I've got a killer migraine and I'm super tired. But I managed to write another chapter. Here ya go.
"So you remember everything I told you, right?" Elena asked, sitting in the passenger's seat of Damon's Mustang. He'd bought it right before he went cross-country, after Elena left. It was cherry red, with leather seats. You could change the color of the inside lights. But what Elena loved the most about it was the radio. It was a Sirius radio, so you almost never lost signal or got white noise.
Damon nodded, taking the key out of the ignition. "Don't leave your side unless you say I can, try to avoid Stefan and Katherine as much as possible, and if people start to bother you about where you've been, make up a story about needing to be somewhere and leave. I got it, Elena." Elena looked out the window at the boardinghouse, feeling so weird to be back home. Suddenly, Damon's hand was on Elena's left knee. "Hey. Everything is going to be fine. I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to you."
Elena gave him a small smile, feeling extremely grateful that he was here with her. They hopped out of the car and made their way around other cars parked in the front lawn to the front door. There were a couple of people outside, holding drinks and making small-talk, but all the conversation died when they spotted Elena. She recognized a few people: Mayor Lockwood - Tyler's mom - Sherriff Forbes, her eleventh grade English teacher…
Damon squeezed Elena's hand, feeling her stiffen at being in front of these people. He rang the doorbell and someone opened the door almost automatically. Stefan stood there with a smile on his face until he realized who was at the door.
"Damon, Elena, welcome back." he said, moving to the side to let them in.
Elena could hear light classical music playing in the background to everyone's conversations. There were a lot more people inside than there were outside. She vaguely thought that every car in the front had to have been packed for as many people to be there as there were.
"Elena, you look wonderful." Stefan said, walking up to her right side, the side Damon wasn't on. Elena had been wondering if she had gone too formal with her green and black strapless dress, but based on what everyone else was wearing - and what Stefan had just said - she now was comfortable with her decision. [NOTE: GO TO /prom-dresses-raleigh-nc/prom-dresses-raleigh-nc-2 FOR ELENA'S DRESS]
Elena had been looking to her left when Stefan said this and noticed the frown on Damon's face from Stefan's comment. She knew that Stefan hadn't really meant anything by his comment other than the fact that she had chosen a good dress, but Damon had obviously taken it as a pass at her. "Thank you, Stefan. Where's Katherine?" she asked, hoping to get the attention away from her.
Stefan pointed across the room at her. "She's over there, mingling with guests." Elena was disappointed to see that Katherine was wearing a black and red dress that went down to her knees. [NOTE: GO TO . FOR KATHERINE'S DRESS] It looked so much better on her than the green and black dress did on Elena. "Look, can we go upstairs? There's something I forgot to mention."
"Yeah, I didn't think about that until we got to the front door." Damon added, getting an odd look from Stefan.
"What are you guys talking about?" Elena asked, confused. In answer, Damon nodded his head toward the stairs.
All three of them made their way to the stairs. Elena noticed as they walked that Katherine had spotted them and was on her way to the stairs as well. There was sinking feeling in Elena's stomach. She didn't think this could end very well. Katherine wasn't a very nice person.
They went into the room closest to the stairs. Once inside, Elena imagined Stefan would close the door, but he left it open. Elena cocked her head to the side at him until Katherine walked in and she realized that he knew she was coming. Katherine walked right past all three of them after shutting the door.
"What is she doing here?" she asked, pointing at Elena.
Elena's mouth gaped open for a moment before regaining her composure. "Uh, I'm right here. You don't have to talk about me like I'm not here. And Stefan invited me." She crossed her arms across her chest for good measure.
Katherine didn't get snappy with Elena like she thought she would. Instead, she looked to Stefan and widened her eyes, clearly wondering why he invited Elena. "She was over at Damon's when I got there. I invited her, too. I didn't think it would be a big deal."
"So, you're telling us that you didn't tell Katherine that Elena was coming?" Damon asked.
"That's exactly what he's telling you." Katherine replied, obviously pissed. "So now we have a really big problem." She turned to Elena. "Everyone here thinks I'm you."
Needless to say, Elena was taken completely by surprise. So they hadn't explained that Katherine just looked like Elena? She suddenly remembered Damon saying that he hadn't remembered something until they got to the front door. "And you didn't tell me this, why?"
Damon gaped at Elena, obviously not knowing what to say to appease her. Before he could say anything, Stefan stepped in. "Look, we don't really have time for that right now. Some people already saw you, Elena. Right now, they're probably just thinking that Katherine - who they think is you - just changed dresses, but when they see the two of you down there at the same time…"
"Wait!" Elena said, thinking. "How is it even possible that they think she is me? Doesn't everyone here think I'm dead?"
Stefan sighed. "Well, they did. For about three months. But when Katherine showed up in town, everyone just assumed she was you and we figured it would be a lot easier to tell them that she was you instead of trying to explain that she just looks exactly like you. A lot of people were confused and didn't really believe that she was you. So, we went to Bonnie, asking her if she knew a spell that would help us. She said she did know a spell, but she wouldn't help us.
"So, Katherine got one of her witch friends… What was her name?"
"Haylie." Katherine answered.
Stefan nodded. "Right. Haylie. Well, she helped us. She did some sort of spell that temporarily took my and Katherine's ability to use compulsion. She used it to make a serum that we could spike into the drinks at the Founder's Day party to make everyone believe that she was you. Well, it worked. So now…"
"People are going to be more confused than ever." Katherine finished. "But I have an idea. Elena, you could say that you're my cousin. We could play you off as me - Katherine, that is - and say that you're not a direct family member. We'll say that you're a Gilbert from Europe, a member of the family who stayed behind when the rest moved to Mystic Falls."
"I've got a better idea." Elena said, surprising Katherine. "We tell everyone that you and I met each other at a tour of a school. We figured out that we were distant relatives from research on the internet. Obviously, we searched because we look exactly alike. I wanted to see what it was like on your side of the family, so we switched places. I liked it so much there that I stayed.
"Stefan and I broke up before I left and you and him fell in love, so you wanted to stay here, too. You guys make a speech later and say that you're really Katherine and I am the real Elena. Got it?"
Katherine didn't say anything for a minute, pondering over what Elena had just purposed. "No, I like my plan better. I don't want to come out and tell all these people that I've been lying this entire time."
"But you were lying!" Elena shrieked, wanting to rip Katherine's pretty little head off her shoulders. Damon crossed the couple of feet between he and Elena to grab her hand, but she pulled it away from him. "You don't get to hold my hand right now."
Damon looked hurt, but it didn't last long. Elena knew that if they had been alone, Damon would have shown his true emotions, but here - with Stefan and Katherine - there was no way he would let them know that he had vulnerabilities. "I think Elena is right. After all, she is the real Elena. She should be able to tell people so."
Katherine looked genuinely surprised. She must have thought that Damon would agree with her because he had been in love with her for so long. Elena felt a little smug because she knew that he agreed with her because he actually loved her. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, she thought to Katherine. But then Katherine turned to Stefan, looking for a backup.
Stefan walked to Katherine and took her hand. "Kate… I actually think Elena's right in this case. It's not fair to her to tell everyone that you're her."
"Fine." Katherine said, pulling her hand out of Stefan's hand and walking to the door. "Be in the living room at eight."
Stefan looked at his watch and then looked at Elena and Damon. "It's seven fifty-five now. I'm apologize for her rudeness. You know how she can be." He shrugged and then left the room.
Damon sat on the edge of the bed in the room, patting the spot next to him for Elena to sit. "Oh, no. I'm not very happy with you right now. How could you not tell me that Katherine had been running around here saying she was me?"
"Elena, it slipped my mind."
"Slipped your mind? Damon, how could something like that slip your mind? I just don't see how that's possible." Elena shrieked.
"I'm sorry. I was just so happy to get you back that I didn't think about anything else. If we had been here, I probably would've remembered and told you. I just… I wasn't thinking. It wasn't until Mayor Lockwood and the others looked at you that I remembered." he explained.
Elena thought about this for a minute. "Well… I guess I can understand that. I haven't really been thinking about anything but you either since I found you. I'm still mad at you, though. Now, let's get downstairs. Katherine is probably about to start the speech."
Damon got up and took Elena's hand before leading her out the door. They walked down the stairs and made their way to the living room. All the conversation ended as Elena made her way through the crowd. She heard at least two glasses fall and crash to the ground as people lost their grip when they saw her.
"No matter what happens tonight," Damon said as soon as they made it into the living room, "I'm not leaving your side. I love you, Elena."
Elena wanted to be mad at him. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't okay that something so huge had slipped his mind, that she wanted a long, drawn-out apology from him. But when he said those sweet words, all the ice in her heart thawed. It kind of felt like she was falling in love with Damon all over again.
"I love you, too, Damon." she whispered, moving closer to him and snuggling her face into his neck. Luckily she hadn't decided to curl her hair. There were two reasons she thought this: the first was that she wouldn't have to worry about messing up her hair. The second was that Katherine had curled her hair and it would just be too weird to have the same hairdo as her doppelganger.
The chinking of a glass made Elena raise her head. Katherine was standing in the middle of the room - right in front of the coffee table - with Stefan right next to her. He was holding her hand, but he was looking straight at Elena. When she made eye contact with him, his gaze fell to the ground. Elena didn't have time to think about that because Katherine started talking then.
"Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for coming. As you know, Stefan and I have been doing some major redecorating for the past three months, and it is finally done. What do you think, does it look good?" she said and automatically the crowd started applauding. Katherine's smile beamed.
Now that Katherine had said something about the redecorating, Elena looked around. The place looked almost the same, the only difference was that instead of having red as a contrasting color to the black, they now used blue. No wonder Elena hadn't paid much attention to the house. She had just enough time before Katherine started talking again to think that it shouldn't have taken three months to get this done.
"Thank you! I really hope that you enjoy the party. Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes." Katherine continued and then turned to walk away. Stefan grabbed her arm and slightly shook his head. To a human it would just look like Stefan was staring at Katherine, but Elena was a vampire so she could see what was really happening.
Katherine sighed and turned back to the crowd. "I almost forgot! I have another announcement. Three years ago, I left for a little while. You all remember that, right?" People nodded with sad expressions on their faces. It looked like everyone did, in fact, remember that they thought she had been dead and then miraculously showed up again. "Well, when I left, I went to go view a school in Indiana.
"When there, I met a girl who looked exactly like me."
Elena felt her heart starting to beat harder. Was Katherine about to lie again and say that she was still Elena and that Elena was Katherine?
"A girl named Elena." Elena's heart slowed back down, relieved. Everyone in the crowd looked around, obviously confused. "We decided to look up our ancestry to see if we were related because it was just too weird. It turns out that we are distant relatives. Well, I lived in Europe at the time and she lived here. I'd always wanted to live in America, and she'd always wanted to go to Europe, so we decided to switch places.
"When I got here, I loved everything about Mystic Falls, and soon met Stefan. I found out pretty soon that he and Elena had been dating. He was trying to talk to me about getting back together, so I figured they had just broken up. I explained everything to him. Well, we wound up going out and falling in love. About a week before Elena and I had decided to switch back, I was so nervous. I didn't want to leave because I didn't want to be apart from Stefan.
"To my relief, Elena called and told me that she wanted to stay in Europe. So we stayed switched. As you all know, I lived here with Stefan while I was here because Alaric had moved when he thought…you know. I was rude to Elena. Every time she told me that she wanted to come back home, I would ask for more time because I knew that I couldn't stay if she came back. I don't have citizenship, so I would have to leave.
"Well, Stefan and I got married three months ago, so now I get to stay. Elena saved up money for a plane ticket after I told her and now she's back!" Katherine pointed to Elena, who gave a little wave. Suddenly, the crowd parted as someone shoved their way through. Elena was afraid that it was someone who didn't believe what Katherine was saying coming to say she was a fraud, but as soon as Elena saw who it was, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Elena?" Alaric whispered.
Elena felt her eyes tear up automatically at seeing him. "Alaric!" she shrieked, throwing herself at him. Although Rick wasn't really family, Elena wasn't surprised to feel how hard he was hugging her. He knew this entire time that it was really Katherine here and thought that Elena was dead. He kissed the top of her head just like a father would.
"I missed you so much." Elena cried, loving the feeling of having a family again.
Rick pulled back to look at her, probably wondering if it was too good to be true. He had a huge smile on his face as he said, "We missed you, too."
Elena was about to ask him why he said "we" instead of "I" when someone walked up next to him. "Jeremy!" Elena yelled. He pulled her in for a bear-hug. "Hey, little brother."
Jeremy laughed, making Elena wiggle from his chest moving. "More like older brother now, huh?" he whispered so that only she would hear it. She laughed, knowing exactly what he meant. Elena was still technically eighteen, the same age he was now. Actually, he would be turning nineteen in a month.
The rest of the night went by like that; people coming up to Elena, welcoming her back home, remarking on how much she and Katherine - who had had to be asked to tell everyone her real name - looked alike, and asking her about her time in Europe. Then there were other people who had thought she was still dead who chastised her on leaving them in the dark about her being alive.
At around ten, Elena didn't think she could keep answering the same questions anymore, so she told everyone she was going to the bathroom. Damon followed her to the stairs, but Elena told him that she was just going up for a minute to catch her breath and would be back down soon. Once upstairs, Elena went into the room they had been in before and sat down on the bed.
She had just finished taking a deep breath when the door opened and Stefan walked in.
"Stefan? What are you doing up here?" she asked.
He smiled as he said, "I could be asking you the same question."
Elena sighed and said, "I just couldn't take any more questions. I feel like a celebrity with paparazzi popping out every two minutes to bombard me with questions about my personal life. Your turn."
Stefan sat down on the bed next to her. "I saw you come up here looking tragic, so I thought I'd come try to cheer you up."
"Katherine isn't going to like that." she laughed.
Stefan shrugged. "So… Are you going to tell me why you ran away without a word, only to come back to Damon?"
Elena stiffened at the turn their conversation had taken. "Stefan…"
"I just want to know one thing, Elena, and then I promise that I'll leave you alone." Elena waited for him to say what it was, but he didn't say anything. She made a motion with her hands to tell him to go on. "Were you and Damon having an affair before you left?"
Elena gasped. She had thought he was going to ask her why she had gone to Damon, or why she had left without a word to anyone. Maybe even why she left him, but not this. "What? Why would you think something like that?" But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she could see why.
Stefan answered anyway. "Well, you knew what Damon was going to do the night you…well, died. You were so frantic about saving him. You'd continuously attempted to save his life, even when everyone else thought it was hopeless. Sometimes I would see the two of you looking at each other in…this way. Then, I walk in on you and Damon kissing, and you run off, only for me to never see you again. That is, until yesterday, when I found out you had come back for my brother."
The way he explained all of that did make it seem like Elena had been seeing Damon before she left, even though she hadn't. "No, Stefan. Damon and I weren't having an affair before I left. It's just that… When I was here, I had conflicted emotions about the both of you. I loved you, Stefan, and I wanted to be with you, but there was a part of me that felt something for Damon, too. I was so confused…
"When you walked in on me and Damon kissing…I just didn't know what to do. Honestly, I didn't know if I should tell you that it would never happen again because I didn't know if it would never happen again. And I didn't want to tell you that I wanted to break up so that I could go to Damon because I didn't. I had no idea what I wanted.
"So, I ran away. I was so upset and confused. I didn't know what to do. Before I knew it, I had drained this poor little girl… I knew that I couldn't go through the transformation with all that stress going on, so I left. It turned out that that was what I needed. While I was gone, I realized that - "
Elena stopped, not wanting to say the truth to Stefan because she knew it would hurt his feelings.
"It's okay, Elena." Stefan said, giving her a small smile. "You can say it."
Elena took a deep breath and said, "I realized that I cared about you, but I wasn't in love with you. It was Damon that I was in love with."
Stefan sighed, looking at the ground as he did so. "I think I realized that before you did." he said. There was so much pain in his voice that it made Elena want to cry. This was why she didn't want to have this talk with him. Even though she wasn't in love with him, she did care about him, and didn't want to hurt him. Not even a little bit. "Don't worry, Elena. I'm not going to try to kiss you again or anything. I want you to be happy. I'm happy. With Katherine, that is. Yes, she can be mean and vindictive at times, but she can also be sweet and loving, and that's what I love about her. I'm sorry that I kissed you before, I was just…so happy that you were alive. Old habits die hard."
They shared a sad laugh together before Stefan gave her a hug.
"I'm gonna go back downstairs now." he said and Elena nodded. He walked over to the door, stopping just before he went outside. "I'm happy that you're alive, Elena. And I'm glad that you're happy." And then he left.
Elena had a giant smile on her face, so happy that things were working out exactly like they should. She got up and went to the mirror on the opposite side of the room, glad to see that her makeup didn't look too bad after all the crying she'd done tonight. Caroline, Bonnie, and Matt weren't here, but she decided that as soon as she found out what college they had each decided to go to, she would go visit them. She had a feeling that Caroline wasn't in college, was actually with Klaus somewhere. But even though Elena had no desire to see Klaus whatsoever, she would put up with him to see her friend.
Just as Elena was about to make her way to the door, it opened. She smiled, expecting it to be Damon.
Suddenly, Elena was shoved hard into the wall, her oxygen cutting off. She opened her eyes to see Katherine standing there behind a cloud of stars the blow to her head had caused.
"So, he kissed you, huh?" Katherine asked, obviously not expecting an answer. Elena reached out, trying to hit Katherine, but she was much older than Elena and moved out of the way before she could make contact. Elena came off the wall as Katherine moved, but was pushed back into it almost immediately. "I'm sorry, Elena, but I just can't take the risk that Stefan will leave me for you."
Katherine grabbed a pencil off the table next to them and shoved it through Elena's shoulder and into the wall. Elena cried out in pain, automatically reaching for the pencil. But Katherine had left and come back just as she touched the eraser. This time, Katherine had a stake in her hand. "This will only hurt for a moment."
Elena saw Katherine pull her arm back, positioning the stake to go right through her heart. She closed her eyes, silently praying that Damon will find the will to go on after she's gone. She heard the wind made by Katherine's arm as it came speeding toward her body, but the blow never came.
Elena opened her eyes to see Damon holding a syringe that was sticking in Katherine's neck. Vervain. But Katherine had been taking vervain for years; it didn't affect her the way it did other vampires. To Elena's surprise, Katherine staggered. As she did, Damon pulled her lapis lazuli ring off her right index finger. Then, he shoved her into the table beside Elena.
"Stefan…" Katherine whispered. Almost immediately, Stefan came through the door.
"What's going on here?" he said, going to Katherine.
Damon looked in Elena's eyes as he said, "This is going to hurt, but it won't be for long." He pulled the pencil out of Elena's shoulder and covered her mouth when she went to scream. He caught her easily when she fell. "Your wife just tried to skewer my girlfriend."
Stefan looked back and forth between Katherine and Elena. "Is that true, Kate?"
Katherine got up, stumbling into Stefan's arms. "Pure vervain. And a lot of it. Way to go, Damon."
"Katherine!" Stefan yelled. "Is it true?"
"You were going to leave me…" Katherine whimpered. Stefan then dropped her. She looked up at him as if she couldn't believe he had dropped her and then yelled, "Haylie!"
Elena had just enough time to see a woman with dark hair and blue eyes appear in the doorway and say something she didn't understand when everything went black.
Let me know what you think =]
Oh, and just wanted to say one more thing: Does anyone else find it a little ridiculous that a fanfiction story is being published and turned into a movie? First of all, why publish it when it was already out for FREE on FanFiction? Secondly, the story was a Twilight fanfic. That doesn't really surprise me. Why is it that EVERYTHING about Twilight that people find a little good, they make into some sort of merchandise that people can buy? Also, wouldn't Stephanie Meyer have a problem with this? I don't know, maybe I'm weird and just ranting, but I think it's stupid as hell. Then again, if I was getting my fanfic stories published and turned into movies, I'd be one happy chick! Lol. Let me know your opinions. If you don't believe me, go to Google news and type in fanfiction. It's there for everyone to see!