"He's awake," Damon exclaimed to Elena "He's weak, but it's probably best to stay away. He may be a kid but I'm not sure how dangerous he still might be,"

Elena frowned as she watched Damon grab his school bag.

"You're going to school?"

"Aren't you?"

"I mean-"

"I came here to live a life. It's about time I get back to that," Damon lied. 'And to find you why you look just like my ex. '

"So what did you tell Jenna?" Damon asked.

"As much as. I could. She thinks that your uncle was "abusing" you two. She only didn't call Social Services because if she did then Stefan would be taken into foster care,"

"What choice did you have?" Damon shrugged "I came here because you wanted me to live as normal a life as I could. I knew this was going to be a part of it,"

"Well you didn't have to involve us," Jeremy commented as he entered the room.

"Jeremy!" Elena reprimanded. Damon only rolled his eyes and shrugged it off.

"So I heard from Caroline the sexy suds car wash is tomorrow, are you in it?"

Elena frowned. Damon instead of waiting for her to answer just took off out the door.


Jeremy walked alongside his sister as they entered the school.

"Unbelievable. It's like nothing happened," Jeremy commented.

"Maybe he's in denial," suggested Elena, Jeremy shook his head.

"No way,"

"Hey." Bonnie greeted running up to them,

"Hey. You know, I gotta go. Be somewhere right now," Jeremy decided as he stood up.

"I'm so sorry I haven't called," Elena apologized to her best friend.

"No worries. I'll live," Bonnie laughed.

"I was helping Damon with...something,"

"Oh," Bonnie giggled "You helped Damon with...something?"

"Yes. Yeah," Elena nodded sheepishly.

"Listen, I'll explain all to you later. I gotta be home after school, but The Grill, around four o'clock?" Elena suggested as the girl arrived at Elena's locker.

Bonnie seemed hesitantly but eventually said.

"Ok,"


"You ok?" Damon asked as walked into Jeremy's room. Stefan cuddled up on his bed. Wide awake though.

"Is Elena or Jeremy there?"

Damon frowned "Don't answer a question with another question. That's my thing,"

Damon sat beside him "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm evil," Stefan answered solemnly.

Damon rolled his eyes "Enough with that crap, come on. You should go get something to eat,"

Stefan shook his head. Damon rolled his eyes again.

"Come on," He easily threw his brother over his shoulder and made his way down the stairs.

"Wait! What are you doing!"

"Dinner," Damon replied " I know that Chicken Parmesan is one of your favorites, and Elena and Jenna happen to make a good cooking team,"

"Wait what?" Stefan said as Damon put him down.

"Happy belated birthday," Elena laughed as Jenna smiled. And for the first time in a long time Stefan felt like he had a home.


Jeremy was in the library looking for a book. He slide his hand across the book shelf, until a few books fell down.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry. There was this one book wedged between the other, and so I pulled and then kaplunk, kaboom," Anna ran around as she gestured with her hands "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jeremy reassured.

"I'm Anna," Anna introduced.

"I'm Jeremy," Jeremy laughed. Jeremy then noted the books she had dropped
"You believe in vampires?"

"Well," Anna shrugged "There's not a lot of documentation, but the stories have been told since the Civil War. My granddad used to tell me all these creepy stories when I was little. And he said that his granddad told them to him,"

"That sounds like vampires to me." Jeremy laughed.

"Man, you actually get it. I gotta give it to you; when I first saw you, I missed it," Anna laughed.

"Yeah," Jeremy shrugged "I've had a rough go of it lately, but I'm just now getting back to my old self."

"Well, good luck on your...whatever your doing. I gotta get home," Anna paused for a beat "You know, my great grandfather actually showed me a journal once of an ancestor, and he had written all of this creepy stuff about vampires. It was actually really believable."

Jeremy borrowed his eyebrows "Wait. A journal?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Are you sure you have to go?"


PElena sat next to Bonnie

"Aww, It was so nice what you did for Damon and Stefan. Very romantic,"

Elena laughed "Well, I was feeling romantic,"

"We should get going, the car wash is starting soon," Bonnie realized.

"Oh yeah we should get going or Caroline may kill us,"

"Got that right."


Jeremy sighed "So, you have no idea where the journal is?"

"Nope." Anna shrugged "Gramps died. And all the kids split his stuff. I can ask."
"I just find it weird that your ancestors kept the same kind of journal," Jeremy exclaimed "It's crazy. "

"Maybe it's based in some partial reality." Anna suggested.

"No!" Jeremy paused realizing he'd just yelled in the library "I mean, it's gotta be metaphorical."

"So, that's why you're hung up on the fiction of it all," Anna sighed sadly.

"No, it's-I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I just recently got out of something. It's a little too soon, you know?"

Anna laughed awkwardly "Oh please, sure. No worries. I meant as friends. Yeah. Look, I really gotta go. Nice meeting you, Jeremy."


"No friend discounts. No freebies. No pay ya laters. We are not running a charity here. No, we are not." Caroline exclaimed with her hands on her hips.

"No we are not," Elena repeated with a laugh. Damon soon arrived.

"Hi," Elena greeted.

"Hello," Damon replied. Caroline looked the two over.

"The event is called sexy suds, you know," Caroline reprimanded.

"Did we just get scolded by Blonde?" Damon frowned.

"And judged," Elena paused "Yeah"


"There you are," Jeremy looked up startled

"Hey, I thought you left."

"Hi," Anna slumped down next to Jeremy "Ok, look. I know I don't know you, so don't ask me why I did this. I just, sometimes—mostly all the time- I have this need to be right. So I googled and... "

"What is it?"

"Proof," Anna paused "Sort of."

"What does this mean?" Jeremy frowned.

"Well, I only went as far back as 1942, and found that there's been a string of animal attacks periodically in and around this town for the past 75 years. It's consistent. In '62, five bodies found. In '53, four people killed. In '74, three people dead. And there's been five this year. All attacked. All suffered major blood loss, as in drained of blood,"

Jeremy felt his throat run dry. Was it Stefan...?


"Sweeper duty." Caroline exclaimed.

Bonnie paused "What?"

Caroline frowned "We have to clean the pavement."

Bonnie rolled her eyes "It's a car wash. By definition, the pavement's clean."

"But not dry."

"And I'm doing this why?"

Caroline sighed "I'm in charge," she paused "Oh just go with it!"

Caroline stormed off leaving an annoyed Bonnie glaring at her.

And then there was fire.

Caroline's car.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Bonnie!" Elena shouted grabbing her shoulders "Hey!"

"What just happened?" Bonnie asked breathlessly.

"You were in some kind of a trance," Damon stated.
Bonnie looked over "Did I do this?"

"Yup," Damon exclaimed. Elena hit him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. Bon-"

"Nobody else saw, did they?" Bonnie paused "Don't tell anybody. Please," she begged.

"Of course not," reassured Damon giving Elena a look.

"It's our secret."