Werefox

Chapter Nine

Stiles swallowed as the bell rung, the others in the classroom finally filling in with the rest of the class as the woman began to speak. He didn't catch her name, because his ears were ringing, but he heard that she was only a substitute and their teacher had left them a packet to do.

Stiles nodded in thanks when she handed him a packet, flinching away from where her hands touched his desk. Yeah, he thought. It's definitely foxglove. He took a deep breath to calm himself before taking a pencil out of his backpack and looking at the sheet in front of him.

Statistics, he realized what class he was in, I can do this. The sheet was surprisingly easy, as this was one of the subjects his mother taught him, claiming it would be useful when he became an adult. It wasn't his favorite math, he definitely preferred geometry, but he was still pretty good at it.

The class passed quickly when he focused on the math on the four page packet, refusing to look up at the woman that he knew was probably staring at him the whole time. He checked, re-checked, and triple-checked his packet before even daring looking up at the clock, breathing out a quiet sigh of relief as he saw there was only a few seconds in the class before he could leave and go to lacrosse with the pack.

As the bell rung, he shoved the piece of paper into his bag, not caring that it was probably going to be ripped and crumpled up when he pulled it out next, getting up quick to go out the door.

Stiles was stopped, however, when the teacher stood in front of him, a deep frown on her face as she didn't meet his eyes until every other student in the room had left.

"Now Mr. Stilinski," She said, her voice sickly sweet in a way that made Stiles want to shift into a fox and run away. "You don't need to tell anyone what you noticed today in class today, do you?"

Stiles shifted from one foot to another, knowing there was only one answer to this kind of question, nodding quickly. She smiled back a tight lipped smile, stepping to the side and allowing him to pass as he quickly sped out of the math room and to where he knew the locker rooms were.

"Where were you?" Isaac asked as Stiles dropped his bag next to the other werewolf's, who was already changed into his gear.

"I had to talk to a teacher." Stiles lied easily. "They wanted to make sure I would be able to keep up because I'm new, but it's just statistics." Isaac nodded, frowning as he smelled the fear and panic coming off the boy, but he wasn't sure if that was just because he was nervous because he was new in school and lacrosse. Foxes were also known for giving off much weaker chemosignals than any other species, so Isaac wasn't even sure if he was right.

The coach began talking to them as Stiles quickly changed, putting the pads on that he was given by the coach after the last practice with the rules of "don't mess them up or you've gotta pay for them, Bilinski."

Practice went by quick, as Stiles was still distracted by the presence of a hunter in the school. Not even that there was one there, but she smelled of foxglove and she knew who he was, knew his last name and knew what he looked like, and that scared him more than anything.

Stiles was quick to get out of the locker room as soon as practice ended, wanting nothing more to go back to the loft and get away from where the hunter could still be. He knew he was acting a bit weird to the others but he honestly didn't care and he wasn't about to tell them after she told him to stay quiet about it.

He spotted Derek's car at the edge of the parking lot where he dropped him off in that morning, and he quickly walked to the car, swiftly shutting the door behind him.

"How was your first day?" Derek asked, noticing Stiles' tense composure as he began to drive. Stiles didn't answer, only staring at his balled up hands in his lap.

He was so scared. So, so scared. What if that hunter lady had seen him get into Derek's car? What if she tried to hurt Derek to get to him? Or the rest of the pack? He had barely been their friend for a week and he was already possibly putting them in danger.

"Stiles?" Derek asked, speeding up as he saw the boy squeeze his eyes shut, breath increasing ever so slightly.

"Are we almost there?" Stiles asked, his voice sounding so small even in the little car. Derek nodded, speeding up even more as he pulled into the parking lot.

Derek practically jumped out of the car, opening Stiles door and leading him into the building, pulling him into the elevator and into the loft a few moments later.

As soon as Stiles knew they were safe in the loft with the alarm system, he fell into Derek's arms, the tears that had been threatening to fall since he walked into his maths class spilling down onto his shirt.

Derek stood shocked for a moment, staring down at the upset young boy in his arms, before quickly wrapping his arms around him, one hand reaching up into Stiles' hair and caressing his soft hair, bringing him over to the couch where they sat down, Stiles sitting on Derek's legs as the man leaned against the arm of the couch, cuddling the boy closer to his chest.

"It's fine." Derek told him, his voice soft. "It's just school, you're fine. You're safe here." Stiles' sporadic breathing began to finally slow down after a few minutes of the alpha reassuring the panicked boy hiding in his neck.

"Sorry." Stiles' voice sounded so weak, so small, and he cringed at it.

"It's not your fault." Derek said, lifting his arm up so Stiles could turn on his side, resting against Derek's hip as they were both laid on the couch, neither of them looking to move from their comfortable position now that Stiles had calmed down. "Let's watch a movie."

Stiles nodded, his head tucked under Derek's chin as the werewolf turned on another Star Wars movie. It was a popular choice between the two because Scott insisted that Stiles watch all of them and Stiles actually liked them. However, he didn't seem all that interested in the movie, because five minutes later he had fallen asleep against Derek's chest, too tired from his panic attack to stay awake any longer.