Author's Notes

This crossover takes place in around S5 for Vampire Diaries, and sometime around Book 60 (before Abby joins, essentially) for the BSC. The BSC girls now exist in the same decade as TVD, instead of the late 80's-early 90's. Since this is a S5 AU for Vampire Diaries, Stefan and Tyler are still around (instead of being underwater and in New Orleans, respectively). Since TVD's timeline AND BSC's timeline are really wonky, so as long as this is internally consistent, I think we're okay!

It should go without saying - this fic does spoil some plot points from very early S5, so please tread with caution! I also hope you enjoy this fic, and please leave a review if you did. I'd love to know what worked for this and what didn't.

Disclaimer

I own neither the BSC (that would be Ann M. Martin's and Scholastic's property) nor TVD (that belongs to LJ Smith and the CW). I'm simply meshing the two worlds together for a quick one-shot!

The Baby-Sitter Diaries

"Stacey, what do you think? Pink stripes or pink polka-dots?"

"The polka-dots," I replied. Mom and I had fallen into a routine lately, where I did homework while she did work online. Math was my favorite subject, so I could help Mom and concentrate at the same time.

My answer was important, because Mom's also a buyer for Bellair's department store. This choice would determine what swimsuits everyone will wear next summer! (It may be December, and way too cold for swimsuits, but Bellair's buys things way ahead of time.)

I took a better look at the pictures. "The green stripes are cute too. How many are you ordering?"

"Enough, I hope." Mom was having a lot of trouble at work. More people were using sites like Amazon and Modcloth to purchase clothes, so less people entered Bellair's. Business wasn't like it used to be, Mom said. I believed her. She looked up at the clock and said, "Hey, isn't it almost time for your meeting?"

Yikes! It was 5:05. If I didn't hurry, I'd be late to my Baby-Sitter's Club Meeting!

But before we go, I should introduce myself. My name's Stacey McGill, and I'm thirteen years old. Mom and I live in a small town in Virginia called Mystic Falls, but I grew up in New York City. The New York City. Last year, my dad had been transferred there by the company he worked for. We thought the move was permanent, and I was desperate to make friends.

Then I heard about the Baby-Sitter's Club. They were looking for another member, and I said yes! We'd been friends ever since. Claudia Kishi, our treasurer, is my best friend, but I'm close with all of them.

Dad was later transferred back, but he and Mom got divorced. Mom decided to move back here, because we had made so many friends and she had a job with Bellair's. Win-win!

"I'll give you a ride," said Mom as she reached for her car keys. "Come on, it won't be long."

I arrived at Claudia's house at 5:25 PM. Good thing too. If we were late to our 5:30 PM meetings, our president Kristy Thomas would throw super-sharp pencils at us. She played softball too, so she had good aim. (Those things hurt!)

Kristy is the founder and President of our club, because it was her idea. She has two older brothers at Mystic Falls High, and one much younger. Last year, when we were twelve, the Thomas kids were in charge of babysitting Kristy's little brother David Michael. But one day, none of the kids could watch him. Kristy watched her mom call and call and call, frantically looking for a sitter. So Kristy had a brilliant idea. Wouldn't it be great if her mom could make one call and reach a bunch of babysitters at once?

So she and her good friends Mary Anne Spier and Claudia Kishi (they were also neighbors) got together and formed the BSC. But they needed one more member, so Claudia suggested me. We had a casual election, and so Kristy was President, Mary-Anne the Secretary, Claudia Vice-President, and me as Treasurer.

We would meet three afternoons a week between 5:30 and 6:00 PM, and parents could call us to reach them! How would they know? Simple - we made a website and advertised all over town. By our first meeting, parents knew they could count on us. Over time, we added more members - Dawn Schafer, our Alternate Officer, as well as Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey, our Junior Officers. They're eleven, and can't babysit at night unless it's for their own brothers and sisters. But they're good sitters, so they take on afternoon jobs and free the others for evening jobs. The system in place is a pretty good one, if you ask me!

I'm not super close with Mallory or Jessi, even though we used to babysit Mallory! Mal can be super calm, which I guess comes from being the oldest of eight. She's also really creative, so she, Claudia, and I run the website together. Claudia designs the logos, Mal writes articles, and I code the pages. (I sometimes ask Janine, Claudia's brainy older sister, for help.)

I sat beside Claudia. She was tying together friendship bracelets. "Hey, Stace. You want one?"

"Of course!" I held out my hand for her.

Claudia always wore the coolest stuff. She never wore the same outfit twice either! Today was no exception. She had a purple tye-dyed t-shirt, with the sleeves cut-off, along with black skinny jeans and neon pink Converses. She also had a tiny cluster of purple flowers tucked behind her ear. On anyone else, the outfit would've looked weird. On Claudia, it looked amazing.

"I've been trying a new technique," she said as she tied it around my wrist. "Dawn showed me these organic strings made from vervain stems. It's this flower that grows in her backyard."

"She's wearing it too," Dawn added helpfully.

Claudia grinned. "Doesn't it look distant?" Distant was our way of saying 'cool,' except it was way more distant. (See?)

The clock turned 5:30. Kristy leapt to her feet and reached for her clipboard. "First order of business! We need-"

The phone rang. Mary-Anne answered, "Hello, Baby-Sitter's Club? Oh, Mr. Pike! 6:30 PM, Thursday night? Let us check."

Mary-Anne had a calendar online which had everyone's schedules on it. We could all update it from our computers, which was so much easier than by hand. (How did people live back then?)

"Kristy has Krushers practice, Dawn's helping with the Vegan Initiative, and Claudia has art lessons... so that leaves me, Stacey, Mallory, and Jessi." Since the Pikes had eight kids, they regularly needed two people to babysit. Jessi and I decided to let Mary-Anne and Mallory babysit, so Mary-Anne told Mr. Pike, "You'll see me and Mallory then, sir! Thank you!"

Scheduling a job can be super complicated sometimes, but Mary-Anne makes it look easy.

Claudia offered Dawn a pack of Starbursts. Dawn shook her head. "No thanks. They've got way too many chemicals in them."

"They do? Huh." Claudia stared at her bag, shrugged, and continued to eat them. Claud loved sweets, no matter how unhealthy they were. In fact, she hid them and her Nancy Drew books from her parents all the time!

Dawn explained to us that several candies had gross, nasty chemicals in them, and that we should look for organic and all-natural food dyes in our candies. (Dawn really loved the environment! She loved it so much that she wanted us to make better choices too. It could be annoying, but that's Dawn for you.) Right as she continued her speech, the phone rang again.

I answered this time. "Hello, Baby-Sitter's Club."

An unfamiliar - and really perky - voice said, "Hi! I'm Caroline Forbes, and looking for a babysitter for Thursday evening, for my cousin Daniel? He's visiting me this weekend, but things've been... um, rather busy so I can't make it. He's about six years old."

I got her information and typed it into our contact list. "Got it," I said as I hung up. "We're looking for another sitter Thursday night."

"You take it, Stace." Jessi said, reaching into Claudia's bag. "I've got a big test tomorrow."

"Okay!" I called Caroline back and said that I'd see her promptly at 5:30 PM.

Wait. A Founding Family member had called us! To babysit! We got new charges often, and we had regulars, but the Founding Families had never called us before. They were going to pay us? This couldn't be real life. You see, in Mystic Falls, Founding Families were like royalty. Their ancestors had founded the town, and so the families ruled the town today.

Everyone knew of the Forbes, the Gilberts, the Lockwoods, and the Salvatores. The Big Four were at every big party! Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood had even been town mayors before they died. And Kristy's older brother Charlie was best friends with a Gilbert, so that made him royalty too. Kind of.

"We're babysitting a new kid?" Kristy asked.

"Even better," I said proudly, "We're babysitting Mystic Falls royalty."

Mystic Falls royalty also had a huge home to match. I stared up at the long driveway that led to Caroline's home, or the home Caroline had asked me to meet her.

An old blue car stopped beside me. The driver lowered his cool sunglasses as he looked down at me. "You're Daniel's sitter?"

He was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen in my life. His dark black hair blew in the wind, and I felt my knees shake. I had crushed on many boys before. I had liked Sam, the lifeguard, Robert... but none of them compared.

"Uh-huh," I said as I stared at his gorgeous face. The wind blew past us again. I shivered.

He stared back at me with his jaw open. "Oooookay then."

This was it. This was true love. We were meant to be together! He just couldn't see it yet. I couldn't blame him. He was busy driving.

We heard someone rush to greet us. I turned to face a blond woman, who glared at the man of my dreams. Rude! He didn't deserve her anger!

"Damon, what on Earth did you do to her?" This must be Caroline. She had the same perky voice as the lady on the phone. Caroline rushed to my side and hugged me tightly. (Ow. She was strong!) "Stacey, honey, don't worry! I'll make sure he stays away from you."

Damon scratched his cheek. "Somehow I don't think that's the problem."

"Of course it's not!" I shook my head, standing straighter to prove how mature I was. I wasn't shy. I just needed to prove that I could handle Damon's love.

Caroline sighed. "Damon." (What was her problem?) Without another word, she took my hand and led me inside. "My cousin's over here. I'm sorry, but we've got other stuff to deal with, so we need you to keep an eye on him."

Daniel Forbes, Caroline's cousin, was sitting in the den with crayons and construction paper. I waved at him. He waved back.

"My friend Jeremy's coming with pizza around 7:30. If he's not back by then, you can call either me or my friend Stefan. Our numbers are listed on the fridge door, and the emergency stuff is also in the kitchen. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen, alright?"

I nodded. "Um, is the pizza okay for me to eat? I've got a special diet."

With my diabetes, I had to make sure I ate healthy. Otherwise, my blood sugar goes out of whack and I get into huge trouble. Not just with my parents but with my body, since my body can't digest sugar probably. (It's a long story.)

Caroline blinked. "It... should be. I'll call him and ask." She accidentally kissed me on the forehead. "Oh, sorry! I'm just stressed." She laughed, before kissing Daniel on the forehead and leaving.

Once Caroline and Damon had left, I sat down on the floor and sighed. "Your cousin's a nice lady."

"She's also really forgetful," Daniel said, not looking up from his drawing. "My parents came for her high school graduation, and she forgot. So they came back to see her during college. She still forgot. That's why they hired you, because stuff came up."

At least he was an honest kid.

Daniel was also a quiet one. He kept to himself, coloring pictures of dinosaurs and asking me to help him. I had come prepared with my very own Kid Kit, another one of Kristy's Great Ideas. Each kit was packed with anything a kid could want, from stickers to construction paper to even glitter and books for them to read.

Every month, we took money out of the treasury and bought new items. This month, I had markers! Bubble wands! Scissors! Even some old picture books Daniel might like. (He was six, so I couldn't add all my favorites.) We colored, we made paper airplanes, and we had a great time! So much, in fact, that we didn't notice the time.

Around 7:45, the back door opened and an unfamiliar man walked inside. He had two pizza boxes in his arms. When he set them down, I saw another gorgeous man.

His sleeveless shirt showed off his muscles, and he had long, brown hair that framed his face. I know I said that Damon was gorgeous, but this man? He was a total h-o-t-t-i-e.

I swooned. "H-hi."

"Hi Jeremy!" Daniel stood up and rushed to the boxes. "Did you get ones that were okay for Stacey? She's got a special diet?"

"You do?" Jeremy blinked. "Oh, right, yeah. You've got diabetes, right? Charlie told me about you."

"He did?" Wait, this was Charlie's friend? The Gilbert royalty? He was standing here? In front of me? Best day ever! "Really?"

Jeremy stared at me. "Uh-huh. That's how we found out about you. I told him I needed a sitter, and he said his sister ran a babysitting service. So we had Care call, and well, here you are."

Wow! I'd really have to thank Charlie next time. Jeremy cared about me! He actually cared! He had to, to ask my mom about my special diet. (Diabetes can be tricky to manage.) He opened a box of pizza for Daniel, then one for me.

"That's awesome," I said.

Jeremy nodded as he got us our slices. "Your mom said you needed to take extra insulin, but you'd be fine with this."

He was right: some foods, like pizza, could only be eaten with extra insulin. It was nothing I couldn't handle. I took my insulin and then ate my pizza. It was warm and soft, like I imagined Jeremy's touch to be.

Daniel held up a picture to Jeremy's face. "Who do you think will win in a fight, the were-dinosaur or the T-Rex?"

The kid reminded me of Henry, one of my favorite charges in New York. Henry loved dinosaurs! He would draw them all the time. And by all the time, I meant all the time. He drew dinosaurs in the bathtub, in the sky, in the streets, and anywhere he could put them.

"Uh, the were-dino?" Jeremy looked puzzled as he put the picture down. "What IS a were-dinosaur, Daniel?"

"A human who can turn into a dinosaur. Duh."

I giggled. What a funny mental image! People just can't turn into animals like dinosaurs or wolves. If people did, I'm sure we'd all know. Mystic Falls was a quiet town. Not much happened here. It wasn't like New York, where something strange happened every minute. Oh no, Mystic Falls' biggest story this month was running out of chocolate milk. (Which was actually really sad! I loved that chocolate milk.)

Still, Jeremy had smiled back. "Oh yeah? So that's how us humans survived."

If only I had met Jeremy earlier. Damon was hot, but Jeremy was hotter. Jeremy was nice! He had laughed at Daniel's jokes. He had made sure I could eat the pizza. He even sat on the floor and played games with us.

What was I going to tell Damon? He would be heartbroken! Our romance had ended too soon. He'd have to find someone new. Poor guy. Maybe Tyler could help him find a date.

"So what's this?" Jeremy pointed to my Kit.

"My Kid Kit! We bring it every time we have a new client," I said proudly. "It's our supply of toys, games, and books for rainy days and special occasions."

As Kristy said, happy kids meant happy parents, and happy parents meant more babysitting jobs for us. (That girl was a genius!)

"Huh." Jeremy looked thoughtful as he opened my copy of The Cricket in Times Square. "You have good taste, Stacey."

He thought I had good taste! Ohmigosh, he had to like me back! He had to, and then we would start dating! This... this was luv. I could just picture our wedding now.

Just then, the back door opened. Another tall man rushed inside, with an unconscious Caroline in his arms. This man had black hair, and a muscular build just like Jeremy's. He was familiar too, like I had seen him before. I just couldn't remember where.

Jeremy glanced up at them. "Tyler? Wh-what happened?"

"Silas happened." Tyler winced. "Caroline's relatives are safe, but Caroline... Caroline's gonna need some rest. I don't know what excuse we'll give them tomorrow morning."

Wait, Caroline was hurt? I snapped into action and reached for the first-aid kit inside my Kid Kit. (Kristy made us keep one for emergencies. Kind of like now.)

Tyler watched me for a few seconds. "Um, kid, we'll be fine. I promise." He adjusted Caroline, pulling her close to his chest. I saw his t-shirt better. It had the same logo as Kristy's...

Oh! I recognized him now! "You're the guy that helps with Kristy's Krushers!"

"Y-yeah." Tyler stared at me. He must've been dumbfounded. Kristy had tried to keep her mystery high-school helper a secret for months. Mary-Anne said it was because I was too 'boy-crazy,' but I knew better. She just didn't recognize my potential. I never forgot a cute boy's face.

To Jeremy, Tyler said, "You mean, we actually got the Baby-Sitter's Club?"

"Uh-huh." I smiled widely at him.

Tyler shook his head at Jeremy. "Remind me to never joke like that again."

They headed upstairs, leaving me, Jeremy, and Daniel to ourselves. Daniel helped himself to another slice of pizza. Jeremy flipped through the pages of my book. I, however, wanted to know more about Sam's royal friend.

"Um, did you grow up in Mystic Falls?"

Jeremy looked up from my book. "Yeah. My sister and I were born here."

"Oh, that's cool." No wonder he knew everyone. "I grew up in New York."

He grinned. "Really? In Manhattan and everything?"

"Yep."

Then Jeremy turned his head to look at the other side of the room. He stood up to face the window. "What? She's not flirting with me. For God's sake, Bonnie, she's thirteen."

I looked at Daniel. "Is he...?"

"He does that a lot." Daniel shrugged, reaching for my bubble wand. "I think he has an imaginary friend."

I stared skeptically at Jeremy. "He's a little old to have one."

Jeremy scowled in our direction. "She's not... I mean... sorry. I was..."

"It's okay if you have an imaginary friend." Sometimes, cute boys needed to be treated like charges. It made them feel safe. I reached for his arm and held onto it tightly. Ooh, I could feel his strong muscles. "I promise, I won't judge you."

"Thank... you...?" Jeremy tilted his head at me.

Daniel snickered.

Turning to the window again, Jeremy yelled, "BONNIE! Come on, give me a break!" He stood up, let me go, and headed into the next room. "What's so funny?"

I shrugged at Daniel. "His imaginary friend must be really mad at him."

Technically, I could leave now. Daniel's cousin was resting upstairs, and Jeremy had arrived with dinner. Problem was, I needed someone to take me home.

Lately, a lot of animals had attacked and killed people. (We also got a lot more business, because people started needing more babysitters.) Nighttime wasn't safe in Mystic Falls. So Mom had called Caroline, or Damon, or the people in charge and asked them to give me a ride.

"Jeremy?" I called. No response. "Tyler? ... Caroline?"

The house was dreadfully silent. I took a deep breath. Right now, I was the babysitter. Jeremy was with his imaginary friend, and Tyler and Caroline were upstairs. (Probably kissing? They looked like a couple.) They couldn't drive me home now.

So I had to wait. I was also really thirsty. But if I wanted a drink, I could get it myself. I didn't have to rely on them to help me.

I went back to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Clear bags filled with thick red juice stared back at me. The labels were on the other side, and kind of hard to read.

Maybe they were tomato juice? Hard to tell. Dawn once said that homemade juice looked different from store-bought. That had to be it! Caroline must've made her juice from scratch. I reached for a bag and a glass. I poured the juice into the glass. Weird, it was thick and squishy.

I swished my glass and took a sip. Ew! This tomato juice was super salty, like someone dumped a whole box into the bag. I nearly spit it out. But I couldn't, because Caroline must've worked hard to make it. Sophisticated, mature people like Jeremy drank this juice. I needed to show them that I could handle their lifestyle.

So, very, very slowly, I finished the whole bag.

Right as I washed the glass, Damon and another girl walked through the back door. She was pretty, with long brown hair and a bright smile. They were talking loudly as they approached. Damon had found another girl so soon? Wait, no, she must've been his girlfriend. Good thing our romance didn't last that long! I know that girl wouldn't have been happy with me.

"-get him next time," the girl said. "Oh, hey, is this Daniel's babysitter?"

Damon nodded. "Come on, kid. You ready to go home?"

I crossed my arms at him. "I'm not a kid, but I'll be ready soon. Who's going to put Daniel to bed?"

"I will." The girl smiled at me, turning to face Daniel. "Come on, let's read a bedtime story."

"Okay, Elena! As long as it's about were-dinosaurs," Daniel said, cleaning up his stuff and following Elena upstairs.

What did I see in Damon? He couldn't be bothered to remember my name! He stared at my glass, then at the empty white bag. "Um, Stacey?" So now he remembered? "What were you drinking?"

I blinked. "Oh, the really weird tomato juice in the fridge. Caroline said I could help myself to anything in the kitchen."

Under his breath, Damon said some very not-nice words. "Not exactly what she meant." He stepped closer to me, leaning down and looking directly into my eyes.

My heart stopped for a second. What if he still had feelings for me? Damon, this could never work between us! We lived in two opposite worlds. He was an older "bad" boy and I was the mature babysitter. Plus, he had a girlfriend, and Jeremy and I were destined to be together. Everyone could see that.

Damon said, as he stared into my eyes, "You're going to forget this night ever happened. I'm taking you home to your parents, and you're going to forget that you ever came here and who we are."

I stared back at him, standing on my tippy-toes. "Um, why? Was I that bad?" Daniel liked me, and Elena liked me, so I couldn't have been terrible. Maybe this was a Mystic Falls royal tradition? Except it was really strange.

"Huh?" Damon stepped back. "How come it didn't work?"

"How come what didn't work?" Was he trying to play hard-to-get? I frowned at him. "Of course you're going to pay me. You or Caroline or whoever hired me. Our rate's $7.50 an hour, and since you had me for about five hours..." I paused for dramatic effect. "That'll be $37.50, please."

"What." Damon groaned, reaching into his pockets. "Elena, do you have cash?"

"No," Elena called from upstairs. "Ask Caroline?"

"She's trying to sleep," Tyler yelled. "Jeremy?"

Jeremy groaned from the next room. "Just pay her already, Damon."

I held out my hand. Kristy wasn't going to like this! They were first-time clients and they were having money issues? Maybe Mystic Falls royalty wasn't all that royal.

Another man walked through the front door. Was every teenager in this town beautiful? He was also tall and muscular, but he had dark blond hair. He frowned as he looked at me and Damon. Then he pulled out two twenty-dollar bills. "Here," he said. "Keep the change, and thanks for watching over Daniel."

"Thanks for watching over Daniel," Damon mimicked. "God, Stefan, do you have to be so perfect?"

Stefan elbowed Damon. "Just give her a ride home. She deserves it, after all this."

"She drank blood, Stefan," Damon hissed. "Human blood."

"No I didn't." I stared at them weirdly. First Jeremy has an imaginary friend, and now they're convinced their homemade tomato juice is blood? What a strange group of friends. "I ate your organic tomato juice. It was really salty, by the way."

Stefan blinked. "Uh... okay, then. You weren't able to compel her?"

"She's uncompellable, for whatever reason!" He waved wildly at my face. "Vervain, maybe? Maybe she drank some before she got here?"

I frowned at them. "You can't drink it, silly. Now I'm glad it was never going to work between us." Sometimes, you really had to treat the boys like they were your charges. It made them realize how childish they were acting.

Now Stefan was staring at me, with his jaw open. Damon was too. They must've been shocked at my honesty. I don't know why. I wouldn't stay quiet about this kind of stuff.

"Um..." Stefan frowned at Damon. "What did you even do?"

"Nothing!" Damon yelled back. "I swear! How am I supposed to know why a thirteen year old girl likes-"

"But I don't like you." I groaned. "Jeremy is the super cute one."

Tyler laughed loudly from upstairs. Damon and Stefan stared at each other for what felt like forever. What? I was telling the truth. Damon was hot, but he wasn't that hot.

Slowly, Stefan said, "On second thought, I'll give her a ride back."

The ride home was awkward. Stefan asked me weird questions about middle school. I got the distinct feeling that he didn't remember middle school either. He asked me about my classes, my teachers - basically stuff I didn't want to talk about.

I wanted to ask him about his family. "You know they call you Mystic Falls royalty?" I finally asked.

Stefan stared at me through the rearview mirror. "Yeah? How come?"

"You're a Salvatore. You helped found this town."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Not me personally. Just my family."

"Still!" I turned to look at him. "I knew you were different from everyone else. I just didn't know how different."

Now he smiled. "Is that a good or bad thing?"

I wasn't sure. On one hand, they were nice. They also strangely all lived together. I wouldn't want to live with all my friends. I could live with Claudia, but not Kristy or Mary-Anne - they talked about different things at our slumber parties, and Kristy kicked in her sleep. Mallory could be an okay roommate. Maybe. And who knew with Jessi?

It took me a minute to find my words. "Both, I think. Um, can you give Jeremy my snapchat? I didn't get the chance to earlier."

Stefan was struggling so hard not to laugh. What was so funny? Everyone used Snapchat! He leaned over the wheel as he stopped in front of my house. "Sure. What is it?"

I handed my information to him. He couldn't stop smiling, even as he watched me get out and walk inside my house.

"Oh, and Stacey?" He called.

I turned to look back at him. "What's up?"

"Whatever you do... if one of us shows up, don't invite us in. Okay?"

Strange advice. I nodded, closing the door behind me and watching him drive off.

Mom asked, "What'd he say?"

I shrugged. For once, I got the feeling that tonight, Mom was better off not knowing the full story. "Nothing important."

Friday

I don't know HOW Stacey found out about Tyler, but she showed up at Krushers practice today. Tyler and I were setting up for our big game against Matt Donovan's team, Matt's Menacers, when she storms onto the field.

Apparently, she wanted Jeremy. I don't know why. Jeremy and Charlie usually play pool on Fridays. Tyler and Matt agreed with me. And Tyler never agrees with me! (I was starting to wonder about him.)

Tyler did this weird thing where he looked into her eyes and tried to make her go home. It didn't work. Strange, because it worked with the other kids. Anyways, she got the hint and left. FINALLY. We couldn't have her keep score, either! Stace, what's the point of being good at math if you can't help us?

Matt and I warmed up the teams before we started the game. Tyler, as usual, was the referee.

Halfway through our game, a strange man (he called himself Gregor) came to me and asked what I knew. I told him I had no clue what he meant. That's when he pulled out his weapon.

Ugh! What was it with Mystic Falls' tourists and weapons? We have a strict no-weapons rule for a reason! I punched him in the gut and reached for my super sharp pencils. He ran for Tyler. Tyler punched him back towards me. Right as the man headed for Matt, BAM! I hit the man's heart straight with that pencil.

The strange man fell over backwards and disappeared. I don't know where he went, but Tyler, Matt, and the kids stared at the empty spot for a while. It took me forever to get them focused on the game again!

Stacey reappeared with Jeremy (didn't she get the hint?!), and so the boys decided to cancel the game. Matt said we'd reschedule for next week. Not wanting to waste everyone's time, I led both teams on a game of Capture the Flag.

Sometimes, weird things happen in Mystic Falls. You get used to it after thirteen years. Animals attack people; people move unusually fast; some people's eyes glow yellow; yada yada. The most you can do is keep your head high and move on. Trouble was in Mystic Falls. I could feel in it my bones. I knew this town was strange, but what else could we do?

So I had another great idea: what if we kept diaries not just of our sitting visits, but of the strange things that happen to us too? We could call them The Baby-Sitter Diaries, and you know what? We might even find new clients through these tales.

~ Kristy