Chapter 5: Murder Boards = Aphrodisiac
"Only 117 million?" I asked, and a few faces rounded to me.
"I'm sorry, only 117 million?" Stiles asked dubiously, "How much money do you have?"
"On me? Like twenty bucks," I said and Stiles' eye twitched.
"Where's Peter?" Derek asked, bringing us all back to the matter at hand.
"I think he left," Lydia stated, "We didn't really want to stick around when he got over the shock of being robbed."
"Okay, all that aside, did Kate really do all of this to steal money? It doesn't seem like her style," I mentioned, and Scott nodded at me.
"She's right. Derek, is there anyone else who knew about that money or the vault?" Derek shook his head.
"No, it was originally a secret to outsiders. Honestly, I'm still kind of wondering how she knew about it in the first place."
"Didn't she torture you in your own secret room under your old house?" Stiles pointed at him with his bat, "I mean, no offense, but if that was supposed to be secret too, then your family is terrible at keeping secrets."
Derek glared at him before turning back to Scott, "Look for now, don't worry about it. I'll deal with Peter, and I'll look for Kate. In the meantime, just go back to school, and be normal for a bit."
"Huh, normal, what a thought," I remarked, and Derek gave me a pointed look. I sighed, "Okay then, let's do normal."
"Rise and shine, got a big day!"
"You better have the ability to teleport to fucking Mars, because when I get my hands on you-"
"Please, June, you couldn't hurt a fly. Seriously, you berated me for swatting an actual fly the other day." Stiles said, opening the shades in the guest room where I was currently trying to sleep.
"It was cute, okay? Right now you are not cute, you're the pest, and I'm going to swat you."
"So you think I'm cute usually then June?" I peeked one eye open to see Stiles standing above me with a smirk on his face. I scowled deeply at him when he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Why are you waking me up at-" I glanced over at the alarm clock on the nightstand, "- six thirty in the morning, Stilinski?"
"Early morning practice, you said you'd come, remember?"
"Oh yeah now I remember," I grumbled, sitting up, "Right in between saying 'there's no such thing as racism,' and 'Donald Trump is the epitome of feminism'. Piss off, Stiles, let me sleep."
"Please just please come and watch, it'd mean a lot to Scott to have some extra support on the field."
"So now I'm doing this for Scott and not you?" I asked, and it was my turn to wiggle my eyebrows at Stiles.
"Just come on, June. I'll buy you coffee," he begged.
"No need, I'm just going to somehow have to make your life hell today," I told him, lazily sliding out of bed.
"So that means you'll come?"
"Yep, I'll be there," I yawned, listening to my joints pop as I stretched.
"Great, I'll see you there!" He enthused, and quickly kissed my cheek, taking me off guard. He ran out of the door before rushing back, "Also please don't embarrass me," I raised my eyebrows as I walked out of the room and into the bathroom.
"You do that all on your own, Stiles."
"Thank you," He stated, smiling. "Hey wait-"
"I'm getting dressed now, do not talk to me!" I said, shutting the door.
"Are you planning to go back to the farm after this, June?" I glowered at Scott as I hopped out of the jeep.
"Go on, make fun of my overalls again," I tested, stepping right up to him, "Do it. I need an excuse to obliterate someone to the Shadow Realm today, really."
"You see, the Yu-Gi-Oh! reference is exactly what I'm talking about with the whole 'don't embarrass me' bit." I rolled my eyes at Stiles.
"My best friends secretly dress up as Sailor Scouts!" I yelled at an oncoming pair of lacrosse players. I glared back over to Stiles, who was looking back at me in disbelief, "Try me again."
"Look, I'm sorry June, I'm just a little on edge," Scott explained, "Coach didn't exactly say I was team captain again." We all started making our way to the field.
"Of course you're still team captain," Stiles assured him, "You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?"
Scott nodded, "Yeah, but he never told me I was back on the team. He just told me to show up at tryouts today."
Stiles waved him off, "We've got bigger things to deal with anyway. Did you tell Argent yet?"
Scott set his stuff down on the player's bench, "I texted him, but he didn't get back to me."
"Wait, you told him his sister Kate came back from the dead over a text?" I asked him.
He shrugged, "I didn't have the money to call France." Stiles and I nodded.
"Yeah well you think you've got money problems? Try paying for an MRI and a visit to Eichen House." I quirked an eyebrow at Stiles.
"Another notice?" Scott asked, and I looked incredulously at Stiles, who expertly avoided my gaze.
"Yeah, this one said 'Final.' Now what the hell are we even doing here anyway? We've got like one hundred and seventeen million problems, and worrying about our status on the lacrosse team isn't one of them."
"Oh my god, my thoughts exactly! Can I please go back to bed?" I moaned, and Stiles cast a weary glance.
Meanwhile, Scott was looking over Stiles' shoulder to the other boys on the field, "It's a problem now." Stiles and I looked over to the field as well to see several players pulling impressive moves. Well, I suppose they would be impressive if I knew anything about lacrosse. Some kid was positioned at the goal, and he managed to catch every single ball thrown his way.
Stiles scratched his temple, "Who the hell is that?"
"A good lacrosse player?" I said, and he glared at me.
From the distance we could see him take off his helmet, and meet up with his friends. They said something about 'Liam' and 'freshman captain.'
"Maybe we should practice a little bit," Stiles said before he and Scott rushed onto the field.
"I'll just wait here then," I said before yelling a bit louder, "Don't fuck it up!" I smiled when I saw Stiles wave his hand frantically.
"Well that was the most boring hour and a half of my life," I said when Scott and Stiles both emerged out of the locker room. Scott parted ways with us to head over to his science class.
"Do you mean the lacrosse practice or the thousand page book on Abraham Lincoln you were reading on the bleachers?"
"Team of Rivals is actually 944 pages, thank you very much. It's an engaging read you should give it a go."
"Do I need to remind you that I have ADHD? A week's worth of Adderall couldn't get me through the first chapter let alone the whole book."
"Your loss," I suggested, turning the corner. We walked up ahead and saw Malia enter the math classroom. Quickly after, we saw her walk out and head down the hallway towards us. Both Stiles and I placed one hand on her shoulder and steered her into the classroom.
"Oh no you don't," I told her, and she sighed.
"I hate math, it's pointless."
"It's school," Stiles argued, "School is important, and math is essential." I took my seat next to Lydia, who was reading ahead in the math textbook.
"To what?" Malia asked, setting her stuff down behind me.
"Knowing how much to tip at restaurants," Stiles said, and Lydia and I shared an exasperated look before turning around.
"And less important things like medicine, economics, engineering," Lydia told her before giving a tired look over to Stiles.
"Tipping," He repeated, nodding his head confidently.
"Alright, volunteers to the board: Lydia, Diego, Malia," Ms. Fleming stated while clearing the chalkboard from last period.
Malia froze in her seat, "Um - I didn't volunteer."
"You did now. To the board," She gestured for her to come up. I looked around at Malia, who gave me a helpless look, and I shrugged. She turned back to Stiles, who gave her a thumbs up, and I heard her growl at him. Stiles' smile fell, as Malia strode up to the blackboard.
"She'll be alright, she has Lydia's notes," I told Stiles and he shrugged. Before he could reply, his cell phone vibrated and he pulled it out to read. An eager expression arose on his face as he showed me the screen. Reading it, I sighed when it said 'Triple Homicide Developing.'
"You have a police scanner on your phone?"
"Don't you?" I rolled my eyes and turned around as Malia and Lydia sat back down.
Lydia leaned over to me, "You might have to start taking notes for Malia," She told me and I scrunched my eyebrows.
"I thought you were letting her borrow yours," I whispered back.
"I am, but she's not getting them."
"What makes you think she'll understand mine?"
"June, did you forget about the journalist you submitted your paper to at the San Francisco Chronicle that still emails you his notes for editing? She'll understand them."
I blushed and nodded, "Good old Christopher. I'll handle it," I replied, taking out a notebook and pencil.
"June, what are you doing?" Malia asked from behind me. I turned around and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Lydia says you don't get her notes, so I'll take some for you to go over, sound good?" She nodded. "Also, if you want, Stiles and I can help you study a bit tonight." Relief plastered itself over her features, and she nodded again.
After class, I walked with Lydia over to her locker. She agreed to get some tea with me after school, then we could head over to my house. Ginny texted me telling me my parents went down to LA to visit some old friends, so they wouldn't be back until tomorrow evening.
"Hey, do you also mind if we run a quick errand? I saw something the other day and I wanted to get it for Stiles."
"If it's not lingerie, you can count me out," Lydia said and I felt my cheeks grow warm.
"No, Christ, Lydia it's nothing like that. It's just a thank you present for letting me stay with him."
"And I'm being completely serious when I say that lingerie would be a completely acceptable thank you," She looked over to me and smiled affectionately at my flustered face.
"Look, Lydia, I might be sexually experienced, but I'm not nearly as sexually confident as you are."
"One day, June, one day. You just need to bone the poor kid and get it done with, I'm so sick of waiting for it to happen."
"You're pretty much preaching to the choir here," I said. Before Lydia could reply, a hand tugged at my elbow and pulled me away.
"Stiles, any reason why you're manhandling me?" I asked flatly, and Stiles let me go. I kept up with his hurried pace nonetheless.
"We've gotta tell Scott about the murderer," He said, looking down the hallway for the werewolf.
"Why do I always have to be with you to break that news to people?"
"Simple, I like the company. Anyways, the report said the cause of death is an axe, and the guy killed three people. He meant to kill four, but - hey, Scott!" We finally caught up to Scott and Kira. "Scott! Scott, I just got an alert on my phone about a triple homicide. Some guy was using an axe on his victims."
"An axe murderer?" Kira asked dubiously.
"Family-murdering axe murder," Stiles corrected.
"I already heard about it," Scott said, and I looked over in surprise.
"Wait, what? You did, how?"
"My mom called me, she knew we'd see it on the news."
"Perfect, let's go." Stiles pointed his thumb over his shoulder.
"Whoa, whoa. We've got econ in five minutes," Scott said, opening his locker.
"Right. Did you forget the part about the family-murdering axe murderer?" Stiles asked him.
"Did you forget that your dad's the sheriff?" Scott countered, "They want us to stay out of it."
"Are you guys kidding me? There's a family-murdering axe murderer, and we're not gonna do anything about it?"
"Maybe we should just let the adults handle it," Kira suggested.
Stiles gave both Kira and Scott and incredulous look, while they looked slightly guilty.
"So the two of you, you just wanna stay here, school, go to class." Stiles said, and Scott sighed.
"Make that three, I need to get to my locker," I said, turning around and walking away.
I heard Stiles say, "Never heard anything so irresponsible in my life," before his footsteps grew louder behind me.
"See you at tryouts?" Scott yelled, and from my peripheral I saw Stiles wave his hands in a dismissive manner.
"So, June what do you think?" Stiles asked me as I walked down the hall to my locker.
"About the murders? Well, I definitely think that it's murder," I said and Stiles gave me a blank stare. I shrugged, "I don't know, Stiles. It just seems like we already have a lot on our plate."
"What does that mean?"
"With Kate running around, why do you want to add an axe-wielding murderer to the list?"
"Because it's an axe-wielding murder in Beacon Hills, June. That means that it's not just something the police can handle."
"Say you're right then. What are you going to do about it?"
"Obviously figure out who he is."
"Oh, so you're going up against this guy yourself?"
"Well obviously, not. You're going to help me."
"Am I?"
"Yep. You can't live without me," I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Okay, not true. But you can't live with a guilty conscience of me dying and you not helping."
I sighed, opening my locker, "That's true."
"So you'll help me after school?"
"Nope."
"What – why?"
"Because you have lacrosse tryouts after school, dumbass."
"Oh, right," He said. He then scratched his temple and shifted on his feet, "Are you – are you coming to that?"
"While I would love to repeat this morning, I can't."
"Why not?"
I started piling books into my locker, "Two reasons, one: I just told Lydia I'd go grab tea with her after school; two: lacrosse is not my favorite sport to watch. I thought you would have guessed that by now."
"Well, what is your favorite sport? And please, for the love of all things holy don't say some rich person's sport like polo. Those don't count."
I scoffed, "Polo? What am I, the queen? No no, I love baseball."
Stiles' eyes widened, "Baseball? What's your favorite team? You're from New York, there's only one right answer."
I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, "If you're saying the Yankees are the one right answer, you're dead wrong, Stilinski."
I looked over at Stiles, and glee was shining on his face, "No way, your favorite team's the Mets? As in the New York Mets?"
I grinned at him, "All my life. It's so weird, no one in my family liked baseball. It just kind of stemmed from me. It got so obsessive that I made my parents buy several of their shares in the stock market."
I could have laughed at how Stiles' jaw was practically on the floor, "Buy – buy shares?"
"Yeah, just so I could meet them."
"Meet-! Meet them, oh my god. You actually-?" I whipped out my cell phone, pulling up one of my treasured pictures of the baseball team with me grinning like an idiot in the middle of them.
"Is that-?"
"Yep, at my family's annual Christmas party. That was a good night, Anthony Recker and I had a drink-off with my father's spiked egg nog. He won't admit it, but I totally won," I trailed off, smiling down at the memory. I put my phone away, and looked back at Stiles.
His eyes shone with awe, "Marry me, please god, marry me."
My cheeks flared as I shut my locker. Staring at the ground, I answered, "As tempting as that sounds, I need to meet Lydia. Good luck at tryouts."
"Thanks for doing that with me," I told Lydia as we exited Stiles' house and went back to Lydia's car.
"I still think lingerie would have been a better gift," She commented, and I sighed.
"Same, but for now that's just gonna have to do as a thank you. Tea?" I asked her as I buckled my seatbelt.
"Tea," she agreed, and we drove off.
"So just out of curiosity, have you been talking to Ginny as of late?" Lydia asked me.
"I mean, we've been texting. I haven't really gotten to see her, and I can't just go and visit her at her job," I told her.
"I wonder what she even does," Lydia added and I laughed slightly.
"Don't we all," I muttered. "But I was hoping to get to see her tonight, so we could have dinner. I mean it'll all be back to normal when my parents leave."
"When is that?"
"Saturday, thank the lord," I said. "They'll be out of my hair and out of our lives."
"And then we can go through your closet like I wanted to?"
"Well there's that, but there's also the whole concept of Spring Break I wanted to mention..." I trailed off, twisting a loose strand of hair.
"What about it?" Lydia asked as she turned a corner.
"I racked up enough miles with our last trip to Portland, and I was just curious if like, for your eighteenth would you maybe want to go somewhere a bit more high end?"
"Like?" Lydia glanced over at me, a smile begging to present itself on her lips.
"As much as I would love to take you to New York, ancient law dictates that I can't go back for another four years. I figured we could go somewhere a bit more upscale?"
"I swear, if you say somewhere like Paris-"
"How current is your passport again?" I smiled and Lydia squealed.
"June! You can't do that for me, that's too much," She protested, and I scoffed.
"Please, the flight's practically free. Your birthday present would be like me upgrading us to first class or the night of your actual birthday we'd stay in a fancy hotel. The rest we're doing like proper youths, and I mean hostels, cheap food, the lot."
"Did you get the tickets yet?"
"Glad to know you'd be on board," I told her, my smile growing wider. "I have them lined up, and your mom is one hundred percent on board. Honest, we were just waiting for you to say yes."
"What, like I'd say no?" Lydia disdained. "Of course I would love to go."
"Glad we've got that settled, I'll book the tickets tonight," I told her, and I looked out the window again. My eyebrows furrowed when I saw that we weren't close to a coffee shop of any sort. We were actually in a different neighborhood.
"Lyds, where are we?" I looked over to Lydia, but she had a strange look on her face. She got up and left the car. I was quick to follow her out, and together we made our way to the fence next to an eerie looking house. I noticed as we passed the front door there was crime scene tape lining the front walkway. I widened my eyes as I continued to follow Lydia.
We shut the door to the fence and walked up to the back door, Lydia still in her trance-like state. The sliding back door was miraculously unlocked, and we stepped inside together. I was hesitant to go any further, but Lydia blazed on through.
"Lydia, this is a crime scene," I spoke, and she ignored me. "Lydia!"
She jumped and whirled around to look at me, "What?"
"Lyds, this is a crime scene. We can't be here."
"A crime scene?" She asked me, and I slowly nodded my head.
"Let's go," I said, holding out my hand. She reached out to take it, when we heard another voice in the house.
"Beacon County Sheriff's Department! This is a crime scene, show yourself." I looked back to Lydia and sighed. Nodding my head, I gestured towards where the voice was coming from. Both of us walked out in front, jumping when the deputy pointed his gun at us. I recognized the cop to be Deputy Parrish, and he recognized the both of us.
Putting the gun down, he sighed, "What are you guys doing here? This is an active crime scene, you shouldn't be here."
We walked down a hallway past the dining room. "I would try to explain it," Lydia said, "but I've never gotten a satisfactory explanation myself."
"Just an unusual habit of showing up at places where people have been brutally murdered?" I shared a look with Lydia before turning around to Parrish.
"Are you saying I have a reputation?" Lydia asked him.
"An unusual one," He admitted. "Maybe you're psychic."
Lydia scoffed, "Don't tell me you believe all that?" I hid my smile by looking around the room we were standing in.
"I'd like to say I don't believe in anything," He said flirtatiously, "But I keep an open mind. But if you're looking for dead bodies, I think you're a little late."
Lydia stopped paying attention, and turned her focus to a wood-paneled wall. She stared at it with the same look she had when breaking into the house before she put her hand on it and pushed. The wall popped open and a cool vapor exited the cracks, revealing a hidden hallway.
Parrish, surprised, pulled out his gun once again along with his flashlight. He clicked it on and slowly walked inside. Lydia and I followed behind him, into the narrow hallway that was much colder than the rest of the house. I ignored how I could see my breath, and followed behind Parrish.
"Does anybody else think that this is exactly how the beginning of a horror movie starts, and that we're the next victims?" I whispered, only to be met with silence. "No one? Okay."
We made our way down to the end of the hallway, and to our left was a plastic tarp. Parrish opened it with one hand and peered inside. He slowly stepped in while Lydia and I filed in behind him. He found in his search a light switch, and flicked it on to reveal a meat locker of sorts. Bags and bags were found suspended on meat hooks, and my breathing quickened at how large they were.
"It looks like a game locker," Parrish said, reaching out to investigate the closest bag. I was silently praying that he was right, and I wouldn't be exposed to more another traumatic occurrence in this town.
Of course, when did me wishing ever get me what I wanted? The deputy opened the bag to find a dead woman with her eyes wide open. I choked down some vomit looking around at all the bags that were now confirmed to be holding dead bodies.
"Yeah, welp, that's my cue. If you need me, I'll be up on the front porch crying my eyes out." I said, hastily exiting the room. I scurried down the narrow hallway and out into the sunlight. I headed to the front door and quickly whipped out my cell phone. Dialing the number I memorized long ago, I anxiously waited for them to answer.
"June?"
"Hey, yeah. Yeah it's me."
"Is everything okay?"
"Fine, peachy keen, actually."
"Great so, why are you calling me then?" Stiles asked suspiciously.
"Oh, no reason. Just that you might actually be right about the family-murdering axe murderer being Beacon Hills weird."
"What? How so?"
"Well I think whoever the killer is killed like a bunch of cannibals or something. The house had a secret meat locker filled with dead bodies."
"Human bodies?"
"Yes, don't make me repeat it, I will vomit," I told him sternly, already weak in the knees from it. "Look, I can't really talk right now, as I'm sure Deputy Parrish has called for backup. I'll explain as much as I can when I get back to your house, okay?"
"That's probably a good idea, I'm headed to the hospital anyway."
"The hospital, why? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, this freshman hurt his ankle during tryouts and we're taking it to get it x-rayed."
"Okay good. I'll meet you as soon as I can," A lightbulb went off as I remembered something. "Stiles!"
"What?"
"If you beat me to your house, don't go in your room."
There was a pause. "Why can't I go into my room?"
"There's something there that I need to explain to you."
"Is this something I should be worried about?"
"No."
"Will it get in the way of us helping Malia study?"
"Nope, just please, don't go into your room okay? Promise?"
He sighed, "Yeah, I guess."
"Say it."
"Oh come on, June-"
"Say you'll promise, Stilinski."
"I promise I won't go into my room when I get to my house until you get there," He said in a way that sounded like it was through his teeth. I looked away from my phone when I saw Lydia and the deputy come out of the house.
"Great, see you there," I said before hanging up.
I thanked Lydia as we pulled up to Stiles' driveway. Seeing Stiles leaning up against his jeep, I quickly hopped out of the car and walked up to him.
"You didn't wait too long, right?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"No, I only got here like ten minutes ago. What happened with Lydia?" He asked me.
I sighed, "I'll explain in a minute, did you go inside?"
"No, I didn't. Why couldn't I go inside again?"
I grinned and grabbed his hand, "You'll see in a minute," I told him as I dragged him inside.
"Okay well whatever you have to show me needs to be fast, we told Malia we'd help her study, remember?"
I pulled him up the stairs, "I know that. It'll only take a minute."
I opened the door to his bedroom and I heard Stiles grumbling behind me, "Well what's the–" He stopped talking when he saw what was in his room.
"June," He turned to me, "Why is there a whiteboard in my room?"
"Well it'd have to be white to be a whiteboard," I said looking at the clear dry erase board proudly.
"Okay, why is it in my room though?"
"It's yours!"
"Okay, but why?" I rolled my eyes at his obliviousness.
"Well I thought it would be easier to use as a murder board than your corkboard. This way, you can write things down easier and it'll help keep you more organized."
I smiled when his eyes widened in realization, "A murder board?"
"Yes, dumbass. It's an actual murder board, complete with markers and all. I didn't want to move anything over yet because I know that gives you a kind of satisfaction and all - "
"Why?" He said quietly, and I wasn't sure I heard him.
"Hmm?"
"Why," He asked more clearly, "Why did you get this for me?"
I scratched my wrist, unsure if he liked it, "Well, I uh – I wanted to thank you. You know, I – I wanted to repay you somehow for letting me stay with you. I'm not – I'm not ready to really talk to my parents without potentially blowing something up and – "
"June, you didn't need to do this for me."
"I know," I said, nodding, "But I wanted to, as some way to just say thank you."
He looked from me back to the board, staring at it intently.
I looked at him carefully, "Did you not want it? I mean – do you not like it?"
"No, it's not that," Stiles answered, "I'm just at a loss for words I think."
"That's a first," I said nervously, "Do you like it?"
"I just – I do. I really like it," He started and I breathed out in relief, "I mean – I just don't get how you know. You always know. It's perfect."
"If you like it now," I said, going over to his desk, "You're going to love it in a second."
"What do you mean?"
I grabbed the rolls of tape off his desk and walked back over to him. "I got these to go with it."
"Different colored tape?"
"Well I figured that it'd be easier than your strings. Green tape for 'solved,' yellow tape for 'in progress,' and – "
"Red tape for 'unsolved,'" Stiles whispered, a trace of a smile on his face.
"Yeah and blue tape because it's pretty," I told him. He looked up and locked eyes with me. We held eye contact for a second before I looked back to the board, blushing slightly.
"Right, I thought about getting you the same color-coded markers, but I figured black and white might stand out better. I mean I totally could go back to the store and grab them. Although, I'm not entirely sure how well the yellow marker would fare - "
Talking about yellow dry erase markers did not seem to interest Stiles. What did peak his interest was interrupting my rambling by means of a kiss. Caught entirely by surprise, I dropped the rolls of tape. Stiles completely ignored the clatter they made as he continued kissing me.
It took a solid five seconds before I realized what was happening. When I finally came to my senses, my eyes fluttered shut and I started kissing back. Like the first time we kissed, I felt that something. That something that made me want more. I was elated that it was still there, and that the boy I loved was kissing me. I mean really kissing me.
His hands that were placed on either side of my face slowly moved to wrap around my waist. I positioned my arms to wrap around his neck, and pulled him even closer to me. I opened my mouth, and deepened the kiss. He tasted like the mint mojito gum I always see him carry around mixed with the same raspberries as before, and I honestly couldn't think of a better taste. My senses were overwhelmed and my body seemed to heat up dramatically.
Before anything else could happen, a knock sounded downstairs. Opening my eyes, I sprang apart from Stiles. Eyes wide with shock, I stared at him. He seemed just as caught off guard, like he couldn't believe what just happened either. I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell just happened when another knock sounded on the front door.
Opening and closing my mouth, I stared at him a second more. Panting slightly, I said, "That'll be Malia," and rushed out of the room. Heading downstairs, I ran a hand through my hair and took a deep breath. It took all I had not to smile giddily as I opened the door to let Malia in.
"Alright, that's it," I heard Malia say from above me, before slamming her textbook shut. I looked up from my spot at the foot of Stiles' bed to see her gathering all her notes together.
"Hey, we're not finished yet," Stiles protested, and Malia sprung off the bed. She quickly rounded the bed and walked over to the window, opening it wide. She dumped all her notes and books out the window before retreating from the window.
"Yes we are," She said triumphantly, and I smiled at her. Magically, I brought her books back in through the window, and they came floating through the room. I smiled wider at Malia's scowling face when they floated her way.
"We promised we'd help you study, Malia, so let's study," I told her, and her scowl deepened. She begrudgingly opened up her books and looked at them.
"So, what's the secret then? Why is math impossible for me and easy for you guys?"
"Well, June's an academic prodigy, and she is leagues above everyone else, so she's got that going for her," Stiles answered and I nodded. "But the rest of us use Lydia's notes."
"Then somebody needs to give me notes on Lydia's notes-" Malia pulled out Lydia's composition notebook, "- because I don't understand any of this."
"I'm working on it," I said, snatching up the notebook. "Let's see here..." I flickered through the pages to get to the notes on chapter nine when my eyebrows furrowed, "Hang on, you said Lydia wrote these?" I asked Malia, flicking through the pages.
"Yeah, what are they?"
My eyes grew wide and I turned to Stiles, who's attention peaked when he saw my face. I swallowed, "They're not math." I quickly handed over the book to Stiles for him to look through. He flicked through the pages and stared at the filled lines.
"What the hell is this?" He asked.
"I think it's code, although I'd need to take a closer look to see what kind," I explained. Malia's phone buzzed at the same time we heard a car honk outside.
"That's my dad," Malia groaned, "And I got absolutely nothing accomplished."
"Look," I told her, filing through my backpack and pulling out a folder, "This is tonight's and tomorrow night's homework. For now, just copy off of that, it should give me enough time to get you some better notes. I'll need to keep Lydia's notebook, but I promise I'll get you some easier notes, okay?"
"You're a lifesaver, June," Malia said as all three of us walked downstairs.
"Don't forget to come back over tomorrow morning to talk about the full moon with us!" Malia shrugged me off and I shut the door behind her. I looked over to Stiles worriedly.
"It's a code?"
"Yeah, but to be sure of anything, I'm going to need my computer-"
I could barely turn on my heel before someone knocked on Stiles' front door. Scrunching my eyebrows, I looked over to Stiles. He shrugged and jumped slightly when whoever it was knocked again, this time more urgently.
"Did Malia forget something?"
Stiles opened the door, "I don't think so - Scott?"
I rounded the door so I could see Scott for myself, "What are you doing here?"
He panted nervously and swallowed, "Uh - I don't - I don't really know how to explain it. I think it'd be better if you guys saw it for yourselves."
