Author's Note: If you absolutely hate Averek cliff hangers, turn back before it says: Later That Night

I don't own the song used in this chapter, "Medicate" by Breaking Benjamin.

Once again, nothing regarding the main plot happens in this chapter.

Other than that, enjoy ;)

Avery

My alarm clock went off around eight, but I was already awake anyway.

I hadn't been able to sleep all night, all I could do was go over last night's events in my head over and over again, and it stills feels like a lie. But then, the evidence is right there in the form of Derek's memories, so really, I should just accept it and move on.

Of course, it wasn't just the fit of amnesia that was bothering me.

"Thank you,"

"Anytime."

Thinking about his voice as he said it just makes me smile.

Nope, no, I'm getting ahead of myself, he was probably just saying that to be nice. But then, maybe he actually meant it and I'm dismissing it too quickly.

Okay all of this is irrelevant right now.

I turn into the parking lot of the high school and thankfully land in the spot I'm aiming to park in this time. I put my Hummer in park and step out of the car. I pull down my North Carolina lacrosse t shirt, which I got from a recruitment visit, over my blue running shorts and pull up my black mid calves from my usual black Nikes.

I let my bun out and spiraled hair falls over my shoulders, I quickly tie it back in a high ponytail and twirl the hair around my finger, making the spirals come together in one long spiraled ponytail.

I walk into the front office and from there into Mrs. Fischer's office. She stands up and smiles as I walk in and close the door behind me, "Good morning Avery, how are you?" she says with a warm smile.

I sit in the chair before her desk as I answer, "Pretty good, how 'bout you?"

She opens a drawer in her desk and places a folder in front of her. "Oh, about the same," she says as she opens the folder and flips through some pages. "Alright, so here," she hands me a page with some highlighted lines, "is the list of classes being offered this fall. All of the highlighted ones are the classes that are still available, I've already signed you up for AP Literature to take care of your final English credit, but you still need six more classes to fill your day. So, go ahead and take a look and let me know which ones you'd like."

I look down at the page and find that there are very few yellow highlighted streaks to be found. "Umm, I was planning on taking AP European history," I say, hoping it's still open. As I go down the list, I find it highlighted, "yeah, it's still open." I smile, maybe this won't be so bad after all.

I've always liked Mrs. Fischer, her smile is warm and inviting, and though she's probably only fifty or so, something about her feels almost grandmother-y.

Mrs. Fischer turns to her computer and begins typing AP Euro into my schedule, "Okay, just five more, try to find a math, you still need one more credit to graduate."

I look over to the math section and bite my lip, the only ones available are AP Calculus and on-level Statistics. I've never really been great at math, so I decide to take it easy on myself, "I'll go ahead and take Stat." Mrs. Fischer nods as she types statistics into my schedule.

I look over the other classes, but nothing really catches my eye, "If you want, you can be an office aide for me," she says, "you won't have to do much, just run some notes to classes for students to come down and see me, that way we only would have four more classes to worry about."

I smile and nod, "Yeah, that would be great because I'm not really finding much else here," I say as I look down at the list again.

"Yeah, all the classes filled up pretty quickly, but you're still going to need four more, abbreviated schedules don't start until second semester, I'm afraid."

I look over the list several more times, "Journalism sounds nice," Mrs. Fischer punches the keys on her computer once more, "and I guess creative writing," I've never really been that creative though, "and Lit as film," which is basically a senior slack class where all you do is watch movies. I look over the list, but find nothing except, "Anatomy…?" I ask "I heard that there's a lot of memorization in that class."

Mrs. Fischer turns to me and nods, "Yeah, it's a challenging class, but you've always been a bright student, if you take it, I'm sure you'll do just fine."

I've never been great at memorization, but there's nothing left, so I look up and smile, "Then, yeah, if you say so, the go ahead and sign me up." Mrs. Fischer smiles and turns away once more.

"Thank you so much for coming in, Avery," she says happily as she submits my schedule, "oh, and before you go," she says, turning back to me, "I just wanted to know how you're doing," I smile anxiously, "how you're really doing, dear."

I let the smile fade, "It's been kind of rough," I admit, "my mom hasn't really made it easy." Mrs. Fischer nods as if she already knows about her throwing me out. I shouldn't be surprised, seems like the whole town knows, "But, I've made some new friends," I say, thinking of Stiles, Isaac, and Derek mainly, "and they've been helping me, a lot."

She keeps a small, genuine grin on her face, "That's wonderful Avery, but I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I'm sure she'll come around eventually."

God, I hope not.

"Yeah," I say instead as I push myself out of my seat, "thanks for helping with my schedule,"

"If you ever need to talk, I'll be here, darling. Oh, and before you go, the school's new principle would like to see you in his office." I nod numbly as I step out of her office and make my way to the principal's office.

I walk to the assistant's desk just outside the office, "Hi there, I'm Avery, the principal wanted to see me?" I ask, wanting this to be over and done with as quickly as possible.

"Yes," the man says, "if you just go on in and have a seat, I'm sure he'll be in shortly."

I follow his instructions and ten minutes later, I find myself bored out of my mind and late for my meeting with Coach Hathaway. Which is a very, very bad thing.

I sigh in frustration as I look around the bland office, but my heart stops dead when I finally notice the nameplate sitting on the desk.

Principal Argent

For a brief moment, I wonder how in the hell Allison's dad got to be the principal of Beacon high, but when I heard the door close behind me and an old man walked in, my heart was beating so fast I wondered if I was going to have a heart attack.

"Yeah, however dangerous her dad is, her grandpa is worse."

"Hello there, Avery," he says. A shiver runs down my spine as the old man, dressed in a gray suit, comes to sit on the corner of the desk in front of me, folding his hands over his knee and smiling calmly down at me.

He knows, that's it, he knows.

He'll kill me and that'll be it.

Inwardly, I tell myself to shut up. "Hi," my voice comes out weakly, I clear my throat, "I'm sorry, I didn't know Beacon was getting a new Principal," when I get nervous I ramble, and the ramble in full effect right now.

Argent just lets out an amused huff and looks down at his hands, "Well, the decision was made at the end of last year," he says before looking up to me again, "and if I'm not mistaken, you were quite preoccupied at the time."

There is no way he doesn't know I'm a werewolf, he probably has some kind of spidey-sense and he's gonna kill me and-

"Well, I-" I begin before Gerard holds up a hand in front of me, signaling me to be quiet.

"I try not to judge people, Ms. Chastings, but I just want to let you know that things are going to change around here," he stands up and walks slowly behind his desk, "I'm not condemning you, or singling you out, but I am sending a message that I hope you will pass on to others: That kind of behavior will not be tolerated anymore here at Beacon, do you understand?"

I nod numbly.

"Good, I hope you have a good day, and I'll see you back here at the start of school."

I stand up and don't bother smiling as I say, "You too," he turns to some papers on his desk, and I slip out of his office, my heart beating madly. His assistant pays me no mind as I leave the main office.

The halls are empty, and I'm grateful for it. I suck in air as I walk to the athletic department, which is all the way across the school.

He didn't know, here I was thinking he was going to kill me, and he didn't even know. I cup my face in my hands briefly, taking in a long, slow breath. I really am horrible at this whole werewolf thing.

Then again, I didn't wolf out and shift in his office, so I've got that going for me, right?

I shake my hands out in front of me as I walk, and I probably look crazy but I hardly care anymore. When I finally make it to the athletic department, I walk straight into Coach Hathaway's office and stand before her desk.

"You're late," she snaps, looking up at me with her icy blue, horrifying eyes.

Mrs. Hathaway if one of the most intimidating people I've ever met. And yet, she's barely 5'3'' and is probably not over 110 pounds on her chubbiest day. She has brown hair so dark that it looks nearly black and her bulging icy blue eyes could tear anyone apart with just one look.

It's always funny to see the freshmen on the team when they talk to her; their voices shake, they avoid eye contact, and shake. Then again, anytime you talk to her, you feel the very same way all over again.

"Yeah, I'm sorry coach, the principal wanted to see me." She just looks me up and down.

"How's your leg?"

"It's alright now, I don't even feel it anymore." Coach nods and leans back in her chair.

Her eyes just pierce through me, and I can feel her disappointment without her saying a word. She skips over the morality talk, thankfully. "Marissa graduated last year, which means, I need a new captain. I want that to be you."

I smile, "Thanks coach, but, uh, Cassie's been working for this since freshmen year," her eyes are cold and unfeeling, "I couldn't just take that from her, she really has given it her all."

Coach leans forward in her seat, "There's a good class of freshmen coming in this year, Avery, I'm not even sure Cassie is going to be starting." My heart sinks slowly, "these one coming in, they've got raw talent that can't be taught, but they need someone to lead through experience, and that person is you."

I bite my lip and stare down at the floor. I can't look her in the eyes, I'll just lose my nerve as I ask "Can we be co-captains, then? She's one of the hardest workers out there and she's been improving a lot every season."

"I don't do co-captains," she says abruptly, "they need a clear leader, any division and the team falls apart. I want you as my captain. You can lead on and off the field, Avery. You just have to give yourself the chance." I look up to her face, but find not much emotion on it, as always.

She stands up from her seat and brushes by me and out her office door. "C'mon, I want to show you something." I follow her down the hall as she swings her keys around her arm. When we reach the jersey room, she deftly unlocks the door and ushers me inside.

The entire room is full up with red and white jerseys hanging from several dozen racks, each one for different teams. The fall sports, field hockey, boys and girls soccer, football, and bocce ball for the special education students, are up front with the Varsity jerseys hanging above the JV ones. Next comes the winter sports, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys hockey, and indoor track. Finally, in the back, are the spring sports, softball, baseball, wrestling, outdoor track, and, finally, girls and boys lacrosse.

The place is stacked to the brim with jerseys, and the familiar smell of sweat and grass clings to the place. I don't mind, it only barely beats the smell of my lacrosse bag. Only barely.

When we reach the back, I notice there's not only red and white jerseys for the girls, but a long row of black ones. "We just got them in last week," Coach Hathaway says, sifting through the rack and pulling out one of them

She hands it over to me, and I take it with excitement written on my face. The fabric is smooth and light, I look down to the number; 13. My number.

Suddenly, coach piles the black skirt on top of it. "I don't know about you, but I hated the skirts," I realize then that the black uniforms aren't skirts, but shorts.

I look up at her, my eyes still wide with happiness, "Will we still wear the red ones?" I ask.

She nods and looks up to the red ones hanging above us. "We'll alternate between the red and the black. I got them since we had some extra money left over from the fundraisers last year. Only for varsity." I nod, it's always good to have something to work up to.

"The boys, on the other hand," she says, moving over to a rack of camo uniforms, "decided to take an alternate route." She holds one up, and all I can think about is how excited Isaac is going to be when he finds out.

"They're even getting helmets to match. I'm told by Coach Finstock that they're going to be flat black with two camo stripes coming down the center with a green chrome facemask."

If it was anyone else standing in this room, I'd say that sounds badass.

Except coach hates cursing of any kind and made me run a mile for saying "shit" last year after a game when a girl checked me in the hand and it swelled up.

So I think I'll keep that to myself.

"That's sick," I say instead.

I hold my jersey tightly in my hands as she walks back over to the girls jerseys and plucks my red and white jerseys down, completing it with a red skirt. "One more thing," she said as she leaned down to a small box behind the JV jersey rack.

She reaches her hand into the box and pulls something from it. As she stands back up, she holds three white 'C' patches out to me. "One for each jersey, patch them on and-"

"'C' as in 'captain'…?" she doesn't bother responding, it's a stupid question anyway.

"They go on the right shoulder, just like this," she says as she places one of the patches on my jersey to show me the placement.

"Yeah, alright." I take the patches in my hand and coach motions me out of the jersey room.

I've thought about what it'd be like to be captain sometimes, but I've never liked what I come up with. I'm not great at motivating people, and when I get frustrated I tend to be less friendly than I really should be. That's all hardly changed.

Cassie should be captain. She started out on JV freshmen and sophomore year and only got moved up last year to varsity. But she's always been one of the most supportive girls on the team and she hustles to make up for her stick skills, which could use some work. Even if she isn't a starter, she could probably be a better captain from the sidelines than I'll be on the field.

And she'll be crushed to learn that she's not captain.

"Tryouts are right after the first day of school, Avery, I expect you to be 100%. If you're not, don't bother coming." She doesn't mean that, whenever coach says '…or don't bother coming.' It means you'd better get your ass there and get down to business.

"You'll be starting on defense this year,"

"But I've always been a middie," I argue.

"You've never had a mangled knee before, Avery." Her eyes are as cold as ever, and she makes it clear this isn't up for debate. "You'll be starting at D, and if later I feel like you can handle midfield, you'll be back on midfield. Until then, you take the draws then get back on the defensive end."

"Yes, coach." She nods wordlessly as she walks away, leaving me in the hallway, clutching my jerseys to my chest.

Walking back to my Hummer parked at the far end of the parking lot, my cellphone rings. I pull it out from my bra and see that it's Isaac. "Hey what's up?" I ask with a small smile on my face.

"You busy?" he asks with an inviting edge to his voice.

"No, not really, why?"

When he answers, his voice is dark and ominous, "Meet me at the stadium field in half an hour. Come alone." He finishes with a dramatic extension of 'alone'. "Oh, but bring your stick." He adds on cheerily before hanging up. I laugh to myself as I stuff my phone back into my sports bra and pull out my keys.

About twenty minutes later, I'm back at my house, grabbing my lacrosse stick and bag and then heading right back out the door again. In just over fifteen minutes, I'm right back in the school parking lot.

I grab my stuff and fast walk all the way to the practice field, using my stick lightly as a walking stick like that hobbit in the movie who yells, "I'm going on an adventure!"

I smile to myself and walk faster.

When I get to the field, Isaac, Scott, and Stiles all have their sticks and are passing in a triangle. "You're late!" Isaac calls out.

"I'm getting that a lot today," I smile and toss my bag on the ground. There's a lacrosse net pulled out with small pans tied into each of the four corners.

"Hey Avery," Scott says with somewhat of a smile on his face. It's a better greeting than I got from him last time, so I'll take it.

Stiles only folds his lips over each other and gives me a little nod. "Hey, Stiles," I sound as happy as possible, and his pursed lips turn into a full smile.

"So, what is this? Werewolf lax hangout day?" I ask humorously.

"Umm, hello?" Stiles says, pointing to himself, "Not a werewolf." He scoffs.

I take a mock bow, "My apologies, sir Mundie." That earns a bit of a chuckle from him, but Isaac and Scott stare at me blankly. "You, know, Mundie? As in mundane…?" still nothing. "Mundane means of this earth….? As opposed to something supernatural…? No, okay never mind."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, this happens to me all the time." Stiles says, shrugging his shoulders.

"Right," Isaac says, still somewhat confused. "Anyway, no this isn't just werewolf hangout time, this is 'holy shit lacrosse tryouts are in a few days and none of us have held our stick since the season ended' preparation time."

"So, we're doing gong ball." Scott says as he catches the pass from Isaac, winds up, and launches the ball towards the goal. The ball hits the top left pan, turning it into a loud gong as the ball strikes it and falls into the goal.

"Damn," Isaac whistles, "well, I guess someone's keeping their first line-captain status,"

The mention of 'captain' makes me shudder. "Speaking of which," I say, "guess who was pretty much forced to become captain of the girls team today?" I ask unenthusiastically as I kick off my sneakers and pull my white Nike cleats out of my bag and slip them on.

"Same thing happened to me," Scott says as Isaac kicks over the bucket of lacrosse balls and all three of them scoop one up into their sticks, cradling for a moment before they all line up and begin firing at the gongs, "what is it with lacrosse coaches and blackmail, anyway?"

"No idea," I sigh as I stand up and grab my stick. I walk over to the pile of balls and scoop it up effortlessly.

"Dude, come on, what is it with the lacrosse captains not wanting to be captains?" Stiles says jokingly.

I cradle the ball in my stick, switching hands quickly as a warm up to shooting. "I just feel like there'd be someone better for it," I say.

"All it's ever done is make Jackson hate me even more than he already does." Scott hits the gong again, as does Isaac. Stiles misses just barely, and lets out a frustrated huff.

"Okay, if you don't want captain, I'll totally take captain," Isaac says.

"Coach Finstock would pick Greenberg over you, Isaac," Stiles laughs.

Isaac stares off into the distance for a moment, "Yeah," he says as he tosses Stiles and Scott a new ball, "you're probably right."

I line up my shot before I wind back and fire the ball at the bottom left corner. I miss by a good foot. I sigh and look at my stick's strings. " s'alright, Ave," Isaac says, tossing me another ball, "you haven't shot for a while."

"Yeah," I say, though I really should've had that shot, no problem. I catch the ball and cradle it in my stick for a few moments, "so both the lacrosse teams are getting new uniforms," I say with an excited voice, "and they're awesome."

"Wait, what color are they?" Scott asks. Scott and Isaac stop what they're doing and look at me, Stiles winds up behind his back, and hits the bottom right gong. He throws his hands up above his head in triumph. I drop the ball from my stick, reach over and swat his ass with the head of it.

He grabs his butt defensively and I laugh as he rubs it. "Well," I go on, "the girls are getting blackout uniforms, and they're beautiful, by the way-"

"Yeah, yeah," Scott hurries me, "but what about us?"

"You guys are getting camo, you know like soldier's camo, not like hunting camo, and they're badass. Finstock is even getting you guys helmets to match, they're going to be flat black, with camo stripes, and green chrome masks."

Isaac grabs at his chest as a huge smile passes over his face, "Oh, that's pure sex," he says.

"How would you know?" I ask with a laugh as I wind up and slam the ball into the bottom left gong.

I'm so focused on the pan's ringing that I scarcely notice that Scott and Stiles are laughing along. Isaac narrows his eyes with the tiniest of grins on his face, "Don't start something you can't finish, Chastings," he warns.

"You're right, you're right," I say, putting my hands up, "toss me a ball?" I ask sweetly. He leans over and rakes one into his stick.

Just as he's about to toss it to me, he narrows his eyes and licks his lips. "Hey, Avery," he says with a tone that says he's up to something, "you remember freshmen, well it would've been your sophomore year, that game where you got trucked by that girl?"

I close my eyes and look down at the ground, "That was the Pikeville game," I look up and shiver as the memory crosses my mind, "if they scored one more goal, they would have tied it. Coach said let her charge you, and I did."

"Yeah, yeah, but she literally threw you back a foot," I know where he's going with this.

"Isaac, please don't-" Scott and Stiles look between us in confusion.

"Our game was right after yours, and when you got decked, Coach Finstock started screaming 'Br-Avery'." Isaac starts laughing and I feel my cheeks burning.

"And I've been trying to get rid that nickname ever since."

"Oh but I like it," Isaac teases as he finally tosses me the ball, "it's got a ring to it."

"No, it doesn't. It's cheesy and cliché. I planted my feet and let her run me over, I got the call, the ref gave me the ball, and we stalled on possession until the clock ran out. Nothing 'brave' about it. We were stalling."

"Bravery, bravery, bravery," Isaac teases.

"I remember that," Scott snorts, "that was the time when he walked up to Hathaway and asked her why no one was hitting each other."

Stiles breaks out into a fit of laughter, "She told him to 'get away from her and her team' or she'd dump the entire Gatorade cooler on him."

"I don't remember that," I say, looking between the three of them.

"Because you were too busy getting K.O.'d" even I have to laugh at that.

"You bum," I say when we all quiet down.

Isaac takes a few deep breaths until he finally can breathe normally again. "Hey, Avery," Stiles says, "can you show me that riser shot that you do?" he asks, biting his thumb.

I nod and scoop up a ball. "I can't do it sitting still, though, that's the thing; I have to be moving for it to work." I hold my stick out in front of me, and sound the whistle in my head. I cradle my stick across my chest once, faking as if I'll draw out of the shot. I drag the stick back to my right hip, and launch the ball into the top left pan.

"Nice," Scott says. I shrug.

"Almost as nice as that time your shot ripped through the goalie's stick to score the game winning goal?" I ask, shaking my head, "You know, looking back, I gotta ask, was that because of the whole…?"

Scott nods, "Yeah, I uh, well, I tried not to get carried away but it didn't work very well."

"Yeah, I understand."

Later That Night

I stand at the sink, pouring dish soap over the dirty dishes and pans I used to make pancakes this morning. My earphones blast music into my ears as I mouth the words and sway back and forth to the rock song playing on my phone.

Ever since I met Derek, I find myself listening to more and more rock music, maybe it's just because it makes me feel like I'm closer to him for listening to it, I'm not sure.

"Anytime."

I smile to myself and bite my lip as I scrub the last of the pancake batter from the mixing bowl. I pull my phone from my bra and look down at it as I turn away and play "Medicate" by Breaking Benjamin.

Suddenly, I hit something hard and big. I instantly half jump, half fall back, screaming and lashing out as I realize it's a person.

A big person.

Before I even have time to register a face, their arms wraps itself around my waist, keeping me from falling completely to the ground in a spazzy little mess.

I stop screaming when I realize its Derek.

Both his arms are around me, keeping me up, and his green eyes stare down at me from beneath a furrowed, unhappy looking brow. "You know, most young girls who live alone don't leave the door unlocked at night and then drown out their surroundings." My phone fell to the floor when I slipped, and the song plays loudly as I stare up blankly at him.

"Hi." My eyes are already welling up, which is what happens when I get really scared, really quickly. "I'm really glad it's you." I say. I really need to work on my rambling when I'm nervous. My heart is beating frantically from a mixture of emotions. "Please never do that again. Do you always do that?"

"And if I do?" the smallest grin comes on his face.

"Then next time I won't be so happy it's you." His arms are completely steady with my weight, and it seems as if he has no intention of letting me go. "But you lucked out this time because I was just thinking about you." I say as I reach up and pull him down to me.

We pick up right where we left off last time, intense and hungry. He brings me back up to stand on my own two feet as his tongue dominates mine. Before I know it, he reaches down and lifts me to sit on his hips, and I instinctually wrap my legs around him as he sets me down on the counter.

His hand reaches back and tears the hair tie from my hair, twisting his fingers through my hair before he pulls it back, exposing my neck to him. His other hand runs from my waist down to my ass. He grabs it roughly, and I gasp loudly as his lips and tongue play at my neck, and his hands squeeze and pull with just the right amount of pressure.

I push his leather jacket off his shoulders, forcing him to break contact from me with his hands, but his lips, God, his lips don't stop. I let out a moan when he nips at the junction of my shoulder.

"Derek," I breathe as my hands hold him to my neck.

He breaks his contact with my skin, coming up to my ear, "I like the way you say my name," he growls as his hand travels further up my leg, "do it again."

His thumb brushes over my inner thigh so lightly as he thrusts against me, forcing another moan from me. His other hand pulls my hair back again, and he thrusts against me once more, this time he gets the result he wants, "Derek," I say, pulling at his shirt in some effort to gain stability.

All I get is a low rumble of a chuckle the makes me feel like melting. The music plays on as Derek's hands wander under my shirt.

I got somethin' up my sleeve

I know you will cover me

Inside out and in between

I know you will cover me

I've got bruises on my knees

I know you will cover me

Inside out and in between

And I know you will cover me

Run away

Make hate

And get laid

And get laid

You tie me up

I've had enough

So medicate

Medicate

I'm already incomplete

I know you will cover me

Looking by your empathy

I know you will cover me

I've been lyin' here for weeks

I know you will cover me

Inside out and in between

And I know you will cover me

Author's Note: I am so sorry. Truly, I am.

However, this was for good reason.

I can't have them having sex on the kitchen counter, now can I? Just know that next chapter, Averek will FINALLY happen. ^_^

With that being said, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who reviewed last chapter, it was awesome to hear that you guys enjoyed the chapter even though nothing relating to the bigger picture was happening, much like this chapter. Every time I read that someone is enjoying the story, it makes me want to get the next chapter out as soon as possible, hence the sudden bursts of updates XD

I promise you all that I will have the next chapter up as soon as I am physically able to.

Until then, I have a question, what would you like to see more of in future chapters? I'll leave a poll on my bio, but you can also just leave it in a review or something ^_^ thanks!