The Other McCall

Chapter 2

As soon as Allison and I sat down on the bleachers at the lacrosse field, Stiles ran over to me, pulling me off of them. I turned back to Allison. "I'll be back in a second." I told her as I allowed Stiles to pull me away. "What is it?" I asked him as he stopped pulling.

"I overheard my dad on the phone. The fiber analysis came back from the lab in L.A. They found animal hairs on the body from the woods!" I looked at Stiles' face, searching for an answer.

"It wasn't a wolf right?" Stiles said nothing, staring me down. "That's impossible Stiles. You know as well as I do that wolves aren't in California." But Stiles just sighed, giving me all the answers I needed. "What does that mean Stiles?" I ask him. Both of our eyes follow Scott who is talking to the team.

"I don't know Isabella." Suddenly the whistle blew and Stiles smiled at me before running over to the team huddle. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair as I walked back to Allison, sitting next to her. After what I assume was Coach's inspirational speech, the players disbursed, some sitting on the bench (Stiles) and some on the field (Scott and Jackson). The tryout started with a simple scrimmage type game. I watched Scott as he bounced on the balls of his feet while he waited for the ball to be thrown his way. When the ball finally heads his way, he catches it with little effort. He starts running down the field, but when he spins around to avoid getting the ball stolen by another player, Jackson appears out of nowhere and tackles him hard. I sighed, watching Scott get back up. He turns to me and Allison and we both smile at him, me giving him a thumbs up. The tryout continues with another round. Scott and Jackson are up against each other for the start-off, and the two stare at each other until Coach blows the whistle. Scott easily snatches the ball before Jackson can react, forcing him to chase after him as fast as he can. Everyone watches in awe as Scott spins out of the way when the other players try to tackle him, jumping over another player's ankle when they try to trip him, and finally, doing a hands-free round-off flip over three players who attempted to knock him down together, and shooting the goal by throwing the ball between the goalie's legs. No one reacted for a second before everyone on the bleachers stood up and cheered. The players on the field all run up to Scott and pat him on the back.

Coach called over my brother and talked to him. We didn't hear much of anything. All that we did hear and see was the large smile on my brother's face as Coach announced that he made the first string. Scott looked up at me and I smiled at him, giving him a double thumbs up. Scott and Allison both wave at each other before the rest of the team envelopes Scott in a huddle. That is everyone except Stiles and Jackson. Jackson is just pouting. But Stiles and I share a look. There is definitely something going on with my brother. And we need to figure out what.

✧

After practice, Scott went home. He apparently had a date with Allison tonight at that party and wanted to get ready. Who knew boys would need longer than girls to get ready for something? I, on the other hand, was dragged to Stiles' house. "What are we looking for?" I asked Stiles. He looked at me as he opened his laptop, typing something in. "Lycanthropy? Seriously? You think my brother is a werewolf?" I ask Stiles.

"It would explain the wolf fur my dad found, the sensitive hearing and smelling and everything he just did at tryouts today. I mean, have you ever seen Scott do that?" I sighed, shaking my head as I sat down on Stiles' bed.

"Ok, fine. Let's do some research." And that was all the permission Stiles' needed to start looking things up. He focused on the internet, while I read the books Stiles had grabbed from the library. I had never seen him so prepared before. I read through an entire book about the history of Werewolves, the first Werewolf, and wolfs-bane. I felt silly but the stuff I was reading actually seemed to apply itself to Scott. Stiles had printed dozens of pages of articles he found online, most of them lying on his bedroom floor. When I finished reading my book, I looked over at Stiles. "Ok, let's say that this is true." Stiles turns around in his chair and looks at me. "Let's say my brother is a werewolf. What then? What do we do when a full moon comes?" I heard Stiles sigh but then he sat back up and pulled a pair of handcuffs from his desk drawer.