"Will that be all Ms. Brown?"

The scruffy man dressed head to toe in blue stood beside her with hands on his hips and a pencil tucked in the little space between his left ear and forehead. His voice was slightly breathless due to the heavy lifting he had just done, but he tried to hide it by facing the doors of her new leased property.

Not like it stopped her from noticing anyways.

She saw everything.

With a gentle smile on her face she signed all the paperwork neeeded to pay for the delivery service and get rid of him as soon as possible. She had just about finished moving her things into the retail store; even the clothes and accessories. A little rearranging here and there and she'd be ready to open for business. It was worth celebrating, and Avery Brown certainly didn't celebrate in the company of sweaty, leering, out of breath bafoons.

"Yes. That will be all. Thank you Brad," she said handing him the notepad with the papers.

"It's Chad," he replied. As if it actually made a difference.

Avery's smile turned thin. "Right."

She walked inside her shop and firmly shut the doors from behind, leaving Chad on the outside staring longingly.

Once inside, she took a moment to survey the shop from left to right. Considering it was an extension of her, Avery's Boutique had to look as chic and elegant as Avery Brown herself. Some might call her thoughts conceited and arrogant, but she called it being confident without fear of other people's judgement.

The walls were white and rich purple, the floors were covered in tiles of black and white marble, and bright lights focused on mannequins and clothing racks that surrounded the entire boutique. Stereo players were situated at four corners of the room along with eye catching items that would entice even the most realistic and smart shoppers. All in all, Avery was pleased. It was excellent, but not perfect. Never perfect. There would always be room for improvement.

Avery had to almost remind herself that this was just the side job. She had bigger fish to fry in Mystic Falls and being the owner of a new boutique was just the cover she needed to announce her reappearance in the quaint little town of Virginia.


After a day of unpacking, rearranging, and cleaning the shop Avery was ready to curl up in her comfiest pair of silk pajamas with a cup of wine and a plate full of macarons.

But, no. This wasn't Paris and she no longer had the luxury to lie around in her bed all day while spoiling herself on exquisite books, music, and art. Remind her again why she decided to leave all of that and come to One Tree Hill 2.0? Paris had been the city of comfort and fun. And food, let's not forget the food. In the last fifty years, nothing had ever tasted as delicious to Avery as her hotel's personal chef.

French blood had a certain je ne sais quoi to it.

Erasing her mind of nostalgic thoughts, Avery walked with determination to the one place in Mystic Falls where she knew she would be welcome. No, not the Mystic Grill. Although she could use a drink to wash away her slight hesitance, she needed to be at a certain place far more important if she was to succeed in her plans.

As it always is, they started with someone oblivious of the plans all together. And in this case that person just happened to be a strawberrry blonde psych major with way too many responsiblities than she could handle and not enough friends for her to count on. Luckily for Jenna Sommers, Avery was in the mood to make friends. Or, well, reconnect with old friends to be exact. Who said that the most cunning people couldn't be kind as well? She could be both. A mirror with many faces.

The door of the Gilbert house opened to reveal a lanky boy with shaggy brown hair that reached almost to his chin and eyes so sad that it made even her blink.

Oh. Right. They were orphans now.

She mentally scolded herself for forgetting that just for a second.

"Hi. Does someone by the name of Jenna live here? I'm an old friend of hers from Whitmore and I was told that this was her address, but I'm new to town so I'm not really not sure of anything..."

She played the role of the rambling, clueless new neighbour to a tee. The objective of leaving a naive but good second impression on a Gilbert? Check. Even from a few steps afar she could tell Jeremy Gilbert's interest peaked and his defences down.

"...Avery?"

"...Jeremy?" she replied in the same tone of voice as if she was just now remembering who he was.

"Yeah. We met three years ago at a Christmas party," he told her and then frowned remembering that it was his parents that held the party and now his parents were dead. Yikes.

She grinned to divert the conversation. "Oh. Now I remember. You're her nephew right? Yeah, I remember speaking with you briefly that night. It was a really fun party."

"Yeah. It was." He smiled again, still looking ever the sad puppy. She almost gave in and squeezed his cheeks right then and there. He was that adorbs. "So what are you doing here?"

"Just stopping by to paint the town red and wreak havoc on all your boring small town lives," Avery replied nonchalantly.

Jeremy's smile grew by an inch. "Well if you're looking to enlist Jenna as your sidekick I'm afraid she's not here."

Avery frowned. "Huh. Well I was hoping to surprise her, but now I guess I'll just have to meet her somewhere."

Jeremy stared at her expression, hesitated for a moment, but then decided to give into that little angel on his shoulder. Avery smirked inside knowing what he was going to ask before he actually did.

"Well if you want you can come in and wait for her to return."

"Wait, really? Are you sure?" she asked, widening her eyes for affect.

"Why not? It's not like you're a serial killer or anything." Jeremy chuckled, opening the door even further.

She laughed along with him for entirely different reasons and made her first two steps inside the house. The objective of being invited in, therefore getting free entry to the Gilbert household forever? Check.

Maybe her stay in Mystic Falls would be worth leaving behind that tasty Paris chef after all.


"You're really staying here?" asked Jenna disbelievingly for the hundreth time.

"Yes. For God's sakes, I've already moved into my new house and everything." Avery was getting a little tired of repeating herself this many times in less than an hour.

"But...but why?" questioned Jenna once again. "I know you were taking a semester off from college to travel, but you decided to drop out of Whitmore entirely? What are you going to do now?"

"I bought a boutique for myself a block away from the Grill. It's really nice. You should come to the opening next week."

Jenna stared at her scrutinizingly. If Avery wasn't a thousand year old undercover Original she might have withered under her look, but unfortunately for Jenna she could hold her own in this stare-down. A minute later Jenna sighed and looked away. "So that's your plan then? Running a boutique your entire life? It just doesn't sound like an Avery Brown kind of thing to do."

Avery shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm just going with the flow right now. Seeing what life has to offer. I visisted my home town in England and lived the high life in Paris already. Now I want to know what it's like living in a small town in the states. I remembered what Mystic Falls was like when I came down here with you during our winter break three years ago and I thought it was the perfect place to start."

She hoped that Jenna would give it a break already. She really wasn't in the mood to stay in doors and talk all day when there was so much sight seeing to do.

Ok. Maybe that was an exaggeration. But even though this town was small, Avery still had to know it's ins and outs before everything went to hell.

"It's not like I need a high paying job anyways," she carried on, lowering her voice at the end. She hoped that Jenna still remembered her fake orphan story. It was one of her more creative ones. Father died of cancer. Mother suicided. Avery, their single child, inherited everything and moved from her mansion in England to the U.S.

Jenna's eyes widened in sorrow. Wonderful. As someone who had just lost her sister, she could relate to her imaginary grief.

"How about we go out tonight? Just you and me Brown," she finally spoke in an effort to bring up their spirits.

Avery smiled angelically. "Are you sure? I know you have two teenagers to look after now. I would hate to be a burden."

"You're not! I need a day off anyways. Stop worrying. We'll go to the Grill first. We can catch dinner there and I think there's even a band playing tonight! And then we can rent a DVD on our way back, you can pick up some things from your house, and we'll slumber it like we used to in our dorm rooms during exam week."

"Sounds great." Avery got up from her seat on the living room couch with a wide grin. "I'm really glad I have someone I know in this town."

"Mystic Falls is full of super nice people," said Jenna reassuringly, getting up as well. "I'm sure you'll make friends real quick."

Oh, she intended to.


"So this is where you spend your Friday nights?"

The Grill was a restaurant with a bar, a karaoke stage, pool tables, and a small area to throw darts. The ambiance was "chill" and laid back. Avery wasn't very impressed.

Her trusted tour guide gave her a knowing look. "How do you like it?"

"It's cozy," Avery answered honestly. "Like the library at Whitmore."

Jenna snorted. "Well I'm sorry if this is a downgrade from pubs in Paris, but it has it's own unique charm."

Avery nodded her head, thinking it would be better if she didn't say anything in return. She suppose she would have to keep an open mind about this town from now on. At least it was an improvement compared to when she and her family lived here as humans. She exhaled slowly, shaking away that thought.

Avery had to focus on the future, not the past.

As both ladies sat down at a table by a window Avery looked around the room and met the curious eyes of strangers. She didn't have to try hard to know what they were thinking. Her vampire hearing could catch all the conversations held in the room if she wanted it to.

Who's the new girl?

Oh! I remember her. Jenna's college friend. Ava. No. Amanda. No. Alice?

You go up to her.

No. You go up to her!

No. You! Come on. Man up.

He's just being a wimp cuz he knows he'll never hit it. A girl like her would never say yes to a guy like him.

She looks stuck up. Wait. Did she just glare at me? What a bitch!

Avery had to resist from rolling her eyes.

She hated small towns even more than she hated her last boyfriend. Considering that she drowned him in a bucket of his own fancy booze, she wondered what this place would look like when she was through with it.

"Ugh. Scumfell just texted me again," said Jenna in disgust, distracting her from her eavesdropping. "I can't believe he thinks reaching out now will make a difference."

"Text back pretending that you changed your number," Avery told her while grabbing another thin carrot from the side of her plate. "A simple 'Who the hell is Jenna and who the hell are you?' should suffice."

Jenna's eyes lit up with amusement. "Oh my god! Yes! I should totally do that."

Avery smiled at her. She might be using Jenna for infiltrating the Gilberts but that didn't make her any less of a friend. And Avery valued friendship above a lot of things so that meant Jenna was officially on her Do Not Kill List during her stay in Mystic Falls.

Everyone else was fair game.


He stared at her through the window with an inquisitive look.

Well, as inquisitive as he could get while looking through the eyes of his raven.

She sat across from her friend with proper posture and an air of elegance that radiated superiority and confidence. Her hair, the colour of dark chocolate, was let loose in waves that cascaded past her shoulders and reached to her elbows. She was wearing a fitted black top and dark skin tight jeans with a long white fall jacket and an expensive gold necklace and a matching watch.

He didn't have to be an expert in fashion to know that her outfit probably cost more than his finest bottle of bourbon.

As she turned her head to look out the window he caught a glimpse of her face for the first time. He wasn't surprised when he saw her beauty. Flawless skin, high cheekbones, red lips, and dark brown eyes that scanned the grounds outside as if she knew she was being watched.

Her eyes narrowed by the slightest when she saw no one staring at her before she turned her head to resume her conversation with Jenna.

Elena's Aunt Jenna.

That was interesting.

His raven flew a couple feet away and landed at the top of a lamp post at the corner of the street. From there he saw her laugh open heartedly at something Jenna said and take a sip of her cocktail. Her laugh turned a couple of heads near their table. She seemed to be the center of attention.

Damon's attention however was on a frowning blonde that hurriedly walked out of the restaurant in classic Caroline Forbes fashion. Based on the little amount of time he spent getting to know her, Damon guessed that she was slightly jealous.

Not that he blamed her. He too only just recently made his arrival in Mystic Falls public information and he had received none of the awe and gossip that this dark haired beauty was getting right now. Where was his group of secret admirers and jealous haters? He was a vampire damn it. He should be causing even more heads to turn his way than this random nobody.

Damon shook his head and the raven disappeared. He stepped out of the shadows of a building near the Grill and jumped into the driver's seat of his blue Camaro, stepping on the gas so he could catch up to Caroline's disappearing figure down the street. He had a brother to annoy and a dinner party to crash.

The regal, attention seeking stranger at the Grill meant nothing to him.


Hello and welcome to my first story on this site "The Many Faces of Avery Brown." I'm very excited to start this journey as a writer and I hope you all liked the first chapter enough to continue to read the story. Updates will be slow since I'm still in school, but I aim to update at least once or twice a month.

My recommended playlist of songs to listen to while reading this story:

Miss Jackson ~ Panic! At The Disco

Female Robberry ~ The Neighbourhood

Gasoline ~ Halsey

Go ~ Meg Myers

Too Close ~ Alex Clare

Gold ~ Imagine Dragons

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES BOOKS OR TV SHOW. The only thing I take credit for are my own made up characters like Avery.

Also as a side note, this story won't be completely about romance and Damon/Avery all the time. It's a slow burn kind of relationship and it will take a long time for them to be together. Avery won't just steal Elena's place in Damon's life and she won't be his side piece while he secretly loves his brother's girl either. She has more self-respect than that.

If you liked this chapter, do let me know by leaving a review. Hearing some feedback would be really helpful and encourage me to work on this story a lot more. Thank you so much for reading and have a good day :)