anything higher," Liam explained.
"I'm taking some online college classes, but it makes me sound like a nerd when I talk about them," Blake admitted, grimacing.
"It makes you sound like a genius," I reassured her.
"Did I do this last problem right?" Liam asked as we finished our sandwiches. Blake looked it over and then gave him a high-five.
"You did it perfectly," she said. "Well, I'd better go."
"You don't want to stay for movie night?" I asked. Scott tried to hide his smirk as tonight was definitely not movie night.
"Sorry, I can't, I have to catch up on some work," she said.
"B works for a fancy pharmaceutical company," Liam revealed.
"It's mostly computer work, but it pays the bills," she said with a smile. This girl was getting more interesting by the second. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning." I walked her to the door and opened it for her.
"Thanks for letting us study here. Hope I wasn't intruding too much," she said hesitantly.
"Are you kidding? I don't think I've eaten that well in a long time. You are hereby always welcome at the Stilinski house," I teased and she smiled. "If you need any help painting or moving furniture around at your new place, I know a couple guys that will trade manual labor for a good meal," I offered and she laughed.
"I might take you up on that," she replied.
"Done! We'll come over after school tomorrow," I said and a loud groan came from Liam in the kitchen. Blake looked alarmed as they shouldn't have been able to hear us. "Must've moved on to English homework," I suggested.
"Oh, sure," she said frowning and still looking slightly alarmed. "Well I'll see you guys tomorrow." She walked out to her Bronco.
"Bye!" I yelled and then closed the door.
"Stop volunteering me for things!" Liam yelled. I rolled my eyes and joined them in the kitchen, where they were sharing a cryptic look.
"You owe her for tutoring you," I reminded him and he frowned, looking at Scott who nodded at him. Some weird alpha to beta permission ritual or something probably, but at least Liam stopped whining.
I was waiting outside with Scott and Kira when Blake got to school. She was frowning down at a paper in her hands and was going to pass us without noticing when I called out.
"Hey, Blake!" I said, loud enough to break through her thoughts. But it must have been too loud because she started and almost tripped again. I caught her arm and turned her around to face us.
"This is Scott's girlfriend Kira," I introduced. Blake smiled and shook Kira's hand, embarrassed.
"I think we have yoga together," Kira said sweetly.
"Oh, yeah, sorry I'm still placing faces with names. You have a pink yoga mat," Blake said.
"Yeah," Kira said, surprised. Blake grimaced.
"Not a stalker, I promise. I have a photographic memory," Blake explained.
"So that's why you're so smart!" I exclaimed. "You cheat!"
"I don't cheat, I just remember," Blake corrected with a smirk.
"So do you still want us to come over after practice today?" I asked, aware that she hadn't really agreed last night. Blake bit her lip, thinking about it.
"Stiles is offering our painting skills and brute strength to help Blake set up her new apartment," Scott explained to Kira, who then got excited.
"Ooh, I could help with decorating! It would be so fun!" she said excitedly.
"Okay, I guess that's all right," Blake said shyly, aware that now four people had invited themselves over to her new apartment. I rolled my eyes and spun her towards the door, heading towards her locker.
"We're just repaying you for yesterday. You won't be stuck with us. Necessarily," I teased. She was wearing white shorts today that brought out her tan even more and a pink tank top that read 'Shhh. No one cares.' I thought that that was an odd shirt for a girl like Blake to wear, but didn't comment. Unlike yesterday, the neckline of her tank top dipped just enough to make it distracting.
"Do you want to write down your address for me and I'll bring everyone over after practice," I said. Blake nodded and took a sticky note and pen out of her locker, scribbling the address down quickly. I gave her a grin before heading to class.
Blake's apartment building looked pretty nice for an emancipated teen, but Scott assured me we had the right address. We made our way to the corner apartment on the second floor and knocked. Blake answered the door with a smile and let us in. She had changed into red cotton shorts and a paint-splattered white t-shirt that read 'I would be a morning person if morning started at noon.' Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, wavy strands that were too short flying out at odd angles.
"Where do you get all your cool shirts?" Kira laughed as we stepped inside.
"I used to work at a novelty store that sold them and when they went out of business they gave me tons of stuff for free," Blake explained, gesturing with a power screwdriver in her hand. Her apartment was pretty nice. It was a studio apartment with wood floors and a bank of windows above a small kitchen and floor to ceiling windows on the other side of the room. There was a king size bed in one corner with a sleeping bag on it and a dresser and bookshelf but no other furniture. Stacked in the middle of the room were boxes, some opened but most closed with color coded duct tape. There was a ladder by the windows where Blake had apparently been putting up curtains. She caught me looking.
"I know it kinds of negates the effect of having floor to ceiling windows but curtains make me feel safer at night," she said, tucking a flyaway hair behind her ear. I thought of her alone at night and frowned, even though it was an okay neighborhood.
"It's a good idea," I assured her, thinking of Derek's apartment, where the windows and skylight are repeatedly being broken into by the supernatural.
"What color are we painting?" Kira asked, setting her purse on a kitchen counter. The walls were presently a faded cream.
"Well it was sky blue but I mixed in some white to make it airier," Blake said, carrying a paint can over to the first wall. She picked up a brush and painted a thick stripe down the center. "What do you think?" Liam, Scott, and I shrugged but Kira gasped.
"That's so pretty!" she squealed. Blake smiled, and mumbled a thank you. After covering the bed and furniture with plastic tarps we started painting. It was sort of calming after the stressful school day and we fell into a comfortable rhythm, joking and teasing softly. Blake was on top of the ladder, painting careful lines where the walls met the ceiling with a steady hand. She was barefoot, her toes painted a deep purple as she stood on tip-toe. Even her feet were pretty. She was humming softly to herself.
"I'm bored of painting!" Kira huffed after a while. "Do you have another job I could do?" Scott smiled at her indulgently.
"Um, you could unpack the kitchen?" Blake suggested. "Kitchen boxes are sealed with yellow tape and there are numbered sticky notes that refer to which cupboard or drawer that box goes in," she explained.
"You're not OCD, are you?" I joked as Kira set to work.
"I'm organized," Blake corrected with a crooked smile.
"Whatever you want to call it," I teased. We finished painting soon after since the apartment wasn't too big.
"You don't have any other furniture?" Liam asked.
"I have some more in a storage container downstairs but it's too heavy. I'll have to hire a moving company to bring it up," Blake explained. Scott and Liam shared a look.
"We can do it," Scott offered.
"There's like a piano and a solid oak desk. They're pretty heavy," Blake said skeptically.
"We got this, B," Liam assured her. Blake shrugged and we left Kira unpacking silverware to go downstairs. Blake opened the storage container to reveal a white baby grand piano, a dark wood desk, and other miscellaneous boxes and furniture. Scott and Liam easily lifted the piano and headed back upstairs without a word. Blake raised surprised eyebrows at me.
"Don't look at me! I'm the brains of the operation." She smirked and handed me a lightweight bamboo screen. She grabbed another box and we met Scott and Liam at the stairs. Blake quickly put down her box and moved to help Scott with the piano.
"Really it's okay we got it," he said but then the piano slipped from his hands a few steps up. The weight fell on Blake and she began to slip down the stairs, struggling to keep her feet under her. Scott quickly caught the weight with one arm and Blake with the other, stopping her from falling. Blake looked at him with wide eyes and gave a shaky laugh.
"I think I'm going to let you take that," she said, letting go of the piano and walking back down a few steps. Scott stared at her for a second with a blank expression before nodding and continuing up the stairs. Blake was looking a little unstable.
"Are you all right?" I asked, glancing up at Scott and Liam, who were taking the piano into the apartment with ease.
"Yeah, I'm good," she said breathily and picked up her box. When we entered the apartment again, Blake frowned at Kira looking through a box that was obviously not labeled with yellow duct tape.
"What color did you say was for the kitchen?" Kira asked lamely as she tried to look like she wasn't snooping. "Sorry."
"It's fine. The kitchen boxes are yellow," Blake smiled but I could tell she noticed the weird behavior. Liam and Blake walked back down the stairs to get more things but I stopped Scott before he could follow.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, referring to how he almost just dropped a piano on the new girl. Scott motioned for me to be quiet and then tapped his ear, suggesting that Blake was close enough to hear us. He mouthed that we would talk about it later.
After bringing everything up that Blake wanted from the storage container we all met upstairs again and took a break.
"So," Blake said, pouring us all some lemonade into her green sea glass cups. "Tell me your secret." Immediately we all panicked, shuffling defensively and looking for an exit. Blake seemed to notice this, but kept talking. "Is it steroids or just excessive weight lifting because that piano is really heavy." We relaxed.
"Shocked I'm not the same lanky freshmen you saved from bullies, B?" Liam said.
"Just taking stock of my resources," she teased.
"They are at your disposal," Kira promised with a nervous laugh. I noticed a new laptop with a sticker that read Bell Pharmaceuticals on the counter.
"So what kind of work do you do for them?" I asked, gesturing to the sticker.
"I mostly calculate supply and demand, taking into account current events, stock prices, weather, and stuff like that. I tell them how much to make of each treatment, using a computer program that I designed," she explained.
"What do current events have to do with production of medicine?" Scott asked.
"Well, let's say gas prices go up. People get stressed so I tell them to produce more ibuprofen and Xanax," she explained.
"Sounds complicated, huh?" Liam asked to no one in particular.
"Well, they pay me buckets, so it's worth it. Plus I'm hoping the higher I move up in the company the more free drugs they'll send me." Our conversation was interrupted by my cell phone ringing.
"Hello?" I asked without looking at the caller ID.
"Stiles? Are you guys okay?" Lydia's voice rang through the phone, sounding worried and tense. She sounded on the verge of tears.
"Yeah, Lyds, we're all fine," I assured her quickly.
"When I couldn't get ahold of anyone…" she trailed off, obviously still freaking out.
"We're okay, we're just over at Blake's place," I said.
"Well, I'm glad you guys are having fun," she said bitterly, her worry quickly turning to anger, "but we have a problem. Isaac just got back." I looked up, meeting worried eyes from everyone in the room.
"We'll meet you at Derek's," I said and hung up, knowing we couldn't talk here.
"Is everything okay?" Blake asked, frowning.
"Yeah, everything's good. Lydia's just having a breakdown. We should probably go," I said apologetically.
"Sure. Thank you guys for all your help," Blake said, obviously still concerned for Lydia. "Oh, here!" she opened the fridge and took out a glass pan to fettuccine alfredo chicken and noodles. "Comfort food for Lydia. And save some for the Sheriff; it's low cholesterol." I took the pan, stunned as Scott, Kira, and Liam for their stuff and thanked Blake.
"How did you—" I started.
"The low cholesterol stamp on your Cheerio's was circled," Blake said. "I figured he's getting tired of cereal for dinner." I gaped at her because she was right.
"Thank you, like, so much," I stuttered.
"Just repaying you for the manual labor," she deflected, looking past me out her front door to where the others were waiting by the car. She locked eyes with Scott and seemed to stand up straighter. "You better go."
"Yeah, uh, I'll see you tomorrow?" Blake nodded and I waved goodbye before tripping down the stairs. Once we were in the car, Kira spoke up.
"What's going on?" she asked as we sped to Derek's.
"Isaac's back."
"Is that a bad thing?" Liam asked, we had told him about Isaac but they had never met.
"We don't know," Scott replied.