Legacy Diaries

Alaric's DE No. 2 and Penelope's DE No. 1

Grand Hall
Alaric's Diary Entry

After the way lunch, well, more like brunch, ended, I decided to check on how everything was coming along with the birthday party. Raising two supernatural teenage daughters was hard, far harder than I initially thought it would be. I could barely deal with the everyday challenges, now I had a different kind of challenge that I didn't know how to tackle. Aside from putting together the birthday party for the girls, and for everyone's mental health, at the very last minute, there was the revelation of their dates for said party. Hold on, did I say dates? I meant date.

Josie and Lizzie were sharing a date, and the date was the newly turned werewolf I brought to the school Rafael Waithe, a troubled black boy with a long history of fits of anger that were specifically stated not to be just temper tantrums. As Landon revealed, Rafael threw a 200-pound lawn mower 50 feet across the yard, and while fits of anger were common for werewolves, that terrified their foster parents enough for them to send him to church for an exorcism.

I felt that maybe they were justified in their concerns because perhaps saying Rafael had fits of anger was an understatement since Hope could handle anger and surprises from just about anyone. It took a lot to shake her, and he seemed to have it and that aggression, that edge, that primal rage that could shake the likes of Klaus Mikaelson's daughter, and he appeared to enjoy it, at least to a certain extend, and all that scared me.

While I was busy worrying about Landon and the threat he could be, I completely forgot about Rafael, and now he was the Alpha of Salvatore Boarding School Pack, a member of the newly formed Honor Council, and he had Hope afraid of him and my daughters as his dates, all within two weeks, and Lizzie wasn't one to share anything, even with her sister. I really underestimated the boy, but I hoped Hope would use the opportunity she had as his 'princely lessons' instructor to regain her confidence and stand up to him.

Why couldn't Josie ask some nice girl to be her date? Or go solo because she was still nursing a heartache from Penelope breaking up with her? Why didn't Lizzie ask MG to be her date? He was a good boy who respected authority and followed the rules. Better yet, why didn't the girls just stick with each other without any boy or girl involved? Why did their date have to be the same person?

I wasn't a girl or a woman, but I knew how teenage boys' minds worked. I was a teenage boy, a cocktail of hormones, once, and I knew what had to be in Rafael's mind. It was unfortunately in my mind right now, and with how impulsive Lizzie was... I didn't like the chances of it happening. I didn't want Rafael to be Josie and Lizzie's date, but I knew that if I let them know that, I risked pushing them into the boy's arms even if they didn't like him like that to spite me, especially Lizzie, the one I was most concerned about.

Was it a good idea to speak with Rafael? Or was I getting ahead of myself and he was still grieving his girlfriend's death and wasn't thinking about using my daughters to distract himself or moving on already? Now this was starting to feel like familiar territory where I had to walk on eggshells, I did it very often when I was with my daughters. I feared saying the wrong thing to them, and that was probably one of the reasons I found myself spending less time with them to avoid doing so.

"Doctor Saltzman," Kaleb tapped me on my shoulder, and asked, "Are you alright? You just zoned out for a minute there."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I replied after clearing my throat, and he furrowed his brows, his head tilted, probably telling me that he knew that I was lying. It seemed this thing with Josie and Lizzie taking Rafael as their date was really affecting me if I just zoned out while speaking with someone. "The party is coming together nicely."

"Yeah," he agreed, thankfully not saying anything about my lie, and looked around the Hall. "But we could use some witches to help with the decorations high on the walls and the ceiling. Hope put some up, but there's more left and she and the newb-uh-Rafael aren't going to be here for some time."

As Kaleb spoke the last word, Jed walked in with Expression Coven, also known as Alyssa Chang's coven. Fortunately, their name didn't come with them practicing Expression Magic.

"It seems Jed brought help," I said, watching them look around before Jed saw us and walked in our direction with the witches.

"Doctor Saltzman," Jed greeted upon reaching us.

"Jed," I acknowledged, the thought that he would have been the Alpha and Honor Council member had I not brought Rafael and Landon to the school crossing my mind.

I surely wouldn't have had to worry about the possibilities of my daughters having sex with Rafael on their sweet sixteen. Some people did questionable things on a milestone birthday, hence as much as Lizzie was my greatest concern, all things considered, I was concerned about Josie too. She did just about anything for Lizzie and that, and her codependency troubled me, especially knowing that she really liked Rafael, or else she wouldn't have reacted the way she did to him planning to leave the school with Landon even after he had breakfast in bed sent to her after she voted to have Landon sent packing.

I expected the violence to come from Lizzie, but she ended up being the one who stopped it, reversing their long established dynamics. The change was scary, and so was Josie liking a boy enough to hurt him, or did she do what she did because of what Penelope did to her?

"Where's the registration form?" Jed asked Kaleb, pulling me out of my mind.

"Right here," Kaleb replied, taking it out of his pocket with a pen before giving it to Jed who passed it to Alyssa. "Write your names now, in your own writing, and then sign when you're done with your part in an hour."

"I know," Alyssa responded offhandedly, before moving to a table with her coven.

"The word is out about the party and the extra credit thing," Jed reported.

"Damn it," I cursed. "My daughters were not meant to find out about this. It was supposed to be a surprise birthday party."

"Rafael told me, so we're having two parties," Jed responded.

"Two parties?" I asked, confused.

"This one and the after party at the Old Mill," Alyssa entered the conversation, done with registering her name.

"What after party?" I questioned, even more confused, but also surprised that they were telling me about the after party they didn't think that I knew students had after Josie and Lizzie's official birthday party.

"The only way to surprise Thing 1 and Thi-" Alyssa began to explain, but I gave her a look at the Thing 1 and Thing 2 thing. "Er-the twins is if we mislead them and that's exactly what I did by spreading the news that there'll be a party at the Old Mill and directed everyone who wants to volunteer and get extra credit there."

"And then we asked Emma for permission to organize a real party at the Old Mill as a distraction, for now, and the after party later, since we couldn't find you and we needed to act fast," Jed carried on. "MG and Penelope are at the Old Mill organizing the after party right now. They'll send some of the volunteers our way."

"But only those who can keep their mouths shut," Alyssa added.

I wasn't sold on letting the students have an after party this year, especially so far from the main building with monsters that weren't supposed to exist appearing, but the plan was pretty good.

"You'll get to really surprise your daughters, Doctor S," Kaleb said, probably trying to convince me to buy the plan. "And we will get a real party later, not this fairytale stuff that we don't even know if the birthday girls will like. It's a win-win."

He was trying to convince me to go along with the plan, but...

"It would be a win-win if we didn't have a monster problem," I responded, although Lizzie's words about everyone needing the party to destress echoed in my head.

"The protection spell around the school has been reinforced," Alyssa replied, and I wondered how she knew that. "And Hope the Party Pooper will be there as an Honor Council member and chaperone. You know she'll call you if anything happens."

Hope. Hope was the answer to my problems. She could keep an eye on the girls better than I could and get me the answers I needed to know about what Rafael's intentions with my daughters were.

"Fine, you can have your after party," I said, even though I knew Hope was not going to like attending the party, but I hoped she would be motivated to keep an eye on Rafael so that she could get back at him. "Is there anything you need here?"

"Not at the moment, Doctor S," Kaleb answered, a smile on his face. "But I'm sure the after party needs some resources and supplies, like money for drinks and snacks."

Drinks and snacks? I wasn't born yesterday, but I told them to tell MG to come see me about that before excusing myself to go search for Hope, who was probably with Rafael right now as Caroline planned for the 'princely' lessons.
~
Old Mill
Penelope's Diary Entry

It turned out Kaleb was right about one thing: Josie was taking Werewolf Prince Charming as her date to her surprise birthday party, but so was Lizzie. I knew that Rafael was attractive, but damn! Was Josie so attracted to him that she overlooked the fact that he slept with her sister last night, even though they kissed before that? Did she even know that or was my assumption wrong? There were too many questions without answers, and when I saw a heartbroken MG about to lose hope, I approached him with a final chance to shoot his shot with Lizzie.

I wanted a definitive answer as to whether Josie really didn't want me anymore, and I also wanted one final night with her if that was the case. The way to get that, and give MG his last opportunity to get with Lizzie, was to eliminate Werewolf Prince Charming from tonight's equation and leave the birthday girls without their date so that we would be their knights in shining smiles to save the night.

MG didn't want to play dirty, but Lizzie was at stake, so he reluctantly agreed with my plan, and the plan was made even better by the opportunity that presented itself in the form of the after party. The question now was when to take out Werewolf Prince Charming: before the main party or after it.

"Definitely after it," MG said, anxiously tapping his foot on the ground as we supervised, watched, students desperate to get extra credit clean the Old Mill from top to bottom. "I don't want to get in trouble with Doctor Saltzman and Mrs Forbes-Salvatore, and Lizzie would make my life a living hell if…"

"I agree with you," I interrupted to stop him from finishing his sentence. We didn't need anyone hearing our plans and certain names and telling on us. "After is better and will give us the perfect window of opportunity to…"

"Yo, MG," Kaleb suddenly appeared before us, interrupting and startling me. "Alyssa and Jed told me about the after party. I managed to get Doctor Saltzman to sponsor it, but he wants to speak with you, so you better make sure that we get everything we need for this party to be the real deal."

The party was already a big deal to us, but I understood what Kaleb was saying. The after party was definitely going to be the party where I will shoot my last shot to get back my girlfriend.