North Starr

51

Melanie was leaning against the bleachers while Scott and Stiles spoke to each other. Stiles was reassuring Scott. "Of course you're still the team captain. You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, but he never told me I was back on the team. He just told me to show up at tryouts today."

Stiles shrugged. "We got bigger things to deal with anyway. Did you tell Argent yet?"

"Ah. I texted him, but he didn't get back to me."

"You seriously told Argent that his crazy sister wasn't dead through a text? Nice job."

He turned to her and frowned. "Thanks, Melanie. I didn't have the money to call France."

"You could have asked someone. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some things for class."

Melanie made her way to her locker and grabbed her textbook for math.

The bell rang and as Melanie was walking to math, she saw Malia walk into the classroom and exit almost immediately.

Melanie grabbed Malia's shoulders and pushed her back into the classroom. She shot the bruntette a frown. "I hate math. It's pointless."

"Sorry, but math is essential to life."

"To what?"

"Knowing how to tip at restaurants," Stiles said from behind Melanie.

Lydia frowned at him. "And other less important things like medicine, economics, engineering..."

"Tipping," Stiles interrupted.

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Math is essential to all those things, is what they're trying to say."

Mrs. Fleming started class. "All right, volunteers to the board. Lydia, Diego, Malia."

Malia glanced up and frowned. "Um... I didn't volunteer."

Mrs. Fleming gave her a small smile. "You did now. To the board."

She and Lydia talked with each other while I leaned back, hoping that math would end soon.

As soon as it did, Malia, Kira and Melanie made thei way to the lacrosse field.

Melanie noticed a kid showing everyone up; including Scott's. The kid was good, but Melanie was hoping her friends would show him up.

Malia frowned at Kira. "What's wrong with you?" She turned to look at Melanie. "You've got an angry determined look. I don't like it."

Kira frowned. "Me? Nothing."

Malia turned back to her. "You reek of anxiety. And it's distracting. What's going on?"

Kira bit her lip nervously. "Scott and I sort of had this thing happen. But it wasn't much of a thing. And I'm starting to think it never was anything at all."

"What do you want it to be?" Malia questioned bluntly.

"More."

The girls turned back to watch the field and the freshman was still kicking everyone's behind. Kira asked, "Isn't the captain supposed to be one of the best players on the team? Or good?"

Melanie frowned. "Yes to both. What's going on with him?"

The game suddenly seemed to click with Scott and Stiles and Coach cried, "That's my boys! Those two are like sons to me."

"Yes!" Kira cheered loudly.

As soon as the freshman wonder walked up, he did a twisting maneuver. "That was luck!" Malia cried. "Do over!"

Melanie nodded and pointed to Malia. "Yeah, do over!"

Coach made his way over to them and said, "Sweetheart, there's no do overs. This is practice. Hale, you know that."

Malia said with determination, "Ten bucks on Scott and Stiles."

Coach smirked. "I'll take that action. Hey! Get back in there, Liam."

The boy did so and Scott ran a second time and flipped Liam. The latter stood, but it was obvious he was in pain. The boys decided to take him to the nurse and Melanie jumped down to follow in case they did something stupid.

After examining him, the nurse said, "He has a bad sprain. It'd be best if he were to go to the hospital."

We took him to the hospital to make sure he was okay. Scott talked to Kira before they took Liam to the hospital.

When they got there, Melissa walked up to them. Scott smiled awkwardly at his mom. "Uh... Hi, Mom."

Melissa smiled at Liam as she wheeled him away. She leaned down and said something to him.

The trio left and Stiles told his friends he was going to help Malia study.

Scott said, "Sure. I want to check on him anyway."

Melanie turned to her werewolf friend. "Scott, it wasn't your fault."

He lowered his head. "I don't know."

Stiles frowned. "Scott, if you had used any wolf power, that kid wouldn't be limping; he'd be crawling back to the other half of his body."

Scott shook his head. "If I hadn't been so worried about being captain, he wouldn't be hurt either."

Melanie patted Scott's shoulder. "You're half-human, Scott. It's okay to do things for yourself every once in a while."

Melanie made her way to her brother's loft and pulled out her homework. "Boys, hopefully you don't do anything too dumb."