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The thing about Stiles is that when he decides to something, he’s all in. He throws himself into whatever it is, and he never hesitates after, never looks back and thinks maybe he should have done it differently. When he was five, he decided to climb an old, gnarled tree in his family’s backyard. Halfway up the tree, he realized he was afraid of heights. Instead of scurrying back down the way most frightened children would, Stiles kept going until he made it to the last bough that looked strong enough to hold his meager weight. His dad had to help him get down from the tree after he got off of work, but that didn’t change the fact that Stiles had climbed the tree. In the third grade, Stiles fell in love with the new girl. He did not look at another person for eight whole years, even after Lydia started dating in the seventh grade. It made relating to the other guys his age difficult, but Stiles has never really been one to follow the crowd anyway.
As Stiles makes his way through the mostly-deserted halls, he knows, the same way that he did last night while he was stumbling through Derek’s apartment door, that this is another one of those indelible decisions. He runs over all of the ways he could try and tell Derek that, all the ways he could convince him that it is okay to take a chance on this - on them - because Stiles will do everything he can to fight for it.
And he knows that if Derek says yes, they will have to fight for it. For the next two years, they will have to do whatever it takes to keep their relationship from the rest of the school, the town, and especially his dad, and still manage to find the time to simply be together. As much as he wants to shout the truth about last night from the top of the Beacon Hills water tower, the tallest structure in the city, and tell the whole world that he is now taken, he knows that to do so would be the height of stupidity.
Even though it makes his chest ache to think about keeping the way he feels about Derek secret, he knows that he can do it, because Stiles believes in the two of them the same way he believed, years ago, he could climb that tree.
Stiles reaches the Social Studies hall sooner than he expects, and he takes a few deep breaths, nodding to his ninth grade Geography teacher, who looks as though she is heading out for the day. She smiles and nods back at him, and then asks how he is doing.
“Oh, you know - a little sad summer’s over, and dreading college applications and all of that, but I’m alright. How are you?” Though he wants to bolt the rest of the way to Derek’s classroom, Stiles can still find it in himself to be polite to Mrs. Kowalski. She was his favorite teacher during his freshman year, and he still babysits her two little boys from time to time when she and her husband want to go out.
She smiles sympathetically. “That’s right, you’re a junior this year. I’m sure you’ll manage to make it through. As for my new students-” she glances around the otherwise empty corridor and then sighs, “I can already tell I’m going to have a hard time with this group.”
Intrigued, Stiles steps closer. “How? It’s only the first day.”
“Do you remember the pop quiz I gave your class on your first day?”
“Oh, right.” Everyone in his class had been pissed about that quiz, especially when they got theirs back after having their neighbors grade them. It was an essay quiz meant to see how much they knew about world geography, and nearly all of them had failed miserably. “I’m guessing that didn’t go very well?”
“It was the worst,” Mrs. Kowalski confirms wryly.
“You told them they don’t actually count after they graded them, right?”
Smiling mischievously, his old teacher ask, “Now why would I do a thing like that? They might actually put some effort into studying if they think they have to make up for this quiz.”
Whistling, Stiles tells her, “You know, no one else believes me when I tell them you’re this devious.”
“Yes, well, they haven’t met Jeremy.”
Jeremy is her oldest son, who will someday take over the world - or else bring about the apocalypse. He’s incredibly sweet, and far, far too intelligent for everyone else’s peace of mind. Stiles would have run away screaming the first time he watched Jeremy and his little brother, David, if he hadn’t become wrapped around their little fingers. In the time since Stiles graduated from her class, he has come to know Mrs. Kowalski incredibly well, and while Jeremy looks like a carbon copy of her husband, he acts exactly like her.
“Fair enough.”
She laughs at his easy agreement, and then her eyes catch on the digital clock behind Stiles. “Speaking of the munchkins, I have to go get them.”
“Sure, yeah,” Stiles nods easily, equally ready for their conversation to end. “Have a good night.”
“You, too. And try not to worry too much, alright? I’m sure everything will turn out fine.”
Stiles cocks his head, feeling a little bit thrown.
Raising an eyebrow, Mrs. Kowalski clarifies, “With your applications and your course load?”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Stiles replies, wanting to kick himself for being so transparent. If he and Derek are really going to try - and Stiles hopes like crazy that they are - then he is going to have to become better at compartmentalizing and keeping secrets. “Thanks, Mrs. Kowalski.”
She eyes him carefully and then smiles, still looking slightly concerned. “Sure, Mr. Stilinski. See you later.”
Stiles stares after her as she leaves.
This thing with Derek is going to be impossible.
He starts walking toward his classroom anyway.