At the council's table, Josie, Kaleb, Rafael, and Emma all sat together at the table. Soon enough, Valerie and Hope entered, causing everyone to frown in confusion, "Sorry we're late," Valerie apologized on behalf of herself and Hope.
She was representing herself because she was the only werewolf-witch hybrid in the school. Hope was representing tribrids because she was the only one of her kind besides Ophelia. Josie represented the witches while Kaleb represented the vampires, and Rafael represented the wolves.
"Hold up," Kaleb spoke up with a frown on his face, "Who voted for them?"
"We ran unopposed," Hope informed him as she and Valerie took a seat at the table with the rest of the honor council.
Emma began to chant a spell, which lifted up the balance scale midair before she lifted up a small weight with the Salvatore School seal on it, "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." She explained before placing her weight on the yes side, "Which is what I'm going to do now. I have a search party out looking for Jed. As you've all seen, violence leads to more violence. If you'll excuse me."
With that, Emma walked off, leaving the supernatural teens alone, "All right, who wants to go next?" Valerie asked the group curiously as she everyone shifted in their seat.
"Landon has to go," Hope spoke up, causing Valerie to stare at her with wide eyes.
"Never thought I'd be saying this, but..." Kaleb trailed off, "Hope's 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." He informed them before picking up his small weight, placing it down on the no side, making the sides equal, "Landon goes."
"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 would be awfully selfish of us not to give him one to replace it." Rafael explained before placing his weight down on the yes side, "That's two one."
"It doesn't matter how much we want him to stay," Hope spoke up, "Look what one mad wolf did to him. Earlier, I asked him if he felt safe here. He said, 'yes'. He was lying. This place is dangerous for him, and even he knows it."
"I will protect him," Rafael tried to tell her, but Hope quickly interjected.
"And where were you an hour ago?" Hope retorted with an attitude and Rafael deemed unable to answer, "That's the point. If he stays, it's on all of us. It is all of our responsibility to protect him. Can we honestly say we believe everyone one of us can handle that kind of a responsibility?" She paused, placing her weight on the no side.
Meanwhile later, Josie had taken her turn and voted on Hope's side, which left Valerie as the last one to vote.
"Looks like you're the last vote, Valerie," Kaleb spoke up and Valerie couldn't help but feel guilty for what she was about to do. All eyes were on her as she picked up her weight, causing Valerie to feel awfully uncomfortable.
"Val," Rafael spoke up, causing Valerie to stare directly at her, "Please." He pleaded and Valerie gave him a sympathetic look.
"Raf, this isn't about who's friends with who or who you get along with at this school. Everyone at this school is considered family to me, and I refuse to put my family in danger by allowing Landon to stay here. I'm sorry." She explained, quickly placing her weight down on the no side.
Angered, Rafael abruptly stood up from his chair, causing Kaleb to stand up defensively just in case Rafael's anger got the rest of him.
"Raf, stop. Just calm down," Valerie warned him quietly.
"You know what? I'm done with all of Y'all," Rafael told them, referring to Valerie and Hope the most. He locked eyes with Valerie, looking furious, "And to think, this whole time, I thought you were on my side. The one who supported me this most through all of this mess. I guess I was wrong."
"I'm sorry, okay? I did what was right." Valerie tried to tell him, tears forming in her eyes.
"Sorry doesn't cut it, Valerie," Rafael snapped at her before storming off.
Once Rafael was gone, Valerie got up from her seat, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, "Val," Hope began to say as she stood up, blocking Valerie before she could run off and do something stupid, "You need to calm down."
Valerie didn't answer, but with a wave of her hand, Hope was on the other side of the room. After doing so, Valerie rushed out of the room.
Josie turned to Hope, who gave her a pleading look, "Go after her," Hope told Josie, "She'll listen to you."
Josie nodded before beginning to run after Valerie before she could do something that she would regret later on.
Meanwhile later, Valerie walked throughout the hallways of the school, in search of Rafael so that she could apologize. She stopped when she reached the gym, only to see Rafael hovering over a shirtless Lizzie as they laid on the mat, making out.
Valerie felt an unfamiliar emotion consume her: Jealousy. But with that came a familiar one: Rage. Valerie balled her hand into a tight fist as she lowly growled under her breath. Her eyes glowed yellow as her claws grew, causing blood to drip from the palms of her hands.
With that, Valerie stormed off, suddenly finding her self in the kitchen. As if it were a replay of what happened to Lizzie only a few weeks before, Valerie picked up a glass cup and tossed it, just before her magic consumed her and all of the cups and plates in the cupboards flew out at once and shattered to pieces as they impacted with each other.
Valerie screamed out in anger, using her hands to throw a chair across the room. Suddenly, Josie entered, a small tray almost hitting her right in the face. Valerie didn't bother to acknowledge her though. Instead, she continued to use both her magic and werewolf strength to trash the kitchen.
"Val! Valerie!" Josie called out loudly as she walked toward Valerie, who was still in her angered state.
"Go away! Leave me alone!" Valerie screamed at her, her eyes glowing yellow.
"I can't do that, Val," Josie argued as she tried to grab ahold of Valerie, "Not when you're like this."
Valerie tried to push Josie away from her, in fear of hurting her, "It's not safe! I could hurt you! Just get away!" She shouted at her.
"Calm down," Josie warned her in a calm tone, placing one hand on Valerie's arm and the other at the crook of her neck, "Just close your eyes and breathe."
It took Valerie a moment before she ended up doing so. She slowly allowed her eyes to close, taking a deep breath, "Just like we used to." Josie added in, removing her hand away from Valerie's arm and instead placed it over the girl's heart.
Valerie continued to take deep breaths, obeying Josie's instructions, "Good," Josie told her in a soothing tone as she began to do the same as Valerie, "Breathe."
Once Valerie was calm, the two girls opened their eyes. Valerie's gaze immediately went to the trashed kitchen. Noticing that Valerie was beginning to tense up at the thought of the consequences, Josie quickly cupped Valerie's face with her hands and made it so that Valerie was staring directly at her, "Hey, it's okay. I'll tell my dad you didn't mean to. Everything will be fine. Now, tell me what happened after you left to go after Rafael. You couldn't have been this mad just because of the vote."
"He's screwing your sister on the gym floor as we speak," Valerie bluntly replied and Josie's eyes widened in shock, only to have them soften as Valerie's eyes began to tear up, "I'm so stupid, Jos. I haven't been able to admit, but you're right. I like Rafael. I haven't like someone like that since..." She trailed off, staring directly into Josie's eyes, "Since you. What if voting against Landon staying at the school made it so that Rafael will never speak to me again?"
"If he does that, he's stupid," Josie told him, "You deserve better than that. You've done everything for him since he arrived. You've stuck by him through everything that's happened in the past few weeks. If he cuts you out of his life just because of some stupid vote that he still would've lost if you didn't vote, then he doesn't deserve someone as great as you."
There was a moment of silence between the two before Valerie's eyes flickered down to Josie's lips. Suddenly, she found herself leaning forward. She cupped Josie's face with her hands, before kissing her.
Taken aback, Josie pulled away, causing Valerie to give her a guilty look before avoiding eye contact with her, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She apologized.
"Don't be," Josie told her, pulling Valerie back toward her before pressing her lips against hers.
They kissed for a long moment before Valerie pulled back for a brief moment, "Hope's busy helping Landon pack up. Why don't we go to back to my room?" Valerie asked and Josie nodded her head in agreement.
Valerie grabbed ahold of Josie's hand before they made their way to her room.
AN: Oddly, as of this moment, I'm leaning more toward Valerie being with Rafael.