Anchors; Theo Raeken [2]

two; co-captains

Ava's head felt like it was on fire and she was slowly coming back to consciousness, noticing that she was now on something soft and comfortable, rather than the hard floor that she passed out on.

"Is she dead?" Stiles was saying from somewhere above her.

"Yes, I'm dead, Stiles." Ava whispered and smirked when she heard Stiles let out a small scream.

She opened her eyes and saw Theo, Scott and Stiles stood in front of her where she was lay across Scott's bed.

"Are you okay?" Theo asked, being the first one to speak.

Ava looked at him but then just dismissed his question, not wanting to talk about this moment of weakness and checked her phone for the time. "So, I should probably go. I've got school tomorrow... well, in a few hours. And I really have to go to school today, I'm meant to be meeting Nolan so we can talk to Coach about being Co-Captains." Ava said and tried to sit up, wanting to avoid talking about what caused her to pass out if she could.

Scott put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down gently and sat down next to her.

"I'm fine." Ava said before Scott could say anything.

"You passed out." Stiles reminded her. "I don't think that means your fine. Like you nearly hit your head on the counter. You would have if Isaac didn't catch you."

"And where's Isaac now?" Ava asked, still trying to change the subject away from herself.

"He's going to see Derek." Scott said.

"It's 5 in the morning." Ava pointed out, remembering how early it was and dreading how tired she'd be for the rest of the day.

"Sour Wolf doesn't sleep, so it doesn't matter. Stop changing the subject." Stiles said pointing a finger at her. "Tell us what's wrong. You fainted. That's not a normal thing."

"Well, maybe I fainted because you had me sitting in a tree all night and then when I fell asleep, I had a dream about Brett, so maybe I'm a bit upset. And then I had to go running after whatever creep knows where we all live. And to top it all off, they left more fucking roses with my necklace that I lost which brought up some things that I don't particularly want to think about!" Ava exploded, unable to stop the words falling from her mouth.

"You dreamt about Brett?" Stiles asked sounding confused. "What kind of dream?"

"Nothing like that!" Ava snapped. "God, Stiles-"

"I didn't mean that, honestly." Stiles said quickly, realising what his question could have been inferring. "Sorry."

"I just... I think it was actually him." Ava finally admitted after thinking about whether she should say it or not.

"What did he say?" Scott asked.

"He called me a dumb ass." Ava chuckled, and felt her eyes sting as though she was going to cry any second. "That was the last thing he said to me... before he died." Ava explained when she saw the questioning looks on their faces, but they clearly too scared of her wrath to ask.

Ava finally convinced Scott and Stiles that she was okay and that she would explain at some point what had caused her to faint, but she just couldn't at that point in time, and they let her and Theo leave to get ready for school in a few hours.

"What did you do with my necklace?" Ava asked Scott before she and Theo left.

"It's in the bin with the flowers." Scott told her.

Ava could smell the anxiety and worry coming off all three of them in waves, it was flooding her senses but she tried to push it aside.

"Good." Ava said. "Thank you."

Scott pulled her into a hug before she left, making her feel more guilty for not talking to them, but she just couldn't make herself talk about it.

A couple of hours later, Ava and Theo walked through the school doors, both of them tired and not having spoke much since leaving Scott's house. Theo had tried asking her what was wrong again, but she just interrupted him with a kiss and smile that was clearly forced, so he dropped the subject for the time being.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Mason asked when Ava and Theo found him and Corey at their lockers when they got to school.

"No." Ava groaned and rubbed under her eyes self-consciously. "Maybe an hour at most. Stiles had the brilliant idea that we should sleep in the trees out in front of Scott's house to wait for my stalker to show up to try and surprise them."

"And how did that work out?" Corey asked.

"They still came but they ran away before I could see who it was." Ava explained with a defeated sigh.

The four of them headed in the direction of the library where they would spend their free period. Ava spent most of the day seeming uninterested and completely zoned out. Whenever teachers called on her in class, she didn't hear them and then she got in trouble.

Theo, Mason and Corey were all worriedly watching Ava get progressively worse all day, but they didn't say anything knowing that would just make her even worse.

"I'm just tired." Ava told Mason when she felt his concern pulsing in their last class of the day. "I'll be fine after practice."

When the bell rang signalling the end of the class, Ava dragged Corey away in the direction of the locker rooms, so they could change for practice.

"We'll be out in the stands." Mason called after Ava and Corey, but Ava was rapidly dragging Corey away down the crowded corridor so neither answered him.

Theo sat down next to Mason in the stands when they got outside, ready to watch the lacrosse practice. He had decided that he no longer would be a part of the lacrosse team; seeing as it wasn't really his sport, and the only reason he was doing it on the first place was to get close to Ava, and he'd accomplished that anyway. He decided to see if Mason, being Ava's best friend, would have any idea about what caused her to get so distressed that morning.

"Is this Ava's?" Theo finally asked and pulled the silver necklace out of his pocket. He'd taken it swiftly back at Scott's house that morning, and allowed Ava to think it was in the trash.

Mason looked at the silver necklace with a glittering star charm on it, that Theo was holding up for him to see with recognition in his eyes. "It could be, I suppose." Mason told him. "She used to wear one like that years ago, but she lost it. It was like her good luck charm, she would always say. Why?"

•••

Ava hoped that Theo wouldn't mention what had happened that morning to Mason, but she was pretty sure that he would. After getting dressed into her lacrosse gear, Ava went over to the boys locker room where Nolan was waiting for her.

Coach came out of his office then when he heard most of the boys had left the locker room, but he paused with his clipboard in his hand when he saw Ava and Nolan.

Ava explained how they came to the agreement to become Co-Captains, and Coach listened with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Co-Captains. You wanna be Co-Captains now?" Coach asked Ava and Nolan, a confused look appearing on his face.

Ava and turned to look at Nolan and he looked at her and they smirked. "We've, uh, gotten past our differences." Nolan said to Coach.

"That doesn't sound very competitive." Coach told them with disbelief in his tone. "Who taught you that crap?"

"You did." Ava said and the man's eyes widened comically. "Because you're a great Coach."

Ava clapped Coach on the shoulder, and she and Nolan left the locker room to head over to the field for practice. But as they were leaving, Ava could hear Coach talking to himself.

"You're right." Coach said to himself. "I am a great Coach."