THE LAST thing Katie wanted to be doing the night before school was traipsing through the woods looking for a body. Or, half of a body, as her brother liked to keep correcting her. She trailed behind Stiles, holding her own flashlight for herself and Scott.

"Which half of the body are we even looking for?" Katie asked, kicking away fallen leaves as she walked.

"I didn't even think of that," Stiles said after a second, laughing awkwardly.

"And what if whoever killed the body is still out here?" Scott added on, trying to keep up with Katie, who thankfully pointed the flashlight at the ground directly in front of Scott's feet so he wouldn't trip.

"Also something I didn't think about." Stiles said, not hesitating to begin climbing the hill they came upon. Katie let Scott go first, before climbing up it herself, thankful that she wore an old pair of sneakers and not her brand new boots.

"So you listened to half of a private phone call and then decided to drag us into one of your messes? Typical." Katie muttered once they got to the top of the hill.

"At least Katie's nice enough to hold a flashlight for the severe asthmatic," Scott said through a wheeze, pulling the inhaler from his pocket. He shook it several times, and Katie waited for him to inhale it before chasing after Stiles who was already moving again. Stiles dropped to the ground in front of a branch, and Scott quickly followed suit, tripped and grabbing onto Katie's arm to drag her down with him. Scott completely ignored the glare she sent his way in favor of seeing what Stiles was looking at — a group of officers with search dogs.

"Shit," Katie said, sighing as Stiles got up and shot off again. Dragging Scott to his feet, the pair chased after Stiles, but he only sped up. Groaning in frustration, Katie quickly handed her flashlight off to Scott. "Here, try not to get caught," She said seriously, taking off in an attempt to catch Stiles. Hearing him shout in surprise, she ducked behind a tree, listening to him fumble his way through a lie to their father. Looking around, Katie couldn't catch sight of Scott — he had either lost the flashlight immediately, or knew enough to turn it off to avoid being caught. With the officers behind her, and unwilling to get caught by her father, Katie chose to run further and try to circle back around to the road, where she could call Stiles to come get her.

Taking off at a sprint, Katie cursed herself for giving up her flashlight as she nearly tripped over several branches and holes in the ground. She ran until she could no longer hear the sounds of the officers or the search dogs before stopping to catch her breath and take in her surroundings. Katie didn't know the preserve very well, only being there a couple times, and even then she stuck to the marked paths to avoid getting lost. Looking around in the dark, she couldn't make out anything besides trees, and she only hoped she didn't get turned around enough to lose the direction of the road. Picking a direction, Katie slowly began making her way through the trees, relying solely on the moonlight filtering through to guide her. In the distance, a shout made Katie pause. Another yell, this one louder and more distressed, made Katie turn and begin sprinting directly towards the noise.

"Scott!" She shouted, ignoring the branches that smacked against her arms and face.

"Katie!" Scott shouted back, his voice much closer than it was before. Katie cursed as she went to jump over a large branch and ended up tumbling down a hill. She hissed in pain as she scraped her hands on the ground, but didn't waste any time getting back to her feet and looking frantically for Scott. He was alone, and clearly in danger, and there was no telling who, or what, could be in the woods with them. A loud growl began behind her, and Katie froze, forcing herself not to turn around. Leaves crunched as whatever it was stepped towards her, but suddenly a hand grabbed onto hers, tugging her forward into a run.

"Scott?" Katie called, not looking behind her as Scott dragged the both of them away from whatever animal they left behind.

"It's a wolf or something, we have to go!" Scott replied, trying to catch his breath, but neither of them stopped running. The trees began to thin before they broke through the tree line, stumbling onto the road.

"Watch out!" Katie shouted, yanking Scott back by the hand as a car came around the bend, honking and swerving to narrowly avoid hitting the teenagers. They watched it drive off, finally able to catch their breath when there was no sign of the animal still following them. "Are you okay?" Katie asked, dropping Scott's hand and turning to fully face him. He was covered in dirt and mud, more so than her. "You're bleeding!" She shouted, watching blood seep through the side of Scott's shirt. He slowly lifted his shirt, exposing a large bite mark on his side. "What the fuck did that?" Katie asked, watching more blood drip down from the wound.

"A wolf," Scott said, looking up from the wound to meet Katie's eyes. They shared a look of concern as a loud howl rang out from somewhere in the preserve.

–•–•–

"Alright, let's see this bite Katie spent two hours yelling at me about last night." Stiles said, gesturing to Scott's shirt as soon as he caught sight of him.

"No, I spent half an hour yelling about the bite. The other hour and a half was yelling about how you left us in the woods!" Katie hissed at him, shooting him a glare.

"Before you start arguing, can we please focus on what happened to me?" Scott asked, attempting to interrupt the twins' argument before it began.

"Right. Possible rabies. Okay, show him," Katie said, nodding towards where the bite was. Scott grunted in pain as he lifted his shirt, revealing the large bandage covering where the bite was. Some blood had started to bleed through it, giving the twins a good idea of how bad it was.

"It was too dark to see much, but I'm pretty sure it was a wolf." Scott said, dropping his shirt and grabbing his backpack and lacrosse stick from the ground.

"A wolf bit you?" Stiles asked, falling in line between Scott and Katie as they walked. "No. Not a chance."

"Katie and I both heard a wolf howling, and it chased us out of the preserve." Scott explained, looking to Katie, who nodded in agreement.

"No you didn't. It wasn't a wolf. California doesn't have wolves." Stiles explained, turning to face Scott. "Not in like sixty years." Katie rolled her eyes — of course Stiles knew a useless fact about California's wildlife.

"Well if you don't believe me about the wolf, you're definitely not gonna believe me about when I tell you I found the body." Scott said. Katie's mouth fell open, her eyes going wide as she stared at Scott.

"You what?" She asked, shoving at his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me last night?"

"You probably ran right by it before you fell down the hill!" Scott exclaimed, rubbing at his shoulder. Stiles started laughing at the news that his sister had tumbled down a hill, even though he was the one to help her pick little stones out of her hand and cover it with a Star Wars bandaid.

"This is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since," Stiles trailed off as he looked behind Scott and Katie. She turned to look over her shoulder at Lydia coming up behind them. "Since the birth of Lydia Martin. Hey Lydia! You look," Lydia walked right past them, not even bothering to spare the trio a glance. "Like you're gonna ignore me." He said, watching her walk up the steps and into the school. "You two are the cause of this, you know? Dragging me down to your nerd depths." The bell rang, signaling for all of them to begin walking inside.

"Speak for yourself. Lydia actually talks to me, sometimes we even sit together while watching you completely fail at lacrosse practice." Katie shot back, walking up the steps. "If anything, I'm the one being dragged down to your nerd depths." It was true — Katie had the makings of a perfectly good popular girl. She was smart, pretty, captain of the girls swim team and excelled at cross country. If she wanted to, Scott and Stiles had no doubt that she'd fit in perfectly with the popular kids, and yet she decided that the two boys were the only ones she really needed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever asshole." Stiles said, shoving her to the side so he could walk through the door first. Katie rolled her eyes, swatting at the back of Stiles' head, ignoring Scott's laughter behind them.

–•–•–

Katie listened to the teacher drone on about the murder the previous night, tapping her pen against her open notebook. She sat next to Stiles, two seats behind Scott, an open desk between them.

"Give me a pen," Scott whispered, turning around abruptly in his seat. As soon as he asked, the door opened, and in walked a girl with the principal. He looked from her, then back to Katie desperately. Sighing, Katie tossed him her pen, before reaching for her bag to grab another one.

"Class, this is our new student Allison Argent. Please do your best to make her feel welcome." The principal said, before quickly leaving. She quickly made her way to the only empty seat in the room, the one directly in front of Katie. Allison gave her a small smile, which Katie returned, before sliding into the desk. Scott turned to look at Allison, handing her the pen that Katie had just given him. She frowned at him in confusion, but he didn't even notice, too busy making heart-eyes at the new girl. Katie sighed softly, leaning back in her chair. This year just got infinitely more interesting.