𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙀𝙉
ミ★ ( clairvoyant, act one ) ★彡

     Despite Scott's predicament, Stiles is still investigating Rory's attempted murder. He usually sneaks into his dad's office late at night when he's asleep and looks through his files for anything Rory-related until he finds any leads he thinks are actually legitimate, and he does that every night while Rory looks over his shoulder at the paperwork, seeing if anything rings a bell for her. It's hard since she doesn't remember much from that night, she only remembers studying at home before she woke up staring down at her lifeless body—which Stiles shivers every time he thinks about it. He couldn't imagine what that felt like, and he's sure that it would've terrified anyone seeing that.

      After he's gotten what he can from his dad's paperwork, he'll try to sus out any further information directly from the source—aka his dad—to see if he knows anything new that hasn't been processed yet. He usually waits until he's had a couple of bourbons so he's more loose lipped than he'll remember, but, he also tries his luck at other times in case his dad is feeling generous.

     They were sat in his patrol car in an empty-ish parking lot with Rory in the backseat after they had gone through the drive-thru for their idea of dinner, and Rory's mouth salivated at the idea of a burger and fries—it's just a shame that she can't touch anything, let alone eat anything. She thought the idea of not starving would freak her out, and it did for a short while, but now, she's used to it. She's sure when she wakes up she'll eat so much she'll put the competition eaters to shame.

Noah Stilinski took a bite from his burger as he picked up the brown paper bag to look through it for his the rest of his order, when a disgruntled frown appeared on his face, "Did they forget my curly fries?" He's not happy at the idea that they left the curly fries—he was looking forward to those.

"You're not supposed to eat fries," Stiles reminds him sternly as he grabs the bag from him, since apparently the only one looking out for his dad's health is him, "especially the curly ones."

"But, they're so good though." Stiles looks up in the rearview mirror at the sound of Rory's whine to see her envious stare at their food. He feels guilty, as if he's rubbing it in her face that he's got this delicious meal while she can't touch or eat anything.

"Well, I'm carrying a lethal weapon. If I want the curly fries, I will have the curly fries." His dad snarks.

Stiles stares at his father blankly, "If you think getting rid of contractions in all your sentences makes your argument any more legitimate, you are wrong." Stiles argues back as he digs into the bag for his meal. Noah doesn't say anything back and Stiles chuckles in victory as he grabs his soda cup to take a sip.

      "Unit one, do you copy?" The dispatcher is heard over the radio, and Stiles jumps to answer it, but Noah clears his throat and slaps his hand away from the radio. Stiles quickly removes his hand away and mumbles an apology, especially when they've had multiple conversations about boundaries and that Stiles is not a cop.

      Stilinski grabs the radio to answer while Stiles shoves some fries into his mouth, "Unit one, copy."

      "Got a report of a possible one-eight-seven." The dispatcher says.

      Stiles eyes go wide in excitement as his head snaps over to his dad whereas Rory is confused—she doesn't know what a possible one-eight-seven means; she doesn't know what cop talk is yet, "A murder?" Stiles exclaims, although it is muffled from the number of fries that were in his mouth, causing Rory's heart to sink to her stomach. Another murder. It only reminds her that they are still so far away from solving her own attempted murder and the person who did it is still running rampant around town.

     The dispatcher lead the Stilinskis to the local movie rental shop known as Video 2 C. Everyone in the town of Beacon Hills knows it and has fond memories of going to it to rent a movie on a Friday night—and Stiles knows that this place was the birthplace for his love for Star Wars. Now, it seems the fond memories will be forever tarnished with the murder of the guy that owns the place. It will probably be closed down for good if no one takes over, not that he will blame them if they don't—he's seen too many horror movies where places get haunted after there's a death in the building.

      "Stay here." Noah orders his son when he sees the excitement on his face at the chaos of the scene with the police tape everywhere, the lights from the police cars and the very many different cops everywhere taking statements and clearing the area before getting out of the car and starts barking orders to one of his staff members, "Paul, let's get this area locked up."

      Stiles buckles his seatbelt when he sees Jackson and Lydia sitting in the ambulance; where Jackson was arguing with the paramedic and Lydia looked woozy, "Oh, no way." He refuses. This is the perfect chance to find clues that might get uncovered that could lead to Rory's attacker. Stiles can only hope that the attacker left some clues to follow this time, because he's concerned that the trail is going cold for her.

     Stiles can only wish that it was Jackson Whittmore that got attacked rather than owner from the way that he's glaring irritably at his dad, "Why the hell can't I just go home? I'm fine." He snaps.

     Jackson had been the one to uncover the murder when he went inside the store to rent a movie for himself and Lydia before promptly being attacked himself, "I hear ya, but, the EMT says you hit your head pretty hard." Noah explains calmly. He knows the Whittemore name, and as much as he wants to strangle the little shit, his dad is known for suing everyone and anyone that disrespects him or his family because he has the money and the means to do so. He also knows Jackson from the way he treats his son on and off the field, "They just wanna make sure you don't have a concussion."

"What part of 'I'm fine' are you having a problem grasping?" Jackson snides harshly, "Okay, I want to go home."

Rory hates Jackson with a passion. She can't remember the last time she's ever had a pleasant encounter with the all-star lacrosse captain, and there's also been many others in her shoes. The school was divided when it came to him; you either wanted to be him or you hated him. It disgusted her when she noticed people sucking up to him because of his wealth, status and good looks even though his personality was trash, and they would even say so behind his back to others—they were just trying to use him, and it made her angry because it made Rory pity Jackson.

"And I understand that—" Noah tries to reason with him patiently, but is rudely interrupted.

"No, you don't understand that, which kind of blows my mind, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum-wage rent-a-cop like you!" Jackson snaps irritably, causing both Stilinskis and Rory to stare at him in shock at how rude he was, even if he was going through something, "Okay, now, I want to go home!"

      Stiles looks over towards Rory and he wasn't sure he could ever picture a meaner glare she was sending Noah Stilinski's way. He wasn't even sure she was capable of making that face, but as he's about to defend his dad, he sees something rolling past Rory and his eyes widen in shock and points, "Oh, whoa! Is that a dead body?"

      Everyone's eyes turn to look at the dead body being rolled out of the building, with the arm dangling out of the side, completely limp, and Stilinski takes over the situation for the deceased's privacy, "Everybody, back up. Back up."

When Stiles looks back, Rory isn't behind him anymore. His head whips around to find her, before he spots her body inside the store.

Rory was looking around for clues. She was hoping to find something before the crime scene unit had cleaned out the place, hoping for any type of connection that can link or lead to her assailant. There's glass all over the floor from the broken window and the shelves have been knocked over, with DVDs scattered all over the place. It would be dark inside if it wasn't for the blue and red flashing lights from outside that lit the place up within.

She walked around the store, looking for anything and everything. She was coming up short because the place was a mess and she wasn't even sure where to start; and she understands this is why police officers get trained to look for clues—if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Rory couldn't find anything after looking for a while. It's hard to find clues when you can't touch anything to pick things up and look underneath. All she can see is what is available to the naked eye. However, what she does know is that it feels different. It doesn't feel or look like a human had made this mess like how she was attacked. This felt animalistic.

This wasn't her attacker. This was someone else—or rather, something else.

Rory was sat in the passenger seat of Stiles' Jeep as he drove into the parking lot of the school that following Monday. It had been a long weekend as the sheriff's department was busy trying to figure out what had happened at the Video 2 C store. The job had only been made harder as Jackson refused to speak on the events that occurred, using the power of his father's power and occupation to not have to answer any questions. He was tight lipped to doctors, police officers and even his own parents. Rory spent the night practically stalking him, seeing if he would fess up on anything to give them a hint on what happened that night.

     It got to the point where Rory felt so incredibly creepy following Jackson around—especially since she was entering his personal space without him even knowing—and she left without getting any answers. It was rumoured that Jackson was going to be back at school today, and she was going to try again to see if he's told anyone in his close circle about what happened; and it'll feel less creepy since it's at school.

     "You know, you don't have to be at school." Stiles pointed out as he drove towards the school.

     "Yeah, I might be on my deathbed, but, when I wake up, I'm still expected to go back to school and continue my education." Rory reminded him with a scowl. They might give her some leniency, but after a while, expectations will return to normal and she would need to be working at the same level as everyone else. At least this way, she wouldn't be completely behind, "Besides, there isn't much else I can do as a ghost besides keep up on my schoolwork and help you stalk people."

     "Speaking of stalking..." He says, taking a quick glance over to her direction, "Did you really not get anything out of Jackson?"

      Rory shook her head to confirm what he said—he's actually asked multiple times as if the answer would change, "Nope. Jackson didn't say anything to anyone in the hospital or his parents. I wasn't brave enough to go follow him to his place, who knows what I would've seen." She shudders while Stiles pulls into his parking space. While Jackson is conventionally attractive, it didn't mean she was interested in watching if he and Lydia happened to get it on. She wouldn't be able to ever look at them in the eye—and she's not interested in finding any skeletons in their closet, "But, I think you should ask Danny if you get the chance. If anyone knows anything about Jackson, it's him."

      Stiles puts the car in park, taking notice that Scott's car or bike weren't in the parking lot, "Good point."

     There's an unfriendly chill in the classroom where Mr. Harris teaches chemistry. He's not the friendliest teacher and Rory just knows that he'll expect her to know everything she missed on her first day back to school if she wakes up. She's never liked him, and she doesn't think she ever will. Nor does she think that he'll ever like her—or any of his students.

     "Just a friendly reminder—parent-teacher conferences are tonight!" Harris announces at the beginning of the class, causing a good majority of the students inside to wince at the thought because his class is next to impossible to hold a good grade with his unreasonable study requirements and tests, "Students below a C-average are required to attend. I won't name you, because the shame and self-disgust should be more than enough punishment." He says as he walks along the desks like a ghoul would. He then stops when he sees a desk empty beside Stiles Stilinski, and he places his hands on his hips and asks, "Has anyone seen Scott McCall?"

     Rory clears her throat to Stiles, knowing he's specifically talking to him rather than anyone else, however, Stiles was busy highlighting the contents of his textbook. Rory clears her throat again, "Stiles!"

     Stiles looks up at him with the highlighter lid in his mouth to answer that he hasn't seen him and maybe he's sick (as an excuse to cover for him because he knows werewolves can't get sick), but the door opens and their attention all goes to Jackson, who had entered the classroom late. Mr. Harris walks over to him and places his hand on Jackson's back to speak quietly, "Hey, Jackson—if you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know."

     Jackson nods his head and Mr. Harris walks back to the front of the class, "Everyone, start reading chapter nine." With his back still facing the class, he says, "Mr. Stilinski, try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry, not a coloring book."

     Stiles spits the highlighter lid in the air and catches it. Rory only raised an eyebrow at him in amusement as to why he did that before nudging her head in Danny's direction to ask him what they discussed earlier. Stiles leaned over to Danny, who was sat close by, "Hey, Danny." He whispers, "Can I ask you a question?"

     "No." Danny says bluntly, not looking at him and continuing to take notes since he's not one that needs to worry about his grades in Mr. Harris' class, but that doesn't mean he's comfortable enough to risk that.

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

     Danny lets out a sigh, "No."

     "Can I ask you another question?"

     Danny sighs again in frustration, "Answer's still no."

     "Does anyone know what happened to her and Jackson last night?" He insists to ask.

     "He... wouldn't tell me." Danny answers hesitantly and both Rory and Stiles are surprised to hear that. Whatever happened inside that store must've been bad for Jackson to keep his mouth shut, even to his own best friend.

      "But, he's your best friend." Stiles points out and Danny shrugs in response. Rory feels bad for Danny because that would hurt if her best friend was keeping secrets from her, "One more question..."

      "What?" Danny snaps impatiently.

     "Do you find me attractive?"

     "What?" Rory blinks in confusion. She's can't believe he's been holding onto the anticipation of asking that question for days now, and that he had actually asked Danny.

     Danny is frozen in response. He doesn't know why Stiles wants to know if he's attractive to a gay man, and Stiles was eager to wait for the answer. So much so, that he stumbles out of his seat, making a loud clattering sound as he regains his balance.

     After class, Stiles calls Scott for the first time after he had been sending him hundreds of texts all throughout class trying to get ahold of him, "What?" Scott answers.

     Stiles throws his hands up as he exits the classroom, walking into the corridors, "Finally!" He exclaims, "Have you been getting any of my texts?"

     "Yeah, like, all nine million of them..." Scott remarks.

     "Do you have any idea what's going on?" Stiles questions, "Lydia is totally MIA, Jackson looks like he's got a time bomb inserted in his face, another random guy's dead, and you have to do something about it!"

     "Like what?"

     "Something!"

     There's a moment of silence before Scott says, "Okay, I'll deal with it later." Before he promptly hangs up the phone, leaving Stiles standing there in disbelief.

     He looks at Rory, who signals him to pretend he's still on the phone to talk to her, before she says, "If Danny doesn't know and Jackson won't tell him, maybe we need to go to the next source."

     "Like who?" Stiles asks, "Allison isn't at school today either. If Lydia told her, she's not here to tell."

     Rory only sends him a look because he just answered his own question, "Then let's go ask Lydia herself, duh."

      Lydia Martin isn't the richest in town with Jackson Whittmore being her boyfriend, but, her family certainly is wealthy, coming in at second richest. She's known for having multiple credit cards, to which she buys the most expensive clothing and always has her hair and makeup done to the nines to coincide with her big, fancy house she has that would be in the same neighbourhood as Jackson's, along with a popular lake house that she hold multiple parties at over the summer. It makes sense as to why they'd be a couple even though they're awful to each other.

     Lydia's mom welcomed Stiles into her home when he came under the premise to check on her wellbeing. Natalie Martin was shocked to see someone actually cared enough to do so. Lydia always has groups of people hanging around her, but sadly, no one had actually stopped by to see her. Natalie led Stiles upstairs to Lydia's room and knocked on the door, opening it moments later to see Lydia, in her silky pyjamas, lying on the bed on her stomach, holding her head up with one hand, "Honey, there's a Stiles here to see you."

     "What the hell is a Stiles?" Lydia slurs.

     Stiles and Rory share a look between each other as he leans against the doorframe. Natalie only chuckles awkwardly, "Um, she took a little something to ease her nerves." She explains, "You can—you can go in."

      "Thanks." Stiles says as he enters the room completely and Natalie closes the door behind him to give them some privacy.

      Lydia turns onto her side to look at Stiles, "What are you doing here?"

     Stiles' heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest with the way she looked. He's always had the biggest crush on her since middle school but she's never even really noticed him—and right now they were having a conversation, in her room, while she was in some skimpy silk pyjamas, "I was... I was just making sure you were okay?"

     "Hmm." Lydia says as she purses her lips drunkenly and twinkles her fingers in front of her face, high as a kite, "Why?"

     "Uhh..." Stiles says with his eyes wide and Lydia pats the free space on the bed next to her for him to sit, and Stiles doesn't hesitate to run to it and sit beside her, "Because I was worried about you today. How are you feeling?"

      Lydia places her hand on his shoulder and runs her hand down her arm, "I feel..." She sits up, close enough as if she was going to kiss him and Rory begins to feel as if she's intruding in on an intimate moment, "fantastic."

     "Oh." Stiles chuckles awkwardly. He's dreamed about this moment ever since he started getting feelings for Lydia, but something feels off—it didn't feel the exact same like he imagined it. He then saw the orange pill bottle on her nightstand and reached for it to examine what she had taken to 'ease her nerves' as her mom had so lightly put it, "What—I bet you can't say, uh, 'I saw Susie sitin' in a shoe-shine shop' ten times fast."

      "Really?" Rory asks from the sides with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, "This feels cruel. She can barely hold herself up." She points at her, as she can't even sit still without moving like she thinks she's floating.

     Lydia raises an eyebrow at the challenges, "I saw shuzy—" She slurs, stopping when she had messed it up and Stiles made a sound that made it sound like he was gloating, "I shaw—" She slurred again and Stiles smirked as he put the pill bottle back, missing the way that Lydia's face dropped and she was beginning to snap out of her daze, sinking back down onto the bed, "I saw..."

      "What?" Stiles and Rory ask, and Stiles elaborates, "Lydia, what did you see?"

     "Something..." She says, staring off into the distance.

     "Something like... like a mountain lion?"

     "A mountain lion..." Lydia says slowly.

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

      "A mountain lion..." Lydia repeats in a daze once again.

     Stiles sighs and reaches to grab the stuffed giraffe toy from her nightstand and holds it in front of her face, "What's this?"

     Lydia looks at the toy, "A mountain lion."

     Stiles puts the toy back with an exhale that she's too out of it to answer any questions about what happened the night before, bringing them back to square one, "Okay, you're so drunk." Lydia then flops over and puts her face into Stiles' lap, "Oh!"

     "Oh!" Rory's eyes go wide as Stiles gasps, quickly turning around the other way. She doesn't know what to say and now she definitely feels like she's intruding since this was Stiles' crush.

     Stiles slips out from underneath Lydia and hurries to the door, while Lydia goes back to lying normally, not phased by the rejection, "Well, I'm gonna... go." Stiles says awkwardly, grabbing onto the door handle to close the door, "Uh, I'll let you get back to the whole post-traumatic-stress thing..."

      "Mmm... stay..." Lydia slurs with her eyes closed just as Stiles was about to close the door behind him to leave.

      Rory and Stiles look at each other in shock that Lydia wants his company. Maybe she's finally coming around. Stiles opens the door fully in shock and goes into the room, "M-me? Stay? You want me to stay?"

     Lydia smiles and nods as she sits up, patting the spot next to her again and Stiles sits next to her just like she asks, "Yes, please. Stay..." She says sleepily, placing a hand on his thigh, causing Stiles to exhale while Rory disappears out of the room in awkwardness. Lydia's hand caresses Stiles' cheek and she grabs both sides of his face with her hands as if she's about to kiss him, "Please, Jackson."

      Stiles face falls and he purses his lips, "And we're done here." He says while Lydia flops back onto the bed, passing out. Stiles looks around the room when suddenly her phone rings from her nightstand, "You want me to get that?" He asks, but she doesn't answer him. He grabs the phone and looks at it, "It's a text. I don't know how to—" He freezes when the text she was sent contained a video from the night before, showing a wolf bursting from the store window shop.

Rory felt like she and Stiles were constantly taking one step forward and ten steps back when it came to solving her case. Every time they came close to it a clue, it had nothing to do with what happened to her, and more to do with Scott and his werewolf life. Stiles sent the werewolf video to himself from Lydia's phone and showed it to her as soon as he got back to the car. They couldn't really investigate further because they had to get home before Stiles had to leave for the school to go to the parent-teacher conference, and the entire time, Stiles was trying to get in contact with Scott to tell him what he found.

They were in his room and Stiles was on the phone, leaving Scott another voicemail while he paced around his bedroom, "Hey, it's me again. Look, I found something, and I 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 his phone onto the bed and plopped down at his desk, crossing his arms in front of him and putting his head down, groaning, "God!"

Rory looked amused as she says, "That was amusing."

"He's annoying." He replies.

There was a knock at the door and Stiles jumps up with a fright to see his dad by the door, "Please tell me I'm gonna hear good news at this parent-teacher thing tonight."

Stiles opens and closes his mouth as he hesitantly advises, "Depends on how you define good news."

"I define it as you getting straight-A's with no behavioral issues." Noah replies, unamused.

Stiles shrugs and winces at the same time as he plays with the lip balm on his desk, "You might wanna rethink that definition."

Noah sighs, "Enough said." He says as he walks away.

Stiles looks at his phone with a sigh and watches the video again, "Come on, Scott. Where the hell are you?"

It was night time when they got to the school and the school ground were filled with parents and their teenage children—some looking more worried than others—as they walked around looking for the classroom they needed to go to, to meet with their child's teachers. Stiles pulled into the parking lot in his own car as Noah needed to stop by the veterinary clinic prior to discuss the animal that was caught on surveillance causing damage in the video store.

"I'm sorry about before." Stiles says suddenly and Rory looks over at him curiously, "About what happened at Lydia's. I'm sure that was probably weird for you."

"No, no." Rory objects quickly, keeping her voice level despite how uncomfortable it actually was, "It's no problem. I didn't mean to cockblock, so that's why I left."

Stiles chuckles, shaking his head at himself, "There wasn't much to cockblock." He says and she raises an eyebrow, "Turns out she thought I was Jackson. It's... it's stupid. Lydia would never go for someone like me."

"Well, she's stupid not to." Rory shrugs, offering him a empathetic smile, to which he smiled back at for her encouragement, "If she can't see what a great guy you are and wants to pursue an asshat like Jackson, that's her loss—you're Batman, remember?"

Stiles watches Rory's smile drop, "What?" He asks, noticing her change in demeanour, "What is it?"

"My parents are here." Rory whispered in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes that her parents were among the many other students' parents, walking through the parking lot and into the school as if their child wasn't in a coma in the hospital— like everything was normal. They were holding hands like they hadn't been icing each other out for weeks now, acting like they were still happy. She wants to run over to them and hug them so badly; to tell them she'll be alright and to stay strong—that their daughter is trying to come home soon, but she knows it's fruitless since they won't hear her or see her. It only fills her with determination to get her spirit back into her body further.

Stiles' head whips around to see who she was talking about, and he finds an older version of Rory walking with her husband. Rory looks exactly like her mom, like her mom did a copy and paste on her genetics. It wasn't a bad thing because Rory was beautiful. He's heard all about them but he's never actually ran into them before. He's almost feels obligated to go over to introduce himself to them, to put a face to the name that found their daughter. He's just unsure if that would bring them comfort or make them be reminded of the pain they're currently going through.

"What do I do?" Stiles asks her, keeping his eyes on the Carter parents.

"What? Nothing." Rory answers and Stiles looks back over to her with confusion, "What are you going to tell them? That you can see and talk to me? They're going to think you're some asshole trying to piss them off in their time of pain." Stiles lets out a sigh. She's right. They wouldn't believe that Stiles Stilinski (who is well known for making multiple prank calls to the sheriff's department when he's bored) can see and speak to Rory's ghost. They will indeed think he's just being an asshole for no good reason, especially since he's the one that found her almost dead body in the woods. Rory looks at the car's internal clock and purses her lips, "Let's just go. Your conferences are about to start."

Stiles looks at the time and his eyes widen with a mix of nerves and fear. He doesn't know what any of his teachers are about to say to his dad about his performance over the year, and he isn't sure how his dad will take anything less than good news. He gets out of the car with Rory following after him and makes his way into the school, walking to the classroom where his dad would be first—which was unfortunately Coach's classroom.

Stiles sees in the window gap of the door that his dad was already sitting down in front of Coach and his eyes widen again. He furiously grabs his phone and puts it to his ear to pretend to speak to Rory over the phone while numerous pairs of parents and students roam the hallways around him, "Can you go in there and see what they're saying?"

"Ugh, why?" Rory whines. She doesn't want to do that. If anything, she wants to see her parents.

"Because I don't trust Coach!" Stiles hisses back, "Please! I beg you. I'll make it up to you, I swear."

Rory dramatically rolls her eyes and stomps her foot like a child, "Ugh, fine! But, you owe me so bad." She says as she phases through the door and enters the classroom to stand behind Noah Stilinski.

Coach was flipping through papers, "Stiles, that's right..." Coach then frowns, "I thought Stiles was his last name."

"His last name is Stilinski." Noah points out.

Coach looked at Noah in disbelief, "You named your kid Stiles Stilinski?"

"No, that's just what he likes to be called." Noah responds impatiently.

"Oh. Well, I like to be called Cupcake." Coach mutters to himself. Noah can only raise his eyebrows in disbelief, wondering how any kid learned anything from this teacher. Coach looked back up at Noah, "What is his first name?"

Stilinski, clearly irritated by Coach already, gives him a stern look as he points at a file on the desk. Rory's eyes widen at the name, understanding why he chose to go by an actual name. Coach pulls out the file and gapes at it when he reads the full name on the label, "Wow, that is a form of child abuse!" He mutters and flips the file around as if it would help him read the name better, "I don't... I don't even know how to pronounce that."

Noah sighs, "It was his mother's father's name."

      Coach's eyebrows raised and he lets out a laugh as he mutters another comment, "Wow. You must really love your wife."

      Noah only stares at him blankly as he replies grimly, "Yeah, I did."

      There's an uncomfortable silence that fills the room between the two of them, "Well, this just became incredibly awkward." Coach thinks aloud.

      Noah shifts in his seat, "Hey, what do you say we get to the conference part of this conference, cupcake?"

"I like your thinking." Coach points at him with his lacrosse stick pen, "So, Stiles. Great kid. Zero ability to focus. Super smart. Never takes advantage of his talents."

Although it's good to hear that Stiles is performing academically and it's not uncommon to him to hear that his child has concentration issues, Noah frowns at the last comment, "How do you mean?"

"Well, for his final question on his midterm exam, he detailed the entire history of the male circumcision."

      Both Rory and Noah cringed at that. She remembers the midterm exam and she didn't understand why on earth that was his chosen topic while Noah tries to excuse it, "Well, I mean, it does have... historical significance, right? I mean—"

     "I teach economics." Coach interjects.

      Noah Stilinski stares back at him blankly for a few moments as he tries to process it all before he suddenly slumps in his seat and sighs, "Aw, crap."

      Rory is beginning to think that she's a masochist; because after that extremely uncomfortable conversation she encountered that was Stiles' parent-teacher conference, she decided to join in on her own one, and she learned quickly why she shouldn't have. Every single once of her teachers (except Harris) were so extremely empathetic towards them, passing on well wishes and compliments about herself, and her parents couldn't help but break down every time. It just told them that their child was a good girl, who got good grades and never got herself into any mischief—so, why would someone want to hurt her?

      After the fourth time it happened, Rory decided to leave and go back to Stiles' to let him know what she had learned about him and somewhat ignore her problem for a bit. Stiles made her smile, oddly enough.

      Stiles was on his bed when she got there, appearing out of thin air, causing him to jump because it seemed he was lost in his own thoughts, "I learnt a lot about you." She giggled, "Like your real name—it's a mouthful, but, I like it. It's different." She tells him, but he doesn't react, "Did you really write about erectile dysfunction on your midterms?"

      Stiles only huffs, "Yeah, I guess I did." He replies and she looks at him strangely. That wasn't the response she was expecting from him.

      She notices the file in front of him and walks towards him to look at the piece of paper, seeing that it was on the Hale house fire. She frowns, "What's going on?"

      Stiles only sighs, "It's not that." Truthfully, it's not what he's discovered that upset him, it's what happened at the school tonight, "My dad got hurt..."

      Rory's eyes only widened.