Every noise made Stella jump out of her skin. It had been two days since she had seen the strange creature in the middle of the road and she was still shaken up. The day before she wasn't sure she actually went to school, everything around her moved ten times faster than her brain was moving. She didn't even have the energy to glance at Erica and Isaac, but she did have a short conversation with Lydia of all people. It went sort of like this.
"I like your boots."
"...Thanks?"
"I wouldn't wear them, myself, but I can see why you like them."
And she continued down the hallway, leaving Stella in bewilderment. Scott, Stiles, and Allison returned to school today. She might have been paranoid out of her mind but she still noticed their absence, it was strangely quiet in Coach's class and Harris refrained from making his usual insults at Stiles, seeing as he wouldn't have heard them. Jackson also decide to show up today, but he still skipped out on morning practice. Enraging Stella but not bothering Coach nearly as much. Which annoyed Stella even more.
A locker door slammed somewhere down the hallway and Stella visibly jolted, taking a deep breath to bring her heart rate back down to normal. "You ok?" It was Matt who spoke up next to her. Matt was a lacrosse player who had once been friends with Stella and Isaac. But after an incident one night at the Lahey's house he drifted apart from them. They still said the occasional 'hey' to each other in the hallway and when one of them said something funny in class the other laughed, but they were more acquaintances than friends. Matt's locker was three down from Stella's, so she didn't find it odd that he had been there without her noticing, she was kind of out of it.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good, just a little too much coffee this morning." She laughed it off, trying to convince herself of her own lie.
"I know how that feels." Silence fell between them, but when Stella closed her locker and headed down the hall, Matt followed "So, how's swimming going? I've been meaning to make it to a meet but haven't got a chance to this season." It was refreshing, she had to admit, to actually have someone to talk to lately. Why did she stop being friends with Matt again? He didn't seem like the kind of guy that would leave her in the dust like Isaac and Erica had been doing lately. Not that she was bitter or anything.
"Oh, it's been good. I had a little freak out at the last meet against West Glen, but nothing to worry about." She noticed Stiles and Erica in a heated conversation in front of them, but shook it off, deciding to just focus on her conversation with Matt. Matt was being nice. Matt actually wanted to speak to her. Matt looked good in leather jackets.
"What happened?"
"I choked. Literally." He gave her a confused look and she cut off her laughter, realizing her joke wasn't as funny as she thought it was, "I had an asthma attack mid-breath stroke. Ironic, right?" It was the end of lunch so she would usually b headed to Econ, but Coach stuck true to his word and would not allow her in his classroom until she got better time on her back stroke. She was sure there was some sort of rule against keeping a student from entering a classroom merely for sports, but she wasn't complaining, it got her excised from the midterm. That's what the school board gets for making a Coach also teach Economics.
"I'm sorry to hear that, you were always really good at swimming, I was always jealous. Considering I never learned how." Stella frowned and stopped walking at the end of the hallway that Erica and Stiles had turned onto. They stood in front of the boys locker room and Stella tried to not listen in on their conversation, but found it hard.
"Why don't I teach you?" She suggested, drawing her attention away from the pair when she was sure she heard Erica mention something about 'the worst crush in the world'. Matt looked at her questioningly.
"Really? You'd do that?"
"Yeah, why not? I've got nothing better to do with my free time. It'll be fun." There was a loud crashing sound, and Stella and Matt both whipped their heads around to look at the scene that was currently playing out just next to them. Jackson was on top of Scott, gripping the fabric of his hoodie in his fists. Until Erica pulled him off of Scott, pushing him up against the wall and holding him by his neck, while Stiles held back Scott. Stella's big eyes darted around the group, trying to piece together what had just happened, that's when she noticed Allison and Mr. Harris.
Mr. Harris?...Crap.
"Hey! What the hell is going on?!" Harris shouted at the teens, angrily approaching the group. He bumped into Stella's shoulder, sending her colliding into Matt who was holding a tablet in his hand that was covered in little droplets of water. He turned on the screen and Stella couldn't help but look over his shoulder to read it "Enough! Jackson, calm down!" Stella drew her eyes away from the screen and back to reality "Mr. McCall? Care to explain yourself?" Harris asked Scott, who simply glared at Jackson in response "Stilinski?"
Matt out stretched his arm, meaning to hand the tablet back to Allison "You dropped this." Harris intercepted the exchange, grabbing the tablet in his own clammy hands.
"You and you..." Harris trailed off after pointing at Scott and Stiles, that evil glint in his eye that could only mean bad news "Actually, all of you." He gestured to all the teens surrounding him, even going as far as to point at Matt and Stella "Detention, 3:00." Stella's jaw dropped open in utter shock. Her and Matt hadn't even done anything, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not to mention the fact that if she went to detention she would miss swim practice and that wasn't an option, especially with the meet just two days away. Somehow she knew there was no convincing Harris, though. He was down right pissed and there was no appealing to his soft side when he was like this.
So her practice time now was all she was gonna get. But some reason she couldn't bring herself to get in the pool. She stood at the edge, fully clothed with her bag still on her shoulder. Scenes kept playing over and over in her mind.
"Camden, stop!"
She felt herself leaning forward, but snapped upright, planting her feet firmly on the damp concrete.
"Carter! Stop it, he can't swim!"
"Calm down, Stel, it's just a little fun."
Before she could stop herself again, she was falling into the water, her limbs flailing about uncontrollably. She felt as though someone had a hold of her ankle, holding her in the pool and preventing her from keeping her head above water for too long.
"Pull him up, he can't swim Carter!"
She felt the water cover the top of her head and knew she was deep into the water, it felt like she was deeper than the pool itself. Almost as if she wasn't in the pool anymore and she began to panic, her lungs fighting for breath but not opening her mouth to breathe in the water she was submerged in. Whatever had the hold on her ankle wasn't letting go, no matter how hard she struggled to swim to the surface.
She watched the terrifying scene from above water, not know what to do to help her friend. She moved to jump in after him but her older brother held her back, rolling his eyes at his baby sister.
She kicked furiously, and when the hand still didn't release her, she screamed. She took whatever breath was left in her lungs, and forced it out of her body, creating a swirl of bubbles around her. Her scream hit an unbelievable pitch, even from under water it sent a ringing to her ears and made her head pound. The water around her was black, she couldn't see anything except for a pair of glowing blue eyes.
"You changed." Erica spoke up as her and Stella sat quietly at their table in the library.
Stella did change into spare clothes she had in her gym locker after she found herself laying on the concrete floor of the pool area soaking wet. She wasn't sure if what she saw was a hallucination or if she had actually fallen in the pool and blacked out after she made it back to the surface. Either way Mr. Harris had come at 2:50 to collect her for detention. So here she was, sitting in the library across from her so-called best friend, trying to braid her matted mess of chlorine soaked hair.
"So what? I can't change in the middle of the day?" She snapped back angrily. She pulled her ipod out of her bag, along with her head phones.
"I was just concerned. You have that vacant look in your eye like you used to get." Erica mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes.
Stella leaned forward in her chair, her tiredness suddenly getting the better of her "Why don't you just do me a favor and stop acting like you give a shit about me." She whispered harshly at the blonde. It may have been too harsh, but she honestly couldn't care less at this moment. Coach was already on the verge of taking her out of the meet, this detention wasn't helping. She was starting to see things again, too; That thing on the road the other night, her weird dream, whatever the hell happened this afternoon. She slammed her back up against her chair in frustration, stuffing her headphones in her ears and turning on her music, not caring what song was playing as long as it blocked out the silence.
She tried to read, but ended up just laying her head on the table. She wasn't sure if she slept or not, but she didn't move at all. This was a trick she had mastered while she was at Eichen. If you were asleep, people tended to leave you alone, they didn't know how you would react if they woke you up. Of course she couldn't always fall asleep on command, so she learned how to act like she was asleep. The trick wasn't to stay completely still, but to have your chest raise up and down methodically and re-position your head every couple of minutes. If you hold your breath every time people look at you and not move an inch, they start to think you're dead. So when she heard Jackson get up and rush out the door, she lifted her head slightly, but then hid it in her arms after Harris followed after him.
She felt two other people join them at the table, but didn't lift her head for that, already being able to smell the distant scent of curly fries that seemed to follow Stiles Stilinski wherever he went.
Scott and Stiles looked at Stella before beginning their conversation with Erica, "Can she hear us?" Stiles whispered.
"Stella?" Erica scoffed "No, we're good. She's tuned out everything unimportant to her."
"How does she know what's important and what's not?" Scott wondered out loud.
"You'd be impressed." They let the subject of Stella slip as they questioned Erica about Jackson's parents. Stella could feel the vibrations of Erica's fingers tapping against the keyboard of her laptop and heard the low mumble of the intercom. She felt someone get up from the table and leave the room. Since the smell of curly fries was still evident she made a wild guess that Scott was the one who had left and Stiles was still sitting across from her. She felt something hit the back of her head and snapped up, her headphones falling out of her ears in the process.
She whipped around to glare at Matt, who was motioning her over. She rose her eyebrows at him as if asking 'What do you want?'
"Just come here for a sec." He hissed at her. She scooted away from the table and stalked over to him, sitting herself in the chair that Jackson had occupied before he left.
"What is it?" She asked him, leaning forward on the table.
"You read all of your mom's old books on Greek mythology, right?" Stella's mom, Adelaide, had a vast collection of books all about Mythology. Stella made it her mission to finish all of them before high school was over, she made a significant dent in the collection at her time in Eichen, not having much to do beside stare at the wall and play chess the one of the residents there, his name was Oliver. She kinda missed Oliver.
"Yeah, I still have a few to go but I read most of them." Stella recalled, noticing that Allison kept glancing at the two of them out of the corner of her eye.
"Does the word 'Kanima' sound familiar to you at all?" Stella racked her brain for a minute, trying to find anything that related to this so called 'Kanima'.
"Um, it sounds familiar but I can't really put my finger on it. Why do you wanna know?"
"Just saw something about it in this book I'm reading, wanted to know a little more." Stella gave him a small smile, nodding her head.
"I can skim through the books tonight if you want me to, I'm sure it won't be hard to find something about it."
Matt returned her smile "That would be great, thanks." Stella felt a shove on her shoulder and looked up to see Jackson glaring down at her. She took that as her cue to get up, so she did. She walked back over to her table where Stiles still sat talking to Erica in hushed tones.
"Jackson'd birthday is June 15th." She heard Stiles say as she sat back down in her chair, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest.
Stiles gave her an odd look and she returned it "What?" She asked him, raising her eyebrows.
"Were you really asleep earlier?" He leaned towards her, almost like he was interrogating her.
"Don't worry," She rolled her eyes "I didn't hear any of your top secret conversation. So you don't have to make up anymore weird lies to cover it up." She winced at her words. She really needed some sleep, this whole being a bitch thing wasn't working for her anymore.
Everyone's attention was brought to the desk when Mr. Harris started packing up his bag and walking towards the door. Stella was the first one to jump out of her seat, and she would've been the first out the door if it wasn't for Harris' maniacal laughter. "Oh, no, I'm sorry." He didn't sound very sorry "Yes, I'm leaving, but none of you are." Stella resisted the urge to stomp her feet on the ground as that might appear childish to some people "You may go when you're done with the re-shelving." He patted the tops of the books on the carts closest to him "Enjoy the rest of you evening." And he was free.
Stella immediately dropped her bag back on the ground and grabbed one of the carts, dragging it over to a section. She didn't want to be here any longer than she had to be, so she wasn't gonna waste her time complaining about what she had to do and not actually doing it. As she placed Scarlet Pimpernel onto a shelf, she heard Allison and Stiles get into a whisper fight, but chose not to eavesdrop, figuring it would just leave her more confused than she already was. She only looked back in their direction when Stiles was walking over to her, "Hey." He greeted. She shot him a small smile in return, but it only lasted a second. She returned to placing the books on the shelf, not caring if they were in the right spots. If some librarian gets confused she can blame Mr. Harris. "So..." Stiles drawled out, helping her place the books on the shelf "You're in to Greek mythology?"
"I guess you could say that. My mom was kind of a nut so we have this room in our house that's lined with bookshelves just filled with all kinds of books on different mythologies. Greek just happened to be her favorite so it's the one I started with." She didn't mean to ramble, she actually meant to keep her answer short, but once you got into talking about her mom it was kind of hard to stop.
"Maybe I could read some of them sometime?" Stella looked at Stiles curiously.
" You're into mythology?"
"Oh-pft- yeah, I am. I love it. It's my obsession." Stella nodded slowly, clicking her tongue.
"I mean, if you really want to you can come over sometime and read some of them. My dad doesn't let them leave the house though, he's kind of weirdly protective over them." She grabbed another book that looked interesting to her, so she placed it on a higher shelf, somewhere where she could remember where she put it.
"Yeah, I totally understand. That would be great." Silence fell between the two for a short moment, until Stiles spoke up again "Maybe you can teach me that sleeping trick you did earlier, too. Seems like it would come in handy."
Stella's laughed lightly, "Believe me, it does." It was then that Scott came back in the library, and Stiles made a move to go talk to him.
"Sweet, I'll text you later."
"You don't have my-" He was gone before she could finish her sentence "number." She sighed but then shrugged, deciding Stiles was only slowing her work down. Her phone dinged in her pocket and she pulled it out, seeing a text from Carter.
Where are you?
She groaned, typing out a response quickly.
Harris gave me detention for standing. Should be home soon.
He didn't text back and she saw that as a good sign. Erica walked into the row she was standing in, she only had one book to put on the shelf, but stayed in the aisle longer, trying to form words in her head "Don't think I don't care about you anymore Stella. Cause' I do." Stella pursed her lips, turning to face Erica who had walked considerably closer to her.
Stella nodded curtly "I know." Erica look slightly shocked at her response. But Stella wasn't done "I just wished you cared enough to tell me whats actually going on with you and Isaac." The silence became deafening as the two girls stared at each other. Erica's stare filled with shock and Stella's gaze unreadable. They stood in silence until there was a loud crashing sound and something leaped across the tops of the shelves, knocking down ceiling tiles and lights.
"Erica!" Scott shouted from the row next to theirs. Erica pushed Stella to the ground, trying her best to protect her from whatever was reeking havoc on the school library. Erica let out a growl, and Stella had to do a double take when she was sure she noticed Erica's eyes glowing and fangs sprouting out of her mouth. She scooted away from Erica on the floor, when she noticed Jackson walking up behind her with something on half of his face.
"Erica, watch out!" But it was too late. Erica was falling to the ground, her body shaking abnormally. "Erica!" Stella jumped up from the floor and ran over to her best friend. She picked her up off the floor as best she could and placed her head in her lap. She had never seen her have a seizure this bad before and she didn't realize it, but she was crying. She tried to put her on her side but she resisted "Erica, come on, work with me." She tried again but it still wouldn't work. "I need help!" Stella's voice cracked at the volume she was trying to yell at but Stiles came running over to her anyway.
"Hey-hey!" That Scott and Allison's attention.
"She's having a seizure. We need to get her to a hospital." Stiles took Erica out of Stella's trembling hands.
"No, to Derek-only to Derek." Erica spoke up, her body still shaking.
"Ok, when we get her to the hospital-"
"To Derek. To Derek." Erica still insisted on going to Derek, no matter what Scott was trying to tell Allison.
"Go." Allison insisted and Scott got up, making his way over to her.
Stella pulled Erica out of Stiles' arms, noticing that he was trying to restrain her "No, don't hold her like that." She placed Erica where she had her before, her head resting on her lap "You can't keep her from moving, she could get hurt or hurt you." Stella wasn't really telling Stiles this, she was mainly repeating what the instructor had told her when she took a first aid class in 8th grade. "We have to get her out of here. If Derek can help her, fine, we'll take her to Derek but we can't just stay here and wait for it to pass."
"Stella, you need to stay here and call and ambulance for Matt while we-"
"No!" She yelled at Scott, not feeling the need to look at him "I'm not gonna stay here while you guys take her to some stranger. I know more about her condition than all three of you combined. I'm going with you." She was scared for Erica but she was also angry that Scott would even consider making her wait here just so he could stay with his precious girlfriend.
"She's right Scott, you need to go and she needs to go with you. It doesn't mean anything."
"But it feels like it does-"
"Scott. Go." Scott kissed Allison on the forehead before rushing over to pick Erica up, Stella and Stiles following him out of the library.
After a very short deliberation, it was decided that they drive Stella's car to Derek, realizing that it would be too hard to get her in the back seat of the jeep and Scott didn't have his car. Scott directed Stella on where to go while Stiles sat with Erica in the backseat.
"Ok, stop here." Stella obliged, parking her car in the abandoned lot that she had been directed to. Scott grabbed Erica from the backseat and walking her towards the tunnel that Stella recognized as an old subway track. She started to follow them into the tunnel but Stiles stopped her.
"Wait out here." Stella looked at him like he was crazy.
"What? Are you insane?!" She shouted at him.
He held his hands out in front of him in defense "Stella, we don't know what Derek's gonna do to her. It might be too much for you to handle right now. But I promise, we're gonna take care of her and we will explain everything to you after she's safe just please- wait out here." Stella gave in and Stiles thanked her before running after Scott, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
It took a while but Stella could hear Erica's agonizing screams begin to fade. The sun set just twenty minutes before and Stella sat on the hood of her car, responding to the urgent texts from her family members, telling her she was studying with some friends and would be home within the hour. She figured that would hold them off from asking too many questions when she walked in the door. She leaped off the hood of her red prius when Scott and Stiles emerged from the tunnel 'Is she ok?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth.
"She will be, Derek managed to get the venom out of her system." Scott explained to her.
She shook her head in disbelief "W-wait, venom?" She asked.
"I think we owe you an explanation, Stella." Stella was about to say 'hell yeah, you do' but stopped herself when she noticed Scott's eyes were glowing a bright yellow-gold color.
"Holy shit."
wowowowowow, this was fun to write. Next chapter will be Scott and Stiles giving Stella all the low-down on whats happening in Beacon Hills and it will continue into the Rave which I am so excited about! Leave a review telling me what relationships you want to see form in the next couple of chapters, I'm totally open to suggestions about anything! Hope you guys enjoyed! See you next update!
