AN: Hey everyone! So this is my first published work, and I'm still really nervous about posting it but I really like it and I hope you do too:) Let me know what you think! Thank you! and enjoy! (please ignore any minor mistakes)
9 Years ago…..
Elena Gilbert sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen of her Virginia home; taking spoon full's of Fruit-loops while absent mindedly humming a random tune she had heard on the radio sometime last week.
"Lena keep still" Her mother gently reminded her, while skillfully braiding her daughters brunette locks.
"Sorry mom." The eight year old said in between bites of the sugary cereal.
"And don't talk with food in your mouth full." She chided her daughter, tying the end of the finished braid in a red ribbon, to match the checkered dress she had picked out for the first day of school, picture day.
Finishing her cereal, Elena rose the bowl, of what was now only milk to her lips and slurped it noisily until it was all gone. When she lowered the bowl she smiled sheepishly at her mother who had her arms crossed over her chest and a firm frown set on her lips.
"Elena Marie Gilbert" She spoke sternly, "That is not how a lady finishes her cereal." The elder female scolded.
With a shy smile Elena slid off her stool, and muttered a 'sorry' as she passed her mom, setting the now empty bowl of cereal in the sink. Her mother patted her daughter's shoulder gently, seeming to have dropped her previous annoyance, "It's okay Lena, just go upstairs, find your shoes, brush your teeth and meet me down here so I can take pictures of your brother and you before school starts." She smiled encouragingly.
Elena nodded and grinned a toothy smile "Kay mom!" she chirped and turned to run up the stairs only to plow right into her father, who had been helping Jeremy get dressed for his first day of kindergarten.
Elena let out a muffled 'oof' before stumbling back slightly after having collided with her father.
"Whoa! Easy there E-bear, where's the fire?" He chuckled softly at his own joke.
"Daaad, I'm a big girl now, you can't keep calling me baby names" she whined, crossing her arms over her chest and jutting her lip out in a stubborn pout.
Smiling he shook his head, "You get that from your mother you know, 'the pout'" he stage whispered, winking at his wife.
Elena giggled a little and turned to see her mom looking completely shocked, "Gray! She does not!" she defended herself, pulling the same look Elena had just moments ago.
Grayson just threw his head back and laughed full heartily, "Sure Honey, whatever you say." He mocked surrendered; throwing is hands up for effect.
Her mother just rolled her eyes, walking over to join the two of them, "You know sometimes I wonder why I stay with you." She teased the man who along with her two kids were her whole world.
"You know sometimes I do too" He admitted light-heartedly, leaning down to pick up his young daughter, causing Elena to yelp in surprise before he started tickling her and she was suppressing giggles, "But then I see this little ray of sunshine and I remember that must be why." He joked cracking a smile.
A persistent tugging on his leg caused Grayson to turn around, only to see Jeremy standing there, "I'm ready for school!" the youngest Gilbert cheered, beaming up at him, his rosy cheeks were in full swing, and the Gilbert trade-mark chocolate brown eyes looked up at him adoringly.
"There's my boy!" Grayson smiled, putting Elena down, as she scurried up stairs to fetch her dress shoes.
"Oh, Jeremy you look so handsome," Miranda gushed. Taking in her sons appearance, his dark brown hair was combed neatly the side and had a straight part down the middle. He wore a red sweater like long sleeve polo and khaki pants. He looked adorable.
"Thanks mom!" Her son smiled proudly. "When do I go to kindergarten?" He asked excitedly, practically bouncing instead of walking as he found his power ranger backpack and lunch box.
"As soon as Lena comes down stairs" she replied patiently, running a hand lightly over his hair, trying to calm him down. No such luck.
"HURRY UP LENA!" Jeremy hollered up the stairs where she had disappeared a couple minutes ago.
Elena reappeared a couple seconds later at the top of the stairway, and started to walk down, "Alright, alright I'm coming! Shesh!" She exclaimed, hopping off the last step and walking over to grab her blue and green spotted backpack, lunch box set.
"Ready, Jer?" Elena asked her younger brother, who nodded rapidly and ran to her side as she turned to leave.
"Okay wait, one picture please?" Their mom begged, both Gilbert kids let out a sigh and posed for the 'must have' picture their mom wanted.
"Cheeseeee." They said in unison. After the camera flashed they were almost out the door, when their parents stopped them, again.
"Hold it you two." Their father spoke
"Yeah you're not going anywhere just yet." Their mother called from around the corner.
After about 10 minutes of bus safety training Elena and Jeremy were racing out the door to their bus-stop.
Elena was sitting next to Jeremy, just like her parents had told her to do pretty much all summer and another fifty this morning. She was starting to regret listening to them though, because Jeremy seemed to be playing 120 questions today and Elena had about had it with her younger brother. The bus stopped in front of her best friend, Caroline Forbs' pick up stop….The ride wasn't long after this, and Jeremy would be fine, right? After convincing herself of this she slowly stood up and started making her way to Caroline.
"Hey Care!" Elena greeted her friend with a huge smile and plopped down next to her.
"Hey Leana!" The petite blond squealed, enveloping Elena in a tight hug.
The bus had just started to move again when the two girls heard a loud "LENA!"
Everyone on board turned to look at her brother, who looked like he was about to cry. Her eyes drifted over to a boy, slightly taller than herself, He had a charcoal collared shirt on, neatly combed dark ebony hair, large blue eyes, and the black pants he was wearing matched his shoes.
He was smirking meanly at her brother, taunting him by holding his Spider Man action figure above him. Elena knew the blue eyed boy, she sat by him one day during coloring time last year and he stole or broke almost her whole new box of 64 crayons, and he didn't even say sorry! This boy was just a bully; she knew this because that's what her mom had said about Damon Salvatore the day she brought home her broken crayons.
Abruptly standing up Elena glared towards the boy causing her brother to start crying, desperately grabbing for his toy.
"I'll be right back Care" She told her friend, who was now distracted by the hem of her green dress.
Elena marched right up to Damon, Ignoring the bus driver yelling at her to take a seat. Damon either hadn't heard her coming, or didn't care because he never looked behind him when she approached.
"Hey!" Elena yelled, shoving the dark haired boy a little to get his attention. Damon turned slowly; he looked really upset and gave Elena one of the meanest stares she had ever received.
"Hey what?" Damon replied harshly, still holding the Spider Man out of Jeremy's reach.
"Hey" Elena mimicked, "that's my brothers" she said matter-of-factly, looking at the action figure dangling from Damon's fingers, "so give it back."
He pretended to think for a second before smiling cruelly again, "hmm, nope not gonna ha-"
Suddenly the bus hit a bump and the unexpected movement caused Damon to drop the toy and stumble backwards, tripping over Elena in the process.
"Ow!" Elena squeaked, cradling her elbow which had been scraped when Damon fell on her, slowly Damon picked himself up, once he was on his feet he grabbed a kid who looked about Jeremy age by the arm, how had she not noticed him before? "Come on Stef" Damon grumbled, leading the younger boy to an empty seat.
Elena dusted herself off and went back to sit with Jeremy, who was now happily playing with Spider Man. Her elbow still really hurt as she continued to rub the spot that took the most impact.
Thankfully it only took about five minutes for the bus to pull up to Mystic Falls Elementary; Elena gathered her things quickly, wanting to get off the bus. However it seemed that Damon wasn't finished with them yet, as he stepped in front of the only exit they had from their seats "What do you want?" she nearly spat locking eyes with him, he shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet when she noticed the boy who was trucked off by Damon earlier. He had slightly spiked, sandy blonde hair, and round green eyes, his outfit consisted of a deep green sweater vest covered a white dress shirt, with dark dress pants and shoes to complete his picture day look. She decided they must be family or friends…but then who would want to be friends with Damon?
"Uhmm are you going to move or just stand there all day?" Elena asked annoyed.
"Look, I just wanted to tell your brother and you sorry…. I can be sorta mean…sometimes..I guess" He hastily apologized not quite looking at either of them but the green eyed boy…Stef, was it? Looked happy that Damon had said this.
"It's okay!" he chimed, and apparently so was Jeremy. "Look! Spidy is alright" he said proudly.
"That's awesome!" 'Stef' complemented, causing Jeremy to grin widely.
"Thanks! I've got lots more at home; you wanna come over sometime and see 'em? Oh! And I'm Jeremy" he introduced himself.
"Yeah! That sounds awesome! I'm Stefan!" Both boys smiled at each other before starting out of the bus talking about superheroes.
"So, that Stefan kid….Is he your brother?" Elena asked, not really sure why she was trying to talk to the big jerk in the first place.
"Yeah, unfortunately" Damon shrugged, smiling a little at his satirized comment directed towards his brother.
Elena smiled in return, "Yeah, they can be pretty annoying sometimes" Elena stated rolling her eyes at all the times Jeremy has irked her.
"True, they can be but Stefan isn't just annoying, he's like every big siblings worst nightmare!" Damon exaggerated, using his arms for effect.
"Well I'll trade you Jeremy for Stefan, I bet you wouldn't last a week with Jeremy" She challenged him, heading towards the bus exit with the rest of the stragglers.
Damon scoffed, "Well you wouldn't last a day with Stefan." He argued back
Elena and Damon talked a lot more that day, as it turned out they were in the same homeroom and lunch together! On the bus ride home they sat together, while Jeremy and Stefan sat in the row in front of them. Caroline was shooting daggers at Elena, but she didn't really care, she was too busy listening to Damon tell her about the time his family went to Sea World and how a dolphin made Stefan cry.
When the Bus pulled up to their stop Jeremy and Elena got up and started to head out, She turned waving to Damon "See ya tomorrow Damon" Elena called over the hum of other kids talking.
"See ya Elena!" He yelled back, smiling.
Damon couldn't wipe the stupid grin off his face, he leaned back in his seat, he sure hopped he would see Elena Gilbert again, that girl was funny, and nice and she always listened and didn't think his jokes were stupid and…she was kinda pretty….
Damon had started to sit with Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie at lunch, and soon all of Damon's friends: Tyler, Matt, and Alaric were sitting with them as well; they even started to let Jeremy and Stefan sit by them. It wasn't long before they all had become very good friends and remained close all through elementary school, sticking together during middle school, and things really weren't much different now in high school. However Elena and Damon had developed a tighter bond, when they were younger teachers would joke that the two were joined at the hip, since you rarely saw Elena without Damon nearby or vise versa.
That's just how it always was with them; they stuck by each other no matter what. When Damon's mom passed away a few months after his 11th birthday, Elena mourned with him. When her parents didn't survive the car crash freshman year, he stayed by her side until she couldn't cry anymore. They were each other's rock in hard times, best friends through thick and thin, no matter what life threw at them
AN: Well how was it?:D next chapter will be present day, in high school. Please please review if you have the time. I'll update as soon as possible but finals are coming up so it might not be right away but I already have some of the next chapter written. Thanks so much for reading,
~Syd