[anchors: season 3, episode 13]
¸.•.¸¸୨˚̣̣̣͙୧¨*✼*¨୨˚̣̣̣͙୧¸¸.•.¸

        Meg walked into the high school looking nothing short of a disaster. Her hair was now about twelve inches shorter than before, work done by a very heartbroken (and slightly tipsy) Meg at 3 am the night before. She avoided eye contact with everyone she passed and she pulled her backpack off of her shoulder, suddenly stopping in front of her locker.

She pulled her hoodie closer to her as she took the books she needed out of her locker.

Isaac laughed as soon as he caught sight of his best friend, "Nice hair!" he yelled across the hallway at her.

Meg groaned, pulling the hood up over her head, "Shut up!" she responded loudly as Isaac strutted over to her.

"Okay what the hell happened to you?" he asked her. "And did you pierce your nose as well?"

Meg looked up at him, "I, didn't pierce my own nose. Some guy named- actually, I don't remember his name. But I got a pretty good discount on it if I do say so myself. And actually, you should be happy that I didn't just pierce it myself because then I would have a shitty haircut and an infected nose piercing! So ha!"

Isaac nodded, taking in the slew of information that Meg had just thrown at him. "The breakup was that rough, huh?" he asked.

"She broke up with me through a note Isaac," Meg informed him. "A fucking note! Who does that? What kind of sane person would break up with someone through a handwritten note? That's worse than a text. I also can't do that, because she disconnected her phone. So, yeah, it was pretty rough."

Isaac looked at her with a raised brow, "Do you still have the note?" he asked her.

Meg shook her head, "No, I ripped it up the first chance I had, and threw it in Derek's empty trashcan. I would've shoved it down her throat. But I can't afford a plane ticket to Brazil as I spent my last few cents on this nose piercing."

Isaac tilted his head at her, "You know. Now that I'm looking at it up close, the piercing really fits your face nicely," he decided.

"Weird way to phrase it, but thank you nonetheless," Meg said sincerely as the two began to walk down the hallway. "But you know what this whole experience has taught me?" she asked him, looking over at him as she lowered her hood once more.

"What has the whole experience taught you, Meg?" Isaac asked.

"Never date a fucking werewolf," she hissed.

Isaac frowned, "You do realize I'm a werewolf right?" he whispered to her.

"Yes, I know that I have seen your eyes glow in the dark on multiple occasions since you all think it is fun to drag me along to your little pack meetings," Meg retorted. "So because of that fact, you are now undatable. Good luck with that buddy," she said, patting her friend on the back.

"Woah, woah, woah," Isaac said shaking his head. "I am not undatable. How dare you say that!"

"Jason!" Meg said, wrapping her arms around her other friend's shoulder. "Please tell Isaac that he is undatable."

Jason Waters was one of the other friends that Meg and Isaac had outside of the pack. They all grew up near each other and had become friends ever since. Isaac would also come over to either Meg or Jason's house when things had gotten bad with his father. In fact, Isaac was the whole reason that Meg and Jason knew about the supernatural.

Jason looked up at Isaac and then back over at Meg, "Do you want me to lie?" he asked her as the group of three stopped walking.

Meg scowled, "You are supposed to be on my side here, Jason, and right now I feel a little attacked by the both of you!"

"Oh don't mind her," Isaac said, rolling his eyes at the shorter girl. "She's just pissed off that her ex-girlfriend left her for a new life in Brazil."

Meg scoffed, punching the werewolf in the side of his chest. "Oh, that's funny coming from the wolf who won't put on his big boy pants and just kiss Allison already, or Scott for that matter," Isaac flushed a bright shade of red, rendered speechless by her words. "Oh, that shut him up," she said letting a laugh escape her lips.

"Wait, back up two seconds," Jason said glancing between the two of them. "Cora broke up with you and now she's in Brazil?" he asked Meg.

"Yep! You basically have the whole story," Meg said, trying to sound more chipper than she was. "She wrote me a note and moved to Brazil without saying a single word to me. I am completely and utterly heartbroken. I cut my own hair in the bathroom last night," she continued, gesturing to her now shoulder-length hair. "I got a nose piercing and I considered giving myself a tattoo. Point is, I am a whole new woman and I don't give a shit about Cora Hale anymore. Happy?"

"Is she doing okay?" Jason asked Isaac.

"Nope," Isaac replied quickly.

Meg folded are arms across her chest, "I'm fine, no thanks to you two!" she snapped.

"Meg, your 3 am haircut says otherwise," Jason told her.

"Yeah, and you just told me like three minutes ago that the breakup was rough. What's with the sudden 180?" Isaac questioned.

Meg waved off their comments, "You know what, I don't have time for this. I need to go to history class and forget all about her!" she exclaimed.

"About who?" Isaac asked.

"Exactly, now you're getting it!" she said before walking in the direction of her history class. "And don't worry about me, I am completely and utterly fine. I don't even like her anymore, and this haircut looks fucking amazing!" Meg said definitively before turning on her heel and marching into her history class, ignoring the stares that she was getting from her fellow classmates.

Stiles held back a laugh as she sat in the seat in front of him, "Okay, what the hell happened to you?" he asked Meg, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I cut my hair, Stiles, stop looking at me like a grew another head," Meg said grumpily as she pulled her hood up over her head once more. She hated all the attention this new haircut was giving her.

"Woah, woah, Meg, calm down. I wasn't gawking at you or anything," Stiles told her. "I was just gonna say that you don't normally cut your hair like this, or like at all. In fact, I only remember it at the long length. It's just different, that's all."

Meg turned around to give him a fake smile, "Well, this is the new and improved Meg Linara, enjoy," she said sarcastically.

"I don't see much of an improvement," Stiles retorted.

"Stiles," Meg heard Scott hiss. "Be nice, okay? Cora just broke up with her," he said in a voice above a whisper.

"Oh, oh," Stiles said nodding his head slowly. "Meg, I'm so sorry."

Meg groaned, "Why is everyone treating me like I'm a small teacup that's gonna chip every time someone mentions her name. I'm fine. I'm doing completely fine and I am totally over it."

Scott and Stiles exchanged awkward glances, "Yeah, it seems like you are over it," Stiles said unconvincingly.

"Completely over it," Scott added.

Meg frowned as she turned back to the front. She was sick of everyone walking on eggshells around her. It's not like she was going to spontaneously combust if they talked about Cora. Sure, she was pretending like she wasn't pissed about the whole ordeal when she definitely still was, but it didn't give everyone else the right to feel sorry for her. Meg fucking hated that. She just wished someone would treat her like a normal person, for once in her life.

"Hi," someone said stopping at her desk. Meg turned toward the voice. It was a tall girl with long black hair. "This is going to sound really, really weird since you don't know me at all. But I, um, I sit back there," she said pointing to the back of the classroom. "I just, I saw you in the hallway, and normally your hair is long and I saw that it was a lot shorter today which you can't really see because of the hood and everything but you didn't have that on in the hallway. Uh anyway, what was I saying again? Right, the hair. You-your hair. And, I. Sorry," she said shaking her head. "Oh god, I sound so, so creepy. I just- I like your hair. It looks nice," she admitted.

Meg felt a small smile tug at the corner of her lips. "Uh, thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," the girl said quietly, walking back to her seat in the back corner of the room. Meg resisted the urge to look back at her as the new history teacher began to speak. She did however lower her hood so it wasn't covering her hair anymore, she felt a new wave of confidence float over her. She just wished she knew the girl's name so she could thank her properly.

"Good morning everyone," the teacher said, surveying all of the students in the room. "My name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher."

'Ah, the one who was ritually sacrificed,' Meg thought to herself, remembering the whole Alpha pack and human sacrifices they had to deal with last month. 'Tough shoes to fill. I just hope this one doesn't get strangled by a garrote.'

Mr. Yukimura continued his introduction. "My family and I moved here three weeks ago," he explained. "I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira," he said gesturing to the back of the classroom. Meg followed his hand and looked back at the girl who complimented her earlier, her head was buried in her arms on the desk.

'Kira, I guess I do know her name now,' Meg thought to herself.

"Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter."

Kira looked up at the class who was now all staring at her, smiling awkwardly at people slamming her head back onto the desk once more.

"Either way, there she is," Mr. Yukimura said, drawing the attention back to the front of the room. "Now let's begin with the American History at the turn of the 20th Century."

Meg sighed as she opened her American History book, preparing to not pay attention to the reading at all.

¸.•.¸¸୨˚̣̣̣͙୧¨*✼*¨୨˚̣̣̣͙୧¸¸.•.¸

"Okay rewind, what is happening to you four?" Meg asked, looking between Stiles, Scott, Allison, and Lydia.

"It's just those three," Lydia corrected Meg. "I have nothing to do with this."

Meg almost let out another laugh, "For once in your life," she said, shooting Lydia a small wink, which she was not impressed by.

"Just tell her already," Lydia said sighing.

Scott, Stiles, and Allison began to explain the entire situation to Meg. The strange hallucinations they were having, the sleep paralysis, and not being able to differentiate between reality and dreams. She would've been scared if it all didn't sound completely ridiculous. By the end of their explanation, Meg was trying her absolute hardest not to burst into tears of laughter. Before she could say anything to the four of them, Isaac appeared at the table, dumping a pile of library books onto the surface.

"Here," he said simply, sitting down next to Meg.

"What are those for?" Meg asked with a raised brow.

"Research," Stiles answered. "And you're gonna help us now."

Meg shook her head, "You want me to help you guys figure out the cause of your paranoia?" she asked.

"We think we already know the cause," Scott informed Meg. "That Nememton thing."

Meg blinked, trying to remember what exactly this Nememton was. A memory came floating back to her from last month. "That magic tree that you were all trapped in a few weeks back? That's the reason you are having nightmares?"

"It was more like when we were acting as surrogate sacrifices for our parents, it opened up some sort of supernatural gate. It opened our minds to a whole slew of possibilities and hopefully, we can find out what those possibilities are in these books," Allison explained quickly. "Thank you for getting them, by the way," she added, smiling at Isaac.

Meg spotted the smallest blush flash across her friend's face. "Yeah, yeah, no problem. It was nothing really," he mumbled.

She rolled her eyes as she began to open up the book that was closest to her. Meg started to read about something called a spark, but she honestly didn't think it would be of that much help in the investigation. She felt the words begin to slip off of the page as boredom consumed her. She was about to fall asleep while she was sitting up when Lydia began to speak once more.

"Since Meg is practically drooling on the page of this book," she pointed out, moving the book out from under the girl's elbow. "Let's just try bouncing some ideas off of each other," she suggested.

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives," Allison finished.

Isaac looked to be in deep thought before he spoke, "They're all locked up because they're insane," he stated.

Meg tried not to laugh but ultimately failed, letting out the smallest chuckle. "That's funny, that's a good one," she told Isaac through her silent fits of laughter.

"Ha," Stiles said dryly. "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?" he begged.

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer," Isaac started. "So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?" Stiles asked Isaac, which made Meg's laughter stop quickly. She looked over at Stiles, getting ready to either punch him or try to get one of the wolves to beat him up for her. It was probably going to be the latter since she was never very good at Karate lessons when she was a kid.

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that," Isaac replied sassily.

"Well, you should consider stopping that," Stiles stated.

Meg scoffed, knowing that this interaction was not going to lead to something good. "Oh my fucking god," she groaned wanting to throw her book at Stiles' smug face. "Have you ever considered that you're being haunted?" She asked, trying to steer the conversation back to talking about the hallucinations. "Like a ghost of Christmas past type shit? You look like the Scrooge type," she added looking directly at Stiles.

Stiles turned to her, "Okay, news flash. Anyone dumb enough to date a Hale doesn't get to sit at this table anymore."

Meg opened her mouth, between that comment and his taunt towards Isaac, she was ready to argue. "Okay! What the fuck? That was obviously directed at me! You can't just say that, Stiles."

"Oh really? I thought you were over it?" Stiles teased.

"Alright, that's it!" Meg said, rolling up her sleeves.

"Meg, don't," Scott warned her. "You're not gonna feel better if you try and beat up Stiles. I can promise you that much."

She looked over at Scott, shaking her head slightly, pulling the sleeves of her hoodie back down to her wrists. "I'll get you next time, Stiles," she muttered.

"Hi. Hi, sorry," Meg turned to the voice that had just interrupted their conversation and saw Kira walking up to their table. "I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I might actually know what you're talking about. There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called 'Bardo.' It literally means 'in-between state'. The state between life and death," she explained quickly.

"And what do they call you?" Lydia asked Kira, in a tone that suggested that she really didn't care either way.

"Kira," Scott and Meg answered at the same time, giving each other a strange look as they both answered the question. "She's in our history class," Scott finished.

Lydia nodded, turning back to Kira. "So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" she asked.

Kira shrugged, sliding into an open chair next to Scott. "Either, I guess," she said simply. "But all of the stuff you guys were saying? All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac asked a hint of fear in his voice. "And what are those?"

"And could they possibly be related to the ghosts from A Christmas Carol?" Meg added, not wanting to let go of her haunting theory.

Kira giggled at Meg's comment but she shook her head, "Oh no, more like Demons."

"Demons. Why not?" Stiles said out loud.

"So you like Demons, but hated my Scrooge theory?" Meg asked him. "I can't fucking believe you!" she snapped.

"Because the Demon theory is slightly more believable than yours, Meg," Stiles retorted.

Meg was about to mock him more but Allison cut in. "Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" she asked Kira.

"Death. You die."

Meg's eyes widened, looking at the three people on the table who were currently experiencing these hallucinations. "Death, oh, that's great," she whispered to herself. "That's awesome. Super, super, great. The best news we could've received, really." She began to tap her foot nervously on the ground. "Death, death, it always has to end in death, doesn't it? Why can't it ever end in something nice, like not Death? But I guess that's impossible."

"Meg?" Allison asked.

"Hmmm?" the Brunette sounded, looking up at Allison.

"The book, your book, it's smoking," Allison said in an alarmed tone.

Meg's eyes shifted down to the book she had her hands on and saw a small swirl of grey smoke float up from the corner of the page. She immediately lifted her hand off of the page before the whole thing erupted into flames. "Holy shit!" Meg exclaimed as she jumped up from the bench. "Shit, shit!" she said as she took her water bottle and poured the liquid over the page, extinguishing the fire quickly before it could spread to the other pages.

Isaac blinked, "What the hell just happened?" he asked Meg, who was completely horrified.

"I- I- I don't know."

so will you still want me,
when I'm nothing new ✾

Grace talks ig: Meg Linara, I love you so much already! I'm trying to keep her character kind of consistent with the things she says and does because I hate inconsistency with people's personalities (I feel like I struggle with that in some of my other books). So I am trying to keep Meg's personality pretty constant (ig) throughout the first few chapters. Anyways, I absolutely love her sass and how protective she is over her friends while teasing them, it's so cute!! BTW, she is a lesbian so any of the interactions between her and the other guys are completely platonic and should've be taken in a romantic way! Also, I love Jason Waters as well and you guys will hopefully grow to love him as much as I do heheh :). Okay, bye now and I will see y'all in the next update (which will probably be sooner than later bc I am obsessed with updating my teen wolf fics for some reason)