Jess and Holly were in Mel's room, hoping to make the five o'clock sitting so they could spend more time getting ready. They'd had their showers and dried their hair as it was one less thing they had to do after dinner.
Then they heard Damon's voice in their heads asking them to step outside please, he wanted to talk to them. The three girls did as they were told, a little shocked at experiencing Damon's power for real and apprehensive about what it could mean.
The whole part of that corridor was given over to the competition winners and they all came out of their rooms, their faces just as confused as Jess felt. Walking towards them was Damon and a reluctant looking Bonnie. Jess saw Mel's eyes light up at the sight of Bonnie and it was suddenly very clear who she fancied.
"I have a fun little competition that you can enter if you're interested, the prize is a date with me. I promise to be on my best behaviour and will only bite if you're willing." Bonnie looked annoyed as a lot of girls tried to squeal quietly and failed. "The person who writes the best fanfiction will get a date with me, where I will wine you and dine you and have you home before you turn into pumpkins."
"RULES!" Bonnie yelled, and everyone pricked up their ears. "I'm judging and anyone who does not follow the rules will be disqualified. 1. No slash between Damon and Stefan because that's just wrong and no x rated stuff either. I really don't want to read pornos.
2. All entries must be anonymous and that includes aliases from the board and personal descriptions that would identify you. You can submit it with your name and email, but don't put any personal details on your actual story.
3. Stories are to be one A4 page in length, max.
4. All entries have to be your own work and not have been published anywhere else including boards. Number five and most important. You are not to talk about this for the rest of the time here. This is a secret that no one else knows about, Stefan and Elena would kill me if they found out and the competition would be stopped." Damon seemed quite amused by Bonnie barking the rules out, so Jess guessed she had been dragged into it.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a thick envelope with Stamped, Addressed Envelopes in. "Use these, that way they won't get lost in the post." He handed the wad to the boy next to him and told him to pass it around. "I will see you later and I very much look forward to what you come up with." Bonnie grabbed him by the arm and practically frog marched him back to the lift. "If anyone asks I caught you up here flirting," Bonnie sighed. She wasn't asking or taking no for an answer.
No one moved or dared to breathe until the doors on the lift closed and it started to move. Then there was pandemonium as everyone wanted an envelope and they suddenly discovered there was one missing. People were confused and getting worried and the girl who didn't have one was on the brink of tears. "It's alright. You can have mine," said Jess who had been wondering about it anyway.
"But he really likes you!" Said Holly. "Why would you jeopardise your chance of a date with him?!"
"Because if he likes me that much he knows where to find me afterwards and I didn't come here expecting a date anyway. Please. Take mine."
The girl started to say she felt guilty for taking Jess' place, but Jess refused to hear it. They went back to their rooms and Jess was still anxious about it. There was no way she could tell people that she probably wasn't allowed to enter because she had a date with Damon already and she was worried that people would get suspicious or there would be some stupid knock on effect with people swapping envelopes, but she wasn't sure what she could do about it.
It seemed everyone wanted the first dinner sitting so the lift was crowded, but when they got to the lobby Damon seemed to appear out of nowhere and asked if someone didn't have an envelope. He had accidentally missed one and he would hate on someone to miss out. They pointed at Jess and Damon came up to her with a knowing smile as some of the group drifted away and others stood around to listen to what Damon said. "I apologise, I must have missed an envelope" he said. "Good luck in the competition. I will see you at the party."
The now giggling group went into dinner with Jess, Holly and Mel sitting together as usual. Jess felt like everyone was watching her every move and it was awkward. She finished as quickly as she could and told her new friends that she would see them up there. As she went into the lift Alaric, Bonnie and Meredith were just getting out of the other one. Bonnie suddenly thought she might have left her keycard in the door to her room and wanted to check. Alaric and Meredith were clearly frustrated with her, with Alaric saying he couldn't remember if she had when they got in the lift and Meredith telling her off for being so scatterbrained. "I know! I need to go check. I'm so sorry." Bonnie got back into the lift with Jess and pressed the button for her floor.
"He said to tell you that he doesn't want you to enter the competition because you're already going on a date with him."
"Already figured that, but thanks anyway" Jess shrugged. Bonnie was grinning at her weirdly as the lift doors opened onto Jess' floor, there was no one waiting so Bonnie held her finger on the doors open button. "He picked you from the minute you told him your favourite period in history was the Restoration. None of us were sure what would happen here, especially with him and so many young girls in the same place. But I'm glad it went the right way and you're one of the sensible ones. See you at the party!" The door closed and Jess went back to her room wondering what she had done for someone to class her as sensible.
Holly and Mel came up shortly afterwards and the three of them got ready together with Mel doing their makeup.
