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chapter three:

⤵︎ ⤹
⤷ PACK MENTALITY ⤶
01 x 03

❝ YOU'VE NEVER SEEN STAR WARS !? ❞

❝ UH . . . NO. IS THAT BAD ?? ❞

❏❐❑

AFTER THE lacrosse game, Cordelia hadn't wasted a single second in racing home. Once more, Richard yelled at her for being irresponsible. For making her mother worried.

"It's a lacrosse game! You're acting like I went halfway across the country !" She shouted back with venom laced in her tone. One hand was gripping the bannister tightly while her skin stretched to white. She narrowed her eyes at the man.

He sighed and pinched the tip of his nose. "That's not what I'm getting at Cordelia."

"Then what are you getting at, Richard ?" She'd spoke his name as if he was a piece of dirt on the bottom of her shoe.

"Cordelia !" Crystal scolded from afar with wide and angry eyes.

"What ? Do you want me to call him my father or something ? Because I won't. He almost killed me ! He doesn't deserve that title." She sneered all while glaring at the man.

They hadn't spoken since last night.

And the morning was no better. She'd again woken up late and had a night full of restful sleep, which were plagued with endless nightmares.

Breakfast was bound to be just as torturous.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

CORDELIA HAD been right. As soon as she entered the room, all eyes were on her. Richard was once again downing another coffee, no doubt laced with something harder and reading a newspaper, while Crystal was cooking some eggs on the hob.

She avoided their gaze and settled for some toast placed in the middle of the table. This time, there was no music from the radio playing in the background, no birds chirping, and certainly not a word spared between the three.

Just she sound of coffee brewing, pages flipping, and the grating sound of spoons hitting the side of the bowl. A callback to the first day back to school.

Nobody said anything when Crystal sat down to eat her breakfast, and no one said anything when Richard sighed and stood up, his chair scraping against the wooden flooring painfully. The brunette winced as he walked out the room and out the door, no doubt on his way to work ( if you could even call it that ).

The mother of the household peered up halfway through cutting through an egg. However, when her daughter failed to say anything, she spoke up. At last.

"So, have you heard anything from your brother lately?" She asked carefully, not wanting to set the teen off once again.

Cordelia shuffled but didn't meet her mother's eyes. "No. Last I heard, he was in New York for some meet thing. I haven't heard from him since." She muttered dejectedly while shuffling the now buttered pice of toast around on the white porcelain plate, not having the stomach to eat anything right now. She hadn't had since the party.

Crystal nodded and acknowledged the response she was given. She noticed the sixteen year old hadn't been herself lately, and no doubt chalked it up to all the late nights and parties.

The parent had tried to get into contact with Adrian, knowing that he was one of the only people that could see straight through the girl, seeing as they were as close as could be.

Unsurprisingly, he hadn't picked up his phone since the five calls she'd given him and twelve messages. He'd answer when he could.

Whenever that may be.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

TODAY, JACKSON had offered to give Cordelia a ride to school. Despite popular belief, the two were actually quite good friends. That and they bonded over their dislike for Scott McCall. Well, more overall hatred ( which was applied far more heavily on Jackson's side as Cordelia had claimed that "hate is a strong word." ).

But that didn't mean that she liked Scott. Oh no. In fact, she mildly disapproved of him. Ever since he and Allison had met, he'd been making poor decision after poor decision. And it was only a matter of time before it came back to bit him in the ass. And for Cordelia and Jackson? Oh, they'd enjoy the hell out of it when the time came.

"So, is Richard still giving you a tough time?" The lacrosse player asked with genuine care in his tone. Hey, he had feelings. Sometimes . . .

The pair could both relate to having some parental issues.

The Madden girl paused at applying her usual vanilla scented lip balm and turned to face her friend. She sighed at the topic of the man. The mere mention of his name had been enough to put a damper on her day.

"Yeah . . . well, that's just Richard at this point. I just don't see why my mother has stayed with him after all these years. He's an asshole. With his stupid hair. His stupid car. And oh my god. His stupid stupid leather jacket !" She yelled, getting progressively louder with each addition. Cordelia leaned her head back against the seat but turned to him with one eye open, the cold winter air blowing her hair through the slightly open windows.

"No offence." She gestured to the leather jacket he was wearing right now. That just so happened to be extremely similar to the one Richard always wore.

Jackson chuckled and glanced back at the road head of them, the school slowly approaching.

The brunette noticed how he suddenly looked deep in thought, and she sat up in her seat. "What is it?"

"Where'd you go the other night? I went looking for you, but you were gone." He questioned, referring to the party.

Well shit.

Had she forgotten to mention not only Allison but Lydia and Jackson, too, that she'd gotten a ride home from Stiles and that she'd slept in his bed ??

Yeah, she'd leave the last part out for now.

The aspiring actress winced. "Uhm, yeah. Sorry about that. I actually got a ride home . . . from Stiles . . ." She awaited his inevitable annoyance.

The male's eyes widened before he scoffed, and he glanced to his friend. "That tool ??"

Cordelia swatted his chest and playfully glared at him. "He's not a tool, Jackson. He's sweet."

The memories of her drinking way too much and being practically dragged to his blue Jeep echoed through her mind.

"Yeah, okay." The lacrosse player replied with sarcasm present in his tone.

The brunette sighed and rolled her eyes and watched as he pulled into his usual parking spot to he school.

She grinned and unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, noticing Scott and Stiles standing not far from where they were. She gave them a weird look before watching as Stiles hurried his friend inside.

Cordelia narrowed her eyes at the pair ( mainly Scott ) and glanced on as they disappeared from sight.

Jackson appeared beside her while lowering his shades. "Told you, tool."

The Madden daughter sighed before ushering him inside the school.

They'd made it to his locker. Only to see it largly dented in the middle, barely hanging on the hinges. The boy glared and lifted the door, but it merely came off in his hand.

What the hell?

Cordelia's eyes widened audibly. "Jesus."

From afar, she could see the boy with a buzzcut sending her a regretful look, but she wasn't too sure why. After all, he couldn't have done it.

Noticing his friends gaze, his anger was mow directed at the McCall boy. "What are you looking at asswipe?"

Watching the scene, Scott put on an innocent face and turned around. That had been Jackson's locker.

Yikes.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

CORDELIA MADDEN hated chemistry. And it was Mr. Harris she hated even more. So it was the perfect combination, really.

Despite the light banter she'd had with Jackson earlier that morning, her good mood had now faded to a disgruntled one as she waited for her eternal hell to be over.

And the sounds of Scott and Stiles constantly muttering to each other wasn't helping. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but Cordelia didn't think she wanted to know.

"Maybe it was my blood on the door . . ." Scott tried to reason, not wanting to believe that he'd nearly killed anyone.

"Could have been animal blood." Stiles shrugged and gestured with the pencil in his right hand. "You know, maybe you caught a rabbit or something?" He added.

Scott shot him a look, clearly appalled by this theory. This was not making him feel any better.

"And did what?" He questioned, confused.

His friend had no answer and just shrugged again.

Great.

Silence. "Ate it." The boy with a buzzcut guessed.

Scott was even more horrified by this statement. "Raw ?"

Stiles scoffed and gave him a look before responding in a sarcastic tone of voice. "No, you stopped to bake it in a little Werewolf oven ! I don't know, you're the one who can't remember anything."

Scott was still offended. The two stated at each other, neither one of them realising that Mr. Harris had now noticed their conversation and had turned to watch them talk with a stern look on his face and his hands on his hips. He finally spoke up in a snide voice to interrupt them.

"Mr. Stilinski, if that's your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while."

Stiles, slightly embarrassed, huffed out a laugh. "Uh . . ."

The teacher sighed. "I think you and Mr. McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?"

Stiles scoffed in irritation, as though the thought was preposturous. "No!"

Mr. Harris, clearly not joking, stared at Scott and gestured toward the front of the room, implying that this was where he wanted Scott to move, before doing the same with Stiles and picking a seat in the back but at the opposite side from where he was currently sat. Scott and Stiles sigh in annoyance and reluctantly pick up their books and papers before they reluctantly move to their respective desks.

"Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much." He said in a snide tone.

Jackson chuckled from beside her, and Cordelia stiffled a laugh.

The shaggy haired teen settled in at the desk with Harley, who didn't seem at all surprised by Scott and Stiles' shenanigans.

After a moment, the teen wolf sensed something off and turned back to find Jackson staring at him intently, clearly noticing something was off with him.

The girl next to him, however, was staring at the front of the class as Mr. Harris began teaching again. Not giving Scott the time of day.

"Hey ! I think they found something !" Harley exclaimed as she got up out of her seat to the window. Everyone else followed her.

Outside in the parking lot, an ambulance was parked at a corner with their lights and sirens still on while two paramedics were quickly wheeling a stretcher with a middle ━━ aged adult man on it towards the open doors in the back of the ambulance.

Scott was horrified and certain that the man was dead. He peered over at Stiles, who had joined him at his left side. "That's not a rabbit . . ." He muttered dreadfully, a sinking feeling beginning to settle in his stomach.

The paramedics were about to lift the stretcher into the back of the ambulance when suddenly, the man jumped up into a seated position ans grabbed the shoulders of the paramedics on each side of him with his hands. He then let out a scream of pure fear.

The sudden movement and scream caused all of the students that were watching inside to flinch backwards, visibly startled. Scott, unable to watch any more of this, backed away from the windows until he was in the middle of the room.

Stiles, seeing his distress, comes over to try to comfort him.

"Okay. This is good. This is good ! He got up. He's not dead. Dead guys can't do that." The pale boy reassured in a rushed tone. Though it sounded as though he was reassuring himself more than Scott.

The teen wolf looked completely dismayed and ignored his friends' words. "Stiles, I did that."

The Sheriff's son glanced worriedly at his friend before his eyes drifted to the side where Cordelia was standing. Her bright blue eyes were stuck staring outside the window, gazing upon the scene with a horrified expression. She looked sick.

Meanwhile, Jackson seemed to be trying to drag her away from the glass. Just as horrified as she was.

Stiles watched as the boy successfully pulled his friend away and over to Mr. Harris, whispering something to him and gesturing something to the girl next to him. Almost immediately, he nodded.

The jock thanked him before grabbing his and Cordelia's stuff before leaving the classroom.

The duo weren't seen until lunchtime.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

SCOTT AND Stiles weren't too sure why they were sitting with them.

"Why are they sitting with us ??" Stiles whispered urgently as he leaned towards his friend.

"I don't know !" Scott panicked, just as alarmed as he was.

Jackson was at the head of the table with Lydia to his left and Cordelia his right. She looked better than before, but still a little shaken.

Danny sat next to the brunette while Harley was next to Stiles, who looked none too pleased.

Finally, Allison placed her tray next to Scott's and gave him a wide smile as she sat down. "Thanks !"

Stiles eyes met with Danny's, and he gave him a friendly and rather awkward nod. Danny just rolled his eyes at the boy. Clearly annoyed.

"So," Danny began. "I hear they're saying its some type of animal attack. Probably a cougar." He continued, talking about the attack on the man last night.

"I heard Mountain Lion." Jackson added.

Lydia sighed while staring at her tray as if it had done her wrong. She spoke up in an annoyed tone of voice. "A cougar is a mountain lion."

Jackson and Danny stare at her blankly, surprised by this answer. How did she know that ??

All of a sudden, Lydia broke out of the moment. She hurriedly tried to backtrack what she'd just said. ". . . Isn't it ?"

Jackson raised his eyebrow and scoffed at his girlfriend. While Cordelia just looked defeated. For once, she just wished that Lydia would reveal to them all how smart she really was.

"Who cares ??  The guy's probably some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway." The jock sneered as his face screwed up in disgust at the victim.

"Actually, I just found out who it is. Check it out." Stiles called across the table and angled his phone so they could all see the screen.

"The Sheriff's department won't speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Garrison Myers, did survive the attack. Myers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition."

Scott gasped as he recognized the name of the man identified as the victim.

Oh god.

As the video played, a gut ━━ wrenching realisation dawned over him. "Wait, I ━━ I ━━ I know this guy." He was barely able to get his words out due to the shock.

Allison's eyes widened. "You do ??"

Scott nodded slowly as he thought back. "Yeah, when I used to take the bus, back when I lived with my dad. He was the driver."

The two friends share a pointed look as if having some silent conversation before Lydia spoke up in a bored, annoyed tone of voice. "Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please ?? Like . . ." She trailed off, seemingly deep in thought before gasping aloud. The strawberry blonde turned to Allison with a wide smile. "Oh, where are we going tomorrow night ??"

Allison and Scott's brows furrowed, making it clear they have no idea what she's talking about, so Lydia clarifies.

Did they miss something ??

"You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow, right ??"

Allison raised her eyebrows in surprise and swallowed nervously, realizing exactly what Lydia's about to do.

"Um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do . . ." The chesnut haired teen peered at Scott apologetically, having not anticipated Lydia's sudden invitation of not only herself but presumably Jackson as well. She could only hope that Cordelia would be a part of that invite. She didn't think she could do this alone.

Lydia sighed in annoyance. "Well, I am not sitting home again, watching lacrosse videos, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun."

Allison deflated. So she supposed Cordelia was not a part of that invite. Maybe she could convince the brunette, and she and Stiles could go together.

Scott, completely stunned at this turn of events, gaped helplessly. "H ━━ H ━━ Hanging out ?? Like, the four of us ??" Scott turned to Allison, who was attempting to cover up her displeasure at their plans being crashed by drinking out of her water bottle.

"Do you wanna hang out ??" Scott practically forced himself to spit out the rest of the sentence, clearly hating the idea. ". . . like, us . . . and them ??"

Allison appeared to be as excited by this prospect as Scott was but clearly didn't want to be rude to her new friend, either, considering how nice Lydia had been to her since she'd joined the school.

"Yeah ! . . . I guess . . . sounds fun . . ." The Argent girl trailed off, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

Though it seemed as though Jackson wasn't too excited about the prospect of hanging out with Scott of all people. He suddenly raised his fork in the air to emphasize his point. "You know what else sounds fun ?? Stabbing myself in the face with this fork."

Cordelia scoffed and grabbed the fork out of his hand and put it down. "Don't be so rude. I'm sure it'll be fun." She gave the pair an apologetic look for his behaviour before speaking out once more. "I mean, how about you all go bowling ?? You love to bowl." The brunette added, remembering the times he'd spoken about the game multiple times to her. He'd tried to get her to come with him, but she'd denied, claiming she couldn't bowl. The ball would always go too far one way and never seemed to just stay in the middle.

Jackson chuckled in annoyance. His distaste to this plan clear as day, though he didn't want to seem to opposed to his friends idea ( as it was a rather good one, he'd just rather not go with Scott McCall ). "Yeah, with actual competition." He sent a faux sympathetic gaze their way. Fed up by this point.

Allison, now offended on behalf of her and Scott, spoke up, trying to keep her tone of voice friendly while also defending both she and Scott. "How do you know we're not 'actual competition ??'"

Allison then turned to Scott, and Stiles had to refrain from butting in. This could not go well.

"You can bowl, right ??" Allison questioned while shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

Scott sank back in his seat, uneasy with all eyes on him. "Sort of . . ."

The jock gave Scott a pointed look and responded in a patronizing tone of voice, shaking off his friends' advances of getting him to stop. "Well, is it ━━ is it "sort of," or yes ??"

He glanced at Stiles, who shook his head vehemently while also trying to be discreet. He then looked to Jackson to reply. "Yes." He then straightened his back to appear more confident in the moment. "In fact, I'm a great bowler."

Jackson seemed satisfied and went back to eating his apple, the loud crunch sounding out around the table.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

"YOU'RE A terrible bowler !" Stiles chastised while they walked in a frenzied pace down the hall.

What the hell had he gotten himself into ?

Though ironically, this seemed to be about the most normal of their problems so far.

Scott groaned, agreeing with Stiles' assessment. "I know! I'm such an idiot."

Cordelia watched the two as they passed her locker. The brunette couldn't help but overhear their conversation. Now, she wasn't one to judge as you should see her bowl. Nonetheless, the ever building distaste she had for Scott McCall dimmed ever so slightly, for he was putting up their personal night for a night with Jackson and Lydia. Oh, the horror.

Now, don't get her wrong. She loves them both, but they weren't the most pleasant company at the best of times. Especially in something as competitive as bowling.

"And you're sure I can't convince you to come with us ??" Allison questioned once again, having already started in her attempts to bring Cordelia with her.

The girl in mention blinked slightly and recoiled ever so slightly, not having noticed Allison even come up to her. She sighed and pulled a book out of her locker and closed it shut before shaking her head in response. "I'm sorry, I wish I could, but I can not bowl for the life of me. Then there's my mum, there's no way she would let me go. Not with the curfew and that body they found in the woods."

For the second time that day, Allison looked positively defeated.

Noticing the look on the brown eyed teen, Cordelia frowned. "I'm sorry. I really am." The girl winced before a sudden idea popped into her head. "Though if you don't mind, I can come round yours later to help you get ready ??" She proposed hopefully. "That's if Lydia hasn't already sunk her nails too deep into you yet."

Allison beamed. "No, I'd love that ! I'd be nowhere without your fashion advice, Cordy."

Cordy.

Only her brother called her that. Only him.

Though that day, another addition was added to the non ━━ existent list.

"Now that's hardly true." She denied but grinned wildly at the compliment anyway.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

THE REST of the day had passed fairly quickly, and before she knew it, she was in her car driving to Allison's house.

It was rather dark outside now, and there was nobody else on the roads, no doubt due to the close approaching curfew.

Just the thought alone was enough to put the girl at unease. Though the silence was making it even worse. Slowly, she leaned forward and turned the radio on with one hand on the wheel. Cordelia had only looked away for a few seconds.

Just a few seconds.

But when she looked back up, she was met with those horrid red eyes. The ones that haunted the girls' nightmares.

Like before, they belonged to something. To a monster. It was hunched over on all fours and was breathing heavily. Cordelia was quick to slam on the breaks ( though now that she thinks about it, she should have just run the damn thing over ).

The beast just stood there, watching her. Until it didn't . . .

It slowly made its way up to her right side window and watched as she recoiled in fear.

And then he did it. Drew that godamn spiral.

The Madden girl just sat there and watched, not knowing what else to do. What could she do ??

The beast stayed silent for another beat before roaring in the window. She couldn't see much because of the fogged up glass, but what she could see was fangs. Paper white canines on both levels of its mouth dripping with saliva.

She winced and sat as far back in her seat as she could, eyes clenching shut in fear. Only to reopen when the beast was gone. The brunette wiped the unshed tears from her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

Cordelia only realised how long it had been when a car came speeding past her all whilst honking its horn. She jumped and watched as it drove back into the lane she was in.

Oh god . . .

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

IT HADN'T taken long for the teen to get to Allison's house after that dreaded encounter. Unlike the first time when it was outside her window with she on the other side of the room, this time, it was just a mere piece of glass separating the two. And that was more terrifying than anything.

Cordelia pulled up to the girls house and got out of her car before slamming the door shut, perhaps a little too harshly. But hey, she'd been through a lot. Cut her some slack.

Feeling uneasy outside and all alone in the cold winter air, Cordelia used the knocker on the door and brought it up before slamming it down onto the door a few times. She only hoped that one of the Argents would open up soon.

For the brunette, it felt as though hours had passed as she grasped her thin jacket closer for warmth. She's even contemplated giving Allison or Lydia a quick call to let them know she was outside, but all of a sudden, the door finally opened, revealing Mr. Argent.

He looked confused at first as to who would be here this late at night but put on a small, fatherly, and friendly smile once he saw who it was. "Oh, Cordelia, you made it. The girls are just upstairs." He spoke in a firm voice, motioning to the stairs behind him.

The Madden daughter thanked him while sparing a small smile of her own before walking past him and up the stairs to where she knew Allison's room to be.

The sound of the two girls could be heard from down the hall and got increasingly louder as the distance from her and the door decreased. Especially when it opened.

Almost immediately, Allison noticed the girl, and the shirt she was holding up to her chest was flung onto the purple covers of her bed. The chesnut haired girl launched herself into the brunettes arms, and Cordelia stumbled backwards ever so slightly from the force of it all.

"Thank god you're here. I don't think I could have taken another minute of Lydia completely ripping into my outfits." Allison beamed widely at her friend.

Cordelia smiled back and chuckled, the previous incident fading from her mind like a bad day. "Oh, I'm sure she's not that bad." She dramatised as she flopped backwards onto the bed next to the strawberry blonde.

Lydia glanced up from her phone at the mention of her name but said nothing as Allison got yet another outfit out. This time, it was a plain dark red top with some ruffles on the front. It was paired with a dark black leather jacket.

The Madden teen actually quite liked the outfit, but it seemed that the queen bee wasn't as impressed.

Lydia groaned and threw her head back. "Pass."

Cordelia shrugged. "I quite like it." She muttered, avoiding her friends piercing gaze.

"Cordy, this is a date. It's not a casual hangout ! You can't just throw on a pair of jeans and call it a day !" She criticised.

The girl raised an eyebrow and peered down to Lydia's outfit. "Yeah, a date to the bowling alley. Which you crashed !"

Lydia scoffed and got up from the bed and moved her way to Allison's wardrobe and shoved aside all of the hangers one by one and making a disgusted face at everything she didn't deem 'date material'.

She peered at a blue and white, floral, short ━━ sleeved dress and moved it to the side.

"Pass."

She then took one look at a thin, greyish ━━ green hoodie and scoffed before pushing it to the side as well.

"Uh, pass on all of it."

Lydia turned to her friend and started to patronizingly fluff her curled hair with a sigh. "God, Allison, my respect for your taste is, uh . . ." She glanced at Allison and let out a breath between her teeth that almost sounded like a hiss to Cordelia. "Dwindling by the second . . ."

The strawberry blonde smiled fakely at Allison before turning back to the contents of the closet, ultimately stumbling upon a short ━━━ sleeved black top covered in black sequins. The teen nodded in satisfaction before walking back to the bed so she could hold it up high in front of the mirror. Lydia then gestured for Allison to come so she could hold it up and see how she would look in it.

"This."

Allison glanced to Cordelia for her opinion. The brunette made a face to indicate that she preferred the other clothing choice but still didn't mind the one she was holding right now.

Before another word could be said, the man of the house entered the room. All three girls turned around to face the door.

"Dad ! . . . Hi." Allison said in a tone that implied she was rather upset at the fact that her dad had just barged into her room without knocking.

Argent smiled at his daughter, oblivious at first to her implied hint as he put on his jacket. After a moment, he looked up to see her pointed expression and realized that he had forgotten something, giving the teens a sheepish and apologetic look.

The man peered down in what appeared to be the slightest hint of embarrassment. "Right. I'm sorry. I completely forgot to knock."

Just then, Lydia threw herself onto Allison's bed, which made a loud squeaking sound upon impact. She landed on her right side and propped her head up on her hand with her elbow leaning against the bed itself. She glanced at him with a suggestive smile on her face. "Hi, Mr. Argent . . ."

Cordelia peered back to Lydia with a disgusted expression. That man was Allison's father. Someone like double her age. Gross ! 

Though it seemed he completely missed the flirtatious tone of voice Lydia was using, and Allison turned the topic of conversation to what he wanted.

"Dad ?? Do you need something ??" The man finished putting on his jacket and looked up at Allison with a calm expression. "I wanted to tell you that you'll be staying in tonight."

Behind Allison, Lydia rolled her eyes while Cordelia's widened. You mean to say she'd come all the way here for nothing ?? Had been terrified yet again and had to put up with Lydia for nothing ??

Allison immediately scoffed at his words and started to protest. "What ?? I'm going out with my friends tonight."

Chris didnt look like he was going to change his mind on the matter. "Not when some animal is out there and attacking people."

"But Dad ━━" She begun only to be cut off instantly.

His voice turning into a more defensive tone. "Hey, hey, hey ! It's out of my hands. There's a curfew. No one's allowed out past 9:30PM."

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes petulantly and threw her sequinned top onto her bed. Well so much for having a fun night.

"Hey, no more arguing."

Allison merely sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, and Argent smiled weakly at the girls before turning and walking out the door, closing it on his way out. Lydia stands and makes a "hmph" noise as she watched Argent leave before making a snarky comment.

"Someone's Daddy's little girl . . ."
The strawberry blonde made a teasing face to which Cordelia gently chastised her for.

Allison nervously stood there for a moment before coming to a decision, a rebellious glint evident in her eyes.

"Sometimes . . . But not tonight."

Allison walked over to her vanity and put on her light purple knitted hat before heading to the window, parting the curtains when she got there. The teen looked back to Lydia and Cordelia, making sure they understood the plan. The Argent teen then turned to open the window before slinking out of it and onto the roof.

Lydia and Cordelia peered to each other with wide eyes and rushed over to the window and watched as their friend walked to the edge of the roof, right in front of the small porch.

"What are you doing ??" The strawberry blonde questioned exasperatedly. She could've gotten herself killed !

But, instead of responding, Allison jumped off of the roof, doing a front flip and landed lightly on her feet in the grass next to the garage. She peered back up to her two friends who were still in her room and gripping the windowsill tightly in fear.

Lydia was still stood gaping at her as though she'd lost her mind. Though it definitely looked that she in fact had.

"Eight years gymnastics." Allison whispered proudly and rather nonchalantly. Like it was nothing. Like she hadn't just jumped from the roof to the ground in a matter of seconds. What gymnastics class did she go to ??

The two teens only continued to gape at her, eyes wide in shock, before Allison was quick to snap her back to reality in an impatient ━━ sounding whisper. "Are you coming ??"

Cordelia glanced to Lydia with wide eyes and looked like a deer in headlights. ". . . I'll take the stairs." She muttered.

"Yeah . . ." Cordelia swallowed harshly. "Me too . . ."

◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

THE BRUNETTE didn't necessarily know where she was driving too, only that she couldn't go back home. Not yet. Not with Richard there no doubt awaiting to scold her for being out so late. Speaking of which, his name came up on her phone. The small screen was immediately illuminated in a bright white light making her wince.

Now, don't ask why she had his number of all people. But her mother had practically insisted it a while back. If you were to look through their messages, you'd think them to be strangers as the only message on there was from three years ago when Crystal had forced her to add the number. It had been a message to make sure it was him and that was it.

But now he was calling her ?? Absolutely not. Cordelia ended the call and threw her phone back down on to the seat next to her. She was not dealing with his crap right now. That would be reserved for later when she eventually had to go home.

Eventually, the neighborhood she was driving in began to look familiar. The brunette hadn't even noticed that she was unconsciously driving towards the house of a certain boy with a buzzcut.

A knock on the door broke the boy from his solid focus on the TV. Well he knew it wasn't Scott, and if it was a murderer here to kill him, would they knock ?? He didn't think so.

Deeming it safe, Stiles stood up and paused the film playing on the TV to go open the door. He wasn't sure who he was expecting, but Cordelia Madden sure wasn't it. He hadn't seen her since she'd rushed out of the hospital the other day. At the lacrosse game, he'd been on the bench, far away from where she, Lydia and Allison were sitting.

The brunette looked somewhat jumpy and tense but that was just Cordelia now. She always looked that way.

"Hey Cordelia, what are you doing here ??" Stiles noticed how late it was getting and hoped that her mother knew where she was. After all, there was the 9:30 curfew that everyone had to abide by.

She looked somewhat confused. After all, she didn't know why she was here. She just knew that anywhere was better than home.

Stiles panicked. "I don't mean what are you doing here !" He tried to correct himself. "I mean, what are you doing here ??" He emphasised. "At my house . . . this late at night . . ." Oh jeez. He was just making this worse and worse.

She chuckled at that. "Uhm . . . I just kind of needed somewhere to go that wasn't back home, and your place was the best I could think of. Since its close by . . . I can leave though if you'd like . . ."

The lacrosse player reached out for the teens arm in shock that she'd even suggest that ! Of course he wanted her here ! "No ! It's alright, you can stay. Uh . . . I'm actually just watching star wars right now if you want to watch it with me . . . ??"

Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.

A look of surprise settled on her face. "I've actually never seen . . . Star Wars."

What !? Stiles' jaw dropped to the floor and he almost fell forward right into her from the shock of the brunette's statement. "You've never seen Star Wars !?"

"Uh . . no. Is that bad ??"

"What ━━ It's only the best film franchise of all time !!" He was barely able to stutter out. Scott would be appalled by her statement. "I mean, what are you going to say next, you've never seen Batman ??" The teen scoffed aloud, as though even the thought of it was preposturous.

Cordelia looked down to her shoes nervously and scratched the back of her head.

His mouth was opening and closing much like that of a goldfish. "You haven't seen that either !?"

"Uhm . . . No . . . ??" She replied though it came out as more of a question.

Stiles huffed and grabbed Cordelias hand and pulled her inside before locking the door and dragging her to his living room and sitting her down on the sofa.

He grabbed the control and reminded the film back to the beginning and peered over to the teen girl. "Prepare yourself for cinematic history."

She laughed at his dramatics but settled in her seat and smiled at his enthusiasm. Yeah . . . this was much better than being at home with Richard and her mother.

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ODI SPEAKS ! ━━━━ THIS CHAPTER was long awaited but it's finally here ! It's mostly a filler chapter but here you go ! I hope you enjoyed it and loved Cordelia and Stiles short and sweet moments together. I was originally planning for it to be much longer, but it's already at 6k words so I just thought to end it there. You'll see more of them in the next chapter !

©️coast_by_coast