Author's note:

Hello guys, it's been a while, sorry. I know I was supposed to post last week, but, you know, I have a life and a life at college D; I had a massive test last week and I'm gonna have another one this week (I swear to God these greek letters are messing with my head) and next week I'll have another one (latin. can this be any worse? Answer: no).

Also, now that the season ended, I wasn't sure how to start this new chapter. I had so many ideas and wasn't sure what to do first, so... I don't know, I wanted to start showing a little dark side of Malia - since she's a trickster AND a Hale - and start to develop the "powerful trio of girls" that Jeff said will be important in season four.

This chapter was supposed to be longer, but I thought better and cut it. It may or may not mean that perhaps there'll be another chapter soon. I make no promises. Remember about my latin test.

(but maybe, just maybe, I'll post after the lollapalooza concerts. WHO KNOWS? wait and see)

The actions going on in this chapter I'm gonna explain better in the next chapter. That I can promise.

I don't know, man, my english really sucks. Good luck.

Thank you all for the amazing reviews. Sometimes I can't believe how nice you all are to me - even when you're pointing things I need to get better. I need a beta reader, for real. Volunteers?

PS: I'm running out of lines from Coldplay's Magic lyrics, I think I'll need to find a new song?

Chapter four: Call it true

"Ain't nobody fucking with my clique.
Ain't nobody fresher than my motherfucking clique."
Kanye West

"We have a new student." Mr. Yukimura said at the beginning of the class, making Malia look up. Oh no. "Malia, can you come here and present yourself?"

She cursed under her breath and looked around, all eyes on her, then stood up. Kira had said her father was good at make people get embarrassed, she should be waiting for it. She could hear some whisperers about how she was too old to be a sophomore, how late she was enrolling, since it was the end of March already and how she arrived with her hand on Stiles', as if all of that was other people's business.

"Man, I hate school." She complained, heading to the front of the class. Mr. Yukimura smiled at her, encouraging her. She cleared her throat. "Okay. Hi. I'm Malia Tate and I'm new." She said nervously.

"Weren't you supposed to be a Junior?" a girl asked, raising her hand. Malia had memorized the girl's face already; she was portrayed as the bully, according to Stiles. Her name was Hanna and she had her blonde hair on a ponytail.

"I was." Malia answered. "I would. If I hadn't spent the last eight years wandering around after the car accident. Yes, it's me, the girl Sheriff Stilinski found in the woods."

"If you never went to school in eight years," Hanna's friend, Lucia, started to ask. Malia wondered when that presentation became a Q&A, she was only supposed to say a few words. "shouldn't you be in seventh grade or something?"

"Well…" she would get to that point even without the interruptions. "Maybe. But I learn fast and since I came back, father signed me a tutor - Ms. Morrell, who teaches French here. She gave me a lot of homework and reading exercises and math problems and it was quite fun. Sometimes. Well, most of time it was just boring. So she told my father I had some "anger issues", for a few other reasons than my learning schedule, and suggested he'd sign me into Eichen House, where I was for about four days. It was where I met Stiles." She added with a small smile. "And then he helped me catch up with school too."

"Is it true that he died?" Hanna asked. Her tone was so annoying, Malia wanted to punch her in the face.

"Yes."

"How is it – to be dead?"

Malia looked at her for a long moment, considering her options. Hanna was trying to make her lose her temper; she was blatantly provoking her just to test her boundaries, but the werecoyote wouldn't bite it.

"Ask him, if you are so interested." Was her answer and something flashed in Hanna's eyes. She smelled anger and smiled again. Malia was the one provoking her now and the girls needed step back, no one would mess with her.

"Okay, Malia." Mr. Yukimura interrupted, sensing the tension. "You can sit now. I hope Marin filled you with the whole Great War matter, because that's our subject today.

And when she sat down on her chair, she gave a last look at Hanna. The girl's anger was tangible, tasting acid in Malia's tongue. She raised an eyebrow and focused on the class.

-X-

At lunch break, she finally signed her locker (there was something wrong with the archives, since so many students had died in the last year and a half) and went to Stiles' jeep take her things to fill the locker. It took good five minutes to find the right corridor and the number on the piece of paper in her hands, but Malia managed to do it with no help.

"You got Erica's locker." Stiles said behind her, making her turn around startled and drop all the things she was holding. He helped her pick it up. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She replied, smiling. He held her books and she turned to open the padlock. "What did you say?"

"You got Erica's locker." He said again.

"And who's Erica?"

"Was." Stiles corrected. "Erica was a werewolf from Derek's pack. We used to be friends when we were little. The Alpha Pack killed her last year."

"Damn." She said sadly looking at him, then opened the locker. There were several photos of a blonde girl with Isaac and a black guy. Stiles gasped surprised. "Damn." Malia said again. "She was pretty! Hey, isn't that you and Scott?" she asked, ungluing one photo in particular and Stiles reached to take it.

"Oh, my God. I remember this day." He said under his breath, shifting the books to his left arm.

The photo was old, they were about eight. Erica was between Stiles and Scott at the zoo. She had her hair in two braids and all three of them were smiling, the giraffes forming the background. Suddenly, Stiles felt a deep guilty related to that girl. If he hadn't shut her out after his mother death, maybe she wouldn't accept Derek's offer and to not get the bite would mean as well not to die.

"You got Erica's locker!" he heard Scott say excited and Malia nodded. Stiles raised his eyes from the picture.

"Do you remember this day?" he asked, and Scott took the photo from his hand.

"Yes! Holy crap, we were so little! Where did you find it?"

"It was here." Malia pointed the locker's door. She had removed the other photos too.

"Man, I don't even have this photo." He said, a hint of joy in his tone.

"Me neither." Stiles commented. "Her mother was the one who took it."

"Are you gonna keep it?" Scott asked, handing him the photo and Stiles took it again.

"Yes. And give me those too." He asked Malia, who gave him the other photos.

"You guys were good friends with her?"

Scott looked at Stiles and chose his words wisely.

"It's a long story."

"I'll tell you when my arm is not heavy with books and my stomach is not begging for food." Stiles assured and she remembered why she was there in the first place, taking the books from his arms and putting them into the locker.

"Sorry!" she said and he dismissed it.

"Don't worry, I'm very strong." His tone was so serious she had to look at him, a goofy smile on her lips, and agree.

"I know."

Stiles held Malia by her waist, pulling her closer and making her laugh.

"Yeah?" he said and she nodded.

"Yeah."

They kissed, but it didn't last long, because Scott cleared his throat interrupting.

"Can you guys stop with the sexual tension and go already?" he pointed to the end of the hall, where Lydia and Kira were waiting for them.

Malia closed her locker and they finally headed to the cafeteria.

-X-

The truth was that they did manage to turn their relationship into more than sex. The time Stiles spent at home recovering from the whole "coming back from the dead" thing he did help her with history and sociology and biology, preparing her flashcards to make sure she wouldn't have trouble studying.

And between those moments, they got to know each other: how Malia loved to bake, how Stiles liked his milk cold with no sugar; how she was good at math, how he didn't liked to admit that biology was interesting, but just couldn't handle open a frog at class; how she loved The Hunger Games trilogy and couldn't get through the first chapters of Battle Royale that he forced her to read; how he smelled so nice, especially when they were just together watching a movie or reading a book and how she loved the way his fingers went through her hair at those times.

She loved that he had this memorial wall on his bedroom, with pictures of the friends he lost, and slowly they realized they were way too similar. The wall was for Stiles what the coyote den was for Malia: somehow a mix of comfort and guilt. They were broken and pretty much needed each other.

Was Stiles whom she ran for when she found the papers of her adoption at her father's house, the papers that made it more close to the true the possibility of Peter Hale be her biological father. Stiles gave her the strength to sit down with Mr. Tate and ask everything about her adoption and was by his side that she learned that Talia Hale was good friends with her mother when Malia was born, and in order to keep the baby safe, they agreed that the memory should be wiped from Peter's mind and not only that. The woman who raised Malia was her guardian under Talia's orders.

All the mystery behind her real parents, however, only made her more curious. Once in a while, she asked someone from the pack information about Peter and the answer was always something about his power hunger and craziness.

But the only time she actually saw his point of view was when he showed up near her house and they had a little chat.

"Is good you have Scott teaching you how to turn. He was quite a mess after I bit him, but he's an alpha now." He told her that day.

"The best alpha, I heard."

Peter shrugged.

"I was the one who bit him." He said angrily, making her frown.

"So what? He became his own alpha and that's a good thing." Malia replied and Peter looked at her, thinking carefully what to say next.

"I still have no memory of you or your mother." He said out of nowhere, changing the subject. "And I'm not sure why my sister thought you'd be safer away from me, but I can make up to it, Malia, to all the years we've been apart. I know Scott is a great kid, but I can teach you so much more, kiddo." He reached to touch her face, but she backed away.

"Too soon." She warned and he lowered his hand.

"It's okay, take your time. You know where to find me."

She answered with a small nod and Peter left.

"He told me Derek is fine, you know?" Malia told Stiles later that day, after he ranted about how dangerous it was for her to meet Peter alone and how she should never do that again, but this piece of information made him stop. "He said he and Ethan took Derek and Aiden's bodies from the warehouse and Derek is fine now, but…"

"But what?" Stiles asked curiously, sitting in front of her. She bit her lower lip, nervous.

"Aidan didn't make it."

Stiles sighed and lowered his head, closing his eyes. He would never have a full win, would he?

"They were both badly injured and Marin tried her best," Malia continued. "But Aidan was worse, he was barely alive when they found him, Peter told me."

"And where are they now?" he asked, looking up at her.

"South America with Cora. They don't know if they're gonna come back this time."

And Stiles just nodded, knowing he could do nothing about it.

"Just… don't talk to Peter alone ever again, okay?" he asked, way more calm than before.

"Okay." Malia assured and Stiles went back to bed.

-X-

"You know, there are a group of girls following you." Kira warned Malia one day at lunch.

"I know." She replied, pretending she wasn't seeing Hanna and her group of friends starring her back. "I kind of pissed them of today at P.E."

"Uh, that's not very clever…" the kitsune started, but Lydia waved it off.

"Why, what happened?" the strawberry blonde asked.

Malia shrugged.

"Hanna tried to push me in handball, but she wasn't very successful." She took a bite of her apple.

"Malia, you need to be careful." Scott warned her, worried.

"Look, I don't know how this high school business work, but I know the law of the woods." She said firmly, not a small hint of nervousness in her body. "And in the woods, the strongest survive. Sometimes, to be strong is to be smart. And that a coyote knows."

Lydia smiled.

"I like her." She said, looking at Stiles. "Are we going to keep her?"

"I think I can share, yeah." He replied laughing and kissed Malia's cheek.

Stiles wasn't very sure what was happening between him, Malia and Lydia. During the last year, he felt the development of some sort of friendship with the banshee and the more contact they had, the less he felt the initial passion that took him since third grade. It was like the more they knew each other, the more the feelings changed – and a change for good.

He had no idea how Lydia felt. He didn't know that the last year was a turn for her to a new direction. She used to dislike and avoid Stiles very much, thank you. She used to refuse his help, but since Jackson left, she didn't have much choice but to join this group of outcasts, especially because of Allison. And when she really got closer to them, she realized how alike Stiles and her were. They were the brains of the group. He always knew what to do, even when it took some thinking. And to be up close and see how his mind worked… it was quite fascinating.

It wasn't the cliché story of the popular girl falling in love with the nerd guy. It wasn't. She wouldn't let it be. Lydia Martin wasn't a boy's girl. She used to, but learned to be her own self and going back to this wasn't an option.

When they stood up to leave, Hanna tried to make Malia trip, but Kira pushed her out of the way. The three girls looked at the bully with such seriousness it made the boys step back.

"Get lost, Stone." Lydia warned before the three of them left, making the boys strut behind them.

"That was quite impressive." Stiles said, getting between Lydia and Malia. "You can be like the Powerpuff Girls of Beacon Hills!"

Lydia looked at him, arms crossed.

"What?"

She shook her head and kept going.

-X-

But the thing about girls is: they don't get scared easily. And even though Malia tried to keep it cool, some things were just off limits.

Her personal space, for example. She wouldn't allow and pushing or pulling, even though she was saving her reactions; all the bickering was building a monster inside Malia's chest, the moment she let it out, people better get out of the way.

What was off limits too was Stiles. And Hanna probably realized it, since at the end of Malia's first week, at lunch time, she turned around just to see the group of girls from her class all around Stiles. For a second, she felt the snarl forming, but she breathed slowly one only time, closing her eyes, and everything was calm again. She stepped firmly into Stiles' direction.

"Malia." Scott warned and she looked at him. "Be careful."

"I am careful." She answered. "And I'm totally fine."

And Scott could feel her and know that she was indeed very cool about it. He didn't understand how she could be that calm. She was supposed to be going through a transition, learning how to change and all, and to have this level of control was impressive.

They followed her in time to watch the beginning of the conversation she had with Hanna.

"You're on my spot." Malia said calmly, her tray on one hand.

Hanna was by Stiles right side and he was trying very much to stay cool and respond to the four girls who belonged to the blonde's clique the most polite and objective way so they'd leave ASAP, but they were persistent. The bully looked lazily up to Malia.

"Am I? Don't see your name written anywhere."

Stiles rolled his eyes and Malia actually chuckled. Everyone was around the table, since the girls took all their spots.

"You're so funny, Stone, I almost peed a little." Malia replied, and then added seriously. "Now fuck off."

"Oh, what a dirty mouth!" Lucia laughed and Malia just shot her a look that made her think twice. Lydia, who was behind her, came closer.

"You better mind your business, Lucy." The banshee warned.

"Or what?" Hanna asked, standing.

Scott moved uncomfortable, but Stiles shook his head.

"It's okay, she got this." He said to his friend, not a little bit worried and internally Malia was glad for that bit of faith.

"You don't wanna know what." She answered, putting the tray where Hanna was seconds before.

The next thing happened really fast. Hanna tried to push Malia and drop her things, but the coyote sensed her movements and held the girl's wrist, twisting her arm and pressing it on the girl's back. She held strongly, to make sure Hanna would remember it and talked closer to the girl's ear.

"I don't think you understood. You better stay out of my face, you better play nice and easy, because I'm nice and easy, but I also won't take shit from anybody. And when I say anybody I mean anybody. You don't know me, and I don't know which world you live in, but by the rules I lived up you are nothing but a scary little piece of shit. Do you understand?"

Hanna was trying to free from Malia's grip, but the coyote only held tighter.

"Leave her." Stiles said, probably to Scott.

"Do you understand?" Malia asked again, and Hanna nodded nervously. "I can't hear you."

"YES! I UNDERSTAND! Fucking let me go!"

"Good."

Malia let go of Hanna's arm pushing her away and finally sitting and ignoring all the eyes on her.

"Now fuck the fuck off." She dismissed the blonde, who stopped rubbing her wrist and quickly grabbed her stuff and left, her friends following her closely. Everyone else sat down too.

"Wow." Kira sighed. "That was some Hale moves you got."

"How could you be so calm?" Scott asked genuinely curious.

"I don't know, it's just something that happens when I focus hard enough."

"Told you she had it covered." Stiles said proudly and Malia punched his arm. "WOA, why did you do that?"

"For letting those suckers sit with you!" she replied.

"You were right behind me and I was kind of trapped!"

"Well, I don't think it's ever going to happen again, don't worry." Lydia said smiling and nodded to Malia. "I like a girl who stands to herself, you go girl."

Happy with herself, the werecoyote smiled back.

"Thank you, Lydia."

A/N: That's it for now. Hope you liked and please review? And if you hated, review as well please?

I'll see you around! x