☾

"Just a friendly reminder... Parent-teacher conferences are tonight," Mr. Harris reminds us as he walks around the room. "Students below a 'C' average are required to attend. I won't name you, because the same and self-disgust should be more than enough punishment." He stops in front of Stiles and me, rolling his eyes at our close proximity. "Has anyone seen Scott McCall?" The question is mainly directed towards Stiles, who was too busy highlighting in his textbook, looks up at him. He has the highlighter cap in his mouth and an innocent expression on his face.

Just then Jackson walks in, his appearance similar to someone who just saw a ghost. Or in our case, a dead body. His eyes connect with mine and he gives me a tiny nod, which I return; guess a shared near-death experience makes two people a tad bit closer. Not that much, but, hey, what do you want from two people who've been at each other's throats for years?

Harris leans over him, a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Hey, Jackson. If you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know."

What an asshole! I was there with him last night and he knows it!

He must've sensed my glare because he turns around and says, "The same goes for you, too, Miss Archer." He then starts to walk towards the front of the class, giving instructions. "Everyone, start reading chapter nine. Mr. Stilinski." Stiles looks up again, cap still in his mouth. "Try putting down the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry, not a coloring book."

We both glare at the back of his head, but I look over at Stiles as he spits the cap into the air and catches it.

He leans over to Danny, making me shift a bit so my arm doesn't strain. "Hey, Danny," he whispers. "Can I ask you a question."

"No," he answers flatly.

"Well, I'm going to anyway," Stiles says stubbornly. "Um, did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?"

I furrow my brows; he could've asked me that. Lydia's my best friend so I know that she's home today because of what happened.

"No."

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Answer's still no." I grin, loving Danny's sassy nature.

"Does anyone know what happened to her, Jackson and Mary Anne last night?"

"He wouldn't... Tell me. And Mary Anne is right next to you, so ask her."

"She won't tell me, and I don't want to push her. And he's your best friend."

Danny shrugs lightly, going back to try and read the content. "One more question," Stiles pushes.

"What?" Danny snaps, annoyed.

"Do you find me attractive?" Stiles asks, his tone serious.

Danny is silent, unable to answer as he is probably surprised by the question. I chuckle under my breath, shaking my head at the mole-speckled boy's antics.

Stiles leans too far and falls, and I have to bite my lip so hard I nearly draw blood to keep from bursting out laughing.

☾

"Finally! Have you been getting any of my texts?" Stiles asks Scott, adjusting his grip on my hand to lace our fingers together as we walk out of the class.

"Yeah, like all nine million of them."

"Do you have any idea what's going on? Lydia's totally M.I.A., Jackson looks like he's got a time bomb inserted into his face, another random guy's dead, and you have something about it."

"Like what?"

"Something."

I gently squeeze his hand in hopes of easing his tension.

"Okay, I'll deal with it later," Scott says before hanging up, and Stiles stuffs his phone into his jeans pocket.

I stop him when I notice his annoyed expression that disappears when he looks down at me, tightening his grip on my hand as his eyes soften. "Hey, all of this will end soon, and you have more important things to worry about right now," I say softly.

"Like what?" He asks, head tilted and eyebrows raised a little sardonically.

I shrug innocently, taking his other hand and move us so I'm leaning against a window, smiling up at him. "School and other things," I answer. "But, if it's important, then we can talk to Lydia. Her mom knows me so she won't really question you being there with me."

"Are you still sure you want to get involved in all of this?" He asks, worry etched into his features.

Poking the inside of my cheek with my tongue, I quickly scan the hall and lean up to catch his lips in a sweet kiss His breath hitches in his throat and he fully reciprocates the kiss, cupping my cheek, sighing in content, and chasing my lips when I pull away.

"I told you to trust me so trust me now, I want to do this. If I can help, then I'm gonna help."

He looks a little reluctant to let me but nods eventually, smiling. "Fine," he sighs in a joking manner, moving in to kiss me again, briefly. It's stumping me how he's never had a girlfriend before. He's very affectionate which a lot of girls like, including me.

"Okay, Batman, let's get a move on," I grin.

He blinks in amazement, a goofy look on his face and he nods eagerly, and I can't help but giggle at his next words.

"To the jeep-mobile, Catwoman!"

☾

Stiles is fidgeting beside me as we stand in front of Lydia's front door. I don't understand why he's nervous, so I grab his hand to still his movements, noticing out of the corner of my eyes that he's staring down at our joined hands with awe shining in his irises.

Using my other hand, I raise my fist and knock three times on the door, quickly retracting my hand to my side. After a few moments, I hear footsteps approaching and a heartbeat, and then the door opens, revealing Natalie. She smiles at me kindly; she's was once sort of like another mother to me, having known Lydia my entire life, but at the same time she was just my best friend's mother. And besides, Lydia and I have the same birthday so we like to joke that we're twins.

"Mary Anne, it's so nice to see you again," she says, and I can't tell if it's genuine or not. "I see you've brought a friend." Her eyes shift over to Stiles and then to our joined hands.

"This is Stiles and we're here to see Lydia," I inform her politely.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Come on in," she says, moving to the side and gesturing for us to come in. I walk in casually, since I've been here so many times, while Stiles awkwardly shuffles in. Oh yeah, he's only been in one girl's bedroom before, and now he has to go into Lydia's.

"Hey, it's just like any other bedroom, except a girl just sleeps in it," I whisper to Stiles in his ear as we follow Natalie up the stairs.

He blushes and bites his lower lip, a sheepish look on his face. It seems dating him makes me adore him even more, quirky and hyper habits and all.

We make it to Lydia's door and Natalie opens it, revealing Lydia laying on her stomach on her bed, hand propping up her elbow and wearing one of her flimsy nightgowns.

"Honey, Mary Anne and a Stiles here to see you," she says.

"What the hell is a 'Stary Anne'?" She asks, blending our names together. Yeah, she's definitely high on pain meds right now.

Natalie chuckles awkwardly. "She took a little something to ease her nerves," she explains her weird behavior. "You can... You can go in."

"Thanks," Stiles says as we walk in, still holding hands.

Natalie leaves and we move to stand at the foot of her bed, and I can't help but stare a little at Lydia... Okay, I may or may not have had a crush on her in fifth grade. But can you blame me for appreciating my best friend's beautiful appearance?

Especially when she turns and places a hand on her hip, her breasts threatening to spill out the top of the nightgown. Okay, this is awkward now. "What are you doing here?" She asks.

"We were just making sure you were okay," Stiles answers.

Lydia hums and smacks her lips, turning her head back to us. "Why?" She asks, patting the space in front of her. I gulp nervously and move to sit there, tugging on Stiles' hand so he sits next to me.

"Because we were worried about you today," I answer this time, shifting my body to face her more and I let go of Stiles' hand. "How are you feeling?"

She places a hand on my shoulder and moves it down my bicep, squeezing, letting go as she raises herself up and invades my personal space. "I feel... Fantastic," she breathes out, face close to mine.

I blink once and chuckle but I notice the orange pill bottle next to the stuffed giraffe on her nightstand. "Oh," I say, leaning forward and grabbing it, reading the label and whistling lowly. Damn, no wonder she's acting higher than a kite.

"What..." Stiles trails off, reading the label over my shoulder. "I bet you can't say, uh, I saw Suzy sittin' in a shoeshine shop ten times fast," he challenges her.

Lydia raises an eyebrow, a determined look in her green eyes. "I saw Shuzy..." she pauses. "I shaw...." I can't help but smile at her drunk state, leaning over to put back the container. Lydia drops back to the bed, a distant look on her face. "I saw..."

"What? Lydia, what did you see?" I ask, worried for her. If a glimpse of an Alpha can do this to her, how would she handle all of this is she ever finds out about the supernatural?

"Something," she replies, not looking at me.

"Something like... Like a mountain lion?" Stiles suggests.

"A mountain lion," Lydia repeats.

"Are you sure you saw a mountain lion or are just saying that because that's what the police told you?" Stiles asks.

"A mountain lion," she repeats again.

Sighing, I snatch the stuffed giraffe and hold it in front of me. "What's this?" I ask.

The strawberry blonde turns and looks at it, repeating what she said before, "A mountain lion."

"Okay," I say, putting it back. "You're so drunk." My eyes widen when her head falls onto my thigh, my lips parting as I stare down at my best friend. "Oh, my..." I trail off, suddenly regretting my suggestion about coming here.

☾

After getting her head off my thigh, we both stood awkwardly at the foot of her bed... Again. Stiles seemed surprised by my reaction but thankfully didn't say anything about it.

"Well, we're gonna..." Stiles trails off, grabbing my hand. "Go."

"Uh, we'll let you get back to the whole post-traumatic stress thing," I finish, starting to close the door behind us as we started to leave the room.

"Mm. Stay."

I pop my head in, bewildered. "Me, stay?" I look behind to Stiles who has his eyebrows raised at me in surprise once more. I tug on his hand to pull him back into the room and he shuts the door behind us. "You want me to stay?"

Lydia pulls herself up once more and nods, a seductive gleam in her eyes. She pats the space again and I let go of Stiles' hand to sit down, curious about what she's gonna do, but look back at him in confusion.

"Yes, please." A hand that was on my thigh moves to one side of my face, stroking my skin. "Stay." She then puts her other hand on the other side of my face, moving one to my jaw and then to my neck. "Please. Jackson."

I furrow my brows and sigh, knowing she's just high on meds. "And... We're done here," I sigh as Lydia falls back, passed out, and Stiles is snickering behind me. Her phone starts to ring, catching my attention. "You want me to get that?" I ask Lydia, knowing she was unconscious. I lean over and snatch her phone, tapping the message notification. "It's a text. I don't know how to..." I trail off when I see it's a video. A video from last night, of the Alpha. "Stiles," I whisper, the color draining from my face as I pause the video, the Alpha's face clear as day, his mouth is open, exposing his teeth.

"Mary Anne, that's," Stiles starts and I turn to look up at him as I finish.

"The Alpha."

☾

"Hey, it's me again," Stiles says, receiving Scott's voicemail when he called after we got back to his house. I'm just laying on my stomach on his bed, my chin in my palm and my knees bent, feet in the air. "Look, we found something, and we don't know what to do, okay? So if you could turn your phone on right now, that'd be great. Or else I'll kill you. Do you understand me? I'm gonna kill you. And I'm too upset to come up with a witty description about how exactly I'm gonna kill you, but I'm just gonna do it, okay? I'm gonna... ugh! Goodbye." He throws the phone onto the bed next to me and collapses into his desk chair, sitting in it backward and placing his forehead on his folded arms. "God."

A knock on his door makes him jump, scaring him. I turn my head to see the Sheriff leaning against the door frame, ignoring how his son reacted. "Please tell me I'm gonna hear good news at this parents-teacher thing tonight."

I bite my lip to hide a smile, having an inkling of what Stiles is gonna reply with. Probably something sardonic or he'll try to deflect.

"Depends on how you define 'good news'," Stiles says, fiddling with something from his desk.

"I define it as you getting straight A's with no behavioral issues."

A snort leaves my lips, earning me a look from Stiles and all I do is shrug. "You may wanna rethink that definition," Stiles says, his expression adorable as he looks back at his father.

"Enough said," Sheriff sighs, eyes shifting to me. "Are you two dating, or something? 'Cause you two seemed awfully close last night."

Both of us blush madly and I move to sit on the edge of the bed. "Uh, we are, dad," Stiles answers sheepishly.

He smiles and nods. "Good job on getting the girl," he congratulates his son before turning to leave. Stiles is blushing like a tomato but it quickly fades as he looks back at the phone.

I stand up and move over to Stiles, noticing his expression. We both stare at Lydia's phone on the desk, a sigh leaving his lips as he picks it up and goes to the video, pausing when the Alpha appears and drops it back onto his desk with a defeated expression. "Come on, Scott. Where the hell are you?"

After a while, with me leaning against the desk and both of us just sitting there in silence, he sighs and picks up the phone again. "We have to delete it," I decide, voice solemn. "Lydia can't know about this."

"I know," he mumbles, clicking on the options and choosing 'delete', clicking until it's gone. He sighs again, something that's becoming more frequent, dropping the phone back on the desk once more.

I frown a little, noticing how tense and stressed he's been getting lately. It's not healthy and it's worrying me. It's weird to feel worried about anyone other than my sister and best friend, but I'm quickly starting to get used to it.

Moving to stand behind him, I place my hands on his shoulders and kiss the top of his head, whispering, "This'll all work out, you'll see."

"How can you be so optimistic?" He asks, moving to look up, well, upside-down, at me.

"Mmm, things can't stay bad forever," I repeat what my cousin told me after my break up with Aurora.

A contemplative look replaces his tired one, turning around in the chair and looking up at me; with him sitting down, I'm finally taller than him.

"How's your neck?" He asks, changing the subject.

Instantly I reach up to touch the back of my neck, wincing as I graze one of the puncture wounds. "They're healing at a faster pace than a human would heal," I tell him honestly, not objecting when his hands hold my waist to pull me closer, between his splayed legs. "When I jumped out the way of the shelves, I broke two fingers. I was able to snap them back into place and they healed. Whatever is going on with me, one of the abilities is healing."

He cringes a little at the description of my injuries but meets my eyes.

"We'll figure it out," he takes one of my hands and kisses the back of it, wrapping his long, slender fingers around my palm, squeezing gently.

And I believe him. For the first time in a while, I have complete faith in someone.

☾

So it's a tad bit shorter than usual, just a little bit under 3,000 words since my chapters are usually above that number. But there is nothing more in 1x05 "The Tell' to write about. So some chapters may be less than 3,000 words, just forewarning you.

And my spring break is almost over, so I'm trying my best to get in as many updates as possible before school starts again.

Also, what's your favorite thing about Mary Anne so far?

Void_Stiles_is_Life xx