chapter twelve
"rave"

"THERE'S GOT TO BE SOME other way to get tickets, right?"

Lynn cracked her neck off to the side while massaging it softly with one hand — somehow, whenever she was in that old Jeep of Stiles', she always got major whiplash.

Currently, the three teenagers Lynn, Scott, and Stiles were just arriving at school. The second Stiles put the rusty blue Jeep in park, Lynn was bumping to get out, the backseat always felt cramped. The boys got out basically at the same time, where Stiles had accidentally swung his door too hard and it scratched the front of his car.

"It's a wonder how you keep this car running," Lynn joked softly, crawling from the backseat over to the drivers side, getting out just as soon as Stiles did with enough time to ruff up his slowly growing hair. "But I'm sure someone's gotta be selling tickets on like, Ebay, or something."

"It's a secret show, there's only one way, and it's a secret," Stiles retorted, and Lynn sent the boy a deadpan glance and then scrunched up her nose in his direction, which he only mimicked towards her.

Lynn rolled her emerald eyes dramatically while gazing up to the school — it already seemed to be full of students even though they had got there earlier than they usually did. She adjusted her back-bag strap on her left shoulder, and trailed behind the boys.

"Hey!" A voice shouted out, and Lynn flinched from how close the sound echoed behind her. She swung on her heels to see Matt, and let out a nervous exhale of breath. "Any of you guys know why no one's getting suspended after what happened the other day at school?"

"Just forget about it," Stiles answered, clearly annoyed. And Lynn recalled how the other day he thought Matt was incredibly suspicious, and could potentially be the mastermind behind Jackson, but she didn't think so — he seemed too...cowardly, no offense. "Nobody got hurt."

"I-I had a concussion," Matt replied, and Lynn flashed him a sympathetic glance with a small smile.

"Well, nobody got seriously hurt," Stiles repeatedly, and Lynn had to drop their gazes to look at her shoes instead so she didn't accidentally let out a laugh.

"I was in the E.R. for six hours."

"Hey, do you want to know the truth, Matt? Your little bump on the head is about this high on our list of problems right now!" Stiles snapped back, bending down for a flare of dramatics to place a palm by his ankle. Lynn let out a soft chuckle, but once she realized she earned Matt's attention, she tried covering it up with a few coughs.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked Matt while taking a seat forward, and he genuinely looked sincere, almost apologetic for his best friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Matt responded with a slight roll of his eyes, and then furrowed his eyebrows a little. "So, you didn't get any tickets last night either?"

"Are they still selling?"

"Uh, no, but I managed to find two online," Matt explained, and then his eyes shifted over to Lynn. "Lynn, what time did you wanna meet up?"

Lynn's mouth fell open into a wide O, and she let out a nervous chuckle while humming, "Hm?"

"You still wanted to go together, right?"

Lynn heard the two boys behind her let out wild laughs, mostly Stiles, and she almost choked on the spit in the back of her throat. How in the hell did I accidentally agree to going with him?

"Uh, y-yeah, just text me the details," Lynn forcibly smiled as genuinely as she could, but it didn't mean much, and she chewed on her bottom lip nervously.

"Awesome, I'll text you later, then," Matt smiled in Lynn's direction, and she flashed him another one while he turned on his heels to head inside the school for class.

Lynn popped her jaw off to the side while narrowly avoiding Scott and Stiles' amused glanced. And she let out a rather awkward chuckle while scratching the back of her neck nervously, and her eyes flickered over to her friends.

"I'm sorry, did I just hear Evelynn Kennedy agreeing to go on a date with Matt?" Stiles asked in disbelief, but he wasn't talking to Lynn, but rather Scott — who let a short laugh echo out. "Or am I losing my mind?"

"Ugh!" Lynn groaned with dropping her face in her palms, feeling the same embarrassment as she felt with Derek the previous night. "It was an accident! I was distracted trying to get into the lockerroom and he just kept talking and talking and I just kept saying yes and sure, and then I realized I sort of agreed to go to the rave with him on Friday."

"So, why didn't you just, oh, I don't know, say no?" Stiles questioned dramatically, and another whine escaped Lynn's pink lips.

"Please shut up."

———

"Look, if you guys need help with the plan, I can most definitely say something popped up."

Lynn awkwardly cringed up her face while adjusting her outfit — which felt utterly too exposing but the second her mother heard that she had a 'date', she was all too excited to dress her up. For almost two hours, while she was getting a wardrobe check, and makeup and hair status checked off, all Lynn heard about what Katherine's teenage years.

Lynn was wearing a black t-shirt that was tucked into a pair of old blue jean shorts, with black fishnet tights under them. And of course to finish it off, her infamous dirty black converse high tops. Her brunette hair that was almost always straight was now curled, reaching long past the middle of her back.

"Go have fun on your date!" Scott yelled towards Lynn, and a part of her wanted to tell the boy that just because the music inside was playing loud, didn't mean she couldn't still hear him outside.

"That's the fifth time you've asked for us to get you out of your date," Stiles indicted with sarcasm, and Lynn's once nervous expression shifted towards annoyance as she teasingly scrunched up her nose. "You reap what you sow, Evelynn! Reap what you sow."

"Next time you want me to talk to Lydia for you, you can do it yourself!" Lynn jokingly hissed, throwing her arms over her chest dramatically. "Just text me if you guys need anything, okay?"

"Of course."

Lynn let out a shaky breath, adjusting her shorts to pull them down a bit. She fished out the ticket from her back pocket that Matt gave her the day before, and made her way through the entrance. It only took a few minutes to get past the line and actually stamped to get inside, then Lynn pulled back some blinds to get through to the dance floor.

      She was a bit surprised at how cool the entirety of the place looked, and everyone was stretched around and filled the place up to the brim. The music was bouncing in and around, blasting and vibrating so loudly that Lynn could hardly hear herself think, so there went that plan of being able to hear if one of her friends was in trouble and needed her. There were several multicolored lights that lined against walls and flashing around the dance floor, but other than that, there weren't much defining factors.

      She scanned the crowd rather quickly in an attempt at spotting the messy brunette hair that would belong to Matt — but she hadn't been able to find him in the darkness. Checking the watch on her left wrist, she barely made out the time, and she was still ten minutes early to the time that Matt and her agreed upon.

      She had decided to just wander the dance floor until she was able to find the boy, and was about to force herself into having a good time. Since she felt as if most of her days anymore are spent worrying about her friends, plotting out the perfect plans for them to only backfire, and trying to avoid being killed.

      Lynn had managed to squeeze her way through the crowd of teenagers, feeling a bit overwhelmed when they were all so easily swinging their hips where she most definitely knew she lacked rhythm.

    Her emerald eyes were flickering all among the crowd, and when she thought she heard someone call out her name, she glanced over her shoulder with confusion. When she didn't see anyone, she just continued walking on, but just before she could fully look up — she slammed straight into a hard chest.

      The person snaked an arm around Lynn's waist instinctively, pulling her close to him since it seemed like she was about to fall straight to the ground, and she placed her arms on his chest for support. Lynn let out a small groan from the impact, and she gazed up in the darkness while mumbling out several apologies. But her sympathetic expression shifted into surprise when she recognized the familiar hard chest.

      "Little wolf?"

      "Derek?" Lynn furrowed her eyebrows, her pink lips slightly hung ajar. "What are you doing here?"

      "Looking for Scott," Derek replied, his voice a bit louder due to the thundering music, and his eyes scanned Lynn's body up and down, and she suddenly felt even more exposed than before. "What are you doing here? Scott didn't mention that you were apart of the plan."

      "Well," Lynn trailed while nibbling on her bottom lip, not entirely sure how to explain. "I'm technically here with—"

      "—Lynn, hey!"

      Lynn licked her extremely dry lips while glancing over her shoulder after she heard a small murmur of her name. She smiled faintly when she saw Matt waving his hand over, but the lighthearted expression on his face started to shift into confusion when he saw how close Derek and Lynn were standing together. Lynn immediately backed up, where Derek loosened his arm on her waist and moved to take a step backwards.

      Once Derek's eyes landed on Matt, he switched from the boy towards Lynn, then cautiously back at the boy. Derek's thick eyebrows knitted together, and the slightest bit of annoyance crossed his face.

      Matt took a few seconds to finish walking over towards Lynn, and he gave her another excited wave, but his face began to straighten out when he checked out Derek.

      "Matt, hi," Lynn forcibly smiled, showing off her pearly white teeth. Seriously, why am I here? Utterly awkward just because I felt too guilty to just ditch the boy... Matt furrowed his eyebrows towards Derek, and then back over towards Lynn, practically asking who he was. "Oh, this is Derek, he's, uh, he's a family friend."

      Lynn pointed towards Derek while explaining the quite obvious lie, but Matt didn't catch on in the slightest.

      "Ah, well it's nice to meet you, Derek," Matt stated, reaching his palm out to give the man a polite handshake. But Derek only slowly lowered his eyes down at the boys fairly clammy hands and then back up at Matt with an judging glance. Matt awkwardly cleared his throat, and then switched his eyes towards Lynn. "Uh, should we go up by the DJ?"

      "Yeah, sure," Lynn nodded repeatedly, and before she even had an opportunity to move, Matt wrapped his fingers around her hand to pull her behind him while they started their way up to the DJ table.

      But instinctively, Lynn glanced over her shoulder to give Derek one last look. And the man's eyes hadn't left Lynn's body, she flashed him a little sympathetic smile, and a part of her just wanted to rip her hand back from Matt and stay with Derek for the party.

      She quickly shook her head as she scoffed at herself, where the hell did that thought come from?

a/n: i'm not entirely sure how long i want this book to be quite yet (since we're a few eps away from the end of s2) and i might write up to the end of s3 because i don't really like the last three seasons — along with the fact derek's not in the last two lmao.