"Stars are only visible in darkness

Fear is ever-changing and evolving

And I, I can poison the skies

And I, I feel so alive

Nobody can save you now"

Battle Cry by Imagine Dragons

A week had passed since Derek had changed back into his normal self. A week since Kate had disappeared. A week since the Hale vault had been robbed. A week since anything out of the ordinary had happened.

It had been a blessedly quiet and simple week.

Until Kira rushed into the high school with saddened, panicky, wide eyes.

Sara gave her an odd look as Kira hurried over to her while exchanging items from her locker before classes began for the day. Breathlessly, Kira slumped against the locker next to Sara's, letting her head thud against the metal door. Finishing up grabbing the books and materials she needed, Sara closed her locker door and fixed her messenger bag on her shoulder before focusing on the obviously struggling Kira.

"What's wrong with you?" Sara asked, quirking a brow. "What's bothering you?"

"Only the end of the world," Kira answered with a strain in her tone. She stared up at the hallway ceiling.

"Alright, drama queen. You gonna tell me what's going on or let me come up with a million terrible guesses?" When Kira didn't respond, continuing to stare despondently upward, Sara leaned her shoulder on her locker and began. "Guess number one: you and Boyd had sex, but when he came, he sounded like the surfer dude fish from Spongebob."

Kira blinked incredulously as she met Sara's eye. She didn't know whether to be disgusted or impressed that that was the first thing she came up with.

"One, gross," Kira started, straightening up. "Two, oddly specific. Three, I'm disappointed that I know exactly what character you're talking about."

Sara shrugged. "He has a very distinct laugh. It haunts my dreams. Also, don't think I didn't notice that nothing on your list was an objection to having sex with Boyd."

Kira's cheeks flushed a deep scarlet, and she quickly shook her head saying, "Shut up." Sara laughed at her embarrassment, but Kira continued talking. "Anyway, moving on. My parents are selling the house."

"Wait, what?" Sara asked, dropping the grin she previously had.

"I know!" Kira exclaimed with a little jump in place. "It's terrible! I walked out this morning and saw a 'For Sale' sign in the yard. When I brought it back in to ask about it, they said we're moving back to New York." Kira let out a rough sigh as she ran a hand through her hair. "I don't want to go back to New York. It was alright, but I've made real connections here. It actually feels like I have a life here."

Sara smirked. "And a boyfriend?"

"He hasn't asked me that yet," Kira corrected. "It's only been a few dates. Nothing has been made official."

"The point remains."

Kira sighed and slumped on the lockers again. "Despite everything that's happened, I like Beacon Hills. I like you guys. No one ever understood me in New York. I always felt like the odd one, and now, I finally know why. I can't just leave after everything and go back to. . . normal."

Sara understood her feelings well. The move may have been meant to be temporary as Noshiko dealt with the nogitsune problem she had initially created, but Kira had learned a lot in the few months she had been there. She had learned a lot about herself, her family, and the world. There was no way she could just go back home and pretend all of it hadn't happened. Like her family was normal.

"Maybe we can hide you under my bed."

Kira huffed with a grin. "At this point, I'll take it."

After the second hour, Sara was back at her locker exchanging her things again, this time joined by a different friend. Scott was at his own locker right next to hers. And he was talking. Though Sara, for the life of her, couldn't quite figure out what he was talking about.

From the moment they had walked over, Scott had started talking, rambling on about something or other that Sara was trying to listen to, but to her, it seemed as though he barely knew what he was trying to say, so she definitely had no idea either. His words bounced from one topic to another, one tangent to another, like he was channeling his inner Stiles Stilinski.

She also noted that he rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head more than usual, a sign of him being embarrassed or awkward.

Sara thought he was talking about the movie theater at some point, only for him to be waylaid by something about their hectic lives and then the woods and full moon and then Boyd asking out Kira and. . . she was disappointed to admit that she got lost and tuned him out. It didn't help that his discomfort also weirded her out. But one thought of her own did spring up.

He's cute when he rambles.

"So, anyway, back to, um," Scott tried then cleared his throat. "I was trying to say, er, may-maybe we could—"

Stiles came running up to them, interrupting Scott's jumbled thought process with, "Did you hear about what happened last night?" He was out of breath from running, and his fingers were twitching erratically. Standard Stiles. "Almost an entire family was killed by an axe-murderer. Two parents, one son, and the other son narrowly got away. He's at the hospital right now."

Sara closed her locker door and turned to him. "An axe-murderer?" she repeated.

"A family-murdering axe-murderer," Stiles pressed just to make sure they understood the gravity of the situation.

Scott shrugged as he shouldered his backpack. "I already heard about it," he said.

"Wait, what?" Stiles asked. "You did? How?"

"My mom called me," Scott explained. "She knew we'd see it on the news."

"Aww, and Mama McCall didn't want her baby boy to worry," Sara teased, sticking out her bottom lip. Cue Scott's cheeks darkening as they heated up and him rubbing the back of his neck yet again. She briefly narrowed her eyes, wondering why he was far more awkward than usual.

"Great! Let's go!" Stiles said, turning to run off and not noticing anything off about his best friend. Well, either not noticing or not feeling like taking the time to point it out.

But Scott snapped out of his embarrassment and stopped Stiles by grabbing his arm. "Whoa, whoa—we've got Econ in five minutes."

Stiles scrunched his eyes. "Alright, did you forget the part about the family-murdering axe-murderer?"

"Did you forget your dad's the sheriff?" Scott replied. "They want us to stay out of it."

Stiles openly gaped as Sara tilted her head in silent agreement with Scott. He couldn't believe his two best friends. "Are you guys kidding me?" he asked, stressing each word. "There's a family-murdering axe-murderer and we're not going to do anything about it?"

Sara wasn't surprised he wanted to investigate, but they were still teenagers who really needed to go to class. "You do realize that not every death in Beacon Hills is automatically related to the supernatural, right?" she posed, vaguely gesturing with her hand. "There are human psychopaths out there, too, and it's your dad's job to find them. And the last time I checked, Noah's actually pretty good at his job."

"Exactly," Scott agreed. "Maybe we should let the adults handle it."

"So, the two of you, you just want to stay here, school, go to class?" Stiles asked. With slight nods from both of them, Stiles shook his head. "Never heard anything so irresponsible in my life."

Sara shrugged. "Sorry for wanting to graduate on time."

Rolling his eyes, Stiles turned around and began walking away, so Scott called out, "See you at tryouts?" Stiles waved his hand without turning around.

Sara chuckled and looked at Scott. "Well, now that he's off on an adventure, we should head to class."

Scott looked as though he wanted to say something more, until he deflated and settled on, "Right, yeah."

Sara gave him a look, unsure of why he was acting so strange, but she decided to let it go and nodded. "Okay, see you later."

As she walked away, weaving through students in the hall, Scott watched forlornly as she disappeared from his sight, thinking to himself, Nice going, dumbass.

Once the lunch hour came around, Sara, Kira, and Boyd were huddled together at a table. They assumed Stiles was still trying to do his own investigating into the axe-murderer, but none of them knew where Scott had gone or what Lydia and Malia were up to, leaving Sara to third wheel with the new relationship blossoming between Kira and Boyd, the two awkward, down-to-earth sweethearts who jumped between cute words and embarrassed glances. Their relationship was still fresh and new and absolutely adorable, so Sara sometimes wanted to throw up around them.

Then Boyd told them about his plan to try out for the lacrosse team at the tryouts after school that day.

After swallowing a bite of her sandwich, Sara blurted, "Aren't you a little bulky?"

"I think you'll be great," Kira told him, rubbing his arm.

Sara realized that her words had been rather insensitive. "Oh, yeah, totally!" she quickly agreed. "I'm not saying I don't think you'd be good at it. I just think you'd be better at something like football where you can mow people down without getting fouled." She made a little hand gesture, trying to explain her point. "But anyway, go for it. With two wolves on the team plus Danny in goal, we might have a shot at winning the championships this year without Jackson."

Boyd let out a breathy chuckle. "Nice save."

"Who is Jackson anyway?" Kira asked. "He was on Stiles' chessboard, but the only thing said about him was being in London."

"He's a jackass," Boyd said matter-of-factly, recalling every terrible bullying aspect of Jackson he could remember over the years.

Sara snorted and laughed then explained, "He was the lacrosse team captain before he moved. Hated Scott and Stiles with a passion, was dating Lydia, tried to date Allison. Derek gave him the bite because he helped take down Peter when he was rampaging. And he was also not-so-secretly hoping Jackson would die from the bite."

Kira frowned, adjusting in her seat as she thought it over. "That's kind of messed up. No, that's really messed up."

"Yeah, we don't really talk about it," Sara said, tilting her head. They really should discuss it, especially in the realm of making sure Derek knew it was a terrible thing. "Derek still had some issues to work through."

"But Jackson became a kanima instead of a werewolf," Boyd added before taking a bite of his food.

"Oh!" Kira exclaimed in recollection. "I remember learning about the kanima."

Sara clicked her tongue. "Yeah, that was Jackson. We got him to turn into a werewolf in the end, and he moved away. His parents were not pleased with everything that had happened that semester. I mean, Jackson getting kidnapped by Scott and Stiles, all the 'mountain lion' attacks, Jackson technically dying. They'd had enough, so off to London."

"I feel like there's a joke for a werewolf in London, but I can't place it," Kira said.

"Maybe," Sara said with a shrug. "He only had a year left of school, anyway. He's a grade above us like Danny. And I think his parents are hoping he'll get into Oxford or something."

Boyd rolled his eyes. "Pretentious as hell."

Sara couldn't help the small chuckle. "That's one way to look at it, though he wasn't that bad when he wasn't being a dick."

"So, when he wasn't talking?" Boyd asked. Sara and Kira started laughing, and Boyd joined. The laughing died out shortly after as Boyd then said, "Speaking of talking, though, I heard that convo with Scott earlier."

Sara groaned, setting her head in her hands, and Kira gave them a curious look. "What?" Kira asked. "What conversation?"

"Just Scott being Scott," Boyd told her with an amused grin.

"Oh, so Scott being awkward and completely in love with Sara," Kira said nonchalantly, returning to her food. "Nothing new."

"But still very, very awkward."

Sara sent them both a glare. "I hate you both."

After the last bell rang, Scott, Stiles, and Sara met up at their row of lockers, collecting the books they'd need for homework and getting rid of the things they didn't need.

Sara closed her locker once she was done, turned to the boys, and said, "Good luck with tryouts. Be good. Don't hurt Danny. And I'll see you tomorrow." Sara turned around and began walking away from them.

The two frowned in unison, and Stiles quickly took a few steps to grab Sara's bag strap to stop her. "Wait, wait," he started, "you're not going?"

Sara raised a brow, fixing her bag. "Do I need to?"

With a little shake of his head, a still confused Stiles answered, "Well, no, I guess I just kind of assumed since Kira and Malia are going."

She gave him an amused half-grin. "Pretty sure you don't need your hand held for lacrosse, Stilinski."

Stiles rolled his eyes and leaned closer, lowering his voice. "No good luck kiss?" he cheekily asked.

"Ask Malia."

"I meant for Scott."

Sara shoved him away, Stiles laughing as he let her leave without any more issues. He returned to Scott at the lockers, and Scott gave him the standard puppy pout.

"Really, dude?" Scott asked as he closed his locker.

Stiles shrugged and finished grabbing what he needed for homework that night. "What? Someone's gotta make a move on your behalf. Might as well be me." Stiles closed his locker, and they began making their way to the locker room to get ready for tryouts.

"I've tried," Scott told him as they walked.

"Not hard enough."

"I almost got the question out earlier, but you interrupted me."

Stiles looked at him from the corner of his eye in disbelief. "You were moments away from choking, buddy. If I hadn't stepped in, you would have floundered then drowned horribly. None of what I saw or heard sounded remotely successful."

They made it into the locker room, making a beeline for their gear. Boyd was already there pulling on basic padding provided by Coach Finstock. Boyd had decided that choosing the locker next to Scott's and Stiles's would be best, and their continued conversation only reinforced that decision.

"Why is it so difficult?" Scott asked as he started changing. "I was trying so hard to say the words but couldn't make it more than a few without becoming a stuttering mess." He shook his head sadly with a soft sigh. "She probably thinks I'm a complete dumbass."

"You are," Boyd cut in bluntly, fixing a strap on the elbow pads.

Scott's jaw dropped open, and he gaped at Boyd. "Thanks, Boyd," he replied, his tone dripping in hurt sarcasm. Boyd simply grinned.

"As much as I agree with Boyd, I guarantee that will not be the thing that turns her away," Stiles said, moving the conversation along as he pulled on his workout shirt.

"Then what would be?" Scott asked.

Stiles gave him a stern look and set a hand on his shoulder, gripping it as he pointed at Scott with his other hand. "You not pulling up your big boy pants and asking her out. You need to do it before someone else does." Stiles dropped his hands and then waved around the room. "If you haven't noticed, she gets a decent amount of looks from guys, some of whom are on the lacrosse team."

Scott sighed again. "Yeah, trust me, I've noticed."

"Then do something about it. Kick all their asses out on the field then ask her out. . ." They began focusing on changing into their gear only for Stiles to ask a question. "Hey, did you ask why she wasn't going to watch tryouts with Kira and Malia?"

"No," Scott answered. "I didn't know until she said something about it just now."

"Why not?"

Scott glanced around and leaned closer to Stiles. "The last time I asked her about her whereabouts she snapped at me. I mean, she was being psychologically tortured by the voice of the nogitsune, but still. I'd rather not get on her bad side."

"You know, the hallmark of a healthy relationship is good communication," Stiles pointed out.

"Never thought I'd see the day where Stiles Stilinski has good relationship advice," Boyd pitched in, and Stiles glared at him.

"It could also be seen as being controlling, especially since we're not together," Scott said.

Stiles thought back on the day Scott had mentioned. The night he went missing and no one could find Sara. "Did you ever learn where she was that night?" Stiles asked.

"No," Scott said, "I haven't brought it up since. I just know she wasn't with Kira."

"Hm, now I'm curious." Stiles then turned to Boyd. "Do you know?"

Boyd pointedly ignored him and turned away from them to tighten the laces on his shoes. Of course, he knew. Sure, he was the latest one to learn as Sara hadn't been totally certain he wouldn't say anything to Scott as his alpha after Derek, but since he was almost always with Kira and Sara, he had to know to be privy to some of their conversations.

Stiles's jaw dropped, and he pointed accusingly at Boyd. "You do know."

Boyd contemplated ignoring Stiles more but figured if he wanted Stiles to leave him alone with the questioning, he needed to say something, so he looked up from his shoes and told him, "If Sara doesn't want to talk about it, I'm not going to."

"You're terrible."

And Boyd was okay with that.

Before any of the three could add anything else, Coach opened the door of his office and walked into the locker room holding a clipboard. His mere presence grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, both the hopefuls and the returners.

"As a reminder," Coach Finstock began, his loud voice permeating throughout the room, "it's an open tryout today—all positions available." He let the announcement settle for a moment before continuing. "This is a rebuilding season, people! Jackson's gone, Lahey's gone. . . Greenburg, the one guy I actually wanted gone, was held back. Again." A few chuckles were muffled under the breaths of the high schoolers which Coach didn't appreciate. "Get your asses on the field!"

The boys in the locker room began filtering out, following Coach's order, though a few stayed back and dallied.

Scott, as Coach Finstock started to turn around to head back into his office before heading out, hurried over to talk to him before the official tryouts kicked off. "Hey, Coach?" Scott began, grabbing Finstock's attention. "I just wanted to ask if—I was still—if I'm. . . you know. . ."

Hoping to ease at least a few worries of one of the few people on the team that he liked, Coach told him, "You're on the team, McCall."

"But. . ." Scott said, hesitating. "But am I everything that I was on the team before?" He waited with a still breath for Coach's answer, hoping beyond all reason he got the answer he was fishing for.

Coach turned fully to Scott and lowered his voice. "All positions are open." Then he turned and entered his office, leaving Scott in the locker room heartbroken.

Stiles eyed the little freshman that they had seen that morning impressively defending the goal better than he had ever seen Danny do. Liam, he recalled bitterly. Liam had overheard what Coach had told Scott, same as he had, and Stiles didn't appreciate the growing, smug smirk on the annoying freshman's face. A bad feeling bubbled in his stomach.

Stiles could have really used Sara's help instilling some confidence in their favorite werewolf.

It wasn't that Sara didn't want to boost Scott's confidence. It certainly wasn't that since she considered him a good friend and wished the best in all pursuits for him, especially for lacrosse. But the constant rambling and nervousness from him earlier in the day made her feel a bit insecure and on edge, which she didn't appreciate in the slightest. To combat that, she felt the need to get away from the school and unwind in a calm, non-violent, non-stressful environment, which meant no lacrosse tryouts.

So, there sat Sara in one of Beacon Hills's parks on a swing set next to Lori. Brett leaned on one of the metal supports, and he occasionally pushed them on the swings. They had been there for about half an hour before Lori decided to bring up the one thing that she knew Sara had been avoiding.

"So, why didn't you want to go to lacrosse tryouts?" Lori asked as she spun around in the swing to twist the chains.

Sara tore her gaze from the dirt in front of her, looking over at Lori and her antics. It was crazy to Sara just how well both Brett and Lori could read her, similar to how Scott, Derek, and Isaac could. She brushed it off though, crinkling her nose at Lori's question.

Lori gave her an annoyed look and continued, "I just thought you'd rather be there supporting your friends instead of with me and his ugly mug." She gestured to Brett who chuckled and rolled his eyes then she paused in her twisting of the swing to hear Sara's answer.

Sara dug the toe of her boots into the dirt beneath her. "One of them was acting weird today but like only around me?" She shrugged. "So, I don't know, I just didn't want to go watch tryouts after all that. It's not like they'll need me anyway. They were on the team last year."

Brett and Lori shared a look that Sara noticed, frowning at them.

"What?" Sara asked.

Brett played it off with a shrug. "Oh, nothing."

Instead of answering, Lori let loose the tightened coil of the swing, spinning her around with a high velocity.

Sara was left unimpressed. "You know, you two are terrible at avoiding a subject."

Lori grinned broadly as the spinning swing began to slow, and she felt extremely dizzy, holding onto the swing to keep from falling off. "You're the one avoiding an awkward subject by hanging out with your ex-booty call and his sister."

"Classic conflict avoidance," Brett said with a simple nod.

"Ooh, someone's been paying attention in Psychology class," Sara teased, wiggling her eyebrows, getting Lori to laugh with her.

"Maybe you should focus more on the personality disorders, Mr. Narcissism," Lori added as she began twisting up her swing again.

Brett shrugged. "Eh, I think I'm more histrionic than narcissistic."

"I recommend therapy, but I don't think it's for a personality disorder." Sara then stood up, grabbed the seat of the swing, and set it against her lower back. "Hey, Lori, try this instead." Gripping onto the chains, she flipped upside down, wrapping her ankles around the chains further up, thus being able to free her hands. Sara looked up at Lori from her place. "Still get the head rush without messing with the chains."

"Oh, sweet," Lori said then began undoing her twisted job on the swing. She copied Sara's upside pose and smiled as her hair tried to brush against the dirt below.

Then a few moments later, Lori let out a high squeal as Brett pushed her on the swing, sending her moving through the air with a death grip on the chains.

"Ah, I hate you!"

Sara and Brett laughed together until Lori slowly joined in.

Hanging out for the rest of the day with Brett and Lori and no crisis was a nice respite for Sara, but the universe had other plans for that night since the moment she got home, she received a few texts from Scott, none of which boded well.

Little did she know, that while she was taking some nice, quiet, simple time with her only two friends outside of the pack, things were going to shit in Beacon Hills once again, starting with the family-murdering axe-murderer that Stiles had tried to get them to focus on earlier in the day and ending with the annoying little freshman that Stiles already didn't like.

Sara pulled out her phone after hearing the bouts of her text tone, and she paused while slipping off her boots, eyes narrowing at the phone screen.

Wonder Pup: Come over plz?

Wonder Pup: I did a thing...

Wonder Pup: A stupid thing

I made Danny and Jackson a grade above them since honestly the Teen Wolf timeline is so weird and I think it just makes more sense for them to be a grade above. Especially since it's still possible for them to be in the same classes considering no high school divides students the same way anyway and when I was in high school, I always had classes with people in other grades.