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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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038.
ON LOCKDOWN.
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——

   "Is there any reason why I'm not allowed out of my room?"

   Stiles pursed his lips and looked to Scott, who's mouth was agape as he looked at Stiles, both boys clueless.

    "You know— I should be dress shopping with Lydia, right now. It's her birthday, and she needs a hostess dress, an evening dress, and an after hours casual," Lois recited, crossing her arms as she stared up at them. "So, if you don't mind—"

   When she started to stand, Stiles grabbed her arms and quickly placed her back down to sit on her bed before she could even pass them. Lois rose her eyebrows, eyes wide before they narrowed, a venomous glare that she only ever saved for them. Noticing the familiar glare that came out three times a years, Scott took a small step back and cringed, waiting for angry-Lois to commence.

She seethed, "Stiles—!"

"Lois—"

"Let me go!"

"No! You can't—!"

    "What the hell is going on?" Lois demanded, standing up once again and throwing her arms out in exasperation. "Why am I being held hostage on my own bedroom, Stiles? Scott?"

   Neither of them said anything for a short while, again remaining gormless and struggling to explain. Lois had woken up to the two boys being stood at the end of her bed, having snuck through her bedroom window as usual, in a deep conversation that she hadn't caught before she has screamed in her half-asleep state, convinced that she was being robbed or kidnapped. They had yelled right back, evidently not expecting her to wake up or freak out, and her father burst through the door with a baseball bat in hand. Upon seeing that it was merely the trio he saw as his children, he had dropped the bat and rolled his eyes — mumbling about wishing he'd never had children as he left.

   It had taken hours to get the boys to explain why they had even been in her room when she woke up in the first place, and she still hadn't gotten much of an answer out of them. Lois knew that they were watching over her for some reason, but she didn't know why. As far as she was concerned, there'd been no reason for them to.

   She could tell that they were torn, judging by the looks on their faces. Stiles' furrowed brows were a dead giveaway, as was the worry prominent in Scotts eyes. Lois knew them too well; she had known them since forever, so it wasn't hard for her to tell when they were hiding something from her. Lois was good at knowing when someone was keeping secrets; it was a gift, or maybe a curse, that she had discovered when they were six and Stiles had stolen her favourite pen. He had been terrible at lying.

   Both of them had always been terrible at lying.

   Lois knew that the boys wanted to tell her something, but they just didn't know how.

   Stiles sighed, "Look—"

    "Stiles." She groaned out, "Come on,"

   Her best friend bit his lower lip nervously, rubbing a hand over his face as he weighed up his options. Just when they were about to make up another excuse, Lois took a step foreword and placed a  gentle hand on his forearm.

    "Seriously, guys, it's me." Lois peered up at them and smiled softly, tilting her head to the left slightly. Once again, they looked at each other and then to her, defeated. "Just tell me."

    "Ah— okay," Stiles rolled his eyes and looked anywhere but her face, "But you might want to sit down."

   Raising a brow, the girl waited a moment but quickly followed suit, walking back to her bed and taking a seat. Scott took the seat next to her while Stiles grabbed her desk chair, wheeling it over to sit in front of the pair and leaning his elbows on his knees. He glanced at the teen wolf nervously for what felt like the millionth time since she had found them in her room.

    "You want to take the reigns in this one, buddy?" He hopped out of the chair and waved his hands for Scott to take it, shuffling awkwardly on his feet with a hopeful smile. Said wolf went to object but moved over nonetheless, while Stiles popped down next to Lois triumphantly.

   Lois hummed in annoyance but let the stalling slide, crossing her legs and waiting patiently.

    "So, we found out some stuff last night—" Scott started, an occasional stutter and stumble in his words. He ignored the comment Lois made about I gathered and played with his hands and he tried to figure out how to continue. "—about you..."

   She squinted her eyes, "You don't sound so sure."

    "Well, not about you, more like...to do with you?" He corrected in a questioning tone, to which Stiles sighed dramatically. Scott glared, "A little help here, Stiles?"

    "Whatever you guys have to say, spit it out already!"

    "When I went to pick up Scott from Derek's last night, we heard him talking about something." Stiles eventually said, a hesitant look upon his face. "He was talking. About you. He was talking to Isaac, Erica and Boyd about you."

    "About me?" He nodded in response and Lois frowned, a confused laugh passing her lips. "I'm strangely flattered—"

"Lois."

Lois looked back at Scott with an innocent face, shocked that he had interrupted her. One thing that Scott rarely did, was cut off Lois when she was speaking. She usually had something quite interesting to say, or a sarcastic comment that would make his day a little better, and sometimes he just liked to listen to her speak endlessly about things that were particularly relevant. Either way, it was rare that he interrupted her. If he did cut her off, it was usually pretty important. Her gut twisted, unsettled, now.

"It was about your date with Isaac," the boy explained softly, knowing that he had her full attention, now. He wanted to stop, to come up with a lie that would hide the truth from her, but Scott knew that it would be wrong of him to not tell her. She needed to know — she deserved to know. "Your fake date."

She opted not to say anything in response.

"He didn't go because he wanted to help you out with Matt," Stiles explained, head down. He hesitated but continued, "He agreed to go because Derek told him to."

Stomach stirring, Lois observed him for any sign of a lie. He didn't furrow his eyebrows, and he didn't twitch even more than normal. Stiles didn't shove his hands in his pockets and kick his feet around, shoes scraping, and he didn't twitch his nose.

No matter how long she searched for any sign of a lie, she didn't find one. Nothing. Lois had always been able to tell and call them out in the times that they were lying, but this wasn't one of those times. They were being honest. And because of that, Lois didn't want to know where this was headed. From what she knew, Isaac had gone to the rave with Lois so that Matt would understand that she wasn't interested, and it had worked. Why did there have to be more to it?

"Derek wanted to help out with my love life?" Lois let out a fake laugh. Jokes always smothered tension, "How kind of him."

"He wanted Isaac to go on the fake date with you so that he could keep an eye on you," Scott told her, his voice quiet. He ran a hand through his hair and leant foreword, "While the plan was going on and we were trying to catch Jackson, Isaac was supposed to be watching you."

"Watching me?" She scoffed, "What am I? Ten?"

"No—" Scott struggled to explain, "Derek—"

"Derek thinks your controlling Jackson, Lo."

   Lois' head snapped towards Stiles', his words echoing in her head. She was expressionless, "Excuse me?"

    "He think that you're the master, Lois." Stiles let out a sharp breath, puckering his lips and shaking his head angrily. "Scott tried to tell him that it couldn't be you, but he remembered that night at the pool. When you wouldn't jump in—"

    "Oh—! Because I wouldn't jump in a pool, that means I'm getting Jackson to turn into a giant lizard and kill people? That I don't even know?" Her jaw clenched, "Sounds justified."

    "He thinks that your scared of water." Scott added, but she didn't turn to look at him. He assumed that she was listening, though, and continued to explain how Derek had even come up with such an absurd idea. "We know that person that's controlling him is scared of water, and you didn't step over the mountain ash, last night. He's just pieced it together, all wrong."

    "Do you know how many people on this planet have a fear of water?" She asked, feeling her blood boil.

Lois didn't get a response.

"At least, nineteen point two million Americans." She answered her own question with a snappy tone, her cheeks growing red and her forehead sweaty. Lois seemed to get angrier the longer that she thought about it. "At least."

Though the Lane girl wasn't entirely sure what had angered her more about the situation: Derek thinking that there was even a minuet chance that she could have been the kanima's master and not trusting her at all, or the fact that Isaac Lahey had only agreed to the fake date on the basis of being told told. He had only gone with her to see whether she was the one that had been controlling Jackson, most likely in the hopes of being the beta to kill her if the plan proved their theory correct. But Lois was still alive, totally unharmed by the morning, so the failed plan from the night before evidently hadn't proved their idea correct in the slightest.

But it hadn't proved them wrong, either. As far as Derek's pack were aware, Lois still could have very well been the kanima's master, and they were far too self-centred to even contemplate the odds that they might have been wrong. The pack of dogs were barking up the wrong tree, and Lois was furious.

She suddenly felt the intense need to shower, feeling her skin crawl over all. Isaac has kissed Lois. In the space of a day, he had kissed her twice. And it was all apart of their plan.

Lois felt sick to her stomach. He had kissed her.

"So many people are scared of water," the brunette ranted away, standing up and pacing around the room. She clicked her tongue and clenched her fists before realising them, and clenching them again. "Literally so many— do I need to set up a study? See how many freaking people in Beacon Hills are scared of water? Maybe we can round them all up and accuse them of controlling the kanima, too! I'm sure Derek would like to be the judge—"

Scott stood up and stood in her path, "Lois—"

"And then Isaac can do the honours of ripping my throat out with his teeth!"

"Lois," his voice was soft but stern and he reached out, placing his hands on either of her shoulders, holding her in place. She took in a deep breath and pursed her lips tingly, looking up at Scott almost expectantly. "Are you scared of water?"

Without thinking, Lois' eyes travelled over to meet Stiles' own, the dark orbs glassy and wet. He nodded at her gently, showing her that it was okay to tell Scott. They were all best friends; he wasn't going to drag her to Derek and let the man kill her, he wouldn't do that because Scott was her brother.

They were a pack, and no member of their pack got left behind.

She sniffled, "Would you believe me if I said no?"

"Not really," Scott sent her a lopsided smile and shrugged, "I kind of guessed already, when we were, like, thirteen. It was kind of obvious when you cried at my pool party, that year."

A small laugh bubbled in the back of her throat and she shook her head bashfully, licking her lips as she smiled down at the ground. Lois squinted her eyes as she looked up at him again, her expression growing somber.

"You know it's not me..." Lois paused, "...right?"

"We didn't doubt you for a second," he responded, his answer slow and genuine.

"We know it's not you," Stiles spoke up, marking his way over to the pair and making their stance a triangle. "So, we just have to find a way to show them that isn't you." He shrugged as if it was going to be easy, "Then all of this will be over, and they can finally leave us alone."

"And, how do we do that?" She queried, brows raised.

"We find who it really is, and we stop them."

• • •

Lois had spent the rest of the afternoon helping Lydia set up for her birthday party, having convinced Scott and Stiles that she didn't need their constant protection. Stiles had dropped her off right at Lydia's front door with her bag of party clothes and some plastic-tumblers, not being quiet about telling her to be careful until she had slammed the door in his face.

It was the night of the full moon, so she doubted that Derek would be out looking for her. He would be too busy teaching his guard dogs control, so Lois would live freely that night.

Scott and Stiles were going to be at Lydia's birthday anyway, as were Allison and Luna, so it wasn't as if she had no protection at all. In fact, she would only have protection as the night went on, because none of them would leave without her. Lois would always be in someone's sight, in the same building as them, and on their radar permanently. She could also protect herself — Lois had been there to fight alphas and outrun a kanima, not to mention that she had been the one to punch Derek Hale in the face and shoot Isaac Lahey in the shoulder. Both times of which she was protecting someone else.

Lois wasn't worries; she going to be fine. She knew that she could protect herself, and so did her friends.

It was sweet that cared enough to create their own game plan for Lydia's party, in case everything was to go south and Derek's pack burst in and slit Lois' throat, but she didn't think that they would really need it. She didn't want to jinx it. Lois didn't want to think about the kanima, or the person controlling Jackson, or the teenage betas that made her blood boil.

   That night, it was Lydia's Martin's birthday. It was the party of the year, every year, and Lois wanted it to be one of the first good nights in a while for the strawberry blonde. Life had been messy lately, for all of them, and Lois wanted Lydia to have fun.

She wanted them to drink and dance, and just have fun.

So, that was exactly what Lois did. Lydia and herself blasted music and danced through the empty house as they got ready for the night, comparing dresses and accessories while shouting song lyrics in loud, off-pitch tones. The duo giggled and threw flour at one another as they made cookies and cakes, snorting about jokes that weren't at all funny while setting up the food and snacks on the patio, as well as the tower of punch that Lydia had spent the morning making. The brunette had tried to drink it throughout the decorating, claiming that she was dehydrated from the non-paid labour she was doing, but she was smacked away each time.

Lydia had wanted to wait for the other guests until they dived into the food and drinks, like a true hostess would, and scolded Lois for each cheese puff she had stuffed in her mouth when she thought that she wasn't looking. It hadn't taken long for the guests to start arriving, slowly trickling in one-by-one and all greeted with a glass of punch. It was then that Lois was allowed some.

   By the time that Stiles, Luna and Scott has showed up, she'd already had three glasses.

"Have you seen Jackson, anywhere?"

Lois shook her head, "He's not here, yet." She took a long sip of her drink and raised the class, "Have you tried this punch?"

"No—" Stiles frowned, "Is it good?"

"I can't find Allison, either." Luna interrupted, taking her place stood on the other side of Stiles, opposite of Scott. She noticed Lois' nodding happily and caught sight of the sparkly punch that she wiggled around, "Wait— is that fruit punch?"

"We should probably tell her what we found, when she shows up." Stiles informed them, pausing mid-sentence to take a gulp of the drink in Lois' glass, then passed it to Luna.

"I'm still not sure what we found." Scott confessed, scratching at the back of his neck as he tried to remember all the information Stiles had put into one single text and sent to their group chat. It was one that Allison wasn't allowed to be in anymore, in worry that her parents would check her phone and find out that she was still talking to Scott. "Why do we hate the swim team, again?"

"We don't hate the swim team," the son of the sheriff rolled his eyes, "I figured out it has something to do with water. You know— the fact that all the victims were on the swim team? The way the kanima reacted around the pool?"

Lois hummed to herself and took another sip of her punch, "So, whoever's controlling the kanima hates the swim team?"

"Hated the swim team." Nodding her head at the comment, Luna pitched in with the rest of the information, "Specifically, the two-thousand and six swim team. It could be another teacher, or maybe a student from back then. Who are we missing, though? There has to be something we haven't though of, right?"

"Uh— Jackson's not here."

Allison smiles awkwardly when the group turned to face her, all fully aware that she had told her family Jackson was the kanima and ruined their plan the night prior. But Lois was over the tension that could have been, and instead smiled widely.

"Not yet—" she stuck out her glass, "You tried the punch?"

The hunter laughed lightly and shook her head, "I'll grab some later, I think."

Lois shrugged and happily put the glass to her lips, ready to take another chug of the alcohol beverage until Scott slipped it out of her hands and placed it on the side. She pouted.

"No one's here,"

Scott shrugged, "Maybe it's just early?"

"Or, maybe—" Stiles corrected him slowly, peering around at the lack of people while throwing an arm over Luna's shoulder, "—nobody's coming because Lydia's turned into the town whackjob!"

"Well, we have to do something," Allison sighed, "Because we've completely ignored her for the past two weeks."

"She's completely ignored me and Stiles for the past ten years,"
Scott shrugged his shoulders, "Lois was the only person she actually liked."

"That's because I'm cute, and likeable!"

Both boys rolled their eyes at her comment. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled wider, feeling the buzz of alcohol float through her veins. Lois stuck by what she said, especially now that she was a bit tipsy, and leant over them to pick up the drink that Scott had confiscated, her red lips smirking down at it.

"What about the chance to get back to normal?" Luna suggested, getting a sound of agreement from Allison.

"Normal?"

"She wouldn't be the town whackjob if it wasn't for us." Lois nodded her head, reciting Stiles' words perfectly. She glanced over at her strawberry blonde friend and sighed. She may have been a bit drunk, but she hadn't failed to noticed how hurt Lydia was with the number of people that had shown up, or lack thereof. It was usually three times as busy by now, "It's her birthday, you guys. We should do something!"

"I guess I could use my co-captain status to get the lacrosse team here," Scott pulled out his phone and began to text a few people. He was willing to bribe the odd player with a chance of being first-line if it meant making Lydia's birthday better.

"Yeah, we know some people who can get this thing going." Stiles smirked at Lois, "Like, really going."

Allison rose a brow, "Who?"

"We met them the other night," Lois giggled mischievously, elated with Stiles' idea. She was already so excited that she could have squealed, "Trust me when I say they know how to party."

——

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