Chapter 1

Falling behind

"You think it's weird right?" Landon Kirby asked his best friend, Rafael, as they were making their way towards the cafeteria downstairs. "She shows up out of nowhere, plays football against us, then she snucks into our room on half-time to steal your clothes and do a locator spell?"

"Can't we just forget about last night?" Rafael asked frustrated. "I just want things to go back to normal… or as normal as things could get around here."

"It's just crazy! I mean, she's a werewolf AND a witch! I didn't know that was possible. I'll ask Dorian about it later."

"To be fair, a year ago you didn't know supernatural creatures even existed altogether." Rafael pointed out.

"Good point." Landon nodded. "D'you know we actually shared a milkshake the other day? She gave me relationship advice about Josie. Really helped me out."

"She gave you relationship advice?" Rafael asked, shocked. Never in a million years would he think that Hope Mikaelson would be giving Landon advice about a girl that wasn't her. "Hold up, JOSIE?! As in Josie SALTZMAN?!"

"Oh yeah! Forgot to tell you last night. It was kinda hectic."

"You're going out with her?!"

"Yeah, since this summer."

"I thought you were just hanging out! This is worse than I thought…"

"Why? What's the big deal." Landon asked, confused. "Do you like her or something?"

"What? No!" Rafael let out a small laugh. "It's good man. I'm uhh, happy that you found someone."

"Raf! 'Sup dude?" MG gave him a hug and a big smile as he ran into them. "Heard you turned human yesterday. Glad to have you back."

"Thanks MG, it's good to be back..."

"Things went way better than I expected last night." Alaric told Hope. They were both in his office, discussing the outcomes of the previous night.

"Really?!" Hope asked with disbelief. "Ethan's in the hospital with a broken arm because your psycho daughter went all crazy on him, not to mention the countless other students with black eyes."

"I meant with the shunka and Raf, sassy pants." Alaric chuckled. "Wait, how do you know it was Josie? It could've been anyone, and you weren't at the game anyway."

"Maya told me no one even touched him when it broke. Josie was the only witch on the team. Also, she was super aggressive yesterday. I think that freaky headmaster is brainwashing them."

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of his either." Alaric crossed his arms. "I don't get it, Caroline picked him out of a dozen applicants herself, this dosen't make any sense."

"Maybe she didn't." Hope said as she twirled in his chair.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe she didn't pick him. Maybe she picked someone else, the headmaster killed him and pretended to be him."

"You could be right. Weirder things have happened, I'll talk to Caroline later, it's 3am where she is now."

"Dr. Saltzman?" Hope spoke up after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?"

"Last night something weird happened that I wanna tell you."

"What?" Alaric asked worried.

Before Hope had a chance to answer the door to Alaric's office flew open and Sheriff Machado and her son, Ethan, came in.

"Mr. Saltzman I wanted to speak to you about- Oh!" She said surprised as she saw Hope, who stood up so fast she knocked over Alaric's chair. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Oh no, no." Hope said as she fumbled to pick up the chair. "I was just leaving. Hope your arm's feeling better Ethan. Bye!" She grabbed her backpack and ran out. As she walked out of the office she quickly bumped into Maya, who was standing just outside the door.

"Hey!" Maya greeted. "Just waiting for my mom and Ethan. What were you doing in there, did you get in trouble?"

"No, Mr. Saltzman just wanted to know, uhhhh, if I could play QB next game." Hope lied.

"Cool. Thanks for coming to check up on us last night by the way. I probably would've chewed my whole nails off if you hadn't showed up."

"You have absolutely nothing to thank me for. It was all my fault, if I just continued to play, he wouldn't have broken his arm."

"No it's not! It was a freak accident, it happens in football. He'll get over it."

"Sure will." Ethan said, as he sneaked up on them from behind with the sheriff.

"I'll see you kids after school." She waved at them as she walked off.

"So Hope..." Ethan said with a playful smirk. "My mom wants to know if you're screwing Mr. Saltzman."

"WHAT?!"

Rafael spent the whole day catching up with everyone. Everything felt entirely different from before he left. Everyone was basically bowing down to Landon now, Lizzie was being nice to him while Josie was being passive aggressive and he thought that the new headmaster was a complete whackjob.

"Man, I miss Dr. Saltzman." Rafael told the others while they were hanging out in the library.

"I know right? Dude's a legend." Kaleb added.

"I miss him being here too, but at least the new headmaster is nice." Josie shrugged from her seat next to Landon.

"You're kidding, right?" Rafael scoffed. "I've known him one day and I can already tell he's a freak who's up to something."

"What are you talking about? He's great! He let us use our powers at the game. Something we've never been able to do before." Josie argued.

"Yeah and look where that led you. You broke a kid's arm and started a riot."

"Dude, lay off." Landon defended her.

"Whatever, I'm going to bed." Rafael said and walked off towards the dorms.

At the end of the day, Hope managed to make up an excuse to Maya and go talk to Alaric. They met up at the parking lot and Alaric offered to give her a ride to the hotel she was staying in, giving them a chance to finish their conversation from earlier in privacy.

"You gonna tell me what happened last night or..?" Alaric asked.

"Just trying to find the words to explain it." Hope sighed. "Raf remembered me."

"Wait Raf, please don't go! I can help you! I need you… Landon needs you…"

Rafael walked over to Hope and stood in front of her. She kneeled down so they were face to face, she gently put both her hands on him, closed her eyes and whispered a quiet spell. Only a few seconds later Rafael, in human form, was laying in front of her on the cold, wet forest ground.

She quickly got the extra clothes she brought for him and covered him up.

"I thought… you were dead…" Rafael gasped out. Hope's eyes instantly flew wide open in shock and confusion.

"What are you talking about? Raf, do you know who I am?"

"'Course I do. I thought you were another monster at first impersonating you, because I thought you died when you didn't come back for me. Why wouldn't I know who you are?"

"You shouldn't have remembered me, Raf." Hope told him as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"You're not making any sense-" Rafael suddenly froze. " No… Tell me you didn't-"

"I had to! I didn't have a choice-"

"There's always a choice, Hope!" Rafael yelled. Just then, in the far distance Landon screamed, which interrupted their reunion. Hope quickly stood up and wiped off the tears from her face.

"You have to promise you won't tell anyone about me."

"What?!" Rafael stood up next to her. "I'm not pretending that I don't know you-"

"You have to, Raf! Please, just promise me."

"But i-"

"Rafael, Landon's in danger I need to go! Promise!"

"Okay, okay, I promise!"

A/N I really hope you liked the first chapter! I already have ideas for the next one, although it may take some time due to the fact that school's awful and I rarely have any free time anymore.