02: Full Moon

Sky tries to keep up as her brother fills her in on his account of yesterday afternoon and evening as they walk down the school hallway together. He told her that they managed to find his inhaler, which was a relief -- it costs money they don't have. But finding it had meant encountering a creepy guy who Stiles had said was Derek Hale, a man who'd left after his family was burned alive in a fire at their home years ago.

She had eventually managed to casually slip in that she spent some time being tutored by Ariel, of all people, after school and Scott high fived her, telling her he had also scored a date with Allison last night when she turned up at his workplace, the Animal Clinic.

Chuckling at their luck, they don't notice Jackson appearing behind them, grabbing Scott, shoving him harshly against the lockers and pinning him there.

"Hey!" snaps Sky, grabbing Jackson and shoving him back, surprised when he actually stumbles off of him. She stands next to Scott protectively.

Jackson decides to loom over them instead, "All right, little man. How about you tell me where you're getting your juice," he demands while Sky silently glares at him, just waiting for an opportunity to break his nose.

"What?" asks a clueless Scott, casting a worried glance at his sister.

"Where are you getting your juice?" Jackson repeats.

Scott's confusion only grew, "My mom does all the grocery shopping," he tells him.

Sky pauses, looking over at him, "I can't believe you just said that."

Jackson huffs out an annoyed laugh, "Now, listen, McCall. You're gonna tell me exactly what it is and who you're buying it from, because there's no way in hell you're out there kicking ass on the field like that without some sort of chemical boost. What the hell is going on with you McCall?"

Scott clenches his jaw as he glares back at him, "What's going on with me? You really wanna know? Well, so would I!" he exclaims. "Because I can see, hear, and smell things that I shouldn't be able to see, hear, and smell. I do things that should be impossible, I'm sleepwalking three miles into the middle of the woods, and most of all I'm worried that Skylar could be going through the same thing!"

Sky looks to him with wide eyes, "I mean -- minus the sleeping walking three miles because what the hell?-- I have also been experiencing some strange things," she admits, looking over to Jackson. "But I chalk it down to puberty," she shrugs.

Jackson scowls at her, "You think you're funny, don't you, McCall?"

"Freakin' hilarious, actually."

"I know you're hiding something," Jackson continues angrily. "I'm gonna find out what it is. I don't care how long it takes," He gives them one last warning look before turning round and storming off.

Once he's out of sight, the twins both sigh in relief, glancing at each other.

Scott breathes out a laugh, "Puberty?"

"Oh, shut up."

***

Scott and Sky were about to walk onto the field when Stiles comes scrambling up to them, breathing heavily, "Guys!" he calls. "Guys, wait up."

They stop but Scott sighs at him, "Stiles, I'm playing the first elimination, man. Can it wait?" He asks.

Stiles shakes his head rapidly, "Just hold on, okay? I overheard my dad on the phone. The fibre analysis came back from the lab in L.A. They found animal hairs on the body from the woods!"

Sky rolls her eyes as she turns and wanders onto the field. They weren't lying when they said they heard a wolf howling that night.

Standing in the midst of her team, she glances over to the stands and spots Ariel waving. Looking around herself, she realises it must be aimed at her so she quickly waves back before she looks like an idiot.

She couldn't lie, the time they had spent together yesterday was actually useful. Usually, Sky would ignore classwork until she bordered on failing and then scrambled to do as much as she could to save her grades. And spending time with Ariel herself wasn't bad either. In fact, they were meeting up at hers again tonight. Even though her sister was throwing a party, Ariel had said she'd rather stay away as it 'wasn't her thing' and that 'Lydia can't rule her whole life' .

Sky wasn't going to argue with the girl.

"McCall!" Coach shouts, causing her to jump and look back at the man.

"What?" The twins ask in unison. Sky looks at her brother and they realise they had both gotten distracted, making her snicker.

"You raised your hands. You have a question?" asks Coach.

"Oh. No. I was just, uh --" Scott stutters. "Nothing. Sorry."

Sky tilts her head at the Coach, "Well, actually, I have a lot of questions. One being: Can we please start kicking ass now?"

Coach pauses and narrows his eyes at her, before looking around the team, "Well, you heard the girl, let's go! Let's go!"

***

"I can't believe you got first line."

"I can't believe you got first line," retorts Sky.

"Hey, I worked hard for that. You -- did not," points out Scott.

Sky shrugs as they come to a stop outside Stiles's bedroom door, "Well, you deserve it anyway," she says offhandedly.

Scott smiles slightly in the corner of her eye, "Thanks," he mumbles.

Sky goes to knock on the door, only for it to be thrown open by hyper-looking Stiles. Sky squints at him.

He ushers them inside, "Get in. You gotta see this thing. I've been up all night reading - websites, books. All this information," He gestures to the abundance of books and paper scattered around his room. The twins look around in confusion.

Sky stares at him, "Did you overdose on Adderall again?"

"How much have you had today?" asks Scott.

Stiles's eye twitches in annoyance as he waves the questions off,  "A lot. Doesn't matter. Okay, just listen." He takes a deep breath. "Remember the joke from the other day? Not a joke anymore. The wolf - the bite in the woods. I started doing all this reading. Do you even know why a wolf howls?" he asks them seriously.

"Should we?" Scott asks.

"It's a signal, okay?" Stiles tells them. "When a wolf's alone, it howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack. So if you heard a wolf howling, that means others could have been nearby. Maybe even a whole pack of them."

Scott frowns at him, "A pack of wolves?"

Stiles shakes his head, "No. Werewolves." he clarifies.

"So, you have taken something then?" wonders Sky, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Scott starts to look irritated at the whole discussion, "Are you seriously wasting my time with this right now?" he asks. "You know I'm picking Allison up in an hour, and Sky's got a 'tutoring' session with Ariel."

Sky smacks him when he uses quotation marks with his fingers, but Stiles just sighs in agitation, "I saw you on the field today, Scott. Both of you. Okay, what you did wasn't just amazing, all right? It was impossible," He looks at Sky. "You haven't even played Lacrosse before. You were only doing it because Scott thought it would be funny!"

Sky shrugs, "Don't hate me cause you ain't me."

"Yeah, so I made a good shot," replies Scott. "And Sky's a natural," He smiles at her.

Stiles just looks frustrated, "No, you made an incredible shot. The way you moved, your speed, your reflexes. Y'know, people can't just suddenly do that overnight," he exclaims. He points at them, "And there's the vision and the senses, and don't even think I don't notice that you don't need your inhaler anymore," he says to Scott. Sky looks over at him in surprise at that, but although that was strange, she can't help but be slightly pleased for him.

Scott raises his hands up and starts to back away to leave, "Okay! Dude, I can't think about this now. We'll talk tomorrow," he promises.

Stiles shakes his head wildly, incredulous, "Tomorrow?! What? No! The full moon's tonight. Don't you get it?"

A spike of anger flares up inside Sky, "I get it," she says and Stiles pauses, looking to her in surprise.

She stares at him with a frown, continuing, "I get that you've had too much Adderall and your head's all over the place with wild theories, but I have a girl that will be waiting outside our house soon," Sky ignores how his face falls. "So, I'm going to go. Good luck putting up with this bullshit, Scott!" she scoffs, turning and walking out the door, not noticing her eyes holding a golden hue for a moment as she leaves.

***

A short time later, Sky was pacing back and forth in her bedroom, filled with nervous energy. She flinches when the sound of knocking rings loudly in her ears but shakes it off as she bounces downstairs to the door.

She flings the door open before feigning disappointment at the girl standing on the other side.

"You're not the delivery guy."

"I'm delivering knowledge," deadpans Ariel.

Sky smirks, holding the door open, "I suppose you could come in then."

Ariel smiles sarcastically at her as she steps in, "How generous of you," she drawls.

"Well, you're the one ditching a party -- for this," replies Sky as they head to her room, gesturing to herself.

Ariel looks at her for a moment, "I guess I am."

Sky eyes her suspiciously, "Not that I know why."

Ariel smirks as she makes herself comfortable on Sky's bed, patting the space beside her, "I suppose you'll just have trust that I'm not secretly plotting your demise, McCall."

Sky stares at the space for a second before dropping herself in it, shuffling until comfortable, "Well, you've gone through all this trouble to help me, so I guess I'm safe for the moment," she glances at the girl next to her. "Only the worst kind of person would kill me during math. And I doubt that's you."

Ariel tilts her head at her, "Do I sense a compliment in there?"

Sky looks towards their notes, holding a hand to her face to hide any possible redness, "Oh, look, math. Let's do math. I love math," she mutters.

Ariel shakes her head with a smile, opening her notebook.

***

With what took a large amount of hardwork and restraint, Sky somehow managed to not create any awkward moments for herself after that. They had kept their chatter light, going between talking about what they did in class and themselves, subtly asking questions that lead to getting to know each other better.

Sky had thought everything was going smoothly, but an odd feeling was pulling at her. She glances out of her window and sees the full moon shining back at her, almost at the highest point in the sky.

She swallows as she breaks into a sweat, feeling a pounding between her eyes as she struggles to take a deep breath for a moment. She grimaces, grabbing her head as she sits up and leans over the edge of the bed.

Ariel glances worriedly at her, reaching forward and placing a hand on her back, "You okay?" she asks.

Sky flinches at the touch and jumps up, not looking back as she slightly stumbles towards the bathroom, "Uh, yeah, yeah I - I'm fine," she mumbles, unsteady on her feet. "Just a headache."

Ariel sits up straight, but Sky lifts a hand to stop her, "I'll be right back," she reassures.

Sky rushes to the bathroom, ignoring any further calls from Ariel.  She thought she was going to be sick from all her senses overwhelming her and pass out all at once.

Sky shuts the door behind her and wobbles over the the sink, gripping the edge to keep her balance. It cracks under her touch and she jumps. She looks toward the mirror and her eyes widen in alarm at the dishevelled and ill-looking girl in front of her.

But the pain was getting worse.

Sky lets out a mixture of a groan and a growl, grabbing her head as her eyes turned a golden yellow. She bends over slightly in a grimace, a horrible shooting pain in her mouth causing her to open it to show her teeth elongating painfully. She whimpers as she scratches herself in the face and pulls her hand back to see claws in place of her fingernails.

She heaves out breaths and growls at the image of herself in the mirror, her blood lust hitting its peak as she leans closer to the reflection of herself, her angry breaths fogging up the glass. Another wave of anger hits her and her hand swipes over it, leaving five long scratches behind.

A light knock on the door catches her attention and her head whips around to face the door.

She growls lowly through the sound of her own blood pounding through her ears, hearing the breaths of the girl on the other side of the door.

She was consumed with thoughts of ripping whoever it was apart.

She stalks in a predator-like fashion to the door, breathing harshly, listening to the heartbeat on the other side.

The voice that comes through the door is clearer than anything she's ever heard.

"Sky? Are you alright? Can I come in? Sky!"

The worry evident in Ariel's voice seemed to be enough to snap Sky out of her unexpected murderous thoughts long enough, because as soon as she can, she's scrambling back as far as she can, moving to sit in the bathtub, pulling her knees to her chest and looking at her long claws in fear. She knows her face would be horrific still and wonders if it would ever go away.

The sound of the door bursting open alerts her and Sky's head whips up to see Ariel standing in the doorway, looking in concern from the broken glass to the trail of blood that leads to her hand. And then her face goes through an array of emotions.

Worry, Confusion, Fear, Pity? Awe?

After a long moment, Ariel takes a slow step forward, "Sky?" she breathes, trying to figure out what was going on.

She takes another step and Sky flinches, her voice coming out rough, "No!" she shouts, making Ariel halt in her steps. "Stay back! I don't want to hurt you," She whispers. "Can't you see I'm a monster?"

Ariel swallows as she tries to take in the situation, but stays focused on helping the girl. She takes half a step forward and raises her hands, "Hey, hey. It's okay," she tries to soothe. "Calm down. It's just me, okay?"

Ariel keeps talking calmly, watching as Sky's breathing slows as she observes her strange features, "You're not a monster, Skylar McCall," she pauses slightly. "You may be a loyal and caring little shit," Sky huffs. "But you're not a monster," Ariel presses.

She kneels down next to Sky and gently takes her hand, "You're okay," Ariel repeats."You're okay."

Sky looks down at their hands and blinks. They were normal again. She feels herself blinking away the last of the glowing in her eyes and sighs in relief.

She looks at Ariel in a mix of awe and disbelief, "Thanks," she whispers, leaning her head back and letting her shoulders slump.

Ariel makes herself more comfortable on the floor beside her, outside the tub. Her eyes skimming over Sky's face in slight wonderment, "Yeah," she mumbles, squeezing the hand that she was still holding.

"Before you ask, I'm not sure."

Ariel looks at her questioningly, "You don't know what happened to you?"

Sky swallows, taking a moment to think, trying to connect the dots, "Stiles said something about werewolves and it being a full moon tonight," she mumbles.

Ariel takes a deep breath as she thinks, "You think that could be it?" she wonders.

Sky nods, "All this stuff that's been happening to us; the bite -- "

"Bite?"

Sky ignores the question, "-- the senses, the strength, the full moon -- it makes sense," she snorts in disbelief. "I can't believe Stiles was right."

"Wait, wait, wait, us?"

"Yeah, Scott and I . . ." Sky trails off in realisation. "Scott and I!"

She jumps up in a hurry, almost pulling Ariel's arm out of her socket as she pulls her up too, making her grunt from the unexpected strength.

"Sorry," Sky winces. Ariel just waves her off.

Sky nods before she remembers why she jumped up, turning and rushing out the door.

"Scott!"