The second the kitchen explodes, Josie knows something’s wrong.
It isn’t the explosion itself. At the Salvatore School, something is bound to cause some kind of flammable problem, eventually. When you’ve filled your school with several enterprising young witches who like to push their limits, things—usually classrooms—will go kaboom occasionally. What’s so interesting about the kitchen is that not five minutes ago, Josie left a slightly frazzled Hope Mikaelson there with the intent of her fixing some kind of baking concoction to help settle her nerves.
Clearly her nerves have not settled.
Josie turns on her heel, heading back towards the blast zone, nudging the swinging door open to take a peek inside. There, standing in the middle of the kitchen, is Hope, covered in what seems to be cake batter. It’s also covering the counters, the stove, the sink, the walls and the windows, so for the moment, she seems to fit in with the decorating.
“What is with me today?” Hope sighs, not realizing Josie is there.
“This isn’t the first thing to go wrong?”
Hope’s head snaps toward Josie, eyes wide in surprise at having a visitor, before shaking her head. “No, it’s not. It seems like every time I want to use my magic today, it just backfires in my face.” She pouts. “I wasn’t even trying anything big! I was just trying to get the chocolate chips from the cabinet while I was still stirring.”
It’s true—that is a spell Hope should have been able to do in her sleep. “What are the other things you tried to do?”
Hope shrugs. “Small stuff. Exploded by the crystal I used to talk to my Aunt Freya, but I thought it was just going bad after too many uses. In class I couldn’t get the practice lesson to do what I wanted it to do, but I figured I wasn’t getting the pronunciation quite right.”
“Have you talked to Ms. Tig?”
Hope’s eyes widen in protest, unsure how to respond to that. “It’s just one of those days. I don’t need psychiatric help to deal with it.”
“I wasn’t thinking it was a psychiatric problem.” A beat as Josie looks that over. “Though given the context, I could see why you’d think that. I was thinking it’s more of a witch problem.”
Hope’s brow furrows. “You think something might be wrong with my magic?”
“If you were in a complicated emotional place, sure, some spells might go haywire. But that would probably only be for the big stuff. It wouldn’t be every spell.” Josie crosses her arms in front of her chest. “And if you were in a complicated emotional place, you should probably talk to the counselor, anyway.”
Hope shakes her head. “I think I’ll just take the Lizzie approach. Head out into the woods and scream it out. It worked last time.”
Josie doesn’t seem pleased with that answer, because she isn’t, but she also knows that Hope is stubborn and nothing is going to make her do what she doesn’t want to do. “Fine. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will. Promise.” Hope smiles. “Everything will be fine.”
* * * * *
Everything is not fine. Shortly after Hope steps out to scream it out, as she so eloquently put it, there’s a small boom from the woods behind the Salvatore school. When Hope returns, she is covered in wood chips and splinters.
“I think I should probably go see Ms. Tig.”
Josie nods as she gestures for her to lead the way down to the counselor’s office. “That’s what I thought.”
* * * * *
“Well, Josie is right. There is something wrong with your magic.”
Hope frowns, trying not to wince as Josie continues to pull splinters out of her skin. “So it’s not just me being an emotional powder keg?”
“That certainly doesn’t help, but no. It appears you’ve run afoul of a spell that affects the probability of your luck working out for you.” Emma sighs as she pulls back, placing the spelled glass to the side. “I can break it, but you’re going to want to find out who attempted to curse you.”
“Oh, trust me.” Hope’s lips press into a thin line. “They’ll be found. And they’re definitely not going to get away with this.”
Emma looks over at Josie, concerned. “We want to discipline them, not destroy them.”
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t go too overboard.” Josie knows how Hope’s temper can be. “But we also can’t let them get away with cursing students.”
“Agreed,” Emma nods, before placing her hand on Hope’s shoulders. With a quick murmur, a tension bubble in the room breaks, and she hands Hope a candle sitting on her desk. “Light this please.”
Hope frowns. “Are you sure? If this goes wrong, I could set the entire office on fire.”
“I’m sure between Josie and I, we can handle it.”
Hope takes a deep breath and nods, before turning her focus on the candle wick. “Incendia.” A flame flickers to life on the end of the wick, and, more importantly, the rest of the office doesn’t catch on fire.
“Looks like you’re back to normal.” Emma smiles. “Let me know what you discover about the curse.”
Hope nods and waits for Josie to finish pulling out the last of the splinters, before turning to her friend with a grin. “Ready to go kick some ass?”
Josie sighs. “Discipline, Hope. Emma wants to discipline them.”
“Oh, I’ll discipline them all right,” Hope nods as she leads the way out of the office. “But I just spent the last thirty minutes with splinters in places I don’t want to talk about. Someone has to pay for that.”
Josie nods, before following her out the door. “Yep. This is going to go great.”
#135 ~ does the fun ever start? ~ tvdverse ~ 972
It isn’t the explosion itself. At the Salvatore School, something is bound to cause some kind of flammable problem, eventually. When you’ve filled your school with several enterprising young witches who like to push their limits, things—usually classrooms—will go kaboom occasionally. What’s so interesting about the kitchen is that not five minutes ago, Josie left a slightly frazzled Hope Mikaelson there with the intent of her fixing some kind of baking concoction to help settle her nerves.
Clearly her nerves have not settled.
Josie turns on her heel, heading back towards the blast zone, nudging the swinging door open to take a peek inside. There, standing in the middle of the kitchen, is Hope, covered in what seems to be cake batter. It’s also covering the counters, the stove, the sink, the walls and the windows, so for the moment, she seems to fit in with the decorating.
“What is with me today?” Hope sighs, not realizing Josie is there.
“This isn’t the first thing to go wrong?”
Hope’s head snaps toward Josie, eyes wide in surprise at having a visitor, before shaking her head. “No, it’s not. It seems like every time I want to use my magic today, it just backfires in my face.” She pouts. “I wasn’t even trying anything big! I was just trying to get the chocolate chips from the cabinet while I was still stirring.”
It’s true—that is a spell Hope should have been able to do in her sleep. “What are the other things you tried to do?”
Hope shrugs. “Small stuff. Exploded by the crystal I used to talk to my Aunt Freya, but I thought it was just going bad after too many uses. In class I couldn’t get the practice lesson to do what I wanted it to do, but I figured I wasn’t getting the pronunciation quite right.”
“Have you talked to Ms. Tig?”
Hope’s eyes widen in protest, unsure how to respond to that. “It’s just one of those days. I don’t need psychiatric help to deal with it.”
“I wasn’t thinking it was a psychiatric problem.” A beat as Josie looks that over. “Though given the context, I could see why you’d think that. I was thinking it’s more of a witch problem.”
Hope’s brow furrows. “You think something might be wrong with my magic?”
“If you were in a complicated emotional place, sure, some spells might go haywire. But that would probably only be for the big stuff. It wouldn’t be every spell.” Josie crosses her arms in front of her chest. “And if you were in a complicated emotional place, you should probably talk to the counselor, anyway.”
Hope shakes her head. “I think I’ll just take the Lizzie approach. Head out into the woods and scream it out. It worked last time.”
Josie doesn’t seem pleased with that answer, because she isn’t, but she also knows that Hope is stubborn and nothing is going to make her do what she doesn’t want to do. “Fine. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will. Promise.” Hope smiles. “Everything will be fine.”
Everything is not fine. Shortly after Hope steps out to scream it out, as she so eloquently put it, there’s a small boom from the woods behind the Salvatore school. When Hope returns, she is covered in wood chips and splinters.
“I think I should probably go see Ms. Tig.”
Josie nods as she gestures for her to lead the way down to the counselor’s office. “That’s what I thought.”
“Well, Josie is right. There is something wrong with your magic.”
Hope frowns, trying not to wince as Josie continues to pull splinters out of her skin. “So it’s not just me being an emotional powder keg?”
“That certainly doesn’t help, but no. It appears you’ve run afoul of a spell that affects the probability of your luck working out for you.” Emma sighs as she pulls back, placing the spelled glass to the side. “I can break it, but you’re going to want to find out who attempted to curse you.”
“Oh, trust me.” Hope’s lips press into a thin line. “They’ll be found. And they’re definitely not going to get away with this.”
Emma looks over at Josie, concerned. “We want to discipline them, not destroy them.”
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t go too overboard.” Josie knows how Hope’s temper can be. “But we also can’t let them get away with cursing students.”
“Agreed,” Emma nods, before placing her hand on Hope’s shoulders. With a quick murmur, a tension bubble in the room breaks, and she hands Hope a candle sitting on her desk. “Light this please.”
Hope frowns. “Are you sure? If this goes wrong, I could set the entire office on fire.”
“I’m sure between Josie and I, we can handle it.”
Hope takes a deep breath and nods, before turning her focus on the candle wick. “Incendia.” A flame flickers to life on the end of the wick, and, more importantly, the rest of the office doesn’t catch on fire.
“Looks like you’re back to normal.” Emma smiles. “Let me know what you discover about the curse.”
Hope nods and waits for Josie to finish pulling out the last of the splinters, before turning to her friend with a grin. “Ready to go kick some ass?”
Josie sighs. “Discipline, Hope. Emma wants to discipline them.”
“Oh, I’ll discipline them all right,” Hope nods as she leads the way out of the office. “But I just spent the last thirty minutes with splinters in places I don’t want to talk about. Someone has to pay for that.”
Josie nods, before following her out the door. “Yep. This is going to go great.”