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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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027.
NIGHTMARE ON
PROMISE STREET.
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——

   Lois chose to stay rather silent as she sat in the back of Allison's car. In fact, all of the girls stayed silent. No one said a word as they pulled up in Lydia's drive way, all sitting awkwardly and waiting for one of them to do something. Anything.

   After Jackson had fled the scene, so had Derek. There was no doubt in Stiles' and Scott's minds that he had gone after him, to most likely kill him, and they had been quick to hop in the jeep and follow. The four girls had made the fairly short walk to Allison's house to grab her car, telling her parents that they had been studying and lost track of time, and that she was just going to drop all of the girls home. They had seemed to believe the lie and it had helped that Luna had gone in with her, smiling widely and convincing them in a heartbeat.

   Lydia hadn't said anything to Lois while they stood outside, waiting. But Lois couldn't blame her — she had been a terrible friend, lately.

   The strawberry blonde girl was going through hell. The whole school thought that she was crazy, that she losing her mind, and Lydia probably thought that she was, too. Bizarre things had been happening to Lydia Martin lately, things that she didn't know the slightest thing about but Lois did. Lois knew that something was going on in Beacon Hills, to Lydia, that she had been bitten by an alpha at the winter formal, and that Derek's pack had wanted to kill her because they thought her to be the enemy. She knew all of this, yet she hadn't told Lydia. Not even a word.

   And now there they were. Four girls sat in a car, all wanting to say so many things, but unable to get them out. Lydia wanted to know what was happening to her, what had just happened at Scott's house, why any of this was happening, and Lois wanted to give her answers. But she couldn't. She stayed silent.

   If that didn't make Lois Lane a terrible friend, she didn't know what did.

   Eventually Allison was the one to break the silence, taking in a deep breath as she turned to face Lydia, "I need you to promise that you won't say anything about what just happened."

     "I'll promise not to say anything about what just happened—" Lydia started, her tone getting more worked up by the second. She swung around in her seat to face Lois and Luna as well, her eyes watery with anger and fear. It made Lois' gut twist, knowing that there was nothing she could do to make this better. "—if you guys can tell me what the hell just happened."

    "It's—" Lois sighed, "I—it's kinda complicated."

    Lydia narrowed her eyes, feeling betrayed, "Well, how about you start with why was Derek there?"

   None of the girls said anything, and she continued.

    "Or where Jackson went, or what is wrong with Erica?" She breathed out, looking at her best friend in the back seat. When Lois avoided eye contact, she scoffed a laugh, looking at the other two who acted the same. "Oh— do you need a minute to come up with a plausible lie?"

   Allison grit her teeth, "Part of the reason why I'm asking is because Scott and I aren't supposed to be seeing each other, okay? So, it's better if you just keep what you know to yourself."

   Lois cringed at how harsh her words had sounded. Lydia was sensitive right now, even more so after tonight, and she dreaded the effects that could come of such an experience. She had woken up to Lydia bleeding after punching a mirror in her sleep — Lois didn't want to see how much worse she could get, from there. It scared her, even if she was being an awful friend right now. The idea of something happening to Lydia made her feel ill. All of what she'd just experienced was only going to make it far worse, especially if they weren't going to give her honest answers.

   But Allison did have a good point. One that sounded plausible, anyway. She wasn't supposed to be seeing Scott and if her family found out, they were screwed. Lois didn't particularly feel like losing a Scott McCall all because of a Romeo and Juliet scandal.

    "Fine." Lydia hummed mockingly, glaring at each of the girls as she grabbed her bag and went to open the car door.

    "I'll be sure to keep what I know about you and your boyfriend, which is nothing, to myself."

    "Hey—" Allison quickly grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving so fast, "He's not just my boyfriend... you get that, right?"

   She frowned, "Let me go."

    "Just for one second, please, try and remember—!"

    "Remember what?"

   Pursing her lips and wiping her nose, Allison sighed. She leant foreword and peered at Lydia with wet eyes, "Remember what it feels like. All of those times in school when you see him standing down the hall, and you cannot breathe until you're with him. Or those times in class..."

   Lois leant back in her seat and looked down at her hands. The conversation topic was one that she didn't have all that much experience with. She hadn't had many boyfriends, at least not a real one. What Allison was describing sounded foreign to her, it sounded surreal. Lois couldn't imagine feeling like that about someone. She peaked at Luna, whom sat with a soft smile on her face, her mind drifting elsewhere as she listened closely. The look she had made Lois' heart lurch in her chest. Luna was thinking about Stiles, her best friend, and Lois wondered if he knew just how much the blonde cared for him. Then again, he cared for her just as much. He probably did.

    "Those times in class when you— you just can't stop looking at the clock because you know that he's standing right out there, waiting for you." The hunter finished, "Don't you remember what that's like?"

   Lois knew what Lydia was going to say, without even asking. She had been in love with Jackson, but it wasn't like that.

   Not anymore.

    "No."

    Allison was confused, "What do you mean, no? You've had boyfriends."

   Lydia tucked her lips in, holding her breath for a second until it was able to come out in one steady stream of air. She looked up at Allison, then back at Luna and then at Lois, who had sunk back far enough that she almost blending in with the dark interior. She didn't know what that felt like, either.

    "None like that."

   The four girls watch as Lydia exited the car, tucking her bag onto her shoulder and making her way to her doorstep. Lois knew that she wouldn't say anything about the night, even if she had wanted to. Because while Lois hadn't been a good friend lately, Lydia had been a wonderful one. She always had been a good friend. Recently, they had just been too busy to see it. Lydia could be cruel, but she was also loyal. She wouldn't breath a word.

   Another round of silence washed over the car, each of them sat, thinking. It had been a very long day, and Lois hadn't been able to really think about what had really been happening over the last few weeks. Jackson Whittemore had somehow turned into a giant lizard after getting the bite from Derek, one with an urge to kill anything or anyone that got in his way. Lydia had been walking through forests naked at night, punching mirrors and screaming in classrooms, and every social reject in their school had been given the bite after Jackson and were now trying to reclaim their high school status in a matter of days.

   Lois was tired.

   She wanted to go to bed. Lois wanted nothing more than to go home, give her father a hug, explain why she had been so weird.

   She wanted to get into bed and go to sleep, waking up to Stiles in her room, forcing her to get up in the morning and drive them to school where they would meet Scott and watch lacrosse practise from the bench.

   Lois wanted to hand in homework on time, and get ready to apply to a college that would make her mother proud. She wanted to go shopping with Lydia and have sleepovers, and go bowling with Danny, and even go to parties of people she hated. Have fun. 

   Although things would never be normal for Lois, with the loss of her mother and the constant nightmares that reminded her of that night, that was as close to normal she had would ever get.

   Lois had lost her mother, but she would lose even more if she chose to go back to that day and live her life differently.

   That wasn't Lois' normal. She had already lost so much, she wasn't sure that she could have lived if she lost everything else, too. Life outside of Beacon Hills wouldn't have been normal; it would have been wrong. Life without Stiles and Scott, without Lydia Martin and even Jackson Whittemore wouldn't have been close to normal. Hating watching lacrosse wouldn't have been normal, not meeting Allison and Luna wouldn't have been normal.

   Scott not being a werewolf wouldn't have been normal.

   This was normal, now.

   And Lois Lane was going to have to live with it.

• • •

"What? You couldn't catch his scent?"

"I don't think he has one..."

Lois rolled her eyes at the two boys as she strolled her way to the back of the club, trying to to be seen by anyone that could tell her father that she was here. Being that he was a lawyer and Stiles' dad was a sheriff, it made them more noticeable than most.

It made her wonder how she had been able to sneak out so many times before, without anyone even noticing.

"Alright, tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber—" Lois hummed as she easily slipped in between the pair, ignoring how they both scoffed at her nicknames, "Any clue where he's going?"

"To kill someone." Scott stated the obvious.

The girl smiled up at him sarcastically, having not appreciated the sudden sense of humour he had found in the last hour. They knew that Jackson was probably going to kill someone, if not at least paralyse them, which was exactly why Lois had shown up in the first place. After Allison had dropped her home, she had soon received a text from the boys saying that she needed to meet them as soon as possible. So, off she had gone. Sneaking out of her window and on her way to yet another unplanned adventure that would probably result in someone dying, all before the sun even went up. She hadn't even finished her homework.

Stiles hadn't texted Luna or Allison to join in on their little escapade to find the Kanima, again. Allison wouldn't have been allowed out of the house without getting caught anyway, and Luna had said she was going to see if there was anyway to translate the rest of the bestiary without their counsellor. The more they knew about the kanima, the better the outcome of the current situation.

It was nice to have their golden trio reunited, for once.

   While they spent most of their days together, things had been different when Allison and Luna showed up. Lois loved the girls to pieces but it was nice to be back to how it used to be. Just her and her boys; her best friends. Her brothers.

"Ah— that explains the claws, and the fangs, and all that. Good. Makes perfect sense now!" Stiles remarked, which Scott returned with a blank look. Lois rolled her eyes and waited it out while Stiles raged. "What? Scott, come on—! I'm a hundred and forty-seven pounds of pale skin and fragile bone, okay?"

Neither of his friends responded, making him groan.

    "Sarcasm is my only defence!"

"Just help me find it," The teen wolf sighed, turning back to peer around the wall, watching the people lined up and waiting to get into the club.

"Not it." Lois corrected, "Jackson."

While Lois disliked Jackson an obscene amount, she knew that this wasn't really his fault. He didn't know that he was turning into a homocidal lizard that had killed several people in the past weeks. As far as the BH lacrosse captain was concerned, he had gotten the bite and nothing had happened to him. He hadn't exactly wanted this to happen, and Lois knew that. There was a human under that beast, and that human was a teenage boy. He may have been a horrible person, but he deserved at least a little respect.

"Yeah—" Scott sighed as he looked back down at her, feeling guilty. He nodded his head, "I know. I— I know..."

"Alright, but does he know that? Did anybody else see him back at your house?" Stiles asked his two friends, mainly speaking to himself as he started to go back over every aspect of the situation.

"He doesn't know. I'm sure of it," Lois pitched in, biting her lower lip as she thought back to the deleted footage. It must have been deleted to hide what he was turning into, there was no other reason in her mind that it would be gone. "I just don't understand how he passed Derek's test. How is that possible?"

Scott pursed his lips, "I don't know."

"Maybe it's like an either-or kinda thing." The son of the sheriff suggested, moving his body so that he was leaning against Lois' shoulder without even noticing. She rose a brow but ignored the gesture. It had been a while since he had done that, seeing as now he usually leant against Luna. "I mean— Derek said that a snake can't be poisoned by its own venom, right? So, when's the kanima not the kanima?"

"When it's Jackson..." The girl finished for him, nodding her head slowly. It made sense. "We need to find him and stop him from killing people before the Argents do,"

Both boys agreed, not wanting to see the boy dead even if he was a nightmare.

    "Uh— guys?" Stiles batted Lois and Scott's arms as he took a few cautious steps back, staring up at the roof with a pale face and shaky legs. The duo frowned, following his movement and stood either side of him, looking to where he was pointing, "See that?"

   Scott nodded his head, watching intently as the giant lizard scaled the roof of the club, hissing as he made into the vents.

   He cursed to himself and sighed, "He's inside."

    "What's he going to do in there?" The boy with the buzzcut questioned, hoping for an answer that wasn't revolving around murder and the deaths of innocent people. He wasn't sure how they would explain that to the cops and honestly, he didn't really want to. They weren't even supposed to be at the club — they were underage, for heavens sake! How would they get out of that one?

    "I know who he's after!"

    "What, how?" Lois rose a brow, "Did you smell something?"

   Slowly nodding his head, Scott directed their lines of vision to the front of the club, where Danny was showing the bouncer his idea. They watched closely as he made his way inside, having lied about his age and gotten away with it, and soon realised what Scott was on about. Jackson was going to go after Danny.

    "Armani."

   Lois pulled a face, "Actually, his last names Mahealani..."

   Scott and Stiles looked down at their friend in judgement, furrowing their eyebrows and curling their lips. It took a few moments for it to click, for Lois' mind to catch onto what they were talking about, and she hummed.

    "You mean—?"

   Lois cut herself off as the two boys nodded in synchronisation, pursing her lips tightly as she followed along with them. "Right... okay, I'm with you, now."

   They scoffed a laugh and rolled their eyes, turning in their heels and heading to the fire escape that lead to the top of the building. Lois sighed and took one last look from behind the wall, watching the many people that entered the club, and span on her heel, right behind them as they tried to find another way in. She had a feeling that a lizard in a nightclub was going to end horrifically, but she chose to keep that comment to herself.

   They probably felt that, too.

——

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