A/N: Hey guys! So much thanks to the few people who are reading this story. I appreciate it. Anyway, here is the next installment. I hope you enjoy it.

CHARACTER GUIDE:

Name in Story: Name on TVD

Abby Bennett: Same

Miranda Sommers: Miranda Gilbert

Elizabeth Stanley: Liz Forbes

Kelly Madison: Kelly Donovan

William "Billy" Forbes: Bill Forbes

Carol Madison: Carol Lockwood

Gail Stevens: Gail (Zach's pregnant girlfriend)

As chapters proceed, I'll be adding more characters to this list.

Happy Reading!

And as always, REVIEWS = LOVE!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own: The Vampire Diaries, and of the characters, places, words or phrases from the books or television show, Mr. Feeny or anything else you can find outside of fandom.

THIS FANFICTION IS UNBETA'D BUT PROOFREAD BY HUMANS. ANY REMAINING MISTAKES ARE UNINTENTIONAL. APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.


After Miranda and Abby sat down atop one of the picnic tables, they began to scope out the quad.

"It's nice to see that 1989 has brought a change to fashion," Abby commented.

"You're still wearing a tutu, Abs," Miranda laughed.

"Shut up," the Bennett girl told her, flattening her tulle skirt. Miranda laughed again but the laugh was cut off by a blonde streak that had quickly come up to their table and wrapped her in a tight embrace.

"Miranda. How is she?" Elizabeth Stanley asked Abby, who shrugged, with a wide smile full of sympathy. Miranda smiled back as Liz, who wore a daisy yellow tank dress that fell to her knees, white Keds and her long blonde hair was curled and pulled up in the middle, her blue eyes on Abby, aggrandized the space.

"I'm right here and I'm fine," Miranda answered with a bright smile, "thank you."

"Great!" Liz smiled hugging her friend again.

"Randa!" Kelly Madison called as she approached their table. "How are you?" she asked as she wrapped the Sommers girl in a one armed hug. Kelly wore a red leather miniskirt, a Madonna T-shirt that she had cut up over a black tank top, black pumps and a red clutch. Her brown hair hand blonde streaks and her brown eyes were slightly red and glazed over. "How are you? You've been totally MIA."

"Have some class, Kelly," Liz said rolling her eyes, "or at the very least some tact."

"What is your damage, Frizzy Lizzy?" Kelly asked rolling her eyes. "I wasn't even talking to you."

"Everyone knows where Miranda has been this summer," Liz spat. "And don't call me that."

"I just meant that it's been months," Kelly said sitting on the bench beside Abby's feet; Liz sitting beside Miranda's feet.

"Well, if you hadn't spent your summer getting high with the stoners on the old Salvatore land then you wouldn't be here saying stupid things in that lackadaisical way," Liz told her as she crossed her arms and legs, symbolizing that she was finished with the conversation.

"Well not all of us vacayed in a beach house in Virginia Beach this summer with mommy and daddy," Kelly spat, "some of us had to get jobs."

"That doesn't excuse your rudeness and general lack of concern for Miranda's feelings," Liz said angrily.

"Ok, stop it," Miranda said interrupting her friends. "Liz, I'm fine. Really. And Kels, where do you work now?"

"The Grill," she answered, pulling her attention away from Liz. "Kyle got me the job."

"That's great!" Miranda smiled.

"Ladies," a voice said from behind them. Climbing up on the table was a dark skin girl with almost black irises, short black hair and pouty lips. She wore hunter green jeans, a gray Bobby Brown t-shirt and Doc Martins. "How's it going?"

"Good," Miranda answered.

"Now," Abby commented. Gail Stevens laughed as she pulled her gym bag on to the table.

"You guys not cheering this year?" Gail asked, noticing no one else had a bag.

"Yeah, I left my bag in my car," Abby said.

"Me too," Kelly nodded.

"I didn't bring anything," Miranda said. "I forgot about it."

"No worries. You can borrow something of mine," Abby said squeezing her best friend's hand.

"Thanks," Miranda said squeezing back.

"Good morning ladies," a brown hair girl with brown eyes and a tight smile said as she stepped up to the table. She wore a black mini skirt, a maroon peplum top, black pumps and a black belt.

"Morning Carrie," Miranda smiled.

"Oh, Miranda, how are you feeling?" Carol Gibson asked as she stepped closer and hugged her friend.

"I'm fine. Thank you," Miranda answered again with an increasingly fake smile on her face.

"Good," Carol said patting Miranda's knee. She took a seat between Abby's and Miranda's feet.

"I wish you wouldn't sit near me," Kelly said nastily.

"And I wish you wouldn't amalgamate with my friends," Carol said in a honeyed voice.

"Oh. My. God.," Abby said before an argument broke out between Carol and Kelly. All the girls looked at her but she was staring across the parking lot at the black Porsche 944 Turbo that had just pulled in. "He's here," she said her eyes still on the car. Everyone else directed their attention to the lot as well.

The door pushed open and then a tall boy with dark brown hair and striking blue eyes exited. He wore motorcycle boots, dark wash jeans, that were cuffed at the ankle, a plain white t-shirt that had each sleeve rolled. The girls watched as he reached back into the car and pulled out his backpack and leather jacket.

"He is..." Kelly started.

"Tasty," Abby finished. The girls giggled as the eyesome Zachariah Salvatore slipped into his leather jacket, slung his backpack over one shoulder and made his way toward them.

"Wipe the drool off your chin, Abs," Miranda joked, "he's coming this way."

"Shut up," Abby said absently checking her chin for drool.

On the way toward the table, Zach was joined by three other boys.

Grayson Gilbert; a tall black hair boy with brown eyes wore jeans, a button up layered with a sweater and Cons.

Rudy Hopkins, a very tall black boy with light brown eyes wore the same outfit as Grayson except he layered his button up with a vest.

Kyle Donovan, a tall musclar boy with blonde hair and blue eyes wore dark jeans, cuffed like Zach's, Cons, a black t-shirt and a Mystic Falls High School Letterman's jacket.

Abby primped and flattened her tutu as Zach and his friends approached.

"Yeah, you're not excited to see him," Miranda muttered with a chuckle.

"Shut up," Abby said. "Hey, Zach!"

"Hello Abby," Zach Salvatore said with an easy smile. "Miranda, doing alright?"

"I'm fine. Thank you," Miranda said with a tight smile.

"So, is that a new Porshe, Zach?" Kelly flirted.

"Yeah," Zach said glancing back at his ride, "It was a gift from my Uncle Stefan."

"It's cherry," Kelly flirted again.

"Gross, Kelly," Liz muttered.

"Don't recall asking for your commentary," Kelly said rolling her eyes.

"How was your summer, Zach?" Abby asked pulling the attention off of Liz vs Kelly.

"Great. I went to Savannah," he told her. "Sorry I missed your birthday."

"It's ok," Abby blushed.

"It's not; so I brought you something," Zach said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a small box with a bow on it.

"Oh, thank you," Abby blushed again as her fingers brushed his. She opened the box and inside was a large blue pendent on a platinum chain. "This is...beautiful...thank you, Zach."

"You're welcome," he smiled. "Surprisingly, that came from my crazy Uncle Damon," Zach told her as he helped her slip it on.

"I thought you didn't like your Uncle Damon," Rudy commented rudely. "Is it a general practice to accept gifts from people you dislike?"

"He's still my uncle," Zach said cutting his eyes at Rudy, "creep that he may be."

"It's beautiful," Abby said. "Ignore him." Rudy rolled his eyes as Abby gave Zach yet another look of longing.

The school bell rang and all the teens scattered.

"So, Miranda, hey," Grayson Gilbert said as he caught up with Miranda at her locker.

"Hey, Grayson," she said with a smile.

"How ya doing?" he asked, leaning against the bank of lockers.

"Better," she told him.

"You ready for school?"

"As I'll ever be."

"I see Liz and Kelly are back at it," Grayson chuckled as Miranda put her things in her narrow locker. The two of them glanced down the hallway at Liz glaring at Kelly and her friend, Kris Evans, who was her rival. They competed at everything.

"Yeah, some things never change," Miranda chuckled as she slipped her backpack on and shut her locker. She and Grayson walked to their first class in a comfortable silence. Miranda entered the class and took the empty desk beside Abby; who was stilling swooning over her new necklace. "It's very pretty."

"I know right?" Abby said looking up at her friend. "Zach said that he was talking to his uncles about a friend's birthday he was missing and his Uncle Damon asked the friends name and he didn't want to tell him but he did so Damon left the room and came back with this." Abby explained.

"That's kinda cool," Miranda said as she pulled her Trapper Keeper onto her desk, "in an extremely creepy kind of way."

"Yeah but I don't care," Abby smiled as the bell rang.

"Good morning class," the old man in a three piece suit and glasses said from the front of the room. "I'm Mr. Feeny and this is eleventh grade English. This year you will delve into the romances of Romeo and Juliet and twist of Tony and Maria. You will explore the beauty of writing and making your own story come to life. You will give me your minds and I will mold them, young ones. Together, we will become enlightened, well educated and cultured," he finished with a smile.

"So this class is a lot of reading and writing and stuff?" Richard Lockwood asked from his in the second row. Mr. Feeny looked down at this class list then back at Rich.

"Yes, Mr. Lockwood. This class is a lot of reading and writing and...stuff," he said dryly. "Miss Madison, would you please come and pass out the books?" Kelly rolled her eyes but rose from her desk.

Miranda reached into her backpack and pulled out her journal. She pulled the cap off of her pen and began to write.

Dear Journal,

So far, so good at school. I've had to smile like a crazy person all morning but it beats having to explain to people why I'm still moping around about my mom. I can't help that they've moved on and I haven't. She was my mom. The loss of her is never going to go away.

"Miss Sommers?" Mr. Feeny called from his desk.

"Yes, sir?" Miranda answered closing her journal.

"Would you come here please?" he asked gently.

"Sure," she said as she rose from her desk. She moved quickly down the aisle. All of the eyes on her was a bit unnerving.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were fully prepared to return to school," Mr. Feeny said in a hushed tone. "I know that the lost of a parent can be a hard thing for a person to handle, especially a young girl."

"I'm fine, Mr. Feeny," Miranda whispered. "Thank you." He looked her in the eyes for a moment before a smile stretched across his face.

"Very well," he said, "you may return to your seat." she nodded and went back to her desk. When she got there, there was folded sheet of paper on top of her copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

What was that about?

Miranda looked across the aisle to Abby, who was awaiting an answer.

Just checking in. Dead mom and all.

Are you ok?

Yeah. It was nice of him.

Ok. :)

Miranda smiled back at Abby before absently thumbing through her book. While she didn't lie to Abby, she was ok, she wasn't looking forward to the rest of the school day. Were all of her teachers going to call her up front as as her if she was fully prepared to come back to school? The answer was unequivocally no but so what? At some point she was going to have to start trying to move past her grief and into moving on. She knew that moving on didn't mean forgetting her mom but that didn't mean it didn't feel that way sometimes.

She was torn from her thoughts when a folded square of paper landed softly on her desk. She made sure that Mr. Feeny was deep into his lecture about Verona, Italy and the social make-up of the city before she unfolded the note before her.

I went to this club in Whitmore City called After Hours this summer. It was super awesome and the boys were delish. We should go Saturday night.

Miranda looked at Kelly, who was seated in front of Abby. She was smiling brightly at her.

A real club or like an underage club?

A real club duh.

Isn't that dangerous? And illegal.

It's fun. Just plain fun. Plus, almost everyone in there was our age. I could tell. Too many nervous people handing over I.D.s, ya know?

Right. I'll go I guess but only if everyone else goes.

Liz is not going to go to a club. People have fun there.

If you want me there you better figure out how to get her there.

Kelly rolled her eyes then turned back to face the front. Miranda watched as she wrote several notes. She pitched one over her shoulder to Abby then she had other kids pass the others on to Liz, Rich, Carol and William Forbes. They each sneaked a peek at her and she gave them a thumbs up.

When the bell rang, they bolted from the classroom.

"Of course Kelly found a club that half-ass checks Ids," Abby laughed as she and Miranda walked toward their next class.

"You know she likes to live on the wild side," Miranda laughed as she stopped at her locker.

"Yeah, ok. Whitmore City is about as wild as house cat," Abby joked.

"Hey, Miranda," Grayson said as he stopped beside the two girls.

"Hey Grayson," Miranda said.

"So, Billy just told me about that club that Kelly went to," he said, "he said that Kelly said that she invited you. Are you going?"

"I have to check with Liz first," she said as she shut her locker and began walking toward class again; Grayson beside her, Abby following them.

"Billy said that she's going," Grayson informed her. "Something about she'll show her just how fun Frizzy Lizzy is, or something like that."

"Oh, then, yeah," Miranda said. "Abby and I will be there with bells on," she said linking her arm into her friend's and pulling the Bennett girl up between her and Grayson.

"Ok, cool. Later," he said said with a bright smile before he jogged off to join Rudy.

"What the hell was that?" Abby asked as they entered into a classroom.

"Grayson is..." Miranda began.

"Totally crushing on you," Abby finished.

"I was going to say nice," Miranda said as she and Abby sat down beside each other.

"Ok, but," Abby chuckled.

"I just broke up with Kyle," she said pulling her Trapper Keeper out of her bag.

"Like what, three months ago now?" her friend asked.

"So?"

"So, this is high school. You guys had been dating since the the seventh grade, move on."

"Abby, that's five years," Miranda said, "not to mention the fact that we've known each other our entire lives. It's not just something I can "move on" from," she finished using air quotes.

"Ok, fine but do you like him?" Abby asked.

"Like who?" Kelly asked as she took the seat in front of Miranda.

"No one," Miranda said, her eyes wide at Abby.

"Oh," Kelly said rolling her eyes. "It's happening again huh?"

"What?" Abby questioned.

"You two are keeping a boy secret because you think I'll pounce on him or something," Kelly said.

"You have a habit of being a boyfriend stealer," Liz said taking the seat in front of Abby. Kelly glared at her. "Don't look so angry, Kelly. It's not like this is information you didn't know."

"No one is telling you because it's none of your business Kelly," Abby said. "If you feel slighted or whatever, that's on you."

"Whatever Abby," Kelly spat.

"Kelly, it's not like that," Miranda said kindly. "There is nothing going on with the boy in question, I just don't want everyone to know about it."

"She means you doesn't want you to know because then you'll tell, Kris and then all of Mystic Falls high will know," Liz added.

"Liz, don't help me," Miranda said causing Abby to laugh.

The bell rang and all of the girls turned to face the front of the classroom.