CHAPTER 43

Tristan for the first time since Boyd had known him scowled fiercely at the duo making their way toward him. It didn't matter if he was used to Allison or could ignore Lydia somewhat, just the thought of the two of them being around him at the same time was enough to make his mood plummet.

If Allison was a delectable meal he'd love to partake in then Lydia was just 'a bite and get it done with'.

"Haha, that's some expression you got there." He ignored Boyd's comment and for a brief second he contemplated actually running away from there but unfortunately the two girls had caught up.

"Hey, Tristan~"

"Hey, Tristan. What's up, Boyd." Same greeting but with varying expressions behind them. Lydia's were more teasing, borderline flirty, while Allison was awkward, after all his disinterest and irritation was plain to see. 

"Funny meeting you all the way out here." Lydia said. 

"What do you mean 'all the way out here'? Is it that surprising that I'd be outside my house?" Tristan asked. 

"Oh no, I mean you're pretty far from your house. I thought you'd take a car for the distance."

"You know where he lives?" Allison butted into the conversation as Lydia mistakenly let out a vital piece of information. 

Lydia looked confused between the increasing scowl on Tristan's face and the cheshire grin on Allison's and immediately put two and two together. 

Honestly it had been a passing comment from her mother who mentioned it due to the fact that the house they were currently living in once belonged to an old couple she knew. 

Tristan knew a lost battle when he saw one, so he took a page out of Allison's book and deflected the focus. 

"You two were hanging out?" He asked in feigned surprise as if Allison hadn't told him a few days ago. 

"Yeah. Don't let the pale skin and cherry lips fool you, Allison's tastes are quite mid." Lydia's criticism made Allison frown as she once more remembered just how vain the popular girl could be. 

If only she had convinced Malia to come with her then the brash girl would have been her shield and sword against the merciless onslaughts of Lydia. 

"As much fun as our conversation is, we ought to get going. Catch you later, girls." He said nothing else and walked past them, Boyd following behind with a shrug after being quiet from a quiet he knew not to get stuck in. 

Lydia wanted to call him back but stopped when Allison pulled her aside. "Come on, we have some talking to do."

…

Another week started with an interesting news from Coach to his lacrosse players. 

"This is Tristan Hayes, sophomore, he'll be joining practice from now on. Get in there." Coach pushed Tristan into the middle of the locker room full of athletes as Tristan resisted the urge to sigh. If there ever was an impulsive decision he had made that he regretted immediately after, then it was acquiescing to Coach's plea to join the lacrosse team. 

He received a few pats on the back while ignoring the two shocked gazes from a familiar duo he could feel. 

"And onto other important matters, from here on out we'll be switching to co-captains. Congratulations McCall, you're a co-captain." The entire locker room broke into murmurs and Tristan had to stop his nose from twitching in irritation as he felt the oozing stench of jealousy and hate. 

"Also the following people made first-line. What's this, I… I can't even make out my own handwriting…" Coach murmured to himself, ignoring the displeased murmurs and expression of his charges. "Is that a 'b' or an 's', I think it's a 'b'. What kind of name is that anyway? Biles. Biles Stilinski?"

"Yes!"

"Shut up, Biles."

"Yes, Coach."

Resolving himself to push through, highest he'd quit if it took too much out of him, Tristan grabbed a spare jersey and a stick, outfitting himself in the basic lacrosse gear. He'd have to pay for these if he wanted to take them as his. 

They left the locker room for the pitch for a practice run and for Coach to see Tristan move. He just had to trust his little pinky for this guy, he told himself. 

… 

[Malia Tate POV] 

It had honestly come as a surprise to Malia when she found out that Tristan couldn't resist Coach's coaxing and was finally swindled into joining the lacrosse team. She didn't know the nature of the breaking conversation but she knew Tristan felt helpless immediately afterward. Coach was just persistent. 

To be honest, a small part of her wanted to see him play, dominating the entire field with his spectacular movements. 

On the good side, she'd be able to watch him knock the air out of some people almost every day which would boost her ego by no small amount. Coyotes were vain animals too so don't judge. 

Right now, she was in the bleachers with Allison who was just as surprised as her that Tristan joined the team when he previously showed no Interest in it. 

"How long do you think he'd last?... I'm talking about the game." Allison was quick to correct her sentence to be as precise as possible not to cause any misunderstanding between her and Malia and prevent her from spilling information she wouldn't want to know. 

"I don't think any one of them can compete with him when it comes to stamina and reflexes. All he needs to do is get a hang of the game and he's good to go. Like always." Malia said. 

Allison beside her dutifully ignored the last part of her sentence and only focused on the important bits while directing her attention to the game. 

Tristan's jersey was numbered '74' and he was a bit behind so they both waited until it was his turn to cheer for him. 

Seeing Tristan picking the ball with the stick, an obvious smile crept up Malia's face as she pictured perfectly what was going to happen in the next few moments. 

Even with the helmet on, she could visualize the expression on his face very vividly. The calm yet bored stare that showed that all of this was nothing more than a bore to him, yet his eyes were so thin to the point that a thread couldn't pass through it. Focused and sure. 

High school was a place to reinvent oneself – she'd been told, and that was exactly what Tristan was doing. 

The ball sailed from his stick with a speed the goalie had no hope of keeping up with and slammed into the next behind the confused and frozen goalie. 

"Yes!" x2. 

She and Allison both cheered for Tristan while a few of the players let out whistles of surprise and acknowledgment. 

°°°

On the field, Coach screamed out a loud 'that's what I'm talking about' and punched the air with his fists. 

No matter how he tried to downplay it, the smile that formed on his face as he scored the goal was very telling. He loved it. Maybe it had to do something with everybody being fired up after the 'newbie's goal' but the atmosphere wasn't all that bad if he was being honest with himself. 

"Any front-line who loses a shot is staying on the bench for today!" Coach in his hype delivered an ultimatum to all the players which in turn fired them up the more, something that made Tristan confused.

Since he was a newbie, he had to follow all the newbie rituals, which included being on defense and goal in turns for Coach to gauge his strongest point. 

All in all, it was a very productive day for the otherwise bored vampire. 

… 

[Jackson Whittemore POV] 

Today was not a good day at all for the lacrosse team captain… Co-captain. First of all was the obvious cheater, McCall, who his stupid Coach had made a co-captain all of a sudden. 

If McCall had been a normal good player like the rest then he wouldn't have had anything against him but the boy just had to cheat in sports just to make first-line and now co-captain. 

He'd noticed that McCall didn't need his inhaler anymore and also he had acted as if he hadn't seen McCall benching 150kg with his lanky build as if it was nothing. 

He already had McCall in his sights since the semester started so sooner rather than later, he'd bust his ass. 

And then there was Tristan. To be honest, he had nothing against the pale boy, no altercations except for that skirmish on the first day which he was sure was just Lydia being her normal bitchy self. 

The boy was cool as far as he knew, a bit of a loner, but… 

He didn't know why but he felt like his skin crawled every time he was near the boy, even if he wasn't aware of his presence. So yes, somehow the new boy who kept to himself was weird in some way. 

After school, he made his way to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital because he had a doctor's appointment because of that nasty wound on his neck that was making him feel weak by the day – courtesy of the crackhead who somehow knew McCall. Call him paranoid, but there was something off about the guy. 

The treatment had started well and going fine… but that was until the doctor said he wanted to check if there was something inside that was causing the recurring reactions he was having. 

Jackson couldn't understand what he saw but that was definitely not normal. It was flashes, like a memory, and despite his struggle, the doctor continued until he turned his head and saw that it was the crackhead that was operating on him while drawing a strange looking vine of flower out of his neck, until he snapped out of it, knowing he had hallucinated the whole thing. 

He was out of it for a while until the doctor mentioned something about a poison from a flower called monkshood or commonly known as… 

"Wolfsbane."

He had left the room and was about to leave the office but the doctor's description and the hallucinations he saw if a flower rang on his mind that he had to convince a nurse, surprisingly McCall's mom to let him us the hospital computer for a quick search, and imagine the surprise when he found out about the myth of wolfsbane.

He wouldn't have believed a bizarre post like that but he remembered something Scott had told him at a time when he lost his cool about being able to see, hear and smell things no human should. 

Now he just needs to find out the truth from McCall with this and, 'Hehehe', get it for himself. 

Whoever said two people couldn't cheat? 

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