18: Changing

Sky stares at the ceiling as she waits for Ariel to bring up their snacks -- Sky had deemed it her turn after all the hard work she'd done in catching up with the school work that was missed with being in hospital. She rolls her head to the side when the door opens and Ariel comes through, arms filled with three different family-sized bags of chips and two tubs of ice cream.

Sky grins, sitting up, "This is like a dream," she remarks.

Ariel rolls her eyes with a smile, tossing the bags at Sky and placing the ice cream on the table beside the bed, "Why am I not surprised?" she says as she climbs into bed next to the girl.

Sky shrugs before shuffling over and dropping herself half on top of Ariel, mumbling, "I'm easy to please."

Ariel huffs a laugh as she brings a hand up to stroke through her hair, "Are you?" she wonders.

Sky moves to nip her playfully, but stops and frowns when she spots something on Ariel's neck, "Is this what I think it is?" she asks.

Ariel tenses underneath her, absentmindedly moving to rub her shoulder where her bite had been, "What?"

Sky looks at her, "The mark on your neck. I bit you ages ago and it's still there," she points out, moving back from her slightly, sighing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I need to watch my own strength."

Ariel lets out a breath of relief, moving her hand to stroke Sky's cheek, "Listen, McCall. It's not your fault," she says softly but sternly. "You were just messing around, okay?"

Sky nods, "Okay," she pauses, frowning still. "I still feel bad though."

Ariel chuckles at her, pulling her down for a kiss, "Well, it doesn't matter right now. In the meantime, I'm just going to have to get my revenge."

"What? Oh."

***

"You really don't remember anything?" Allison asks Lydia as they walk up to the entrance of the school, Ariel next to them dragging a reluctant Sky by the hand.

Lydia shakes her head, "They called it a fugue state, which is basically a way of saying "We have no idea why you can't remember running through the woods naked for two days." But personally, I don't care. I lost nine pounds," she says, smirking as she struts forward.

They come to a stop outside the entrance, "Lyds, are you sure you're ready for this?" asks Ariel.

Lydia scoffs, "Please. It's not like my aunt's a serial killer," she replies bluntly, making Allison raise her eyebrows.

Sky snorts, rubbing her neck when Ariel gives her a look, "What? She's not wrong."

Ariel narrows her eyes, "I'll show you wrong --"

"Really?" Sky says with a huff. "What are you gonna --"

"Okay," Lydia cuts in with a smirk, saying. "Stop bickering like an old married couple for one second and focus on something more important -- my return to school."

Sky and Ariel both blink at each other, before turning to watch as Lydia moves to open the doors and steps into the hallway, freezing when everyone stops to stare at her.

A few seconds of awkward silence pass before Allison leans towards her, "Maybe it's the nine pounds," she says, reassuringly.

"Or they're surprised you're wearing clothes after your brief conversion to nudism."

Lydia discretely flips Sky off, straightening her posture as she confidently walks in as Ariel pulls her girlfriend after them and towards their class.

"You're intolerable," Ariel mutters quietly.

Sky throws her arm over her shoulder with a grin, "Yet you put up with me anyway," she says brightly, planting a sloppy kiss on Ariel's cheek and laughing when the girl wrinkles her nose up and pushes her head away.

***

Sky manages to catch up with her brother and Stiles later in the day, who told her Issac Lahey was now a werewolf -- thanks to Derek-- and that his father had also just been murdered the night before.

Sky didn't know Isaac very well, but she did have a few encounters with the quiet boy in the past couple of years. He often kept his head down and shied away from others, focusing on work. They had been paired up together once in class and she had noticed he would always be worried about his grades and occasionally sported bruises on his face. Unfortunately, when Sky offered to beat up the guys who did that to him -- assuming it was a bully from school -- he had shaken his head and said it was nothing he couldn't handle. Looking back at it, Sky thought she should have known better. All the signs were there, that it was someone at his home doing this to him, and the only person Isaac lived with was his father. It made the worry he had about what grades he was taking home, then coming into school twitchy and bruised make sense.

"Are they saying he's a suspect?" asks Stiles as they listened to the officers talking in the distance.

"I'm not sure," says Scott. "Why?"

"Because they can lock him in a holding cell for 24 hours," Stiles answers.

Sky frowns, "But it's the full moon tonight," she points out. This would be Isaac's first full moon.

Scott looks to Stiles, "How good are the holding cells at holding people?" he asks.

Stiles shrugs, saying, "People, good. Werewolves, probably not so good."

"Stiles, remember when I said I don't have the urge to maim and kill?" Scott asks.

Stiles nods, glancing between them in worry, "Yeah."

"I bet he does."

***

Sky leans forward to where Scott and Stiles sit together in front of her in class, "Why would Derek choose Isaac?" she wonders. "He's not exactly the first person I would think to turn."

Stiles peers back at her, "Peter told me that if the bite doesn't turn you, it could kill you. And maybe teenagers have a better chance of surviving," he says quietly.

Sky nods, musing, "Isaac seems like a survivor."

"Doesn't being a teenager mean your dad can't hold him?" asks Scott.

"Well, not unless they have solid evidence. Or a witness," says Stiles before leaning forward to where Danny is sitting. "Danny. Where's Jackson?" he asks.

Danny barely glances back as he answers, "In the principal's office talking to your dad."

"What? Why?"

"Because he lives across the street from Isaac."

"Witness," mumbles Scott.

Stiles looks between them, "We gotta get to the principal's office," he tells them

Sky's lips curl up into a grin, "Can I --"

"No!" Stiles almost shouts, wincing at his volume. "All your ideas usually end up badly for me or violently for someone else," he hisses quietly.

Stiles ignores her pout, grabbing the paper on his desk, scrunching it up into a paper ball and throwing it at the back of Mr Harris's head.

Harris stops when he feels the paper hit him and turns around with narrowed eyes, "Who the hell did that?"

The trio point at each other.

***

Sky watches Stiles cover his face with a magazine as the three of them sit outside the principles office, trying to listen to the Sheriff's conversation with Jackson. Apparently, he knew Isaac was getting beaten by his father and didn't say anything as it wasn't his problem. Sky felt her dislike for him skyrocket.

The Sheriff stops in front of them as he steps out of the office, "Hi, Scott, Sky," he acknowledges. He just glances at Stiles and sighs in disappointment before walking away.

Sky jumps in surprise when someone sits down next to her and blinks when she turns to see Ariel staring ahead with folded arms.

"What are you doing here?" Sky asks.

Ariel scowls at nothing, "Greenberg doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut," she mutters angrily.

Sky frowns in confusion, "What?"

Ariel sighs, leaning back in her chair, "I may have gotten unexpectedly angry that he wouldn't shut up in class and tried to hit him."

Sky pauses, "Oh," she frowns again. "Why did you get so angry?" she asks.

Ariel tenses, glancing at her, "I don't know," she mumbles.

Sky opens her mouth to ask another question when Gerard Argent, the principal, steps out of his office, "Boys, girls, Step in," he ushers them in with a smile.

They all sit in front of him nervously while he looks through their files.

"Ariel Martin. 4.0," Gerard starts, looking surprised that she was there. "Very academically accomplished. You tutor students as well, yes?" he asks.

Ariel shifts uncomfortably, "Yes, sir."

"Impressive," he comments before moving on. "Skylar McCall. Decent grades all round, big improvement is shown recently. I see you've also joined the lacrosse team?" he asks.

"Uh -- yeah," Sky shrugs.

"It's nice seeing a young woman making small changes like that."

Sky clears her throat, mumbling, "I guess."

Gerard looks back down to the files on his desk, "Scott McCall. Academically not the most accomplished, but I see you have become quite the star athlete. Mr Stilinski. Oh, perfect grades but little to no extracurricular. Maybe you should try lacrosse."

Stiles scratches his head awkwardly, "Oh -- actually, I'm already --"

"Hold on," Gerard interrupts, looking to Scott. "McCall. You're the Scott that was dating my granddaughter. And you two are twins, yes?" he says, nodding between them.

"We were dating but not anymore. Not dating, not seeing any of each other or doing anything with each other -- At all," Scott answers nervously, ignoring Sky's exasperated sigh. "And yeah, we are."

Gerard chuckles, saying, "Relax, Scott, you look like you're about to crack a cyanide pill with your teeth."

Scott lets out a breath, "Just a hard breakup," he tells him.

"Oh, that's too bad. You seem like a pretty nice kid to me," Gerard says. "Now listen, guys. Yes, I am the principal, but I really don't want you to think of me as the enemy."

"Heh, is that so?" mumbles Stiles.

Gerard continues, not hearing him, "However, this being my first day, I do need to support my teachers. So unfortunately someone is going to have to take the fall and stay behind for detention. Ariel, I'm letting you off with a warning as there is no record of you doing anything like this before and you didn't actually hurt anybody. Don't let this happen again."

Ariel nods as Sky and Scott look at Stiles pleadingly. He sighs.

***

That night, Sky was ready to chain herself up again for the full moon as she started to feel the effects buzzing beneath her skin. Though, she was ready to be in complete control this time.

However, she slows down and frowns as she strolls toward her door, hearing something crashing into her bedroom. She straightens in alarm as she moves forward.

Out of everything it could have been, Sky wasn't expecting the sight she was met with as she curiously pushed her bedroom door open.

The bowl of popcorn she had brought up with her slips out of her hand, but she ignores the sound of it smashing on the ground as she gapes, her eyes trailing from the open window to the blazing purple eyes looking back at her.

"Ariel?"

"Sky," Ariel heaves out, almost with a growl as she hunches over, leaning on the wall beside the window she had come in through -- her face scrunched up in pain.

"Something's wrong with me."