CHAPTER 101

The next day, two girls breathed out in relief when they heard that one of their substitute teachers, Victoria Argent, was stepping down after the school finally managed to hire a new one.

Those two girls were naturally Allison and Malia. 

While the former was glad that her mom could no longer monitor her in school, the latter was just glad that there was one less Argent around. 

After their first period which was a pop quiz, one which Lydia used to announce her return by answering a lot of the questions asked, she and Allison escorted Malia to retrieve a book from her locker for the next class. 

She tried ignoring the presence of the new addition but couldn't find it in herself to remain silent after picking up her book. 

"Can you tell me why you are following me?" Malia stared at Lydia who stood next to a wryly smiling Allison. 

"I'm following Allison, not you." Lydia smugly retorted but Malia kept on staring at her until Lydia stomped her foot and gave in with a huff. "What? I just realized that I don't have that many friends. Good friends."

"That's no one's fault except yours. Heck, I make better judgments than you." Malia snorted. 

Lydia gave her a doubtful eye raise but refrained from poking that particular spot. "Turns out someone visited me and told everyone I'm going crazy and no one wants to hang out with me-" 

"Again, not our fault." 

Malia said but Lydia ignored her and continued. "So now I'm the new social outcast… and I don't want to be alone."

At this point, Allison was signaling Malia with her eyes to tone down on the aggression since she could tell just how vulnerable Lydia was based on her words alone. 

Malia on the other hand had no idea of how she should react to Lydia's heartfelt words. In the end, she decided to ignore the weird girl and focus more on her next class.

Even during their next class, Lydia not only sat behind her and Allison but also forcefully involved her in her conversation with Allison. 

If not for Allison silently chiding Malia and telling her to be a bit considerate to Lydia given what she just went through, Malia would have blown a gasket in the middle of class and probably killed someone too. 

Fortunately for everyone around her, Malia knew how to control her emotions in stressful situations such as these so the entire class remained oblivious until it was time for lunch break. 

"Keep a seat for me in the cafeteria. I need to visit the guidance counselor's office to talk to Ms. Morrell. Catch you in a few minutes." Lydia said and left them for the guidance counselor which made Malia sigh in relief. 

"You really don't have to be like that, Malia. You, out of the both of us, should know better how mentally unstable she is right now." Allison reprimanded. 

Even if Malia had some sort of grudge against Lydia, it did not excuse how demeaning she was to Lydia who was currently putting on a fake confident expression and trying to hang on to her last thread of sanity. 

Malia could hear how Lydia's heartbeat would rise at the smallest thing and part of her told her that the reason she was extra chatty was that she was afraid. 

Afraid that no one can hear her and she will be once again trapped with the wailing voices. 

"Fine. I can try." Malia reluctantly agreed. It also helped that she could somehow relate to what Lydia might be going through. "No promises if she continues annoying me."

"Fair, I guess." Was all Allison could say as she rolled her eyes at Malia's pettiness. She changed the subject to something else as they neared the cafeteria. 

"I think I found something that might lead us to Derek." She started. "I noticed my grandfather has been leaving the house a lot more than my dad of recent and every time he comes back it's like there's this disagreement between him and my Ada that becomes apparent."

"So you want us to trail your grandfather when he leaves your house and see if he will lead us to Derek?" 

Allison nodded. "I mean, yeah. I can't do it myself but I can put something in his tires to give you guys a scent trail or something."

Malia thought it over but the idea of trailing after Gerard didn't sound interesting to her in any way. 

"Or you could just tag the car and have Scott and Stiles track it. They are the ones who want to find Derek after all." She proposed. Since Scott could be said to be a part of Derek's pack, even if unwilling, it made more sense for him to find his Alpha. 

"You said he's a member of Derek's pack, right? Then I can't really trust him if that's the case." Malia was confused as Allison denied her proposal. 

"What does trusting him have to do with anything?" She asked, perplexed. 

"You forget my grandfather might die because of this, right? Derek will definitely hold a grudge, especially if any of his betas are dead." 

The entire thing left her utterly confused. How can someone accurately predict someone's death? Was it even a prediction or a foretelling that can't be changed? 

Whatever it was, she couldn't tell it correctly so she just accepted it as she saw it. But even with that came another set of questions. 

Will her intervening cause her father's death or will Scott find Derek regardless of her help and cause the death of her grandfather? She had absolutely no idea, and worst of all it felt as if she was the only one grasping at straws. 

She looked at Malia feeling conflicted but understood why they couldn't care less if her grandfather died. 

"So you want us to do the tracking and hopefully prevent Derek from ripping out Gerard's throat if it eventually comes to it?"

She nodded and became hopeful as she heard Malia sigh tiredly. "You will have to convince Tristan to want to do that."

Malia looked at Allison and explained. "Let's say we do, erm hippo-" 

"Hypothetically." 

"Yes, hypothetically. Let's say hypothetically we agree to follow Gerard, chances that our covers will be blown are high, which will then put us in your family's scope. If they decide to come after us, and they will, it will end up dragging our entire pack into it. And I can assure you that that's an outcome no one wants to see." 

As for Derek, it had nothing to do with them. She and Tristan were just two betas. Trying to think that they could tell an Alpha like Derek what to do is the height or arrogance. 

Allison winced as she heard that and decided to just get something to eat before thinking through this again. 

"Come on then, let's go get something to eat." She drawled out and pulled Malia along. 

... 

The lacrosse squad stood in their locker room as they listened to what Coach had to say. 

"In dark of the death of our co-captain, Jackson, I want to appoint another person who will assist McCall as fellow co-captain. The choices are between Danny and Hayes. Hands up if you want Danny as co-captain."

Coach noted the number of hands that voted for Danny and wrote it down. "Now hands up for those who want Hayes as co-captain?" 

He noted down the number and turned to the two popular players and with a small smirk on his face. "Congratulations, Hayes. You are now a co-captain. You just achieved something worse than getting a girlfriend – responsibility." He laughed as he finished his sentence. 

"Coach, why can't we just have Danny and Hayes as co-captains?" Someone asked out loud which elicited a few laughs but Coach remained unperturbed. 

"McCall's been a part of the team the same time that Danny and most of you joined. Also he along with Hayes are our best scorers at the moment. No offense, Danny."

"None taken, Coach." Danny shrugged. He never wanted to be co-captain in the first place. 

"Cool. Now get back to class. Remember we have practice tomorrow morning." Coach said and left them to their devices. 

Tristan sighed irritably as he shoved his gear inside his locker, inwardly pissed off with Coach's decision on making him co-captain. 

"That face tells me just how excited you are about being chosen as co-captain." Boyd came to his side with a sarcastic comment that increased Tristan's irritation. 

"Don't push it." Tristan warned but Boyd knew him well enough to know when and how far he could push his buttons, and push he did. 

"Oh come on now. Already got an attitude just because you got promoted, huh. The view from the top must be pretty nice." He joked. 

Faced with Tristan's plain stare, he swiftly took a step back and showed his hands in surrender. "We cool?"

Tristan slammed his locker shut before turning back to Boyd. "Cool."

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