We play pretend, keeping all our feelings in
Somehow I knew it's always been you (always been you)
How did I find you out? I wasn't even looking
How did I find this love? When it was least expected
But I won't let it go, I won't let it go
I need you by my side
I want you to know, I want you to know
We're onto something right
I hurried down the stairs, throwing things into my bag and trying not to trip over my own two feet. I grabbed the protein shake and the banana being held out to me as well as the car keys and waved to my dad who was laughing at me from the front door. I turned the car on and reversed out of the driveway and headed towards school. Allison and Gerard had both already left the house, warning me about the time when they did and offering to take me, but I hadn't been ready. I took great pride in my appearance for a reason. I parked my car and locked it and then practically ran into the school. I smiled triumphantly when I walked into my first class of the day just before the bell rang. I sat down in the seat next to Scott's without really looking around at anyone else. I shook the protein shake in my hand and opened the top, gulping down 2/3 of it without even really tasting it.
I looked over at the tan werewolf sitting next to me and smirked, offering him the banana on my desk. Scott glanced over at me briefly and shook his head before returning his gaze to the boy sitting in front of me. He continued staring even after Stiles came rushing in and began whispering to him. They both stopped talking however and Stiles joined Scott in staring at the boy in front of me. I frowned in confusion and then stiffened when he turned around to smirk at me.
Isaac was back at school. Oh. God. Save. Me.
I blinked in surprise at the brilliant blue eyes that were penetrating my own and smiled nervously. Isaac smiled in response and then turned back to face the front of the room. For the entire period, I stared at the back of his head, wondering just how exactly he was back. I rushed out of the classroom quickly when the bell rang because the last thing I wanted to do was to be roped into a conversation with Stiles and Scott or even with Isaac.
I walked over to my locker and smiled brightly at Danny who was talking quietly with Jackson about something I wasn't interested in. I opened the locker and replaced the books I'd had the night before with the ones I would need for my next two classes. Jackson winced and I frowned at him and looked up to see Erica and Isaac walking past us. Isaac brushed against me gently as he passed and I chewed on my bottom lip, trying really hard not to show any kind of reaction to his presence.
I shook my head and went back to getting the books I needed from my locker. The bell rang and Jackson covered his ears. I frowned at him in confusion. He didn't react at all to my presence and I only had a few moments before I was going to be late to class, so I didn't say anything to him. Instead I hurried to my next class.
Lydia joined me on the way to Economics and looped her arm with mine. I smirked at the strawberry blonde and we chatted about random things that didn't have much meaning as we entered the classroom. Lydia took her seat in the back and I sat down across the aisle from her, behind the seat Jackson usually sat him. He hurried into the room a few moments later and began whispering to Stiles and Scott.
"Alright, before we get started on our review some of you, like McCall here, should probably start thinking about starting your own study groups because the midterm for tomorrow is so profoundly difficult, I'm not even sure I could pass it." I rolled my eyes as Coach Finstock spoke from the front of the room. "Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question." Coach pointed to the board as people began raising their hands to volunteer.
I watched and began working the question on the board in my notebook, only faintly hearing Jackson's discussion with Stiles and Scott in front of me. Coach came up and interrupted, though, before I could ask what they were talking about.
"Jackson, do you have something you want to share with the class?" Coach asked.
"Um, just an undying admiration for my coach." Jackson replied.
I rolled my eyes and looked back up at the board, frowning when I noticed that the guy Coach had chosen to do the question had messed up on one of the processes. I glanced over to see that Lydia had noticed as well and was frowning at the back of the guy's head. I turned back to my notebook and glanced up again to see my friend staring with a horrified expression at the board.
"Lydia?" I whispered, trying to get her attention, but she only continued to stare at the board.
She walked up to the front of the room and began writing on the board. I shrugged and went back to working in my notebook, thinking that maybe she was just ignoring me or being her dramatic self again.
"Em," I raised an eyebrow at Jackson as he whispered to me. He only nodded towards the front of the room where Lydia was crying and holding onto the chalk in her hand. I frowned at her and then looked at the board behind her.
"Okay then, anybody else wanna try answering?" Coach asked. "This time in English." Everyone in the class laughed at Lydia's expense and then raised their hands to volunteer.
"What is that, Greek?" Scott asked, staring at the words on the board. I rolled my eyes at him as Stiles showed him a picture of the writing on the board, but rotated.
When the bell rang I quickly gathered my things and joined Lydia outside of the classroom. We walked to Chemistry together and I did my best to keep her spirits up as people from our Economics class whispered about what had just happened.
"Lydia Martin is such a freak." A girl said, not so quietly from her locker while staring at the girl next to me. Her friend laughed and nodded in agreement.
"Hey." I walked over to them; Lydia stopped and waited behind me with a confused look on her face. The two girls stood straight and stared back at me. "Stacey, right?" I asked. The girl who had called Lydia a freak nodded. "Those jeans were out of style thirty years ago." I told her with a cheery smile. She glared back at me and looked down at her pants self-consciously. "Ciao." I turned on my heel and rejoined my friend. "The only person who gets to talk smack about Lydia Martin, is me." I told her as I looped my arm through hers and dragged her towards Chemistry.
I sat down at a lab table next to Lydia's. Danny joined me soon and we sat talking quietly for a few moments before my attention was drawn towards Scott and Stiles staring behind us. I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Erica and Isaac staring back at them. I looked over to see Lydia staring down at her phone clueless to what was going on. Stiles and Scott both hurried to Lydia and sat on either side of her while Isaac and Erica sat behind them. Allison came into the room a few seconds later and frowned in confusion at Scott, but sat down at the table on the other side of them.
"Einstein once said, 'two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' I myself have encountered infinite stupidity." Mr. Harris pat Stiles on his shoulder. I rolled my eyes.
"So, to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one." Harris put his hands on his hips as he gazed over the classroom. "Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one."
I smirked and laughed at my friend's expense. "Erica, take the first station with," people began raising their hands, mostly boys, but I noticed a few girls raising their hands as well. "I didn't ask for volunteers, put your hormonal little hands down." Mr. Harris said, when he was satisfied he nodded towards Scott. "Start with Mr. McCall, alright next two."
I started with Stiles, who was staring at Isaac and Erica the entire time and trying to figure out what they were up to. I measured out the ingredients needed for the experiment and was happy to ignore all of the werewolf drama for as long as possible. The bell rang a few moments later and Mr. Harris instructed us to switch partners. Stiles stood and was replaced a few moments later by Erica. I rolled my eyes at the blonde as she smirked at me.
"You're Isaac's little play thing, right?" she asked as I continued working on the experiment. I ignored her and focused on the assignment. "I tried telling him that being with an Argent is bad news, but he won't listen to me." she said as she leaned against the lab table.
"Are you going to provide anything intelligent to the conversation or just continue to annoy me?" I asked her as I eyed the beaker I held in front of me. Erica only rolled her eyes and turned to listen in on the conversations happening around her.
The bell rang and she was replaced by another one of the students in the classroom. I sighed in relief when I realized it wasn't someone involved with all of the werewolf drama happening around me. I went through the motions, completely ignoring my partner who only briefly attempted to help in the experiment. The bell rang again a few moments later.
"And time, if you've catalyzed the reaction correctly, you should now be looking at a crystal." I glanced down at my beaker and smiled happily when I saw a crystal at the bottom. "Now, for a part of that last experiment that I'm sure you'll all enjoy," Harris began. "You can eat it."
I reached into the beaker with the metal tongs and held up the crystal. My partner stared at it curiously, but my gaze was caught on Isaac and Lydia sitting closely together at the lab table next to mine. I frowned at them and then turned to look back at Allison, Scott, and Stiles. Just as Lydia was about to put the crystal into her mouth Scott jumped out of his seat, shouting her name. We all stared at him with curious expressions on his face as he shook his head and sat back down.
Lydia only shrugged and took a bite out of the crystal. I frowned and turned back to my own, grabbing it from the tongs. I crunched down on my own crystal and wondered how my life had gotten so messed up in such a short amount of time.
One of my only friends in Beacon Hills might be a creature that goes out every night and kills people. My might be boyfriend hasn't been speaking to me normally for days. My cousin's ex-boyfriend is a werewolf. My grandfather is starting a war against all of the werewolves in the area, including the boy I'd been attracted to since I came to Beacon Hills. Yeah, things were pretty messed up.
After class Allison gripped my arm and dragged me behind her. Stiles and Scott followed the two of us, looking around and making sure that no one noticed the four of us disappearing downstairs and into the coach's office.
"If Derek's outside waiting for Lydia then," Scott began speaking as we entered the office.
"Waiting to kill her?" Allison asked. I frowned and leaned against the desk.
"If he thinks she's the kanima, then yes, especially after what happened at the pool." Scott replied.
"It's not Lydia." I shook my head. "I mean we all know she can be pretty mean, but she's not a blood thirsty murderer." I told them.
"It's not her." Stiles said.
"Stiles, Emma, she didn't pass the test. Nothing happened." Scott replied.
"Well that test is for snakes, right?" I asked. "And from how you explained it, it seems more like a lizard. Plus, Lydia seems to be immune to everything, so?" I crossed my arms.
"Well, it doesn't matter because Derek thinks it's her." Allison replied, gazing at me and Stiles. "So either we convince him he's wrong or we've gotta figure out a way to protect her."
I nodded and began trying to think of an idea to convince Derek he was wrong. We could bring up the fact that even after being bitten by Peter she didn't become a werewolf. The bite didn't affect her, so maybe in the same way the venom from the kanima didn't affect her.
"I don't think he's gonna do anything here, not at school." Scott said.
"What about after school?" Allison asked.
"What if we could prove Derek's wrong?" I asked.
"By 3:00?" Stiles asked.
"Maybe there could be something in the bestiary." Allison spoke up.
"Oh, you mean the 900 page book written in archaic Latin that none of us can read? Good luck with that!" Stiles replied.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
"Actually, I think I know somebody who can translate it." Allison replied.
"Uh, I can talk to Derek, maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it's not her." Scott told us. "But if anything happens, you guys let me handle it, okay?" Scott told us, glancing over at Stiles and then me and then finishing on Allison.
"What does that mean?" Allison asked him.
"It means you can't heal like I do." Scott replied. "I just don't want you getting hurt."
I turned away from the conversation at that. As much as I loved my cousin and as much as I was beginning to really like Scott, I didn't want to hear their mushy couple talk. I stared down at my crossed ankles and at the pair of boots I'd decided to wear today. I crossed my arms over my chest and began to chew on my fingernail.
I glanced up, however when I heard Scott gasp in shock. I frowned in confusion when I saw him holding a miniature arrow in front of his face. I turned and saw Stiles holding one of the crossbows Allison and I carried in our purses for emergencies only. I raised an eyebrow at him as he apologized and handed the bow back to Allison.
I exited the office soon after our little meeting and headed towards the library. I walked down the hallway, minding my own business when a hand reached out and pulled me into an empty classroom. I gasped at first and then frowned up at the boy who was leaning over me.
"I don't want to talk to you." I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're trying to kill my only female friend in this town." Isaac sighed and stepped away from me.
"She's the kanima, Emma, she killed my father." He told me, running a hand through his curly hair. I stepped forward, forcing him to back into a lab table.
"Then shouldn't you be thanking her?" I raised an eyebrow. "Isaac, I saw you that night, you were terrified."
He shook his head. "That doesn't change the fact that she killed him." He told me. "Look, I didn't bring you in here to talk about that. What's going on with you and Jackson?" he asked.
"Why does that matter?" I asked him, taking a step back.
"Because I need to know if you have a boyfriend before I do what I'm about to do." He told me.
"No, I don't have a boyfriend and what are you about to do?" I asked him, frowning in confusion. "I really have to get to class, Isaac and if my grandfather finds out I'm in here with you, you'll be dead before sixth peri-" I was cut off when his lips crashed against mine.
My eyes widened in surprise at first, but after a split second I responded, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting my eyes flutter closed. Kissing Isaac was a lot different than kissing Jackson.
When I kissed Jackson it was clearly all about the physical aspect of kissing. It was about pulling at each other's hair, biting each on the lip, fighting for dominance. Kissing Jackson was clearly non-emotional no matter how hard I tried to tell myself it wasn't.
Isaac, however, was a completely different story. I could almost feel everything he wanted to tell me just from the soft way his lips moved with mine. We weren't fighting for anything; we were just simply enjoying each other. This was how kissing was supposed to be. When he pulled away he placed his forehead against mine briefly and then he was gone. I let out a breath and stepped back until I was leaning against the wall, I slid down and brought my knees up to my chest.
Kissing Isaac was probably my new favorite thing in the world.