𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚢 | 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 [1]

skipping school

—

Monday came around.

Austin's weekend was filled with him spending time with his mother. The mother son duo speaking mostly of Ryder, Jennifer doing her best to convince her only child to bring the girl home.

While he had her number, Austin knew that Ryder wasn't one to really use her phone, unless deemed absolutely necessary.

If anything, he liked it better that way. He enjoyed speaking to her face to face, rather than through the screen. He felt like it only made their conversations all the more meaningful.

Austin knew that one of his main concerns should've definitely been the mountain lion that attacked Lydia Martin and Jackson Whittemore, however, he couldn't help but think about Ryder.

Speaking of, he spotted the girl at the end of the hall near her locker. He could see her absentmindedly nodding her head to whatever nonsense was spewing out of Allison Argent's mouth. He could just tell by the look on her face that she wasn't paying attention to her. She looked drained, almost not there at all.

He walks up to them just in time to catch the last part of Allison's sentence,

"Anyways, you clearly don't care." The brunette stutters out, "Do you think you could help me again? With my locker?"

The girl doesn't respond, simply brushing past Allison to help her.

"Hey." Austin smiled at the two, earning a polite one from Allison and nothing from Ryder, as she quickly turned the opposite direction at the sight of balloons flying out of the Argent girls locker.

"Oh, god."

"That'll do it." Ryder mumbles, slamming her own locker shut before leaving Allison to handle it by herself.

"Bye!" Allison gets out, struggling to bring the balloons down as she hears a short 'happy birthday' from Austin before he's following after Ryder.

•••

"Just a friendly reminder - Parent/teacher conferences are tonight. Students below a "C" average are required to attend. I won't name you, because the shame and self - disgust should be more than enough punishment." Harris says, his eyes traveling to Stiles specifically as he speaks,

"Has anyone seen Scott McCall?"

Stiles gives the man a head shake, everyone's attention falling on the door as Jackson walks through.

"Hey, Jackson. If you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know." Ryder scoffs at the man's attempt to put on a nice front. She knew that if that had been anytime else, Harris wouldn't have even suggested that.

"Everyone, start reading Chapter Nine. Mr. Stilinski!" Stiles' head snaps up, Austin chuckling at the action,

"Try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry, not a coloring book."