THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
by spiderkru

≿━━━༺❀CHAPTER TWO❀༻━━━≾

"It's outrageous," Lilith's voice cut through the air like a knife through whipped cream. "How are you so calm about this?"

The devilish pair was walking side by side along one of the many pavement pathways that ran across the lawn outside Beacon Hills High School. The heat of the summer and the absence of people to water it had left the once flourishing grass to dry out almost completely, replacing the usual green with a brownish yellow.

"He won't stay for long," Lucia dismissed the bitter Demon.

The pathways were flooded with students. Tanned, tireless bodies sharing stories of their summer and speaking of how this year would be different and better. Better grades, better looks, better parties. Better everything.

Lucia has never understood the concept of "new year, new me" that humans seemed to carelessly throw around themselves at the start of every new semester. First of all, there was no significant difference between today and yesterday. Their starting point was the same, just like their potential to change was. Second of all, they never actually did fulfill said potential. The promise of a better self was as empty as their brains.

"Why not?" Lilith narrowed her dark eyes. "Please don't tell me you're planning on going along with it."

Lucia scoffed. "Of course not, don't be ridiculous. And sooner or later, he will realize that, and be scared off. There's no way he's going to risk not earning his wings. It would be devastating for him. Not to mention his family name."

"Yes, but this is your mother's doing, remember?" Lilith spoke lowly, eyes darting around the school yard to make sure nobody was paying attention to them. "If Gabriel fails his task to 'make you a better person', she'll simply send another one. You don't win a game of chess by getting rid of the Pawn, you win by getting rid of the King. Or in this case, Queen."

"Right," Lucia replied bitterly, "but I can't exactly do that, seeing as I'm not allowed to even step foot in her queendom."

The young Devil pushed open the blue double doors that posed the main entrance. The cool air inside met her like a wall, contrasting greatly from the heat of the sun outside. The hallway was already filled with students scanning their whereabouts in search of their lockers.

Lucia paused for a moment, taking in the view as she couldn't help it but to notice several sets of eyes trailing in her direction, locking with hers for a split second before darting away in a mixture of shame and ecstasy. A small smile grew on her lips. Humans were pathetic. All you had to do was show a little authority, and they bowed before you both in fright and a desperate wish to be liked by you. It was almost too easy to take control of them.

Continuing down the hallway, Lucia spoke again. "Besides, my mother's interest in me has always been limited. Eventually she'll grow tired of trying."

"Lucia," Lilith deadpanned. "You're not too far away from your own eighteenth century. She's running out of time. And you know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Lilith, my eighteenth century is two hundred years away," Lucia whispered. "There's no way she's that desperate this early."

The young blonde scanned her companion's complexion. A worried Lilith Mania was a rare sight, and not a very pleasant one. The deep wrinkles that formed on her forehead as she frowned did not go well with her outfit. The only way to pull off Lilith's bold fashion choices was by carrying oneself with pride, confidence and a mischievous smirk. Worry ruined her whole vibe.

Lucia cocked her head, wondering if the young Demon had somehow understood what she was thinking, as the wrinkle suddenly softened. The worried look in her eyes was replaced with hardness as they stared right ahead.

"You better be right," Lilith sighed as her consistent pace came to a halt.

Lucia stopped as well, eyeing her questioningly. Following her hard gaze, Lucia's eyes landed on Gabriel. His lean figure stood supported against the blue lockers, his complexion lit with amusement as he enthusiastically engaged himself in a conversation with Lucia's rival in style and power, Lydia Martin.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Admittedly, the strawberry blonde diva had fallen in status after her whole "running naked through the woods"-incident. After that, her interest in popularity had tumbled. Lucia supposed that was the side-effect of being suddenly thrown into a world of supernatural creatures constantly at war with each other. She and the rest of Scott McCall's pack certainly took a keen liking to getting themselves wrapped into trouble. Lucia was surprised they weren't all failing their classes.

To be perfectly clear, Lucia was definitely a feminist. She was completely opposed to the concept of toxic femininity. Her rivalry against Lydia Martin was purely based the fact that Lucia didn't like to share her spotlight. With anyone. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Lydia was a woman. Had Jackson Whittemore not moved to London after his killing spree during their sophomore year, he would've received his share of her hatred as well. As a matter of fact, he did. Just a few weeks prior she had anonymously mailed him a glitter bomb in honor of his birthday.

"That man is testing my patience," Lilith seethed with rage. "Is this how we'll be living from now on? With him clinging onto us like the plague he is?"

Lucia hummed in agreement, drilling imaginary holes in the Angel's skull from afar.

"Let's not be so shortsighted, though," she narrowed her eyes as an idea took shape in her mind. "If Gabriel is set on following us around everywhere, maybe that will provide us with the opportunity we need."

"Opportunity to do what?"

"Turn the tables around."

≿━━━༺❀༻━━━≾

"Good morning."

Lucia found herself smirking into the depths of her locker as the soft voice of a certain true alpha met her ears. She peeked behind her locker door, and surely enough, stared right at the crooked-smiled face of Scott McCall.

"Good morning, McCall."

A grin stretched on his lips, his eyes squinting slightly as they sparked warmly. She wondered if he had exhibited such puppy-like features before he was turned into a werewolf or if it had been a positive side-effect of the bite.

"Did you have a nice summer?" he asked, effortlessly pulling a pile of textbooks out of his backpack.

"For the most part, yes," she nodded, thinking of Gabriel's unwanted appearance. "It came to a somewhat bitter end, though. What about you?"

She watched him blink somewhat rapidly as he nodded, "Mine was pretty good too. I went to Mexico with my friends."

Lucia cocked an eyebrow at him. "Mexico? Really?"

His eyes widened slightly. Lucia smiled. He almost seemed to regret having mentioned it — meaning it was, like more or less everything else the boy did, related to the supernatural world.

Neither Angels nor Demons were blessed with the heightened senses of a werewolf. As a hybrid of the two kinds, that left Lucia with no special abilities in terms of eavesdropping or following scents beyond the abilities of a human being. But she didn't need them. She knew a newly bitten werewolf when she saw one. She imagined she had known that Scott had become a werewolf before he was aware himself.

She had no desire to tell him that, though. It had been much more entertaining to watch him struggle with it on his own — well, with the help of the pale, bony human named Stiles.

It was strange to think of the scared little sophomore's journey from the night he'd been bitten to present day. She never would have guessed that puny Scott McCall would become an Alpha — let alone a True Alpha.

"Yeah," the teenage werewolf breathed nervously, fidgeting with the frame of his history book. "My, uh... Stiles has family there. We went to visit his cousin. Miguel."

"Your Stiles, huh?" Lucia smiled teasingly, earning a breathy laugh from him.

"Yeah. My Stiles."

"Scott?" the small voice of Kira Yukimura piped up behind Lucia. She turned to face the young fox. Kira was perhaps the most fun member of the pack to be around — intimidating her was almost too easy.

"Hi," she plastered on a sweet smile, batting her eyelashes. "Mira, is it?"

The girl shrunk under Lucia's stare. Her eyes only dared to meet with the blonde's for a split second before settling on her fidgeting hands instead. Lucia's smile grew as she watched her bow her head to hide the flustered blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Kira," Scott's firm voice corrected her. Lucia's smile fell as she threw a glance over her shoulder to look at the Alpha.

Any sign of shyness had been washed off him as he'd stepped into his leading role, ready to protect his pack from whatever was thrown at them. Even the salty remarks of the Devil.

Lucia put on yet another smile. "Right. Of course. Kira. How silly of me to forget."

Scott returned the smile, though his eyes didn't spark warmly this time. Lucia watched him close his locker, before he walked past her to join the kitsune.

Lucia inhaled sharply, slamming her locker shut once the pair was out of sight. With gritted teeth, the young hybrid turned on her heel and walked determinedly towards the chemistry labs, where her first class of the day would take place.

Lucia didn't like to be stood up to. True Alpha or not, Scott McCall didn't have the power to shut her down. She was her own leader. She was everyone's leader. Even his. Whether he realized it or not.

"He will," she muttered to herself. "He'll realize it."

≿━━༺❀AUTHOR'S NOTE❀༻━━≾

me realizing i fucked up the timeline but being to lazy to go back and rewrite literally one chapter in order to fix it

i'm gonna just own it instead
#carefullyplannedout #writerthings #itsalldoneonpurposeiswear

also, i'm so sorry kira my bby