I made some edits to this chapter so enjoy! If you don't I'll just hide in my room for a few months until I get over it...

Pilot

"Elena! Get up! Bonnie will be here soon!" Her response was a muffled groan and I smiled as I spun my dark brown, nearly black, hair in to a French twist and headed downstairs, banging my fist on Jeremy and Elena's doors on my way and chuckling when I heard them scream in annoyance.

Aunt Jenna was already there looking through her bag, looking anything but calm, with an almost deranged look that made me pause.

"Morning Aunt Jenna." I sang and a teasing smile lifted my lips as she spun and glared at me. "Can it, Laini. I feel so unprepared." I scoffed "For what? Elena is pretty much an adult by now and can do pretty much everything by herself. And Jeremy... well Jeremy is sort of a delinquent right now, but Elena nags him enough without any help from the two of us. So you have nothing to worry about. Focus on school or something. " She smiled and I felt a little proud of myself until I heard an outraged "Hey!" from behind me and turned to find Elena by the coffee pot with a frown on her face.

"Oh, accept it Elena you're a nagger." She huffed but grinned tiredly as Jenna began stressing out again. "Toast! I can make toast," She seemed more than a little flustered but she soon relaxed as Elena explained. "It's all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna."

I raised my eyebrows at my sister "Coffee, huh?" She nodded her head eagerly and I smirked as I snatched her mug out of her hand.

"Thanks for the tip, Lena."

I was still chortling to myself when Jeremy decided to come down. Floppy dark hair and black nail polish. I couldn't help the sigh or the eyeroll as I watched him waltz past me looking uninterested. As was expected nowadays.

"It's about time. How long do you take on your hair, Jer?" He ignored me, only scoffing slightly as he raised his eyebrows at Elena.

"Is there coffee?"

It was my turn to scoff as he grabbed Elena's second cup of coffee away from her and I glared at him, "Copycat." I mumbled while Elena shrugged it off good naturedly, pouring another.

Turning my back to them both, I sent a questioning look to Jenna as she rummaged through her bag again. Glancing at my face, she furrowed her eyebrows and huffed, "It's your first day of work and Elena and Jeremy's first day of school and I am totally unprepared. I don't care what you say."

I didn't comment seeing as any reassurances I gave to Jenna would be falling on deaf ears; My Aunt had been struggling with feelings of inadequacy ever since she had found out that Mom and Dad had wanted her to take care of Elena and Jeremy if anything were to happen to them. I didn't fall under the same category as my little brother and sister since I was over 18 when our parents died but Jenna still took it upon herself to take as much care of me as she could. I hated that. I appreciated it, sure, but it wouldn't do any of us much good if she buckled under all of the pressure she was dumping onto her own shoulders.

"Lunch money?" My sister could see the flustered look on our Aunt's face and said, "I'm okay." But Jeremy took the offered cash without hesitation.

We all knew what habit it was feeding, well Elena and I did. Jenna seemed to be in denial about it and I watched as she ignored the pointed look I was shooting her, "Anything else? A No.2 pencil? What am I missing?" I shrugged as Elena jumped to the rescue "Don't you have a big presentation today?" Jenna hurriedly glanced at her watch, "I'm meeting with my thesis adviser at... now. Crap!" She was panicked and once again Elena swooped in to save the day.

"Then go, we'll be fine." I nodded when she glanced at me and watched as Jenna ran out the door.

Elena turned to Jeremy with her sympathetic sister face, "You okay?" She asked with concern. "Don't start." He scoffed and I frowned and shouted after him as he ran back up to his room, "Don't be a dick to your sister!" All I got in response was the sound of his door slamming.

My younger sister sighed as we heard a car horn outside the house, "Bonnie's here, do you need a ride?" I shook my head and followed her out the door, "Nah, I'll just follow behind you."

x

I was humming to the radio when I saw Bonnie's car slam to a stop. I panicked as I pulled my own car to a halt and it was when I was gripping the door handle to go investigate that the girl's car started moving again and I relaxed back into the leather seat, sighing. One part frustration, one part relief.

The rest of the short drive to the High school was spent with tense shoulders and pursed lips and I all but pounced on the pair when I caught up to them outside.

"What the hell happened back there?" They both jumped a little but my scowl stayed firmly in place and Bonnie gulped before answering, "Umm, a bird flew into the windshield. It surprised us, that's all."

My green eyes softened as I turned to my sister, "You okay?" She sighed and nodded, "Cars can't scare me forever, Laini." It felt good to see her face set in determination; Elena hadn't been her usual self after the accident, which was expected, but she had stayed different throughout the summer, ignoring all of her issues and pretending to be okay, acting the way she thought everyone wanted her to and it was encouraging to see her at least acknowledging her own fear. Trying to come to terms with it all.

"Well, okay then. I'm gonna head to the see Tanner before we run into Caroline. No normal person is as perky as she is before 11am." I left them giggling behind me as I strolled through the halls to Mr Tanner's classroom, knocking on the door frame as I cleared my throat. He looked up and tried, and failed, to hide his grimace, "Ms Gilbert, I thought I got rid of you a while ago." I laughed uncomfortably. "The principal didn't tell you that I was going to be working with you, did he?"

His already wrinkled forehead became increasingly crowded as I went on, "You know, you didn't see me around town for four years because I was at Duke studying to become a history teacher. "The principal wants me to observe you before I get my own class to teach."

Tanner's semi-permanent frown deepened, "Well, then just sit at my desk and take notes while I'm teaching. Try not to get in the way, Gilbert." I nodded eagerly, admittedly fighting the urge to stick my tongue out at him, but did as I was told as the bell sounded and students started pouring into the room. I smirked as Elena and Bonnie entered amongst the crowd, my eyes traveling from person to person before landing on a very good looking young man who I had never seen before but then again I hadn't gone to Mystic Falls High school for four years.

How Mr Tanner managed to be condescending and exasperated while he taught was beyond me, but it was a talent that would've been impressive if he wasn't such a douche bag. "Once our home state of Virginia joined the confederacy in..."

"1861." I answered. That had been going on all period, Tanner would pause and expect me to fill in the blank. Pause and Answer. It was his way of testing my competence and I honestly kinda liked it; it was fun cracking open the ole box in my head filled with home state knowledge, "It created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. People in Virginia's Northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional deep South. Then when Virginia divided in..."

"1863"

"With the Northwest region joining the Union-"

Tanner's voice faded to the back of my mind as I glanced around the room and caught the new guy staring at my baby sister with a look so intense it made me shiver. I furrowed my brows as my eyes darted around to see if anyone else had noticed the strange behaviour and sighed when I realised that the only other people who had noticed where Bonnie and Matt.

Matt was like another little brother to me. He was one of the sweetest kids around, with the most beautiful blue eyes, and he had been in love with Elena since he was 6 years old and still learning the alphabet.

I felt bad for him, Elena had broken up with him after years of dating about a month after our parents died and he was pining away for her while she was texting back and forth with Bonnie about the hot guy sitting across from her. And though it wasn't fair for Matt, I couldn't blame my sister for getting giggly, the new guy was exactly Elena's type; tall, mysterious and brooding.

The rest of the class passed quickly with a frown on my face and a confused scowl as I watched my sister and Bonnie blatantly text back and forth in front of Mr Tanner as the new guy continued his intense stare off with the back of her head and by the time the bell signaling the end of first period rang, I was out of my seat headed to the office to find out what mystery dude's name was.

X

Stefan Salvatore. That was his name. He was a freakin' Salvatore. Figures that Zach had never told me he had any other family. It was annoying that it surprised me but Zach always was one to under share. I thanked God when the final bell rang, pulling me from my very unrealistic and very quickly developing plans to egg the Boarding house. Even my love of history and getting back at crappy ex-boyfriends could not justify spending a minute more with Tanner. So I left, but not before Mr Douche bag gave me a bunch of lesson plans to read over, and that is how I wound up sitting in the Grill at 5 o'clock at night with a pile of folders I had just finished reading and a triumphant grin on my lips.

The small grin faded when I heard Matt and Bonnie talking a few tables down. "How's Elena doing?" I winced in sympathy. The kid had been dumped and was still completely hung up on Elena.

"Her mom and dad died. How do think? She's putting on a good face, but it's only been four months."

"Has she said anything about me?"

"Oh no. So not getting in the middle. You pick up the phone and call her." My wince turned into a small smile. I really loved Bonnie, she was a great friend to myself and Elena. To Jeremy, too, when he wasn't being a punk.

"I feel weird calling her. She broke up with me."

"Give it more time, Matt." They went silent and I turned to find myself looking at my sister walking towards them with none other than the new Salvatore by her side. "More time, huh?" Matt got up from his table and I grabbed my stuff and took his seat next to Bonnie, who smiled when she saw it was me. "Hey, I'm Matt, nice to meet you."

That boy surprised me all the time with how nice he was to everyone, even if he did hate them a little for hanging around his ex-girlfriend. New kid seemed surprised too but shook his hand. "Hi. Stefan."

After awkward 'Hi's were exchanged between Elena and Matt everyone came and sat at our table and the mandatory interrogation began. We had to know who everyone was in this town, an annoying habit that had been passed down by nosy ancesters who didn't have cable.

Caroline, who had been playing pool with Tyler, introduced the first line of intrusive questioning and apparently she was the flirty cop. "So you were born in Mystic Falls?" Stefan nodded, "Mm-hmm. And moved when I was still young."

Then Bonnie joined in, "Parents?"

He hesitated, as if wondering whether he should tell us or not. "My parents passed away."

His eyes seemed trained to Elena and she looked down in sympathy before continuing. "I'm sorry... Any siblings?" I smiled at him just a bit too wide and asked, "Any older brothers? 'Cause if good looks run in the family then I'm gonna need an introduction. Mystic Falls is severely lacking in male real estate."

Stefan grinned at me for a second before it faltered and he said, "None that I talk to." I sighed and Caroline patted my hand with sympathetic smile before she cast a pointed look in Mr Salvatore's direction, making me smirk. Mine and Caroline's relationship was one of the love/hate variety. We respected each other but we could only deal with one another for limited periods of time, usually. Mainly because she had the sort of brash personality one could only take in small doses and I was the big sister of her rival. Though, we were very similar in more ways than one; I was the head cheerleader when I was at school the same as she is now. I was Miss Mystic Falls two years in a row the same as she plans to be and our personalities were extremely alike despite the fact that mine was slightly more toned down. We understood each other.

"I live with my uncle." Stefan's voice broke me out of my little Caroline/Laini comparison.

"How's Zach handling that?" His frown, which I'm assuming is pretty permanent, deepened a little in surprise. "You know Zach?" I nodded

"We dated for a while." Stefan seemed to accept that and answered my initial question with a simple, "He's good, I think."

Caroline then interceded with a voice so eager it made me cringe a little. "So, Stefan, if you're new then you don't know about the party tomorrow." Bonnie elaborated, "It's a back to school thing at the Falls." Mr Salvatore then turned to Elena."Are you going?" And I grinned as Bon-bon said, "Of course she is." Stefan Salvatore was just what my sister needed to get back to her old self.

X

"The battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms Bennett?" Bonnie looked up and shrugged a little. "Um... a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot." The class chuckled but Mr Tanner wasn't amused, "Cute becomes dumb in an instant Ms Bennett... Mr Donovan. Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

I scoffed quietly. "Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jackass stereotype?" Stefan chuckled quietly and I shot him a questioning look as Matt answered casually, "It's okay, Mr Tanner. I'm cool with it." I laughed lightly with the rest of the room but stopped abruptly when Tanner picked his next victim, "Hmm. Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?" I held my breath as she answered. "I'm sorry, I-I don't know."

I knew better than to think Tanner would just let it go but I still ground my teeth when he replied. "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break." Several wildly inappropriate words were about to spew from my mouth when Stefan spoke up. "There were 346 casualties, unless you're counting local civilians."

I took a deep breath and smiled at him for saving my sister from further verbal assault. Mr Douchebag nodded."That's correct. Mister...?"

"Salvatore." Mr Tanner looked mildly intrigued. "Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here in Mystic Falls?"

Stefan hesitated before nodding a little, "Distant." Jackass turned back around to the blackboard. "Well, very good, except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle."

I frowned and both myself and Stefan protested. "Actually..." Stefan and I looked at each other for a second before I shrugged, "You go ahead. By all means share the knowledge, Salvatore."

He grinned a bit at me before continuing where we both left of, "There were 27, Sir. Confederate soldiers, they fired on a church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founders archives are, uh, stored in Civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr Tanner." The teacher looked at me for confirmation and I nodded, my curls bouncing on my shoulders. "Oh, he's right." I winked at Stefan as I said it and saw him chuckle again. I was really starting to like this guy. Go Elena.

X

Okay, so this chapter has been edited a few times but I'm finally happy with it. I hope you enjoyed reading and if you didn't feel free to review or PM me with whatever you think needs to be changed or improved.