To Better The Shattered; Scott McCall [2] ✔

0.60 In Which He Falls. Hard.

As the entire student body watched, Erica bent down over some poor freshman and took a big bite out of the apple on his tray (an attempt to be seductive, maybe?) before smirking widely and wiping juice from her lips.

Hands slapped onto the table in front of Ellie (she distantly realised that she had actually sat back down after the surprise arrival and Jackson had disappeared), and Lydia's voice demanded: "What the holy hell is that?"

"It's Erica," she answered dumbly, frowning.

Lydia sniffed, "I hate her."

Ellie shook her head, laughing lightly and about to tell Lydia that the transformation may not be that bad...

... and then Scott jumped from his seat, eager to follow the girl and Ellie felt jealousy curl inside her stomach.

Scowling, she agreed, "Yeah, me freaking too."

;

The rest of the school day was spent studiously avoiding Scott and talking to Lydia. Apparently, Ellie hadn't been the only one to have a worrying encounter with Jackson – Lydia had been manhandled and told 'everything was her fault'.

"Maybe he was high?" Lydia suggested later that night as they sat in Allison's bedroom. The taller brunette was laid casually on the bed, sprawled and laughing. It was often they got moments like this anymore. It was nice to have someone to act so normal, so human with. As much as she hated to admit it, she could never be fully at ease with Scott.

"Maybe he's cracking under the pressure of his popularity?" Ellie added, amused, from her position curled on the floor. "Or he's finally realised that no one cares if he's the captain of the lacrosse team and he only has one friend?"

"Bit harsh, Ellie," Allison reprimanded, lifting her head to set her cousin with an unamused stare. "He has more... you know, if imaginary ones count."

Lydia giggled, though, from the look on her face, she knew that they were only trashing him for her benefit; the bitter ex-girlfriend routine.

Ellie stood reluctantly, slipping on her coat from where it sat next to her, "I guess Lydia and I had better go..."

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" the strawberry blonde asked.

Allison shrugged. "I need to catch up on sleep; get an early night. Plus, I think my dad wants to spend some quality time with me and I need to ask him a few things."

"... Okay." Ellie sighed, "I'm sorry we're leaving you."

"It's fine, Ellie." The taller girl laughed brightly, "I can study some other time."

A knock sounded at the door, unnecessary as it had been left open, and stood in the mouth of it was Chris Argent.

"Going out?" he asked Ellie pleasantly (or as pleasantly as you can when you're a vicious hunter with a thirst for killing innocent teenage boys).

"Studying at Lydia's," she answered shortly.

The man's jaw tightened. "Allison," he called to his daughter. "Can I talk to you outside, please?"

She sighed reluctantly. "Fine," she looked to Ellie and Lydia. "Have fun. But not too much fun."

;

Fast forward twenty minutes and the two girls were pulling up to the car park of a building Ellie had never seen before with Lydia holding her phone haphazardly for directions.

"Where are we?" Ellie wondered, frowning. "I thought we were going to your house?"

"We were," the strawberry blonde told her easily. "But then I got this text from the Sty kid and I thought we could do something more fun."