I woke up this morning feeling happy. Happy because me and Matt had talked pretty much all of last night and we'd bonded. We talked about everything. Our favourite movies, music, football, comics, video games and anything else we could think of. We liked so much of the same stuff, it was weird. I think it's safe to say he's my back-up bro. You know, in case Stefan gets attacked by bunnies or Damon remembers how small this town is and goes back to a big city. I don't know what it is, but I feel a connection with Matt. Probably because we both have a messed up family or because I understand what it's like to watch someone you thought you loved love someone else. I could actually see myself dating a nice guy like Matt for a change, but he was still hung-up on Elena. Another reason to be happy was that I had no nightmare last night. Quite the achievement, I think.
I sighed, and rolled out of bed. Despite being extremely peppy, I was not looking forward to school today. Today I had cheerleading practice with Caroline, Elena and Bonne. While two-thirds of that didn't make me want to stay in my bed all day, the one-third was enough to make me consider skipping school.
Caroline was great and all, but she is full-on, bat crap crazy when it comes to her committees, after-school groups, charity benefits etc, etc, etc...I mean she could probably rival me in the freak sweepstakes and that takes a lot. And I mean a lot.
Trudging across my room, I grabbed the nearest, cutest outfit and shrugged it on. Today was a summer dress day apparently. I teamed the blue dress with a pair of brown ankle boots, a brown leather jacket, my bronze pentagram ring, my Alkemie sage bracelet and a large brown purse. I felt a little girlie today. The only times I'm overtly girly, like this, is when I'm playing a part in some grand scheme of either mine or Damon's, or when we're at a fancy local gathering, or when I'm trying to seduce someone (which really isn't that hard. Men have been the same throughout history). I remembered leaving a set of work-out clothes in my locker yesterday for today so I didn't need to pack anything else.
I pretty much skipped downstairs, and almost bumped into Zach in the kitchen.
"Why are you so chipper this morning?" He asked, sounding the complete opposite of chipper. Zach needed a new hobby. His constant Stefan impression was getting on my nerves.
"It's a new day. Why wouldn't I be chipper? I'm home, I'm alive, and all my family is here. I can't see any reason not to be happy!" I replied, grinning at him as I passed by him and opened the fridge. I grabbed the carton of orange juice that was in there, and took a large swig from it.
"Both of your brothers-who-aren't-your-brothers are undead vampires, who you have seen kill people for food. You're the only good immortal Salvatore." Zach dead-panned. I replaced the orange juice in the fridge, before I turned to him.
"Don't presume to know me, Zach. And don't act like you know Stefan and Damon either. They aren't all they pretend to be. Stefan isn't a saint, and Damon isn't the devil. Something you should know, young, naïve Zach, is that the world is all just several shades of grey. There is no defined good or evil, there's just fractions of each in everyone. People just choose to act on one more than the other," I snapped at him, glaring at him with my blue eyes. "Stefan and Damon deserve more respect than what you're giving them."
Zach looked shocked at my outburst, like it was the last thing he expected to come from me.
"I may be the fun, weird Salvatore, but I'm deep too. I'm not a kiddie pool, I'm an ocean of complexity." I gave him a teasing smile, before I walked out the room, tapping away on my phone, before knocking into something very solid, which almost sent me sprawling onto my ass. I looked up and smiled up at the person who now towered over me.
"Well, you must be getting sick of all the girls who are falling head over heels for you recently, dear Stef-Stef." I joked, as he helped me up.
"I wouldn't say that girls are falling head over heels for me, Maeva."
"Elena, Caroline, three girls in my Gym class, a girl in my English Literature class, and two other girls in our American History class. That's a lot of girls, Stefan. Don't sell yourself short, buddy." I said, smirking at him, as he looked at me in disbelief.
"Forget my love life for a second, who are you trying to seduce?" Stefan questioned, gesturing to my girly get-up.
"I thought you knew? I'm jumping on the Stefan Salvatore bandwagon! I'm just kidding, Stef-Stef," I backpedalled, seeing his disturbed face. It felt weird to even say it, but I powered through for the hilariousness that was his expression. "I'm stuck between Matt Donovan, and Tyler Lockwood. I mean, Matt's nice and great and his eyes are so blue, but Tyler seems like he'd be good in bed, what with all the whole bad boy persona. What do you think?"
Stefan stared at me for a long time, before he finally spoke again. I was worried that he'd suffered a heart attack or a brain aneurysm for a moment, until I remembered that he was already dead and I didn't have to worry about typical human health problems with him.
"I think that you should talk to Elena about this. She's your new best friend, right?" Stefan questioned, looking for a way out of this certain conversation.
"Yes, but I need a guy's perspective, and Damon isn't here, and I'm not talking to Zach about this. Come on, Stefan, you're my bro! Step up to the plate!" I urged him, waiting for him to give me an answer.
"Fine. I think you should give Matt a chance. He's a nice guy, and Tyler is an ass." Stefan reluctantly said, and I smiled at him.
"He's got a fine one too," I replied, laughing as Stefan scrunched his nose up in disgust, and I quickly carried on talking. "Matt it is then."
"Well now that's dealt with, can we get to school please?" Stefan said, ushering me to the door.
"Someone's desperate to see his new girlfriend," I teased him, and he just carried on gently pushing me out the door, ignoring my words. "How was Elena last night?"
"We had our first kiss. It was...everything I thought it would be." Stefan said, and I looked back just in time to catch the happy smile spread across his face.
"I haven't seen that face in a while," I commented, my own smiled widening. I pulled him to a stop just before we reached his car, and he looked at me expectantly. "So you're happy...with Elena? She's making you happy?"
"More happy than I've been since 1864." Stefan replied without hesitation.
"That's all I wanted to hear. I wanted to make sure that coming back here was worth it. I mean, after everything we went through here...I wanted to make sure that you were really happy, because if you are happy, then I am happy," I said, taking Stefan's hand in mine and squeezing it. "You're my brother, Stefan. Maybe not in blood, or on paper, but where it counts most. Bond. Your happiness is all I want."
"I am happy, Maeva. I don't regret coming back here. Even if it somehow doesn't work out with Elena and I, I still won't regret trying."
The sincerity in Stefan's eyes was hard to deny, and it warmed my heart. I reached up and cupped his cheek with my free hand, stroking my thumb along his Adonis-like cheekbones.
"Then we're cool. Let's get to school. I don't want to keep you separated from Elena for too long, especially not after seeing that smile." I said, releasing him and climbing into the passenger seat.
Stefan and I chatted on the way to school about our plans, should everything stay normal and vampire hunter-free, for the rest of the year. Stefan just wanted to spend time with Elena, which was cool because she was who he came back to the town for in the first place, and I was stuck between trying to cause as much havoc as possible at the school or finding 'My Person'. 'My Person' is someone my friend, Lexi, and I have tried to find since we met and lamented together over our pathetic love lives. I was, and sometimes still am, disgustingly in love with Damon, and she met Stefan and crushed on him hard, before realising that they were better off as friends. So we vowed to find our perfect man. The guy that is exactly the kind of guy that you would want to spend the rest of your forever with. Once upon a time, I'd thought I'd found him, but I was wrong. So wrong. Now, I was convinced that 'My Person' for me was either Damon, or still hadn't been born. Stefan, being the lovestruck romantic that he is, told me to find 'My Person' since he had Elena. He wanted me to be as happy as he was.
As soon as we pulled into the school's car lot, I shook off our sappy conversation, and immediately spotted Elena and Bonnie. Stefan's lovesick smile grew even wider, and we immediately headed towards them.
"Morning, Elena. Morning, Bonnie." Stefan greeted, though I could tell Bonnie was sort of an after-thought so he still looked polite.
"Hey, um, I gotta find Caroline. She's not answering her phone, so see you guys." Bonnie said, before making a hasty retreat. I got the impression that Bonnie was not Stefan's biggest fan. And I had an inkling as to why.
You see, when a witch touches a vampire, she can feel death on them. Humans are so full of life, which creates a positive energy that witches love, but vampires are technically dead, but alive at the same time, so the energy is different. Bonnie is a new witch. She doesn't understand her powers or fully believe them, so if she accidentally touched Stefan and felt the weird energy coming off of him, then she would probably just interpret it as a bad feeling.
"She doesn't like me very much." Stefan stated, knowing that there was no question about it. Bonnie was very wary of him, and technically it was for a good reason.
"She doesn't know you. She's my best friend. She's just looking out for me, but when she does, she will love you." Elena said, as we began to walk towards the main building.
"I told you, Stefan, the best friend loves you at first, but it's just natural for her to become wary when the relationship is new." I said.
"Are you feeling okay? You've been waxing philosophical and emotional all morning." Stefan teased, and I ran with it, placing the back of my hand on my forehead, faking that I was checking for a fever.
"Yeah, I think I might be coming down with something," I said, before sticking my tongue out at him. "I won't help you anymore. See how you like that."
"Here's what we're gonna do. Are you free tonight?" Elena questioned Stefan, and, still being in a playful mood, I answered instead.
"Sorry, Elena, I've already got plans...Oh, you were talking to Stefan...this is awkward," I joked, as we came to a stop again, before having to fight to keep my balance as Stefan nudged me a little harder than normal in the ribs. "Ow!"
"Yes, I am free tonight." Stefan replied to Elena, as I rubbed my side and scowled at him.
"Perfect. Dinner, my house, 8:00. You, me and Bonnie. You two will spend some quality time and she'll get to see what a great guy you are. Mission accomplished." Elena grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
I saw it coming, and Stefan clearly heard it coming, but to everyone else...it looked like Stefan had the most amazing reflexes. Tyler had thrown the football Matt and some other jock were throwing around at the back of Stefan's head, and Stefan whirled round and caught it. I smirked at Tyler, as Stefan tossed it back, putting a lot of power behind it, in a neat spiral. When he caught it, Tyler stumbled back a few steps at the force of it, and I barely held in my laugh.
And then the bell rang, and once again I found myself imagining putting a stake through Stefan's stomach for putting me through high school again. Stefan, Elena and I all headed inside, walking past Tyler and Matt, and I couldn't help myself. I waved at Matt and then gave Tyler a sarcastic thumbs up for his 'solid' effort at trying to humiliate Stefan.
When we were inside, it seemed as though Elena couldn't hold in her comments any longer and they just burst forth.
"That throw was insane. I didn't know you played football."
"I used to. It was a long time ago." Stefan replied, and I almost sniggered. Yeah, like a hundred and forty something years ago.
"He used to play with Damon." I said, ignoring the look that Stefan gave me. Elena seemed to understand, but couldn't help but ask her next question.
"So, why don't you try out for the team?"
"Yeah, I don't think so." Stefan said, and I laughed at his lightening fast refusal.
"Getting Stefan to participate in anything is like telling Garfield that Mondays are cool. It's never going to end well."
"So he doesn't like football." Elena said, as she opened her locker to get out her books for her first classes. Stefan and I already had ours so we didn't need a detour to our own lockers, which was handy since they were almost on the other side of the school.
"No, I love football. It's a great sport. But in this case, I don't think football likes me," Stefan explained, and then continued when Elena looked at him with this adorable confused expression. "You saw Tyler over there. And we both know how Matt feels."
"They don't know you. To them, you're a mysterious loner guy-" Elena started.
"Worst superhero name ever." I interjected, and Elena laughed before continuing her little encouraging speech.
"Wouldn't hurt to be part of. Make some friends." Elena finished, shrugging off her jacket and dropping it in her locker. I almost snorted at her words. Stefan...make friends. The only friends he's ever had have been me, Lexi and...someone who doesn't really matter anymore.
"Says the girl who spends her alone time writing in a cemetery." Stefan teased her, and I smiled. This was more like the old Stefan. Pre-vampire Stefan. Pre-Katherine Stefan. I loved it.
"Hey. Come on. There's more to me than just gloomy-graveyard girl-"
"Correction. That's the worst superhero name ever." I cut her off again, and Stefan just rolled his eyes at me, and Elena just carried on talking.
"There's a whole other Elena that you have yet to meet. She was into everything. Very busy." Elena finished.
"Does this mean that you're going to be joining me at cheer practice today? It would be so much better with you there. I haven't even known Caroline for a week, and the thought of her bossing me around and being even more peppy makes me want to learn how to chew my own face off." I questioned. Caroline was too peppy. Like even more irritating than movie-cheerleader pep. And we all know how annoying that is.
"Maybe." Elena replied to me, looking like she was unsure whether to laugh or be disturbed by my weirdness.
"Just roll with her weirdness. It comes and goes," Stefan stage-whispered, not even flinching when I slapped his arm, and began smiling at her again. "I can't wait to meet her. And when will that be?"
The warning bell for class went off, and people started shuffling off to their classes.
"Soon," Elena said, looking like she had to think about it for a moment. She closed her locker and grinned at Stefan, then at me, before linking arms with me as we headed towards class. "She's working on it."
"World War II ended in...? Anyone got anything? Miss Juan?" Mr Tanner questioned, already on the warpath. He was legitimately the worst teacher I have ever come across. And the most arrogant. And I had come across a lot of teachers during a lot of time periods, so that's saying something. "1945."
As I sat beside Stefan, I could hear him and Elena start to whisper across to each other, and rolled my eyes. They really were into each other, weren't they?
"Pearl Harbor? Nothing?" Tanner asked, until his eyes narrowed in on Elena leaning over to talk to Stefan. "Miss Gilbert? Ahem. Pearl Harbor."
"Um..." Elena hummed, clearly not knowing the answer. I did. December 7th, 1941, but I guess I was cheating...since I was there. Being a naval nurse had been an enlightening experience, but that was the worst day ever to be a nurse. The carnage and destruction...all those desperate souls needing help, but not being able to save everyone. That was one of the days in my life that was seared into my soul forever. I would never forget that day.
"December 7th, 1941." Stefan answered for her, causing her to smile.
"Thank you, Miss Gilbert!" Tanner said, looking down his nose at Stefan, and I rolled my eyes at him. Tanner was all about the power play, wasn't he? He clearly just became a teacher because he wanted power over a group of kids...which really says something about him. Don't you think?
"Anytime." Stefan replied, and I reached over and forced him to fist bump me. Standing up to a high school teacher was pretty low on our scale of awesomeness, but it still deserved some recognition.
"Very well. The fall of the Berlin Wall."
"1989. We're good with dates, sir." I interjected, feeling my 'Annoy-Tanner' mood creep up on me.
"Are you?" Tanner questioned. "How good? Keep it to the year. Civil Rights Act."
I looked over at Stefan, and he nodded at me. We silently agreed to take it in turns to shame Tanner.
"1964." Stefan answered.
"John F. Kennedy assassination."
"1963." I said, smirking at him. Tanner just glared at me, and my smirk just grew more pronounced in response. I really did not like Tanner so if he hated me back, I'd feel like we were equals.
"Martin Luther King."
"'68." Stefan responded.
"Lincoln." Tanner said.
"1865." I retorted.
"Roe versus Wade?"
"1973."
"Brown versus Board?" Tanner moved forwards between mine and Stefan's desks, looking as though he was trying to intimidate us into answering incorrectly.
"1954." I replied, yawning afterwards to irritate Tanner further. These weren't difficult to answer. We'd lived through them, though Tanner didn't know that.
"The Battle of Gettysburg." Tanner questioned, as he moved closer still, coming to a stop just in front of us.
"1863." Stefan stated.
"Korean War."
"1950 to 1953." I replied, and Tanner leaned forward, his face full of smarmy happiness.
"Ha! It ended in '52. Ha-ha-ha." Tanner laughed, and I rolled my eyes and pretended to wipe his spit from my face with a look of disgust.
"Uh, actually, Mr Tanner, it was '53. I literally just read over this last night. The final armistice agreement was signed and ratified on the 27th of July, 1953." I informed him, arching an eyebrow as I waited for his response.
Tanner looked back at me, surprised that I was pushing it, and I shrugged, folding my arms over my chest as I waited for a counter argument.
"Look it up. Somebody. Quickly." Tanner snapped, and everyone in the room, who had been staring at Stefan and I, moved to open their American History textbooks for the information. Yet one smart individual looked it up on their smart phone.
"It was 1953." A kid at the front of the class informed Tanner, who did not look pleased.
The rest of the room chuckled and some even applauded as Stefan and I sat there, somewhat pleased with our small victory. Tanner stayed silent, just glaring at the two of us, until the bell rang, and we all hurried out of the classroom before he regained his voice.
"How did you guys know all that?" Elena questioned, and I shrugged.
"I read. Stefan does the crossword in the paper. It's a loner thing." I replied, and she shook her head at me.
The day was finally over, and that meant one thing. Cheerleading practice. I had not been looking forward to it. I had initially agreed to join the squad because I had enjoyed it when Stefan had forced me to go to school in the nineties, but Caroline was head cheerleader...and that put me off. Caroline seemed nice enough, but God, was she annoying!
Elena and I had changed into our gym clothes and headed over to the football field where the squad was practicing just out of the way of the actual football team.
Elena smiled at me, and then cleared her throat to catch Bonnie's attention.
"Oh, my God. You're here." Bonnie said, rising to her feet quickly and grinning widely at us, before squeezing both Elena and myself to her tiny frame.
"Yep. I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were, are to do thing that were," Elena explained, and while I completely disagreed with her, I bit my tongue and just began to stretch my limbs out. I am not a vampire, so I can still get pesky pains and annoying aches. "Oh, and you're coming to dinner tonight."
"I am?" Bonnie questioned, as she and Elena started to stretch with me.
"Mm-hm. You, me and Stefan," Elena replied, and I noticed that Bonnie tensed immediately after Stefan was mentioned. "You have to give him a chance."
"Tonight's no good," Bonnie stated, though we all knew it was just a lame cop-out. "You seen Caroline? I texted her a hundred times."
"Don't change the subject, Bonnie Bennett. You're going to be there." Elena said, and her tone gave Bonnie little choice but to agree.
"Fine, I'll go."
"I promise, Bon, Stefan is a really good guy once you get to know him. He wouldn't hurt Elena. Ever." I told her, and I meant everything. I wouldn't lie and say that Stefan has never hurt anyone, because he had, but the guilt he feels every day because of it. Bonnie just nodded, and I smiled at her, trying to be reassuring.
"Seriously, where is Caroline?" Bonnie questioned, as we sat down, finally done with our stretches.
"I don't know. It's not like her." Elena replied, and just like that, alarm bells began to sound off in my head. I prayed to whatever deity really existed that it wasn't what I thought it was, and that Caroline had just found herself waylaid by something entirely normal and human.
"I'll try her again." Bonnie said, picking up her phone, but my eyes caught something behind her, and I knew it wasn't necessary.
"Uh..." Elena pointed at the blue Camaro that pulled up near to us.
I seethed inside. I couldn't believe that he had done this. Damon had used Caroline. From the small silk neck scarf, my guess is it was for blood and sex. Yet, I was also not surprised that he had pulled this stunt off. He was determined to show that he was a giant douche and a bad guy, and it was working.
"Oh, my God. That must be the mystery guy from the Grill." Bonnie commented, as we watched Caroline lean over in her seat to kiss Damon. I felt my heart sink down into my stomach. It always killed me to see him with other women, and then I hated myself for feeling like that because it's not like we ever even dated or he showed any interest. To him, we were only friends. Just Maeva and Damon. Not Maeva and Damon.
"That's not a mystery guy. That's my other adopted brother, Damon." I said, as we all climbed to our feet as Caroline got out of the car.
"You have another brother?"
"He sure as hell isn't my brother." I snapped, knowing he could hear me. He just peered at me over his sunglasses, as Caroline walked over to us.
"I got the other brother. Hope you don't mind," Caroline fake smiled at Elena...and for some reason, she did the same to me. It's as if she somehow knew...was Caroline a mind reader? "Sorry I'm late, girls. I, uh, was busy."
I tuned Caroline out slightly, just enough that I knew what I was supposed to do, but that I didn't want to rip her throat out. I glanced over at Damon, and glared at him. He just smirked, and I knew in that moment, that he didn't care that he had done something wrong. He was just in it for whatever twisted amusement he got out of hurting people. He finally broke eye contact with me, and drove off, leaving me with my anger.
Which I decided to just channel somehow into cheerleading.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight." Caroline chanted, as the rest of us rehearsed the routine she had gone over.
I managed to keep up with the other girls, despite not having practiced in years, but Elena was somehow more rusty than I was. She was always a moment out of time, and didn't know all the steps, and I understood. She'd spent the summer grieving still over her parents. She didn't have time for cheerleading. Caroline clearly didn't understand that.
"Elena, sweetie, why don't you just observe today? Okay?" Caroline said, still being sickly sweet. Elena just looked at her, then moved past the other girls, and I decided to tag out too. "What? Maeva, what are you doing?"
"I'm not sure I've got the routine down. I'd rather just watch as well." I lied, following Elena, not waiting for Caroline's reply. I grabbed my water bottle and gulped down a mouthful of the warm liquid, and looked back at Caroline to see her just shaking off my less than peppy attitude. She continued with her drill sergeant routine, and I glanced at Elena to see her eyes on the football team. Well...on one particular player. Stefan was trying out.
I nudged her in the ribs, and she blushed as she realised that I'd caught her staring.
"Come on, let's go watch them. It's a lot more fun than listening to Colonel Pom-Pom drilling the cadets." I remarked, dragging her over to the bleachers.
Stefan was a lot better than I remembered. He caught every pass, and managed not to get sacked...until Matt hung one up and Tyler tackled Stefan as though he had just robbed a bank or a jewellery store. I knew what they'd done. They'd given Stefan a buddy pass. They purposefully sacked him to prove a point.
Elena eventually moved back to cheerleading practice, but I stayed focused on Stefan long enough to see him get back up off of the ground, remove his glove and snap his finger back into position. He'd probably broken it when he fell.
The most important thing to me was that Stefan had joined the team. He'd allowed himself to become a part of something, rather than him just sitting on the sidelines and watching it all pass him by. I looked at my immortality as an opportunity to truly enjoy everything there was to life, but Stefan saw it as a burden. I knew that he wanted to be human, but there was just no way that any of us could make it happen. There wasn't a cure for vampirism. There never would be.
I walked into Stefan's room, after we'd gotten home from tryouts and I'd showered and changed, to find Damon sitting with his feet up on Stefan's desk with one of Stefan's journals in hand.
"How was tryouts? Did you make your respective teams?" He asked both of us, as Stefan came out of his bathroom, pulling a fresh shirt over his both remained silent, trying not to give him what he so clearly wanted...a reaction. "Very Emerson, the way you reveal your soul with so many-"
Stefan sped over to him and snatched his journal out of Damon's hands without a word.
"Adjectives." Damon finished, before he chuckled.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan questioned, and Damon shifted in his seat, placing his feet back on the ground and trying to look serious.
"I've come to apologise. I've been doing some thinking, some soul searching...and I want us to start over. We need to put the past behind us," Damon said, rising to his feet and standing right in front of Stefan and I. "You're my family and if you both wanna live normal, happy, human lives than I want that for you. Maybe I can do it too. If I can learn to be a non-living living person, maybe there's hope for us."
"That is the biggest lie you've ever tried to sell us, Damon. You love being a vampire. You love having control over people, being able to strike fear in 'lesser mortals'. And after so long of being a cold, manipulative, heartless piece of shit...you don't know how to be anything else," I spat, still furious at what he was doing to Caroline. See, when I get angry...it doesn't matter who you are, if you have wronged me I will flip my shit and say a lot of stuff that I don't even mean. "Even after one hundred and forty five years, you still can't comprehend the fact that it doesn't have to be this way."
Damon looked at me, and I could tell that my words had hurt him, but he was trying not to show it in front of Stefan. There was, and always has been, a limited number of people who could truly hurt Damon Salvatore. Number one, his father. Number two would be Katherine Pierce. Number three is me. And four is Stefan. That was about it.
"Of course it doesn't," Damon murmured, before he smirked at Stefan and continued, walking past us and towards the door. He stopped just in front of Stefan's desk and picked up his feather quill and started to play with it. I didn't understand why Stefan still had that thing. Nobody used quills anymore, except the cast of Harry Potter. "I saw Elena today, BTW. That means "by the way". She was at cheerleading practice. She looked so perky in her little short shorts. Simmer down, I didn't even go near her. I've got my own cheerleader now."
"I noticed. Don't hurt her." I said, trying to calm myself down. I hated feeling like this because of him. Damon didn't realise how much he hurt me by constantly trying to make Stefan miserable...because it made me miserable too. Why couldn't they just get along, even if it was just pretend for me?
"Ooh, that reminds me. I have a date," Damon said, placing Stefan's feather quill back down on his desk and then rubbed his hands together. "Sweaty palms. Wish me luck."
Damon left, and I turned to Stefan.
"More like wish Caroline luck. I do not like this, Stefan. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that he is not the old Damon, and I'm afraid of what he will do to her." I said, lowering my voice so that only Stefan could hear me. I'd learned that trick very early on, a couple of months after they had first transitioned.
"I'll try to stop him from doing anything, I promise," Stefan said, as he tucked me into his side, his arm around my shoulders, to comfort me. "Now, is what I'm wearing okay to go to dinner at Elena's?"
I stepped away from him, and looked him over. He was wearing a long-sleeved, dark grey t-shirt with black jeans and black boots. I remembered buying him those jeans last year.
"You look fantastic, Stef."
"Thanks. What are you going to do?" Stefan asked, and I smiled slightly, shrugging.
"I'll probably just head to the Grill, see if Matt wants to hang out."
"Matt, huh? You two seem close." Stefan pressed. It seems he wanted to know all about my love life now that he had one of his own again.
"Yeah, but as you well know, he is still hung-up over Elena, but maybe I can work my Maeva Magic on him," I said with a grin. "Who knows? By tomorrow, you might not be the only one in a new relationship."
Matt had agreed to meeting me at the Grill, with surprisingly little persuasion. We'd already eaten; we'd each gotten a burger and fries, and he'd expressed his admiration and delight that I wasn't one of those 'rabbit food eating' girls. I hadn't been one of those girls since the sixties. Back then, it was harder to stay skinny because it was odd for women to be interested in sports or...exercise in general really. Now, women were allowed to do pretty much anything so it was easier to keep in shape.
I was having fun. Matt was funny, and thoughtful, and not a bit like that jock stereotype that he was cool with. He even challenged me to a game of pool, which he was surprisingly good at. He was much better than Tyler. I almost had to cheat to win.
We were having a lot of fun, until I felt someone plaster themselves against my back.
"Hey, Salvatore. You look hot tonight."
"First off, Lockwood, give me some personal space," I said, nudging him back slightly with my hip. He just smirked at me, and I rolled my eyes. "And second, hot is a temperature, not a compliment. Third, I am trying to destroy Matt at pool, so if you could excuse me."
Matt just snickered as Tyler backed off, looking disgruntled...only to walk straight to Vicki Donovan and try exactly the same move that he had tried on me. I rolled my eyes at his lame attempt at making me jealous, but noticed that his act had worked on someone. Jeremy Gilbert was glaring intensely at Tyler, as the jock whispered something in Vicki's ear and then quickly left.
I shared a look with Matt, who sighed, and walked over to Little Gilbert.
"She's my sister and I love her, but sometimes she can really make you work for it." Matt said.
"I find it pretty easy." Jeremy replied, and I smiled at that.
"When you love someone, you shouldn't let anything or anyone stand in your way. Unless they're already in love with someone else. Then you wait in the wings, bide your time, because if it's meant to be, they'll realise how stupid they were not to realise that the perfect person was waiting for them all along," I said, my smile turning into a grimace as I realized just how girly and sappy that speech was. "Eugh, it's not often you gross yourself out. Anyway, Little Gilbert, if you think that Vicki is the one...then you've got to wait for her to realise it without you getting pummeled by Lockwood. Dude, he's all muscle and he will kick the crap out of you. Vicki has to come to you and then you'll know that she loves you back. And we can all go get drunk and I can forget I even gave you this advice in the first place."
Jeremy stared at me for a second, before he got up off his seat, and made to leave. He was almost out the door, until Tyler rammed him with his shoulder. Matt and I put our pool cues down and gravitated towards the situation, ready to jump in if it got serious.
"All right, I get it. Hit me to impress her. That's real nice." Jeremy snapped.
"It's not her I'm trying to impress, but I already won when it comes to Vicki," Tyler replied, and Jeremy pushed him backwards. Tyler stumbled back quite far, which surprised me. Little Gilbert is obviously a lot stronger than I thought. "Oh, now you're dead."
"Am I? Cause it seems like I'm standing here waiting for you to man up."
Tyler lunged at him, but Matt and I grabbed him and held him back.
"Ty, don't." Matt said, as we stood either side of him.
"The next time I see you, Gilbert-" Tyler started to threaten Little Gilbert, and just when I opened my mouth to defend him, he beat me to the punch.
"No, next time I see you." Jeremy stated, turning on his heel and leaving. Well, he hadn't taken my advice about not getting into a confrontation with Tyler, but he had shown to me that he was brave enough to handle it. Or just messed up enough to want to get beaten.
"What are you doing, Vick?" Matt questioned his sister, who had just stood and watched the whole thing play out. Like she was an innocent bystander in all of it and it had nothing to do with her.
"You're going to have to choose. You can't keep stringing them both along. Someone will get hurt," I said, before I tugged Matt out the exit. I hadn't brought a purse with me, just some cash in my pocket, and Matt was wearing his jacket. "You okay?"
Matt looked at me, as though I was crazy.
"Am I okay? Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, as we walked down the street to his car.
"I dunno, your best friend and your ex-girlfriend's little brother are constantly coming to blows over your sister. You care about both of them, as well as your sister. I know what it's like to watch two people you care about fight over someone," I said, glancing down at my feet as we came to a stop next to his car. "You feel torn. You don't know which side to pick, who to give advice to, who to let lean on your shoulder. Sooner or later, you get dragged in to it, and you find that there are four people, instead of just three, that get hurt when it comes to the fallout."
"I-it's like you're in my head. What happened to you then? How did you get out?" Matt questioned, and I shrugged.
"I didn't. Not really. You know, Stefan...well he has an older brother, Damon. Damon is my best friend, and Stefan is practically my brother...they both fell in love with this one girl, Katherine. To them, she was perfect. Beautiful, smart, the whole works, but she was an evil, conniving bitch. She tore them apart. Before they were so close, they loved each other, looked after each other...after her, they hate each other. She changed them, and it felt like I had lost them both," I explained, before I realized what I was doing. I had just explained something really personal to him. I only ever talked to Lexi about Katherine, and here I was after only a few days talking about something personal with a guy I hardly knew. "Oh my God, I am so sorry. This was supposed to be just a fun hang, but here I am, spilling my guts to you, getting all emotional and touchy-feely. I don't usually do touchy-feely, it scares guys away when you're too emotionally invested and I hate being that girl. Eugh, this is why I hate the fact I ramble, sometimes I don't stop. I just keep talking and talking and talking-"
My rambling was cut off by Matt's lips as he crushed them to mine. I blinked in surprise, before I shrugged and wrapped my arms around his neck, just going with it. The kiss didn't last long...Matt was a complete gentleman, but when we pulled away, we were still breathing as heavily as we would have been if we had been making out. He pressed his forehead to mine, and chuckled.
"I think it's cute when you ramble."
"I hope that you kissed me because you actually like me and not just for a rebound from Elena." I remarked, my eyes still closed in slight euphoria. He may not be the bad boy that I usually date, but Matt Donovan knew how to kiss.
"I kissed you because you're beautiful and smart and hilariously sarcastic. Because you are ridiculously small, and you like loads of the movies I like and you play the X-Box, and you eat like a normal human being. Because when you're in class and you actually concentrate on something, you get this little dent in the middle of your forehead and when you see something you don't like, your nose scrunches up. I kissed you because I feel like we've been friends for a lot longer than a few days and I feel like you already know me better than most the people in this town." Matt said, and I grinned, my heart swelling.
"I feel the same way. Plus, you're pretty good to look at and I've always been a sucker for blue eyes." I said, as I reached up on my tiptoes to capture his mouth again.
Maybe coming back to Mystic Falls wasn't a mistake after all.
Today was the big game. The Timberwolves were going to annihilate their opposition with the help of their newest member, Stefan Salvatore. I had showered and curled my hair before pulling it up into a ponytail with a cute red ribbon, which matched my red cheerleader uniform. I also thought it would be cute to get a little creative and paint Matt's jersey number onto my wrist with face paint.
I pulled my cheer uniform on, and my white tennis shoes on (as per Caroline's instructions), tucked my phone down my bra, grabbed my pom poms, and then hurried downstairs to meet up with Stefan, who looked very good in his football jersey.
"Look at you. Well aren't you the poster child of high school American football," I teased him, and then twirled around so he could inspect my uniform. "How do I look?"
"Very much like the cover girl of a cheer-leading bi-monthly magazine." Stefan replied, grinning at me.
"I forgot to ask, how did last night go with Bonnie and Elena?" I questioned, as we headed out the door, heading to the garage.
"It went well until Damon showed up with Caroline. He's feeding from her and compelling her."
"I suspected as much," I said, climbing into the passenger seat of his 'temporary' car. He had his 1963 Porsche 356B Karmann Coupe in the garage but he stopped driving it for some reason or another. It was much nicer than the plain old Ford Fiesta he was driving now. "Do you want to know how my night went?"
"You went out with Matt, right? Which Elena is cool with by the way. Caroline brought it up. She said that you and Matt were getting very close, and Elena said that she was happy that he was moving on and that she was happy it was you," Stefan informed me, and I felt a little relieved. I knew that she had said it was okay before when I gave Matt my number, but dating and just hanging out were two different things. "Damon had an odd reaction to it though. He got mad. He was probably jealous that someone else would be spending time with you instead of him."
"Yeah, well he can go suck it. He's sort of dating Caroline, and I am not throwing a fuss about that. And I could, because he's feeding from her and he'll probably hurt her, but I am not a possessive best friend, unlike him," I ranted, earning an arched eyebrow from Stefan, so I internally shook off my resentment and cheered up again. "Anyway, I really like Matt and we had a lot of fun; we ate burgers, played pool, broke up a fight, and then he kissed me. And no offense, Stef, but if Matt ever kissed Elena the way he kissed me, I'm a little surprised she broke up with him."
"Do I have to play the protective brother part now and threaten his life if he hurts you?" Stefan questioned, and I laughed at him.
"No. Matt is a good guy. He's so much different from all the other guys, Stefan. He won't hurt me, not that he could. This heart has an impenetrable wall around it. No one can get in. The girl who loves too easily learnt her lesson." I smiled sadly, before looking out the car window to see that we were just pulling into the school car lot.
As soon as Stefan parked up, I climbed out the car quickly and rushed away, with Stefan on my heels.
"I'm going to give Elena that necklace. You know, the one I found in that speakeasy in Chicago in the twenties?" Stefan said, and I almost tripped up as I froze.
"Yeah, I remember it. Why are you giving it to Elena? I mean, that's pretty soon for her, isn't it?" I questioned, thinking of the reaction the necklace's previous owner would have if she found out Stefan had given it to his new girlfriend. Not that I knew she was still alive or not, but if she was...it would get ugly.
"I filled it with vervain. I want to keep Damon out of her head. I wouldn't put it past him to try and compel her to do something to ruin our relationship." Stefan answered, and I nodded. He had a point.
"Well, that's a good idea. She'll love the necklace, so no worries there," I replied, before spying Stefan's love. It was like talking about her made it easier to find her. "And there is Miss Gilbert. You give her the necklace, I'm going to go find Matt. Good luck, brother!"
I planted a kiss on his cheek, and then hurried away to find Matt. It wasn't that hard to find him since he and Tyler were surrounded by other jocks and cheerleaders. Tyler spotted me first, and I rolled my eyes when his roamed my body, unashamedly checking me out. He didn't say anything until I was standing next to him and Matt, though.
"You know, Salvatore, you look very attractive in your cheer uniform. You're probably the most attractive cheerleader on the squad." Tyler complimented me, stressing the word 'attractive' so I would notice that he didn't use 'hot' or 'crazy bang-able' as I'd heard him say to one of his jock buddies yesterday.
"You get points for not being so much of an ass, and therefore I accept your compliment, Lockwood. Thank you," I smiled at him, and then turned to Matt. "So, you ready for the big game, quarterback?"
"Yeah! You going to cheer for me?" Matt flirted and I smirked, happy that last night wasn't just a one time thing...not that it went any further than kissing. Dating Donovan was step one of me becoming less loose with my body.
"Almost exclusively," I said, and quickly went on to clarify what I meant, when I noticed his face fall in disappointment. "I mean, I've got to cheer for Stefan too. And maybe the rest of the team...it's kind of my obligation as cheerleader."
"Right." Matt said, smiling down at me again.
"But, if you look closely...I only have your jersey number on my wrist, see?" I said, holding my wrist aloft slightly and he took hold of my hand.
Matt grinned, but we both scowled when Tyler snatched my hand away from Matt and stared at my wrist. I never told him that he stood a chance with me, even though I was physically attracted to him, so really he had no reason to be jealous. I yanked my hand out of his grasp, rubbing my wrist as he had squeezed it tightly.
"What's your problem, Lockwood?" I questioned.
"Nothing, except my best friend swooped in and stole the girl I like." Tyler said, glaring at Matt.
"Come on, he didn't steal me. He can't steal me, because I'm not your possession. I'm not anybody's possession, you got that?" I practically snarled. "You know why I like Matt? Because he doesn't act like a bratty kid who's been told no. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find Caroline and report for duty otherwise she'll kill me."
I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed Matt on the cheek, before throwing a dark look at Tyler as I walked away.
I found Caroline and the rest of the cheerleaders sans Elena, who had apparently quit, and she made us practice until it got darker, and it was almost time to light the bonfire and burn the dummy wearing the opposite team's jersey.
Tanner took to a podium and we all cheered, in spite of ourselves, because we were all feeling the school spirit. I stood next to Caroline and Bonnie, waving my pompoms and hating myself a little bit inside, but not much because Matt kept sneaking glances at me with this cute smile that made me want to giggle like a school girl.
The crowd around Tanner was big, like half the student population of the school big, and that generated enough noise to drown out Tanner, so he had to demand silence.
"Wait, wait, wait," He said, waving his hands to get the noise to cease. "Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Let's be honest here. In the past, we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us."
We all booed those words, until he continued to speak.
"But that is about to change," Tanner said, causing everyone to cheer. "We've got some great new talent tonight starting on offense and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these."
I grinned at his words, and cheered for Stefan along with the rest of the crowd. I saw Tyler shaking his head, but ignored him. He probably just hated that Stefan was the new guy and he was getting all the attention.
"Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore," Tanner said, and he continued to talk but I couldn't hear the beginning of his sentence due to Caroline whooping loudly in my ear. "-that have been waiting for us to put a check in the win column I have only one thing to say to you. We're Timberwolves, we're hungry. And the Central High Lions are what's for dinner!"
I cheered, and pumped a fist in the air, but I noticed Tyler walked away. I watched him walk towards Vicki Donovan, unsurprisingly, but then I saw Jeremy sitting in the bed of a truck just a couple of feet away from Lockwood and I felt a bad feeling spread through my gut.
I ducked through the crowd, getting there just in time to see Jeremy's fist flying towards Tyler's face. It was a brilliant hit as well, so we had to give Mini Gilbert points for that, but then Tyler shoved him back into the bed of the truck and kneed the kid in the stomach. None of Jeremy's stoner friends did anything to help him, and all Vicki contributed was 'Tyler, stop it'. Tyler threw Jeremy to the ground, and seeing Stefan watching, I waved him over, wondering why he hadn't already intervened. He was stronger than me.
I moved closer, marching past Vicki, and grabbed Tyler's arm just before he could punch Jeremy in the face.
"Hit him again, Lockwood, and I'll make sure you're arrested for assault on a minor." I threatened, shoving him as hard as I could away from Jeremy.
Tyler climbed to his feet, and, in his anger which I could tell it was, he advanced on me, but Stefan was suddenly in front of me. Tyler didn't seem perturbed by Stefan's presence at all, in fact he simply clenched his fist again and went for an abdomen shot. Stefan didn't even flinch.
Stefan and Tyler were too busy facing each other off to notice that Jeremy had picked up a broken bottle, and was getting to his feet, so, for some stupid reason that I'd probably be hating myself for later, I dashed in front of Tyler just as Jeremy was about to stab him with the jagged glass and let him cut my hand open instead.
I hissed in pain, and Jeremy dropped the bottle and quickly began apologizing to me.
"Maeva, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you."
"No worries, man, I know. Just next time, don't try to kill someone with a broken bottle, okay?" I said, through gritted teeth as Elena rushed towards us to check on me and berate her brother. I looked down at my hand and saw it was bleeding quite badly and cursed. "Oh shit on a stick, this hurts worse than childbirth."
"What the hell, Jeremy?" Elena scolded as she pushed him slightly away from me. "Put your head up, you're bleeding."
"I'm fine. Maeva's the one with a deep gash on her hand, which I am so sorry about. Check on her." Jeremy said, diverting Elena's mothering on to me, before he stormed off.
"Oh my God, your hand! Is it deep? How bad is it?" Elena questioned, as she snatched my own hand away from me, and looked at it. "Oh, it's bad. We should get you to the hospital."
"Don't worry about it, Elena. It's Stefan's first football game, and someone needs to be here to cheer for him. I'll call Damon to come get me and drive me to the hospital. Matt's dealing with Tyler, so can you tell him I'm sorry that I'm gonna miss the game?"
"Of course, but are you sure you want to wait for Damon?" Elena questioned.
"Yeah! I'll be fine. Go have fun at the game, and be Stefan's good luck charm." I smiled through the pain, knowing I had been through worse.
Elena reluctantly nodded, and let me wander alone towards the car lot. I considered breaking into Stefan's car and driving it to the hospital, so I didn't have to call Damon, but as I stared at the car door and contemplated how I was going to get inside, someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me round.
I held in my scream when I saw Damon's face, and I felt my body relax. I was about to say something witty and sarcastic, but I noticed his serious gaze which had narrowed in on the blood that was oozing from the cut on my hand.
"Who did this?" Damon demanded, as he lifted my hand, gently, upwards so he had a better view of it.
"I stupidly tried, and succeeded, to break up a fight, but one of the participants tried to slice the other guy with a broken bottle and I put myself in the line of fire." I explained, as Damon inspected my wound.
"You didn't answer the question. Who did this, Mae?" Damon pressed.
"Why do you want to know so bad?" I questioned, puzzled as to why there was this dark fire in his ice blue eyes. It wasn't Damon.
"Because they hurt you and they need to be in a lot of pain as retribution."
"You mean revenge, and Damon, I don't want you to hurt people in my name. I just need my best friend to take me to the hospital so I can get it stitched up and then medicated. Please, can you do this for me? Please?"
Damon stared into my eyes, and probably saw that I was in pain, and then reluctantly nodded, just like Elena had a few moments ago, before he ushered me towards his car. He even opened the passenger side door for me, though he did threaten to kill me if I got blood on his leather seats.
He didn't stay with me at the hospital, but he did come and pick me up afterwards, ignoring my questions as to where he went and why he left, but, after my pain meds kicked in, I soon forgot all about it and we went home and watched the old Teen Wolf movie in the living room...
...until Stefan came home and Damon quickly disappeared.
"What the frack is going on?" I questioned, as Damon used his vampire speed to disappear and Stefan thundered into the living room, with an equally thunder-y expression.
"Damon killed Tanner." Stefan explained simply, and I felt my heart sink.
"He did what?"
"He killed Tanner."
"So that's where he disappeared to? He left me at the hospital to go and kill your football coach and our American History teacher? Really?" I questioned, angrily. I couldn't believe Damon. What could have motivated him to do that? "Why would he do that?"
Stefan's expression turned into a somewhat guilty one.
"I kind of provoked him, and he repaid me by ripping into Tanner's neck. The game was canceled, Matt found Tanner's body and Damon has shown us that he really has no humanity left," Stefan said, and I climbed up from the couch, and walked past him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to sleep. I can't deal with this right now. I'm going to sleep and then I will deal with everything tomorrow."
Today had been another long, horrible day and I wanted nothing more than to just fall into a deep sleep, perhaps a coma, and to wake up, or not, tomorrow where my problems might seem a lot less problem-ish and I wouldn't want to kill my best friend.
