Chapter 5: Lax & Love
Songs:
Fallingforyou by The 1975
Na Na Na by My Chemical Romance
Amber and Stiles had been spending an increasing amount of time together. Still not entirely used to being able to call Amber a friend, seeing her lying in his beside him was a shock when Stiles first woke up.
Then he remembered.
He remembered how happy he was when he was around her. He remembered the joy that her smile brought. He remembered how his heart nearly skipped a beat every time she'd laugh at his bad jokes or snarky sarcasm. He remembered how close they'd really become, and he remembered that they were genuine friends.
And he'd never actually compensated the idea, but right then and there, with Amber's head nuzzled into Stiles's shoulder, he knew that he was utterly and completely in love with her.
"So I take it they arrested Derek?" Amber asked as Scott and Stiles entered the Jeep. She had been waiting in the car as the two checked out the police activity at the Hale house.
"Yeah," Stiles responded blandly. Silence struck the car, broken by Scott thinking out loud as he flipped through Stiles's werewolf research moments later.
"I just can't find anything about wolvesbane being used for burial."
"Just keep looking," Stiles snapped. "Maybe it's like a ritual or something, like maybe they bury you as a wolf. Or maybe it's like a special skill, you know? Like something you have to learn."
"I'll put it on my todo list, right underneath figuring out how the hell in playing this game tonight," Scott looked down into his lap, as if he was sick or had a migraine. Both him and Amber were completely unaware, but Stiles kept the wolvesbane they found the previous night in his backpack, which was in the car with them.
"Maybe it's different for girl werewolves—" Stiles began to ramble again.
"We get it, Stiles! Just stop it!" Amber yelled.
"Stop what?" Stiles asked innocently.
"Stop saying 'werewolves'!" Scott intervened, "Stop enjoying this so much!"
"Are you okay?"
"No! No! I'm not! I'm far from being okay!" Scott cringed.
"You're gonna have to accept it, Scott, sooner or later," Stiles began to lecture.
"Shut up! Both of you!" Amber raged.
"I can't- I can't breathe!" Scott threw his hand up, denting the top of the Jeep. Amber was stronger than Scott was, due to her experience around wolvesbane. She had a higher tolerance.
"Pull over!" Amber instructed, beginning to figure out what was going on.
"Why? What's happening?" Stiles was confused. Scott unzipped Stiles's backpack, pulling out the wolvesbane.
"You kept it?!" Scott screamed.
"What was I supposed to do with it?!"
"Stop the damn car!" Amber yelled over Scott's angry groans, his eyes glowing gold. The car came to a screeching halt, and Stiles immediately jumped out of the car and threw the backpack into the woods.
"Okay, we're good—" Stiles turned back around to find an empty passenger seat. Amber say in the back, head slumped down towards her lap. "Where the hell is Scott?!" he got back into the car, placing a hand on her shoulder, "You okay?" Her head whipped up, her eyes glowing gold for a tied moment before she snapped back to reality. "Wha- you- what was that?!"
"What was what?" Amber responded nonchalantly.
"Your eyes- they were glowing, like Scott's."
"I have no clue what you're talking about, Stiles," She half smirked, half smiled, "Come on, we've got to find Scott."
They had been driving around for hours searching for Scott. Amber wished she could've just used her heightened senses to track Scott, but she couldn't risk Stiles finding out that she was indeed a werewolf.
It was later discovered that Scott was completely fine, just paying Allison a safe, friendly visit, only to return to the boys locker room for the lacrosse game that night.
"Scott!" Lydia called his fame as she grabbed the front of his jersey and pulled him close to her, "I just want you to remember one thing for tonight."
"Uh, winning isn't everything?" Scott guessed.
Lydia responded with a crude chuckle. "Nobody likes a loser."
Amber say anxiously beside Allison, soon joined by Lydia. She noticed how Stiles's father attended every game, even though he never left the bench, envious of the parental support. Amber's parents were always working, or away on some sort of trip without her.
The game began. Beacon Hill players swooped the ball toward the visitors net, never once passing to Scott. As Jackson made a golden shot, the crowd went wild. Lydia handed a sign for the three girls to hold up, saying "We Luv U Jackson". Knowing that the sign might push Scott over the edge, Amber reluctantly held it up anyway.
Amber got up and walked down the bleachers. Various boys of Beacon Hills High School wolf whistled at her as she went by. This type of objectification was something Amber was accustomed to. When she reached the bench where the lacrosse players sit, she took a seat beside Stiles, "How's he doing?" she asked.
"Whoa," Stiles let out, not even answering the question. He couldn't help but to marvel at how beautiful she looked under the beaming lacrosse field lights.
"What?" she laughed a bit in response.
"Nothing, it's just, even at a freaking lacrosse game you look—"
"Hot? Yeah I think the boys in the bleachers would agree with you," Amber rolled her eyes. She was tired of her body being the only thing people noticed about her.
"Well I was going to say beautiful, but I guess hot works too." The words coming from Stiles' mouth made Amber blush.
"Hey look, guys, it's our dream come true- Amber Wilson a lone with the entire lacrosse team!" Greenberg joked with the other players on the bench. Amber just rolled her eyes and shook it off.
"Why do you let them do that?" Stiles asked her with a concerned tone.
"Do what?" Amber acted ignorant of how the guys at Beacon Hills treated her. It was easier that way.
"Let them treat you like that?"
"Do you want to know something, Stiles?" Amber asked instead end of immediately answering his question. "Besides you and Scott, I've slept with every single guy on the Beacon Hills lacrosse team." She looked down at her hands, whittling her thumbs. "So I guess to answer your question, I let them treat me like that because I deserve it. I'm a slut, so why is it wrong of people to treat me like one?"
"Why do you do that to yourself?" Stiles asked with sincerity in his eyes. "You're the most amazing, incredible, beautiful girl at this school, and no one should ever make you feel like anything less."
Amber stared in amazement at Stiles' heartfelt confession.
"Wilson!" Coach interrupted their moment, "What the hell are you doing on the bench?! This is for players only!"
"Come on, Coach. It's not like Stilinski's actually going to play," Amber remarked. Coach shrugged in agreement as he turned his attention back to the game.
"This can't be good," Stiles said as he watched Scott set for the face off. He was bent over, angrily staring at the ground. Once the ball was in play, Scott was on fire, leaping over other players, dashing to the other team's met with ease and flinging the ball into the net. Stiles jumped to his feet, "YES!" he shouted, pulling Amber into a hug and then continuing to celebrate like a maniac.
Whistle blew, and the other team started with the ball, but as Scott approached one of their players, they tossed the ball directly to him.
"Did the opposing team just deliberately pass us the ball?" Coach asked Stiles, confused.
"Yes, I believe so, Coach." Stiles was nervously gnawing on his lacrosse gloves.
"Interesting," Coach observed. Scott then shot again, the ball swiftly going into the net. Coach, Stiles, and Amber, along with the rest of the fans in the Beacon Hills stands, shot up, cheering loudly for Scott McCall.
"YES! YES!" Stiles cheered, jumping up and down.
The whistle sounded again, signaling that the ball was back in play. Once again, Scott carried the ball rapidly across the field. Stiles and Amber could tell that he was shifted; he could hardly contain his aggression.
"No, Scott, no," Stiles mumbled to the field.
Scott stood there in front of the net for a moment, frozen. Amber hoped the pause was calming Scott down, regaining control. He finally took a shot, the ball landing perfectly in the net.
The crowd roared, cheering ferociously for Scott.
"YES! Oh my God!", Stiles yelled, so happy that he grabbed both sides of Amber's face, pulling her in for a celebratory kiss. He didn't even realize what he did until the kiss was over, leaving Amber speechless and confused.
"I- uh- I'm sorry- I wasn't thinking. That was- uh- a mistake," Stiles apologized, nervously stammering.
Amber didn't know what to think of it. She knew that she had feelings for Derek; she thought she might actually be in love with him. But she betrayed him by helping arrest him, even though she knew that he was innocent. Amber knew that Derek would never trust her again, nor would he ever really feel as strongly toward her as she did toward him.
But she never in a million years would guess that she'd be interested in Stiles Stilinski, and yet she found that she had an odd sort of attraction to him.
"Stiles, I..." She searched for the right words, but she couldn't find them.
"I'm gonna go find Scott. I'll talk to you later, K?" Stiles nodded, and Amber went off towards the boys locker room.
She paused as she entered, spotting Scott and Allison making out. Amber hid behind a locker, waiting for the two teen lovers to depart. Stiles entered shortly after her, hiding with Amber after seeing Scott and Allison.
"Stiles, Amber," Allison acknowledged the two on her way out.
"Yeah, hey," Stiles said awkwardly, coming out from behind the lockers, Amber following closely behind.
Scott walked up to them, smiling like an idiot, "I kissed her."
"I saw," Stiles replied.
"She kissed me."
"Yeah, saw that too," Amber marked. "That's pretty good, huh?"
"I-I-I don't know how, but I controlled it. I pulled it back. Maybe I can do this. Maybe it's not that bad," Scott announced.
"Yeah. We'll talk later, then. C'mon, Ambs, let's go," Stiles attempted to leave, but Scott grabbed his shoulder, pulling Stiles back.
"What?" he asked.
"The, uh, medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found."
"And...?" Scott yearned for more.
"Well, I'll keep it simple. Medical examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek's human, not animal. Derek not killer. Derek let out of jail," Stiles explained.
"Are you kidding?" Scott asked with wide eyes.
"No, and here's a bigger kick in the ass. My dad I.D.'d the dead girl. Both halves. Her name was Laura Hale."
"Hale?" Scott's eyes widened even more.
"Derek's sister," Amber said under her breath.
Panicked silence plagued the room.
"Stiles, can I stay at your house again?" Amber asked with big doe eyes.
"Uh, y-yeah," Stiles stammered nervously, his imagination running wild after the kiss they shared earlier, which Amber did not protest.
But Amber wanted to stay over for a reason that was completely non-sexual. She was going to tell Stiles the truth— the entire truth.
A/N:
Sorry it's been so long! I've been super busy with college and studying and all that jazz but most of the chaos is over now! This chapter is long overdue! Parts of it are a bit cheesy, I know, but I really enjoyed adding the little corny bits haha. Also, I apologize for my terrible lacrosse writing. I know nothing about lacrosse, but I know a lot about hockey so I tried my best! New chapter will hopefully be up within the next week!
xoxo,
izzy :-)