How hard could it be? • LM / SS

Chapter 40

"And you feel like you know them, but you just can't figure out who it is?" Stiles supplied. The two teens in the front nodded.

"Are you saying you know who it is?" Scott queried.

"No. But I think it knew us," Stiles said.

"So- that means it's more than likely someone we all know," Jade stated.

~

"I know because I love you," Stiles said to his best friend. The twins came up behind the boys, sitting on the stairs beside them.

"Damn! Max looks like you're out of luck, he's in love with Scott," Jade mocked, throwing her arms around the three boys.

Stiles and Max both sent false smiles at her, while Scott laughed and sent a high five her way. "You and Allison have to find a better way to communicate," Stiles sighed.

"You're the only one we can trust!" Scott exclaimed. His cousins sent a glare at him, offended. "Is she coming to the game tonight?"

"Yes, okay? Message complete," Stiles replied. "All right, now tell me about your boss."

"Come again?" Max asked. Why did no one ever fill them in? It seemed that half the group knew stuff and half the group didn't. They really needed to start getting on the same page about things, or else it probably wouldn't end well.

Scott cast a look around them, making sure no one was listening in. The Argents already wanted him dead, and with Gerard becoming the new principal and Victoria becoming the new receptionist, he needed to watch what he was saying. Or more so, who heard. "He thinks that Allison's family have some kind of record of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book," he whispered to the group.

"He probably means a bestiary," Stiles said, clapping his hands together.

"A what?" Scott asked.

"A bestiary!" Stiles exclaimed.

Scott began to laugh. "I think you mean bestiality," he snickered.

Stiles rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You two," he said, turning to the twins. "Supernatural encyclopaedias. I am right, aren't I?"

"He is right," Max nodded. "It's like a book of mythical creatures."

"Someone's been doing homework," Jade commented, impressed. That's where her spell book went the other night.

"I'm not just a pretty face, you know," Max replied, smiling for show. Just because his powers didn't come in handy for much, didn't mean that he couldn't help out.

"How am I the only one that doesn't seem to know anything about this stuff!" Scott hissed, waving his hands around.

"You're our best friend. You're a creature of the night. It's kind of a priority of ours," Stiles replied.

Scott nodded along. That made sense. "If we can find it, and it can tell us what the thing is-"

"And who," Jade added.

"We need that book," they all said simultaneously.

"I can keep looking in my spell book. There's got to be something there," Jade said.

                                    ~

"Probably like a book. Old, worn..." Stiles started listing things off.

"Like bound in leather?" Allison questioned.

"Yup," Max supplied.

"Come on," Stiles said.

"Hell no. You can do the running, I'm staying here with Allison," Jade laughed, sitting into a nearby chair. Screw that. She'd done enough running to last her a lifetime.

"Sorry, you're on your own here," Max added, sitting next to her. Huffing, Stiles ran off to find Scott.

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be in the guidance counsellors office now?" Jade asked.

"Huh?" Max replied, brows furrowed. Allison pulled out her phone, showing the time. "Shit! Shit, shit! Bye!" he yelled behind him as he ran up the steps into school.

                                      ~

"Hey," Lydia said as Max rushed past her.

"Hi," he exclaimed back, throwing himself into the waiting room chair.

"Max? You ready?" Ms Morell asked as she emerged from her office.

Muttering a quiet goodbye to Lydia, he followed the woman into the room. "So, how have things been lately?" she asked as she sat behind her desk.

"That's a very broad question, so you need to be more specific. That could mean how have things been lately at home, at school, in general, regarding my mental health. There's many interpretations," Max commented.

He was pacing around the room, something he had in common with his dad. Whenever the house was engulfed in anxiety, Jade and Elizabeth used to complain about the two men's anxious habits. It wasn't really complaining, just whenever they were anxious, their magic seemed to pick up on things like pacing and it seemed to make it worse. The whole family had anxious 'tells', including the McCall family.

For Sean and Max it was pacing, for Jade it was chewing the inside of her cheek or bouncing her leg, for Elizabeth it was twirling or messing with her hair. Melissa's was cleaning every surface she could find and Scott's was biting his nails, something Mel always gave out to him about.

"Okay. Let's start regarding school then," Ms Morell supplied. She'd picked up on that with the boy. Every time he came in- which was twice a week- he paced around the place for a while then finally sat down.

"Well, I got an A in my econ quiz, but you probably already know that because it's on my file. I got a B in my chemistry test, but I swear Mr Harris failed me on purpose. It's like he has a person vendetta against me or something! That's actually pretty sad to think of. A grown man hating a teenager for no reason apart from the fact he's a lonely bitch- wait am I allowed to say that? Doesn't matter, it's kind of true, no offence," he stated.

"This can be a place to vent in, so it doesn't matter if you're complaining about teachers. I see you got a detention a few days ago? I was just curious as to why?" Ms Morell asked.

"Now, in my defence that genuinely wasn't my fault. Basically, Jacka- Jackson was being an asshole and threw a bottle of water at Mr Harris and then blamed it on me! And of course Jackson's Mr Harris' golden child so I was the one who got the blame," he explained.

Oh boy. This was gonna be one long session.

A/N

We stan Max in this household. I feel like I'm neglecting him, so I'm trying to add in more dialogue and just all round more Max content because I love him <3

Also, I'm back to school on Monday, so updates might not be as regular, but I'll still post as often as I can :)