I woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows like laser beams burning my retinas and my alarm clock blaring out 'walking on sunshine'. For a minute I was confused about why I was lying ON my bed rather than IN it and what my old diary was doing next to me- then the events of the night before came rushing back to me like a freight train. I groaned, still confused about everything and knowing that I had to face Scott in just over an hour, hopefully he'd forgotten about how panicked I looked when I found him and our argument the night before.
Still, in order to convince him I was totally fine I decided to put on more of an effort this morning than I usually would. First I showered using my favourite cinnamon and vanilla body wash with my usual Apple shampoo and conditioner. I meant to only take about 5-10 minutes but as soon as the hot water hit my back I realised how much I needed this and just let my muscles relax under the warm spray until it turned cold. By the time I got out I only had 20 minutes left to get ready so I quickly grabbed the first matching shirt and jeans combo I could find and got to work on getting rid of the bags under my eyes and taming the birds nest on my head. By the time I was done making myself look vaguely human I had less than two minutes to get out the door and drive to school, unfortunately this meant skipping breakfast so my stomach was growling like an angry bear all the way there. It only occurred to me that maybe this shirt and jeans combo was a little too tight when I was 5 minutes from the school parking lot- after all, I'd bought them last year before I'd...developed over the summer.
As usual I just about managed to stumble into class before the tardy bell rang (receiving the usual glare from our plump yet strict math teacher) and took a seat next to Stiles, who shot me a brilliant grin on arrival.
"As I was saying" he paused to give me a pointed glare, which made me look down to avoid worsening the blush creeping onto my already pink cheeks. "There indeed was a body found in the woods last night. And I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened. But I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody, which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk outlining this semester." I opened my book and started making notes on all the areas we'd be covering so I'd know how freakin bored I'd be this year. It's not that I'm bad at math- I understand it perfectly most of the time- it's just that i find it all so boring. As soon as he turned back to the board Stiles nudged my arm and dropped a note on my desk, narrowly avoided getting caught by the teacher- who had finished writing by now and turned to face us.

Hey, Scott told me everything. You OK? Can you believe something BIT him?! And HE FOUND THE BODY! How cool is that? We're going back to the reserve to look for his inhaler after tryouts today, you in? Probably won't take long, we can do movie night right after. :)

The note had my head spinning on multiple levels:
A) I wanted to know what he meant by EVERYTHING, did he just mean the basics of what happened or did Scott tell him about how I was practically sobbing all over him after we got seperated? Why was he asking me if I'm 'OK', was he worried because he knows or just generally asking? Jeez, why couldn't he have just waited until we got out of class to do this, at least then I'd be able to read his facial expressions.
B)Scott lost his inhaler? That's weird, he never mentioned it last night.
C) He saw the body?! Why the hell didn't that come up in conversation? Did that mean that whatever I felt last night really was the killer?! - not necessarily, I mean- why would the killer just be chillin around his victims corpse when the police were already out looking for him? Seriously, was it really that awkward between us that Scott felt too uncomfortable to mention that he actually found what we went out there looking for. Or maybe he thought I was in too much of a state as it was to handle it. I'm not sure which I would prefer but I had an awful feeling it was both.
D) Stiles and I had made a pact during summer that on the first day back after school we'd have a movie marathon at my place since my dad was going to be working late (no surprise there). I even agreed to make my famous double fudge brownies that he likes so long as he bought a bag of the good mini pretzels from the store on the other side of town. At the time it seemed like the best idea ever but now I'm worried he'll use it as an opportunity to grill me further.

I was torn on what to say- on one hand I wanted to go with them, if for no other reason than to prove I could, that I wasn't scared so easily. But just the thought of returning to that place sent goosebumps down my spine, I knew I wouldn't be able to handle going back there just yet, even in broad daylight.
So I wrote back:

I'm good, managed to get a few hours sleep but I still need a whole bucket of coffee to get me through this lesson alone. Yea I saw the bite last night, it looked nasty but he refused to get it looked at. He actually SAW the body?! Where? When? I didn't even know we were close to it. Sorry, I can't, I promised my neighbour I'd watch her baby for an hour while she picked her kids up from school :(

That last part wasn't a total lie, my neighbour, Mrs Henderson, really did have a baby girl and 2 older twins- Sophie and Kaleb. I was even their babysitter once a month on 'date night' before baby Krissy arrived. The only lie was she never asked me to watch the baby, ever since she was born she's barely let anyone even look at her- I think it has something to do with the fact that she almost lost her during childbirth and now she's afraid to let the fragile thing out of her sight. But Stiles didn't know that so I could use it to my advantage.
Fortunately I didn't have to wait long for an opportunity to discreetly pass my reply back to him because as soon as I finished writing the principal walked in, followed by an extremely pretty girl with big brown eyes, pale skin and long dark hair. I honestly don't think I'd ever felt this jealous of someone else's good looks before, it wasn't like she was technically any prettier than Lydia Martin, but she had more of a kind,approachable attractiveness that I'd always longed for.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Stiles unfold the note and frown then stash it inside his notebook before the teacher caught on. When I turned back around I noticed the new girl was making her way to the only available seat behind Scott. The rest of the lesson continued as usual, the teacher didn't take his eyes off the class again so I never saw the note Stiles wrote in reply to mine.

When the hour was up we dismissed individually after receiving personal reports from last years end of term test. Unsurprisingly I was called on last and was presented with an undeserved D-, I swear this guy just really hates me- all the notes on my test were stupid 'you need to improve your handwriting' 'make your point clearer'- if i were any other student I would have a C+ at least.
Already beyond irritated I trudged over to Scott and Stiles ready to vent, but got distracted by the sight of queen bee and her douche bag boyfriend talking to new girl at her locker. They reminded me of two snakes cornering a rabbit. Scott was looking longingly at new girl...the weirdest thing was he looked like he could hear them from across the hallway. Nah, I've just never seen him this focused before.

"Can either of you please tell me how new girl is here all of five minutes, and she's already hanging out with Lydia's clique?" I questioned my best friends, letting my annoyance slip into every word.
"Because she's hot. Beautiful people herd together." Stiles answered casually, as if it were just a fact of life. Like sunrise or terrible Michael Bay movies. Noticing the grimace on my face Stiles added "I mean that's why she was nice to you last year before... You know- I mean that's not the only reason I'm sure... Well actually-"
"Stiles stop." I interrupted with a bitter laugh "That's not why I'm annoyed" I knew he was just saying that to make me feel better, Lydia only wanted to be 'friends' last year because she likes having passively adoring followers obeying her every command and every sign pointed towards me being that kind of girl. She ditched me when I showed I'm not THAT pathetic.
"Oh. So what's up? You don't like new girl already?" His tone suggested he was trying to be casual but failing miserably. He could tell already that Scott liked her- one of the quirks from knowing someone your whole life is you can tell when they're crushing on someone- Stiles didn't want there to be a rivalry between his best friends crush and his other best friend.
"No, I just don't like knowing yet another person will think of me as the school bitch." My shoulders slumped towards the end and I couldn't look Stiles in the eye. I was trying to play it cool like I always did when I mentioned being the school outcast, I'd gotten much better over time but I knew Stiles saw right through me when his features softened. I could tell he was going to try and say something reassuring, and that it would most likely come out wrong, so I cut him off before he had the chance.
"Anyway we better get Scotty to his next class before he starts drooling, what's your schedule like?" Stiles laughed while taking a very crumpled list of classes out of his bag- having almost completely forgotten our previous conversation already. Which was absolutely fine by me- and based on how normal he was acting (well, normal for Stiles) Scott definitely didn't tell him about how much of a mess I was last night which was a huge relief, now all I had to do was convince Scott I was okay.
"Scott and I have pretty much the same classes- just different home rooms and I'm in AP English" he beamed handing the paper over with his usual confident yet jerky movements.
"Great, so do we. We're even in the same English class. Only difference is I've got art and photography where the two of you have French and history, plus Miss James is my tutor again." My muscles relaxed at finding out I wouldn't be alone in most of my classes. First bit of good news I've received all day. The optimist in me told me to take it as a 'sign' and brighten my spirits- "this year isn't going to end as badly as it began" I told myself. Unfortunately my optimism didn't last long as I noticed who we had for our next class. I thought about warning Stiles but he didn't seem to realise and there was still a little residual anger from him dragging us out last night in the first place. So I decided to keep it to myself and get even.
Plus, the sight of Stiles face when he sees Mr Harris walk in will be priceless. "Okay next class is this way, come on" I said, already walking towards the chemistry room.

It was the end of the day which meant only one thing- lacrosse tryouts. To my dismay the weather was chilly and it was slightly windy but not so bad that they wouldn't be able to play and tryouts would be delayed to another day. I was seriously tempted to leave as soon as the final bell rang; but I knew they'd need as much support as they could get and I really wanted to be the one to give it to them. So I told Stiles and Scott that the neighbours twins had an after school club meaning I didn't have to leave until 4.30, which allowed me enough time to watch them play but not join them in their trek through the woods. A huge part of me was sick with guilt for lying to them but I felt it was my only real option.
So here I am sitting by myself on the uncomfortable bench in the freezing stands with a my sketchbook in hand; pretending to not notice the snickers from Lydia's clique-who weren't sitting with her for once since she'd decided to focus all her attention on making new girl-Allison- like her. No, I was just a creative outsider- above caring about what anyone else thought of me, like Luna Lovegood (my favourite Harry Potter character) too amazing for any of them to understand. Ha. I wasn't fooling anyone.
I turned my attention back to my friends and was surprised to see Scott cross the field and make his way into goal, doesn't coach know he's never played?! I sent an encouraging smile towards him, he smiled back a little nervously before putting on his helmet. When he turned away I exchanged a panicked look with Stiles who was practically biting his nails on the bench. All the players lined up to take their shot, I could tell Scott was wracked with nerves even though I couldn't see his face from where I was sitting.

As soon as the whistle blew he started clutching his head- as if the piercing noise was causing him physical pain. My heart jumped to my chest in concern- I had the weirdest feeling that this had something to do with the bite he received last night. Rather than go help him, one of the asshole players took advantage of this and shot a lacrosse ball directly at his head, causing him to fall back. I glared at the lot of them as they laughed, wishing more than anything looks could kill. "What a dick" I stated under my breath. Scott turned to face me, as if he'd heard my comment, then got back on his feet and straightened up. My anxiety had increased 10 fold at this point, I felt so helpless just sitting here watching when something is obviously wrong. The next player lined up, I bit my lip hard- just hoping he wouldn't take anymore to the face. I cowardly shut my eyes at the last second- half expecting to hear wincing from the crowd. So you can imagine my shock when I opened my eyes a fraction and saw he actually managed to catch this one. And the next. And the next. He caught every ball thrown at him with ease. People in the stands were cheering him on, despite most of them not even knowing his name. Stiles and I were sharing a baffled yet overjoyed look when Jackson roughly shoved one of the other players aside to get the next shot in himself. The two boys shared an intense stare down before the team captain ran up and threw the ball with all his might towards my friend. If I could have I would have looked away again as I fully expected it to either fly past Scott into goal or cause some serious damage to him, I actually let out a loud whoop and stood up in my seat when I saw he caught it easily. Relieved I wasn't the only one standing but still unable to stop my cheeks from turning pink I quickly sat back down and clapped awkwardly, a huge grin persistently glued to my face. It was then that I noticed the person behind me cheering was Lydia Martin herself- isn't she dating the guy who just got his ass handed to him? I realised what she was doing when I saw the snake send Jackson a smug look, i wondered if she was ever NOT playing some kind of twisted mind game with the people she was supposed to care about.

After practice I said congratulated Scott, telling him about how impressed Allison looked and that he should go for it now while the imagine of him kicking butt was fresh in her mind. He looked like he was considering it but chickened out when he saw her walking away with Lydia, making the excuse that he had to go get changed. Stiles confirmed he would head to my place as soon as they'd found Scotts inhaler then followed behind him.

Now that I was alone, and not overwhelmed by the sudden joy and excitement in my friends eyes, it was harder to keep my worries out of my thoughts. 'This is a good thing' I kept telling myself 'Scotts happy and as his friend I'm happy for him' and though that was mostly true I couldn't help but feel that this was the start of everything I'd dreaded. Hell, even LYDIA was cheering him on. No, I wouldn't let my stupid insecurities ruin this for Scott or make me sabotage myself AGAIN. Besides, the sudden victory for him seemed to wipe last nights events from his mind completely- which is good for me as I no longer needed to worry about having to 'talk' about it. I'll just push my fears to the back of my mind until they go away completely- I mentally rolled my eyes- oh yeah, because that always works splendidly.

Y/N: hey guys, sorry the story is going so slowly- I probably shouldn't have set so much up in the first chapter. I hope to speed things up in the next update though and get to the juicy stuff soon, until then thanks for being patient. As always please comment and tell me what you think, I love hearing what you think. Bye for now x