Jeremy's bedroom door ripped open and a furious Stefan walked inside.
"You are such a little idiot!" he shouted, "getting yourself expelled from the second week! What the hell were you thinking?"
Jeremy pushed down his headphones and lowered his sketchbook, "did you say something?" he looked at Stefan as if for a first time.
Stefan shook his head helplessly.
"You will fail classes Jeremy, this is no joke…"
"Don't you ever get tired of being annoying, brother?" came Damon's irritating voice from down the hall, interrupting Stefan's monologue. Soon he was standing next to his brother.
"He got expelled" Stefan said as if he was announcing the end of the world.
Damon looked at Jeremy and then back at his brother.
"So…?"
"So?" Stefan repeated dryly, "Is that all you have to say? It's only the second week of school and he already managed to get himself expelled!"
"Definitely counts as a talent" said Damon lazily, leaning against the door.
Stefan ignored him, his glare darted on Jeremy. "I'll tutor you! It's either you get it together or I will!" said Stefan threateningly, "and as for you, brother" he added to Damon "if he fails any of his classes, you'll be the one to explain it to Elena!"
"Ah that's what this is all about" said Damon with a satisfied expression on his face, "while I was wondering why you care so much about his education"
"You know what Damon? I'm tired of cleaning up your mess every time! He is your responsibility, not mine!" said Stefan indignantly.
"I'm nobody's responsibility" Jeremy interjected angrily "Now, if you are going to fight again, can you please do it elsewhere? I'm working here" he said impatiently holding up his sketchbook.
Both brothers turned around to stare at him, as if they complete forgot he was still there.
Stefan grabbed the sketchbook out of his hands and threw it aside, "there is a girl waiting for you downstairs"
"A girl?" Jeremy repeated nervously.
"Yes, and make it quick, you have to study!" Stefan shouted after him as Jeremy left the bedroom, passing in front of Damon who turned his head the other way.
Kylie was standing at the front door, her hands placed deep inside her pockets, looking awkwardly around the Salvatore property. Once she saw Jeremy approach, a small smile lighten up her entire face.
"Hey" she waved at him.
"Hi…" said Jeremy in mild-surprise, when he reached her.
"Sorry for dropping by like this, hope it's not a bad time…but I thought you might want this back" she pulled Jeremy's mobile out of her pocket and handed it over to him.
Jeremy gasped at the mobile in his hands. "Thanks…did Mr. Bell give it to you?"
"Not exactly…"
"You stole it?" Jeremy lowered his voice, making sure only Kylie could hear him.
"Well… if you count as stealing, breaking and entering a professor's office in order to return a mobile to his original owner, then fine call it stealing. I like to see myself as Batman" Kylie smile mischievously.
"Wow…I mean…thanks. You really didn't have to get in all that trouble" said Jeremy looking impressed.
"I wanted to do something to cheer you up. Today was probably not the best day of your life….and…" Kylie hesitated, biting her lower lip"…err...I kind of wanted you to have back the only thing with my number in it, just in case"
Jeremy's face got redder than ever. "Would… you like to come in…? I mean if you want…" he asked in a low rumble, scratching paint out of the wall near him, without realizing what he was doing.
"Wont your father mind?" she asked.
Jeremy let out a derisive snort, unable to restrain himself.
"Okay then!" she beamed at him and walked inside the hallway.
Jeremy showed Kylie upstairs in his room. Damon and Stefan had already left, probably throwing stakes and daggers at each other in a different part of the house.
"Mm…I approve" said Kylie looking around at his posters, "'Radiohead' is a bit overrated but 'My chemical romance' is definitely awesome"
"Overrated?" Jeremy hissed, "Don't talk about things you don't understand, woman" he smiled, throwing himself on his desk chair.
"Seriously? A depressive emo?" Kylie continued, holding up an old picture of Jeremy from his emo phase, she found on his desk.
"Will you stop with that?" said Jeremy, as he watched Kylie going through his stuff.
"Nope, since we are going to be friends, I would like to know everything there is to know about you and there is no better way to do that, than snooping around your room"
Jeremy went quiet for a moment, then said "Why would you want to be my friend?"
"Because I don't have any" said Kylie briskly, looking at his comic book collection.
Jeremy raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"What are you talking about? The whole school likes you!"
Kylie laughed bitterly, "The whole school pretends to like me" she corrected him, "until they find out how weird I'm, then I'm going straight on the bottom of the food chain, just like everybody else"
"Okay, then you can be a cheerleader, they never end up there" Jeremy suggested.
"Right…" Kylie pretended to give it some thought, "Nope. I'm not the cheerleading type"
"C'mon, not all of them are snobbish and lame, my sister used to be one"
"I don't have anything against them, I just don't dance. No sense of rhythm whatsoever. An elephant with five right legs, would still do a better job than me" Kylie grinned at him, "did you draw those?" she asked, picking up carefully Jeremy's sketchbook from his bed.
"Um yeah" Jeremy jumped up and tried to get it away from her, but Kylie was faster. "Those are amazing, is that your girlfriend?" she stared at the most resent one. It was a sketch of Bonnie.
Jeremy's face hardened but Kylie didn't notice. The girl was too busy examining the picture.
"She was…" he said, looking down.
"She is very pretty" said Kylie eagerly, "what happened?"
Jeremy paced around his room, his head down.
"I was a jerk and she broke up with me" he said finally.
Kylie stared at him with genuine interest, but chose to change the subject.
"So, what happened today? I saw that Stefan guy before, he did not look…"
"Shhh" Jeremy shushed her, "the walls in here have a very good hearing"
"Jeremy, you are spiraling" said Stefan in his favorite know-it-all tone. "What is bothering you so much?"
It was three days later and Stefan kept asking the exact same question, at least five times per day, even though he kept getting the exact same answer every single time. Sometimes it was disturbing for Jeremy to think how much Stefan resembled his sister.
The boy rolled his eyes, stuffing the rest of the toast in his mouth, before getting up from the counter. "Nothing" he managed to sound out.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Stefan went after him into the entrance hall.
"School" said Jeremy vaguely.
"Okay, I'll drive us, I just have to make a few calls first" said Stefan, pulling out his mobile.
"No, I would actually prefer to walk, get my priorities straight…since I'm spiraling"
For Jeremy's sake, Stefan missed the sarcasm and nodded pleased, thinking that all the hours he spend lecturing the boy, finally seemed to be paying off "okay, see you in school then"
Truth to be told Jeremy did start with the intention of going to school, but somewhere along the way he changed his mind. The hatred between him and Mr. Bell was at its finest point. There was no day ever since Jeremy got expelled without Mr. Bell's constant snarky comments about Jeremy's stupidity and lack of knowledge, not to mention the week's long detention he treated him. And of course the collection of school letters he'd been sending every day to the Salvatore boarding house, forcing Jeremy to sign them by himself, in order to avoid more of Stefan's whining.
Nothing really mattered to him anymore, school, future, life… were all words far away from his reality. For all he knew he could die the next day and it would make no difference in the world. He was just a kid that nobody bothered with and people only cared when his sister forced them to and since everybody kept treating him like a stupid child, he decided to start acting like one.
A pair of tiny hands prodded him in the back, forcing him out of his thoughts.
Jeremy turned on his heels, around to Kylie. "Hey, are you following me?"
"You wish!" she beamed at him, punching Jeremy lightly in the arm. "What are you up to?"
"Skipping school" said Jeremy with a shrug.
"How very daring of you" Kylie sneered, "can I come? History is not how I want to start my day"
"Sure…" said Jeremy vaguely, "where do you want to go?"
"Well, since I'm new to Mystic Falls, how about you lead the way? Show me around the interesting stuff"
Having agreed on the term, Jeremy thought hard, trying to find an interesting enough place in Mystic Falls.
"Okay…this place must be a bore" Kylie commented, judging by the look on his face. "Let me make it easier, take me to a place where you haven't been in ages"
This time Jeremy made up his mind in a split second, "Come" he said as he set off for the old Lockwood property.
Kylie jumped excitedly after him, "where are we going?" she asked, as they walked down the road.
"The woods" said Jeremy shortly.
"That's not creepy at all…"
Having discussed every subject known to mankind, starting from the weather and ending up arguing about the avengers, Jeremy and Kylie got far enough inside the woods.
"What's that?" Kylie looked upwards in what appeared to be a small house barely standing on top of a high tree.
"My safe place… I haven't been here since…" Jeremy tried to say since his father passed but his voice died in his throat.
"Did you build it?" Kylie asked examining if the rope ladder was steady enough to climb.
"My dad did. One summer when he decided to teach me and my sister about the outdoors…I still think this was his excuse to get some 'alone time' at home with mom"
Kylie let out a small laugh, "can we go up?"
"Sure, why not…" Jeremy helped her to the ladder.
He climbed right after her and got through the tiny door, his head bumping in the low ceiling "wow, this was a lot bigger, when I was a lot smaller". He crawled to the end of the tree house and sat on the dusty mattress, so that Kylie could have a good look around.
Nothing really changed since the last time he was there, even the monopoly game he never got to finish with Elena, Matt and Vicky was still open and fake money was lying all around the wooden floor.
"It's perfect…" said Kylie weakly, surveying Jeremy's face as if she expected him to burst into tears. But on the contrary, this was the first time Jeremy felt so happy in a long time. Every decayed piece of wood was filled with the best memories of his life. If anything, he was happy to be back there.
The two of them sat down on the mattress next to each other, eyes darted downwards.
"Your turn" said Jeremy suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Kylie turned around to look at him.
"I told you about my pathetic life; it's your turn now"
Kylie remained silent for a second, then said "Umm…I'm the prodigy of a gay couple…I have two dads'" she explained.
"That's cool" said Jeremy lightly, "what else?"
Kylie smiled slightly relieved. "Nothing else"
"Oh c'mon. Not fair!" Jeremy looked scandalized; "I told you everything" he lied.
"It's all you get for tod –" Kylie's voice got interrupted by Jeremy's ring tone.
"Why aren't you picking up?" she asked, watching Jeremy turning off his phone and throwing it aside.
"Because I know exactly who it is and I know exactly what he wants" said Jeremy shortly, meaning Stefan who must have find out Jeremy was not in school.
Jeremy and Kylie stayed in the tree house for hours talking, reading comic books and playing with some of Elena's old toys.
"Can we eat those?" Kylie asked after she found a bag of potato chips under the mattress. Outside was getting dark and breezy. It was very fortunate Jeremy remembered where they used to keep the flashlights.
"I wouldn't recommend it" said Jeremy slightly disgusted as he watched Kylie opening the two year old potato chips and putting one in her mouth.
"What? I'm hungry" she said indignantly, pointing her flashlight in Jeremy's face, blinding him. "Are you planning to go home, ever?"
"Yeah…"
"So, this is not like running away?"
"I'm not five years old, to run away from home and hide in a tree house…"
"It kind of looks like it from where I'm standing" Kylie laughed, munching on her chips.
"And you're eating something that has expired years ago" said Jeremy evenly.
"I'm hungry!" Kylie repeated, "And for your information, these are not that bad"
"You can go home you know" said Jeremy flatly, making shadows on the wall with his flashlight.
"And miss all the fun? No, I'll stay here until you agree this is stupid"
"I agreed on that, six hours ago"
"Then can we please g –" for once again Kylie's voice got interrupted, this time by something coming from outside. They turned off their flashlights and exchanged a look of complete understanding. They crawled all the way to the window and peeked outside. The woods seemed to be deserted. For a wild moment Jeremy thought it might be Damon searching for him, but then he saw two strange figures coming their way. They were speaking in hushed voices, conspiratorially, in a language Jeremy had never heard before. But then all of the sudden a familiar voice got through them. Jeremy froze for a second, and judging by Kylie's face she was thinking the exact same thing.
"Mr. Bell" Jeremy muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Kylie nodded in the dark.
The two men were getting away, lost in the night but for Jeremy that opportunity was too perfect to miss. Mr. Bell was clearly up to something and Jeremy wasn't planning to leave this place without finding what.
He nodded to Kylie to follow him and carefully got himself hanging from the ladder, slowly getting down. He then helped Kylie and together they set off to the direction the two men disappeared.
Everything was dark around them and soon they had to take out their flashlights, always making sure to keep them down, so they won't attract any unwanted attention. Kylie seemed more eager into the whole teacher stalking thing that Jeremy gave her credit for.
They were almost lost, looking wildly around for a sign of the two men, when they heard voices nearby. Jeremy ducked down and indicated Kylie to do the same. His heart was banging against his ribs as he crawled towards the voices. He helped Kylie hide under some bushes and got himself nearer. He was lying barely ten feet away from them. He leaned closer, and listened to the silence around him.
A strange yellow light was coming from the spot where the two men stand. Mr. Bell was in the center of the light while the other man was standing right behind him, hidden in the shadows. There was something weird about Mr. Bell, in the way he moved and spoke, it was different from the obnoxious man he really was.
From his hiding place, Jeremy could see the look on Mr. Bell's face as he raised his hands to the heavens and spoke to the night in a foreign language; his eyes were scarlet and fathomless. He looked empty and confused. And then it hit him, Mr. Bell wasn't himself, he was compelled.
