—

"I know his family left town around the time Theo was nine or ten, his older sister died in an accident when he was eight."

Austin shook his head as he listened to Stiles spill out Theo's information to his father. It was clear that Noah didn't care,

"Please go to school."

"Dad, this kid's a werewolf."

"Your best friend is a werewolf. You are dating a werecoyote. I'm still don't know what Kira's supposed to be. The girl you've gone to school with since forever is also a werewolf- a full turning one at that." Noah rambled on, glancing at Austin as he mentioned the boys girlfriend,

"When the flying monkeys come soaring through this station, you will have my undivided attention. Until then, just go to school."

Stiles narrowed his eyes suspiciously, pointing a finger at the man, "What did you do?"

"What? What do you mean, "What did I do"?" Noah furrowed his brows in confusion.

"There's something different about you." He kept going.

Stillinski made a face, "What are you talking about?"

Austin closed his eyes in embarrassment as the youngest Stilinski walked up to his father and looked to be sniffing him, "What is it? What's different?"

"Oh, my God." The George teen whispered under his breath.

"For the love of God, Stiles, just go to school."

"I will go if you promise to do a full background check of the Raekens."

"No. You know what? Just because I'm the only law enforcement officer who knows anything about this, does not make it my responsibility to do something every time you have a minor suspicion."

Stiles looked down before turning to Austin for help. He closed his eyes,

"He's not the only one."

The man huffed out a breath, sharing a look with the George teen that was nice enough to tag along, "Parrish!"

•••

"Ryder!"

The girl in question turned around at the sound of her name being called, looking away from Malia who also seemed confused.

"Hi, Austin." She smiled sweetly, earning the same in response.

The blue eyed teen walked up to the sisters with Stiles in tow, the Stilinski seeming a bit more unrelaxed than Austin was.

"I missed you." He whispered, wrapping his arms around her waist as he pressed a kiss to her lips, pulling away with a few pecks.

He took a quick look around to see that Isaac was nowhere to be found, simply assuming that the Lahey immediately went to class.

Ryder mumbled how she missed him as well, while simultaneously handing him his car keys.

After receiving a call from Stiles early in the morning, the blue eyed boy mentioned how he and Austin would be taking a trip to the Sheriff's Station before going to school. Not wanting the two to be left out, Austin had absolutely no issue in handing his keys to Ryder so she could take both herself and Isaac to school.

"Hey, Malia."

The girl rose a hand to give an awkward wave back.

Despite being connected through Ryder, Malia and Austin had absolutely nothing more than an acquaintanceship with one another.

Malia actually wasn't too big of a fan of Austin. Simply because she felt as though Isaac was more her sister's type. She felt like their personalities didn't match very well, seeing as Ryder was more blunt and dark, while Austin was super sweet and bright.

It weirded her out.

"What's wrong with you?" Ryder glanced away from her favorite color, and over to Stiles.

He went into detail about how he and Austin (mostly himself) ran a background check on Beacon Hills High's most recently added student and found practically nothing.

"So you ran a background check, and all you found was a speeding ticket?"

"Speeding ticket signed by Theo's dad eight years ago." Stiles corrected.

Malia frowned, "Which means what?"

"Who speeds?" Stiles asked, getting nothing in response as they knew it was a rhetorical question, "People trying to get away from something."

"Not necessarily." Austin cut in, gesturing between himself and the girl next to him, "I went a bit over the speed limit last night when we were trying to get to the hospital."

Stiles' face dropped, his hands making their way onto his hips as his head snapped towards Austin,

"Are you defending him right now?"

"I'm not defending anyone—"

Malia, not wanting to lose track of the initial conversation, stops them, "Well, how many tickets do you have?"

"None."

"How many would you have if your dad didn't get you out of them?" She reworded.

"Seventeen."

"Jesus." Ryder muttered under her breath. With having just a permit, she hadn't even sped on the road. She was lucky that Austin trusted her enough to drive his car from his house to school, even if it were only a fifteen minute drive.

"I don't know, Stiles. I mean, I see why you're worried. He's really hot. He's got like great hair, perfect body. You should definitely feel threatened."

"Thank you. Because I do." He scoffed sarcastically, "Now more than ever."

Malia glanced at Ryder, the Anders teen shaking her head, "You definitely shouldn't have said that."

In an attempt to make Stiles feel better, Malia spoke,"You want me to torture him?"

Stiles shook his head, "No, I don't want you to torture him."

"I'm pretty sure I can take him."

Austin bit back a wince.

Yeah, sure, Malia was brutal when it came to fighting and controlling her abilities and he knew nothing about Theo except his name, call him crazy but he had no faith that the Tate girl could take the new kid in a fight.

If she could, he was almost certain that it would be because Theo was holding back.

Malia suddenly turned to her sister, "Ryder can help."

Now he had faith.

"I have a plan. All right? There are steps to doing this right."

"What steps?"

"We get the story. Verify the facts. You find the piece that doesn't fit and—and catch him in the act. That's how you do it."

"Only problem with that plan is that every time you try and execute it, you somehow fail." Ryder commented, earning a glare in response.

Malia's attention turned to the school drop off area, her eyes landing on Theo who was exiting his mother's vehicle.

Ryder could feel Austin's hand leave her shoulder to respond to the polite wave Theo gave the group.

"Why are you so suspicious of this guy?"

"Because I remember Theo from fourth grade. Okay?That's not Theo."

—
A/N: tysm for 10k reads !!! 🫶🏾