|A/N Sorry it took so long for the update, I had to go back to work but here is a super long chapter for you to enjoy!|
"MUUUUM?" I shouted up the stairs.
"WHAAAAT?" I heard back, her matching my tone perfectly, mocking me.
"DO YOU KNOW WHERE HALF BLOOD PRINCE IS?" I shouted, having not being able to find it in my Harry Potter movie draw.
"LAST TIME I SAW IT WE WERE VISITING NAN IN LONDON."
"Shit." I whispered, knowing I must have left it there. But I really wanted to watch it. I'd been watching the others over the weekend and was trying to get through the whole series before Monday morning.
"I'M GOING TO RENT IT, I'LL SEE YOU IN A BIT." I shouted up the stairs getting a grunt of recognition, and I threw on my jacket and some trainers getting in the car to drive to the DVD rental place in town.
When I got inside the shop it seemed awfully quiet for a Sunday evening, but I shrugged it off, searching for the section the Harry Potters might be, until I heard a very familiar voice.
"Can somebody help me find The Notebook?" I hear and turn round smirking.
"Lydia making you watch it again?" I laughed and he looked at me with a completely done look.
"It's all we ever watch, it's so boring!" He says to me and I shrug.
"Ryan Gosling is hot, so is Rachel McAdams to be fair. Lydia wont watch another movie, believe me I have tried." I say with a smile on my face, I do like The Notebook, but it isn't the best, especially when you have watched it 10,000 times.
"Do you know where it is then?" He asks me but I shake my head.
"I have a copy so if we are doing a movie night I just take it round to hers." I say apologetically and he sighs.
"Does anybody work here?" He shouts, getting frustrated that he hasn't been able to find it immediately. "What's that?" He suddenly says tapping my arm, and I turn to see what looks like shoes.
"Dunno." I say and we slowly close in on it, him in front of me as if he could stop me from getting hurt, Lydia would never forgive him. We slowly turn the corner and Jackson's eyes widen to twice the size. "What?" I say, taking a look.
There was a man staring forward, no life in his eyes, as if his throat had been slashed and dark blood was oozing out of the wounds. Jackson stumbled back knocking a ladder over and which cut the power. I grabbed on to his arm to make sure I didn't loose him, I couldn't let him be alone with whatever did that, and I had a pretty clear idea of what it was.
Suddenly a growl came from the other side of us and we turned to see a dark, demon like wolf. I pushed Jackson the other way and we began running to a shelf a few meters away and dived behind it, breathing heavily. I slowly turned my head round the corner of the shelf, to see where the alpha had gone, coming up with nothing, until a flash of it ran past, startling me back in to the position I was previously in.
"Where is it?" I hear Jackson whisper next to me and I shake my head, heart racing like I was running a marathon. I couldn't show Jackson my powers, he was already on to Scott, so I had nothing in my arsenal against this thing. I started to panic, my breath quickening and my hands shaking. DVDs rained down on us and I heard the shelves toppling like dominoes, I looked at Jackson frozen in horror not knowing what to do.
Jackson pushed me out the way, trying to get away himself, but he got trapped by the shelves collapsing on his legs.
"Get help!" He whispered, looking in pain, I nodded and ran out of the shop to call the police. My hands shook as I took out my phone and dialed the emergency number.
"911 what's your emergency?" I heard from the end of the phone.
"S-something just attacked me and a friend in the DVD rental st... AAHH!" I screamed as the Alpha jumped out the window, right past Lydia in her car.
"Ma'am are you okay?" A panicked voice said over the phone.
"Yeah i-it j-just jumped o-o-out of the w-window" I said sobbing "Please, my f-friend is hurt the shelves f-fell on him, a-and there's a guy, I-I think he might b-be d-dead." I said trying to calm myself down.
"Okay ma'am the medics and some policemen are on their way to you."
"Thank you." I said as the phone hung up, and I shakily went over to Lydia's car. "Lydia? Are you okay?" I asked looking worriedly through her driver's side window, but she just stared back at me.
Soon the ambulance arrived and I directed them to where Jackson and the other man was. Then they brought me and Lydia to the back of the vehicle and checked us both over. Soon a familiar cop car showed up and I saw a familiar face I really wanted to see.
Stiles got out the car with a worried expression on his face, stalking up to me and I jumped down from the ambulance, ignoring the paramedics around me asking me to stay there, and he wrapped his arms around me tightly, slightly shaking. That was when I felt truly safe to just break down.
I sobbed in to his chest and he just held me tighter, stroking my hair until I calmed down, pulling away from him slightly, to wipe my eyes, hearing Jackson start shouting at Noah.
"What part of "I'm fine" are you having a problem grasping?" He spat.
"Jackson don't." I said venomously, but he ignored me, carrying on his rant.
"I wanna go home!"
"And I understand." Noah says calmly.
"No you don't! Which kind of blows my mind, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum wage rent a cop like you! Okay now I wanna go home!" Jackson almost screams, making me tense in anger, clenching my jaw to keep myself from slapping his arrogant face.
"Whoa is that a dead body!?" Stiles shouts getting on his tiptoes to see. I remember the man's blank stare and cringe turning myself back in to Stiles' chest making him realise what he just said was not appropriate, that and the look his father gave him.
"Sorry." He whispers to me, wrapping his arms around me once more.
"Alright everybody back up, back up." Noah said pushing the press and the bystanders back from the scene. "Stiles, drive Isabelle home, I'll pick you up when I'm finished here okay? I'll get someone to call your mom, take car okay?" Noah said rubbing my arm and smiling at me, and Stiles took my hand and directed me over to my car, opening the passenger side for me and getting in to the drivers side and started the car up.
I was staring out the window as we pulled in to my driveway, when a stray tear made it's way down my face before being wiped away by Stiles' thumb as he stared at me worriedly.
"Come on then Belle, let's get you inside." He said, walking round the car and pulling me out the seat, and dragging me to the front door which my mum opened straight away, knowing we were here.
"Oh honey." She said and gave me a hug, but I was all cried out so I just took in the warmth before wandering in to the house. "Let's make you too some hot chocolate ey? Like when you used to have sleepovers here when you were little." My mum said a reminiscent smile on her face.
"That sounds great, thanks Rebecca." Stiles said smiling wholly at her before leading me to the lounge where he sat me down and found an old box set of FRIENDS, putting in a disk and pressing play, pulling me in to his side.
My mum then came in and put down two hot chocolates hidden by whipped cream and marshmallows, just how I like it, I gave her a soft smile and she returned it, winking at Stiles before disappearing upstairs.
"Now which episode do you wanna watch?" Stiles says smiling down at me, holding the remote. I look up at him with tired eyes.
"You pick, I might go to sleep." I said, pulling a blanket down from the top of the sofa, draping it over our bodies and snuggling up to him as he picks a random episode. I felt safe in his arms as I slowly drifted off to sleep to the sound of his laughter.
°°°
The next morning I woke up in my bed, missing the warmth I had fallen asleep against, so I pulled the covers up to my chin, snuggling deeper in to the duvet.
"Rise and shine honey." My mum says and I grunt softly in reply. "Now I know you probably don't want to go to school today, and it is totally fine if you don't, I think it'll be better in the long run if you do something with your day instead of moping and watching movies. It will get your mind off things." She explains to me setting a cup of tea down on my bedside table as an incentive.
"Okay." I say starting to sit up to reach for my tea.
"Well a certain Stilinski called this morning to ask how you were, and if a lift to school would be appreciated, just so you don't have to drive. It would be good for you to take the offer, I don't think you should be driving just in case." She said and my heart fluttered at Stiles asking how I was, and I nodded at my mum, agreeing with her.
"Yeah I'll text him." I say as she stands up. "Thanks for the cuppa."
"No problem honey." She said as she softly closed the door behind her. I picked up my phone to text Stiles and realise I have many texts from him already asking me if I was okay, which made me grin from ear to ear. I quickly drop him a text assuring him of my well being and asking him if he could in fact pick me up.
I was about to out my phone down when he replied, almost as if he was waiting for it. He said he was glad I was okay and that he'd pick me up in half an hour. Just enough time for me to get ready.
When I was all ready I grabbed my present for Allison and slipped it in to my bag, she didn't like her birthday because she had to repeat a year because of moving so much, but people always guessed other horrible reasons, so she liked to keep it low key. That's why I got her a cute little silver bracelet, noting too flashy, but still something she'll like.
I walked outside to Stiles' Jeep giving him a soft smile as I clambered in to the passenger side.
"Hey how are you?" Stiles said grabbing my hand and squeezing it.
"Yeah I'm alright, mostly just worried about Lydia, she really looked traumatised after what had happened, and she didn't even see the body." I sighed, thinking about her vacant expression the night before.
"Well you'll see her at school, and if not we can go check on her if it'll make you feel better." He said with a smile, letting go of my hand to start the car.
When we got to school, there wasn't a shortage of stares, some sympathetic, some not so much. It made me feel on edge, feeling like everyone was staring at me as I put my folders in my locker, and like the good friend he is, gave them all death glares and stood by my side even as we reached Mr. Harris' classroom, and sat down next to me.
As I was sat getting my textbook out of my bag, Stiles highlighting away next to me, Harris droned on about the parent teacher conference and that anyone with a C average or below needed to attend. It didn't concern me because Lydia helped me with my notes for science so I was averaging an A, but when hxce pointedly asked me and Stiles where Scott was I just shrugged. When Jackson suddenly burst in we made eye contact, before dropping it quickly, and Harris walked up to him.
"Jackson, if you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know." He said in a hushed tone before carrying on to the front of the class. I raise my eyebrows to Stiles who has an outraged expression on his face, if he knew about Jackson, he knew about me. Dick. "Everyone start reading chapter 9. Mr. Stilinski. Try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry, not a colouring book."
Harris said with a condescending tone which made Stiles blow his highlighter pen lid in to the air and catch it, making me softly chuckle at his sassy attitude. He then looks beside him at Danny, leaning over and in a hushed voice asked him if he could ask a question.
"No." Danny replied, but Stiles persisted.
"Well I'm going to anyway. Did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?" This question peaked my interest, looking over expectantly.
Danny hesitated before replying. "No."
"Can I ask you another question?"
"Answers still no." Danny tried.
"Has Jackson told you what happened last night?"
"Uh, no he said he didn't wanna talk about it."
"But he's your best friend?" Stiles said, confused. "One more question. Do you find me attractive?" He said causing my head to spin in his direction, wide eyed and confused before he fell off his chair, making me chuckle at the goofball next to me.
"Where is Scott by the way?" I asked him and he shrugged his shoulders looking just as in the dark as I was.
"Dunno, he hasn't answered any of my texts." He said worriedly, before we focused on the class work.
°°°
I was walking to Stiles' English class to meet up before lunch, seeing as Allison wasn't in French, probably her and Scott were gallivanting somewhere because of her birthday. As I walked to his door he came out with his phone to his ear.
"Finally! Have you been getting any of my texts?!" He shouts and I fall in to step beside him. "Do you have any idea what's going on? Lydia is totally MIA, Jackson looks like he has a time bomb inserted in to his face, another random guys dead and you have to do something about it. AH!" He shouts as he sees me standing next to him and I bend over, full belly laughing at the boy's surprise to seeing me.
"Don't worry Belle is just trying to give me a HEART ATTACK!" He says, trying to scold me but it just makes me laugh harder, wheezing, not able to get my words out. "Well you have to do something!" Stiles says frustrated, before hanging up the phone and looking at me, sat on the side of the corridor giggling, only pausing to hiccup.
"Oh dear." He said with a chuckle, before hauling me up.
"That -hic- was s -hic-o funny." I tried to get out, my hiccups getting in the way and he laughs at my attempt of a sentence.
"Wow, well your gonna struggle to eat anything if you don't cure those soon." He says with a smirk, handing me his water bottle, knowing I never remember to put mine in my bag.
"Thank -hic-s" I say before holding my breath and drinking some water, to stop my hiccups.
We found an empty table, and sat across from each other, both getting out food we had packed that morning, and tucking in.
"So are you feeling okay, you know after last night?" Stiles said with a mouth full of food.
"Uh, I don't know. I feel like I constantly need to look over my shoulder. Like something might suddenly attack me when I'm not looking. You know what no, I'm not okay. I think it'll take a little while to feel okay." I say looking deep in to my ham salad sandwich, before feeling a hand on my arm. I look up to see his sympathetic smile.
"That's normal. I'd be more worried if you said you were okay, to be honest. But do you know what it was last night? I mean did you get a good look?" He said with a pained expression, I could tell he really didn't want to ask these questions but he just needed to know more about the alpha. Which is understandable.
"It was the alpha if that's what you mean. I didn't see it really, but the eyes were red. It wasn't human either, or an animal. It was like a monster, something you'd see in a film." I said staring in to the space next to Stiles' head picturing to foggy memory of the night before of the humongous creature. I didn't realise I had been crying until Stiles wiped a tear from my cheek.
"It's okay, we'll figure it out. Yeah?" He asked searching for my eyes, and I simply nodded, trying to hold in the cascade of tears that were building up.
°°°
When school was over I went straight to Stiles' Jeep where he was already waiting for me, and we set off to see how Lydia was doing.
"I just hope she's alright. She seemed almost catatonic last night." I said to Stiles who was nodding and turning on to Lydia's street, slowing down when he saw the house he regularly dropped me off at , but this time he was going in.
I went up to the front door and knocked a few times, usually I'd text Lydia telling her I was here, but I didn't know what state she was in. After a few seconds Natalie, Lydia's mum comes to the door.
"Elle honey! So lovely to see you, I'm guessing your here to see Lydia?" She said with a sweet smile before looking at Stiles and becoming confused. "Uh, who's he?"
"Oh this is Stiles, he's a really good friend of mine, since I moved here." I said with a polite smile, and she let us through taking us up to Lydia's bedroom.
"Uh honey, Elle and Stiles are here to see you." Natalie says as she enters her daughter's room.
"What the hell is a Stiles?" Lydia asks, as she is splayed across her bed looking at her nails.
"She took a little something to ease her nerves, uh, you can go in." Natalie said with an awkward smile as I giggled at the girl's words.
"Thanks Natalie." I said with a smile that she returned as she walked out the door. I walked over to my best friend and sat down on the bed, smiling at the her intoxicated state.
"What are you doing here?" She said, propping her head up on her hand, looking between me and Stiles with a sluggish expression.
"We just wanted to make sure you were okay Lyds." I said smiling as I see Stiles come next to me in my peripheral vision.
"Why?" Lydia said with a very unknowing tone to her voice, making me think she may have pushed it out of her mind, tried to forget it.
"Because you weren't at school, we were worried." I said smiling at her as she blew her hair out of her face.
"How do you feel?" Stiles asked, stepping closer to the bed. Causing Lydia to stroke his arm and look at him like she'd never looked at him before, and it made something bubble in my gut which I didn't like the feeling of.
"I feel ffffantastic." She said leaning closer to him and I get up as he sits down where I was, completely in shock and infatuated with this side of Lydia.
"Wow." I say as I pick up her medication that was on her bedside table, next to her childhood giraffe toy, aptly named 'Giraffey'. "Jesus, she is high off her fucking horse right now." I said handing it over to Stiles.
"Whoa. I bet you can't say 'I saw Suzy sitting in a shoe shine shop' ten times fast." He says smirking at her, and I turned around looking out of her window, not wanting to see my best friend hit on the guy I'm in love with again.
"I saw Shuzy... I shaw... I saw." She said and I turned around recognising the change in her voice.
"Now look what you did." I scolded Stiles.
"I didn't mean to!" He bit back but I just gave him a glare, before trying to help Lydia.
"What did you see Lyds?" I said, crouching in front of her rubbing her arm comfortingly.
"Something." She said slowly.
"Something like... A mountain lion?" Stiles said and I glared at him.
"A mountain lion." Lydia said with a confirming nod.
"Are you sure you saw a mountain lion or are you saying that because that was what the police told you?" Stiles said, confusing her even more. I just shook my head and lay down on her plush carpet, covering my face with my hands.
"A mountain lion."
I grabbed Giraffey from her bedside table and held it up to her.
"What's this?" I asked.
"A mountain lion." Lydia repeated, and I gave Stiles a look.
"Okay. You're so high." Stiles said before she put her hand on his thigh and flopped over, causing him to make a face indicative of his enjoyment of that contact, to which I scoffed, sticking my tongue in to my cheek as I shook my head, looking out the window.
"What?!" He whisper shouted at me as she removed her hand from his thigh, but I just shook my head.
"We're gonna go Lyds, hope you feel better." I said going to the door, Stiles trailing behind, before she grabs his hand.
"Stay." She says to him and he darts back to the bed, making me bite my lip to keep the tears from spilling.
"Me stay? You want me to stay?" He asked.
"Yes please. Stay." She said rubbing the inside of his thigh and then touching his face and I had to chant in my head that she was high, it wasn't really her, she wouldn't do that to me. She stroked her hands down his face and neck, looking at him like I had been for years and he was lapping it up. "Please, Jackson." She said which made me sigh in relief, hitting my head against the door frame.
"Aaaaand we're done here." Stiles says as Lydia falls back on to her bed, snoring softly, before a text tone goes off. "You want me to get that?" He asked, getting no response he opened the phone. "I don't know how to uh... Belle." He said my name and I looked over confused.
I went and looked at the phone, which had a video of the alpha jumping through the glass window of the film renting place.
"Oh my god." I said taking the phone from Stiles' grasp.
"What are you doing?" He asked, and I sighed shaking my head.
"What do you think? I'm sending it to myself and then I'm deleting it, she doesn't need this to retraumatise her does she?" I say incredulously, and he puts his hands up in mock surrender at my angry tone of voice. "Okay let's go." I say after I'm finished putting her phone back on the side table and walking out the door.
"Bye Natalie!" I shout in the direction of the kitchen hearing a muffled response as I open the door, and jump in to the passenger side of the jeep, putting my feet up on the dashboard, as Stiles hops in to the driver's side.
"Right okay, what do we do now?" Stiles asks, and I think for a second before replying.
"You should let Scott know. He's out with Allison somewhere but he'll want to know what we have found." I say looking out the window.
"Yeah okay, d-do you wanna maybe come back to mine?" Stiles stuttered, something he only does when he's nervous. Why was he nervous?
"I'd love to but I have to go to the parent teacher thing. I'm averaging a D in economics." I said with a grimace and Stiles nodded, starting to go the way back to my house.
"I'll text you later yeah?" I said as I hopped out the car getting a nod and a wave goodbye, before I went and unlocked my door to put my bags away and make myself a cup of tea before we need to go to the school thing.
"Hi love, you ready?" My mum said as she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Yeah." I said after finishing the last bit of my tea and picking up my phone from the counter and hopping in to mum's car.
"Right so you are above C in everything apart from Economics?" My mum confirmed with me as we pulled up to the school.
"Yeah, but I mean not many people are getting above Cs in Coach's class, he's a little, shall we say, erratic." I say and me and my mum laugh before going in to our first conference.
"Mrs. Brooks, Elle." Mr. Harris says as we wonder in to his room and greet him before taking our chairs across from him.
"So, Elle. She is not naturally gifted, but definitely works hard, she has an average of B+ in this class which is commendable especially considering you sit next to Stilinski. You need to focus more in class, you often seem very distracted, and hardly ever finish the work set in class, having to finish it at home."
"Yes well you see I have brought Elle up knowing that she should be giving quality work, rather than rushing to complete it. As long as she does the work, does it really matter?" My mother said, smiling venomously at the man, she had never liked him, non of the parents did.
"Well as long as tests are done in the allotted time I should think not, but I would like to see an improvement on time keeping, it may come in useful for you in future." He said, before standing up and showing us out of the room.
°°°
We finally got round to Coach's room, waiting outside for whoever was in there to move on when Noah walked past us.
"Rebecca! How are you I haven't seen you in a while." He said hugging my mum.
"Yes I'm good, busy at the shop, keeps me there most nights." My mum chuckles and Noah realises who we are waiting for.
"Oh he is a moron that Coach, he thought Stiles was Stiles' last name, then asked me why I called my kid Stiles Stilinski." He said shaking his head and chuckling at the conversation he'd had minutes before.
"Oh gosh. He's really that bad huh? No wonder your getting Ds honey." She said turning to me and I just shrugged my shoulders.
"I told you. Erratic." I said laughing and the two adults joined me.
"Brooks? Ah Elle, come on in." Coach said with a smile as his head pops out through the door, a couple walking out with dazed expressions on their faces.
"We'll see you soon no doubt." My mum said to Noah giving him a warm smile as we walked in to Coach's room.
°°°
"Melissa?" I said as we neared the doors of the school.
"Elle have you seen Scott?" She said with an angry look on her face.
"No, he wasn't in school." I say cringing, as she clenched her jaw and turned round.
"Melissa, calm down honey." My mum said going up to the stressed woman, holding her hands and helping her to breath.
"Thank you Rebecca, but I need to find my son." She said looking in to her friend's eyes.
"Uh, I think he might have gone with Allison, and their parents are over there if that helps?" I said, hoping that the idiot who was also known as Scott would turn up around about now.
"Yeah okay, see you later." She said walking up the stairs to talk to the parents of the new girl.
"That's not going to go well." My mum said and we laughed awkwardly before turning to find the car when we heard a scream. "Honey, be ready, stay behind me." My mum said grabbing my arm as we slowly walked round the car park.
"It's not supernatural?" I whispered almost to myself as I observed the energies in the atmosphere, no, this was all too natural.
There was chaos, cars screeching and people screaming, but we were trying to find the animal, to subdue it. And then we heard two successive gun shots.
We turned the corner to see a mountain lion on the floor, gun shots to it's chest and a guilty hunter standing above it with his gun still in his hand. I could feel my mum's muscles tense, and an overwhelming sense of sadness washed over me. It was dead, and could take the blame for all of the murders, but it was an innocent animal, and from the energy it had been giving off, it was terrified.