cap & gown :: the twins
If someone had told Lucy she’d be standing in front of the mirror in her room’s dresser inside the McCall household in Beacon Hills, California, getting ready for her own graduation from high school three years ago, she would have laughed it off and said she couldn’t care less about graduation because she was going to live some glammed life in New York and become a star.
If someone had told her she’d move to California and live with the twin brother she didn’t know for years & mother she craved, she’d not believed it. If someone had told her she’d wind up poisoned by a werewolf’s scratch, and to be saved she’d have to be turned into a werewolf, she would have called them nuts. If someone had told her her own brother was a werewolf and that there were things like fox spirits and druids and everything only existed in a video game she would have just made a joke of it and called Eichen House.
But there she was, standing in front of the mirror, trying to get the beach curls rights, and cursing at her long hair, promising that the first thing she’ll do after graduation is that she’ll cut her hair. Her dress in all its glory called to her but she wasn’t even done with her hair yet. Kira kept sending her texts; Where are you?! Her mother was pacing downstairs. She had to look perfect today. She had to. It may be a silly thought or narrow minded even, but it was human, and Lucy reveled in every human experience she got to have.
Three years was a long time, yet all that Scott had been through in that time made it feel like he’d aged a decade since he’d been that pimpled kid with bad asthma. Before his twin was in his life again. Before he was bitten. Before his life was thrown into disarray. Before he walked through hell and made it out alive. Scarred, but whole. And he’d gained so much through that. He’d gained confidence. He’d gained a pack, a family. But no family was more important than his real one. Than his mother. His sister. Some days he included his father in that, but no matter how much time passed, that relationship was never quite the same.
There were a few times through the years that he hadn’t been sure they’d make it to this point, to graduation, but the day had finally arrived. And Scott was dressed in his cap and gown watching his mother pace a path into the floor, muttering about how her babies were all grown up and checking the mirror in the hallway for grey hairs. Flipping open his cell phone, Scott caught the time and sighed, walking his way up the stairs and to his sister’s room. He knocked once before heading in without further delay.
“The pack mass text is blowing up right now, Luce. Everyone’s wondering where we are.” Seeing what she was doing, he shook his head. “Come on, you look perfect already and we all are going to practically look the same anyway. It would look pretty bad if we were late for our last hoorah.” Smile in place, he looked at his sister through the mirror, hovering over his shoulder. He recalled all the threats and secrets that almost tore them apart, thought of how things would only change more from here on out, but he knew he couldn’t be more confident in how solid their relationship was now.
