PHOENIX ━━ Stiles Stilinski.

𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟

beacon hills first national bank!

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

        "THE STOCK MARKET IS BASED ON TWO PRINCIPLES. What are they? Yes McCall, you can go to the bathroom. Anybody else?"

"Uh, no. Coach, I know the answer."

Coach burst into a fit of laughter before realizing that his lacrosse player wasn't telling a joke. "Oh, you're serious."

Lennon chuckled from the seat beside Scott, earning her a stern look from her best friend. "Yes. Risk and reward."

"Wow! Who are you? And what have you done to McCall? Don't answer that. I like you better. I like you better."

"See, you're not the only smart one." Scott whispered to the young witch next to him.

Lennon rolled her eyes. "It's not being smart, it's being committed to studying.  I'm impressed you've started studying. . . and also a little threatened."

Scott chuckled. "You should be, I'm coming for your spot at top of the class Miss Phoenix."

"Does anybody have a quarter? A quarter." Coach addressed the class.

"Yep." Stiles reached into his pocket to get a quarter when an extra large condom fell out of his pocket instead.

"Stilinski, I think you, uh. . . you dropped this. And congratulations." Coach laughed, giving Stiles back the object that had fallen on the floor from his jeans pocket.

Stiles' eyes instinctively shifted behind him to Lennon to see her reaction when what had fallen out of his pocket had caused him utter humiliation. But Lennon had her eyes glued to the work in front of her; Stiles took this as a sign that she didn't care when it was actually her way of consciously acting as if she hadn't given it a second thought when she had.

In that moment, Lennon felt like her heart had just shattered into a million tiny pieces. He was going to have sex with her. She began to wonder if it was something he had done before, if hooking up with girls at parties was a regular thing for her ex best friend. Her head was telling her that she knew him and that Stiles had never been like that, but her heart - her heart was reminding her of how he'd hurt her and how it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. But more than anything, Lennon told herself that either way it didn't matter. It didn't matter because her and Stiles weren't anything. . . they weren't even friends.

"Risk and reward. Put the quarter in the mug, win the reward. Okay, watch Coach. That's how you do it. Okay, Lennon - Risk or no play?"

        She locked eyes with the Stilinski boy who had turned to look at her when Coach had addressed her directly. "I'll take the risk."