The Recovery

Chapter 4

Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted

"I can't believe you went behind my back and got Caroline to approve these kids' transfer to our school in the middle of the semester on her vacation," Alaric said walking into Emma's office with the said kids' transfer files in hand.

"Good morning to you too, Mr Saltzman," Emma calmly replied putting down her cup of homemade tea. "What may I help you with?"

Alaric began to retort but paused to calm himself before responding.

"What's so special about these kids that you just had to make sure they get enrolled here and right now?" He questioned.

"They're young, gifted and supernatural," Emma answered. "Isn't that the basic criteria needed for children here?"

"Before the year and semester begin."

"I agreed to work here because Headmistress Forbes assured me that this school was opened to help kids like them and its doors would always be open to kids in need. These kids could use a school like this, and I was asked to help them, and I am going to help them."

"I understand, but nothing about their supernatural history is included in their transfer files," Alaric pointed out. "You know we've run into problems because of such details being left out, Miss Tig."

"I tried to explain their situation to you, but you were needed elsewhere and denied my request without hearing me out, Mr Saltzman."

Alaric recalled his daughter Josie interrupted their meeting to inform him that her fraternal twin sister Lizzie was having an episode and needed his attention and...

"I denied your request because the school is full, and you wanted the transfer to be done in the shortest period in the school's history."

"I didn't want it to be, they needed it to be," Emma corrected with emphasis on 'needed' and Alaric recalled that was what she said the other day. "If you have a moment before the assembly, I'll explain their situation so that you can understand."

Alaric checked his watch to see if he had a few minutes to spare before closing the office door and sat down.

"OK, I have a few minutes."

"Then I'll be as brief as I can be," Emma said before taking a sip of her tea and then asking for the transfer files. "I'm sure you've noted that Lydia Martin's grades are off the charts, and they're consistent while Scott McCall's were a little above average and promising until second-semester sophomore where they suffered significantly.

The thing is that Mr McCall was human until he was attacked by an Alpha werewolf around that time, and it bit and turned him into a werewolf."

"Really?" Alaric asked with a tone that said that he didn't believe her. "Werewolves are born, not bitten, Miss Tig. A bite can't turn a human into a werewolf, that's just a popular culture myth."

"You would be correct if we were talking about the kind of werewolves you're familiar with. The Hollow based her werewolf curse on an existing species, a species that dates back to the Golden Age of Gods and Goddesses, the Age of the Gods of Olympus who King Lycaon invited..."

"You're not serious. You want me to believe that Zeus existed along with Lycaon?"

"At one point in time you didn't believe vampires, werewolves and witches existed, and now you have two witches for daughters, and you're Acting Headmaster of a school for the supernatural."

Alaric went quiet at that.

"Mr McCall was turned into a werewolf and his grades suffered the rest of the semester, so much so that he needed to attend summer school so that he could advance to junior year," Emma continued. "Fortunately, he did better when he became a junior and as you saw, he's now an AP kind of student, but he limited himself to AP Biology.