FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL -2017 (Maddie's POV)
As we drove up to Mystic Falls Elementary for the first day of grade one, I knew this was going to go badly. I looked over at Jameson and Jayden, who had became good friends during the six years of their lives.
I knew we were different and everyone would stare at us. We weren't going to be mocked for being children of teenage mothers and child brides. We were going to be praised. We were Founders and in this town it meant royalty. I couldn't wait for the new towners to guess what was so special about us and old towners to start plotting to get into our inner circles.
At least Jameson and Jayden had each other. I had no one. I would not hang with sure-to-be- mocked Tori Donovan.
The car came to a stop in the MFE parking space, and everyone clambered out. Mama hugged me goodbye as our feet hit the cement.
"Have a great time," she said smiling.
Our dad looked lovingly at our mother. He's the one that gave us the Founding Family heritage. Mama smiled back.
The Gilbert line had always been small, with a usual load of two children per generation. Our generation had six. My siblings and I, and our third-cousins.
Our third-cousins were extra-special, like Jameson and his sister were. They had both parents of Founding Family linage. Our third-cousins just had to be fathered by Damon Salvatore.
But our second-cousin, Elena (Gilbert-Flemming), and our dad, Jeremy (Gilbert-Sommers), weren't raised as cousins- they were raised as siblings, so they were just our cousins to us.
We know that Grandma Pearl, Aunt Elena, Uncle Damon,Isobel, Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Stefan are all vampires. We keep our tiny lips shut because Founding Families are supposed to hate vampires. That meant they once hated Mama, because she had been a vampire before our dad brought her back to life. Mama was brought back as a human with Aunt Bonnie's help.
Mama's phone rings, and she pulls away from hugging Jayden to answer it. It was Grandma Jenna and Grandpa Ric calling to see how our first day was going.
They're not really my grandparents, but they act like they are, even though they are really Dad's maternal aunt and married-in uncle. My dad's real parents died in a car accident before Dad met Mama. Dad takes us to see their graves every Grandparents Day. Once, I saw him sneak off to see Tori's aunt's(AN:if you guys are confused,I mean Vicki.)grave when Mama wasn't looking.
Mama and Dad walk with us all the way to the door of the classroom. There, they hug us again and say goodbye. Then we walk into the classroom and take a seat. Our teacher will be Mrs. Navy for the whole first grade.
She calls off the names of our 27 classmates, someone putting up their hand when theirs is called.
"Gilbert, Jayden," she calls.
Jayden puts his hand up and smiles. I see two girls whispering in the corner.
"Gilbert, Madeline," she calls.
I put my hand up, just as Mrs. Navy told us to. Everyone turns to look at me.
When we are eating lunch, I notice the two girls who were whispering earlier. I see them more closely now, one is blonde and one is brunette.
"Hi. My name is Violet Hampton, what's yours?" The blonde one, obviously the leader, perks up.
When I don't respond, the brunette perks up as well.
"Hello, my name is Rose Beanie," she says.
I don't care about Rose or Violet. They seem shallow, even for first-graders. I know their last names, old town people. Or rather, old town social-climbers. Ick, no thank you.
"So is like, Jayden your brother?" Rose asks, glancing at Hayden out of the corner of her eye.
"Yes," I reply, before turning away from them and heading over to James.