Our friends in line for the PSATs curiously watched Scott and I talk about our fight up until the moment Scott turned away to join them by the lockers. They quickly snapped their heads away from the two of us, pretending to immerse themselves in a conversation like they were talking amongst themselves the whole time instead of eavesdropping. Scott gave me one last warm smile over his shoulder once he landed himself back in his spot between Malia and Kira.
A soft smile fell on my lips as I watched our pack stand in a small circle together with a small spot left open for me between Isaac and Stiles. A huge weight lifted off of my shoulders knowing Scott and I made up and we figured out why we reacted the way we did. Our pack would grow stronger from all of this and, hopefully, more connected. Liam would eventually forgive Scott for everything.
The only problem I was concerned about was Isaac and Aiden. They still didn't trust or forgive Scott for everything he did to me. Back in France, they practiced their fighting skills, often using a punching bag and I was certain they were imagining the bag was Scott's face.
"Hey," Isaac surprised me by leaving the group to approach where I stood a few feet away. His hand gently grabbed my bicep between his fingers, urging me to focus my attention on him instead of the thoughts swarming in my mind. "Aiden and I have everything ready for tonight."
My eyes flicked up to meet his blue ones, feeling a sense of relief rush through my body. "Good. Thank you."
I glanced at our friends around his shoulder, briefly catching Stiles' eye. The corners of his lips tilted upward once we made eye contact. He shifted his gaze back to the group to the conversation happening.
"Are you okay?" Isaac dropped his hand from my arm. His blond eyebrows furrowed together with concern gracing his facial features. "Aiden and I can do this ourselves if it's too much for you."
I lightly shook my head in response and moved to stand beside him as I wrapped my arm around his back. "I need to do this, Isaac, for the same reason you need to. That part of our lives needs to be over."
He narrowed his eyes at me like he was waiting to make sure I was truly okay before he nodded his head. Plans were made for tonight that we needed to go through or we would never be able to fully move on.
My eyes shifted from Aiden, who stepped closer to Kira when we approached the group, shooting a kind smile in my direction. He knew I brought Liam to my old house earlier this morning to explain my past to him. Stiles informed everyone else while I was in the house with Liam, slyly texting them not to bring any of it up or be concerned if I was acting off. The conversation about Liam's wellbeing fell short when Kira abruptly stopped in mid-sentence. She hastily averted her gaze to the floor once I stood beside Stiles.
"Uh," Aiden pulled the attention upon himself. "Where's Lydia?"
I quietly snorted in amusement at his attempt at an innocent question. Everyone in the pack knew the hidden reason behind his question about her whereabouts. He tried to play it off cool, but everyone shared a knowing look with each other, aside from Kira who refused to pull her attention away from her sneakers.
"She took it her freshman year," I answered him with a smirk.
Aiden scowled for a half a second before he scrambled for his phone in his pocket.
My eyes slowly slid from Aiden to the quiet girl beside him, attempting to shield her face with her dark hair. "Kira," I addressed her. "You don't have to avoid making eye contact with me. I forgive you, for everything."
She hesitantly lifted her head with a few strands of hair falling in her face, lips parted in shock. Her wide eyes did a quick glance around the circle, noticing everyone was watching her before she fully focused on me. A small look of fear laced in her irises like she expected me to abruptly pull my bow out of a nearby locker and shoot her with an arrow.
"Why?" Kira softly whispered. She peeked at Scott beside her with a guilty look. "I ruined your relationship without meaning to and you broke up because of me."
I nodded my head at her words and sucked in a deep breath through my mouth. "Well, to be frank," I began, dropping my arm from Isaac's back to stand on my own. "There are two reasons why I forgave you." I ignored the rest of the pack's gaze on me except for Kira, wanting my full attention to be on only her. "The main reason is that you did apologize multiple times and I know you didn't truly intend for all of that happen."
Kira nervously glanced at Scott beside her then looked back at me. She shifted on the balls of her feet unable to stand still with the anxiety fueling in her body. "What's the other reason?"
"This guilt you're feeling right now," I gestured to my own chest to emphasize my point to her, wanting her to understand completely. "The one that feels like it's eating you alive and is always in the back of your mind, even more so since you're actually a super nice person-- That guilt is never going to go away, even when you're ninety years old. You will always remember what you did."
Kira's face paled at the harsh realization.
"And, honestly, that makes me feel a lot better."
The reaction of the pack was a mix of astonishment and amusement. Scott and Stiles' mouths fell open at my final statement while Malia quietly chuckled to herself. She saw the reasoning behind my response to Kira. A soft snicker came from my brother beside me, slyly bumping knuckles with Aiden behind my back. Kira's face grew whiter with every passing second and swallowed the lump in the base of her throat, taken aback by my sheer honesty.
My head tilted to the side by a few centimeters as I smiled back at her. Perhaps, what I said to her was a tad bit harsh, but it was how I truly felt about the whole situation. I had every reason to feel this way, considering everything she put me through a few months ago. Sure, I was over the breakup, but it made me feel better knowing Kira would never do this to another person ever again. I never wanted anyone else to go through what I did.
Kira was a genuinely nice person and I knew the guilt would never leave her alone, even if I did say I forgave her. This wasn't something she would ever be able to get over because she knew how in the wrong she was about everything.
A surprised look was shot in my direction by Scott until he lightly shook his head like he understood where I was coming from with my point. The same guilt would be with him for the rest of his life.
Malia suddenly held her hand in the air to gain everyone's attention. "Wait. Does that mean I could have taken it some other time?"
"Malia," Scott addressed her. "You studied harder for this than any of us."
"I sure as hell didn't study," Aiden admitted without looking away from the messages on his phone from Lydia.
Malia ignored his comment. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna do good."
I grimaced at her poor grammar.
Stiles matched my facial expressions. "Well..." He corrected her.
"Well, what?" She prompted him, not understanding.
I awkwardly scratched the back of my head as I explained to Malia, "Um, it's do well, not good. That would be improper."
"Oh, God!" Malia exclaimed, exasperatedly.
"Even I knew that," Aiden whispered under his breath.
I lightly tapped my knuckles against the back Isaac's forearm. Within a second later, Isaac delivered a decent punch to Aiden's arm. Aiden gripped his phone tighter in his hand to keep himself from dropping it and glared at me from around Isaac. He shook his head and returned back to his text messages.
"Okay, okay." I stepped closer to Malia with my hands held up in front of her. "Malia, don't stress over this. Scott's right. You're probably going to do the best out of all of us. You've got this."
Scott set his hand on my shoulder, encouraging me to step back. "You're doing this because while we're trying not to die, we still need to live. If I survive high school, I'd like to go to college. A good college."
"It's only three hours," Kira spoke up, attempting to look hopeful. "We can survive three hours."
Isaac gawked at her on the other side of Aiden. "Can we all pretend she didn't just jinx all of our lives by saying that? Honestly, that was the dumbest thing I've ever heard someone say."
"We're all dead. She just killed us." Aiden patted Kira's shoulder as the line began to move forward. "Thanks a lot, Kira."
Our group took a few steps forward with the rest of the line while Kira stood motionless, frowning. I grabbed her arm and forced her to walk with the rest of us. The boys weren't wrong for reacting this way. That just wasn't something you said to a group of friends, who often found themselves fighting her their lives on a weekly basis, especially when assassins took over Beacon Hills with plans on killing the supernatural.
We stepped through the threshold of Ms. Martin's classroom, following the line to the front desk. A man in his late forties stood behind the desk, handing out the text booklets to each student after they printed their thumb to the corner of the booklet. Students picked their desks to sit in, choosing to sit by their friends, despite not being able to talk at all during the test for the next couple of hours.
Stiles' hand darted out to the yellow pencils and grabbed two before hesitating to reach for a third one. He tucked it behind his ear. I watched him shove another one between his lips to dip his thumb in the ink pad and press it down on his booklet. As he moved further down, I grabbed my own pencil, only choosing one instead of the multiple ones Stiles grabbed.
The teacher handed Stiles' booklet to him and then turned to me. He cracked a small smile with a look in his blue eyes like he knew something I didn't. I pressed my thumb down in the ink pad. The man's heartbeat overpowered my eardrums. There was a certain pattern in his heart rate like he was excited about something. I grimaced at the loudness in my ears, feeling Aiden gently touch the small of my back when he saw my face scrunch.
"You okay?" Aiden leaned down to whisper in my left ear.
I rolled my thumb over my booklet. "Yeah," I mumbled back to him. "I'm okay."
"Cell phone in the envelope, Scott. You'll get it back after the test." Ms. Martin held a manila folder open, patiently waiting.
"Here you go, Chloe." The man handed the booklet to me.
I gingerly grabbed the booklet from him, unnerved by the odd look in his eyes. "Thanks," I muttered before sharply turning to Ms. Martin.
"Chloe, phone, please." Ms. Martin smiled when I approached her next after Scott walked to a desk.
I fished my phone out of my back pocket and dropped it inside of the envelope. She sealed the envelope and dropped it down in a box with the rest after writing my name on it. I walked down the aisle between Scott and Kira, sliding into the desk behind Scott, smiling when I turned to the right and saw Stiles next to me.
The pencils were still stuck behind his ear and between his lips while he flipped through the booklet out of curiosity.
"Stiles, I don't think you're supposed to open it yet," I whispered to him, lightly chuckling.
He glanced up with one page held open and the pencil pursed in his lips. A smile grew on my lips unable to hold back the happiness I felt toward him and how adorable I thought he looked in the current moment. The pencil nearly fell from his lips when he attempted to smile back at me.
"Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so," the man announced to the class with a brief look shot in Stiles' direction.
Stiles rushed to shut the booklet. He sat back in his chair, pretending he never opened it in the first place. I laughed at him under my breath. Aiden sat down behind me while Isaac chose to sit at the other desk beside me.
"This test is two hours and ten minutes," The man spoke to the classroom once everyone was sitting down. "There will be two 25-minute critical reading sections, two 25-minute math sections, and an essay writing portion that will last 30-minutes."
I resisted the urge to slide down in my desk, wanting to get out of taking the test.
The man turned his head toward Ms. Martin. "There's supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam."
"I know. It's Coach," Ms. Martin replied and held her phone up. "He's not exactly punctual. Um, let me just try him again."
The class watched her step out of the classroom with the intent of calling Coach's phone. I leaned back in my chair, frowning when I felt Aiden tap the end of his pencil against the back of my head. The remaining ink on my thumb rubbed off on my black jeans as I attempted to get rid of it.
The door opened back up after a few minutes and Ms. Martin stepped back inside the room without Finstock behind her. I wiggled the pencil between my fingers out of boredom.
"I can't find him, but Mr. Yukimura is upstairs grading papers. Do you want me to try him?"
"We have to start. We can ask for his assistance during the first break." The man pressed a button on a stopwatch on the desk. "You may now open your test booklets and begin."
I sat up in my desk and flipped the booklet open. The wiggling of my pencil ceased the moment I read the first question. My eyes gradually grew wide as I quickly looked over the rest of the questions, growing increasingly worried about how the exam will go. My fingers threaded through my blonde hair.
Beside me, Isaac was already on the third question with a concentrated expression on his face, clearly more prepared for the exam than I was. At least one of us would do well on the PSATs.
"The first answer is A," Isaac whispered under his breath, low enough for only someone with supernatural hearing to be able to hear him.
His voice surprised me. I gaped at him before I realized he gave me the first answer and quickly bubbled in the answer, mumbling a grateful 'thanks' to him. Scott slyly glanced over his shoulder. A disappointed look cast on his facial features.
"I'm so fucked," Aiden breathed.
I bit down on my bottom lip to keep myself from busting out in laughter from his honest comment. "Okay, you can do this," I murmured to myself.
"Yes, you can do it and then tell me all the answers," Aiden replied back to me, quietly.
I cracked a smile. The moment I immersed myself in the second question, a loud thud noise sounded throughout the room and forced my attention on Sydney, who laid on her side on the floor. Her pencil landing on the ground beside her. I sat up straighter at my desk, concerned and attempting to see around Stiles' body.
"Sydney!" Ms. Martin rushed to the brunette's aid. She crouched on the ground and helped Sydney sit up. "Are you all right?"
Sydney weakly sat up with a dazed look in her eyes. "I'm okay," she answered. "I just got kind of dizzy."
Ms. Martin helped Sydney climb to her feet. Her gaze settled on an odd-looking rash on Sydney's inner wrist. "Sydney, how long have you had this?"
"I-I don't know," she replied in bewilderment. The look in her eyes made it clear to everyone she had never seen the rash before on her arm.
"Ms. Martin, do I need to stop the test?" The man slowly climbed to his feet from the desk chair he originally sat in.
Sydney hesitantly lowered herself back in her desk, examining her forearm, taken aback by the rash. Stiles spun back around to face the front of the classroom, bouncing one of the pencils between his fingers.
"No, um, it's fine." Ms. Martin stepped away from Sydney with an unknown emotion laced in her eyes. She began to back toward the door. "Everybody stay in your seats. I'll, um, be back in a minute. Nobody leaves the room."
I twisted around in my desk to lock eyes with Aiden and my brother, growing concerned at the sudden change of mood in the classroom. The three of us clearly heard the way Ms. Martin's heart speed up the second she saw the rash and dashed out of the room. Something serious was going on.
Scott swiveled in his chair, sharing a confused look with the rest of us.
"Get back! No! Do not come in here!" Ms. Martin shouted from the hallway.
A student jumped up from their desk and raced out of the classroom, quickly followed by the rest of the class. I followed my brother out of the room into the hallway.
"Get back outside!" Ms. Martin waved a group of students out of the hallway as they sprinted back out of the double doors. She spun around, a panicked look locked on her face when she saw the entire class out of the room, watching her with curiosity.
Stiles fell into place beside me.
"Back to your seats," she ordered.
No one moved.
"Now! Please!"
Students shuffled back in the classroom.
I shared a look with Stiles and Isaac. There was something deep in the pit of my stomach that told me something was seriously wrong in this moment.
"I need the number of the CDC," Ms. Martin spoke into her cell phone at the end of the hall.
I froze in mid-step. My hand automatically latched on to the back of Stiles' shirt, blood running cold.
"Yes, the Center for Disease Control."
XXXX
Guys! I've missed all of you. Let me just say that I have not been ignoring any of my stories. I've actually been working on two original stories and my goal is to one day publish them into actual books one day, so they've taken up a lot of my time lately. I'm still working on these stories on here, though.
Sooo we know Scott and Chloe made up. That's good, but now they have a new problem on their hands. This virus is going to cause a lot of problems for them. I mean, in the show, we saw how it affected everyone, but now we have to worry about Chloe, Aiden, and Isaac. It's not going to go well.
I love the one liners from Aiden and Isaac. They are honestly my favorite.
Also, Isaac, Chloe, and Aiden have a secret plan for later on.
Question: How do you think the virus will affect them in the next chapter? What do you think Chloe will do with everything going on?
So, yeah!