[ t w e n t y s i x ]

t w e n t y s i xs t r o n g e r i n n u m b e r s

"SHE ATE THE LIVER?" Asked Amelia in disgust as they walked to the door of the school.

It was Monday morning, and all the gossip and news around was that Lydia Martin, one of the most popular girls in school, was running naked around the woods by being attacked by a rabid animal.

Amelia noticed that if it wasn't because of Lydia, much people wouldn't even approach her. She was starting to think she should ask Allison how to be nicer, or how to smile more at least. In exchange, she could teach her how to hid a dagger in your boot without hurting your skin.

"No, I didn't say she ate it. I just said it was missing," clarified Stiles, as if that made anything better. "And you know what? Even if she did, so what? It's the most nutritious part of the body?"

"I never ate anyone's liver," mumbled Scott looking to his best friend.

Amelia laughed at the idea of Scott eating someone's liver.

"Yea, right, 'cause when it comes to werewolves, you're a real model of self-control," said Amelia sarcastically. "I had your senses during a full moon and it was the worst thing that has ever happened to me."

"Actually, wait, hold on," stopped them Stiles before pointing at Scott. "Amelia's right. You're the taste case for this, so we should be going over what happened to you."

"What do you mean?"

Amelia clicked her tongue. "He means, what was going through your mind when you were turning, you know? What was your little doggie-dog heart drawn to?" She pinched him on the arms, making him upset.

"Suddenly, I feel back in third grade," he murmured.

Yeah, when they were little kids, Amelia would always make fun of Scott. He hated it, he always had. Now that they were back being best friends, she quickly picked on her old habits, and he wasn't enjoying himself now that the two lived in the same house.

"Allison," Scott replied to the question.

"Okay, nothing else? Seriously?" Asked Stiles in disbelief.

"Nothing else mattered."

"Okay, Shakespeare, ease it up a bit," told him Amelia.

"But, no, that's good, though, right? 'Cause the night that Lydia was bit, she was with the two of you."

Stiles sighed. "Not quite. She was looking for Jackson."

"Well, that's gonna be a pain in the ass," Amelia said. "Don't you guys have practice or something?" Stiles and Scott groaned in unison while the girl chuckled. "Don't complain. I'll support you on the bleachers."

The three entered the building, ready to start their day back at school.

• • •

Amelia entered the chemistry lab before sitting next to Isaac. The guy looked at her and she smiled at him before looking towards Mr. Harris, who was handling sheets of paper.

"Not a pop quiz..."

Amelia and her grades were not in a good position in their relationship right now. She had been so focused on catching the alpha, escaping from her dad, liking Stiles and trying to control her new abilities that honestly, school was the lowest thing in her list of priorities.

"You're gonna do great," Isaac whispered to her, making her smile before Mr. Harris left the pop quiz in front of her. The girl exhaled before writing her name on the paper.

If the quiz wasn't hard enough, he could hear Stiles and Scott whispering on the other side of the class. She knew it had to do something about Lydia, but her stolen werewolf abilities, like Scott once called them, didn't work when she pleased, so it's not like she could hear what they were talking about.

Scott offered to teach her, but she didn't have time to learn either, she had a lot to do.

Amelia found really strange that she now shared some abilities with Scott, and he wondered if Scott could identify an specific werewolf by the way it made noise, just like she did. She wondered if Scott had some of her abilities. Not because she wanted an excuse to complain to Scott about stealing her powers.

"This is a pop quiz, Mr. Stilinski," told Mr. Harris, making Amelia look up from her blank paper. "If I hear your voice again, I may be tempted to give you detention for the rest of your high school career."

"Can you do that?" Her boyfriend asked, making Amelia roll her eyes before looking down at her paper again.

She didn't know the answer to the first question.

"Well, there it is again. Your voice. Triggering the only impulse I've ever had to strike a student repeatedly and violently." Amelia tried not to laugh as she noticed she was the only one that found it funny, well except for Danny and Jackson at the back. "I'll see you at 3:00 for detention." She saw as Scott turned around to look at his friend. "You, too, Mr. McCall?"

"No, sir," was quick to reply Scott, making Amelia roll her eyes.

She looked down to her quiz, noticing that Isaac had slid a piece of paper towards her.

With the answers.

The girl was about to say something but she remembered the whole detention/impulse to strike a student violently thing that Mr. Harris had said and decided to remain silent, but still giving him a tiny smile.

• • •

As she walked out of her French class, she approached her locker and opened it, leaving her text books inside.

"La chaussure vole au-dessus de la mer," she heard someone say next to her and she looked to her side, noticing a guy over there.

"Excuse me?"

"You take French? Third period?" He asked, pointing at her textbooks.

"I do, actually... did you know what you just say?"

"Honestly?" Amelia roll her eyes before smiling mockingly.

"You said that the shoe flies over the sea," told him as she closed the locker, staring at him. He was embarrassed. "Didn't mean to put you in the spotlight."

"I'm not used to it so... I actually take French with you." She raised her eyebrows. "I spend most of the classes drawing in my notebook."

"I can see that, flying shoe," he chuckled. "Nice camera," Amelia said, pointing to the camera in the guy's hand.

He simply smiled at her before she waved him goodbye, walking away.

He seemed like a nice guy.

• • •

They peaked they heads around the statues like they were some kind of cartoon. The three of them looking at this old senior man arriving to the seats where Allison was, greeting the Argents with such coldness, Amelia could sense it from that far.

"They are a family of weirdos," whispered Amelia before Scott looked at her, upset. "Hey, me too, but she and I turned up alright, didn't we?"

"Her, yes, you, still in doubt." Amelia rolled her eyes before the three looked at the Argents again.

"Who the hell is that?" Asked Stiles, referring to the old man in the Ralph Lauren suit.

They saw as Allison and the man turned around to look at the statue, the three quickly hiding.

"He's definitely an Argent," mumbled Scott.

"That same death stare," whispered Amelia before the three peaked their head around the statue again.

Scott waved at the girl, and Amelia rolled her eyes. She was lucky that Stiles wasn't as cheesy with her as Scott was with Allison, yet, she sometimes wish he was.

I don't know, showing up to your dead aunt's funeral even thought your father banned him from seeing you ever again Shakespearean style just to keep you company sounded pretty romantic.

"Hey, you know, maybe they're just here for the funeral," suggested Stiles. "I mean, what if they're the non-hunting side of the family?"

"I have one..." added the girl and Stiles raised her eyebrows as she was helping his point. "I don't know any of them though."

"I know what they are," said Scott. "They're reinforcements."

"I used to have those too," murmured the girl. "Now they just want to kill me."

The three looked over the funeral again right when she saw as Scott and Stiles were being grabbed and pull back, she quickly standing up to look at the sheriff, grabbing the best friends by their jackets.

"The three of you. Unbelievable," whispered Stiles's dad. "Pick up my tie."

"Got it, sorry." The girl inched over, picking up the sheriff's tie before giving it back to the man.

• • •

The three of them were at the back of the sheriff's patrol. Amelia was in the middle of the two, and she was really uncomfortable. She was indeed small, but she was carrying a bag with a disassembled compound bow, a dozen arrows including lethal ones, and a dagger in her boot.

So yeah, she was uncomfortable.

"4-1-5 Adam," said a man through the radio, making Stiles look up.

"I didn't copy that," said the sheriff. "Did you say 4-1-5 Adam?"

Stiles leaned in towards his girlfriend and best friend. "Disturbance in a car." He told them in a whisper.

Why was that important? Clearly it was important, she was just not getting it.

"They were taking a heart attack victim, D.O.A., but on the way to the hospital, something hit 'em."

"What, hit the ambulance?"

Oh, so that's why it is important...

"Copy that," said the guy on the radio. "I'm standing in front of it right now." Amelia looked to her side as her boyfriend leaned in towards the front, hearing closely to what the officer was saying. "Something got in the back. There's blood everywhere. And I mean everywhere."

"Alright, unit four, what's your 20?" Asked the sheriff.

Stiles had to teach her police cop. She worked at a station and didn't understand a thing he was saying right now.

"Route 5 and Post. I swear, I've never seen anything like this."

Before she could say anything, she was being dragged out of the car by Stiles and Scott, and being insisted to take out the tranquilizer.

• • •

"You want me to shoot her?" She asked murmuring as they walked through the woods, near the ambulance. "It's Lydia we're talking about!"

"With a tranquilizer!" Exclaimed Scott in a whisper. "And just in case she's turning and losing control."

She had her bow assembled and her arrows on the back, with the arrow with the green end tensed on the string.

The three were standing behind a little hill, watching over at the ambulance and the cops. It was getting dark, and that would mean hunters tracking Lydia again. Amelia was the only one thinking of that possibility.

"What the hell is Lydia doing?" Asked Stiles when they noticed the state of the person inside the car.

It was indeed a bloodbath.

"I don't know..." mumbled Scott. "You have the tranquilizer?"

"Could we please stop treating Lydia like a rabid dog?"

"Are you seeing that ambulance!?" Snapped Stiles.

Amelia stammered before looking at it again. It looked bad, but she didn't smell werewolf in Lydia when they were at her hospital room.

Although she hasn't been smelling any werewolves lately.

"What kept you from doing this?" Stiles asked his best friend. "Was it Allison?"

"I hope so."

"If I'm being honest, I don't feel like connecting to Lydia anytime soon." Both Scott and Stiles looked over at her. "What?"

Stiles turned around to look at Scott. "Do you need to get closer?"

He started to sniff, making her wish she had their shared abilities under control so she could do stuff like that too.

"I got it," said Scott.

Now? She was losing the ones she already had. She was taking longer to heal, she was slower, she couldn't smell or hear as she could before.

She blamed it on the Derek thing, that her link being handling by a thread was causing her to be weaker.

But... she thought about what Scott said the other day, how they were stronger in numbers. And maybe, she needed a pack.

She had one, until her father turned her back on her.

So many things could be triggering this kind of weakness she was having.

When Scott was about to leave to look for Lydia, Amelia stopped him, grabbing him by the jacket.

"I just... I need you to find her." Scott raised his eyebrows. "After you guys she was my only friend... so just please... find her, Scott..."

Scott looked at his protector before nodding, noticing how important it was for her and kinda feeling bad about the whole tranquilizer situation.

She let him go while Stiles and her stayed together.

"He's gonna find her."

• • •

Stiles was hugging Amelia by the waist as she looked down at her fingers. She had put her bow again in her bag while they waited for Scott to be back next to the Sheriff.

"Ames," he called her and she looked at him, "I can feel you shaking. Do you want my jacket?"

"No, I just," she whispered, "I just want to get home..."

"I can ask my dad to drive you to the McCall's—"

"No," she said, interrupting him. "Home..."

Stiles looked at her for a few seconds, understanding what she was asking.

"Amelia..."

"I left my father as food for wolves, Stiles," she whispered. "I took my sister and left my mom behind. My mom is human, Stiles, and I left her."

Stiles ran his fingers through her hair before caressing her cheek.

"You did what you had to do, Ames," he murmured. "But your dad is going to be back, maybe not for the kindest reasons, but he will bring your mom and we will... free her."

Amelia thought about it for a few seconds before telling him.

"There's something I need to tell you about..." The guy raised his eyebrows. "It's about..."

"Lydia?" He asked as he drove his eyes away from his girlfriend, looking up. "Is that—?"

Amelia turn around to look at the girl, naked, coming from the woods.

"Oh my God..." whispered Amelia.

The girl proceeded to run towards Lydia, taking out her jacket and placing it around the girl.

Now... what on Earth was she?