Without Me

Chapter 22

Hope bounced from room to room looking for her roommate. She had heard the witches laughing about what happened in the cafeteria that morning, but she hadn't heard from Lizzie since. She was beginning to regret listening to Dr. Saltzman and going to class while Lizzie stayed behind. 

She pounded on his door so hard her knuckles hurt. When he opened up finally, she barely gave him enough time to raise his eyebrow, much less to ask a question. "Where is Lizzie?" she demanded.

Alaric sighed and stepped to the side, motioning for Hope to come in. He waited until she had reluctantly sat to speak. 

"Lizzie no longer goes to school here."

"What?"

Alaric had waited for her to sit for nothing, because she shot to her feet as soon as he said it.

"She's not a Salvatore student anymore."

"Why?" 

"In the simplest terms, she posed a potential threat to the student body."

Hope tilted her head in a silent challenge. "What happened to letting the honor council decide stuff like that?" 

"Hope …" There was a warning tone to his voice.

"So where is she?" Hope asked, pushing him further. "Did you send her off to a prison world or …?"

Alaric flinched at her words. "No. No, of course not. She's staying at my old apartment in town."

"Give me the address."

Alaric looked like he was going to argue, but he heard the whole thing play out before he even opened his mouth. Hope won. She always won. 

He scribbled down the address and let her go off on her way. Hope was so focused on moving fast and committing the little piece of paper to memory that she didn't see Finch until they had crashed into each other. 

"Sorry -" Hope held out her hands to steady the other wolf.

"It's fine." Finch smiled before she bent down to pick up the paper Hope had been holding. "You dropped this."

"Thanks." Hope folded the it up quickly and stuffed it in her front pocket.

Finch squinted at the way Hope hurriedly fumbled through the motions. "Everything okay?"

Hope smiled. "Fine."

"You know you're my pack, right? I can tell when something's wrong."

Hope did know it, unfortunately. "Lizzie got expelled."

"What?" Finch's face dropped. 

"Don't look so sad."

Both girls whipped their heads around to find Josie lurking along the side of the hallway, smiling.

"One less mouth to feed, right?" she cackled.

And just like that, Hope had had enough. She'd had enough of Josie's snide comments about Lizzie, herself, and anyone else who didn't agree with her. She'd had enough of Josie and the other witches laughing about her being a villain and a Mikaelson and evil. She'd had enough of Josie's lying and manipulation and bullying.

She raised her hand, a ball of flames appearing in her palm. For a single moment, she saw fear flash in Josie's eyes, but it disappeared as soon as Finch grabbed her wrist, breaking the spell. 

"It's not worth it," Finch said.

Hope looked down at her hand in shock. How could she do that? How could she be exactly what they expected her to be? Josie just giggled at her horrified expression and skipped off to class.

"Don't let her get to you," Finch started. "She just -"

Hope cut her off mid-pep talk. "She's just trying to get a rise out of me, I know. Dr. Saltzman's given me the same talk about 'being stronger than her.' After she blasted me into her bouncy house at her birthday party and after she burned down my room and after she stole my boyfriend and -" Hope stopped to suck in a much-needed lungful of air.

"I get it," Finch said. She laughed a little at how absurd it all sounded flying from Hope's lips at once. "And she would deserve whatever you want to do to her, but …"

"But what?"

Finch shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. It sounds lame, but I think there's good in everyone."

Hope arched an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between where Josie had left and Finch until the other werewolf giggled. 

"Point taken." Finch watched her feet shyly as she rubbed the toe of her sneaker into the hallway floor. "I like to think everybody is good deep down and that it just needs to be nutured until it can blossom."

"Well let's see how that turns out for you," Hope said, flattening out her skirt. She had more important things to worry about than whether or not mean girl Josie Saltzman had a sliver of good buried inside or not. Things like Lizzie.