It had been three days since the Saltzmans came back.
Three days since she has been trying, and failing, to talk to Josie about the note. She's been almost impossible to find, and when she did, Josie was always too busy and in too much of a hurry to actually talk beyond a quick hello.
Hope has come to the conclusion that Josie is avoiding her. Maybe she didn't really mean what she said, Hope thought, then corrected herself. Wrote, whatever.
She decided to stop trying, if Josie really wanted to talk to her then she can come to her, Hope has certainly tried to start a conversation with her and the other girl has been practically running away from her ever since they got back. So maybe it was a prank after all. She should've known. Though she definitely didn't think Josie had it in her, guess she was wrong once again.
She was currently in the middle of her morning training with Dr. Saltzman and maybe she shouldn't be thinking about this right now because the next thing she knows is she's staring at the blue sky through the trees above with a surprise look in her eyes. He hasn't been able to do that since their fourth month of training so she was rightfully shocked.
"You're distracted," he says, extending his hand to her. Hope takes it and pulls herself off the ground.
"I'm fine," Hope says, dusting herself off and getting into position again, hoping against all odds that he'll let it go. He obviously doesn't.
"Are you alright?" Dr. Saltzman asks. "It's been a while since I managed to catch you off guard like that so something important must be on your mind."
"I said I'm fine," Hope says in a monotone. "Can we keep training please?"
He looks at her for a second and is about to say something else when the subject of Hope's previous thoughts is suddenly right there. She looks fresh and ready for the day even if it's still two hours until classes start.
"Morning dad, mom is looking for you, said it's important." Josie says.
"Good morning sweetie," he gives her a small smile then turns back to Hope.
"We're not done here but, for now I guess, I'll take your word for it." With that he starts walking towards the school.
And then there were two. Hope notices that Josie starts to get a little fidgety but before she can say something about it Josie speaks up.
"Hey Hope," is all Josie says softly, so soft that if it wasn't for her enhanced wolf hearing she wouldn't have caught it.
Well, at least she hasn't run away, though it certainly looks like she wants to.
"Morning Josie," Hope manages to say without sounding bitter.
Josie just nods and does a small salute; she looks like she wants to say something else but just as quickly closes her mouth again. Hope doesn't know what to think anymore.
First, she had resolved that maybe having a friend wouldn't be so bad, especially if that friend was someone as sweet as Josie, who went to the trouble of actually writing her a letter, and seemed like maybe she saw past her hard facade. So, she waits until she gets back and is ready for some milkshakes. But then, when she actually comes back it's like she can't get far enough away from her.
And now she seems like maybe she has something to say. She knows she already decided to stop trying but she can't help but give it one last try, worst case scenario she confirms it was a joke and she can move on with her life.
Josie is turning around, apparently having decided to not say anything and just go, when Hope finally speaks again.
"Are we ever going to talk about it?" She asks neutrally.
