Chapter five: Party animal
It was high time I had a normal day, or at least one with no trouble, and that Friday seemed to be that day. Lunch with Isaac had been delightful. Slowly but surely he'd started talking more and more, and we ended up laughing and mocking the jocks from the lacrosse team. (After making sure they most definitely couldn't hear us.)
So yes, a normal day at last. That was, until the sun set, and the moon rose. It being the night before the full moon, I was less than surprised when someone called me. Said someone being Stiles.
"What did he do?" I asked, putting my boots back on. It was going to be one of those nights again. Of course it was. No mental break day for Lorraine.
"Lorraine, eh- it's Stiles. No, I mean I'm Stiles, not that- it's Scott." a smirk grew on my face as he spoke. Called it. Well, not called it. It called me. Or he ca- you know what? Never mind. "I tried to stop him, from going to the party. Because- well, eh- he'll be with Allison and they're kind of..."
"Wait, hold on." I said, freezing at that bit of information. "The party? As in Lydia's party?"
"Yeah." I let out a groan. It was definitely going to be one of those nights again. New werewolf in the middle of a high school party? Anything better than dull I guess. I pushed the phone between my ear and my shoulder, stuffing equipment in my backpack whilst continuing the conversation.
"Okay then. I'd rather do this on my own, but since he doesn't trust me enough just yet and you're his best friend you'll have to come with me." I said, zipping up the bag.
"To- to the party? Lydia's party? At, at her house?" Stiles said, stumbling over his own words once again.
"No. To the resurrection of Jesus at the graveyard." I said, rolling my eyes. "Yes to the party! I'll come pick you up in two minutes." I said, slamming the door to my room shut and running downstairs whilst hanging up the phone. Dad came into the hallway as I put on my black leather jacket. We didn't need to talk, I just nodded at him and he went down to the basement, preparing for the worst in case I needed backup. I took the car keys from the drawer before leaving the house and driving to Stiles' place.
I had been waiting for at least five minutes before Stiles came out, running to the car. I twisted the keys and the engine started revving as soon as he sat down.
"What the hell took you so long?" I asked, pushing my foot down on the gas pedal.
"I was wearing pyjamas." he said, putting his seatbelt on. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye: he was wearing black jeans, red shirt and grey jacket. I, on the other hand, was still wearing the clothes I'd worn to school. Same black jeans and same white Panic! at the disco shirt. The only thing that was different was that I had the jacket on. Well, it wasn't like I was going to the party to look pretty anyway. We spent a minute or two in silence, and I couldn't help but notice him glancing at me every few seconds or so.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Apart from the whole supernatural things please." I added. Over the years dad and I had dealt with tons of confused people whose best friends turned supernatural. It was always the same story.
"So you don't remember me, like, at all? Nothing?" he asked. I tried my hardest not to wince. He was hurt. Really, truly hurt. And for some reason, that hurt me. Worse than the hurt when I met Lydia on my first day at school.
"I'm sorry, but still nothing." I said. I didn't want to talk about it anymore, so I asked him what exactly Scott had done.
"After what you've told so far and what happened in the woods, I did some research, and I, I wanted to show Scott but he-" Stiles spoke rapidly, almost as if the sentence were just one long word.
"-Stiles." I cut in, turning us around the corner and into Lydia's street. "Calm down, I know that you're worried but you need to be clear. I need to know what he did before he left."
"Yeah, yeah sorry. Had too much adderall." he said, waving it off before looking up at the road ahead. "He almost punched me." he said, a bit dazed. It was understandable, your best friend almost hitting you out of nowhere was worrying to say the least. He shook his head and then turned it towards me. "But this party is only for invited. Scott can only go because Allison can. How will we get in?" A smirk grew on my face, happy that this was going to be easy for once. Or so I thought.
"Well... Lydia asked me to come." I said, turning my head towards him. "You can be my plus one!" I said, patting him on the shoulder and parking the car next to the road. It wasn't hard to pinpoint where the party was: drunk teenagers, music and lights all came from the same huge house. Stiles and I walked there together, both keeping an eye out for Scott, but he wasn't outside.
"So what are you going to do?" Stiles asked, stopping by the front door. My hand went into my bag and took out a handkerchief, which I showed to Stiles.
"Okay, so what's that, does it have like magical powers or was it made during a full moon?" he asked, taking it in his hands. I let out a chuckle at his assumptions.
"It's a handkerchief, but I laced it with wolfsbane." I was a little surprised to see him nodding, as if he understood what that meant. Must've done some real intensive research. "Don't worry, it's not highly concentrated and will only make him black out." I said, glad to see the slightly worried expression leave his face. But there were more important things to do than worry. Making sure that Scott doesn't kill Allison, for instance.
We entered the party through the front door. Drunk teenagers making out whilst half dancing to the music were everywhere. In front of the pool were Scott and Allison, dancing with each other in the middle of the crowd. I slapped Stiles on his shoulder and pointed at them. He nodded and we started walking towards them. We only got halfway before Scott turned away from Allison and ran past us, coughing and sweating. Fuck.
"Explain it to her, I'll stop him." I said to Stiles before running after Scott. By the time I'd gotten to the front door, Scot was only a few metres ahead of me. I sprinted towards him and grabbed for the hanky, only to find nothing there. Shit, I must've forgotten to take it back from Stiles. Over to plan B. I grabbed his wrist tightly.
"Scott, stop." I said, my voice shaking a bit, surprising me a little. Not that I had any more time to think about it.
Scott turned around, he was sweating and panting, though I doubted it was from the running. He stared at me and then tried to pull his hand loose. "Scott, don't." I said. "Think about Allison. Remember what I taught you."
"Let me go." he said, his voice weak. Behind us Stiles came running out of the house, the hanky in his hand.
"Lorraine!" he shouted, running towards us. I looked back for only a moment, and the next thing I knew was that Scott's fist slammed against my shoulder. I let out a cry of pain and Scott pulled himself loose and ran to his car. "Lorraine, you okay?" Stiles asked, placing a hand on my other shoulder. I looked at him with wide eyes. What was he doing?
"Go after him!" I yelled, pointing at Scott.
Stiles' eyes widened in realisation, and he ran after Scott, who got into his car and drove away before Stiles could reach him.
I let out a groan in frustration. One job, Lorraine, you had one job. Now Scott was going off to do God knows, and he probably won't know either because he will go total werewolf. Stiles ran back to me, about to say something when Alisson ran out of the door, calling for Scott. Seeing he wasn't there anymore, she walked towards us.
"What happened, where's Scott?" she asked, looking rather distressed. Stiles and I shared a look, not sure what to tell her. At least I wasn't sure. Stiles, on the other hand, seemed to find it much easier to find an excuse.
"He was having an asthma attack, probably forgot his inhaler at home." he explained, acting like it was no big deal. "He didn't mean to scare you." Alisson relaxed a bit, but was still tensed, her eyes still a bit wide.
"How about we give you a ride home." I offered, more for her safety than anything. Scott might come back for her and who knows what he would do. Stiles seemed a bit surprised at my offer, but went with it anyway. He nodded in agreement.
Just over Allison's shoulder I could see a guy, probably in his twenties, looking at us. He was tall, black hair and stubble, and gave off an overall tense look. Not as in distressed, just… tense. His gaze was almost a glare, which softened a bit when he saw that I was looking at him. He seemed surprised, then nodded his head to his left, a gesture for me to come over. At this point, both Stiles and Allison were staring at me.
"What are you looking at?" Stiles asked, looking back at where Derek was standing just a moment ago. There was nobody there.
"Oh, nothing." I said, shrugging it off. As luck would have it, my phone made a ping noise. I took it out and stared at the screen. It was just a message from a stupid game I hadn't played in weeks, but it came at a convenient time. With a roll of my eyes I looked up from the screen, back at Allison and Stiles. "Dad's here to pick me up. Overprotective bastard." I mumbled, stuffing the phone back into my pocket. "You two go, he says he's just around the corner." And with that, I walked off.
Oh this was just brilliant. New beta, almost dying, probably going to die and a mysterious dude wanting to talk to me to top it all off. Hectic? Of course. Was I complaining? Hell no. Okay, maybe about the dying part. I said goodbye to Stiles and Allison and walked over to where the mysterious dude had walked towards. After walking a few metres I was pulled aside.
"Lorraine, Lorraine Hield?" he asked, standing way too close to me for my likings. Taking a step back, I tried to read him. Behind a mask of stoicism, there was a glint of hope in his eyes. How interesting.
"Who wants to know?" I asked, trying to see any other emotion. He was good at hiding them, I'll give him that. But there was definitely something there.
"Derek Hale."
"And what do you want from me, Derek Hale?" I asked, folding my arms over each other. A small smirk grew on his face.
"Do what you were raised to do. Teach Scott, make sure he doesn't kill anyone. Or get himself killed." he said, stepping closer to me once more. Was this supposed to intimidate me? "Because if you don't, I'll kill him myself." I rolled my eyes with a huff.
"Is that all?" I asked, not seeing the point of having this conversation.
"Ask your father about me. He knows more than he lets on." he said, and with that, he turned around and started walking away.
"Least you can do is give me a ride home!" I yelled at him, throwing my hands up in the air.
Now, the last thing I'd expected was for him to turn around and actually give me a ride home. Funny how things turn out to be sometimes. Because next thing I knew, Derek was driving me home. And once again I was being interrogated. How I knew Scott, when I came back to Beacon Hills, who I came with. Of course I didn't properly answer any of the questions, much to Derek's annoyance. In fact, he got so annoyed he just gave up after about four questions.
After a minute of silence, I spoke up.
"I am." I said, making him look at me. "Teaching Scott. He's a fast learner. Give me a month, he'll be ready by then." Derek nodded at that, silently approving it. "I just have one question for you: who is the alpha that bit Scott?"
"I don't know." Derek said, gritting his teeth. "But it's strong. It can shift into full wolf shape at will." I bit my inner lip hearing that, thinking. Any werewolf that could go in a full shift by will was very powerful, and not to mention: very dangerous. We turned around a corner, into my street.
"Thanks for the ride." I said, getting out of the car once we got to my house and walking towards it. "You know what?" I said, turning around. "As an act of gratitude, I won't mention the fact that's it's very creepy for you to know the way to my house by heart." I said, curtseying before walking back to my house. I wasn't sure if the small smirk on his face that I saw from the corner of my eye was real or just my imagination.
But I was far from done that night.
Somewhere out there, Scott was running around town, probably shifted into werewolf-mode. But where would he go? I took out my keys and opened the door to our house, heading directly for the basement.
"Scott's gone, he's gone full shift." I yelled as soon as I opened the door. I heard a zipper closing followed by footsteps, after which dad appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
"Where could he have gone?" he asked, looking up at me. I couldn't help but feel guilty: it was my fault that he got away after all.
"Do you happen to know a Derek Hale?" I asked, changing the subject. "He knows Scott, so Scott might know him."
"Derek Hale?" he asked, running upstairs. "He's a werewolf. If Scott knows him, he might think that Derek is the one that bit him. We need to go now." he said handing me my backpack and heading for the door.
~o~
We drove all the way to the woods in silence, despite my attempts to ask dad more about this Derek Hale I'd just talked to. He just told me that the mission came first, and we would talk later.
Once we arrived, we made our way through the woods, first going in a straight line towards what dad said was what was left of the Hale house (there'd been a fire, apparently), but soon we heard the unmistakable whoosh of an arrow and Scott screaming out in pain. One look between me and dad was enough to know the plan. Hunters, probably Argents. We had to get there as fast as we could and remember them of our deal, and their code.
Scott had one arrow that'd run through his arm, sticking him to a tree. Opposite of him stood three hunters with crossbows. Dad looked at me, and I nodded. He could do this one. Dad might've thought that because of his experience. But I just wanted to hide the fact that I felt like I was dying. Well, I was going to anyway, but the pain running through my body was agonising at best, and I was afraid that that would show once I spoke up. So I stood back and watched as dad took the lead, standing ready with my gun.
"Argent!" dad called, stepping forward and walking towards the hunter standing in the middle. "Do I need to remind you of our deal? What harm has this boy done?" he asked, nodding at Scott. I felt an urge to groan as he said the word "boy". It was our code word for: "Get ready to get him out of here." So, as quietly as I could, I crept towards the tree Scott was stuck to, hiding in the shadows, ready to make a run. Even though I doubted if I could make a ten metre sprint in my condition. Once there, I was left to ponder about how the Argents were in town. Probably the best hunter family in the entire country.
"We are all too aware, Hield." the hunter said. "But this boy, as you call him, attacked an innocent man." he put another arrow on his bow as he said that.
"That bus driver? You truly think that one could do that? Come on Chris, I expected better from you. The damn kid can't even get an arrow out of his arm." dad said, shaking his head. "Let him go."
"And let him attack someone else?" the hunter, Chris, said. "No way." he raised his crossbow.
To my right, a shadow shifted. I slowly turned my head and saw Derek, who had a finger on his mouth, but then pulled it away as he saw that I'd spotted him. I frowned, that was a protector's code for "talk, distract them." I didn't know why, but I trusted him. I like to trust my instinct. So, I stood up, and walked towards the group of men, my gun raised.
"I wouldn't do that." I said, ignoring the pain that shot through my back as I walked closer. "Put the bow down, leave the boy alone, and leave." I hoped desperately that my hands weren't shaking as much as I thought they were.
Chris looked at the other two hunters, as if silently communicating with them.
"You're not a bad person, Chris." dad added, and I knew he was trying to hide his confusion about what I was doing.
Suddenly, it sounded like a branch snapped behind our backs. When we turned around, Scott was gone and the arrow lay on the ground, snapped in two.
"Well," I said, turning around with a smirk. "Glad we've got that behind us."
They didn't smile back.
~o~
We'd come to a compromise. One month, that's how long we had to teach "the werewolf" to control himself. If he attacked anyone during that time, we weren't allowed to interfere with the hunters killing him. It wasn't impossible to manage, it was just… difficult.
The negotiations had taken so long, that by the end of it we couldn't find Scott or Derek, and I was shivering like mad because it was so fucking cold. We ended up driving around the edge of the woods, trying to find him, but to no avail. When we got back home and I checked my phone after taking a very long and very warm shower, I saw that I'd gotten dozens of texts from Stiles.
"Did you go after Scott?"
"Is he okay?"
"Are you okay?"
"Damnit Lora, text me back!"
"You know that I will impale you, right?"
And so on, and so on. I would've been charmed by how much he cared about his best friend, but the fact that I still had no clue where Scott was stopped me from doing that. But he did deserve to know what happened, so I called him, letting myself fall onto my bed.
"Lora? Thank God. Are you both okay?" Stiles said as soon as he picked up. (Which was only seconds after I called)
"I'm fine Stiles. And Scott… he should be. Problem is… I don't know where he is." I said, feeling reluctant to say it as I knew what would come next. A ramble of questions. And it did. I'm not even bothering tell all of them, there were just too many.
After letting him calm down a bit, I told him what had happened, adding the fact that Scott likely wouldn't die from just an arrow wound or hypothermia. I finished off with questioning him naming me Lora. He seemed to do that whenever he was high on emotion.
"Sorry, it's what I cal- used to call you. Before, you know, but y-" he said, trying to make it sound like he was brushing it off but failing rather miserably.
"It's okay, I was just curious, that's all." I said, not wanting to make him feel uncomfortable. Okay, maybe I did want him to feel a little uncomfortable, it's funnier that way, but I didn't want to scare him away.
"So… can I call you Lora?" he asked, actually surprising me. Now he was making me feel uncomfortable! Well, I guess that's karma for you. It was just that I was so used to the fact that only people I trusted with my life called me Lora, it felt a bit wrong for someone else to call me that. The only reason I let Deaton call me it was that he actually did save my life, so I was in no position to complain.
"Don't." I eventually said. "Just… don't."
Silence fell, with an occasional "so" or "ehm" from Stiles' side. After a way too long time, I spoke up, not necessarily breaking the tension, but pushing it down for a while.
"So, since wolfboy is still roaming the woods of Beacon Hills, want to come pick me up tomorrow morning and have ourselves a little werewolf hunt?"
"Yeah, that's a good plan. Eh, what time do you want to…?"
"I think around seven is fine by me, don't want anyone else finding him half naked on the side of the road." I said, picturing it for a moment and nearly laughing. That would be quite the situation.
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Good night, Stiles." I said, hanging up and putting my phone on the charger. I stared at the clock on my nightstand in silence. It was already past twelve, so I had to get up in less than six hours. But I needed to talk to dad about what information I'd gotten from Derek. That's how we ended up sitting by the kitchen table drinking hot coco at twelve thirty AM.
"Any other werewolves in town that you know of?" I asked dad, tapping on my mug with my nails. Dad shook his head.
"Besides Scott and Derek? No. Well, there is Derek's uncle, but he's been in a hospital for years now. He doesn't do much else than blink. If… even that." I nodded at the piece of information. Dad had told me about the Hale house fire, how everyone had died save the children who were at school and their uncle, who had been severely injured.
"So no leads on the alpha. It could be anyone. Great." I said, gritting my teeth. "What's next? A deadpool?"
Dad rolled his eyes at that, but I just stuck out my tongue at him. We decided to leave the alpha for what it was (for now at least) and move on to the more "argent" matter. Sorry but it was a pun waiting to happen. Yes I am just as disgusted with that joke as you are. Anyway.
"So, if I'm correct, the most feared hunter family is in town, looking for werewolves?" I asked dad, who nodded. "And we, one of the most respected protector families are protecting said werewolves?" I asked, letting out a groan when he nodded once again.
"If they keep their word, and they will, then we have one more month. Also, if Jason's right. There's only three Argents in town. Christopher, his wife Victoria, and their daughter, Allison." I froze at the mention of the girl's name.
"Does she know that they're hunters?" I asked. If she did, we were in big trouble.
"I don't think so, why?" dad said, frowning. I closed my eyes and sighed.
"I know her. She and Scott are dating. And I think that she's his anchor." The urge to groan was strong, but I restrained myself. Dad wiped his hands over his face, he did that when he was thinking.
"Then strongly advise him to stop dating her, and find a new anchor. She's going to find out eventually." he eventually said, letting his arms fall to his side. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
"That's it?" I asked. That was not going to work so it was downright stupid to even try. Allison was way out of Scott's (current) league, no way he was going to turn her down. But I couldn't exactly think of anything better, and by the looks of it, neither could dad. So I let out a reluctant sigh and let it slide. "If I just keep on training him like this, he could make it within a month. But not earlier."
"That case, you've got plans for Saturday night." he said, patting my shoulder and getting off his chair. "I'm going to do some translating, you should go get some sleep." I let out a small grumble in protest, even though I had no trouble with going to sleep as I was exhausted.
A/N: So there you go! Chapter five, a few days earlier than usual to make up for the shortness of last chapter.
Also: Thank all of you who favourited/followed this story, it makes me very happy!
Next chapter we've got some original parts and a bit of the series, with quite some Lorraine/Stiles friendship going on ;)
Feel free to leave a review, and I'll see you in a few days!
~Lilly
