The Recovery

Chapter 5

Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted

"So, have you found out who your new roommate is?" Penelope asked Cleo as she sat down for assembly.

"Yes, but I'm not going to tell you," Cleo replied.

"Why not? She'll be here in a few hours, Cleo."

"You just broke up with Josie, you don't need to be going after the new girl to make Josie jealous."

"What if I want the guy she's coming with?"

"You wouldn't be here if that was the case."

"She could be a stepping stone to him," Penelope suggested slyly. "I know Lizzie is going to try to get him first but I'm sure she's going to crash and burn and guess what, I'll be right there to..."

"Quiet down, everyone," Penelope was interrupted by Alaric taking his place at the podium and everyone went quiet. "Good morning and happy Annual Charity Flag Football Day against Mystic Falls High School!"

Of Alaric expected cheers, he was disappointed and he didn't get any, just groans, as usual.

"Come on, Mr Saltzman," Kaleb said. "What's happy about the one day we're guaranteed to be losers?"

Kaleb's question was well received by the students.

"Nothing, that's what," Lizzie responded and her peers agreed.

"You all know why we have to do this," Alaric replied. "We only contribute enough to not arouse suspicion but still not draw too much attention to the school so that no one bothers us."

"Don't you think that has the opposite effect, Mr Saltzman?" Jed questioned. "I'm sure at least one person has noticed the pattern and is suspicious."

"You don't know how right you are, Jed," Alyssa said. "I saw a comment on an article promoting the annual game questioning how is it possible that Salvatore Boarding School is a school for rich and troubled kids but there has never been a case of doping, not even a single case, and we have never won anything significant."

"I saw one comment questioning how we keep losing when we have money to fix our games," A student added and more similar experiences followed.

Alaric looked to some of the teachers in attendance, he was looking for Dorian in particular since he was the coach but the librarian was nowhere to be seen, what was seen was that the teachers agreed with what Jed said, what they have been doing had the opposite result.

"I..." Alaric began to respond but was interrupted by the doors suddenly opening and a hush fell over the room as an unknown duo of teenagers not wearing the school uniform walked through the doors, he recognised the duo from their transfer file pictures and quickly got an idea just as murmurs began. "You arrived just in time. Join me on the podium."

The murmurs halted.

Lydia and Scott exchanged looks at Alaric's greeting, having tried to sneak into the room while there was a little chaos but said chaos stopped in an instant and they now had the attention of the whole room on them and there were a lot of eyes.

First impressions were going to determine how they would be seen from now on so they kept their cool and calmly walked to the front and joined Alaric on the podium facing the students although they stood side-by-side.

Alaric remembered Emma's warning about how the kids were betrayed and stopped himself from stepping between them to reveal his solution to the problem he was faced with.

"Please introduce yourselves by stating your names and school year." He instructed.

"Scott McCall, senior," Scott started clinically, much like his mentor Doctor Alan Deaton when he was dealing with problematic people.

"Lydia Martin, senior," Lydia followed using her pre-Allison queen bee voice and attitude.

While Scott went for cool and emotionless, indifference, Lydia went for superiority, as planned to keep people away from them.

Alaric was glad that he didn't get between them as they followed his instruction while some students were put off and others had their curiosity increased.

"Are you related by any chance?" Alaric followed up.

"You could say that," Lydia replied vaguely and Scott smirked a little because they were kind of related via Peter Hale's Alpha Bite, thus increasing the mysterious air they had.

"Good, because this is going to be a family affair," Alaric responded, saying family in reference to pack despite the possible space for misinterpreted innuendo which some students got and chuckled. "See, I'm faced with a problem here.

On one hand, Salvatore Boarding School has a tradition of losing the annual charity flag football game against Mystic Falls High School to protect the true nature of our school.

On the other hand, your fellow students have given me valid reasons to change it, they want to do their level best and win the game today.

You two are going to decide what to do as cocaptains. Whether tradition stands or not is up to you."

"We don't know how to play football, let alone lead a football team," Scott said plainly.

"And we're not familiar with the players," Lydia added.

Alaric smiled at their response and everyone got the feeling that he knew that.

"Either way, you're the cocaptains and what you say goes."

"I can't believe Mr Saltzman is setting us to lose even more embarrassingly than usual," A student voiced what he thought and his peers agreed wholeheartedly.

"Let me put your worries to rest," Alaric replied to the comment. "Scott is the team captain of his school's lacrosse team back home and he has been one since sophomore year, he's got team leading experience and skills both on and off the field.

Paired with Lydia's intellect and knowledge of Scott's leadership and your cooperation with them, you have a chance of winning the game. That is if they want to break our long-standing tradition and losing streak.

If I was you, I would make a good first impression on them and make their first day here the best first-day experience ever. Now, get to your classes and have at least an optimistic Annual Charity Flag Football Day."

With that, Alaric motioned for Lydia and Scott to follow him to his office while everyone went their own way with the new duo as the hottest topic.