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t h i r t y  n i n ec h e m i s t r y ' 0 6

THE SHERIFF TOOK A BITE OF HIS BURGER, BEFORE REGRETTING IT IMMEDIATELY.

They were in the Sheriff's office. The girl had a break from work and Stiles decided to spend it with her... and his dad... in his office, which wasn't as romantic as Stiles made it sound when he texted her that he will spend her break with her.

The look on the Sheriff's face made Amelia seriously doubt on eating the burger Stiles brought her.

"Oh, what the hell is this?" His dad asked Stiles, looking down to his food angrily while his son gave Amelia her Diet Coke before proceeding to take food for himself.

Stiles looked at his dad, like he didn't understand the question, later remembering what kind of burger he bought him.

"Veggie burger," Stiles said and Amelia squeezed her nose before looking down at hers, before taking a bite off of it.

Hers was normal meat, and she appreciated that since she was not gonna eat a veggie burger, even if her cousin forced her with a knife against her throat.

"Stiles, I asked for a hamburger!" Complained his dad as Stiles gave him the soda before giving Amelia the ketchup.

As she put it on her burger, it reminded her of that time Derek bought her a burger and forgot to bring ketchup.

How can someone forget the ketchup?

Stiles never forgets the ketchup. Never.

"Well, veggie is healthier. We're being healthy," argued Stiles as he took a veggie burger for himself too.

The Sheriff looked at his son's girlfriend as she licked the ketchup off her fingers like if it was the food of the Gods. He frowned before looking to Stiles.

"How come she gets an actual hamburger?"

"Have you tried criticizing a woman's eating habits?" Snapped Stiles abruptly, and Amelia could sense son PTSD going on there.

Yeah, Stiles had played the veggie burger trick on her before, and it only took her two seconds to remind the guy that she was a trained hunter, capable of killing if something stands in her way.

Nothing stands in her way of her and burgers.

The Sheriff opened the box where the fries were supposed to be, only finding carrots and celery.

"Oh, hell, why are you trying to ruin my life?" Complained the Sheriff before looking up to his son.

"I'm trying to extend your life, okay?" Corrected Stiles before taking a sip from Amelia's soda, making her hit him. "Sorry, sorry..."

She had one rule in the relationship.

Don't. Touch. Her. Food.

"Could you just eat it, please?" Stiles pointed towards the celery and carrots. "And tell me what you found."

The Sheriff was investigating the murders involving the Kanima, and Scott had asked her and Stiles to figure out how are the victims connected.

Amelia took a sip from her soda. Now that she was officially part of Derek's pack, Stiles has been watching her like a hawk. Her and Isaac, to be precise.

She had the idea that Stiles suspected that something was going on between her and Isaac, and she had no time to deal with his jealous behavior. She had to deal with her psycho cousin who now was training her sister and Allison for her.

She only used the argument that she was family and that even though she's crazy and tried to kill her, does not mean she doesn't deserve a second chance. She's tough and knows how to fight. She could be great help.

It was a good plan. Even though Dahlia refused to connect with any werewolf. Amelia kinda appreciated that because her psycho cousin protecting someone like psycho bitch Erica was something taken from her nightmares.

"No," answered the sheriff, "I'm not sharing confidential police work to two teenagers."

"Come on!" Exclaimed Amelia as she lifted her legs up, landing on Stiles' lap. She took a sip from her soda before continuing. "Two minds work better than one. And three minds, well... three minds are definitely better."

The Sheriff looked at her. "No."

"Is that it on the board behind you?" Questioned Stiles and Amelia looked up from her half eaten burger towards the board filled with pictures.

The Sheriff turned around as Stiles stood up a bit, holding Amelia's legs before sitting again when his father looked back at him.

"Don't look at that."

"Alright," Stiles whispered, caressing Amelia's legs, continuing to look to the board.

"Avert your eyes."

"Okay..." But he kept looking, making Amelia want to look too.

"Hey! Avert! You too!" The sheriff yelled, but the couple was still looking at the board. "Hey!"

Stiles began to talk. "I see arrows pointing at pictures."

"Okay, okay, stop. Fine," gave up the Sheriff making Amelia and Stiles high-five. The girl bit her straw a bit, ready to hear out the sheriff. "I found something."

A connection, maybe? Oh, she was intrigued. And she loved having something to tell Scott. The werewolf does this thing with his eyebrows when he's proud and, maybe it was because she had no one to be proud of her right now, but she liked it. She really found Scott like a big brother.

"The mechanic and the couple who were murdered. They all had something in common." Stiles and Amelia listened carefully.

"All three?"

"You know what I always say," began the Sheriff. "One's an incident. Two's a coincidence—"

"Three's a pattern," finished Stiles before patting Amelia's legs two times, making her put them down.

Focused Stiles... she adored focus Stiles.

"The mechanic, the husband, the wife. All the same age. All twenty-four," pointed out the sheriff.

The girl pulled her hair up in a messy ponytail before pointing out the obvious detail.

"What about Mr. Lahey? Isaac's dad isn't anywhere near twenty-four," mentioned the girl and Stiles looked at her.

He hated when she mentions Isaac, but, he decided to remain quiet, hearing what the Sheriff had to say.

"Which made me think that either A," started counting the sheriff with his fingers, "Lahey's murder wasn't connected, or B, the ages were a coincidence, until I found this," he pulled out a file and Stiles grabbed it, "which would be C."

Amelia looked towards the file as Stiles opened it, showing it to the girl.

"Did you know that Isaac Lahey had an older brother named Cameron?"

"Died in combat?" Asked Stiles when he read the red words out loud.

The girl laid her back on the chair, recalling all those times in chemistry class when Amelia would only talk about herself and Isaac would listen quietly, and she had no idea what the guy had been through.

She felt her heart shrink.

"But if he were alive today," continued talking the Sheriff, making Amelia look up from her feet, "take one guess as to how old he'd be."

Stiles and Amelia didn't think about it twice when they replied at the same time.

"Twenty-four."

• • •

The three were now staring directly at the board. While Stiles and the Sheriff were standing in front of it, Amelia was sitting on top of the desk with her legs crossed, staring at it.

"Now, what if same age means same class! Did you think of that?" Stiles questioned his dad and he nodded.

"Yeah," said the Sheriff.

"You're lying," accused him Amelia. She heard his heartbeat.

Derek taught her how to do that.

"Well..." started the sheriff. "I would've. I mean, look, I just got Lahey's file two hours ago."

Stiles turned his head to look at the sheriff abruptly. "Two hours? Dad, people could be dying!"

"Yeah, I'm aware of that. Thank you," defended the sheriff.

The three started at the board again. Amelia was really not understanding what she was seeing, but liked to watch Stiles so focused. It was definitely hot.

"Same class," whispered Amelia, "doesn't that mean they all appear in the yearbook? Like... we could know the next vic—"

But she didn't finish when Stiles and the Sheriff started looking for all the yearbooks and files about schools they could find.

"Amelia, you're a genius," said Stiles as they looked in the files. The girl simply shrugged.

Amelia looked over them, still sitting on top of the desk as she let them look for their victims.

"Okay, this it," announced Stiles as he pulled up a light blue file. "Class of 2006."

In the file, it said where did they graduate. And according to Stiles, they all went to Beacon Hills High.

"Including Isaac's brother," mentioned Amelia as she looked over the file the Sheriff was looking at before taking a sip from her soda.

"Alright, but so... what if they all knew each other, you know? I mean, two of them were married, so maybe they all just hung out," assumed Stiles.

Amelia saw as the Sheriff continued to look at the files while she handled the teachers' file, where it said what teachers worked in Beacon Hills when the victims were in school.

"Well, they could have had the same classes together," pointed the Sheriff, "they could've..."

But Amelia interrupted him, showing them the thing that she found. "Same teacher."

Stiles and the Sheriff observed the photo for a long time, analyzing what they were seeing before her boyfriend whispered under his breath.

"Harris..." he said before looking up to her. "They were all in his class?"

"All four," she replied.

"I don't know how Mr. Lahey fits in," started the Sheriff as Amelia put the file down, looking at the two Stilinski men and letting them do the whole detective thing, "but this, kids, this is definitely a pattern. Give me the 2006 yearbook. These name," he tapped his index fingers repeatedly on top of the file with Harris' class on it, "we need faces."

Stiles looked through the yearbook while Amelia stood up from the desk, helping out her boyfriend.

"Which ones?" Questioned Stiles as he pulled out the 2006 yearbook from the pile.

"Everyone in that chemistry class," told him the Sheriff as he started dialing in the phone. "If the killer's not done killing—"

"Then one of them is next," intervened Amelia.

The Sheriff nodded before looking away, talking to the phone.

Amelia looked towards her boyfriend as he was scanning down the pictures and names on the page.

One of them was the next victim, they only needed to find them.

• • •

Amelia walked towards the door of the school holding her notebook open. She had a test soon and being a supernatural creature didn't leave space to study. She was failing one of her classes, chemistry to be precise, and she didn't know how to make it up for it.

She didn't have the most brilliant lab partner, being honest, even though she did not want to change it. Isaac wasn't bad and he trusted her, so she didn't see the issue with it.

"There's gotta be some other way to get in, right?" She heard Scott ask as he and Stiles got out of her boyfriend's jeep. The girl quickly approached them.

"You didn't get tickets?" She asked them. "I don't want to go to that thing alone with Matt. You have to get them."

Stiles closed the door of the car before grabbing the girl's hand. "It's a secret show. There's only one way to get tickets and it's a secret."

Amelia was about to keep discussing the subject with the two when Matt from all people interrupted them. She had nothing against the guy, but she knew Stiles didn't like him since he invited her to the concert and everything, and Stiles was getting really jealous lately, and it was upsetting her a bit.

"Any of you guys know why no one's getting after what happened the other day at school?" Asked the guy making Amelia turn around to look at him, and felt how Stiles pulled her against him, hugging her by the shoulders.

"Just forget about it. Nobody got hurt," told him Stiles seriously, like if what happened didn't matter.

"I had a concussion," argued Matt, making Amelia look back to her shoes. She did not want to be in this position.

Stiles moved forward his head a bit. "Well, nobody got seriously hurt."

"I was in the ER for six hours," confronted him Matt.

"Hey, do you wanna know the truth, Matt? Your little bump in the head is about this high," Stiles inches over and placed his hand an inch away from the floor, making Amelia roll her eyes, "on our list of problems right now."

Amelia broke apart from Stiles, making him and Scott confused as she simply smiled.

"I think I see Isaac... I need to talk to him about chemistry," she lied, making the three guys stared down at her as she started to walk backwards towards the entrance of the school.

"I'll still see you at the concert?" Asked her Matt and the girl nodded before turning around, walking towards the entrance as she exhaled.

Matt was really one of the last things in their problems list yet, Stiles was behaving strangely lately. It was like no one could talk to her because he would go full jealous boyfriend and that was simply not of her liking.

So, when she saw Dahlia walking towards her, it didn't bother her that much. There was nothing worse than Stiles and his jealousy right now.

"How's everything going?" Her cousin asked her. "Did your boyfriend and wolfie get tickets for this secret concert thing?" The hunter questioned as Amelia approached her locker and opened it. "Are you okay?"

"Actually no. I'm failing chemistry, a guy that I'm not even sure I trust wants to take me to a secret concert the two of us alone, I'm part of Derek's pack now and I don't want to protect any of his betas and... my boyfriend is getting all jealous about any living creature that approaches me."

Dahlia scoffed. "Maybe he finally realized you're too good for him, and he doesn't want to lose you."

"I just— why can't he just accept that I want to be with him and stop worrying about other guys?" Amelia looked over to her cousin, sighing. "And why am I even talking to you about this stuff?"

"Hey, I can be a good Doctor Love."

"For now... just be a good hunter."

Amelia grabbed her text books before locking the locker, turning around and walking away from her.