Don't Take Yourself So Seriously

The gang was right next to the doors to the field. Stiles had his hand on the door, listening to Scott go on about meeting Derek. Kinsey squirmed in her shoes, obviously wanting to talk about anything but him. Neither of the boys took notice, which Kinsey was grateful of. They kept talking about crushes to a minimum, and this case especially was not going to make urgent news.

She rubbed a hand on her arm, still remembering the pain. Scott and Stiles were still going on - mainly Stiles chattering.

"Where were you last night?” Stiles questioned Kinsey. She blinked repeatedly. “I tried calling you to tell you what the coach said to my dad at conferences."

Kinsey didn't answer. She shrugged her shoulders and looked at Scott to avoid the topic. Kissing older men. No big deal. Usual stuff.

Stiles rolled his eyes and huffed, which Kinsey smiled at. You're cute when you're angry.

“Please, stop talking. You're so loud,” Stiles joked.

“Just listening to Scott as intently as possible. What were you saying?”

“Well,” Scott started, shifting the lacrosse bag over his shoulder, “Stiles thinks I'm an idiot for trusting Derek, but he said he's going to teach me.”

“I'm sorry, but when you say that, all I can think of is him putting a treat on your nose and telling you to sit.” Scott glared at Kinsey. She shrugged again, putting her hands up.

Scott started going on about how the alpha drew the spiral, and Derek's bad reaction to it. Kinsey blushed and tried to zone them out, which was done by counting the tiles at her feet. She had completely gotten over wanting to be his mentor. It was all drowned out by the kiss. Right afterwards, where she ran away, kept playing in her mind over and over.

Scott and Stiles opened up the doors finally, but Kinsey walked the other way. Stiles was hitting Scott with some balls, so Kinsey sauntered down the hall, feeling very unsupervised. She realized it was stupid to go off on her own; it left her mind to itself, to sort through her messy feelings.

A few minutes later, Allison was sitting down by her locker. Kinsey sprinted to her, leaving her mind blank.

"Hey, Allison. Whatcha reading?" Kinsey shouted out, falling next to her. Allison jumped, clutching her heart. She began to speak before Kinsey cut her off. "So, what's up?"

Allison put her thumb on the page, saving her place. She bit her lip, looking away from Kinsey to concentrate. "King, is Scott ignoring me?"

"Don't take it personally," Kinsey said, slowing down her speech. "It's diarrhea." . . . Just shut up. It's not like Kinsey could say Scott was ignoring her because he's a werewolf and needs some time to calm himself.

Allison scrunched her face and turned back to her book. Kinsey smiled to herself. "Oh. Anyways . . . you'll never believe what just happened." Kinsey was interested; she'd be interested in anything to keep her mind busy. "Jackson came to me and apologized for being a jerk to me and Scott. He said he wants to get to know us better," Allison said, leaning in with a smile.

"I call bullshit," Kinsey blurted out angrily, bending forward.

Allison laughed nervously. "You're real chipper today. He was just trying to be nice. That's probably hard for a guy like him."

"Jackson isn't nice to anyone. He's lying to you," she said bitterly, slamming into the locker.

Allison's smile was gone. "Is something wrong?"

Kinsey was caught off guard, so she gaped, unsure of what to say. She knew she wasn't always hard to figure out, but she didn't expect someone to ask this time. Should I tell her? Who else could I tell? How can I? She wouldn't understand the whole story.

"I kissed someone," Kinsey murmured, doe-eyed, wondering what Allison's reaction would be.

Allison showed off her white teeth. "That's awesome! Who was it? Was it Stiles?!" Kinsey exhaled, looking away. ". . . Why so bummed? I don't see what's so bad." She looked into Kinsey's eyes, searching for an answer.

"I thought I liked Stiles! I mean, I do still like him. But," Kinsey held her hands in her lap, ready to let everything loose that she couldn't with her guy friends, "this guy is sort of growing on me. I don't want him to."

Allison scrunched her eyebrows. "But why? Is he a jerk or something?" Kinsey turned her head, looking down the hallway. There was no good way to explain the full story. She couldn't say anything without lying through her teeth. "King, tell me the whole story."

Kinsey, defeated, let out a breath. "Well . . . See, I was hanging out with him, just at a normal place, but this girl, she, uh - oh! his sister. Yeah, his sister came in and started yelling at him. She was saying stuff like . . . um, she was blaming him. She blamed him for, uh, what was it? Um, their parents were getting divorced. His sister said it was all his fault. It was the first time I ever saw him . . . vulnerable. " Kinsey played with her sleeve.

"Who?" Allison pestered.

"You don't know him. He's an older guy." Kinsey wanted to hit herself for lying about everything. It was close enough, though, for her to vent.

"Then what happened?"

"Usually, he's just so . . . odd. He's kind of off at times. I may be strange, but I genuinely try to be nice to everyone. He's crazy, though, so I assume being nice is hard for him. Seriously. Before, he was barely human to me. But then . . . He wasn't so calm, so . . . He was just different. After the fight with his sister, I mean. Then, I went for it. I just kissed him."

"For no reason?" Allison put her book down, scooting closer.

"No. Well . . . sort of. No. I don't know why it happened exactly," Kinsey whined, annoyed with that question. She couldn't answer it, and she just wanted Allison to understand her automatically. That was an outlandish request for an untruthful story.

"OK, OK. Just go on. You were at the kiss."

"Oh, yeah. He didn't stop me, which was weird. I mean, a guy like him should have stopped me. He doesn't like me like that. Actually, he may be asexual. Like, he didn't necessarily kiss back, but it's not like he was pushing me away! It was short, so he didn't have enough time to react. I know that might have affected it, but he could have punched me or something normal!"

"Kinsey!" Allison shouted. "You're rambling. I get it. He stood there. You stood there. What exactly is the most upsetting part here?"

Kinsey scratched her head. "It's hard to pinpoint. What is the worst?" she asked herself. There's so many things wrong. I STILL like Stiles. I . . . think I like Derek, but I have no clue why! I don't want to! He's insane! But . . . I want to see more of the Derek I saw before . . .

"King?"

"I guess it's that I have to see him again," she rushed out, staring at her shoes. "Next time I see him, it will be so awkward. I'm already awkward, so pretty much double awkwardness."

The right corner of Allison's lips bent up. Kinsey stared, confused at her reaction. She had no patience at this point, so she became annoyed by the chipperness. Allison noticed the annoyed expression and tried to hide her smile. "You want to kiss him again."

"What makes you say that?" Kinsey said, lying once again.

"Why would you be this upset about it if you didn't?"

Too many reasons. "Don't tell anyone, please."