Hand In Hand

NINE

9.

Faith didn't go with her mom to drop off Hope the next morning. No, in fact the next time they saw each other was the Founder's Day Ball as Hope elected to spend her entire spring break monster hunting with the Saltzman's. Over that spring break, Hayley and Klaus took Faith to Russia (for reasons unknown until they got there), but grumbled about Hope nonstop.

Still it was nice to see her fathers painting at the Hermitage museum and see the beautiful architecture the country had to offer. The saltiest part about it had to be the fact that Faith spent all her life learning French as a second language only to go to freaking Russia, where she did not, in fact, speak the language. 

They got home just before the break was over and while Faith enjoyed being an only child for a time, it was time to get back into Hope's nonsense. Her sister has been texting her about all the crazy stuff that had been happening. There was a unicorn and mind-screwing slugs, a mummy over spring break and then her boyfriend died but also not really. Hope texted her sister stories about these things but it was mostly one-sided conversation. Faith only texted back when Hope said her boyfriend died and that text consisted of the word 'oof.'

Now Faith and her mother were at the founders ball in the background watching Hope dance with her boyfriend while the judges got together to pick the next Miss Mystic Falls.

"Y'know I went to one of these when I was your age." Faith pushed her curls over her shoulder with a manicured hand in order to see her mother. It was still a little difficult since the copious amounts of hairspray pretty much blinded her. Faith took a deep breath trying to get as much air in as her champagne colored deathtrap would let her. She thought she'd be getting away with something with the high slit but there was obviously some karma involved.

"Did you compete?" Her mother scoffed, giving her her answer.

"I was mostly there for the unsupervised drinks."

"Looks like they learned from their mistakes, I probably couldn't get five feet close to a glass before I receive some death glares." Faith blinked and tried not rub her eyes as her make-up took way too long to have redone.

"Hmm, yeah as a parent It was probably not in my best self interest to tell you about that." Said Hayley regretfully, Faith chuckled.

"I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, Mom. It's probably not a good idea to leave a teenage girl alone in a castle with a bottomless wine cellar. Honestly, you guys leave your drinks around on the regular and a bitch get thirsty y'know?" With that rhetorical question and reminder of bad parenting, Faith fled the ballroom scene and found herself in the library.

Apparently she wasn't alone. One of Hope's friends, the werewolf, seemed to be just hanging out all on his lonesome. Faith probably should know his name but of course she doesn't.

In her simple champagne colored dress she carried herself across the room and plopped down in the seat across from the werewolf boy. He glanced up at her expectantly which prompted her to speak first.

"Hey." She greeted simply.

"Uh, hi?" It was more of a question than a greeting but a greeting nonetheless. "Faith, right?"

"Yeah, and you're werewolf boy."

"Rafael." He corrected.

"Are you sure? Did you change it?" Faith questioned jokingly, earning a grin and a chuckle from Rafael.

"No, it's always been Rafael."

"Okay then Rafael, what brings you here? You'd rather stare at the books than all the girls in their pretty dresses?" Faith made a mental note that Rafael was not, in fact, dressed for the occasion happening down the hall.