Sleep was impossible.

I stared at the ceiling, my eyes tracing every inch of the fan hanging above me. There was a faint glow creeping through my blinds as the moon captivated the night. My fingers felt the fabric of my comforter absentmindedly, my thoughts elsewhere. Andre's TV had shut off and I could no longer hear the faint murmur of whatever sitcom she had been watching which meant she had been fortunate enough to fall asleep.

It didn't make sense to me that the kanima needed a friend, though I hadn't expressed that idea to my friends earlier. If the kanima was so desperate to find a friend, why would Jackson go after Danny in the nightclub? Wouldn't he want to protect his best friend? I got the suspicion that maybe there was something that we were missing or that Ms. Morrell had misread the translations when Allison had brought them to her the day before. Whatever the case was, I still wasn't entirely sold on the theory that someone was protecting Jackson.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I rolled over in my bed and reached for my cellphone on my nightstand. The last text message that had been sent to me was from Stiles, the pixelated words enough to soothe any anxiety that I was currently feeling.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that I managed to nod off, being woken shortly afterwards by my alarm for school. Pushing myself up to a seat, I looked ahead at the mirror hanging on the back of my bedroom door and frowned at my disheveled appearance. My brown hair was somewhat mangled on one side of my head and my green eyes were darkened by fatigue. My skin had turned a shade lighter and my night shirt was covered in food stains. I hadn't taken much thought to my appearance as of lately and I was unhappy with how destroyed I looked. I supposed it matched how I felt.

Pulling myself out of bed, I ran myself through a shower before getting ready for the day. I found comfort in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, throwing on a pair of sneakers as per usual. Andre had already left for the morning, leaving a note that she was getting a work out in and then doing a quick surveillance where she knew Derek was hiding out. She had agreed to check the area for him so that he didn't have to in case of any sign of detection. As much as he pissed me off, I didn't want to see him or his betas get sliced in half by my best friend's grandpa.

Then, as if there was a beacon of hope shining down on me, a familiar blue Jeep pulled up in front of my house with a beep. The smile that fell on my face was genuine and it was a relief to be able to feel the way I did with confidence that the boy inside the car outside my house felt the same way. There were no more boundaries or tensions. We had the freedom to finally be ourselves again.

I skipped out of my house, practically buzzing with glee. Opening the passenger side door, I hopped inside the vehicle and, as soon as I was seated, a hand was turning my cheek. As if already anticipating the action, I shut my eyes and allowed the sensation of Stiles' lips on mine to override every sense in my body. The scent of his cologne wafted into my nostrils, sending a comforting chill over my skin, and the feeling of his fingers connecting with my cheek brought a warmth to them. I returned his kiss happily, trying not to let a smile break it before we were ready to be done.

Stiles pulled away and I saw a sheepish twist of his lips. "I-I hope you were...cool with that." He stammered, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand whilst his face turned a bright shade of pink. "I kind of-"

"Stiles, you are allowed to kiss me whenever you want. We've waited this long." I interjected, holding up a hand as if to physically stop his words. "Do not make it weird."

"Got it." Stiles responded, nodding his head curtly and then turning back around in his seat to put the Jeep into park. We began to pull away from my house and he let out a sigh. "On a not so awesome note, Jackson filed a restraining order against Scott and I."

"A restraining order? That's it?" I inquired in shock, my eyebrows rising up nearly to my hairline as I gazed out the front windshield. "When did you find this out?"

"Last night when I was about to reveal to my father that a murderous lizard was on the loose but said reptile was sitting in his office." Stiles said with false enthusiasm. "Then, Scott proceeded to get grounded and his mom banned him from seeing me."

"Smart woman. She knows where to hit him where it hurts." I teased to which Stiles shot me an irritated glare. "At least you two aren't in jail."

"We have to keep a fifty foot radius from Jackson at all times." Stiles went on to explain. "That means it's going to be really freaking difficult to keep tabs on him. Especially now since we know that our freaky counselor translated the text wrong from the bestiary."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, giving the boy beside me a confused look.

"I mean that it didn't say 'friend'." Stiles answered, confirming my suspicion from last night. "It said 'master'. Whoever Jackson's master is, they're making him forget anything that has to do with him being a kanima. That's why he doesn't remember anything."

"Someone is using Jackson as a puppet." I murmured thoughtfully, trying to rack my brain of any possible suspects. "They're not protecting him-they're controlling him."

"Exactly." Stiles agreed, sighing deeply and propping his head up on his fist while he drove. His leg began to bounce somewhat while the other foot remained on the gas pedal. "Now, while we're legally not allowed to be near him, all of this is going to blow up in our faces."

"Allison and I don't have to remain fifty feet away from him. Neither does Andre." I pointed out, shrugging my shoulders.

"Right, and like Scott and I are going to let any of you get near him while he is transformed into his psychopathic alter ego." Stiles scoffed, glancing over at me with a humorous look. "You're absolutely hilarious this morning."

I rolled my eyes and smacked my lips together. "Oh, come on. We've all made it this far, haven't we? I mean, we survived Scott's house against Derek and his pack of wild dogs."

"I got my ass kicked!" Stiles squealed, pressing a finger to his chest and giving me a wild look. "Did you forget that part?"

I cringed. "Sort of."

"That-That's rich." Stiles responded before exhaling sharply and giving a curt shake of his head. "Look, none of that is the point. Point is: we have to figure out who the hell is controlling Jackson before he kills someone else."

"They clearly have a motive or some sort of vendetta against us." I noted, crossing my arms over my chest as I thought hard. "Why would he want Jackson to be in the dark about everything? I mean, Jackson wouldn't really be able to break away from his master even if he knew what he was doing, right?"

Stiles shook his head. "I don't know." He replied. "He might not want to work with whoever the master is and try to gain some more control over himself. However, the idea of Jackson wanting to kill people as a show of power doesn't really strike me as unreasonable."

We pulled into the parking lot of the school, the area buzzing with the student body. I could see Jackson's Porsche parked where it normally was and a sense of dread filled me just by simply looking at the vehicle. I wasn't surprised that he had gone to police after escaping from the police van and I also wasn't surprised that he had placed a restraining order against Scott and Stiles. Why he had chosen just the two of them was beyond me-having left Allison and I out of the equation even though we had also been involved with his kidnapping. Figuring it was out of pure luck, I didn't dwell on it for long.

Hopping out of the Jeep, I retrieved my bag from the backseat of the car and then began making my way into the school beside Stiles. The backs of our hands brushed against each other, but neither of us reached for them. I almost found myself wanting to keep this as secretive as possible, not wanting the universe to screw me over as soon as something good happened in my life. Just as I was about to express my thoughts, a bright light suddenly flashed in front of my eyelids, the sound of a soft snap meeting my ears.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed, blinking white dots out of my sight.

"Crap, sorry." A voice immediately apologized, swearing to himself quietly a few times. "I forgot I had the flash on."

Once my vision had finally cleared, the image of a boy met my gaze. I recognized him from the lacrosse games. A large, most likely, expensive camera hung around his neck with a thick black strap, his fingers nimbly pushing the top part of the flash mechanism back into the camera. He stood just a bit shorter than Stiles with light brown hair, dark eyes, and an incredibly normal appearance.

"Matt," I finally spoke, pointing a finger at him with my eyes narrowing slightly. "I think we had an art class together at the beginning of the year."

Matt smiled slightly at that, tipping his head curtly. "We did." He affirmed. "I didn't mean to almost blind you. I just realized I hadn't gotten any photos of you for the yearbook."

I snorted softly. "Doesn't really hurt my feelings. I'm not much of a picture person."

Matt once again gave me a lopsided smile, holding up his camera momentarily. "Well, I am. Just super interested to see what you and your friends are up to." His eyes then drifted over to Stiles and, for a split second, I was certain that he had almost been analyzing the boy beside me.

I squinted at him, much more alert than I had been before. "What do you mean by that?" I asked him bluntly.

Matt appeared as though he were a deer caught in headlights and his mouth hung open somewhat. "I-I just meant that I like to get some candid photos of student life." He stammered, shrugging a shoulder. "Ya know, keep it real."

I nodded slowly. "Right." I hummed and then sniffed hard. "Well, as much as fun as this was, we've got to go."

Right as I was about to step around Matt, his entire form slid directly in front of me. I stopped in my tracks and frowned deeply at the boy. "You two are best friend's with Scott, right?" He inquired, glancing between Stiles and I. "Maybe we can get together sometime and we can chat about some weird photos I got of him."

"What are you talking about, man?" Stiles demanded, his voice borderline accusatory as he took a smaller step closer to me. "What weird photos?"

"Some weird lens glare right by his eyes." Matt said, gesturing towards his face and looking oddly calm. "Wondered if you guys might know anything?"

"Why would we know anything? You're the one who's got the brains about photos." I pointed out, trying to keep my own demeanor unshaken. "Plus, you can ask him yourself. You're on the lacrosse team, right?"

"Hardly." Matt scoffed and he rolled his eyes. "If they ever played me for more than two seconds, I could probably say that I was on the team."

"Sorry 'bout that." I hissed through my teeth with a slight ingenuine smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to class, Matt."

Begrudgingly, the smaller boy moved out of my path. Stiles placed a hand on my shoulder to usher me away from him and we quickly made our way into the school, leaving the photographer behind.

"That was super freaking weird." Stiles muttered, hiking his backpack up higher on his shoulders. "And not something we need to worry about right now. Allison told me that Lydia was able to help translate the bestiary."

"Lydia knows Archaic Latin?" I gawked, my eyebrows rising up as I gave Stiles a bewildered look. "How did I not know that?"

"None of us did." Stiles responded, displaying his arms out as his sides as he shook his head curtly. "Allison is gonna give us a translated copy in the library right before lunch. By us, I mean Scott and I very expertly hidden between bookshelves."

"Smart." I praised weakly. "You do that and I'm going to go make sure I don't fail my math semi-final."

Scott had been tasked with a make-up exam, his mom having begged Mr. Harris to allow him the opportunity to avoid being held back. Once they'd talked to Allison, Stiles and Scott had parted ways. Stiles was still in the library, reading through the tablet that Allison had given him explaining all that needed to be known about the kanima. He'd sent me a text telling me that I needed to find Lydia and remain with her while the others were preoccupied. Allison had gone to interrogate Jackson to find out what might be holding him back from being a werewolf, as the bestiary had so graciously explained. Now, it was up to me to keep tabs on Lydia.

My job wasn't hard considering as soon as I took a seat on my lunch table, a mound of red hair began marching at me with nearly breakneck speed. Her heels clicked loudly over the voices of other kids inside the lunchroom, and her green eyes were poised directly on me. Both of her hands clapped down on the shiny linoleum of the table and she practically leaned over my body.

"On what planet do you think that is acceptable for me to hear that you have kissed a member of the opposite sex in which you have been pining over from someone else?" Lydia demanded angrily, keeping her voice low enough that it wouldn't grab any attention from unwanted onlookers. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't take a match to your closet and shave your head in your sleep, Tessandra Bradley?"

I stared wide-eyed at my best friend across from me, every muscle in my body going stiff. I opened and closed my mouth a few times as I desperately searched for a proper response back to her questions. She had every right to be upset. After all, she had been pushing me to get with Stiles since she found out about the incident the night of the formal.

"I-I'm sorry." I finally stammered out, shaking my head and then swallowing hard. "I was waiting until I saw you and-and...wait. Who told you?"

Lydia rolled her eyes and let out an aggravated huff, eventually taking a seat just on the other side of the table. "Allison, obviously. She couldn't wait to tell me as soon as she got home last night after she bailed on our study plans." She explained, sounding bored. "I honestly thought she was joking because there was no way that we had the conversation we did and then you went and kissed Stiles."

I cringed and sank down in my chair. "I know. It sounds hypocritical and totally crazy, but I just couldn't take it anymore." I responded weakly. "I had to do it."

Lydia giggled quietly and then smiled somewhat proudly. "I knew it was going to happen eventually. There's only so much sexual tension you can ball up in two horny teens."

"Why do you have to say those things? Is it really in your nature?" I asked her, voice thick with irritation. "How about telling me when you learned Archaic Latin?"

"Oh, God, you're in the weird online gaming community, too?" Lydia scoffed, looking positively disgusted at the thought.

I blinked a few times, utterly confused by her statement. "Online gaming community?"

"Yeah." Lydia nodded. "Allison had me translate that little book thing because it would help you guys in your online gaming community that battles mythical creatures. How you two got roped into doing that is beyond me. Scott and Stiles must be pretty persuasive."

I bit down on my bottom lip tightly and nodded as if I completely understood. Saving this topic to confront Allison about later, I tucked it into the filing cabinet in my mind. "Of course." I murmured begrudgingly. "How could I ever forget?"

"I would love to." Lydia responded flatly and then tossed some hair over her shoulder. She then reached over and grabbed a tomato off of my lunch tray, popping it into her mouth.

Movement at the lunch room doors caught my attention and I looked past Lydia to find that Stiles had arrived. He was waving enthusiastically, a goofy smile stretched across his features. I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed him, but I was relieved to find that they were all absorbed in their own world. Reaching up my own hand, I gave a curt wave and Lydia turned to figure out who I was acknowledging.

"You know, I don't know what the hell you see in him, but I'll just say that I'm happy you're happy." Lydia mentioned, her tone almost mortified as she saw Stiles scrambling in our direction.

"Ladies!" He greeted, panting slightly as he came to stand at the end of our table. "Enjoying lunch? Great. Lydia, so glad you're here. I have a question for you."

"Okay, Stiles, I'm worried that if you don't slow down you might choke on air and pass out." I told him, holding up a hand and giving him a pointed look. "What are you doing?"

"I-I am asking Lydia a-a question." Stiles responded, rubbing his palms on the sides of his pants before gesturing towards her. "People can do that, Tessa."

"What do you want?" Lydia asked him, propping her head on her first and appearing weary.

"What happened to Jackson's parents?"

"Stiles!" I exclaimed, affronted he had asked Lydia such a personal question about her ex. I was also stunned by the fact that it had to do with Jackson in the first place.

Lydia let out a sharp laugh and stood to a seat. "Absolutely not."

"No, please." Stiles choked out, scrambling after her as she began to leave the lunch room. Letting out a deep sigh, I had no choice but to follow the two of them.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone." Lydia then informed Stiles, not even looking over her shoulder at him as we all walked down the hallway.

"Oh, come on, anyone who ever says 'I'm not supposed to tell anyone' is always dying to tell someone." Stiles pointed out desperately trying to keep pace with her. "So, tell me! Tell us."

"Do not wrap me into this." I warned him, a stern glare cast his direction while I held up a finger. He flinched slightly at my motion and frowned, shrinking beneath my gaze.

"Why do you wanna know?" Lydia inquired suspiciously.

"I can't tell you that." Stiles defended, shaking his head.

"Then, I'm not telling you." Lydia shot back as if that much were obvious. She paused for a moment and then began marching again.

"But you are telling me that you could tell me something if you wanted to tell me." The spastic boy inquired, sounding slightly hopeful at the prospect.

Lydia looked confused and her red brows knitted together. "Was that a question?"

"It felt like a question." Stiles said as though it were to himself, his mouth mimicking that of it being filled with glass marbles.

"Well, tell me if this feels like an answer: no." The redhead told Stiles in a sickly sweet tone, glancing up at the ceiling as if she were thinking before she marched away from the both of us-intent on keeping the secret from the both of us.

I watched her go until her red curls disappeared around the corner and I nodded, as if impressed by the efforts that Stiles had made. "That went super well, I think."

"Oh, don't rub it in." Stiles grunted, waving his hand at me before scrubbing it down the front of his face. "I figured it was worth a try."

"You did good." I encouraged gently and patted his shoulder supportively. "My favorite part was when you-"

"I feel like I just told you to not rub it in and you're blatantly ignoring me." Stiles interjected, feigning confusion as he gestured between the two of us, shaking his head slowly. "Somehow I feel like you were nicer to be before I kissed you."

"That is so not true." I squeaked, crossing my arms over my chest. "I am way nicer to you, now."

Stiles' eyebrows shot up with a disbelieving look. "Really, because it sure as hell seems like-"

Without warning, Stiles' body was suddenly jerked to the side. I watched as his shoulder was slammed directly into the brick wall, a mane of blonde hair suddenly in my sights. Erica Reyes' hand was sprawled across Stiles' chest, her claws protruding from the tips of her fingers. She was dressed in a pair of very tight black pants, an emerald corset, and her signature leather jacket.

"Why are you asking Lydia about Jackson's real parents?" Erica demanded sternly, Stiles looking down at her hand nervously.

I scrambled forward and tried to plant myself between the two. "Why are you acting like a crazy bitch in the middle of the school hallway?"

Erica growled and she bared her white teeth at me, leaning in somewhat towards my face. "I will not hesitate to rip you to shreds." She threatened.

"On camera?" Stiles pointed out, his voice much more calm than I had anticipated from him. He then pointed a finger towards the corner of the room, the white security camera daunting as ever. Almost immediately, Erica removed her hand and retracted her claws. "That's right. You wanna play catwoman? I'll be your Batman."

He shrugged himself off, smiling smugly. Stiles walked around Erica, grabbing onto the crook of my arm and walking me back down the hallway like we had intended on doing before.

"If you're wondering about Jackson's real parents, they're about half a mile from here in Beacon Hills Cemetery." Erica called out to us, tipping her head to the side. It was now her turn to appear smug, knowing she had information that we had been searching for. Somehow, in all of my anger, I had glossed over that fact in my conversation with Jackson the night before. Erica then turned on her heel and began to prance in the opposite direction.

"We-We have to go after her." Stiles stammered and now, officially, grabbed my hand tightly. He then jerked me after Erica, practically running after her. "Erica, wait! Do you know how they died?"

"Maybe." Erica revealed, staring straight ahead as if she knew she was playing hard to get. "If you tell me why you're so interested."

Stiles lapsed into silence, glancing over at me as if to develop some sort of expert lie we could feed to Erica in order to get answers without actively telling what we knew. By telling Erica that Jackson was the kanima, the information would then get passed on to Erica. Sure, they had seen the kanima at Scott's house, but none of them had been sure that it was Jackson. If Derek knew, he'd stop at nothing to kill Jackson which was the exact opposite of what we wanted.

"It's him, isn't it?" Erica finally spoke when our silence lingered on for too long. Her walk slowly and she side eyed us cautiously.

"What? Him, who?" Stiles choked out, trying to remain clueless.

Erica looked as though she were thinking for a moment and she began to strut again, this time with more haste. "The test didn't work, but it's still him." She scoffed quietly. "It's Jackson."

Stiles and I exchanged a horrified glance, pausing for just a moment. Then, we once again scrambled after the wolf desperately.

"You can't tell Derek, okay?" Stiles informed Erica as we followed her down the hallway that led to all of the sports locker rooms. "There's a lot more to this that you don't know about. And just because you got the alpha bite makeover doesn't give you the license to go around destroying people."

Erica suddenly spun around to look at Stiles with an infuriated expression. "Why not?" She demanded diligently. "That's all anybody used to ever do to me. I used to have the worst crush in the world on you. Yeah, you, Stiles. And you never once noticed me. Especially not after Tessa moved to town."

As soon as her green eyes landed on me, I felt nauseous. It all seemed to click together in that moment-why she hated me so much and why she accused me of stealing things she wanted. I never would have guessed that it would be Stiles that she was talking about. It never had to do with something I deliberately did towards her and my kindness had all been in vain. She despised me because of Stiles.

"Exactly how you're not noticing me right now." Erica went on to say, breaking me out of my thoughts. Confused, I looked over at Stiles who was staring at a spot behind the werewolf. I followed his gaze and my eyes slightly widened when I saw a stream of water pouring out from underneath the men's locker room door.

The door of the locker room swung open, Scott flying back first out of it. He hit the floor with a loud thud and all three of us jumped back, Stiles pulling me directly behind him. Jackson suddenly appeared and came down on top of my friend, half naked and dripping wet. Erica stomped forward and wrapped an arm around Jackson's shoulders, pulling him off of Scott and into her chest.

"Scott! Scott!" Stiles called out and released me once he realized I was in no immediate danger. He went to the aid of his friend, helping him up off the floor. Erica and Stiles worked to keep the fighting boys apart, people starting to crowd in the hallway when they caught wind of a fight. Allison came stumbling out and I came to her side, the look on her face frightening me. Locks of her hair had fallen out of place, her eyes brimmed with tears, and she looked as though she had seen a ghost.

"What's going on? What happened?" I whispered, holding onto her biceps and trying to catch her eyes. She was breathing heavily, trying to choke out the words but it was difficult.

"What the hell is going on?" A masculine voice boomed over the chatter of the chaos, Mr. Harris pushing his way towards the crowd and headed straight for the six of us in the center of it all. "Hey! Enough!"

Mr. Harris stepped in between Scott and Jackson, the spastic boy having released his enraged werewolf friend whilst Erica still clung tightly to Jackson. "What do you two idiots think you're doing? Jackson! Calm down! Mr. McCall, do you want to explain yourself?" The teacher looked between the two boys in fury. "Stilinski?"

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I was utterly confused to find that the boy from this morning, Matt, was standing directly behind me. He was holding the tablet in his hand. "You dropped this."

Before I could take it back, Mr. Harris swiped it from Matt rapidly. "You and you," He began, pointing at Jackson and Scott. Then, it looked as though he were thinking deeply and his eyes fell on all of us. "Actually, all of you, detention. Three o'clock."

"What?" I uttered, my eyes widening as I turned back around to face Mr. Harris. "But, we didn't-"

"If you continue to speak, Ms. Bradley, I will make sure that it turns into detention for the rest of the month." Mr. Harris warned, his snake-like eyes giving me a violently serious look through his square shaped glasses. "And that will turn into a suspension and we can't afford that now, can we?"

I clenched my teeth tightly together, my fists balled up at my sides. "No, sir." I grit out, trying to keep my emotions in check. One thing ever seemed to change-Mr. Harris attempted to sabotage my entire living situation with my sister. Whatever he had against me was unclear and had been ever since parent-teacher conferences. Now, more than ever, I didn't want to lose any chance of Andre having custody. Would the system know that I did have a living relative?

"Great." Mr. Harris hummed, his voice laced with venom. "We will meet in the library. If not all of you are there, you all will be punished. Think of it as a group bonding activity."

All of us glanced around at each other, probably all wondering the same thing: how the hell we all ended up together. Scott and Stiles had blatantly violated the restraining order, Jackson was acting incredibly strange, and Erica was trapped in the same confined space with us as well. Considering all of the information we had just learned, I wasn't certain that the odds were in our favor.

I then returned back to Allison who was still standing beside me, arms wrapped around herself. There was a slight shake to her limbs and quiver to her bottom lip, revealing that something had happened in that locker room.

"Come on, let's get out of here." I suggested to the girl beside me quietly who nodded. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her down the hall, not looking back. Once we were somewhat alone, I removed my arm from her. "Allison, what the hell happened in there?"

"Something-something is wrong with Jackson." She whimpered, her eyelashes fluttering as she struggled to keep her composure. "He was saying crazy things and then he-he put his hand on my face and I thought he was going to paralyze me and-"

"Whoa, hey, relax." I suggested comfortingly, holding up my hands. "What do you mean something is wrong with him?"

"He wasn't acting like himself." Allison answered, shaking her head and looking worried. "Then, we fell on the ground and it was like he snapped out of it. He had no idea what he was doing there and didn't know why I was there, either."

Realization washed over me and a deep frown settled onto my features. "Like he was being controlled." I murmured.

Allison nodded. "Exactly. That means whoever is controlling him is close by or-or something." She explained further. "All I know is that it wasn't him and that he...he was going to hurt me."

"Shit," I swore, my eyes falling shut as I pinched the bridge of my nose tightly. "And now we're going to be trapped in detention with him."

"And my Dad is going to wonder how I even got it. I've never gotten detention." Allison admitted, pushing some loose strings of hair behind her ear before letting her hand fall to her side exhaustedly. "Not to mention, Scott is going to be there, too."

"Blame it on me. I've gotten detention before." I informed her, pointing to my chest. "I'm, like, the perfect candidate. Aside from the obvious, your Dad probably still thinks I'm a teenage delinquent."

"Actually, he thinks Stiles and Scott are. Lydia and you are probably a better influence." Allison corrected, shrugging her shoulders. "Which also means Lydia is going to wonder why the hell we all got detention together, too."

I waved Allison off. "That's the least of our problems. She all believes we're psychotic."

Allison hummed in agreement and then looked sheepish. "Speaking of Lydia…"

"You told her about Stiles and I." I finished, giving her a worn out look. "Trust me, I already got an earful about that at lunch. Thanks for that, by the way."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Allison relented, bouncing up and down slightly. "It just slipped out and I was just so excited for you."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, rolling my eyes and sighing. "It was bound to happen anyway. I wasn't even sure how I was going to tell her. I had just gotten done telling her how I was so certain that things weren't going to work out."

Allison snorted. "Right, like you haven't been doing that for the past two months." She scoffed with a disbelieving look. "It's not that hard to look passed."

I narrowed my eyes on my friend. "You know, I'm starting to get pissed off again."

"Sorry." Allison apologized again, but a smile hid in the corners of her mouth. "But, you know that we have to talk about it."

"Why? So you can watch me get all bashful and tell you that it was the best moment of my life?" I mocked, wagging my head at her. "That spot is reserved for you and the puppy dog boy."

Allison looked offended and smacked her lips. "That is not true." She argued. "I think I talk about normally."

"Yeah, if getting a starry eyed and red face is normal and not totally swooned, then you're average." I snorted, bobbing my eyebrows. "I was just over it, that's all. I was tired of making it a problem when it didn't need to be and it felt like…"

"...you could finally breathe." Allison finished for me, a knowing look on her features. Then, let a supportive smile fall onto her features. "I'm glad you finally got your peace with him, Tessa. It's what the two of you deserve after everything that's happened."

"I guess I can say that I'm a little excited that I finally got a win in my book." I said, biting down on my lip and shrugging. "It does feel pretty nice."

"I know it does." Allison mused and poked me in the shoulder. "Welcome to the club."

"I am a part of no such thing." I denied and shook my head, rolling my eyes. I turned on my heel and began to walk down the hallway towards our lockers. Allison followed in step. "In other news, Erica revealed why the hell she hates me so much. She had a crush on Stiles."

"Oh," Allison gasped and cringed, pressing her lips together in a straight line. "That's not what I was expecting."

"Trust me, neither was I." I scoffed, stopping at my locker and opening it. "But, it doesn't make it fair. I was always nice to her and it's not like I knew she liked Stiles. I wouldn't deliberately go after someone if I knew she liked him."

Allison leaned against the other lockers just beside mine and shook her head. "There's nothing you can really do." She replied. "I know it sucks, but it's just something she has to work through on her own. But, it doesn't exactly give her the privilege to attack you every moment she can."

"Well, she does, and her boss isn't exactly doing anything about it." I grunted, shoving a book in the metal container in front of me aggressively. "She also told us that Jackson's parents were dead and then figured out that he's the kanima."

"What?" Allison exclaimed, straightening slightly. "How?"

"I-I don't know. She found out that we were trying to integrate Lydia about Jackson's real parents and then put the pieces together herself." I explained. "Stiles and I were trying to convince her not to tell Derek, but she didn't exactly seem to agree."

"God, this is even worse." Allison groaned and shut her eyes, placing her hand to her forehead. "If Erica tells Derek, they'll go after Jackson."

"I know. That's the problem." I huffed, shutting my locker door and shifting my books in my arms. "There's nothing we can do to stop her and we won't know if she tells him before the end of the day. If anything, she'll tell Boyd. That's who I've figured out she's closest with."

"And they'll tell Derek. He'll always find out no matter what." Allison pointed out, shaking her head and chewing on her thumbnail. "We'll figure this out. For now, we just need to survive detention for an hour."

A/N: Thank you guys so much for the reviews. I appreciate them more than you know! I also hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

- Laura