Amelia Gilbert

I didn't know where Damon was this morning. He wasn't there when I woke up, he wasn't in his room when I looked and he wasn't downstairs. I felt like a girl who had slept with a guy for the first time and then he hadn't called.

I fought the urge to go to the Mystic Fall's Council office where he probably was. He'd never admit it, but I think he actually enjoyed working with the council and not with the purpose of making this town miserable. According to Sheriff Forbes, he was the reason our school was given a grant to make significant improvements. He had never said a word about this to me.

Fortunately I got dragged away from the Salvatore house before I could dwell on Damon's whereabouts too much. Although this didn't stop me from looking at my phone every two seconds.

"Why are you looking at your phone?" Matt asked, "The only person who texts you is right here."

"I have other friends, Matthew." I scoffed and he folded his arms. "Ok, I have two other friends." Bonnie, Caroline...Jeremy isn't speaking to me so that's minus one, but oh wait, I didn't count Stefan! "Three." I confirmed proudly, "Oh and then there's Jenna...wait, maybe I am popular..." I reconsidered, turning back to my area of the float. Art wasn't my specialty and that was entirely obvious. "How in the hell did I get roped into this?" I demanded, glaring around the hall resentfully as Matt and I, along with ten others worked on the Founders' Day float. I hated being helpful.

"Because I volunteered you," Matt replied, directing his paint brush at me with a stupid smug grin on his face.

I narrowed my brows. "Why would you do that?"

He shrugged and continued to look thrilled with himself. "For the lols, but then I got roped in too. Major fail."

"You idiot." I shook my head and started painting again. "I had things I needed to do!"

Matt scoffed. "Like what?"

"Like-" I stopped, avoid a certain vampire? I guess this would be the last place he would look for me. I cleared my throat, "Well, I'm Stefan's AA sponsor."

Matt splattered out a loud laugh and I stared at him in confusion. I'd make an excellent sponsor if Stefan was truly an alcoholic. "That is...the worst decision Stefan could possibly make."

"No, that would be my twin, ohhhhhhh-" I held my hand up for a high five, but Matt shook his head. "Anyone?" I frowned after I was left hanging. "If Jeremy was here and if we were on speaking terms, he would have high fived that."

"What did you do now?"

"I honestly have no idea." Matt gave me an unconvinced brow raise. "I'm serious, I've been the perfect doting sister I always have been."

"Yo Matt," Tyler called from the other side of the float. "You want to help me out with this?" Tyler held up a bunch of pink tissue paper that I had seen Caroline yelling that the float didn't have enough of. She was a like a sergeant the way she was barking orders at everyone. Matt and I had ducked over this side hoping she wouldn't come over.

"Not really, no." Matt answered.

I elbowed him. "You lazy shit."

"Mia," Matt laughed, pushing me to the side. I scowled at him as I stumbled on my feet to the side, almost smudging my excellent artwork. "Have you always had such a dirty mouth?"

"I can confirm that." Tyler grinned. I looked at him outrageously. Me? Dirty?

"It's all that Fifty Shades of Grey you've been reading.".

"For God sake, I already told you, that was Jeremy's copy." I cleared my throat furrowly and innocently went back to my painting while the other two baboons sniggered at me. "Alright, alright, back to work, losers."

"I bet you wish she read the book when you were dating." Matt smirked over at Tyler, I resentfully shook my head.

"Nah, we didn't need the book." Tyler leaned on the float and winked at me.

"If she was anything like her twin-" Matt leaned on my shoulder, making sure this went directly into my ear in an attempt to scar me for life. Well. Two can play at that game.

"Caroline!" I yelled out. "Oh Caroline!"

Caroline didn't glance up from her clipboard, instead she held up a one minute finger at me.

Matt jumped up straight. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to tell your girlfriend how you're reminiscing about your bed time antics with my sister. I might even add in that you were making comparisons."

Matt's eyes squinted. "You wouldn't..."

I laughed slowly, did he not know me by now? "Oh Matthew, Matthew... Of course I would." I grinned wickedly. "CARO-" Matt's hand whipped over my mouth, forcing me to bite into his pinkie.

"Ow!" Matt withdrew his hand and started shaking it. "Mia!"

"Matt-" I touched my face and then looked at my red stained hand. "You got paint on me, you absolute idiot!"

I immediately dipped my brush into the paint pot and lunged for him.

"Hey!" His hand gripped my wrist, trying to edge the brush away from his face. Our power was matched.

"Ow, ow!" I yelled out, "Alright, alright, I give up!" I rubbed my wrist as Matt let go. "Stupid boy."

Matt smirked victoriously and went back to his painting, but this wasn't over. I innocently asked about his week and waited until his guard was down before I swiped my brush all the way down his cheek and neck in green paint. Matt put his hand to his cheek and raised his brows.

"Now, we're even." I said calmly.

"Not by a long shot." Matt knelt down, picking up an entire pot of paint.

"Whoa... alright, easy, Matt, Matt-" I backed away with my hands outstretched. "C'mon now, I've had enough." Matt kept coming towards me. "There will be some serious consequences if you get me with that."

Matt swung the paint pot back.

"Mia," Caroline approached, "this better be goo-"

I panicked, ok?!

"OH MY GOD, Matt!" Caroline shrieked, the entire pot of blue paint thrown and now covering her once very pretty white blouse. Matt's mouth dropped and I looked down myself from behind Caroline, paint free, woohoo! "What is wrong with you?!" She screeched, catching everyone in the hall's attention.

"It was meant for Mia!" Matt immediately started to explain while I started to do the 'in your face' dance behind Caroline.

SO if you ever wanted to get kicked off the Founders' Float committee, have a paint fight!

I sniggered the entire way out. "Shut up." Matt pushed me. "You have no idea how much I'm going to pay for that later."

"It's not my fault you got her," I argued.

"You pulled her in front of you!"

"Hey guys, wait up!" Tyler jogged up behind us.

"Hey...did you get kicked out too?"

"Yeah, I couldn't be bothered to stay so I threw another paint pot over Caroline." Tyler said and walked in line with us. We stared at him bewildered. "Relax guys, I'll pay for the dry cleaning." He defended.

I started to laugh again, but Matt sighed heavily and dragged a hand down his face. "You guys don't understand, I'm not going to get laid for weeks because of this."

"Mission accomplished, then." I brushed my hands together. "Next step, convince Caroline to wait until marriage."

Matt sucked in his lips and held up his hand. "You do that," he said slowly, "and I will kill you."

I scoffed. "Like you could."

"I better start grovelling." Matt began walking backwards towards the hall. "Later guys." I gave him a salute.

"I can't believe you pulled Caroline in front of you," Tyler said, turning to face me once Matt had gone.

"She made a great shield, I didn't get anything on me at all," I replied proudly, looking down my arms and legs.

Tyler's mouth tugged up into a smile. "You've got a little-" He brought his hand up to my face, my lip to be précised. I almost flinched as his thumb settled on my lower lip. I stared up at Tyler and saw him swallow. He turned his thumb to me, the red paint transferred onto him. He breathed out heavily and forced a smile. "My house is closer...did you want to come round? Get cleaned up?"

I don't have much ex experience, but was he inviting me round for a booty call?

"There you are!" Saved by the twin! Elena waltzed up to me impatiently. When Tyler was looking, I put some space between us. "You do realise what cell phones are for, right?"

"Umm..."

Elena stopped in front of me and crossed her arms as she waited for an apparent apology.

Tyler looked down at me. "Remember all those times I complained about my evil twin and you said I was over reacting?" I said calmly to Tyler.

He nodded. "I am very sorry I didn't believe you."

"It's ok."

Elena rolled her eyes. "I've been trying to call you for an hour, Alaric wants to see us."

I could hug my mean twin right now. I stepped in to be at her side. "Another time?" I stupidly offered Tyler.

"Sure." He smiled lightly. "I better go join Matt in the grovelling." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Bye Mia, Elena."

At least Elena had the courtesy of waiting until Tyler was gone before she started grinning at me like a monkey. "What?" I demanded as she led the way.

"You and Tyler..."

I held up a hand, silencing her and to my amazement, it worked.

I should do this more often.

"We're just friends, Elena, friends."

"Tyler would be really good for you," she encouraged and then I'm pretty sure I heard her mumble 'better than Damon', but I chose to ignore it, not wanting to delve in that spicy number.

The meet up was in Alaric's classroom. I was surprised to find Stefan behind one of the desks.

"Stefan, buddy, it's good to see you back on your feet." I bent down at his desk and man hugged him, I don't know what reaction he was expecting, whether he was expecting me to be mad, but he looked surprised by my friendliness. I guess the last time we did see each other he did have his fangs in my neck, but you know me, I get over things fast, not like the twin.

"Hi Amelia." He gave a tight smile. "How are you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. How are you?"

"Better, thanks."

"Good, what have you been up to?"

"If we're done with the pleasantries," Alaric cleared his throat, but looked between Stefan and I in amusement. I didn't blame him, we were quite the comedy duo.

"We will talk later." Stefan said to me and I gave him sharp thumbs up. Jeez, I wondered what that would be about.

As if I didn't have enough going on with Damon, but then Alaric revealed to us that Isobel came to see him. I hadn't given Isobel much thought, maybe I didn't want to. It was easier to pretend that she didn't exist and that Miranda and Grayson were my biological parents and that was that. Alaric looked at me uneasily as I sat staring at him with an open mouth. I should really stop being surprised by these things.

"Sorry I'm late." My eyes grew as Damon walked into the room. One surprise after another. "Dog ate my-" He stopped when he couldn't keep a straight face, "never mind." He slid into the desk next to me. I froze and tried to keep looking forward, but I could still feel him staring at me.

"Buzz off," I told him when he didn't stop.

Just how much did he remember from last night?

"Hey you." My eyes failed to stay staring straight ahead and flickered to him. His head cocked to the side and he brought up his hand to my chin, guiding my face to the side.

I quickly pried his hand away. "It's red paint." I said sternly.

He flashed a smile. "Shame."

I hated how nervous I felt being near him. My whole body felt like it was on fire. I tried to brush it off and focus on Alaric, but then Damon started sniffing next to me.

He leaned towards me, his hand on the back of my chair, his knuckles brushing against my back.

"Do you mind?"

"Why can I smell the puppy on you?"

"Excuse me," I hissed quietly, putting my hand on his chest in an attempt to move him back to his own desk. "I'm trying to listen to Alaric."

"Again I ask," he pushed forward on my chair, lingering back over me, "why can I smell the puppy on you?" He repeated, a lot firmer this time.

"How should I know? I haven't gone near any dogs today."

"That's not who I'm referring to."

It took me a moment to figure it out. "Oh Tyler..." His brows flashed up, a sullen smile appearing as he waited for an explanation. "Ever consider becoming a sniffer dog?"

As if only suddenly catching onto the conversation, Damon's head snapped in Alaric's direction. "What does she want?" He demanded. Unfortunately I didn't have that supersonic hearing so I had missed the entire conversation.

"She wants to see me and Mia," Elena said, glancing at me. I hadn't heard this yet so I was equally as shocked as Damon.

"Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting. We don't know why or what she wants," Stefan said, clasping his hands sensibly together on his desk.

Damon immediately turned to me and swung out his chair so he was sitting backwards on it and leaning over my desk. "You know you don't have to see her if you don't want to." His whole demeanour had changed from the playful jealous idiot a moment ago.

"We don't really have a choice," Elena said snappishly, stealing Damon's attention from me briefly. "She's threatened to go on a killing spree."

Wow, that's just great. My mom is a serial killer….but then again so is the guy I'm crushing on, I thought as I stole a glance off Damon. What has become of my life?

"Oh." Damon half smiled, his eyes darting from Stefan, Elena and Alaric. "I take it that's not ok with you guys?"

"I want to meet her." Elena ignored him, "I know I will regret it if I don't."

"She wants you both," Alaric said sternly, looking directly at me.

I knew Elena was right, we did need to see her, but I had devil's advocate on my shoulder.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to, I'll back you up." I slumped back in my chair and stared at my fingers. I didn't want this, I just wanted my life to be normal again. "I mean it, you say the word and we're out of here."

I ignored all the scowls coming from all the other people in the room and looked at Damon. This wasn't about pissing them off, going against them for the sake of it, this was because he cared about me and what I wanted. The only one in this room who seemed to.

"I'll do it," I said loudly, but only met Damon's eye.

"Ok then. I'll go and set it up." Alaric stood from his desk and grabbed his phone.

Stefan and Elena left the room, but Damon didn't move.

He drummed his fingers against my desk, going back to staring at me.

"What, Damon?"

"Is this what you want or are you just allowing Elena to bully you into this?"

I sighed out and rolled my eyes. "This isn't about Elena, this is about Isobel not killing anyone because I'm too-" I swallowed the words. "Anyway, it's done, I'll just do it and then it's over." At least, I hoped it would be. "Why are you giving me that look?"

"What look?" Damon shrugged. "You mean my 'I'd like to christen Alaric's desk' look?"

Another booty call?! Wow, I was a popular lady today. Take that, Matt!

"You want to have sex with Alaric?"

Damon's eyes squinted at me, I gave a small smirk.

"Where did you go this morning?" I asked him.

"Why? You missed me?"

"No," I said, far too quickly, he flashed a smile at this. "You were just pretty drunk last night." I hoped he would get what I meant, but Damon just hummed in response. Fine, I'll just have to say it. "You bit me." I blurted out.

"You let me."

"You remember?"

"I do." His eyes flickered to my neck. "Vividly."

Our eyes met again and I lost my breath. How did I get to feel this way about him? He was the bad guy, the one I wasn't supposed to go near and now... now I'm in trouble.

"It was weird..." I finally admitted.

"Mystic grill." Alaric walked back into the room. "One hour."

I looked to Damon and he looked back at me. To be continued.

We met Elena and Stefan outside the school. Damon and I kept stealing glances at each other. I felt we were close to something dangerous happening between us, it was just a matter of when.

I ended up riding over with Stefan as he wanted to talk. Elena reluctantly car pooled with Damon and Alaric. I didn't want to have this conversation with Stefan as I felt it was unnecessary. I knew he wasn't in his right mind when he bit me so I didn't need an apology.

"I'm sorry, Amelia." He still gave it to me anyway.

"Stefan, it's ok, really," I assured. The guilty look didn't fade from his eye. "I probably deserved it, karma for something." I tried to joke, but he shook his head. "I'm just glad you're doing better."

"Me too." He smiled lightly. "I promise you that won't happen again."

"If it does, just warn me, I can direct you towards the people I don't like."

Like Elena, I thought.

"Like Elena?" Stefan smirked, raising his eyebrows.

"Dude," I leaned back. "We are on the same wavelength." I pointed back and forth between us. He chuckled and stopped at a red light, something Damon rarely ever bloody does. "So I hope you don't mind, but the story we told is that you're a recovering alcoholic."

"Kind of true," Stefan commented.

"Yeah, so if Matt asks, I'm your AA sponsor and I'm doing an incredible job."

He smiled. "Got it."

Damon, Alaric and Elena were already waiting outside the grill when we arrived. None of them talking. Apparently Stefan and I were the social butterflies of the group who spoke to everyone.

"Drive any slower, Stefan?" Damon commented as we joined them.

"We were driving safely, Damon," I countered for Stefan with my palm facing him. "Unlike you, Stefan respects that he has a human passenger."

Damon retorted by grabbing my chin, I tried to push him off, but he firmly tilted my head up. "Hmm, good, no bite marks." He shot a wicked smirk between Stefan and Elena. They rolled their eyes and walked in. I joined in their eye rolling and went to follow them, but as I tried, Damon hauled me back to him, "Apart from the small dent of my own," he purred in my ear.

My hand shot up and I tried to feel for this, but there was nothing there.

"You liar."

"We can change that."

"Stop it," I told him firmly, pointing over at Stefan. Damon winked and put his finger over his lips.

The last thing I needed was Stefan finding out what I allowed Damon to do.

Alaric scanned the grill. "Is she here?" I asked him.

"No," Alaric replied. "She's not."

"Maybe she won't turn up," I said, hopefully. Elena rolled her eyes at me. "It could happen, Elena, the bitch was a no show our entire life."

"If you need anything, Alaric and I will be in that corner," Stefan told Elena and then looked to me.

"I'll stay too," Damon said, walking forward, but Stefan stopped him, a hand going to his shoulder.

"She might get suspicious," Stefan dismissed. "And she knows you"

"Good. Then she will know not to try anything funny." Damon retorted, throwing Stefan's hand off his shoulder. He then looked to me. "You alright?" I nodded. "Last chance to get out of this."

"It's fine," I said and cleared my throat. "This doesn't mean anything to me." He rolled his eyes. "Hey," I pushed his chest, "you can't roll your eyes at me, not now."

"It's you, so this does mean something." He looked down at me, a small frown forming on his face.

"I'm sorry, some of us don't have an off switch." I looked around. "You should be careful, you actual sound like you care."

"Damon," Stefan called.

God dammit, every time.

"I'll be watching," Damon said as he walked backwards away from me.

Elena stepped forward and nodded at me so I nodded back. As much as I didn't want to admit it, this was a big moment for us. Approaching our table was like heading for our deaths. Part of me wanted to run back to Damon, tell him I changed my mind and let him take me away. The other part of me couldn't fight off the curiosity of what Isobel was like.

We sat down at an empty table and waited.

Elena had a little miming session with Stefan going on. I saw them mime I love you to each other. I then looked at Damon who gestured his finger into his mouth. I smiled, he did too.

It was only when Damon's smile dropped that I realised she was here.

She was young, I don't know why I was expecting her to be older. She had straight slick black hair, pretty. My eyes darted to Damon who gave me a cautious reassuring nod. Our exchange did not go unnoticed by Stefan.

Her head tilted to the side as she studied us.

"It's amazing, you two look exactly like her. I bet the Salvatore brothers love that." Isobel slowly smiled and then looked over her shoulder directly at them. She gave them a small wave, but they just frowned back her. "Damon, it's been awhile."

I didn't know what Damon said back to her, but it made her chuckle before she turned her back on them and lowered herself in front of us.

"So..." I said, tapping my fingers anxiously against the table. "You know Katherine?"

Isobel clasped her hands together over the table.

"She found me after I turned," Isobel answered and my stomach tied up in knots.

So she was still alive. My eyes flickered to Damon whose interest had peaked by this news and I felt a wave of disappointment. That's probably why he's here. "Genetic curiosity I suppose, she would be fascinated by you two."

"Yeah, well, the feelings not mutual." I replied and leaned back in my chair.

"Is that what allows you to walk in the sunlight?" Elena asked her.

I didn't want to be here, I changed my mind, but now Katherine had been brought up, I knew Damon's offer would no longer be on the table.

"Katherine helped me obtain it." Again with that bitch's name. This time, I refused to look at Damon.

"Who's our father?" I asked.

"Not important."

"Yes it is."

"A teenage waste of space," Isobel dismissed.

"A name would be nice," I pushed.

"It would, wouldn't it?" My brows narrowed. What were we doing? Playing mind games? "You ask a lot of questions."

"A-are you surprised?" I asked her, astounded. "Up until a few weeks ago, we thought our parents were-" I didn't even want to tell her their names. "Just answer our questions, lady."

Isobel just smiled.

"Why'd you compel the man to kill himself after he told me to stop looking for you?" Elena asked her.

"Dramatic impact. Wish it would've been more effective." She shot back at us.

"Does human life mean that little to you?" Elena's lip curled in disgust.

"It means nothing to me," Isobel said calmly. "It's just part of who I am."

"You do realise that has nothing to do with the fact that you're a vampire?" I replied, crossing my arms under my chest. "You get to choose what kind of person you want to be." Take my good buddy Stefan, for example, wonderful human being.

Isobel was decent enough to thank the waiter who placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Like Damon?" She asked, as she took a small sip, looking directly at me.

How did the bitch know?!

"What do you want?" I changed the subject.

"I was curious." Isobel shrugged.

"Is that all?"

Of course it wouldn't be.

She leaned forward. "Ok, you've got me. I want what your Uncle wants, Jonathon Gilbert's invention."

Elena and I looked at each other. What? "How do you know John?" Elena demanded.

She poured some sugar into her coffee. "I used to spend a lot of time here when I was younger, John had a crush on me for years, he was the first one that told me about vampires." She smiled like imagining a fond memory. "That's what I want and it's what you're going to get for me."

"Yeah, I don't think so." I said, pushing back on the table and lifting myself out of the chair, Elena followed my action. "We're done here."

Isobel's hands shot out and stopped us from leaving.

"Sit down and tell your boyfriends to walk away," she said sternly.

I looked up to see Damon and Stefan had gotten out of their seats. Damon tried to come to us, but upon Isobel's words, Stefan put his arm out stopping him. Isobel turned round in her seat and watched the show.

The two brothers began arguing, clearly Damon wasn't happy with what Stefan was telling him to do.

Whatever Stefan said worked and Damon yanked his jacket off the seat and pushed past Stefan, knocking into his shoulder as he did so. The conflict erupted a low chuckle from Isobel. Stefan nodded in our direction and followed Damon out the grill.

"Where were we?" Isobel turned back in her chair. "Oh yes, the invention."

"We don't even know what that is," I said truthfully.

"We don't have it," Elena reaffirmed.

"You will get it for me."

"Are you deaf? We don't have it," I repeated slowly, "obviously didn't get the brains from her." I whispered to Elena.

"I know you don't have it, but Damon does." Her focus switched to me. Why did Damon have the invention? What did it do? "And you're going to get it for me."

I met her eye. "I said no."

"Then the blood will be on your hands." She smiled lightly and stood up. "Your choice."