Hey Guys! I can't stop writing this story, so I'm really glad you are all liking it!:) Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews; you guys are like the best reviewers ever! It really makes me happy to read your feedback:) Here is part 1 of a 2-part 'Witchy Experiment'. I think you guys are going to like it. Elena and Damon just might be getting along...?

Special Thanks to: Skating-on-glass, curiouswriter, Guest, LoveMeant2BE, kaybaby1127, fashionista1988, DeeReadinQueen, & CamJ for reviewing last chapter! :) *Hugs!*


It's A Boy Girl Thing

Ch 7. Witchy Experiment Part 1

Elena and Damon arrive with Bonnie to Sheila Bennett's home on Sunday, promptly at noon. Both are eager to get started with whatever it is Bonnie's Grams has in store for them today. Sheila has been preparing all morning for their arrival; cleansing the home of any negative energy so the spell will be pure, setting up the black and white candles to balance the energies between Damon and Elena, and gathering all the oils and herbs needed to perform the spells.

When Sheila opens the front door and greets them with a solemn nod, Bonnie announces, "They're not speaking."

Sheila motions for the three teenagers to come inside before asking, "Well why not?" She picks up a thick stick of sage, which she had used earlier to purify the house, and re-lights it.

Elena crosses her arms and looks away from Damon, not wanting to explain why he's an asshole this time. He is simply hopeless. He will never understand why he made Elena so upset, so he'll never truly be sorry for what he's done. She can't forgive someone who doesn't deserve to be forgiven, and who isn't remorseful of their actions. She keeps her mouth firmly shut.

Damon sighs and admits, "I did something stupid. So…she's not talking to me."

Bonnie and Elena both look at Damon curiously, wondering if this is some kind of joke. "I know it was stupid, okay?" He says to Elena with the tiniest of shrugs, "Can we just forget about it for now?"

Elena doesn't know if she'd consider that an apology, but she rolls her eyes and nods once. The sooner they agree to drop their argument, the sooner Sheila can focus on breaking this body-swapping curse. "Whatever."

Sheila waves the burning sage in front of Damon and Elena, surrounding them in a haze of smoke. She explains, "Relax, both of you. Take a few deep breaths. Let your problems go. We have more important things to do right now, and holding on to these negative emotions is going to make it more difficult for the magic to work on you."

Damon coughs over-dramatically, "What the heck is this stuff? It's suffocating me."

Sheila sucks her tongue against her teeth, "It is not suffocating you. It's only sage. Come, follow me. I'm going to have you two take a seat."

Damon and Elena follow and take a seat at the two wooden dining chairs that are in the middle of the room, facing each other. Bonnie trails in behind, standing with her back against the wall to watch her Grams work her magic. Sheila draws symbols in the air with the smoke from the sage at each corner of the room, and then puts out the incense. She places two white candles and two black candles at opposing corners of the 'circle' Damon and Elena are creating. She lights them counter-clockwise, with no help of a lighter or matches. Elena is mystified. She wants to ask how Sheila is doing that, but she holds her tongue. She's a witch! That's how she's doing it.

"Before I start with the spell," Sheila explains, "I want to warn both of you that these spells are intended to break the curse and restore both of you to your own bodies. That being said, I don't know if either of these will work because I don't know the original spell Ayana used. These spells are written in an ancient tongue, so it is difficult to translate. This first spell is to clarify and restore the mind, while connecting one to another. I feel strongly this is the one that will work as it contains hyssop herb, which is used to take off a jinx or break a hex. I'm going to try that one first."

"And if it doesn't work?" Damon prompts.

"Then I have a second spell to try," Sheila answers. "Now, let's get started." She instructs Damon and Elena to, "Sit up straight, and plant your feet firmly on the floor, relaxed. Keep your hands in your lap or at your sides, un-crossed. Crossed limbs can cross magic, and we don't want that. Take three deep breaths, and then just relax. Try to clear your mind of any worries and focus only on what we are doing here and now."

Sheila crosses the room to a long, narrow table, where she has the supplies needed for the spells laid out. She mixes in a bowl the ingredients for the first spell: basil for masculinity and rosemary for femininity, nutmeg for good luck, bay leaves and hyssop herb to work against the curse, licorice root for the mind, and a pinch of salt. She crushes the herbs together and then picks up the bowl with her left hand. She picks up a small bottle of jasmine oil with her right hand, and approaches the chairs where Damon and Elena sit.

"Terra parens protegat nos…" Sheila chants, "Da mihi virtutem…" She crosses the bowl through each of the four candle flames, starting first with the black and ending with the white. Then she places the bowl on the floor between Damon and Elena's feet. She puts a drop of jasmine oil on the inside of both wrists of Elena and Damon, and then links their hands together, ordering, "Keep your hands linked." She resumes chanting in the dead language, "Dimitte ista maledictio…dimitte ista maledictio…dimitte ista maledictio…" The third time she chants these words, the bowl of herbs on the floor bursts into flames. The herbs sizzle and crackle in the fire until they become a thick smoke, which floats up and surrounds Damon and Elena. It circles around their heads, swirling faster and faster, like a tornado. The smoke thins slowly until it disappears.

Elena blinks a few times, her eyes stinging and slightly irritated from the smoke. She realizes she is gripping Damon's hands pretty tightly, and vise versa. They've also been staring into each other's eyes like they were hypnotized, but once the spoke dissipates the dazed feeling passes as well. For a moment, Elena felt like her mind was leaving this body and crossing back to her own. She felt a strong pulling sensation towards Damon when Sheila was chanting, but now she feels nothing. Everything feels the same. And she is clearly still in Damon's body because she's still sitting directly across from herself.

Damn…it didn't work.

Elena takes in a sharp breath. Did I just…? Was that Damon's…?

What the fuck?! "What the fuck?" Damon repeats his thoughts out loud.

Oh my God…No. No, no, no. That didn't just happen. We are not sharing thoughts right now. No way. I'm hallucinating. That's it.

"Uh, Gramma Witchy, something's wrong," Damon announces.

Yeah, Elena thinks, Seriously wrong. Like it wasn't already bad enough to be in your body? Now I have to be in your mind too? I don't want to be in your mind. I don't want to know what you're thinking…

Please, like I want to hear your thoughts? Damon interrupts, finally dropping Elena's hands. I can't believe I was still holding her hands. Well, my hands, but whatever. The last person I want to touch is her.

"I can hear what you're thinking, asshole!" Elena insults, trying not to feel hurt by Damon's words. She was thinking the same thing…sort of. Well, she would have, if she'd been thinking anything other than, Why the fuck is this happening?!

Sheila gasps, "Oh no…" She picks up her spellbook and skims through the spell she just used on Damon and Elena.

Great…she messed up. Now we're going to be stuck like this forever…

No we're not! Elena refuses to believe that. She'll fix it. She won't leave us like this. I can't be like this. I'll go crazy. I'll seriously go-

Will you stop thinking so much? You're giving me a headache!

You are a headache!

Sheila shakes her head back and forth as she realizes this spell is not what she originally thought. She's been tricked by the Trickster. Ayana isn't playing around. She really doesn't want this curse to be tampered with by Sheila, so she is influencing Sheila's magic. She made Sheila believe the spell was to unbind the jinx from their minds and send them back to their own heads, but it connected their minds further. "Oh dear," Sheila sighs, "I'm so sorry. Let me see what I can do…"

While she skims the page following the spell for an anecdote, Elena tries to clear her mind of everything, so Damon won't be able to hear her thoughts. Yes…that's it…think of nothing. Black, dark, nothing.

What are you doing? Damon raises an eyebrow at Elena. You know you can never actually make yourself think nothing. It doesn't work. You just end up thinking something else.

Get out of my head!

Damon rolls his eyes. I'd love to. Show me the way out.

Elena fake laughs. Oh you're so funny, aren't you? You're just hilarious. Just like it was hilarious for you to make-out with my best friend's boyfriend!

I didn't even know they were together! I didn't know Caroline was with Tyler until after I got there, and he bragged about how he blew Caroline off for you! So maybe you should be mad at him. He's the one who wanted to steal your virginity so badly he'd cheat on Caroline.

My virginity…Elena's eyes widen and she bites her lip…La, la, la! Doo-doo, uh…ponies and kittens and rainbows and all kinds of colorful candies…

What are you doing? Damon squints at her, trying to figure it out. You're trying to hide something from me. What do you not want me to know, Elena?

She tries to keep it out of her mind, really, she does. But Damon was completely right. The harder she tries to not think of it, the closer to the front of her mind it comes. It's like reverse psychology on her own brain, only it's doing the opposite of what she wanted it to do! Virgin. He always says that. Virgin-this, virgin-that. Someone who had sex as many times as I did cannot be called a virgin. She claps a hand over her mouth even though the words weren't spoken out lout. She closes her eyes in shame when she sees the evil glint in Damon's eyes.

"You lying slut!" Damon accuses, pointing a finger at Elena in shock. Wow! What is that supposed to mean? How many times have you had sex? Elena, Elena, Elena…I never would have guessed. How many dirty, little secrets are you hiding?

Leave me alone! Elena pleads. She jumps up from her seat and runs out of the room. Someone kill me now. He's going to find out everything. I don't want him to know about Matt. I don't want him to know any of this. He's going to tell everyone. He's going to hold it over my head forever! I can't deal…She sits on the front steps of Sheila's house and blinks back tears.

"Hey," Damon says quietly from behind her, "I'm going to do that."

"Yeah, sure," Elena scoffs before hiding her face in her knees.

Damon sits down beside her and reassures, "I'm not this horribly evil guy like you think I am, Elena. I won't tell anyone. I think I understand how you feel. We're kind of in the same boat here."

"Yeah, but you don't have anything to hide," Elena points out. "And there's a lot that you don't know about me. And I'd like to keep it that way. Stefan doesn't even know, and I can't-"

"Do you really think I'd tell Stefan?" Damon interrupts. "I think you know by now that I don't talk to Stefan."

"Maybe not now," Elena shrugs, "But if I do something to make you mad, I bet you'd tell him then. Because obviously Stefan wouldn't want to be with me anymore."

"Is that why you lied?" Damon wonders. Because Stefan wouldn't want Elena after finding out she's not a virgin. That's why he wants her in the first place…

Still hearing your thoughts, Damon. But no. That's not why.

"Sorry…" Damon didn't want Elena to hear that, but again, can't control what's in his own head. "Just my opinion. Maybe Stefan wants you for a completely different reason."

Sure. Elena smiles half-heartedly. But you probably are right. And he would break up with me if he found out, because I lied to him. I told him it was true that I'm a virgin.

Why, though?

Bonnie opens the front door and announces, "Grams is going to reverse the spell. Come on."

Damon and Elena quickly follow Bonnie back inside and re-take their seats. Sheila asks them to hold hands again. She lights the candles clockwise this time, and chants a few phrases in Latin. There's more smoke, and then…

Are you still in my head? Elena asks cautiously. Damon does the same. There's no answer.

"It worked!" Elena says with a smile.

Damon is surprised to find that he's a little disappointed. He didn't want to be stuck with Elena in his mind forever, but before Bonnie interrupted them, he was learning something really interesting about her. And now that her thoughts aren't forced upon him, he doesn't think she's going to open up about it. Why he cares so much, he's not sure, but he wants to know what happened with Elena and this Matt guy. Why would she endure his incessant teasing about her being an uptight virgin when she's not even one? She must have a good reason…and he is so curious.

"Yeah," Damon nods, "it worked."

"All right," Sheila smiles, glad to have that problem solved. "Are you up for trying the second spell? Or do you want to wait for a different day? I don't want to do anything you aren't prepared for."

"Let's just do it today," Elena answers first. "Is that okay with you?" She asks Damon.

"Yeah," He agrees, "I'd rather try it now. Get it over with, you know."

Sheila nods and gets to work preparing the small ceramic bowl with herbs needed for this spell. Lavender and chamomile flowers are used for luck, cleansing, and un-hexing, and also for friendship. The spell calls for damiana leaves, a small amount of ginger, lotus and patchouli oils, and a pinch of sulfur powder. She mixes it all together as she chants, "Mentem…Corpus…Anima…" She motions for Damon and Elena to hold hands again once she's finished mixing the herbs and oils. She lights the candles as she passes over them with the bowl. "Flammas desiderii consurget…Flammas desiderii consurget…Flammas desiderii consurget!" She holds the bowl above Damon and Elena as the herbs crackle to life with fire, same as before. This time, the smoke burns red, and it falls around Damon and Elena like ashes raining from the sky. When the last of the red ash has fallen to the ground at Elena and Damon's feet, they feel their hands heat up like red-hot coals. They pull their hands away from each other quickly, both looking to see if their fingers were burned. Once contact is broken, the burning sensation is gone too.

"That was weird…" Elena comments slowly.

"Do you feel any different?" Bonnie asks curiously.

"I don't know," Elena shrugs.

"No," Damon says honestly, not caring if it hurts anyone's feelings. He's not going to lie and pretend like the spell worked when it didn't. He's still in Elena's body. Clearly, that means the spell didn't work.

"Is it supposed to work right away?" Elena wonders, remembering that she and Damon didn't switch bodies until some time after they fell asleep.

"It's hard to say," Sheila admits, "All spells are different. Some take effect immediately, and some don't. I guess we just wait and see."

Yeah, no kidding. Damon rolls his eyes. This was a waste of time. Nothing is going to happen. He's still going to be stuck in Elena's body tomorrow morning, and he's going to have to go back to school for another week pretending to be Elena. Maybe he'll have to pretend to be Elena for the rest of high school, and maybe college too, and maybe after that it'll be for forever. He can't even imagine. Forever in Elena's body? That would be…just cruel. What did he do to this Ayana chick that made her hate him so much?

Sheila instructs Damon and Elena to take it easy when they get home, and have a few glasses of water. She says their bodies have been exposed to a lot of magic today, and even if they don't feel like it, their bodies are drained. She gives them both her phone number and says to call, regardless of the results, in the morning. She is confident the spell was successful, but she's just not sure if it was the spell they needed to break the curse. Only time will tell.

Bonnie drives Elena and Damon home, not bothering them about the awkward mind-reading moment. She would like to know why Damon accused her best friend of being a 'lying slut', but she'll ask another day; prefferably when Elena is in her own body. It's still weird to talk to Damon and have Elena answer. Bonnie will be glad when this is over, too, and she's hopeful that the second spell her Grams cast will do the trick.

"Remember what Grams said," Bonnie reminds when she pulls into Elena's driveway, "Drink a glass of water, and get lots of rest. I hope it works."

"Me too," Damon and Elena say at the same time. Elena laughs and Damon smiles briefly. That was awkward. First they've switched bodies and now they're talking at the same time.

"Jinx," Elena teases. Then she says, "Maybe that's not funny right now since we're already kind of jinxed."

"Yeah," Damon agrees with a laugh. "Well...see you later? Hopefully tomorrow things will be..."

"Normal?" Elena suggests.

"Normal."


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