"Just a friendly reminder," Mr. Harris announced as he slowly walked through the chemistry lab, glaring down at his students, like always. "Parent/teacher conferences are tonight. Students below a 'C' average are required to attend."
Stiles rolled his eyes and continued marking his textbook with a bright yellow highlighter, glad that he was earning an 'B+' or above in all of his classes.
"I won't name you, because the shame and self-disgust should be more than enough punishment," Harris continued, stopping by Stiles' desk. "Has anyone seen Scott McCall?"
Stiles looked up, the highlighter cap between his lips, and saw Mr. Harris staring down at him. He shook his head, honestly having no clue where Scott and Allison were.
Their attention was stolen when the classroom door opened, and Jackson walked in, completely pale with dark circles under her eyes. As everyone literally stopped and stared at the lacrosse captain, Jackson slumped down in his seat as Harris walked over.
"Hey, Jackson," their teacher whispered, patting his shoulder. "If you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know."
Jackson nodded, looking uncomfortable with the teacher's attention on him.
"Everyone, start reading Chapter Nine," Harris eventually turned back to the class, standing in front of the board. As Stiles continued highlighting, Harris spoke again, not even looking back, "Mr. Stilinski. Try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry, not a coloring book."
Stiles narrowed his eyes at his teacher and tilted his head back, spitting the highlighter cap out of his mouth and catching it easily. He capped the highlighter and set it on his desk. He looked over to Danny, who happened to be in the same homeroom as Gracie, who hadn't showed up yet.
"Hey, Danny," he called out quietly cleaning forward. "Can I ask you a question?"
"No."
"Well, I'm going to anyway," Stiles persisted. "Um, did Gracie ever show up in your homeroom today?"
Danny sighed, considering it for a second before shaking his head. "No."
Stiles frowned, worried about the petite brunette. She hadn't answered any of his texts and phone calls since the attack. He didn't know why, but he was starting to worry until one thing came to mind in that particular moment. "Can I ask you another question?"
"Answer's still no."
"Does anyone know what happened to her and Jackson last night?"
"He wouldn't tell me," Danny admitted.
"But he's your best friend. One more question."
"What?" Danny huffed.
"Do you find me attractive?" Stiles asked, ignoring Danny's exclamation as he leaned forward in his lab stool.
As he waited for Danny to answer, Stiles leaned even further off his seat -- too far. He fell off the stool and onto the floor, jumping up right away. He spastically looked around, sitting back down.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Gracie was sitting on the MRI table as one of the nurses prepped her. After the doctors confirmed she had a severe concussion and a few broken ribs when she was brought into the emergency room after the attack, the Hale girl was kept overnight for observations.
"Okay, Gracie," she heard her say. "You're going to hear a lot of noises during the MRI. If you want, we can get you some earplugs or headphones."
"Okay," the Hale girl hummed as she gave a weak nod. She scratched her temple, feeling the warm blast of air hitting the top of her head from the vent above. As the nurse handed her a pair of ear plugs, she stuffed them in her ears as they rolled her underneath the machine only far that her head was sticking out.
"Okay, Gracie, we're gonna start," the doctor's voice came out of the speaker as he watched from the other room. "The first round's only gonna last three minutes. I need you to stay as still as possible, okay?"
"Okay," she said.
The loud sounds started as the banging noise from it was only drawn out a little when they started testing her. She laid there like that for forty-five minutes as she stood there perfectly still. Keeping her eyes closed, memories of last night flickered in her mind. All though she couldn't exactly remember what the creature looked like all she really could picture was its red eyes. Its dark red eyes that glowed in the darkness and haunted her mind.
"Okay, Gracie, we're done," her doctor had finally told her.
Gracie hadn't looked at her phone when she was in the hospital since the doctor told she avoid looking at screens for the next few days. If she could, she would've seen the dozens of text messages from Stiles.
When she got back to her room, she was exhausted. She had barely slept during the night since they were running tests and constantly waking her up. When dawn came the next morning and the sun rose, it didn't faze her.
She finally fell asleep around lunch time, her eyes too tired to stay open, but only for a few hours Meanwhile, Stiles sprinted out of class when the last bell rang. He pulled out his phone and dialed Scott's number for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He hadn't heard from either of his friends. He had seen Scott at school that morning before first period, but figured he must have skipped with Allison, who had been missing all day.
"What?" Scott finally answered.
"Finally!" Stiles breathed, waving his arms around. "Have you been getting any of my texts?"
"Yeah, like all nine million of them," Scott retorted back, sitting in the front seat of Allison's car as they drove through what looked like the Beacon Hills Preserve.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea what's going on? Lydia's totally MIA. Gracie won't even answer any of my calls. Jackson looks like he's got a time-bomb inserted into his face, another random guy is dead, and you have to do something about it."
"Like what?"
"Something."
It was quiet on Scott's end until he let out a sigh. "Okay, I'll deal with it later."
Stiles let out a groan when the teen wolf ended the call. He couldn't believe Scott wasn't being serious about this.
When the Hale girl had been discharged, the ride home was silent as Gracie sat in the backseat, staring out the window. She had been in a little pain since the pain medication was starting to wear off. Thank god, Derek had picked up the medication the doctor prescribed on the way home.
Once she got home, Gracie went upstairs and changed out of the clothes she wore the night before. The Hale girl had taken a quick warm shower. Using the towel to dry the rest of her hair, she plopped down on the bed, already dressed in clothes she found in the dresser.
It was around six, which was well after she took a lot of meds for her nerves, when she heard loud knocking from downstairs. Walking downstairs, the apartment was empty since Derek had left since the creature that had attacked her was the alpha. A fact he pointed out when she told him what happened.
Opening the door, the Hale girl's eyes widened when she saw a certain boy with a buzz-cut standing there.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, blinking at him a few times, not her usual self.
"I was just making sure you were okay," he managed to say.
"Why?" She asked, leaving the door open and he followed her in, sliding it shut behind him.
"Because I was worried about you today. I was there last night at the movie store. My dad really wouldn't say anything about it. He just said you were in the hospital. I called you a few times, but you never picked up."
"Yeah," Gracie hummed, rubbing her forehead. "I think I left it in my car..." She glanced around and groaned, realizing... "Which is still at the movie store."
"Oh, that's okay," Stiles told her as opened his back, handing her some papers and a list of their assignments. Having most of their classes together really helped the Stilinski boy when he went to go pick up her work. "I brought you the work you missed today."
Gracie pulled down the blanket, which had been covering some of her face, as she looked at him in shock. "You did? Thanks..."
"So..." Stiles scratched the back of his head. "What happened?"
The Hale girl sighed, sitting down on the couch as he followed her.
"I was gonna get a movie," Gracie started to explain. "When I went in, no one was there." Her voice trailed off as the light-hearted tone in her voice disappeared. Her face went pale as she leaned down, staring ahead with fear in her eyes. "Then, I saw him."
"The guy who died?" Stiles supplied.
The Hale girl nodded. "It was the alpha."
"The alpha?"
"Yeah," Gracie nodded. "I don't really remember what it looked like." She shook her head, her breathing quickening as she tried to think about it. "It's all just...It was too dark. I never really got--"
"--Hey, it's okay," Stiles said earnestly, leaning forward and pulling her hand away from her forehead, staring at the bandage. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," the Hale girl grimaced a little, leaning back as she gave him a shy smile. "One of the shelves fell on me."
Stiles winced, horrified. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I tried to run out of the way..." Gracie shook her head. She winced as she sucked in a breath, pain coursing through her chest with every intake of air. "The doctors said I broke a few ribs and I have a pretty bad concussion."
She lifted up her shirt, revealing how bruised up her stomach was. The sides of her abdomen were covered in dark-purple-colored blotches with shades of yellow surrounding it.
"Oh, God!" Stiles exclaimed.
"It's okay," Gracie added, trying to reassure him. "The paramedics just brought me in for x-rays and an MRI. The doctors just wanted to keep me overnight for some observations. But I should be fine. They suggested that I should take it easy for the next few weeks."
"Wow, I'm sorry," Stiles said, and the Hale girl just shrugged, not bothered by the fact -- then again, that was just the pain meds.