Jessica's P.O.V.
Have you ever been in a high-speed car chase? I have and let me tell you, it's not fun when you have Scott in the passenger seat yelling at you to slow down. "You know, Scott, I don't think you're really gauging the point of a car chase here!" I shout.
"If you don't slow down, you're going to kill us," he counters.
"Jessica may not be a werewolf but she has faster reflexes than anyone. She'll be fine," Meredith defends as Stiles turns around.
"We lost her." He turns on the police scanner and we hear that they are trailing Derek in the old ironworks. I whip the car around and drive to the ironworks. I spin to a stop in front of Derek and Scott throws the door open before climbing into the back with Meredith and Stiles. Derek jumps in the car and I speed off immediately.
"Ugh! I almost had him. Until the stupid police showed up."
"Hey, they're just doing their jobs," Stiles tries as I turn to Derek.
"It's not our fault someone heard something suspicious at the school, now what did you find?" He gives me a look and I take my eyes from the road to glare at him. "You can tell me willingly or I'll make you."
"He didn't know anything, all he had was this." He holds up a piece of paper with the symbol from Allison's necklace on it a fact that Scott points out. "Then it has something to do with the necklace," Derek thinks aloud and I pull the car to a stop and put it in park so I can turn to him.
"What if it's not about the necklace, but where it came from," I suggest and he looks at me confused. "Allison is one of my best friends. I noticed the necklace the day after her birthday and I asked about it. She said it was a family heirloom from her Aunt Kate. You said the Argents burned down your house, right?" He nods. "Well, I've been researching the victims, trying to figure out what they had in common. It's fire. What if it wasn't the Argents but simply Kate. I think that the Alpha is going after people connected to the fire."
"But why?" Derek demands.
"I don't know but think about it. The Alpha went after Harris because the fire didn't get marked as arson right?" He nods again as I share a look with Meredith. "Well, the thing about chemistry is it can be used for lots of things. Burning holes in steel, disposing of dead bodies, stuff like that, but my dad told me when I was studying it to be careful once because he said that if you mix the right chemicals together, it'll look like a natural fire."
"So Harris told Kate how to burn the house down and make it look like an accident. That's why the Alpha went after him," Derek restates and I nod.
"If I had to take a guess, yeah."
"So what do we do?" Scott speaks up.
"Right now, we wait. The cops got a good look at Derek so they probably think he attacked Harris so you need to lay low. As for us, we need to lay low. I don't know if the Argents know that I got bit yet but I do know that they are looking for another beta."
"How?" Stiles asks and I give him a bright smile.
"I excel at eavesdropping."
_______
The next day, I'm at my locker next to Stiles' when Scott rushes up to us saying that Jackson knows. "Well, this sounds like a you problem so I'm going to go." I try to leave but Meredith pulls me back.
"You're in this now, Jess. And if anyone can stop Jackson, it's you."
"What can I do?" I question exasperatedly.
"I don't know, compel him. Get someone else to compel him. Everyone listens to you. If you tell them to, anyone will do it. You even have Klaus wrapped around your finger and don't think I don't know that you have Elijah working for you doing whatever so-"
"Fine, Jesus. I'll figure something out." I shake my head as I walk away, wishing that I never got bit by that stupid alpha. By lunch, the problem had gotten worse. I sat down at a lunch table and instantly Scott, Stiles, and Meredith sit down too, making me roll my eyes. "Look, I'm not really in the mood because I just had to deal with Nik and Damon fighting over what I was going to eat at lunch and had to turn down two decent meals for these half-cooked chicken tenders, so please take your problems elsewhere."
They ignore me and Scott starts freaking out that Jackson is looking at them. "He's talking to me. He knows I can hear him. Somebody talk to me." Stiles stares at him and when Scott yells at him he claims his mind is blank. I roll my eyes again, when I start to hear something. I shake my head, thinking that I must be imagining it, but it gets louder until it clears.
"What else can you do? Can you see better? Are you stronger? More powerful? I knew there was no way you suddenly got that good at lacrosse. Which means you're actually a cheater, aren't you?" I look up, expecting to see Jackson, but he isn't there. I look around and see him in the corner of the cafeteria. I stand up and throw away my tray, only to tune into him again. "I'm going to get her alone and I'm going to get my hands all over that tight little body." I release a low growl and start to make my way closer to him. He's so focused on Scott that he doesn't see me get close. As soon as he says, "I bet she likes to get loud. Maybe she's even a screamer." I don't think twice before punching him across the face.
Then, it's like my anger takes over and one punch turns to three until someone pulls me off. "Calm down, love. You're making a scene."
I look at Jackson and see the fear in his eyes when he meets mine. "Talk about Allison like that again just to be a dick and so help me God, Jackson Whittmore, you won't live to see 17," I snarl before pulling away from Klaus. "I'm fine, I swear. I just got angry," I say before turning and walking away. Once in the hallway I rush to the bathroom and stand in front of the mirror. I hear someone crying in the bathroom and think it might be Erica since I've caught her crying in the bathroom before because people make fun of her for having seizures. "Erica, is that you? Do you need someone to talk to?"
The stall door opens and Allison steps out instead. "Who's Erica?" She asks, wiping away tears.
"Erica Reyes. She has P.E. with us. Never mind. Why are you crying?"
"Well, after you punched Jackson for whatever reason, Scott came up and talked to me and it seemed like he was trying to get back together and I'm just not ready for that. I had to get out of there." She shakes her head to clear it before turning to me. "Anyway, why'd you punch Jackson?"
I sigh. "You're not going to like it. He said some really vulgar things about you to Scott and I heard about it at lunch. Scott's already having problems in classes and he doesn't want to get kicked off lacrosse plus Jackson's bigger than him so."
"Man, I really thought Jackson was starting to become my friend." She looks at me, sad, before giggling. "Well, thanks for defending my honor, I guess."
I laugh with her. "Yeah, well, I'll probably get suspended. Klaus had to pull me off of him. I don't even know what came over me, it was like once I started, I just couldn't stop. I've always had anger issues but it's like now it's worse. Like I've bottled it up for too long."
"I get that, I guess. You know, if there is something that I can do to help, I'd be willing after you defended me and everything."
"You know, I saw how angry you were about not being able to do anything that night at the school. I can train you in self-defense if you'd like. You know, hand to hand combat. You might get a little bruised but it would help me with my anger. I used to spar with Nik but things are weird now."
"Nik?"
"Oh, my ex-boyfriend, who I decided that friends with benefits would be a good idea with, only him and my other ex, who I have the same arrangement with, didn't understand the whole 'not looking for a relationship' thing so." I shrug and she laughs again.
"Well, I might just take you up on the whole self-defense thing."
"Great." I smile before leaving the bathroom, feeling much better. I'm heading to class when I hear Lydia confront Jackson about him breaking up with her over text. I start to head in the direction of her voice and realize that it's farther away than I thought. What the Hell is happening, I wonder when I finally make it to them.
"In preparation of some big changes, I've decided to drop some of the dead weight in my life. And you're just about the deadest," Jackson says.
"Are you breaking up with me?" She demands and he smirks.
"Dumping, actually. I'm dumping you."
I can see the look of hurt pass her face before she covers it up. "Dumped by the Co-Captain of the Lacrosse team. I wonder how many minutes it will take to get over that." Jackson shakes his head and walks away. "Oh wait... Seconds." Jackson ignores her and I see her façade begin to falter so I walk over and grab her arm.
"He's a dick. Pay him no mind. Slap a smile on your face and follow me."
"Where are we going?" She asks quietly, while placing a fake smile on her face.
"We are skipping the rest of the day. We both know that our grades can take it and you need to be away from the prying eyes and I need to be away from Jackson before I beat the shit out of him again. Plus, if I leave now, I might just get off with a warning." She nods her head and I lead her out into the parking lot and to my car and we both get in before I drive off, taking her to my house.
About 10 minutes later, I pull into the driveway and take in her look of awe. "Whose house is this?"
"Mine. I bought it when I came into town with Klaus. He likes extravagant things and I enjoy him not annoying me so I caved pretty fast." She nods and we head into the house. I lead her up to the third floor and pull a bobby pin out of my pocket, using it to unlock Damon's door. "Wait here," I say but hear her follow me into the room.
I stand in the middle of the room and try to remember where my pants had gotten thrown to. I think back and begin pointing to places, noticing the confused look on Lydia's face when I eventually point to the comfy chair Damon has in his room. I walk over and move it to grab the pants from behind it.
I notice the rip in them, ensuring that I won't ever be able to wear them again. "Asshole, these were designer." I shake my head and walk towards Lydia, only to see his shirt completely destroyed. "But so was that," I laugh before walking out.
"Whose room was that?"
"Damon's. I had something in my pants last night and I needed to retrieve it." I hold up the piece of paper and she nods. I lead her back to the second floor and into my bedroom so I can grab my laptop before taking her to the basement where the home theatre is. "We have a collection of movies ranging from rom-coms to horror to pretty much any other genre. I can make popcorn if you want. Kol bought a slushie machine that I can attempt to work and there's an assortment of candy in one of the cabinets."
She looks at me in shock before she speaks. "Why did you bring me here?"
"Because Jackass broke up with you since he's clearly stupid enough to not realize how much better you are than him, and as much as you pretend you don't, I can see that you love him. Now, I've only been broken up with once and I decided to start screwing my Ethics professor, which isn't the best move, but whenever Caroline gets broken up with, she always makes me watch the Notebook and eat comfort food. Which reminds me, we also have ice cream."
She laughs. "You know, when I met you, I only wanted to be friends with you because I thought you'd steal my spotlight... You did that anyway, but you're actually a pretty good friend, Jessica."
"I've been told I make a great friend," I joke. "I figured that Kol will live if I miss one lacrosse game to comfort my friend. Plus, I'm going to hack the bank and get their bank accounts unfrozen so he won't have to ask me for money."
"What do you mean?"
"The Mikaelson's and Damon's bank accounts are frozen pending something because they got an inheritance and they already had a shit ton of money so the bank is holding it so that they don't have to pay interest for a while. I'm going to jailbreak it so I don't have Kol asking for money for new lacrosse gear every ten seconds or Rebekah asking for money to go shopping."
She laughs. "You really are a good friend."
"I try." I sit on one of the recliners and pull out my computer and the paper I retrieved from my jeans with all of Nik and Damon's security codes so I can begin hacking their accounts while Lydia puts on Crazy, Stupid, Love and makes some popcorn for us. We spend the night watching movies and eating snacks until we fall asleep and Nik and Kol carry us up to my room.