Chapter 3: Pack Mentality

Lydia POV

I readjusted my dress and necklace as I walked into the school with a confident stride. The tips of my heels clicked against the hard floor as I walked to my locker. I can't let anyone know anything's wrong even though something feels really wrong. I grabbed my stuff from my locker and I felt drawn to the breezeway and when I opened the door I bit back a scream. There in the parking lot was a school bus with a door practically ripped off the hinges and blood was everywhere. I then proceeded to turn and run back in the building.

I ran down the steps and turned a corner so I didn't have to see Scott or Stiles and walked into my French class. "Bonjour Lydia, comment allez-vous ce matin?" Ms. Morrell asked me when I walked in and I took a second to process what she asked me: Bonjour- Hello, comment allez-vous- how are you, ce matin- this morning. Translation 'Hello Lydia, how are you this morning?'

"Je suis bein Mme Morrell." I said 'I'm good Ms. Morrell'

"Good, please take a seat." She said as I quickly walked inside. I saw Isaac sitting in the middle of my row; I didn't even know he was in my French class. Instead of taking my normal seat at the front of the row I went to the seat in front of him.

"You mind if I sit here?" I asked him.

He looked up with me wide eyed and for some reason it made the still growing, obviously deep boned, bruise shine bright against his pale skin. "Um yeah." He said and I sat down in front of him.

We were the only ones in the room since Ms. Morrell walked out of the room. I looked at him gently. "I'm sorry." I said with a heavy sigh

"S-sorry for what?" he stuttered.

The intercom interrupted up, "Attention students this is your principal. I know you're all wondering about the incident that occurred last night involving one of our buses. But while the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as scheduled." The principal said and I could hear the groans coming from the hallway. "Thank you."

"For not being able to help." I said as I gently raised my hand and brushed my fingers across the bruise along his cheekbone. He flinched, "For not being able to help you with that." I said softly. "Do you have a cell phone?" I asked him and he nodded. Quickly I grabbed his pen and a piece of paper and scribbled down my number and initialed it. "If you ever, ever need help or just someone text me or call or whatever you shouldn't have to be alone and take that." I said and I couldn't help as my fingers once more grazed the bruise. He didn't flinch this time. "And you know that-"

"If anyone asks how I got this you'll lie through your teeth and say you don't know. Yeah I know and thank you Lydia, even if you wouldn't be able to do this or that or whatever in a room full of people." He said quietly with a small smile which I returned.

"I'm sorry for that too." I said before turning in my seat and said over my shoulder, "And if you get hurt again and don't text me," I turned back around. "I'll kick your ass myself." I said seriously but my eyes betrayed me.

Not but a few minutes later class had started and Ms. Morrell was going over verbs to verb translation and I was trying to pay attention but my eyes kept wondering back to the bloody bus with officers milling about the place. "Hey I think they found something!" Ashley yelled from two seats down and suddenly we were all out of our seats and crowding around the window. I felt Isaac behind me and Erica to my left and Boyd on my right. I saw an ambulance and some paramedics pushing a gurney. From the looks on it, it was a man covered in dirt and blood.

Suddenly the man jumped up into a sitting position on the gurney and several people, myself included let out screams. I felt a hand grip tightly on my arm and I turned to see Erica looking extremely panicked and pale beside me. She seemed to be having some trouble breathing. "Erica, Erica are you alright?" I asked her as I placed a hand on top of hers where she was gripping my arm.

She looked at me and her eyes were glossing over. "I don't feel too good." She said as she swayed.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, "Come on, I think you need to go to the nurse." I said softly and she nodded dully. "Ms. Morrell, can I take Erica to the nurse. I think that man sent her into a sort of shock." I said.

"Yes you to go on, Lydia get back when you can." Ms. Morrell said gently. I helped Erica walk slowly down the hallway as we made our way to the nurse.

"Thank you." She said

"Huh?" I asked

"You're the most popular girl in the school and here you are helping me, I'm unpopular and-" she started

"You got scared, so did I, we're equal on that and honestly I needed a breather too." I said as we reached the nurse's office. "Will you be alright if I go on back to class?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Thanks Lydia." Erica said as she made her way into the nurse's office.


At lunch I saw Scott and Stiles sitting at a long lunch table. I walked up to the boys and caught on to the last bit of Stiles' sentence, "-we'll figure it out."

"Figure what out?" I asked as I sat next to Scott.

I heard Stiles do a weird gasp, "Um just homework." Scott said and it was so obvious a lie that it hurt a little bit.

"Yeah." Stiles agreed and I looked down to see what I wanted to eat from my plate when I heard Stiles whisper, "Why is she sitting with us?" when Michael sat down at the head, Shana sat to the left of Stiles, Danny sat in front of me, and Allison sat to the right of Scott. I looked up as Stiles looked to Danny and did a head nod. Danny just looked away.

Jackson came up. "Get up." He said to Michael.

"How come you never ask Danny to get up?" Michael complained and I looked at Danny who smirked.

"Because I don't stare at his girlfriend's coin slot." Danny said as Jackson pushed Michael out of the seat and put his plate down seconds after Michael grabbed his before scurrying off and I smiled brightly at Danny. Michael did perv on me a lot. It was creepy. "So I here they're saying it was some sort of animal attack. Probably a cougar." Danny said

"I heard mountain lion." Jackson said

"A cougar is a mountain lion." I replied before thinking about it then I saw the look Jackson gave me. Quickly I cocked my head to the side, "Isn't it?" I questioned.

"Who cares, the guy's probably some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway." Jackson said insensitively. I felt my eyes get wide at his crudeness when Stiles spoke.

"Actually, I just found out who it is, check it out." Stiles said as he turned his phone and showed us the video.

"The Sheriff's Department won't speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Garrison Myers, did survive the attack. Myers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition." The news reporter said

"I-I-I-I know this guy." Scott said

"You do?" Allison asked,

"Yeah when I used to take the bus back when I lived with my dad, he was the driver." Scott said

"Can we talk about something slightly more fun please?" I asked as I twirled my fork around "Like…" I dropped my fork, "Oh, where are we going tomorrow night?" I leaned forward so I could see Allison. "You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night right?" I asked her and she seemed to choke on her food.

"Um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do." She said

"Well, I am not sitting home again watching lacrosse videos." I said as I gave a pointed look at Jackson. "So if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun."

"H-hanging out?" Scott asked her and I saw her shrug, "Like the four of us?" he asked and I saw Stiles cover his mouth and shake his head. "Do you wanna hang out? Like us and them?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm- sounds fun." Ally said

"You know what else sounds fun?" Jackson asked as he picked up a fork, "Stabbing myself in the face with this fork."

I gasped, "How about bowling. You love to bowl." I said to Jackson

"Yeah with actual competition." Jackson said as he gave me the look that said 'sorry but no'.

"How do you know we're not actual competition?" I heard Allison challenge Jackson. Oh dear. "You can bowl right?" she asked Scott as I raised my eyebrow at Jackson.

"Sort of." Scott said and Jackson leant forward.

"I-is it sort of, or yes." Jackson challenged.

"Yes, in fact I'm a great bowler." Scott said

"Then bowling it is." Jackson was practically oozing venom when the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Danny walked with me as we went to toss our trays.

"Well that-" I started

"Was intense?" Danny offered.

"Hell yeah, you could feel the testosterone oozing off of them. It was weird." I laughed

"I'll bet you're exited for bowling now." He teased. My only response was my hand to the back of his head.

After school I had gone home and had a hot shower before pulling on my bra and underwear and put on a white tank top, then a light blue button up shirt with a dark blue vest that stopped about an inch above my covered belly button, dark blue jeans, and brown leather jacket, and boots. After I got my clothes on I walked over to my vanity and sat down.

I put on my concealer and foundation, blush, mascara, and topped it off with a nude lip-gloss. Once I finished off my makeup I started curling my hair then pinned a bump up and smiled at my reflection when my phone rang. "Hello?" I asked

"Hey are you on your way, I need help picking out an outfit?" Allison asked me

"Yeah I'm leaving just now, I just got I'll be over in a few minutes." I said as I skipped down the stairs and grabbed my keys.

"K I'll see you in a minute, bye Lyd." She said to me.

"Bye Ally-cat." I said as I hung up and got in my car. I drove over to her house in record time. I parked the car out front and skipped up to the front door. A moment after I rang the doorbell the door opened to reveal Mr. Argent's smiling face. "Hey Mr. Argent." I said with a smile.

"Hi Lydia, come on in. Allison's in her room." He said as he let me in.

"Thanks Mr. A." I called as I ran up the steps. I walked into Allison's room. "Mmkay, go start picking." I said as I made myself comfortable on her bed. She opened up her closet and started looking though it to pull out a weird brown/light brown mixed shirt. "Mm, pass." I said as she held it up with a smile. She held up a tie-dye shirt thing "Pass." Sighing I got up, "Let me see." I said as I walked over to her closet. "Pass, pass," I got slightly frustrated, "Pass on all of it. God Allison the style of your taste is so dwindling by the second." I said as I played with her hair slightly before laughing slightly and turning back to the closet. I pulled out a black nicely sequined shirt. I went over and held it under a light to see it reflect. "This." I said as I handed it to her when Mr. Argent walked in.

"Dad hello." Allison said as I smiled at her dad and he smiled at her before seeming to remember something as he was putting on his jacket.

"Right, I'm sorry I-I completely forgot to knock." He said and I fell back on the bed and twirled my hair while my other hand rested on my hip.

"Hi Mr. Argent." I said

"Dad do you need something?" Allison asked

"I wanted to tell you that you'll be staying in tonight." He said

"What I'm going out with my friends tonight?" she asked as my hand dropped from my hair.

"Not when some animal is out there attacking people." He said

"Dad, dad I've-" she started

"Hey, hey, hey ey, ey, ey hey it's out of my hands, there's a curfew and no one's out past 9:30pm." He said and I sat up as she angrily tossed her shirt on the bed, "Hey, no more arguing." He said with a strange smile as he turned and walked out the door and Allison huffed.

I stood up and smirked, "Someone's daddy's little girl." I said

"Sometimes," she said "But not tonight." She said as she grabbed her purple beanie and put it on before going to the window. She moved her curtain back and opened up the window and I walked over to where she was getting out of the window and walking on the roof outside her window.

"What are you doing?" I asked her when she suddenly flipped off the top of the roof, landing near perfectly on her feet.

"Eight years, gymnastics. Are you coming?" she whispered.

"I'll take the stairs." I said with a nod. I turned and walked out of the room and jogged down the stairs after I made sure I shut her door.

"Bye Lydia." Mr. Argent said with a smile.

"Bye Mr. Argent." I said cheerily before walking out the front door. I all but ran to my car to see Allison crouched down in my backseat. I laughed before getting in the driver's seat. "So inconspicuous." I teased.

"Shut up and drive!" she whispered yelled.

"Yes Rihanna." I mocked but hit the gas and sped off towards the bowling alley when Allison started to climb over the seats, "What the hell?" I asked

"Yes because I won't seem strange coming out of the floor board of your backseat when we get there." She said

"All right, all right fine just hurry up, we don't need to get pulled over." I said right as she finally got into the passenger's seat. We rode in silence except for the radio. When we pulled up I parked the car next to Jackson's Porsche. I got out and locked the car as Allison met me in front of my car and we walked inside the bowling alley in sync. "You ready?" I asked

"So ready." She said with a smirk.

"Then bring. It. On." I said as we walked in to see Jackson and Scott waiting awkwardly "Let's bowl!" I cheered as Jackson handed me my shoes.

We got to our lane and I sat next to Jackson at the screen as he stretched his arms and I set up the game. "We've so got this." I said as I rubbed the back of his neck while Allison and Scott were picking out their balls. Once the game started I was up and I strutted up holding the hot pink ball when Jackson ran up behind me and grabbed my hips and pressed his face in my hair then kissed my cheek and I laughed.

"Ok let's go." He whispered and we did it together and the first time it guttered then the second time only knocked down like three pins.

I heard him sigh disappointed but I'm glad he wasn't angry, "I'm so bad at this." I said frustrated. Allison went next and bowled a strike. While I was slightly jealous that I wasn't as good I couldn't help but smile and laugh then say, "Somebody brought their A game." I said as she got back to her seat.

"Good job." Scott said as he and Allison high-fived and Jackson got up to go. Jackson went next and bowled a strike as well.

I cheered and said, "Yes." To myself

He let out a content if not smug sigh as he came back and sat down next to me and put his arm around my chair, "You're up McCall." He said. We turned and looked at him at the same time when Allison spoke.

"You can do it Scott." She said as she elbowed him playfully. He sighed slightly and got up and I ran my tongue over my teeth and looked at Jackson before shaking my head at the thought of Scott being able to do it. He let the ball go and it guttered and Jackson laughed at the failed attempt but it made me feel good knowing that someone else sucked as bad as me. "Jackson," she started and I smiled even though he was being a little excessive. "Mind shutting up?" she asked

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just flashing back to the words 'I'm a great bowler'." He mocked

"Well maybe he just needs a little warm up?" she suggested.

"Yeah, or maybe he just needs the kiddie bumpers." Jackson suggested and I laughed a little.

"Just, just aim for the middle." She tried to help Scott.

"How bout you could aim for anything but gutter?" Jackson suggested.

"Let him concentrate." She said and she smiled at him hopefully and I twirled my hair as he prepared to bowl. He let it go and the ball went down the middle about halfway then guttered. Jackson laughed again.

"Jackson." I scolded but I couldn't help the little smile that crept to my lips.

"Great job McCall, man you're a pro." He mocked Scott.

I laughed when Allison said to him, "Don't worry we've only just started."

We've gone several times now and Scott still sucked at it and it was his turn again when Allison suddenly jumped up and ran over to him and Jackson was very bored with Scott. I leaned my head back and then Allison ran back and sat down with a giddy smile on her face. Scott bowled the ball and landed a perfect strike. Allison laughed happily and Jackson had a look of disbelief, "What did you say to him?" I asked her.

"Uh I-I-I just gave him something to think about." She said mysteriously and I looked back at Jackson shocked. Then Scott was bowling strike after strike and Allison just kept laughing. "That is seriously amazing." she said and I couldn't help the awed smile that broke across my face. "Jackson, uh how many strikes is that?" she asked cockily.

"It's six." He said "In a row."

I smirked and stood up, propping against the seat. "Something just clicked I guess." Scott said

"Maybe it's natural talent." Allison said

"I could use a little natural talent." I said "You mind helping me out this time Scott?"

"Uh, no your good." He said "Go for it."

I was slightly aggravated, "Thanks for the vote of confidence." I nearly sneered.

I strutted to the lane and I could hear Jackson jump up and say, "I'll help."

"How about I just try this one on my own." I said and he paused and I raised my eyebrows silently asking 'what?' and he motioned for me to go. I got situated and let the ball go and it gave a perfect strike. I spun back to the others and cheered quietly, "Yes!" mainly because I was tired of fake sucking for Jackson. He had a look of disbelief. "I think I'm getting the hang of it." I said

Allison looked at me wide eyed, "That was sort of perfect form." She said.

Shit Allison I didn't need you saying anything, of course it was perfect form so I did what I usually do, play dumb.

"Was it?" I asked.

"Maybe you should stop pretending to suck just for his benefit." She said when she and I leant towards each other.

"Oh trust me I do plenty of sucking just for his benefit." I said to get her to back off and I leant back up in my seat.

After our last game had ended Jackson got up to play the pinball machine while me and Allison changed our shoes back and put the balls up since he and Scott both had already turned the shoes they had back in. "Good job." Allison said to me.

"Thanks, so come on tell me what you said that got Scott all Mr. Striker back there." I prodded.

"No." she said but a small smile formed on her face.

"Yes you will tell me because that smile on your face tells me it's juicy." I squealed

"Lydia no." she said but she was laughing now.

"Please Ally I'll keep it a secret, pinky promise." I said as I held out my pinky expectantly. I could see the wheels turning inside her head before she took a deep sigh and removed her hand from where she had been tying her laces.

She twisted her pinky through mine and said, "You never breathe a word of what I'm about to tell you or I'll never speak to you again."

"It's kind of hard to take a threat seriously when you're in the middle of a pinky promise." I said teasingly but when she gave me a pointed look I relented and said, "Fine I swear I won't say a word." And she released my pinky before getting up and sitting next to me.

She leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I told him to think about me." She whispered

"That's it?" I asked as I pulled away to look at her and she blushed before leaning back over.

She cupped her hands around my ears, "Naked."

I squealed, "Ooh you little vixen, I'm rubbing off on you." I said as I clapped my hands together excitedly. "But I'm surprised that he didn't have to run off to the little boy's room to 'fix' a possible problem." I laughed.

"Lydia!" she scolded as she hit me on the arm lightly.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry but that was perfect." I said then the boys walked back over.

"What was perfect?" Jackson asked as he pulled me up and into a kiss.

I saw Allison turn beet red, "Nothing, nothing just some joke I made about a couple making out over there." I lied smoothly as I waved off in some random direction.

"Ok alright." Jackson accepted as Allison stood up, "You guys ready to go?" he asked

"Yeah, me and Ally just have to turn our shoes back in and put the bowling balls up." I said

"I'll put the balls up." Scott said as he picked up the balls from where they were still,

"Hey Allison do you need me to give you a ride home?" I asked her.

"No I was gonna ride with Scott." She said "If that's ok?" she turned to him now.

"Yeah that's fine, that's great." He said shocked.

"Well let's go." I said as me and Allison walked over and sat our shoes on the counter before walking out with the boys right behind us. "Bye Ally talk to ya later." I said before pulling her into a tight hug, "You better kiss him goodnight." I whispered and once again she turned red.

"Bye Lyd." She said as she gave me a look, "Bye Jackson." She said as she grabbed Scott's hand and he started off to where he'd parked and waved goodbye and I flashed a smile at him. Suddenly Jackson spun me around and had me sitting on the hood on my car and kissing me roughly if not a bit possessive.

"Goodnight Lydia." He said with a tone of something hidden just beneath the surface.

"Night Jackson." I said breathlessly as he went and got into his car and drove off. Leaving me in a breathless silence.


I was walking along in the woods, bright daylight streaming through the trees in strong rays. I had on a pink gown that flared out once it got to my waist, it had a matching pink lace over it, and there was a black belt done snuggly on my waist right before the dress flared. I moved the dress back and I saw I was barefoot. How strange. I raised a hand to scratch my scalp and felt my hair was wavy and there were two little braids in my hair that met in the back, pulling my hair out of my face.

When had I done that to my hair? When did I change clothes?

I didn't figure out the answer to the question but instead kept moving through the trees and they seemed to be thinning slowly. There was the defined sound of a child laughing loudly and it rang through the trees. It brought a smile to my face just by the sound of the child's pure happiness. Then it was more children laughing and it suddenly seemed strange. Why were there children laughing in the middle of the woods?

I broke through the last bit of the trees and the sight in front of me surprised me to no end. There in the middle of the forest was a great, big, marvelous house and kids everywhere. There was at least 5 cars parked to the side of the house and I could only stare. They were all dressed casually and they ranged from ages 5 to 15. There were about a dozen kids easily. Several were playing tag and it looked like an older boy around 15 or 16 was it. A girl maybe 17 sat watching them from where she sat on the front steps.

The boy lunged suddenly and grabbed a girl maybe 9 and cheered, "Got you Cora!" she hit his shoulder half-heartedly.

"No fair, your big." She whined.

"So sorry, you're turn." He teased as he let her go before running off. The Cora girl took off after another girl standing a little bit away. You could hear giggling and laughing from every angle surrounding the house. Once most of the children had cleared away from the front of the house I took a good look at the house itself.

The house was three stories unless the highest lights were from the attic. The house itself was made out of wood except for the steps and the bottom part of the house it seemed, and that was made from stone. The front porch was marvelous and ran all along the front of the house stopping about a yard away from the edge of the house on both sides. It had four plain wood pillars running along it and there seemed to be nothing else on the porch, no furniture.

The door caught my eye, due to its bright red color. Surrounding the door the wall seemed to jut forward about a foot making it stand away from the rest of the wall. There were big windows on the wall. One window was on each side of the door and a slimmer window in the same place on the second story and an even smaller set of windows above them in and a window in the middle in the attic.

Something seemed familiar about this place and I almost stood there and kept staring at the tiny details of the house but something drew me closer. The unrestricted daylight caught my somehow unsuspecting eyes but surprise and I wondered, when did it become daytime? The girl didn't seem to notice me as I approached. "Hi," I called "I'm Lydia!"

She didn't give me an indicator she even heard me so I just walked on up. I walked up the steps and she still didn't notice me. I shrugged and continued on inside the house. I was greeted by white beautiful walls and the floor was a beautiful dark mahogany. There was a staircase directly in front of me in the same mahogany, to my left there was a living room and I didn't bother to look right but instead went into the living room. There sat a young man in his early twenties maybe I don't quite know. He had brown hair and startling blue eyes watching a basketball came when the same boy from outside came in sweating from another room.

"Hey." The man with blue eyes laughed, "Someone got run down." He joked and the boy sat next to him.

"Shut up, they're not as old as me and there is soo many." The younger one complained.

"You should be fast enough." the blue eyed one scolded. I continued on in the direction that the boy had come. I walked into a huge kitchen. There was a long counter with 6 stools placed there and two women making a lot of food. I could smell burgers from outside, French fries and who knows what else but it smelt soo good I felt my stomach rumble. The women were similar from what I could see. They were both brunette and tan but one was shorter and the tall woman had this stance about her that almost screamed 'leader'.

I saw a door at the far end of the kitchen and I walked towards it, I hesitated before going down the staircase into what was obviously the basement. Once I was done there I found nothing out of the ordinary and I turned to go back up when suddenly it got very hard to breathe. I spun around to run back upstairs but when I did the stairs were on fire and screams surrounded me. I turned and everywhere around me people were screaming and everything was on fire. "Help!" a little girl screamed and I saw her at the top of the burning steps banging on the obviously locked door.

I was going to turn back around once more when an unfamiliar hand pulled me close, pressing my back against their chest, "We couldn't do anything, we were all going to die." The male voice whispered sinisterly. "They broke the code."

"What code?" I asked fearfully but got no response.

Someone else was shouting something now, something in a rushed voice. Did they find a way out? I looked around and counted well over a dozen people. Someone tell me they found a way out. I felt the air become very hard to breathe and I got lightheaded and a new wave of panic set in me and I tried to move but I'd become paralyzed. I felt myself go numb and then I collapsed to the floor.

I shot up from my bed with a deep gasp and fell to the floor. It had been a dream the whole time it was a dream? What the hell kind of dream what that? I stood up to get back in the bed when I saw my hands, they were covered in soot. It was a dream, wasn't it?


AN: Soo here's the new chapter. I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry for taking forever to update. I've been busy acting in a play and it's had me away from home and at school till like 9pm three nights a week and I've been to exhausted to write. So here ya go. Review please. It makes me write more :)

Hugs and Kisses - Madame Magic