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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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010.
FIFTH-WHEELING.

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——

     Allison furrowed her brows, pouting at the words that Lois had announced only seconds prior, after joining them her and Lydia in the locker rooms, "But you have to go ice skating with us!"

    "I don't know," Lois shrugged, "I don't think it's a good idea, A."

    "Why not?" She whined, sparing a glance at Lydia whom was too busy admiring the reflection in her compact to listen properly. She wasn't much help in convincing Lois in joining them on their late night skate — not that Allison had expected her to be. Lydia was going through a lot; she wasn't even sure if the strawberry blonde wanted to go.

"I just... I'm not feeling it."

Allison's response was a pout.

As Lois lifted her white shirt, ready to pull it over her curls and onto her body, it was snatched away from her the grasp of her two hands before she could so much as register it. The light breeze that followed the movement tickled at her skin and the curve of her hips. She gasped at the cold hitting her, immediately wrapping her arms around herself. It was cold in Beacon Hills, and the girls locker room was even colder. She needed that shirt. So, why was it not in her hands? Her eyes soon narrowed on Allison, who now held the shirt in her gasp, looking quite proud of herself for acting like a brat. Lois watched her closely, brow raised.

    "And what was that supposed to achieve, exactly?" She asked.

The archer's smirk dropped, "...I'm not too sure."

With a playful scoff, Lois was quick to snatch the shirt back and tugged it over her head before Allison could think twice. Her words were muffled as she spoke, the fabric blocking their path.

    "I just don't really want to go," the words became clearer as the shirt hugged her figure, running a hand through her hair to adjust it, "Everyone will be paired off except for me. It's basically some love-fest I'm not involved in, and that makes me want to barf!"

"It's not a love-fest—!"

Lois yanked her hair from its ponytail carelessly, then wincing as the hair wrapped around the band tore. Her head was pounding slightly and she made a note to take some aspirin before lunch. It probably wasn't the best idea she'd ever to had — to climb a wall with a head injury from the night prior, but it was too late. She'd already done it, so she couldn't change anything now. Rather, Lois let out a heavy sigh, glancing over at the girl to her left. Allison looked as if someone had spoiled her cereal, or as if Scott had just broken up with her, which was a very dramatic reaction to Lois not wanting to join their group event. She really had no clue what ice skating was going to be like, did she? Especially not as the fifth-wheel that would be tagging along.

Of course Lois loved to skate.

In fact, she had absolutely adored when she was as a child, and she was actually quite good at it. She remembered skating with Lydia a lot when they were young — that being a large reason for their friendship this day — and if they hadn't skated, she doubted they would've even really spoken to one another.

But when sneaking into an empty ice rink involved four other members, all in pairs of eye-boggling, lovey-dovey teenagers, it tended to be significantly less fun for the loner of the bunch.

While most people had a pair to skate with, that pair being their significant other, Lois didn't have anyone.

In this case, Lois Lane was Loner Lane.

    "Are you kidding me?" The girl huffed, "You and Scott will be smooching your way around the rink and Luna's back later today, which means Stiles will be drooling the entire time!" Lois loved that Luna was coming back to BH, but she did not love that everyone would forget her existence. "Lydia doesn't even want to go— I mean, it'll be a train wreck no doubt, but still a gross love-fest."

"I'll skate with you!" Allison tried to assure her, feeling sheepish knowing that she wasn't completely wrong, "I won't be with Scott the whole time..."

"Hey— maybe I'll hunt down Isaac Lahey and ask him to skate with me." Lois snickered, even though it wasn't exactly funny. Rather, she was trying to channel her poor attitude into poorly timed humour.

She didn't look impressed at the joke, and she definitely wasn't. But before Allison could criticise Lois' words, or try to tell her that it wasn't very funny to joke about Derek's new beta that very much could have torn her to pieces at the station last night, a hasty shout echoed through the the locker rooms and immediately stole their attention. The name being called, and the caller of the name for that matter, were both very well known amongst the girls. One had happened to be the protagonist of our story, and the other being the best friend — it sounded urgent. Lois felt herself pale.

"Lois!"

Alarm and confusion riding through her body, she responded almost automatically. She sprung into action, her legs carrying her sooner than she had acknowledged it, and she darted out of the locker rooms and back towards the school gym. Her name had begun to bounce off the walls and her heart lurched in her chest.

"Stiles?" She called out desperately, "Stiles—"

"Lo— come on!"

It sounded desperate, and that alone made her almost faint.

How could she not respond to her own name? Nonetheless when it been called by the only person she had ever considered family?

Any time he called, she'd be there in a heartbeat.

     "Lois! Quick!"

And she was.

In an instant, had she ran into Stiles. The two kids had nearly toppled right over, and would have been a big heap on the floor if he hadn't continued to run. Her socks skid along the floor as she tried to slow herself down, the white material slipping around the gymnasium with the her of shoes. She hadn't had time to put any on — there was no time. Lois didn't know what was going on, but she didn't need to. All Lois knew was that where Stiles ran, she would always be quick to follow.

She slid across the floor, arms out to steady herself, and let out a breath when she saw where Stiles had run to.

Everything eventually fell into place; the desperate pleas making sense as she observed the scene before her, her eyes wide. On the far side of the gymnasium, directly in front of the climbing wall they had been using not long prior, sat Scott McCall with a severe epileptic fitting in his arms. She pushed her way over to the pair, her feet slipping every few seconds, Stiles not far in front.

    "Put her on her side!" Lois instructed, "On her side—!"

It had made sense why Stiles had called Lois. With an aunt for a doctor and a long summer vacation spent at medical camp during eighth grade, Lois had mild experience within the medical field — well, as much as she could get at fourteen years old.

The summer had been rather boring but also rather beneficial, particularly now that her life had become a mess of werewolves and fires, which came with almost every injury under the sun.

Her mother had also suffered from mild seizures when she was young, and she and her father had always taught Lois what to do in case she was to have one. The risk was always there, even if her seizures were rare, but what would they have done if Lois was the only one home?

She knew emergency line and the recovery position by age seven. While Lois may not have been an expert in medicine, nor an expert in anything at all really, she did know how to respond in this situation. In fact, she had known what to do at a time like this for years. And, amongst everyone else's lack of knowledge, that was more than enough.

"Like this?" Scott asked, turning Erica the best that he could do without hurting her.

Lois nodded and crouched at his side, "That's good,"

She quickly brushed Erica's hair out of her face and made sure that there was nothing in her mouth, only then registering the rest of the class come running into the gym.

    "How did you know?" Allison questioned her secret boyfriend, breathing heavily as she had followed behind Lois as quickly as she could. She could faintly hear the sound of someone dialling 911 the background.

Scott allowed Lois to take Erica's twitching body into her more knowing embrace. Together they were aiming to keep the blonde on her side as gently as they could, placing her to the knowledge of another. It was for the best that brunette took charge of this situation — though, he didn't move from his spot. Instead moving his lover closer to him and speaking in hushed voices.

    "I don't know—" he shook his head,

"I just felt it."

• • •

    "What the hell is wrong with you?"

   Lois frowned, automatically plagued by the pathetic cries of Jackson Whittemore as she had stepped out of her history class.

   The rich boy had been quite rogue, as of recent.

She had overheard in one class that he had borrowed one of Matt's cameras and broken it somehow. There was a rumour that he had been apparently recording himself over night. While the thought was incredible disturbing, that wasn't the only thing that had caused her stomach to churn. In fact; Lois was confident that Jackson had received the bite from Derek, alongside Isaac. She had no proof of it, of course — and the odd part was, he hadn't transitioned. At least, not according to Scott's werewolf senses. He had been able to track Isaac Lahey down easily, he had smelt his new scent, but with Jackson he had felt nothing. 

   Lois didn't like it, one bit.

   Everything about the situation was suspicious, in her eyes. If he had been bitten — which he did an awful job at acting as though he hadn't — Lois was positive that he would have been twice as cocky as before. Instead, he had been acting the exact opposite.

   Following his voice, not for the first time in her life (he made a very good beacon at parties), Lois found herself listening to the conversation he was having. It sounded violent and rude, which wasn't a surprise to her when it came down to Jackson, though she couldn't help but notice that it was more than that. The boy didn't sound bitter like he did most of the time; he sounded upset.

The last time Lois Lane had seen Jackson Whittemore upset was when his parents had bought him the wrong lacrosse kit, and there was certainly hell to pay.

    "What did you do to me?" He demanded, a shocked gasp following in tow.

   Lydia was the one to respond and the sound of her voice caused Lois to curse. Why was she with Jackson? The boy had broken her heart, quite literally, and Lois didn't like the idea of them being alone together. Not when he sounded like that.

She quickened her steps and eventually rounded the corner, watching as the boy pinned Lydia to the wall by her sleeve.

"What?" Lydia frowned, "I—"

    "Show it to me." Jackson spat. When she didn't move to the odd command, he reached out to touch the girls side, to which Lydia had immediately flinched away. This seemed to anger him even more, and he slammed his palm to the wall by her head, "Now! Show it to me! Come on—"

   Pursing her lips tightly, Lois prevented herself from rushing in to intervene when the strawberry blonde smacked his hands away from her. Lois was proud of the actions and gripped onto her bag tightly, tapping her foot against the floor as several students walked past, each of them ignoring everything. Before she flipped and told Jackson where to go, Lois had to remind herself that Lydia was able to handle herself — that Lydia was strong enough to tell her ex-boyfriend to back off, even if she had been having the worst time of her life since he had broken up with her and all else that had happened since. She knew that Lydia could handle this, she did, but she still didn't leave. Lois stayed watching, just in case.

    "Are you out of your mind?" Lydia shrieked, glaring at the boy she still loved dearly. She wasn't sure if she would ever get over him, though she desperately wished that she would.

Jackson had hurt her; more than she had thought possible.

   He eyed the girl with disgust. His eyes looked her up and down, lip curled. Lois wanted to smack the look right off his face.

She resisted.

    "Nothing happened to you. Did it?" It's like—" he paused, face flushing in anger. He clenched his fists at his sides, causing the girl watching from afar to glare even harder. "I— it's like you're immune."

   Lydia watched him incredulously, "I don't have a clue what you're talking about!"

    "It's— it's you. Whatever it is..." Jackson had begun to ramble as he cornered Lydia against the wall that he already held her pinned against. Lois took this at her sign to make her way over to the pair, her steps hard and quick. The vein in his head throbbed, "Blood, saliva— whatever soul-killing substance is running through your veins; you did this to me,"

He grew angrier, palms slamming against the wall, pointing a finger in her face. "You ruined it for me!"

"You ruined everything—!"

"Hey, douche-bag!" Lois called out, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back as hard as she could. She glance between him and Lydia, and then shot him an icy look as she stood in front of the girl. Eyebrows raised in challenge, "Back off— yeah?"

Jackson glowered at the girl, stirring in frustration for another moment, before growling under his breath and storming off in a rage. Lois rolled her eyes and scoffed — even after all this time, she was still unsure what Lydia had ever seen in that guy. Sure, Lydia Martin wasn't the nicest person either, but she did have a heart even if she chose not to show it most of the time, unlike the boy that had just left. He had no heart, Lois was sure.

After a moment, Lois turned to face Lydia. She grimaced, taking note of the tears in her eyes and the laboured breaths that had her chest heaving. Lois reached into her bag and pulled out a packet of tissues to offer, but the gesture went unnoticed.

Lydia was too shaken up.

"Lydia?"

Voice light, Lois gingerly moved closer, "Lyds... are you alright?"

Tthe strawberry blonde snapped out of her daze, a lone tear trailing down her cheek. She snatched the tissue from Lois' hand and used it to wipe emotion left upon her skin, sucking in a breath.

"I'm fine," Lydia nodded firmly, sniffling as she peered around the hallways. Luckily, no one had taken too much notice of the commotion, and she took this time to adjust the dress she wore with shaky hands. She hoped that Lois hadn't seen, even though she knew that she would have. "Perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?"

Lois didn't wanted to doubt her friend's sanity, not really, but she couldn't exactly help it. Lydia had been on a downwards spiral recently — ever since the night that she had watched Jackson get attacked by the alpha (whom everyone else in Beacon Hills knew to be a mountain lion), it had all gone rather wrong. Jackson had dumped her and wanted Allison, she had gotten attacked at their Winter Formal, then she had gone completely MIA and been found in the woods. It all made her look insane, and Lois knew that she probably felt it.

None of this was normal, Lydia didn't even know what was happening to her. She didn't know anything, unfortunately...

The girl snapped, "I'm fine, Lois!"

Yet, somehow, Lois didn't believe her.

Nonetheless, the brunette nodded and allowed the girl to hastily storm away, making a beeline for the girls bathroom as the bell for their next period rang.

The teenager hadn't had to ask in order to know that Lydia would be crying through her next lesson rather than attending it.

And she couldn't blame her.

——

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