LACAROSSE FIELD
The bleachers are full of spectators excited for the Beacon Hills Cyclones' first real game of the season, and both teams are milling around on their respective side-lines as the referee gets in position on the field.
Nick, Scott and Stiles are walking over to their team's bench when Melissa, who has just arrived, heads up into the Beacon Hills High School side of the bleachers and waves at Scott when she sees him. Meanwhile, Argent and Allison, the latter of whom is holding a box of popcorn, take their own seats in the bleachers as well. Walker and Oberon families were sitting there with popcorn in their hands.
Nick, Scott and Stiles have just joined the rest of the team on the side-lines when Lydia, dressed in a warm coat and earmuffs, approaches Scott and calls out his name
"Scott!"
She grabs him aggressively by the front of his jersey to pull him closer to her. Stiles watches with a very clearly jealous expression on his face as he backs away from them. Lydia gets in Scott's face as she speaks to him
"I just want you to remember one thing for tonight."
Obviously uncomfortable by Lydia's close proximity and aggressive tone of voice, Scott looks down at her hand, which is still gripping his jersey, and responds nervously
"Uh... w-winning isn't everything?"
Lydia chuckles sarcastically before letting go of his jersey and smoothing out the wrinkles, straightening his shirt sleeves before answering him
"Nobody likes a loser."
She patronizingly pats him on the chest before walking away and joining Allison and Argent in the stands.
Further down the field, Coach walks down and sits on the bench between Stiles and Jackson, ignoring the former in favour of giving his undivided attention to the latter.
"How's the shoulder?" Coach asked
Jackson nods his head and shrugs nonchalantly as he said
"It's fine."
"You feel any pain?" Coach inquired
Jackson shakes his head, but it's clear he's lying, at least a little bit as he replied
"No."
"What if I gave it a big old' punch?" Coach asked without caring if he has pain or not and makes a punching motion, missing actual contact with Jackson's right shoulder by an inch or two, which causes Jackson to flinch reflexively.
"Would you-would you feel any pain then?" Coach asked smiling evilly
Jackson covers up his slight annoyance and looks back at the field, nodding his head again
"...Maybe."
Coach turns to face Jackson and gives him a final pep talk
"Listen, just go out there. Just give it your best. If you feel any pain, just—"
Jackson narrows his eyes at Coach, knowing that Coach cares more about winning the game than his personal comfort and subtly calling him out on it
"Just... keep playing?"
Coach smiles proudly, glad that Jackson gets his point says in an excited and cheerful voice
"That's my boy!"
The referee's whistle blows, and the teams stand to their feet and begin to cheer excitedly from their respective sides of the field. The starting players make their way to the centre of the field and take their positions, with Scott sighing as he crouches into a defensive stance and mutters under his breath
"Please let this be okay. Please."
On the bench, Stiles is watching Scott on the field and anxiously chewing on his glove when Stilinski, still in his Sheriff's uniform, comes up behind him and taps him affectionately on the shoulders and back
"Hey, kid."
Stiles turns his head back to look at his father as he tries to hide the anxiety, he's feeling about Scott playing in the game
"Hey."
"So, you think you'll see any action tonight?" Mr. Stilinski asked
Stiles, not taking his eyes off of Scott, shrugs and responds
"Action? Maybe."
Stilinski doesn't comprehend the double meaning behind Stiles' words, that there could very well be a lot of action if Scott loses control and attacks someone on the field in front of everyone.
On the field, the referee has set the ball down on the grass between Jackson and one of the players on the other team before ordering them into position.
"Down!" Referee said
Jackson and the other player crouch down with their lacrosse sticks net-down, each of them preparing to be the first one to scoop up the ball and make a play. Several feet behind Jackson, Scott closes his eyes and once again prays under his breath
"Please!"
The referee gives the final warning before the game begins
"Set!" Referee said
A moment later, the ref blows his whistle, and the players set off into the first play of the game, with Jackson easily scooping up the ball and making his way down the field, with Scott and the rest of the starting teammates following him to back him up. Scott runs quickly down the field and holds up his stick to indicate to Jackson that he's opens for a pass, but instead, he passes to player #26.
Meanwhile, on the bench, Stiles continues to anxiously gnaw on his lacrosse glove as he watches the game progress, groaning when Scott is clearly purposely ignored by his teammate
"Mm, come on!"
#26, once again ignoring Scott, tries to pass to another player who was better guarded than Scott, who was wide open; the player misses the catch, and a member of the opposing team catches it instead and runs the opposite direction down the field, leaving a frustrated Scott holding his arms out as though to say, "Are you kidding me?"
Beacon Hills manages to get the ball again, with #20 catching the ball and passing it back to Jackson. However, Jackson gets side-tackled hard, causing the ball to fall out of the net on his lacrosse stick. Scott's eyes widen in surprise when he sees the ball has fallen onto the grass nearby, and he realizes he has a chance to grab it and actually participate in the game. However, Jackson sees the ball and then sees Scott looking at it, anticipating his next move and rushing towards the ball himself just as Scott lunges to do the same, not wanting Scott to get any glory.
Just as Scott is about to reach the ball, Jackson catches up with him and shoves him aside hard so that he's able to regain possession of the ball once again. Scott hits the ground with enough force that he rolls several times across the field, and Melissa gasps and covers her mouth with her hands in shock and sympathy. Scott looks furious as he watches Jackson launch the ball into the net, scoring the first goal of the game.
The crowd in the bleachers starts to stand and cheer, while Stiles watches apprehensively, afraid that the unfair treatment towards Scott will cause him to inadvertently shift on the field. Coach, however, is thrilled by the fact that they scored the first goal of the game and screams from the side-lines.
"That's it, Jackson! Get fired up! Fired up!" Coach yelled excited
Scott tries to catch up with the others and, finding the effort futile, stops and sighs deeply. In the stands, Melissa is the only one still seated, and she quickly puts together that Scott is being shunned on purpose and has to force herself to stand and reluctantly clap her hands to look supportive towards the rest of the team, making it clear that she's unhappy with how her son is being treated as well.
Jackson has just high-fived one of his fellow teammates when he catches Scott's eye from down field and smirks, leaving Scott looking crestfallen. On the bench, Stiles sees this exchange and sighs deeply and dramatically before muttering under his breath.
"No..."
Lydia is excitedly cheering in the bleachers, and Allison is smiling and trying to keep up with the game as well. Lydia turns to Allison and grabs her by the wrist as she tries to hype up her friend. She picks up a sign she made and has Allison help her hold it up. The sign reads, "WE LUV U JACKSON" in black and red letters
"WOOOOOO!" Allison and Lydia cheered simultaneously
Scott sees Allison cheering Jackson on from the field and immediately gets jealous, which doesn't escape Stiles' notice. Stiles grimaces and mutters under his breath again
"Brutal..."
Scott is staring at Allison with a look that seems both betrayed and hurt, and Stiles immediately gets a bad feeling, especially when he sees Scott grit his teeth and run back onto the field
"Oh, this is not gonna be good..." Stiles said in a quiet voice
In the middle of the field, Jackson, Danny (#6), and several other players are huddled together to whisper to each other,
"Only to me." Jackson said and Danny scoffs, not understanding the point of this petty behaviour as he said
"But what if he's open?"
Jackson gives Danny a hard look as Scott eavesdrops on their conversation
"Who's the captain? You, or me?" Jackson glared at him and said
Danny, wanting Jackson to see sense, pleads with his best friend
"Jackson, come on, dude. I just wanna win."
"We will win." Jackson said firmly
Danny continues to argue, but Jackson cuts him off and said
"But—"
"What did I say?" Jackson gets into Danny's face to emphasize his point as he continues to say it word by word
"Huh? What. Did. I. Say?"
Danny, realizing Jackson is not going to budge and that they're wasting time, finally concedes to Jackson's demands and sighs as he said
"Don't pass to McCall."
Jackson thumps Danny hard in the chest with his gloved hand before they scatter to their various positions on the field. Scott is still standing several yards away from where they were huddled together, distracted by what he just heard. After a moment, Scott's eyes flash gold, and he straightens his helmet with a determined expression before running to get into position.
After the break, Scott is crouched in position with his head down, a low growling noise coming out of his mouth, where his fangs seem to be extended. The referee frowns in concern and confusion as he looks over to Scott
"You okay, kid?" Referee asked
Scott, unable to talk out of fear of further transforming, simply nods his head. Jackson catches their brief conversation and watches Scott curiously for a long moment, especially when the referee, who has walked to the centre of the field, turns back to give Scott one last confused look. A player from the other team, #43, looks at Scott warily from behind him, clearly disturbed by the low growling sound that continues to come from Scott's throat to the point where he backs up several paces to put some space between them.
On the side-lines, Stiles continues to anxiously twist his fingers as he watches Scott with intensity and groans
"Ohhhhh..."
Stiles wrings his hands even more before anxiously rubbing his neck, becoming more unsure of his plan to allow Scott to play by the moment and wondering if maybe Derek might have been right to keep Scott off the field.
In the stands, Lydia, Allison, and Argent, along with the rest of the players in the stands, are watching the field with intense expressions. Argent leans over to whisper into Allison's ear
"Which one is Scott again?"
Before Allison can answer, Lydia speaks up for her, though she doesn't take her eyes off of the field or Scott
"#11-- otherwise known as the only one who hasn't caught a single ball this entire game."
Allison, whose hand is covered up by the sleeve of her sweater, covers her mouth with it as she anxiously watches her crush on the field as she said
"I hope he's okay."
Lydia corrects Allison, clearly more concerned with the team's performance at large
"I hope we're okay."
The score is 3-5, with the other team ahead by two points. There is only one minute and twenty-nine seconds left in the fourth quarter, indicating that there isn't much time left to turn the game around.
"We need to win this." Lydia said
Lydia once again grabs the sign she made cheering on Jackson, which they had taken a break from holding up, and goes to return to raising it in the air, standing to her feet, unlike everyone else in the stands who are seated as she said to Allison
"Allison-- a little help, here?"
Allison looks at Lydia with an expression that almost looks irritated before she reluctantly stands to her feet and holds up her half of the sign with her left hand while Lydia does the same with her right, though its obvious Allison's heart isn't in it when it comes to cheering Jackson on.
On the field, Scott looks over once again at Allison, and even though it's obvious to everyone else that Allison is only holding the sign to be nice, Scott's eyes flash gold again for a brief second before he clenches his jaw and returns his attention to the game.
One of the other Beacon Hills players is in the standoff with one of the members of the opposing team, and the referee once again calls the play
"Down! Set!" Referee said
The players all get into position, and when the ref blows the whistle, the two come to a stalemate, with neither one able to push past the other to grab the ball. The force of having two lacrosse sticks with pressure from opposing sides causes the ball to fly haphazardly into the air, and Scott, finally seeing an opportunity to be active in the game, leaps high into the air, breezing right over the heads of two players (one from each team) before landing lightly on his feet and running as fast as possible towards the goal.
He deftly dodges the three players from the opposing team who try to tackle him, keeping hold of the ball the entire time.
In the stands, Melissa, seeing that Scott has an opportunity to score a goal with little to no assistance, stands to her feet and begins jumping up and down excitedly
"Yes!!!"
Scott continues to duck, weave, and spin around the other players at a speed that is very quick for a human but not obviously supernatural. In the stands, Allison's eyes widen when she sees him prepare to shoot his shot, and the crowd goes wild when Scott easily throws the ball into the goal. Melissa jumps up and down even more excitedly as she cheers her son on
"YEAH!!!!!"
Behind her, Allison jumps to her feet at the same time as the person sitting on the opposite side of Lydia, causing the redhead to be jostled roughly as the two jump up and down excitedly, seemingly annoyed by Scott taking attention from Jackson despite being the one to encourage Scott to perform well in the first place.
On the bench, Stiles leaps to his feet and begins wildly pumping his arms as he shouts loudly
"Yes! That's what I—"
Stiles dramatically turns to face his fellow teammates on either side to solicit high-fives, which he does not get, but he remains ecstatic as he cheers on his best friend's performance.
"What? WHAT??"
Several other players playfully chest-bump Scott in congratulations for his goal, and as they get into position, Coach, eager to let Scott continue to play at this level and win them the game, starts shouting at the other players to make his intentions heard
"McCall! Pass. To. McCall!"
On the field, Jackson is furious and clenches his jaw tightly, making it obvious that he's unhappy with the attention being on Scott and plotting to once again tip the scales back in his favour. The referee steps up to the two players in the standoff for possession of the ball
"Set!" The referee said and blows his whistle, and the two players stalemate once again for a moment before the opposing team snatches it, with player #43 running toward the opposing team's goal.
Unfortunately for this player, he gets right into Scott's line of sight and is horrified when he sees Scott, whose eyes are blazing gold and whose fangs are out as he growls menacingly under his breath. Scared, the player weakly tosses the ball, which Scott catches easily, causing the team to cheer as he runs toward the Beacon Hills team's goal.
Stiles, still on the bench, continues to gnaw on the finger of one of his gloves when Coach, dumbfounded by this turn of events, sits down next to Stiles with a confused expression to talk to him, though neither of them take their eyes off of the game
"...Did the opposing team just deliberately pass us the ball?" Coach asked shocked and bewildered
Stiles removes the fingertip of his glove from his mouth and nods eagerly
"Yes, I believe so, Coach."
Scott rushes down the field, ducking to avoid the blows from the opposing players and deftly zig-zagging out of their way. Back on the side-lines, Coach smiles wryly, though Stiles is still extremely anxious about how Scott seems to be walking a very fine line in terms of controlling his lycanthropy.
"Interesting..." Coach said
Scott takes his shot, throwing the ball so hard that it busts right through the net of an opposing player's lacrosse stick net and hits the goal. The score is now 5-5 with thirty-nine seconds to spare in the final quarter. In the stands, everyone is standing and cheering with their arms in the air, and even Argent can't help but be impressed, especially when he sees how excited Allison is.
On the side-lines, Coach is pumping his arm in satisfaction as he cheers loudly]
"Goal! YES! YES! There you go!"
Lower in the bleachers, Melissa is awestruck by this miraculous shot and breathlessly cries out
"What???"
Suddenly, Scott looks panicked as he stands in the middle of the field, barely concealing the fact that his eyes are blazing gold and his fangs are still extended, seemingly struggling to reign in his Werewolf side. Meanwhile, Coach continues to clap and cheer, oblivious to Scott's current condition
"There you go, McCall!"
The coach from the opposing team comes over and lightly smacks Coach Finstock's shoulder with the back of his hand to get his attention, making it clear that he doesn't think this last goal should count. Coach Finstock, exasperated, scoffs and argues against him
"What? The ball's in the net."
Behind him, Stiles echoes Coach Finstock's sentiment
"Ball's in the net!"
"That's the goal of the game-- is get the goal in the net!" Coach said loudly
"We got it!" Stiles followed coach and echoed loudly
"We got it!" Coach said
Coach blows his whistle to indicate that they have agreed that the goal was fair. Scott, still panicking, gets into position on the middle of the field as the referee once again sets up the standoff between Jackson and a player from the opposing team to determine who gets possession of the ball
"Down!" Referee said
As Jackson and the other player lock eyes, the opposing player can't help but question him on Scott's behaviour
"Hey, what the hell's up with your teammate, man? What's he on?"
Jackson frowns, clearly unhappy about Scott's excellent performance despite his best efforts to keep him from having an active role in the game
"I don't know..."
Jackson considers his words and mutters a clarifying remark under his breath
"Yet."
The referee frowns, obviously listening to their conversation, before getting the game back underway
"Set!" Referee said
Jackson and the opposing player crouch down to stand off for possession of the ball, which ends with the latter winning and running down the field. However, he accidentally drops the ball, which Scott scoops up before running the other way. However, his vision turns red as the transformation into his Werewolf self takes over, forcing Scott to use the very limited control he still has to try to keep himself away from the other players. As a result, he freezes in place, unsure of what to do next as he growls under his breath at a volume that seems to be steadily increasing.
Stiles, who has been closely watching Scott the entire game, stands up to get a better look as he realizes what is going on and starts to mutter under his breath
"No, no... Scott, no, no!"
The clock shows that there are seventeen more seconds left in the game, and the opposing players are surrounding Scott in an attempt to regain possession of the ball. In the stands, Melissa has her hands clasped in front of her chin as she murmurs encouragement under her breath
"Come on, come on, come on..."
Behind her, Allison is also staring at Scott intensely as she quietly cheers him on
"You can do it, Scott. You can do it, Scott".
Allison's murmured encouragement causes Argent to literally side-eye her, clearly uncomfortable with Allison's infatuation with Scott and also seemingly suspicious of the young man for reasons even Argent can't seem to identify at this point.
Scott's sensitive superhuman sense of hearing allows him to pick up on Allison's words, which echo in his ears
"You can do it, Scott..." Allison's voice echoing
Allison's voice seems to bring Scott back to himself enough to realize that there are only seven seconds left in the game and counting, forcing him to act before he runs out of time.
The goalie for the opposing team seems terrified by the sight of Scott staring at him with his intense gold eyes, and just as two other players from the other team start rushing toward Scott from each side, Scott twists at the waist and puts all of his strength into tossing the ball toward the goal, which flies with such force that the goalie dodges it rather than trying to catch it.
The referee blows his whistle just as the buzzer sounds that the game has timed-out, leading all of the supporters of the Beacon Hills Cyclones to leap to their feet and cheer ecstatically, thrilled to see the final score is 6:5 with Beacon Hills winning the game.
Stiles jumps up with his arms raised in the air and said in excited voice
"Yes! Ha!"
Stiles lowers his arms and sighs in relief that the game managed to end in a win without Scott hurting or killing anyone due to changing
"Oh, my God!"
Scott is still standing in the middle of the field, seemingly dumbstruck by the fact that he just won the game, having scored half of the total amount of points made by the team. However, he's finally brought back to reality when he suddenly drops his stick on the ground and removes his right glove to find that, despite his eyes and teeth returning to normal, his fingernails are extending into claws, indicating that he's losing control again. Not wanting to expose his secret to the crowd, he runs toward the school just as the audience members start running onto the field to congratulate and console the players on the Beacon Hills and opposing teams.
Allison, excited to congratulate Scott on a job well done, runs toward where she had seen him standing and is confused to find that he has vanished in the crowd. She looks around in an effort to find him, and her smile dims slightly in confusion when she sees him running quickly toward the school. Argent, having just made it to the side-lines, stops and watches with interest as Scott runs away, continuing to do so as Allison rushes after Scott to see what is going on, a suspicious and curious expression forming on his face.
Stiles is still seated on the bench, albeit by himself, as he continues to relax now that the danger of Scott turning and exposing himself as a Werewolf has seemingly passed (at least to his knowledge). However, behind him in the now-abandoned bleachers, Stilinski is on the phone with someone, and he puts a finger to his unoccupied ear so he can hear them better
"Uh-huh."
Stiles has just let out a deep sigh of relief when he sees the concerned expression on his dad's face and calls out to him
"Dad, what's wrong?"
Stilinski, still on the phone, holds up his index finger of his free hand to indicate that he needs to hold on so he can listen to whomever is on the other end of the line.
BHHS LACROSSE FIELD
Scott's glove is still laying on the field from where he dropped it after he found his claws extending as he lost control over his transformation. Jackson, still desperate to figure out what is going on with Scott, sees it and picks it up. He examines it for a moment before noticing how worn the fingertips of the glove are, causing him to look closer and see that the very tips of the fingers have holes sliced into them. Jackson doesn't seem to know what to make of this information, but holds onto the glove as part of his investigation into what is making Scott so athletically gifted.
After a moment, he senses something and turns around to find Derek standing on the field behind him in his black leather jacket, his hands in his pockets as he stares at Jackson. They stare at each other for a long moment before Derek finally turns and walks away.