SILENT GUARDIAN ◦ STILINSKI; REWRITE [1]

TWO

THIS MEANS WAR
(REWRITTEN)

THE NEXT DAY AT SCHOOL, Carter had been extremely wary and anxious.

    After last night, she didn't know what was going to happen—Lydia was coming back to school—Jackson's body was still fighting the bite—and then there was the ever growing pile of questions about the somewhat random occurrences when wounds, which weren't her own, would appear on her body. The revelation raised the likeliness of her having to go through immense degrees of pain; if more strange things were going to be happening to her, she really needed to reconsider going back to Canada.

    Speaking of her Alpha older brother, she had yet to speak to him, or even see him—he would periodically stop by her apartment, most of the time using the key he made for himself—never actually being around when she was awake. But, she always knew when he came over; there would be a mess of food and dishes in the kitchen; a wet towel in the bathroom and boot prints imprinted upon the linoleum by the front door. He had told her, though, where he was staying: in an abandoned subway station that looked less sanitary to stand in let alone sleep in.

    Carter knew that her brother never liked having nice material things, never believing thought he deserved the right of sleeping in a warm bed under a sturdy roof. Despite the distance, he had always gotten her nice things that he knew she would never need them.

    That was one of the many things that people didn't know about Derek; he was completely and utterly selfless. It might not always show on his cold exterior, but it was constantly present just beneath the surface of his hardened features. And it was that which made her think that Scott was exactly the person that Derek used to be...how he was before the fire. Even when she was ten and still blind to the danger in her future, she had always admired Derek. The siblings were practically inseparable from the moment Carter was born. But things change—people die—all lives come to an end.

    She had learned that the hard way.

    "You really don't remember anything?" Allison asked. The three girls climbing up the stone steps leading to the school, her voice finally pulling Carter out of her thoughts as she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

    Lydia fumbled with the light brown leather jacket in her arms. "They called it a fugue state," she explained, her mood suddenly becoming dapper as she told them. Carter had already heard the entire story because she had been there when the doctor's told the strawberry-blonde the news, the girl not letting her new-found brunette friend leave her side. "Which is basically a way of saying: "We have no idea why you can't remember running through the woods naked for two days."" The two brunette girls abruptly halted in their place when Lydia whirled around to stand in front of them. "But, personally, I don't care - I lost nine pounds."

    "Are you ready for this?"

    "Please," Lydia stated with a slight smirk, "it's not like my aunt's a serial killer who murdered my new-friend's entire family."

    And with that, Lydia pulled open the door and strolled into the building. Carter and Allison were a little taken aback by the girl's comment. And she noticed how Allison's face fell—the words causing her heart to clench in her chest—the huntress had to admit that the jab hurt more than Lydia probably had intended it to. Carter bit her lip, watching as Allison took a deep breath before following Lydia into the school with Carter on her heels. Though, the two brunettes didn't three steps in the building before they were once again stopped by the strawberry-blonde. Carter peered around Allison's shoulder to see that Lydia's feet seemed to be glued to the floor. Carter opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself when she saw the reason that caused Lydia to stop. The entire hallway was filled with a mass of gaping students.