When you are forced to survive on the streets, you pick up a few tricks. How to become invisible in plain sight, for example…

I'll admit it: She made it too easy. There are no steps you can use again and again for hiding in plain sight; it's all a matter of skill, and precision. I've always loved a good challenge, but she just made it all too easy.

So I know a thing or two about blending. My girl Erica did, too. It surprised me; I wasn't expecting it. She zoomed straight for the restroom after her little melt down, staking her claim on a stall, and she waited. Hardly any girls use the stalls in the locker rooms. They're gross, unkept, forgotten. Poor lighting, so no classmates touching up their makeup or hair. Quiet.

I lagged behind and sat on a bench in the locker room, waiting for her to tiptoe out of the stall when the next class began, and I ducked into the showers to watch her leave.

And here we are. The gym was pitch black, except for the lights that never go off. One of those lights happened to illuminate the rock wall. The mat was gone by now, as Finstock decided maybe it was time to retire that particular exercise for the day, and the harnesses were taken down, too.

She looked up at it, her heart picking up speed. It looked bigger under the inadvertent spotlight that the automatic lights shed; taller somehow. I tilted my head and she breathed out slowly.

I watched her climb. I watched her get pretty high, too. Actually, I thought she was having a breakthrough or something… and then she panicked.

I shook my head and stepped out of the shadows. "Erica," I started, and then I froze. Something was wrong. It was like a flip in me was switched, and I was frozen—physically, mentally… My vision became fuzzy, I felt overcome with disorientation. My mind was a muddle of slippery shadows, passing too quickly for me to get ahold of; my palms were cool, but they sweat; my mouth was flooded with the taste of blood.

And then it was gone. My entire body gasped, like I coming out of being submerged in the middle of a lake for too long and I brought my hand away from where it clutched at my chest, watching as it trembled.

My coffee colored eyes changed, glowed bright azure, and I darted to the rock wall just as Erica seized up and came tumbling from the wall. She knocked me off balance, and sent us both sprawling to the wooden basketball court. My head snapped against the waxed floors, and if I weren't supernatural, it probably would've really hurt. As it was, I had squeezed my eyes shut on instinct when she knocked me to the ground, and I didn't need to open them to know I wasn't alone anymore.

Laundry detergent and some sort of spice. Still, I couldn't name it. Frankly, it was beginning to piss me off. Of course he wasn't alone; Scott's scent was one of strong (albeit pleasing) cologne, and under that… Something more… wild.

I growled lowly in my throat as I rolled Erica out of my arms, and a wave of cherries and perfume hit my nose as the brunette dimpled girl skidded to a stop beside me.

"Roll her on her side!" She commanded, her voice high and panicked. I blinked at her and looked down to Erica, doing as she said, before looking back up at her.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" My voice was strained and breathless, and Stiles pushed past Scott to point an accusing finger at me.

"We'll be asking the questions here!" He aimed for authoritative, I think, but this is Stiles. My immediate reaction was to choke back a laugh, but when I turned and saw his enraged face, I scrunched my eyebrows at him and looked to Scott.

"What?" I pulled Erica's hair out of her face, where it was sticking to her sweaty face. Briefly, I wondered if this is what I looked like when I overdosed that one time.

I shook my thoughts off as Stiles continued. "What did you do to her?" He demanded, and Scott and Allison glanced from me to look at each other with hesitant expressions.

I stared up at Stiles for a minute as Erica continued jerking, unable to process his accusation. "Me?" I asked, my voice coming out a little too vulnerable. I felt my heart clench as my classmates stared at me, the realization hitting me like a freight train. "You think I did this…" It might've been a question, but it came out as a furious snarl.

Unbelievable, my voice of reason hissed. "Stiles…" Scott put a hand on his shoulder and stepped closer to where Allison and I were still on the ground with Erica. I looked away from them in disgust and moved her head to my lap, swallowing past the lump in my throat. "I don't think it was her."

Allison's wide eyes watched me closely as I ignored the boys, and Stiles' voice hit an all-new high. "What?" He screeched.

"I don't think Savannah did this! I…" He broke off, looking to Allison with wide, bewildered eyes. "I felt something. That's how I knew to come here—it was weird, it was like I knew something was happening to her."

"Yeah, it was probably your instincts trying to tell you that a slaughter was about to happen," Stiles growled. I felt my muscles clench tightly, unable to look at the boys in the face as I focused all of my energy on the sick girl below me. "It wouldn't be the first time Derek's done something like this! You both know that, come on!"

"Stiles!" Allison loudly admonished, causing both boy's heads to whip in our direction. It grew quiet, but I didn't even bother to look up as Erica's tremors died down. My teeth ground together, and without acknowledging any of them, I slid my arm under her shoulders and her knees.

I quickly rose to my feet with an unconscious Erica in my arms and stomped through the gym, ignoring Scott's calls. As I strode through the dark, manic whispers erupted behind me. I shut my mind off to them and huffed violently through my nose as the lights coming from the hall peeked over my toes, and I turned to bump my hip into the doors.

"Savannah, wait!" Scott slid to a brisk walk next to me as I stamped through the hallway. "Stiles, he can be—cynical. When we found you two in the gym, it looked…"

I growled out a bitter chuckle. "Do I look like I care?"

He clamped his mouth shut and I could practically hear the gears in his mind clicking madly as he tried to think of what to say. "Savannah, I know you—you would… I mean, a lot of things changed, I know that. But you would never…"

"Yeah, that's touching. Tell ya what, why don't you tighten the leash on your little guard dog, okay? If he comes in my yard one more time, I might have to find a gun."

Scott stopped following, but I could feel his regretful gaze burning into the back of my head as I snapped at our gawking classmates to get out of the way, heading straight for the nurse's office.

Funny, how when something is taken from you it can feel so… important. I needed to see Rex like I needed air to breathe. My skin was getting itchy, the necessity burned so brightly in me. I couldn't focus on anything. I couldn't sit still. One could compare this sensation to jonesing, but Rex is pure and light. He's everything that drugs aren't to me.

He couldn't make me forget—quite the opposite, really. But he's the one thing in this world that can make me remember, and make me feel better all at the same time. He's like some sort of merciful angel, some sort of miracle that I didn't deserve. As I opened the door to the warehouse, I pushed that need down as hard as I could.

"Derek," I called out, my jaw tight as I bound down the steps. "I've got news."

He stepped out of the cart with Isaac trailing behind him, raising his eyebrows at me expectantly. I marched up to him and tried to quell the itching sensation crawling across my skin. I know what brought this on. I know what's made me so desperate to feel… important. To feel loved; to feel wanted and accepted. Completely free of judgment. My mind, against my own free will, flashed back to the expression on Stiles' face as he accused me of…

Rex is the only one who offers love to me, the only one willing to grant me that. But I have to keep my distance from him. I've got a good thing going here with Derek and Isaac; I can't jeopardize that by running into Maria. There's just no way. I would just have to push through it. Besides, Rex is probably better off without me there to poison him, anyways. Maybe Maria had a point. Maybe… maybe she's right to protect him from me.

"Well." Derek crossed his arms, glancing back at Isaac. "Don't keep us waiting,"

Isaac, as oblivious as he can be at times, saw something in the way I stood. His eyes darkened and he took a subtle step toward me, concern painting his lean face. "What's wrong?" His voice was lilted with dread. Derek's eyebrows downturned slightly, and he dropped his arms to study me more closely.

"My rookie went and bought herself a token to the ER today," I smiled fakely, and swung my fist in a mockingly celebratory fashion, hooking my elbow. "And she just cashed it in!... Hurrah!"

Derek was already headed for the stairs. "What happened?" He called over his shoulder, and I didn't bother to follow him as I answered.

"She's epileptic! I think she took my advice too seriously when I told her to carpe diem." Immediately after I said it, I was flooded with guilt. Derek didn't even comment as the door slammed shut behind him, but I winced at Isaac and shook my head in disgust. "Ah," I cringed. "I'm an awful human being… the worst in history maybe, the most abhorrent one to plague Beacon Hills!"

"That's false," He put his finger up to wag it at me with thinly veiled reproach. "You're a not a human."

I snorted out a laugh in spite of myself, and smacked his finger out of my face. "Shut up," I grinned, and he smiled.

"I never knew you were so self loathing." He turned to walk duck back into the cart, apparently expecting me to follow. When I didn't, he poked his head back out with a mocking pout. "Aww. You wanna talk about it?"

I sighed heavily and bit back a smile, shoving his forehead back so I could step into the cart. He backed up with a wily snicker, and hopped over to sit on one of the flimsy seats. "You're a real asshole, ya know that?"

He nodded his head, shrugging his shoulders as his hands came up as if to say, 'What can ya do?' I settled into the seat across from him and sighed in exhaustion. Propping my arms up so they lay across the top of the seats, I tilted my head lazily on my shoulder.

"I think this werewolf blood makes me grumpy," He suddenly said.

"Or maybe it was there all along, hiding beneath that timid disposition of yours." My voice dripped with feigned pity, and I sat still as he swung his foot out to try and kick me from across the cart. The thing is, there's about six feet of space between the seats. Isaac is tall, but even his legs aren't that long. His foot clomped the ground pathetically, causing me to stare at him with a dry expression. "You missed." I flatly informed him.

"Humph." He returned in the same tone, looking down at his foot as if expecting something to happen. "That's weird."

I rolled my eyes and smacked the wall restlessly with a loud sigh. "This place needs something to spice it up."

"Something, like drugs something?" He strangely jumped to, and I turned to give him my best wtf face.

"Nice," I sneered. "Um, no?" I ran a hand through my hair and looked away. "I was thinking more along the lines of music. Speakers. Some ambient lighting."

"So basically, you want to put a club down here." He pointed out.

"What?" I laughed, and then hesitated. "Actually, no, yeah. That'd be cool."

"Okay, well you go set up our rave, and I'll get started on the pool. Say, where do you think Derek would like the foosball table better, that murky corner, or the one under the stairs?"

I groaned and threw my head back, "Fiiiine," I whined. "God, boys are so boring! I can't wait until Erica gets here."

Isaac snorted and shifted to a more comfortable position. "Derek said something about you going to a group therapy session?... Laaame."

I pressed aggravated fingers into my closed eyes; massaging and praying that when I opened them, this would all go away. I opened them and blinked testily at Isaac. "Ugh." I grunted. "I forgot about that…" I sighed heavily and forced myself to get to my feet. "Yeah… I guess that's where I'm headed."

My boots dragged the dirty floor as I unwillingly shuffled toward the door, and Isaac called out to me. I stopped at the threshold and turned to peer over my shoulder, half hanging in the cart, and half out. "I…" He started awkwardly, rubbing his neck and looking away from me. "I wanted to thank you. For what you did during the full moon. And also to apologize, because I was really pissed off, and it was just after…"

Something close to affection touched my chest. I shrugged a single shoulder and smirked crookedly at him. "The werewolf blood makes you grumpy, I think."

He breathed out a laugh and pursed his lips, looking back at me. "…Yeah."

"You feelin' pizza tonight?"

"Of course," He pulled a random ball from his pocket and tossed it against the seat I had just been sitting in, effortlessly swiping it from the air when it ricocheted back to him.

I paused and almost asked, but ultimately decided it against it. And with that, I grudgingly left the warehouse.

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