Legacy Diaries

Josie's Diary Entry No. 2

Josie and Lizzie's Room
Josie's Diary Entry

"Wait, wait, wait," Dad said, and his hand twitched, a reflex produced by his trusty glass of bourbon. "Rafael had the pack prepare you breakfast - it smells nice, by the way, is there any left?"

"It's tastes even better than it smells," Lizzie informed between bites, and I decided to dig in too. "The eggs are so fluffy, and the pancakes..."

Mmm, the pancakes were, in a word, amazing; in more words, out of this world. They weren't egg-y or buttery, they were like soft clouds dancing on my tongue and they had this taste, this wonderful aroma, that I couldn't quite place, and the eggs enhanced them and...

"Mmm sounds about right," Lizzie commented, making me aware that I expressed my appreciation of the meal before me out loud.

On my third bite, I mixed the eggs and pancake with a grape and the combination ruined all the pancakes I've eaten so far.

"Girls," Dad tried to gain our attention.

"You should ask the people who just left, Dad," I advised him. "We just woke up and everything was brought to us."

"You're up early, considering you weren't here when the lights went out," Lizzie noted. "But you're not wearing the same clothes as yesterday. What's the occasion?"

"Your birthday?" Dad replied.

"And after that?" My sister followed up. "Are you going to be here for the rest of the day or are you going to leave campus, with a duffel bag that I'm pretty sure carried weapons, again like yesterday?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked after a sip of juice.

"Daddy dearest distracted us with the Honor Council election so that he could go interrogate a - what was it - a dragon? Nope. We already dealt with that one. A gargoyle? That too." Lizzie listed off. "Ahh! A dryad."

A dryad. I didn't know what a dryad was, but maybe that was the point my sister was making.

"I may not be popular enough to win the election, Dad," she continued. "But experience has taught me that if I want to know what's going on around here, all I have to do is follow Hope Mikaelson and I'll get all the answers."

I took Dad's silence and avoidance of eye contact as acknowledgement and confirmation.

"Where did you go yesterday, Dad?" I inquired, before I realized that someone else was missing. "And where is Dorian?"

"Dad can't do anything without Dorian, Josie," Lizzie said, looking at me. "He's the intelligence that keeps Dad coming back home alive after his escapades with Hope. It's like Dad wishes he was the one out there promoting the school and looking for sponsors instead of Mom."

"OK, that's enough, Lizzie," Dad interjected, but Lizzie's words rang true to me no matter how much I didn't want them to. "I..."

"You keep blaming bio Mom's side of the family for the way I am," Lizzie interrupted. "But they're not here, you are, Dad! Well, not really, because you're more of a father to Hope than you are to me, to us, to Josie.

"Let's be honest, Dad, Josie and I suffer from abandonment issues and codependency, among other things, and she's selfless and I'm selfish because Hope and your escapades are more important to you and keeping this school running is more important to Mom than we are to you two."

"That's not true, sweetheart," Dad denied, shaking his head, and he ran his hands over his face, probably to hide the single tear that escaped from his eye, but I saw it before he could get rid of it and his eyes were red with unshed tears. "We love you more than you comprehend."