High School was the strangest experience I'd ever had in my eternal existence.

Here, the unwritten rules humans had when it came to social interactions were inscrutable to me. In my observations of those around me, I could tell there were many layers of intricacies to their communications. It seemed there were unspoken nuances beneath even the most innocuous of statements. Rules of hierarchy. A degree of knowledge concerning the current cultural context. Long established histories that colored how they viewed everything that was said and done.

"I'm so glad you're back!" a girl the vessel had known, Hannah, said in an excited squeal as she pulled me into a hug by the foremost place all students gathered—their lockers.

"Yes," I replied, staring back over her shoulder at the other teenagers who passed and noted the display.

She finally relinquished her hold on me and—still beaming—tucked a strand of heavily done bronze hair behind an ear as she said, "You won't believe the stuff that's happened while you were…" Hannah paused, a shadow falling over her once bright expression before she forced out an indifferent, "gone."

"I believe a great deal," I replied frankly.

While her lips twisted into a smirk, I looked down at our arms as she encaged mine within the crook of her elbow. I had no choice but to follow as she led me down the hall. "Who wouldn't with Caroline Forbes leading the squad." She turned her head suddenly to regard me. "Are you going to join back up?"

"Join?"

I had to check behind me to make sure my wings hadn't corporealized given the look she aimed my way. "The cheerleading squad? The one we sacrificed all our summers and every other weekend to get onto?" That shadow from earlier reappeared. "Unless you still aren't feeling well enough."

"I feel fine."

"Great!" she chirruped as we came to a doorway that led into a room which boasted several long tables with black tops, glassware, and sinks. "I'll talk to Caroline about arranging a try-out time." As we stepped in and around several tables, Hannah's voice took on a reassuring note as she added, "Just a formality."

Hannah stopped at a table where another girl sat and texted on a phone. "I'm with Bonnie," she said apologetically. She nodded towards a table in the back, "But Stefan Salvatore doesn't have a partner." She winked.

"Is there something in your eye?" I tried peering past all the makeup, but didn't see any obvious signs of irritation, like pronounced veins or a red tinge.

She said, "Um, no," despite blinking several times.

I hmm'd and turned to the table she'd indicated as more students filed into the room.

Stefan Salvatore was made up of the sort of perfectly symmetrical features humans enjoyed gazing at on their television screens. His eyes were the green of springtime growth beneath thick brows, and his hair and person were overall very well groomed. He looked up at my approach.

His nostrils flared as I took the seat beside him.

Pupils expanding, he suddenly turned his head aside, dark brows cinching together as he stared towards the front of the room.

My gaze followed his to regard the class' teacher as he began to speak.

I grew interminably bored as I discovered humans understood only a fraction of the world they occupied. As the instructor spoke of chemical bonds and reactions, my attention drifted towards the windows that lined the wall the next row over. A tree stood beyond, it's branches mostly still but for the occasional shiver that marked a wayward breeze. Within its canopy, a small blue jay preened its feathers and occasionally complained about the humidity in short, sharp trills.

The students around the room began to shuffle as they pulled on plastic goggles and arranged the glassware around them. Fires sputtered into being.

Pulling my awareness from the outside world back into the room, I copied their actions as I pulled a nearby pair of goggles down over my wig to settle atop my eyes.

The burner clicked to life as Stefan Salvatore turned it on before taking up a beaker filled with water. "Mind getting the ingredients sorted?" he asked as he placed the beaker atop the flame.

I glanced at the chalkboard and the diagram of chemicals and their bonds sketched upon it before turning to the array of liquids around me. Concentrating on their molecular makeups, I selected several samples and set them next to the young man standing beside me. He was busy preparing the solid powder that would ultimately set off a chain reaction that would change the color of the water to a vivid purple.

Task complete, I settled my gaze back onto the chatty blue jay.

Beside me, I sensed rather than saw Stefan Salvatore still. "These aren't—"

"They don't require such a high temperature to achieve the same reaction," I interrupted before my gaze slid back to meet his verdant eyes.

His stare remained fixed on my vessel's face. "I take it you've taken an AP Chemistry class?" he asked before picking up the first solution and measuring it out.

I returned my sights to the bird. "No."

"You should," he replied, adding the precise amount to the water.

"Why?"

Stefan Salvatore glanced out the corner of his eyes. "They're generally more engaging."

"I doubt that."

His lips twisted slightly upwards. "I'm Stefan, by the way."

I nodded. "I know."

Gaze darting to my face again, his nostrils flared. "I hope you don't take this as me being creepy but… that's a really nice perfume you're wearing."

My brows furrowed while my attention slid back to meet his already watchful eyes. "I don't wear perfume."

He blinked several times. "Oh." His gaze fell to the mixture as he added a third vial's contents. "Must be the soap you use."

As I used my grace to keep any foreign particles from my vessel, I didn't need to wash its flesh or clothing. Though, the mother still took the latter away in baskets every other day.

Brows still pressed together, I lifted the vessel's arm and used the crude human nose to inhale its scent. I could detect the cotton blend that made up the fiber of the shirt, but nothing more. Not even the usual musk of pheromones that accompanied humans.

Stefan covered the lower half of his face behind a hand and coughed lightly, though his eyes shone with what I'd come to associate with amusement.

The approach of the adult who had lectured had Stefan lowering his hand while my arm fell. The teacher perused our set up before saying, "I like the way you're both thinking, but check with me before changing up the formula, alright?" His smile was perfunctory but kind. "We don't want any accidents."

"Of course, Mister Roster," Stefan readily agreed.

"But the other way is less efficient."

Their sights zeroed in on me. Roster kept up his friendly affect as he said, "That may be true, but we have to learn the long way before we take the shortcut."

"Why?"

"To learn the fundamentals," he replied patiently.

My brows were nearly one they pinched so closely together as I stared through the glasses over Roster's blue eyes. "But the fundamentals are self-evident." The teacher's arms folded as I insisted, "Bothering with them is a waste of time."

"We'll follow the formula," Stefan cut in smoothly.

My frown deepened.

Roster gave me a less friendly, more serious stare over the rims of his glasses before his expression lightened and he nodded to Stefan, moving to the next table.

"I do not like high school," I decided.

Stefan glanced my way before adding the last ingredient. The molecules shifted and vibrated as the mixture turned purple as the liquid spread throughout the beaker's contents. "You really should think about checking out the AP classes."

I sighed, and with an innate sense of the passage of time, realized I had six and a half more hours to go before I would be allowed to leave.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ The Long Way Down ⋅.} ───── ⊰

"Sophia! Hi!"

My sights drifted from the clouds drifting past overhead to the cheerful blonde human smiling widely at me. A name rose from the vessel's memories. "Caroline."

Her eyes crinkled as her smile managed to grow. "Welcome back!" She dropped onto the bench across the table from me, tray of food clacking against the wood. "Sorry I haven't visited. Things have been—" the laugh that followed was not born of joy, "absolutely crazy lately."

I blinked. "Why would you visit?" I wondered. The memories of Caroline were tinged with unkind thoughts and frustration. Sophia had not cared much for Caroline Forbes. She believed the feeling was mutual.

But Caroline stared as if I had suggested the sun would fail to rise on the morrow. "To see you!" Her eyes shone with hesitancy as she asked, "You got the cards, right?"

There had been many cards. Cards from individuals. Cards from the school. Cards from the cheerleading squad and the football team. Caroline had signed many of them. "Yes."

Caroline's following smile was a shadow of what it had been. "Hannah said you want back on the squad."

I stared.

Stubbornly, the corners of her mouth rose in determination. "I can't just let you back on. Like, literally. There's a rule. But you'll crush try outs." She tilted her head. "Do you want a few weeks to learn the routine or—"

"No."

Caroline blinked, but her smile came back far more genuine. "That's the spirit! Right back on the horse." She nodded, and looked ready to say something more, when she paused. Turning her head, she drew in a breath and asked, "Do you smell that?"

"I smell many things." Blades of grass with sap in their roots. Rich sediments beneath our feet. The table's sun-bleached wood and rusting steel fixtures. The distant odor of exhaust from the cars driving by on the road beyond.

Caroline's sights roamed the area until, with another flare of her nostrils, her stare settled on me. Frowning lightly, she blinked and shook her head. Sitting up straighter, she asked, "How about Thursday, after classes?"

"Thursday." Three days away. Three rotations of this planet where I would have to return to the sprawling brick building and its myriad of classes. If my wings were still able, they'd have wilted.

But Caroline seemed not to notice my disinterest as another fake smile stretched her lips. "Great!" Her tray was back in her hands as she leapt back to her feet. "In the gym. Ten minutes after the last bell. See you then!"

Curious, I observed the blonde teenager with renewed interest as she rushed away, seemingly in a sudden haste to escape. My gaze followed her until she disappeared back into the building.

But not before she threw a confused glance over her shoulder, stare meeting mine for a beat before she hurried away.