Chapter Text
Stiles parks Roscoe in the parking lot of Beacon Hills High School and sits for a few minutes, trying not to freak out. He definitely did not imagine having to start a new school for his senior year, not that he had any especially close friends back in Sacramento. He tells himself that this is a good opportunity, no one knows anything about him here, no one will see him and automatically decide he isn’t worth knowing. It’s a fresh start, so this is good, not bad. Even though most people have already settled into friend groups or cliques, maybe there will be one here that he will actually fit into.
The thing is, he knows that he’s terrible at making friends. He’s social and always interested in talking to people, that was never a problem, but his ADHD paired with extreme sarcasm is often off-putting. Plus, having a cop for a father meant he never got invited to the really interesting, less-than-legal events at his previous school. Now it might be even worse, since his dad is the new county Sheriff, not just a random police officer. He sighs, grabs his backpack and heads into the building, telling himself that he will make a friend today. Just keep repeating it, who knows, it can’t hurt.
After getting registered in the main office and getting a map so he knows where his locker and classes are located, Stiles heads off to AP English Lit. He picks a seat in the middle and tries not to focus on the people staring at him. Beacon Hills isn’t a small town by any means, but a new senior is still someone people notice. He has to go through the embarrassment of stopping his teacher from butchering his first name, but then the rest of class goes pretty quickly. Next is Advanced Statistics, and here he has to sit at a lab table that he will share with another person. Thankfully he got there early enough that he didn’t have to ask someone if he could sit with them, rather he found a table that was still vacant. Better to be ignored passively than rejected directly, right? However, his worries of being ignored ended up being for nothing, because a happy looking guy wanders up to him and asks if the other seat at his table is taken. “Nope, it’s all yours dude.”
“Thanks!” He flops down into his seat and starts pulling out a notebook. “I’m Scott, I don’t think I’ve seen you before. Are you new?” Scott is smiling at him, seemingly unphased to be chatting with a new person. Stiles can’t help but smile back, his table partner gives off the same kind of innocent vibes as a puppy and his slightly crooked jaw is oddly endearing.
“Yeah, I’m Stiles. My dad and I moved here just a few weeks ago.”
“Aw, man that sucks, a new school for senior year! You are a senior, right?”
“Yup, senior. But it’s okay, my dad got a great job here so it was a no brainer to make the move.”
“Really? What does he do? Usually I don’t think of Beacon Hills as a job destination.” Scott is still smiling, and Stiles is so happy that he’s actually lucked out and met a nice person.
“Actually, he’s the new Sheriff of Beacon County, so he works mainly at the station here in Beacon Hills. We were in Sacramento before, he was a detective there but they recruited him to fill the Sheriff’s position.”
Scott looks oddly bashful. “Yeah, I think it took a while to fill the position, they were being really picky from what I hear. Your dad must be awesome if they recruited him all the way from Sacramento!”
Stiles laughs, “I’ll tell him you said so. But yeah, he is actually pretty awesome.”
Scott smiles, then turns his head forward to grab a stack of papers being handed out. He passes one to Stiles before sending the rest back. Stiles sees that it’s the syllabus and takes a look. He is pretty awesome at math and aced his previous Stats course and is excited to see what they are going to cover this year. It looks like teaching himself matrix algebra this summer will pay off! Then he hears Scott groaning next to him. “What’s the matter? You okay, dude?”
Scott sighs and looks over at Stiles. “I suck at math, man. I ended up in this course because I think I have a better chance of passing than if I had to do precalc. But fuck, this syllabus looks intense.”
“Dude, I’m great at math, and actually really love stats. I can totally help you get through, no problem at all.” And shit, there he goes just speaking impulsively without thinking. Scott has been really nice so far, but who knows if he actually wants to spend extra time with some new guy at school. This could get awkward really quickly.
“Dude, that would be awesome!!!” Stiles thinks he can literally hear the exclamation points with how excited Scott looks. Phew, worrying for nothing, apparently. “I mean, wow, I’m so glad you let me sit with you. Hey, let me see you schedule, see if we have any other classes together.”
Stiles smiles and passes his schedule over, looking toward the front of the class where the teacher is clearly getting ready to start. “Dude! We have lunch together, awesome! I’ll find you so you can sit with us.” Scott is still smiling, and Stiles thinks he may have hit the jackpot. He’s pretty sure he’s made a new friend already, and now he doesn’t have to stress about navigating the unknown social hierarchy that is the Beacon Hills High lunch.
Then their teacher starts speaking, so Stiles does his best to focus on her and take good notes. Not just for him, but also for Scott.
***********
Stiles is annoyed that he has Phys Ed right before lunch, making him even more ravenous than he usually would be. However, here he is in the cafeteria, trying not to look like a social outcast while scanning all the faces to spot Scott. It turns out that Scott spots him first.
“Stiles! Hey man.” Scott nudges Stiles with his shoulder, still smiling. “Dude, did you bring lunch or are you buying?”
“Buying.”
“Great! Follow me, I’m buying too, then we can head to the table and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Stiles and Scott chat happily in the lunch line. It’s chicken nugget day, so not totally horrible. Stiles happily grabs a chocolate pudding cup and after paying is following Scott like the Pied Piper through the jungle that is the cafeteria. He stops when Scott lands at a long table, currently filled with a bunch of unfairly attractive students. “Hi guys, this is Stiles. We partnered up in Stats, and he’s new to BH so I invited him to sit with us.”
Unlike the genuine ray of sunshine that is Scott, Stiles gets an uncomfortable feeling from the group at the table, like they are suspicious or something. It doesn’t make much sense, but then he’s distracted again by how good looking they all are. “Hi, and shit Scott, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to sit here with all the hot people.”
Dead. Silence. Well shit. Again, Stiles is an acquired flavor. Finally a petite girl who looks to be of Asian ancestry smiles. “Hi Stiles, come and sit down. I’m Kira.” Scott sits next to Kira and gives her a not-so-casual kiss on the cheek. Okay, well this sweet pairing makes perfect sense to him. “So, let’s do some introductions. On that end are Boyd and Erica.” Stiles notes that this also seems to be a pairing given how close they’re sitting, also they look absolutely exhausted. How weird to be so tired on the first day back to school. Then Kira points to a new duo. “Lydia and Jackson.” Wow, those two are hot, also a couple? It’s hard to tell, but they are both definitely the best dressed of the group. “And the one with the scarf is Isaac.”
Stiles gives a short wave, not willing to speak up again since his first attempt did not play to this audience. Scott, sweet angel that he is, takes over. “So guys, Stiles’ dad is the new Sheriff, Sheriff Stilinski. Isn’t that awesome?!”
This does seem to garner interest from the group, now they look more speculative rather than suspicious. “Also, he’s like a genius at Stats and has promised to help make sure I pass and actually graduate on time.”
Stiles blushes a bit because he never used the word genius, then notices that Lydia is giving him a very critical look. “So Stiles, you’re a genius? Is that right? What was your GPA coming in to BHHS? Are you taking advanced classes?”
Stiles is sure his eyes are large, because those are some pointed questions and he usually doesn’t go around telling people how well he does because usually it’s not something other students appreciate. Apparently, however, Lydia has no problem making people feel uncomfortable. “Well, um, yeah I’m in some AP courses and my GPA from my last school is over a 4.0.” Stiles just shrugs his shoulders, trying to be casual about this and not look like he’s bragging.
Lydia gets a pleased and calculating expression on her face. “Excellent. I can always use real competition for valedictorian this year. Give me your schedule, I’ll see if we share any classes.
Stiles is slightly overwhelmed, and a little bit turned on as he passes her his schedule. “Wow, a goddess and also a brain. I may be in love.”
Now, Stiles is known for just saying shit all the time that really shouldn’t be taken seriously, but he forgets that new people don’t know this. Apparently Jackson did NOT get the memo because Stiles is pretty sure the dude just growled, like actually growled. “Shut the fuck up Stilinski, you come near her and I’ll neuter you.”
Stiles can feel his balls try to run and hide because Jackson looks pissed! “Whoa, whoa I was not being serious! Dude, she’s way out of my league.” Then Boyd and Scott are grabbing at Jackson to calm him down. Lydia just smirks as if this is nothing new. She just continues on like her boyfriend (making some assumptions here) didn’t just threaten to cut his nuts off.
“We’ve got AP Chem and Advanced Calc together this afternoon. Excellent, find me in the class and we’ll compare notes.”
Jackson is growling again when Lydia whips her head around. “Jackson, stop being a caveman and get over yourself. I know you don’t want to make me angry, do you?”
Yeah, Stiles may be a little bit in love.
*********
It’s the end of his second week and he is pinching himself because it’s hard to believe how well everything is going. He actually has a group of friends, some of which are in almost every class. He has people he sits with at lunch, he is included in some pretty hilarious group text chats, and for the first time he feels like maybe he has found people aside from his parents who actually understand him.
However, this is not to say that his new group of friends aren’t a little odd. He’s noticed that on any given day there are always two who look overly tired, except for when it’s Isaac, then it’s just him. Otherwise the tired duos are the coupled pairs. It also rotates in order: Boyd and Erica, Scott and Kira, Jackson and Lydia, then Isaac. Repeat. At first he didn’t figure out the order, but then when continued the pattern including weekend nights, it fit perfectly.
At lunch he has asked a few times if they were up to something in the evenings but so far no one has fessed up to anything. He wouldn’t think too much about it, except he’s noticed the pattern and after 2 weeks it’s too regular to be chance (or as his stats teacher would say, p < .05).
He’s also noticed multiple references to an unnamed 'he'. For example, one day as he was approaching the lunch table he heard Isaac say that “’He’ said 'he' needs us to meet up tomorrow night at ‘his’ place.” “Dude, my bike is being repaired, I’ll need a ride.” “No Scott, ‘he’ said ‘he’ will give you a ride.” Then Erica piped in, “Fuck, ‘he’ was killing me with those drills last week.”
Stiles is a curious dude on a regular day, but now he’s dying to know what and who they are talking about. Maybe it’s related to the tired pairs every morning? “Hi guys, who are you talking about? What drills?”
Scott gets a very uncomfortable look on his face and everyone clams up. Stiles is now even more curious. What the hell is going on here? Kira finally responds, “Oh, it’s nothing, just some fitness drills some of us do. Helps with our sports tryouts.” Stiles waits, but no one offers to invite him to join. It hurts if he is honest that they don’t want to include him. So far the only time he sees them outside of school is when he works on homework with Scott (usually followed by Call of Duty), but he’s not willing to force the issue and alienate himself from his friends.
Then Erica, possibly trying to change the subject, starts talking about a trail she wants to run that weekend. Stiles immediately recognizes it as one in the Preserve. Without thinking he stops her. “Whoa, Erica you should not run that trail. There was a runner who was found killed near that part of the Preserve a month ago and my dad is still worried that it’s not safe. They haven’t found who or what was responsible. He said that at first they thought it was some sort of animal that did it, but there was evidence that suggests it might have been done by a person.” Stiles knows he’s not supposed to know any of this, so he doesn’t say that the evidence was weird traces of iron and rust. If those rumors spread, he’s dead meat. He also doesn’t mention that it was only the heart and liver that were missing, the rest of the torso was just ripped apart. Fucked up.
Erica is sort of smirking at him at the warning, which is frankly a confusing reaction. But then Lydia cuts in, “They have other evidence? Hm, that’s interesting Stiles.” She gives Scott a weird look like she’s saying something telepathically. Scott nods, “Yeah, I’ll tell him.”
Stiles is super confused. He’s on edge enough knowing that his new house backs up to woods that connect to the Preserve. Why his friends seem to want to hang out in that area is beyond him. But he fails miserably at getting any other info out of them. He still can’t figure out who the mystery guy is that they all keep referring to. If they are trying to keep secrets, they should NOT be stoking Stiles curiosity. One of the symptoms of his ADHD is that he can get fixated on something and that, paired with his next level research skills means he’s going to figure it out.
That afternoon he is headed home from school in Roscoe, his beloved pale blue Jeep, when he sees a gorgeous black Camaro heading toward him on the other side of the road. Fuck, now that is a nice car. Then he silently winces and apologizes to Roscoe for the mental infidelity.