Without waiting for a response from Lydia, Kennedy flicked the light back off and swung the door closed. Walking back down the stairs she hummed to herself, entirely satisfied with how the encounter had played out. When she entered her room she looked at the duffel and bag she'd throw onto her bed and immediately decided that she wasn't motivated enough to unpack. Instead she simply moved the stuff onto the carpet right next to the door. Rifling around in her duffel and ruining her carefully folded clothing, she pulled out a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt with her boarding school's mascot from the bottom of her bag.
She changed quickly, tossing her dirty clothes in the hamper and burying herself under her many blankets. Pillows covered nearly her entire bed, and she spent minutes arranging them so they fully encased her. She snuggled down and stared up at her ceiling, where glow in the dark stars were arranged into accurate constellations. In the fourth grade she'd put them up there, and when Lydia saw them she had insisted they were stupid and childish. That day she had moved into what had previously been the guest room on the second floor, forcing Kennedy to fall asleep without her fraternal twin's breathing for the first time since birth.
It wasn't exactly shocking, actually, now that they knew Lydia was a genius and immensely smarter than Kennedy. But while staring up at her ceiling, it hit her that she was really back in Beacon Hills, and she was there to stay.
Her breathing became shallow as absolute panic swallowed her whole, and she felt frantic. Clenching her eyes shut, she curled her hands into tight fists and tried to think about something else. Anything else. She tried to focus on her mom and Lydia's heartbeats, hoping they would remind her that what she had done was worth it. That what happened in Rhode Island had been the right choice.
Instead of calming her down, it only caused her anxiety to increase and a clenching sensation to hit her chest, just behind her sternum.
The pricks of pain on her palms caused her to look down, and she saw that her claws were quickly extending. Before she could even form a response, her gums painfully split and she knew her fangs had descended.
Kennedy lurched forward, tangling in the blankets and nearly sprinted to the bathroom. Immediately she hunched over the sink, gripping the porcelain tight enough that she felt a few small shards break off. She turned on the cold water and splashed her face over and over again. Between splashes she murmured the phrases that she wished she could believe.
"You're fine."
"You'll keep them safe."
"You're in control."
"You won't hurt anybody."
"The pack can't find you."
She wanted to believe what she said, but she still couldn't completely. Her breathing had slowed, but her chest was still heaving. Reaching to the side she patted her face dry with a towel and closed her eyes tightly as she let out a final shaky breath.
When she raised her face and looked at her reflection, glowing red eyes stared back.
The house was entirely silent when Kennedy woke up. She checked for heartbeats, and found that she was alone. She hadn't fallen asleep until around four in the morning, so she wasn't surprised when she checked her phone and saw that it was two in the afternoon. Sitting up in bed and twisting to each side until her back cracked, she yawned widely and rubbed at her eyes before trudging into the kitchen.
She opened the cabinets and saw that the only cereal was some bran shit and reduced calorie granola. Jesus she needed to immediately buy some actual food. After aimlessly looking through the kitchen, she finally yanked open the fridge and heartily drank half the milk from the carton. She was pretty sure she couldn't get sick anymore so her germs were harmless, and what her mom and Lydia didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
After finding a carton of blueberries in the back of the fridge she ambled back to her room, throwing berries in the air and seeing if she could catch them between her teeth.
It wasn't like she was doom and gloom all of the time, and she had mentally put her meltdown in a tiny box and shoved it into the back of her mind, unwilling to let it rule her day.
The sun was shining, sticky berry juice covered her fingers, and she was going to play Mario Kart until she got carpal tunnel. All in all a pretty good day was ahead of her.
After she finished the carton she quickly washed her hands and changed into a pair of ripped up jeans and a shirt with "Eat More Art" written across it. A smudged line of eyeliner and a few coats of mascara later, she deemed her appearance as good as it was going to get. She then unpacked her clothes, blasting AC/DC and singing along off-key while trying to kill time before meeting up with Stiles.
She had no idea where Lydia was, but she knew Lydia was the head bitch in charge at Beacon Hills High School, so she was probably hanging out with a posse or clique or whatever. Her mom was playing bridge if the calendar hanging on the fridge had been accurate. With the house to herself, she had no idea what to do.
So she settled on watching Law and Order
Just when she was about to find out who the murderer was the doorbell rang. She sprinted to the door and opened it quickly knowing it was Stiles, getting there only moments after he'd rang. Stiles' eyes widened in surprise and he stepped back, pin wheeling his arms as he nearly lost his balance and fell back down the porch stairs. Kennedy reached out, gripping the front of his t-shirt tightly and yanking him inside harshly.
Over calculating the amount of force she'd need, Stiles tripped forward and they both fell to the ground just inside the house, Stiles landing on her heavily. It didn't hurt, so instead of yelping in pain like she probably should have, she laughed loudly and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly while her legs tightened around his hips.
She kissed his cheek with a loud smack and an exaggerated "mwah" before pulling back and seeing a similar smile on Stiles face. A moment later however he coughed awkwardly and slightly grimaced.
"I may or may not pop an involuntary boner right now," he admitted.
Kennedy snorted and shoved him off to the side of her before standing and brushing herself off. After Stiles did the same, they turned to each other and hugged tightly. When they pulled back they did their secret handshake, which meant they high fived then low fived, spun around and knocked their foreheads together, Kennedy taking care to butt heads incredibly carefully.
Stiles looked her up and down before saying, "Dude, I really can't believe you're back."
Shrugging her shoulders, she slipped on a pair of suede boots she'd put next to the door. "Honestly, same here."
They were both quiet for a moment, the silence comfortable, before Stiles gestured outside to the blue jeep she'd missed and announced, "Your carriage awaits."
She couldn't get the smile off her face as she pulled herself into the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt. It didn't matter how rarely they saw each other or that they only talked on the phone once a week or so, she and Stiles had been close since fifth grade and their friendship came easily to them both.
As they pulled out of the driveway Kennedy dug her hands into her pockets and was happy to discover that she had remembered a ten-dollar bill.
"Wendy's?"
Stiles glanced at her with a deadpan look and answered seriously, "Ken, have I ever said no to anything deep fried?"
Adopting a similar serious face, she nodded and replied, "No sir."
The drive to Wendy's was filled with the radio blasting awful songs and the two of them singing the lyrics they knew as loudly and off key as they could. Each ordered a double burger, with Kennedy asking for "not a lot of mustard, ma'am. An absurd amount of mustard" and two fries each with large sodas.
One perk to the whole being-turned-into-a-monster thing was that she could eat whatever she wanted. She used to splurge every once in a while but remain on a strict diet the rest of the time, but now she only stuck to eating healthy out of habit more than anything else.
They decided to wait until they got to Stiles' house before starting to eat, but within two minutes Stiles was slapping Kennedy's hand away as it kept creeping toward her fries. She whined and pleaded but he didn't relent, so as soon as the car pulled into the driveway she vaulted out of the Jeep with the food, rushing to get to the door. Victorious, she threw open the door and ran inside before turning around, meeting Stiles' eyes, and shoving her fist into the air as it held fries while screaming, "HA!"
Stiles' eyes were wide and Kennedy realized that she hadn't held back quite as much as she should have, and to him it would have seemed like she had sprinted fairly fast when she was not a great runner. Thinking quickly, she continued inside and shouted over her shoulder, "C'mon, Buffy waits for no man!"
He followed her in, sufficiently distracted, and they both fell heavily into their chairs. Stiles had already popped in the DVD for season two, so with a touch of a button they began to watch. Four episodes into the show they had already descended into a heated argument.
"You don't get it Ken, Buffy and Angel are freaking soul mates! "
"They're a teenage pipe dream! He turns evil after they bone! What the hell does that tell you? Spike was at least honest about being evil from the beginning."
"Yeah, but he also tried to kill the whole gang multiple times and only turned to the good side out of necessity, he and Buffy should never have gotten together."
They paused for a moment and assessed each other with narrow eyes. Finally, they stuck out their hands and shook once.
"Agree to forever disagree. Now let's go play some Mario Kart, Scott sucks so it's no fun kicking his ass."
Kennedy stood and stretched her arms over her head, groaning loudly. They both gathered up the trash from their fast food and tossed it in the garbage. Kennedy still had Diet Coke left in her cup so she grabbed it and headed for the stairs.
"So do you want to start with the mushroom cup and make our way up to the special cup? I need to get some practice in before I can do rainbow –"
As soon as Stiles pushed open the door to his room and stepped inside, Kennedy froze and stopped talking.
She could smell the trace of a werewolf in Stiles' room.