Stiles was unusually silent as Scott locked his bicycle in place. It was likely due to the shock.
"If you're going to to just stare, could you at least close your mouth?" Scott asked Stiles as he readjusted his backpack.
"Dude, you just told me Danny knows about the werewolf thing and that he had an epic freakout and threw you out of his house. So forgive me if I'm worried about you. I mean, what if he outs you to everyone? Can you say Area 51?"
"I'm not an alien, Stiles," Scott scoffed as they walked into the school. They stopped just outside the doors and let other students pass them. "You don't think Danny would do that to me, do you? I mean, Jackson is kind of his best friend and I told him about Jackson, too."
"Were you stupid enough to mention me, McCall?" a third voice inquired as he slipped up beside the duo. Stiles jumped a bit in response to Isaac's sudden arrival. "Why are you even talking to civilians about us? Isn't he bad enough?"
Isaac jerked his thumb in Stiles' direction.
"No, I didn't talk about you. I didn't even know you were back," Scott answered gruffly. "So you can calm down. Where were you?"
"Derek had us spending the summer looking for Boyd and Erica. We never found them." Isaac opened the door to let some other students into the building. He never took his eyes off Scott. "Now, would you please tell me why you thought it was a good idea to tell Danny all about us?"
"Because we're dating?" Scott's voice was full of confrontation. He almost wanted Isaac to say something so he could have someone to take his frustration out on that could take it.
In response to the revelation, Isaac just raised his eyebrows. He cocked his head and stuck out his chin before nodding. "Whatever makes you happy, I guess. I thought Danny had better taste, though." The wide grin plastered on his face was the best evidence that he was joking.
Scott told Isaac to shut up and forced his way past him and into the building. Even though he was expecting it, nobody was staring at him. They all just ignored him and showed off new outfits they got from back-to-school sales or talked about what extra-curricular activities they were pursuing.
Following behind him, Stiles and Isaac were carrying on a conversation about how Isaac was able to go to school even though he was technically a runaway and had no legal guardian. He tuned it out and just headed to the locker he'd been assigned when his mom took him in to pay his school fees.
Three lockers down from his own, Scott saw Danny taping a pinup of some superhero. Some green guy with a fin. He looked familiar, but Scott couldn't remember his name.
"Hey," Danny said to Scott over the din. "Probably should've expected this, our names being so close in the alphabet and all."
"Yeah," Scott nodded as he pulled out the slip of paper that had his combination on it. There was really nothing he could say. Danny held all the cards.
"I'm sorry about last night." Danny shut his locker and walked the two steps to Scott. "That's something really big you showed me..."
Someone started snickering and Scott turned around to see Isaac standing on the other side of the hallway listening in on the conversation. Clearly, Danny didn't notice him. Turning back to Danny, Scott fought the urge to make a dirty joke.
"We're cool?" Scott asked as he opened his locker. A piece of paper fell out and hit the floor. Danny snatched it and shoved it in his pocket. Scott raised his eyebrows at him in response.
"It was a note I left in case I didn't see you this morning," Danny explained. When Scott asked how Danny knew it was his locker, he got a whistle and a non-answer. "We all have our secrets."
"Did you hack into the school records for me?" Scott found it a simultaneously cute and creepy gesture. It wasn't easy to reconcile, and Danny just smiled. "You didn't answer me."
"I'm trying to be cool. I mean, it does explain a lot about last year. You're still a dork, but you're a dork who became an amazing lacrosse player overnight." Danny played with the door to Scott's locker as he watched Scott pull notebooks and binders out of his backpack. "It's just, this is a whole different ballgame."
"That is a very homoerotic sentence," Scott pointed out in a lewd voice as he put a hand on Danny's chest. He could feel Danny's heartbeat accelerate, but the other teen didn't move away. Withdrawing his hand, Scott apologized. "Um, it's probably too soon for things like that."
Danny didn't answer Scott. He just stood there awkwardly until a girl forced him to move so she could get into her locker. He smiled at Scott, did a small salute, and then walked away.
It wasn't even ten seconds before Isaac was whispering in Scott's ear. "That has to hurt. If I were into dudes I'd totally be into you."
"Shut up," Scott ordered as he slammed his locker shut and pulled out his schedule. He unfolded it to see what his first class would be: Chemistry. "Where are you headed?"
"Same as you. Stiles told me he opted for Physics this year," Isaac mused as he leaned over Scott's shoulder and held their schedules side by side for comparison. "Hey, we have four classes and lunch together. Isn't that awesome?"
"Downright groovy," Scott muttered sarcastically. His mood was not one suited for socialization and he hoped Isaac would pick up on it. He had a feeling Isaac knew and just didn't care, though.
"Stick with me, kid, and everything will be smooth sailing," Isaac told Scott as he threw an arm around his shoulder and started walking him in the direction of the classroom. "Your grades will probably be in the toilet and you won't have any friends, but you'll have fun."
"I'm kind of already there," Scott noted as they passed Allison in the hall. Both exes made sure to avoid looking at each other.
"Minus the fun part," Isaac observed as he watched Allison walk away. "Hey, I'll catch up with you."
"Class starts in five minutes," Scott called after Isaac as he watched the tall blond boy run after Allison. Whatever Isaac was thinking of doing, Scott wanted no part of it.
TW
"We only have lunch and gym together. How is that possible?" Stiles asked Scott asked they made their way through the lunch line. "Like, seriously. Not even a study hall?"
"You're the one taking college level courses while I'm withering away in AP classes," Scott pointed out. "Those exams saved your ass."
"It's a new year, Scott. You have the whole wolf thing under control for the most part, Jackson is gone, and I don't think the Argents are hunting you anymore." Stiles handed his money over to the cashier and Scott flashed his free lunch card. They scoped out the available tables and saw Allison waving at them.
Scott looked at Stiles and shrugged. If he and Allison were going to try the friend thing, blowing her off wouldn't be a very good start. Weaving his way through the heavy traffic of the lunchroom, Scott sat across from Allison. Isaac was on one side of her, and Lydia on the other. Lydia didn't look particularly happy about it, though. Stiles sat across from Isaac, not even bothering to acknowledge Lydia.
"So, is this the cool table?" Stiles wondered nervously as his eyes darted amongst all of the people seated.
"Clearly it's not," Lydia scoffed as she stared at her food. "This time last year everyone looked up to me and wanted to be me. Now? I'm the crazy girl with the loser friends. No offence."
"None taken," Allison shrugged. Everyone was used to Lydia's bluntness. After taking a drink from her milk carton, Allison looked around the cafeteria. "I thought all the Juniors had lunch this period."
"We're having issues," Scott told her. It was obvious what she was talking about, and he didn't feel comfortable talking about it with her. Not after the things he'd said the night prior.
"Oh." Allison shut down and used her spoon to play with her applesauce. Stiles and Scott were both quiet as well.
"Am I missing something here?" Lydia looked at her seatmates curiously. "What do you all know that I don't?"
"Scott has a new lover," Isaac teased as he leaned forward, elbows on the table. "But it's a secret."
"It's not a secret," Scott grumbled. It was not a very good day to have the last name of McCall. His mood was getting worse, and it seemed like everyone was doing their best to piss him off. "I just don't feel like talking about it."
"I don't care who tells me what, just someone tell me something. My social life is dried up and dead and I'll live vicariously through your awkward internet dating if I want to," Lydia sighed before biting into a carrot. "God, I'm pathetic."
Someone else sat on Scott's other side, and he recognized the smell before he saw who it was. To be honest, he was more than a little surprised Danny was sitting with him considering how disastrous the morning had gone.
"Lydia," Danny greeted before biting into a hamburger.
"You know, just because Jackson is gone doesn't mean we're friends," she shot at him before biting into her carrot again with an angry crunch. "Or are you as pathetic as I am and nobody else wants to be seen with you but the freak parade?"
"Excuse you," Stiles spoke up. "Why are you being such a bitch? Nobody here has said anything rude to you."
"Stiles, you don't want..." Allison started before Lydia pulled a tampon out of her jacket pocket and threw it at Stiles' head. It bounced off his cheek and landed in his applesauce. "Well, I guess you got your answer."
"Now I'm wishing I hadn't asked." Stiles lifted his applesauce container off his tray and slid it down to an empty part of the table.
"So, what did I interrupt?" Danny asked the group nervously. Everyone but Scott and Lydia stared at him. Scott watched Allison lower her eyes and Lydia observed everyone else's nervous reactions.
"Well damn, you little 'mo," Lydia grinned at Danny. "You actually did it. You managed to flip one of the straight guys."
"Lydia, stop it," Danny warned in a low voice.
"Why? It's true," Scott told everyone as he stabbed the table with his fork. The plastic tines snapped off and the handle shattered. Stiles put a hand on Scott's shoulder, but he shrugged it off and looked into Allison's eyes. "I mean, that's what this is. I'm a fag and he's the one who converted me then dumped me when he found out I'm a werewolf."
"Scott, enough with the self-hate. It's annoying and nobody here is judging you," Isaac asserted with his usual crassness.
"I am," Lydia announced as she held her hand up, "but then again I judge all of you so whatever."
Scott laughed coldly. "Oh, this isn't self-hate. I don't hate myself. I hate the lot of you. Can you shut up and talk about something that isn't me for five minutes?"
"Oh god. It's not just Lydia," Allison crowed as she help up her phone. Scott looked at it and saw that she had pulled up a calendar. It was the night of the full moon and he'd completely forgotten about it.
"Then why aren't I being an absolute PMS case?" Isaac asked Allison as he leaned halfway over the table to look at her phone.
"Because you're always a jerk?" Stiles offered as he sucked milk through his straw. Isaac nodded in agreement.
"So, this is a werewolf thing?" Danny asked quietly.
Allison dropped her phone in shock. As much as he wanted to reach across the table and hold her hand, Scott just tried to make himself as small as was physically possible.
"So, he told you," Lydia quipped before reaching across the table and grabbing a handful of Danny's french fries. "What? I'm hungry and you won't like me when I'm hungry. I will cut a bitch."
"You do that when you're full, too," Allison lamented as she picked up her phone. "So, you know about the werewolf stuff?"
"Some of it. Scott kind of didn't get to tell me everything," Danny confessed nervously as everyone stared at him. So he looked at Scott. "Hey, do you mind ditching next period? It's the first day so nobody is gonna make us do anything and we kind of need to talk."
"Why not? I only just barely survived summer school," Scott shrugged apathetically.
TW
Scott and Danny hung out by the lacrosse field, though Scott reckoned it would be the football field now that it was fall. He really wasn't one for fall sports. Sure, he watched the Superbowl like everyone else in America, but he couldn't be bothered to care about the NFL during the regular season, let alone high school football.
"I think I'm going to try out for cross country this year. I run through the woods all the time anyway, I might as well get a medal for it," Scott joked as he and Danny walked the track that surrounded it. "Sorry for being such a dick during lunch."
"Thanks," Danny accepted with a nervous chuckle. "You really were a dick. They said it's a moon thing? And Isaac is a werewolf, too?"
"So you picked up on that..." Scott nodded as he tried not to notice the girl in the bleachers grunting as she rode her boyfriend. He really hoped Danny couldn't hear her.
"Not just that. You're not ready to come out, are you?" Danny made no attempts to be physical with Scott. He just asked the question and left it in the air. Scot really didn't want to answer it.
"I don't mind people knowing. I just don't like the questions. This just doesn't seem like it should be as big a deal as people make it. Like, I've grown up being the Mexican kid, do I really need to be the bi Mexican kid?"
"I'm the gay Hawaiian kid," Danny pointed out. "And yours is a lot more common than mine. Well, not the bi thing, but this is California..."
"You're rambling."
"You interrupted me before I could get a good ramble started," Danny voiced with a smidgen of disappointment. "I know dating guys isn't easy, even in Beacon Hills. But what is dating a werewolf like?"
"Slightly more dangerous than dating a lacrosse player," Scott admitted rather casually. There was a rock on the track and he kicked it into the grass on the field. "You do a lot of running, though, so the exercise program is great."
"Are you seriously joking right now?"
"Danny, some days I need to laugh or I'll go crazy. People have gone after my mother. Stiles is always in danger. And Allison thinks she can take care of herself but more often than not she's in over her head. There's a very good chance you could end up as warped as Lydia. Do you really want to continue this? Because I'll understand if you walk away."
With a shake of his head, Danny bumped his arm into Scott's. "First of all, Lydia's always been a little twisted. And second, what about Allison?"
"What about her?" Scott asked as he heart skipped a beat.
"Where exactly does she fall into all of this? I mean, did she figure out that you're a werewolf or did you tell her like you told me last night?" Scott could tell from Danny's heartbeat that the question he asked wasn't the one he wanted answered.
"She comes from a family of werewolf hunters, and they know about me. Isaac, too. There's this thing called 'The Code' where they don't kill werewolves who haven't killed humans, but not all of them follow it. Allison does, thankfully. I think."
"That had to make dating hard."
"It didn't make it easy. But why are we talking about my ex?" Scott asked even though he knew the answer.
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Danny stopped walking. Scott stopped and turned to him, but looked at the horizon just over his shoulder.
"Because she's not your ex. I'm not stupid, Scott. I need to know that, if I stay here, I'm not wasting my time. Is there a chance at a long term future?"
"Aren't we a little young to talk about marriage and kids?" Scott exclaimed rather loudly. He heard the couple having sex stop and he was sure they were looking at him. "I mean, I'm not even old enough to see an R-rated movie by myself yet."
"I was thinking more along the lines of prom," Danny replied with a dejected sigh. "And I'm pretty sure I just got my answer. See ya, Scott."
TW
Scott was certain he wasn't hungover, because he was certain he couldn't get drunk. But he found himself wearing only his boxers on Allison's living room floor with no idea of how he got there. And if the dawn shining through the windows was any indication, he'd spent the night.
"I'm still alive, so at least Mr. Argent doesn't know I'm here," Scott said to himself in a pleading voice.
"If only that were true," Scott heard the older man grunt as he shuffled into the living room wearing a robe and wielding a cup of coffee.
Panicked, Scott tried to stand up and run away but tripped over his own feet and fell onto his backside. Chris Argent just sat in his chair and grabbed his head, trying not to look at the light.
"Mr. Argent, whatever I did, I am so sorry," Scott begged. He tried his best to blend into the sofa, which was difficult since it was white and he definitely wasn't.
"You aren't the one who was out driving drunk and picked up a kid on the side of the road. I am so glad Allison stayed at Lydia's last night after patrolling." Shame and regret filled Chris's voice as he refused to look at Scott.
"Where are my clothes?" Scott wondered when he realized he wasn't going to die. "How did I get here?"
"Didn't you here me?!" Chris yelled as he covered his eyes. He winced at the volume of his own voice and his next sentence was much quieter. "Your clothes are upstairs."
"In Allison's room?" Scott questioned fearfully.
"No." Chris's answer was quick and to the point, but the followup was delayed and pained. "They're in mine."
Scott didn't say anything He just stood up and left the room. He couldn't remember what happened the night before, likely because of the moon, but he could put the pieces together that Chris Argent gave him and he really didn't like the picture that was forming. At all.
After dressing, and being unable to find his belt and one sock, Scott slipped out of his ex-girlfriend's father's bedroom and ran down the stairs. He didn't even bother to look at Chris as he dashed out the door. Scott wasn't sure if he was doing the much talked about walk of shame, but he was definitely confused.
He had just enough time to get home and shower and change before the bus came to pick him up.
TW
Scott know what he was doing, and he knew he was doing it for the wrong reasons. When he reached his locker he threw his backpack to the floor and kept walking. Danny had just grabbed his Economics book from his locker when Scott slammed it shut.
"What is your problem? Are you still pissed about yesterday?" Danny asked Scott angrily.
Danny's answer came in the form of Scott wrapping his arms around his neck and kissing him rather violently. Looking out of the corner of his eyes, Danny saw the other people watching them. Not everyone, but enough for it to be uncomfortable.
Pushing away, Danny broke the contact and wiped his lips with his sleeve. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Danny, I want it to be you. I want you to be the one I go to prom with. I want you to be my date to homecoming and the winter formal. Whether it works out or not doesn't matter. Whatever is going on with Allison doesn't matter. You matter." Scott tried to kiss Danny again, but Danny slipped out of his grasp and dodged it.
"There is a time and a place, Scott. This is neither one. And no speech you stole from a Dawson's Creek rerun is going to change that. If you want to talk, you can wait."
Danny turned his back to Scott and walked away, doing his best to ignore the people looking at him. Meanwhile, Scott had to deal with Stiles asking him just what was going on.