Hey, everyone. Sorry for the wait on this chapter. My last week was swamped with Comic Con so I didn't really get a chance to do any writing at all. The only thing I did was update I Want it All and that was pre-written so...yeah. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Review at the end if you can please.

Disclaimer: Refer to the Pilot.

You're Undead to Me

It was the same routine as every morning: get up, go for a jog, come back, shower, and get dressed for school. I completed these tasks with diligence, timing myself perfectly so I was downstairs and ready to get a move on for the day. The past couple of days had been rough—for Elena, that was. Ever since my birthday, Stefan was ignoring her and hadn't been to school. But while her love life tangled, my stayed string-free. The only guys I'd hung out with in the past three days were either my brother or Matt, and Jeremy was rarely ever around to talk to.

Why was that, of course? Well, he was screwing Vicki Donovan non-stop.

Now, to my siblings, I seemed like the most stereotypical prude there was. In all reality, I really didn't give two shits about what they did with their love lives. It might seem selfish and standoffish, but I really just…didn't mind. It was their life, and nothing I could say or do would change that. If I sat down with Elena right at that moment and talked to her about all the STDs she could get having sex, it wouldn't matter to her because she would still do what she wanted to do at the end of the day.

This theory was what made Elena insist I go and get sterilized, because if I ever had children, they would be completely heartless.

"Jenna!" Elena whispered as she entered the kitchen, where Jenna and I were eating breakfast. Aunt Jenna turned to see Elena pointing to the ceiling, gesturing to the upstairs level. "Are you aware of what's going on upstairs?"

Jenna nodded. "Uh-huh."

Elena stared blankly. "And…you have no objection?"

Our aunt scoffed. "He could be craftier about it. At least make an effort to sneak her in and out."

Elena frowned and walked over to grab a bowl from the open cabinet. "I swear, you and Madeline have like the same mind or something."

"I know." I turned to Aunt Jenna and gave her a high-five, which she returned with a smile. "I guess I know where I get all my good qualities from."

"Letting our brother have sex just a bathroom away from my room is supposed to be a good thing?"

"It's his life, Elena."

"I hate it when you say that."

Jenna interrupted us. "Okay…uh, Elena? Just so you know, I won't be home for dinner." Our aunt's subtle attempt at covering up the fact that she was going to go through with her date with Logan Fell was a complete failure.

Elena growled in approval. "Oh, so you're actually going to do it! You're gonna go out with Logan…" Elena mocked, moving her shoulders teasingly.

"I'm going to show up and torture him. Yes," Jenna explained. I clapped my hands.

"Three cheers for feminists! I'm loving that idea already."

Jenna scoffed. "Madeline, you were the one who wanted me to talk to him at the Founder's Party."

I shrugged. "To give him a sample of what he's missing out on…yeah. And you're just furthering my experiment by going out with him. Unless…you actually want to go out with him?"

Jenna opened her mouth, and when I opened mine to claim her guilt, she took the words from my mouth. "Elena! Have you heard from Stefan?"

Elena's early morning smile dropped. "Not since he left that very vague message three days ago. 'Hi, um, Elena. I, um, I have something I have to do. I'll, uh, explain in a few days.'"

I shot my sister a glare. "You do a terrible impression of Stefan."

"Haven't you called him?" Jenna asked, laughing at Elena's teenage problems. Elena shook her head as she poured breakfast for herself using the materials I left out for her and Jeremy to use after me.

"Nope. Not going to, either." Sassy, Elena, I thought, chuckling to myself.

"And you're okay with everything?" Jenna urged.

Elena slammed the carton of milk down on the counter and took a complete one-eighty. I jumped at the noise and Elena sighed, frustrated. "No, I'm not okay with any of it. But I'm not gonna cry about it, either. You know, I was going to write in my diary this morning, but then I thought…what am I going to write? Honestly, I'm not going to be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy."

My sister's words and her actions were a complete contradiction. Though she said all of this abrasively, she shoveled a mouthful of cereal into her mouth like it was a spoonful of ice cream that she was using to feel better. I didn't want to say anything, because I knew it would upset her. To be honest, I thought it was unfair of her to be making such a big deal out of everything. How long had she known Stefan? A little over three weeks? To be honest, it was a little too early for Elena to be asking for a whole autobiography on him with footnotes about his personal feelings.

But I didn't dare say any of these things in front of her face. I didn't want to get punched…or worse.

"Okay then," Jenna said at last, her eyes widened.

"I'll be fine," Elena told Jenna before walking away to go finish her breakfast elsewhere. I sighed.

"Uh huh. She's totally not the type of girl whose world stops spinning because of some guy, right?"

"Oh, cut your sister some slack, Mads," Jenna suggested, giving me a sad smile. "You don't know what it's like to be in love. It's different than what you might think."

I scowled at her. "I don't need to know what it's like to be in love to know that it's too much to ask someone for a signed autobiography of their whole life's story." I snorted, rolling my eyes. "She's making a mountain out of a molehill. Why doesn't she just let it go?"

"Love does crazy things to you."

"Oh, stop talking about love like it's some magical way of being! I'll get there…someday." I sighed and walked my empty milk bowl to the sink and washed it out before putting it in the dishwasher. "I just wish Elena could be more like me, you know? For her own sake. Then, she wouldn't have to worry about this kind of stuff."

Jenna frowned. "Honestly, Mads, I don't think any girl can be like you."

I narrowed my eyes. "I don't know whether that's a compliment or an insult."

"My sister's been completely in denial about the whole 'Damon' thing that happened at the Founder's Party," Audrey vented to me as we walked down the hallway together. Obviously, I knew Caroline had bite marks all over her from Damon, but I didn't know much more than that. Audrey had explained to me that Caroline has holes in her memory and, apparently, she thinks she let Damon bite her. "To be fair, I never liked him! He's so creepy. Kept cracking jokes about my red hair."

Audrey muttered the last of her statement, unimpressed with Damon's humor about her unordinary red hair in a family of blondes. It was no secret, really, that Audrey was adopted by Liz and her ex-husband, Bill, but it wasn't something that they liked to advertise.

"Tell me about it." I scoffed as we came to my locker and I turned the dial to unlock it. "He tells me he's gonna 'deal with Tanner' and then the next day, Tanner ends up dead from an animal attack."

Audrey's eyes widened as big as a full moon. "And you didn't think to tell the police?"

I shrugged. "They caught the animal, Audrey! Besides, what kind of man could do that to another guy? It's impossible." Switching out my books for other ones, I shook my head. "And it doesn't help that Elena's all over Stefan like she deserves some kind of explanation. I just don't understand it! It frustrates the crap out of me."

"Elena's always been that girl who expects everything," Audrey pointed out, but said it in a way that wasn't meant to be offensive. "That's just who she is. It's what she does."

"It's wrong," I countered, softening my eyes. "I like Stefan. And he deserves whatever space he needs. She's acting like she doesn't want to be a crybaby about it but I know it's killing her inside to not know every detail of Stefan's past." I shut my locker door and turned to Audrey, pointing at her very strictly. "If I ever get like that, you stop me. I can't stand people like that."

"Will do," Audrey agreed as we started walking to class. She sighed heavily, though, and moved onto a different topic just as we passed a poster for the school's Sexy Suds fundraiser. "Ugh. Caroline's making me participate in that thing. I absolutely hate it."

"Sucks for you." I laughed, a small smile twitching on my lips. But before Audrey could retort, my bad luck struck again.

"Mads!" Caroline exclaimed, and Audrey and I stopped in the hallway to see Caroline coming after us. She touched my arm as soon as she reached me and sighed. "Good. I caught you. I need you to help with the car wash tomorrow."

Beside me, Audrey began to laugh, and I gritted my teeth. "Come on, Caroline! Why?"

"Because you look great in a bathing suit!"

"It's basically just standing in your bra and underwear!"

"Exactly!" Caroline pointed at me. "You have no choice. You're coming."

"Caroline—"

"Ah," Caroline stopped me, wagging her finger. "No choice. Tomorrow. Be there or I'll hunt your ass down."

She disappeared before I could tell her that I had imaginary plans, and when I turned back to Audrey, she was laughing like crazy. I sighed at her. "Keep laughing. That's right. I'll remember this."

At night, when I thought that Elena was going to be at the Grill meeting up with Stefan like she told me, she came home an hour later and stormed upstairs in a pissy mood, leaving me to infer the rest. I wasn't even going to touch whatever she was angry over, so I just holed myself up in my room like Elena and Jeremy, who no doubt had Vicki over. It was when I went downstairs to get a granola bar that I heard a clanking noise.

"What the…?" I walked into the kitchen slowly, and I did a double take when I saw Stefan behind the center island. Again, one of the Salvatore boys had scared the living daylights out of me. "Jesus! Stefan!"

"It's nice to see you, too, Mads." Stefan gave a small smile, and I caught my breath. I gestured towards the door.

"Who…who let you in?" I asked, confused.

"Jeremy," the Salvatore responded. I rolled my eyes. Of course. "Do you want me to go or…?"

"No," I said, shaking my head as I walked over to the center island and eyed him pulling out food from bags to prepare them. "It's fine. You're making food. I think I can live. What are you making?"

"Chicken Parmesan."

"Yum," I approved, but then I realized. "But…this isn't really for me, is it?" Stefan fell silent, and I sighed. "Right. Okay. I'll see if I can get Elena to come down. But you better save me a piece."

Stefan smiled. "Sure," he agreed as I bumped my fist on the counter and left the kitchen. But as I was going upstairs to get Elena, I found that she was already coming down.

"Hey…" Elena trailed off. "What are you…?" There was a clanging sound in the kitchen, and Elena immediately turned her eyes. "Oh, my God! What is that? Jenna?"

"Not Jenna," I told her as Elena walked down the stairs and I walked up. "Have fun, Elena." I sang my words teasingly and then went up the stairs, satisfied with retaining my hunger until Stefan finished cooking. I caught Jeremy on his way back into his room of solitude. "Hey!" I called out to him, stopping Jeremy from entering the room.

"Yeah, Mads?" Jeremy asked, turning around at me and raising an eyebrow. How did I say this…?

"I just…I just wanted to let you know…" I sighed, frustrated. It was harder being the oldest sibling than I thought it would be. "I'm not Elena. I don't judge. You can tell me anything you want."

Jeremy's eyes skimmed over me, and he gave a light scoff. It might've been taken to offense, but I knew Jeremy. It was one of the mechanisms he used to get out of an uncomfortable situation. "Thanks, Mads."

"You're welcome." I nodded to him, and Jeremy disappeared into his room to spend more hours with Vicki. It was starting to dawn on me that, while I sat in my room and watched Netflix marathon of Bones, my sister was downstairs trying to rekindle a flame with her boyfriend, and my brother was having sex with our sister's ex-boyfriend's sister.

I needed a life. Badly.

"You know Caroline's going to kill you if you keep that on all day, right?" Audrey asked me as we both scrubbed soapy sponges onto one of the car windshields. Unlike her, I had refused to take off the jacket I had over my tank top that was over my bathing suit. Even though Caroline made me come to the car wash and help, I wasn't going to give into peer pressure so easily.

"Let her kill me." I shrugged, smiling up at Audrey while I squinted my eyes. The sun was bright and hot, and though I had a jacket on, it was light enough that it kept me at a comfortable temperature. "At least she'll kill me while I'm clothed."

Audrey just snickered to herself and continued to wash the car with me. All around us, other cheerleaders, football students, and students of other clubs and social standings were washing cars of their own. The event had turned out to be a huge success; even the news was doing a special on Mystic Falls' students coming together at a time of need. Everyone thought the students at Mystic Falls High were so heartbroken over Tanner's death, but I'm pretty sure everyone, on the inside, was relieved that they didn't have that big Civil War test next week.

While Audrey and I were finishing up washing our assigned car, we heard Tiki start to complain beside us, as usual.

"Why do I always get the homely ones?" the cheerleader complained, staring at the beat-up maroon car in front of her. She didn't even bother to whisper or mutter it—she said it straight to the owner of the car's face. Bonnie and Matt were on the other side of Tiki, stunned as well. "Just to be clear, your car is a P.O.S. I mean…we can wash it, but it's still a P.O.S."

"You don't have to be rude," Bonnie snapped.

Tiki scoffed. "Rude is uglying up the road with that junker." The disappointed owner of the car threw his keys inside and walked away with saddened eyes. Tiki just sighed and turned to the bucket of water she was filling.

"Bitch," Audrey muttered under her breath. I scoffed and turned back at her with agreeing eyes. We were just about to return to finishing off the car when there was a shrill behind us, and I felt my back being sprayed with water.

"Ah! Oh my God!" Tiki screamed as the hose in her hand sprayed water all around her. It had already completely soaked her to the point where she looked like she fell into a river.

"Whoa! Hey!" Matt shouted as he rushed over to Tiki with a towel over his arm. After a few more girlish screams from Tiki, Matt finally was able to get the hose away from her and it went off. He handed her his towel and smiled. "Wet and wild, Tik!"

Matt laughed, as did everyone around him, but Tiki was far from amused. I caught a glimpse of Bonnie out of the corner of my eye, and watched as she looked at the hose with amazement and then shied away with just a hint of a smile on her lips. She looked…happily guilty, if that was even a thing.

All of a sudden, I heard a laugh behind me. "Madeline!" Audrey managed to get out through her laughs. I turned around at her and saw her basically beating on the car, trying to contain her chuckles. "Sorry, but I think you're going to have to take off that jacket now!"

"What?" I asked as I unzipped the jacket and pulled it off of me. She was right—the backside was completely damp and soapy from all the suds that managed to get onto it during Tiki's explosion. "Well damn it!"

But as much as I hated having to walk around in a flimsy tank top, Audrey's laughs across from me made me laugh. I tried to tell her that it wasn't funny, but all that came out were laughs. I couldn't help it. Laughter was contagious to me.

After Audrey and I finally calmed down, I realized that I didn't want to be stuck with a soaked jacket all day, so when I spotted Jenna, I saw a way out. She was standing by the news truck, talking to Logan Fell. I didn't mind interrupting one bit.

Jenna was laughing when I came over, but the second I made my presence known, she stopped. "Oh…hey, Mads."

"Hey, Jenna." I smiled at her and then turned to Logan. An awkward silence passed before he held out his hand for me.

"Logan Fell," he introduced himself. I scoffed, not even a twinge of a smile on my lips. I didn't even shake his hand.

"Madeline Gilbert." Quickly, I turned to Jenna and extended my jacket. "Do you mind taking this home and putting it through the wash? It got soaked."

"Sure." Jenna took the jacket from my hand and looked me over. "You'll be okay…wearing that?"

I frowned. "Do I prefer to wear it? No. Do I have to? Yes. It was only a matter of time before Caroline came and chastised me anyway. I'll probably be scolded for wearing this tank top, but I'll be damned if another article of clothing is coming off of me."

Jenna nodded and pursed her lips. "Well, okay then."

"I'll see you later." I smiled at Jenna, frowned at Logan, and then turned on my heel to leave. There was no doubt in my mind that Jenna was falling for Logan again…and though I can admit that he was somewhat pretty, after what Jenna told me about the way they left things, he wasn't a good guy.

But I've said it before—it's not my life, so I was only entitled to my own opinions. Everyone else had to make up their own.

When I returned to the parking lot to find Audrey, I couldn't. But it only took a second before I was greeted by the presence of Matt. "Hey, Mads."

"Hey…" I said, turning to him while still looking around for Audrey. "Have you seen Audrey? I figure she's washing another car…"

"She is," Matt agreed. "With Bonnie, though."

I grimaced. "Wow. She switched partners on me? Am I really that boring?" Sure, a little uninteresting, but boring? I don't think of myself as boring.

"You're not boring." Matt laughed and jerked his head to the side. "Come on. We're partners now." He elbowed me and we started walking to the first free car we saw that needed to be washed. I sighed.

"Oh…partners with Matt Donovan. Someone kill me now." I smiled at him, letting him know that it was just a joke. Matt laughed as well, taking on my amusing tone, and I just gasped. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you…where the hell did you get that cupcake you got for my birthday? I've had a craving ever since."

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. Vicki had a craving for them one day and she was the one who got them. I guess she was high or something. Wouldn't surprise me." He shook his head out of disappointment and began to fill up a bucket of soapy water.

"Are you…okay, Matt?" I asked as I bent down to help him with the water. "You know…with Vicki and everything? It can't be easy on you."

Matt scoffed. "I'll survive, if that's what you mean. Besides, Jeremy's involved with her. If she does it…"

"He does it," I finished, nodding. After dipping our sponges into the water, both of us straightened. "Yeah…I guess you're on the right track. We'll survive. But, hey, isn't it a little weird? You know…my brother…your sister…"

"And the fact that I dated yours?" Matt taunted. I nodded slightly and the two of us began to wash the car in front of us. "Yeah, it's weird. But like you always say, we can't control them."

I groaned. "God! Finally…someone who understands it! Why do people always think they can control others? Elena keeps trying to whip Jeremy back into shape…she keeps pestering Stefan into telling him every little detail about his life—I just don't get it!"

Matt walked around the nose of the car to wash the headlights, moving over to the side I was on. "Well you've always been a little troubled when it comes to that part, Mads. You keep yourself isolated a lot."

I looked up at him, confused. "You think I like to keep myself isolated?"

Matt matched my eyes, standing up from cleaning the very tip of the car. "Well…don't you?" I didn't pull my eyes from his, but I thought over his words. Isolated? Was that really what everyone thought of me? Seeing the mixed emotions on my face, I imagine, Matt stepped forward and sighed. "Look, I didn't mean it to be a bad thing. All you need to do is open up to someone. You always shut people out. Even your friends."

"Well it's been a little hard lately," I murmured, moving my hand in a circle to create a patch of soap. I could hear Matt's guilty exhale from beside me.

"Look, Mads, I didn't mean—"

"You know what?" I looked up at him and smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine." His blue eyes searched mine for any semblance of hurt, but I blocked it out. "Anyway, do you know where I can find Vicki? Seriously, I want those cupcakes."

Matt looked like he was about to fight me on it, but instead, he just turned his head and continued washing the car. "Um…well, she said she was going to stay home today, but I doubt it. She's probably out with her friends at the graveyard or whatever they hang out. Don't take my word for it."

I sighed. "Well, then, I guess I'll just have to wait for school to ask her. I'm dead serious, those cupcakes were like a godsend." With as much of a smile I could muster, I looked up at Matt and grinned. He tried to smile back at me, but I could tell that he felt guilty for what he said before. I decided to push it out and not think about it—for the sake of my sanity and even his.

While Matt was hosing down the car to get rid of all the soap, I realized that most of the cars were all nice and sparkling dry. The car wash was winding down, coming to a close soon. Elena had told me she was leaving, Caroline was nowhere to be seen, and Audrey tried to go track down Caroline to go home. With the blonde head cheerleader nowhere around, Tiki was left in charge; and it wasn't long before she started barking orders at everyone.

"You spray me with that hose, Donovan, you will have another thing coming to you," I warned Matt as he teased me with the spraying hose that he was using to finish off the car before we dried it. Matt just laughed and continued to try and get water on me, but I dodged it and pointed at him accusingly. My mouth was open and the next warning was halfway out of my mouth when a bunch of screams echoed through the parking lot.

The second I looked up, I saw it—a line of flames growing higher and hotter and longer by the moment. It trailed along a line to just underneath a car, and once the flames reached the run-down blue vehicle, the automobile caught on fire.

"What the hell?" I murmured as I left Matt and stepped forward to see better. Around me, people were screaming and shouting for a fire department and for water on the car. The owner was surely not happy about it. But just across that line of flames, I saw Bonnie standing at the end, a relaxed expression on her face while she stared at the fire.

"Madeline, what are you doing?" I heard Matt behind me. "Get away from there!"

I hadn't realized it, but I was nearing towards the flames. I couldn't help it. What the hell was Bonnie doing over there…just staring at the flames like it was an entertainment show? I had half a mind to jump over the flames and stop her, but what good would that do either of us? Not that I had much of a choice, either, when Matt grabbed my arm and forced me back with all his quarterback strength.

Luckily, Stefan was the one who interrupted Bonnie's trance for me. I stared, partially confused and partially scared, as I watched Stefan shake Bonnie and talk to her intensely. The fire had gone out as soon as Stefan had turned Bonnie around, leaving me to scoff, puzzled.

What the hell just happened?

"Jeremy, this is like the third message I've left you and your phone has gone straight to voicemail each time. Call me back!" I snapped into the phone as I climbed into my car. The car wash had ended, and as the sun went down in the sky right behind the school, I was so ready to go home. The whole "Bonnie" thing had me freaked out, and I pushed it as far away as I could from my mind. I knew if I even brought it up, there would be another "witch" argument. Witches weren't real; plain and simple.

But Jeremy…well, Jeremy I was worried about. Jenna texted me saying to knock before I came in because she was with Logan. Elena texted me with a vague response. But Jeremy, I hadn't heard from. And with his track record, it wasn't a surprise that I was worried.

And it wasn't like it took a rocket scientist to figure it out. Jeremy. Vicki. Druggies. Graveyard. Simple math.

Since I was a straight A student in math as well as every other subject, I turned out to be right, of course. A truck was sitting on a rocky path in the woods, playing music loudly from its stereo. My headlights shone on the back of the truck, where I saw two people by the back end of the truck, hugging each other. As soon as my lights were made known, the man with his back to me turned.

That's when I saw it.

I thought it had to be impossible—maybe it was the lighting or something like that. But what kind of lighting was red out in the middle of the woods? It was clearly there—painted on Damon Salvatore's face was a chin stained of substance that looked like blood.

And when another body dropped to the ground, I knew I had to get out of there. So, with expletives and exclamations, I shifted my car in reverse and turned my head to back the hell out. Instead, a bunch of glass landed in my lap, and I let out a piercing scream.

I don't know how it happened—it was all a blur, but I was yanked out of the driver's seat and thrown against the body of the car, Damon's cold, sweaty body pressed right up against mine. His salted hand was covering my mouth, and he cooed to me.

"Shh," he hushed, shaking his head. "Shut up, Madeline." He looked so weak. His hair was sticking to his forehead, his mouth was stained with blood, and I felt like I was going to throw up just looking at him. But I thrashed, trying to get out of Damon's grasp. But though he looked weak, he was actually really strong.

It was a good thing I took self-defense classes as a kid.

I pulled my knee up and hit him right where it hurt the most, making Damon double over and release me. His body fell in front of the car door, so I had no choice but to run. It was much different than my leisure jogging, but I had to admit that if I hadn't done all that running, I wouldn't have been able to run as fast as I did then. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if he had gotten up, but it was so dark outside and I was scared for my life.

My mouth involuntarily gasped when I hit something hard, and my eyes adjusted to see Damon right in front of me. I didn't want to believe it when I saw it, but it was right there. He had fangs. Actual fangs.

It wasn't long before those fangs tore into my neck, and I cried out as he sucked the life right out of me.