Hey, everyone! Yes, I am alive! I have been super busy these past couple months with school, work, and the musical I'm in so I've barely had time to update. But I haven't forgotten about these so I do plan on getting back into the groove of things. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it!
Featured song- Trespassing by Adam Lambert
Well I was walkin' for some time
When I came across this sign
Sayin' "who are you and where are you from?"
We don't like when visitors come.
'No trespassing' that's what it said
At least that's what I could read.
No trespassing? yeah, my ass!
Wait till ya get a load of me!
One day I was trippin' and that's when I could see
That the ether I had tapped into could be reality
It was great, that's when I climbed that optimistic vine
Once I hit that mountain peak I began to lose my mind
I don't need no sympathy. I won't cry and whine.
Life's my light and liberty
And I'll shine when I wanna shine.
Make their faces crack
There's no turning back.
Stiles may be overthinking the worst possible outcomes of what could happen, but he was incredibly nervous. Like, shaking in his boots nervous. He decided to take Scott's advice (that was a first) and give Natalie the weekend to cool down so she wouldn't actually want to murder Stiles when they came back to school on Monday. He had it all planned out. As soon as he sees her, he was going to run up to Natalie and give her the most awesome apology in the history of apologies that he could muster up.
However, Stiles was debating on whether to bring up their almost-kiss from the party or not. What he feared was Natalie telling him that she was feeling tipsy that night and had no recollection of what happened whatsoever. Or what if she did remember and was so repulsed at the idea of kissing Stiles that she flat out laughs in his face?
Overdramatic? Maybe. But all Stiles knew was that he couldn't handle being rejected by his best friend. So it was probably best to just let Natalie take the wheel on that whole thing.
Any thought of letting Natalie be flew out the window because she ended up being the first person Stiles saw when he got out of his jeep. She was locking her mom's car when she locked eyes with him. The look on Natalie's eyes went from deer-in-headlights to spiteful before she made her way to the school building.
"Wait, Natalie!" Stiles called out as he started to chase her.
Natalie looked behind her and saw that Stiles was running towards her, so her first instinct was to run also. Stiles chased her from the front of the school to the inside. That caused quite the scene.
"Natalie Angelina Henderson, get back here!" Stiles yelled at his best friend.
"No, fuck you!" Natalie snapped over her shoulder.
They ignored their peers' stares as they continued to sprint down the hall. Now Stiles was more determined than ever to catch up to Natalie so he put more momentum in his legs. When he finally caught up to the redhead, he pounced on her and sent them both tumbling on the floor.
Blowing her hair out of her face, Natalie gaped up at Stiles. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why can't you put that same energy on the lacrosse field?!"
"Priorities, dammit!" Stiles exclaimed.
"Dude, can you get off of me already? People are staring!"
"I don't care," Stiles told Natalie, "You don't have to say anything, but at least just let me explain myself about Friday night. It's gonna bug me if I don't."
After a small stare-down with Stiles, Natalie groaned in defeat. Once again, she was caving in. Damn his begging whiskey brown eyes…
"Ugh, fine!" Natalie groaned, "Now get off of me!"
She didn't bother to wait and she pushed Stiles off of her, making him flop onto the floor beside her. After standing up and brushing herself off, Natalie pulled him up so he was standing in front of her. Stiles gazed down at her for a bit until she raised an eyebrow.
"Well, talk!"
"Okay, okay!" Stiles raised his hands in defense. "Let me start off by saying that I'm very very very very very sorry for leaving you at the party. I just had to make sure Scott was alright and didn't start going on a killing spree. I swear that I was gonna come right back to get you."
"And you didn't think to just take me with you?" Natalie exclaimed, "Because of you, I was stuck in the car for the longest freakin' twenty minutes of my life with Derek 'Eyebrows' Hale. You so owe me for that, by the way."
"Well, sorry that I didn't want Scott to attack you!"
"Oh, and you thought that leaving me with the big bad wolf was any better?!"
Stiles pointed at her. "In my defense, I didn't know that he was going to be there. But that's not the point!" He paused to take a deep breath before looking back at his best friend. "I just didn't want you to get hurt if Scott was going crazy. I would never forgive myself if I let anything bad happen to you."
While Natalie wasn't your typical girly girl, she was a huge romantic. She was even a sucker for a good chick flick every once in a while. But she wasn't afraid to kick anyone's ass if they laugh while she cried during A Walk to Remember (just ask Scott). So hearing the boy express concerns over her safety made Natalie swoon more than she would ever admit.
"Look, Stiles," Natalie said, "I really do appreciate you looking out for me, truly. But I'm a part of this team too. Scott's both of our friend, and he's gonna need all the help he can get while going through this whole wolf… puberty thing. We gotta stick together, which means keeping me in the loop no matter how dangerous it gets. Got it?"
With a sigh, Stiles nodded his head. "Yeah, I got it."
"Good. Now walk with me to first period." Natalie began to walk, Stiles casually falling into place next to her. "So how was Scott when you finally found him?"
"Oh, you know. As distraught as you'd expected. But from what I know, he didn't kill anyone. That's a good start."
"This is gonna be quiet journey for him. For all of us, really."
"Ain't that the truth."
"Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God…"
This had been Scott's chant for the past twenty minutes. His face was held in his glove-clad hands and his elbows rested on his knees as he sat on the bench next to the lacrosse field. He rocked back and forth, nerves going into overdrive. What he had found out that morning about Allison's family was still running through his mind like a damn track star. Man, was he screwed.
Scott was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice Natalie walk up to the bench. She dropped her backpack on the bench, creating a loud bang. Her best friend jumped in his seat.
"Holy crap!" Scott yelped, placing a hand over his erratically beating heart.
"'Sup, Wolf Boy?" Natalie greeted nonchalantly as she sat next to him.
With wide eyes, Scott shook his head and waved his hands. "Shh! Not so loud! Someone could hear you!"
"Are you okay, Scotty?" the redhead asked, "Stiles told me you were upset about leaving Allison at Lydia's party the other night. Did you talk to her?"
"Her dad," Scott said shakily, staring off into the distance, "He's a hunter. A w-werewolf hunter. He shot me the other night with a freakin' crossbow."
Natalie's jaw went slack as she took in the new information. "Intentionally?"
"Yes, intentionally!" Scott let out a not-so-manly whine and slumped his shoulders.
Wow. Talk about a plot twist. As if Scott wasn't in deep shit before, he was definitely in for it now. But a laugh, all of a sudden, bubbled out of his other best friend.
"Damn, that sucks. Hey, this is just like Romeo and Juliet! If both of you live through this, it'll be a miracle." She stopped laughing when she saw Scott glaring at her. "Too insensitive?"
"Just a little."
"Sorry."
Coach blew his whistle and hustled his players to the field. "McCall! Get your ass on the field! And Henderson, stop distracting my team! I'll kick you out of here if I have to!"
"I'm not even doing anything!" Natalie exclaimed while flailing her arms, "What about you? Aren't you supposed to be focusing on your team?"
Glaring at the redhead, Coach pointed to his eyes with two fingers then back at her. "I'll be watching you, Henderson."
"Was that a Meet the Parents reference, Coach?" Natalie gave the man a sarcastic thumbs up. "Way to be original!" But she was ignored.
Whatever. She knew she was Coach's favorite deep down.
She watched as he talked to his team in a huddle before they broke off to start practice. Half of the players stayed on the field while the other returned to the benches. Since Stiles was one of the players on the field, that left Natalie by her lonesome on to bench to watch the practice go down.
So far, it was not looking so good. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Jackson had it out for Scott and wanted to take him down. Unfortunately, the captain seemed to be succeeding. Both Stiles and Natalie cringed as they watched Jackson body slam their best friend to the ground. A smirk stretched across the bastard's face as Scott came too, and boy, was the new werewolf pissed.
Coach bent down to Scott's level to talk to him, which looked more like antagonizing from where Natalie sat. She could also see her best friend's eyes changing color. Shit, if he was about to shift, this was going to get ugly. Luckily, he was able to keep his cool. For now. When it appeared that Coach had finished his harping, Scott straightened up and ran back to his starting position.
"McCall's gonna do it again!" Coach called out, "McCall's gonna do it again!"
This play was so much worse than the first one. Scott's anger towards Jackson was taking over him and he could no longer control himself. The two charged at each other and collided harshly. When they fell, Jackson cried out and latched onto his now injured shoulder while Scott groaned in discomfort. Natalie jumped up from the bench to run to her friend's side with Stiles.
"Scott, what's happening?" Natalie asked.
"I can't control it, guys," Scott gritted out, "It's happening."
Stiles's eyes grew wide. "What? Right here? Now?" He along with Natalie pulled their friend up. "Come on, get up. Come on, come on."
Together he and Natalie jogged off the field with their arms wrapped around Scott. None of them noticed Derek lurking from behind the bleachers with a scowl on his face.
The trio made it to the boys locker room just in time. This may not have been Natalie's first time in here, but dear God, the stench was worse every single time she stepped foot in the room. She did her best to not breathe through her nose and to avoid the stink of sweat and Axe body spray. Let's not forget the clothes and practice gear thrown all over the place. Boys were so fucking gross.
But that was secondary to the problem at hand. Right now, Scott was hunched over in the corner of the room after throwing off his gloves. His best friends hovered above him for a moment before Natalie bent down to rub his back to console him.
"Scotty, take deep breaths, okay?"
Her hand drew back swiftly when Scott snapped his head up, fangs bared. Those yellow eyes were still there, and they were searching for something to kill.
"Get away from me!" he roared.
Stiles and Natalie fell backwards in fright. They got up as fast as they could and Stiles grabbed Natalie's hand. Scott began to chase the two around the locker room, jumping on and denting lockers in the process. Both humans were tripping over everything in their path in an effort to escape from becoming dog food. Amongst the chaos, they kept their grips on each other's hands tight, afraid of what might happen if they separated.
To his luck, Stiles backed into the fire extinguisher. There was no hesitation to grab it and spray Scott. Stiles then pulled Natalie just outside of the room so they could hide behind the wall as Scott came down from his freak out. A huge sigh of relief was let out as Natalie thumped the back of her head on the wall. That was way too fucking close to comfort.
"Stiles… Natalie…" They peered back into the locker room to see Scott sitting on the bench and panting heavily. He was now back to his human self, thank baby Jesus. "What happened?"
After he dropped the fire extinguisher, Stiles threw his gloves onto the ground. "You tried to kill me and Nat."
Scott's eyes widened. "Did I hurt you?"
"No, we're okay," Natalie promised, "At least physically."
"It's like we told you before," Stiles said, "It's the anger. It's your pulse rising. It's a trigger."
"But that's lacrosse," Scott pointed out. "It's a pretty violent game, if you hadn't noticed."
"Well, it's gonna be a lot more violent if you end up killing someone on the field," Stiles told him. He shook his head regretfully. "You can't play on Saturday. You're gonna have to get out of the game."
A defeated expression formed on Scott's face. "But I'm first line."
"Not anymore," Natalie sad sadly, "I'm sorry, Scotty. You can't risk it."
The teen wolf squeezed his eyes shut and whined as he hung his head. Derek told him that this bite was a gift, but in reality, all it did was make Scott's life even worse than before. All the hard work to make first line to only have it taken away not even a week later. And now Allison will realize what a total loser he really was and move on to someone better.
Being a werewolf bites. Literally.
The Henderson children struggled to eat their last bite of the infamous chicken pot pie made by their mother. As soon as the food was set on the table, the two knew they were doomed from the start. Never had they ever not practically licked their plates clean after eating their food and today was not the day to break that cycle. Curse Terri's gifted cooking skills…
Finally, Natalie and Zach finished their dinner and dropped their forks with a clank. Sighing in relief, they slumped in their chairs and rubbed their full bellies.
"Ugh, I think I need to go hibernate for the next five years," Zach groaned.
"For real," Natalie nodded, "I probably should spend an extra couple hours at the gym tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure I just gained ten pounds."
Terri rolled her eyes. "You two are so dramatic." She picked up her children's plates and placed them in the sink. "Anyone up for dessert?"
Both Natalie and Zach let out another simultaneous groan.
"Oh, God, I can't even think about taking another bite out of anything ever again," Natalie huffed, shaking her head.
"It's homemade cookie butter ice cream," Terri sang as she took the tub out of the freezer.
Natalie glared at Terri to only receive a cheeky smile back. "Why must you torture me like this?"
"It's my job." The mother set a bowl of ice cream in front of her daughter and kissed the top of her fiery red hair.
"Danny's gonna kill me for this," Natalie grumbled. She picked up the spoon and took a bite of the sweet treat. As the flavor hit her tastebuds, she moaned in delight. "But at least I can die happily."
Her phone then vibrated in her pocket as she took another bite. When she looked down at the screen, she read the text she received from Scott.
Stiles has an update on Jackson. Log onto Skype ASAP!
"Well, I'm gonna take this up to my room," Natalie announced as she stood up with her bowl in her hand, "Apparently I'm needed by Scott and Stiles."
"You mean your twitchy boyfriend?" Zach teased.
"He's not my boyfriend," Natalie defended, "And he's not twitchy! He's just… socially awkward."
The thirteen year old snorted. "Yeah, like that's any better." He winced when his older sister pushed the back of his head as she walked by. "Ah!"
Once Natalie was in her bedroom, she placed her ice cream on her desk before opening up her laptop. Scott's request to chat on Skype was waiting right on the screen. Natalie accepted the request and her best friend's face appeared. He was sitting in his own room, lights sort of dimmed.
"What up?" Natalie nodded. She put another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "Where's Thing Two at?"
"I'm pulling him up right now," Scott said as he typed something, "And… here."
One click later and Stiles's box appeared at the top right corner of Natalie's laptop screen. In Stiles's hand was a toy gun that lit up and made the most obnoxious noise. He had that childish grin slapped on his mole-dotted face that made Natalie roll her eyes.
"What are you, five?" she sassed. She then squinted her eyes as she looked closer. "Wait. Is that mine?"
Stiles looked down at the toy gun and slowly lowered it so it was out of the frame. "No…"
Natalie flailed her arms. "Dude! When did you even take that? Why do you have that?"
"I needed a new one to add to my collection," Stiles answered, shrugging his shoulders.
"So you steal mine?!"
"It's not like you were-"
Loud clapping halted the two friends' bickering. They both looked to Scott's box and saw him glaring at them.
"When you children finally stop arguing with each other," Scott started, "we need to focus on the real issue here." The other two shut up. "Thank you. So what did you find out?"
"Well, it's bad," Stiles confirmed, "Jackson's got a separated shoulder." Ha! Serves the sucker right.
"Because of me?" Scott asked.
"Because he's a tool!" Natalie piped in.
Stiles snapped his fingers and pointed to the redhead's side of the screen. "Accurate."
"But is he gonna play?" Scott asked.
"Well, they don't know yet," Stiles answered, "Now they're just counting on you for Saturday."
Right as Stiles was about to say something else, he squinted his eyes and leaned in closer to his computer screen. Confusion swept across both Scott and Natalie's faces.
"What?" Scott wondered. Stiles began to frantically type.
It looks like-
Then Scott's computer froze.
"It looks like what?" And he couldn't ask Natalie what was going on because she was frozen too. He sighed as he clicked on the keyboard. "Come on. Damn it."
Finally, the rest of Stiles's message came through.
-someone's behind you.
"What?"
Natalie, now unfrozen, looked up and her brown eyes widened in fear when she looked at Scott's box. "Uh, Scotty?" Shakily, she pointed to the figure standing behind her best friend.
Scott turned around and then all of a sudden, he was pinned to the wall by Derek. Just as Natalie was about to yell at the werewolf through her webcam, the battery on her laptop died.
"Wha- what the…" Natalie stuttered. She smacked her laptop a couple of times in hopes that it would turn back on. It didn't. This just made Natalie groan and pound her fist down on her desk. "Son of a bitch! This is why you don't buy anything off Craigslist!"
At school a couple days later, Stiles and Natalie were out at the baseball field during their free period. Baseball tryouts were after school and she had to admit, Natalie was feeling pretty damn nervous. She didn't doubt her athletic abilities whatsoever. She was a hell of a batter and an even better pitcher. For the most part, Natalie was confident that she was going to make varsity. But there was always that underlying voice in the back of her mind that wondered what if she didn't.
So she took it upon herself and dragged Stiles out to the field with her so she could get some practice in. How could Stiles say no to some alone time with his favorite person? Especially when the redhead used her puppy dog eyes to lure him in. This lead them to right now, tossing each other the baseball Natalie kept in her backpack 'just in case'.
"So, question," Stiles spoke up as he caught the baseball with the spare glove he was given. He threw it back to Natalie. "Who do you think would die first in a zombie apocalypse? Me or Jackson?"
"Oh, that's easy," Natalie said, "You, for sure."
Stiles's jaw dropped and let out a feminine squeak. He was so taken aback by this statement that when Natalie threw the ball back at him, it almost hit him in the face. "Me? Seriously? Why?"
"Well first of all," the redhead started, "You get distracted easily, as you've just shown me. Also Jackson's faster, both by running and reflexes. He may be a prick but he's quick on his feet. So unless you have some kind of weapon to defend yourself with, you're basically screwed."
Thinking it over, Stiles shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, that may be true, but Jackson has more body mass than I do. Zombies would probably rather eat him than me since I'm skinny."
"They eat brains, stupid! They won't care that he has more meat on his bones than you! You should grateful because that means you're smarter than him."
A sly grin stretched across Stiles's face. "Did you just compliment me? Well that's a first." He pointed to his ear. "Come on. Say it one more time. I wanna savor this moment."
Natalie rolled her eyes and tossed the baseball in her backpack as the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. "Shut up and let's go."
After she zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulders, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her up in the air. Natalie squealed as Stiles draped her body over his shoulder, giving her a nice view of her friend's jean clad rear. She gave it a little smack only for Stiles to smack her own rear back.
"Ow!" the redhead yelped, "Can you put me down now?"
"Nope," Stiles said, popping the 'p', "But I can do this."
Without any warning, he flipped Natalie over so he was now carrying her bridal style. Red hair fell over her face when she looked back up at her best friend. She shook her head.
"Damn. You're a lot stronger than you look."
"Say this," Stiles smirked, "Stiles Stilinski is the most awesome person in the world."
Once again, Natalie was rolling her eyes at the boy's request. "I think your head's getting a little too big for your body there, my guy." Stiles pretended that he was going to drop her, making her wrap her arms around his neck and yelp. "Okay, okay! Stiles is the most awesome person and the biggest badass in the world. Now will you please put me down?"
Stiles thought it over then shook his head. "Nah, I think I'm gonna keep holding you for a little longer. It makes me feel a little more masculine." Not to mention that having Natalie in his arms was pure bliss.
And said girl surely wasn't complaining either. She silently yet happily accepted the gesture with small red hues on her pale face and let Stiles carry her into the school.
When they got inside, Natalie hopped out of Stiles's arms when she saw her and his dads talking to the principal. The best friends gave each other worried looks.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Stiles asked the redhead.
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know." Then she saw Scott standing in front of his locker. "But there's only one way to find out." Natalie jogged over to Scott, grabbed him by his backpack, and dragged him to where Stiles was standing while ignoring his protests.
"Hey, what are you-"
Stiles pointed to the police officers and the principal. "Tell us what they're saying. Can you hear 'em?"
Scott shushed them before using his werewolf senses to listen in on the conversation. After a minute, Scott said, "Curfew because of the body."
"Unbelievable," Stiles scoffed, "Our dads are out looking for a rabid animal while the jerk-off who actually killed the girl is just hangin' out, doing whatever he wants!"
"Well, you can't exactly tell your dads the truth about Derek," Scott pointed out.
"We can do something…"
"Like what?"
The redhead crossed her fingers and squeezed her brown eyes shut. "Please don't go there!"
"Find the other half of the body," Stiles answered.
"And he went there."
However Scott wasn't really paying attention. Down the hallway, Lydia was introducing Allison to some of the lacrosse players. Stiles and Natalie turned their heads to see what Scott was looking at and winced. Talk about a low blow. And clearly Scott wasn't so happy with what he was seeing.
Quick to avoid this awkward situation, Stiles grabbed Natalie's hand. "Well, we should get going. It looks like you have girl issues you need to take care of and Nat needs to get ready for her baseball tryouts."
Said girl didn't even have a chance to fight back before Stiles dragged her down the hallway. "Later, Scotty! Try not to kill anyone!"
"WHOO!"
With Natalie right on his back, Stiles ran out to the parking lot. He was oblivious to the weirded out stares from the few people that lingered around.
"My best friend just made co-captain of the girls baseball team!"
"Hells yeah, she did!" Natalie hollered out. She pumped her fist up in triumph, "In your face, Stephenson!"
With victorious smiles and lifted spirits, the pair stalked away from the newly excited (and some heartbroken) girls and made their way to Stiles's jeep. Natalie jumped off of Stiles's back before tossing her baseball equipment into the back of the jeep and climbing into the passenger seat.
"God, how freakin' awesome is that?" Stiles beamed as he jumped in the vehicle as well, "Not only did you murder the tryouts, you actually made co-captain. Of the varsity team, might I add! You just became ten times hotter in my eyes."
"Why, thank you, good sir," Natalie said exaggeratedly while trying not to blush at the compliment, "That'll teach Meghan to never underestimate an underclassman again."
"This definitely calls for a celebration. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
Just as Natalie was about to agree, her phone dinged with a text from Scott. She pulled her phone out of her bag and peered down at the message with wide eyes.
We might have to celebrate later," she told Stiles, "Scott said he found something fishy that might have to do with the murder and to go over to his place right now."
Stiles's ears perked up. He was now filled with a brand new excitement. Reaching over Natalie's legs, he opened his glove compartment and pulled out his bottle of Adderall. He took out a few capsules and popped them in his mouth.
"Really, Stiles?" Natalie exclaimed, "You are not intoxicating yourself while operating a vehicle!"
"Hey, my jeep, my rules, woman!" Stiles told the redhead as he continued to drive. Figuring that she wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument, Natalie rolled her eyes and laidback in her seat.
It only took a few more minutes to reach Scott's house. Melissa, Scott's mom, was already on her shift at the hospital so Stiles parked in her spot. The car wasn't even parked all the way when Natalie got out and ran inside Scott's house. Right after Stiles shut off his car, he followed after his best friend into Scott's room to find said boy sitting on his bed and looking to be patching up his lacrosse stick.
Once Stiles was inside, he began to bombard the teen wolf with questions. "What did you find? How did you find it? Where did you find it? And yes, I had a lot of Adderall, so…" He blinked madly.
"Unfortunately…" Natalie grumbled as she rubbed her temples with her fingertips.
"I found something at Derek Hale's," Scott told them.
"Well, what was it?" Natalie asked impatiently.
"There's something buried there," Scott said, "I could smell blood."
"That's awesome!" Stiles exclaimed. Natalie smacked his arm. "I mean, that's terrible." He rubbed the sore spot. "Ow…"
Natalie shook her head. "Dumbass." She looked back at Scott. "Whose blood was it?"
Scott shrugged as he stood up. "I don't know. But when we do, your dads nail Derek for the murder. And then you guys help me figure out how to play lacrosse without changing. Because there's no way I'm not playing that game." He tossed the freshly stitched lacrosse stick on the bed before leading his best friends out.
The three of them rode in Stiles's jeep to the Beacon Hills Hospital before they could go to Derek's house. They had to check if the scent that Scott detected earlier that day matches the other half of the body the police found. Since Scott's mom was here, they had to be extra sneaky and not get caught.
They went inside to find the room the lower half of the body was residing in. After walking through the entrance way, Natalie spotted the sign for the morgue. Bingo.
"Hey." She pointed to the sign.
Scott nodded. "Okay." He spun around to make sure no one else was watching him go in the hallway.
"Good luck, I guess," Stiles said as their best friend shut the door behind himself.
Stiles and Natalie went to go sit in the hallway and did their best to not look suspicious. Clearly, Natalie was grasping that concept better than Stiles, who picked up a pamphlet about the women menstrual cycle without meaning to. The redhead held back a snort before going over to the vending machine to buy a snack. She reached in the pocket of her grey hoodie for her wallet but then remembered that it was in her backpack in Stiles's jeep. A huff of air left her mouth before she turned to her friend who was still hiding behind the pamphlet.
"Dude," Natalie said, gaining Stiles's attention, "Do you even know what you're reading right now?"
He looked down at the pamphlet and yelped in horror. He quickly tossed it back on the table next to his chair and picked up a much less terrifying magazine.
"Anyway," Natalie chuckled, "I left my wallet in the car. Do you have a dollar on you? I'll pay you back when we leave."
Nodding his head, Stiles pulled his wallet out of the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a dollar bill. Natalie thanked him when he handed her the money before she turned back to the vending machine. She put the money in the machine and punched in a few numbers. When the Kit-Kat dropped, it got stuck in the bottom. Natalie cursed to herself before bending down to pull it out.
Unintentionally, Stiles glanced up and his gaze stilled when he saw the sight in front of him. Since the two had gone straight to Scott's after Natalie's baseball tryouts, she didn't have a chance to change out of the clothes she wore earlier, which included a pair of very form-fitting leggings. When Stiles looked at her, he was glad that she was still wearing those leggings.
He couldn't help but gawk at how those pants made her butt look amazing. Especially when she was bending over. And he wasn't ashamed to be staring. Call him a typical overly hormonal teenage boy, which he was. That wasn't going to stop him from admiring his crush's athletic and beautiful body. Just as long as no one caught him.
Too late. Stiles didn't hear Scott walk up to him so when the teen wolf ripped the magazine out of his hands, Stiles jumped like two feet in the air.
"Holy God!"
"The scent was the same," Scott told and Natalie.
"And you're sure about this?" Natalie pressed as she bit into her candy bar.
"Yes."
Stiles, now standing up, sighed. "So he did bury the other half of body on his property?"
"Which means we have proof that he killed the girl," Scott concluded.
"I say we use it."
"How?"
Natalie held her hands up, her Kit-Kat still in on of them. "Hold on a second there, Scott. Are you doing this because you wanna stop Derek, or because you wanna play the game and he said you couldn't?"
"There are bite marks on the legs, Nat," Scott emphasized, "Bite marks."
Nodding, Stiles said, "Okay. Then we're gonna need a shovel." He pushed Scott and Natalie ahead of him.
Derek exited out of what remained of his house and walked over to the driver's side of his Camaro. Natalie had to admit, as much as she was afraid of the guy, he really did have a sweet car. He climbed inside and drove off to who knows where with the engine revving loudly. Stiles took that as his cue and pulled up his jeep right where the Camaro was.
Each in tow with a shovel, the teenagers jumped out of the jeep. Seriously, why did this kid have so many shovels? This was so not how Natalie envisioned her Friday night at all.
"Wait, something's different," Scott thought out loud as they walked over to the not suspicious pile of dirt.
"Different how?" Stiles asked.
"I don't know."
"Alright, let's just get this over with," Natalie said, already losing her patience, "This place gives me the creeps."
Scott was the first to jab the dirt with his shovel and went to work. The other two followed suit.
Minutes (which felt like hours) later, the hole was getting deeper but nothing had been found yet. All three teenagers were sweating and panting from all the shoveling. Their arms were going to be jello after this. Man, just how deep did Derek bury that girl? She might as well have been in Hell if she was that deep underground.
To make matters worse for the frustrated boys, Natalie had been whistling 'Hi Ho (It's Off to Work We Go)' as they were shoveling. Stiles was about ready to rip his ears off his head if she didn't shut up.
"Natalie, I love you and everything," he said, stabbing his shovel in the dirt, "but I'm about ready to bury you alive."
"Hey, I don't wanna hear it from you!" Natalie snapped, "First, you drag us out to the woods in the middle of the night to look for half of a dead body. Now we're digging around the property of a possibly homicidal werewolf. Oh, and not to mention that we've been at this forever with nothing to show for it except calluses on my hands. I'm bored, I'm tired, and I'm hungry so I will whistle as much as I damn please. Thank you."
"Seriously, Stiles," Scott agreed, "This is taking way too long."
"Just keep going," the hyper teenager said.
"What if he comes back?" Scott asked.
"Then we get the hell outta here."
Natalie snorted. "Brilliant."
"What if he catches us?" Scott asked.
"I have a plan for that," Stiles said.
"Which is?"
"You run one way. I run the other. Whoever he catches first, too bad." Idiot.
Then Natalie thought of something. "Wait, what about me?"
"You can be bait," Stiles offered, "Derek's less likely to maim you since you're a girl."
"As we're digging up the upper half of a dead woman's body!"
Oh, yeah. "Good point. Sorry, Nat."
Natalie scoffed. "Okay, who the hell decided to make him in charge of making all of these rash decisions?"
Scott shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me. But either way, it's never happening again."
"Agreed."
"Okay, both of you can stop insulting me like I'm not here!" Stiles exclaimed to his best friends. They continued to dig when suddenly, Stiles's shovel hit something with a thud. "Oh, stop, stop, stop." They all tossed their shovels to the side and used their hands to push away the rest of the dirt that covered a sheet tied off with some rope.
"Hurry," Scott demanded as they attempted to untie the rope.
"I'm trying," Stiles said, "Did he have to tie the thing in, like, nine hundred knots?"
"Oh my god, I'll do it," Natalie grumbled, her hands moving faster.
Finally they were able to get the ropes untied and unwrapped the sheet. Neither of them were expecting to discover the head of a large black freakin' wolf underneath. The three of them screamed and jumped out of the hole they literally and figuratively dug up.
"What the hell is that?!" Natalie screamed.
"It's a wolf," Scott exclaimed in bewilderment.
"Yeah, I can see that," Stiles said with a 'no shit' tone, "I thought you said you smelled blood, as in human blood."
"I told you guys it was something different," Scott said.
"This doesn't make any sense."
"We gotta get out of here," Scott told the other two.
"Yes, please," Natalie sighed, already trying to scoop some dirt on the wolf, "Can you guys help me cover this thing up?"
Scott was just about to when he noticed Stiles staring far off at something. "Hold on a second, Nat. Stiles, what's wrong?"
"You see that flower?" Stiles asked, pointing to a purple flower poking out from the ground.
"What about it?"
"I think it's wolfsbane."
Scott wasn't getting it. "What's that?"
"Uh, haven't you ever seen The Wolf-Man?" Stiles asked.
"No," Scott said as he shook his head.
"Lon Chaney Jr.?" Stiles listed off, "Claude Rains? The original classic werewolf movie?"
"No! What?"
It was Stiles's turn to get annoyed and he rolled his eyes at his best friend's lack of knowledge. "You are so unprepared for this." He went to grab the flower.
"Do you know what he's talking about?" Scott asked Natalie.
"I have seen The Wolf-Man a couple times, yeah," she admitted. Scott sighed in defeat. "Maybe you do need to learn all things werewolf. Brush up on some pop culture." She patted his shoulder.
Both Scott and Natalie watched as Stiles picked up the wolfsbane only to find rope tied to the stem of it. Stiles pulled on the rope, ending up unraveling more and more of it as he circled around the hole. It seemed to have created some sort of spiral and it just confused the teenagers even more.
Natalie broke her vision away from Stiles back to the hole. Her eyes grew wide at the new sight at took place. Not breaking away from what she was seeing, she lightly hit Scott's arm to get him to look.
And when he did, he had the same reaction as the redhead. "Stiles…"
Said boy stopped his unraveling to join the other two. He practically yelped when he looked down into the hole at the upper half of the woman's body in place of the wolf.
Derek really did kill that girl. Holy shit.
Review, favorite, follow, all that fun stuff! And be sure to check out the revised version of Isaac's book, Scars, which I hope to update by the end of the week.
I'll be sure to update soon! Xoxo, Maddie