The following afternoon, Reese found herself sitting in her newly furnished attic.

A few days ago, she had ordered an extra sofa and sofa chair to set up in the empty space. She set up a small round table and two chairs near the left side of the room closest to the door, and pulled out the stuff from the chest that she had found her first night up here. Tarot cards were spread out on the table since she was in the process of learning how to give readings and her family grimoire was set up on a podium stand near the left back corner of the room. Candles were placed randomly on an extra bookshelf she had also purchased and she had extra candles tucked away in the chest that was in the right corner of the room closest to the door. The sofa and sofa chair were towards the back of the room on either side of the bay windows.

Even though there was furniture to sit on, Reese was seated on the floor with her back against the window seat. The ukulele she had recently purchased sat in her lap, a lyric book and pen sitting open to the left side of her. When she had woken up that morning to a text from Caroline asking if she had changed her mind, Reese told her no and couldn't fall back asleep. She had the sudden urge to write and play so she dug out a clean composition book and took the ukulele upstairs to the attic with her. For some reason, she felt most at peace by the windows.

With her hair piled atop her head in a sloppy bun, Reese lounged on the floor in loose fitted red plaid pajama pants. A white form-fitted sleep shirt displayed a rather large set of vampire fangs printed in black with a single red drop hanging from it's right fang and the words "I'm tasty" beneath it. To be fair though, a friend had bought it one year as a joke and she only re-discovered it the previous night. She couldn't wait until Stefan or Caroline saw it to see their reactions.

Tapping the top of the pen against her leg, Reese wracked her brain for something to write. She had chords playing over and over in her mind but she couldn't find the right words to put with it.

"Can I wish you away.." She wrote down in on the first line. "..'til you find your place- in this world it's so hard to get a feel.." She continued to hum a little more, setting down the pen and picking up the ukulele again. As she played the chords, it didn't sound quite right as she sang the words out loud.

"Ugh. I'm going to need an acoustic guitar now." She groaned.

Reese set the ukulele down, bringing up her knees as she picked up her composition book, using her knees as a desk. She furiously tapped the pen against the paper, closing her eyes as she tried to think up the next line. She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth as she mentally sang the first line in her head over and over until finally, she thought of what to write next. Quickly putting the pen to the paper, she wrote it down before she forgot it. "And all you do is wait but then one little taste, so caught up it's hard to know what's real. But until you've had all you can take, I'll wish you away."

"Damn." Reese grinned down at what she had so far. "That actually sounds pretty good."

Before she could think about what would sound good next, the doorbell echoed throughout the house. Letting her legs fall flat, she tossed her head back and groaned, the front door suddenly seeming too far away to answer. Hoping that whoever was at her front door would go away, she remained quiet until she heard the doorbell ring again. Sighing in exasperation, she set aside her composition book and made her way out of the attic and downstairs.

Fixing her best glare, Reese gripped the doorknob, turned it, and ripped the door open. "What?!"

She was met with Stefan raising his eyebrows at the tone of her voice, a grin twitching to make itself known. "Bad day?" He guessed before his eyes caught sight of her shirt. His grin transformed into a smirk as he snorted, "Nice shirt."

Reese's moodiness from having to walk all the way downstairs instantly vanished. "I knew you'd like it." She teased before opening the door wider and gesturing him inside. "What's up?"

"Nothing." He shrugged. "Bonnie and Caroline left so I figured you could use some company. What are you still doing in your pajamas anyway? It's almost two."

"Lazy day." Reese declared. "If I'd have known you were coming over, I'd have told you to bring your jammies." Stefan smiled at her and followed her into the kitchen. "I'm up in the attic so if being up there doesn't bother you, feel free to stay and raid the kitchen for snacks."

Having nearly been inside Reese's home almost every day since she moved to town, which was odd seeing as she's never seen the Boarding House, Stefan immediately went to the cabinets where Reese was stocked up on cheese puffs. There was no use in declining food in her home because Reese always made sure you had some type of food in you before you left. He didn't know how much he had liked the artificial flavored chips until Reese and Caroline shoved a handful in his mouth and made him chew.

Now, they could probably be declared as one of his weaknesses.

Grabbing jerky, a can of bbq pringles, and two gatorades- Reese led Stefan up to the attic where she was determined to finish some more of her song. It was Stefan's first time being in the attic so he was quite surprised to see the setup. As Reese retook her spot on the floor, Stefan took his time to look around. He noticed all the candles, the tarot cards, and finally the grimoire.

"Is that where you're learned everything?" He nodded to the book when Reese looked up at him.

Following his gaze, Reese nodded. "Yeah. It told me what powers I would be expecting, some spells are in there, and even a bit of information on some supernatural creatures that go bump in the night. And day." She added as an afterthought.

Stefan was intrigued. "Do you mind if I look at it?"

"Not at all." Reese gestured for him to look all he wanted. "Just as long as you don't mind me making noise down here?" She pointed to the ukulele. "I'm kind of on a roll."

"You play?"

"Yep. And write." She smiled proudly. "But I'm kind of rusty on my writing so I keep playing the same chords over and over until I think of the next line to write."

"That's fine." Stefan assured her. "But if you suck, I may or may not boo you."

Reese laughed and rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, Stefan, you're such the perfect gentleman."

Stefan winked at her which caused Reese to laugh again. When she was first introduced to him, Stefan was kind of uptight and wouldn't joke around much. Now, he was boldly starting to play back.

..

..

..

Stefan sat quietly on the sofa as he read through the grimoire while Reese sat on the floor, gnawing at the top of her pen. Since Stefan had showed up, she couldn't think of anything else to write and it really was starting to bother her. She had played the chords over and over but the words were just not coming to mind anymore. She even tried to re-tune the ukulele but after all the playing, she didn't like the way it was sounding anymore.

"I give up." She finally groaned. "I can't think of anything else to write."

Stefan looked up from the book, giving her his attention. "Give it a rest then. You've been down there for two hours."

Reese scrunched up her nose in annoyance before listening to Stefan and giving her song writing a rest. Pushing everything to a side, she stood up and made her way towards him. "Find anything interesting?"

"Pretty much the whole thing." He admitted as his eyes were scanning the page he was on. "Have you gotten anymore control over your powers yet?"

"Yeah. Concentration really is the key." Reese answered. "Here. Look."

She turned back around and picked up one of her empty gatorade bottles and Stefan watched to see what she would do. He grinned when she tossed the bottle up in the air away from her, her hands shooting out in front of her as if she were waiting to be passed a basketball and froze the empty bottle mid-air.

"Not going to lie, that's pretty neat." He chuckled. "Can you freeze only objects or people as well?"

"I don't know." She frowned after taking a moment to think about it. "I've never tried with people."

Stefan suddenly got a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Try and freeze me." He stood up and suddenly lunged at her, Reese squeaking as Stefan collided with her, catching her by the shoulders and laughing. "You were supposed to freeze me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She chuckled. "But my friend lunging at me with cheese powder on the corner of his lips just screams scary."

"I have cheese powder-" Stefan reached up to wipe out his mouth as Reese chuckled at him harder. "Shutup." He grinned. "You could've told me sooner."

"I could've." She agreed. "But you walking around with it without knowing is a lot funnier."

"Yes, well, try now." He walked back to the other side of the attic and when he turned back around, his vampire visage was on display and his whole demeanor completely changed.

Reese started to grin at him, the idea of petting his face popping back into her mind but when Stefan bared his fangs and growled, actually growled at her, her grin slipped. "Stefan?" When Stefan made no acknowledgment of her and continued to gaze at her in a predatory way, Reese took a step back. "Come on, Stefan, this isn't funny anymore."

He ignored her again, slowly taking a few steps forward as Reese took a few steps back. Without warning, he lunged without his vampire speed, and Reese yelped as her hands flew up. When she felt no collision with Stefan's body, she slowly opened her eyes and found Stefan frozen in place with his fangs bared mid-lunge.

"Great." She huffed. "If only I knew how to unfreeze someone now."

Getting in a quick chuckle at Stefan's frozen form, she stepped off to the side and walked up to him. She bit her lip nervously, wondering how the hell she was going to get him out of this one without blowing him up in the process. Standing on the right side of him now, she tilted her head to curiously stare at him. As she pictured him moving, she held her hands out again and awkwardly twitched them in a half circle, watching as he came back to life only to stop in his tracks.

"What the-" Stefan turned and found an amused Reese staring at him. "It worked?"

"Yep. And I didn't blow you up." She clapped excitedly.

"Good to know." Stefan dead-panned. "Well since we've establishment you can freeze people, I vote you practice on someone else from now on. I forgot about your explosive power."

He walked to take a seat on the window seat, Reese following him as she sat across from him, both of them staring out over the backyard and sky. "You pansy." She teased with a grin. Before Stefan could retort, she suddenly seemed overexcited. "Hey, wanna see something else? I've only practiced once with this particular power but it's pretty neat."

"Sure." Stefan shrugged. He turned to face out the window when Reese did and remained quiet as he watched her suddenly go lax with concentration. Her gaze was set on the sky and he could faintly see her irises glowing from his spot. Outside, the wind started to howl as the tree's branches swished that way and this way in the wind's speed. The clouds suddenly got heavier and ominously darker, and a low rumble of thunder rolled in. "You can manipulate the weather." He chuckled in awe. "Is that why we had a freak storm last week?"

The strong winds came to an abrupt halt and the clouds slowly lightened up, clearing away. Reese shook herself out of her trance-like state and turned to face Stefan just as her pupils went back to normal size. "Guilty." She sheepishly shrugged. "I was working on my concentration skills when the weather suddenly changed and for a moment, the lightning looked beautiful from up here but then I remembered I was terrified of storms. It took a while for me to make it go away."

Stefan threw his head back and laughed. "Only you." He then shook his head in amusement.

Silence soon fell over the two, it being slightly awkward seeing as they were used to either having Bonnie or Caroline with them as well. They had never been on their own alone and for it being their first time, it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. But it was still a little weird.

Leaning down and picking up the ukulele, Reese grinned at Stefan as he studied it. "Do you play?" She asked him.

He shook his head. "No. I always thought these were pretty cool though. Do you play anything else?"

"Just this and the acoustic guitar." She told him. "Caroline's already reeled me in to sing at the Grill on karaoke night."

"Are you going to go through with it?" Stefan mused.

"Maybe.. if there are other's singing before me." She grinned. "I don't want to be the only one going on and being laughed at."

"Oh, I'm sure you're not that bad." Stefan placed the ukulele down between them. "I'm sure you're great."

"I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

FYI, the song that Reese was trying to write is by There For Tomorrow and it's called "Wish You Away". Look it up, it's a magnificent song.