A/N: Hey! Thought I'd come out with another one-shot. Usually the one shots I do are inspired by something, or someone (Like Soulmates, my Kennett one-shot). This is a AU/AH one-shot based on Alexandra Bullen's Wish. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do. It isn't classic literature per se, and the second book Wishful Thinking is much, much better. However, if you are bored, check the book out at the library, or buy it or however you read your books and read them both. If you haven't already, check out my multi-chapter fanfic When Time Starts Running Out too.

Thanks for the support!


"Elena, when do you plan on waking up?" Her mother, Miranda Gilbert amusedly peered at her daughter in bed.

Elena Gilbert woke up after a much needed nap, one caused by her moving to the iconic city of SanFran. The eighteen year old girl was so tired she felt numb. But then, she was feeling that more and more often lately. Almost all the time.

And right now, she didn't appreciate her mother's interruption from her dreamless sleep.

"Mom," Elena gave her that exasperated look everyone has given to their smart-alec mother.

"It's your first day of school! Forgive me for being excited,"

"Too bad that it's not me," Elena added.

Now it was Miranda's turn to give her said exasperated look, and quickly stalked out of her teenage daughter's bedroom.

She couldn't help it. She didn't understand how her mother could possibly parade around without any sorrow. Sure, her mother did unhealthily force herself into work at her new office a day after the Gilberts moved into the home their dead great-aunt left for them. And, okay, maybe the fights between her and Grayson worsened everyday (Elena had to listen the half-assed whispered fight the entire ride here), which should be an indicating sign of the sorrows they were both feeling.

But how did Miranda so effortlessly wake up the next day, and get ready to face the world? Elena didn't understand, and frankly, she was jealous.

Elena could use the boost of energy to start at school today.

As Elena got up out of bed, and into the comfy lavender slippers she got at the local thrift store back at Mystic Falls, she heard her mother call for her from the stairs.

"I left some lunch money on the dinner table, and don't forget your house keys. I set you up with Kelly Donovan's son - you remember her right? Anyway, he's supposed to show you around school. I hope you have a good day at school, dear,"

"Yeah Mom. You too," Elena muttered to ears that didn't hear.

After she had some green tea (even though it tasted like gun metal), reminiscent of the economy-sized box that Katherine got for her, she got dressed and grabbed her keys.

.

.

.

"You must be Elena," the brown-haired boy squinted at the olive-skinned beauty.

Elena last remembered sitting down at the base of a tree, resting her head against the large, scratchy trunk. She could tell that the boy had been there for a while, by the embarrassed way he was switching the weight onto each foot.

The blonde kept speaking, "I'm Matt. Our moms work together," he then put his hand out, but took it back in an instant. He noticed Elena's darkened circles under her eyes, and the yawn that was threatening to release from her lips.

"We can do the tour later if you would like," he added, hesitant.

"No, no. I'm fine. The move's just got very tiring. I promise you, I'm totally fine, Matt," Elena smiled an easy smile. Matt probably took notice of how forced the smile was, not to add the way she was convincing herself more than anything her ability to endure the tour and thus the rest of the school day.

"Great. If you could follow me Ms. Elena Gilbert," he said with easily the most heart-warming smile ever. Elena figured he was saying that for her benefit, so she smiled too. This one was less forced.

They walked through to the double doors of Golden Gate Prep, the hip school with glass walls and futuristic lobbies.

"This is the lobby. Our secretary, Beth. Beth," a pink-dyed woman with a phone precariously placed between a shoulder and ear waved, "...Elena," Matt finished.

"So...Where are you coming from?" he asked.

"Charleston," Elena didn't bother mentioning Mystic Falls, the small town that was only twenty minutes from the capital, that almost no one heard of and for all anyone could imagine, it was in another state.

"Cool. I got some cousins that live there,"

"Yeah. It's not as cool as San Francisco though, is it?" Elena asked back. She was getting better at this. She was coaching herself inside her own head,

Answer a question, than ask another one.

"Yeah for sure - no offence."

"None taken,"

"I just love everything about this place. I mean, this school does get a little old, but it's home," Matt, who was walking a couple steps ahead, looked back to smile at her. How did he find it so easy to smile?

After Matt and Elena walked through the hallways with the beautiful art plastered on the walls, they were greeted with another double door that lead them to the cafeteria.

If you could call it that.

The courtyard, a large, spacious circle with sunlight hitting on the crooked cobblestone. Scattered in low tables, shaded by the Californian trees, students laughed with each other. It looked like the UN, if the dress code was skinny jeans and American Eagle apparel. Typical Cali. Elena glanced around the courtyard.

"Did you find them yet?" Matt looked straight ahead as he asked Elena.

"Who am I looking for?"

"The VIPs. They don't want to call themselves as much but they are. And if you look hard enough, you can find them." Elena deciphered in that, Matt was asking him if she found the 'it' crowd.

Her eyes stopped at another blonde. One she knew didn't come from a box. She had bright blue eyes, and pearly-whites were on full show. They never seemed to leave her face.

Caroline was a study in layers. She wore a knit sweater on top of a printed summer dress, with a chunky belt adorning her slim waist.

"Ding, Ding, Ding," Matt called out, "Caroline Forbes. Daughter to the city's police chief Elizabeth Forbes. I think her father is an actual diplomat for Scotland,"

"She's pretty." She wasn't pretty. She was effortlessly the most stunning human that Elena had ever seen. And Caroline wasn't even trying.

"I guess. If you're into that thing," Matt offhandedly mentioned.

"Clearly you're not,"

"Well. I've had time to observe,"

Elena smirked to herself.

"Did you date or something?" Elena glanced at Matt with a curious look.

It was Matt's turn to turn to Elena and grin.

"Or something,"

He gulped, his Adam's Apple bobbing, and glancing down at his shoes before asking another question. But before he asked, Elena felt a sudden shock of pain caused by impact. Impact, of a football.

"Hey," a male voice behind her called.

Elena turned around to find a handsome teenager with light brown hair, and green eyes.

"Sorry for that, I didn't mean to aim for you,"

"Yeah, you were trying to hit me," Matt joked around. He seemed to remember that Elena was beside him, and quickly introduced them to one another.

"Stefan, this is Elena Gilbert. Elena, meet Stefan Salvatore,"

"It's nice to meet you Elena. I hope to see you in some of my classes," Stefan gave her a nice firm handshake,before running ahead of them both to Caroline. Elena could see Caroline wrap her arms around his neck, as he leaned in for a kiss.

"So, why are you here?"

Elena momentarily remembered that Matt was beside her, chiding herself for daydreaming about a taken boy, before looking at Matt.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Why are you here?"

Elena's face had a shocked look before sternly looking at Matt. If she answered the question, she knew that he would feel like a complete ass, and their lunch would be incredibly awkward.

Saying the words, she sometimes felt like there was no way that this could be her life. That it wasn't from a movie. Elena so desperately prayed she would wake up to it being just that. It's been like that for the past six months. The wounds were still fresh.

"Uh, sorry. That sounded a lot less harsh in my head,"

"I'm betting," Elena gave Matt a dry look.

"You know what I mean. It's a Thursday after the March Break. Who moves into a school six months in?" Matt continued.

"Come on, Matt,"

"So what is it? A messy divorce? You in the middle of custody battles? Trouble with the law?"

"My mom got a job at the firm,"

"My mom's firm is good, but it isn't good enough to move across the entire country," Matt's eyebrows were starting to waggle.

Elena said the next words to the ground, trying to steady her buckling knees and the red blossoming on her neck.

"My twin, Katherine...she died," Elena glanced up to see Matt's sympathetic eyes.

"My mom went to university a couple towns over, so they figured it would be a new start, or an old one I guess," Elena tried to comfort him.

Elena didn't have to ask to know that he was starting to feel like an ass, and they were going to finish their lunch in utter uncomfort.

.

.

.

Elena got home that day to the sounds of Dad's drill. Grayson Gilbert had set up a clinic back in Mystic Falls, but while he was here, he was hesitant to start something here as well. He instead focused on the death trap that was Great-Aunt Penny's Victorian house.

It was old. And nothing ever worked in this house. The doors never shut properly, the windows always let the cold night air in. Grayson's one project turned into millions of tiny projects that never neared completion. It was things like this that always had Elena wondering why they decided to move into this specific, dying, house.

"How was school, hun?" Grayson asked, sensing his daughter walked into the house.

"It was okay,"

"Did you make any friends?" Grayson questioned his daughter. Elena looked at her father in disbelief. How could he even ask that question. Her entire life, she had walked around with a personal social compass. Katherine was so open and honest. She was fun to be around, and she would always keep you entertained. Elena was the one that tagged along, always a shadow to her sister.

Katherine was the girl that loved everyone, and whom everyone loved.

When Katherine died, the first couple months a couple of their friends, like Serena and Blake, would call her over to chill at Jackson's basement. After a while though, they stopped bothering to call her. It confirmed Elena's worst fears.

They were really Katherine's friends all along. Her friends. Not their friends.

"Yeah, a couple," it was premature to call the people she talked to in class once friends, but she was saying it for her father's benefit more than her own.

Elena wasn't oblivious; her friends have always told her that her father was 'hot', but she'd always blush whenever she heard it.

But when he turned around to finally face her, Elena couldn't help but notice the greying hairs and his sunken-in eyeballs.

Her father hadn't signed up for this either.

It had been her mother's decision to move them half-way across the country. After Katherine's death, everything changed. Her mother got the job at the firm, they just happened to own a house here too, and her father finally had a new project.

Elena didn't remember much from the night her parents told her they were moving. She remembered she was thinking that she should have been protesting.

She only asked of logistics. When were they moving, did the book the tickets. Elena didn't show any obvious upset feelings.

She even tried to cry that day. She wanted to feel something, anything.

Elena didn't even cry at the funeral.

What does that make me?

.

One Week Later

.

"Hey, Elena!"

"Matt!" Elena responded to her name being called for.

"What's up?," she continued as Matt jogged up to her from behind.

"Here," he dove his hand into his leather messenger bag, in hopes of looking for what he pulled out; a bright neon orange flyer.

"It's the Spring Equinox party. I know, you're thinking, who celebrates the Spring Equinox, but Stefan's brother Damon has this awesome house near The Bluffs, and Stefan's a part of a band that plays that night. You should come," Matt seemed really eager to see Elena at the party.

"Oh yeah, Caroline told me about it," Elena nonchalantly explained.

"You talk to Caroline?"

"Yeah. She's something huh?"

"When did you start talking to her?" Matt was a bit shocked. Caroline was an open and friendly person, but Elena was understated and pretty shy.

"But I didn't promise anything to her," Elena told Matt.

"Come on. I'll be there," Matt waggled his shoulders, trying to resemble a party in his body.

"You love I love a good party," Elena chuckled, "...but I can't exactly leave my dad alone for the night. I would feel guilty otherwise,"

"Elena. I love you, but you're such a bore. What's one night? I'll promise I'll drop you off at home in time for Jeopardy with your dad," Matt lightly shoved Elena with his own shoulder.

"Hey, don't call me old, you know I love me some trivia," Elena smiled.

"Well, you coming?"

"Ughh, fine. Fine! I'll come! You happy?!" Elena laughed.

"Really. I'll pick you up at 8, okay?" Matt asked before starting to his car at the school parking lot.

Elena's face went from the laughing one to something else.

"Matt. We're going as friends right?" Elena timidly asked.

Matt's expression changed too. He scrunched his eyebrows in a frowning motion before slowly nodding.

"Yeah. For sure. We're just friends,"

Matt was a bit disappointed. Elena felt guilty when that look crossed his face. But she couldn't think about that now. She needed to find an outfit. And not think about the horrible time she was going to have at a party she had no business going to.

.

.

.

Elena found herself a week later, strolling through the streets of Dolores Park, trying to find that one place that she always drove by after school.

She looked in her own closet the Wednesday night before, to find that she had absolutely nothing to wear. The ugly Ooma Loompa dress her second cousin made her wear as her junior bridesmaid back in sophomore year, the dress she wore for junior prom, and a sundress. All of which didn't match the party she was going to.

She remembered Katherine loving everything fashion. Katherine wasn't the one that bought clothes in heaps. Rather in small quantities that amassed quite quickly, as Miranda and Elena noticed when they were going through her stuff.

That's it. Maybe Katherine has the thing she was looking for.

She walked through the door in her bedroom, connected to a smaller room. The room with a built-in sofa at the bay windows, and the slanted roof. It was the room that Katherine would have wanted.

Elena quickly stalked over to the other end of the room, to the cardboard boxes of Katherine's clothing she didn't have the heart to give away.

"Please say it's here, please say it's here," Elena repeated to herself as a mantra. She was trying to find one dress in specific.

"Found it!" Elena had her eureka moment. And it was worth the wait, because the dress was absolutely gorgeous.

It's sweetheart neckline, and the slight A-line silhouette the dress seemed to shape, was breathtaking on Katherine's body. It stopped just an inch above her knee, and the white colour, with contrasting coloured circles that perfectly complimented each other.

It was a dress that Katherine never got to wear anywhere.

"I'll find a seamstress, 'Lena. Don't worry, they'll fix this tear right away. This is nothing to them," Katherine told Elena. The tear went from the bottom all the way to the hip. It was one of the reasons that it sold for so cheap.

But Katherine wouldn't listen to reason. She wanted the dress.

It was why Elena was on the local streets. She was looking for Bennett's Boutique. As she glanced to the side, in a passing glance, she noticed the place.

She quickly ran over to the other side, of the street. It was when she got to the other side and reached for the door handle that she noticed the sign,

Bennett's Boutique

Closed

Elena in a moment of rebelliousness, opened the door after she saw movement behind the glass.

"We're closed," the young girl called out. She was dressed in a green knit cardigan and a white camisole on the inside. Her back was facing Elena, but she noticed that the store owner was holding a book. One of those cheesy romance novels that middle-aged moms would buy for themselves.

"I saw the sign, I just…"

"I said we're…," the girl started, but didn't finish. She started an entirely new topic. "Wait. Can I see your dress?"

"Uhm, yeah of course," Elena quickly pulled out the dress from the bag that she was carrying.

The girl, whom Elena quickly realized couldn't be that much older than herself, walked over to Elena, her eyes never leaving the dress. Her fingers splayed over the dress' fabric, feeling it's softness to the touch.

"This is beautiful, is it vintage?"

Elena looked down at her Converse, "I don't know. That was more of my sister's thing,"

The girl sensed the tone. She felt Elena's sadness at mentioning that in waves.

"But I see the tear here. Pity," the dressmaker paid attention to the dress again.

"Yeah," Elena sighed.

"Well, this shouldn't be too much of a problem to solve. Come by Saturday," the girl said with a smile.

"That's the thing. I kind of need it by tomorrow," Elena apologetically mentioned.

After a pause, she added.

"Leave your name and address in the book," nudging toward the big and dusty leather bound book, "I'll drop it off tomorrow,"

"Thank you so much…"Elena drifted off realizing she didn't get a name,

"Bonnie,"

"Thank you Bonnie,"

"I'll see ya tomorrow," Bonnie smiled

.

The Next Day

.

"This dress isn't mine," was Elena's first thought. What she was expected was Katherine's fixed dress. What she wasn't expecting was an entirely new dress.

It wasn't that the new dress was ugly, it fact it was beautiful. Very beautiful. It just wasn't hers.

For one, this new dress was long, not short like the one she gave Bonnie. Another, it was the wrong colour. This gown she was holding was a forest green colour, with a plunging v-neck.

When she unfolded the dress fully, out fell a note.

Try it on first,

Bonnie

"Well, I guess that's what I have to do,"

After a couple minutes of trying it on, Elena knew she would be too overdressed for an equinox party, where no doubt they would be wearing togas made out of bed sheets. But, she was also way to in love with how beautiful the dress looked on her to take it off again.

When she did a twirl in front of her mirror, she noticed a small logo stitched into the dress. Elena with no avail, tried to take it off. So she tried to forget about it for the rest of the night.

By the time Matt came and picked her up, she couldn't help but feel flattered at the look on Matt's face.

"Going with this dress was the right choice,"

Elena smiled to herself.

.

.

.

Elena couldn't help but drop her jaw as Matt's truck came into view of the beautiful house. The mansion, which hung on the edge of a cliff, it's square edges haphazardly hung off the cliff.

"Damn,"

"I know. Stefan's brother made a fortune off of his line of alcohols. His most popular one is the bourbon, of course," Matt confided.

"Are you sure that he didn't invent bourbon," Elena was in shock.

Matt only playfully rolled his eyes and held out his elbow for her to hold, which she did with great ease.

Once she got inside, she noticed all the kids with makeshift togas meant to represent the spring. They were going to count down to the first day of Spring. How cool is that?

One of the servers walking by held out a tray full of tequila shots. Without a second thought, Elena grabbed one and chugged it down her throat.

"Whoa, you okay?" Matt asked, warned by the suddenness of her move.

"Yeah, totally fine." Elena was repeating that too many times it seems.

"I see Max over there. I'll be right back, just gonna say hello,"

"Okay. I'm just heading to the restroom," Elena mentioned to Matt.

When she got there, there was a crazy long line up. One she didn't have time for. Nonetheless, she didn't have anyone to go back to, so she decided to wait in line.

"Hey, Elena right?" a voice called from behind.

She turned around to see Stefan.

"Hey Stefan. How are you doing?" Elena smiled at him. A little too brightly, she hoped not.

"I'm doing really good, you?" Stefan replied back

"I'm great!"

Their conversation went into an uncomfortable silence. It was Elena that surprisingly that spoke next,

"I heard that your band is performing tonight?"

"Yeah! We've been gearing up for this performance for months. We really want to hit it off really strong. But, enough about me. Tell me, how is school fairing for you?"

Elena felt good talking to Stefan. He was so kind and compassionate, and never seemed to be the bragging type.

"School is different here, but I'm getting used to it," Elena smiled again.

The line ahead of them finally shrunk so small that Elena was next in line. Talking with Stefan did that, she realized.

"Well, good luck with your performance," Elena called out as she opened the door.

.

.

.

Stefan was literally the God of Drums. Elena couldn't help but admire the Adonis that was Stefan Salvatore.

After the band performed their final performance (a sound that sounded an awful lot like the King of Leons), in which Elena had a total of 6 shots, and a couple of glasses of red wine, she was buzzed. She noticed Stefan wave at her, asking her to come on stage.

Elena widened her eyes. "No way", she thought to herself in her head.

The moment she started to walk toward him, she felt a windy breeze of blonde hair pass her.

"I'm coming, Stefan," Caroline half-laughed out.

Tyler Lockwood, the lead for their band, starting counting down to the Spring Equinox.

10...9...8

Caroline almost lept into Stefan's lap.

7...6..

Stefan grinned as Caroline wrapped her long arms around his slender neck, and Caroline reciprocated the smile.

5...4...3…

Elena just felt really alone.

2...1…

"Where was Katherine when you needed her?" Elena bitterly asked herself.

Elena didn't stick around to watch Caroline and Stefan lean in for a midnight kiss.

.

.

.

The taxi guy gave a look at Elena's drunken exterior and quickly chided her

"I just got newly upholstered seats. You throw up, you pay,"

Elena couldn't even nod properly without feeling dizzy.

The car started and she felt like throwing up. At one point, she always depended on Katherine to keep her entertained, or at least, she was someone to talk to. The party always managed to find Katherine. But Elena didn't control what she drank, she took too many shots, jello and otherwise. She was absolutely miserable.

"I just wish Katherine was here,"

.

.

.

Elena didn't bother to take off her makeup or her dress. If she took it off, maybe she would have noticed the logo that was once stitched into the dress was gone.

It was 2:00 in the morning when she suddenly woke up to the smell of cigarettes. It`s unfamiliar, tangy smell. Unable to sleep, she walked over to the glass doors, to open up to the balcony. Elena was hoping that the smell would leave just as fast as it came. But under the billowing, gauzy white curtains, she couldn't help but sense the smell didn't come within her own room.

Elena, in a sudden impulse, opened the door connecting it to Katherine`s room.

What she saw, Elena had to do a double take. There she was, with her curly brown hair, and her dramatic eye makeup. Smoking a cigar. Wearing the same dress she was in when she...died.

"Katherine," Elena's eyes widened.

"Hey, baby sis,"


Now that I've written this out, I'll think I'll add one more chapter, doing the second half of the story sometime next week. Rate/Review/Follow! I love doing shots like this!

Till Next Time,

Ann