Midnight¹

30. Shopping Trip and Palm Reading

Lydia, Veronica and Allison go to the Macy's to go dress shopping. Veronica tells Allison to smile because she's buying her her dress as an apology for Scott kissing her. Allison tells her that her apology is not complete. She wants Veronica to cancel on whatever jock she invited and go with someone else. Allison looks straight at Stiles, who is sniffing perfumes at the perfume counter. Veronica let out a playful scoff at the boy who was now coughing over the fumes, but they pick up Stiles and take him shopping.

    “I don't have any money to buy a suit.” Stiles said to her.

    “That's okay. I'll sugar mama you.” She said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder with a smile. Veronica loads him up with dresses as he follows her around.

Peter appears behind Allison while she's shopping. He tells her that the dress she's holding doesn't suit her skin tone. "Because I'm pale," she says. He corrects her to, "Fair. You can't call skin like yours pale. Not skin that perfect." She laughs and tries to act like it's not totally weird, but then he grabs her hand and compares it to one of the dresses on the rack. She's clearly uncomfortable, but he keeps talking to her, and she doesn't try to stop him. Then an announcement comes over the loudspeaker that Allison's car is being towed and she runs off. Scott was in the Macy's keeping an eye on her. Peter doesn't know where he's hiding, but he tells him that he continues to be impressed with Scott's ingenuity.

Jackson pulls into a parking lot at the school and takes a shot of vodka before getting out of the car. He offers Allison some, but she doesn't take it. She asks Jackson if he knows if Scott's coming, and he tells her that he knows he's not allowed to because of academic probation. Allison fixes her makeup and tries to steel herself for the evening. Stiles and Veronica pull up in Stiles's Jeep. Just before getting out of the car, Allison spots Scott sneaking along the top of the school looking for a way in. She smiles.

Veronica tells Jackson that he looks handsome, and he replies, "Obviously. It's Hugo Boss." And then saunters off, leaving Veronica with Stiles.

"I don't care. I don't want compliments. I will not fall prey to society's desire to turn girls into emotionally insecure neurotics who pull up their dress at the first flattering remark. God i don't even know why I care."

Stiles just looks at her and says, "Well I think you look beautiful." She smiles, and he offers her his arm.

Inside the dance, Scott watches from the edges of the room. He sees Jackson sharing the vodka with Danny and another guy and spots Finstock on the other side of the room. Scott also briefly spots Peter in the crowd, but he quickly vanishes. Veronica and Stiles are sitting at a table, not really talking, because Veronica insisted on silence while she was reading his palm. Finally, he sees Allison standing next to Jackson. She asks Jackson if he wants to dance, and he answers by asking if he has to. He gives in and offers her his arm. Jackson brings Allison over to where Stiles and Veronica are and makes a point to start dancing in front of them. Obviously teasing the boy with a buzzcut who was glaring at him. He looked down on Veronica who was still looking at his palm, not noticing the two of them

Stiles asks Veronica if she wants to dance, but without looking up she says, "Pass." So he tries again. "Ronnie, get off your cute little ass and dance with me. Now." She compliments on him tactic but still goes with no. "Veronica. Get up! You're going to dance with me. I don't care that you have feelings for Jackson still, I don't- Veronica you have been my best friend since kindergarten. And I know that somewhere inside that cold, lifeless exterior, there's an actual human soul. And I'm also pretty sure that I'm the only one who knows how smart you really are. And I know that eventually you're going to go off and get an award for being the best FBI agent ever with like 7 PhD's" She gives him a stunned and touched look.

"Okay fine." She said before grabbing his hand and standing up. "And for the record, I don't still have feelings for Jackson. He's an egotistical ass. You're a much better person Stilinski." She smiled at him and put her head on his shoulder. "Hey do you remember the Valentine's cards we got?” Veronica asked him.

    "Yeah. Who'd you end up getting?” He asked her.

    "It gave me two people. One of them was you. The computer must know we're best friends. We're soulmates. That's what Abuelita thinks.”

    “She's thought that ever since I've met her.” Stiles said. “I'm pretty sure she's crazy.”

Veronica laughed softly and smacked his arm,“She has a good eye. And she can read energy. Face it Stiles. You're gonna be stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

Stiles smiled and held her closer. “I have no problem with that, whatsoever.” Veronica smiled and kissed his cheek.

Scott smiles at Stiles's success, but then Finstock sees him and shouts across the room. Finstock chases him down. Scott hides in the crowd and then rushes up to Danny. "Danny! Danny, dance with me." Danny says no, but Scott hauls him to his feet and pulls him onto the dance floor. Finstock finds Scott holding Danny, and it suddenly looks like he's yelling at them for being gay. The music stops, and everyone stares. Scott hugs Danny a little closer. "Yes, Coach?" Finstock starts to laugh because he knows what this looks like. Allison laughs because she knows what Scott's just done. Finstock tells everyone to start dancing again, and Scott tells Danny he owes him. Danny's date looks confused, and Danny just takes a drink without saying anything. Veronica, who had seen the interaction laughed at the boy while swaying to the music with Stiles.

In the background, Finstock asks Greenberg what he's looking at.

Scott hurries over to Allison. "Yes, I would love to dance with you," she tells him.

Drunk, Jackson wanders outside alone. As he approaches some trees, sees a red glow in the darkness that looks like eyes.

As Veronica slow-dances with Stiles, considering the possibility of the two of them, maybe as more than friends. She then realized her best friend was missing, she looked around the room, worried that she can't seem to find Lydia or Jackson. She tells him she needs to take a little break, but he knows she wants to go find Jackson and Lydia. He's hurt, but he follows her off the dance floor.

"I owe you a dance Stilinski."

"Yeah."

Outside, Jackson is looking for Peter. He falls to the ground and tells him that he wants to be like him, be one of them. But it turns out that there are hunters in the woods instead and the red dots were from their laser scopes. "Unfortunately, Jackson, I don't think I can give you what you want," Chris says, "but I have a feeling you might be able to help me."

Allison looks up at Scott and asks him what he's smiling about. "It's just hard not to look at you." She smiles. "I like when you look at me." He tells her about a funny memory and then says he has to tell her something. She thinks it's about the car accident that Stiles had, but he tells her it's about Derek and everything she was trying to tell him. She says that he can forget about that, but he tells her that he believes her. She says that she learned some new things now and that everything is different.

Jackson leads Chris back toward the formal and asks him to promise that he won't hurt Scott. "Of course not, he's just a kid." Jackson heads inside as Lydia heads out a different door looking for him.