Hope managed to sleep through the night without wolfing out, so Alaric granted her furlough from her ongoing wolf jail sentence, but only for the day. She was to return to her cell before curfew and was warned not to fall asleep.
She headed back to her room to take a quick shower before the start of classes, then made her way to the dining hall to get a bite to eat. MG was still there, talking with Landon, who was decked out in Salvatore School regulated clothing. "So, you get to stay now?" she asked as she sat.
"Yeah. Dr. Saltzman said if was for my own protection," he answered. He smiled at her widely, clearly happy to see her.
She smiled back, though she was merely being nice. Something had changed between them. The feelings she had just before he left were gone. Yes, she still felt the need to protect him, but she also felt the way towards Rafael, MG, and Penelope. It was the feeling of her heart floating when she looked at him or thought about him, that was no longer there.
Her heart suddenly felt very heavy as she realized she was going to have to talk to him about their relationship and what happened next. She never had to let someone down like this before. The only crush she ever had was with Roman, and that had turned out disastrous. She preferred to not think about him as much as possible.
She chatted with them for a little while, mostly about what Landon missed while he was away. The bell rang, causing them to scurry of to class before they were late. She had two tests to take before lunch and another after. She wasn't worried about doing poorly. She had an excellent memory, allowing her to retain almost every piece of information she learned.
Her friends on the other hand looked exhausted by the time lunch rolled around. Each had their heads in their notebooks going over as much information as they could. Standardized test week was always the most stressful week of the year. Most students didn't even bother to stress over end of the year exams, because those only reflected their knowledge, not the entire school's performance. If the school, as a collective, did poorly on the standardized tests, then they risked having the school over run by government people or the school could be shut down. No one wanted that to happen.
After classes ended for the day, Hope headed for Alaric's office to see if he wanted to spar. It was abundantly clear that he was too busy to spar the second she walked in. He was sitting at his desk, with a mound of books in front of him, while her aunts were sitting on his couch, with an even larger mound of books scattered around them, on the coffee table, under it, on the floor next to them, there was even a few books resting dangerously on the top of the couch.
"How did your exams go," Alaric asked the second he say her.
She looked away from her aunts to him and rolled her eyes. It was as if he forgot she was top of her class. "I aced them."
"Good. Good," he said.
"How is it going?" Hope asked, as she looked around the room curious.
Freya tossed the book she was reading onto the floor next to her. "About as well as to be expected. Marcel is looking into the possibility of multiple pit locations, while we are looking for any reference to Malivore in these books. So far, we have found one brief reference to a place that could be Malivore, but nothing else."
"Vincent has the New Orleans witches on it too," Keelin added.
"We've also reached out to as many of the packs as we can for anything that will help explain what is happening to you," Freya continued. "Hopefully, someone will have the answers we're searching for."
"Great," Hope said, though her tone wasn't very hopeful.
"How are you doing?" Freya asked, recognizing her niece's tone.
"I'm fine," she answered. Freya gave her a stern look, which made her uncomfortable. She hated how her aunt could read right through her sometimes. "I'm just restless. I need to change, but I can't. Which is making the feeling more intense. I was just coming to see if you wanted to spar Dr. Saltzman. I can see you're busy though, so I'll just go see if MG or Raf will spar with me instead."
"Are you sure?" Alaric asked.
"Yeah," she insisted, then turned and left before they had a chance to change her mind. She quickly went back to her room to change, then headed to the gym. She looked for MG and Rafael on her way, but neither could be found.
She found Rafael in the gym, punching away at the punching bag. She convinced him to fight with her, even though he seemed hesitant. She could tell he was going easy at first. Clearly, he was afraid of hurting her, even voicing the concern a few times. It took her a few minutes to get him to realize it takes a lot to hurt her.
In the end he started to fight with meaning, and despite doing well, she had him pinned to the floor in no time. She felt a little better afterwards, allowing her to sit and chat with him for a while. She hadn't really talked with him since before his dead girlfriend walked through the school's front doors. She asked how he was doing, and he asked what was going on with her. They discussed Landon for a while. She wanted to know how he was doing. Making sure he was settling in okay, and if everyone was being nice to him?
Rafael assured her he was doing fine but warned her that if she didn't want to be with him to just tell him. Apparently, Landon had spent the entire day thinking she was avoiding him. Which wasn't far off from the truth. Every time she'd see him during the day when he was alone, she turned the other way. She knew she had to have a conversation with him, just wasn't ready yet. She still had a few things to figure out. Like what she was feeling.
Hope left Rafael to go shower, then went to find MG and Penelope. She found in the library, reading through the collection of wolf books Dorian had gathered for them. They each found a few passages here and there that could be linked, but most of it had noting to do with the breed of werewolf she was. They came from legends about human looking beasts, or wolves that could change a will, or werewolves that were created by a bite, not born. They dismissed everything they found as myth, instead of factual.
When it came time to pack it in for the night, Hope returned to her cell alone. She laid on her cot, unable to sleep. Her racing mind wouldn't shut up long enough for her to drift off to dream land. Around two, she finally gave up, and grabbed her tablet. She knew it was early in London but hoped that maybe her friend was already awake. She sent her a message and waited impatiently for a response. After a minute, her tablet bagan ringing.
A few second after hitting the answer button, Josie's sleepy face came onto her screen. "Did I wake you?" she asked worried.
"No," Josie replied quietly. "I was already awake."
"You look sleepy," remarked Hope.
"I didn't get much sleep," Josie explained. "It's late there. Why are you still awake?"
"Can't sleep."
"Are you still in wolf jail?"
"Yeah," Hope groaned. "Only for nights though. They're letting me out to go to classes now."
"That's good," Josie chirped.
Hope smiled at her enthusiasm. At least one of them was happy about it. "How are you doing?"
Josie sighed, "I'm okay. We convinced that girl to come. Lizzie's happy about it. She likes her. They talked all through dinner and have even been messaging each other since. I think Lizzie may have found a true friend. She doesn't really have anyone besides me to hang out with. It's hard for her sometimes because she says things without thinking first."
"I guess I never really noticed," Hope remarked. "She's always around people."
"People have gotten used to how she is," Josie commented. "My friends are nice to her, and include her in everything, but she doesn't have someone who's she's really close with, besides me of course. Unless you count MG, but Lizzie's completely oblivious to the fact he likes her."
Hope bit her lip as she contemplated how to ask Josie something. "I'm not trying to be mean, but why do you let her treat you like she does?"
"She..." Josie began. "I... It's just..." She sighed. "Not many people know this, and she will probably kill me for telling you, but Lizzie has bipolar disorder. When she's manic, it's hard for her to see thing clearly. She has a very one-track mind. She truly is an amazing person, it is just hard for people to see past her outer shell."
Hope wasn't sure how to respond. She never thought there was a reason Lizzie acted the way she acted. She just thought she was being a bitch.
"It's okay," Josie said. "I know what people think about Lizzie, and a lot of it is true. It's just some of it she can't control. Well, she is trying, it's just she doesn't always see what she is doing, and I don't like to upset her, because then she gets really depressed."
"So, you stay quiet," Hope said. "Like when you both liked Rafael, but you didn't tell her."
"I didn't want to upset her. It's easier sometime to just let her have what she wants. We do talk, about a lot of things, and I do point out things that she does when I know she's able to handle it. I'm there to help her when she falls."
"You really are an amazing sister," Hope mused.
"So is Lizzie," Josie said. "She makes me wear the talisman you gave me every day. She says, she likes it when I'm not so quiet."
Hope chuckled, "I like it too."
Josie smiled. "I'm coming home tomorrow."
That made Hope very happy. "Are you happy?"
"Yeah. It's been great seeing mom, but I miss home," Josie said.
"Well I miss you," Hope admitted shyly. "I can't wait to see you."
Josie smiled softly at her. "It's strange to think you were still poking just a few weeks ago.
"Hey, you were poking too," Hope argued.
"Only when you poked first," Josie countered.
"Oh yeah? Like the morning we brought Raf to the school. I was nice until your sister poked first," Hope countered.
Josie giggled, "Okay. You're right. We did poke a far bit as well."
Hope smiled. "How about we make a deal, no more poking."
"Deal," Josie agreed immediately. "I'm glad we're friends."
"So am I," Hope replied. "It's strange, actually. I've spent so much time alone. I've never really looked forward to seeing or talking to people outside my family. Now you're the first person I think about when I want to talk, and I look forward to seeing MG, Penelope, and Rafael every day. It's a big change. I still like being alone, I just don't fear being around everyone so much."
"You feared being around people?"
"It is exhausting being around people some days. I'm always worried that I'm going to accidentally hurt someone. Whether because I slip in gym and hurt someone weaker than me, or if I lose control because I get too angry."
"I don't think you would do that," Josie said.
"I might," Hope insisted. "My father is Niklaus Mikaelson, The Great Evil. I have the same darkness he had. I have the potential to be just as horrible."
"So do I," Josie interrupted. "My dad is always warning us about how black magic gets inside your heart..."
"And poisons your mind," Hope finished, and Josie looked through the screen questioningly. "I may not have been entirely honest with you the day he volunteered us for clean up duty."
"What do you mean?"
"I did do black magic. That is why I was being punished, but it wasn't the spell that we did together that made him so angry. I may have brought a death spell when we went to find Landon."
"You may have?" Josie asked with a smile.
"Alright... I did bring a death spell. I used it on the dragon we were fighting. When he found out, he was pissed."
"That's when he told you his black magic mantra?"
"Yeah. He lectured me, then made me bury the body. I think that was the first time I made him mad. I don't blame him though. He was right. I was angry at Landon and wanted him dead."
"And the day before that, I set Penelope on fire because I was so angry with her," Josie said. "We both have the ability to let the darkness consume us. I think it's the people around us that keep us grounded, or at the very least, pull us back when we're going to far. If Dad hadn't found the spell, do you think you would have used it on Landon?"
"I don't know," Hope answered honestly.
"I don't think you would have," Josie remarked with a soft smile. "I believe you have a good heart, Hope. I think you took the spell with you on impulse, but when the time came to use it, you would have seen reason."
"Why do you think that?" Hope hesitantly asked.
Josie smiled again. "Because every time I've need to talk this week, you've been there for me. You haven't downed me for putting Lizzie first. You have listened to what I've had to say, and you haven't pushed me to do anything I haven't wanted, even though I could tell you were ready to call my mom yourself."
"I am not that obvious," Hope argued playfully.
"Not all the time," Josie agreed. "You are a very private and often time mysterious person, but there are times when your thoughts are open for anyone who stops to notice them."
Josie looked away from the screen suddenly, and Hope could hear Caroline speaking in the distance. "I'm talking to Hope," Josie said.
"Oh..." she could hear Caroline say. "Let me say hi."
The screen become blurry for a moment, then Caroline was smiling through the screen at her. "Hello Hope," she said.
"Hello Mrs. Forbes-Salvatore," Hope said with an honest smile. She always liked it when Caroline was around. She was so nice and loving towards everyone.
"It's late there. Why are you still awake?" Caroline asked with concern oozing from her voice.
"I can't sleep," Hope answered.
"Is everything alright?"
"It's just been a long week," Hope said.
Caroline gave her a smile that could only be described as a 'mom smile'. It reminded her of her own mother. Haley had often given her a 'mom smile' when she was sad. It was like they were sending as much love as they could through a smile. "Well, I'll give you back to Josie. I hope you feel better."
"Thanks Mrs. Forbes-Salvatore."
"You're welcome," Caroline said, then the screen went blurry again.
Hope could hear Caroline talking softly to Josie, then Josie was back. "Are you sleepy?"
"A little," Hope replied.
"Would you like me to read to you? Lizzie love when I do that when she can't sleep," Josie offered with such enthusiasm that Hope couldn't have said no, even if she wanted too. Josie smiled widely when Hope said, "Yes," then the screen went blurry again as Josie began moving. After a few minutes, Josie was back, but she was sitting up in a well-lit area. The London morning sun shining brightly over her. Hope couldn't help but notice how beautiful Josie was in that moment.
Josie smiled at the screen, and then looked down at the book in her lap. "I hope you don't mind Harry Potter. It's Lizzie's favorite."
"Harry Potter is perfect," Hope said.
Josie smiled at the book and began reading the first chapter. Hope listened to the words roll off Josie's tongue like a song. Smoothly and beautifully. By the end of the second chapter, Josie's soulful voice had lured her to sleep.
When Josie noticed this, she stopped reading, and watched Hope sleep for a few minutes, before ending their call. She then sent her a simple message. "Goodnight."