CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"Just say it, Aquilo" Jed sighed as the Salvatore students filed into the grand hall, dropping their votes in a ballot box before they took their seats. The students had been sorted by faction when they stepped foot into the grand hall which meant that all vampires were sitting on one side whilst the werewolves and the witches sat on the other. It annoyed the former alpha that his alpha and his... friend walked around with an unreadable expression on his face. Adrian hadn't breathed a word to anyone since Rafael challenged him, he was still riled up but for different reasons.
Jed nudged the curly-haired brunet when they sat down beside Owen and another wolf in the front row. The alpha looked at his friend, "Why are you nice to me all of a sudden? You and I despised each other before this"
"Look, you could've kicked me to the curb when you took over as alpha but you didn't, even after our run-ins in the hallways and parties" The former pack leader expressed.
The current alpha chuckled, "You mean my run-ins with your fist?"
Jed laughed, "You're proving yourself to be one hell of an alpha. To be honest with you, the pack didn't think you'd be able to defend your position... It's good to know that we were wrong"
"Yeah, I just have a lot of... uh, unmanaged anger right now" As he spoke to his predecessor, Adrian noticed how someone seated with the witches had been watching him. He met this person's gaze and found Hope staring back at him, she sent him a tight-lipped smile but received nothing but glance in return.
"Because of Hope?" Owen asked curiously, eyes on the tribrid seated with the witch faction, "Or because of her emo toy?"
"The latter" The Aquilo boy answered.
Jed smirked, an idea coming to mind, "Then let's get rid of him" The two roommates faced the brunet wolf who had been wanting to get rid off Landon just a tad more than Adrian had. "The two of you, me, and Penelope. Today. Let's get rid of Landon Kirby just like we said we'd do"
"Jed, no"
The Whitaker boy furrowed his eyebrows, "Why not? I thought you said you didn't want him here"
"He doesn't belong here, he's human and he has to go sooner or later. We're just going to speed up the process" Jed added.
"I said no... at least not now"
The werewolves and the other students in the grand hall all fell silent when Emma stepped into the hall. She descended the stairs and approached the podium that the gilded gold ballot box stood on, facing the teenagers with a large grin, "All right. Voting is now closed"
The students all broke into a round of applause as their counselor prepared to reveal the honor council members from each faction, "Let's get started"
The ballot box began to light up from the inside, the box it set shaking before it spat three pieces of parchment into the air. Emma reached up and grabbed them before she unfolded the first one to read the contents out loud, "The werewolf representative will be Adrian. The vampire representative will be... Kaleb. And lastly, the witch representative will be Josie"
The werewolves rose from their seats, applauding and cheering for their alpha who couldn't help but smile in victory. The vampires stood up, cheering for their representative. Mg had been the candidate but Kaleb had won which saddened him as the vampires around him started to applaud and dance in his honor. All of the witches except for the Saltzman twins looked pleased as Lizzie wore a look of horror and betrayal whilst her sister wore one of shock.
As all of the students in the grand hall cheered for the representatives, Adrian found himself searching for his girlfriend in the witch section but found her nowhere. Hope had left and he couldn't help but think that the reason for it was Landon.
"Thank you all for voting" Emma smiled as the pupils continued to congratulate their friends, "And congratulations to our newly-elected representatives"
The Aquilo alpha felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see who it belonged to. Jed and Owen stood behind the boy, both wearing huge grins on their faces. He sent them a smile, hiding the fact that he was strongly considering the thought his friends had put in his head and he really wanted to get rid of the human. He nodded, "Today"
Jed cocked an eyebrow, "As soon as we see him?"
"How fast can you find him?"
"Dude, we're werewolves"
✶
The three male werewolves sat in Ms. Tig's office after being called in there. The boys had gone outside to search for Landon and found him crossing the backyard. Together, the males had jumped the human just like Adrian and Rafael had done the day before. The Aquilo boy had approached Landon in the yard and a fight broke out not a minute later thanks to the Kirby boy's rambling about the alpha acting jealous whilst he spent the with Hope.
The door to the office opened and a furious Emma stepped inside, "Gentlemen, do you know why you're here?"
"Well, it's not because of all the good we've done for this community, is it?" Owen questioned, the sarcasm clear in his voice.
The counselor creased her eyebrows in anger as she took a seat behind her desk, "There's a zero-tolerance violence policy at our school which you all know from previous experiences that the school doesn't take that kind of behavior lightly"
Adrian shifted in his seat, "Maybe it wouldn't have happened if you and Doctor Saltzman hadn't come up with that brilliant idea of yours. If anything the two of you are responsible for what happened to Landon"
Emma crossed her arms, "Are you admitting to harming another student?"
The olive-skinned boy shrugged, "No, I'm just saying that maybe you pissed someone off by forcing their girlfriend or boyfriend's hand to sign some fucking agreement to keep them apart"
The witch sighed, she realized that it had to have been personal and faced the other students, "Would you give us a moment?"
The males nodded and rose from their seats, ready to leave until an order from their alpha told them otherwise, "Sit down"
"Are you kidding me?!" The werewolves turned around when they heard a female voice yell in the hallway outside the office.
The office door opened and Hope stood in the doorway with a murderous glare. Owen rose from his chair once again and approached the girl before her boyfriend could. The Whitaker boy and Jed knew about the agreement between Doctor Saltzman, Emma, and Hope and they thought it was a real dick move, "No, sorry we don't have time for you to bitch out on us"
The blond shut the door, leaving the tribrid stunned and angrier than she was before. The boy returned to his seat beside his friends, "You were saying?"
"Until one of you decide to speak the truth and Doctor Saltzman comes up with a fitting punishment, you will all attend detention this weekend"
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FUCK US!
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"What?! But my birthday is this weekend. It's my sixteenth" The wolves turned around, looking back at the fifth person who had been in the room since they got called in there: Lizzie.
The blonde had been standing in a corner of the office with her arms crossed as she listened to Emma lecturing not only the boys but her two as the counselor had found her cooking up a plan to burn Penelope Park's hair off as her sister had done. She furrowed her eyebrows, anger visible on her face, "I wasn't the one who beat the hobbit to a pulp. Why am I even here? Couldn't you have a private conversation with me after my birthday?"
Adrian and his friends looked at each other before he looked back at the siphoner, "First of all, snitch, it's none of your business. And second, we didn't beat him to a pulp. We just lightly threatened him"
"With what? Your feet?"
✶
Having been introduced to the consequences of starting a fight and harming another student, the Aquilo boy had not only been sentenced to detention but also been put on social probation which at the SBS meant that he was not to participate in any after school activities, and he wasn't allowed to call for pack meetings until his behavior and GPA had changed for the better, however, he remained the werewolf representative in the honor because Ms. Tig claimed to have pulled some strings with the faculty.
Adrian sat at a round table in a room behind sliding doors in the grand hall. Josie and Kaleb took up two out of four seats and the alpha took the other. Emma stood next to the doors as the teens readied themselves for decision making.
The sliding doors opened and Hope stepped inside, "Sorry, I'm late"
The curly-haired boy looked behind him, facing the doors and his girlfriend, "What is she doing here?"
"She's a faction representative"
The girl took a seat beside her boyfriend as it was the only available one in the room. Josie and Kaleb exchanged a confused look before the vampire added to Adrian's previous question, "But who voted for her?"
The tribrid sent her classmates a smile, "I ran unopposed"
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HOW FUN
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The Hawkins vampire looked at the werewolf friend he and Mg had made at the beginning of the semester with a raised eyebrow and the Aquilo boy shook his head. He readjusted himself in his seat to sit properly before Emma raised a hand to telekinetically raise an old-fashioned golden scale into the air, balancing it above the table, "We're here to discuss if Landon should be allowed to stay at the school. My vote, on behalf of the lower school, is to err on the side of inclusion. We exist to help kids like him"
The woman took a stone engraved with the school's 'S' and placed it on one side of the balance to represent her vote. She finalized her speech by informing the students that she trusted them to make the right decisions before she left the room.
A long moment of silence passed as the teens glanced at each other. None of them knew what to start with. The doors slid open and Rafael entered the room occupied by the council. The brunette Saltzman girl rose from her seat, a confused expression spread across her face, "Raf? What are you doing here?"
The Waithe boy looked around, "Uh, I asked Emma if I could sit in on this..." His eyes fell on the alpha who watched him from his seat, "She said I had to ask you"
Adrian kept his gaze on the wolf before he sighed, "Just this once" He faced his fellow council members, "He's gonna want to hear our final decision on that Landon thing"
Josie smiled and led the almond skinned wolf to where she had been sitting. She sat down at the table and he took a seat on a windowsill.
Kaleb finally spoke up after another long moment of silence, finding that they weren't going to reach a decision if no one spoke, "All right, who wants to start?"
"Landon has to go" Hope and Adrian stated in unison.
The pair looked over at each other but they didn't hold the other's gaze longer than a moment or two. The other council members seemed pleasantly surprised by the decision but it was obvious by the scowl on Rafael's face that he felt betrayed.
"You know what? They're right. Humans refuse to make a place for us in their world. We start letting them in? It's only a matter of time before they take this place from us too" The cocoa-skinned vampire picked up one of the stones and placed it on the opposite side of the scales, causing the two dishes to balance out.
"Landon goes" The Aquilo boy spoke, dropping his stone in the 'Landon goes' dish with Kaleb's, "That's two-one"
Rafael scoffed from behind the teens, "Landon is my brother. He's the only reason I'm alive. He can't go back to human life knowing that magic and dragons exist. We took his whole crappy life from him. It'd be awfully selfish of us to not give him one to replace it"
"We didn't take anything from him, he chose to run away," Adrian told the wolf, " So we don't owe him"
Hope sighed, a stern expression on her face, "Rafael, it doesn't matter how much we want him to stay. This place is dangerous for him and even he knows it"
"I will protect him," The Waithe boy said, a determined expression on his face. He was ready to do anything to get his brother to stay.
The olive-skinned boy chuckled, "Like you did an hour ago when we jumped him?"
Kaleb threw his hands up in triumph, "Man, I knew it was you. Mg owes me twenty" The teenagers looked at the vampire, he cleared his throat and returned to the serious subject, "What I meant to say was that I agree with them, your boy isn't safe here"
"If he stays, it's on all of us. It is all of our responsibility to protect him. Can we honestly say we believe every one of us can handle that kind of responsibility?" Hope questioned. The supernatural remained silent as she picked up a stone and placed it with her boyfriend and Kaleb's stones in the 'Landon goes' dish.
The teens turned to their witch representative, even if the three votes we're enough to send Landon out, the whole honors council had to reach a decision together which meant that Josie had the final tie-breaking vote.
The Saltzman girl looked apprehensive and overwhelmed by all of the attention as her classmates watched her. Josie reached out to take her stone when Rafael attempted to get her to appease him, "Josie, please"
The brunette paused for a moment before she finally reached a decision, "Since Landon walked through those doors, my sister, my father, and I have almost died. We don't really know what Landon is, so we can't really say if we know if he's dangerous or not" Josie paused, swallowing anxiously as she picked up a stone before she continued, "Raf, this isn't about who is friends with who or who you like. This school is a family and I'm not putting my family in danger again"
The siphoners stone went into the 'Landon goes' dish and Rafael furiously got to his feet and violently pulled the curtains behind him down.
"Rafael" Hope spoke. She had gotten up from her chair to verbally calm him down but from where the others were seated it looked as though she and the wolf were about to get into a brawl and it didn't sit well with the alpha. Adrian rose from his chair, stepping in between his girlfriend and the beta as his chocolate-colored eyes turned gold.
The tension around the room was palpitating as the males held each other's gazes for as long as they could until Rafael broke it by looking back at Hope and Josie with a betrayed look.
"Walk away" The alpha ordered. Though Rafael's eyes held deep anger, he submitted after huffing out a few choice words to everyone present in the room, slamming the doors behind him when he left.
✶
Once the honor council had reached their decision and sent Landon away, Hope had found herself feeling as if things had returned to normal but, unfortunately for her, they hadn't. She laid in her bed with the lights off, she had been like that for more than half an hour, restless like never before.
Sitting up, she glanced over at her nightstand to look at the clock: it was past midnight but she didn't feel tired at all. Leaving her bed, she approached her desk to finish her homework seeing as there wouldn't be any sleeping for her part.
Hope had two bookends keeping her books together in one corner of her desk and in between said books was a composition notebook, a black and white, old-looking composition notebook. She didn't have to glance at it twice to know that it belonged to Adrian. Taking it out from between her books, she thought it would be a great conversation piece to talk to her boyfriend and apologize for signing the paper he found in the counselor's office. Leaving her room, the Mikaelson girl left on a mission to find the Aquilo boy who, strangely, no one had heard of since the honor council meeting.
Passing the gymnasium, Hope heard grunts from inside her way to the great room. She stopped and approached the doors, resting an ear on it. She looked behind her to see if anyone else was around before she opened one of the doors as quietly as she could.
The tribrid entered the gym but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the boy she had been searching for, shirtless on top of a mat in the middle of the room, making aggressively quick movements. His hands were covered in the same black tape that his and Jed's had been wrapped in two days a week.
Adrian's back faced the door and the Mikaelson girl, he hadn't heard her come in because he was too distracted. The muscles strained under his scarred olive skin as he raised his leg to kick a large black punching bag hanging from the ceiling. His fist was next, it jutted out in front of him, a loud thud followed his movements and he repeated with the other fist.
The female watched as his actions repeated, he looked so angry, so troubled. She watched him assault the bag. In one swift movement, the male lifted his left leg, then his right before both fists collided with the bag with fluidity. His skin glowed as the sweat covered his chest and abdomen. The metal chain attached to the ceiling looked as if it would snap from his aggression.
The Aquilo boy stopped using his feet and only used his fists against the bag. The Mikaelson witch didn't know if it was the sneeze that escaped her nose and mouth or if he simply noticed her presence but the boyfriend immediately stopped his movements. The punching bag continued to sway on its chain, he used a hand to stop it from moving before he faced the female.
"Hope" The male breathed, his chest rising and falling.
"Hi" The tribrid spoke, her voice smooth and barely audible as she stepped closer, "What, uh—what are you doing?"
"I couldn't sleep" Adrian gathered a black t-shirt from the floor and wiped the moisture from his face before he sat down on a weight bench, "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you. Just a sleepless night, I guess" Hope answered, a small smile on her lips. Remembering the notebook she had in her hands, the girl reached forward to hand it to the male, "Here, uh, you left this in my room a few nights ago. I figured you were probably going out of your mind trying to find it"
The alpha only nodded in response, his eyes not meeting hers as he accepted his journal and placed it beside him. The she-wolf bit her lip, she didn't know what to tell him.
"I'm sorry"
"What?" The Aquilo boy furrowed his eyebrows, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm sorry. What I did was really shitty of me. You don't deserve that and I shouldn't have signed it, I should've told you about it" The tribrid elaborated her apology but the boyfriend didn't do much else than observe her in silence which irritated her, "Say something"
"What do you want me to say?" The male questioned, his voice a little too soft for her liking. It was strange how calm he sounded, he had beaten up Rafael and Landon, yelled at Alaric on the phone, yelled at Emma in her office and basically scolded Hope in the yard but was now acting as if nothing had happened.
The tribrid couldn't stand the tension between the two and the silence was making it worse, it was agitating, "I lied to you— No, I went behind your back and I signed this school's version of a restriction order. I know that you feel betrayed. I know that you're angry but you have to understand why I did it"
"Why did you?" The boy questioned, "Because Saltzman told you to?"
Hope furrowed her eyebrows in anger, "What the hell does that mean?" She sighed, "I'm not the headmaster's pet, Adrian. That's not why I signed"
"Then why?" Adrian repeated, "Why would you sign some bullshit agreement to keep me isolated? Do you know what kind of person does that? A fucking prison warden"
The girl approached the weight bench and picked the notebook up to free some space beside the male so she could sit down. She reached over and took his hands off of his lap and held them in hers, "I did it because I care about you. You and I share similar painful experiences. I know what it's like to feel like you're gonna burst any second, to want to set the whole world on fire or go on a freaking killing spree. It's terrifying. And I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did because I didn't accept the fact that I needed help. I don't want you to go through all of this on your own. Turning every full moon is gonna feel worse and worse until you learn how to deal with the pain"
"Which is exactly why what you did was stupid"
Adrian sighed, "You're one of the few people around here who understands me, who probably knows me better than I know myself. You're one of the very few I need in my life to function. And you think signing that document would keep me from being alone and accept the help? Can't you see it?"
"What?"
"I'm scared of losing you" The male admitted, "You, Owen and Penelope, are the only family I have left after my parents died and I can't lose you. I'm sorry but I'll do anything to keep you safe"
"I know and I—"
"No, you don't" The Aquilo boy spoke, cutting her off. He had never been one to express his feelings but in this situation, it wasn't just the right time to say it, it was necessary because it was the truth and both of them needed to hear it, "I'm fucking terrified of losing you, Hope. I'm terrified that you're gonna realize what kind of a dumpster fire you're involved with and leave. I'm terrified because I love you"
Realization dawned on the boy's face as soon he realized what he had said, his eyes widening as Hope's glimmered, a smile on her lips, "You didn't mean to say that did you?"
"Not really but I'm not taking it back"
"I love you"
Adrian tore his gaze off of the floor and met his girlfriend's eyes. The two gazed at each other for a moment until Hope broke the stare by wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's neck, sharing a sweet kiss with him.
The male found himself snaking his arms around her waist as he deepened the kiss. She tugged on the hem of his black shirt, attempting to pull it up over his head to take it off when he stopped her by placing a hand on top of hers, "Not here" The boy spoke which made the tribrid let who of his shirt and pull away from him. They were still in the gymnasium and anyone could walk in, plus the gym wasn't exactly clean enough. Getting up from the weight bench, Hope grabbed the boy by his hand and led him out of the gym.
Walking towards the Mikaelson girl's room, the boy found himself wondering how the night would end but nothing was going to happen without Hope's consent, it was a big step to take and not one but both of them needed to feel ready for it.
Entering the dorm room, the auburnette exhaled deeply as she took a seat on her bed. She seemed to be conflicted and it worried the male as he began to believe that it was because she had, in a matter of seconds, felt like she was supposed to follow through with it.
"We don't have to if you know... I mean no rush or anything. I—I can go, I should check up on Owen anyway"
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YOU FUCKING DUMBASS
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"I do... I'm just a little weirded out" Hope spoke, "It's my first time" She admitted.
Unfortunately, the boy couldn't say the same, he wished that he could but had no such luck. Hope moved closer to the male and leaned in, pressing her lips against his. She drew him closer to her once again by wrapping her arms around his neck before gently forcing him to lay down on the bed. Deepening the kiss, Adrian found himself fiddling with the buttons of the female's white button-up as she changed her position from sitting beside him to straddling his waist with one hand on his chest to support herself as the other tried to remove his shirt.
Discarding each other of the clothes that covered their bodies, the pair were left on the bed half-naked. Hope's hands began to slowly slide up her boyfriend's neck as she lightly lowered her upper body down, "You sure?" Adrian whispered, his eyes carelessly roaming down her body and then back up to meet hers. The tribrid nodded, a smile on her lips. The boy relied on his elbows to keep him up as he came to face with her, he cupped her face in his hand before he crashed his lips against hers for what felt like the hundredth time today.
Electricity flooded through the teens as Hope, still on top of the male, leaned into him until their bodies pressed tightly together. A hand began to tangle in the back of his dark tousled curls as lust-filled air clouded the room and the same emotion clouded their eyes.
Adrian grabbed her waist tightly and spun them, lifting Hope before softly placing her down on her bed. He pressed his lips against her once again only now he was quicker and rougher. More passionate. The boy's tongue begged for access before she finally let him enter to swirl around hers with expertise.
The alpha broke the kiss to lower his lips, trailing intimate kisses down the side of her neck before his hands wandered down further down her chest. Taking her opportunity, Hope grabbed his shoulders with both hands and rolled on top of him again but it didn't last long as the two engaged in a fight for dominance, spoiler alert: the boy won.
The male placed a hand on top of his girlfriend's, intertwining their fingers, their hands fitting together as if they were made for each other as the two continued to explore their bodies and undressing each other, emotions running high.