Monstrous ➳ Dunbar

[ in which he surprises her ]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while :( My whole story got deleted somehow and it took me ages to recover the chapters! Unfortunately, I was unable to recover the chapter that was supposed to go before this. But thankfully, nothing important happened in that chapter so I am able to post this without anything being messed up. Basically, last chapter Sydney got sick in the middle of class and Liam had to cover for her when she tried to sneak out. Nothing too important! Anyways, onto the story :)

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Sydney had to admit that perhaps running out of the algebra classroom in the middle of class without notice wasn't a very good idea, even with a clueless substitute. But she knew that Liam would cover for her, so she didn't worry about it all that much.

Also, the fact that Sydney had no ride home wasn't exactly a great idea either. It took ten minutes to get to the school from her house whilst driving, twice that whilst walking. And with a pounding headache and aching bones added on top of that, Sydney was just a miserable person at that moment in time. Of course, she could have called Derek and asked him for a ride home, but the idea didn't cross her mind until she was at the end of her street.

As soon as she stepped into her house, Sydney plopped down onto the couch with a sigh. She texted her dad, informing him that she was at home because she did not feel good, as she knew that the school would have notified him sooner or later when they noticed she had mysteriously disappeared from class.

Taking off her shoes and throwing them across the room, Sydney grabbed a blanket and wrapped herself up, shivering against the sudden cold-flashes she was receiving. She clicked on the TV and signed into Netflix, as there was no better way to spend a sick day than having yet another Criminal Minds marathon.

After her third episode, Sydney began to feel herself dozing off. Thankful for the dim lighting and the silence of the empty house, she happily welcomed the well-needed sleep that came over her. She was asleep for a mere five minutes before she was pulled out of dream world at the sound of her phone ringing. A groan falling from her lips, Sydney grabbed her phone from the end table and read the caller ID.

Daddy.

"Hey, dad," she said into the phone as she answered, her voice scratchy from sleep.

"Oh, Sydney, you sound terrible." The sheriff's voice was laced with concern for his daughter, the sounds of paper rustling coming from the background. "Are you really that sick?"

"I've been asleep. You don't have to worry, okay?" Sydney spoke softly, understanding that her father was under a lot of stress, and she didn't want to worry him anymore. "Werewolves are unable to get extremely sick, remember? It's probably just a small cold or something."

The sheriff stayed silent for a moment, and Sydney knew he must have been pursing his lips- a signature Stilinski action whenever they were thinking of something to day. "Are you sure you're alright? Do you need anything? I could stop by and bring you some soup, or order you a pizza-"

"I'm fine, dad," Sydney insisted, cutting him off. She ran a hand through her untamed hair, stifling a yawn as she did so. "There's plenty of soup and Ramen noodles here for when I get hungry. You just worry about work, right now."

"Speaking of work-" Her father sounded stressed, which only made her feel a stab of sympathy towards the man. "I'm going to have to stay in later tonight to work on a few case files. You and Stiles are going to have to fend for yourselves. Is that alright?"

"It's okay. Don't stress over Stiles and I, alright? You have to focus on your work and what you have to do. We'll be fine," Sydney said softly, a small smile tugging on her lips as her father chuckled lightly.

"Oh, I know you will be fine," he breathed. "Feel better, Sydney."

It wasn't until around eleven o'clock when Sydney began to get her appetite back. Her stomach growled loudly in the middle of yet another episode of Criminal Minds, and she ending up snacking on a bowl of popcorn until the episode was finished. During that period of time, she had received many text messages from Stiles and Mason, and even a few from Kira, Malia and Scott. They all asked the same question, the same three words within every text.

Are you okay?

And, of course, she would answer with the same thing every time.

I'm fine. Don't worry about me.

As she sent these, she couldn't help but feel as if she were trying to convince herself, as well. Ever since she was bit- which was when she was six- Sydney rarely got sick. The most she caught was a mere stomach bug, and that was only once or twice in the nine years it had been. But she had never felt as bad as she did that day, and that was beginning to worry her. She knew that she was probably only over-reacting, that it was probably just another stomach virus that would pass by in a few days, but something felt different.

Over the dozens of texts she had received from her friends, not one of them was from Liam, and this disappointed her. Every time her phone vibrated in her lap, Sydney would hope that it would be from him, but it never was. She soon gave up, turning her phone off completely before throwing it down on the couch beside her.

Finally giving in to the gnawing ache of hunger that she felt in her stomach, Sydney trudged towards the kitchen in search of food. Her head no longer pounded or spun, though she still felt sick to the stomach; she hoped that eating a big bowl of beef Ramen noodles would cure that, however. Sydney filled a pan with water before grabbing two packages of noodles, turning on the stove and setting the water on it to boil. She leaned against the counter, her foot tapping an unknown rhythm into the tiled flooring beneath her when she heard a knock on her door.

She furrowed her eyebrows and grew silent, assuming that it was only a figment of her imagination. But then she heard it again. Grabbing a knife from the drawer next to her, Sydney slowly made her way out of the kitchen and towards the front door. She mentally cursed her father for buying a house without a peephole as she slowly opened the door, knife raised and ready to slash at anyone who threatened her.

Though who was standing at her doorstep was not an assassin, he surprised her all the same.

It was Liam, with a large grin stretched across his face and a box of pizza in his arms. As his blue eyes landed on the knife in her hands, his smile faded, only to be replaced by a frown.

"Why do you have a knife?"

Sydney lowered the weapon and crossed her arms over her chest defensively, "When you have professional killers running around wanting to murder you, it's best to be on the safe side."

Liam cocked an eyebrow, the cheeky grin returning on his lips. "But, you have claws," he pointed out and chuckled lightly.

In a very Stiles-like manner, Sydney waved her arms around in the air frantically, "I panicked, okay?" She stepped aside to allow Liam inside, her mouth watering at the smell of pizza coming from the box in his arms. "Why are you here anyway?"

Liam wriggled his eyebrows and waved the pizza box in front of her nose, "I read online that the only way to win a girl's heart is to buy her pizza."

"I'm cooking Ramen noodles." Sydney stared at the boy blankly, though she couldn't help the grin that was threatening to form on her face.

"Well, throw that away, because I brought pizza!" Liam said enthusiastically, wriggling his eyebrows once more. As Sydney rolled her eyes at his childish behavior, he stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. He flung his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him and leading her towards the couch. "Come on, Syd. There's no better way to spend a sick day than to cuddle up on the couch, watch movies and eat pizza all day long."

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Do you guys like the new cover? :D