Chapter 3: Friday Night Bites
September 11, 2009
Dear Diary,
Elena finally made a move with Stefan and she's gone on and on about their epic kiss. I'm happy for her, but I still feel a little bad for Matt. He loves Elena but I don't see her getting back with him now. Jeremy's moping so Vicki must still be with Tyler. Honestly Lockwood doesn't deserve her, he doesn't really treat her well. As for me, the weird stuff keeps happening. I don't know how to explain it… and I'm not sure if writing it here is the best idea. But I don't know who I could go to for help. Maybe it'll just…. Go away? I don't really know what to do at this point.
"What smells so good?" Jenna strolled into the kitchen, looking happier than she had lately as she found the older twin standing in front of the stove.
"Pancakes of course, I just got done making strawberry pancakes for you." Ellie said as she passed the plate to her aunt.
"You seem to be in a good mood." Jenna commented as she poured syrup on her stack and sat at the counter to watch her niece cook.
Ellie turned to glance at Jenna and smiled warmly. "You do too. I don't know, maybe I just slept really well, but I woke up this morning with so much energy so I decided to put it to use. We haven't had a good breakfast here in awhile." She explained as she added syrup into the batter. "Maybe since Elena is in such a good mood that it came through on the twin telepathy thingy."
"Ah yes, the good ole twin telepathy thingy."
"Shut up Jenna." Ellie scoffed as she tossed a blueberry to her aunt. "Everything has just been so weird lately, animal attacks not helping, so maybe this means things are getting better." Jenna seemed proud of her as she put a set of pancakes into a container and placed it in the microwave. "Since Jeremy is definitely going to push how long he can stay up there, tell him those pancakes are his and to reheat them for about a minute and they should be good."
Elena made her appearance just as Ellie finished up her pancakes. "Perfect timing, here you go." Ellie greeted, passing the plate over to Elena. "Get done writing in your diary about what a good kisser Stefan is?" She teased and Elena just blushed in response.
"Hold up, when did you two kiss?" Jenna asked gleefully.
"We sorta kissed last night when I went to his house." Elena admitted as she cut into her pancakes.
"And she went on and on and on about it as soon as she got home. I thought that I was never gonna get to sleep." Ellie added and laughed as her sister tried to hide her flaming cheeks. "I'm going to go get my bag, Bonnie will probably be here soon."
Her timing was spot on. Once she'd grabbed her bag and found the history book that was hiding from her under her bed and got back to the kitchen, Bonnie had honked from outside. "Bye girls!" Jenna called as they hurried out the front door.
"Hey guys." Bonnie greeted them as they slid into the car. Ellie immediately noticed the way Bonnie seemed uncomfortable as Elena jumped into telling her all about going to see Stefan and the kiss they shared and blah blah blah.
When Bonnie continued to seem uncomfortable and unsure, Ellie couldn't help but ask, "Bonnie, what's wrong? Something's bothering you."
It seemed to immediately shut Elena up as she took in their friend and saw that, yes Bonnie did in fact seem to be off. "It's nothing."
"No, it's not. Bon, you've been off since we got in the car. Fess up." Ellie countered and Bonnie sighed in defeat, she knew from the look on Ellie's face that she wasn't going to let it go.
"I don't know, maybe Elena should just slow down on this whole jumping into a relationship with Stefan thing." Bonnie admitted. Elena's eyes shot wide in shock but all Ellie could think about was the reaction Bonnie had when she'd touched Stefan's hand accidentally last night. Did her reaction now have anything to do with her reaction then?
"What do you mean? Slow down?" Elena asked as Bonnie parked the car.
"I'm not saying don't date the guy. I'm just saying take it slow."
"You were the one who said go for it." Elena reminded her.
"Now I'm saying take it slow."
"Why the about-face?" Elena didn't seem to have any intention of letting the subject drop and Ellie just sighed and hoped for the best.
"It's not an about-face. You're single for the first time in your entire high school career. It's the perfect time to play the field." Bonnie suggested.
"Oh, because I'm so that girl." Elena joked. "Seriously, what are you not saying?"
"It's stupid."
"Bonnie…."
"What?" Bonnie asked, looking entirely uncomfortable.
"Spit it out."
"I accidentally touched Stefan and got a really bad feeling." Bonnie finally admitted.
"Is that it?" Elena asked. Bonnie turned to walk off, Ellie knew she was offended by Elena's disbelief, but Elena grabbed her back. "Bonnie."
"It was bad-bad!" Bonnie added and the freaked out look on her face from last night reminded Ellie of just how bad it had been.
"Is this the whole witch mojo thing again?" Elena almost seemed amused by it and Ellie found she had the urge to shake her sister until she listened to Bonnie.
"You know what, I'm just concerned. This is me expressing concern about my best friend's new boyfriend."
"And I love you for it, I do. But I feel good. It's been a hard year, and I'm starting to kind of feel like things are getting back to normal again. And you know what, Stefan is a big part of that." Elena explained.
"You've literally known Stefan for like two days, Elena." Ellie chimed in and her sister just rolled her eyes. However, she did seem like she was going to drop the subject so Ellie looped her arm through Bonnie's and the trio headed towards the school.
Of course, not long after they started walking the Salvatore in mention appeared before them. "Good morning, Elena." He said as he smiled warmly at her. "Good morning, Ellie. Good morning, Bonnie."
"Hey, um, I gotta find Caroline. She's not answering her phone. So I'll catch you guys later." Bonnie's excuse came quickly before she made her escape, leaving the Gilbert girls alone with Stefan.
"Bonnie, wait." Elena tried to no avail.
"She doesn't like me very much." Stefan commented as he watched the other girl go.
"She doesn't know you." Elena denied. "She's my best friend, she's just looking out for me. But when she does, she will love you."
Ellie pretended to gag a bit. "Ew new couple grossness. Gotta blast. Bye Stefan!" She grinned at him to let him know she was just playing and then she made a beeline towards Matt and Tyler.
"...walking, walking, walking. Yep, right into the sunset." Tyler was saying.
"You're a dick." Matt huffed as he caught the football him and Chris were tossing back and forth.
"While you just stand there looking like one of those little yard trolls." Tyler continued.
"Gnomes." Matt corrected.
"What?"
"They're called garden gnomes you dumbass." Ellie told Tyler as Matt laughed.
Tyler was blatantly staring at Elena and Stefan, but Matt asked his friend, "What am I supposed to do, Ty? She made her choice."
"Find somebody that deserves you because you're amazing and if Elena can't see that she doesn't deserve you?" Ellie suggested.
Tyler shushed her before saying, "No, not that. Let her know she made the wrong one."
"What are you doing?" Matt asked when Tyler dropped his bookbag and caught the ball before Matt could. "Ty, don't, Ty!"
"Tyler Lockwood don't you dare!" Ellie hissed, it didn't take much for her to know what the idiot intended to do. "Tyler, no!" But before she and Matt could stop him, Tyler had stepped back and launched the football as hard as he could at the back of Stefan's head. Before she could even call out to warn Stefan, he whirled around, catching the ball perfectly. "Holy shit." He shook the ball with a smile as Tyler squinted his eyes in disbelief. Even with as much as Matt didn't like the idea of Elena getting with Stefan, Ellie saw him smirking at Tyler's shock. Stefan threw the ball back and when Tyler caught it, it had enough force behind it to make Tyler stumble. "See, that's what you get for being a dick."
"Shut up." Tyler told her as he grabbed his bag and walked off, taking the football with him.
"He's just mad because I'm right." Ellie said as she and Matt headed inside. When she caught sight of Bonnie she told Matt, "Hey, I'll be back, I need to go talk to Bonnie." He nodded and she was quick to get to her friend. "Bonnie." The girl in mention looked ready to bolt, but Ellie continued. "Stop, I'm not Elena, come on. I saw how you reacted last night. I saw how freaked you were and as much as I like Stefan, you wouldn't say what you said to Elena without good reason. So what the hell happened when you touched him?"
Bonnie really looked at Ellie, trying to gauge how much she could tell the other girl. She must have sensed Ellie's sincerity because she just sighed and said, "When I touched Stefan, it was a really bad feeling. I felt..."
"What is it, Bonnie?" Ellie asked.
"Ellie, it felt like death. It felt like what I imagine death to be like. It wasn't like a clear picture, but it was an insanely strong feeling" Bonnie admitted. "I know, it's stupid, and I shouldn't be trying to sabotage their relationship, but-"
"No, Bonnie, no." Ellie cut her off. "I have known you my entire life, you would never try to do anything malicious like that, especially not to Elena. I know you only said something because it really worried you and you thought it was important. I know you better than that and as much as I might like Stefan, I'll keep an eye out, just to make sure that nothing happens to Elena."
Bonnie hugged Ellie tightly, grateful for the other girl to actually listen to her warning instead of brushing it off like Elena had done. "So you don't think I'm crazy?"
"As if. You aren't crazy. Even if you aren't a witch, some people just have natural intuition like that. But if you have any lotto numbers pop up in that pretty head of yours, definitely let me know." Ellie said with a wink.
By the time history rolled around, Ellie was dreading the thought of having to sit and deal with Tanner and his attitude. She just knew that at some point Tanner was going to try and be a dick to someone, probably her or Elena and she really just wanted to get through the class without suffering from the urge of punching him in the face. However, it was nearly the end of class and nothing really bad had happened, yet. "World War II ended in…" Tanner trailed off and Ellie just sighed as he sarcastically asked, "Anyone got anything? Miss Juan?" The girl just shrugged before he answered his own question. "1945."
From beside her, Elena was whispering to Stefan. "Psssst, FYI, our team sucks. They could use you."
"Pearl Harbor." Tanner was saying.
"Can't." Stefan whispered back. "I'm a loner."
Elena tried to keep her laugh quiet but Tanner called, "Miss Gilbert?" Both girls turned to him, but he was looking directly at Elena. "Pearl Harbor?"
Before Elena could fumble for long to come up with an answer, Stefan stepped in. "December 7, 1941."
"Thank you, Miss Gilbert." Tanner said sarcastically as Elena smiled at her new beau.
The class giggled and Stefan just gave him a smile and said, "Any time."
Tanner took that as a challenge. "Very well." The teacher said, "The fall of the Berlin Wall."
"1989." Stefan didn't even hesitate. "I'm good with dates, sir."
"Are you?" Tanner asked skeptically and Ellie could see the way Stefan's eyebrows rose, challenging Mr. Tanner to try. "How good?" Ellie was almost nervous to see what turn this would take, but Tanner was very much in the mood to knock Stefan down a peg. "Keep it to the year. Civil Rights Act."
"1964."
"John F. Kennedy assassination."
"1963."
"Martin Luther King."
"'68."
"Lincoln."
"1865."
"Roe vs. Wade."
"1973."
"Brown vs. Board." Tanner was slowly moving towards Stefan, obviously not pleased that as of yet, Stefan hadn't missed a beat or an answer.
"1954."
"The Battle of Gettysburg."
"1863."
"Korean War."
"1950 to 1953."
"Ha! It ended in '52." Tanner told him and Ellie thought he was awfully too smug about it. Ellie could see Elena looking at their teacher with the same expression of confusion.
"Uh, actually, sir, it was '53." Stefan corrected and Ellie had to give the boy credit for looking entirely unfazed by Tanner's lack of professionalism.
Tanner turned back, not expecting Stefan to try and correct him and whispers of shock drifted through the class. "Look it up, somebody." Tanner snapped and books immediately opened as people searched for the answer, everyone eager to prove Stefan right. "Quickly."
From the other side of the class, Nick held up his phone. "It was 19….53." Several kids couldn't stop from laughing and whispering to each other about how impressed they were that the new guy just one upped The Terrible Tanner and ended up applauding the Salvatore for the impressive feat.
Ellie walked out with Elena and Stefan and despite Bonnie's warning, she found herself grinning along with her sister. "How did you know all of that?" Elena was asking as they stepped out of the classroom.
"Years and years of crossword puzzles." Stefan told her. "It's a loner thing."
After history they day ended without anything else dramatic happening and Ellie found herself watching the football practice from afar. She watched as Tyler missed the ball and yanked off his helmet in frustration. The whistle was blown harshly and Matt, bless the ever optimistic boy called out to the team, "Good job! Good job!"
Tanner, on the other hand, decided to be a dick. "Mr. Lockwood, is there anything you're good at? 'Cause it isn't history, and it sure as hell isn't defending the ball!"
"Yes, coach." Tyler said. It was startling to see Tyler not even try to defend himself.
"Now do it again!"
She turned and walked off as they started going again and met up with Elena as they headed for cheer practice. It was a little nerve wracking, neither of them had cheered since the accident and Ellie was certain that they were doing this for different reasons. She was doing this mostly because Elena was and she didn't want to let Caroline down. Elena, she was sure, was doing it because she was trying to force herself to not be the 'sad girl' anymore. As they approached Bonnie, Elena cleared her throat and Bonnie shot up excitedly. "Oh my god! You guys are here!" The other girl was quick to wrap the twins up in a hug and held them tightly.
Elena confirmed her twin's suspicions when she said, "Yep, I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were are to do things that were. Oh, and you're coming to dinner tonight."
"I am?"
"Mmhmm. You, me, Ellie, and Stefan." Elena told her and the moment her new boyfriend's name was mentioned, Bonnie's happiness was gone in the blink of an eye and replaced with apprehension. Elena caught it and gave Bonnie an annoyed look. "You have to give him a chance."
"But tonight's no good." Bonnie told her. "Have you seen Caroline? I texted her like a hundred times."
"Don't change the subject, Bonnie Bennett. You're going to be there." Elena informed her.
"Fine! I'll go."
"Good." Elena grinned in her victory.
"But Elena wait, really, where is Caroline? I haven't seen her all day." Ellie said as she sat up from her stretch to look around. The familiar blonde was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't know." Elena told her as she took a drink from her water bottle. "It's not like her. Try her again."
As Bonnie was calling Caroline's phone, an unfamiliar Camaro with loud music playing and the top down drove up. "Oh, my god." Bonnie said as Elena pointed out Caroline sitting in the car.
"That must be the mystery guy from The Grill." Ellie said as she watched Caroline leaned over to kiss the dark haired man.
Elena sighed. "That's not a mystery guy. That's Damon Salvatore."
"Salvatore, as in Stefan?" Bonnie whispered as the three of them stood up.
Caroline strode out of the car and as she walked by Elena she smugly said, "I got the other brother. Hope you don't mind." She addressed the whole team saying, "Sorry I'm late, girls. I, uh, was busy. Alright let's start with the double pike herkey hurdler, what do you say?" All the girls fell into line but as she moved to position, Ellie saw the small stare down between her sister and the other Salvatore. Caroline was counting the beat as they all moved through the routine but Ellie could see that Elena was struggling and unsure of her moves. Her twin was looking around, trying to watch everyone else to match their moves and Caroline noticed it. "Elena, sweetie, why don't you just observe today? 'K? Keep going! Ok. Do it again from the top!"
The rest of practice went smoothly, save for Elena really ditching it to watch the football practice. Once practice was over, and the majority of the girls had dispersed, Caroline dropped down next to Ellie with a huff. "What is it, Princess? Spit it out." Ellie questioned.
"I don't get it. Why is Elena struggling with the routine so much when it's easy for you?" Caroline whined.
"Because I'm amazing Caroline. Obviously." Ellie teased. "She'll get it. Just give her some time."
The blonde sighed but nodded. "At least I have one amazing Gilbert who has her shit together."
"You're welcome." Ellie said with a smirk.
Ellie was with Elena and Bonnie as they worked in the Gilbert kitchen and Bonnie was giving further proof that yes, she was in fact either psychic or a witch. "You explain it." She was saying. "Last night I'm watching 'Nine-O, a commercial break comes on, and I'm like, 'I bet it's that phone commercial!' and sure enough, it's the guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture."
Elena scoffed disbelievingly. "Oh, come on. That commercial's on a constant loop."
"Fine. Well, how about this?" Bonnie asked. "Today, I'm obsessed with numbers. Three numbers. I keep seeing eight, fourteen, and twenty-two. How weird is that?"
"Maybe we should play the lottery." Elena suggested with faux-seriousness.
"See!" Ellie exclaimed. "This is how I know she's my twin! I have told Bonnie that a million times and she still isn't listening to me!"
Bonnie glared at them as Elena asked, "Have you talked to your Grams?"
"She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch. Do you want to be a witch?" Bonnie whined.
"I don't want to be a witch." Elena denied.
"And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody. Why didn't you just let Ellie cook?"
Flipping her hair dramatically, the older twin informed Bonnie, "She didn't let me cook because she was afraid that I would steal Stefan away with my magical cooking skills." With a dramatic gasp she said, "Does that mean I'm a witch? Ok, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?"
Bonnie immediately responded, "Middle drawer on your left."
Ellie opened the drawer in mention and held up the serving spoon she was looking for. Her twin had an immediate excuse to dismiss the possibility of Bonnie being psychic. "Ok, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times."
"Yeah, that's it." Bonnie said as she gave Elena a look.
The doorbell rang, signalling the arrival of Stefan and Elena turned to Bonnie to say, "Ok, he's here. Don't be nervous. Just be your normal, loving self."
As Elena went to answer the door, Bonnie looked incredibly nervous and with a glance to Ellie she told her, "Birthday candles."
To the surprise of both girls, when she opened the drawer, there was an unopened pack of birthday candles inside. The Gilbert twin was quick to reach out and place a comforting hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "It's ok. Whatever happens, it's ok." Bonnie didn't have a chance to say anything as Elena and Stefan appeared. "Hey, Stefan."
"Hey, Ellie. Thanks for letting me come over for dinner." He greeted as the four of them moved to set the food on the table.
"No problem." Ellie told him.
"Hey, Bonnie."
"Hi, Stefan." Stefan might not have noticed, but Ellie saw the hesitation on Bonnie's end to really have anything to do with him, so she made the decision to help the other girl out a little and sat across from Elena, giving Bonnie the chance to sit without being directly next to the Salvatore.
For the first few minutes, it was painfully awkward and silent and Elena attempted to break it by asking Stefan, "So did Tanner give you a hard time today?"
"Well, he let me on the team, so I must have done something right." Stefan admitted
"Bonnie, Ellie, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and-"
"Yeah, I heard." Bonnie said, cutting Elena off.
"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" Elena suggested.
"Um, divorced. No mom. Live with my dad." Bonnie said bluntly.
"No, about the witches." Elena corrected her. Stefan quickly turned to look at Elena and she continued. "Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool."
Despite the stress Elena put on the last sentence, Bonnie just shook her head. "Cool isn't the word I'd use."
"Well, it's certainly interesting." Stefan told her. "I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s."
"My family came by way of Salem." Bonnie admitted.
"Really? Salem witches?"
A slightly embarrassed chuckle escaped Bonnie. "Yeah."
"I would say that's pretty cool."
"Really?" Bonnie asked skeptically. "Why?"
Stefan was quick to explain. "Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity."
A look of pride graced Bonnie's features as she said, "Yeah, they are." Elena gave Ellie a pleased look, proud her plan had worked, but before anything else could be said, the doorbell rang unexpectedly.
"I wonder who that could be?" Elena said as she stood to go answer the door.
When it sounded like Caroline was at the door, Ellie rose from her seat to go see for herself. The other brother was standing behind Caroline, who was holding a cake. The older Salvatore was saying to Elena, "Hope you don't mind."
Caroline went ahead and stepped through the door while Damon waited outside. Stefan had obviously come to the door at the sound of his brother's voice. "What are you doing here?" He asked Damon.
"Waiting for Elena to invite me in." Damon explained and Ellie couldn't help but find it a little bizarre that he was waiting for a verbal invitation. Caroline had obviously come in which meant that Elena wasn't going to stop him, so why was he still outside?
"Oh yeah, you can just-"
"No, no, no…" Stefan cut Elena off and Ellie gave him an odd look. "He can't, uh… he can't stay. Can you, Damon?"
The duo were in some strange staring match and Caroline told her new boyfriend, "Get in here."
"We're just… finishing up." Stefan tried.
"It's fine. Just come on in." Elena told the older Salvatore.
Elena gave Stefan a look, not understanding why he didn't want his brother to come inside. "You have a beautiful home, Elena." Damon told her before focusing on Ellie. "Sister I'm assuming, you two look too much alike to not."
"Twin, actually." Ellie informed him.
He took her hand in his and brought it up to kiss. "Pleasure to meet you." He said.
Ellie was startled by the serious urge to get as far away from this guy as possible. Everything about him was just bad energy and Ellie did not like it one bit. "Well then, lucky you." She told him coolly as she removed her hand from his grip. If his brother was as uncomfortable with him being here as Stefan seemed, then it was probably smart for her to be wary of the dark haired man as well.
The six of them moved to the living room and at the moment, Caroline was telling Stefan, "I cannot believe Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Oh, Tyler must be seething. But good for you, go for it."
"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." Damon said and to Ellie, personally, he sounded like he was full of shit.
"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's only because you missed summer camp." Caroline said. "Although Ellie seemed to be doing just fine, but she's always been quick to pick up on cheers. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines."
Elena looked mildly offended but Bonnie jumped to her defense. "I'll work with her. She'll get it."
"I guess we can put her in the back." Caroline said, more to herself than anyone else.
"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon commented.
Ellie scoffed, "Yes, because you can gauge her personality and interests in all of the ten minutes you've known her."
Damon raised an eyebrow, and Stefan almost looked a bit nervous, but Caroline was talking before the older brother could say anything to Ellie. "Oh, it's just 'cause their parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun. Ellie too, but Ellie seems to be getting back to herself quicker though." Caroline realized, either on her own or from the glare that Bonnie was giving her, that she'd said the wrong thing. "And I say that with complete sensitivity."
"I'm sorry, Elena. I know what it's like to lose both your parents." Damon told her. "In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die."
"We don't need to get into that right now, Damon." Stefan warned him.
"Ah, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. I… the last thing I wanted to do was bring her up." Damon said and Ellie was sure that he was doing it just to be a dick. Looking around at her sister and Stefan, she saw the way Elena was trying to figure out what he meant and she was damn near certain that was the goal and, like an idiot, Elena was buying it completely.
Once they'd finished in the living room, Ellie walked into the kitchen as Damon walked out and rolled her eyes at the sight of him. Elena was obviously buying into whatever kind of nice guy Damon was trying to fake. "What are you doing, Elena?" Ellie asked.
"What are you talking about?" Elena asked as she put the dishwashing liquid in.
"Why are you all smiley and acting cutesy with Damon when Stefan is clearly uncomfortable with him being here?" Ellie asked as Bonnie came into the room.
Elena looked confused. "What?"
"If you stopped buying every word Damon said for five seconds you'd have noticed how uncomfortable your new boyfriend was." Ellie informed her. "Honestly can this night just end already?"
"Damon's not that bad, honestly. Maybe give him a chance, Ellie?" Elena questioned.
Bonnie and Ellie shared a look as the latter scoffed. "Yeah, I'll pass."
Ellie was dressed in her familiar cheer uniform when she bumped into Elena who was definitely not in uniform. "Um…. what?" Ellie questioned as she stared at her sister's outfit.
"I… um… I quit." Elena said as she made a face.
"What do you mean you quit?"
Her younger twin just sighed and said, "Cheerleading just isn't for me anymore, Ellie. I'm not that girl anymore."
Scoffing, Ellie asked, "And who told you that, Elena? Damon? You have talked non stop about getting back to cheerleading for weeks and now you just think its a good idea to quit? You couldn't even do this one event before making that decision? That's no fair to Caroline to quit on a whim and not even give her a heads up. The routines were made from having a specific amount of girls and now we're down one."
Elena's sad face would have been enough to make Ellie feel bad if it wasn't for the fact that she could so easily recall all the conversations she'd had with Caroline before their parents died. The blonde had been ecstatic over making captain and how she'd spent hours and hours planning routines to make them the best team possible. The cheer squad meant absolutely everything to Caroline and Elena seemed to not even have enough decency to give the other girl a heads up. Speak of the blonde and she shall appear. "Don't bother Ellie, I don't want quitters on my team anyways." Caroline had obviously already found out about Elena ditching the team and was clearly pissed about it.
Letting the blonde drag her away, Ellie asked, "Care are you ok?"
Caroline stopped and turned to look at the only Gilbert in uniform. "No, I'm not. I was counting on Elena to be on the team just as much as I was counting on you and Bonnie. I get that you guys are going through a lot, and what I said at your house to Damon and Stefan, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just say really stupid stuff sometimes. And I was giving her crap about not learning the routines in time because every time I have ever acted like Elena Gilbert couldn't do something she would get all petty and prove me wrong." Caroline seemed really frustrated at what Elena had done and Ellie completely understood that. "Ellie, she didn't even tell me. I only found out because I saw her walking around out of uniform."
She pulled Caroline into a tight hug to try and comfort her. "I know Care, but it'll be ok. We can either find a replacement girl or we can rework the routines to handle one girl short. It'll be fine." The duo broke apart and it was a relief to see the smile on Caroline's face. "Alright, now let's get ready to be the cutest cheerleaders Mystic Falls has ever seen."
As everything really seemed to get going, the cheerleaders all stood together with Bonnie, Caroline, and Ellie front and center. The fire had been lit and Tanner called out, "Quiet down, quiet down. Quiet down a little bit. Ok?" Everyone was loud and cheering in excitement as he kept telling them to wait. Once everyone had calmed down enough he said, "Wait. Now let's be honest here. In the past, we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us!" The cheerleaders led everyone into booing while he said, "But that is about to change. We've got some great new talent starting tonight on the offensive line, and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore!"
The crowd went wild for Stefan as Caroline and the others chanted out, "Go Stefan go! Go Stefan go!" Tanner went on revving up the crowd, but somehow over the madness, Ellie heard the sound of glass breaking. She moved through the crowd quickly and soon the sound of fighting caught the attention of people near it.
A yell of, "Stop, you're hurting him! Tyler!" Caught Ellie's attention and she broke into a run towards the sound. It was Jeremy and Tyler in an all out fight, rolling around in the grass trying to beat each other to hell and back. By the time she got there, Stefan was keeping Tyler from hitting Jeremy again. Tyler was pissed at that and turned to punch Stefan in the gut only for the other boy to not even flinch. It was something that struck Ellie as being insanely weird, but it was hard to focus on anything other than her brother's bloodied face.
She caught sight of Jeremy picking up a shattered glass bottle and her scream mixed with Elena's as they shouted, "Jeremy, no!"
"Tyler, knock it off!" Matt tackled the dark haired football player as Jeremy's swing sliced Stefan's hand instead of it's intended target. Jeremy looked in surprise at the bottle, as if just realizing what he had done and what he had intended to do. "Stop!"
Elena made it to their brother before she did and the other girl asked Jeremy, "What the hell, Jeremy? Put your head up, you're bleeding." Elena's tone was condescending.
He jerked away from her angrily. "I'm fine."
"Yeah, you smell fine." Elena scoffed.
"Just stop, ok?" Jeremy stormed off and Elena just went to fuss over Stefan as Ellie went after their brother. "Leave me alone." He called over his shoulder to try and get her to go away.
"I'm not Elena so please stop running from me." Ellie replied softly and watched as her brother finally paused and turned to face her. "Come here." He obeyed and gave her a funny look when she produced tissues from seemingly out of nowhere. "You do not want to see cheerleaders with runny noses. So you find creative ways to keep them on you." She said with a shrug as she slowly cleaned his face. "Wanna talk about it?"
They slid down to sit with their backs up against the school as she fixed him up. "I'm just so tired of the way he treats Vicki, and he keeps talking shit about how he's going to fight me. The dick has been saying that for fucking ever and still didn't do anything about it. I guess tonight he finally decided to man up and do it." Jeremy explained and she could hear the anger.
"But Jer," She said as she gripped his arm, "you could have killed him with that bottle, and you could have really hurt Stefan. What were you thinking?"
When Jeremy moved to rest his head on her shoulder, she just wrapped an arm around his shoulders and held him close. "I just… I wasn't thinking and I get that now it was really fucking stupid, but I was just so angry that I didn't think. I just wanted him to stop." Jeremy's voice was so sad that her heart just broke for him.
"Oh, Jer, it's not just the way he's treating Vicki that's got you so mad." He tilted his head to look up at her and she told him, "All this… anger… it's because of what happened to mom and dad and you're mad because there's no one to blame for that, and it makes it easier to focus all that hate onto Tyler for being a dick. It's easier to hate him then forcing yourself to actually deal with mom and dad being gone, and it's ok. It's ok to not be ok. It's ok to not know how to cope. Do you know why?"
"Why?" He questioned.
"Because you're just a kid, I'm just a kid and it takes time to figure stuff out but we'll figure it out together. People don't all heal the same way, I'm not gonna give you shit to get off the drugs and alcohol, because that's not helping. So can you do this for me?" When he made a noise signalling for her to continue she said, "I'm not asking you to quit cold turkey, but can you try to at least cut back on the drugs and alcohol?"
"I'll do my best. I'm really sorry for everything."
"Don't be. I'm your big sister and if no one else knows what you need then I'm gonna do my best to figure it out, ok? I won't leave you behind." They just sat there together for a while until they heard Matt screaming for help. They found Matt looking frantic and on the phone with the police, Tanner's very dead body laying in the parking lot. "Oh my god." It was a rush of sirens and people and it was terrifying to look at. People were crying in shock and horror that their teacher was dead, had died so close to so many of them, and no one heard it happen, no one got to him in time. There was something else that Ellie felt like she was looking at and missing as she looked at the scene… until it clicked. It was building eight, the tag of the car read fourteen, and he had died in the parking spot marked twenty two.
Had Bonnie… had she predicted this in some way? Was she actually a witch? It wasn't possible.
Right?
Author's Note:
Hey, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you to everyone that has followed and favorited this story it means the world to me! Also to Sam who reviewed on the last chapter, Elijah will be important to the story, but as for what happens well you'll just have to stick around and see!
And to ObsessedFangirl96, thank you for reviewing I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought!
For those reading this, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts! The next chapter should be posted in a week at the latest.
-Madame Magic
