"Goodmorning Ellie." Alaric greets as Eloise enters the teachers' lounge.

"Goodmorning Ric." Eloise greets back, before taking the empty seat beside him. She frowns a little as she sees bruises from under the sleeves of his shirt. "Are you alright?"

Alaric follows her gaze and resists the urge to tug his sleeves down, not wanting to seem suspicious. He could hardly explain to her that he acquired those bruises while training Elena to kill vampires, that kind of knowledge could hardly be manageable for Eloise. "I am alright, my furniture assembly skills aren't as great as I'd like to think." Alaric jokes.

"I would have offered to help you, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference." Eloise chuckles. She was as handy with a hammer as Bowie was with making crossword puzzles. The furniture in her home had all been assembled by her kind neighbor, who had taken pity on her when walking past her open door and seeing Eloise struggling and cursing with what was supposed to be a bookcase.

"Next time I will be sure to get an expert, maybe Mr. Williams can help me out." Alaric looks pointedly at the old math teacher that was seated on the couch on the other side of the room, before shooting Eloise a conspirator sort of grin. Mr. Wiliams was the most grumpy teacher at the high school, he has been a teacher as long as anyone can remember and was basically awaiting his retirement. Despite everyone's efforts to be friendly to the man he never seemed in a good mood.

Eloise stifles a snicker at the mental image of Mr. Williams assembling furniture. She was certain he would break a hip when lifting the hammer or worse, curse so much at the hammer that it might come alive only to run away. "I'm certain he would love to help you out." She whispers before rising from her seat, grabbing her bag. "I will see you later, Alaric."

• • •

"Mr. Lockwood. What do we call this style of writing that Virginia Woolf pioneered in?" Eloise smiles as she sees Tyler's caught expression. She was pretty laid back when it came to cellphones during her classes, she only demanded that they'd be put away during her lectures. During the working time of her classes, she allowed them to text, discuss and have fun. Eloise fully understood it could be difficult for a student to focus 90 minutes at once.

Tyler quickly puts his phone down, ignores Matt's snicker, and shoots Eloise an apologetic smile. "The stream of... thoughts?" Tyler replies, uncertainty clear in his voice.

"Close, Mr. Lockwood. The stream of consciousness." Eloise smiles at Tyler, content with his answer nonetheless.

It sounded ridiculously cliche but she was quite proud of his development. After putting up with Tyler's aloof and macho behavior for several weeks, she'd had a chat with him in the hopes of understanding him better and hopefully motivating him a bit. Eloise and Tyler had made a list of books and genres that did interest him and she had tried her best to find books that were on the mandatory list that applied to those genres. This had a positive effect and Tyler showed more interest in the classes.

"The way she writes allows us readers a peek inside the mind of the narrator." Eloise elaborates, pleased to see Tyler diligently taking note of this information. "Can anyone name an author who is also known for this?"

"James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway." Stefan replies. His hand was in the air but he didn't bother to wait before getting a turn.

"Very good, Mr. Salvatore." Eloise wasn't even trying to seem surprised at this. Stefan was one of her best students, he is well-read and seems genuinely interested in the books they discuss in this class. "Have you read any of their works?"

"I quite enjoyed Ulysses, Miss. Sinclair." Stefan smiles at Eloise, trying not to look too boastful about his knowledge on this subject. Besides partying in the 20's he also enjoyed the new writing style that was adopted by the modernists.

"I'm pleased to hear that." Eloise nods at Stefan, not understanding how some children seemed to be in possession of an 'old soul'. "Alright class, no need to keep you from celebrating the weekend. For homework I want you all to finish reading The New Dress by Virginia Woolf." Eloise says, getting up from her seat on the desk.

This request was met with a collective groan from the class. Most of them feigned annoyance, knowing full well Eloise tried to give them as little homework as possible.

"Relax, it's only about 25 pages and we already read half of them a few days ago." Eloise playfully rolls her eyes. "I do want you to come up with a one-page reflection on the main character. Think about their thoughts, their feelings their experience. We will discuss it on Monday."

As the last students leave the classroom Eloise drops herself onto her chair and grabs her phone. She smiles when she sees Alex's message, attached with it was a photo of her and Bowie in the park. Alex always took Bowie for an afternoon stroll in the park seeing as Eloise couldn't always get away in between classes.

Alex didn't mind, she didn't have much to do seeing as her parents provided for her, hanging out with Bowie was a nice daily activity. Besides that, it also worked wonders when approaching handsome strangers in the park.

"Long day?" Alaric asks, looking amusedly at Eloise's slumped form in her chair. It was a change from her usual upright posture.

"You can say that again." Eloise sighs, smiling up at Alaric after straightening her back. Her mother had always been insistent on her having good posture and a neat appearance.

"Are you free tonight?"

"Let me guess, another night of me beating you in darts and you drinking me under the table?" Eloise pretends to be annoyed, remembering all too well how Alaric kept teasing her for being a lightweight.

"Yes." Alaric grins broadly at Eloise when he sees her shoulders slump in resignation. He liked hanging out with her, she was normal which was a nice change from his usual vampire-infested pastime.

Alaric had asked Eloise to hang out in her first week of teaching to which she had declined. After two months of getting rejected, Eloise had confided in him she couldn't afford the luxury of going out. In need of company, Alaric had offered to pay for her drinks. As good mannered as Eloise was she had refused, but Alaric didn't take no for an answer. Since then it had become a ritual. Every week they would hang out, drink, and have a good time, both forgetting their troubles for a few hours.

• • •

"Who is this, Ric? New friend?" Damon walks up to Alaric, surprised to see him with a woman that wasn't about to get staked by his hunter friend.

Eloise turns around and smiles at the newcomer. She had seen him before, like Alaric the man was a regular in the Grill. "Hi, I am Eloise. Call me Ellie."

"Nice to meet you, Ellie, I'm-" Damon puts on a charming smile, after wagging his brows at Alaric who was clearly annoyed with Damon's intrusion.

"Trouble. Go hit on someone else." Alaric snaps, slapping Damon's hand away before Eloise could shake it. Alaric had no desire for Eloise to be dragged into the whole supernatural world, something that was bound to happen if he let Damon have his way with her. He didn't want a repeat of the Andie Star situation.

"That's rude." Damon feigns hurt by placing his hand on his chest and shooting Alaric a heartbroken look, which earns him a laugh from Eloise.

"It's alright Alaric. I can reject him myself." Eloise grins broadly at the attractive stranger. She thinks back to the handsome stranger she had met in the park the other day. Before this week she had complained about the limited amount of hot men in Mystic Falls, how wrong she had been. She hoped Elijah wouldn't be too mad at her for losing his number if she ever ran into him again.

"I see why you're Stefan's favorite teacher." Damon hums, looking amused at the girl who looked at him, a brow raised in challenge.

"Ouch." Alaric mutters. He knew he wasn't the best teacher Mystic Falls had ever seen but he still was a whole lot better than Mr. Williams.

"You know Stefan?" Eloise asks interestedly. Her mind immediately goes to the possibilities of Damon's relation to her star pupil.

"I'm his big brother. The name is Damon Salvatore."

"Ah, how nice to meet a relative of him. He is a good student. Very involved." Eloise grimaces a little, hoping it didn't sound inappropriate. Although she was only a few years older than her students there was no way she would begin a student-teacher relationship with any of her students.

"Hmm, I will be sure to let him know. He would like to hear that." Damon replies, not exactly happy to hear this woman gush about his little brother. He looks the woman up and down again, he finally understood why Stefan had been reading up on the Brontë sisters again.

"Damon, don't you have some other people to bother?" Alaric deadpans, fixing his friend with an annoyed look.

"Right you are Ric." Damon slaps his hand on Alaric's shoulder, which makes the man grunt. After applying the necessary pressure to get his annoyance across Damon turns to Eloise with a bright smile. "It was so very good to meet you, Ellie. I can't wait to see you again."

Eloise raises her brows in question at Alaric as soon as Damon had walked off.

"Don't ask." Alaric huffs, downing his drink in one gulp.