Hey there! Sorry, it's been a while since I have updated! I got pretty busy with school and started focussing this story on another website. I'm now going through, editing, and uploading the next two chapters tonight. Hopefully, those of you who still stick with this story will enjoy and maybe leave a review on what you think, I always love hearing your kind words. This chapter is slightly shorter, but some stuff goes down in the next one so just stay tuned my friends. As usual, I do not own Teen Wolf. Read on!
Weird. Everything was weird. Lydia Martin had approached her in the candy aisle at the local grocery store. Not only was it weird that she approached her, but she invited her to her birthday party? Stella had never been invited to one of Lydia's party's all the time that she had gone to school with her, so why now? She had given the reason that "Allison has talked a lot about you and you seem like an acceptable human being with a decent fashion sense."
She almost dropped her sour patch kids right there in the middle of the aisle, but instead she just said 'sure, I'll be there.' And with a flip of her strawberry blonde hair, she left. She couldn't help wonder if this was some sick joke or something, maybe she was going to show up and no one was going to be there or she would walk through the doorway and a bucket of pigs blood would dump onto her head. But she could just not show up, she had been invited by Lydia herself and confirmed her attendance, not going without a serious reason would literally be social suicide that she had already committed by going to Eichen last year, she couldn't possibly commit suicide twice.
So, here she was, wrapped in a towel in the middle of her walk in closet, glaring at all her items of clothing as droplets of water dropped from the ends of her hair onto the carpet. She turned to the part of her closet that had all the clothes she had received from her grandma over the years. All the items were girly dresses that she would never wear, but maybe that's what she needed tonight? She sifted through the hangers, adjusting her towel so that it wouldn't fall off of her petite body.
She finally settled on a blush pink dress with a fitted top and flared skirt. The back had crisscrossed straps, leaving open spaces between. She shrugged her shoulders in defeat and walked back into her room. After picking out an appropriate bra to suit the dress, she slipped off her towel and changed, moving on to her now half damp hair. She looked at the clock and realized it was already 9:30. She didn't have enough time to let it air dry the rest the way if she wanted to actually do something to it, so she blew dried it and curled it, running her fingers through the curls to give her more of a 'loose wave' sort of style. After throwing on some makeup and nude heels, she looked at herself in her full-length mirror. She didn't look like herself, but she looked a hell of a lot like her mom. She couldn't help but wonder if her mom would be letting her go to a party? Would she have been one of those strict moms who never let her kids go out past 8 o'clock? Or would she have been one of the chill moms who didn't even question where you were when you sneak in at 5 in the morning? Stella always imagined her as a good mix of both. Not too strict but also very caring and always made sure she knew where you were when you were out late.
She also wondered if she would have liked Erica and Isaac. No, she knew she would have loved Erica and Isaac, her dad had told her that many times before, and she agreed with him. She wondered if she would have forced Stiles to come over for dinner before letting him drive off with Stella the night before, or if she would have believed Stella when she told her they were only going to study. All these things that she wanted to know. All these experiences that she wanted her mom to be a part of. But she wasn't. And nor was she ever going to be.
Stella's phone vibrated on her desk and walked over to it, unlocking it to read the text from Allison.
Are you coming tonight?
She looked at the time and realized the party had started ten minutes ago. Dammit, this was not how she wanted to make her Lydia party debut.
Yeah! Be there in five!
Stella responded quickly and grabbed her bag, jogging down the steps. Carter was still there, his night shift didn't start until 11 so chances were he would be in the kitchen drinking the strongest pot of coffee he could brew,"Hey, Carter! I'm going out!" Stella shouted, holding onto the doorway of the kitchen and leaning into the room to see her brother chugging a large mug of coffee and grimacing at the taste. He hated coffee, he only drank it for the buzz.
"Where are you going all dressed up at this hour?"
"A party." Carter spit out his coffee and wiped his chin as some of it dribbled onto the island.
"Yeah, alright, have fun at Erica's." Stella rolled her eyes and made her way to the door.
"I'll stop by the station on my way home and bring you some curly fries."
"You are an angel!" He gasped dramatically and she could almost see the dreamy look on his face.
"I try!"
\\\\
Heels were a bad idea. Stella had to park a block away from Lydia's house because of all the people that had shown up. By the time she made it to the front door she could already feel the blisters on her feet and wondered how much longer she could go without taking them off. And now the question if she should ring the doorbell or just walk right in. Would anyone even hear it she rang the doorbell? Was it considered rude if she just let herself in? This was still Lydia's home, after all. After much consideration she decided to ring the doorbell, so she did. And no one came to open the door. So she rang it a second time. And a third time. Finally, someone opened the door.
"Hey, Stel!" Matt Beemer excitedly, "I didn't know you were gonna be here!"
"Neither did I!" Stella stepped into the house, letting Matt close the door behind her, she stood at his height in her heels and it was quite awkward. Even as kids, he had always been taller than her.
Matt eyed her up and down, "Wow, you look great!"
"Really?" Stella self-consciously smoothed out the nonexistent wrinkles in her dress and looked down at her feet, "You don't think I'm too dressed up?"
"No! Definitely not. You look awesome."
Stella blushed and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "Thanks." She mumbled. They stood there in awkward silence until she spoke up, "I'm gonna go find Lydia and give her my present." She had to shout over the increased volume of the music.
"Sure! I'll see you later!" Stella simply nodded before slipping into the crowd of people, feeling Matt's eyes on her back the whole time. She pushed her way into the backyard and strained her neck to look for any familiar faces. She spotted Stiles and Scott having a conversation on the other side of the pool but they didn't see her. She hadn't spoken to either of them since the night of the rave. The scabs on her back stung at the memory. She could still feel the pieces of wood and metal scrape against her back, tearing through her flannel and tee shirt. Stiles drove her home after, asked her if she was ok going into an empty house after what had just happened, protested when she said yes, and drove off after a ten-minute argument on why she could and couldn't take care of herself.
She pulled her attention back to tee present and let her eyes scan across the faces around her finally spotting Lydia by the punch fountain. She pushed through more drunk teens and scurried over to Lydia.
She didn't notice the awkward girl at first until Stella tapped her on the shoulder. Lydia interrupted her hypnotic way of pouring the punch and turned around, a blank look on her face. "Oh, hi Stella."
"Hey! Happy birthday!" When Lydia only smiled at her and returned to pouring her precious punch. Stella reached into her small shoulder bag and pulled out a small wrapped box, "I got you a present." That grabbed Lydia's attention like a claw machine. She grabbed the box out of Stella's hands and and peeled the wrapping paper off, placing it on the table. "It's nothing much, just something that belonged to my mom." Lydia opened the box to reveal a simple string of pearls, "I never wear them 'Cause they're not really my style, so I figured you would get more use out of them then I would."
Lydia ran her fingers over the pearls delicately, glancing up at Stella with her bright green eyes, "Thank you. That's really sweet." She could've sworn she spotted a speck of friendliness being expressed from Lydia to her. After the past year of several Girl Interrupted references and other snide comments about her time in the 'nut house' she could almost feel the sincerity coming from Lydia. But it disappeared when she turned around the set the box on the table and pick up the tray of glasses, thrusting a glass into Stella's empty hand. "Enjoy the party!" She smiled brightly and flounced off, leaving Stella in a confused daze.
Stella lifted the cup to her lips and winced when she could smell the alcohol in it. She gagged and placed the cup in the trash bin. She looked around the room awkwardly, noting all the weird antics of the teenagers surrounding her. Some kid was having a very deep conversation with a shrub, another with a pillar, and many many couples were shoving their tongues down each other's throats. Wait till she told Isaac and Erica about actually going to one of these parties.
The thought of Isaac and Erica made her look up to the sky and see the full moon in all its glory. It must be nearing midnight by the brightness of it. She wondered if their first full moon was going smoothly. She hoped they weren't in too much pain, Scott had told her that it feels like every bone in your body is breaking and popping back into place. She shivered and decided to move onto different thoughts.
"Stella!" She snapped her head to the opposite side of the pool, where Scott was looking at her in urgency. She met him halfway and he gripped her shoulders.
"Hey, what's up?" She asked, looking at him in confusion.
"Did you drink the punch?" She shook her head quickly, suddenly very thankful that she had followed her gut in throwing her cup away.
"No, it smelled fowl. Why? What's the problem?" Unlike Stiles would have done, Scott actually answered her question.
"Lydia put wolfsbane in the punch, everyone here is poisoned." Her eyes widened and Stella's mind flashed back the weird trance Lydia was under when she approached her just moments before, "I'm gonna try and find her and I need you to find Stiles and Allison, we gotta get out of her before something happens."
"Alright, yeah, totally." Scott let go of her shoulders and pushed pass her gently, asking everyone near by if they had seen Lydia. Stella began to conduct her own search for Stiles. He wasn't that hard to find though. He was laying against a post right by the pool, his legs sprawled out in front of him and his head lulling from side to side. Man he was shit faced.
"Stiles, come on." She crouched down in front of him, holding his head up with her hands and lightly slapping his face. "Stiles I need you to sober up, something's happening." The only sign of life that he gave her was a small mumble.
"Lydia? Is that you?"
"No, Stiles, its Stella and I need you to snap out of it!" She shook his shoulder but he was still limp. There was only one trick that she knew was sure to work. "Don't hate me for this." She gripped onto the back of his shirt and dunk him into the pool, pulling him back up seconds later, water splashing all over her dress and soaking the top half of his shirt. His eyes were wide and alert. It worked. "How do you feel?" She asked, holding onto his shoulders.
"Like I need to revisit my policy on hitting a girl." He spluttered, staring straight ahead.
"Yup. You're sober." Stella stood up and grabbed his hands, helping him get on his feet as well. He stumbled a bit but gained his balance after she threw his arm over her shoulder.
"So what's the big emergency?" He asked after he was stable enough to stand on his own.
"Lydia put wolfsbane in the punch. Which I'm assuming you drank." Stiles looked at the ground sheepishly at her accusation. "Scott needs our help finding her before anything else happens."
Stiles and Stella scoured the party calling out Lydia's name while keeping our eyes peeled for Scott and or Allison. After turning up with neither of the girls, they met Scott just outside the back doors.
"We can't find her anywhere." Stella told Scott who looked disappointed. He obviously didn't find her either.
"And, dude, anyone who drank that crap, they're freaking out." As if on cue, some idiot cannonballed into the pool and cheers erupted from the crowd.
"Yeah, I can see that."
"What the hell are we gonna do?" Stiles asked the werewolf.
"I don't know but we gotta-" Scott was cut off by a prominent yell.
"I can't swim! Stop! I can't swim!" Two boys were carrying Matt over to the pool, planning to throw him in despite his protests. Stella made move to stop the scene but Scott held her back. She looked up at him in confusion. Why didn't he want her to step in? Was he just going to let them throw Matt in there? Did he think it was funny?
All the pieces were put together in Scott's mind when Jackson stepped in to pull Matt out of the water. Matt couldn't swim, he wouldn't go near the water. When Jackson was the Kanima, he also wouldn't go near water. Matt stared at the trio, Scott and Stiles holding surprised faces while Stella held a more confused and concerned mask.
Matt was the Kanima's master.
/
"What do you mean it's Matt?! It can't be?!" Stella shouted after Stiles as she followed him into his house. After the cops had broken up the party, Stiles insisted that he had something important to tell her that would explain everything.
"Well, it is Matt." Scott was behind Stella when they entered Stile's room. She looked around and the messy interior and band posters scattered on the wall. "I'm gonna need to explain everything to my dad but I think there's something that you need to know before that."
Stella's heart was pounding in her chest and her palms began to sweat, something was definitely wrong, "You're scaring me, Stiles, can you just spit it out already." She chuckles nervously.
"We think we know who the Kanima's next victim is." Scott said quietly, almost reluctantly.
"Who?" Stella crossed her arms over her chest as she felt a chill creep up her spine.
Stiles sighed, lifting up the yearbook that was on his desk. He flipped it so Stella could see the picture of the swim team. She noticed Carter kneeling down in the front and furrowed her eyebrow, "We think the next victim is your brother, Carter."