This is suspicious," Stiles declared, dropping his lunch tray onto the table and almost throwing himself into the chair opposite Scott. He picked up a handful of curly fries and attempted to eat them all at once, glaring at something over Scott's right shoulder as he did so.

"What's suspicious, your ability to inhale curly fries and not choke to death?" Lydia quipped, tucking her elbows in by her sides and leaning slightly away from him.

"Oh, haha." Stiles pulled a face at her. He swallowed the mouthful of fries and pointed behind Scott. "No,them. The new kids."

Lydia looked unconvinced. "Have you even spoken to them?"

"Not yet, but I'm bound to have a class with them before the end of the day."

Scott craned his neck to look at where the transfer students sat, across the other side of the cafeteria. They looked pretty standard - extremely attractive, yeah, but there were plenty of good looking people at Beacon Hills High School who had nothing to do with the supernatural. They were both wearing jeans, the boy in a blue hoodie and the girl in a tight grey t-shirt, and they seemed to be chatting amicably to Danny and a few other guys from the Lacrosse team.

Scott spun back around and shot Stiles a skeptical look. "They seem normal to me."

Stiles planted his elbow on the table and leaned forward, lowering the volume of his voice but increasing the emphasis. "Look, okay, just hear me out. When was the last time someone new showed up at this school - or in this town, even - and wasn't a hunter or a werewolf or a homicidal maniac or something equally terrifying, huh?"

Scott shook his head but didn't say anything, because he sort of had a point, there.

Stiles looked triumphant. "Yeah, see! And, and, I overheard them talking in the hall, and the guy said something about not getting kicked out of his eighth school. What does that mean? Has he been kicked out of seven schools already?"

Allison frowned. "Maybe you misheard."

"Nope, nuh, I definitely heard those words, he said, 'Let's hope I don't get kicked out of my eighth school.' And the girl just laughed! That's not normal. What the hell could you do to get expelled from seven different schools?" Stiles leaned back in his chair and nodded in their direction. "And look at them, they won't stop fidgeting. It's like they're nervous about something."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Stiles."

"Yeah?"

She pointed to his hand, which was drumming on the table top, and then looked pointedly to his tapping foot. He immediately stilled both, scowling.

"Maybe they have ADHD, too," Allison offered.

"Or, maybe it's their first day at a new school and they just don't feel comfortable being stared at." Scott tilted his head to the side, preventing Stiles from glaring across the cafeteria at them.

His best friend huffed and went back to his lunch. "Okay, fine. Don't believe me. But when they turn out to be something new that want to kill us, I am definitely going to say 'I told you so'."

The new kids were in Biology with Stiles and Scott. They smiled at Danny as they walked in and took two empty seats towards the back, and Stiles glared at them the entire way.

"Dude." Scott nudged him in the side. "Would you chill?"

Stiles chewed on the end of his pen with more force than usual but turned to face the front without further complaint.

The problem was, Stiles was generally pretty good with this sort of thing. He was really the brains of the pack, along with Lydia, and Scott had never had any reason to mistrust his opinion before.

So, feeling just a little bit bad about it, Scott waited until the teacher had settled in to a lecture about the new unit before he started listening in to the transfer students' conversation.

"I'm definitely going to fail," the guy was saying, tapping his pen against the textbook they had open between them.

"Not if you pay attention in class," the girl countered in a tone that was eerily reminiscent of Lydia.

"Yeah, we both know that's not going to happen."

"Are you listening in on their conversation?" Stiles whispered, leaning over so far his cheek was practically on Scott's shoulder. "What are they saying?"

"Shh!" Scott glared at him and tuned back in just as the girl laughed quietly.

"Seriously, Percy, you'll be fine. Look, this unit is on genetic abnormalities. Practically made for us."

The guy - Percy - groaned. "It already hurts my head thinking about that type of stuff, and I don't think this high school science class is going to be particularly enlightening on the topic. Besides…" He lowered his voice even further, but Scott's hearing was too good. "Don't you think this is a bit of a waste of time? I feel like we should be out there, looking -"

"And where do you suggest we start?" she hissed back.

Scott risked a glance over his shoulder and saw that they both had their eyes trained on the chalkboard. The girl was copying down notes, but Percy was just blankly following the teacher's hand, eyes unfocused. He was holding a pen, but he was just twirling it between his fingers. He hadn't even taken the cap off.

"I don't know, Annabeth, but I'm not getting anything from anyone at the school, so…"

Annabeth suddenly straightened, and her eyes snapped right to Scott.

He quickly spun around in his seat, but he could feel her eyes boring into the back of his head. Both she and Percy had gone absolutely silent.

"What?" Stiles asked. "What is it?"

"I think she caught me," Scott muttered.

Stiles scoffed and turned around to check. "What, how could she have - Oh, she definitely caught you." He sunk down in his seat, far lower than could have been comfortable.

Scott turned his head at the slightest angle possible to see them in his periphery. They'd both gone back to looking at the board, but their relaxed posture was gone. They looked ready to run.

He kept an ear out for the rest of the class, but neither of them said a word, apart from when the teacher called on Annabeth to answer a question and she did so without even a second's hesitation or a glance at the textbook.

When the bell rang, they quickly and quietly packed up their stuff and made for the door. Scott waited until Percy was just about to walk past his station before stepping out into the aisle, bumping straight into him.

Something strange happened then - Scott was overwhelmed by the scent of the ocean. It was like someone had just dumped him in a wave. His instincts flared, every nerve standing on end, and he felt like he was under attack. His heart rate picked up, and he could feel his body straining to shift.

Percy barely even stumbled, and he didn't drop his pen, but Annabeth grabbed his arm.

"Sorry, man," he said, sounding genuine. "Are you okay?"

"All good," Scott said, keeping his head bowed and trying to bring his breathing back under control.

Percy hesitated. Scott could hear his heartbeat increase and wondered if he was scared. "Are you sure? You don't look so good."

"He's fine," Stiles said brightly, clapping a hand on Scott's shoulder. "Low blood pressure, makes him light headed. Just needs some sugar and he'll be right."

"Okay… Hope you're all right. Sorry again." Percy shouldered his bag and kept walking, Annabeth close behind.

As soon as they were out of the room, Stiles ducked his head right down to look into Scott's face. "Dude, your eyes!"

"I know," Scott growled. "Give me a minute."

"Do we have a minute?" Stiles hissed. The door swung open and the next class began filing in. "Nope, we don't have a minute. Come on, buddy!"

Head bowed under Stiles's arm, Scott let himself be led to the locker rooms, feeling very much like he should have listened to Stiles from the start, because there was definitely something weird going on with the new kids.

Lydia and Allison didn't even jump when Stiles and Scott ran up to their lockers at the end of the day. They continued calmly storing their books away as Stiles skidded right into the lockers, sending them rattling, and Scott stopped right behind him.

"I'm already on it," Lydia said before either of them had a chance to speak.

Stiles gaped at her. "On what? What are you - How could you know what we were going to say?"

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and closed her locker door. "Because I just had English with them, and I have a feeling that they're hiding something."

Allison nodded, resting her back against her closed locker door. "Definitely."

"Good," Scott said, glancing around to make sure the new kids weren't within ear shot.

"Oh!" Stiles threw his hands up in the air. "Oh, so we listen to Lydia's feeling, but ignore Stiles's? That's nice, guys, real nice."

Scott gestured for him to be quiet. "Lydia's not the only one with a feeling."

"No, I have a feeling, too," Stiles insisted, still not over it. "Remember, at lunch, I said -"

Now was not the time for one of Stiles's rants.

Scott cut him off. "I bumped into Percy just before, and I feltsomething."

Lydia tilted her head to the side. "Like what?"

"Like a… a challenge. It almost triggered a change." Scott searched for the words to explain what it had felt like, but this was a new experience, and he found himself at a bit of a loss.

"Yeah, with the red eyes and everything," Stiles added helpfully.

Lydia pursed her lips, looking even more intrigued.

"You just bumped into this guy and it triggered a change? He didn't attack you or anything?" Allison asked.

Scott shook his head. "He even sounded genuine when he said sorry."

"Strange," Lydia mused, staring at a point in the distance. When she straightened, the rest of them turned to see what had caught her attention.

Percy and Annabeth were standing at a locker down the other end of the hall, heads bowed close together as Annabeth pulled some books into her backpack.

"Right. Time to befriend the new kids. Again." Lydia smoothed out her skirt and arranged her features into her most charming smile.

They watched her saunter down the hallway, heels clicking against the floor and skirt swishing around her thighs.

"What is she going to do?" Scott asked.

"Exactly what she said," Allison explained. "She's going to become their friend."

"She wants to be friends with the weird new kids who are obviously somehow involved with the supernatural, judging by Scott's reaction to just touching one of them? She wants to spend more time with them?" Stiles asked incredulously. "Yeah, great plan."

Allison raised an eyebrow. "Worked with me, didn't it? And Isaac, and Ethan and Aiden, and -"

"You've made your point," Stiles snapped.

Allison flashed a smirk at Scott, like they were sharing some sort of inside joke, and his heart skipped a beat. In the distance, Lydia laughed at something Percy said, and Stiles's scowl deepened.

a.n. this fic was published on my tumblr (bananannabeth) well before now, so if you want regular updates i recommend following it over there