Smells Like Teen Spirit

I was woke up the morning after by my phone ringing. Elena is calling. I groaned and got out of bed, wrapping a white sheet around me. I was careful not to wake Damon and took the call outside of his room.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Where are you?" I tried to think of a lie, anything, but nothing came to mind. I heard her sigh heavily. "You're with Damon, aren't you?" I still didn't reply. "Did you sleep with him again?"

"Yes," I admitted. I was tired of lying to her. Not to mention it was six in the morning. "Why are you calling this early?"

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to train with me."

"Train?"

"I'm sick of being defenseless around vampires. It'd be fun. And it might distract you from-"

"From Damon," I finished, scoffing.

"I don't know what he's doing to you, but I know the real you would never fall for him."

"He never did anything to me. I care about him, maybe you should respect that."

I hung up on her and went back into Damon's room. He had gotten out of the bed and stood in front of me, in all his naked glory.

I didn't flinch, or move. It was nothing I hadn't seen before. "I'm impressed. I thought you would have at least told me to get some pants on."

I shrugged as I gathered up my clothes. "Nothing I haven't seen before." I pecked him on the lips. "I have to go."

He dramatically pouted. "But we were having such fun." He pulled the sheets off me slowly, giving me time to slap his hand away. He leaned into my ear and whispered huskily. "We can do it again and again."

My knees weakened. Senior year, senior year. Shower, get dressed, don't give in.

I pulled away from him and smiled. "Can't do. First day of senior year. If I'm late a certain blonde vampire will murder me."

"Ah, Caroline. I'm sure she can wait..." He wiggled his eyebrows flirtatiously.

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "She's very impatient."

He kissed me and ran his hands down my back. I bit down on his lip when his hand grabbed my butt. "Alright, I'm staying," I moaned.

Elena, Bonnie and Caroline were standing outside of the school. I approached them, smiling. Elena narrowed her eyes at me slightly, but covered it with a smile. Bonnie had a large smile plastered on her face while Caroline didn't even attempt to hide her disgust.

"Hey, guys," I greeted awkwardly.

Caroline had no time for chit-chat, apparently. "Seriously?" she exclaimed. "You slept with Damon, again?"

Bonnie looked around us. "Caroline..."

"No, Bonnie. Damon is a bad person. He kills without remorse and you're happily jumping his bones?"

"It's my life, Caroline, not yours."

"You're my best friend, I love you, but you're making a huge mistake. Any guy here would be happy to have you, but yet you screw him? I mean... he's almost as bad as Klaus!"

I flinched away from her. "Wow, Caroline. Comparing him to Klaus... low blow."

She looked sorry she said that. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Look, I just don't think Damon is a good choice. He's not very considerate of other people."

"He's considerate of me," I told her.

"When has he done anything for you?"

"I'm the one who asked him to help Elena. I knew Klaus would easily put me down as soon as I stepped on hospital grounds, but Damon knew exactly how to push his buttons. He's not that bad, Care. Just please, give him a chance."

Caroline huffed. "Never gonna happen."

My phone rang and I answered it, leaning against my locker. "Damon, hey."

"So... You might not want to come here for a while. We have a new housemate. Barbie Klaus."

"Rebekah? She's living with you? Why?"

"She's stranded. Apparently Klaus left her in the dust after I name-dropped Mikael."

"What about Stefan? What is he up to?"

"Oh, you know. Draining young girls dry and leaving them all over the house."

"So, he's full blown ripper then."

"Uh-huh."

"And unfortunately we don't have Lexi to pull him back because you... uh... staked her."

"What happened to you accepting who I am?"

"I am, I am. It's just... Lexi had a gift for this sort of thing. How are we suppose to get the old Stefan back?"

"We wait. But we will, eventually."

I noticed Caroline pin a flyer to the notice board. It was about the bonfire tonight. "Hey, I got to go. But I'll talk to you later."

"Right."

"Oh! And don't tell Elena about this whole Stefan fiasco."

"I won't."

"Good. Thank you."

He hung up. I approached Caroline. "The bonfire. I completely forgot."

"I suppose it'd be hard to remember these things when you're too busy screwing Damon." She burst past me, bumping my shoulder on her way.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. A few seconds later, I saw Caroline and Elena drag a blood-stained Tyler into the toilets to clean him up.

I sat down in my seat between Caroline and Bonnie. The blonde was still ignoring me, which was so frustrating I couldn't put it into words. If she was my friend, she'd accept that I was with Damon. I couldn't let myself feel guilty.

I turned to Bonnie. 'She'll come around,' she mouthed, gesturing to Caroline. I nodded to her gratefully and smiled, which she returned.

"Welcome back, seniors," Ric started. "Let's turn our brains back on, starting with this country's original founders... the Native Americans."

Rebekah came into the classroom. "What about the Vikings?"

She sat down on a seat in the front. "There's no evidence that Viking explorers actually settled in the United States. Who are you?"

"My name's Rebekah, I'm new. And history's my favorite subject."

Then I realised. In this one class, there was an Original, a hybrid, two witches, two vampires, a ripper and a doppelganger. Shit just got serious.

After classes, I went for swimming practice. The pool had been cleared up quickly from the disaster that was Prank Night, so was the Gym. I slid my goggles over my eyes and jumped into the pool.

I started doing laps of the pool, venting all of my frustration into my swim. After ten laps, I rested at the side of the pool, holding myself up by my arms.

"Figured I'd find you here." I looked up to see my former best friend. "I may have flipped the switch, but I still remember the basic things about my best fwiend."

"Go away," I snarled through gritted teeth. "I don't want you near me."

I was defenseless... weak. If he still had that herb in his system, then there was nothing I could do.

He put his hand on my head and pressed some weight on it. I sunk into the water and struggled to get back up. I didn't lose my grip on the side of the pool.

"You're drowning her!"

I never thought Mr. Timmons would be my saviour, but he was. Stefan smiled innocently at him as he let me get up. I coughed the water back up. The poor coach, I feared for his life. Stefan compelled him. "You'll forget what you saw. This lovely lady was doing laps. That's all."

He shot me a smirk before walking away without a glance back.

"That was odd," Mr. Timmons commented.

I sighed and slid back down my goggles. "You have no idea."

School was over and I went to the town gym to lift some weights. I struggled to lift it up, but I was stubborn and a Gilbert, which meant I didn't give up easily.

Alaric got me in on Elena's training schedule. Unfortunately, I had to get up at six in the morning, but we all had to make sacrifices from time to time. My sleep was one of them apparently.

"What? Are you going to bench press a vampire?"

"Stefan almost drowned me, Damon." His face fell. "I was at swimming practice and he tried to drown me. He's a completely different person." Damon pressed down on the weight. "Uh! What are you doing?"

"Helping you out."

"Damon," I growled.

"Come on, Buffy," he encourage.

I pushed up with all my strength, finally being able to lift it higher, but then he put more of his weight on it. "Stop it!"

He let go and I lifted up the weight. I sat down on a couch nearby. "You called. I'm here. What's your plan, oh warrior princess?"

"We need to lock Stefan up, at least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus, and the compulsion breaks."

"Compulsion or not, Stefan's high on human blood. A lot of it."

"Lexi's helped him before. So have you, remember?"

"This is different. It's not a stint in rehab, Louise. His humanity's gone. Light's out. No one's home."

"Stefan's going to get worse. Whenever I look at him, I see the ghost of his old self. He's in there, Damon, we need to get him out. Please. Do it for me."

I stood up. Damon took my hand on placed it on his chest. "What are you doing?"

"Feel that? It's a sternum. Solid plate of bones." He wrapped me in his arms and put his fingers on my back. "Right here, just below the rib-cage, next to the spine, that's your way to a vampire's heart." He pulled away from me. "I'll do whatever it is you need me to do, Louise. No one going to hurt you. Especially not my brother."

"I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire. Then when he's distracted..." Elena started.

"I'll shoot him," Ric finished.

"Can't the witches do something?" Damon asked, turning to me.

I shook my head. "Stefan has some herb in his system that prevents my magic from working on him."

Damon nodded. "Right. Blondie? Louise? You know what to do?"

"Yes. We'll make sure that the old Forbes jail cell is prepped and ready."

Caroline wasn't too happy with spending the day with me.

"We're forgetting a key player here. Rebekah? Wherever Stefan goes, the blond ponytail tends to follow," Damon told them.

"Which is why it's your job to keep her away," I said to Damon.

"How? She's an original. Last time I checked, we're out of daggers," Damon quipped.

"Use that charm of yours," Elena suggested and I nodded in agreement.

Alaric snorted. "Might have better luck finding the dagger."

"Are you ever not going to be mad at me for a day?"

"Doubtful."

Tyler joined the meeting. "Sorry I'm late. What's going on?"

"We need you to raid your mom's vervain supply. Enough to keep Stefan down for a while," Elena told him.

"You can't do that to Stefan."

"Why not?" Caroline pressed.

"Trust me, Tyler, it's in his best interest," Elena spoke up.

"Yeah... it's not in Klaus'."

"But Klaus is the bad guy, Tyler. You know, why are you acting like some freaky, hybrid, slave minion?" Caroline questioned angrily.

"Uh oh," Damon said.

My head snapped over to him. "What?"

"Klaus made me who I am, Caroline. I owe him everything," Tyler said.

"Oh... boy," the raven-haired vampire continued.

Caroline snapped at him. "Ok, can we cool it on the commentary, please."

"Damon, what's going on?" I asked him.

He took out a vervain dart as Tyler edged for the door. I'm just going to go."

Damon vamped over to him and plunged the dart into his neck. Tyler fell to the floor, unconscious.

"What are you doing?" Caroline shrieked.

"He's been sired."

Alaric was as confused as I was. "What?"

"Sired. He feels loyal to Klaus because Klaus's blood created him."

"How loyal?" I asked.

"He'll seek acceptance from his master, no matter the cost. It's really rare. But maybe not so much in hybrids," Damon explained.

"So how do I fix him?"

"Get a new boyfriend."

"All ready for ripper Stefan to be tortured," Caroline called as she walked up the stairs from the cell. "At least we'll get him back soon."

I tossed her a blood bag. "A well earned blood bag."

"Thank you." She took the blood bag from me. Nobody spoke for a while, until Caroline broke the silence. "Look, Louise, about Damon... he was just such a jerk to me and it's difficult seeing him happy, with you of all people."

"Caroline, he's changed," I insisted.

She shook her head. "No. He hasn't. Maybe he's gotten a little better, but he's still Damon. He still kills without remorse and by staying with him, you're condemning yourself."

I forced a strained laugh. "Condemning myself?"

Caroline didn't look amused. "He's going to rub off on you and you're gonna become as bad as him. I know you've always liked the bad guys, but seriously, Louise? Damon is a murderer, an abuser, a... a monster."

I pursed my lips together in a tight line and narrowed my blue eyes at her. "We're all monsters, Caroline," I said slowly. "We've all killed, which makes us monsters."

"No one has killed as much as Damon," Caroline said. "He's killed hundreds, maybe even thousands for nothing!"

I grabbed my bag. "I can't believe you. Why can't you accept that for once I'm happy? Am I the only one here that doesn't get to be happy?"

"No, but with Damon-"

"Damon makes me happy!" I exclaimed, hanging my bag over my shoulder. "He makes me feel alive, which is more than I've felt in the past couple of months... even since my parents died."

Caroline let out a loud and exaggerated sigh. "Fine. Date him, screw him, whatever. Just don't expect me to be okay with it."

I scoffed and stormed out of her house. My phone rang, it was Elena. "Hey, uh, the plan didn't go as planned."

I sighed, fighting the urge to bite her head off. "What happened?"

"Vicki Donovan came back to life?" I asked as I applied the cream to Elena's cut.

She nodded. "And she tried to kill me."

I rose an eyebrow and dabbed a cloth to Elena's wound. "It's impossible. She can't have come back to life."

"Matt helped her," Elena said. "But he's sent her back now."

"Oh no."

"What?"

"My guess is there'll be pretty big consequences." She shot me a questioningly look. "There are two planes, our world and the afterlife, called the Other Side. When someone comes back to life, there's an imbalance."

Panic was etched on Elena's face. "What do you think will happen?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but I think we're gonna find out."