[ start of formality part one ]

the first two hours after the attack, had not stopped convulsing in pain. After she finally thought it would stop, and she'd get pull herself to her knees, it would start all over again.

She wasn't entirely stupid. She knew that someone, an Argent, had taken Derek from the house when she had helped Scott and Jackson flee, and that they were in the midst of torturing him for pleasure. It made her nauseous.

Although not on the best of terms with her brother, she loved him dearly and she felt nothing but anger for the Argent's and what they were putting him through; what they were putting her through.

Jaden had found his sister in the house after the first hour had come and gone, his face contorted in worry and angst as he rushed toward her, unable to fathom what was happening. It was only when Derek's name fell from her lips that he realised.

The twins thought that they could not despise the Argent's more than they already did until that precise moment. How they were so inhumane and ruthless was beyond their comprehension.

After two excruciating hours went by, the pain came to a slow stop, and ever so slightly, Eleanor made her way to stand on her feet. She was exhausted, and Jaden offered his arm to lean on for support.

They had decided during those two hours that their house wasn't safe. There was a possibility that the Argent's were after more than one Hale, and their safest option was to leave the premises and reside somewhere else.

That somewhere else was Scott McCall's household.

And that's where Jaden took Eleanor. They arrived minutes after they had set off and were ushered in with several questions following from both Scott and Stiles, whom had joined his best friend an hour or so beforehand.

They ignored the pair and headed upstairs, into Scott's bedroom where Jaden lay Eleanor down to rest. She sighed in relief as he body hit the plush duvet and almost immediately curled into a small ball, smiling softly as Stiles and Scott entered the room after them.

"What's going on?"

Jaden sighed, looking at his sister and then at the boys. "The Argent's have Derek somewhere, and they're torturing him, which means..."

All three boys glanced at Eleanor sympathetically, Stiles' voice lowered as he finished sombrely. "Nora's being tortured too."

"I'm fine." Eleanor stated, cuddling into Scott's pillow while her eyes never opened. "They stopped for a while."

"That doesn't mean that they've stopped for good, they'll probably start again soon."

Eleanor opened one eye, staring at Scott as she shook her head, groaning and letting her face fall back into the pillow. "Thanks for the reminder babe."

"My point is," He stressed, sitting down at the edge of the bed, "We need to find Derek."

Jaden furrowed his eyebrows and leaned closer to the newly bitten, his forehead creased in confusion. "Why are you so hung up on his disappearance? You hated him two hours ago."

Scott sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Because."

"... Because?"

"Because Peter's going after Allison, and I can't protect her on my own." He admitted defeatedly, his head in his hands as Jaden and Stiles sat down beside him.

Before they could mutter any words of condolence or empathy, Scott and the twins' ears pricked at the sound of a car rolling into the drive away and coming to a complete stop. Eleanor pulled herself up and on to her knees as she peeked over the windowsill and out of the glass, her eyes falling on to Melissa whom was still in the car.

"What?" Stiles, being the only one who didn't have any supernatural senses, questioned as Eleanor motioned for him to be quiet.

She watched intently as Melissa pulled out her phone and focused on the mother of one, connecting to her almost immediately. Eleanor didn't like what she felt; sadness, hurt, pain.

Without so much as a word of explanation, Eleanor fell onto her feet and headed straight down the stairs with what little strength she had left, leaving the boys moping in Scott's bedroom.

Continuing to listen to Melissa's phone call conversation, her heart hurt when she realised who she was calling. Peter. Eleanor felt miserable and angry all at once. Peter shouldn't have come after Melissa and Scott in the first place, and he sure as hell shouldn't have taken advantage of Melissa and asked her on a date just to put Scott on edge.

But a pang of guilt hit her upon really thinking; Peter was her uncle, and in turn, her responsibility to fix. Both Stiles and herself had ruined their date, for a very good reason, but they still ruined it; the first real date the mother had been on in years. Now, she felt vulnerable and alone.

At that thought and the feelings from Melissa inkling in her mind and chest, Eleanor sped up and shot through the front door just in time to catch the end of the phone call, and more importantly, the older McCall crying.

The Hale frowned and softly approached the car, pulling the car door open gently, catching the attention of Melissa who looked up at Eleanor and furiously wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks.

The female twin shook her head, gave her a sympathetic smile and pulled Melissa into a well needed bear hug. "I'm sorry."

Melissa furrowed her brows. "What for?"

"Stiles and I." She started half heartedly, her lips pulled into a sad frown. "We ruined your date. I'm really sorry."

Melissa immediately shook her head, slipping out of the car to embrace Scott's friend better, looking her in the eye. "You didn't mean any harm Elle, it's not your fault."

Eleanor didn't buy into her answer, but instead gave Melissa an even tighter squeeze, that was returned almost instantly. The two stayed like that for a while.

...

"not allowed to go the formal."

Eleanor pulled a face, her phone next to her ear on speaker phone as she laid in Stiles' bed, her feet dangling in the air out of boredom.

Not long after comforting Melissa, the torture had started again, but with different methods. This time, Eleanor could tell someone was using hand to hand combat to beat the living crap out of her brother, and it was a very unpleasant experience to say the least.

She ached everywhere, and as soon as the pain calmed, it resurfaced again. And so, they decided it would be best to leave Eleanor at home for the day and let her rest, while keeping her from looking suspicious in school.

"What do you mean?" She questioned, pouting slightly as she grabbed a hold of Stiles' lacrosse hoodie sitting on his desk chair, sitting up to pull it over her head and arms.

"Coach isn't letting him go because of his grades. The guy threatened to pull Scott out by his teeth if he even saw him there!"

Eleanor giggled at Stiles statement. "Sounds like Coach."

"Wait-" Stiles' voice was muffled for a second and then a groan fell from his lips, "I don't want to talk to Jackson."

Scott had told Eleanor of his plan yesterday night, about making Jackson take Allison to the formal. The young Hale supported the idea, although she wasn't entirely sure that the prissy white boy would agree; so she knew exactly what Stiles' was muttering about.

Eleanor sensed that Stiles was holding his phone his hands by his side as they talked to the young Whittemore, and Eleanor sighed tiredly as she strained to listen to the other end.

"Have her dad do it, okay? He's the only one equipped to actually handle it."

Eleanor could tell Scott was scowling. "How am I supposed to do that without him finding out about me?"

"Not my problem." She scoffed at his ignorance.

"You're her friend too. You are. All that time you spent with her to get to me, you can't tell me you didn't get to know and like her. It's Allison. It's impossible not to like her." Eleanor thought back to the night at the high school and fought the urge to mutter 'debatable'. "You can't tell me that you don't care if she gets hurt."

There was silence for a second, and then. "What if I get hurt."

"Then it's worth it."

"Not to me." And Eleanor groaned, pulling herself up from the bed and glaring at the phone as if it were Jackson.

"Well, I wouldn't say I told you so," Stiles started and it caused a small smile to fall from Eleanor's lips, knowing Stiles' next words. "'Cause it's not strong enough. How about 'I'm always right and you should listen to whatever I have to say and never disagree ever, ever for the sake of your wolflihood'?"

A giggle fell from her lips at the last word and she picked up the phone, bringing it with her to Stiles' desk as she pulled up the google search bar. She was interested to see if it were an actual word.

And then. "Oh my god, he's not done. Nora, I have to go." The line went dead.

...

few moments after Eleanor found out that 'wolflihood' was not an actual word and only one that Stiles had made up, she accepted a call from a very determined Lydia Martin.

She wanted to go winter formal shopping with her two best friends, and she was not taking no for an answer. Eleanor tried her best to get out of it, knowing that she could curl over in pain at any given moment, but Lydia's stubbornness forced herself to suck it up and deal with the risk.

And so, letting Stiles know that she wouldn't be at his when he got home from school and would instead be at the local Macy's, she got herself dressed. A pair of leggings hugged her legs while Eleanor grabbed a hold of one of Stiles' graphic T's, tying it in a knot at the bottom to make it more fitting, covering her arms with one of his infamous flannels.

A text from Lydia and a car ride later, Eleanor accompanied the two best friends on to the elevator. Both the strawberry blonde and herself could tell that something was off with Allison, and Eleanor was certain that the hunter had been giving her the cold shoulder for the best part of twenty minutes.

"Nothing's wrong." The brunette reassured to Lydia. "I just - have a lot on my mind."

"You could smile at least. Ever heard of the saying, 'never frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile'? Smile Allison, I'm buying you a dress."

Allison smiled gratefully, but their was a hint of deviousness on her lips as she turned back to give Eleanor a swift look before continuing. "I have to admit as far as apologies go, that's more than I expected."

"Excellent." Lydia smiled gleefully but it dropped upon her next words.

"But not as much as I'm going to ask."

"What?" She leant her weight on her left hip. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's means you're going to cancel on whatever dumb, roided - up jock you were planning on going with, and you're going to go with somebody else."

As the words left Allison's mouth, Eleanor somehow could already guess where this was going. With the sly and cold looks she was receiving from the Argent and the faint smile playing on her lips, she could tell that this was coming from someone who was not sorry at all for what they were about to do.

And as they reached the second floor of the shopping mall on the escalator, and they stepped off, Eleanor's heart dropped into her stomach.

"Who?" Lydia questioned cluelessly.

Allison just grinned, pointing toward Stiles whom was stood at the perfume stand across the shop floor, ducking away from a scent he had just sprayed. "Him."

All eyes were on Stiles, and Eleanor felt nauseous as Allison smiled happily from ear to ear, nudging Lydia playfully as if neither of them knew of her budding crush on the Stilinski.

Lydia immediately scowled and turned to the young Hale behind her, her eyebrows raised. "I thought you and him were a thing?"

Eleanor tried to ignore the stinging in her eyes and shook her head, giving a half hearted smile as she glanced back at her best friend by the perfume stand. "Well - no - he hasn't asked me, and he's really into you. Go for it."

With no excuse, Lydia huffed and stalked over to the buzz cut boy, Allison following giddily behind, leaving Eleanor alone with her thoughts. She could see from the corner of her eye that Stiles had glanced over to Eleanor when her two friends approached him, but she ignored it as she tried to mask how upset she was as she hurried to the nearest bathroom.

As soon as she entered, she stood in front of the several mirrors and sinks and pulled out her phone from her back pocket, wiping away her small tears with the back of her hand as she dialled Jaden's number and held the phone to her ear.

She stared blankly at herself in the mirror, trying to decipher why Allison had done such a thing to her supposed friend. Tried to understand what was wrong with her, and why she wasn't confident, beautiful, popular; why she wasn't Lydia.

Jaden picked up on the second ring, distracting her. "Eleanor? Is everything alright? Is someone hurting Derek?"

"No." She trembled, her voice wavering as her hand shook slightly. "I - I just, just need you to come and get - come and get me."

"Woah, Elle what's-"

"Please, please just come and get me from the mall." She pleaded, starting to become angry at herself for reacting like she was as she heard several things move on the other end of the line.

"Scott - Scott's at the mall right now, he can come and get you."

Eleanor contemplated the suggestion and sighed, running a jittery hand through her brown locks as she nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, yeah okay. Can you just - just tell him to come on his own. I'm by the toilets."

It was silent for a second. "Eleanor, are you okay?"

"I will be." She muttered, wiping the last of her tears as she ended the call, pushing her phone back into her pocket. "I will be."

She took a deep breath and pushed open the bathroom door, immediately searching her surroundings for Scott. She spotted him as soon as she exited the room, making instant eye contact with the werewolf as he began making his way toward his best friend, hanging up the phone he was talking into.

Scott cautiously walked up to Eleanor, already sensing that she was upset about something; about what he didn't know, but he planned on finding out. As soon as he reached the girl, he frowned and opened his arms, pulling her in for a comforting hug.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Eleanor sighed as she squeezed the boy tightly, letting go as she looked up at him miserably. Her eyes wandered her surroundings and she found Stiles and the two girls very close by. "Can we go somewhere else and talk?"

Scott immediately nodded. He was supposed to be watching Allison in fear she would be hurt or taken by Peter, but he knew that his best friend needed him, and Stiles would be accompanying the two girls anyway for Lydia had just suggested they go to prom together. Very uncharacteristically.

And that's when everything clicked as to why Eleanor was so miserable. Scott furrowed his eyebrow and frowned for his best friend, he nodded almost immediately and went to move toward the escalators when he thought of a way to get Allison away from Peter without him having to watch her the whole time.

He held up a finger, promising to be right back as he ran toward a clerk in charge of the tannoy, smiling to himself as he went. Eleanor nodded and allowed him the action, waiting with her legs idly crossed, glancing around the mall, cringing as she saw Allison and Lydia begin to make their way over to where she was standing, Stiles in tow.

"Eleanor, you alright? You left in a hurry?" Allison questioned, feigning care as she rested a hand to Eleanor's shoulder.

Eleanor shrugged it off. "Oh it was nothing, I just promised Scott that we would go and get food together. If that's okay?"

Lydia pouted, pointing to the Macy's beside them with attitude. "But we haven't even started shopping, we need to get you a dress for formal!"

Eleanor just waved her hand as if to dismiss the idea of her even going to the dance. "Don't worry about, I don't even know if I want to go. If I do, I'll work something out, thank you anyway though."

Lydia looked abruptly taken back by her response, but before she got the chance to argue, a loud noise sounded from the speakers above them and a woman's voice stated monotonously. "Attention to all shoppers. To the owner of a blue Mazda, license plate 5768, you're car is being towed."

Allison immediately glanced around wildly and turned to the four of them, her eyes wide in alarm. "That's my car." Before running toward the parking lot.

Eleanor just smiled to herself, already knowing that it was Scott's doing as he announcement came to a finish. She could see Scott closing in toward her with a big smile on his face and let out a small but heartless giggle as she watched Lydia pull Stiles into the shop beside them. That could have been her.

Shaking her head of the thoughts, Scott jogged the rest of the way to her side and rested his hand on the small of her back as he guided her down the escalators and toward the food court. They could talk there and grab a bite to eat before they went back to their houses to get ready for the dance.

"Nice distraction." Eleanor noted playfully as they made their way through the mall. "Seemed to work really well."

Scott laughed, nodding his head and scratching his neck, glancing around before turning to look back at his best friend. Now that he knew what was wrong, it would be much easier to talk to her about it.

"So." He started, nudging her softly. "What was all that back there? Jaden sounded really worried on the phone."

Eleanor shrugged. "I overreacted as usual."

Scott scoffed, shaking his head in disagreement as he scanned his surroundings and eyed the Panda Express sign a few meters away. He turned to look back at Eleanor as she nodded, confirming the restaurant as they made their way toward an empty table, sitting across from one another.

"Bullshit. Tell me what happened."

And so Eleanor explained, this time without the shaking hands, the tears and the frantic breathing. Scott listened intently, like he always did when she was talking, and rested a hand upon hers, trying to comfort her the best he could from across the table. After she had explained herself and the events that had unfolded the previous couple of minutes, Scott frowned and sighed in frustration. Why did everything seem to be falling apart?

"It doesn't seem like something Allison would do." Scott commented, coming short of any explanation for her sudden actions. "It doesn't make any sense."