ACT ONE, CHAPTER SEVEN
Witches and Werewolves

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

     JUST AS ANDI WAS FINISHED PACKING HER BAG, someone loudly slammed her locker shut in some cliché attempt to intimidate her. Andi only sighed as she looked at Kendall who stood there with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

     "It's you, isn't it?" she asked and Andi rolled her eyes as she walked past the freckled brunette.

     "When are you going to take a hint that you don't bother me no matter what you say?" she asked as she kept walking.

     "So, it is you then. You're the reason he broke up with me," Kendall said and Andi sighed as she turned around.

     "Honest to God, I have no idea who you're talking about but if your boyfriend really did break up with you, I can't say I blame him," she said and Kendall glared at her.

     "I can see right through your whole good girl act that you have going on here, and I don't buy it for a second."

     "I don't care if you buy it or not. You clearly have your own problems to deal with."

     Andi turned around and left the school and grabbed her bike from the bike rack. She put on her helmet and started heading home before she had to deal with someone or something else. When she did get home, she brought her bike into the garage and left it to lean against one of the walls before going inside. She called out for her grandmother but got no answer so she figured she wasn't home. She went upstairs to her room and put her bag down on her bed. The weekend ahead of her was going to be full of studying but she had no choice but to pull through it. Since she didn't know how long until her grandmother returned, she figured she could at least try to get some studying done for her chemistry midterm.

     Andi took a study break every hour to either use the bathroom, get something to eat, or even to simply lie down and relax. The words in her notes and textbook started to blur and she decided to put everything away and end it there for the night. She heard the door slam shut downstairs so she trudged down the staircase to greet her grandmother. When she reached the bottom, she didn't see or hear anyone inside.

     "Grams?" she called.

     She didn't get a response so she checked the kitchen, the garage, even the basement. She was still the only person in the entire house, yet she somehow heard the door. She put on her shoes and jacket and went outside to go for a walk and she texted her grandmother to let her know so she wouldn't worry when she got home and Andi wasn't there. She walked along the edge of the preserve with her hands in her pockets. She heard a snap and she stopped walking and let the silence surround her for a moment. She listened closely but she didn't hear anything else so either her witch senses were going crazy or she was just losing it.

     She turned around to head back home but she felt a sting on the back of her neck. Since she didn't see anyone or anything around, she assumed a bug just bit her but her legs started to wobble. She started to lose all feeling from the neck down and collapsed on the ground. Her mind started to race and her heart started pounding when she realized she couldn't move her body at all. She heard a low hissing sound and she was soon staring at a huge scaly creature with a tail, yellow eyes and claws that were oozing a clear liquid. She started panting as her body filled with absolute terror as she stared at the creature. Her voice was stuck in her throat and she couldn't bring herself to scream for help. The creature leaned in closer to her face and she closed her eyes tightly, desperately praying that this had nothing to do with her powers as a witch and was simply her mind playing a cruel and horrifying trick on her. When she opened her eyes, it was gone but she still couldn't move her body. She heard footsteps and she started panicking again.

     "Oh God, Andi?"

     She recognized that voice and she sighed in relief when she saw Allison and she noticed McCall and Stilinski with her.

     "How did you guys find me here?" Andi asked while Allison lifted her body so she was sitting up.

     "The three of us were just passing by. Scott can carry you into the jeep and Stiles can drive you home," Allison said.

     The pale boy with the buzz cut pulled the tanned boy to the side while Allison held Andi upright.

     "It's going to take a while for the venom to wear off so she could move again since she's human," he said and McCall sighed.

     "So, what are we supposed to do with her until then?" he asked and Stilinski bit the inside of his cheek.

     "Why would it attack her?"

     "I don't think it was supposed to attack her. She was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

     "Or she's not even paralyzed at all."

     "Can someone please explain to me what the hell just happened?" Andi asked and the two boys turned around. "Please tell me if I really did see a giant lizard that paralyzed me or I'm just going crazy."

     Allison looked at the boys and Stilinski stood there with his hands on his hips while McCall looked at him.

     "Still think she could be faking?" he asked.

     "Andi, I don't know if you met them personally yet but this is Scott and the one with the haircut is Stiles," Allison said.

     Scott wrapped his arms under Andi's knees and around her back and lifted her off the floor. Allison sat in the back of the jeep and Scott positioned Andi so she was sitting up next to her. Once her seat belt was on, Scott got in the passenger seat and Stiles got behind the wheel. Andi sighed but she still couldn't feel her body.

     "How am I supposed to go home like this? How do I tell my grandmother what happened?" she asked.

     "Well if your grandmother isn't home, we can sneak you into your room and sneak out and you can just go to sleep," Stiles said.

     "And what if she's already home? What do we do then, genius?"

     Stiles opened his mouth but he closed it when he realized he didn't have an answer to Andi's question. The blonde groaned as she realized that she might have to tell her grandmother what happened, even though it probably wouldn't be the strangest thing she ever heard. She still had to tell her about what else she saw when she encountered Isaac and Erica in the hallway. She had so much explaining to do when she got home but she had no idea where to even start.

     It was very quiet during the ride until Stiles spoke up again. "So, where are you from?" he asked as he looked in the rearview mirror so he could see Andi's reflection.

     "Atlanta," she said bluntly.

     "And you've been here for nearly three weeks now?"

     "Yeah."

     Stiles nodded while Andi told him which directions to take to get to her grandmother's house. He soon pulled up to the driveway and Andi sighed in relief when she noticed that her grandmother's car wasn't there, meaning she wasn't home yet. Allison helped her out of the jeep with her arm wrapped around her waist for support and Scott was on the other side doing the same thing. They walked up to the door and Stiles went into Andi's jacket pocket to take out her copy of the house key. Once the door was unlocked, they went inside and brought Andi upstairs and she told them where her room was.

     "This is...kind of cute," Stiles said when he looked at the cotton candy pink walls and how the room looked like it was made for a ten year-old-girl.

     "I haven't been to my grandmother's in years until now. It's a good thing I'm still short enough to fit into my bed," Andi said as Scott and Allison helped her onto the mattress. "You can just leave me here and go before my grandmother sees your jeep in the driveway."

     "Are you sure you'll be alright here on your own?" Scott asked and Andi just nodded.

     "Once you can move again, if you need anything at all, my number will be right here," Allison said as she wrote down her cell phone number on the pad of sticky notes sitting on Andi's nightstand.

     "Thanks for your help guys, even though I'm still hoping this is just a bad dream," Andi said as she looked at the ceiling.

     "I wouldn't count on it," Stiles said and Andi rolled her eyes.

     The three of them left and Andi sighed as she lay alone in her bed. She closed her eyes, hoping sleep would overcome her and she would wake up and realize this was all just a bad dream.

━━━━

     When Andi opened her eyes, her grandmother was standing over her. She turned her head and rubbed her eyes. When she realized that she was able to move on her own, she sat up and lifted her arms.

     "You need to tell me what happened," her grandmother said and Andi only looked at her. "I saw a little cut on the back of your neck and I have my suspicions."

     "Do your suspicions include a giant lizard with a paralytic toxin?" Andi asked.

     "Amanda, you need to tell me everything that happened last night while I was away," her grandmother said and Andi winced at the use of her real name.

     She hesitated but there was no point in hiding it from her grandmother anymore. Eventually, she was going to find out even if she didn't tell her.

     "I went out for a walk last night and I texted you to let you know. I was walking along the preserve and something cut my neck. I thought it was just a bug bite at first but then I couldn't feel my legs and I fell. A few kids from school were in the area and they found me and brought me home," she said as she played with her fingers. "There's something else I think you should know."

     "What is it?"

     "Those kids I told you about, the ones I thought had glowing eyes, fangs and claws. I actually did see them with claws after that. One of them scratched right through the lockers and the other one told me to watch my back," she said. Her grandmother sighed as she left the room without a word and Andi only got more confused. Her legs shook when she got up but she was able to follow her grandmother down the hallway. "Grams, what is it?"

     "Now you know about the existence of witches and magic, do you believe that anything is possible?" her grandmother asked and Andi could only nod her head as a response. "Those two kids you encountered at school, they're werewolves."

     "Werewolves?" Andi questioned to make sure she heard exactly what her grandmother said.

     "More specifically betas. That's why their eyes were yellow. Alphas have red eyes," the woman said.

     "What about omegas?" Andi asked.

     "They also have yellow eyes. There are some werewolves that have blue eyes but that is never a good sign," her grandmother said.

     "Why?" Andi asked while her stomach twisted as she thought about the worst possible scenario.

     "When a werewolf has blue eyes, it means they took the life of an innocent," her grandmother said and Andi's breath hitched.

     She swallowed the lump in her throat but she still had one more question. "What about the thing that attacked me last night?" she asked.

     "I've only heard stories about this kind of creature but I don't know what it is for sure. It isn't in any of my books. Anything that has information and notes about every supernatural creature in this town are not easy to find. You can look on the internet but only very few people have the real deal. A family of werewolf hunters, they have kept this to themselves for years. Many of the witches before us have tried to reason with them to get them to share the information with them because we believed that if we teamed up, we could keep the human race safe and create peace but they only wanted to destroy the supernatural. They thought we were weak and naïve for even thinking that we could all learn to coexist," her grandmother said and Andi stood there, trying to absorb all the information. "Even I tried to reason with them but they didn't want to hear it."

     "Who are these people?" Andi asked.

     "The Argents. Their family has been hunters for nearly three hundred years," her grandmother replied. "Our family has been witches since the beginning of time, for over two thousand years so we know very well that the world must meet a very delicate balance that should not be disturbed."

     The name triggered the memory Andi had of the old man she encountered at school. The same old man who took over as principal since the other one was away. She remembered that he had introduced himself as Mr. Argent.

     "Grams, I think the Argents are at my school," she said and her grandmother looked at her with a look she couldn't read. "One of them is a substitute principal and the other was a substitute teacher for my econ class."

     "Amanda, this is important. The Argents refuse to listen to reason and insist on wiping out every supernatural species in the world. If they are at your school, then I need you to find out whatever information you can about them," her grandmother said and she scoffed.

     "I'm not exactly the FBI here," she said. "Plus you're still teaching me control while I still have to study for my other midterms. How am I going to balance all of that while investigating a whole family of hunters that go back to the eighteenth century?"

     "Your magic isn't as dangerous now as it was before now that you're learning and accepting. I still want you to focus on passing your midterms but if you can find a few extra minutes to learn about the Argents, please do but also be careful. They have also hunted witches so whatever you do, you can't let anyone know," her grandmother said and Andi nodded.

     Andi had one job: find out everything she can about the Argents.

━━━━

     The weekend flew by like the wind and Monday finally arrived. Andi had to take her makeup exam and she had a world history midterm assessment on the same day. She went into the library to get some of her studying done but also scrolled through her phone and many websites that talked about werewolf hunters. She stumbled across an article and noticed the photo at the top of the page. She zoomed in and recognized Allison, her substitute teacher from last Friday and the substitute principal. The only people in the photo were the family of the woman whose funeral was being held, Kate Argent. Andi's stomach felt heavy when she realized that Allison was an Argent too, which meant that she was a werewolf hunter, or on her way to being a werewolf hunter. She looked up and noticed the brunette standing by the bookshelves but she went back to her notes with everything she researched about the Argents.

     After a while, she had to put her stuff away and go to the chemistry room. When she got there, Scott was waiting outside of the room and she looked at him curiously.

     "Hey! Are you feeling better?" he asked when he noticed her approaching the door and Andi only shrugged her shoulders.

     "I'm moving around, so that's good," she said and Scott simply nodded.

     "Did you need to talk to Mr. Harris about something?"

     "Actually, I need to take the makeup exam."

     Scott nodded as Mr. Harris opened the door and the two students walked into the classroom. They made sure to sit far away from each other so neither one of them could even get the chance to glance at the other's paper and cheat. They were given a booklet with the questions and a scantron sheet where they would fill in the answers to the questions.

     "You have one hour to complete the test," their teacher said as he sat at his desk. "Begin."

     The kids started the test and both of them were very focused. Andi read over the questions at least three times before thinking of what the answer could be out of all the choices she was presented for each question. When she got to the last page, she quickly glanced at the clock to see how much time she had left. Luckily, she had more than enough time to finish the last page of the exam and closed the booklet once she was done and walked over to Mr. Harris desk to hand it in. She grabbed her bag and quietly left the room so she could carry on with her day.

     As she was walking, she noticed Allison walking with her heeled boots in her arms instead of on her feet. She rushed up to her and tapped her shoulder to grab her attention. The brunette turned around and her shoulders relaxed when she realized who it was.

     "I'm sorry I scared you," Andi said and Allison quickly shook her head.

     "It's fine. I'm glad to see you're back on your feet," she said and Andi tried to muster up the best smile she could.

     She wasn't sure of what she was doing. Allison Argent was supposed to be a werewolf hunter, maybe even a witch hunter given her family's track record. She still wasn't sure if the help she got from Allison, Scott and Stiles was genuine or if they were only doing it because there was something in it for them. But what would be in it for them?

     "Why are you going into the boys' locker room?" Andi asked while looking at the sign on the door they were standing in front of.

     "There's someone in there I need to talk to," Allison said.

     "You know, you might get in trouble if someone catches you in there."

     "Then you can stand out here and let me know if anyone is coming."

     Andi wasn't sure it was the best idea to let Allison go into the boys' locker room but she figured this was the least she could do after she helped her get home when she was attacked the week before. So, she agreed to stand guard while Allison went inside. She didn't know what was so important that she had to go inside instead of just waiting for the person to finish up what he was doing and leave.

     A few minutes later, Scott ran around the corner and stopped in front of the door. "Is Allison in there?" he asked and Andi nodded.

     Before she could even process what was happening, Scott ran inside and she soon heard grunting and growling. She rushed inside and Allison was standing against the wall while Scott was fighting with another kid whose name she didn't know. She noticed the cracked walls, the fallen lockers and the broken sinks but the two boys kept fighting.

     "Allison, we need to get out right now," Andi said as she tugged on her arm but she only shook her head while she stayed put. "Allison, we're not even supposed to be in here."

     "Someone's going to get hurt if they don't stop."

     "And that someone might be us if we don't get out of here right now!"

     Andi was interrupted when the boys crashed right into the door and landed on the floor on the hallway. The girls walked out and Andi noticed Stiles, Erica and other students who gathered around to watch the brawl between Scott and the half naked boy. Stiles and Allison tried to hold Scott back while Erica wrapped her arms around the shoulders of the boy Scott was fighting.

     "Hey! What the hell is going on here?" Mr. Harris asked as he stepped into the situation and saw boys being held apart from one another. "Jackson, calm down. Mr. McCall, care to explain yourself? Stilinski? Nicks?"

     Andi looked at her chemistry teacher through her hair that managed to fall in front of her face during the commotion.

     "You dropped this," one of the other kids said as he held a tablet, which Mr. Harris grabbed.

     "You and you," he said as he pointed at Scott and Jackson. "Actually, all of you. Detention. Three o'clock."

     Andi tossed her head back as she pulled her hair out of her face. Great. She was going to have to explain to her grandmother that she was going to be at school for a while longer because of detention. If the ground could open up and swallow her whole, she would have no problem with it and just let it happen. Things couldn't seem to get any worse.