Stiles walked into gym in the Avengers Tower and saw Daisy was already there stretching out.
"Oh my god. Looking great, Daisy." Stiles said.
"Right back at ya. I could have easily mistaken you for being a supermodel. I’m totally digging the blonde hair."
Stiles blushed at the compliment.
"So am I going to take you down today."
"You wish. May is still training me." Daisy smirked.
Stiles opened her mouth wide in shock. "That’s completely unfair. Uncle Phil just told me last night that she trained Bobbi, Lance and Lincoln herself. And now, you’re under her tutelage, it defeats the purpose for us to even have a sparring session. This is so unfair."
"We shall see."
The both of them strapped on their protective gear and got inside the ring. Once they were ready, Stiles took the first swing, taking an aggressive stance, landing kicks and punches, which Daisy blocked easily. They carried on like this for quite some time with both of them landing kicks and punches on each other.
Stiles began to feel the sweat pouring down her face and her back. She cracked her neck first before tightening her concentration back on Daisy, trying to study her tell signs and looking for an opening. After more than 2 months taking self-defense classes, no way in hell will she embarrass her uncle or her instructors.
Stiles moved to strike a few more times, going for Daisy’s face, causing her to shift her head to the side and Stiles landed another punch towards her throat causing Daisy to bend even further and her balance to shift. Stiles felt triumph cursing through her when she swept Daisy’s leg from under her, causing the woman to crash to the ground. Stiles instantly jumped onto her and managed to pin her down successfully.
Daisy grinned proudly at her and Stiles returned it, excitement at having managed to barely beat Daisy. They separated, getting to their feet and stepping out of the ring to grab their water.
"I’m proud of you, Stiles. You have potential. Keep this up and don’t be surprised if May offers to train you herself."
"Really? That would be so awesome."
"Anyway, best 2 out of 3?."
"You’re on." Stiles answered gaining confidence.
Surprisingly, Stiles loses the next 2 rounds because Daisy was holding back the first round. She got her ass handed to her with bruises all over her body.
"You cheated." Stiles huffed out.
Daisy cocked her eyebrow, took her gloves off. "And how did I cheat?."
"You allowed me to win the firsy round, that gave me confidence."
"You got arrogant. That’s a lesson. Never get cocky. Always work hard to ensure that your enemy is defeated." Daisy smiled. "Come on, let’s shower and grab dinner. My treat. I’m craving pizza."
**
The following week, she managed to complete her College Prep Math exam and it made her realize that in less than 3 months, she was able to complete 5 examinations, getting good at all her mixed martial arts and self defense classes and apparently having a non-existent social life, which she was surprisingly okay with.
Not being chased down by weekly psychopathic or murderous supernatural creatures allows you to accomplish a lot of things. Not having to research on the latest murderous supernatural creatures allows her to be more focused towards her goals. Not having friends who are supernatural creatures allows her to be more dedicated to her studies and training. Not having to pretend that she is less smart than Lydia feels fantastic. Right now, her goals are to complete her high school diploma by June and become a SHIELD agent as soon as possible.
She spent most of her free time studying, working out and going to her classes. She will have the occasional gaming sessions with Uncle Phil or with the online gamers. Uncle Phil began to notice that she has not made any friends at all during her time here.
"Hey Stiles, I was thinking of inviting the team over for dinner this weekend if you are okay with it?." Uncle Phil asked her on Thursday night after they had just finished their dinner of takeaway Chinese food.
Stiles was clearing the table and throwing away the used containers turned to answer." Sure, what time will it be?."
"How about 7.30pm? Would that be too late for you?."
"Nope. That will be just nice. I will have enough time to cook up something for everyone."
"You don’t have to do that, we can always order in."
Stiles flipped her hair and cocked her left eyebrow. "When was the last time that the team had an actual home-cooked meal together?."
Uncle Phil instantly looked uncomfortable. "Erm… I have no idea.”
"It’s decided then. I will whip something up."
"Are you sure? Do you need help or extra cash for groceries?."
Stiles smiled. "Please, I do need cash for groceries. Thank you very much."
**
On Sunday after her yoga class, she went out to shop for the ingredients for their small get-together. She had met Daisy and May a few times ever since, but overall she was quite excited to meet the rest of the team, this group of people that her uncle had called his family.
Upon reaching home, she began preparing for dinner. It has been months since she had cooked for a big group of people. The last time that she cooked for a group was for Christmas with the pack back in Beacon Hills. She tried her best not to dwell on the memories, she has been doing quite well for the past few weeks slowly getting over her ex-pack members. There were the occasional messages from the pack that they passed to her dad, but she just brushed them off.
By 7pm, she was done cooking and once Uncle Phil had returned home, she sent him to set table.
At 7.15pm, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons came first and were introduced and brought along 2 bottles of red wine, not for her but for the rest of the team. Soon after, Melinda May, Daisy and Mack came bringing a bottle of white wine and 2 6-pack of beer. Lastly, it was Lincoln Campbell together with Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse came bringing a tray of chocolate brownies and a big tub of vanilla ice cream.
Exactly at 7.30pm sharp, Stiles served all of them fried chicken fillet strips with a home made relish, laid on a bed of Kale, and for main Beef stroganoff with roasted potatoes and Asparagus. Uncle Phil poured the red wine for Melinda, Daisy, Jemma, Bobbi and Leo while the rest of the guys took the beer. Since she was still underage, she had made a jug of ice tea for herself.
Conversations went on easily. All of them complimented her on her cooking skills and being able to finish 5 of the modules within 3 months. Daisy promised to teach her how to hack into computers, the next time both of them are free. Melinda and Bobbi planned to have a sparring session with her in the future. Lance and Lincoln offered to drop by for a few gaming sessions if Uncle Phil is not around or do a tag-team gaming session. Lastly, Leo, Jemma and Mack asked her to drop by their labs so that they could bounce off ideas with each other.
At the end of the night, Stiles exchanged her phone number with all of them so that they could get together in the future and help her out to become a proper SHIELD agent and hopefully be part of Uncle Phil’s team.
As she began to get ready to go to sleep, she felt at peace for the first time in New York knowing that deep down, these group of people might just be able to help her moved on from the hurt that the pack had caused her.
**
By end of April, Stiles had managed to complete her CSI Forensic Science examination, and decided to learn some more languages. She can already speak German, French, Russian and Polish, so she decided to learn Chinese, Japanese and Korean. She thought these would be interesting and Shield has had dealings with the Chinese government in the past so it can't hurt. Her schedule now consists of AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics B, AP Psychology, Chinese, Japanese and Korean as well as her self defense classes.
Stiles began to get into a rhythm of constantly calling her dad every Wednesday night to update about her classes and Skyping with him every Sunday for an hour or so to tell him about New York and how she is adapting to the city. She even told him about the self-defense classes and shooting sessions with Uncle Phil. Her dad would update her about the latest on-goings in Beacon Hills and would occasionally tell her if there were any weird supernatural things happening there.
The minute that she found out she was accepted into SHIELD, she immediately deleted and blocked all of her ex-pack members from social media except for Danny.
Stiles still hasn't told her dad about her being a spy-in-training. She decided to tell him once after she has done her first mission.
Since Stiles was beginning to have more free time, she started to learn how to cook elaborate recipes and bake goodies for Uncle Phil, the team and some of her trainers and tutors. She will randomly drop by during lunch or dinner with her food and meddled her way through their cases even though she was not supposed to know anything at all. She slowly began to understand how the team functions and just absorb everything that they do to prepare her further.
Subsequently, the rest of the team would drop by separately to have dinner or play games with her. They would also drop by during her training sessions to spar with her. And the sad truth was that, after more than 3 months of 5 times-a-week training, Bobbi, Lance and Melinda were still able to beat her within minutes. Well, Melinda beat her within less than a minute. On the bright sight, she managed to actually win against Daisy a few times.
**
"Hey kiddo. What do you want to do for your 18th birthday next week?." Uncle Phil asked.
Stiles looked up from her laptop, "Honestly, I was hoping that dad would be able to make it but he’s lacking on manpower at the station, so I have a strong feeling that he won’t be able to make it."
"I’m sorry to hear that."
"It’s okay and my birthday is on a week day, so I really got nothing in mind. Though I am considering asking you for permission if I can go on a girls night out. Pretty please."
"With who? Daisy, Jemma and Bobbi?."
"Well, Melinda too if she wants to tag along." Stiles shrugged.
"I’m cool with it if the rest of the girls are up for it." Uncle Phil smiled.
Stiles smiled widely. "I’ll text them and get back to you. Thank you, Uncle Phil."
Daisy, Jemma and Bobbi agreed to it except for Melinda who claimed that she had something on. On Wednesday, the day of her birthday, she received text messages from all of them to wish her happy birthday, and even Deputy Director Hill texted her too. At night, the four of them went to a club to celebrate her birthday. She wore a tight baby blue crop top with high-waist black skinny jeans and a pair of 4-inch heels. She went all out with her make-up by wearing fake eyelashes and red lipstick. Daisy helped curl her hair into big loose curls. All of them agreed that she looked like a runway model.
She had loads of fun at the club Well, to be honest, she didn’t remember what happened half way through the night except waking up the next afternoon with a major hangover and Uncle Phil laughing at her.
On Friday, Leo and Jemma surprised her with a belated breakfast-in-bed and told her that they would be spending the whole day with her. Stiles loves spending time with them mainly because of the fact that they can debate for hours about the latest scientific discoveries. It just makes her feel alive even though she desperately wants to tell them about the supernatural world.
On Saturday after her gym session at the Avengers Tower, she came back to a surprise party thrown by Uncle Phil and his team.
"OH MY God." Stiles screamed as the rest shouted 'Surprise' at her and popped the streamers and poppers all around her. Standing in front of her were all 9 of her New York family, as she would have preferred to call them.
"Thank you so much guys! This really means a lot to me."
Bobbi came out from the kitchen with the birthday cake and all of them sang happy birthday to her. It was just a simple 3-layer chocolate cake. Uncle Phil had ordered pizzas for the surprised party. All of them sat together in the living room, enjoying the food and each other’s company.
At the end of the night, all of them gave her a present each.
Daisy gave her a $500 voucher for Naked & Famous Denim NYC.
Jemma gave her a necklace from Tiffany & Co.
Leo gave her the latest Apple MacBook, installed with all the latest software and offered to transfer all her stuff from the old laptop onto the new one.
Bobbi gave her a beautiful black dress and pair of heels, and matching clutch bag, telling her that she might need it in the future for one of her dates.
Lance gave her a $500 voucher for Barnes and Noble book store on fifth avenue.
Mack gave her a modified bicycle so that she could cycle around the city during her free time.
Lincoln gave her a $500 voucher for a gaming shop.
Melinda gave her a pair of Glock 42's and made her promise that she will use them on her first mission.
Lastly, Uncle Phil gave her a really fancy phone with all sorts of technology. Stiles didn't even think that this phone was on the market which led her to believe that this was Stark technology. It already had everyone's names and numbers stored. The best part was it has an emergency button on the side. So if anything was to happen, all Stiles had to do was to press it and it would send a signal to everyone telling them that she was in danger, also the camera would come on and record everything and it would transmit her location.
All of them helped with the cleanup before leaving. As for Stiles, she kissed her uncle goodnight and thanked him profusely for the surprise before going off to sleep. It was the first time since her mum’s passing that Stiles has ever felt this happy and for the first time in months, she realized that she is finally beginning to heal from what the pack had done to her.