Chapter Eleven: Road trip

     ALLISON ARGENT RAMBLED NERVOUSLY AS SHE WALKED. She was speaking to Val but the red head wasn't present in the conversation. She was aware that the girl was speaking and she was aware that Allison walked exactly a foot in front of her except towards the right blocking out the sun, yet Val couldn't put together any words coming out of the brunettes mouth.

"Val did you hear me?" Val looked up and noticed that teen stopped in her tracks.

"No, sorry, could you repeat." Before Allison could respond to what she was going to warn Val about, the two were interrupted.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Lydia Martin hollered as she got out of the passengers seat.

Lydia reminded Val of a mixture between a mean girl in high school and a sophisticated businesswoman. There was really no difference when looking at the strawberry blonde.

Allison and Val both watched as Lydia placed her hands on her hips and glared at Val. They knew Lydia didn't act this way when it came to Aidan, so Val couldn't figure out why she was so different.

"Lydia, Val is on our side, she's coming with us on this road trip end of discussion." Allison asserted. Allison fully trusted Val, especially after the events of the previous night.

"Fine, but I got shot gun." Lydia replied before turning to get in the passengers seat.

It was quiet when Allison pulled out of the driveway.

"So Val, how come you didn't travel with the rest of the team?" Lydia questioned.

"Well let's just say I wasn't in the right position to be attending a cross country meet." Val vaguely replied.

Lydia hummed before proceeding to stare out the window. It was no time before the three were behind the cross country bus.

"So we're just stalking them?" Val asked.

"No, no we're not stalking, we're just..." Allison trailed off looking for the right words.

"We're stalking." Lydia finished for her.

"Am I getting too close? I'm getting way too close, aren't I?" Allison asked nervously.

"That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?" Lydia replied sarcastically.

"Yeah I should back off."

"Well that also depends. Oh do you mean the bus or the ex boyfriend you're currently stalking?" Val felt a sting of jealousy hit her, she'd found out that Allison was Scott's ex, and that they had a lot of history together.

"Well after what happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight." Allison assured. Val also expressed worry for Scott, and that worry out weighed the jealousy.

A series of unfortunate events took place the previous night. Derek was dead.

"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door." Allison retorted.

"For what?" Lydia questioned.

Val already knew the whole story, considering she had stayed with Allison and the two had been up until 1:00 am talking about what happened at the abandoned mall.

Previous night

Val had been reading Little women when her uncle entered her room. She immediately knew something was off, one Deucalion always knocked and two, the man was always happy to see his niece. It was different his face showed no emotion as he took off his shades and kneeled down in front of Val's bed.

Deucalion cleared his throat before speaking. "I know you've been helping Scott and his friends." Val went to speak to try and explain. She already had the whole 'power isn't everything' speech lined up, but before she could Deucalion cut her off. "And I can't have a spy in my midst." He said with a simple shrug.

"Are you kicking me out?"

"Yes, you must leave, unless you are willing to end whatever relationship you have with the McCall boy." Deucalion waited for a response, but Val wouldn't be giving him one. "Very well then." The man stood, like this was the easiest conversation he had ever had in his life, and that showed Val how little he cared for her. Before he left her bedroom he turned around again. "You should be grateful that the punishment for your betrayal isn't something far worse."

As soon as he left, Val let out a string of relieved breaths she didn't know she was holding in. She began packing, all of her belongings fitting into a bag. One bag, reminding her how easy it's always been to pack up her life and move to a new destination.

As Val headed towards the front door she saw the smug look on Kali's face, the woman had always hated Val. Ever since the notorious Alpha pack was formed, Kali had suggested more than once to get rid of the young girl, saying she wasn't an Alpha therefore shouldn't be with the pack, but Deucalion loved his niece too much to listen. It seemed like Kali had finally gotten through to him.

Of course Val didn't have anywhere to go, she'd considered Scott but her mind rejected the idea as soon as it was presented. She'd also considered Stiles, but that just felt a little weird to her. As she stepped into the elevator, her mind continued to think of her options, which weren't many.

The elevator ding caused Val to look up to see who was entering. She was met with the silk brown eyes that belonged to Allison Argent, who Val had forgotten also lived in the apartment building. As soon as Allison saw Val she turned on her heel to exit the elevator but the door had already closed. The brunette turned to face Val with an awkward smile before making her way to the corner of the elevator. She glanced at Val as she leaned against the wall in an awkward position. No matter how tough and monotonous the girl tried to be, Allison Argent was a sympathetic softie who could never ignore someone's feelings. She saw the desolated look on Val's face and couldn't help herself. "Is everything okay? I- I mean are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." Val replied but Allison wasn't convinced, she'd had her fair share of I'm fine's. She continued to observe the ginger. She clung onto the sleeves of her orange sweater and kept her eyes on the floor. Allison also noticed the bag slung around Val's arm. Her mind put together the pieces of what was happening, also dealing with the realization that a group of Alphas were staying in the same apartment building as her. Before Allison knew it, she was inviting Val to stay with her and before Val knew it, she was accepting Allisons offer.

_______________________________________

Back in the car.

"So is that whole not letting him out of your sight thing literal or more like a general rule?" Lydia asks removing the Thermodynamic Asymmetry in time book from her face.

"Why?" Allison asks.

"You're running on fumes."

"Ugh!"

"Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota."

"What if we stop?" Allison questions.

"I doubt coach will be willing to stop that bus." Val cut in.

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Lydia scoffs. "So we lose them, we know where they're headed."

It was, to both Allison and Val.

"You didn't see what happened."

"I know who started it." Val rolled her eyes at Lydia's remark, as if the girl knew of anything going on that didn't come out of Aidan's mouth.

"Is that what Aidan told you?" Allison muttered.

"Aidan? Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a second, is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing?" Lydia had caught on to Allison's not so secret plan. Allison's silence only gave Lydia her answer. "Oh my gosh, you're keeping an eye on them and me."

"So there is nothing going on between you two?"

"I'm appalled but this insinuation."

"Using big words isn't going to get you out of this one Lydia." Val remarked.

"No one asked you." Lydia snapped, looking at Val through the rear view mirror.

"Nothing?" Allison questioned again, not believing her best friend. The brunette knew Lydia too well.

"Nothing." Lydia assured, but both Val and Allison knew the truth.

Val payed her attention to the yellow school bus in front of her. Her only worry was on Scott. "Get them to pull over."

"Great Val, now you're starting to sound like the crazy stalker too." Lydia commented. Val ignored her, focusing on Lydia's phone, expecting her to dial Scott or Stiles already. Allison was doing the same thing, while nervously biting her nails.

Lydia rolled her eyes, picking up her phone. "Fine but they're gonna know we're stalking them."

"Fine nevermind." Allison said.

Only a few moments later Lydia's phone rang and it was Stiles. She answered it without a second thought but when it came down to it, Lydia was a pretty shit liar.

"Hey Stiles." She said as she answered, her already raspy voice cracked at the end of the sentence. "Yeah we're just about to walk into a movie, uh you know the popcorn and ... yeah okay." After miserably failing at convincing Stiles the girls were at a movie Lydia put the phone on speaker.

"Okay look Scott's still hurt." Stiles began.

"What do you mean still, he's not healing?" Allison's questioned.

"No he's not healing, I think he's actually getting worse, the bloods turning like a black color." Stiles further explained.

"W-what's wrong with him?" Lydia questioned.

"What's wrong with him? Do I have a PhD in Lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?" Stiles asked sarcastically.

"Maybe it's because it's from an Alpha."

"No, even wounds from an Alpha should've been healed by now." Val stated.

"We need to get him off the bus." Allison told Stiles.

"And take him where? A hospital?" Lydia rhetorically asked.

"If he's dying, yeah." Allison replied. "Stiles there's a rest area about a mile up, tell the coach to pull over."

"Yeah I've been trying." Stiles informed the three girls.

"Reason with him." Val cut in.

"Reason? Val he favorites you it's not that easy."

"Just reason with him." Allison demanded more sternly.

"Have you met this guy?" Stiles voice trailed off.

"Just try something!" Allison exclaimed as she stressfully leaned against the steering wheel.

Val sat back in her seat. She doubted it would work, convincing Coach on something he already set his mind to was like trying to convince Kali to wear shoes on her feet, or at least socks. Val put her head against the back seat window and waited for the traffic to start moving again. When it did, to her surprise she saw the school bus pulling into a rest stop.

Val perked up. "Stiles did it."

The three girls leaned forward towards the windshield and saw people running out of the bus, coughing and gasping for air. "He did something alright." Lydia muttered.

Allison pulled into the rest stop, not even bothering to find a real park, and the three girls rushed to where Stiles was holding up Scott. Val immediately attended Scott's other side. "Let's get him inside." Stiles grunted. Allison lead the way and Lydia trailed behind making sure no one saw them enter the men's rest room.

Scott slid down the marble wall of the old bathroom, wincing in pain. Val lifted his shirt to see the wound. She gasped at the sight. A set of claw marks with black blood gushing from it.

"Oh my god. Why'd didn't you tell us?" Allison asked.

"Sorry." Scott muttered.

"Don't be sorry, just stay awake." Val told him, she stood to face Stiles and Lydia, Allison soon joined her side. "This shouldn't be happening. Even wounds from Alpha's would've healed by now." Val stated.

"Yeah, I've seen him heal from worse than this." Allison added.

"What do we do then? Just call and ambulance?" Stiles asked as he ran a hand through his hair.

Allison began to panic. "What if it's too late, what if they can't help?"

"We gotta do something."

Val noticed Lydia deep in thought as Allison and Stiles stressed about what they should do. "Lydia what are you thinking?"

"You know it could be psychological." Lydia replied.

"What do you mean like psychosomatic?"

"Somatoformic." Lydia corrected.

Allison Val and Stiles looked confused waiting for the girl to elaborate.

"A physical Illness from a psychogenic cause." The same look remained on Stiles face. "Yes it's all in his head." Lydia clarified.

"All in his head? Because of Derek." Stiles realized.

Val sighed looking at Scott. If anyone was going to let themselves die because of unnecessary guilt it would be Scott McCall, she thought to herself. "He blames himself."

"So what do we do?" Allison asked.

Lydia reached in her purse and pulled out a needle and surgical thread. "Stitch him up." She shrugged.

"I love how you just have that on standby in your little designer purse."

Lydia pursed her lips and smiled. "Thank you." - "but I'm serious, maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing."

They all nodded. "Anyone have a lighter for the needle?" Allison asked as she prepared.

"No but we have Val." Stiles replied taking the ginger by the shoulders and directing her towards Allison.

Allison held out the needle. Val placed her finger tips around it uncertainly. She thought it would be real embarrassing if she messed this up right now. Something so little as setting a small flame to her fingertips to sterilize a needle wasn't her biggest worry. Her biggest worry was over-doing it.

Val shook the negative thoughts out of her head, thinking of Scott saying something optimistic and uplifting. She closed her eyes and focused a small amount of her energy to release a small flame to the tips of her fingers. Allison nodded in approval and held the needle there for another second. "He's gonna need an extra shirt, where's his bag?"

"Um I'm gonna get it, I hate needles anyway, so- uh do you know what you're doing?" Stiles began to ramble.

"Yeah my father taught me." Allison informed.

"Well I trust Allison's medical talents, and we have no other choice either way." Val stated.

"Yeah, yeah you're right. Um and how fast are you gonna- I mean the bus, like the bus could leave."

"Well, just make sure it doesn't leave." Allison told him in a soft voice yet slightly annoyed.

"I can help, come on." Lydia groaned dragging Stiles by the arm.

Val bent down in front of Scott while waiting for Allison. "Scott you have to stay awake." She whispered.

Scott's eyes fluttered open. "I'm tired." He muttered.

"You can sleep later. On the bus, okay? Just not right now."

"Mhm hmm."

Val stood back up so Allison could begin to stitch him up. Even then she noticed the brunette struggling. "Come on." Allison muttered in frustration.

Val became confused when Allison muttered. 'I'm trying.' and 'my hands won't stop shaking.' She wasn't rushing Allison by any means. "Hey you're doing your best, just take a deep breath." Val reassured placing a hand on Allison's shoulder. She removed her hand when she heard a lot of commotion outside. "Allison I'll be back."

The red head made her way outside the door to find Coach yelling at people to start making their way on the bus. Val muttered a line of curses, turning back to the restroom. To her surprise Allison had already finished stitching Scott up and trying to help him to his feet. Val quickly grabbed his shirt and helped him into it. "We have to go, Coach is basically dragging people on the bus." Val attending Scott's left side while Allison attended his right, and they made their way out of the bathroom.

Lydia was already running towards them. "Is he okay?! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Stiles wheres Stiles?" Scott asked.

"Trying to stall coach." Lydia told him. "and we still to don't have gas."

"We're not leaving him." Allison declared.

"Then we have to leave the car."

"Sounds good."

"What? That wasn't an actual suggestion." Lydia muttered falling behind. "Allison wait!"

There was more chaos going on than just coach hollering at students. The four found Stiles and asked what was going on.

"I told em what was happening with him and they just went after him."

"Who Boyd?" Scott exclaimed basically jumping out of Val and Allison's hold to run towards the crowd.

Stiles, Val, Lydia and Allison followed behind him, expecting to see Boyd kicking the crap out of Ethan, except it wasn't Boyd, it was Isaac. Ethan was on the ground bleeding out of his nose, Val would be concerned if she didn't know it wasn't going to heal within a few seconds. Even with Coach Finstock's attempts to pull Isaac off, the blonde boy wouldn't budge until Scott yelled his name.

Isaac didn't show any remorse for what happened, he looked down at Scott abdomen and looked relieved. Relieved to know Scott's okay, and not dying. Which to Val was what really mattered, not Ethan's temporary broken nose.

Once the tension died down, Coach glared at everyone signaling for them to get back and get on the bus. He continued to look around before his eyes narrowed on the three girls. He crossed his arms as he stared at them. "What are you girls doing here anyway?" He questioned.

"Uh, well coach I just couldn't miss this meet and my amazing friends here offered to drive me so I could make it." Val lied, plastering a smile on her face, causing Lydia and Allison to do the same.

Coach's face remained in an interrogating glare, before breaking out into a smile. "You know red, I wish half these imbeciles had the same ambition as you. You ever think about playing lacrosse."

Not a chance in hell. Val thought to herself. 

"I'll take that into consideration. Coach we better get going if we wanna get to that meet."

"You get me Val." Coach laughed "You get me Val!" He yelled before blowing his whistle. "Everyone back on the bus!"

After that Val made her way onto the school bus. Scott waved her to sit next to him. He looked a bit deranged and extremely exhausted. Val expressed her concern and Scott simply just nodded as if he was telling her that he was okay. Then he leaned his head against her shoulder and dozed into a needed and well deserved sleep.

Author speaks ~ Sorry I haven't updated this in like a month. Summer started and I've had family staying with me and just been busy.

But anyways is almost 5:00 am and I need to go to sleep, hope everyone has a great day xx

Thank you for 5k reads <3 😘