Entering Coaches classroom which was practically empty, aside from the odd student getting settled in for the lesson, the pair stopped as Coach stared at them — a look of pure disbelief covering his face. Noticing where he was looking, their linked hands. Stiles tucked a hand in his pocket and pulled his lips into a thin line. "Stilinski? Really?" Coach asked Aurelia, whose face lit up in amusement at their teacher's comment. "She's way out of your league." Stiles' jaw dropped open as Lia laughed aloud. "Sit down. The both of you, and no PDA in my class, please."
"No promises, Coach," Aurelia mumbled, pulling Stiles to their seats.
"What?" Coach asked, turning back to the two.
"I said, 'Okay, Coach'." Lia lied, ignoring the highly sceptical look directed at her. As did Roman, as he strut past Coach and sat in front of Lia. "Caught up, yet?"
"Have I, balls." Roman sassed, turning in his seat. "I'm barely through Chapter Seven."
Coach made his way towards the three and stood confused next to Roman, who looked up at him slowly. "Who the hell are you?" Just as Coach asked the question the bell rang and in walked the rest of the class, prompting the, not so, professional teacher to return to the front. Quickly reminding himself of the lesson plan, he clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "The stock market is based on two principles. What are they?" He asked, looking around the room. Passing his eyes over Stiles, Lia, Lydia and Allison — who he assumed to have the answer — he spotted Scott with his hand proudly raised. Begging for attention. "Yes, McCall, you can go to the bathroom. Anybody else?"
"Uh, no, Coach, I know the answer." Scott corrected, laughing through the awkward silence.
Bursting into a fit of laugher, Coach held his stomach as it started to cramp. Roman spun in his seat to face Lia and Stiles with furrowed brows. Mouthing 'what the hell' to the smirking couple. Finally composing himself, he looked down at the fully sincere Scott and stood straight. "Oh, you're serious."
"Yes. Risk and reward."
"Wow!" Coach shouted, his hands resting on his hips. "Who are you? And what have you done to McCall?" He asked, running forward patting the boy's shoulder. "Don't answer that. I like you better. I like you better. Does anybody have a quarter? A quarter!" He yelled out, changing the subject back to the lesson.
"Yep." Stiles smiled, shimming down in his seat to fish out the quarter from the tight pocket of his jeans. Pulling his hand out too fast also pulled out a small blue and yellow square packet, that flew through the air and landed in the middle of the room. The packet reading 'XXL Condom'. Stiles paled and Lia's mouth dropped open in surprise from both him having the condom and the size labelled on the front.
Reaching down and picking up the packet, Coach made his way between the sniggering teens and handed it back to him. "Stilinski, I think you, uh— you dropped this." Snatching it from his hand, Stiles stuffed it into his pocket and sank in his seat. "Congratulations," Coach mumbled down to Aurelia who dropped her head into her hands.
Whilst Coach continued to teach, Lia turned to Stiles. "You've gone red." She smirked.
"Oh, well, of course of gone red. A fricken condom just fell out of my pocket, in front of the entire class." Stiles spat, wanting the ground to swallow him whole.
"Why do you even have that?" Lia laughed. "Did someone have wishful plans for last night?" Lia hinted, watching as Stiles became even more flustered.
"No." He sassed, finally baring to look at her. "I was gonna give to Scott as a joke if he started talking to a girl, but things happened and he didn't even end up staying and—." Stiles rambled, being cut off when Lia reached across and held his arm.
"It's okay, I'm only kidding."
"Okay! Danny. Risk, reward." Coach yelled, placing the quarter on Danny's desk.
Thinking about it logically, Danny crossed his arms. "What's the reward?"
After a moment of thinking, Coach answered. "You don't have to take the pop quiz tomorrow."
"Coach, it's not a pop quiz if you tell us about it."
"Danny, you know, I really expect more from you at this point." Coach Finstock snapped, dragging the quarter off the table and facing Scott. "McCall. Risk, reward? The risk, if you don't put that quarter in the mug, you have to take the pop— the— the quiz. And— and you have to write an essay. Risk, more work. Reward— no work at all. Or choose not to play."
"But isn't this just chance?"
"No. You know your abilities, your coordination, your focus, past experience— all factors affecting the outcome. So what's it gonna be, McCall? More work, no work, or choose not to play?" Coach pressured, desperate for at least one of them to play. When Scott pushed the quarter away, Coach sighed. "No play. Okay. Who's next? Who wants the quarter?" In attempts to redeem himself, Stiles drummed his hand on his desk and rose from his seat. "There you go! There's a gamblin' man!" Coach supported, moving out the way and handing the small coin to Stiles. Catching eyes with Lydia, they shared a similar look — both knowing there were only two ways this could go. "All right, Stilinski."
"Stiles."
Keeping his eyes on the small mug on the floor, which he was hoping to bounce the quarter into. "Yeah, Coach, I got it."
"Stiles." Finally looking up, Stiles faced his father. Beckoning him out of the room, the pack shared concerned looks.
"Lia?" Allison asked, wondering whether she had an idea of what it was to do with.
"Don't look at me, I'm just as confused as you." Aurelia quickly shushed them, trying to find Stiles' voice out in the hallway. Coming back empty-handed when she realised they had moved too far away. "I'll text him."
my hooman
lia<3
Everything okay?
my hooman
Idk, Dad's taking me to some office
He looks stressed
lia<3
God. I hope everything's okay
my hooman
I'm sure everything is
"He doesn't know what's happening," Lia informed them, turning in her seat to address the group. Roman sat in front of her, but he had already turned around in his seat and Scott sat to the side of him. Behind Scott was where Stiles previously sat, and behind Stiles was Lydia. Allison sat directly behind Aurelia, French braiding Lia's hair out of boredom. "His Dad's taking him to some private room."
"What do you think happened?" Lydia asked, repeatedly doodling on her paper.
"I have no idea." Hearing her phone buzz on the table, she picked it up and handed it to Scott.
"What? What's happened?" Allison asked, tying a hairband around the bottom of the braid and pulling outside pieces after turning Lia's face to her — not that worried about Stiles' situation, although she should have been.
"You remember that birthday party we went to the other night, the girl — Heather's — seventeenth?" The three nodded, not knowing much about her. "Well. She's missing."
After Econ, Lydia, Aurelia, Allison and Roman made their way to the library. They all needed to study and that's where Lia had agreed to meet Stiles. "I want one." Lydia drooled, staring at the twins who stood by the bookcase.
Side-eying Lia, Allison smirked. "Which one?"
Rolling her eyes, she held her hand out — gesturing to the pair. "The straight one, obviously." She sassed, as one of the twins eyed up Danny. "Hey, hey, Lia!" Lydia whispered, waiting for Lia to remove her focus from the textbook. "Wing-women me." Grabbing Lia's hand, she tugged her from the table and across the room. "I know for a damn fact that you have read the majority of these books. Get us talking to him." With a begrudged look, Lia finally gave in.
Walking up to the bookshelf with Lydia beside her, she took a glance at the book he was holding and instantly grinned. She knew it off by heart, considering she'd read it a handful of times. "Good choice, it's one of my favourites. The writing is flawless and the representation for feminism is—"
"Ahead of its time." Aiden finished, sliding the book back onto the shelf as he eyed the girl who stood next to him.
Blinking a few times, Lia laughed. "Oh, never mind then." She politely excused, ignoring the constant nudging of Lydia.
"It's a go to re-read of mine. My mother read it to me and my brother as a child. Something about us never underestimating the power of a woman." Aiden continued, leaning against the shelf with folded arms.
"Agreed. Most of them are stronger than you would think." Lydia chimed, appearing from behind Aurelia's form.
"Oh, I don't know about that." Aiden countered, his eyes quickly flicking along Lia's form. Uncomfortably looking away, she spotted Stiles stood with Roman and Allison — waiting for her with a jealous look covering his face. Letting Lydia know she was leaving, she headed over to her boyfriend.
"Jealous, brown eyes?" She giggled, walking over and placing herself in front of him.
Not responding to her question, Stiles glanced over at the twin. "Who's he?"
"Some guy Lyd's wants to use as a distraction." Stiles furrowed his brows. "Don't worry, by the looks of it he's not looking for anything serious anyway. I was just being a good wing-woman."
"I'm sure you were." Stiles complimented, not oblivious to the looks Aiden was sending his way. Someone seemed to have eyes for his girl.
Aurelia was fuming when she was told what the pack did the previous night — keeping it from her as they knew she would disprove and stop them from doing it. Although Deaton was present, and he knew what he was doing, it was still unbelievably dangerous. To access the memories that Isaac was struggling to reach, they had to put him in a hypnotic state. Keeping him submerged under ice-cold water until he was passed out and semi-conscious. Eventually, after a very dangerous few minutes, they discovered where they were being held — Beacon Hills National Bank. Which was shut down due to a break-in. Lia yelled at Stiles, Scott and Derek for even letting the life-threatening experiment happen. And had barely spoken to any of them. Yes, Lia had been present for the technique Peter used to try to retrieve his memories — but hadn't known the dangers until seconds before it happened, when she couldn't do anything to stop it. What the boys did, was much more reckless.
Waking up the next morning, she headed over to Derek's loft. Pushing down the anger at her friends, Aurelia kept Erica and Boyd at the forefront of her mind. "Okay. You see this? This is how they got in. It's a rooftop air conditioning vent. Leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here. One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft." Stiles explained, pointing out the places on the blueprint. "Now, that space is so small, it took him about 12 hours to drill into that wall, which is stone, by the way. Then throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof through that one little shaft in the wall." Stiles explained, throwing his pen down onto the table and holding his hands out. "Boom."
"Can we fit in there?" Scott asked, leaning against the table.
Nodding his head, Stiles picked up the pen and pointed down at the measurement. "Yes, we can, but very, very barely. And they also patched the wall, obviously, so we're gonna need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond bit—"
"Look, forget the drill." Derek sighed, rubbing his eyebrow.
"Sorry?" Stiles asked, turning his head to the Hale.
"If I go in first, how much space do I have?" Derek asked.
"What do you— what do you think you're gonna do, Derek? You gonna punch through the wall?" Stiles mouthed off, looking between everyone in the room.
Folding his arms tightly across his body, Derek dropped his head with a smirk. "Yes, Stiles, I'm gonna punch through the wall."
"Okay, okay, big guy. Let's see it. Let's see that fist. Big, old fist. Make it, come on. Get it out there— " Stiles rambled. Aurelia and Isaac, who were stood by the window, watched on. Isaac laughed quietly as Aurelia tried to hold hers in as she was meant to be annoyed at them.
"Cheer up, Sis," Isaac whispered, pulling her into a side hug. "Don't be mad at them."
"You could have died," Lia spoke, looking up at her older brother.
"It's not their fault." Isaac started, holding a finger up when Lia tried to cut him off. "I told them not to tell you, I knew you wouldn't let me do it. But I needed to. Don't lie. You would have done the same." Biting her lip, Aurelia hated that he was right. She would have done the same to him. "You and Stiles have a really good thing going, don't let my decision ruin it," Isaac spoke honestly.
"You hate Stiles, why are you being so nice?" Lia chuckled.
"He makes you happy. I don't see how, but he does. And I don't want that happiness ruined."
Raising his voice and Derek's fist, Stiles held his hand inches away from his balled-up fist. "Okay, see this? That's maybe three inches of room to gather enough force to punch through solid co—" Punching Stiles' hand as hard as he could, whilst barely moving his arm backwards, Stiles' knees buckled. Wincing and crying out in pain, Stiles held his arm and ran around the room. "He could do it— he can do it."
Finally, moving forward to the table to examine the blueprints, Derek and Scott caught eyes, was Lia going to finally talk to them? "I'll get through the wall. Who's following me down?" Derek queried, looking at his fellow supernaturals. Roman sat on the bottom step with Peter sat a few steps above him, Derek already knowing that Roman was going to help without even being asked.
"Don't look at me. I'm not up to fighting speed yet, and honestly, with Isaac out of commission too, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself." Peter tailed, gesturing to Isaac who was still weak from his stunt the previous night.
"So I'm supposed to just let them die?"
"One of them is already dead." Peter shrugged.
"Don't say that." Lia spat, rounding on the wolf. "There's still a chance that she's alive, and I won't believe she's gone until I see her dead body. Understand?"
Holding his arms up in surrender, Peter tilted his head and continued. "Do I have to remind you what we're up against here?" Roman's fists tightened in anger. "A pack of Alphas. All of them, killers. And if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha." Lia's eyes widened, a giant Alpha? "I'm sure Erica and Boyd were sweet kids. They're gonna be missed."
"Could someone kill him again, please?" Stiles deadpanned after the pain in his arm had faded.
"Derek, seriously? Not worth the risk."
"What about you?" Derek asked, his eyes not lifting from his feet.
Nodding his head, Stiles stood up straighter. "Yeah, if you want me to come—"
"Not you."
"I don't know about Erica. But if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something. We have to try." Scott spoke.
"Roman, Lia?"
Meeting eyes again, Roman rose to his feet and shook his hands out. Small droplets of blood seeped from his palm — where his claws had pierced his skin. "Like she said earlier. We're in."
For once the plan the pack devised, somewhat, worked. Derek had managed to punch through the wall, enabling Scott, Aurelia and Roman to jump in afterwards. Darkness coated the vault room, moonbeams being the only source of light in the room. Against the pale white light, a broad-shouldered, built silhouette shuffled weakly into the open space. Hairs raising on the back of her neck, Lia shivered. "Boyd? It's me. It's Derek."
Loudly, Lia's phone began to ring making her jump at the disturbed silence. Tugging it from her pocket, she read the name tag and answered quickly. "Sty, now is not the best time." She whispered, her eyes glued to the zombie-like wolf in front of her.
"Lia! Aurelia! No, listen to me, okay? Look, you gotta get outta there. The walls of the vault are made with a mineral called hecatolite. It scatters the moonlight." Stiles yelled down the phone, his voice laced with fear.
"What does that mean?" She asked, her voice trembling.
Choosing not to listen to the phone call, Derek walked closer still. "We're here to get you out, okay?"
"Look, it keeps the moonlight out, okay? They haven't felt the full moon in months." Stiles rushed, pacing the length of Derek's loft until Peter grabbed his arm and held him still.
"Okay, Lia, think of it like the gladiators in the Roman colosseum. They used to starve the lions for three days, making them more vicious, more out of control. Deucalion has kept them from shifting for three full moons, diminishing their tolerance to it." Peter explained, Lia's stomach-turning as he spoke. "They're gonna be stronger, more savage, more bloodthirsty, Lia, they're the lions. They're the starved lions, and you, Roman, Derek and Scott just stepped into the colosseum."
"Derek," Lia whispered, looking up at him as he turned his head towards her. "We got a problem, a really big problem."
Reverting his attention back to Boyd, Derek's heart began pounding. Louder than before. "Cora?"
"Who?" Scott and Roman said, eyeing the small frame appearing from behind Boyd's larger one.
"Cora?"
Flaring her teeth, Cora growled. "Derek, get out. Get out now!" She yelled. Due to the darkness, Cora's features were difficult to see. But taking a guess, Aurelia could see her greasy, mid-length brown hair and small but mighty body shape. Her pale and clear skin was coated in a thick layer of sweat and her voice was horse.
"Lia." When nobody answered, Stiles continued shouting down the phone. The unfortunate disadvantage of the terrifying situation, made the friends too slow to clock what was happening as the vault door crackled open and in stepped Ms Morrell. Dressed in leather clutching a handful of Mountain Ash.
"No." Scott realised. "No, no wait!"
As Lia realised what was happening and before Morrell could complete the circle, Lia spun around and sent a heat pulse at Roman, sending him flying out of the vault door onto his back. "NO!" He yelled, running at the barrier only to be bounced off it. Ignoring his yelling, Lia grabbed Scott by his collar and pulled out of the way of Boyd's claws. As Scott and Lia held off Boyd, Derek dealt with Cora. Knocking them both back, they skidded behind a pillar and took a well-needed breath.
"You know her?" Scott whisper-yelled.
Banging his head back onto the metal vault wall. "She's my sister, my younger sister," Derek screamed, trying to catch his breath.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Scott asked as Lia froze at the sound of heels.
"Like I have a clue. I THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD!"
Seeing Allison appear at the vault door, Lia's stomach turned. "Look out!" She screamed as a chair hurtled through the air, the three ducking just in time for it to miss them.
Watching the three get destroyed by the savage wolves, Allison went to separate the line. "No! Don't break the seal!" Derek screamed, not seeing that Scott was practically dying by Boyd's hand. Lia presumed he had him under control so she moved to help Derek. Boy was she wrong.
"Boyd!" Allison yelled, leaning down and breaking the seal, like Derek had told her not to. Dragging his claws out from Scott's abdomen, Boyd and Cora ran from the vault. Leaving Scott, Lia and Derek on the floor.
Running at Allison, Derek grabbed her. Infuriated by the stupidity she displayed and terrified of the fate of the town's inhabitants. "What were you thinking?" He yelled as Scott screamed for him to let go of her. Roman skidded across the fault flooring to Lia, who was slowly getting to her feet.
"What did you do?" Roman asked her calmly, not wanting to yell at her even though he was really angry.
"I didn't want you to get hurt," Lia answered, brushing the dust off her knees. Random noises fell from her mouth as Roman pulled her into a hug. "O— okay— um." She spoke as the air was squeezed from her.
"Don't do that again."
"You didn't move here to fight, you moved here to live and to make friends," Aurelia whispered as he pulled away.
"Yes, your right. I did move here to live, and that's what I'm doing. Living comes with a fight, I'm happy here. Suck it up." Roman deadpanned, making Lia chuckle whilst they walked from the room.
"You want to blame me? Well, I am not the one turning teenagers into killers." Allison spat to Derek, with her arms folded tightly.
"No. No, that's just the rest of your family."
Running her tongue across her teeth, Allison breathed out. "I made mistakes. Gerard is not my fault."
"And what about your mother?" Aurelia held her breath at Derek's comment, and Roman covered his mouth — having already been told about this a few months beforehand.
"What do you mean?" Allison whispered.
"Tell her, Scott."
Looking over at Scott, Allison held back the tears and stared at her ex. "What does he mean, Scott? What does he mean?"
Moving away from the argument, Lia sighed and met eyes with Roman. "Shit, man. That's not going to end well."
"It was never going to end well."