A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries or anything related to it.
A/A/N: Where as there may be some stuff related to the show in the story it doesn't follow any specific timeline and things are not exactly as they are in the show.
Chapter One
It was Gabriella D'Angelo's first day at Mystic Falls High School and she was nervous. Her stomach felt as if it were full of butterflies, so much so that she had been unable to eat breakfast that morning, much to her father's chagrin. Really it shouldn't have surprised him; she was the same every time she needed to start a new school.
Her father, Marcus, travelled a lot for work and when he had to move so did Gabriella. Her father was the only living relative that she had, her mother having died in a car crash when she was only six years old and her grandparents had passed before she was even born. So it was just Gabriella and her father.
He had told her he'd thought she'd be used to starting new schools by now, this was her sixth in the three short years she'd been attending high school. Still the tradition of nervous knots continued with every school. As soon as she entered the school building she would feel all eyes on her, especially in small towns such as Mystic falls.
In towns such as these everyone knew everyone else and had grown up together. A few of the towns she'd moved to did not take too kindly to strangers. Maybe that was why she was so nervous. She feared that rush of dislike she had felt on so many occasions before. Small towns had a tendency, in her experience, to jump to conclusions about someone new.
A lot of the time, in Gabriella's case, they thought she was a snob. Her Italian heritage, giving her coffee coloured skin, high cheek bones, a perfectly straight nose, large, deep brown eyes and thick, wavy, black hair meant to them that she was gorgeous and she knew it. In actual fact, Gabriella thought nothing of the sort. When she looked in the mirror she didn't see the Italian beauty that others saw.
What she saw was someone who's nose was too straight, who's bottom lip was a little too full and who's eyes were dull and flat. She supposed she wasn't grotesque, but she wasn't pretty enough to warrant all the attention she received from boys and the dislike from girls that seemed to come hand in hand. It wasn't just her looks; she was incredibly shy, too nice for her own good and a little geeky.
On weekends she would much rather be home doing homework or reading a book or comic than being out partying and getting drunk with her peers. Not that she was a hermit; just that it seemed easier to keep to herself since it was inevitable that she'd be moving again within the year.
What Gabriella didn't know was that Mystic Falls was going to change her life completely and in ways she could never have even dreamed of and it was all going to start on that first day of school. When Gabriella left the school office with her new class schedule she was so immersed in checking it that she nearly walked into a pretty blonde girl.
"I'm so sorry," Gabriella flushed. She bent down the gather the books she'd clumsily knocked out of the girls arms. "I should have been watching where I was going."
"Don't worry about it," the girls smiled. "You're new right?"
"Yeah," Gabriella nodded as she handed the books back. "I'm Gabriella D'Angelo, I just started today."
"Welcome to Mystic Falls Gabriella," the girl beamed and took Gabriella's hand in hers. "I'm Caroline Forbes, student body president and captain of the cheerleading squad."
"Nice to meet you Caroline," the new girl smiled warmly back. "And please call me Ella, only my dad calls me Gabriella."
"All right Ella. So where's your first class, I show you where it is."
"I have History first period."
"Me too!" Caroline exclaimed happily. She took Ella's arm and led her down the hall. She chatted animatedly the whole way to the classroom, telling Ella about the best places to hang out, the cool teachers like Mr Saltzman the History teacher and about all the cute boys.
She was just telling Ella about her ex-boyfriend Matt Donovan when they reached the classroom. Caroline dragged Ella inside to sit with her next to two other pretty girls. One brunette and who had a nice smile and another dark haired girl.
"Guys this is Gabriella D'Angelo," Caroline introduced her to her two friends. "She's new to Mystic Falls. Ella this is Elena Gilbert," the brunette, "And Bonnie Bennett," the dark haired one.
Elena and Bonnie each took it in turn to greet Ella and shake her hand. When it was Bonnie's turn Ella jerked her hand away almost instantly. It was as if Bonnie's touch had given her an electric shock. She could tell that Bonnie had felt it too from the way she was frowning. Neither could voice the sensation however, because at that moment a very handsome man entered the classroom and called things to order.
He briefly greeted the new girl then got straight into the lesson. As Ella half listened to what he was teaching them her mind drifted to the shock she'd gotten from Bonnie. She couldn't quite place it, but she was sure she'd felt something other than just an electric shock. Whatever it had been it had been extremely powerful.
