—
"Ryder, hey!"
The voice had the girl looking up from her phone, stopping her from typing a message to Derek.
The only reason why the girl was going out of her way to speak to the Hale was because Isaac was missing. After Derek had sent his beta to go search for Erica and Boyd, he ended up losing him in the process.
At the beginning of the summer, Isaac and Ryder had gotten pretty close. They had broken the ice of the Lahey having a small crush on the girl. Austin didn't take lightly to the news, getting over his jealously rather quickly as he realized they were now only best friends.
If anything, they now saw each other as brother and sister, having a silent agreement that they would protect one another as family would.
After she had gotten a message from Derek Hale, she quickly scolded herself for not blocking the man's number.
She had just unblocked Scott and Stiles a few weeks after the kanima incident, it didn't register in her mind to block Derek's number in the process.
However, she was partially grateful she didn't, otherwise she wouldn't have known of Isaac's disappearance.
"What?"
Lydia walked forward as Allison stepped back at her unapproachable attitude. It was clear that the Miller teen still held a grudge against the Argent for when she attacked them.
"How was your summer?"
Ryder squinted, deciding on if she wanted to give the girl any time out of her day.
Lydia and Ryder hadn't even gotten the chance to speak about the Miller turning into a wolf in front of her, or Lydia going out of her way to help.
Lydia knew of the supernatural world now, thank God, now no one had to tiptoe around her.
Unfortunately, this meant that any time the two crossed paths, Lydia thought it was best to try and start a conversation with her.
"My summer was fine, Lydia. How was yours?"
The strawberry blondes eyes widen, "It was good! Great, even. How was—never mind." She cut herself off upon realizing she was going to repeat herself.
Ryder hid a smile, raising a brow before stepping away, "I'm gonna walk away now."
"Okay." The Martin teen nods, closing her eyes as she let out a breath.
"You don't look so good."
Ryder paused, gapping at her boyfriend, "That isn't very nice of you."
"I didn't mean it like that." Austin dramatically rolled his eyes, "You just look a little on edge, that's all. That usually means something bad is gonna happen."
"She's always on edge."
Ryder swung her hand back, smiling in victory as she hit Stiles in the chest, hard enough to earn a wince, but not hard enough to actually injure the human.
"He wants to go to Derek for help." Stiles said, rubbing his chest as he pointed to Scott with his free hand.
"Help with what?" Austin looked at them, holding Ryder's hand as they began to walk.
"He's got the triskele tattooed on his back. So there has to be a way to do it without healing, right?"
Ryder raised a brow, agreeing silently. She also probably would have went to the Hale man for help if she hadn't already spoken to her mother and father about it. The married couple had already agreed to go through the process with their daughter to get the ink back.
"Okay, yeah, but still, doesn't he have his hands a little full?" The Stilinski gestures to the missing poster on the wall.
They let out soft sighs at Erica and Boyd's pictures.
"Look, these are the applications for the career advisor. I need them sorted. And whatever happened to the library while I was gone, I want it cleared up. And what the hell is this?"
"Go, go, go."
•••
Austin made his way to the chair behind Ryder, kissing her cheek softly before he sat down. He saw her cheeks redden at the affection, smiling to himself before he reaches forward to play with ends of her hair.
Stiles was sat to the left of Austin, Lydia on the other side of him, Ryder in front of Austin and Scott to the right of the blonde.
Ryder watched as one of the only two empty seats got taken, meaning Allison had gotten stuck sitting in front of Scott.
"Is someone..." The Argent pointed to the vacant seat.
Scott shook his head frantically, "No, no, no, no. No, it's all you, all yours. Uh, it's totally vacant."
Austin's head dropped to his desk in second hand embarrassment. Ryder simply snorted, while Stiles gave his friend a sarcastic thumbs up.
Suddenly, everyone's phone began to go off, Austin let his hands fall from his girlfriends hair as he reached into his pocket to retrieved the device.
"The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway", leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone."
Ryder looked at her new teacher with a curious gaze, she couldn't stop herself from speaking up,
"How did you get all of our numbers?"
"It's in the school system." The woman answered, eyes unnoticeably twitching as she realized who had been speaking.
"Don't you think it's a little weird and inappropriate for you to go into our personal files and get our numbers just to make a grand entrance to your new school?"
She hummed, "Ryder Miller, I presume?"
The girl in question scoffed, sitting up defensively in her seat despite the warning look she got from Scott, "You presume right. Who are you?"
Stiles snorted, hiding his smile in his hands.
"My name is Jennifer Blake. Or, Ms. Blake, Your new teacher." Jennifer smiled, "Books out."
•••
"Mr. McCall?"
Ryder looked away from the door as soon as Scott and Jennifer walked out the room, not caring enough to listen in on their conversation. From what she did gather, Scott wasn't coming back.
What did draw her attention away from the oh, so boring book Ms. Blake had them reading, was the topic Stiles had brought up, "Hey, Lydia. What is that? Is that from the accident?"
"No." The girl looked down at her ankle, "Prada bit me."
"Your dog?"
"No, her designer handbag." Austin mocked, "What else, dude?"
"You know, I don't think I'm liking your attitude towards me recently."
Austin nodded, blue eyes never leaving his book as he pretended to care, "That's unfortunate."
Ryder huffed a laugh, wondering when her boyfriend got so sassy.
"Yes, my dog." Lydia cut in.
"Has it ever bitten you before?"
Lydia shook her head, "Mm-mm."
"Okay. What if it's, like, the same thing as the deer? You know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"
"Meaning what?" Ryder spoke up, leaning back in her seat.
"There's gonna be an earthquake?"
The Stilinski looked between them, "Or something. I just... maybe it means something's coming. Something bad."
Austin tapped the back of his girlfriend seat, "I told you that your on edge look was problem."
"It was a deer and a dog. What's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice—"
The class gasps as a bird flies face first into the window, a large flock following closely behind.
"Ah, shit."
—
A/N: y'all should def read my outer banks story 👀 no pressure 🤷🏾♀️... all pressure.
i'm kidding 🌚