Sydney sat cross-legged on her bed, still dressed in her pajamas despite the fact that it was currently five-thirty in the morning. Her and Stiles were scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes, though she couldn't find herself to get ready, as her eyes were glued to a single sheet of paper, as they had been since she had first seen it the night before. Her eyes scanned over the two names for what seemed like the thousandth time that morning. Her and Liam had both gone up in price by over five million dollars each, which only made the mixture of fear and anxiety that was constantly eating away at her insides increase even more.
A knock on her closed door caused Sydney to jump in place, quickly struggling to fold up the crumbled piece of paper as Stiles stuck his head into the room. His eyebrows pulled together in a look of concern as his eyes landed on the paper, which was sticking halfway out of his sister's pants.
"You are not looking at that again, are you?" he questioned, groaning as he stepped fully into the room. Sydney expected him to be dressed in his lacrosse uniform, as the team had yet another early morning practice, but instead he was dressed in a plaid flannel with his worn out Chuck Taylor's covering his feet. He was still in his boxers; why was a complete mystery to Sydney- one that she did not plan on finding out.
"I want you to throw that thing away," Stiles said sternly as he took a seat on the end of her bed, cocking an eyebrow at his younger sister. "It's not good for you to be worrying about it when you are already stressing about enough."
"Even if I did get rid of that thing, it would still be on my mind twenty-four-seven," Sydney retorted flatly with a roll of her eyes. "It's hard not to think about the fact that I'm on a dead pool, worth 12 million dollars, with assassins running around wanting to kill me and my friends."
"My friends and I," Stiles corrected with a small chuckle. He placed a hand on the girl's knee, squeezing gently in a comforting gesture. "And this is why we are not going to school today." Sydney raised an eyebrow, a signal for her brother to further elaborate.
"I'm sick of everyone worrying about that damned list, myself included. So we are going to take a stress-free day off from school, and worry about anything other than the dead pool," he explained happily. He clapped once and rubbed his hands together, hopping off of her bed. "Everyone's coming- including Liam. So get off your lazy ass and get ready. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."
It didn't take Sydney very long to get ready. Stiles told his sister to dress in a bathing suit- so she assumed that they were going somewhere where she was more than likely going to get wet. She didn't know why her brother had chosen to go swimming in sixty degree whether, but she didn't exactly mind. As a werewolf, she rarely got cold, so a bit of cool water wasn't going to faze her that much. Her brother, Lydia and Kira might be a different story, but that was a problem they were going to have to fix themselves. Sydney didn't bother putting on makeup, apart from a few strokes of her waterproof mascara. She tied her hair up in a messy bun before following her brother and Malia out the front door.
Sydney was currently crammed into the back seat of Stiles' Jeep in between Liam and Lydia. It wasn't the most comfortable ride, though she didn't exactly mind, as it gave her an excuse to lean her head onto Liam's shoulder without her overly-protective brother pitching a fit. Scott and Kira followed closely behind them on his bike, the engine revving as they drove dangerously close to them. Stiles would constantly slam on the brakes, causing his best friend to swerve in the road to stop from crashing into the Jeep.
Finally, after what seemed like lifetimes of riding in a cramped backseat with motion sickness, Stiles pulled onto a dirt road leading down to a creek. As children, their parents would always take him and Sydney there to swim, and it had grown to be their favorite swim hole in Beacon Hills. Unable to hide the smile that stretched across her face at the memories, Sydney quickly scrambled out of the back seat after Lydia, Liam following close behind her. His hand slipped into hers as the group began to make their way down to the river, his lips pressing against her cheek for a mere second.
"Hey!" Sydney jumped as Stiles appeared in front of the pair, his eyebrow raised threateningly as he stared at the freshman beside his baby sister. "I can tolerate holding hands, but kissing- kissing is a no-no. Got it, Dunbar? No kissing when I am around- which is always, because I am always watching."
With a roll of her eyes, Sydney reached out and ruffled her brother's hair, causing him to groan and slap her hand away.
"I'm not joking. Take me seriously, Syd. I don't want to be an uncle before I am a father."
"It's just a kiss," Liam pointed out with a shrug, shoving his free hand into the pocket of his swim trunks. Beside him, Scott walked along with Kira, their faces both red from holding in their laughter.
Stiles' arms flailed in the air around him. "It all starts with a kiss, and then it all goes downhill from there."
"You and Malia must do a lot of kissing, then," Sydney retorted with a cheeky smirk. "Because all I ever hear at night is the bed banging against the wall."
Her words earned her a middle finger from a blushing Stiles and a growl from the werecoyote walking beside him. Liam, Lydia, Scott and Kira were all in tears from laughing, which only made Sydney's heart swell with pride.
Sweat dappled Sydney's skin as she lay on her stomach, attempting to tan her pale skin. Kira and Lydia lay on either sides of her, sunglasses resting on the bridges of their noses and their glossed lips pursed slightly. Malia was busy swimming with the boys, apparently "too cool to be tanning", as she had earlier stated. Not that Sydney minded, though she did feel a twinge of jealously at the werecoyote when she wrapped her arms around Liam's shirtless torso in attempt to knock him from Scott's shoulders in the midst of a chicken fight. Though she pushed the feeling down as Liam shoved Malia into the water, his gaze resting on Sydney and his lips pulling into a smirk as he winked.
Several minutes of laying in silence later, Sydney heard the sound of water splashing and pebbles grinding against each other as someone waded to shore. She assumed that it was only Malia, finally deciding to join the other girls in their tanning session, but then she felt a soft pair of lips press against the exposed skin of her neck, and then a familiar voice whispering into her ear.
"Follow me."
Though confused, Sydney didn't protest as Liam pulled her towards the trail that led into the woods. He walked at a fast pace, and she guessed that he was hurrying before Stiles caught the two of them.
"Where are we going?" she questioned, wincing as her bare foot scraped against an exposed root. Liam didn't answer her until they were deep within the woods and out of sight from the rest of the ground. There, he turned around and stared her straight in the eye, a smirk curling at his lips.
"Stiles said no kissing when he is in sight," he stated cheekily, cocking an eyebrow. "And, well, he can't see us."
Without giving Sydney a chance to respond, Liam pushed her back against the nearest tree and pressed his lips to hers. Almost immediately, a surge of electricity ran through her body, sending shivers up her spine as her hands curled around his neck. Her fingers tangled into his hair as she lost herself in the taste of mint mojito chewing gum. Liam's hands rested on her waist, his fingers absentmindedly drawing designs into her bare skin.
All too soon, the pair pulled apart at the sound of a scream echoing through the air around them. The scream came from Lydia, though it was not the scream of a banshee, but instead one of pure fear. Sydney's hazel eyes were wide as she stared at Liam before she took off running in the direction of her friends. The sounds of leaves and twigs cracking behind her told her that Liam was following closely behind.
Gunshots rang through the air as she pushed her way onto the little beach, only to come face to face with four men with shotguns in their hands. Sydney staggered backwards into Liam as one final gun shot met her ears and searing pain shot through her left shoulder. Liam grabbed her arm and dragged her back into the cover of the forest. He brought her against his chest as he pressed himself against a tree, clutching onto the wounded girl as if she were about to disappear at any given moment.
"Are you alright?" His soft voice spoke into her ear, a mere whisper.
"I'm fine," Sydney insisted, removing her hand from her injured shoulder. Thankfully, the bullet had only grazed her. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off as a deafening roar met her ears, followed by a series of terrified screams. The few moments of racket was closely followed by silence.
Despite the fear that was still pricking at her insides, Sydney found herself smiling slightly. "It sounds like Scott scared them off."
Liam trailing behind her with his hand tightly gripping hers, she made her way back into the open once more. Immediately, she was tackled into a tight embrace by her brother, his whole body shaking as he buried his head into her neck.
"Are you okay?" Scott questioned, his fangs only just beginning to sink back to their normal size and his eyes still glowing alpha red. Licking her lips and rubbing Stiles' back comfortingly, Sydney nodded.
"It was just a graze. It'll heal," she said simply. She could already feel the new layer of skin beginning to form over the bloody and irritated wound, the blood slowly sinking back into her body.
Stiles suddenly pulled away from his sister, wiping a tear away from his cheek and pursing his lips. Almost as if he were trying to act tough, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the group around him.
"So much for having a day off."