Disclaimer: Only original characters and situations belong to me!

Coffee in hand, Jenna sat watching as Jeremy stared out the window. "What are you looking at?" she asked finally.

"Somebody finally moved into the house next door," he replied, still keeping his eyes out the window, where he had a good view of the moving men as they lugged couches and an armoire out of the back of their van and into the house.

"Oh," Jenna stood up and went to join him at the window. "So," she said, clearing her throat, "have you gotten a glimpse of our new neighbor yet?"

"Yeah," Jeremy nodded. "She's pretty. Black hair, dresses really nice."

Jenna grinned. "You can tell all that from looking out the window? I'm impressed."

Jeremy turned. "Maybe we should be neighborly after awhile and go and say hello."

"Oh, all right," Jenna said. "We'll do it when you get back from school."

"What's going on?" Elena entered the kitchen, backpack over her shoulder.

"Well," Jenna said, "somebody finally bought the house next door and it seems that your brother has a little crush on her."

"There she is!" Jeremy cried out excitedly. "You two come look!"

Elena and Jenna looked at one another and rolled their eyes, but did as he asked. The woman looked just as Jeremy had described: black hair, nice clothes, and, standing next to one of the workmen, she seemed to be quite tiny.

"I told Jeremy we'd go and introduce ourselves later today. Do you want to come with us?"

"Sure," Elena said. "Why not?" She looked up at the clock on the wall. "Jer," she said to her brother, "we should probably leave for school now."

Although it took great effort, Jeremy managed to tear himself away from the window, grab his bag, and follow Elena out the door to her car.

When they arrived at school, the first person Elena saw was Caroline. "I can't believe my bad luck," she fumed. "First Mitch leaves town without a word, and then she shows up at school, the girl who stole him away from me."

"What do you mean?" Elena asked. She didn't know how she was going to tell Caroline that her would-be college boyfriend Mitch was no more.

"I saw her in at the coffee shop this morning. She was just sitting there with this smug look on her face. I bet she's got plans."

"Who are you talking about, Caroline?" They stopped outside the door to the history classroom. Caroline put her arm out to prevent Elena from entering. "There she is," Caroline whispered. "Just sitting there bold as anything."

Elena looked into the room. There were several people in there but no one unusual. Then, she finally realized who Caroline was talking about. "Caroline," she said, "when did Sophia Warren enroll here?"

Caroline shrugged. "Just today, I guess."

Elena stepped into the room and went to stand in front of the desk where the other girl was sitting. "Hi, Selina," she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

Selina looked up. "I wanted to expand my mind," she said simply. "You know, way back when, women weren't allowed to learn as they pleased, so I figure since it's okay now that I should take advantage of the opportunity."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Elena said, taking the empty seat next to her. "But Caroline's not too happy about it."

"Really?" Selina asked, smiling. "Is she still contemptuous of me for going out with Damon?" she held out her hand so she could get a better view of the engagement ring he'd recently given her. "I bet if she saw this, Caroline would change her mind about him very quickly."

"Actually," Elena said, "her problem with you isn't about Damon at all. Apparently, she had her heart set on dating your father and believes that you stole him away from her."

Selina burst out laughing. "Are you serious? It doesn't surprise me that she's really that petty." Then, the laughter stopped. "Thank God Daddy found me before anything happened between him and Caroline," she said. "Otherwise, they probably would have dated, and maybe even have gotten married, and then I would've had to spend the rest of Caroline's existence referring to her as 'mother.' She shuddered. "My God. Give me Mr. Pierce any day."

Elena had to laugh at that. Just then, Caroline finally decided to come in and passed by them, glaring.

Selina and Elena just looked at one another and rolled their eyes. Soon, other students began to trickle in, none of whom had as strong a reaction to Selina's presence as Caroline. They looked at her curiously for a moment, as people are wont to do when they see someone they don't know, but after a few seconds of polite gawking, they'd take their seats and keep their eyes on the chalkboard at the front of the room.

When Stefan came in, he did a double-take. "Selina," he whispered after he'd gotten his bearings, "I'm surprised to see you here."

Selina looked at him knowingly. "And when you say 'surprised,' do you actually mean that you're surprised, or that you're some other emotion, like stunned or angry, or disappointed?"

"No," Stefan shook his head. "I mean I really am surprised. Why would I be any of those other things?"

"Because here I am, in a school, learning stuff that'll make me smart and a fully functioning member of society."

Stefan frowned a moment, then realized what she was getting at. "If you're trying to imply that I wouldn't want you here because it would be a threat to my masculinity, you're wrong. I'm proud that you want to expand your mind."

Selina smiled. "Thanks. And it gives me something to do with myself, you know?"

"Yep." Stefan took the seat behind Elena. "Just one thing," he said. "Does Damon know you're doing this?"

Selina nodded. "Of course he does. In fact, it was actually somewhat his idea. He said I needed to go out and meet people."

"When was that and why?" Elena asked.

"Well," Selina replied, "We were thinking about wedding plans after we got up this morning and realized that we don't even have enough friends for a small, intimate wedding. Isn't that pathetic?"

"So you're here to make friends to invite to your wedding?" Elena asked.

"No," Selina shook her head. "I'm here to learn stuff. After much thought, we decided that we're eloping to Vegas, and the two of you are going to be our witnesses."

"Jenna's going to have to come along," Elena said. "I don't think she'd let me just go off to Vegas by myself, or with Stefan, but I don't think she'd be opposed to it."

"Good," Selina smiled.

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and Alaric entered the room, carrying an old book under his arm.

"Morning everyone," he said, looking around at them. His eyes found Selina. "Are you the new student?" he asked. "The office told me that we were getting someone new in the class today."

"Yes I am," Selina replied, standing up. "Do you want me to come up to the front and say a few words about myself to the class?"

"If you don't mind," Alaric replied.

Selina walked to the front of the room. "I'm Sophia Warren. I'm sure some of you already know me, I've been in Mystic Falls for awhile and let me say it's a much more exciting place to live then back in Charleston where I lived with my uncle. I look forward to getting to know all of you and learning a great deal about history." She took deep breath and headed back to her seat.

"Thank you, Sophia," Alaric said. "Now, do you go by Sophia, or do you prefer something like Sophie?"

Selina shook her head. "Sophia's fine."

"All right," Alaric said, making a note on the attendance sheet. "Now that we got that taken care of, I have a special treat for you all today: a ghost story."

At that, Selina ripped off a corner of a sheet of notebook paper and wrote I hope it's the Lady in Red. Wouldn't that be funny?, and slipped it onto Elena's desk. Elena looked it over and grinned, nodding.

"The story takes place during over a period of about twenty years," Alaric continued. "And the star of it is a young lady called-"

He paused when he noticed that Elena was raising her hand. "Yes?"

"Are you telling us the story of the Lady in Red?" she asked.

"No," Alaric shook his head. "But that is a very good story. No, the young lady in this story was named Lucy in life, but in death, she was known as the Blue Angel. She got the nickname because she served as a nurse on the battlefield in both the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. And the amazing thing was, she died at a ripe old age. No horrors of war affected her health." He paused "Yes, Sophia?"

Selina cleared her throat. "Does this angel named Lucy have a last name, or has that been lost to time?"

He shrugged. "I didn't see any last name. Every publication I looked at referred to her either as simply 'Lucy' or as 'the Blue Angel.' Why do you ask?"

Selina shook her head. "It's not important. I was just curious."

Alaric then proceeded to tell them the story about Lucy the Blue Angel, who was apparently such a good nurse that hardly any soldiers died on her watch. She even fell in love with one of them, although her father, who was a doctor, objected to the match. she apparently never forgave her father for denying her the man she loved and she spent the rest of her days loving nothing except her work.

After the class let out, Selina followed Elena to her locker. "What'd you think of that story? Pretty dull, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Elena nodded. "Not like yours. But did it sound familiar to you?"

"Yeah," Selina agreed. "But it's probably just a coincidence that the nurse who turned my father during the Mexican-American War was named Lucy and so is the nurse in the story. I mean, Lucy wasn't an uncommon name back then."

"I bet you're right," Elena said. Then, she turned. "If you want to get to know Jenna before we all go off to Vegas for your wedding, come home with me after school today."

"All right," Selina nodded, pulling out her phone. "Just let me make Damon aware that I won't be back until later and I'll meet you at the end of the day."

"All right," Elena nodded and headed off to her next class, while Selina went to her locker to exchange books.

"Didn't expect to see you here."

Selina turned, her arms full of books. "Get the hell away from me, Tyler. I don't want to talk to you."

"Why so bitter?" he asked.

"Are you serious?" she asked. "I'm an orphan now and it's all your damn fault."

Tyler shook his head. "It really isn't. If Damon hadn't killed Michael, your father would still be around. So if you want to blame anyone for your father's death, blame him."

"You are a despicable human being," Selina said through her teeth. "You are so lucky we're in a public place, or nothing would stop me from ripping your heart out right now."

"Is there a problem here?"

Selina and Tyler both turned. "No problem, Donovan," Tyler said easily. "My cousin just enrolled here and I thought I'd show her around."

Matt looked at Selina. "Well, it doesn't look like she's too happy to see you. Why don't you get going so you aren't late to shop? I'll show your cousin around."

Tyler opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Finally, he turned on his heel and heading in the direction of his shop class.

As soon as he was gone, Selina looked at Matt. "Thank you so much," she said graciously. "I know he's family, but sometimes, he can be the biggest pain in the ass."

Matt nodded. "Trust me, I know the feeling."

He looked at her schedule. "Hey, I have the same class as you. Do you want me to take you there?"

Selina nodded. "Thanks. That'd be very kind of you."

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, and Selina was glad when she met Elena at her locker. She watched while Elena put her books away and then followed her out to her car.

"Do you think your aunt's going to like me?" Selina asked.

"Yeah," Elena nodded. "Except for one thing: she had her heart set on giving your locket to the mayor so that it could be put on display at the next Founder's Day celebration and you broke it. That might tick her off a little. Unless we come up with a cunning explanation as to where it went."

When they finally pulled into the driveway of the Gilbert House, Elena was surprised to see Jenna and Jeremy on their way out. "You two going over to see our new neighbor?" Elena called.

"Yeah," Jenna nodded. "Do you want to come too?"

Elena got out of the car, and Selina followed suit. They went with Jenna to the house next door and knocked on the door. After a minute or so, the door opened, revealing their new neighbor.

"Hi," Jenna said when she saw her. "I'm Jenna Sommers, I live next door. This is my niece Elena and my nephew Jeremy."

"And this is-"

"Selina?" said the woman, looking at her in surprise. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"We know each other?" Selina asked.

The young woman nodded. "My name is Lucy. Lucy Warren."