Pack Mentality // s. stilinski

Two (2)

The next morning was one of sluggish nervousness and bitter coffee. Cadmus had slumped into his first class of the day -English- with a large americano in his hand, bags under his eyes. This wasn't an unusual look for him, but it was rather disconcerting to see him like that, especially after the previous night.

"Are you okay?" Stiles asked as soon as Cadmus sat down, leaning conspiratorially toward the taller boy. Cadmus blinked at him, waiting to answer until after he'd taken a long gulp of his dark coffee.

"Tired," Cadmus sighed, rubbing his face. "I might have stayed up." Almost as an afterthought, he quietly added, "All night."

"What? Why?" Stiles blurted. 

"Couldn't sleep," Cadmus told him bluntly. It was clear that there was more to it than that, but Stiles had realized early on that with the youngest Argent, prying was not the most effective way to get what you wanted out of him. Stiles nodded along.

"I get that," he said. "I got up early to research a ton of shit about deer crashes- do you know how many car crashes there are a year that involve deer?"

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, looking like he didn't really want to be having this conversation. "Uh, how many?" he asked.

"Two hundred and forty-seven thousand," Stiles said. He hardly paused for a breath before he continued, "And guess how many of them involved crazed deer running into the hood of a parked car?" Stiles had that tone to his voice that meant he was leading up to something, and Cadmus could already guess what it was.

"None?" he guessed.

"No-" Stiles paused, blinking. "Oh. Uh, yeah. None. Well, except ours." A faded red color made an appearance on his upper cheeks, and Cadmus graciously decided not to mention it. At least, not now. Now, he was going to finish inhaling his coffee.

This seemed to be the prime time for mild distractions, as Lydia and Allison chose that moment to walk in. Lydia promptly swirled over to the empty seat in front of Cadmus, sitting down in one grand sweeping motion as she used her hands to smooth out the skirt of her dress. Allison, however, was left to awkwardly approach the only open seat left in the room (which was directly in front of Scott, how convenient), looking very much like a baby bird trying to fly without its mother. 

"Is this seat, um-?" 

"No!" Scott said, immediately fumbling. "No, uh, nope. It's all yours. Totally- it's super vacant." Allison responded with a subdued smile, and Cadmus had to try hard not to laugh. Those to were utterly hopeless. 

"My best friend is so smooth," Stiles crooned, hand over his heart and words dripping in exasperated sarcasm. Cadmus rolled his eyes.

"You aren't much better, hotshot," he snorted, and Stiles looked at him, offended. 

"I'll have you know-" the human started, but he was soon cut off by the collective text-tones of the entire class going off at once, catching everyone's attention.

Cadmus frowned, leaning over to take his own phone out of the pouch of his backpack, looking at the screen as it lit up. He began to read the text, but soon found that he didn't need to- an unfamiliar voice began to read what was written out loud, the sentence paired by the slow clicking of heels as whoever it was made an entrance. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." Cadmus looked up- the lady, who was clearly the teacher, put down her own phone and leaned casually back against her desk. "This is the last line from the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in my class. Phones off, everyone."