{1.02 | Some People Just Want to Watch the World Burn}
Her fists rapidly beat into the punching bag in front of her. With her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and workout clothes, there was nothing holding her back. The gym was nearly empty, Elara being the only one there. The other werewolves were still sleeping. The sun had barely risen.
Elara was good at a lot of things. Running, jumping, climbing, fighting, but she struggled with sleeping. As basic as it was, her mind and body could never agree on when to take a break.
Her nightmares certainly didn't help.
The nightmares started after she triggered her curse. During her month at the Salvatore School, they had only gotten worse. Instead of happening once a week, they became daily and were the same every night.
She's standing in a dark hall, a dim light above.
Then she hears a scream.
Punch.
Then another.
Kick.
Another.
Jab.
And she already knows it's his. The hooded figure is in front of her in seconds and grins. Their teeth are white... and sharp--
A soft hiss left her lips as she jabbed hard into bag. Her knuckles were starting to bleed since she hadn't wrapped her hands. She knew how to but hadn't felt bothered enough to do it.
Elara stopped, picking up her water bottle and taking a long drink, and when she finally left the gym a few moments later, she was completely unaware of the tri-brid watching her from afar.
~-~-~
"Okay, hold on."
Elara sat on Josie's bed as the twin stood to the side, fixing her hair in a standing mirror.
"You're telling me," Elara continued, leaning forward. Josie had practically dragged her out of her room earlier to tell her about what had happened since they last spoke. "You set Penelope Park's hair on fire?"
Josie looked at her confusedly. "That's the part you're paying attention to?"
"Yes! It's obviously the most interesting part."
"And the part where I told you that I did black magic with Hope wasn't?"
Elara shrugged. "I still don't really understand the whole light magic and black magic thing. What did the spell do anyway?"
"It was a locator spell. We found Landon. He was somewhere off of Route 29 on a bus, and he had the knife."
"That he stole," the blonde grumbled, tugging at the hem of her yellow jersey.
"Yes, that he stole." Josie sat down next to Elara and reached up to fix the werewolf's braid. They were the same height, so it was easy to do. "Focus. The knife was glowing and next thing we know we're kicked out of the vision."
"That's... weird. What happened next?"
Josie sighed. "I don't know, and honestly, I don't want to. I have enough things to worry about."
"That's fair. I'm not excited for this game--"
Suddenly, there was a harsh knock on the door and then it swung open. Hope stood in the doorframe.
"Uh, what are you--" Josie began, but Hope raised a hand to interrupt her.
"I need to talk with my roommate." She spoke briskly.
"Josie and I were a little busy--" Elara began.
"Now."
With a sigh, Elara sent Josie a small smile before she followed Hope out of the room and into the hallway. Elara barely closed to door to their room behind her before Hope spoke, whirling around to face her.
"Did you lie to me?"
Elara blinked, unsure about what Hope was talking about. (She had lied about quite a few things.) "What?"
Hope stepped towards Elara. "Did you lie about letting Landon out?"
Elara blinked, again. "Why does it even matter?"
"Because it does!" Hope exclaimed, stepping closer. She was glaring at her, and Elara could see Hope's clenched jaw.
"Yeah, I did, so what?" she answered.
"Why?"
"Do I need a reason?" Elara shrugged her shoulders loosely. "It didn't hurt anyone, did it? It was a small lie, and, aside from that, it's a bit too late for me to do anything about it."
Hope scoffed. "A small lie? You think it was a small lie? What else do you think is a small lie? I wonder what else you think is a small lie."
"A lot of things are small lies, Hope. It's not a big deal, and I really don't need to explain myself to you."
"So, you're a liar. Did you lie about how your curse was triggered?"
As soon as the words came out of Hope's mouth, she froze. Elara's jaw set, her usual neutral expression gone completely and replaced with anger.
How dare she.
"You crossed a line, Mikaelson." She closed the distance between them and stood directly in front of Hope, looking down at her.
"Elara, I--"
"You want to be mad at me for the smallest damn lie I've ever given, fine. Be mad. You want to take out your anger at Landon on me, fine. Call me a liar." She leaned down, seething. "But you will NOT accuse me of lying about that."
The shorter girl opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. There wasn't anything she could think of to say, anything that wouldn't make the argument worse, anyhow.
Elara said nothing else as she spun on her heel and marched out of the dorm room, slamming the door behind her.
~-~-~
The football game of the Salvatore Stallions and the Mystic Falls Timberwolves was an annual event that brought the two schools together. Every year, Mystic Falls won, and every year, the Salvatore school let them.
Elara hated it. She didn't lose. Before she triggered her curse, she played varsity soccer and varsity basketball. Sports were her thing-- well, her foster family's thing. Her foster parents pushed her and her siblings into joining whatever was possible.
Her younger foster brother was especially good at football. He was a natural at it.
The idea of playing in the game made her feel sick, but at the same time, she needed some kind of release for her anger.
To her surprise, Dorian --who replaced Alaric as the coach. (Elara would have to ask about that later) -- wanted her to stand with the twins and Kaleb at the coin flip. She stood between Kaleb and Lizzie, across from the three Timberwolves players.
Dorian clapped his hands together, drawing everyone's attention to him. "All right, guys. Let's have a good--" he looked at his players. "-- clean, entirely uneventful game."
Couldn't have been less obvious, huh.
"Like we do every year when we beat your asses down," a tall guy remarked, looking squarely at Kaleb. He had a punch-able face.
"Not exactly the spirit, Kyle," Dorian said.
The Kyle kid merely responded with "oh," winking at Elara not-so-subtly.
It took everything in her not to visibly show her disgust.
The coin flip continued, with Mystic Falls cockily calling "tails", and the coin landing on tails. When Dorian instructed them to shake hands, Elara paused, waiting to see what the rude players would do first. One of the guys, whose name she didn't know, shook Josie's hand politely.
To her dismay, "Kyle" reached his out to her with a small grin on his face. She reluctantly shook it, making sure to squeeze it a little too hard. What good was it to have super strength if you couldn't use it?
After shaking (more like groping) her hand, he bumped shoulders with Kaleb, and Josie had to stop Kaleb from reacting, telling him to suck it up.
Elara plopped herself on the bench. Her hair was still in its single braid, her jersey had been tucked into her shorts, and Josie had smeared eye black under her eyes despite her protests. She had no intention of actually playing, especially if she couldn't win.
Penelope was at the game, handing out water bottles to other players. She paused in front of Elara, blocking the sun from her view.
"What do you want?" the werewolf asked.
"You sound really southern when you're mad. It's kinda hot," Penelope said. She held her hands behind her, acting as if she were hiding something behind her. "I just came to wish you good luck."
Elara lifted a brow. She didn't like the way Penelope grinned. "Why?"
"I overheard Lizzie going over her plays, and guess who is every one of them?"
There had never been a moment like this that Elara had actually hated Lizzie. Sure, they bickered, and Elara disapproved of how selfish she was, but she didn't actually hate Lizzie. Elara groaned, putting her head in her hands. She really, really didn't want to play.
"Are you kidding me?" Elara grumbled, rubbing at her temples.
"Nope," Penelope said, popping the p. "And you've gotta get out there now, Wolfie. They're starting soon."
Elara was on the field within the minute, rolling up her sleeves and ignoring the questioning look from Josie. The whistle blew and Kaleb kicked the ball high into the air. He was pretty good, she noticed, but his talent didn't help them.
The game was going terribly, which was a good thing (sort of). They were losing in the way they were supposed to, but Elara's competitive spirit made it difficult to accept.
After a play, the players stood in a huddle of off the side lines. The score was 0-28 with the Timberwolves in the lead. Elara's wrist ached because she had fallen on it after being shoved not once but twice by Dana. She was starting to hate the football game even more. The only positive side was Elara didn't feel tired thanks to her werewolf traits.
"All right, I just want to take a minute to let you all know how proud I am," Lizzie said, speaking loud enough for the players to hear through the roars of the crowd. She looked at each player then at Elara, who stood next to Josie. "You're all doing a great job."
"We're getting our asses kicked," chimed in Kaleb.
Elara nodded, taking a deep breath. "What he said."
"Which means we're doing a great job," Josie said with a smile as MG arrived in the huddle.
MG turned his head towards Lizzie. "What's the play?"
"Same as always," Lizzie answered. "Run around, make it look like you know what you're doing. Then fail."
Elara and Kaleb exchanged a glance. Both of them were visibly unhappy with the way they were playing and had complained to each other.
"On three," Lizzie instructed.
The group clapped their hands and then walked away from the huddle. The team were on the field shortly after, the whistle piercing the air as the referee signaled for them to start.
Lizzie called out a fake play name, then Josie hiked her the ball. Elara took off down the center of the field, weaving through a route she had made up in her head. Even without her supernatural advantage she was faster than her defender, making it harder to act like she wasn't open.
They were supposed to lose, supposed to suck, but when she noticed MG running her direction and the ball was in the air, instinct took over. She took off towards MG, barely avoiding her defender, and crossed paths with him. Their defenders bumped into each other, and MG jumped, catching the ball.
She punched her fist into the air when MG danced into the endzone.
"Woohoo!" MG spiked the ball between his legs as he jumped in celebration.
Kaleb was in front of him quickly, and the two did their handshake. With a big smile on her face, Elara patted MG on the back. Stallions scored!
Both of their smiles vanished when Lizzie walked up, a look of irritation on her face.
"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Lizzie said.
"Pretty obvious, isn't it?" Dana said from behind Lizzie. "They're saving your ass. Nice moves."
Elara scrunched her nose in disgust as Dana looked MG up and down, and MG's grin returned. Lizzie scoffed, knocking the grin off of his face, and then walked away.
Elara wasn't sure why MG actually caught the ball, but when she noticed he and Penelope make eye contact and Penelope nodding, she knew her friend's ex had something to do with it.
Either way, she patted MG on the shoulder, again. "Good catch."
MG shrugged nonchalantly. "I had some help."
She grinned widely. "Hell, yeah you did."
The game continued on like it had before, with the Stallions pretending they sucked at football. Elara kept running around the field like a chicken with her head cut-off, knowing that if her foster brother could see her, he honestly would have been laughing.
The werewolf briefly stopped by Penelope after one of the plays, refilling her water bottle.
"I can see just how much you hate this," she said, crossing her arms.
"That obvious, huh?" Elara remarked, taking a sip from the bottle.
"You look like someone kicked your puppy."
She scoffed softly. "That's such an awful thing to say. Skip the niceties. What do you want?"
Penelope grinned. The same grin that Elara had seen before the game even started. "I actually need your help with something."
"And why would I help you? I don't even like you."
"Because it doesn't actually help me. It helps someone else."
"Oh, is that so? Well, who is it?"
Penelope tilted her chin towards the other players, who had started to huddle. "Josie."
Elara raised her brows, skeptically. "Please, like you actually want to help her."
"I do, and, if you'll give me a chance, I'll prove."
Noticing that the rest of the team had circled around each other, and Lizzie had started towards them, Elara took that as her cue to leave.
"We'll see, Park. We'll see."
When Elara made it to the circle, she practically felt Lizzie seething with rage.
"New plan. The gloves are off." She looked at each of the players. "Let's burn these bitches to the ground."
Elara nodded in agreement, but Josie disagreed. "Lizzie, no."
"We're gonna give these townies a taste of what we're really made of," Lizzie continued, ignoring her twin. She stuck her hand in the middle of the circle.
MG was the first to place his hand in. "You can count on my steel."
Lizzie scrunched her nose in disgust. "Ew. Gross."
"It's a reference. I'm in," Elara chimed in, placing her hand on MG's.
Kaleb joined. "Hey, I'm with you. All the way."
Then another player joined. Then another, and then Josie was the only one left.
"Come on, Jo. You're ruining an epic moment here," Lizzie said.
Josie looked around, pausing at Elara for a moment. "No, no, this isn't what we talked about."
Elara understood where Josie was coming from. They were supposed to lose in order to protect themselves.
"Well, I'm calling an audible, and I need you to get on board."
Elara and Kaleb exchanged another glance, nodding to each other. Before the game, they had never spoken before, but they briefly bonded over being athletes during it. Josie glanced around the circle, waiting for someone to agree with her, but that agreement never came.
She placed her hand on top of the stack, reluctantly. Elara grinned, nodding in approval. The werewolf felt a sting as the twins siphoned magic from their hands.
They tossed their hands into the air, saying "break!" in unison.
The next few plays flew by as the students started using their abilities. They scored play after play, and Elara even scored, having caught a ball in the endzone as a defender tried to tackle her. Her anger had disappeared, covered instead by the bliss of playing a competitive sport and actually winning.
But the bliss was short lived. After she scored, tying the game 35-35, Connor Kyle pushed himself off of her, having joined his teammate in trying to take her down.
"Nice moves, blondie," he said, a crooked grin on his face. "You've gotta be pretty flexible to bend that way."
"Piss off, Kyle. You couldn't even take me down by yourself," she taunted, pushing him away from her by his shoulder.
"Well, I wonder what those moves look like without that awful jersey on. You'd look so much better in nothing and with your mouth shut."
Elara clenched her jaw and made to lunge at him, but a strong hand caught her. Kaleb held her back. Connor had also tormented him the entire game, yet he contained his anger.
"C'mon," Kaleb said softly, tugging her back towards the sideline.
They made it there quickly. MG surprised Elara by jumping on her back in celebration. The three of them were playing great, and there wasn't much that could stop them.
Until MG noticed the pissed off expression on Josie's face and made a comment about it.
The three plopped themselves on the bench as Josie and Lizzie argued over how to continue. Josie snatched the small whiteboard from Lizzie's hands and wrote something down on it. She turned it towards them, the word LOSE written boldly.
"Dad told us to lose today for a reason," Josie said.
Kaleb spoke back. "Well, he ain't here, so screw that."
"Well, no one would be here if it weren't for him. My dad built this school for supernaturals like us, so if we win by flaunting all the things that make us different, we're gonna lose a lot more than a stupid game," Josie argued. She locked eyes with Lizzie. "Really want Dad to stop loving us? Keep it up."
Elara grimaced at that. It was a harsh thing to say, but there was some truth to it.
"And if you don't..." She turned the board around, again.
Suddenly, Elara felt a presence sit next to her.
"Or door number three."
Josie's anger increased at the sight of her ex. "Okay, we definitely didn't ask for your opinion. And how on earth do you always do that? It's like she appears out of smoke."
"Hold up, hold up. What's door number three?" Kaleb asked.
Penelope smirked. "You win, without any of your supernatural special sauce."
Elara hummed softly. The idea was actually pretty good.
"Fair and square."
"Yeah," Josie breathed out. "But we're legitimately terrible."
Lizzie chimed in. "No, we used to be terrible, but Kaleb and Elara are new this year."
"So am I," MG said. "I can help us win, too."
Lizzie looked at him incredulously.
"I caught that pass earlier," he attempted to reason.
"Yeah, but you cheated. You used your powers," Josie argued.
MG shook his head. "No, I didn't. I'm... I'm just scrappy like that."
While they had been speaking, Lizzie had been thinking. When she finally spoke, she nodded slightly. "Good idea, Satan. But to be clear, you can't have my immortal soul."
Elara hadn't heard that nickname before and laughed softly at it.
"Fair and square," Lizzie echoed. "Let's do this."
The team clambered off of the bench, saying encouraging things to each other. Elara looked back over her shoulder, waiting for Josie to follow behind. Josie was still looking at Penelope, and Elara couldn't read what she was feeling.
She wasn't jealous, of course. They were just friends, and if Elara did ever feel anything like that towards Josie, she would've quickly squashed the feelings like a bug.
The piercing sound of the whistle ripped her from her thoughts. She positioned herself on the field, standing diagonally from Connor, who shot her an unwanted wink. He had a way of-- quickly-- making her angry.
The game continued on with the Stallions scoring once and the Timberwolves scoring twice. Elara was sore from having been taken down, again, by Connor during one of the plays. The team formed one last huddle on the sideline as they figured out what to do.
She wasn't listening, instead hearing a gentle ringing in her ears. Her headache had returned from the day before, and it felt like her brain was trying to break its way through her skull.
During the last play of the game, there wasn't anything she could do. She did her best to make herself open, but her defender had figured out her route, locking her out. Lizzie threw the ball towards Kaleb, and he lunged to catch it--
He dropped it. The ball bounced off of his fingers.
The Stallions lost, again.
Dammit! Elara huffed, pushing her stray hairs out of her face.
They lined up to high-five the other team as a show of sportsmanship, but Elara wasn't feeling very sportsman-like. The Timberwolves played dirty and roughly. She lined up towards the front to get it over with as quickly as she could.
She moved to smack Connor's hand roughly, but he caught it, trying to shake her hand instead. "Good game, instead of me taking you on the field I could take you in my--"
Elara only saw red. Her fist slammed into his jaw, then she threw him to the ground, and relentlessly, she swung, again, and again, and again.
Anger. That was all she felt. She was mad at Hope, mad at Connor, mad at the entire world.
The next thing she knew, hands were grabbing her shoulders, pulling her away from the human. She heard Josie whispering something in her ear, but she wasn't listening, seething with pure rage.
It isn't until they're several feet away from the brawl that her hearing returns.
"Your eyes."
Elara breathed heavily, keeping her head ducked. She tasted her blood as it dripped down from her nose. "What- what about them, Jo?"
"They're yellow, Elara."
~-~-~
It was late when Elara finally got back to her room. After the brawl, which apparently was not only caused by her, she and Josie agreed to keep what she saw a secret. Elara's life would've become much harder if Alaric found out she almost wolfed out at the charity football game.
Hope wasn't there when she opened the door, and she let out a sigh of relief. She stopped in front of her desk, patting at her nose with a wet wipe. The bleeding had stopped, but her upper lip was busted for the time being.
The desk was empty except for a notebook and a small photocard. The notebook was Emma's idea since Elara hadn't been attending sessions, but she hadn't bothered to write anything in it.
She stared at the photocard. In it was her, smiling widely at the camera, and her foster brother, who carried her on his shoulders. It was one of the only mementos of her past life, one of the only things she had to remember him.
The door creaked open behind her, and Elara didn't need to turn around to know it was Hope. She had nothing to say to her and didn't even want to talk to her.
But when she turned around and saw the tears in Hope's eyes, her anger lifted as something else pulled at her heartstring.
Elara opened her mouth to speak, but Hope stopped her, raising her hand. In it was a letter.
Neither of them spoke. It didn't need to be said that Landon was gone or that Rafael was too, Elara already knew from the look on Hope's face. What else were they supposed to say? Elara was still angry with Hope but the sadness in her eyes made it difficult, and Hope was too emotional to think of anything to say. It didn't need to be said that Landon was gone or that Rafael was too, Elara already knew from the look on Hope's face.
Instead, Hope did the unexpected. She let the letter fall from her hand onto her bed and closed the distance between them, throwing her arms around the taller girl. Elara blinked, surprised and shocked, but she does respond, wrapping her arms around Hope.
Nothing else was said between them. Tomorrow, Elara would be mad at Hope, but in that moment, Hope needed comfort, someone there for her, and Elara wasn't going to deny it.
Tomorrow, Elara would be angry.
[a.n: longer chapter since it took a while for me to publish. How do we feel about longer chapters? Yes, no, maybe? Let me know!
NYM]