The Young and Gifted

3. royal family

"Hope," Josie called to the girl in front of them, looking seemingly lost. "Hope, wait up."

Lizzie grabbed her sister's arm and hissed, "Josie, we talked about this. We don't let the neophytes mingle with us." But it was too late, Hope had already spotted them.

"Hey guys, I hope I'm not interrupting," she smiled brightly, taking in the group of witches who smiled awkwardly back.

Lizzie forced a smile, planting her hands on her hips casually. "Of course not, we're happy to have you here."

"Good, I was just seconds away from going back to school."

"Oh no, code red," Josie said quickly and turned away. Somehow all the witches, including Lizzie, knew where to look and their gaze fell on the gathering group across the street. Hope recognized that Raf, Kaura and Landon were amongst them.

"What's code red?" She asked with curiosity as they all watched the group with distaste.

"You see that disgusting..ly stunning witch right there?"Josie swallowed as she pointed and her face flushed.

Hope nodded and Lizzie crossed her arms. "That's witch bitch Penelope, Josie's ex. She left last year with no word, no note, no nothing and Josie had to go through the break up through mom. It was terrible and I promised to walk over her rotten corpse with my favourite pair of heels the next time I saw her. But there are too many witnesses," she huffed with annoyance.

"She doesn't look so bad, maybe she had an emergen—"

"No," Lizzie turned to her with warning and said sharply, "Listen Hope, as a part of the witch committee, you need to understand something. We all hate Penelope Park, alright? She is the devil incarnate, a Blair Bitch and we do not associate ourselves with demons."

Hope nodded. "Got it, stay away from the disgustingly stunning witch. What about Kaura?"

"What about her?" Josie asked.

"She obviously broke the code of avoiding Penelope."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Our pathetic cousin doesn't count. She dated Raf for a year and she somehow got into their group. She and Penelope are besties apparently. I bet she told Kaura about leaving, that little--"

"Wait, you're cousins?" So the family tree extended.

"Ew, no. Only Josie and I are allowed to refer to her as our cousin, to anyone else, it's revolting. Ugh, I can't believe that I'm in charge of filling you in," Lizzie flipped her hair aside. "She and Raf were thinging for a long time and it was painfully nauseating to watch it. Nobody knew why they broke up. By the way, Raf is the only one who isn't a full-fledged wolf. He hasn't killed anyone."

"But doesn't that make him...human?" Hope asked. No matter how much Freya tried to teach her of the supernatural world and how to use her powers to control it, she was still confused.

"He still has the temper and bullshit of a wolf and whatever else is added to the package deal. He just doesn't have to turn on a full moon."

"Ok so Kaura and Penelope are the only witches over there, everyone else are werewolves? Aside from Landon and I suppose Raf, of course," she watched as the human himself entered a café.

"No, there are vampires in there too," Lizzie answered.

"I thought vampires and werewolves hated each other. Especially at this age, our emotions are a bit wilder than the typical supernatural."

"Occasionally. The ones Raf and his friends are completely fine with are MG and Kaleb," Josie pointed to the two dark men laughing at something Penelope said.

"MG has the huggest crush on Lizzie," one of the witches giggled.

"Had. I rejected him, remember?" Lizzie growled.

"For like what, the seventeenth time?" The witch snorted, a couple of others laughing along.

"Shut up, Mackenzie," Lizzie hollered and it went all silent. She took a deep calming breath and fixed her hair. "Besides, I'm not mentally stable enough to be in a relationship."

The group submerged into a comfortable conversation. Hope silently turned to Josie and muttered, "I'm going to grab food, be right back."

Josie nodded and waved as she pulled away. Hope took a deep sniff into the air and followed the trail of food that intrigued her the most. As she turned around the corner, she saw Landon drop a tall glass drink.

With her reflexes, she reacted quickly. "Rigescunt indutae." The drink was half a centimetre from the ground and thanks to Hope, it hadn't gotten lower. She pivoted to Landon and handed the drink to him as he glowered at her in awe.

"Thank you," he said, gripping the glass. "I am so glad that I don't have to pay for another."

Hope chuckled. "It's alright. Just be careful next time, glass is sharp."

"Hey, I'm not that clumsy," Landon scoffed, playfully showing offence.

Hope narrowed her eyes. "Hm, are you sure?" They both laughed, faces lighting up.

"To be fair, the glass had condensation on it and it just happened to slip—"

"Yeah, yeah, blame it on science."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he said tightly and stepped back from the counter. "My bad, you're probably waiting."

Hope didn't say a thing a faced the woman. "A tall glass of mint chocolate milkshake please."

"Sorry, the machine just broke," the strawberry blonde declared with a look of regret.

"Oh," Hope said with slight disappointment and turned away to find Landon still lingering.

"You can have mine," he offered casually.

"No, it's fine. I'll just go grab a smoothie or something."

"It's the least I could do after you saved it."

"How about we just share?"

*

They sat in front of the Mystic Grill, most of the outdoor seats empty. Most of the group lingered in town, bullying the local school students, catching up with each other after the summer break without the supervising of guardians eavesdropping in.

Hope and Landon sat in front of each other, passing the milkshake between each other. He had asked about why she didn't order anything else and she explained that the only thing she was craving was her hometown beignets. And to Hope's horrification, he asked what beignets were. So she explained it to him and ended up telling him about the refreshed New Orleans and how the city was flourishing, despite the royal family falling.

Time passed by and by the time they finished the milkshake, they were walking back towards their groups slowly, still engaging in the conversation. When they arrived at the interception of both cliques, Hope laughed at a terrible joke Landon mentioned and they went on and on.

From the sidelines, Lizzie scoffed with shock. "What the hell is she doing? I told her not to meddle with that group, how hard is it to follow rules?"

"To be fair, you said that she shouldn't meddle with Penelope," Josie reminded silently.

"Josie, now is not the time. That is clearly a violation of the regulations. At this point, she's an outcast," Lizzie huffed.

"You're overexaggerating. Landon's a human, he's neutral, there's nothing wrong with that," Josie shook her head and Lizzie didn't respond.

Especially as they watched them both reach for each other's hands. "It was nice spending the night with you, Landon Kirby," Hope said with a smile, holding her hand out.

"It was nice sharing a milkshake with you, Hope Mikaelson," he grinned back and their hands interlocked. 

~

"She was the best person I knew."

try to guess who said it and don't forget to vote ;)