Abigail's POV
"You know… I really didn't need a personal escort to cheerleading tryouts. Ash and Mikol are here." I point out mildly as Elijah and Niklaus walk beside me, Asen and Mikol trailing just behind; Ash was Asen's alias for school, short for Ashton.
Most of my Guardians retained their normal names, or perhaps they changed the spelling of them to fit in, since their names came from Old Icelandic/Old Norse language, that is, if they went to school with me. My last name change of course, I took on my Guardians last name, Drakov, it was safer that way for me, if and/or when followers of Silas tracked me down.
"We know, love. Just thought it'd be the gentlemen thing to do." Niklaus replies smoothly.
"And by that you really mean, a show of force so Elena and Caroline don't try something." I say, giving them a look of disbelief; I had already had an unfortunate run in with them in town a few days prior, it hadn't gone well, I thought Elijah and Niklaus were going to massacre half the town. Kol probably would have joined in too, he had evidentially decided we were best friends now after our first meeting.
"Of course not, darling. Rebekah wouldn't let anything happen to you." Niklaus lies, badly I might add.
"Please Nik, you know your sister hates me. I'm sure she'd rather see me eaten by a pack of wolves." I snort, adjusting my bag on my shoulder.
Feeling the weight suddenly disappear, Elijah holds it for me. However, the bright pink Underarmor bag was clashing a bit with his serious and proper look he always wore.
"Thank you, my kind sir." I laugh, giving him a smile.
"Of course, my lady." He responds immediately, playfulness dancing in his eyes.
Continuing to the track, I turn to Asen and Mikol as we reach the edge.
"You guys ready? Try not to piss off the all-star quarter back or the running backs this time okay? I know you're good and all, but tone down the Guardian part." I half tease, though also half serious.
I really didn't want to have to move again; the last time Mikol accidentally forgot about his Guardian strength he put the quarterback in the hospital and we had to move.
"Psh. You know us, Abby. I have no idea what you're talking about." Asen says, faking offense.
"Sure, total and complete angels." I quip sarcastically.
"Don't worry about us little sister. Have fun at tryouts. Don't piss off the captain." Mikol teases back, ruffling my hair.
But before I could come back with a reply, Mikol and Asen were jogging over to where the football team gathered with their bags and equipment.
"Thanks for walking me over. I can take my bag now." I say, turning to Niklaus and Elijah.
"Of course, love. We'll be back to pick you up." Niklaus casts a hard glance behind me.
"I'll be fine." I insist, looking to where both Elijah and Niklaus stare; they were looking at Caroline and Elena.
"Be safe, Astin." Elijah finally offers, something flickering in his expression, though his posture and expression remain formal.
"Always am." I tease, turning around to walk off.
Glancing back, by the time I set my bag down they're gone.
"Hello Rebekah." I say politely.
"What do you want?" She snaps bitchily.
"Look, I realize you don't trust or like me. And I know you think I'm like Tatia, but I promise you I won't do that to them. Besides, I don't mean anything to them. Elijah and Niklaus are only honoring their promise to my father. If it wasn't for that they wouldn't even give me a second glance and Kol probably would have already killed me by now. I am nothing special. Anything "special" about me is my name. I do not wish to get between you and your family. I hope I can prove you wrong. And I would truly and sincerely like to be your friend, if you would like one. I get the over protective older brother situation. Believe me, I have three too. But if nothing, I would like to be able to be polite to each other. Once everything is over I'm leaving anyways." I explain.
I truly did want to get to know Rebekah. She wasn't as bad as she seems. Behind the face, Rebekah was really lonely. With three over protective, slightly sociopath, supernatural brothers, the last 1000 years probably wasn't easy; that was probably an understatement of the century, or more… She was like any other teenage girl. She wanted to fit in, to be accepted, to be loved, and have friends.
It also was true about my bloodline, it was the only reason I was special. Otherwise, I would be a mere human among a million, billion other humans. In all honesty, I often wondered if it was because of my bloodline that my Guardians really truly cared. After all, it was their job, an obligation to protect and serve me. There was nothing unique about me at all.
"You're right. I assumed you'd be just like her. I didn't want to like or trust you..." Rebekah replies, my face dropping slightly. "And you're stupid to think you mean nothing to my brothers, any of them…"
"But-" She continues. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to try and be friends. You seem okay, I guess. And it would be kind of nice to have another girl around… It's not like with the Tatia doppelganger 3.0 and her clique around here there are any other options anyways…"
"So... Start over maybe?" I ask, giving her a tentative smile, also holding back a small laugh at her reference to Elena Gilbert and her friends; I perhaps had some more compassion towards others, being the "personification of humanity", but I still didn't have the highest opinion of the doppelgangers.
"Sure." She sighs, seemingly nonchalant, but I could see the hope and excitement in her expression anyways.
"Abby! Abigail! Hey! I didn't realize you cheered! That's awesome. How are you?" A familiar voice calls.
"Hey Matt! Yeah, since elementary school actually. And I'm good. What about you?" I ask, giving him a sincere smile; I had also already met Matt on one of my first times into town with my brothers, he had been on shift at The Grill.
Honestly, I could see Matt and me getting to be best friends. He was just that kind of guy. He was genuine, easy going, and sweet. And most of all, completely human, something I desperately needed in a world where I was surrounded by supernatural at all times.
"Oh, uhh- hey Rebekah." Matt coughs, shifting nervously, clearly some uncleared tension in the air.
"Oh, hey Matt." Rebekah offers back, looking awkwardly away and picking at her nails.
"So uh- I didn't realize you played football." I cut in, easing the tension.
"What? Oh yeah. Quarterback actually." He says a bit shyly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Wow! That's amazing! Now I have to make the cheer squad." I joke lightly.
"Haha. Thanks. And I bet you will." He encourages.
"Thanks." I say, smiling again.
"Hey Matt!" A new guy, jogs up to us. "You're Abigail, right?"
"Hey man." Matt says, doing the guy handshake that I would swear all guys knew.
"Yeah, I'm Abigail. Call me Abby. And you are?" I ask, offering a hand.
"Oh right. Sorry. I'm Tyler Lockwood. Klaus asked me to watch after you. So..." He trails off awkwardly, eyes shifting away from mine as if that truly wasn't the truth.
"He did?" I question, that not particularly sounding like Niklaus, yet also sounding like something he would do; Niklaus was kind of paranoid, understatement of the year.
"Yeah." Tyler nods, something in his expression still a little off.
"Right. Well thank you, Tyler." I nod, smiling genuinely.
"Of course." Tyler answers, his own smile easing up.
"I see you've made buddy buddies with all the Originals. That wasn't good enough for you so you decided to steal my boyfriend and the quarterback too?" Caroline bitches, walking up to us, Elena following.
"Care, stop being a bitch." Tyler defends.
"Oh, shut up Tyler! You're only defending her because you're still Klaus' lap dog." She snaps, death glaring at me.
Huh. So, Tyler Lockwood, the Prodigal Son, as Niklaus referred to him. His first hybrid. But obviously a mouthy and hot tempered one, and not like the others in Niklaus' pack that I had, in small, very small and brief moments, had been around.
"Look, I'm sorry. I realize we got off to a bad start." I begin to say, only to be cut off.
"A bad start? Please." Elena cuts me off, shaking her head.
"Look, we don't trust you. We don't like you. What are you even doing with the Originals? Do you know half of what they have done? They're pure evil. Klaus and his family deserve to die. The world would be better off anyways." Elena hisses, clearly having hopped on the crazy train in my opinion.
"Oh you don't even know half of it. Don't even get me started. I've seen real evil. They don't even come close. The Originals aren't that bad. Everyone does bad things. I would too if I had 1000 years to live. Without them you would all be screwed. So have some respect. You are blinded by anger and too stuck up your own asses." I snap irritated already, I seriously wanted to stake them both right now.
"Please, the Originals have killed-" Caroline starts ranting.
"Just shut up. Look I'm here to cheer right now, okay? So you can bitch to me later about things you know nothing about. And second, I would be a lot nicer to the person who's going to save all your asses." I hiss, stomping off, not wanting to hear another word; and I meant that literally, I was going to end up saving them from Silas, how fucking ironic.
"Did you really mean what you said, you know about my family?" Rebekah asks quietly, coming up beside me, looking extremely vulnerable for once.
I silently wondered if anyone had ever defended her before; it seemed like everyone was on the "hate the Originals" train.
"Yeah, I did." I reply simply, shrugging.
"Well, thanks." She answers, giving me a smile.
"Well, that's what friends are for. Besides, it's true. You guys aren't evil. Doing bad things is different than being truly evil. You guys don't deserve to die. You're a family. And families do whatever it takes to keep the ones they care about safe." I respond simply, a smile on my lips; perhaps, we were getting somewhere, and maybe she didn't hate me quite as much anymore.
"Hey, umm, can I talk to Abby alone?" Matt asks, looking almost a little nervous as he walks up to us.
"Look Matt, I realize you probably don't trust me much either. I understand." I begin, so much for having a normal, human friends for once, I mentally sigh.
"I trust you, Abby. You haven't done anything for me not to. You can choose your own friends, even if I don't trust them. You have your own reasons. And for whatever reason you're here, it's your secret. I'm sure it's important and you have a good reason for not sharing. I would like to be friends. You kind of seem like you need a normal one anyways. And if you ever wanna talk, I'm here." He cuts off immediately.
"Thanks, Matt. You're right. I do need a normal friend. Desperately." I joke, giving him a genuine smile.
"Alright, well see you later. Practice and all." Matt gestures to the field.
"Yeah, have a good practice." I nod.
"You too! Good luck!" He rushes off.
"Hey Abby, look I'm sorry about Care. She just-" Tyler manages to apologize, almost seeming level headed now that his somewhat temper has cooled off, coming up to me.
"Don't, Tyler. I understand. You're her boyfriend and she's defending her friends. I'd probably do the same. I really don't want to make an issue between her and you. And if you're worried about me telling Nik, don't be. Now go or your coach might get mad." I gesture to the team.
"Thanks Abby. You're pretty cool. I'll catch you after." Tyler manages to look relieved in more than one way that not, before running off as well.
Sighing lightly, I take a few deep breaths trying to focus, mentally shaking off the petty drama that high school always managed to stir up no matter how many towns I had been in. Cheer tryouts, I tell myself; that's what is here and now.
Finishing tryouts (at least for me since cheer season had begun already) and practice a few hours later, I pack my things into my bag, only to reach for it, the bag disappearing as I stand up to stretch.
"I've got it, Elskan." Elijah's familiar voice nearly startles me.
"Thanks." I say gratefully, straightening.
"Of course." Elijah smiles.
"How were tryouts, love?" Niklaus asks, standing on the other side of me.
"Oh, uh- fine. Long and tiring. But I made the team, so…" I say shrugging nonchalantly, or attempting to rather.
"No problems then?" Niklaus pesters.
"A little. Nothing to be concerned about." I try and down play it.
"So if I were to ask one of my hybrids, then? Perhaps a certain one on the football team? Or maybe my sister?" Niklaus suggests lightly, his tone indicating that he would make do on his less than concealed threat.
"Nik, don't. And, honestly, you're worse than my brothers!" I complain. "Look, the bottom line is that Elena and Caroline don't trust or like me. It's classic girl drama with a twist of supernatural thrown in. It's fine. On the other hand, Rebekah doesn't hate me anymore." I finally answers, wanting to go home and shower, eat, and collapse on my bed.
"Alright then." He gives in.
"Thank you. Now can I just go home? I'm tired, feel gross, and am hungry."
"Of course. Come, Elskan." Elijah says, looking at me concerned, before placing a light hand on my lower back to guide me to the car.
Reaching Elijah's BMW, I climb in, resting against the seats, eyes closed, wishing yet again that I could just be normal. Because if I was I'd be free. Free of the supernatural world and free of the destiny that had followed me my entire life.
