Chapter 1
Sleepy Town of Beacon Hills
Watching him climb his way up the lattice was interesting enough, but seeing Scott come out wielding a baseball bat and Stiles almost fall on his head was definitely where she thought the evening would end. She assumed Stiles would come back to the Jeep and drive her back home from where he had kidnapped her- although she would begrudgingly admit that she would willingly go anywhere with these two. So when they climb in, Scott nudging her to the backseat like their normal routine, and Stiles announces that they're going to find a dead body, she gapes at them and flat out refuses.
"What do you mean no?" Stiles looks back at her.
"I mean no! It's the first day of school tomorrow and it's a dead body. So whoever or whatever killed it could still be out there. I don't think any of us should go," she replied while pulling the sleeves of her beige knit sweater over her hands. "I have a bad feeling about this," she said honestly, looking into both of the boys' eyes.
"She has a point, dude," Scott said, as he reached back and placed his hand on top of hers comfortingly. He could often sense Penelope's anxious moods, not that they were hard to spot. Just like Stiles' hyperactivity wasn't hard to spot, even when he took his Adderall.
"Penelope, please, please, please," Stiles begged, also grabbing the hand Scott wasn't currently semi-holding. He used puppy dog eyes and titled his head at me, whimpering slightly. "Oh my god," Scott scoffed.
Penelope shifted in her seat uncomfortably, this tactic always worked on her and he knew it.
"Fine. But after this, you owe me one. Big time and I mean it, Stilinksi!" She huffed and pulled her hand from his grasp. He fist-pumped and whooped in excitement and he and Scott both turned around.
"This is why you're my favorite female best friend, Nelly," Stiles grinned at her in the rearview mirror as he starts the Jeep and begins the drive towards the Preserve.
"She's our only female friend, dumbass, but I agree, she is the best," Scott punched Stiles and then sent her a smile in her defense.
"How many girls are sane enough to put up with you two gumballs?"
"Gumballs?" They both laugh after a beat of silence.
"I was trying to insult you," Penelope grumbled as she sunk further into the backseat and tried to hide in her sweater.
When they get to the Preserve, Stiles gets out immediately, flashlight in hand. Scott follows, hurrying to keep up with him. Penelope scurries out of the backseat after them as they charge onto the hiking path.
"Are we seriously doing this?" Scott asks.
"I second that notion," Penelope whines, ducking under the chain leading into the woods.
"You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town, Scott," he shoots back.
"I was trying to get a good night's sleep for practice tomorrow."
Stiles rolls his eyes as they trudge on, "Right, because sitting on the bench is such a grueling effort."
"I may not have lacrosse as an excuse but I was also trying to get to sleep," Penelope said indignantly. She loved her friends to death, but she did often feel overlooked, especially when it came to being dragged around on their crazy adventures. Plus she was getting sleepy, which meant she was getting cranky.
Stiles stops and turns to look at her briefly, "Well that's different, you're a growing girl."
"Is that a short joke?!" Penelope slaps him on the arm, laughing.
Penelope was 5 feet tall even, so she was used to the teasing remarks, not only from Scott and Stiles but from pretty much everyone they had ever gone to school with, and then some teachers and adults on top of that. It had gotten better as she and everyone around her matured and got older, but some people never grew out of it.
Stiles slung an arm around her as they continued walking, "I'm just kidding, you're the perfect size, Nelly, no need to get any taller."
She felt her cheeks flare with heat at the contact and was aware of Scott's presence on her left side, close enough that their hands ghosted past each other in the darkness. "Good to know, since I've definitely already gone through puberty so you're kinda stuck with what you've got."
"Anyways, I'm actually playing this year. In fact, I'm going to make first line," Scott changes the subject as Stiles drops his arm from around her shoulders. She was simultaneously sad at the loss of his touch, while grateful that she could concentrate on walking normally again. Scott had also moved slightly farther away.
"That's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream. Even a pathetically unrealistic one!" Stiles mocks him.
Penelope slaps him on the arm, causing Stiles to yelp in surprise, "Nelly, come on, stop doing that!"
"Stop being so mean to Scotty!"
"Thanks, Nelly. Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?" Scott asks Stiles.
"Huh. I didn't even think about that," Stiles responds.
"And what if whoever killed the girl is still out here? Exactly like I said earlier," Penelope exclaims.
"Okay, Nelly, we've established that's also something I didn't think about."
"I have a really really bad feeling about this now," Penelope says while reaching out to take Scott's arm to help him up the hill.
"Comforting to know you've planned this out with your usual attention to detail." Following Stiles up the path, Scott stops at a tree, retrieving his inhaler.
"Maybe the severe asthmatic should be the one holding the flashlight," Scott continues.
When they reach the top of the hill, Stiles gets down low on his belly. Penelope can distantly see the outline of people with flashlights breaking the opposing tree line.
"Come on!" Stiles makes a run for it, Penelope and Scott trailing behind, him fiddling with the inhaler, and her not wanting to abandon her friend, as she was on the track team and could outrun both of them in a heartbeat if she wanted to.
"Wait, Stiles! Wait!" They both shouted after him, to no avail, him racing ahead of them.
Scott finally got his inhaler to work, stopping for a brief moment to use it, up ahead Stiles turned back to look for them and ran into a search dog. Scott pulled Penelope behind a tree, her firmly against his chest so that they were hopefully out of view from the Sheriff and any other police officers nearby.
"Hold on, hold on, this little delinquent belongs to me!" They hear the Sheriff call, "Do you listen in on all of my phone calls?"
"No... Not the boring ones," was Stiles' reply.
Penelope muffled her groan into the fabric of Scott's red hoodie at her second-hand embarrassment.
"And where are your usual partners in crime?" Stiles' dad asked.
"Who? Scott? Scott's home. Said he wanted to get a good night's sleep for the first day back at school," Stiles said nonchalantly.
"I said, partners, as in plural, don't play dumb. What about Penelope?"
"You know she's too good to get involved… all the time," Stiles said.
"Scott? Penelope? You guys out there?" The Sheriff shouted. Hidden in the shadows, Scott and Penelope stay absolutely still. Scott has his arms around her upper back, keeping her to him so that her shaking is minimal.
The Sheriff takes Stiles and leaves, "All right, young man, I'm taking you back to your car and we're going to discuss a little something called invasion of privacy."
After they knew they were in the clear, Scott and her tried to make their way back to the road. Any road now that Stiles was gone. Although he would probably swing back by to pick us up since his dad would be out all night dealing with this mess.
"I can't believe he dragged us into this and now he's in his car on his way back home and we're on a midnight hike," Penelope whispered as they marched through the dead leaves.
"I know, we just have to find our way back to the road, and then we're not that far from my house. You can just crash there if you want."
"It's looking like that'll be my only option unless Stiles comes back and picks us up," she responded to the floppy-haired boy as he removed his inhaler from his pocket and began to shake it. He peered into the distance strangely. "Do you-"
And then at least half a dozen deer charge out of the darkness, soaring past and over the two of them, their hooves trampling the ground but luckily not Scott and Penelope's heads, or limbs, or any other vital body parts.
After the deer are gone, the two of them get up, Scott first, him reaching out and pulling up Penelope by her arms. He pats his pockets, "My inhaler is gone." His face is scrunched up with worry.
"It'll be okay, pull out your phone and we'll look. Worst case scenario Stiles and I both have a backup," she said and bumped his shoulder with her hip as he bent down to start scanning the forest floor for his inhaler. She pulled out her phone and began to do the same, about 10 feet from Scott.
"Anything yet?" He asked her hopefully after a bit, looking at her with those big brown eyes she loved so much.
"Sorry, Scotty, not yet." He went back to looking and a few minutes later she heard a strangled shout before something heavy falling and rolling. She turned quickly but couldn't see Scott anywhere. She ran to where he last was and peered over the edge of the slope, seeing Scott pulling himself up by a tree log down below.
"Scott!" Penelope screamed down to him, "Are you okay? What happened?" She began making her way down the steep hill. She stumbled a few times, going most of the way on her butt, accepting that these jeans would have permanent dirt stains on the back pockets.
"Careful," Scott scolded as she lurched forward over a tree root at the bottom and into his arms as he pulled himself up, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, now answer my questions please, what happened?" she repeated with more urgency, getting the feeling they were being watched, her eyes darting around the woods until they locked onto a dark, hulking figure behind her and Scott.
"I found-" Scott began but stopped when he noticed her wide eyes and terrified expression and the low throaty, animalistic growls permeating the air. He turned to see a beast just as it lunged at him and Penelope. He pushed her behind him as the beast grabbed him, pulling him by his leg.
"No!" Penelope screamed, scrambling to grab onto his hand, and he did the same, but the beast was too fast.
It opens its jaws and bites Scott's torso before throwing him away. Penelope runs to him and they both run as fast as they can and as far away as they can from whatever the hell that was.
They finally break free from the trees, Penelope leading in front of Scott, holding his arm and dragging him as fast as she can manage. He's still huffing but the adrenaline has helped, as well as the two hits of his inhaler earlier, which is a good thing he used it then before he lost it. When they get onto the road, an SUV approaches, and the two of them raise their arms in shock, Scott pulling himself and Penelope a step or two back in the little time he had to react. Thankfully the car swerves and they're left standing in the middle of the road questioning whether or not they're safe.
Scott lifts up his jacket and shirt to get a look at the bite. "Oh my god, Scott, I think we need to go see your mom," Penelope shivers as they stand in the constant sprinkling of rain, her hair is almost soaked at this point, her sweater and jeans uncomfortably damp.
"No!" He looks up at her in alarm as he drops his shirt, "Then she'll know I was out here, and I'll be in huge trouble, like major trouble, Nelly. Just help me clean it at the house, you know my mom keeps first aid stuff there."
She relented on the sole condition that he also owes her a major favor along with Stiles, so now both of them were in her debt, and she grumbled about stupid boys and stupid murderers and stupid wolves attacking stupid boys on stupid midnight hikes as they made their way to Scott's house.
Penelope is picked up from Scott's house by Stiles early before school so she can sneak back in her window, which ends up being unnecessary as her mom has already left for work, and she gets ready for school. Stiles waits for her downstairs, helping himself to a fudge Pop-Tart from her pantry as she gets dressed. She puts on a knee-length jean skirt, with an oversized pink sweater with a daisy emblem on it. She would pair the outfit with her white and gold shoes before she left the house, and she was considering putting on a pair of tights since it was a little cold outside, but she was interrupted by Stiles opening her door.
"I'm bored." He sighed as he flopped onto her bed on his back.
She gave him an incredulous look for a second before continuing to get ready, moving to sit at her vanity in her room where her hair straightener was plugged in. She began twisting random waves into her collarbone-length platinum blonde hair. Her eyes flicked up to the mirror at the feeling of someone watching her, to the sight of Stiles sitting up on his elbows, now watching her with an unreadable look on his face.
"How do you do that so easily? How often do you still burn yourself?" Stiles asked, referencing all the times he used to watch her get ready and she would burn her fingertips, the shell of her ear, her neck, her cheek, etc. with her hair tools.
Penelope couldn't help the laugh that erupted at that. Stiles really was adorable sometimes. "It comes with practice, also having shorter hair helps, now that I wear it at this length," she answered him, gently fingering the curls, shaking them out on her head, watching his face loosen slightly at the explanation.
She finished quickly, applying mascara, blush, and lip tint, before turning around, seeing that Stiles had almost fallen asleep again on her bed.
"Stiles!" Penelope shouted, waking him almost instantly, the boy shooting up from the bed, "I'm up, I'm up!"
"Great, cause we have to go, we need to make sure Scott doesn't have rabies or something," she grabbed his arm and grabbed her bag with her other hand as she led him down the stairs.
"All right let's see this thing," Stiles says to Scott when they reach him outside of the school. Penelope had been very intimate with the horrific wound the night before and had no interest in seeing its ugliness again.
"It was too dark to see much but I'm pretty sure it was a wolf," Scott told him, before Penelope interjected, "Did you forget about me being there and trying to save you from being wolf food? So yes it was definitely a wolf because I saw it too. And I kept telling you guys something bad was going to happen."
"Well yes you did happen to be right this time Nelly, although you happen to be right most times, just NOT about it being a wolf," Stiles rebutted.
"We heard a wolf howling," Scott told him.
"No, you didn't."
"What do you mean no we didn't, how do you know what me and Nelly heard?"
Penelope was trailing behind them, although they were angled back and kept glancing back at her, mainly Scott, like he was looking for support.
"California doesn't have wolves. Not for the last sixty years," Stiles shot back at him.
"Really?" Penelope asked.
"Yes, really. There are no wolves in California."
Scott stopped when the three of them reached the front of the school steps. "Well, if you don't believe me about the wolf, then you're definitely not going to believe me when I tell you I found the body."
"You what? Are you kidding me?" Stiles grinned and reached out like he was going to embrace the two of them before putting his arm back down.
"I wish. I'm going to have nightmares about it for a month."
"Thankfully I didn't see it, but I did see the big scary terrifying monstrous wolf that attacked Scott and me. That was definitely a wolf, Stiles," Penelope chimed in.
"Okay seriously it wasn't, it just couldn't have been, there's no way, but about the body, that's freaking awesome! This is seriously the best thing that's happened to this town since," he stops as suddenly a familiar strawberry blonde begins walking towards the school "since the birth of Lydia Martin. You look-like you're going to ignore me."
Scott laughs and Penelope frowns, crossing her arms as she glares at Stiles, trying to understand why he tortures himself this way.
"You're the cause of this, you know. Dragging me down to your nerd depths. I'm a nerd by association. I've been Scarlet-nerded by you," Stiles rants at Scott, blaming him for the behavior of his long-time crush.
"She's never given you the time of day and we've known each other our whole lives, Stiles. Seriously, someone else out there likes you," Penelope tried to convince him.
"But I have a 10-year plan," Stiles said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Scott grabbed Penelope's hand, grinning his famous lopsided grin, pulling her towards the school, "Come on, Nelly, he's a lost cause."
Penelope felt her cheeks heat up and was so embarrassed with herself, she really needed more female company if this is how she kept reacting to every interaction lately with her best friends.
Penelope met up with Scott, Stiles, and Harley, an acquaintance of theirs, by their locker after class. She didn't have first period with them and to be honest, she missed her friends already. One of the things her mom had made her promise to do this year was to venture out, make new friends, and broaden her horizons. But she didn't know how to explain to anyone, even her mom, that she didn't feel like she needed anything more than them two. But she knew how crazily co-dependent that sounded and that if either of them heard it, it would probably have them running for the hills and never speaking to her again.
"Can someone tell me how New Girl is here all of five minutes and she's already hanging with Lydia's clique?" Harley asks as she steps up to the trio.
"Because she's hot. Beautiful people herd together," the boy with the buzz-cut answers, leaning against the lockers with his arms crossed against his chest, his eyes momentarily flitting to Penelope when he mentioned beautiful people, her eyes catching his. She inhales sharply but quietly, glancing away quickly, sure that it doesn't mean anything because with the context of the conversation, how could it? She may believe she was beautiful, but she definitely was not a part of the 'beautiful people's' herd. But she liked her own herd well enough.
Penelope could tell Scott was enamored by New Girl as Harley had called her, as he was no longer listening to whatever Harley and Stiles were arguing about- Lydia apparently, and herding, still.
"You'll be at practice right, Nelly?" she hears Stiles ask, her attention drawn from where Scott is still enraptured by New Girl down the hall, she looks up and Harley has left.
"Oh, uh, yeah, when do I ever not come? Only when track starts but I don't think it should interfere too badly this year," Penelope smiles nervously, blushing slightly at being caught staring at her other best friend.
"Okay, great," Stiles starts, shoving something into his backpack, "I'll need help with this one, I think," he finishes, gesturing towards the floppy-haired puppy of a boy still leaning against the locker, gazing at a place where a certain brunette used to stand.
Penelope sat on edge of the low bleachers, as close to the bench of players as she could get. When she finally saw her friends walking across the field, talking, she held up her hand, getting a wave in return from the both of them. She stood from the bleachers and joined them halfway before they made it to their own bench.
"But if you play I'll have no one to talk to on the bench. You really gonna' do that to your best friend?" She hears Stiles say to Scott as she approaches them.
"Stiles, are you seriously trying to guilt-trip him into underperforming in a high school extracurricular just to spend extra time with you?" Penelope questioned, her hands going to her hips.
Stiles gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat nervously, his eyes going in between her and Scott repeatedly, "uh, no?"
"Good answer."
"I can't sit out again. My whole life is sitting on the sidelines. This season, I make first line,"
Scott replied matter-of-factly. Penelope was stunned by his determination.
"Well okay then, if Scotty says he's got this," she smiled, rubbing his back supportively, "then he's got this!"
He turned and smiled at her in return, his lips slowly curling up, his eyes crinkling shut as they did, his dimples were always much more prominent like this, he squeezed her hand thankfully.
He pauses, eyes shooting up to lock on to something, Penelope turns around and sees Lydia and the New Girl making their way up the stands.
"Hey what's New Girl's name, by the way?" she asks the two of them.
"Allison," Scott says breathily, and she can feel her heartbeat rise in some indiscernible emotion, before his eyes snap back to Penelope, glancing at her curiously, and then the three of them are interrupted by Coach.
"McCall! You're on goal!"
Penelope takes that as her cue to head back to her seat, except as she starts walking she almost runs into somebody. "Oh my goodness, sorry!" she exclaims, reaching out to steady both of them. She then sees that it's none other than Lydia Martin.
"Hey! Uh, Polly? Come sit with us! Allison wants to meet you, she's new," Lydia hooks her arm through mine, steering me away from my original seat near where the boys would be, and up higher in the stands.
"It's Penelope, actually. Lydia, we've known each other since third grade, how do you still not know my name?" she gapes at the red-headed girl as they near New Girl. Great, now Penelope had to endure being next to the objects of affection of both of her best friends, which she would be fine with normally if it wasn't for Lydia Martin and her kind of being a soulless, heartless, just overall mean person. She made Penelope's heart hurt sometimes, not anywhere near the way her asshole boyfriend Jackson made her feel, but Penelope was a very sensitive and kind-hearted person who didn't take criticism or insults well.
"I knew that!" Lydia stopped and laughed looking at her with wide eyes before continuing walking as if nothing had happened, "I was kidding, let's go."
When they sat down she waved slightly to the brunette they were joining. "Hi, I'm Allison," the girl introduced herself.
"I'm Penelope, nice to meet you," she replied, shaking Allison's hand. "So Lydia said this is your first day?" she asked, wanting to get in a little small talk to make things less awkward.
"Yeah it is, so far it's been great though," Allison breathes a sigh of relief.
"Oh great! Beacon Hills doesn't have a lot to offer but it's a pretty neat place. Where'd you move from?"
"San Francisco, but we've moved around like crazy my whole life," Allison shrugged.
"Oh, well do you think this will be a longer stop?" Penelope asks, sending the girl a smile.
"I hope so, it would make adjusting a hell of a lot easier," she replies and the three girls share a laugh. Penelope never thought it would be this easy. Enjoying others' company other than Scott and Stiles, but here she was, getting along so easily with Allison. She wasn't sure how she felt about Scott's interest in her yet, but Allison seemed like a really cool girl.
"So… who's he?" Allison asks shyly, nodding towards Scott down on the field.
"I'm not sure who he is, but that's why we brought you," Lydia smirks, looking towards Penelope, who looked like a fish out of water.
"His name's Scott, you've also known him since third grade," she grumbled under her breath, but both girls were now staring off at Scott, talking about him being in her English class before the whistle was blown and practice started.
Suddenly Scott is hit with a ball and goes flying to the ground. Penelope's hands cover her mouth in shock and she jumps in her seat, "Oh, goodness."
He gets up quickly, looking fiercely determined and more than a little pissed off, standing off in the goal.
Then like there was a switch flipped in him, Scott starts catching every single ball thrown to him. Penelope hears Stiles cheering down below, and she begins clapping as well.
"He seems like he's pretty good," she hears Allison say, to which Lydia responds, "Very good."
"He's been practicing all summer and working really hard," Penelope said to them, the grin on her face wide and her unable to hide it. She had doubted Scott's ability to improve quite as drastically as he wanted, but here he was. He was truly a force to be reckoned with.
Jackson makes a show of stepping in front of a player to get to Scott first. She clenched her fists, knowing this probably wouldn't end well. He charges down the field, leaps into the air, and shoots the ball. She can hardly follow it until she sees that Scott is clearly holding it in his stick. She feels pulled up in Lydia's excitement. Lydia is cheering and clapping and Penelope does the same, standing next to the strawberry blonde, the girl's arm hooked in with hers, her eyes finding Scott on the field immediately, wondering where in the hell that came from.
After practice ended, Stiles drove the three of them back out to the Preserve to try to find Scott's inhaler before it got dark again. As they walked through the woods, she had yet another bad feeling.
"I don't know what it was. I mean I felt like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I mean I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. And I can smell things," Scott explained to them.
"Smell things? Like what?" Stiles scoffed at him.
"Like the mint mojito gum in your pocket."
"I don't have any…" Stiles reaches into his pocket and pulls out a stick of gum, when he went to stick it back into his pocket Penelope reached her hand out and tapped his shoulder, holding her hand out. He grumbled before dropping it in her outstretched hand, smiling slightly at her victorious grin. "All this started with the bite?"
"What if it's an infection? What if my body is flooding with adrenaline before I fall into shock? I knew I should have gone to the ER," Scott whined.
"Scott, I told you to go to the hospital, are you kidding me? You begged me to take you home so that your mom wouldn't ground you. So this is your fault," Penelope scolded him as Scott groaned at the reminder of last night.
Stiles interrupted their bickering, "Guys, I've actually heard of this. It's a specific kind of infection."
"Are you serious?" Scott's eyes widened in fear.
"All the symptoms add up. I think it's called... Lycanthropy," Stiles told him.
"Oh my god, you ass," Penelope said under her breath, knowing the joke he was trying to play, when suddenly Stiles' hand shot out and hit the side of her arm to silence her.
"What's that? Is it bad? It sounds bad," Scott panicked.
"It is. But only once a month."
"Once a month?"
"On the night of a full moon," Stiles mimics a shrill wolf howl.
"Alright Stiles, you had your fun, leave Scott alone now," Penelope stepped forward.
"Hey, you two are the ones who heard a wolf howling," Stiles said defensively.
Scott was in full-on panic mode at this point, "There could be something seriously wrong with me!"
"I know! You're a werewolf!" Scott rears back in frustration and pushes Stiles square on the chest. "Okay, obviously, I'm kidding. But if you see me in shop class melting down all the silver I can find it's because Friday's a full moon."
"Just ignore him, he's being normal Stiles, as usual, we'll figure out what's going on," Penelope said to Scott as the three kept walking, feeling her motherly instinct come out. Normally it happened like this, Stiles teasing Scott and Penelope stepping in to quell the arguing.
"I swear this was it. The body was here. The deer came running, I dropped my inhaler…" Scott trailed off as the three of them reached the spot from the previous night. Penelope looked around, recognizing the slope, and nodded, "This is definitely it."
"Maybe the killer moved the body," Stiles huffed.
Scott sighed, "If he did, I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are like eighty bucks."
Stiles taps Scott on the arm with his right hand where he was crouched on the ground, Penelope was frozen next to Stiles, bringing their attention to a figure standing just a few yards away. "What are you doing here?" The man asks the three of them.
Stiles' arm wrapped around Penelope's shoulders, holding her tight in between himself and Scott. Both Scott and Stiles are too stunned to speak at first. "This is private property."
"Sorry, we didn't know," Stiles finally says.
The creepy guy stares at Scott, barely noticing Stiles or herself.
"We were just looking for something. But, uh, forget it," Scott says in response to his gruff attitude, grabbing Nelly's hand. As they're turning to go, the guy tosses an object to Scott that he catches. She looks over and sees incredulously that it's his inhaler.
"Alright, come on. I have to get to work," Scott says, looking down at the inhaler like nothing just happened.
"Dude, that was Derek Hale. You remember, right? He's only like a few years older than us," Stiles tells them. Penelope feels a flash of recognition, she remembers now, but she hadn't recognized his face, Stiles really has a good memory.
"Remember what?" Scott asked him.
"Scott, the Hale family," she tried to gently remind him, sensing a less than gentle reminder coming from Stiles.
"His family. They all burned to death in a fire like ten years ago. I remember the cops pulling him out of class to tell him." There it was, although not as bad as she was expecting.
"I wonder what he's doing back," Scott mused as he eyed the inhaler in his hand, closing his fist over it.
Stiles dropped Scott off at the Animal Clinic before starting the drive to her house. They were talking about Derek Hale, who Stiles was insisting had to be the murderer.
"I'm just saying, pretty crazy coincidence- a dead body shows up, Derek Hale shows up, then he scares us in the woods! I mean what is this, a soap opera?" He rants, his hands flying around as much as they can as he keeps control of the steering wheel.
"Maybe he just wanted to come back home. You know his uncle is still alive and lives here, my mom used to work at the Crossing Home where he was at," she mentions with a pained look in her eye at the thought of that man. She had never seen him, but even the thought was enough to break her heart.
"All I know is, he's my number one suspect," he quipped as he pulled into her driveway and she opened the door to step out.
"Hey!" Stiles called, effectively stopping her. "What's up?" Penelope asked him.
"You-you looked really nice today, I guess the practice paid off," he stuttered slightly, referencing their conversation this morning in her room, his face going red.
"Well thanks very much, partner," she mimicked a cowboy and promptly collected her things and hurried inside. As soon as the door was closed, she had her back pressed to it, cursing herself for being so awkward when he was just trying to give her a compliment. She was glad her mom wasn't home since she had slammed the door in her haste to get inside. Penelope sighed and resigned herself to an early night of bed since there was no homework to do yet.
When school ended, Penelope ventured out to the lacrosse field as quickly as she could, anxious to get an eye on her friend that had been acting so strange lately. Before she left the building, an arm snaked through hers, startling the pale-haired girl, her blue-green eyes snapping to the one and only Lydia Martin. "You scared the heebie-jeebies out of me"
"Mmm, I could tell," Lydia made a somewhat pleased noise as they walked towards the field together. "You know I can't believe we didn't become friends sooner, you're actually super cute, Penny."
"So you're saying we're friends?" Penelope glanced at her, caught off guard, temporarily disregarding the foreign nickname.
"Mhmm, of course we are, and your outfits are so cute, I think I would maybe divert the attention a bit though," Lydia mused as they made themselves comfortable on the seat.
"What do you mean?"
"Your whole vibe is very cute and fun and artsy, but you're hot, use that to your advantage," she was referring to Penelope's current outfit. She was wearing a pair of plain black skinny jeans and white converse, with a black and white striped long sleeve shirt, with yellow cuffs and a yellow collar. Today her hair was straight, and her makeup was similar to what she had done yesterday, except she had added winged eyeliner in an attempt to make an effort.
"You're totally coming over and raiding my closet! You're not that much smaller than me, we can make it work," Lydia squeals in excitement as Allison sits next to the two of them.
Penelope resigns herself to her fate, smiling internally, it feels good to have friends. Her first and long-time impression of Lydia was a bad one. But she had accepted her so easily and had been pretty welcoming so far, so she wouldn't pass it up.
Tryouts started with Scott being shoved by Jackson roughly. Penelope quickly inhaled, tensing to make sure he was okay before he started getting up. "Hey, Lydia? Do you think Jackson doesn't like Scott?" She asked nervously, not wanting to offend her new friend now that the offer of friendship was on the table.
"It's just lacrosse, it's a violent game," she responded, clipped.
Scott quickly recovered and recovered immensely. He did some sort of insane gymnastics/acrobatics move that she's never seen him do before, making the shot after flipping over three guys. Coach calls him over, giving him a hard time before announcing he's on first line. Penelope starts cheering along with everyone else, although she notices Stiles is strangely silent and goes down to talk to him.
Stiles tells her about the wolf hairs on the body, sending her into an immediate anxiety attack, "So it could've been a wolf that attacked us that night? That bit Scott?" Penelope asks, even though she already knows the answer.
"I'm thinking it could be a lot more than just a normal wolf, Nelly," he says as he pulls the Jeep onto the road towards his house.
"What do you mean?" she peers at him through squinted eyes, her wracked hands loosening.
"I mean- did you NOT see him on the field today? And yesterday? There's something up with him. He said himself, he can hear better, smell better, see better, I mean, he got bit by a freaking wolf, and now there are wolf hairs on the dead torn apart mutilated body. So, what if it was like, actually a werewolf," Stiles ends nervously, glancing between her and the road.
Penelope thinks back to the flashes of what she saw that night. The large hulking beast that she passed off as a wolf because of the howl and the claws and the bite and the teeth, but it was huge- too huge. Bigger than any natural wolf could ever be. And she could've sworn it stood on its back legs when it threw Scott.
"I swear to god I'm not messing with you, Nel, I know what I said to Scott but I-" he starts to explain at her silence but she stops him with a hand to his forearm, their eyes meeting briefly.
"I believe you."
"Oh, okay uh wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be, now we just have to convince Scott," Stiles said, releasing a shaky breath she expected he didn't know he was holding. She reluctantly removed her hand when she noticed it was still there.
"Hey, are you okay? You never said a lot about what happened out there, and I don't want you to think we're only focused on Scott just because he got bitten by a werewolf, when you very nearly almost got bitten," Stiles said to her, and they laughed together at the end.
"I'm okay. To be honest, it was terrifying, maybe I didn't want to believe that it wasn't a normal animal because it was so dark, but things just don't make sense. That thing does not make sense."
Stiles places his right hand back over hers as he pulls into his driveway, "I'm sorry I ditched you guys that night, I swear it wasn't intentional, I wish I could've been there to protect you two."
She feels him squeeze her hand slightly before he lets go and turns off the ignition and the two of them step out, making their way upstairs and to Stiles' room.
"It's fine. In the end, no one died, so things could've gone worse," Penelope shrugged as she sat on his bed and he went straight to his laptop. For the next hour, he furiously researched werewolves, or so she assumed from the few times she could get him to look up and speak to her. She pulled out her math binder and began on the packet assigned that day.
A knock on the door startled both her and Stiles out of their concentration. Stiles hurries up from the desk, going to the door and opening it, seeing Scott standing on the other side before sighing thankfully. Nelly feels her heart jump at Scott's lopsided grin when she sees him standing on the other side of the door. His eyes immediately flash to hers, almost like he knows. Then Stiles is ushering him in, "Get in. You have to see this. I've been reading. Websites, books, all this information."
As Scott enters the room, Stiles starts grabbing some of the printouts from his desk. Penelope scoots to the edge of Stiles' bed, where Scott joins her after throwing his bag beside her own
"How much Adderall has he had today?" Scott questions the girl sitting beside him.
Penelope opens her mouth to respond as Scott looks at her, but Stiles cuts her off, "A lot. Doesn't matter. Just listen."
"Is this about the body? Did they find who did it?"
"No, they're still questioning people. Even Derek Hale-" Stiles tries to explain.
"The guy from the woods-" Scott realizes.
"Yeah, but that's not it," Stiles says, getting suddenly frustrated.
"Okay. What then?" He asks, laughing lightly. Penelope braces herself beside him, reaching out and placing her arm around his back.
"Remember the joke the other day? Not a joke anymore," Stiles starts but sees that Scott doesn't understand. "He's talking about the wolf, Scotty, the bite," Penelope said as gently as she could while rubbing soothing circles in between his shoulder blades. He glances at her unsurely, before going back to glaring at Stiles.
"I started doing all this reading and- Do you even know why a wolf howls?" Stiles asks
"Should I?"
"It's a signal. When a wolf is alone it howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack. So if you heard it howling that means there's others. Maybe a whole pack of them." Stiles said shakily.
"A pack of wolves?" Scott asks him.
"No. Werewolves," Stiles answers, looking to Penelope for support.
"You're seriously wasting my time with this? Do you agree with him, Nelly? You know, I'm picking Allison up in an hour," Scott says angrily, standing up from the bed.
"I know what I saw. And that thing was way too big to be a normal wolf, and you know it, Scott," Penelope said confidently, shocking Scott and the hyperactive boy to their side.
"I saw you on the field, Scott. What you did wasn't just amazing. It was impossible," Stiles tried to reason with him, showing him that his newfound abilities weren't his own.
"So I made a good shot," Scott bristled.
"No, you made an incredible shot. The way you moved- the speed, your reflexes- people can't suddenly do that overnight. And then there's the hearing, the senses, and don't think I haven't noticed you don't need your inhaler anymore. You haven't used it since that night," Stiles shot back at him. This was not good. Penelope knew if she didn't stop this soon Stiles would probably just overload Scott and he wouldn't want to talk to them. Plus he looked like he was getting extra pissed. Like unusually pissed for sweet puppy dog Scott. But she couldn't blame him given how Stiles was handling the situation.
"Stiles, there has to be a better way to explain this. Scott, we're not saying anything's wrong with you," Penelope tried to calm him down, reaching out where he met her halfway, their hands holding for a moment, she heard him take a deep breath.
"I can't think about this now. We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" Scott says
"Tomorrow? Don't you get it? The full moon is tonight," Stiles goes back into panic mode.
"What are you trying to do? I just made first line on the team. I have a date with a girl I can't believe wants to go out with me. Everything in my life is somehow perfect. Why are you trying to ruin it?" Scott yells at him, and Penelope's heart breaks for him. She should've known this was a bad plan, to ambush him like this. Although she had expected Stiles would've taken a gentler approach to it.
"Scott," she said weakly.
"I am trying to help, Scotty. With the full moon, it's going to be too hard to resist and there's no going back. You're cursed. And it's not only that the moon causes you to change, but it's also when your bloodlust will be at its peak." Stiles pleads with his friend, seeing Penelope behind Scott, concern written all over the petite girl's face.
"Bloodlust?" Scott says darkly.
"Your urge to kill."
"I'm already starting to have an urge to kill, Stiles," he all but growls out at him.
"You need to hear this. The change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your pulse. And I've never seen anyone raise your pulse like Allison does. You have to call her and cancel the date," Stiles tells him.
Penelope feels a quick burn of jealousy and then it's gone. She has no right to feel jealous over her best friend, especially not over a girl as nice as Allison Argent, she was a sweetheart. Stiles grabs Scott's jacket, looking for his cell phone.
"What are you doing? Give me that!" Scott shouts, trying to grab the phone out of his hands.
"I'm just finding her number-"
"Stiles, that's so not cool," Penelope walked over and tried to worm her arm in between the two, partially to grab the phone and partially to break up what she thought was an impending fight.
"No! Give it to me." Scott rears his right arm back shoving Penelope back until her knees hit the bed and her bottom hits it with an audible oomph. Scott yanks the phone out of Stiles's hand and shoves him against the wall, holding him up like he was going to punch him. Scott instead lashes out at the desk chair sending it flying across the room, tossing it like it weighed nothing. Then, shaking with anger, he gazes up.
"I didn't mean to do that," he apologizes. He starts to reach towards Stiles, but his friend flinches back. He turns to Nelly who is still sitting stunned on the bed.
"We just want you to be safe," she whispers to him but it's more of a plea.
"I'm sorry. Really, I didn't mean it. I have to go. I have to get ready for the party. I'm sorry." Grabbing his jacket, Scott hurries out.
Stiles and her decide to go to the party together, knowing that he'll be there, and they both want to keep an eye on him. They get there and fight among a sea of people in search of the two brunettes, Allison and Scott. But no one had ever accused Lydia of throwing lackluster parties, and her house was packed. "I don't see them anywhere," she sighed, leaning on the wall slightly, pulling on the hem of her shirt to get air underneath it.
"Neither do I," Stiles replied, then, noticing her actions, "Are you hot? Do you want a drink?" he called over the loud music inside the house.
"Yeah, actually, I think I need one for tonight, especially if we can't find Scott," she replied, and they both went in search of the drink table.
That was how they finally found their friend, their puppy dog, while they were standing outside with their solo cups, he stumbled upon them, groaning and moaning in pain.
"Yo, Scott, you good?" Stiles tried to get his attention, but it was no use, one minute he was there, and the next he was gone in the crowd. They raced after him, along with Allison.
After seeing Derek Hale drive home Allison, which was strange, but explaining to her why it was strange would be even stranger, and as far as they knew he was completely innocent. Just a creep who liked to freak out teenagers. And apparently, crash their parties. Stiles ushered Penelope into his Jeep and raced to Scott's house. After seeing his mom's car in the driveway, he all but ordered her to stay in the car, and she only complied due to the sheer speed with which he raced out of the car and into the house. A few minutes later she heard a thump and looked out the window to see Scott crouched on the ground, shirtless. She squinted, trying to adjust her eyes in the darkness, but she knows what she sees since the angle has her facing him from the side. His ears completely elongate, pointing at the tips, his sideburns grow very hairy, his nose flattens and broadens. A classic werewolf face if she ever had to describe one. If he didn't believe them before she hoped Scott believed them now.
Scott roared, and it sent a bone-chilling thrill of fear through her, his fangs glinting in the light. When he finally ran off, she exited the Jeep and ran towards the house, frightened for Stiles. She didn't want to believe that Scott could hurt anyone. Especially not Stiles, not him. But that wasn't Scott. He bursts out the door, gasping in relief when he's met with her, hugging her tight.
"What the hell happened?" she asks shakily.
"He thinks it's Derek that bit him, and since Derek drove Allison home, Scott is now after Derek. Come on, we need to go make sure Allison is okay. Let's check her house," he pulls back from her, bringing up one hand to place on the side of her face gently. She looks at him questioningly, and he knows what she wants to know.
"You were outside, and when he jumped out and I heard that roar, I just got so scared," Stiles explains, trying to calm the shaking of his hands as they get back into the Jeep again.
"Well I was scared because you were inside the house, so that makes two of us, but we're both fine, and Scott and Allison are going to be fine, too."
When they arrived at Allison's house, she stayed in the Jeep, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of her new friend's family in case she really was fine. Stiles ran up to the door, knocking furiously, and ringing the doorbell repeatedly. There's another howl that cuts through the air, and Stiles shoots a look back towards Penelope. He talks to a couple of people before running back to the Jeep, jumping in and starting the ignition, driving
"He's not after Allison, he's after Scott, he was the whole time," Stile says hurriedly, not even taking a breath.
"Wait where are we going?" she asks, "What happened with Allison?"
"She's fine, he brought her home, we're going to just drive until we find him I guess."
It's daylight when they finally find him, shirtless, clutching his arm where he tells them he's been shot by an arrow. "You know what actually worries me most?"
"If you say, Allison, I'm going to punch you in the head."
"I'm starting to second that notion," Penelope mumbles, and Scott snaps back to look at her, eyes wide, "No, I can't handle you being on his side." Then he turns back to the front and sighs, "She probably hates me now."
"I doubt that. But you might want to come up with a pretty amazing apology. Or just tell her the truth and revel in the awesomeness of the fact that you're a freaking werewolf. Okay, bad idea. We'll get through this. If I have to, I'll chain you up myself on full moon nights and feed you live mice. I had a boa once. I can do it." Scott finally lets out a little laugh, and Penelope rubs his shoulder as he grabs her hand appreciatively as they drive to Scott's house to drop him off. She thinks maybe they can do this.