When the Fairy Tale is Shattered, the Nightmare Returns.

"Alright. Who can give me the definition of a consumer? Anyone? Greenburg, not you. No one likes a suck up." Finstock barked. Red rolled her eyes, amused by how much the coach seemed to hate this one guy. The class had started ten minutes ago and was turning out as one of Red's favorites. She liked economics, she'd already gone over consumers, and Finstock was going to be high entertainment for her.

"You. New girl." he pointed directly at her. Red raised an eyebrow, still lounging with one foot on the seat under her and the other stretched out around the side of the desk. "Please tell me we gained an intelligent life form in this class, since Bilinski isn't here." Red quickly understood that he meant Stilinski, asshole, and that Stiles was one of the two empty seats. If she guessed right, then Scott would be the other.

"A consumer is one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and manufacturing." she sighed out, looking bored. Finstock looked startled, then a wide grin stretched over his face.

"Yes! Thank God, finally. Someone who reads the text." he turned back to the board and wrote the word 'CONSUMERS' across it in red. He turned back around and said "Do you play a sport?" He was looking at Red, again.

"What?" Red asked, startled by his impromptu question.

"Sports. Cross. Basketball. Track...Oh, tell me you play lacrosse." he looked like he would pay her if she said yes.

Red considered her answer carefully "Well, I used to run cross, but the season is over here. And I've played lacrosse, but never for a team." He nodded along with her, looking ecstatic.

"Talk with me before you leave school today...Lamarck." Finstock looked over joyed as he returned to teaching. " Okay, back to the lesson I planned. Or, took off the internet. Whatever.When you buy a good or service, you rarely have perfect knowledge of its quality and safety. You are justifiably concerned about getting "ripped off." Thus the need for consumer protection. Economic activity-" Red was listening half-heartedly when a hand tapped her shoulder.

"Hey" a good looking boy with tan skin, styled black hair and dark brown eyes addressed her "I'm Danny Mahealani. Are those Jimmy Chos?"

Red glanced toward her black pumps with a smile. "Red Lamarck. And, yeah, Spring collection 2012. My second favorite pair."

"I don't normal do shoes but those are gorgeous." he looked at her displayed footwear with awe.

"What do you do then?" Red asked, twisting around fully to talk to him. Finstock was berating the Greenburg kid again so he wasn't paying attention.

"Normally my boyfriend, Ethan." he said smoothly. Red snorted a laugh and beamed at him. He reminded her of Patrick, another teenage hunter she had trained with for a few years. "But, seriously? I'm more an overall outfit guy."

Red nodded, looking serious "Good to know, good to know. I'll have to get your opinion when I stand up."

He smirked at her "You have no choice. I have to see if your choice in clothing is as good as your choice in shoes. I am in the market for a new best friend." Red smiled at him, again. She liked him and his name wasn't anywhere on the list of students she had to watch and use. This could be nice, Red thought cheerfully.

Danny tipped his head sideways at her "So, who do you know so far?"

Red shrugged "Stiles, Scott McCall and Allison Argent."

"Well, they're nice enough and I sit with Allison at lunch. That means you are now sitting there too. Ah, ah, ahh." he said sharply when he saw the look on her face "No arguments. You're sitting with us. You need to get real friends, other than Stiles and McCall."

She laughed right as Finstock yelled "That's it, Greenburg! 20 laps! Up and down the hall way! Now!" the poor boy jumped up and darted out the door. Red twisted around again, after watching Greenburg run out of the room, for some sort of answer from Danny. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"It's Greenburg."

Red grinned at him before turning her attention back onto Finstock. He was talking about consumer prices vs. big business prices when it hit her. Stiles had mentioned Danny when she had talked with him and Scott yesterday. Smiling impishly, she turned back around to face Danny again.

"So, do you think Stiles is attractive to gay guys?"

*********************************

About thirty minutes later, Red and Danny were standing in the lunch line with his boyfriend Ethan. He seemed cool to Red, too. He also recognized her shoes as Jimmy Chos, and he could name the collection. Danny smacked her upside the head with a laugh when she asked who topped. Ethan said that they took turns, to Danny's mortification.

Red got two slices of pepperoni pizza, an apple, a carton of chocolate milk and an orange.

"Okay, Red." Danny started seriously "These people you're about to sit with are all kinds of weird. If they freak you out-"

"I can punch them in the face." Ethan explained with a laugh as Danny shoved him.

"No. Well, maybe. But that's not the point right now. Okay, back on topic. You've got me and Ethan-"

"Obviously the awesome ones." Ethan chipped in, earning another shove from Danny.

"Then there's Lydia, queen bitch but has great style and surprising brains, and her boyfriend Aiden, who happens to be-"

"My twin. Less handsome, more of a cave man." Ethan said, Danny didn't even bother reprimanding him this time. Red was laughing softly by this point, though she was remembering all the names.

"Then there is Scott and Stiles, the dynamic duo. Though, maybe not today. And, Allison, who you've already met. Also, her boy toy, Isaac, sits with us. He-"

"Has sexual tension with everyone. Everyone." Ethan emphasized.

"Oh, hey!" Danny yelped, looking surprised. "McCall and Stilinski are sitting with us today." Red turned and looked toward the cafeteria doors, where Stiles and Scott were walking in. Scott caught her eye and waved at her, with his full smile and puppy dog eyes. Stiles smiled at her too, at first. Then his expression changed, his smile vanished and his eyes widened. Red could imagine his heart speeding up in panic, and Scott clearly didn't have to imagine it because he turned to his friend with a worried expression. Red's eyes grew round in realization, Crap. How did he figure it out so quickly?

Making a quick decision, Red asked Danny for Allison's number. She sent her cousin a short text, asking her to play along.

************************************

Stiles' memory from before his panic attack came rushing back. Red was a hunter. Like the Argents. Or, more like, the Argents had been. He knew Scott could hear his heart hammering in his chest, but he wasn't paying attention to his friend's frenzied questions. All he could think about was the fact that Red was walking over with a determined expression on her face.

"Hey, Stiles. Scott." she smiled lightly, but her eyes looked strained. Stiles recognized that look. But he couldn't place it. It was desperate and determined, and it scared the hell out of him. "Scott, Allison said she wanted to talk to you. I don't know what about, though." Stiles watched his best bro hesitate, before taking off toward Allison who was staring at them with worried contemplation.

Stiles looked at Red, really looked. He watched her smile turn to a pinched expression, exhausted and ancient. His dad wore that look all the time. But it didn't stay long, it morphed to something angry and cold.

After all the crap he'd been through: his best friend becoming a werewolf; the freaking kanima; getting beaten up by a crazy, dying old man; a darach as their English teacher; a homicidal Alpha pack; Lydia's brief voyage into crazy town; Allison's brief voyage into crazy town; being a substitute sacrifice and dying for a while.

This was gonna kill him.

She was gonna kill him.

Stiles could already see this little blonde running him through with a sword, flaying him alive, electrocuting him or whatever hunters did. On the list of ways he thought he was gonna die? Not one of them of was being killed by his cute, new neighbor.

"I think we should talk, Stiles."

Maybe he wouldn't die. Maybe he would get to go home to see his dad-

"Alone."

Or not. Definitely dead. Beyond dead.