Chapter 9: Walking With a Ghost

"No matter which way you go
No matter which way you stay,
You're out of my mind
Out of my mind
I was walking with a ghost,
And I said please, please don't insist'

-Walking With a Ghost, Tegan & Sara

By the time I make it to cafeteria, I see Jackson is already there, along with a few of the lacrosse players. Jackson waves for me to go over, but when I see Lydia sitting beside them, I'm tempted to run the other way.

"You're free to join us, but only if you promise not to stare at Jackson." Lydia laughs. "Staring is very rude. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

I roll my eyes and slide onto the seat next to Danny, who I recently found out is gay, and also Jackson's best friend. I'm determined to show just how blasé I am about Lydia's comment. "I was raised by wolves, what can I say?" I shrug, busying myself with the zipper on my lunch pack.

The boys laughed, including Jackson, who I could see from the corner of my eyes kept stealing glances my way. "Where did you live before you came here?" one of the lacrosse players asked me. I think his name was Ben.

"Alaska, New Orleans, Oregon, New Mexico, and a few other places in between." I smiled.

"Can you say 'military brat'?" Lydia laughs, smacking her lips covered in lip gloss. I can tell Lydia views me as the biggest obstacle between her and Jackson, and doesn't appreciate any attention being directed my way.

"I think it's cool." Jackson says while I focus on my sandwich instead of him, because just like in the various classes I have with him, every time he speaks it's the only sound I hear.

An every time our eyes meet I grow warm.

And when his foot just bumped against mine, my whole body tingled.

And it's really starting to freak me out.

"How'd you end up here?" He leans toward me, prompting Lydia to scoot even closer to him. She's so close to him she's practically sitting on his lap.

I stare at the table, pressing my lips together in my usual nervous habit. I don't want to talk about my old life. I don't see the point in relaying all the gory details. Of having to explain how even though almost all my entire family died, I somehow managed to live. So in the end, I just tear the crust from my sandwich, and say, "It's a long story."

I can feel Jackson's gaze—heavy, warm, and inviting—and it makes me so nervous my palms start to sweat and my water bottle slips from my grip. Falling so fast, I can't even stop it, all I can do is wait for the splash.

And when it hits the table, everyone laughs as the water splashes on Lydia. Her face is shocked, but that turns into anger as she looks at me. "I'll get you back for that. Come on Jackson, I need to go change."

She grabs Jackson's arm as she stands up, not ready when Jackson says, "It's just water. I'll wait here."

Everyone pretends not to hear the profanities coming out of Lydia's mouth as she walks away. Then Ben asks me about Alaska.

"It was cold." I take a deep breath as I try to finish my lunch.

When the bell finally rings, we all grab our stuff and head towards class.

Even though Jackson and I share four classes, the only one where we sit next to each other is Math. So it's not until I've already put away my materials and am heading out of sixth-period art that he approaches me. He runs up beside me, holding the door as I slink past, eyes glued to the ground, embarrassed about what happened during lunch.

"Hey, sorry about Lydia, she can be a little—" he says, his stride matching mine.

"Overwhelming?" I say, as I adjust my books in my arms.

He laughs and shrugs, depositing his bottle in the recycling bin and leading us toward the building. "I was going to say territorial, but hey for all means."

"Well, I could've done without the staring comment," I say, knowing I sound ridiculous and over sensitive. I'm unwilling to express when I'm really thinking, not wanting to upset Jackson with the very valid, yet unkind question: Why is Lydia Martin such a bitch?

Seriously.

"Relax, she thought it was funny." Jackson smiles. "Nothing sinister, no evil plot to embarrass you. Besides, it's fine if you stared, that's' my permission to give, not hers."

He winked at me and I gape at him, blushing mad. "What?"

He chooses to ignore me, and changes the conversation, "So listen, we have lacrosse practice, getting ready for the big game on Friday, would you like to come?"

"I don't really think I can, I mean I have homework—"I stuttered, trying to find an excuse not to go. I was aware Lydia attended every single one of Jackson's practices and games, and I didn't want to anger her anymore by showing up there. But the disappointment that spread across Jackson's face was too much for me to bear. Oh well, right? "You know what, I'll be there."

He gazes at me, eyes shiny and amused. "Okay, see you after school then." He says, picking up his pace and heading for his class as I walk towards my locker.

Danny turns a corner and bumps into me, making me stumble back and my books fly everywhere. Great. This would happen to me.

"Oh my god I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. Are you alright?" He says, as he picks up my books and hands them to me.

"I'm fine, thanks." I say looking down, embarrassed out of my mind. I feel him staring at me, and I look up to find him smirking. "What?"

"Nothing." He lifts his brows and stares at me. "Okay, promise you won't get mad."

I close my eyes and sigh. Here we go.

"It's just that—I so don't get you. It's like, nothing about you makes any sense."

I take a deep breath and refuse to react. Mostly because it's about to get worse.

"For one thing, you're completely knock-down, drag-out gorgeous—at least that's what all the other guys say while in the locker room—but you refuse to open up to people and show you true self. Also, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but making a point to avoid the completely hottest guy at school, who is so obviously into you, is just weird."

He stops long enough to give me an encouraging look, as I brace for what's next.

"Unless—of course—you're gay." He analyses my face once more. "Because it's totally cool if you are," he continues. "I mean, obviously, since I'm gay, it's not like I'm gonna discriminate against you, right?" He laughs, a sort of nervous kind of laugh.

"I'm not gay. " I say half-heartedly. "For the record, I'm not avoiding anyone. Jackson is not interested in me Danny, he has a girlfriend. Besides, there's a lot more to attraction than just looks, you know." I mumbled, shaking my head as I begin to walk to class and he follows.

Like deep smoldering eyes, and the seductive sound of a voice that can silence the world—

"Actually, I was talking about Stiles." The smirk on his face deepens.

"Stiles?! This is ridiculous." Danny laughs, and I roll my eyes and laugh in spite of myself. "I have to get to class, I'll see you later Danny."

He looks at me for a moment, then walks away, turning back long enough to say, "Jackson is my best friend, but just be careful with him."

As I walked away, I kept repeating Danny's words inside my head. Stiles was into me? Since when? I mean, I had only really talked to him once. And what had Danny meant by 'be careful with him', was that supposed to be some kind of warning?

After school, I went straight to the girl's restroom, ran my hands through my hair, reapplied some lip gloss, and started thinking of ways to get out of this and not have to go to this lacrosse practice. Seriously. Any excuse will do.

And it's not just because of Lydia. Because the truth is, I don't even know why I said yes to Jackson in the first place. I don't know the first things that come with playing Lacrosse. But in the end, I go.

When I get there, most of the guys on the team aren't even out from the locker room yet, and the bleachers are empty besides two or three people. I walk towards the bleachers and notice some of the guys on the team whispering to themselves as they looked my way. If I wanted too, I could easily listen closer and hear everything they were saying as clearly as if they were next to me, but I choose not to invade in people's lives.

"Meeya!" I hear someone call, and I shift my attention to Jackson who is waving at me from the field. I smile and wave back as I take a seat on the bleachers, and realized people were actually starting to show up. I didn't know people actually came to these things. My eyes spotted Lydia at the same time she saw me, and began walking over to me. She looked as if she were going to talk to me, but in that same moment, my phone rang.

"Hey Derek, what's up?" I said, trying to hide the irritation in my voice, but failing. I knew he was going to call sooner or later, he gets anxious when he doesn't know what I'm doing or who I'm with. Sometimes it's nice to have someone look after me like that, but mostly it's just annoying.

"Where are you?" he asks sternly.

"I came to watch the lacrosse practice, a friend invited me." I said, clearing my throat on the word 'friend'.

"You need to come home, now." I really don't understand what it is that leads me to do this, but whenever someone commands me to do something I was already planning on doing, the chances of me doing that drop to zero.

"And you need to stop telling me what to do. Bye Derek." I angrily hung up and put my phone in my purse.

"Jackson take a long stick today!" I heard the lacrosse coach yell. I watched as Jackson dropped a net thing and picked up another one. Personally, I didn't see the difference. "That a boy!"

The guys got into a line, and I watched as Jackson stood in front of them defensively. I've never watched or played lacrosse, so I didn't know what was happening. I didn't even know the rules of the game.

"McCall, what you waiting for? Let's go!"

My eyes followed Scott as he took a deep breath and ran towards Jackson, who looked as aggressive as I've ever seen him. I winced as Jackson rammed into Scott and he flew upwards a bit before he hit the ground with a loud thud.

"You sure you still want to be first line McCall?" I heard Jackson said, his voice filled with a cold hard tone, almost spiteful in a way.

"My grandmother could move faster than that," The coach said, walking over to Scott who was bending over. "And she's dead. Do you think you can move faster than the lifeless corpse of my dead grandmother?"

"Yes coach," Scott voice was nothing but a whisper, but I could hear the outrage in it. I instantly stood up, already dreading what was bound to happen. I could feel Scott's anger rising, and I knew then he was bound to change sooner or later.

"Then. Do. It. Again." Scott ran back to the line. "McCall is going to do it again! McCall's gonna do it again!" The coach shouted.

Jackson prepared himself, and smirked at Scott, which only made him angrier. Two whistles blew and soon enough Scott was already running full speed at Jackson. This couldn't end well, and sure enough it didn't.

Before I could even realize what had happen, Jackson was on the floor grabbing his shoulder, twisting in pain. For no reason at all, this made me truly furious. How could Scott be so stupid? How could he let his aggression get the best of him over some stupid game of lacrosse?

All the players ran towards Jackson, including the coach, but I followed Stiles as he ran to Scott, who was kneeled down on the floor, sure enough fighting the anger inside him.

I needed to teach him a lesson. I needed to set him straight and make sure this didn't happen again.

"I can't control it Stiles, it's happening!" Scott muttered through his teeth.

I was going to make him control it.

"Right here?! Now?!" Stiles looked back, and his eyes met my furious ones. "Come on, get up."

Stiles put Scotts arm around him and they ran from the field in the direction of the locker room. Anger boiled inside me as I ran after them, my tongue flicking over my fangs.

"Get away from me!" Scott yelled at Stiles, just as I was to step into the locker room.

Amused, I simply watched as Scott kept chasing after a terrified Stiles through the lockers. Neither of them had even noticed my presence. Stiles managed to grab a fire extinguisher, aiming it right at Scott, who shifted back at that moment.

"This is just too entertaining. I'm not sure whether I should let Scott kill you later, or if I should just kill him now." They both turned to look at me, completely stunned. I hadn't bothered to fully change back, so my eyes were a bright green and my fangs completely menacing.

Before they could react, I grabbed Scott by the throat and pushed him into the wall. I bared my teeth at him, my face only a few inches from his. "Listen Scott, I don't do warnings, so let's play a game?"

"Wha-what are you doing here? You're a werewolf too?!" He choked, as I tightened my grip around his throat.

"Oh my god, I'm going to die." I heard Stiles say, and I turned my head to bare my teeth at him.

I focused my attention back to Scott. "This is how it works. You don't phase, you don't die. You phase, and I'll personally kill you myself. We'll act as if this never happened and you didn't almost kill your best friend. Understood?"

As I let him go, he fell to the floor, and struggled for breath. I chuckled as I walked past Stiles, who looked terrified beyond belief.

"Nice to see you again Stiles."

Walking out of the locker room, his scent hit me right away. He was waiting for me outside, my purse in one hand and my books in the other. There was an edge to his expression, very tense, though he looked a lot calmer than he had these last couple of days.

"I get a feeling you already took care of Scott?" He asked, walking with me to my car. I felt rude not saying goodbye to Jackson, especially not knowing what happened to his shoulder. But I was irritated beyond belief, and all I wanted at this point was to sleep.

"Yeah, you should've told me you were stopping by Derek." I said, reaching in my purse for my car keys, ready to get out of there.

"I would've told you if you hadn't so rudely hung up on me." He said, leaning on my car, his face suddenly becoming serious again. "Scott's becoming a real problem."

"Tell me about it. He nearly killed Jackson out there!" I said. He raised his eyebrow at me, and I laughed. "I set him straight."

"That's interesting, didn't know you had it in you to threaten somebody."

"Me either, I don't even know where that came from." I shook my head, trying to breathe. "It's like, I couldn't stop my anger. It just came out. I don't even remember what I said to him."

"It happens Meeya. You had to do it. One wrong move from Scott, and we're all dead. Remember that."

"Tell me about it." I closed my door and watched as Derek walked towards his Camaro. I put my keys in the ignition and started my car.

Too say the least, I couldn't get out of that damn school fast enough.