Chapter 9: You Aint Lion
The weekend started off with a bang, and not the good kind. Not only did Melanie have to deal with a puppy that was going potty all over the house but on Saturday night reports got out that a man at a local video store had been killed and that Jackson and Lydia had been witnesses to the event. People were still throwing around that it was a mountain lion but through a text conversation with Stiles she learned that it was most likely the Alpha, a werewolf that was trying hard to make Scott a part of his pack.
The constant texting didn't go unnoticed by Erica who had come over to play with her dog and Melanie had to lie and claim that she was getting information about Stiles for her. As much as she claimed she as over Stiles she knew it wasn't true. She still perked up at the sound of his name. It made Melanie sad, seeing her friend stuck in an unrequited love chain. But what else was she going to do but stoke Erica's interest? She couldn't just come out and say she was right about werewolves being in existence. It was one thing that she barged into Scott's new life but it would be another if she just told other people.
Besides, she was still trying to shake the dream she had last night. Well, it wasn't exactly a dream but it wasn't a nightmare either. She was running away from something with red glowing eyes that was constantly chasing her. She found herself atop of the video store, standing at the ledge when the creature cornered her. But then large, black wings popped out of her back and she dive-bombed towards the ground. The monster fell after her and slashed at her back, ripping her wings out in the process and sent her hurtling towards the concrete. She woke up in a cold sweat right before she smacked into the ground with an aching back. She had taken some pain killers and tried to go back to sleep but it stuck in her mind like seeing an older person in a thong.
It was one time she was thankful that school was starting up again so she had something else to put her mind on. That and the conferences that were to be held that Monday night. She was going to have to sit through four of them: History, Chemistry, Algebra, and Economics. Her parents were not going to be happy.
"Why couldn't you have made your existence known earlier so you could save me from having to attend?" Melanie asked Isaac as she lobbed a lacrosse ball at him. She had a free period and wanted to get a little bit of practice in. Erica wasn't in the mood to stand around outside in the cold so she dragged Isaac out with her. "You could have tutored me in my classes. Lord knows Erica tries but we've learned a long time ago that it will only end with us wanting to kill one another."
"I wouldn't have helped you in Chemistry, my grade in that class is tanking too," he replied. "My dad's gonna flip." He cradled the lacrosse ball in his stick a few times before tossing it back.
"Your grade can't be that bad," Melanie said, catching the ball.
"It's a D."
"Ouch."
"Yeah."
She threw the ball back. "Well, mine's a C- so we can be flunking buddies." He snorted and caught the ball. "It's a bit weird, though. We have a curfew but they still want us to have conferences? They should just…cancel it all and let us go on with our lives."
"I can only hope," he replied, tossing the ball back. "The whole thing's kinda crazy, isn't it?" he asked, holding the stick in his hands. "Never had something like this happen before."
"There's a first time for everything, right?" she replied, cradling the ball. She licked her lips and before she could stop herself she asked, "But what if it was something else?" She watched as his eyebrows lifted. "Not a mountain lion but something else. Like, say…a wolf?"
Isaac's nose wrinkled. "Wolves aren't from here," he stated.
"What if they migrated?"
"I guess that's possible but I doubt they'd adapt to the kind of weather and conditions we have here."
Melanie hummed and nodded, tossing the ball back. "Well, whatever it is I hope they get it soon." But her words felt hollow. She had an idea of what it was ad she was still a sitting duck about it. What could she, a normal human, do against an Alpha? Scott and Derek were the only ones who could actually do something but that was if the Alpha didn't get control of Scott. Not that they could ask him about it since he was missing that day. Coincidentally Allison was too, which only meant they were together all because it was Allison's birthday.
Melanie had noticed the new necklace hanging around Allison's neck as they arrived at their lockers that morning. She admired it and had said how interesting she thought it was while Allison smiled modestly. It only prompted Melanie to ask what the occasion was and once she was able to deduce that it was Allison's birthday she wished her a happy one and that was that. But of course Scott wouldn't leave it alone. Not that she could blame him, really. If she found out that she could turn into a monster she'd want some resemblance of normalcy in her life too.
"Whatever it is doesn't stop my father from still having me work," Isaac commented, snapping Melanie out of her thoughts. She had to reach out to grab the ball that he threw. She didn't miss the bitterness in his voice.
"You work in a graveyard all by our lonesome? That's like asking to be attacked," she agreed. "By zombies, no less! Doesn't that ever worry you?"
"People coming back from the dead are the least of my worries," he replied.
"True. I suppose the things that people can do while they're alive is much worse."
"Trust me, it is."
"Still, be careful while you're working, alright? I don't want to wake up one morning and hear that a friend has been attacked."
Melanie finally threw the ball back as soon as her words left her tongue. Had she registered the stunned expression on his face she would have waited a few more seconds to throw the ball back but she didn't and it smacked him right in the face. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hands as Isaac recoiled. He grabbed at his face with a hand as the ball fell to the ground and rolled harmlessly away from him.
"Oh god! Isaac, I'm so sorry!" she cried out, running over to him. "Are you okay? Oh god, of course you're not! I just threw a lacrosse ball in your face! Here, let me see."
"No, no, I'm fine," he said while turning away from her, still holding his face. "I'm good."
"Let me see," she insisted, reaching out towards him but he brushed her away.
"Melanie, really, it's fine."
She stomped her foot on the grass and huffed. "Isaac! Let me see!" She stood on her tip toes, pushed his hand aside and grabbed his face in her hands. She felt his muscles tense beneath her hands but she still turned his head this way and that to see it beneath the sunlight. The skin around his left eye was red and puffy. She guessed the force of the hit would give him a black eye, easy. "I'm so sorry," she wailed, dropping her hands and clasped them together as she fretted. "Here, I'll take you to the nurse. She can get you some ice."
"No!" Isaac cried out, jerking away. Despite the skin around his eye beginning to swell his eyes widened. "No…I-I don't need to go to the nurse. I'm fine. Really. I…I need to go." He reached down, grabbed his backpack, and took off running.
"Issac! Wait!" Melanie yelled after him. "What's going on?" But he didn't respond he just kept running. She threw her arms into the air and growled in frustration. "Why do people keep doing that?" she asked no one in particular. She growled again, grabbed her own bag, and headed into the school. She barely made it inside when she collided with Jackson who had come out of a side hallway. "Oh, sorry," she sighed and then cringed. When why she apologizing when he was the one who walked into her? She was about to take it back when she noticed his face.
He was as pale as he was when he came in that morning, which she was surprised about. Lydia stayed home from school due to the trauma and yet he still came in. It seemed as if the longer the day went on the worse for wear he became. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Hey…are you okay?" she asked, lightly touching his arm.
Her touch seemed to snap him out of whatever it was that had a hold of him and he wrenched his arm away. "I'm fine," he grumbled. "Just peachy. Why do you care?"
"Because you look like you saw a dead body or—" she cut off her words as he glared at her and she remembered what actually happened. "Oh."
"Oh," Jackson repeated, sneering at her. "Nice, Crowe. Real nice. Don't you have to be annoying somewhere else?"
"Not until three," she replied. He snorted and rolled his eyes. "That was a joke, Jackson." She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Look. We're teammates now, alright? I just think maybe things would be easier if we got along? Or at least were civil."
"Listen, asswipe. Mind your own fucking business, okay? I'm fine. Stop pretending like you suddenly care. Okay? You don't know anything." She pressed her lips together to keep herself from saying "wanna bet?" but that would only get her into more trouble than she was already in.
"Okay, fine, sorry for asking," she muttered, trying to move past him but he slammed his palm on the lockers by her head, cutting off her path.
"And another thing," he hissed, "us being teammates is a fluke at best—"
"You've seen me play!" she protested.
He slammed his palm on the locker again. The metal clang bounced up and down the halls. "A fluke at best," he repeated, his hissing intensifying to the point that a little bit of spit hit her face but she didn't dare move to wipe it off. "You don't belong on my team. You never have. And I'm going to make sure others see that." He pushed her shoulder and then stalked off as the bell rang. Students came pouring out of classrooms and entered the quick congesting halls.
Rubbing her shoulder with a shaky hand, Melanie did her best to regain her composure. She spotted Stiles coming out of one of the classrooms and hurried to catch up to him. She heard the trailing end of his conversation with who she guessed was Scott due to his mannerisms.
"…Another random guy is dead and you have to do something about it!" he said. He waited a few seconds and replied, "Something!" He growled and made a face at his phone before dropping his arm. Scott must have hung up.
"Anything?" Melanie asked, lifting her bag higher on her shoulder.
"Nope. Scott's still off on his little adventure," Stiles replied, making finger quotes around the word adventure. "God! This is not the time for him to go romantic boyfriend on us!"
Melanie licked her lips and asked hesitantly, "Stiles can you really—?"
"Blame him?" Stiles interrupted her. "Yes. Yes I can. Because while he's off…doing whatever there's something out there attacking people and he's not even doing anything about it because he's…he's…" he made a noise to substitute a word that he couldn't come up with. "Okay, okay…there's gotta be something we can do in the meantime."
"Maybe we can go find Derek. See what he'd do?" Melanie suggested.
"Hey, whoa, no!" Stiles replied as if that was the dumbest idea in the world. "We're not going to Derek, alright? We can do this without him. We just…we just need an idea of what the thing actually was." He snapped his fingers. "Yeah, yeah, I'll go over to Lydia's after school and see how she's doing. See if she remembers what she saw and then we can meet up and talk it over."
"Wait," Melanie grabbed his arm to stop him from walking. She studied him. His eyebrows were furrowed, he rapidly licked his lower lip, and even though his eyes were trained on her it was as if he was looking past her. No, looking through her. And she had seen that look plenty of times and it was only when he was thinking of one thing. Lydia. "Stiles, tell me the truth…are you going to see Lydia for information…or are you going to see her for personal pleasure?"
"I…I…Mels," he stammered, "…you know how I feel about her."
"Everyone in the goddamn world knows how you feel about her," she replied evenly. She paused and then added, "Except her. And I know how much you care about her, it's sweet in a way but just remember…she has a boyfriend"—she didn't slow her words even though he flinched at the mention of Jackson—"and she's probably still shaken over what happened. So…I know she's vulnerable and all but don't…" she let her words trail off.
"Take advantage?" he filled in. she nodded. "I'd never do that to her," he said firmly. "Never. I just want to make sure she's okay."
Melanie clicked her tongue and watched him again. This time he looked right at her and she nodded. "Okay," she said quietly. "I believe you. Text me if you find anything and I'll be right over, alright?"
He smiled and ruffled her hair. "I will. See you later."
And, like everyone else, he ran away from her too.
# # #
"Mel, stop humming!" Erica cried out. Melanie looked up from her phone, dropping it on the floor when she missed the catch. The noise startled Nova awake. He looked around, stretched out on his new pillow, yawned, and curled up to sleep again. Erica was laying on her bed, staring at Melanie as she leaned over from her window seat and picked up her phone.
"Sorry, didn't realize," Melanie muttered, lifting her phone to see if the screen was cracked. Thankfully it wasn't. Her parents would kill her if she broke her phone just after getting it.
"What's gotten you so tense?" she asked, closing her Chemistry book and rolled off the bed. Melanie didn't get a chance to answer before Erica sat behind her on the window seat and began kneading her shoulders with her thumbs.
"Uh…conferences," Melanie replied, looking out the window and down the street. A little kid rode on the sidewalk on his bike as his father walked behind him. Erica's thumb pressed into a knot in her shoulder and she had to bite her lip to keep from groaning out loud. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to burst in and think something weird was going on. "Getting my parents in the same room to talk about how disappointed they are in my grades is not my idea of a good night. They'll probably fight about that too."
"Why are they fighting so much anyway?" Erica asked.
Melanie sighed. "I don't know. Any time they ask they tell me not to worry or they clam up when I walk in the room and put on these fake smiles that it makes me think they were replaced with Stepford wives." She glanced down at her phone again. Still no text from Stiles and no word from Scott. She looked out the window again. She wondered what Derek was up to…
She blinked and looked over her shoulder when she clued in that Erica had stopped moving. Tilting her head, blue eyes locked with brown. She lifted her eyebrows, silently probing Erica for an answer. As always, it worked. "It's just…," Erica started, "…they sound like my mom and dad before they got divorced."
Melanie's stomach dropped as the word landed heavy on her chest. Divorce. She had seen it tear apart families and leave broken shambles in their wake. The McCall family was one. Erica's family was another. And then there was Alice who moved away in sixth grade because of it and Paul and Randy who were split up because of their parents… Divorce? She couldn't even swallow the word, let alone think it. It couldn't be possible. Not for her mom and dad. They were crazy in love with one another, ever since they met. She hadn't sat through sickeningly sweet stories about them just for them to end up divorced.
"Hey," Erica said softly, grabbing Melanie's shoulder to keep her from standing. She wrapped her arms around Melanie's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "That may not be it. It could be something else. Finances. Sick relative. Anything. Don't let me fill your head with worry."
But that wasn't why Melanie had started to get up. No, it was something worse. She saw the red eyes again, outside her window, in the bushes. In broad daylight! She had blinked rapidly to be sure she wasn't actually dreaming. She even pinched herself. But the eyes were still there.
"What's wrong?" Erica asked, sensing her change in demeanor.
"Nothing, nothing," Melanie replied. Just then the sound effect noise of a Pokéball opening. She had just gotten a text. Maybe it was finally Stiles.
"Man, you're so jumpy today," Erica commented, leaning backwards to keep Melanie from smacking her head into her chin as she tried to get up. "I'll get it. You need to relax. Have a Snickers or something."
"Wait, Erica, no! I can get it," Melanie said, trying to stop her but Erica used her longer legs to beat her to her phone. She cursed under her breath at the stupid idea of giving Erica her password. They kept no secrets from each other; of course she'd share it but now was the one time she wished she hadn't. "Really, it's probably just my dad."
"Why would he text you from downstairs?" Erica asked, already typing in her pincode.
"Because he's…werid!" Melanie tried, in vain, to get her phone back but Erica had already gotten in. Melanie gulped when Erica froze. Her face scrunched up in confusion and she pulled the phone closer to her face. And then she saw something in Erica's demeanor crumble and it made an ache appear in her chest.
"Mel…?" she lifted her head and looked over at Melanie who flinched at the expression in her eyes. One that she had never seen since they were nine and fighting over which was better: Barbie or G.I. Joe. She held out Melanie's phone and she took it, glancing at the screen to see what the text said.
Stiles: I need you NOW! Come as soon as you can!
"Eri—" Melanie started but Erica cut her off.
"Is this why you've been acting weird?" she demanded. "Because you…you and Stiles…?"
"Me and Stiles…? No!" Melanie shook her head. "No, there's nothing…we're not…Erica, you have to believe me—"
"Do you like him?" Erica asked, her voice hitching.
"No!"
"You two have been texting a lot recently."
Melanie wanted to grab her hair. "We're just friends, Erica. We've always been friends. I've been asking him about you!"
Erica crossed her arms. "For some reason I don't believe you," she replied.
"I'm telling the truth!"
"Mel, you suck at lying!" Erica shot back. Any retort Melanie had died on the tip of her tongue. "I can always tell when you're lying to me. And you're lying right now. There's something going on between you two, isn't there? You know I like him!"
"You said you were over him," Melanie said feebly.
"Because I realize how pathetic it is to chase after him since he's so into Lydia," she spat. "I was trying to get over him with wishful thinking but you know how I felt. How could you do this to me?"
"Eri," Melanie tried, reaching out for her but she slapped her hand away.
"You're just like everyone else, feeding me lies. Do you really think I'm pretty? Or was that a lie too? And all those times you said I wasn't fat and that someone, some day, would want to be with me? Were those all lines too?"
"Of course not!" Melanie replied. "Eri, you're beautiful!" She could feel a prickling sensation behind her eyes. Tears began to rim the bottom lid. Erica's eyes appeared shiny as well. She too was trying to hold back her tears. "It's…it's a big misunderstanding."
"Okay then, what does Stiles need you for?" Erica demanded.
"I…" Melanie stopped herself. She clamped her lips together. She couldn't tell Erica why. As much as she wanted to, she just couldn't. It wasn't her secret to tell. It was Scott's. And Scott was forced to trust her since Melanie barged and shoved and elbowed her way into his…hairy little problem. But he wouldn't trust her anymore if she told. But then Erica wouldn't trust her if she didn't either. "I…I can't…"
"I see," Erica said, all emotion leaving her voice. It was cold. It made Melanie shiver. She grabbed her bag off of Melanie's bed and stomped over to the door before Melanie could move. She wrenched it open and yanked it behind her. Melanie flinched when it closed with a loud slam.
A lump formed in her throat. She either had to go after Erica and try and talk her down or got to Stiles and help him out. She wiped the tears off of her face.
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.
# # #
"What's goin' on? Did you find something?" Melanie asked, barging into Stiles' room. She stopped and her words softened on her tongue when she clued in on his pacing with his phone up to his ear. He held his finger out to her, signaling that he would be with her in a minute. She nodded and sat down on his bed, placing her backpack on the floor. She rubbed her hands on the knees of her jeans and looked around his gray room, taking in the posters on the wall and the cluttered state.
It was interesting to see into the being that was Stiles Stillinski. His locker seemed to be an extension of his room: a little cluttered, a little crazy, but interesting all rolled into one. She picked up a nearby Rubik's Cube, noticing that it had been completed, and moved the pieces around to try and figure it out herself. It gave her something to do while Stiles talked on the phone.
"Hey, it's me again…. Look, I found something out, I don't what to do, okay? So if you could turn your phone on, right now, that'd be great. Or else, I'll kill you! D'you understand me? I'm gonna kill you! …And I'm too upset to come up with a witty description about how exactly I'm gonna kill you but I'm just gonna do it, okay? I'm gonna…" Stiles finished his sentence with a growl of annoyance, bid Scott goodbye, and hung up his phone, throwing it down on the part of the bed that Melanie hadn't taken up.
"You may want to take up some yoga," Melanie commented, her eyes never leaving the puzzle in her hands, "it'll help you relax some."
"Yeah, well, I kinda can't relax knowing that there's an Alpha werewolf on the loose," Stiles grumbled, dropping down in his computer chair. He finally looked over at her and sat up straight, his eyes softening. "Whoa, wait…are you alright? Have you been crying?" Melanie looked up at him and then hastily wiped at her eyes. They still stung. "God, I don't know what to do crying girls. Do you, ah, want…some ice cream? Yeah! Ice cream always helps!"
"No, Stiles, I'm fine," Melanie said with a wave of her hand. "Got into a fight with a friend, that's all."
He grunted and slumped in his seat. "Yeah, I know the feeling." The knock at the door made him jump in his seat. Melanie glanced over to see Sheriff Stilinski in the doorway.
"Please tell me I'm going to hear good news at the conferences tonight," he sighed.
"Depends on how you define good news," Stiles challenged him.
"I define it as you getting straight As with no behavioral issues."
"Might want to rethink that definition," Stiles said slowly, making a face.
Melanie snorted to keep her laugh in which made her earn Sheriff Stilinski's attention. "Hey sir," she greeted him with a wave.
"Hello Melanie. How're you?"
She shrugged. "Can't complain. How's the pooch with the stitches?"
"He's doing fine." Sheriff Stilinski leaned in the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest. "What brings you over here?"
Erm... Her eyes briefly dated over to Stiles. Quick! Think! Think! "Oh, ah, Stiles…Stiles here was going to help me study for…Chemistry!" Melanie replied, her eyes darting over to his textbook sitting on his desk. "Yeah we have Chemistry…together. The class! Not the, actual thing. I'm not into your son. …Not that he's not a great guy! He's just not my type! A little twitchy for me." She bit her tongue to keep from continuing her rambling and smiled at Sheriff Stilinski. Man, I really do suck at lying.
"Uh huh," he said slowly. "Just…keep the door open and don't do anything stupid," he directed at Stiles. Stiles spread his arms and widened his eyes as if offended by the notion. Sheriff Stilinski sighed, scratched his head, and walked away.
"…A little twitchy?" Stiles asked.
"Don't be offended. You're like a hyperactive chipmunk," Melanie replied. Stiles nodded his head, as if greeing with her comment. "So what did you find out?"
"Take a look at this," Stiles replied, picking up a phone and holding it out to her.
"Wha—Stiles! Did you steal Lydia's phone?" Melanie demanded, snatching it out of his hand. "That's beyond creepy."
"No, I don't take her phone you weirdo!" he replied, offended that she would even think that he would do such a thing. "I forwarded a video to my phone."
"Oh." She paused. "You took a video—?"
"Will you just look at it?" Stiles leaned forward and jabbed the play button. Melanie leaned in so she could see the screen too, resting the side of her head against his. At first what appeared to be a shaky shot turned into something worse. Melanie gasped when she saw…something burst out of the glass windows of the video store and come barreling past the screen. "Uh huh," Stiles muttered, pausing the video at the peak moment when the monster appeared on screen.
"No!" Melanie said, holding the phone closer to her face. "I-I saw this thing!"
Now Stiles was alert. "What? When? Where?"
"Outside my window," Melanie replied, now getting to her feet. She began to pace around the room. "I…I was sitting with Erica on my window seat and–and I looked out the window and I saw these…eyes! In the bushes. These red eyes were glowing!"
"They were in the bushes!?" Stiles repeated.
Melanie nodded. "But…I've seen then before that."
"Where?" Stiles grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Where did you see them?"
"In my dreams!" Melanie replied. Stiles slowly deflated, wondering if he had indeed heard what she just told him. "I know it sounds crazy but—"
"A month ago if you told me I'd be chasing around a werewolf I would have thought you were crazy, but not now," he said evenly. "Tell me about your dreams. Don't leave out any detail."
She relayed every bit of information that she could remember, starting from how the first dream occurred when she was taking a bath and how vivid that one was. She didn't forget to mention the scales that appeared on her legs when she got out and then disappeared a second later. She then spoke about her most recent dream where she was attacked by what she now was sure was the alpha, about how it ripped wings out of her back and sent her plummeting towards her death and how she woke up with her back aching long since the dream faded away.
"That's…very…" Stiles rubbed his lips with his fingers as he tried to find the right word in his fast moving brain. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his short hair.
"Yeah, very," Melanie agreed when he didn't say anything. "The odd thing was that it felt so...real, in a sense. Like I knew what I was doing. I already knew how to swim with the fin and I already knew how to use my wings. Like it was part of muscle memory or something."
"Well, we can do things in our dreams we can't do while awake. Like…scale buildings or breathe underwater," Stiles said.
"Yeah but…I dreamed of the Alpha before I knew anything about him. What about that?"
She so badly wanted him to be able to explain that and he looked as if he was searching for an answer but he came up with nothing. Her shoulders dropped with her sigh. Figures. Precognitive dreams were one thing but this? It was just too strange.
The silence that stretched on between them was broken by Stiles muttering about Scott beneath his breath. Her heart ached as she watched him send yet another text. How many was that today? It made her check her own phone to see if Erica responded to one of hers but her inbox was blank as well. It was a bad day for friends, it seemed.
Melanie lowered her phone and licked her lips, taking in Stiles' agitated state. "Can I ask you a question?" He lifted his eyebrows but didn't turn his angry gaze away from the window. That was fine with her; she wasn't sure how she would be able to handle it. "Why are you so angry? Is it that Scott won't answer you or is it that you feel like you're being replaced?" She held her breath after asking the question. It was loaded, she knew, but…it would explain a lot. Why, as far as she knew, he didn't try to get to know Allison. Surely if your best friend found someone the y really liked one would be happy for them but it seemed the longer Scott was interested in her the more agitated Stiles became.
He didn't respond right away. More silence stretched between them. He rubbed his mouth, he tapped his thumbs against one another, he ran his hands through his hair, and he huffed and puffed and changed his position in his chair. She picked up the Rubik's Cube again and tried to crack it, something to break the silence that was starting to strangle her.
"It's not fair." She didn't realize Stiles had spoken for a second, thinking that she had imagined it. He had his forehead propped up on his palm while messing with his phone. He parted his lips and continued speaking. "I've known him…all my life, basically. He's my best friend. More than that he's…he's my brother, y'know? I'd do anything for him. Anything. And then…and then she comes along and it's like…"
"Like he has a new best friend?" Melanie filled in the unanswered blank for him.
"She's so great for him, that's…god, that's what bugs me. I've never seen him this happy. He likes her so much and…I don't want to stop that but…" his words trailed off as he shook his head. "I don't know what I can do without him. I really don't. He's my only friend."
She ignored the sting at those words and released a breath through her nose. Setting the Rubik's Cube aside she got off the bed, crossed the room, slung an arm around his shoulders and perched herself atop of his knee. His head whipped around so fast she was surprised he didn't have whiplash let alone that his head was still connected with the rest of his body. "Listen," she said gently, "I'm sure you guys have fought before. And you always make up and are still friends, right? With all that's going on I think it's far he has some sort of normalcy before…everything messes up. Before everything gets worse. You don't have to agree but if you guys are friends as you say you are…you'll give him that. However, that doesn't mean I agree with him just…ignoring it all for Allison. Hell, he's acting like a lovesick teen girl if you ask me and it is annoying but…Scott's loyal as loyal can be. He'll come around." Pinching Stiles's cheek with her hand she added, "You're his first love, after all. Nothing can ever come between that!" Stiles laughed despite the tight expression remaining on his face. "And besides," she continued, "you do have other friends. You have me. And sweetie, I'm not going anywhere." She paused and then said, "Except for the conferences, but you get what I mean."
"Yeah," he said. "Thanks."
She kissed the side of his head and affectionately rubbed the base of his neck. "Anytime. So, will you be okay?"
"Yeah. I think I'm going to take a look at some of my dad's reports. Maybe there's something in there that we're missing. A clue or something."
"Good, do that. And if you need anything text me and I'll be right over."
She felt a stabbing sensation at those words. She used to always say them to Erica. She looked at her phone again. Still nothing. Was this it? One little misunderstanding and they weren't going to be friends anymore? She thought that Erica would be over it by now. Break down and call her so they can laugh and get past it and move on like nothing ever happened but she should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Life wouldn't make it that easy.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, forced a smile, and excused herself to get to the conference.
# # #
It felt odd being at school at night. The normal sounds and smells of the school day seemed to empty out with the student body once the bell rang for the day to be over. The stale scent of meat was overlapped by the potent scent of coffee provided for the parents coming in. Shouts and screams that plagued the hallway were replaced with hushed conversations behind closed doors. The students' safe haven was infiltrated and they were all on edge to hear what was to be said.
Melanie had sat through all her conferences and received the same feedback with the subject replaced in each situation—she had a hard time focusing, she tended to give up instead of work her way through the problems, she seemed far away or distracted in class, she was falling behind, and blah blah blah. Her parents sat through the whole thing, asking questions here and there but stayed relatively quiet. She wanted them to speak, to say something. Anything was better than silence. She even half expected them for them to come together and yell at her for once. But that didn't happen. Instead they asked her to be excused and so she found herself sitting on a window ledge in the hall, listening to the rhythmic scratch of the hands of a nearby clock tick away while she waited.
She looked at her phone for the thousandth time that night. Still no response from Erica. She tapped her phone against her knee and kicked her legs out only to tap her heels against the wall over and over again. It became a steady beat which only reminded her of her parents discussing her algebra grades at the moment.
"Music is math," her dad always said whenever she brought back a bombed test. "I don't understand why you can ace music but not math."
Music wasn't math, not to her. Music was raw. Music was taking everything that you could never put into words and put it into a song, into lyrics, into a rhythm and into a melody that, once together, became something so powerful that it made you feel.
Besides, music didn't have random numbers thrown in that she had to solve to get to an answer. Music had no answers. And that's why she loved it. It had no right or wrong. It just made you feel. So she took that idea and left a message on Erica's unanswered phone, playing "their song" to let her know how much not speaking was eating her up inside. The last time she felt that pain was when she was told that she wouldn't have a little brother after all the waiting.
Melanie looked at her phone screen again. Still no change. Nothing from Erica, nothing from Stiles, not even anything from Scott to at least them know he was okay. Sure he had werewolf powers and everything but there were hunters out there for crying out loud. He had to be more careful if he wanted to stay alive.
"Hey Isaac," she greeted him without turning her head. His shadow fell across her screen a moment later.
"How'd you know it was me?" he asked.
"Because I still think you're stalking me," she joked. She flashed him a smile and then continued, "Nah, you walk a certain way and I can smell you."
"You can…smell me?" She heard more than saw the confusion on his face.
"It's not that you smell bad or anything. It's just something I noticed. You smell like a combination of wet dirt and Irish Spring soap. It's interesting." She stopped kicking her legs and looked over at him. "How's your dad taking the conferences?"
"As well as I expected he'd take it," Isaac replied, running his hand through his loose curls.
Her nose wrinkled. "So…not well?"
"No."
Melanie nodded her head as if she understood. She did, a little bit. The first and only time she had spoken to Mr. Lahey he seemed…constricted in a way. As if he was holding himself back. As if he had to stay tight and puckered up just in case something leaked out. Something he didn't want her to see. She turned her head to look at Isaac again, look at the bruise that had formed around his eye. She reached out and touched the purpled skin. Isaac flinched under her hand, under her touch, and leaned away.
"Sorry," she said quietly. "I just wanted to see. I didn't mean to hit you."
Isaac snorted. "I've had worse," he replied. His gaze was on the lockers but his eyes were far away. Her eyebrows narrowed. What did he mean by that? As if sensing her unasked question he cleared his throat and continued, "Lacrosse hits are pretty hard. I cracked a rib last year. That hurt more than this, don't worry. It's not a big deal."
"Still, I want to make it up to you somehow."
"You don't have to."
"I know. I want to. We're friends, right? That's what we do for each other."
Like last time he seemed to freeze at the word—friends—but then a slow and shy smile appeared on his face. He licked his lips and nodded his head, the smile still remaining.
"I haven't…that is, I don't know how…" He stopped and started his sentence a few times that Melanie eventually had to stop him from talking for fear that he would use up all the oxygen in his body just from trying.
"You've been doing a good job so far," she pointed out, "saying 'hi' and waiting for me after practice and stuff and being supportive." She tucked her hair behind her ear and added, "I really appreciate that. I don't think I would have made the team if it weren't for you."
"Your determination did that, not me," he replied.
"Yeah but if you didn't urge Coach to let me try out he would've kicked me off again."
"I mean…he kinda can't. You have the principal on your side plus its discrimination and—"
Melanie grabbed his hand, gave it a squeeze and said with a little laugh, "Will you please stop downplaying and just say 'you're welcome'?"
He briefly glanced down at her fingers wrapped around his and then looked up at her and said quietly, "You're welcome."
"Isaac!" Mr. Lahey's booming voice bounced off the lockers that lined the hallway. Isaac pulled his hand from Melanie's grasp and dropped down from the window sill, his eyes wide. "Is this is what caused your grades to fall? Been spending time with her?" he jerked his thumb in Melanie's direction, otherwise not giving her the time of day.
"No, that's not it," Isaac replied. "It's just…some classes are hard…"
"You're just not trying hard enough," Mr. Lahey replied. "But don't worry; we'll get you on a tight schedule until you bring them up."
"Uh, great," Isaac muttered, looking down at his feet.
Mr. Lahey crossed his arms. "Aren't you going to thank me for taking time out to help you?"
Isaac rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks, Dad."
Melanie pushed air out of her nose. How could someone like Mr. Lahey treat his own son that way? His last living family member? Surely that news alone would make them closer. It wasn't as if it was Isaac's fault that his mother and brother weren't alive anymore. Her fingers curled up into her palms and she bit down on her lower lip to keep from saying something that would only get her into trouble. The longer she held onto her lip the more pressure built up into her chest until she felt as if she were going to explode.
"Melanie?" Melanie let go of her lip, causing her to let go of her breath at the same time all at once. She hopped down from the window as her mom and dad approached. "Are you ready to go?" Arabella asked, lightly smoothing down her daughter's hair.
"Are the conferences over?" she asked.
"Yes. We're going to do anything we can to help you get your grades up," Arabella replied. "After all, you can't continue playing lacrosse if you have bad marks."
"I'm surprised you aren't going to attempt sabotage then," Melanie said dryly. Laurence snorted but turned it into a cough when Arabella glared at him.
"Excuse me," Mr. Lahey spoke up while approaching them, "Did you just say that she is on the lacrosse team?"
"Yes, she's on second line," Arabella replied. She extended her hand to shake both of theirs in greeting. Isaac's cheeks flushed as he shook their hands and then he looked down at his feet.
"Let me get this straight, you let your daughter play on the boy's lacrosse team?" Mr. Lahey continued, ignoring Arabella's extended hand. One of her perfectly plucked eyebrows popped up at the gesture and she slowly lowered her arm.
"Yes we did. She wanted to do it and who are we to stand in her way?" she replied, her voice losing all of its natural warmth in an instant.
Mr. Lahey laughed, crossing his arms over his chest and corrected his stance. "Maybe someone who doesn't want to turn their child gay," he said in a breezy tone.
Melanie gasped. A fire of indignation burned in her belly. Surely Mr. Lahey couldn't believe something so off base. So...so wrong. And besides, what did her sexuality have anything to do with playing on a lacrosse team? She just couldn't win. Her classmates accused her getting on the team by hooking up with the guys and here Mr. Lahey accused her of being on the team would make her like girls. Nothing could make her like boys or girls, she already did so that didn't matter. She just wanted to play lacrosse! Why was it so hard?
Arabella's eyes flashed but she kept the chilly smile on her face. Laurence's eyebrows furrowed and his jaw settled. Melanie had seen that look on her father's face before. He was one step away from pummeling that look off Mr. Lahey's face. Isaac must have sensed it. His eyes shifted from all their faces and he rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. No one dared to be the first to move. Isaac was the one who broke that stand-off, cutting through the thick growing tension.
"Let's just…go…" he said, grabbing her elbow and pulled her down the hall. He didn't stop until they were both outside in the cool, crisp air. Melanie shoved her hands into her pockets to try and protect them from the bitter cold that had started biting while walking in the direction of her car. No sense in standing out in the cold when she could wait inside with the heat on blast. She pressed her lips into a line and took in a long, cleansing breath through her nose; quelling the fire burning in her belly. He's just being ignorant. That's not your fault. Isaac rubbed his hand over his face. Red already began pooling in his cheeks due to the temperature. "I'm sorry about him," he said. "He's not…he wasn't always like this."
"It's okay," Melanie said with a shrug. "I mean it's not but…" A white cloud billowed out in front of her face as she sighed. "It's whatever." She shook her head." That's how he is. He'll be the one who has to deal with it." Isaac stared at her. "What? You're looking at me as if I grew a second head." Wait…. She yanked her hands out of her pockets and felt around her neck. "I didn't, did I? Did I get bitten by some weird radioactive spider?"
"No, no, it's not that," Isaac replied, "It's just…my father was being awful…and yet you just go along like…you're so mellow."
Melanie sucked in her breath and let it out slowly while digging in her pockets for her keys. "Well, I try not to let what others say dictate my mood," she replied, "if I did I'd let Jackson keep me off the lacrosse team and that's not gonna happen. I won't give him the satisfaction of driving me away."
Isaac had begun to say something in response but a woman's scream cut him off. Melanie whirled around, heart ramming against her chest as her eyes darted to find the source of the scream. Parents ran around the parking lot, trying to get to their cars and get out of the way of something.
"What's going on?" Melanie asked aloud.
"I don't know," Isaac replied.
"Wait, where are my mom and dad?" her eyes bounced from person to person in the parking lot as the scared parents ran by. "Did they come out yet? Mom! Dad!"
"Wait, Mel, no!" Isaac called out. He grabbed her hand and yanked her back to stop her from running. "We don't even know what it is!"
"But—"
"You could get hit! Come on!"
Tugging her hand, he began to run in the opposite direction of the school, towards the back of the parking lot. She had to increase the amount of steps she took to keep up with his long stride. Her cheeks and nose burned in the cold. Tears lined the rims of her eyes and carved tear tracks down her face. Her heart rammed against her chest and her palms flooded with sweat. She could feel the hand of fear gripping at her, squeezing tight until her head began to pound.
A gunshot cracked through the air. Isaac dropped down and pulled Melanie down with him. He pushed her head down and covered it with his arms as another one rung out. Screams followed the gunshots but they weren't human-like at all. It sounded like a wounded animal in pain.
Scott? Melanie peeked out between Isaac's arms to see that everything had come to a standstill. The screeching of tires and screams had come to a halt. People started to gather around something that was illuminated in bright beams of the headlights. "Are you okay?" She lifted her head to see Isaac's blue eyes trained on her.
"Yeah," Melanie replied, her voice quiet. He backed away and she stood at full height, glancing at the gathering crowd again. Like the rest of the onlookers, she found the pull of her curiosity so strong that she made her way through the cars to reach the group. She pushed and shoved her way through the crowd with her elbows until she finally spotted what it was that had gotten shot.
It was a mountain lion.
a/n - Well, what did you think? Things are getting tense now! As always, thanks to those who fav/alert/review. I see I've gotten some new favs/alerts over the past couple of days, I would love to know what you quiet readers/lurkers think. Drop a review, us author's love 'em. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review.
**Revised 3/2/18**
