"Gatsby are you sure that what you're doing is safe?" Scarr asked as we drove to school.
"It's perfectly safe I do it all the time" I tried to say with a scrunchy in my mouth while I tried to put my hair up into a ponytail. I was trying to drive with my thighs steering the car so far it was going well. We hadn't been pulled over yet. I got my hair up.
"Eyeliner please?"I asked.
"Now you're seriously just asking for us to die" Scarlett said not handing it to me. I reached back in my purse.
"CAT!" Scarr screamed. I slammed on the breaks giving us both whiplash and realized I was only stopping at a stop sign and there was no cat. I looked at Scarlett and saw a mischievous smile splayed on her face.
"Yes you are completely in control while multitasking" she joked. I just made childish noises at her. I heard someone honk behind us. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw we had sort of caused a backup I also saw Stefan behind me in his car. Great now I just felt embarrassed. I gave him a wave and drove on. Scarr was just laughing her head off now and I smacked her on the shoulder.
"Ow I think you bruised me" she whined.
"Baby" I rolled my eyes at her as we pulled into the school parking lot. I saw Matt wave at our car. Scarlett looked away and blushed. Then I looked between the two of them.
"Is there something you would like to tell you're dear older sister miss Scarlett?" I asked.
"Like you can keep a secret?" she scoffed. You wanna bet I challenged her.
"Please" I gave her the puppy dog pout.
"I kind of sort of like Matt" she smiled.
"Awwwww" I hugged her ruffling her hair.
"I'm going to smack you if you do that again do you have any idea how long I worked on this" she said getting her hair back to its normal position.
"Right, right I get it you want to look perfect for Matty" I joked.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you. You're going to tease me relentlessly for this aren't you?" she crossed her arms.
"um of course I will" I smiled at her as we got out of the car.
Must stay awake I chanted in my head. My history teacher was asking some stupid question about what year WWII ended nobody answered and then he asked what year Pearl Harbor happened. Don't make eye contact with him or else he'll call on you I advised myself.
"Ms. King" my teacher asked. Crap I thought. I lifted my head up showing that I did hear him.
"Sorry to wake you up from you're nap but would you care to tell us when Pearl Harbor happened?" he asked.
"A long time ago" I told him the truth. The class laughed at that.
"December 7 1941" Stefan answered for me.
"Thank you" I mouthed to him.
"Correct answer Ms. King" my teacher joked at Stefan.
"Anytime" Stefan said. Then my teacher started quizzing him on dates in history. Stefan must've been a history buff because he got all of the dates right.
"Civil rights act?"
"1964"
"JFK assassination?" 1963 I guessed in my head.
"1963" Stefan answered. Nice now I know I'm not a complete idiot I cheered in my head.
"Martin Luther King?"
"1968"
"Lincoln?"
"1865"
"Row v. Wade?"
"1973" Elena and I made OMG faces at this. Practically the whole class was watching this like it was a tennis match.
"Brown v. Board?"
"1954"
"The Battle of Gettysburg?"
"1863"
"Korean War?"
"1950-53"
"Ha you're wrong it was fifty two" our teacher laughed at him. Wow good for you mate you outsmarted a 17 year old I rolled my eyes at him.
"Uh actually sir it was '53" Stefan said quite positively. I snuck my phone out of my pocket and looked it up right as our teacher asked us to.
"He's right the Korean War ended July 27th 1953" I said. Ooooh I hope you're hungry cuz you just got served I thought towards my teacher immaturely.
"You're seriously trying out to be a cheerleader?" I asked
"Hmmm mmmm" she nodded. Then I saw she was looking at Matt practicing for football across the field.
"Wouldn't happen to be for the fact that you might catch the attention of a certain blondie?" I asked.
"Possibly" she smiled.
"Well you're probably going to make the squad because of your connections" I told her.
"You think?"
"Oh yeah, soon you'll be doing herkeys and toe touches and stuff" I said while trying to attempt a herkey myself.
"Don't ever do that again" she said blandly and I smiled at her.
"Did I embarrass you? Well what if I did this M-A-T-T-Y MATTY MATTY YOU'RE SO FLY" I cheered and then Scarr covered my mouth.
"Just go to the bleachers and I'll call you when I'm done" she sighed before I could embarrass her any further.
"Good luck" I hugged her. I walked over to the bleachers and saw Stefan and sat down next to him.
"You saved my life today" I told him as I plopped down next to him.
"You're welcome" he smiled. We watched as the football players practiced.
"Elena told me you're pretty good at football"
"It's a pastime" he shrugged.
"That you do while be a loner" I joked quoting Elena.
"You should go for it. I mean a lot of the guys are kind of um douches but you'll learn to ignore them" he shook his head.
"I'll give you a nickel" I joked.
"It's shiny" I added.
"Well then since you put it that way why not?" he said getting up.
"Really?" I asked not believing that, that actually worked. He nodded.
"You and Elena will look so cute on game nights" I smiled. He ignored that and walked on. I now leaned back in the bleachers and felt like taking a nap.
"So you guys haven't seen Caroline at all today?" Scarlett asked Bonnie and Elena as the stretched out.
"Believe me I've called her a million times and got no answer" Bonnie said. Just then they heard loud music come from a black convertible and saw Caroline with this one guy wearing aviators. Scarlett froze from where she stood as she recognized the guy.
"That must be the mysterious guy from the Grill" Bonnie said to her.
"Nope it's not" Elena groaned. Hang on she knows him? Scarlett thought. Caroline got out of the car and Scarlett now had a perfect view of who the guy was. He had followed her here but how? Why? She couldn't think of any answers to these questions.
"I got the other brother hope you don't' mind" Caroline chirped as she pushed past her friends.
The guy, from his spot in the car looked at Scarlett and waved.
"Scarr are you alright?" Elena asked her. Scarr shook her head. She didn't want to tell Elena how she was connected to this dude. She knew that she'd probably act the same way Gabby would and be extremely overprotective.
"How were tryout's? Did you make the team?" Damon asked as Stefan walked into his bedroom. Damon flipped through another page of Stefan's diary.
"Very Emerson the way how you reveal your soul with so many adjectives" Damon started to tease before Stefan ripped the diary out of his hand.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked worriedly.
"I've been doing some soul searching and I want to apologize. I want us to start over and have things be like the old days again. You're my brother and if you want to live a normal human life than I want that for you too. I mean I could even try being a non living…living person. I want this for both of us" Damon acted a bit dramatically but then started laughing.
"You know it doesn't have to be this way Damon" Stefan told his brother the truth.
"Of course it doesn't" Damon replied sarcastically.
"I saw Elena btw, that stands for by the way. She was at cheerleading practice she looked so perky" Damon teased getting a death glare from Stefan.
"Alright simmer down lover boy remember I told you I like her cousin, who didn't look to bad herself might I add. You wouldn't mind giving me her cell would you? Look at me sounding all modern" Damon said very proud of himself and then looked at his watch.
"And speaking of hot chicks I've got to go pick up mine. I have a date wish me luck"
"I'm serious this trick works all the time" I told Bonnie as we made dinner.
"No it just makes you look like an idiot"
"Nu uh"
"Go on then try it"
"Ok then" I threw a noodle that I was cooking at the wall to see if it would stick and it did.
"OK now you eat one and tell me if they're done" I told her. She ate a noodle.
"Noodles are done" she smiled.
"I'm sorry what'd you say it sounded something like Gatsby you're a genius and I cant believe you came up with a fun way to check when the noodles are done" I joked. She shoved me. Bonnie started talking to us about how she was all freakishly psychic now. Somebody knocked on the door and Scarr went to go open it. While she was gone I pulled Elena and Bonnie into a huddle.
"Ok how'd she do at tryouts?" I asked.
"Amazing, Caroline told me she's on the team" Bonnie informed us. I had a little party inside my head.
When we sat down for dinner everybody was awkwardly silent.
"So did Tanner (our history teacher/football coach) give you a hard time today?" I asked Stefan.
"He did at first but I'm on the team so I must have done something right" Stefan smiled. I gave him a little applaud but nobody else joined. I didn't understand why Bonnie was acting so awkward around Stefan. I looked at Elena and she gave me a look saying we'd talk about it later.
"Why don't you tell Stefan about you're family" Elena suggested to Bonnie.
"Um divorced, no mom, and I live with my dad" Bonnie answered.
"I think she meant the witches" Scarr told her. That got Stefan's attention.
"Bonnie's family has a whole lineage of witches it's really cool" Scarr continued.
"Cool isn't the word I would use" Bonnie added. Finally the awkwardness was broken though as Stefan showed his interest in the subject. The doorbell rang and Elena and I got up to go get it.
"I've got it. You already did enough tonight while making this delicious meal" I lied. Elena gave me a look of thanks, considering I had actually made dinner tonight, but I wanted her to look cool in front of Stefan. I went to open the door.
"Surprise" Caroline said. I smiled at her and looked up and saw Damon behind her and he raised his eyebrows at me.
"Bonnie said you guys were making dinner so we brought desert" Caroline walked in.
"Hope you don't mind" Damon leaned in the doorway smiling at me.
"Actually I do" I slammed the door in his face.
"Gabby!" Caroline said very offended as she went to go open the door. I ran to Scarr. When she looked at the door and saw Damon she gripped my hand and I gave her a protective look. There was no way he could try and pull anything with all these people around. Apparently I wasn't the only one though who didn't want Damon here. Stefan almost argued with Elena but she let him come in. Scarr never left my side as we went into the living room for coffee and desert. Caroline wouldn't shut up but I also felt an immense amount of pride when she told Scarr how great she did today.
"You don't seem like the cheerleader type Scarlett? If I'm correct" Damon talked to her.
"Oh it's only because her parents died that's she's all mopey. I mean I swear it's easier to get some sort of cheerful reaction from an emo person than it is from her. Seriously like today was the first time I actually saw her fully smile. " Caroline said as she took a sip of coffee. Everyone stared at her incredulously.
"Excuse me for a moment" Scarr got up and ran up the stairs. I glared at Caroline.
"What?" she asked and then she realized what she said.
"Oh my god Gabby I'm-"
"Don't apologize to me" I said chasing after her. I ran up to our room and knocked on the door.
"Scarr? Scarr?" I asked.
"Scarr open the door" I said.
"It's unlocked genius" she almost shouted back. I opened the door and walked out but didn't find Scarlett in their.
"Over here" her voice directed me. I walked to our window and saw she had climbed into the tree. That was always Scarr's hiding place back home we had this huge tree that Scarr and I would go to if we ever were sad and needed to think about things.
"You alright?" I asked looking out the window.
"No" she wiped away some tears. I came out of the window and sat down next to her on a branch.
"Caroline's an idiot. I said to make her feel better" and she laughed at that. I hugged her.
"I can't believe he's here" she shivered at the thought of Damon.
"He's Stefan's brother" I finally told her.
"You didn't tell me this"
"Because I thought you'd get scared"
"You mean like I am right now?"
"Yes" I nodded.
"Don't worry Stefan likes him as much as we do so if Damon try's anything on you again I'll tell him" I comforted her. She let out a sigh.
"If I go back in do I have to go back downstairs"
"No" I smiled at her. She got off the branch and I followed after her. We jumped through the window into our room.
"Good night then" I kissed her on the top of her head.
"Oh god now you're really starting to turn into mom" she said but I think that she liked it though. I went back downstairs.
"Is she ok?" Elena asked.
"She's fine I talked to her and everything's all good. Although you will have to apologize tomorrow" I told Caroline and she nodded understanding. I grabbed everybody's dishes and went to the kitchen to go do them. Elena tried to help me but I gave her a threatening look that said Sit down and socialize with your future boyfriend. I turned on the hot water in the sink and picked up one of the glasses and almost dropped it and it was thankfully caught by Damon.
"Thank you" I said grabbing it from him and putting it away. He just stood there. At this point I decided now was the best time to confront him.
"Quit following my sister please" I told him nicely. He gave me a confused look like he had no clue what I was talking about.
"I'm sorry last time I checked I never hung around 16 year olds" he joked. I grit my teeth.
"That's not what she told me" I looked at him.
"Listen to me alright before today I have never met your sister and I can see how protective you are over her so there is no way I would ever do anything to her with you watching over here" he said. He looked like he was telling the complete sincere truth. No that's just his looks that could be fooling you I reminded myself. I cleared my throat and went back to cleaning.
"Need any help?" he asked. God he's cute I just kept thinking.
"Sure" I gave in. I scooted to the side. He actually did help but we were both silent the whole time till Bonnie came to my rescue with Elena behind her. Then Damon left.
"Thanks" I told Damon as he left the kitchen and he gave me this warm smile. Elena and Bonnie looked between me and the door Damon walked out of and then grinned at me.
"Stop it I know what you're going to say stop it" I snapped at them before smiling myself.
Caroline walked out of the living room after Damon had compelled her. Stefan gave his brother a disgusted look.
"She's human Damon, she's not a puppet that exists for you to feed on her whenever you want to" Stefan told Damon.
"Sure she does that's what they're all for" Damon smirked.
"Alright you had you're fun. You got to me, Elena, and Gatsby through Caroline good for you. Now it's time for you to go" Stefan ordered.
"It's not a problem because I've already been invited in and I'll come back tomorrow night and the night after that and I'll do whatever I want because that is what is normal to me"
"Although I wouldn't worry about Elena for awhile. That Gatsby's just so cute and fragile she's going to be fun" Damon smirked to himself. Just then Caroline and the rest of the girls came out.
"We should be going I have curfew" Caroline told Damon.
"Right I wouldn't want wittle Carolwine to miss her curfew" Damon baby talked to her. We all walked them to the door and before Damon left he kissed me on the cheek. I tried to stop myself from blushing because he had shaken everybody else's hands. Caroline grabbed onto his shoulder and dragged him out.
"Take one more picture of me and I will break your camera" Scarr threatened as we walked to the pep rally before the game to kick off the season.
"But you look so cute" I smiled at her new cheer uniform. Then I looked to the side and saw Matt.
"MATT" I shouted for him to get his attention. I motioned him towards us.
"No Gatsby no" Scarr begged.
"You'll thank me for this later" I whispered to her.
"Hey Gabby" he hugged me.
"Hi" I smiled.
"I'm taking pictures for like sentimental memories so can I get a pic of you two together?" I asked.
"Sure" he agreed. Then he looked at Scarr.
"Wait Scarr?" he asked. She blushed.
"Hi" she squeaked. He started to stutter and I just stood there smiling like an idiot with my camera, but eventually I got the picture and it was adorable. The two of them walked off together. When I turned around I saw Stefan in his new football jersey.
"Ooooh look at you in your new jersey" I smiled taking a picture of him.
"By the way you dropped this on the bleachers the other day" he said taking my necklace out of his pocket, that I had been wearing for forever. I hadn't even noticed that it had gone missing.
"Thank you I would have gone insane" I sighed taking it from him. There was something different about it.
"Did you like dip this in perfume it smells like roses" I realized.
"No it was sitting next to this candle my uncle lit at the house" Stefan said. I clipped it on.
"Thank you" I said again.
"Thank you for pushing me to do football"
"Eh it was nothing plus I have a gift for being very bossy I've been told" I joked. Elena came towards us and I saw she wasn't wearing her uniform.
"I quit" she said before we could ask her.
"I realized I just don't like cheerleading anymore but I frankly I've decided not to care" she crossed her arms.
"Well good for you though" I complimented her. I took a quick picture of her and Stefan then we headed off to the rally. Tanner did this whole speech that got us all pumped up. I made eye contact with Scarr across the crowd and she did this signal that meant she was cold and needed a jacket.
"I'll be right back" I had to shout to Elena over the crowd. I walked to my car and spotted Jere drinking some hard alcohol in the back of some guys truck bed. I just rolled my eyes at him and apparently he caught it.
"You know you're not my mom" Jeremy told me.
"Oh I'm sorry excuse me for caring about how you're drinking and throwing your life away" I admitted to him.
"It's like you don't even care that your parents died" Jeremy said to me. That's when I spun around on him and used my slayer skills to slam him against the car.
"Don't you dare say that you have no clue what the hell I went through when they died" I said to him my voice wavering. Then I let go of him forgetting how strong of a grip I had on him.
"I'm sorry" I apologized looking down at my feet realizing I just yelled at my baby cousin. So was that why he was drinking and doing drugs because he missed his parents as well. I heard people dealt with death differently but I just never imagined little Jeremy getting into something like that. I saw him look at something behind me and I turned around and saw Tyler Lockwood heading straight towards us not looking to happy. Matt's sister,Vicky, was trying to stop him from doing something. Jeremy got up and started heading towards him. I followed after him not feeling to happy about what was going to happen next.
"Why do you look so down?" Tyler said in this sort of teasing tone. I burst in between the two of them.
"Ok Tyler I don't know what's going on but just walk away alright" I told him. He grabbed onto my arm now.
"Move Gabby" he said.
"Dude let go of my cousin" Jeremy said protectively and Tyler pushed me aside.
"You going to pretend to be tough Gilbert or are you just trying to show off in front of Vicky? Oh and by the way you can have her when I'm done with her" Tyler said and then Jeremy punched him. Vicky and I yelled at them to stop as people from the pep rally gathered around to watch. Jeremy was getting beat down by Tyler. I saw Stefan on my right.
"You have to stop them" I begged him. Stefan broke in and eventually the fight stopped but he got injured as well. While Jeremy had tried to cut Tyler with a broken bottle, Tyler had moved out of the way at the last second and Stefan got a cut instead. Jeremy didn't want help from either Elena or I so brought our attention towards Stefan, but we saw there was barely a scratch.
"He missed" Stefan said truthfully. I let it go but apparently Elena wouldn't as she just kept asking him what happened. We had to walk to the field though before the game started. While I was waiting in line with Elena I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Scarr trying to warm herself up.
"Tell me what's missing from this picture?" she asked.
"You're jacket! Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I forgot" I apologized.
"It's fine but if you wouldn't mind could you get it for me pleaseeeeee, no one's lending me theirs" she asked.
"Sure good luck ok"
"Thanks"
"Could you get me a ticket?" I asked Elena before I left.
"Of course" she said. I ran all the way out to the parking lot and got Scarr's jacket from my trunk. I felt like someone was watching me. I turned around and found Damon standing right in front of me.
"Oh my god you cared me" I breathed out a sigh of relief
"Sorry but um I'm hiding from Caroline" he whispered. I nodded understanding.
"The girl talks more than I can listen" he complained.
"Well she's nice if you do get to know her" I told him.
"I just don't see it going any further than it is now" he sighed placing one arm against the car by my head.
"That's a shame she really likes you" I told him trying to make sure I wouldn't being hurting Caroline's feeling.
"Well I don't feel the same" he said looking at me.
"Sorry no" I just blurted out.
"What?"
"Caroline can annoy me sometimes but she's my friend so stop trying to put the moves on me. You seemed like a nice guy last night and that's what she needs"
"You're right I do have other intentions, but so do you" he admitted.
"I beg you're pardon?"
"You want me" he continued.
"No" I said.
"You find yourself drawn to me, you think about me, I bet you even dream about me. And right now I bet you want to kiss me" he said to me and I saw something all weird happen to his eyes. It brought a flashback of the night to when my parents died and the vampire that killed them tried to compel me but maybe it was a trick of light. I got really close to Damon.
"No, no,no, and hell no" I told him shooting down his suspicions.
"I'll tell you the truth when I say I believed your little act last night but now all my forgiveness I had for you is gone. Stay the hell away from me" I snapped at him storming off.
"IT'S NO WONDER KATHERINE LEFT YOU FOR STEFAN" I shouted at him as I headed towards the field. I knew that would sting and I'm usually not one to be harsh to people but he deserved it. Thank god for Elena for telling me, about his and Stefan's ex Katherine or else I would have no dirt on him.
I saw flashing lights as I got closer to the football field. I felt relief when I saw Matt with Scarr.
"What happened?" I asked walking up to them.
"Another animal attack this time it attacked Tanner" Scarr explained. I didn't know how to react to this.
"Was he the only one who got hurt?" I asked matt nodded. I handed Scarr her jacket when I saw she was shivering.
"About time" she laughed and then she walked over to me and hugged me.
"We're gonna go then" I told Matt. He waved goodbye to us.
"I'll ask Elena for your number and text you" Scarr told him. He nodded again. I put my arm around Scarr's shoulders.
"So you know what I could go for?" she asked.
"What?"
"Ice cream with chocolate all over it"
"You read my mind hermana, you read my mind" I told her.
It was early morning when Damon found himself in Gatsby's room. He had no clue why he felt himself attracted to her she just did in some strange way. It might've been the way she didn't fall for any of the usual crap he put on for other girls. She seemed real and sweet. Damon looked down at Gatsby and saw her sleeping form. He reached out a finger and gently stroked her face. She must've liked that as she smiled in her sleep. He leaned down and kissed her forehead to see what else would happen still she was smiling in her sleep. Then she started to stir and he climbed out the window quickly. Just as Gastsby sat up and rubbed her eyes surprised to find herself smiling for no apparent reason.
