Searching for Always and Forever

Chapter 10

Hope and Grace found a quiet corner in the school, where no students were around. Hope couldn't believe she already screwed up this place for her siblings. She just violently beat up someone. And it was her, who always thought was the most collected out of all her siblings. She would have expected Riley to get into a fight or Grace with her recent anger issues... but Hope? And on the first day.

"Shit!" Hope cursed.

"Well, it was pretty entertaining." Grace said with a giggle. "And it's not like he didn't deserve it."

"I don't know what got into me. I never lost control like that before." Hope told her sister with a serious expression.

"You proved him wrong. You are not weak, Hope. I'm pretty sure you are the strongest wolf out of all those kids." Grace replied, she was clearly very impressed with her sister's fighting skills. Then they heard footsteps coming their way. Hope panicked internally. It was either Rafael to get his revenge or it was Alaric or some other teacher to tell them they were too violent for this school. Hope got in front of her sister, ready to face the consequences.

But it was just Landon. Hope sighed in relief at the sight of the curly haired boy.

"Are you guys okay?" Landon asked, uncertainty.

"Shouldn't you ask your brother this?" Hope replied.

"He's totally fine... by the way you impressed the pack. I'm pretty sure they are voting you to be their new alpha." Landon smiled at the girls. Hope definitely had no desire to be alpha in this school, she wasn't even sure she wanted to be a part of the pack, but clearly her sister did... Grace quickly got out from behind Hope.

"So, what's gonna happen now?" Grace asked anxiously. "Are they kicking Hope out? Cause there's no way we are staying in the school without her."

"Why would they kick you out? You're a wolf... it's not like this never happens... I mean if it gets out to teachers they probably won't be happy, they might give you some meditation advice on how to control your anger, but wolves are not snitches." He explained with a smile and Hope nodded. She was very much relieved and so was Grace, judging from her smile.

"I can show you around outside as well, if you are still up for it." He suggested.

"Yeah, why not." Hope replied as she smiled at the boy... probably the first smile since they arrived at the school. As they were walking toward the back entrance, a familiar blond girl rushed towards them.

"There you are!" Lizzie yelled at them. "Come, ditch that hobbit. I'll show you girls how to make cute outfits out of these horrible uniforms." She walked to them and locked her arms with Grace.

"That sounds fun." Grace added and no doubt, sounded fun for her, but Hope couldn't care less about the uniforms, she rather checked out her surroundings outside, to see if there was a big enough forest for her to wolf out. "You coming?" Grace questioned her sister.

"I wanna see the yard and the woods around here." Hope added and Grace looked at her with begging eyes. Hope shook her head, silently pleading not to make her go and deal with styling uniforms. Grace then shrugged.

"Fine. See you later?" Grace said and she was off with Lizzie. That wasn't what Hope wanted. She wanted her sister to go with them. It was so weird... everyone was just fine without her... well, she hoped the little ones were fine. She would check on them soon. Hope slowly looked at the boy, who still stood by him.

"Are you ready?" Landon asked, smiling at Hope. Hope just nodded. Landon talked to her, explaining everything about the school, and Hope just listened in silence as she took in the nice pool outside, the huge football yard and the beautiful lake by the school. Turns out, the factions of the school were pretty cliquey. He talked a lot about witches, vampires and the werewolves. Hope did notice that he barely spoke about his own faction as they stopped by a lonely dock at the lake.

"What about phoenixes?" Hope asked out of blue. The boy looked at her with a confused look. "I mean you said you were one. Right?"

"Right!" He stated as he picked up some stones from the ground. "But as far as I know... or everyone else knows around here... I am the only known phoenix in existence." He explained and threw the stones in the lake.

"Huh..." That's all Hope replied. It must have been difficult to be the only one of his kind, to be without a faction in the school.

"It's not that bad... I have friends, and my brother." He smiled.

"How come your brother is a wolf?" Hope asked curiously.

"We were foster brothers. Neither of us have any family, we are not even sure where we came from." He had a sad look in him. "He didn't even know he was a werewolf until the night he turned... did you know?"

"Yeah... I can't imagine not knowing. I knew I was going to turn that first full moon, even though I was prepared, it was still horrific... now I feel kinda bad for beating him up like that." Hope said.

"Don't feel too bad." Landon chuckled. "He kinda deserved it. I never liked the way those other wolves treated Henry, because he is different, and Raf wasn't like that. When I was younger and couldn't protect myself from bad situations, he was there protecting me."

Hope wanted to ask, she was curious about their lives. It seemed similar to hers... two lonely brothers against the world... but she didn't ask. Instead she changed the subject completely.

"How big are these woods around the school?"

"Umm.... huge actually, I never got to fully explore them, but there's a cool little place called the Old Mill in the middle, where students usually have late night parties." He explained.

"hmm... so that's where the werewolves turn at full moon?" Hope asked curiously.

"God no!" Landon replied to her, like she said the most ridiculous thing ever. Hope gave him a confusing look. "There are werewolf transitioning cells down the basement... it would be pretty dangerous to have dozens of wolves running around on school property." Hope looked shocked.

"Cells?" This just didn't fit right with her. How could she get her needed release in a cell? She couldn't run... she needed the open space.

"Yeah. I mean there are vampires around too..."

"Why is that the wolves' problem?" Hope asked as she started to get frustrated.

"Well, werewolf bite infects and kills vampires pretty fast." He explained like it was something Hope should know.

"That's not my problem either. I'm not going to get locked in a cell when I need to turn." Hope said it in an annoyed tone.

"It's not my rule so don't yell at me." Landon replied, all defensive.

"I'm not yelling and I'm pretty sure you are agreeing with this."

"Look, I've seen my own brother when he transitioned. He is not himself, he is a feral animal, he is not in control, he could seriously damage other students." Landon argued back.

"Is that what they teach here? Are we just feral animals?" Now she was yelling.

"No, of course not!"

"So, it's just what you think. Great! See you later phoenix." Hope was spiraling with anger as she turned around and ran back to the school, leaving Landon at the dock.