[ t w e l v e ]

t w e l v eo w n t h e b o a r d

ECONOMICS WITH COACH WASN'T ONE OF AMELIA'S FAVORITE CLASSES, YET SHE ENJOYED THAT SHE GOT TO SIT IN FRONT TO STILES. The guy gave her a tiny smile as they both sat down closer to each other, right before being interrupted by the Coach talking.

"Let's go. Sit, sit, sit, sit. We got a lot to cover today," he insisted to the students that were arriving to the classroom. "Let's go."

"Stiles, sit behind me," Scott told the guy, and Scott was about to move from her position behind Amelia, but Allison was quicker, taking the spot. "Hey," he said to the girl.

"Hey," she replied back, "I haven't seen you all day."

"Uh, yeah," he tried to avoid, looking for a cover up. "I've been super busy."

"When are you gonna get your phone fixed? I feel like I'm totally disconnected from you," said the girl to him and Amelia saw as he raised his eyebrows.

"Uh, soon. Real soon," he answered. Amelia could hear his heartbeat. The guy was nervous.

"I changed lab partners, by the way." Amelia turned around to look at Stiles, who was as shock as she was.

"Oh, to who?" Asked dumbly Scott, making Allison chuckle.

"To you, dummy."

"That's second hand embarrassment," whispered Amelia towards Stiles, looking at him. The guy was focused more on the conversation Scott was having than what she was saying. "Hey, Stiles?"

"Huh?" He said, still listening to Scott and Allison.

"You wanna be my lab partner? I mean, Scott totally ditched you and, I don't know. Maybe this time I can help you with something else rather than Greek mythology. That's if you want me to spend time at your place, of course."

"Huh?" The guy repeated, clearly not paying attention to what she was saying.

Amelia looked at him angrily for a few seconds before turning around again, staring at Coach instead.

He saw as the guy hit his desk with the textbook, making everyone jump a little.

"Wait..." she heard Stiles saying before leaning in towards her. "What did you ask me? Was it important? Did I miss it?"

She ignored him, paying attention to what Coach was talking about.

"Let's start with a quick summary of last night's reading. Greenberg out your hand down. Everybody knows you did the reading." He stepped in front of his desk. "How about..."

Amelia immediately looked towards the ground, trying to be subtle about it. She did the reading, she just didn't like to talk.

"McCall."

Oh crap.

"What?" Was the thing Scott said. Definitely not a good start.

"The reading," repeated Coach.

"Last night's reading?"

Dammit, Scott.

Amelia played with her pencil as she watched Coach looked intensely at Scott. She did not want to be involved in this.

"How about the reading of The Gettysburg Address?"

"What?" was the thing Scott asked.

"That's sarcasm," was what Coach said. "Are you familiar with the term 'sarcasm', McCall?"

Scott turned around to look at his best friend. "Very."

"Did you do the reading or not?" Asked Coach again, making Scott nervous.

"Uhm... I think I forgot."

Amelia knew this wasn't going to end well, and she wanted to protect Scott from the embarrassment. She also knew that if she shot Coach with one of her arrows, it wasn't going to end well.

"Nice work, McCall. It's not like you're not averaging a 'D' in this class." Amelia turned around to look at Stiles quickly before looking at Coach again. "You know I can't keep you on the team if you have a 'D'," whispered the teacher to Scott.

Stiles didn't have to show Amelia the heart monitor for her to know that Scott's heart rate was increasing.

"Why don't you summarize the previous night's reading?" Silence. "No? How about the night before that?" More silence. "How about you summarize anything you've ever read in your entire life?"

"I..."

"No? A blog? How about... How about the back of a cereal box?"

Stiles showed the screen to Amelia, confirming what she feared.

This was going to end badly.

"No? How about the adults-only warning from your favorite website you visit every night?" Amelia raised her eyebrows. Woah, Coach had no compassion. "Anything?" Scott remained quiet. "Thank you, McCall, thank you. Thank you, McCall!" He hit the desk two times. "Thank you for extinguishing any last flicker of hope I have for your generation. You just blew it for everybody. Thanks. Next practice you can start with suicide runs. Unless that's too much reading."

Amelia heard as Scott's heartbeat started slowing down. She turned around to look at Stiles, who was as shocked as she was.

They both looked under Allison desk, noticing that her and Scott were holding hands.

• • •

"It's her," was the first thing Stiles said as they stepped out of class.

"What do you mean?" Asked Scott.

Amelia decided to remain silent for this one. She was still a little bit upset with Stiles for ignoring her request of being lab partners earlier.

"It's Allison," continued the hazel-eyed boy. "Remember what you told us about the night of the full moon? You were thinking about her, right? About protecting her."

"Okay," agreed Scott.

"Remember the night of the first lacrosse game? You said you could hear her voice out on the field."

"Yeah, I did," recalled Stiles. Amelia raised her eyebrows as she kept hearing the conversation. She simply ran her fingers through her hair, trying to ignore it.

"Well, so that's what brought you back so you could score. And then after the game in the locker room, you didn't kill her. At least not like you were trying to kill me and Amelia." Stiles sighed before continuing. "She brings you back, is what I'm saying."

"No, no, no, but it's not always true," argued Scott, "because every time I'm kissing her, or touching her..."

"No, that's not the same," intervened Amelia. She couldn't keep quiet. "When you're doing that, you're just another hormonal teenager thinking about sex, you know?" The girl heard Scott's heartbeat when she pronounced the word, making her look at him abruptly. "You are thinking about sex right now, aren't you!?"

"Yeah... sorry." The girl rolled her eyes, letting Stiles continue.

"Look, back in the classroom, when she was holding your hand, that was different, okay? I don't think she makes you weak. I think she actually gives you control. She's kind of like an anchor."

The three stopped mid-hallway, looking at each other.

"You mean because I love her..."

"Exactly..."

Silence.

"Did I just say that?" Amelia couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, you just said that," Stiles mocked him.

"I love her," said Scott again, making Amelia cross her arms.

"Aww," was the thing she said, looking at the guy she was protecting. "The little doggie is in love."

"That's great, now moving on..."

"No, no, no," said Scott quickly. "I think... I'm totally in love with her."

"And that's beautiful," snapped Stiles. "Now, before you go and write a sonnet can we figure this out, please? Because you obviously can't be around her all the time! And we also have to discuss the thing about Amelia and the pact."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry." Scott looked at his best friend. "What thing with Amelia?"

"Later!" Yelled the girl. "So, what do we do with Scott and Allison?"

Stiles sighed before doing one of his weird hand gestures. "I don't know yet."

Stiles moved in circles for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling before biting his lower lip, looking at Scott and Amelia.

"You're getting an idea, aren't you?" Asked Amelia with her arms still crossed.

"Yeah," replied Stiles.

"Is this idea gonna get us all in trouble?" Questioned Scott.

"Amelia and I no. You? Maybe..."

"Is this idea gonna cause me physical pain?"

"Yeah, definitely. Let's go."

The girl followed the two best friends, knowing that she'll regret it later.

• • •

"What are we doing?" Asked Amelia.

"You'll see," replied Stiles. "Hold on."

They were at the parking lot, which was not a good sign. Amelia was actually thinking that Stiles was going to get Scott in serious trouble.

Stiles looked behind him, noticing a few guys talking to each other against the brick wall. He turned around again, staring at his best friend.

"Stand right there. Do you have your keys?" Stiles asked Scott and he took them out of his pocket. "Perfect. Hold 'em up like... so."

Stiles place Scott's hand up, holding the tip of one of his keys out.

"Now, whatever happens, just think about Allison," tried to ease him Stiles. "Try to find her voice, like you did at the game. Got it?" Scott nodded quickly before Stiles looked behind him again. "Okay. Just keep holding it right there."

Amelia followed Stiles as he approached the black truck parked in front of them. She saw as Stiles pulled out from his pocket his set of keys, scratching the truck with it and then walking away completely normally.

"Hey! Dude!" Yelled as Amelia and him turned around, looking at Scott. "What do you think you're doing to that truck, bro!?"

The guys against the brick wall noticed it, and they approached Scott angrily.

"Stiles, this is a bad idea," whispered Amelia to him, but Stiles quickly turned around, giving his back to his best friend as he started getting punched.

"What were you saying in class? I didn't hear you and I kinda have the doubt. Was it important? We're you telling me something important?"

Amelia couldn't believe Stiles was asking her about that while Scott was being beaten up by four muscular guys.

"Now it's not the time!" She exclaimed before the heart monitor started beeping again, gaining both of their attentions. "That can't be good."

"Come on, Scott, stay calm. Come on..."

But Amelia was to focused on what was going on to even cared about Scott's heartbeat right now.

The guy she swore she would protect was getting hurt, and she couldn't do anything about it. She had to. She had to do something.

She couldn't stand there while Scott was bleeding and getting beaten up.

"Amelia," Stiles whispered, "your eyes..."

She was quick to close them up.

"Own the chessboard. Control the pieces of the game."

As she opened her eyes, she saw Mr. Harris interrupting the fight, making the four guys run away.

"What do you idiots think you're doing?" Asked the teacher angrily.

Amelia noticed that Stiles was holding the heart monitor proudly. His heartbeat was steady again.

• • •

The three of them were sitting in the chemistry lab. Stiles was next to her while Scott was in front. While Scott was staring at the clock on the wall, Stiles was playing with one of Amelia's bracelets, trying to distract himself.

Amelia was pissed. She was pissed at the guy that hit Scott, she was pissed at Stiles for getting her in detention, she was pissed at Mr. Harris for being a total jerk as always...

And she was pissed at herself, because she didn't know what was going on with her powers.

Stiles said her eyes turned purple. They had only turned purple when there was a werewolf around and she wanted to kill him. Her eyes turned purple at the animal clinic, when Derek's arm was about or be chopped-off with an electric saw and she really wanted to do it. Her eyes also turned purple early that morning, when she had the opportunity to hit Scott with several lacrosse balls.

But now, her eyes turned purple for a reason she couldn't understand. Her bloodlust indeed increased, but as against the guys who were beating up Scott.

She wanted to kill them.

"Excuse me, sir?" Scott voice interrupted her thoughts, making her look up. "I know it's detention and all, but, I'm supposed to be at work, and I don't want to get fired."

Amelia looked down to her arm, noticing that Stiles still was playing with her charm bracelet. She decided not to comment on it.

After Mr. Harris ignored him, Scott turned around to look at Stiles.

"You knew I would heal."

"Yep."

"So you did that to help me learn?"

"Yep," replied again Stiles as he looked up from Amelia's bracelet, staring at his best friend.

"But partially to punish me..."

"Oh yeah... well, that one's obvious."

"Dude... you're my best friend, and I can't have you being angry with me. I can't have you trying to get me killed, I already have Amy for that." Amelia chuckled before looking down to her notebook.

"I'm not angry anymore," admitted Stiles in a whisper. "Look, you have something, Scott. Okay? Whether you want it or not, you can do things nobody else can do. So that means you don't have a choice anymore. It means you have to do something."

"I know," Scott whispered back. "And I will."

They remained in silence for a few seconds before Harris spoke.

"Okay, the three of you, get out of here."

Amelia stood up from her chair and left the chemistry lab quickly before Stiles could stop her.

"Now... I have to fix whatever I did to her," whispered Stiles as he stood up.

"If her eyes turn purple, you know she's angry."

Stiles followed her out of the lab quickly, reaching out to her and standing in front of her, catching his breath.

"Why are you pissed at me? Does this have to do with the thing you told me earlier that I didn't get?"

"Partially," she admitted, holding her books close to her chest. "Look, Stiles, I get it! I left you and Scott in fourth grade after promising you with a RingPop that I'll be your best friend till the three grow old, and I can understand why Scott is pissed at me and it's because I hadn't talked to him since, but I thought you were different! I thought you knew why I decided to remain distant from him. But honestly, ever since I started hanging out with you guys I feel like... Scott's Batman, you are Robin and I'm... Albert, or something."

"You are not Albert. You are more like CatWoman but she is good but she's also bad—"

"I don't want to be anything, Stiles!" She yelled. "I want to be your friend again... I want... I don't know. I feel like I'm third-wheeling in a friendship and I don't know how's that even possible! Even Scott said it in there: he can't have his best friend trying to kill him because he already has me for it. He doesn't even consider me a friend."

"Amelia, you have to understands. You just joined out of nowhere, and you tried to kill Scott more than once so you are not aspiring much confidence."

She exhaled deeply before continuing.

"You said I wasn't a killer." Stiles raised his eyebrows. "Did you mean that? Or did you just say it because you care about me?"

"Amelia..."

"I tried to kill Scott, Stiles, your best friend, and I almost succeeded. Every time I see him, there's a part of me that wants to stab him. And you know that, so just please tell me... did you mean it?"

Stiles looked at her for a few seconds.

"Yes, I meant it," he murmured. "You are not a killer, Ames, if you were, Scott wouldn't be alive."

She stared at him. "I really want to believe that, Stiles," she admitted in a whisper. "What I asked you earlier, in Economics, was if you wanted to be my lab partner since Scott ditched you for Allison..."

"I would love to—"

"I'll just stick with Isaac," she interrupted. "I just need to clear some things up."

The girl quickly turned around, walking away. She knew that she would never be friends with Scott and Stiles like they used to be when they were kids, but being sure of it was a different kind of pain.