I OWN NOTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH TVD. NOTHING. Well, maybe my tvd stuff... BUT BESIDES THAT NADA.
New Beginnings, a One Shot
"I can make toast?" Evelyn Gilbert's Aunt Jenna stated, but it was more like a question. Evelyn laughed.
"You got to realize that coffee is a priority, Aunt Jenna," Evelyn told her, as she took a sip of her already-brewed cup.
"I want coffee," Jeremy, Evelyn's younger brother, said as he walked into the kitchen.
Instead of making his own cup, he grabbed Evelyn's half-finished mug and took a big gulp. Evelyn snorted as she snatched the mug back.
"Get your own energy, you little sh-" She started.
"Evelyn!" Jenna yelled, cutting off her obvious swearing.
"Oh, come on, Jenna. You do it all the time." Evelyn defended.
Jenna ignored her. "Your first day of school and I'm totally unprepared. Got everything? Lunch money? Pencils? What am I forgetting?"
"Oh shit. Jenna, meeting today." Evelyn told Jenna, whose eyes widened by a considerable margin.
"Fu- crap. I have to go. See you guys after school." Jenna called as she rushed out the door, juggling about twelve things at once.
Evelyn laughed. "Come on, Jere. I got to drive you to school today."
Jeremy rolled his eyes, but grabbed his bag and followed Evelyn out the door to her car anyways.
xx.
"How does it feel, Evelyn? First day back?" Bonnie Bennett, Evelyn's best friend, asked they walked through the halls of Mystic Falls High. Evelyn gave her best friend an 'are you fucking kidding me' look.
"I'd rather be in Boston," She told her, "accents and all." Evelyn had gotten a summer scholarship at the Boston Arts Academy, in acting. She spent almost the whole summer doing as much acting as she could, trying to get her mind off her parent's death.
They had died in April, setting her off in an almost downward spiral. Evelyn could barely hold her own. But, for some reason, BAA found her application video good. She got a letter-including a paid summer session and round trip tickets to Boston and back-telling her how good she was, and how much they wanted her there. She accepted, and spent her whole summer there.
And now she was back. In Mystic Falls, Virginia. AKA, Mystic Hell.
"Come on, this year will be great," Bonnie tried, and failed, at cheering her up. Evelyn stopped at her locker, and put all her notebooks-she had abandoned binders in the middle of freshman year-in order. "I predict that this year will be the best ever."
Evelyn gave Bonnie a sarcastic look, "And what gives you the right to predict anything true?"
"Didn't I tell you?" Bonnie asked, "Grams told me I'm psychic. I'm descended from the Salem witches or something like that."
"And after how many drinks did she tell you that?" Evelyn laughed.
"Eh," Bonnie said, smiling, "But seriously. I predict that this year will be awesome. You will get the lead in the play, and we will all be happy."
"Sure." Evelyn rolled her eyes.
"Hot new guy." Bonnie told Evelyn, looking towards the window to the office. Evelyn turned around and looked at the office.
"All I see is back." Evelyn told her.
"It's hot back." Bonnie told her, in a 'duh' tone, "I'm sensing LA. Aspiring artist. Plays the guitar."
"You're really going to run this whole psychic thing to the ground, aren't you?" Evelyn asked, grinning at her best friend.
"Yep, pretty much." Bonnie laughed, "I'm still betting on this being the best year we are going to have."
"Yeah, and I bet Jeremy will stop getting stoned," She said as she watched Jeremy walked into the boys bathroom, "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Evelyn followed Jeremy into the bathroom.
He was leaning against one of the sinks, putting drops in his eyes. Evelyn grabbed his face and checked his eyes, seeing if he was high.
He was.
"Why the fuck are you high? It's the first day of the school year!" She shook his face, which was still in her hand, trying to get the idea into his head.
"Look, you need to chill yourself," he tried talking some sense into Evelyn.
"Is that stoner talk? Dude, that is just, so rad," she mocked him "You need to stop Jere. I will not let you ruin your life. It is not going to happen to you." She let go of his face and grabbed the bottle of pills peeking out of his hoodie pocket. After dumping them onto the floor, she crushed them with her foot.
"Evelyn!" He tried stopping her. Next thing he knew she was dumping the liquid he had just used into the sink, before throwing the bottle in the trash.
"I will not let you ruin your life," She sneered, "I asked you to stop over the summer, no I begged you. You are my brother, but I will not sit by and watch you ruin your life."
Evelyn stepped on the remains of the pills before walking out of the bathroom.
She was seething. He had promised her, promised, that he would stop. Before she left. But there he was, doing drugs. Illegal drugs. How could Aunt Jenna let that happen? Did she even know?
Evelyn almost walked straight into someone else. Her nose stopped right in front of their chest. Thank god it was a guy.
"Sorry," she said looking up, only to see an unfamiliar face.
"Sorry," they guy repeated, looking into her eyes like he was looking into her soul, which he probably was, "Isn't that the boy's bathroom?" His eyes flickered over the door.
"Yep," she said, not flinching once. Time to put her improved skills to work.
"Can I ask, why were you in there?"
"I was making out with my twelfth cousin, twice removed." Evelyn deadpanned. He gave her an almost concerned, but confused look.
"I'm kidding," She told him, smiling, "I was stopping my brother's buzz." She then moved out of the way, and moved towards Caroline Forbes (best friend number two), who was staring at her strangely.
"What?" Evelyn asked, as the bell rang. Caroline just shook her head and walked away.
xx.
Mr. Tanner, the history teacher droned on in his lecture about Virginia's history. Evelyn hated him with a burning passion. Besides drama, history was her favorite class. And the class she was most productive in.
But, Mr. Tanner could never get his facts right. And, whenever Evelyn tried to correct him, he would become a total jackass, and try to prove her wrong. When they would check on the internet, Evelyn was always right.
And Evelyn was a smug bitch when that happened.
Mr. Tanner continued on about Virginia's history. Evelyn didn't even pay attention to him, she already knew everything.
What she was really paying attention to was new boy, Stefan. Well, less like paying attention to, and more like staring, very confused-like at him. He seemed different. Not something you see every day in Mystic Falls. And why would anyone want to move to Mystic Falls?
She tore her eyes away and started to doodle in her notebook. Spirals and flowers and waves and clouds and abstracts shapes that didn't look like anything she had ever seen before ruined the perfectly clean lined paper that Evelyn had opened to in her notebook.
Her pencil was light on the paper, but she pressed harder and harder, as Mr. Tanner talked louder and louder. The tip was getting shorter and shorter, but she still pressed harder. Her tip cracked off. Evelyn hadn't even considered the possibility of her tip breaking off.
Her phone buzzed.
MESSAGE FROM: Bonbon Bennett
new guy staring u
Evelyn looked up to see that Stefan was, in fact, staring at her. She caught his eye, and she smiled at him, in an almost awkward way. But she wasn't surprised when he looked away, obviously flustered about the fact that she caught him.
Evelyn found him very cute.
xx.
"Hey mom. Hey dad." Evelyn said as she touched their gravestone. "Sorry I haven't visited sooner. Kind of got caught up in some acting. And I kind of got scared. But I'm not anymore." Her voice cracked. "I miss you guys so much. It's so hard. People ask me all the time 'How are you?' 'Are you alright?' 'I'm so sorry for your loss.' And I can't stand it. Saying you're fine every five seconds when you're not is so hard. Jeremy is getting stoned, and I don't think Aunt Jenna even knows. She's doing fine by the way. A bit overwhelmed, but fine. And- well hello there." Evelyn noticed a black raven on the stone.
It squawked, making Evelyn jump back in surprise.
"Well, uh, shoo." She flicked her hand, trying to shove the bird away.
It cawed, and flew away. Evelyn sighed, and looked at the names scrawled across the gravestone.
Grayson Gilbert
Loving Father, Friend, and Person
1969-2010
Miranda Somers-Gilbert
Loving Mother, Friend, and Person
1972-2010
Another caw distracted her from the stone. She looked on top to see the bird was back.
"I thought I told you to go away?" She asked the bird, sighing irritably.
She then noticed a dark figure in the distance, and fog rolling in.
"Oh, god, I'm in a horror movie." Evelyn said sarcastically, before rolling her eyes and turning around, "This is the part where I'm supposed to run. Well, I'm just going to walk away begrudgingly. Take that, horror movie writers." She slung her bag over the shoulder and walked away, begrudgingly.
But the fog kept rolling in, and Evelyn soon found herself walking a bit faster than normal.
Just my luck.
Evelyn tripped.
But there wasn't blood, just small scrapes on her hands. She breathed a sigh of relief, as she slowly got up, careful not to infuriate her cuts.
She walked, much more carefully, away from the fog.
"You okay?"
"Holy shit." Evelyn said, as she turned around, almost slapping the person behind her.
"Whoa," Stefan said, missing her flying arm. Evelyn glared at him.
"What the hell are you doing? Did you not see me being all creped out? God, Stefan. Do you always do this? Oh my god." Evelyn yelled at him, her hands emphasizing her words.
"Sorry?" He asked, not sure what he should be sorry about. Evelyn laughed.
"I'm overreacting again, aren't I?" Stefan nodded, a smile gracing his features, "The actress in me. God, I am an idiot."
"It's alright. We're you… visiting?" He asked.
"Ahh. Yes. I, uh, was." Evelyn said, scratching the scrapes on her hand, a habit she had since she was little.
"Me too." Stefan gave her a sad smile, but, an awkward silence still took over.
Evelyn looked down at his hand while still scratching her palm, "Nice ring." Stefan looked down at his hand.
"A family heirloom. I kind of got stuck with it."
"I wouldn't use the word stuck. I think it's beautiful. Must have a lot of rich history. It's really cool, Stefan." Evelyn wanted to ask so many questions about the ring, it was just so interesting.
"How do you remember my- your bleeding."
Evelyn looked down at her hands and noticed that she was, in fact, bleeding.
"God hot dammit." Evelyn said, using one of her personal favorite 'weird phrases' (as Aunt Jenna called them).
"I, uh, I got to go." Stefan said, turning from her as she assessed the damage on her hand.
"Good-" Evelyn started.
He was already gone.
xx.
"I'm meeting Bon at the grill." Evelyn said to Jenna as she started leaving the house.
"Have fun. No, wait. I got this. Don't stay out to late, Eve. Never know what lies on the streets of Mystic Falls. Muggers are not fun to deal with." Jenna told her, smiling as she did so.
"Jenna!" Evelyn laughed, as she opened the door. "Love you."
Again, she almost rammed into the chest of none other than Stefan Salvatore.
He cleared his throat, "I was about to knock. I wanted to say sorry for earlier-"
"Don't," Evelyn stopped him, "say sorry unless you did something wrong. You get squeamish at the sight of blood. I get it." She smiled. "Don't tell anyone I told you this but so does Jeremy, my brother." Stefan smiled at her.
"You, uh, forgot this." He held out her copy of Measure for Measure, one of her favorite plays by Shakespeare.
"Wow, thanks. I thought I lost it." She said, a bit wary. "You didn't read it, did you?" She asked, worried.
When Stefan shook his head no, she immediately relaxed. "I make a lot of notes in my scripts." Again, Stefan nodded.
"You okay?"
"What?"
"Your hands."
"Oh. Yeah. I just, habit."
"I'm sorry. We're you going anywhere?"
"I was going to the grill. Want to come?" She asked, her eyes sparkling.
"Sounds fun."
xx.
When Evelyn entered the Grill, she saw Matt Donovan, her ex, talking to Bonnie. He glanced in their direction, before walking over.
"Hey, man," Matt said, sticking his hand out, "I'm Matt."
"Stefan," Stefan told him, shaking the hand that was extended towards him.
"Hey," Evelyn said, avoiding eye contact.
"Hey," Matt said quickly before he led them to where all of Elena's friends were. Caroline waved Stefan over, but Evelyn mistook it, sitting next to Caroline, who could only just hold in her disappointment.
"So, Stefan," Caroline said to Stefan, who sat across from Evelyn, "you grew up in Mystic Falls?"
"Yeah, but I moved away when I was very little." He replied, his eyes on Evelyn.
"Parents?" Bonnie asked.
"Dead." Stefan told them, but his eyes never left Evelyn's face.
"I'm, sorry. Any, uh, siblings?" She asked, her eyes never leaving his.
"None that I talk to." Stefan chuckled. Caroline coughed, trying to break up Evelyn and Stefan's moment.
"So, if you're new, Stefan, you don't know about the party tomorrow." Caroline said, trying to direct Stefan's attention on herself.
"It's a back to school thing at the falls." Bonnie said, looking back and forth between Evelyn and Stefan, trying to understand what was going on.
"Are you-" Stefan started looking at Evelyn.
"I'm going." She smiled at him. He smiled back.
xx.
All Evelyn heard coming out of Mr. Tanners mouth was 'blah blah Battle of Willow Creek blah blah Mystic Falls blah blah casualties Ms. Bennett?'
"Umm… a lot? And I don't mean a-little-a-lot. I mean a-lot-a-lot."
"Very funny Ms. Bennett. But cute becomes dumb in an instant. Mr. Donovan, would like to overcome your jock stereotype?" Mr. Tanner tried to coax an answer out of Matt.
"Nah, I'm good." Matt told him.
"How about you, Ms. Gilbert?" He said her name with unnecessary anger.
"Hmm, about, I'd say, 350?" She said, almost sure it was close to that.
"Ha, look at that, folks, Ms. Evelyn Gilbert doesn't know how many casualties. I'll be damned." Mr. Tanner rubbed it in her face that she was close.
"Actually, sir," Stefan interjected, "she said, 'about 350' and there were 346 casualties in the Battle of Willow Creek, so I think you owe Ms. Gilbert an apology." The class 'ooh'ed. Evelyn looked at Stefan, blushing slightly.
Mr. Tanner looked at Stefan, wide eyed, "Okay, fine, Mr.…?"
"Salvatore, and if I'm not correct, you still haven't apologized to Ms. Gilbert." Stefan said, his eyebrows practically touching the sky.
Mr. Tanner was very irritated, "I'm sorry, Ms. Gilbert."
"Why thank you, Mr. Asshole," Evelyn said, as the class laughed, "Oh wait, I'm sorry. That's not your name. Tanner, was it? I'm really sorry. I must have gotten your name and your personality mixed up. Oops."
The class started cracking up, but Mr. Tanner's face was red with anger. Stefan stared at Evelyn—a smile on his lips—wondering how long she had been waiting for an opportunity.
"MS. GILBERT!" Mr. Tanner yelled.
"Oops. Sorry, Tanner. Public humiliation hurts, doesn't it?" Evelyn snapped, "Oh, and about 30 civilian casualties."
"There were no-" Mr. Tanner started, but Stefan cut him off.
"27 civilian casualties. They burnt in a church that people thought were filled with weapons. The founder's archives are in city hall if you want to brush up on anything." Stefan advised. Again, the class 'ooh'ed.
"Tanner," Evelyn said as he turned towards his desk and the board. He turned back around and looked at her, "get over yourself."
The bell rang.
xx.
"Just admit it, Evelyn," Bonnie tried to coax. They were at the party, and Bonnie had unceremoniously brought up the subject of a Mr. Stefan Salvatore.
"Admit what?" Evelyn said, innocently.
"Oh, come on, he has that romance novel stare," Bonnie rolled her eyes.
"Okay, okay, he is a little pretty," Evelyn said, obviously under exaggerating.
"Evelyn," Bonnie whined, "just admit there is a lot of sexual tension between you two!"
"Fine! There's some sexual tension," Bonnie gave her a look, "Okay, a lot of sexual tension."
"Oh my god, finally," Bonnie groaned. Evelyn laughed.
"Where is he anyways? I thought it was 'speak of the devil and he shall appear'." Evelyn said, looking around, "You should know, you're the psychic one."
"Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot," Bonnie replied, Evelyn snorted, "Give me a sec, Grams says I need to concentrate."
"Wait! You need a crystal ball." Evelyn said, looking around. When she finally saw an unopened beer bottle, she jogged over, and picked it up.
"Ta-da," Evelyn showcased the bottle, before handing it over to Bonnie.
When their hands touched, Bonnie gasped, and got a sudden faraway look in her eyes. She seemed to be concentrating on something that wasn't at the party. Evelyn tried to call out to her friend, but it seemed like she wasn't listening.
Bonnie pulled her hand away, like it was burnt.
"What? Bon, are you okay?" Evelyn asked, worry laced in her usually sarcastic tone.
"That," Bonnie took a deep breath, "that was weird. I touched you, and I saw a crow."
"What?" Evelyn was taken aback.
"A crow. Some fog, a man. God, I'm drunk. It's the drinking. I'm not psychic. I'm going to get some more, alright?" Bonnie rushed away from a surprised Evelyn.
"Bonnie!" Evelyn tried calling after her, but Bonnie was already gone.
Evelyn huffed, before turning around, only to almost hit into the one and only Stefan Salvatore, for the third time.
"Oh my god, Stefan!" She yelled, and he jumped.
"I did it again, didn't I?" He asked, his smile looking a bit guilty. Evelyn laughed, and nodded.
"Yeah," She said, a bit breathy, almost as if she was distracted.
"Are you okay? You seem, a bit distracted."
"Yeah, um, it's just Bonnie, but um, it doesn't matter. You're, here." She smiled.
"Yeah." He smiled back.
xx.
"You know, you're the talk of the town," Evelyn teased Stefan.
"Oh, am I?" He teased back, smiling.
"Yep. Mysterious new guy, total gossip magnet," Evelyn told him, as they stood on a bridge by the party.
"You have the mysterious thing going on too," Evelyn gave him a confused look, "Everything about you is so, different. You have this whole 'I'm happy' charade going on, but even I can tell you're not." Evelyn was taken aback. Almost no one could tell she was acting. But this new guy comes in and suddenly he could tell almost everything about her.
"What makes you think I'm sad?" Evelyn asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Well, we did meet in a graveyard."
"Right. Well, no. Technically we met at the bathroom. But, you don't want to know. It's not exactly something you talk about at a party."
"I've never been good at 'partying' per se." Evelyn smiled, but seconds later is disappeared.
"Last spring, my parent's car drove off a bridge into a lake. I was in the car with them. No one knows how I survived. I was found on the side of the lake, while my parents—and the car—were at the bottom of the lake. I survived, but they," Evelyn took a deep breath, like she was trying to hold in tears, "they didn't."
"You won't be sad forever, Evelynn. I can promise you that."
Silence ensued after that. Neither of them talking for a while.
"Bonnie seems like a good friend." Stefan finally said, trying to get her parent's death off of Evelyn's mind.
"Oh, yeah. Best in the world." Evelyn answered, back to fake smiles.
"And Matt, he can't seem to, uh, take his eyes off of us." Evelyn almost laughed.
"Matt's that friend since childhood that you start dating because everyone thinks you're going to end up together. You think you owe it to everyone to start dating."
"And?"
"And then my parents died. Everything changed. Matt and I, I just couldn't. I just, it wasn't, um,"
"Passionate?"
"No. No, it wasn't passionate."
xx.
"Looking for someone?" Evelyn whipped around, only to see Matt standing right behind her.
"Hey, Matt," Evelyn said, smiling at Matt.
"When you broke up with me, you said it was because you need some time. You needed to be alone. You didn't seem so alone to me."
"Matt, I'm not dating Stefan, I just-" Evelyn tried to explain.
Matt interrupted her, "That's alright, Evelyn. Do what you have to do. I just want you to know that I won't give up on us." He then walked away from her and into the crowd.
"Matt…"
Evelyn spotted Caroline and Stefan together, Stefan trying to pull the beer bottle out of Caroline's hands as she said something to him. He finally let go, and left but not before saying something to her.
"I was wondering who abducted you, but now, I think I know," Evelyn joked as Stefan came up to her.
"Is she like this with all the guys?" Stefan asked, scratching the back of his neck in an awkward way.
"No," Evelyn reassured, "You're just fresh meat. She'll back off eventually. Jesus, you've got to be kidding me." Evelyn felt the need to stomp her foot and cross her arms, but resisted.
"What?" Stefan asked, concerned.
"It's just my brother." Evelyn told him, not taking his eyes off said brother.
"The drunk one?" He asked, following the direction of her eyes.
"That would be the one. I'll be right back," She said, as she started to walk away.
"Need any help?" Stefan asked, before she even took her first step.
"Nah, I can handle it. Plus, you don't want to see this." Evelyn walked told her wasted brother, "Jeremy! Jeremy!"
Jeremy walked away from her, and towards the woods.
"Jeremy! Where the fuck are you going?" Evelyn asked, her anger growing by the second.
"I don't want to hear it!" Jeremy replied, still walking.
"Well, you know what? Too fucking bad!" Evelyn replied as Jeremy tripped over something.
A body lay on the ground, presumably female. Her hair was fanned out around her face, and she had a bite mark on her neck, a fresh bit mark.
"Vicki? Oh, my god. It's Vicki!" Jeremy yelled.
"Oh, god," Evelyn said, swallowing a gasp, "Jere, help me get her up." Evelyn said, going for her legs.
xx.
"HELP!" Evelyn yelled, as her and Jeremy brought Vicki out of the woods and towards the house, "SOMEBODY HELP!"
"Vicki? Vicki, oh my god." Matt said, running up to Evelyn and Jeremy.
"What the hell happened to her?" Tyler said, as he got up to Evelyn and Jeremy as they put Vicki on a pillow that was placed on the deck of the house.
"Somebody call an ambulance!" Matt yelled, and a few people murmured back something like 'already on it'.
"EVERYONE BACK UP!" Tyler yelled at all the people crowding Vicki.
"It's her neck," Evelyn tried to explain, "Something bit her, she has major blood loss."
"Put this on her neck," Someone gave Matt a rag. Matt gave a quick thank you, before putting it on Vicki's neck.
"Come on, Vick, wake up. Wake up."
xx.
"Hey, we're going to get coffee, wait for news," Bonnie said, coming up to Elena as Matt left in an ambulance with Vicki.
"I gotta take Jere home." Evelyn told Bonnie.
"Elena," Bonnie's voice was suddenly quiet, "there's no way I'm psychic, I know that. But what I saw, or what I think I saw, I," Bonnie sighed, cutting herself off.
"Bonnie, what is it?" Evelyn asked, worried.
"Eve, that's just the beginning."
xx.
"You okay?" Evelyn asked Jeremy, "I called Jenna, she's on her way. Oh look, there's some police. And, oh look at that, you're drinking, underage. People are going to stop giving you breaks, Jere. They don't care anymore, they've got their own lives to deal with. They've moved on. So should you."
"I see you in the cemetery, just sitting there, reading. Is that, is that supposed to be you 'moving on'?"
"Jere, there's a difference between moving on, and remembering."
xx.
Evelyn sat on her ledge thinking about everything. Everything had hit her at once at the party; she was fake. Fake smile, fake laugh, fake everything. And she wanted to change. But at the same time, she couldn't. Giving everyone around her reassurance she was alright was fine with her.
A knock at her window startled her. Stefan was there. She opened the window.
"I know I's late. I just, uh, needed to know you were okay."
"You know, everyone wants to know that. That's all anyone's asked me for the past few months." Evelyn replied.
"What do you tell them?" Stefan asked, his eyebrows scrunching together.
"I'm fine." Evelyn said, plastering a fake smile on her face, before letting her exhaustion take over.
"Do you mean it?"
"Ask me tomorrow. Hey, it's cold out there, we could talk, if you want. Want to come in?"
"Yeah."
Stefan came in.
So, yeah, that's my AU Pilot.
I might add ep. 2.
Might not.
Whatever.
xxTMS