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PROLOGUE.Sweet Sixteen
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SHE THOUGHT BIRTHDAY PARTIES WERE OVERRATED. Especially when your birthday falls just after Christmas and New Years, but who could say no to a sweet sixteen? Not her. Not when she had a reputation to upkeep. A reputation of teenage popularity, picture-perfect smiles, and teenage future prom queen angst. So, what's the harm in a party? A party filled with desperate teens trying to fuel their needs to get in with Beacon Hills Princess. A party filled with gossip of what could have happened with Beacon Hills High School's it couple. A party filled with gifts and cheery smiles and party dresses. A party decorated to the nines by a single dad who wanted nothing more than to spoil his only daughter.
Man, Kennedy Dawn Stallard had it all.
"Come on, dude! I can't be late!" Scott McCall shouted as he jumped out of Stiles Stilinski's Jeep. The two teens approached the familiar brick house, where they already heard music blasting from every direction. The home was large, one of the more expensive houses on the street, and one of the oldest. Cars covered the long driveway and the street in front of the Stallard home.
Stiles Stilinski, a teenage boy with a buzzcut who turned sixteen months ago, carries a present in hand, wrapped in pink paper-like their best friend always requested. A detail Stiles never forgot about. Scott, a teenage boy with longer, shaggy hair, and turned sixteen in the fall, held another smaller present, which he fiddled with nervously as he approached the front door. The tall wooden door stared him down like a threat. The amount of possibilities of what could happen once he entered the house was endless.
"Scott, you're fine." Stiles's less-than-actually-reassuring voice cut through Scott's thoughts. "It's just a birthday party."
"Yeah, the first birthday party where the girl I've had a crush on since we were twelve is actually single and I can actually try and-"
Stiles held up a hand. "Do not tell me you're going to flirt with Kennedy." Scott scolded his best friend, who began to laugh. "I mean, seriously? You? Flirting with Kennedy? It's a miracle she's friends with us, but dating her?"
The McCall boy waved Stiles off. "I get it! I get it!" He let out a loud sigh as the two of them turned towards the wooden door once again. "Let's just get this over with." Stiles shrugged, pressing his lips into a thin line before knocking.
It was like clockwork. Ben Stallard swung open the dark wooden door, holding a plate filled with Shirley Temples. Kennedy's favorite drink. "Boys! Hello!" Ben said with a grin, opening the door further to let the Stilinski and McCall step inside. Ben was a nice man, an old friend of Sheriff Noah Stilinski and Rafael McCall once upon a time. He had a scruffy beard and dark hair with a kind smile that reminded most people of a golden retriever. His father, Vincent Stallard, was a popular lawyer in Beacon Hills up til he retired and later died in an animal tack seventeen years ago. Hence the large house Ben definitely couldn't afford on a deputy's salary.
