Once in a Lifetime

03

Tabitha leaned against the bleachers while Scott and Stiles spoke. Stiles was trying to reassure Scott. "Of course you're still the team captain. You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?"

Scott gave him a nod. "Yeah, but he never told me I was back on the team. He just told me to show up at tryouts today."

Stiles shrugged. "We got bigger things to deal with anyway. Did you tell Argent yet?"

"Ah. I texted him, but he didn't get back to me."

Tabitha frowned at her friend. "You told him his crazy sister was back from the dead in a text. Way to go, Scott."

He turned to her and shrugged. "I didn't have the money to call France."

"See, this is why you boys need me. But first I need to grab something from my locker. Enjoy practice. Don't let the freshmen beat you."

She kissed Stiles and smiled. "See you soon." She waved goodbye to the boys and walked away.

The bell rang and as Tabitha was walking to math, she saw Malia walk into the classroom and exit almost immediately. She grabbed her shoulders and took her back into the classroom.

Malia shot Tabitha a frown. "I hate math. It's pointless."

"I don't like it either, but math is essential to the important parts in life," the witch told the werecoyote.

"To what?" Malia asked.

"Knowing how to tip at restaurants," Stiles said.

Lydia frowned at him. "And other less important things like medicine, economics, engineering..."

"Tipping," Stiles interrupted.

Tabitha rolled her eyes at them and Mrs. Fleming began class. "All right, volunteers to the board. Lydia, Diego, Malia."

Malia glanced up and frowned. "Um... I didn't volunteer."

Mrs. Fleming gave her a small smile. "You did now. To the board."

She and Lydia talked with each other while Tabitha sat back to take notes.

As soon as it did, Malia, Kira and Tabitha made their way to the lacrosse field.

Tabitha caught sight of a kid who was showing everyone up; including Scott. The kid was doing well at everything; running, goal, and every position imaginable.

Malia frowned at Kira. "What's wrong with you?" She turned to look at Tabitha. "Can you calm down? I can almost see the steam coming from your ears."

Kira frowned. "Me? Nothing."

Malia turned back to her. "You reek of anxiety. And it's distracting. What's going on?"

Kira bit her lip nervously. "Scott and I sort of had this thing happen. But it wasn't much of a thing. And I'm starting to think it never was anything at all."

"What do you want it to be?"

"More."

They turned back to watch the field and the freshman was still kicking everyone's ass. Kira asked, "Isn't the captain supposed to be one of the best players on the team? Or good?"

Tabitha frowned, seeing her friend. "Yes and yes. What in the hell is going on with him?"

Suddenly, the game clicked with the boys and Coach cried, "That's my boys! Those two are like sons to me."

"Yes!" Kira cheered loudly.

As soon as the freshman wonder walked up, he performed a twisting maneuver.

"That was luck!" Malia cried. "Do over!"

Tabitha nodded and pointed to Malia. "Yeah, do over!"

Coach made his way over to them and said, "Sweetheart, there's no do overs. This is practice. Young, I thought you remembered that."

Tabitha smiled sweetly. "Oh, I do, Coach. But I want to see my friend and boyfriend kick their prissy little freshman asses."

Malia said with determination, "Ten bucks on Scott and Stiles."

Coach smirked. "I'll take that action. Hey! Get back in there, Liam."

The boy did so and Scott ran a second time and flipped Liam. The latter stood, but it was obvious he was in pain. The boys decided to take him to the nurse and Tabitha hopped down to follow.

After examining him, the nurse said, "He has a bad sprain. It'd be best if he were to go to the hospital."

They took him to the hospital to make sure he was okay. Scott talked to Kira before they took Liam to the hospital.

When they got there, Melissa walked up to them. Scott smiled awkwardly at his mom. "Uh... Hi, Mom."

Melissa smiled at Liam as she wheeled him away. She leaned down and said something to him that Tabitha couldn't hear.

Tabitha glanced at her friend. "Not sure what Melissa is gonna do, but it'll probably hurt. Hopefully he doesn't need a doctor."

They left and Stiles turned to Scott. "Tabi and I have to get going. We're gonna help Malia study."

Scott replied, "Sure. I want to check on him anyway."

Tabitha turned to her friend. "Scott, it wasn't your fault. Unless you purposefully injured that poor freshman."

He lowered his head. "I don't know."

"Scott, you held back."

Stiles nodded. "She's right. Scott, if you had used any wolf power, that kid wouldn't be limping; he'd be crawling back to the other half of his body."

Scott shook his head. "If I hadn't been so worried about being captain, he wouldn't be hurt either."

Tabitha patted Scott's shoulder. "You are still half-human, Scott. It's okay to do things for yourself every once in a while."

Scott smiled briefly as Stiles drove himself and Tabitha to his place after they'd picked up Malia. They studied for about an hour and Malia decided she was done. Tabitha was already focused on something of pressing matters.

Tabitha studied her notebook and frowned. "Why the hell am I doing this?"

Stiles lifted her chin up and said, "Hey, we're not finished yet."

"Maybe you're not, but I am," Tabitha mumbled.

"Okay... I promised you, Malia and I were going to study. What's with all the highlighters anyway?"

"Green is for what I understand, yellow is for what I'm working on, and red... Red means I don't know what I'm doing," Malia replied. "Tabitha suggested it to me."

Stiles pressed a gentle kiss to Tabitha's lips as Malia added, "Also, Lydia's notes are really confusing."

Tabitha looked at the notes and frowned. "Now wait a minute."

Stiles took the notes from Malia's hands and frowned. "This isn't math. What is this?"

Tabitha slowly shook her head. "I don't know. But I've been doing the same thing."