|| Morally Wrong
Drenched, Jacy formed out of nothing in front of the McCall household with a heavy object in hand. Slightly out of it from passing on every dead wolf of Satomi's pack, she pushed through and went up to the porch.
Liam had been found and Scott had fought the berserkers and Kate. Meredith, well, she just couldn't take it anymore. Not only had there been a loss of a banshee, but the rest of the deadpool had been cracked.
With Melissa at home, Jacy knocked on the front door.
Opening the door, Melissa smiled despite her pulsation of stress that surrounded her like a fog. "Hey, Jacy."
"Hi Melissa," she replied as she had out of focus breaths that soon began to calm. "The boys are here, aren't they?"
Melissa lightly nodded, "Upstairs, sweetheart."
Jacy jogged up the stairs, drying off slightly. Stopping in the doorway, she found Scott and Stiles. "Is that it?"
Scott was sat across from Stiles, a pile of money in the middle of them. He held the cassette, giving a light nod to her.
"Did you bring it?" Stiles asked as Jacy was half in the doorway.
Jacy brought out the old stereo she'd grabbed from her house before going to the McCall's. She went into the room, handing the black stereo over. Folding her legs, she sat facing the music system with Scott and Stiles on each side.
Stiles put in the cassette, pressing play.
A deep, near electronic voice crackled through the speakers.
"After entering the IP address, you will be connected through a Darknet portal to an untraceable bank. Once logged in, enter your account number to receive wire transfers. The IP address will deactivate with each transfer. You will be assigned a new IP address if you choose to continue down the list. Remember, visual confirmation is always required for payment."
After a moment, Stiles reached forward and hit the ejection button to stop the tape. "You ever made a wire transfer?"
"Never had enough money," Scott replied. He looked over to Jacy, "You?"
"I've never made one," she said. "I've heard my dad talk about it before but that was a while ago."
"So you guys didn't understand a word of that either?" Stiles asked as he tried to understand.
"I don't understand any of this," admitted Scott. "Why would someone use all this money just to kill us?"
"Someone wants the two of you dead, guys. Badly," Stiles said with a little strain.
All of the sudden, Scott started putting the money into Garrett's dufflebag.
"Woah, woah," Stiles interrupted, "what are you doing?"
"It's late," Scott told him as he crammed it into the bag. "We've got the PSATs in the morning."
"No, I mean the money," said Stiles. "$500,000. You know how much money that is?"
Scott hesitated, "It's 500,000-"
"It's half a million dollars, Scott," Jacy said, a little defeated.
"What are you going to do, just slide it under your mattress?" Stiles questioned.
"I have to talk to Derek. The money's his," retorted the true alpha.
"You mean his and Peter's."
Jacy glanced over to Stiles, growing more concerned than before. "Stiles?"
"What does that mean?" Scott asked Stiles after exchanging a look with Jacy.
"It means maybe we should proceed with caution more than before," said Stiles.
Scott's eyebrows lifted, "You don't think we should tell Derek?"
"No," Stiles quietly spoke with slight grief. "No." He stood, slightly flustered as he looked out the window to rain soaked Beacon Hills. He let out a sigh, "No, of course we have to tell him. I'm just...I'm just saying, some of that money's Peter's, right?"
"Yeah," Scott answered.
Stiles turned around to look at Jacy and Scott. "Right? Peter. Homicidal killer? Remember? You want to give $500,000 to him?"
"So we should give Derek his money back. But not Peter?" Scott wasn't catching on, lifting an eyebrow at Stiles.
"I didn't say that," Stiles quickly replied.
"Stiles," asked Scott, "what are you saying?"
The boy in plaid hesitated, running a hand along his face. He glanced to his girlfriend, motioning to her. "You never told us what happened, Jace."
Although she knew he was changing the subject, Jacy let him. "Derek and I found Satomi's pack. But they're dead."
"All of them?" Scott sharply asked.
"All of the ones we found," Jacy replied. She ran a hand along her damp hair, "All their ghosts were there too. They only said a man named 'The Chemist' did it. They all looked like they'd been poisoned."
Stiles lifted an eyebrow, "So then where's Derek?"
"The hospital. He found a girl, I think she was shot." Jacy glanced between the two boys, "She wasn't like me or you, Scott. She was some kind of hunter or mercenary-"
"Braeden," Scott said.
Jacy recognized the name from Allison and gave a light nod. "She should be okay. I told Derek to have my mom take care of her."
Stiles ran a hand along his jaw, "Good. We, uh, we should go. PSATs and all." He looked to Scott after holding out a hand to Jacy to help her up. "Just hang onto the money for now, okay? We'll figure out what to do with it."
Conflicted, Scott finally agreed.
"See you in the morning," Jacy said to the other wolf before leaving with Stiles. "Night, Melissa."
The nurse lifted her head as Stiles and Jacy passed. "Goodnight, you two."
Stiles took Jacy's hand as they stepped out onto the porch.
"Are you okay?" Jacy asked before they stepped out from the cover of the porch.
Stiles met eyes with her, sighing. "Are any of us okay, Jace?"
||
Jacy leaned on the lockers, blowing at a loose wave of hair falling from her braid. Her head was rested on Stiles' shoulder as she played with the sleeves of her Army green jacket. "This is morally wrong for us to be here on a Saturday."
With an arm around her, Stiles agreed.
Kira, next to Scott, glanced around as the group of four stood with a cluster of kids from their grade. "Where's Lydia?"
"She took it freshman year," Stiles told Kira.
Jacy checked her phone, Darren asking her to come in for a morning shift. Texting that she couldn't make it until after the PSAT, she then stuck her phone away. "Is now really the best time to do this? We all, but Stiles, aren't exactly in safe waters."
"While we're trying not to die, we still need to live," Scott said. "If I survive high school, I'd like to go to college. A good college."
"It's only three hours," Kira attempted to sound hopeful. "We can survive three hours."
Stiles, Jacy and Scott all gave Kira a look, only to be called in for the exam.
Following suit of the others, Scott pressed his thumb into the ink pad and onto his transcript sheet. He took a pencil and a test, going up to Mrs. Martin.
"Cell phone in the envelope, Scott. You'll get it back after the test," Natalie told him.
Scott reluctantly dropped his phone into the bag and took a seat.
Kira did the same, sitting with a pencil in hand.
Jacy met eyes with the test giver as her thumb lingered over the ink pad. Although he offered a smile to her, she felt uneasy about him. She rolled her thumb in the ink before continuing. Putting her phone into the 009 bag, she took a spot in front of an empty seat.
Stiles sat behind Jacy, armed with three pencils and his test. He opened the front cover, eyeing the first question.
The test giver spoke up as the last students sat down. "Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so."
Stiles set the page back down and put his pencil in his mouth, pretending he'd not looked at the booklet.
"This test is two hours and 10 minutes," Simon announced. "There will be two 25 minutes critical reading sections, two 25 minutes math sections and an essay writing portion that will last 30 minutes." He glanced to Lydia's mother, "There are supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam."
"I know," Natalie replied. "It's Coach. He's not exactly punctual. Um, let me just try him again." After a moment, she slipped out of the room to look for Finstock.
Jacy tapped her fingers on her desk, looking a little over her shoulder to Stiles. She lightly grinned, amused with Stiles' expression as he kept a pencil in his mouth and one behind each ear.
Ms. Martin returned, "I can't find him, but Mr. Yukimura is upstairs grading papers. Do you want me to try him again?"
Jacy's eyebrows lifted, able to sense that she was lying.
"We have to start," Simon told her. "We can ask for his assistance during the first break." He clicked his watch, causing a panic in the students. "You may now open your test booklets and begin."
Jacy let out a sigh, opening the test and diving in.
Stiles worked with two pencils at once, his focus slowing and the pencil in his mouth hitting the desk. Letting go of the others, he put his hands over his face.
Reaching a significant place in her test, Jacy's brain was working at top speed.
"You're all lucky there isn't a science portion."
Jacy's eyes flickered upwards, Mr. Harris at the front of the room with a grim expression. Rolling her eyes, she continued to take her test.
"So," a set of hands slammed down on Jacy's desk, "when do you want to do this?"
Livid, it was the ghost of Violet.
Attempting to ignore her, Jacy scribbled in the A circle.
"Oh, come on Little Parrish," Violet drew out her words. "I know how this works. You'll feel me pass on, right? Garrett did it. I'm sure of it. I haven't seen him, but I want to. Let me see him!"
Jacy slightly winced as Violet yelled, clenching her pencil.
Violet lowered herself so she was eye level to Jacy. "Hold tight. I don't think you'll enjoy this. Kate wasn't very gentle with me." She slammed her hands onto Jacy's, gripping tightly.
Jacy shut her eyes, bearing through the pain in silence. Claws shredded her skin, showing no mercy in form of Kate's uncontrolled frenzy.
But as Jacy opened her eyes and Violet was gone, a girl named Sydney hit the ground.
"Sydney!" Natalie ran over, helping the brunette up. "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay," she quickly and nervously replied. "I just got kind of dizzy." Standing up, she tucked a wave of hair behind her ear.
Ms. Martin looked down to Sydney's wrist, growing concerned. "Sydney, how long have you had this?"
Jacy didn't look to Sydney, but instead to Simon, the man orating the exam.
And just barely, she saw him smile.
We can survive three hours, right?