How hard could it be? • LM / SS

Chapter 21

"Okay, I apologise. Sorry for your loss," he stated, no compassion evident in his voice. Looking up from his papers, he watched the woman who was waiting for him to continue.

"Next, uh- Max. He's a good student but he does get distracted very easily. He also tends to get quite emotional. Written work is fantastic, but practical work not so much. Very friendly, very out there," he finished, Melissa nodding along in agreement.

"Jade. She's very intelligent. I'd say she's almost as good as Lydia Martin. She does tend to often get very irritated and snaps at people a lot. Prefers to do work alone, and apparently doesn't like partner or group work. She does seem to work well with her friends, like Allison, Stiles etc though. You have to give her very clear, specific instructions or she gets confused," he added, closing his notes.

                                   ~

"It's Mel," Max said, holding his phone up and looking nervously between Jade and Stiles. Their aunt was definitely not going to be in a good mood considering neither of her three children had shown up to their parent teacher conferences.

"Answer it!"

"Hey, Mel!" he exclaimed, putting the phone on speaker.

Jade immediately put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples with her fingers. He was too excited and their aunt was definitely gonna know something was up. He was never enthusiastic, which was a dead give away.

"Do you know where Scott is, is Jade with you and where are you?" she asked immediately, her tone a mixture of anger and anxiety as she didn't even wait for him to finish his greeting.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon, Jade is with me and we're sitting in her car with Stiles," he listed, answering all three of the questions.

"Hey Melissa!" Stiles shouted, his mouth practically eating the speaker part of the phone.

"I can see you Mel, we're coming over," Jade noted, hanging up the call and opening the door.

The second her niece was in view, she engulfed her in a tight hug. Taken aback by the sudden action, she awkwardly patted the woman on the shoulder. She hated physical contact but was slowly starting to get better with it. Well, she didn't exactly have a choice when she lived with the McCalls, who basically thought everyone was a human teddy bear. "I thought something terrible had happened to you guys."

"We're fine, don't worry," Max replied. "You know, Mel, you look so good tonight! It suits you really well."

Melissa fiddled with the button at the end of her blouse. She hadn't felt comfortable wearing it, so it was nice to hear a compliment for once. Her smile dropped as soon as it came, a hand on her hip as she narrowed her eyes. "You're just trying to butter me up so you don't get in trouble. Have you seen Allison?"

The three teenagers shared a worried glance with each other, ignoring the first half of the woman's comment. Stiles nudged Jade in the ribs, volunteering her to come up with an excuse. "Nope, not since earlier, why?"

"Do you know where her parents are?" Melissa asked, trying to analyse the kids expressions. When you worked in the ER and frequently had people coming in and saying that they crashed their car because of a deer in the road, when in reality they had been drinking, you picked up on when people were lying.

She shared a look with the other two, who simply nodded in defeat. There was no harm in introducing the parents and it would but Allison and Scott some time to get there. "Yeah, follow me."

She made her way over to Chris Argent and a woman, who Jade could only assume was Allison's mother. As she neared the pair, she noticed that the woman had the same wide eyes as her daughter. Seeing the group of people approaching them, the two adults looked up.