Jeremy had talked over the whole situation as he had dinner with Alaric, Emma and Dorian.

He was worried about that thing still skulking around, so it was decided he would stick around until the problem was resolved. He had his own quarters here for just such situations, and he didn't mind staying for short stretches.

However, he really worked best out in the field, not teaching theory. He felt like he was contributing more out there, taking care of supernatural 'bad actors', saving the ones who could be saved, and gathering information.

He couldn't wait to get another crack at Phineas. He had almost had him, and now he knew about how strong the thing was. Knew his tricks.

Before he turned in though, he was going to head back to his place and grab some of his more exotic armaments. The next time he faced Phineas Carter that thing was going down.

Before he got out the door, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out without breaking stride, then stopped when he saw the text.

From Hope Mikaelson. It read:

Can we talk? I'm in the last room on 2nd floor.

Jeremy smiled ruefully and shook his head. He had told her they would meet in the Library.

He texted back:

Tomorrow? Gotta head home quick but I'll be back.

Her text came back immediately. Too fast:

I'll ride with you! We can talk in the car [smiley face emoji].

Again Jeremy shook his head. She was not doing herself any favors. The more she texted the more Jeremy was convinced she had something else in mind than just talking.

He really tried to be understanding. He remembered what it was like being a teenager. Racing hormones and everything seemed new and exciting. Plus these kids were going through a lot, so things were hard.

He was very flattered that so many of these girls found him attractive, but he was also concerned about how manipulative some of them were. Especially the vampires. They seemed to be always plotting.

But the worst had been the most recent: Penelope Park. She made Hope look like an amateur. He remembered thinking that if he wouldn't have had supernatural strength he might never have pried the girl loose.

Hope was a special circumstance, though. As Klaus Mikaelson's daughter, she was extraordinarily powerful. She had suffered tremendous losses, and was already pulling away from social contact, according to Alaric. He didn't know if the world could afford to have her become embittered in any way.

Another text from Hope:

You there?

Jeremy decided it was not a good idea to ignore her. And besides, he liked her. She was a good girl. So what if she had a harmless crush? He could handle that, right?

Another text from her:

You PROMISED we could talk! [Smiley face emoji]

Jeremy did not remember exactly promising. He hesitated, then sent a text back:

Cool. Meet me down in the common area now.

After they trashed the Library in the altercation with Phineas Carter, it was off-limits until it was cleaned up. That meant there would be no one there, and he didn't want to meet with Hope alone.

He saw the indicator of her response. Then it disappeared. Then he saw it again…and again it disappeared. Jeremy didn't think it was appropriate for him to meet her in her room, and he would not budge from that. If she made it an issue then he would just have to talk to her when she was being more reasonable.

Finally a response popped in:

On my way! [Smiley face emoji]

Jeremy let out a sigh of relief. He felt like things would be a little safer in a public area where other students would be milling around.

Shaking his head some more, he put the phone back in his pocket and turned back into the school to go wait for Hope.

Hope stared at her phone after she sent the last message. Instead of getting up, she sat on her bed and thought for a moment.

Something was telling her not to do this. Then a more insistent part of her squashed that something and told her she should definitely do this. She was a Mikaelson, and she took what she wanted.

Right now she didn't want to think about Alaric, Kyle, Lizzie or anything. She just wanted to focus on Jeremy. She needed a win, and he was a big one. She was going to give this one more shot.

With that, she bounded off the bed and went out the door.

When she descended the stairs down to the common area she immediately saw Jeremy sitting on one of the couches. You couldn't help but spot him because he was surrounded by some of the more aggressive girls, and being stared at by the ones who weren't as aggressive. Hope thought their idiotic grins and obvious flirtations were disgusting and she rolled her eyes.

There were quite a few guys on the outskirts of the area, watching. Of course, they were either just jealous that all the girls were suddenly soaked up by Jeremy, or they didn't know who this was and were wondering why he had become the focus of every girl's desire.

Walking up, she broke in on a girl's hideous cackling, and said "Hi Jeremy, I'm here." All the heads turned to look at her.

Jeremy's entire face goggled, if such a thing was possible. She saw the looks on the girls' faces change from elation, and then to a frozen mask of horror.

Hope had changed from her school uniform. She wore a pair of expensive high heels that were given to her by her Aunt Rebekah, although for Hope "high heels" just weren't that high - she didn't care for them really, but she had wanted to bond with Rebekah and so she took them.

Then she had on a black, high-waisted, asymmetrical wrap skirt. The waist was high…and so was the hem. The skirt was extremely short. As such, in between the shoes and the skirt, an incredible amount of the bare skin of her smooth, shapely legs was left revealed to all. Her thick, toned thighs were showed off to a surprising degree.

Of course, that was not all.

Above the skirt, above an impressive display of the flesh of Hope's toned belly, she wore a striped, ribbed, spaghetti-strap crop-top. The spaghetti straps were holding on for dear life, as without a bra, the top was the only thing holding up Hope's mountainous breasts. An epic, ungodly amount of the young girl's pink cleavage and breasts were left showing.

In short, Hope had come dressed for a date, and everyone could see it.

MG had been off with a group of vampires, and Hope saw the piece of gum he was chewing fall out of his mouth when he looked at her. She inwardly reveled in that. Knowing he was into Lizzie made that much more gratifying. She would do something nice for him later, but she wouldn't say why.

Everyone was still looking. After Hope had stopped, her breasts had not quite received the message and still continued to jiggle and sway slightly as she waited for a response from Jeremy. She held his gaze for long moments. So long that the other girls turned around to see what Jeremy was going to say.

He finally spoke.

"Um, ladies…do you mind giving Hope and me a little time? Thanks."

The girls actually did mind, and Hope was smugly gratified to see that they really didn't want to leave, but did so anyway. She saw one girl look at her own average chest, and then look to Hope's chest in defeat.

After they cleared away, she went and sat down close to Jeremy. Very close. She plopped herself down right next to him using far more energy than she needed. The movement caused an eye-popping boobquake of Hope's barely contained assets.

Inwardly, Hope hated bouncing around like this, but she didn't let it show on her face. This was actually for a good cause, so she let the cascade of bounces continue.

Unfortunately, everyone except Jeremy stared at her display. He didn't react to the show at all.

She had been expecting him to move away, but he didn't. He didn't flinch away from her.

Just like Alaric used to be. She thought. Then forced the thought of Alaric out of her head.

Jeremy wasn't quite angry, but he certainly wasn't happy, either. He was silent for quite awhile.

"What are we doing, Hope?" He said. He held her gaze. His eyes drilling directly into hers. He wouldn't look anywhere else.

"I'm here to talk, just like we said." She smiled, and the smile was genuine. Damn, he's handsome.

Again, a long silence.

"Ok…" More silence. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Oh, you know…" she dropped her eyes coquettishly. Or at least she hoped it was coquettish…she had no idea.

"…I just thought we could talk about…what happened with Phineas Carter today."

Jeremy's eyes immediately widened and he looked around in panic. Then he quickly leaned in close.

"How do you know about that?!" he hissed.

She smiled even wider. "I was there when this thing first started. I should be involved now."

Jeremy shook his head. "I don't know what's going on with you and Alaric, but he doesn't want you in on this, and I think you should listen. I also don't think we should talk about this. Too many sensitive ears here!" He was speaking in the lowest whisper he could manage, but he couldn't possibly have any illusions that the vampires and werewolves weren't hearing him.

This was what she had been waiting for. "Well, we can talk in my room. I have sound wards set up there. No one will hear us." As she spoke, the wide smile dropped from her face and it was replaced by a look of intent.

Jeremy, now realizing he had been maneuvered, smiled a rueful smile.

"Hope…" he said as a warning, but she cut him off.

"I understand if you don't think others should hear about it. I would never break your confidence, Jeremy."

He seemed to make a decision then. "Hope, put your sound wards around this sofa."

Hope shook her head. "I can't do that just anywhere on the fly. I have to prepare them and…"

Jeremy interrupted. "Hope, I know who your aunt is, and I know how powerful you are, and I know how clever you are. Put the wards up. NOW."

He was still holding her gaze this entire time. She realized the game was through and she dismissively waved her hand.

"Alright", she said in a tone of upbeat defeatism. "No one can hear us now."

"Good." He said. "Hope, I want you to know that I care about you…a lot…but this will never happen."

"Why not?!" She blurted out. She was tired of things not happening for her.

"Because I would be taking advantage of you, and…"

"What if I want you to take advantage of me?" She smiled, and Jeremy shook his head side to side forcefully.

"Also, I'm like 18 or 20 years older than you, and…"

"So what?! I don't care!" She interrupted.

"AND…" he continued. "…I'm an instructor here. It would be inappropriate, to say the least. And those are just a few of the many reasons this can't happen."

She snorted. "You're barely here! Some of these kids don't even know who you are!" She gestured at the surrounding audience of kids, which was growing larger each moment.

"They'll know now, won't they?"

She still wouldn't give up. "Give me another reason! Come on, a good one!"

Jeremy smiled and shook his head. "Look, we're just in different places in our lives. You should be with someone your own age, and I should be with someone my own age."

She was becoming animated with her arms. "What is so much better about someone your own age? Please, tell me!"

He looked at her, and his expression looked as if he felt sorry for her.

"Hope, someone my own age would be mature enough that they wouldn't have to trick me into meeting with them, or try to lure me to their room."

The color in Hope's face bloomed into a bright red. Now she couldn't look at him. She looked down at the couch and started picking at the fabric.

"Well, I knew if I asked you out you would say no." She mumbled it without looking up.

Jeremy spoke softly and kindly. "Yes, Hope, I would have said no. And someone mature would just accept that. We can't always get what we want."

She still didn't look up at him.

Jeremy reached over, cupped his hand under her chin and gently raised her face up.

"Hey, I'm not sure what's going on, but I am glad this happened."

She brightened. "You are?"

He shook his head in the affirmative. "I think you're having a tough time right now, am I right?"

She shook her head to say yes.

"If you need to talk about it, then I'm here for you. I'm your friend, right? We can be friends?"

A smile that she couldn't control spread across her face. "Yes, I would like that."

Then he smiled, too. "Alright, it's settled then! Friends, it is."

Just then Hope felt very warm. She felt like she was going to cry. She didn't want to cry in front of all these people, but she felt really close to Jeremy.

"Jeremy, can I hug you?" She asked.

Jeremy seemed wary, and a little panicked. "Hope…" he said in a light warning tone.

She shook her head back and forth violently. "Not like that! It's not like that!"

He smiled again, and looked at her. "How about we take a raincheck on that hug for tomorrow?"

Hope smiled. You mean sometime when my tits aren't hanging out? She thought. "That sounds great." She said.

Jeremy got a text then. He looked at his phone.

"It's Dorian." He said. Then he looked up at her.

"Listen…I've got to get back to my place and get some things and then get back here, so we should talk tomorrow…and no you can't come with me." He laughed seeing her about to ask a question.

She barked a quick laugh. That had been exactly what she was going to ask. She supposed Jeremy didn't want to be seen walking out with her while she was dressed the way she was, and he was going back to his place. She understood.

Jeremy stood up, then offered his hand to help her up from the couch. He held onto it and led her over to the base of the stairs. She was really grateful for that, because she didn't want to be left in the middle of these kids who were watching them and pretending like they weren't. She kept the sound wards focused on them the whole way.

"Alright, go get some sleep, and we're going to talk tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok." Was all she said, and now she was the one with an idiot grin on her face. Jeremy looked so handsome staring up at her from the bottom of the stairwell.

"Good night, Hope." He said. Then he turned and walked away.

Hope and most of the girls in the common area, not being complete fools, watched his ass as he walked away until they couldn't see it anymore. When he was gone, Hope headed up the stairs and began walking down the hall to her room.

She went in and quickly removed all the date night clothing she had just been wearing, replacing it with the standard issue Salvatore School uniform, jacket and all. Then she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

She felt really good, but she had still failed to get what she wanted. And she would be damned if this night would end without her getting what she wanted for once.

She checked herself over quickly in the mirror, then turned and walked resolutely out the door.

As she headed down the hallway she set herself to her new purpose.

Plan B, then, I guess. She thought.