Growing Pains Part I

Arabella Gilbert squeezed her eyes shut, but everything seemed to be incredibly bright and why the hell were the birds chirping so loud. Didn't they know that some of them were trying to sleep? Her hands gripped some of the lavender pillows and she wished that the birds would shut up.

But she knew that it was a school morning and Miranda would be up to wake her up any moment now. "Arabella. . .Bella. Arabella."

Arabella opened her eyes and she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She sat up in her bed and realized that she was staring into the soft green eyes of a dark hair boy who looked oddly concerned. "Arabella, are you all right? You've been tossing and turning all day."

Who the hell was this person? She relaxed slightly when she recognizes her older sister, Elena looking as if she had been crying and a handsome dark hair boy with blue eyes. "What are you doing here?" she didn't recognize anyone else except for her sister. "Am I- "

"Alive?" the dark hair boy scowled. "Ask Stefan, the hero." The green eyed boy who she imagined, must be Stefan frowned.

Elena reached over a squeezed her hand. "You were in an accident, Arabella," Elena said quietly. "But don't worry, you're ok, concentering. Matt survived and you're here."

Arabella gripped her bedcovers. "What sort of accident? And where are mom and daddy, are they ok?" Arabella bit her lip. "We had that fight at the bonfire, Matt and I. He was so excited about growing up and getting married and I wasn't ready- "she noticed that three people in her room started looking even more confuse. "What?"

Damon and Stefan exchanged looks. "Arabella can you tell me your name and your grade in high school?"

Arabella shrugged. "I'm in tenth grade and I'm fifteen years old." In reality she was a year older and she had just entered the 11th grade. "My full name is Arabella Chastity Gilbert."

"Bella," Elena said softly. "Do you know who we are?"

"Of course silly," Arabella smiled. "You're my older sister, Elena and I'm sure our annoying little brother Jeremy is around here somewhere, but I don't know who your friends are." She saw them looking ever more worried.

"This is Stefan and Damon Salvatore," Elena said slowly. "Bella, you were in an accident. Do you remember the last thing that happened?"

"It was the school bonfire, Matt and I got into a fight about the future. You were there, ember? Mom and dad came to pick us up since Aunt Jenna was visiting. I was texting Bonnie and you and mom were joking about what game we were going to play and then everything went black." She rubbed her throat, why was she so thirsty and why was everything so bright. "What?"

Damon blinked. How was this possible? Arabella didn't remember anything that happened after that summer. She didn't know that she had activated her curse or that she was now a hybrid and that she was damn lucky that she was the doppelganger in question otherwise she would be very dead right now. "Well," Damon smirked. "This is going to take a while."

"No!" Arabella screamed as she paced around the room as she rubbed her temples trying to block out all the sounds. She grabbed her water bottle from her nightstand, but no matter how much she seemed to drink, she was still thirsty. And to make matters worse, these strangers and her sister were trying to convince her that she had lost her mind that she was actually a hybrid part wolf, part vampire and that she needed to feed to complete her transition. What the hell were they talking about. "I'm not crazy! I'm not a hybrid! And I know very well that not a year has gone by yet. Elena, this is a sick joke that you're playing, mom, dad, aunt Jenna everyone is alive out there. I just know it!"

"I know it's a lot to take in, Arabella," Elena said softly trying to calm her down. "But it's the truth and you have to accept it. You're a vampire now, a hybrid and I don't know why this happened, how you lost your memories, but it happened."

Arabella gripped a nearby vase and smashed it against the wall angrily. "But I don't want to be anything! Can you make it stop? I want to be normal." She could feel the tears prickling behind her eyes, but she was not going to cry.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be," Stefan, the kinder of the two brothers said. "Bonnie can help. She says that she's stronger than ever, maybe there is something that she will be able to do."

"Bonnie? What is Bonnie going to be able to do?" Arabella demanded. She didn't know what her human friend Bonnie was capable of doing, but apparently she had missed a lot in these past few years.

"Nothing," Damon snapped rudely. "All of us know the drill, you feed or you die, there is no door number three, so Arabella let's get some blood bags and get this over with- "

"No," Arabella snapped at him. "I'm not going to let you drag me like some lost sheep, Damon. If you brother says Bon can help me then I will wait." She looked at the picture of her parents and she could feel her eyes fill with tears. "Just get me Bon and leave me alone- "

"Bell- "Elena said helplessly and Arabella scowled at her sister. "Now, Elena!"

"Your choice Arabella," Damon said his voice filled with sarcasm. "Like always."

"Nice of you to get her hopes up for something that has never happened in history," Damon said sarcastically as he and Stefan went down towards the kitchen. "I think we should be grateful that she didn't go full on wolf on us."

"And I think that you're upset over everything that is happening," Stefan said sounding exhausted. "Look Damon, we don't know what happened and I made a decision that I'm going to regret for the rest of my life."

Damon still looked pissed off. "You should have saved her first."

"She asked me to save Matt first."

"And now the world has one more quarterback, bravo brother." Damon said.

Stefan sighed. "Look, you're upset and you have every right to be. The love of your life has no idea who you are. But let me try and fix that, please."

Back upstairs Arabella was already regretting telling everyone to leave her alone. Her head was pounding and she could feel her jaw moving in place. Was that a wolf thing? Or a vampire thing?

She looked at her hands. No, there were still human hands.

"Arabella?"

She turned around and saw Jeremy and almost breathed a sigh of relief. "Jer."

"Are you ok?" he frowned. "I saw Vicki go through this, she was a mess. Her memories came flooding back and her emotions were all over the place- "

Arabella forced a smile. "I'm fine." She looked towards the nearby lamp. Why was everything so damn bright?

"No, you're not, you're you, you act like everything is fine, so that no one worries about you."

For God's sakes why couldn't Jeremy stop talking? "I said I'm fine!" She snapped. "I'm not Vicki Donovan, so don't compare me to her," she saw Jeremy's wounded face. "I- "she bit her lip. "Jeremy, Bonnie is a witch or whatever she will fix this. I will become a human again or closed to it and I will get my memories back.

"I hope so," Jeremy murmured. "Because I need my older sister back, not another one of them."

An hour later, Arabella was downstairs with the "good" Salvatore eating a roast beef sandwich with French fries which was something she apparently always craved, but now it just tasted disgusting to her.

Stefan looked at her and winced. "It's disgusting."

"No," Arabella forced a smile. "It's- "

"Bella," Stefan gave her a wry smile. "Just admit it, it's disgusting."

Arabella put her sandwich down. "Yeah, it's pretty bad," she rubbed her temples. "Where's Elena? She doesn't want to look at me?"

"She's getting some fresh air."

Arabella took a sip of water. "You mentioned that I was a wolf before and that now I'm a hybrid. What does that mean, that my wolf side is gone?"

Stefan shook his head. "No, it just means that you don't have to wait until the full moon to transform. I know it sounds like it came out of a fiction novel."

Arabella gave him a tired smile. "Pretty much." She shook her head. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't stop thinking about blood. Am I supposed to feel this way?"

He sighed. "I should have saved you first, not Matt, then you wouldn't be going through this."

She scowled at him. "Don't say that, then Matt would be dead, believe me this is much better." She sighed. "Stef, I think I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap." She bolted up the stairs and walked into her room.

"Cute pj's," Damon said as he sat on the edge of Arabella's bed. "I didn't think you were the frilly nightgown type of gal. But now that I see you it suits you after all."

Arabella sighed. "I'm tired Damon, I've have a long day not to mention that a lot of Originals have tried to kill me today."

Damon showed her a silver necklace. "Here, I thought you would need this."

Arabella smiled as she looked at him. "My necklace, I thought I lost it forever. Thank you, Damon." Damon smiled as he stroke her cheek and kissed her.

Arabella blinked once then twice, what the hell was that?

Rebekah Mikaelson scowled as she looked at the array of paintings in the room. These were Klaus'. Her dead brother. The one she had loved and hated with such passion and now he was dead thanks to that little twit Arabella Gilbert and her sidekicks. "It's rude to sneak up on a lady."

"Good idea," Damon said sarcastically, he was holding a white oak stake. "Have you've seen one?"

"Tragic about poor, weak, innocent Arabella," Rebekah said sarcastically. "Not to make a gray cloud grayer, but does Matt even have automobile insurance?"

Damon scowled as he went towards her and attempted to stake her with the stake. She was too fast for him and she managed to push him to the ground. Her high heel boot at his throat.

The windows burst opened as Rebekah was shot with wooden bullets, Rebekah gasped as she fell to the floor.

After an uneasy nap, Arabella went downstairs in search of her sister, "Elena?" she stopped short when she saw Stefan in the entryway with several guns pointed at him.

"Arabella," Stefan groaned. "Don't move."

"So you still want to become a doctor Arabella?" Pastor Young told her as he lit up the stove. After his deputies had taken Stefan and her away, she had been sent towards the young pastor. "I remember you wanted to become an OB/GYN, eventually get into surgery. You and my daughter April used to play doctor and nurse when you were younger."

"Why did you bring me here. I don't want to hear about stories of the past."

Arabella saw as Pastor Young started cooking. "Don't worry I have deputies surrounding this place. No vampires are allowed in, we need to protect this town Arabella, it was your own parents who wanted to protect this city from monsters."

"Bella?" he said. "Are you ok?"

"Where's Stefan?" Arabella demanded. "Take me to him."

"He's where he wont hurt you."

Arabella shook her head. "He wouldn't hurt me. Not all vampires are bad."

"Well, I know where you go the Salvatore vampires seem to follow," Pastor Young said as he pulled out some meat from the fridge and set it down on the table. "You hungry?"

"No," Arabella managed to say. She was starting to feel so dizzy.

Pastor Young continued. "So, we'll hold you and Stefan until Damon comes for you two and then we'll use Rebekah to lure her siblings back into town. You and your sister will give us the white oak stake and we'll extinguish the vampire race for good." he places a steak in front of her and Arabella saw that there was still some blood on the raw meat. Blood. God, she wanted blood. "Arabella, are you ok?"

"No," Arabella trembled. "I have to get out of here." She got up and pushed the door open and started running. Everything was becoming dizzy. How did she turn back into a wolf? If she did that then maybe she could run faster.

"Get her!"

Arabella felt something sharp against the back of her head and everything darkened.

-End of Chapter One-

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