Chapter 2

Progress

When school came to an end that day. Elena drove home with a very positive mindset. She even gave Damon a convincing smile when they crossed paths near the ladies' room, at which he smirked haughtily and fluttered his eyes in a weird way that only pronounced her urge to slap him. Needless to say, the positivity had nothing to do with a peace offering and everything to do with proving herself. Once at home, she sprinted straight to her desk and made her infamous, and very elaborate study time-table. As usual, she colour-coded the subjects to resonate with her school binder and textbook flags and stuck it in plane sight just above her desk. When her parents encouraged her during dinner, she was all the more confident and excited for the course-work to begin, and to see a certain smirk gone from a certain blue-eyed face.

Bonnie was back to school on Monday and Elena filled her in on all the course-work done while Caroline filled her in about her new-found love interest. The conversation had quickly transitioned to the elder Salvatore and when Bonnie had a brief debate in Chemistry class with the said person himself, she was quick to offer her support to Elena for whatever she had in mind to just see that arrogance gone from his personality.

In the following weeks, she worked as hard as she could and studied 3 hours in the morning before heading to school. In spite of her mother's protests, she got a day-time job at the grill for weekends to feel more independent; with SATs out of the way, she almost had her weekends free. As the 3rd week of October rolled in, their first tests were held, it was a task to keep her nerves down and stop herself from snapping at Caroline. In the fourth week of the month, they got their graded papers in class. She had all top scores in English, Spanish and History and was tied with Damon in French, Science and Math. However, Damon had chosen the business and economic studies elective in which he topped the class.

Elena was recommended by Miss Brightwell to take extra credit assignments for Literature and Creative Writing since that's what she wanted to pursue as a career in the future; Elena had agreed, and was now working on those projects in the evenings, which she previously used to free up for Caroline. Her best friend did whine a little but soon got over it when she received a text from Stefan, asking her out on a dinner date.

Today, on a cold November Thursday, she was early to school since she had finished her morning study session early and wanted to gather references for her current writing assignment in the library. She had told Miss Brightwell that she would write 6 pieces before winter-break starts and she intended on starting the fourth today.

Buried behind stacks of books, she was typing away on her laptop, the sounds of keys filling up the empty library. Damon saw the concentrated expression on her face and contemplated approaching her, but decided against his nerves and walked towards her table anyway. "Hello, Miss Gilbert", he said with a wave of his fingers. She didn't even move an inch, but then he spotted the earphones in her ears and tapped her shoulder gently. She jumped in her seat causing the book-stack on her right to fall right on her laptop keyboard, he mentally slapped himself.

"Jumpy much?" He asked with his signature smirk. Elena felt a wave of irritation as she rolled her eyes picked the books up and restacked them, trying hard to remember the reference order she had them in.

"Hi, I'm Damon." He said sincerely.

"I know you Damon, we're in the same class." She snapped at him. He let out a laugh and said, "I like you, you've got spunk!"

"Whatever that's supposed to mean." She snapped again. God, why am I being so rude?

He laughed again and dropped his laptop and a notebook on her table. "I, uh, actually need you" he looked at her with as much hope as he could muster in his eyes. At her quizzical expression as a reply, he elaborated, "For history, the plague assignment?"

"How the hell did I forget?" she had her head in her hands as she ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. Three days ago, Mr. Saltzman, in all his mysterious glory, had made half the class pick names from a bowl to select their partners for the next history assignment and Elena was paired up with Damon. She had put it in the back of her mind, intent on avoiding any conversation with him, and had inturn forgotten that it was due on Monday.

"What? You don't expect me to do it alone, do you?" He exclaimed in horror.

"No.. No, ofcourse not." She gulped and leaned her elbows on the table. "What was the topic again? I uh... had it marked in my journal, it just completely slipped off my mind." She was now flipping her journal as he nodded in understanding.

Now he'll make a sarcastic comment about how my grades are a result of favouritism.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again when he saw her rumbling through her things irritatedly.

Yup, sarcastic commentary coming up with that annoying smirk for sure!

"I think you're overworking yourself, take a break and get some air."

Seee! That's what I was...

He said what?

He laughed again, maybe at her wide open eyes and agape mouth this time. Shit! Stupid. She closed her mouth and pulled up a confident expression as she asked, "What do you mean 'take a break'?"

"Oh no! Don't get me wrong, just that you're always either working or studying or writing, I really think you need a timeout Elena." he replied sincerely.

"I don't need a timeout Damon, not with all the work piling up. How about we start with History bright and early tomorrow? I'll be here with my research on Plague." She said, not wanting to start on the topic without any research and making all the more fool out of herself.

"Yeah, I can make it here tomorrow, Sure! But I still insist you go easy on yourself, atleast lessen your hours at the Grill or something, you work for miserably long hours and on weekends!" He explained, as if the idea of working on weekends was alien to him.

Why is this guy acting like he's known me forever?

"Thankyou Damon, I will see you tomorrow." She showed gratitude, despite of herself.

"Can't wait" He winked, waved his hand flashing his trademark smirk and was gone into the now bustling hallway.

Elena sighed, packed her books and walked out, calculating her work-study v/s rest-fun hours in her head.

A/N: Please review! I swear it makes me update faster :D