Never Lose Hope

Uncle Elijah

Uncle Elijah and I talked until it was time for me to go to bed. He told me lots of stories about my mom when she was pregnant with me, sharing many of his special memories of their brief time spent together. I went to sleep that night, my heart and soul unburdened, feeling lighter and more free than I have in a long time. Unfortunately, come sunrise that all changed.

Today has just been a disaster from the start. I didn't wake up until my fifth alarm went off, meaning I had no time for coffee, a shower or breakfast. Dad tried to stop me as I made my way past the dining room into the kitchen.

"I heard you and your uncle had an interesting talk yesterday. Want to tell me about it?" he asked, attempting to be casual as he sipped his tea.

"Not really, Dad. I'm running super late and I'm kinda in a hurry," I replied, barely slowing down as I headed out the door. "Some of us have class in the morning, ya know," I grumbled, mainly to myself but I knew Dad could hear me cuz of his ultra sensitive vampire hearing. He doesn't have a class to teach for another three hours. So not fair.

"We will discuss this later, my littlest wolf," I heard Dad call out, before the door slammed shut behind me. Dad nicknamed my mom Hayley little wolf since she was petite and a werewolf so that's why he calls me his littlest wolf.

I barely made it to first period on time, world history, and I fell asleep three times during class. Totally embarrassing when your limbs flail, jerking you awake, startled from a dead sleep in the middle of class as you try to catch your breath and get oriented to time and place. Thankfully, I sit in the back row towards the corner so Professor S didn't notice as he was busy writing on the blackboard for the majority of the period. If he did notice, he never said anything. God bless him for that.

He is one of the most chill teachers at the school but he can be a real beast if provoked, or if you catch him in a rare bad mood. Sometimes I think he purposely goes easy on me because he says being Klaus Mikaelson's daughter is punishment enough. Apparently he and my dad have world history of their own, involving a woman or maybe several women for that matter. None of my concern really. I prefer to stay out of matters involving my dad's sexcapades. So gross, no ma'am. Not my business. Ewww, I shuddered just thinking about it. Nasty. It's bad enough I know I'm the result of his drunken one night stand with my mother.

Anyway, back to my day. So after my episodes of slumber during first period, I made the executive decision I could no longer go without caffeine of some sort. I really didn't want any diet coke on an empty stomach so I went to the cafe to get a latte. Unfortunately I wasn't the only student in need of a morning wake-up jolt so the wait for coffee was more than the usual five or six minutes. Since the school is so big and spread out, our passing periods are ten minutes long but that probably still won't be enough time.

After standing in line for eight minutes, I knew at this point I had no chance of getting to my second period class on time so there was no turning back now. I couldn't risk falling asleep in all my morning classes until I could get my caffeine buzz on at lunch. I mean, how the Hell else can you stay awake for Shakespeare? Thankfully my next class is really close to the cafe so I know I won't be too late. I had the barista add a couple of ice cubes. Thanking the cashier for my drink, I gulped down a good portion of my latte as quickly as possible without burning my mouth before heading off to my uncle's English class.

"You're dilatory, Ms. Marshall," Uncle Elijah stated, as he opened the door for me, allowing me entrance. I use my mom's last name at school so everybody isn't immediately aware I'm related to like half the staff here. My uncle always tells me when we're at school, he is my teacher, not my uncle and I am his student, not his niece. He's nothing if not fair. They call him the noble one for a reason, afterall. I don't get special treatment, or punishments for that matter, so it's not all bad. Uncle Elijah has been teaching me at home since I learned to walk and talk so it's not that difficult for me to look at him as a professor versus a close relative.