c h a p t e r t h i r t y t h r e e
the kanima theory

Harper sat down at the back of the classroom next to the desk that Lydia was currently sat at. Stiles and Scott had already sat next to each other on the other side of the room, and Harper hadn't seen much of the strawberry blonde, so she decided to switch it up a bit. Besides, she needed a break from all of the supernatural drama currently going on in her life.

Before the brunette could even start a conversation with her friend, Coach Finstock slammed some papers down on his desk, indicating the start of his lesson. Harper straightened up in her seat, preparing herself in case she was picked on.

"Alright, listen up." Coach looked around the classroom. "Quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might want to start their own study groups, because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult... I'm not even too sure I could pass it."

Harper inwardly groaned at the thought of a difficult test. She had so much going on in her life right now that an economics test was not what she needed.

"Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question."

Hands raised from all around Harper, but she daren't put her hand up. She would probably have a meltdown if she was chosen to write on the board in front of the whole class.

"Let's go buddy." Coach pointed to a guy in a leather jacket with dark hair, much to the Empath's relief.

Harper slumped in her chair, copying the notes off of the board into her book so she could prepare for the upcoming exam. She could faintly hear the sounds of Scott, Stiles, and surprisingly Jackson murmuring, but she didn't bother to look over. She wasn't going to get distracted and fail this test tomorrow.

"Jackson!" Coach Finstock suddenly yelled, causing the whole class to jump and stare. "Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?"

"Um..." Jackson stalled, looking around the room. "Just an undying admiration for... My coach."

Finstock scoffed, "that's really kind of you." He paused. "Now shut up! Shut it! Anybody else?"

Lydia was called on for the next question and Harper sighed, knowing she wasn't going to be able to talk to her friend any time soon. Harper was half way through copying her notes when she felt an overwhelming sense of panic spread through her, causing her to drop her pen.

It clattered on the desk as she looked up, seeing that the one panicking was clearly Lydia. The strawberry blonde was stood in front of the board, a piece of chalk clutched in her hand as she shook, her eyes wide and tears spilling. She let out whimpers as Coach Finstock called her name.

Lydia finally snapped out of it, blinking quickly.

"Okay, then." Coach turned to face the class. "Anybody else want to try answering? This time in English?"

Harper frowned deeply as the whole class began to laugh, looking behind Lydia's head to see what she had written. Due to the endless amount of word games that her grandma solved in the newspapers, she was able to decode the word that Lydia had written over and over again all over the board quickly.

'EMPLEHENOEMOS' translated to: 'SOMEONE HELP ME'.

...

Chemistry was next, and Harper sat down in her usual seat, a couple of rows behind Lydia. She pulled out her notebook, flipping through the pages to find the notes that she had taken last lesson. Just as she did, someone quickly sat down next to her with such force that it made her jump.

She guessed it was Isaac, her usual Chemistry partner, but instead she saw Stiles sat there, looking at her sheepishly. Isaac stood behind him, clutching his bag as he sent the Stilinski boy  glare before sitting down next to Erica.

"What?" Harper whispered, confused.

Stiles just shrugged. "Wanted to sit next to my beautiful girlfriend." He grinned awkwardly, causing Harper to shake her head.

"Einstein once said: "Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe, I myself have encountered infinite stupidity." Harris stopped by Harper and Stiles' desk to pat the latter's shoulder.

Harper glared at him.

"So, to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one. Or in Mr Stilinski's case, better than one."

"I hate him," Harper whispered to Stiles as her brown eyes glared at the mouse-like man standing at the front of the room now. "Like, I literally hate him."

"I know," Stiles whispered, placing his hand on top of hers to assure him that Harris' dumb words hadn't hurt him. "Me too."

Their teacher cleared his throat, sending Stiles and Harper a small glare as a warning to shut up. They were more surprised that he had't made some witty remark about smacking Stiles with a ruler or something.

"Erica, you take the first station. You'll start with-"

Half the class raised their hands, mainly boys. Erica smirked from her seat.

"I didn't ask for volunteers. Put your hormonal little hands down." Harris rolled his eyes. "Start with Mr McCall. Alright, next two."

Stiles quickly turned to Harper, "don't talk to Erica or Isaac, okay?"

"Wh-"

"I'll tell you later. Just don't!"

...

Harper ended up with Isaac first, much to Stiles' dismay. He was trying to protect her because Derek and his pack were doing tests. Not regular question and answers to find out who the Kanima was, but life-threatening, paralysing tests.

Apparently, Derek thought that Harper could be the Kanima because she had been so easily controlled by Peter on the night of the winter formal and she had 'suspiciously' left when he and Stiles were trapped in the pool. He said that the world knew little to nothing about Empaths, so anything was possible.

It didn't make sense to Stiles- how would Harper turn into a lizard if she was an Empath? Not only that, but she had been at the garage with Stiles when the Kanima had attacked the engineer. Jackson told them that they were taking no chances though, and it was Stiles' word against theirs when he insisted Harper had been there at the time.

"Of course Stiles would try and protect Harper, even if he knew she was the Kanima. Harper could become a serial killer and Stiles would still lie to his own dad about it and help her hide the freaking bodies," Derek had apparently said, which Stiles had to admit, did sound about right.

Of course Harper didn't know, he didn't want to make her panic.

He had no choice but to watch as they interacted, smiling at each other while Harper did most of the work and took the notes. Isaac kept looking back at him and smirking, just to show off.

The bell chimed and Harris called for everyone to swap over, much to Stiles' relief. He ended up next to Isaac while Harper was with some random girl he had seen in his math class.

Isaac smirked at him, sitting down as Stiles unscrewed the cap off of a plastic bottle, sighing loudly.

"If you harm one perfect honey brown hair on her head, I'm gonna turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present." Stiles threatened.

Isaac laughed dryly, "really? I don't think she would like that, you know, since we're so close now. I even tried to ask her out once."

Stiles resisted the urge to glare as he poured the solution into a beaker. "Sounds like the beginning to a heartfelt story. I'm gonna pass, thanks."

Isaac ignored him. "It was the first day of freshman year..."

"And you thought that everything was going to be different for you in high school, but she said no." Stiles rolled his eyes, knowing exactly how cliche Isaac's story would be.

The Stilinski boy had gone through the same thing, after all. When he started high school he thought that Harper would finally notice him romantically and they would run off together into the sunset and suddenly become the power couple of the school, replacing Lydia and Jackson.

But, of course, it was just a dream. Being one grade higher didn't automatically mean you were Harper Verum's dream guy, unfortunately for Stiles. At least he had her now, though.

"Yeah. Yeah." Isaac chuckled sarcastically. "I sat next to her in English for two years in middle school and she looked at me like she had no idea who I was when I asked her out."

"Mmm. Unrequited love's a bitch." Stiles muttered. "Maybe you should write about it in your English class, you know? Channel all that negative energy."

Isaac hummed, as if considering it. "Nah. I was thinking I'd channel it into killing her. I'm not very good at writing."

Stiles finally looked up at him, eyes wide with fear. He didn't know that Isaac was lying. He didn't know that Isaac wouldn't even dream of harming the girl he had liked for years and recently became good friends with.

The bell dinged. "And switch," Harris called.

Stiles quickly got up to move to Harper's table, pushing Isaac in the process in case he tried to sit with her again. Just as he sat down, Harris smacked his hand with a long ruler, causing him to yelp. Harper's head snapped up to face the teacher and she had to clench her fists.

"If you're trying to test my patience, Mr Stilinski, I garuntee it will be a failing grade." He threatened.

Stiles unclenched her fists gently as he walked away from their desk. She burned holes into the back of the teacher's head.

Stiles brought her fingers to his lips, kissing them gently. "Don't worry about that jerk, okay? Let's just do this."

Harper sighed but nodded, helping him finish the experiment. The entire time she missed the glances of Stiles, Scott, Allison, Isaac, and Erica- she was oblivious to the way Isaac was smirking from beside Lydia and how Erica was threatening Allison.

The bell dinged again. "Time," Harris called. "If you've catalysed the reaction correctly, you should now be looking at a crystal."

Harper used the beaker tongs to reach into the glass container, pulling out a crystal. She grinned at her work, showing it to Stiles who just smiled weakly back, looking between her and Lydia nervously. Lydia was inspecting her own crystal that Isaac was handing out to her.

"Now, for the part of that last experiment I'm sure you'll all enjoy, you can eat it."

Scott watched as Lydia shrugged, picking up the crystal and moving it towards her mouth. He caught sight of the Kanima venom dripping off of it and yelled, "Lydia!"

It was too late, she had already eaten it. Everybody stared at her in confusion, Erica and Isaac surprised. Isaac was glad it was Lydia and not Harper, but then that meant that when she ate her crystal, she would be paralysed.

"What?" Lydia glared at him.

"Nothing." Scott muttered quickly, sitting down.

Stiles caught on quickly with Isaac and Erica's plan and turned to Harper, grabbing the beaker tongs from her and throwing the crystal across the room so it went out of the window.

"Stiles!" Harper hissed. "What the hell is going on?"

Stiles looked back at her, "I'll explain later." He gulped, slumping back in his seat. He was just relieved that he had stopped his girlfriend from being paralysed in front of the whole class, and that she wasn't the Kanima.

...

From Grandma: fancy dinner out tonight? x

Harper grinned at the text message as she walked down the hall, her eyes attached to the small screen in front of her as she quickly typed back.

To Grandma: yeah! meet you after school x

The brunette slipped her phone back into the pocket of her denim skirt just as a hand reached out and grabbed her arm, tugging her into a room. She shrieked, quickly thinking of the worst.

"Don't shoot me, I'm pregnant!" Harper yelled, quickly putting her arms up to cover her face.

"What?!" She heard three shrieks.

Harper opened her eyes, an awkward smile crossing her face when she saw Stiles, Scott, and Allison stood there. Scott and Allison looked at Stiles who jerked his hands about, shooting a strange look at Harper.

"Oh, God." Harper muttered, rolling her eyes. "Obviously I'm not pregnant. I just freaked out."

"Okay..." Scott continued to stare at her strangely. "Anyway, we need to tell you something. Something important."

Harper sighed in relief, "is this about what happened in Chemistry? Because I am so confused. But not about the work, I actually did well that lesson- I finished the experiment- wait, wait, wait. Sorry I got distracted."

"Isaac and Erica covered yours and Lydia's crystals in Kanima venom." Allison explained.

The Empath's eyebrows furrowed together. "I don't understand. Why Lydia and I?"

Stiles groaned, "because Derek thinks that one of you are the Kanima. That's why I threw your crystal away... But Lydia... she ate it."

Harper's eyes widened. "Is she okay?"

Scott nodded. "Oh she's perfectly fine, and that's the problem. She wasn't paralysed by the Kanima venom, Harps. That means they think she's the Kanima. And now Derek's waiting outside for her."

"Waiting to kill her?" Allison asked, frowning.

"If he think's she's the Kanima, then yes, especially after what happened at the pool." Scott replied, looking at them all worriedly.

"It's not Lydia." Harper shook her head, her throat tight when she thought about her friend possibly being the six foot lizard that tried killing Stiles and Derek.

Stiles placed a hand on the small of Harper's back. "Babe... she didn't pass the test. Nothing happened," He spoke softly, not wanting to upset her.

"But it can't be her..." Harper was a little dazed, her eyes glossing over as Stiles rubbed her back comfortingly, his hand moving up to rest on her shoulder.

Allison shook her head, "it doesn't matter, because Derek thinks it's her. So, either we can convince him that he's wrong, or we've got to figure out a way to protect her."

"I really don't think he's gonna do anything here, not at school," Scott insisted.

The hunter stared at him. "What about after school?"

Scott sighed, fustrated. All four teenagers looked around at each other nervously, trying to think of something.

"What if we can prove that Derek's wrong?" Allison attempted a plan.

"By three O'clock?" Stiles raised his eyebrows at her, not sounding confident at all.

Allison looked up at him. "There could be something in the beastiary." She guessed.

"Oh, you mean the nine hundred-page book written in archiac Latin that none of us can read? Good luck with that," Stiles spat at her rudely.

Harper gasped, "I know someone who can read it."

"I can talk to Derek," Scott ignored her. "Maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it's not her. But if anything happens you guys let me handle it, okay?"

"What does that mean?" Allison murmured.

"It means you can't heal like I do,"  He told her. "I just don't want you getting hurt."

Allison turned around, grabbing her bag off of the high stall that it was placed on as she fished through it. The other three teenagers all glanced at each other, watching in confusion as she pulled something large out of it. Her bow.

"I can protect myself." She insisted.

Scott just stared at her, his eyes softening.

"What?" Allison put the bow down. "Did something else happen?"

Scott didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I just don't want you getting hurt." He replied, his voice barely above a murmur as his brown eyes bored into hers. "Seriously, if anything goes wrong, you call me, okay? I don't care if your dad finds out. Call, text, scream, yell, whatever. I'll hear you and I'll find you as fast as I can. We have until three."

Allison nodded as Scott began to walk away, about to turn the door handle when a hissing noise came from behind him. He whirled around, eyes wide as he catched the arrow that was less an inch away from his face. Harper turned to face her boyfriend who was holding Allison's bow awkwardly.

"Ah." He handed it back to the hunter. "Sorry. Sorry. It's a sensitive trigger on that."

...

"Do you mind me asking where you got this?" Ms Morrell looked up from the page Harper had copied from the beastiary in her hands. "A book?"

The Empath had used her counselling session to talk to Ms Morrell about the beastiary instead of her feelings. Harper knew that not only was Ms Morrell a French teacher, but she knew a whole load of other languages, too. She just prayed that Latin was one of them.

"Oh, um, yeah. Yeah, a book," Harper replied.

Ms Morrell nodded, not looking convinced at all. "Interesting book. I'm pretty familiar with most romance languages, but this is a little out of my reach."

"Could you try?" Harper asked politely.

"All right, um," Ms Morrell frowned at the next word. "Kanima." She sounded out. "Do I have that right?"

Harper nodded, "yeah." She whispered, clutching the books in her hands tighter.

"'Like a wolf, its power is greatest at the moon's peak.'." Ms Morrell read before chuckling. "Huh, sounds like a werewolf."

Harper's heart skipped a beat and she nodded, laughing nervously along with her.

Ms Morrell looked back down at the papers and sighed. "Uh, there's some words here that I don't recognise." She looked back up at Harper.

Harper's face fell. "Please, just give it a shot."

"Could I hold onto it for a bit?" Ms Morrell asked.

Harper shook her head. "Now is better, please."

With a sigh, the guidance councellor nodded. "All right. Um... Okay. 'Like the wolf, the Kanima is a social creature, but where the wolf seeks a pack, the Kanima seeks a friend'."

The Empath's face contorted with confusion. "What- what does that mean?"

"Maybe it's lonely." Ms Morrell offered with a small smile.

"Like a teenager."

...

ATTENTION FELLOW STRANGER THINGS FANS!

if you think dacre (billy) is really hot then you should definitely check out my billy fanfic "crossfire"

sorry for the self promo whoops