"What kind of a problem?" Alaric immediately asks what kind of problem Josie's come to him with, seeming concerned.
"Okay, so I was helping Lizzie out with something then I got a call from Hope. We talked for a bit and she said that she was on her way back here because she found a back-road that helped reduce her time. Now she said she'd be at the school in about twenty to thirty minutes and that was nearly an hour ago." Josie explains quite a bit of information in one breath, clearly worried about the fact that Hope isn't back despite saying she was on her way.
"Did you try calling her?" Emma wonders if Josie tried to call her before coming to the office and Josie nods as her eyes slowly start to tear up.
"I called her twice after the thirty minutes passed. She isn't answering." Josie verbally agrees to having called her before coming to them, which worries both Emma and Ric.
"Oh, before I forget, Lizzie wants to know if you're going to be voting alongside the witches." Josie turns her attention to Emma, bringing up Lizzie's previous words but Emma looks mildly confused.
"Why would I vote alongside the witches?" Emma voices her confusion when asking this question.
"Um, I can't remember what she said but I recorded it." Josie admits she can't remember Lizzie's words but knows she recorded so she takes out her phone in order to find the recording.
Once she does, she hesitates before she plays it and they all hear Lizzie and Josie's conversation from earlier.
"Okay, you can write the speech. And what about Emma?" Lizzie allows Josie to write her promotion speech then asks about Emma.
"Um, what about Emma?" Josie voices her confusion on why Lizzie's asking about Emma.
"Well, she's a witch. Do we know if she's voting along with the other witches?" Lizzie elaborates on why she's asking about Emma as she wonders if they know that Emma's voting with the witches.
"Dad said that the faculty isn't supposed to vote. Besides, Emma's most likely going to be on the honor's council to represent the younger kids." Josie reminds Lizzie that Alaric made it clear the faculty's not supposed to vote and assumes that Emma's already going to be on the honor's council.
"And? Dad never said the faculty couldn't vote, he just said they aren't supposed to but he didn't ban the idea completely. Also, Emma is still a witch who has a strong voice. She should be able to vote in order to use that voice. So, I don't see why she can't vote alongside the rest of the witches." Lizzie gives a very good reason as to why Emma should vote.'
Josie pauses the recording and puts her phone back in her pocket while Emma looks stunned that Lizzie would defend her.
"Yeah, I think she's right though. You should have the chance to vote alongside the witches." Josie makes it clear that she agrees with Lizzie's point about Emma voting but before the matter can be discussed further, Dorian just enters the office, as Josie left the door open.
"Have you guys seen Hope? She left before me." Dorian turns their topic back to Hope, implying that she never made it back to the school.
"That's what I was wondering." Josie assures Dorian that she was wondering where Hope was too.
"Maybe she just took a wrong turn and got on a different back-road." Emma tries to de-escalate the worries of both Josie and Dorian by giving the suggestion that she got on the wrong back-road.
Then Alaric's office phone goes off so he decides to answer it.
"Hello?" Alaric greets the person calling only to be shocked to hear Matt's voice.
"Ric. Thank god, I'm currently on a back-road where a hiker called in your license plate. Now, I don't see the car but I just wanted to make sure you were fine." Matt expresses his relief in hearing Alaric's voice then explains where he is because someone called in his car.
"Where exactly are you?" Alaric's voice is firm when asking this question then writes down what Matt tells him.
"Okay, I'll be there soon." Ric hangs up the phone after saying he will be there soon.
"Care to take a road trip?" Alaric wonders if the three other people in the room would like to take a road trip.
The group has expanded so now Lizzie, MG, Penelope, and Kaleb are a part of it.
They all reach the crime scene on the back-road, having driven there in Dorian's car, and Alaric greets Matt with a hand shake.
"You didn't have to come out. Like I said, your car isn't here." Matt repeats his words of the car not being on the road but MG wanders down the road, following a trail of glass.
"Um, sheriff, Dr. Saltzman. I think I found the car." MG gets the two men's attention which has them head over to where MG's standing.
They look down at the ditch, only to get horrified looks when they see Alaric's car flipped on its hood with all of the windows being shattered except the windshield, yet that has a large crack as though it was either shot or kicked and the driver's door is off the car completely.
"Was there anyone in this car?" Matt questions if anyone was in Alaric's car, still horrified by the sight of the vehicle.
"Yeah, Hope was." Alaric informs Matt that someone actually was in the car, which has Matt look worried now.
"There's still stuff in the car meaning whatever happened, no one took the belongings inside the vehicle." Penelope tries to point out the positive in that no one stole anything, which doesn't earn many happy looks.
"Let's get this stuff analyzed and processed before we touch anything." Matt summons some officers to help move everything.
"Wait, someone cut the seat-belt off. See, it's still buckled but the strap is cut." Lizzie points out the problem with the seat-belt, which worries them even more.
So, they all head to the police station in order to discuss everything while the stuff found in the car is getting processed.
"I hate this. I was the last person to speak to her. We spoke on the phone and she said she'd be at the school shortly." Josie speaks up, voicing her hatred in Hope, possibly missing and revealing to everyone, minus Alaric and Emma, that she was the last person to speak to Hope.
Lizzie crosses her arms, looking uncomfortable and curious, before walking over to an area where there's a radio and just presses a button, which has it blast Usher's 'Yeah!' then walks back over to the group, all of whom seem appalled by her sudden behavior.
"Really? Hope's gone and you want to have a dance party?" Penelope calls Lizzie out on her party animal behavior yet Lizzie simply scoffs at Penelope's attempt to rile her up.
"No, I have a bad feeling that we're being watched and that someone's listening in. It might not be just us." Lizzie declines the fact that she wants to have a dance party, and instead reveals her fears that they aren't truly meeting in secret.
Alaric, Josie, and MG know that if Lizzie has a bad feeling, then it's probably true since she doesn't get bad feelings often so none of them decide to turn off the music.
"Okay, here are the belongings from the vehicle, processed, analyzed, and able to be held." Matt walks into the room with the stuff from the car, all of which are in evidence bags.
MG immediately takes the bag with Hope's phone in it and removes it from the bag to get a better look at the cracked screen.
"That's odd. Despite this phone being in an accident, along with having a cracked screen, it still works." MG voices his confusion about Hope's phone still working regardless of it being in a car accident and having a crack on the screen.
Josie is examining the leather jacket that she saw Hope yank off a hanger in her closet before leaving while Penelope is looking through the bag she packed.
"According to her contacts, Hope had called Josie four times before Josie alerted us of the problem and Dr. Saltzman once. Oh my god." MG mutters under his breath while looking through her contacts then gasps in shock after a moment.
"What is it?" Lizzie immediately heads over to where he's standing to see what's wrong, seeming worried by his shock.
"On my way back now." Lizzie reads the text message aloud, which confuses them all.
"Huh?" Kaleb is the first to question this random announcement, sounding confused.
"She just read Hope's last text. It was a failed send but she was responding to Dr. Saltzman's text." MG clarifies what Lizzie just said, leaving them shocked and horrified.
"You know what, she's probably fine." Josie blurts out that Hope might be fine despite the car accident.
"I mean, maybe after she crashed the car, she tried to get out by busting the windshield then when that didn't work, she cuts her seat-belt off and is now just out in the woods somewhere, lost." Josie elaborates after seeing them all look to her curiously.
"Or she was kidnapped." Penelope puts out the suggestion that she was taken but Josie stands her ground.
"She wasn't kidnapped, she's just out in the woods somewhere." Josie speaks loudly as she sticks to her belief about Hope being in the woods, clearly implying that she doesn't want the alternatives to be true.
"Well, either one of you could be right. We really shouldn't be ruling anything out right now." Matt pipes in on the conversation, stating that they don't rule anything out at the current moment.
"Why is Usher playing?" Matt questions the music, seeming to have just noticed the song was playing.
"Lizzie believes we're not alone and being listened into." Penelope responds to Matt's question, her tone sounding as though she doesn't truly believe the idea.
"Wait, whose jacket is that?" Alaric asks a question about the jacket that Josie is holding, looking curious.
"It's Hope's. She took it from her closet before she left." Josie explains that the jacket belongs to Hope but Matt quickly shakes his head, clearly recognizing the jacket.
"No, that's Klaus Mikaelson's jacket. Or at least, one of them. It was the last jacket I saw him wearing before he left town. Well, when I last saw him." Matt informs the group that it actually belongs to Klaus, not Hope, which gets Penelope thinking.
"Speaking of her father, shouldn't we call him? I'm pretty sure that he'd want to know that his daughter was in an accident." Penelope voices her opinion on the fact that they call Klaus, recognizing the fact that the name is her father's, but it doesn't take long before she gets a look of confusion when everyone else gapes at her.
"What? You're all looking at me like my hair is on fire. It's not on fire, is it?" Penelope looks very confused by everyone staring at her then looks at MG to ensure that her hair isn't on fire.
MG just simply shakes his head, confirming that hair isn't on fire, easing Penelope's nerves.
"You don't know. Penelope, Hope's father…" Josie starts to tell Penelope where Hope's father is after deducing that she doesn't know but Lizzie immediately jumps in by placing an arm around Josie and the hand of the arm covering her mouth, as the song has finally stopped.
"...Is on a very long vacation on an island with no cell service. Therefore, he cannot be reached." Lizzie lies as she keeps Josie's mouth shut, implying that she still believes that someone is watching them and listening in.
"Right, I forgot." Josie removes Lizzie's hand in order to agree to her twin's point then thinks for a moment before making a pitch.
"You know what, all of this talk and seriousness is making me hungry. I want waffles. Who else? I'll buy." Josie makes her pitch, claiming that she's hungry and wants waffles then states she'll buy after asking if anyone else wants some.
"I do." Lizzie holds a hand up as she quickly agrees to getting waffles with her sister and the rest of the room gets looks of confusion again.
Both Josie and Lizzie then wink at their father, so he'd get the hint of the sudden hunger, which he does.
"Actually, waffles sound good. How about I buy instead?" Alaric agrees to get waffles then suggests that he buy, which has everyone agreeing to get waffles.
A few hours later, they're driving back to the school after getting food, all of them seeming happy that Josie made the call to get waffles.
"Uh, guys. A car's following us." Josie points out that a car is following them, since headlights are on their car and no one else is on the road, in front of them or on the opposite side.
"Dr. Saltzman, can you pull over? I have an idea." Penelope asks if Alaric can pull over the car, stating that she has an idea, so Ric does just that.
The person in the car following them is talking to their co-captain when the person next to them looks at the road.
"Um, we lost the car." the second person realizes that the car is gone, which has the driver fully pay attention to the road.
"What? Ugh, we have blinding headlights. Maybe they sped ahead of us." the driver assumes that they sped off but the co-pilot shakes their head.
"No, there's a road just ahead. They probably turned up there." the co-pilot gives a suggestion that they just turned off the road so they drive to the road and turn down it.
Back in Dorian's car with Ric behind the wheel, they all sigh in relief.
"We lost them." MG announces happily that they lost the people following them.
"Yeah, but how? All Alaric did was pull over." Dorian wonders how they lost them as all Ric did was pull the car over.
"I placed a cloaking spell around us. But then again, the blinding headlights probably would've made it hard to see the side of the road even if I didn't cloak us." Penelope explains exactly what she did then realizes that the bright car lights would've prevented them from seeing the car even if she didn't cloak the car.
"Fast thinking, Penelope." Lizzie compliments Penelope on cloaking them, implying that it was a smart move.
They make it back to the school, parking the car far from the gates so the people following them don't know where they are, and head to the library.
Penelope casts a spell around the library just as Lizzie enters the room with Rafael and a still injured Landon.
"What the hell, Landon's supposed to be resting." Penelope sounds mildly annoyed that Landon is no longer on bedrest, despite it being mandatory, after she finishes casting her spell.
"Lizzie informed us that Hope was missing. We're here to help." Rafael reveals that Lizzie went to get and inform them of what's going on.
Penelope looks like she's about to give a retort, as she seems to care about Landon's well-being, but Alaric jumps in.
"We could use all the help we can get. Even if Landon's in critical condition." Alaric adds quickly after preventing Penelope from arguing by saying they could use all the help that they can get.
Rafael helps set Landon down on one of the couches in order for him to rest while the others search.
"Why is Taylor Swift blasting through the PA System?" Landon decides to question why Taylor Swift is blasting throughout the entire school, sounding exhausted and confused.
"Someone was following us here. We lost them but if they are listening in on us, they will only be able to hear the epicness that is the T-Swizzle beats." Lizzie quickly explains the situation to Rafael and Landon, still adamant in her belief that they're being listened in to.
"Yeah, I just casted a disruption spell. We can make and take all the phone calls we want. If Lizzie is actually right about someone listening in on our conversations, then I'm ensuring they can't trace our phones. Any and all outside forces, like technological bugs or magic, will be disrupted when in this room." Penelope just agrees with Lizzie's point before she explains what kind of spell she casted and what it does, which earns her an appreciative look from Lizzie.
"Only problem is we have to stay in the room. Does that mean you can't take phone calls when you have to go to the bathroom?" MG points out the problem then questions if it means that the humans can't take calls while they're being contacted in the bathroom.
"Yep. If you want to make a phone call or answer one, you have to remain in the room. So, you should probably leave your phone in here before you use the restroom." Penelope agrees that they can't answer calls if they're out of the library then suggests that they leave their phones there before using the bathroom.
"Oh my god. Who's going to call her family?!" Josie immediately rises to her feet, as she is sitting on an armchair, and asks if anyone's going to call her family, sounding worried that they don't know about recent events.