Forever and Always (Sciles)

101: Ghost Town

Stiles POV

Once we arrive at the beach, we have to wait on the sand until we are dry before we can go to the car. Once dry and we've transformed back to human, we jump up from the sand and make our way back up the beach, towards my jeep.

"You gonna tag along to school with me?" I ask curiously as we reach the jeep and jump into our seats, closing the door behind us. I start putting the key into the ignition and turn it, the engine roaring to life.

"Sure, why not?" Ben shrugs.

"I still don't know if I approve of your use of magic on the principal." I say as I glance over at Ben for a moment. Ben shrugs.

"It's not a big deal. I didn't harm him or change him drastically. I've basically just stopped the two of us getting into trouble." Ben reasons with me.

"Yeah, true. I guess we've taken bigger risks together when we were younger." I finally concede as I pull out of the parking lot and back onto the road, driving back towards Beacon Hills.

~~~

Once we are back in Beacon Hills, we drive back to my house to get my school stuff, but I notice throughout the drive that the streets are surprisingly empty. There's no traffic whatsoever and there's no one out and about outside. Sure, I know it's late Monday morning and people would be at school and work, but town is never usually this quiet.

"Well, this is kinda weird." Ben notes. Hmm, so it's not just me noticing the lack of people then.

"Yeah, it is. Let's just get to school quickly, considering where that should be where all of our friends are and where I should be right now." I suggest as I finally pull up to my house. Ben and I get out of the car, walk up to the front door where I unlock it and enter the house. I rush upstairs to grab my school bag and soon, Ben and I are out the door again. We walk back down towards our jeep. Just before again I get in the jeep though, I glance over to my neighbor's house, and I notice someone looking through the window at me, through a crack in the curtain. They look scared, even though I can't see most of their face. I frown in confusion and worry, wondering what the hell is going on.

"Stiles? Are you coming?" Ben asks from inside the car, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah. I think I'm going to make a couple of calls first." I decide as I grab out my phone and dial Scott's number. The phone rings out and Scott doesn't answer, which has me worried. Scott always answers his phone to talk to me, even sneakily in class. So why isn't he answering now? I try to push that worrying thought aside as I try to call Kara instead. Again, no answer. I gulp nervously as I try Isaac's phone. No such luck. I'm starting to feel worried and frustrated now, wondering why none of my friends are answering.

"Dude, what's going on?" Ben asks impatiently from the car.

"I don't know, I'm trying to find out." I reply anxiously as I dial Derek's number, hoping that maybe he'll have an answer to all of this. Unfortunately, I'm disappointed and there is no answer. I sigh as I put my phone away and get into the car myself. I didn't try calling all of the pack, but considering the people I did call didn't answer, it's safe to say that the rest of my friends wouldn't answer either, for whatever mysterious reason.

"No luck with the phone calls?" Ben guesses as I shut the driver's door behind me and I strap on my seatbelt.

"Nope. Guess we'll have to go to school to find them, and I'll give them an annoyed talk about the importance of having your cell phones switched on, so people can contact you if they need to." I reply, not wanting to worry myself too much yet. It's probably not a big deal. Teachers probably just took all the kids' phones away for the lesson or forced people to turn them off. As for Derek... Well, he doesn't like me much anyway and I doubt he'd like a phone call from me. Besides, he could be busy doing other things. Who knows?