BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARE

CHAPTER NINE: COUNTING SECONDS

RIVER never got a call, instead, she got a message simply asking her where she was, and as soon as she told her the half-lie, Gen seemed satisfied and suggested that she try her best not to freak out the next day.

She almost smiled at the phone.

Sliding it back into her pocket, she watched as Stiles drove up the McCalls driveway and parked the car, Scott was the first one out quickly pulling the seat forward to allow River to climb out, it was rather considerate of him despite the fact he'd been asked to look out for her.

Stiles was the second as River reached back to grab her gear while Scott held out his hand to take some of it from her, she gave him her bag before taking her helmet and stick in her hands and slipping out of the car, Stiles was beside them in seconds a frown crossing his lips as Scott shoved the bag into his arms and took hold of the girls stick.

"Yeah, pawn everything off on me, why don't you." he grumbled trailing beside Scott as they walked up the drive and stepped onto the porch, Scott rifled through his pockets for a few moments before producing a set of keys with a large smile, "she actually gave you a set?" Stiles questioned seemingly surprised, the boy nodded his head.

"She thought since I'm a sophomore now and I drive- sort of, that I needed keys of my own." Stiles pursed his lips half tempted to make a joke about how Scott's mother still treated him like a small child, it was rather funny to him.

Stepping into the house, the smell of lemon hit them all in the face like water from a shower, "Jesus." Stiles mumbled waving his hand in front of his face, "what'd she do? Go on a cleaning fiesta?" Scott shrugged his shoulders reaching his hand up to plug his nose, "I have no clue." he replied breathing in through his mouth as he closed the door and began to lead them to the staircase that would take them to the second story.

As they ascended, River caught herself looking at the baby photos, in almost all of them, there was no male or other adult besides who she assumed was Melissa, she was a single mother.

"You look tiny in these." she stated glancing from one photo to the next, Scott glanced over his shoulder casting River an embarrassed look, "I don't know why they haven't been taken down." he replied continuing to lead them up the lengthy set of stairs that led to the second floor.

Stiles turned to look at River a small glare cutting across his features, "what he means is, he thinks he's a big boy and wants his mommy to take them off the walls." his friend's breaths seemed to quiet and disappear quietly as his next remark flew from his lips.

"At least I have a mom!"

Scotts eyes widened as soon as he realized what he'd said, "Stiles-" he began, his attempt at apologizing cut off by Stiles' aggravated demeanor, "it's fine, I don't care." he grumbled trudging up the stairs after his friend, River remained silent unsure of how to deescalate the situation, she knew nothing about it, up until that moment she'd thought Stiles had a mother of his own waiting at home for him.

Once they stepped off from the last step of the stairs they proceeded down the hall in a short three-person line down to Scott's room where the tension strung silence followed them. The two boys divided, Scott settling himself on the edge of his bed while Stiles made his way over to the seat beside the colorful guitar his friend seemed to own.

River stood in the doorway her nerves buzzing as she tried to figure out where to sit, she didn't want to make the situation any more awkward than it already was.

But it seemed she was doing exactly that.

Scott- already feeling the tension in the atmosphere- gestured to the spot beside him on his bed and pulled her lacrosse stick from the floor into his lap, Stiles watched from his spot as Scott gently unwound the net from its hold in the grooves of the stick. Leaning forward, he furrowed his eyebrows and let out a scoff of sorts, both teens turned to look at him.

"Are we seriously not gonna talk about what happened?" Rivers eyes clouded over with a mix of resentment and fear, she didn't want to talk about it, bringing attention to the situation made it all the more real, and she would rather hide in the shadows and pretend nothing had happened instead of having it out in the open and dissected like some specimen.

"There's nothing to talk about." River mumbled casting her eyes to where Scott sat with her stick, shaking his head, he stood and made his way across the room to a small box beside his dresser, "actually, there is." Stiles restated leaning forward on his elbows, River raised her gaze to the boy letting him know with a short glare that she didn't want to talk about it.

"What the hell are we supposed to call that little outburst you had?" he questioned, River could feel it, she could feel the anger boiling, she could feel it reaching up into her throat, it was like bile rising through her, fighting to be let out. "Stiles." Scott warned, he knew his friend was pressing far more than he should on a matter he knew nothing about.

"No, Scott. We need to know how to deal with whatever's wrong with her, except we don't even know what's wrong with her because she won't tell us."

"STILES!" Scott barked the boy jumping at the sudden yell, Rivers fists were clenched and she'd sent a shelf of books tumbling from its place on the wall beside Stiles, he looked up with wide eyes half shocked and half petrified, looking back to River, he stood from his seat and made his way over to the doorway away from anything hanging overhead.

The boy's friend moved from his spot beside his bed and strode across the room to stand in front of River, he watched as her eyes returned to their normal dark mahogany with golden specks, "Stiles is right River, we have to figure out a name for what you have, or see if there is one."

The brunette shook her head, she couldn't give them information she didn't have herself, she wasn't sure why they kept trying to get her to tell them things she didn't know. She was as clueless as either of them, or both together.

Stiles gestured to River with his hand quickly letting it fall to his side, "where's your computer?" glancing over his shoulder, Scott pointed to his pillow with a short look in his friend's direction, both teens watched as Stiles navigated around them and reached to tug the laptop from beneath Scott's pillow.

"You know... this is how things get broken." the honey eyed boy stated settling himself behind the two teens on the bed, at least there was nothing overhead that could hit him, except another shelf.

His friend didn't respond, instead, he began to work on Rivers net, the girl, however, scooted back to watch as Stiles tapped away on the keyboard eager to find something to use as the girl's label.

"Wait.." he paused quickly deleting his previous search from the top bar, "how am I supposed to describe this?" he furrowed his eyebrows and looked from River to Scott hoping one of them would provide the answer he needed, River was the first to speak.

"Try putting in launching objects across the room." Scott turned on the surface of the bed the girl's lacrosse stick still in his hands, "it happens when you're mad, doesn't it?" she gave a curt nod confused but intrigued as to where he was going with this idea, "so that means it's linked to something in your head." he turned to look at Stiles, "put in launching stuff across the room with your brain."

The boy let out a sigh before typing in the statement and hitting the enter bar, he brought his hand up to his head and ran it across his buzz cut before turning to look at them, "I'm getting nothing but anger issue class ads, and diagrams of the brain." carefully taking the computer from his friend, he retyped the statement only bothering to change the word "launch" to "move",

"Let's see what we get." and with that, he hit the enter button. Several things flashed across the screen, the first one being the Wikipedia definition of what it seemed they had been searching for, jabbing his finger towards the screen, Stiles began to read.

"The ability to move objects through mind power. The word is derived from the Greek words for "mind" and "motion" and is known as..." he trailed off stuck on the word, it was the one thing he hadn't been expecting, "telekineses." River breathed out she didn't like having a name to label it as, she liked that she didn't know much about it, even if she didn't like having it at all.

Both the boys turned to look at her, "so this is good, we know what this is now." Scott softly smiled, Stiles shook his head and took the computer from the boy, "yeah, but there's also no history on it, no way to get rid of it, and no known way to control it."

Scott's smile dropped and his gaze shied away from River, "you can't go out on that field today." River's eyes widened as she raised her head to look at Scott, "I am going out on that field, with or without your.. permission." she frowned just barely catching the sight of Stiles rolling his eyes from beside the boy.

"River..." Stiles reached out his hand to gently touch her shoulder, she pulled away from him quickly scooting off the edge of the bed to try and put distance between herself and the two boys, "I'm going to tryouts." she gestured to her stick- which laid beside Scott on the bed- "and if you're not going to help me, I'll help myself." she leaned forward and snatched the stick up watching as the two teenage boys watched her with furrowed eyebrows.

"River, think of how dangerous this is, you don't know how to control it, what if you hurt someone? What if you hurt yourself?" she gave a curt shake of her head, "I'll be fine, I always have." picking up her things from where they'd been settled onto the floor of the boy's bedroom, she exited out into the hall somewhat satisfied that neither of them had attempted to argue with her over the matter.

"River!" Stiles called out rushing out of the room and crashing into the wall with a loud thud, letting out a sigh he sidled up to her quickly blocking her from going down the stairs, "I can't let you step onto that field, I'm sorry."

She offered him a slight smile, "I can't let you ruin my chances." she replied, turning away from him, she made her way down the stairs hardly bothered enough to cast a look over her shoulder as the boy stood with wide eyes and a worried expression shadowing his face.

They would have to watch her as closely as possible.

Or as closely as she allowed them to.

The honey-eyed teenager glanced off to the wall where Scott's photos hung, "damn idiot, getting involved once again." he muttered running his hand over the top of his head.

"I heard that!" Scott called out his voice echoing down the hallway, Stiles scrunched his nose turning back to face the direction of the bedroom door, "your mom seriously needs to take you to the doctor." he called back glancing over his shoulder to watch as River slipped out of the house.

BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARE

CHAPTER NINE: COUNTING SECONDS