Time After Time (Book 3) DISCONTINUED

Chapter 6

Hope groans as she pulls Josie back into bed. "Hope, love, I gotta go." Josie laughs. "No, no you don't. You have to stay right here with me." Hope kisses her cheek. Josie sighs and moves Hope's arm. "Trust me, I want to. I really want to, but I don't want to be late for school. And I gotta say bye to my dad." Hope finally surrenders and sits up. "Don't pout." Josie kisses her softly. "I'll be back here to visit, I promise. And you can always come to aunt Elena and uncle Damon's house." Hope bites her lip. "You know, somehow, I don't think they'll be too keen on letting in Klaus Mikealson's tribrid daughter." Josie laughs. "Well, you're not a tribrid yet, and you're my wife, so I don't think they'll have a choice. Now I gotta go. I love you." Josie heads to the door. "Hey, where are the twins?" Hope asks. "Sleeping, I gave them both a kiss goodbye already. But will you tell them I left already?" Hope nods as Josie leaves.

Later on, Hope finds herself unable to paint anything. Memories of Landon come to mind. Them hanging out, watching movies, him trying to convince her to watch Star Wars and failing miserably. She then sighs and puts her paintbrush down. The door opens and the twins stumble in. "Kids?" Lizzie walks in behind them. "Alright, commence operation: Rescue Hope from herself. I know that you don't want to hear this right now-" "I'm in." "But....wait what?" Lizzie turns to her. "I'm in. For whatever crazy thing you were about to say." Hope tells her. "But I had a whole speech." Lizzie whispers. "She really did, she practiced on us a thousand times." Andrea rolls her eyes. "Watch it missy." Lizzie warns her. "I'm sure it was amazing, but I'd rather not talk right now. Let's just...do anything." Hope shrugs. "Great! Dad wants us to run the tour for prospective students." Lizzie smiles. "Except that. I can't handle being around a bunch of strangers right now." "Ok, I knew I'd need my speech." Lizzie grins. "Oh no." Marshall groans. "Mom, why?" Andrea begs her mother. Hope shrugs. "You know, when MG and Alyssa hooked up, I wanted to crawl into a hole for days."

Hope stares at her. "Are you seriously comparing Landon dying to you not realizing that MG was a good guy until it was too late?" "Ok, well it's not a competition, Hope." Hope sighs. "Maybe Wade could do the tour." Lizzie stares at her. "Wade? Ok, you're grieving so, I'll overlook that suggestion. All I'm asking for is one shift. As soon as MG and Kaleb get back with the first wave of returning students, they can take over the tour from you. And then things can get back to normal." Lizzie nods. "Normal?" The twins ask. "Ok, normal-ish. Back to the future twins. I just think it would be a good distraction. For both of us." Hope's eyes soften. "Josie's first day?" She asks. "Thank you for acknowledging that I am handling it with a surprising amount of dignity and poise. I'd just rather not do it by myself. I normally gives tours with her and well, you're the next best thing I got. I mean, you are her wife." Hope nods. "Fine. I'm not talking to anyone. And let's not mention the whole future wife and kids thing. We don't want to scare them away." Lizzie nods. "Good point. Now let's go!"

As they stand in front of barely a handful of kids, Lizzie turns to Hope. "You're gonna have to say something." She whispered. "We had a deal." Hope glares at her. "Welcome to the Salvatore School. We'll just give it a few minutes for the stragglers." Hope sighs. "Does anyone have any questions, or, um....?" One student raises his hand. "Oh thank god." She points to him. "Where are all the other students?" He asks. "We had a mid-semester break. But don't worry, they'll be back any minute and this place will fill up really fast." Another student raises her hand. "My parents said that your 'mid-semester break' was because the daughter of the headmaster used black magic and killed another student." Hope spots the twins walking in from class with their eyes golden brown. She knows they heard what that girl said. She quickly shakes her head no. With her hearing, she can hear them growling lowly. "No." She whispered. They both take deep breaths and try to calm down. Once they do, they decide to walk up to her. "Well, that's not true, the reason for the break was because of all the monster...trucks, that um, you know..." Marshall places his hand on her mouth. "Why don't we just start the tour?" He smiles at everyone. "Good idea!" Hope smiles turns to everyone. "Are they your siblings or something?" One of the students ask. "Or something." The twins answer.