This chapter is a bit darker than most, so if you're sensitive to any more sinister topics, it would probably be best to skim through the chapter instead of reading it fully.

Poppy stood in the corner of the gym, wearing high-waisted jeans with a white button up shirt, knotted at the bottom like one of the scenes Baby had it in on Dirty Dancing. She was holding a red cup full of spiked punch, watching as all of her peers danced their hearts out. She scoffed and downed the drink before putting it on the table next to her. School dances had never really been her thing – she always enjoyed the more sophisticated things, like the Masquerade Party that only happened to be the cause of her meeting Elijah. At least when you were there, the room wasn't full off gross, hot teenagers doing whatever they considered to be 'dancing.'

Before her thoughts could lead into anything more, Alaric walked up to her. She'd already apologized about punching him earlier, even if she only halfway meant it. However, it seemed to be enough for him and they were back on more friendly terms.

"Hey, Ric."

"Hello, Poppy."

"So," she said dramatically, as if sharing the latest gossip. "How do you feel about finally meeting the notorious Niklaus tonight? I'm currently stuck between picturing him with a bunch of warts and wrinkles, and picturing him with pale skin and slicked back black hair. I can't quite decide which one would fit him best…"

"Wrinkles for sure," he said with a smile that was obviously forced. She frowned at this.

"Dude, are you distracted or something? Because the Alaric I know would be very amused by my impeccable sense of humor," she said, eyeing him carefully.

"Sorry," he said quickly. Way too quickly… He then looked behind her at something. "It seems that I have business to attend to elsewhere."

"Uh, okay…?"

He didn't even wait for more of a response before leaving. The blonde frowned as she watched him walk away. That was weird…

She sat down on one of the chairs and sighed as she stared at the crowd of people. The room was full of bright colors and peace signs, even if she was almost certain that those mostly belonged in the 70's…

"Hi Poppy," a voice said from behind her. She turned and saw that it was Stefan. A smile immediately spread across her face and she got up and hugged him. He immediately hugged back, which she was thankful for – they hadn't been spending much time together recently.

"Stefan! I feel like we haven't talked in about 10 billion years! What's up?" she said to him. He smiled back at her and rubbed the back of his neck. She vaguely wondered why all guys did that.

"I know, sorry about that. Most of that is probably because of me and the grudge you hold against Elena… But I do hope that everything can be resolved soon. That wasn't really why I had to talk to you, though. Klaus is here, in case you didn't already know. I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that before anything else happens tonight," he said.

"Thank you. I really appreciate you telling me, seeing as everyone always completely forgets that I exist whenever there are big things like this. But seriously, thank you," she said sincerely, smiling.

"No problem." He returned the smile and was about to turn to head back to Elena, but he stopped. "By the way, Poppy, I'm really sorry about Elijah. I know how close you two are, and as you've told us many times, he isn't the real enemy we're facing here. Hopefully we can figure something out soon."

Poppy looked down for a moment sadly and then forced on the same smile she had on before. "Thank you, Stefan."

With that, he went to Elena and she was back to her lonesome. She stared over at Caroline and wondered why she bothered inviting her if she was only going to be dancing with Matt the whole time, but she decided not to hold it against her... even if she'd rather be home watching Netflix right now. The thought of being in her warm bed only seemed to feed her annoyance towards being there.

As she was thinking this, a girl Poppy knew as Dana went up onto the stage and got everyone's attention. "Thanks for being here, everybody," she said into the microphone. "We have a special shout-out tonight. This is for Elena. From Klaus."

Poppy nearly spat out her drink when she heard this. That cheeky son of a bitch. She laughed loudly to herself, knowing that people were looking at her, but not caring at all. "Niklaus, wherever the hell you are, I am very excited to meet you. Even if your brother never really had much good to say about you, I'm already enjoying your sense of humor," she said, knowing he would hear. Little did she know, across the room, Klaus himself chuckled quietly from her words. He was well aware of her and Elijah's relationship, and it couldn't amuse him any more than it did.

Of course on her side, there was no response, which left her feeling a little awkward, so the blonde walked out of the room and found her way to the restroom. She dazed as she walked there, taking all of the turns that she memorized back in freshman year. Being the maze of a school that it was, she had to think in her head, left, left, right, left.

Suddenly, around the corner just before the bathrooms, someone grabbed her tightly and put their hand over her mouth. She gasped in surprise and immediately tried to retaliate, kicking and punching anywhere possible and tried to bite the hand covering her mouth. Her struggling was pointless, however, because her attacker still had a strong grip on her and was hurrying her to a close classroom. She could feel the amount of muscle mass through the shirt they were wearing, and also realized that it was a man who had taken her. The direction that she was held, she could only see where they were going, but not the face of who it was.

When the attacker entered the room, pulling her with him, he threw her down, crashing her into the many desks so that he could close and lock the door. Poppy was on the floor now, still in shock by the recent events and looked down at her ankle to see it was twisted in slightly the wrong way. She bit her lip when she looked at it. Watching all of the seasons of Grey's Anatomy still hadn't prepared herself for actually seeing this type of stuff, did it?

Looking back up, she finally found who the person was. Standing high above her was James Branson, looking as annoying and arrogant as ever.

"You know, Gilbert, I told you that I would get you back. All that you did was laugh, but look at where we are now," he said, smirking evilly down at her. She wanted to seem like she was cool with this and manage to get her way out of it, but it felt like her brain was temporarily shut down in panic. Her entire body was completely frozen, unable to move from the hard floor that she was thrown on. Why was it that this happened at the worst times?

"What, so now you aren't saying anything? For the first time in your entire life?" he said, kicking her hurt ankle. She winced and glared at him, sitting up and trying to put as much space between them as possible.

"I've decided that you aren't even worth the calories I waste talking to you," the blonde spit out. This line was one of Caroline's favorites to say, but there were such few instances where it actually fit in context, so she wasn't about to waste it.

"Oh, really? Too bad because I want to be doing a little more than just talking," Branson said darkly, his angry grey eyes glaring down hungrily at her. The way he held himself showed that these words were truths, but Poppy forced herself to play this against him and try her hardest to get out of this.

"You wouldn't dare try anything with me, asshole. You know that I'm friends with practically the entire school. Don't even begin to think that I won't tell Stefan, Damon, Matt, Tyler, and the many more tough guys that I know to all go against you at once. It won't be a pretty sight – well, for you anyway. I think it would be quite hilarious if I happened across it," she countered.

He bent down, kneeling so that they were eye-level. She could smell alcohol in his breath and she crinkled her nose in disgust. He was so close to her that their noses were nearly touching. "Okay, well let's see how that works out for you later, but right now I think you're all alone. All of your so-called 'friends' are probably off at the dance, enjoying themselves and completely forgetting about you."

He pulled her up standing suddenly and smashed his lips against hers violently, pushing her against a wall. She tried to bite at him and push him away, but it was no use. His entire body acted as a wall so she couldn't escape from his tightening hold and he held it close to hers in a way that she would definitely not let just any guy hold her. Both of his arms held hers above her head, making them completely unable to budge and he was so close to her that she couldn't use her legs to kick him.

He tried to heat things up further, but it was all one sided and Poppy tried to think of anything other than what was happening to her at that moment. It was all no use, because no matter what she did, she couldn't undo the thoughts that were quickly roaming in her mind about how he was definitely going to be strong enough to finish this the way he wants unless someone came to help her. She felt tears forming in her eyes and closed them, not wanting to even see him. Then, Branson pushed himself closer to her and reached one hand towards her pants, while the other still held both arms above their heads. Poppy shut her eyes tighter, and just waited for him to ruin her, but suddenly he disappeared, making her collapse on the floor.

Her eyes snapped open and looked around the classroom until her vision landed on Alaric holding him in the air with only one arm, hand wrapped around his neck.

"What the fuck?" Branson sputtered, hardly able to speak as his windpipes were getting cut off.

"Branson, was it?" Alaric asked casually as if they were having a polite conversation on a park bench. Then, the entire mood of the room switched as he was lowered to the floor, eyelevel with the teacher. "Tell me why you thought it would be okay to do this to a defenseless girl."

Poppy closed her eyes, realizing that's exactly what she was: defenseless. And she didn't like it at all.

"She deserves what I was going to do to her. I-"

Before he could say more, his neck was snapped and he was lying on the floor, dead. Poppy watched the scene in front of her, mouth slightly open and eyes wide now in horror.

Alaric turned back to Poppy. "What a terrible person. I mean, I'm the most dangerous villain on the planet, and even I wouldn't do that," he said, frowning as he looked down at her.

She furrowed her eyebrows while she looked at him, trying to understand what exactly was going on. Alaric was definitely not a vampire, and not the 'most dangerous villain.' Then it clicked. The blonde looked up at him.

"Niklaus?"

He grimaced. "It certainly has been a while since I've heard that name…"

Surprising both of them, Poppy laughed sort of hysterically and got up and hugged him tightly. This man, who had killed a countless number of people, just saved her. She thought only of this as she held onto him. He hugged her back, but not with quite as much enthusiasm.

"So you're the girl my brother is obsessed with," he said, smirking as she finally let go.

"I'm the one," she said back, still sniffling, but trying to act casual despite what had just happened. She tried to shift her weight, but bit her lip in pain when it reached her ankle. "That fucking asshole. I can't believe he was going to try to fucking rape me. What teenage douchebag would actually try to rape someone?"

By saying this, she felt tears gather in her eyes but pushed them down, wrapping her arms around herself. She knew Niklaus wasn't the sensitive-type and she'd already managed to get a hug out of him, so she wasn't sure how much more he would take from her. After all, the only reason he saved her in the first place was obviously because of Elijah.

"I agree," he said, shaking his head. Although he was known for doing terrible things, he never did that… Well, maybe once in the 1500's but that was a tough time for him…

Poppy studied him. "You know, you're in Alaric's body and that is very weird. Though I do imagine that all of the Mikaelson's, like Elijah, have developed the hot-as-hell gene. Obviously not reaching his level or anything, but probably getting close, right?" she said, amused by his reactions to her wording.

"Well, I suppose that's somewhat accurate, but you are a bit biased. And while we're on the topic, may I ask? Why have you taken such a liking towards my brother? What exactly is there to like?" he asked, only some-what teasing – the rest being completely serious. She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, yeah. You're definitely brothers. Hey, does the whole 'vampire blood heals people' thing work while you're in Ric's body, because this really hurts," she said, sighing and looking down at her stupid foot. The blonde was still forcing all of her feelings down, not really wanting to deal with them while in the presence of a man who probably didn't care about her enough to listen to her cry, like she wanted to do so badly.

"Unfortunately, no it does not have any healing qualities to it, but your friends are just in the other room," he said, obviously hinting at her to go. She nodded and turned to leave, but he stopped her. "Oh, and one more thing. Purely for my own amusement, don't tell them I'm in their friend's body."

"Sure thing, Niklaus," she said, rolling her eyes. He wasn't quite what she was expecting – he was a bit friendlier than she thought he would be. "And thank you."

"Any time."

With that, she limped off to the gym again and looked for Caroline, pushing her way through all of the dancing bodies. After a few very long minutes, she finally found her standing alone, drinking punch. Her attention immediately shifted to Poppy and she ran up to her, frowning.

"Where the hell have you been?" she asked, helping her fried since she was close to collapsing on the floor. "And what happened to you?"

Poppy sighed. Of course she wanted to hide away and cry, but a big piece of her felt a type of humility about what happened. She couldn't believe that she was so stupid, and Niklaus already dealt with him anyway... It would have been so easy to just erase what happened from her memory and never speak of it again.

She sighed, knowing that if her old therapist could see her thoughts, she would start full-on sobbing at the lack of progress. She knew what she had to say, even if she didn't want to. "James Branson tried to rape me," she said slowly, then she bit her lip afterwards, remembering the hopeless feeling of his body being forced onto hers.

Caroline's face turned from concern, to disgust, to anger. "Oh my god, sweetie." She took her friend in her arms, holding her close, but still being gentle. Poppy was stiff in the hold, not sure why. Maybe she was going to be different now. "How did you get away from him?"

The shorter girl sighed and ran her hand through her hair. She knew Niklaus told her not to tell others who he was, but that didn't mean that she couldn't say that he was definitely there…

"Uh… Niklaus may have saved me from him…" she said guiltily, not sure why she felt guilty in the first place. He was of course the enemy, but he still showed her kindness in that moment.

Caroline's eyes widened about twice the size as they were before. "What the hell, Poppy? Klaus? What does he look like? Where is he?" she asked quickly. Poppy was almost glad that the topic changed. She didn't want to talk about this anymore.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that."

"Well, why not?" she said impatiently, frustrated with her friend.

"I promised him I wouldn't tell you guys. I didn't see any reason why not to, I mean you'd figure it out eventually," she said, shrugging. Then her attention went back to her ankle. "Care, do you think that your blood will help a broken ankle? Because that would be veryconvenient at the moment."

The young vampire frowned and looked down at the injury. "I don't really see why it wouldn't," she said. Then, she bit onto her wrist and held it out for Poppy to take, which she did, drinking the gross metallic-tasting liquid.

"You know, this is much more awkward when you're giving your blood to a friend instead of your boyfriend…" Caroline said, chuckling at how weird other people must have thought this looked.

"Yeah, hopefully Elijah steps up his game when he gets back so I have my own vampire blood bag for all of my future injuries," Poppy said dryly, not quite back to herself.

"Poppy, why did Klaus help you in the first place?" Caroline asked, suddenly curious.

"Um…" She bit her lip. It was obviously because she was close with his brother, but she couldn't very well say that to Caroline… "Well, he and Elijah are… close friends. Think of it as like a mutual friend agreement type of thing. And although he doesn't have many morals that he lives by, Niklaus still knows his manners and I guess he looks down upon those, like him, who completely ignore them and even fight against them. It's just how he does things, I guess."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at her. "Okay, I'm gonna act like I believe that, but just know that I have my eyes on you."

She smiled without feeling it. "Yep, of course you do. And I think my ankle is all better now. Thank you, Caroline."

"There's no reason to thank me, Poppy. You deserve better than any of this. I still can't believe someone would do that to you. Consider me your personal body guard. You should be safe, and if it's going to take me having to be by your side 24/7, then so be it," the young vampire said.

"Thanks, seriously, but I don't think I'll need 24/7 protection. And if I do end up getting myself into trouble, you or Stefan or Niklaus or someone will be there, like they always are. So there isn't any reason to worry about me right now. It's all over now. But I should probably go. I told you that dances never go well for me, and tonight I almost got... well, I definitely didn't enjoy myself. So let's say this is the last one I'll be going to for a while. Bye, Care."

"… I guess if you insist. Just know that I'm always here to help you, okay? Bye, Poppy. I'll tell the others that you left."

Caroline hugged her tightly and then Poppy left the dance, walking quickly to Elijah's car. She got in and leaned her head against the wheel, taking in the scent and going over what just happened. She watched as her tears slid from her face to the leather, finally falling onto the floor. After that night, she wondered once again how much longer she could take being without Elijah. The month that they spent knowing each other changed how Poppy thought about everything – he helped her with understanding the world she was in, and doing the small things, like reading old literature together, was always the highlight of her day. She knew how childish she seemed, still having this reaction more than a week after he was gone, but she really couldn't help the constant pain inside of her.

Finally, she wiped her eyes and put her hair up in a messy bun and drove back home. The night hadn't gone at all how she'd expected it, and she was ready to change into pajamas {… or Elijah's shirt} and just go to bed, trying to forget everything that had happened.

Yeah, I know. This chapter is really, really short, but I'm going to post another one right after this, so calm yourselves.

Anyway, Poppy is really struggling right now, isn't she? I feel bad, but at the same time I feel like something bad had to happen, plus it sort of gave her and Klaus a small bonding moment. Before any of you ask this, NO there will not be any love triangles of any sort, but she will still bond with all of the Originals differently. I feel like her and Rebekah would be an amazing, badass pair of friends, so that's definitely happening.

Sorry for taking so long to post this – I was seriously considering completely scrapping this and the following chapters, as I don't really care for them much, but hopefully you all can forgive me!

As always, please send your feedback! I love you all!

~Alissa