Since Chris and Victoria aren't home and Allison is in her room stressing over the game that will take place in a couple hours, me and Stiles decide to watch the movie in the living room. We're both tense and nervous, worrying about Scott, but hopefully Star Wars: Episode V will help us to relax a bit. We sit down on the couch in silence, and when the dvd menu shows on the tv screen, I hear footsteps on the stairs.
"Stiles..?" Allison says doubtfully.
"He's forcing me to watch the Star Wars franchise," I tell her.
"I'm pretty sure you suggested it," he butts in.
"Okay, maybe I did. Wanna join in, Allison?" I ask.
"No, I'm... not sure Star Wars would be that enjoyable to me... and I have to get ready for the game tonight," she says, and I chuckle.
"Alright, Allison."
She smiles and then she's gone, obviously not in the mood for a geeky film like this one.
"Should I start the movie now?" he asks and I nod in response.
***
I like this movie more than the first one we watched, no doubt about it, but again I can't fully concentrate on it because thoughts about the body we found in the woods and Scott's disappearance are consuming me. When the movie is paused, it takes a few seconds for me to realise.
"Why did you pause it?" I ask Stiles, turning to look at him. There's some kind of discomfort in his manners and I wonder what his deal is.
"I- uh, I wanted to talk to you about something. Well, more like ask you about something. Is that okay?" he asks, seemingly trying to study my reaction.
"About what?" I ask, growing nervous.
"About Derek Hale," he says slowly. I break eye contact with him.
"Okay," I say, saying something in an effort to distract him from my reaction. Soon after, I realise I've actually said yes, and I feel my heart rate increasing.
"You... said you didn't know him, but I have a feeling you do. And he knows you too. And he brought up your parents when you were talking to him. So, there's something you're not telling us. And I don't blame you for that, I wouldn't even have asked if this was just something... I- I just feel like whatever happened with you and Derek and your parents is something important. Something that's necessary for us to know. Is that right?" he says, clearly trying to be as careful about this as possible.
"I... I guess," I say, looking down at my hands.
I feel his eyes on me and glance at him. Then I just sigh. I'm gonna have to tell him.
"You... you know what happened about six years ago, right? To Derek's family?" I begin.
"The fire?"
I nod.
"His family... consisted mostly of werewolves. But there were humans in the house too. Relatives, friends, I don't know."
He nods lightly, gesturing for me to continue.
"My parents were there that night..." I tell him.
"Woah... they were hunters too?"
"Yeah. But no, don't think they're responsible for it, I- I know they're not, I know-"
"No, I believe you. It's okay. Why were they there?" he asks. I calm down a bit.
"I've always been told they were trying to save people when the fire happened. There were humans in there, so it's not something we as hunters would agree with. It's not something anyone should agree with," I say, losing my temper a bit.
"That's true," he says, and then he looks at me like he wants me to continue. After a while, I do.
"So..." I sigh.
"I was obviously at school while all this happened, and when my aunt picked me up, I had no clue that..."
I look down at my hands again, fiddling with my nails.
"So my dad died in the fire," I say, my voice monotone and kind of scary, even to myself.
"And my mom... Her body has never been found. In six months, we can declare her dead," I smile bitterly.
I wait for a reaction, for something, anything that can stop me from feeling so vulnerable.
He moves closer and he takes one of my hands, stopping my nervous movements, and laces his fingers with mine. For a while, all I can do is stay rigid and just stare at our hands. Then he starts softly stroking my skin with his thumb, and my body relaxes.
"My mom is dead too," he says. That's when I look up at him, to find his gaze on me already.
"So I'm not saying I understand, because... you know, but..."
"You understand," I finish for him, smiling slightly.
"I guess I do... But I'm sure it was harder for you," he says.
"I'm not so sure about that," I whisper. We're still staring at each other, neither of us crying or laughing. Just looking.
Until a loud thump outside breaks the spell.
I turn my head towards the front door, where the noise is coming from.
"My God," I hear Chris' voice outside and I hurry to see what happened, pulling Stiles along with me.
"What's happening- Scott?" Stiles frowns.
"Uncle, what the hell?!" I shout as I process the scene in front of me. Scott's on the ground right in front of Chris' car, and it looks an awful lot like it just hit Scott.
"Dad? Dad?! What the hell are you doing?" Allison storms out of our house.
"He- he came out of nowhere, Allison," he says, shooting me and Stiles a quick look.
"Are you trying to kill him?" Allison yells.
"No, no, of course not. He just- he just ran out into the driveway."
"I'm sorry. It's my fault, I'm sorry," Scott is up and seems very flustered.
"You okay?" Allison asks him.
"Yeah, y-yeah, I'm fine. I swear. I was just coming to say hi," Scott says, finally looking away from Allison to notice us.
"Stiles? What are you doing he- uh," he falls silent when he focuses his gaze on our hands, still interlocked. Wait, I haven't let go of his hand yet? I do so immediately, maybe a bit too roughly, because both Stiles and Scott's eyes are on me right after.
"We were watching a movie. To kill time before the game starts," I say, my voice a bit too loud.
"Without asking for permission?" uncle Chris sneers.
"God, you were out. So is your wife. Calm down, it's not like I invited fifty people," I almost roll my eyes.
"Grace!" he stops and tries to recompose himself, to no avail, really.
"We have talked about this before. You know what? Your aunt can say what she wants, I do not agree with your attitude! Do I have to tell you again and again what should be important to you? You've been here for a very short while and all you've done is not listen to me or Victoria."
I say something before he can add another word.
"Do we have to do this here and now?" I sigh, rubbing my temples.
"No. I've said everything I had to say to you," he finishes, and I look down.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Chris asks Scott, suddenly a very different tone to his voice.
"Yeah. Yeah, totally. I should go. I've got a lacrosse game to get to. You're still coming, right?" Scott looks at Allison.
"Of course I'm coming, she answers.
"We all are," Chris says, "But I'm starting to doubt if Grace is too."
"No- No, uncle, shout at me all you want but I'm going to this game, alright?" I say.
He glares at me and I cower, slightly hiding behind Stiles to avoid the daggers he's shooting me.
"Look, who knows what I will do if you let me stay home alone tonight! I will invite those fifty people I was talking about, and I'll order like one hundred pizzas. And I'll ask strippers-"
"If you shut your mouth RIGHT NOW, you can come."
I walk up to him and lock my mouth with an invisible key, before throwing it away.
"What did Kate do to you..." he sighs, making me smirk while rolling my eyes.
"I think she'd say Kate's made her fabulous," Allison adds, and we make eye contact, smiling. I hope she doesn't always know exactly what I'm thinking, because if so she'd be aware of what's going on really soon.
***
Since I didn't want to spend the game sitting next to my grumpy uncle and Lydia, I took a seat closer to the field, a fair distance away from them. Someone takes a seat beside me and a small smile forms on my lips as I see who it is.
"Hi there, sheriff!" I say.
"Hello, Grace," he answers, acknowledging me with a nod. Then I notice Stiles is sitting in front of him, because he turns around, probably at the sound of his dad's voice.
"Hey, kid," Mr. Stilinski greets his son.
"Hey," he says, moving his gaze to me for a second, slight confusion evident on his face.
"So you think you'll see any action tonight?" the sheriff asks.
"Action? Maybe..." he says and he turns around. Not five seconds later, he turns back, this time focusing on me.
"Is everything alright? I mean, after... You're not sitting with them."
"Oh, I thought I'd give my uncle some time to cool down. Besides, I don't really feel like sitting next to his grumpy ass," I say.
"But you feel like sitting next to my dad's grumpy ass?"
"Stiles," Mr. Stilinski scolds.
"The game is starting," Stiles quickly says.
I watch the game with focused eyes, observing each and every one of the players, but mainly Scott. Everything seems to be going okay until I notice literally no one is passing the ball to him. To make it even worse, when Scott has a chance of getting the ball, Jackson steals it away from him and scores, earning an applause. Scott looks at something behind me intently.
"Grace, look at the sign," Stiles points towards it, and I do. Lydia and Allison are holding it, and I almost puke when I see what it says.
'We love you Jackson!'
I look back at Scott, an angry look on his face, to put it mildly.
"Oh shit," I mumble.
"Brutal. Oh, this is not gonna be good," Stiles says.
***
"Stilesssss," I whine.
"What?" he says, slightly annoyed. The game is currently paused, so there's nothing to do but worry about Scott and I don't want to make it worse by staying quiet.
"Does Luke actually fall for Darth Vader's trap?"
"Grace, I'm not gonna spoil you! If you want to know what happens, you're gonna have to watch the ending of the movie, okay," he says, clearly taking this very seriously.
"But I can't wait! And this stupid game isn't keeping me entertained, so..."
"I'm just gonna ignore you now," he says, turning back around.
"Ugh, but I want to know!" I say.
He just lifts his hands up without looking behind him.
Then, Mr. Stilinski moves a little closer to me and says something to me as quietly as possible.
"He does fall for his trap."
I look at him with my mouth opened wide.
"Oh my god," I mutter.
"Grace, look at him," Stiles whispers.
I spot Scott looking livid, eyes shining brightly. Way too brightly.
Then the game starts again.
And Scott is unnaturally good. He's never been this good, actually. When he scores, the crowd goes wild.
"Pass to McCall," coach Finstock shouts.
Then something even more disturbing happens. A player from the other team takes the ball, but freezes right in front of Scott. And he passes the ball to him, looking scared out of his mind.
"Did the opposing team just deliberately pass us the ball?" coach asks Stiles in confusion.
"I believe so, coach."
Scott continues playing majestically until he gets the ball and moves right in front of the goal, just standing there. I hear yells of encouragement around me and finally he scores, causing cheers to errupt. But I see Scott running away from the field, and Allison passes straight by me to run after him.
"Allison! Allison, wait!" I yell, moving to follow her, when I see the sheriff on his phone.
"Dad, what's wrong?" he asks, and I hesitate because I want to know what's going on.
"Go," Stiles tells me, because he knows Allison is in danger.
I run as fast as I can, push my way through the crowd, but it's not going smoothly at all. When I finally get to the locker room, I don't hear any screams or growls so I'm immediately calmed down.
"Maybe I need to learn to take more chances."
Scott's voice sounds normal, strangely normal.
"Maybe you do," I hear Allison's voice. I peak my head around the corner and tense when I see them kissing. I turn back before they see me and frown.
My cousin is dating a freaking werewolf.
This could be her death.
I feel a presence behind me and when I turn around, Stiles is standing there. We share looks, none of us completely joyous at the moment.
"I gotta get back to my dad," Allison says and then I hear her footsteps until she's in sight, slightly flushed and smiling widely.
"Hi Grace, Stiles."
We both greet her kind of awkwardly.
"I kissed her," Scott grins.
"We saw," Stiles says.
"She kissed me."
"We saw that too. That's pretty good, huh?"
"I- I don't know how, but I controlled it. I pulled it back. Maybe I can do this. Maybe it's not that bad," Scott says.
I really hope he's right.
"Yeah, heh- We'll talk later then," Stiles says.
"What?" me and Scott say at the same time.
"The, uh, medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found."
"And..."
"Well, I'll keep it simple. Medical examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek's human, not animal. Derek not killer. Derek let out of jail."
"Are you kidding?" Scott asks.
"No, and here's a bigger kick in the ass. My dad I.D.'d the dead girl. Both halves," he pauses, briefly looking me in the eyes before continuing.
"Her name was Laura Hale."
I stare at him to make sure he is really not making this up.
"There is no way he killed her. There is no fucking way," I say, feeling my blood pumping faster because of the new information.
"Hale?" Scott asks Stiles, still dumbfounded.
"Derek's sister."