I spent the rest of the period in the bathroom, trying not to be sick. So much had happened within a two hour period, and I needed to stay calm, or all hell would break loose. I walked back into class a minute before the bell rang, earning a stare from every single person in the room, Coach included.
"Uh…" I stammered, before the loud chime of the bell put me out of my misery and sent the class packing. I marched over to my desk, head held high, grabbing my backpack before chancing a look at Lydia. I may have saved her reputation, but it came at the cost of mine. And while I still didn't know her that well, I knew Lydia Martin did not associate with losers. She picked up her books and with a deep breath, met my gaze.
"So Economics bores you to tears apparently. How are you with chemistry?" with a flick of her head, she shot me and encouraging smile and I couldn't contain my sigh of relief. "Wow, you really hate Economics don't you?" she mocked, before breaking out into a grin and offering me her arm. I laughed, looping my arm through hers before making our way over to the door.
Jackson beat us there though, shooting an arm across the door and blocking our path.
"Congratulations Lydia. You're not the craziest person in the school anymore." He gave her a sarcastic smile, turning his attention to me. "However, your new best friend is. Seems like you just attract insanity. Or maybe," he gave a short laugh, looking down at his feet quickly. Lydia shifted on her feet, obviously uncomfortable but refusing to back down. "Maybe you make people go crazy." He looked back up at her and I saw her resolve breaking down before my very eyes.
"Choke on a dick Jackass." I rolled my eyes without missing a beat, easily pushing past him and pulling Lydia out the door with me. "Anyway, at least in chemistry you can blow things up or make things change color, as opposed to economics, where every change you make takes years and you can't even see it." I guided her down the hallway as she regained her confidence, shooting me an impressed smile.
"Do you even know who I am?!" I heard Jackson scream after us. "Because I certainly don't know you!"
"Don't care." I kept my eyes straight ahead, raising my arm up to give him the finger.
"Teacher," Lydia hissed, pulling my arm down. "Don't get in trouble for him, he's not worth it." She shook her head at me, before pointing to the left, indicating that class was that way. Lydia began telling me about everything that had happened during her first class of the day, but a low chuckle caught my attention.
Isaac and Erica were stationed across the hallway from us, watching literally our every step. What was with those two? Were they in some kind of gang whose sole purpose was to intimidate new students? Rage bubbled up inside me, and I had to look away, focus on something else so I wouldn't lose it. Lydia was talking about some kid in her English class and I laughed with her, shaking my head at the apparent idiocy she had been going on about. I felt myself begin to overheat right as we reached the door to Chemistry, one of the warning signs for a panic attack.
"Hey, I'll be right back. I need to go get a drink." I slowly let go of her arm, trying to steady my breathing.
"Okay, I'll save you a seat." She gave me a smile and a small shrug of her shoulders before entering the classroom. I booked it to the water fountain, shoving past numerous students who clearly hadn't gotten the "Hallways are for walking, not crawling slower than a snail" memo. Once the water hit my tongue, I felt a little better, splashing it gently over my hands and face. I took a few deep breaths and felt myself calming down.
"Feeling better?"
"Holy sh-" I jumped, my hand going to my heart immediately, as Isaac leaned against the wall next to the fountain.
"Hm, jumpy are we?" He cocked his head to the side, inspecting first his nail, and then me.
"Why are you following me?" I stared hard at him, before deciding I didn't care as much as I thought I did. Or at least, I wasn't going to let him knew I cared. I was not going to give in and admit I was intimidated as I was. This was going to be the first game of cat and mouse where the mouse emerged victorious.
"Following you? Who said I was following you? Maybe I was just thirsty," He said, right at my ear.
"Apparently."
"Oh, so you've got some jokes huh?"
"I've also got some pepper spray in my bag, if you wanna try that out too." I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the prize, or in this case the door to the chemistry classroom.
"Isn't that illegal?"
"Said the ex-fugitive."
"Hey, there's an ex in that phrase for a reason." He shoved his hands into his pockets, eyes to the floor. For once he seemed to lose the cocky demeanor and actually seemed like he was…sulking? It didn't last long though, his head slowly rising to look at me. "Wait a minute. How did you know about that?" He looked slightly amused, but mostly confused, and his eyes rested a moment too long on my lips, waiting for my answer. Why did this kid look at mouths so much? You're supposed to look at someone's eyes when you're talking to them for the love of god. It was like he had read the guidebook on ways to best intimidate me.
I peered at him from the corner of my eye, unable to resist the small triumphant smile that emerged on my face. I said nothing as I opened the door, and headed for the table Lydia was seated at. Scott and Stiles nearly collided with me, as they both made a mad dash to the table.
"Oh uh, were you gonna sit there?" Stiles asked, pointing to the seat. I nodded slowly, as Scott ushered me towards it.
"I think that's a great idea, Lydia is a great lab partner." Scott smiled, walking over to the lab station next to us.
"Yes, great, fine choice in seating, it's all yours." Stiles encouraged enthusiastically as both me and Lydia stared at them apprehensively.
"Boys," she sighed, shaking her head and going back to looking over her notes. The scraping of the metal chair legs against the linoleum tiles rang through my head, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Erica sitting down, glaring at the doorway where Isaac stood. She gave him a look of disapproval and rolled her eyes before pulling out the seat next to her and beckoning him over.
He sat down, his eyes still on me, his expression completely unreadable. Erica elbowed him in the side, and his gaze turned to Lydia. I noticed Allison walk in, eyeing me and then Scott curiously. She sat down on the other side of us, glancing around the classroom.
"Sorry Allison, did you want to sit with Lydia? I can move if you want." I leaned over towards her, pointing to the chair I was currently inhabiting. She opened her mouth to speak, but paused, her eyes focusing on something behind my head. I turned, as Scott smiled at me and waved. I blinked at him, turning my attention back to Allison.
"Uh, no. Thanks, but that's okay. You were there first." She smiled warmly at me, and I reciprocated it, nodding.
"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. 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." The teacher paced the aisle, talking with a superiority complex so big I'm surprised he hadn't declared himself emperor of the classroom yet. He stopped in front of Stiles and Scott's lab table, a smug grin on his face. "Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one."
"You may like Chemistry now. But Mr. Harris can change that." Lydia whispered, drawing her lips in as she scribbled a formula down at the bottom of her notebook page.
"Erica, take the first station. We'll start-" Hands shot up around the entire classroom, virtually every male student eager to volunteer themselves. A few girls even raised their hands, though they were much more subtle about it. "I didn't ask for volunteers. Put your hormonal little hands down." Mr. Harris spat, pronouncing each word carefully. He sighed dramatically, setting his sights on Scott. "Start with Mr. McCall. Alright, next two."
He continued to pair up the class and assign them to stations, as I crossed my fingers and counted my blessings when he paired me with Lydia first. I read the directions on the worksheet, and grabbed the test tube of blue solution, raising it to eye level and cocking my head to the side.
"How much of…What is this?" I turned to face Lydia, as her pen flew across the page doing calculations.
"Copper II sulfate." She answered robotically, reaching for another beaker. "50 milliliters. And then we need two teaspoons of alum…hold this." She pushed the beaker my way, before taking the test tube from me and pouring it in methodically to the white powder. "Now mix it for a minute." She directed, as I swished it around a few times.
"Are they always like this?" I nodded once towards the lab table where Stiles and Allison sat, Stiles knocking over a flask, spilling a green liquid onto Allison's shorts, and then again to wear Scott sat, frozen like a statue, but visibly fuming with frustration as Erica leaned towards him.
"You mean strange? Weird? Slightly spastic?" She looked back and forth between the boys and then back to me. "Yes. Always." I took the volume measurement of the solution down, before reaching for a dropper with a clear liquid inside.
"What about Allison? She seems to be acting…not like I expected she would. From what you told me last night anyway."
"Yeah, I don't know what's been with her lately. She's been hanging around Scott and Stiles too much I suppose." She huffed, unscrewing the cap on the bottle of potassium.
"They're a bit odd but they seem nice at least," I tried to reassure her, offering her the beaker. She took it and scoffed.
"Either way, I'm her best friend and she's been completely blowing me off. But it's whatever," she said airily, dumping the contents of the potassium bottle into the beaker with a little more force than necessary. "She's got problems of her own." She shot a look over to where Erica and Scott sat, Erica's hand blatantly traveling up Scott's thigh. She grabbed the back of Scott's head and I looked over at Allison, who peered at them from the corner of her eye.
A bell rang at the front of the class as Mr. Harris called out to switch partners. I gathered up my notebook and pen as Allison shuffled over to us.
"Listen to me, okay? Don't talk to Erica or Isaac. Either of you." She glanced at me, keeping her voice low.
"Why?" Lydia asked, eyeing Allison dubiously.
"Just don't, okay?"
"Let's go girls, next station." Mr. Harris appeared behind us, ushering us along.
"Trust me, alright." Allison whispered over her shoulder, making her way over to another lab table. I moved to the table in front of Lydia's and surveyed the room, looking for any sign of a clock. Scott quickly sat down next to Lydia, relief washing over his face as he shot Stiles a look, who was making his way over to my table. Erica quickly grabbed his arm from where she sat, pulling him into the seat next to her as a six foot something giant clad in leather sat down next to me.
I stared ahead as Mr. Harris explained the next few steps of the experiment, despite feeling Isaac's eyes on me the entire time. I grabbed the beaker with the half-finished solution inside it, determined to stay quiet and not look at him.
"So you're not gonna tell me how you knew about my dad?" he cracked his neck, offering me another test tube. I took it silently from him, leaning down in my seat so I was eye level with the beaker as I carefully poured 2 mL of the solution into it. "The silent treatment? Really?" I looked over at him as his eyebrows shot up and went back to mixing the beaker with a glass stirring rod.
"Look, I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I'm not interested." I rolled my eyes, marking down the color of the liquid in the beaker, and answering the few questions on the worksheet.
"In the game, or in me?" He cocked an eyebrow, one corner of his mouth drawing up into a crooked smirk. His blue eyes met mine and I felt as if someone had shocked me, electricity flowing into me from his simple gaze. I squinted and blinked, taken aback by his bluntness.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about," I shook my head, returning my attention to the worksheet. "If you're trying to intimidate me," I said, pronouncing each syllable slow and clear. "It's not gonna work." I faked the confidence we both knew I didn't have, refusing to give into him anyway.
"…You know," he sighed lazily, leaning forward onto the lab table as I reached for an empty test tube, wiping it clean with a paper towel. "I bet Casey would've been proud. With you finally standing up for yourself and everything."
The test tube slipped from my hand at the mention of her name, shattering on the table. Casey? How did he know about Casey? I heard Mr. Harris give a deep sigh as he made his way over to us with a broom and dust pan.
How did he know about Casey?
"People, can we please keep the breakage to a minimum?" He shook his head exasperatedly, sweeping the broken glass into the pan and promptly tossing it into the Broken Glass bin at the front of the class room.
How did he know about Casey?
I remained silent, turning to look him in the eyes. He reminded me of Derek when I first saw him because of how he was dressed, but sitting here in such close proximity, studying his mannerisms, his facial expressions, the diction of his voice when he spoke, putting emphasis on certain syllables as opposed to others. He didn't just look like Derek; he acted like him. And he knew about Casey. There was no way the two could be a coincidence. He smiled, leaning closer, so that our faces were inches apart.
"Two can play at that game," he challenged slowly, with a quick twitch of his eyebrow. He had to of known Derek. Maybe Derek was the leader of whatever cult him and Erica belonged to. He leaned back in his seat, watching, waiting for me to make the next move. Because this was all a game. A game. That's all it was. And I needed to keep a calm and clear head if I had the slightest prayer of winning.
And I was going to win.
I took a deep breath, composing myself and forcing all thoughts away from any bad memories associated with Casey. Instead, I focused on exactly what Isaac was talking about. All of those times people bullied me and kicked me down, all of those times Casey had come to my rescue. Even until the very end, she had saved me. She spent half of her life looking out for me, trying to teach me to stand up for myself. I wasn't going to let a few bitchy high schoolers ruin everything she had worked towards. Casey always told me to be brave, and it was about time I started listening.
I grinned at him, science experiment temporarily forgotten. "So what's your goal here exactly? To scare me? Surprise me? Make me cry?" I laughed, looking towards Mr. Harris, who sat at his desk engrossed in marking a paper repeatedly with a red pen. I thought about how he seemed like the kind of teacher who would give you a failing grade, marking the top with a red inked smiley face.
I turned back to Isaac, his blue eyes widening ever so slightly, his fingers idly drumming on the edge of the desk. "I've seen things a lot worse than you. You may think you're the biggest, baddest wolf in town, but I have news for you. I'm a monster."
He barked out a laugh, his fingers halting the incessant tune they were tapping out. "Is that so?" He grinned, eyes alight with amusement. I swallowed hard, eyes narrowed at him as I nodded. "Well then I guess it's a good thing you don't have anything to be scared of." He picked up his pencil, inspecting the faint bite marks by the eraser as he clicked his tongue against his cheek. "It's Lydia who should be worried." All I saw was red, a mixture of fear and rage bubbling up inside of me. It was one thing when I thought this whole thing was just some kind of ploy to intimidate and embarrass the new girl. But now that he had blatantly threatened Lydia? Part of me wanted to scream, part of me wanted to run, and the vast majority of me wanted to punch him in the throat.
I settled for an in between, as I slammed the pencil down to the table, forcing his attention back to me. He smiled, his expression a mix of surprise and amusement and it made me want to slap the grin off of his face even more. I screwed my face up into a snarl, which only seemed to amuse him further.
"If you so much as touch her I'll-"
"You'll what?" he challenged, cocking an eyebrow as a loud ding sounded at the front of the classroom, signaling to switch lab partners. He stood up abruptly as I sat there slightly dumbfounded. He's right. What was I actually going to do? I may have been a murderer but it was by accident at best. I wasn't a cold blooded killer to be feared. "This isn't a game Ryan. This is real." His voice was low as he passed behind me, and I closed my eyes in defeat.
What was I thinking? My big show of defiance was smacking his pencil out of his hands. No wonder he found it so amusing. I was a joke. I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment and all I wanted was to be home in my own room, where I could curl up in the corner and just forget about everything. Frustration and shame overtook me and I could feel my hands shaking slightly in my lap as someone sat down in the chair next to me.
"Are you okay?" Scott placed a hand tentatively on my shoulder, like he thought if he applied too much pressure, I might break. I opened my eyes, turning my head towards him slowly, so that the world would cease its spinning. So what was Isaac saying to you? Scott's voice echoed through my head as various numbers of my own hands seemed to dance across the lab table. I-I wish I could tell you but…but I don't…know…what's going on…
"Ryan? Did he say something to you?"
I blinked hard, closing my hands and digging my nails into my palm. I let out a deep breath before sitting up straighter and turning my attention to him. "Why didn't you want me talking to Isaac?" I knew my eyes were probably still a little wider than they should have been, and I was still shaking a bit, but I tried my best to look authoritative.
"…Hm? I, I never said not to talk to Isaac. I was just curious as to what Isaac was talking to you about. You know you're new and Isaac is uh…he doesn't um…he's socially awkward and I just wanted to make sure he wasn't making you uncomfortable or anyt-"
"Save it." I held up my hand, placing the beaker full of solution onto the bunsen burner. "Allison told me and Lydia not to talk to Erica or Isaac, and whether you two are together or not, you still seemed to be joined at the hip." I quickly jotted down the answer to the last question on the worksheet before setting my pencil down and turning back to him. "Besides, you and Stiles have been acting hella weird all morning,"
"We're just weird." He quickly cut me off shaking his head, eyes wide.
"While I don't have a hard time believing that, I'm not dumb enough to believe that nothing's up. Does this have anything to do with what Isaac said about Lydia?"
"Lydia?!" Scott practically lunged at me in his seat, jumping forward so his face was closer to mine. "What did Isaac say about Lydia?" He urged, his voice low amongst the sounds of glassware being handled and burners being started. I gave him a look, my eyes flitting over to the table next to us where Isaac sat next to Lydia as she continued to stir the beaker.
"Nothing, just that Lydia should be worried." I felt my brow crease with worry as I looked from Lydia to Scott. "What's going on?" I turned my attention back to Lydia as Mr. Harris rang the bell.
"Time!"
"Scott. Tell me what's going on." I repeated, panic creeping into my voice.
"If you've catalyzed the reaction correctly, you should now be looking at a crystal." I turned off the burner and grabbed the tongs, quickly removing the beaker before handing it over to Scott to inspect. Allison was sitting as if she had a metal rod glued to her back, rigid as could be, as Erica snickered next to her, catching my eye. She smiled at me, looking more like the Cheshire Cat then the Cheshire Cat himself.
"Now, for the part of that last experiment I'm sure you'll all enjoy. You can eat it." I noticed Stiles holding up his beaker, his crystal looking mildly crusty and a shade of yellow. I wrinkled my nose and he looked up at me, shrugging. Suddenly his face grew serious, staring past me at Lydia as she took the crystal from Isaac, turning it over in her hand.
Poison? Was he going to poison her? He couldn't really be trying to. But poison seemed so serial killer-esque. I mean we were all just high school students. What could Lydia have done to piss off this cult/gang/sadist group?
Lydia brought the crystal to her lips, parting them as she placed it on her tongue.
"LYDIA!" Scott shouted, rising in his seat as the entire class fell silent. She turned around, giving him an annoyed look.
"What?" she snapped, swallowing whatever taste of the crystal she had had. I let out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding, easing down in my chair. Lydia was fine. They hadn't poisoned her. Everything was okay.
But Scott didn't seem to have gotten the memo. He abruptly turned to stare at Erica, as the grin slid off of her face. I reached up, gently tugging on the back of Scott's shirt to get him to sit down so every student in the room could remove their eyes from us.
"Nothing," he mumbled, turning around and sitting back down in his seat. Lydia rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the crystal as she took a bite of it. Scott shot Stiles a look from across the room as Stiles hung his head dejectedly. Scott quickly turned to the window, almost like a dog spotting a shiny object. I pressed my lips together, clasping my hands in front of me and dropping them into my lap as Mr. Harris collected our worksheets and the class erupted into hushed chatter.
As soon as class ended Scott, Stiles and Allison bolted, presumably to discuss whatever it was they were hiding. Isaac and Erica made a quick exit as well, probably off to go sacrifice the blood of a virgin to Lilith, Mother of Demons.
I shoved my things back into my bag as I waited for Lydia and we walked to our next class together. That's how the rest of the day went basically. Lydia walked me to any class we didn't have together, with the same clear instructions to meet back at her locker afterwards to repeat the process. Towards the end of the day she finally took me on a proper tour of the school, since we both had a free period. I nodded and yessed her to death when she would point something out and I think by the end of the tour she felt that I had a pretty good idea of how to navigate my way around. I didn't, actually. But she had a guidance appointment and I was staying as far away from the guidance office as possible, so I assured her that I'd be just fine on my own.
Spoiler alert: I was not.
My goal was the library. My final destination? After wandering through many different hallways, all of which looked the same?
Trial 1: the pool.
Trial 2: the cafeteria.
Trial 3: the music room (Which is surprisingly large).
I groaned, spinning in a circle as students flocked in and out of the room, grabbing instruments and stands and folders. I dropped my bag on one of the risers, sinking down with my head in my hands. I felt a migraine coming on, along with a bunch of unwanted memories and nothing to distract me from them.
"Are you okay?" I separated my fingers, peeking through them to see a boy with dark hair and tan skin, Jackson's best friend.
"Me? Yeah. Yeah! I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" I sat up straighter, giving him a smile.
"Beeecause you're sitting by yourself in the music room and you look like you're about to start slamming your head against the piano." He laughed, putting his trombone back into its case.
"…Against the piano? I didn't think of that but that doesn't sound like a bad idea…" I mumbled, eyeing the instrument with promise.
"Rough day?" he asked, sliding his trombone case into one of the cubby's along the wall with the name Danny Mahealani written in block letters underneath it.
"I've had worse." Images of the lake flash through my head. Waking up the next day in the hospital, alone and terrified, needles and tubes sticking out of my arms. Screaming until someone came and disconnected me from them all. Finding Casey in the bed in the next room, her skin blue, her arms and mouth bloodied.
"That sounds like it comes with a tragic backstory that you don't feel like sharing." I snapped my head up, studying the biggest prick in school's best friend. Maybe he wasn't as bad as Jackson after all. I gave him a small smile, nodding.
"Wow, you're good."
"Actually, my name's Danny." He gave me a goofy grin as he held out his hand and I graciously accepted it as he pulled me to my feet.
"Well I'm Ryan," I curtsied, picking up my bag. "And I'm lost. Can you tell me how to get to the library?"
"Yeah sure, I'm headed over there now to meet my friend Jackson." I couldn't contain my eyeroll and he laughed, opening the door for me. "He's not as bad as he seems."
"Oh so you mean he's not a huge douchebag all of the time?"
"Nah, not all the time. Just like, 75% of the time." I laughed as Danny led us down a hallway I was sure I had walked down three times that afternoon, and pushed the door to the library open. "Seriously though. It's mostly just an act. Mostly." Jackson waved him over from the table he sat at, shooting me a glare that I assumed was supposed to make me quake in my boots. Instead I smiled cheerfully, waving at him.
"Well thank you for your guidance." I bowed my head, making my way over to an empty table in the corner.
"Don't be a stranger." He threw a wave over his shoulder at me. I sat down, digging out my notebook and my pencil, and began doodling all over the blank page in front of me. It helped calm me down a bit as I continuously drew halves of faces because I could never quite get the whole face to look right, or just eyes or just hands because they were the only real features I was good at drawing. A shiver ran down my spine and I coughed, drawing my hand up to cover my mouth. I cleared my throat, reaching for my pen again when a splotch of bright red caught my eye.
I lifted my hand to my face, squinting at it. Blood. Looking up, I took note of my surroundings. Still in the library. Danny sat with Jackson and another boy a few tables away. No, this wasn't another hallucination. But was I really coughing up blood now?
No of course not. You're just losing your mind. I lifted my eyes, though I knew no one had spoken. Every time I heard Casey's voice I hoped by some miracle that it would be real. That she was alive, that she had survived somehow and had found me. But it was never the case. It couldn't be the case. Because she was dead. And it was my fault.
I looked back at my hand and sure enough there was nothing there. No angry smear of red obstructing the pale skin of my arm.
I thought you had accepted the fact that you were crazy, Ryan. You can't fight this. This is who you are now.
"No," I mumbled, my eyes fluttering shut.
You can't ever be normal.
"No,"
I'm dead Ryan, how can you try and live a normal life without me?
"No!" I gasped, opening my eyes.
"Ryan?" Lydia stood in front of me, Stiles right behind her. She hesitantly grabbed the back of the chair across from me, pulling it out slowly. "Mind if I join you?"
"No, no, go ahead." I rubbed at my eyes violently, in hopes of somehow quieting the constant chaos in my head.
"I'm just gonna…yeah." Stiles said, sliding out a chair for himself and sitting down next to me. "So uh…who were you uh…muttering no to exactly?" He looked between Lydia and myself a few times, before scratching at the back of his head.
"Stiles," Lydia warned, shooting him an icy glare.
"It's fine. I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." I kept my eyes on my hands as I toyed with my fingers nervously. This was the part I hated. The barrage of questions, the looks of pity, the subtly not-so-subtle steps back that people take, as if PTSD might be contagious. But Stiles didn't do any of that.
Instead he awkwardly reached for my hands, and then retracted, and then reached again, finally setting his own on top of mine, patting them gently. I looked up at him and he gave me a tight smile, nodding so slowly I wasn't sure he actually was. He looked at me through pained brown eyes, eyes that had seen their share of horrific and sorrowful things. They reminded me of my own. I flipped my hand over, giving his a squeeze before drawing them back into my lap. His brow creased as he looked at me confused, but shot me a smile anyways. I returned it, giving him a curt nod as Lydia looked between the two of us with an eyebrow raised.
"Okay I don't know what just happened, but this whole nerd bonding thing is going to have to wait." She stood up, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "We're gonna be late for class."
"Right, class, yeah." Stiles stood up quickly, eager to fall in line behind Lydia as she made her way out of the library, knocking my pen and notebook off of the table in the process. "Oh-oh my god, I am so sorry, here let me get that for you," he bent down handing me my notebook and knocking my pen further into one of the library aisles.
"Aaaaand you're being weird again. It's fine Stiles. I'm mentally ill, not handicapped." I rolled my eyes, picking up my bag and making my way through the library, searching the floor for the only pencil I happened to bring to school today.
"Looking for something?" Erica stood next to Isaac, leaning against the bookshelf, pencil in hand. I sighed heavily, before throwing my hand out.
"Can I just have it? I'm gonna be late."
"Is that…is that my pencil?" Isaac's mouth quipped into a smirk as he took the pencil from Erica, inspecting the faint bite marks on the end of it. I bit my lip hard, mentally cursing myself for being dumb enough to accidentally take the wrong pencil in Chemistry. "Are you stalking me?" he purred, bending down until he was eye level with me. I leaned forward, snatching the pencil from his grip.
"Only to kill you in your sleep." I assured sweetly, drawing my lips into an innocent grin. Erica choked out a laugh as I turned on my heels marching out of the library with my head held high.
I may have lacked confidence in just about everything about myself, but that didn't mean I could fake my ass off. It was almost as if Isaac had read my personal file on every insecurity I had ever had, and was using it against me. With my lack of romantic and sexual experience pointedly being his main plan of attack apparently.
I had had enough of the mind games. I wasn't even playing on an even field. My mind was half of my opponent.
A/N: Phew! About time! Sorry for the wait guys!
So originally I hadn't planned on cutting this chapter here, but it was getting kind of long so I decided that here was a good a place as any to split it. I had SUCH bad writer's block while writing this chapter so I'm super sorry if it's not as good as my other ones heh. Venomous is such a confusing episode, especially that Chemistry scene jesus. I hope everything came out alright though. :]
A huge thank you to everyone who has been following and favoriting this story, and thank you to emele807, Janedoee7, The One Who Is All, maddysavage, TameTheGhosts, LionHeartMisfit, BriancyyD, Moonyong98, blahicantthinkofaname, and MessintheMirror for the lovely reviews!
Also, a very special thank you to my lovely friend BrittWitt16, who was so kind as to promo me in her Author's Note in her very popular Stiles/OC story "Right Beside You." :] Also, if you guys are interested, the two of us do Teen Wolf reaction videos which is basically us filming ourselves watch the show live. It's pretty entertaining and you can find those under Britt's youtube channel which is under the same name as her ff account (BrittWitt16).
But yeah, so in honor of Teen Wolf premiering this past Monday, and American Horror Story premiering tonight (I use Taissa Farmiga as my face claim for Ryan), here is my update! Please keep the reviews coming and let me know what you think!