—
"If Lydia wants to take a naked hike in the woods, why should I care?" Jackson asked, a look of disgust swarming his features as he spoke to the two other lacrosse players in front of him.
"Because we have a pretty good idea that she and Ryder might be - you know, turning..." Scott said, looking around to ensure no one was listening.
Jackson raises his brows, "Turning?"
"Yeah. Turning."
"Into..." The Whittemore trails off.
Stiles' eye twitched, "A unicorn. What do you think, dumbass?"
"Well, I don't necessarily care for Ryder." He started, brushing off the glare he got from Stiles, "And I think that if Lydia's turning, she's not the one that's gonna need help."
Scott frowns, the confusion was evident on his face, "What do you mean?"
Jackson chuckles, "Oh, God, you've got it all backwards, McCall. When I was with Lydia, you should have seen the scratch marks she left on me. What do you think she's gonna do with a set of real claws?"
•••
"All right, it's causing me severe mental anguish to say this, but he's right." Stiles admitted to Scott as the two sat in Mr. Harris' class.
Scott nods, "I know."
"What if the next body part she steals is from someone who's still alive?"
"And Ryder?"
"The girls a ticking time bomb, we can focus on her later, we just have to make sure no one pisses her off."
•••
"Nice dress." Ryder heard, her head tilted as she tried her hardest to drown out the voice.
She could hear a familiar laugh, "Nice camera."
"Not her sister, her aunt. The one who murder all those people."
"You mean the crazy bitch who killed all those people?"
"Yeah, the fire, all those animal attacks - it was her aunt."
"Are you kidding? I sit next to her in English."
"Find a new seat."
Ryder could feel herself wanting to ram their heads into the metal they stood by. They weren't talking about her, not one bit, but jeez, were their voices annoying.
"Oh, God, save us all." She thought she muttered to herself.
"Oh hey, Ryder." One of the girls, Harley, blushed. Her brown eyes trailing over the tatted girls body, "How are you?"
"I would be much better if your voices didn't carry." She admitted, "I don't know if I can handle listening to you bitch and moan about someone who clearly won't defend themselves."
"We didn't mean to be rude—" Harley tried,
"And i'm hearing your voice again." She pointed out, chuckling falsely, "Why?"
"Ryder!"
"What?" Stiles stumbled back, not expecting her to turn so quickly,
The Stilinski laughed it off, "What are you doing?"
"Giving Hannah—"
"Harley."
"And Samantha—"
"Savannah."
"A lesson in bullying." The Miller girl finished, dragging her eyes to the slightly taller boy standing in front of her. "Bullying isn't nice, is it, Stiles?"
"Never." He shook his head, surveying the area in hopes of finding help.
"So, why, on God's green earth are you, Hannah and Samantha, picking on dear old Allison?"
"We were just—"
"You were just?" Ryder nodded, "Continue, by all means. Who am I to stop you from explaining, with your more than annoying voices, why you're speaking so badly of Allison's family?"
"Ryder." Stiles whispered.
"We were only talking about what we heard." Savannah tried reassuring her, "We were curious if—"
"Stay curious."
With that, she could feel herself being dragged away by Stiles."
"What the hell was that?!"
The girl glanced around before shrugging, "What was what?"
"You can't just go off on people like that!"
"Why not?" She asked just as loud as he spoke, "One minute you guys want me to be all nice and understanding, then I defend someone and suddenly i'm the bad guy!"
"I'm not saying you're the bad guy, but you have to understand that you were just bitten by an alpha werewolf." He said, exaggerating the situation by moving his hands around loosely. "You can't go around picking fight with people."
"She started it." The Miller muttered before turning around and walking away from him.
"Ryder, that's not the point!"
•••
School ended and Ryder took no time at all to run out the front doors and to Austin's beloved vehicle.
She knew he wouldn't mind her just getting in and waiting for him. So, she opened the passenger seat door and sat quietly in her seat.
After taking deep breaths to calm herself down, she reached in the back and pulled out Marco the Monkey.
Once Austin had come to the realization that she found comfort in the stuffed animal, he thought it would be helpful if they took wherever they went, leaving it in his car whenever they couldn't actually bring it in.
She brushed her hand over the fluffy fur, her eyes closed while she sat in silence.
The girl had also taken it upon herself to stop smoking, this proved to be extremely difficult the longer she went on. Her last cigarette felt like it was months ago, but she was going strong.
The car door opening startled her, though she knew it was only Austin.
"You know, i went all the way to your last class to get you, only to be told that you already left." The blue eyed teen laughed, "And on my way out, Stiles pulled me aside and told me that you started an argument."
"It was for s good cause!" She quickly defended.
"He vaguely mentioned that." Austin admitted, turning in his seat to look at her.
He couldn't help smile at the sight of her hugging Marco close to her chest.
"You really like that monkey, don't you?"
Her eyes rolled, "It's either this, or my handy dandy lung killers."
"I prefer Marco."
"I thought so." She smiled.
Austin thought she would leave the conversation at that, not really expecting her to talk after the bad day she had. But he was proven wrong as she continued to speak.
"Hey—"
"Hi." He smiled, glancing at her before focusing his eyes back on the road.
"Do you remember when I told you that I wanted to dye my hair?"
"I remember all of our conversations." He spoke softly, placing his hand on hers while keeping one on the wheel.
She tried not to blush, "Well, now i want to dye it."
"Okay." He nodded.
Ryder rolled her eyes, "I brought it up, because I want you to help me."
"You don't want to go to a professional?" He look worried, Ryder couldn't hide her chuckle at his face.
"Why go to a professional when I have two working arms and money to buy hair dye?"
"Okay." He nodded, "Why the sudden change?"
Ryder shrugged, "Brunette is boring."