Chapter 1

Mystic High

September 5th 2011, Monday

Elena Marie Gilbert was the daughter of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert. She was a hardworking high-school girl in a small town of Virginia: Mystic Falls. Her father was a physician at Mystic Falls General Hospital and her mother was a teacher at Mystic Elementary School. Her zeal, drive and passion to prove herself was all thanks to her parents, who taught her from an early age that success didn't come easy to people like them; they had to work hard if they wanted a good life. Ofcourse it helped that Elena was genuinely interested in school, History and English were her favourite subjects and needless to say, she aced all her classes.

Today was the first day of her senior year, she had been waiting all summer since she received her SAT scores of 1586/1600. Wearing a red tee, black skinny jeans, converse and a black denim jacket, Elena walked through the doors taking deep measured breaths to calm her nerves. Standing slightly on her toes, she looked around the bustling hallways until her eyes rested on the person she was looking for; her initial anxiety was now gone as her lips turned into an excited grin. She sped her way across the hall to the lockers and opened her arms to be squeezed by a rib-breaking hug and have her face covered in blonde curls.

"Caroline, I'm so excited!" she said as she pulled herself back.

"Yes Lena! It's our senior year, and prom and graduation and then college Oh my god I just can't wait!" Caroline squealed it all in one breath.

"Yes Care, me too! I just hope my SATs are enough to get me in a decent college."

"Oh god Elena, it's you! How can you not get into the college of your choice? Plus, your score is the highest in class, besides one guy on the list. Umm... Totally forgot his name now Ugh!" she said as she scrunched her nose and knitted her eyebrows in annoyance. "Really? But I checked Liam's score, it wasn't as good as I expected." Elena replied, thinking of the only guy who was up with her in the competition with Bonnie.

"No, not Liam! Let's go check the list, apparently he's a new student." Caroline pulled her towards the notice board adjacent to the front office.

The crowd in front of the notice board was huge, so Elena stopped Caroline by the door of the office as they waited for the crowd to clear up a bit. Elena quickly texted her mom that she had reached school with Jeremy and that she'll get something from the Grill for dinner tonight; her mom was on a school camping trip of 3 days and wouldn't be back till Wednesday. Her younger brother Jeremy was a sophomore in her school and since Elena was gifted her car for her SAT scores, she now drove Jeremy with her; not that she minded driving her brother to school, but Jeremy kept asking her to let him drive and it lead to an argument as usual.

"Wow!" Elena was snapped out of her thoughts by the death-grip of Caroline's fingers on her arm as she stood there as if she had spotted something supernatural.

"Care?" Elena tried to shake her arm off her grip but Caroline didn't even budge, as her now pink face was transfixed on something right ahead. Elena followed her best friend's eyes and saw what she was looking at, or rather who; a guy not older than them stood behind the now dispersing crowd in front of the notice board. With his hands in his pockets, he turned towards them as if sensing their gaze and smiled at Caroline's stone-faced expression. Elena had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at her friend's antics as she nudged her in the elbow to break the trance. His green eyes were locked with Caroline's blue-grey ones as he moved towards the two girls, a warm smile on his face.

"Hi." He said, slightly blushing, making Caroline's face almost camouflaged with the light pink top she was wearing. Elena took that as her cue to leave the awkward situation; she nodded with a smile as the guy turned to look at her and walked towards the notice board as fast as she could. Once there, she saw what Care was talking about- on the notice of "Mystic High SAT scores", her name was second to Damon Salvatore's just by a difference of two points, his score being 1588. She quickly turned with a weird feeling in her stomach and brisk-walked her way towards Caroline.

"Care!" She called out when she realized that they're going to miss the first class if her friend keeps up with these theatrics with the new guy.

"Stefan, this is Elena, my best friend." Caroline introduced them.

"Hello Elena, nice to meet you! Stefan Salvatore." Stefan put his hand forward, but Elena was too shocked to notice. "Salvatore?" she gulped. "As in?" she pointed with her thumb towards the notice board.

"Oh yes. That's my older brother Damon." He said with evident pride in his eyes.

"Oh…" was all Elena could manage with the unsettling feeling. The three of them began walking towards the lockers as Caroline happily chattered along the way with Stefan. Caroline was Elena's BFF since their days in the sandbox, but it was in moments like these all summer that she missed Bonnie the most. Bonnie, the mature friend in their unbreakable trio, was currently on a vacation with her mom and wouldn't be back until Friday. She could really use some girl-time now, and by the way things were looking now, she was sure Caroline was hooked yet again with this new Stefan guy. Elena's faze was broken as he talked about his brother, who apparently had to take a year off school to take care of their ill mother, who passed away last month.

"I'm so sorry, Stefan." She said sincerely, nobody should have to live without any of their parents.

"It's alright, we're doing fine now. We moved to Mystic Falls this month from New York and Damon was taken in almost immediately, considering his scores. I, for one, had to let my father make… arrangements." He said with a smirk that left Caroline chuckling.

"Well, welcome to Mystic High, on that note! But we should really get going now." Elena said as she shut her locker.

They walked into History class and Stefan sat on the first seat beside Caroline, in her usual place. Elena walked through to the back of the class on her seat beside the window, only to see that it was already taken. A raven haired boy wearing all black sat in her seat reading a book. What a start to the first day! She mentally cursed, but decided to try once anyway.

"Hi, I believe you're in my seat. Do you mind moving forward, please?" She asked in her natural polite tone. He looked up from the book he was reading and locked his cerulean blue eyes with her brown ones.

"Uh no, I think I like this seat. Mind finding another?" He said with a cocky smirk that made Elena want to slap him across his face.

She was so filled with rage that she didn't notice the class falling into silence as the teacher entered the class. "Miss Gilbert, all good back there?" history teacher Alaric Saltzmann's voice made her head turn with a jerk.

"I guess her place in class is taken now" Tyler Lockwood said with a chuckle and the class broke into giggles as the double meaning of his words escaped nobody.

"I'd like to think of it that Elena has a healthy competition now, Mr. Saltzmann." Caroline said with her usual confidence that made the giggling stop. Elena turned to pick her bag up and noticed that the smirk still hadn't left his face. With almost unnatural speed she moved to the only empty seat in front of him and sat in a manner of falling.

"Yes, I agree with Miss. Forbes. Congratulations on your SAT score Miss Gilbert, you did us proud." Mr. Saltzmann said with a warm smile. His eyes fell on Stefan and then at the guy sitting behind Elena and he added, "I would like to introduce two new students to this class, Damon Salvatore" he nodded in the raven haired boy's direction, "an exceptional student who we're proud to have; and Stefan Salvatore" his eyes back on Stefan now, "who… uh… is willing to work hard and do us proud." He added with uncertainty. "Welcome to Mystic High!" He ended the formal introduction to commence the class.

Elena was now highly aware of the unsettling feeling inside her now, it was unfamiliar and not pleasant at all. She had never been out-performed before, and here she was, second to a cocky arrogant guy, was this jealousy? Tears were stinging her eyes now. Was she being selfish? Ofcourse she wasn't entitled to her position as the top student, or was she? Was being an academic performer getting to her head? Oh God! When did she become this person? She isn't this person, she is Elena, she works hard and achieves, she doesn't feel entitled. No. She is not going to let this get to her, the only reason Damon Salvatore is on top is because he worked hard, plain and simple. If she wants to get back to the arrogance he offered her, she's going to let her hustle and grades fight for her. With that, her inner battle with herself ended as she focused on the lecture at hand.

A/N: So Damon is a responsible guy huh? I couldn't give more details about Elena's life outside school in this chapter, but you'll see it soon; plus, there are a lot of characters to be build up still so I hope you stay hooked :)

I wanted to build these strong characters, who have a personality outside their relationships, and in contrast to the blazing passion and fireworks that surround Delena in most fics, I wanted to write one that's at a natural slow pace. I'm a content writer, just like Elena, but this is my first time actually writing fiction. I must admit it feels good.

Please review and let me know if you have any plot/ships requests!