Going to School
She kept her pedipalps on her human's hand until he was sleeping. Then she climbed up his arm, then over his neck, and finally up to his head so that she was resting in his soft hair. She decided that this is where she will rest until it is time to hunt.
She thought about what her human had said before he went to sleep, he was worried that she would leave him. She didn't like that, she wanted him to know that she is staying for as long as is possible.
He is kind to her, he speaks to her, he is even going to get rid of the horrible white slime that he was going to put in his mouth. Humans are so fond of their slime, but her human is willing to change his so that she will be comfortable.
She is glad that he feels as she does, that he knows at least in part that she understands him. She is not glad that he believes that he might be crazy, she has seen crazy humans before, they always try to kill her when she is hunting or hiding. Her human is nothing like that, she will have to find a way to show him that he is not crazy and that she absolutely does not have better things to do. The thing she needs to do is hunt, and she can do that here, or just outside of her humans home. She doesn't need to leave completely for her needs.
She lied there and felt her human move in his sleep, and wondered about him. She wasn't sure that she helped him enough when his eyes leaked, but they did stop after a while. Whoever made them leak in the first place deserved to be hunted, or at the very least bitten. And she would do it if she ever met the human who hurt him. Her human deserves the very best of everything, and she is going to learn how to make it happen.
She lies there and pats the human's head with her pedipalps, she wants him to feel safe in this vulnerable state he is in, but she also needs to hunt.
She hesitates for a few moments, but then she slowly gets up and starts to walk down her human's body, and onto his bed.
She turns and looks at him for a second, and then she starts to make her way down the bed, and onto the floor. It's been almost a week since she hunted last, and it's time for another one.
She crawls over the floor and then hides underneath the nightstand, and then she relaxes and looks around the room. She hopes she doesn't have to leave to hunt tonight, so she waits and listens. She will feel the vibrations of any possible prey, on the floor through her legs.
She is hoping for a big meal this time, so she doesn't have to hunt again for some time. She wants to stay as close to her human as possible, after all.
Just when she is thinking of going outside to hunt, a green beetle with white legs fly in through the open window. It looks large enough to keep her from needing to hunt for at least another week. She keeps her eyes on the beetle as it flies inside, and lands on her humans' desk. She carefully walks towards the desk's leg and starts climbing up to the surface of the desk. There she stops and looks at her prey, it's still in the same spot where it landed.
She stays still for a second, and then she runs forwards and leaps onto her prey, she grabs it with her pedipalps, and wrestles the prey, and rolls on her back to hold it in a position where she can sink her fangs into it, and kill it with her venom. After it's dead she starts feeding.
When she has finished, she leaves the dead beetle where it is and begins to move back towards her human on the bed. Once back with him, she crawls up and settles down on the pillow beside his head. She feels absolute contentment, she has newly fed, she is warm, she feels safe, and she has her human. Life could not be better for a spider, in her own opinion, and so she followed her human in sleep.
When his alarm went off, Stiles had no motivation to move or open his eyes. Because that meant facing his problems, and he really didn't want to go to school, and see Scott. To see him with his pack, his new friends. Stiles had never even imagined having a life where he and Scott weren't friends, and now he had to live it.
He was brought out of his thoughts by a tapping on his hand, he opened his eyes and looked down. He smiled despite his earlier depressing thoughts because there on his hand was his little Wolf Spider. He moved to turn off the alarm that was still ringing and looked at the little brown spider.
"Good morning, little lady. It's good to see you're real, after all, I hope you slept well." He told her, and then he wondered if she had slept at all or if she was nocturnal. He'll have to do some more reading on the Wolf Spider subject. Maybe he'll be able to figure out what species she is, but then again from what he remembers reading yesterday there are around 200 different species in the United States alone, and they all look similar so he's not very hopeful that he'll find the exact one. But he can try at least, it might come in handy to know some specific details if she is planning to stick around. Which he hopes she will.
"Ugh, alright I have to get up now, or I'm gonna be late for school." He says, but then not going today wouldn't be the end of the world. Still, he gets up from the bed, mindful of the spider on his hand, then he walks over to his desk and lowers his hand. "I have to go and brush my teeth and shower, so I think it's best if you stay here until I'm back." He says, and she reluctantly walks off of his hand and onto the desk. Then he sees a dead green beetle lying by his finished homework, it has big holes on the side and he wonders if his spider is the one that killed it.
He points to the beetle and asks, "Did you do that, little lady?" She taps her feet a little, and he thinks she looks really proud of herself. "Well, it's good to know I don't have to worry about insects for as long as you are here." He tells her, to make sure she knows he's not against it, she does need to eat after all, and it's true he won't be overwhelmed by annoying little insects. He brings his hand close to her and uses one of his fingers to pet her again. He is still surprised that she feels so soft and fluffy.
He walks to his closet and looks for some clean clothes, and makes a mental note to do some laundry later. Then he goes to the bathroom and turns the shower on, and then closes the door. He looks at himself in the mirror and noticed that he looked so much better than he has in weeks. He looks well-rested and even happy. He takes his toothbrush and puts a little toothpaste on it, and hopes it won't make his spider uncomfortable, and starts to brush his teeth.
He thinks for a while, school is gonna be he'll today, but he might be able to make it better for himself if he tries to show Scott, and his friends that it doesn't affect him. It does of course, but they don't need to know that. He makes another mental note to research how to lie to werewolves and spits out the toothpaste. Then he undressed and got into the shower.
When he is done, he dries off, gets dressed, and goes back to his room. He looks at the clock and sees he has an hour before he has to be at school. He packs up his homework, and everything else he'll need for school, and turns to his spider that is still where he left her earlier.
"I'm going down to the kitchen for breakfast, you can tag along if you want to." He tells her and holds his hand in front of her so she can do as she wishes. She walks into his hand, and continues up to his arm, and settles on his shoulder. "So you're comings with me then," he says with a smile. Maybe he'll get through today after all.
He gets out some eggs, and ingredients for omelets, and starts to make them. He's not really hungry, but he knows he'll have to eat, he can't afford to lose more weight now. He's lost a lot through the past year, because of his constant fear, and anxiety, so he's learned how to eat when he's not hungry.
He looks at the omelet and sees it's just about done, and takes out a plate and cutlery, then he puts the omelet on the plate, and puts the pan in the sink. He'll do the dishes after school.
She likes being on his shoulder, she realizes. She could stay there forever if she didn't have to hunt. She watches her human as he procures his own food, she's always thought humans were weird with their eating habits, but then humans are a weird species.
After his feeding was over, he walked over to the door that leads outside and stopped. He held out his hand and spoke again, "I have to put on a jacket, so you'll have to move somewhere else for a while, alright?"
Well if she must move then she will, as long as he'll let her go back later. She crawls onto his hand, and he moves it to a small table, so she steps onto it, and turns to look at her human as he puts on another layer of clothes. When he's finished he looks at her again, and she truly enjoyed when he looked at her, there wasn't even the tiniest bit of fear.
"I'm going to school now, little lady. I don't know what to do about you though." He said, and she was confused. Is he not going to take her with him? Is he leaving her, she doesn't know what a school is, but she doesn't like it if ut's going to take her human from her. She walks towards him, and lifts a leg up towards him, hoping he's going to understand that she wants to come with him. He crouches down so that his face is close to her, and reached out to her, and he pets her again. She likes it when he does that, she hopes he'll never stop.
"I'd love to take you with me, but I'm pretty sure bringing spiders to class isn't allowed," he says, and he looks sad again, she taps his hand with one of her pedipalps again, and takes a few steps closer to his hand, and makes a show of trying to climb onto it.
He smiles a bit, "But then again, you're tiny, I'm sure we can hide you somehow, but then you have to promise to stay hidden from other people, okay little lady?" He says, and sure she can work with that if she gets to stay with him. So she taps his hand once more, and then climbed up his arm and settles on his shoulder again. Maybe school isn't such a bad thing if she gets to go with him after all.
They go outside and get inside the big blue thing that stands on the ground. And then he gets it to make sounds too, she's seen these things before, they're fast, and if you're not careful then it'll run right over you. She's seen many animals after they've met with one of the big fast creatures.
She must have made some kind of movement to announce her nerves because her human looks at her again.
"It's alright, this is just my jeep, it'll take us to school faster than walking. Besides I wouldn't let anything hurt you." He says and pets her again, before turning forwards and makes the Jeep move. If her human says it's fine, then she'll believe him. He'll keep her safe l, and she'll keep him safe.
Before she knows it he makes the Jeep move to a place where several more of the large, fast, and deadly creatures exist. Are they all Jeeps then? She doesn't know, and she can't ask him, even though she really wishes she could.
Then he stops the Jeep and puts his hand in front of her again.
"We're here, so now we need to figure out how to hide you from everyone else." He says, so she steps onto his hand, and looks at him.
"Do you have any ideas? 'Cause, right now I'm drawing a blank." He says and looks at her. She looks back and thinks. She has hidden from humans many times, and she's found that often it's easier to hide from them by being closer than is necessarily safe. But she'll always be safe with her human, so she climbed inside the sleeve of his jacket, and stays there. She taps his arm to let him know she's there, and she'll stay there.
"Yeah, Okey, that works, good job." He tells her with a fond voice. "Now I'll just have to get through the rest of the day, but as long as I have you with me, I think I'll be fine." He finishes. Good, she thinks. She likes that she can help him, even if she cannot speak to him as he speaks to her.
She taps his arm again and settles in, it's gonna be interesting to see what school is, after all, she's never been to one before.
Stiles gets out of the car, he's more nervous than he thought he would be. It could be worse though, he could be completely alone but he isn't, he has his spider with him. It makes him smile to think about her, she seems like she wants to stay with him. This means he really needs to come up with some kind of name for her. She deserves a good name, and not just be called a little lady all the time.
What do you even name a spider? It seems weird to give her a 'normal' human name, but it could also be kinda cool to do that. He could talk about her to people, and they'll just think his new friend is human.
But then again, he doesn't really have anyone to tell about her anyway. His dad is rarely around, and he's started working more since Stiles started lying to him about all of the supernatural stuff that's going on in his life now. He usually works nightshifts and goes home when Stiles is at school, just to avoid him. Stiles hates that he has disappointed his dad so much, but he needs to keep him safe even if it means that his dad hates him at the end of the day. Scott was his only real friend, and he can't tell him about his spider because Scott has decided that humans can't be a part of his new werewolf lifestyle. Which is ridiculous because he's dating Allison, who's a human as well as a hunter. And Jackson is still friends with Danny, who seems ignorant to all of the supernatural shit, but he's smart so he probably knows more than he lets on. Then there's Lydia, Stiles was cut off from the pack before he found out what Lydia is. She was bitten by Peter but she didn't turn into a werewolf. So that's something else he has to look up. The point is, Scott's excuse is just that, a bullshit excuse to keep the puny, defenseless, human Stiles safe' as if he can't do that himself. He was raised by the sheriff, after all, he knows a thing or two about defense, and it might not seem like it but he does actually know how to handle a gun. he's pretty good at it even.
He's gotten all the way to the front doors of the school now, and his thoughts have done nothing to help his anxiety, his heart is beating like crazy in his chest and he just wants the day to be over already. As if she can sense his thoughts his spider taps his arm again, he likes her tapping a lot more than he thought he would. Not that he thought much about spiders before yesterday. He's really glad he let himself be convinced to bring her with him, he just has to be careful to not let her be seen or to let her get hurt. He's afraid he might accidentally smoosh her in his shirtsleeve, but he has to trust that she can move out of the way if she has to.
he walks inside the school and makes his way to his locker, he opens it and takes his backpack off, and opens it. He pulls out all but the one book he needs for his first class and puts them in his locker. He makes sure he has a notebook and a few pens, and then he closes the locker and zips up his bag, and throws it on his back again. He takes a deep breath and starts walking to his first class, which he shares with Scott, Jackson, and Danny. It reminds him that he has to find a new place to sit, no way is he going to sit with Scott and let him peek on his notes anymore.
He gets to the classroom and before he steps inside he hears Scott and Allison laughing just behind him, his heart beats a little harder again, but he doesn't stop he walks inside of the classroom and looks around. There are seven empty seats, two of which are the one he and Scott usually sit at, near the back. Instead of going there, he sits beside a girl in the third row. She gives him a weird look but doesn't say anything. He's grateful because he's not sure he can talk without crying right now, his anxiety at a new high. He feels the spider tap him again and he takes another deep breath and tries h best to calm down a little bit. There are five minutes until the class starts and the teacher isn't here yet, so he turns to the girl, he's pretty sure her name is Amanda but he could be wrong and asks, "Is it alright if I sit here today? cause I can leave if you want me to." She looks shocked, he guesses that she didn't expect him to talk to her, which is fair he might be known for talking, but not so much with people that's not Scott.
"Yeah, it's fine. Don't you usually sit with Scott though?", she says as an answer. Ouch, he hoped to not have to talk about him, and as luck would have it Scott walks inside of the room right then and looks at Stiles as if he had kicked Scott's puppy or something.
"Yes, usually, but we decided that we needed a break from each other, so I figured I'd sit with someone that doesn't want to copy my notes all the time," Stiles said back, with an amused tone as if it was a bit of a joke. He barely even knows this girl's name, he doesn't have to give her all of the dirty details. She laughed a bit at that and held out her hand for him to shake.
"I'm Mandy." She said. Mandy, well he was almost right unless it's a nickname from Amanda cause then he was right. He takes her hand and answers, "Nice to meet you, Mandy, I'm Stiles."
"yeah I know, I think most people in the school know who you are. You did get Donald kicked out of school, and there are rumors that you're the one who put up all of Sam's dick pics, that he kept sending to all the cheerleaders when the teachers and the principal didn't do anything to stop him." She said, and wow he had no idea that that was common knowledge, but that was kinda cool actually. People knew he existed as his own person and not only see him as the sheriff's kid, or Scott McCall's best friend.
"Huh, I did not know that people thought that." He said absentmindedly, this day is getting better already. He is having a conversation with someone other than Scott. Maybe he can make new friends, after all, friends that won't ditch him for girlfriends and popularity. Mandy looks at him questionably, "So did you do that or not?"
Stiles gives a small smirk in return, "Well Mandy, I can neither confirm nor deny your accusations", she laughs a little in response and goes to say something else, but at that moment the teacher walks inside and starts the class, so instead she smiles at him and turns forwards. Stiles smiles back and for the first time that day, he truly feels as if he's going to be fine. He has his spider tapping on his arm, he feels happy and he feels as if he can move on. If Scott doesn't want anything to do with him then Stiles doesn't want anything to do with Scott either. He can make new friends, and he can move on with his life. Of course, that doesn't mean he'll just ignore werewolves and stuff, he's still very much interested in learning all he can about that world, but he doesn't need Scott for that.
The next three classes go by smoothly, he shares all of them with at least one of the pack members, but he also shares the next two with Mandy and the third with Mandy's friend Sean who was okay with Stiles sitting with him. He'd had some funny conversations with Mandy, and Sean was nice to talk to as well, Stiles just hoped that they didn't think he was too annoying and was just being nice to him. It didn't seem like it, they seemed like they liked to talk to him. When the lunch period began, he'd planned on taking his lunch and go outside to eat. He didn't feel like sitting alone in the cafeteria and listen to the pack have fun without him. Just as he's about to say goodbye to Sean and go get his lunch, Mandy comes walking towards them.
"Hi, boys, ready for lunch?" She asks with a smile.
"Yeah, I was just about to grab my lunch and go outside", he starts but before he gets to say goodbye to them, Mandy lights up."That is a great idea, Stiles, you don't mind if Sean and I tag along do you?" she asks. Stiles is secretly relieved, this has to mean that they don't find him too annoying, and he also doesn't have to sit alone and have the pack look at him in pity.
"No, of course not, if anything it's you two that should be irritated with me and want to escape by now", he said with a joking tone and a smile, to hide the truth.
Mandy slaps him lightly on the shoulder, "Of course not, you're funny and smart and you're not more annoying than anyone else. I like you, besides it's kinda cool to be seen with the Stiles Stilinski, the secret bad boy, and bully vigilante", she tells him with a teasing voice.
"Besides", says Sean, "It's about time someone else other than McCall gets to hang out with you. Most people are terrified to even think about talking to you, especially lately when you've been hanging around McCalls new gang", he continues.
Stiles laughs, it's not funny not really, because it's true. To an outsider, the pack would look a little like a gang, and they're all terrifying. What's funny to him is that Mandy and Sean think that other people think that Stilesis scary." Well lucky for you then, that I decided to leave Scotty's gang", he said with a smirk."Don't worry though, I'm not actually scary I don't bite or anything. I can shoot a gun like nobody's business, and I know a defense move here and there, but other than that the only thing I'm good at is researching things I'm interested in" he continued with a teasing smile," Like how to deal with bullies for example" he finished with a smirk as he managed to make eye contact with Sam from across the room, who actually looked a little afraid as he hurried out of the room.
Sean and Mandy saw him practically run away and laughed at the timing."Good thing neither of us is a bully then," Mandy says, and takes both Sean and Stiles arms and starts to lead them to the cafeteria.
Once in the cafeteria both Sean and Mandy grabs a tray and goes to get some food, Stiles takes his backpack and walks outside to find the perfect spot for their impromptu picnic. He finds a great place just underneath a tree and he sits down puts his backpack beside him and takes out his lunch. He'd made two omelets for breakfast but he only managed to eat one, so he figured he could eat the other for lunch.
Once he has unpacked his lunch he pulls up his sleeve a bit and looks inside.
"Hi there, how are you doing hm?" he asks the spider that's sticking onto his arm. She looks at him, and if spiders can look tired then that is what she looked like at that moment. He chuckled a bit," yeah, school is no fun is it? You should get out of there and stretch your legs a bit, cause it's not over yet. We have lunch now, and then three more classes before we can go home again" he tells her. She moves down his arm and onto the grass and starts to walk around for a bit, and that is when Stiles's new friends show up with their lunch. They walk over and sit down next to him, and they eat together and talks about all kinds of things, and just enjoy each other's company. At the same time, Stiles keeps an eye on his spider, to make sure she's still there and alright.
All of a sudden Mandy stops talking in the middle of a sentence and looks at Stiles's head and says, "Don't panic Stiles, but I'm pretty sure you have a brown recluse in your hair".
"A what..?" Stiles says before thinking too much about her words before he remembers that it's a spider and if stories are to be believed they're not fun to deal with. Then he remembers his spider and that he thought at first that she might have been a brown recluse."Oh, is it a bit bigger than an inch in size, with two large eyes in the middle four small in the lowest row, and two medium-sized ones on top, with light brown stripes down the body," he asks her.
Mandy looks at him a bit strangely before answering, "Uh, yeah, how'd you know that?" she asked, and shared a look with Sean who looked just as weirded out as Mandy. Stiles sighed internally and hoped his new friends wouldn't mind his spider too much. Or that this is a dealbreaker for them, he really liked these two but he wouldn't choose them over his spider.
He put his hand up to his head and said, "Alright little lady, come to say hi to my new friends" to his spider, and as he felt her stepping onto his hand he looked at Sean and Mandy and told them, "This is a Wolf Spider, I found her in y room yesterday, and she has refused to leave me alone since. Not that I mind, I like her, and her venom isn't really dangerous to humans unless they're allergic to her venom. So it's not like she'll kill me if she decides to bite."
"So you found a spider in your room and your first reaction was to keep her as a pet?" Sean asked, but he sounded amused."Well, technically I think it's the other way around like I said I found her on my pillow after I woke up from a nap yesterday, and then she followed me around the house for the rest of the day, and I kinda felt like we bonded. and this morning she was still there and she climbed up to my shoulder and stayed there the whole morning. when I was gonna leave for school, I swear she looked at me as if a had betrayed her for even thinking of leaving without her, so I brought her with me and told her to stay hidden, which she has done until just now for some reason" Stiles answered, a bit defensive but mostly fond.
"Okay, ignoring the nap, you talked to it like it understands you?" said Mandy, with a skeptical note to her voice.
"It was a trying day for okay, I'd just been broken up with by my best friend since toddlerhood, and I felt sad and lonely, so when I woke up and found her there I was a bit startled but I read up a bit on spiders and figured she was a Wolf Spider and since she isn't really a danger to me I figured the company of a spider was better than nothing," He told her, and boy if that doesn't sound pathetic. He feels his spider patting him with her pedipalps again and smiles down at her, and pets her with his finger. He swears that if she could, she would be purring right about now. It'll be fine, no matter what at least he has his spider.
If he had looked at Sean and Amanda at that moment, he would have seen them both look shocked and a little bit sad. "People keep weird pets all the time right?" Mandy starts, "so a spider that seems to have attached itself to you, probably isn't the weirdest thing in the world" she finished.
Stiles looked up at her and saw her smile at him, and he hoped that she truly meant that because he really liked her and Sean and he didn't want to fuck up a potential friendship between them before it really started.
"So you have a pet spider, big deal, as long as it's not going to kill me I don't care what kind of animal you've got," Sean says and leans a little closer to Stiles and his spider.
"She," Stiles tells them, "I'm pretty sure she's female." Mandy follows Sean's lead and also leans closer to get a better look at the spider.
"She's actually really cute if you ignore the fangs and move past the whole terrifying spider thing," She tells them. "Yeah, she looks a bit like Lucas the spider, when it comes to cuteness" she finished.
"Lucas the spider? Who's that?" Stiles asks. Mandy gasps dramatically and Sean rolls his eyes with a tired sigh and a fond smile. "You don't know who Lucas the spider is?" Mandy asks in a tone that is so disbelieving stiles almost thinks he asked who Santa is or something. He gives a small tentative smile and says, "Nope, don't think I've ever heard of him before." Mandy looks almost pained to hear that.
"Then buckle up Stiles, cause I'm going to educate you and you're spider friend on the best spider content youtube has to offer that is not gross or terrifying," She says as she takes her phone out of her pocket and brings up youtube, she types in 'Lucas the Spider' in the search bar and up comes several videos with a cute little spider. He has to agree with her over the cuteness, there is something special with the eyes both with Lucas and his own spider, that just screams 'look how cute I am. "Okay, here is a compilation of all of the episodes, s we can watch them all before class starts. Settle in cause I'm not letting either of you leave until the bell rings. Mandy says and presses play on the video.
The rest of the lunch period goes over great, he is leaning against a large tree trunk with Mandy and Sean, and his spider that has moved to settle on his shoulder again. The videos are great, Lucas is adorable, and his own spider seems to like him as well. She makes a point to tap him on the neck when she is enjoying something more than usual, and he is so happy at that moment. Surrounded by people and spider, who like him and wants to spend time with him. He can't remember the last time he felt so good. The rest of the break goes by too fast in Stiles's opinion but that's alright he knows that he can get through the rest of the day now, and his heartbeat is completely back to normal now.
He sees Scott and the rest of the pack in the hallways and the classrooms during the rest of the day, but he ignores them as much as possible he won't let them affect him anymore. He sits with Sean and Mandy in the classes he has with them, but he has the last class without them. Scott and Erica share his class however and he really wishes that they'll ignore him.
Of course, he can't be that lucky though can he? He takes a seat in the middle row and almost the second he sits down, Scott shows up and looks at him with sad puppy eyes, and sits down beside Stiles. He tries his hardest to not be bothered, but there are still five minutes until class starts and it feels like a lifetime when you just want time to move faster. two minutes before the class starts, Scott opens his mouth, but Stiles sees it and is faster.
"I don't care what you want Scotty," he says and grabs his backpack and makes to stand up, "You told me that I wasn't good enough to be part of your gang," he continues and puts an emphasis on gang because he liked the sound of that better than the pack. A pack is supposed to be supportive not excluding its contributing members, and he had contributed. He'd done all kinds of research, he'd been ready to saw Derek's arm off, he'd held Derek above the surface of the pool for hours, he'd given them all that he could, he'd been much more helpful than either Lydia or Jackson to start with. Still, if they didn't think he was useful then they didn't deserve him either. "Which is ridiculous by the way because I've saved all of your asses more times than I can be bothered to count by now, but still you don't want me around. Fine I know when I'm not wanted, so I'll leave you alone. But for the love of all curly fries, do me the same courtesy Scotty. Leave me the fuck alone." When Stiles finished he saw the dumbstruck look on his oldest former friend and felt a small vindictive rush o happiness. He hopes Scott feels even the tiniest bit of the hurt that Stiles had felt. Then he stands up and takes a quick look around, but the only empty seat is beside Sam. What the hell, he thinks, sitting beside creepy Sam is ten times better than sitting beside Scott. So he walks over to Sam, sits down, turns to him, and for the second time that day he asks, "Hi Sammy, is it okay if I sit here?" with a small smirk. Sam looks absolutely terrified but he nods his head once so Stiles takes that as a yes. The teacher walks in and the class begins.