"How to save a life."
"Where have you been?" Stiles asked, jogging up to Jade as she got out of her car.
"Yeah, how'd it go with Jackson?" Max questioned.
"Get in." She told the two boys everything that had happened with Jackson; from finding the boy, to going to the Hale house, to the hunters, to her getting shot and everything in between.
Stiles added in dramatic sound effects every once in a while to keep the conversation interesting. "Wait so you got shot and just healed yourself? Completely?" he asked, slightly shocked when the girl nodded. "Max-"
"No, I am not going to shoot you just so Jade can heal you," Max stated simply, before he could even finish his sentence. It had been obvious what he was going to ask, considering nowadays, all he wanted to do was test out their powers. Whether that was hurting himself and then phoning Max to see if he had felt it or trying to come up with any excuse to see Jade use her magic.
"What happened with Lydia? Is she okay?" the blonde asked, concern etched into her features as she anxiously chewed the inside of her cheek.
"As high as a kite," Max replied, chuckling. "Kinda traumatized, but I think she'll be okay. Wait, Stiles show her what you found on her phone."
"You looked through her phone!" she exclaimed, hitting the two of them around the head in one motion.
"Ow! I didn't look through her phone. A message came through and I just happened to look at it!" Stiles protested. Pulling out his own phone, he turned the screen around to show the blonde.
A feeling of panic ran through her veins at the video; a werewolf was running on all fours. To be more precise, it was the Alpha.
~
"Where the hell are you? Get to the school. Now," Melissa said angrily, shoving her phone back into her pocket. It was the day of the parent teacher meetings and Scott wasn't there. She had no clue where the twins were, but she assumed they were here somewhere. Well, she hoped they were here.
"Shall we just get started?" Mr Harris asked smugly, tapping his pen against his pad of paper.
"Sure," Melissa replied, smiling sweetly.
"Okay, so let's start with Scott. Lately his mind has been elsewhere. As has his body. Personally, I think it may have something to do with his home situation," he said, interlocking his fingers together.
"Well, personally, I don't know what you mean by 'home situation'," she responded, raising her eyebrows.
"Specifically the lack of an authority figure."
"Well, I'm the authority figure."
"Sorry, I should clarify. A male authority figure."
"Oh. Well we're much better off without him in the picture, trust me," Melissa replied, looking down and twisting her ring on her finger.
"Okay. I think possibly because of the family members that have recently moved in. Do you think that was the best option for you both?" he asked bluntly, not even attempting to sugar coat it.
"Yes. It was."
"Does Scott feel that way?"
"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't get what you're trying to insinuate here. Scott and his cousins are basically best friends. They have an amazing bond together. And what was I supposed to do? Leave my niece and nephew to live on the streets as orphans after their parents both died?" she asked, becoming even more irritated with him. Seriously, who did he think he was?
"Okay, I apologise. Sorry for your loss," he stated, no compassion evident in his voice. Looking up from his papers, he watched the woman who was waiting for him to continue.
"Next, uh- Max. He's a good student but he does get distracted very easily. He also tends to get quite emotional. Written work is fantastic, but practical work not so much. Very friendly, very out there," he finished, Melissa nodding along in agreement.
"Jade. She's very intelligent. I'd say she's almost as good as Lydia Martin. She does tend to often get very irritated and snaps at people a lot. Prefers to do work alone, and apparently doesn't like partner or group work. She does seem to work well with her friends, like Allison, Stiles etc though. You have to give her very clear, specific instructions or she gets confused," he added, closing his notes.
~
"It's Mel," Max said, holding his phone up and looking nervously between Jade and Stiles. Their aunt was definitely not going to be in a good mood considering neither of her three children had shown up to their parent teacher conferences.
"Answer it!"
"Hey, Mel!" he exclaimed, putting the phone on speaker.
Jade immediately put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples with her fingers. He was too excited and their aunt was definitely gonna know something was up. He was never enthusiastic, which was a dead give away.
"Do you know where Scott is, is Jade with you and where are you?" she asked immediately, her tone a mixture of anger and anxiety as she didn't even wait for him to finish his greeting.
"I'm sure he'll be here soon, Jade is with me and we're sitting in her car with Stiles," he listed, answering all three of the questions.
"Hey Melissa!" Stiles shouted, his mouth practically eating the speaker part of the phone.
"I can see you Mel, we're coming over," Jade noted, hanging up the call and opening the door.
The second her niece was in view, she engulfed her in a tight hug. Taken aback by the sudden action, she awkwardly patted the woman on the shoulder. She hated physical contact but was slowly starting to get better with it. Well, she didn't exactly have a choice when she lived with the McCalls, who basically thought everyone was a human teddy bear. "I thought something terrible had happened to you guys."
"We're fine, don't worry," Max replied. "You know, Mel, you look so good tonight! It suits you really well."
Melissa fiddled with the button at the end of her blouse. She hadn't felt comfortable wearing it, so it was nice to hear a compliment for once. Her smile dropped as soon as it came, a hand on her hip as she narrowed her eyes. "You're just trying to butter me up so you don't get in trouble. Have you seen Allison?"
The three teenagers shared a worried glance with each other, ignoring the first half of the woman's comment. Stiles nudged Jade in the ribs, volunteering her to come up with an excuse. "Nope, not since earlier, why?"
"Do you know where her parents are?" Melissa asked, trying to analyse the kids expressions. When you worked in the ER and frequently had people coming in and saying that they crashed their car because of a deer in the road, when in reality they had been drinking, you picked up on when people were lying.
She shared a look with the other two, who simply nodded in defeat. There was no harm in introducing the parents and it would but Allison and Scott some time to get there. "Yeah, follow me."
She made her way over to Chris Argent and a woman, who Jade could only assume was Allison's mother. As she neared the pair, she noticed that the woman had the same wide eyes as her daughter. Seeing the group of people approaching them, the two adults looked up.
"Hi, uh, it's Jade from the lacrosse game. Allison's friend? This is my Aunt Melissa, she wanted to talk to you guys if that's okay," she awkwardly said through gritted teeth before stepping back. She felt like she was being put in the hot seat. Like they knew she wasn't human. Just waiting for the right time to stick a bullet through her heart.
"You're his mother?" Chris stated, in what the group perceived as an arrogant tone.
"Why do you say that like it's an accusation?" Melissa asked defensively. Honestly, she had had enough of these misogynistic assholes who thought they had a right to critique her or her parenting skills.
"Well, I wouldn't claim it as a source of pride considering he kidnapped my daughter today," he scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"What's your problem?" Max questioned loudly, refusing to listen to this any longer. "How do you know it wasn't your daughter's idea to skip school?" He was getting pissed off that this man thought he could just come and start talking to Melissa like that. Who the hell did he think he was?
"My daughter," Chris began but stopped talking half way through his sentence. "Is right there."
Allison and Scott slowly made their way over, dragging their feet sheepishly behind them. "We're just gonna... go over here," Jade nodded, pulling Max and Stiles away from the angry parents. That was something none of them wanted to listen to.
They hadn't even reached where they were going, when panicked screams sounded from every direction.
"What's going on?" Max asked, trying to see what was happening. The darkness of the night wouldn't allow him to, the only brightness being from the small lamps that were jammed into the grass.
"I don't know, but stay close to me, the two of you," she replied, holding a hand up to her eyes as she tried to see what was going on.
People started to run in every direction, some getting in their cars while others just full on sprinted.
She scanned the area, looking for the source of the commotion. Glancing behind her, she tried to make sure Max and Stiles were still following her. But something else caught her attention; Allison was standing by a car, her eyes focused on something that they couldn't see, but she looked terrified out of her mind.
Making her way towards the girl, her brother and friend behind her, she saw what the brunette was looking at. What appeared to be a mountain lion was growling and approaching the group of teenagers.
As the animal advanced towards her, Allison freaked out and backed away more.
Right into the road.
A car beeped and Scott jumped in front of Allison, pulling her to the pathway.
Jade let out a sigh of relief, thankful that her friend was out of the way and safe. The dread was gone- that was until the animal started growling again. Turning her head to face the mountain lion, she could feel her breathing stick in her throat.
A screech of brakes was heard from around the corner, before something thudded to the ground. "I'm fine!" Sherif Stilinski shouted to the crowds of people who had surrounded him. Stiles cast a look at the witch.
"Go, it's okay, I'm fine here," she nodded, her eyes still not moving from the mountain lion. It was like she was in a staring competition, the both of them refusing to look away first. But instead of backing away, Jade cautiously took a step forward.
"What the hell are you playing at?" Max hissed, trying to grab his sister before she got herself killed. She simply shushed him and shook her arm free of his grasp. When the mountain lion didn't growl at her, just tilted it's head, she took her chance to step forward.
Gently putting her hand out below her, she tried to show the animal that she wasn't going to hurt it as she crouched on the floor.
Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the air before Max was grabbing her out of the way. He wasn't going to let her get shot again today.
The mountain lion was dead, and if Max hadn't pulled her away, she would have been lying there, bleeding out on the floor in the animal's place.
Gradually, people started to move back towards their cars when they realised that it was all over. The Argents were about to follow suit when Melissa called out to them.
"Hey! You!" she yelled, pointing a finger at the back of Chris. He turned around, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "Yeah, I'm talking to you. You nearly shot my niece!"
"I'm fine, leave it," the blonde murmured, trying to reason with her aunt. All she wanted to do was go home and not have to spend another minute around the family of hunters that would want her head on a stake.
But one thing you should know about the woman was if you tried to hurt her family (intentional or not), you had a pissed off Melissa to deal with. "No, it's not okay! If Max hadn't pulled you away you would have had a bullet in you!"
Taking a look at the blonde, Chris watched the argument in front of him. In his defence he hadn't been aiming for the girl! "Look, I'm sorry. I was trying to get the mountain lion before it could hurt anyone," he said.
The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest to show she wasn't impressed with the apology.
"Are you okay?" he questioned Jade, who simply nodded in response. "Okay. Good night, and, again, I'm sorry," he said, forcing a smile to the group.
The minute the man and the rest of his family were out of earshot, she turned on her niece. "Now, you! What did you think you were going to do to the animal? Invite it in for a cup of tea?!"
"Yeah. I had biscuits for it too! No, of course not! I was trying to keep it busy for a few minutes so that it wouldn't attack anyone!" she replied sarcastically, waving her hands about in the air.
"And you!" the woman said turning to Scott now. "You are so grounded!" She took a deep breath, stopping for a second. "We'll talk about this when we get home, I've got to head to work."
"You coming?" Scott asked when he saw his mother's car drive out of the parking lot. Him and Jade had started walking but stopped when they realised Max wasn't following behind them.
"Uh- I might just go see if Stiles and his dad are okay," Max replied, running off before even waiting for an answer.
"Stiles is gonna be pissed at you," Jade commented when she was in her car, slamming the door closed.
"Why?" Scott asked, confusion clear on his face. God, sometimes she wondered if her cousin lacked just as much common sense as her.
"You saved Allison and his dad got hurt. He's not gonna be happy. Probably not gonna be happy with all of us, I wouldn't say," she replied, frowning in thought.
"I know. I screwed up," he groaned, his head resting on the dashboard.
The back door to the car opened, Max sliding in. "So, how was your date with Allison? I hope it went good because it's going to be your last one for a while if Chris and Melissa have anything to do about it," he noted, sticking his head in between the two front seats.
The car was quiet before they all erupted into laughter.
"He looked terrified!" Scott smiled.
"God, the Argents have it out for me. Kate shot me once today and then Chris tried to take me out!" Jade gasped, holding her chest from laughing too hard.
"Wait, what?" Scott exclaimed, his eyes wide which just makes the twins laugh even harder.
"Oh, I'll just explain it on the way home."