Give Me Hope ~ Stefanie Salvatore

~chapter 19~

I park in the school lot and when I leave my car, I see Josie waiting at the entrance to Mystic Falls High School.

"Surprise visit?" I question as I walk closer to her. She turns, startled, then once she realises it's me she relaxes. I continue to walk into the school and she follows.

"Oh, um" Josie pauses to catch up to me. To be fair, I am walking pretty fast because I don't really want to be talking supernatural stuff while I'm at school.

"Well, I wanted to look into Mystic Falls High. Ya know, just, keeping options open" She lets out a breath and smiles. This stops me in my tracks and I turn to face her.

"Keeping your options open?" I ask, waiting for clarification.

Josie seems to get nervous before she starts to speak. "Well, with no powers, I could be normal. Live a human life" She says in an almost whisper.

"You aren't normal, Josie. Powers or no powers, you'll aways have that supernatural part of you." I say. I can see this makes her upset, so I sigh and put less force in my tone as I am about to apologize.

"Hey, Stefanie" I hear a voice and I turn quickly.

"Ethan!" I say frantically. "What brings you here??" I spurt out. Oh. My. God.

"School." I laugh nervously, "That was a dumb question" I make a deadpan face and mentally slap myself. Ethan just laughs and looks towards Josie.

"Oh, right" I turn to Josie, "Josie, this is Ethan, schools jock. And Ethan, this is Josie, a friend of mine from the Salvatore School"

"I remember you, from the Salvatore vs. Timberwolves game last year. And plus, your dad was also our principle for a while." He says, but I can tell it makes Josie uncomfortable, considering she did break his bone with dark magic during that game.

"Hi" Josie smiles and Ethan returns the smile.

"So, Josie, what brings you out of the Salvatore School and into Mystic High" Ethan says with his oh so easy welcoming persona.

Josie and I look at each other, unsure what to say, then I blurt it out.

"Journal!" I pause, then once again nervously laugh. "Um, she's writing for a journalism assignment she has for the Salvatore Scroll. 'A Day in the Life of a Timberwolf'" I say, placing my hands in expressive gestures when saying the title.

"And it's actually great that you're here," I say turning to Josie temporarily, giving her the sign to go with it, "because a typical high school jock is just what she needs for her paper!" I smile and clap my hands.

"Oh, wow, yea that sounds cool. Im down to answer a few questions" Ethan says eagerly.

"Perfect! Well, Im going to get to class, but you two have fun!" I turn to Josie and whisper "There, I got you an exclusive look into Mystic High. " I look at her and smirk as I speed off before she can rebuttal.

After first period, I was walking around the halls, looking in classrooms to try and find Josie, but was met with something else.

The Necromancer, in a classroom, talking with the principle. I turned away from the small window at the door and listened into the conversation.

"And this is not enough blood for the ritual! But what better place to do it, then a school, filled with humans" The Necromancer said menacingly, and I heard him laugh. I peeked into the window and he had used his powers to kill the principle.

"You've got to be kidding me" I huffed and then continued walking down the hall, heading towards the exit.

"Stefanie?" Josie said, clearly understanding that something urgent was happening.