Ok, yes. I realize I am a genuinely horrible person for not updating this. I actually haven't touched this fic in...a very long time. Real life stuff happened and I kinda forgot where I was going with this. Obviously, with 3B so close, I may get "inspired" by some stuff, but we're officially entering into entirely branching off from the show here.

I lost a bit of the research I did for this too, I remember some of it though and I enjoy research anyway so figuring something out won't be too hard.

Also, still no actual Stiles/Lydia interaction here, but I can guarantee an abundance in the next chapter. *hides*

Stiles's fingers tapped his steering wheel in an effort to keep himself awake while he drove. It wasn't doing very much, but it wouldn't be long until he was around people.

His destination was Scott's house of course. It was Monday night and hopefully they would get some actual studying done. Junior year was crucial when it came to their future after all. Scott's classroom reformation had gone a little adrift over the past few weeks and they both suspected that any chance of this normalcy lasting was pretty much just a dream.

Might as well try to act like students while they had a slight breather.

Stiles had his backpack and various SAT prep books keeping him company in the passenger seat along with a grocery bag full of Redbull and coffee. His pockets contained not only his Adderall prescription, which he had no intention of ODing on, but also a bottle of caffeine pills. Well, they were actually diet pills which really didn't make any difference. The hope was that he could pass all this off as just extreme SAT prep rather than willful sleep deprivation.

Since Saturday the nightmares had been constant and consistent. He didn't know how long it would be until they got worse, but he just knew that they definitely would. Despite this, he had a feeling his mother was trying to warn him. Every night she repeated the same line of 'She is coming.' Stiles had no idea what it meant he just knew that it couldn't possibly be anything good.

As he parked, Stiles wondered whether or not some part of him liked seeing his mother. He just hoped that his subconscious wasn't trying to commit suicide with the plan of not telling anyone until he had things sorted.

A few minutes later Stiles was standing outside of Scott's house and with a heavy sigh he opened the door with his signature goofy grin. With Ms. McCall still at work and no super powered murderers on the loose, Scott had set up the living room for their study session.

Of course Isaac was there too, sitting next to the Alpha and looking for all the world like he was about to have some kind of aneurysm as he read over his Algebra text.

"Hey pups, what's happenin'?" Stiles started as he tossed his bag in an empty recliner and took a seat on the floor on the opposite side of the coffee table that the wolves were working off of. He knew that, seeing as he was in advanced classes and had already dealt with the majority of all things Algebraic, he would mainly be acting as tutor this evening.

"I'm finding that the solution to most of these problems is 'Help me. Please for the love of God, help me.'" Isaac replied as he tossed his pencil on the table while Scott leaned back and acted as if he was trying to tear out his own hair.

"Why is math so hard? When are we ever going to use any of this?" Scott added with a heavy sigh.

"Don't let Lydia hear you say that or she'll castrate both of you. Now, come on, it can't be that hard." Stiles then proceeded to grab both of their notebooks in an attempt to review their work. Isaac's was covered in doodles and various lines that deconstructed formulas into song lyrics, which Stiles had no idea was actually possible, while Scott's showed that he was really trying. "Isaac, shame on both you and your cow. Scott, you're not too far off on a lot of these you're just forgetting to add exponents and small stuff like that."

"Can you please show me how to do this one more time dude?" Scott asked while Isaac's only reply was a noncommittal shrug.

"Yeah fine, but you both owe me so much for this. I expect pizza and your souls."

Scott laughed, "Pizza is on the way, not sure about the soul thing though."

"Wait a second," Stiles paused as he looked over at Isaac, "Are you living here now or something?"

"Kinda, yeah." Isaac replied as he put his sock clad feet up on the table only for Stiles to knock them off.

"Are you kidding?" Stiles turned to Scott with a look of mock pain, "He gets to live here while I get strange looks for having a key made?!"

"Well, he sort of asked and you're not homeless."

"Hey," Isaac interrupted before quietly adding, "I'm not homeless…."

"I'm hurt Scott. I am truly and genuinely hurt."

"Sorry?" Scott's reply was cut short by the sound of the doorbell. Scott got to his feet and rushed to the door with a bit more pep in his step than the last time Stiles saw him.

"Wha-" the human started to ask, but Isaac was ready for him. "New delivery girl, just moved here. Scott met her on Saturday and he's been ordering pizza for pretty much every meal since. Shockingly, she is always the one that brings it."

Stiles nodded, "Uh huh, so does that mean…ya know, the whole Allison thing-"

"We haven't really talked about it." The other boy's tone made it clear that he didn't want to talk about it and Stiles was too tired to press him. Besides, Stiles might've been pretty emotionally intelligent for his age, but guys who barely knew each other didn't exactly discuss their feelings.

But, Stiles being Stiles, he still had to know what this new girl looked like. So, lacking the grace to be sneaky he opted for speed instead, scrambling to his feet Stiles raced to his best friend's side.

The girl on the opposite side of the door was smiling at Scott. Her hair was long, she was short and she was also probably one of the prettiest girls he'd seen in Beacon Hills, which was saying something considering the town had the strange ability to attract super models.

Not that she was any Lydia Martin, but then only one person was actually at all like Lydia Martin and that person just happened to be…Lydia Martin.

It took the total silence for Stiles to realize exactly how weird his appearance must've been. "Hey, I'm Stiles." He said with a wink, "I'm this guy's best friend in the entire world. He's super great, let me tell ya."

The girl continued to look at him like she had since he'd arrived, aka like he was crazy, and Scott turned to give him a look of 'You have no idea how much I hate you right now.'

"Oooo-okay, yeah…I'm gonna go," Stiles began awkwardly as he started backing up. He tripped over a shoe and stumbled back a bit, but the other two continued to stare at him. "I'll just…be in the living room…waiting for the pizza that the-girl-whose-name-I-don't-even-know delivered."

"Is he usually like that?" he heard a female voice whisper behind him when Stiles knew he must've been out of sight.

"Almost always." Scott replied with a causal laugh.

Back in the living room, Isaac was smiling at Stiles from the couch, "How'd that go then?" he asked with laughter in his voice.

"It went exactly like I'd-shut up dude."

The Beta continued laugh, "Sometimes I really wonder what planet you came from Stilinski."

"That's a great insult coming from the one of us who isn't totally human."

"Ladies, you're both pretty." Scott added as he walked into his living holding three boxes of pizza.

Stiles looked at his best friend and he felt his stomach drop. Scott McCall had 'the look'. "Oh no, not again."

The werewolf's eyes grew wide and innocent, "What?"

"You're totally crushing on whoever that girl is and it's going to be like sophomore year all over again."

"Her name is Kira."

Stiles turned to Isaac, "Remind me to write that down so I can hack into all of his accounts in about a week."

"No problem," Isaac replied, their previous conversation forgotten.

Scott shook his head at their comments, "It's not like that. I can't let it be like that. Not this time. I can't afford for it to be. There's too much going on. I have too much responsibility now." The words came out in an emotional rush and they left the room in silence for a moment. Sometimes it was hard for Stiles to remember just how much was resting on his best friend's shoulders.

"It's not like you're becoming a monk or anything Scott," Isaac said while Scott shifted the boxes in his hands as he thought of a reply.

"No, it's more like I'm commanding an army…."

"Dude, come on-" Stiles tried to think of what to say, but Scott ended the conversation by reminding them that they all had a pizza for themselves and they better start eating before it got soggy and gross.