Don't Take Yourself So Seriously

"How far have you gone?" Allison said, giggling. Kinsey spit her water out onto the box in front of her, coughing violently. When she regained her composure, Allison was already cleaning up the mess. "We haven't had a long talk in, like, six years. We've got a lot to catch up on."

Kinsey wiped her mouth. "It's hard to be a best friend when the other moves away so much."

"It would have been easy if you guys kept moving with us! It was so much more fun to start my first day with you every year."

"Well, Dad liked it here," Kinsey partially lied. Allison shifted on her bed, getting under the covers. Kinsey sat up on her knees, putting her arms on the bed. "And I haven't gone all the way, Miss Nosy."

Allison laughed again, pulling up her purple pajamas. "I just wanted to know," she said playfully. "So, how far, Kinsey?"

She took a deep breath, hoping Allison's reaction would be understanding. “Third base. But it was short and he sucked!” she tried to explain hurriedly after Allison's mouth fell. “I was curious!”

"Wow," Allison said. "I'm not going to judge you. Your sexuality." Kinsey relaxed.

"I only had one boyfriend since moving here and he turned out to be a real jerk in ninth grade. I shouldn't even have been doing that last year. Freaking dumb freshman."

"Who?"

"Don't laugh," Kinsey warned. Allison wiped her face of emotion, pretending to zip her mouth closed. "Uh . . . It was Jackson."

"Lydia's Jackson?!" she screeched, her eyebrows scrunched together.

Kinsey played with the tape on another unopened box. She nodded her head. "I'm the one that introduced them. She at least had the decency to ask if it was OK with me before going after him. She's not all bad."

"She seemed really nice when I got here. Also, JACKSON?! He's totally not your type!" Allison clung onto the covers, keeping her hands from flying around in the air.

"I don't have a type!" Kinsey defended. “He's charming when he wants to be. Problem is he doesn't want to be.”

Allison let out a huge yawn. "I'm just going to have nightmares about that. New subject. How'd you become friends with Stiles and Scott?"

"Those two? Easily. I always hung out with Scott when I was in town, and one day he introduced me to Stiles. Stiles was a giant dork and made me laugh. He was always making fun of me, but I still wanted to be around him. He's still a great friend. But I'm assuming you just want to know more about Scott?" Kinsey inquired with a smile.

Allison blushed. She yawned once again. "Maybe in the morning." Her head hit the pillow. "Right now I'm wondering why you put so much emphasis on Stiles." She turned, smiling purposely at Kinsey.

Kinsey couldn't hide anything, so she just gave an innocent look. "Uh, how'd your date with Scott go?"

Allison answered with loud snoring, one of the very few bad traits she possessed. Kinsey got up to turn off the lights, but she found she couldn't rest. She opened the box that had been lying by her pillow on the floor. It was filled with only shirts, nothing interesting like she expected. Kinsey was bored so she started texting, knowing Stiles was sure to be awake and up to something.

Stiles will answer for sure. He's always fun . . . Kinsey sighed, rolling over onto her side.

Checking her phone, Kinsey realized Stiles was sleeping. She quit with her inside rambling, realizing how gaggingly teenager-like she sounded. Her thoughts kept going back to him, though, keeping her awake all night.

At about 3 AM, the phone rang. Kinsey didn't want to listen in but found it hard not to when the house was so quiet. She caught the last few words Chris said and groaned.

Crazy Kate was coming to town.

Allison stirred in her sleep at the heavy footsteps. Kinsey pretended to rest as Allison walked over her to see what was happening. "What's going on?" Allison asked groggily over the banister. Kinsey shot up and listened in.

"Your aunt had an accident," Chris answered, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

And her vocal cords were severely damaged. She'll never speak again, Kinsey hoped.

"It's not serious, is it?"

"No. Just a flat tire. Go back to bed, sweetheart." He gave her an endearing smile. Allison went back to her room to sleep, where she didn't notice Kinsey was standing, looking out into the sky. She heard a long, low howl and bolted out the window, feeling like someone was calling her.

Kinsey was still in her pajamas when she ran down the street on all fours. She was running faster than Chris' car, so she made it to her destination before he did. It was a rundown part of the neighborhood, which wasn't exactly safe for young girls to be at night, but that's not what scared Kinsey. What scared her was the sounds of a wolf hitting the roof tops. A really big wolf.

Kinsey hid behind a building, watching the alley way. She couldn't move; Kate was on the other end of the alley. She was outside of her car with a gun in hand. The car had a broken window.

Kate does like to bring drama with her.

Kinsey heard something smaller hitting against the roof. She looked up, but all she saw were the flat rooftops. The gun shot came out randomly. Kinsey ducked down onto the ground in a rush of panic. When she looked over to the direction of the gun shot, Kate was smiling in her maniacal way. Chris pulled up right afterwards. The brother and sister started to bicker.

Kinsey took her opportunity to move and got into a better spot to see what had happened. She saw a good looking man from the side, his black hair perfect. Quickly, however, she noticed it was Derek Hale. He was trying to get up, but he fell back down, writhing in pain.

There was stubble on his face, which Kinsey saw momentarily before looking down at the gray sweater. A hole was left in it at his arm. He tried getting up calmly, staring directly at Kinsey.

Kinsey mouthed “What the hell?” at him.

“Get out,” he said back at a normal tone. If Kinsey didn't know any better, she would have taken it as a threat. But Derek actually seemed to be cautious for her.

"Well, I can't help kill either of them if one kills me first," Kate said when Kinsey started to pay attention again. She went back to her old hiding place, although she desperately wanted to help Derek. Not even an untrustworthy guy like him deserved to be in that much pain, Kinsey thought.

"How long will it take?" Chris said, an almost small sense of remorse in his voice. Chris didn't like uselessly killing. Chris and the Code were bros.

"I'll give him 48 hours, if that."

Kinsey was so fixed on their conversation she didn't notice Scott pop up behind her. She screamed, thinking it was the alpha. She jumped into clear view of Chris and Kate.

"Kinsey?" Chris said. "Get over here!" Scott hid behind the wall, trying to apologize to Kinsey. She sauntered over to the adults, who immediately scolded her. "What are you doing out here? You could get yourself killed!"

"Hold on, Chris" Kate interjected. "You're too hard on the girl. You know she isn't defenseless. She was shooting guns by eight." Kinsey desperately hoped Scott or Derek weren't piecing together evidence of the hunter families. "You didn't happen to see my work over there, did you?" Kate said, proud of herself.

"What are you talking about?" Shut up! "I just came here to see you!" she said cheerfully. To keen ears it was obvious she was faking it. "I know it was really stupid, but I just get excited over old people coming back into town."

No one asked how Kinsey got there so quickly on foot. Chris just said she was going back to his home and he wouldn't tell her dad. Before she got into his car, she whispered in Scott's direction. "Help Derek."

"He's gone!" Scott whispered back.