The Absence of Truth | S. Stilinski

XVI. | fight night

XVI. | fight night

                   THE PAPER IN my hand crinkled as I found my way to class. Overnight, the school administration rearranged class schedules of every student; making my day start with math and end with chemistry was a bad idea on their part. "Change is good for young brains," is what Principal Argent said over the intercom in the morning as students struggled to find new class rooms and adjust to new times. We all had the same courses, but times and rooms had been switched entirely. I wanted to give Argent a piece of my mind.

As I wandered in and out of my classes, I couldn't help but think this schedule change wasn't for our benefit as the students, but made it easier for Argent to watch us as we tried to handle the kanima thing in secret. I found myself eyeing the security cameras he'd had installed throughout the school halls, waiting for him to strike. Changing our class times wouldn't be enough to keep him off our backs for much longer.

I sped through most of the first part of the day, spending most of my time rearranging the turtleneck I found at Stiles's house around my neck to hide my bruises. Presley caught up with me at lunch, but instead of yelling at me, he just pulled me into a hug so tight I couldn't breathe.

"That's so not what I was expecting," I said the minute we pulled away from each other.

"Mom's gonna do all the yelling so why should I add on?" He shrugged and began to walk off to get food.

I walked after him. "Hold up, who are you? Because you sure as hell aren't my Presley."

He grabbed an apple as he moved through the food line. "Oh, I'm pissed off, alright. You don't come home after school, you don't come to the game, you don't show up after the game, and you don't answer your phone. Mom thinks you're dead, Sarah's running around with her walkie-talkie about to call out an APB, and I'm stuck making dinner, which you know I'm terrible at."

"Sounds sucky," I said, wincing.

"Sucky?" Presley laughed. He walked over to the lacrosse table and gave Danny one of those bro handshakes, then sat down. "Quinn, I haven't slept in about twenty five hours. This has been quite the sucky day."

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely.

"Save it for Mom. She's the one you need to worry about."

-

After lunch I wandered the hallways looking for my new chemistry classroom. I expected it to look nearly the same as the last one, if not a little nicer since Harris hadn't contaminated it with his mere presence yet. The thought made me giggle.

Just as I turned down the hallway I thought I needed to venture down, two pairs of hands grabbed me and pulled me back towards a row of lockers. From past experience, I knew getting grabbed by people had never worked out in my favor. I had the injuries to prove it. I spun on my heel to look at whoever got ahold of me, but before I could scream, Stiles was putting a hand over my mouth.

"We have bad news," he said, tugging me a little closer to the lockers so no one could hear us. "Really, really bad news."

I pulled my face back. "What?"

Scott was there too, leaning his head down near mine so no one could hear him as he whispered. "Jackson told the police that he used to see Isaac Lahey and his father fight, but he retracted his statement this morning."

Not following, I squinted my eyes. "So..."

"So Isaac is no longer a wanted man!" Stiles all but exclaimed. "He was back in class this morning. Jackson was saying that him and Erica have something planned for Lydia."