Chapter 1:

I'm not good. I'm not even capable of goodness. Which is why I can't understand her. I can't understand how she could love someone like me.

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. How about I start off where it all began.

So my brother, Elijah, all around golden boy, poster child for perfection, the favorite of my parents, met this girl. Her name is Charlotte, or as everyone else at school calls her- Char. Not only was she the most popular girl in school after she moved here a few months ago, but she was also my sister's new BFF. I've never even liked any of sister's friends. In fact, I mostly just ignored them and their late night pillow fights and prank calls. But not Charlotte, she was different. But she's Elijah's type, not mine. They were perfect for each other. But if they're so perfect for each other, why am I still angry over the fact that she's with him, and not me? He deserves someone like her. He does. And if it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself of this, it's because I am. Elijah gets every one of those goody-good-captain-of-the-debate-team girls, and I'm fine with that. But, out of all the girls in Mystic Falls High, why did it have to be her? And why, you ask, can't a super hot bad boy like yourself move on and find someone else? Because I'm mesmerized by her, and I can't think about any one else but her. Not even Katherine Pierce, the girl I've been dating on and off since freshman year. Now, she is a totally different story. She's the kind of girl who stays out all night, partying and getting drunk, the girl I would have been completely fine hanging out with a couple months ago. The exact opposite of Charlotte Petrova. Even her name is enchanting. God, what's wrong with me?

I'm not this guy. You know that guy that sits around, pining for that one girl he knows he will never have. The guy that sits in homeroom and doodles her name in his notebook, waiting until the bell rings so he can enact his carefully strategized plan of "accidentally" bumping into her, just so he can get a chance to talk to her. I'm too-cool-for-school Nik Patterson, for god's sake. I don't sit around and wait for Rebekah to get home from her annual weekend shopping trip, just in case Char might be with her. I should be at the grill, getting drunk and hitting on random girls- girls that would die at the chance of sleeping with me, much less talking to me. I should be doing what I do best: pretending not to care and hoping for the best. Just like I did last year when my parents died, and when I was forced into growing up faster than I would have ever would have imagined, to look after my brother and sisters.

So that's exactly what I did, manned up and carefully- or as carefully as I could- executed a plan to make sure Charlotte would be mine.