-DISCLAIMER-

I do NOT own Teen Wolf

I hope you guys are still enjoying this. I know it's taking a while to get to the actual Riley x Stiles bit, but I don't wanna rush it.

Comment, vote, fan, and let me know what you're thinking!

----------

"Okay. We've been here nearly two hours, so I'll go and get it," I said, beginning to swim towards the phone slowly.

Stiles nodded, trying to stay above water. "Be careful."

"Swimming right up to that thing; this is a stupid idea," Derek muttered.

"Well," I sighed as I paddled, "Let us know if you come up with a better one. For now, this is all we have."

"And what about if it attacks? The only one who is going to be able to protect us, is me."

I stopped swimming and spun to look at him, anger on my face. "And right now you are paralyzed and I don't want to drown, so we're doing this."

Finally reaching the edge of the pool, I grabbed the edge and leaned over the side to grasp the phone. I heard a hissing sound, so I quickly pushed back from the wall, the phone still in my hand. Keeping the phone above water, I dialed Scott's number.

It rang a couple times, but Scott finally answered.

"Scott! Thank God you answered! Scott, we need . . ."

"Riley?" Scott said, efficiently cutting me off. "Look, I can't talk right now."

"But . . ."

And that's all I got in before he hung up on me.

I yelled in frustration, throwing Stiles phone across the pool. I watched as it sunk to the bottom of the pool, angry at Scott for choosing the most inconvenient time to hang up on me.

"Riley?" Stiles shouted from where he was floating.

I ran a hand through my hair. "He didn't answer! Well, he answered, but he hung up on me!"

Stiles continued to keep himself afloat with one hand, holding Derek up with the other. "I can't stay up any longer. I need something to hold on to."

We started looking around, trying to find something low enough, but not close enough to the edge that the creature would be able to reach us.

"Stiles, the diving board. We can hold on to that," I suggested, already swimming over to him to help him carry Derek.

Once I'm beside him, one hand around Derek, we began to paddle in synchronization towards the diving board. But, when Stiles reaches up to grab onto the board, it's too slippery underneath his already wet fingers. Unable to maintain a grip, Stiles slipped.

And to make matters worse, his grip on Derek also weakened. Without any momentum to keep us up, we all began to sink.

My mouth began to fill with water as I ran out of air. I tried to get to the surface, but I couldn't untangle myself from Derek and Stiles.

I saw Stiles struggling for breath, but I must have still had some strength left in me. It wasn't going to be enough to get us to the surface of the water, however.

As we continued to sink, I felt something grab on to my shirt. Seconds later, I'm being thrown out of the pool and on to the ground, gasping for air.

A thump and a yell, and Derek and Stiles are laying beside me, spluttering up water as they fill their lungs with air once more.

I hear a roar come from behind me, and pray that it wasn't the creature. It didn't sound like the creature, but you never know.

Looking behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Scott on the diving board, roaring at the beast trying to kill us.

The creature leaped and lunged at him, and they both tumbled to the ground. Before Scott could fully regain his balance, the creature used its tail to throw him at the wall.

Instead of hitting the wall, however, Scott hit a mirror, smashing it in the process. Scott fell to the ground and covered his face as shattered mirror rained down on him. As the creature began to walk forward, Scott picked up a piece of the broken glass to protect himself.

The creature wasn't fazed, continuing forward. Its claws clicked against the tiles, head lolling to the side as it stared at Scott.

Then, all of a sudden, it had stopped. It stood still, eyes looking closely at Scott. No, not Scott. The mirror shard in his hand.

The creature hissed, before climbing the wall and smashing the skylight, jumping through the roof. After we all took a moment to take in what had actually just happened, I stood up and walked over to Scott.

He stood up, and before he got the chance to say anything, I punched him in the arm. "That is for hanging up on me when we were nearly killed."
I then wrapped my arms around him, "And this is for saving our lives."

"You're welcome," Scott breathed out.

♡♢♤♧

"Is that even a language?" Stiles asked as we leaned over the computer.

It turned out that the bestiary had been on the USB flash drive connected to the office key. We had had it the whole time and had no idea.

So now, we stood outside of the school, Scott's laptop on the bonnet of the car and the bestiary open on the screen.

"How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?" Scott sounded highly frustrated as he flipped through the pages.

Derek decided to butt in on our conversation. "It's called the Kanima."
Even though it was helpful, it doesn't mean that his input was welcome.

Erica looked grumpy beside him, her face contorted in irritation.

"You knew the whole time," Stiles said, not sounding surprised.

I scoffed, "That wouldn't be the first time he's kept something important from us."

"I didn't know," Derek claimed. "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

"It doesn't know what it is," Scott clarified.

"Or who."

"So," I began. "If it doesn't even know who it is, how in the hell are we supposed to figure it out?" I raised my hands for emphasis, but I'm fairly sure my point was clear.

"What else do you know?" Stiles asked the Alpha.

Derek calmly continued to tell us what he knew, a sedated sort of look on his face. "Just stories. Rumors."

"But it's like us?" Scott pondered.

"It's a shape-shifter, yes. But it's not right. It's like a . . ."

"An abomination," Stiles and I said in sync. We looked at each other, not surprised.

Derek didn't say anything, just clenched his jaw and nodded. He began to walk away with Erica, but then Scott called to him.
"We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents."

"Like that would end well," I muttered.

Scott's comment made Derek mad. "You trust them?"

"Nobody trusts anyone," Scott almost growls. "That's the problem. While we're here arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger and faster than any of us, and it's killing people! And we still don't even know anything about it!"

Scott's outburst had gotten us all thinking. He was right. But would we be able to come together to defeat this Kanima?

"I know one thing," Derek claimed. He began to walk away, "When I find it, I'm going to kill it."

♡♢♤♧

"So, do you have any idea who the Kanima might be?" I asked Scott as I sat down at my desk beside him in the classroom.

Scott shrugged. "It could really be anyone at this point."

Slumping back in my chair, I looked to the front of the classroom to read the chalkboard to see what we would be doing in class. My eyes didn't make it to the board though.

"Scott," I said quietly. "What is he doing back here?"

Before Scott had the chance to answer, Stiles ran up, sliding into his seat and speaking urgently. "Dude, I just talked to my dad, who just talked to Jackson, and I've got really terrible, horrible, very, very bad news."

"You're a bit late," I whispered, leaning over to Stiles.

How could I have possibly missed him? He was sitting right in front of me!

Isaac's head turned slightly, and I could tell that he was listening to everything that we were saying.

The boys just sat there, staring at him. What else could we have done? Thrown him out of the classroom? The last thing we needed was another detention.

♡♢♤♧

As soon as class ended, Stiles, Scott and were in the hallway. The further away from Isaac I was, the better.

I hadn't really seen Isaac since the break-up and him turning into a werewolf. I didn't think it was my place to say anything anymore; but after he joined up with Derek, I decided to just leave it alone.

"All right, I only found one thing online called the Kanima," Stiles informed us. "It's a were-jaguar from South America that goes after murderers."

Scott tugged on his bag straps, "That thing was not a jaguar."

"Yeah, and I'm not exactly a murderer."

"Well, neither is Isaac's dad," I pointed out.

"Yeah," Scott agreed with us both, "But you probably did see it kill somebody, which is probably why it tried to kill you. And it's still trying to kill you, and it probably won't stop until you're dead."

"You really need to learn when to stop talking," I said, resting a hand on Scott's shoulder. Stiles had stopped walking, shocked at what Scott had said.

"You know, sometimes I really begin to question this 'friendship,'" Stiles told Scott.

I laughed at him, "Come on, you can be pissed off at him later. Let's go."

♡♢♤♧

When the bell rung, we were already sitting in Coach's economics class, books out and ready to study.

It really surprised me how many classes Scott, Stiles and I had together. I'm sure the teachers would have had less problems with us talking if we weren't together.

Oh well, their loss is our gain.

The lovely silence on our side of the classroom was interrupted by Jackson, who seemed very on edge as he sat down at the table beside me and behind Scott. Stiles was in front of me.

"Hey, testicle left and right," Jackson said in a low voice, referring to Scott and Stiles.

Both boys looked up from their books, but didn't turn to face Jackson. The insult he directed at them didn't exactly help.

"What the hell is a Kanima?"

We all turned to look at him after that, eyes wide. Before we got the chance to ask him how he knew about the Kanima, Coach dropped his book down on his desk.

"All right, listen up. A quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might want to start their own study groups, because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult . . ."
He took a moment to laugh at us all, "I'm not even too sure I could pass it. Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question. Who's got it, huh? Come on, let's go, buddy."

Jackson was leaning in now, talking to us all. "Paralyzed from the neck down. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

"I'm familiar with the sensation," Stiles said, twitching his fingers. Jackson just glared at him in response.

"Wait . . ." Scott cut in. "Why would Derek test you? Why would he think that it's you?"

Scott actually had a point. Was there something that Jackson was holding back?
Probably. This was Jackson, after all.

"How should I know?" The boy was quick to answer.

Stiles left the topic of Jackson and focused on Lydia. Shocker.
"Wait, do you think it's Lydia?"

"I don't know, all I heard was her name and something about chemistry."

"Jackson!" Coach shouted from in front of Stiles' desk. "Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?"

Jackson stuttered as he tried to think of an answer. "Um . . . Just an undying admiration for my . . . My Coach."

I scoffed noticeably, shaking my head.
What a brown nose.

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

Jackson cocked his head to the side, smiling, as if to say 'of course it is.'

But then Coach's smile was gone, "Now shut up! Shut it!"

We all flinched at the suddenness of Coach's shouting, not daring to make eye contact as he yelled at Jackson.
"Anybody else?"

As soon as Coach was no longer facing us, Scott leaned over and grabbed on to Stiles. Since I was sitting behind them, I just leaned forward.
"How do we know it's not her?"

"Because I looked into the eyes of that thing, okay? And what I saw was pure evil," Stiles explained. "And when I look into Lydia's eyes, I only see fifty per cent evil."

Both Scott and I gave him looks of disbelief.

"All right, maybe sixty. You know, but no more than forty on a good day."

I sighed lightly, "Stiles, I think that's the flimsiest argument I've ever heard."

"I'm aware of that," he groaned. "But I swear it's not her. It can't be, all right? Lydia's fine."

We turned to face the front of the classroom, where Lydia was solving an equation on the board. Something was wrong, however.

"Lydia," Coach said, trying to get her attention as she scribbled away at the chalkboard. The girl started crying as she continued to write, her sobs echoing around the classroom

I got up from my chair, running over to her. "Lydia," I said right next to her ear as I grabbed her arm. "Lydia, are you okay?"

She turned away from the board, not responding.

"Winters, Martin, take your seats. Now, does anybody else want to try answering?" Coach asked as everyone stared at Lydia. "This time in English?"

I took my seat as Lydia retreated to the back of the room. I found myself staring at the board, confused by her actions.

"What is that, Greek?" Scott asked.

I cocked my head to the side, "Is that a joke?"

"No, actually," Stiles answered Scott. "I think it is English."

"Guys," I pointed to the board. "It's just written backwards. Do you really need to take a picture and flip it to figure that out?"

Stiles awkwardly spun his screen around, showing that he had done exactly that.
Lydia had wrote 'SOMEONE HELP ME' multiple times on the board, but reversed.

She was definitely not fine.

♡♢♤♧

The next class of the day was chemistry, the class that Jackson had heard Erica and Isaac talking about.

"Derek is not gonna kill her without proof," Scott had said, trying to calm Stiles down.

I scoffed, "Have you met the man?"
Scott and Stiles both glared at me. "Sorry," I muttered.

"All right," Stiles said, getting back on track. "So he tests her like he did with Jackson, right? But when and where?"

"I think here and now," Scott replies, nodding towards the other door to the chemistry room.

Erica and Isaac walked in, black leather clad like their alpha. All five of us looked to Lydia, seeing that she was sitting alone, one seat available next to her.

The two betas and Scott and Stiles all rushed forward. Thankfully, Scott and Stiles got there first, sitting on either side of Lydia.

I took a seat at the table beside Stiles, so that I could talk to him if necessary.

Erica and Isaac took the seats at the table directly behind them, staring at Lydia; and Allison sat down at the table to the right of Scott.

Allison saw Erica and Isaac, and her eyes widened slightly, surprised to see them here.

"Einstein once said, 'Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe,'" Harris began as he walked between the desks.

"I myself have encountered infinite stupidity," He claimed, patting Stiles on the shoulder a couple of times.

Lydia and I laughed quietly. Stiles didn't look too happy, but it was still funny.

"So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one."

I was about to look down at the work sheet, but of course Harris wasn't going to finish without at least one more hit.
"Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one."

Stiles just shook his head, not taking the bait.

"Erica, you take the first station. You'll start with . . ." but before he could assign her a partner, the majority of the male population of the class, and some of the females as well, had their hands up.
"I didn't ask for volunteers."

They all slowly lowered their hands, avoiding Erica's gaze as she looked around the room at them all.

"Put your hormonal little hands down." He surveyed the room quickly, "Start with Mr. McCall. All right, next two."

Scott's face dropped at the instruction, not wanting to have to deal with her or Isaac. We were all separated and seated, and I was a few desks behind Scott and Erica. Unfortunately, not close enough to hear anything.

I tried, but I just couldn't. I didn't know how I heard them at the funeral, but whatever it was, I couldn't do it again.

"Long time, no see. Or talk. Or text," a voice beside me had said.

I felt my shoulders and jaw clench. I would be able to recognize that voice anywhere. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to talk to him.

After him keeping secrets, the break up and then he became a werewolf. I didn't want to have to talk to him about any of it.

"Oh, come on, Riley," He whispered, playing with hair that had fallen over my shoulder. "After all we've been through, you're really going to ignore me?"

That was enough for me to smack his hand away and look at him. I obviously didn't want to ignore him that badly after all. "You're really going to play that card? Me not answering you? Seriously?"

He bit his lip, holding back a smile, nodding, "Fair enough. But like I told you, sometimes secrets just need to be secrets. That doesn't mean that we have to break up."

"We're not having this conversation again, Isaac," I sighed. "And we can't break up, because we're not together."

"Maybe," he said, touching my cheek softly with his hand. "But who knows."

I felt my throat constrict and my chest tighten. Why was he doing this? We were over, and he was choosing to have this conversation the first time we start talking again; and in the middle of school no less.

He leaned in close, whispering in my ear. "I heard you when they were taking me away that day on the lacrosse field. I know you still care about me."

"Of course I care," I muttered. He still had his hand on the side of my face.

"Then what's the problem? Why aren't we together?"

I groaned. Do I have to explain this again? "Since I already gave you one reason, let's try another. You're helping Derek try to kill Lydia!" I hissed.

He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. "We're only trying to get to her before she gets to us."

"Let. Go."

We sat there just staring at each other, until we heard a bell ring. "Switch," Harris instructed.

I shoved his hand away from my face, standing up and finding a new partner. Finding a seat near the front of the classroom, I slumped down, not looking back at Isaac.

Everyone moved around, finding new partners. Scott was quick to slide into the chair next to Lydia. She sat there, looking incredibly confused.

And, of course, Isaac and Stiles were at the table directly to my right. I could see Isaac staring at me from the corner of my eye, before he turned to look at Stiles.

"If you harm one perfect strawberry blonde hair on her head," Stiles began, "I'm gonna turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present."

Of course my good hearing decides to kick in when it's something I don't want to hear.

Isaac just laughed at his attempt at a threat. "Really? I've never actually been to one of her big, invite-only birthday parties."

Not like you would've went anyway. I learnt that the hard way.

"I did ask her out once though."
That, I didn't know.

Stiles continued to do the experiment. "Sounds like the beginning to a heartfelt story. I'm gonna pass, thanks."

Isaac didn't care that Stiles didn't want to hear it. "It was the first day of freshman year . . ."

"And you thought everything was gonna be different for you in high school, but she said no," Stiles said, putting on a faux frown.

"Yeah. Yeah, she even laughed. Told me to come back when the bike I rode to school had an engine, not a chain."

"Mmm. Unrequited love's a bitch."
Tell me about it.
"Maybe you should write about it in English class, you know? Channel all that negative energy."

"No," Isaac was quick to reply. "I was thinking I'd channel it into killing her. I'm not very good at writing."

He talked about killing her so freely. How did I never see that side of him before?

The bell dinged again, and it was time to switch.