Almost the moment class ended, Stiles came running up to Lydia before she'd even closed her book. "Hey Lydia, um, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second?"
"About what?" Nonchalant and not exactly paying attention, I couldn't help but smirk a little. Stiles could be quite pathetic at times, it's like he didn't even realise just how obvious he was about his feelings for Lydia. Just being in the same room as her was enough to turn him into a blabbering mess.
"I was just wondering if you could tell me about Jackson's real parents?" He asked her, causing me to paused and turn my head slightly so that I could listen. Why would he bring up Jackson's real parents? Did it have something to do with him being the kanima? Lydia at first was startled but quickly recovered, gathering her books as she walked out the classroom with Stiles hot on her heels.
"Why do you wanna know?"
"I can't tell you that." I walked alongside Lydia, keeping quiet for the moment but thoroughly enjoying the clear frustration Stiles was experiencing. Both literal and probably sexual as well when it came to Lydia. I felt for him. Not.
"Then I'm not telling you."
"But you are telling me that you could tell me something if you wanted to tell me?"
"Was that a question?" Faltering slightly, Stiles frowned and mumbled that it had felt like a question, though he didn't sound too sure of himself. "Well. Tell me if this feels like an answer. No." Unable to help it, I laughed as Lydia took off, increasing her stride in order to leave Stiles behind. He quickly jumped in front of me in order to ask the same question but I just closed my hand over his face and pushed him to the side.
"Don't even think about it, the answer's no."
"Oh come on!" Like I was going to tell him anything. I knew a little about Jackson's real parents from snippets I'd caught from him and Lydia had told me a small amount, but that was all. We both headed towards our lockers and I checked over my shoulder to make sure Stiles was gone before asking.
"What do you think that was all about?"
"The guy is the definition of weird. Who knows when it comes to him?" She responded simply and rather rightly. I mean, Stiles was easily the strangest kid I knew in school. Unlocking my locker I stacked the books from my last two classes inside before pulling out the ones I'd need later, taking a moment to freshen up as Lydia did the same. I heard her close her locker then start talking to someone, though when I glanced over to her I didn't see anyone so I assumed she was on her phone.
"Always." I wonder who it could be? She's still pretty torn up about Jackson, maybe she's trying to find herself a distraction. "I thought we'd gotten past the slightly rapey language." The lightness in her tone meant she was joking, so after I'd finished with rearranging my hair so that the slick ponytail sat perfectly on my head, I closed my locker and turned to smile at her questioningly, only to see that her phone wasn't even in her hand. I frowned.
"Who were you talking to just now?"
"Oh, just some guy who keeps on showing up. Don't tell him I said this, but he's kind of cute. A little obnoxious, but cute." I blinked, looking around to see if I could spot him but the halls were so full of people now that it would have been impossible. In any case, I hadn't heard a guy talking to her. Maybe she had been on her phone and I just hadn't seen her put it away? Oh well, I'm just glad she's finally beginning to move on from Jackson.
"Do I get to meet him?" A small smile tugged on the corner of Lydia's lips, meaning that she was actually considering it. "Now this is interesting. This guy has to be something if he's enough to turn Lydia Martin's head. I can't wait."
"Hm." Very much pleased with herself, Lydia and I headed to our next class. I was hopefully that this new guy on the scene would help Lydia figure out that there are so many other guys out there other than Jackson, better than Jackson. I looked forward to the next day, intending to ask her more questions about this new mystery guy but when I located her, I immediately sensed that something was off. She was quiet and introverted, a far off look in her eyes which told me clearly that she wasn't herself.
"Lydia?" She didn't even seem to hear me, walking in a daze until I grabbed hold of her arm. "Lydia!"
"Cordy!" She gasped, rasping frantically then looked at her surroundings, suddenly confused. "When did I get here?"
"Lydia, are you okay? What happened? Was it that guy did he do something to you? Tell me and I'll set him straight." Shaking her head, I watched as Lydia's lower lip began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears.
"I…I don't know. I don't know what's happening to me." Seeing that she was distressed, I pulled Lydia into a hug and held her for a while, letting her grip onto me for support until she had calmed herself down.
"Whatever it is, we'll get through it. We'll manage somehow, I promise." Nodding her head, Lydia allowed me to guide her into class, throwing herself into her work as a distraction but I could still tell something was wrong. I sent a text to her mom voicing my concerns before keeping a close eye on her for the rest of the day. I just hope things straighten out before her birthday, otherwise it's going to be one hell of a night.
I was approached later in the week by Scott and Stiles, asking me if I had tickets to some kind of rave. "No but I could probably get them, what do you need them for?"
"We think Jackson is going to kill somebody there. Well, not Jackson, the kanima." Already putting up my walls, I lifted up my hands.
"Nope, not interested."
"Come on Cordy, this is Jackson we're talking about. Isn't he a friend?" Scott tried to reason with me so I folded my arms and squared up to him.
"You do remember the time I almost got suspended for beating the crap out of him because he broke up with Lydia and was then a total ass to her about it? So you tell me McCall, do you think Jackson and I are actually friends?" Scott blinked at me with those doe brown eyes, seemingly taken aback.
"But whenever you two were together, I never sensed any hate from either of you. I thought it was just something you two did like how you flirt with Danny all the time." Pausing for a moment, I considered Scott's words. True, I guess I didn't exactly hate Jackson, but I didn't necessarily like him either.
"We're not friends." I reaffirmed, deciding for myself. "But we had a kind of understanding between one another. In terms of character, we were both quite similar."
"Yeah, big-headed egotistical and narcissistic popular jocks who think they're god's gift to the world." Stiles provided unhelpfully so I glowered at him. "Sorry, I thought we were just being honest here." This is why I can't stand these two. Most of the time it seemed they were just running around in circles asking questions whilst not actually having a clue what was going on. "So can you get us the tickets or not?"
"Hm…I kind of don't want to. You did just insult me after all." Stiles flipped up his hands in disbelief.
"You just said you and Jackson were alike, I was just listing off some of the obvious!"
"Yeah, you're definitely not getting my help now." Starting to argue, Scott smartly covered his best friend's mouth and talked to me instead, keeping calm and reasonable as he tried to appeal to my better self.
"Please, we could really use your help in this. Unless we can get into that rave, Jackson might end up killing someone. You could stop that from happening by just helping us this one time." He tried but seeing as I didn't exactly have a shining sense of moral aptitude, I wasn't all that moved.
"And how is that my problem? So long as he's not trying to kill me, what Jackson does whilst transformed into a giant lizard is really nothing to do with me. What if I help you guys, then you stop him, then he comes all the way back to me out of anger because I helped you guys stop him from doing what he wants? Nope. I don't think so."
"We'll keep it a secret! Nobody will ever know." Stiles pressed but I remained stubborn and unmovable. "You can't be serious! Are you really so self-centred that you don't actually care that somebody's going to die?!" Yeah, that was a rather horrible decision on my part, but I was still reluctant to get involved in all this supernatural crap in the first place. It was obviously very dangerous and people were dying here, I don't want to be next on somebody's hit list. "If you cared about anybody beside yourself for just once, maybe you wouldn't be so universally hated by the entire school." I frowned.
"People hate me?"
"Yes! Everybody knows that you are one of the most evil jocks in the entire school! Did it ever occur to you why you don't actually have any other friends except Lydia and Allison?" Scott gave Stiles a look and whispered for him to stop, knowing that his friend had gone a little too far. Huh. I never realised that that's the opinion people had of me. It's not like I care, I don't need superficial friends because they were only tiresome, annoying and required a lot of effort, but still. Was I really that bad a person?
"I'm sure it's just an exaggeration. I mean, we think you're okay." Scott supplied sweetly though Stiles disagreed.
"I don't." Again, Scott had to shut his friend up. Pondering to myself, I tapped a finger against my arm as I weighed the pros and cons, thinking over every single detail as carefully as I could. "Look it doesn't matter. We'll find another way to get the tickets." They started to move away, and as they took that first step to leave I felt a sudden crushing concern weighing on my chest for Jackson's sake. I cannot believe I'm about to do this.
"Wait." Both of them halted, quickly looking back as I pressed my eyes shut, grimacing for a moment. "Tell me, what are you going to do about Jackson? Are you going to help him or…you know. Stop him. Permanently."
"We're going to try and save him and keep him from killing other people. Hopefully." Scott answered honestly and I took to studying him. I received the sense that he was not confident in his abilities, still second guessing himself but at the same time, the raw drive of pure determination was enough to convince me that if anyone would be able to save Jackson, it would be Scott, because he would not stop or give up until he had succeeded.
"Alright." I finally agreed, relaxing my shoulders as I nodded. "I'll get you the tickets, but not because I like you or want anything to do with this. This is for Jackson, and therefore, Lydia too." If anything were to happen to Jackson, Lydia would be totally inconsolable and that was the last thing I wanted to happen to my own best friend. Pulling out my phone, I went online and started to type. "Give me the details." Within minutes I'd found two tickets for sale and promptly bought them, arranging a collection time and place for the boys to go get them. Once I'd sent the arrangements to Scott's phone via text, I stepped up to them and lowered my voice. "No matter what, just make sure he's okay at the end of all this. Also, watch out for the Argents. I can't help but feel that they're not going to sit by and do nothing about all this."
"Did Allison mention something to you?" Scott asked hopefully but I shook my head.
"It's a gut feeling. Every time I see the principal or Mr Argent, I just feel something so sinister in the air, like a vibe. It's like a warning, foreshadowing, a premonition, call it what you will. Just be careful. They'll probably try to hurt you at the same time, Scott. Don't think they haven't noticed that you and Allison haven't exactly been distant in your relationship."
"How do you know all this? Is this something to do with your siren powers?" Stiles asked me curiously but I merely shrugged.
"I don't know, I don't know much about anything really. Considering everything else that's been happening, I haven't exactly had the time to do any experimenting on what I can do. It's hard enough knowing that I could turn into a fish at the drop of a hat."
"Awesome." Scowling darkly, Scott quickly pulled Stiles away, knowing that unless they got out of there fast I might be tempted to kill them both, though Stiles yelled back as Scott dragged him forcibly out of reach and out of sight. "We should totally do some experimenting sometime!" I dread to think what he meant by that, but now that the rave thing was out of my hands, I focused on anything other than the daunting feeling in my gut. As far as I knew, being a siren meant that I had the power to know what was in people's hearts, and as I turned around to see Gerard talking at the other end of the hall to several teachers, a chill ran down my spine.
Murder.
There was murder in his heart.