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Hope was reclined across the couch, letting her eyelids shut out the overhead light in their living room. Despite her closed eyes, though, she was still paying attention to the pitter patter of feet across wooden floorboards and soft giggles around her. The girls were playing with their new Barbies, given to them by Caroline for Christmas, and Hope was happy that they were at an age where they could entertain themselves for a while.
At some point, though, the giggles stopped, and there were some noises from down the hall. She raised an eyebrow, forcing her eyes open and sitting up, looking around. Andrea was sprawled across the floor in front of the couch, two barbies in her hands as she silently murmured dialogue. Her brown hair fell in perfect little curls, and she tilted her head back and forth as she played.
Meanwhile, Olivia was nowhere to be seen. “Olivia?” Hope called softly, glancing down the hallway, where she could hear Olivia messing with something. The seven year old girls were obviously old enough to go about their business throughout the house, but Hope was determined to keep them in sight this evening.
After a few seconds, Olivia came back into the room, hugging a big book to her chest and looking innocently at Hope, her big brown eyes—so much like Josie’s—staring into her. “Where’s Mama?”
Hope listened carefully, and she couldn’t hear any water running. Josie was probably still soaking in her bath. “Mama is having very well deserved me-time,” Hope answered, sitting up all the way and putting her feet down on the ground in front of her.
Olivia just blinked at her, before suddenly taking off at a sprint across the living room, toward Hope and Josie’s bedroom.
“Oh no you don’t!” Hope exclaimed, running across the room in an instant and scooping up Olivia, who burst out in giggles immediately. Hope couldn’t help but grin. “You think you can outrun me?”
“Mommy!” Olivia squealed preciously. “Put me down, you’re gonna make me drop the book!”
Hope reluctantly set her daughter down. “What book is that?” It looked way too big to be one of their Christmas presents.
Olivia looked sheepishly at Hope. “It was in the box that Grandpa brought for Mama.”
“Hey, you can’t just go through Mama’s things,” Hope scolded gently, taking the big book away from the little redhead.
“There’s pictures in it,” Olivia argued, trying to grab it back.
“There are pictures in it,” Hope corrected absently, opening the book with curiosity and seeing something written in loopy letters on the inside cover.
Josie Saltzman: 2028 – 2029
Hope blinked, flipping to the next page. It was a scrapbook. She had no idea that Josie had ever scrapbooked.
“What is it?” Andrea asked suddenly, appearing next to Olivia and looking up with pleading blue eyes.
“Go sit down,” Hope prompted the girls gently, nodding toward the couch. Eagerly, they ran and hopped up on the couch, leaving space between them for Hope. She slowly sat down between the two of them. “Looks like your Mama made a scrapbook from when we were in high school. Grandpa must have found it in his stuff.”
Olivia immediately reached across the book, flipping about a dozen pages ahead. She and Andrea stared intently at the pictures and colorful decorations and labels that Josie had covered it with.
“Mommy, that’s you,” Andrea said, sounding weirdly surprised as she pointed to a picture that was, sure enough, Hope and a few other witches from their year. It looked like it was taken during breakfast or lunch one day at the school. “Whoa, you went to the same school as us?”
Hope couldn’t help but snicker a little. Had she and Josie really not talked enough about their childhoods to their kids yet? “Yes, we did,” Hope answered gently. “Your Grandpa opened the school when Mama and I were little kids. I started going there when I was your age.”
Olivia flipped the page again. She began pointing to various faces and asking, “Who’s that?” for each one, barely giving Hope time to answer with a name before moving on to the next.
Finally, her little finger landed on one picture that gave Hope pause. “Who are those two?”
Hope hummed, her fingers reaching down to touch the photo. “This one,” she said first, pointing to the face on the left, “is Rafael. And this one…” She stares at the photo of Landon. It was clearly taken when both boys were unaware—during another mealtime. Hope couldn’t help but wonder if Josie took these herself, or if she stole them from the club that was supposed to do yearbook every year. She was pretty sure they had never actually produced a yearbook, but sometimes she’d see them snapping photos.
“Mommy?” Andrea prompted her.
“His name was Landon,” Hope told them gently.
“His hair was funny.” She smiled fondly at Olivia’s comment.
“Why do you look sad?” Andrea asked, poking Hope’s arm accusatorily. “Do you miss them?”
Hope chuckled, hoping she didn’t sound too sad, looking down at the photo again. “Yes.”
“Maybe you can invite them to our New Year’s party,” Olivia suggested, wearing a grin like she’d just solved the world’s problems. Hope couldn’t even help but smile back.
“We can’t, sorry, love,” Hope told her softly.
“Why not?” Andrea whined.
Hope sighed thoughtfully. “You know how sometimes, people grow really old and then they die?”
“Like Opal Stevens’s cat?” Olivia inquired.
Hope didn’t recognize the name, but she was sure Josie would if she was here. Assuming it was a classmate of her daughters, she nodded. “Sure. Well, sometimes, people can die when they’re young, too. For lots of reasons—it’s why sometimes we have to be extra careful when we do things, like looking both ways before crossing the street.” She poked Olivia in the stomach, getting giggles out of her.
“So they died?” Andrea asked, blue eyes wide with understanding. The little brunette wore a pout very reminiscent of Josie’s.
“Yes,” she answered lightly. “Well… Rafael didn’t really, but he has to stay in a very safe place to keep him alive. But Landon died when I was eighteen. He died so that everyone else could keep living.”
“That’s sad,” Andrea mused, still frowning. “Were you friends with him?”
“Yes… well, I loved him,” Hope answered, mussing Andrea’s hair.
“But I thought you love Mama,” Olivia said with narrow eyes. Hope couldn’t help but laugh.
“I do love your Mama,” she insisted. “I loved her back then, too, we were best friends. But I didn’t fall in love with Mama until later.”
“What’s the difference?” Olivia asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising two little auburn eyebrows. Hope opened her mouth to answer, but she couldn’t figure out exactly how to explain what the difference was.
“Um… it’s like, falling in love with someone is like, when you want to kiss them.”
“So, it’s when you ‘like-like’ someone,” Andrea said for clarification. Hope smirked but nodded.
“Right. You can love someone without being in love with them.”
“But you’re always gonna be in love with Mama, right?” Olivia demanded, still looking rather indignantly at Hope with those dark eyes.
“Of course, love. I could never fall in love with anyone else. Your Mama is the only woman for me.”
Olivia looked pleased to hear that, and then reached down to flip the book ahead a few more pages. “Oh look—there’s the boy you loved again. But he’s with Mama.” She looked up at Hope with another accusing gaze. “It looks like he like-liked Mama.”
“You are so protective of your Mama, aren’t you?” Hope muttered with a gentle laugh. “He did like-like her once, too.”
“But I thought you like-liked him?”
“I did, but…” Hope thought back to when she had come out of Malivore, after a summer of being trapped away, only to find Josie and Landon together. Her heart had been broken into so many pieces. It had been the most complex jealousy she’d ever experienced. Losing Landon, who she was in love with, to her best friend, who she had had fleeting feelings toward for years. “Um… there was… well, basically what happened was—”
“What are you trying to explain to them?” Josie’s voice cut her off, an amused look on her face.
“Mama!” Andrea exclaimed happily, looking up at where Josie stood leaning against the wall of the living room. Her wet hair was tied up in a bun, and she was wrapped in a bright yellow robe. The younger brunette leapt off of the couch and ran to wrap her arms around Josie’s legs. “Mommy was telling us about the boy that like-liked you when she like-liked him.”
“Landon?” Josie asked, looking up at Hope with curious eyes. Hope nodded shyly. “What are you guys looking at?” She reached down to pick up Andrea before walking over to the couch, taking a seat by Hope.
“Apparently, this was in that box your dad brought over on Christmas,” Hope answered. “I didn’t know you made scrapbooks in high school.”
A dark blush covered Josie’s face. “That’s because I didn’t want anyone to know,” she muttered. “Anyway. What did you tell them?”
Hope opened her mouth to answer, but then Olivia blabbed, “She told us that Rafael is locked up so he doesn’t die, and Landon died so everyone else could not die.”
“I did not say locked up,” Hope argued, poking her daughter in the stomach again.
“You don’t think they’re a little young to hear all about that stuff?” Josie asked with a chuckle, leaning into her wife. Hope blushed. She hadn’t really questioned that, considering all of the things she knew when she was seven years old. She was about to open her mouth to apologize, but then Josie pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “But yes, Mommy and I both liked Landon at some point or another. He was really nice, and yes, he did pass away, and it was very sad.”
“But now,” Olivia said with concern, “you only like-like each other.”
Josie laughed incredulously. “Of course, sweetie,” she said, before adding, “I can’t believe that’s all you got out of that.”
“I think I heard this story,” Andrea blurted suddenly, like she just remembered something, from Josie’s lap. She looked up at her two mothers like she might get in trouble. “At school. Some of the older kids were talking about reading in their textbook. There was a boy named Landon. And they talked about Mommy.”
Hope deflated a little. She hated that her kids had to hear about her from school, but at the same time, she didn’t want what happened with Malivore to be lost in history the way so many other supernatural events had been overtime. Still, their twins were way too young to be hearing about how their mother had to stab anyone in the heart, let alone what happened after. She also dreaded them learning about their grandfather.
“Well,” Josie said, “I don’t know what they said about Mommy, but here’s all that you girls need to know. Landon was a really nice boy, who was really brave. It wasn’t anyone’s fault when he died. And Mommy had to make some really hard decisions in order to help save a lot of people.”
Hope sighed. Maybe Josie was right—she shouldn’t have brought up any of these things. The girls were too young to hear about this kind of thing. But, knowing that they were hearing things from school already, it was nice to have some kind of control over how they heard the information.
“Because Mommy is a hero,” Olivia stated matter-of-factly, and Hope felt her cheeks turn rosy as she beamed at the young girl.
“Yes, exactly,” Josie answered with a grin, before meeting Hope’s eyes. “Mommy is a hero.” Hope felt her breath catch in her throat, but before she could say anything, Josie was saying, “Do you ladies want to see my favorite part of this scrapbook?”
“Yes!” the twins squealed simultaneously, and Josie gave Hope a grin before suddenly flipping to the last few pages.
The pages were covered only in polaroid photos, and the people in the photos were part of a much smaller group. It was clear to Hope that it was only the Super Squad featured.
“That’s Aunt Lizzie and Uncle MG!” Olivia exclaimed brightly, pointing to a polaroid of Josie, Lizzie, and MG. They kept pointing out everyone else they knew, squealing excitedly every time they saw Hope appearing in Josie’s scrapbook. Admittedly, there was a lot of Hope in these last few pages.
When they finally made it through those last few pages, Josie took the book from Hope’s lap, closing it firmly. “Alright, girls, I think that’s enough for tonight.”
Olivia groaned. “But Mama—”
“Nuh-uh,” Josie cut her off, “it’s bedtime for you two. How about you go upstairs and get ready, and Mommy and I will come tuck you in in ten minutes?”
Andrea nodded, hopping off of Josie’s lap as she yawned. “C’mon, Olivia,” she murmured tiredly, “I’m sleepy.”
“I’m not,” Olivia argued, but her twin took her hand and gently started to pull her toward the stairs. Hope and Josie both watched them go, and as soon as they were out of earshot, Josie looked at her curiously.
“You okay?” she asked softly. “I was trying not to listen, but I heard them asking you about Raf and Landon.”
“I’m okay,” Hope promised her wife. “Just didn’t really know what to say to them. You’re right, they’re still so young, it’s just… when I was seven, I was being possessed with the Hollow and… you know. Anyway, I don’t want to lie to them.”
“Me neither,” Josie assured her. “I think you handled it well, babe.”
Hope hummed, suddenly leaning on Josie’s shoulder and curling into her. “Not as well as you did. You’re so much better at that than me.” After a pause, she muttered, “I can’t believe they’re already hearing bad things about me at school.”
“They’re not bad things,” Josie argued. “It’s not like we’re teaching the students about you flipping off your humanity or anything. Trust me, you are a hero in those textbooks.”
“A terrifying hero,” Hope grumbled.
Josie chuckled, wrapping her arms around the auburn haired woman. “Our daughters don’t think you’re terrifying, because you’re not. You are cute and mushy—not scary.”
“Shut up, I’m not cute or mushy.”
“No, you are definitely both of those things. I have a lot of firsthand experience witnessing it.”
Hope sighed, shifting back to the previous topic. “We have to talk to them about so many things eventually, before they hear too much at school. We have to talk to them about my dad… about Malivore, about black magic, about the Merge… ugh, why can’t they still little and perfect forever?”
Josie laughed lightly. “They’re always going to be perfect.”
“I know,” Hope says, “but one day they’re going to be teenagers and they’re going to go into an ‘I hate my parents’ phase. And it’s going to be even worse because they’re going to be able to hear about all of these terrible things, and—”
“Hope,” Josie cut her off, “stop spiraling. It’s going to be okay, okay? Our little girls are strong, and we’re going to make sure they understand everything they need to at the right time. And we can talk about that more when you’re not clearly in desperate need of a nap.”
“I don’t need to sleep,” Hope said with a pout.
“Yeah, neither do I, and sometimes I still need a nap,” Josie reminded her, laughing. “Come on, let’s go tuck our girls in and go to bed.” Josie pressed a soft kiss to Hope’s lips before standing up, and Hope watched her walk toward the stairs for a moment before getting up and following.
She knew Josie was right. They would have to cross each bridge when they got there—they couldn’t perfectly shelter their girls from everything, but they also didn’t have to tell them everything all at once. It was yet another balancing act, and if Hope and Josie were good at anything, it was balancing.
So they would be okay.
And right now, Hope would tuck the blankets around her sweet little twins and give them goodnight kisses on their foreheads, and watch Josie do the same right after. She would whisper, “I love you, always and forever,” and her heart would swell in that moment, and everything would be just fine.
6 Years Later
Hope pushed open the entry door to the Salvatore School to find the front hall bustling with students. Normally, if she was here to help out with something, she would’ve purposefully arrived during classes, but that wasn’t the case today.
The hall was so much busier than even in the busiest years that Hope had gone here years earlier. It wasn’t a secret that having Josie had headmaster made this school much more appealing to people, considering that she was actually supernatural, unlike her father at the time he opened the school. Not to mention, Josie had dropped the requirement for students and teachers to live in the school, meaning that any supernatural kids from Mystic Falls and surrounding areas, including Andrea and Olivia, could commute to the school rather than move in.
And the first year there had been a surge in proceeds, Josie had used it to provide the faculty with accommodations in town as well, clearing out even more rooms in the school for students who did want to board as well. It had kept Hope’s wife rather busy about two years after the birth of their daughters, but now it was definitely worth it, considering that there were no issues with the twins living in their house with them.
“Mrs. Mikaelson,” one student said brightly, drawing Hope’s gaze. It was a young werewolf with shaggy blonde hair and a sweet smile. She recognized him easily—one of Hope’s favorite things she volunteered to help with at the school was full moons.
They had long since abolished forcing the students to transition locked up in cells in the basement. Instead, there was a specific section of the woods that Hope, Lizzie, and Josie had spelled so that on the full moons, it would keep humans and vampires out, and keep werewolves in. It kept them contained, but allowed them to run and hunt small animals, and experience what it was like to actually be a pack.
Not that Hope had much experience with that herself, but she was happy to see the kids have that opportunity.
“Hey Ashton,” she greeted, not remembering his last name. Josie always addressed the students by their last names, but since Hope didn’t technically work there, she didn’t mind not following her wife’s example.
“Are you here because of what happened with Andrea?” he asked coolly, raising an eyebrow.
Hope tried to not appear surprised. When Josie had texted her a brief request to her to come to the school because of an incident, she’d automatically assumed that whatever happened had happened with Olivia. Andrea was usually much more reserved. “That,” she tutted, “is none of your business. Why don’t you get to class?”
“Sure,” he said with a smirk, before heading off. Hope tried not to roll her eyes as she pushed through the busy hallways toward the familiar Headmaster’s office. Sometimes, she hated being at the school and realizing that she looked the same age as all of the students. It was weird technically being forty years old and still appearing eighteen. She knew that feeling would probably never go away, and sometimes she wondered how she and Josie were going to manage to continue to blend in in Mystic Falls after a while, but at least within the school and their immediate community, it was not an issue.
She heard her wife talking before she walked into the room, and she frowned a little at what she heard.
“But that is not an excuse to act out, and you girls both know how important it is to try and keep a handle on your emotions because of—”
“The merge,” Olivia cut her off, “we know, Mama.”
Hope exhaled and then pushed open the door, her daughters and wife looking up at her as she did.
Andrea deflated visibly. “You called Mom?”
“Yes, she did,” Hope responded, quirking up an eyebrow. “The question is why did she have to call me? What happened, loves?”
Andrea crossed her arms over her chest, tucking her chin and directing her eyes to the floor. She was seated in one of the two chairs in front of Josie’s desk, with Olivia taking the other one. When the brunette didn’t answer, Hope looked over at their red-headed daughter. Her hair was definitely darker than it had been at as a kid, fading to more of an auburn like Hope’s.
“Don’t look at me,” Olivia snarked, “I don’t know what happened! Mama just called me here and started lecturing us!”
Josie sighed. “I’m sorry, Olivia, but I wanted Mom to be here before we got into it.” She looked up and met Hope’s eyes, pursing her lips. “Sorry to call you up here.”
“No, it’s okay,” Hope insisted. “Someone want to fill me in?”
“Andrea?” Josie prompted gently. The thirteen year old turned her gaze up to meet Josie’s eyes, and after a long stare, she sighed.
“Today we learned about Mom’s dad in history class,” she mumbled, purposefully avoiding Hope’s eyes. “Some of the other witches were saying… things about the Mikaelson family, and then they started about what happened to Mom after she stopped Malivore.” She tightened her jaw, sitting up straighter and finally looking up to meet Hope’s eyes. Her blue eyes burned with an intense anger. “But they got it all wrong and were saying things that made you out to be so… evil. And I… I couldn’t just listen to them say that, but I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to do anything bad.”
She finally looked back down, shame coming over her face. Josie nodded slowly, before looking back up at Hope. “Mr. Barnes said that all of the bookshelves basically exploded, books everywhere, and the windows shattered. Only one student got hurt, since most everyone had left the classroom, but she already saw the nurse and she’s just fine.” A pause. “She siphoned the student next to her.” Hope bit the inside of her cheek, thinking about Lizzie and the episodes she used to have before she became a vampire. These sorts of issues were part of the Gemini curse, and were supposed to resolve after the Merge, although obviously, Hope and Josie were never going to let said Merge happen.
Trying to stay even more ahead of it than Alaric had, both of the twins had been in monthly therapy ever since they were young, giving them a lot of strategies to deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed with emotion. So far, they’d never really had any incidents, but Hope wasn’t exactly surprised that one had happened anyway.
“Andrea,” Hope said gently, coming to stand by her wife, “I know exactly how you feel. Did you know when I first used to go here, I didn’t tell anyone who my dad was? I had to listen to people talk about him and how terrible he was all the time, and I couldn’t say anything. It was so hard. But we can’t control what other people think of us. And it’s true, my father did a lot of terrible things, but it doesn’t change the fact that I loved him, and that he saved me. And as we’ve told both you girls… I’ve done bad things, too. I’m not perfect. And so people are going to exaggerate that and try and use it to rile you up, but what you just have to remember is to not let it affect you so much.”
“Which,” Josie continued, “we know is much easier said than done. So we aren’t mad at you, and we’re sorry that you have to carry this burden of controlling your natural reactions. Just remember that you are both really powerful, and that means you have to be really responsible with how you use your power. And you have to remember your grounding and coping skills.”
Andrea nodded solemnly, but Olivia just crossed her arms over her chest. “So we have to behave when other people insult our family?” she snapped. “I heard that lesson, too, and my takeaway was that the Mikaelsons are the most powerful family in history. Everyone else should be scared of us.”
Hope blew out a long breath. “Sometimes it’s easy to think like that, Liv, but it’s like your Mama said. We have a responsibility to use the power we have for good reasons. Our family has a reputation because that power hasn’t always been used for good, and it’s our responsibility to show people that just because we are Mikaelsons doesn’t mean that our power is a danger to everyone. People are mean when they’re scared, and we have to prove them wrong.” She crouched down in front of the young girls. “Okay, my loves?”
Both girls nodded now, their eyes soft and no longer filled with anger.
“Aunt Lizzie said she’d be happy to talk to you two after school today, too,” Josie told them softly. “Meet her in her office after last period, okay?”
“Okay,” they both said quietly.
“We love you girls,” Hope promised them. “Always, and forever.”
“Love you, too.”
“Now get to your next class.”
The two young teenagers got up off of their chairs and quickly filed out of the office, leaving Hope and Josie in the office alone. Hope immediately groaned, falling against her wife, who immediately wrapped her arms around her. “I’m sorry,” Josie cooed. “I know this is hard.”
“I love our girls,” Hope whispered, “but I wish they didn’t have to have such a terrible family history.”
“I know,” Josie said, “but we can’t control that, and they just have to learn to deal with it. It sucks, but we’re doing our best, right?”
“Right,” she said hopefully. “Just… sometimes I don’t know what the right thing to say or do is.”
“I know, baby. But we just have to do our best, which means even when we don’t know, we do what we can. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far.”
Hope sighed. “I love you, Jo.”
“I love you, too, Hope,” Josie murmured, rubbing her hand up and down Hope’s back. “They’re going to be okay. If they’re anything like us, they’re going to go through hard times, but they’re going to figure it out. And we’re going to help them.”
“You’re right. Ugh. You’re so good at this stuff.” She let out a shaky breath. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just not cut out for this, and they’re going to end up hating me.”
“You know that’s not true,” Josie promised. “They love you. You are their hero.”
Hope swallowed thickly, burying her face into Josie’s neck. She pictured her daughter’s bright faces and couldn’t help but smile. “Okay.”
4 Years Later
Andrea
Andrea Mikaelson was the quiet sister.
She liked it that way, with her sister getting most of the attention from their classmates while she could just observe. That had always been easy, since Olivia was the one with the bright hair that naturally attracted attention. Even now at seventeen years old, her hair was still redder than their Mom’s was at eighteen—the age she’d been frozen at when she turned into a vampire years ago.
It gave Andrea more opportunity to learn about the things around her. Olivia might be the one to spread gossip or cause a scene, but it was Andrea who always knew what was going on. They were a team that way.
So yes, Andrea was the quiet sister, and she was happy with that.
Still, everyone had a breaking point.
It had been a couple of years since the last time Andrea had reached hers. Weekly therapy to process overwhelming feelings was usually helpful enough, in addition to occasional trips out to the woods to just scream and let out her anger. Most days, Andrea coasted by, hanging out with her sister and her close friends, ignoring everyone who might make her angry.
Today, though, was not one of those days.
“You wanna know what I heard from Stacy?” she overheard one of the vampires—Moira—saying to one of her friends at lunch, while they were all waiting in the line for the buffet. Even though the vampires all had super hearing, they still felt the need to talk so loudly so everyone could hear them. Andrea was already mentally rolling her eyes, expecting to overhear something boring or childish. Something to do with relationship drama. What she didn’t expect to hear was, “She told me that Dr. Mikaelson, when she was in school here, once got possessed by black magic, went crazy, and held the entire student body captive while trying to kill her sister.”
“Oh my god,” the other vampire responded, “but she’s so nice?”
“I mean, we can’t really be surprised, right?” Moira snarked back. “I mean look who she married. Mrs. Mikaelson may be nice now, but we all know who her father was and what she did when she was just a kid.”
Andrea pressed her hand to the wall, steadying herself as she felt anger washing up through her body. There was nothing that set her off faster than people talking bad about her family. She knew what both of her mothers had done when they were younger, she knew what her Mom’s dad had done for centuries before finally saving his only daughter and his family. She knew that the line between good and evil was fine sometimes, and that someone could be evil and do good things, and vice versa.
And she knew that even though stupid teenagers liked to talk shit about their teachers, they wouldn’t actually hate either of her mothers even after spreading their stupid gossip.
She knew all that, and she still hated listening to anyone talk bad about them.
“I mean, I know we’re all supernatural,” the other vampire said, “but falling into two factions? Three? That’s like, super unnatural.”
The two vampires laughed childishly, and Andrea suddenly felt herself filling with power. She glanced with surprise to her left, seeing her hand glowing red as she siphoned magic from the school. Blinking, she yanked her hand away, but it was too late—she had magic flowing through her now.
“I wonder if the Mikaelson twins are going to turn out to be the same kind of Tribrid freaks.”
Andrea set her jaw, clenching her fish as her mouth opened to form some words—she wasn’t sure what they were going to be, but it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Then, suddenly, a hand clapped down on her shoulder. “Calm down,” Olivia’s voice whispered in her ear. “They aren’t fucking worth it.”
“Did you hear what they said?” Andrea snapped back. “How dare they insult Mama. She’s literally so nice to all of them, even when they’re terrible.”
“I know, but it’s like Mom always says. We just have to be more responsible than them.”
Andrea scoffed as the line moved forward. “You know they can hear us, right? Is that why you’re actually trying to be the levelheaded twin right now?” Olivia snickered, looping her arm through Andrea’s.
“I’m trying to prevent a meltdown.” Suddenly, the magic in Andrea was being siphoned away into Olivia. She glanced over at the two vampires, who had conveniently shut their mouths now. “Pellis tincture,” she whispered, and then suddenly, both vampires’ skin was turning bright green.
“What the hell?” Moira shouted, immediately turning to look back a few people in line at Andrea and Olivia. “You stupid little witches!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Moira,” Olivia snipped back. “You’re looking a little green, though, did you eat something bad? Maybe the school’s blood supply when rotten. I guess that would explain why you’re such a little bitch.”
The other students in line with them were backing away into a circle around them, watching on with wide eyes. It wasn’t every day that there was a fight—verbal or physical—on campus, especially not involving the headmaster’s daughters. Of course everyone would want a show.
Moira scoffed. “You wanna say that again, Mikaelson?” she snapped, suddenly standing right in front of the two of them threateningly.
Olivia laughed. “You really wanna take us on? The potential Tribrid freaks?” She raised her eyebrows. “I think you can handle being green for a few hours. You do well enough wearing your face every day.”
The crowd around them echoed with “ooh”s, and Olivia quirked an eyebrow up at Moira. “Liv,” Andrea said carefully. She hated when her sister said rude things to other students, even if they did sometimes deserve it. She swallowed thickly, looking back at the green vampire. “Like you said, she’s not worth it.”
Moira scoffed again, and then they were all interrupted by a sharp, “Alright, break it up.” Andrea stiffened as she heard the voice of their Aunt Lizzie. “Moira, Lily, go to the nurse. Mikaelson A and B,” she said, looking pointedly at Andrea and Olivia, “my office.”
The two of them hesitantly followed after their aunt to her office, where she pointed at the two chairs in front of the desk. They sat down dutifully. “Aunt Lizzie,” Olivia immediately started, “it was my fault, I was—”
“No,” Andrea interrupted, “I siphoned the school, and I was going to do something stupid, but Olivia—”
“I’m the one who spelled those bitch vampires, so you can just leave Andrea out of it—”
“Except she only did it to stop me from doing something—”
“Both of you,” their aunt interrupted firmly, “stop talking. MG heard everything, he filled me in. And I know both of you know that it is highly inappropriate to do any spells against any classmates for any reason. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“I also know how hard it can be to control your feelings when people say mean things,” the blonde said softly. “And since your Mom is out of town and my sister is occupied with the full moon tonight, I’m going to handle Gemini witch meltdown duty today.”
While their Aunt Lizzie gave counseling and therapy to all of the other students at the school, Andrea and Olivia only talked to her personally. Their mothers had been insistent about them seeing a therapist unrelated to them, so there was one in town they saw regularly. Andrea was pretty sure that she had been compelled by one of their mothers to not freak out about all of the supernatural stuff, but she couldn’t be sure. Usually, their moms didn’t compel people unless it was absolutely necessary—standard Vampires 101 and History of Vampires stuff.
“They were insulting Mama,” Olivia explained for the both of them. “Talking about when she was being affected by all of the black magic.”
“They also called Mom and Mama and us freaks,” Andrea mumbled under her breath.
Lizzie sighed. “Trust me, if you, me, and your moms are freaks, then I’m just saying, being a freak is awesome.” Olivia snickered, rolling her eyes. “I’m serious. My sister and your Mom are some of the most incredible people that I know, even after all of the bad things they did when they were in dark places. They’re my family—they’re you’re family. Of course you would feel protective over them.”
She gave them both pointed looks.
“But you know what else I’m going to say. The solution is not to—”
“Lash out,” Olivia interrupted with a nod. “We know. Like we said, what we did was the better option. We were trying to avoid a Gemini witch meltdown.”
“But, it was my fault,” Andrea spoke up.
“But I’m the one who actually did the spell that turned them green.”
Lizzie sighed. “Okay. Detention for both of you then.” Olivia’s jaw dropped. “What? You were both so excited to tell me it was your fault.” Andrea gave her sister a look, and Olivia’s face relaxed. “Moira will get detention, too, don’t worry. I just wanted to make sure that you two were okay.”
“We’re fine,” Olivia insisted. Their aunt Lizzie looked pointedly at Andrea.
“I got mad, but I’m okay,” she promised. “Olivia helped me calm down.”
The older blonde looked at the two of them fondly. “You know, you two are so much like how me and your Mama was when we were teenagers, but also so different.” Andrea and Olivia shared another look, clearly both wondering what made them the same but also different. “I’m proud of you both.”
“We just turned Moira and Lily green, and you’re proud of us?” Olivia blinked up at their aunt.
Lizzie raised an eyebrow. “Don’t milk it, little Mikaelson. You two get back to lunch. Remember detention after school today.”
Andrea fought a smile as she followed her sister out of their aunt’s office. “I did not see that coming,” she said in amusement. “What do you think she meant, about us being the same but different from her and Mama?”
“I don’t know,” Olivia answered, “but considering how Opal got a week’s detention for making the lights go out in class last week, I’d say it’s a good thing. We got off easy.”
“Shut up,” Andrea hushed her, “Aunt Lizzie can still hear you.”
Olivia snickered. “It’s fine. Let’s go get lunch, I’m hungry.” They looped their arms and headed back for the cafeteria. When they walked back in, a few vampires glared at them, but Olivia just gave them a wide, fake smile. “Ignore them, sis. It doesn’t matter what they think of us. We’re Mikaelsons.”
Andrea smiled at that, and took in a deep breath. This wasn’t the first time she had let people’s opinions on her family get to her, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, but there was one thing she knew for sure.
Her family would always be there for her. Always and forever.