Jessie backed up. She didn't know what to do. She had just been kissed by her best friend.
"Say something." Anna requested.
"I thought you liked Jeremy. Since when did you like me?" Jessie questioned, still trying to process what had just happened.
"Jeremy was only using me when he really just wanted to be with Vicki." Anna explained. "Do you know how humiliating it is being second to a dead person?"
Jessie did kind of know, despite knowing that Alaric's wife wasn't really dead. She was also second to her uncle's trampy ex-girlfriend, but she liked Alaric and wasn't into girls.
"Anna…I appreciate you kissing me, but it's not something that I partake in." Jessie tried to explain, though upon listening to what she said, she wasn't even sure what that meant. "I'm not gay or bi, or anything but straight."
"Maybe we should go to bed." Anna suggested. "I'm not going to do anything more than a little cuddling, and that's only because you bed is so small."
Jessie blushed realizing that she did have a small bed. She knew that she would be getting a bigger one when the new house was done. She went to her dresser to get ready for bed.
"Could you look away?" She requested.
"You don't have to be so nervous." Anna remarked, though she did follow the request. "I'm not going to rape you or anything."
The two girls shared the bed and it wasn't as awkward as Jessie thought it would be…despite the fact that Anna slept in her underwear.
The two woke up in the morning and they went to the breakfast table. It was Sunday, but different from other Sundays. One different was that her father had made waffles. Even Anna loved waffles. She did feel uncomfortable at the family breakfast, though.
"So, Anna do you think by any chance that you and your mom could stop by for dinner tonight?" Hank asked her.
"I don't know if tonight is the best." Anna answered. "Maybe we can do something later in the week."
Jessie was thankful for that. Maybe she and Anna could sort things out by the time their parental figures met.
"Speaking of meeting people, I'll ask Damon is if he wants to come over sometime." Tina replied. "Of course he's not the most social guy, and I don't know if things are moving too fast."
"I'll talk to him at the next council meeting." Hank stated.
The next day at school, Jessie walked through the door. She was wearing a plaid jumper and leggings with her hair in a braid. It was getting warmer. She was surprised to see Anna there, even though she had talked about it.
"I didn't expect you to actually do it." Jessie commented. "You're actually coming here."
"Well it gives us more time to spend together." Anna admitted as she put her hand on Jessie's bare shoulder.
"I think you should talk to Jeremy." Jessie stammered. She was a little uncomfortable…okay more than just a little.
"Jeremy is in the stoner den." Anna told her. Jessie was surprised that she even knew where that was. "He also seems really interested in digging for Vicki's death."
"You could tell him about her." Jessie suggested.
"I don't want to talk with him." Anna replied.
"So I hope that you're not going to be in all of my classes, because that moves past friends and into stalker." Jessie quipped, nervously.
"No, but I am in your history class." Anna admitted.
After school, Jessie waited with her sisters for their father to come home. It was mostly Tina. The blonde walked over to him as he entered the house.
"Did you ask him?" Tina questioned quickly.
"Sorry, Honey, I completely forgot." Hank replied. "Something else was on my mind."
"What?" Jessie asked.
"John Gilbert is back in town." Hank stated. "Pardon my language, girls, but I really hate that motherfucker."
At that time, Jessie heard her phone ringing. It was Anna, so she went to go take it in her room. She actually found Anna in her room. Was she calling to get her attention or something?
"You can't do that." Jessie explained to her. "Please stop acting like a stalker."
"I'm sorry." Anna apologized. "But I want to ask you out. Just go out on one date to the Founder's Day Kickoff Party with me."
"If I say yes, will you not ask me on another one and stop acting so weird?" Jessie asked "Weirder than normal, I mean?"
"Yes." Anna answered.
"Then, okay: one date." Jessie agreed. "But I'm not going to dance with you. Wait, can we even get in?"
"It's a public place and I don't think people would be shy to invite even if it wasn't." Anna explained. "I will see you tomorrow night then."
The next night at the kickoff, party Jessie walked in with Anna and the rest of her family. She wore a sparkly black dress with a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath. Anna was wearing her trademark black. Once her family had gone off to do their own things, including Tina going to find Damon, she decided to speak.
"You know this isn't really the ideal place for a first date." Jessie commented. "So have you been out with girls before?"
"I've played the field." The Asian girl replied. "I like to keep my options open and not restricted to a single gender."
Jessie had never thought about it before, but that was actually a good argument for bisexuality.
Suddenly, the music seemed to become a lot more energetic. Jessie couldn't remembered Stefan talking to the DJ and couldn't help but wonder if Stefan had compelled him. She then noticed that Stefan was dancing with Kelly Donovan.
"Isn't Stefan supposed to be all broody?" Jessie asked.
"I've done my homework on both of the Salvatores over the years. Has Stefan been drinking human blood recently?" Anna asked. Jessie didn't really know what that had to do with anything.
"I saw him drinking from Elena after I killed Frederick. She gave her blood to him to make him feel better." Jessie answered.
"Well that explains the change in behavior." Anna stated. "When Stefan drinks human blood, he tends to become a lot more fun, but also has the potential to be a lot more dangerous. That could be a problem for us."
"What are we going to do about it?" Jessie inquired.
"Right now? We're going to dance." Anna replied. "I don't mean together, but we have to dance to this music. It's too awesome not to dance to."
"I thought you didn't like today's music." Jessie reminded her as they moved toward the dance floor.
"This is indie rock." Anna explained. "I don't like the music that's on the radio right now."
Jessie began to move to the music. She had to admit, she didn't really expect to have fun at one of the stupid Founder's Day events. Every year like all of the other founding families, she was forced to participate…though she couldn't help but notice that Caroline wasn't there. She couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten out of it. While she was thinking, Anna twirled her. That caught her by surprise.
"Stop thinking so much and just enjoy yourself." She suggested. Just as Anna said that, the two of them happened to hear Elena bump into some guy and said guy did not seem very happy about it. Stefan seemed pissed.
"Are you sure that we shouldn't do anything?" Jessie asked.
"If things get out of control, I'll handle it." Anna promised as the song changed. "Ooh, Paramore."
"I need some air." Jessie admitted.
She walked out near the balcony. She started to think to herself. Could she actually like Anna? Was it really possible for her to like a girl? Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Damon break John Gilbert's neck and throw him over the balcony.
"Are you insane?" She scolded him.
"Was there anyone else around?" Damon asked. She shook her head. "Then it will be fine. Go back to your lady date while I try to find your sister."
"Damon please, if she doesn't mean anything to you, tell her now and spare her the heartache." Jessie requested. "I don't want to see her hurt, but if you don't care about her, you shouldn't be with her. Also she's not supposed to be drinking. She's on probation."
"I'm actually starting to like her." Damon replied as he went inside.
No sooner did Jessie make it back to Anna did she hear what appeared to be sounds of a fight.
"Can we go five minutes without someone fighting at this thing?" Jessie asked as she went to see who was fighting.
"I don't think you should." Anna told her. "It sounds like it could be bloody. I know you have most things under control, but open wounds are still hard to resist. I think struggle with them, which is how Jeremy got to me. It sounds like Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood."
Jessie guessed it wasn't any of her concern. Then she heard what appeared to be Alaric breaking up the fight. She went over to him
"Are you okay?" She asked him.
"I'm fine." Alaric told her as he noticed her perfume. "Are you on a date?"
"Since when do you care about my personal life?" She inquired.
"I just think that it's good that you're interested in guys your own age." He stated.
"Well…neither of those are exactly true." Jessie admitted, somewhat nervously as she looked over at Anna.
"Oh…okay." He remarked. "Is she the one who…"
"Yes." Jessie answered.
At that time, Damon walked over to Alaric.
"Do you know if there are any more of those rings like yours?" He asked. Jessie didn't understand what was so special about the ring.
"I don't know." Alaric replied.
"Well I would bet that there is considering that I killed John Gilbert, to which this one witnessed, and now he's working the crowd." Damon explained.
"Are you sure that you saw him?" Jessie asked at that very moment people started to walk toward the parlor for the mayor's speech. Sure enough, there was John.
"So the ring allows him to come back to life?" Jessie asked as she searched the room for Anna.
"Yeah, and history teacher has one too." Damon added as Jessie noticed Anna. She walked over to her.
"Do you know anything about I don't know…magic resurrection rings?" Jessie asked.
"I know that Jonathan Gilbert used to have one. They've been in the family for a long time." Anna explained. "They protect the wearer from being killed by vampires. As far as I can tell, there were two. He gave one to his son as well. I wanted to kill him myself, but Stefan beat me to it. Anyway, how is the night going for you?"
"Nothing against you, but this is a pretty lousy date." Jessie admitted. "Though, I think that things would have been the same even if this wasn't a date."
"Probably." Anna agreed, as she began to rub Jessie's back.
"What are you doing?" Jessie asked.
"Maybe you should take me home." Anna suggested. Jessie thought that that sounded like a good. The two of them walked outside and towards the house in the woods. It wasn't exactly the best place for a house.
The two eventually reached the cabin in the woods.
"So all of those vampires that survived are gone, right?" Jessie asked nervously.
"All of them except for Harper, since he was the only one who stayed loyal." Anna confirmed. "We haven't found a new boarder to keep vampires out yet."
"I'm sorry about that." Jessie apologized. She couldn't deny how good warm blood straight from the vein tasted, though. "It was the only thing that I could think of at the time and Damon needed to get in the house. They needed to get Stefan out and I wanted to help."
"Why were you interested in helping anyway?" Anna asked curiously as they stepped inside.
"It goes back to when he killed Ben." Jessie explained. "He spared my life with some pleading on my part, so I felt kind of indebted to him and wanted to save his, which I ended up doing when I killed Frederick."
"I'm home!" Anna shouted.
Pearl walked over.
"Would you like something to drink?" She asked Jessie.
"Yes, thank you." Jessie replied.
"Annabelle, why don't you go get your friend a glass?" Pearl requested. "I'd like to speak with her for a second."
Anna walked off and Jessie was a little bit confused.
"If you think for a second that I am going to let you date my daughter, you have another thing coming." Pearl warned her.
"Look, it was just a party." Jessie stated.
"I don't appreciate you taking her around the founding families like that. I know firsthand just what they are capable of and I do not want my daughter exposed to that."
"Mom, stop trying to control life." Anna replied as she appeared with a glass of blood. "I have the right to date whoever I want. I've had many boyfriends and girlfriends since you were gone."
Jessie was surprised that the fact that she was a girl really didn't seem to bother Pearl.
"Maybe I should just go." Jessie stated as she took the glass from Anna and gulped it before she went out the door. She sort of understood Pearl's viewpoint considering that she was locked in a tomb by the founding families, but at the same time, she didn't think that Pearl should be able to decide who Anna got to date. Anna was a big girl and she could take care of herself, not that she wanted to actually be Anna's girlfriend or anything. It seemed more likely that she would date Anna than she would Alaric, but he did seem jealous.
She walked inside of her house and noticed that her father was up, probably waiting for her.
"So I took Anna home." She stated. "I talked with her mom and I don't think that we can expect her over for dinner any time soon."
"Why not?" Hank asked.
"She's not exactly the biggest supporter of me and Anna as friends." Jessie replied, she wasn't exactly ready to let her parents know that she was actually on a date. "I think I'm going to head up to bed."
"Okay, see you in the morning." He told her.
So there really wasn't much action in this chapter. There was a lot of buildup of the potential relationship between Anna and Jessie. I also do have a plan for Jeremy if I end up going that route. Well don't forget to review,