AN: Slowly but surely we are getting there :)
Also, I apologize for no replying to any of your marvelous reviews and comments. I may not always have time to reply to a review but I *ALWAYS* read them and I *ALWAYS* appreciate them .
At school, after first period, Elena and Stefan were catching up, trying to act like the average teenagers they were supposed to be but weren't. Not even by a long shot.
"Damon hasn't said a word to me. Every time I try to talk to him he shoots me down." – Stefan offered disheartened.
"Do you think he is still trying to look for Katherine?"- Elena asked, trying her best not to seem interested. She still felt indignant that Damon had assumed that she would just surrender to him… The jerk…
"I don't know. He waited 145 years only to find out that Katherine could not care less. It's gotta hurt right?"
"And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." – Elena replied snarkily, thinking what Stefan would do if he knew that his brother had tried to seduce her…
Stefan smiled.
"You have every reason to be upset." – Elena nodded knowing that she really had evry reason to be upset –"Have you thought any more about what you're going to do?" – Stefan asked as he leaned against the row of lockers and watched Elena's reaction carefully.
"About what?"- she played it coy –"Isobel, my vampire birth mother, who's related to my vampire ancestor Katherine, who screwed over your vampire brother?" – she replied with a frown –"Nah, I haven't thought about it at all." – Elena finished sarcastically.
"I'm sorry I brought it up." – Stefan chuckled apologetically. Elena had been on edge since they found out about Isobel being killed by Damon, so he was always walking on egg shell around her.
"It'd just be nice if we could get through one day without having to deal with any of it. No vampire mother or brother." - Elena sighted tiredly, longing for normalcy.
"No vampires at all?" – Stefan asked with a small smile.
"No vampires but you." – Elena beamed at him –"I just want to get us back to some normal stuff like school… and homework and, ah, here is a thought: fun." – She eyed him seductively.
"Uh, that sounds good to me. When do we start?" – Stefan replied, going along with the joke and Elena giggled.
Matt and Caroline were having trouble because of the way his mum treated her. So Caroline made up her mind and came over to Elena and Stefan, offering a movie night and a double date as a peace officering for her jealous and erratic behaviour of late. Elena was uncertain of it being a good idea but Caroline was insistent and, in the name of "fun", Stefan convinced Elena to say yes to what was surely going to be an awkward double date. All part of the normal passage rites of adolescence he wanted to give back to Elena back. Caroline left all happy and bubbly and Elena smiled back at Stefan hoping he knew what he was getting into.
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As Stefan and Elena settled into a false feeling of normalcy, Damon received a visit from Pearl and Anna. Pearl offered to help him find Katherine in exchange for his cooperation. Surprisingly, or not, Damon turned her down by professing no longer having any interest in his vampire maker. Having been rebuked and not enjoying his attitude, Pearl not so kindly convinced Damon that his assistance was not negotiable by gouging his eyes out. It was not all a waste of time though. Damon did learn that all the tomb vampires had escaped and that some had stayed in town to play happy families and plot to rip the town back from the founding families.
Damon couldn't wait to share the news with his broody brother and Elena. He would have rolled his eyes at the idea if they weren't so dam painful. Yeah, nothing like giving Elena more reasons to dislike him…
With that in mind, Damon decided to head to The Grill. He could drink his booze here alone, but he needed a change in scenery and The Grill was as good a place as any.
As Damon sat at the bar to order his drink, a boozy but sexy older brunette started a conversation with him. They flirted a little and Damon was starting to enjoy the game when Jenna joined them making things much more interesting. Apparently Jenna and Kelly – so much better than boozy and sexy brunette – were old buddies and, who knew? Jenna could actually be fun. Well, at least when she wasn't eyeing him as if Damon was going to deflower her niece.
Speaking of Elena, he caught her glaring at him from across the room, next to the equality disapproving his stares of Stefan, Caroline and the quarterback whose name he could never remember.
Damon had to fight a groan at living in such small town. Where else do drunkards and under age teenagers get to share the same fun space? He could feel the disapproving gaze of one Elena Gilbert, burning wholes on his favorite jacket.
"Well fuck you."- he thought to himself. Not at all ready to let a self-righteous teenager dictate what type of fun he could or could not have. So he smirked and tipped his empty glass in their direction before returning to more leisurely pursuits.
Things were starting to look up as Damon drank and chat with Jenna and Kelly. Well, that was until Jenna noticed who else was in The Mystic Grill with them.
"Hide. We're not here." – Jenna uttered in a panic.
"Why? Where'd we go?" – Kelly asked turning to face the bar.
"Children under our care. Five o'clock." – Jenna whispered
Damon was fed up with said "children", so he ramped the charm, efficiently capturing again the full attention of the two lovely ladies sharing the bar counter with him.
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Caroline made a snide comment about the "adults" hiding at the bar having the sort of fun she didn't think they should have if they, the younger ones, weren't. Of course it led to another trip down memory lane for her and Matt, resulting on Caroline, not to gently, coaxing Elena to follow her to the washroom. There, Caroline gave Elena the 911 on why they were on this date and that the brunette was to stop "hop-scotching" down Memoryville with Matt.
In turn, Stefan and Matt had their little chat too. The human telling the vampire, straight forward, that he came across as a know it all, have it all, douche bag. Stefan seemed ok with that.
As the girls returned from the washroom, Elena was intercepted by a stranger that called her Katherine. Caroline butted in and dragged Elena back to the pool table where she told Stefan about the stranger, but by the time he looked around the man was gone.
All pleasantries out of the way, the teenagers decided to move the party to the Boarding House, in the hopes to have a more "normal" date night.
Stefan and Elena arrived first and he wanted to call it a night on account of the stranger that approached his girlfriend at the bar. Elena refused to call it quits. She thought they deserved one normal night. Stefan caved in and it warmed Elena's heart that he was so loving, kind and considerate. It filled her with some regret too since she couldn't fully deny that she had been very tempted to give into Damon…
Caroline and Matt arrived before she could let such thoughts take deeper roots. Stefan kissed her sweetly and they climbed out of the car to meet the other pair.
"This is much better than watching Damon visit cougar town." – Caroline announced as they entered the vastness of the boarding house. As Matt took in his surroundings, Caroline couldn't help feeling a sense of déjà-vu. The boys started talking cars and Stefan decided to take them all to the garage to show his family's car collection.
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Frederick, the stranger that had mistaken Elena for Katherine, was one of the tomb vampires. One of the one's that didn't believe in the peaceful co-existence Pearl preached, but that would rather rip the Salvatore's heart for the part they played on getting him locked in the tomb.
He had watched the Katherine doppelganger walk to Stefan and had seen his brother Damon at the counter flirting with two ladies. He waited in the shadows and observed quietly.
Damon had been enjoying his night with Jenna and Kelly. He loved playing seduction games and the two women were good company. He was certain he would get lucky with at least one of them tonight with the extra benefit of providing him with a snack to help heal his injured eyes (and ego) a little faster.
Kelly, clearly the most forward one of the two, made the decision for all of them when she, seductively, tied a knot on the cherry stem with only her tongue.
"Oh my goodness" – Damon purred and he lowered his lips to Kelly's to collect the knotted stem.
Jenna took that as a cue to leave, letting the two others pursue more leisurely activities without a witness.
She stepped outside and her heel broke. A sympathetic stranger helped her out and flirted with her. His attempt was so lame that Jenna decided to take a cab, not knowing she had escaped the clutches of a certain death.
"Vervain." - Frederick hissed as his girlfriend stepped out of the shadows and Jenna's taxi drove away.
AN: Please review :)