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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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021.
SNAKES DON'T ALWAYS HISS.
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——

   The next morning; Lois hadn't gotten a ride into school with Stiles. She hadn't arrived with Lydia or Luna, either. Instead, her father had been the one to drop her off just as the bell rang.

"Are you sure you're okay, Lo?" He asked, uncertainly.

   She looked paler, than usual.

Lois didn't remember much about the night before, other than being paralysed from neck down. On the way out of the school, the boys had informed her that Derek recognised the lizard as a Kanima, and that it had made a run for it as soon as it had seen its's own reflection — she had remembered that part clearly. Other than that, Lois could only vaguely recall Scott placing her in the back of Stiles' jeep and passing out just as she regained feeling in her legs and while the engine started up. She heard it.

Scott and Stiles had taken her home where her father had been waiting, telling him that Lois had felt sick at the lacrosse game and fallen asleep in Stiles' car after they had gone for celebratory pizza. Most of it had been a lie — other than the sleeping part — but he had bought it, thanking them for bringing her home safely as they usual did, and wishing them a good night.

That was the reason he had always trusted the two boys to hang out with his daughter; they would always look out for her. He had known Stiles since he was born, and he knew that Scott was a good kid with a mother who had raised him well enough.

   They had been friends for years, all three of them.

Not many fathers trusted their teenage daughter with teenage boys, but Scott and Stiles were different. He cared for them like his own sons.

It had seemed that the Kanima venom had taken a toll on Lois' body; she had woken up feeling clammy but cold in the middle of the night, a feeling resembling severe seasickness in the pit of her stomach, with Stiles and Scott both asleep at the end of her bed. Apparently they hadn't wanted to leave her alone, in fear that the venom had poisoned her and was spreading infection through her blood stream (something that was quite dramatic and untrue) and had snuck through the window after dropping her home, which would have been sweet — had Scott not snored rather loudly, and kept them awake for most of the night.

Sleep had been intermittent. At one point, Lois had felt as though she was drowning, and had to drag each boy to lay either side of her so she knew they would pull her back to shore if she did get smothered in water. They were just dreams, but Scott and Stiles hadn't objected. Instead, they took it in turns to stay awake, so one would be able to comfort her if the feeling returned.

It did. Several times.

Both of her friends had snuck out early morning to get ready for school and another day of figuring out how the Kanima was, and Lois hadn't been able to rid the nausea by the time had father had come in to check on her. He had offered her the day off school but Lois had declined.

   She knew that taking the day off would make her feel even worse, in the long run. The night prior had triggered memories that she had tried to erase, to no avail. Lois needed a distraction.

    "I'm fine, dad." She grabbed her bag from the foot well and pulled it into her lap. Reaching for the door handle, Lois stopped when her father spoke up again.

    "Are you sure?" Matthew echoed himself once again as he grabbed his phone from his pocket, already scrolling for the familiar number of their favourite nurse, "We could always go and pay a quick visit to Melissa, just to get you checked over—?"

    "Dad."

   He immediately stopped, "What?"

    "I'll be fine," She smiled at him softly, "Really."

Hesitant to let her go when she still looked so pale and fragile, Matthew Lane glanced over her for a moment longer. He knew that Lois was growing up, and she had been sick countless times in her life, but something told him that this was more than a normal stomach bug. He had only seen her like this when she had been dwelling on something, and it was usually on the something that had happened years ago.

   Those thought made him worry, even more.

Eventually the man sighed and nodded his head, carefully watching his daughter hop out of the car and throw her bag onto her shoulder. "If you have any problems, or need picking up—"

"—just ring you." Lois finished for him, then grinned cheekily. "And if you don't answer, ring Uncle Noah or Melissa."

He rolled his eyes and started up the engine, and Lois slammed the door shut and gave him a wave as he exited the car park. Lois was lucky to have a father that loved her so much, and she made a mental note to remember to tell him how much she appreciated it.

   Lois was lucky — he was a good dad.

The girl stared after the car for a second more before sighing to herself and turning on her heel, making her way up the stairs and to her homeroom, and passing Luna's locker on the way.

"Stiles told me about last night," the blonde took her place next to Lois, falling in line with her, "Are you alright?"

Lois nodded, "I'm fine, is Lydia okay?"

"She was upset. We passed her car on the way into the school and I couldn't leave her like that," Luna spoke sadly, keeping her voice low. "So Stiles went in, and she and I talked before my dad called me home. She didn't tell me much, she's just really confused about everything."

"I wish we could tell her," the brunette sighed heavily, biting down on her lower lip as guilt began to consume her again. She had wanted to tell Lydia for a while now, but it didn't seem right to put her into even more danger. "It's not fair..."

"Lo, we hardly know anymore than she does." Luna reminded gently, "No one knows what's happening to her,"

She had a point.

"But when we figure it out, she'll be the first to know."

Lois nodded her head as Allison joined their trio from her own locker, taking Lois' right while Luna remained on the left. She had briefly heard about how their dinner had gone with her family the night before, and it hadn't sounded all too horrific. In fact, Lois had been pleasantly surprised that Scott had made it out well and alive, and that the Argents hadn't seemed to have sussed out their relationship yet. They had their suspicions, but nothing concrete had been released so there was no reason to kill Scott at the table instead of dessert. The two of them must have been pretty good at acting as friends, contrary to Lois' belief.

"I've tried to do some digging on the Kanima," Allison told them, acting like three girls that gossiped and giggled. Security cameras had been put almost everywhere, and they couldn't find a single place that they weren't followed to. Only the girls bathroom was going spare, but that was only for emergencies. "But I can't find anything, yet. It's like this thing doesn't even exist!"

"Keep searching," Lois said, "I know you'll find something, A."

   She smiled at her friend in appreciation, "The bestiary wasn't much help since we can't translate it, so there has to be something else about it somewhere—" Allison pursed her lips as she tried to think and then let out a breath, feeling quite defeated despite Lois' kind words, "—at least, I hope there is."

"I'm sure we'll find—"

   Luna had suddenly paused, swinging a hand out to stop the girls in their tracks. Her jaw dropped so low that it almost hit the floor.

"Oh my god."

Furrowing her brows and curling her lip, Lois looked down at the hand in front of her chest and then up at Luna. For a minute she wondered if the girl had just gone insane, which she easily could have, considering the sudden change of pace and all that had happened recently. Lois wouldn't have been surprised, honestly.

"Luna?" She sang gently. She clicked her fingers in front of her friends face a couple of times, "Did you just malfunction? Glitch in the system?"

The surprise quickly turned to an angry stare however, wide eyes morphing into narrowed ones, venom lacing the irises and twisting her face until it appeared sour. Luna was now angry, livid at the whatever it was that had seemed to have thrown her off-kilter. She quickly turned and grabbed Lois' face in her hand, moving her to the right and holding her there until she had noticed what exactly Luna had been looking at. But, she didn't. In fact, Lois couldn't see anything. She wondered if she was short-sighted, or dumb.

Allison mirrored the motion and gaped, seeing it before Lois' eyes had even adjusted.

"You have got to be kidding me..." she muttered.

"Okay— am I the only one not seeing what we're looking at?"

   Lois cheeks were squished, the words muffled. "Do I need my eyes tested, or are you both hallucinating—?"

Then she saw it, how had she even missed it?

The it turned out to be a him. And that him was only Isaac Lahey himself, leaning against a locker as he waited for Erica to adjust her lipstick in her mirror.

In that very moment, Lois thought that she was going to faint. But before she could grow lightheaded, she started to see red. Her cheeks grew warm and her heart rate increased, lips in a thin line as her nostrils flared. As though he heard her pulse heighten and sensed her presence — which he certainly did — Isaac glanced up and caught her eyes across the hall, the orbs flashing a bright and glowing amber for only a second before they had dulled back to a normal blue. He smirked at her in a fashion that she couldn't quite decipher, and for a fleeting second, Lois Lane had wanted nothing more than to march on over there and punch that smirk right off of his face. His stupid, stupid face!

    He had left her last night. Isaac has left her alone and paralysed in the chemistry labs after irritating her to no end, and he had the cheek to show up at school the next morning, as though it had never happened. He wasn't even supposed to be at school. Who cared that he saved her to begin with?

   It was hardly any good saving her like Superman, then leaving her for dead.

    "Who let the fugitive back into school?" She spoke the words quietly, only loud enough for the girls to hear, but she knew that he has caught it. His smirk faltered, and then it grew even bigger.

    "I don't know," Allison responded skeptically, taking Lois by the hand and leading girls down the hall and in the opposite direction.

    "But I don't have a good feeling about it."

• • •

"Hey! That's my seat, jackass."

Jackson rolled his eyes at Lois and remained seated behind Scott, ignoring how the girl stood with her arms outstretched and eyes narrowed.

"Didn't you hear me?" Her foot tapped. "I said, you're in my—"

"—seat? Yeah, I heard." Jackson sent her a widely sarcastic smile, leaning further back into the chair and spreading his items across the desk. He stared up at her challengingly, as if wondering what she would do if he pushed her to her limits, and then rose a brow. He'd like to find out, "Should I care, Lane?"

Lois scoffed, mouth agape as she stared at the lacrosse captain incredulously, then to Stiles and Scott who looked at her with the exact same faces, and then back to Jackson. Her eye twitched, and Lois found herself chuckling bitterly, running her tongue across her top teeth and throwing herself into the desk behind him. She didn't know why Jackson would even want that seat, anyway. He never wanted to sit next to Scott or Stiles, and he definitely never wanted to sit near Lois — she despised him. He had learnt that during his relationship with Lydia, so what was he up to?

   As she settled into her seat begrudgingly, muttering curse words that she knew Jackson could hear, she grabbed a book and threw it onto her desk. Isaac Lahey returning had already rubbed her up the wrong way, and Jackson being an asshole had been the icing on top of the cake. One more thing, and Lois was positive that she would just blow.

"Hey— testicle left and right!" Jackson whispered, making all three of them roll their eyes, "What the hell is a kanima?"

   And that just might have been the third.

    "All right, listen up!" Coach yelled before the they could get the chance to question him on what he knew, leaving Lois and Stiles to stare at one another with wide eyes. "A quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall—" the boy groaned while the man laughed at his expense, continuing with whatever it was that he had to say, "—might wanna start your own study groups."

    "Because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult—" He paused, frowning dramatically as he waved his hand around but no one really listened, "—I'm not even too sure I could pass it."

While he seemed distracted, Lois took her chance to look over at Lydia, who had gotten to class long before the brunette and was already writing things down for the midterm no doubt. After a nod to herself when the girl seemed to be okay, she turned back to glare at Jackson's head. After hearing that she had been upset last night, Lois had expected her friend to call her, or shoot her a text to talk, but she hadn't. She hadn't heard from Lydia at all, since the morning that she dropped her off at the school counsellor, and she could only hope that it was because she was doing better. If she was angry at her, Lois wasn't sure what she would do. Maybe seeing the school counsellor had helped?

"Okay— I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question." Finstock scanned the class, looking at the students with their hands raised. Lois made no effort to lift her hand, continuing to stare at the back of Jackson's head with burning eyes.

He rose a brow, "Who's got it, huh? Come on— let's go, buddy!"

As the chosen candidate went up to the bored, Scott and Stiles swung around to face Jackson and Lois leant around the side of her desk, all of them waiting for an explanation.

"Paralysed from the neck down," Jackson muttered. The bone in his jaw feathered, "Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

"I'm familiar with the sensation," Stiles quipped.

"Wait— why would Derek test you?" Scott interrogated before Lois could pitch in with a sarcastic remark, head slightly tilted as he tried to think of reasons why Jackson would have even been a suspect in the crazy case. "Why would he think that it's you?"

He shrugged, "How should I know?"

Lois squinted at him suspiciously, thinking that there was more to the situation than he was letting on, but her train of thought quickly travelled elsewhere. She looked away from him when the thought hit her, and towards the strawberry blonde — if Derek was spinning himself a detective case, testing people left and right, then she knew exactly who was going to be next.

"Do they think it's Lydia?" She whispered, frantically.

"I don't know," He spoke uncertainly, recalling the conversation he had heard take place in the hallway earlier that morning. "All I heard was her name, and something about chemistry—?"

"Jackson!"

Lois threw herself back into her seat at lightning speed when Finstock made his way towards them, both of her friends doing the same and acting nonchalant. They weren't very good at it but had been doing it long enough to know not to make eye contact like Jackson did. What a rookie, Lois rolled her eyes.

"Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?" He taunted, and Jackson squirmed in his seat.

   The boy pursed his lips and looked around the room, shrugging.

"Uh—" Jackson stuttered as he searched aimlessly for an excuse, leaning back casually and elbowing Lois in the face when she had muttered pathetic under her breath with a snicker. He smirked when she swore, "—just an undying admiration for my coach."

Coach smiled tightly, "That's really kind of you..."

   Silence.

    "Now, shut up! Shut it! Anybody else?"

As the class went back to his poor teaching, Lois sighed. She brushed a hair out of her face and tapped her fingers upon her desk in an anxious rhythm. What were they supposed to do now? If Derek thought that Lydia was the Kanima, then he was going to try and get to her to test it himself, and Lois didn't want that to happen. Lydia didn't know anything about the supernatural, not yet at least, and not knowingly. A lot of disturbing things had been happening to her lately, but that didn't mean that she knew why they were happening.

As far as they were aware, Lydia was clueless.

Lois wasn't sure that she could imagine her friend turning into the vicious, scaly creature that had tried to murder her the night prior. The strawberry blonde had never been one for animal print, and green wasn't her best colour.

When looking into the kanima's eyes, Lois had seen them clearly.

   And they weren't Lydia's.

A scream was what had brought the teenager back to the current moment, a bit dazed by the sobs she heard. She immediately peered around Jackson, only to see Lydia choking on her tears at the front of the class, squeezing the chalk in her palm so tightly that the powder had crumbled to a pile of ashes on the ground.

"Lydia—" Lois breathed, pushing out of her seat and rushing to follow after the girl when she fled the scene as quickly as she could.

"Lydia!" she called out, "Wait!"

"Go away!" Lydia sobbed as they ran through the halls, barging into the girls bathroom and screaming wildly. Lois watched as a few girls ran out of the toilets in terror, all fearing the wrath of the hysterical girl.

Sighing heavily, Lois pulled out her phone as it buzzed, peering down at it with furrowed brows.

FROM: STILES RECEIVED: 11:45
CHECK THIS.

Lois clicked on the picture that was attached, noting the bored that Lydia had previously been writing on, and found herself to be pretty confused by it. She squinted at the screen and zoomed in, debating if she should ask him what she was looking at, but her lips parted as she read the words that were flipped and legible.

SOMEONEHELPME

——

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