"I thought you said you have control over your actions in your dreams?" Scott had been the first to ask.

I was sitting in my desk in third period, currently twirling my pencil slowly between two fingers as the teacher droned on and on, remembering the conversation after this morning's activities.

I had paused and looked at each of them before admitting, "I do." And I knew as soon as I said that they were all thinking the same thing; I had known I was jumping off, not necessarily off of a railing in the loft, but I had known that I was jumping off of something, the consequences remaining uncertain and unstated.

In the dream it was the cliff. Derek was there again and I guess I had been frustrated enough with him not believing me so much in reality that I had taken it out on my actions in my dream. He said it again, not to jump. And what had I done? I had spun right around and jumped into the water below me, and I remember thinking that if he wasn't about to help me figure it out in the real world I'd just have to find out for myself in the dream one. Except the exact moment I hit the water was the moment I woke up in Isaac's arms.

Because it had happened to me, I wasn't really all that concerned; I mean I've never been one to prioritize myself and my well-being. I knew every time I fell asleep I was potentially putting myself in danger but what else could I do? I had either become used to it or numb to it. But I could tell that Isaac and even the other two boys were slightly more concerned about it than I was. Especially since ever since they hadn't taken a moment to not be watching me. I glanced over my shoulder at Stiles and sure enough, he raised his eyebrows at me knowing he had been caught in the act for the, what was this now? The third time this class period?

"Quit it with the staring at me." I half-whispered half said in a regular quiet voice.

"Stop trying to unconsciously throw yourself off of stairs and I won't have to!" he said back, jerking his hands out. I looked back at the teacher to make sure they didn't notice us talking and leaned further towards him.

"I'm fine." I said. "It's not even a big deal, I was just… testing something." I looked Stiles up and down in a questioning manner, which I could tell confused him. "Besides. I thought you didn't believe me."

He shifted uncomfortable in his seat. It had been obvious that he didn't trust me but for some reason saying it out loud was different.

"I changed my mind…" he mumbled.

"Look, I didn't mean to scare you or anyone else." I said. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt."

My heart pinged at my last sentence. Even if a lot of what I had said before was a lie, about where I came from and my reason for being here, even if that was the case, that last sentence was the most truthful thing I had said and meant. I didn't want anyone to get hurt, which was why I was telling all of them this. And was why I had to keep reporting in to Deucalion, which I should've done again by now that I was thinking about it.

Stile's mouth formed a hard flat line and he stared at me a bit longer. "Well, just add yourself to that list of everyone, alright?" He said. I was a bit taken back by what sounded like concern. I sat up straight again in my chair.

"Thanks." I said. "I'll try to." I gave him a weak smile and he gave me one back before I turned back around in my seat.

It was the period before lunch and, much to my as well as the rest of the class's displeasure, it was math class. I walked in and took my seat, pulling my notebook out of my bag and briefly checking my cell phone under my desk before the teacher said, "Alright class, pull out your textbooks and get started on the assignment I wrote out on the board. It'll be due at the end of class." That was basically a translation for her not wanting to teach anything just as badly as everyone wanted to not actually learn anything. A couple of kids groaned and one boy at the back of the room raised his hand at the same time he yelled out, "Can we work in partners?"

"What, so one person can do all the work and both of you can take credit for it? It's almost lunch, I'm too hungry for this; do what you want." I smiled briefly at the teacher as she took a seat behind her desk. The room erupted in chatter and desks squeaked across the tile as people began pulling desks together. It took me a moment before I realized that part of the source of noise was coming from right beside me and looking to my left, I saw Isaac in the middle of dragging an empty desk over next to mine.

"Oh, uh." He said, realizing that I had seen him, like he expected like I wasn't going to or something. "Do you mind? I'm not very good at math, and you seem like you would be."

I tried hard not to smile and failed. "And why's that?" I asked curious. "Is this some whole anti-stereotype experiment you're doing where you partner up with the blonde hoping she's some sort of rare breed that proves society wrong by being top of her class?"

"No." he said a little too quickly. "I mean, not saying I don't think you're intelligent because you're blonde or anything; I hadn't even looked at your hair color- well, I mean, I've looked at it obviously but, I mean not excessively or anything."

Is it bad that it made me feel more comfortable knowing that he was the slightly uncomfortable one in this conversation?

"I don't mind." I said referring back to him being my partner. He sat down in the desk next to me and didn't even pull out a book before asking, "So how are you?" I stopped looking at the pages in mine and searched his face innocently.

"I'm fine." I said. "Really, Isaac. Look, what happened this morning, whatever that was, it's never happened before-"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen again." He argued.

"I appreciate the concern, really." I said. "But I'm fine now. And now that I think about it, I never did thank you for catching me. That would've been a rough start to my morning." He laughed lightly under his breath.

"No problem."

"Now," I said, turning back to my book. "Do you understand the first set of questions?"

He moved his bottom lip and shook his head. "I told you, I'm not very good at math." I tried to hide my smile and leaned in a little closer.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I'm not very good at math either." I pretended to be more upset than I was and sighed heavily, looking hopelessly down at my book. "I'm a disappointment to my people."

Isaac smirked. "Is anyone on the planet good at math? I say, we go on strike and outlaw math in the entirety of the southern states."

I raised a brow. "I thought you weren't good at math, you never said anything about geography."

"What about geography?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"We're not… We're not in the south."

He shrugged and looked side-to-side like he hadn't said anything wrong at all. "Yeah but won't the people who do live in the South praise us for our valiant efforts?"

"Uh, huh." I said, nodding slowly. "Let me know how that goes and get back to me. Then I'll officially book my flight to Texas." Before Isaac had a chance to reply, we were both interrupted by the sound of my text tone going off. "Shit." I said under my breath, throwing both my hands over the spot where it was in my bag on the corner of my desk and mentally cursing myself for not remembering to put it on silent. I looked up at the teacher and luckily she hadn't heard it over the noise of everyone else; either that or she was still too hungry to care.

I quickly reached my hand in and put my phone on my desk behind my bag out of her direct line of vision. I glanced down at it from an angle and read the message from Ethan: He touches you I'll rip his throat out.

Not caring who in the class saw, I whipped myself around in my chair and glared at Ethan who was sitting behind us at the very back of the room, partnered up with whom else but Danny.

I squinted harder at him and all he did was raise his eyebrows at me while Danny switched confused looks between us both. I silently jabbed a finger at him forcefully and mouthed the words, "Cut it out." He pointed to the back of Isaac's head in the same manner that I had just done and just as Isaac turned around to see what I was looking at, Ethan put out both of his hands in fists and moved them both simultaneously downwards at the sides, like he was snapping something in half.

Isaac's eyes shifted over to the side to look at me as I glared once more at Ethan before spinning back around.

"Gee, your family sure picked some loving people to be friends with..."

I sighed out and ran my fingers through my hair. "You don't have to tell me that." I joked. "They mean well. They just have a weird, often unnecessarily violent way of showing it..." I thought back to Aiden and I's talk in the kitchen. They did mean well, they were just looking out for me. Although it admittedly made me uneasy that I still wasn't sure exactly what they were trying to protect me from.

"I see. So would it be completely out of the question if I asked you if maybe you wanted to get something to eat with me later tonight?"

I honest to God thought I was dreaming. Like I was completely convinced I was still passed out on the couch in Derek's loft and this was all just a part of some cruel illusion. I blinked. Nope, pretty certain this was reality.

"Well, not completely." I said shyly. "I mean, yeah. No, that'd be… that'd be cool."

Isaac smirked. "Alright, cool. Does seven work? I can pick you up or-"

"Uh how about I just meet you at your place?" I blurted while my heart continued humming so loud in my chest I could've sworn he could hear it.

"Alright, that works too." He said, not questioning it much to my relief.

Holy shit, I had a date. When you're a teenage girl, that's already a big enough of a deal. But when you're some sort of dream-life psychic werewolf girl, that's an entirely new level.

I had yet to see the Aiden that day yet and ironically enough that's what I was thinking about when I was grabbed by the forearm and dragged around the corner into an alcove where a staircase was.

And there was Aiden, glaring at me with that all-too familiar annoyed facial expression. "Where the hell have you been?" He asked. "Relax." I said. "I had to stay the night at Derek's place."

"You had to?" he repeated. "Kalel, if you don't take this whole thing seriously Deucalion's going to-"

"Going to what?" I interrupted. "I'm doing exactly what he asked. I'm getting close to them and watching them."

"You're not watching them you're watching out for them." His eyes were scanning my face and his words had become quieter. "You should never have told them about the dreaming in the first place."

I narrowed my eyebrows. "Oh, Aiden. Jesus Christ, you told him, didn't you? You told Deucalion that they know about it."

Aiden threw up his hands. "That's exactly what I'm talking about!" he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You shouldn't be doing things knowing that he wouldn't approve of them! When was the last time you even reported to him since you fought with him? Never? You know he's going to know everything in the end anyways."

"I've got it under control." I said mildly. "Did you get your bike back?"

"Yeah, the one you stole last night to go and pay a late-night visit to the enemy? It was Ethan's and we figured that's the only place you would go so we picked it up this morning. Great job hiding it in plain-sight on the friggen' side of the place."

"Hey, nobody saw it." I said. "And they're not the enemy- Deucalion said there were no sides."

"Yeah well Deucalion says a lot of things."

I stopped.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing." Aiden said quickly. "I'm just warning you not to do anything stupid."

I let myself smile and said, "I told you, I have it under control."

"Yeah well, try and keep it that way." Aiden said. "And you better have a good reason for all of this when you get home to tell Deucalion."

"Oh, speaking of that." I began. "I aaaaactually got invited to go out tonight with someone-"

"Who."

"It's nothing, it's not even a big deal-"

"Kalel, who asked you to go out."

I shifted my weight back and forth from one foot to another. "…. Isaac. Lahey?"

"You can't be serious." Aiden said and I knew he was talking about how he had just finished lecturing me on sticking to the plan.

"Hey, this isn't anything random. Know thy enemy, right?" I actually hated myself for saying that, but if I thought it would get Aiden off my back for a while, at least long enough for me to go out tonight, then it was worth it I suppose.

"Alright, I guess. Do whatever you think you have to." He said. "I'll catch you later? Try not to get yourself in trouble in the meantime."

"You'll see me whether you want to or not." I joked, parting ways with him.

When I got to the cafeteria, I didn't see any of the guys yet but I saw Allison and Lydia sitting at the same table as yesterday and figured there was no harm in going over to sit with them since I was continually getting more and more comfortable with them both in class. But it was like as soon as I sat down, the conversation completely stopped and Lydia, who was sitting across from me, smiled like a doll with her mouth permanently painted on and eyes that seemed to be staring straight through my soul. I actually leaned back a bit in my seat.

"Um. Hi, Lydia." I said. "Anything… exciting happen lately…?"

"Oh, you know." She said in a voice that reminded me of a bird ruffling its feathers. "Just witnessing a little romance being born within the classroom."

Confused, I looked at Allison who was only smiling slightly, not looking like she was about to give up what the apparent secret was.

"Alright, I'll bite; what are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing. Just you and that little display with Isaac in math class earlier. You know, the one where he asked you out on a date."

"Oh." I said, my cheeks flushing. "Oh yeah that. He just um, asked me to go out and get something to eat- it's not that big of a deal really."

"Not that big of a deal?" Lydia said sounding personally offended. "Honey, there are girls in this school who would be willing to do unspeakable things for that boy to ask them out to just 'go out and get something to eat.'"

Unspeakable things?

She leaned back and tilted her chin down, raising her eyebrows. "You sure got him to warm up to you quickly."

I didn't even know what to say really. "Okay you're making me increasingly nervous about this whole thing." I said laughing towards the end of my words, pretending to distract myself by pulling out my water bottle, a bag of pita chips, and an apple from my bag.

"Don't make her nervous." Allison finally spoke, talking to Lydia. "I think it's great he asked her to go out; Isaac's a good guy."

Great. I thought to myself. Isaac was a good guy, perfect. And here I was, the complete opposite of the 'good girl' everyone had me made out to be.

"Do you want us to help you do your hair?" Lydia said perking up even more. "I have this hairstyle I've been saving, it's sort of like an Audrey Hepburn meets modern day Rapunzel; it's classy, you'd love it."

Wondering what the hell that could possibly even look like I said, "Thanks but it's fine." and then thinking quick on my feet added, "I don't want to seem like I'm trying too hard. I mean don't guys go for that whole 'natural I'm not interesting and therefore that makes them want you more' type of thing?"

Lydia pursed her lips and looked upwards. "Huh." She said. "I never thought of it like that. Usually I just look my best all the time and they still want me. But whatever you think'll work."