“Something’s wrong with you,” Jade noted of her best friend, skipping past the polite part of the conversation where she pretended like she thought Lizzie would confide in her on her own. “And don’t deny it. I can tell.”

It was true. The blonde siphoner had been holding back tears the entire time they’d been walking through the woods and ruining their shoes. It wasn’t like her to not be chatting away to make the hike less miserable. Something was up.

“Well, we are looking for clues in a teenage girl’s gruesome murder in the woods,” Lizzie said. She crossed her arms and pretended to study some trees in the other direction. For a minute, Jade thought that was all she was going to say, but Lizzie pulled through, anger building as she continued. “All in an effort to prove to my dad that I am just as much hero material as she-who-shall-not-be-named - she-who-shall-not-be-named who is getting suspiciously close to my dearest sister.”

“I thought you and Josie were fighting.” Jade stared at Lizzie in disbelief. There was no way Lizzie had forgiven her sister already. Not after how hard Jade had fought to get Lizzie to see something was wrong in the first place.

“That doesn’t mean I want Hope to do the same thing to her that she did to me,” Lizzie spat. “Hope Mikaelson is evil. Twin war or not, she needs to stay far away from Josie.”

Jade nodded silently, eyes glued to her feet.

“You’re not looking very hard for clues,” Lizzie quipped, much chattier now that she’d gotten that off her chest. 

“Maybe I’m just not that worried about finding Dana’s killer,” Jade said. She kicked at a rock. “Maybe I think whoever killed her did us all a favor.”

Lizzie’s lips parted in shock as she looked at her best friend. 

“Please.” Jade rolled her eyes. “She treated everyone like shit. You can’t pretend like she didn’t have it coming.”

Lizzie held her ground for what felt like a long, never-ending minute, and then she broke and smiled. “She was a bitch.”