—
Monday eventually came around.
Austin and Ryder had gotten much closer since the conversation they had with Ryder's mother Saturday night.
They had spent the whole weekend together, even bringing Josie along to get ice cream with them.
Ryder was currently running around her bedroom, making sure she had everything she needed for school. Austin was waiting for her outside, having conversation with Josie, who he would also be bringing to school. The youngest teen had insisted that Austin take her, having had too much fun with him and her sister the day before.
Over the weekend, Josie had decided that she like having Austin around, especially since he made her usually moody sister, happy.
"Ryder, hurry up!"
"Shut up, you moron." The mentioned girl muttered, brushing past her sister to give her mom a kiss on the cheek goodbye.
"Don't call you sister a moron." Aaron said, as they walked towards the front door, "Get out of here."
•••
Austin laughed lightly at the words that came from Ryder's mouth.
They had pulled into the high school parking lot, the school finally being open after the problems that happened a couple nights ago.
They walked together to the front doors, avoiding bumping into anyone. The girls eyes squinted as she noticed Allison getting dropped off by her father and what appeared to be her aunt Kate.
She didn't think much of the family, only knowing about them because of what she grew up getting told. Despite her family being part of the reason for her mothers trauma, Ryder didn't hold that against the future huntress. If anything, the only reason she didn't like the girl was because of who she hung out with, along with her positive nature.
But aside from that, Ryder didn't hate Allison.
But she didn't care much for her either.
•••
If there was anything Ryder enjoyed, it was watching a bunch of high school boys angrily slam into each other for a sport, while silently judging them.
Lacrosse practice was in a few minutes, meaning that she'd eventually meet with Austin to watch.
"Hey, Ryder!"
Her eyes damn near rolled into the back of her head at the sound of his voice. He was probably one of the few people she could tolerate at the moment, but she already had a feeling what he would say.
"Hey, uhm— It's got to be the full moon. So, I planned to lock Scott up in his room later. That way the Alpha, who is his boss, can't get to him."
"What does that have to do with me?"
The Stilinski splutters out a response, "Uhm, well, I was wondering how you felt about that."
Ryder's face scrunches, her eyes glancing around the halls in confusion, "Why?"
"Well, you know, you're all about the supernatural stuff. Derek already told us that you were born to this. Would it work?"
"Right." She nods, turning around to continue her walk towards the field.
"Would it—?"
"I don't know, Stiles. I'm not a werewolf." She tried her hardest not to snap at him, he was new to this, she had to remind herself. "The last time I tried to give you guys advice, you didn't want to hear it."
"That wasn't me." He corrected, "I believed you."
"I appreciate that."
Her tone said otherwise.
The two had made it to the field, her eyes immediately caught Austin's. Stiles could see her eyes light up at the sight of him, his own heart suddenly dropping. He didn't know why, but he didn't like that.
"What's going on with that?"
"None of your business." She scoffed, leaving him alone, with his thoughts.
•••
Austin watched Scott jog onto the field, an weird look on his face as he barely glanced in Stiles' direction. He could admit that he was a bit worried for the teen. Ryder and her mother had told him all about beta wolves during full moons. And even if he had Stiles there to help him, he just had a feeling that Stiles' idea to chain him up wouldn't work as well as he thought.
"Something's wrong with Scott."
"What isn't wrong with Scott?"
"Seriously, Ryder." He could see her glance in his direction, "I don't think we should let Stiles watch him alone tonight."
Ryder eyed the teen next to her before focusing her attention back in the field, "You can do that. I don't really want to be around him at the moment."
"Completely understandable." He nods, "I won't force you to go. However, could you at stay by your phone if I need you?"
The girl sighed, her brown eyes locking with his blue ones,
"Of course."
•••
Scott had attacked Danny on the field.
The sight itself had Ryder rethinking her decision to avoid helping him. While she said before that she didn't hold a grudge against him and Stiles for abandoning her like everyone else did, she was still a petty person when she wanted to be.
Scott had admitted to not trusting her about the supernatural world, regardless of her being right about everything so far, so why would she help him?
She watched from the stands as Coach and a couple others when to check on the lacrosse player.
Scott seemed like he could have cared less about possibly injuring his fellow teammate.
Ryder wouldn't have expected that maybe he'd be a little aggressive due to the upcoming full moon, but she didn't know it would be this bad.
She lets out an exasperated groan, the sound catching Austin's attention.
"Everything okay?"
He watched her nod before pulling up her messages with her father.
"Yeah, I'll going to your house again tonight."
•••
"Scott?"
"Stiles." The teen corrects, smiling sheepishly at the woman.
"And guests?"
"And guests." He continued.
Melissa squints, coming to a quick realization, "Key!"
Stiles shrugs, "Yeah. I had one made, so—"
"That doesn't surprise me. It scares me, but it doesn't surprise me." The McCall woman admits, her welcoming brown eyes land on the pair by the door. One stood awkwardly, having not been in the house in years. The other seemed pretty excited to be there.
"Hi, Ryder." The woman smiled, the girl retuning the gesture, thankful she wasn't making things uncomfortable for her.
"Hey."
Melissa glances at the boy stood near her, her first thought was that this was Ryder's boyfriend. She hadn't seen the girl in forever, she was beautiful, it didn't surprise Melissa that she had found someone to put up with her attitude.
"I'm Melissa."
Austin reaches to shake the woman's hand, Stiles snorting at his natural act of politeness, "I'm Austin George. Friend of Scott's, as of today."
"It's nice to meet you Austin." Her happy smile drops, "What is that?"
Stiles freezes, "Uh, school project."
Melissa nods, "Mmm. You guys, he's okay, right?"
"Who? Scott? Yeah. Totally."
Melissa frowns, "He just doesn't talk to me that much anymore, not like he used to."
Ryder picks up on Stiles' inability to come up with an excuse, "Well, he's had a bit of a rough week."
Melissa's eyes soften, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, um - Okay, uh - Be careful tonight. All of you,"
"You, too." The three said in unison.
"Full moon."
"What?" "Huh?" "Excuse me?"
"There's a full moon tonight. You should see how the E.R. Gets. Brings out all the nut jobs." Her elaborate eased their nerves a bit, the three laughing it off.
"You know, it's, um, actually where they came up with the word 'lunatic'."
"Is it?" Austin perks up, "I didn't know that."
"Well now you do." She smiles, "You kids have fun."