Hope Mikaelson Was Going Down

Chapter 4

Lizzie collapsed onto her bed angrily. The springs screamed back at her. It wasn’t fair. Hope Mikaelson should’ve been taken out of the game after she shoved her face in the dirt the first time. It was nothing compared to Lizzie pushing her a little hard. She shouldn’t have even gotten the chance to trip Lizzie. If the refs had just done their job …

Lizzie groaned. It was no use. The Stallions didn’t stand a chance now. Their star player was grounded. Or at least, she would be whenever her dad finally came upstairs to talk to her. He was giving her quite a long time to think of her defense. What could he possibly be doing?

Outside, Hope sat with her forehead pressed against the cool glass of the bus window. Arms crossed, she pouted. It wasn’t fair. Lizzie Saltzman attacked her first. Everything she did was in self defense. 

Yet, here she was, watching her team get their asses handed to them without her because of it. At least Lizzie got to go pout inside her castle. Hope had to sit here and watch the rest of the game play out without her.

Maya high-fived her brother after her second touchdown before she turned to give Hope a thumbs up. She could barely see Hope half-heartedly return the gesture.

“Do that again and we might be in good shape,” Ethan said. He scanned the field. 

“You just keep stopping that track star for me.” Maya smirked and eyed MG. She had noticed the way Ethan took to the boy. Her brother couldn’t hide anything from her. Especially not when he was being so obvious about it.

“Anything for the team.” Ethan nodded. 

Maya laughed as they reset. It wasn’t a long game. Now that Ethan was in and Lizzie was out, the Stallions couldn’t fight back. It wasn’t long before they stopped running after them all together and just stood with their arms crossed as the Timberwolves scored touchdown after touchdown.

“What’s the matter, Saltzman?” Dana taunted. “Not so easy to score anymore?”

Josie ignored it - and the next thirty taunts. Dana was doing anything and everything she could to get under her skin. Josie wasn’t going to let her succeed.

The Timberwolves were playing awfully rough for a team taking the lead. Connor pushed Kaleb to the ground when the refs weren’t looking, jumping back and playing it cool when they turned to find the Stallion magically laying face-first in the dirt.

“You gonna let your teammate do that to my guy?” MG asked, raising his eyebrows at Ethan, waiting in position across from him.

“Connor, knock it off.” 

“What? He tripped!” Connor protested with a mean laugh before he skipped away. 

Ethan winked at MG, and it was just enough to throw him off as the whistle blew. 

“What -”

MG tumbled to the ground, Ethan holding onto his bare legs as they went. 

“Cheap move, Teenage Tom Brady!” MG shoved him off. 

From across the field, Dana spotted the scuffle. “Your friend is gonna get us in trouble,” she remarked, taking opportunity of the distracted refs and shoving into Josie’s side.

“You’re going to get us in trouble.” Josie pushed her back.

Dana swiped her foot under Josie’s, taking the off-balance girl to the ground with her. She landed on top and smirked at the way Josie’s eyes went wide and her lips parted. “I usually get girls like this under different circumstances,” she said, running her fingers over the collar of Josie’s jersey. 

Josie grunted and rolled on top, pinning Dana’s hands to the turf. “Me too.” Her lips were inches from Dana’s. For a quick minute, she thought of all the possibilities. All the things she could do.

She didn’t get a chance to do any of them.

“Break it up!” Dorian grabbed her by the jersey, yanking her upwards and pointing her in the direction of the stream of defeated students heading back to the school. 

Josie hadn’t noticed, but the two altercations had spread out into a full-on brawl between the two teams. Dorian and the refs were doing their best to break it up. With one last look over her shoulder at Dana, Josie crossed her arms and trudged back towards the dorms.

From the bus, Hope cheered. She didn’t know what started it and she was more than a little disappointed that Lizzie Saltzman wasn’t still on the field to get her ass kicked, but watching the Stallions get beat down was satisfying nonetheless.

She had plenty of high-fives for her teammates when they trudged back to the bus with their heads hung low and their arms and faces bruised.