Sitting in her bedroom on the floor finishing off her trig homework Scarlett was pleasantly surprised when Stefan walked into her room with a hot mug of hot chocolate in one hand and Lucrezia in the other hand. It was a nice surprise as the last couple days she hadn't seen him around as much as he was with Elena leaving her to do some family bonding with Damon, who wasn't all bad until he killed Mr. Tanner for no damn reason but Scarlett wasn't going to fooled by her Uncle. "What's with the occasion?"
"Nothing, can't an uncle bring his niece a cup of hot chocolate?" Stefan quips and Scarlett couldn't help but smile.
"I know you Uncle Stefan so what to do you want to talk to me about?" Scarlett asked as Stefan sat down on the floor next to Scarlett and handed her the cup of hot chocolate.
"About what happened tonight I want to make sure that your okay." Stefan explained and Scarlett frowned slightly as she took a sip of her chocolate, tonight the school's football team were to play the first game of the year. Scarlett had gone to watch despite the fact she hated anything involving school spirit because Stefan had joined the team and she wanted to support him, unfortunately the game never got round to playing because Mr. Tanner was found dead ten minutes before kick off. The whole team all believe that it was a wild animal that was responsible but Scarlett knew better, the one responsible could only be Damon.
"I'm fine." Scarlett replied but Stefan gave her a look that said that he didn't believe her in the slightest and Scarlett couldn't help but laugh, her and Stefan could read each other so well now. It was weird to think how she had known him all her life and never really given him a chance or got to know him until he had come back. "Seriously Uncle Stefan I am as fine as I can be, given that your brother and my uncle just murdered my history teacher. It's terrible what happened to Mr. Tanner but I'm not going to be sad and start crying over my jackass of a history teacher who have me nothing but crap."
"Tanner? He was giving you trouble?" Stefan asked with a concerned look on his face
"Do you remember the talk dark and creepy comment he made about me? Well that was nothing, he's always kind of been an ass to me ever since I started high school… him and his insults…" Scarlett said referring to the statement Mr. Tanner made about her when he asked Stefan if he was related to her. Tanner's precise words were 'Salvatore? Like talk dark and creepy over there?'
"Did you ever tell Zach about any of this?"
Scarlett took a sip of her hot chocolate before shaking her head. "No, I don't want to bother Zach so I don't tell him about things like that and how the other kids kind of give me a hard time… well I do, but I play down and make it sound less worse than it is. I don't want him to worry about me more than he does already."
"Why not?"
"He's always got stuff to deal with like things to do with the house and boarders, so I don't want to bother him with my stuff considering everything he's done for me since dad died. Zach was kind of dumped with me and so I prefer to make Zach's life easier than making it harder besides I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself for the most part. I tell myself that I'm halfway to never having to see or interact with these people again and that gets me through the day." Scarlett replied as Lucrezia crawled into her lap and purred quiet.
"They bully you." Stefan stated slowly.
"I wouldn't say it like that, you know it's just name calling and teasing Uncle Stefan it's never gotten violent and most of it's stuff that I heard before like loser, freak, my personal favourite 'that weird Salvatore girl whose dad offed himself in their house' and many others… You'd think after all these years that I'd be used to it but unfortunately no. I wish that there were one day where I could go without anyone looking and pointing at me, not calling me names but that's high school for you." Scarlett admitted.
"Next time, let me know because I can't have people picking on my niece." Stefan said and it caused Scarlett to laugh.
"But back to the whole Tanner thing, why did Damon kill him? I get that he is unpredictable and some loose cannon by this doesn't even make any sense." Scarlett began taking another sip of her hot chocolate.
Stefan sighed and Lucrezia sensing her new best friends discomfort got up from Scarlett's lap and made her way back over to Stefan. "It's my fault, I thought that there was some humanity left in him and I was silly to think that I could get Damon to change but it can't be done. Damon killed Tanner to make that clear to me… it happened so fast that there was nothing I could do to stop I to stop me. This isn't what I wanted when I came back Scarlett you have to believe me, people being killed–"
"Hey! You don't have to explain anything to me, your psychotic brother is also a relative of mine and you shouldn't blame yourself what Damon does. He's a very grown man who is out of control just because you are his brother doesn't make you accountable for his actions." Scarlett said in an attempt to lift Stefan's spirit, he had come to lift hers and now he was all gloom and doom. The two of them together made a right pair, probably why they got on so well. "I'm sorry that you didn't get to play your game tonight, I was looking forward to it…"
"Your lying Scarlett, you hate any type of social event." Stefan couldn't help but point out.
"Fine… you have me there but I was looking forward to see you play, I don't drag myself to pep rallies and football games for just anybody they have pretty important. Like my awesome a hundred and sixty one year old however many great uncles you are…" Scarlett said as she gently nudged Stefan.
"I feel like I'm the one who supposed to be giving you the pep talk and words of encouragement after all I am the adult here and you're the kid." Stefan joked.
"I'm not only your niece Uncle Stefan but I'm your friend, it's kind of what you do for friends and then your family too so it's a given."