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Cora doesn't even like Scott, even though they have the whole werewolf thing in common. She's basically three hundred percent done with him when he shows up at the hospital with Allison Argent of all people.
“Derek!” she shouts as soon as they walk in the door. Of course this would happen the ten minutes he leaves to grab some food from the cafeteria.
Normally, she wouldn't call on her big brother to fix her problems. But she's weak, in a hospital bed, and can't really punch Scott in the face herself. Someone has to do it. Cora struggles to sit up taller and crosses her arms.
“What do you want, Scott?” But Cora isn't looking at him. She's glaring at Allison.
“We just had a few questions,” Scott says. “About your family,” he adds, almost apologetically.
“Why'd you bring her?”
Allison rolls her eyes. “I told you this was a waste of time, Scott.”
“What's the question?” Cora cocks her head to the side and raises her eyebrows dramatically. “What makes her family want to kill us so bad--”
“If I was interested in killing you or Derek, it would've already happened,” Allison says.
Her voice is cold, and though Cora would never tell anyone this, she finds Allison kind of....well, terrifying. On top of believing that Allison could potentially kill her, Allison is also—ugh, she doesn't want to think this, she really doesn't—gorgeous. People you hate aren't supposed to be gorgeous, that's just the law.
“Allison,” Scott says severely, “she's in the hospital!”
Allison shrugs. “I said I wasn't going to kill her.” She looks a little bit guilty anyway.
Derek runs in the room with an apple in his hand. The question, “What is it?” is halfway out when he sees Scott and Allison standing a few feet from Cora's bed. Before he can bark at them to leave, Scott holds up his hands in surrender.
“See you around, Derek,” Scott says.
He and Allison turn to go, though Scott makes sure to first say, “I hope you feel better soon, Cora.” Allison doesn't look back like Scott does. Doesn't wish her well. Cora wonders how disappointed Allison was when they found out she'd recover just fine, with enough time and rest in the hospital.
She's heard Scott and Stiles say that Allison is different. Allison isn't like that. Allison's an Argent, but...Cora isn't going to take their word for it, though. They're a bunch of dumb kids. And Derek clearly isn't her biggest fan. That's more than convincing for Cora.
–
“Does Derek homeschool Cora?” Allison asks as she drives Scott back to his house.
“I think Ms. Blake tutored her once or twice,” Scott says. “Before, you know....”
“Hmm,” Allison says.
“What?”
“She should be in school. With us,” she says, surprising herself by just how adamant she is. “She needs to be around people her own age. Not just Derek. She needs some glimmer of a normal teenage life.”
“Why do you care about Cora so suddenly?” His face switches from confused to beaming in an instant. “You feel bad about how that whole conversation went, don't you?”
Allison laughs. Why should she feel bad when Cora was the one jumping to conclusions about her all because of her last name? She had walked in there with every intention of being perfectly civil. She can't help it if Hales....oh crap, she thinks, catching herself jumping to conclusions and judging them in exactly the way she likes to claim is so not her.
She tries to cover the realization quickly. “I was just curious, Scott,” she says before pulling in front of his house and hurrying him right out the passenger's side door.
–
Cora is pretty sure she's dreaming, because why would Allison Argent be standing a few feet from her hospital bed like that? Scrunching her forehead, looking all conflicted, biting her lip in this really attractive way that nobody could pull off in real life.
“Allison,” Cora murmurs, because if she's dreaming, she might as well do something, right? Nobody has to know if Cora dreams about kissing Allison Argent sometimes. She can wake up and hate herself for it later.
Allison jumps.
And suddenly Cora remembers that she wouldn't be able to pick on Allison's very anxious scent in a a dream. Cora's eyes fully pop open.
“What are you doing here?”
“Uh, I just...” Allison sighs. “I was just leaving. Go back to sleep.”
“Did you poison me or something? Got wolfsbane with you?”
Allison scowls. “No. I came actually to—uh, well, offer to tutor you in a few subjects. That way when you get out of the hospital you can start up at Beacon Hills.”
Cora sits up in bed and laughs. “What makes you think I'd want to go to your stupid high school?”
Allison shrugs. “The value of learning? Friends maybe.”
“Friends? With you?”
“I didn't mean me.”
Cora narrows her eyes. “And what is it you think you could teach me, Argent?”
“I'm a straight A student so....pretty much anything.” She's quiet for a moment, to let Cora answer, but Cora doesn't say anything. “Whatever. I'll leave you alone.”
Allison turns around when Cora finds herself saying, “Wait,” a surprise for them both.
“Yes?” Allison turns back. She doesn't know why she feels so hopeful. But for some reason it means something—the possibility of Cora not hating her.
Cora runs her hand through the back of her hair. She hardly looks Allison in the eyes as she asks, “You good at English?”
Allison grins. “When do you want to start?”
–
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, Allison heads over to the hospital, unbeknownst to her friends, and tutors Cora in English literature. When Cora told Derek that Allison was going to tutor her, he decided there wasn't any way he was leaving the two of them alone. So their one-hour sessions typically consist of awkwardly making conversation about The Great Gatsby while Derek watches them from the corner.
“Do those creepy billboard eyes remind you of anyone?” Cora says one afternoon, shooting a look at Derek.
Allison laughs into her hand, and Cora instantly regrets making the joke, because, ugh, Allison is cute. Plus, Derek doesn't even take the hint. He stays glued to his chairs, eyes focused in on the pair of them despite the book in front of his own face.
“That's good,” Allison says with a smirk. “That you're making personal connections to the material.”
“I mean, that's about as connected as I can get. I wish my life was as easy as this.” She rests the book down on the dresser.
Allison's mouth hangs slightly open. Never in all their sessions had Cora gotten personal, and even though she's still been sick this whole time, her voice has never sounded so weak.
Allison wants to say something comforting. For some reason, she keeps having this stupid instinct to take care of Cora. It started in the car that afternoon with Scott when she realized Cora wasn't going to school, but it comes up almost everytime she sees Cora now. Maybe it's because she looks pitiful in that hospital bed, like she could use some homemade soup. Or maybe it's that they're the same age and dealing with the same messes, but Cora only has Derek Hale for support. And maybe, just maybe, Allison senses something soft underneath that tough act—senses that maybe Cora is just a girl like her, who gets a bit hairier sometimes.
Allison just ends up saying: “Yeah, well, things kind of fall apart at the end of the book.”
“Yeah, but do they fall apart on, like, our kind of scale?”
“Our kind of scale?” Allison repeats dumbly.
“You know, the mass murdering druid, evil pack of Alphas, loved-ones-dying type of scale?”
“Our scale,” Allison says again.
Cora nods. She isn't sure why it confuses Allison. Even though she's an Argent, it's clear to Cora that both of their lives pretty much suck. Cora had assumed Allison would get that, but now she wonders if she said the wrong thing completely.
“We might have to read a proper tragedy to get anywhere close,” Allison finally says. “Too bad my grandfather has made it so Shakespeare triggers my gag reflex.”
“Tell me about him.”
“Cora,” Derek says severely.
“If you want,” Cora adds, though she knows Derek just doesn't want to hear about Gerard and isn't at all concerned about being polite to Allison. “I mean, you don't have to. It's just, Derek gave me the watered-down version of all the events in Beacon Hills, and it would probably be useful for me to, you know, be aware of everything that's gone on in this town.”
“Um. I—I think we should probably just stick to the book.”
Allison stares down at the copy of The Great Gatsby on her lap. She hasn't discussed the Gerard stuff with anybody—not Lydia, not Scott, not even her father—and she can't imagine doing it with Cora, especially not with Derek in the room. Though she's intrigued that Cora even wants to hear about him.
Cora is sure her cheeks are turning pink. “Actually, I'm getting kind of tired, and, um, I'm not feeling so well. I should probably, you know, sleep. So let's just finish here, okay?”
Allison looks down at Cora, who quickly turned onto her side—facing away from Allison—and snuggled into her pillow. Cora is stubborn enough that Allison knows the session is over.
“Feel better,” Allison says and rests her hand on Cora's shoulder for jut a second, even though she knows Cora is lying. “Bye, Derek,” she adds, before leaving the room.
–
A few days later, Allison notices Scott's not at school. She asks Stiles, and he tells her that Scott and Derek are on some werewolf investigative mission. Allison makes a mental note to interrogate Scott about this later because she deserves to be in-the-know. Her first priority, though, is making use of Derek's absence.
During lunch, she drops by the hospital to see Cora, who is flipping through a magazine and looking bored. She drops it at the sight of Allison.
“This is unexpected,” Cora says.
“Sorry, you busy?” Allison glances skeptically at the People magazine.
“Am I ever? What's up?”
Allison sits down on the chair next to Cora's bed. “I wanted to talk to you about the other day.”
“It's nothing.”
“I hope you didn't take it personally. That I didn't want to talk about Gerard.”
“I mean, it's not like we're friends, Allison. Why should you tell me anything?”
Allison sighs. “Do you know why I offered to tutor you?”
“Boredom?”
“It hit me how much we're alike. You know, werewolf, hunter—it doesn't matter. We're both dealing with big stuff. Huge stuff that we can't handle.”
Cora huffs. “I can handle myself just fine.”
“Fine, huge stuff that we shouldn't have to handle. And I was thinking how a lot of the time I don't feel like I get to be a normal teenager, but you get even less of that normal teenager experience than I do. And that's not fair. I want it for me, and I want it for you. And so when you brought up Gerard, I just—I want us to be able to get together and forget about that feud for a little bit, forget about all those problems and just...you know, be normal teenage girls.”
“It's not that you don't trust me?”
“I don't know you well enough to trust you or not trust you. But I'd like to know you well enough to trust you.”
Cora rolls her eyes. “What is this, a formal offer of friendship?”
“If that's what you want to call it.”
Cora laughs. “You're something else, Allison.”
Allison crosses her arms. “What does that mean?”
“You coming in here and talking about friendship and being a normal teenage girl—it's cute, that you think that can happen for me.”
“Elaborate.”
“Come on, Allison. Can you really imagine me walking through the halls of Beacon Hills High School and having slumber parties and going to prom? Who would even ask me to prom? I'm terrifying.”
“Yes, I can imagine it. And there are plenty of people who would ask you to prom, though I feel like, from what I do know of you, you'd probably be the one doing the asking.”
Cora rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“Have you seen the way that Stiles looks at you? I'm sure you'd have plenty of boys drooling over you just like that.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn't be able to ask them out.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don't know how. I could beat them up, no problem, but...romance? I've never even kissed someone,” Cora admits.
“That's not a big deal. Really, it isn't.” Allison moves from the chair to sitting on the corner of Cora's bed.
“How do these 'normal teenage girls' get their first kisses over with anyway?”
“Well, back when I was a normal teenage girl—or at least, I thought I was anyway—I was fourteen and at a party. It was the night before I was going to move for the billionth time, and there was this gorgeous senior who I had this biggest crush on. I never dated boys because I was moving around so much, but I was leaving the next day, so I thought, why not? And I walked up to him and said, 'Can I kiss you?' And then we kissed.” Allison laughs. “It was terrible but I felt like I could walk on fire afterwards.”
“Can I kiss you?” Cora says.
“Yep, that's what I said exactly. It was super smooth.”
Cora laughs. “No, I mean—can I kiss you?”
“Oh. Uh.”
“Sorry, forget I...”
Cora's words trail off as Allison leans towards her and grabs her face. Cora's arms loop around Allison's neck. Their lips touch. It's barely more than a peck. They both pull back, Cora's fingers pressed into Allison's neck, one of Allison's hands resting on Cora's cheek and the other plunged into her hair. They stay like that, perfectly still, staring at one another with wide, scared eyes.
“Well, I can check that off the normal-teenage-girl list?” Cora says.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, you can.”
For a second, Cora's eyes go even wider. “Derek can't know about this.”
“Like I would tell Derek! Wait, would you tell Derek? He would murder me. Well, he'd try. But you wouldn't tell him, would you?”
“No, no, of course not.”
“Good.”
“Secrets from my family. Another thing to check off the normal teenager list.”
Allison laughs and slips away from Cora. “You're just racking up life experiences right now.”
“And not the tragic kind. Shocker.”
Allison glances at the clock. “I hate to, you know, kiss and run, but lunch is almost over, so I should be getting back.”
Cora nods. “So, uh, see you for The Great Gatsby?”
“Of course. Actually, sorry this is really random, but quick question: why English tutoring?”
“It felt like a good distraction. The stories. From, you know, everything.” She waves a hand in the air. “And this place.”
“You're gonna be out of the hospital soon, you know. And then you can come to school, and if anyone ever makes you feel like you don't belong there, they'll have to deal with me.”
“That's sweet,” Cora says, voice dripping with condescension. “That you think I'd ever need your protection.”
“Fine, not my protection, but I'd have your back, alright? How does that sound?”
Perfect, Cora thinks. But she can't say that. Alright, I guess.”
Allison walks towards the door, but Cora stops her. “Quick question.”
“Yeah?” Allison turns around, and her pale face framed by those dark curls is just so gorgeous, Cora can hardly believe she was touching her just a few seconds ago.
“Had you ever kissed a girl before?”
Allison shakes her head. She looks a little pink, and Cora can hear her heart beating faster.
“So it was something new for both of us,” Cora says slowly.
“Yeah, it was,” Allison says.
And she can tell—well, smell—that Allison is confused, a little bit scared, and a lot overwhelmed. While that should probably only make Cora more nervous, it feels comforting. At least she's not alone in freaking out. Though Cora isn't thrown by the whole girl thing (she always expected that) as much as the fact that the girl was Allison Argent, flawless, tough, frightening Allison Argent. And also, you know, the fact that someone else's lips had finally touched her lips!
Cora is struggling to come up with something to say when she hears Derek's footsteps.
“What?” Allison says at Cora's change of expression.
“Overprotective older brother arriving in, like, five seconds.”
“Shoot. See you soon, alright?” Allison hurries out the door and takes a sharp left.
Cora listens to her footsteps, graceful, swift, focused footsteps, down the hall and all the way down the stairs. Derek enters with bagged fast food lunches for the pair of them.
“What's that grin for?” he asks, as he hands her a burger.
Cora smiles. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“So something...but not something you're going to tell me?”
“That sounds about right.”
Derek groans as he settles into his chair. “Teenagers.”