Chapter 2: Testing, Testing
A/N Hiya! I'm back with another chapter! Warning, some angst. Please, ENJOY
Hope and Landon stood side-by-side, not at all failing to notice how silent the dining hall was. It was dinner time and the supernaturals of the Salvatore School were enjoying filet mignon (or of course the vegan option: roasted pear and butternut squash soup), with very little vigor and a lot of glances in the direction of the ten new students. Their old headmistress, Elinor Burgess, and her students/staff were eating outside with Alaric, smoothing out the kinks in the Deviants' enrollment. It was unnerving. Just over an hour ago they were all led inside, taken to the showers, and given clean clothes to wear. Now they looked different, bad different. Now you could see the scars lining their worn bodies, the bags under their eyes, and the many bruises spotted across their skin. A few of them had been blonde, but you didn't know because there was so much filth in their hair that it was black.
One of them caught everyone's eye, however, it was Mika. On top of the obscene amount of scars visible, they had a branding on their forehead - something none of the others had. It was a word; Slave. It was obvious some already thought that this was a jab at the color of their skin, dark as it was, but there were three other people of color in the group, none of them had the same. No, Hope was of the impression that it was something far more personal. Something specific to Mika in a malicious way.
"Do you they make you nervous?" Landon asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"Who?"
"All of them, the Deviants, do they make you nervous?"
She gazed in thought at the group, tilting her head slightly to the right and furrowing her brow. "No..." she began slowly, "they don't make me nervous. But at the same time - whatever happened to them does. Does that make any sense?"
"Yeah, it does."
They walked down together and went to the kitchen, grabbing a plate of food each. As usual, there weren't many places for them to sit - unless they chose to sit at the same table as the Deviants. Hope shrugged and walked over to them, "mind if we sit?"
A couple of them nodded apprehensively and Hope and Landon plopped themselves down next to each other. As they ate in silence Hope happened to look up and catch Mika's eye, blinking in surprise when they physically recoiled. "What is it?" She asked worriedly, hoping she hadn't offended them in some way. At first, they remained silent, jaw wiggling back and forth as they thought. "I-," they whispered, looking away. "I'm so sorry." They stood and briskly strode away.
"What was that all about?" Landon asked, watching them walk away.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Hope quirked an eyebrow at him, each of them mirroring the other's look of confusion. "Maybe I should go after them?" She questioned, looking to her boyfriend for advice.
"That's up to you but they seemed pretty tense, I'd leave it alone for now."
"Hmm," she frowned. "Maybe you're right, something just feels-"
"Off?"
"Yeah." They stared at each other for a moment, the conversation continuing in their eyes. Suddenly, and rather unwelcome-ly, her phone buzzed, signaling it was time for her to head over to her next class. She gave Landon a peck on the lips as she stood, "see ya later?"
"Yeah, definitely." He gave her a crooked smile and she giggled as she walked.
On her way, she saw Josie in the hallway on her phone. "Wanna join me? I'm heading over to Dorian's History of Magic class."
"Heh, sure, I was just about to head over there." Josie smiled awkwardly and they made their way through the halls side-by-side. To fill the silence, Hope told Josie about her encounter with Mika and how she was worried about them. "It almost seemed as if they were apologizing in the same way people do when something bad happens to you, like, sympathetic? You know what I mean?"
"Mm-hm, that's really weird. What are their powers again?"
"They have some kind of connection to the supernatural Afterlife, they draw power from it and can kinda sorta bring people back for a limited amount of time. Why?" Hope looked at Josie curiously.
"You think that has something to do with it?" Josie suggested thoughtfully, looking back at her shorter companion. "I mean it almost sounds like they can sense the supernatural dead. Like, know if they're there and stuff."
"Your point?"
Josie gave Hope a look of exasperation and frowned uncomfortably. "Well, y'know, all of your family is supernatural and some of them are dead-"
"And you think Mika could sense the death surrounding me?" Hope snapped, crossing her arms.
"I-it's just a thought, I didn't mean to say it like that," Josie said quickly, putting an apologetic hand on Hope's arm.
"No, I'm sorry. You were just trying to help and honestly, you're probably right. I do have a lot of deaths in my family and pretty much all of them are my fault so," Hope didn't wait to hear what Josie had to say to that and instead headed into the classroom. The chairs in the middle of the room were in a circle as usual and Hope took a seat that didn't have anyone seating near her yet, knowing that most people would catch the hint and avoid sitting next to her if possible. A second later Josie walked in and rolled her eyes, defiantly taking her place in the chair on Hope's right. The red-head scoffed lightly but didn't resist when Josie playfully nudged her. "Hey, I really am sorry. You okay?" She asked softly.
"Yeah, it's nothing - I guess it still sucks to think about them. I didn't mean to take that out on you." She apologized, meeting her friend's gaze with a half-smile.
"Don't worry - I get it. I mean, I know what's it's like to have bad things happen then snap at other people because of those bad things."
"Penelope?"
"Among other things," Josie sighed with a smile that hid more than it showed.
The rest of the students filed in and took their seats, the chair on Hope's left remained untaken. Dorian started talking about some defensive spell that can counter several air-based offensive magic attacks. Hope tuned him out, opting to mull over her interaction with Mika instead, something was truly bothering her about it but she couldn't quite place it. Something about the look on their face was off, if Hope didn't know better, she'd say it was nostalgic. But that couldn't be it, right? That makes absolutely no sense, but here she was, unable to place the younger person's expression as anything other than nostalgia. Her mind wandered to what Josie said about Mika's powers and her theory that Mika could feel the death around Hope. It was plausible, a little too plausible. Why did her father's death have to hang over her all the time? Why can't she just grieve without everyone rubbing salt in the wound?
Class finished up without a hitch and Hope gratefully hopped up from her seat to leave. "Miss Mikaelson, Miss Saltzman, stay behind, please." Dorian called, Josie and Hope stopping in their tracks. Lizzie also stopped, but upon receiving a quick 'only your sister', she happily walked out.
"What's up?" Hope asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I noticed neither of you was participating much in class, anything I need to know about?"
Josie didn't participate in class? This was news to Hope, but she had been spacing out so that wasn't much of a surprise. "No, nothing." She said shortly, giving him a smile that was just on the edge of being polite.
"No, sir." The taller girl said respectfully, not meeting their teacher's gaze.
Dorian nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets, "okay, well, you both know you can talk to me if anything happens?"
"Yep."
"Yeah."
The man nodded and removed one of his hands from its pocket to gesture at the door. "You can go."
Hope spun on her heels and strode swiftly out the door, Josie following close behind. Once the classroom door was closed behind them, Hope stopped and turned to her friend. "You didn't do anything in class? You always help out with the spells and stuff."
Josie shyly shook her head, "I just wasn't feeling it, today. You were also pretty deep in thought. You didn't even roll your eyes when Lizzie boasted about her technique."
Hope scoffed lightly, "I'm glad I wasn't paying attention if that's how Lizzie contributed to the class."
The two girls giggled at that, sharing happy smiles. "But, really," Hope said seriously, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Josie smiled reassuringly, and the redhead nodded. They began their walk down the hall when the intercom system buzzed to life. "Attention, all students. Please head to the lakefront within the next five minutes, this is mandatory. Thank you." Hope and Josie glanced at each other. "This is one hell of a day, huh?" The shorter of the two commented. Josie chuckled. "You can say that again."
"This is one hell of a day, huh?"
The two girls laughed and jogged side by side to make their way to the lakefront.
Once they arrived, Hope shook her head in disgust. Elinor was standing proudly on the lake's pier, hands clasped formally behind her back. Her expression was smug as she looked out at the swarm of students flooding out onto the lawn. The tribrid wanted nothing more than to wipe that self-satisfied look off the woman's face. She watched as Alaric walked up to her and took his place next to her, also gazing out at his supernatural students chattering away as they waited for whatever was happening to begin.
"Salvatore students!" He shouted above the din, effectively silencing the crowd. "It was decided that the testing of the Deviants will be a public event, hence your being summoned here. It will, in the end, be your choice whether or not they can stay. There are four categories that the Deviants will be tested in, magical abilities, super strength, general heightened physical abilities, and mental acuity; myself and one of Miss Burgess's most trusted students will be overseeing each test. First up, we have Zach in magical abilities!"
Zach shuffled awkwardly out from a bench Hope hadn't noticed before where all the Deviants were sitting. She stood facing Elinor and Alaric, failing to notice the young woman approaching her from behind. The girl tapped Zach lightly on her shoulder and smiled when she whipped around to face her. "Hello," she said, a spell projecting her voice so that everyone could hear. "You know me, but for the sake of those in the crowd, I am Paris Wentworth. It will be my pleasure to personally oversee your magical abilities test; objectively, of course."
Zach visibly gulped and any hope that might have been in her face drained completely. She nodded sullenly, despair coloring her features.
"Good, now, please have a seat right here on the ground and make yourself comfortable-"
"Wait!" Everyone turned towards the outburst, which came from an outraged Mika. "What the fuck is this?!"
Paris went rigid, turning stiffly to face the Deviant. "This, Mika, is a formal event. And it is also not up for debate."
Mika angrily stormed to where Paris stood, getting in her face. "Oh? Just like those other tests you personally oversaw? Objectively of course," Mika whispered the last bit, but their voice still echoed out. They were using their own magic to make sure that no piece of drama was missed out on by the listening crowd.
"Now is not the time." The tall girl replied smoothly, seeming to have recovered her composure. "I suggest you retake your seat."
"Or what?" Mika grinned maliciously, "you gonna brand me again?"
Silence. Absolute and utter silence. This was an unexpected twist, but it debunked the racist theories instantly - or at least mostly, seeing as Paris's skin is much darker than Mika's. The nonbinary's words seemed to hit a nerve and Paris took many deep, calming breaths in. "You know it was an accident, I messed up the spell and... what's done is done. I have apologized to you a million times over it." Her voice broke halfway through the sentence.
Hope honestly wondered what in the world Alaric and Elinor were doing right now as their peaceful event was being overrun by teenage drama and tons of angst.
"Yeah, you messed up. You apologized. You actually seemed sincere, but then you sold me out to your precious headmistress and now I don't know what to believe. You knew what would happen, you knew about the cruel spells that would be used to scar me and hurt me. But you didn't care, did you? I was just your 'slave', some throwaway arm-candy that you didn't even think twice about."
"Mika," Paris began to plead, her remorse seeping into her voice.
"No!" The word hit everyone with its force and the pain behind it. "I trusted you! And you threw that way, for what?! Some brownie points?!"
Elinor took a step forward, and then other, slowly making her way to the escalating situation. "Mika Wheeler, please calm yourself." She ordered, voice firm and demanding.
Alaric wasn't far behind, "I think it would be best if we chose someone else to host the test."
"No," Elinor objected, staring Mika down. "That won't be necessary, will it Mika?"
They shook their head and walked back to the bench with a blank expression in place.
"Perfect." She gave Paris a minute to recompose herself before adding, "now to begin testing."