✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  1.10 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

'what are you standing there looking at me for? come on, come on. we've got a barbie movie marathon to get to!'

✧༺♥༻✧

Lottie was sitting in her art class, attempting to destress. Painting was always calming but she couldn't focus. Her canvas was a blur of blue hues, murky and dark, probably an accurate representation of her life at the minute. She let out a loud sigh.

"Wow. And here I thought you'd be happy to see me." A voice spoke with a smile.

"I'm always happy to see you Isaac.'' Lottie smiled tiredly as the boy sat down.

"At least someone is." Isaac mused, taking out his sketchbook. He began to lightly sketch Lottie out. "Don't move."

"Yes boss. How've you been? You've been awfully quiet lately."

"Same old, same old. Nothing new unfortunately. What about you? I don't mean to be rude but you look like shit." Isaac told the girl who snorted in response. He was just glad she wasn't offended.

"Wow, if I knew befriending you would have resulted in insults this early in the morning, I might've taken a second to think about it." Lottie smiled, ruffling his curls, laughing as he sent her a mock glare for moving. "But yes, I'm doing okay, just very little sleep at the minute. These bags don't come from nothing you know? You have to work for them."

"Well, I mean you don't look like shit really. You're beautiful, you just look like you're burning the candle at both ends." Isaac admitted shyly, he didn't fancy the girl, he really valued their friendship, he just wanted to make sure she was okay.

"That's probably the most accurate way of describing my life at the minute." Lottie paused taking a real look at the boy, noticing how he was slightly twitchy, ever so slightly, you wouldn't notice it unless you paid real close attention, but she did. "You sure you're okay?"

Isaac looked at the girl. It would be so easy to tell her, she'd help him, he knew she would. He wanted to desperately, but as fear and hope battled inside him fear won. He shook his head, laughing forcefully.

"Of course."

"Well you know my door is always open right? I have a spare room at mine and my dad is never home so he'd be cool with it." Lottie offered the boy. She knew something was wrong, deep down. There was just nothing she could do until he grabbed onto the hand she was holding out to him. Smiling, she stood as he handed her his sketchbook. "Wow, you're super talented. There's a competition coming up in a few weeks, you should apply. Oh and Isaac, think about my offer okay? Seriously, think about it." Lottie ruffled his hair one more time and left the room as the bell rang.

"I will. I really will." He muttered to himself as looked down at his sketchbook with a smile.

✧༺♥༻✧

"Remind me again why we are following Jackass Whittmore? It's supposed to be Superhero Saturday, I had the movie selection all planned out but no-"

"Lottie, we will still watch whatever you've got planned, we just need to make sure he doesn't drop me in the shit." Scott interrupted the girls ramble as he leaned closer to the girl as Stiles trailed behind Jacksons Porsche.

"Great! I kind of went off the typical brand and have decided it's finally time for you two to indulge me and watch the Barbie films- she's a superhero in her own right, I mean she plays so many roles. That girl is overworked and underpaid for sure and I think-"

"Over there!" Scott interrupted again as he pointed through the gap in the driver's seat and passenger seat to Jackson, who'd broken down next to Chris Argent.

"I think, you aren't listening to me."

"We will watch at least three Barbie films as soon as we're done here." Stiles told the girl as he pulled them over grinning as she beamed at him.

"Everything okay?" Scott asked as he peered out the back window. Lottie waved at Chris with a grin. He smiled back at the girl with a nod before turning his attention back to Scott.

"Hey, Scott. Your friend here is having a little car trouble. We were just taking a look."

"There's a shop down the street. I'm sure they have a tow truck." Scott tried.

"Want a ride?" Stiles offered Jackson, who turned to meet Chris' unblinking gaze. "Come on, Jackson. You're way too pretty to stand out here alone." He continued as Jackson let out a weak laugh, clearly unnerved.

"Yeah, Jackass, a pretty boy like you won't last long out here. If you get in now, I'll let you pick a song to play - and I never let up my control on the aux." Lottie grinned reassuringly at the boy.

"Get in." Scott spelt out firmly. Nodding slowly, Jackson heads towards the Jeep as Chris made his way to the back of the car, fiddling for a second before slamming the boot shut.

"Hold on there." He called out. Going to the driver's seat, he twisted the key in the ignition and the car 'magically' came back to life. "Told you I knew a few things about cars."

"Race you to the mall?" Lottie muttered to Jackson, knocking him out of his stupor as he caught onto her hint with a grin, climbing into his Porsche as Chris drove off in his SUV.

Stiles's Jeep and Jackson's Porsche rumbled their way into the strip mall parking lot. Stiles had barely parked the Jeep when Scott leapt out, gunning for Jackson.

"What? Are you following me now?" Jackson asked, stepping out of his Porsche.

"Yes, you stupid, freaking idiot! You almost gave away everything back there." Scott shouted.

"What are you talking about?"

"He thinks you're the second beta dumbass." Lottie retorted as Stiles lifted her to sit delicately on the hood of his Jeep.

"What?"

"He thinks you're me!" Scott fumed, hitting the Jeep just narrowly missing Lottie.

"Hey, precious cargo. Watch out." Stiles scolded as he looked over both Lottie and his Jeep as the girl sent a smile his way.

"I could hear your heart beating a mile away. Literally. Now he knows something's wrong and now I have to keep an eye on your stupid ass so he doesn't kill you too." Scott rambled, panic clearly having set in. He balled his fist, looking like it took everything in him to not punch Jackson, instead he turned to Roscoe.

"How about we step away from Stiles's Jeep?" Stiles suggested as Lottie sent him a look. "And our best friend. I know the world has a policy about not hitting women, especially your best friends so let's stay clear of that." Stiles finished as he guided Scott's fist away from the two.

"This is your problem. Not mine. I didn't say anything. Which means you're the one who's going to get me killed. It's your fault. " Jackson started to get annoyed pushing Scott into Stiles' Jeep this time catching Lottie in the crossfire as her legs got caught between the Jeep and Scott's back.

"Woah, woah, woah. Big foul. Let's stop now." Stiles began as Scott pushed Jackson back, he checked on Lottie before making his way to the boys. They were about to come to blows but Lottie slid off the hood of the car, stretching her now sore legs before walking between the two.

"I've had enough!" She almost shouted at the two. "Stop it right now, I want to go home and watch my Barbie movies and all this shoving is delaying that, so either punch each other or hear each other out. I'm over this." She scolded as Jackson looked at her confused.

"Barbie movies?"

"Not important right now. If they come after you, I can't protect you. I can't protect any of you." Scott explained as he glanced at Lottie and Stiles.

"Why are you looking at us? He's looking at us right?" Stiles asked Lottie.

"Now you have to do it. Get me what I want and I'll be fine protecting myself." Jackson decided.

"No, you won't. Just trust me. All it does is make things worse." Scott argued. Lottie sighed, climbing back into the passenger seat. This back and forth was becoming very boring very quickly.

"Right. You can hear anything you want and run faster than humanly possible. Sounds like a real hardship." Jackson replied sarcastically.

"Yes, I can run really fast now. Except half the time I'm running away from people trying to kill me. And I can hear things. Like my girlfriend telling people she doesn't trust me anymore just before breaking up with me. I'm not lying. It ruins your life." Scott insisted, trying desperately to make Jackson see.

"It ruined your life. You got all the power in the world and you didn't know what to do with it." Jackson took his keys back out and made his way back to his car. "You know what it's actually like, McCall? It's like you turned sixteen and somebody bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda." He opened his car door, looking back one last time. "Me? I drive a Porsche."

Slamming the door closed, he drove off tearing out of the lot, kicking up dust at the two boys left standing watching after him.

"'Me? I drive a Porsche'. God, that just gave me the biggest ick." Lottie said aloud, mocking the boy as her friends glanced at her with amused smirks on their lips. "What are you standing there looking at me for? Come on, come on. We've got a Barbie movie marathon to get to!"

✧༺♥༻✧

"I can't believe Scott bailed." Lottie complained as she walked into the Stilinski household with her overnight bag on her shoulder. "Promise me, If you get a girlfriend and break-up with her you won't constantly ditch me to stalk her?" She asked as they made their way through to the kitchen.

"Yeah that's never gonna happen." He smiled, linking pinkies with the girl as he shook off the weird feeling he got when he thought about spending time with a girl that wasn't Lottie.

Entering the kitchen the saw Sheriff Stilinski sat at the dining table with a glass of whiskey, surrounded by case files looking exhausted. Stealing a glance with one another, Stiles and Lottie nodded, leaping into action.

"Whatcha' doing?" Stiles asked.

"I think I'd bet my life savings on the fact he's working." Lottie mused as Noah pointed a finger in her direction.

"Bingo."

"Anything we can help with?" Stiles asked again.

"Pouring me an ounce of whiskey would be nice." His father replied.

"Any leads?" Lottie asked as Stiles set a glass on the table and started to pour a small amount of whiskey into the glass.

"You know I can't discuss that with you, Little Lotts. Not too much." Noah instructed as Stiles poured, a devious plan began to form in his mind as he started to pour until the glass was almost full as Lottie's eyes bulged, clocking on to her friend's plan. Shaking her head at the boy, she went along with his plan.

Stilinski was so overwhelmed with his work that he didn't even notice the full glass as he picked it up and drank it all in one go. Stiles refilled his glance a couple more times until his father began to slur his words.

"You know, Derek Hale would be a whole Hale of a lot... Hale of a lot?" He started, confusing himself.

"A hell of a lot?" Stiles helped as Lottie sat next to her friend's father.

"Hell. Yessss. He'd be a whole hell of a lot easier to catch if we had an actual picture of him."

"How do you not have a picture of him?" Lottie asked curiously.

Laying out the pictures they had on file of Derek he explained. "It's the weirdest thing. Every time we tried to do his mugshot it was like two laser beams were pointing at the camera."

He'd shown his glowing eyes as the camera captured his picture, it was clever really. That left the police with memory or descriptions, making it easier for Derek to evade capture.

"Nice." Stiles muttered impressed.

"Good God, that ounce hit me really hard. And I've told you way too much. You repeat any of this..."

"We won't say a thing." Lottie and Stiles finished for him, simultaneously.

"You want another? Just a little?" Stiles suggested innocently, ignoring Lottie's glare. She hated the fact they were taking advantage of the man, even if it were for the greater good.

"Absolutely not. Not a drop. Maybe a drop. Just a little." His father caved as Stiles filled the glass again. "See, the thing is they're connected. All of them. The school bus driver who died? He was an insurance investigator assigned to the Hale fire."

"Terminated under suspicion of fraud." Lottie read from the file.

"Exactly." Stilinski slurred as he tried to point at Lottie but missed and pointed at the fridge, before returning his gaze to the files.

"Who else?" Stiles asked.

"That video store clerk who got his throat slashed? Convicted felon. History of arson."

"What about the other two? The guys who were killed in the woods." Stiles pressed.

"Priors all over their records. Including..."

"Arson?" Lottie guessed as the man nodded.

"So maybe they all had something to do with the fire?" Stiles suggested as he picked up the bottle again as his father and Lottie protested.

"Stiles..."

"You work hard. You deserve it." Stiles ignored his friend, pouring the glass.

"I'm gonna have a hangover." Stilinski argued.

"You're going to have a good night's sleep," Stiles decided before turning to Lottie who had moved to his side of the table, "And I'm going to have an eternity in the lowest circle of hell."

"The absolute lowest circle." She agreed.

The glass emptied quickly and at this point Noah Stilinski is absolutely wasted. Lottie decided since she'd already gone along with it this far, she might as well see it through. As Stilinski began loosely swinging his glance she took it off of him gently, worried it was going to drop and smash any moment.

"There's just so many questions." He slurred.

"Like?" Stiles pressed.

"If Derek was going to kill everyone involved with the fire, why start with his own sister who had nothing to do with it?"

"Good starting point." Lottie mumbled.

"And why make it all look like some animal did it?"

"Good question." Stiles agreed.

"Which is the other weird thing. When that cougar ended up in the school parking lot I checked with Animal Control. Incidences of wild animal reports? Up seventy percent in the last few months. It's like they're all going crazy running out of the woods." Stilinski continued.

"Or something is scaring them." Stiles muttered worriedly to Lottie who shared the same worried look.

Lottie began to pick up the folders, tidying and organising them as Stilinski turned to Stiles. Stepping away and going over to the kitchen sink, she gave them as much privacy as the room allowed.

"You know, I miss talking to you. It's like we never have time–"

"Gotta' make a phone call, Dad. Be right back."

"Stiles! It can wait." Lottie whisper-shouted at the boy. Shocked he'd leave when his father was opening up to him.

"I do. I miss it." Stilinski continued as Stiles got up, taking Lottie's hand in his, going to leave the room. "I miss your mother." He mumbled, causing Stiles to stop in his tracks.

"What did you say?" Stiles croaked, only to be met with silence as his father began to reach for the bottle again. Taking a step forward, Lottie put her hand over his and Stiles took the bottle away.

"Thank you." He mumbled.

"Always, now lets get you to bed. Stiles I'll meet you upstairs okay?" Lottie gently wrapped an arm around her father figure and guided him up the stairs to his room, leaving him on his bed.

"Thank you Little Lotts."

"Of course, Noah."

"Not just for helping me. But for being there for him. You mean more to that boy than you know." He slurred as he fell back, snoring in his slumber.

"And he means more to me than that." Lottie smiled, putting a blanket over the man as she made her way back to Stiles' room.

Walking over to him she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, he just never talks about her, you know?"

"I know. But if you ever want to talk about her or anything, you know I always have an ear?" Lottie offered, smiling up at the boy as she rested her chin on his chest as he looked down at her.

"Of course, likewise you know."

The two stay looking at each other, holding each other tightly in comfortable silence, unaware of how much time is passing or the world around them, just wrapped up in each other. Lottie could have sworn Stiles looked at her lips a time or two, she felt their faces grow closer, unaware as to who was leaning in when they were snapped back to reality by the sound of Stiles' phone ringing.

"What?" Stiles spat into the phone, irritated for some reason.

"Are you ser- okay me and Lottie will do what we can." Stiles finished, shocked, turning back to Lottie. "You'll never guess who's on a date with Melissa McCall."

"Judging by the look on your face I have a rough idea. I just hope for the first time in our existence I'm wrong." Lottie grumbled, grabbing one of Stiles' hoodies as he took out his car keys, spinning them on his finger. "We're so watching at least one Barbie film before we go to school tomorrow, you know."

"I know. Now let's go crash a date."

✧༺♥༻✧

"There! That's the car. It has the same registration plate." Lottie pointed out to a parked car on the side of the road.

"Your seatbelt on?" Stiles asked, coming up with a very quick and very bad plan.

"Always, duh." Lottie scoffed. "I have a feeling I'm gonna hate this plan."

"Brace yourself." Stiles warned as he turned the wheel so they went off road and slowed right down before rear-ending the back of the car containing Melissa and Peter. Peter Hale.

"Stiles? Lottie?" Melissa fumed as she got out of the passenger side of the car as Peter slowly exited the vehicle.

"Mrs. McCall? Wow. This is crazy. Talk about a coincidence." Stiles' feigned surprise as he got out of the car, walking round the front of the car to help Lottie out, scanning over her to make sure she wasn't injured.

Peter smiled at the two clearly impressed by their attempt as well as at Scott for his quick thinking. Whilst Melissa wasn't looking he sent a wave to Lottie who smiled back frostily, flicking the finger making him grin.

"I don't know what happened. You guys came out of nowhere." Stiles acted shocked as he and Melissa assessed the damage.

"Came out of nowhere? We were parked on the side of the road." Melissa deadpanned.

"How crazy is that? We should call the police, do an accident report." Stiles suggested.

"I don't think that's necessary." Peter spoke up, making his way closer to the group as Lottie stepped forward.

"It's protocol. I know you're new around these parts but it's just how things are done." Lottie smiled his way, not wanting Melissa to think poorly of the girl but wanting to warn Peter all the same.

"You sure? I'm feeling a little whiplash." Stiles reached up to his neck as Lottie walked over to him touching his neck gently with delicate fingers, making the boy gulp audibly.

"You have whiplash? You hit us."

"Something's- somethings definitely wrong with my neck." Stiles insisted, still distracted by the cold hands gently caressing it.

Melissa and Stiles continued their back and forth, unaware that Peter had stepped away and was facing the first, talking to, seemingly himself. Lottie however had noticed, walking over to him she stopped when she was next to him, facing the forest knowing Scott was listening.

"You know talking to yourself or the tree's in this case, is the perfect way to make your date think you're loopy. Of course I already know this, but if you're trying to hide it from Melissa, you're doing a poor job." Lottie told the man, not looking his way as she cut him off from his one sided conversation with Scott, making him look down at her.

"And what do you know about me?" He asked with raised brow.

"Well Harvey-Dent reject, I know more than you'd like, that's for sure. I know you've manipulated Scooby with-"

"Scooby?"

"Don't interrupt me. You've manipulated him with some bullshit reason as to why you killed his sister. You're a classic lying narcissist with a touch of sob story thrown in there. I know a lot more but what's that saying about showing all your cards too early?" Lottie continued as she looked up to meet his eye.

What Lottie didn't know was that her distraction had caused Scott enough time to go and save Jackson from Derek who was seconds away from killing him upon Peter's order.

"We've never formally been introduced have we?" Peter thought aloud, a plan forming in his mind.

"I'm so over this conversation. Don't hurt Melissa or I'll make that fire look like child's play. Got it?" She threatened meeting his eye, before turning and walking back to Stiles, wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Stiles, you've exhausted all patience I had and now-"

"Melissa? Sorry to interrupt but I've just come on my period and I really need to get some girly bits. Can we reschedule the de-balling of your second favourite friend of Scott's?" Lottie asked, lying perfectly. Her period had been two weeks prior but who's ever going to argue with that.

Peter paid close attention to the girl's heartbeat, noting that there was no blip but not sensing any different scent surrounding the girl, raising a brow in confusion.

"Oh- of course. Look, just be careful next time. Scram." Melissa sighed.

Walking back over to Roscoe, Stiles looked over at Lottie with concern.

"Are you- do you actually- what do we need to- are-" He stuttered.

"No. I'm not actually on my period. Stop panicking." Lottie laughed as she climbed in the car.

"I wasn't- I wasn't panicking." He lied.

"Sure you weren't. Although I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to pick up some bits."

"Gummy worms?"

"Always. Oh and popcorn. I'm determined to get this movie night started, even if it kills me."

"Let's hope it doesn't get to that point. What are we watching anyway?" Stiles asked as he started the drive.

"Well I thought we'd start off with Barbie: Princess and the Pauper - a classic, then go onto Barbie: The Island Princess - a personal favourite and then..." She continued, listing off the films as Stiles gazed over at her, a small smile gracing his face as he took in her excitement fondly. He was falling and there was nothing anyone could do to stop or slow him.