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EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SIBLING RIVLARLY

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"How the hell did he find out?" Stiles questioned as he walked through the halls with his girlfriend. It had taken her a good ten minutes just to find Stiles, who had been hiding in the library trying to finish whatever homework he hadn't done the night before. She felt kind of bad that Stiles was behind on some of his work because of her and their newest problems, aka her being a werewolf.

"I have no idea," Meilani huffed, running a hand through her hair. Her curls were all messy from the amount of times she had run her hand through her hair since Jackson practically shouted to the world he knew what was going on. Meilani had no idea what to do at this point and she just wished someone could tell her what to do so she can fix it. If she told Derek... actually, no she didn't want to know what he'd do if she told him Jackson had an idea.

"Well, did he say it out loud that you were... you know?" Stiles questioned quietly so no one in the crowded halls heard.

Meilani chewed on her lip and shook her head with a sigh. "No, but he implied it pretty freakin' clearly!"

"Okay, maybe it's not as bad as it seems," Stiles suggested, scratching the back of his neck. "I mean, he doesn't have any proof. Plus, if he were to tell Scott, would he even believe him?"

Meilani raised an eyebrow at Stiles and gave him a deadpan look. "Oh, and if he decides to say something when Allison's father is around?"

"Okay, it's bad," Stiles conceded with a frown.

"I need a cure, like right now," Meilani groaned, throwing her head back.

"Wait, does Jackson even know about Allison's father?"

"I'm not sure."

Stiles put his arm out suddenly, causing Meilani to slam into it and stumble back in shock. He pulled her to the side so they wouldn't be in the way of the traffic of students walking around. "Where's Derek? Where is he hiding?"

Meilani shrugged her shoulders. Derek never necessarily stated where he'd be hiding. She was sure he'd be moving around a lot so he wasn't in one place for too long and have the chance of being found.

"I only ask because I have another idea. It's gonna take a little time and finesse, though."

"We have that game tonight," Meilani reminded Stiles, crossing her arms across her chest. "It's quarterfinals, and it's also your first game."

Stiles deflated slightly at the reminder. He would finally be able to play in a game instead of sitting out on the bench the whole game next to Finstock who liked to scream constantly at the players on the field. Stiles was shocked he even still had his hearing after sitting next to him for a whole game. "I know, I know. Look, do you have a plan for Allison yet?"

"Not yet. Scott and Allison are in my next class so I was hoping if I can get him to somehow talk to me or something, it would get Allison to start to talk to me also. I know she's only not talking to me because Scott is upset and planted in her head I'm a bad person."

"Well figure it out and get the necklace."

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Meilani walked into her class and froze in the front when her eyes met with Scott's. She had barely seen or spoken to her twin since that night at the school. Their mom was starting to become suspicious on why her kids who were normally stuck to each other's sides now barely spoke or looked at each other. Scott walked around the house with the same brooding look Derek walked around with and Meilani didn't know if she hated the brooding look more on her brother or Derek.

When Meilani went to take her normal seat between Allison and Scott, Lydia's books were slammed down onto the desk and she gave the dark haired girl a fake smile. "Try another seat, sweetie."

Meilani resisted the urge to punch Lydia in her face and reluctantly took the seat behind Lydia. How was she going to get Scott to talk to her now?

"Okay let's settle down!" Mrs. Howards announced to the class and gestured for them to take their books out.

Meilani chewed on the inside of her lip and tried to think of how to get her brother to talk to her. She scrambled for her phone in her pocket and scrolled through the photos she had of her and Scott in her phone. A lot of them were old pictures they found one day in their attic when trying to find decorations for Christmas. Others were the two of them hanging around Beacon Hills together, all taken by Stiles of course. Her favorite being one where she shoved an ice cream cone into his face while his face was bright with laughter and fake annoyance. 

Maybe sending Scott some of the best photos of their times together would make him miss being around her and get him to speak to her. It would be like killing two birds with one stone. Getting her brother to speak to her again and they could get back to how things were, while also getting Allison to speak to her and she could snatch the necklace. It killed her to know she had to steal from the girl, but if it could help her get the alpha then so be it. She wanted out of this damn wolf life.

"Today I want to continue on our lesson about the wars between the two siblings, Emperor Commudus and his sister Lucilla," Mrs. Howards began, just as Scott shot out of his seat and stormed out of the class.

Meilani quickly scrambled out of her seat and rushed out of the room after him, hearing their teacher say something about how sibling rivalry being shown in their own classroom.

"Scott!"

Scott stopped walking and whirled around to face his sister, but anger and sadness evident on his face. The look alone almost made Meilani stumble back and cry. She had never seen him look so... broken... before. It hurt her to know she was the cause of that. "Why did you send me all of those?"

"I  - I..." Meilani fumbled over her words, not really knowing how to go about this since this was the first time in a while she had heard Scott actually say anything to her. "I thought it would get you to miss me like I miss you, Scott. You're my brother for crying out loud. I hate that you won't talk to me."

"And whose fault is that, Meilani?" Scott snapped, anger dominating over the sadness he felt that his twin was keeping something from him. Since when did she lie to him? "Cause it's not mine."

"Scott, I - " Meilani was cut off when Scott held his hand up.

"I don't want excuses from you. I want answers that I'm pretty sure I deserve seeing as I'm your brother and family."

Meilani's eyes welled with tears and shook her head. It was so hard to stand here and lie even more to him, but what else could she do? She needed to keep him safe. "There's nothing to explain. I already told you I don't know what was happening that night. You have to believe me."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Scott growled and took another step away from his twin. "Just give me some time to find it in me to forgive you for lying to me." 

Meilani choked out a sob as she watched her brother walk away from her. Her heart breaking more and more with each step he took.

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Meilani sat at her usual lunch table, her head in her hand as she pushed her food around on her tray. She wasn't exactly hungry after her conversation with Scott. If anything, she felt like throwing up. It felt weird because usually when Meilani felt this down she would turn to her twin because she always felt since he was her twin he understood her more. Of course she always leaned on Stiles' shoulders as well, but there was nothing more comforting than the support and love she got from Scott. 

"Did you get Scott talk to you?" Stiles asked as he plopped down next Meilani.

Meilani just shook her head, her eyes still trained on the food she pushed around on her tray. She felt her boyfriend's concerned gaze on her, but she didn't bother to move and look at him. Not even when he gently pushed her hair behind her ear and tried to get her to look at him before lifting her chin.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Stiles finally got her to look at him and his heart broke at the red rings around her eyes and the water that was still shining in them. "Lani..."

"He told me not to talk to him, Sti," Meilani's voice cracked and she closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. No way she was going to cry in public with all these kids, especially not when her brother was just tables over with Allison, Lydia and Jackson. Jackson looked like he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.

Stiles frowned and hugged his girlfriend into his side, rubbing her arm soothingly. He kissed the side of her head and laid his on top of hers. "He'll come around, Lani. However, I did come up with a Plan B in case anything like this happened. Just steal the damn thing."

Meilani pulled away from Stiles and gave him a wide eyed expression. "Are you insane? Can't we just get to Harris?"

"My dad put him on a twenty-four hour protective detail, okay? The necklace is all we got right now. Steal it. Thank you."

Meilani looked over to the table her brother was at and flinched slightly when she saw Jackson had his gaze focused on her and Stiles. She sucked her lips into her mouth and nudged Stiles, motioning subtly to Jackson who had just bit into an apple and she squeezed her eyes shut at the obnoxious sound.

"Meilani, you can hear me?" Jackson whispered from across the room and she froze. "You can, can't you?"

"Jackson's talking to me. He knows I can hear him," Meilani whispered frantically, gripping onto the sleeve of Stiles' flannel. Stiles went to look over in Jackson's direction but she grabbed his face and made him look at her. "No! Look at me. Act normal and make it look like you're talking to me."

"Are you trying to pretend not to hear me?"

Meilani gave Stiles a pleading look to say something - anything to be honest - to her but he spazzed and waved his hands around his head. "I don't know what to say, Lani! My mind's a complete blank."

"Your  mind's a complete blank?! You can't think of something to say?"

Stiles whined and stamped his foot like a two year old. "Not under this kind of pressure. Don't do this to me." He looked to the side and relaxed visibly. "Oh he's not even sitting with them anymore."

Meilani perked up and looked over to the table and only saw Scott, Allison and Lydia. The two girls looking over something on Lydia's phone as they both giggled quietly. Scott looked bored because neither one of them paid any attention to him at the moment and if it were any other point in time where they still talked, Meilani might have laughed at the obvious pout on his lips for being ignored.

"Looking for me, McCall? I'm right here," Jackson chuckled much like an evil mastermind would in the movies. "So what else can you do? Huh? Can you see better? Are you stronger, more powerful? No, I knew there was no way you suddenly were that good at lacrosse. I mean, you were good, McCall, but never this good. Which means you're actually a cheater, aren't you? I mean, can you even play lacrosse without your new freak powers?"

"Yes," Meilani growled lowly and Stiles stared at her oddly. 

"I'll bet my new co-captain's going to score a bunch of shots tonight. While you're pretending you're not a lying cheat, I'm going to ruin your life if you don't give me what I want," Jackson threatened, causing Meilani to squeeze the baby sized water bottle in her hand. "And you know what I'm gonna start with? Your twin. I'll ruin whatever slight chance you have getting him back in your life. Then all you'll have left in your pathetic life is Stiles and even then that isn't much. I know Scott is the most important person in your life and... well... if he's gone, then what will you even have?"

Meilani closed her eyes and willed her heart rate to slow down. She was a little better now at controlling her turns so she knew it would take a lot more anger to ensue before she had to rush out of the lunch room and hide, but Jackson knew which buttons to press and he could probably snap her cord quicker than anything. She just needed to ignore him, but it was a little hard when he was literally in her head.

"Meilani, stop. You can't let him do this to you. You can't let him have this kind of power over you, okay?" Stiles whispered, rubbing her back to help her stay calm. 

"I'm gonna make him my new best friend and I'll watch you suffer the whole time I do it."

Meilani's grip on her lunch tray suddenly got too much and she ripped it in half, the sound echoing around the lunch room. The whole lunch room went silent and looked in her and Stiles' direction, including Scott. Meilani's eyes met with his before they flashed over to Jackson who was leant against the wall a few feet away from Scott's table. He had a huge smirk on his face as he looked at her, biting into his apple again.

It took everything in Meilani not to go full wolf and just rip his throat out with her teeth. That would be one way to let everyone know her secret life.

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"I'm really hoping I can just get in and out," Meilani quietly said as she snuck around the side of Allison's house to her bedroom window. This was the last possible solution she had right now and decided to call Stiles when she reached her destination.

"Well, hurry because Derek is literally glaring daggers into my head right now because you don't have the necklace yet."

"Why is he even at your house?" Meilani questioned as she prepared herself to hop onto the small roof underneath Allison's window. She hopped up and landed silently, sighing in relief when she saw the window was already partially opened.

"I don't know, but Danny is coming over to see if he can figure out who sent that text to Derek the other day. I gotta figure out a lie when Danny asks who he is."

Meilani shrugged and quietly lifted the window the rest of the way up. "Tell him it's your cousin or something. I gotta go. Love you. Bye." She quickly hung up and slipped through the open window. She glanced around the room, not even knowing where to begin to look. Allison didn't necessarily have a lot of furniture, just a bed, side table, dresser, desk and a small metal bookcase. It's not like there were many places she could hide it, but the question of where was big. 

She just thanked her lucky stars that Allison was out on a date with Scott and that she had enough time to search. She checked every single drawer there was in the room and couldn't find it anywhere. Meilani felt her luck dwindling quicker and quicker. She walked over to the desk and looked around it, hoping maybe she left it on there. Noticing the book on the desk was open slightly, she flipped it open to the see the necklace inside working as a bookmark.

Meilani silently cheered and grabbed the necklace, stuffing it into her leather jacket pocket. She froze when she noticed certain words circled in the book. Legend. Mythic monster. Loup Garou.

"Loup Garou?" Meilani furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at the word. She pulled her phone out and quickly typed the word into the Google Translate app. It took a second for the app to load before the word stared back at her. 

Werewolf.

Meilani closed the book quickly and jumped out the window. She rubbed a hand over her face as she went to walk down the block to where she had left her mom's car. Allison was reading about werewolves. Soon she'd probably be trained to kill werewolves and then Meilani's already complicated situation would just become more complicated. She didn't even think that was possible at this point.

"Meilani."

Meilani froze at the sound of Chris' voice and slowly lowered her hands from her face. She just prayed he didn't see her jump down from Allison's window. "Uh... hi, Mr. Argent."

"Allison isn't home yet, but you can come wait inside," Chris offered and Meilani reluctantly followed him into the house. Might as well make it seem like she was really here to see Allison if he thought that was why she's here. "She's on a date with your brother, but she should be home soon. You guys have that game tonight."

"Uh, yeah, I should probably get going actually. I really need to get home and prepare for it," Meilani said and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb as she followed Chris into the kitchen where he took out a beer. "It's a big game, you know."

Chris nodded and took a swig from his beer bottle. "Yes, Allison and I are going tonight to support you guys. Congrats on making first line and co-captain, by the way. Scott told me about it the other day at dinner. Must be very exciting."

Meilani blinked at Chris. Scott still talked about her? However, the thing that threw her off more was the civil and nice conversation she had with Chris. She knew he was suspicious of her and knew something was up with her. It set an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I had a question for you," Chris announced and placed his beer on the center island in the middle of the kitchen. "How do you know Derek Hale?"

"Uh... who?" Meilani asked, trying to seem as nonchalant as she could. She knew something was odd about the conversation and it would just lead to something worse eventually. 

"Allison and Scott have mentioned seeing you talk to him. Don't you think that seems a little disconcerting, Meilani? You talking to an alleged murderer?"

Meilani crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one side. "Not like I'm the only one who knows him. I haven't done anything wrong."

"You don't have to be afraid of me," Chris assured and Meilani could almost hear the bullshit in his tone. "I mean, you get that I'm just thinking of my daughter's safety, right? Your brother's as well of course because he seems to be very important to my daughter and that makes him family to me."

"Well, will you believe me if I said that I want nothing more for my brother and my friends to be safe? It's all that's ever on my mind lately. When we were in the school the other night, every choice I made was to keep them safe."

Chris stared at her for a long moment and she matched the gaze just as strongly. She should be scared of him because he could end her life in about thirty seconds flat, but for some odd reason she wasn't. If anything, he didn't seem any more frightening than a fly. 

"You should go. You have a big game to prepare for."

Meilani narrowed her eyes at him before she took a step back and exited Allison's house. She walked over to the car and sat in the front seat, her fingers fiddling with the necklace in her pocket. She seriously hoped this was worth it.

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"Did you get the picture?"

"Yeah, I did, and it looks just like the picture," Stiles responded on the other end. 

"Is there something on the back of it?" Came Derek's voice next and Stiles whined quietly in the back. She could practically see Derek clutching her boyfriend's wrist and holding the phone to his mouth so he could speak. "There should be something. An inscription, an opening, something."

Meilani shook her head even though the two boys couldn't see her. "Uh, no. The thing is flat. So, no it doesn't open and there's nothing on the back. It's blank. Stiles, where are you? You're supposed to be here. You're first freaking line."

Coach Finstock walked over to Meilani and slapped her back, causing the girl to jump and look up at him. "Where the hell is your boyfriend, McCall?"

Meilani made a gesture that she didn't know where he was and Coach Finstock stormed away in a huff. She slowly brought the phone back to her ear and chuckled. "You know you won't play if you're not here to start, Stiles."

"I know. Look, if you see my dad, can you tell him I'll be there a little late?"

"Yeah, fine. Just hurry please. I love you," Meilani begged and quickly hung up after Stiles announced his love for her back. She stuffed her phone into her bag under the bench and grabbed her gloves, putting them on her hands.

Jackson sat down next to her and licked his lips with a cocky grin. "It's the bite that does it, isn't it?"

Meilani looked around them to make sure no one was close enough to listen. The two weren't exactly talking loud enough for anyone to hear, but she still could never be too safe, especially not with Scott sitting on the other end of the bench. He looked back a few times to Allison, Kate and Chris and waved with a grin.

"Yes."

"Well, then it's easy," Jackson commented and looked up from tightening the strings on his stick to Meilani.

Meilani scoffed and looked back to him after she was sure it was clear. "No it's really not. I can't be the one to do it. It has to be... an alpha."

Jackson gave Meilani an odd look. "So get the alpha to do it then."

"I don't even know who he is!" Meilani snapped at him quietly, annoyed already. She didn't understand why Jackson would even want this life. It's not a freaking walk in the park at all. It sucks. "Trust me. This whole thing is so much more complicated than you think. There's others. There's hunters."

"Hunting what? What hunters?"

"Werewolf hunters," Meilani clarified. 

Jackson laughed incredulously and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at him. She didn't really see what was so funny about it. "Oh, my God. You've got to be kidding me."

"No, asshole!" Meilani almost all but yelled at him. "There's a whole family of them and they carry assault rifles. Do you get that? Assault rifles!" She glanced behind her to Allison's family and looked away quickly before any of them could feel her gaze on them.

Jackson followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow. "Them?"

"What? No... no," Meilani quickly shot down with a shake of her head. "Not them."

"That actually makes sense," Jackson whispered to himself. "Allison Argent. You don't get it. You've known her this long, and you've never actually asked her ... Hello! Her name in French means silver."

Meilani's eyes widened as she stared at Jackson. She had taken French for three years, how did she not know what her last name meant? Puzzle pieces slid into place together now and the complications just continued to pile higher and higher. Meilani felt herself suffocating from the amount of pressure she was beginning to feel. 

"Now this is what I like to see," Coach Finstock's hands came down on both Meilani's and Jackson's shoulders. "Rivals turned allies. You know there's no me in team right, guys?"

"I mean... technically..." Meilani trailed off at the the deadpan look Coach Finstock gave her.

"Okay, smartass, how 'bout this - no A in Econ if no win on field? Good? Huh?" Coach Finstock looked between the two captains and smiled at the silence between them. "Perfect. Good." He slapped them both on the shoulder and walked away. 

Meilani waited for Coach to be far enough away before she decided to return to her conversation with Jackson. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to give you a chance to give me what I want," Jackson answered and Meilani was slightly taken aback that he wasn't immediately going to run off to Scott and blab. Either way he was going to because no way she'd be able to give him what he wants nor will she even if she could. She wouldn't wish this life on the worst of people. "What's three days, huh? Seventy-two hours. That's all you get, Meilani."

"And what if I can't?"

Jackson fake pouted in mock sympathy at her. "Aw, McCall. That's not a winning attitude now is it?"

The whistle blowing cut off their conversation and Jackson winked at Meilani before he ran over to Coach Finstock.

Meilani groaned and closed her eyes. She had seventy-two hours to do something she didn't even want to do. It was bad enough she didn't know who the alpha was. Now she desperately needed to find him and try to convince him to do it? Yeah right. She sighed and pushed herself off the bench and over to Coach who gave his usual before game speech.

"Chris, remember how when we spoke about another beta? A younger one?"

Meilani tensed at the sound of Kate's voice and subtly looked over to Chris and Kate who whispered to each other in the stands.

"Yes, why?"

"Can you get turned by a scratch?" Kate questioned her brother and looked over to the marks on the back of Jackson's neck. 

"If the claws go deep enough. Maybe."

Meilani glanced over to the marks on the back of Jackson's neck as Kate wondered aloud how deep those really went.

Situation has officially reached max levels of complicated. Sigh.

authors note

HI hey hello.

So I'm sorry for the month long wait for this chapter. I had a bunch of other stories I've been working on and wanted to either get updated or post. BUT WE ARE BACK BABY! We officially have 3 episodes left which means we only got six chapters to go and I'm not ready. I mean I am because I have a basic idea of how I'm working it all out with the episodes, but MY GOD THIS STORY IS ALMOST DONE. Almost year in the making and it's almost done and will soon have a brother. YALL BE PREPARED.

Also like I just want to hug Meilani because her life is just building up and up with complications and now Jackson is added to that which is not fun. Then like her and Scott had a fight in the hallway and he's so obviously broken over his sister blatantly lying to him and she's only doing it to protect him AND UGH MY HEART GUYS. I'M CRYING. MY POOR BABY GIRL JUST NEEDS SOME GOOD IN HER LIFE DAMMIT.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed. Don't forget to vote/comment your thoughts. I love hearing what you guys think as the story goes on. 

EDITED ON: SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2019