Author's note: Hello everybody! I kind of thought that Elena and Damon deserved a story that would find them in the shoes of real characters, not in a world of witches, werewolves and vampires. So if you think that this is a story following the plot from the Vampire Diaries, I'm afraid I'll have to let you down. I do hope that you will all enjoy this chapter! I shall try to make this story as beautiful as possible since it is something for which I have many ideas waiting to be materialised.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.
CHAPTER 1 - A NEW BEGINNING
My eyes were heavy and stinging. The tears from the previous day had dried but the sorrow in my heart had not. I looked around the plane trying to catch a glimpse of the other people surrounding me – it was frustrating to see how everybody seemed to be completely fine. Frustrating is probably too mellow of a word to describe the state I was in back then.
I was literally on the verge of falling off the edge. God knows how I had survived that bloody year. It seemed like it would never end – like someone just wouldn't leave me alone…
I closed my eyes shut trying hard not to think about it anymore. After half an hour of fidgeting and twisting from one side to the other I slipped into a state halfway between sleep and reality. The only thing I could hear was the noise of the engine in the background – the noise that managed to annoy me each and every time before, was now calming me down, helping me forget about it all.
The stewardess's voice suddenly woke me up making me curse my days.
'I'm sorry Miss but I have to check if your seatbelt is in place.' Seeing the confused look on my most-likely-sleepy face she softly smiled realizing the state I was in. It took me two seconds to realize that my poncho was sitting on my lap covering it. I quickly set it aside so that she could see the seatbelt. She continued in her strong German accent.
'It's the normal procedure, I wouldn't have woken you up if I could see it.'
'I understand – it's okey.' I replied although I didn't really mean that. For a second I turned my head to the right, looking out the window and seeing nothing but clouds. I felt my eyebrows furrowing in confusion as I turned towards the lady again.
'Are we there already?'
'Almost – we'll be arriving in 15 minutes.' My heart tightened as the words sank in. I was capable of saying only two words in response without bursting into tears again.
'Thank you.' She smiled again and kept on checking the other passengers' seatbelts.
Fifteen minutes later a loud bump and jolt announced the landing procedure making everyone sigh in relief. And then the official announcement came from the pilot.
'Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Manchester International Airport. The local time is 10:40 am and the weather is currently about 18 degrees Celsius. For your safety we advise you to keep your seatbelts into place until the Fasten Seatbelt sign is switched off. On behalf of the entire crew, I hope you had a pleasant flight and that you're happy with the services offered by our company. Until your next flight with us, we wish you a nice stay in Manchester!'
That was it – I wasn't in Germany anymore. My dream had ended. And it hadn't even properly begun. This should have been a new beginning for me – a fresh new start but I just felt as if someone was punishing me – for what, I had no clue… My eyes involuntarily closed and I wished I could turn everything around – each and every bit of it.
The moment I heard seatbelts unfastening and the sounds made by luggage being taken away from the compartments above I opened my eyes and I realized something. It had all been true...
One hour later I was on a double-decker bus hoping not to get lost since – guess what? – the drivers here in England didn't announce the upcoming stations and there were no explanatory maps on the bus either. The striking difference between Germany and England made me want to vanish into thin air and go back home as soon as possible – this definitely wasn't the place where I wanted to be…
At least somebody was waiting for me - that made me feel immensely better since I felt completely lost in this city. I kept looking for a gas station since Caroline had told me that the bus station was right after a Shell. I suddenly saw her standing in the bus station looking out for bus number 43 and then waving at me as she spotted me in the crowded bus. A few seconds later I was being greeted by a crazy, blond-hair and squeaky-voiced girl.
'Hey, you! You made it…' And with that she gave me a hug – a short one of course; that was typical of Caroline Forbes… My response took me completely aback since I actually felt my arms grabbing her rather powerfully. I guess I needed someone more than I realized…
'Yeah, finally… I thought I would never find you! And the bus driver…'
'Don't even tell me – on several occasions I almost fell on the bus– they're absolutely nuts!' And then it hit me – Caroline was talking with a – shockingly fake - British accent!
'I mean, don't get me wrong – I don't usually travel by bus, I love to walk, but still – they shouldn't even have a driving license…' It was the best of both worlds – she used to talk a lot and so I would just have to listen most of the time. Caroline had a strong personality which helped her become this strong, independent person – that's how I used to see her in highschool and even now – she hadn't changed a bit in the past year since she had left for university.
'Anyways, did you have a nice flight?' There was no use lying to her since Caroline already knew about everything that had happened.
'Ummm, yeah – I mean, it took only one hour and a half. Basically nothing compared to the 7 hours of flight between New York and London… But, yeah – everything was ok…'
'Good. Now, kid…' That was one of her favorite nicknames when it came to anybody that was even the slightest bit younger than her.
'… we should go that way to your hall – it's right down the street, one bus station apart.' Woooow… In a few minutes I would be having the first encounter with my new home… Home…the word sounded so fake to my hears. Not home – it wasn't anywhere close to home – it was actually so far away… I pushed that thought out of my head before I would burst into tears – now wasn't the time. I would have enough days to weep and feel sorry for myself…
37 Varsity House – that was my new address in Manchester. This private hall was huge - square-shaped, stretching on three streets and comprising of many blocks, each one being a separate hall full of diverse apartments especially made for students. That is – students with money…
Picking the key up from reception was a short and eventless moment – apart from the signing of the contract; and the fact that Caroline had done most of the talking – it hadn't bothered me at all although I would've gotten pissed off in another circumstance. I hated when people thought it best to talk instead of letting me solve my problems – it wasn't even a problem, but I cooled down as I realized that she was just trying to help me.
Arriving in Varsity House – which was on the street parallel to reception! – had its funny moment as the woman from reception had told me the flat was on the second floor. Upon arriving on the second floor we noticed a sign indicating flats 4-10. That was weird…
So, unsure of where the flat was, we started going up one floor at a time until the sixth floor, which was the last as well, greeted us with a sign containing flats 30-35. At that moment Caroline exploded.
'Where the hell is it? I don't understand…'
'Maybe my room is on the rooftop…Seems like I'm sleeping outside tonight.'
Eventually we came back to the Ground floor where we had seen a nice black-coloured janitor and we explained our dilemma to him. He smiled and started laughing and offered to show us where it was. So we ended up on the first floor where, apart from flats 1-3 on the right, on the left you got apartments 36-44. I sighed in relief and Caroline started laughing – such idiots we had been…
Studio number 37 was the second one located on the right of the corridor; of course, the keys here were with a built-in chip device so I couldn't even open my own door; after four unsuccessful attempts Caroline took the key from my hand and opened the door to reveal my new flat. Which was completely messy.
And I didn't mean a normal degree of messiness – I literally meant messy. Bed had a cover sheet that didn't look that good since half of it was residing on the floor; the fridge still had some Chinese food and other products inside, the drawer contained some white and obviously-used sneakers… And the shower was full of hair – might I add someone else's hair! My entire body tensed and I felt like I wanted to shout my lungs out – this was a disaster – it looked dirty and dark – having just one medium-sized window next to the desk although the room obviously needed at least two windows…
The double bed was on the left , two metres away from the small built-in kitchen which was right next to the…toilet door. 'Marvelous' was the most ironic word I could think of… Caroline's voice was the thing that took me out of my transe.
'It looks good – it's huge! Oh my God… You have a red carpet and red drapes… I hate you! I wanted to make my room red!' I smiled as I saw her mouth turn into a pout and she reminded me of a kid.
'And it's dirty…' I disappointingly added.
'It's fine – don't worry about that, we'll just tell the people at reception that it needs to be cleaned; it will be solved by tomorrow. And don't tell your family about it – they don't have to be worried, it's not a big deal.' Caroline's firm voice was like a hypnotizer – pulling me in until I actually started to believe what she said. I started to take deep breaths in and out when I realized that somebody must have lived here before me and left in a hurry... As I would find out later when I checked my mailbox, a Mr Z. Li had lived there before. Figures...
I suddenly felt the phone vibrating in my pocket and quickly reached for it – aunt Jenna.
'So, honey, what's the apartment like?'
'Dirty' was the first thing that popped in my mind; 'dark' and 'lonely' were the next to follow. But of course, how could I ever tell her that? Caroline was right – I just couldn't bring myself to worry them; they weren't here so they didn't need to know or to be bothered about this.
'It's super – I love it! Very big indeed…Just as they promised.'
Caroline looked at me with knowing eyes – although she would never admit being soft on the inside. The understanding look in her eyes vanished in an instance and then she jokingly said
'Come on, kid, we should go… have some lunch maybe?'
I silently agreed to that, nodding my head in agreement. I looked around the studio one more time before we left, not being able to believe the mess that we had found. I cooled down by repeating to myself that someone would eventually take care of it. It didn't help that it looked completely the opposite of my childhood room. Before I could worry about it anymore I closed the door shut hoping that next time I would be finding it in a different state.
In the afternoon Caroline took me to the vibrant city centre of Manchester to have lunch. To me, it looked absolutely crowded and too noisy to even be able to enjoy it… It was because of the good weather probably – From what I understood, Manchester would only have 23 degrees in July and sometimes not even then.
Pizza Hut was our destination and after a couple of tasty pizzas and Cokes we headed off to Caroline's house where she introduced me to her neighbor Matt. Quite a nice boy who had a lot of common sense in him – a quality I always appreciated in people.
In spite of my tiredness and my better judgement I went out with them to a pub that night where all of the students part of the American association met. It was packed – and I didn't know anyone apart from one girl who came up to me in shock of seeing me there. Sally… The memories I had with her had been truly unique… and not in a good way. But somehow she still seemed to be able to pretend to be a friend despite everything – something which had always annoyed me about her.
I had to put up with her babbling for 15 minutes before she noisily retreated to mingle with the others, making her usual "truthful" life-long connections. I was sick and tired of those kind of people…I couldn't believe I had ended up in the same city with her. But, hey, seemed that God was laughing in my face.
I ended up spending the night with Computer Science students including Matt who was a very nice guy indeed. Everybody had their own group which reminded me of high-school all over again – that horrible period that had finally come to an end. At a certain point one of Caroline's friends came – his name was Tyler and he seemed to really like her although I wasn't sure that Caroline really noticed that. After two hours at the pub and 12 hours since my flight – with no sleep included – I felt my body collapsing and asked Matt to bring me home if he could. I knew it was probably silly but I didn't want to risk walking through a city I barely knew all by myself during the night.
My studio looked ten times better than earlier that day – it was still bare, lacking so many things that would make it cosy. I would eventually take care of that but now I just wanted to sleep. But of course I couldn't… The pipes that were cracking, the little annoying fridge, the crazy people partying upstairs – for it was a Friday night – and the new bed all made me turn over and over in my sleep until I kind of found myself somewhere between reality and dreams. If only my dreams hadn't been nightmares…
I woke up sometime after sunrise and looked at the watch – 5:45 am. I sighed in anger… Just as I was thinking that I couldn't believe the time I heard a noise on the corridor; I jerked my head up in response and could hear that someone had opened their door and was walking down the corridor, past my room and then down the stairs. 'Who would even do that this early in the morning on a Saturday?' I wondered. That was weird – completely weird… since no party would ever finish at 6 in the morning – at least not in America where everybody would just get drunk until 2 a.m.
I checked my phone as I realized that I had an unread message which had been sent a few minutes earlier – from aunt Jenna of course…
'Hey, honey, just wanted to check on you. See how you enjoyed the party at the pub last night. Have you made any friends? Hope I didn't wake you up.''
It was almost midnight back in Mystic Falls – no wonder she was still up. I wished I could've told her the truth but my fingers started typing uncontrollably and before I knew it I pressed the "send" button.
'It was fun last night – different from our parties, but still nice. Met a lot of people, too many to actually remember all of their names. I'm very well, you didn't wake me up, suffering from jetlag at the moment. Talk to you soon…'
Since I was wide awake all of my previous thoughts came rushing into my mind invading each and every bit of it. I was alone and, plus, 3000 miles away from home - that kind of resumed all of it. As I re-read the text sent to Jenna, I couldn't help but feel sorry that I had lied to her. But soon enough I realized that that had only been the beginning; I would tell her many more lies from that moment on…