"A job that slowly
kills you."
"How have things been for the enchantress of evil while I've been gone?" Lilith kicked their long legs up onto the picnic table, raising a brow at the blonde who simply shot a glare her way. "I mean, come on! I've been gone for nearly two months and you have no drama? I'm not buying it."
Jade laughed lightly, flapping her aching hand about and dropping the multicolour pen onto her paper. She had English first period, and their teacher had assigned an essay that was worth ten percent of their grade. English was definitely one of her favourite subjects, so she wasn't too worried about the writing that had to be handed in. It had been an interesting start to the day, after her early morning session with Ms Morrell that had made it's way into dangerous territory when Matt became the main topic.
The sun was shining brightly— a rare sight for a January in Beacon Hills— the weather being too warm to stay inside. The twins and Lilith had found a bench outside that they had claimed as their spot, giving them just the right amount of shade and heat to complete homework. Well, they weren't all working on homework; Lilith was more interested in finding potential suitors to date, Max had briefly left to talk to Stiles and Jade was listening to the redhead drone on. And on. And on.
Don't get her wrong, she absolutely loved having Lilith back in the town. It was reassuring to have another friend in her corner, someone who partially understood what she was trying to say; a connection to Allison, too. The only problem was that ever since they had found out about the dead pool— specifically about her being worth one hundred million— Max and the huntress hadn't left her side. She wasn't over exaggerating either; the three teenagers had been glued to the hip and she could barely go to the bathroom for two minutes peace without having someone try to break down the door.
"For the hundredth time today, no drama yet," she smiled softly, pursing her lips and tapping her ring against the table. Getting exiled from her family and friends, having dreams of her best friend or stalker every night and having a girlfriend while pretending she was single, didn't count as drama in her books. Okay, maybe she had a slight problem when it came to letting people know what was going on in her life.
Lilith rested their chin in her hand, leaning forward in amusement. "So, you haven't become the Sirius Black of your family then?" she shrugged, casting a look over their shoulder to Scott, Stiles and Max, who immediately began whispering quickly, acting as if they hadn't been staring over at the pair two seconds prior.
"There's the other team for the scrimmage," Jade pointed out, gesturing to a bus that was pulling up by the double doors, ignoring the sarcastic comment that her friend had quipped. Honestly, she should have expected a comparison to Sirius, given that Lily never shut up about the character.
Players started to unload out of the bus, gym bags slung over their shoulders, helmets in their hands. There was a lacrosse scrimmage later on in the evening, the whole school buzzing with anticipation. It was meant to improve teamwork, especially given that Beacon Hills had nearly an entire new team this year.
"There goes trouble," Lilith swung around to watch what was going on, eyes narrowing carefully while they examined Liam bounding towards the team. Max had filled them in on everything that had happened while she had been in England. They weren't actually surprised that Scott had bitten someone; it was almost inevitable when you were a werewolf, even if you were a true alpha.
Max rushed over to the bench the girls were sat on, slamming his hands down onto the table. He was seriously getting fed up of having to repeat details to two separate groups, all because everyone couldn't get along. It was like Allison and Scott all over again, when Stiles had to be the messenger between the lovers because they were banned from speaking to each other. "Right. Do you remember how the man that delivered the keg to Lydia's house was killed? He was murdered by a lacrosse player— someone from our team."
"Another crisis to deal with right now," Jade threw her things into her bag carelessly, rushing towards Liam, who was confronting a player from the other team. She had been keeping an eye on the situation at hand, making a promise to herself that she would look out for the beta. It seemed to take a turn for the worse though, his claws digging into his hands, blood dripping onto the cement.
She didn't know what it was that made her feel so responsible for the freshman, but perhaps it was an internal guilt that had nothing to do with him at all. Maybe it was the nurturing instinct she had for anyone who was younger than her; even though she wanted to forget what happened at Calliope's, she remembered the slight hesitation she felt when Liberty showed up. The reluctancy to hurt someone who was roughly the same age as her. It was hard to explain and it made her sound insane, but she was sure that if anyone was younger than her, she wouldn't have the guts to kill them.
Liam was dragged into this world of danger without a choice, without any knowledge. At least she had been born a witch and her mother helped guide her. Sure, the woman kept a lot of things to herself, but if Jade was being honest, she could kinda see why.
In many ways, she saw herself in the fifteen year old. Having trouble controlling his anger, feeling like the world was out to get him, too much power and didn't have a clue what to do with it. He was scared, thrown into the deep end in a world that he knew nothing about. She knew that feeling all too well and refused to let him go down the same path of self-destruction that she did.
Stiles and Scott noticed what was happening too, meeting the others over at the scene at the same time. Max, Lily and Scott helped push the beta away from the situation, trying to help him gain control.
"Hey! What's going on prep students? Welcome to our little public high school. How you doing?" Stiles rambled, awkwardly letting his hand drop to his side after the boy from Devenford Prep didn't accept his handshake. "We're very excited for the scrimmage tonight. But let's keep it clean, all right? No rough stuff out there. All right, see you out on the field."
"Go," Stiles hissed, his attempt at buying them time failing as they ushered the out of control beta into the school.
Jade and Lilith shared an uncomfortable glance, left to deal with the car crash that Stiles had handed them. Cerulean eyes stared them down expectedly, a brow arched as he waited for someone to continue on the conversation, hopefully this time with better social skills. He was most definitely looking at the wrong people if he wanted someone that had good communication skills; the girl who turned off her emotions to avoid feeling them and the person who was constantly on the verge of a breakdown.
"What? Were you expecting a welcome party?" Jade questioned, the other players from Devenford filing into the school in search of the locker rooms. She seemed to be the only one interested in what this boy and Liam were arguing over. Her hands were curled into fists as she tried to ignore the migraine that was splitting through her head. His obnoxiously glowing blue aura didn't help in the slightest. A rich yet bold shade, the sky melting into the sea, shades blending roughly together. "What were you two arguing about?"
Brett scoffed, shoulders back as he shot daggers at the girl in front of him. She was older, but only by a few years! Besides, she had no type of authority over him in the slightest. "Just two old friends catching up."
"Jade," Lilith's sang highly, already sensing that this wasn't going to end well. Placing a hand firmly on the blonde's shoulder, they pulled her back a bit. "Leave it, okay? Let's go find the others," they said, knowing that their suggestion wasn't up for debate. God, how the tables had turned. Usually she was always up for kicking someone into line, yet here they were convincing her friend to do the complete opposite. It was probably a smart idea though, given that Jade's anger normally led to someone being badly injured or dead.
Brett's body stiffened slightly, his arrogant front slipping for a moment. The name made his blood run cold, icicles sharply pricking his skin. Jade. This was who Satomi, Lori and everyone who knew about the supernatural world had warned him about. Here she was, standing directly in front of him. She wasn't anything that he had pictured, though. With the way everybody had described her, he had imagined a brutal monster with no remorse and black eyes that burned holes through anything that got in her way.
She was quite literally the opposite of what one would have expected. Her facial features were prettily defined, and layered blonde hair sat on her shoulders. Her eyes were fiery with spirit, yet there was a sympathetic twinkle that lit up when she spoke, almost as if she was in a battle between being mad or empathetic. She was... normal. If he had been told to pick 'the amethyst enchantress' out of a line up, she would have been his last pick.
"Whatever issues you have with Liam, leave it off the field," Jade snapped, letting out a low whistle of pain when the colours seemed to overtake all of her senses. She allowed Lilith to lead her away from the teenager, finally opening her eyes when her phone pulsed against her leg with a message. "Max said they've taken him to the locker rooms."
"It's good to be back," Lilith snickered, running their hand against a row of lockers as she passed. God, she never realised just how much they had missed this town. Coach's hobby of verbally attacking Greenburg at any spare moment. The way her friends were constantly ready to kill one another, yet would sacrifice themselves if and when it came down to it. Sure, she wasn't exactly in the pack— hell, they had only just earned a shard of trust, and being Jade's friend probably didn't win any prizes. It was nice to think that if something was to happen to them though, that the pack would care enough to help.
The door to the locker room squeaked open obnoxiously loud, but went missed due to the boys having more pressing matters at hand. For example, soaking a pissed off Liam in the showers.
"A new type of exorcism, is that what this is? Is the water supposed to drown the demon out of him or?"
Jade sniggered, turning around to lock the door with her magic to exclude the option of being interrupted. It would cost way too much effort to try and explain the circumstances to a student who stumbled upon something they shouldn't have. Besides, with her back turned to the others, they couldn't see her laughing at Lilith's joke, avoiding the opportunity to be blamed for another thing that wasn't her fault.
"Very funny," Stiles panted, not having enough time to conjure up a witty comeback for the redhead. Even with the three of them holding Liam under the water, they were struggling to keep him there. Who knew that one freshmen had this much strength? It made sense though, especially because he was a newly turned werewolf. "You calm yet?"
Liam roared in response, clearly not appreciating the invasion of his personal space. His spine collided harshly with the wall, breath catching in his throat at the freezing water running down the back of his shirt. "Okay! Okay!" he yelled, admitting defeat. Honestly, he was too tired to even think about finding the strength to fight back, too tired of constantly being controlled.
Satisfied with the waving of a white flag, Max turned the tap off, groaning as he stepped away from the puddles at his feet. Muttering under his breath, he scrambled through his sister's bag in search of a pair of gloves that weren't soaked. He felt stupid wearing them, given that he looked like he had just stepped out of a Disney princess movie, but it was better than the buzzing noise that filled his head every time he took them off. The sound of everybody's futures crumbling in his hands, screams that echoed in the hollow existence that was his mind as he was forced to watch the terrorising future on a loop.
"That car you smashed. I thought you said that was your teacher's." The side to Scott that wanted to press for answers was starting to surface, not appreciating that he had been kept in the dark about so much of his beta's life. Then again, he got why the kid wouldn't want to share his life story with a group of teens that he had only met a few days ago.
Before Jade even had time to question what was going on, Liam had jumped into an explanation.
"He was also my Coach," he said, moving to the floor. It probably hadn't been his best idea, because now he felt even more cornered than before, the older kids towering over him threateningly. He was sure that it wasn't intentional, but he still felt his body kick into fight or flight mode whenever he was put into a situation with them. Not to mention that he hadn't expected to be spilling his secrets this early on in the school year. "That's why I got kicked out of my old school. He benched me for the entire season," he grumbled under his breath.
"What did you do?" Scott insisted, taking a small step backwards when he realised how aggressive his tone had been. That definitely wasn't what he had been aiming for. Guilt crawled up his skin again, an old friend that he wished would go away.
Ever since he had discovered the things that Liz had kept secret, he found himself filled with so much anger and hostility. Most of it was aimed towards Jade. He loved her, really he did. Ever since he could remember, she had been his best friend in the entire world. The person he instantly thought about telling when there was gossip. The girl that always stood up for him whenever people called him stupid on the beach. The six year old that was just as fiery as the seventeen year old and would do anything to protect the people she loved.
It was like she was a stranger now, though. She looked the same, none of her features changing. Her laugh sounded the same, as did the way she carried herself when walking up the stairs. It was just the little things that he picked up on that made him physically cower away from her. The things that she hoped no one noticed.
The way her voice often sounded more tightly put together, like she was fighting the urge to snap at someone. Her hands that used to lay calmly in her lap were now balled into fists at the smallest sight of confrontation, trying to restrain herself from losing control. Even her personality had changed. When you got to know her she was bubbly, the life of the party and always rationally thinking. She wasn't like that anymore.
Thankfully she hadn't lost the trait of speaking her mind, but he often found himself forgetting she was there, simply because of how quiet she could make herself. She was constantly somewhere else, eyes staring into space without focusing on anything. She wasn't herself anymore. Not without Allison.
"I got a couple of red cards," Liam shrugged, head bowed in shame. He was silently praying that they wouldn't push for more answers, that the shortened down answer had pleased their inquisitiveness.
"Just a couple?"
"Stiles," Max whispered, tilting his head to the side sympathetically. Liam looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up— in fact, he also felt like that, too. Being an empath had to help in some way. He got that the pack needed to know the truth about what had happened, but there was something that Stiles lacked when it came to communication; tact. To say he had no filter was the understatement of a century. It wasn't a bad thing! He just needed a bit of guidance on when he was going to hurt someone's feelings.
Scott kneeled down to eye level with his beta, trying to bring his tone back to it's usual level of calmness. "You need to be honest with us. What else happened?"
"Nothing!" Liam exclaimed, obviously starting to become irritated with the continuous questions. He felt as if he was on trial, when it was none of their business.
"Scott, why don't we leave it for now?" Jade suggested quietly, eyes flickering silently between the pair. In reality they shouldn't be prodding so much at the subject when it was crystal clear that he was uncomfortable. Normally speaking, she would disagree, but her talk with Ms Morrell this morning had lifted her spirits a bit. Just because she thought they should leave the topic for now, didn't mean that they shouldn't bring it up again. She simply thought it was easier for people to talk about things on their own terms, not when they were being forced into it. And by the looks of things, Liam seemed to be fed up with the day already.
"Shut up," Stiles barked, nodding his head at his best friend to continue applying pressure.
"Excuse me!" Jade hissed, a chaos breaking out in the room as Lily and Max spoke up too. He was seriously heading towards the end of her tether, sure she would wring his neck sometime soon.
"I got kicked out of school," Liam explained, the group falling silent once more to listen in. "They sent me to a psychologist for an evaluation."
"What did they call it?" Scott asked.
"Intermittent Explosive Disorder."
"I.E.D? You're literally an I.E.D? That's great. You gave superpowers to a walking time bomb!" Stiles sarcastically quipped, mouth speaking before he could even think about what he was saying. Liam rubbed the back of neck anxiously, colour rushing to his cheeks.
That one comment really seemed to be the breaking point for a lot of teenagers in the room. Max stood there dumbfounded, mouth hanging open while he waited for some kind of an apology to be addressed to Lim. He had no idea what had happened when he was in rehab, but Stiles was a completely different person. He had always been sarcastic, but he was just plainly malicious now. There had been no need whatsoever for the remark— it was completely uncalled for! But what made him even more infuriated was that Scott sat there and didn't say anything!
That wasn't what you were supposed to do. You could have best friends while also calling them out for the shit they done, especially when that had been that our of line.
Jade's hands lit up with purple magic, eyes glowing purple as she pushed herself to the other side of the lockers, leaving Stiles out of her eyeshot. She refused to loose control, to be painted as the monster again.
Lilith wasn't letting him get away that easily though, their high heel colliding with the boy's groin, fist smashing him smack-bang in the middle of the nose. "Who the fuck do you think you are? What makes you think you can get away with saying whatever you want about people? You may have been able to spew whatever bullshit you wanted when I was in France but let's get one thing straight; you have no right to speak about things that don't concern you. That includes telling Jade to shut up all because you don't like her having an opinion, as well as commenting on disorders that you have no business talking about!"
They let Max drag her away from him, leaning back against the lockers. "You wanna know something though? They might be afraid that they'll upset your feelings, but I couldn't care less. We're not exactly friends and I don't plan on it either," they laughed, disappearing around the opposite side of the room to calm Jade down. If there was one thing that enraged her more than anything, it was people harassing others for something they couldn't help.
"Get her under control!" Scott exclaimed, getting off the floor to see if Stiles was alright. Convincing Liam to bail out of the game would have to wait a few minutes.
"Uh— guys?" Liam squeaked, pointing to the other side of the room. A bright flame was sneaking it's way up the wall like a vine, trailing around a row of benches.
"Stop it!" Scott hissed quietly, resisting the urge to rip his hair out. This was one of the most stressful days of his life, that was for sure. "Jade, stop! Get her under control!"
"She can handle herself," Max defended his sister, arms folded across his chest as he stepped in his cousin's way. "Scott, you know I look up to you and have so much respect for you, which is why I'm calling you out on your bullshit. You won't listen to Jade, but for some reason you might listen to me."
"The whole pack has double standards for her and Stiles, that's the simple truth. If she had been the one that said that about Liam there would have been an uproar, but because Stiles said it, it's fine. You all make her out to be this monster that can't control her powers, but you guys are the reason she loses control half the time! The stress she's under because she has to be perfect otherwise she's the target blame for anything bad that happens! You know just as well as I do that that's not fair. At the end of the day, she's my sister and I'm not going to sit here and play peacemaker any longer. She's made mistakes but so has every other person in this world. I've got my own shit going on, so unless everyone can find a way to get on, I'm out. Just— sort out your priorities and figure out where your loyalties lie, alright?"
Lilith angrily slammed the door closed behind them, the three teens leaving to help Jade through her panic attack, hoping to help her gain control before she burnt down the whole school.
The locker room was stunned into silence, his words ringing in their ears. Out of everyone in the pack, Max was the last person that would have spoken up. The boy that held his tongue at all times, just to avoid conflict with anyone.
Two groups had been solidified, dividing their friend group down the middle. It just went to show that everyone had breaking points, and if you pushed the right buttons, you might just end up on the receiving end of an unwanted— yet truthful— announcement.