Author's Note: I hope nobody's too angry that I took so long to update. Of course, this was a really important chapter for this story, so I wanted to make sure I got it right. The real reason for the delay was that this chapter immediately inspired me enough to write the next. So I'll be updating this again tomorrow.

Also, you'll see a lot more Delena here, so I won't make you wait any longer...

Elena wasn't usually quick to judge. After all, when her parents had died, she had become withdrawn and snapped at everyone except Caroline and Bonnie. People at school used to call her the Ice Queen and people on the road would stare at her pitifully before lowering their glances. Who knew what kind of traumatic experiences Damon had gone through, but at the moment, she didn't care. She was furious.

She slumped down on her bed and groaned as the memories of school earlier that day flooded into her brain. After she left the parking lot angrily and dragged herself back to school, she had been subjected to eight classes of ignoring Damon Salvatore. Eight. He kept shooting her glances and on the rare occasion she didn't ignore them, he would mouth a 'sorry' at her. Pathetic. Elena Gilbert didn't cave that easily. The old Elena might have, but she definitely wouldn't now.

Business Studies was the worst. Unfortunately, their teacher Ms. Wright insisted that they sit in alphabetical order by first name. Normally, Elena didn't mind this. It meant she was always in the second row near the left, the perfect place and she would have Carter and Elizabeth next to her. They were reasonably intelligent, which was great for projects, she didn't have to do all the work to ensure a good grade. Unfortunately, today it meant that her partner on the right was Damon.

Urgh, Damon was so distracting! Aside from constantly gazing at her apologetically, he also had many, many annoying quirks. Like how he was always tapping his foot. Or how he suddenly started humming while he wrote. She had to admit though, he was persistent. Not many people apologize continuously for so long. Elena had almost forgiven him by the end of the day. She was leaving school when Damon started walking beside her. She brushed up against his leather jacket accidentally and found his drink all over her clothes the next minute.

There was no doubt about it, Damon was a jackass. There was no way that was an accident, and after his behaviour in the parking lot, she was inclined to believe that he never felt any remorse in the first place. How was she going to survive a whole year like this? He was utterly infuriating!

She could hear the doorbell faintly from her bedroom upstairs. Nobody was in the house but her. Jeremy had detention yet again and Jenna was at work. Then Elena remembered that Jenna had ordered pizza. But that was supposed to arrive an hour ago. She pulled on her warm purple jacket and found her purse.

"You know, your delivery service is really, really slow," she said briskly, opening the door and counting the notes. Typical Jenna, they were all ones.

"Pizza is 30, right?" she asked, suddenly unsure. Her thoughts were in a blur since she was still caught up in her angry haze.

After ten seconds, she repeated, "Right?" to no response. She put her purse away and looked up to see-

"Damon? What are you doing here?" Oh, great, was he planning to wreck her house now too? It was her sanctuary, the one place she could truly be herself, be free, and now he was going to ruin that too!

"Well, I'm moving the last of my stuff in now. The moving guys got most of it yesterday, but I decided not to risk the breakables." She stared at him blankly. That's when it hit her. Sheriff Forbes had come by her house…Damon was going to be next door! 24/7! There could be no worse hell than this.

"How does that answer my question?"

"Elena, please, we need to talk. I need to apologize." His brilliant blue eyes were pleading and even she couldn't stand that defeated look, so she sighed and mentally kicked herself before stepping aside to let him in the house.

"Okay, please believe me when I say that juice thing was an accident. And my behaviour was terrible, but you have to understand. It was my first day and my last chance. I had to make a good impression." He put down his glass of water- Elena didn't trust him around juice now- and looked back to her.

For some reason, Elena always found it difficult to break away from his gaze. This time was no different, but she managed. "All right, all right," she relented stiffly. "You can go now." It was a little rude, but she needed her privacy.

Damon got up. "All right then, I'll see you later?"

She shrugged. "We'll see. Anyway, it was nice meeting you Damon."

Damon stopped in his tracks and walked back to her. He stood a little too close for comfort, but Elena didn't mind. She was used to it. Another one of his charming idiosyncrasies.

"What do you mean? Don't you remember me from when we were younger?" He sounded disappointed, but more curious.

"Oh, that's right. We used to play or something, right? Jenna told me about that…"

"So you remember nothing?" He was incredulous now. He had retained every single memory of this girl, this magical girl, and she remembered nothing?

"Not really, sorry," she replied. Did that mean he remembered them as children playing in her backyard?

"Well then," Damon smirked and plopped back down on her sofa. "It's my duty to refresh your memory." Oh great. She had delayed his departure even further. Groaning inwardly, she sat back down beside him.

Surprisingly, though, it wasn't all that bad. Their conversation was long, but interesting. Damon made it interesting, somehow.

"Wait, so why do you care so much about my forgiveness? You're the Great Damon Salvatore" she said sarcastically.

"I care, Elena, because you saved me back when we were younger."

"What did I do? Poor Damey couldn't swim or something?" she teased.

"Don't get nasty," he pouted. "This is serious!" Elena burst out laughing.

"Tell me," she said, and looked in his eyes. "And don't lie."

"I've never lied to you and I never will." He matched her gaze and Elena found herself glued in her place.

And that's when he began. They had met each other at a charity event hosted by Mrs Lockwood. Jenna had noticed them talking to each other and had invited them over to play at their house. Giuseppe Salvatore had reluctantly accepted because at the time, he was running for mayor and wanted to increase his chances.

So once every month, Damon, Elena and Stefan (who was only four and often left out) would meet in her backyard. They would normally play something, like tag, but sometimes Damon would be quiet and boring. Elena was always the first to notice when something was wrong. That's how Damon told Elena everything. About how his mother had died and how his father never loved him and about how he was always alone.

"You don't have to tell me this," Elena told him.

"Nothing you didn't already know," Damon reassured her, reaching forward to hold her hands in his.

He continued, a bit sad, but happy to share this with Elena. Whatever was left of her anger melted away as she realized he wasn't who everybody thought he was. He was actually a pretty nice guy, and that didn't surprise her somehow.

"Why don't you let people see the good in you?" she asked. Sitting in front of her, he didn't seem like the same guy people saw in trashy tabloids.

"Because when people see good they expect good." He smiled wanly. She noticed it didn't quite reach his eyes. Yes, his cerulean eyes swirled with pain and something else she couldn't read. "And I don't want to have to live up to anyone's expectations," he finished, still holding her hands.

Overwhelmed by a sudden urge to comfort him, she quickly broke away, trying to maintain the distance between them. After all, she had no idea who he was! Surreptitiously she inched away from him. He obviously noticed her efforts and got up.

"I'll see myself out. It was nice getting reacquainted with you Elena," he said. She thought he looked a bit disappointed. Why? Did he expect her to remember?

She smiled at him. "Yeah. I guess I'll see you at school."

He nodded, the faint signs of his signature smirk returning to his face. "I guess."

Damon left after that, leaving Elena feeling strangely alone. She looked around the house, which suddenly looked enormous and empty. She sighed to herself and nibbled apathetically on the pizza that had been delivered moments after their conversation.

Later that night, she still couldn't get her mind off Damon Salvatore. What was it about him? Why was she so bothered by him? He was so different around her. At school, he was nothing but rude to everyone around him. What made her special?

Was it because of their shared childhood? If only she remembered that she might have her answer. But why didn't she remember? She had a really good memory, the reason she was so smart!

Elena groaned- she was doing this a lot lately. Slumping back on to her bed and landing face first on her pillow.

The actual shock, though, was yet to come. At school the next day, her experience was less than perfect. Sleeping early the previous day meant she hadn't had time to study for the big test and only got a B+. Disappointment crashed over her when she read the result off her monthly report card. Jenna, of course, would be nothing but supportive. Nobody pressured her into doing well. If anything, she put pressure on herself.

After all, she needed to get into Stanford and study business. She needed to feel like she was ready to take on the family business before she inherited it from Isobel and John, her aunt and uncle. They had once had a whirlwind romance and got married in the spur of the moment. Now that thing weren't working, they would divorce.

Unfortunately, that meant that they would both have to sell their shares in The Gilbert Publishing House. The company would fall into the Lockwoods' hands and Elena couldn't let the last piece of the family she had left be taken away. So she dropped her dreams of being a journalist and pushed herself into business. It wasn't ideal, but she did enjoy it, so it was alright. You had to make the sacrifice, she told herself constantly.

Of course, throughout the day, she was hounded by Damon who seemed determined to find her and talk to her while she tried desperately to avoid him. And of course, in Business Studies, he sat uncomfortably close to her and gave her ice-melting hurt puppy eyes while Ms. Wright droned on about market research.

At the end of the day, she was relieved of Damon as she waited in room 307 along with the 21 other scholarship applicants on the school. She had rushed in early, eager to get away from him. They were all taking training classes for the competition to make sure they were ready.

"This countrywide competition is nothing like anything you have every experienced before," Mr Saltzman began. He was one of the last 10 winners of the contest and on the school board. That made him a really good authority on the subject.

There was a knock on the door that interrupted a now annoyed Mr. Saltzman.

"I hope I'm not late. I'm still finding my way around…Elena?"

"Damon."

So...things finally fall into place. Well, that or they become even more distorted than they were. So now, just after they have established a tolerance for each other, they find themselves competing against each other.

Now, I understand that things may be moving a little too fast as far as their conversation is concerned, but I want to assure you that where I'm heading, Damon and Elena will have to struggle a lot more...