บท 22: Chapter 22

Huge thanks to Darted Table for buying my Patreon! It really means a lot to me! anyways, onto the story!

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[Location: Salvatore Boarding School] [3rd POV]

It was the day after the gargoyle incident, and Talia snapping at Alaric. She had been chewed out by Alaric, Emma, and even Hope, but didn't get in much trouble besides that. She did save Lizzie, and killed the gargoyle in a rather safe manner. Alaric had also finally realized that she isn't weak, far from it at that. While he doesn't know the full extent of her power, he does know that she is the strongest witch in the school.

Alaric still did his little assembly thing, when he explained why the monsters were there and all that, which Talia ignored. Rafael and Landon also still returned back to the school, much to the annoyance of Hope and Talia. Neither of them liked Landon, and neither of them wanted him there. It was primarily due to him being a creep, having a horrible personality, and overall being a bit of a douche.

Currently Talia was sitting in on yet another assembly. This time it was about two missing girls.

"Given our recent influx of monsters, the sheriff and I have decided we need to take drastic action. Please give him your full attention" Alaric said, addressing the students with a serious tone in his voice.

"Like Dr. Saltzman was saying, local girls Dana Lilien and Sasha Stoteraux didn't come home last night. Dana sometimes skips town for a few days to party, but this is a first for Sasha" Matt, aka Sheriff Donavan said.

"Thank you, Sheriff Donovan. Now while the knife is away with Dorian and things are quiet on his end, it won't hurt to assume the worst. If Dana and Sasha..." Talia began to block him out at that, when she noticed Hope poking her.

"What?" Talia asked Hope while whispering.

"Where were you last night?" Hope asked, softly whispering.

"Practicing some spells" Talia replied. This was actually true. She had been training again in some of her spells, but focused mostly on her new Fairy class, and her new subclass. She had managed to get a bit farther in the usage of light, but not a ton. She had also started to mess around with her fox fire/electrokinesis as well.

Hearing the answer, Hpoe grumbled slightly, thinking that Talia was hiding something from her again. Talia sighed at the reaction, knowing that Hope could see through her lies. Not that she was lying this time...it was just a partial lie.

Focusing back on Alaric, Talia began to pick up on what he was saying again "Now, I'll need a few of you to volunteer to go to Mystic Falls high under the guise of an exchange program meant to improve relations between our schools, which, unfortunately, is necessary, given recent events" Alaric said, before he began to continue.

"Now, I give you permission to compel them, to gather materials for locator spells, because any information we can get will make all the difference" Alaric said. Hearing this, Lizzie stood up, turned, and began to address the students.

"Well, I guess that I can set aside my differences with Dana for a day, because that is what heroes do" Lizzie said, causing Alaric to sigh and Talia to stop a laugh.

"So...I volunteer as tribute" Lizzie continued.

"She battles one gargoyle, and suddenly, she's Mother Teresa" Hope softly said to Talia, causing her to crack a smile.

Getting up, Kaleb said "I'm in" "I'm in too" MG said right after. Seeing that everyone was volunteering, Hope thought for a moment, before giving Talia a mischievous grin.

"We'd like to help" Hope said, while getting up and grabbing Talia along with her. Talia turned to Hope "Wait-we do?" Groaning Talia looked at Alaric and nodded.

Leaning into Hope's ear, Talia softly whispered "I'll make sure to get you back for that" Hope shivered slightly at this.

'Guess it's time to go to normal, boring old Highschool'

[Small Timeskip]

After getting ready and getting on the bus to the school, Talia had the unfortunate reminder that Landon was now at the school. And due to Alaric, he would be going with them to Mystic Falls high.

Getting off the bus behind Hope, Talia could hear the cheerleaders cheering, probably as a sort of welcome to them. 'Who makes cheerleaders welcome exchange students?' Talia thought, as she began to walk side by side with Hope. Talia could practically feel the stares she was receiving by some of the students, but she just decided on ignoring them.

Getting into a group, Lizzie began to speak to them "Okay, here's the deal. Landon, you talk to any of the people you still know from when you went here. Hope, you try to not deliberately alienate the entire student body while the rest of us save the world."

"This isn't a contest, Lizzie" Hope replied with an annoyed expression on her face. The more Talia listened to Lizzie, the more she began to dislike her, she found her selfish and almost arrogant personality, to be getting more and more annoying as time went on. The fact that Josie just seemed to make excuses for her, sort of pissed her off. And the fact that Alaric didn't even try to do anything about it, also pissed her off. She didn't really hate Lizzie per se, she just disliked her personality...a lot.

"You're right. It's a mission for a hero and her league of...whatevers" Lizzie responded. Hearing this Talia rolled her eyes, white Kaleb responded "Yeah. Screw that. I work alone" After saying that he walked off.

"MG, I need your compulsion skills. Would you like to be the Robin to my Batwoman?" Lizzie said.

"Actually, Batwoman doesn't have a Robin. She-" "Metaphor, nerd. Let's go" Lizzie cut off.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Talia said to Hope who nodded with a slight smile, happy that she was getting paired up with Talia of all people. Landon who had been standing on the side, frowned at their interaction, as they began to walk off without him, neither of them really cared about him, nor did they wish to speak with him.

"Time to Sherlock this bitch"

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That's the end of this chapter. Next chapter WILL be longer by a decent bit, and will probably cover the rest of the episode. The date between Hope and Talia, should happen within a chapter or two. This chapter was a lot shorter than usual, as this is simply covering the beginning of the episode, and I don't really have the energy to write right now.

I might upload another chapter onto the vault, but we will see. Sorry for another late upload, I'm still dealing with Covid, which my entire family has now...so that's fun.

Anyways, have a good day! Point out any mistakes! See you tomorrow!