CHAPTER FIVE
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     HAZEL TAPPED HER FOOT in the parking lot waiting for Scott, Stiles, and Phoebe to arrive. She was thinking of the way his eyes glowed and how hair had sprouted from his face in the span of about two seconds. And the fangs? Maybe there was some kind of new drug that she wasn't aware of because, well, she didn't do any drugs.

     Her train of thought was interrupted by the three of them planting themselves in front of her, all looking guilty to some degree. Hazel looked between each of them, crossing her arms and raising her brows.

     "So?" she asked expectantly. "What's the big explanation? Some kind of crazy ass foreign drug I've never even heard of?"

     Stiles looked around in a twitchy manner, and looked back at her. "Can we do this in the car?" he asked, gesturing to his Jeep nearby.

     "Holy shit, fine," Hazel agreed, gesturing that they all get in the Jeep so she could get some answers quicker. Scott and Stiles took their seats in the driver and passenger seats while Hazel and Phoebe settled into the back. "Answers, now."

     Scott and Stiles looked at eachother uneasily while Phoebe was looking like she was trying far too hard to act casual.

     "I told you that I would tell you only the truth," Scott began, taking a breath. "What you saw in the locker rooms...it wasn't drugs."

     Hazel continued to look at him expectantly. "I'm a werewolf," Scott blurted, looking like he wanted to take it back as soon as the words left his mouth.

     She wanted to laugh, initially. But when she looked around at the others, and realized that they weren't laughing, she swallowed. This wasn't a prank?

     "What do you mean?" she asked, not really getting it. That kind of thing didn't exist, but deep down she knew that drugs weren't really the answer she was looking for.

     "The night before we came back for school, Stiles and I were searching for that body in the woods," Scott began to explain, albeit hesitantly. She remembered the body from the news. It was only half of the body, so it was hard for the police to really ID it. There were rumors flying around about the police instituting a curfew because of it, but she had heard about it. "And his dad caught us, but I hid so I wouldn't get in trouble. But then I got lost, and dropped my inhaler and –"

     "Scott, the point," Stiles interjected.

     "The point is that I got bit that night. I thought it was just a wild animal, but now I can see, hear, and smell things I couldn't before and Derek keeps telling me it's a gift –"

     Stiles shot him a look at the mention of Derek and Hazel bounced her eyes between the two of them.

     "Who's Derek?"

     "No," Stiles maintained.

     "Yes," Scott argued. "I'm telling her the truth. Remember the Hale house fire? Derek's only a couple of years older than us. He's a werewolf too. He – he killed that girl."

     "How do you even know he killed the girl?" Hazel questioned.

     "We have very good reason to believe that!" Stiles exclaimed, shifting around in his seat passionately.

     Hazel didn't even want to unpack that just yet. She turned to Phoebe, who was uncharacteristically quiet next to her.

     "How the hell did you know?"

     "Oh, I got dragged into this mess, trust me," Phoebe clarified, putting her hands up. "That night at the party? McCall wasn't wasted, he was literally turning into a werewolf. That's why Stiles was acting weirder than usual and didn't want our help. I ended up helping his ass run through the forest to find Scott all night and I got the truth bomb then instead of now."

     "I knew those pictures weren't a camera glitch," Hazel pointed out, causing Stiles to bury his face in his hands.

     "This is hard enough without you asking all your questions," he said. "That's why I was trying to get you off of our trail."

     "If anything, you made me way more suspicious of you," she replied with a shrug.

     "You're taking this well," Scott said, giving her a confused glance.

     "Well, I kind of had my meltdown in the locker room," she admitted.

     There was a brief silence that hung in the air.
"You can't tell anyone," Scott warned suddenly, a panicked look flashing across his face.

     Hazel rolled her eyes. "Who would believe me even if I wanted to, Scott?"

     "Doesn't matter, we're in this together now," Stiles added, pointing between the four of them dramatically, "Okay, this is it. Nobody else knows and nobody else is gonna know, got it?"

     "Yeah, yeah, we're part of your weird little secret now," Phoebe agreed with a shrug. "Hey, at least it's pretty interesting, right? Of all the bad things to happen to someone, at least you get to be a badass werewolf."

     "That's just it, Phoebe, it's ruining my life!" Scott let out, slumping down in his seat in distress.

     "It's been one week, Scott." Phoebe deadpanned. The bell rang outside of the car on the school grounds in the distance.

     "Well, it looks like we're going to just have to talk later," Hazel said, grabbing her school bag off of the floor. She directed her attention at Scott mostly. "Thank you. For telling me the truth."

     When she exited the car and began to walk to class without anything else to say, it felt like she was living in another universe. Honestly, she had taken the news well. But that was because there were very few ways to explain a teenage boy growing fangs and trying to kill a few of his friends. The drugs theory was not quite that far off. It explained all of their weird behavior. She had seen it herself. So, it didn't shock her as much as actually seeing it did.

     But now what? Clearly Scott was having a hard time with it. And now, her and Phoebe were the only ones in the world who knew.

__________

     Hazel was glazing through photos absentmindedly that weekend in the yearbook office before the first lacrosse game while Phoebe printed some mockup pages in the corner of the room near the printer.

     "How did you react when you found out about...you know?" she asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

     Phoebe laughed before responding, "I was a little bit drunk, so I actually cried a little because I just didn't believe it."

     Hazel laughed a little too. "Did you actually see it?"

     "I saw his glow-y little eyes, but that's it. I was confused, so I cried. Then Stiles gave me a hug and told me that he wasn't pranking me and then I was pretty much fine," she explained. "He texted me the next day to see if I forgot about it. I think he was hoping that I did."

     Hazel opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by the door opening abruptly. A very tall boy with blue eyes and curly hair stepped into the room, confusion masking his features when he saw them.

     "Is this...the counseling office? he asked.

     Phoebe shook her head. "Nope. That's why it says yearbook on the door."

     He went bright red with embarrassment.

     "Hey, sometimes mistakes happen," Hazel said, trying to help him feel a little less embarrassed about the whole thing. Though, why he was trying to find the counseling office now of all times was behind her. "They're just down the hall. You'd be surprised at how many people don't look at the door. "

     She shot a piercing glance at Phoebe, who didn't really react and continued to flip through the book she was looking at.

     The boy shuffled out of the room and back into the hall and Hazel shook her head, turning back to the pictures she was looking at.

     "And so you think this Derek guy killed someone," she went on, pondering another thing that was kind of coming out of nowhere.

     "Mhm, Stiles is really sure that Derek killed her," she replied, flipping through a few more pages of the book.

     "Are you even reading that?"

     "I'm actually incapable of, you know, reading. So no."

     They had gotten a lack of texts from Scott or Stiles in the past few days, but both of their phones buzzed a few times in succession.

phoebe, stiles, scott

FROM: stiles
This might be bad news for all of us - we may or may not have gotten Derek arrested. Also did I mention Allison's dad is trying to kill Scott?

FROM: phoebe
Oh yeah, we should go visit him in jail to ask him all about the murder. I'm not even gonna respond to the dad thing

     Hazel glanced up to where Phoebe had her brows furrowed as she typed away on her phone.

     "Um so you didn't know about that," she said kind of like a question but more like a fact.

     "No, it's really a minute by minute situation with them, new stuff happens like every two seconds," Phoebe told her with a shrug, sighing a bit exasperatedly.

TO: phoebe, stiles, scott
why would allison's dad want to kill scott??

FROM: stiles
He's a werewolf hunter!!!

TO: phoebe, stiles, scott
oh bc of course those exist too why would they not

FROM: stiles
Also let me know if you see Scott roaming the streets in a daze gotta go bye

FROM: phoebe
Scott if you're seeing this pls stop roaming the streets in a daze thanks

     "Phoebe," Hazel said, rolling her eyes at the message.

     Phoebe shrugged aggressively. "We can't say we didn't try everything."

     "So if Scott can't keep himself from almost killing kids at practice, what are we gonna do about the game tonight?" she asked, turning to the photos she had open on the computer, closing out everything she was working on and getting ready to prep taking photos for the game.

     Phoebe smiled widely. "Well, that seems like something Stiles would know, not me," she replied. Then she frowned a little. "You're right, though, because he almost killed us during lacrosse practice."

     "Oh, really? Right, that slipped my mind a little bit," Hazel over exaggerated, standing up and moving to the locked cabinets where they kept the equipment to check out to the yearbook staff.

     "You're finally speaking my language, H," Phoebe said with a grin.

     "Smart-ass?"

     "Exactly."

     Hazel packed her camera bag just like she did the day that she went to take the lacrosse team's picture. It was almost relieving, knowing the truth, even though the truth was going to be difficult for all of them to manage.

FROM: scott
I'm fine, guys, got snapped out of it by Allison's dad's car. I'm on my way to the locker rooms, see you at the game.

     Phoebe laughed loudly at the message and shook her head. "This dude. Well, hopefully he doesn't kill anyone on the field in front of everyone tonight."
Hazel's eyes widened and she shook her head differently. "Hopefully."

__________

     People shuffled around in the stands, already cheering loudly for their team when Phoebe and Hazel arrived. They were trying to locate Scott and Stiles when they were interrupted jarringly.

     "Yearbooks! Get over here!" Coach yelled from the bench he was standing next to. Phoebe grinned and Hazel glanced over warily. "The both of you can sit right here so you can catch all of the action."

     "Really, Coach, we'll probably be moving around to get different pictures so –" Hazel began only to be immediately talked over.

     "Clear space for the press, Lahey!" he shouted, gesturing wildly for the nearest player to scoot over to make more room. People were looking now and Hazel was beginning to get a little bit embarrassed.

     Phoebe and Hazel squeezed themselves onto the bench and when she sat down next to the player that had been shooed away, she recognized him.

     "Hey, you're the guy who can't read," Phoebe said, voicing what she was thinking in not quite the most exact words that she would have.

     He immediately went red. "Phoebe," Hazel cautioned.

     "Hey, I'm not picking on him, I'm incapable of reading too, remember?"

     Hazel wanted to throw her head into her hands. Sometimes Phoebe could get going without realizing that the other people around her might not be in on the joke.

     "I'm sorry about her," she apologized. She could practically feel the discomfort radiating off the boy. Something out of her peripheral was distracting her and she glanced over to see Phoebe gesturing over at Stiles on the bench violently. Stiles was gesturing right back, his glove practically in his mouth. "So...did you find the office?"

     "Oh, yeah, I did," the boy answered shyly.

     "What's your name? I only caught Coach yelling the last part. I don't remember you being there for the team picture," she explained, trying to make small talk so that he wouldn't see how weird they were being.

     "Isaac," he answered quickly.

     "Well, I'm Hazel. I'm barely 'the press', but do you mind?" she asked, holding up her camera. He seemed a little more relaxed now.

     "No, I guess not," he said. She snapped a quick photo of him and looked down at it. She honestly liked it more than a lot of the action shots she had gotten from lacrosse lately — it was more candid.

     "You're a natural," she told him with a smile. He smiled back, looking a little bit embarrassed but in a different way now. Like he wasn't used to being seen.

     In front of them, the players were lining up to start the game and getting in their positions. The whistle blew, and the chaos began. Hazel glanced over at Stiles, who was still basically eating his glove out of anxiety on the bench. She couldn't say she blamed him. They didn't exactly have a plan.

     Their team had the ball and was passing it back and forth. Jackson had returned since the injury that he had sustained last practice, and Coach was still all about him playing. Though that wasn't a shock to anyone at all.

     One of the players from the other team was pushed aside and the ball fell to the ground. Scott caught sight of it and immediately ran for it, but Jackson had the very same plan. Hazel was trying to balance taking pictures and watching out for a possible werewolf transformation. Jackson shoved Scott to the ground and scooped up the ball, beginning to run down the field with it.

     Hazel frowned. Even despite the fact that Scott couldn't get angry without risking killing people, he was still on the same team. Though, that was the person Jackson always proved himself to be over the years is what she had found. He scored, and the stands went wild.

     "Aren't they supposed to get in trouble for, you know, shoving their own teammates to the ground?" Phoebe asked, brows furrowed in confusion as they watched Scott get up from the ground.

      "THAT'S IT JACKSON! GET FIRED UP! FIRED UP!" Coach yelled, prancing along the sidelines and pumping his fist into the air.

     "I really don't think they care," Hazel pointed out, gesturing to Coach while Scott watched on without a single cheer coming from him.

     Everyone was assembling for the next play and Hazel caught sight of Scott leaned over, breathing heavily while he stared at the ground. The referee asked him something and he nodded slowly.

     "Uh, does he not look so good to you?" Hazel asked Phoebe, lowering her voice so that no one else could hear them.

     "I mean, no, he doesn't," she admitted, shrugging awkwardly. "We kinda just gotta hope that he's got it under control."

     Once the play started, Scott was off. Hazel was snapping photos and managed to catch him completely leap over someone to catch the ball and then dash across the field. Phoebe put her hand over her mouth and shook her head slowly.

     "So much for subtlety," she commented, but laughed while she did it. Because they could both admit – it was pretty cool. He scored that way, and the crowds went wild again. Including everyone who didn't cheer as hard the last time because of Jackson's shady tactics.

     This went on for a number of minutes. At one point, the other team was so scared of how Scott was moving around the field they passed him the ball. To top it off, he shot the ball straight through someone's net on their stick to make a goal.

     Stiles and Coach argued profusely with the referee when there was debate over whether or not that counted as a goal or not. And it turns out, it's kind of hard to argue with that because that kind of thing isn't exactly common.

     The game was nearly over and Scott had the ball. He was just standing there, staring at the goalie and the opposing player who was looking at him like he was debating whether or not it was worth it to even go after him.

     "Should I pretend to pass out or something? Right on the field? So he doesn't kill that guy?" Phoebe questioned, glancing between the clock and Scott nervously the more he stood there gripping his lacrosse stick.

     The opposing player finally decided to charge him, Scott finally being spurred into action. He winded back and took the shot, getting the ball straight past the opposing goalie. The whistle blew, the crowd went wild, and the game was over.

     Hazel and Phoebe leapt into the air, screaming and cheering. They ran over to where Stiles was, who was the picture of relief. While Phoebe was screaming and jumping, she ran over to give him a hug of relief as well. The people in the bleachers started to pour out of them and onto the field, screaming like madmen.

     "Hey, one game down," Hazel pointed out while Stiles took a seat on the bench again, the most relieved out of all of them. He looked up to where his dad was standing a few feet away on the phone, a concerned look on his face.

     "Hey Dad, what's wrong?" he asked and his father put up a finger as he continued to speak. Stiles looked over at Phoebe and Hazel in confusion and the both of them returned the glance.

     He walked over a few feet when his dad got off the phone and they exchanged a few words before Stiles returned to them, looking a little paler and a lot more nervous than before.

     "What is it?" Hazel asked, looking back at his dad who was now leaving.

     "So you know how I said we got Derek arrested?" Stiles started and Hazel let out a huge sigh.

     "Uh, yeah," she said, running a hand over her face. She had a suspicion she wasn't going to love the words that came out of his mouth next.

     "The M.E. determined that an animal killed that girl. They can't keep Derek in jail," he explained.

     "Is he going to be pissed that you got him arrested?" Phoebe inquired, crossing her arms uncomfortably.

     "Probably. But it gets better," he went on, his tone indicating that it most certainly did not get better and it was probably going to get worse.

     "Better? Gee, oh how?" Phoebe mocked, Hazel elbowing her in the side so she would be quiet.

     "The body of the girl they found? Laura Hale. Derek's sister."