CHAPTER FIVE:
ICE PICK, PART ONE
Brooke walked into the gym dressed in a Beacon Hills uniform with a scowl. She walked up to Scott and Stiles, the latter looking incredibly shocked to see her.
"Brooke?" Stiles asked. "I didn't know you had P.E."
"I normally don't," Brooke scowled. "I've been skipping for the entire school year, and would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the new counselor."
"We have a new counselor?" Stiles asked. Brooke glared at him.
"That's not the point," Brooke said. She looked up at the rock wall in disdain. "Now I get to sweat with a bunch of other teenagers while doing exercise that I don't need."
"Well, if it helps, I'm sure you're just as beautiful covered in sweat as you are dry," Stiles said. Scott turned to look at him with a disappointed look on his face.
"Uh, thanks, I guess," Brooke said, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion but a light blush still covered her face. Not knowing how to fix the awkward situation, the blonde girl left the two boys to go stand next to Allison.
"Dude," Scott deadpanned. "Really?"
"It sounded better in my head," Stiles winced, watching Brooke's blonde ponytail swish as she laughed at something Allison said. The two girls snuck a peek over at him, then began to laugh harder. Stiles let out a groan.
"Alright! Listen up," Coach Finstock said as he walked into the gym. "Everybody has to climb the wall by the end of the week—no exceptions. That includes you Ms. Moore."
Brooke rolled her eyes and let her head fall onto Allison's shoulder dramatically.
"We're going to be going in partners, so listen up for your name!" Coach Finstock told the students. As the first two made their way up to the wall, Allison turned to Brooke with a smirk.
"So what is going on between you and Stiles?" Allison asked. Brooke directed her attention to the students on the wall, mentally correcting their movements.
"Um, nothing really," Brooke shrugged. She felt an elbow jab into her side. "Ow!"
"Please, you can't tell me nothing is going on," Allison responded. "I don't need werewolf senses to know that there's been something different between you two ever since formal."
Brooke sighed and glanced over to the spastic boy before turning to Allison. "I don't know. It's like... he's so annoying and I have a million things to worry about right now, but..."
"But?" Allison questioned.
"But I like being around him," Brooke admitted. She smiled sheepishly and looked at Stiles over her shoulder. "I like how I feel when I'm around him."
"So what's stopping you?" Allison asked. Brooke opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Coach Finstock.
"Okay! Next two—Argent and McCall! Get up there!"
Brooke let out a sigh of relief as Allison was called up to the front. Brooke honestly didn't know what was stopping her. She snuck another look at Stiles to find him already looking at her. Rather than turning away, Stiles winked at her, making her laugh.
Brooke watched as Allison and Scott made their way up the wall, shaking her head at Scott not-so-subtly checking out Allison's butt. However, Brooke's mind wandered from Scott to a different werewolf.
Isaac had been hiding out in the abandoned subway station with Derek ever since Tuesday night. Nearly forty-eight hours later the police had still not stopped their search for him. The thought of Isaac being in jail made bile rise in Brooke's throat. He didn't deserve to be locked up—not again.
"Brooke! Erica! You're up," Coach Finstock yelled, distracting Brooke from her thoughts. Brooke closed her eyes in frustration and counted back from five to calm herself down and keep herself from strangling the coach. "Moore! Now!"
Brooke confidently walked up to the mat and hooked herself into the harness that was handed to her. She quickly glanced over to the girl next to her and couldn't help be grimace out of sympathy. The other blonde's hair was frizzy and her skin was poorly breaking out.
Refocusing on the task at hand, Brooke began climbing the wall with force; she figured the faster she climbed it the sooner she was done. She quickly reached the top of the wall and climbed back down, but Erica had hardly made it halfway up.
Just as she was about to shout out words of encouragement, Erica began audibly hyperventilating and crying. Coach Finstock walked up behind Brooke.
"Are you dizzy?" The man asked. "Is it vertigo?"
"Vertigo is a dysfunction of the vestibular system of the inner ear," Lydia scoffed.
"She's just freaking out," Brooke continued. "Erica, just calm down!"
"I'm fine!" the girl weakly called back.
"Coach, maybe it's not safe. You know she's epileptic," Allison reminded him.
"Why doesn't anybody tell me this stuff?!" Coach asked. He looked back up at the shaking girl "Erica, just kick back off the wall. There's a mat to catch you."
With a deep breath, the girl pushed herself off the rock wall and onto the ground. She quickly undid the harness and made her way to the locker rooms, ignoring the other students laughing at her.
Brooke rolled her eyes at her peers and watched with empathetic eyes as Erica walked further away. As Brooke watched her retreating figure, an idea popped into her head. She smiled smugly and walked over to Scott who was also watching Erica walk away.
"What's got that look on your face?" Scott asked as he looked over at her.
"Oh, nothing," Brooke said. Scott looked at her with curious eyes before turning his attention back to the class.
After Stiles and his partner climbed the wall, Coach Finstock sent the students to their locker rooms to change. As the guys were getting dressed, Coach entered their locker room to remind them to call the police if they spotted Isaac Lahey.
"It's Derek's problem now," Stiles said to Scott as they walked to collect their stuff.
"Speaking of that... I don't think tomorrow's a good idea," Scott said as he opened his locker.
"What do you mean tomorrow's not a good idea?" Stiles asked in disbelief.
"I don't know..." Scott trailed. "That thing Allison and I saw the other night, Isaac's missing, Allison's grandfather, all this stuff happening with Derek—it doesn't feel right."
"Are you just saying that because Brooke is his cousin?" Stiles asked.
"You saw her leave the station with them," Scott answered. Stiles scoffed. There was no way Brooke would turn her back on them.
"No, you're not backing out. You know why?" Stiles began. "Because it's obvious you and Allison are having quite a good time together. And you know who else wants to have a good time? Stiles! Look, I might actually have a chance with Brooke right now and I... are you even listening to me?"
Scott's head tilted as he looked past the locker room and instantly ran out. Stiles raced after him into the gym, Scott arriving just in time to catch Erica as she fell from the rock wall. A few other students heard the commotion and ran out, Allison included.
"Put her on her side," Allison instructed Scott. She lowered her voice. "How did you guys know?"
"I just felt it," Scott answered. He looked back up to Allison. "What do you mean 'you guys'?"
Allison looked over to Brooke standing a couple feet ahead of them, eyes focused on the seizing girl with a torn look on her face. The look remained her face as they watched the ambulance drive Erica to the hospital. It remained on her face as she pulled out her phone and stepped away from the group of students to make a call.
Stiles wanted to know what it meant.
******
Brooke was on her way to the cafeteria for lunch when she felt a lurch in her chest. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, people running into her as her vision momentarily went black.
When she opened her eyes, she didn't see the herd of students in front of her, but the inside of a bathroom stall. She could hear the sound of crying.
Lydia, she thought. Brooke's vision refocused on what was in front of her and she walked in the opposite direction until she got to the girl's bathroom.
"Lydia?" She asked, walking into the bathroom. She walked up the stalls as one opened and she got pulled inside. A crying Lydia Martin sat on the toilet seat in front of her, make up smudged underneath her eyes. "What's wrong?"
Lydia wiped under her eyes with toilet paper. "I don't even know!" She hiccupped, stopping her words. "Jackson just came up to me and yelled at me! He told me that I was immune and that I ruined everything!"
Brooke's head whipped back as the words settled in her head. Immune? No one was immune to the bite. However, Lydia didn't become a wolf and she didn't die, so it meant something else was happening to her.
"What? Look, I'll talk to him, okay? Don't let a douchebag like him make you cry," Brooke told her. Lydia nodded and sniffled as she threw the toilet paper in the stall trashcan. Brooke turned to unlock the door. "You coming?"
"Uh, not yet," Lydia said as she wiped at her eyes. "I'm going to fix my makeup first, then I'll see you at lunch."
"Okay." Brooke gave her an encouraging smile and exited the bathroom. She was walking back to the cafeteria when she spotted Jackson walking out of the locker room.
"Hey, Whitmore!" She called, speeding up her pace to catch up to him. "I need to talk to you."
"Oh, really, Brooke?" Jackson scowled at her. "Look, I'm not going to be Derek's little pet project so you can tell him to piss off."
He turned to walk away but Brooke grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around, surprising him with her strength.
"That's not what this is about!" Brooke practically yelled. "Are you insane? What business do you have walking up to Lydia and telling her she's immune? I mean, God, she doesn't even know about any of this!"
"Well maybe you should tell her," Jackson scoffed. "And how are you so sure she's not immune to the bite?"
"Because no one is immune to the bite!"
Jackson took a step back, a look of confusion covering his face. Brooke noticed the shift in the demeanor.
"Why? Jackson, what's going on?" She asked.
"Nothing," he said, putting a scowl back on her face. "If Lydia's not immune, then what is she? Derek said you either turn, or die. So, what does that make Lydia?"
Brooke thought back to how her vision had switched to Lydia's. That had only happened to her before with werewolves—never someone human. She looked up at Jackson and answered honestly. "I don't know."
******
Later that night, Brooke sat in front of another blonde girl at the abandoned subway station. Erica Reyes' skin had cleared up significantly in the past few hours and her hair had become soft and smooth.
"Are you one too?" Erica asked Brooke.
"Nope," Brooke answered simply as she gathered all of her make up in front of her. She quickly changed the subject so Erica couldn't ask what she was and Brooke didn't have to tell her that she didn't know. "So, now that you have a new life, you need a new look, too. What do you want it to be?"
Erica pulled up a picture of Sandy from Grease on her phone—it was from the end of the movie where she's all dressed up.
"I've always loved Grease," Erica admitted. "Do you think we can do this?"
Brooke smiled at the girl. "I think we can work something out.
******
like, comment, and share !!!