Whilst Allison and Lydia were on their double date, I elected to practice in the pool in my backyard. Having waited for it to reach the perfect temperature, I started with a few warm up laps, leisurely taking my time and occasionally stopping to check my phone, resting against the side of the pool whilst kicking my legs peacefully. Both the girls were giving me updates on how their night was going, keeping me involved. Admittedly I was impressed that Allison had elected to disobey her dad after he enforced the nine thirty curfew all under eighteens were facing, going on the date anyway.
Turns out McCall was definitely not a great bowler, in fact he sucked according to Lydia and even Jackson sent me a text telling me just how bad McCall was, attaching a video of the painful display of missing his second attempt completely just like the first. Poor kid. He's going to get eaten alive if he carries on like that. At least Allison had sympathy for him and after a quick coaching lesson, she told me that he was starting to pick up the hang of it. She even took a picture of Jackson's astounded face and I immediately saved that to the memory bank. I cannot wait to rub this in his face later.
Putting down my phone I began to swim some backstrokes, admiring the night sky from my pool before arching over my head and going underwater, holding my breath as I did so. The pool was deep and I could easily swim to the bottom and stay there for a good long while, sitting at the bottom in order to close my eyes and listen to the absolute nothingness around me. I completely lost track of how long I was under there, so when I suddenly opened my eyes and felt an enormous pressure against my chest I panicked and kicked off the ground to shoot for the surface.
Immediately I released the air I had been holding in order to draw in a fresh supply, dragging it into my lungs as I scrambled for the pool side and quickly clung on for support. In a few breaths I was recovered, allowing me to calm down from my initial panic that I might have accidentally caused myself to drown. I sighed, feeling the comforting sense of weightlessness in the water as I pushed back my hair from my face and reached for my phone again in order to check the messages. My eyes flickered towards the time and when I saw the numbers, I almost dropped my phone into the pool out of shock. Ten minutes. I had been underwater for ten freaking minutes. Completely submerged and unable to draw breath, yet somehow I was still alive? I know some free divers could hold their breath for a very long time, but they went through copious amounts of training in order to survive that long without air. I had just done it on a whim.
Had I accidentally stumbled upon a technique? I was always very calm underwater, so maybe my heart slowing down had helped conserve my oxygen and since I hadn't moved anywhere, I hadn't needed to use it. I racked my brains for as many explanations as possible to satisfy my disbelief before I quickly pushed the occurrence aside, thinking of it as nothing more than a fluke. Still, I didn't stay in the water long and sent a message to Lydia asking if it were plausible that I could hold my breath for ten minutes without proper training.
She told me that it was theoretically possible as I was an accomplished swimmer and had a large lung capacity, so with her reassurance, I let the incident slide. It was just a crazy coincidence, nothing more, and by the next day, I had forgotten all about it. Instead, I focused on finding myself a suitable boyfriend for the winter formal next month. I settled on one of the captains of the other sports team, though I wasn't really all that into him, he was more of…an accessory. Still, it worked for me, and I quite enjoyed our make out sessions together whenever we got a coinciding free period.
It was nice to have something normal going on now that everything seemed to be going completely crazy around here. First that bus driver was mauled and later died from his injuries, now some video store clerk had been killed whilst Jackson and Lydia had been at the store to rent a movie. Seriously, I got a call from Lydia who was screaming and panicking without making any sense whatsoever, so I had hurried over to the store after I'd managed to get two coherent sentences strung together over what happened only to find the place swarming with cops, including the sheriff.
"Oh my god…Lydia!" Fearing the worst I had abandoned my car and ran straight towards the scene only to be held back by one of the cops as I spotted Lydia sitting in the back of an ambulance clutching Jackson's hand like her life depended on it. "That's my friend, you have to let me go over there!"
"I'm sorry, I can't do that." Pissed that I couldn't go to my friend when she needed comforting, I looked the cop directly in the eyes and focused on her, drawing in a deep breath as I lowered my tone and tried to make her see my way, willing her to see my way, if it were possible. I wanted nothing more than to be allowed past, and I told her so.
"Let…me…through…" The near singsong tune of my voice made the cop blink and judder slightly, as if placed under a trance which set her mind off on a completely different route. Relaxing her stance she gestured for me to go past so I took this momentary opportunity before she could change her mind, striding straight on up to Lydia and Jackson.
"Thank god you're here Cordy." Lydia breathed a sigh of relief as I quickly pulled her into a hug, fussing over her attentively before demanding to know what happened.
"I don't know, we just saw some huge black thing in there and it'd killed someone before smashing through that window." Jackson waved his hand dismissively behind him towards the massive crevasse in the window which opened into a gaping hole where something had broken through it. Something big. Oh hell no. Sitting down with my arm around Lydia she leaned against my shoulder as she trembled, from cold or shock I didn't know.
"Why the hell can't I just go home? I'm fine." Jackson demanded, letting go of Lydia in order to face the sheriff and demand an explanation as to why they were being held up. I quickly laced my fingers through Lydia's, wanting to make sure she knew that she wasn't alone and it was all over, humming to her under my breath so that I could try and calm her. As the simple melody I hummed reached her ears, a sudden hush seemed to fall over Lydia. She stopped shivering and her breathing mellowed, becoming deeper and more controlled than before as Jackson continued to rip into the sheriff even after he had explained that he was still here for his own welfare. "What part of 'I'm fine' are you having a problem grasping? Okay? I wanna go home."
"And I understand that."
"No, you don't understand, which kind of blows my mind, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum wage rent-a-cop like you! Okay? Now, I wanna go home!"
"Jackson!" My voice cut through the air like a scythe, a heaviness weighing against Jackson as it slammed against him almost physically and his head snapped around to meet me as I glowered at him with a powerful tone I did not know I possessed. "Shut up." Staring at me blankly Jackson actually did as he was told, backing off from the sheriff and bowing his head. I have got to remember that tone I used just then, but right now there were bigger problems at hand. They were bringing out the body now.
Helping Lydia to move aside I watched as they wheeled the body on a stretcher covered in a blanket to the ambulance in order to take it to the hospital. Part of me wanted to barf so I quickly turned my head and drew Lydia away, looking to Sheriff Stilinski. "Does Lydia need to stay here any longer for a statement or anything? It's just that she'll be much better if I take her home and get her comfortable."
"No I think we got everything for tonight, though we'll probably need to ask a few more questions soon. We've been trying to get in contact with her mom but haven't had any luck, do you know where she is?" Shaking my head, I asked again if I could take Lydia home, but the sheriff said he couldn't allow that since Lydia was still technically a minor and really needed to wait for her mom. So in the end I brought Lydia to my car and put her in the passenger seat, turning on the heaters and continued to hum to her whenever her shaking began to get bad again.
It was another half an hour before I heard the screeching of tires against the tarmac and Lydia's mom leaped out of the car, frantically searching for her daughter. "Over here Ms Martin." Waving her over, Lydia's mom ran over with a frantic cry, quickly pulling open the door of my car and began to press her hands to her baby's face, searching for any evidence of injury and trying to coax her out of her stupor.
"What happened? Is my daughter alright? What's going on here?!"
"Ms Martin, if you could come over here for a moment, I can explain." Taking over, the sheriff brought Lydia's mom away so that they could talk in private without us kids overhearing, though whilst his dad was busy elsewhere, Stiles quickly came over in order to see Lydia.
"Hey, how's she doing?" I just looked at him blankly. Sure I knew Stiles from around school. I also knew that he was exceedingly clever, kind of a nerd and had had this massive crush on Lydia since forever. I'd never told her myself because I liked to retain certain information either because it was useful or useless. This case, it was totally useless. There was no way Lydia would ever consider Stiles as a suitable boyfriend for her.
"Clearly not great, not that it's any of your business, Stilinski." Folding my arms I jutted out my hip as I raised an eyebrow at him as he awkwardly tried to brush of the fact that I was totally making him feel unwelcome.
"But is she okay, I mean…will she be alright after a good night's sleep or did something happen? She's not moving much, that's a bad sign right? And the thing that attacked that guy, she must have seen it right? What if it comes back or…?"
"Stiles? Really not helping." Clicking my fingers I waved at him to go and leave Lydia alone, knowing that having someone as hyperactive and anxious as Stiles was the last thing she needed right now. Jackson had finally been given the all clear from the paramedics with his parents standing close by and soon enough he was allowed to go home. He stopped by my car first, looking in on Lydia to see if she was alright as Stiles hovered awkwardly.
"What's wrong with her?" Jackson demanded so I just deadpanned him.
"She's in shock, obviously. Whatever it was you two saw scared the living daylights out of her. It's going to take some time for her to recover." Looking a little skittish himself, I softened towards Jackson and even went up to hug him, much to his surprise. He just stiffened when I put my arms around his neck, seemingly unsure of how to respond to my unexpected display of concern for his wellbeing. "It's okay now. You don't need to be afraid." The pull of my voice had brought the words out before I could even comprehend what I was saying, but they seemed to be exactly what Jackson needed to hear.
Slowly his arms rose up and wrapped themselves around my waist, accepting my embrace and reciprocating in turn. He was a jackass and quite intolerable, but I guess you could say that I related a lot to Jackson, we were similar in many ways so I could understand him trying to put on this brave face he had whilst actually on the inside, he was still feeling the effects of the terror he'd just endured. His face burrowed into my neck and hair as I tightened my grip around him, allowing him to pour all his insecurities onto me before he then let go with a heavy sigh, looking a lot lighter than he had before. "Thanks."
Standing up straighter I brushed him off with slight pride, shrugging my shoulders and insisting that it wasn't a huge deal. Jackson went home with his parents and I decided to go home with Lydia, much to Ms Martin's relief. I'd known her for as long as I'd known Lydia and she was something of a second mom to me, so together we helped Lydia get changed, into bed and I lay next to her all night long, borrowing some of her clothes to sleep in. I sang to her to help keep her calm, ensuring that she didn't have any nightmares and she slept with her arms around my waist, nestled against me as I stroked her hair.
We'd done this ever since we were little and when Ms Martin came to check in on us one final time, she had smiled softly upon seeing the two of us wrapped up in one another's arms. I stayed with Lydia all weekend, taking care of her and talking her through what she had experienced though sometimes she simply opted for taking something to calm her nerves so that she didn't have to be 'awake' as it were. When Monday came, Ms Martin insisted that I went to school, knowing full well that I was failing a couple of classes and promised to let me know of any changes in Lydia's condition. "I'll be back right after school."
"You know, you could take the time to go home. Your parents must have missed you and you've been wearing my clothes all weekend. Since you kept on growing after Lydia stopped, I'm not surprised we couldn't find anything that fit you." A little sheepish, I amended that I would stop by again after school and after I'd made a pit stop back home for some fresh clothes and supplies. In any case, today was Allison's birthday so I had to go home first anyway to grab her present and get changed, because although Ms Martin was a stylish lady, her fashion choices were a little too…sophisticated…for my tastes. I changed with all the speed I possessed, not wasting time on picking out an outfit and simply selected one of my previously prepared sets for such emergencies. If I don't hurry I'll be late for school and with the teacher parent conferences coming up, I really did not need any more black marks on my record.
Adding only the very basic necessities of makeup and spraying myself daisy fresh with deodorant, I grabbed my purse, Allison's present then darted back out to my car. "Bye mom! Bye dad love you!"
"Sweetie? You've been gone all weekend, slow down a second. How's Lydia? Is everything alright?" My mom called from the breakfast bar as I dashed past them in a race against time.
"She's fine, her mom's taking care of her but I really have to get going or I'm going to be late for a test." Making no further arguments, my dad looked up from his newspaper and cerulean blue eyes met mine.
"Be careful out there honey. I don't want you out late or alone anymore. You either come straight home or you go to your friend's house and don't leave there after dark. I mean it." Promising I would, I quickly kissed them both on their cheeks. As I leaned in closer I couldn't help but draw in the scent which seemed to permeate the air around them. They smelled of old books and leather from the old volumes they studied, of the oak furnishings they had decorated our home in and the fresh coffee my dad had just drank, the subtle aroma of my mom's perfume touching my nose as I leaned in close to her. I smiled at the mixture of smells which were distinctive to them, feeling a rush of comfort before I turned and dashed out the door.
I just made it in time for the first bell, exhaling in relief as I began to walk to class, keeping an eye out for Allison along the way. I knew that Lydia had already decorated Allison's locker with balloons and everything Friday afternoon ready for her today. It was a sweet gesture, though I knew Allison didn't want people to find out about her big day, but it looks like Lydia didn't quite agree with keeping things low key. "So birthday girl, how does it feel to be another year older and even more beautiful than last year?" I asked as I finally fell into step alongside her, linking my arm through hers so that she could not escape me. Looks like she hasn't quite made it to her locker yet, she'll be in for a surprise there.
"Oh god, please don't say anything I don't want a big fuss." She begged me so I gave her a grin.
"I know, I know, but hey you're worth celebrating so I got you a little something." Pulling the small gift from within my pocket I handed it to her discreetly, the black velvet box topped with a ribbon bow which made her smile before she opened it. Inside was a rather beautiful, if I do say so myself, and slightly expensive wristwatch with studded diamonds and ornate handles. It looked a little vintage but had a classy feel to it. If there was one thing I'm good at, it was finding the perfect presents for people.
"Cordy…" Breathless and in shock, Allison stared at her gift in speechlessness which made me feel quite pleased with myself. "It's so beautiful but this must have been expensive, I couldn't possibly accept something like this…"
"You are worth every penny, Ali. Besides it's your first birthday in Beacon Hills, so think of this as a welcome present as well, a bribe to make sure you stay for as long as possible." I reasoned with her, rubbing her arm. "I know you don't want a massive fuss and with what's been going on recently with these animal attacks and the curfew, right now is probably not a good time to celebrate, but once things clam down a little then Lydia and I would be honoured if you would allow us to take you shopping." I said to her then laughed a little, informing her how Lydia had told me about the severe lack of choice styles in her closet. "A little shopping and then the rest of the day, we can do whatever you want. Your choice." Leaning forwards I gave Allison a hug as she remained still in shock, wishing her a quiet happy birthday.
I didn't need the validation of a thank you or for her to tell me that she loved her gift as I walked away because I already knew. It wasn't even a gut feeling, it were as if I could literally feel just how much she loved the watch and how it suited her style and taste. Damn I was good.