Into Thin Air

Chapter 10

Hope went straight to Dr. Saltzman's office, knocking only to see if he was in there before she spelled the door open and shut it quickly behind her. She cast a small revealing spell and rifled through his stuff while she waited for it to take effect, starting with the papers on the top of his desk and ending in the student files. 
She was sitting on the floor behind his desk, sorting through the folders, when the door to his office flew open.
Hope sprang to her feet, expecting to see the headmaster himself but instead, Lizzie Saltzman stood in the doorway, scowling at her darkly from under her heavy eyebrows.
"Where's my dad?" she demanded.
"Uh, not here," Hope said stiffly, wishing Lizzie would take the hint and leave.
Lizzie threw her jacket onto the back of the chair instead. If she picked up on the hint, she ignored it. "Then why are you in his office?"
Hope clasped her hands behind her back, nudging the drawer closed with her boot. "No reason."
"Spill it, Mikaelson. Josie's been bitching about you all week, my dad's been busier than ever, and now you're breaking into his office, so something is obviously up." Lizzie threw things around her dad's desk like she was looking for something herself, messing up all the neat piles of paper.
Hope furrowed her eyebrows and exposed her teeth, a low anger boiling in her stomach. "What did I do to Josie?" 
"I don't know, so stop changing the subject. What are you looking for?" Lizzie leaned against the desk to cross her arms and stare down Hope.
"I am looking for anything suspicious, okay?" Hope dropped back to her knees, reopening the student files drawer. There was no point in hiding what she was doing anymore.
"More suspicious than breaking and entering?"
"Yes! Now let me focus!" Hope had finally found Jade's folder, out of alphabetical order and shoved deep in the back of the drawer underneath everyone else's. She opened it excitedly, only to find the folder completely empty. She snapped it shut again.
"Then tell me exactly what I'm helping you look for!" Lizzie snapped back.
Hope stood. "You're going to help me?"
"You're not the only one who thinks my dad has been acting weird lately." Lizzie rolled her eyes and pulled books off the bookshelf one by one, tossing them onto the mess she'd made on the desk.
"Acting weird how?"
"Sneaking off late at night, not telling me and Josie where he's been or what he's doing, lying about headmaster-ly meetings - wait, why do you think my dad's been acting suspicious?"
"Same stuff." Hope stumbles over her lie. "I just know he's lying about something."
Lizzie stared at her, mind working hard. "Yeah but why would it matter to you?"
"Because one of the lies is about a secret I want to know."
"What secret?"
Hope's eyes wandered around, physically searching for a lie, when she spotted the red box on the shelf where a line of books once sat. "Do you know what's inside that box?"
"Don't avoid my question."
"It's locked." Hope studied the sides, looking for a way on.
"Why does a locked box matter?" Lizzie threw her hands out. "It probably just has my mom's wedding ring in it."
Hope sets the box on his desk. "Because I've never seen it before I cast a revealing spell when I first got here."
"My point still stands." Lizzie started to stack paperwork neatly around the heap of books.
"Oh yeah? Shake it."
Hope handed the box off. A loud clanking comes from inside the box, something heavy and metal with lots of parts. 
"That's not a ring …" Lizzie lowered the box slowly. 
"Dad!"
Hope and Lizzie whirled around at the same time as Josie stormed into the office. When she spotted them, her face fell into a deadly scowl and she crossed her arms.
"What are you doing here?" She spoke to Lizzie and only Lizzie. "And why are you here with her?"
"I think that's my cue to leave." Hope was already edging towards the door.
"That's a great idea!" Josie quipped. She waited until the door was closed to speak again. "Seriously, Lizzie? Going through dad's stuff with Hope Mikaelson?" Josie snatched the papers out of her sister's hand, stacking them into a neat pile aggressively. 
"It's not like that," Lizzie said, knowing exactly what Josie was afraid of. 
"Oh really?" Josie tilted her head. "'It's not like that'? Are you insane?"
Lizzie's jaw tightened and her words came careful and practiced. "I don't like that word."
"I don't care!"
"Why are you being like this?" 
"Because it's Hope Mikaelson and you know exactly how I feel about her! You're just too selfish to care about anyone but yourself!" Josie's hand flew to her ear at the end of her sentence. She could barely hear Lizzie whisper her name over the sound of something wriggling in her ear, but before either of them could question it, the office door burst open again for the fourth time that morning.
"What is going on?" Dr. Saltzman asked. "I could hear you arguing from down the hall."
"It's nothing." Josie glared pointedly at Lizzie as she stomped out of the office.