❀❀❀

Most of the pack were currently waiting in line at school to take PSAT. Sera had made Liam promise to stay home today because on one would be able to help him if he got into any trouble.

"Where's Lydia?" Kira asks when she doesn't notice the banshee with the group.

"She took it her freshman year." Stiles explains.

"Does that mean I could have taken it some other time?" Malia asks looking at everyone.

"Malia, you studied harder for this than any of us." Scott says encouragingly.

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna do good." She retorts.

"Well." Stiles corrects and Sera cracks a smile at her bast friends need to correct people about everything under the sun.

"Well, what?" Malia asks confused.

"It's do well, not do good." Stiles explains and Malia groans.

"Oh, God"

"Okay, okay! We're doing this, because while we're trying not to die, we stil need to live. If I survive high school, I'd like to go to college. A good college..." Scott says and Sera nods in agreement.

"It's only three hours. We can survive three hours." Kira says optimistically.

❀❀❀

"Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so." A teacher Sera had yet to meet said after all the students had sat down with their test booklets and their phones safely filed away in a basket up front. "This test is two hours and ten minutes. There will be two twenty-five-minute critical reading sections, two twenty-five-minute math sections, and an essay writing portion that will last thirty minutes." He announces to the class and looks over at Ms. Martin. "There are supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam." He says quietly.

"I know. It's Coach. He's not exactly punctual. Um, let me just try him again..." Ms. Martin says and quietly leaves the classroom to call coach again.

After a few minutes of silently waiting for Ms. Martin to come back, hopefully with coach in tow, she came back alone.

"I can't find him... But Mr. Yukimura is upstairs grading papers. Do you want me to try him?" She asks the other teacher and he shakes his head.

"We have to start. We can ask for his assistance during the first break." He says to Ms. Martin and then turns to the class full of students. "You may now open your test booklets and begin."

Sera flips open the front cover and begins answering the questions within the first section. This was surprisingly way for her; school had always been easy for the Hayes girl but she expected the PSAT to be a lot harder than what she was used to.

Just as she had finished the questions for the first reading section, she heard a thump to her right and turned to see Sydney had collapsed a few seats ahead of her.

"Sydney!" Ms. Martin Val's and walks over to the girl as she sits up. "Are you all right?" She asks as she helps Sydney off of the ground.

"I'm okay... I just got kind of dizzy..." Sydney says and Ms. Martin looks at something on her wrist.

"Sydney, how long have you had this?" She asks and looks down at it before shrugging.

"I don't know..." Sydney admits and Ms. Martin helps her back into her chair.

"Ms. Martin, do I need to stop the test?" The other teacher asks.

"No... Um, it's fine. Everybody stay in your seats. I'll, um, be back in a minute." Ms. Martin says as she walks to the front of the classroom. "Nobody leaves the room." She says quietly tying to make sure none of the students hear her but Sera definitely heard the woman and when she looks over at Scott she knows he heard too.

❀❀❀

Ms. Martin had only been gone a handful of minutes when Sera heard yelling coming from out in the hallway. Some of the students got up from their seats to go see what the yelling was about but the teacher with them tried to stop them.

"Everyone, please return to your seats." He says but Scott, Stiles, and Sera all exchange a look and get up from their seats to see what was going on outside as well. Scott pushed past the small group of students so the three could get outside the classroom door to see what was happening.

"Back to your seats! Now. Please." Ms. Martin says after she turns around to see the students. They all hesitantly walk back into the classroom and Sera walks side by side with Scott.

"Something's definitely happening, right?" Sera asks and Scott nods.

"We all need to stay together today." He replies and Sera nods, parting ways with Scott to walk to her seat behind Malia.

❀❀❀

More kids had gotten sick, apparently that's what whatever Sydney had was- at least that's what they're calling it. Nobody really knew what was happening but Scott had gone to help other kids get settled in the makeshift quarantine center where the CDC was currently taking care of all the sick kids. The PSAT was no longer happening, obviously, so now the rest of the students had to sit around and wait to be released.

"Bet they're thinking smallpox." Stiles says to the girls and Sera nods.

"That's a viable option." She mutters.

"Not likely." The other teacher said from his desk a few feet away. "Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. We've only managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was rinderpest- it killed cows."

"So, we should be comforted by that, right?" Stiles asks the teacher, unsure about the explanation they just got.

"Unless it's something worse..." he says and Sera gives him an odd look.

"Whatever it is, they're taking it pretty seriously. There are a lot of cars and trucks out there." Malia says to their small group and they all look outside the windows. "Your dad's with him."

"Hey, I should probably call him..." Stiles says and he stands up to walk over to the basket of phones.

"Don't bother- they would have shut off any access to all outside communication by now. No cell service, no WiFi, no one starting a panic." The teacher says and Stiles glances back at the girls. "Looks like we're all just going to have to wait here and see what happens."

❀❀❀

The students were all currently in line to get their blood taken so the doctors could figure out what sort of sickness they were dealing with. Scott and Stiles were no where to be seen, so it was currently just the girls waiting in line. Sera thought this whole situation was odd and very sudden but she wasn't going to question any of it yet.

"Kira? Sera? Do you ever get the feeling that Scott and Stiles aren't telling you everything?" Malia asks and the two girls turn around to look at the werecoyote.

"What do you mean?" Kira asks.

"Like they hide stuff!" Malia explains.

"Those idiots are always hiding something." Sera says amused and Kira glances around anxiously.

"I think if they did, they'd probably have a pretty good reason." Kira says.

"Do you know what they're hiding in the bag under Scott's bed?" Malia asks and Sera shifts her eyes away from her.

"What? No! I've never been under Scott's bed. Or in it. Just on it... wearing clothes." Kira says awkwardly and Sera raises her eyebrows at the girl.

"Kira Yukimura?" A doctor in a hazmat suit calls and Kira walks up to the table she's standing at. "You feeling all right, Kira?" Kira nods and the doctor picks up a needle. Kira stares at it anxiously. "I don't like needles, either. I promise, it'll be fast." The needle comes in contact with Kira skin and it creates a small bolt of electricity. The doctor backs away when it hits her suit and she is quickly escorted out by other people wearing hazmat suits.

"Kira." Malia calls but Kira watches the doctor worried that she might have hurt her. "Kira!" She says again and she and Sera guide her away from the kids in search of Scott and Stiles.

❀❀❀

Malia was quickly able to catch the boys sent and follow it into the boys locker room where Mr. Yukimura and the boys were hiding. Scott's eyes kept flashing red and he couldn't get them to stop which was highly concerning considering Scott never lost control anymore.

"It's still happening." Mr. Yukimura says as Scott continues to try to control his eyes.

"I can't make them go back..." Malia says holding up her claws.

"This is a little concerning." Sera says holding up her hands to show her fingers lit up with a tiny flame coming out of each fingertip. "If I weren't trying to put the fire out, my entire hands would be on fire." She says and Malia and Stiles take a big step away from the girl. "And I'll go sit over there." She gestures to a bench perpendicular to the one Kira is sitting on and sits down on it.

"Obviously, the virus is affecting the three of you in a way it won't hit any human being." Mr, Yukimura says the teenagers and Sera nods.

"You guys have to stay out of sight- we have to quarantine you from the quarantine." Stiles says and Sera scoffs.

"Yeah, no kidding." She retorts.

"Yeah, but where? I mean, what if they get violent, like on a full moon?" Kira asks.

"We shouldn't stay in here. Not in the locker room." Scott says and Sera nods in agreement.

"A classroom is not going to hold us..." Malia says.

"What about the basement?" Kira suggests.

"Too many ways out. We need something secure-somewhere nobody can find us." Scott says and Sera looks at Stiles expectantly. He usually comes up with the plans so maybe he'll have an idea now, too.

"The vault." Stiles suggests.

"The Hale vault. The Hales always have an escape route, like their house. There has to be another way in." Scott says and Sera looks at the boy confused. Even if they did find a way in they still need a Hale to open it.

❀❀❀

The group had moved into coach's office to look at the blueprints of the school so that they can find the secret entrance to the Hale vault.

"This is where the high school sign is, so the vault's got to be right about here." Stiles says, gesturing to the high school sigh on the map.

"I suppose, if there's a second entrance, it would probably be accessible from the basement." Kira says.

"It's probably somewhere in this hallway- west corridor." Stiles explains. "Whoa..." he says when he gets dizzy.

"It's happening to you, too. You're getting sick- you all are." Mr. Yukimura says, looking around at the kids.

"I don't feel sick..." Kira says.

"I think it's affecting you differently. Neurologically. I found your test answers here in a pile with the others." Mr. Yukimura says and hands Kira her bubble sheet.

❀❀❀

"Hey, guys...? Over here." Stiles calls, guiding the rest of the pack further down the hallway. Scott and Stiles push the shelf covering the entrance out of the way and they all examine it to find the entrance. "Look at the cracks in the wall. It's like the entrance outside. It only opens with claws- anyone's claws, right?"

"Um..." Scott hesitates and looks around. "Malia, can you try?"

"Why me?" The girl asks.

"I don't have control..." Scott says holding up his clawless hands.

"Okay. I'll do it." Malia agrees. "But, first, tell me what you've been hiding from me." Scott and Stiles look at each other alarmed and Sera looks between the three teens confused. "I know you think you're trying to protect me, but I can handle it. I know I'm on the list!"

"Yes..." stiles says hesitantly.

"So, how much?" She asks.

"How much what?" Stiles asks, confused.

"How much am I worth?" Malia clarifies.

"Four million." Scott says. Malia stares at their feet processing this information.

"Are you okay?" Stiles asks his girlfriend.

"Yeah. Scott's worth twenty-five, Kira, six. They'll take you guys out way before me." Malia says and Sera shrugs in agreement to the werecoyote's statement. Malia walks up to the entrance of the Hale vault to open it.

"That's progress. That's progress." Stiles mumbles.

❀❀❀

"You know, this is where it all started. That's where the money was. One hundred and seventeen million in bearer bonds." Stiles says from where he's sitting with Malia. Sera was sitting far away from her friends on the steps to the main entrance of the vault in hopes if she lost control she wouldn't burn her friends.

"How do you even change bearer bonds into cash?" Kira asks.

"Bank, I guess." Stiles says shrugging. "They just let it sit here the whole time, collecting dust. You know bearer bonds are basically extinct?"

"Why does it matter?" Kira asks.

"You know how many problems that money could solve?" Stiles says and Sera sighs.

"For you?"

"Me, my dad... The Eichen House and MRI bills are killing him." Stiles explains.

"My mom does this thing... she writes down all the items in our budget, and how much they cost, and then she adds them all up and figures out how long we have until... we lose the house." Scott says and Sera frowns. She isn't the only one going through things right now and she needs to be there more for her friends. Losing her mom took a big piece of her but there's still so much going on, she's not sure there's much time for her to process her mother's death right now.

❀❀❀

Stiles had left a few hours ago to figure out how to save his supernatural friends but Sera was starting to think that there was no cure for this. Her body should be able to fight a virus fairly easily but whatever this one was made of seemed to be aimed at her instead of ordinary humans.

"Malia..." Scott calls the girl softly as Sera fearfully stares at her blurry hands. "Malia?" Scott calls the girl again.

"I can't see. I can't see anything!" Malia says panicking.

"I can't either." Sera says thickly as she tries to look at her friends.

"What's happening to us?" Malia asks.

"Scott?" Kira calls. "I can't... I can't see..."

❀❀❀

Sera was currently lying on the bottom step, her body too weak to even sit up anymore. Her eyes were  becoming too heavy to keep open when she heard muffled yelling from behind the vault door.

"Reishi..." Kira mumbles. "Scott, I saw it... In a jar, one of the shelves... Reishi..." Sera hears a crash and breaths in the Reishi powder spreading across the room. She coughs and blinks a few times as her vision clears. Sera looks up to see Stiles jogging across the room towards Malia who is reading a piece of paper.

"Hey, Malia...?" Stiles says and the girl stands up off of the ground and pushes past Stiles, shoving the paper into his chest as she passes him. Sera watches the interaction confused as to what could have been on that paper that made Malia so mad at the spastic boy.

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