The Real Me ↠ Hope Mikaelson ✓

03

𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄
one of a kind.

THE THREE SISTERS are playing in the field, dancing, singing, and acting like princesses with their crowns made of flowers and sticks.

The grass is tall, more meadow-like but still very green. There are blue cornflowers, scarlet poppies, white asters, and even thistles splayed out in the big field.

"Jo, Mills, look at this!" Lizzie exclaims happily as her long, blonde hair flows behind her in the wind. She lifts her hands and closes her eyes.

Suddenly, leaves start to float off the ground and stop just above the girls' heads before beginning to move in a slow circle around them.

Lizzie twists her wrists slightly, and the leaves dance together before coming together in the shape of a large heart.

"This is so cool!" Millie shrieks, making Lizzie lose her concentration, and the leaves drop to the ground. "Sorry," she mumbles with a sheepish look, as Lizzie just giggles.

"It's fine," Lizzie assures her older sister. God, she can't believe she gets to say that. She has an older sister! "I honestly didn't think I had it in me."

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Lizzie suddenly realises this is the first time in a while she's felt safe using her magic around other people.

Having magic and a bipolar disorder doesn't mix well, seeing as she has to be alone to really let out her emotions.

Usually, she becomes destructive, so she's scared to ever even attempt to use her magic around anyone—not even her twin.

But somehow, Millie's aura and personality calm Lizzie enough for her to feel secure in using her magic.

Maybe Millie being here will do some good.

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A FEW HOURS later, Millie eats her lunch, consisting of a stoner's brain.

Everything is suddenly hilarious to her, and she can barely hold herself up because her vision is blurry and the room is spinning.

Hope Mikaelson—the tribrid, she-wolf, lone girl extraordinaire—is sitting in a chair in the library, reading a book about potions for a project she's working on.

Millie stumbles into the library, bumping into a desk and knocking over a book, making her giggle so loudly and so hard that tears form in her eyes.

Hope simply stares with wide eyes as Millie pushes herself into a standing position, only to push too hard and fall to the floor in a laughing heap.

Of course, this isn't the first weird thing she's seen since starting at this school, but this is different. She's never seen this girl around before, yet she feels comfortable enough to do this.

Millie lifts her head and spots Hope sitting there with her feet tucked underneath her in the chair, and she stops laughing for a second to stare in awe.

The girl is so beautiful that Millie thinks she's seeing an angel for a moment.

"Damn," she murmurs, trying to pull herself up into a sitting position, but her arms give out under her weight, and she's left giggling again.

"Um..." Hope trails off, moving her feet from underneath her to settle on the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Am I dead?" Millie rhetorically asks the ceiling before looking back at the mystery girl. "Surely I'd have to be dead to see a face as beautiful as yours." Laughing, she flops down to lie on her stomach, gazing up at Hope beneath her eyelashes. "Hello there."

Even though Hope doesn't want anything to do with this girl, she can't help but smile in amusement.

And it's the first time in a while that she has genuinely smiled since the deaths of her parents.

For once, Hope plans to interact with someone else. She's simply going to walk over and help the giggly blonde to her feet.

But that's before her nemesis walks into the room in her tall, blonde glory—Lizzie Saltzman, aka the girl who has made it her mission to make Hope's life a living hell.

"Millie!" Lizzie exclaims, running over to help her sister up. "Josie and I have been looking everywhere for you!"

Millie giggles and leans on the younger girl. "Sister, oh, how I missed you!" she cries loudly, making Lizzie flinch.

Hope's eyes widen as she looks between the two girls, just now noticing their similarities. They're both blonde with blue eyes and the same nose.

Still, she wonders when the twins ever had another sister. Either way, she doesn't care.

Scoffing, Hope picks up her books and rushes past them, leaving Millie confused and Lizzie glaring after her.

"What did I do?" Millie mumbles, and Lizzie glances down at her, her eyes softening.

There's no way in Hell Lizzie is going to let her older sister—who has already been through a lot—be bullied by Hope fucking Mikaelson.

"You didn't do anything, Mills," Lizzie reassures, holding on a little tighter once she realises the girl is slipping from her grasp. "That's just Hope. She doesn't like anyone, and she has made it her mission to ruin my life. Don't bother with her, or else you'll end up hurt, and I really don't want that to happen."

Millie absently nods her head, her mind still stuck on those beautiful blue eyes that had looked down at her in amusement.

There had been something else shining in them; loneliness and guilt. Millie knows a lot about those two feelings, and now she wants to help Hope just as Liv did for her.

Mission One: Get Hope to talk to her.