Lightning of Her Skin

The past two days had been spent on tenterhooks for Stiles. For Sophia however it had been a whirl of conflicting emotions, mixed signals and confusion.

She had thought Stiles might like her. The very thought had made her a little happy and had bolstered her ego. Only a day in the school and an adorable looking guy seemed interested in her? Of course it had bolstered her ego. However the next day he was like a completely different boy. He was distracted, barely waving hello to her.

"Hi Stiles!" She'd eagerly greeted him as she shouldered her bag, making her way in to school. He'd looked at her as if astonished that she'd even be speaking to him. After the initial reaction though, a welcoming smirk had spread across his face making her smile too. Maybe it was the boyish honesty on his face but his smiles were infectious. In fact, his frowns were infectious too as she would later discover when they sat in the canteen.

"Hey Sophia, you look nice today." It was rehearsed and it was obviously meant for someone else but she'd taken it as a compliment anyway. Blushing she'd reached out to touch his plaid over-shirt and nodded the compliment back at him. Awkward as something she'd always been but instead of rejecting it she'd learnt to use it to make herself look cute. Judging from Stiles' smile it was definitely working.

And then it had all been ruined by his dark-haired, athletic looking friend patting him urgently on the shoulder and steering him away. Stiles had shot an apologetic look her way even whilst vainly trying to protest. She blinked back at him until he had disappeared.

Whilst playing volleyball in Gym she'd met two rather chatty, friendly girls called Chloe and Isabelle (who asked her to call her Izzy or Isabeau because she was rather obsessed with Ladyhawke the film). Sophia had felt Stiles' eyes on her the entire time but when she'd turn to look at him he'd very pointedly ignored her gaze. Her ego well and truly torn down from the bolstering his interest had given Sophia steeled her shoulders, tossed her hair and concentrated fully on making friends with the two girls.

"So you're English yes?" Izzy had asked her eagerly when they sat together at dinner with their other friends, a boy named Hunter and another blonde called Indigo. The name was self-given. Indigo was a bit of a hippy and walked very much like one would think a fairy walked. Sophia had taken an instant liking to her.

"Yup, born and bred. I transferred here because my father just went on tour." Just as she was about to launch in to the inevitably asked for story of her father's army service and her parents' divorce the empty spaces beside them, indeed the only empty spaces in the entire cafeteria, were filled. By none other than Stiles, his dark-haired friend and another honey-brown, curly haired boy. What was it with this school and attractive people?

Chloe almost died on the spot. Apparently the dark-haired boy was Scott McCall, recently single. Chloe had the hugest crush on him ever since he got on to her radar at a lacrosse game. Lacrosse was big in the school and McCall was starting line or something and was 'like, totes adorbs'. Sophia had no idea what that meant but assumed it was good. Izzy then launched in to a monologue about Stiles who won the championship game last year from nowhere and how he was completely cute. If only he wasn't such a nerd. All of this Sophia already knew but kept quiet just in case some brand new information leaked out.

It didn't.

Hunter than must've felt left out as he decided to gossip about the honey-brown beauty. His name is Isaac, his father recently died, he was the suspected murderer and he has also become a lacrosse star out of nowhere. Indigo got a dreamy look on her face at the mention of Isaac although that genuinely could have been her face.

Just as abruptly as they'd arrived they left looking sheepish. Maybe they'd heard the gossiping. Stiles had looked at her imploringly before leaving, as if trying to convey some message she couldn't quite read. Sophia didn't see him for the rest of the day after that.

The next day was even more confusing. He appeared at her locker, leaning casually against it like nothing had happened, "so you want to tell me what yesterday was about?" She asked coolly, opening her locker and arranging her things inside. There hadn't been enough time to decorate it yet and it looked so painfully bare.

"Scott had some stuff, like PMS really. Just had to be there for him."

"PMS?"

"Phantom. Yeah, you know the phantom PMS stuff. He lives with his mom." Sophia just nodded but didn't say anything else, "so I don't have lacrosse practice tonight. Danny does and I was wondering..." there was a tiny pause like he was unsure, "if you wanted a ride?" The sentence was slow and questioning, going really high-pitched at the end. She couldn't help it. She giggled.

"Yeah okay."

But that was it. No contact for the rest of the day. None of his friends sat in the cafeteria at all during lunch. Indigo noticed her slightly dejected expression, smiled a beatific but complacent smile and nudged her. Thankfully she said nothing as Sophia knew Chloe and Izzy would pounce on that like cats on a laser-light. The classes they shared he arrived late and left early. The boy was a mystery; a very cute puzzle box. She made a note to ask Danny about him later.

Then if all that mystery wasn't enough he was silent on the way home, giving her monosyllabic answers. His laugh at her joke about the word 'monosyllabic' having more than one syllable was distracted.

"Bye." Her temper was fraying too much for her to try and play nice.

"Sophia." He reached over and encased her smaller hand with his. It was so warm. Those brown eyes widened at her gravely. With the fading sun on them they looked almost amber. Oh dear. If this continued emotions were going to happen embarrassingly fast, "stay inside tonight."

What the hell was that?