A/N - Hello again. I think I have figured out where I want this story to head and I have some ideas as to how it is going to get there. Hopefully this chapter will help clarify some things and really start to get the plot rolling. As you will notice, I have taken some ideas/plots from the show and mashed them with this story to put my own twist on them in order to get them to fit into this AU better. There will be some very familiar scenes and some totally new ones.

I have also decided that at least at the beginning I am going to alternate between the present and past every other chapter. That way hopefully you won't have to wait too long between chapters.

Shout out to Anna Lane for reviewing. Enjoy!

Elena's phone rang and she put it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Elena, it's Caroline. So I can't believe I didn't mention this today in school, I mean, I must have been so excited to have a new student that I forgot. Oh well, anyway there is this tradition that we do here in Mystic Falls on the first day of the school year. We have this bonfire out next to the woods and everybody comes. I want you to come. Will you?"

"Will I . . . Come?" Elena repeated, trying to make sure she was answering the right question. Caroline was hard to keep up with sometimes, even with Elena's vampire speed.

"Yeah. Will you come? I mean, there are still a lot of people I have to introduce you too, and . ." She hesitated.

"And what?" Elena asked.

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you this, but it's pretty obvious anyway, so I'm just gonna spill. Stefan Salvatore has his eye one you."

Elena thought back through her day at school, trying to remember who Stefan Salvatore was. "Oh . . kay" Elena replied drawing the word out.

"No Elena, you don't understand Stefan is like, gorgeous. I tried to get him to go out with me a while ago, but it didn't really work out. Anyway, he is like, the boy in school everyone wants, while he mostly keeps to himself. You know, quiet type, dark and mysterious." Elena could practically hear Caroline wiggling her eyebrows at her through the phone. "No one is really even friends with him except for Matt and the Sophomore Jeremy. And, maybe his older brother. I don't know much about Damon except that he works at a mechanic and also looks like a dream."

"Damon?"

"Yeah, Stefan's older brother. Didn't I say that?"

Elena smiled. "Maybe you did. And my answer is yes."

"Yes . . ."

"Yes, I will come to the bonfire tonight."

Elena could hear Caroline's sigh of relief. "Okay, good. And then I can introduce you to Stefan."

"Sounds like a plan." Elena hung up the phone. She hoped she hadn't just made a huge mistake. Going to a party like that, left a lot of things open to go wrong, because as much as she hated it, she wasn't human. Being a vampire meant danger, both for her and for those around her. But Elena wasn't going to let her fear control her and she was here to be an ordinary human and do ordinary human things, like go to a bonfire party.

The flames licked higher and higher, reaching for the night sky. Stefan had been hanging with Matt and Jeremy for a while, until Jeremy had gone to hang out with his sort-of-girlfriend Vicki and Matt had gone to get something to drink. Stefan didn't mind though, he enjoyed the peace he got from watching the flames. However, this time didn't last long as Caroline made her way pointedly toward him. He watched her curiously. Caroline was kind and caring, but she was also somewhat neurotic and a bit of a control freak. But Stefan didn't really mind that. He had a feeling that there was more to this girl then school floats and blond hair.

Finally, she reached him. "Hi Stefan. I want to introduce you to someone." She turned to the girl she had been dragging behind her. "Elena, this is Stefan Salvatore. Stefan, this is Elena Pierce. She's new to the school. Why don't you show her around." Before either Stefan or Elena could point out the fact that they weren't at school, Caroline had disappeared into the crowd.

Elena smiled at Stefan. "Hi. I'm Elena, but I guess you already know that since Caroline just said that."

Stefan smiled back. "Yeah, Caroline can be a little, pushy sometimes, but . ."

Elena nodding, knowing what he meant.

"So what brings you to Mystic Falls?" Stefan asked. He was curious why a girl like Elena would ever want to move to his quiet town.

Elena seemed to tense up slightly, but Stefan noticed. "Well, my ancestors were from here and I wanted to come back to my roots, you know? Like, get to know my heritage."

"So wait. Are you like a Pierce, like the founding families Pierce?"

Elena nodded

"But I had thought that they all died out in the 19th century."

Elena shook her head. "No, they just moved away. The Battle of Willow Creek had been somewhat of a traumatic experience for the Pierce girls, so they moved away."

There was a scream from the forest and a commotion from the same direction a few seconds later. Stefan and Elena ran over. Stefan spotted Matt on the other side of the bonfire doing the same. When they reached the forest, Stefan saw Vicki coming out of the woods. She was frantic, pointing behind her.

Matt reached her first. "Vic, what's wrong? What is it?"

She grabbed her brother. "Jeremy. He . . he's on the ground. A lot of blood. I don't know what happened. I left to get a drink but before I could even reach the bonfire, I heard a noise. And now he's hurt. Oh, Matt what have I done. I should have been there."

Stefan ran towards the woods. He came across Jeremy who, sure enough, was laying on the ground, bleeding from the neck. Stefan thought that was a strange place for a wild animal to have gotten Jeremy, but shook it off. He picked his friend up and carried him back toward the bonfire.

Someone had called 911 and he could hear the sirens in the distance. Elena ran up to him and Jeremy but froze when she saw the wound on his neck.

"Can you help me get him over to the road?" He asked her.

Elena took a step back, looking sick. "No, I'm sorry. I get . . . sick around blood." She turned away from him, as if to hide her face. After a few seconds, she looked back at Stefan. "It was nice meeting you, but I have to go." She turned around and ran away.

Matt came over and gave Stefan a hand with getting Jeremy to the road, where an ambulance had arrived.

Had she been naive to hope, even for a day, that she could be normal? Elena paced back and forth in the living room of the foreclosure. She thought she had been careful. She thought no one had followed her. But obviously she had thought wrong. What had happened at the bonfire was proof of that. There was another vampire in town. And although the last thing she wanted was for anyone to be put in danger because of her or to find out what she really was, she had no choice but to stay in town. She couldn't leave them knowing there was someone else out there. She needed to figure out who it was, and she needed to stop them.