The morning after the comet, Blair walked into the kitchen before school and her eyes widened a little in an 'Oh, shit. What did I just walk in on?' sort of way. The cause for this expression was the look on Jenna and Elena's faces when she interrupted their conversation. "I'm not hungry..." Blair stated lamely, that being the first thing she came to mind, and tried to high tail it out of there.
Elena was quick to stop her friend and guided her over to the kitchen island for a seat. "Sit. We want to talk."
"If this is about me slapping Caroline, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that." Blair spoke quickly in an attempt to explain herself before they said what they wanted to.
Jenna looked surprised to hear those words come out of Blair's mouth, "You slapped Caroline?"
"Why did you slap her?" Elena added in quickly then waved her hands in front of her, "Never mind, we'll talk about it later. We wanted to talk about last night."
"Your...meltdown in the bathroom." Jenna got more specific and a bit blunt.
"It was just a stressful day, it's fine." Blair really didn't want to talk about it and tried to leave her seat but both Jenna and Elena pointed for her to sit. Blair would swear she gulped as she sat back down.
"We just want you to know that we're here for you Blair. Okay? We're your family and we're not going to abandon you." Elena wanted to be sure that her friend knew this for certain.
"But," Jenna added in, catching Blair's attention, "If we're not enough...we're willing to pool our resources and hire a private investigator to find your dad...or your mom. You don't have to answer right now, it's just something to think about."
Blair's head was spinning with this influx of information and possibilities but she managed to get out a nod and a weak "Okay."
The ladies heard a car honk outside and looked out to see it was Bonnie. "We better get to school." Elena grabbed her bag and headed out the door.
Blair grabbed a pop tarts package off the counter before following. She was almost out when she turned around, "Jenna...I don't want to find my parents. If they don't want me...then I don't want them. Thanks for the offer though." She walked out of the house before Jenna could try and talk her out of it or anything.
If anyone asked what was talked about during the car ride to school, Blair wouldn't be able to answer it. Her mind was everywhere else but in the car. Not just thoughts about her parents, but her parents of past lives. She really drew the small straw in this life, which seemed to happen a lot over the lifetimes, but never as bad as this. None of her parents had ever abandoned her before. Maybe that's why she felt so different in this life?
When Bonnie parked in the school's lot, Blair was pulled back to the present. She could quickly catch up to the topic of conversation based off what they were saying as they all got out of the car.
"I'm not saying don't go out with him. I'm just saying to take it slow." Bonnie had a vision, of sorts, of Stefan the night before. One that she couldn't really explain but she had a feeling.
Elena almost laughed, "Weren't you just telling me that I should go for it, yesterday?"
Bonnie knew Elena had her there, but still, "Yeah, but now I'm saying to take it slow."
Elena looked at Bonnie suspiciously, "Why the face?"
"I don't have a face on. It's just..." Bonnie was trying to find the right words, "You're single for the first time in your entire high school career. It's the perfect time to play the field." She tapped Blair's arm and said, "Tell her, Blair."
Blair didn't feel the need to speak before, but now she didn't have much of a choice. "Look, you both know I'm not one to date anyone until I know them for awhile. And Stefan is...new. You don't know a lot about him so I have to agree with Bonnie...just take it slow."
Elena laughed, "I can't believe you two are ganging up on me." She saw Bonnie's face again, the one she only put on when she wasn't saying something. "Okay, Bonnie, seriously. What aren't you saying?"
"It's stupid." Bonnie replied with a sigh.
Now Blair was intrigued, "Bonnie, spit it out." Both she and Elena stopped their friend to hear what she had to say.
Bonnie had a reluctant look on her face before saying, "I accidentally touched Stefan and I got a really bad feeling."
After hearing that, Blair made a mental note to not come into physical contact with Bonnie in any way.
Elena didn't see the big deal, "Is that it? Bonnie, come on."
"It was bad, bad." Bonnie answered firmly. "Okay? I'm concerned. This is me expressing concern about my best friend's new boyfriend."
Elena put her hands on Bonnie's shoulders, "And I love you for it, I do. But I feel good. It's been a hard year, and I'm starting to kind of feel like things are getting back to normal again." Elena pointed at her two best friends, "And you know what, Stefan is a big part of that."
Blair let out a breath and said, "I'll catch up with you guys later."
"You okay?" Bonnie asked, suddenly worried for her.
"Yeah, I just need a little space before class." Blair lied about the yeah part but not the other. As she walked around to the back of the school she couldn't help but think about how amazing some people would think living forever would be. And yeah, her form of immortality had its perks, but also big downsides. One of them had to be the times her past lives would sneak up on her and seep out.
Her memories were in overdrive lately and she just needed a moment of escape so she could function through yet another life. Blair found who she was looking for behind the school and sat on the wooden crates next to him.
"Let me guess. You're here to ruin my buzz." Jeremy rolled his eyes before taking another puff of his joint.
Blair didn't answer with words. She pulled the joint from his hands and took a long drag. After inhaling and blowing out the smoke she handed it back to Jeremy and said, "If you point out the hypocrisy, I'll punch you."
Jeremy had never seen Blair do drugs in the whole time he's known her and actually he found it pretty cool. Hearing her threat made him chuckle before taking a drag of his own, "Noted." He spoke before blowing the smoke out and handed it back to her.
"You have a visitor." Blair took her hit and passed it back but didn't leave Jeremy's side when Vicki came over.
Vicki had a very pleased look on her face when she looked at Jeremy, "I rock. I scored you tickets to The Posers Saturday night. They're playing at The Rat."
Jeremy didn't look at her when he replied, "You and Tyler have fun."
Vicki put her hand on Jeremy's arm, "Come on. Don't be like that. I want you to come."
Blair took another hit as she said, "You're not worried everyone's going to know you're screwing Elena's brother?" Yeah, Blair knew. She's known for awhile but never said anything about it until that moment.
Jeremy chimed in after that, "Oh wait, everyone already knows."
Blair looked at him with wide eyes, the joint pursed between her lips.
Vicki shot Blair a 'shut up' glare before looking at Jeremy, "It's not like that anymore so we can be friends and just hang."
"Tell me something. Was it the drugs?" Jeremy asked, needing to know. "Were you just sleeping with me because of the drugs?"
"I think that's my cue." Blair thought aloud and tried to leave but Jeremy grabbed onto her arm and prevented that. "Or not." Blair added in and stayed seated, feeling really awkward being here for this conversation.
Vicki looked pissed, "Screw you."
"No, please, if there's another reason then tell me. I'm all ears." Jeremy waited for Vicki to say something, but when she didn't he looked at Blair and said, "Let's go."
Blair wasn't in the mood, nor frame of mind thanks to the pot, to deal with Vicki's wrath so she quickly got off the crate and walked off with Jeremy.
During this time, Blair rummaged through her bag to find perfume or something. Jeremy laughed at her when he saw this, "You're not used to this are you?"
"Used to what?" Blair asked, still digging.
"Smoking pot." Jeremy replied like it was obvious then laughed again, "Come here." Jeremy pulled some eye drops from his pocket and had Blair put her head back before dropping them in each eye.
"Oh god! That feels so weird!" Blair hated things touching her eyes. Drops included.
Jeremy took some of his body spray from his backpack and said, "Close you mouth and eyes."
Blair cringed at the sight of the spray, "I don't want to smell like a teenage boy."
"You should have thought of that before joining me for a pot break." Jeremy shook the can and sprayed it on Blair when she was ready for it, laughing when she made a whinnying like sound from the smell. "You're good." He sprayed himself to mask the smell and put it away.
"I smell like you. That's not good." Blair replied, "I can just imagine what people will say about that."
Jeremy shrugged, "Screw them."
"That's what they're going to think we did." Blair replied with a shudder.
"Yeah...that's...ugh." Jeremy had a bit of a shudder of his own since he could never imagine anything like that with Blair.
"I better find Elena before she sends out a search party. Thanks for the...yeah." Blair made a shooting hand motion with a click before turning around to head back to the last place she saw Elena and threw up a middle finger behind her when she heard Jeremy's laughter.
Blair spotted Elena talking with Stefan but the only way to get to them would be to pass Tyler and Matt...that was going to be interesting. She was passing them by just as she heard some jackass comment from Tyler in order to get Matt's goat. Blair stopped and turned to them, "Could you be more of an ass?"
"Could you be more a nosey bitch?" Tyler shot back and Matt came to Blair defense.
"Tyler. Not cool." Matt gave his friend a 'don't say anything like that to her again' look before throwing the football in his hands down to his teammate who he was playing catch with.
Blair decided this wasn't worth it and started to walk over to Stefan and Elena, but not before she said, "Go fuck yourself, Tyler." She didn't know that Tyler got a hold of the football and threw it towards her, not until she heard Matt call out "Blair!"
She turned around and saw the ball coming right to her. In a normal state of mind she could have easily ducked, but not in this baked one. Blair took in a sharp intake of air and waited for the impact and the Marcia Brady moment to follow, but it didn't happen. Stefan had caught the ball just before it hit Blair in the face. "Thank you." She managed to get out, her sluggish brain trying to catch up with the turn of events.
Stefan smiled at Blair then threw the ball back to Tyler who caught it with a grunt. Apparently Stefan had put his strength behind the ball and Blair couldn't help but grin because of it. "You're my new favorite person." Blair said with laughter and Stefan smirked at her.
He leaned closer and whispered, "I think that's the pot talking."
Blair pretended like she didn't have any idea what he was talking about and said as much, "I have no idea to what you're referring."
"Sure." Stefan replied, chuckling, "Sure."
Surprisingly enough Blair started feeling relatively normal in History class. Which was probably a good thing since the teacher, Mr Tanner, was an ass and Elena was in that class with her.
Blair started paying attention when the teacher called on Elena for the date of Pearl Harbor. Elena didn't know the answer so Blair answered unintentionally at the same time as Stefan, "December 7th, 1941."
"Thank you Miss Gilbert and Miss Gilbert." Mr Tanner answered sarcastically.
"Any time." They both unintentionally replied in unison, again.
"Well then. If that's the case, since you two both share the same brain today, stick to the year." Tanner looked at them challengingly.
Stefan and Blair looked at each and nodded in an 'let's do this' way before turning their attention to the teacher.
Mr Tanner put his hands in his pockets, "The fall of the Berlin Wall."
"1989." They answered together and continued to do so.
"Civil Rights Act."
"1964."
"John F Kennedy Assassination."
"1963."
"Martin Luther King."
"1968"
Mr Tanner was starting to get annoyed by them, "Lincoln."
"1865."
"Roe vs Wade."
"1973"
"Brown vs Board."
"1954"
"The Battle of Gettysburg."
"1863"
"Korean War."
"1950 to 1953" Was their last simultaneous answer.
"Ha!" Tanner exclaimed believing he caught them, "The Korean War ended in nineteen- fifty two."
"Actually, it was 1953." Blair corrected.
"She's right, sir." Stefan concurred.
Mr Tanner was far from pleased, "Look it up. Somebody!" He was quite firm with his demand.
Sever students pulled out their cell phones and one of the students said, "1950 to 1953. They were right."
A scattered applause followed that confirmation.
Matt leaned over his desk to Blair and said, "That was incredible. How did you do that?"
"I'm telepathic." Blair replied, sounding quite serious. At the look on Matt's face, she chuckled, "Stefan must also be a fan of crossword puzzles."
Just then, the bell rang indicating that it was time to move on.
As they walked out of the classroom, Elena couldn't get over how amazing that was. "You two blew my mind in there! It was like a circus side show or something, but in a good way." She put emphasis on the last part. "You must do a bazillion crossword puzzles too. Blair used to do them all the time."
"I got bored with them after awhile." Blair replied with a shrug.
"Yeah," Stefan answered in reference to Elena's assumption, "it was years and years of crossword puzzles."
Elena accepted that answer and chuckled all the way to their next class.
After school, while Elena went to cheer practice, Blair went to watch the football practice. Did she like football? No, not really, but she saw Stefan on the bleachers so she figured why not. "You're contemplating trying out for the team, aren't you?" She asked climbing up the seats to sit down one row below him.
"It's not a good idea." Stefan replied, watching them play.
"True, but you want to do it. It's been awhile but I'm starting to get back to being able to read your face." Blair wiggled her finger in front of him as she said that. "Look there are two ways this thing can go. You sit on the sidelines and watch a sport that I can just tell you love or you can try out and actually live like a normal teenager. When was the last time you were able to do that?"
Stefan looked at her in contemplation before finally coming to a decision. When he got up and headed down to the field, Blair called out "Kick some ass, Salvatore!" With a chuckle she reached into her bag and pulled out the pop tarts that she didn't eat earlier because she couldn't watch a show without a snack.
After watching a few plays, Blair spotted Elena down beside the bleachers. She grabbed her stuff and moved down so she could talk to her. "Dude, Stefan kicks ass at football."
"I thought you didn't like football." Elena replied with a smile and took some of Blair's pop tart.
"I don't." Blair's eyes looked back to the field as she said, "But it can be one hell of a show."
When they got home, it was that moment when Elena sprung on Blair that they were having dinner with Stefan and Bonnie that night. "Wait, why do I have to be there? I'm warming up to Stefan." Blair really didn't see the point of it.
"Because neither of you really know him. Besides, you're family and Bonnie is my best friend. I want you all to get to know one another." Elena replied, leading the way to the kitchen.
Blair dropped her head down because she already knew Stefan Salvatore. Granted that was a long time ago and he had changed since the last time one of her lives crossed paths with him so...maybe this wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. Maybe.
"Are you going to make me cook?" Blair asked, setting her backpack on the counter.
"I would have thought you'd want to. Or have the munchies worn off by now?" Elena asked, giving Blair a knowing look. "You didn't fool me, Blair but I get it. I just hope you didn't smoke with Jeremy because that would just be hypocritical."
Blair pretended to slink out of the kitchen but stopped when Elena said, "Oh you are so cooking dinner now to make up for that." And got no argument from Blair in reply.
Blair didn't end up cooking and picked up some take out instead. When she walked into the kitchen with the bags in hand Elena looked at her with her 'seriously?' face. "What?" Blair asked, setting them on the counter in front of Bonnie, "It's food. It's edible and you can put it in nice bowls. If that doesn't fool anyone just tell the truth and I bailed on cooking." The doorbell rang so Blair said, "I'll get that, you two sort this out and chat." She quickly made her exit before anyone could stop her.
Blair opened the door and there Stefan stood. He looked amused that she was there, "I would have thought you'd bail on this dinner."
"Hello to you too, Salvatore." Blair replied, stepping aside so Stefan could come in. She didn't bother with an invitation because A) He had already been invited in before and B) It wouldn't have made a difference if she invited him in or not since the house wasn't legally hers in any way so she didn't think it'd work if she did.
Stefan walked in and they headed into the dining room just as Bonnie and Elena were bringing in the food.
The dinner was filled with awkward silence. Blair was so grateful that none of them were noisy eaters or else she would have probably gone insane. Finally, Elena broke the silence.
Looking at Stefan, she asked, "Did Tanner give you a hard time today?"
Stefan shrugged a little, "Well, he let me on the team so he must have done something right."
Elena continued to fill the silence with words, "Bonnie, you should have seen him today. Tyler threw him the ball and..."
Bonnie cut her short, "I heard."
The silence filled the room again. Blair couldn't keep herself from saying, "How about them Yankees? They're Quidditch right?"
After getting a few chuckles out of them, Elena said to Bonnie, "Hey, why don't you tell Stefan about your family."
Bonnie shot Elena a look before saying, "Uh, parents are divorced. No mom, live with my dad."
"I think she means about the witches." Blair chimed in then mentally kicked herself for doing so. She knew for a fact that Bonnie came from a family of real witches and that meant Bonnie was one too. She hated keeping that knowledge from her, but it was a necessity. If Blair started spilling information on one thing then she'd have to do so much more than it. So, she kept quiet and didn't open that jumbo sized can of worms.
"Exactly." Elena replied, then looked at Stefan, "Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool." She used a tone on the last part to try and get Bonnie to start talking about it.
"Cool really isn't the word I'd use for it." Bonnie looked at Elena when she spoke.
"Well it's certainly interesting." Stefan chimed in, "I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic Druids that migrated here in the 1800's."
"My family came by way of Salem." Bonnie informed him while moving some food around on her plate.
Stefan looked intrigued by this, "Really? Salem witches?"
"Yeah." Bonnie chuckled a bit awkwardly after that.
Stefan looked at the ladies at the table, "Well, I would have to say that's pretty cool."
"Really? Why?" Bonnie almost sounded as if she was accusing him of something.
"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and non-conformity." Stefan used his hands as he spoke.
Bonnie felt a bit of pride when he said that and smiled, "Yeah, they are." She couldn't help a agree.
The doorbell rang and Elena looked at Blair, "Did you invite someone over?"
Blair shook her head because she had no idea who it was.
"I wonder who that could be." Elena got up from the table with Blair right behind her.
When Elena opened the door, Caroline and Damon were on the other side. "Surprise!" Caroline said with excitement, "Bonnie said you were doing dinner, so we brought dessert."
Blair's blood boiled almost on sight not just because of Caroline but Damon as well.
"Hope you don't mind." Damon spoke charmingly.
"Your hopes are crushed, bye now." Blair was trying to close the door on Damon but Elena stopped her.
"Blair? What's with you?" Elena shook her head at her friend and was about to tell Damon that he could come inside, since Caroline already entered, but Stefan came into the foyer.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan was not pleased to see his brother.
"Waiting for Elena to invite me in." Damon replied with a slight hand gesture to Elena.
"Yeah, of course. You just..." Elena began but both Blair and Stefan stopped her with "No, no, no."
Stefan continued on from there, "He can't uh...he can't stay."
Blair rolled her eyes because that was the lamest of lame reasons and tried one of her own, "We're still eating dinner and..."
This time Elena was the one to cut someone off, "It's fine." Turning to Damon she said, "Just come on in."
Blair clenched her fists a little to keep herself from speaking her mind at that point. It was times like this that she hated having to keep her secrets.
Damon entered the house with a grin while Elena shot Stefan and Blair a look of 'what the hell was that about?'. They all turned to Damon when he spoke, "You ladies have a lovely home." and grinned once again.
After cleaning up the table the group went into the living room for some coffee. Caroline was talking with laughter when she said, "I cannot believe that Mr Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething, but good for you. Go for it."
Blair rolled her eyes at the good for you part because it sounded so condescending.
Damon smirked at Blair, catching her eye roll then said in Stefan's direction, "That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it."
"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today." Caroline added in and faced Elena, "It's only because you missed Summer Camp. God, I don't ever know how you're going to learn the routines."
"I'll work with her. She'll get it." Bonnie interjected, "And I'm sure Blair will only have to see it once and know the routines backwards and forwards so she can help too."
Caroline completely ignored those words and went off thinking aloud, "I guess we could put her in the back."
"Or we can go out back where I'll show you some manners." Blair shot at Caroline, standing up.
Caroline was about to accept the challenge but Damon held here next to him, "Ladies, I don't think a cat fight is on the agenda for the evening." While the girls shot daggers at each other, Damon said, "You don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena."
"Oh that's just because her parents died." Caroline answered for her, "Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun...And I say that with complete sensitivity."
"Yeah, sure you do." Blair muttered, doing everything in her power to not charge forward and rip Caroline apart.
"I'm sorry, Elena." Damon spoke, to break the growing tension, "I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've cared about die."
Stefan didn't like where this conversation was going so he said, "We don't need to get into this right now, Damon."
"Ah, you know what, you're right Stef. I'm sorry." Damon seemed quite sincere with his words then added in, "The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up."
Blair got up from her seat and left the room because she knew who the 'her' was that Damon was talking about and there were a lot of things that she could deal with but honestly, Katherine wasn't one of them.
Blair went outside and after awhile Stefan went out to the porch to check on her. "You okay?" He asked, leaning on the railing beside her.
"Just been a lot of flashbacks today." Blair replied, gripping tightly on her part of the rail. "It's hard enough seeing Katherine's face every single day, but to talk about her? I can't. I know Elena isn't Katherine and she's nothing like her. If she was I wouldn't be here but...it...it hurts"
"What did Katherine do to you, Blair? Besides turning you, Andrea, into a vampire." Stefan had a suspicion but didn't know for certain.
Blair let out a breath and looked at him, "She made Damon fall in love with her. And then turned me the night of the fire. One betrayal after another." She shook her head and looked away.
Stefan placed a supportive hand on Blair shoulder before saying, "We should get back inside before Elena sends out a search party for you."
Blair nodded in agreement and the two went inside. She walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch with Stefan sitting next to her. Caroline was going on and on about Elena and Matt and time and yada yada yada. Finally Blair whispered something to Stefan that caught her eye earlier but didn't think anything of it until now, "Why is she wearing a scarf?"
Stefan heard her whisper and was wondering the same thing, so he did something about it. "That's a lovely scarf, Caroline."
Caroline put her hands on it and smiled, "Thanks, it's new."
"May I see it? By that, I mean, can you take it off?" Stefan was going off what he suspected.
"No." She answered, causing Blair to ask, "Why? Are you sick or something?" in a sarcastic manner.
"No." Caroline repeated, "I just...know that I can't take it off."
Both Blair and Stefan knew what that meant; she had been compelled.
"What are you three talking about?" Damon asked, entering the room from the kitchen.
"We were just commenting on her scarf." Stefan replied, gesturing to Caroline.
Damon changed the subject, "Hey, you know, um, Bonnie and Elena are just finishing up the dishes. Why don't you go see if you can help?"
Caroline looked at him like he was crazy, "Does it look like I do dishes?" She laughed thinking it was preposterous.
"For me?" Damon asked with a grin.
Caroline looked like she was thinking about it for a moment, "Hmm...no. I don't think so."
Damon was losing his patience with her so he locked his eyes on hers and said, "Go see if Elena needs help in the kitchen."
The compulsion worked, "You know what. I'm going to see if Elena needs some help in the kitchen." Caroline smiled and did just that.
Once she was out of ear shot Blair started in on Damon, "Compulsion? Really? She's not a damn puppet, Damon."
"And here I thought you'd be grateful to know that Caroline was wrapped around my little finger." Damon answered with a smirk. "After all, I wouldn't have chosen her if it wasn't for your little display in front of the Grill the other night."
"I may hate that girl, but that does not mean I want her to be your personal blood bag sex toy!" Blair exclaimed in a hushed tone to make sure the others didn't hear but made her point.
"You've had your fun, Damon." Stefan interjected, "You used Caroline to get to us. Good for you. Now it's time for you to go."
Damon shrugged, "That's not a problem because...I've been invited in, and I will come back tomorrow night and all the other nights to follow to do whatever it is I want to do." Damon looked at Blair and smirked, "With whoever I want to do it with." Turning his eyes back to Stefan he said, "Because that is what's normal for me."
"You need a new normal." Blair stood up and looked Damon square in the eyes, "You want to mess with me? Fine. Go right ahead, I don't care. I've had far worse done to me than you can ever imagine, so bring it. But Elena? She's family. If you ever try and do anything to hurt her I will rain terror down on you like you've never seen before."
Damon chuckled at her, finding her spunkiness amusing, "You think your little human self can hurt me? Don't make me laugh."
"Never judge a book by its cover, Damon. Especially when this book has more pages filled with more words than you realize. I have connections and I am not afraid to use them."
What was meant to be a threat just fueled Damon's curiosity tenfold, "Well, Miss Blair. I cannot wait to see what you have up your sleeve."
After everyone had finally left, Blair sat on the couch working on her homework. It was easy as pie because this wasn't the first time she's covered this material. Hell, one of her lives taught this material. Blair always made sure to be average when it came to her courses though because she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself. Getting hundreds on everything would definitely put attention on her.
She was just finishing up with her report when there was a knock at the door. Blair figured Jenna forgot her key or something so she didn't think twice about going to the door. Who was standing on the other side surprised her to no end. "Matt?"
Matt looked nervous and maybe even a bit frantic, "Can I come in?"
Blair stepped aside, "Yeah, of course." she waved him to enter. "Is everything okay? Should I get Elena?"
Matt shook his head, "No. I'm here to see you." They walked into the living room together and he said, "Look, Blair...I'm just going to come right out and say it. I...I like you. I mean I really like you. I know I dated Elena and all that but I just never thought you'd give me the time of day. But lately...things seem to be different between us somehow. I can't explain it but I just had to tell you. You had to know."
Blair stood there speechless as Matt spoke and continued to speak. "You can slap me, or punch me, or tell me to get the hell out of here and to never speak to you again but please just say something, Blair. Good or bad, I need to know. I..."
Blair cut him off by grabbing onto his jacket and pulling him close to her. "Stop talking." She was firm with her words as she locked her eyes onto his. Without wasting another moment, Blair pressed her lips against his.
Matt wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss with such passion. They fell onto the couch together and just when things started to progress, Blair looked up and saw that it was no longer Matt, but Damon.
With a gasp, Blair jolted awake, running her hand through her hair. Her heart pounded in her chest and confusion filled her head. She knew it was just a dream but why the hell did Damon choose Matt for that scenario? Oh wait, she knew and she hated it, but how did he know? Plopping back on the couch, pulling her blanket over her head, she seethed "Dammit, Damon!"
The next day Blair didn't leave the couch until it was time to get ready for the bonfire pep rally...thing. After changing, she went upstairs and found Elena looking at the cheerleader uniform on her bed. "You don't want to do it, do you?" She asked, plopping down beside the uniform and poked at it like it was some sort of foreign object.
"No, I don't. I'm quitting the team." Elena answered with her mind made up.
"Ohhhh, Caroline is going to be so pissed." Blair sounded a little too giddy about that.
"Then how about you help me out here and go in my stead?" Elena looked at Blair in mock pleading.
Blair stood up and showed herself off, "Elena. I am dressed in black from head to toe. Do you really think I'd ever want to be a cheerleader?"
Elena rolled her eyes at her friend before shooing her out of the room so she could finish getting ready.
Blair went downstairs and saw her journal sitting in front of the door. "What the hell?" She rushed down and picked it up. There was a note on top that said 'Interesting read. Quite informative. Thanks for that.' followed by a winking face and '-D' for a signature. Blair crumbled up the piece of paper in her hand. So that's how he knew. Blair was just glad that she didn't write everything down in her journal. Just her Blair life but that was apparently too dangerous to even write about. So, she made up her mind and carried her book over to the lit fireplace. Without a second thought she threw it inside and didn't look back.
"I'll meet you there!" Blair called up to Elena, just wanting to go out and clear her head.
On the walk to school a truck pulled over in her path. Matt got out of the car and walked over, "Hey. Everything okay?"
"Yeah. Why?" Blair asked a bit defensively, adjusting her bag.
"Because for as long as I've known you, you've only ever walked alone when something was bothering you." Matt answered honestly. "So, are you okay?"
Blair held onto the strap of her bag to push down the Matt parts of her dream last night and didn't answer his question. Instead she asked, "Can I have a ride?"
Matt looked surprised to hear that question come out of her mouth. "Uh, yeah. Sure." He walked over to the passenger side and opened the door for her.
"I'm fully capable of opening the door myself, thank you." Blair didn't completely mean to come off so harsh, but that's how it came out.
Matt didn't look too bothered by it, "I know. I just thought I'd be nice."
Blair allowed herself to smile for the briefest of moments, "Thanks." she replied and climbed into the truck.
When Matt got in as well he looked at her and said, "So I'm guessing you don't want to talk about what's bothering you?" After receiving a glare from her that he'd swear meant 'ask me again and I'll kill you' he faced forward with, "Thought so." and pulled back onto the road.
Blair looked out the window and made sure Matt couldn't see her so she could smile.
The whole drive to the school was filled with silence and they arrived, they parted ways. It didn't take Blair long to find Elena who said to her on sight, "Did I just see you get out of Matt's car?"
Blair shrugged, "Quicker than walking."
"And here I thought you two couldn't stand each other." Elena teased, nudging her friend.
"We lose our tolerance over an extended period of time." Blair answered simply enough then changed the subject completely. "Where did you get that?" She asked, pointing to the necklace hanging around Elena's neck.
Elena placed her hand on the pendant and smiled, "Isn't it beautiful? Stefan gave it to me. He said he's had it forever and never wanted to give it to anyone until now."
Blair did her best to put on a supportive face, "That's great, Elena." She smiled as convincingly as possible all the while suppressing every urge to not go over to Stefan and rip him a new one. Blair knew she couldn't do that because Stefan didn't remember who that pendant originally belonged to, but she did.
Completely changing the subject once again, Blair said, "Let's go see what all this hubbub is about. I think there's something football related going on tonight or something."
Elena jokingly pretended innocence as she said, "Really? Who knew?" The girls got a laugh out of that as they went off to join the others at the bonfire.
Blair was quickly losing interest in the Coach's speech and her eyes started scanning the crowd. When she noticed Tyler leaving, she got a bad feeling. "I'll be right back." She said to Elena and followed. By the time she made it through the crowd and saw where Tyler went, he and Jeremy were going at it.
"Tyler!" Blair shouted out in anger and charged towards them. Without thinking about it, she jumped on Tyler's back and wrapped her arm around his neck. Why couldn't they have been fighting martial arts style? Blair could have kicked ass if it was. Blending styles was not something she was good at. So when Tyler reacted by whipping his head back, nailing her right in the face, she wasn't ready for it.
The shock and the pain from getting hit like that made her lose her grip and fall to the ground. If he broke her nose, she was going to be so pissed. Blair tried to get involved again and Tyler showed no shame in hitting a girl. He tried to punch her but she dodged and kicked him in the stomach. "I warned you!" She yelled and spun around, kicking Tyler right in the face. He fell to the ground and Blair would swear he growled at her when he got up and charged.
Jeremy tackled Ty to the ground to keep him away from Blair and they went at it some more before Stefan came over and broke it up. Jeremy reached from the broken bottle on the ground and tried to lunge at Tyler with it, but Blair blocked his path. "No!" She shouted at him and used her hand to get the bottle away, cutting her deep in the process.
Jeremy looked terrified to see that he had hurt her, "Blair...I'm so sorry."
Blair gripped her hand tightly and didn't say a word because she was afraid she'd end up crying if she did. Between the probably broken nose and the slice in her hand, she was in a lot of pain. Blair walked away from the growing group and Matt rushed over to her, "Oh my god, are you okay? What the hell were you doing?!"
"I was defending my family." Blair answered firmly before spitting out some blood that had gone down to her mouth.
Matt didn't even think before ripping off part of his jersey and took her cut hand in his. He wrapped it around the wound, "You can be prideful later. You need to get this checked out. Your nose too."
"Since when do you care?" Blair shot at him, pulling her hand back as soon as he was done.
"I've always cared about you, Blair. You've just always been too stubborn to notice." Matt replied then walked away.
Blair really didn't know what to do with that information and honestly, she wasn't in the right head space to even really think about it.
Elena rushed over soon after Matt left her and looked so worried, "You weren't kidding about ass kicking." She tried to make a joke or else she might fall apart. "I'm taking you to the hospital."
"I'm fine, Elena. I've been through worse." Blair replied which instantly received an "Oh, really? Like when?" from Elena.
Of course Elena wouldn't know because Blair was referring to a completely different life so she gave in, "Okay. Go check on Jeremy and I'll meet you at the car."
Elena was reluctant but said, "Okay." and hurried off to find her brother.
Blair made it to the car easily enough but she was still in a hell of a lot of pain. When she turned around to see if Elena was coming, she gasped when Damon was standing there. "I am not in the mood for you right now, Damon." Blair couldn't be more clear with her words.
If Blair didn't know any better, he would have sworn there was worry in his eyes. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. "You smell familiar."
"And you're freaking me out, so go away. You can haunt my dreams later for all I care, just leave me alone right now." Blair accepted the cloth anyway and used it to wipe the blood from her nose and mouth.
"I really don't think you want me to go away." Damon countered, causing Blair to scoff and say, "Oh yes, I do."
Damon pressed his lips together and shook his head before locking his eyes on hers to compell her, "No, you don't. In fact you want to come with me but before that...you want to kiss me." Damon leaned forward to take that kiss he compelled her to want but was met by a punch instead. Now that was unexpected.
"Nice try, Damon. You may be able to get into my dreams, but you can't compel me." Blair wasn't a witch or anything like that but for as long as she had become Tatia's incarnation, she was immune to vampire compulsion.
Damon looked at Blair in confusion and perhaps even wonder because it didn't work on her. He was pulled from his thoughts when Elena came over, "What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"He's looking for Caroline." Blair answered for him, "Like I said, Damon. She'll be out on the field by now."
Elena gave Damon an odd look before leading Blair over to the car so she could be taken to the hospital.
Damon stood there, watching them drive off, as he was trying to figure out how Blair was immune to his words when he smelled no vervain in her blood.
At the hospital Jenna was having a hell of a time getting the paperwork situated because she wasn't Blair's legal guardian and all that jazz. Finally Marge came over and said she'd take care of it. After giving Jenna a bit of a lecture that if Blair was going to be living with her that she better make it legal, she went in to tend to Blair's wounds.
While Marge was stitching up her hand, she said, "If you say that this reminds you of all the times you stitched up my dad, I will..."
"I wasn't going to say that." Marge replied, preventing Blair was saying something she might regret if given the chance to finish that sentence. "I was just thinking that you have a family out there that loves you and is worried about you. And I hope that you can see that."
Blair looked past the curtain at Jenna, Elena outside waiting for her. "Yeah." she answered with an almost melancholy smile, "I know."
"I told Jenna that she should try and make things official where being your guardian is concerned. If another issue like this comes up or anything else that could bring your arrangement into question, you could..."
"I know." Blair replied, "I know. But if I have to, I can always just ask you to...sway them our way."
Marge smiled a cheeky little smile as she finished with Blair's hand and secured the brace on her nose. "You know, just a little sip and you'd be all healed up."
Blair looked at Marge in a 'no way' way. "I'll pass, thank you very much." She hopped off the hospital bed after that.
"The offer still stands. After all, what good is having a vampire in your corner if you don't use her?" Marge smiled at Blair as she teased her.
Marge and Blair went way back. No one would suspect this woman who appeared to be at least sixty five to seventy years old to be a vampire, but she was. Marge was the governess to one of Blair's previous lives and the only other person in town, besides Zach and Stefan, that knew her secret. How Marge became a vampire is a long story for another time.
"I might need your help with something else later on, but I'll stick with my normal healing for now." Blair replied and after a little smile exchange, Marge said, "Just be careful, hon. Don't go accidentally killing anybody now."
Blair thought Marge was just kidding and laughed at the assumed joke before going out to join the others. Little did she know...Marge was very serious with her warning. Very serious indeed.
Blair pretty much ordered Elena to go back to the game and have some fun. Once she was finally convinced, Jenna took Blair home.
"I swear I am going to have that kid arrested!" Jenna exclaimed as soon as they walked into the house.
"Please don't get the cops involved, Jenna. There was fault thrown all around and I did physically assault him last week while threatening his manhood if he didn't stay away from Jeremy. It clearly didn't work though." Blair replied then looked at her pleadingly, "Please don't do it."
Jenna took a deep breath, "I am not making any promises but I will be thinking this over when I have a clear head."
Blair sat down on the couch and put her head back. They said she didn't have signs of a concussion but didn't want her falling asleep just in case.
"So, what are we going to do tonight? Cheesy romantic comedies? Classics? Oooo musicals?" Jenna wiggled her eyebrows at the last suggestion, knowing that little tidbit about Blair.
"If you tell anyone that Seven Bride for Seven Brothers is my favorite movie, I'll smother you in your sleep." Blair was kidding but sounded so serious.
"I'll grab the video." Jenna practically squeed as she hopped up from the couch and ran upstairs to get her copy of the movie.
Blair laughed and winced a bit because of it thanks to her nose. She heard a knock at the door and groaned, "I'll get it!" She called up to Jenna and forced herself off the couch to see who it was.
When Blair opened the door there was no one standing there but on the step there was a flower with a vial of red liquid inside it and a note. Blair picked up these items and read what the note said, "In case you get tired of waiting to heal." Blair instantly assumed that it was Marge until she got to the bottom where the signature read '-Damon'. Blair went inside, threw the flower away, ripped up the note and did the same to that, and as just about to dump the vial of blood until a thought came to her mind. Was she going to drink it? No way. Was she going to keep it? Yes.
"Just in case." Blair said to herself, holding in her uninjured hand.
Jenna came down the stairs with the movie in hand, asking, "Who was that?"
"No one was there." Blair answered honestly and sat on the couch happily awaiting for the movie to begin.
Blair slipped the vial into her pocket and held her hand there thinking, "Just in case. Yeah...just in case."
End Episode 3