A/N

Since, in my opinion, last chapter was horribly depressing, I wrote a comic relief chapter to make up for it, it's shorter but I did my best. Enjoy!

The Story of Lilith Pierce
Chapter Twenty Nine: Carbon Footprint of a Vampire AKA Optimists v. Pessimists

Lilith ran down the stairs at seven on the dot, waving once to Rose on the way out the door and fighting back even more chilling memories that were threatening to show the faces of the past. The four of them – Lilith, Ziela, Damon and Stefan – decided to walk the five blocks to the Grill after Lilith and Stefan's ten minute debate on car exhaust and the carbon footprint of your average vampire. The dhampir's argument, that vampires live forever and therefore never stop giving off CO2 and other emissions, probably could have held up in court.

Damon had finally helped by talking Stefan into walking because he and Ziela had agreed that they'd rather be full and working off the extra weight – Ziela's words – than standing there debating for the next six hours without food. So Stefan lost this battle. "Vengeance will be mine." He muttered under his breath. This caused Damon to laugh and Ziela to let out a high pitched giggle that could rival Justin Bieber's singing.

Sadly, or not so sadly, the carbon footprint conversation came up again after Stefan and Lilith had finished their burgers. Elena and Jeremy were around to listen for the second half, after they spotted Tyler pausing by the table and laughing on their way out. "Think about it Uncle Stefan," Lilith said, picking up a leftover French fry from Ziela's plate. "You're probably going to live for at least another hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred, years, and all during that time, you're going to be driving your gas guzzling Ford and run down Earth's fossil fuels."

"A," Stefan commented. "It's a Chevy, not a Ford. And B, I'm going to be around for much longer than two hundred years."

"Says you," Jeremy cut in, "for all we know none of us are going to be around by the end of next year."

"Way to be a downer." Tyler teased, turning it into a full-on war between the parties. Jeremy sided with Lilith, along with Damon and Elena, named the "pessimists" by the other group and parties at the nearby tables, while Tyler, Ziela and Stefan were the "optimists."

"Pessimist!" Ziela shouted at Lilith, the twins laughing.

"Optimist!" Lilith shouted back, echoed by Elena yelling the same at Tyler.

Within ten minutes the entire table was laughing, their playful jeers fuelled by an occasional mention of the words "carbon" and "fossil fuel", and before they knew it, they were the only ones there other than the hangers-on at the bar.

They occasionally would brand one another with the names "pessimist" and "optimist" but the laughing had died down and "carbon" was only mentioned when talking about why they had started the argument in the first place. By the time they left, Tyler was practically asleep on his feet, Elena needed the support of both Damon and Stefan just to stay sitting up, and Lilith and Ziela were so hyped up on sugary sodas that they would probably never sleep again.

They exited the Grill and went their separate ways; Stefan, Jeremy and Elena in one direction, Tyler in another and Damon, Lilith and Ziela doing their best to hold in more laughter about "Aunt Stefanie" jokes that had somehow come up within the last thirty seconds in yet another different direction.

The five block long walk seemed shorter on the way there than on the way back and Lilith was secretly wishing that she had let Stefan win the argument so they could crawl into their beds and sleep for days on end. But, of course, she was right, or at least had a better point than her uncle, and this was her punishment.

Upon entering the boarding house, Ziela had already disappeared to the kitchen for something to drink and Damon had headed to the living room, leaving Lilith to her own devices. She skipped the two creaky floorboards and ended up asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

A/N

Shortish chapter, but I liked it. I could totally picture Stefan and Lilith getting into an argument about carbon emissions and how much energy a vampire uses in their lifetime. Don't forget to review! I've been getting only one or two reviews on each recent chapter but if you review I'll update faster! Remember this!

Peace In!