The sound of a blaring alarm sent a shock of panic through her body, prompting her to snap her eyes open. Groaning loudly, Annie leaned over and swiped at her phone screen, the alarm shut off immediately. She stayed lying in bed for several more minutes, staring up at the blurred ceiling. Gathering as much motivation to move as she could, she clumsily felt for her glasses on her bedside table, slipping them on her face as she sat up.
Blinking groggily, she sighed before moving to start her morning routine. Removing the wrap from her head, she shook her slightly damp hair out and got set to run on autopilot until she had to go to school. Annie had always been one for routines. Of course, with a life like hers, she had to adaptable and flexible for any unforeseen circumstances, but that didn't mean she couldn't just try to make several "just in case" plans. She already had the bad habit of thinking about worst case scenarios, why not just channel that into preparedness?
Although, it did look like her bad habit of coming up with an obscene amount of hypothetical situations would come in handy with what was happening in town.
Annie popped her second contact in before blinking with a grimace. Looking back at her reflection, she sighed and reached up to tuck several stubborn hairs back into the braided crown that had taken her way too long to wrestle with that morning. Since school had started, she had rarely worn her hair up, preferring to keep a semblance of a curtain near her face should she want to hide. Tilting her head a certain way seemed infinitely easier than having to look someone in the eye or take notice of anyone looking at her.
But, she came here to start over and she was fully aware of the fact that she wasn't exactly branching out socially. She was fully aware that she wasn't actively trying to change her life, but rather just… sitting in the present moment. Doing something as simple as fully displaying her face was huge in her eyes, and maybe if she did something as uncomfortable like this, she'd be more open to making other changes.
It had actually been something Lydia had said to her offhandedly one day that inspired her to start taking control of her life, rather than simply taking a back seat to random events. If she couldn't do anything else, she could at least try to fake it until she made it.
Baby steps, Emery.
Inhaling deeply, she held her breath for a moment before exhaling slowly. Backing away from her mirror, she walked over to her closet and grabbed a long-sleeved, gray blouse and a pair of jeans. Pulling everything on, she finished up her outfit with a pair of rare flats, figuring that if she was putting this much effort into her appearance, letting herself be entirely comfortable would be called for. Throwing her books into her bag, she grabbed her phone and made her way downstairs.
"-and I'm sure Sacramento will have many more resources, but my door will be open." Alan's voice echoed through the hall, letting her eavesdrop on his side of the conversation.
Annie gave her uncle a curious look as she walked into the kitchen and sat down across from him, reaching over to grab an apple from the fruit bowl in the center of the table. She raised her eyebrows at him as he finished up the call and set his cell phone down on the table, his hand reaching out to close the laptop set in front of him, his expression giving her the impression that he was suddenly very tired.
"What's wrong? Who was that?"
"Sheriff Stilinski." Came the unexpected answer. Her brows raised in curiosity. There was no way the man wasn't related to Stiles, it wasn't like that was a particularly common surname. But that wasn't the thing that piqued her interest. Why would the county sheriff call Alan? Annie gave him a questioning look, one that seemed hesitant to address.
Sighing, he gave in, rubbing at his forehead. "He wants me to be a consultant about the mountain lion issue we seem to be having."
Annie leaned back in her chair. "Ah, so mountain lion is what they're going with? Isn't this like… the bear state? Y'all don't have bears?" She asked before biting into the apple in her hand.
Alan rolled his eyes at his niece and lifted his coffee mug to his lips. "It's not like I had a say in the matter. Last I checked, I wasn't the leading voice in covering up supernatural activity." He said before taking a long sip from the cup.
Annie grinned back at him, quickly swallowing and lifting a finger to point at him. "Oh, but you should be. You'd do a fantastic job lying to the general public." She gave a cheeky wink before turning her gaze to the mug he had lowered back down. "There's more of that, right?" He simply nodded his head in the direction of the coffee pot and she let out a sigh of relief as she stood up, as though he had given her the best news possible.
"You're addicted." He called after her, watching her walk towards the pot of coffee.
"The sky is blue. We need oxygen. Werewolves bite… Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were just listing pointless, obvious facts we can't change." She responded, her tone pleasant despite the sarcastic bite to her words. Filling up her usual travel mug with the dark, life-saving liquid, she mixed in some sugar and capped it up.
"I don't remember either of your parents being this sarcastic."
The mention of her parents made her turn around to face him with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. "No, but I hear you were a little shit when you were younger. That must be where I got it." Alan licked his lips in an attempt to hide the smile that threatened to overtake his expression and instead shook his head before turning back and busied himself with his laptop.
A silence settled on the kitchen as the two preoccupied themselves for several minutes, with Alan finishing his cup and replying to emails while Annie quickly devoured the rest of her apple. She shifted her gaze towards the neon digital clock on the microwave and with a long, drawn-out sigh, she grabbed her coffee and walked back towards the kitchen table. "I better get going, Lydia asked me to pick up some coffee for her from some café downtown." She explained to her uncle as she bent down to gather her bag.
Looking up from the screen of his computer, Alan gave her a sly smile, "Did she not like the coffee you made her the other day?"
Annie frowned as she lifted her hand to her chest in defense. "Look, the girl needs like, four flavor shots and more sugar than I put into my coffee. It's unnatural and I absolutely refuse to concoct such an abomination." She shook her head, slinging her bag over her shoulder and turning to leave, reaching into the bag to draw out her keys.
"Annie! Annie!"
Hearing her name being shouted with such panic made her, admittedly, over-react. Jumping in alarm, she swore loudly as some coffee from her travel mug splashed over her hands. Luckily, she had dodged out of the way in time to save her outfit. Swearing loudly, she shifted the mug to her right hand as she shook out her left one, trying to get the hot liquid off.
Turning slightly, she was suddenly met with Scott's panicked face right in front of her, making her flinch in alarm once more. "Woah, calm down, McCall. What's up?" She asked pure concern in her voice at seeing him so freaked out.
"H-have you seen Allison? Please tell me you've seen her." His eyes were wide, and his usually tan skin had a sickly pallor to it. Frowning she shook her head as she turned slightly to look at him directly.
"Sorry, I just got to school a couple of minutes ago, I haven't had a chance to really see anyone yet."
He visibly deflated in disappointment, but there was something else in his expression. This was much more than a guy missing his girlfriend. He looked genuinely afraid, and with what was happening in town, specifically surrounding Scott, her mind immediately began jumping to the worst conclusions she could come up with.
"Scott? What's wrong?" She demanded, her voice making the sudden transition from soft concern to hard suspicion. Scott obviously picked up on the change in her vocal tone and looking at the short girl's defensive, suspicious eyes and tense frame, and he couldn't help but remember what Stiles had said to him about her acting weird.
"Nothing… Nothing's wrong." He muttered before turning to walk away. Annie clenched her jaw, her mind still filling rapidly with worst-case scenarios involving Allison. Her left hand shot out to grab his wrist before he could completely walk away.
"Scott." She called sharply.
The werewolf whipped around and grabbed her wrist hard with his other hand, wrenching her hand off his own wrist, anger, and anxiety clear in his eyes. She couldn't help the step back she took as she moved her arm up to cradle it against her chest protectively, her wrist aching from his tight grip.
Regret flashed in his eyes as he muttered a soft apology and continued on his way, whipping around and sprinting down the hall, presumably to continue his search for Allison. Her brows furrowed as her eyes followed his retreating figure. She got so caught up in her thoughts and the sudden loud bang of something hitting metal in the distance, that she didn't hear the tell-tale sound of approaching heels.
"You, my friend, look absolutely adorable." Lydia's drawling voice caught her off guard. Annie jumped in alarm, having been so focused in on watching Scott that she hadn't noticed that Lydia came up behind her. Once again, she swore loudly at the feeling of hot coffee spilling over her other hand. As she shook her hand out, she turned around with a weak smile on her face.
"Wow, makeup and no heels? What's the occasion?" She teased, watching Annie deal with the spilled coffee on her hand. Annie rolled her eyes and wordlessly reached into her locker, taking out the paper cup filled with Lydia's requested coffee. Lydia accepted it with a gracious smile and followed Annie as she shut her locker and began walking towards her homeroom.
"No occasion, I just-" Annie began, but the sound of the intercom crackling to life interrupted her and all movement by the students in the hall completely stopped as a voice rang through the school.
"Attention, Students. This is your principal. I know you're all wondering about the incident that occurred last night to one of our buses. But while the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as scheduled. Thank you."
"That seems like a questionable judgment call if the police are here." She said over the sound of the surrounding students' unified groan. She turned slightly to look at Lydia with a worried look. "What happened?"
Lydia looked at her in surprise. "You didn't see the complete massacre out back?"
The word massacre hit a deep nerve, but nevertheless, she pushed her feelings aside by clearing her throat and shaking her head in response. "I parked in the front lot and came in straight from there." She explained, leading Lydia to answer with an understanding nod.
"We don't know what happened, I mean, I don't even think the police know exactly what the deal is, but this one bus is completely torn apart and covered in blood." She finished her sentence with a look of deep disgust. She shivered dramatically and shook her head. "I don't even want to think about it." She said before smiling at Annie.
"Well, we should be getting to homeroom, so I'll see you in Bio." And with that Lydia walked past her, carefully curled ringlets bouncing behind her. Annie sighed before continuing on, turning the corner and seeing Jackson struggling with the door to his locker, the imprint of a fist clearly indented in the metal. Quickly averting her eyes from the seething Jackson, she hurried to her homeroom.
So much for trying to be more careful about what they did and said.
Annie sat in class, clutching her pen tightly and holding herself back from slapping the two idiots sitting in front of her upside their heads. There was a chance that, even if someone could hear what they were saying, they wouldn't give much attention to what the two weirdos in the back of Chem class were actually talking about. But perhaps they would. There was always a risk of someone overhearing.
Like she was currently doing right now.
"Raw?" Came Scott's hushed question.
"No, you stopped to bake it in a little werewolf oven. I dunno, you're the one who can't remember anything." Stiles hissed back, sarcasm practically dripping off each word.
Mr. Harris, turned around, irritation clear on his face as he looked at the two teens. "Mr. Stilinski, if that's your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while." Annie pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. That was one way to to get the two to stop talking about something so sensitive during such an inopportune time. "I think you and Mr. McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?"
"No." He answered immediately, sitting up slightly. Harris only raised a hand and pointed towards the empty seat beside her, indicating to the boys to move.
"Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much."
Stiles let out a sarcastic laugh before rolling his eyes and unceremoniously dropping his things next to her, one of his books falling into her space, making her shoot him an irritated look.
Turning back down to her notebook, she shoved his textbook closer to him as he sat down. "McCall doesn't seem like the type to bake." She whispered out of the corner of her mouth, keeping her gaze down at her notebook, absentmindedly tracing over the triquetra knot she had drawn at the corner of the page.
"What?" He choked out, his neck making a loud cracking sound as he whipped his head to the side to look at her, his hand flying up to rub at the place the cracking had come from.
"You said something about an oven, didn't you?" She asked, the innocence being laid on so thick that it completely negated the fact that she was trying to be innocent. "Harris is right, y'all need to work on your whispering. Never know what people might overhear." She shrugged casually, finally looking up from her doodle.
He gave her a troubled look, his eyes wide and suspicious as he pressed his lips tightly together. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask her something, their classmate's voice rang out in nervous excitement.
"Hey, I think they found something!"
Immediately, all the students stood up and rushed to the windows, Annie finding a place directly in front of one. Standing on the tips of her toes, she felt Stiles and Scott come up behind her.
"That's not a rabbit." Scott whispered in horror.
Paramedics were quickly escorting the bloodied up form of someone on a stretcher, making her grimace in sympathy for the poor man, a thick silence settling over the students.
"Ahh!" The man sat up abruptly with a loud yell.
The classroom collectively let out a scream as they all jumped away from the windows in alarm. Annie placed a hand over her racing heart before leaning forwards, squinting to try and better see the man on the stretcher. His face was covered in blood, and while she couldn't quite see from her position, she was sure that he had lacerations all over his body.
Turning around, she saw Scott and Stiles whispering to each other away from the group, Scott looking extremely distressed and Stiles trying to placate his friend. Looking back through the window, Annie clenched her jaw, hoping for Scott's sake that this wasn't his doing.
Annie found herself cruising on autopilot until lunch came around. Getting her usual selection of salad, an apple, and some water, she caught up to where Allison and Lydia were standing and talking with Lydia's usual group of friends, catching the tail end of what Allison was saying.
"-sit with Scott today."
"Oh! Great idea! Let's go." Lydia sauntered forward, leading the whole group towards Scott and Stiles' empty table. Allison bit her lip as she gave a worried look to Annie, who simply shrugged in response.
Giving Allison a sympathetic look, she nodded her heads towards Lydia who was nearing the table. "She'll eat them alive if we're not there." Allison let out a soft sigh and only responded by following after Lydia, prompting Annie to do the same.
She reached the table just in time to hear Scott's excuse for whatever they had been talking about. "Just- uh, just homework." Stiles seemed completely breathless, unable to come up with anything more intelligible than, "Yeah."
"Why's she sitting with us?" Stilinski whispered loudly. Annie startled him by slamming her tray down on the table beside him, pulling out the chair and claiming it for herself.
"Good question." She stage whispered back to him. The group all slid into the free chairs, Danny taking the other seat beside Stiles, with Allison and Lydia claiming the seats beside Scott.
"Get up." Jackson strode over, the command coming from his mouth almost naturally.
His friend groaned and looked up at him in irritation. "Why don't you ever ask Danny to get up?" He gestured to the guy on his left.
Danny immediately retorted with a small grin."'Cause I don't stare at his girlfriend's coin slot."
Jackson only shoved his friend out of the seat, forcing him to walk over and take the empty one on Annie's left.
"So, I hear they're saying it's some type of animal attack. Probably a cougar?" Danny asked, taking it upon himself to supply the conversation.
Jackson shrugged. "I heard mountain lion." He countered.
Lydia rolled her eyes and gave a slight shake of her head. "A cougar is a mountain lion." She said, right before catching herself. "Isn't it?" She suddenly asked, tilting her head and looking at Jackson. Annie grimaced at the light, vapid tone she had used. Lydia was so careful with hiding just how smart she was that it nearly got on Annie's nerves. She was sure Lydia had her own reasons for her actions, the girl always had a reason for her actions, but that didn't mean that Annie understood them anymore, or that she liked the fact that she hid how smart she was.
"Who cares? The guy's probably some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway."
Annie's jaw dropped slightly at the complete apathy coming from Jackson. She knew the guy was shallow sometimes in addition to being the textbook definition of a high school jock, but she figured that there had to be a part of him that showed some shred of human decency. "The concern you hold for your fellow human being truly fills me with hope for the future, Whittemore." She drawled, shooting him a dirty look.
Jackson simply rolled his eyes at her, but their attention was promptly diverted from each other when Stiles interrupted. "Actually, I just found out who it is." He said, looking up from his phone. "Check it out." He stretched out his hand holding his phone to the middle of the table, where everyone leaned forward to watch the video he had pulled up.
"The Sheriff's department won't speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Garrison Meyers, did survive the attack. Meyers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition."
"Wai-I-I know this guy." Scott grabbed Stiles' phone and looked directly at his best friend as they all leaned back in their seats.
Allison gave him a sympathetic look. "You do?" She asked curiously.
He looked back down at the phone as he nodded. "Yeah, when I used to take the bus, back when I lived with my dad. He was the driver." He looked up, concern shining in his eyes.
Lydia shook her head and sighed. "Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please?" She pleaded. Immediately, she turned and looked at Allison. "Like, oh! Where are we going tomorrow night? You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right?"
As Allison hurried to swallow the bite of lunch she had taken, Annie dug into her salad, buckling up for the undoubtedly awkward conversation that would follow. Judging by how taken aback Allison appeared, Annie could tell that the girl either didn't expect Lydia to either remember that little detail she shared about their plans or didn't expect her to bring it up like this.
"Um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do." Allison answered, looking at Scott for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Lydia. Scott himself looked slightly alarmed at the question.
Lydia ignored the feeling of slight panic and tension that was beginning to arise from the couple beside her and simply pressed on. "Well, I am not sitting home again watching lacrosse videos, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun." She declared.
"H-hanging out? Like, the four of us?" Scott asked, with wide eyes. Across from him, Stiles was shaking his head almost aggressively, covering his full mouth with his hand as he squeezed his eyes shut.
Scott turned to Allison and dropped his voice. "Do you wanna hang out? Like us… and them?"
"Yeah, I guess. Sounds fun." She answered politely with a smile, looking at the other couple at the table.
Jackson smiled sarcastically as he looked back at Allison. "You know what else sounds fun? Stabbing myself in the face with this fork." He lifted the utensil and waved it around dramatically.
Annie lifted her own fork, pointing at him with a warning look. "Ooh, watch out, facial wounds aren't fun and bleed a lot."
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the group as Lydia reached over and aggressively grabbed the fork from Jackson's hand as she shot Annie an exasperated look. Annie pressed her lips together as she silently cursed herself for the bad attempt at humor and lowered her fork onto her tray. "That was a joke. You can laugh. Haha." She muttered before looking down at the phone in her lap, finding a message from Alan.
Can you come in today after school? Got a large shipment of supplies and it'd be great to have an extra pair of hands to stock back up.
"You know what? Actually, let's make this even better and just have everyone come along!" Lydia grinned at them, resting her gaze on Annie's bent head. Busy with texting Alan back a reply, it took a moment for Annie to feel eyes on her. She looked up from her phone, "Sorry, what?" She asked, having clearly been distracted.
Lydia gave her a bright grin. "Tomorrow night. We should all go out. It'll give us all a good chance to… get to know each other."
Pressing her lips together, she shook her head. "Yeah… Uh- hard no. I'm… not one to go out."
Lydia's grin dropped immediately and she looked at Annie with exasperation. "I don't have to point out how terribly pathetic that sounds, right?"
"Nope, I was definitely aware of it the moment it came out of my mouth." She sighed, leaving it at that. Just that morning she had expressed how much she wanted to take baby steps towards pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone. This would probably be a good way to do just that.
"Good. So it's settled. Tomorrow night, Me and Jackson, Allison and Scott. You and… I could probably find a cute lacrosse player for you…" Lydia leaned in, her eyes lighting up with excitement at the very thought of setting Annie up with someone.
Annie grimaced and shook her head, letting her elbow fall on the table and raising her hand, her cheek coming into contact with her palm. She gave a light scoff. "From what I've seen? Not my type…" She said, lightly.
Lydia blinked before staring at her in silence for a moment, furrowing her brows as though she were trying to figure out a problem before realization crossed her features. "Oh… oh, I know some really cute cheerleaders…" She drawled coyly.
Annie sat up, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She let the hand supporting her head drop to the table, lazing pointing at her. "I mean, nice try, you're not wrong but also not my type…" Spotting Scott's confused gaze, she whipped around to look at him with a piercing look. "What?"
Not expecting to be called out like that, Scott floundered as Allison looked at Annie with a weary gaze."What uh- what is your… type?" He winced at the question as soon as it came out of his mouth, and nearly took it back, but not before Annie could interrupt him.
"People who don't pry into my personal business." She said definitively with a deceivingly sweet smile. It was kind of rich that she was saying that to Scott considering she had done nothing but pry into the kid's personal business since school started, but she figured that she had a legitimate reason for doing so.
Her little smile dropped almost immediately when Jackson's drawling voice broke into the conversation. "Chicks or dicks, Emery?" He pried, raising a brow as though challenging her last point.
Danny grimaced at his best friend's crassness. "Classy, Jackson…"
Annie seemed to puff up in irritation, narrowing her eyes and cocking her head to the side. "Well, newsflash asshole, bisexuals exist!" She said enthusiastically, as though she were introducing a novel invention. Danny kept his head bowed slightly, his mouth twisting as he tried to fight against the wide grin that threatened to take over his expression.
Shaking her head, she looked at Lydia directly, raising a hand and placing it next to her mouth, hiding it from Jackson's view. "I think the hair gel is seeping into his brain, it might be time to switch to the newest model of BoyToy, hope you kept the warranty."
Stiles choked on the generous gulp of water he had just taken, sputtering at Annie's words, unable to keep the gleeful look off his face at having witnessed Jackson be so blatantly taunted to his face like that. But in doing so, he attracted the attention of the whole table, drawing different reactions. Lydia stared at him, as though only just realizing he was at the table. Frowning she sighed laboriously. "I guess you can come too." She eyed the pale boy in distaste before turning her gaze back to Annie. "I know I'm good, but I think it'll take a little longer to help set you up."
Annie groaned and leaned back in the plastic chair. "I don't wanna be set up, Lydia. Don't be getting all into my personal business like that." She raised a hand to point at her scheming friend.
As Lydia opened her mouth to retort, their attention was once again drawn to Stiles who seemed to have trouble getting words out of his mouth. "M-me?" He coughed out a delayed reaction, still staring at Lydia with wide eyes. She once again gave him a distasteful look before ignoring his question and turning to her boyfriend.
"How 'bout bowling? You love to bowl!" She suggested excitedly.
He could only scoff at the idea. "Yeah, with actual competition."
Allison leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at Jackson. "How do you know we're not actual competition?" She lifted her brows in a challenge. "You can bowl, right?" She turned her attention suddenly to Scott, whose eyes widened in alarm at the sudden question.
Annie sat back in her seat, looking back and forth between the members of the table. Scott looked like a deer caught in headlights while Jackson and Lydia looked on expectantly. Danny simply sat there, enjoying the show, not unlike her. But Stiles looked extremely stressed out on Scott's behalf. With wide eyes, he stared at Scott for a moment before rolling them at his best friend's answer.
"Sort of." Came the unconvincing answer.
Jackson smirked at McCall. "Is it- is it sort of, or yes?"
Scott clenched his jaw defensively as he sat up and leaned forwards. "Yes. In fact, I'm a great bowler." He said, a conviction in his voice.
Annie turned slightly to see Stiles sink into his seat, exasperation clear in his expression, making her press her lips together in an attempt to keep herself from laughing. If nothing else, at least the night would undoubtedly end up entertaining.
Holding up a vial, Annie let out a low whistle. "Diazepam? Damn, Alan, how often do you prescribe Valium to your furry patients that you needed another stock to come in. Or maybe you're doing some selling on the side? You seem to be living well." She turned her head slightly to look at him with narrowed eyes filled with mock-suspicion.
He came up behind her and snatched it out of her hand with an eye roll, making her turn around fully and grin at him. "You're hilarious." He said dryly, watching as she leaned against the counter and crossed her arms.
"I'm so happy you thi-" The sound of the chimes at the front door followed by loud footsteps and heavy breathing effectively cut her off with Scott's voice ringing out not a moment later. "Sorry, sorry!" He apologized loudly, as his backpack slid off his shoulder.
Alan gave the young man a smile and shook his apologies away, looking over his shoulder as he picked up another box and brought it over to the counter closest to where Scott was dropping his bag onto the ground. "You're all of two minutes late." He soothed the frantic teen.
Scott turned to look at his boss with genuine concern. "I just don't want you to think I'm slacking."
"Scott, I guarantee you, you're one of the least slacking kids in this town." He picked up the box in his hands and turned to place it down beside her so that she could start restocking the cabinets before walking back to the main stack.
Annie twisted slightly so that she could face Scott, brows raised in innocent concern. "Are you feeling okay?" She asked, not missing the way her uncle's head rose and tilted slightly, as though his attention were piqued by the conversation that had just begun. Scott gave her an odd look before nodding slowly.
"Uh- yeah? Why?"
She shrugged before looking down at the box in front of her. "Oh, you just ran in here pretty fast. I remember over break you did something like that and had to use your inhaler." She could practically see Scott's mind beginning to whir to life, trying to come up with a passable excuse that would get off his back, but she didn't quite plan on stopping before he gave her an adequate excuse because she was sure that his status as a severe asthmatic would be called into question eventually and he needed to be ready with something more than passable. "But… I mean, you're a star athlete now so things have evidently chan-"
"Annie, could you come help me get something out of the back room?" Alan's sharp voice cut through before she could finish her thought, making the two teens whip around to see the vet looking pleasantly at his niece. Pursing her lips, she narrowed her eyes at the man before giving him a forced smile and following him into the back, past the cages of the loudly meowing cats.
"What, Alan?" She muttered, she tossed a look over her shoulder. Though she couldn't see Scott, she figured he would be trying his hardest to try and listen in on what they could be talking about. Although, she figured that was why Alan didn't take her to the front, at least they had the cats to mask some of the conversation.
"You're getting involved." It was a neutral statement. One without any hint of judgment or any kind of gloating. Just… an observation. Annie could do nothing but cross her arms and look down at her shoes, avoiding his eyes.
She shook her head and gave a half shrug, "I'm really not. Getting involved would mean telling him I know. I'm just… insinuating… heavily." Glancing up slightly, she was met by Alan's ever neutral expression.
"What are you looking to gain from this?" He leaned against the wall as he looked down at her, his brow rising as he saw her shake her head once more.
"Nothing." She answered forcefully. "I'm just teaching him a lesson. He and Idiot Number Two are going to blow the whole thing to the entire school by the end of the semester, if not earlier if they're not careful." She explained the slight panic at the very idea of the two teen boys doing so was incredibly obvious in her voice.
She had always been taught that preserving the secret of the supernatural was one of the most important things to do as an emissary for a pack. It would, of course, be the pack's primary responsibility to care for their own and to make sure no one did something stupid and dangerous that would blow it for the rest of the pack. However, it would fall on the emissary to take things into their own hands if the situation called for it.
Surprise, Emery, but you're not an emissary.
The pesky little voice that had been the one to originally vow to stay out of it all chimed back in snidely and she pushed it away as fast as she could, unwilling to think about the fact that she was breaking her promise to herself. Technicalities were great, but she couldn't keep relying on them. Technically she wasn't in the thick of it, but if she wasn't careful toeing the line like this would certainly lead her down a path she'd eventually regret.
The corners of Alan's lips turned down into a soft frown as he tried to follow his niece's logic. "So…you're…"
She sighed and rolled her eyes, dropping her arms so that they hung by her sides."Just freaking them out enough for them to gain a little self-awareness. But evidently, they've had several more hits to the skull than I thought." She mumbled under her breath, tossing another look behind her shoulder before shaking her head.
"We should get back to him, he'll get suspicious."
"More than he already is, you mean." Alan said pointedly, causing her to roll her eyes and nod silently. Nevertheless, he nodded and grabbed a random box to shove in her hands. "Stay consistent with your excuses." He reminded her as she gave him a look of confusion that soon transformed into realization as she remembered his excuse to get her to follow him in the first place.
They quickly returned to the examination room, find Scott significantly closer to the door than he had been when they left. He hovered over a box, trying to appear as though he was getting started on restocking. Before anyone could say anything, the door leading to the front of the clinic opened up, revealing a police officer with sunglasses on, holding on tightly to a leash and a large manila envelope with EVIDENCE printed in a large, black font in his hands.
Alan grinned as he saw his newest patient. "Hey! I see somebody's ready to get their stitches out." He bent down, slapping his thighs to catch the dog's attention before picking it up and placing it on the examination table. Annie walked towards the boxes she had been working with before, the cabinets above them still wide open.
"Hey there, Scott, staying out of trouble?" The officer spoke up as he took his sunglasses off and tucked them into his jacket, smiling pleasantly at Scott.
The young werewolf nodded absentmindedly, "Yeah." He breathed.
As Alan picked up the police dog, placing him gently on top of the exam table, he paused a moment to gesture to Annie whose back was turned from them all. "Ah, Sheriff, this is my niece, Annie Emery. My sister's daughter." She whipped around at his introduction of her, a startled expression on her features, but it quickly transitioned into a polite smile when the officer- or rather the Sheriff- stretched out his hand in greeting.
"It's great to meet you." He said with a smile, giving her hand a firm shake. She nodded back in greeting, her lips shyly pressing together as she kept up the smile. He let go of her hand and immediately turned around to look at Alan who was busy examining the dog.
He brandished the manila envelope and held it out to the vet. "Hey, listen, while I'm here, you mind taking a look at those pictures I was telling you about? Sacramento still can't determine an animal."
Alan accepted the envelope, immediately reaching into whatever evidence was in it, but gave a warning to the other man."I'm not exactly an expert… This is the guy who was attacked on the bus?" He asked, wanting to clarify, but his question caused both Annie and Scott to lift their heads, the two teens giving each other looks of curiosity. Annie bent her head back down, not wanting to draw attention to herself and risk the sheriff to decide that he wanted to talk to Alan in a more secure location. That would only serve to effectively keep her curiosity unsatiated. Scott kept his gaze on the two men, enraptured by the conversation between the two professionals.
"Yeah… And we found wolf hairs on Laura Hale's body."
"A wolf?" Scott's incredulous voice broke through the serious discussion, making the two men turn to look at him.
Dear God, Scott.
Annie lifted her head and twisted her body around, letting herself lean back against the counter as she crossed her arms as Scott scrambled to say something.
"Um- I mean, I think I read somewhere…" Alan looked up for just a moment, making eye contact with his niece, who only lifted her chin slightly in Scott's direction with a subtle expression that clearly said 'See'. "...that wolves haven't been in California for, like, sixty years." Scott finished, trying to casually recover from his outburst as he walked over to Alan and the Sheriff, standing in between them.
Alan simply looked back down at the images of the victim. "True enough, but wolves are highly migratory. They could have wandered in from another state driven by impulse or strong enough memory." He explained.
Scott furrowed his brows at the vet's words. "Wolves h-have memories?" He asked.
"Longer-term memories, yes. If associated with a primal drive." Alan nodded before moving past the subject almost immediately. "See this one here?" He pointed along the picture of the man's cheek wound, one that was reminiscent of the wound that had been bestowed upon the teen girl still standing in the corner of the room.
"Yeah." Came the Sheriff's answer.
"Those are claw marks." Alan identified, with a frown. "A wolf would have gone for the throat…" He raised his hand in a violent gesture, portraying the gruesome action. "...or the spinal cord with its teeth."
Scott's eyes flickered to her and she tensed up defensively, her own gaze flashing in a caustic glare. Scott quickly averted his eyes, looking back down at the photos that were in Alan's hands. Annie drew her crossed arms closer to her chest, letting herself stare at Scott. It was only a matter of time before he got even more suspicious of her, that much she had known, but she didn't think he would have ever made a connection between what had happened to her and the events transpiring in his own life.
Of course, she could simply be jumping to conclusions, just because a deep wound on the victim's cheek reminded him of her own, it didn't mean he would immediately come to the realization that it had been a werewolf that had done the damage to both.
The Sheriff's voice broke through her thoughts. "So… What do you think? It's a mountain lion?"
Alan sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. A wolf could chase down its prey, hobbling it by tearing at the ankles… and then the throat?" He shrugged before grabbing the envelope and slipping the photos back into them. The Sheriff stretched out his hand and accepted the envelope with a grimace when Alan handed it to him, unanswered questions still swirling in his mind. Scott slowly returned back to his place next to her as he continued to take things out of boxes and restock. A silence settled over the quartet, only the sound of shuffling, slight whimpers and Alan's work on the dog filling the air, all four thinking of the events unfolding in Beacon Hills.
"I cannot emphasize how much I do not want to go to this. I absolutely do not want to fifth wheel."
Lydia could only sigh heavily and roll her eyes at the girl laying on her back, her dark hair splayed out against Lydia's bright comforter. Prada was lying calmly on his stomach, tucked into Annie's side, her hand buried into his fur, rubbing in rhythmic circles into his side.
Turning around, she gave Annie the tight smile that usually indicated to the other person that it'd be a good idea to stop arguing. "You won't be fifth wheeling, whats-his-face is going."
Annie sat up and crossed her arms, causing Prada to let out a quiet whine at the loss of her hand. "Stilinski…And your point is...?" She asked, dropping her hand back down to resume giving Prada loving rubs.
Lydia shrugged, her hand rising to wave in a vague, dismissing gesture. "Be the social butterfly I know you are deep, deep, deep down and just talk to the nerd. Or, I can find a nice beefy lacrosse player who'll be all too happy to bowl with you."
She stayed silent, giving Lydia a glare, realizing that the girl had orchestrated the whole thing to ensure she'd go, undoubtedly to provide her with some backup in surveying Scott. "Fine." She bit out, once more crossing her arms and pouting like an upset child.
Lydia took several steps towards the girl, a bright grin on her painted lips. "Oh don't be like that, he'll be ecstatic to go with a doll like you." She leaned forward and lightly poked Annie's nose with the tip of her finger.
Annie wrinkled her nose in response, "More like ecstatic thathe'll get to stare at you all night." She countered back before flopping back down on the comforter, Annie just stared straight up at the ceiling, her attention span running out impressively fast as she half-listened to Lydia rambling on about what she was going to wear. Not a moment later though, she was brought back to earth with the sound of her name being called out. Jolting up, she was met by Lydia's unamused expression.
"I swear to God, Annie, you make me want to claw my eyes out sometimes."
Annie tilted her head, a faux look of sympathy crossing her features. "Aw, and mess up your pretty manicure? And how long did you spend on your eye makeup today? It'd just be waste in general." She shook her head.
Lydia sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're insufferable." She muttered.
Annie grinned, shifting so that she could cross her legs as she let her elbows lean against her knees. "Not to sound cliche, but you totally love it. You love that you have someone that won't immediately bend to your will to stay in your good social graces."
Not a moment passed by before Lydia smirked and slyly retorted. "No, instead I have someone who'll eventually bend to my will to stay in my good graces."
"Uh-" Annie blinked. Lydia wasn't exactly wrong. Sure, Annie certainly gave more of a fight than some of the other people in her clique, but Lydia had this way of being able to convince people that her way was the best way, and clearly Annie hadn't quite figured out how to break out of her influence. Not that she minded all that much. They had more differences than they could count, but Lydia provided a ridiculous sense of normalcy that Annie absolutely craved. Around her, Annie could be another regular teenage girl talking about outfits and first dates and high school reputations.
Lydia's smirk grew into a triumphant grin as she shook the hanger in her hands. "Yeah, uh huh, now enough of that. What do you think?" She lifted the hanger displaying a pretty and flowy, light yellow tank top closer to Annie so that she got a better look at it.
Annie looked up at the other girl with confusion in her eyes. "Didn't you already pick out an outfit? What was the past half an hour for?" She asked incredulously.
"That was for me. This is for you, and you would have known that if you were paying attention."
Any and all of Annie's amusement at the whole situation went out the window as she looked at Lydia with mild irritation. "I'm not getting dressed up for this. What I'm wearing is perfectly fine for whatever you're scheming, Lydia." She looked down at her soft, light pink sweater and dark jeans. "And anyway, I'm not the one going on a date, I'm being dragged along to be used as a pawn in your game." She looked up with narrowed eyes and raised an accusing finger.
Lydia's hand flew up to settle on her chest as she looked at Annie with wide, innocent eyes. "I'm appalled that you think I don't genuinely want to spend time with you and Allison."
Annie scoffed and shook her head. "Oh, I don't think that. But I definitely know you're not jumping at the chance to spend time with Scott or Stilinski."
Lydia dropped the innocent act, the innocence in her expression melting away immediately as she looked at her friend seriously. "Look, we don't know anything about those two nerds and if Allison is going to date one of them, we need to make sure they won't completely kill our reputations."
Annie let out a low whistle, her brows rising and eyes widening dramatically as she avoided eye contact with Lydia, who only rolled her eyes at her friend's theatrics. "Just put the shirt on." She ordered, shaking the hanger once more.
The other girl shook her head vehemently, stretching out a hand to shove the hanger away from her face. "I really don't think that's my style." She tried, just hoping that Lydia would give up. It was a pretty shirt in a pretty color, but Annie was completely unwilling to wear anything shoulder-baring. Hiding the scar on her face was completely out of the question if she didn't want to wear a balaclava for the rest of her life, but at least she had a choice in not having to show off the ones on the rest of her body.
She could tell that Lydia was getting annoyed with her, but while the redhead had established that she had some measure of control over the other girl, this was one thing Annie would absolutely not budge on. Lydia pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, moving the hanger back into Annie's face. "It most definitely is. Honestly, are you just allergic to colors that don't remind you of death and depression."
A muscle in Annie's jaw ticked. That was a low shot, and she was almost certain that Lydia knew it. She hadn't grown comfortable enough to outright tell anyone about the circumstances surrounding her move to Beacon Hills, not even the fake story they had to come up with to protect the whole " oh right, supernaturals exist" concept. What local newspapers saw was 'Party attacked by bears, minor left as survivor', nevermind the fact that it seemed strange that more than one bear had been at the scene, or that there was only one survivor.
Anything was better than, 'Pack and family of druids decimated by encroaching werewolves. One poor bitch left as survivor'.
Lydia kept pushing forwards, taking Annie's silence to mean that she was breaking down. "I promise, you'd look so cute. I literally have no idea why you're being so self-conscious it's not a big de-"
"No, Lydia. No tank tops." She snapped, standing up as her voice rose considerably, making the other girl blink in shock. She hadn't ever heard Annie raise her voice above anything passing as an 'indoor voice'. Annie seemed to catch herself immediately, looking down at her feet, she sat back down on the bed and muttered a quiet apology under her breath. Prada scooted up slightly, setting his head comfortably on her lap and her hand naturally rose to rub behind his ear.
A still moment of silence passed between them before Lydia made a move. Throwing the hanger on her pillow, she moved to sit down beside Annie. "How bad is the scarring?" She asked, breaking the silence, her voice gentle. Lydia had seen hints of the remainders of Annie's injuries at her clavicle, poking out from her shirts, as well as the thin jagged line down her forearm during some moments where the girl pushed her sleeves up to her elbow. It was then that Lydia realized she hadn't seen the girl in anything but long sleeves since she met her.
Annie instinctively raised her right hand to clasp her left shoulder, her thumb tracing the fabric of her sweater that laid directly over the larger of the scars on her shoulder. "Bad enough." She muttered. "I display the one on my fucking face enough, I don't want to showcase the rest of them, now can we drop it. Please?"
Lydia continued looking at her with those big, calculating eyes, her features holding the same expression she had as though she had been handed a hard math problem, but she was just oh so close to figuring it out. Annie simply stared back at her, a warning glint in her own gaze, another moment of silence passing between the two girls before the latter broke it.
"C'mon, Allison's probably expecting us soon, we should go."
Annie sat on Allison's bed, crossing her legs as she looked around the familiar room, as Lydia flopped down next to her and crossed her legs. "Okay, so what are you thinking of wearing?" She asked, her tone becoming serious and clinical as though they were about to do something much more than just pick something out to wear for a date.
Allison sighed and looked at the two of them with pleading eyes. "I've been thinking about it all day but I can't decide." Lydia waved away the girl's concern, a smile growing on her features.
"Well, that's why we're here. Show us what you've got."
Allison bounded over to her closet, open the doors and sorting through several shirts before grabbing a dark blouse and turning to show the girls.
"Mm, pass." Lydia said immediately. Allison simply smiled wryly, getting a feeling where this was going as she turned around and began sorting through several more shirts. Picking out a pretty, light orange and green blouse, she turned around once more.
"Pass." Came the instant response.
Annie gave Lydia a side glance, "Wow, Lydia, if I didn't know better I would say that you're like, high maintenance or something." She said drawled, only receiving an annoyed glance back as a response. "Oh c'mon, that was pretty!"
Lydia let out a scoff and pursed her lips. "And that is why I am here. I'm the voice of reason here. Let me see." She got up from the bed, ignoring Annie's muttered 'You're the voice of something' and strolled up to Allison's closet, immediately digging in to survey the outfit choices. With each hanger she moved aside, Lydia declared a very confident 'Pass', causing Allison to look over her shoulder and roll her eyes, making Annie grin.
"Ugh, pass on all of it." Lydia turned to the girl and reached a hand out to play with her loose, chestnut curls. "Allison, respect for your taste is, uh, dwindling by the second." Her hand dropped to pat Allison's arm before letting out a laugh and returning to her search for a Lydia-Approved shirt option.
But it didn't take very long before Lydia let out a surprised sound, taking the hanger off the rack, she stared at the shirt in her hands for a moment before walking away from the closet and holding it up for the other to girls to see. "This." She announced with a proud smile. Allison took the shirt, holding up the hanger against her body as she turned slightly to see herself in the mirror, The sound of her bedroom door opening drew all their attention to the man who absentmindedly entered.
Allison looked at him, a confused smile on her lips. "Dad, hello?"
As Allison's father shrugged on the jacket in his hands, a look of realization crossed his features. "Right, I'm sorry. I-I completely forgot to knock." He looked at her apologetically.
Lydia let herself fall onto the bed, her strawberry blonde ringlets hitting Annie in the face, making her shoot a dirty look at the girl. Lydia ignored her friend and simply, looked up at Allison's father with a bright smile, one hand moving to support her head, while the other was placed carefully on her hip. "Hi, Mr. Argent."
Allison shook her head at Lydia and turned back to look at her father. "Dad, do you need something?" She asked.
"I wanted to tell you that you'll be staying in tonight." He said, his tone soft.
Allison furrowed her brows and shook her head. "What? I'm going out with my friends tonight."
Her dad once again looked at her apologetically, but his words were firm. "Not when some animal out there is attacking people."
"Dad, Dad, I'm- uh… " She began to protest, but he immediately interrupted her, making her press her lips together in frustration.
"Hey, it's out of my hands. There's a curfew, no one's allowed out past 9:30 pm." He explained, watching as his daughter rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, bunching up the shirt in her hands and throwing it over Annie's head on her bed.
"Hey, no more arguing." He said with a lingering smile, turning to leave. The sound of the door closing behind him was the only sound that filled the air for a moment. Lydia stood up slowly, her gaze trained in the direction that Mr. Argent had just left before turning to look at Allison with a little smirk.
"Someone's daddy's little girl." She commented.
Allison's hand rose to her lips, and she bit at the tip of her index finger for a moment as she stared at the closed door. Annie stood up from the bed and stood at Allison's left. She could practically see the gears turning in the brunette's head and witness the moment of decision in her eyes. Allison dropped her hand slightly, crossing her arms and clenched her jaw. "Sometimes. But not tonight." She said with conviction.
She weaved behind Annie and stepped towards her dresser, grabbing a beanie and slipping it on her head. She looked at her reflection for a moment before walking to her window, carefully raising the sill so that it wouldn't make too much of a sound.
Annie and Lydia looked at one another confusion as they watched their friend slip a leg out of the window. Slipping her other leg out, Allison was suddenly standing on the roof and the two girls rushed forwards in concern."What are you doing?" Lydia hissed, but Allison either didn't hear her or just ignored her, as she didn't give a verbal response. Instead, she balanced herself on the edge of the roof and performed an unexpectedly impressive front flip, landing gracefully on two feet.
"Oh, my God." Annie whispered, her body practically half out in the night air as she looked down at Allison who was brushing herself off.
"Eight years gymnastics." Allison offered an explanation before gesturing towards them. "Are you guys coming?"
Lydia, still looking down with wide eyes, shook her head slowly. "We'll take the stairs."
Annie nodded along with Lydia's words, "We'll warn your dad that you're super upset and that you should be left alone for tonight." She winked before pulling the sill back down.
Lydia placed a hand on her wrist. "Wait, she won't be able to get back in if you close it."
"Well, that's why I'm leaving it open a crack." She grinned, doing just as she said before drawing the curtains and turning to look around the room for a moment. Taking a step forwards, Annie grabbed one of the four pillows on Allison's bed and tucked it under the covers. She quickly turned off the light on the bedside table on her right and rushed towards the other side to do the same to the lamp there.
"Seriously? You really think they'll fall for this ?"
Annie shrugged and grabbed her bag before opening the door and beginning to walk out of Allison's room. "I sure hope so." She said, giving a last look to the darkened room and walking out, letting Lydia walk past her before shutting the door behind them.
Upon arriving at the bowling alley, the two couples gravitated naturally towards each other, leaving Annie and Stiles behind as they entered through the doors. Annie pursed her lips, squinting against the harsh, bright lights of the alley, but nevertheless followed after the rest of the group. She knew that she had wanted to be more proactive about the whole being social thing, but now that she was here there was absolutely nothing she wanted more than to be back at home in a pair of sweats and perhaps a borrowed dog. She was sure Lydia wouldn't mind if Prada was missing for a couple of hours. Or days.
"I do not want to be here." came the softly muttered comment from Annie.
Stiles, who was beside her, turned his head and looked down at her with a wide smile. "Wow, good to see you too, Annie. I'm great, thanks for asking! Good to know human decency is still a thing." He drawled, not doing anything to hide the sarcasm in his voice.
Annie pursed her lips at his tone and simply crossed her arms. "Sarcasm isn't gonna make me feel bad, I would genuinely prefer to be mauled than be here right now."
Stiles looked at her, his mouth gaping slightly at the unexpected comment."Uh…" His eyes unwillingly flickered to her left cheek, making her raise a challenging eyebrow at him.
"Yeah? Whatcha lookin' at, Stilinski?" She bit out, hostility in her voice.
Stiles blanched, quickly averting his eyes and shaking his head. "Y-You- that was a setup." He accused, still unwilling to look her straight in the face.
She dropped the hostile glare the moment he spoke and responded with a smirk and a nod. "Yeah, you're right. I just liked seeing you flounder, might've made coming here worth the effort." She shrugged before pushing forwards, catching up with the others at the front desk.
They were quick to get their shoes and snag a lane of their own. Lydia and Jackson wasted no time in getting the game set up as the rest of them slipped on the footwear. Allison walked off to find a properly weighted ball and Scott followed after her leaving the rest of them in awkward silence. Annie figured that she should just get comfortable with the sense of intense discomfort. There was no way she'd be able to get out of this short of just hiding in the bathroom for the next couple of hours. Or maybe she could fake an injury? Maybe she could inflict a real injury?
Glancing to the side, she wondered how believable it would be if she accidentally flung a ball at Stiles. It'd give them a good reason to get out of there, and she figured she'd be doing the kid a favor as well, considering he had been added on as an afterthought to the double date just as she had been.
She allowed herself to zone in and out, unbothered by the fact that she wasn't exactly being the greatest friend at the moment, only coming back to the situation when she heard the others call her out of her daydreaming. The game started out slowly and painfully, especially on Scott's end. She didn't think anyone who had been at that lunch table yesterday had expected Scott to be telling the truth when he said he was a great bowler, but Scott was absolutely dying out there.
And quite frankly, at this point, she was wondering if she could make herself feel threatened enough to use the odd abilities that seemed to have manifested several months ago to force Scott's bowling ball to get a strike. Anything to prevent any more of the torture that came in the form of Jackson and Lydia's giggling and gloating.
Watching Jackson once more achieve a strike and receive a long, drawn-out kiss from his girlfriend as a reward, Annie grimaced and mumbled under her breath. "I said it before, but I'll say it again… I do not want to be here."
Stiles, who was sitting slumped beside her with his arms crossed and a look of vague disgust on his face, nodded vehemently."Yeah… I think I'm gonna have to agree with you this time." She turned slightly and gave him a look that he couldn't quite describe save for the fact that it had hints of… was it sympathy?
Truthfully, Annie felt bad that Stiles had been dragged into this mess needlessly, and she had a feeling that that statement could double for things much larger than a weird group date that Lydia had carefully orchestrated to feed into her and Jackson's own egos.
They watched as Allison took her turn, skillfully knocking down seven of the pins on her first go. "I might get some nachos or some pizza or something, you want some?" Stiles turned his head to look at her with raised brows.
Annie sat up at the invitation, eyes wide in what could only be described as desperation. "If you're getting away from here, hell yeah. I'm gonna break out in hives if I feel any more second-hand embarrassment." She stood up and took the lead in guiding them away from the rest of the group. "Y'all can play for us!" She called over her shoulder to the remaining quartet, not sticking around to hear their responses. Turning back to Stiles, she raised a scrutinizing brow. "Are you getting meat on anything?"
He looked at her with surprise. "You're a-"
Annie rolled her eyes, "Yes, I'm a vegetarian, step off Stilinski. It's better for the earth and your body." She said, defensiveness immediately creeping into her voice.
He held out his hands in a semblance of a placating gesture. "Hey, I'm not judging or anything… I just didn't expect you to be like that."
"Like what?" She crossed her arms and looked at him, completely unimpressed.
He gave a vague shrug, careful not to accidentally offend her any more than he apparently already had. "All… health conscious… nature-loving…"
Crossing her arms, she pursed her lips. "Yeah, well…I'd much rather have the company of a fern right now."
"That's… okay, good to know where you stand on interpersonal relationships." He nodded awkwardly, shoving his hands into his sweatshirt pockets. They quickly reached the alley's bar where they took up two stools that allowed them to still see their friends. Stiles ordered some nachos and the two were left in silence as they waited.
His head turned to look back at the group, his gaze trained on the back of one particular person's head.
"I have more of a chance with her than you do." Stiles' stool swiveled at an impressive speed as he turned to look at her defensively.
"What? Uh-no, I have a very specific, very foolproof plan to get Lydia Martin to fall in love with me." He declared confidently. His confidence faltered slightly at Annie's snort.
"Yeah? And how's it working, fool?" She asked, leaning forwards, raising a challenging eyebrow.
Stiles slumped slightly, his hand moving to support his head as he leaned his cheek against his palm. "Still in its beta stages." He muttered.
Annie shook her head and leaned back. "You don't need a plan, Stilinski. You need game."
It was his turn to snort. "Oh, and you have game?" He asked her dubiously, he twisted his torso to swivel the stool so that he could look at her directly, giving her a skeptical once-over. "The closest I've seen you get to some kind of charming was when you held a door open too early for a teacher and they had to run to catch up to you."
"You saw that?" She grimaced before shaking her head, forcing herself back to the topic at hand. "Look, I don't need to have a lot of game… Just more than you, and that's like… a given."
Just as Stiles was about to open his mouth to retort, the nachos he ordered slid between them and he simply opted to give her a dirty look as he dug into the snack.
Slipping her phone out of her back pocket, she checked the time and groaned audibly at having seen that it had only been about a half hour. Letting her head fall onto the wooden top of the bar, her hair provided a nice curtain and for a few moments, she could at least pretend that she was in a private room all by herself somewhere.
"Why'd you even come if you didn't want to?" Stiles' question caused her to look up and grimace as she saw him talk around a mouth full of chips and nacho cheese.
She pushed her curls out of her eyes as she let her head fall once more on the bar top, but remained looking at Stiles. "Have you ever tried to argue with Lydia?"
He frowned as he shook his head and swallowed. "I don't think she's ever let me close enough to her to ever even start an argument."
She sighed and furrowed her brows, as though she were still trying to figure it out herself. "Well, she does this weird… thing… with her eyes. And she pouts just a little… like I literally have no idea how she does it." She lifted her head and turned her gaze to look at Lydia with narrowed eyes. "I think she's a Jedi." She announced.
He coughed violently, choking on the nacho he had popped into his mouth.
Grimacing at the pieces of chips that flew out of his mouth, she wrinkled her nose and raised her chin slightly. "Cute."
He coughed for several more seconds before pointing at her. "A Star Wars reference? You… don't seem like the type."
Annie bristled and shoved his finger out of her face. "Why 'cause I'm a girl? I could literally write an entire thesis on how sexist that is. Not only that but, like, what is it with nerd culture perpetuating this idea that girls can't be into that shit?"
He blinked at the mini rant she had gone on, not expecting to see her get so fired up. "No, not that at all… I mean… valid points but uh- I'm just saying that you don't seem like you'd be into any of that fantasy/sci-fi stuff."
Annie felt the back of her neck heat up in embarrassment, "Believe me, I'm way more into it than I'd like to admit." She mumbled before sighing and reaching over to grab a nacho, popping it into her mouth.
"You think if I tried to sneak out that they'd notice?"
With the basket of nachos decimated, there really was nothing much keeping her in the alley, and if she had the option to leave, she'd take it without any question.
Stiles raised an eyebrow at her, "Didn't you three come in one car?"
Annie shrugged, swiveling her stool so that she was facing away from the bar, the wooden top digging into her back. "Yeah? Your point? I'm not all that opposed to walking."
"You know there's a curfew right? Like, 'cause of animal attacks..." He emphasized, giving her a look of vague concern, not completely sure whether or not she would actually walk out of the bowling alley all by herself and walk home.
"Yeah? Your point? Honestly, I'd rather be eaten by a mountain lion than sit through Jackson and Scott's dick measuring contest any longer."
He grimaced and pressed his lips together, his gaze shifting to look at the group only to see Jackson roll another strike and accept an enthusiastic kiss from his girlfriend. Nodding in vehement agreement, he turned back to Annie. "Yeah, I'm not into this anymore, I'll drive."
She looked at him with genuine surprise. "Wait- seriously?"
He nodded once more and raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't tell me you're going to back out. You're not all talk are you?" He teased with a grin.
Scoffing, she hopped off the stool and immediately made a beeline towards the quartet. Joining back up with them, a glance at the screen hanging from the ceiling told her that Scott had apparently found his groove, having rolled strikes the past four times he had gone. Shaking her head, she bent down to grab her bag and sling it over her shoulder. "Hey, Alan wants me back home right now. Stiles is gonna take me so don't worry about it, have fun, you crazy kids. Don't get eaten, or mauled, or anything." She lifted her hand in a half wave but once again, wasted no time waiting for a response from anyone.
Catching up with Stiles, the two made their way out of the bowling alley and into the parking lot, where his powder blue jeep was easily spotted. They remained in silence for the first several minutes of Stiles driving them out of the lot and onto the main road.
"Okay, so I'm pretty sure you take a left from here." She spoke up, the uncertainty clear in her voice as she looked down at her phone and began pulling up the GPS. She really needed to begin getting more acquainted with the town. She only really knew how to and from school, the clinic, some gas stations, and that one little café Lydia adored.
Stiles nodded as they came up to a stoplight. "Oh yeah, you're Lydia's neighbor, right? It's not all that far from here. I know how to get there." He said as though assuring her, although it only served to make her side eye him.
Annie shook her head, "Of course you do." She muttered under her breath.
He turned to look at her, slightly affronted. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She held her hands up, as though to say 'no judgment' although her tone said the complete opposite. "Nothing, I'm just saying, it's not surprising that you know where she lives."
"Yeah, well… a lot of us seem to know things we shouldn't."
That caught her attention. Oh, Stilinski wants to play. Stiles kept his gaze on the road, his expression completely neutral save for the slight clenching of his jaw, as though he were holding himself back from saying something else.
Crossing her arms, her left index finger tapped a steady rhythm against her other arm. Annie nodded slowly before letting her head fall against the passenger window. "That's a fair point, high school seems like an easy place for that kind of mess to happen."
He glanced at her for a moment before returning his gaze to the road. "What?"
She shrugged casually, trying to keep up her air of nonchalance. "Oh, you know, like you said. For people to find out things they shouldn't. High school's a cesspool of gossip." She sighed as if to say 'what a shame'. "One minute you're trying to keep a secret and the next, Sarah Mason in sixth period World History knows everything you're hiding plus your social security and blood type." She lifted her head from its position of leaning against the window, but kept it forward, only letting her eyes glance out to her periphery, not wanting him to feel like she was just looking at him.
His knuckles were whitening as they gripped the steering wheel tightly. She remained silent for several more minutes, giving him the option to say whatever it was that was on his mind, but he seemed to be playing the same game. The two of them were just waiting for the other to reveal any hint that they knew what was going on. But neither one of them seemed willing to take control of the conversation.
It wasn't long before they pulled into her street and it was then that Annie decided to speak up again. "I think we'd all just be so much better if everyone kept to themselves and just didn't… I dunno… bark up the wrong tree, you know?"
It was an awkward transition and puns were remarkably lazy, and usually, she genuinely tried not to make them, but she truly couldn't pass up the opportunity to get one more over Stiles. Just like she had said to Alan yesterday, she was only trying to freak them out enough so that they'd take care of themselves. She really couldn't care less if they were suspicious of her, or ended up hating her. So long as they stopped being so stupidly obvious about what they were going through- or rather what Scott was going through, then she would be perfectly content.
"Oh, and there's my stop, that was a quick ride." She smiled pleasantly at the pale boy who was grasping at the wheel so hard she wondered whether his fingers would leave deeper indentations. The jeep came to a stop in front of her house and she unlocked the passenger side door, only to hear the click of the lock once more. She tensed up and turned her head to look at him, her eyes flashing in warning. He opened his mouth and she half expected him to just come out and ask her point blank about what she knew, but instead, he pressed the button once more and the sound of the lock being unlocked rang in the silence.
"Sorry, hit it by accident." He muttered, avoiding her gaze.
She narrowed her eyes at him and nodded slowly. "Uh huh." Was all she said before she opened the door and precariously hopped down. Reaching in, she grabbed her bag that had been at her feet and took a moment to pause and look at Stiles, who was still avoiding looking at her.
"Hey." She called, making him finally look at her, suspicion heavily clear in his eyes. "Thanks for driving me home. I really appreciate it." She said, her tone devoid of any taunting or slyness like before. Her gratitude was genuine and he seemed to sense it. He sighed and nodded, waving away her thanks, before putting his car back into gear. She slammed the door, and she could clearly hear Stiles shout 'Easy!' despite the windows being rolled up and the roar of the car's engine filling the air.
Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she opened the little mountain ash gate and made her way as fast as she could inside.
"Hope you had a fun time breaking a police mandated curfew!"
Alan's voice from the kitchen reached her the moment she stepped inside. She didn't bother walking to his location, wanting nothing more than to just get to bed. "Oh yeah, you know it! Also, I'm a drug dealer and committed second degree, sorry!" She called out, pausing on the stairs and yelling over the banister. Not hearing a response from her uncle, she concluded he just rolled his eyes and resumed whatever it was he had been doing before she came in.
The minute she got into her room, she found herself running on autopilot once more. Kicking off her heels and stripping out of her clothes was probably the best thing she had done for herself that day. Donning her much-adored sweatpants and tee shirt, Annie left her room to brush her teeth and deal with her hair, wrapping it up as fast as she could so that she could just get under her covers. When she returned to her room, she shut the door and walked over to her dresser to take her contacts out and grab her glasses.
Finally, she walked over to the light switch and flipped it off, flooding her room with darkness. Annie quite literally threw herself into bed, narrowly missing her phone and making bounce against her comforter. Pressing the home button, the screen lit up and she saw she had missed a text from Lydia.
Not who I'd pair you up with, but I'm sure he's a good way back into the game. Hope you were safe!
"Why is everything about sex, Lydia?" She muttered before typing up a quick reply and shutting the screen off as she threw her glasses off and tried to settle in for bed.
Not even in HIS dreams, Lydia. Calm down.