hi, i'm here again because... hosie is cute and i love it a lot

+ i'm probably gonna make this a two-shot? because i have an idea in my head :^)

(this is really short)

Josie stared at M.G.'s notebook like it was the spawn of Satan. He'd been kind enough to lend her his notes from Advanced Civics. She'd been distracted—and it wasn't because Hope Mikaelson was sitting in front of her with really nice, reddish brown curls, she swore. (Fingers crossed or not, it counted.) M.G. was an energetic guy with about the same jitters as a kid on coffee. So, it made sense that his handwriting was messy and his bullets were misplaced.

She usually borrowed Lizzie's notes when she hadn't taken her own, but Lizzie also forgot to take some. It was apparently because she knew Rafael would give her his, and she could go over to his dorm to 'return' them. Then, her plan was to get him to swoon over her low-neckline shirt and pretty, white heels. If only Josie had a cute crush that she could ask notes from. (And don't say Hope. Don't say it.)

Because it'd been a few days after she'd admitted the whole 'crush' to Lizzie and Hope after that long spring-break road trip, and she wasn't willing to burn down another note and something of sentimental value to Hope because of her feelings. Lizzie hadn't wasted time in poking fun at it, saying things like 'eep! here comes Josie's dream girl,' whenever Hope approached their group.

Of course, Josie knew that Lizzie didn't mean anything malicious by it, because she always squeezed her hand afterwards to show that she was joking. She'd tell Lizzie that her crush on Hope ended when she'd burnt that note; but really it had been building itself back up ever since she admitted to burning it. Really, with Hope's eyes and—notes. Notes. She's studying for Civics right now, not studying how to make Hope swoon. (That'd be a much better class to study for, though.)

Lizzie always separated all her sections with nice, dotted lines and used clean calligraphy to dictate the names of each section. She included dates, and even highlighted the most important parts. Sometimes, Josie would ask Lizzie for her notes even when she had taken her own. Of course, Lizzie didn't usually take them anyways, she had a good memory and a good way of creating flashcards. Lucky her.

She sunk her head into the notebook, smelling the rabbit blood from the cafeteria and M.G.'s cologne. She tried again, and all she could make out from the sloppy chicken scratch was, "werewolf" and "ritual." In frustration, she shut the journal and shoved it haphazardly into her school bag. She'd just have to return it to him and pretend that it had been a huge help. She didn't want him to find out that she couldn't read it at all; she was afraid he might try to translate it for her. She didn't want him to waste effort, after all.

So, she swung the bag over her shoulder and left her dorm room, hoping to make her way to the library. Maybe, in those old, cobweb-stuffed books, there'd be some information about supernatural rights and citizenship. Unfortunately, she swung face-first into Lizzie, who was just coming back from Rafael's room. Her face was sunken and her shoulders were slumped.

"Sorry, Josie," she murmured.

"What's wrong?" Josie heard herself asking, noticing her sullen look.

"Rafael likes Hope," she sneered out the words like they were toxic. "I know you cleared up that thing about me hating her, but is it too late to rip her head off?"

Josie blinked, trying to chose her words carefully. Please don't rip off Hope's head, I think she's really pretty with it on, came first. Of course, that was way too much information.

"I don't know if you could," Josie settles on, after a beat of thoughts, and Lizzie scoffs, but she silently knows it's true. "Hope is pretty powerful."

Lizzie parts her lips to say something, but a chuckle resides over Josie's shoulder. The brunette siphon whips around; thinking it's another monster to torment her. Instead, it's the blue-eyed, reddish-brown haired tribrid that was just the topic of their discussion.

She quirks an eyebrow, "Oh, you think I'm pretty and powerful, Josie?"

The brunette's jaw falls and her face spurs into a red mess of color. She can feel blood pumping to the tips of her ears. Lizzie's throat bursts and she lets out a long snort of laughter, before running inside her room to leave the two alone. Josie curses at Lizzie in her head, and then apologizes for it right after.

"Wha… No—" Josie tried to control her breathing. "I…"

It's then that she realizes that Hope's lips are curved in an unmistakable smile, and her eyes are shining with that beautiful white sparkle that Josie totally doesn't admire all the time.

"Shut up Hope," she finishes untoughly, crossing her arms to try and at least pretend that she's upset.

Hope's smile doesn't fade, instead it gets stronger. Therefore, like a cause and effect relationship, Josie's blush fades down to her neck and brightens. Josie cries out in her head, is there a spell to make a blush go away?

The smile quickly turned from an amused one to a smug one, and Josie could feel her symptoms mutilating into even worse ones. How could a blush get any deeper than it already was? Hope pressed an index finger to the corner of her rosemary lips and let out a 'hmm.' (And Josie cried, a little bit, on the inside.)

"I wonder if you said I was pretty in your note," Hope says, her tone light but also slightly raspy. Josie opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She felt like the mummy they'd fought the day she'd admitted her crush. Honestly, it'd be a lot cooler if a bunch of beetles escaped her mouth instead of a quiet, disgruntled whimper at the teasing.

After that, Hope smiled even wider at Josie's silence, only the sounds of light popping from her opening and closing her mouth constantly. (Josie didn't realize she was doing it until Hope looked at her lips and she immediately shut them.)

"Toodles!" she exclaimed lightly, walking past Josie's struggle to form coherent syllables in her brain. She could smell the whiff of caramel and forest as Hope walked by, and that just wasn't fair.

(Dammit, Hope.)

(She didn't get to ask you for notes.)

i don't actually know if hope would be this flirty because we dont... really see a lot of her having flirt sessions but it's okay

[goodbye]