Midnight¹

5. The Wolves In Cali Are Different

Veronica sat in history class with Jackson, Allison and Lydia. Veronica wasn't paying attention to class and instead she was drawing in a journal.

    “The Burning of hundreds witches took place in our very own Beacon Hills. How many casualties resulted in the trials?” Mr. Gilbert asked before turning to Lydia,“Ms. Martin?”

    “Um...a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot.” Lydia said dimly.

    “Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Martin. Mr. Whittemore? Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?”

    “It's okay, Mr. Gilbert, I'm cool with it.” Jackson said with a smirk.

    “Hmm. Veronica? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events? Especially since your family line had a lot to do with this.” he said turning to the light brunette. Veronica looked up like a deer in headlights.

     “I'm sorry, I — I don't know.” She said awkwardly.

    “I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Veronica. But the personal excuses ended with Christmas break.” he said to her. Veronica looked down slightly disappointed as Lydia leaned forward to rub her best friends shoulder.

    “There were 346 casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians.” a boy said after glancing at Veronica. Veronica snapped her head around to look at him. She didn't recognize him so he must of been new.

    “Correct, Mr. Mitchell.” Mr. Gilbert said. “Any relations to the original founders?”

    “Uh- distance.”

On the high school Lacrosse field, Veronica was still in her practice uniform seeing as she just got out of her own practice, is watching as Scott is preparing to go on the field for try-outs when Stiles and Mattheo frantically run up to talk to them,"Scott! Scott, wait up."

    "Stiles, I'm playing the first elimination, man. Can it wait?" Scott tries to walk away, but Stiles grabs him by the shoulders and looks him in the eyes.

    "Just hold on, okay? I overheard my dad on the phone. The fiber analysis came back from the lab in L.A. They found animal hairs on the body from the woods!" Stiles informed the two.

    "Stiles, I gotta go." Scott rolls his eyes. Scott, distracted by the prospect of making first line, picks up his lacrosse stick and helmet before jogging onto the field.

    "Scott wait!" Mattheo called out.

    "Wait, no! Scott! You're not gonna believe what the animal was!" Stiles called out. Stiles stops and looks sad when Scott is too preoccupied to hear him. Veronica puts her hand on their shoulders to indicate that she was still listening. His voice lowers to almost a whisper as he finishes his own thought to just Veronica,"...It was a wolf."

    "Wolves are back in California?" She asked Stiles, she glanced quickly at Mattheo.

Stiles shaking his head at her softly,"I think the wolves in Cali are different."

Veronica held a worried expression as she watched Scott. She turned her attention back to Stiles with pursed lips before they made their way onto the bench.

Coach Finstock has just moved to the center of the field, where he calls all of the players to circle around him,"Let's go! Gather round! Bring it in, come on! Come on!" Allison is on the sidelines, getting ready to settle down in the bleachers to watch the practice for the second day in a row. She waves at Scott, who waves back to her, though it doesn't escape Coach's notice,"Got a question, McCall?"

    "What?" Scott said looking at him confusedly.

    "You raised your hand. You have a question?" Coach Finstock repeated.

    "Oh. No. I was just, uh..." Coach gives him an impatient look, so Scott drops the subject,"Nothing. Sorry."

    "Okay. You know how this goes. If you don't make the cut, you're most likely sitting on the bench for the rest of the season. You make the cut? You play. Your parents are proud." Coach shakes the face mask of the player standing in front of him to emphasize his point,"Your girlfriend loves ya! Huh? Everything else is, uh... cream cheese." Mattheo makes a confused face.

Coach Finstock smirks at Scott as he and the other players get psyched up for practice,"Now, get out there and show me whatcha got! Come on!" At Coach Finstock's order, the players scatter on the field, cheering and whooping to get each other focused on practice.

    "Let's go! Let's go!" Jackson called out to his team. Practice begins with the players doing a drill in which they pass the ball back and forth between each other. Scott bounces on the balls of his feet while he waits for the ball to be thrown his way. Once again, when the ball heads his way, he's shocked when he actually catches it with minimal effort. He starts running down the field, but when he spins around to avoid getting the ball stolen by another player, Jackson appears out of nowhere and tackles him hard. Jackson lifts up his helmet so he can smirk smugly at Scott before jogging away, which acts as the motivation Scott needs to get angry enough to tap into his newly-gained supernatural physical powers.

Scott and Jackson are up against each other for the lacrosse equivalent of a kickoff, and the two stare at each other for a long moment until Coach Finstock blows the whistle. Much to Jackson's dismay, Scott easily snatches the ball before he can even react, forcing him to chase after him as fast as he can. Just like the previous day's practice, everything seems to slow down around Scott, allowing him to spin out of the way when the other players try to tackle him, jumping over another player's ankle when they try to trip him, and finally, doing a hands-free round-off flip over three players who attempted to knock him down together, and shooting the goal by throwing the ball between the goalie's legs. Stiles and Veronica standing up shocked, Veronica evidently more shocked than Stiles. Stiles looks down at the obviously shorter girl just as she looks up at him with a bewildered expression. Mattheo pulled off his helmet and dropped it to the floor.

Scott gasps, clearly having difficulty believing what had just happened, and Jackson looks both furious and desperate to know what Scott's secret is. When Scott pumps his fists into the air, the other players run up to him and smack him affectionately on the shoulders, and Allison stands up in the stands to clap and cheer for him.

Just then, Coach Finstock, who looks mad, calls him over, "McCall! Get over here!" Scott, unsure of what to expect, jogs over to where Coach is standing and takes off his helmet,"What in God's name was that? This is a lacrosse field. What, are you trying out for the gymnastics team?"

Scott shakes his head,"No, Coach."

    "What the hell was that?" Coach asked again.

    "I don't know. I-I was just trying to make the shot." Scott panicked.

    "Yeah, well, you made the shot. And guess what?" Coach Finstock slaps Scott playfully on the arm,"You're startin', buddy." Coach squeezes Scott's shoulders with his hands, Scott letting out a breath of relief.

    "You made first line. Come on!" Coach hyped him up. Scott is so excited that he bounces happily, and all the players on the field and bench clap for him except for Stiles and Veronica, who seems concerned by the uncharacteristically athletic prowess Scott showed on the field. When Scott turned to them, Veronica gave him a big smile, which caused Jackson to scowl at her.

Mattheo turned to look at his sister, the same time she turned to look at him. They both knew what the other one was thinking.

Hey!

Peep the TVD thing. Anyways. I'm bored. Love you all