CHAPTER NUMBER NINE:
season number four episode i.e.d!

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           FLUTTERING HER EYES OPEN, OPHELIA GASPED. Scott's arm was draped around her waist as her head rested on his clothed chest. Small snores could be heard from the werewolf as she gazed down upon him. Her eyes flickered to the clock on her nightstand, making her quickly push his arm off and jump up. "Scott we're going to be late for school if we don't get up now!"

           Groaning, Scott shifted and squinted his eyes at the blonde who was frantically trying to brush out her hair. Given the circumstance, it was rude to stare and grin — but Scott couldn't help but notice that her hair was down and not in it's usual ponytail. Her golden locks cascaded down her shoulders like a elegant river, despite it being slightly frizzy from shifting around on the bed. "You should wear your hair down more often." He smiled, making Ophelia's cheeks grow red. It was silent between them for a moment, to which Scott decided to ease the awkwardness and stand up. "I have to run home and change. Do you have a ride to school? Because I'm sure Stiles wouldn't mind picking you up." He offered, mentally cursing himself because he knew Stiles definitely would mind, and would give him a never ending rant about how he's not a taxicab. "On second thought—"

           "My dad's home for the week, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind bringing me." Ophelia laughed, tucking a loose strand of hair from her face. "Thanks for asking, though."

           Scott scratched the back of his neck and chuckled. "No problem." Biting his lip, he swayed on the balls of his feet. "So, see you later?" He asked, hope tinting his voice.

           "See you later." Ophelia nodded. Her stomach erupted with butterflies as Scott walked closer to her. Kissing boys in her room while her father was down stairs, and could walk in at any given moment was someone she'd never expected to be doing on a Tuesday morning. But here she was.

           Leaning down, Scott pressed a quick kiss on her cheek before running to the window, almost tripping on the way. "Bye, princess!" He whispered shouted — careful not to make too much noise. Shaking her head, Ophelia wiggled her fingers at him until his brunette, bed ridden hair disappeared from view. Her feet padded against the floor as she walked up the close window — making sure to lock it so nobody else could get in.

           "And the ship has sailed!" A voice sang, making Ophelia's heart jump. "Well done, O. I didn't think you would do it so early. Promiscuous." She winked, playfully.

          Rolling her eyes, Ophelia turned to face her. "It was one kiss. Don't get too excited." She said, trying to be serious. Though she couldn't contain the growing smile on her face. Allison looked back at her with the same knowing smile, before breaking out into a small scream. Ophelia's gasped and pinched her ears. "It's too early for this." She whined.

           Allison composed herself, sitting on the floor as she watched Ophelia pick out clothes for the day and get dressed. "In all seriousness, I'm really happy for you — there's just one thing that you said last night that really got to me." She confessed. Tugging on her shirt, Ophelia looked at Allison worried. "When you told Scott about how he shouldn't be with you, because I was too great to compete with." Allison stated, her face speaking wonders. "I don't want you to ever feel like you're not good enough for someone, O. Especially not cause of me. Because you're Ophelia. A bombshell beauty that has a heart of gold. Yes, I'm confident and strong, and all those things you said. But you are too. You're just as confident, even though you don't want to show it all of the time. You're just as strong, because look at you. You can talk to dead people, and just found out you're on a supernatural hit list and you're still going to school and keeping your head held high."

           Ophelia looked down. Allison was impacting her life by the day, and she couldn't be more grateful that God had blessed this girl who she now considered her guardian angel. "I love you, A."

           "I love you too, O."

―•―•―•―•―

OPHELIA NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE IN A GROUP OF PEOPLE, but here she was. A heavy breathing Liam right beside her as they scoped out the competition. "He's not even cute." Ophelia denied as she looked at Brett Talbot — Liam's supposed rival from his old school. She knew she was lying, because the honey haired teen was ripped in the all the right places. However she was trying to make Liam feel good about himself. Which wasn't working out too well. Liam gave her a look, causing her blush. "Okay he's a tiny bit cute." She squeaked. "But you're so much cuter!"

           "I hate him." Liam barked.
"Thinking he's all great and hot and amazing. I'm all great and hot and amazing, right?"

           Letting out nervous laughs, Ophelia nodded. "Of course you are, baby." She cooed patting his cheek. "Go out there and kick his great, amazing, hot ass!" She cheered.

           "You're not helping." He deadpanned.

           "Okay then why don't you go up to him? Have a friendly conversation before the game?" Ophelia suggested. "I can go too."

           Liam nodded, and held out his hand. "Hold my hand so he gets the message that you're off limits." He demanded. Ophelia raised an eyebrow at the freshman, but didn't protest as she laced their fingers together. "Brett!" Called Liam, catching his attention.

           Breathing heavily, Liam tried to contain his anger. "I just wanted to say, have a good game." He forced out. Ophelia squeezed his hand in hopes it would comfort him.

           Ophelia was taken off guard as Brett started to laugh. "That's cute, Liam. Is that what they taught you in anger management? Hold onto your little girlfriends hand, apologize and everything's fine? You demolished coach's car." Brett hissed.

           "Um excuse me—"
"I paid for it." Liam said as he cut Ophelia off, who was about ready to explode on him for having such an attitude with Liam.

           "Yeah, you're going to pay for it. We're going to break you in half out there. And it's gonna be all your fault." Brett nagged.

           Liam's breathing grew heavier, and Ophelia ripped her hand away from him. Raising her eyebrow, she pointed at Brett. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but this asshole attitude towards Liam is going to get your ass kicked and shoved into the sewer where you belong. Try me one more time and—" Stiles broke off her rambling as he came up behind her and Liam, tugging her away from a startled Brett Talbot.

           "As much as I love a good threat, Ophelia, what's going on with the Prep students? Welcome to our little public high school. That's a firm handshake you got there. Uh, we're very excited for the scrimmage tonight. Uh, but let's keep it clean. No rough stuff out there. All right, see you on the field." Greeted a sarcastic Stiles, that left them all confused and weirded out.

           Ophelia and Stiles rushed to where Scott had Liam in the locker room, trying to calm him down. "Are you sure you want to go in there?" Stiles asked her. Nodding, they opened the door to see a soaking wet Liam full of sweat. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

           "That car you smashed, I thought it was your teacher's." Scott asked, thinking back to the story differences between Brett and Liam.

           "He was also my coach. He benched me the entire season." Liam explained.

           "What did you do?" Ophelia asked, frowning. Liam didn't like her looking at him like that, and it made him look down ashamed. "I won't be mad at whatever it is."

           "I got a couple of red cards." Liam answered. Ophelia didn't really believe that was the whole reason, or the whole truth. But she wasn't about to pressure him.

           "Just a couple?" Scoffed Stiles, which made Ophelia shove his shoulder. He gaped at her, rubbing the spot with a glare in her direction. "Evil little thing." He whispered.

           Glancing at the bickering Ophelia and Stiles, Scott chose to ignore them. "You gotta be honest with us. What else happened?"

           "Nothing. I got kicked out of school. They sent me to a psychologist for evaluation." Liam confessed. Ophelia's frown deepened. She felt so bad for him.

           Scott and Ophelia shared a look before he asked. "What did they call it?"

           "Intermittent Explosive Disorder."

           Stiles' eyes bulged out of his head. "IED? You're literally an IED. That's great. You gave powers to a walking time bomb!" Stiles threw his hands up in the air. Once again, Ophelia hit his shoulder — a little harder this time. "Ow! Ophelia I'm freaking fragile." He scowled at the blonde.

           "Stop being mean!" Ophelia hummed, crossing her arms. "More sarcastic comments and I'll end up breaking your arm off." She giggled, causing Scott to break into a smile.

          "I dare you." Stiles dared, narrowing his eyebrows at her. "Ophelia Cooper, I have a feeling you're wanting to start a war."

           Scott and Liam shook their heads at their childishness. "Did they give you anything for it?" Asked Scott, referring to his condition, continuing to ignore Scott and Ophelia's snide comments towards eachother. He found it quite humorous.

          "Risperdal. It's an antipsychotic."

          "Oh this just gets better." Stiles murmured under his breath, shielding his arm from the expected slap. Ophelia stood with her arms crossed looking at Liam concerned, until Stiles put his hand down, to then she pinched the skin through his flannel. "Oh my god, you're literally satan, Ophelia!"

           Grinning triumphantly, Ophelia moved to stand on the other side of Liam. "Thank God." Stiles said to himself, although Ophelia caught his words. Shaking it off, the blonde snaked her arm around Liam's shoulder.

           "Liam, you have to take your medicine." Ophelia said gently, looking down at the sad and ashamed fifteen year old boy. She knew how it felt to feel different and odd out of a group of people. She wouldn't wish that feeling on her worse enemy, Stiles maybe. "You're supposed to for a reason."

         "I can't play lacrosse with it." Liam protested. "It makes me too tired."

           Sighing, Scott looked at him. "Okay. I think you should bail out of this game. Tell Coach your leg is hurting." He said.

           Liam shook his head. "No! No. I can do this. Especially if you and Ophelia's there." He promised, looking over his shoulder at Ophelia, who smiled and patted his hair.

           "But Liam, it's not just about the game. We think whoever killed Demarco might be on our team." Sighed Scott. The world killed made Ophelia's skin crawl with sadness.

           "Who's Demarco?"

           "The one that brought the beer to the party. The guy was beheaded. Remember?" Ophelia's stomach twisted.

          "I don't know who ordered the keg. But I know who paid for it." Liam informed.

―•―•―•―•―

          OPHELIA'S HEART BEAT WITH ANXIETY AS LIAM GOT READY TO GO ON THE FEILD. She had this inclination that something bad was about to happen. "Nervous?" Scott asked her as he walked up beside her, gazing down at the blonde.

           Biting her lip, she looked up at him. "Truth?" Scott nodded. "Terrified."

           "About Liam or the killer?" Scott questioned, concerned at her racing heart. "Because Liam's going to be alright. I trust him. You should too." He assured.

           "And the killer?"

          "Yeah, that won't be a problem for you. As long as I'm here — nothing'll hurt you." Scott promised. "I don't think Liam would let that happen either." He chuckled. "He's pretty protective of you, you know?"

           Ophelia couldn't help but beam at that. "I know. We protect eachother now. Ever since that night at the hospital, things have changed for me." Scott's head tilted, wanting for her to elaborate. "I see the importance of letting people in — communicating with others. When I saw Liam almost die, something inside me shifted. It's crazy because I didn't even know him. But I felt so guilty for not being able to save him." Shaking her head, Ophelia took a deep breath. "I won't let that happen again."

           Scott's eyes glimmered as the corners of his mouth turned up. "You're compassionate." He pointed out. "I like that."

          Ophelia felt her cheeks heat up — like they always did when she was around him. She searched around until she spotted Liam conversing with Mason. "You be careful too." She hummed, playing with a piece of thread from her sweater. "A big bad alpha like you is worth alot of dough now. If I didn't like you so much, I'd probably kill you myself."

Quirking an eyebrow, Scott smirked as he looked at her. "You like me?"

           Freezing in her place, Ophelia opened her mouth but no words came out. She looked like a fish out of water — "Well, I mean, yes?" It came out like a question, rather than a statement. But nonetheless, Scott's cheek color mimicked hers.

           Scott opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Ophelia's terrified gasp, and whistles going off by Coach Finstock. "Liam!" Ophelia shouted, making a B line towards where he was sprawled out on the field. "Brett I'm going to kick your ass." She snarled, despite him being one of the people groaning on the ground in pain. "Liam, what happened out there? You said you were fine."

           Kneeling down beside him, Ophelia used her hands to make him face her. She checked him over for open wounds or injuries that should be concerning. Finding none, she slapped his helmet. "How hard did you hit him?" She asked, crossing her arms.

Panting as Scott and Stiles helped him up, Liam shook his head. "I didn't. He hit me." The last sentence made Ophelia's blood boil. She whipped around to see them carrying Brett to seek medical attention, and she huffed while watching him. "Ow!" Liam hissed. That's when Ophelia looked down and noticed Liam's arm that looked all kinds of messed up. She sucked in a sharp breath.

"Close your eyes." Scott instructed. Liam's eyes firmly shut, as he nodded for his alpha to continue. Ophelia did like Liam, knowing she'd be unable to bear the scene.

         "Did he hurt you?" Ophelia asked.

         "Did he cut you? Did Garret cut you?" Ushered Scott, leaving Ophelia confused.

           "No, no. I'm okay."

         Ophelia and Scott shared a look. "It's you Liam. You're the one he's after."

         Ophelia felt her eyes widen. "Garrett wants Liam?" She repeated, but it came out more as a question. Scott looked at the blonde, and nodded. Scared of her reaction. "Well isn't this fucking great." She snapped.

          "Ophelia." Said softly, grabbing her hand so she could get the message that he was fine. "It's going to be okay." He told her firmly. Though he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her — or himself.

           All that could be heard was silence, until ran up with slight frustration. "Lydia just broke another third of the list." He informed. Ophelia was already on the list, and worth over three hundred million. She was surprised someone hadn't killed her already for that kind of money.

          "Am I on it?" Liam asked.

          "No. But someone else is."