Tightening the elastic band in her hair, she sat back in her seat a proud smile on her face. She'd done her hair up in a half-up and half-down hairstyle with it split into two pig-tails. She remembered having this hairstyle every day from when she was four up until she was sixteen and discovered new hairstyles.
Stiles was on his way to the bathroom since he had school that morning when he spotted his sister's smile in the mirror's reflection. Narrowing his eyes, he stalked back so that he was loitering in the doorway trying to figure out what was happening. Who was it who had caused such a look and why wasn't she panicking over her unwritten work like she usually was. There was so much to figure out and so little time and it didn't help that his best friend had just been turned into a werewolf.
"Hey sisterroo," he called out, and her brows furrowed at the name as she looked at him through the mirror, "where you going?"
"Out with a friend," she dismissed, pushing herself out from her seat and grabbing onto her bag. She was wearing a blue tight-fitted denim mini dress over a white t-shirt and a pair of black converse.
"Friend or friend?" He asked, crossing his arms out of suspicion. Despite being almost six years younger he acted like he was six years older at times and she couldn't help but feel giddy about the plans for the day. It was like everyone knew and yet they knew nothing at all. There was something oddly thrilling about that.
"Stiles," she warned, and he hummed slowly stepping away.
"Is it... Lola?" Lola was her ex.
"Lola is out of the picture Stiles, you know that," she reminded, "and this friend is a friend," she specified beginning her journey out of the house, "so mind your own business and go to school."
They were sat in the little corner in the library. She'd been quick enough so that she got to claim her seat and she was sat with one knee tucked to her chest and the other one crossed as if she should have completed the pose and looked like a seven-year-old who'd been told to sit on the carpet in class. Her tatty yellow notebook was resting on her knee that was sat upright and she was writing in it as she usually was.
He was leaning back against the wall with his legs stretched out and his ankles crossed and a book resting in his hands. Finally growing bored with the words that sat on his page he lifted his eyes and looked over to Margo, but she paid him no mind as she was already enslaved to her own world. "What are you writing?"
She didn't respond.
He waited for a few seconds and once she finished her last word, her mind managed to grasp those around her for just enough time to feel his scrutinising gaze on her. Lifting her head, she looked at him confused, "did you say something?"
"...yes. I was asking what you were writing," he admitted and she hummed looking back to her book trying to figure out whether she should tell him or not.
They'd indulged in a couple of conversations over the time being but they hadn't spoken enough to be on good terms. It was just the occasional hello and goodbye, a book recommendation when needed. There was something about the look in his eyes though that made it easier to speak to him. Words they shared never left the small abandoned corner of the library nor did anyone ever expect them to. Secrets jumped between them, and no-one even knew that they spoke to each other.
"Metaphor's."
"For what?"
"The sky."
"Why?"
"So one day, when I become a world-famous author I can write about the sky and have it be beautiful," she explained, and he raised his brow a flicker of amusement falling onto his face.
You forget that other people have dreams sometimes. He'd forgotten that under her quiet and usually obsequious gaze, was a real soul which had feelings and aspirations and things that she wanted to do. It made him forget that he didn't have any of those.
Smiling slightly, he nodded his head before returning back to his own book, "you could compare it to the wild blue yonder..." he trailed off and she narrowed her eyes looking at him before she slowly turned back to look at her book in front of her.
"We shall see."
"-yes, you know I looked up once and it was like all the stars crashed down on my head. Like taking a shower in the cosmos," she admitted as she walked through the forest beside Derek. The pair had been talking about her trip to Los Angeles and her visit to the Griffith Observatory that she still needed to write down and get her wages from.
She wasn't looking at him as she was too focused on the path ahead and the occasional roots of trees that liked to propose an attack on her stability. He, on the other hand, had his eyes following her remembering all the times they used to do this when they were younger. They hadn't been in Beacon Hills at the same time in around three years and for them to be here now was like something he didn't even know he had missed. Neither had she.
Realising what she said she narrowed her eyes looking up at the tree in front of her for a second, "I should write that down," she muttered grabbing onto her phone and quickly typing it down and he rolled his eyes out of amusement at the action. "So, what are you doing now? Have you found some exciting exotic career yet?" She mused as she glanced at him although she was forced to drag her eyes away out of fear of falling.
"I have not," he proclaimed, "I'm just taking everything one step at a time," he trailed and she hummed.
"Not chasing some romantic girl around Europe?" She quipped as she continued on her way jumping up onto a fallen tree and holding out her hands to balance herself. She'd only meant it as a joke but he looked at her in surprise for a second and that second of hesitation was enough to make her stop for a second time and she looked to him wanting to know what he was stalling for. "What?"
"Nothing."
She frowned a smile on her face as she tried to work him out, "weirdo," she teased jumping down, "come on then, enough about me what have you been doing in the past sixth months?"
"I've been battling supernatural creatures alongside my sister whilst running from hunters," he said and it was silent for a few seconds before she scoffed beginning to laugh.
"What?" She asked continuing to laugh and after a few seconds, she released a snort causing him to laugh himself.
That was the only secret they shared. He'd never lied, but when he told her as they were children she'd taken it as a joke and from then on he found he could tell her anything and everything because that was precisely what it was to her. A joke. Not some grand secret where people would hunt him down if she ever told it. Nothing about the words mattered when he told them to her. Perhaps that was why he stuck around for so long.
"Charming as always, Margo," he taunted and she rolled her eyes trying to control her laughter. He managed to control himself much faster than her and he was left standing in the forest watching her as she hopelessly clawed for a lifeline to calm her composure. He couldn't help but feel like things were just that little bit brighter at that moment.
Finally managing to stop laughing, she cleared her throat looking over him with the remanents of the smile she was holding. One that would remain sketched onto her face for a long time now. Nothing could be spoken and yet so much was being said. She tried to think what it would be like if they were stood much closer right now. And some thoughts once thought are very hard to unthink
Clearing her throat for the second time, she pressed her lips together and turned her head away from him looking over to the direction they were heading in. "Well, come on then," she mused a slight strain to her voice.
They spent the whole day catching up. If they weren't catching up then they were simply enjoying each others company in the solitude.
It was hours later when she was sat in front of her laptop trying to contain her smile as she wrote the very last few words of her document. 'You only have to blink and all of a sudden a thousand stars are falling down upon your head and you're taking a shower in the cosmos and just for a minute, just one minute there is nothing other than you and the lights which surround you.' Except she wasn't thinking about the digital stars at all.
Leaning back in her chair she released a smile of pure and complete joy. The task which had brought some sick misery for the past few weeks had now been completed and had been finished just fine. In fact, she would be as bold as to say that it was some of her best work yet.
"Well, it's bad. Jackson's got a separated shoulder," Stiles' voice rang out from the next room. The walls were thin so that she could hear him speaking but she couldn't hear Scott. Usually, she'd just put her headphones on, but no amount of music could contain her emotions or the words which needed to be spilt onto the page although she supposed that the words had spilt enough. There was supposed to be nothing left in her but there was so much more. "Because he's a tool... Well, they don't know yet. Now, they're just counting on you for Saturday."
She didn't hear anything after that - not coming from Stiles' room anyway.
Noticing that she had a few comments on the website she quickly clicked on them all to read through them. It may be a narcissistic thing but the comments made everything better. It wasn't just ghosts reading her work but actual real-life people who have homes, lives, souls, thoughts, feelings, emotions, friends, families, with one comment they became so much more real. Sometimes they'd praise her or sometimes they'd simply comment something as if they were enacting a conversation and either way she loved it.
It was also nice to interact with people who took the time to read your work whether they enjoyed it or not and so after reading a comment she always responded. It was her rule. If the comment was something that was impossible to respond to then she'd at least leave a like just to prove that she read it and that she cared about it because she did care.
Still having so much more to say she took herself out of the website and brought up a new word document. She didn't know what to call it, but that could be something that would come later and she began writing like she was on a mission to save a life or trying to save a soul.
Twirling a strand of her hair Margo read through each of the words mouthing them as she did. No noise left her mouth but she was in the most romantic of scenes and she couldn't help but feel like she was stood in their world watching it all happen. It was a book that Derek had recommended to her. Her friend was sat in the chair opposite her listening to the metronome as she tried to practice her cello.
The sound of a couple of jocks shouting out in the hall disrupted them both and they looked over to the door annoyed. Paige took in a deep breath closing her eyes as she released it before she began to play again. Margo only dragged her eyes from the door to look back at her friend.
The moment she started back up again it became noisy with the sound of cheers. "Mal, can you go and tell them to shut up?" She asked, and Margo looked over to her with her face paling to mimic that of a ghost. Mal was what Paige called her since it was more 'fitting' for her actual name, she hated it.
"I er...sure..." she trailed off placing the book on her chair as she pushed herself to her feet. Her hands began to tremble slightly but she covered it by grabbing onto the edge of her sleeve.
Pushing open the door as gently and quietly as possible she stepped out and of course, none of them saw her. But she saw them. She saw way too many of them and any courage which she might have had fled from her soul. Grabbing onto the door she quickly charged right back into the music room.
"Nope. Absolutely not. Na-ah," she said, and Paige looked to her best friend in amusement before she sighed a smile forming on her face.
"Fine, I'll do it," she mused pushing herself up to her feet and heading out. Margo held out the door and stayed hidden behind it although the top half of her head was poking out from behind so that she could see.
Derek was there.
Outside the library and outside of their quiet hidden spot they pretended they didn't know each other. She would occasionally meet his eyes when walking through the corridor but other than that they said nothing. They acted as if they'd never spoken to each other and so to speak now would probably traumatise her for the next few years.
"Hey, do you mind? I'm trying to practice." And she was trying to read, Margo thought about adding but she didn't even want to step out from behind the door completely.
"How do you know we're not trying to practice here, too?" Derek countered his eyes looking past Paige and glancing at Margo his brow-raising in amusement slightly. Upon seeing that he'd spotted her her own brows fell as if she was sighing which she was doing. She could have sworn he had some strange ability to always detect people.
"Yeah, well, see, I was practising in the music room, and I'm pretty sure basketball practice takes place in the gym..."
"Well, I'm pretty sure basketball practice takes place anywhere you got a basketball..." Derek reminded before doing a small trick, "see?" He asked.
Paige rolled her eyes about to turn back and upon seeing her friend approaching Margo took a step back about to leave. "Hold on, hold on-" that made both girls return to their positions, "- if you can get the ball from me... maybe I'll stop." Paige rolled her eyes for a second time. "Come on, it'll be easy." She nodded trying to do so and he began to taunt her with the ball purposefully making it difficult. Unbeknownst to everyone within the school he had supernatural abilities which allowed him to make it difficult. "Oops," he taunted and Paige gave up walking away from him.
Derek could only stare out in the direction she'd gone until his friend called him back, "come on, lover-boy..."
Scanning her eyes over the small collection of books that sat in the burnt down house a small smirk formed on her lips. "Everything you read is so formulated, so... old," she mused. It had been a trend she worked out in high school. Unless it was some grand credited book that was awarded for its deep insight to life despite being contemporary then he wouldn't read it, but you could give him the most poorly written classic and he would enjoy it. She was the complete opposite and preferred contemporary YA novels to classics, truth be told she wasn't much of a reader. Not like people expected her to be.
He was sat on his bed - the only piece of furniture that hadn't been burnt down - with his nose in another book Anna Karennina by Leo Tolstoy. Upon hearing her words he hummed not even taking his eyes from the page. "And everything you read is full of soulmate nonsense and the idea that people are programmed to die and actually get told when they're going to," he scoffed and she rolled her eyes looking back to him amused.
"Exactly, there's the soul. There's spirit... there's racial and sexual representation..." she trailed off, "and there is a reminder that you don't have to be dressed in a floor-length gown to have a little romance," she teased, "and for some reason, everyone has to die in YA books so...even better. Let's not forget that your books have literally sent me to sleep." That wasn't a lie. She'd tried reading a few of them and she ended up asleep every time. He'd even tried to read one to her when they were younger and of course, she'd fallen asleep.
He looked up at her with his usual smile but she'd already turned to look at the books again. Hearing something outside his smile faded and he put the book on the bed pushing himself to his feet, "stay here," he said and hearing the urgency she looked to him confused.
"What is it?" She asked, but he was already walking out of the room.
"Stay," he ordered and her own amusement completely diminished. He wasn't worried about her following, he knew that she would do as told no matter what she was told to do. It was just in her nature to be completely obsequious.
Straining her ears she tried to hear what was going on but she found that it was difficult to do so. Her human senses weren't working in her favour at this point. "...Is that it?...You don't get it yet... Think about what could happen. You're on the field... the aggression takes over... and you shift in front of everyone-- your mom, all your friends... and when they see you... everything falls apart."
Her brows furrowed at the words not understanding any of them and hearing the sound of the door slam shut she turned to look out of the window only to see Scott leaving. Tilting her head slightly her eyes narrowed just as the sound of footsteps came up from behind her.
"What was Scott doing here? W-what was that about?" She asked.
He stared at her for a second trying to think of an excuse, "nothing. You wouldn't understand. So these books then..." And once more there was so much left between them which should have been said and yet wasn't.