The next morning, I woke up to someone sitting on the floor next to me while petting my hair. Without opening my eyes, I rolled over quickly grabbing the person's wrist and holding my own across their neck.
"Jesus Christ, Morgan!" Oh, it's just Jackson.
"Don't 'Jesus Christ' me Jackson," I grunted, letting go of his wrist and getting off him. "Not my fault you thought petting me was a good way to wake me up." Rolling my eyes, I turned around and started going through the bags of clothes I'd been too lazy to put away last night.
"I gently wake you up and you go all ninja on me? What the hell?"
"Don't be such a wimp, Jack. It was just a chokehold."
"Yeah, that's a lovely way to say good morning."
"Good morning, now get out so I can go shower," I said with a laugh as I finally found all the pieces of clothing I was looking for.
"Don't have to tell me twice."
After shutting the door to the bathroom and taking a quick shower, I got out and wrapped up in a large, soft towel and began blowdrying my hair. I quickly braided my blonde waves into double french braids, bandaged up the partially healed wounds from yesterday and got dressed. My outfit for the day was a pair of black jeans with matching boots, a long sleeved maroon shirt, a black jean jacket and some silver rings with a long silver necklace. Seeing that it'd taken me nearly an hour to get ready, I hurried out into the hall and knocked on Jackson's door.
"Hurry up man, we're running late."
"I'm working on it," he called back. "I just gotta finish my hair."
I rolled my eyes and started making my way downstairs to grab something to eat. Based on all the gel Jackson had in his hair yesterday, I figured we'd probably be another 20 minutes or so before we were ready to leave.
Walking into the kitchen, I started digging through the cabinets, trying to remember where the bowls were. I heard a floorboard creak and then David started speaking from behind me. "What are you looking for sweetheart?"
I'm sure he heard my teeth grind together after saying that. I never really did like pet names, especially not that one after having heard it for years. "Bowls. I can't seem to remember where they are," I mumbled, furrowing my eyebrows as I opened up another cabinet.
"Understandable, it has been a while. Second cabinet to the right of the sink," he finished, an upset look on his face as he poured a cup of coffee. Placing the pot back on the maker, her shot me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Morgan, I didn't mean-"
"It's fine," I smiled, cutting him off. I pulled out a bowland turned around as I sat it on the kitchen table. "Cereal?" I asked. David had a mouthful of coffee and settled on pointing towards the cabinet it was in.
Twenty minutes later, I was done eating, Jackson had finally finished his hair, and we were ready to leave just as David was finishing his coffee. "Alright I'm off. Have a great first day Morgan. If anyone picks on her, be sure to beat their ass Jackson."
"Will do Dad."
David nodded at him before wrapping me up in a hug. I stiffened, awkwardly patting his back a few times before pulling away. I don't like people being around me. It makes me uncomfortable. I've come to associate people with pain. I'm either hunting them and trying to inflict pain on them, or they're trying to hurt or kill me, the pain of which I've never really liked.
David seemed to notice, nodding sadly and backing away so I had some room. "Alright, well I'll see you kids tonight. Have a good day at school."
"Will do, thanks Dad."
Finally we were off, and then all of a sudden it seemed like we were pulling into the school parking lot. It was a lot bigger than I thought, and despite not being nervous, I could feel Jackson's own nerves bubbling up. As if reading my thoughts, he started probing me.
"Are you sure you want to do this? You can wait if you want. I sure wouldn't want to go to school yet if I were you."
"Yes Jackson, I'm sure," I said as I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to baby me. I'm fine."
"You say you're fine, but you're still my baby sister. You went through hell for years and I wasn't there to protect you. If I can do anything to keep you from going through pain now, then I'll do everything in my power to make sure you don't have to," he said, holding my hand in his and squeezing it tightly.
It was times like these that I really appreciate how close Jackson and I were. Yes we fought sometimes, and we didn't always get along, but we're still the only real family either of us have left, and being twins it's no surprise we jumped right back to being close. I really couldn't ask for a better brother.
"Alright, enough sappiness. I'm fine," I said as he peeled into a parking space. "Let's just do this already," I said, opening the door and sticking a foot out.
I didn't expect the door to hit something though.
My eyes went wide, thinking I scratched Jackson's door. Instead I heard a voice from the ground.
"Jesus," the guy said, not yet looking up at me from where he'd fallen to the ground. Apparently that's all Jackson needed to recognize the guy though.
"Watch where you're going McCall," he snapped. My eyes furrowed as I turned around and shot him a dirty look.
"Be nice," I said quietly enough that he could hear me, but the kid on the ground couldn't. I may be a little rusty on my people skills, but I knew enough to know that you're supposed to be nice to the people you knock over, not act like a jerk to them. Turning back to the guy on the ground, I stuck a hand out to help him up.
"Let me help..." I started before trailing off when I locked eyes with him and his face registered in my mind.
"You," we said together. Sitting in front of me was the boy from the woods.
This McCall kid was a werewolf.
"You're the one who-"
"Hit you with the car door. Yeah, sorry about that," I said, cutting McCall off and feigning awkwardness as I rubbed a hand across the back of my neck. "Total accident. I'm glad to see you're okay though," I finished with a smile. I really hoped he got the hidden meaning in my words. I was glad to see he was okay. A kid my age dying from a werewolf bite definitely would have sucked. It was good to see that he made it. It's really too bad that his life was only going to go downhill from there.
"Don't worry about it," McCall said, taking my hand and pulling himself up. I could see his eyes shoot back and forth between me and Jackson.
"Alright, cool. Well, I'm sorry again. I've got to get to class, but I'll definitely see you around, yeah?" I questioned, sending this McCall kid a look that hopefully said 'we'll talk later.'
"Yeah, I'll see you later," McCall said, his face scrunching up as confusion laced his voice. I gave a laid back nod and began making my way towards the front doors of Beacon Hills High School. I was halfway to the door when McCall yelled something in my direction. "Hey, I never got your name!"
Looking back over my shoulder, I shot him a lazy grin. "The name's Morgan."
***
Scott's POV
"Listen up McCall," I heard before being roughly shoved up against a car. Turning my head to the sound of the voice, I came face to face with a very heated Jackson. "I don't know what the hell that was, but stay away from my sister."
"Your sister?" I asked in shock. I knew Jackson had a twin sister, but everyone thought she died in a fire when we were kids. I'd spent all night thinking of who that girl in the woods could have been, but never in my wildest thought had I come up with the possibility that it was Jackson's dead but not really dead sister of all people.
"Yeah, my sister. She's been through a lot of shit, and she don't need morons like you hanging around her. Got it?" Just to emphasize his point, Jackson slammed my head against the window to his car. That was gonna leave a bruise...
"Y-yeah, I got it," I stuttered. God dang it, again with the stutter! Why is it I always lose my cool around Jackson?
"Good. Now get out of here. Oh, and watch the paint job." Shooting me an irritatingly cocky smile, Jackson turned and walked up the sidewalk to catch up to Morgan.
"I can't believe it was Morgan who saved me," I muttered to myself, just before being shouldered by someone. Jesus, is it beat up Scott day or something? I think I missed the memo.
"Hey, let's see this thing," Stiles said as I steadied myself from his hit. He sounded completely enthused, though if you knew him as well as I did, then you could hear that underlying tone of concern. We were like brothers, and even though he got caught while we were looking for the other half of the body and had to leave, I knew he would have been right next to me if he could have been.
I lifted up my shirt to reveal the white bandage I had covered it with after getting home last night, and I flinched away as Stiles reached forward to poke it. It already hurt and I really didn't need Stiles touching it and making it worse. "Whoa," I cautioned, glad to see it had caused him to pull his hand back.
"It was too dark to see much, but I'm pretty sure a wolf bit me," I said, trying to fill Stiles in on what had happened last night. I had texted him this morning to tell him to get to school early to see the bite, but I'd only told him that I'd gotten hurt, not that I was bitten by a wolf looking thing or that some girl showed up out of nowhere and saved my life.
"A wolf bit you?" He asked, not sounding so believing. I made a sound of agreement and Stiles was quick to shake his head. "No, not a chance."
"I heard a wolf howling," I replied, using hand gestures to show how serious I was. I know it was a wolf. I saw it, and as I was walking towards the road, I heard a wolf howl right before almost getting hit by a car.
"No you didn't."
"What do you mean, 'no, I didn't.' I know what I heard."
"'Cause California doesn't have wolves, okay? Not in like sixty years," Stiles said, stopping just shy of the steps and turning to face me.
"Really?" I asked, starting to get a little confused. I know what I heard. It was definitely a wolf.
"Yes, really. There are no wolves in California," Stiles confirmed, sounded a little tired of me pushing the issue.
"Alright, well if you don't believe me about the wolf, then you definitely won't believe me when I tell you that I found the body," I said, deciding to drop the issue.
"You found the body?!" Stiles whisper shouted at me, spazzing out over this new information. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I wish," I sighed. "I'm gonna have nightmares for a freaking month." It wasn't just finding that girl's body I was going to have nightmares about though. I knew I'd be seeing that wolf in my dreams and imagining all the things that could have happened if Morgan hadn't shown up.
"That is so awesome!" Stiles exclaimed. "This is gonna be the best thing to happen to this town since- since the birth of Lydia Martin," he finished, his eyes drifting towards the love of his life that was never gonna happen. "Hey Lydia! You look like..." Stiles paused as Lydia strutted past him without even looking his direction. "...you're gonna ignore me," he finished with a sigh.
"You're the cause of this, you know?" Stiles asked, turning back towards me. "Dragging me down to your nerd depths."
"Uh-huh," I agreed offhandedly.
"Anyways, explain to me exactly what happened last night? You seem to think the best way to tell me things is in pieces. Like that one girl." Seeing the look I shot him, Stiles grimaced. "Too soon?"
"Yes, too soon. Anyways, after your bright idea for us to go in the woods and look for half a dead body ended up getting you grounded, I ended up wandering around trying to figure out how to get home and I almost got stomped to death by a herd of deer. They were all really freaked out about something and were trying to get away from it I think. I just laid on the ground and tried not to die. Anyways, I dropped my inhaler so I got up after it was over and was using my phone to try and find it and I shined it on the upper half of the dead body!" I reported, my voice getting higher as I freaked out about that part all over again.
"Dude, that is so awesome. Did you touch it?"
"Stiles!"
"Okay, sorry," Stiles mumbled. "That's crazy about the deer, but I still don't think it was a wolf. They probably just heard my dad and his deputies walking around. Or maybe they heard the dogs barking," Stiles said.
"Maybe, but I'm getting to that. Anyway, I freaked out and I tripped and fell down a hill. When I got up, I heard some sticks breaking and turned around to see this giant wolf thing coming at me. I tried to run from it, but it caught up to me, tripped me, and bit me. Then this girl came along, got me off the ground and yelled at me to leave before attacking the damn thing!"
"Wait, what?" Stiles asked, completely confused. I would be too after hearing the story come out of my own mouth.
"Yeah man, she saved my life. And you're never going to guess who it was."
"Who was it?"
"Morgan Whittemore."
"WHAT?" Stiles shouted. Heads turned around us and I quickly shushed him.
"Yeah. I didn't know it was her at first though, I thought it was just some girl who was new to town or older than us. It wasn't until I was putting my bike up this morning that I realized it was her when she hit me with her car door and I looked up and there she was telling Jackson off for being a dick when he made a comment about me not watching where I was going," I informed him.
"How is she back? I thought she was dead."
"So did I. I don't know what the hell happened, but she looked pretty handy with that gun."
"SHE HAD A GUN?!" Stiles exclaimed. "What the flying nunchucks happened to her dude?"
"I don't know," I said, my resolve growing as I pondered that question myself. "But I'm gonna find out."