A/N: Yeah. New chapter.

HUNGER GAMES COMES OUT THIS FRIDAY! And I'll be seeing it on the 31st… sigh…

This isn't spellchecked, as usual, and it's short and random and yeah… sorry…

Hazel's POV

So much had happened in the last few hours that my head was spinning.

After Bonnie had shown up at the Grill she had explained how she and her mother had gone to help with a ritual to kill the Originals, except that it had gone wrong and Stefan had turned her mother. He had done it because Elijah had been outside the bar waiting to grab Elena if Stefan didn't stop the ritual.

Caroline had taken Bonnie's mother home, and I could only imagine what she was going through. From what Damon said Bonnie wanted nothing more than to stay away from vampires. Now her mother was one.

As for Jeremy, he had gone home with Elena. She had been fuming, but as soon as she heard about Bonnie's mom she suddenly forgot what I'd been doing with Jeremy. I did feel guilty about kissing Jeremy, but only because I should have realized the Originals would pull something to stop the ritual.

I rolled over in bed, acutely aware of how empty it was. I remembered when I'd laid in bed with Jeremy, watching him from across the void of white sheets while he'd been burning a fever. I vaguely wondered if I should go see him but decided not to. Elena was angry enough. Just because I wasn't afraid of her didn't mean she couldn't influence Damon to keep me locked up in the cellar if I kept going after Jeremy. I would take it slow-ish, and try to prove to her that I wouldn't hurt him… maybe someday I could date him without her glaring every other minute.

Eventually I fell asleep, and when I woke it was because Damon was shaking me. "What?" I asked, blearily rubbing my eyes. "Did you do it with Rebekah again or something?"

"No." he snapped. "Alaric's in jail, apparently Meredith Fell found him rummaging through her stuff and he had a weapon. It was from her house, which makes me wonder exactly what she's up to."

"So do we have to pay bail?" I asked, slipping out of under the covers and digging through my closet.

Damon shook his head. He started towards the door but stopped just as he was about to leave. "I was actually wondering if you could go and stay with Elena…?"

I dropped an armload of shirts. "Excuse me?"

"Please?" he said. "She was upset when she called me, and I have he feeling that she'll do anything to prove Alaric is innocent."

"Like what?" I had a few good ideas already, but I wanted to hear some of his.

He shrugged. "Just go, okay?"

"Fine."

There was a good side to the arrangement; I got to see Jeremy and Elena couldn't complain because Damon had sent me.

I dressed quickly and ran most of the way to Elena's, only stopping when I reached the more populated section of the neighborhood. Damon would have my head on a platter if someone caught me super-speed running.

Knocking at the door, I froze with my hands behind my back, a fake and mocking smile plastered on my face. Elena answered, looking disgusted and irrigated. "No." she slammed the door.

I frowned and knocked again. "Open up!"

Elena opened the door again, only allowing enough room to peer around the edge and look at me. "What?"

"Damon sent me to make sure you don't do anything detrimental."

"Define 'detrimental'." At least she hadn't slammed the door.

"Throwing a can of gasoline and some matches into Meredith Fell's window." I suggested cheerfully. "Which, by the way, is exactly what I wish I was doing right now."

"Fine." Elena said, finally stepping out of the way and letting me inside. "I have to leave soon. Matt was going to go jogging with me."

"Exercise." I flopped onto the couch. "Bleh."

She rolled her eyes and left. It occurred to me that maybe if I hadn't made so many bad impressions on her all at once I might have been better friends with her. Then again, wishing for things I couldn't change was pointless.

My day looked a whole lot better when Jeremy came down the stairs a few minutes later. I smiled as brightly as I could, waving him over. "Hey!"

He looked hung over. "Hey."

"You okay?"

He groaned and slumped onto the couch next to me. "Nope. How do you look so alive and completely well?"

"Vampires don't get drunk easily." I said. "Besides, you did have a lot."

"Don't remind me." He said, pressing his hands over his ears. "My head is pounding."

Elena ran by in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. "I'll be back later!"

"Don't shout!" Jeremy whined, diving under a couch cushion. "It huuuuurrrrtttttttttssssssss!"

"C'mon." I pulled him out when I was sure she was gone. "So, about last night…"

"Yeah, what happened?" he asked. "After we left the Grill and went outside everything kind of blurs together. I know Bonnie was there… or here… she was somewhere at some point."

He didn't remember? "You don't remember?" I shrieked. He pulled the cushion back over his head. "Sorry."

"What did I do?" he asked. He looked wary, like he expected that I would tell him something awful.

I managed to hold back my laughter. "Well, we were talking and…"

"What did I do?" he asked, desperate. I giggled. "Stop it! Did I throw up or something?"

Cute as it was to torture him, I relented. "We kissed. And by 'kissed' I mean a full-on lip-lock. I personally think it could have been so much better if Elena hadn't interrupted."

He sighed with relief. "Well, I know why she was giving me the evil eye this morning."

"That was it. Since she's already mad…" I quirked my eyebrows.

"I like the way you think, Salvatore."

I couldn't help the small and annoyingly girly giggle that escaped my mouth when Jeremy grabbed me around the waist. His fingers twined in my hair, gently pulling my face so that it was inches away from mine.

The next five minutes was spent very productively, but Elena managed to butt in again, coming home early. Matt was with her. He glanced skeptically at Jeremy's rumpled shirt and my tangled hair and just shrugged. Elena glared daggers but said nothing.

"So, anyone up for breaking into Meredith Fell's house?" Elena asked after getting a cup of water.

I yawned. "Why?" I glanced at Jeremy, wondering why he didn't look more surprised.

She said, "I have to know what she's up to, and who else is better to be a bodyguard than a vampire?"

"I guess I could help, if you really think you need me." I said. She cast a stiff smile at me. "Surprised that I can be helpful?"

"No, it's just that you remind me of Damon when I first met him." She said. "he was very sarcastic, and always defensive."

I casually stretched, placing mu hand on top of Jeremy's and weaving my fingers through his. He tightened his grip on my hand. "He's better now."

"Let's hoe you get 'better' too." Elena said, using air quotes. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yes." I jumped up and grabbed my jacket from the couch. I smiled sweetly at Jeremy. "See you later?"

"Obviously."

I took satisfaction in Elena's annoyance and skipped out the door. Once we hit the sidewalk Matt and Elena took off, apparently trying to get in some extra running. They were becoming regular fanatic about it.

After considering it I took off after them. It wasn't like running was hard; I could have gone so much faster. The pace I was at, which had me catching up to them in moments, was barely more than a brisk walk. As I passed them I heard Elena's breathing become faster. Evidently she was trying to beat me.

It became a race as we neared Meredith's house. I let her just barely stay next to me, speeding up every now and then and grinning as she would start panting, trying to accelerate. Yes, it was mean, but I couldn't help it. Poor Matt was about ten feet behind us. I had to give it to Elena. She really wanted to win, and she was doing fairly well considering how fast I was going.

Finally I saw Meredith's house in the distance and sped up, leaving Elena behind. I won by several feet. Elena came up next to me and skidded to a stop, gasping for lungfuls of air as she collapsed on the ground.

Matt staggered his way over to us. "You… are… insane…" he panted. I smirked.

"I'm a good runner."

"You have an advantage." Elena wheezed. "I could beat you if you were human."

She and Matt took a few minutes to recover before we went to the door and knocked. When we broke in—which meant I crushed the doorknob in my fist—we found what appeared to be a normal house. It was furnished sparsely. Obviously Meredith spent a lot of time at the hospital.

"Boring." I sing-songed, earning two "Shhhhhhhhhs" from Elena and Matt. "What? Clearly she has no social life."

I left them to dig through her closet, humming the song that had been on my mind for the longest time. "Violated, so degraded, the show has just begun…"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Elena hissed. "DO you have to do that?"

I raised my voice. I actually did have a decent singing voice, which came from hundreds of years of practice. "Dominated by what you hated, this will make you ultra numb—"

As I finsished the last verse I heard shoes clicking on the driveway. By my black expression Elena realized what was happening. "In!" She ordered, pulling Matt and I into the closet.

I shivered in the confined quarters, carefully measuring how close she was to the door. I heard her walk to the counter, put something down, and then walk away. It was too easy… she would just leave? I'd crushed her doorknob, she had to have seen that.

Elena raised her eyebrows. "Should we make a run for it?" she whispered.

I shut my eyes, holding a finger to my lips. After a second or two of complete concentration my eyes shot open and I shook my head. "I can hear her breathing outside the door." I whispered so quietly it was more like I was mouthing the words. I gestured at the small opening in the wall where Elena and Matt had found the box. "Can you fit?"

Unfortunately Meredith threw the door open before we could crawl in.

O.o.O.o.O.

Hours later Damon was walking me home from the police station, where Elena, Matt, and I had all been taken. When Meredith had found us I had thought she might shoot us, but instead she called Sherriff Forbes.

"Why did you help them?" Damon was asking. He'd been interrogating me for the past hour. "You were supposed to keep her out of trouble."

"I did!" I argued, scrolling through my list of missed texts to see if Jeremy had texted me. "The original plan was sto throw some gasoline around her house and get matches—"

"Please stop there." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his finger. "Please."

"Okay." I noticed a text from Jeremy. When I opened it and read it I couldn't do much more than stare.

Dr. Fell came over, and she and Elena both think that Alaric's ring has done something to him. They think that… he is who's been murdering everyone. ~Jeremy.

A/N: And now it's time to go watch Suburgatory. Goodnight!