Chapter 3

I spent my entire Sunday working to unpack and organize the few belongings I had. Having spent the better part of the last decade as a student, I had still lived the student lifestyle up until a year ago when I turned into a vagabond. School was paid for by the Gilbert money, but I didn't feel the need to blow the family fortune for me to live high on the hog when I was perfectly happy living the college experience like my roommates and eating my fair share of Ramen noodles.

In the meantime, I had invested the rest of the family money and let it grow, thinking someday I'd give it to Elena and Jeremy to help them out if they needed it. College was already ungodly expensive, and it was only going to get worse by the time they made it to school…and even worse if they made it into an Ivy League school. One way or another, it was definitely going to be better spent than to fund a luxury lifestyle for me while doing the college thing.

I also managed to make it up to the school to familiarize myself with the classroom and get myself organized for my first class. Being in front of a class wasn't new and I had been certified for some time, but since I had chosen instead to pursue graduate work instead of jumping into the public school systems, most of my time had been spent TAing freshman level lit courses instead of high school. I didn't want to disrupt the room, feeling it would be a sign of disrespect to the memory of the deceased Ms. Maclin. She had just started a year or two before I graduated and had been my Senior year English Lit teacher. She was nice and pretty good at her job. Instead, I just made sure I knew where things I needed were and had my lessons ready to go for my first day.

Other than a call from Jenna and one from Elena, I wasn't disturbed all day. That would have been great if not for the disconcerting sense of disappointment as I kept checking around me all day for any signs of Damon. He intrigued me and I wanted to have another chance to try to figure him out.

Monday morning I dressed in my teacher garb and got to school extra early, wanting to spend a little extra time preparing. I was pleased to find Rick sitting on his car outside school, handing over a steaming cup of gourmet coffee.

"Happy first day of work, Miss Gilbert. You think you're ready?"

I chuckled, lifting my cup in a sign of thanks as I took it and pulled a long swig of dark deliciousness. "I've been teaching college freshmen for the past few years, so I'm guessing I'm probably as ready as I'll ever be."

Rick chortled, "You'll be fine with the Seniors and Juniors, but I have a feeling the Freshmen and maybe Sophomores will be a little bit of a shock, but you'll survive."

I sighed and took another long drink of my liquid courage. "I hope you're right."

The morning was a blur of new faces and frustration. Rick's comments about the Freshmen had been a major understatement, as illustrated by my two additional trips to the teacher's lounge between classes to fill refill my cup with stale coffee just to see me through. By the time my fourth class of the day entered, I had never been more happy to see sixteen and seventeen year olds in all my life…oh and one one hundred and sixty year old as well. It was the beginning of an upward curve in the course of my day, as I fell easily into a rhythm more like what I was accustomed.

The last bell of the day found me exhausted and itching to go home and crash. As I began gathering up my papers, I felt a presence behind me. I jumped and turned to find Stefan Salvatore standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets as he smiled sheepishly in my direction.

"Sorry to startle you. I just wanted to drop in and see how your first day went."

I smiled and nodded, gesturing for him to make himself comfortable as I assembled the rest of the huge mound of papers I had to grade once I got home, changed into sweats, and poured myself a nice glass of merlot. "It was a rough morning, but from your class on wasn't so bad."

Stefan chuckled, moving his finger across a grove someone had etched into the top of the desk in which he sat. "Yeah, Ms. M said we were the beginning of the end of her day. She hated the morning classes too. Um, you know what happened to her, right?"

I shot him a solemn look that told him all he needed to know. "It was Elijah, wasn't it?"

His eyes dashed up to mine in surprise. I ran my tongue across my teeth as I sucked on them before releasing a long sigh. "Do you and Elena have plans tonight?" When he shook his head no, I glanced from my bag to him again. "Do you think you could come by later this evening? We need to talk."

He frowned but nodded slowly. "Okay…do you want to give me a hint to what this is all about?"

I cleared my throat before picking up my bag and tossing it on my shoulder. "Let's just say that there's more to me than meets the eye. Damon noticed it right away, and I'm sure you sense it too. Long story short, our stories are closer aligned than you ever thought."

I started to walk away before pausing to glance behind me. "Oh, and you might as well bring Damon along and answer all your questions in one session. This isn't a story I like having to repeat."

Stefan walked me to the parking lot before going back to find Elena at her committee meeting. Our walk was quiet, but not that uncomfortable considering how I broached the entire situation. I started the car and drove home in peace only to find Damon Salvatore leaning on the wall next to the door to my building. At the sight of him standing there, my heart picked up its pace, a chill of excitement running up my spine.

I acted casual as I exited the car and hauled out my bag tossing it on my shoulder and walking toward the door where he stood. He was smirking at me as I approached, which made me wonder if he had sensed my excitement. I was mentally berating my autonomic nervous system as I reached him, leaving a cool mask on my features, but unable to alter my speeding heart.

"And what do I owe this honor?" I stated coolly.

"Just thought I'd see if you found your spine yet and told Elena about you."

I sighed, shifting the heavy bag from one shoulder to the other to free a hand to use my key in the door. With a sigh, Damon stepped over and took the bag from my shoulder before gesturing toward the door. I opened it and walked into the stairwell that led to my floor. Damon followed me all the way to my door and waited for me to open it before handing me back my bag as I marveled at how surprisingly gentlemanly his actions suddenly were.

I set the bag just inside the door before turning back to see him waiting at the threshold. With a roll of my eyes, I gestured into the room. "I've already told Stefan to extend an invitation to you for this evening, so you might as well come in now. Just know I'm armed and I know how to use them against a vamp."

Damon snorted before walking in with an amused grin stretched across his very pink lips. He casually took in the room as I moved around to put things away before turning back to him.

"I invited them over to tell them tonight and told Stefan to bring you along so I'd only have to retell the story once, so don't worry; she's going to hear it from the horse's mouth tonight."

He gestured his understanding before walking to flop on my futon, grimacing at the bumpy surface. He grimaced in my direction, his voice again laced with his usual tenor of sarcasm and snark. "Wait a minute. I thought you were a Gilbert…so why live in a dump with garage sale furniture."

I paused for a moment, unsure how to answer his question. "You'll understand better after tonight, but let's just say I never really fit into the Gilbert way of life. When our father died, I used my inheritance to pay for school and put the rest into investments to let the money grow. I don't need fancy things to survive. If you pardon the cliché, I eat to live, not live to eat, and the same principle goes to material things as well. I make due with what I need and nothing more."

He cast a disbelieving look my direction before picking up the photo album off the coffee table and flipping through the freeze frame images, stopping on several pages to examine the photographs more closely.

"You and Jenna were close." It wasn't a question.

I moved to place my bag next to him on the couch so I could get settled in to grade papers, pausing to look down at the picture of the two of us at prom. "Yeah…we were practically sisters."

He glanced at another image of Jenna and I playing with Elena when she wasn't more than four or five years old, right before we graduated. "And you were both close to Elena too."

I smiled down at the image of her laughing as we pushed her in the swing her back yard. "Yeah, we watched her all the time when she was little. She felt like a lot more than just a niece, and it didn't matter to us in the slightest that she was adopted. We had no clue that John was her father…not until recently, at least. Listen, I need to go get comfortable…"

When Damon turned to me and raised an eyebrow I rolled my eyes and smacked the back of his head, making him chuckle. "Not like that, you perv. I'm going to get out of these dress clothes and heels and into some sweats before I have to spend the next several hours grading papers. I don't want to be rude, but any chance you could clear out until the meeting this evening? This is going to take me hours without a distraction, much less with."

The mischievous and cocky eyebrow shot up again, a smirk playing on his lips. "So I AM a distraction, huh? Good to know."

I snorted and shook my head. "Yeah, you wish, now get the heck out of here before I have to break out the vervain."

He stood up and with a cocky swagger moved to stand in front of me, his blue eyes boring down into mine, making my heart skip again, which caused his smirk to widen. "Apparently I don't have to wish. Oh, and Stefan and I have been dosing ourselves with vervain to grow a tolerance. It barely affects us anymore."

My eyes widened in surprise at the news before widening further as he leaned in, running his nose softly across my cheek till her reached my ear, making me shiver as he whispered. "And I wasn't joking at the Grill about spending more time together, if you need a…distraction."

I swallowed hard and made my head shake back and forth, but it took immense effort as my hormones were beginning to speak a different story. Damon just chuckled before backing away and turning toward the door, waving over his shoulder without looking back.

"I'll be back at nine. See you then, Hot Aunt."

He walked out the door and I took in a deep breath before shaking my head vigorously in an attempt to clear the fog. This was dangerous territory into which I did not want to tread. My life was complicated enough without adding some kind of casual affair with a pompous vampire to the mix, but I had to admit, his offer definitely held a certain appeal.

I moved to the bedroom, taking a quick cold shower before sliding into a navy blue velour track suit. I grabbed a sandwich and my self-promised glass of merlot and settled in on the couch. I fought hard to stay focused on the papers before me, knowing I had to dredge through them before morning, but even if he wasn't sitting in my living room, I was still finding myself driven to distraction by Damon Salvatore. This was no good….no good at all.