Jeremy's seventeenth birthday was closing in, the reason why he was not yet a blood-sucking vampire was still unknown and Mundial 2014 had only just begun.
At home, it was a rare occasion when Damon, Jeremy and Stefan could sit down and talk about something other than vampires, dangerous stunts and secrets, unless a sporting event was on TV and it was then when everything else that once seemed important went on hold.
Deciding to enjoy some manly-Mundial-time and a peaceful couple of weeks, Jeremy didn't mention drinking Kol's blood or Kylie's phone call or the reason behind it to the Salvatore brothers and instead only whispered about it with Kol during classes, which could be one of the possible reasons why his grades had been going downhill since.
"I have been through every book we have in the house, I even asked Elijah. That has never happened before" Kol was ranting during that day's biology class, after he compelled Professor Anderson to act as if they didn't exist, "Are you listening to me?" a heavy biology book hit Jeremy at the back of the head, causing him to almost lose consciousness.
"What do you want me to say? You're the one who's supposed to know how to turn people!" replied Jeremy in a low angry whisper, his right hand nursing the bump that was now on his skull.
"I've been turning people successfully way before you were even born. It's not my fault you're a weirdo!" Kol shot back at him indignantly.
Jeremy refused to continue that conversation and only gasped in surprise when Kol grabbed him by the upper arm and without saying a word to a clueless Professor Anderson, dragged his friend out of the classroom and along the corridor, all the way to the boys bathroom.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jeremy kicked and punched with all his might in attempt to free himself from Kol's tight vampire grip as the older boy forcefully sat him down on top of a toilet seat.
"We need to try again" said Kol simply and with a swift move and a painful groan, bit a small part of his arm near his wrist.
"You want to turn me?" Jeremy couldn't help but raise his eyebrows mockingly, "in the boys bathroom? How romantic of you and I thought this would be a special—" he didn't complete his sentence when suddenly Kol's arm got itself inside his mouth and the nauseating taste of blood was coming down his throat like a particularly nasty cough syrup.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jeremy began to protest when everything around him went dark.
It could've been seconds, hours or days, Jeremy had no idea. He was lying on the bathroom floor, his head face down on a piece of wet toilet paper. An annoying high pitched voice was buzzing through the echo of the room but his brain was still incapable to work and so every word, though familiar, made no sense at all.
"I can't believe this is happening" Kol kept muttering, "I can't believe this is happening!"
Jeremy made his first weak attempt to raise his head but failed miserably and it landed straight back at the wet toilet paper which immediately stuck on his left cheek like a bandage.
"What happened?" he asked in a low voice, speaking to the floor.
"You, shut up!" Kol waved a finger at him, but the boy couldn't see it because his head was facing the other way like a crippled doll, "I'm not even talking to you, this is your entire fault"
"How is any of this my fault" Jeremy used his new found strength to slowly pull himself up on his hands and knees like a little dog that just now learns how to walk, sweat dripping all over his forehead from the effort. "You're the one who just killed me, you dick!"
Kol had a pretty good, rude answer ready to slip off his tough, when suddenly the bathroom door opened and a freshman boy Jeremy only seen once or twice before in his life, stopped abruptly on the threshold, looking curiously at the sight of his two fellow students.
Now, even with Jeremy's jammed up brain, Jeremy could see why the events taking place in the bathroom could've appeared weird to anybody who didn't know of Kol's attempts to transform his best friend into a vampire, and instead all the freshman could see was a sweaty Senior down on his hands and knees, right next to his standing friend, alone in the boys bathroom…
To make matters worse, Kol took a step toward the young freshman and roared, "GET OUT!" without any further explanation.
The kid let out a giggle, closed the door and went on to his merry way to destroy Jeremy's already ruined reputation around the school once and for good.
"Great" smiled Jeremy bitterly, "now you'll have to marry me"
Kol, who clearly had no idea what was the big deal, went on with his rant, "my blood doesn't turn you into a vampire, it simply cures you from dying!"
Jeremy used the wall and gritting his teeth to keep himself from screaming, he lifted himself up.
"Maybe you didn't feed me enough blood" he said absentmindedly, far more interested in peeling the toilet paper off of his cheek.
"THAT'S IT!" bellowed Kol excitedly so loudly it made Jeremy jump a large pace backwards.
"What?" asked Jeremy carefully, hoping that he didn't understand correctly.
Kol, however, was in no way ready to explain what was about to happen in words and once again, for a second time that very same day, he forced his wrist in Jeremy's mouth after first taking a generous bite at it and kept it there for longer than a minute, just to make sure his friend had more than enough vampire blood in his system.
"And take off that stupid ring!" was the last thing Jeremy heard before everything went dark again.
This time Jeremy woke up at the backseat of his car. Kol was nowhere to be seen and instead a note was left on his chest.
"I hate you" Jeremy read the three simple words written on the paper and at once realized that he was still a boring human, despite all of Kol's desperate attempts to change that.
He pulled out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans. The time was five in the afternoon and he already had five missed calls from Damon who was probably calling to yell at him for being two hours late.
"Well he might ground me" said Jeremy hopefully. If Damon did ground him he would have the luxury to go on for at least a week without having his neck snapped by Kol, who would undoubtedly still try to turn him at least a hundred times.
Having that in mind, Jeremy waited till his body could function naturally after his second near-death experience that day and drove back home.
"I know, I know, I'm late" he began to say in what he thought was a very sincere apologizing tone the moment he walked into the corridor and took off his coat, "I was wrong and I will accept the consequences of my mistakes…whatever those consequences are. I will accept them and honor them…"
Hearing no answer to his tragic monolog, Jeremy bothered to look around him, only to realize nobody was there. He was just about start panicking, when footsteps came down the stairs and soon he saw Damon's figure walk right by him and go into the living room to open the TV. He was smiling.
"As I said, I will accept the consequences…" he ran after him determinate to ignore Damon's weirdly good mood, "ok, why are you smiling?" he blurted out, unable to restrain himself. On his defense, he hasn't seen Damon that amused since Stefan was fooled into spending an entire day picking out curtains and wallpapers for Elena's and Caroline's college dorm. Poor Stefan still had nightmares about that day.
Damon's smile grew wider at the question but yet didn't spare him with an answer and instead pointed at the screen of the TV where a Mundial football match was just starting between Italy and Uruguay.
Jeremy sat down on the couch across the TV and right next to Damon who had prepared all kinds of manly snacks for the game, including pizza, chips, beer and soda for Jeremy.
"How was your day?" he asked the boy with a little wink as together they watched the players come out in the field.
"Normal" muttered Jeremy in a choked little voice and staffed a giant piece of hot pizza inside his mouth to avoid saying anything incriminating.
"I bet" there was another little wink.
The front door creaked open and Stefan came in just in time to watch Jeremy choke on his pizza.
"You guys started without me?" he noticed rather angrily as he left on the snack table a whole bag of even more snacks, without paying the slightest attention to Jeremy who had just spit out his pizza and was gasping for a breath.
Only Damon bothered to clap him on the back with what Jeremy thought was too much strength, at least enough to feel as if he had just received a proper beating, and handed him over a soda.
"Stefan, nobody is going to eat this" Damon pointed at the food his brother just brought, "this is football, nobody eats noodles and pudding while watching football"
Stefan frowned.
"Why not?"
"Because we're men and this is girly food" Jeremy spoke the words his adopted father was about to.
Stefan straighten up and threw Jeremy a look as if he had just seen him for a first time in weeks.
"Didn't see you there Jer, I thought you'll be still with Kol in the bathroom" he said icily and with a highly uplifted mood went to the kitchen to prepare his noodles.
"Is that why you were smiling?" he turned to Damon and with a roll of his eyes, face palmed himself and kept his face hidden for what felt like an eternity, very aware of Damon's stare being fixed directing upon him.
"News travel fast, don't they?" stated Damon, rather sympathetically, rubbing the back of Jeremy's neck. "So, what where you doing with Kol in the boys bathroom on your hands and knees? Last time I checked he was not your type"
"He's not" Jeremy assured him eagerly, taking his hands down and exposing his flustered cheeks, "We were in the bathroom and I slipped…"
Damon nodded and without further interrogation, so unlike himself, went on with watching the football match.
"I'll pretend that's true for the next couple weeks, till Mundial is over, then get ready to run obstacle courses" he said lightly and took a sip of his beer.
