Disclaimer- I own no rights to the Vampire Diaries
A/N- A little bit of a fluff chapter, but every story has some right? Action is coming soon, I promise. Happy Reading!
Chapter Six
It was only three days before school started and also the day of tryouts. Things had been quiet when it came to the twins, they hadn't attacked and none had seen them around town and all were thankful for that.
Mystic's Bonnie and Elena as well as Fell's Bonnie, Elena, and Meredith were on their way to tryouts. Caroline had left about an hour earlier since she had to meet with the coach and co-captain.
"So you guys ready for this... I'm pretty sure we'll warm-up and then run a few laps before we get into learning the cheers and dance." Mystic's Bonnie smiled over the passenger seat at the three girls in the back.
"We are SO ready for this" Fells' Elena smiled brightly. "Alright 'cause here we are" Mystic's Elena announced, pulling into a parking space.
They jogged down to the field and began to warm up with the rest of the girls while attendance was being taken.
After everyone was counted as 'here' they all were instructed to jog two laps around the track. They began running and talking, laughing at the football players who were getting yelled at for watching them.
Next came learning a cheer and dance to perform in a group of three in front of Caroline, the Co-Captain-Liz-, and the Coach.
The first group included Mystic's Bonnie and Elena as well as another girl the Fells girls were not familiar with.
"Next is... Katie Gilbert, Stacy McCullough, and Meredith Sulez" The coach announced, reading from a sheet of paper. The girls performed their cheer and then waited hands by their sides, heads down, waiting for the music to start.
Bonnie and Elena performed it easily, but Meredith seemed to be a beat behind, her moves slightly angry. When they finished they smiled at the 'Judges' and reintroduced themselves before going back to sit on the bleachers with the others.
"You guys did great!" Mystic's Bonnie and Elena smiled hugging them.
"I can't wait to see if we made it... when do we find out?" Fells' Elena asked.
"Today... I think they decide right after this group" Mystic's Bonnie answered. They nodded and sat in silence when the three final girls joined the others.
"Alright so we had five spots to fill and they go to... Elena Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, Katie Gilbert, Stacy McCullough, and Tina Church" The coach smiled at the group.
"Great job ladies" She added before dismissing them to go home or to the locker room for a uniform.
XXX
Meredith waited for the girls outside of the locker room, slightly upset. Meredith didn't understand how she didn't make it and it hurt to see her friends having something to do together and she wasn't included.
"This sucks" Meredith mumbled.
"Really? Why is that?" A voice asked, causing her to jump. She whirled around to come face to face with a tall man with dark blonde hair and brown eyes. He was buff and fit, a warm smile dancing on his lips.
"No reason." Meredith replied easily, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms, "Who are you, may I ask?"
He, too, crossed his arms, and mimicked the expression on her face, raising an eyebrow and glaring at her. Then he burst out laughing and punched her playfully, "Loosen up. I don't bite"
Right. She'd heard that line many times before. "I said, who are you?"
"Jeez, calm down. My name's Alaric Saltzman. And you are?"
But Meredith was barely listening anymore. Her heart almost stopped, right then and there. Because standing in front of her, was her ex-boyfriend's double.
XXX
"You can buy your locker right now or wait until school starts and pay for it then." The coach shouted from her office, "Although by then, most of the lockers will already be filled. So I suggest you do it now. You decide."
"This is so exciting!" Caroline squealed as she came up to the girls with a box in her hands, "Let's find lockers close together, okay?" She squealed again and set the box down on one of the benches, "This will definitely be the best senior year ever!"
The girls coughed and nudged Caroline, who in turn lowered her voice, ignoring the questionable looks from the other girls in the locker room.
"Poor Mere' though..." Bonnie murmured to Elena with a frown.
"Why didn't Meredith make it, Caroline?" Elena found herself demanding with just the tiniest bit of attitude.
Caroline opened the box as she answered, handing out stacks of clothes to the girls, "When you're a cheerleader you need to have rhythm, you need to be able to move in time to the music-What are you? Small?-Meredith, on the other hand, she looked like she...I don't know, she just...she needs to loosen up, her hips are all stiff-Here, this is a medium-I mean, sure she can somersault and all that good stuff, but what's the point if she's not comfortable with it? -A small for you-She's a great fighter, I'll give you that, and I'm not saying she's a lost case, because believe me, she's good, she just needs a little more practice. I'm sorry but I can't have just anyone on my team-Here ya' go-I think she'd be better off trying out for soccer or something, football even." She shrugged and shot the two girls an apologizing smile before shoving an outfit into each of their hands and saying, "Small for you and extra small for you." Then she dropped two pairs of glistening pom-poms over the clothing and pranced away.
Bonnie sighed and stared after her retreating figure. "That's Caroline for you, brutally honest." Mystic's Bonnie appeared beside them. She'd obviously been listening.
"Yeah." Fells' Elena agreed warily, before she took Bonnie's wrist and they hurried off to try the cheerleading outfits on.
XXX
"Your name's Alaric?" Meredith asked standing straight up.
"Yeah... I'll be teaching a history class here again" He smiled.
Meredith took a step back, "I have to go... my friends are done" She said jogging up to both Elena and Bonnie's who were just exiting the locker room. They walked back outside together, Meredith casting a final glance at Alaric Saltzman.
The girls stood together by Mystic Elena's car talking for a while. They talked about tryouts, but saw it made Meredith uncomfortable and changed the subject.
"So do you guys want to go to the mall for back to school shopping or something? We know you guys don't have much clothing" Mystic's Bonnie suggested.
"That'd be awesome" Fells' Bonnie clapped her hands excitedly.
"KATIE!" Elena turned her blonde head to see Tyler waving at her from beside the bleachers. Elena waved back smiling, "Hey... I'll be right back and then we can go okay?" She didn't wait for a response and jogged down to the bleachers.
She kissed Tyler quickly on the lips and rolled her eyes as his friends jeered and pushed him on the way up to the gym locker room before heading back up the hill.
"Bonnie... I think Stefan wants to see you" Elena smiled, her blonde ponytail swishing behind her.
"No he doesn't" Mystic's Bonnie blushed.
"Well he sure was staring at you when I went down there" Elena laughed getting into the backseat beside Meredith and Fells' Bonnie.
"Right" Bonnie rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the blush that crept up to her cheeks.
"So... Mall?" Elena smiled at them all, getting into the driver's seat.
"Yep" They all laughed, not caring that they were still in their cheerleading clothes.
They were at the mall for hours, until it was time to close and security had to kick them out.
"Oh darn." Caroline muttered when they were finally walking to Elena's car, which seemed lonely in between to the emptiness of the huge parking lot, "It's raining."
"What's wrong with rain?" Fells' Bonnie asked as she struggled to carry over a dozen full shopping bags,
"We can go to the Boarding House and have a scary movie night. It'll make this the best freaking day ever!"
"Yess." Fells' Elena gushed, throwing her own bags into the trunk, "I miss that."
"And we can cuddle with the guys we like..." Even Meredith sounded excited.
They all got into the car and continued chatting. "I'm squished though." Mystic's Bonnie complained once they were inside.
"I am too." Mystic's Elena called from the front, "I mean come on, we must have like a hundred shopping bags in here and a hundred more in the trunk."
"We probably used up all of the money in the guy's credit cards." Mystic's Bonnie responded thoughtfully.
"Sorry, we'll pay them back, we promise." Meredith assured them.
"Yeah." Fells' Elena agreed, "Every last cent." "Nah, no worries. I'm sure they won't mind."
"If only they'd accepted our credit cards," Fells' Bonnie spoke up, "Or even Stefan's or Damon's. Our Stefan and Damon, I mean...We would have left them broke too." The girls giggled at her comment and
Fells' Elena added with an eye roll, "But apparently the credit cards aren't valid because the bank called Fells Church Community Bank doesn't exist." She scoffed, "Can you believe how rude that woman from Hollister was?"
"You looked like you were ready to strangle her." Meredith chuckled.
"I truly was." Elena admitted.
"Well at least we have really cute new outfits!" Fells' Bonnie cried, digging into one of her Abercrombie and Fitch bags and pulling out a silk button up with its matching skirt.
"True."
"We're here." Mystic's Elena said as she parked in front of the boarding house. She got out and loaded herself with about fifteen bags before meekly calling over her shoulder, "If the Salvatore brothers were humans they'd most likely have a heart attack."