Binx Announcement: This chapter was updated for grammatical errors July 4, 2019.

Chapter 11: Annie's Song

It felt wonderful under the steaming-hot water of the motel shower. It wasn't as amazing as Lydia's shower had been, but it was still wonderful. I had to scrub with the motel washcloth and a squirt of my body wash for 3 solid minutes to get all of Lydia's makeup off. The shampoo and conditioner worked wonders on my mane and kept it soft and tangle-free. I shaved again and then turned off the water, wrapped myself in a towel, and brushed my teeth before I attempted to blow-out and set my waves with a few spritz of hairspray. I didn't do too badly, if I said so myself. Then I put together my first new outfit. I loved every article but after I had mixed and matched for at least 20 minutes I finally settled on the grey knitted hat, grey t-shirt, black skirt, grey knee socks with black skulls and crossed drumsticks pattern, black Converse, the crystal necklace, watch, a couple of hair ties on my wrist, and my hooded jean jacket. Five minutes later I stared at my ensemble in the full-length mirror. The crystal hung down just in front of my sternum. I ran some lip balm over my lips to finish off the look.

I was almost ready to head out but first I read the entire instruction manual for the phone with vampire speed. I used the gift card to activate it and within a minute it was ready to use. I fit the phone into the black cat protective case, then into my bag along with my room key. I looked around one final time, decided I was ready, and pulled out my sunglasses and put them on. I stuck my arms into the backpack straps, grabbed Lydia's gift bag, and headed out the door. I waved to the man behind the desk as I made my way outside and into the bright sun and started to make my way back to Lydia's house.

On the way, my mind wandered to the kiss after I had distracted myself for the last several hours. I didn't know how to act around Stiles now. I sighed. Really this was his fault...and the more I thought about it the madder I got. Because what was I supposed to have thought? The way he had watched me all through lunch and then looked into my eyes as he leaned so close...right into my personal space- to get his hoodie?! Oh, come on! I huffed in my head. 1. He could have asked me to pass it to him and 2. Why did he have to have it back right then? Couldn't he have waited for me to give it back on my own? I mean, did he think I wouldn't take care of it? That I would ruin it before I could give it back?

Hmm. I bit the inside of my cheek and thought about my own clothes yesterday with the cougar, and then as it turned out, Lydia's stockings with the buck...

Ok, fine. Maybe he had a point, but what he could have said was, "Oh, I almost forgot...is that my hoodie?" To which I would have replied, "Why, yes it is, here." Then I could have handed it to him myself and said, "Thank you, Stiles, for letting me borrow it." Then we could have "See-you-later-ed" each other and Lydia and I could have gone on our way and everything would still be as normal as this whole fiasco was...ugh!

I took a deep breath to calm down and that's when the self-doubt crept in. Geeze, Emma. Why would you even think he wanted to kiss you? I berated myself. Well, you know what they say about assuming, you Ass.

By the time I got there, I was still mad but now I was mad at myself.

Lydia wasn't the only one there. Everyone was there- Derek's sleek ride, Stiles' rugged Jeep, and Scott's dirt bike. I could hear them as they discussed a search party from all the way out on the sidewalk. An audience to my humiliation was exactly what I had tried to quash last night, but I couldn't avoid them all forever.

My agitation evaporated almost instantly and my heart lurched at the knowledge that Stiles was so close. I still had no idea how I would act when I saw him. I swallowed thickly, took a deep breath, and squared my shoulders. I found comfort in the fact I felt much more comfortable in my skin and clothes as I walked up to the door and knocked.

Inside the discussion stopped, quick footsteps came closer, and the door opened. Their familiar scents washed over me and I felt the now familiar burn when I sifted out Stiles'. Lydia stood there and blinked at me for a few seconds before she grabbed me by the hand and dragged me just inside the door.

"Where the hell have you been?" she growled. I flinched. "What were you thinking jumping out of my window in the middle of the night?!" she demanded.

I took off my sunglasses, hung them on the neck of my shirt, and ignored the others in the room for now and focused on Lydia. "I'm sorry," I said, and I really was. I didn't realize the panic it would cause, and I said so.

"Of course I panicked! You're one slip away from being a vampire and you left on my watch..." she nearly shouted.

I flinched again. "I'm sorry," I repeated, " but when I woke up I felt better but I was hungry-," I started to explain.

"Did you drink from anyone?" Derek interjected.

"Of course I didn't!" I said indignant and a little hurt. "I ran to the reserve and tracked a buck down. That's it," I replied.

"That's it?" asked Derek, skeptical. "It's noon. That was hours ago. Where else have you been?"

"Oh, well, I went...shopping," I answered lamely.

"Shopping?" Lydia finally seemed to notice that I wore a completely different outfit and took it all in before she said with some disgust, "Oh my God, you're like some kind of emo nerd or something!"

I felt my face flush as I frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I like it," whispered Stiles to Scott conspiratorially while Derek rolled his eyes.

Lydia didn't hear them and ignored me. "Where are my clothes?"

"Ah, yes," I said as I stretched out my hands to offer her the gift bag. "Sorry I couldn't wash them, and I had to replace the stockings- they got a little worn out, uh," I hesitated. It felt awkward to say, "hunting..." Doing it was one thing because I could sort of turn off my human mind, but it felt weird to talk about, especially to humans.

Look at me... 'Humans' like I wasn't one yesterday... I internally rolled my eyes at myself.

"Oh," she seemed a little thrown off, "thanks." She met my eyes again and spoke quietly, "But why didn't you just tell me you needed to hunt?"

My eyes flickered over to Stiles. He smiled when he saw my skull-and-crossed-drumsticks socks and the little thrill it gave me was sweet.

With my toes all excited inside of my shoes I had to purse my lips when I looked back to Lydia and said quiet so that only she (and I supposed Derek and Scott) could hear me. "I didn't want to talk- I wanted to be by myself for a while," I responded apologetically.

Lydia nodded in understanding and then glanced over at the group of guys and grimaced, "Oh, about that..." My heart thudded again. "Derek and Scott know."

It was her turn to flinch. "What?!" I whisper-yelled.

"Well, they asked why you might have run away and-."

"You told them?!" I accused her.

"No," she said defensively, "I said it was personal and when they pressed me about it Stiles-."

"Stiles!" I groaned quietly as my face reddened again.

Lydia leaned in close to me and whispered, "In his defense, I think he told them in hopes of getting some advice on how to remove his foot from his mouth..."

I sighed, "Thanks."

"Come on," she said and tilted her head towards the guys.

"Welcome back, Emma," said Scott when we had joined them around a map of Beacon Hills.

"Thanks," I grimaced.

"So now what are we doing since we don't need to find Emma?" asked Lydia.

When no one spoke I cleared my throat, "Well, I was thinking Derek should take me back to where he found me- see if we find anything helpful."

Derek nodded, "Ok, that's a good idea. If you were hit, there has to be traces of an accident- you were pretty far off the road for there to be nothing to find."

I grimaced again, "Thanks." I turned to Stiles and addressed one of his freckles, "Maybe you could check with your dad to see if anyone has reported anything?" When he nodded I turned to Scott, "And you and Lydia could check around at all of the garages in town to see if anyone is getting repairs, claiming they hit a deer or something? I don't know how many garages Beacon Hills has, but it would make the job go that much faster with two people." I suggested to each of them.

Everyone agreed on my plan. "Oh, Lydia, do you have any resealable plastic bags?" I asked.

She looked at me like I was weird but went to get them anyway. She gave me a few and I tucked them into my backpack.

"Ok then, let's roll, Derek," I said and turned to leave but stopped short, "Wait. Where's Allison?"

Scott shuffled his feet uncomfortably, "Her family is keeping her home today to practice her hunting skills." I could feel the sudden tension in the room.

"O-Kay," I said confused by the change in atmosphere. "I'm… sorry?" What was the big deal? It was a little weird, but whatever. It's not like any of them were vegan.

"It is what is," huffed Derek. "Come on, Emma," he said to me, then to the others as he walked out the door, "Call if you find anything."

"Oh yeah!" I pulled my bag around my shoulder to get my phone out. "Speaking of calling- I have a phone now. Can everyone put in their name and number?" I asked. Derek trudged back inside as I handed off my phone to Lydia first. She put her information in and then fluffed her hair and took a selfie to add to her contact information, which started the trend for everyone else. Derek was the last one and he took longer than anyone else as he tapped and scrolled. "What are you doing?" I asked after a few minutes.

"So that we're less likely to lose you again, I activated the Find Friends app so we can pinpoint your location," he explained.

"Stalker much?" Lydia quipped.

"No, actually that makes a lot of sense- with all the supernatural stuff that goes on around here I'm surprised you don't already have each other LoJacked," I said.

They all looked at each other, thoughtful. Probably remembering all the times that would have come in handy, I thought and smirked. Almost in sync, they took out their phones and began to get set up with each other. Derek still had my phone, so he just did both of ours at the same time.

Once everyone was linked up, Derek handed me my phone and said, "Let's get going if you're ready, then," as he headed toward the door again.

"Let's roll," I fired back.

"Wait- how did you go shopping?" called Lydia after me.

I turned around and walked backwards, "I.O.U.s," I said sheepishly. I turned back around and called, "Bye," over my shoulder and hurried after Derek before she could ask me to clarify.

"Can I drive?" I asked as I caught up with Derek and slid my sunglasses back on.

"Do you even know how?" he scoffed.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "Gotta learn sometime, though."

"Yeah, well, not this time, not this car."

"Spoilsport," I pouted. Derek smirked.

We rode for a few minutes in silence before I turned to him, "Can I turn on the radio?"

"Uh-"

I pushed the button and searched for something that inspired me.

"...Your skin like porcelain

One pair of candy lips and

Your bubblegum tongue..."

"Uh...!" I quickly pushed the button to scan away.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Derek.

"Nothing!" I felt a blush burn my cheeks as I thought I of my kiss with Stiles. I had thought those words- 'candy lips and bubblegum tongue'- and now I was thinking about the kiss again. I whimpered inside.

Derek rolled his eyes.

"You do that a lot- roll your eyes. You do it to yourself, you know." I changed the subject away from me as my mind wandered. I continued to scan.

"What are you talking about?" Derek asked.

"You're what, like, 25?" I guessed.

Derek just grunted.

"I don't know you at all, but so far as I've seen, you surround yourself with emotional teenagers." He just looked at me as he waited for the other shoe to drop. "What do you expect?" I shrugged and shot him a bemused smile before another song distracted me.

"You fill up my senses

Like a night in a forest

Like the mountains in springtime

Like a walk in the rain

Like a storm in the desert

Like a sleepy blue ocean

You fill up my senses

Come fill me again

I saw Derek glance at me with one eyebrow raised, but I ignored him. The song continued and when it ended I continued to stare at the radio without really seeing it. Derek turned off the radio.

"You ok?" he asked, uncomfortable.

"Wha-" I had to clear my throat. "Yeah, why?" I asked. My voice sounded rough.

In answer, he leaned over to open the glovebox and pulled out a travel pack of tissues and handed it to me. When I still looked blankly at him he said, "You're crying."

"I am?" I said and pulled down the visor and lifted my sunglasses onto the edge of my hat to keep them up. Reflected back were my red-rimmed eyes and red nose. My frivolous subconscience noticed that the redness brought out the green in my eyes.

I pulled a tissue from the pack and dabbed at the tears that still ran down my cheeks and tried to discretely blow my nose (I sounded a bit like a baby elephant trumpeting, so I don't think I pulled it off). Derek pressed his lips together and tried not to laugh.

"Did you remember something?" he asked after a few minutes.

"I don't think so- not really. The lyrics mean something to me, or maybe the song? I don't know what or why, though," I sighed, and fiddled with the tissue packet and thought about the different angles of the song, but nothing triggered a memory. Then I thought of Derek, with his scowls and his scruff and his leather jacket as he bought a travel pack of tissues to put in his car. The thought made me smile. What if he pushed a cart- or hung one of those shopping baskets from his elbow while he got things like hand soap, bandaids, and q-tips...I giggled outright now.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

I struggled to stop, which made it harder, and snorted in the process. The look on his face had me breathless for at least a solid minute before I could talk coherently. "Nothing, nothing!" I said and waved his question away. "It's not important-and don't roll your eyes at me, you know you find me endearing," I said cheekily as I slid my sunglasses back down.

He growled, but I could tell he also fought a smile.

A few minutes later he pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. "We're here."

I hopped out and followed him several yards into the woods. "You were laying right here," he gestured to a spot at the base of a tree.

I looked at the path we had followed and thought. I counted my steps and calculated the distance to be about 40 yards. I took out my notebook and pen and turned to a fresh page to write it down. Then I walked along the edge of the road as I kept a tab on Derek who stayed to look around the base of the tree. After I walked several yards up and down the shoulder I spotted a faded but distinct trail. I followed it back to Derek.

"I must have crawled here- there's no clear, straight path if I were hit hard enough to have flown through the air; too many trees too close together, plus that's an insane distance to have flown through the air, and you said you didn't smell any blood, so all of my injuries must have been internal, and I think I found the path I took," I concluded. I wrote as fast as I could.

Derek thought a second, "Why would you crawl away from the road where the person who hit you or at least someone would be more likely to see you injured?"

I wrote that down, too, "Good point," I said, perplexed, "Unless...unless I was running from someone...?"

"Or something," said Derek ominously.

"Did you find anything around the tree?" I asked, "or smell anything out of the ordinary?"

"No...except you, but let's make a sweep between here and the road on the path you took," he instructed.

We stayed only a few inches apart as our eyes scoured the leaf-strewn ground on either side of the path. About 15 yards from the tree, a light color caught my eye, mostly buried under the wind-tossed leaves. I stooped to pick it up. It was a slouchy grey knit hat, very similar to the one I currently had on my head.

"Freaky," I swallowed as I shook off the leaves. I turned it inside out to check every inch of it. There were shiny black paint chips stuck in the fibers on the outside of it and on the back of the 'One Size Fits Most' tag were the letters 'E W ' handwritten in black.

"'Ew?'" read Derek as he leaned over my shoulder.

I pretended to glare at him. "At least I got my initials right." I quickly jotted down everything I noticed about the hat and then pulled out one of the resealable bags I got from Lydia.

Derek cocked an eyebrow, "So now you're a forensic scientist?"

I stuck my tongue out at him, "Let's just keep looking."

We continued down the path for a few more yards. When we were about 30 yards from the tree where Derek found me, his boot had started to come down on something hard but breakable. We both heard the telltale cracking sound and stopped. He lifted his boot and I reached down to pull out a pair of glasses. They had transparent red plastic frames and the lenses were a rounded rectangular shape. One of the arms had a crack that went completely through it, but it was held together by the wire structure within the plastic.

I looked up at Derek and raised my eyebrows. He shrugged back at me. I took off my sunglasses, hung them from my shirt neck again, and put on the red frames. The act was familiar but stubbornly did not make any of this click. I think Derek smirked, honestly, with my vampire-ish vision I definitely did not need glasses and everything looked warped and I was afraid I might get sick.

"Take those things off before you hurl on my boots," he said, "I can hear you getting queasy."

I took off the glasses and put them in another plastic bag before I stashed them beside the bagged hat in my backpack.

I left off my sunglasses as we continued the last 10 yards to the edge of the road where we both spotted the broken bits of some kind of broken car light lens cover.