If I Could Turn Back Time

Powers of Persuasion

Despite Derek's threat, I mean warning, it took Scott and Stiles until the end of the week (mostly because Scott still wanted to play, despite knowing how dangerous it was) for them to finally work up the nerve to talk to Coach Finstock. And you know, Derek's threatening glare was also a huge motivator.

It was early in the day just after morning practice when Stiles and Scott walked into the Coach's office to find Coach Finstock and Derek sitting at the desk going over some kind of paperwork. "Uh, excuse us, Coach?" Stiles said, clearing his throat. The older men raised their heads up from the desk and started at the young boys who had just walked into the office. "Hey, there's my star players," Coach beamed before looking back at Derek. "Besides you, of course."

"Coach, we need to tell you something," Stiles started, flitting his eyes briefly over to Derek who was watching the teenagers intently.

"Sure, what is it?" Finstock said.

Scott and Stiles both looked at each other before looking at their teacher. "We can't play the game tomorrow night," they said in unison. Coach Finstock furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean you can't play the game tomorrow night?"

"We mean... we can't play the game tomorrow night," Scott repeated.

"You can't wait to play the game tomorrow night," the coach rephrased.

Derek narrowed his eyes pointedly at the boys and jerked his head to the side in an effort to control the situation. Stiles swallowed thickly as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. "No, Coach we can't play the game," Stiles insisted. "I'm not following you here," the coach shook his head. "Look, Scott and I are just having some personal issues," Stiles sighed.

"Is it girl trouble?" the coach questioned.

"No," Scott answered.

"Is it guy trouble?" the coach inquired, with a raised eyebrow.

"What? No, that's not—" Stiles was cut off by the Coach's continued rambling. "You know, our goalie Danny is gay," he mentioned.

Derek's face soured at the mention of the technology genius, as a barrage of images of Stiles forcing Derek to strip his shirt off in front of the other teenager assaulted his mind. Never again. He vowed.

"Yeah, coach, we know, but that's not it," Stiles huffed, failing in his attempt to change the subject.

"You don't think Danny's a good-lookin' guy?" Finstock pried.

"Yeah, he's good-looking but this has nothing to do with Danny," Scott cut in.

Just then, the eccentric teacher suddenly came upon what he thought was the real truth of the situation. "Are you guys dating each other?"

"WHAT? EWW!" the teens squawked indignantly. Even Derek had to cringe at the coach's idea of them as a couple. That was definitely an image Derek did NOT want floating around in his already troubled mind.

"Listen to me, we're not dating!" Stiles snapped. "He's like a brother to me."

"And besides we like girls," Scott added.

"Well, then what is it? Is it drugs? Are you doing meth? Because I had a brother that was addicted to meth. You should have seen what it did to his teeth— they were all cracked and rotted. It was— it was disgusting," the coach ranted.

"Oh, my God!" Derek piped up for the first time since the boys walked in, startling the others.

"Jesus, kid! I almost forgot you were in here," the coach shouted. "You scared the crap out of me."