Vitality ➳ Stiles Stilinski [1]

I ➳ Body Hunting

[Chapter 1]

Juliet Lupus relaxes on her window seat cushions, sipping a hot cocoa as she flips the page of a book. Moving boxes filled with posters, trinkets, and clothes cover the floor of her bedroom. Roughly a week has passed since her move back to Beacon Hills with her mother Rebecca. She has yet to see any of her friends. While she was away, they would Skype call every so often to keep in touch, but she never found the heart to tell them what was going on with her.

As Juliet flips another page of her book, a crash from downstairs causes her to jump. A few drops of hot cocoa spill on her shirt. "Ugh — you've got to be kidding me."

Groaning at the disturbance and scalding liquid running down her torso, she places the mug and book on a side table, slides her bow and quiver of arrows off the rack by her door, and ducks out of the room. With her mom spending late nights at work, there should be no one in the house except for Juliet.

Her heartbeat increases, and she quietly takes deep breaths to steady her nerves. Silently stepping down the stairs and notching an arrow, she whips around the corner with her bow drawn.

"Ow, ow, ow," a familiar male voice repeats, hopping up and down with a hand cradling his foot. His silhouette hunches over one of the lamps he stumbled against when sneaking into the house. Juliet slowly steps forward, keeping her bow steady as she analyzes the figure attempting to close the glass door. She winces at the loud creak that echoes. He stops it halfway, whispering in frustration, "Okay, you know what? You are the worst stealthy glass door in the history of stealthy glass doors!"

Rolling her eyes, Juliet watches in amusement as he finally turns around only to release a high-pitched yelp at the weapon aimed at his chest. "Holy God! Jules, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Stiles?" She recognizes her childhood best friend in the dim light. "What are you doing here? I could've shot you!"

"You could still shoot me! Can you please lower that thing?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." She slowly, but reluctantly, lowers her bow, keeping a sharp, constant watch on the boy in front of her. "Now, answer."

"I came to see how you were doing," the odd boy explains with a shrug, eyeing her up and down. It was true. He misses her like crazy, and he's a little hurt she hasn't at least said hello by now. Juliet raises an eyebrow, asking, "At like 11 the night before sophomore year begins?"

"Yes. Well, no. Uh, this is really not how I imagined finally seeing you again would be like," he fake chuckles as his right hand runs over his buzzcut out of nervousness. "Anyway, I'm here because my dad left like ten minutes ago, and he and his buddies were talking — you know how he's the sheriff and everything —"