Chapter 21: Isobel
February 16, 2010
Dear Diary,
I found something out yesterday while I was out with Bonnie and Caroline, and part of me wishes I hadn't. There is this guilt that feels like it's trying to eat me up. Whether I should blame myself or not is irrelevant because I blame myself anyways. She should have told me. I could have helped. But she didn't and now she's gone. I should have put the pieces together sooner. The nose bleed should have given it away that something was wrong. Maybe if I had gone with Elena over to their place, I would have realized something was wrong. Maybe I could have saved her. I know 'what ifs' are dangerous. I learned that lesson when mom and dad died, but still I can't help but blame myself for not doing more.
By the time Ellie had arrived at the school, it was already packed with students that were working on different projects to prepare for Founder's Day. She spotted Matt and Tyler sitting at a table together looking incredibly awkward. It was very clear that Matt was still beyond pissed with Tyler for what had happened between Tyler and Matt's mom. She sat down next to Tyler and saw the way the tension in his shoulders loosened. "Has anything big happened yet?" She asked as she decidedly ignored the tension.
"Nothing yet. Mr. Saltzman went to get some papers." Matt told her.
A moment later, Mr. Saltzman approached with a stack of papers in his hand. "Good to see you, Ellie." He told her before he addressed the group. "So these are the specs for the history department's Founder's Day float." He explained as he passed out some of the papers. "We're gonna be recreating the Battle of Willow Creek. Tyler's been nominated the head of production design."
"By who?" Tyler questioned as his head shot up.
"By me." Mr. Saltzman informed him. "I've seen your sketches, and they're good."
Ellie grinned as she watched Tyler as he tried to come up with some way to get out of the situation. "Look, I'm not really into the whole…"
"Yeah, well, you just pick your team, be creative, and uh… and don't screw up." Mr. Saltzman told him before looking at something or someone behind Tyler and Ellie and walking off.
"Great." Tyler said sarcastically. "You want to help me out with this?"
Matt looked up at Tyler and bluntly told him, "Not really, no."
"What the fuck?" Tyler muttered as he looked over to Ellie for help. "How did I get roped into this?" He complained.
She scoffed at him. "That's what you get for being a talented artist I guess."
"Do you want to help me?" Tyler asked her.
It was funny to watch him try and get it out of it. "Nope, I'm actually supposed to be helping Caroline." Ellie said as she scanned the room for the sight of her blonde friend. "Oh! Found her. So I'll get going. Enjoy… all of this." When she saw his annoyed look, she laughed and assured him, "You'll be just fine."
"Perfect! You're here right on time." Caroline told her with a grin. "Take a seat so I can show you guys."
Ellie pulled up a chair next to Bonnie as she set her stuff down on the table. "Alright, show us." Bonnie said once Ellie was settled.
"Let's reference last year's Miss Mystic Float." Caroline told them as she searched the image up on her laptop. "This is what they did last year." She turned her laptop around to show them the image. "And it's exactly what we don't want to do."
Bonnie and Ellie both made faces at the entirely unimpressive float. "Ew." Bonnie told her as she wrinkled her nose.
"They actually had the audacity to put a cheap plastic lawn chair on the Miss Mystic Float?" Ellie asked. "This is literally the saddest float I have ever seen in my entire life. What were they thinking?"
"I know right?" Caroline replied. "Not to mention they used even cheaper plastic flowers. The bouquets they made don't even look good and they aren't consistent either. It's like they just threw them in the pot and said 'eh, good enough'."
"I hate to be rude but there is nothing impressive about this float. Definitely not good enough to be a Miss Mystic Float." Bonnie confessed. "Ok. So, what are we doing?"
"Southern classic elegance." Caroline said as she straightened her back for effect.
"Gone With the Wind?" Bonnie and Ellie asked at the same time.
"How did you guys know?" Caroline asked in surprise as her eyes went wide.
Bonnie smiled at her. "You channel Scarlett daily." She informed the blonde.
Caroline opened her mouth to protest but just dropped her shoulders and agreed, "So true."
"It's like your lifestyle." Ellie told her as the girls laughed.
"Ugh, where's Elena? She's supposed to be helping." Caroline asked as she looked around. "Did she not come with you, Ellie?"
Ellie shook her head as she too tried to find her sister among the other students. "No, I think Stefan was gonna pick her up this morning. Maybe? But when I left she was still straightening her hair."
"Bonnie have you heard from her?" Caroline asked.
The witch just shrugged. "I don't know." She said, but it sounded like she really couldn't care less.
"Ok, what's the deal?" Caroline finally asked as she gave Bonnie a look that made it clear that she wanted the truth.
"What do you mean?" Bonnie questioned with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Don't play dumb." Caroline shot back. "You and Elena are fighting. Spill."
"It's nothing." Bonnie told her, but it pretty much confirmed that Elena and Bonnie were in fact fighting.
Caroline didn't believe it for a second. "It's not nothing. You know, this whole float is supposed to be about friends creating something together, and everyone is fighting. Matt and Tyler hate each other. You and Elena are on the outs. I… I don't like it." Bonnie just shrugged at her. "And I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong."
"I can't talk about it, Caroline. I'm sorry." Bonnie apologized. Caroline looked over to Ellie for help, but the witch had none to give.
The way Bonnie spoke made Ellie doubt Stefan's suggestion of it just being because Elena had been there when Miss Sheila died. It was more serious than that. Ellie couldn't remember a time she'd ever seen Bonnie and Elena fight, at all. Caroline and Elena had had issues in the past over stupid things. Caroline and Bonnie had been in a fight over that necklace from Damon that had ended up belonging to Emily. Elena and Ellie had had fights like all siblings do at some point. The last argument that could maybe be considered a fight between Bonnie and Ellie had been when they were younger and Ellie had accidentally broken Bonnie's doll and Bonnie didn't talk to her for a week. Elena and Bonnie however, Ellie wasn't sure they'd ever fought. "Bonnie…" Ellie started.
"Really. I don't want to talk about it." Bonnie insisted as she shifted in her seat, almost like she was trying to brace herself if she pushed them for answers.
"It's ok." Caroline told her as she reached out to squeeze Bonnie's hand reassuringly. "We won't push. But I hope you know that if you need to, or want to, me and Ellie are here whenever you need us."
"Thank you." Bonnie said gratefully. Whether her gratitude came from the offer or from the fact that they weren't going to force an answer out of her, Ellie couldn't be sure. She just wished there was something that she could do to help. They all shifted back to the topic of the Miss Mystic Float and got to work.
Once they were done, Ellie headed back home and found Jenna in the kitchen. "Hey Ellie, how was float preparation?" Jenna asked as she dug around in the kitchen cabinets.
"It was good. Caroline is channeling Gone With the Wind." Ellie explained as she passed a plate to Jenna.
Her aunt laughed lightly. "She's a bit obsessed with that movie." Jenna commented as she pulled out the bread. "Do you want a sandwich?"
"She is a bit obsessed and no thank you." Ellie agreed. "But I think the floats are going to look good. Mr. Saltzman has declared Tyler as the one to come up with the design for the history float."
"Mmm, that should turn out pretty good. From what you've told me about Tyler's art, he's pretty good at it." Jenna said.
Ellie followed Jenna over to the table and replied, "Oh, Tyler's art is fantastic, but he tends to downplay it. He tried, unsuccessfully might I add, to get out of it. It was entertaining to watch."
"Him and Matt still fighting?"
"It's not so much Matt and Tyler fighting it's more… Matt hating Tyler's guts and Tyler being absolute garbage when it comes to apologizing, even when he knows he should." Ellie explained. "Ty knows he messed up really badly, but he has no clue how to fix it. He's been giving Matt time I guess, which is probably a smart move. I just hope they make up soon." Jenna nodded along with her. "Speaking of fighting… has Elena mentioned anything to you about what's going on with her and Bonnie?"
Jenna looked up in surprise. "What? Something's up with her and Bonnie? She hasn't mentioned it to me at all. I didn't know it was possible for the two of them to get into a fight."
"I know. But something has totally been up with them. They've hardly talked at all. Caroline tried to see if Bonnie would tell us anything and she just kind of shut us down and Care didn't want to push too much." Ellie told her.
"If I hear anything from Elena, I'll let you know." Jenna assured her.
They could hear Jeremy coming down the stairs and turned as he walked into the kitchen saying, "Hey Anna. Uh, where are you? What's up? Uh… give me a call when you get this." Jenna said before he just sighed and hung up the phone.
"How is Anna?" Jenna asked him. "I like that girl. She has fire." Jenna told him as she grinned.
"Uh, I… I don't know." Jeremy confessed. "She won't return my calls."
"Girl trouble?" John asked as he walked into the room.
Jenna looked over to John before giving Ellie a look of annoyance. "No, no trouble. Anna just owes me a call. That's it." Jeremy told him.
"Is it the girl that I saw you with at the Founder's Day pageant?" John inquired. Jeremy just nodded. "So you two are gettin' pretty hot and heavy, huh? When was the last time you saw her?"
Jeremy glanced at Ellie and Jenna for help, but they just shook their heads at him, not wanting to deal with him either. "Why?"
"I'm just making conversation. No one else in this house likes me." John said bluntly and Ellie choked on her laugh. She coughed to cover it, but Jenna's grin told her that she didn't do a very good job. "At least I can talk to you, especially if you need someone to talk to about girls."
"Ugh, please. I'm eating." Jenna said in a disgusted voice as she scoffed before quickly taking her plate and walking off.
Once Jenna was gone, John stepped towards Jeremy. "So, seriously, how well do you know Anna?"
"I know Anna extremely well." Jeremy told him confidently.
"Uh huh. Well, know that you can talk to me about anything." John reminded him. "I'm here to answer any questions that you have. I'll help you in any way I can."
Jeremy had a serious expression on his face, almost defensive. It was like John and Jeremy were standing before her having a conversation that she wasn't understanding. There was some sort of double meaning to what they were saying, but she didn't know what. "Why?" Jeremy asked him.
"Cause your dad would want me to." John said. It sounded like an actual honest answer for once.
The mention of their dad had an immediate effect on the youngest Gilbert. His eyes went wide as he just said, "I'm uh, I'm good."
Jeremy walked off and John turned to Ellie. "The same goes for you, Ellie. Anything you need to talk about, I'm here." He told her. There was a hint of honesty and it almost made her feel bad for not liking him all that much, but something about him just kind of gave her a bad vibe. Like he was lying about something and whatever it was, it was important. Maybe it was some witch instinct, or just natural intuition, but it was enough to leave her wary of him.
"Thanks." She said before she ignored him to go put away the sandwich stuff that Jenna had left out.
A lot of students turned out to build the floats. The actual construction of them was actually pretty fun. Currently, Ellie was standing next to Matt as he lifted up a heavy piece of the float to place it where it was needed. "Oh, be careful." She told him as she held out her hands to make sure that he didn't fall or accidentally drop it.
He gave her a smile once he set it down. "I'm being careful." He assured her.
"Hey man." Tyler said as he approached the two of them cautiously. "Hey Ellie."
"Yeah?" Matt asked without really looking at Tyler.
"So… Caroline tells me you've been on your own the past two weeks." Tyler told him as he fiddled with a piece of the float. "Is everything ok?" He asked as he passed part of the float to Matt.
"You're asking me about my mom. Seriously?" Matt asked in disbelief as he continued to work. "Look man, why don't I just have her give you a call when she blows back through town?" He asked sarcastically.
"Dude…" Tyler said as he held up his hands. "That's not what I meant. Ok, I'm just trying to… I don't know what to say." He admitted.
"Well good man. Don't say anything, cause you're a dick. End of story." Matt said bluntly.
"I know…" Tyler agreed. Matt turned and walked off, leaving Ellie with Tyler. "Yeah, whatever." He huffed.
Ellie sighed as she reached out to grab his arm. "Just give it more time, Ty." She consoled. "He's going through a lot. So his emotions are probably still running really high." He looked frustrated and she understood it.
He ran his hands through his hair as he groaned. "I know but…" He trailed off. Even when he wasn't talking to Matt, he still didn't know how to express his guilt. "I fucked up Ellie, and I know that and me not knowing how to fix it is definitely not helping. Hell, even Caroline has been trying to come up with some way to help me fix it. I don't even think she likes me and she's trying to help."
"Caroline is a fixer and she doesn't like Matt being upset. This won't last forever, even though what you did was bad." She told him. Well, it was her hope that their fight wouldn't last forever.
"Yeah, ok." Tyler said and it was clear that he didn't believe her before he turned and walked off.
She wanted to call out to him, to make him feel better, but she didn't know what to say either. They both knew he'd screwed up big time and it seemed like something big would have to happen to fix it. "Hey, Ellie, Caroline's looking for you." Nina, a girl from Ellie's science class, told her as she approached. "She's been looking for you everywhere."
"Oh, shoot. Where is she?" Ellie asked as she looked around.
"Over on the Miss Mystic float." Nina said as she pointed to the left.
Ellie could see her friend sitting up on the float sorting through streamers. "Ok, thanks." Ellie said as she headed over to Caroline. "Heard you were looking for me."
"Thank god!" Caroline huffed as she pulled up onto the float with her. "I have been looking all over for you. Some of the people just do not understand the vision I'm going for here." She whined. "Will you help me?"
"Of course, your majesty." Ellie said with a dramatic curtsey. They got to work, carefully placing the streamers onto the float while making sure everything was in just the right spot before securing them in place. "Tyler has made absolutely no progress with Matt." Ellie informed her with a sigh. "I don't know what's going to fix it."
Caroline groaned loudly. "Matt's more stubborn than he realizes I swear!" Caroline huffed. "I'll keep trying to think of something to help Tyler fix it." When they really focused on getting the details just right, they fell into silence. It hadn't been long that they'd fallen into the silence before Ellie's head snapped up to look around in a panic. Something was wrong. It was like the air had shifted in a warning. "You ok?" Caroline asked her when she noticed that something was wrong.
"I'm sure it's nothing." Ellie dismissed.
"I'm gonna grab a hammer. I'll be right back." Caroline told her after she decided that Ellie was ok. The witch nodded without really paying attention to what Caroline was saying. The blonde had walked off and Ellie ended up standing on the float trying to see what could be giving her such a bad feeling.
Out of nowhere, Matt let out a scream of pain. "Matt!" Ellie yelled as she jumped from the float and ran towards him.
"Hey, pick this trailer up! Come on, guys, lift it up! Please!" Matt was screaming.
Tyler reached him before Ellie did and the Lockwood immediately grabbed the trailer and started trying to lift it. "Give me a hand!" Tyler shouted as several football boys rushed to help. "Come on, lift!"
It wasn't working, Matt screamed, "Come on!" Stefan ran up and helped. That seemed to do the trick because the trailer lifted and Matt yanked his arm out.
"Oh my god, Matt." Ellie said as she reached him.
Caroline dropped down beside where Ellie and Matt were on the ground. "Caroline, call an ambulance." Stefan told her. "Call an ambulance."
"Ok." Caroline replied as she stood back up to call for help. A moment later, Caroline returned and said, "The ambulance is saying fifteen to twenty minutes."
"I have my car. I can take him to the hospital." Tyler offered.
Even in the middle of what had to be an insane amount of pain, Matt was still angry enough at Tyler to say, "Caroline can take me."
"I didn't drive." Caroline admitted.
"Then I'll wait. It's fine." Matt snapped.
"You will not wait! Ok, you need to see a doctor. Tyler's driving. End of story." Caroline said with finality.
"Fine." Matt huffed.
"Go!" Caroline yelled at Tyler when he hadn't moved yet.
"I'll bring my car around." Tyler said before he turned and ran off.
Matt was trying hard to not cry out in pain as he rocked back and forth. "It's gonna be ok." Caroline tried to comfort him. "Everything will be fine." She kept repeating it to try and distract Matt. "Look, come on there's Tyler." She stood first before offering her hands to take Matt's undamaged one to help pull him up. Ellie moved behind him to help him stand as well.
Tyler opened the passenger's door for him and Caroline helped Matt get in and buckled. "Ty, I'm gonna come with you ok." Ellie told him and then dropped her voice to a whisper and added, "Maybe me being a buffer will help a bit."
"Thank you." Tyler whispered back. "Caroline, Ellie's gonna go with us."
Caroline's shoulders dropped in relief. "Ok thank god. That's good. Ellie, you go with them, I'll deal with stuff here, keep me updated please." Caroline told her. It was clear that Caroline wanted nothing more than to go with them, but she had responsibilities as Miss Mystic Falls.
"I'll make sure you know everything that's going on." Ellie promised. "Ok, Ty let's book it." The Lockwood didn't hesitate. He sped out of the parking lot and headed for the hospital. The ride was silent except for Matt's pained groans as he tried to keep it together. When they arrived, they rushed in and Ellie quickly told the nurse, "Please, my friend's hand got crushed under a trailer at the high school he really needs help!"
Once Matt had finally been released from the hospital. Tyler had taken him home and despite wanting to stay and help, he left at Matt's request. Ellie however, stayed with Matt. They were sitting on the couch watching Harry Potter. "Well, at least with you needing rest, it gives us an excuse for a Harry Potter marathon." She joked. He grinned at her. "How's it feeling?"
"The pain meds are definitely doing their job. I can't feel it at all right now, which is really nice because I don't want to feel it." Matt told her. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
She gave him a look like he was crazy. "What are you talking about? Matt you were really lucky that it was just your hand. You could have gotten killed or something! I'm not going anywhere." Ellie told him bluntly. "Now, what are your opinions on Snape?"
If Matt noticed her less than subtle way of changing the subject, he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he replied, "I never liked the guy. He seems way more obsessed with Harry's mom rather than in love with her. Plus, Harry's mom dying doesn't give him a reason to act like a total jackass to a bunch of kids all the time. I mean he was Neville's boggart of all things. You have to be more than just your average, run of the mill, shitty teacher to be someone's literal worst nightmare. Ya know?"
"Agreed." Ellie told him as she shifted in her spot. "I don't get why some people excuse his actions but then hate Draco so much. Like Draco literally grew up being taught that way, at least his reasoning makes sense. He was raised to be a jackass and think that he was better than everyone else. Snape literally grew up in the muggle world and still acted like a grade A dickwad."
"Exactly. He has no excuse. You don't go and join basically wizard Nazis that want to kill people not like them because the girl you like doesn't like you back." Matt said as the first movie ended and Ellie got up to switch the discs to play the second one. "Are you gonna go watch it in theaters when the next one comes out?"
"That's a joke right? I'm definitely going! If I'm lucky, maybe I'll go to like the first showing." Ellie told him. "I just know the movie is going to be so good."
"That would be pretty cool." Matt agreed. They settled back in once Ellie went to the kitchen to make more popcorn and refill their drinks. The movie was still just as magical to watch as it had been the first time. It kept her full attention and she looked for things she might not have noticed before. It was almost more entertaining to watch now that she actually was a witch herself. While the wizarding world still seemed just as magical as ever, she wasn't sure she'd want to have to deal with a wizard version of Hitler.
"Matt can you pass me a blanket?" She asked as she turned to look at him, only to find him sound asleep. His broken arm was propped up on a pillow on his lap and his head was tilted back at an awkward angle that she was sure would cause his neck to hurt if he stayed that way too long. She put a pillow under his head and then covered him carefully before going to switch out the movies. It wasn't even a half an hour into the movie before she heard Matt groan. He was shifting in his spot like he couldn't get comfortable. "Matty?" His face contorted in pain as he groaned again. "Matt?"
"Get it off." He muttered in his sleep as he winced.
She waited to see if he would settle back down, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. He kept shifting in his spot and it sounded like the pain was getting worse. Ellie leaned over to make sure he was asleep before she started to chant under her breath, "Asinta Mulaf Hinta, Sho Bala. Asinta Mulaf Hinta, Sho Bala. Asinta Mulaf Hinta, Sho Bala." She kept chanting until she watched his breathing slow to a normal rate and his body relaxed.
It was her first time using a pain deduction spell, and to see the way it helped Matt made her feel really good about herself. He settled back into the couch with a peaceful expression. Once he seemed alright, she stopped the spell and walked into the kitchen to find his pain medication. They had placed it next to the coffee pot, and next to the medication was a sheet of paper where they were writing down when he took it and when he could have the next dose. It was almost time for him to take some more, so that explained why he was suddenly hurting. She went ahead and grabbed it with a bottle of water before going back. "Ellie?" Matt called as she entered the room.
"Hey Matty, I'm right here."
"What time is it?" He asked.
"Late. Is your arm hurting?" She questioned even though she knew the answer. He groaned in response and she gave him a soft smile. "Here, it's a few minutes early but that's not gonna hurt anything. Take this and then you can go get in the bed."
He took the medication gratefully before getting up heading for his room. Luckily for him, he'd changed into comfortable clothes as soon as he'd gotten home. She could see him huffing, trying to not show that he was hurting. Once he was in bed, she grabbed a pillow and placed it under his arm to try and make him a little more comfortable. "Thank you." Matt told her sincerely.
"I'm glad I could help." Ellie replied. "I'm gonna sleep in the living room, so just yell if you need me ok."
"You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
"I'm staying, Matty. Just yell if you need me." Ellie repeated. "Get some sleep." He nodded as she turned off the lights and left the room. After making sure to write down the time he took his meds, she went and got situated on the couch before she too fell asleep.
Author's Note:
Guys I am so so so sorry that I didn't update last week. I was in the middle of moving and didn't have an internet connection to post anything. Hopefully everything is settled now and we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Also, thank you guys so much for 100 reviews! I never expected to get this many reviews if I'm honest. It means the world to me! And Happy 4th of July to those who are celebrating. Please leave a review to let me know what you guys thought!
To RiRi: I love her too, she's so fun to write. Oh my gosh her planning a wedding for them would be so cute!
To Mimi: I know, I miss Sheila honestly. And no she's definitely not going to react well to finding out what caused Sheila's death, especially since Ellie is putting a lot of blame on herself and feeling so guilty over something she didn't have any control of. Ellie will be meeting Katherine before she meets Elijah, but there's no promises that she's aware that it's Katherine she's talking to. And a protective Ellie over Katherine would be amazing. I can promise you she's not going to judge Katherine as harshly as Elena did when she finds out Katherine's backstory.
To Aryabloodlust: I'm so glad you love it. Like it genuinely means everything to me to have someone so into this story. And, if I'm remembering correctly, I think we're like six or so chapters before she finds out. But the blow out won't be right when she finds out. I haven't had the chance to get to writing Klaus and Ellie's relationship yet but I have a lot of plans for them. She will absolutely be protective over everyone. Let me know how you liked this chapter!
To spirouFr: :)
-Madame Magic
Posted: 7/4/20
