Thanks for the reviews you guys, it's great to know people are following along and I'm not just writing this to tide myself over to the season premiere. To Smokinghotvampires – I KNOW! I'm so sorry about the mistreatment of Damon, but I don't like those fanfics where they have Elena realize the error of her ways only to run off in the sunset with him and make babies. He's gunna have to suffer only a bit more before things get better (spoiler alert things get better in the next chapter). As for the show I can only hope they stop using him as a doormat, I'm not sure if everyone here has read the books but if you haven't do it! The books put a much more interesting spin on the Delena relationship. Enjoy!
Elena's POV
"Eleeeeeenaaaaaa," a long whispery voice tries to shake me from my sleep, but I hold on to it.
"Wake uppppp," the voice tries again and this time I find my eyes flickering, a groan escaping me as I try to hide my face from the light.
"GILBERT! UP NOW!" I'm brought out of my sleep in an instant as Caroline's demanding voice yells in my ear and someone jumps on top of me.
I make a very unattractive grunting noise and try to cover the blanket with my eyes. Using my senses I make out that Caroline and Bonnie are both in the room.
"What the heck, it's like 6 am go away." I know it's useless to argue with Caroline when she's determined.
I push the blanket back and look over at the clock which reads 6:40am. I look around and silently wonder where Stefan is, as he convinced me for the first time since he left with Klaus to sleep in his room with him. I still hadn't moved my things from the guest room I had been using, it had seemed a little awkward. I was so comfortable being on my own for the last while.
"Come on, get your butt out of bed you're gunna make us late." Bonnie walks over with an armful of my clothes and throws them on the bed.
I groan and try to throw the covers over my head once again, "Late for what?"
"Well there's this really awesome place – total vamp hotspot – anyone who's anyone goes there. They hang out and talk." Caroline bounces around being dramatic and sarcastic; I realize that I really have no idea what she's talking about.
"Yeah, you may not remember it because it's been so long but it's kind of mandatory." Bonnie laughs and lays at the end of the bed.
"Congratulations Elena, you are officially well enough to go back to school!" I laugh as Caroline reveals the punch line and I realized that I must be half asleep if I didn't figure that out.
It's been just over two weeks since everything happened. I hadn't returned back to school because, well I was in mourning for Alaric, and I guess myself too. I was also waiting to make sure I had control and that Klaus was off my back. I grin as I jump up becoming even more excited. This was the kind of normal everyday stuff that I wanted to get back to.
"But Care, what about you and Tyler? Isn't the council on to you?" I feel my grin drop as I think of one of my best friends hiding at home.
Caroline's smile never falters, "Meredith came over last night; she finally got into a council meeting! Turns out they think Alaric went crazy or something. My mom is slowly getting them off vervain though so that we can compel them just in case. Tyler and I talked and we figure it's safe to move back in with our parents."
Just like that I'm back to being excited. As usual even with Bonnie and Caroline's help it took me several minutes to decide what to wear to my first day back. I fixed my hair in a high ponytail, knowing that Katherine wouldn't be caught dead in one, and headed downstairs. Stefan and Jeremy were already up eating breakfast.
"Ready for your first day back?" Stefan flashes me a smile and I give a genuine one back.
"Definitely." I immediately find my way to the coffee.
"You sure? A lot has changed since you last went. There's an entire pile of homework waiting on the table at home." Jeremy's in a good mood too and I can't help but notice that he keeps glancing over at Bonnie.
It's nice to have Bonnie back and although not everyone has forgiven her she's keeping her head up. The only person who hasn't forgiven her is…
"Why is there a band of overly cheerful loud morning people in our house Stefan?"
A sleepy eyed yet sarcastic Damon walks into the kitchen, clad once again in only pants. My instinct is to turn my head the other way and count to 10 slowly but I manage to stand still and look elsewhere instead. Let's not make a big deal of this – it's my over active emotions, at least that's what I silently tell myself.
"Don't worry we'll all be gone soon, we're going back to school." Stefan seems happy as he flashes another smile and starts putting things into his bag.
"School? Really, you people are still doing that?"
"Not all of us can sit around the house all day drinking and moping." I joke with Damon as he attempts to steal my coffee but I pull it out of his reach before he grabs it. As a human this would happen almost every morning. I'd come over to hear news about Stefan, make myself coffee and have it vanish out of my hands before I could even have a sip.
"I don't think so, I'm a vampire now you've gotta be quicker than that. I already poured you a cup it's next to the pot."
Damon helps himself to the cup and sits down. I notice that everyone has stopped talking and I feel anxious under the silence and frequent stares. I feel like mentioning that I heard him coming down the stairs, and I know he has to have coffee in the morning but then I realize I don't need to explain myself. I take a deep breath and try not to let my emotions get jumbled.
"Oh my gosh, we have to leave. We still have to get Tyler and we really are going to be late." Caroline gets up and grabs her purse and keys.
I grab my bag and head out the door with everyone, hoping that school will still feel like it did when I was human.
After a week I realize that maybe human Elena didn't like school either. Seven missed assignments later and I've just caught up with all of my classes. What's worse is that my absences have caused a bit of a slip in my grades and to make up for that and still be on track for college I have to do some serious extra-curricular. Of course fate would grant me the most unlucky of assignments. I'm appointed the position of co-coordinator of the winter ball which is fast approaching. I would have been fine with helping Caroline plan the dance, but when forced into a position it's hard not to feel spiteful. My track record with dances doesn't exactly encourage me to be optimistic either, but I hold my head up and beg Bonnie to join and eventually the two of us are put to work.
Besides the planning and school work most of my life has returned to normal and it feels… weird. I'm not trying to be ungrateful for the lack of horrible events but after so much time spent dealing with the worst, everything returning back to normal is different. Jeremy's officially back and staying, no longer in Denver. Stefan's back and in school again, as though he never went on his killing spree with Klaus. Damon is back to being the sharp tongued older brother although he is definitely different than he way before Stefan left. I can't help but feel something ominous coming.
Aside from the extra-curricular activities I've had to do at school, I also find myself having lessons with Katherine. She's not exactly the worst company but certainly not the best. Once we both blew off steam from our argument she came back to the boarding house to talk about the differences in being a doppelvamp. I didn't mind since I had a list accumulating. After several discussions on why we're different I finally gather the courage to ask about my list.
"I've noticed a few things are really different from a normal vampire." I can hear the apprehension in my voice as I say this during our conversation, and I feel worried. As usual we're holed up in the living room of the boarding house alone on a rainy day. I've never been able to guess whether Damon and Stefan chose to leave on purpose or Katherine concocted some excuse for them to leave.
Katherine gives me a piercing stare before asking, "Like what?" from her spot in the chair.
I decide to give her the whole list and let her choose which ones to bring up first. "Well I already know about our emotions and how we have to deal with them no matter what. You've told me that it's easier to resist the cravings too. What I don't understand is the strength, and the mind reading." My voice goes flat as I reach the end of my sentence and I feel stupid for calling it 'mind reading' but really what else will I call it?
Katherine's face goes from calm to a few cracks that show the shock, then immediately back to being calm. "The strength is surprising to me as well. When I turned I was immediately stronger than many vampires. I knew it was supposed to grow with age but I had no problem taking down vampires who were 100 years older than I was. After testing the waters a bit I figured out that by the time I had been a vampire for 50 years I was evenly matched at 300 years. Clearly you got a really good gene because yours is even more advanced." She actually gives me a sneer before continuing and for a second I pity her and the fact that she had to figure this out on her own.
"It might have to do with the fact that you were in better physical shape when you died, or it might have something to do with the way you died. I'm really not sure and we don't exactly have an encyclopedia to consult. I'd ask a witch if it was safe enough, but it isn't. Trust me your strength is the best weapon you have. One look at you and anyone outside of your circle of friends will size you up as a weak newbie. Don't let anyone know about it."
I nod and take in her words, deciding to be silent until she answers the next one. She decides to question me instead.
"What do you mean by mind reading?"
Great. Now not only am I a freak but I'm different from the only person who is supposed to be the same as me.
"When I was with Damon at the bar he gave me a lesson in how to compel people. At first it went fine but then I pushed too hard and I sent some guy running out of the bar. All I'd asked was for him to buy his mom flowers and I didn't mean right away but suddenly he's bolting out to get flowers. Then when I was outside this guy was following me and I was kind of pissed off so I turned to compel him. The next thing I know I'm looking into his thoughts and seeing him kill people. I kind of shook myself out of it and when I finally came back to my surroundings he was angry and had actually seen the same things I had." I finish and feel nervous telling Katherine this. For all intents and purposes she was my enemy not that long ago, but curiosity and a lack of anyone else to go to has me telling her this.
She considers what I've said a moment before answering. "It started to happen to me a little while after I turned. It wasn't easy at first. When I was angry and I tried to compel someone I noticed it was much easier and they listened with such a force. Mostly it just happened when I was mad, but I don't really compel people to buy their mother flowers so I guess it could happen for good reasons too." She smirks and gives me a once over but I ignore it.
"As the years went on it got easier. If I put a lot of emotion behind my compulsion I could feel it become stronger. One time when I was very angry I almost compelled a vampire." She gives a smile at this and I can tell she's bragging. Clearly a lot of effort would have to be behind that, not to mention that no one besides an original can do it.
"What about the mind reading part?" I ask growing impatient; this was the main reason for my question.
"I can't remember what year it was, I'd only been a vampire for a few years. I met this gorgeous human named Antonio. He was a bit of an outcast; no family or friends. I was in a bad mood, narrowly escaping Klaus in Spain, he'd taunted me about the death of my family. I compelled Antonio to let me stay as a guest with him for a few days. I moped around, drinking some of the cities guards. One night I was following a man when I saw a woman in the market square. She looked exactly like my mother. I actually ran up to her and tried to talk to her before I realized that it definitely wasn't her, that it was impossible. I went home and I was depressed and guilty. It was one of the few times that I wished I would have died instead of chosen to live for all eternity. Antonio came in and saw that I was upset; he tried to be nice to me. I wasn't in the mood. I went to compel him to leave and all of the sudden I was in his head. I felt despair and loneliness and his memories showed me a time when his mother died and his wife had left him. He had tried to commit suicide. Once I got out of his head I saw that his attitude had changed too and that he had seen the exact same things I had."
Katherine drops off and stares out at a wall and I wonder how she has survived this long without the ability to turn off her emotions. Her description has me captivated as it matches perfectly what happened to me.
"What happened?" I ask, urging her to continue her story.
Her eyes go hard and lose any wistful look they had while she was reminiscing. "I didn't compel him to forget it. He committed suicide the next day."
I blink a few times before I open my mouth to speak, "What the hell. Why didn't you compel him to forget?"
"It wasn't my problem. They were his memories; he had access to them whenever he wanted. I just happened to bring them up and amplify them with my own emotions." She's gained back her cold, calculating survival mode and I know there's no point arguing with her.
"Well has it ever happened after that?"
"Three or four times since then. I'm not an expert on it but I think it's like projection. When a vampire compels someone they picture in their mind wanting that person to do something. The Originals can control the amount of effort behind their compulsion but they basically do the same thing too. When we compel someone it's like our emotions are also being sent over. If you don't keep them controlled we end up projecting our emotions on that person and I think if they're too strong that's when we make the connection and we bring out in that person whatever kind of memory our emotions invoke."
I smirk at her insistence on 'not being an expert.' Clearly she's mapped this all out pretty well.
She notices my expression. "This isn't something to laugh about. It's dangerous you know. You provoked a murderer to attempt to kill you and I convinced someone to attempt suicide. Not to mention no one else knows how to do this. For 500 years I've been the only one to know about this and now you can do it too so I'm trusting you're not going to go around unleashing your anger on people and announcing it to the world." She pauses and adds a smile to her face. "Although you're able to do it with good emotions too so maybe it won't be too difficult for you."
Her odd compliment freaks me out and I find myself cutting the conversation short so that I can bolt out of there. It's still odd to see Katherine being … kind? I guess you could call it that. Sometimes I still have this feeling that she's not entirely on our side, but then I remember that she trusts me to keep a secret of something that she's been keeping alone for a very long time. She could kill me and keep it to herself but she doesn't, so I guess she deserves a little bit of trust in return. Wow, it's sad when I trust someone because they haven't killed me yet.
…
Caroline's POV
Two days until the ball and no one has a dress yet. This is literally the biggest catastrophe, or at least I'm going to focus on it being so because it's nice to have shopping emergencies instead of death/magic emergencies. Getting back into high school mode and dealing with limited dress wardrobes is exactly what we're supposed to be doing as seniors and I'm going to make sure we have an ounce of normal in our lives. I pick up my cell and dial Bonnie.
"Hey Bonnie, we have to meet ASAP."
"Careeeeeeeeee, aren't we finished with all of the plans? The dance is in two days and it's practically set up already." I hear muffled laughter in the background and immediately grow suspicious.
"Yes, but we've neglected the dresses and they have to be perfect. Unless you have a ball gown sitting in your closet I suggest you get ready because we're going tonight to get one."
"Um, alright, but can you pick me up from Elena's house?"
"Yeah that's great, she needs a dress too. Should I be there in like 30?"
"Elena's at the boarding house actually. I'll call her and tell her we're picking her up."
"Wait, wha-"
"See you in 30!"
The call ends and I grin at the screen. A picture of Bonnie and Jeremy is still saved under Bonnie's number and I know from the call and from the way she's been acting recently that her and Jeremy must be getting along.
30 minutes later I pull up outside of Elena's house as Bonnie gets into my car. She's already blushing and I can see Jeremy in the window watching her leave. She buckles her seat belt and I put it in gear before I start my interrogation.
"Spill, all of it."
For a moment she considers denying it, or maybe finding a way around it but then she gives in. "Alright but not a word to Elena about this yet. I'm just not sure where we are yet. Jeremy and I have kind of started dating again, sort of." She's still blushing and I'm happy to see it.
"How can you be kind of, sort of dating?"
"I don't know. We're taking it really slow. I don't want it to fall apart again like it did before. We were really good friends afterwards but then after everything that happened with Klaus set us back again. So for now we're just trying to be friends."
I smile and look at her out of the corner of my eyes, "Friends with benefits?"
"Oh my god we are not having this conversation." We both burst out laughing.
I continue to interrogate her until we get in listening distance to the boarding house; picking up Elena successfully ends the conversation about Jeremy. Bonnie and I both know that it's not over, just saved for later.
Four hours later and only two of us have found a dress. Bonnie has a dark green strapless ball gown with a very tight fitted top. My dress is a deep purple gown with thick straps at the top and a very, very deep V at the back. I can't help but feel pleased that I've found a dress that's more beautiful than the one Klaus sent me to wear to that ball. Unfortunately, Elena's dress is a little more difficult to find.
"What was wrong with the last one? I thought it looked fine." Elena grumbles as I pass her another dress and take the last reject back.
"Fine is not beautiful or sexy, fine is boring." I try to explain it to her but I have the feeling she'd rather pick a 'fine' dress and leave.
"It's our senior year Elena, you have to try to pretend you're excited for this dance." Bonnie explains as she searches through another rack looking for the right dress.
"Guys my luck with dances has pretty much been 0 for … like 6 since I met Stefan. I no longer have good expectations when I walk into a room with loud music." Elena comes out wearing the yellow dress I just passed her and I immediately push her back in to take the hideous thing off.
"Just because you've had a bit of bad luck doesn't mean you should give up! We officially have no one trying to kill us, I for one would love to sit back and enjoy a dance before our high school experience is over." I try to persuade her as I search the rack again.
"I'm sorry, I'll try. I really would like to go to a dance and spend the evening dancing instead of having someone threaten my life, or any of yours." Elena's dejected voice comes from inside the dressing room again.
A gasp makes me look up. Bonnie is holding up a dress and is beaming but before I can take a look at it she rushes over to the dressing room and passes it to Elena. I walk over and join Bonnie standing in front of the dressing room door.
"Oh," I hear Elena whisper as she walks out of the dressing room. The dress she's wearing is one of the most stunning dresses I've ever seen. It's a deep dark blue silk, just a bit darker than the dress she wore to the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. On the first layer of dress it looks like it has a sweetheart neckline made of lace and sequins but it has silk on top of this which pinches together and comes over one shoulder. It goes all the way to her ankles with a lot of flares but on one side there is a slit so high that it may even be against dress code.
"Holy crap," is all I can say to describe her dress as she stands there looking down at herself.
"Maybe I will enjoy this dance." Her voice is almost a whisper as she starts to smile.
I'm just adding this tidbit at the end to thank Karen for her encouragement and to let Starjade101 know that she's on the right track when it comes to Stefan either being okay with their friendship or confronting them! Also even though I love clothes I suck at describing fashion so these are the inspirations for the dresses (in case my descriptions leave you absolutely no mental image lol).
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And I couldn't really find one that I pictured as Caroline's so here's some lady in a purple dress :P
www.