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Chapter 9 - Into the Unknown

~X~

Harper stared at the pale walls of her room. It was sparkly clean, and she hadn't done a thing about that. Carol had a maid clean it each day when she and Tyler were at school, which Harper still hadn't gotten used to.

Her room didn't need cleaning, according to the teenager. She rarely touched any of her new possessions, the only exception being her spacious desk. On it, several notebooks and the like stood neatly arranged in an order Harper hadn't done. The maid seemed to like to color coordinate, and so all of her stuff was from lightest shade to the darkest.

Today, Harper dressed in another fancy blouse in a light pink shade with white leggins and nude ballerina flats. She missed the days where Henry would decide for her what to wear, she had been the best in that area of expertise. Now Harper just went day by day, wishing she looked okay with Carol's approval. She still wore her bracelets and some necklaces, but even those had reduced in number.

She went down the stairs to the slightly irritated Tyler, he was all packed and ready for the football practice this afternoon and had been waiting for at least 15 minutes for Harper to come down. As she descended the stairs, he looked her up and down and smiled slightly.

"You look nice" It was a small comfort to her shyness. At that moment Richard burst through the front door behind Tyler, coming back from his usual morning run and smiled.

"Good morning kids" He said, his tone out of breath and his body all sweaty. Harper grimaced but tried her best not to let him see it.

"Good morning," Harper said and looked at Tyler, ready to leave. Tyler got her cue and without saying anything to his father, they left. Things hadn't become easier after 'The grill fight', where Richard had openly hit his son in front of Harper. She was still scared of him, but tried to hide it and Tyler was pissed and hadn't talked about it ever since.

As they arrived at school, it was a hot autumn day, people were mostly walking around like it was still summer. Some students were sitting in the grass, others stood around in their cliques like usual. Harper nervously pulled on her backpack strap, seemingly tearing the fabric bit by bit.

"Are you okay?" Tyler placed his bag onto a stone table by the entrance, and looked around at his friends, Matt and Louis were tossing a football to each other not far from them. It would be an hour before the first class would start.

"I'm fine" Harper said and looked at Matt, blushing as his muscles shined in the morning sun. Her crush hadn't stopped, and Tyler had noticed that too. Which was fine, he didn't really care anymore. Speaking of Matt, Tyler spotted Elena Gilbert not far away from them, with the new guy wrapped around her fingers.

"Oh look, there is Elena and her new boyfriend" Tyler said, making Harper look away from Matt and onto the couple as well. "And what are they doing? Oh they're walking, walking.. yep walking right into the sunset" Harper giggled and raised an eyebrow at Tyler.

"Dick" Matt sighed.

"While you are just standing here like one of those little yard trolls" Tyler snickered and kept staring at the new couple.

"Garden gnomes" Harper corrected and looked at Matt, who looked very frustrated.

"What?" Tyler looked at Harper like she was crazy.

"They are called garden gnomes" She stated and shrugged her shoulders. Which made Matt smirk and look at her while Louis laughed at Tyler. Harper's insides melted, gosh he was so handsome and he was looking right at her with his sea blue eyes.

"And what am I supposed to do huh? She made her choice and she clearly moved on.. maybe I should too" Matt stated. Harper really felt like a crazy person. Her stomach was filled with butterflies, her face was all red, her palms were sweaty. What was wrong with her? It was obvious that Matt hadn't meant with her.

"Well, let's tell her she made the wrong one" Tyler said and caught the ball before Matt could. Harper had a bad feeling about this.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, as he saw his best friend take a step back and take aim.

"Tyler no-" Harper warned but the ball was already in the air at that point. Ready to hit the new kid in the back of his head.

Suddenly, Stefan turned around and caught it, right in front of his face.

Everyone stood and stared at him, that move was impossible to make. He had been inhumanly fast about turning around. Harper felt a chill go down her spine and felt a sudden headache come. Doubling over, her vision blurred while her ears started to ring loudly.

"Harper? Harper!" Matt raised his voice as the girl was in real distress. Touching her shoulder lightly, neither noticed Tyler getting the ball back from a hard throw from Stefan. Once again a pretty amazing move from a seemingly normal guy. Other students around them looked at Harper with concern and moved closer to her, while still whispering about Stefan Salvatore.

"I.. I-I'm okay" Harper rasped and raised her head, some girls gasped as Harper had blood running down her nose and tear streaks on her cheeks. Splatter of blood getting on her new clothes.

"Does someone have a napkin?" Louis asked around, and many started to rummage through their bags to find anything that could help.

"Here!" A girl that Harper knew as Reese gave her a napkin.

"Thanks" Harper's voice was still raw as she started to wipe her nose. Reese gave her some more before the bell rang to class.

"I will take you to the school nurse, tell Tanner we will be late" Tyler said and placed his arm around his foster sister. Matt nodded as they all went inside.

"Here, take my hoodie.." Reese said and handed it over to Tyler. Who said a quick 'Thanks,' before helping Harper sip it up over her ruined clothes.

~X~

"I don't know what happend, Stefan caught the ball and suddenly my head felt like it was about to explode. I have never felt like this before" Harper sighed meekly as she sat slumped on a bed inside the nurses office.

"What would you say the pain was from a scale from 1 - 10?" Mrs. Sanders asked as she had a clipboard in hand. She had given the poor teenager some tylenol and a whole bottle of water for her to relax.

Harper held her forehead and Tyler's hand with the other as she took a deep breath.

"Maybe, a 9? I don't know really" Harper looked at Tyler, who just squeezed her hand a bit to let her know that everything would be okay.

"I am calling Mrs Lockwood, she should pick you up and bring you home. I will sign a note for today that you can bring to her teacher, Mr. Lockwood" Mrs. Sanders said and walked out of her room.

"Tyler" Harper whispered, even though they were the only ones in the room.

"Yeah darlin'?" He said and sat down on the plastic chair that Mrs. Sanders had been sitting in.

"I- I saw t-things"

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I saw Mr. Tanner dead.. outside.. in the parking lot.. it was like.. like a dream o-or a short movie inside of my head" Harper whispered and Tyler sighed, not believing a word she just said.

"We don't know what it was that just happened to you gorgeous, just take it easy and go home for the day. Tomorrow it will be like nothing happened" Tyler stated and took both of her hands in his, they were ice cold to the touch. But he didn't care.

"Okay" Harper said and closed her eyes, the tylenol finally kicking in.

~X~

The Night of the Game

Harper looked around at the cheerleaders and jocks pumping up to the upcoming match. Tanner was up on a podium by the mic, ready to give the same speech he always did at these rallies. Harper stood close to Tyler and the rest of the team of timberwolves, sneaking glances at Matt in his jersey. He had at one point caught her, and winked at her, which made her insides melt completely.

Tonight looked like a normal night. Like any other night in Mystic Falls. Everything was going to be okay.

Yesterday Carol had made her go the the doctor as soon as she had picked her up from school. They had waited for hours, and Harper had been forced into a hospital gown as she had been examined by a doctor named Vera Nelson. She had been kind both to Harper and Carol, but didn't find anything wrong with Harper by just looking at her. She scheduled an MRI for a later date and urged the teen to come straight to the hospital if she had such a headache again.

Harper really appreciated Carol, she had been more of a mother to her in these past months than her real, still MIA, mother had for the past years.

Blinking back to reality, Harper realized that Tanner was going off on how amazing Stefan Salvatore was. Something that Tyler didn't like at all. Moving fast, she caught him as he moved away from the big crowd.

"Hey.. Hey!" Harper took his hand which made him completely stop and turn to her. A few steps away stood Vicki, looking sober and happy to be at the rally. But some feet more and you had the stoner gang being drunk on a truck facing them.

"Calm down a bit.. just.. Just take a deep breath. For me" Harper said and stared into Tyler's eyes. He sighed before doing as she said, taking a big inhale and exhale, and he honestly felt better. But as he opened his eyes he spotted the young Gilbert, which made Tyler go from sour to outright raging.

"What are you looking at?!" Tyler shouted and Harper quickly turned around, eyes wide. Jeremy was smirking at his friends and was whispering stuff neither of them could hear.

"Ty- No.. Tyler, stop!" Harper stood in front of him, trying to keep him back. But he just pushed her off him.

"Yeah, sitting here smirking and shit.. happily ever after with another man's leftovers-" Jeremy hit Tyler, hard.

And Tyler hit back. Suddenly there was an outright brawl at the rally. Harper was scared to get close to the two, as bottles broke and glass flew everywhere around them. Vicki was desperately trying to shout stop, but the guys didn't listen at all. Others around started to notice, and Stefan got into it to direct Tyler's fury onto him. That's when Jeremy found a broken bottle in the grass and charged towards Tyler.

Without even realizing it, as if time was slowing down. Harper jumped between a back faced Tyler and a furious Jeremy. The sharp glass penetrated her hand that she had been holding up to shield herself, and a large gash formed in her palm.

"Ah!" Harper shrieked out, getting everyone's attention. Stefan's eyes widened and ran away from the scene. Tyler was ready to pounce Jeremy again when Matt suddenly took him away towards the lockers. Tanner and another teacher came running, and Jeremy was in big trouble. As she was led inside to get first aid for her hand, a tall dark haired man bumped into her.

"Oh, sorry" He said, without any tone of remorse at all. Harper looked up to see a rather handsome face.

"No problem" She said as she started to continue her walk away.

"I'm Damon, Damon Salvatore" The guy made Harper turn around to face him.

"I'm Harper Bellrose"

"Nice to meet you-" But Harper had already opened the door to the locker rooms and away from the creepy guy, who had a look on his face that only a predator would have.

As she was patched up she headed towards the back entrance, the game had ended by now and she would wait by the car to get a ride home from Tyler.

"Matt?" Harper said as she saw the blonde cutie standing completely frozen, looking into the dark parking lot.

"Matt?" She asked again when she stood by his side, touching his arm gently so as to not spook him. He only pointed ahead to a person laying on the ground in a pool of blood. Moving closer, Matt suddenly gasped.

"Harper, go get help! Hurry, Tanner isn't moving!" Matt said and ran past her, leaving Harper to stare at the unmoving coach.

It was just like her dream, it was at the exact same place as her dream. Once again, her nose started to bleed.