Okay, so here's another chapter! It tells you more about Zoey's past and goes more into her and Tyler's friendship. Review please!

"Heard you got your ass kicked today." I said as I walked up to Tyler, smirking.

"Really? I don't know where you're getting your information but I'm positive I didn't. There's not a scratch on me."

"I didn't mean in a fight. I heard that you were being an ass and decided to throw a football at Stefan's head and he caught it and threw it back to you almost knocking you off your smart-ass." My smile widens.

He took his book, slammed his locker shut, and glared at me. "Lucky throw. Plus I was just looking out for my best friend. My other one. You still mad at me?"

I stare at him for a moment and shrug. "You know I can never stay mad at you." I smile sweetly. "You're just so irresistible."

"You don't need to tell me what I already know, sweetheart." He smiles playfully and winks at me.

I laugh and push him into a locker and head to English class.

..

I walked across the football field in my black short shorts and black tank top with my hair pulled back into a ponytail. Tyler and Matt were on the school team but it looked like Tyler wasn't having the best day at practice. I notice Stefan sitting on the bleachers watching and walk over to him.

"Hey lonely boy. Having fun?"

"Zoey, hey." He smiles at me. "Just seeing if our team is good enough to get to the finals this year."

"I didn't know you were interested in football. You going to join? Looks like they could use you." I say as I watch Tyler mess up again.

"We'll see. So do you always come up to watch practices?"

"Nah. Cheerleading." I point towards Bonnie and a few other girls in the squad.

"You're a cheerleader?" he says with a shocked expression on his face. "I didn't expect that. You don't seem like the type."

"I'm not. I use to do gymnastics when I was younger. I loved it but they don't have a team in junior high or high school and my mom thought I should have an activity, so cheerleading was the closest thing."

"And you still cheer." Even though you're mother is dead. He doesn't say it but I know it's what he means.

I shrug. "I quit for a while. I was always too drunk or high to go. But I thought it's a new year, why the hell not? It's not too bad if I ignore my fellow gossipy, bitchy cheerleaders and I get to watch hot guys run around sweaty." I smirk. "Guess that'll probably include you soon."

Stefan laughs.

"Well I should probably get to practice. Good luck." I wink and hop of the bleachers, heading towards the girls.

"Hey!" Bonnie says, smiling at me. "You're back!"

"Yeah well what can I say? I love to hop up and down and cheer for my bestie." I say, glancing at Tyler on the field.

"Is Elena coming?"

"She said she would." Right on cue, Elena clears her throat behind me.

"Oh my god! You're here!" Bonnie says as she gives Elena a hug.

"Yep. I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were, are to do things that were." I roll my eyes. "Oh and you're coming to dinner tonight."

"I am?"

"You, me, and Stefan." At the look on Bonnie's face, Elena replies sternly; "You have to give him a chance."

"Tonight's no good. Have you seen Caroline? I've texted her like a hundred times."

"Oh come on Bonnie. Don't change the subject." I tell her. She glares at me.

"Yeah. You are going to be there. And so are you." Elena says to me.

"What? How did I get brought into this?"

"You and Stefan are friends, right? You guys can get to know each other better and you can help me get Bonnie and Stefan to be friends too." Or I could go get drunk with Tyler and Vicki. "Please! You still owe me from always covering for you with Aunt Jenna."

I sigh. "Fine. But if It gets to boring I'm out of there." Elena nods.

"Seriously where is Caroline?" Bonnies asks.

"I don't know it's not like her." Elena replied.

"I'll try her again." A car comes up and Elena points to it. I look to see Caroline and Damon Salvatore in a blue mustang kissing. "Oh my god. That must be the mystery guy from the grill."

"That's no mystery guy. That's Damon fucking Salvatore." I say, whilst glaring at Damon.

"Salvatore, as in Stefan?" Bonnie asks, getting up off the ground.

I nod and Elena gives me a puzzled look. "You've met Damon?"

"He almost knocked me down the other day when I was walking. He's a cocky prick."

Caroline gets out of the car, walking towards us confidently, her nose stuck in the air. "I got the other brother, hope you don't mind." Then she speaks to the rest of the girls. "Sorry I'm late girls. I was… busy. Alright, let's start with the double pike turkey hurdler. What do you say?"

I look towards the mustang. Damon takes off his sun glasses, gives Elena a look and then turns to me and raises his eyebrows before driving off. Prick.

…

At practice, Caroline makes Elena sit out and just watch but instead she watches Stefan play football. I watch while I'm doing my jumps.

Stefan is good. Really good. Though, Tyler does end up knocking him down. I have a feeling that it was planned and Matt was a hesitant participant. Tyler doesn't like Stefan very much.

I get out of the shower after practice. Drying my hair I look into the mirror. Why am I still cheering? I liked it in the seventh and eighth grades but after that I only really stayed because my mom wanted me too. And because I was the best and l liked other girls being jealous of me. I sighed, pulling on my jeans and shirt and decided to hang around with Tyler for a while before I have to go have dinner with Elena, Bonnie, and Stefan.

…

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Lost track of time." I yelled as I made my way into the house. I saw Stefan sitting at the head of the table with Elena on one side of him and a very awkward looking Bonnie on the other side.

They all smiled at me warmly. I sit down, pile food onto my plate and start shoving it in my mouth. After a few minutes I looked up to see everyone looking at me. "What?" I asked, with my mouth half full of food.

"Zoey!" Elena whispers disapprovingly.

I roll my eyes and continue to eat. There is awkward silence from the other three people at the table before Elena tries to get Bonnie and Stefan to talk. Stefan says something about Salem witches being heroic examples, which makes Bonnie happy and proud.

The doorbell rings and Elena goes to answer it while I continue to finish up the last of my dinner.

"Hungry?" Stefan asks with a bit of a smirk.

I smile. "Starving. I hadn't eaten anything since the morning."

I hear voices in the hall. Stefan gets a dark look on his face and gets up to go to the door. Bonnie and I exchange puzzled glances before I follow him.

"He can't stay." I hear Stefan say. I notices Caroline and then look past her to see Damon Salvatore standing on my porch. "Can you, Damon?"

"Get in here." Caroline tells Damon.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"We brought desert." Caroline says holding up the cake.

"Were just finishing up." Stefan clearly does not want his brother's company. I can't say I blame him.

"It's fine. Just come on in." Elena tells him. Damon smiles and walks in, past his brother.

"Hello Zoey, nice to see you again." He smiles charmingly. I give a mock smile. "You girls have a beautiful home."

"Thank you." Elena replies.

This is going to be interesting.

…

We all sat in the living room talking. We talked about Stefan making the football team and Elena and me cheerleading.

"You two don't really seem like the cheerleading type, especially you, Zoey." Damon says.

"Well Zoey has never really been the cheerleading type but she is one of the best on the squad." Caroline says. I am the best on the squad. "And with Elena it's just because her parents died." Of course it comes back to that. Caroline goes on about how much more fun Elena use to be and how she's just in a 'blah' faze.

"I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose both of your parents. In fact Stefan and I have pretty much watched every single person we ever cared about die." Something about the way he said it made me think he might not care that everyone he loves is dead.

"We don't need to get into that right now Damon."

"You know what your right Stef, I'm sorry. The last thing I want to do is bring her up." I could tell he meant the exact opposite of what he was saying.

…

Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and I all finished the dishes and went back to sit in the living room. I was dying to leave but I promised Elena I would stay.

"So I was thinking of having a fundraiser to get new uniforms for the squad. Shorter skirts." Caroline said, raising her eyebrow seductively and grinning.

"Hun, I don't think you need any help looking like a slut. Plus don't you have a boyfriend now? You don't have to flash everyone else."

She glared at me. "I am not a slut! You're just jealous because you don't have a boyfriend. You're all alone!"

I frown. "Not everyone needs a boyfriend, Caroline. You just need one to make you feel less insecure and it makes you feel like Elena isn't so much better than you." Elena looked away from me and Caroline awkwardly.

"Really? So is that why you stayed with Jake, because he made you feel less insecure? Even though he hit you?"

"Caroline!" Bonnie and Elena said at the same time. Stefan and Damon sat there in shocked silence, watching the scene play out before them. Damon was interested and Stefan was concerned. Caroline looked sorry the moment the words left her mouth.

I saw red. I clenched my fists into tight balls to keep from punching Caroline.

"Zoey…I…I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

I pushed myself off of the couch, grabbed my leather jacket and headed for the door. "Have fun trying to find a replacement for the game tomorrow." I say, slamming the door behind me.

My mind was becoming blurred. Thoughts of Jake, of blonde hair, blue eyes, a charming smile which turned into a cruel sneer, of bruises and fists, and of hospitals swarmed in my vision. My eyes were becoming blurry as well, but I refused to let the tears fall. I promised myself I wouldn't cry over this, over him, again.

I got into my car and drove, not sure where I was going. I ended up at the Lockwood Mansion, which wasn't surprising. I always ended up here when something was wrong. I spent most of the first few weeks here with Tyler after my parents died.

I took the key Tyler gave me when we were 12 and opened the door. I quietly walked upstairs, into Tyler's room. He was on his computer when I came in.

"Zoey, hey! Wanna go…what's wrong?"

I just shook my head. "Nothing." He starred at me for a moment. "I'm just tired, is all."

He nodded in understanding. "Well come on then. We should get rested up, got a big game tomorrow." He took off his shirt and we got in his bed and he pulled me against his chest. I buried my face in his bare chest and he ran his hand through my hair. We stayed like that for a while before eventually drifting off to sleep.

…

I woke up the next morning with a hard but warm chest pressed against my cheek. Tyler stirred and opened his eyes. "Morning sleepy head." He said tiredly.

"Morning. I'm gonna go take a shower. You can sleep for a few more minutes." I kissed him on the cheek and got up, heading for the bathroom.

I let the warm water run over me, taking away everything that happened last night. Or at least that's what I tell myself. I won't think of what happened and it will just go away, just like I always do. If that doesn't work, well that's what beer is for.

I put on the same clothes from yesterday and check my phone. One message and five calls from Elena and six messages and nine calls from Caroline. I delete them, kiss a sleeping Tyler on the forehead again and left. I bumped into Mrs. Lockwood in the hallway.

"Hello sweetie. Late night?" She didn't need to worry about Tyler and I having sex or anything. Me staying over has been a common occurrence since we were kids. Whenever anything bad happens, I go to Tyler. That's the ways things have always been and probably always will be.

…

"Hey, where have you been?" Elena comes into my room with a concerned look on her face. I don't answer her and instead change my top. "Tyler's?" I nod and start to put on my makeup. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You know Caroline didn't mean it. She's always putting her foot in her mouth."

"I know, Elena. I'm fine, just needed to hang with Tyler was all. Shouldn't you be in uniform already?"

"I quit too. It's just not my thing anymore. I'm still going to the game though. Wanna come with me?"

"Sure. I sort of have to anyways; Tyler would kill me if I ever missed one of his games."

…

"Look at you. You look hot in your jersey." Elena flirted as Stefan walked towards us.

"Very hot." I agree. "I'm going to go find Tyler. See you later. Good luck." I say to Stefan as I leave them to their flirting. I feel Stefan's gaze on my back for a few seconds before he turns his attention back towards Elena.

Now where is Tyler?

…

I find Jeremy instead and sit down with him and a couple of his buddies and drink some beer. When the game starts I go closer to the field and find Elena.

"Hey. Were you drinking?" She asks, smelling me.

I roll my eyes. "I only had two, Elena. I'm not drunk. I'm not even buzzed."

She looks concerned but turns her attention back to the football team, or more specifically, Stefan.

I watch as Tyler gets jealous about Stefan starting and walks away. A few seconds later I hear fighting. I leave Elena and rush towards the sound and find Tyler and Jeremy on the ground punching each other, Vicki's yelling at them to stop.

"Tyler, stop it!" I yell.

Stefan comes and takes Tyler by the arm. "That's enough, he's down." Tyler looks at the hand on his arm before punching Stefan in the gut. Stefan doesn't seem fazed at all. Tyler looks confused for a second before sending another punch towards Stefan's face. Jeremy picks up a broken glass bottle.

"JEREMY NO!" I yell as Jeremy swings the bottle at Tyler but ends up cutting Stefan in the hand.

Matt drags Tyler away as Elena rushes to Jeremy. I stare at Stefan's bloody hand before Elena comes back to check on him.

"Oh my god you're hand." Elena says as Stefan closes his hand.

"No, no, it's fine."

"Is it deep? How bad is it? Come on." Elena opens Stefan's hand to find no cut, only some smeared blood. "But…I saw it."

"He missed. It's not my blood." Stefan says as he wipes his hands on his pants. "See, I'm fine."

"No, no, I saw it. Glass cut your hand. It…"

"Yeah, I saw it too." I pipe up, looking at Stefan suspiciously. I saw it. The bottle cut his hand. He was bleeding. Why isn't he now?

"It's okay. I'm okay." He reassures Elena and me. "It's almost kick-off time, I should get going. So I'll see you after the game."

Elena and I share a suspicious look as Stefan walks off.

…

Elena and I went to talk with Bonnie and she told us that when she touched Stefan she felt death.

Elena and I then went our separate ways. Elena went to her car and I went to find Jeremy.

I took him home, cleaned up his bloody nose, gave him some water and sent him off to bed.

I went back to the school afterwards to find Tyler and slap him in the head for being such an ass but when I got there things were much worse than when I left them.

Police were there and a corpse was being wheeled out in a stretcher.

"Bonnie! Bonnie, what happened?"

"It's…Mr. Tanner. He's dead." She started to cry and I hugged her tightly. But that's when I noticed the numbers. 8-14-22. The numbers Bonnie kept writing all day. I pointed them out to her.

I remember her saying that when she touched Stefan she got a feeling of death. Well it seems that Bonnie Bennett might be on to something.