chapter two
angry birds

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THE MORNING of Odessa Stone's first day of high school was interesting to say the least. She learned that Scott, the first person she thought would give her a ride to school, had a motorcycle. The girl took one look at the bike and automatically declined getting anywhere near it, let alone ride it. Luckily for her, she didn't have to.

The Stone's first thought of Stiles' baby blue Jeep was about how cool it was. In all the days she had been in town, she never saw a car as outgoing and cool as Roscoe. Sure, it didn't drive the best, but Odessa could see how special the car was to Stiles, so she appreciated it nonetheless.

Odessa spoke through the slightly uncomfortable silence in the air, "thank you for taking me."

"Don't mention it," Stiles muttered without taking his eyes off the road.

The Stone bit her lip at his underlying condescending tone, "look," she started, looking down at her hands, "I know you don't trust me and I don't blame you. But I don't mean any harm to anyone. All I know is I was sent here to learn how to control my abilities."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the boy gripped his steering wheel tighter, "I just don't trust easily—"

"I've noticed," Odessa smiled lightly in a teasing manner. She glanced at him for a moment before moving her gaze forward, "I'm gonna get you to trust me, Stiles. Just you wait."

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Beacon Hills High School was bigger than Odessa imagined. She was basically dragged by Stiles to the main office because she couldn't stop looking at everything in awe. Her schedule was tight in hand as she followed Stiles to their first class of the day, English. Before she could get through the door to class, however, she was stopped by Stiles turning around to face her.

"Now remember," he started lowly, disregarding the blonde basically running into his chest, "your locker number is 2296. Scott's locker number is 2275 and mine is 2279. If you need anything, just go to those lockers or find Lydia and Allison. If anyone asks, you're Scott's second cousin. This'll all be easier when you get your phone."

Odessa followed him into class, "I didn't want to rush Melissa. She has bills to pay, I don't want to be selfish with my needs when she opened her home to me."

A sense of deja vu occurred when the Stone collided with Stiles' chest once again. She looked up at his face only to be met with an unreadable expression. Stiles seemed to watch the blonde, looking for a sense of untruth. Unknowingly to her, he was glad he didn't find any.

Their moment was interrupted by the bell. Odessa made her way to her seat in front of Stiles, who sat next to Lydia. The two girls exchanged pleasantries, the strawberry blonde complimenting Odessa's outfit, a sense of pride in her tone. After settling in her seat with her needed materials, Odessa watched an awkward exchange between Scott and Allison. She glanced back at Stiles, making a mental note to ask what that was all about later.

Just then, the vibrating of phones echoed through the room. The Stone glanced around at everyone awkwardly, feeling out of place, watching everyone pick up their phones. It was at that moment that Odessa felt a little left out from the rest.

"The offing was barred by a blank bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the Earth flowed somber under an overcast sky seemed into the heart of an immense darkness," their teacher quoted as she walked in the room. She smirked at her class, "this is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone."

The woman, Ms. Blake, started her class on a one pager about their goals for the semester. As everyone started to write, Odessa drew a blank. What did she want to achieve this semester? She wasn't going to put down 'to learn control of my werewolf powers that no one should know about'. That much was obvious to her.

"Mr. McCall," Ms. Blake called, the boy lifting his head. She beckoned him outside the classroom.

Odessa watched him pack his stuff and nodded to him when he glanced at her. She would get a ride home from Stiles. Or, at least, she hoped she would. She didn't really know the area enough to walk. Shaking her thoughts away, she went back to her one pager. The blonde had come up with a few ideas and went from there, now more than 3/4 done—she was quite proud of herself. Once she was on her concluding sentence, she finished just in time to hear the conversation behind her.

"Hey, Lydia," the strawberry blonde turned to Stiles. The boy pointed toward her bandage wrapped ankle, "what is that? Is that from the accident?"

Odessa couldn't help but be nosy and take a glance herself as Lydia responded, "no. Prada bit me."

"Your dog?"

Lydia blinked, "no, my designer handbag," she rolled her eyes, "yes, my dog."

Stiles didn't let up, "has it ever bitten you before," his question got a hesitant shake of her head, "okay. What if it's, like, the same thing with the deer? You know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"

"What could that mean?"

The two in the conversation were startled by the new voice and turned to Odessa, who was unapologetically eavesdropping on them. Stiles narrowed his eyes at the girl as Lydia spoke from next to him, "there's gonna be an earthquake?"

"Or something," the boy stressed, "I just—maybe it means something's coming. Something bad."

Lydia leaned back in her seat, "it was a deer and a dog. What's that thing you say about threes? Once—twice—"

A bang at the window made everyone jump in their seats. Odessa furrowed her brows at the blood stain left behind as she swore she saw a bird crash into the huge window. Ms. Blake slowly made her way to the windows as her students sat up attentively in their seats, intrigued and a bit freaked out by what was going on. Odessa didn't need her advanced hearing to hear birds squawking from outside as she watched an entire flock make their way closer and closer to the building. Soon, the birds one by one, started to pound their way onto the glass, cracking it in the process. It only took a few more hits for the glass to break completely, sending birds inside the room.

As if on instinct, Odessa grabbed Stiles and Lydia from their seats and hugged them close to her under their desks. She ducked her head away from the claws of the birds as she heard her teacher yell for her students to stay down. She could feel the burning scratches of the claws but paid no mind, her only thought was covering her friends, who didn't have supernatural healing.

After a few moments, though it felt longer to everyone, the birds stopped their attack and dropped dead—literally dropped. Shakily, Odessa unwrapped her protective hold on her two friends and stood, the others following. Their classroom was a mess. Desks thrown around, papers everywhere and dead birds on seats and hanging from windows. The Stone only had one thought, what the hell kind of town was this?

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Odessa leaned against a desk next to Stiles who was nonstop texting Scott. The McCall wasn't answering his phone and hadn't come back to class. The Sheriff's department showed up to assess the damage and to make sure no one was completely injured. She pursed her lips to will herself not to chuckle at Stiles plucking a feather from their poor teacher's hair. Odessa watched as the Sheriff, who Stiles told her was his dad, crossed closer to the Argents—Allison and her father.

"Mr. Argent," Sheriff started, "you wouldn't have any insight into this, would you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. All this bizarre animal behavior, it's—you must have seen something like this before, right?"

Argent shifted his stance, "I'm not sure why I would or why you would think I would."

"I'm sorry. I-I could've sworn I overheard my son," he glanced back at the boy in question, "talking about how you were an experienced hunter."

Argent nodded, understanding of the situation on his features, "ah, right. Well, not anymore."

After making sure Allison was all right, the Sheriff made his way back to his son. The man raised a brow, "remind me to never listen to you again," ignoring his son's gobsmacked expression, he turned to the blonde he didn't know, "are you all right..."

Odessa, seeing as he didn't know her name, blurted her rehearsed introduction, putting her hand out for him to shake, "Odessa Stone. Scott's second cousin. I'm living with him because my parents like to travel and I don't."

Stiles let his head drop to her hand as his Father shook her hand, completely amused by the girl, "well, it's very nice to meet you, Odessa Stone—Scott's second cousin."

"Oh, it's just Odessa—"

"Okay, dad," Stiles interrupted the girl, standing up from his spot, "we have to go now," he guided the blonde to the door of the classroom and disregarded his Father's parting words.

"Don't hesitate to come over for dinner!"

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Red eyes. Odessa had never seen red eyes in person before. She only guessed it was because Derek Hale was an Alpha. She thought that was something she would've learned from wherever she came from, but if she never got her memories back, she would never know.

"Yeah, I see it," the Hale observed the blank space on Scott's arm, "it's two bands, right?"

The blonde stood next to Stiles a little creeped out by where they were. Stiles gave her a run down of the Hale family history and where they would be going from school. The Hale house was burned down a long time ago killing most of Derek's family. Kate Argent, who was Allison's Aunt, was the one who started the fire. If Odessa was being honest, she was a little intimidated by Derek and was pretty shy when Stiles introduced her. She also didn't appreciate being introduced as the werewolf with performance issues, but that was for a different time. Nonetheless, Derek greeted the girl with a nod, not bothered by her unexpected presence at all, seeing as he watched Scott greet her with a smile and fist bump.

Scott nodded from his seat across Derek as the latter asked, "what does it mean?"

"I don't know," the Beta furrowed his brows, "it's just something I traced with my fingers."

"Why is this so important to you?"

Scott looked up to meet Derek's eyes from his slumped position, "do you know what the word 'tattoo' means?"

Stiles chimed in from his stance against the wooden table and smiled proudly to himself, "to mark something."

"Well, that's in Tahitian," Scott nodded, "in Samoan, it means 'open wound'. I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned 18. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."

"For what?"

The McCall bit his lip at Derek's question, "for not calling or texting Allison all summer. Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was just trying to give her the space she wants," he sighed, "goin' four months later, it still hurts. It still feels like a, uh—"

Stiles nodded sadly for his best friend, "like an open wound."

"Yeah."

Derek, who seemed satisfied with that answer, grabbed his tools, "the pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt."

"Ah, that's great."

Scott ignored his best friend, eyeing the blow torch, "do it."

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Helping Stiles hold down a screaming Scott was not something Odessa wanted to do again. She watched as her friend gasped awake from his seat, covered in sweat. But she had to admit to herself, the tattoo looked really cool. After helping him put on due to his sore arm, the three got ready to leave.

"Well," Stiles started as they walked toward the door, "it looks pretty damn permanent now."

Scott rubbed his arm in satisfaction, "yeah. I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happened to us—everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh... ephemeral."

"Studying for the PSATs?"

"Yep."

"Nice."

"Does this mean I can get a tattoo?"

The two boys looked toward their new blonde friend, who smiled innocently at them. The boys looked at each other for a moment before looking back at her and answered together.

"No."

Odessa deflated slightly as Scott opened the front door, but watched the boy pause. He glanced back to Derek curiously, "you painted the door. Why'd you paint the door?"

Derek seemed to hope Scott didn't ask the question, "go home, Scott."

Scott disregarded the Hale and drew his fingers up the wood, "and why only one side?"

Odessa watched Scott draw his claws and scratch down the newly painted door. He ignored Derek's warning, continually scratching all around the door until the paint was gone, presenting a symbol on the door.

"The birds at school and the deer last night—just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha," Scott looked to the Hale, "how many are there?"

Derek sighed, "a pack of 'em. An Alpha pack."

Odessa shifted nervously as Stiles spoke from next to her, "all of them? How does that even work?"

"I hear there's some kind of a leader," the older man explained, "he's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac and I have been looking for him for the last four months."

Scott stepped forward, intrigued by this new information, "let's say you find them. How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"

"With all the help I can get."

The Stone sighed and looked down at her shoes. She knew she needed to learn control and fast.

"Where is she?"

The four shot their heads toward Isaac Lahey, who Odessa had yet to meet, as he sat up from his position on the couch, "where's the girl?"

"What girl?"

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odessa's such a smol babe i love her
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