Chapter Text
Damon plopped into the chair next to Elena that was clearly set aside for him and Ric rolled his eyes. Leave it to Damon to be the last one to show up five minutes late. When he went to plop his feet up on the conference table, Elena smacked his leg and Damon huffed, but put his feet back on the floor. “Since we’re all here…finally…” Ric started with an amused look at his Vampire Integration teacher. “Let’s get to business. There were a lot of changes this year, and a lot more ideas for continuing changes now that we have more options open to us, now that we have the summer to revamp things. Damon would you like to start us off with the information on your new physical education class since it was your idea?”
“Sure. Why not,” Damon shrugged. “While hostilities between the species has lessened somewhat in the last few months, there is still a long way to go. From experience I can tell you that the best way to overcome these issues is for these kids to fight side by side. To learn to trust each other and depend on each other. Which is why I want to start a new integrated class where they will be broken into teams containing witches, werewolves, and vampires on each team.”
“What will the teams be doing?” Emma asked curiously.
“Problem solving, obstacle courses, and combat,” Damon answered.
“What grades would be included?” Dorian asked worriedly.
“Just juniors and seniors,” Elena chimed in, having worked through this idea with Damon. “That way the witches will all have a year of offensive magic under their belts and the vampires and werewolves will be settled down from their initial transformations to avoid any accidents.”
“What kind of safeguards will you be implementing?” Jo asked.
“That’s where I come in,” Bonnie spoke up. “I can enchant some amulets for the witches that will give them the same durability as the werewolves and vampires and the same near instant healing abilities. They can’t wear them for more than two hours a week without playing havoc with their physiology, but since each person would only have one class a week, there won’t be much of a problem there. I plan to give them to Damon and let him hand them out at the beginning of class and collect them back up at the end.”
“Can you give me the information on these amulets so I can double check that they won’t cause any problems from a medical standpoint?” Jo asked concerned.
“Sure, I’ll get it to you after the meeting,” Bonnie promised.
“Anyone else have any questions or concerns about this class?” Ric asked the rest of the teachers. When no one spoke up, he turned back to Damon. “Then I’ll put it on the schedule assuming Jo can’t find any fault with the amulet spell or we can find another safeguard if she does. Next on the agenda was the potential addition of latin classes for the witches.”
“I think everyone should have the option for those classes, not just witches,” one of the teachers spoke up.
“Do you have any objections to more students?” Ric asked Damon.
Damon shrugged. “In language classes, no. There’s not really any need to watch them as closely there.”
“Okay, then how about we make it mandatory for the witches, but elective for everyone else,” Ric suggested and got nods all around.
“What grade will we start the language lessons at? And are we going to offer more than just Latin?”
“I was thinking we start them in sixth grade, as soon as they reach the upper school,” Ric suggested looking to Damon for approval and to answer the other question.”
“Sixth grade works. As far as offering more than just Latin, I’m going to say no, for right now. At least for me teaching it. If I’m going to be teaching seven years of students Latin, at least for the first few years until they start aging out, that’s going to be a lot of classes. I don’t know that I’ll have time for more than that. Maybe later on we can add more once there are fewer classes for that,” Damon told them.
When no one had anything else to say to that, Ric moved on. “I had an idea I wanted to run by you Elena. What would you think of adding an elective for the seniors who are interested in history and archiving to teach them what you do and also get some assistants to help you go through and organize everything. Maybe we can even keep one or two of them on after graduation if they want to make a career out of it.”
“That could work. It would take lifetimes to get everything done by myself. The translations alone would take a century or more. The help would be appreciated,” Elena agreed.
“We could also offer private study options so that anyone who is interested in more obscure subjects could do so,” Kai suggested.
“We are all so busy already, who would oversee those students?” Emma asked curiously.
“That’s a valid concern,” Ric nodded thoughtfully. “Why don’t we see how the new options we’ve already discussed settle and we can come back to that in a year or two if we can find the time and money for it. With so many new classes already, scheduling will be an issue as well.”
“We could always do that for summer sessions if the students are interested. For those who stay year round that is. It would give them a little more structure to their time in the summer and maybe cut down on behavioral issues,” someone suggested.
“That’s a great idea, Tim,” Jo told him. “And the teachers who stay during the summer could take turns helping them or if some know more than others about their projects.”
“We can work all that out once we know who wants to participate and what kind of projects they choose,” someone else chimed in.
“Perfect,” Ric agreed with a nod. “Any other ideas or suggestions?” When no one had any, Ric closed the meeting. “Okay, great. I guess that’s it for today. All of you who are leaving for the summer are free to go as soon as you finish the last of your grading in case you aren’t done yet. The rest of you I’ll see you later. Damon and Kai, hold back for a bit?”
Once the three of them were the last ones in the room, Damon asked, “What’s up?”
“I wanted to make a change to the home visits when we find potential new students. Usually I take Hope with me and just call MG in when I need someone compelled, but I would like you both to start coming along if you could. Damon for compulsions where necessary and Kai since you’re more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of magic as a whole and you can also sense the magic to make sure that no one gets miscategorized like Wade and Penelope or overlooked like Landon was at first.”
Damon shrugged and looked at Kai for an answer. “Sure. I don’t mind,” Kai agreed. It had taken him almost two weeks to pinpoint the fact that Penelope wasn’t a normal witch and was, in fact, a shadow nymph. Like Wade, she had been adopted as an infant and thus, had no idea that she was anything other than a normal witch. Unlike Wade, she had no problems using spirit magic though. He could tell she would be better suited for a different type, but he had yet to figure out what or how. It was an ongoing project.
“Great. Now I got a ping on the map yesterday that I’d like to go check out by tomorrow at the latest. It seems to be a witch, but it’s much stronger than most young children, and it should have been detected sooner if they are older, so I’m not really sure what to expect,” Ric told them.
“Whatever it is, we can handle it,” Kai assured him. “Leave after breakfast?”
“Sounds good to me,” Damon agreed.
Ric nodded and had one last request. “Make sure you wear suits. We want to make a good impression.”
The next morning, they were on the road headed for the outskirts of Philadelphia. Since Ric let Damon drive, it only took an hour and a half to get there. It would have been less but they’d had to stop and compel their way out of a speeding ticket. It was just after ten am when they pulled up in front of the moderately sized house in a nice neighborhood.
Ric was the one to knock on the door, Damon and Kai flanking him from behind. The door was opened rather quickly by a horse faced woman with an expression of distaste. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Dr. Alaric Saltzman, headmaster of the Salvatore School. These are two of my teachers, Mr. Damon Salvatore, and Mr Malakai Bennet. We wondered if you had a few moments free to discuss the potential attendance of your child?”
“Well…I say…” she seemed very caught off guard. “We just moved here last week and hadn’t even begun looking for schools for our little Duddykins, so I can’t say that I know anything about your school…”
“You wouldn’t find us through any normal means,” Ric told her. “We are very elite, and attendance is by invitation only.”
“I see,” the woman’s eyes lit up in happiness. “In that case, please, come in. Let me get you some tea.” She turned away from the door as she let them in and called out, “Vernon, darling. There are some men here from some elite school. They want to talk about Dudley.” She turned back once they were inside, and said, “Oh, where are my manners. I’m Petunia Dursley, and this is my husband Vernon.”