I finished my drink, I'm not sure what it was, but it was strong, and didn't taste half bad, either. I heard fireworks going off in the distance, was it midnight already? I checked my phone, "11:08" it read. I guess Lydia's neighbors like celebrating early. I headed back inside to refill my drink.

I spent most of Saturday researching druids, I even color coated my research with highlighters, which is a true testament to how much free time I have now. I thought I had no life back before Scott was bitten, but at least then I had him as a friend.

Now I have all the threat that comes with the supernatural lifestyle, and no supernatural best friend.

Plus, before I could go in public without being terrified. It wasn't the supernatural that terrified me though, and while I hated the bullying, that's not what kept me indoors 24/7 either.

What happened the night of the party was.

After I read practically every article ever made about druids, picking my favorite, getting the facts, typing out a good 20 pages, printing them, and then color-coding them I decided I should go to bed.

I fell asleep pretty easily since all the reading had tired me out, but then I awoke with a start because I had another nightmare about the party. I couldn't fall back asleep, and spent the rest of the night just staring at my ceiling. It was so bland; I didn't even have a ceiling fan

I finally crawled out of bed around 10 on Sunday morning, deciding I had stared at the ceiling long enough. I went downstairs and plopped on the couch, surfing through the stations for a bit, nothing good was on, but I eventually fell asleep on the couch, which I guess was good considering I had only gotten about 4 hours sleep last night,

"-iles, Stiles!" I slowly blink my eyes open when I felt hands gently shaking me, which immediately jostled me from my sleep.

"Hey kid, I just got off from work, you must've dozed off."

I glanced at the clock in the corner of the living room; it's 5PM, so there goes my Sunday. I give my dad a smile before heading back upstairs to play around on my laptop until my dad calls me back down for dinner.

I'm about to take a bite of my casserole when my dad turns to me, "is everything alright with you?" he asks and I give him a confused look so he elaborates.

"You've just been awfully quiet lately, and Scott hasn't been here in awhile, which is odd."

I feel grateful that I have a dad that knows me so well. Who can go days without seeing me but still know I'm not being me. But I also feel guilty for worrying him, he has enough on his plate without having to deal with this.

I give him a hug, which surprises him, before deciding I've had enough casserole, and go back up to my room.

Since I slept throughout most of the day, it's nearly impossible to fall back asleep. I lie in bed for about 2 hours before calling it quits and log onto my laptop. I look for something to watch on Netflix but that's a bust so I reread the econ chapter that was homework, jotting down some notes, and then I draw a tree. I'm not even paying attention when I draw it, but there it is, in the corner of my econ notes.

It's not just any tree, it's the tree.

I finally fall asleep around 3AM, so only have until my 6:30 alarm, but it's better than nothing.

When I wake up I hope this weekend had the same effect as last weekend, and gave people a chance to mellow out. I stretch and open my closet, looking for something to wear. I notice the shirt I wore on New Years in a heap on the floor. It's one of my favorite shirts, but I feel no remorse as I chuck it into the garbage.

Weekends truly are a godsend, because once again, the torment on me has decreased from Friday to today.

Hopefully theirs enough weekends between now and graduation that I can have at least one day of school without someone glaring or telling me to fuck off.

I bring my research for Derek to school because I know he wanted it ASAP. I was planning to give it to Isaac to bring home, but he's not at school.

I only had one class with him, and when he didn't show up I thought maybe he was just skipping that class, but then I waited at his locker awkwardly trying to ignore the glares I got from strangers, and he never showed up.

And since werewolves don't get sick, he must be ditching.

Teenage werewolf rebellion.

I really just wanted to wait until I saw Derek next to give him the research, and under normal circumstances I would have, but I know that this research is extra important. So the way home I stop by his loft.

It feels weird, coming here alone, but my life has been nothing but normal lately. And that's saying a lot considering my version of normal was fighting the supernatural my with werewolf friends.

I sigh to myself and timidly knock on the door, and Derek swings it open immediately. He must've heard me coming, I didn't even really need to knock.

I don't even step inside, just hold out the papers and he takes them, confused for a moment until his eyes drift to the pages and a look of realization dawns on him. I turn on my heel to leave, when he grabs onto my arm and I flinch involuntarily, pulling back. The look of confusion is on his face again.

"Uh, hold on, I need your help with something." He tells me.

I'm surprised to say the least, usually Isaac is Derek's go to guy, but Isaacs not home and I'm here so I guess it makes sense.

I wish I could say that Derek needed my help with something badass, like finding some ancient scroll that only humans could read, or he got a phone call from Deaton telling him that I possessed some kickass magic abilities and he wanted to train me. Something cool like that.

Instead, Derek needed help learning how to attach a file to an email.

Yeah, I'm not joking, I wish I were.

I followed him into the loft and he sat at the table, opening his laptop, I pulled up a chair near him and sat down too, resting my backpack near my feet.

"So I made and e-mail account today," he began, then paused as if waiting for me to make a sarcastic comment, I said nothing, "and I wanted you to teach me how to attach files to it, I thought it would make research easier."

That was smart, actually. Plus it would make my job easier, and save me money on printer ink.

I simply nodded and pointed to the little paper clip icon, and then to the documents tab.

"So if I find a good article I just download it, then do that?" He asked, incredulous.

I almost wanted to laugh. How was Derek this bad with technology? He was what, 22? 23? He was too young to not understand how to work a laptop. My dad understood technology better than him, and that's just sad.

The old me would have told him that, but I just nodded again.

Derek went back to whatever he was doing on his laptop before I showed up, but I didn't get up yet. It was kind of nice being here, no one was tormenting me, but it also didn't have the loneliness of home, but still had the same feeling of safety.

If anything, the feeling of safety was even stronger since I had an alpha werewolf 3 feet from me.

Without really thinking I reached into by backpack and pulled out my homework and a pencil. It wasn't until I was finished with the first math equation that I had actually realized what I had done. I glanced at Derek, but he didn't say anything, just continued typing away. I knew that if Derek wanted me to leave, he wouldn't hesitate to say something. But since he didn't I took that as his permission to stay. So I continued on my homework while Derek clicked away on his laptop. The room was engulfed in a silence, but it wasn't awkward, it was nice. Calm. Safe.

A/N: Thank you again for all the reviews! You guys are the best! Anyway, we're slowly but surely getting some Sterek, as well as a bit more insight as to what happened on new years (do any of you who haven't read/seen Speak have any guesses as to what it is?). Hopefully I'm not writing Derek too OC. My favorite types of Sterek fics are the slow burn ones because they stay true to his character, which is what I'm hoping to achieve. ALSO, the tree I mentioned earlier is not the nemeton, just thought I'd clear up any confusion about that!