CHAPTER TWO:
who is Kennedy barnes?
"Guess who?" Kennedy askd teasingly through a bright smile, her hands covered Stiles eyes.
"Hmm," Stiles hummed his pink lips formed into a pout as he closed his new locker. "It wouldn't happen to be my beautiful girlfriend, would it?" He asked rhetroically before he turned around and wrapped his arms around Kennedy's waist.
A giggle released itself from Kennedy's mouth as Stiles spun her around. She bite her bottom lip while he set her feet back down to the floor but not before he placed a small peck onto her lips.
"Can you believe we're freshman? We're in high school now!" Kennedy excitedly told him. "It feels like just yesterday we were in the sandlot learning how to play baseball."
"And now you're going to be dominating the JV team," he replied. He left a kiss on her neck as she buried her head into his shoulder.
"I hope so," she said worriedly but her smile still bright. "I hope I get on the team," she said before she pulled away and looked into her boyfriend's bright eyes.
She always loved the way his eyes exuberated innocence and wonder, despite the loss of his mom and all the years of panic attacks he never lost that. Kennedy would thank all the Gods above for that because she didn't know what she would do if her spark lost its light.
"You said you were my girlfriend?" Stiles asked, breaking Kennedy out of her memory.
She had retreated back to her spot under the train station sign after the realisation that Stiles had no idea who she was. The urge to cry burned her eyes but she had felt Stiles' eyes watching her and despite their once closeness, she didn't really want to cry in front of him.
Kennedy looked up at the sound of Stiles' voice. She studied him, here in front of a her was a boy who owned her whole heart. A boy that she had spent years waiting and wishing for him to come save her. A boy who didn't even know who she was.
Kennedy took in a deep breath. "Uh..yeah," she confirmed while looking down at her hands.
How did they get here? How did they go from two teenagers head over heels in love to absolute strangers?
The answer, of course, was the supernatural but Kennedy didn't know that yet.
Kennedy cleared her throat. "Best friend too... next to Scott," she had let out a small smile at the thought of her other best friend.
Did he forget her too?
"We were, um, we were like the powerpuff girls. Inseperable," Kennedy told him softly. "You and me were next door neighbors," she elaborated. "Our mom's were best friends so were our dads, we used to have barbecues together. You and I would play in our backyards. We had met Scott in kindergarten when he helped me get a bucket off your head."
Stiles furrowed his eyebrows. "I get a bucket stuck on my head?"
Kennedy laughed lightly. "Yeah," she nodded her head before she started to relay the story to him.
"Ken! Ken! Ken!" Stiles yelled as he ran around the school playground in a panic, a bright yellow bucket stuck on his head. "Ke-ow!" He yelled after he had bumped into a slide, his chubby hand rubbed the spot on the bucket that he had hit.
Kennedy, who was playing in the sandbox, rolled her eyes. "Stiles, again? How'd you get it stuck this time?"
"I was trying to set up a booty trap for the criminals and I ended up getting trapped," Stiles yelled through the bucket.
"Stiles there are no criminals, we're just kids."
"Well I heard my dad say on the phone that criminals don't always look bad," Stiles told her matter-of-factly.
"So whose the criminal that you were trying to catch?" Kennedy asked as she watched as yellow bucket turn side to side as if Stiles was looking to see if anyone could hear him.
Stiles leaned his head closer to Kennedy, the bucket bumped her nose. "Matt."
Kennedy looked over to the boy in question, he was sitting next to a blonde curly hair boy. Kennedy watched as Matt stuck his finger up his nose, her own nose scrunched in disgust. She rolled her eyes to her dorky best friend. "The only thing he's guilty of is digging for gold."
"Ah-hah!" Stiles yelled loudly. "It bet its illegally! Now get this bucket off my head so I can catch him in the act!"
Kennedy rolled her eyes again but complied nontheless. She put her two hands on the end of the yellow bucket and pulled up. "Stiles!" She yelled at the boy in frustration. "You need to pull your head out, not towards me!"
"What?" He yelled back. "It's starting to get stuffy in her Ken can you hurry up? I think I can't breath."
"Oh my god!" Kennedy said trying to pull harder on the bucket.
"Do you need help?" A tan boy with curly black hair asked softly. His head was tilted downward and his eyes were looking at Kennedy's shoes.
Kennedy looked at him. "Sure! You grab the bucket and I'll grab the dummy," she ordered.
So with Kennedy's new tactic, the tan boy and her were able to release Stiles' head from the bucket.
Stiles hunched over and took a bunch of deep breaths. "I thought I was gonna die in there!" He said dramatically falling backwards onto Kennedy, who rolled her eyes at his antics. Stiles looked up to the tan boy holding the bucket in his hand. His brow eyes looked from his light up Spider-Man shoes to his crooked jaw. "Hey, you're kind of funny looking!" He said brightly before getting hit in the head.
"Stiles! You can't say things like that!" Kennedy lectured before turning back to the other boy. "Thank you for helping me! I'm Kennedy!" She greeted him brightly with a welcoming smile.
The boy smiled back at her, his a bit more shy. "I'm Scott!"
"And I'm Stiles!" The hyperactive boy butt his way in. "Do you wanna help me catch bad guys?"
"Sure!" Scott agreed.
Stiles swung his arms around Scott and Kennedy. "I have a feeling we're all going to be great friends!"
"And from then on we were insperable," Kennedy finished, a nostalgic smile on her face.
Stiles smiled, a small laugh escaped from his mouth before it dropped into a frown. "I'm sorry I don't remember you," he told her softly.
Kennedy pulled together another small smile as an attempt to reassure the she loved for many years, despite the pain his words put her though. "Don't be, I'm sure I've been missing for a long time. It was silly of me to expect you to not move on."
Stiles sucked in a deep breath, his eyes filled with sadness. "Kennedy, you weren't just missing..." He began before he hesitated.
How do you tell someone that they no longer exist? How do you explain something like that? Should he even tell her? Maybe he should spare her? What is telling her going to do other than bring her utter heartache? Hasn't she been through enough?
But ultimately, all those wuestions that ran through Stiles head were redundent because he knew deep down what he had to do.
It was always better when they knew.
"You were erased."
