Prologue
"Okay, class, that’s it for today. You’re dismissed."
Before the words could leave her English teacher’s mouth, Josie found herself practically running out of the classroom. It was now the end of her morning classes, and she was set free for lunch. Josie found that lunch was the thing she looked forward to most when it came to her school day. She could sit outside a few feet from the school, under the football field bleachers, with a book in her right hand and a red apple in her left. Lunch was her time to decompress from the madness that was her senior year of high school.
However, lunch was not just a break from her day; it was also the one time of day where she got to spend time with a certain someone.
No one knows who Josie goes to see during her lunch period, because if they did, it would ruin everything she and her twin Lizzie have built for themselves. Their reputation here at Mystic Falls High. They were considered popular. They, along with their friend group, practically ruled through the halls of the school.
Josie runs out of the building and makes a beeline for the field. It was November now, meaning it was quite chilly outside. Everyone would spend their lunch inside the school building or out in the front corridor. Josie never worried about getting caught out here, considering her ‘spot’ was mostly covered by some trees that lined against the bleachers. She was safe here.
She was safe to meet with her certain someone.
When she gets to her spot, she looks around to make sure it’s clear. She moves a couple of branches with leaves out of the way, and there she is.
Her certain someone.
“Hey,” Josie calls out, going to sit against the tree six feet across from the person.
The person is sitting with their legs crossed and a sketchbook in their lap. They have their pencils scattered next to them, along with a half-eaten sandwich and an earbud in one ear.
They look up at Josie and give her a nod as a greeting. As they always do.
Josie sighed and took out her apple and the book she was reading. She takes one last look at the person across from her before diving into her fictional world.
This is how her lunch went. Sat across from her certain someone. Her certain someone who has never said a word to her. Who may not even know her name. Who she shares only lunch with.
Who she shares this secret space with and who she has a major crush on.
Josie and her twin sister Lizzie moved to Mystic Falls the summer before their freshman year of high school. Back in middle school, they were bullied each for their own reasons. They were left out and talked about and made fun of, and when their parents announced they would be moving to a whole other town, well, they couldn’t be happier.
That summer, they vowed never to let anyone bully them again. Lizzie saw the move as the perfect opportunity. She would become popular. She would have friends, an amazing boyfriend who she could flaunt, and her name would be known for all the right reasons. She had her plan, and she was determined to make it a reality.
And she did.
Josie, on the other hand, her plan was the complete opposite. Josie didn’t care much for popularity. She didn’t care to have the whole school know who she was. She didn’t care much for having a giant friend group, and she certainly didn’t care about having a boyfriend just to show everyone she had one.
Josie wanted genuine connection. She wanted romance. She wanted love. She wanted to be who she really was, but she couldn’t. Not anymore.
Popularity came with being Lizzie Saltzman's twin; she understood that. She understood that her popularity was not her own, just something she gained from association. She understood that the friends she had, her giant friend group, she also didn’t gain on her own. Except for her best friend, MG.
And finally, she understood that even her boyfriend, Landon, she didn’t get on her own.
Josie didn’t love Landon. She knew deep down she didn’t. She knew she didn’t love the attention the whole school gave her, and sure, her friends were great, but she knew she didn’t have the deepest connections with them. She knew this, and she knew she could never change any of this because this is what they had worked for. This was what Lizzie had worked for.
Josie loved her sister more than anyone on this earth, and she knew firsthand the impact of what they had endured in middle school. She wouldn’t put them through that again. She would never dare think of it.
So that’s why, every school day, when the bell signals it’s time for her lunch, she runs out of the school and makes her way here. Her spot. Where she can let go of all of that chaos and be herself. Where she can sit across from her certain someone.
Her certain someone who was considered a loner. Her certain someone who could cause everything she had built to crumble down.
Hope Mikaelson.
That was her name. That was her certain someone.
Hope Mikaelson was the school’s biggest mystery. She never spoke in class and was never seen socializing with anyone. She was an auburn-haired beauty with the bluest eyes Josie had ever seen. She was always seen with a black jean jacket, and despite never being seen socializing with anyone, she was constantly talked about.
Hope Mikaelson had everything. She had the biggest house and the fanciest car. She had that ‘bad girl’ attitude and the looks of a Goddess. She had everything but the most important: her parents.
Klaus Mikaelson was the Governor of the state, and Hayley Mikaelson was the best surgeon at the Mystic Falls Hospital.
They both passed in Hope’s sophomore year in an unfortunate accident at a press conference, and to this day, whenever Hope is seen walking throughout the halls, she’s being whispered about.
People call her a weirdo, a loser, a nobody.
The same names, Lizzie and Josie, don’t dare associate themselves with.
Not anymore.
So when junior year came around and Josie finally had enough of the lunchroom where she and her friends sat, she made her way to the football field, where she found the perfect spot with the perfect girl camped out there already.
“Oh!” Josie jumped, causing Hope to tear her eyes away from her sketchbook. “I didn’t think anyone would be here. I’m sorry, I can just go…” She trailed off.
When their eyes met, Josie felt something in her chest. She felt it tighten, and she felt the way her words got caught in her throat. Hope stared at her and didn’t say a word.
They held eye contact and just as Josie was about to turn away, Hope cleared her throat. Josie thought the girl would speak up and say something, but she didn’t.
She rolled her eyes and pointed to the tree across from her.
“I can stay?” Josie asked for clarification. Hope didn’t say a word. She didn’t dare look up at Josie for a second time that afternoon; she simply nodded and went back to her sketchbook.
And that was how it started. That was the start of Josie’s escape, and that was the start of Josie’s forbidden crush.
Not once did they ever engage in conversation. Josie would always greet the girl, and in turn, the blue-eyed beauty would give her a soft nod.
That was how Josie spent her lunch. She spent her time with Hope Mikaelson. She spent it with a red apple and a book. She spent it often looking away from her book and sneaking small glances at the girl across from her, wondering what she was sketching and what she could find out about her.
Josie hoped that one day Hope would speak to her and that they could get to know each other. She wanted to know the other girl. She wanted to know what she does in her free time, and she wanted to know what it was like to form a genuine connection with someone besides her twin and best friend.
What Josie didn’t know, however, was that her wishes were going to soon become true and that everything was about to change.
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