I know a lot of stories do the whole 'new haircut-new person' crap, and I usually don't like that, but it felt right

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"So some random chick came into the school, grabbed you, and bruised both of your arms with what looks like the exact same mark," I said slowly. "Have I got that right?"

Lydia, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked over her shoulder at me. "Yes, and Allison seems desperate to believe that it means something."

"You don't know that it doesn't," the brunette argued defensively.

With a nod I leaned forward a bit, "And that's why you're meeting up with the boys - you want to see if they know something."

Allison and Lydia had picked me up on their way to see Scott and Stiles who were at someone's seventeenth birthday party. I couldn't think of anyone who had their birthday recently but I was lucky to remember my own, so there's that.

"Exactly," Allison huffed, not happy that Lydia was not one hundred per cent with her idea.

She pulled up out the front of a house where we could already hear the music from the outside. It didn't look like a rave or anything, just a chill sort of party. Allison's phone buzzed, "Scott's on his way out now. Still no reply from Stiles."

Pursing my lips, I opened the car door. "I'll go and find him."

"Are you sure?" Lydia asked. "I can go.

"It's fine," I said, shaking my head. "I need to talk to him about what we were attempting to talk about earlier. I just need him to know that he still means something to me, you know?"

"So, what? You're going to apologise?"

Biting my lip, I pushed the door outwards. "I'm not apologising for what I said - they needed to hear it. I just hope they understand that I needed that time alone without anyone until I had to come back. You guys aren't mad at me for not calling, are you?"

The two looked at each other, before Lydia spoke up. "Not mad. But hearing from you would've made me less nervous."

"Sorry," I said quietly.

"It's fine, we get it. Now go and get your man," she said with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes with a laugh, before climbing out of the car.

Allison and Lydia wished me luck as they got ready to leave also. I walked towards the house just as Scott was leaving. "Hey, Scott."

His face sunk a little, "Hey, Riley. I just wanna say sor-"

"No," I put a hand up. Not in a rude way, just so that he would stop. "No more apologising. Everyone's done things they've regretted, so let's just. . . let's not keep doing that."

Scott took a minute to process what I was saying. "So, are we okay?"

"We always were," I smiled sadly. "I just needed some time alone to sort my head out. I know I could've went about talking about it better, but I needed you guys to hear me. To understand. I needed time."

Scott didn't say anything as he took a step forward to wrap his arms around me. He was silent as he waited for me to return the gesture. The weight on my shoulders felt a little lighter now that I knew Scott wasn't as mad at me anymore, so I allowed myself to hug him back.
"We were just worried about you."

"I know, and I thank you for that, really," I whispered.

When we pulled away, I felt like we had gone back to before. Something felt different, but it wasn't as bad as it was when first returned. Unfortunately, things were worse with Stiles than they were with Scott and I didn't know if I had gotten through to him the way I wanted to.

Scott looked down at me, his eyes shining with that look he gets when he thinks he fixed something. I wonder if he could help Stiles and I?
"I like what you've done with your hair," he smiled.

My hand automatically reached for my hair as I grinned, "Thanks, Scottie." I went to step around him and that's when Scott grabbed my hand, a worried and confused look on his face.

"Woah, where are you going?"

I looked down at my hand, before I lightly pulled it away. "To look for Stiles. We need his opinion."

Scott twitched a little as he bit his cheek, "I don't think you should. Why don't you let me go get him?"

"Because Allison needs to talk to you," I replied slowly, eyes narrowing at him. He continued to fidget, trying to come up with an excuse. "No matter what you say I'm going in there. Especially now."

I heard him sigh as I walked into the house. I decided this was the perfect chance to practise my abilities some more, focusing my hearing in search of Stiles' voice. To my luck, I caught wind of someone saying his name. Taking a deep breath, I focused and listened as I followed the voice.

"Stiles, I just turned seventeen today, and you know what I want for my birthday?"

The voice was female. My throat constricted as the voice grew louder; I stopped outside of a door as another voice spoke.

"A bike?"

Stiles was in there with her, and it didn't sound like it was headed in a direction that I wanted it to.

"To not be a seventeen-year-old virgin."
Yep, definitely not where I wanted this conversation heading.

No. Stiles was better than that. He wouldn't do that. Even if we never made things official or whatever, he had made his feelings clear that night in his room. Keeping my faith in this, I pushed my pride and jealousy aside and opened the door. We needed Stiles.

I needed Stiles.

Slowly making my way down the steps, I was careful not to be too loud. Just in case my hearing had lead me astray. That's what I told myself the reason was at least.

When I reached the bottom, I saw that I was in a wine cellar. But that wasn't the sight that I was focusing on.

In between two shelves of wine stood Stiles, who was pressed up against the wooden shelf by a blonde who was currently trying to unbuckle his belt.

Deciding I had seen enough, I snapped out of it and got ready to leave the wine cellar. Just as I was about to climb the stairs, I heard Stiles speak. "Wait," he said. I looked over to see him pulling back from the girl and fixing his belt. "I- I can't do this."

I heard the girl sigh, "Stiles, it doesn't matter to me that you're a virgin. I told you that." She then attempted to get back to what they had been doing previously.

Stiles wasn't having it though. He softly pulled her hands away from him, "Heather, I can't."

"And why not? You were raring to go two minutes ago." She was silent for a moment, before she continued, "Is it another girl?"

"Yeah," he laughed, the sound rather monotone. "Something she said to me."

"Damn," Heather groaned in disappointment, "I hope I haven't just blown up our friendship. I mean, you know if I knew I wouldn't have tried, right?"

"I know." He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"So," Heather dragged on, "Why stop for her? What makes her so special?"

He ran a hand through his hair, "I've known her forever; she's one of my best friends. She annoys the hell out of me, but she's the best thing that's happened to me, and I do not deserve her."

At that point I knew I couldn't possibly stay in there any longer. Scott was right, I shouldn't have come in. I attempted to sneak out, but as I climbed the stairs my foot got caught and I tripped.

Graceful, as always.

I heard footsteps coming towards me as I quickly climbed to my feet. "Ri-Riley?" Stiles stuttered out. I froze on the spot, slowly spinning to see him standing right behind me with his eyes twice their size. "What are you, uh, what are you doing here?"

Shaking my head I opened my mouth to speak as I felt the pace of my breathing pick up. I wasn't having this conversation in a dark cellar with the girl who just tried to do him standing in the background.

I spun right back around and walked up the stairs into the living room and then straight out the front door Scott, Allison and Lydia were all still talking out the front, waiting for Stiles and I.

"Riley, stop please!"

When I was finally far enough out of the house that I didn't think I would cause a scene at the girl's party I stopped. "Did you mean what you were saying back there?" I asked as I stared up at him.

Stiles looked taken back as he stared right back at me. His eyes kept shifting, scanning each inch of my face. He looked out of place, obviously not having planned having this conversation either.

"About you annoying the hell out of me?" He clarified. "I mean, sometimes. . ."

Biting my lip, I held back a laugh as I smiled a little. "You know what I meant, Stiles."

The air outside was cool on my skin; it felt nice against my flushed cheeks. It didn't seem to be doing anything for Stiles, however, as he looked like he was completely on edge.

"Of course I meant it," he managed to get out, running one of his hands through his hair before pulling it a little. "What I didn't mean was for you to hear it."

I pursed my lips as I looked at my feet. "I thought you hated me after what happened," I mumbled.

He scoffed a little as he brought his hands to my face and got me to look up at him. "Riley, I could never hate you no matter how hard I tried. Believe me."

With a sigh, I grabbed his wrists softly and pulled his hands away from me. "I know I should've at least let you know I was okay, but I'm not going to apologise for any of it. Not anymore."

Stiles looked disappointed, but not surprised. We both knew things weren't going to be like before; we couldn't just go back like Scott and I decided to.
Stiles and I, our friendship had morphed into something else before everything went down. And then the fight we had had just earlier today. We couldn't go back as easily.

But I wanted so badly to be able to. I wanted Stiles, and from what he had said, he wanted me too.

And yet, it still wasn't that easy. Stiles and I needed to relocate our common ground before anything else. It couldn't be about just wanting each other anymore.

Before he could say anything, I let go of his hands and took a step away from him. "We need to get over there. Allison and Lydia need us."

He nodded, and we walked over to the three who were waiting patiently for us. Allison and Lydia held their wrists out for Stiles and Scott to examine. Their bruises were mirror reflections of each other, identical to the last mark.

"We need to show Derek this," Scott said right away.

♡♢♤♧

The next day Scott got Derek to meet us at the school during our break. We met with him in an empty classroom. He didn't bring Isaac or his uncle with him, unfortunately, just his lone self.

I wanted to see Isaac to see how he was doing, and I wanted to see Peter because he was the only person left alive that knew what I was. I was hoping to be able to convince him to tell me.

"I don't see anything," Derek stated blankly as he looked up from Lydia and Allison's wrists which they were holding beside one another.

Scott wasn't giving up though, "Look again."

"How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"

"It's the same on both sides," Scott said pointedly. "Exactly the same."

"Come on, Derek," I groaned. "Even I have to admit, that looks like it might be something."

"It's nothing," Derek mumbled, arms crossed. He was being very persistent on not agreeing. I could only come to assume that it was because he didn't like or trust Allison.

Lydia huffed a little under her breath, "Pareidolia. Seeing patterns that aren't there. It's a subset of apophenia."

Derek glanced over at Scott with a look of disbelief, his eyes wide.
"They're trying to help," Scott insisted.

"These two?" Derek asked as he pointed at them. "This one, who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle," Lydia. "Thank you. And this one, who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack," Allison.

Stiles finally decided to pipe up, defending his friends. "Okay, all right, now, come on. No one died, all right? Look, there may have been a little maiming. Okay, a little mangling, but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."

"My mother died," Allison pointed out, her eyes narrowing at Derek.

I held me hand up a little as I whispered, "So did mine."

Derek looked past me as he recrossed his arms at Allison, "Your family's little honour code killed your mother. Not me."

He sort of had a point, but it was hard to say who was in the wrong. Allison was hurting because her mum died, Victoria died because of the code, the code was followed because Derek bit her, Derek bit her because she was trying to kill Scott, she was trying to kill Scott because of Allison.

Everything comes full circle.

"That girl was looking for Scott," Allison told him. "I'm here to help him, not you."

"You wanna help? Find something real."

And with that Derek went to walk out of the room, leaving Allison with her mouth hanging open in shock. She was just trying to help and Derek was being a bit of an ass.

Scott was quick to stop him, "Give her a chance. Okay, they're on our side now."

"Well, then maybe you should tell her what her mother was actually trying to do that night."
After he said that, Scott was quick to shut up and then Derek did leave. Derek was referring to the fact that Allison was yet to be informed that her mother had tried to kill Scott and that was why Derek had bitten her. Allison didn't understand the circle yet.

The bell rang and Lydia and Allison went one way as Scott, Stiles and I went another. We still had no idea what the bruises meant, and that meant we were no closer to finding the other Betas.
"Okay, what would a pack of Alphas want with Erica and Boyd," Stiles asked the question on everybody's mind.

"I'm not sure it's them they want," our local werewolf pondered.

"Okay, what. Like Derek?" Stiles questioned further. "Like, they're recruiting?"

I shifted my bag on my shoulder, "Why not go straight to Derek then? Why bother kidnapping Erica, Boyd and briefly Isaac?"

Scott stopped in his tracks and bent his neck to look at some students walking by us. Stiles and I stopped to see who he was focusing on. Squinting, I saw the silhouette of two figures who looked rather familiar. I was unable to put my finger on it though as they walked in the opposite direction and I couldn't see their faces.

They had an air about them, something similar to arrogance as they walked with their leather jackets on and shoulders held high. They weren't regular students, I could tell that much.

"Hey, Scott," Stiles said loudly, interrupting both Scott and I from our thoughts. "You coming?"

Scott started walking again without another word, Stiles and I trailing behind at a moderate pace.

♡♢♤♧

Twenty minutes later Scott, Stiles and I all sat in Coach's economics class. Unfortunately, we still had to participate in school in between our crazy lives.
"The stock market," Coach began as he dropped the text book down on his desk, "is based on two principles. What are they?"

Scott was the first to put his hand up, which obviously Coach wasn't expecting as he responded. "Yes, McCall, you can go to the bathroom. Anybody else?"

"No, Coach," Scott replied awkwardly, "I know the answer."

Coach didn't even respond before he burst out in laughter, unable to control himself. He kept going until he looked at Scott's face properly. "Oh, you're serious."

"Yes. Risk and reward."

"Wow!" Coach exclaimed. "Who are you? And what have you done to McCall? Don't answer that. I like you better. I like you better."
I couldn't get over how widely Scott was grinning in response to everything that Coach was saying. He was doing better in school now and he knew it, and he was proud of himself.

"Does anybody have a quarter?" Coach continued with the lesson. "A quarter." Stiles grabbed one out of his pocket and handed it to our teacher. "Risk and reward. Put the quarter in the mug, win the reward. Okay, watch Coach."

He placed the mug on the ground and then took a few steps away from it before leaning down, blowing on the coin for luck, and bouncing it into the mug with actual precision. The class applauded him as he stood back up, revelling in the praise.

"That's how you do it. Okay. Danny," he tossed the coin to said boy. "Risk, reward?"

"What's the reward?" Danny asked him.

Coach shrugged lightly, "You don't have to take the pop quiz tomorrow."

"Coach, it's not a pop quiz if you tell us about it."

Our teacher then leaned close to the boy and pinched the quarter out from his fingers. "Danny, you know, I really expect more from you at this point. Really." He then placed the coin down on Scott's desk. "McCall. Risk, reward?"

After Coach explained the rules once more, Scott asked him if the game was just one of chance. Coach shook his head as he squinted, "No. You know your abilities, your coordination, your focus, past experience. All factors affecting the outcome. So what's it gonna be, McCall? More work, no work, or choose not to play?"

Scott could easily ace this challenge. With his heightened senses and such, getting a coin into a mug would be a breeze for the werewolf. But would that be classed as cheating, considering that he wasn't really risking anything at all when he knew he could one hundred per cent obtain the reward?

Scott knew the answer as he placed the coin down on his text book in a way to say he had chosen no play. Coach picked the coin back up and asked for a new volunteer.

I had considered doing so, but was afraid I had the same dilemma as Scott. With my new found abilities, would I be tipping the scales unfairly in my favour? Had I a way of knowing?

After a moment of no one stepping forward, Stiles drummed on his desk and stood up to accept the challenge. Coach happily handed over the coin and both of them headed to the front of the classroom where the mug awaited.

Just as Stiles was getting in the zone and ready to toss the coin, the door to the classroom creaked open and Sheriff Stilinski walked in, followed by one of his deputies. "Stiles," he said.

However, his son was concentrating too hard to notice his presence. "Yeah, Coach, I got it."

His father said his name once more, in a much more serious tone, and this got the boy's attention. He straightened up as his face dropped. Usually, he'd be thrilled to see his dad, but when it was at school and he was showing up during class, we knew it could only mean bad things.