"So you killed her?" We are walking through school talking about some crazy dream that Scott had the previous night.
"I'm not sure I just woke up. I was sweating like crazy, and I couldn't breathe. I've never had a dream where I woke up like that before."
"Really? I have. It usually ends a little differently." Yup had one the other night. Long strawberry blonde curls turned into short dark hair and there was an a little too much facial hair. But I don't need to share that… Nope not sharing.
"A, I meant I've never had a dream that felt that real, and B, never give me that much detail about you in bed again."
"Noted." Although I am sure I will be hearing much more about Allison in the future than I ever really cared to know. "Let me take a guess here."
"No, I know, you think it has something to do with me going out with Allison tomorrow. Like I'm gonna lose control and rip her throat out."
Something like that. "No, of course not. Yeah, that's totally it. Hey, come on, it's gonna be fin, alright? Personally, I think you're handling this pretty freaking amazingly. You know it's not like there's a Lycanthropy for Dummies book you can read."
"No, no book. But maybe someone who can help teach me."
"Derek?" Part of me thinks that it is a great idea, but another part of me thinks that after what we did to Derek, that he would rather rip us to shreds. But if Scott can get the help he needs. "But did you forget the part where we got him tossed in jail?"
"Yeah, I now. But chasing her, and dragging her to the back of the bus, it felt so real."
"How real?"
"Like it actually happened." We step outside to the parking lot, and there are police and the crime scene unit all over a bus that has claw marks and blood all over.
"I think it did." We hurry back inside and try to find Allison. "She's probably fine."
"She's not answering my texts, Stiles."
"It could just be a coincidence, all right? A seriously amazing coincidence."
"Just help me find her okay." We roam the halls for a few minutes and Scott is getting really worked up about it. His breathe is coming in shorter bursts, and I don't need to take his pulse to know that it is skyrocketing. He slams against a locker and punches it, causing the door to come off its hinges. I notice its Jacksons and can't help but give a small laugh. Then after I see that he found Allison, I walk to first period.
In chemistry later, we get caught talking by Mr. Harris, who I seriously think hates my guts. We get separated and I continue to work. Then they find something and we all crowd the windows. They have a man on a stretcher and we all jump when the man lying down does. Scott backs away from the window, and I follow trying to comfort him. "This is good, this is good. He got up, he's not dead. Dead guys can't do that."
Scott breathes a little heavily "Stiles…I did that." Mr. Harris has us back in our seats before we can talk any more so at lunch I am still trying to make Scott feel better, but I am not sure that he didn't do that. And that worries me.
"But dreams aren't memories."
"Then it wasn't a dream. Something happened last night, and I can't remember what."
"What makes you so sure that Derek even has all the answers?" I am pretty sure he does, but I like to play devil's advocate every now and then.
"Because during the full moon he wasn't changed. He was in total control while I was running around in the middle of the night attacking some totally innocent guy."
"You don't know that."
"I don't not know it. I can't go out with Allison. I have to cancel."
Now that he may have actually hurt someone he is listening to the voice of reason. Where was all this on Saturday at the game? I sigh, "You can't cancel. You can't just cancel your whole life. We can figure this out."
When the popular kids come to sit with us at our table, I am thrown for a loop. I figured Allison would want to sit with Scott but I didn't know that it would bring the others with them. They are talking about the 'animal' attack and I hate it when Lydia dumbs herself down, just to make Jackson feel smart. She should flaunt her smarts and not boost some dumb jocks ego.
As the conversation flows I am looking up who is the one that got attacked and I find a video. So I play it so everyone can see. Then Scott says he knows the bus driver and that sends up some red flags, but not enough to say that he is the one who did it.
Then the conversation shifts talk of Scott and Allison's date, and somehow it turns into a double date, and hanging out is the last thing Scott should want. We are on our way out of lunch when I have to say something about his bowling comment. "You're a terrible bowler."
"I know! I'm such an idiot."
"God, it was like watching a car wreck. I mean first it turned into the whole group date thing. And then out of nowhere comes that phrase." So maybe I am living a bit vicariously through Scott at the moment. But when my Friday night consists of doing homework and staring at the celling, anything is better than that.
"Hang out."
"You don't hang out with hot girls, okay? It's like death. Once it's hanging out, you might as well be her gay best friend. Not that there is anything wrong with being the gay best friend, but then you can Danny can start hanging out. Not that Danny is a bad guy, he is actually kinda awesome, but that isn't the kind of hanging out that would probably be going on." When my brain starts on something it just doesn't let it go.
"How is this happening? I either killed a guy or I didn't.
"I don't think Danny likes me very much."
"I ask Allison on a date, and now we're hanging out."
"Am I not attractive to gay guys?"
"I make first line, and the team captain wants to destroy me, and now… Now I'm gonna be late for work."
"-Wait, Scott, you didn't…" he is walking away so I have to yell the next part, "Am I attractive to gay guy… You didn't answer my question." Why do I care if I am attractive to gay guys? I don't want to date Danny, or any other guy for that matter. But it is still something that I want to know. I have been into Lydia for so long, that I really haven't given anyone else a thought. Maybe it is just my curiosity sparking up again. Maybe I will have to ask Danny sometime. But for now I want to just go home and relax.
…
When I get home I start doing my homework, but I can't focus on it so I start back up with the researching on anything and everything werewolves and werewolf related. There are lots of legends and myths, so I am not sure what is true and what isn't, but they do say that most myths and legends stem from some truth.
The major thing I have been looking for is a way for Scott to control himself when he shifts. It will probably become his biggest obstacle. Without it he will be putting a lot of people in danger. That line of thought gets me thinking about what he said about Derek. He was able to control the shift, and not go running wild through the night. And by thinking about him my brain diverts down two separate paths, one of which I don't want to touch with a ten foot pole at this point. I shudder but not in an unpleasant, but more unexpected way.
The other, the one I focus on, is what do we really know about Derek. So I put in a search for him. The article in the local paper is the first thing that pops up. It happened six years ago, and after things were barley settled, Derek and his sister left. No one really knew what happened to them, though. They just vanished in the middle of the night.
Then I remember that my dad had the old Hale file on his desk in his office. He isn't home from work yet, so I might have enough time. I sneak downstairs and grab it off his desk rush back up to my room, and use me handy copier on my printer to make an exact double. Then before my dad is any the wiser I slip the original back into his office exactly like I left it. I am itching to go through the documents in the file but as I get back up to my room I hear dad pull in and know that it will have to wait for another day.
So I hide the papers in the hidden compartment of bottom desk drawer. It's where I keep a few mementoes that no one knows I have. An old grocery list written by my mom, some baseball cards that I am hoping will be worth some money someday, a photo of Dad, Mom, and I on our last vacation, before we found out about the cancer, along with some other photos that I have taken from around the house, ones that my dad won't miss, and a letter that my mom wrote me to open when I turn 18. I found that in the glove compartment of the Jeep. I don't even think Dad knows she wrote it. And there have been a few times over the years that I have almost given in and ripped it open just to know what her last words will be to me. But then I always pull back and leave it, knowing that she wouldn't care if I waited, but if it's her last request of me, I think I can handle it.
After I replace the false bottom, I turn back to my computer and start looking up anything I can find on the Argents. It is a rare enough name that there shouldn't be too much to sift through. At least I hope. But after an hour of searching the only thing I can find that they do pretty well in the weapons dealings the do with the government. They must have all the right connections. The only thing I could find out that I didn't already know is that one Kate Argent used to live in Beacon about six years ago and then quickly moved away. It doesn't give any dates, but it might just be too much of a coincidence that Derek's family is killed about the same time. But without and further evidence or information I really can't jump to conclusions. I have seen where that gets me and I don't want to make another mistake like that again.
Finally I decide to pull myself away from the research that is still getting me nowhere, to go downstairs and make dinner. Nothing too fancy tonight I spent too much time absorbed in what I was doing. So it looks like turkey burgers and steamed veggies. Dad complains as usual, but he eats it none the less. After doing the dishes, I head back upstairs to continue working on my homework when I get a message from Scott saying that he needs my help and that I should pick him up in an hour. Maybe he went and talked to Derek. Hopefully this will be something that can help him.
…
Derek wants him to go back to the bus and just remember. I am not sure if this is a god idea or not. The bus is impounded. There will be security measures of some kind. Hopefully we don't get caught. We get out and I want to help, so I move forward with Scott. But he doesn't like this idea.
"He, no, just me. Someone has to keep watch."
"How come I'm always the guy to keeping watch?"
"Because there's only two of us."
"Okay, why's it starting to feel like you're Batman and I'm Robin? I don't want to be Robin all the time."
"Nobody's Batman and Robin any of the time."
"Not even some of the time?"
"Just stay here."
"Oh My God! Fine." My brain doesn't always work the right way. I mean he is the one that needs to go and remember, so what good would it do for me to go into the bus. Doesn't make me any less depressed. Batman doesn't even have any special powers. So I am totally still Batman. I wait a few minutes fidgeting in the Jeep waiting to make a getaway. And keeping an eye out for anything.
After about ten minutes, I see lights and I honk the horn to get Scott's attention. Someone is coming and we gotta get gone. I barely have time to recognize the crazy acrobatics Scott pulls off once again, and he is in the jeep and my tires are squealing. "Did it work? Did you remember?"
"Yeah I was there last night. And the blood, a lot of it was mine."
"So you did attack him?"
"No. I saw glowing eyes in the bus, but they weren't mine. It was Derek."
"What about the driver?"
"I think I was actually trying to protect him."
"Wait, why would Derek help you remember that he attacked the driver? That doesn't make any sense. Are you sure it was him."
"That's what I don't get."
"Did it look like him?"
"No, it was like a large wolf, monstrous wolf."
"Maybe there's another wolf out there. It could have been a pack thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Like an initiation. You do the kill together"
"Because ripping someone's throat out is a real bonding experience?"
"Yeah, but you didn't do it, which means you're not a killer. And it also means that…"
"I can go out with Allison."
"I was gonna say it means you won't kill me, but sure lets go with that."
"Oh, yeah. That too." Glad I am such an afterthought. Seriously who is the one helping him with all of this? Not Allison that is for sure. I drop him back off at home and go back to my place. I am home for a few hours when my dad says he got a call and that he has to go the hospital. The bus driver died.
So I head over to Scott's place to wait him out in his room, but I end up surprising Mrs. McCall instead. She comes at me with a bat and screams which makes me flail my arms about and try to get away from her. "Stiles, what the hell are you doing here?"
"What am I doing? God, do either one of you even play baseball?" And then Scott walks in and turns on the light.
"Can you please tell your friend to use the front door?"
"But we lock the front door. He wouldn't be able to get in."
"Yeah, exactly. And, by the way, do either of you care that there's a police-enforced curfew?" She says it more to me than to Scott, but she should know us by now.
"No." We answer in unison.
"No. All right then. Well, you know what?" She throws the bat on the bed. "That's about enough parenting for me for one night, so good night."
I sigh because I have started to run out of words. Words to describe all the drama bullshit that keeps surrounding us. "My dad left for the hospital 15 minutes ago. It's the bus driver. They said he succumbed to his wounds."
"Succumbed?"
"Scott, he's dead" There isn't much to say after that so I head home. Homework still needs to be done so I start working on it. Just because all of this stuff is happening doesn't mean I can start slacking. It's around midnight when I get a few texts from Scott telling me that he went and confronted Derek, and that there is an Alpha wolf and that is the one who turned Scott, and killed Laura and the bus driver. And that he is going to try and work together with Derek to beat the Alpha. It's hard to wrap my head around. I am kinda relieved that Derek isn't the bad guy here. He has just been caught up in the bullshit like us. But then I think I remember reading something. I dig through all the stuff I printed off and the books I have borrowed from the library.
In the book it says that Alpha's are the strongest wolves out there. They are the only ones who can turn another person. If you're not an Alpha, you're a Beta or an Omega. Beta's are what make up a pack, and Omega's are lone wolves. Omega's are also the weakest. I read through a few more things in the book, and it seems to give pretty decent information, and it all looks to be accurate too. There is a section on Mates, the pull of the moon, how different kinds of moons affect the wolf, and a whole slew of other things.
I leave my homework forgotten on my desk and take the book over to my bed and start reading. I skip around on topics, some are obviously more important than others right now, and I want to know everything I can to help Scott. This is one of the books I got from the Public library and I think I am going to have to 'liberate' it. Before I know it I am falling asleep with the lights still on and the only thing I can think of is a pair of bright green eyes, turning ice blue.
