|| Three Months After
Jacy rushed down the stairs of the Dane home, her hair lacking any color beyond it's natural state and a smile on her lips. She grabbed her bag, sliding it over the shoulder of her white sun dress. With an unfailable grin, she went out the front door.
The sun glimmered brightly, morning dew still licking the lawns of Beacon Hills. The sky was cloudless and the air was warm. Everything was calm.
Stiles leaned on his Jeep, smiling as he saw Jacy. He wore plaid, the sleeves rolled up to his biceps to fend off the present May heat. "Morning."
Jacy grinned, walking up to him with her feet clad in tall gladiator sandals. "Morning."
Stiles reached out, taking her waist and pulling her close. He kissed her softly, unable to contain a light smile as he did so.
Jacy pulled away after a moment, a sheer sense of happiness written all over her face. "Happy last day of school."
"Happy last day," he replied with a laugh. Stiles kept a hand around her waist but used the other to dig into the pocket of his jeans. Removing his keys, he held them up. "Wanna drive Baby?"
Jacy's eyebrows shot up, "You're letting me drive the Jeep?"
Stiles rolled his eyes playfully, kissing her cheek before putting the keys in her hand. "Don't sound so surprised."
"You're letting me drive the trusty steed," Jacy said. "How can I not be surprised?"
Stiles opened the driver's side door for her, "Just get in smart ass."
Jacy pecked him on the lips before climbing in, smiling like a maniac. She clipped in the seatbelt, Stiles closing her door for her. She put the key into the ignition, Roscoe roaring to life.
"Stick is tricky-" Stiles stopped, his lips forming a frown as Jacy swiftly left the driveway and headed towards the school without the car stalling.
Jacy laughed at his expression, returning her eyes to the road. "Just because Petunia isn't stick doesn't mean I don't know how to do it."
Stiles shook his head, smiling. "I just didn't know you could, that's all."
Beacon Hills passed by as they drove, gorgeous and green. In its months undisturbed, it flourished.
The school came up on the left, Jacy pulling into the parking lot. "So, what are we doing tonight to ring in the summer before senior year?" She glanced over to Stiles, pink lips curving into a smile. "It's our last high school summer. We've gotta make it god."
"Fireworks at Lookout Point?" offered Stiles as he pulled up his backpack from the backseat.
Jacy parked the Jeep, making an agreeable noise. "I love fireworks."
Climbing out of the car, Stiles swung his backpack onto his shoulders and waited in front of the Jeep. "Fireworks it is then."
Jacy locked up the Jeep, adjusting her bag before handing Stiles the keys as she met him.
Stiles pocketed they keys, lacing his fingers with Jacy's as they headed towards campus.
"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Allison walked up between the two cars, reaching the couple with a grin on her face. "Stiles Stilinski letting someone else drive Baby willingly?"
Jacy gave Stiles a look, "See, I'm not the only one surprised by it."
Scott joined the group, holding his dirt bike helmet idly. "Stiles let you drive?" he asked with curiosity, having caught the tail end of their conversation. He barely looked to Allison, their eye contact a moment too long before he returned his eyes to Jacy.
Stiles groaned, "I'm being bullied. Is it that bad to love my Jeep?"
"Sometimes I question who you're dating," Lydia observed with a teasing look as she and Kira met the four. "Roscoe or Jacy."
Jacy grinned, her hand still in Stiles', "Oh good, it's not just me."
Lydia locked up to the school before looking to her friends, a light smile reaching her lips. "Another school year survived."
Allison faked a cough, "Mostly."
The strawberry blonde rolled her eyes, "Do you mind? I'm trying to have a moment."
The hunter held up her hands, lightly laughing as she let Lydia proceed. She, of all of them, had adapted the quickest.
BHHS had welcomed Allison back easily with forged papers from living in France during the time she was actually six feet under. Classes taught her, other students embraced her.
Life went on.
Lydia looked around at her friends, Liam having joined them quietly. "We made it.
Scott grinned, "Just one more to go."
Jacy put an arm around Liam's shoulder, pinching the beta's cheek. "And three more for one."
Liam feigned a wince, more embarrassed than anything. He groaned but didn't swat her away. "Yeah, yeah."
"Let's do it then," said Scott brightly with a hand on Kira's back. "One last day and the summer's ours."
"Any last words before we go in?" asked Lydia almost sarcastically.
"Yeah," said Stiles, "this has been the weirdest year ever.
"Weirdest year so far," Jacy pointed out
||
Fireworks raged gracefully over, kids from BHHS and Devenford alike set out among the Lookout Point.
Jacy and Stiles were laid out on the hood of the Jeep, Jacy tucked under his arm. She kept pointing out certain stars and fireworks she liked, a light conversation so easy for them.
Parked next to them, Scott and Kira kept a side and on the other, Lydia and Allison.
Liam and Mason stayed on the ground, sprawled on a blanket from Kira's car. They played Super Smash Bros, more there for for the company than the fireworks themselves.
Chatter buzzed over the Lookout, fireworks ringing in the first night of summer and drowning out just enough of others' conversation that no one felt interrupted.
"Don't they hurt your ears, J?"
Both Stiles and Jacy looked up, Erica laying on her stomach on the roof of the Jeep.
Erica grinned, "Sorry, we couldn't miss the fireworks," she said as she motioned to Boyd sitting next to her.
Boyd wiggled his fingers in greeting, a muted smile on his lips. He looked over to Allison, "It's weird, y'know, her not being able to see us."
"She tried to kill us," expressed Erica.
"Give her a break, she got better."
"And then she died."
Boyd rolled his eyes, "So did we."
Erica waved a hand carelessly, "It's doesn't count, she's alive again."
Jacy laughed, still curled up against Stiles, "You two fight like an old married couple."
"What else is there to do?" questioned Boyd with half a grin.
"I liked scaring people," offered Stiles. "I made Greenberg cry."
Boyd laughed, "Life makes Greenberg cry."
A brunet headed boy sat up from a blanket not too far away, looking around with the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
"Watch this," Erica said as she saw Greenberg perk up. "Count me," she told Boyd.
Stiles sat up as Jacy did, furrowing his eyebrows. "Count what?"
"You'll see," Boyd replied. "We do this all the time."
Erica's wispy figure crouched down next to Greenberg, the junior already on edge. She nudged his shoulder, blowing in his ear at the same time.
Greenberg jumped up, pure terror in his face. "What the hell man?" he loudly asked in a near yell.
Erica grinned, swiftly tugging down his board shorts.
Greenberg let out a high pitch scream, tripping over himself as he tried to both run and pull up his pants together. He fell on his face, scuffling up from the dirt and running in the opposite direction of his car.
The blonde quickly spun towards the Jeep, the crowd of 3 watching her specifically. "Time?"
"Eight," Boyd called out as she walked back over.
"Damn," replied Erica as she jumped back onto the roof of the Jeep, "I usually can get him in six."
Jacy couldn't contain her laughter, having to lean against Stiles' shoulder as she was nearly in tears.
Distantly, to selective ears only, Greenberg continued to the scream profanities before running into a low hanging tree branch and being knocked unconscious.
Erica gave Jacy a high five, the brunette still dying of laughter.
Jacy caught the strange looks from her friends, slowly quieting
Fireworks took over the sky, the finale blasting off with incredible booms and bangs. Blue and green flooded everyone's vision before a blinding purple captivated the show.
Jacy laughed at the shades, her own eyes lighting up only to enjoy the moment.
The sky fizzled back to normal, the show finished until the 4th of July.
Jacy checked her phone, the glare too bright and causing her to wince slightly. "Alright," she announced to the girls, "we've got t-minus twenty until the Harry Potter Marathon starts."
"Shit, we've gotta move," Allison replied as she and Lydia slid off Al's car together almost in sync.
"Bye guys," Boyd softly said to Jay and Stiles before he and Erica vanished to go about their endless time.
Liam and Mason gave Jacy hugs before climbing into the back of the Jeep, an exit plan already in play.
"Call me if you need anything," Stiles told Jacy just before kissing her. He squeezed her waist, pulling away. "I'm serious."
"I know," Jacy replied with a smile before giving him a kiss on the cheek and parting for Kira's car.
"Meet you there!" Lydia called as she opened the passenger's side to Allison's car, an overnight bag in the seat already.
Jacy gave a wave, passing Scott giving Kira the same speech she'd gotten from Stiles not a minute before. "Come on lovebirds. We've got a stone to protect and a chamber to open."
"You're such a nerd," Liam said from the Jeep, only receiving a middle finger from Jacy as she got into Kira's car with the kitsune.
"He's not wrong," Kira remarked with a grin as she started her car. She was already laughing, knowing Jacy was aware of Kira's love for Harry Potter.
"I won't hesitate to call you 'Foxy Momma' for the rest of your incredibly long life," Jacy threatened as they drove through the crude car path back out of the Preserve. "I'm not kidding, I will haunt your ass all the way to 900."
Kira couldn't help but grin as she took a left towards Jacy's. "I think what's worse is that I know you're not kidding. I genuinely believe you'd do that."
Within the next hours, the four girls had wrecked 2 tubs of ice cream, 3 large pizzas, made smoothies and had curly fries and cookies delivered.
Everything seemed right.
By two a.m., no one in the Dane house was left standing. Jacy and Allison shared the bed while Lydia and Kira manned the pull out couch. The HP marathon still played on the tv, the volume almost nothing, Sirius Black screaming on screen.
Jacy rolled over rather peacefully in bed, her eyes suddenly flashing open. Sleep fleeted from her, every inch of her body awake. Confused as to why, she slowly sat up to look around.
Lydia and Kira fought for covers in their sleep and Allison slept like a rock in an uncomfortable position.
Climbing out of bed, Jacy wore small shorts and Stiles' hoodie, not bothering with slippers as she silently left her room.
When she couldn't sleep in Michigan she wandered around the house and counted things until the numbers made her tired.
She'd never done it here and with a sense of desperateness, thought she might as well try.
Jacy pocketed her hands in Stiles' hoodie, aimlessly going about the house and avoiding creaking panels.
Seventeen family pictures. One group prom photo. Ten dents on the stair railing and a hell of a shuddering feeling given off by the living room.
The clairvoyant stood in the den with sudden alarm, her heartbeat quickening for no apparent reason.
The panel. The wall.
Jacy cocked her head slightly, drawing towards the paneled back wall of the living.
Nothing seemed special, but Jacy felt it all over.
She reached out, pressing on the very middle panel as her eyes shocked purple precautiously.
A hiss sounded, the wall panel popping up unlike any wall should do.
"No way," Jacy mumbled almost mutely, hesitating to pull the risen panel more than it had already come out. She peered in with a thumping heart, unsure of what she was looking at.
It was a staircase, leading below into the ground.
A sense of warmth covered Jacy from behind, not realizing she'd been struck in the back until she was tumbling down the steel steps.
Jacy let out an awful groan, slamming her head on the concrete floor. Her vision buzzed, her eyes back to brown the moment she collided. The wolf swore, her skull throbbing as she tried to crawl to her knees.
Cold washed over Jacy, a distant clicking coming for her in three directions.
Jacy panted in fear, her sight still not clear as she stayed on her knees. "Wh-what's happening?"
A robotic voice answered back as foggy masks began to surface, malicious enough to freeze over hell.
"Condition promising."