chapter 7

'this is the part where you run' 

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Georgie wasn't sure how time had passed so quickly since she had first been admitted to the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted but the summer break was finally over and they would begin their first day of term in the following day. She hadn't ever been to a school with other pupils, having always been homeschooled by Professor Tyers as he attempted to limit her contact with anything that could trigger her werewolf gene - something she now considered ironic as it had been his own death that caused it.

She hadn't been out in her wolf form that often since her accidental outburst half-way through the summer, but she certainly had developed a much better control. They'd only had one or two accidental shifts since then and her anger issues had significantly improved - albeit not aided by the early return of Penelope Park earlier on in the month who had seemingly made it her mission to annoy Josie by constantly trying to talk to Georgie in a flirtatious matter.

Surprising them all, Georgie had known what the girl was attempting to do. Lizzie had bluntly asked her if she even knew what dating and flirting were, to which Georgie had simply rolled her eyes and said she was home-schooled, not amish. Josie wasn't entirely sure if that was a politically correct thing to say but she didn't interrupt the girl who was clearly feeling proud of herself for being flirted with.

Starting from that point, Lizzie and MG had been making it their secret mission to find out more about Georgie's dating preferences - if she even had any - to see if their friend would have any chance if she decided to try and act upon the crush she had been harbouring almost since the moment her eyes first laid on the Lockwood heir. So far, they hadn't really discovered anything other than the fact she wasn't wanting anything from Penelope Park - which narrowed down nothing.

Their biggest part of the plan? Just leaving Josie and Georgie to their own time, aka Lizzie dramatically telling Josie that Georgie desperately needed their school's dress code explained to her after Georgie had asked Lizzie if she had to wear plaid all of the time.

"So the proper dress code is pretty much anything that has the school logo on it," Josie explained, looking through the school clothing that Hope had leant Georgie until she got some of her own. The biggest issue the two girls were finding was that Georige had pretty different tastes in clothing to Hope, meaning that they weren't finding that much that the Lockwood was excited to wear. She'd easily agreed to wear the plaid skirt that most of the students chose to wear albeit not mandatory, but it was finding something for her to wear with it that was proving rather difficult.

"Do we have time to be doing a fashion show right now?" Georgie asked, clearly not feeling the urge to go through every article of clothing in the cupboard until she found something she was in love with. "I thought classes started at nine?"

Josie rolled her eyes at the hybrid as she pulled out a plain shirt while holding a black Salvatore branded sweater next to it. She eyed up Georige before throwing it at her, turning around to show that she was waiting on the girl to get changed into the outfit she had picked out. Georgie huffed in disbelief before quickly changing into the uniform, looking at herself in the floor length mirror Hope kept in their room.

Georgie moved to stand beside Josie, her hand lightly touching the other girl's arm as she turned her around to give her seal of approval for the outfit she had picked out. Josie blushed slightly as she jumped at how closely the girl was standing to her, both of them pausing for a moment before Hope's cough from across the room caused both of the girls to remember what they were doing.

"Sorry, I forgot my books," Hope said, eyeing them confusedly before turning to leave her and Georige's shared room. "Also, class starts in five minutes."

All worries about clothing faded from Georgie's mind as she took a deep breath. Her first day at a proper school, and all she had to do was not mess it up.

____

When Hope had told her at the start of the night that she was going with Alaric to recruit a freshly triggered werewolf, Georgie was sure she was going to lose her mind. It was no secret to any of her friends that the sounds of the werewolf pack from the underground cellars made her uncomfortable on full moons, and she knew that this full moon wouldn't have been any different.

For obvious reasons - aka her significant lack of control and experience - Georgie wasn't allowed to accompany them. She hadn't put up any argument at Hope telling her that it would just be the girl and Alaric going, although she knew that Josie and Lizzie wouldn't be pleased to hear their dad was taking her on another secret mission yet again. In hindsight, she maybe should have voiced her concerns about the full moon to Hope before she left but it completely had slipped her mind at first.

She made it to 3am before it became too much. The vampires all had soundproofed rooms so that every full moon they wouldn't hear the wolves howling, and apparently Hope despite being a tribrid didn't inherit the enhanced hearing the way that the hybrid had and therefore had no need to soundproof her own room. The howls and whimpers of the wolves crashing against their cellar doors was making her own wolf act up, and she was feeling her control fade with every minute.

Knowing that the last thing anyone needed was her having another shifting episode especially with Hope and Alaric out on business, Georgie only had one option. Sliding her feet into a pair of fluffy sliders that Caroline had bought for her during the summer, the girl trudged down the hall to try and see if she could find the one person she somehow had a gut feeling would be able to calm her down.

Knocking on the door, she heard a loud groan from inside while feet sluggishly shuffled towards her. Georgie smiled sheepishly as it was flung open to reveal an angry Lizzie Saltzman who she could see was literally siphoning magic from the door to warn whoever had woken her to go away. Her eyes softened as she saw Georgie's slight tremble, reaching out to pull her friend into a hug as she saw the slight flicker of colour in her eyes as she tried to keep herself in control.

As soon as Lizzie lead her into the room, Josie sat up rubbing her eyes in confusion as to what was happening. Her mouth dropped slightly as she saw the dark haired girl standing in their room, her hands wringing themselves together as she tried to keep herself calm. Without saying a single word, Josie pulled back her covers and motioned for Georgie to climb into the bed with her, knowing that the best thing for the girl was to just be held.

Lizzie climbed back into her own bed, a smile on her face as she watched Georgie almost instantly fall asleep as Josie stroked her hair. Her twin had always had little luck in terms of love and relationships, and it was starting to seem like things were looking up for her.

___

The next day, Hope had almost panicked when they arrived back from their mission to hear from Emma that Georgie had had a rough night, having had to resort to sleeping with the twins. The guidance teacher had almost sent the school into a panicked lockdown when Georgie hadn't turned up for her pre-school meeting and wasn't anywhere to be found in her room. Thankfully, the Lockwood had appeared with Josie Saltzman from the young girl's room just before Emma raised the alarm.

Hope had sighed in relief once hearing that Georgie had made it through the night without freaking out, albeit disappointed in herself for not thinking about the girl before she had accepted Alaric's request to go rescue their newest recruit, Rafael Waithe. Besides, Alaric had came up with the genius idea to keep Georgie occupied by allocating her as one of his tour guides, despite the fact she had literally only learnt where everything was the day prior.

"Welcome to the Salvatore School. We're your tour guides," Lizzie told Rafael as they all stood in the foyer of the school, the two teenage boys looking at the three new faces in front of them in confusion.

"I'm Josie," the other twin said, smiling gently at them both.

"I'm Lizzie. Sisters."

"Twins."

"Fraternal, obvs," Lizzie finished, causing Rafael to continue to blink at them in confusion. Georgie stayed silent until Josie nudged her gently, motioning for the girl to introduce herself to the werewolf.

"I'm Georgie," she said, causing him to turn to look at her as he hadn't even noticed the girl standing awkwardly beside the twins. "Not related."

Alaric smiled at her attempt to try and be nice, knowing that the girl was still finding it hard to acclimatise herself into the social skills that all of her peers - with the exception of Hope - seemed to excel in. "Rafael, why don't you go ahead with the girls while I talk to Landon?"

As Lizzie linked her arm through Rafael's, Josie linked her arm through Georgie's. Everyone all seemed to look at the action for a slight moment longer than necessary causing Josie to blush slightly. Hope raised an eyebrow, thinking back to when she seemingly interrupted them having a moment the morning prior while Alaric started turning wheels in his head.

"Morning, Hope," Josie and Lizzie spoke sarcastically at the same time as they cast a quick glance to Hope, causing Hope and Georgie to roll their eyes at the fakeness of it.

"Morning, girls," Hope replied, Alaric grimacing as he witnessed the unwelcoming welcome folk out in front of him. Landon looked between them all, his eyes focusing on Georgie for a moment before turning back to look at Hope.

"More like despair," Lizzie muttered to Rafael as the four of them all began to walk away, Georgie even having to hide a smile at Lizzie's good play on words before Hope answered back.

"I heard that."

"No, you didn't."

"Didn't have to."

Georige and Alaric shared exasperated looks before the man rolled his eyes deeply at the cat fight that they were witnessing. "Everyone, behave."

Josie and Lizzie smiled over their shoulders as they dragged Rafael and Georgie away, ready to take the duo on the best tour of their lives (even if they had given Georgie a smaller one the day before). "Love you, Dad!"

_

They were almost five minutes into their tour before Lizzie and Josie started actually telling Rafael about the school that was now his new home. Georgie had stayed mostly silent and Rafael couldn't help but feel weary around the girl from the sheer way the entire student body seemed to almost fear her.

"Everybody gets along with everybody here, for the most part," Josie told him, her arm still looped with Georgie's. The Lockwood girl nodded in agreement, knowing that there were only a few exceptions to that.

"The wolves are pretty cliquey. They like to hang with their own," Lizzie admitted, casting Georgie a quick side glance before she turned to look at Josie for the girl to continue.

"In defiance of the school's commitment to inclusiveness."

"That is why we volunteered to be your tour guides-- to give you a good witch-welcome before your hairier brethren corrupt you," Lizzie continued from Josie, knowing that Georgie wasn't entirely comfortable with what would inevitably happen to Rafael even though she knew it was in his nature. 

She kept her mouth shut as they arrived at the Chemistry of Magic class, all of the witches inside watching Dorian move around the room as he explained the need for correct pronunciation when casting spells.

"That's our librarian, Mr. Williams. He's subbing for our Chemistry of Magic teacher, who accidentally incinerated himself last week in hellfire," Josie explained, knowing that the teacher hadn't even made it to the start of the school year.

"Burned all the hair off his body, but didn't leave a scar," Lizzie admitted, her eyes lighting up as they all paused to watch what was happening in the class. Georgie looked in the room, her eyes meeting with Penelope Park who winked at her, Josie subconsciously tightening her grip on the hybrids arm in annoyance.

"Now, this language has been carefully crafted over centuries. So, you may think you can play fast and loose with the syllables, but you'd be very wrong about that. Because otherwise, a love charm becomes a what?" Dorian asked the class, noticing how Penelope was seemingly distracted by the girls and Rafael standing outside. "Penelope, show us."

"She who shall not be named," Lizzie muttered in disgust, Rafael looking between the twins and Georgie in confusion - especially as they had just said that almost everyone got along.

"Talking about her gives her power," Josie murmured softer, Georgie and Rafael both managing to pick up on the slight hurt that rested in her voice. Georgie knew that Josie was still upset about their relationship ending, and she moved her hand so that it slipped into the Saltzman as she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Josie's evil ex."

Penelope almost seemed to hear their conversation about her, turning backwards in her seat to make eye contact with them all again. She winked playfully at Josie before sending a more flirtatious wink towards Georgie who almost seemed to blanch at the concept. They all watched as Penelope started to cast the spell, a smug look on her face before it accidentally turned into a stink spell.

The four of them scrunched up their noses in disgust before Lizzie motioned for them to move on with their tour.

"Come on. We'll show you the turret. It's where all the seniors go to smoke," Lizzie told him, a slight grin forming on Georgie's face as she thought about what the seniors would be doing.

"What do they smoke? Eye of newt?" He asked, rolling his eyes as he tried to take in everything that was happening in the past twenty four hours.

All three girls laughed lightly before Josie turned to Rafael with a small grin on her face. 

"Weed."

_

Georgie watched as Josie moved to go sit on the opposite stands with MG, the hybrid staying with the blonde twin as she watched with a slight twitch of jealously - not that she would admit that - as the vampire sat down beside the girl.

Rafael sat down beside Lizzie, leaving the blonde twin to be sandwiched in between himself and the hybrid. He wasn't sure what Georgie was, but he was assuming that the twins were some sort of witch from how they had spoke.

"I heard about your girlfriend," Lizzie spoke, casually changing the topic as Georgie tried to hide her internal groan, knowing that Lizzie was about to put her foot in it. She almost felt Rafael's sudden unease, casting him a quick glance as she felt herself get a little bit anxious at how he was going to take whatever she said next. "Oh, I have spies everywhere. I'm nosy in that, like, charming way...?"

"Thanks, I guess..." Rafael said, his eyes so intently focused on the wickery game that Georgie knew he was just trying to avoid looking at Lizzie. She felt herself tense up, unsure why she was feeling a little hot headed but she assumed it was from how she could see MG and Josie sitting closest together and whispering to each other.

"On the plus side, we're all happy to know that you're single!" Lizzie admitted, Georgie's stomach dropping as she noticed how Rafael's temper instantly flared at her words. "Oh, God. That was my "inside voice." I am so sorry. Guys like you make me nervous."

"Guys like me?"

"You know... Hot... Angry..." Lizzie began, Georgie knowing that this wasn't going to end well at all. "Damaged..."

"Yeah, well... I've sort of made a point in my life of, uh, keeping clear of girls like you," Rafael told her, his voice a little more mean that Georgie would have liked. She knew that Lizzie had crossed the line, but it upset her to see her blonde friend get up without another word and take off back towards the boarding school.

He turned to look at Georgie, his eyes flashing slightly yellow in anger from what Lizzie had just said to him. Georgie instantly knew this wasn't going to end well, her own wolf growling lowly from inside her chest as she flickered her own eyes yellow without thinking.

"Are all of you as bitchy as that?" He asked rudely, not actually meaning any harm but immediately upsetting Georgie. "I hope her sister isn't, she seems more approachable."

In hindsight, Georgie was sure that Rafael wasn't trying to hit on Josie at all in that moment, especially as he had just proven how clearly upset about the death of his girlfriend he still was. However, her wolf didn't see it that way - and his flashing yellow eyes had only sent huge warning signals to her.

As Rafael stood up, Georgie rose to her feet in anger too as she felt her gums ache slightly from where her wolf fangs were close to poking out through them. A few of the students around them looked over in their direction, their nerves starting to rise as they noticed Georgie's defensive stance.

"Don't go near Josie," Georgie growled out, Rafael furrowing his eyebrows in offence as he noticed how she was squaring up to him. He narrowed his eyes, taking a step closer to her as he towered above her - truly believing that he would be able to take her should she make the first punch.

MG's head shot to the side, his ears having picked up on the sudden raise in voice tempo from the other side of the bleachers. Josie looked at him in confusion before looking to where he was, noticing how Rafael had just shoved Georgie slightly away from him. MG and Kaleb shot into action immediately, whizzing in between the two wolfs and holding them both back from each other as the game of wickery slowed to a halt at the confrontation going on.

Rafael calmed down instantly, feeling bad as soon as he realised that he had just shoved Georgie. Moving away from them all, he muttered an apology before saying he was going to go find Landon, taking off in the same direction as Lizzie had.

Georgie however wasn't as easy to calm down. Her breath was still laboured, Kaleb and MG not making it any better as her wolf side wanted to rip the vampires apart where they stood. Josie ran over, putting herself between the boys and the hybrid much to their disapproval as she placed her hands on the girl's face and forced her to look into her eyes.

"Hey, hey," Josie soothed her, watching as her eyes gradually returned back to their normal colour and her breathing slowed down. The rest of the student body turned back to their game of wickery as they noticed the threat had been adverted, while Kaleb and MG shared small smirks at the two girls in front of them.

"I'm here."

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