[ e l e v e n ]

e l e v e nc h e c k m a t e

"IF YOU WANT TO CONTROL YOUR POWERS, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THEM FIRST," explained her dad as he moved his Queen.

They were playing chess in the middle of the basement, surrounded by papers, guns, weapons and other things.

It was a mess, yet she was only focused on the game.

"You can hear, smell, and sense differently from humans. That what makes you different from the Argents and other hunter families," continued her dad as she moved her knight. "It's easier for us... because we see everything wolves see... but we aren't them."

"That's why the full moon doesn't affect us?" She asked and he nodded. "Why does wolfsbane affects us if we aren't wolves?"

"Wolfsbane is a street name. It's better known as Aconite. It's a poison for all supernatural creatures, such is mistletoe." The girl raised her eyebrows. "We are supernatural, but we cannot be bitten. It's by legacy, it's by genes. Remember when you were little, you would hurt your knee and then it'd heal perfectly fine the next day?" Amelia nodded. "Those were raw powers."

"But Lizzie couldn't do that. When she broke her arm, it didn't heal," remembered Amelia.

"You are different, Amelia..." He moved his queen, killing her knight. "Since you were little, your powers have... been developing. Normally, they don't appear until you are around sixteen. Your sister still doesn't have hers, and that's why she's in training. You, on the other hand, you have talent. You were born for it. You didn't have to master it... you already knew it."

"So... if I'm different," she said, "can I think different from you?"

"What do you mean?"

The girl moved her queen up to be in front of his dad king, and the man noticed what she did. She sacrificed her knight and her dad believed it.

"I don't know, just saying. Checkmate," she announced before grabbing her bag and standing up. "Gotta get to class. Love you."

She left the basement in a hurry, regretting what just happened. Now her father was going to be suspicious, and she didn't want that.

• • •

Amelia saw as Scott sat down behind Stiles. The girl dropped her bag on the floor next to her, interested in seeing how this would turn out.

"Still not talking to me?" Asked Scott to his best friend as he kept ignoring him. "Can you at least tell me if your dad's okay? I mean, it's just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage? Nothing that big?"

Stiles's dad was hurt the night of the parent/teacher conference as a mountain lion was on school grounds. And Scott wasn't returning Stiles calls that night.

The girl decided to look down at her books. It was better not to get into this conversation.

"You know I feel bad about it, right?" Stiles was still not talking to him. It surprised the girl. She'd known him for most of her life and she hasn't seen them not talking to each other for this long. "Would you tell him to talk to me?"

Amelia realized Scott was talking to her. She simply shrugged before looking at her book. Scott looked at her best friend again, trying one more time.

"What if I told you that I'm trying to figure this whole thing out, and... that I went to Derek for help?"

"Okay, this got interesting," whispered the girl closing her book before looking at the two.

She saw as Stiles sighed deeply. "If I was talking to you, I'd say that you're an idiot for trusting him. But obviously I'm not talking to you."

She felt offended because she had told Stiles she trusted Derek, but decided to let it slide. He was upset with Scott, not with her.

Not even a minute passed before Stiles turned around abruptly, looking at his best friend. Amelia chuckled to herself before sitting sideways, listening to the conversation.

"What did he say?" He asked Scott, making the werewolf smile.

• • •

As the three of them got out of the classroom at the end of class, Stiles was trying to summarize everything that Scott told them.

"He wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry?" Asked the guy and Scott nodded. "Alright, correct me if I'm wrong, but every time you do that, you try to kill someone, and that someone's usually me."

"I wish my dad would get me angry to train me," admitted the girl.

"What does he do?" Asked Stiles curiously as they walked side by side.

"We play chess," she answered before letting Scott continue talking.

"That's what he wants, that's what he means when he says that he doesn't know if he can teach me."

"Because you have too much anger?" Questioned the girl and Scott nodded. "Isn't that the— I don't understand dogs."

"I have to be able to control it," kept going Scott.

"Well, how's he gonna teach you to do that?" Asked Stiles.

"I don't know. I don't think he does either," admitted the werewolf as the three kept walking.

Amelia kinda wished her father would teach her hunting like he teaches her sister, but he said that she was already good with the physical fight.

She needed to control the emotional so that she can handle her powers.

Playing chess apparently makes your entire brain work.

It wasn't helping much as she was really good at it.

"Okay. When are you seeing him again?" Questioned Stiles.

"Can I go?" Was the thing Amelia said. "I kinda want to see you kick a tree or something."

Scott rolled his eyes before replying to Stiles question. "Just told me not to talk about it. Just act normal and get through the day—" Stiles hit him on the arm.

"When?" The hazel-eyes boy insisted.

"He's picking me up at the animal clinic after work."

"After work," he repeated in a whisper. "Alright, well, that gives me to the end of the school day."

Amelia looked at him strangely.

"To do what?" Asked Scott in confusion.

"To teach you myself."

The girl raised her eyebrows before looking at the two boys, wondering if this was even a good idea.

"Okay... I promised I'll join Allison for lunch, she said she had something about a history project to discuss, so I'll leave you guys to it. Just call me when you start the training, please, and don't do something stupid," she begged to the two best friends.

"Could you please tell Allison I said hi? Derek asked me not to talk to her. He never said I couldn't send a message."

"Bending the rules to your will is something I'd never expected to see you do," she admitted. "I'll see you guys later."

She walked towards the cafeteria, thinking about the training with her dad. Why did chess help her out in anything revolving the supernatural?

As she entered, she sat down next to Lydia and in front of Allison, just in time to hear what they were talking about.

"The what of who?" Asked the strawberry blonde as Allison read again.

"The beast of Gevaudan," replied Allison. "Hi, Amelia..."

"Hey, uhm... Scott says hi," she let her know. She noticed as Allison's smile grew. "What were you talking about?"

"The beast of Gevaudan... just listen." She looked down to her book, staring to read. "'A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and South Dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bete killed over 100 people, becoming so infamous that the King Louis XV sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it.'."

Amelia had read that story, more times than she wanted.

"Boring," said Lydia.

"'Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan.'"

Her father had that same book, that book that she stole once and she read when she was addicted to reading about mythological creatures. Why was Allison interested in it?

"Hmm, still boring," added Lydia, making Amelia smirk.

"'Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychild.'," continued reading Allison.

"Slipping-into-a-coma bored."

But Amelia was interested in what Allison was saying.

"'While others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape-shift into a man-eating monster.'."

Like a werewolf.

That was what Amelia thought, but it was clearly not what Allison was thinking.

"Any of this has anything to do with your family?" Asked Amelia, curiously, and Allison smiled.

"This," she started reading again. "'It is believed that La Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature.'." Amelia raised her eyebrows, still not understanding. "His name was Argent."

"Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?" Said Lydia.

Amelia looked down to her phone. This was worst than she thought. Allison's family wasn't just any family of hunters, they had come through generations and generations.

And Allison had no idea.

"Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like to you?"

Both girls leaned in, watching the picture on Allison's book. It was a big wolf, that she could recognized as the one of the video store.

The Alpha.

"Sealgair..." the voice of the wolf bounced on her mind, as a distant memory.

"Guys?" Asked Allison, Amelia snapping out of it. Lydia did too.

"It looks like a big wolf. See you in History."

Lydia stood up from her chair. Amelia was going to do the same as she picked up her books and placed them inside her bag. As when she was about to leave next to Allison, and arm grabbed her by the waist and pulled her out of the cafeteria.

Stiles.

"Scott. Scott, wait!" Called him Allison, but the three were already outside.

• • •

As soon as she got out from her French class, she was grabbed again by someone by her waist. She looked up from her books, noticing it was Stiles again, Scott behind him.

"Nice to see you again," she said. "Where are we going?" She was quick to ask when she saw the lacrosse sticks that Stiles was carrying.

"We are going to play some chess of our own," answered the boy. "What did you learn in French?"

"Well, I can conjugate new verbs," she told him as the three stepped outside towards the lacrosse field. "This does not look like playing chess."

Stiles left his bag on the bench and started looking for something inside of it while Scott and Amelia stood next to each other, staring at him.

"Put this on," said Stiles to his best friend as he passed him a black strap, which he took confused.

"Isn't this one of the heart rate monitors for the track team?" Doubted the werewolf and Stiles nodded.

"Yeah, I borrowed it," replied Stiles quickly.

"Stole it," corrected the werewolf while the girl sat down next to Stiles.

"Temporarily misappropriated."

"You are such a goodie-goodie, Scott," the girl said before smirking.

"Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate with his phone while he jogs," continued explaining Stiles, "and you are gonna wear it for the rest of the day."

"Isn't that Coach's phone?" pointed out Amelia towards the phone Stiles had on his hand.

"That I stole," the guy admitted, making Amelia smile.

"Why?" Asked curiously Scott towards the guy.

"Alright, well, your heart rate goes up when you go wolf, right?" Scott nodded. "When you're playing lacrosse, when you're with Allison, whenever you get angry. Maybe learning to control it is tied to learning to control your heart rate."

"Like The Incredible Hulk..."

"That's actually pretty genius, Stiles," mentioned Amelia. "You came with that on your own?"

"Well," said the guy nervously. "Yeah, I did," he bragged, making the girl chuckle.

"Back to me!" Exclaimed Scott, making both look at him.

"Would you shut up and put the strap on?" Ordered Stiles tiredly, and Scott listened.

Stiles gave Amelia a lacrosse stick and some balls while he tied Scott's hands with duct tape. The hazel-eyed boy mentioned what was the purpose of this, yet, she didn't know what to think about it.

She had never played lacrosse before, yet, she figured she would be good at it. She liked the feeling of being in the field instead of the bleachers.

"This isn't exactly how I wanted to spend my free period," mentioned Scott when Stiles finished tying him up.

"Alright, you ready?" Asked Stiles as he stepped back from the fight zone, holding the phone with the heart monitor.

"No," admitted the boy. "Why is Amelia the one that has to do it?"

"Because, she has supernatural strength and reflexes, which is going to make you get angry quicker... but remember, don't get angry."

The girl catch a ball on her net, ready to shoot it at the werewolf.

When Scott noticed the stare of the hunter, he panicked a bit.

"Stiles, her eyes are turning purple."

"Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that part. They do that sometimes."

"I'm starting to think this is a really bad idea," whispered the werewolf, but she was able to hear it.

She could hear everything he did, every move he took, every glance, every heartbeat.

"It's like playing chess," she heard her dad's voice in her mind. "You have to think three steps ahead, gain control of the chess board, move the pieces on your favor."

"Now," Stiles said to the girl as she grabbed a ball and threw it at Scott, making him groan in pain. "115, woah," he mentioned, "keep going."

Amelia caught another ball and threw it at him again, this time hitting his face.

"That one hurt, Amelia..."

"Quiet," said Stiles from the side, "remember, you're supposed to be thinking about your heart rate, alright? About staying calm."

Amelia threw another ball, and then another one.

"Staying calm, staying calm," she could her him repeat to himself. "There's no balls flying to my face..." Another ball interrupted him. "Oh! Son of a bitch!"

"You know what? I should totally try for the lacrosse team!" The girl yelled with a smile.

"You totally should, Ames!" Replied Stiles while she hit him again. The boy looked down at Scott's pulse again. "Don't get angry!"

"I'm not getting angry," replied the guy as Amelia threw another ball at him. And another one, and again, and again, and again. "Stop. Just wait. Wait, just hold on..." he begged her.

"Amelia stop shooting!" Yelled Stiles as he looked down at the heart monitor.

The girl's eyes slowly turned back to normal as she watched Scott inched over, panting.

She didn't have to look at the number on the screen, she could hear his heartbeat.

"Scott?" said Stiles as he walked towards Amelia, holding the monitor in his hand.

They saw as he ripped off the duct tape, scaring them both and making the jump.

"Do you still have that tranquilizer?" He asked her and she nodded.

"It's in my bag."

"What are you waiting for?"

The girl slowly inched over, grabbing her bag as she still stared at the guy. Stiles stopped her from taking the crossbow out, pointing out that his heartbeat was decreasing.

Stiles approached him, touching him on the shoulder before the guy looked up.

"Scott?" He said. "You started to change."

"From anger," replied Scott trying to ease his breathing. "But it was more than that. It was like the angrier I got, the stronger I felt."

Amelia approached them, standing next to Stiles with the lacrosse stick still in her hand, listening to the ramblings of the werewolf.

"So it is anger, then. Derek's right," said the girl.

"I can't be around Allison," was the thing he said.

"Just because she makes you happy?" Assumed Stiles while Amelia helped Scott stand up.

"No," the werewolf denied, "she makes me weak."

"Well that's a whole lot of crap," was the thing that left Amelia's mouth before her phone started ringing. "If it wasn't because my sister was calling me right now, I would continue discussing this."

The girl gave Stiles his lacrosse stick before walking away, picking up her phone.

"Hey, Lizzie, how's training?"

"Lonely," she replied. "I haven't seen you in so long, Amy. Where have you been? Are you hunting?"

"Sometimes, why?"

"Well, dad doesn't let me hunt. He says I'm not ready or something."

Amelia entered school grounds as she walked through the hallways, noting one of the guys from her chemistry class waiting outside Miss Morell's office.

That was good.

"But you are great with the crossbow," tried to reassure her. "Why does he think you aren't ready?"

"He said I still need practice. And that until I can't smell a werewolf then, I'm not ready. He says they smell like wet dog."

Amelia chuckled. "It's more like if you get locked up in a room where a dog has gone to the bathroom several times." She knew her sister was gagging on the other side.

"I understand why dad never wanted a dog in the house. If he had to smell that all the time, he probably didn't want to smell it when he gets home."

"Probably," said Amelia between giggles. "Hey, don't worry, Lizzie, soon, we'll both be hunting."

"I hope so, I really want to."

"You will, gotta go, bye."

Amelia hung up the call and before she could put her phone back in her pocket, the guy that she saw earlier interrupted her, taking her by surprise.

"You scared me, Isaac."

Isaac Lahey was her partner in Chemistry. They went to middle school together and she remembered him sitting next to her in French class, and him clearly not knowing any French.

She continued it in high school, he dropped it.

"Hey, Amelia," he greeted her, "do you like being called Amelia?"

"Yeah, I do," she replied. "What's up?"

"I wanted... I wanted to... I just..." he was nervous, she noted it. "Do you have your chemistry notes?"

"Oh, right," she whispered before giving taking out her notebook. "Here, I hope you find them useful," she said with a smile. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" The guy shook her head and she smiled. "Cool. Hey, some friend told me I look scary, but I just wanted to tell you that I don't bite," she joked, and she saw how he gave her a tiny smile. "If you need anything just... tell me."

"Thanks, Amelia."

"See you in class, Isaac," she told him before giving him a tiny smile, walking away.

He seemed like a nice guy.