Searching for Always and Forever

Chapter 9

Soon they entered a huge iron gate and their car pulled up in front of the building. Kids of all ages were running around outside. Hope woke Jack and Riley, then Alaric and Lizzie led their way inside. Hope was amazed, she had never been in a place like this before. There were kids inside. They all wore uniforms with the letter S on their shirt. They were reading, playing, chatting with each other and some were doing magic... The little kids were staring as a young girl, no more than ten were floating her school books. Hope tried not to stare. She just followed the lead. They entered the door, which said 'Headmaster Dr. Alaric Saltzman's office'. Once they were all seated, he started to talk.

"We need to take care of some paperwork before we show you around the school. I could call someone to take care of your little siblings until we finish, I'm sure this would bore them." Alaric suggested.

"No! They are staying with us." Hope said firmly. Alaric nodded.

"So, let's start with your names and ages." He said as he opened his computer.

"Hope, 18. Grace 16. Riley 7 and Jack 5." Hope listed them as she was pointing to her siblings.

"Do you have a last name?" Alaric asked and Hope looked at Grace for a slight second. Hope gave her a barely noticeable headshake. No, they couldn't tell them. They would know who their parents were, that they were the leaders of the Crescent pack and perhaps the people who were after them could find the kids before Hope could find them. They couldn't use their father's or mother's last name.

"It's Jackson." Hope said it after her quick thought.

"So, your brother is Jack Jackson?" He asked with half a smile and Hope just nodded seriously.

"Our parents didn't have much creativity coming up with a boy name." Grace added with a giggle, and Lizzie laughed with her.

They talked about where they were in their studies... Well Hope did everything to educate her siblings and herself, she bought plenty of books, but none of them ever went to a real school with real classes. Not even before her parents were around. Alaric noted everything Hope said and he assigned them their classes.

"Before we would show you to your rooms and around the school, there's one more thing I need to know... it is mandatory for every werewolf who goes here." He said and Hope nodded to continue. "I need to know how you two triggered your curse."

"Why do you need to know that?" Hope asked all defensive. She looked at Grace and she was pale... Hope saw that she definitely didn't want to talk about what happened two weeks ago.

"It is for the protection of the other students. You need to understand that in your, and in every wolf's case, we are dealing with the fact that you took a life. It might not be intentional or could be an accident, but it happened and for safety reasons we need to know how exactly." He said and Hope started to get really angry. She looked at the little kids, who sat on a couch at the back of the office, then gave Alaric a serious look to stop talking. "Perhaps Lizzie could take the kids out for a moment?" He suggested and before Hope could oppose he spoke again. "She"ll stay with them right in front of my door. You don't need to worry." Hope sighed and gave a light nod, then Alaric gestured to Lizzie to lead the kids outside. "I'm sorry I brought this up in front of them." He apologized, seeing the panic on Hope's face. Hope took a deep breath and spoke slowly. She tried her best not to get out of control.

"Maybe you should've asked this before you dragged us away from our home, because we are not going to talk about this with you. This is a private matter, nothing to do with you or your school." Hope said calmly.

"I understand it might be a difficult subject. Especially if you took a life unintentionally." He explained.

"Well, it wasn't. Not in my case and not in my sister's case. We both knew what we were doing, we killed someone.... so what? Are you gonna send us back home now?" Hope said, raising her voice. She started to feel the rage inside of her. Grace must've felt it, because she grabbed Hope's hand and squeezed it tightly for comfort. She didn't let her hand go.