The Noisy Sunday Compendium

Chapter 5: Chariots

It was a bright and sunny day, specifically the day before school started back up again. Everyone in the pack was excited about it, it was their senior year. So on their last semi-official day of being juniors, Lydia and Stiles were cruising around in the jeep. They were letting everything run free, not worried about anything until ten that night when they needed to sleep. Stiles kept glancing over at his friend while he drove. She was lounging in the passenger's seat with one hand out the window and the other holding her hair down on top of her head. Her sunglasses were the circled kind and he couldn't help but think she was the only one he'd ever seen that could pull them off.

"Did you want to go anywhere special today?" He asked, leaning back with only one hand left on the wheel.

Lydia pursed her lips as she thought, "Not really. How about you?"

He looked over and saw her kicking off her short black heels, "I don't know. I mean, the mall is always an option."

"Oh, god."

"What?" He was utterly confused.

Lydia put both hands over her face, she looked stressed out, "Do you remember the last time we were at the mall together?"

It took him a minute of combing back through his memories before he landed on dress shopping for the Winter Formal. Back when he hardly even knew this girl and was still completely obsessed, "Oh. The formal?"

"Oh my god. I am so, so, so sorry! I was such a bitch to you!" Lydia wanted to smack her old self for ever being so superficial.

Stiles reached a hand over to cover one of hers, that now laid on the arm rest, "Hey. Back then I was a total spaz, so I really didn't care."

"Well, I do now. God, I was horrible. How did I ever turn out that way?" She was now asking herself more than her best friend who just squeezed her hand, "What in the hell happened to me? I mean, now I'm alright... right?"

"Of course, Lydia."

"But you're definitely not the best person to make that judgement, are you? Oh, I can't stop wanting to kick my old self in the ass," Lydia was close to ranting when his voice brought her back to the present.

He pulled her hand up and kissed it gently, "You are one hundred percent better than when you started high school. And I, for one, know that something happened to you in middle school and after that you just didn't want to let anyone in. Nothing was wrong with you, you just put up a really rough outer wall. You are one of the most caring people Beacon Hills has ever seen and if anyone tries to disagree with that.. they'll have to deal with me."

Lydia just stared at him, truly seeing all the honesty of his statement in his features, "Then let's go make it up. Do it over."

"How're we going to do that, again?"

Lydia looked back out her window with a powerful smirk, "I've got a few things in mind."

An hour later when they were done eating literally everything in the mall's food court, Lydia threw her small, dark grey purse over her head and across her chest. Then she practically pulled Stiles' arm out of the socket, trying to get him to hurry up and move out of the food court. He just laughed at her excitement before having to run to ketch up.

Now they were walking at a decent pace, side by side, with their hands interlocked.

Lydia's bright pink smile sent a wave of excitement through his body, "Let's try this one."

She dragged him toward a family boutique with a small town vibe to it.

Stiles questioned, "So what exactly are we looking for?"