Hello friends! I want to let you all know that I will be in Italy after tonight. I don't know how that will fit in with my writing, as of now I'm still on schedule to release a chapter a day. I like this chapter I think this is the first one that really lets you guess at who Max really is. If you have a guess on who Max is or what she is doing in Beacon Hills I would love to hear it! As always I do not own any character or place owned by Teen Wolf and thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following! It really means a lot to me that you all like this story as much as me.
"Hey how was seeing your friend?" Scott asks raising his eyebrows at me as he catches up to me.
"As fun as finding a body in the woods," I say sarcastically as I rush up into the school building.
"What's the rush?" Scott asks grabbing onto my backpack to slow me down.
"I need to find Max," I tell him as I yank his arm from my bag.
"Wait," Scott says stopping. "Is she the friend you saw?"
"Yeah," I mutter as I scan the halls for her.
"So?" Scott says excitedly getting in the way.
"So what?" I say pushing him away from me as I start down the hall.
"Did you guys…" Scott raises his eyebrows at me.
"Yes. We had wild, red-hot sex all night. What do you think?" I yell and a few people shoot me looks. "It's like you've never met me!"
"Well I was hoping for the best," Scott laughs nervously.
"Do you know her homeroom?" I ask him frantically noticing the students starting to duck into their classrooms.
"How should I know?" Scott shakes his head. "We have to get to our own homeroom though. The bell is going to ring any-" the bell cuts him off.
"Go ahead," I motion down the hallway. "I need to find Max."
"Why? You can talk to her later," Scott shakes his head as he starts backwards down the hallway.
"I want to talk to her now," I yell to him moving toward the front office.
"Ms. Henderson is going to kill you!" he yells to me as I turn the corner. I race down the bleak halls watching door after door close the sure sign of Ms. Henderson chewing me out. Today I wasn't worried about that though. Today I was worried that I would never understand what Max had said to me last night. I thought it over once I got home; she told me she was researching the creature that did this. What creature? How did she know it was a creature? I swing open the front office door and put on my cheesiest smile.
"Mrs. Butters!" I sing to the squat, round woman behind the desk. She looks up at me with tired eyes.
"What do you want Mr. Stilinski?" she groans.
"Can I just say you are looking amazing today?" I smile wider. "Is that dress new? The blue matches your eyes perfect-"
"Cut the shit and tell me what you want," the sixty-something-year-old woman snaps.
"Alrighty then," I say losing the smile. "I got a problem."
"Herpes?" she grunts.
"No! It's not herpes!"
"Then what?"
"I'm looking for someone," I say leaning up against her desk.
"Aren't we all…"
"She goes to this school," I sigh. "Her name is Maxine Discite, senior, started here on Friday of last week." Butters squints up at me and I sigh again. "Can you tell me her homeroom?"
"Class has already started, Mr. Stilinski," she says quickly.
"I'm sorry I was under the impression that we were cutting the bullshit," I cross my arms and she does the same leaning back into her seat.
"If I give you the homeroom, you give me your pudding at lunch," she says quickly.
"My pudding? Seriously that's basically the only thing they serve that I'll-"
"Do we have a deal or not?" she snaps.
"Ok! Ok! Fine, I'll give you the pudding," I give in and she instantly turns to the computer screen. She pounds on the keys and then tells me Max's room number. I thank her and promise to bring her the pudding before spinning back out into the hallway. She's got Mr. Creaser, my chemistry teacher, for her homeroom teacher and it's just my luck it's him because like Ms. Henderson, he cannot stand me. I reach room number 114 and knock on it quickly.
"Mr. Stilinski?" Mr. Creaser's brow dips as he opens the door. I catch sight of Max sitting in one of the first desks behind him her nose is in the Beacon Hill Strange Happenings book. Today she has on an off white dress with dark black polka dots, just like she promised. Her hair hangs down for the first time since I met her. It curls softly at the ends in just the right way.
"Hi," I smile at Mr. Creaser. "I need to speak with Max Discite."
"Why?" he shakes his head. "It can wait until after class," he goes to close the door, but I put my arm out to stop it.
"No!" I yell frantically and I notice that Max has now looked up. "I need to speak with Max now."
"Mr. Creaser!" Max says quickly standing up. "Stiles is my cousin, is something wrong?"
"Oh um yeah…" I nod quickly as I lie. "It's about Grandma Eden…"
"Do you mind if we talk outside quickly?" Max says dipping under Mr. Creaser's arm. She pushes up against me and out the door before Mr. Creaser can say no. "What?" she spits.
"That was smart," I shrug.
"Do you have something you need or are you just trying to get me in trouble?" she puts her hands on her hips.
"I need to talk to you about what happened last-" A large crash behind me cuts me off. We turn to see a thin freshmen boy flying down the hall, clearly late. He buzzes past narrowly avoiding us. "Watch it freshmen." He stops and turns to us; his mouth opens exposing long, thin teeth, rows and rows of teeth. He lets out a shiver inducing moaning shriek. "Jesus Christ!" I yell pushing Max behind me as the kid runs around the opposite corner. "Who was-"
"Stiles," Max says grabbing my arm.
"What was that?"
"It's not important. What is important is that you and I need to see less of each other," she looks me dead in the eye in a way that causes me shiver as much as the kids screech had.
"Max what are you talking about? Did you just see-" She cuts me off.
"Stiles! Look my life has been one loss after another and with everything going around here-" she stops herself now.
"Max you aren't going to lose-" she cuts me off again.
"Don't say that," she says seriously. "Don't…" She laughs slightly She puts her hands on the door handle, but I grab them pulling her back to me. She grabs a fistful of my t-shirt and pushes her face into my chest so I can't see her eyes. I wrap my arms around her carefully not wanting to let her go.
"Max," I whisper into her hair taking in the perfume's comforting smell. "Tell me what you are scared of…" She holds on a minute more before pushing me away. She opens the door without looking back at me.
"I can't tell you… But I can't stop you from learning it yourself…" she says before dipping into the classroom. I want to ask her more, I want to hold onto her again, but before I can Mr. Creaser steps in front of me.
"Mr. Stilinski…" Mr. Creaser puts his arm out to stop me from following Max into the room. "Get to class. Now." He slams door in my face.
"I can't go to class. I have to learn something," I say shaking my head quickly. I dash down the hallway and run into the library instantly I get a look from Hector, the librarian. "Hey Hector," I smile uneasily and he frowns.
"Shh!" he glares as I pass him for the computers. I quickly pound on the keys I go to Google. I search everything and anything that comes to my mind. Long, thin teeth in strange skinny boys, white things running across roads and dead skinless bodies. Nothing comes up in the hundreds of web pages I comb through. I spend half the day in the library learning nothing. I push my chair back away from the computer frustrated nothing has come out of all these pages. Just as I'm about to give up my phone rings, I answer it before it runs through one ring cycle.
"What?" I whisper into the receiver.
"Where are you? And why are you whispering?" Scott's voice says loudly enough that Hector can hear what he is saying.
"Tell him you are in the library and can't speak right now because the library has a strict no cell-" I cut Hector off.
"What Hector? Sorry I can't hear you!" I yell.
"Hector?" Scott asks. "You're in the library? Is that were you've been?"
"Mr. Stilinski!" Hector yells. "Turn off your phone!"
"It's uhh not a phone it's an iPod!" I yell back.
"Stiles?" Scott's voice comes through again. "Are you coming to lunch or-" I can't hear the second half of his sentence because Hector's voice is louder than Scott's.
"It's not an iPod! You don't talk into iPods!" Hector screeches.
"Yes I'm coming…" I shove the phone back into my pocket. "Well I'm done now!" I say standing up as I turn off the computer.
"Stiles this is a place of learning and you need to-" I cut Hector off as I pass the man who is much too young to be a librarian in a vest.
"And I learned something. You aren't supposed to use your cell phone in the library! Good lesson Hector!" I yell as I push open the metal doors to the hallway. The hallways buzz like my head. Max knows what's going on, but the computer doesn't. I push my way through the crowds to find Scott and Isaac at our normal lunch table.
"No lunch?" Isaac asks through a mouthful of sandwich.
"I'll get some after the rush," I sigh taking my seat.
"Where have you been? Have you skipped all your classes?" Scott asks anxiously.
"Uhh… Yeah," I nod.
"Why? Max was in my math class so I know you weren't with her," Scott looks confused while Isaac listens, while continuing to eat his sandwich.
"Max is scared of something and I understand why. Today in the hallway some freshmen boy screeched at us showing off these creepy long, spindly teeth, and she's seen both of the skinless bodies…" I shudder at the thought of the bodies.
"So?" Scott shakes his head.
"Somehow she knows what is doing this or she knows what that kid is, but she won't tell me! And she knows, but Google doesn't! I put in every word combination I could think of and combed through every web page that came up. I'm no better off then when I started," I say exasperatedly.
"Well did you search Max?" Isaac suggests spitting crumbs across the table.
"What?" Scott asks before I can.
"You can learn a lot about a person by searching them," Isaac shrugs.
"She doesn't seem like the type to spend much time on social media…" I say my brow furrowing at the thought of Max tweeting.
"That doesn't mean other people haven't put things up about her. Or search her family name, learn where she came from, what they did, how they died all that," he shrugs again as he swallows.
"You could do the same for the freshmen kid, just need his name," Scott shrugs. "You could probably get it out of Mrs.-"
"Butters!" I laugh finishing his sentence. "Sorry boys I have a date with a sixty-year-old woman and her computer!" I stand up and slap the table victoriously. "Oh and I'll need your pudding," I say taking each boy's pudding.
"What? What for!" Isaac yells defensively.
"It's the currency of knowledge!" I yell back.
"Don't eat it all in one place," Scott huffs as I exit the cafeteria. I run back to the front office and put Scott's pudding cup on the desk triumphantly.
"One pudding, as promised…" I say quietly as she grabs the pudding and greedily stashes it away in one of her desk drawers. "And," I say putting down the second cup, "I need another favor." She eyes me then the pudding.
"What?" she spits.
"Access to the photo ID profiles of the freshmen that I know you have on your computer," I say in a hushed tone.
"Five minutes," she says squinting her eyes like she is trying to read my bluff.
"Ten minutes.
"Six."
"Eight."
"Four," she frowns.
"Ok, ok six is good!" I say happily. She snatches the pudding from the desk before getting up out of her chair.
"I'll take my walk now. Thanks for watching the office for me while I'm gone," she says as she opens the door.
"Anything to help my favorite staff member," I beam as she closes the door. I delve into the ID files as quickly as I had snatched Scott and Isaac's pudding. I click into the freshmen page and start to shift. None of the pictures seem to match the image I have in my head. Thin, pale, red curling hair, dark eyes. One ID is picture free; instead of a face the words "No Picture Available" fill the small box at the top left.
"Perfect," I blow out as I lean back in the chair. I let my mind go wondering where it will take me. I find myself shuffling through the senior IDs, only one has the "No Picture Available" words at the top left corner. Maxine Discite. She transferred here after they took the school pictures, so they don't have one available. Maybe the freshman was the same way? I switch back to the freshmen IDs and back to the photo-less one.
"Simon Morin," I rub my chin as I read his profile. Under the ID is a link to teacher notes. I hit it and read about how Simon transferred last week from somewhere in Canada. I switch back to Max's now. Her notes talk about her move from a place called Groton in Massachusetts. Apparently she had been attending a fairly prestigious private school, but was kicked out for leaving campus without getting permission to do so. I close out of the IDs and pull up Google maps. I put in Groton, MA and quickly find it is in the middle of farm country. Even if Max had snuck off campus she wasn't sneaking off to anywhere, but into the middle of the woods. Whatever is here in Beacon Hills must have been there too.
"Time's up!" Butters yells as she walks in. I quickly clear the browser history and relinquish the computer to her.
"Thank you," I say quietly. She nods her head and I'm gone. I run back toward the library feeling the rush of the break through. Scott grabs my arm as I blow past him. "Got to get back to the library! I'll explain later!" I push him off and turn down the hall rushing back into Hector's lair. When I burst through the door Hector looks like he might burst a blood vessel in his forehead.
"Stiles you have to be-" I cut him off.
"Shh!" I smile at him before taking the spot at my computer. I decide it's best to search around about Simon Morin first, because I know I won't be able to pull myself away from learning about Max, if I find anything about her at all. I pull up Google and punch Simon Morin into the little box. It turns out not only is there a French singer named Simon Morin, Simon and Morin are two of the most common names in Canada. I give in to my want to look up Max and soon Simon is the last thing on my mind.
Now I search Maxine Discite. Right away I find an article about her parent's death. Her father was Robert Discite and her mother, Velma Discite. Both were killed instantly when they ran their car off a highway. The police can only assume it was to avoid something, possibly a deer or moose. The article mentions how their daughter, Maxine Discite, will be living with her mother's brother from now on. I search Robert Discite and learn that he was once a professor for a college in New England, but was "let-go" when he started writing theory based papers on mythological creatures such as pixies, pucas and werewolves.
Now I'm looking up Puca. Page after page describe a shapeless spirit that can either be a sign of good luck or an omen. They will often take the form of dogs, goats, horses or rabbits; their only identifier is that in any form they will remain a deep black. I take a moment to let everything sink in, but soon I'm back at it, this time searching for anything on Max's uncle, Fredrick.
There is an article describing the trial in which Max testified against Fredrick, not only did he severely neglect her; she also said he deprived her of basic human rights. I skip to the bottom not wanting to know the details. It goes on to say Maxine Discite is to move in with her dad's father, Maximus Discite, the man she was clearly named for, the moment the trials conclude.
Maximus Discite has very little written about him other than his name brought me to Max's old schools' website. He was a board member there. I'm surprised he couldn't keep Max from getting expelled. The search on Maximus leads me to a page on the meaning of names, Discite is of Latin descent according to the page, but it doesn't give me a meaning. So I pull up Google translate, and learn that Discite translates as Learn.
What was Max sneaking off campus for? Why couldn't Maximus keep the school from expelling Max? Why would her uncle abuse her? Why would her father write and try to publish theory-based material on mythical creatures? What caused Velma and Robert's car to crash? What couldn't Max tell me? What was I missing? I rub my face. Robert knew werewolves were real. Does that mean Max knows werewolves are real? Is that what she's scared of? Is that why she told me to be careful? Does she know Peter and Derek are werewolves? Does she know Isaac and Scott are? Does she think I am?
"Boo!" Scott yells grabbing my shoulders.
"Jesus Christ!" I feel myself jump a good two feet in the air before coming down hard narrowly avoiding my over turned chair. "What the f-" Scott cuts me off.
"What is this? Learn?" Scott says clicking on the page I have open.
"Get out of here!" I whisper yell as I squeeze myself between Scott and the computer. "Hector does not like me today and you are going to get me kicked out!"
"Chill," Scott says pushing me out of the way easily.
"You almost got me kicked out earlier when you called me!" I growl as he looks through my history.
"What is all this?" Scott asks not looking at me.
"I feel like you are snooping through personal information," I say hitting the button on the computer monitor so the screen goes black. Scott looks at me sideways.
"It's not your personal information and you went through it, so why can't I?" Scott says angrily.
"Max told me too," I say folding my arms to protect myself.
"Really?" Scott says sarcastically. "What exactly did she say?"
"Um… Well you know… She said, 'I can't tell you, but I can't stop you from learning it yourself' and that basically means, I want you to learn this stuff, but no one else."
"Actually it means she can't stop you from learning stuff you shouldn't know," Scott says crossing his own arms.
"It's just a lot to take in and not all of it's good and I feel like I need to protect it. I feel like I need to protect her," I say before I really know what I'm saying. Scott sighs deeply like he knows exactly what I'm feeling.
"At least give me a summary?" Scott sighs letting his arms drop.
"Ok fine," I say quickly as I clear my history and shut down the computer. I pull Scott behind the nearest bookshelf to avoid alerting Hector to our talking. "Parents died in car crash. Police think it was caused by them trying to avoid something in the road. Learned nothing about mom, but dad was once a professor. Dad was fired because he started writing theory-papers on mythical creatures. Stuff happens and eventually she goes to a private school near Boston. Grandpa was on the board of the fancy prep school, but even with gramps on the board she still gets kicked out. She gets busted for sneaking off campus, but there is nothing off campus, woods and farmland surround it for miles. And you already saw Discite means Learn," I say in one long breath.
"So what does that mean for us?" Scott asks blinking furiously. I doubt he caught more than half of that.
"Her dad wrote papers on mythical beasts, one of them mentioned was werewolves," I say crossing my arms again.
"She knows about-"
"I'm not sure yet… But another creature mentioned was a Puca. It's this shape-shifting creature from Irish folklore. They supposedly often take the form of a horse, goat, rabbit and dog. The only constant is that they have dark fur. Her dog is named Puca and he is jet black."
"Is it actually a puca?" Scott asks concerned.
"I'm not sure…" I rub my chin trying to think about the time I'd spent with the dog. "He seems like a normal dog to me."
"So what do we do with this information? Did you ask her about any of it?" Scott says leading the way out of the library.
"No," I say quickly as we pass the return bin. I can just make out the words "Fantastical and Strange" inside the blue metal bin. I reach in and grab up the worn book and flip it over. The ugly brown binding confirms to me that this is the book that Max was reading. "Wait, wait!" I say before turning back toward Hector's desk.
"What do you want Stilinski?" Hector groans.
"I just want to check out this book," I push the book towards him as I speak. I don't even try to fake sweetness anymore. Hector grunts as he takes the book. He opens to the front cover and his brow crinkles in confusion.
"Oh, haha," Hector says pushing the book back toward me. "Good joke Stilinski, checking out a book you already own? Wow."
"What? I don't-" my sentence drops as I open the book. At the top of the inside front cover my name has been written in swirling cursive. I drop the book on the desk exclaiming, "That is not ok! That is not ok! I'm not ok! I am not ok!"
"Stiles! Seriously! Just be quiet!" Hector pleas with me as he shoves the book into my hands. "You are driving me crazy! Get out of here!" Scott pulls my new book and me out into the hallway. "This isn't my book Scott!"
"I know!" Scott yells back. "You just checked it out from the library!"
"No I didn't!" I yell back.
"What are you talking about? I just watched you-"
"Hector said it doesn't belong to the library!" I yell feeling my eyes buldge from my head.
"Then who does it-"
"Me!" I say holding open the front cover. "It says it belongs to me!"
"Jesus Christ…" Scott says taking the book from my hands.
"Yeah! Jesus Christ is right!" I yell now starting to pace.
"Ok! Ok!" Scott yells over me. "You need to chill out, we both do. We have a game in an hour and we need to get to the locker room. Can you handle going to the game?" Scott asks like I'm a little kid.
"Yes, but give me my book," I say holding my hands out in front of me.
"You sure?" Scott asks nervously.
"I was hoping you'd say, 'It isn't your book, I don't see your name on it'…" I mutter under my breath.
"Do you want to go back and have me say that?" Scott looks at me confused.
"No, it's fine the moment's past," I sigh taking the book from Scott's hands before following after him down the hall toward the locker room.