CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE:
OUT OF SHAPE

WHEN NOAH STILINSKI HAD ENTERED his sons bedroom the next morning, he wasn't expecting to find Elaine still there. Though it wasn't an odd sight to him, for the girl used to stay over all the time and would accidentally fall asleep. And when Elaine was a sleep, there was no way to get her up, she woke up on her own. The man shook his head, the smallest of smiles on his face before he walked back out, and roughly slammed the door behind him, making Stiles jump up in surprise. He glanced around for a moment before glancing down at Elaine who hadn't even flinched. He groaned before forcing himself off the bed, walking into the bathroom in order to change before walking back into the room, smiling gently at the still sleeping girl. He didn't want to wake her, having a feeling that this was the longest amount of sleep she had required since she had been brought back.

"Laney." The boy called her name, gently shaking her. "Laney, come on. School. We gotta go." The girl hummed in response before turning over. He pursed his lips. "Elaine! Up and at 'em!"

"Go away." The girl mumbled.

"I will drag you out of this bed. You know I will." The boy warned. After a moment he tore the blankets off of her, ready to pick her up only for Elaine to shoot her hand out, sending him flying to the ground. That made her eyes open, a laugh falling from her lips. Stiles narrowed his eyes at her. "Haha. Now get up." With a grunt, Elaine finally sat up in the bed, running a hand through her hair.

"I'll just have to change into my clothes that are at the school." Elaine grumbled. She forced herself from the bed, walking into the bathroom and quickly brushing her teeth with the extra toothbrush that she had left over a few months prior. She brushed through her hair before grabbing the bag that she had brought with her that contained the small amount of make-up she wore―︎why she didn't think to bring extra clothes was beyond her. She walked back out to reveal Stiles no longer in his room. She pursed her lips for a moment before quickly taking it upon herself to grab one of his checkered shirts and throwing it over her arms. With that, she walked down the steps, offering the sheriff a smile before exiting the home and hopping into Stiles' vehicle.

"Is that my shirt?"

"Maybe. . ." The girl offered him a smile making him roll his eyes before quickly making his way towards the school.

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When she entered the gym and saw they were doing rock climbing, she immediately groaned. She hated rock climbing with a passion, and as she stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, watching Scott and Allison as they went, she glanced towards Stiles.

"I think I'm going to join the track team." She told the boy. "I really need to get into shape."

"You're not out of shape." Stiles told the girl.

"Well, I need to get into better shape." She corrected herself.

"And you think taking track is your only option?" He quizzed, raising an eyebrow at her. She shrugged her shoulders in response. "Laney, you literally despise running."

"Yeah, I know." The girl sighed. "But you gotta start somewhere right?" The two were torn from their conversation just in time to watch Allison kick Scott of the wall, sending him flying down towards the map only for the harness to stop him a few inches before slamming into the mat. Laughs echoed through out the class whilst Elaine just shook her head, smiling in amusement.

Coach sat down beside Scott on the map before looking at the boy with a laugh and saying, "McCall, I don't know why, but your pain gives me a special kind of joy." He then stood up as Allison came back down. "Alright, next two! Stilinski and the other McCall I actually like."

Elaine smiled in amusement as she met eyes with Scott, smirking at his annoyed eyes. She gave him a pat on the shoulder as she walked by before harnessing herself and glancing towards Stiles with a challenging smirk on her face. The two started climbing up the wall, and of course, they made it a small race between themselves. Elaine had barely beat the boy by two seconds, but none the less she beat him.

"Guess I'm not as out of shape as I thought." Elaine joked as Stiles landed on the mat. He scoffed before the two walked off the map, allowing coach to call up Erica and Lydia. Lydia was quick to complete the rock climb, and by the time she had gotten back down, Erica had only made it half way up. The girl was panicking, trying her hardest to catch her breath.

"Erica? Dizzy? Is it vertigo?" Coach called up to the girl, everyone now looking up at her. Lydia and Elaine exchanged looks before giving Coach a weird look.

"Vertigo's a dysfunction of the vestibular system of the inner ear. She's just freaking out."

"Erica!" Coach called her name once again, ignoring Lydia's explanation of what vertigo was.

"I'm fine." The girl struggled to say.

"Coach, maybe it's not safe. You know, she's epileptic." Allison pointed out to the man. Coach looked at Allison with wide eyes.

"Why doesn't anybody tell me this stuff?" Coach questioned making elaine raise her eyebrows at the man. "Erica, y-you're fine. Just-just kick off from the wall. Th-there's a mat to catch you. Come on." With reluctance, the girl let go of the rock, kicking off the wall and landing on the mat. "See? You're fine. You're on the ground. You're all right. Let's go. Shake it off. You're fine." Erica walked away, laughs being thrown at her way making Elaine clench her jaw, watching the girl walk away with a soft frown on her face. Soon they were dismissed and Elaine walked beside of her brother.

"You never came home." Scott smirked.

"We fell asleep watching movies." Elaine answered him. "I would've called, but we all know that once I actually manage to get to sleep, there's no coming back from that coma until the next morning."

"Right. Well, luckily mom worked the late shift last night, so she didn't know you were gone."

"Mom's never not been okay with me staying at Stiles'." Elaine rolled her eyes. She then shoved her brother towards the boys locker room, rolling her eyes with a small smile on her face as she shook her head.

"So, you have one of his shirts now, huh?"

"Oh, not you too." Elaine rolled her eyes as Allison walked beside her, the two deciding to head back to the gym, wanting to have a little rock climbing race of their own to see who would win.

"I'm just saying." She put her hands up in defense. "You guys would be cute together."

"Well, lucky me, he doesn't like me that way. We're just friends, that's all we'll ever be." Elaine answered her with a sigh.

"We really gotta work on your optimism." Allison told the woman. The two entered the gym, just in time to see Erica climbing the rock wall once again.

"What the hell is she doing? Erica!" Elaine yelled her name before running forward. The blonde let out a scream as she slipped, falling from the rock wall. Elaine was quick to shoot out her hand, keeping the woman from falling to the ground before Scott appeared, sliding under neath her and quickly catching her. The two females as well as some others were quick to run up to Scott.

"Put her on her side." Allison quickly told him, watching as Erica started to have a seizure. Scott did as he told, and Elaine glanced around, making sure no one was giving her any weird looks, when she found out they weren't, a relieved sigh fell from her lips before she turned back towards her brother.

"How'd you know?" Elaine frowned.

He glanced down at the seizing blonde before looking up at his sister, simply shrugging his shoulders before saying, "I just felt it."

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"We're really doing this?" Elaine asked from her spot beside of her brother. He nodded his head.

"Yeah, we are."

"I don't know, Scotty."

"Come on, El. You haven't relaxed since you found out I was a werewolf. This gives you the time to just take a breather from everything that's been going on. You need that, more than any of us if I'm being honest." Scott told her, placing an arm over her chair. Elaine looked at him, and Scott stared back, silently begging her to agree. She rolled her eyes before sighing.

"Yeah, alright." Scott smiled in triumph and Elaine rolled her eyes again, though a smile was pulling up at the corner of her lips. She glanced up when Stiles appeared, sitting across from the two siblings. He held out a set of keys, laying them on the table.

"Got 'em. Pick up right after work tonight, and we'll all meet at the rink, cool?" Stiles asked before glancing towards Elaine. "Did you finally convince her to come?"

"Yes, he did." Elaine nodded. "I don't even know why you guys want me to come. I'll be a total fifth wheel."

"What do you mean?" Scott frowned.

"Well, it's you and Allison, and obviously Stiles is going to hang out with Lydia. Maybe they'll have a stuffed animal somewhere in the rink and I can talk to it." Elaine responded, shooting them both a sarcastic smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. That's when they noticed the whole cafeteria went silent. They turned their heads just in time to watch as Erica made her way into the cafeteria. Her hair was no longer a frazzled mess, but instead long smooth golden curls fell past her shoulders. She was wearing make-up, and she had the shortest skirt Elaine had ever seen in her life.

Lydia appeared, placing her hands on the table as they watched Erica eat a bite of someone's apple before smirking and exiting. "What. . . in the holy hell. . . was that?"

"It's Erica." Scott answered her.

"I just remembered why I was bisexual." Elaine muttered, clearing her throat as she quickly turned away. The three looked at her and she glanced at them before shrugging her shoulders. "What? You cannot tell me she didn't look hot right there?"

"El, your taste in both women and men scare me sometimes." Lydia spoke. Elaine gave her a sarcastic smile before she, Scott, and Stiles, quickly got up and ran towards the direction Erica had went. They made it outside just in time to watch as Erica opened the door to Derek's car. She glanced at the three, smirking before getting inside. Derek turned his head towards the trio before shooting them a smile and driving off.

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Elaine and Scott stood in the clinic, cleaning up some supplies before Elaine's head quickly turned upon hearing the sound of glass shattering as it hit the floor. She looked towards her brother before noticing the ash-like substance laying on the floor. She walked over to her brother, placing a hand on his shoulder be kneeling down and helping him clean it up.

"Why do I get the feeling you've got a lot on your mind?" Deaton spoke, making the two glance up towards him.

"Sorry. It just kind of slipped through my fingers." The boy sheepishly replied. He then sighed before saying, "Everything has been slipping through my fingers."

"Scott. . ." Elaine frowned, glancing up to look at her brother, watching as he took the glass shards from her hands and threw them into the trashcan.

"Now, that sounds like far too world-weary a thing for a teenager to say." Deaton told the boy.

"Sorry." Scott mumbled, glancing between the two.

"You might wanna try a different perspective." Deaton suggested. "This is just entropy at work. This is more the natural way of the universe. But, it doesn't necessarily mean it's falling apart―︎it's just changing shape."

"For better or worse?" Scott questioned.

"Exactly." Deaton simply answered, making the two siblings exchange looks as they furrowed their eyebrows. Scott then stood up, making Elaine copy his actions before they turned towards Deaton who had been moments away from exiting the room.

"Hey, doc?" Scott spoke, making the man turn around to look at him. "When are we gonna talk about. . . the thing that we never got a chance to talk about?"

"Oh, yes. We never did get a chance to talk about that, did we? Now is definitely a good time." Deaton nodded his head.

"Thank god." Elaine breathed.

"What do you think? Two dollars?" He asked the duo.

"Two dollars?" Elaine frowned, cocking her head slightly.

"You're right―︎two-fifty more an hour. It seems like a pretty good raise." Deaton nodded, Elaine's eyes widen and she couldn't help the small smile that fell on her face.

"It's not exactly what I was―︎" However, Elaine was quick to elbow him in the side. "Two-fifty more an hour?"

Deaton smiled at them before nodding his head. "Done! Don't forget to clean up the cat cages." And with that, the veterinarian walked out.