Side By Side » Theo Raeken

Parasomnia

Edited.

I had lunch with Lydia.

After my AP Biology class, where I found out I had a test the next day, a strawberry blonde girl came to me, I instantly recognized her from when we were younger. We were never friends but Stiles had always had a big crush on her, going on and on on how graceful and amazing Lydia Martin was, and I had to admit there was nothing wrong with that. However, Stiles never mentioned her to me after some ball a couple years ago and after trying to understand what had happened millions of times I eventually gave up. Needless to say I was surprised when Lydia went to me and offered her help.

"Hey!" She said similing.

"Hi..."

"I'm Lydia, you're Alice, Stiles' cousin, right?" She asked me nicely, I nodded. "I just want you to know that if you need anything, any help, you can talk to me. Things around here can be a little... complicated."

I smiled back, and despite what some people could think, we got along pretty well. So good that a couple classes later we were seating at a table in the playground eating what we had gotten from home.

I was amazed. I couldn't believe Stiles had actually made some advances in his I-don't-know-how-many-years plan to get Lydia Martin. I knew he now had a girlfriend and that he was grown up but, at some point, I did look around waiting to see Stiles staring and laughing at him about the prank. I wasn't confused about Lydia Martin talking to me, I was confused because she finally knew who Stiles was and they actually seemed pretty good friends - for what she told me about.

Being far for so long I wasn't aware of how much things in their lives had changed, but my inner self was excited and happy for my cousin, even if he now had Malia.

***

After my last class I decided to wait for Stiles next to his jeep. I wasn't sure if his day was already over but stood there for a few moments. I wanted to talk to him about Lydia - not that I had anything to do with his life or anything like that, but I was curious.

Tired of waiting I decided to look for my cousin around the school, instead of simply calling him, only to find him walking hurriedly with two papers in his hands. "What are you doing?"

"Proving I'm right." He said as he walked in the library, I followed behind. Stiles went in the direction of a table where Malia sat with Scott and Kira. The three of them looked up from their notebooks and watched him attentively.  My cousin quickly opened both papers on the table so we could all see.

"So you found something!" Scott said, after frowning at the papers.

"Check the signature." Even though he wasn't talking to me, I, like the others, looked at the signatures on the papers. "This is Theo's dad signature on a speeding ticket from eight years ago." He said pointing out the paper that looked older. "Now this, is his dad's signature on a transferor to Beacon Hills high from just a few days ago."

I raised an eyebrow at the signatures, not understanding what or who he was talking about, and shook my head, realizing it was probably just some random investigation Stiles had decided to do. At the mention of the name I instantly thought about the guy I had met the night before but pushed it away, not connecting the dots.

At my left a brunette girl let all her books fall and awkwardly looked around, making me smile. That was something that I could see happening to me. Looking one last time at Stiles I ran to help the girl. "Here, I'll help you."

After picking up four books I helped her putting them all on the table, adding to the other five she had picked up. "Thank you, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok." I smiled. "Next time just make sure you carry only one or two at the time." We laughed.