Well, hello, people who are obviously dedicated readers (after all, if you had read the first chapter and are reading this now, you sort of like it to an extent that you're interested, but not yet obsessed - that's ok, peeps, we can work on that). I'm Race Jackson, but you can call me Race or Hatter. It doesn't really matter, since Race is only my publishing name and not my real name.
Last chapter, I didn't really give a good disclaimer, let alone talk to you guys and introduce myself. Sorry about that, I usually do it, but I got bored and was reading a kickarse-awesome VD fanfic - I think it was Love Me Forever and the sequel, Eternal Love, by foreverXabby. So anyway, I'm Racie, I'm an Aussie, I don't attack random kangaroos and crocodiles, call my friends my "mates" and say "G'day" to everyone I see. I am a semi-normal, fourteen-year-old, wishful, hopefully soon-to-be writer who'd prefer to spend her days reading rather than talking to people and getting out of the house. I'm sure you can see fanfiction's appeal for me. It combines the two things I love most: reading and stories about the things I'm reading/watching.
I recently got hooked on Vampire Diaries when my friend, Zibzob (who promised that she'd review, but she never got around to it), came around to my house. At the time, my obsession was Bones, and it still is, but it's toned down a bit.
Anyway, enough with my rambling life story. Here is the answer to the one review I got:
To RainySmithCullenSalvatore X: Thank you for loving it! Many people apparently liked it, according to my emails, but you, Rainy, were the first and only one to take the time to click the mouse over the review button. Awesomesauce! You rock!
I'm not saying that I hate the rest of you for not reviewing (though Zibzob has some super serious explaining to do -_-), but I am totally loving review right now. I had a hard night with relationship issues, if that makes you any more eager to review. No? Get this - they weren't even my own! You know who you are (again, -_-, you are so lucky that you're like my sister).
Thanks goes to HornyBear.x, mplefty and SalvatoresILY for favouriting, and RainySmithCullenSalvatore X and wizziewoo123 for story alerting.
Disclaimer: I would do an awesome disclaimer, but with the super, super long AN, I'm gonna just keep it simple and straight to the point: I don't own any recognisable characters, settings and/or plotlines, sans Allegra Salvatore and her very juicy tale.
"Rise and shine!" Damon chirped, flicking the curtains open in Allegra's new room. She groaned, throwing her pillow in his direction, not even bothering to open her eyes. "Now, now, that's not the right attitude for your first day at school."
"Piss off, Damon," she moaned, waving her hand around her head. Unbeknownst to her, Damon was actually leaning down to yell in her ear to wake her up. As a result, she ended up smacking him in the face. He winced.
"Ouch," he said simply. "That's a nice way to treat the brother you've been avoiding for one hundred and forty-five years."
"Get over it, loser," she grumbled into the mattress. She waved her hand again, this time dismissively. "Leave me. Sleep time."
Damon rolled his eyes.
"Again, not the attitude," he told her. "You've got ten minutes to be downstairs and ready for school."
She lifted her head and glared blearily up at him. "And you care, why, exactly?"
"I, personally, don't," he said, going over to her closet and moving around the clothes till he got to the section where a few dresses from the fifties were hung. "Did you actually wear this?" he asked, taking a blue one out. Allegra was up in an instant, tugging the blue velvet from his hands, frowning at him. Snatching the coat hanger from the closet, she slipped the dress onto it and rehung it.
"Yes, I did, as a matter of fact," she answered.
He made a face. "Can't imagine you in the fifties," he said, wrinkling his nose. "You look more twenties than fifties."
"I, myself, liked the forties," she said, rummaging through her closet. She pulled out a shortish outfit, a dress made out of yellow flower-print fabric. "This was one of my favourites."
Damon grinned, taking it from her and looking at it with his eyes squinted. An eyebrow raised, Allegra surveyed him disparagingly and rolled her big brown eyes.
"Anyway, this shit's too old to wear nowadays, so I usually compel human friends of mine to throw vintage parties," she explained. "It's an excellent way to wear whatever you want if you're in charge, isn't it?"
"You compel people?" he questioned, amusement showing clearly in his eyes as he hooked the dress on the coat hanger and placed it where it came from. She nodded, now looking for something appropriate to wear to school.
"Not nineties," he bemoaned. Allegra looked up from the black flower-print number and denim jacket she held in her hands. "I hated the grunge look. You should've seen Stefan's hair."
"I did," she replied, "although, he looked more retarded in the seventies. Especially with those pants…"
"Wait, you met up with Stefan?" The hurt in her eldest brother's voice made her wince in guilt, despite the fact that there was nothing to be guilty about. "You decided to meet with the brother who has shitty fashion sense?"
"No, idiot, I decided to follow him," she told him. His eyebrow furrowed. She rolled her eyes and explained further. "I couldn't let him know that I had brothers. He'd kill you to get to me, which would get to Henna. But I couldn't let you go on without me seeing you. So, every now and again I'd … check up on you."
"Who's the he?" Damon asked.
Allegra's gaze flicked to her brother's face before concentrating intently on her bed. Using her Powers, she raced over to the bed and had it made in an eighth of a second, then tidied up the already somewhat messy room. She was back at Damon's side in less than a second.
"You mustn't worry about him," she said in her most assuring voice. "He is nothing important–" she smiled "–for now."
"Hang on, why would you choose now to come home? I mean, if–"
"Can you not just be happy that I am here, Damon?" she snapped. "I've told you all you need to know, all that's necessary, so just drop it!"
He raised an eyebrow. "If you weren't a vampire, I'd say you're about to be having womanly problems," he said, looking thoughtful. Allegra rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well, you'll be having problems if you don't shut it," she warned darkly. Then her face lit up in happiness as she pulled out a bright yellow polka dot shirt. "I remember this! February twenty-fourth, nineteen ninety-eight – I wore this to a party for Georgie James's birthday."
"Who?" asked Damon, looking confused.
"Human mate of mine," she said airily. "You wouldn't know him – he's dead." Damon gave her a look of amusement for her total lack of empathy. "I think I'll go nineties today. After all, fashion-wise, it's shockingly similar."
"Urgh, grunge!" Damon moaned.
Allegra laughed.
~T~
When Allegra had showered, gotten dressed and consumed a healthy breakfast of toast and O positive, Damon had offered (unwillingly) to drop her off at school to sign her in. She'd originally planned to go in with Stefan, but, apparently, he was giving up on the learning front.
Quite honestly, Allegra didn't believe it. Her brother was way too goody-two-shoes to ditch.
Despite her thoughts on the matter, Stefan didn't show up in time to even wish her a good luck – not that she needed it, anyway. As soon as it was apparent that he was going to stick to his promise, the youngest and oldest Salvatore siblings snatched some of Allegra's blood bags from the downstairs fridge and traipsed to Damon's blue Camaro.
"Hot car, bro," exclaimed Allegra, eying it appreciatively. "Haven't seen one as kickarse since '89."
"What is it with you and reminiscing on the old days?" asked Damon, brow furrowed.
She shrugged. "The old days were fun," she answered. "Besides, I thought you wanted to know what I've been up to for the past one hundred and forty-five years."
"Not really."
"Oh, you're a loving brother then, aren't you?"
"Of course!" he said, in mock-annoyance. He leaned over and ruffled her hair, not even bothering to keep an eye on the road; after all, it wasn't as if it were likely to kill them if they got in a crash. Allegra squirmed away from him, a pout gracing her face. "Oi, pass me an O negative."
She huffed, then checked the labelling on her blood bags for an O negative. It seemed that they hadn't gotten one when they'd taken a few from her stash earlier, so she offered her brother an A negative instead. He, begrudgingly, took it from her and started slurping it down like one would from a juice box. She followed his lead with an AB positive.
"I like B negative better," she told him.
He pursed his lips and said, "Nah, O negative all the way."
There was silence for a moment. Then–
"Man, we are one messed up family!" Allegra announced, throwing up her hands and almost splattering blood on the windshield. Damon eyed her in irritation and amusement, indicating with his eyebrows that he needed more clarification. "Stefan's a recovering ripper, you're a totally insane serial killer and I'm what the general vampire myths call a succubus. We just had a conversation about our favourite blood types like we were talking about the weather or something simple and non-sinister."
Damon smirked.
"What else is there to talk about?" he drawled. He sipped at his blood bag.
"I dunno," she said, rolling her eyes. Having already finished her bag, Allegra took Damon's from his grasp and managed to suck down a gulp of the tangy A negative before Damon snatched it back from her with a glare. "Technology advances or something …?"
"Exactly," he said, nodding. "It's impossible to find something to talk that isn't related to vampires in any way whatsoever."
She poked out her tongue and protested by saying, "Technology advances have nothing to do with vampires, dumbarse."
"But–" he held up a finger "–we were around for most of them, so, technically, they are part of the vampire stuff." He smirked at his reasoning, which left her wanting to wipe the smirk off his face (at the moment, he seemed impossibly stupid to her, like everyone looked when they didn't agree with her).
"I hate you when you're right," she grumbled. Then she blinked. "Hey, I almost forgot! Why are you taking me to school if you don't care?"
"Can't I just be enjoying your company?" he asked, his smirk widening.
"Nah, you don't do that," she told him, shaking her head and returning his cheeky grin. Despite the fact that she looked more like Stefan, she had Damon's odd, quirky smile, having spent years as a child following him around like a puppy and copying him. "You're up to something, and you need my help… or someone else's."
"You caught me. I need to know what you know about Katherine."
Allegra sighed.
"Damon, I love you and all that, but on the Katherine knowledge front, I can't help," claimed Allegra.
"Ok, if you can't tell me what I need to know about Katherine, befriend one of Elena's friends," he ordered her.
"What? Where the Hell did that come from?" Allegra gave him the stare she reserved for the mentally insane. "Besides … who's Elena?"
He groaned, dragging a hand across his face. "We really need to catch you up, huh?"
"That would be nice," she answered drily.
"Elena is Stefan's girlfriend," he said. "She looks scarily like Katherine, by the way, so no attacking her in hallways if you see her. That would make Stefan … annoyed. He might punish you for your bad behaviour." They exchanged humoured looks that both said Stefan-can't-hurt-a-human-if-he-wanted-to-because-he-eats-bunnies.
"We wouldn't want any more wrinkles on that already crowded forehead, would we?"
"Ha, no, we wouldn't. You're funnier than I remember. Anyway, the friend I need you to befriend is Bonnie Bennett."
"Bennett?" repeated Allegra, her eyebrows raised into a look of intrigue. "As in, Emily Bennett?"
"Her descendant," replied Damon shortly. "She has something of mine that I want, and I need you to get it for me."
That was when a look of understanding dawned upon his little sister's face.
"Oh, you want the crystal Emily used to seal the vampires into the tomb," she said, nodding her head.
"And it's my turn to be interested in the conversation," Damon drawled. "How do you know about the crystal?"
"Emily and … Katherine were my closest friends in 1864," she explained. "I know a little bit more than you give me credit for, brother dearest."
"Then tell me," he exclaimed. "Get it off your chest. It's good to talk to someone about your problems, you know."
"Are you trying to be subtle, 'cause if you are, you're failing," she smiled. "Do you want another?" she asked, holding up a blood bag from the stash in her new bright yellow backpack.
"Sure," he answered. "Why not? A positive, please."
"Really?" she said, wrinkling her nose. "I find A positive too sweet for my taste."
He chuckled. "And you're the one saying vampire talk is weird."
"Anything you talk about is weird," retorted Allegra. "It's part of being a Salvatore."
"The weirdness?"
"Pretty much."
~T~
As Damon pulled up at the school, almost every teenager turned their heads in the vampires' direction to look at the Camaro. Allegra didn't blame them; the car was, as she put it, super-hot. If she was a boring human living in this small, seemingly insignificant, town with nothing awesome to look at, she'd be absolutely drooling over the car.
"Wow, there really are a lot of students here," said Allegra. "Do you think there's a chance any of the hot guys are B negative?"
"Well, one point five per cent of the population happen to be B negative." Damon smiled in that creepy way that Allegra noticed he did a lot. It really was freaky. But instead of commenting on the smile, she ended up commenting on his knowledge of blood types.
"I know you're a vampire and all, but knowing that is really, really eerie."
"Wikipedia," he said, smirking. "I can link it to you, if you want."
"No thanks," she said, checking the silver watch on her wrist. "Oh, crap! Damon, these kids aren't here before school starts, they're here because it's lunchtime."
"Damn," he said in a voice that contrasted with his words. "Seems like Little Legs is going to be missing out on a bite to eat."
"Little Legs hasn't existed since the eighteen-fifties," Allegra said sardonically.
"Aw, what happened to her?"
"She grew up to become a big, bad vampire seductress," answered Allegra in a monotone voice, "who happens to be talking to her big, bad, serial killer vampire brother."
"Your words have this sort of sting to them," he commented. "Anyone ever tell you that?"
"The truth hurts, Mr. I-Don't-Care-About-Anyone-Yet-I'm-Looking-For-A-Way-To-Bring-Back-My-Vampire-Ex," Allegra told him, opening her door and getting out of the car. Damon followed her lead, locking the car with a click as he did so. "You're gonna sign me up?"
"Well, since I'm the only Salvatore around whose older than eighteen and thus able to be a guardian," he said, "yeah, that's kind of the plan."
"Suits me," shrugged Allegra. "Saves the time and Power that compelling someone to enrol me would take."
They started towards the administration building. Damon looked around them to see that most of the high school population was staring at them. He assumed that the guys were ogling his little sister while the girls gawked at him. Strangely, the former didn't bother him as much as it used to; after all, Allegra could easily kill any of the guys in the vicinity if they annoyed her, and it was likely that she'd take one anyway as an easier way to get a meal.
It was while doing this that Damon noticed the two subjects of his conversation with his sister earlier: Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. They seemed to be engrossed in a really serious conversation. He focused more, hearing Elena speak first.
"Two weeks ago, I would've said no, but now–"
"I think I'm being haunted," Bonnie's voice said.
Elena then said, "I don't get it; why Emily?"
Ah, Damon thought, now tugging on Allegra's sleeve with a knowing smirk. She raised an eyebrow, and he put his index finger to his lips, gesturing his head in Elena and Bonnie's direction. Damon watched his little sister's reaction to seeing Elena eagerly, but the only thing that happened was that her eyes flared slightly in recognition – and something else – before settling back to normal.
"Ah, so that's brother dearest's infatuation," she stated, nodding slowly, a similar smirk appearing on her lips. "Well, shall we be polite and say hello?"
"We shall," he agreed, holding out a hand. "Miss Salvatore, would you join me?"
"Of course, Mister Salvatore, I shall," she replied, her eyebrows twitching in amusement. He linked his arm through hers, and they strolled towards the table, where Bonnie was saying to Elena, "I don't want to embrace it, I want it to stop."
"Hello, Elena, Bonnie," said Damon, smiling. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Damon, what are you doing at school?" asked Elena, giving him a look that clearly said that she didn't expect him to be alive.
"Probably coming here to show off his new toy to Caroline," muttered Bonnie, glaring at Damon and subconsciously touching the crystal attached to her necklace.
Allegra couldn't help it; the second she heard that the girl thought her and Damon were an item, she reacted instinctively and batted Damon's arm, which had been around her shoulders, away. She made a sound of protest, sort of like a mewling cat, and pretended the vomit onto the grass.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew!" she screeched. "That is so, so, so, very, very, very wrong!" She stamped her feet on the ground, trying to pound the grass into the dirt.
Damon cracked up, almost bent double as he hacked out laugh after laugh. Not even halfway through his little 'episode', Allegra had finished her little tantrum of sorts, and was staring at him as if he had multiple heads. She ended up poking him until he stopped laughing to glare at her.
"As you can see by her reaction," said Damon, still smiling like a maniac, "I'm not involved with her because–"
"That would be total incest!" butted in Allegra. She pointed at Damon and directed at him a look that one would wear while dealing with a drunk, ugly, stupid, mean, druggie hobo. "He might be all for it, but I have total standards that do not include sleeping with my brother and providing a takeaway service!"
"'Brother?'" repeated Elena. "Wait, Damon's your brother?"
"Yeppers," answered Allegra, rolling her eyes. "I'll let him explain everything to you later – or, better yet, Stefan the Thumper Slayer can do it. Isn't that right, Damon?"
"Yes," he smirked. "We have places to be now. Let's go."
"It was nice meeting you, Elena, Bonnie," said Allegra, trying to copy Damon's evil smirk. As they were walking away, Allegra told Damon, "You know what? I think I might just try to befriend Look-A-Like and Witchy."
"Why?" Damon asked, giving her a questioning look. "Is it because you finally realised that you need to help me with my diabolical plan?"
"Nope," she replied, popping the 'p'. He raised an eyebrow for her to elaborate. "If I'm gonna stay a while, I might need some friends – other than you and the Squirrel Whisperer – to entertain me."
Did you enjoy it? If yes: What secrets is Allegra hiding? If no: What the Hell are you doing reading this AN? Anyone care to give me their opinion in a review?
Song of the week: Hiding My Heart, Adele
Random fact: 1.5% of the American population is B-. No percentage of Aboriginal people in Australia have B or AB blood types.
Fic being read right now: Live Before You Die, kari10 - Vampire Diaries/Twilight
Poll: Who do you think the Angelina girl from the last chapter was? And what did Allegra do to disgrace the Salvatore family so badly that Giuseppe wouldn't even let her brothers know?