All Shades of Blue

33

The teens gathered at the school and Stiles immediately asked, "Where is she?"

"Over here," Allison answered.

"Lydia?"

Lydia turned to Stiles. "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?"

"Not yet."

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

"Oh, no, 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 called. "I found the dead body."

---

"Excuse me," the sheriff called. "Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Back it up. I know what you're thinking. I know you've got all these ideas about patterns and people dying in threes..."

"Dad, murdered, okay? Sacrificed, actually," Stiles corrected.

"I've got half the state, including the FBI, coming in on this. They're not gonna get away with killing one of our own."

"Dad, they killed Tara. You know, how many times did she help me with my math homework when I had to wait at the station for you?"

"Just, uh, get to class, okay?"

Stiles made his way to Jennifer's class and she started her lesson. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story." She stopped in front of Lydia's desk. "Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

"You and every guy I've ever dated," Lydia said.

"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 noted.

"That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

"Uh, no. My father does."

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

Scott glanced at Stiles. "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

Stiles frowned. "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 glanced at Scott. "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 us. Second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?"

"Going through Aiden."

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

They turned to Lydia.

Lydia looked up. "What now? What's that look for?"

Lydia entered the locker room and yelled, "Aiden, stop! Stop! Stop!"

"You can't do this!" Ethan told his brother.

"She came at me!" Aiden protested.

"It doesn't matter! Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him or her or his mate."