Grandpa Sam let Aspen hear an earful once he discovered his yellow Volkswagon hasn't been in the driveway for a whole day. Though he hasn't driven in over fifteen years, his only escort being Aspen, the car was still family in his eyes. Grandpa Sam rose with the sun, set up a chair in the front of the house, and swallowed his coffee while admiring his classic Volkswagen every day. He made sure she stayed clean, its yellow paint job never dulling in color since he acquired it.
Aspen assured him she would pick up the car in the morning before school. As promised, she called Stiles, and the boy didn't mind driving her to the cemetery where the vehicle had been residing for hours on end.
Aspen got her license around the same time as Stiles but was never able to drive as often having her grandfather be overly protective of the car. Hence her experience on the road was slim to nothing as the highest she's driven was thirty miles an hour. Anything higher would result in her being forced into a state of panic and nerves.
Aspen groaned mentally, pulling into an available parking spot at the school, seeing she had taken the perfect place next to Jackson Whitmore's Porche. She hasn't had an interaction with the cocky rich boy since Lydia invite her to her party. Once Aspen caught him passing her a wink, she did her best to avoid him as much as possible. Seeing as it was inevitable at the moment, she broke her streak and climbed out of the car, slinging both her bookbag and duffle bag over her shoulder.
For a brief moment, she really thought she would make it to the doors with ease. That was until she heard her name being called, pausing her in place. Aspen took a deep breath as he mentally prepared herself for what Jackson had to say to her.
"Hi Jackosn," she spun around, letting out a small gasp by how close the boy was from her face.
Jackson took notice of this and smirked with a light chuckle.
"What's the duffle bag for Veata?" Jackson asked, eyeing the purple bag.
"It just some extra cloths for track. Tryouts are today." Aspen answered hastily, hoping the faster she spoke, the sooner she could walk away.
"Didn't know you or your clan for that matter even held an ounce of athleticism." Jackson grinned, making Aspen raise a questionable brow.
"My clan?"
"Yea, you, Stilinski, and McCall."
"While you may be right about Stiles, Scott is actually very good at lacrosse if you couldn't tell. He made first line." Aspen felt defensive of her friend all of a sudden as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"He got lucky."
"There's a difference between luck and actually working for it. He's been practicing all summer." Aspen began using her hands to speak, prompting Jackson to quirk a brow by how easily he caused the girl to rile up.
"Right," Jackson nodded slowly as he sized Aspen up, causing her to grow uncomfortable under his gaze. "I didn't see you at the party the other night. Where did you run off to?"
"I was with a friend."
"It's a shame. We missed you there."
"I'm sure they did," Aspen agreed sarcastically while shouldering her bag, looking for an escape, her eyes held a gleam that only occurred once she laid her eyes on Isaac. He took long strides toward the doors, keeping his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone. He must have sensed the familiar stare of Aspen as he peeked upward to see her eyes on him.
He waved lightly, followed by a small nod. Aspen returned the wave before quickly dropping her hand, seeing Jackson watching Isaac as well.
"You friends with Lahey?" Jackson jeered, making Aspen cocked her head.
"Yea, we are actually."
Jackson kept staring at Isaac, boring holes in his head as he finally entered the school.
"Ever been to his house?" Jackson asked her, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.
Aspen shook her head and crossed her arms. Jackson became suspicious all of a sudden like he knew something.
"A word of advice, Veata," Jackson stood beside her and inches toward her ear, his warm breath tickling her neck. "don't walk into that house. Ever."
Patting her shoulder lightly, Jackson trotted toward the school, leaving Aspen to stand alone in confusion as she wondered how Jackson could possibly know anything about Isaac's homelife.
If Jackson was warning her, he had an odd way of showing it.
"Aspen!"
Aspen spun on her heal at the call of her name to see Allison leaping out of the passenger seat of her father's car. Aspen offered a small wave, but her smile faltered, seeing her father in the front seat, watching her with a warm smile. After Scott had mentioned Allison's father being the hunter that attacked him and Derek in the woods, Aspen's been on guard ever since. From her knowledge, there hasn't been any mention of a hunter for whatever she was, but being cautious was her first priority.
"Good morning," Aspen greeted Allison as she approached her and began walking alongside each other, into the school. "was that your dad?"
"Yea. He insists on driving me to school when I am totally capable of driving myself." Allison rolled her eyes as she rests her hand on the strap of her bag.
"Can you blame him? It's a new town. Maybe he's just...easing into it."
"I can't give him that excuse. My dad has lived here before, so I'm pretty sure he knows this place like the back of his hand."
Aspen realized their locker resided right next to each other as she exchanged her book for her first class and shoved her duffle bag in afterwords. Closing her locked, Allison leaned against the cold surface as she watched her.
"Trying out for something?" Allison asked, taking notice of the extra bag.
"Yea track," Aspen answered, finally slamming her locker before the bag could tumble out.
"You know everyone seems to be good at something here. I feel kinda left out." Allison shrugged.
"Have you ever considered any sports here?"
"None that I'm interested in."
"Then what are you interested in?"
Allison sighed as she gazed around her to make sure no one was listening.
"Don't laugh, but I'm not bad at archery," she whispered.
Aspen's eyes widened more than she anticipated. It was too convenient for Allison's family to be born hunters, and their daughter just so happened to be natural with a hunting weapon.
"Wow, that's....neat. Very original." Aspen told her. "I don't see you as the hunting type."
"Oh no, I don't hunt, it's just for fun and I rarely ever practice. I mostly consider it a hobby."
Aspen was about to dig deeper into the discussion when she spotted Isaac lengths away, standing by his locker, lazily browsing through his phone.
"Hey, could you excuse me for a moment? I gotta talk to Isaac for a second," Aspen told her, making her way around Allison.
Allison smirked and wiggled her brows, suggestively, "You still owe me all the details about the other night."
"Nothing happened." Aspen laughed, now walking backward to hide her blush from passing students.
"I'll be the judge of that."
"Goodbye!" Aspen spun on her heel and waved away a giggling Allison who soon spotted Scott down the hall and sauntered toward him.
Noticing Aspen approaching, Issac tucked his phone in his back pocket before flashing a small smile.
"Hey," she said softly, leaning against the locker, "please tell me you finished the essay,"
"Every page," Issac said, holding up his french textbook with papers displaying from the corners, which she assumed was his mentioned essay.
"Did the notes help? I made sure they were highlighted in the order of the format. Should I have made an outline? I think that would have been easier."
"It was helpful, trust me. I got here early, so I finished up in the library." Isaac smiled, seeing her rambling self make an appearance this early in the morning. His eyes soon fell to her arm, taking him take a step back to get a better view. "that healed was fast."
Aspen knitted her brows as she followed his line of vision towards her arm, and her breath hitched in her throat. She realized showing it out in the open wasn't the smartest idea. Almost everyone had seen it, and coming to school with it completely healed was suspicious. And knowing Stiles, he would be ready to do as much research as possible to explain why she recovered like Scott.
Aspen pressed her lisp together as she stroked her arm.
"I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I did say it would heal fast, didn't I?" Aspen's statement came out more like a question toward Isaac, hoping that she had initially told him that the other night. A chill began to creep up her arms, goosebumps painted across her skin.
"You did say that, yea." Isaac continued to study her arm.
Aspen's heart began to beat loud enough for her to hear. She sensed her whole body go frigid as if she was standing in a freezer. By Issac's neutral expression, it appeared that she was the only one feeling this.
Issac noticed her shivering and looked up at the air vents to see that they were shut off in that part of the corridor.
"Do you want my sweater?" Isaac asked, tugging on the material of his crimson sweater.
"Please," Aspen breathed with relief as she began rubbing her arms for warm friction.
Isaac handed Aspen his books before tugging the sweater over his head to reveal part of his abdomen from under his grey shirt.
They exchanged items, and warmth overcame her body as Aspen pulled the sweater over her head. She was engulfed in the smell of his cologne and natural musky scent, bringing a little smile to her lips.
Aspen could only assume to what had just occurred in her body was her new abilities reacting to her nerves. Her first instinct was to fumble with her hands when in a place of awkwardness, but never has her body froze up like that. Literally.
The ringing of the bell was her saving grace as she led the way to their first class, Isaac tilting his head as she seemed relieved to enter the classroom and take a seat in the back.
Stiles was the first to notice Aspen's new sweater once he glanced over his shoulder, his brows raised at the girl.
Aspen slightly lifted her hand as if asking what he wanted once she noticed Stiles staring at her.
Stiles tugged on his own jackets to refer to hers, and she quickly reddened, looking down at her textbook and began opening it to a random page.
<•>
The afternoon sun was burning against Aspen's skin as she began drawing her brown hair back into a ponytail. If there was one thing that always calmed Aspen's nerves, it was running. She never seemed to grow tired, her lungs never tightened, and she felt like she was running on clouds. Coach only ever favored her during track, but outside, she was just another student.
Aspen kicked her feet against the dirt, testing if her shoes would slip off in the middle of her run. A couple of other students filled the area near the woods behind the school to tryout. Some of them she remembered from freshman year, but some looked completely new.
One person being Erica Reyes.
Reaching down to stretch out her legs, Aspen watched Erica discreetly as she paced back and forth on her worn-out sneakers. Her nappy blonde hair was barely in a ponytail as it hung by the side of her face as she tried adjusting her oversized shirt. Erica was known to have seizures occasionally around the school. Some sick people even dared to record her and place items in her mouth.
Luckily Aspen had called the teacher on one occasion to stop them. She's never spoken to Erica, but seeing her attempting to tryout made Aspen nervous that she would have an episode out on the running path.
"Alright, gather round now you sorry excuse for a track team!" coach called out as he waved for everyone to surround him. Resting his hand on his knees and glared up at all of them. "the rules are plain and simple. The first ten runners to make it past the end of the track is on the team. If you don't, assume yourselves failure and never show up to my office or any other sport ever again!"
Aspen shuffles in place as she fumbled with the material of her purple tank top that hugged her skin. She stole a glance in Erica's direction to see a face flushed with panic, and they haven't even started running yet.
"I hope you guys stretched," coach laughed with a wicked grin, reaching for something from under his hoodie. Aspen knew her coach well enough to expect such a thing from him. "because tryouts start now!"
Coach blew the whistle, causing some students to jump and hold their ears. Aspen was one of the first to dash toward the path, running alongside a teammate from freshman year.
Then the feeling began. The familiar feeling in Apsne's feet that she adored. She felt weightless as she forced herself to pick up the pace and took a sharp turn down a bumpy path. She could hear the trampling of feet from behind her and chuckled to herself as she felt herself going faster.
The wind blew against her neck, making her determination to place first be her only objective at the moment. Passing another runner with ease, she could hear the boy cuss her name as he struggles to keep up with her fast movement.
Suddenly, the wind tickled her ear like kisses when she heard someone hyperventilating directing in her ear. She glanced to the side, but there was nothing there. Her only assumption was someone was having trouble breathing, and thanks to her unusual ability to hear everything, she recognized the whining to belong to Erica. Aspen knew it would weigh on her consciousness if she didn't go looking for Erica to help her before she had a seizure.
Aspen knew slowing down would lose her spot on the team, but Erca's panting grew thicker as the wind blew harder. Skidding to a stop, other running bumped her shoulder, surprised, yet relieved that one of the best ones on the team was giving up, assuring a possible spot for them on the team.
Spinning on her heal, Aspen jogged back down the path and soon spotted Erica gripping onto the branch of a tree and scratching at her throat. Aspen rushed to her side and placed a hand on her back, feeling her body vibrate.
"Erica. Hey, hey, look at me. Look up," Aspen spoke softly, hoping to calm the girl, but as Erca forced her eyes up, they glistened with tears.
Aspen felt Erica's hot breath fanning her face as she struggled to breathe, her body shaking. Slight confusion washed over Erica's face wondering how Aspen could have possibly heard her when she was one of the first racers up ahead.
"What's happening? Are you about to have a seizure?" Aspen asked her, tearing away the stray hairs that stuck to Erica's sweat-stained face.
"Y-yes. I...I can't b-breathe—my throat....it burns. I taste-taste blood in my -mouth," Erica words came out between breaths as she stammered.
"Here lie down,' Aspen tried to maneuver her to the ground, but Erica resisted.
"N-no, I don't want y-you here."
Aspen frowned. She could already tell Erica was not only frightened but embarrassed about having a seizure in front of someone, afraid she would record.
"Erica, I won't record. I would never," Aspen gripped her hand to pull Erica down, but the girl wouldn't budge as her breathing became more uneven. Aspen didn't have time to handle the stubborn girl when she was on the verge of collapsing. Rolling her eyes, Aspen fished for her phone in her legging's pocket and tossed it a length away in the dirt.
Erica followed the phone as it skidded across the dirt and then back at Aspen. The blonde began clawing her throat and wheezing like she wasn't getting enough oxygen. Aspen wasn't sure if she was just having a panic attack, or was she really on the verge of having a seizure.
A familiar cool feeling wrapped itself around Aspen's whole hand as she was quick to cup Erica's face in her hands, causing the girls to gasp as if her lungs widened. Her breathing gradually became more steady until she was finally inhaling calmy through her nose.
Aspen and Erica's expressions were mirror with shock as she removed her hands from the girl's face to place them on her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Aspen asked, trying to catch Erica's dazed eyes as they were looking everywhere but at her.
"I think I...'m gonna..."
Erica's words slurred as her eyes fluttered shut, and she collapsed in place, Aspen gasping as she caught her before she hit the ground. Aspen lowered herself to the ground, struggling to carry Erica's weight under her own. Pushing the hair from her face, Aspen listened to Erica's breathing. She assumed she had passed out from exhaustion and sighed in relief that she had prevented whatever was going to befall to Erica.
Aspen didn't want to assume her abilities went beyond making things move and super hearing, but seeing Erica immediately being able to breathe again when Aspen touched her, she knew she had to begin doing research.