Second Chances - Stiles Stilinski (Season 1)

Chapter 15: The Heart Rate Monitor Monitor

Natalie

Scott walks up to the lacrosse field tentatively as Stiles slaps the lacrosse cradle against his hand.

"Well, well, well, looks like class is in session," Stiles yells to him as he rests the stick on his shoulder. I also try to look intimidating as I toss a lacrosse ball up and down in my one hand. Scott smiles to me and I wave.

"No!" Stiles snaps, slapping my hand down. "This is serious business." He leans over to grab something out of his backpack. He tosses it to Scott.

"Isn't this a heart rate monitor from the track team?" he asks as he inspects it.

"Yeah, we're borrowing it!" I add, a little too enthusiastically. I can't help that I am in a good mood after what happened in Coach's office. Stiles catches my mood and gives me a knowing grin. 

"Stole it," Scott corrects, a sly smile on his face.

"Temporarily misappropriated. Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate when he jogs. You're wearing it for the rest of the day." Stiles waves a cell phone at Scott. "I can track you on this."

"That's Coach's phone?"

"Okay," Stiles smiles at it fondly, "This we stole."

"But why?" Scott questions, putting the heart monitor on.

"Your heart rate goes up when you're wolfing out," I say, throwing the ball to Stiles.

"When you play lacrosse, when you're with Allison, whenever you're angry. Learning to control your heart, learn to control your wolf." Stiles adds, tossing the ball to Scott who catches it quickly.

"Like the Incredible Hulk," Scott grins.

"Yeah, sure, like the Hulk!" I say as I catch the ball Scott tosses to me. Stiles is grabbing duct tape from his bag.

"What's that for?" I ask him as he walks over to Scott. He takes Scott's wrists and tapes them behind his back while pushing him to the middle of the field. Scott makes confused eye contact with me and I shrug my shoulders.

"You can be my token heart rate monitor monitor," Stiles says, jogging up to me and handing me Coach's phone. He then reaches into his backpack, and grabs multiple lacrosse balls.

"Alright, here we go lover boy." Scott's eyes widen as Stiles chucks a ball as hard as he can against his chest.

Every ball that hit him made an audible smack followed by a loud groan from Scott. I covered my mouth to try and not giggle. Scott seemed visibly annoyed, especially when Stiles opts for the lacrosse stick to help his efforts. His hands are tightly bound behind his back, leaving him exposed to each thwack of the balls.

"Focus on your heart, Scott!" I yell to him, looking down at the monitor. I can see it rising rapidly as he falls to his knees, a ball bouncing off of his head. The beat rises to 160.

He snaps his head up, his eyes golden. His breathing is growing heavier, like it did in the locker room the day he attacked us. He snaps out of the duct tape, his hands pressing into the ground. I look nervously at Stiles as he protectively pushes me behind him. The number rises to 163, 164, 165, 164, 163...

"It's dropping," I whisper, both of us looking to Scott. Across the field, he rolls over to his back as his heart drops below 150.

"You alright Scott? You started changing," Stiles asks as he jogs over.

"The anger, it made me feel stronger. The angrier I was, the stronger I was." Stiles and I look uneasily at each other.

"I can't be around Allison anymore," he says sadly, looking to the sky. Stiles and I lay down on either side of him. I listen to the sound of his breathing as it slows.