Stiles had been zoning out, staring into his locker blankly and not really seeing anything. Getting two hours of sleep studying for a test would do that to a guy. Because of his blurry state of mind, he jumped almost a foot in the air when Lydia slammed his locker shut suddenly with one hand as she leaned toward him.
"We have a problem."
Still recovering from his moment of shock, it took a second for him to shed his tired state of mind. When he had gathered himself, he focused his attention and grew serious when he saw the worried look on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"Unless she was painfully hungover on a Monday, I think one of the girls in my Latin class has supernatural hearing."
Stiles nodded, already formulating possible plans as to how to approach the situation. If Lydia was right – as she usually tended to be – this had to be handled delicately. If the girl really was supernatural, they were in trouble. Especially if she was a wolf. After the summer, Boyd and Erica had returned to Derek's pack, joined by Derek's sister Cora who had apparently survived the fire.
When the Alpha pack had attempted to take over what had for generations been the Hale family's territory, it had taken the efforts of all of them together over the course of almost four months to drive them off, and Isaac had nearly been killed. Peter had been planning to kill Derek and inherit the Alpha title before laying waste to the rest of the wolves, and being forced to kill Peter devastated Derek.
Scott ascending to his super-wolfy true Alpha status during the final battle hadn't exactly helped to stabilize the dynamic between the wolves.
The last thing they needed was another supernatural creature stirring up the Beacon Hills drama.
Stiles let out an annoyed sigh and turned to meet her eyes, asking in a resigned tone, "Who is it?"
"Edlen O'Neill. She's that senior in-"
"In the band. Yeah, I know who you mean. She's one of the scary-but-hot girls."
Lydia snorted, apparently not agreeing, but didn't verbally dispute what he'd said.
"Tell Scott to investigate when he can. I'll text everyone and let them know. We need to be sure before we can do anything."
He nodded in agreement and strode over to Scott's locker, trying to catch him before the next class period started.
He found Scott and Allison laughing together, looking heart-eyed as usual, and he made sure to loudly clear his throat as he slid between them.
"Scotty my boy, we've got a potential problem."
Scott glared at him for a second for breaking up their little love fest, but Allison instantly snapped to attention, her change in posture showing that she'd entered 'hunter-mode'. Allison was the one to demand answers, always being the person to take any sort of threat seriously.
"What's the problem? Is it supernatural?"
Stiles shrugged his shoulders and tried to appear nonchalant so neither of his friends would begin to panic or attack preemptively.
"There's a girl in one of Lydia's classes who she thinks might be supernatural, so we should put that wolfy nose on it. Edlen O'Neill, that senior in the band who's always playing with drumsticks."
A smile crossed Scott's face and he started laughing when he said, "Wait, isn't she the girl who distracted you from Lydia for almost two weeks the Fall of sophomore year?"
Immediately he got somewhat defensive and threw his arms in the air dramatically.
"She checked out my jeep! And wolf-whistled at me in front of the group of hot friends she was with! Of course I fell in love with her for a few minutes."
Both Allison and Scott were laughing loudly, and when the bell rang signaling the beginning of the next period Scott clapped him on the back.
"Alright, buddy. We'll investigate the one that got away. You should definitely be the one to lead the way."
Stiles could only make a frustrated noise as Scott walked away and he scrambled to his own class.
The day passed ridiculously slowly. During lunch Vicky and Corinne clearly noticed something was up, but when Vicky had opened her mouth to no doubt question Edie, Corinne had shut her up with a quick jab of the elbow. It was for the best. Each time she opened her mouth she started salivating and staring at the carotid artery of her friends, who kept leaning right next to her.
Of course the quiet had allowed Corinne to copy her Stats homework in peace, so her motives might have been a bit skewed.
Corinne was going to be driving her home, so when Edie's last class got out early she just hopped up onto one of the wooden tables outside the front of the school and popped in an ear bud. At an absurdly low volume, of course.
The fresh air abated the burning sensation in her throat a bit. But after humming along to some music for a few minutes, Edie noticed a group of juniors staring at her.
She was used to being stared at. Not in a conceited sense, sort of the opposite actually. During her junior year when Poison Ivy – the band she was in with Vicky and Corinne – became more popular at local places and they started getting gigs on a regular basis, their social status had briefly skyrocketed.
At least until Irina Getz, the Senior head-bitch-in-charge at the time, evidently wasn't okay with the attention they were getting. One locker broken into and the discovery of Edie's meds later, and Irina had all the ammunition she needed to tank her.
Her bipolar disorder wasn't something very many people had known about. Her best friends, obviously, but only a handful beyond that. The posters plastered to the girls' locker room that proclaimed she was crazy and one second away from a psychotic breakdown had been… pretty fucking awful.
Vicky and Corinne were the best though. They'd gotten all of the posters removed by third period, and both had threatened bodily harm if anyone spoke about it. Considering Vicky had the build of a twig, hers wasn't all that effective. But Corinne wore a ton of leather, so people assumed she could carry out the threat.
Essentially, she was used to the strange looks. When she caught the eye of a pretty dark-haired junior girl with dimples and a jaw line that could cut glass, she'd expected the girl to look away. However, she only squinted slightly and continued to size her up.
That was the strange thing. The group didn't look like they were gossiping or checking her out, they literally looked like they were trying to see into her soul. Which wasn't exactly a welcome sensation.
Everything seemed to go to shit when the tan kid with a wonky jaw suddenly looked alarmed and widened his eyes in apparent shock. The juniors burst into conversation, so finally Edie got fed up and shouted out, "Anything to contribute, gang?"
All of them looked in different directions. Fuck, they had no subtlety. But when the pale kid with messy dark hair was apparently voted to actually approach her and shoved in her direction, she relaxed a bit.
The guy looked strangely familiar for a second, and Edie tried to place him. Before she could figure it out, however, he was already in front of her and self consciously running his hand through his bed head.
"You're Edlen O'Neill, right?"
Without thinking about it, she interrupted him and said, "Just Edie."
He nodded along and continued as if she hadn't spoken when he said, "You're in the local band, right?"
A huge smile broke over Edie's face when she realized that his approach didn't seem to have any weird underhand motives. And talking about Poison Ivy always made her mood improve drastically.
"Yeah, I am. What's up?"
He seemed to freeze for a second and his own smile looked a little bit more natural when he asked, "I know you're a drummer, and I've actually wanted to learn for a while. I was wondering if you do lessons or we could figure something out so you could teach me."
Edie popped the ear bud completely out and laughed before she held up her hand for a high five. The guy took just a second too long to slap her hand, but she got the sense he was a little awkward. Which she could totally work with.
"Oh, and I'm St-"
Edie lurched forward and straightened her posture, finally remembering how she knew him. She pointed her finger at him and was almost laughing too hard to speak when she interrupted him.
"Oh my god, you're the dude with the jeep! The light blue jeep! My friend absolutely resents that hers isn't the only one anymore. You're Stilinski, right?"
Stilinski seemed to flail in response and said, "Stiles, actually. But does the lesson thing work out?"
Edie nodded enthusiastically and opened the contacts on her phone.
"Put yourself in then send yourself a text so you have my number. I'm free after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I love playing and need the practice anyway, so you can pay me in soda and snacks or something, no actual transaction necessary. Tomorrow afternoon work for you?"
Stiles looked blindsided and his mouth dropped open slightly as he nodded, but he did as she asked with jerky, somewhat hilarious movements.
A string of honking grabbed her attention and she snatched her phone back when she began walking backwards towards Corinne's car.
"See you around, Stilinski!"
With a quick wink that made the guy flush neon red, Edie smirked and hopped in beside Vicky to no-doubt be interrogated about the conversation.
Hey everyone - in regard to portraying a character with bipolar disorder, I have it myself and will be representing it in a realistic and respectful manner.
As always, review to let me know what you think of Edie, the plot, any predictions, etc. xx