The car ride home was silent, and when we got there I sat at the kitchen table, waiting for the yelling and screaming but it never came. Alistair looked exhausted, and Amy stood behind him rubbing soothing circles on his back. "Norah, I don't even know what to say to you. You've done a lot of stupid things, but I think this tops the list. When that guy hurts you, don't expect me to give you any sympathy, because this is your warning; he will rip you to pieces." I understood that he was upset, and I had planned on giving him a little leeway, but this was taking it way too far. "You met him for two seconds, and you didn't even give him a chance. How could you possibly form that kind of opinion about him from that little amount of time?" Alistair took in a deep breath and let it out as if trying to stay calm. "When it is someone like him, you just know." He walked up the stairs immediately after, and Amy followed suit.
I felt like crying. Alistair always insulted me, I would be worried if he didn't, but ever since we came here, everything felt worse. Everyone was on edge; the slightest wrong move was treated as if it was going to end the world. Something about the place, or the people, or maybe even both, put so much stress on everybody in the house. And then there was Damon. I enjoyed being around him once I got over the majority of the uncomfortable feelings I felt around him, but that definitely didn't give him the right to say anything he pleased to me. The insulting part was that by the tone of his voice, I knew that he was intentionally trying to hurt me. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe after some sleep everything will seem a little better, but I doubt it.
When I woke up in the morning, which was only a couple of hours after I went to sleep, I enjoyed a couple minutes of bliss before yesterday's events came crashing down on me. I methodically got ready and headed up the stairs, praying that nobody was awake. I sighed in relief when I got my wish.
It took a couple of days before anyone in my family would communicate with me in any way. Even Sean was annoyed at me, which rarely ever happened. Needless to say, I actually looked forward to school where I would have actual contact with people. But on Thursday when I sat down with a bowl of rice krispies, and went to grab the newspaper, I noticed a note on top of it. Wake up the girls and drop them off at the day-care. I'll pick them up. I looked over at the clock that was now striking six o'clock. This would not be fun, but at least it was a start.
I tip-toed up the stairs and walked into Sarah's room first. Luck was with me, because I managed to get her dressed and put her on the couch downstairs without waking her up. Ashley would be more of a challenge.
When I stepped into Ashley's room, I had to suppress a laugh at the sight of her. She was curled up in a little ball with her but sticking up in the air, but her hair was the funniest part. I don't know what she did at night, but every morning it looked just like the hair from the bed head commercials before they used the product. I tentatively approached the bed.
"Ashley, it's time to get up." I shook her shoulder, but all I got was a bit of unintelligible mumbling. This girl was going to make some teenager. I tried a few more times to rouse her from her deep slumber, but nothing seemed to work. I looked at the clock to see that a half an hour had passed. At this rate I was definitely going to be late.
"That's it," I said aloud. I got on the other side of the bed, and in a good old-fashioned way ripped the covers and pillows off of the bed. She shot up in an instant. "Give me them back," she ordered. "No, we gotta get going, put this on." I threw her a pair of jeans and a pink shirt. She let the outfit fall to the floor and sat there with her arms folded. Not having the patience to deal with her further, I grabbed the cloths and put her over my shoulder. "Then you're going like this. They'll just have to dress you at day-care after you explain to them that you're not big enough to do it yourself yet." "No!" I knew that would get her. I put her down and she got herself dressed.
We managed to leave the house at six-forty-five, and with my fast-walking/jogging I managed to drop them off, and arrive at school only ten minutes late. If anyone at home was talking to me right now, I would so demand the car.
The worst part about walking in late was definitely the teachers. For some reason, they always felt the need to make some smart comment, like they thought that their class was the most important thing in the world. "How nice of you to join us Ms. Samson," Mr. Masterson said sarcastically. "Sorry." I handed him my late pass, and quickly walked to my seat. "Where were you? Some people around town said they saw you hanging around Damon Salvatore yesterday," Caroline whispered frantically. "I was taking my nieces to day-care," I answered, purposefully avoiding the second part of her statement. "And what about Damon?" Damn. "Yes, I was with him yesterday, happy?" She frowned. "Damon is bad news Norah." I was about to defend him, but then I remembered that I was still mad at him for the comments he made last night. "That's what everyone keeps telling me."
The rest of the day went by in a blur. I was constantly replaying everything that happened yesterday over and over in my head, making it hard to concentrate on anything. No one seemed to notice how dejected I feeling until Stefan tried to get my attention in history later that day.
"I heard about your brother, is everything okay," Stephan asked as we sat in our seats. I didn't feel like talking to him, but he was being polite, so I had to be as well. I couldn't really afford to have even more people not talking to me. "He's going to be fine." I pretended to be looking through my textbook in order to avoid further conversation, but it didn't deter him from pressing further. "And what about you, how are you doing?" I suddenly felt very exposed. I expected people to ask about my brother, but my feelings concerning the whole fiasco was not something I was mentally prepared to discuss. "What do you mean?" Stefan gave me a look of disbelief. "I'm sure your family didn't take very well to you spending the evening with Damon." How could he possibly know that? He and Damon didn't even talk. "How did you know I was with him last night," I asked with a little more bite than intended. I immediately started to apologise for my rude behaviour, but he stopped me before I could even take a breath. "It's okay, I understand."He ended the conversation without another word, and I decided that Stefan was alright.
As I had become accustomed to the week before, I walked out with Stefan to meet Elena, and after exchanging our goodbyes, we parted ways. Remembering the note saying that I didn't need to pick up the girls, I made the decision to take the back way through the woods. "Wait, Norah!" I heard footsteps running up to me from behind, and I slowed my pace so they could catch up. Unsurprisingly Stefan and Elena appeared on either side of me. "We'll walk you home." I laughed, they finally realised I was too stubborn to be persuaded out of my decisions.
It felt good to hang around with people my own age that had no idea about anything going on in my family. It made me momentarily forget how out casted I was right now at home. We were actually having a pretty good time, when all of a sudden Stefan came to a halt.
"Run back," Stefan stated in the most serious tone I've head out of him. Elena started to pull my arm to get me moving, but I refused to leave. I turned towards Stefan. "No, what are you talking about, what's wrong?" Then, two men came out from behind the trees in front of us. I froze. They were covered in blood and I was almost positive that it wasn't theirs.
The larger of the two laughed. "The Samsons' little sister roaming the woods unprotected; I would have given those guys more credit than this. But, I have no problem leaving out the added obstacle. This should be relatively easy." The guy lunged at me, or at least I thought it was a guy until I looked at his face. White fangs protruded from his blood-covered mouth, and his eyed were pure black with bright purple veins surrounding them. I let out an ear-piercing scream as he held me down with all his might and bit into my neck. A burning pain consumed my neck and I started to see my stars. What seemed like hours later, which probably wasn't even a minute, the "man" was pulled off of me. I heard voices from above me, but everything was hazy. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, and, managed to clear my vision to a point where I could make out Stefan and Elena hovering above me. I tried to get up, but my head felt like it was filled with bricks. "Easy there," Stefan said. I felt myself being lifted off the ground, but not a second later I fell victim to the blackness slowly engulfing my vision.