thin white lies

Chapter 5

Going back to school on Monday meant taking the test that they were meant to take on Friday. Theo had studied for it, of course, but he still walked into school that morning with sweaty palms and heart palpitations bad enough that it made him think he should call his doctor.

Theo looked over at Scott as they walked into class together. Scott seemed to be acting normal, but Theo knew that when the moon went up, the shy, sweet boy that he had grown up with would probably be replaced by some sort of monster.

"What?" Scott asked as he caught Theo looking.

"Nothing. How are you feeling about this test?" he asked, changing the subject. Scott's small smile vanished, and Theo chuckled. "Yeah, me too."

"You've got this in the bag, Theo. Your grades are awesome. Mine are—"

"Improving," Theo cut in quickly. "I told you, Stiles and I are gonna help you with studying."

"Last time Stiles tried to help me study, he got distracted and started talking about squirrel-pattern baldness."

"Correction: I'm going to help you study while Stiles takes his Adderall, and then he can help."

This made Scott laugh and smile again; Theo counted that as a win. When they approached the classroom doors, however, that smile was forcibly wiped off of Scott's face. Allison sat in the front row, pencil already out. She looked up at the two boys as they entered, but her neutral face quickly broke and her eyes turned down to stare at the wood of her desk. Scott let out a little pained noise next to Theo; when Theo turned to look at him, however, he was already moving, making his way towards Allison with determination in his steps.

"Allison—"

"Mr. McCall," Mr. Harris said, clearly interrupting whatever speech Scott was going to give, "Please take a seat."

Theo had started moving before Mr. Harris had finished speaking, and he grabbed Scott by the shoulders and steered him towards a pair of empty desks near where Stiles was already sitting. He deposited Scott into one before claiming the other. Theo caught Stiles' eye, and Stiles mouthed 'Is he okay?' at Theo while Scott wasn't looking. Theo quickly shook his head, making Stiles frown even more.

There was a loud slapping sound from the front of the room. Theo turned to see that Harris had dropped a stack of blue books at the front of his row of desks. Harris made brief, probably accidental, eye contact with Theo before he continued down to the next row. The teacher gave some brief speech about putting their name on the cover while he was walking, and when he had made sure that everyone had received a blue book he looked out across the room and told them all to begin the test.

Theo flipped his test open and pushed all thoughts of Scott's crumbling life out of his mind for the time being to focus on his grades. 'An increase in imports of consumer goods is most likely to have been caused by a...'

Not even a few minutes later, Scott McCall forced his way back to the front of his mind. Theo tried to focus on the question in front of him, but all he could hear was Scott's labored breathing. He turned to find Scott hunched over his desk, nails (or possibly claws—Theo couldn't see which) digging into his palm. A few seconds later Scott was out of his seat, grabbing his bag and bolting out the door.

"Mr. McCall?" Harris yelled. Scott paid him no attention as he ran. Theo and Stiles jumped out of their own seats at the same exact time, ignoring the stares of the other students and Harris' calls of "Mr. Stilinski! Mr. Raeken!" in favor of following Scott out the door.

"Do you think this is because of the full moon? Could it be affecting him already?" Theo asked as they raced down the hallway in the direction that they had seen Scott run.