Return of the Hale || Stiles Stilinski

10

Neriah stood in line to class with Stiles, Malia, Scott, and Kira. This morning she'd been woken up by Scott who had told her about Satomi's pack and Braeden, which made her rush to the hospital before school to check on the older girl and Derek.

"Where's Lydia?" Kira asked, looking down the line.

"She took it her freshman year," Stiles informed her.

"Starting to wish I did too," Neriah grumbled, leaning her back against the locker behind her.

"Does that mean I could have taken it some other time?" Malia snapped, sending Stiles a glare as Neriah snorted.

"Malia, you studied harder for this than any of us," Scott assured her.

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna do good," Malia countered.

"Well," Stiles corrected her.

"Well, what?" she asked.

"It's do well, not good."

"God!" Malia frustratedly exclaimed.

"You're doing this because while we're trying not to die, we still need to live," Scott said to her. "If I survive high school, I'd like to go to college. A good college."

"It's only three hours," Kira said. "We can survive three hours."

"I just realized something," Neriah mumbled, standing up straighter. "I'll be going into college looking sixteen. I'll be a lawyer...looking sixteen."

Scott and Stiles shared a sad look before Stiles grabbed her shoulder. "At least you'll always look young."

"But I can't become a lawyer that takes over the crime world like I dreamed," she whispered looking up at him. "When everyone else around me starts to age, I won't and that will bring up many questions I can't answer." She took in a deep breath as the teacher called the students into the room. "My dreams are over," she added, pushing past them and walking into class.

"So she really can't age?" Malia asked them and they shook their heads. "How old is she?"

"Seventeen," Stiles answered, walking toward the classroom with them. "She turned seventeen a few months after she died and came back to life."

"She died?" Kira gasped, looking up at Scott. "How?"

"Matt killed her after she tried saving me and Derek from the Kanima," Stiles mumbled walking into the classroom.

Neriah was already seated at her desk, wiping the black ink off her thumb when the others followed the rules of stamping their thumbprints at the top of their test papers and then giving their phones to Ms. Martin.

"Malia," Neriah whispered, sitting forward in her desk to get closer to Malia who faced her, sitting at the desk in front of her. "If you need help, whisper me the question and I'll help you."

The corner of Malia's lips tugged into a smile. "Thanks, Riah. I appreciate that."

"You two are not cheating off of each other," Stiles muttered, taking the desk behind Neriah.

Both the girls faced him with annoyed looks. "And you're gonna stop her?" Malia asked.

Stiles looked between them, wanting to say yes but he only rolled his eyes in annoyance, opening his test paper.

"Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so," the man at the front of the class said, making Neriah and Malia face him just as Stiles slammed his test book closed. "This test is two hours and ten minutes. There will be two twenty-five-minute critical reading sections, two twenty-five math sections, and an essay writing portion that will last thirty minutes. There are supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam," he added to Ms. Martin.