"I need to go", Hope smiled.

"Oh, why? You look like you are enjoying yourself." Landon was always delighted when Hope showed him her soft side that she tried so hard to hide away from anyone else.

"While that is true, I am meeting my grandparents today." She turned around as if that was a completely normal thing.

Landon didn't think so.

"What? But, aren't your grandparents all dead? And didn't half of them try to kill you?"

"That's right. My mom never met her biological parents, the Labonairs and they died in a werewolf war situation shortly after her birth. And my dad's mom and his stepfather also died many times, mostly by getting killed by dad. And I guess his biological dad is also double-dead. But my mom was adopted as a baby. That's where the Marshall comes from. The Marshalls were normal people who didn't know anything about the whole situation and kicked mom out when she triggered her curse and they didn't know what was going on. Apparently, they regret that now."

"A little late, don't you think?"

"Maybe. But they just found out their child is dead. And apparently, the private investigator they hired also found out that she had a kid. So they contacted me."

Landon looked worried.

"You didn't tell me about that. Do they know what you are?"

"No. Which is why I'm meeting them off campus."

"Right. A school with spell classes and students with fangs would probably be a shock."

"Mhmm."

He sensed her anxiety over the meeting.

"Do you me to come along?"

"No, thank you. I think this is something I should be doing on my own."

This smile was more familiar. She used it frequently to show everyone that she was fine.

"I'll see you after!"

Already at the door, she turned her head again.

"They can't be worse than monsters, right?"

Although this last smile seemed more genuine, Landon wasn't entirely convinced.

Hope was only about five minutes from the Mystic Grill. Unfortunately, without the permanent source of calm and positivity that Landon was to her, her thoughts had started to spiral. Her mom had not spoken of the Marshalls often. To her, they had been dead ever since they left her alone with her struggles. But she had never changed her name back to Andrea Labonair either. Not that her dad had ever done, and he definitely hated his father. But there were also rare moments when she had been little and, as curious as she was, asked her mom how she had learned writing, if she had travelled as much when she was her age and if there were any pictures of her as a little girl. She had already learned that photographs didn't exist when her dad and her aunts and uncles were kids, but she also knew that mom was younger. Hayley had had a sadness in her eyes when she talked about her childhood. From her letter, Hope knew that she appreciated the normal childhood she had gotten, outside of anything supernatural or any real danger. The Marshalls told her they would bring pictures of their daughter. Hope, in turn, decided to bring some of her mother. She had quite a few that her aunt Freya had kept.

"Hope?"

She stopped in her tracks, realising that she had reached the front door.

The question, however, came from an elderly woman sitting at a table outside. No, not elderly. She looked to be about sixty years old, just like the man sitting next to her.

For some reason, this felt strange to Hope. They were almost too young and too old at the same time. She usually wasn't that aware of the age difference between her parents.

"Do you want to take a seat?"

This time, the man spoke. They had this shimmer of hope in their eyes.

She caught herself.

"Yes. Nice to meet you."

She grabbed a chair from another table and sat down next to them.

It was clear that noone was too sure if what to do.

"How did-" "What is-"

The nervous laughter actually took some of the tension out of the situation.

"Since we asked you to come, would it be okay if we started?"

Hope nodded her "Go ahead" to the lady.

"I'm Carrie and this is my husband, Ray. Ray?"

She nudged him in the shoulder. Although he became aware of the situation, he didn't break his state for another moment.

"I'm sorry, yeah, I'm Ray. Or grandpa."

Another nudge from his wife informed him of his mistake.

"No, obviously not. You have never met us. I mean… You just look so much like her."

"I know."

Although Hope smiled, Carrie could see the sadness in her eyes. The girl had been through too much for her age.

"Anyway, we realised that we made a mistake about a year ago. Before that… we didn't really want to think about what happened at all. We were not her biological parents, but we raised her. We should have been there for her. Did she ever tell you what happened?"

"I don't know, ehm… I've brought pictures?"

While this didn't go exactly to plan, they accepted her change of topic and smiled approvingly.

"We'd love to see them."

"She didn't change at all."

They were looking at a snapshot Hope had taken of her mother when she first got a phone at age ten.

"Well, her hair is different."

"Really, what kind of hair did she have as a teenager?"

"Wait, I think I've got a picture from Homecoming. Here."

"Wow. That's a look. The 2000s look like a fun time. She's gorgeous in that dress."

"She really is. She met up with her best friend Alice hours before the ball started to do her makeup and styling."

"I can't even imagine that. I don't think she really cared about looks much."

"Maybe these things change with motherhood."

Or living in the forest with random werewolves. That might change your perspective on life.

"Maybe."

"Are there any picture from your birth? I would love to see her with you."

"No." You definitely wouldn't want to see those. "But I've got one where I'm a baby…" The only one actually. "Here!"

She had finally found the Polaroid at the bonfire.

"You look so happy! And Hayley does, too."

Carrie seemed touched. There was even a slight glistening in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. It's just… when he told us that Hayley was a mother… I couldn't really believe it. In my mind, she was always just our little girl. Which one is your father?"

Hope had done what she was used to and stopped her heart from feeling the impact of Carrie's words. She was quick to answer.

"This one. The other two are my uncle, Elijah, and my aunt, Rebekah."

"Does your dad have a big family?"

"Yes."

Ray was too focused on the picture and couldn't detect the shift in her mood.

"Do you live with him now?"

"Ehm… no. No. He's also… gone."

"Oh."

"No, it's okay. It was a while ago. Aunt Rebekah lives in Europe now."

"That's nice."

Hope could see that they were really trying.

"Maybe I have one picture of her wearing makeup. This is from her wedding."

The surprise in their eyes replaced their concern.

"I didn't realise she was married. She really turned out alright, didn't she? Wow. She's beautiful."

He noticed something in the picture after being focused on Hayley.

"That's not your father. I mean, who is he?"

"No, my parents were never a couple. I was more of an accident."

If that was already that big of a shock, she was glad the werewolf thing hadn't come up.

"His name was Jackson. They got married when I was about one and a half years old and he died a couple years after. I don't really remember him, but mom really loved him for all of her live." And after.

"He was my stepdad and cared for me, but later, when I was older, I was mostly raised by mom and Declan. This is him with us. He still lives in New Orleans."

They swallowed their shock about their daughters romantic partners and were seemingly just glad that someone in that poor girl's life was still alive.

"New Orleans? Did you grow up there? Declan looks really nice. Is he a baker?"

"Yes. And yes. Mom moved to New Orleans before she had me because she found out her birth parents lived there."

"Oh. Wow. I didn't know she found them. We got matched with her when she was two months old and they didn't have a lot of information on her. She had been given up by a couple anonymously. We didn't know she was from out of state."

"Did you meet them? It must have been great to grow up with two sets of grandparents. We were probably never missing from your life, right?"

She smiled sadly and Hope really didn't know how to possibly explain to her that they, as well as her paternal grandparents, were also dead.

"Ehhh…"

"Hope, hey!"

"Oh, hey Ethan!"

"I haven't seen you in a while. You transferred to the Salvatore School, right?"

Before she could answer, her grandfather interrupted.

"Are you one of Hope's friends?"

"Yes, I'm Ethan. Nice to meet you. Are you her grandparents?"

"Yes, they are. Can I talk to you for a second? I'll be back in a minute."

She pulled him out of ear shot.

"Ehm, this isn't really a normal situation. I'm glad to see you and I really want to catch up, but I am actually meeting my mother's adoptive parents for the first time right now."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. That's totally cool, my sister is adopted, too."

He was rambling, obviously embarrassed to have misread the situation.

"No, it's okay. Let's see… this is my number. Maybe call me later?"

"Okay. Good luck with your grandparents!"

"Thank you!"

She rushed back over to Carrie and Ray, but she couldn't really get back into the mindset. That might actually have been a blessing. They had gone through some of the pictures in her absence.

"What is this picture? You look like you're really enjoying yourself."

"Oh, yeah, I was. I was playing with my grandma Mary. She was Jackson's grandmother. She lived with us until I was seven. I think she was also there for my mother. She was a very cool woman."

"You look so much like your mother when she was that young. She had so much energy."

"Really? I think I was quite high maintenance. Definitely too curious for my own good as well."

"Oh, you have no idea. When Hayley was about five years old, she had just learned to ride a bike,..."

Maybe, after all that stress, she could finally get the stories she wanted.