third person

LUNA POURS HERSELF A second bowl of Cocoa Puffs and plops down on the couch.  She'd called in sick to the school ten minutes ago.  Besides the sleep she got as a wolf, she wasn't able to get back to sleep and decided she was too tired to go.  It wasn't the first time this has happened and it wasn't going to be the last.

Theo pulled out of his driveway almost thirty minutes before.  She was sure he was going to try to apologize again this morning, but he didn't even look over at the house before leaving.  It didn't bother her.  Less arguing was better.

She reveled in the silence filled with her chewing and page flipping of her book.

While she was at home, there were two anxious people waiting for her at the school.  Stiles was biting his thumb nail as Scott paced back and forth in front of him.  Right after Theo had hung up the phone on him, Scott called Stiles to fill him in on the new werewolf.  Stiles couldn't say he was very surprised to hear that Luna was the werewolf they had heard howling a couple of days before.  Liam had told him all about the chemo signals he got from Luna when they'd questioned her, and he had a pretty decent theory of what happened between Luna and Theo's families.

"Are you sure about this, Scott?"  Stiles asks, pulling his thumb away from his mouth and tapping it on the table in front of him.  "I mean she's kept it from us for a reason.  Maybe we should just let it go.  Let her be."

Scott stops pacing and plops down in a seat next to Stiles with a sigh.

"I don't know, Stiles.  I know she probably has a great reason for not telling us, but what if she's been dealing with this alone?"  Stiles could just feel the sympathetic look Scott had on his face.  "The wolf I smelled in the hallway was obviously someone who was struggling with holding onto themselves.  We have to help her, Stiles."

Stiles sighs and looks towards his best friend, "But what if we don't like her reason for keeping herself secret?"  Scott stares at Stiles and shrugs his shoulders.

"We have to help her.  No matter what her reason is."  Stiles nods, but doesn't say anymore.

Theo pulls into the school parking lot and parks in Luna's normal spot near the bike racks.  He'd seen her truck in her driveway when he was leaving the house and, since she was usually gone before him, he knew she wasn't coming to school today.  Just as he put his truck into park, two people were knocking on his window.  He knew Scott and Stiles would be on him the minute he pulled into the parking lot.  Theo rolls his window down with a smile.

"Hey, Scott.  Stiles.  Do you need something?"  Stiles rolls his eyes at the brownnoser, yet says nothing.  Scott's quick to get to the point.

"Luna's not here.  Is she still at home?  Have you talked to her?"

Theo answers both questions, "Yeah, her truck was still at her house when I left.  And, no, I haven't talked to her since she shifted from her wolf form."  Theo dryly chuckles.  "She sorta kicked me out of her house after that for telling you her secret."

Stiles laughs, but there's no humor.  "I wonder why she would've done that?"  Theo looks down guiltily, and Scott shoots Stiles a glare to knock it off.  Stiles shrugs in offense knowing that he probably should stop talking, but couldn't help it.

Theo continues anyway, "I could call her or take you over there if you want."  Scott's already shaking his head before Theo even finishes.

"No, Stiles knows the way."  He nods his head to Stiles and walks away from Theo's truck to Stiles' jeep.  "We have to make this quick.  We're meeting Kira and Malia in the library later."  He jumps into the jeep.  Stiles following after and speeding out of the parking lot.

Luna could hear Stiles' jeep before it even reached her driveway.  She should've known that just by missing school, she wouldn't get away from them.  She stands up and takes her empty bowl into the kitchen.  Bouncing on the balls of her feet only added to the nerves building in her stomach.  There was no doubt Scott could hear her racing heartbeat.

To save time, the she-wolf walks over to the door and opens it before the boys could knock.  Actually, they are just stepping out of the vehicle when she pulls open the door.  The boys share a look of surprise.

"Well, hurry up.  I haven't got all day," Luna yells before stepping out of their line of view.  They quickly make their way up the steps and through the open door.  Stiles closes it once the two of them are inside.  Luna is sitting on the couch in the middle of the room which is facing a fireplace.  The pictures on the mantel above the fireplace catches Stiles' eye as Scott sits next to Luna.  Her focus is on a book she has in her lap.

Luna can feel Scott staring at her as he waits patiently for her to turn her attention to them.  She's also aware of Stiles scrutinising the pictures of her family on the mantel.  Deciding she can't avoid them any longer, Luna places her worn out bookmark in the page she's on and tosses the book on the coffee table.  Her gaze turns to Scott who is trying to study her.

Scott doesn't understand how they hadn't noticed she was supernatural before.  For years, they'd all gone to school together and every year there was someone pointing out her unnaturally, pale, blue hair.  The hair should have been the first clue that Luna wasn't as normal as she'd been trying to pretend she was.  Especially since she'd always said she'd been born with blue hair.

Stiles picks up a picture frame of a young Luna and her family.  Only it wasn't just her family, there was four additional people in the photo.  Stiles had done his research on Luna before he "interviewed" her.  She had three older brothers, a younger sister, and both of her parents were still together.  Also, almost all of them had blonde hair except for Luna's father.  So, the other four who clearly had dark hair had to be Theo and his family.  The theory Stiles had was becoming more and more possible.

"Alright.  Here's how this is going to happen.  I'll answer whatever questions you have for me, but y'all have to start asking me them," Luna says to the two boys after a minute of silence.

"Why the secret?"  Scott asks.

At the same time, Stiles asks, "Where's your family?"

Luna laughs at the irony and before the boys can question it, she explains, "The secret behind the secret is the reason my family isn't here."  Scott sends a look at Stiles to see if he understood what she just said.  But, with his theory, Stiles sort of did know what she was talking about.  He takes a seat on the coffee table in front of the two.

"Start from the beginning."

〰〰〰

Luna had explained everything up to the point of her changing in the middle of the woods with Theo and his sister running away from her.  Her face falls into her hands, and she takes a deep breath to settle her nerves.  She hasn't told anyone the details of what happened since the night it happened.  The tears were threatening to come out, but she was able to calm herself down.

Scott places his hand on her back and rubs soothing circles to help her.  He had a guess as to where this story was going, and from the look Stiles had on his face, Scott was sure he did, too.  There was only one outcome that could come from this, and Scott wasn't sure if he was ready to hear it.

"That was the night Theo's sister died, isn't it?"  Stiles asks in a soft voice.  Luna nods her head and looks up at him.  She's not crying, but her eyes are red.  "Do you remember doing it?"

She shakes her head, "No, I just remember waking up in the morning on the bridge with Theo.  He was crying so hard. I-"  She takes a deep breath and stares up at the ceiling.  "I knew I did something horrible and after I saw her in the water, I-I took off.  Hoping I could get to our parents fast enough."  Shaking her head again, she stands up to get away from Scott's touch.  She didn't want to be comforted.  What she did was terrible, and the only one who should be comforted is Theo and his family.

"Luna, there was nothing you could do," Scott tries to make her understand.  "You couldn't fight the full moon, and you still tried to save them.  It wasn't your fault."  Scott stands up and moves towards Luna.

Stiles follows suit and says, "Yeah, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea for the two of you to be out there on a full moon-"

"Not helping, Stiles."  Scott gives him a pointed look.  Stiles nods his head and puts a finger up to quiet his friend.

"But you guys were kids.  You had no idea that would be the outcome of one night out on the full moon.  Stop beating yourself up over something you couldn't control."

Luna couldn't help the irritation building up, "How can I not when my family left me here by myself for what I did?  Haven't you noticed that the pictures everywhere are only the ones I'm in?  They left every thing that reminded them of me and took off."  She laughs dryly.  "They couldn't wait until I was old enough to be emancipated so they could finally get away from me."  She brushes past the two to get to the mantel.  Taking the same picture Stiles was looking at earlier, she stares at it with so much self hatred.  "If what I did wasn't my fault, why did my family leave?"  Luna wasn't irritated anymore.  She was just tired.

Scott walks over to where she's standing and takes the frame away from her.  After placing it back in it's place, he takes a hold of her hands.  Stiles grins from his spot a few feet away from them because he knew Scott was about to use his puppy dog eyes and convince Luna to let herself off the hook.

"Luna, what you did.  It happened and there's nothing you can do to change that.  Your family left and there's nothing you can do to change that.  But what you can do is forgive yourself because nothing is going to change if you don't."  Luna turned away from Scott and stared at the picture.  He looks at it and sees a young Luna with her arm around a young Theo.  She's staring at Theo with a big smile planted on her face as Theo stares at the camera with his small hand on her waist.  "I know you don't want to be alone anymore, Luna.  I get that you want to protect everyone from what you did, but who's going to protect you from yourself?"  He moves the picture face down on the mantel.  "It's time to let go of what you did and focus on what you do.  As long as you do whatever you can to make it right, it'll get better."

Luna turns her attention back to Scott and studies him.  Could he be right?  If she does whatever she can, can killing be made right?

"He seems to believe it," she thinks.  "But would he still if I told him the whole truth?  I don't think he would.  Actually, he'd probably walk straight out the door and wouldn't even bother trying to help anymore."

"Come on, Luna.  No one is blaming you for what happened.  Not even Theo and that was his sister," Stiles adds to Scott's argument after a moment of silence.  "Just come to school with us, meet our friends, and if you don't want anything to do with us, you can go back to your life and you won't have to hear from us again."

"You guys really want to be seen with me?  Be friends,"  Luna questions with a small laugh trying to lighten the mood.

Scott laughs, "If you like us well enough, we were hoping we'd be more than friends."

"Yeah, Scott was hoping we'd get a new pack member."  The thought of them wanting her in the pack made her heart swell, but she played it off with a joke.

"Oh, so it's just Scott?  You don't want me in the pack?"  She smiles and crosses her arms over her chest.

Stiles chuckles, "Hey, I'm still a little paranoid."

"Why? Because I live next to Theo?"  As Stiles nods, Luna can't help but laugh.  "That's alright.  I understand."  Luna heads over to the staircase.  "Give me a few minutes and I'll come to school with you."

Hi, guys!  New chapter for you.  I changed the chapter names to the title of the episodes that the chapter is based off of.  When they're not from an episode, I have them as words from the chapter.  I hope you like it.  I think this is the last chapter for awhile that's under 3000 words so the chapters are getting longer.
Scott was an absolute cutie in this chapter and the episodes last night omg I love him.  And Stiles is back at it again with his theories.  Next chapter things are going to change for Luna.  Y'all better be ready.
I start my Senior year of high school Wednesday, but it's not going to interfere with the updates.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.  Please vote or comment!
- chelsie

word count: 2207