Never Be The Same // Liam Dunbar

Chapter 1 ~ Tryouts

"Of course you're still the Team Captain. You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?" Luna's brother asked his best friend, Scott. The girl stopped, she and Stiles both turning to face Scott.

"Yeah, but he never told me that I was back on the team. He just told me to show up to tryouts today," Scott replied. Scott, Luna and Stiles were all very close. Luna had been around Scott since she could remember, and since she and Stiles were related, they had known each other forever. For siblings who were only two years apart, they were very close. Their friend group wasn't as it seemed. While everyone else was some sort of supernatural, Stiles and Luna were human.

"That's probably not the best sign," Luna stated. Stiles and Scott both looked at her, and she put her hands up in surrender. She got both her sarcasm and sassy comments from Stiles, since he was the same way.

Stiles scoffed. "We got bigger things to deal with, anyway. Did you tell Argent yet?" Luna furrowed her eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Tell Argent what?" she questioned. The boys ignored her question, continuing on with their conversation.

"Well, I texted him, but he hasn't gotten back to me," Scott replied. Luna glanced between them, listening intently.

"You told him his sister Kate came back from the dead over a text?" Stiles quiered. Luna raised her eyebrows.

She exhaled. "Damn. That's cold." Scott glanced in her direction, then looked back at Stiles.

"I didn't have the money to call France," Scott stated.

Luna scoffed. "You really wanna talk money problems right now?"

"Try paying for an MRI and a visit to Eichen House," Stiles continued. Luna nodded her head, as Stiles had said exactly what she was thinking. Sometimes, they knew each other so well that it was scary. They could easily finish each other's sentences.

Scott furrowed his eyebrows. "Another notice?"

"Yeah, this one said 'Final'. Now, what the hell are we even doing here? We got like a hundred seventeen million problems to worry about and, frankly, worrying about our status on the lacrosse team is not one of them," Stiles said.

"It is now," Scott argued, nodding his head towards the field. Luna furrowed her eyebrows, confused. She turned, noticing that the boy in goal was catching every single shot that was thrown at him. Even when two boys at a time shot, he was able to catch every ball, easily rolling it onto the ground before catching the next one.

Luna gulped. "Okay, maybe we outta go practice. Just a little bit."

~~

"Hey, Liam," Stiles said as he, Luna and Scott approahced the boy who had been in the goal in the locker room. Liam shut his gear in his locker, putting a shirt on before turning to face them. "You want to explain what that was out there?" The boy furrowed his eyebrows, obviously confused as to why they were approaching and questioning him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, glancing between the three of them. Luna crossed her arms over her chest, looking carefully at him.

"That little display. Your circus act," Stiles replied. Liam obviously wasn't picking up on it.

He remain confused. "What circus act?" Stiles laughed, turning to Luna.

"Can you believe this guy?" he chuckled. He then turned back to Liam, his laughter fading. "You caught every shot."

Still, nothing but confusion from Liam. "I was in goal."

"Yeah, but nothing, not even a single shot got past you," Luna pushed, cocking an eyebrow. Liam looked at her up and down, his eyebrows still furrowed.

"Yeah, I was the goalie," Liam repeated.  He glanced between the three yet again. "You guys played this game before?"

Scott stepped in before either Luna or Stiles snapped. "You're a Freshmen, right?"

"Yeah," Liam said dryly. Luna was also a Freshmen this year, a grade she did not enjoy the title of. She felt like the noob of Beacon Hills, since the majority of her friends were Juniors. Her only friend who was also a Freshmen was her best friend Damian Wade.

"But you weren't here last semester," Luna stated, growing suspicious of the boy. It was rare for somebody to just show up, especially to a school like Beacon Hills, during the second semester of a school year.

Liam shrugged. "I transferred from Devenford Prep."

"You transferred?" Stiles questioned. Luna's eyes widened slightly. Devenford Prep was a rich, amazing private school. It was a school you definitely wouldn't want to trade in for Beacon Hills. So why did he?

Liam just nodded. "Yeah."

"No, you got kicked out, didn't you?" Scott quizzed. Luna knew in that moment that Scott's werewolf side must have caught on to either a change in Liam's voice, or a rise in his heartrate.

"This outta be juicy," Luna said quietly, preparing herself for Liam to tell them about it. Instead, he glanced around at them angrily.

"All right, look! Kicked out or transferred, what do you guys care? I came here to play lacrosse. The team could use a few good players, right?" Liam snapped. Luna wasn't expecting the boy to grow so defensive.

"No. No, we don't need any more good players," Stiles growled. Luna could feel tension lingering in the air. Stiles felt threatened. That, and he felt the need to protect his sister, as she and Liam were the same age and in the same grade.

Scott cleared his throat. "Actually, we could sort of use a couple."

Luna nodded. "Yeah, I mean, some of our best players were smart enough to leave this school." Stiles turned back to Liam.

"Okay, how did you get this good?" he questioned. "Have you always been this good? Or did it suddenly just happen over night? Have you ever been out in the middle of the woods on the night of a full-" Luna interuppted his rambling by hitting his arm. Stiles bit his tongue, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting like a little kid.

Liam sighed. "Look, I learned from my stepfather, alright? He was made Team Captain with he was a Sophomore." He looked over at Scott. "Like you. And yeah," he started, pausing and swinging his bag over his shoulder, looking at Stiles, "I guess I'm just that good." He walked off. Luna's eyes followed him.

"He wasn't lying that time," she said.