A/N: Thank you all so much for giving this story a chance, I hope you will like where the story is heading.

Please R&R!

Chapter 6 - Tell your Children

~X~

The monday after the bonfire weekend wasn't as normal to wake up as Harper thought it would be. Something had changed that night, and she had no idea of what to do about it. DId she need to do something about it? She had become friends with Tyler Lockwood, which was a sentence she thought she never ever would think about.

"Good morning darling" Carol Lockwood was in the kitchen with a smorgasbord of breakfast food ready to be shared with the teenagers.

"Hi Carol" Harper said and smiled, she reached for some strawberries and a sandwich. Tyler shouldn't be forced to buy her breakfast every morning just because she didn't want to bump into Richard. That man scared her for obvious reasons.

"Oh Tyler, sit down and eat you too" Carol waved towards her son when she spotted him hurrying down the stairs. Tyler looked at Harper with a raised eyebrow, this wasn't what they would usually do. For a week they had started their own tradition, and she was already breaking it.

"It's good.. and free" Harper mumbled, her mouth full of nutella dipped strawberries. Tyler sighed and sat down at the table across from Harper, giving him the opportunity to glare at her while they ate.

"So Harper, how's school going?" Carol asked, Harper's teacher-parent conference was today and she would be speaking to all of her teachers. She herself had planned it since she needed more information on her foster daughter, this of course without telling Harper in the first place.

"Good" Harper said and looked down at her food, instead of meeting Carol's gaze. She didn't want to tell her about the struggles that she had, she didn't want to be more of a burden than what she already appeared to be.

"Okay, great.. Tyler, how's football?" She never asked him about school, his grades didn't seem to matter at all.

"Mom cut it out, whatever you are planning just say it already and don't walk around it" Tyler snapped and glared at his mother. Harper felt immensely uncomfortable when he raised his voice, but Tyler couldn't help it. Sometimes he just snapped and got angry for no apparent reason. Like father, like son.

"Harper let's go" He stated and walked away from the table.

"I'm sorry" Harper said and hurried after him. Leaving a very sad Carol alone in the kitchen. Harper tired to be as fast as she could when she ran towards Tyler's car. The car ride to school was silent. Harper didn't say anything, in fear of provoking Tyler more. Even though she wanted to yell at him from being mean to Carol, she totally understood why he acted like he did.

Carol watched, but never did anything to help or change the situation. No matter how angry her husband got, no matter how far he took the smallest disagreements, she didn't move a muscle to better the situation for them. She smiled and waved as the mayor's wife, but her facade was so fake that Harper often wondered how it could be so waterproof.

"They suck" Harper said and looked at Tyler, and finally he relaxed his shoulders and chuckled.

"Yeah, they suck"

~X~

Another Tanner lesson and Harper had been going crazy about 2 minutes in. The class was nearly over by now, but it didn't help either that this time, she sat in the desk located in the middle of the lovebirds. I feel mildly nauseated, Harper thought as the couple couldn't stop staring at each other. She tried to ignore them by writing down what the teacher was saying in her notebook, but it didn't help much. They had been gazing at each other the entire class.

"I swear to you both, it's okay to blink, neither of you will disappear" Harper hissed lowly to Stefan, who's eyes widened and finally snapped out of his gaze. This got Tanner's attention, and while he did give her a mean glare, his anger shifted towards the lovebirds as well.

"Are we bothering you? Mr. Salvatore? Miss Gilbert?" Elena quickly shook her head as the bell rang for the end of the period. Harper sighed in relief and stood up from her seat to gather up her stuff. She needed to talk to Tyler before going to the library to study.

"Hey Harper, wait up!" Elena said as soon as they stepped out of the classroom, interrupting Stefan when he was about to say something. Harper stopped and felt anxious, she really needed to get going.

"Yeah?" She said and looked at Elena, who just sighed and looked at Stefan. The poor guy didn't have a clue of what was about to happen, he had no idea of who this Harper girl was nor her infamous history of being the wallflower.

"I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable during class, I know you have a hard time studying." Harper didn't know if it was an apology or not, because her tone sounded so shallow that it was hard to register.

"It's fine, I will just move to another seat next time" Harper stated and walked away, feeling irritated by the popular girl's remark. Was it really that obvious that she struggled during class?

Outside was hot for a late summer afternoon, every student was out on the courtyard hanging out. And of course Tyler Lockwood just had to be by the football field with the rest of his popular friends. Harper felt like a knot was twisting around in her stomach as she got closer to them. Her grip on her back was so tight that her knuckles were almost white. Tyler spotted her and waved her over, this caused his friends to become curious about her.

"Tyler I-" Harper had no time to finish talking before Jeremy Gilbert came stomping towards them.

"Hey Tyler!" The young boy looked furious. "Sorry to interrupt, I was just wondering how Vicki is doing since you guys are so close. Is she okay?" Obviously he wanted to prove himself as the better man between the two. Harper knew Jeremy was doing drugs and had been doing them all summer together with Vicki.

"She's fine, so get out of here" Tyler said and looked Jeremy up and down. He could probably take him, but no one wanted them to fight.

"How bad is she, do they know what attacked her, is she gonna make full recovery?" Jeremy wanted Tyler to explode in guilt. Even though Tyler and Vicki weren't together, it was as if Jeremy knew something else that made him really angry.

"Shut up man, or I am going to kick your ass" Tyler stated and took a step forward. Harper was fast to move and grab Tyler's arm, much to the onlookers' suspicion. The girls who had just a minute ago been talking to him never realized how close he was getting to his new foster sister.

"Tyler-" Harper gave him a look that screamed, 'Walk away'. They both knew what would happen if their parents found out about any of them misbehaved in school.

"Harper stay out of this" Tyler grunted and shook her hand away from his arm.

"You keep saying that but when are you actually gonna do it" Jeremy kept on going.

"Walk away Gilbert, it's your final warning" Tyler stated and looked Jeremy deep in the eye. He just wanted to let the whole thing go, if the pill pusher wanted Vicki he could have her. He was not ready for anything that Vicki wanted anyways.

"No this is your final warning dick, I'm sick of watching you play Vicki and I swear if you hurt her one more time I will kill you" Harper wanted to know what that meant. Had Tyler hurt Vicki? She knew he had his problems, but hurting someone was not his M.O. and Jeremy was clearly looking for a fight. FInally when Tyler stopped giving him attention, Jeremy rolled his eyes and walked away.

"What were you about to say before Opie came here?" Tyler asked and turned towards Harper. She nervously looked around at his friends, some she recognized from the bonfire, others not.

"Just that I am going to the library, so I wondered if you could pick me up later" Harper said in a low voice, not wanting the others to hear her.

"Sure thing" Tyler nodded and with that Harper started to go towards the street.

"Bye Harper '' She quickly looked over her shoulder to see one of the girls, the same cheerleader who had given her the redbull at the party yesterday, waving at her. Not knowing what to do she just waved. She kept walking towards the parking lot of the school, which was the same area for the bus stop. And while turning a sharp corner from the school, Harper once again bumped into someone.

"We have to stop meeting like this, I'm starting to bruise" Matt Donovan chuckled as he held a hand on his shoulder. Harper wanted to run away from the situation, it was way too embarrassing to face him again.

"S-sorry" Harper said and looked down on her old tattered shoes.

"I was joking," Matt sighed and looked at Harper. Dressed in a yellow long sleeve shirt and jeans. Her dark hair was up in a ponytail and the strands that couldn't be held up were kept at bay with metal bumblebee and star hair clips.

"Are you hurt?" He added as he realized that a rather awkward silence had fallen between them.

"No.. just.. have a headache" Harper stated and shrugged. She was gripping her shoulder bag tightly and refused to meet his eyes.

"Oh, did you drink?" Matt asked, not knowing if Harper had been drinking all along when they had been talking.

"The situation was like a big throwback.. so yeah" Shit, I'm such an asshole, Matt thought. The weekend couldn't have been easy for her.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Henry had been a very popular girl that everyone just seemed to gravitate towards. And because she had such a spotlight on her, Harper lived in the shadows. Now that the light was gone, the shadows started to disappear as well.

"It's fine.. I'm just happy that Vicki made it" Harper said and smiled. Vicki meant a lot to Matt and she did not deserve to be attacked like that.

"I'm going to her now actually, do you want to come with me? You worked with her after all" Matt asked, not wanting to go to Vicki alone again. Seeing a sober friend would maybe help his sister feel better too.

"Sure" Harper said, forgetting about the library in general. She had no idea of what kind of emotions stirred in her gut when she was around Matt Donovan, but she wanted to find out. Even when he was going to the hospital to meet his sister.