Paige sat on the bench beside Stiles, she didn't particularly feel like practicing today and Coach never once said she had to get up. He never really noticed her unless she had to be on the field for an actual game. She just didn't like practice but she could still play pretty well.
"You know..." Paige whispers when she notices Scott approaching from pretty far away, "Is Scott acting funny to you?"
"Wh-" Stiles sent her a confused look and then caught sight of him as well, "Why would you even think he's acting funny?"
She wasn't sure how she could answer that question for him, "Uh... A feeling."
"Mm, sure. Okay." Stiles rolled his eyes and lightly shoved her, "You're just jealous that Scott's finding out if Lydia is into me."
"And why would I be jealous?"
"Cause there is no way-" Stiles grins smugly while looking at her, "-that Derek could be into you."
Paige blinked her eyes a few times, "Thanks. I think I'm going to go practice."
"W-" Stiles realized what he said, "No, Paige, I didn't mean it in a rude way. I just-"
"You just forgot that some things are hurtful." Paige smiled at Scott, "See you on the field."
Scott didn't say anything to her, which Paige was lowkey expecting anyway. Paige felt the pain of certain people, that was very much true. But she also felt funny, like this weird dark feeling in the pit of her stomach. And she was certain it was because of Scott and the full moon. She almost felt more on edge, almost like after a girl gets her period. Like ovulation but almost worse. Somehow worse. Without cramps or that painful feeling. This sexual feeling, she was getting it right off of Scott.
Paige stood near Jackson with a frown on her face, she was on his team which was beyond weird today.
"You better not fuck up, Mercier."
"Ah-" Paige adjusted her helmet and pointed her lacrosse stick at him, "How's your neck?"
Jackson instantly glared at her, "Get out on the damn field, you'll be a defender."
"Yes, sir, you jerk." Paige wasn't one to curse but she always felt like cursing at Jackson. She usually cursed whenever she didn't have a lot of sugar.
"Hey, Paige." Danny smiled over at her as she approached him since she was goal, "On my side today?"
"Looks like." Paige tapped her lacrosse stick with his as they grinned at one another, "So, how's your boyfriend?"
"We're... okay."
Paige rose a brow as the other members got in line, "Uh... Are you sure?"
"He's distant." Danny admitted to her softly as he sighed, "I'm not sure what's really going on."
She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed softly, "I'm sure whatever is going on, you'll come out better for it."
"You're honestly the nicest person I know." Danny laughed, "I don't get how Jackson doesn't like you."
"Look who I'm friends with."
Danny stared at Scott and Stiles before nodded, "I guess you have a point."
"Eh, I'm sure Jackson'll turn around too." Paige shrugged her shoulders as she prepared herself. She rammed directly into Thomas, another lacrosse player, and high fived the other defense player with a laugh.
"Good job, Mercier!"
Paige noticed that Scott was up next. She glanced over at Danny before turning back to him. Danny nudged her and then looked at the other team member, "Hey, he's her friend. Take more of the blow."
"No, it's fine." Paige waved him off and smiled at the other player, "I'm sure he'll understand. It's just practice and he's my friend."
"Okay."
Paige stared at Scott for a few more seconds before she exhaled. She had this weird feeling that she should be irritated with him. Her brows knitted together and she gave a nod to her team member. And as Scott came running towards them with the ball, they easily knocked him down to the ground.
"Let's go!" Coach yells out in excitement and laughs.
"Scott, here-" Paige tried to help him up but he slapped her hand away with a glare.
"Guess some people don't appreciate your new status there, McCall." Coach snorted while approaching Scott, who was still all the ground because he didn't want Paige's help, "Who's next? Let's go. You have a problem with that, Bilinski?"
"What?" Stiles cleared his throat, "Yeah, no."
"All right, you're up, big boy. Let's go! Nice job, Mercier, showing that you can work for the team."
Paige swallowed uncomfortably when Scott got up and sent her a very angry glare that revealed his golden eyes. She stepped back with her eyebrows furrowed together. That was a whole other sense of anger.
Scott turned back and stopped Stiles from even going next. "That's it, McCall! That's the spirit! You earn it! Earn it, McCall!"
Paige releases a cry as she is thrown in the air by Scott, she grunted as she landed hard on her back. She felt like she just broke something or maybe that was just the constant pain running through her. A few team members ran towards her, but mainly Stiles.
"Hey, hey-" Stiles helped her sit up and checked over her, "Are you okay? Is anything broken? I swear I heard the loudest crack-"
"I'm okay." Paige groans and sends him a smile, "Check on Danny, please."
"Y-Yeah-"
Paige struggles to stand up, it was almost like she was hit by a bus. And considering Scott's werewolf strength, she was probably lucky that nothing was broken.
"Dude, what the hell are you doin'?" Stiles demanded from Scott as he rushed over to him.
"He's twice the size of me."
"Yeah, but Paige isn't." Stiles points out as he notices more students going to help her up now, "She's tiny. Incredibly tiny. She's barely over five feet and you just threw her in the air. Danny and Paige are the most liked on the team, hell, they're the most liked at school. Now everybody's gonna hate you."
"I don't care." Scott snaps at him.
"Are they okay?" Lydia asks as she runs over to Jackson, who was actually concerned for both hurt teammates.
"Paige probably has a concussion and it looks like Danny just has a bloody nose-" Jackson answers her as he turns to look at his girlfriend but he pauses.
"What?"
"Your lipstick."
"Oh..." Lydia whispers and then brushes it off, "Oh, wonder how that happened."
"Yeah." Jackson says not believing her, "I wonder."
Stiles just stared at Scott before he moved over to Paige, "Hey, you good to stand?"
"Yeah, I honestly feel fine." Paige waved the paramedic away from her, "I'm fine. Really."
"Some people can't tell when they have a concussion." Stiles explained to her in worry, "And what if Scott hit you so hard that you have a brain bleed? You could die from an aneurysm or something."
"She seems fine."
Paige sent Stiles a look but eventually smiled and stood up, "Awe, you really do care."
"Shut up-" Stiles shoved her before hugging her, "God, don't be a bitch."
"Love you too, rat face."
"You always have to ruin it, don't you?"
Paige sent him a smile while pulling away from him, "Go check on Scott, I'll be all good."
"Fine." Stiles huffed before looking her once over again, "Tell me if you find anything about your family."
Paige knew her Aunt was called about what happened at practice today, but thankfully because she was fine Maggie was still at the school she worked at. So she had the house to herself. Which kind of felt illegal since she did plan on rummaging through her aunt's things.
She was used to being in her aunt's room. Paige would sometimes just come in and hang out with her. Or just cuddle in a blanket and talk about their day. Stiles said it was weird that they did that, but Maggie was not just family. She was even her friend.
Paige sat down on her aunt's bed and groaned. She didn't even find a thing. But there had to be something in the room, or maybe even in their attic. She at least needed to check her aunt's room first, there had to be something.
"Hey, what's up?"
"I'm just heading over to Scott's and I wanted to check in." Stiles says from the other end, "Got anything yet?"
"Uh, no..." Paige admits while standing in the center of her aunt's room, "I just found an old photo album."
"Did you at least go through it?"
"No, it's just pictures." Paige huffed while walking into her room with the album, "I'm going to check the attic next."
"Good plan, but I'd still look at the album if you can't find anything." Stiles explains to her, "There might be someone in one of those pictures that could help."
"All right, call me if you need any help with Scott. The full moon is really messing with him so-"
"Yeah, turns out he made out with Lydia instead of talking to her."
"Dang... I'm sorry, Stiles."
"I know he's not in his right mind but I'm still pissed."
Paige hid the album under her pillow before walking over to where the attic entrance was, "Just be careful, if Scott's not thinking straight he could hurt you."
"Awe, you care."
"Shut up, this is actually serious so-"
"I know. I know. I'll call, got it.
Paige mumbled a small groan when Stiles hung up on her. She climbed up the small ladder into the attic and coughed as dust flew in her face. She waved her hand away while getting up and standing. She wasn't really allowed in the attic because it was never cleaned.
"Man..." Paige whispers as she almost trips over a box, "Why don't we ever clean?" She had the urge to just clean it all up, it was so dirty that she hated it. But she had to do what she came there to do or her Aunt would be home before she knew it.
Paige knelt down and began to rummage through the boxes. The first few happened to be her old baby stuff, and some clothes that would definitely not fit her now. Obviously. It was actually kind of nice going through all of these things. There were her memories.
She picked up one of her old projects. Her school had them make Leprechaun traps when she was in kindergarten. She stayed up with her Aunt the night before to make it. They even bought chocolate coins for it. Paige just missed these days when it was that simple and being a kid was easy. Her life didn't really feel easy anymore.
"Oh..." Paige picked a folder up, "My birth certificate."
Paige smiled at her parents' names on the piece of paper. She at least knew there wasn't going to be some big shock that said her parents weren't actually her parents. She rummaged a little more, realizing this box was just old medical papers. But the OBGYN paper was what made her stop.
"Whoa..." Paige read through the papers. Her mother had endometriosis and she was one of the unlucky women to be affected by this. She had pelvic adhesions that caused scar tissue to build up, leaving her fallopian tubes completely scarred. This meant there was no way her mother could genuinely give birth, or at least without some sort of incredibly bad defects. "How did she..." She kept going through her mom's medical records, trying to figure out how she was even born.
Another paper was about her check up with the pregnancy. There wasn't any medical solution to how Paige was born or how her mother was suddenly pregnant. That her mother was even able to be pregnant. Which only sprung more questions that she was sure her Aunt wouldn't answer.
Paige checked her phone again and it was coming extremely close to when her Aunt was supposed to head home. So she just left the attic and cleaned herself up from all the dust. She felt pretty useless since instead of calling her, Stiles only sent her a text saying he lost Scott. Which wasn't helping how she was currently feeling.
She sat down on her bed and called Stiles, putting him on speaker so she could go through the photo album.
"Did you find him?" Paige asks calmly.
"Derek did."
"He's finally just poked out of the woodwork after being MIA?" Paige stared down at her phone as she felt her heart pick up, "Uh... How is he?" She shut her eyes, "How's Scott?"
"I think he's fine." There was one hundred percent judgement in his voice, "And so it Derek... I guess..."
"I didn't really care about if he was okay..."
"I'm sure."
Paige rolled her eyes and flipped through the photos. It was a lot of her mom and dad together, some with her mom's friend and some with her Aunt in them.
"Did you find anything yet?"
"No." Paige admits with a long sigh before flipping to the next page, which had a photo of when she was born. She smiled happily. It was her mom, father, and aunt. "Nothing, I honestly think I am only able to talk to my..."
"Your what? Paige?"
"Uh..." Paige swallowed, "I'll call you back."
"Paige-"
She shut her phone off and picked the album up in her hands. Paige stared down at the photo, the glare from the eyes were so incredibly bad. But there were three people in this image that were obscured because of some glare. That wasn't normal, that was anything but normal because her mother, father, and aunt were perfectly fine in the image. And the other photo of the same group had the glare too, but only with the three in the image.
"What the f-"