I N S T I N C T | Jackson Whittemore

43: party guessed

Party Guessed
Chapter Forty Three

Annie took a deep breath, looking at the short, white dress Lydia had given her to wear. It showed off a little more than what she was comfortable with. It stopped just two inches below her butt and had a back that dropped down to the bottom of her spine.

Trying on different sweaters trying to lessen the amount of skin she was showing, Annie's floor was scattered with a variety of clothes. None of them seemingly matching the beautiful, pure white dress.

Looking in her mirror, Annie pulled the front of the dress up just a little bit, covering the small amount of cleavage she had obtained, and the dress required her to go bra-less. Sighing, she grabbed her clutch purse and looked in the mirror once again, "... For Lydia."

Lydia had everything set up to perfection. Her mother and father had allowed her to use the house for the night, and they had flown to the big city trying to forget about all the expenses about to be taken place.

The first knock on her door signaled the first guest had arrived a little early. Opening the door with a tray of drinks in hand, she raised her eyebrows at Stiles standing in front of her with a giant box in his hands.

"Happy birthday!" he shouted, attempting to walk inside, but the size of his present preventing him from doing so. The present was so big, it literally got stuck in the doorway. "Okay. You know, you don't–can you just grab that side, maybe?" with one last shove, he was sent flying into the house and onto Lydia's hardwood floor.

"Ouch..."

Lydia took a sharp breath in, stepping over Stiles's collapsed body as she sighed, "Don't forget to try the punch!"

* * *

Annie took a deep breath as she walked up Lydia's long driveway to her large, mansion of a home. The lights were bright and the music was booming, but there were only about three cars there, and maybe seven people inside.

Immediately entering the house, Annie ran into Stiles who pulled her by the arm into a hug.

"Hey, there's my main," Stiles smiled.

Annie smiled back, "Hey. Have you seen Jackson anywhere?"

"No. Seen Scott or Allison?" Stiles raised his eyebrows.

"Allison's right behind me, and Scott is–"

"Right here," Stiles jumped as Scott snuck up behind him.

"Dude!" Stiles shouted, punching Scott. Taking a breath, he began to venture around Lydia's house with Annie and Scott following. "Scott, we should probably tell her what we found."

Scott sighed, "I'm still kind of not sure what we found."

"I figured out it has something to do with water. You know, the fact that all the victims were on the swim team, the way the Kanima reacted around the pool," Stiles said.

Annie raised her eyebrows, "Yeah, that's a pretty significant detail you decided to leave out the last time we talked," she sassed.

Scott ignored Annie's sarcasm, "So whoever's controlling the Kanima really hates the swim team?"

Stiles held up a finger, "Hated the swim team. Specifically, the 2006 swim team. So it could be another teacher. Maybe like a student back then. I mean, who are we missing though? What haven't we thought of?"

The teenagers were silent as they walked out onto Lydia's backyard patio. The music was still echoing back there.

Allison walked up to the group, "Uh, Jackson's not here."