Slightly In On It (Slightly Awkward Sequel---Teen Wolf)

chapter eight---RAVING

Well, Erica obviously survived, but Stiles and I were eating a late take-out dinner in our dad's sheriff office, and he took a big bite into the veggie burger that Stiles had ordered due to my agreement. "Oh, what the hell is this?" Dad complained.

"Veggie burger," Stiles answered while he handed me my drink from underneath his arm, which I took eagerly and took a huge gulp.

"Stiles, I asked for a hamburger."

"Well, veggie is healthier. We're being healthy," Stiles said, and I held up my salad as I still drank my tea to prove his point.

"Oh, hell, why are you trying to ruin my life?"

I spoke up, taking my cup straw away from my mouth, already talking before I swallowed. I was as much as a pig when it came to eating as these two, but I didn't eat a lot, just messy. "We're trying to extend your life, okay? Could you just eat it, please? And tell us what you found."

"No, I'm not sharing confidental police work with two teenagers."

"Is that it on the board behind you?" Stiles asked, and I followed his gaze to the pictures of victims and red arrows.

We were still looking as Dad looked behind him, then back to us, craning our necks to see the thing. "Don't look at that," Dad said.

I smiled slightly, "Ay--"

"Avert your eyes."

"Yeah," I agreed sarcastically as I kept moving my head to look at it.

"Okay," Stiles said.

"Hey!" Dad semi-exclaimed.

"Just--it's just--" Stiles started to say.

"I see arrows pointing at pictures," I said.

"Okay, okay, stop," Dad told both of us. "Fine." That made us stop in a second, looking back at him. "I found something. Mechanic and the couple who were murdered. They all had something in common."

"All three?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah," Dad said. "You know what I always say. One's an incident, two's a coincidence."

"Three's a pattern," I finished.

Dad held out his fingers and counted off the people he said. "The mechanic, the husband, the wife--all the same age. All 24."

"Wait--what about Mr. Lahey?" I asked. "I mean, Isaac's dad isn't anywhere near 24." Well, I should've said wasn't, but . .

"Which made me think that either A, Lahey's murder wasn't connected, or B, the ages were a coincidence, until I found this." He handed Stiles the file before I could take it. "Which would be C." As Dad continued to speak, Stiles was opening the folder and looking inside. "Did you know that Isaac Lahey had an older brother named Camden?"

"'Died in combat'?" Stiles asked.

"But if he were alive today, take one guess as to how old he would be."

"24," Stiles and I said at the same time.

Dad nodded to the board behind his head, and we each got up, walking over and standing in a horizontal line, parallel with the board, Stiles on the left side of Dad, me on the right.

"Now, what if the same age means same class," I said. "Did you think of that?"

"Yeah," Dad said unconvincingly. "Yeah. Well, I would've. I mean, I--look, I just got Lahey's file two hours ago."

"Two hours?" Stiles repeated. "Dad, people could be dying."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that, thank you."