YOUTH || Liam Dunbar [1]

FIVE

Katherine walked into the school, holding her side with a grimace. She had gone to see Melissa once she'd been able to stand properly, and as it turns out, Liam ended up bruising her side pretty badly. Nothing was broken, thankfully, but Katherine had decided she didn't like Liam at all.

Not in the slightest.

After that she'd spent a good hour and a half on Skype with Isaac, filling him in on everything that had happened to her. And it took a while.

"Hello Beauty Queen," Lydia greeted her with a sweet smile.

"Hey," Katherine grimaced. Lydia threw a careful arm around her shoulders. "Did the boys tell you anything about our newest member of the pack?"

"No," Lydia answered with a small grin. "Just that he hit you with a chair."

"Yeah, and the little shit bruised my whole left side," Katherine grumbled. The bell rang, and the two sighed.

"You need to sleep over soon," Lydia decided. "I need sister time, and I think you do to."

Katherine could sense the double meaning behind her words. They both needed more time to reminisce their short two years with Allison, and they needed to properly grieve.

"Next weekend," Katherine nodded, looking up at Lydia with a wide smile. "Friday night to Sunday morning."

"Deal," Lydia grinned happily. The two went their separate ways, and Katherine wandered down the halls to her math room.

"Liam! Hey!" Katherine furrowed her brows and followed the sound of her brothers voice.

"Liam, we're brothers now," Scott said as she walked up to them.

Katherine slapped a hand to her forehead and nudged Stiles out of her way.

"What?"

"Oh god," Stiles grimaced. "That's—"

"—Yep," Katherine sighed, her eyes scrunching in distaste at Scott's choice of words.

"What are you talking about," Liam snapped, looking back at the two siblings. "We just met, and you bit me."

"The bite—" Scott cut himself off as he tried to remembered what he wanted to say. "The bite is a gift."

"Scott, no. Stop, for the love of God," Stiles grimaced, pulling Katherine with him as he went to stand at Scott's side.

"Just quit while you're ahead there, buddy," Katherine snorted, gently bunching his bicep.

"We are trying to help you, you little runt," Stiles snapped, pointing his finger at Liam. Katherine watched the three interact in amusement.

"By kidnapping me?" Liam retorted unhappily. Katherine let out a small snort, but stopped when Stiles flicked her nose. In turn, she slapped his stomach, which made him double over for a short moment.

"Just to clarify, Scott kidnapped you, okay?" Stiles groaned once he'd recovered. "I...aided and abetted."

"Because that's so much better," Katherine muttered. She received a slap on the back of the head.

Liam looked at her, and Katherine held up her hands in mock surrender. "I was unconscious, remember? I fainted on you." She pursed her lips. "Hey thanks for catching me, by the way. I don't need another concussion. My head's already messed up enough."

"Liam, I've gone through this before," Scott cut in, returning to the purpose of the conversation. "Something's happening to you. Something big." Katherine absentmindedly rested a hand on her hip, feeling the scars Scott had given her on his first full moon.

"Nothing's happening to me," Liam snapped. As if to prove his point, he ripped off the bandage on his wrist where Scott had bit him and revealed perfectly healed skin. "See? Nothing."

Katherine sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of the clearly healed skin. It was as if he'd never been hurt. She couldn't help but remember her and Stiles trying to figure out what had happened to Scott when his wound had healed.

But thinking that far back made her think of Allison.

So she pushed the memories away.

She chewed on the skin around her thumb nail as she shared a look with Scott and Stiles, her brown eyes wide. Liam spared her one more glance before turning around and stalking away in the direction of his next class.

"Get to class," Scott breathed out.

Katherine nodded wordlessly, trying to blink away her shock. "Text me!" She yelled as she jogged in the direction of the math room.

As she slid into her desk, she grimaced. Of course she was late. Mr Anderson, her math teacher, was used to it by now, but it didn't stop the glares she received.

"I'm glad you decided to grace us with your presence, Mrs Stilinski," Mr Anderson paused his lesson to comment in a sarcastic tone.

Katherine rolled her eyes as she dropped her textbook on her desk, and stared at him with a raised brow. "I wasn't going to, but then I figured if you were going to waste my time, I might as well waste yours." She shot him a sickly sweet smile.

Mr Anderson glared at her for a moment, then his jaw ticked, and he returned to the lesson.

•••

"I'm not sharing my basement," Malia cut in immediately. Katherine, Scott, Stiles, Lydia, and Malia had moved themselves between two school buses at lunch to try and figure out what to do with Liam. It was his first full moon, and he'd obviously refused their help.

"Actually, it's my basement," Lydia corrected. "And my mom noticed how you tore it up last time."

"Alright, she's still learning," Stiles defended his girlfriend.

"We're going to use the boat house for Liam, it's got support beams we can chain him to," Scott amended, casually bumping Katherine with his hip. She frowned and poked his side, then giggled when he jumped. He rolled his eyes.

"How are we going to get him to the boat house if he doesn't trust any of us?" Kira asked.

"I say if it keeps him from killing someone, we chloroform the little bastard and throw him in the lake," Stiles shrugged. Katherine rolled her eyes at his hand gestures as he mimed his plan.

"I'm in," Malia nodded in agreement. She even raised a hand. Katherine couldn't help but smile.

"We're not killing or kidnapping him," Scott groaned.

"Then let's be smarter," Lydia piped in. "We tell him there's a party, and we invite him."

"You're going to ask out a freshman?" Stiles scoffed.

"No, I'm done with teenage boys," Lydia sniffed.

They all turned to Katherine, who rolled her eyes. "He hit me with a chair and bruised the left half of my body," she scoffed. "Hell-to-the-no."

"Fair point," Lydia nodded. "But we need you." She pulled a puppy face. "Take one for the team?"

Katherine looked up at her for a moment, then at Kira. "Why can't she do it," she whined.

"Because you know him the best," Malia shrugged casually.

"I know you don't like me, but I'm too awkward for this," Kira shook her head.

Katherine pursed her lips, then groaned loudly. "Fine," she grumbled dragging out the end of the word longer than necessary. Then she pointed at Scott and Stiles. "You two owe me more than one bucket of Ben and Jerry's, deal?"

"Done," Scott promised. He leaned forwards and pulled Katherine in for a hug, unintentionally lifting her off the ground. "Thank you."

"Mhmm," Katherine snorted, but she hugged him back anyways. "Just remember the 'One Cheesecake Brownie' is my favourite."