CHAPTER 5 – DETENTION

Damon had been trying to talk to her all week. But she didn't want to hear his lame apologies. There was nothing he could say to fix it anyways—the way he'd said what he thought about her left no doubt that he meant it. It was the ugly truth. And that stung. Especially since Elena had thought that maybe they could become good friends and that she'd found someone who understood her. Someone who lost someone beloved just like she did. But now she could safely do without him. It wasn't like she didn't have any other friends at school. She still had Caroline and Bonnie. And all the others.

Elena turned her head to the side to search for Bonnie's eyes, but her friend was busy drawing sketches on her sketch pad. Elena looked to the other side to see what Caroline was doing. The girl looked at her, then at the clock and rolled her eyes. Elena looked up at the clock, too, to check the time. Still 20 minutes to go. She sighed. She should have listened to Ms. Sommers when she had warned her about Mrs. Fell. That crazy old lady had first contacted Mrs. Lockwood, the girls' school principal, and as soon as she'd noticed that there were boys present, she'd called the boys' school principal Mr. John, too, who had then run over to the girls' dorm and put an end to the party. The only good thing about it was that he stopped the fight between Damon and Mason who would have probably killed each other if Mr. John hadn't pulled one of the boys back.

The rest of the party had ended pretty badly. Most of the girls and boys could disappear before they were caught by one of the teachers, but Caroline, Bonnie, Matt, Damon, Mason, Elena and Anna weren't that lucky. Anna, who had still been in the bathroom with her boyfriend Jeremy, had managed to sneak him out, but got caught before she could do likewise. But nevertheless, she, Elena's two roommates and Matt were lucky and this Friday was the last day of detention for them.

Elena, being a 'passive' part of the fist fight between Damon and Mason as their reason for it, had to come over to the boys' school five days of the week for the rest of month. The principal had originally intended to give Bonnie and Caroline the same punishment, but since Elena had taken the blame and claimed that the party was her idea and that the two girls were just unlucky to share a room with her, they got only one week of detention like Matt and Anna. Whatever.

Elena leaned back in her seat, let her head fall back and closed her eyes. What no-one except for her knew was that she was listening to music. Her long, brown hair covered the earphones and her iPod was hidden in a pocket inside of her hoodie.

After a good three songs, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and turned around. Matt quickly sneaked a small piece of paper in her hand and mouthed 'from Damon'. Elena turned back around and faced the chalk board again. Mr. John, who was sitting at the teacher's desk, didn't seem to have noticed the small exchange. Elena turned the piece of paper back and forth with her fingers and debated with her herself whether she should read it or not. After a whole week avoiding slash ignoring Damon's attempts to talk to her—after detention, during cheerleader training or lunch break—she couldn't just give in and read his note. She fiercely crumpled the note and stood up, intending to throw it in the trash.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mr. John asked without looking up from his work.

"I… I just want to throw something in the trash," Elena replied truthfully.

"Then you ask for it and don't simply stand up and do as you want."

Mr. John laid his pen down and looked up. Elena raised her eyebrows in disbelief and kept on walking over to the trash can. Quickly, Mr. John stood up and grabbed her by the arm. Elena heard a chair being pushed backwards and saw Damon standing up out of the corner of her eye.

"No need to stand up, Mr. Salvatore," Mr. John bellowed. "You don't want to get another two weeks of detention, do you?"

Elena turned her head and looked at Damon who was staring wildly at his teacher.

His eyes flickered over to her and she slightly shook her head. He looked back at Mr. John, giving him the evil eye and finally sat back down again in defense.

Mr. John stared at him for another few seconds before he let go of Elena's arm and announced: "Give me that little note you wanted to throw in the trash, Ms. Gilbert."

Elena swallowed. She looked back at Damon to see if he looked embarrassed about what was about to come. Mr. John was surely reading it out loud in front of everyone. Damon avoided her eyes and looked at the ground, cursing.

Mr. John smiled evilly. "I see. You got a little note from our overprotective Mr. Salvatore there. Give it to me."

Elena's heart was beating fast now. She didn't know what was written in the note, but she guessed it was something embarrassing for Damon if it was read out loud. Probably some stupid apology.

She was still pretty pissed at him, but she didn't want to make him suffer in front of the whole class.

"I don't know what note you're talking about," Elena said nonchalantly and pushed the piece of paper inside her jeans.

"The note you just pushed into your jeans," Mr. John said, gritting his teeth. "Give. It. To. Me."

"As I said. I don't know what note you're talking about," Elena said and smiled. "And I'm certain that there is no note inside of my jeans."

"Of course there is! I saw how you pushed it inside!" Mr. John shouted. "I can prove it."

"Oh? Care to explain me how you want to do that?"

"Just put—" Mr. John stopped himself before the rest of the sentence slipped out.

"Did you just want to tell me to put my pants down?" Elena said and raised her eyebrows. "I really don't think this is appropriate in your position as the principal, sir."

"That is not what I was going to say," Mr. John said, desperately trying to keep his voice down. He took a deep breath to calm down and swallowed. "Everyone else saw you slipping the note in your jeans. Am I right?"

He looked at the others, expecting them to agree with him.

"Well, I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know what note you're talking about," Caroline said innocently.

"Don't you dare lie to me! If it wasn't for that note, why did she go to the trash can then?"

Elena quickly pulled out an old tissue while Mr. John was furiously staring at Caroline who was just staring back at him and shrugging. "I guess she just wanted to get rid of that tissue," the blonde finally said and pointed to the tissue Elena was now throwing in the trash can.

"I… This will have consequences," Mr. John pressed out between gritted teeth and banged his fist on the table just as the bell rang to signal the end of detention.

"I'm sure it will," Elena said as she grabbed her bag and left the room.

"That was genius," Bonnie greeted her outside of the classroom.

"Thanks," Elena smiled and added: "Let's go to the cheerleader training, then?"

"Sure," Caroline said and they made their way out of the boys' school.

"Elena! Wait!" she heard Damon shout behind them.

Bonnie and Caroline glanced at her. "It's okay. I'll see you at the gym," Elena said and stood, waiting for Damon to catch up.

"Oh, thank God, I already thought you'd ignore me again," he said smirking as he stopped beside her.

"What do you want?" Elena asked coldly.

"C'mon, Elena," Damon said, seeming a little desperate about her dismissive behavior. "Haven't you punished me enough for what I've said?"

"I'm not punishing you for anything," Elena said calmly. "I just don't want to hang around with people that think of me as a—what was it? A cheap little whore?"

Damon's shoulders sagged down. "Come on. You know I didn't mean it like that," he said ruefully.

"Yeah? Then I don't see why you said it in the first place," Elena snapped and was about to turn, when she felt his hand on her shoulders.

"Wait," he said as she turned back around and looked irritated at him.

"Can you please let go of my arm, the other girls are waiting for me at the gym."

"Just—Just read the note that I wrote you, okay?" Damon said and looked her straight in the eye. Elena didn't know what she saw in his eyes and before she could figure it out, Damon let go of her and walked past her and out of the building.

For a few seconds, Elena just stood there, frozen in the spot. Then she put her hand into her jeans and pulled the small piece of paper out of one of the pant legs where it had slipped in.

Elena, the note read. I'm sorry about what I said to you. I swear I didn't mean it like that. I was just confused how you could act like nothing happened when not even I, who didn't go through what you did, could. And I guess I was just acting out because I was jealous that you kissed Ric but ran away from kissing me. I hope you can forgive me and don't think I'm a douche now. Can we please talk later after detention? I want to explain everything in person. D.

The last few sentences were written so small that Elena had a hard time deciphering them. When she finally did, she needed to read the note again to make sure her mind didn't play games with her. But she'd read was jealous? Why would he be jealous? Was he—? No, that wasn't possible. He barely knew her. He couldn't have a thing for her. He was just overprotective because of what had happened to her and mistaking it for actual feelings for her. She was sure of it.

A loud noise snapped her back to reality. Elena zipped her bag open and answered her phone while making her way out of the school.

"Elena! What is taking you so long? Damon's already here and we're still waiting! You said you'd participate in the performance tomorrow and you can't if you don't know the steps—"

"Hey, calm down, Care, I'll be there in a sec," Elena interrupted her excited friend and hung up.

a/n: this chapter is a rather short one in comparison to the others. i'm not sure if i like it, but i hope you do :) next chapter will be longer, i just didn't want to make you wait such a long time again!
hana x