"Mm. Yeah. What was she in the hospital for, or is that not known...?"

"There was an animal attack. She got scratched up pretty badly on the night of the winter formal, when she went outside."

"An animal attack? Wow."

"Yeah, that's the rumor. I found her. She looked pretty bad."

"What kind of animal...? Or is it not known?"

"Bear, mountain lion, wolf. No one knows for sure."

"I have heard," she says, a little cautiously, "that animal attacks like that sometimes have unusual aftereffects."

"I thought it might be something to do with the attack. I saw what it was, sort of. From a distance. But she hasn't been showing any of the stuff you might expect. From...certain kinds of animal attacks."

"Okay, to clarify, we are both talking about werewolves, yes?"

"Oh my god. You're worse than Scott. Yes, shut up."

"I figured it would be better to establish that early on than end up finding out later that you thought we were talking about rabies or something. Anyway. I don't know all that much about Certain Animals, but I'm vaguely aware that there's ways the aftereffects can - go wrong? Turn out differently than usual? This is not a very heartening train of thought, I'm sorry."

"No, it's really not. Maybe something weird happened and there's a horrific explanation, or maybe she's just having traumatic shock or something. I don't know. I don't know how to know, either."

"Yeah, it's tough. If I knew her better I could try asking, but I really don't, we've barely talked and she doesn't seem like she'd appreciate a near-stranger coming up to her with 'by the way, have you been experiencing unusual werewolf-related symptoms lately'."

"It could be nothing! We're not even friends, I can't ask her about this. I'll have to talk Allison into saying something."

"That I might conceivably get anywhere with if I tried."

Oh hey, it's Allison.

She's not blushing that much.

Almost unnoticeable.

"Hey Solvei."

"Hi. Good talk?"

"Oh, yeah. Good talk. You and Stiles were entertaining yourselves?"

"Hey, Stiles. We should probably go back to our table. It was nice seeing you both!"

When Allison asks if they were entertaining themselves, Solvei... doesn't smirk. But there is a slight postural suggestion that she might have been thinking about smirking.

"Yeah, nice seeing you too. Take care."

"Yeah, see you."

He awkwardly shuffles after Scott.

"Sorry about that. We don't really get to see each other much, since the breakup."

"I am actively in favour of you guys getting the chance to talk. Don't worry about it."

"Thanks, we both appreciate it. Uh, I should probably head home as soon as we finish eating, it's getting late."  

"Me too. But thanks for taking me on probably my favourite shopping trip of the year!"