Bravely Courageous

51

Caleb and Maggie leaned against the bleachers while Scott and Stiles spoke. Stiles was trying to reassure Scott. "Of course you're still the team captain. You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?"

Scott gave him a nod. "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."

Maggie frowned at her friend. "Wait a sec. You told him his insane sister was back from the dead in a text? Wow. Way to go, Scott."

He turned to her and shrugged. "I didn't have the money to call France."

"This is why you boys need me." She let out a sigh. "I need to grab something from my locker. Enjoy practice. Don't let the freshmen beat you."

She waved goodbye to the boys and walked away.

The bell rang and as Maggie was walking to math, she saw Malia walk into the classroom and exit almost immediately. She grabbed her shoulders and took her back into the classroom.

Malia shot Maggie a frown. "I hate math. It's pointless."

"Sorry to say, but math is essential to the important parts in life," the witch told the werecoyote.

"To what?" Malia asked.

"Knowing how to tip at restaurants," Stiles said.

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

"Tipping," Stiles interrupted.

Maggie rolled her eyes at them and Mrs. Fleming began 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 Maggie and Caleb sat back to take notes.

As soon as it did, Malia, Kira, Maggie and Caleb made their way to the lacrosse field.

Maggie and Caleb caught sight of a kid who was showing everyone up; including Scott. The kid was excelling at everything; running, goal, and every position imaginable.

Malia frowned at Kira. "What's wrong with you?" She turned to look at Maggie. "Can you calm down? I can practically see the steam coming from your ears."

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?"

"More."

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

Caleb frowned, seeing his friend. "Yes and yes. The hell is going on with him?"

Suddenly, the game clicked with the boys 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 performed a twisting maneuver.

"That was luck!" Malia cried. "Do over!"

Maggie 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. Hawthorne, I thought you remembered that."

Maggie smiled sweetly, a hint of deviousness behind her smile. "Oh, I do, Coach. But I want to see my friends kick their prissy little freshman asses."

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 Maggie and Caleb followed.

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

They 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 that Maggie and Caleb couldn't hear.

Maggie glanced at her friend. "I'm not sure what Melissa is gonna do, but it'll probably hurt. I hope he doesn't need a doctor."

They left and Stiles turned to Scott. "Maggie and I have to get going. We're gonna help Malia study."

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

Maggie turned to her friend. "Scott, it wasn't your fault. Unless you purposefully injured that poor freshman."

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

"Scott, you held back," Caleb said.

Stiles nodded. "He's right. 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."

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

Scott smiled briefly as Stiles drove himself and Maggie to his place after they'd picked up Malia. Caleb had gone home.

The three studied for about an hour and Malia decided she was done. Maggie was already focused on something of pressing matters.

Maggie studied her notebook and frowned. "Why the hell am I doing this?"

Stiles lifted her chin up and said, "Hey, we're not finished yet."

"Maybe you're not, but I am," Maggie mumbled.

"Okay... I promised you, Malia and I were going to study. What's with all the highlighters anyway?"

"Green is for what I understand, yellow is for what I'm working on, and red... Red means I don't know what I'm doing," Malia replied. "Maggie suggested it to me."

Stiles smiled at Maggie as Malia added, "Also, Lydia's notes are really confusing."

Maggie looked at the notes and frowned. "Hang on."

Stiles took the notes from Malia's hands and frowned. "This isn't math. What is this?"

Maggie slowly shook her head. "I don't know. But I'm sure we'll find out soon."