I stride through the school hallways, determined to find that little shit who thinks it's okay to keep ignoring my cousin. Then I finally see a familiar face, but it's not the one I hoped for.
"Stiles! Have you seen Scott?" I ask.
"No. I'm not talking to him," Stiles answers curtly.
"Why not?" I ask, even though I have a feeling I already know.
"Because he was too busy worrying about his Allison to care about his best friend's dad getting hit by a car," he almost snarls, glaring at the floor.
"Weird thing is, now he's not caring about Allison at all! He's been avoiding her," I tell him. "That's why I was looking for him."
"Why is he such an idiot," Stiles mutters, and I chuckle in agreement.
"I'm gonna go find him and ask what the hell is going on with him. See you," I walk off, but a hand grabs my arm.
"Wait," he says. I turn around and look at him, raising my eyebrows slightly.
"My dad told me what happened. You helped him, right?"
"Kind of, yeah. Look, I'm sorry I couldn't stop him from getting hit-"
"No! I-I mean, you were there, you tried to help him because you- You helped him even when you thought you could die, or when you could've easily stayed with your family. So thank you," he finishes quietly, a warm but careful look in his eyes.
"Well- don't thank me. You would've done the same thing, if... you know," I say.
"I don't know if I would have. I'm not as brave as you are," his words grow more silent until they're reduced to an almost-whisper.
"Bullshit," I whisper, and we're staring at each other and that's when I realise he still has a hold on my arm.
"There you are!" Scott's voice sounds next to us and Stiles lets me go immediately.
"Okay, first of all, why are you ignoring Allison?" I ask him.
"Uh, because she's distracting me and I need to stay away from her," he answers.
"Well, at least give her some reasonable excuse," I say.
"Yeah, sure, sure. Hey Stiles!" Scott changes the subject, but Stiles doesn't react to him.
"Still not talking to me? Okay, can you at least tell me if your dad's okay? It's just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage? Nothing that big... You know I feel really bad about it, right? Okay. What if I told you that I'm trying to figure this whole thing out, and... that I went to Derek for help?"
"If I was talking to you, I'd say that you're an idiot for trusting him. But obviously I'm not talking to you," Stiles answers.
I lightly snort and there's a moment of stubborn silence, before Stiles gives in.
"What did he say?" he asks Scott.
"To stay away from Allison. Also, he wants me to tap into my animal side and get angry."
"All right, well, correct me if I'm wrong, but every time you do that, you try to kill someone, and that someone's usually me," Stiles says.
"I know. That's what he means when he says he doesn't know if he can teach me. I have to be able to control it," Scott says.
"Yeah, I thought we had that realisation a long time ago," I say.
"But how's he gonna teach you to do that?" Stiles asks Scott.
"I don't know. I don't think he does either."
"Okay. When are you seeing him again?" Stiles asks. During this entire conversation he's had a cold edge to his voice, one that I hope he will never use when talking to me. It's unnerving.
"He's picking me up at the animal clinic after work," Scott answers.
"All right. Well, that gives me until the end of the school day then," Stiles says, and Scott and I both look at him.
"To do what?" Scott asks.
"To teach you myself."
"Woah. Woah. I'm not sure if- That's pretty much playing with fire," I tell Stiles. It's risky playing around with Scott's anger. Potentially deadly.
"Says the firefighter," Stiles retorts.
"The firefighter's coming with you guys to make sure the entire school doesn't get burned down," I say, continuing the stupid metaphor.
***
During lunch, Allison drags me to her table to tell me about an old legend involving our family as monster hunters, which she found while researching for a history task. While she tells the story I can't help but feel like Kate told her too much by giving her the werewolf necklace. Now Allison's realising there's a connection between us and the supernatural, and a part of me thinks it's only a matter of time before she finds out about everything.
I don't want her to.
After Lydia almost has a flashback looking at the sketch of the legendary wolf-like beast, which is also worrying, Stiles sends me a text.
'Lacrosse field. Free period. Scott's Yoda I will be.'
I lightly laugh, catching both Allison's and Lydia's attention.
"Who are you texting?" Allison asks smugly.
"Stiles. It was a Star Wars reference, okay?" I say.
"Of course it was. You're becoming quite the nerd, Grace," she says. Before I can answer, my phone buzzes with another text from Stiles.
'I said it backwards.'
This idiot.
'I noticed that.' I text back.
***
"Okay, so what is all that stuff you're carrying and what are we gonna use it for?" I ask Stiles.
Free period has just started and we rushed to the lacrosse field immediately, even though I still have no idea what for.
"This is a heart rate monitor used for track, and coach's phone. We use this to keep track of Scott's heart rate, because the idea is that maybe he has to control that to control his wolfing out," Stiles says.
"Because when he gets angry, his heart's beating like crazy," I say.
"Yeah," he says.
"That doesn't even sound that stupid!" I say.
"None of my plans sound stupid!" he says.
"Uh, well-" I begin, but Scott interrupts me.
"Guys, are we gonna do this now or what?" he says.
"Yeah, put the strap on," Stiles tells him, and Scott does as he's told, attaching the heart rate monitor to himself.
"Now you stay here," Stiles says to Scott, and Stiles gestures for me to follow him, creating distance between us and Scott.
"You hold this," he says, giving me coach's phone. "Keep an eye on his heart rate. If it's abnormally high, let me know."
"Will do. You realise you're putting yourself in danger again, right?" I ask him, quickly noticing Scott's calm heart rate visible on the phone.
"There's no other way," he says, "We'll be fine."
Our eyes lock and I'm trying to hide my concern, but he seems to see right through it. I sigh, accepting that this is the situation we're in and it's gonna put us in danger either way. We might as well just roll with it.
"Guys, come on!" Scott yells, growing impatient. His heart rate slightly accelerates.
"Go ahead, Stiles, before he turns by himself. Get those balls in his face!" I push him towards the pile of lacrosse balls, and he snickers.
"That was not meant- whatever," I mutter, giving up.
Stiles starts throwing and at first, everything goes well. Scott's heart rate stays relatively normal and I have to admit it's funny to see him get hit over and over again by Stiles. Until the mood switches and it all gets too serious. Coach's phone indicates a fast heart rate, way too fast.
"Stiles," I call out, "Not good."
He gives me a glance and keeps throwing.
"Stop. Just- can we just hold-" Scott stutters, anger taking over as coach's phone goes crazy.
"Stiles, stop it!" I say, but he's already stopped throwing the lacrosse balls. Scott drops on the floor, struggling to keep himself in control. I walk up to Stiles and we both watch him, nervously anticipating the outcome. When Scott sits up again, his heart rate down to normal, we approach him.
"Scott? Scott, you started to change," Stiles says.
"From anger. But it was more than that. It was like the angrier I got, the stronger I felt," Scott tells us, still a bit shaken up.
"So it is anger, then. Derek's right," Stiles says.
"I can't be around Allison," Scott says solemnly.
"Just because she makes you happy?" Stiles asks.
"No, because she makes me weak."
"Alright, you stay away from her for a few days. You can do that," Stiles says.
"But is it a few days, or is it forever?" Scott asks.
"If you don't give her a good excuse, it will be forever," I say.
"You know, this whole 'women make you weak' thing is a little too spartan warrior for me. It's probably just part of the learning process," Stiles says.
"Yeah, but you've seen Derek. I mean, the guy's totally alone. What if I can, like, never be around her again?" Scott asks.
"I think you'll be fine. He wasn't always alone, you know," I smirk.
"He wasn't? How the hell do you know that?" Stiles asks me.
"Hunters stalk their prey. I got a little bit of history on him when I moved here," I say.
"You can take stalking quite literally," Stiles says.
"Anyway, you're not gonna end up like Derek, alright?" I tell Scott.
"We'll figure it out," Stiles adds.
"O-okay," Scott says hesitantly.
***
After class, we had the great revelation that Allison is actually the one making Scott calmer, someone who can pull him back when he's changing. We decided to put that theory to the test.
"What are we doing?" Scott asks as we walk in the parking lot. I have no idea what Stiles is planning either.
"You'll see," he answers. "Hold on."
Stiles stops walking.
"Okay. Stand right there. Do you have your keys?"
Scott nods, confused.
"Perfect. Hold them up like so. Now, whatever happens, just think about Allison. Try to find her voice like you did at the game. Got it?"
"Okay," Scott says.
"Come on," Stiles gestures for me to follow.
"Just- keep holding it right there," Stiles says once more, before raising his voice so everyone can hear.
"Hey, hey, dude! What do you think you're doing to that truck, bro?"
"Oh my god," I start laughing when I realise what he's doing.
"What the hell?" the owner of the truck approaches angrily. Scott shoots us one more look before the dude and his friends start beating him up.
"You are a terrible person," I giggle, hearing Scott's cries. Oh well, he'll heal anyway.
"But it's working! Look," he says excitedly. Scott's in a lot of pain, but he's not growing claws or fangs or anything supernatural.
"Guess what, huh. You were right," I smile.
"I was," he grins, putting his arm around my shoulders. It's warm and comfortable, and it makes watching our friend getting hurt a bit more enjoyable.
"I am kind of starting to feel guilty about this though," he says quietly.
"You want me to go do something about it?" I ask, but he hesitates.
"I'm not sure if-"
"I'll take care of it," I say, making his arm fall limply to his side as I walk away from him, approaching the fight.
"The party's over, assholes!" I yell, the boys turning to look at me. The one who's got a good grip on Scott chuckles and lets him go, walking over to me.
"You know what, pretty girl? You got a mouth on you. Maybe I'd listen if you showed me what else you can do with it."
I smile, take him by the collar and pull him closer to me, before kneeing him in the crotch as hard as I can. He collapses and lies on the ground, moaning in pain.
"Get your ass out of the fifties," I sneer, before looking at the other guys, who are staring at me with their mouths slightly opened.
"So which pretty boy is next?" I ask. They stay still and don't react.
"Stop! Hey, stop it right now! What do you idiots think you're doing?" Mr. Harris runs towards us furiously, and I realise that I will be spending my afternoon in detention. Awesome.
***
Detention, at first, felt long and boring, even though Stiles thought it was definitely worth it, for "seeing Scott's ass get kicked and then seeing you kicking ass", as he told me. But luckily, after Scott's complaints about having to go to work, Mr. Harris let us all leave early. So now I'm home, in peace, and I finally have some time to do homework, not that I'm excited about doing so. I take out my maths book with a sigh, when my phone rings. It's Scott. That means it's definitely about something supernatural.
"Scott?" I answer the phone.
"I need you to come to the school in about 45 minutes," he just says.
"Why?"
"Derek thinks my boss, Deaton is the alpha. Deaton's passed out and I need to come up with something to prove that he's not the alpha, before Derek kills him or something. I already called Stiles, he's coming as well."
"But what if your boss is the alpha?" I ask.
"Then we'll find out. I have a plan. It's a shitty one, but it'll have to do," he says.
"Should I bring anything? Like, weapons-"
"No, we don't want to piss Derek off right now. And I think it's kind of useless against the alpha, if we manage to find him."
"Okay. I'm in," I say.