My day had passed relatively easy. Nobody else really made attempts to talk to me, making my plan of independence all the more solid. At the end of the day, I packed all of my things I needed back into my bag, and remembered that I still had one more dreaded stop before I could go home.
I found myself back in Harris' classroom after school, but this time, for detention.
Apparently my comment about a "Stiles" was good enough reason for Harris to lock me in this hellhole of a classroom for the next 2 days. When I walk in, buzz-cut was already there, his head down on the table. There was nobody else in there except for Harris, who motioned for me to take a seat. I take the table directly behind buzz-cut, taking a worksheet I had been assigned from my bag. Might as well get something done if I'm going to be stuck here all day.
"Before you both get too comfortable, I'll need your phones." Harris says smugly, walking up to us both with a cardboard box. "You know the rules."
I bite my tongue and just obey him, plopping my phone into the box, buzz-cut putting up a mediocre fight before finally handing off his phone nervously. What was he so scared of? Was he getting nudes or something?
About 30 minutes had passed- The point at which I gave up on my worksheet and decided to just stare off into oblivion. The clock in the front of the room mocked me with each tick that sounded throughout the room. The silence was making me want to tear my hair out, and by the way buzz-cut's leg was bouncing, I could tell he felt the same way. Well, he would, if he had hair to tear out.
I notice that buzz-cut's eyes were trained on the clock intensely. It was 3:59, meaning there were only a few seconds until we were let out. He looked as if he were a cross country runner, lining up at the start, ready to flee from the class. And when the little hand finally reached 12, we both shot up, grabbing at our things, until Harris shot us down.
"Sit." He barks, completely monotone. I widen my eyes at him. This guy can't be serious.
"What- but it's been an hour!" Buzz-cut exclaims, waving his arms around.
"My detention's an hour and a half," Harris states matter-of-factly, not even looking up from the papers he was grading. My jaw drops in disbelief.
"You can't do that!" I exclaim. This had to be a joke. It was impossible for such a dick of a human being to exist, right?
"Oh," He smiles at us sarcastically, "Oh, but I can! Now sit down, before I decide to keep you here all night."
I huff and we both take our seats again, my teeth grinding together angrily. I rub my hands over my face, trying to find some form to express the anger coursing through me.
About 25 minutes later, Harris stands up from his desk, sauntering towards the door. "I'll be back to let you both out. Don't try anything funny, or you'll be locked in here for the rest of your lives."
I roll my eyes and watch as he exits the room, leaving me all alone with buzz-cut. Though, he hadn't made any effort to talk to me this whole time, so I assumed he wouldn't now.
Wrong.
"Hey," He whisper-shouted, doing a 180 in his seat to talk to me.
I raise my head, giving him a toxic gaze. Apparently he didn't get the memo that I didn't want to talk.
"My dad dropped you off at school today?" He questions, scooting his chair closer. I rub my temples and sigh heavily.
"If your dad is the sheriff, yes."
"But why?" He furrows his brows in intense focus. Why was any of this his business in the first place?
"Because I don't have a car..?" I explain slowly, dodging his questions to the best of my ability. He catches onto my little game and rolls his eyes impatiently.
"You know what I mean. Where were you before he dropped you off?"
I tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear and avoid his inquiry, going back to tracing patterns into the black lab table.
After a long pause, I thought he let the matter go, but alas, he spoke up again.
"You were at the cemetery, weren't you?"
I groan loudly, making his eyes go wide. I swear, this boy had a death wish. "Okay, maybe. What does it matter? I already told them everything I know."
He gives me a suspicious look, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue. "How'd you get those red marks?"
"Bugs." I retort quickly. "A swarm of them attacked me."
"Last night?"
"Mhm."
"And you don't know what bugs they were?"
I shake my head no and he squints at me, causing me to lean back in the slightest discomfort. It was like he was studying me.
"Don't you think that's weird?" He asks almost excitedly, now leaning so close we were almost face to face.
"No?" I say, "Bugs bite. It's normal."
"But it was night time- Why would a swarm of bugs be up, let alone want to attack you?"
Thinking about it, it was strange, but I didn't spend much time pondering the subject. The giggles, the bugs- Both of those incidents vanished from my mind after I fell into the grave. It was probably just a weird coincidence that led to an even weirder coincidence. I was just hearing things.
"..You saw something, didn't you?" A faint smirk playing on his lips. "Something that wasn't human."
"Yes, okay?" I finally give in, hoping that if I gave him what I wanted, he would finally leave me alone. "When I fell in the grave with Lahey. Something ran above us but I didn't really get to see it." I rub my arm nervously, "He got up to see what it was but fell back down. It was probably just. . a mountain lion or something."
"Do you really believe that?" He asks softly. I look down at my lap and shrug. Honestly, it could have been anything. I knew that something wasn't right, but I also knew that there was no point in blowing this out of proportion.
Buzz-cut whips around when he hears the door open, in-before Harris with more papers walks in. He simply places the small box with our phones in it atop his desk.
"Here. Now get the hell out of my classroom."
We walk side by side as we exit the school, finally free from Harris' reign. I stop walking and pull out my phone from my pocket, checking all the missed messages I had received from Piers. And none of them good. Buzz-cut was a few feet ahead of me when he looked back, realizing that I wasn't walking any further.
"Hey, do you need a ride or something?" He asks, taking a few steps back towards me.
"You are your father's son," I joke, making him chuckle. "I was supposed to walk, but if you're offering.."
He grins and escorts me to a jeep, letting me climb in and buckle up before he began moving down the road. "What's your address?"
I tell him and he nods, his eyes trained on the road before him.
"My name is Stiles, by the way. I'm not 'A Stiles', just Stiles." He speaks.
I frown guiltily and look down at my fiddling fingers. "Sorry. I'm Carmen."
He opens his mouth to speak again but his phone dings, interrupting him. He pulls it from his pocket and his eyes widen slightly when he reads it over. "Hey, you mind if we take a short detour?"
The car suddenly jerks to the left in a U-Turn, my hands grabbing onto anything in the car for dear life. "What the hell are you doing?!"
He ignores my inquires for the minute drive to . . The cemetery? Why were we back here?
He stumbles out of the jeep and takes off running lord-knows-where. Of course, sitting alone in a stranger's open jeep wasn't exactly how I planned to spend the rest of my day, especially when curiosity was now coursing through my veins. So what do I do? I get out and follow him, like the dumbass I am.
Following the general direction Stiles took off in, I eventually find him and the boy from earlier perched behind a tombstone, listening in on the event taking place in the cemetery. Whoever died must have been really important, considering there were microphones and cameras being shoved around all over the place. I slide down in the leaves next to the them, startling them slightly.
"Why the heck did you follow me!?" Stiles whispers, severe bitterness in his voice. I notice that the other boy's eyes were burning into a certain man's skull. He looked old, wore a nice gray suit, and was engaged in a conversation with a young, sweet looking girl with dark hair.
"Who's that?" I ask, letting my nosiness get the better of me. The other boy looks back, finally acknowledging my presence, exchanging a look with his best friend. "Isn't she..?"
Stiles merely nods and I raise an eyebrow, only now curious as to what they were talking about regarding me earlier.
"Just- pretend she isn't here. Who is it?" Stiles rushes. Scott leans in and squints, like he was trying to hear their conversation. They were too far away from us, though, so the whole process seemed pointless.
The old man abruptly whips his head around in our direction, as if he somehow heard us. We all cower behind the tombstone, panicked. "It's definitely an Argent."
The man goes back to talking to the girl, and by her body language, she was extremely uncomfortable. She looks over in our direction and the boy gives her a small wave, which she replies to with a smile. Wait, weren't they trying to lay low? Who was this girl?
"Maybe they're just here for the funeral," Stiles chimes. "What if they're the non-hunting side of the family. There could be non-hunting Argents, right?"
"Why do you guys care so much if they're hunters?" I question, cocking my head. "You secret agents for PETA or something?"
They both ignore me, the boy beginning to talk directly after me. "I know what they are. They're reinforcements."
My eyes go wide as the moon when the two boys next to me are suddenly swept onto their feet. I look behind me to see the sheriff, holding both the boys by their shirts.
"The two of you," He growls, glancing at me, "And Carmen. Unbelievable. Pick up my tie,"
Stiles reaches for his father's tie, muttering a slur of apologies while the raging Sheriff motioned for me to follow them.
This just keeps getting better and better.