Shapeshifters ¹ [Isaac L.]

SAN

SAN—
" Dude, I love Mexican. "

—

" What's going on? " Miya questioned one of her various acquaintances (a small red-head by the name of Martha Fielding) who occupied the seat one row to the right and two rows in front of Miya in her fourth period English Literature class.

Martha, flushed from buzzing around and gossiping with her friends, shot the taller girl a look of dramatized disbelief.

" You mean you don't know?! " Miya shook her head with a faux sheepish smile, making a show of ducking her head in mild embarrassment before prompting the other girl with the gesture of her hand to continue. Martha sucked in a gulp of air, chest puffed with pride in her realization that she knew something that the Miya Yamato did not.

It was the day before the big lacrosse game, and there was a commotion about Beacon Hills High that infected everybody from the green-behind-the-ears freshmen to the uppity seniors. The news was so sensational that it created a buzz that even got to the faculty members, who whispered secretively to one another. Everyone was talking about it... except a rather perplexed blonde sophomore who had obviously missed whatever memo had been sent out with the juicy gossip of the week.

" They made an arrest! You know half of the dead body they found in the woods? " Martha paused, continuing on when Miya nodded. " Well, it turns out that Derek Hale is the culprit! " Oh.

Well... Miya honestly wasn't expecting that. Her brows furrowed. What in seven hells had happened between the time she had spoken to him the previous week and that morning for him to be busted for murder?

" I don't see why that would cause such a stir, though, " Miya divulged, tilting her head to the side. Perhaps she could weed out more answers from the girl. Martha's own brows furrowed before they were raised in realization.

" You weren't here! Well, Derek Hale was not only a former alum of BHHS but he used to live on the outskirts of town a few years ago... until his entire house went up in flames with his family still inside. " That got Miya's attention.

" Walk with me, " she ordered, to which Martha quickly glued herself to the other girl's side, linking arms with her as they made their way down the hallway. Martha began her report earnestly.

" So basically, it happened a couple of years back, six or so I think? One day the Hale house just went up in flames! It was super sudden and there was an investigation into it because the fire was just so suspicious, you know? Like, apparently only one person besides Derek and his sister made it out and there were just so many signs pointing to arson but no one was ever arrested. "

" Did someone else make it out? " Martha nodded earnestly.

" That's what I heard from Lacey— who heard from Kim, whose mom works in the long-term care unit at the hospital— that the guy's catatonic, " Martha reported, looking to the taller girl expectantly as if to seek approval, and Miya quickly took her cue.