Author's Note: only one chapter after this! I still can't believe it took me a year to squeeze out season 1 of the show. I promise that in the future I'll remember to update regularly lol. Onwards!

xxxx

Elowen's face scrunched up in discomfort as Esmeralda tightened the back of her dress.

"This dress hurts. How did women do this back then?"

"No idea. Pain is beauty, isn't it?"

Elowen grabbed the skirt of the dress. "How am I supposed to get into the car?"

Josiah laughed as he entered the room. "We'll strap you to the top."

"Ha, ha. Very funny," she sarcastically replied.

"We'll figure something out. Come on. We're going to be late."

xxxx

As Elowen wandered around trying to find Stefan, she passed the marching band. She had to admit, it was weird not being lined up with them. One of the students in her section caught sight of her and quickly ran over.

"Elowen! Quick, we need your help. It'll only take a second."

Apparently, all it was, was that the section didn't know how to handle everything without their section leader to guide them. She playfully rolled her eyes when she finally rounded everyone up.

"Okay, kids, mom has to leave now. Behave!"

The marching band all waved at her when she took her leave. She finally found Stefan with Damon after a few more minutes of searching. Damon noticed her first. He swallowed and stared at her with a starstruck look on his face. She looked absolutely stunning. Stefan furrowed his eyebrows. What was with the face? He turned and immediately understood.

Elowen grinned smugly when she saw that they were sharing identical faces. She grabbed her dress and curtsied.

xxxx

"John?!"

Stefan was filling both Elena and Elowen on Damon's educated guess. Elena was shell-shocked. Elowen, on the other hand, didn't give too much of a reaction.

"To be honest, I kinda had the same thought myself," she admitted. "It makes sense. Why else would your dad go through so much trouble to hide the truth?"

"But- I mean, is that even possible?"

"There's no proof, but he dated Isobel when she was a teenager and he was the one who brought her to your dad's office for the delivery," Stefan explained.

"My whole life I've never liked this man. I…" Elena trailed off.

"I'm sorry," Stefan apologized. "I just… I wanted to tell you before Damon dropped it on you in some typically inappropriate way."

Elowen poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue to prevent a smile. His antics were always unfit for the situation, but it added sarcastic humor to serious situations that somehow lightened the mood. She liked that about him.

Stefan noticed this and tried his best to not be bothered. As he continued his conversation with Elena, Elowen saw Josiah trying to talk to Jeremy. She told them that she'd be back and headed in their direction.

"Go away, Josiah," she heard Jeremy say.

"Jeremy, come on! Just hear me out. You were the one who asked to have your memories taken away! We even made sure that you would remember that so this wouldn't happen. You just want a reason to be mad at Elena."

"And why shouldn't I be mad at her? She kept this from me. And so did you. You were supposed to be my best friend, Jo. You can't fix this that easily. Something like this doesn't just get fixed."

"Jeremy, wait…."

Jeremy walked away and Josiah let him. Elowen came up behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"He'll come around. Just give him time."

xxxx

It was finally time for the parade to start. Everyone was on their respective floats, waving at the crowd. Mrs. Lockwood was commentating on a small stage off to the side.

"Let's give a big hand to the Mystic Falls High School marching band!"

The band was at the very front, playing an upbeat tune. The cheerleaders were at the side, waving their pom poms and doing flips. The crowd yelled loudly in approval.

"And for a little local history, Mr. Saltzman's students have recreated Virginia's Battle of Willow Creek!"

The history float arrived, where Tyler and Jeremy were atop. They were pretending to shoot each other with fake rifles to entertain the crowd. The Founder's court float came next.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our stunning Founder's court and their handsome escorts."

Caroline, Josiah, Elowen, Stefan, Elena, Matt and the other escorts all waved to the crowd.

"At the very top is this year's Miss Mystic Falls, Caroline Forbes! Just beneath her is our runner up, Elowen Ramirez. Aren't they beautiful?"

Elena spotted Bonnie in the crowd and waved. Bonnie waved back. Elowen noticed and gave her a small wave as well. Bonnie didn't wave back this time, but instead gave her an awkward smile. Damon walked in front of Bonnie. He smirked and gave them all a wave. Elena and Stefan ignored this, but Elowen gave him a big wave back. Their float moved on and continued until the parade was finished.

Later, Elowen changed back into her modern clothes and entered The Grill. Damon was standing alone. He saw her come in and admired her for a moment. When she got close enough, he approached her.

"I like you better like this," he complimented. "The period look was… not you."

"That's because that stupid dress was the devil in clothing form. Thank god corsets aren't in fashion anymore."

Damon chuckled. "Well, that doesn't change the fact that they're certainly nice to look at when they're on the right people."

Elowen narrowed her eyes. "Stefan is already jealous because Isobel got in his head. I don't think the flirty comments are a good idea right now."

"Oh, c'mon, Wen. Flirty, sarcastic banter is our thing!"

"No, flirty banter is your thing. I'm the one who's sarcastic. Don't get those two mixed up." She pointed at his eyes. "And stop that eye thing that you do."

Damon smirked and immediately started to do the stupid smolder look. "What eye thing?"

Elowen took a deep breath to stop herself from grinning. She hit Damon on the shoulder, who laughed at her reaction. "I said knock it off!" She noticed Jeremy sitting alone at a nearby table and the smile gradually disappeared from her face. "Give me a second."

She slowly made her way towards Jeremy and stopped just in front of him. "Hey…" she greeted quietly. "Look, I know that you're upset. All of us played a part in this, but don't take it out on Josiah. Him and I were both against it. You wanted it. You said you didn't want to remember Vicki that way."

When Jeremy stayed quiet, Elowen sighed. "I'm sorry this all happened. It wasn't supposed to go down this way. But, there's gotta be a way to fix things between you and him. What can I do?"

"The only reason I helped you the other day was because I have a conscience. But now that you're better… you can all go to hell."

Jeremy got up and left, leaving Elowen by herself. Damon followed him outside and trailed behind him.

"I have so many emotions, but I don't have any way to express them," Damon mocked. "Being a teenager is so hard!"

"You're a dick," Jeremy said monotonously. He continued walking and tried to pay Damon no mind.

"You do not get to talk to me like that. I'm not your sister or Josiah or Elowen. And from now on," Damon roughly grabbed Jeremy by the arm, "don't talk to any of them like that, either."

"So, what? You're gonna kill me just 'cause I hurt their feelings?"

"Cut them some slack."

"They erased my memories!"

"No, I did! Because you asked me to. They had nothing to do with it."

"But it was Elena's suggestion in the first place."

"Yeah, it was," Damon agreed. "But Elowen and Josiah fought her on it. She gave some half-assed argument that she was 'protecting you' or whatever. So, maybe, yeah, Elena's the only one to really be mad at. But, in the end, it wasn't her fault."

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He tried to walk away, except Damon pulled him back with force.

"Let go of me before I cause a scene," Jeremy threatened.

"You'll be unconscious before you even got a word out."

Stefan arrived and pulled Damon away from Jeremy. "Let him go."

Damon released his hold and Stefan wedged himself in between the two. Damon took a step back to further the distance. He knew that if he stayed that close, he'd probably do something he shouldn't.

"What my brother is trying to say is, don't blame everyone else for this. Damon turned Vicki. I almost killed her that night. She was a threat to you and to your sister, but Elowen stopped me." He sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "Vicki was doing good. She was with a good friend of mine. I don't know who killed her, but I'm sorry that it happened. I wish none of it ever did."

"I wish I never asked you to make me forget…" Jeremy shook his head and left the scene.

"Good cop, bad cop," Damon commented. "I like it."

"What are you doing?"

Damon crossed his arms. "He's being a punk."

"Elena's relationship with her brother is none of your business. Neither is his friendship with Josiah or how he treats Elowen. Stay out of it."

"Oh, there's only one 'do-gooder' role available." Damon nodded his head flippantly. "My bad. I'm sorry."

Stefan laughed with a scoff. "Get over yourself. We both know you're not doing this for the right reasons."

"You see, there you go with that little jealousy act again! What are the right reasons, Stefan? Please, enlighten me."

"Well, see, Damon, it's only real when it comes from your desire to do the right thing for nothing in return. I know that that's an entirely foreign concept to you. I completely understand that you wouldn't get it."

"How am I supposed to learn if you lecture me and get all broody whenever I try?"

"You don't try, Damon. You act like you've learned when you're really putting on a front. You aren't capable of learning to be compassionate. I learned that a long time ago."

xxxx

Elowen and Stefan were walking around time square, having a good time together when she bumped into somebody.

"Oh, sorry!" She apologized. The person kept walking without acknowledging her. That wasn't a problem, because touching him threw her into a premonition.

"Everybody listen up!" Said the man Elowen had just bumped into. He was pointing to a map of town square. "The plan stays the same. We wait until the fireworks start. They'll never see us coming."

"Oh my god!"

"What? What is it?"

Elowen looked up at him with big eyes. "The tomb vampires- they're- we need to find Damon."

She filled Stefan in as she pushed through the crowd in search of Damon. She was running so frantically that he didn't have time to question it. She crashed into Damon, who caught her before either of them could trip over.

"Good, I found you-"

"The tomb vampires are here."

"You know. Good," Stefan sighed. "Founding families are the target. Any idea where Elena and Jeremy are?"

"I don't know." Elowen shrugged. "I haven't seen Jeremy since I tried talking to him earlier. And I don't know where Elena went after the parade."

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. You two find Elena and Jeremy, I'll work on the tomb vamps." Damon pushed Elowen back towards Stefan. "Go."

Back inside The Grill, Caroline, Josiah and Matt were sitting at a booth. They were watching Tyler play pool by himself.

"There was this time, freshman year, when Bonnie and I were in a fight and we swore that we would never talk again," Caroline tried to say to Matt, but Josiah shook his head in her direction.

"I don't think that's the same as this."

Matt gave him a grateful look. He really didn't want to talk about it. Mayor Lockwood entered the building and made a b-line for Tyler. They couldn't hear much of the conversation, but when Mayor Lockwood raised his voice and grabbed Tyler harsher than he should've, Caroline squeezed herself into the conversation.

"Mayor! Is everything okay?"

Josiah and Matt arrived behind her. Richard looked at the three of them and sighed.

"Please, Tyler. I need you to go home. Now. Take your friends with you."

"Why? What's going on?" Matt asked worriedly, but Josiah knew this must've had something to do with the supernatural. He looked around The Grill for Elowen, but didn't see her anywhere.

"I can't explain. All of you need to get home. Please."

Finally, Tyler nodded his head. "Yeah, okay."

"Here, take my car." He handed his keys over to Tyler. "It's out back. Caroline, Matt, Josiah, go with him."

Josiah shook his head. "Sir, if something serious is going on, I need to find my sister. I'm sorry."

"Wait, Jo-" Caroline made a grab for his arm, but he grabbed her face to stop her.

"Care, go with Matt and Tyler. I'll find Elle faster if I go on my own. I'll be okay." He leaned in and kissed her. "Now go."

Matt took hold of Caroline and guided her towards the back door. He nodded at Josiah to let him know that he'd keep her safe. Josiah nodded back and rushed outside to find Elowen.