A/N: A few chapters will be short, but I hope it will be alright. Also, thank you all for the reviews and follows and favorites. I wished that I could hug you for making my days so much better!

Chapter 2 - Grey Clouds, Silver Lining

~X~

Seeing a coffin being sunken into the ground is in many ways unnatural. You can't really grasp the thought that a loved one is in there. It wasn't long ago that the person inside stood by your side. It had been a very hot summer day when the funeral was to be held, almost everyone in town showed up. To pay the respect of a girl who died way too early.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Elena Gilbert of all people, had hugged her and mourned with her. Even though Harper had never talked to the girl before, which was in large part due to the whole 'different cliques' thing. But she knew that Elena had lost her parents six months back, so if anyone could understand her emotions, it was her. Several others had come up to her as well, many of them she didn't know. Only that they went to the same school.

She was standing with the mayor and his family, as he had chosen to be the good samaritan to take the poor girl in under his wings. Everyone was wearing black, and grieved as Henry was being buried. Harper couldn't cry. She would do it in any other circumstance, but those who weren't watching the casket were watching her. And that made her tense up so much that nothing would come out of her. No words… and no tears.

"It is okay sweetie, everything will be alright" The mayor's wife, Carol, was standing by her and was hugging her sideways. Harper knew for a fact that Carol had never been a close friend with her mother, as she had stated when she had asked why they had taken her in.

"I hope so," Harper said, as a treacherous tear fell down her cold cheek.

~X~

Later that same evening, after the wake had been held at the Lockwood manor. Harper was sitting on her new perfectly made bed thinking, her pale hands gripping her black dress tightly. The bed was so soft that she almost didn't want to sleep on it. It was like sleeping on a cloud, and she had never slept on anything like that before. It felt wrong somehow, like with each second that passed the bed screamed to get this filthy low life human off it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Harper often thought back to one simple moment as one of her favorites in life. It had been a Friday afternoon and the family was on their way home from the Grill in town. The warm sun was filling the car with light, and somehow Henry had succeeded in falling asleep during their short trip. She was sitting in the backseat, her legs stretched out and she was lightly snoring. At the time, Henry had decided that pink hair was cool and she had begged her mother to buy the box color at the store. Even though they didn't have any money for that this month.

But their mother let them do whatever they wanted, so dyeing your hair was a pretty mild thing compared to the rest. Harper had rarely used the power of a mother that didn't care about anything, since she was way too stressed about that month's bills and school. But in that car, everything seemed to just float away.

No bills, no school. Just their family on their way home. And this moment was her favorite, because as she seemingly was in her own mind and relaxing for the first time that week, her mother reached out and grabbed her hand. It was a weird way of holding it, more like squishing it tightly. Harper looked at her mother in question, she had just said,'I love you' and then let go. That memory washed away quickly as she snapped back into reality.

The one person that missed the funeral was Sunny Bellrose, their mother. She hadn't come back from their grandmother's, and she wasn't answering her phone. When the police got a hold of their grandmother a day after Henry was officially pronounced dead at the hospital, she stated that her daughter wasn't at her place, nor had she called to say that she would be coming to see her at all. Harper lost two people in the course of a week. And as she filed a missing person's report, she had gotten a panic attack as all the things that had happened to her had finally sunken in.

Social services had a hard time with her case, since in any other situation would Harper be placed into foster care. Her grandmother was in a nursing home in Maine where she had lived with their grandfather. So she was out of the question, even though she wanted nothing more than to become the guardian of Harper.

Instead the mayor of the town decided to take her in, which was a move no one suspected at all. Apparently the had been registered as a foster family for years. But hadn't taken in a child until Harper. She had gone from being close to the poverty line, to moving in with the richest family in her town. It had been awkward to say the least, Tyler Lockwood had never spared her a glance before and now Harper lived in the room across from him.

~X~

"Honey? I have some tea for you" Carol Lockwood knocked on the clean, white door to her room and walked in. Seeing Harper in a state of distress hurt the older woman. She may not have known Sunny Bellrose, Harper's mother, but she knew the rumors that surrounded her.

Rumors of not taking care of her children almost to the point of neglecting them and owning a psychic shop as the only ways of income. Henry was the girl who was supposed to be in the Miss Mystic Falls pageant this year, not because of the fun of the competition, the glorious history of it nor because of the title. But because of the money. Carol had gone through Harper's file as they talked to the social services, and no one her age should have been going through what she had done. The social worker had stated that Harper had the mind of a 30 year old single mother, and not a teenager in high school.

"Thank you" Harper's voice was quiet and calm, but the girl with the dark hair kept looking down at the cup and didn't drink it.

"Is there something wrong?" Carol asked as she sat down next to Harper. It was a stupid question, because a lot of things were wrong. Harper had witnessed her sister's death and lost everything important to her.

"I-, I don't drink tea… sorry" Harper mumbled and looked at Carol. The woman sighed at the blood shot eyes of the teenager, and she realized that she was still in the modest, black dress that she had given her for the funeral.

"It's alright, I should've asked before I made it" Carol said and took the cup out of Harper's hands. As they sat there, Carol studied the girl a bit closer. She was very beautiful, at least according to her. Harper had dark hair, almost black, that was short and cut in a page. She had brown eyes and she was short compared to girls her age. She was also thin, too thin.

"Things will get better, the house is still in your name and all the stuff in it belongs to you. We will pay the bills of maintaining it until you decide what you want to do with it.. We can go tomorrow and get some of your things for your new room, if that's okay with you" Carol added as she stood up from the bed. Harper just nodded and tried to smile, but it was hard.

"Try to get some sleep" Carol said as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Across the hall she saw Tyler in his room, doing weightlifting like today's events never happened.

"Are you okay?" She asked her son, who just turned to look at her.

"Sure I am mom, taking in strays from the streets is such a cute gesture. I can't wait until she realizes how messed up this family is" He grunted and rolled his eyes.

"You will be nice to her Tyler, she has been through hell" Carol hissed and pointed at him, meaning that he will get in serious trouble if he tries anything. Not that she believed that her son could do anything to hurt the girl.

"Whatever" He stated and walked towards his door, and slammed it in his mother's face. Carol couldn't understand what his newfound rage was coming from. When he was younger he used to behave and be kind towards everyone, but not anymore.