"Hey, Scott, I'm coming home late tonight." Mom bursts in the room. "Oh, Emerson, too."
Scott and I both look at her in horror for interrupting our conversation at the most important part.
"What?" she asks. I look her up and down, taking in her appearance. "What - what's wrong? Is it - Is it my hair? Makeup?" Mom's eyebrows work their way up her forehead as she gets more and more worked up.
"No," Scott says.
"Nothing's wrong," I say, even as my eyes betray me by looking her over again. I know that this dressed up look could only mean one thing. "You look good."
"You look amazing," Allison tells her, smiling.
"Amazing," Scott echoes. "Why do you look amazing?"
"Because, amazingly, I'm having dinner for once with a member of the male gender who's over the age of sixteen," Mom announces.
"You're going on a date," I deadpan. I knew this was coming.
"With who?" Scott asks.
"It's a medical rep that came into the hospital today." Mom bounces up and down nervously. "Yeah, we just kinda started talking, and the next thing I know I'm saying yes to dinner and ... I'm really hating myself for skipping the gym last week." Mom nods, trailing off.
"What medical rep?" Scott demands.
Before Mom can answer, the doorbell rings.
"That medical rep." She turns in the general direction of the front door. "And - uh - I'm not - I'm not ready," she stammers. "I'm not done! I'm not ready, so if you could please just get the - get the door and talk with him, okay? Just ..." She starts to back out of the room before popping back into view. "Be nice."
"I'll be back in just one minute, okay?" Scott tells Allison. She and I exchange a look when Scott leaves.
"Do you think I sound ridiculous?" Allison asks me. The doorbell rings again.
"No," I answer honestly. I don't know if I should continue talking, but I do anyway. "You don't sound ridiculous. Something's up with them. It just ... might not be what you think it is."
The doorbell rings a third time.
"Emerson!" I hear Scott call from downstairs. "Come here!"
"I'll be right back," I promise.
"Scott?" Mom yells through the house. "Get the door!"
I thunder down the stairs in a hurry and find Scott just staring at the door. I brush past him, ignoring the part of me that begins to scream in protest, and whip open the door in a sudden burst of anger.
"Get out," I say right to Peter Hale's face. He just tilts his head and smiles at me, as if he wasn't fazed at all.
"Hey," Mom says from the top of the stairs. "Aren't you going to invite him in?"
Scott grabs the door and tries to close it, but Peter puts his hand up.
"Really?" he asks as he pushes it back open. "Slam the door in my face? Come on, Scott. Take a second to think that through."
"I'll tell her," Scott threatens.
"That I used to be a catatonic invalid with burns covering half my face? Good luck with that," Peter sneers.
"Or we could just tell her that you're the serial killer who trapped her children in the school," I spew.
"I doubt she'd even believe you," Peter responds coolly.
"If you hurt her ... if you even touch her ..." Scott starts to threaten.
"Scott, if I may interrupt your listing of the top five most impotent-sounding threats for a moment, try and remember that I've been in a coma for six years. Don't you think I'd like to have dinner with a beautiful woman?"
"Just - just half a second!" Mom calls. "Sorry!"
"Or maybe you think that I've come up with an idea. Like how it might be easier to convince you to be part of the pack ... if your mother is too."
Scott's face falls when I look to see his reaction. Peter steps over the threshold.
"You need to understand how much more powerful we are together - you and me and Derek," Peter says. "Did you know that some of the most successful military operations during the second world war were the German U-boat attacks? Do you know what they called them?" Peter stares at Scott intensely. "Wolf packs. Did you know that? Or are you failing history as well?"
"I know that the Germans lost the war," Scott says.
"I think you'll find that most historians would argue that as a failure of leadership," Peter smirks. "And trust me, we don't have that problem here."
"I'm ready, I'm ready." Mom appears behind us. "Sorry again."
Peter extends his arm, and Mom takes it, walking with him onto the front porch.
"Mom!" I say, jumping forward.
"No, Em -" Scott protests quietly, grabbing my arm.
Mom turns and looks at me. "Yes, sweetheart?" She widens her eyes at me and presses her mouth in a hard line that tells me not to do anything embarrassing.
"Have a good time," I say, forcing a smile. I've been defeated by the three people around me begging me not to say anything.
"Okay." Mom smiles and turns back around, walking to the car.
"I'm going to kill him," I tell Scott through the forced smile.
YOU ARE READING
Transformed (Incomplete)
Fanfiction"Don't be afraid of change. You might lose something good, but you'll gain something better." Emerson McCall is a pretty average high school student. She has one friend she shares with her brother, Scott, and between the two of them, she has all she...
