The Salvatore School for Troubled Youth

New Student

"This is your room," Mr. Williams opens a small oak door.

Inside is a room with a small bed, a dresser, and a desk with chair. The beige walls are barren, the desk empty. The whole room is too plain for Hope's creative liking.

The room's only redeeming factor is the unobscured window above the desk that looks out into the school's gardens.

Hope silently walks over to it and stares out at the world. Then she notices a hand crank below it and stares at it intensely.

"It's fully functional, try it for yourself," he invites her.

She narrows her eyes at him, trying to see if he's testing her or something. Cautiously, she places her hand on the crank and turns it.

To her surprise, the window opens with the faintest squeak.

"Isn't that a safety issue at a place like this?" she asks, thinking it's too good to be true.

Hope has been to other schools where the windows had bars over them, didn't open, or just straight up didn't exist.

"I assure you, there are safety mechanisms in place," he says calmly.

Hope isn't sure if she can trust him. He's far calmer than any other principal of these schools she's tried, and it's refreshing, but then again, maybe he's too calm.

"Do you have any more questions?"

Hope shakes her head.

"Very well. Dinner will be in the dining hall in about 30 minutes," he looks down at his watch. "In the meantime, you should start unpacking and getting settled in."

Once he leaves, Hope grabs her bags from the doorway and carelessly tosses them into the room. She then proceeds to carelessly toss herself onto the small bed.

It's nothing like her room at home. At the Mikaelson Compound, one of her family's many properties and her main residence, her room is fairly large and her bed is a queen. 

Her paintings and drawings line the walls, though she must admit, none of them are recent. She hasn't fell the urge to do any art in quite a while.

Gone is her huge walk-in closet. In its place is a beat-up, old wooden set of drawers.

Hope even thinks of how her freedom to dress how she wants has been taken away. Students have to wear uniforms to lessons and around the building during the week.

Her only mark of originality is her treasured "M" necklace.

Now she's left here to stew over how much she already hates it here.

Just as Mr. Williams had said, about 30 minutes later, an announcement is made for dinner, so Hope makes her way to the dining hall.

She grabs a plate of food and sits down at a table all by herself.

"Hey, you're new here," a tall blonde girl says and sits down next to Hope.

The brunette next to her follows suit and sits next to the blonde.

"I'm Lizzie," the blonde introduces.

"And I'm Josie," the brunette chimes in.

"We're twins," Lizzie says. "Fraternal."

"Hey, I'm Hope," she responds in a tired, flat tone, not really feeling up to making new friends or whatever is going on right now but knowing better than to just rudely dismiss the two.

"I don't know why they were so worried about taking you in here," Lizzie looks Hope's 5 foot tall frame up and down. "You're a witch, aren't you?"

Hope nods her head, technically that's true.

"We're witches too," Josie says. "Siphoners, from the Gemini Coven."

"Siphoners?" Hope blinks. "That's pretty rare, isn't it?"

Hope realizes how ironic it is telling them how rare they are, but her interest has been piqued.

Lizzie nods her head. "Two of only a handful ever recorded."

"And how does that work exactly?"

"Lizzie and I don't have our own source of magic, so we have to get it from other supernaturals," Josie explains. "Like this."

Josie takes her hands and puts them on Hope's arm, one on her forearm and another just over her bicep.

The siphoning sites glow red and Hope can feel some of her energy being channeled into Josie.

"Saltzman," one of the staff members comes over to them. "You know the rules."

"I was just showing Hope how siphoning works."

"Keep your hands to yourself unless you're in class doing spells," he warns her. "That's detention after school tomorrow, Josie."

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble," Hope apologizes.

"Don't be. He's just a huge, stuck up, power-hungry asshole!" Lizzie yells at him and gets in his face.

"Looks like you have detention too, Lizzie."

"Sir, this is all my fault."

"Save it," he warns her.

"But, sir, don't punish them-"

"That's detention for you too then, Hope," he says without batting an eye. "Around here, we take discipline seriously."

Hope's time at this school is off to a great start.