Sophomore year was going to be just as bad as freshmen year. Sure she has three really good friends...all of which who have boyfriends now, so maybe she's wrong, maybe sophomore year won't be just as bad...maybe it'll be worse.

You see Elena Gilbert isn't a loser, but she isn't exactly popular either. She's on honor roll,always goes to school, in the yearbook club and the dance committee. She mainly kept to herself that why she had three main friends.

But even they knew a secret she's been holding onto since she was about seven years old. A secret that if it got out she would absolutely die.

She had one big ten year crush on the popular and handsome Damon Salvatore. Who by the way who has had the same girlfriend since sixth grade...Katherine Pierce a.k.a the Wicked Bitch of the school and her two best friends Andie and Sage were basically little lap dogs and followed her every move...needless to say Elena had a strong distaste for them all.

To make matters worse now that Caroline is dating Klaus, one of Damon's best friends, Bonnie is dating Enzo another one of Damon's best friends and Rebekah is dating Stefan which just so happen to be Damon's brother, Elena would either have to eat lunch alone or sit through Katherines and lapdogs community all through out lunch, which will a hundred percent make her wanna drive a drill through her head to make the noise stop.

School started and Elena wore something simple, her parents weren't there, but what was new? She put on her grey sweater and her ripped blue jeans before Rebekah texted her that she was outside outside waiting for her, since she has an early birthday and got her license this summer. Elena grabbed her book bag and headed out the door.

Elena got to the car and was surprised to see Stefan and Damon in the back seat, Rebekah smiles at her "he wanted to sit in the back with his brother" Rebekah says rolling her eyes.

Oh god, Damon was here...Okay, okay calm down Elena, you've only had a crush on him since he pushed some kid because he took your cookie. He probably won't even ta-

"Hey Elena" Damon says from the back seat

Oh my god! Oh my god! He's talking to me. I mean sure we've had a few conversations in the pass, been partners on certain projects and just been friendly with each other. Friendly...not friends.

"Oh hey" she says back playing it, oddly cool.

Rebekah smiles over at Elena "so Lena will you have Mrs.Matlin first hour right?" She asks

Elena nods "oh yea, honors English" she says nodding and smiling a bit

"Interesting, because Damon has the very same class" she says nodding, Elena looked at her and bit her lip. Sometimes Elena suspected that Rebekah knew about her crush on Damon...but she was never positive and she thought Bonnie and Caroline knew too...

"That cool" Elena says, biting her lip as she took out her phone as she hears it dings. She looks at it and sees a message from Caroline. She puts her password in to unlock it.

"O M G! Damon and Katherine are no more! I just saw her making out with Tyler Lockwood outside of the school and they weren't being secretive about it all" the message reads.

Elena couldn't believe what she was reading...no way they've been together, since sixth grade, they were basically solid teflon and no matter how unbearable Katherine was nobody thought that we're gonna break up.

Elena bit her lip "what? Really? Do you know what happened?" Elena messages, pretending not to care that much all though her interested was throughly peeked and she wanted to know everything.

She nervously awaited a text back "the story around school is, Katherine broke up with him because she was like totally in love with Mason, and was like cheating on Damon with him since half through freshman year" Caroline sends.

Elena bites her lip...maybe this could be her year after all, after all Damon didn't have a girlfriend anymore and everyone else at their table did...and everyone else at that table was with someone so they would have to talk to each other.

Okay calm down Elena, you don't wanna be a rebound, become his friend first and then slowly build up that relationship, that is if he's ever interested in her...she definitely not ugly, but maybe not his type.

"So will Elena be sitting at our table?" Damon asks curiously

Elena bit her lip, Rebekah smiles and nodded "she will be" she says eyeing Elena who was currently blushing.

"What's going on?" Rebekah mouthed to Elena at a red light.

Elena bit her lip "Damon and Katherine broke up" Elena mouthed back

Rebekah smiled and nodded as she continued to drive.

Okay so her friends definitely knew about her crush on Damon...but I mean they never brought it up, so it didn't matter. She guessed over the years she did drop several hints about her crush on him but she never came out and said it but she figured her after a while her friends were smart enough and they would figure it out...which she supposed they did.

Elena couldn't see it but Damon smiled as her heard that, but Stefan could see his smile, which made him curious.

He took out his phone and decided to send his brother a message. "You got a crush?" He sends

Damon looks at his phone and rolls his eyes "maybe I do...Katherine did break my heart and it's time I move on" he sends back

"But...she not a rebound..right?" Stefan sends back.

"She's not anything yet, all I'm saying while you're busy sucking face...I'll talk to her and get to know her. I mean she gorgeous and smart so I say give it sometime and I'll see what I can make of it"

"Okay, okay...but Rebekah says that's she's a really good girl and has like kind of strict parents when they're there"

Damon nods, good to know. In reality he had no clue why he was with Katherine for so long, she was horrible to him, so he was actually relieved when he found out she was cheating on him. He was glad that he never slept with Katherine either...which was a reason why Katherine mentioned that she did what she did...she wanted sex and Damon wouldn't give it to her.

Rebekah stopped the car in the parking lot of the school and got out. The rest of them followed and they all went over to the rest of the group. It was a tad awkward because Damon and Elena were the only ones who weren't with anybody, but neither of them seemed to mine.

"Sorry about the breakup" Klaus said to Damon

He shrugged "stuff happens, she wasn't a good person anyways." He says simply

The rest of the group nodded and Elena bit her lip, looking down trying her best not to look to over joyed, but Damon saw the small smile that plagued her lips and he couldn't help but smirk a bit.

"Elena" he said. Waiting for her eyes to meet his and once they did he gave her his signature smirk.

"How about me and you walk to class and leave the couples alone too...ya know be couples" he said laughing a bit

Elena chewed nervously on her bottom lip, oh great...here it was she was just gonna be his rebound. Someone to rub in the face of Katherine, his way of saying "look I'm completely over you and here's my new girlfriend to prove it" Elena didn't wanna be the rebound...but still it was Damon Salvatore; her crush Damon Salvatore. She was only so strong.

She nodded and give him a small smile "sure we can walk to class together" she said as she eyes Rebekah who just gave her a self satisfying smile.

Elena quickly followed after Damon as he was bombarded by "heys" and "hellos" from nearly every person on the campus. Elena received a few herself but they paled in comparison to the number he revived. That didn't bother her too much after all she was walking to class with Damon Salvatore.

Just before they could make it into the class Katherine and Mason passed by then and Katherine being Kathrine couldn't wait to say something snarky about her ex's newest company.

"Awee look babe, my ex is doing charity work" she teased, not playfully.

Damon rolled his eyes "if anyone's doing charity work it's Mason, having to put up with your crazy ass" he says crossing his arms

Katherine smirked "say what you will but I'm not the one who was in love with me for more then four years" she says with a snarky nod

Damon sighed and shook his head "wasn't love, you just offered a false sense of security because my parents are hardly around" he says shrugging

Katherine clapped "good one. Your therapist tell ya that?" She asks rolling her eyes.

"If anyone needs to see a therapist it's you, with your constant mood swings "Damon come snuggle with me" , "Damon don't touch me" "Damon be jealous" "no Damon don't be jealous, it's not attractive" it was like you changed your mind every thirty seconds and you had no clue what you wanted " he says shrugging

"Well then, maybe that's because I never really loved you" she started boldly "I mean because with Mason...I don't change my mind" she says smirking "as a matter of fact he knows exactly what I want and I don't even have to ask" she adds

Damon rolls his eyes "I don't care, he can be your little lap dog now" he says

She rolls her eyes again, the her signature move. "Let's face it baby, I'm the best you'll ever do and you'll look for the rest of your life for someone like me...but you can't have me so you'll just have to settle for trash...like her" she says eyeing Elena, nastily.

"I'd rather be with trash then with a bitch who only cares for herself" he retaliates

Katherine shrugs "good, because that's all you get" she says smirking before she grabs onto Masons arm and leads him away from them.

Ones thing for sure, Elena thought and that was Damon definitely wasn't over Katherine. Now call her crazy but she could still see the mixture of passion and hurt in his eyes when he was hurdling the insults her way... which only confirmed Elena's suspicion even more, he'd most likely use Elena as a rebound. He didn't exactly say that she wasn't "trash" when Katherine called her that, adding on to her suspension.

Now the questing was would Elena let him use her like that? Anybody with some self respect would say no, they wouldn't wanna be with someone and the sole reason is the other person wants to make their ex jealous that's just a tad...masochistic. Why would someone be with someone who didn't want them back knowingly?

If was anybody else it wouldn't even be a question, it wouldn't be a no for Elena, but this wasn't just anybody. This was her long time crush, almost ten years of fawning over him and wishing he was hers could finally have a little pay off, but at what cost? Her parents wouldn't let her date and she's not even sure if she'd be good at it, then again she probably wouldn't have to worry about that for too long seeing as how Katherine would probably leave Mason as soon as she saw Damon and Elena being all touchy together in public and-

Wait a damn second! No Elena wasn't gonna go through with this, she deserved better then to be some rebound! She deserved a whole lot better and she was sure her friends would agree and her family.

Who cares if he's Damon Salvatore? He's just a person. Nothing more then good looks and smart and nice and a good body and probably a really good kisser- No! Elena bad! This silly school girl crush has gone on way to long! You need to get over him, and you can start by getting away from him. Don't sit by him at lunch or any class. Okay? Okay. Ready...let's g-

"Hey Elena wanna sit by me?" He asks him smile charming

"Sure" Elena nodded with a smile.

You're weak. You're weak and he's gonna walk all over you and break you're heart.

No he's too nice for that.

You don't even know him!

Okay, but even if he does at least I had the chance to be with him. Doesn't that cancel out all the bad?

God, I hope so because I'm doomed.

Elena has a constant war going on in her head. On one hand she really wanted to be with and on the other she didn't want to give him the chance to hurt her and break her heart.

She took the seat to the left of him and as she suspected an array of girls rolled their eyes. The desk were situated into groups of twos. Meaning Elena took the only spot next to Damon.

One of her nervous ticks were biting on her lip and another one was tapping her foot, which she does a lot and right now she was doing them both. Looking like a mental patient in her eyes.

Damon glanced over at her and he wasn't quiet sure what he wanted to do with her yet.

They could remind how they are hardly talking.

They could become really good friends and stay friends.

They could become really good friends and then start to date.

He could use her as rebound to get over Katherine.

So so many choices, but first he had to test the waters. Taking option one off of the table which he was fine with. Stefan had told him that her parents were strict but also hinted that they were hardly there.

He could relate to them being hardly there but now them being strict, he was free to do pretty much anything and yes there were "rules" but they we're ever there so those didn't really matter.

Let's see how could he go about this? He knew Elena was smart, obviously she's in honors English so he figured that maybe he would think if he came right out swinging and complementing her that she'd think she just a rebound.

He went for it anyways he bit his lip as he looked at her. "That's a pretty sweater" he tells her softly.

Elena gave him a big warm smile.

Fucked. Elena was fucked.