Scott, Allison, Stiles and Lydia are having lunch at a bench outside - set in Junior Year.
Authors note- I will be planning to write a 2nd chapter about this story, but I originally planned for the 2nd part to be chapter 1 and for the now chapter 1 to have only been a few introductory paragraphs. It was like my original idea was a stepping stone that evolved into its own chapter, and I felt like a reader when I was writing it- hahaha. Even as I was writing it, it was like the story was partly writing itself and I was getting excited reading and writing it.
If someone had told Lydia one year ago that that she'd be friends with Scott Mcall and Stiles Stilinski and that she would actually enjoy spending time with them, she would have laughed at them - but here she was sitting with her new found group of friends - herself, Allison, Stiles and Scott all having lunch together like they've done that for ages. Truth be told, it's only a recent thing they've begun doing since they've all started a new school year as Juniors.
It's become a habit for her to switch out her textbooks and copies for her next few classes where she would then make her way to the Cafeteria to meet her friends.
Usually, they would have lunch indoors as the long hot summer days were long gone, but on this particular day Mother Nature must have been in a good mood. There was a light breeze that swept a pile of Auburn, Crimson and Amber leaves across the school grounds disorderly as an Autumn sun peered through a cluster of tall oak trees - illuminating tiny droplets of rain, making them appear as diamonds on every surface that they've touched.
Lydia makes her way to the doors which would lead her to the school grounds where her friends would be waiting for her. She had previously checked the weather the night before so she could decide on an outfit for today. It wouldn't be as cold as it normally was, but it would get colder as the day processed - so Lydia decided upon wearing a long-sleeved grayish-blue blouse with a red floral pattern on it, along with a short black A-line skirt, it was woolen with gold buttons on it. She paired them with black Mary Jane pumps, a long wine trench coat and one of her blueish-grey handbags. That morning she wore her outfit and styled her hair into bouncy curls and did her makeup - applying more of the same crimson lipstick once she reached school.
She pushed open the double doors and a gust of wind makes her curls fall behind her shoulders. She made her way over to a nearby bench where the trio were having lunch. As she continued walking forward, a few leaves began encircling her feet, creating cracking sounds as she stepped over them.
She was nearing the bench when Stiles suddenly looked up, momentarily locking eyes with her before quickly looking away. Lydia began to recently notice that habit of stiles' - every time she'd enter a room that he was already in, he'd always be the first person to see her, even if she was
nowhere near anyone - almost like he could sense her presence as she entered a room. As of right though, she didn't think about it too much and finally joined her friends.
"Hey. You finally made it. What took you so long?" Allison asked.
"I had to take a detour to the library to return a book on mythology. That's definitely a sentence I never thought I'd say out loud." Lydia replied while grimacing slightly as she sat down beside Allison.
Her best friend was seated across from Scott, with Stiles seated to his right, now infront of Lydia. She had noticed a few changes when it came to Stiles since they've come back over the summer.
The most noticeable change being his hair, which he had decided upon letting it grow out of that horrible buzz cut from last year - but now it was a deep brown that slightly curled at the base of his neck. Another change was his once rounder jaw that made him appear more childish was gone and he now had a more defined, sharper jawline that was spotted with a few moles that ran down to his neck. Unlike last year, instead of wearing baggy clothing with cheesy movie quotes on them, Stiles wore a dark grey Henley shirt with a denim jacket and a pair of navy Jeans that fitted him more tightly. All of which made his shoulders more defined and muscular.
She had always known that he played lacrosse and given their lives now, probably ran a lot too, so of course he'd be in shape - but there was something about seeing him like this made Lydia not want to look away. Stiles must have always known that he was fitter than the average teenage boy, but he just never put in any effort into showing it off. That in itself Lydia thought was rather attractive, but it didn't hurt seeing him like this.
Given this new wardrobe change, Stiles must have acquired a new found self-confidence. Not in a cocky or arrogant way, just in a way that made him not slouch over so much or fidget and look away if she was ever having a conversation with him. Now when he talks to her or anyone really, he always sits up with his shoulders pushed back and looks deeply into their eyes like it was the most interesting story he'd ever heard. Which Lydia thought was another attractive quality about him, along with his sarcasm, but she would never tell that to him.
Lydia silently scolds herself for so openly checking Stiles out. Luckily no one seemed to notice, but Lydia had a suspension that Stiles knew. Every few seconds she'd see him looking at her, then he'd look away. But she saw a slight smirk form on his lips as a slight reddish color began forming on his cheeks - to which he just coughed quietly and folded his hands, listening to Scott and Allison talk about their English homework.
"Wait, so what was the question again?" Scott asked his girlfriend with furrowed brows.
"What do you think happened in Romeo and Juliet that caused it to end the way that it did?" Allison told Scott who looked just as confused as he did.
"Reading the prologue" Stiles sarcastically comments with a grin on his face.
"No, not that," Allison glared at Stiles like it was the most stupidest answer ever.
Lydia laughed to herself thinking 'he had a point'.
Stiles caught her and with the same stupid grin on his face, and winked at her. Since when had Stiles ever winked at her? And how easily he had done it? Lydia was shocked at this new courage in Stiles and she was caught off guard by it. She felt something stir in her stomach, almost like butterflies? But that's ridiculous, this is Stiles we're talking about. How could he ever make Lydia Martin shy?
"what moment really predicted that it would end badly?" Allison continued.
"When Romeo bought the poison from the Apothecary." Scott said.
"I disagree," Lydia cut in, " I think it was clear when the book wouldn't end good was in Act 2, Scene 6. During that scene Romeo and Juliet supposedly get married, but some might say that it was left out to save time, but I think there was more meaning behind it. I think that we never got to see them get married to symbolise that they were never supposed to get married. When you think about it, marriage, in this context signifies maturity and growing up, but the fact that we didn't get to see it happen just shows that they never actually grew up, that they are still just two young, immature children. Also, marriage could mean freedom and if we saw them get married, it might give the reader hope that they could've escaped Verona together - but since we didn't, it just shows that they were trapped and doomed from that point on."
After Lydia was finished speaking, she took a sip from her water bottle and realised everyone was staring at her with amazed and shocked expressions. Stiles' expression caught her attention the most. It was the way he was looking at her - he had an amazed, awed and stunned expression all at once and even from across the table, Lydia could see his pupils dilate as his mouth hung slightly agape.
Seeing him look at her like this made Lydia's heartbeat quicken, but she broke eye contact and said "What. Was that the wrong answer?" as her expression turned into a smirk, feeling rather pleased with herself.
"No, no that was the right answer," Scott suddenly said, "actually I forgot my own answer, could you write that down?"
Lydia laughed quietly and tried to change the subject so she wouldn't be the center of attention because yes, she was different now and preferred to not be stared at by everyone - especially if one of those people was a brown-haired boy with whiskey eyes who loved wearing plaid. More so with the way that she reacts by blushing and her heartbeat quickening when he does.
"Okay, enough talk about homework," she said trying to talk about something else, " how about what did everyone do over the summer?"
"Well, I went to France for the summer." Allison said. "The reason that we went there in the first place was as my Dad put it "to get away from the supernatural", and he also said something about ancestry given my last name. That last part though about ancestry I took into consideration. So I went to some French library to see if I could find any books on genealogy but I found something even better - a book called 'Légendes de l'homme-loup' and it literally translates to 'Legends of the Wolfman' or-"
"Werewolf." Scott finishes her sentence.
"Exactly." Allison answers. "Actually I have it here with me-" she began as she started to reveal a thick book. It was made with a dark brown worn away leather and the title of the book was in gold font. The pages had turned a sandy color and started to curl at the corners due to it being old.
"Another book about mythology." Stiles commented with a grin on his face, but he was looking at Lydia when he said it.
Lydia raised an eyebrow at him and pulled her mouth into a line, trying to seem annoyed, but that only lasted a few seconds because soon after she was grinning at him too. She turned to Allison saying "Merci beaucoup." which only made Stiles' smile widen. Lydia took the book from Allison and placed it into her handbag.
"You're welcome," Allison replied, "what about you Lydia. What was your summer like?"
Lydia was a bit caught off guard by the question even though it was her idea in the first place.
"Um- I," she cleared her trough to think of what she did over the summer, "I didn't really do anything that exciting over the summer." She replied honestly. "Unless you'd count updating my wardrobe and redecorating my room, but that's really it."
"Oh come on, are you sure you didn't do anything else?" Allison asked her best friend looking expectant.
"Yes, I'm sure. You'd be surprised to know how long it actually takes to decorate a room." Lydia answered nonchalantly, but deep down she felt a bit embarrassed that she hadn't done anything else.
The summer of last year she would have done a hell of a lot more - like going to way too many parties to count, or even throwing them herself. Or, if she wasn't at some party, she would be
hanging out with her friends before she met Allison. Now that she thought about it, they weren't really her friends - just people who followed her around and looked up to her.
"What about you Scott?" Allison asked her boyfriend, making Lydia lose her train of thought.
"Babe, you already know what I -" Scott began, but Allison not so subtly nodded her in the direction of Stiles and Lydia, who both shared a look of confusion with each other before both looking back towards Scott.
"Oh, right. You guys don't know," Scott said when he caught on," Well, I um, at the end of last year my grades were really bad - I was told that I might have to repeat Sophomore Year, but luckily I managed to pass. So over the summer, I took it upon myself to get better grades. I spent most of the summer catching up on classes I was failing and did a bunch of the summer readings."
"Dude, even I forgot the summer readings and you know how much I love studying." Stiles said sarcastically, but looked impressed at his friend's new dedication towards school.
"Huh, well what did you do with all of your free time then while the rest of us were reading or redecorating?" Scott questions him as he flicked a grape onto Stiles' plate for his sarcastic comment.
Stiles just watched as the purple fruit circled around his plate until it came to a stop.
This got Lydia's attention as even though she had made her assumptions about how Stiles may have spent his summer, she didn't actually know. She noticed herself getting rather interested into what Stiles was about to say - again, internally scolding herself at how and why she was acting like this.
"Over the summer I helped my Dad with a few cases and like Allison, I did quit a bit of research on werewolves." Stiles scratched the base of his neck timidly and continued to talk about what he did over the summer, " and you know, I thought that I'd change up my look a bit." This time Stiles' cheeks started to take on a reddish hue as he averted his eyes from everyone and looked at his hands.
"A bit?" Scott questioned his best friend lightheartedly.
Stiles looked up and shook his head at Scott, but looked at Lydia to see her reaction. She was smiling warmly at him and without thinking she asked "Is that why you let your hair grow out?" She instantly regretted even opening her mouth because even Scott who doesn't catch onto most signals has to hide his grin.
Stiles didn't know what to think. Did Lydia really want to get to know me better? It really isn't that big of a deal, we're only recently becoming friends so of course she would want to get to know me better - but at the same time she's freaking Lydia Martin.
Stiles sat up straighter when he told her "yeah a bit."
Lydia, too afraid to let her words betray her again, just nodded and smiled at him as he went on.
"I also thought that it would be better if I practiced a bit more for lacrosse. Ye know just cause I won the Championship last year does not guarantee that I'll win this year." Stiles said with a cheeky grin on his face.
Lydia began imagining a sweaty, shirtless Stiles training on the lacrosse field on a scorching hot summers day with beads of sweat sliding down his forehead, as he swips them away with the back of his hand, while he continues working out - all the while the sun reflects of his body from an excess amount of perspiration.
A burning sensation started to form between Lydia's thighs, so she crossed her legs and took a long gulp of her water.
Allison noticed Lydia's demeanour and quietly whispered "Are you okay?" while Stiles and Scott continued to talk about their least favourite drills that Coach was gonna make them do - they both agreed that laps around the lacrosse field was the worst.
"Yeah, it just got a lot colder." Lydia lied as she gave Allison a convincing look. Lydia wasn't even one bit cold, actually she was feeling rather hot, especially a certain part of her was.
Luckily for her, the bell signalling them to go to their next class rang. Even luckier, she has Biology with Stiles who sits beside her. 'How was she gonna make it through the day?' She questioned herself.
She sat towards the front of the class when she realised that she had forgotten her bag. Right then Stiles came into the classroom holding his textbook in his arm with her handbag atop of it.
He sat down beside her and placed her handbag on her desk. " You left your bag back at the bench." he told her, sounding out of breath.
"Thank you. I only realised that right before you came in." Lydia answered, sounding truly grateful.
"You're welcome, " Stiles said with a grin, " happy to be of service M'lady."
She just smirked and rolled her eyes even though he didn't see her.
Mid-way through the class, Lydia was taking down notes when Stiles ran his left hand through his hair subconsciously - then he let it slowly come back down onto his table.
As he was doing this, Lydia could smell Stiles' cologne. The scent was driving her crazy. The cologne had a pleasant minty scent and it was also mixed with Stiles' scent - which was freshly washed linen and pine trees.
Only one thought ran through Lydia's head and it was "Oh God."