Chapter eleven: Formality

I was standing at my locker in school, taking out some last things, when Scott walked up to me.

"Hey." he said, sounding a bit confused as he leaned on the row of lockers. "I thought you weren't going to school anymore."

"I'm not." I said, taking out a bottle of water. "Just cleaning out my locker." He nodded at that, but then shook his head.

"Anyway, I think there's something I should tell you."

"There's free pizza in the cafeteria?"

"Wh- no."

"Then I'm not interested."

"It's about Stiles." he said in a singsong voice, smirking when he saw me suddenly paying attention. "I think you should know what actually happened last time you were in Beacon Hills."

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. "Scott if this is about the fire, I already know." He frowned at me, clearly confused.

"No, I mean with you and Stiles." he said. "What do you mean with the fire?" I shook my head.

"Nothing." I said, closing my locker. "I'm all ears." Scott nodded and took a deep breath.

"Okay so first of all: You can't let Stiles know I told you this 'cause he'll kill me." I let out a laugh, but the way he looked at me told me he was serious, so I shut up and let him continue.

"You know how Stiles has had a crush on Lydia since third grade?" he asked, and I nodded. "Well, before that he had a crush on… you. But then you moved out all of a sudden. And Stiles felt pretty down, but he was stubborn and didn't really let you go. Then his mother died." he said, looking down at his feet. "He had a rough time. He'd lost you, then he lost his mother. His father he… he drank a lot after Stiles' mom died. He still had me, but he lost his mother, and he knew he wasn't going to get her back. And you… he sort of clung... onto the next best thing." he said, looking back up at me. I frowned at him.

"You mean Lydia?" I asked, and he nodded. I did recall Lydia showing me a picture of the two of us when we were young. We did look very alike back then, and I suppose that it was likely that the both of us were more similar in personality as well. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because he might not have realised it until after you came back, but he still likes you. A lot."

I didn't really know what to say. Part of me was ecstatic, and so so happy that Stiles liked me. The other part, my brain, told me to do something about it. To hook him up with Lydia, to let him go and lessen the pain that would come in only three weeks. Maybe less. Problem was: I wasn't good at repressing positive emotions. Negative, oh that was easy, I could keep those in for months.

"I think it's a bit too late, don't you?" I asked, a sad smile on my face. "Speaking of this stuff, how's it going with Allison and you?" Well that question dragged his mood down considerably, and it distracted him from the whole Stiles topic.

"She's going to the formal with Jackson." he said, a small pout on his face.

"Jackson?" I said, my face scrunching up. "That won't last long, trust me. He's a snake."

"You think?" he asked, looking at me hopefully.

"I think that you and Allison, as much as I don't trust her family, won't get separated easily." Scott didn't seem much more confident, but at least the pout was gone.

"Speaking of the formal, Lydia is looking for you." he said, a grin on his face. "Something about going shopping." My eyes widened in horror and Scott let out a laugh. "I'm going to leave you two to it." he said, walking away. I froze on the spot. You two? I turned around and found Lydia standing there, a small smile on her lips.

"I'm thinking… green." she said, eyeing me up and down. Ah fuck.

~o~

I was given a delay of execution on the shopping with Lydia, which I wouldn't have to do until the next day. That didn't mean I got a day off on that day, though. No, of course not, because Scott just couldn't resist into a fight with Derek last night without telling my dad or me, and now Derek was gone. Oh, did I mention Jackson was there too? Good fun. Anyway, Stiles and I went over to his house after both receiving a distressed phone call from McCall. That is, from the home phone, as he'd lost his.

"Call it again." Scott said. His upper body was hidden underneath his bed, where he was searching for his phone. Stiles was sitting on his desk chair, growing tired of having to call the phone all the time, and I was standing in the doorway.

"Okay, so you lost your phone, get a new one!" Stiles said, but apparently, it wasn't so easy.

"I can't afford a new one!" Scott exclaimed.

"Can we just focus on what's important here?" I said, getting more and more annoyed. "Peter visited the animal clinic after Deaton patched you up?" Scott came from under the bed and nodded.

"He's going after Allison." he said, worry seeping through his voice.

"I'll put a guy on her." I said, texting someone from the community. "He'll follow her, make sure she's safe. Though I wouldn't expect too much." I warned. "Argents aren't exactly popular." Scott nodded, understanding.

"Thank you." he said.

"Okay, but back to Derek." Stiles said, pointing at Scott. "You said he walked into open gunfire last night. He sounds pretty dead."

"The Argents wanted to use him to find the Alpha, he's not dead." Scott said, voicing my thoughts.

"We need to find him. They're probably torturing him." I said, a bad feeling stirring in my stomach. Stiles let out a groan at that.

"Can't we just… let them?"

I glared at him.

"No?" he tried. "Not even a little?"

"Don't make me slap you, Stillinski."

"You know, he was trying to kill Jackson." he said. "And then he tried to kill Scott." Oh are you kidding me? He wasn't going to kill anyone. And that's exactly what Scott said. Was this kid actually understanding the situation? Damn.

"And I'm not going to let him die." Scott then added, which made Stiles radiate disappointment.

"Can you at least think about letting him die?" he pleaded. Oh that was it. I walked over to him, smiled, and then hit him on the back of his head. Not too hard, though.

"Okay, fine!" he yelled, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Just… no slapping, alright?"

Suddenly, Scott's head shot up in the air.

"What?" I asked, prodding his shoulder when he didn't answer. "Not all of us have super hearing, you know."

"It's your dad." he then said. "He's here." I let out a groan. Dad was going to send me home, wasn't he?

He was.

~o~

Shopping for dresses with Lydia was an artform. No, scratch that, it was like a fucking sport. After trying on and retrying dresses for an hour, we were apparently done with the first round. After two more rounds, we'd finally settled for a green dress with a silver belt and leather jacket (because I insisted). We (I) decided (demanded) to take a break, and just when it was about to finish, Lydia's phone rang.

"Hey! Yeah we're on the first floor." she paused. "Okay, see you!" she hung up and looked at me. "Allison's here."

"Oh joy!" I said, clapping in my hands. We sat down and discussed my further options for dresses (aka Lydia talking and me nodding) until Allison arrived, with a rather distressed look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Just some family business." she said, waving it off. I couldn't help but notice the necklace hanging around her neck with the Argent heirloom on it.

"You sure?" I asked, standing up and walking towards her. Could it be that her parents told her? "You seem pretty… thrown off." I said, inspecting her face. Her eyes were a bit red and her cheeks were wet. "Have you been crying? Allison wiped her cheeks and asked if we could move on with the dresses, so we did. Once we were finished (after two hours), Allison declared that she had a surprise for Lydia.

"Well?" Lydia asked as we walked out of the store. "What is it?" she looked at Allison, who had an evil smirk on her face.

"You aren't getting away with kissing Scott without some payback.. So, you are going to cancel on whatever jock you agreed on taking to the formal and go with... him." I followed the finger she was pointing with, and my eyes fell on Stiles, who just happened to accidentally spray cologne in his face inside a perfume shop.

"Oh." I said. "I was kind of going with him." Allison looked at me in surprise, but Lydia didn't seem surprised at all. If anything, she was both pleased for me and that she wouldn't have to go with Stiles. Or so she thought. "But I can totally go with Isaac instead." I quickly added. This could be a great opportunity for Stiles to get together with Lydia.

"Well then." Allison said, smiling at me to say thanks. "There you go, Lydia." The girl in question let out a groan.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes you do."

I let out a laugh at the look on Lydia's face, trying my best to ignore the bad feeling in my stomach, both because I had actually been looking forward to the formal and because of my… oh fuck it. Let's just call it a vision. I shivered involuntarily as I thought back to it.

~o~

After an elaborate discussion with Stiles, he'd agreed to go to the formal with Lydia. I'd called Isaac and asked him if he had anyone to go with yet. He hadn't, so the two of us were going. (Mainly because Stiles insisted that I still went)

Allison and I had just left the mall and had almost made it to her car when Peter walked up to us.

"Sorry, quick question." he said, smiling at us.

"No time." I said, pulling Allison along with me. Peter walked after us for a few steps, but when I threatened to call the cops he'd backed off.

"Who was that?" Allison asked, sounding distressed. We were almost jogging towards her car. "Lorraine!"

"Doesn't matter." I said, getting into the car. Allison quickly followed and sat down beside me, in the drivers seat.

"Who is he?" she repeated.

"Allison, listen to me." I said, turning to face her. "Strange things are happening in this town and even more strange things will happen. Whatever things you might think you have to do, there's always a choice. Don't do anything violent, just try to stay out of it."

"What are you talking about?" she exclaimed. In the car mirror I could see Peter walking towards us, this time he wasn't smiling.

"No time to explain. I gotta go." I said, getting out of the car, but not closing the door before telling her to go right now, which she did. By the time I turned around, Peter was already facing me.

"And, have you decided?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "Or should I come up with a more… persuasive method?" He lifted up his hand and showed me his claws. I wanted to challenge him, see if he'd really hurt me in the middle of a parking lot, but instead I smiled.

"I'm afraid that I am no longer in the position to make those decisions."

"Daddy took the job?" he asked in an attempt to mock me. It didn't work.

"Sorry." I said smirking at him to show that I wasn't sorry at all. "You'll have to go talk to him, not me."

Peter nodded, definitely not happy with the answer, but he left me alone nonetheless. Once he was a good distance away, Scott and Stiles ran towards me (they'd been hiding behind a car), and asked if I was alright. I rolled my eyes at them, even though my heart was racing.

"Fine. Though you should go keep an eye on Allison. There is someone shadowing her, but better safe than sorry." I told Scott, who immediately left to do just that. I turned towards Stiles, whose face was a bright red from the running. And possibly Lydia.

"So…" he started, rocking back and forth on his heels. "You… really don't mind me going to the formal with Lydia?" Yes. Yes I did. But I had no right to, so I smiled and shook my head.

"We were just going as friends anyway, right?" I said, giving him a smile, which he returned, though hesitatingly.

"Yeah, of course!" he said, clapping his hands together. "Friends… But you're still going, right?" I nodded at that.

"But only because I promised you." I said, sending him a playful glare.

We started walking towards the jeep, discussing what we thought was going to happen, what Peter was going to do. Me growing more and more annoyed by the fact that I wasn't allowed to do anything about it. But hey, what can you do about it? Ugh. Nothing, that's what.

~o~

Even though I was dreading it, the night of the formal did come. Isaac had agreed to take me, but because he didn't have a car I had to drive over to his place and pick him up. So I guess I was taking him. Welp.

"Well don't you look handsome!" I said, smiling widely as Isaac got into the car. He immediately started blushing and stuttered a thanks. Once he got into his seat he seemed to have recovered, as he complimented me on my dress with a (for his doing, extremely confident) smile.

"Oh, this old thing?" I said, looking down at it. "Only wasted a few hundred dollars and a couple of irreplaceable hours of my life."

"Worth it?" Isaac asked, smirking at me.

"I guess we'll see about that." I said, pushing down the gas pedal and driving off.

~o~

We arrived just in time to see Lydia jump out of Stiles' jeep as we walked towards the school. She was flattening her dress and looking disgusted in general as Stiles tried his best to get the Jeep's door to shut.

"Hey Jackson." Lydia then said. I looked to my right, where Jackson and Allison walking towards the school. "You look handsome."

"Well obviously." Jackson said, stopping. "It's hugo boss." Oh I could've puked right there and then. Right on that stupid smirking face of his.

"Too bad you can't buy a less shitty personality, right Jackson?" I said cheerfully, returning the glare he gave me as he and Allison walked further towards the school. "Dickhead." I muttered, making Isaac laugh.

"Speaking of dickheads." I said, turning back towards Lydia and Stiles. "Stiles, looking good." I said, and he rolled his eyes at me. "And Lydia, beautiful as always." I said, earning a small smile from the girl. Stupid jerk Jackson had really thrown her off.

"Well, I don't know about you guys." Isaac spoke up. "But I just had two shots on my way over here and I really want to go party." I laughed at the surprised look on Stiles' face. This wasn't the Isaac he was used to. Truth be told, it wasn't exactly the Isaac I was used to either. Just to be sure nothing went wrong, I made a mental not to not let Isaac drink any more alcohol.

"Drunk boy is right." Lydia said, straightening her back and pulling herself together.. "Let's do this." she said, sticking her nose up in the air and walking towards the school. Stiles muttered an apology before following her.

"Well then," Isaac said, holding up his arm for me. "Shall we?"

"Aren't you charming?" I asked, intertwining his arm with mine. "We shall."

~o~

The formal was surprisingly fun. It was in the gym, and the music was pretty good, most people were in a good mood, and it was very amusing to see a couple of slightly drunk teenagers attempting to dance. Isaac and I were sitting on the bottom step of the bleachers when Scott suddenly stood next to us.

"Are you even allowed to be here?" I asked. His grades were… well just plain disastrous, and coach forbade him to come.

"Maybe." he said, sounding distressed and looking like a lost puppy as he scanned the crowd for Allison.

"She's over there, with Jackson." I said, pointing to show him. "Doesn't look too happy."

"Wonder why." Isaac mumbled, watching as the two walked to the dancefloor. Jackson, being the dick he is, stopped just in front of the table where Stiles and Lydia were sitting, both seemingly bored out of their minds. Stiles turned to Lydia, saying something, to which she responded with a single word. He then let out a sigh, stood up and said something else to her, looking more confident. I couldn't help but smirk. Come on, Lydia, just say yes.

Next to me, Scott was smirking.

"What?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Oh." Isaac said, sounding surprised. I let out a groan and turned towards him.

"What?" I repeated. He just pointed forwards. I turned my head yet again and saw Stiles walking towards us.

"Wanna dance?" he yelled over the music.

"Did you just ditch Lydia Martin?" I yelled back. He looked over his shoulder, towards the table where Lydia was still sitting. I followed his gaze and saw Lydia smirking as she gave me a wink.

"Actually, we ditched each other." he yelled, holding out his arm. "Dance?" I didn't even get a chance to answer, as both Isaac and Scott pulled me off my seat and pushed me towards him. I firmly told myself the only reason they succeeded was because one of them had superhuman strength. Just as Stiles and I walked off, coach's voice boomed through the gym.

"I see you McCall!" he then started ranting as he tried to run over to Scott, who kept running and hiding. Stiles and I looked at each other and burst out in laughter as we followed him with our eyes. Coach eventually caught up with him, but not before Scott managed to grab a hold of Danny and start slowdancing with him.

"McCall! You're not supposed to…" coach trailed off. "What the hell are you doing?" By now the music had stopped and the gym fell silent as everyone stared at coach.

"Yes, coach?" Scott asked, stepping a bit closer to Danny. Coach looked at the two in bewilderment, his eyes wide.

"Oh come on coach!" I yelled, so everyone could hear. "You can't be serious!"

"Okay…" coach said, holding his hands up in the air and chuckling nervously. "Ho, ho, I wasn't- I just meant he isn't supposed to- not that he shouldn-" he started laughing. "Just dance everybody! It's a dance! Dance!" he yelled, laughing like a madman as he ran off.

"Oh that was brilliant." I said, tears in my eyes from laughing. The music started playing again, another slow song.

"Well, let's skip the awkwardness of this." I said, putting my arms over his shoulders. He froze for a few second, but the put his arms around my waist. My heart did a little jump, and for just that one song (or was it two?), I forgot all the promises I'd made to myself. No keeping distant, no hiding emotions, just… dancing.

I was never good at keeping those promises anyway.

~o~

I wasn't sure how much time had passed when there came a more upbeat song, but it felt like it wouldn't ever be long enough. Stiles slowly let go of me and we started jumping up and down to the beat, and Stiles even dared to do some awful dance moves. The fun stopped fairly quickly once I got a sudden, banging headache.

"You okay?" he asked, frowning as I held my head in my hands.

"I think I need some air." I said. He nodded and led me out of the gym, which was good as I kept my eyes closed in pain for half of the walk. The fresh air outside was nice, but had little effect on my headache. Stiles and I sat down on the floor with out backs against the wall.

"Have you seen Jackson?" someone asked. I opened my eyes and saw it was Lydia.

"No, sorry." Stiles said.

"Are you alright?" Lydia asked, looking at me with a frown on her face.

"Yeah, just a bad…" my voice trailed off. "Migraine." Oh fuck. Not now, please not now. "I need to call my dad." I said, pushing myself up and walking away. I could hear Lydia mumble a sorry and her heels clicking on the ground as she walked away. By the time I got out my phone, Stiles was standing next to me.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, putting his hands on my shoulder. My headache got even worse, and a familiar image flashed in front of my eyes.

"Lydia!" Stiles yelled, running over the lacrosse field at school. I turned around and saw Lydia standing in the middle of the field, staring at Stiles. Behind her, Peter was running towards her, his teeth bare.

"You need to go find Lydia, now." I said, trying to make my voice sound as strong as possible. "Peter is here. He's going to attack Lydia."

"Do you mean your vi-"

"She's on the lacrosse field, and she might die. Now go." I said, dialing my dad's number. Stiles nodded and ran off towards the field. I cursed myself for not having thought of my vision, but something told me there was nothing I could do about it.

"Lora?" my dad's voice came from my phone. Okay, keep this as short as possible.

"Peter is here, I just got a migraine, the symptoms have started, I got that… vision again, and I need backup because…" my voice trailed off as I saw Chris Argent dragging Jackson out of the woods, followed by more hunters. "The Argents are here too."

A/N: Shit's about to go down! Wonder what will happen...

Here's a note on a review I got (thank you for the review, by the way): What I meant with "it wont end pretty"? Well I guess you'll find out next week because I'll be uploading the final chapter!

Thank you all so much for reading, and I'll see you next chapter!

~Lilly