Bear Hugs ➵ Teen Wolf

8 ➵ Pragmatic

↣'Cause all we need is love↢

↣and love needs sacrifice↢

↣But it's sure worth the prize↢

↣If you get it right↢

↣'Cause way up in the sky↢

↣There's no such thing as blind↢

Chapter 8 ➵ Pragmatic

"CGI?"

Scott nodded quickly. "Yeah. It was CGI."

"You do know what CGI means, right?" she retorted.

Scott blinked.

"Computer-generated imagery," Stiles explained, dragging his palm across his face in irritation. "This is why I always come up with the plans."

"Okay, well, it was special effects," Scott tried. "Lots of makeup. We were preparing for one of those cosplay things."

"You broke the school's window."

"By accident."

She crossed her arms and stared at her paper. "Uh-huh. How'd you get the hair to grow?"

"It's like one of those sponge things," he said. "Where you add water and it grows."

Stiles clamped his hand over Scott's mouth. "What he's trying to say is he has no clue how it works. He just bought the set of stuff from online last week."

Scott, with his eyes bugging out, nodded agreeably. "Mm-hm!"

"Well, it was realistic, at least," Sherry relented. "And kind of scary." She tugged at a tress of ash brown hair that had fallen in her face. "I don't see why my uncle had to tell you I was there."

"To explain," Scott suggested.

"You're doing a pretty poor job of it."

"No talking during study time!" Mr. Lewis screeched.

"By the way, Stiles," Sherry hissed, "We're meeting again today. Full lab report."

He shoved his paper. Again, his pen clattered to the floor.

"I said no talking!"

➵➵➵

For the first time, Stiles actually contributed to the work effort during their meeting.

"What's the molar mass of sodium chloride?" he asked, peering at Sherry's lab notes.

"Fifty-eight point four-four," she answered. "Nice to see you're trying."

"Do you have any friends?"

"I take that back," she muttered.

"Just asking," he defended. "You never hang out with anybody except for Mason."

"I used to have lots of friends at my old school," she declared. "Then I moved here and I discovered everyone is rude and arrogant."

"That's all that changed?" He was no longer pretending to work on the lab. He stared intently at Sherry, like he could figure her out like a jigsaw puzzle if he stared long enough. Maybe red laser beams would shoot out of his eyes and cut a window into her mind.