• Grace Stilinski •

„Some of us
have to make mistakes.
Some of us are human."

Despite the fact that Liam had apparently been kicked out of his old school for an anger problem, Grace decided to seek out her injured classmate the following day. Only, Liam didn't exactly look hurt as he marched ahead of her into the classroom with quick firm steps.

"Hey, Liam!" she shouted, trying to stop the dark blonde boy. The latter, however, turned to her with a face distorted with anger and barked, "What?"

Oh God, he hates me because of the thing with Stiles, it flashed through her mind, because the whole evening she had wondered if the boy wanted to have anything to do with her after all that fuss. With the sister of his crazy stalker. Wide-eyed, she looked at him and took a step back. Liam's carved-in-stone features softened, almost appearing frightened, but still his blue eyes darted restlessly around the area before he finally sighed, "I'm sorry."

His tone sounded cool, but his words sincere. Scrutinizingly, he eyed her now, seeming to want to keep as much distance from her as she did from him, "Actually, I wanted to apologize," Grace put in carefully, adding quickly, "For my brother."

"H-how do you know...", Liam stuttered before his voice failed. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead, yet it didn't seem like he had worked out yet that morning.

"Well, Stiles told me he hurt you yesterday, but I see you're okay now," Grace replied with a weak smile, suspecting that her brother had just exaggerated a bit when he had talked about him breaking his leg, "So how was yesterday, besides the accident?"

"Yesterday?" the boy replied, his pupils dilating. Again he seemed annoyed, for his voice grew increasingly cool, "Yesterday was nothing."

"The try-out game...?", Grace slowly helped him up and could see the realization light up in his blue eyes, "Oh, yeah... I haven't heard back from Coach yet about the try-out game," he quickly reported as if he was in a hurry and again frantically let his gaze roam the hallway. Saying that he had to discuss something with Mason, the ninth grader finally ended the conversation and scurried to his seat as if he was scared if something. Of her?

Frowning, Grace did as he did and, chewing on her lower lip, sat down in her new seat next to Faye. The dark-haired girl was not yet in sight, so she began typing a message to Coralie into her cell phone. As so often, she felt strangely left out of this seemingly conspiratorial society in Beacon Hills.

Satisfied, she read through the text message one more time before sending it. As she did so, her previous conversation, in which Coralie had participated only sporadically, caught her eye. Grace sighed, her absence probably starting to make itself felt. Would their friendship end like the one with Tracy?

The new student continued to scroll through her phone, looking for something to tide her over until Faye would finally show up. On the news page, she suddenly came across the fresh article about the murder on the roof of the hospital the previous evening. Hadn't Liam been there?

She studied, perplexed, the time at which the police had supposedly arrived at the scene, because she was pretty sure that the phone conversation between Scott and her brother must have taken place earlier. Nine pm. By that time she had long since returned to her room!

At that moment, Faye settled down in the seat next to her, panting, while heaving her heavy bag against the wall. A breathless, "Hey," escaped her lips, as she already had a new book open on the table. A mystery novel.

"Say..." Grace leaned toward the dark-haired girl with a lowered voice, "What do your books say about murders with similar patterns?"

Her brown eyes darkened, "You're not talking about the murder at the hospital yesterday, are you?"

"What if I am?"

"Well, if you really want my opinion on it, the murdered boy was the surviving member of the family killed earlier," Faye muttered, shrugging her shoulders as if she was completely in her element and sounding frighteningly like her brother, the wannabe detective, "If you ask me, it was personal. I don't think there will be another murder like that."

Grace frowned thoughtfully, finding her explanation plausible. At least except for the fact that Scott had apparently known before the police did. Unsure whether she should also tell her classmate about the other highly disturbing topic of conversation, she finally gave in. Even though there was a chance that Faye would eventually label her as crazy, as well as Liam possibly had already, "And have you ever heard of a man with no mouth?"

"Like Slenderman?" she inquired, visibly confused, to which Grace interjected, "Slenderman doesn't even have a face."

Faye merely furrowed her eyebrows and shrugged, "Then I don't know what you mean."

In fact, Grace didn't really know herself. Smiling fleetingly, she hastily waved off the subject and turned with a sigh to Mr. Yukimura, who had just entered the classroom.

Exhausted, Grace dropped into Stiles' jeep at the end of the school day. She was glad not to have to take the bus like the day before, but to be chauffeured home in comfort. However, her brother didn't seem to want to drop his new favorite topic just yet, "How's Liam?" he asked in a casual tone she didn't buy.

"Better than you made it out to be yesterday," she replied, not understanding what kind of fool he had made of her classmate. At the same time, it was not in itself reprehensible of him to inquire about the health condition of his team member. Especially not when he was to blame for his alleged injuries.

"Did he seem strange somehow? Kind of... changed?", Stiles echoed, to which his sister mockingly raised one of her eyebrows, "Like you do just now?"

Annoyed, he rolled his eyes and roughly grabbed the steering wheel with both hands before finally starting the engine. Grace sighed and decided to give him an answer to his question after all, "Actually, nothing seemed to be wrong with him, but I think he was still angry at you and apparently now at me too."

"At you?"

"At least it seemed that way to me," she remarked, shrugging her shoulders as she could already spot the driveway of their house from a distance. Stiles parked along the street as if he knew he'd be leaving later, but Grace was hardly surprised. After all, her brother had been on the road more often lately. Ending the conversation, she hopped onto the asphalt with her backpack shouldered and marched ahead toward the house, where she ducked into her room for now.

It wasn't until evening that Grace made contact with the outside world again, after lying down for a few hours by a message from Mason that had reached her:

Liam had been invited to a party by an older student. Fancy coming?

Bright-eyed, she sat up, because finally there seemed to be something going on in Beacon Hills. What's more, this would be her first real high school party. Hastily, she typed a response into her phone and had her classmate give her the address. Outside, dusk was gradually setting in and even though Grace had just woken up from her nap, she suddenly felt wide awake, as if the night belonged to her.

But could she show up at a party alone? From the sounds of it, Liam had a date and Mason would definitely be hanging out with Garrett and Violet. Once again, the brunette reached for her phone and, after a moment's hesitation, called Faye; after all, this was the first time she had dialed her new friend's number. A cautious, "Hello?" answered on the other end.

She had barely spoken before the words were bubbling excitedly out of Grace's mouth, causing a pause at first when she finally finished, gasping for breath. "Grace?" it came visibly confused, "Tell me, why are you calling me with a suppressed number? I almost didn't answer because I thought it was another one of those crazy prank calls or something..."

The girl almost rolled her eyes, after all, Faye seemed to have completely missed the point and didn't seem to share her euphoria, "What do you think about it now?"

"Party? Today?", it came skeptically from the other side along with a loud groan, "I'd really like to do something with you, but crowds are not really my thing, especially when the majority is also drunk and makes jokes I don't find funny."

"That's all right," Grace replied disappointedly, already aware that Faye might not be a party animal. She didn't even know if she was one herself. With the promise to report how it had been, she said goodbye and finally decided to follow Mason's invitation anyway. Maybe this was a good opportunity to get to know other of her new classmates better.

It took a while before she was finally satisfied with her appearance and she decided on a knee-length dark green dress. Stiles had already left. She wondered if he would be at the party too. If Liam was invited by an older student, it was possible. Besides, to all appearances it was held on the waterfront property and if Grace was not mistaken it was owned by the Martin family. Supposedly, her brother also seemed to hang out at shady parties in Mexico anyway.

The sun had set when Grace stepped into the driveway and instantly regretted her choice of clothing. The cool wind brushed her bare legs and it seemed almost inconceivable to her that temperatures in Beacon Hills could drop so low as soon as the sun disappeared from the sky. Almost as if the cold at nightfall wanted to warn the inhabitants of the small town of the murderer who was up to mischief there.

Without further ado, the brunette stole into the garage and finally found the old bicycle that had once belonged to her mother. Amazingly, she only had to pump up the wheels a little so that it was ready for use again. Maybe her father just kept it in good shape.

Grace hesitated for a moment, because she was not quite comfortable with the darkness. Fortunately, her father was on duty and could not dissuade her from her plan. On the other hand, he could have driven her to the location. One last time she took a deep breath and swung on the bike. She now almost enjoyed the cool breeze blowing through her brown wavy hair. It gave her a feeling of freedom.

The mansion that loomed before Grace not even half an hour later was huge, there was no other way to describe the massive building with ivy climbing up its wooden façade. Lights were on in the lower level, though at this point there were only two cars and a bike on the expansive driveway. Stiles' beloved Jeep and a red car she didn't even bother to guess the brand of. In fact, a glance at her watch told her she was ten minutes early.

Not fucking cool. Grace groaned, knowing from several movies that you don't get to a high school party on time. She looked around indecisively, but all she could see was the dark outline of the trees in the forest where the secluded property was located. Sighing, she started to move, according to the car, in whose rear window the rising full moon was reflected, at least Stiles seemed to be already present.

Just as Grace was about to walk purposefully toward the front door, she noticed a group of teenagers behind one of the windows in the dim light of the parlor. She knew most of them; Scott, Malia, Lydia, Stiles, and to her surprise, Liam. The brunette girl with Asian features was unknown to her. Holding her breath, she stepped closer and peeked through a gap in the rampant shrubs in front. It didn't look like much of a party, because neither of them seemed to be having fun; it looked more like they were discussing.

Liam stood with his back to the window, but his posture and loud voice betrayed that he was upset. Cautiously Grace turned her head to be able to understand something and indeed the next words were to reach her hearing.

"Do you hear that too?" he groaned out, covering his ears as if someone was yelling directly in his ear. Grace's heart skipped at least a beat, yet, except for turning her head, she hadn't moved even a millimeter.

"Liam, there's no one there," the unknown girl tried to reassure him, but seemed to hesitate as well, listening into the rising silence. Momentarily, the girl at the window held her breath, as if this would make her quieter. But it was too late. Stiles and Lydia had already rushed out the door and were staring at her, stunned.

"I hope you realize this is trespassing," Lydia hissed, rearing back with her arms crossed in front of her after tossing her red hair back smugly.

"That's just Grace," Stiles sighed, looking at his sister shaking his head in disappointment as the owner of the house lowered her arms and took a step towards her with a furrowed brow, "Your sister?"

He nodded and gave her an apologetic look, "She must have followed me."

"That's not true at all!" now Grace spoke up as well, staring at him indignantly as she put her hands on her hips, "I really have better things to do!"

"Can you maybe postpone your little family argument until later?" the redhead asked, rolling her eyes and impatiently touching Stiles' arm, which she tried to use to steer him back into the house. Indeed, suddenly life came to the dark-haired boy and roughly he grabbed his little sister abruptly by the shoulders, "Grace, you go home right now, this can be dangerous."