North Starr

33

Stiles stopped by to pick up Melanie and they reached the school and Melanie asked, "Where is she?"

Allison walked over to Lydia at the front of the building and said, "Over here."

"Lydia?" Melanie called. "Lydia!"

Lydia appeared and said, "It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, and ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."

"You found a dead body?" Stiles asked.

Lydia shook her head. "Not yet."

""Not yet?" What do you mean "not yet"? Lydia, you're supposed to call after you find the dead body."

She glared at him. "Oh, not, I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."

"How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one finding the dead body."

"Guys," Scott said loudly. "I found the dead body."

Melanie made her way over to him and noticed a deputy covered in blood lying on the Beacon Hills High School sign. "Oh, God," she mumbled.

In Jennifer's class the next morning, she talked to them about different writing tools. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes. All tools the writer uses to tell their story. Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

Melanie snuck a quick glance at Lydia to see that she was drawing a tree; the exact same tree that she'd drawn when Stiles tried to get her to use automatic writing while they were looking for Deaton.

Lydia met Jennifer's eyes. "You and every guy I've dated."

Jennifer took a nervous step back. "Oh, um, well, that was an idiom, by the way. Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture. They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Saying "jump the gun" is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race, or a phrase like "seeing the whole board.""

"Like chess," Stiles said.

Jennifer turned to him and nodded. "That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

Stiles shook his head. "Uh, no. My father does."

"Now, when does an idiom become a cliché?"

The class remained silent. Scott turned to Melanie and Stiles. "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

Stiles gave him a frown. "What do you want to do that for?"

"The druids are emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"

Stiles sighed. "Okay, first of all, I cannot believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like "what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas" actually makes sense to me. Second of all, we're going to have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

Melanie glanced at her friend. "So you know, Scott, the Darach isn't the emissary to the Alphas."

"What's that?" Scott asked, still looking at Stiles.

"Okay, fine. Ignore me."

"Going through Aiden," Stiles replied. "Ever since he's been back at school, they're always together. How are we gonna separate them again?"

Melanie sighed and jerked her head towards Lydia. The boys widened their eyes and turned to face her.

Lydia pursed her lips and clenched one of her fists. "What now?"