nativity ☆ teen wolf

two

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"Please, please help!" Stiles called as he held a rope to what would be a rolling donkey. He searched the half built scene with his eyes, "My wife is about to have a baby!"

Lenard walked through an empty doorway, the 7th grader's hands folded. "I'm sorry. All my rooms are full with guests from across the country. All I can offer is my stable out in the back, where we keep all the animals."

"Thank you so much," Stiles quickly responded in his persona of Joseph, "we'll take it."

"Thank you," Lydia said as she 'climbed off' the imaginary donkey with faked care of what would be a wire that made her stomach larger.

"Lydia, take his hand as you get off," offered Hope as she angled at the edge of the stage.

Lydia agreed, taking Stiles' hand as she used the other to 'protect her baby'. "At last, we have somewhere!"

"Let's stop there." Hope rose, all those on and off stage looking to her. "Great job everyone, it's going amazingly. Check in with me before you go so I know your parents are here."

Scott, sitting in a pew with his legs propped up on the one ahead of him, petted Princess Leia as the cat was curled up on his lap.

Lydia hopped off the stage, fitting her shoes back on over her elf socks. "Hey, Hope?"

Hope, with her hair done half up half down, went to the pews by the seniors of her show. "Yeah?" she asked as kindly as she always did.

"Wanna come grab a hot chocolate with us? Stella's has half price coco for students every friday," Lydia offered as she pulled on her coat over her jumper.

"Um," Hope hesitated, but not in a mean way, "sure. I think that sounds nice." She began packing up her things, sprinkles of children checking with her before leaving with their parents.

Kira came from the choir room that would soon double as a dressing room, her shoulders dusted with glitter. She'd spent the last hour getting her costume fitted.

"Someone's sparkly," Stiles said with a grin as he put on his jacket. He absently swung his car keys around his ring finger, "Lose a fight with a unicorn?"

"Ha, ha. You're hilarious," Kira sarcastically replied as she flicked glitter off her shoulder at him.

"I have to be, I'm staying with a lady who's not having my baby but swears she's a virgin." Stiles immediately stopped, cautiously looking to Hope.

But to his surprise, even she laughed.

Stiles let out a relieved sigh, half grinning at his own snarky comment. "Need a ride?" he asked Hope after a moment.

"Oh, i don't want to hold you guys up." said Hope in reply as she zipped up the backpack she'd brought. "I've got to wait for the rest of the kids plus check in with my father."

"One of us could wait with you," Lydia offered. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, come on, Hope." Pastor Granger, incredibly alike to Hope's features, surfaced from the back of the sanctuary in a clean cut suit, minus the jacket. "Go, honey. I'll take care of this."

Hope smiled, going up on her toes and kissing her father on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad."

"No problem, sweetheart." Pastor Granger gave a welcoming nod to the four others, "Be safe, kids."

"We will," they rang in strange unison as they started to head out of the sanctuary.

Scott, decked with Princess Leia's fur, brushed himself off as he walked to the large white doors and pulled them open. "So who's taking who?"

"I've got it," offered Lydia without hesitation. Reaching the parking lot, she started her car from the church entrance. "C'mon Hope, grab shotgun."

Hope appreciated the kindness, smiling as the group split up to three cars and climbed into Lydia's. "Your friends are really nice," she said as she clipped her seat belt.

"You could call them your friends, Hope," Lydia said as she backed out of her parking space at the church. "They like you, too."

"Think so?" asked Hope after a moment of hesitation.

"Absolutely. You're hard not to like, to be honest."

Hope laughed lightly, her cheeks flushing slightly in flattery. She glanced up to the rear view mirror, spotting a pale blue Jeep in the reflection. "What's up with the Jeep?"

"What do you mean?" asked Lydia with a half arched eyebrow. She, at the moment, didn't remember she'd been asking the same thing nearly a year before.

However, Hope didn't call it crappy or ugly. She simply wondered aloud if Stiles loved it so much because it belonged to someone he loved before.

Lydia hesitated, "Um...I don't actually know."

"Sounds like she could use a tune up soon," Hope absently said as she looked out the side mirror; able to see Roscoe behind them with the engine ricketing just slightly.

Lydia pulled into the angular parking space outside of Stella's, shifting gears and shutting off her car.

Roscoe pulled up next to them, Kira in close pursuit.

The group headed into the warm coffee house that was a focal point for Beacon Hills; busy enough to be a great business but the owners not wanting to franchise. It was like Beacon's Heaven on earth, their own little secret.

"Here comes trouble," announced a middle aged blonde with reading glasses propped on her head. She smiled at their arrival, "Have you kiddos come to mooch off half priced hot coco?"

"Yes ma'am we have," Scott replied as he led the group up to the register.

Perry, owner of Stella's with her husband, glanced over to find Hope, stopping on her. "You're a new one, darlin'. What's your name?"

"Hope, ma'am," replied the newest with a friendly smile.

"Got a student i.d., sweetheart?" asked Perry. "I know these trouble makers but I always gotta ask."

"Oh, I do online college. We aren't issued i.d.'s." Hope, who was only 17, had caught the others, as well as Perry, off guard. "I'll pay full price, it's not a problem."

Perry waved it off with a lighthearted smile, "No trouble, hon. I trust you. You kids got take a seat, I'll bring out your cocos."

"Thanks, Mrs. Stella," Lydia said with a smile before the group headed to their usual booth by the window.

"Are you really in college?" questioned Kira as the five of them removed their coats and slid into the booth sides on a gender split

"Yeah, I was home schooled and finished early," Hope, next to the window and across from Stiles, said.

"I was going to graduate early but these losers wanted me to stick around," Lydia jokingly told Hope as she barely nudged Kira's shoulder.

A light laugh fell across the table, all perking as Perry walked over a tray of colorful mugs.

As the last mug made it onto the table, Stiles caught a glance of the wing on the side of Hope's neck again.

"Hey Hope?" Stiles asked after a moment as he idly held his hot chocolate.

Hope looked up, lowering the mug from her lips. "Hmm?"

"Where're you from?"

"Felicity Heights," Hope replied. "It's a ways from here."

"Why'd you come to Beacon?" Kira questioned after taking a sip of coco.

"My father came through here once, before the church had its accident. He's always wanted to come back, but when he head what's been happening, it gave him a bit more of a push to come. S-"

"What do you mean?" Stiles lifted an eyebrow, his interest on her. "What's been happening?"

Hope hesitated, "All the deaths, I mean." Her eyes flickered around the table, "Uh, I missed something, didn't I?"

But their hurried 'no' wasn't convincing.