All That Glitters Is Silver

It was another sleepless night, which didn’t put a great start on my first day at school. When I decided that it was a reasonable hour to get dressed, I did. I was ready for school before Allison had even woken up.

“Excited?” She yawned, stretching out over her bed.

“No,” I said truthfully, “It’s only my fifteenth school since I started preschool.”

Allison smiled in understanding. “I feel like this place is different.”

“I think you’ve said that about every place we lived.” I reminded her.

“Well,” She tossed the blankets from her legs, “This place is different. And you’re gonna like it. Trust me.”

“Alright,” I agreed half-heartedly as she picked out her outfit for the day.



We pulled up to Beacon Hills High School at half past seven. It was the usual school scene: kids running around, talking about some big game coming up, parties, or the huge test they had today. I was as nervous as I always was for endless amount of first days of school, but this time I had Allison. I didn’t have to try to connect with other people and that pushed a little less pressure on me.

I was getting that ‘who’s-the-new-girl’ stare that I had become so familiar with but never quite used to. I was always the girl who wished she could blend in with the scenery, just getting by alone because I was lucky if I ever really got to know anyone.

People were whispering about me as Allison and I walked up to the school. I could feel my face heat up as my nerves started to kick in. My paced increased as I tried to get into the safety of the school. Allison had to jog to keep up.

“Calm down, Cassie,” She smiled reassuringly as we entered the brick building. “We’ll get your schedule and find your first period. You don’t have to go through this day alone.” That was nice, but I was always alone no matter how many people were in the room with me. Coming from anyone else, I would have ignored them. But Allison understood. She always got me.



“Class, this is our new student, Cassidy Argent,” My first period teacher insisted on introducing me to the class, much to my dismay.

“Cassie,” I muttered. “Cassie’s fine.”

The squat, gray-haired woman ignored me again. “Where can we sit you…?” She tapped her chin with a chubby, gaudy ring-clad finger, examining the room, “Ah! Why don’t you take a seat next to Jackson, Cassidy.” She pointed that same chubby finger at a good looking blonde leaning in his chair with a bored expression.

I nodded without trying to correct her and gladly took my seat, wanting to get out of the spot light she’d placed me in.

I placed my binder and notebook neatly upon my graffitied wooden desk, well aware that the boy named Jackson was watching me. I glanced up at him, hoping he’d just look away but he only smirked.

“So, Cass. Can I call you Cass?” (Like it mattered if I’d said no.) “You’re Allison’s cousin, right?”

“Yeah,” I answered. He looked me up and down, looking pleased with himself for some reason. “Who are you?” I asked when he didn’t introduce himself.

“Jackson Whittemore. Captain of the lacrosse team.” I was certain this was supposed to impress me.

I nodded politely. “Congrats.”

He narrowed his eyes for a moment before smirking again. “You coming to our game tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. I didn’t even know what lacrosse was to be totally honest and my parents had found me a volunteer job at the local hospital that I was starting soon. My parents wanted me to be a doctor, though my heart wasn't totally in it. I was much more of a ‘keep-to-myself’ kind of girl. As if they didn’t know that already (being my parents and all). My real passion in life was writing. I loved literature and hoped one day to be a writer. Of course, that was only if it didn’t coincide with my parents ready-made plans for me.

“You should come and cheer me on. We’ve won state the past three years so we’ll probably win this game. But you should come anyway.” He winked flirtatiously. I smiled politely.

“Sounds like fun.” I lied, “I’ll ask Allison if she wants to go.” I started to turn my attention back to the syllabus on my desk but Jackson didn’t seem to be done with me.

“Oh, Allison’s going,” He told me, “Her boyfriends on the team.” He sounded annoyed. I see someone’s not too fond of Scott.

“Oh.”

“You should go.” He insisted.

“Sure.” I only said it so he would leave me alone.

The bell signaled the end of class and everyone hurried off to break. I shoved my binder back into my bag and stood up, only to see Jackson waiting by the door for me.

“I’m meeting Allison and Lydia. I’ll walk you.” He smiled as I passed by him.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

I wasn’t sure if I liked Jackson or not. He was a persistent son of a bitch for one thing and that wasn’t something I was used to. Nobody fought for my attention or friendship. I always figured I gave off some weird vibe that told people to stay away because half way through the year I was going to be gone anyway.

He talked my ear off for the thirty second walk and I was relieved when I caught sight of Allison.

“Cassie!” She waved, her lips growing into a smile.

Jackson tossed his arm lazily over my shoulder as we reached Allison and a pretty, petite strawberry blonde. Her hazel eyes were narrowed as she took in my appearance. I could feel her sizing me up. For some reason this made me straightened up my posture and try to shake Jackson’s arm off me. He didn’t seem to want to let go.

“I see you’ve met Cassie, Jackson,” Allison said brightly.

“Yes,” He grinned cockily, “Cass and I have History together.” That sounded more like he was implying something but I shrugged it off.

“Cass,” The petite girl said, raising an eyebrow at Jackson.

“Yes, Lydia. This is Cass, Allison’s cousin.” Jackson told her.

“This is Lydia,” Allison introduced us, “Lydia, meet Cassie…Or Cass, I guess.” She gave Jackson a strange look.

“Nice to meet you,” I smiled shyly.

She pursed her lips, “I’m sure it is.”

“Lydia,” Allison nudged her warningly. I couldn’t win them all over and it probably had to do with the fast that Jackson was on top of me. I was assuming this was his girlfriend and she was seeing me as a threat. When he left—assuming he would ever leave me again—I would let her know I wasn’t interested.

“Fine. It’s nice to meet you too. Allison’s told us so much about you. Blah, blah, blah.” She rolled her eyes.

“Sorry about Lydia. She gets bitchy around this time of the month.” Jackson glared at Lydia. He wasn’t helping my case. At all.

“It’s fine, really.” I tried shaking Jackson off again. This time it worked and he crossed his arms across his chest.

“Scott!” Allison called out, sensing this was going badly. A good-looking tan, brunette boy was grinning widely at Allison. He was walking next to another nerdish, cute boy with pale skin and buzz cut.

I leaned against the locker next me, feeling tired from the lack of sleep I was getting and the amount of people I was meeting.

“Hey, Allison,” The tan boy said as he reached us.

“Hey, Lydia!” His nerdy friend breathed, looking at Lydia like she was some sort of angel. Lydia, however, didn’t seem to see the boy because her and Jackson appeared to be having some sort of silent argument with their eyes.

“Scott, Stiles,” She looked at them and then pointed at me, “This is Cassie, my cousin.”

Around this school I was obviously going to be known as Allison’s cousin, not Cassie. I wasn’t bothered by that, though.

“Oh, hi!" The boy called Stiles smiled brightly, “I’m Stiles!”

Scott laughed at his friend’s overexcited attitude. “I would be Scott.”

“The boyfriend.” I acknowledged.

His cheek burned a little, “Allison told you about me?”

I couldn’t help but smile as I nodded. The bell for class rang just as he opened his mouth again.

“See you at lunch!” Allison promised as she clasped hands with Scott, walking off. Stiles hesitated, gazing back over to Lydia who was turning to leave, waiting for Jackson.

“Bye Lydia,” He tried again. She was only paying attention to Jackson. Poor boy was hopelessly in love with this girl and she somehow ignored his existence.

“See you later, Cass,” Jackson smirked, his arm grazed mine as Lydia took his hand, leading him away.

I smiled awkwardly at Stiles. “I guess I’ll see you around too.” He rubbed the back of his head, snapping his attention back towards me.

“Yeah! Definitely!” And with that I walked off for my least favorite class: Algebra.



The rest of the day passed without a hitch. Lunch was a little uncomfortable when Jackson sat next to me instead of Lydia. Scott and Jackson obviously had some rivalry tension thing but it was fine other than that. Stiles kept making jokes, keeping my mind of my stressful situation. I liked Stiles. He was funny. Too bad Lydia didn’t see that.

When the boys left for some lacrosse meeting, I finally got the chance to tell Lydia that I was not interested in Jackson whatsoever. She warmed up to me considerably after that. In fact, she invited me to hang out with her and Allison at the game tomorrow.

“When do I start working at the hospital?” I questioned Allison. She seemed to know more about my situation then I did.

“After school today. I made sure you were off tomorrow so you could have some normal high school kid time.” She smiled hopefully. She knew I wasn’t exactly the social butterfly type that she was, but I was going to make an effort here. I didn’t want to embarrass Allison by being antisocial and maybe this time would be different. There were only two more years of school left. Maybe my parents could hold out those two years if we were around family.

“Then I guess I’m going to the lacrosse game.” I sent her a reassuring smile.

“Good.” Lydia announced, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “It’s settled. Welcome to the world of popularity, Cassie.” She smirked at the jocks at the tables surrounding us, goggling at us like we were pieces of meat, not human beings like them.



Allison dropped me off at Beacon Hills Hospital right after school, wishing me good luck.

“Call me when you need me to pick you up.” She told me before waving as she drove off.

I took a deep breath and headed into the hospital. It was busy. There were many people of various races and ailments sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs, filling out paperwork. The phones were ringing off the hook as paramedics came rushing by me. One muttered ‘excuse me’ when they almost knocked me down.

I hurried out of the way and up to the front desk. A young, harassed looking woman with curly brown hair looked up at me and signaled me with a finger to hold on a moment. She finished up talking to someone on the phone and glanced back at me.

“Cassidy Argent?” She said hopefully. When I nodded she let out a sigh of relief.

“As you can see, we’re a little pressed for staff and we need someone to man the long-term patient station.” She told me, looking quite distressed, “I know this is your first day, but could you please head back there and be in charge until we get a handle on all these patients.” She pointed out at the flooded waiting area. “There’s not much to do, not many people come to visit, but just incase, we need you to sign them in and out. Visiting hours end in an hour so you won’t have to worry about much.”

“Oh—Um—Y-Yeah,” I stuttered, already feeling stretched too thin but this woman needed help and I was here to work, so I obliged.

“Oh, thank you so much!” She smiled and wrote me down directions to get there. I followed them and arrived at the first empty part of the hospital. It was a little eerie and too quiet compared to the rest of the hospital.

The only sounds were faint beeps coming from the patients’ rooms and my soft breathing. I set my bag underneath the desk and plopped into the soft rotating chair. Since I was probably just going to be sitting here for the next four hours, I decided I should probably start my math homework.



Forty-five minutes later, I wasn’t even half way done. I tugged a hand through my hair for the millionth time, growing more and more agitated by the problem. There was no answer. The book was lying and tricking me because no matter what I did, I couldn’t get the same answer it had in the back of the book.

I groaned and tossed my head into the dumb book in frustration. I could feel tears of anger rising under my lids. Math was literally making me cry. This class shouldn’t be a requirement for someone who wanted to be a writer. Unfortunately, I was supposed to be a doctor so it looks like I have hell to look forward to…

“Excuse me,” A husky voice demanded. I gasped, shaken by this intruder’s silent entrance, and even more shake by the person standing before me. I glanced up, shocked to see Derek. He looked just as shocked as his pupils widened before he regained his composure.

“Derek?” I muttered. He seemed to be regretting his decision to come here.

“Where’s the sign in sheet?” He demanded, refusing to acknowledge who I was.

“Oh!” I started rummaging through my papers for the clipboard. I had made a big mess with my homework in the little time I’d spent here. One could say I wasn’t the most organized person.

I found the clipboard only to clumsily drop in over the ledge. I shot around the desk and bent down to get it at the same time Derek crouched down. We both had an end in our hands and were still on the ground. I flashed my dark eyes up to his pale ones to see him scrutinizing my face again. Maybe he didn’t remember me from yesterday. After all, I was just some plain sixteen year old who got so flustered that she couldn’t seem to do anything right in this mans presence. He probably got that a lot.

“I’m so sorry!” I said in a small voice. “You probably think that I’m some sort of helpless spaz but I’m really not usually like this. I’m usually always calm, cool, and collected but you only seem to pop up when I’m doing something I don’t know how to do…”

“It’s fine.” He stood up with me, taking the clipboard from me and placing it gently on the counter. “Do you think you could find me a pen without somehow stabbing yourself with it?”

It took me a few seconds to realize he was actually making a joke. I probably wouldn’t have known if his eyes didn’t brighten up a bit because his facial expression barely changed.

“I think I can manage that,” I found myself smiling lightly. I reached over the counter, carefully grabbing my pen with my whole hand (just to be safe) and handed it to him.

He mumbled his thanks and started scribbling his name on the paper.

“You come here often?” It sounded even stupider in my head, and yet, it slipped out anyway. This man was like a disease that turned me into a bumbling idiot.

But somehow, and I’m not even quite sure if I didn’t imagined it, Derek laughed. Actually, it was more of a chuckle but his lips still curled into a small smile and I felt my heart skip a beat.

“Cassie, right?” I felt butterflies in my stomach when he uttered my name and couldn’t believe how I was acting. I was turning into some girly girl who fell for any cute guy who could remember her name.

“That would be me.” I nodded lamely. I had a constant blush on my face around this guy that probably looked like a gross rash. I wished he would go away so I could deal with my embarrassment in peace, but part of me wanted him to stay and talk to me forever.

“Well, Cassie,” He handed me back my pen, “Since you apparently work here now, I come visit my uncle every Thursday. Just letting you know for future reference.”

I smiled at his sweetness. That lady, I could only remember her last name was McCall from her I.D., had told me no one really came to visit these people. Obviously she hadn’t met Derek.

“I’ve heard that even if people aren’t totally with us, they can still sense and hear us.” I said kindly.

“Is that something they teach you in medical school?” He asked quietly. He thought I was a real doctor. Oh God. No wonder he was still talking to me.

“No, they only teach you ethics. You learn the rest from personal experience.” I wasn’t technically lying to him. I never said I actually went to medical school…not that it made a difference to my conscience.

“I see,” He answered, his eyes not leaving mine.

“You’ve only got like ten minutes until visiting hours are over.” I informed him, turning away from him abruptly, “You should go see your uncle.”

“See you around, Cassie.” I heard him say as I messed around with things on my desk for something to do. I peeked over the desk to see his retreating figure. He strutted down the hall and I would be lying if I hadn’t been checking him out. I mentally cursed myself for it. He had to be at least twenty-four, maybe older! I was sixteen and apparently looked a lot older then it if he thought I was in medical school.

I huffed as I snatched the clipboard from the counter. I examined the list and Derek was the only name on it. He had surprisingly nice handwriting for a guy, maybe even nicer than my own. Derek Hale. That was his name. Hale…that name sounded familiar for some reason though I could place where…