✓ | battle wounds, scott m.

chapter two.

Daniella walked out of her room with her glasses atop of her head, sliding them down to see her father dragging Stiles away from his computer, which ended up with Stiles on the floor. Daniella sighed and shook her head, her blue eyes shining in the light of the sun that peered in through Stiles's blinds. "Good morning, sweetheart," Noah Stilinski said as he went over to his daughter and placed a kiss on her head. "Morning, pops. Stiles?" Daniella asked, leaning into his room. "I'm not going to take you," Stiles denied. "Stiles. Take your sister," Noah demanded. "That's all she wants!" Stiles groaned as he stood up. "Just take her," Noah rolled his eyes. "Say it," Stiles said once he saw his sister beaming with delight. "Orange juice!"

▼

"Daniella!" Allison called to her blue eyed friend who immediately looked up from her book to see Allison and Lydia motioning her over. Ella smiled and lifted her glasses up the bridge of her nose, walking towards her friends and opening her locker that happened to be beside Allison's. "You look beautiful," Lydia complimented causing Ella to blush. Ella wore a long sleeve cropped sweater, a white skirt, white knee high socks, and brown combat boots to finish it off. "Thank you," Ella blushed, spinning around after putting her book and backpack into her locker.

Lydia smiled then turned around, "Freshmen. Tons and tons of fresh men." Allison chuckled, "You mean fresh boys. Lydia, they're 14." Lydia shrugged, "Eh, some are more mature than others." "You know, it's okay to be single. Focus on yourself for a little while, work on becoming a better person," Allison sighed. "Allison, I love you. So if you need to do that thing where we talk about me and pretend like we're not actually talking about you, it's totally fine. But I don't want a boyfriend. I want a distraction," Lydia said, gazing down the hallway.

Allison and Ella turned to look where Lydia was looking, seeing two large boys walking in through the double doors. Ella's brows raised in interest, her glasses dropping a little down her nose. "Brothers?" Allison asked. Ella let out a breathy laugh, "Twins." The Bell soon rang, causing the three girls to head to their first period; English. Ella took the seat in front of her brother, giving him a small smile as she sat down. "Put your skirt down," Stiles scolded. Ella rolled her eyes, looking over to Scott who seemed to be looking at Ella before Allison walked up, catching Scott's attention. Ella licked her lips, tasting her strawberry lip gloss on her lips. She turned and looked down at her phone, seeing the picture of Stiles and Scott in their jerseys after they had won a game.

Ella smiled softly, then a text message appeared on her lock screen with an unknown number. Ella furrowed her brows and slid her screen, a voice beginning to read the paragraph that had been sent to her. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway', leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under 'an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness,'" a teacher then walked into the classroom and to her desk, "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone." Ella nodded her head, lifting her glasses, "Clever."

The teacher nodded the Stilinski's girl way. The woman introduced herself as Jeniffer Blake, and halfway through the lesson, Scott was called out. Ella's eyes followed his moves, chewing down on the tip of her pen. Ella looked back down at her paper and widened her eyes to see the words, 'McCall' and the number eleven. Ella took off her glasses and banged her head against her desk, closing her notebook. "Hey, Lydia," Stiles whispered to Lydia. "What is that?" Stiles pointed down to the large bandage covering Lydia's ankle. "Is that from the accident?" Stiles asked. "No. Prada bit me," Lydia sighed. "Your dog?" Stiles asked. "No, my designer handbag," Lydia answered sarcastically, "Yes, my dog."

Ella turned to her strawberry blonde friend and lowered her voice, "Has prada ever bitten you before?" "Mm-mm," Lydia shook her head. "Okay. What if it's, like, the same thing as the deer? You know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?" Stiles asked. "Meaning what? There's gonna be an earthquake?" Lydia questioned. "Or something. I just maybe it means something's coming. Something bad," Ella's brother stated. Ella sighed and turned around, looking her brother in her eyes, "It was just a deer and a dog. What's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice. ." A thud against the window made Ella's body shift to look at it, a sizable blood splatter upon the window.

Ella sat back, watching as another black crow hit the window, cracking his neck at impact. A small gasp escaped Ella's lips when she saw a dark mass heading towards the window. Screams filled the room, the birds finding their way inside. Ella let out a groan of pain when a sharp talon caught the skin of her cheek, the split skin stinging. Stiles immediately grabbed his younger sister — by ten minutes — and pulling her to the wall underneath the windows. "Stay down, Daniella," Stiles ordered, using Ella's first name.

Ella whimpered, reaching to touch her cut but her hand was instantly pulled away from her older brother. Ella gently lifted her head to see her brother looking down at her with an expression of fear and worry. Stiles placed his hands on the sides of Ella's face, "It's just a cut." Stiles went to stroke his thumb over it, but stopped when Ella whimpered softly. The attack lasted for several more moments before the classroom fell silent. Shakily, the twins stood up slowly to see their fellow students under desks and crows littering the floor, along with feathers and splatters of blood. Stiles pulled his younger sister into a hug, cradling her head as she let out soft whimpers because of the pain on her cheek.

▼

When the sheriff's department and paramedics arrived to the scene, the sheriff immediately took his daughter and son into his arms and hugged them tightly, placing a kiss on Ella's forehead. He then ordered for a paramedic to check Ella's wound, and fortunately, it's only needed a layer on antibacterial cream and gauze bandage. Stiles stood beside Ella, holding her small hand and in his other hand he held her black round-framed glasses. "Mr. Argent, you wouldn't have any insight into this, would you?" Noah asked Allison's father, causing the twins to look their way. The paramedic finished with the bandaging and gave Ella a lollipop, Ella furrowed her brows at it then handed it to Stiles who took it with no question and unwrapped it, putting it in his mouth. "Me?" Chris Argent asked. "Yeah. All this bizarre animal behavior, it's you must have seen something like this before, right?" Noah asked.

"I'm not sure why I would or why you would think I would," Chris shook his head. "I'm sorry. I-I could've sworn I overheard my son talking about how you were an experienced hunter," Noah said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. Chris looked over at Stiles who took the lollipop out of his mouth and looked down for a second before making sure Chris wasn't looking at him then stuck the blowpop in his mouth again. "Ah, right. Well, not anymore," Chris informed, glancing over at his daughter. Noah nodded then looked over at Allison, "You all right?" Allison nodded, "Yeah."

Noah nodded again before heading over to his children. Stiles raised a hand, "Way to throw me under the bus, dad." Noah shook his head and got Ella's glasses from Stiles's hand, placing them gently on Ella's nose. Ella sighed as she closed her eyes then opened them. "There's my ocean eyed princess," Noah stated, putting a hand on Ella's non-injured cheek. Noah's hand was rough, yet Ella still leaned into his hand. "You'll be okay, right?" Noah asked his children. The twins nodded, looking at each other, then nodding again at their father. "All right. Take your sister home, Stiles," Noah ordered before walking away. "Should we tell Scott about this?" Ella asked.

Stiles nodded and got his phone out of his pocket, quickly dialing Scott's number, when he picked up, Stiles and Ella made their way into the hall way, "We got a serious problem at school. Ms. Blake's class." "Hey, can you tell me about it later?" Scott asked. "Well, no, pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion," Ella said, taking the phone away from Stiles which made him scoff. At the sound of Ella's voice, Scott gave in, "All right, then meet me at Derek's." Stiles took the phone back from his twin, "Derek's house, what? What the hell are you doing at—"

Just meet us here, okay?" Scott asked before hanging up. "Can we get food first?" Ella asked, causing Stiles to stop and squint at her, shaking his head. Stiles sighed, "I'm not getting McDonalds again." "In N Out, it is then," Ella said, pumping a fist in the air and walking out of the school with Stiles rolling his eyes behind her. "You never stop eating!"