Into The Dark

Chapter 1

It all started when we were back in our senior year of high school. We weren't exactly popular but we weren't total losers either. I think it all began one Monday when we had a double free period because some meathead of a teacher was absent, or maybe it was because Caroline had convinced us to ditch our English Literature lesson and we'd been so sick of school, we'd agreed.

Nonetheless, whatever the reason, me, Caroline, Elena and Tyler found ourselves in the small room behind the gym, the one used for storage that nobody ever went to. It was peaceful and nobody bothered us there. One time, there'd been a school trip we didn't want to go to so we'd stayed here the whole day until it was time to go home. Caroline liked to use this room to spy on the hot guys in their gym class.

I was sitting there nervously, because I didn't like to skip class. I was worried I'd get caught. Caroline took one look at my anxious expression and laughed out loud, tossing her head back and making her long blonde hair cascade backwards. "You look so like awkward, Bon," She told Elena and Tyler who were looking at her in confusion at her outburst.

Tyler, who was sitting nearest to me on the floor, smiled in my direction. He slipped his arm around my shoulder. "Why so glum, chum?" He asked, in a fake British accent. I couldn't help but laugh and he tightened his grip on my shoulder then kissed me on the cheek. We were supposed to be sort of dating though he didn't actually call it that because he liked to 'flirt around'. Ty was a dick but he was one of my closest friends.

"I'm just scared. This is senior year," I reminded them, running a hand through my brown hair and biting my lip.

"So what?" Caroline rolled her kohl-rimmed eyes at me and shot me a reassuring look. "Mrs. Burton will never know we skipped; she never takes attendance,"

"I'm not sure. What do you think, Lena?" I asked, turning to my more rational friend who was sitting in the corner on a box, typing into her blackberry with a smile. I knew who she was texting before she even looked up. She had a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Ummm, fine…yes…sure," She mumbled, not even looking up.

I tossed a tennis ball at her and she caught it without even looking in my direction, before she held it up towards me. She let it bounce onto the floor with a thump and Caroline and Tyler chorused in laughter.

"Who are you texting?" Tyler teased Elena, leaning in her direction.

Elena backed away so that we couldn't see the screen and her cheeks warmed from pink to a warm crimson. "No-one… my mom, I mean," She lied blatantly, slipping her phone into her pocket and looking up at us with a poker face. Her long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and she shot us an impish smile.

"You liar," Caroline scolded her, "We all know its Klaus,"

Elena immediately looked down and we knew it was true. Tyler laughed and she blushed harder. "Why are you still dating that asshole?" He wanted to know, his brown eyes amused.

"He's not an asshole. He's just hard to understand," She defended her British boyfriend who she'd been dating for about a week and hadn't stopped going on and on about him. We were sick of this 'Klaus' already. Plus he was the most stuck up kid ever.

"No offense, Lena, but he's the most obnoxious…." I searched for a term, "person I've ever met,"

Elena sighed, "He is a bit…um…" She looked like she was thinking, "snobbish but I love him and he loves me,"

"She loves him and he loves her," Caroline sang, tapping her feet on the floor and singing in a high pitched voice.

I shared a smile with Tyler and we both sang: "She loves him and he loves her," The tune was so catchy that for the next few days we kept on singing it. Suddenly in the middle of class, Caroline would burst out singing "She loves him." And then one of us, either Tyler or me would reply with "And he loves her," in the same squeaky voice. Elena would blush and smack us and the class wanted to know who the heck he was. Klaus went to a private school across Mystic Falls, Virginia called 'The Falls Academy' and him and Elena had met at a clichéd café called the 'Grill'. Elena worked there as a waitress on weekends and she'd met him. They'd apparently fallen in love at first site. I knew he was a jerk though and he'd break her heart. We all did. We were waiting for the time it would happen.

Singing that line was how the band really got started. I think it was one day when we were sitting in the Grill waiting for Elena to finish her shift that I suggested we start a band. Caroline was psyched at the idea, claiming she would have loved to be famous and Tyler agreed that it would be 'dope'. When Elena came out for her break, we told her about it and she agreed too. We'd start a band.

That night, we met at Tyler's mansion and discussed tactics. "So I'll sing lead," Caroline announced, getting up and striking a crazy rockstar pose.

"No, I think Bonnie should sing lead," Tyler put in, "She has the throatiest voice and it's the most unique. No offense, Care,"

"How about we take it to a vote?" Elena, the eternal peace keeper, asked us, looking around.

Caroline looked over at me and then sighed, "Fine. Let's vote then." She said.

I was voted lead singer and we agreed that Tyler would play bass because his uncle Masen already had one and he already knew how to play some basic chords. Elena would play lead guitar and sing back-up vocals and we convinced Caroline to spend her accumulated babysitting money on a drum-set so she could rock out on it. She agreed reluctantly and we decided to call ourselves 'etc' because Caroline came up with it and we thought it was cool.

The only problem was we didn't exactly know what to write songs about. We knew that most rock/ pop songs talked about love but we hadn't really experienced that. Tyler had been my first boyfriend and I didn't know other than the way he treated me as love. I knew he cared about me but I wasn't in love with him. Not the way Elena was with Klaus. Elena was the only one who had experienced love and we'd agreed to write our songs together. We didn't want to be the gushy sort of band. We wanted to start a music revolution. My idol Emily Bee who was my favorite rocker ever, said that music had to make a difference, so we didn't just want to write about crappy love songs. We wanted to make a change.

Instead of spending school nights hanging around Tyler's mansion or at any of our houses watching TV, joking around and maybe fitting in a little homework, we had jam sessions. We practiced, trying out lyrics and practicing how to act like a rock star. We all put streaks in our hair, I got blue, Tyler got green, Elena got purple, and Caroline got pink. They were supposed to be a symbol of our 'rockerness' if that was even a word. That was what Caroline had said when she'd bought the dyes anyway.

Our first song was called ironically enough 'We wanna (save the planet)'. The lyrics talked about a group of friends who wanted to save planet Earth by rocking out and spreading awareness about global warming and pollution and stuff. The lyrics were cute and I was proud that I'd come up with at least half of them. I was good at rhyming because I loved writing poems.

2 months after the sitting the Grill when we'd decided to create a band, we became a semi-proper band. We'd come up with at least 5 songs and we were ready to take the music world by storm. We were ready to start the teenage music revolution just like Emily Bee had wanted to. We were going to make a difference, of that I was sure.

We got Elena to pull us some strings and her boss agreed to let us play at the Grill for our first gig. We spent the week before it putting fliers up everywhere and I was as nervous as heck. I worried I'd mess up and then ruin everything for the band. Elena assured me I was awesome and that everything was going to be peachy keen.

The night of the gig, we hung out in the back room of the Grill, putting our final touches on our outfits and checking our instruments were tuned. Caroline had picked out our outfits: I was dressed in an electric blue pair of jeggings to match the streaks in my hair and I had a white spaghetti strapped top on. Elena was decked out in a jeans dress that had straps like dungarees. She had a purple flower in her hair and Caroline was dressed in jeans shorts with pink fishnet leggings under them and a tiny pink tee that showed her perfectly flat midriff while Tyler was clad in faded jeans and a 'Van Helsing' shirt. The streaks were as colorful in our hair as ever and I knew we all looked epic. I couldn't shake the nervous feeling in my stomach though.

When we were called onto the stage, I felt the butterflies flutter in my stomach harder than ever. I felt like they were trying to burst out. Tyler smiled at me, "You're going to be great," He whispered, pecking me on the cheek.

I sighed, but squeezed his hand. That gave me a little strength and we followed the rest of them on stage. I took my place at the front and as I looked at the faces of the people standing there, I felt a burst of exhilaration. I started to sing and all my previous anxiety faded away. I looked back at my band members every once in a while, smiling back at me. Caroline would often give me a thumbs up and I trusted them to catch me when I fell. I sang on. We managed to sing 'We wanna' then a couple of covers because we thought they would go down well. We sang an amped up version of Demi Lovato's 'Skyscraper' because I thought it was an amazing song plus a few more others. The crowd was cheering and that kept us going.

By the end of the little gig, we were parched. Caroline took me to grab a drink because Elena was too busy talking to Klaus who had watched the concert and was now sitting with her at a booth. Tyler approached us, his phone placed on the side of his face, "I'm sorry guys. I'm going to have to split. Mom says she needs me home," He complained, a tired look on his face.

I gave him a quick hug, "See you later, Ty," I murmured. Caroline waved him away with a grin and he placed a kiss to my forehead, "You were amazing," He murmured, and then he was gone.

While Caroline and I were waiting for our cola floats, she danced off to talk to some popular guys in our grade who'd never bothered talking to us before. She left me standing there in front of the counter waiting for our drinks. A boy with blue eyes and scruffy black hair approached me with a sly smile. He stood staring at me.

I looked back at him, "What?" I asked him, when he didn't say anything.

"What?" He responded, cheekily.

I shot him an aggravated look. "What's your problem?" I demanded, annoyed.

"What's your problem?" He laughed, and I balled my hands into fists, causing him to laugh even more.

"You're my problem now," I called, just as my and Caroline's drinks appeared on the counter. I stepped forward and took them and the boy was still smirking at me. I took a sip of my float and started away from him, shooting him a dirty look as I went.

He blocked my way. "Hey, I'm sorry for being such a jerk. At least let me introduce myself," He said, flashing me a smile.

I shook my head, "I don't care who you are," I told him, snappily, noticing that I hadn't seen him around Mystic Falls before. He looked new to town or maybe he just didn't go to Mystic Falls Public High.

My doubts were confirmed when Klaus, who was sitting with Elena and a group of his friends from the 'Falls Academy' called the guy over. "Yo Damon! Get over here," Klaus said, waving him over.

I took that as an opportunity to split, spotting Caroline by the jukebox in the corner of the room. She was talking to a senior guy with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. I approached them cautiously, not knowing whether to intrude or not. Caroline had her game face on.

She saw me and ushered me over, a giant smile on her face. "Bonnie, come here," She said, taking her drink and slipping her arm around my waist.

"So this is the infamous lead singer," The guy muttered, smiling at me.

I smiled back, "I'm infamous, huh?" I murmured.

Caroline laughed, "Yes, she's the one and only Bonnie Bennett," She took a big gulp of her drink.

I drank from mine too and the guy nodded at us both. "I'm Duke anyways. Your band," He gestured to us both, "is cool. You guys are cool," He informed us.

We both smiled at him and then Caroline shot him a flirty smile, "So do you want to go play some pool?" She asked, gesturing to the pool tables in one side of the Grill.

Duke nodded at her. "Sure, I'll see you around, Bonnie," He told me.

"Later, Duke," I called after them, as they made their way away from me.

I was instantly enveloped into a crowd of high school admirers who loved our band and wanted to talk to me. That week at school, people who had looked their noses down at us, talked to us and praised us. They wanted to hang out with us after school but we told them we couldn't hang because we had band practice. They thought that was even cooler. We became way more popular than we were before and I was happy about that and happier than me was Caroline. She loved attention and the spotlight. It was one of the reasons she was a good rock star.

About a week later, I bumped into Duke at the grocery store when I was picking up some food for lunch. He smiled at me and helped carry my groceries to the car. "Hey, so I was thinking, it's my birthday next week and I'm having a major blow out party at the Falls, do you think your band would like to play?"

"I'm not sure," I told him honestly, "I'll have to ask them but I think that would be great,"

Duke smiled at me genuinely. "It would just be awesome to have live entertainment," He admitted, as I shot him a tiny smile. He gave me his number and told me to text him when I knew. The band agreed to play, naturally. We couldn't believe we were being offered another gig. So off we went, to the next stage of our rock band career.


A/N: So that's chapter one! Things are getting a little more exciting now. I just wanted to say I got majorly inspired to write this from an amazing book called 'Guitar Girl' by Sarra Manning. I've used a little of the plot line and I just wanted to say that (:

I hope you liked that! REVIEW and tell me if you did (:

I'll try to update soon!

Lily xx

Disclaimer:Idon'townTVD.