𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐀 | 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐊𝐈

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"You okay down there?" I smirk down at Stiles. We're both on the climbing wall for PE and I'm slightly ahead of him. He looks up at me, snorts and shakes his head at me.

"I could easily catch up."

"Uh-huh." I tease as I reach up and grab onto another climbing hold.

"I could!" Stiles exclaims as he rushes to catch up with me. I laugh and slow down and when he's by my side he smirks at me. Like actually smirks. I've never seen Stiles smirk before but I like it. "Told you." He goes on to joke, "Y'know I only was only letting you win."

I gape at him, "So rude." I nudge him playfully and he does it back. "Hey!" I giggle.

I nudge Stiles a bit harder and he laughs, "You shouldn't've done that." He then proceeds to take my hand off the wall.

"Stiles!" I yell as I lose my balance, but since he's holding my hand he loses his balance also. We both fall down to the ground but stop a foot off because of our harnesses. I let my head fall back as I guffaw but it quickly dies down as Coach comes into view.

"You two really have to stop flirting with each other in my class. It's nauseating." Coach comments and everyone laughs. I widen my eyes and look to Stiles, who shrugs at Scott. I undo my carabiners so I'm set free and quickly get to my feet and join Allison and Lydia in the crowd. Allison wiggles her eyebrows at me and I swat her arm.

"Shush."

"Okay, next two." Coach instructs and Scott and Erica then get harnessed up and begin to climb the wall. Scott completes it within seconds, obviously, but Erica seems to be struggling a few metres off the ground.

She begins to shake and hyperventilate. I creep closer to the wall as everyone starts to take notice.

"Erica? Dizzy? Is it vertigo?" Coach calls up to her.

Lydia frowns at him and remarks, "Vertigo's a dysfunction of the vestibular system of the inner ear. She's just freaking out."

"Erica, what's wrong?" I shout up to her but it's like she can't hear me through her panic. "Right."

I sigh to myself before making my way onto the matt and grabbing onto the wall. I start to climb up as Allison informs Coach that Erica's epileptic. Crap, I need to be fast. I quickly climb up to the same height as Erica, right as Coach notices what I've done.

"Gilbert! What are you doing?!" He says erratically, "Get down, now!"

I ignore him and focus on Erica who's looking upwards. "Erica, hey, listen to me." I say softly and she shakily moves her head to look at me. She's extremely pale, tears are in her eyes and sweat is beading on her forehead. I hear people calling on me and Erica to get down but I tune it out. "It's going to be okay. You're harness is on." I gesture to the rope and she glances at it. "All you need to do is kick off and the matt will catch you, okay?"

She shakes her head as she whimpers, "I-I can't."

"Yes, you can Erica." I nod supportively as I keep my tone calm and collected. "You can do this. Just hold onto the rope and gently bounce off."

Erica slowly nods and does as I told her. She places one hand on the rope and then the other before kicking off of the wall and gradually lowering herself to the ground.

I face the wall and breathe a sigh of relief before climbing down. Once I reach the bottom I turn and Erica's walking through the crowd as people snicker at her. I frown at them, "Assholes." Before going to go after her but Stiles catches my arm.

"What the hell was that?" He questions, his eyes wide.

"I was helping her unlike everyone else who was shouting random stuff at her. She needed to be calmed down." I explain and Stiles sighs.