'we're being punked, Pedro'

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Georgie tied her long black hair back with a hair tie as she stepped off the bus, already feeling the heat from the late summer sun blasting against her neck. She craned her neck which was stiff from the bus journey, where she had blissfully ignored everyone else and stared out the window the entire time.

"So, what did you do? My dad never gets mad at you. You're the prodigal daughter. Must have been juicy," Lizzie asked Hope, purposely pestering her for some shred of gossip that she could use to entertain herself throughout the day. Georgie was standing next to Lizzie, but it was clear to them all that she wasn't interested in the conversation at all.

"Sorry. No time for girl talk. Public service awaits," Hope replied, knowing that if she told Lizzie before she told Georgie that the Lockwood girl might literally never speak to her again, and as much as she loved having her single room she didn't want to lose what was maybe her only proper friend.

"All right, listen up!" Dorian shouted, making them all gather around him as he held buckets of water and litter picking tools. "It's a beautiful day. You got options-- litter, weeds, graffiti! Your choice."

Kaleb accepted the litter picking that Dorian passed to him, but instantly tried to pass it to Lizzie as soon as the man walked away from the group. Georgie knew that the last thing she wanted to be doing was picking up trash.

"It's bad enough we get punished while the humans get a pass, but there ain't no way in hell I'm picking up their garbage," Kaleb explained as he continued trying to make Lizzie take the tool from him, but the blonde wasn't having it at all.

"Uh, I don't do trash either," she told him, holding up her hands and taking a step away from him in disgust. Kaleb rolled his eyes, but grinned as Hope snatched the tool from him hearing that Lizzie was not going to be on trash duty at all.

"I love trash...As of this moment," she said as she turned away and began to move away from them all. Josie shared a look with Georgie but she was surprised to see the hybrid was sending a glare in the direction of Hope similar to Lizzie's look too.

"Perf. It suits you," Lizzie snarked before turning to look at Josie. "Looks like we're scrubbing paint today."

"Dad told us to work together, okay? Harmoniously," Josie informed her, causing Lizzie and Georgie both to scoff slightly at her words. Georgie thought it was rather funny seeing that after one compliment Josie was now willing to suddenly be Hope's friend even though she had been asking the girl to be her friend since she had discovered that Hope was her roommate.

"Yeah, and he also said without drama, and I am feeling a rage attack coming on, so I will be remaining drama-free over by that wall of graffiti. Are you coming or not?"

"I don't know, Lizzie-- is there another bus you want to throw me under?" Josie snapped back, her arms crossed as she sent a slightly annoyed glance towards Georgie who wasn't defending her at all like she expected her to.

"Fine, Daddy's girls. Anyone else?"

All of the students began to move into their respective roles as Lizzie rounded up Kaleb and MG to help her with scrubbing off the graffiti from the walls of the buildings. Hope turned to look at Georgie with a raised eyebrow, almost asking the girl if she was coming with them.

Georgie took one look at Hope and Josie before shaking her head and turning on her heel, following Lizzie as they went to clean graffiti. She knew that if she looked back she would see the disappointment on their faces, so she didn't. She didn't know that if she had, she would have seen the sadness on both of the girl's faces.

____

"I'm sorry but how do they rank higher than our school in average SAT scores when they can't even spell loser right?" Georgie asked as she scrubbed some of the purple spray paint off the building. 'Salvatore is 4 loosers' was sprawled across the side, and MG and her were the only ones even attempting to wash it off.

"Come on MG, any slower and you're be going in reverse," Lizzie said, not wanting to anger Georgie especially since she had noticed how angry she already had seemed the entire day without anything seemingly big having happened.

"Look, I'm doing the best I can without vamping in public," MG replied, while the other three all shared a condescending look before looking back to how slow he was going at it.

"That's just plain pitiful, bruh," Kaleb told him as he watched, making Lizzie turn to look at the other vampire in sheer annoyance.

"Well, at least he's trying. I don't see you pitching in."

Georgie had the urge to point out that she also wasn't doing much to help, but she bit her tongue and told herself to not get annoyed at another person. Her list was growing with every minute as MG and Kaleb had now just been added to it, and she knew she didn't want to be angry at the entire school.

"'Cause this whole thing's whack," Kaleb replied with an eyeball as he threw his hands up in annoyance. "What, we get punished for wanting to win a game fair and square?"

"It wasn't fair. We're supernatural, they're human," MG interrupted the boy, knowing exactly his views on the supernatural vs human hierarchy debate. Kaleb had been displaying a little bit of chaotic behaviour around humans recently and MG was hoping that he was the only one who had noticed it.

"And Lebron's maybe the best player ever. Should he quit scoring because no one on the court can check him? We're faster, we're stronger... We're better. And we ain't got nothing to apologize for. Nothing."

Just before Georgie could go to argue back, having not agreed with his point of view at all, she smelt a familiar scent waft towards them and she instantly threw the sponge in her hand down into the bucket at her feet as she turned to look in the direction of the group of teenagers walking towards them.

Connor, Dana, the dreaded number 17 boy and a few more of the Timberwolves team were walking towards them. The boy that Georgie recognised by the overwhelming smell of cologne wasn't wearing his signature number 17 jersey but he was wearing that disgusting smirk as he looked her up and down.

"Wow, so she even looks good in sweatshirts and plaid skirts," he teased, sending her a wink as she almost felt the bile coming up her throat. Kaleb immediately felt uncomfortable with how the boy was looking at Georgie and positioned himself slightly in front of the girl and blocking her from his view. Georgie's eyebrows shot up at the action, making a mental note to take Kaleb's name off the list of people that she was annoyed at.

"Hypothetical question..." Connor asked them all as Lizzie turned around and started to walk away from the group of teenagers. "How bad would it suck if whoever did this graffiti just came back tonight and put it right back up again?"

Dana made a small cooing noise of agreement as the rest of their group laughed at the supernatural teens, Georgie rolling her eyes while slightly feeling proud of herself for not letting herself get angry at their taunts. Her anger issues were certainly coming along a lot better with the counselling that Emma had been giving her and this was one of those situations where she was glad about it.

"Well, whoever it is, I hope he improves his spelling," Lizzie snarked back, making the Mystic Fall's gang immediately drop their smiles and scowl at her.

"Hey MG," Dana suddenly said, making both Georgie and Lizzie scoff at her attempt to wind the blonde up by going after her friends. MG looked surprised at being addressed, but he almost looked pleased to be noticed too.

"Dana, what's good?" He replied, trying to act cool as Lizzie's jaw dropped in shock and offence that MG was being so friendly with the girl that had literally punched her in the face the day before. Georgie huffed slightly, crossing her arms as she rolled her eyes at his actions.

"Uh, he's busy, Dana."

"Um, he can speak for himself, Saltzman."

"You know what," MG started, ignoring Lizzie and Georgie's offence as he turned to look at Dana. "I was just getting ready to grab a break."

Before any of them could process the betrayal of MG that they had just witnessed, Connor had thrown the top of the cup in his hands to the ground and poured the entire contents of the strawberry milkshake all over Lizzie.

"That's my bad. My bad."

All of the Mystic Fall's gang laughed loudly at Lizzie who looked enraged and almost close to tears as she stormed away from the scene. Georgie sent them all a glare as she stormed away, hot on Lizzie's trail as she tried to reach her friend to comfort her.

Their walk home was mostly silent, other than the occasional rant from Lizzie's lips. Georgie knew that the girl would much prefer if she was silent and didn't distract her from her mood, instead just choosing to be there incase she needed her. Besides, she was kinda glad for an excuse to get out of community service and this seemed like a decent one.

Georgie waved to Pedro as they entered the school grounds, noticing he was tending to some of the herbs in the garden and wished that she had been able to do that today instead of having to put up with the community service drama.

"Lizzie, you, uh..." Pedro started, trailing off as he noticed the rage in the blonde's eyes as she looked at him in complete fury. The pink milkshake was drying into her skin and clothes now and Georgie shook her head at Pedro, telling him to not bother.

"Choose your next words carefully, Pedro," Lizzie snarled as she stormed into the school and past the boy, Georgie hanging back to talk to the young witch. He seemed to almost move away from the Saltzman as she moved by him, making Georgie smile warmly at him as she crouched down to his height.

"Do you want some help? I love tending to plants," she murmured softly and watched as his face broke out into a huge grin. She knew a lot of the younger kids were scared of her but it was nice to see that they weren't holding her previous bursts of anger against her as they welcomed her into their gardening session with open arms.

Pedro and Georgie continued to work silently beside each other, the young witch showing Georgie a little magic they had been working on when tending to the garden. The girl would never get fed up of the incredible things that magic allowed people to do, and she sometimes wished that it had been magic she had been gifted with instead of vampirism when it came to her hybrid qualities - especially as she and Hope had deducted that they wouldn't probably benefit from the vampirism blood they had in them until they died which Georgie had no intentions of doing any time soon.

She and Pedro both looked up as Lizzie dramatically threw herself on to one of the stone seats just slightly along from them, and Georgie furrowed her eyebrows as she realised that the blonde had no intention of helping them even though that was clearly what her father had sent the Saltzman out to do.

"Aren't you supposed to help?" Pedro asked her, causing the blonde to let out a deep, exhausted sigh before she sat up from the stone seat to look at the younger witch and the hybrid that now stood just beside him.

"Consider this a life lesson, Pedro. People disappoint," Lizzie said, her eyes briefly flickering over Georgie as the hybrid realised that while Josie might have forgiven her for kissing Penelope, it was clear that Lizzie hadn't quite gotten over that betrayal just yet.

Just as Georgie opened her mouth to say something to Lizzie about how she didn't need to take it out on the younger kids, her and Pedro's eyes both widened in fear as they noticed a large gargoyle statue suddenly grind and move closer towards them.

"...That statue just moved!" Pedro exclaimed, his hand reaching out and grasping on to Georgie's hand as the girl reached her arm out and pulled the boy behind him in a protective manner. Lizzie furrowed her eyebrows at them both before spinning around and noticing the gargoyle statue was standing a few feet away in a bush. With another roll of her eyes, the blonde spun back to face them and sniggered slightly at how scared of a stupid statue they both were.

"Good one," Lizzie told them before returning back to what had gotten her upset all day. "I mean, I deserve to know what's happening just as much as Hope! I'm his freaking daughter"

Georgie's eyes flickered gold for a second as she watched the gargoyle move again, this time stopping Lizzie's rank and continuing what Pedro had been trying to warn them both about only seconds before.

"It's doing it again, Lizzie!" Georgie exclaimed, the blonde clearly confused at seeing the slight gold glimmer in Georgie's eyes; especially after how she had been able to control herself only the night before.

"We're being punked, Pedro," Lizzie told the younger boy as she noticed the statue had only moved towards them slightly. Turning to look at Georgie, she shrugged as she tried to give the girl an explanation as she knew that she hadn't seen much magic in her life unlike a lot of them at the school. "The sixth grade witches are learning illusion spells this semester."

"It's.... It's... It's..." Pedro trailed off as Lizzie snapped over him and interrupted him.

"Let me guess... it's right behind me?"

Georgie's grip tightened on Pedro as Lizzie spun around, both of them gasping as the gargoyle statue had seemingly now disappeared. A tight squeeze on Georige's arm alerted her attention to the boy that was behind her, spinning around and letting out a scream as they both noticed the gargoyle's eyes were now glowing a bright red and it was roaring in their faces.

The trio all stared to back up as the gargoyle began to move towards them, its long concrete sword aimed directly at them. Georgie pushed Pedro ahead as Lizzie grabbed his hand, the three beginning to run towards the school while the gargoyle chased after them.

"Get inside, Pedro!" Lizzie yelled, motioning for the boy to go in ahead of her and Georgie. Georgie was slightly behind the other two as they made it into the entrance of the school, currently trying to weigh up whether or not she had enough control on her wolf tendencies to try and take on the gargoyle and give Lizzie time to round everyone up.

As Georgie turned back towards the door with the intent of doing something incredibly reckless as always, she heard Lizzie ask Pedro for his hand. Georgie's eyes glowed their yellow hue as she waited for the gargoyle to burst in, feeling the familiar tingle in her bones as Lizzie came to stand beside her.

Just before the statue could burst in, Lizzie turned to look at Georgie and held her palm out towards the girl. Georgie raised an eyebrow in confusion, causing Lizzie to roll her eyes and grab on to Georgie's hand for a moment. The hybrid raised her eyebrows in surprise as their connected hands glowed red, instantly feeling a little more tired as Lizzie seemed to take a breath of surprise. 

Before Georgie could ask her any questions, the doors to the hall slammed open and the gargoyle stood menacingly.

"Imperium monstrum!" Lizzie yelled out, disconnecting her hand from Georgie as she flung her arms in a circular motion. Whatever she was doing didn't seem to help either of them that much as the next thing Georgie knew, she was being flung across the room and smacked her head on the edge of one of the painted photos in the hall, causing her to instantly black out.

The gargoyle turned back to Lizzie, raising a clawed hand and lunging at her before everything went dark for the blonde twin too.

____

"Georgie!" Josie exclaimed, sliding to her knees as she noticed the girl was lying on the ground with a trickle of blood pouring down the side of her face. Alaric almost cursed himself for not having noticed the other girl in the entrance when he had found Lizzie, thinking about how careless it was for him to not have checked with Pedro if it was only Lizzie that he had been with - especially when he knew Georgie had been helping in the garden.

Almost as soon as Josie's hand touched her, Georgie shot up with a gasp of breath and smacking her forehead against the witch's own. Both girls groaned in pain as Hope tried to surprise a snicker, knowing that there was a serious issue on their hands. Alaric helped both of the girls back up to their feet as he passed Josie back the axe that she had previously taken from himself, clutching his own weapon in his hands.

"Emma? Emma?" Alaric called out softly as he lead the three girls towards the back room of the boarding school, Georgie and Hope already able to sense out the rest of the hiding school due to their enhanced senses. They all jumped slightly as the doors slid open, with the guidance councillor raising a finger to her lips as she stared at the quartet.

Just as the others went to ask why she had told them to be quiet, Georgie and Hope heard the stomping noise of the gargoyle from behind them. They both spun around, gulping as the statue spread its large concrete wings and let out a loud growl which in turn caused Josie and Alaric to also turn to face it in surprise.

Hope lunged for the gargoyle as soon as it landed, Georgie letting a small shout fall from her lips in protest as she realised that they weren't going to be able to take on the gargoyle without working together. Watching as Hope scrambled slightly after dodging the blade of the gargoyle, she instantly felt like things were moving in slow motion as she watched Alaric rush in front of the tribid as the gargoyle began to lower its knife.

"No, Dad!" Josie yelled out, the pain and despair in her tone instantly setting Georgie into action. Not realising the gargoyle had paused in its actions once it realised that Alaric had stepped in its line of attack, Georgie shoved the school principal to the side. Alaric let out a groan as he hit the floor, looking back up at where he had been standing to see Georgie snarling at the creature. 

Just as the gargoyle returned to snarling and lifted its arm to attack Georgie with the knife, Josie came to the Lockwood's rescue and swung her axe without hesitation straight into the wing of the creature and causing rubble to go flying as it broke off.

The gargoyle then decided to turn to face Josie, raising his knife in preparation to stab her only for Alaric to hack at its wings with his own axe, mimicking what Josie had just done before him. This caused another piece of its wing to fall off, and it let out a large roar that Georgie could only say she imagined was a scream of anguish and pain.

"Fluctus impulsa!" Hope yelled from behind Georgie, causing the knife to go flying away from them all. As Hope looked down at her hands for a brief moment, she turned to quickly look at Josie with a better idea: if magic was how they'd defeat this monster, the more magic the better. "Josie, help me!"

"How?"

"Just repeat after me," Hope told her as she ran over and grabbed on to Hope's outstretched hand, the red glow of her siphoning abilities instantly appearing. There was a brief pause before Josie looked at Georgie, motioning for the girl to also place her hand on top of Hope's enclosed one.

Georgie watched as the red glow from Josie's hand only grew brighter once hers was added into the mix, the two girls now chanting a spell as they began to immobilise the gargoyle. Just as it started to begin to break free of the spell that they were placing on it, it suddenly exploded into hundreds of pieces of stone causing everyone to duck slightly to avoid getting hit in the face with it.

"Nice job!" Hope said to Josie after a short pause, a smile on her face as she thought about what they had both just achieved. Georgie wasn't smiling at any of them, her finger touching the dried blood on her forehead and wincing slightly as she felt the cut starting to stitch itself up due to her enhanced wolf healing.

"How could you jump in front of her like that?" Josie suddenly yelled at Alaric, turning to look at him in utter disbelief. "You could have died, Dad!"

The silence between them all grew uncomfortable as Alaric tried to explain to Josie why he had done that, while Josie also shot a soft glare towards Georgie who had also jumped in front of not only Hope but also her father during his reckless decision.

"Honey, I knew it wouldn't kill me because my research said so—"

He trailed off as Josie stormed away, turning to look at Hope and Georgie who both remained silent as they watched her go. Georgie didn't know what to say - but she knew exactly why she had jumped in front of them both and she knew that she would do it again.

She was protecting her friends. She'd always protect her friends.