Ch. 25 Conflict of Interests?

Allison is getting dragged out of the school by her new, self-proclaimed, best friend Lydia Martin.

They just met a few minutes ago in the hall but Lydia is already talking like they've been besties since kindergarten.

When Allison first met Lydia she was just at her locker when Lydia suddenly approached her. And then Jackson, Lydia's boyfriend and lacrosse team captain, walked up and put his arm around Lydia and gave her a kiss. She was invited to a party Friday night but she declined.

Well, more like came up with a lame excuse. Friday family is definitely not family game night. But she didn't know how to turn Lydia down better and it was the first thing that popped into her head.

After that she is now being dragged out under the slightly cloudy and sunny sky to watch a lacrosse practice. At least she won't be bored in her room after school now.

Lydia steps up onto the top of the bleachers, the third row of seats. "Hop up!" She chimes to her new BFF that just moved into town.

"So when does this thing start?" Allison asks as she gets next to Lydia.

"Mmmmm, in about 11 minutes" Lydia looks around the field with a smile on her face.

Allison then notices a guy trying on helmets and recognizes him as the pen loaner from this morning. "Hey, who's that guy?"

"You're going to have to be more specific, there's a LOT of guys here" Lydia gives a silly smile Allison.

"The guy near the bench who's been trying on helmets" Allison watches as the guy straps the helmet on and then get hit over the back of the head with a clipboard. She can't help but giggle a little bit at the scene.

"Oh, him? I…. haven't seen him before. He looks…. new. Why?" Lydia stops herself from finishing and changes her words. She was watching as the guy began running around the field at a fast pace. But she will admit that he looked exceptionally great while doing it. Especially when his back was turned to her.

"He's the one that tossed me a pen this morning when I didn't have one" Allison smiles then decides to tease her friend. "Thought you said you knew everyone on the team?"

Lydia doesn't take her eyes off the runner. "I said I knew everyone that PLAYED. And there's only 10 on first line that play"

Allison watches as the handsome guy continues running and doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon.

After 9 minutes of watching the guy speed around the field Allison looks away from him and spots the cute boy that sat in front of her in her English class. She watches as the coach gives the cute guy a bigger stick and a bigger helmet that covers the neck more. He looks like a lost puppy as he moves to the net. "Who is he?"

"Him?" Lydia takes her eyes away from Mr. Musterious Handsome Athletic and looks at the person that is standing in front of the net. "I'm not sure who he is. Why~?"

Alison smiles and shrugs her left shoulder. "He's in my English class"

A whistle goes off and a few things happen.

First is that the runner goes over to the head coach before going in line with the other players.

Second is that the cute boy grabs his helmet and then begins moving like he's having a bad headache.

Third is that a person throws a ball at the net but the boy ends up taking it to the face, but his helmet protected him. What the helmet didn't stop was him being knocked over into the net behind him.

Fourth is that nearly everyone laughed at the guy's misfortune. All except Stiles, Allison, Myrddin and only a very few others.

"Hey, way to catch it with your face, McCall!" Some guy shouts in front of Myrddin.

Scott, the unfortunate goalie who has never been goalie before, lifts his head off the ground and looks over at his current crush in the bleachers. He picks himself up and grabs the goalies lacrosse stick. Scott rolls his shoulders and bends his knees a bit as he gets focused on the players about to try and score.

Myrddin looks at Scott's determined eyes and can tell something is different. It's a subtle change, and Myrddin can't tell what it is. But Scott seems to have changed in these past few months he hasn't seen him.

The next player runs forward slightly and whips his lacrosse ball towards the net.

Scott's stick slightly moves up as the ball clashes against the mesh of Scott's lacrosse stick.

Everyone watching is surprised. Even Scott himself looks surprised.

"Y-Yeah!" Stiles smiles after doing a double take.

Flinstock just gives a confused look to one of his worst players that just made a great, or lucky, catch as goalie.

A coach tosses a ball to the next player in line as Scott throws his ball to the side and gets ready.

Myrddin watches as Scott expertly catches the next 5 balls. Each catch even more impressive than the last. It just makes Myrddin wanna score the first goal that much more.

"He seems pretty good" Allison comments.

Lydia nods. "Yeah, very good"

Myrddin sees Scott's giant smile and follows his eyes to the bleachers where Lydia and the new girl are sitting. When he looks back towards Scott he sees Jackson come from nowhere and cut the line.

Jackson looks pissed and cuts the next person in line off with his stick as he stares Scott down. He takes a breath and then bursts forward. He jumps into the air and throws his lacrosse ball at the net to score.

Scott watches as the lacrosse ball rockets through the air. But he catches it just as easily as the rest.

*Cheers and whistling*

The people watching cheer Scott on.

"Wooohooohohoho! Yes!Yes! Whoo!" Stiles jumps to his feet with his arms above his head. He turns to the crowd. "That's my friend!"

"Woooo~!" Lydia stands up and cheers. Afterwards she gives Jackson a look and then looks back at Scott.

Just to show off a bit more, Scott tosses the ball behind his back and it lands in a coaches stick he was holding and didn't move.

Another round of cheers can be heard. And Scott nods his head towards Allison before moving back to the net. He turns back to the line of players when-

*WHHOOOooooosh!*

A ball goes right past his head and hits the net behind him.

Scott turns his head and sees a ball in the cage behind him.

Everyone is silent and look towards the next person in line.

"Danny! I like the enthusiasm but cmon! Nice goal though!" Bobby shouts.

Danny holds his stick up that still has a ball in it. "That wasn't me coach"

Everyone looks confused until a stick goes in the air.

Myrddin steps forward from the back of the line. "Sorry, my bad"

"Merlin?!" Bobby sees Myrddin standing further back than the middle of the field. That means that Merlin just made an even better shot than the ones he made during lunch. And it was just as, if not more, accurate because it made the goal. And it was way faster than anything he has seen at a highschool level in a long while. "What the hell are you doing back there?! Get to the front and do it properly this time!"

Everyone watches as Myrddin runs to the front and catches a ball from one of the coaches.

Allison looks at the pencil loaner. "So how hard is it to make the shot he just made?"

Lydia sits down with her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Lydia?" Allison looks at the strawberry blond girl beside her.

"Sorry, what?" Lydia shakes her head slightly and stares at the mysterious and handsome player now known as Merlin. "That shot? Never seen that done from that far before…"

"So do you know who he is now?" Allison asks as she sees some confusion on Lydia's face.

The girl shakes her head a little. "Nah. I just remembered a name from a while ago"

Myrddin stands in front of Danny.

"Did you really throw from that far back man?" Danny asks with some approval in his tone.

"Yeah. And how far do I run before I throw the ball?" Myrddin asks, not really sure when or from where he should throw for this exercise.

"Nice~, and just throw it before you get to that line" Danny points towards a line painted on the grass of the field.

"Thanks" Myrddin then runs forward.

"No problem~" Danny watches Merlin charges forward and his muscles bulge slightly.

Myrddin drives his left foot into the dirt right before the line and brings his stick around.

Scott's eyes widen. The other balls looked like they were in slow motion but this one looked like a regular ball rocketing towards him. He moves his goalie stick but misses the ball by a few inches.

Myrddin makes his second goal and looks at Finstock who has his mouth open. "Did I do it properly?"

——————

The rest of practice was fairly easy. Myrddin ended up dominating the exercises once he knew how to do them.

Today wasn't a contact day so he couldn't hit or get hit. But that was fine by him. He enjoyed the experience as a whole.

He ended up learning everything he could and surprised the coaches that he only needed to be told something once and he didn't need to be told again.

When Danny went to his usual position as goalie he was almost able to catch Merlin's shots. But they were just too fast. He's just happy none of them hit him.

And even after all the running around, Myrddin barely felt tired. And after some rest he would be back to his peak state.

——————

Lydia watches and cheers for this 'Merlin' guy. She doubts that it could be Myrddin Wyllt, but for some reason there's a part of her telling her that it could be. Sure she loves Jackson, but part of that is because he's the best player on the lacrosse team and a captain. But now she is watching Jackson get out performed in every way possible.

And she watches as Merlin learns things at a rapid rate. It makes her want to pick this guy's brain, even more than she was going to before.

Lydia's attention barely leaves Merlin throughout the 2 hour practice. The only other thing she does besides studying Merlin is talk with Allison.

And Allison's attention was divided between both Merlin and McCall when she wasn't talking with Lydia. "I can see why this sport is so popular now"

Lydia shakes her head. "Yeah… but this is new…"

Allison gets a text and sees that it's from her mom who arrived to pick her up. She says her goodbye to Lydia and gives both McCall and Merlin one last look over her shoulder.

——————

"Merlin!" Bobby calls his new star athlete over after practice ends.

Myrddin runs over to his coach and puts his hands on his hips as he catches his breath. "Yes, coach?"

"Tomorrow morning. Come to my classroom. I'm going to give you our playbook and I want you to memorize it by Friday. We have our first scrimmage and I want to test you out. I can't do that if you don't know what you're doing out here. I'll tell you straight up, you've got a spot on first line right now. Do well Friday night and you can secure that spot. And get some cleats, I'm surprised you didn't fall out there today. Same time tomorrow" Bobby smacks Merlin on the shoulder and then walks away trying not to show he hurt his hand.

Myrddin looks down at the helmet and lacrosse stick in his hands. "What am I supposed to do with these?"

As Myrddin stands there he sees Stiles run up to Scott and they begin loudly talking about how great Scott was out there. And how Stiles wishes Scott wouldn't ditch him because he didn't want to ride the bench solo all season.

"Good practice, see you later Merlin" Danny walks past Myrddin and goes over towards Jackson. Danny and Jackson are best friends after all.

A few other people congratulate him on a good first practice and welcome him to the team with enthusiasm.

"So Merlin" A voice coos with a hint of bitchiness sprinkled in.

Myrddin doesn't even need to turn around. "What do you want Godiva?"

Lydia's eye practically pop out of her head. "Ho. Ly. SHIT! So it IS actually you, Myrddin"

"Oh! And it actually IS you, Lydia!" Murddin clearly fakes some enthusiasm before turning around and slumping his shoulders. And speaking monotonously. "What do you want"

Lyrdia flicks some of her hair over her shoulder and puts her hands on her hips as she looks him up and down. "Just looking at the new star lacrosse player… What the hell did you take to look like this?"

Myrddin rolls his eyes. "Weren't you the one who said 'Keep your nose out of other people's business'? Or does that only apply to other people who disagree with you?"

Lydia furrows her brows. "It only applies to people who read too much into certain topics that don't involve them" suddenly she switches moods and smiles brightly and tilts her head slightly to the left. "But you do involve me when you outshine my boyfriend"

"Oh! How silly of me!" Myrddin lightly hits his forehead with his palm. "We're still pretending you two actually care about each other beyond the other's body? You should prepare some ice for him on Wednesday, I hear that's full contact day. I won't go for him but I will defend myself if he goes after me"

Lydia purses her lips and narrows her eyes. "You know it's illegal to take performance enhancing drugs"

"Drugs? You out of all people should know that drugs can't increase your height. This is all natural, meaning no pesky side-effects to anything below the waist. But you should tell Jackson about that drug thing, is he's still using I can only imagine your misfortune" Myrddin smugly smirks.

Lydia can feel her anger boil but she keeps it beneath the surface. "So what? You're trying to stick it to me and Jackson now? How noble of you" She snips.

He stands up and his face gets serious. "I'm doing this because I want to have my mom and dad cheer me on from the stands. I want to make my mom PROUD to have a son like me for once. I don't particularly care about being all high and mighty or about being noble or not. Hurting your's and Jackson's ego is just an insignificant bonus that is a side-effect of me doing what I want. You can decide to let my actions affect you or not"

When Lydia hears Myrddin's reasons she feels… a little shitty. She's seen the way that his mom looks at him in the past. "Do you think your parents weren't proud of you?"

Myrddin narrows his eyes. "Keep your nose out of other peoples business that has nothing to do with you. Why don't we talk about the new girl you dragged out here. Have you decided to continue this terrible act when you talk with her too? I do wonder how long you can keep acting"

Lydia takes a step into his personal space and looks straight up into his emerald eyes. "Why don't we talk about your sister? At least I'm just acting, she's a bitch through and through"

When Myrddin hears this he smiles and leans down over Lydia's face. "I guess it really does take one to know one. And your just preaching to the choir here Lydia. Gwen Wyllt is practically just a stranger living in my house now" He leans even closer so their faces are just inches apart. "But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to sit back and let someone hurt her. Anyone tries to pull some bullshit on her and I'll make sure they regret it"

Lydia smirks. "It's kinda hot when you get serious and protective"

"Too bad Jackson is neither of those things about you" Murddin flat out says.

*Smack!*

"That same thing won't work twice Lydia" Myrddin says while tightly holding her wrist that he caught when Lydia tried to hit smack him. He drops his stick and helmet to the ground and lifts Lydia's chin with his free hand while holding Lydia's arm up. "You should really find someone who knows and accepts the real you Lydia Martin. The highly intelligent, caring, and sassy Lydia. Not this mean and dumb bitch you're pretending to be"

"And who would like the real me? Huh? I already tried that in middle school and it didn't work out. Everyone has their masks they wear 'Merlin'. Mine is just better" Lydia glares into the green eyes that look much livelier than the murky green they were when he needed his glasses. At this distance she can tell he's not wearing contacts.

"Stop using your body and start using your brain and you'll be surprised by the changes that follow. I've noticed the way people look at me differently, but I'm not going to act stupid so others feel better about themselves. If others complain I'm hotter and smarter than them that is their problem, not mine. And if your friends leave you when you start acting like the real you then they aren't your real friends now are they" Myrddin lowers her arm down but doesn't move.

There isn't any indication of Lydia moving. "Easy for a person with no friends to say. How can you lose something you don't have?"

"I don't need the entire school to envy and aspire to be even a fraction of me. I just need at least one true friend that accepts who I am, any real friends after that first is a bonus that I'll happily take. And even if nobody can be that friend… being alone isn't the worst thing in the world and it wouldn't be new either" He lets her hand go and takes his fingers away from Lydia's chin.

The strawberry blond looks to the side and backs away as she rubs her wrist. "Jackson's waiting…"

"We both know he's still in the locker room talking to Danny and the other guys. Think about what I said Lydia" Myrddin picks up the helmet and stick from the ground before walking away towards the locker room.

Lydia clenches her fist while tightly hold her wrist for a moment before turning and walking away. Her mind mulling over what Myrddin said and did. She expected him to back down, but he met her head on and didn't back down.

——————

Gwen was left stunned after watching her first lacrosse practice. Not only was it better than she expected but her brother somehow got on the team.

Her first day of 9th grade at the high school went great, even when she was a 'little~' late. If anything the late entrance helped her. She was the most popular girl in her year. And she might be able to become the most popular girl in the school. Her only challenge is Lydia Martin.

After school she and her group of girl friends wanted to watch the boys practice lacrosse. She had met some of the freshman guys and was invited to watch them practice.

When she showed up she couldn't believe that her brother was on the team. And not only that, but he was also able to play so well.

She knew her brother had changed. But she just thought it was some weird freaky experiment he had done. Like it was some kind of experiment gone right.

One day after Myrddin's change she wandered into his room and found one of his notebooks hidden away. Inside she found some weird writing page after page. She recognized some Spanish words here and there, but the notebook wasn't written only in Spanish. It had to have at least 5 other languages all smashed together. She ended up putting that crazy thing back where she found it. And she also noticed that stick in his closet disappeared. She couldn't help but wonder why he kept it for so long to begin with.

But back to what she just saw on the edge of the practice field: Her brother just confronted and flirted with Lydia Martin. He didn't shy away, and instead got in her face.

Gwen thought they were kissing and making out because she was so far away but when she moved to get a better view she was able to see that they were talking. But she couldn't risk getting closer to hear what they were talking about.

She thought that Myrddin was lying about being friends with Lydia. But in fact, they seemed very, very, close.

Myrddin even left Lydia speechless until she walked off towards the parking lot.

Her entire image of her brother has been turned on it's side day after day for the past month.

What happened to her brother?