chapter twenty
"independence day!"

      "AM I SERIOUSLY DOING THIS?"

      Lynn nervously chewed on the side of her cheek as she sucked in a deep breath, rolling her eyes for always being so utterly dramatic. She adjusted her black leather jacket that was covering a dark blue tank top, with a pair of dark blue jeans to match — and her infamous black high tops.

      Currently, she was standing right outside the destroyed and hardly still standing Hale house — after nonchalantly earning the address from Stiles without him even noticing. She had rode her motorcycle all the way over right after school, having a sinking feeling that she needed to resolve all of the issues she had been creating for herself lately.

      Lynn curiously peeled open an old and frail wooden front door, it making a quite awkward creaking noise as she did so. She peeked her head in, taking the softest step into the house — it looked mangled, where the stairs that led to a second floor were ruined and hardly standing, the flooring was giving out, and the ceiling seemed to be sinking to the point she could see the upstairs rooms.

      A few more steps into house, if she could even call it that, every board squeaked under her process. She wasn't even sure if Derek was here, his scent smelled fresh, but there was a chance he was back at his hidden away and abandoned bus station.

      As she rounded a corner to turn into what once looked like a living room, she spotted the back of Derek. How, in an instant, he swung on his heels to aim a massive shard of glass straight at Lynn — where she caught it just a few inches before it would've collided with her right eye. She let out a massively shaky breath, glancing from her reflection in the glass back towards Derek, who looked completely horrified.

      "I knew I was a bitch the other day, but that hurt my feelings," Lynn teasingly tilted her head, and she dropped the shard of glass down to the ground, it only shattering into even smaller pieces.

      "What are you doing here?" Derek asked, and there was slight irritation written in his voice, but not like it was directed at her.

      "I wanted to talk," Lynn spoke after a second of precisely picking out her words, and then she let a massive sigh float from her mouth. "God, I sound like an idiot."

Derek let out a muffled laugh while he crossed his arms over his muscled and toned chest, and just seeing the small smile tug on the corners of his lips made one appear on Lynn's.

She had hardly ever felt this way around someone before — where hearing Derek's laugh boom throughout the air would make her smile herself, where butterflies would appear in her stomach the second her ocean blue eyes met those emerald green ones of his, where just simply being in Derek's presence made her happier.

There was a small silence between the two werewolves, but then Lynn straightened her face out as she sucked in a deep, serious breath.

"What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry," Lynn breathed out, the words practically being forced from her mouth — apologizing twice in one day, who knew it would ever get to this? "For the other day, I was angry, so angry. Of Matt threatening my friends, and Jackson hurting Stiles and you, and—"

"—I get it," Derek interrupted, and Lynn gazed up from her mindless rambling up towards the man, who too had a more serious expression.

"No, just let me finish," Lynn rose her arms up into the air, and she couldn't dare escape those green eyes of Derek's, they were so entrancing. "I know I'm not very good at the whole...friends, thing. Basically because I've never stayed anywhere long enough to actually care about people, let alone have them care about me. So, forgive me if it takes a bit of time for me to adjust."

      As Lynn spoke, Derek just looked at her with a certain amount of carefulness and softness, almost like there was a part of him that felt sorry for her.

      "I've never had friends, really, I've just kept to myself because I figured that was the best. I always eventually leave, so it's better not to attach, you know? I've been the new girl ten times," Lynn continued on, and her eyes hovered for a moment. "No one cares about the new girl."

      "I do."

      Lynn's blue eyes flickered from staring at the old, wooden flooring towards Derek — perhaps to search his eyes, seeing if he was being completely honest.

       And he was.

      A helpless smile tugged its way onto Lynn's face, and she couldn't even fight the slight blush that set over her cheeks. She avoided Derek's gaze as she realized their prolonged eye contact, and she nervously cleared her throat.

      "And you were wrong, by the way," Lynn added on, and Derek scoffed lightly while perking a single eyebrow over in her direction. "I like to think I can handle myself without needing any help, but when I was facing off with Jackson, I realized — I realized that maybe I'm not as strong as I thought I was."

      "That's because you're most likely using half your power," Derek explained, and Lynn curiously tilted her head to the side like a confused puppy. "Have you ever actually been taught how to fight?"

      "What?"

      "Evelynn, you're an evolved werewolf, you're much stronger than just a regular beta," Derek answered, and Lynn thought to herself for a moment — her mother never mentioned any of that, ever. "You just need to learn how to use it."

      "And what would you know about evolved werewolves?" Lynn questioned, folding her arms over her chest dramatically with attitude while raising both her eyebrows on the man's direction.

      A smirk riddled its way onto Derek's face, "My mother was one, and my older sister."

      "Got any surprises for me, Hale?" Lynn grinned teasingly, half expecting him to just shift into a wolf right then and there. "To be honest, I don't even know how I am one. They're supposed to be able to find the perfect balance between their wolves and themselves, but I don't feel like I'm in a perfect balance."

      By now, Lynn had taken several steps forward towards Derek, who was leaning his back up against a frail wooden table. There were many books, some old, some new, scattered among that table, with a few of them opened to random pages.

      "How come you never shift into your wolf?" Derek questioned, moving some he would be placing his palms on the table rather than leaning his back against it. "I don't think I've ever seen you, other than that first full moon."

      Lynn sighed quietly, picking up her hand to gently trace her fingertips along one of the old, dusty books, "I don't know. I guess, I just don't want to seem..."

      "Different?"

      Lynn rose her head up from staring at the books, and gave Derek the softest of nods. The man glanced down towards the few inches shorter girl, noticing a few of her brunette strands falling into her face as she studied the books he had laid out — and he had the sudden urge to just tuck it nearly behind her ear.

      "Scott wouldn't judge you, in fact, I don't think any of them would," Derek replied, and there was a little bit of relief flooding Lynn, even though she knew that all along, it was nice to hear someone say it out loud. "I could help if, you know, accept it."

      Lynn scoffed slightly to herself, glancing her eyes up towards Derek, and although there was a joking matter between them right now, she could still see how serious he was about it.

      "And how would you go about doing that?" Lynn asked, her eyes fluttering between the books and Derek, mostly because of how awkward she was.

      "I could help you with your inner wolf, help you learn how to properly fight."

      Lynn dramatically gasped while placing a hand on her chest with obvious attitude, "Derek Hale, are you suggesting I don't know how to fight?"

      "No," Derek responded simply, then a smirk appeared on his face. "I'm stating you don't know how to fight."

      Lynn laughed out when Derek snarkily replied, and she nibbled on her bottom lip as a little thought flooded her mind.

      Within a second Lynn launched her fist backwards and then towards Derek, but the man didn't even hesitate at catching her fist before it would hit his face. He teasingly tilted his head towards Lynn, basically questioning, is that all you got?

      Lynn then tried another punch with her other hand, and once again with no surprise, Derek caught that fist as well. In hopes of catching him off guard, she swung her leg forward while aiming for his abdomen, but with absolute no hesitation Derek lost both grips on her fists to catch her leg in motion, and then spun Lynn where she was sent backwards to land on her butt.

      She let out a puff of annoyed air as her body collided with the wooden flooring — wondering if it was going to crush under her weight. She started to think that perhaps Derek was right about her not knowing how to properly fight.

      "Nice try," Derek concluded with a smirk, taking a few steps while reaching his hand down towards Lynn, who switched between it and Derek's eyes as if she didn't fully trust him, and slowly reached forward to intertwine their fingers. "Don't you have a game to get to?"

      "Maybe," Lynn mumbled out, trying her best to swipe off all the dirt and dust that landed on her jeans from the fall.

      "How about you come back here tomorrow, and I'll help you learn how to actually fight," Derek explained, going back to his crossed arms and almost blank expression.

      Lynn smiled in Derek's direction, nodding towards the man while she finished cleaning herself off. She turned on her heels to go back out to her motorcycle so she could actually get to the game on time, but was interrupted as a hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her to a stop.

      "There's nothing wrong with being different," Derek spoke up while his eyes hovered —  merely glancing down to Lynn's pink lips for a second before switching back to her eyes. "I like different."

      Lynn was already blushing at the fact that their faces were now only inches apart, let alone the fact she saw the way Derek's eyes fluttered to her lips for a moment, and the way he sounded so utterly sweet.

      Lynn smiled sheepishly towards Derek, having an overwhelming feeling of butterflies soaring around in her stomach.

      "I like different too."

———

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will be joining others from around the world!"

Lynn confusingly narrowed her eyes while she heard Coach start in his speech voice over the loudspeaker, it creating a bit of feedback that hurt her ears. She was now currently changed into her full lacrosse wear, with her lucky number 17 written on the front of it, and her lacrosse stick grasped tightly in her left hand.

Stiles had now moved beside her, and she flashed him a nice smile while turning her attention back towards Coach and his very important speech, apparently.

"And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind," Coach continued, and Lynn's only furrowed her thick eyebrows even more. "Mankind — that word should have new meaning for all of us today."

"What the hell is he talking about?" Lynn questioned to Stiles standing beside her, and he let out a slight chuckle.

And with every sentence that Coach finished, usually the crowd of lacrosse players would cheer out with excitement or clap alongside him.

"He does this every year," Stiles explained, and Lynn let out a scoff, shaking her head while slightly amused to know that he knew the speech so well by now.

"We are fighting for our right to live!"

Another round of cheers.

"Wait, is this?" Lynn laughed out as the words started to make a lot more sense to her, and she couldn't help but let another snort or two leave her system.

"Yep, it's the speech from Independence Day," Stiles finished, and Lynn had to cover her mouth from letting another round of chuckles into the air. "It's Coach's favorite movie."

"Today we celebrate our Independence Day!" Coach exclaimed, and both Stiles and Lynn couldn't help but let out amused snorts, but after earning glared from a few of their teammates, they hushed up.

Lynn was distracted to Gerard's speech as she started to finish tying up her shoe laces, mostly because she wanted to do anything and everything to drone the man out. Once she was done with that, her eyes searched the room for Isaac.

Now that the two were friends — no, correction, they're just civil, she was wondering where the boy was. She gently nudged her elbow into Stiles', gaining his attrition.

"Hey, have you seen Isaac yet?" Lynn questioned, still looking around the lockerrooms for him, but she wasn't even catching his scent.

"Isaac? Wait, did Scott not tell you?"

Lynn snapped her eyes off the many boys stinking up the lockerroom to Stiles, concern written all over her face as she scrunched it up, confused.

"Isaac left, with Boyd and Erica, to look for another pack," Stiles explained softly, as if the wrong set of words and Lynn would break. "I'm sorry, I thought he told you."

Lynn dropped Stiles' gaze and stared at the floor instead, and her mind wandered back to earlier when they met in the hallway and she apologized. When she questioned him about the game, his heartbeat increased, but she just chalked it up to the fact that he was nervous for it.

"Are you okay? I thought you two were on bad terms, anyway," Stiles continued, and Lynn softly bobbed her head.

"We, uh, we talked it out, earlier today," Lynn explained, but she jerked her head up from being distracted. "I'm fine, don't worry."

"You heard the man," Coach concluded, and that was Lynn finally started to pay back attention to the words. "Asses on the field!"

a/n: GOD I LOVE THEM