Hello, my lovely readers! Thank you to all of the people who have favorited, followed, or reviewed! Again, I'm incredibly sorry that this took forever to post but if it makes you feel better, I have written lots of scenes for future episodes in my spare time. Hopefully that means you'll be getting some decent chapters to look forward to. (Ally continues to urge me to stop hurting Marlee.)
As per usual, you can find Marlee's outfits on my Polyvore account 'earthdiva' or you can find me on Tumblr 'missunderstoodxoxo'. I would be extremely grateful if you could review this chapter so I know how I did. (I'm not entirely sure whether this turned out alright or not.)
Inspiration for this chapter: "Weightless" by All Time Low, "Jungle" by X Ambassadors, and "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons
Disclaimer: I only own Marlee, Virginia, Colin, Edgar, and the car known as Ron Burgundy. Everything else belongs to its' rightful owners.
It wasn't long before the two pulled up to the McCall house. Parking in the driveway beside Allison's car, Scott waited for Marlee to slide off of the bike before dismounting. As his passenger took off the helmet he had loaned her and shook her hair out, the beta couldn't help but remember the day before when the two of them were getting Edgar situated. He was experiencing the same weird feeling all over again. It felt like all of his insides had lit up and his stomach was doing somersaults. Something about this enigma of a girl made him feel lighter than he had in a while.
"That was actually pretty awesome." Marlee smiled at Scott as she handed the helmet to him. "I wish it had been under different circumstances but it was still amazing."
"Maybe we could do that again sometime. You know, when your car is functioning and you're not stranded on a deserted road."
While the grin she had been sporting faded at his words, the light in her eyes didn't dim.
"Yeah, maybe."
She nodded towards the green building next to them.
"So, if Lydia and Allison are here, does that mean they know why the Whomping Willow decided to take out my car?"
Scott looked like a deer (fucking deer, screwing up cars and shit) caught in headlights for a moment before replying, "Um, yeah. Kind of."
"You guys are like some secret society of the seriously strange."
He smiled at her observation. "Dare you to try and say that five times fast."
All Marlee responded with was sticking her tongue out at him.
"Very nice."
"Shut up. Be a gentleman and invite me into your humble abode, McCall."
Shaking his head in amusement, Scott led her to and up the front steps. He gestured for her to go through the door first. Once the two of them were inside and the front door had been shut, Marlee said rather loudly, "No, Scott, I will not go to your bedroom with you!"
As the boy's cheeks flamed with embarrassment, a voice called out from the living room, "Are you paraphrasing The Vampire Diaries?"
Marlee bent over to untie her boots and Scott did his best to keep his eyes off of her. "And how would you know that, Miss Martin?"
"I may or may not have binge-watched it on Netflix yesterday."
"You were supposed to be sleeping. You liar!"
"I wasn't going to sleep all day."
The two teens went to join the redhead and brunette sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Are you okay?" Allison asked Marlee, concerned over what had happened.
"Physically? It's all good. Mentally and emotionally? Mildly freaked as well as incredibly pissed off about my car."
The huntress nodded in acceptance. "That's understandable."
While Scott took a seat in an armchair, their visitor decided to flop face down on the floor.
"Um, what are you doing?" Lydia did her best to control her laughter at her friend's actions.
"I'm collecting my thoughts. Now shhhhhh."
The room was quiet for the next ten minutes, Marlee with her face in the carpet and the other three silently communicating with looks, gestures, and text messages. The sound of the front door opening made everyone look up. Stiles and Isaac walked in, looking a bit irritated after having to spend time together.
"Well," Stiles clapped his hands, "the good news is the mechanic can get all of the parts that you need. The bad news is you're going to be without a car for at least a week."
"Ahahahahaha, fuck my life." Marlee let her head drop back down.
"Oh, you'll be fine. Look at the bright side, the rust-bucket is going to be okay."
The girl on the floor gasped before turning her head towards Lydia Martin.
"You bite your tongue! How dare you call Ron Burgundy a 'rust-bucket'?!"
"Ron Burgundy? As in Anchorman Ron Burgundy?" The sheriff's son asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"
"Nope, no problem at all."
After rolling onto her back and sitting up, Marlee made eye contact with each and every person in the room. The last person she looked to was Scott, who seemed to be at the center of all of this craziness. The unusual occurrences that had happened throughout the week had started with their first meeting.
"So… who wants to tell me what the fuck is going on with you people?"
No one said anything for a moment, unsure how they were even going to begin this conversation. Once again, Stiles was the one to break the ice.
"We should take her to Derek."
"Why would we do that?" Allison was not in the mood to see the Hale.
"Because he's going to want to know about this and he's definitely not going to leave Cora right now. It'd be better if we go to him with this."
"Count me out." As Lydia stood up and secured her purse on her shoulder, Marlee remembered her own bottomless pit of a purse and began to dig for her gummy worms. "Danny's picking me up. He and I haven't really spent much time together lately so I promised him that we would tonight."
"Introduce me to young Daniel soon!" Her friend called from her spot on the ground, a red and green gummy worm hanging out of her mouth. "I want to meet him."
"Danny's gay, honey. I'm sorry." The redhead inconspicuously watched Scott's reaction, who did his best to act like he wasn't paying attention to what the two of them were saying.
Marlee scoffed, "Who cares? I still want to meet him. He seems like an interesting individual."
"I'll be sure to mention it to him."
After their friend had left, the blonde bit a white and red gummy worm in half. "Is anyone going to tell me why we're going to see this Derek dude?"
Stiles, who had taken Lydia's former spot, put his elbows on his knees and leaned towards her.
"What do you know about werewolves?"
It took some time to convince Marlee to accompany them but eventually the girls took Allison's car to get to Derek's place while the guys had piled into Stiles' jeep. Flipping through radio stations and finding nothing, Allison turned down the volume in order to talk to a skeptical Marlee.
"You don't believe us, do you?"
"Do I believe werewolves are real? No. Do I believe that there are werewolves in Beacon Hills? Um, fuck no."
"Look, I know it might seem like we're crazy but just hear us out, okay? Believe me, I understand what it's like to think that all of this is impossible."
"That's because it is impossible!"
"Why exactly is she here again?" Derek had his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows furrowed.
"Why do you have two caterpillars hanging out on your giant-ass forehead?" Marlee shot back.
Everyone's heads turned as a chuckle was heard off to the side.
"I like her," a man in a white V-neck was sitting on the spiral staircase, staring at the group gathered in the loft, "she's got spunk. We're going to keep this one alive, right?"
Marlee didn't like the way that everyone around her seemed to tense at his words. He was obviously pouring salt in their wounds. Her eyes narrowed at the amused antagonist.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're a total fucking prick?"
Stiles let out a snort. "That's because he is."
"But you, my dear," the prick gave her a toothy grin, "can call me 'Peter'."
"Peter the Prick. Sounds fitting. Or were you named after "Peter and the Wolf"?"
"Very clever. Now, maybe we should tell you exactly why you're here."
It took those who had gathered over an hour to explain all that they possibly could. As she listened to their misadventures, Marlee slowly found herself coming to terms with everything. The proof they provided had been Derek wolfing out, causing her to jump and scream. What had kept her from escaping the loft and Beacon Hills altogether was Scott. He spoke about how he had been bitten by Peter and how his life had changed drastically since then. Marlee could see that he had grown up pretty quickly, still a teenager yet taking on responsibilities that one could only begin to dream of. If he and his friends could be thrown headfirst into all of this fuckery, she could handle it.
I've seen worse. I've been through worse.
"So, let me get this straight: Scott, Derek, Isaac, Cora, AND Peter are werewolves. Plus some guy named Boyd." Marlee pointed in their directions and the room nodded. Marlee then pointed at Allison. "Allison and her dad are former werewolf hunters." Everyone nodded again except Allison's was a bit more hesitant. "Lydia is… something."
"We're working on that." Stiles cut in.
"And last but not least, Stiles is just a sassy shit."
Instead of looking offended at her words, Stiles' chest puffed with pride.
"That I am."
Marlee shrugged. "Okay then."
"That's it?" Derek asked in disbelief. "You just found out that dangerous, supernatural creatures are real and interact with you every day- and you're totally cool with it?"
"I guess so… yeah."
"She's probably in shock." The girl with a permanently bored expression, Cora, commented. "She'll freak out once she processes it fully."
"Alright, it's still pretty fucking bizarre but you guys went about it the right way. If you had just told me everything but didn't have the proof to back it up, I would have said you all need to lay off the drugs or something. If you had only shown me the wolf face without explaining a little bit at first, I would have fought my way out of here."
"You really think you could fight off five werewolves?" Peter was extremely entertained by the idea.
"Four of you are men so just a couple of swift kicks and you guys would have drop like a bag of bricks. Cora would be a different story but with an adrenaline rush, anything's possible. Can I go home now?"
"Not until we make sure that you're not going to tell anyone about us." Derek glared at Marlee, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Puh-lease. The only person that would believe me is Allison's dad and you guys said he's not up for playing Van Helsing these days."
There was a tense atmosphere in the room as Marlee and Derek seemed to be involved in a never-ending staring contest. Finally, the intensity in the werewolf's eyes diminished a bit.
"If you tell anyone else about this, I'm going to rip your throat out… with my teeth."
"Duly noted."
Scott stepped forward and put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"I'll take you home."
"We didn't take your bike here though."
"Stiles and I can take you home. Isaac lives here and Allison's got her car."
The group broke for the day and the newest member of Mystery Incorporated followed the dynamic duo out to the Jeep.
"This thing got a name?"
"Roscoe."
"So, we have Roscoe and Ron Burgundy. I like it." Marlee smirked.
The entire way to Marlee's house, Stiles insisted on making insane accusations and wild guesses about why she was being so calm about all of this.
"No, nah, nein, nope, nada, nice try…" Her one-word answers were full of mirth at the hyperactive teen's confusion.
"Oh, come on! You're handling this too well." Stiles kept his hands on the wheel even though he wanted to throw them up in the air.
"Didn't you handle all of the supernatural business pretty well? Like, weren't you the one who did all of the research and convinced Scott that he dances with wolves?"
"Well… yeah."
As the three of them pulled up in front of the Deckers' house, Scott spoke for the first time since they had gotten into the Jeep. "How's Edgar doing?" He twisted his body to look at her sitting in the backseat.
"He's actually doing exceptionally well. I'm not sure whose love is stronger: his love for us or our love for him." Marlee grinned at him and Scott's stomach did another somersault. "He's quite the ladies' man. Unfortunately, Edgar's probably not too happy with me right now. I told him I'd be back soon and I've been gone for hours. Aaaaand I still have to tell my mom about my car. Oh boy…"
"Well, we've gotten pretty good at coming up with stories." Stiles watched with raised eyebrows as Scott pulled out his phone and held it out to the girl. "Put your number in here and maybe I can help you out."
"Wow," Marlee joked, as she did what the beta said, "my arms around your waist and my phone number? Today's your lucky day, McCall."
"Maybe it is."
After hopping out of Roscoe and entering her home, Marlee had received a text: 'Hey, it's Scott :)'
She quickly saved him under her contacts as 'Superman Scott'. (He was a nearly indestructible guy who had saved her life, after all.) For someone whose daughter possibly could have been crushed by a tree, Virginia was a bit too happy when she heard about the Oldsmobile taking the impact. Some of that happiness died a bit when she heard the car could be fixed and when the stubborn junior insisted on keeping it.
Marlee's Sunday did include some homework, it being the first weekend of the school year and all. Mostly it consisted of watching movies and baking brownies with her mom, kissing up to an annoyed Edgar, and answering texts from Lydia- occasionally Scott. Since Marlee was without a ride, she was riding to school the next day with Allison and Lydia. It was kind of funny how she had wanted nothing to do with anyone in Beacon Hills yet the exact opposite was happening. Now, she was in the know about a major secret and willingly (more or less) spending time with others. There had to be something in the water here.
That theory seemed even more plausible when Monday morning rolled around and she found herself singing in the shower. It was something she hadn't done in years, the enjoyment taken out of it with her dad gone. Her iPod didn't come into her life until after it all happened. Marlee used to belt whatever song she could think of and Colin would pass by the door, loudly singing along or making up his own lyrics. What was the point if he wasn't there to jam out to classic rock or change the word "girl" to "squirrel"? It felt refreshing to hear her alto tones bouncing off of the walls while she shampooed her hair.
"Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year…"
All throughout breakfast, Virginia seemed to be radiating sunshine and positivity. She was blatantly pleased with her child's change in mood. She would never admit it to Marlee but when she had heard the sound of singing through the door earlier, she had shed a tear or two. It seemed as if her daughter was finally recovering.
The sound of a car horn informed the two women of Lydia and Allison's arrival. Marlee exited the house and climbed into the backseat, greeting the two smiling girls. The redhead turned to examine her outfit.
"One of these days, I'm going to get you to wear a dress to school. I think with your skin tone and hair, you would look good in a nice green- or maybe a darker shade of blue to compliment your eyes."
"Lydia, if you come anywhere near me with something involving a skirt, I will have no choice but to put Nair in your shampoo."
Allison snorted at the scandalized expression Lydia was currently sporting.
"How dare you?!" Lydia placed her manicured hands on top of her curls. "I thought we were friends."
"Friends don't force friends to wear dresses."
After a car ride full of banter, Allison interjecting with her inputs, and cursing out a minivan that cut them off in traffic, Marlee's mood continued to rise once she realized Ms. Blake was absent once again. She knew now that the annoying brunette had been trapped in the school with werewolves the other night but still. That didn't mean that she suddenly liked the woman.
Everything seemed to be going great until the end of Economics. She was exiting the room when someone lost their grip and dropped a textbook that was in their hands. It fell right on top of Marlee's Converse, corner-first, and she yelped at the pain that followed.
"Ow! Greenberg, what the fuck is wrong with you?!"
"I'm really sorry, Decker. How about I make it up to you by taking you out on a date, huh? How's that sound?"
Marlee was about to tell him exactly what she thought of that idea when Coach shouted at his arch nemesis, something about the dude stealing a pen off of his desk. She left the young man to his fate, hobbling down the hall towards her locker.
"What happened to you?"
Scott and Stiles approached Marlee, looking a bit concerned as she limped along.
"Greenberg dropped a textbook on my foot and it kinda hurts."
Scott glanced around, making sure no one was watching before he grabbed her hand.
"Here."
The trio watched as dark veins appeared in Scott's arm and Marlee felt the pain in her foot fade away.
"I don't know if I'll ever get used to that."
"Hopefully I won't have to do it often enough for you to get used to it."
Marlee beamed at Scott.
"Thank you."
Scott couldn't help but smile back at her.
"You're welcome."
A beat later, the two of them realized they were still holding hands. The girl snatched her hand back as if she had been burnt by his touch.
"Well, I gotta go to my locker and get my shit for Harris' class. See you guys there!"
Marlee scurried off, praying that neither of the boys had noticed her cheeks beginning to turn tomato red.
"Don't think I didn't notice the way you looked at her."
Scott's head snapped in the direction of his best friend, who was giving him a look of amusement and apprehension.
"What are you talking about?"
Stiles rolled his eyes at Scott's attempt at acting completely innocent.
"I saw the way you looked at Marlee. You like her or at least you're starting to like her."
Scott ducked his head, slightly embarrassed, as he muttered, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Stiles smacked his partner in crime on the shoulder.
"Scott, I'm your best friend! I know how to tell when you like someone. Don't even try to deny it."
"I'm not denying anything. I mean, yeah, she's pretty-"
"Scott…" Stiles warned, eyes narrowed as he inspected the young werewolf closely, in order to make sure he couldn't hide anything.
"Fine," Scott sighed, "Maybe I have a thing for her. It doesn't mean anything though. I mean, I don't seem like the type of guy she'd go for."
"Hey, you got that guy at Jungle to buy you a drink without even trying, remember? Everybody wants you. In fact, here comes Marlee now."
Scott turned around, only to find that said girl wasn't walking their way. Stiles laughed, leaning against his friend for support.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that was just too easy. You're acting like you're still an awkward freshman. Scott, we're juniors now. We've got this, you've got this. You're- you're Scottie McHottie, dude."
"Don't say that so loud!"
"Oh, what? This? HEY, IT'S SCOTT MCHOTT- MMMMPH!"
Scott had clapped his hand over Stiles' mouth and attempted to drag him away from the scene, only for Stiles to flail wildly while trying to yell at his friend. After a moment of struggling, both boys eventually noticed Marlee Decker staring at them with her eyebrows raised. They scrambled to straighten themselves, Stiles propping his elbow against Scott's shoulder.
"Sup?" Stiles nodded at her in greeting.
Marlee smirked at them in response.
"Stilinski. McHottie."
The two friends watched with wide eyes as she walked away after wiggling her eyebrows at the pair.
The bell rang, signaling a minute until the next class started. Mortified, Scott started to make his way to class, completely ignoring the fact that his best friend had lost his balance and fell to the floor with a yelp.
The awkward encounters didn't stop there though. Isaac would be returning to school tomorrow so it was just the five of them sitting at a table together at lunch. The sheriff's son was on another rant about the disappearances occurring and the research he had been doing on different types of sacrifices all over the world.
"Wait, you think someone's using virgins as human sacrifices? Like, what cults do in movies and shit?" Marlee's eyes were the size of dinner plates and she had frozen with her pizza held right in front of her mouth.
"Everyone else is in a bit of denial but I'm almost certain that's what's happening." Stiles explained.
"Well, I'm royally fucked."
The three girls, two amused and one confused, watched a cheeky-looking Stiles pat his best friend, who had started to choke on his drink at that statement, on the back.
'So, you're saying the guy just disappeared and left his car/dog?'
'Yeah. He might have been taken by whoever took the others.'
'His dog's okay though, right?'
'Yes, Marlee. The dog is fine.'
'Good. I hate movies where the dog dies too.'
Marlee was re-reading the texts Scott and her sent to each other last night. He had made sure to inform everyone that another person had gone missing, as far as he could tell. She was a bit unsettled by the whole thing but there was a chance that this dude was still alive. Looking up, she noticed the cross-country team coming back from their early morning practice and they were buzzing- not the kind one gets from running though. They seemed anxious and speculative, heightened voices weaving together. She caught words such as "killed", "tree", and "dead". Marlee spotted Scott, Stiles, and Isaac walking together, looking rather serious. Striding towards the boys, she fell into step beside them.
"So, what happened out on the trails?"
"That kid I told you about was tied to a tree. He was strangled and his head was bashed in, just like the others." Scott explained.
Okay, maybe there was absolutely no chance that this dude was still alive.
"I'm telling you," Stiles was exasperated from trying to get his point across so many times, "they're human sacrifices! Virgin human sacrifices!"
"I still say the twins did it." Isaac glowered, eyes filled with malice.
"Am I missing something here? Are you talking about the supermodel douchebags?"
"You mean the assholes that killed that girl and tried to kill me?" Isaac growled.
"Are you fucking serious?" Marlee's jaw dropped.
"We had a bit of an incident during practice." Scott summarized.
"Great," She sighed. "So, you're basically saying that we're about to some fucking werewolf turf war on our hands. I need a vacation."
Later, in the Physics class from Hell, Marlee sat down next to Scott at one of the lab tables. Isaac was hunched over in a seat in front of them, still brooding and on edge.
"All right, since 'inertia' is a subject of which you all know plenty, why don't we start with 'momentum'?"
Ruuuuuuude.
Scott leaned forward towards Isaac.
"They're here for a reason." He said in a low voice. "Give me a chance to figure it out before you do anything. Okay?" He made sure to drive his point home by adding in, "Isaac."
"Danny- what do we know about momentum?"
"It's a product of mass and velocity. The more massive something is, the faster it's going."
"Mr. Harris," Isaac blurted out, "may I use the bathroom, please?"
The teacher simply gestured towards the door and Isaac strolled out the door, purpose in every step he took. Scott shot up out of his seat and interjected, "I have to go to the bathroom too."
"One at a time."
I seriously don't get the point of that. Do teachers think that some sort of drug deal or an orgy is going down in the bathroom? Marlee thought as she watched the two interact.
"But I- I really have to go. Like, 'medical emergency' have to go." The worried beta started bouncing up and down a bit to make his claim seem more believable.
"Mr. McCall," the dick at the front of the room started in a condescending tone, "if your bladder suddenly exploded and urine began to pour from every orifice, I would still respond 'One at a time.' Is that enough hyperbole for you or would you like me to come up with something more vivid?"
"No, no, that's pretty good." Scott sat back down in his seat, defeated.
Marlee, who never was one to take such a thing quietly, commented sarcastically, "Thank you, Mr. Harris, for that delightfully appetizing description right before lunch."
The man turned his beady eyes in her direction, already disliking this student that he hadn't had for even a week.
"Miss Decker, if I were you, I would keep your thoughts to yourself."
"If you were me, I'd be ugly." She muttered under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing, sir. Nothing at all."
The sound of something colliding with a locker came from the hallway and Mr. Harris went to investigate with the class trailing behind him. Isaac was standing above a bloodied twin on the floor. From the way Danny crouched down next to him in concern, Marlee assumed that it was Ethan.
"What is this? What's going on?" Harris demanded.
"You alright?" Danny asked Ethan.
"Uh, he just- he just came at me."
"Isaac, what the hell did you do?" Their teacher asked, bewildered.
Was Marlee the only person using logic and common sense? Could anyone else, other than the werewolves, see that there was definitely more to the story? If Ethan had actually gotten the shit beat out of him by Isaac, wouldn't there be at least a little bit of blood on the cardigan-clad teen's hands?
After Mr. Harris had decided that lunch detention was a suitable punishment for poor Isaac, the "troubled" teenage girl shuffled to the guidance office, where Ms. Morrell was waiting to speak with her. Marlee assumed it was another attempt at cracking the code that was her. The twenty minutes in the woman's office was spent with a sulking blonde sitting across from the prodding counselor, unwilling to answer questions. Eventually, she was released and went to exchange her textbooks for a sketchpad and notebooks.
Their approach had been silent, startling her when she closed the door.
"Hey," One of the musclebound twins, Aiden, leaned on the locker next to hers, "how's your car?"
Marlee froze at his words. No one but the pack really knew about her car, seeing as she didn't really talk to anyone else. She doubted that any of them had mentioned it to someone outside of their inner circle. Before she could respond, Ethan- who looked as if he hadn't been busted up less than an hour ago- matched his brother's stance on her other side.
"Yeah, we heard you had a little accident the other day over by the preserve."
The hand each twin used to prop themselves up started to sprout claws, piercing the locker doors and making the metal creak. Marlee still didn't speak to or look at them, staring straight ahead. She refused to show any emotion.
"I'd be more careful if I were you. You never know what a couple of dolts are capable of." Aiden snarled.
Son of a-
Ethan knocked Marlee's things out of her arms and onto the floor, stepping on books and papers as he and his brother walked off. Marlee took a deep breath to calm her nerves before kneeling down to pick up her shit. After a few seconds of gathering, she felt a presence in front of her. Glancing up, she watched Scott crouch down to help her.
"Are you okay?" He asked, locking eyes with her. No one passing by would be able to tell that she seemed a bit shaken but to Scott, it was easy to see something had rattled her.
Marlee pointed towards the locker to the left of her own then slowly motioned towards the one on the right, brown eyes following her gaze.
"What happened?"
She turned her head back towards him.
"Scott," she muttered, not wanting another student to overhear what she was saying, "the twins- they're the ones who ripped the tree out of the ground."
Marlee watched as his eyes flashed gold for a split second, a dark look emerging on his face.
"Are you sure?"
"They knew about what happened to my car. Aiden said I should be more careful because I never know what a couple of dolts are capable of."
Hearing that, Scott could remember her words from Saturday quite clearly.
'Again, your bike isn't overly flashy, like those dolts' are. Seriously, I know they're twins and everything but do they really need to have the same motorcycle?'
"I'm not going to let them hurt you." Scott promised Marlee, handing her the papers he had gathered, as the two stood up.
"I'll be fine, don't worry about it. You can't always be there to protect me."
"I…" Scott trailed off, tilting his head to the side a bit. Marlee studied him, wondering what he was listening for, when Scott's eyes widened and he took off running. Quickly throwing everything she needed into her backpack, Marlee swung it over her back and went after him.
Rounding a corner only seconds after Scott had, she watched as he shoved a vending machine to the side, revealing the door of a janitor's closet. Yanking the door open, he hurried in and launched a wolfed-out Isaac from the tiny room. Marlee hesitantly got closer, wanting to help in any way that she could but definitely not wanting to get her face ripped off by the out of control beta. Scott resurfaced and held Isaac down while the blonde boy snarled and snapped his fangs; bright, yellow eyes clashed as they struggled against one another.
"ISAAC!"
Scott's voice boomed with all of the authority and confidence of a natural born leader. It threw Marlee for a second, taken aback by the power he had displayed. The other wolf gradually regained his senses and shut down, laying his head down to catch a breath while the panic faded in his eyes. When the initial shock wore off, Marlee walked forward as Allison stepped out of the shadowy closet, clutching her arm. Scott gently took the brunette's wrist and moved the arm to examine multiple bloody scratches.
"I'm okay. I'm fine." Allison breathed out, reassuring the other three.
"I'm sorry. I didn't- I didn't mean to do that." Isaac gasped from the spot he had scrambled over to, sounding ashamed.
"I'm okay."
"I'm so sorry." The shaken boy seemed incredibly upset with himself for his previous actions. Marlee squatted next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to comfort him. As she did this, she took a good look at Isaac for the first time. In this light, she could tell that his hair was actually a nice brown, compared to the hue of blonde it had appeared to be in the sunlight on Saturday. His regular eye color contrasted with the beta color, blue like her own. Overall, Isaac Lahey was a good-looking guy and she could see why he had been as cocky as he was after receiving the bite. (Stiles had made a bitter jab or two during the meeting the other day.) Marlee thought back to the rage she had experienced when he had mentioned how his piece of shit for a father used to lock him up in a chest freezer. No wonder he had flipped, being trapped in a small enclosure like that. She silently thanked whoever was listening that her own dad hadn't been like that.
"It's not his fault." Allison insisted as Scott looked over at the two sitting on the floor.
"I know. I guess now we know that they want to do more than get you angry. They want to get someone hurt. They also admitted to being there on Saturday and wrecking Marlee's car."
"So, are we going to do something?" Isaac asked, looking a bit frustrated.
"Yeah. I'm gonna get them angry. Really angry." Scott stated, determined.
Marlee stood up and smirked. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
For the rest of lunch, the four of them planned it all out as they worked on straightening up the closet. They had automatically agreed that the matching black motorcycles were to be used in the scheme. As everything began to fall into place, the blonde girl's expression was reminiscent of the Grinch smiling. During her art class, when Marlee wasn't attempting to draw Beacon Hills Preserve, she was texting with Allison and Scott. The bell rang, signaling the end of class and the beginning of her free period; Marlee hiked her backpack up on her shoulders and prepared to get into position.
Once she had slipped into the empty classroom at the end of the hall and got settled, she remained quiet and waited for her phone to vibrate. Marlee cackled in delight when she opened Allison's text to find a picture of Isaac posing on Aiden's motorcycle. She switched over to her camera app and turned it to "video". This was almost too easy. It was almost enough to make her like Jennifer Blake, who seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Scott McCall had walked into her final class of the day when she had already had him at the beginning of the day.
The faint roar of an engine caused her body to start pumping adrenaline and a wide grin spread across Marlee's face when the douchebag bike appeared at the opposite end of the hallway. She hit "record" on her cellphone and watched through the screen as Isaac revved the engine and started towards her. Aiden charged out of the English classroom, fuming, and blocked the way.
"Get off my bike!"
Reveling in his payback, Isaac removed the helmet he wore.
"No problem."
What a badass! Marlee thought as she watched him put his hands on Aiden's shoulders and did a flip over the bastard.
Soon enough, students began to pour out of the classrooms and the smug, little troublemaker with the camera adjusted herself so she could continue to film through the gaps between kids. Ms. Blake pushed ahead of the others and stormed forward in her dainty black heels.
"You have got to be kidding me! You realize this is going to result in a suspension."
Marlee let out a short laugh at the look on Aiden's face as he heard his punishment and at Isaac jokingly placing a hand in front of his mouth as if to say, "Oooooh, oh no, she din't."
Both twins glared at the three satisfied teens mingling with everyone else. Scott raised his eyebrows at them before glancing back at the door behind the sea of people. He beamed as the object of his affections looked at him from over her phone and gave him a smile that reached her eyes. Marlee sent Scott a thumbs up to confirm that she had gotten the entire thing on film.
Mission accomplished.
That night at the Decker household, Marlee was dancing around her room with an unamused Edgar in her arms, blasting an upbeat playlist she had pieced together. Today had been one of the greatest days she had been faced with in a long time. For the moment, everything seemed to be alright- maybe even better than alright. She felt fantastic, like she was on top of the world. If someone had told her a couple of weeks ago that she would be this happy in Beacon Hills, she would have laughed right in their face and told them to go fuck themselves. There was absolutely no way she would have believed it for a second.
Speaking of such a day, Marlee's phone began to ring. Pausing her music, she could see 'Superman Scott' lighting up her iPhone's screen. Still holding on to Edgar, she sat down and accepted the call.
"Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"
Scott chuckled, despite the serious nature of the call.
"Hey! Listen, there's a couple of things I need to talk to you about…"