Chapter 2
Who's Your Anchor?
Penelope sat in the bleachers waiting for the lacrosse team to come out onto the field and start practice. She had been anxious all day, feeling like bad news was coming. She'd never gotten these feelings before but it was like ever since the night of Scott's bite, she couldn't stop them. But maybe she shouldn't ignore them. When she finally saw them exit the school, she smiled, but it quickly morphed into a frown at just how worried they both looked, but Coach blew his whistle and immediately pulled everyone onto the field, so she would have to save her questions for later.
Pushing the binder she had open in her lap back into her bag, she pulled her jacket tighter around her torso, shivering slightly. Then she saw Scott come up in line and saw who he was going against and felt her apprehension grow. But it wasn't how she expected. It wasn't Jackson who was torn apart. When Jackson and Scott collided, Scott was thrown to the ground. Coach walked over to him. Penelope couldn't make out what he was saying but she could tell it wasn't nice.
"McCall's gonna do it again! McCall's gonna do it again!" He shouts, pointing at Scott as he runs to take his place back in the front of the line. Penelope grips her hands nervously, chewing on her lip.
Then her previous intuition is proven correct. When Scott takes off, it's clear he's on a mission. He's pissed. He slams into Jackson's right shoulder and he goes down, then Scott clutches his head and goes down shortly after. Stiles leaves the line and runs to him as everyone else crowds around Jackson. Penelope quickly grabs her bag and rushes down the bleachers over to the boys huddled on the field. As she reaches them, Stiles starts to haul Scott up.
"Come on, get up, come on," she hears Stiles tell him before she goes to Scott's right side and helps him get Scott away from everybody.
They get to the locker room and bring Scott inside.
"Come on, here you go," Stiles tells him. Penelope leaves her hand on his shoulder for a moment in comfort at the boy's distress and says, "You're gonna be alright, Scotty."
But Scott is hunched over and breathing heavily, Stiles and Penelope share a look of concern, and he stretches his arm out in front of her, in between herself and Scott.
Stiles presses on, "You alright, Scott? You alright?" he asks with concern for their friend, especially at seeing how he was behaving.
"Get away from me!" Scott suddenly roared, looking up at the two of them, fangs bared through his helmet, eyes glowing bright amber instead of their usual deep brown.
Penelope screamed in fright, she had always been a jumpy person. Even her mother walking into the kitchen unexpectedly would make her jump and shout in surprise. Seeing her friend like this terrified her. Stiles gripped her arm tight and scrambled back with her when Scott came towards them. When they rounded a corner, he suddenly jumped on top of the lockers, causing their heads to snap up at him. She saw the door wide open and grabbed Stiles's arm for them to run, but he stopped them before they could, his eyes on the fire extinguisher by the door frame.
Scott jumped down from the rafters and Stiles pulled the fire extinguisher off the wall, pulling the pin, spraying their werewolf friend, dousing him in the cold white mist. He pulls her outside the room when he's done, and just a few seconds later they hear a weak, "Stiles? Nelly? What happened," from inside the locker room.
They look back inside, relieved to see Scott, no longer wolfed-out, just looking thoroughly exhausted.
"You tried to kill us," Stiles huffed, while Nelly went to sit beside him, showing him that it was okay, she wasn't afraid of him.
But Stiles was a lot angrier, he dropped the extinguisher to the ground, and she gasped, jumping slightly at the loud clanging that it made, Scott tensing beside her, his eyes flicking to her.
"It's like I told you. It's the anger, your pulse rising. They're all triggers," Stiles said to him, coming to sit in front of the both of them, his wrist resting tiredly on Penelope's knee.
"But that's lacrosse. It's a pretty violent game if you hadn't noticed," Scott mentioned, making her think back to what Lydia had said about Jackson not disliking Scott and lacrosse just being violent.
"A lot more violent if you end up killing someone. You can't play Saturday. You have to get out of the game," Stiles said, starting off as a joke, but ending sounding deathly serious.
"But I'm first line."
"Not anymore," was Stiles's immediate answer.
"Maybe you should just focus on controlling this before lacrosse, Scott? You know we just want you to not get caught and locked up and experimented on," Penelope tells him, eliciting a laugh from both of the boys.
"How do you separate a shoulder?"
"Do I look like I hold a medical degree, Nelly?" Stiles asks her as he pulls up the video chat on his laptop to relay the news to Scott.
"You're extra sassy today," she grumbles, pouting, rolling over onto her stomach and away from him. "You love it," was his only reply before she heard the ringing of the call.
She hears most of what she already knows, Jackson has a separated shoulder, they hate him, they don't know if he's going to play but they definitely expect Scott to play.
"Oh what the hell," Stiles whines, smashing a few keys on his keyboard angrily before typing something. That got her attention, as Scott had gone completely silent on the other end.
"What happened?" she questioned, sitting up, going to stand over his shoulder, peering down at the screen, seeing the frozen image on his computer screen.
"There's someone in his room," he said as he furiously typed another message, and then a moment later the call finally shifted to Scott being dragged away from his desk by Derek Hale. Penelope gasped, her hands going over her mouth. "What is he doing?"
The call buffers again, and disconnects shortly after. Stiles scrambles to get his phone and calls Scott, who doesn't answer until the seventh call. He tells them everything Derek told him. Then they're all scared together.
Lydia met her at her locker before first period that day, with a serious look on her face. Penelope gulped, and put a shaky smile on her face, having a feeling this was about Jackson and Scott's encounter yesterday.
"Hey, Lydia, what's up? How's Jackson?" she tried to sound like she wasn't in the middle of an internal crisis.
"He'll be fine, the real question is, how's Scott?" Lydia asks, closing the blonde's locker, quirking an eyebrow.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"I'm hearing rumors that he's not playing tomorrow, that he went to Coach and told him so, is that true?" Lydia crossed her arms.
"How should I know?" Penelope asked her, trying to play dumb.
"You told me you two were best friends!" the strawberry-blonde laughed indignantly, knowing the girl knew more than she was letting on.
"Fine, I don't think he's going to play," Penelope finally relented, not wanting Lydia to be mad at her, "he has a really good reason though."
"Oh, it's not gonna matter, he's playing." And with that, she turned around and stormed off, in search of Scott, Penelope assumed. Nelly pulled out her phone to warn him.
Penelope: Lydia is very mad at you, she heard you're not playing tmrw, be prepared for her wrath.
Scott: thanks for the heads up, Nels 3 but i'm not sure theres much i can do about it lol
Exactly what she was afraid of happened when she got to math. She had that class with both Lydia and Scott, so when they were called to the board, she couldn't hear what was being said, but she knew something was happening. When Lydia finished first, she sent Penelope a victorious grin as she marched back to her seat. Penelope glanced at the board, seeing Lydia's side completely done, while Scott had done only a few steps. She felt bad for Scott but was amazed at just how intelligent Lydia really was. This girl really impressed her.
"Mr. McCall, you're not even close to finishing your problem," their teacher reprimanded Scott as he stood at the board, continuing to struggle. Penelope could tell she would need to tutor him this year. Math had never been his strong suit. But to be honest, school had never been Scott's strong suit.
When Scott finally finished, he returned to his seat, giving her a look that he didn't want to talk about it. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to bother him, and also because they were in the middle of class. But she would confront him about this later, she wanted to know what Lydia had said.
An arm shoots out, grabbing the back of her jacket, pulling her from her locker so quickly that she doesn't even have time to shout in alarm. Penelope turns her head quickly to see Stiles.
"You almost gave me a heart attack, what are you doing?" she whispered harshly when he let her go apologetically.
"Sorry but we've got to get to Scotty, my dad's here," his eyes widen.
They run to Scott's locker, Stiles repeating his actions, "Tell us what they're saying," he commands when he drags Scott around a corner, the three of them seeing the Sheriff, another officer, and a staff member.
"A curfew because of the body," Scott says, making Stiles groan and Penelope sigh, running her hands through her hair worriedly.
"Seriously unbelievable. My Dad's out looking for a rabid animal while the jerkoff who actually killed the girl is just hanging out doing whatever he wants," Stiles exclaims.
"What do you expect to do? If we tell your dad about Derek, we have to tell him about Scott eventually," she tries to reason.
"I can do something," he replies.
"Like what?" Scott questions him, sharing a worried look with Penelope, knowing that their friend was probably going to get them into big trouble again.
"Like find the other half of the body."
"Are you kidding?" Scott shouts in anger, but Stiles just walks off, leaving the two of them standing alone.
"We have to help him so that he doesn't get himself killed, you know he will," she sighs.
"I know, but I'm getting tired of him not listening to me on this," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder so that she would look at him.
She couldn't shake the nagging aching feeling that things were getting worse, and fast. "Things are going to be alright, we're here for you always, Nels," Scott assured her, a grin on his face. Until he noticed Lydia and Allison down the hall, the former introducing the latter to a lacrosse player. A decidedly very attractive non-Scott lacrosse player. He looked absolutely crushed.
"Scotty, you know how cool you are right?" she said dumbly, not knowing how else to articulate just how easy it would be for him to have anyone he wanted.
"So are you," he said absent-mindedly before going towards the brunette girl.
Being collected after school to race to Scott's house wasn't a big deal anymore. Stiles ushered her into the jeep after they got the text about the body from Scott, and he raced them over. Sharing his excitement at knowing the location of the top half of a dead girl's body wasn't something she could do though, so when he bounded up the stairs to his room, she followed at normal speed.
"I could smell blood." She catches Scott saying it when she enters the room.
"Wait I'm sorry, hold on just a second, you can smell blood now?" Penelope asks incredulously, having a very awkward and shameful thought, silently thanking her body that it wasn't the time of the month that it was.
"That's awesome, I mean that's terrible. Whose blood?" Stiles rambles
"I don't know, but when we do, your dad nails Derek for the murder. And then you guys help me figure out how to play lacrosse without changing. Because there's no way I'm not playing that game," Scott says seriously, tightening the knot on his lacrosse stick as he does so.
"So what's the plan?" she asks, rubbing her sweaty palms on her shorts as she climbs into the backseat of the Jeep.
"We, uh, go to the hospital and Scott tries to get a scent," Stiles says sheepishly.
"A scent? Of what, Calvin Klein?" Penelope laughs, thinking that they're joking.
"No, the other half of the body is in the morgue, so I'm gonna catch that scent," Scott explains, looking thoroughly disgusted.
"Is that really such a good idea? What if someone catches you? What if you get a disease from sniffing the dead body?" she neurosed.
The two boys laughed at her antics, and Scott turned around to put his very too large hand on her knee. She noticed how warm and calloused it was immediately. If he noticed her breath hitch with his werewolf hearing, he didn't comment.
"I'll be fine, I swear, don't worry about me, Nelly," he assured her.
"Yeah maybe you should be less worried for the werewolf and more worried for us now that we've had our skinny human asses dragged into this mess," Stiles ranted from the driver's seat as they pulled into the hospital.
They all entered, Scott pulling off to enter the morgue almost right away. Stiles and her walked towards the lobby, and when they rounded a corner they saw Lydia sitting in a chair. She smiled at the girl, who she realized hadn't noticed either of them. She went back around the corner and took a seat in the empty chair as Stiles walked towards the redhead.
Penelope tensed, feeling like some second hand embarrassment was coming. "Hey, Lydia. You probably don't remember me, but I sit behind you in Biology. And I know you're dating Jackson and all that, but I always thought we had a kind of connection. Unspoken, of course. But I sort of think it would be cool to get to know you. Sort of," Stiles finished awkwardly when Lydia still hadn't said anything. Penelope couldn't see what was going on so she couldn't see the look on her face.
"Hold on. Give me a second," she finally hears Lydia say. "I didn't get any of what you just said. Is it worth repeating?" Lydia finishes, and Penelope realizes with a break of her heart that she must've been wearing some sort of ear buds the whole time Stiles was talking to her.
"Uh, no, sorry, I'm gonna sit, uh, you don't care," he said, walking backwards until he almost sat on her lap. He looked at her with a look that said 'don't say a word', being used to her and Scott's feelings on his crush on Lydia, and quickly scooted into the seat next to her.
"Okay fine, I won't. But you know what I want to say. You and Scott are both so great, I just wish you understood that," she sighed, looking away. When she turned back, she was met with Stiles eyes staring at her with an unreadable look on his face.
"You really think so?" he asks, his cheeks reddening slightly.
"I know so, why else would I be friends with you two gumballs?" she smirked, elbowing him.
They're waiting for Scott, talking quietly about Derek and what's taking Scott. Then they hear Jackson and Lydia talking about his cortisone shot he got for the game on Saturday.
"The pros do it all the time! Do you want to be a little high school amatueur?" Lydia momentarily threw a fit, before composing herself back to her usual cool demeanor, "Or do you want to go pro?" she heard.
She gave Stiles a look, which he shared with her. Lydia had begun to become a good friend of hers, but she was still not a nice person sometimes, and she definitely didn't want her with Stiles if this is how she was in a relationship.
"The scent was the same," Scott says, interrupting their moment, walking up on them as she rubs Stiles back briefly. "What happened?" he asks with a curious glint in his eyes.
"Nothing," Stiles says quickly, "You're sure it's the same?"
"Yes!"
"So he did bury the other half on his property? In the plot that you noticed earlier?" Penelope asks.
Scott nods, "Which means we have proof he killed the girl."
"I say we use it," Stiles decides, and Penelope bristles, "How?" she and Scott both ask at the same time, her more worried than him.
"Tell me something first. Are you doing this because you want to stop Derek? Or because you want to play the game Saturday and he said you couldn't?" Stiles asks.
"There were bite marks on the legs. Bite marks. And if he knows about Allison now…" Scott trails off and steps closer to Stiles, lowering his voice, "he saw Nelly in the woods, Stiles, what if he decides to go after her next?"
"Okay. Then we're going to need a shovel."
When they pull up to the dilapidated building, Penelope is glad she put on a pair of leggings instead of the shorts she was wearing. The chilly air is biting into her exposed skin as she steps out. "Something's different," she hears Scott say.
"Different how?" Stiles asks.
Scott just shakes his head, saying he doesn't know, looking back towards the road. Penelope walks up to him, "Maybe it's because Derek was just here and he has you on edge."
"Maybe," he smiles appreciatively, though she can tell he's still worried. "Let's just get this over with."
The three of them begin digging, but once the hole narrows enough, Penelope backs out since there's only enough room for two people to stand in it, and they were getting nowhere with her inside. "Keep watch," they told her. So here she was, looking out for the familiar sleek black Camaro and the creepy but handsome man that drove it. She hears them arguing about what to do if he catches them.
"You run one way, Nelly and I run the other, and whichever one he catches first, too bad," Stiles said, which made her laugh.
"Wait why do you guys get to go together but I have to be by myself?" Scott cried.
"Because you're a werewolf probably, if he caught us he could kill both of us way easier than you alone," Penelope said, looking back at the boys in the hole.
"I hate that plan," Scott said indignantly. "By that logic, Nelly comes with me then." Then they hear a thud and a squish where Scott's shovel connects with something.
"Alright, stop, stop, stop!" Stiles exclaims.
Penelope peers over the grave, as the two of them, uncover something tied up in what looks like a sack. "Hurry," Scott grunts as they begin untying the knots.
"I'm trying, but did he have to tie the thing in like, 900 knots?" Stiles said exasperatedly. Nelly jumped down in between the two of them, crouching, her nimble fingers working quickly on the knots with them.
When the sack is pulled back to reveal a wolf head, the three shout in alarm, falling backward in fear. Penelope wonders why a dead wolf surprised them so much when they were fully expecting to see a dead woman instead, but it did. She looks up, seeing the boys had jumped out of the grave, "How the hell did you guys do that?" she raised her hands quickly, grabbing the edge, tearing her eyes from the wolf. They each grabbed a hand and helped pull her from the hole they had dug.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a wolf," Scott said incredulously.
"Yeah I can see that, I thought you smelled blood, as in human blood!" Stiles shouted.
Penelope glanced around nervously, "Maybe we should keep our voices down, guys. In case Derek comes back." They nod, and Scott says, "I told you guys something was different."
"This doesn't make sense," Stiles mused, while Penelope shone her flashlight towards the trees, an unnerving feeling coming over her.
"Yeah, we gotta get out of here," Scott says finally.
"Okay, help me cover this up," and when Nelly doesn't turn, the flashlight still pointed at the trees, still fixed and unmoving, he calls, "Penelope? You see something?"
"No, no, I just thought I heard something, okay let's cover this up so we can leave, this place gives me the heebie-jeebies," she shivered, placing the light down. Before they could begin covering the hole, Stiles stops again.
"What's wrong?" Scott asks, sounding like he was having trouble breathing.
"Do you see that flower?" Stiles asks them.
"It's monkshood," Penelope says, "it's common here."
"What about it?" Scott eyed the flower curiously.
"Isn't that like wolfsbane?" Stiles asks her.
"How do you two know all of this?"
"I'm in the horticulture club, I'm surprised you don't know from working at the animal clinic, monkshood is dangerous to pets," she explains.
"Haven't you ever seen The Wolf Man? Lon Chaney Jr.? Claude Rains? The original classic werewolf movie?" Stiles leaps into his explanation as Scott shakes his head, "You are so unprepared for this."
Stiles gets up and grabs the flower, slowly unraveling the rope that was connected to it until the whole thing was unearthed, a circle glowing momentarily. Scott and Penelope are left shocked when a girl is in the hole where a wolf previously laid.
"Stiles," Scott calls out weakly to him, getting his attention.
Penelope looks at the two boys, any thought in her mind of having a normal sophomore year going straight out the window.
Scott and Penelope leaned against one of the patrol vehicles, watching as Derek Hale was escorted from his home in cuffs. Penelope diverted her eyes when he glared at the two of them, his eyes focusing on the boy beside her. She reached out and grabbed his hand, feeling him squeeze hers in thanks. Then they see Stiles creep through the woods, headed straight towards the car Derek was just put into.
Scott and Penelope motion for him to stop, waving their arms and mouthing 'no' at him across the yard, but he barely glances at them and hops into the front seat.
"He's gonna get himself killed," Penelope sighed, crossing her arms.
"Maybe worse," Scott laughed, nodding at the Sheriff as he stormed towards his son, having now seen him in the passenger seat of the cop car.
After Stiles had received his lecture, the trio piled back into Stiles' Jeep.
"I can't find anything about Wolfsbane being used for burial," Scott said frustratedly.
"I can check the books they keep in the horticulture club-room at school on Monday," Penelope suggested, leaning forward to see what Scott was researching on his phone, unbuckling her seatbelt since they were on an empty road.
"Keep looking. Maybe it's like a ritual. Like they bury you as a wolf. Or maybe it's like a special skill. Like something you have to learn," Stiles mused from the drivers seat, and Penelope glanced at him, taking in the boys drastically different profiles.
"I'll put it on my to-do list. Right underneath: Figure out how the hell I'm playing the game tonight."
"I thought you told Coach you weren't playing?" she asked, but she knew she wasn't going to get an answer.
"Maybe it's different for girl werewolves-" Stiles steamrolled over her.
"Okay, stop it," Scott finally snapped.
"Stop what?"
"Stop saying werewolves. Stop enjoying this so much, at least Nelly has been understanding!" Scott shouts.
"Are you okay?" Stiles asks.
Scott puts his hand to his head, rubbing his eyes. Sweat beads at his forehead. He starts blinking furiously, breathing heavily. Penelope leans forward more, placing a hand on his arm. At first he doesn't register her.
"No, I'm not okay. I'm so far from being okay," he says.
"You're going to have to accept this, Scott. Sooner or later-" but Penelope cuts Stiles off, "Hold on, give him a minute."
"I can't-" Scott tries again.
"You have to-" Stiles just continues to interrupt.
"No, I can't-I can't breathe," Scott finally says.
He lurches up suddenly, head pulling back, mouth opening as if a knife had just stabbed right into his spine, "Pull over!"
Stiles swerves, "What's happening?"
Scott pulls open Stiles' bag, and Penelope sees the rope, flower still attached. "Stiles its poisoning him!
"You kept it?" Scott shouts angrily.
"What was I supposed to do with it?" Scott looks up at Stiles with eyes now burning yellow.
"Stop the car!" he roars.
Stiles slams to a halt, forcing Penelope into the middle of the front seat, jamming her hips against the center console. She sees Stiles grab his bag, running outside. Scott immediately opens his door before running outside. "Scott, wait!" She tries to reach out and grab him, but her hand barely grabs onto his jacket before he's gone. Stiles is back in a heartbeat and she's climbed into the passenger seat.
"Come on! Scott ran off, let's go!"
"I just need to know if you've gotten any odd calls," Stiles told the dispatch worker, referring to Scott as him and Penelope drove around looking for him. She had tried to convince him not to call in, knowing it wouldn't end well. It never did.
"Odd how?"
"Uh like an odd person, or… a dog-like individual roaming the streets," Penelope groaned, placing a hand over her face.
"I'm hanging up on you now."
"No! Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait!"
"That's what you get, what were you thinking? 'Dog-like individual'? Are you trying to expose the secret of werewolves within a week of your best friend becoming one?" Penelope lectured him.
"Well we don't have anything else to go off of," he quipped.
"Unfortunately the only thing he seems drawn to when he's like that is...," she trailed off, looking at him.
He met her eyes, a worried look marring his face instantly.
"Allison."
Penelope waited anxiously for the boys to come out of the locker room, knowing that Stiles hadn't been able to find or get a hold of Scott before the game either. She finally saw them walk out, breathing a sigh of relief. Then when she saw Scott go on the field and Stiles nervously chewing his glove on the bench, she felt the anxiety return.
"Hey, Nelly girl," she heard someone say affectionately, feeling her hair ruffled.
Looking up she saw Scott's mother, who had been like a second mother to her since Scott and her had been so close. Her own mother and Ms. McCall were close as well, since they worked at the hospital together.
"Hey, Ms. McCall, how was work?" she tried to hide her nerves, knowing how excited Melissa was for her son's first game.
"It was fine," she sighed, "when are you gonna start calling me Melissa like I've told you?"
Penelope winced apologetically at the woman, "I'm sorry, it's just too weird, and it feels disrespectful, it'd be like calling my mom Rhonda."
Melissa laughed and nodded, understanding. "Okay, okay, I don't want to make you uncomfortable. Hey, you ready for Scott?" she grinned excitedly.
"Uh, yeah! Totally, yeah. Super duper excited," Penelope said, watching the field closely as the faceoff began.
Then she sat in awe as none of the players would pass to Scott.
"What are they doing?" she whispered.
Scott runs for the ball when it hits the ground, Jackson following him. Jackson shoves him to the ground roughly. Melissa gasps beside her. "Okay this isn't cool," Penelope says, standing beside her and hurrying down the bleachers. She goes behind the bench, searching for Stiles' familiar buzzed head.
"What the hell are they doing out there?" she whispers to him, making him jump in surprise.
"Oh, Jesus, you scared me, I don't know. I'm sure it's about his shoulder though, you know how Jackson is. And he's the Captain so I'm sure he was able to get the others involved. But I'm more worried about Scott losing control," Stiles explained, scooting over so that she could take a seat beside him. Then the two of them turn and see Lydia and Allison in the stands.
The girls hold up a large poster board that says 'WE LUV U JACKSON', cheering for the boy who just made the first goal of the night.
"Brutal," Stiles sighed.
"Do you think those two are going to go anywhere? With everything going on now?" she questioned, seeing Scott's frustration and anger on the field when he noticed the sign.
"If he has anything to say about it, then yes, but you know I don't think it's a good idea, Nelly," he told her.
She could see Scott hunched over, the condensation heavy as he exhaled forcefully. The referee stopped briefly to check on him but seemed unnerved, as did the opposing teams players. Penelope went back to the stands to sit next to Ms. McCall before the next play started.
When it did, Scott leapt into action, literally leaping in the air and over players. As he weaved through people, got the ball and made the shot, his mom cheered, grabbing Penelope's hand.
"Yeah! That's my son!"
But things got even weirder when the opposing team passed Scott the ball, making Penelope certain that something more supernatural had to be going on if he was intimidating them that much out there. She shook her legs nervously, unable to stop them. Making the next shot, the ball completely went through the player's stick.
Melissa smiled, at a loss for words, looking at Penelope. "Wha-? I mean, where did that come from?"
"I- he said he's been practicing all summer, I guess he really took it seriously," she lied through her teeth, smiling with her.
She watched as the next play was set up, the game now tied 5-5. Scott inevitably got the ball again, but she noticed that once again he seemed to be losing control.
"Come on, Scotty. You can do this, you've got this, just breath," she whispered under her breath, her fingernails digging into her palms.
It was like time stood still as the final ten seconds counted down on the clock. Scott stood still until two players ran at him, then he threw the ball and landed it in the goal. The cheers were immediate, Melissa hugging her.
"I'm gonna go say something to Stiles, okay?" she smiled and let her know before going back down to the bench in order to discuss what in the hell just happened with their werewolf friend.
But before she could get there she noticed Scott running towards the locker rooms. She saw Allison and called out, "Hey, Allison, did you enjoy the game?"
"Oh, yeah, Scott was great, I mean it was great," she laughed nervously.
"Speaking of Scott, I've gotta go give him something, but I'll see you Monday, okay?" Penelope said before running towards the locker rooms, hoping that would stop Allison from venturing to see the boy tonight at least.
"Scotty?"
She saw his helmet on the ground when she came in, but saw no sign of the boy. She swallowed slightly before continuing, checking around the lockers when she cleared the row.
"Scott, are you in here?" she tried again, hoping that maybe he was calmed down by now and just unable to respond. Penelope saw the broken mirror and gasped, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears as she glanced down at the bloodied pieces of glass, "Oh, Scott."
Feeling like someone was watching her, she backed up until her back was against a locker. The silence was eerie, until she started hearing creaks and groans like someone was moving around. "Scott?" she called out in a whisper, starting to become frightened.
She walked around the lockers slowly until she got to the showers, sighing when she saw him with his back to her. "Scott you almost gave me a heart attack," she said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You okay?"
That got his attention, causing him to turn around and look at her, with a strange look in his eyes. "Yeah, I-I started to lose control," he admitted shakily.
"I could tell," she said softly, "but you were pretty amazing out there regardless," she smiled, causing Scott to grin at her lopsidedly.
"Allison was looking for you," she told him, remembering the brunette girl on the field.
"She was?" he said half-heartedly, still gazing at her like she was the only thing he was interested in at the moment.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it was a very good idea for her to come in here right now, I hope you don't mind," she explained.
"What if I had hurt you?" was the only thing he said, taking her hand in his. "Nelly, what if I had hurt you?"
"But you didn't, and you wouldn't," her breath hitched, taking in their sudden proximity and his skin contact.
"I heard you when I was playing, you know. I think you brought me back, gave me control," his hand slid from her hand to her wrist, causing her to shiver.
"Scott, what are you doing?" Penelope pleaded with him, looking up at him since he was so much taller than her. He began leaning into her when they heard a skidding noise from behind them.
"Penelope? Scott?"
Penelope stepped back from Scott, his hand lingering on her wrist, not letting go until she gave him another pleading look.
"Uh, what's going on here?" Stiles asked, confusion and a little bit of anger written all over his face.
"Scott was losing control, and Allison was heading here so I convinced her not to and came instead, but he's okay now," she said, not meeting Scott's eyes.
Stiles looked like he wanted to question them, but continued, "Okay, well we have bigger problems now. The medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found."
"And?" Scott asked him
"I'll keep it simple. Medical Examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek is human, not animal. Derek not killer. Derek let out of jail," Stiles explained.
"Are you kidding?" Scott asked, his eyes widening.
Penelope tensed beside them, worrying not only for Scott but for Stiles since the last time they had seen Derek he had threatened the werewolf.
"No, and here's the bigger kick in the ass. My dad ID'd the dead girl. Both halves. Her name was Laura Hale."
"Wait, Laura Hale was Derek's older sister," Penelope gasped, a tear escaping her eye as the boys looked to her, Scott's hand going back to hers supportively, and even though she was still feeling unsure about earlier, she took it gratefully.