SUCCUMB
"ANCHORS"
CHAPTER III - ALLISON
They were getting some take-outs from McDonald's because Lydia was shaken from her very own near death experience.
Allison still felt guilty about almost puncturing her best friend's skull with a military-grade titanium arrowhead. In fact, she felt glad that Isaac was trailing behind them even though she wondered why he was with them instead of sitting on a chair and being confined to the four walls of one of the many classrooms of Beacon Hills High School.
"You know, I could smell your curiosity from all over here," Allison turned her head from the passenger seat's window and faced Isaac, who was driving her Prius. "Scott asked me to do some guarding for him after I caught him running from his shadow like a lunatic," Lydia was busy with changing her sundae with a float to notice that they were talking. "You can imagine my surprise that when he asked me to do 'some guarding' he meant guarding you and not him," Isaac looked like he was reliving the moment.
Allison's throat burned with an itch she's been dying to remove, a question that's been burning a hole through her head ever since she saw him with that lost expression when they all met in the hallway. "How is he, anyway?" she said almost dismissively, trying not to sound off as someone who clung to the past but she knew that Isaac caught on to her, especially with that knowing look on his face but he sighed.
Looking at both sides, Isaac drove to the next window so that Lydia could get her meal. "If Scott were here, he would say that he's fine and that you and Stiles should focus on yourselves instead of him." Allison's brows burrowed ever so slightly and he knew what that meant. "But honestly, I'll tell you that he looks like shit," Isaac earned himself a dirty look from the worker inside the booth before smiling at Lydia and handing her the paper bag that held the greasy fries.
Popping one into her mouth, Lydia nodded. "I told him that, too. Of course, in a more censored version." Allison kept giving strange looks at her best friend. "I mean, physically, he looks best but you could see it in him," Lydia shot Isaac a look through the rear view. "It's like you can feel it," Isaac had this deep look his face and Allison wondered how bad it was for Scott because Lydia, a harbinger of death, is so fixed on seeing that something was wrong with him.
Allison remembered seeing him in the hallway, like he was in some sort of trance every and he looks so lost and so exhausted. "He drank coffee, too." Isaac grimaced as he took a turn, a small complex appearing in the distance. "He hates coffee," Lydia hummed in agreement in the back when Allison looked over her shoulder to see her best friend touching up on her make-up with a compact mirror in hand. "And the fact that he could have been the town's best dirt bike racer and now, all of a sudden, he should be banned from sitting behind a wheel." Isaac pointed out on some tires marks, as if a motorcycle skidded and almost lost balance.
Allison nodded at the sight before passing through a roadblock that had some dents and tire marks when suddenly a loud ringing sounded.
It came from the back and soon, Lydia was holding her cellphone instead of the compact mirror she was just holding a few seconds ago. "Scott and Stiles got us a table by the court outside, told them we'd meet them there," Isaac nodded, pulling up on a spot before sighing. Allison could tell that he was disappointed that they made it back so soon—he'd have to take Mrs. Dodds' Elective Geometry.
Grabbing her bag, Allison made her way inside the hallway and followed Lydia to the court, where she saw Scott and Stiles occupying both of the benches of their table. Almost immediately, she knew that something was wrong so she fell behind to be with Isaac. "Something's wrong with Scott and Stiles," Isaac nodded, making no sound as he discreetly smelled around them. Allison didn't know if Scott heard or saw, but she needed to know.
Isaac fixed his gaze on Scott and Stiles. "Their chemo-signals are off, more off than usual." In the distance, Lydia already reached them and Stiles moved to the edge of the bench to make room for two. "Stiles, he's scared and he's guilty. I don't know why but I think he's scared of Scott," Allison raised a brow, wondering how and why Stiles would be afraid of Scott. "Yeah, I could literally see the awkwardness in the air between them. Something's definitely up with Stiles," looking up, Allison saw that Isaac flashed his other eyes for a second.
Allison pondered for a moment. She was being haunted by her dead aunt who died at the hands of Peter Hale. Maybe it was because her aunt hated werewolves and the fact that her, quote unquote, fraternizing with the enemy brought out the idea of the haunting. Maybe it was her way of telling her, beyond the grave, that it was unacceptable for her to be with her friends.
The logical part of Allison wanted to break whatever it was binding her and her aunt, wanted to end the whole haunting thing. Another part of her, however, wanted to tell her Aunt Kate to suck it.
"Scott, he's different," Isaac's voice jarred her back to reality when he led her through the court, dodging all the jocks who were passing around a ball and away from the gymnasts who were practicing their yell. "I've been able to read through him since this morning, and it's not like he has the energy to hide it, but. . ." he trailed off, his eyes narrowing on Scott who occasionally lost his balance every once in a while that scared the hell out of Allison.
"Any weird chemo-signal from him?" Allison asked, walking closer towards Scott who hasn't noticed they were there.
Isaac squinted, as if he needed to concentrate and paused for a moment, taking a deep breath of the air around him. "Yeah, there's something but I couldn't tell." Isaac began walking again but he went to her other side so that he could sit next to Lydia, who was sitting next to Stiles as she walked over to Scott's side. As she neared him, Scott abruptly turned around.
When they were inside the hallway a few hours ago, Allison didn't see him much because he hid behind Lydia and focused on something else. She didn't get to see much of Scott but when he turned around, she saw for herself his huge eye bags. A part of her wondered when was the last time he slept. Another thing about Scott that alarmed Allison was that how pale he was.
Scott's a natural Californian. He's lived his whole life in Beacon Hills and Allison's sure that he's got his fair share of the sun but seeing him so pale, thoughts ran through her mind and the best scenario that played out in her mind was that Scott locked himself the whole three weeks inside a room with no lights and never got out. Unsurprisingly, Allison knew that the best scenario never was the actual thing.
Isaac looked at her. "You know why I'm always around you guys, right?" Allison nodded, knowing that Scott sent Isaac to protect her and her Dad after the Darach and Nemeton crisis. "See, at first I thought it was because he wanted to keep you guys safe and while I'm sure he had that in mind, I figured out that Scott doesn't want me to know," Allison raised a brow when she herself thought about what Scott didn't want Isaac to know.
"Know what?" Allison asked in a small voice, partly because she didn't want Scott to hear and mostly because she didn't really know if she wanted to know the answer.
"He hasn't been sleeping," Isaac confessed, his brows furrowed as if he was trying to remember something. "I remember that the first time he sent me away in the middle of the night, his room smelled like his blood and the next morning when I checked up on him, his sheets were washed and his bathroom smelled of too much air freshener," Allison nodded, her smarts catching up to her despite feeling drowsy.
"He's trying to cover something up. Do you know what it is?" Isaac nodded.
"Yeah, his bathroom had small marks on the tiles and I noticed that his swivel chair's warm, like he was sitting there the whole night. And I caught his scent there, his blood's scent there mixed with coffee," Isaac looked like he was going to continue when they heard a voice.
Scott yelled, his arm raised in the air as if Isaac needed any help to find where he was sitting. "Hey, Isaac! Over here!" he scooted over and pointed over to the space beside him.
Allison wanted to ignore that one and just sit at the other vacant space beside Scott but Isaac gave her a look. Eventually, she sighed and gave in, sitting next to Lydia and faced Isaac across the table. Scott still avoided her glances every time she would look at him.
Scott, all of a sudden, starting coughing and coughing, wheezing like he had asthma. Stiles inched forward to help, but it was like he was strained and that he could't stand up. Eventually, he stopped, but the little color his face had was now gone and Scott looked sickly as ever. "Hey, Scott, are you okay?" Allison asked him, concern coming over her as she prepared to stand up when he flashed her an irritated look.
The look on Scott's face resembled a glare rather than an exhausted look. "Look, I'm fine, okay? Just stop," he said weakly as his forehead as glistening with sweat.
Taking a handful of fries from Lydia's paper bag, Stiles munched before pointing the pizza he got from the canteen and pointed it at her. "So, what's been up on your agenda the past few hours?" Allison looked at Isaac when her phone suddenly vibrated. Checking it, she saw that it was a text from Isaac and that Stiles was hiding something—that he reeked of a secret and too much Adderall for one person to take in such a short notice.
"Just practicing on moving targets," beside her, Lydia gave her a pointed look while Isaac raised a brow and munched on a green apple he brought over. "What happened to you guys?" and Allison saw it, the strained look on Scott's face and the silence that reigned over their group.
Stiles looked at the building near them, focusing on a particular window with open binds. Allison knew only one person who kept the binds open at that time of the day and it was Coach Bobby Finstock and his justification was that so his students would be too blinded by the sun to even think of getting a wink of sleep in his class. "A short day dream of Coach learning and teaching the class sign language. I was probably asleep." He said dismissively, as if it was nothing but he did grimace as if he relived the memory at the moment.
Scott scoffed, rolling his eyes that made Stiles raise his brows at his best friend, saying that he was spending too much time with the Hales. "Dude, you weren't asleep." Scott insisted with this authority, his tone obviously showing how irritated he was to the point that he almost yelled at his best friend. Stiles was probably playing it down, underestimating it on purpose.
The tension between them grew heavier as the seconds passed. "Okay," Lydia sipped on her diet soda. "Moving on," she tried to get on to another subject. "Allison," Lydia turned to her, her hands clasped together as if she was hatching some plan. "Have you tried looking in your family's bestiary? Shed some light on your on whatever's happening to you three?" she pointed at Scott, who looked like he wanted to nothing more in this world than to sleep, and at Stiles who stared across the court.
Allison groaned, remembering how she never really did get much sleep the past few days and just spent most of her nights finding something from the bestiary. "I have. I've been reading the whole night but there's nothing there," the bestiary contained thousands of pages dedicated for wendigos and werewolves and yet there wasn't a single word about the side-effects of being a surrogate sacrifice or dying in order to re-power a supernatural beacon, much to Allison's chagrin and annoyance.
Isaac grunted, still munching on the green apple he's brought and began listening to the others when Allison saw something in the corner of her eyes. She saw blonde hair and a face that bore a striking resemblance to her dead Aunt Kate. Looking more intently at the person looking at them, Allison realized that it was her Aunt Kate when suddenly, she flung herself at them. Allison's hand reached for her bag where her small Swiss knife was kept hidden when her aunt vanished into thin air. Turning around to ask if everyone was fine, Allison realized that it was a just a vision.
Lydia was still listening to Stiles rant about his inability to determine what was a dream and what wasn't while Scott's losing control of being a werewolf.
Isaac began talking, his voice continued to jar her back to reality. "Okay, not to be a pessimist but finding out the exact term for the condition where a person, who had a near death experience and came out seeing things, unable to tell what's real or not," Isaac looked at Stiles before turning to Allison, sporting a worried look on his face. It was only then when Allison realized that she had spaced out and he had noticed. "And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives is kind of hard, let alone discovering whatever the hell's the cure," he somberly finished.
Stiles grumbled, giving Isaac a pointed look. "You know, that wasn't very helpful," he remarked dryly.
Isaac laughed humorlessly before apologizing sarcastically. "Sorry, but you see, I was locked inside a freezer for half my childhood, so yeah; being helpful's kind of a new thing for me." Stiles looked like he wanted to go on more and more about Isaac's constant negativity when suddenly, probably to belittle his childhood trauma with his Dad when Allison saw Scott's head turn in the corner of her eye.
As Stiles and Isaac continued to bash heads, she knew that something was different about Scott the moment she saw him turn his head and look at a different direction. Turning her head to see what he was looking at, Allison saw this pretty Asian girl, who she never saw before, walking towards them. Allison looked at Scott, first confused as to why Scott suddenly resembled a living person instead of a walker from a George A. Romero zombie film.
A few moments later, the girl reached their table and smiled at them. "Hi," she said to all of them before she turned to Scott. "Hi." It was like she said that to him and to him only, with Scott's eyes lightening up, his mood remarkably better. Everyone looked at her, waiting what it was she was about to say before she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I couldn't help but overhear what you guys were talking about earlier and I think I actually know a thing or two about it—there's a Tibetan word for it, actually, and it's called 'Bardo', which literally means 'in between states'. It's the state between life and death, kind of like purgatory," Lydia looked annoyed and while Allison didn't know exactly why, she was, too.
"And what do they call you?" Lydia asked the girl, raising a brow at the sudden intruder.
Scott looked dazed as he stared at the Asian girl. "Kira. She's in our History class." Scott said as if it was common knowledge and the girl, Kira, smiled at him.
Lydia recomposed herself, shifting her position on the bench before smiling at Kira with a charm that usually left all other students uneasy. "So, are you talking Bardo, like, Tibetan Buddhism or Indian because they are two different—" Allison realized why Lydia was annoyed: she felt threatened that someone else, a stranger at that, had the answer to her friends' problems when Kira cut her off.
Smiling, she shrugged. "Either, I guess. But all of the stuff you guys have been listing off—dreams that seem real, being haunted by the recently deceased or those you have unfinished business with, losing control and how it's been happening after a near death experience, that's Bardo." Scott pointed to his side, offering her a seat and looked at her intently when she sat down beside him. "You see, there are different progressive states. With some stages, you hallucinate, then you hear, and then you eventually see and hear the deities who visits you." Allison raised her brow at that, noting that as they progress, they get worse.
Isaac's attention was caught at the last word, his eyes narrowing down at Kira. "Deities? What are those?" he asked.
Kira looked at Lydia before answering Isaac's question. "They're kind of like demons, I guess," Allison suddenly remembered all those nightmares of her Aunt Kate, the visions she's been getting the past few days.
Stiles grimaced, frowning at the word before taking a sip from his bottle of orange juice. "Demons. Great, why not add them to the mix?" he said sarcastically, grumpy all of a sudden.
Then, while Kira was explaining, a thought occurred to Allison. "Wait," her brows furrowed in confusion. "If there are different progressive states, then what's the last?" remembering what Kira told them earlier, it seemed like they were going to get worse and worse.
Kira shrugged. "You die," she answered nonchalantly as if it wasn't a big thing. In her defense, it wasn't a big thing because to her, it was all probably just some religious rubbish that she found on the internet but Allison still felt annoyed at her. It was, in fact a big thing and while she can't exactly blame her for not knowing, it just wasn't right.
"Lovely," Lydia remarked dryly, taking another fry from her take-out bag.
"I mean, how could it possibly end in a different way? You get worse and worse. It's like you're slowly losing control until you finally. . ." Kira trailed off, her brows furrowing in concentration, probably thinking of a word best to describe what she was thinking of when she spotted Scott nodding along.
"Snap. Until you finally snap," Scott supplied, finishing for her.
Kira smiled at him. "Exactly." They looked like they were about to talk more when there was this vibrating sound from Kira. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment when she quickly grabbed her phone from her bag, her face paling when she saw the message or whatever it was she received. "Hey, uhm, sorry, but I've got to go," she quickly stood up and smiled at everyone before rushing off inside the building when Scott stood up and ran after her.
"Hey," he said weakly to Kira, closing his eyes a bit as if suddenly standing up and running had hurt him. "You have Biology with Mr. Krieger after lunch, right?" Allison saw Kira nodding wordlessly as Scott fiddled with his thumbs, occasionally scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Want to walk with me there? Chem is just a few door away," Allison heard Scott chuckle nervously, making this little bubbling feeling inside her unbearable.
Shifting her footing, Allison was about to stand up when she felt a hand on her arm. "Now's not the time for you to act on jealousy, Allison," Isaac whispered to her, slowly letting go of her arm as they watched Scott and Kira laugh at something they didn't quite hear or understand.
Kira smiled before pointing at the cream-colored building. "I'll wait by the staircase, then," Scott nodded, hurrying back to our table.
"Hey, guys, I've got to go," Scott fumbled with the zipper of his bag and messily dumped all of his stuff inside of it.
Stiles snorted. "Your hormones can wait, Scotty," Isaac cracked a small smile when Scott laughed sarcastically.
Ready to run off, Allison stood up and called after him. Thankfully, he turned around and faced her. "What?" he asked sharply, though he didn't snap at her anymore, it sounded just as much and Allison wasn't comfortable with his new mood swings. Scott's expression softened when he closed his eyes and groaned in pain. "Sorry, headache," at that moment, her chest grew light—at least he didn't mean snapping at her.
Allison looked Scott in the eye and sighed. "I was hoping that we could talk," she said calmly. Allison looked over her shoulder and sighed before facing Scott again, intentionally raising her voice so that Isaac could hear. "In private," Scott's brows furrowed and Allison could see what he was thinking, that he was wondering where all of that was coming from.
Scott looked reluctant, occasionally glancing at the building where Kira disappeared into. "I don't know, Kira's kind of waiting for me right now," he was refused to look at her and avoided her eye. "Can't it wait?" he asked, his hands shaking impatiently as his breathing grew quicker and louder.
Crossing her arms, Allison shook her head. "Scott, I really think that we should talk right now," she gave him a look that told him to follow her.
Groaning behind her, Scott reluctantly followed her to a secluded spot far enough from the table so that Isaac wouldn't hear their conversation. "What is it? Why'd you need to talk to me?" he asked pointedly, still refusing to look at her as if it pained her.
Breathing in deep and trying to keep her calm, Allison closed her eyes before asking slowly. "What was that earlier?" Scott gave her a confused look before his expression morphed into disbelief, as if she asked him to do something so horrible.
Still looking at the ground, Scott turned his back on her and seemed like her was going to walk away when he finally looked at her. "What? Moving on? That's not allowed now? You seemed to be okay with the idea when you were getting close to Isaac but if I want to move on, it's suddenly out of the card?" Allison understood where his anger came from, no mater how unjustified it was.
Allison shook her head. "No, I am not angry at you for moving on, Scott. I want you to move on," Allison felt her heart skip a beat. She was lying and yet she wondered why Scott's expression didn't change, as if he didn't know. He even looked like he wanted to say something but Allison held her hand up, stopping him before he could actually say what he wanted to say. "But Scott, why are you avoiding me?" she asked, giving him a look before gently taking his wrist into her hands.
At first, he pulled away but when she tightened her grip, he stopped fighting. "I don't know, a sense of normalcy? Aren't normal people—exes—supposed to avoid each other?" Allison gave him a look of disbelief before she shook her head slowly, a bit disappointed at his answer even though she knew that he had lied.
Allison tried to understand where he came from. She remembered how she had lied to him back in purgatory just to stay with him and wondered why he was doing the same but for an entirely different reason. "Scott, we're not just normal people." It was true, their relationship, right from the start, was never exactly normal and while she understood that he wanted a sense of normalcy after all of this, she wondered why she had to be cut out.
A part of Allison thought of her darker days, the ones where she had spiraled into depression and attacked the very people who protected her and sided with the man who controlled and corrupted her, and realized that maybe this was Scott saying that he doesn't entirely trust her, not after what she did (Admittedly, what she had done was horrible.) but she knew Scott and he wasn't someone to hold grudges, especially not against a friend.
So, when Allison crossed that option out, she was completely left in the dark as to why Scott was avoiding her.
Breathing in deep and letting her heart beat normally, she gave Scott a look. "Tell me, Scott. You know you could tell me anything," she gave him a small smile, trying to encourage him into confiding in her. "I'm always on your side, remember?" Scott, however, shook his head and stepped away from Allison, his expression had morphed into one that showed pain and confusion before he turned his back on her.
Breathing heavily, Scott continued to shake his head and soon began wheezing. A part of Allison thought that he was having an asthma attack before chiding herself. Scott's a werewolf, she thought to herself as she slowly approached him. He doesn't have asthma attacks anymore, she chanted to herself before she placed a hand on his back, going around to see what was wrong with him.
At that moment, Allison realized that it was fitting that she thought of what Scott is because he was shifting, his eyes glowing red as panic started to rise. "Get away from me," Scott said, his voice strained as his breathing grew labored but Allison didn't move away from where she stood. In fact, she inched forward ever so slowly in hoped of trying to get him to calm down and shift back before anyone else could see.
"Scott," she said slowly, her voice even and calm when she took another step forward. "Draw strength from your anchor, like you always do with me," Scott's muscles were strained now and Allison realized that maybe what she had said wasn't helping entirely. "What's wrong?" she asked when Scott suddenly faced her, his expression obviously showing his anger and his borderline murderous glare.
Allison was paralyzed in fear, not knowing what to do with Scott when his murderous expression started to soften and eventually became a pained look that showed how exhausted he was. "You were my anchor, Allison, I don't have you anymore," she shook her head, refusing to believe that defeat from him mostly because he never lost her. "It doesn't matter, what you said back in purgatory, I still feel lost, anchorless," Allison didn't care what he had just said, she stepped forward and placed a hand on his cheek.
"Then anchor yourself again, to me. I'm your lifeline, too," Scott shook his head weakly.
"Don't you get it?" he scoffed weakly pushed himself away from her. "There's a reason why I'm avoiding you, Allison." Her brows furrowed in confusion. She didn't understand him. "It's not that I want to avoid you, or that because it's awkward to be around you, or that I hate," a part of her wanted to sigh in relief but Allison felt like there was a catch to everything he had said. "Yes, Allison, you were my anchor and you were my lifeline but now? Every time I catch your scent or hear your heart beat or see you, I get thrown overboard."
Slowly, the devastating truth made itself known to Allison and weighed heavy on her shoulders. "I'm not your anchor anymore. Instead of helping you gain control, you're actually—" Allison was cut off from her words by a sharp breath of air from Scott, who looked like he had just battled Jackson back when he was still the Kanima or when they had this face down with Peter.
Breathing in deep, Scott finally showed his bloodied hands. "Losing control because of you," Allison realized then and there that Scott had been drawing control from pain and she couldn't even imagine how hard that would have been, to resort to physical pain just to be sane.
Allison wanted to comfort him, rub soothing circular patterns on his back (Scott enjoyed that very much and Allison would tease him, saying that he's just like an overgrown puppy.) but a heavy gut feeling told her not to. Not that she was afraid that he would hurt her because she knows that deep in his heart, he can never hurt the people he loves. But Allison didn't want him to loce control because her code can only do so much and she isn't sure if she can keep her father from killing Scott with the excuse that she loves him. A part of Allison thought that her Dad would stick to their new code, and that would mean that he's kill the man qho saved them just three weeks ago.
So, with a firm and iron resolution and determination, Allison promised herself and Acott that she would help him find a new anchor, no matter what it is or who he chose. A part of Allison's heart ached when she thought about Kira. Scott obviously likes her and she saw how natural he was around her, so at ease that she paled at the new realization that came to her: maybe she's too late in trying to win him back because he has a new anchor.
But then, Allison smelled the metallic scent of blood and remembered that Scott was drawing control from the pain that keeps him human.
Scott turned to her, all of a sudden, with a pained look on his face. At first she wondered why, considering his strong opinion of how she makes him lose control of himself, of the werewolf within him. "Your phone," he croaked before a loud ringing was heard.
As Allison hurriedly fished her phone out of her bag, she began to wonder why Scott didn't hear her conversation with Isaac when they were walking towards their table, or why he couldn't smeel her chemo-signal anymore.
Flashing the screen open and typing her pass code, Allison read the text that Stiles gave her before turning her back on Scott. "Something's happened. They need us back at the table," she gave Scott a quick glance, seeing him nod, before she sped off towards their table, seeing all of her friends standing up to leave their table.
Lydia was the first one to spot her but Allison was quite sure that Isaac heard her heartbeat before she even came near them. "What's happening? What came up?" Allison froze when Scott spoke up behind her.
"My Dad just sent this," Stiles said, typing something on his phone.
Then, in a moment's notice, Isaac and Scott had their phones out before a collection of cellphones rang and beeped. Fishing her phone out again, Allison saw a crime board and a calendar filled with pictures and profiles of people she knew who died. There was one picture of a girl, however, that looked dated, taped to a particular date that was encircled by a red marker. Dragging across her screen she saw why it was marked.
Beside Allison, Lydia hummed. "I know this girl. I remember when the day when the Sheriff's department came into our classroom and asked us if we knew anything about her." Stiles nodded at Lydia. Allison peeked at his phone and saw a more complex and detailed file case on the girl.
"Yeah, a few years ago, Malia Tate mysteriously went missing along with her mom and baby sister before they found the car wreck in the Preserve. Dad reopened the case because look at this," there was another collection of beeps and soon, Allison found an interesting looking date. "The night of their so-called 'accident' was a full moon," Allison saw Stiles grimace before he hid his phone away. "And we all know about the things that go bump in the night when there's a full moon."
Isaac raised his hand and cleared his throat. "Yeah, so, what do you want us to do about it?" Stiles gave him a look of disbelief while Scott had this expression she hasn't seen in weeks or months.
Scot smiled and when Stiles saw his best friend grin silly, he gave a reluctant smile too. "We're going to find a body. Everybody in?" Allison raised a brow at this, not sure if that was the best course of action for any of them, especially Scott who could lose control and go berserk if triggered.
So, naturally, Allison objected. "Wait, wait, hold on. We just got back, Lydia just got back from being a moving target." Everyone turned to look at her, except Scott, though, he was drawn to the building, his brows furrowed as if he was concentrating on something.
Lydia gave her a look. "Allison, we've already skipped three classes," Lydia grabbed her bag and threw her empty paper bag away. "Why not strive for more and just skip on school entirely for the whole day?" her best friend said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to do despite the fact that they were going back to the Preserve where, just minutes ago, she became her target because her Aunt Kate decided to pay her a visit while she was holding a primed bow.
Stiles whooped in the air, making Isaac crack a smile. Going to Lydia's side, Stiles began preaching about how rigged the whole school system is and how it's just one big hoax that's wasting their parents' money. He had this determined look on his face that he was going to drop school altogether before he remembered about Coach's quiz that was promised to be so profoundly difficult and made a metal note to study for it.
Isaac just shrugged at Stiles, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. "Well, I'm in, think I'd pass up a chance where I'd get to skip on Mrs. Dodds' Elective Geometry? No way in hell—anything to skip Mrs. Dodd's Elective Geometry. Anything."
Stiles gave Isaac a serious look and patted his back approvingly. "In that respect, we are the same." Stiles smiled at Isaac, who gave him a weird and blank expression that morphed into an amused and satisfied look as if he's finished something before the deadline. "Anything," Stiles echoed Isaac's words, emphasizing the lengths he would go through to skip a single class with a woman who admittedly looks like a fury.
Allison sighed before grabbing her bag that sat on the table. "Fine. I'm in."
While Lydia shot her a grin, Allison saw that Stiles was still focused on his new-found common ground with Isaac. "Who knew that there was something remotely positive underneath all your constant and demeaning negativity and your scarves. I mean, it's like 60-something degrees out here," Isaac narrowed his eyes at Stiles, who nodded. "Right, don't drag the scarves in." Isaac nodded, a smile returning to his face.
Copying this expression Humphrey Bogart had before disappearing into the fog with Claude Rains. "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Stiles looked satisfied at the quote, muttering Casablanca over and over again.