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❝FOR A PESSIMIST, I'M PRETTY OPTIMISTIC❞

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

Hope sat in the Mystic Falls high library, searching through countless books about supernatural creatures.

As she awaited for Aphrodite and Lizzie to tell her more about Clary's spell, she decided to occupy herself by doing some digging to find out whether or not Maya was supernatural.

Flipping through a book, she hadn't heard Stella enter the library and approach her. "Hope?" The heretic asked, as the tribrid's head snapped towards Stella. "Stella— Oh, hey!"

"You seem really interested in that book." The gemini witch noticed, as Hope showed her the cover, "I'm doing some reading for Maya." The Mikaelson answered. The Lewis nodded, as she sunk into the chair beside Hope.

"So you and Maya... huh?" Stella spoke, as Hope stopped what she was doing and looked up at her. "Ella... what are you insinuating?" The auburn haired girl questioned. Stella looked at Hope as she debated whether to continue, but inevitably decided to.

"Do you... like girls?" Stella asked as Hope blinked in surprise. "Uh... yeah I do. I'm bi." The Mikaelson replied as the heretic nodded, "Twin. Anyway, what do you think of Maya?"

Hope blinked for a moment, "I can see now that you're trying to be a matchmaker, but it's not going to work." She declared. "Why? Are you already seeing someone?" Stella teased. "Oh! Is it that Tori girl you keep talking about?"

Hope dropped the book she was reading as she looked at Stella as though she'd lost her mind, "I'm going to throw up." She decided. Stella, who had absolutely no idea who Hope was other than the new supernatural girl she'd met recently, who had used her mother's maiden name, had no idea that she and Tori were related.

"Remember how I told you that I had an old life and everyone from that life had forgotten about me?" Hope asked as Stella nodded. "Well... Tori is apart of my old life. She is my sister." Stella's face dropped, "Oh my god I am so sorry." The Lewis replied, feeling disgusted in herself.

"It's okay, you didn't know." Hope responded. Truthfully, only Maya knew the full truth, though Stella and Finch knew a fair few details by now as the Mikaelson (or to them, Marshall) had grown to trust them.

"There was a boy from my old life who... I am still hung up on." Hope spoke as Stella nodded in understanding, "That must be hard." She sympathised. "It is... any reminders of my old life are hurting a lot right now, I'm distracting myself with this." Hope said as she reopened the book she had been reading minutes ago.

"Why?" Stella wasn't following. "I think Maya might be supernatural." Hope admitted as the blonde processed this before she asked, "Can I help? I have a free period and Nina is in class and Finch is at work so in short... I'm bored."

Hope seemed amused by this, though she nodded. "Yeah sure." She decided before she pointed to one of the book piles, "This pile are all the books I've already read through." She began before she pointed to another pile, "These ones are books I'm yet to read."

"Okay, sweet." Stella took a book from the second pile, "Can you tell me a little bit about why you think Maya may be supernatural?" The Lewis then asked. Hope nodded, before she turned to the gemini witch, as she explained a little bit of the details, without giving the full story Maya had told her away.

Not only did she not want to overshare as she believed Maya's potential origin story was hers to tell, but she feared if she described Maya's vision to Stella, the blonde would grow incredibly worried about Nina, and they weren't even sure if the vision was supposed to mean anything at this point in time.

"Okay, funky visions and weird dreams. I can work with that." Stella declared, before she opened a book from the second pile. Hope smiled slightly at the heretic, before she went back to reading her own book.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

"Fucking finally, I thought I was going to have to pry you out of that school with my bare hands." Faith spoke, as Tori renentered Auclair academy at last. "Oh Faithy... be for real, I know you don't do your own dirty work." Victoria responded in a teasing manner, which earned a slightly amused look from the older of the sisters.

"Show it to me." Faith insisted as Tori mocked, "Show it to me Rachel." But when she didn't even get a smile let alone a laugh from the tribrid, she realised, "I forgot you've basically been living under a rock... you have so many memes to catch up on."

"In a pit, technically." Faith corrected her, as Tori pulled the moonstone out of her pocket, "Ta da!" She announced before Faith took the stone from her hand. "It's so... underwhelming." The older Mikaelson confessed as Tori shrugged, "Yeah... I thought the same but I don't know what I expected. It is exactly how you described."

Faith placed the moonstone in her own jacket pocket before she looked back at Victoria, "How was being back at your school?" She then asked. Tori paused, as she debated on how to answer that question... because the truth was, it felt like a breath of fresh air to be back amongst her favourite people, though only temporarily.

"It was really fun." Tori answered, deciding not to give any more of an answer incase it made Faith upset. "That's good." Faith offered a half smile before she explained, "I went to karaoke last night with Ezra and Salem... it was... interesting." Tori seemed surprised, "Oh wow, did you sing?"

Faith instantly shook her head, "Definitely not." She answered as the pair walked down the hallway, as Ezra appeared, walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey Ezzy!" Tori greeted as Ezra offered her a smile, "Hey Tori, how was your friend's birthday?" He asked, not seeming to spare Faith much of a glance. "It was a lot of fun!" Tori answered, though Ezra didn't hang around for much longer, seeming to want to get away.

"He... didn't talk to you?" Tori realised as Faith watched the Zhang walk away. "He's mad at me." The auburn haired girl admitted. "This girl was flirting with him and I told him she wasn't pretty." The Mikaelson spoke, leaving out basically the entire story. "Then we got back to this school and had another argument... it's whatever, he'll think about it and apologise to me later."

Tori frowned, "But... are you sure that he should be the one apologising?" She asked, seeming surprised by how certain she was that Ezra would apologise to her. Faith snapped her head towards her sister, "Absolutely I'm sure. What kind of a question is that?" She retorted. "Why would you immediately side with Ezra?" Faith then added.

"I'm not siding with anybody, but I've known Ezra for a long time and..." before Tori could even finish talking Faith had decided, "I think I'm done talking to you now. Thanks for obtaining the underwhelming rock." She decided, before she started to walk away, in search of Salem. Tori just blinked for a moment, as she processed Faith's way of ending the conversation before she heard her phone buzz.

The younger Mikaelson opened her phone, noticing a message she'd received from Veronica. "Hey, are we okay? I feel really bad." Tori's face faltered before she typed back a message, "We're fine, V!! Alyssa should count her days though."

The response made Veronica laugh, catching the attention of Josie who was putting her hair up while standing in front of the mirror. Hearing the heretic laugh, Josie smiled slightly. "I was hoping to see you smile again... you've been pretty serious this morning." The Saltzman admitted.

Veronica looked up from her phone, "Yeah um... I overreacted about something and... thought I made someone I care about possibly very upset and..." The Mikaelson realised that Josie wasn't following so she decided to be less cryptic. "I was told that Tori had sex with Myrical and I have a crush on Myrical so I got mad at Tori but... it wasn't actually true so..." The blonde trailed off.

"But I think we're okay... she's probably used to people being mad at her... and I'm not really helping with that..." Veronica realised she was talking a lot and stopped. Josie seemed to have been thinking about what the Mikaelson had said.

Was Josie a fan of Victoria? Absolutely not. Infact, she was jealous of how close she was with Lucas... because despite being his biological sister, Luca actually considered Tori to be more of a sister to him than Josie. But that wasn't all Josie was thinking about... she seemed to have been stuck on the part where Veronica mentioned having a crush on Myrical. "So... you like Myrical?"

"Why do you say that as though it's a bad thing?" V asked, as she was pulling on her shoes now. "It's not... it just sucks." Josie admitted. Veronica tied her laces before she sat back up, "Elaborate."

Josie didn't answer as she moved to grab her books that were sitting on her bed. Veronica suddenly appeared in front of the Saltzman, having used her super speed.

"Jo, what do you mean?" Veronica asked as Josie felt bothered by the question, before she sighed, "It sucks because... I'm never the one." She confessed, as V seemed confused. "I started to have feelings for you... and I thought there might be some possibility that..." Josie paused, seeming reluctant to continue but it seemed she'd already said too much to stop now. "You might like me back."

"Forget I said anything." Josie insisted, as Veronica seemed to have been processing this information in real time. The Saltzman grabbed her things and moved towards their dorm door. "Josie—" Veronica began, though before she could say anything more the witch was gone.

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Clary pulled on her cardigan, before she turned around to face Ashley, who was seated on her bed. "Eden is really cool... we ended up dancing and talking for a while and she told me a bit about her powers." The Bennett explained.

"I think being an empath witch could be really fun, honestly." Ashley added as Clary thought about it, "It would definitely make it easier to see how others feel about you." She confessed, as she wished she could have used magic like that on Rachel while they'd been friends, to learn how toxic their friendship had been much sooner.

"Anyway, enough about me... I've been talking a lot about Eden." Ashley seemed a little embarrassed as Clary smiled at her, "Talk as much as you like... I'm glad to see you're happy." She insisted. Ashley smiled back, "Yeah... I'm starting to feel really settled here." She replied.

"How was seeing Tori? Are you guys good now?" Ashley then added as Clary responded, "It was really nice to see her... Yeah things are good now. She said she shouldn't be away for too much longer." She seemed relieved.

"I've gotta go, Ash. I'll see you later." Carice decided, as she moved towards her dorm door. "Bye Clary!" Ashley said goodbye, before the Bailey left.

Moment later, Carice stood by Caroline's office. She reached out to knock on the door, and as she was hoping Vardemus would answer it. "Hello Carice." He spoke, stepping aside as Clary entered the office.

The temporary assistant headmaster closed the door behind them, before he looked to Clary. "I've noticed a page was torn out of my grimoire, do you happen to know anything about that?" Vardemus asked as Clary had a feeling she would have been caught.

"I needed a spell to save my friends... and it worked." Clary explained, as Vardemus didn't seem angry as the Bailey had expected him to be. Infact, he seemed relieved. "Something terrifying was going on and none of the other witches could do anything to help... not Liv, not Myrical or Aphrodite... if I didn't use this spell my cousin would have died." Carice explained, referring to Lizzie.

"It made me realise that black magic really isn't as bad as people make it out to be... because it can be used to stop a lot of fatal situations." Clary continued, "But only in moderation, like you said." Vardemus nodded, "I'm glad you share the same opinion."

"Could you... teach me more, please?" The Bailey requested, as Vardemus nodded, "I would be more than happy to, Miss Bailey." He responded.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

Upon learning about the disappearance of the Moonstone thanks to Dorian, Caroline had been quick to ask her kids about it. Although the four of them had no idea, they all had a hunch that it was Landon's doing.

Currently, Lizzie and Charlie approached the gymnasium, in search of the Kirby who they assumed was hanging out with the werewolves. "So... do you want to play good cop or bad cop?" Lizzie questioned as Charlie thought about it, "I'll play good cop." He decided.

The Saltzman looked surprised, "Are you feeling okay?" She asked, "You don't like Landon." The blonde reminded him. "Well... as long as he is dating our brother and good friends with my boyfriend, I'm gonna try to like him too." Charlie decided (although if he knew of his fight with Lucas, his opinion may have differed). Lizzie shrugged, "You're better than me." She declared. Although everyone knew that despite Lizzie's savage remarks towards the Kirby, they were somewhat friends.

The siblings entered the gym, finding the raven haired boy with Rafael, Glen and Jed. "Hey sticky fingers, where the hell is the moonstone?" Lizzie demanded as the three werewolves plus the confused phoenix looked at the siblings.
"I thought we were going to talk to him privately... but I guess this is fine." Charlie spoke uncomfortably.

"Sorry, what?" Landon looked taken back. "What the hell are you talking about?" Rafael asked confusedly. "Did I stutter? Some artefact is missing and I think you stole it." Lizzie sassed as Glen asked Landon, "How do you happen to get caught everytime you steal?" Jed agreed, "You're terrible at this."

"Yeah wow you guys are hilarious." Landon spoke sarcastically, "But I didn't take anything." He insisted as Charlie asked, "Um are you sure?" Landon looked surprisedly as Charlie, "I think I would know??" Rafael sighed, "Not necessarily... you've stolen artefacts before without having any idea." Landon then checked his pockets, recalling that when he'd stolen artefacts before they tended to be stored in his pockets, but they were empty.

"Look... my Mum just wants to sort it out without telling Alaric, but if it's not a quick fix then she'll have to, which means..." Charlie trailed off as Glen seemed to understand where his boyfriend was going with this, "Alaric will assume it was an Auclair student..." The Salvatore nodded, "Exactly."

"What if it was?" Landon questioned, as everyone looked to him. "Lan, we did not overcome all of this segregation just to circle back to square one." Rafael pointed out as Landon continued, "But think about it, I wasn't the only one to steal the artefacts to awaken Malivore."

Everyone paused before Jed asked, "Well who else was it? The anticipation is killing me!" Charlie answered, "It was Tori." Glen then frowned, thinking about his odd encounter with her earlier that morning... if she had stolen the moonstone also, it made him wonder what she was up to.

"Honestly, I still think it's bird brain here." Lizzie said to Charlie who replied, "I agree." Landon looked lost for words, "I'm innocent, I swear." He insisted, as he started moving towards the door to exit the gym, though Lizzie followed after him. "I don't believe you, Landon. Get back here!"

With that, the pair were gone.

"Well... I'm not sure that answered anything." Charlie admitted as Rafael sighed, "I'm gonna go save him from Lizzie." He decided as he moved to leave the gym, in hopes of saving his foster brother from the wrath of Lizzie.

Jed looked at the pair before he started moving towards the door, realising he had a couple things still to do before class. He then stopped suddenly, "I don't know if I should be leaving you two alone in here..." He voiced as Glen rolled his eyes, "Grow up." He replied as Charlie sighed, "It was ONE time." Jed then laughed to himself, proud to have annoyed them, before he left.

"These jokes are never going away, huh." Charlie realised, as Glen reached out to grab the Salvatore's hand, as they started to leave the gym themselves. "I should have known Val was going to tell Jed... who was then going to tell whoever he feels like. It's been months now... I think he is clutching at straws because he has nothing else he can pick on us for." The Forde responded as Charlie laughed a little. And that was true... while the couple had seen Jed do a lot of unexplainable and stupid shit, he didn't have any ammo to use on them in return other than that (1) singular thing.

"Hey Char, is Lizzie doing okay? She seemed... weirdly fine this morning. Like... putting on a happy mask, sort of fine." Glen spoke up as Charlie's face fell, "I... actually don't know. Whenever I ask, she has changed the subject. I think she's embarrassed... because she hates crying in front of anyone and I get it because it feels embarrassing, but it isn't actually embarrassing... she shouldn't be embarrassed by it... And I'm yapping now." He realised.

"Oh, speaking of." Glen noticed the siphoner walking towards them. "Landon is being weird." Lizzie insisted, as she approached Charlie and Glen. "He is being weird and cagey and I don't understand him... this is why you're my favourite brother-in-law." Lizzie looked to Glen as both Glen and Charlie seemed taken back by this. "You could have at least added the word future in front of that." Glen admitted before Charlie added, "Yeah Lizzie, we're not lesbians— we don't get married by the fourth date."

"You were a lesbian once." Lizzie pointed out as Charlie's jaw dropped, though he didn't know how to reply. "You were?" Glen asked, feeling as though he'd unlocked some new Charlie lore. "Look... my queer journey had to start somewhere, okay? Everything changed when I started watching Marvel and saw Captain America."

"Oh... yeah that's so fair." Glen agreed before he tried not to laugh as he asked, "Wait is that because you wanted to be him... or be with him?" Charlie paused before he answered, "... Both."

"I am not surprised. Anyway, I'm gonna find Aphie. Let's just hope Mum doesn't talk to Dad about the missing stone because... he probably will assume it's one of you guys from Auclair." Lizzie complained before she walked away. "Bye Lizzie." Charlie and Glen said before the pair continued walking in the opposite direction.

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Outside sat Valerie and Gianna, the later smoking while Val tried not to breathe it in. "I swear you used to vape." Gia suddenly spoke up, as they fidgeted with their lighter. "I did for a little while... one of the jocks at Auclair was selling them around school." The Harlowe responded.

"A lot of the jocks at your old school were... how do I put this nicely... they were stupid." Gia added as Valerie laughed a little, "Yeah they were... some of them were good looking though." They confessed as Gia seemed amused. Pretty much all of the jocks in question had gone to other schools after Auclair's closure.

"Hey are you okay?" Gia suddenly asked, as Val looked surprised, "I haven't said anything... what makes you ask?" The purple haired wolf grew defensive. "You forget how much I understand from body language alone." Gia reminded them, as they relied on interpreting body language a lot while she was learning English.

"I'm... homesick... for a place I'm not even sure I would call home." Valerie confessed. "Oh... homesickness is a terrible feeling... do you want to talk about it?" The Forde asked. Val paused, as they debated whether or not they wanted to talk about it, before realising that if anyone could understand their situation it may be Gia.

"My Dad moved to Spain a couple years ago... and he reconnected with one of childhood friends and they're now together and I'm really happy for him because it's the first time I've seen him be happy since my Mum died." Valerie began to open up. "Are you and your Dad close?" Gia asked as Val nodded, "Extremely... we talk on the phone a lot. He's still pretty up to date with my life and loves all of my friends." They answered.

"I've never been to Spain in my life, but now I'm wondering if..." Valerie paused, "You can't tell anybody this because I'm just thinking aloud and it may never happen." The Harlowe interjected as Gia nodded, "Of course, my lips are sealed." She assured them. "I'm starting to wonder if I should move there too... but then the thought of leaving Jed, Glen, Raf, Kaleb and Landon makes me really sad. They're my people."

Gia's face fell, as she understood how hard the decision was when it came to moving...
"I have an idea." They spoke up. "Why don't we go on a trip to Spain next break?" Gianna suggested as Valerie seemed intrigued. "It's a very beautiful country! And maybe if you visit your Dad, it will help you decide whether or not you really want to move."

"That sounds amazing." Valerie admitted, "But where would we even get the money for that?" They asked. Gia smiled a little smugly, "You leave that to me." She declared as Valerie paused, "... Should I be concerned?" They asked as Gia shook their head quickly, "But Alaric should be, because I'm probably gonna steal and sell most of his unopened liquor." The Forde decided as Val failed to stifle a laugh, "Honestly... deserved." They decided.

The pair sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, before Valerie had an idea. "I'm gonna go to the store later and get some more hair dye... do you feel like tagging along?" They asked. "Oh hell yeah! I might dye my hair too, actually." Gia decided.

"Oh uh... and can I see a picture of your Dad?" Gia suddenly asked. "It's for research." They added as Valerie frowned, "No you definitely can not." The Harlowe decided. "I vividly remember you looking through a history book in the Auclair library, and playing smash or pass with the Mikaelsons. You're staying away from my Dad." Val declared as Gia laughed, "Okay but can you agree that Elijah Mikaelson is insanely hot?" She asked.

Val snorted in amusement, "I'm pretty sure he's dead." They replied. "Well, I can invest in an ouija board." The Forde answered. "Gia no." Valerie couldn't help but to laugh, "That's crazy." With that, the two friends started moving back towards the schools entrance, as they continued talking about hair dye.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

Olivia, Lexi and Aphie entered the kitchen together, as the redhead made a beeline for the coffee machine while the girlfriends were walking along hand in hand, Lexi swinging their arms as they walked.

"Lizzie seems oddly fine today... it's almost like she didn't spend last night crying a lot." Lexi admitted, seeming concerned. "I did talk to her before her Mum called her, and she seems fine today." Aphrodite responded, as she started making coffee for the three of them.

"Have you talked to her about getting help, Mum?" Liv asked as Aphrodite nodded, "She's booked an appointment with a psychologist I found for her... only problem is the clinic is an hour away so I'm hoping to play real life GTA and steal Alaric's car." She answered. "That's sounds fun, can I help?" Lexi joked.

"Here you lovely girls go." Aphrodite handed a coffee each to Olivia and Lexi. "Thank you Aphie!" The girlfriends both responded. "You're welcome! Now I gotta go find Lizzie before class. I'll see you later!" The De Martel and her daughter quickly hugged before Aphrodite was gone.

"Damn, this is a good coffee." Lexi admitted before her eyes suddenly lit up upon realising herself and her girlfriend were finally alone, "Livvy we should go on our first proper date." The Salvatore realised as Liv smiled suddenly, "We should!! Do you have any ideas?" She wondered.

"I absolutely do." Lexi nodded, as she'd been talking to her cousins for ideas, since they'd all gone on a lot of dates with their partners. "Charlie found a drive in cinema that isn't too far from here. We can pack some pillows, blankets and some of our most favourite snacks and watch a movie there maybe?" Lexi suggested as Liv loved the idea.

"That sounds so cosy and adorable but babe we have one issue here... neither of us own a car." Liv admitted as Lexi shrugged, "Well... Glen said that stealing cars is pretty easy." She suggested. "I'm actually not surprised to hear that." Liv replied as Lexi laughed, "But a drive in movie sounds so cosy and fun... so demure." Olivia joked as Lexi agreed, "Very demure, very mindful..." She quoted, making the both of them laugh.

"I'll think about the car situation... I'm sure we can play GTA in real life and steal Alaric's van." Lexi aired her idea as Liv didn't seem opposed to it. "Okay, I gotta find Casper before class. He has to fill me on his latest interaction with Ethan... though I doubt they've done anything because they're both silly and oblivious." Lexi admitted, before she finished her coffee. The Salvatore then took the empty cup from Liv's hands gently before moving towards the sink to clean them both.

Once she was done, the vampire reproached her girlfriend. Lexi wore a loving smile as she looked at the ravenette, before they shared a chaste kiss. "Get a room." Charlie spoke jokingly as he entered the kitchen. Lexi turned to face her cousin, "Says you, didn't you do it in a gym?" She asked suddenly as Charlie blushed slightly, "Why is that the second time I've heard the same joke today?"

Olivia couldn't help but to laugh, "Wait really?" She asked, feeling like that was a weird coincidence as Charlie nodded awkwardly before he looked to Lexi, "Bitch you live in a glass house, how dare you throw stones?" He pointed out as Lexi suddenly paused, realising she wasn't sure what she'd told him previously. "Lexi fully hooked up with a guy from her old school in the alley way behind the Grill." Charlie told Liv, who then looked shocked.

Lexi went to fire something back at Charlie... anything... until she realised she actually had no more ammo, and he had plenty to use on her. "I actually have no response for that one... fuck you Charmander I don't even remember telling you that." The female Salvatore frowned.

"Lexi... what?? In an alley?! Ew!" Liv felt sick at the thought, because alleys tended to be uh... very disgusting. "I was... a very different Lexi back then! I didn't think about any of that. I have standards now I swear." Lexi assured Liv before she narrowed her eyes at Charlie and flipped him off, causing the other Salvatore to laugh.

"Anyway I'm gonna go to class before Charlie can embarrass me some more, bye Livvy." The heretic decided, as the girlfriends said goodbye to one another, before the cousins flipped eachother off again. "Okay great, Liv I need to talk to you." Charlie turned to the ravenette.

"Uh, sure! Is everything okay?" Olivia asked as Charlie seemed unsure. "I keep having weird dreams... about some girl." He began. "I have no idea who she is... and none of it makes sense but..." The Salvatore decided before he frowned, "I have a fucking boyfriend, I can't be having dreams about girls!"

Liv couldn't help but to laugh at the last comment, "Wait... are these dreams... you know..." The Auclair stopped, hoping Charlie would pick up on what she was implying. "What? No. They're not sexual! But still... it's becoming a reoccurring thing and I either want it to make sense or just stop... or both."

"So... what do you think I can do about it?" Liv asked, seeming unsure. "Well... I was hoping you could do a head dive, and try to find out more about this mystery girl." Charlie replied as Olivia paused, "As in look through your memories?" She asked as Charlie nodded.

"I have never done a head dive, but they are pretty invasive. Are you sure you want me to do that?" The tribrid questioned as Charlie nodded, "I trust you." He assured her. "Okay, then yeah I can do it... but it might help to have a third person present incase I can't get out of your head." Olivia explained, as the idea of getting lost in somebody else's head did worry her. "That's a good point... I think I know just the person." Charlie thought aloud.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

Now outside in the open air, Tori focused her attention on her garden, which was now looking pretty lively. It has been days now since she had planted her sunflowers, and since then she had added other flowers which made it awfully colourful.

The Mikaelson wondered how everything was at the Salvatore school, and if they'd noticed she'd taken the moonstone. She could only assume they'd know, since they had a knack of knowing when Landon had taken any of the artefacts.

She knew her actions would be judged, and they would continue to get judged the more she helped Faith, but she wanted so desperately to be free of this curse. And not even just that, but knowing somebody else had been going through the very same thing (even if it was somebody as ruthless as Faith) gave her more motivation to try and unbind it.

But the truth was, Victoria wanted it all to be over... visiting the Salvatore school made her realise just how much she missed being there. She wanted to be able to turn into a werewolf, but she also wanted to go back to her old life, and to be back with Clary, Lucas and Beau.

It felt like all she had been doing for days was facing the trauma of her past, at her former boarding school, and she was tired of it. Although after dealing with the bad memories resurfacing over the first few days, she'd started to remember some of the good times, but it hurt just as much when she realised most of the good times were spent with people she didn't speak to anymore.

"Uh... Tori?"

Speaking of... Tori paused when she recognised Glen's voice. She looked as though she was a deer caught in headlights, upon being seen near her supposedly abandoned former school. The Mikaelson turned to face him with the watering can still in her hand.

"Hi Glen." Tori answered confusedly, as she seemed to be trying to rack her brain for any sort of explanation for the sight he was seeing right now, that wasn't the truth. How the hell was she supposed to explain that she was gardening at her former school for no particular reason.

As the Mikaelson was still processing the fact that her ex boyfriend for some reason has sought her out, to find her in a place that had inevitably caused them a lot of pain, Glen looked as though he was processing too as he blinked in surprise, finding her whereabouts to be completely bizarre. Of course, Tori could see past the glamour Faith had placed on the school, but other than their small circle nobody else would be able to see the truth.

"What... brings you here?" Tori questioned. "I honestly could ask you the same thing." Glen admitted before he added, "I was hoping to talk to you about something. I have no idea why I thought you'd be here though..." He realised, though truthfully he'd looked at two other places first and been wrong. "What were you wanting to talk about?" Tori asked as Glen seemed to think about his words before he inevitably decided to just be honest and blunt, "I know you took the moonstone."

Tori's eyes widened momentarily. "I... what... how—" The Mikaelson couldn't seem to make a sentence, but she sure had questions now. "The school is kind of in turmoil because this artefact had been stolen and half of the students are blaming Landon, while the other half are blaming you." Her face fell, as she felt bad for Landon having to take the wrath of her actions.

"Your boys have your back though... they're not blaming Landon but they're refusing to blame you." Glen continued as Tori seemed touched that her best friends had her back... although they were wrong. "What about Clary?" She asked. "Clary thinks it's Landon's doing, she's been ready to fight anyone who tells her otherwise."

"You're adamant that I have it?" Tori asked as Glen answered, "I am now." The Forde by now was sure his ex was up to something, and although he didn't say it, he had a worry that the blonde was actually in danger... because her actions seemed unusual.

"Charlie and Lizzie are trying to figure out who has it... they realised that if Caroline doesn't find it soon she'll have to tell Alaric. That means he'll come back to the school and pick his way through each of the Auclair students with a pointed finger, because he hates us." Glen explained as Tori asked, "Alaric is gone?!" When the Forde nodded she replied, "That sounds like a dream."

Tori exhaled, realising she had been well and truly caught and she felt guilty because she didn't want Alaric to go back to the school anytime soon. "I... can explain but..." She trailed off as she looked around. "Maybe not here. Can we go somewhere else?" The Mikealson requested. Glen nodded, also feeling the discomfort of being at Auclair academy, "Yeah... definitely."

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The day felt like it had crawled on as Aphrodite finally escape the walls of the classroom, and found herself at her locker. The redhead closed the door after placing her books inside, and turned to see her girlfriend approaching her, having just gotten out of class.

"Hey Aphie." Lizzie smiled softly, before the shorter girl smiled back, "Hey sweetie, how was class?" Lizzie sighed, "So long... I thought it would never end. How about yours?" Aphie thought about it, "It was okay... I sat with Alex so he kept me entertained at least."

"I'm gonna go talk to Clary about the spell for Hope, would you like to come with?" Lizzie asked as Aphrodite nodded, "Yeah of course." With that, the siphon witch placed her books in her locker before she took Aphrodite's hand, and started leading them towards the dorm rooms.

Eventually they reached Clary's dorm, and Lizzie reached out to knock. Inside the dorm, Clary had been practicing a new spell Vardemus had taught her. The Bailey was startled by the knock, having been so focused. She quickly placed the spell sheet she had been given inside her grimoire and closed it.

Carice then noticed her darkened veins and exhaled suddenly. She tried to actively relax, in hope the dark magic would fade away. "Clary?" Lizzie called out. "Just a minute." Clary replied, her expression turning into a relieved look once her darkened veins faded away.

With that, the Bennett witch walked over and opened the door. "Hey Liz, hey Aph. What's up?" Carice asked. "Could we come in? We have something to talk to you about." Lizzie explained as Clary nodded before she stepped aside, allowing the girlfriends to enter her and Ashley's dorm.

Clary closed the door behind them before she looked to Lizzie and Aphrodite, "What's up?" She asked. "Uh... okay how do I explain this without sounding really weird..." The Saltzman trailed off, as Aphie decided to start, "Clary, you know that spell you used the other night? To purge the demon from Lizzie?"

Clary nodded, "Yeah." She answered, remembering how ill it had made her. "Well, we were hoping we could borrow that spell." Aphie added as Carice instantly frowned, "Absolutely not." She spoke rather bluntly. Aphie frowned at the Bailey's tone. "Could you at least hear why we want it?" Lizzie asked as Clary sighed, "Okay." She decided. "The spell... took away any supernatural effects on my mind. And I had memories flood back to me about a girl that the entire world has forgotten."

Clary tilted her head, "That... seems weird. Who is the person?" She asked. "Her name is Hope, but nobody remembers her except for Lizzie, thanks to that spell. Not even Tori remembers her." Aphrodite said without thinking, as Clary frowned, "You want me to help Tori remember some girl?" She asked, interpreting the situation completely wrong. "Woah, pump on the jealousy breaks there, this person is Tori's family." Lizzie quickly interjected as Clary suddenly stopped. "Oh my god..." The Bailey realised something.

Tori shook her head, "I just can't shake this feeling of emptiness... like something in my life has changed and I'm longing for it. I thought maybe it was connected to losing Laura, but I was feeling it before we got back to the school and learnt about her death." She explained.

"All this time Tori has been missing something... what if it's this?" Clary aired her thought as Aphrodite glanced at Lizzie, wondering if it were to be true, since she didn't remember if Hope and Tori were close. "I think it really could be... they only seemed to have become close again right before Hope became forgotten." Lizzie explained.

"If we use this spell, we could help Hope to be remembered again by everyone." Lizzie turned back to Clary, who seemed reluctant. "Look... I want to help you guys, especially if it could mean helping my girlfriend... but this spell is... something else." The Bailey trailed off.

"I think I need to learn more about it first." Carice decided as Lizzie looked a little disheartened, as she felt bad for Hope. Aphrodite looked back to Clary, "That's not a no, though?" She wanted to confirm. "It's not a no, but it's not a yes either. I think I'm gonna talk to my Aunt Bonnie about it." The brunette decided.

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"Hey, you alive under those covers?" Beau questioned, as he stood by his closet in search of a jacket, while Luca remained back in his bed. "Unfortunately." Lucas replied in a grumble. "Are you going to come to class?" The Lazuli asked as Lucas replied, "Unlikely."

"But don't you have to go and talk to your boyfriend?" Beau pointed out. "Yes but I currently feel so sick that I want the Earth to open up from underneath me and just take me... so I think that can wait." The Saltzman decided. "Do you know what you're going to say to Landon?" Beau asked as Luca replied, "I have no idea."

"Do you... wanna make out as revenge?" Beau suggested as Lucas suddenly removed the cover from his head, so he could frown at his best friend. "I do not." The Saltzman answered. Beau pretended to be offended, "Tori would do it." He responded. "No she wouldn't." Luca answered. "Okay fine, maybe I just want to believe that my husband and wife do love me back." The Lazuli spoke dramatically, as Lucas groaned, "Could you talk a bit fucking quieter? My head feels like it's going to explode."

"Sorry... dude I swear all you have done lately is be hungover." Beau commented as Luca sighed, "You're telling me... I never want to look at alcohol again." The Saltzman decided. "Do you feel like talking about your Landon troubles?" Beau asked as Lucas sighed, "Not particularly."

"Okay... then can I talk about my relationship troubles?" Beau questioned as Lucas frowned, "Aren't you single?" He asked. "Yeah but... I'm still having issues and it's lowkey Tori's fault." He decided. "... How?" Luca asked, not believing him. Beau sighed before he began to explain, "Victoria thinks I'm polyamorous... as in, she thinks I want two boyfriends." Lucas blinked for a moment, "Are you trying to tell me you don't?" He asked as Beau's jaw dropped momentarily, "Are you kidding me? Not you too..."

"Name one time where you've been in a relationship and been completely monogamous." Lucas challenged as Beau opened his mouth to speak, but realised the only time where that was the case, was his short term relationship with Charlie, which he infact did not plan to ever tell Lucas about.

"But I like Sebastian only." Beau replied as Lucas sat up now, "Well here's a challenge for you... stop flirting with every other attractive person you see." He suggested as Beau just looked at his best friend blankly. "I don't do that." He responded. "Yes you fucking do, I'm sure I could find many people that could confirm it."

When Beau didn't answer, curiosity struck Lucas. "Who did Tori think you wanted your other boyfriend to be?" He asked. Beau paused, seeming reluctant to answer, but he eventually did and with utmost disgust, "MG." Lucas seemed surprised, "I thought you hated MG." He pointed out. "Hate is a very strong word Lucie, but yes I do hate MG." He responded. "Do you find him attractive?" Luca asked as Beau let out a long sigh before he answered, "Insanely attractive."

Lucas smiled a little smugly as Beau frowned at him, "But that doesn't mean I want to date him. I find most of our classmates to be hot as fuck, but you don't see me trying to date them." He added as Lucas asked, "Well... why aren't you dating Sebastian then? You keep going on about how you guys would make such a power couple."

"Because... I don't know!" Beau began. "I really want to date him... being friends with benefits has been amazing but I want more and I have no idea what's stopping me. It's so fucking irritating." The Lazuli complained as Lucas had a teasing expression before he said, "What if MG is what's holding you back?"

"No... no I'm done with this conversation. I'm gonna prove you and Victoria wrong by asking Sebastian to be my boyfriend. Fuck you both." The siphon witch decided before he moved towards his dorm door. "Bye." He added.

"Bye." Luca responded though he frowned when he realised Beaumont had seemingly pulled the door closed but left it slightly ajar. "Beau, close the door." Lucas called out, hearing no answer. "Beau!!" He complained, before realising his best friend was gone. "You petty asshole..." Lucas grumbled to himself before he dragged himself out of bed to close the door, only to end up back under his covers moments later.

Meanwhile, Beau was walking through the corridor with their conversation lingering in his mind, as well as his conversation with Tori the night previously. The Lazuli frowned, "They have no idea what they're talking about." He thought, before he passed Niko.

The Shiratori paused, accidentally reading his thoughts. Niko's eyes widened, "Oh my god... Beau, Sebastian and MG?" He thought to himself, before he heard Ezekiel's voice, catching his attention.

Niko looked up to see Zeke, who had a football in his hands as he'd just been outside playing football with Aaron. The Shiratori offered the dormant werewolf a smile, and Zeke blushed. "He has such a cute smile... wait Niko stop reading my thoughts!!" Zeke thought to himself as he'd seen Niko smile more. "Sorry... it's hard not to sometimes." Niko admitted, as he approached the Lockwood-Mikaelson. "Especially when the guy I like has such fun thoughts that he never wants to share aloud." The psychic joked.

"Oh god... you don't wanna know what goes on my head." Zeke answered, as his brain was very chaotic and fast moving. Niko stood in front of the brunette, "Wait... did you just say you like me?" Zeke realised as Niko inhaled suddenly, realising it had completely slipped.

"Yeah... I did." Niko admitted as Zeke smiled suddenly, "I like you as well." He replied, unable to contain his smile. Ezekiel then glanced at Niko's lips, before meeting his eyes again. Niko noticed this and felt as though his heartbeat started to increase, as he felt nervous. Despite this, the Shiratori started leaning towards Zeke, deciding he wanted to kiss him.

The bell suddenly rang loudly, completely startling both boys as they flinched and accidentally butted heads. "Ow." Zeke cringed before he looked up at Niko, who was rubbing his own head, "You have a hard head... or do I?" He blurted, causing Zeke to laugh.

"That is so embarrassing..." Zeke thought, though Niko chuckled as he had read his mind. "I uh... should get to class." Niko decided, suddenly feeling completely unconfident despite trying to kiss Zeke only a moment ago. "Yeah so should I... see ya." Zeke decided as the pair were quick to part ways, both laughing to themselves while feeling very embarrassed.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

"So I... have an older sister." Tori began, as the pair wandered away from the school together. "Her name is Faith, and she was trapped in Malivore for a long time... she's been trying to reach me through my dreams for god... possibly a year??" Tori explained as Glen seemed to be putting the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind.

"I think I remember... you used to sleepwalk sometimes." He pointed out, wondering if that had anything to do with it. He remembered one particular instance where he found her sleepwalking through the kitchen of Auclair academy, though he'd just managed to wake her before she walked straight into a glass door at full speed.

"Yeah well, that was all her. She somehow got me to release the last artefact into Malivore which granted her freedom." Tori continued as she went to step onto the road, but Glen quickly extended his arm in front of her to stop her, as a car zoomed past them. The Forde sighed, "You still have zero road sense." He admitted as Tori frowned at him. They kept walking as Glen asked, "You're a vampire with all these heightened senses... why do you never use them?" Victoria's jaw dropped momentarily before she let out a slight laugh, "Damn, okay. Sassy." Tori laughed.

"As a matter of fact, I do use them." The blonde began. "Using my heightened hearing, I know that whenever you're around Charlie your heartbeat races." She spoke in teasing voice as Glen looked at her with surprise, and also he was a little embarrassed.

The Mikealson then smiled smugly, "How do you think I figured out so easily that you had a crush on him?" She teased as Glen couldn't really deny her accusations. "I mean... anyone with working eyes could see you two liked eachother." She hummed before Glen had his input, "Considering you nearly just walked into a moving vehicle, I don't think you have working eyes Tori."

Tori looked blankly at the Forde, "Damn... that's rude." She spoke, pretending to be hurt as Glen struggled to keep a straight face at her tone. "Speaking of... where is Charlie? If you're here I kinda expected he would be too." Tori admitted as Glen answered, "Char has detention sometime today. He was going to come along, he wanted to ask you about something."

"And what was that?" Victoria asked curiously. "He's been having weird dreams about a girl." Glen began as Tori blurted before the Forde could provide context, "Woah???" The werewolf quickly interjected, "Not like that. He struggled to make sense of it but he thinks it could be somebody from his past... and for some reason he thinks you could be connected to them too." Tori nodded, "Well... I definitely haven't been having any dreams about unfamiliar girls." She assured him.

"Where are we going by the way? I've been following you." Glen then pointed out as Tori looked around, "Uh... shall we go to the Grill or Mainline coffee?" The hybrid questioned. "Mainline for sure, I need caffeine."

The pair entered the cafe, though when they closed the door behind them, they noticed the venue looked closed. The lights were off, and the furniture was stacked to the side. "Um..." Tori looked around confusedly before Glen pointed out, "I swear the lights were on..?"

The duo turned to leave the cafe, though what confused them more was how bare the street looked once they were back outside. "Where did all of the people go?" Tori wondered aloud, as Glen realised, "There's... no cars either??" Tori frowned before she suggested, "Why don't we um... just sit somewhere and talk..." The Mikealson added before a woman approached the pair, wearing 80's fashion.

"Are you seeing this?" Glen asked Tori, as his eyes were fixed on the woman. "What the hell?" Tori blurted, her eyes now also staring confusedly at the same person. The woman stopped walking once she was a few metres from the pair, "Well... I don't remember the last time I saw a boy here." She confessed.

"What do you mean here?" Tori spoke up, as the woman held up her wrist, showing them the bracelet she wore, which was glowing. "I'm the keeper. Welcome to the game." She then disappeared, leaving the pair more confused than anything. "The... what..." Glen sighed annoyedly as she had left before any questions could be asked.

Wordlessly, the pair decided to cross the road back to the grassy area they'd been walking through minutes earlier, but the second Glen and Tori stepped onto the road a car raced towards them at full speed. "What the—"

Suddenly, the duo appeared on the grass. They sat up, and gave eachother confused looks. "Did we just get hit by a fucking car??" Glen blurted out as Tori stumbled onto her feet. "This is a total mind fuck..." The blonde grumbled as she offered the Forde a hand. He ignored her offer as he got onto his feet.

"I wonder... if this is Malivore's doing." Glen realised as Tori furrowed her eyebrows, "How? Landon, Lucas, Beau, Niko and I put an end to that." She reminded him. "That's what we all thought, but a few days ago a demon hunting samurai showed up at the school." Glen filled her in as the blonde blinked. "Okay... wow um that is annoying. So this is Malivore's doing... and now we're in... some sort of game." Tori frowned.

"We should look for that colourfully dressed woman. Maybe we can get some answers out of her." Glen then suggested as Tori kept attempting to cross the road, only for cars to keep suddenly appearing. She sighed, before deciding to try and use her super speed, but it failed and she ended up getting hit by another car.

Glen's eyes widened when he realised she disappeared, and reappeared in the same spot on the grass as before. "Looks like that is our respawn point." The werewolf noticed as the hybrid reproached him. "My super speed isn't working." Tori complained. "I noticed." Glen answered rather quickly before he added, "I don't think our powers work here."

Glen took a step on the road, and instantly stepped back as a car zoomed past. "Maybe we need to treat this like a game of Crossy road." He suggested as Tori thought about it, "Wait... that could work."

Half an hour passed and the pair tried to work together to get across the road. They respawned on the grassy area at least eight times before they finally made it across the road. "We did it!" Tori cheered as Glen froze, "Fuck." He blurted out, looking under his boot. The pair then respawned back on the grass, "A land mine?? Really? What the hell is wrong with this decade?!" Victoria complained as the duo got back onto their feet.

"There is a lot of answers to that question... but honestly this is getting ridiculous." Glen sighed. "If only there was something that could help us... like a clue." Tori added before Glen looked to her, "Unless you see a clue store around here, I don't think—" Without saying anything more, Victoria pointed to a store, that indeed had a sign saying Clue store. "Wow okay um... I guess that is useful."

The pair tried to make their way across the road again, taking it one step at a time. "Back!" Tori squeaked, as they both took a step back as a bicycle zoomed by. "Forward!" Glen hurried as they moved forward two steps as a car zoomed behind them.

They both sighed with relief once they reached the other side of the road. "Alright, to the clue store we go." Tori spoke as though they were on an exciting adventure, trying to ignore the fact that they'd died and respawned at least thirteen times by now.

Tori and Glen entered the supposed clue store, in search of the keeper woman. "Oh hey, looking for something?" She asked, from a stool. "Yeah. How do we get out of here?" Tori asked before Glen followed with, "And why are we in our grandparents decade?" Tori quickly replied to Glen, "Speak for yourself."

The keeper chuckled, "Yeah, sorry about that. It's the only decade I know. Turns out you miss a lot of pop culture when guys in black suits drop you into a giant pit of goo." She began, as she turned on the lights to the store. "As for how getting out of here goes, uh, you don't. You play the game until my pet feeds on you, and then you die for reals."

"This game was designed to kill beautiful maidens..." The keeper continued before her eyes drifted to Glen. "I don't think it's ever had male players before." She realised. Tori was very amused by this information, "Aww, the game thinks you're a beautiful maiden too!" She teased Glen as his face dropped, "Shut up." He brushed her comment off as she laughed to herself.

"Well, thank you so very much for wasting our time. We're gonna leave now." Glen spoke dryly as the pair started to walk away, though the keeper quickly approached them. "There is um, one way out." She spoke, catching their attention. "One of you agrees to take my place." Tori and Glen both looked at the woman as though she'd lost her mind. "Look, I was trapped here once too, okay? Just like you two, and I don't really feel like being the Keeper of the Game, like, forever. So, one of you agrees to wear this bracelet, you get to be the new me and the other is set free."

There was a silence in the air before Tori let out an uncomfortable, humourless laugh that indicated that she thought they were all going to die. Glen groaned before he decided to reply, "Yeah... no. We're not going to do that."

"Actually, I'm afraid there's no other option. You take the deal, or my pet kills you. That's the endgame!" The Keeper explained as she glared at the teens. Before either of them could respond, a loud roar could be heard, which caused the woman to gasp, "Speak of the devil."

Suddenly bursting through the wall of the clue store, was a Minatour. "HUH?!" Tori blurted out as Glen rushed for the door, "Tori come on!" He insisted before they made a run for it.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

Val looked around the convenience store in search of cameras, before they started stashing boxes of hair dye in the basket of Gia's wheelchair.

"The guy who owns this store is a total degenerate... but also really stupid. I've stolen a lot of stuff from here." Valerie spoke in a whisper, as it was true. Whether the Harlowe had come on late night trips to the store with Jed or Glen, they never left empty handed despite buying perhaps a drink at most.

"What's the tea?" Gia asked curiously. "The store owner is a creep... he's asked both Myrical and Liv for their phone numbers." Valerie explained as Gia's jaw dropped, "That's so gross... that guy looks fucking ancient! As in lived through the Great Depression kind of ancient." The purple haired werewolf nodded, "Exactly, so we all just steal from his store because... it's deserved."

"Valid... I believe in the Salvatore students rights and wrongs." Gia decided as Valerie laughed to themself as they asked, "What colour do you wanna dye your hair?" Gia looked at the options before she reached out and took a navy coloured box dye, "I haven't tried blue before." They admitted.

"Okay, sweet." Valerie decided before they put multiple boxes of the colour into the basket before noticing Aphrodite's shade of red on the shelf. They took a handful of boxes as Gia asked, "Who is that for?"

"Aphrodite." Valerie answered as Gia looked shocked, "Aphie isn't a natural redhead?" She asked with surprise. "She is, but she dyes it so it's more vibrant." Val answered before the pair moved into the next aisle to grab snacks.

"Do we need anything else?" Val asked as Gia nodded, "I need cigarettes." They replied. "They're kept behind the counter, I'm not sure we can get them." The Harlowe admitted as Gia shrugged, "I'll just have to find a way to make the degenerate hand a packet to me."

"Gia you look fifteen, he's not gonna hand you cigarettes." Valerie pointed out as Gia's face fell, "But Valerieeeee—" Val quickly replied, "I'll find another way, but we gotta go before we look too suspicious." The Harlowe answered, wheeling Gia towards a fridge so they could each grab a cold drink.

Once the pair selected a drink each, Valerie choosing Pepsi and Gianna wanting to try Dr Pepper, they approached the counter as the Harlowe placed the drinks down. "Just these..." Valerie spoke, not putting an ounce of kindness in their tone.

"Are you sure? You guys have been in here an awfully long time." The shopkeeper replied, as he scanned the two drinks. "We couldn't decide what we wanted." Valerie spoke bluntly before deciding to add, "My friend here isn't American, she was amazed by all of the different products."

Valerie handed some cash to the man as he glanced at Gia, "And where is your pretty friend from?" He asked, his comment making both Valerie and Gia's skin crawl. "Don't you dare try and strike up a conversation with me, you kid fucker." Gia spoke harshly in Italian, as the shop keeper looked puzzled. "They said they don't understand what you're saying." Valerie lied, trying to bite back an amused smile at Gia's words.

"That is an interesting accent you have... are you French?" The shop keeper continued to make conversation as Gia was appalled by this suggestion, "Oh he did not just fucking say that! Val I'm gonna fight him." Gia spoke bluntly in Italian. "They aren't French." Valerie replied to the shop keeper, trying to keep the conversation brief.

"Well I hope your friend is able to show me the contents of her basket." The man decided, his eyes moving to the basket of the wheelchair, as he handed Valerie their change. The werewolf took their drinks, "Uh, I don't think you're allowed to ask that." Valerie declared, as they handed the drinks to Gia before moving the wheelchair towards the door.

"Oh, considering you two have spent a long time browsing, I have every right to be suspicious." The shop keeper walked around the counter as Valerie quickly pushed Gia's chair, getting them out of the store.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

With the plan for Olivia to dive through Charlie's memories and hopefully uncover the truth about Hope, who was to them a mysterious stranger, the Salvatore was really dreading his detention. When he walked into the classroom as saw both Rafael and Aaron seated, he wanted to loudly groan knowing they would probably fight.

The brunet took a seat towards the back of the classroom, and opened one of his notebooks as he realised he could use this time to work on an assignment. He plugged in one of his earphones and pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head as attempt to hide it, as he started listening to the soundtrack of Grease.

Seeming distracted by the music and his own thoughts, his assignment seemed to remain untouched, as he was now thinking about his boyfriend. Glen had explained to Charlie his plan to confront Tori about the moonstone, before Caroline could tell Alaric and the Saltzman go down some ridiculous warpath to the Auclair students (who could honestly all fight the older man with ease...)

He wondered if Glen's suspicions had been correct, and if Landon was innocent. For now, Charlie still believed it was Landon, until he was to hear otherwise. The Salvatore wasn't even sure now why he had a disliking towards the boy... the reality was, that the Kirby was Hope's first boyfriend and he'd broken her heart, and since then Charlie decided he didn't like Landon... but since he didn't remember Hope, he couldn't actually remember what started his dislike for the phoenix. If he was to learn about Landon and Luca's fight, then he'd definitely feel like he had a reason not to like the Kirby.

Charlie then wondered what it was like for Glen to be around Tori again. Was he worried that his boyfriend was talking to his ex girlfriend? No, actually. The Forde had made it very clear he had moved on, and Charlie trusted him. More than anything, he wondered how uncomfortable it must be... although the circumstances were different, if he was to see Penelope again after she'd broken his heart, he genuinely wasn't sure how he would feel. He knew given the chance, he'd want to be friends with Penelope again... but it would surely still feel uncomfortable. Sometimes he wondered how she was going in Belgium, and if she was happier there... but he also didn't want to reach out in fear it gave the Park the wrong idea.

Charlie suddenly frowned, hearing Rafael and Aaron arguing. The exes arguing wasn't an uncommon occurrence, infact everyone knew they hated one another though only them and Myrical knew of their history together. "Can you guys shut up?" Charlie sighed, catching their attention. "What did I do to annoy you?" Rafael asked, taking offence to the boy's tone. "Your voices are so loud, I can't concentrate." The Salvatore added. "Sorry Charlie." Aaron responded.

Fortunately the room finally became silent again, and all that Charlie could hear was his music. Charlie's phone then buzzed quietly in his pocket, and the Salvatore tried to subtly pull it out to check his messages. He'd just received one from Liv. "Niko is down to be our helper, though they're not sure this is a good idea. Meet at the Old Mill when you can?" Charlie started typing before he responded, "I'll talk to him about it after. I should be there in about 30 minutes."

Aaron and Rafael then started to argue once more. Charlie sighed before he looked over at the teacher, who seemed to be fast asleep. The Salvatore then turned to the fighting boys, "Oh my god enough! What is with you two... can you sort out this enemies to lovers shit already, everyone is over the fighting." He suddenly snapped as both Aaron and Rafael fell silent.

"Why the hell are you insinuating this?! I would never want to be with him!" Aaron fired back, as Rafael just looked blankly at the Bennett with a knowing expression. Aaron just glared back, his expression saying don't say it.

"Your family seem to have a thing for crushing on their enemies so like nobody would be surprised if you two suddenly—" Charlie was cut off by Rafael, "Please stop talking." The Waithe demanded. "Do people actually think we wanna get together?" Aaron suddenly asked Charlie, his face showing visible panic.

Charlie just shrugged, before he collected his books. "I don't know but I've had enough of this. Bye." The Salvatore replied, deciding to leave since the teacher was fast asleep and not paying attention to the students anyway. With that, the exes were left alone together, both thinking about the vampire's words.

━━━━━ ⋆⋅♥︎⋅⋆ ━━━━━

"Okay, I think we lost it." Tori exhaled with relief. Herself and Glen had made it out of the square, and were hiding in the woods. "I miss my super strength." The Mikealson admitted as the Forde agreed, "Same... though we both know how to fight... maybe we could fight it off." He threw out the suggestion. "I don't like the risk of us actually dying here." Tori admitted.

"Although... the school has a lot of weapons... we could stand a chance against the Minatour if we arm ourselves." Victoria then realised, wondering if they could find Alaric's crossbow. "Well... that's a good plan." Glen decided, as they both started to walk towards the school, while they tried avoiding any traps that had been laid out.

"You didn't get to tell me what the moonstone was for." Glen remembered, as that had been the initial reason they'd walked into the township in the first place. "Oh yeah I was getting to that... before we died so many times." Tori realised. "So Faith is just like me... her werewolf side is locked away." The blonde began to explain.

"She knows a way to unbind our werewolf sides... we'll finally be un-cursed. A requirement is the moonstone." Tori admitted. Glen offered a weak smile, "I know this is something you've always struggled with... but is there a catch?" He asked.

"In order to unbind our werewolf sides from the spell, we need to do this ritual during a full moon." Tori explained. "Creepy. Will anybody get hurt?" Glen questioned as Tori seemed to think about it. People were going to get hurt, but Faith was going to bring them back. "No." Tori answered.

The pair fell silent again, as they kept walking. The silence felt uncomfortable, perhaps because they weren't working together to stay alive for the first time since being whisked away into this game... and the reality remained; they were exes who had spoken amicably once since their breakup.

"This is uncomfortable... too uncomfortable to be honest..." Tori stated the obvious. "Do we need to... talk about what happened?" She then asked as Glen replied, "What is there to talk about? You've already taken accountability and apologised and I said I appreciated that but needed time... to me, we already talked about what happened."

"I know it's just... this uncomfortable feeling in the air makes me feel like you're still mad... and if you hate me that is fine but I'd rather just know that's how you feel." Victoria spoke in one breath. "I don't hate you." Glen suddenly replied. "It's actually quite impossible to hate you or even dislike you... and I'm not mad anymore... it's just weird." He continued. "I don't think being stuck in some evil game with an ex was on either of our bingo cards." He added as Tori agreed.

Glen suddenly stopped, hearing the sound of something whizzing through the air. His eyes widened, "Tori, duck." He insisted. "Where?" Tori answered instantly causing the Forde to sigh before he reached out to place his hands on her shoulders before pulling them both to the ground. Looking up, the pair watched as an arrow had missed them and hit a tree.

The pair slowly stood up after a moment and looked around, hoping that they were all clear and that no more arrows would fire. Glen then took his hands off of Tori's shoulders, "Sorry." He quickly said before he realised, "I said duck and your response was where? Seriously?" Glen asked, seeming lost for words. Tori just sighed with embarrassment, "I thought you were talking about the animal..."

They then continued to walk, as Tori again felt uncomfortable by the silence. "Well... I now have another question..." She spoke up. "Ask away." Glen replied, as he was focused on avoiding a trap on the ground.

"Do you... think there is any chance of us becoming friends?" Victoria carefully asked, as Glen stopped, "No, I don't." He answered a little bluntly, before he could think too much about it... because if he were to think about it and be honest with himself, he did want to be friends... but he was reluctant to trust her again. Tori seemed a little hurt, but she understood. "Okay... at least you're honest about it."

As they kept walking, Glen could tell Victoria was disheartened by his answer, which made him curious. "Why is it that you'd want to be friends? We weren't friends before, why now?" The Forde questioned as Tori opened her mouth to speak, but the words seemed to be stuck. Because even though everything is different now, you're still somebody I want in my life, is what she wanted to say, if her brain would allow her to. "I just..." Glen tried to talk also, feeling like words suddenly weren't working for him either, as he knew in his head what he wanted to say but he had no idea how to put it into words.

Tori blinked in confusion for a moment, her attention suddenly being elsewhere, as she could hear the whizzing sound of another arrow flying through the air. Without thinking, she moved towards Glen to push him and herself out of the arrow's path, though without her enhanced speed she didn't get quite as far as she'd hoped, as the arrow pierced through her side.

The Forde's eyes widened at the realisation that he was only seconds away from being impaled by the arrow and on the other hand, Tori had been impaled instead. Her eyes widened and she exhaled shakily, before she tried to keep herself from screaming as a violent stinging pain took over her wound.

"Oh my god, Tori—" Glen exhaled, processing very quickly what had just occurred. "The arrow is burning me." Tori spoke quickly and through gritted teeth, as she kept trying to touch the arrow herself, only for her hands to burn. "I got it, hold still." Glen insisted, as he took hold of the back of the arrow before essentially ripping it out of her lower ribcage. Tori felt like her breathing relaxed when she realised vervain wasn't burning her alive anymore, but then the bleeding started.

Glen dropped the arrow before he looked back at the wound on the hybrid. His face paled when he noticed how much it was bleeding, but he was moreso concerned that it wasn't healing. "It's not healing." He blurted out, as Tori looked down at the wound before she sighed anxiously, "This place really let me keep my vampire weaknesses but not my strengths... that's so lame..." She managed to complain, as she went to move but instead stumbled.

The Forde reached out to catch the girl before she could trip. Nervously he looked around, spotting the silhouette of the Mystic Falls hospital in the near distance. "We're taking a detour to the hospital." He decided as Tori responded, "I didn't think it was possible to bleed to death twice." Glen replied, "You're not going to die here."

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Lizzie found herself in the town square, having just hung out with Corentin. The two had planned to look at some stores, before the Claire went back to the Salvatore school as he had to meet up with Dante.

Now alone, the Saltzman was debating on heading back herself, until she realised she saw Hope. She did a double take upon spotting the girl and decided she may as well update her on the spell situation. "Hope!" Lizzie called out, though the auburn haired girl didn't answer as she continued to walk down a side street.

Lizzie sighed to herself before she rushed after the Mikaelson, as she headed down the same side street. Eventually upon reaching her, Lizzie complained, "Hope, slow down?"

The tribrid turned to face her, and Lizzie paused for a moment to compose herself before she began to explain, "I talked to Clary about that spell we were talking about the other day..." The siphon witch trailed off. "You're not Hope." Lizzie quickly realised. Faith's lip curved into a smug smile, "You're right, I'm not her. I'm much scarier." The girl confessed, as Lizzie took a step back as Faith took a step towards her. "But please... tell me about this spell."

"That's actually none of your business, and will remain to be none of your business." Lizzie decided as Faith shrugged, "Well... you can at least serve one purpose for me." Faith decided, before veins popped out from under her eyes. She lurched forward and grabbed ahold of Lizzie, and elongated her fangs before sinking them into the Saltzman's neck.

At first, Lizzie was frozen in shock, but quickly she snapped out of it and realised if this girl was infact the evil twin that Hope suspected she was, she needed to be prepared to fight. The Saltzman went to place her hands on Faith's to siphon from her, but as though the Mikaelson could suspect what she was doing, she pulled away from Lizzie and suddenly shoved her, using her super strength.

"Yeah I don't think so... I know enough about you Gemini witches to know not to let one touch me." Faith spoke harshly as Lizzie got back onto her feet. "You're not getting anything out of me." She declared, not willing to give her any answers. "And you won't be using me as food again." The Saltzman grumbled, as she lifted her hand to her neck, feeling the bleeding bite mark that still remained.

"I actually didn't want anything from you... but now that I realise you know Hope... I have questions." Faith spoke, "Come with me, if you want to live." She ordered as Lizzie exhaled, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She demanded. "That means if you don't follow me, I will kill you. I could quite literally snap your neck in an instant... is that something you'd like?" Lizzie kept her glare on Faith, as she took a step towards her to insinuate that she was going to follow her.

Moments later, the pair were seated in a booth at the Grill. Faith had issued a glamour, so that nobody could see what was really going on within the space of the particular booth incase Faith was to attack Lizzie, but also she had a glamour so that the bite on Lizzie's neck was hidden.

Behind the bar, stood a confused Finch. The werewolf had watched Lizzie and who she thought was Hope, enter the restaurant and when Finch greeted them, Hope hadn't said hello.

The Tarrayo looked around before she pulled out her phone to message Stella, "Is Hope in a bad mood today? I just said hello to her and she completely ignored me." Moments later Stella replied, "She seemed fine when I saw her this morning? Also I'm ten mins away from the Grill." Finch quickly replied, "See you soon." before she placed her phone away.

The ravenette then glanced back over at the table where Faith and Lizzie sat, deciding to keep an eye on them as something definitely seemed unusual.

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AUTHORS NOTE

Okay hi I wasn't expecting to update for a while bc I have assignment deadlines coming up, but I have also been pretty sick lately and weirdly it gave me the time to write???

I've been SO hyped to write Clary as a dark witch, and it's finally happening 😌

Also... I love watching Charlie (and Liv) become more savage with every update

And!!! Perhaps this is the start of Tori and Glen's exes to friends era... where they just constantly roast eachother bc they know too much 😭