01: Bitten

In front of Beacon Hills High School, three teenagers stand still as students pass by in a rush for their first day of the school year.

Stiles Stilinski, the Sheriff's son, can't hold in his excitement and curiousity anymore as he bounces and claps his hands, leaning forward with barely held back enthusiasm, "Okay, lets see these things."

Skylar McCall gives him a narrowed stare from where she stands next to her brother, "Oh, I see you hold nothing but unwavering sympathy after we were viciously attacked in the woods last night," she muses.

The light eyeroll she receives is the only response she gets from her best friend as he gestures for them to hurry up.

Scott and Skylar show off their bandages from where they had been bitten last night. Skylar had been caught by her ankle as she tried to run, whereas Scott had gotten knocked down and bitten on his side.

In the middle of the night, they had been on an excursion into the woods after Stiles had appeared at their house and convinced them to try and find the other half of a body that had been found. Unfortunately, after the police appeared, they had gotten seperated when the Sheriff found Stiles. The twins had then ended up getting lost and facing a mysterious red eyed creature that moved too fast to get a look at, but it had bitten them before dissapearing into the night.

Stiles can't help but grimace at the sights.

"Oh," His face scrunches up in obvious disgust.

"Yeah," says Scott. "It was too dark to see but we're pretty sure it was a wolf." Skylar nods in agreement.

Stiles pauses and looks at them skeptically, "A wolf bit you?" he asks.

"Uh huh," the twins confirm in unison.

He gives them a fond look of exasperation at their occasional in sync speech but shakes his head in denial, "No, not a chance."

"We heard a wolf howling," Sky replies, narrowing her eyes in challenge and crossing her arms.

"No, you didn't."

"I think we know what a wolf sounds like, Biles."

Stiles rolls his eyes, used to the purposeful butchering of his name that became a common occurrence during their long friendship, "Do you? Because California doesn't have wolves, okay? Not in, like, sixty years," he tells them.

"Really?" Scott wonders in confusion.

Stiles nods, "Yes, really. There are no wolves in California."

"Well," Sky began tapping her chin in false nonchalance. "If you don't believe us about the wolf,  you definitely wont believe us when we say we found the body."

A smirk couldn't be held back at the instant change from disbelief to excitement on his face.

Eyes wide, Stiles looks between them, "You -- are you kidding me?" he exclaims.

"No, man. I wish," grimaces Scott. "I'm gonna have nightmares for a month."

A light cough sounded, covering a barely concealed snigger, "Wuss."

Scott's eyes roll.

Stiles's face, however, lights up further, "Oh, god, that is freakin' awesome!" he almost shouts. "I mean, this is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since --" He turns, suddenly distracted as Lydia Martin struts past them on her way up to the entrance of the school to meet her sister, head held high and nothing but an air of confidence around her.

"-- Since the birth of Lydia Martin." says Stiles, turning his head further to continue to stare. He lifts a hand and calls out to her, "Hey, Lydia!"

The girl doesn't even respond to the call of her name and Stiles deflates, "You look like you're gonna ignore me," He mutters.

He turns back and points at the twins accusingly, "You're the cause of this, you know," Stiles starts at them as they start to make their way inside.

Sky huffs in amusement, but can't help but let her sight drift to the younger Martin that was waiting for Lydia, her lips twitching upwards as she watches Ariel smile at her sister. Sky frowns and shakes her head at herself, moving again to follow after her friend and brother.

She misses the eyes that follow her back.

***

After the first classes of the day, Skylar meets up with her brother and Stiles by their lockers.

Sky sighs as she continues to rant about how much of a douche Mr. Harris is but she pauses when Scott doesn't look at her. Following his unwavering line of sight, she notices it's directed at an unfamiliar girl, who she can't help but see is talking to Ariel, Lydia and Jackson.

Sky turns back to her brother and narrows her eyes at him. She recognises this behaviour.

Sky counts all the way up to twenty before she gives Scott a nudge to snap him out of his creepy staring. His head turns to see her staring at him in amusement as she wiggles her eyebrows at him, making him blush at the fact she knew he had a crush.

Harley, one of their classmates, can't hold back her look of disdain as she also watches the interaction of the new girl and the popular kids, "Can someone tell me how new girl is here all of five minutes, and she's already hanging out with Lydia's clique?" she asks.

Stiles shrugs as he looks over, "Cause shes hot. Beautiful before herd together," he answers.

Silently, Sky observes the way Ariel chats animatedly with the new girl, making her laugh by pulling a disgusted face when Lydia and her boyfriend, Jackson, start making out.

Mid-laugh, Ariel seems to notice her looking over and her chuckle settles into a simple smile aimed in her direction.

Sky's brain malfunctions.

Without thought, her body turns around and she hastily shoves her brother forward in the opposite direction.

"Lets head to practice before were late," she suggests quickly.

Stiles hums as he follows them, "Glad to see you're as smooth as ever," he comments.

Sky scowls at him and quickly sticks her foot out to make Stiles trip, smirking when she hears him yelp and fall to the floor.

***

By the side of the lacrosse field, Sky stands next to her brother grumpily, fidgeting in her uniform as Stiles rambles on in front of them. Due to a series of unfortunate events -- mainly constisting of bets she had lost to her brother -- Scott had finally decided to force her to play lacrosse this year. Though the occasional smirk he was sending her way was making her seriously consider shaving his hair off in his sleep tonight.

"But if you play I'll have no one to talk to on the bench," says Stiles as Scott gets ready. "Are you really gonna do that to your best friend?"

Scott shakes his head, determined, "I can't sit out again," he tells him. "My whole life is sitting on the sidelines. This season, I make first line. And Sky's joining me,"  He smirks at her victoriously, making her narrow her eyes at him before sighing in resignation, playing with the stick in her hands.

"McCall!" Coach yells. Their heads whip up at the sound of their name.

"Yeah?" the twins shout back.

Coach pauses with a finger in the air as he frowns between them, "The male McCall!" he shouts. "You're on goal!"

Scott hesitates, "I've never played."

Sky shoots him a smirk, "Karma," she sings.

"Your sore loser is showing," he says back, jogging onto the field.

Sky can only watch with a scowl as he settles into the goal, but she can't help but feel something unsettling when she watches the team line up to hurl balls at him. She sends him a look as she jogs onto the field as if to ask if he was okay, and he simply nods back, reassuring her with a small smile.

She wasn't expecting to feel so much second hand embarrassment as the first ball flies towards her brother and smacks him straight in the head, sending the rest of the team into a fit of laughter.

If it had been anyone else, even Stiles, she would be snorting along with them. But not when she knows how much Scott had worked for this all summer.

The next ball flying towards Scott makes her cringe, bracing herself for the next hit, only to be pleasantly surprised when he miraculously catches it. Even Scott seems surprised along with the rest of the team as he looks up from the ball in his net and beams at Sky, who smiles straight back.

After that, he seems to catch every shot, and the small crowd cheers wildly for the surprising new development.

When it comes to her own turn, Sky could feel the apprehensive stares of the guys around her. Nobody expected much from a girl -- she was the first one to try out. Sky rolls her eyes to herself as she picks up the ball and takes a deep breath. She feels a new confidence in her strength and agility, starting the short run towards the goal.

Reaching the line, she focuses on the goal as she pulls her arm back and sees Scott lean forward in anticipation. When his left leg bends, she looks to the space he has exposed in the bottom right corner, and using a strength she didn't know she had, whips the lacrosse stick forward and sends the ball flying into the net.

Scott looks up in shock at the speed of the ball that moved so much faster then the others, causing him to be unable to catch it.

Sky stands there, pleasantly surprised with herself as everyone cheers around her. The Coach is hollering something about McCalls but she can't help but smile when her brother is clapping to her proudly. She turns and walks to the back of the line, settling in for the rest of the practice.

Eventually, they take a short break, and Sky makes her way to the bench to sit herself down, grabbing herself a water bottle and starting to drink it.

However, unexpected loud voices cause her to choke on her drink for a moment. She coughs, looking around to see nobody next to her. The closest person is her brother filling up his bottle a bench away. Sky frowns, turning around and looking to the direction of the voices.

Behind her, Ariel, Lydia and the new girl, Allison, are chatting amongst themselves.

Sky could hear them.

After a few seconds of staring in confusion, Sky turns back quickly before someone notices her strange behaviour. She refuses to let her reputation stoop to Stiles's level.

"Who is that?" Allison asks the girls next to her, making Sky flinch at the volume and rub her ears until it's bearable again and she glances back to see Allison looking at Scott. She huffs out a breath of amusement. This must be the first time a girl that wasn't family has noticed her brother. She pauses at the thought, glancing back again momentarily. Well, she hopes Allison doesn't turn out related to them in some way.

"Him? I'm not sure who he is. Why?" The reply seems to come from Lydia, judging from the careless attitude that gets directed towards anyone that isn't in their little circle.

But the next voice causes Sky to sit up straight, "That's Skylar McCall's twin brother, Scott McCall."

There's an awkward pause, and Sky can imagine Lydia looking at her sister in distaste for actually knowing their names.

Ariel clears her throat, "I mean I've seen them around,"  She waves off.

"He seems like he's pretty good," observes Allison as she continues to watch Scott on the field.

Sky looks over to her brother who is jogging with some members of the team. She smiles in amusement and shakes her head, "Who knew," she mutters to herself.

Sky puts her bottle away and moves to stand up when she feels a stare at the back of her head. She curiously looks back for a moment, only to see Ariel looking away from her. Sky tilts her head in confusion before turning away and jogging back to the field.

At least the girl actually knew her name.

***

After school, Sky had opted to head straight back to her home and flop gracelessy onto her bed instead of helping Scott find his inhaler in the woods. She was sure having Stiles help would be enough considering how observent he was.

She slipped off her clothes and threw them carelessly across her room in favour of an oversized hoodie with the word 'ugly' on the front -- a lovely gift from her brother -- and a pair of shorts.

Feeling unusually buzzing with energy, Sky bounces downstairs, turns on some music and proceeds to dance towards the fridge. She had been able to smell the food from across the room and wondered if they had left the fridge open. Despite it being closed when she reaches it, she quickly forgets as she happily pulls out a slice of leftover pizza from the night before and wolfs it down, then grabs another, taking a slower bite and groaning in appreciation.

Their mother was working a double shift at the hospital so they were left to their own devices with some money and no cooking skills -- but she could never complain about pizza.

A light knock makes her pause mid bite and turn down the music, making her way to the front door.

Opening the door, she was greeted by a sight that made her freeze and, with great sadness, drop the slice of pizza she was holding.

There's a moment of silence as she looks down and stares at the food that was now topping first on the floor.

"As devastating as that was, you can't wallow in grief forever."

Sky blinks and looks at Ariel, "I could," she argues weakly.

Eyebrows raise, "I'm sure."

Sky frowns, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Ariel pauses for a second as if remembering why she came in the first place, reaching into her bag and pulling out a notebook, holding it forward.

Sky eyes the book, nose scrunching up in disdain, "Those are my notes."

Ariel nods, "They are."

"Why do you have my notes?"

"You left them at school."

"I'm aware."

Ariel squints at her, "Are you saying you purposefully left your notes at school so you didn't have to do any work?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

Ariel sighs, "Well, I thought I'd be nice and bring them to you, but it seems I've foiled your scheme."

Sky hums, taking them anyway, "Well, the gesture is appreciated. However, the curiousity to how you know where I live --"

"Stiles," Is the simple answer given and Sky makes a mental note to get him back for this later.

An awkward silence occurs as they both hover at the doorway. Sky clears her throat, "Well, it's probably a good thing you brought these back. I should probably stop almost failing math," she only half-jokes with a grimace.

Ariel tilts her head, "I could help you if you like," she offers after a moment. "Tutor you?"

Sky falters slightly at the thought but keeps a straight face, "Oh, really?" she asks in false nonchalance.

Ariel smiles slightly at her, "Yes. We could start now if you like. I'm guessing due to this habit I've discovered, that you'll probably be behind already."

"Well, I wouldn't say behind --"

"Just invite me in, McCall," Ariel says with a roll of her eyes before she pauses, glancing to the ground. "And you should probably clean up that pizza too."

Sky purses her lips, but steps back and holds the door open to let her in. She shakes her head as she glances down, "It's too soon to speak of such horrors."