"Hey, can you hang those up?" A girl asked Emma as she handed a bag full of stuffed animals to her.
Emma nodded and walked up to the stand that it was assigned to. The whole school was setting up for the big Mystic Falls Carnival and everyone did their part, though Emma was a bit reluctant. The carnival reminded her of her parents. It was something that the whole family looked forward to and they would have the best time. It just wasn't the same anymore. The Gilbert set the bag on top of the ring toss stand's counter and turned around to leave when she bumped into a figure, making them drop rolls of tickets out of their hands.
"Oh, my god. I'm so sorry. I should have watched where I was going." Emma apologized as she quickly bent down and started to pick them up.
She heard the person laugh and pick the tickets up as well. "No, no. It's okay." they said.
Emma looked up, about to hand the tickets to the person she bumped into, when she started to blush. In front of her was a boy she's never seen before that was around her age with light brown hair. And he was cute. So cute that Emma felt butterflies in her stomach and when she talked, she began to stutter. "U-h, her-e you go." she said quickly, holding the tickets out to him.
He smiled at her and took them out of her hands. "Thanks. I'm Jared." he said.
"Oh, I'm-"
"Emma, yeah, I know who you are." Jared interrupted. Upon seeing her confused look, he began to explain. "On the first day of school, your family was kind of the topic going around. And then when you came back, everyone was talking about you again."
Emma looked down. "Of course they were. So, how come I've never seen you around before?" she asked, changing the topic to get rid of the awkwardness.
"I'm new this year. And we don't have any classes together, though I did go into Mr. Miller's classroom once and I saw you there." Jared replied.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember. "Wait, you were handing out the flyers for the photography club." she said, snapping her fingers when she finally remembered him.
Jared nodded, shifting the tickets in his hands. "Yeah, that was me."
They stood there in silence for a while, not knowing what to say. Jared's brown eyes watched Emma rubbed her hands together in front of her as she glanced from side to side. She spotted Elena and she mentally sighed in relief. "Well, I should leave you to getting those tickets where they belong. Bye." she said, turning and heading toward Elena.
Elena looked up from her clipboard when she heard Emma stand next to her. "Hey, Em. Having fun?" Emma just shrugged and stared at her shoes. Elena looked confused at her sister's behavior, and looked over at where she came from to see a boy staring at Emma before walking off. Elena smiled. "Oh, I bet you are. Who's the boy?" Elena asked, holding the clipboard to her chest.
Emma's head shot up and her eyes were wide. "Who? What boy?" she asked.
"The one that was watching you walk away. Come on, tell me." Elena urged, wanting all the details.
Emma blushed at the thought of Jared doing that. "His name is Jared and he's in my grade." Emma saw the looked Elena was giving her and Emma rolled her eyes. "I know what you're thinking. No, I do not like him. I just met him." she tried to explain but it didn't stop Elena from smiling at her sister being defensive.
"Whatever you say, Em. Now, I need to find Jeremy. Come with me." Elena said, walking off to the school with Emma next to her. They walked through the halls until the found their brother at his locker, talking to Stefan.
". . . driver Elena. Hello, Elena, Emma." Stefan said, as the girls stopped next to them. He put an arm around Elena's waist.
"Hey, uh, do you-" Elena began but Jeremy interrupted her.
"Yeah, yeah, I set up the goldfish toss, all 300 goldfish. It's gonna be epic." Jeremy said, slamming his locker shut and walking off.
Emma watched after him, worried about the way he was acting. "I'll be back." Emma said, going after him. Jeremy was very upset that Damon killed him, even though he didn't do anything to him. She doesn't really blame him. Damon is nothing but a psychotic monster in her eyes now and she doesn't want anything do to with him anymore. The only time she'll say anything to him would be about what's happening with Katherine, that's it. When she caught up to him, she had to grab his arm to make him slow down.
"What, Em?" he asked, a little annoyed.
"I just wanted to see how you were doing. You know, 'cause of what happened." Emma said, crossing her arms.
Jeremy sighed and tightened the hold on his backpack. "Well, for starters, I'm not fine. I'm pretty pissed about Damon."
Emma nodded in understanding. "Heh, me, too."
Jeremy scoffed. "Em, you're not the one that had their neck snapped by the guy." he said, giving her a side glance.
"Doesn't matter. What he did was horrible. For a brief moment, he took someone who was very close to me away." Emma said. She felt an arm around her and looked up to see Jeremy pulling her close to his chest. He wrapped both his arms around her, squeezing her tightly. "He took you away from me, Jer." she cried, burying her head in his chest with small tears forming in her eyes.
"I know, I'm sorry." Jeremy whispered, kissing the top of Emma's head. "I'm here though, okay? I'm not going anywhere." he tried to reassure her. Emma nodded and hugged him tighter.
"It looks amazing!" Emma complemented as she looked around the front yard of the school where people walked with light up necklaces and cotton candy.
Elena laughed. "I don't know, there's so much that still has to be fixed." She looked down at her clipboard. A few moments later, Bonnie came up to them with bad news.
"The ring toss is out of Bart and Homer bolls and Team Jacob Ts." the witch informed as the three walked through the carnival.
"I'll get some from the science club." Emma volunteered.
Elena nodded. "Thanks. Oh, the karaoke booth lost a speaker."
Bonnie stopped Elena and Emma from walking further. "Hey, it's all good. This is awesome." she said, gesturing at all the stands and the huge Ferris wheel.
Elena furrowed her eyebrows. "You mean, I can do more than just wreak vampire havoc?" she asked, jokingly.
"Go figure." Bonnie said, playing along.
The three of them laughed. Elena looked over to a guy that was tightening a screw on the ticket booth. "Hey, you're Carter, right? You're with the carnival."
"That'd be me." he replied, putting the screwdriver in his utility belt.
"Okay, great." Elena began but Carter didn't have his attention on her at all. He was checking Bonnie out.
"Wow. What you need, beautiful?" he asked, not looking at Emma or Elena.
The sisters shared a look and looked at Bonnie with smiles on their faces. "Um, what do you know about karaoke speakers?" Bonnie nervously asked.
Carter let out a laugh. "Heh. Why don't you show me the problem."
"Yeah, Bon. Show him the problem." Emma said, motioning her eyes toward Carter. Bonnie gave the girls smiles before leading Carter the lay to the karaoke machines. "Oh, my god, they're perfect for each other." Emma gushed when they left.
Elena nodded, watching Bonnie walk away. "Exactly. It kind of reminds me of a certain 13 year old and another 13 year old that would be cute together." Elena teased, giving Emma a smile.
Emma groaned, rubbing her hands on her face. "Why must you bring him up? I told you that I do not like him and he certainly doesn't like me, okay? Just drop it." Emma begged.
Elena had a smug look on her face. "How about you tell that to him." she said, pointing behind Emma. The young Gilbert turned to see Jared walking up to her with his hands in his pockets. "I'll leave you two alone." Elena said, running off before Emma could protest.
Emma sighed when Elena left and turned at the same moment Jared came up to her. She gave him a smile. "Hey, Jared." she greeted.
"Hey, Emma. Enjoying the carnival?" he asked.
Emma nodded. "Sort of. I haven't really played any of the games yet. Been busy making sure everything is fine so that my sister doesn't freak out." she joked. She nearly fainted when she heard him laugh with her. It sounded amazing. He had an amazing laugh. Really amazing. . . . Wait, what is she thinking? She's obsessing over his laugh? How much weirder can she get? Thank goodness he's not a mind reader because then she would die of embarrassment.
Jared scratched the back of his neck. "If you want, I could take you to play them." he suggested, but then he quickly covered it. "But like I said, it's if you want, you don't hav-" Emma cut him off by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I want to." she said, giving him a shy smile. She grabbed onto his elbow and pulled him towards a random stand. "Come on, I want to play this one." She giggled a bit when she saw his surprised face.
The two had a great time together. They went to so many stands that the preteens had a hard time remembering if they had already played the game. They won some, they lost some but that didn't stop them from having any less fun. Currently, they were playing the Milk Bottle Toss, where you have 3 tries to knock over the bottles using small balls. To Emma, it seemed like Jared wanted to prove to her that he can knock them down.
"Go, Jared!" she cheered as he picked up the first ball. He raised his arm and threw the ball. He hit one of the bottles but the rest stayed still. Jared looked bummed out so Emma tried to comfort him. "You got this, two more tries." she said, putting her hand lightly on his arm.
Jared smiled at her and grabbed the next ball. This time, when he threw it, he knocked down the remaining bottles. He said a silent 'Yes.' and took the stuffed animal that was handed to him. Jared turned to Emma and handed her the animal. "This is for you."
Emma blushed and bit her lip as she held the animal in her hand. "Thanks, Jared." she said, looking down.
"Anytime." Jared said, winking at her which made the Gilbert blush even more. "Want to play another game?" he asked, pointing his thumb behind him.
Emma smiled. "Yeah." But before they went on their way, Emma saw Elena and Damon walking inside the school. She looked at Jared who was curiously watching her. "I'm sorry, but I need to go. It looks like there's an emergency. I'll see you later!" Emma yelled over the noise as she walked towards the school. She quickly waved and ran, leaving Jared. She ran past people and through the doors of the school and caught up with Damon and Elena. "Hey, what's going on?"
Damon gave her a side glance. "How do you know there's something wrong?"
Emma glared at him. "Considering Elena's walking and talking to you means there's something wrong." she explained as the walked. Damon sighed, knowing for a fact that there was noway for the Gilbert sisters to forgive him.
The three made it to Alaric's classroom where Stefan was already waiting. Emma and Elena sat down on the desks as Damon took the liberty to sit in Alaric's chair.
"So, what's going on?" Emma asked, crossing her arms as she leaned back.
Damon took a minute before responding. "Caroline might have been turned into a vampire."
Emma's eyes widened. "What? How did this happen?" she asked.
"Well, I fed her my blood and Katherine obviously killed her, and 'A' plus 'B' equals. . ." Damon trailed off, making a face that made Emma roll her eyes.
"But why?" Elena asked, moving to stand next to Stefan.
Damon stared at her intensely. "Because, Katherine is a manipulative, nasty little slut." he shot, getting angry just by mentioning her name.
Stefan walked forward a little. "And she said, 'Game on'? I mean, what does that even mean?" Stefan asked, crossing his arms.
Emma thought for a second. "Means she wants to play dirty. What she did to Caroline is how she wants us to know." Emma paused and bit her nail. "But why Caroline?"
Damon shook his head. "Ah, I don't know."
"Caroline must be completely out of her mind." Stefan injected. He threw his hands up. "She has no idea what's happening to her." He moved his hands behind his head.
Damon scoffed. "Oh, I think she does. All of my compulsion from the past started wearing off the minute she was in transition."
Emma rolled her eyes again. "That's your fault, Damon." He glared at her as she continued. "Now, we need to find her." she said, looking at Elena and Stefan.
"Yep, and kill her." Damon said.
Elena and Emma stared at Damon with anger in their eyes. "You're not gonna kill Caroline." Elena instructed.
Damon gave the girls weird looks. "She knows who we are. She's officially a liability. We have to get rid of her." Damon pushed.
Stefan leaned forward from where he was sitting down. "Damon, absolutely not."
"Need I remind you of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan?" Damon said, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, also your fault." Emma injected.
"Caroline, of all people, will not make it as a vampire." Damon finished, glaring at the young Gilbert. "Her mother's a vampire hunter." He looked around to see the three's angry looks. "Guys, come on. We all know how this story ends, so let's just flip to the last chapter and-"
"It's not an option, Damon." Elena said, her voice cracking at the end. Emma got up and wrapped her arms around Elena's waist and Elena returned the gesture.
"No?" Damon challenged. He looked over to his little brother who hung his head, trying to come up with something. "Your silence is deafening, Stefan. Wait, wasn't it also a school carnival the night you staked Vicki? Talk about a town where history repeats itself." Damon said, smirking. "You know I'm right."
Emma watched Stefan as he stood up and got in Damon's face. He raised a finger and pointed it at him. "We're not gonna kill her." he said, and walked out of the room.
"It's the only way." Damon said as Emma and Elena went after him. But before Emma left the room, she went over to Damon and slapped him on the face. It caught the vampire by surprise and he fell off the chair.
Emma shook her a little and walked backwards to the door. "That felt good." she said and left.
She caught up with Stefan and Elena and they walked together as they searched for Caroline. "You agree with Damon, don't you?" Elena asked. Stefan ignored her question and kept on walking. "Stefan." Elena called out. Stefan went up to a food truck and punched the side, leaving a small dent. "Stefan." Elena tried again.
Stefan stopped walking behind the food truck. "Damon's right, not about what we should do, but about what's gonna happen. Katherine all but signed Caroline's death sentence." he said, leaning against the truck and crossing his arms.
"Well, then let's not let it end that way." Emma boldly said. There was no way she was going to let Damon kill someone else that was close to her. And this time, Caroline won't be coming back. Stefan sighed as he stared down at the girl.
"She's doing this to me, isn't she?" Elena asked, kind of already knowing the answer.
Stefan scoffed. "Actually, she's doing it to me." Stefan sighed again and leaned his head back.
The three searched some more before Stefan stopped walking and turned his head around, trying to look for something. "What is it? Do you hear her?" Emma asked, tensing up a bit. The sister's looked around to try to see what Stefan was looking for but it was no use.
"What's going on, Stefan? What is it?" Elena asked, getting anxious.
"It's blood." he stated. "I can smell blood." He started to walk off, with Emma and Elena behind him.
"Stefan!" Damon grunted as Stefan pushed him off of Caroline, letting the stake fall to the floor. Emma and Elena ran up to the blood covered Caroline, to try to calm her glanced at Carter's dead body on the truck but turned from it, leaving her focus on Caroline. Elena held Caroline's arm when suddenly, Caroline pushed her away.
"Get away from me! You killed me." Caroline backed away, clutching her jacket.
"No, no, no, no, Caroline. That wasn't me." Elena said, trying to convince the new vampire otherwise. "You know that. That was Katherine."
Caroline shook her head. "No! Then why does she look like you?" Caroline shouted, backing away even more. "And why did she do this to me?"
Emma held her hands up and walked closer to Caroline. "Care, I know you're really confused, but you need to calm down, okay? We'll explain everything when we get inside!" Emma said, directing the last bit to Stefan as she held onto Caroline's arm.
"It's alright, Caroline. Come with me." Stefan backed away from Damon and went over to the three girls.
"She will die. It's only a matter of time." Damon said, crossing his arms.
Stefan held onto Caroline's hand. "Yeah, maybe so, but it's not gonna happen tonight." He started to walk away with Caroline when Damon said.
"Oh, yeah, it is." He bent down, grabbed the stake, and vamped forward to kill Caroline when Elena stepped in front of him. Emma gasped as Damon froze, holding the stake in the air as he stared down at Elena.
"Damon, she's my friend." Elena pleaded, looking up at him.
Damon intensely stared down at her, still holding the stake. Then, he pulled back. "Whatever happens, it's on you." he said, pointing at Elena with both fingers before backing away. He glanced at Emma to see her watching him with a surprised expression.
"W-we got to get her cleaned up." Emma said, snapping out of her trance. They started to walk away but were stopped when Bonnie started to walk out.
"Caroline?" Bonnie took in Caroline's appearance. Caroline looked down, ashamed that her best friend saw her like this. "No. You're not. You can- You can't be." Bonnie said. She ran up to Caroline and grabbed her arm, using her magic. Bonnie looked at Caroline in disbelief as she felt the familiar feeling she felt with Stefan, Damon, Ben, and Katherine.
"Bonnie." Caroline began. "I-I" She tried to explain but she couldn't find the right words. Bonnie looked behind her and saw Carter's body. She let out 'Oh, god.' and Caroline tried to call to her as the witched walked past her.
Bonnie looked down at the body and started to cry. Emma walked up to her and rubbed the witch's back, comforting her.
"I can't believe this is happening." Bonnie said, tears running down her face.
Damon came back with a shovel. "Come on. Don't pout about it." he said. "We got a body to bury." Not only Bonnie but Emma too glared at him. Emma went back to comforting Bonnie.
"Bonnie, I'm so sorry this happened." she said, voice cracking with a the emotions she was feeling. Anger, frustration, sadness, everything.
Bonnie shook her head. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Em." she said. She looked over at Damon. "He does." And with all her focus, Bonnie used her magic to make Damon fall to the ground, grunting in pain.
Emma looked over at Bonnie, shocked, and then quickly went to Damon's side. "Damon!" She laid a hand on his arm, trying to steadying him, but he want in too much pain that he couldn't stop moving. "Bonnie, stop." Water suddenly started to come out of a hose not that far from them.
"I told you what would happen if anyone else got hurt." Bonnie said, still crying.
Damon clutched his head. "I didn't do this!" he grunted.
"Bonnie, it wasn't his fault." Elena defended.
Bonnie stared at Elena. "Everything that happens is his fault, Elena." The water that was shot out of the hose started to slowly make it's way over to Emma and Damon.
"What are you doing?" Elena asked, getting worried as to what were Bonnie's intentions were.
Then the water caught on fire and the flames went over to Emma and Damon. "Emma, get out of here." Damon demanded, trying his best to push her out of the way in is weakened state.
"What?" Emma asked in disbelief.
"Get away!" And with a lot a strength, Damon pushed Emma a few feet away right when the flames went on his body. Damon started to yell in pain as the flames burned his flesh.
Emma was staring wide eyed at the scene before her. She started to have flashes of the basement where she heard the tomb vampire's pained cries from the fire. "Bonnie! Stop!" She yelled, looking at the witch.
"Bonnie! You're gonna kill him!" Elena joined but Bonnie didn't stop.
Emma got up and ran through the fire and shook Bonnie, making her loose concentration. Bonnie glared at the brunette and suddenly, Emma was thrown in the air. She landed on the asphalt hard, and she felt a sting on her right arm. Emma cried out in pain and saw that Bonnie had continued to burn Damon.
"Emma!" Elena called out. Elena did the same thing Emma did and shook Bonnie.
Bonnie glared at Elena. "Why did you stop me."
"Because this isn't us. Bonnie, this can't us." she said, holding onto Bonnie's arms.
Damon groaned as he tried to get up but he was too weak. He looked over to Emma where she was laying on her side, holding her arm close to her chest. "Elena." he breathed out and raised a finger in Emma's direction.
Elena ran over to Emma and helped her stand up. "Come on." she said, guiding her sister towards Bonnie and the girls left Damon on the floor.
Emma sat on the floor with her back against the school's wall. She was waiting for Elena to finish up with whatever so that they could finally go home. Today's events were. . . horrible. Definitively not how she wanted to end the night. And the stunt she pulled for Damon. It's still a mystery as to why she defended him. He killed her brother, she would give anything in the world to see him in pain for what he had done. But watching Damon, on the floor actually in pain, was hard for her to watch. Elena was right, that wasn't who they were, inflicting pain on people.
Emma sighed and played with her fingers when she heard footsteps walking in her direction. She looked up to see Stefan. They shared a smile as he sat down next to her on the floor.
"How are you doing?" he asked, resting an arm on his knee that he left raised.
Emma shrugged. "I don't know. Stressed is one way to put it."
Stefan nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah." He looked over and saw how she was holding her arm. "What happened to your arm?"
"Oh, while Bonnie was on witch mode, she threw me back and I landed on my arm." she answered, rubbing her arm unconsciously.
Stefan looked down at it for a while before talking again. "If you want, I could give you some blood to heal it." he suggested, lifting the sleeve of his shirt to get ready.
Emma tensed at his words. "I don't know. What if. . . you know, Katherine decides to pay me a visit?" she asked worriedly.
"It's up to you, I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do." Stefan calmly said, lightly putting his hand on Emma's shoulder.
Emma sat there for a minute, thinking if it would be a safe option. On one hand, if she did take Stefan's blood, she wouldn't feel the pain anymore but, as she stated before, Katherine could know about it and take it to advantage. On the other hand, if she didn't take it, she would have to come up with an excuse and try explain to Jenna why her arm hurt so much and she would have to go to the hospital and it would just be a waste of time. With a sigh, Emma nodded her head.
Stefan raised his wrist to his mouth and bit down on it. Then he slowly held it out for Emma and she reached over and put her mouth on the opening. The taste of iron hit her taste buds and she scrunched her nose up in disgust, but nonetheless, drank the blood till she no long felt the pain in her right arm. Pulling away, she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away the little blood around her mouth.
"Thank you." she said, giving Stefan a small smile.
He smiled back and patted her leg as he stood up. "Your welcome. I'm going to go talk to Elena. Goodnight, Emma." he said.
"Night, Stefan." Emma said back. She watched as he walked down the hall. Once his body was out of sight, Emma stared at the wall in front of her and thought some more.
If today was hectic, what's going to happen tomorrow?