The Wild Side | Stiles Stilinski | One

18 - The Dorky Duo

The one thing I hadn't been able to do over the weekend was talk to Allison. When her dad found out that she'd skipped school, with Scott nonetheless, he'd flipped to say the least. He'd confiscated her phone, and she'd been grounded so epically I was surprised to find her in class.

"Wow, they let you out of the house?" I asked, taking my seat behind her in English.

Allison groaned, turning around to lean on my desk. "Trust me, Dad had to think about it. If it weren't for Kate, I'd probably be enrolled in homeschool by now."

"Small favors," I chuckled, but Allison wasn't laughing.

"Oh my God, Scarlett, what happened to you?" She'd finally spotted my sling, and was inspecting the cuts on my face. "Are you okay?"

"Right," I sighed. "You weren't at school on Friday..."

"You've been like this since Friday?"

"Well, I was worse than this on Friday. Believe it or not, I am healing. Slowly."

"What happened?"

I glanced around the classroom nervously. I knew I'd have to lie to her, but I wanted to lie as little as possible, or at least less than I'd lied to everyone else. Deciding there were few enough students that I could get away with it, I leaned in and lowered my voice.

"Did you hear about the guy at the video store?"

"Yeah, sure? My dad said there'd been another attack but—" Allison gasped, clamping her hands over her mouth. "Oh my God, were you there?!"

"Yeah. And not that you heard it from me, but...so were Lydia and Jackson."

"Scarlett..."

"I know, right?" I said with a rueful smile. "Exactly why I don't like third wheeling..."

"And the mountain lion did this? I mean, it attacked you?"

"Sort of, I...it was inside with Jackson...and it went on some kind of rampage and trapped him under the debris, and then it got startled and jumped out the window. Through the window, like broke the glass. And I guess the way it was thrashing back and forth, it caught me in the chest and it threw me into Lyd's car."

"Scarlett, I am so sorry," Allison said with sympathy.

"I'm fine, really. My face will take some time to heal, but the sling comes off soon." I bit my lip and looked around the classroom again. "Just—just do me a favor and don't mention it in front of Lydia. Or Jackson. They're both kind of messed up about it. Lydia skipped Friday too, and Jackson...well, if anyone finds out he has emotions, he might spontaneously combust, which normally, I'd be fine with, but his parents are lawyers so...pretty sure I could be liable..."

Allison fixed me with a deeply unamused look. Apparently, the joke was not doing a good job of covering up my nerves.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, laying her hand over mine.

"I will be," I said, firmly as I could. "Besides, it's over, right? Sounds like your dad took care of it. Guess I can thank him for that."

"Ugh," she groaned. "No. Please, do not thank him for anything. He has been a nightmare all weekend."

"What happened to 'just being protective?'"

"Ha! I've changed my mind. I'm about ready to take my bow and kill him myself."

"You probably shouldn't use the bow," I suggested. "They'd probably know it was you, Robin Hood."

Allison smirked. "Handgun?"