Really short chapter, but it's more a 'in between' chapter. The next one will definately be longer. 'Katherine' returns to school, Damon makes his first appearance and we'll start to find out more about Katherine Gilbert's life. While 'Katherine' - Elena - starts to regain some of her memories. I really hope you like it! It's the first time I try to write a mistery story but I have it well planned out so it should be okay.

Please leave some reviews, I'd love to hear your opinions about my story!

Interlude

'Katherine' woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and immediately called a nurse to give her something for the pain. A few hours later, after having what passed for breakfast in a hospital, she was watching TV and waiting anxiously for the visiting hours to begin.

At 10:30, punctual like a clock, two pretty girls made their way inside the room she was staying in. The first one was blonde and blue-eyed, almost Barbie-like in her appearance, while the other one had bronze skin, dark hair and green eyes. They were both wearing the latest fashion in designer clothes and they were obviously used to it because they appeared perfectly comfortable in it.

"Katherine!" The blonde said with an acute tone. "Oh sweety, look at you" She said, hugging her closely to herself. She felt a little awkward, hugging a complete stranger - as far as she was concerned at least - but she let her, not wanting to be rude.

"Caroline, let her breath!" the mocha-skinned girl said to the blonde. "You know what Mrs G told us. She doesn't remember anything. She doesn't remember us."

Caroline immediately let her go with a frown on her face. "I know" She said towards the other girl - probably Bonnie - then turning towards her, she said "I'm sorry Katherine. I know you don't remember us but we're your best friends and we were so worried about you. What were you doing at the Lake House so late?". 'Katherine' wondered how many times she would be asked that question.

"I don't know." She said in response, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, of course you don't". Caroline said with a giggle.

"What Caroline is trying to say is that it's really strange, the fact that nobody had any idea that you would be there..."

"But let's not talk about that, okay?" Caroline interrupted with a mischievous smile. "We called your parents and told them that you would be completely ours for today. We have so much to tell you. But first..." She started to rummage into her bag and retrieved a beauty case and a curly iron from it before continuing "Make over. You look so pale, and you have shadows under your eyes. And that big, purple bruise on your forehead...so doesn't look good on you. You may not remember it, but you would never be caught up dead looking like this." Caroline finished, a hopeful look on her face.

"All right. Do your magic" 'Katherine answered with a smile. "So, I'm popular, right?" She asked then.

Bonnie smiled at her before answering "The most popular girl at school. Every girl wants to be you and every guy wants to be with you" She finished with a grin.

'Katherine' laughed slightly, but felt a little uncomfortable. She didn't know why but the girl they were describing didn't sound like her, didn't feel like her. She just wished she could regain her memories, then everything would make sense.

Caroline started with the makeup while Bonnie proceeded to give her a manicure. Then it was the turn of her hair. Two hours of prodding and probing at her and they showed her the final result. 'Katherine' looked at her reflection in the mirror and suppressed a gasp. Her hair were cascading perfectly in long curls around her face, her eyes were lined with a black pencil and dark eye-shadow, making them appear bigger and doe-like while her lips were tinted with a clear lip-gloss, making them look more plump. She looked...beautiful and sexy. She had never thought about herself as sexy - or at least she didn't feel she did since she couldn't remember - but now, even wearing a hospital gown, she felt...desirable.

She smiled at Caroline and Bonnie in gratitude, thinking for the first time since she had woken up yesterday that maybe losing her memory wasn't such a bad thing if she had friends like them to help her remember.

After a week spent at the hospital she was finally free to return home. Her parents, her sister and brother came everyday to visit her and she had also been visited by some of her classmates and her boyfriend.

Both her parents and her best friends had spent the week trying to recap her life, and now she finally felt like she was starting to get comfortable in it.

The remaining weeks before school started were spent relaxing, and trying to get acclimated with her things.

Her bedroom was huge, when she saw it the first time she couldn't believe her eyes. She hadn't realized how rich her parents were until she set foot inside the house. It was a neoclassical two and a half story house with a portico supported by white columns, big windows, expensive furniture and even a swimming-pool outside.

And her wardrobe. It was unbelievable how many clothes she owned, all perfectly organized inside a walking closet. And it was all designer clothes. Chanel, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Chou etc. She couldn't believe that everything inside was hers. She was almost afraid to touch it.

Now it was Sunday, a day before school started and she was browsing through the photos inside her Facebook page, trying to memorize the faces she would meet tomorrow. There were a lot of photos with Bonnie and Caroline, with her sister, some with her brother and some with her parents and with her swimming team. A lot of them were team photos but a great number of them were of her and the coach, one Damon Salvatore, an incredibly attractive man in his mid-twenties with raven hair and magnetic blue eyes. Damon - as Katherine seemed to call him, not Mr Salvatore or Coach Salvatore - was also her English teacher. Maybe it was because it was her coach first and foremost but it seemed they had a close relationship.

A girl appeared often in the photos too. She was part of the swimming team beside being a cheerleader. She was very pretty with a devious smile on her face, blonde hair and blue eyes. But they didn't seem to get along if the many snarky messages exchanged between the two of them were anything to go by.

Then there were the photos with her boyfriend, Matt Donovan, a swimmer too. Matt was an attractive guy with blonde hair, baby-blue eyes and an infectious smile. Unfortunately they seemed to be going through a tough period because Matt had come visiting only a handful of times since she had been back from the hospital and only once when she had been in the hospital.

Her Facebook page couldn't tell her everything though, so she wondered if maybe she kept a diary somewhere since she knew for certain that she loved to write and she had the best grades in the entire school in English.

She wondered for a moment where she might have hidden a diary and took a look around her. There was the desk, with books and notebooks scattered all over its surface. Maybe in one of its drawers? She was able to open two of the three but there wasn't anything important in either of them. The third one was locked and she had no idea where the key was. She shook her head and give up for the moment, hoping that the diary - if even there was one - was somewhere else. She decided to try the closet, just in case. Maybe there was some hidden compartment she hadn't noticed before. She tried behind every single article but there was nothing. She was just about to give up when she noticed a floorboard slightly offset like someone - probably herself - had tried to put it back in its place in a hurry. She came closer cautiously and shifted the floorboard even more before putting her hand inside it. After some touching around, she was finally able to retrieve the little book inside. She smiled once she saw it. It was definitely a diary.

She opened it immediately at about halfway through but frowned, confused when she noticed what it was written in it.

24 January 2010

C is still upset. She should just get over it.

'Katherine' reread the two single sentences on the otherwise blank page but she wasn't more enlightened than before for it. She tried to check some of the other pages in her diary but they were all similar to that one. Two - sometimes three - cryptic sentences that didn't make the least sense to her.

She found another one that intrigued her for some reason even if she had no idea what it meant. It was one of the last sentences she had written, of about four months ago, just a few days before the end of the last school year.

13 June 2010

I finally did it today. It didn't go at all how I was expecting, though. I'm going to ruin him for that.

'Katherine' tried to understand what it could possibly mean but she had absolutely no idea. Nothing she did sparked her memory in any way. But she had written those things down, she should remember something about it right? Instead, she didn't. They absolutely made no sense to her. And surely she hadn't make things easier for herself. Who writes things like those in a diary? Herself apparently.

And who the hell was the person that she wanted to ruin? And for what? What had this guy done that was so awful? Why she had at one point wanted to ruin him?

She shook her head and decided that there was no use in trying to understand the strange things she had written in this diary. She could hope her memories would return soon. She put the diary back in its place and decided that it was time for her to go to bed. Tomorrow she would start school again and she needed to be ready.