It seemed that Rachel Hale would never catch a break.

Though the police hadn't released the names of the students "trapped in the high school by alleged killer Derek Hale," the headline had done it's fair share of damage to Rachel's self control. Meaning; if another person approached her about her lunatic brother, she was going to show them who the real family lunatic was. Her.

She'd been receiving death glares & snarky comments all day long, many being suggestions of committing herself to Eichen House before she snapped & went on a killing spree of her own.

In an attempt to keep her brother's whereabouts hidden, - even from her - Rachel didn't try & find him. The endless reminders of the incident ate away at her mind, leading the teen to constantly check her phone for texts. The only one she'd received in days was from a mildly hungover Stiles - and the array of angry messages from both Lydia & Allison, which she'd opted not to open.

But now, avoiding the two girls was inevitable, as she had over half her classes with them. Rachel could only run from her problems for so long, before they had to be faced. And seeing as how the youngest surviving Hale found herself walking along to class with Lydia & Allison, easily integrating into their conversation without hassle; facing her problems had proven to be easier than she'd anticipated.

"It's just weird." Allison shrugged, holding an array of books as they made their way down the hallway. "Everybody's talking about what happened the other night, and nobody knows it was us."

"Thank you for the protection of minors."

Rachel let out a huff, tightening her grip on the strap of her backpack. "Nobody's protecting me from my last name being plastered everywhere & anywhere."

"Maybe because it's shared with a psychotic killer." Lydia deadpanned, not a hint of sympathy for Rachel in her tone. The reflector had greatly considered the idea of ditching the strawberry blonde bitch for Batman & Robin; otherwise known as Scott & Stiles. But she needed to stay in the good books of Allison Argent.

In the event of her discovering her family's occupation of werewolf hunting, Rachel preferred to remain at least a close acquaintance. Maybe if Allison didn't hate her, she'd refrain from shooting an arrow through her head.

Rachel pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at the ground in front of her. "Rather than assuming my brother was capable of homicide, I'm more open to the very believable explanation that Scott took LSD & hallucinated the entire thing."

While the two bickered quietly, beside them, Allison was deep in thought. In an attempt to avoid an inevitable cat fight from brewing, the girl spoke up. "Guys! Do you think I made the wrong decision?"

"About that jacket with that dress?" Lydia inquired sarcastically. "Absolutely."

"You know what I mean."

"Hello! Scott locked us in a classroom & left us for dead." The strawberry blonde exclaimed, anger laced in her tone. She had a reason to be angry, but the least she could've done was hear the full story. "He's lucky we're not pressing charges or making him pay our therapy bills."

Rachel simply bit her lip, holding back a novel's worth of swears & continued walking to hell; otherwise known as Harris' class.

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

Within the two minutes it took her to walk to Chemistry, Rachel had come to a bitter conclusion of what she wanted to do with her life.

She wanted to kill Scott McCall.

Whether that decision was influenced by the bimbo who'd shouted, "they should lock you up alongside your psycho brother" as Rachel walked speedily through the halls, the world may never know. But as she took her seat behind Stiles, she was already plotting the murder of Scott McCall.

Honestly, at this point Rachel would've preferred if Scott had blamed the various homicides on her. At least then, she'd be able to enjoy a little piece & quiet whilst staring at three stone walls, and dragging a cliché metal mug along the prison cell bars in attempt to annoy the guard.

That would be far more tolerable than the sporadic accusations of insanity. Rachel didn't know if she could handle a class with the notorious Adrian Harris as a teacher. Especially if he opted for his usual level of hatred for the human race; teenagers in particular.

"You.. Look like you're going to kill someone." Stiles deadpanned as he spun in his seat to face Rachel.

The brunette rolled her eyes, stating obviously, "I'm strongly considering it."

"Is it- uh, y'know.."

"I'm going to assume you're referring to the impending full moon tonight, because if you say anything relating to bloody issues - I'm going to rip your head off." Rachel hissed, roughly flipping open the test book on her desk, despite orders to keep it closed. "It's neither. Thanks to Scotty over there-" She pointed to the teen wolf, currently in the midst of attempting to talk with Allison. "-I'm now the most talked about girl in school, for all the wrong reasons. If I hear about my lunatic brother one more time, I swear to god I'm gonna-"

Rachel didn't get to finish her rant as Mr. Harris took his spot at the front of the room, starting off on his usual pre-test introduction. "You have 45 minutes to complete the test. 25% of your grade can be earned right now, simply by writing your name on the cover of the blue book." Harris held up a blue test booklet, one of which was already opened & blank on Rachel's desk. "However, as happens every year, one of you will inexplicably fail to put your name on the cover, and I'll be left yet again questioning my decision to ever become a teacher. So let's get the disappointment over with. Begin."

Rachel glanced down at the test, flipping the book closed & scrawling Rachel Hale messily on the thin black line. She flung the cover open once again, furrowing her brows as she read over the first question. The brunette was about to raise her hand when she decided against it, instead flipping over a few pages to confirm her theory.

The exam was economics.

Rachel had studied for a chemistry exam, not economics. Harris was a chemistry teacher. The brunette shrugged off her jacket, already feeling a hot flash from the minor anxiety beginning to awaken. She was supposed to do good in high school; to graduate. Even if it wouldn't be with Cora, she still wanted to keep her end of the deal.

Rachel's eyes scanned over the first two questions, locking on the third as she gripped a pencil tightly in her right hand.

3. An increase in investment is most likely to occur if there is an increase in:

A. Unemployment
B. Interest rates
C. Popular demand

Rachel didn't need to look any farther as she drew a tiny circle around the letter C. It had to be C, right? People would invest more if things were to become more popular. Everyone wanted a share of companies like Apple, Coca Cola & Hasbro. They were popular, so more investors invested in them.

Rachel couldn't seem to come up with a better answer, so she nodded faintly to herself & moved along with the next question. However, before she could even read that, two seats in front of her, Scott McCall had already jumped up & bolted for the doorway. The teen was breathing heavily, ignorant of Harris calling his name in annoyance.

Stiles soon followed, Rachel reluctantly pushing herself up & running after the duo as well, careless of Harris.

"Mr. Stilinski!" Harris shouted, not concerned enough to move from his desk. "Miss Hale!"

Neither teen turned around, both halting outside the door to be greeted by an empty hallway. Stiles soon caught sight of an brown backpack lying in the middle of the hallway, it's owner nowhere to be found.

"Scott?" Rachel called, receiving no answer except her quiet echo throughout the halls.

Stiles picked up the limp book bag, quickly dialling Scott's number on his cellphone. The usual piano riff tone was heard close by, the pair giving each other knowing looks before cautiously making their way down the hall.

The ring loudened as they rounded a corner, the tone leading them into the boys' locker room. Rachel wasn't entirely on board with entering, but she also wasn't content with eavesdropping from a respective distance. Scott could very well be losing his temper & shifting. If that was so, Rachel would be the only one capable of stopping him - that, or she'd accidentally reflect him & lose control as well. It was a fifty-fifty, but it was a chance she was willing to take if it meant preventing him from tearing apart his best friend.

Stiles swung the backpack over his shoulder as the pair moved along fearfully, neither sure of what to expect as they rounded the corner. Both let out a breath of relief to see a completely human Scott, standing beneath an icy shower without a shirt - the go-to activity for werewolves. Rachel assumed it had to do with cd water & the eventual hypothermia (if someone were to stay submerged in it for too long) that slowed a heart rate, which in turn, kept a werewolf relatively calm & in control of themselves.

Scott, however, didn't look very in control. The teen wolf appeared more so as if he was struggling for air. "Stiles, I can't-"

"What's happening?" The spastic boy questioned worriedly. "Are you changing?"

"No." Scott choked out, holding onto the wall for support. "No, I can't breathe."

Rachel looked to Stiles, unsure of what to do. She'd never seen a werewolf have a panic attack before. She, herself, had many of them; but never while reflecting a wolf. It would always result in the inevitable shift, which she would suppress with a cold shower or icy water hose to the face.

Stiles fumbled around in the backpack, quickly fishing out an inhaler & handing it to Scott. "Here, use this." Noticing the hesitancy, he added on, "Come on, do it."

Scott obliged, shaking the inhaler for a few seconds before doing as usual. After a moment of calming down the teen wolf passed back the inhaler. "I was having an asthma attack?"

"No, you were having a panic attack." Rachel deadpanned. "The bite cured your asthma."

"Thinking you were having an asthma attack actually stopped the panic attack." Stiles informed, a hint of dry humour in his tone. "Irony, right?"

"How did you know that?"

"I used to get them after my mom died." Stiles admitted sadly. For the first time in a long time, the usually humorous side of him had dissipated with the mention of his deceased mother. "Not fun, eh?"

"And I used to get them after the fire." Rachel added quietly. "It almost feels like you're being suffocated. I guess it's up to you to determine by what."

"I looked at her, and it was like someone hit me in the ribs with a hammer." The teen wolf described. Rachel knew the feeling. It was the one she got every time she saw the unburned family photo in Cora's old room. Or the one she fell asleep to every night, staring at the smoke-stained ceiling. It was the feeling she got every time she was completely alone, or whenever Derek would try to comfort her when it was clearly him who needed comforting.

"Yeah, it's called heartbreak." Stiles stated bluntly. "About two billion songs written about it."

"Taylor Swift has a few good ones, though I prefer to drown my sorrows in metal so heavy you can't even hear the lyrics." Rachel mused, attempting to lighten the mood.

Her attempts failed as Scott returned to his original topic of the oblivious heartbreaker herself; Allison Argent. "I can't stop thinking about her."

"Well, you could think about this; her dad's a werewolf hunter, and you're a werewolf, so it was bound to become an issue."

Rachel interrupted Stiles with a glare, stating bluntly, "That wasn't helpful."

"Dude, I mean, yeah, you got dumped, and it's supposed to suck." Stiles continued on, this time straying away from his initial humorous attempt.

"No, that's not it." Scott shook his head, frowning. "It was like I could feel everything in the room, everyone else's emotions."

"It's the full moon." Rachel informed. "It heightens your senses, particularly your emotions. It'll be better tomorrow, I-"

She cut herself off. She'd almost uttered the word that she hated more than anything; promise. Rachel Hale hadn't made a promise in 6 years. Not since the day of the fire, when she'd promised to return immediately after delivering a textbook to Derek.

Luckily for her, the almost slip-up had gone unnoticed by Stiles & Scott. The aforementioned duo were still caught up in the full moon dilemma. So caught up, that Stiles already had a plan set up - one of which he had taken the entire lunch hour to explain to Rachel; who'd ignored him. Her own preset plan involved a centuries old practician of a very precise art.

Knocking him out cold.

Still, Stiles remained persistent with his own plan; reinforcing it regularly to the skeptical brunette. "So we'll lock him up in his room later just like we planned." The spastic boy turned to Scott, stating yet another obvious & well-known fact by all three. "That way the alpha, who is your boss, can't get to you, either."

"I think we need to do a lot more than lock me in my room."

Rachel gulped nervously, whilst Stiles furrowed his brows, not seeming to understand his best friend's worry. "What, you mean because if you get out, you'd be caught by hunters?"

"No." Scott shook his head, clarifying the bitter truth known by everyone except Stiles. "Because if I get out.. I think I might kill someone."

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

"Are you not freaking out?" Stiles remarked, excitedly following Scott out into the hallway. "I'm freaking out!"

"Anyone wanna explain why you're more hyperactive than usual?" Rachel piped in, jogging to catch up to the duo.

Stiles grinned widely, stating "I made first line."

Rachel patted his back, a genuine half-smile on her face. "You're no longer a bench warmer, congrats." The brunette turned to face Scott, seeing that the teen was still sporting his lost puppy expression from usual. "What's wrong? I thought you were first line, too?"

"Not anymore." Stiles shook his head, before shouting loudly. "He's the co-captain!"

"Dude!" Rachel raised her voice, looking at Scott in disbelief. "How are you not freaking out? You're finally on the same level as Jackson the jackass!"

"What's the point? It's just a stupid title." Scott brushed off his friend's happiness, too focused on the upcoming full moon to dwell on his new status. "And I could practically smell the jealousy in there."

Before Rachel could reinforce her previous statement from the locker room, Stiles butted in as usual. "Wait, you smell jealousy?"

"Yeah, it's like the full moon's turned everything up to ten." Scott sighed, whilst Rachel rolled her eyes. She'd told him the exact same thing just hours ago; apparently he'd been to into his usual Allison-mode, when all he seemed to think of was her.

"Can you pick up on stuff like, I don't know, desire?" Stiles inquired cautiously, trying not to seem strange about it.

"Oh god." Rachel muttered quietly to herself, already gaining a sense of where it was going. She had a feeling Scott could tell, too, especially by the look he gave Stiles in response.

"What do you mean desire?" Scott questioned, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Like.. sexual desire?"

"Sexual desire?"

"Yeah, sexual desire. Lust, passion, arousal." Stiles huffed, rolling the R's. By now, Rachel was far beyond a signature eye roll. Instead the teen had smacked a hand over her face, completely & utterly done with the enigma that is Stiles Stilinski.

Scott seemed to get the idea now, looking down the hall at a familiar strawberry blonde. "From Lydia?"

"What? No," Stiles scoffed, though his lie was horrifically obvious. "in a general, broad sense, can you determine sexual desire."

"From Lydia to you?"

"Fine, yes, from Lydia to me." Stiles admitted, now growing annoyed. "Look, I need to know if I have a chance with this girl, okay? I've been obsessing over her since the third freakin' grade."

"Here's an idea;" Rachel tapped her bottom lip, staring off at the ceiling for a moment before stating obviously, "Why don't you just ask her?"

"Well, to save myself from utterly crushing humiliation. Thank you, Rachel." The spastic boy remarked sarcastically. "So please, can one of you - preferably the werewolf one - just go up & ask her if she likes me? See if her heartbeat rises, pheromones come out-"

"Well, as much as I'd like to sniff around for sexual desire; I think I'll leave this one up to you." Rachel patted Scott's shoulder, a forced smile on her face. "There's also the fact that Derek only taught me to control a born werewolf's abilities. I have no idea what would happen if I reflected you right now, and I really don't want to find out."

Scott looked between Stiles & Rachel, reluctantly muttering a quiet "Fine." before walking over towards Lydia.

"I love you. I love you. You're my best friend in the whole world." Stiles shouted after him, Rachel scoffing & crossing her arms.

Despite her confidence in Scott's abilities to figure out whether or not Lydia Martin did have any feelings whatsoever for Stiles, she couldn't shake the feeling that something seemed off about Scott.

Whilst he was talking, he didn't seem like the usual Scott McCall Rachel had come to know. He seemed like an entirely different person, one with a hidden agenda & an evil to-do list. Even if Derek didn't act out on the night of a full moon anymore, Rachel still knew what he used to be like.

It was always the small things. Maybe an evil glint in his eyes, or a hint of a smirk at an odd time. It was those type of things that she picked up on as Scott walked off with Lydia to supposedly question her opinion of Stiles. And whether it be the fact that she had a knack for detecting lies, or the serial killer aura that was practically radiating from him, Rachel couldn't decipher. But she knew one thing for certain.

Scott definitely wasn't Scott.

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

CRYING BECAUSE KOL MIKAELSON CANT BE DEAD

HE JUST CANT BE. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.

but seriously though i love daniel sharman on the originals (that accent tho omf), so rebekah & davina need to work on some kind of resurrection spell ASAP.

not much to say about this chapter, just that rachel is 5000% done with scott's bs. next chapter is the full moon & im hella excited.