Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OC, and any other characters and plotline I make up along the way!

Author's Note: I'm excited for this story!

Also, I'm just gonna go ahead and make Bamon canon for this story.

Enjoy!

"How was the first day of school?" Mom asked over dinner. She brought our dinner-grilled chicken with vegetables- over to the table in paper plates.

"Good. Question though: why are we eating using plastic utensils?" I asked as I held up my plastic knife and fork.

"Because until we get a dishwasher installed, we're using plastic stuff," Mom answered as brought over paper cups.

"Mom, this house is like four hundred years old," I said. "I don't think you can install something like that into it."

"Just watch me," Mom taunted as she went over to our fridge to grab the jug of water.

I leaned over so that I could whisper to Dad, "Do you ever stop to think 'hey, I married that girl'?"

Dad shrugged a little. "After over twenty years you get used it."

"I heard that," Mom said in a sing song voice as she sat down next to Dad. "Now, we're not talking about my problems, we're talking about yours."

"What's my problem?" I asked, confused.

"Do you want to talk about Spaghetti Shirt?" Mom asked as she cut into her chicken.

I practically choked on my steamed vegetables.

"Wait, who is Spaghetti Shirt?" Dad asked.

I huffed as I pointed to myself. "I am, Dad. And as we speak, that shirt is being washed, as well as a sweater that my new friend was nice enough to lend to me."

"Do I have to beat someone up?" Dad asked. "Because I will do that, if I have to."

"No, Dad, you don't have to do that," I told him. "But what you can do is buy me a car."

Mom and Dad both laughed. "Nice try," Dad said. "No one owns a car in London. There's really no point."

"Then how am I supposed to survive the nearly two mile walk to school when Mom can't drive me?"

"Invest in a bike?" Mom suggested.

"And get exercise? No thanks."

"How about rollarblades?" Dad offered.

"I'm not coordinated enough for those."

"That's true."

"Dad! You're not supposed to agree with me!"

"What if it's the truth?"

"You're still not supposed to say it! That's what Uncle Klaus says."

"Oh, Uncle Klaus only says that because he hates getting his feelings hurt," Mom cut in. She pointed her plastic fork at me. "Oh, and Matt called me. Why haven't you called him yet?"

"Why do I have to? It's not like he's my Dad dad."

"Dad and I may be your parents, but you're still Matt's first born," Mom said. "And you mean a lot to him because of that."

"Technically Rachel's his first born," I pointed out.

"Rachel's the one he had with his actual wife and who he kept," Mom went on. "But like it or not, you are still his offspring."

I rolled my eyes a little. "I'll call him when I call him."

"Lexi, don't talk to your mother like that," Dad slightly scolded.

I sighed. "Fine. I'll call him after dinner."

"Good," Mom said. "Have you gotten anything for Rachel for her birthday?"

I groaned. "Do I have to?"

"She's your sister, Lex," Dad reminded me. "Of course you do."

"Technically she's not," I pointed out.

"Technically, she is," Mom added. "You two share Matt's DNA."

"Why didn't you and Dad try to have more kids?" I asked. "I mean, I know it'd be hard the first time, but-"

"We didn't have any more kids because a) it all has to do with Dad's sperm count-"

"Whoa! Can we not discuss my sperm at the dinner table?" Dad interjected.

"And b)," Mom continued without missing a beat. "You're already a handful."

"Wow, Mom, really feeling the love," I joked.

She gave me a smile. "You know you're my number one."

We made a bit more idle talk as we ate but when I got up to throw out my dishes, Mom grabbed my wrist. "Honey, wait a second."

"Ohhhhkay," I said slowly as I sat down and faced them. "What's up?"

"You've been such a good sport all these years when my job moves us," Dad began. "So, I managed to talk my boss into letting us stay in London until you've finished high school. Then, if you go off to college and we have to move again, you can stay to finish your education."

I burst into a huge smile. "Really? We're really gonna stay here until I graduate?"

Mom nodded. "Really."

"Oh my God, yay!" I squealed as I jumped out of my seat and ran to hug them. "I can make permanent friends! I can get a boyfriend! We can get a dog!"

"Hang on, no one said anything about a boyfriend," Dad protested.

"Or a dog," Mom added.

But I ignored the both of them in favour of throwing out my dishes and running up to my room to celebrate.

"How's school?" Matt asked when I called him after dinner.

"Oh, you know," I said. "School."

"You know, Rachel and Aaron are a lot more enthusiastic whenever I ask them about school."

"Given the fact that they're ten and eight, I'd say school hasn't totally crushed their dreams," I replied.

Matt laughed on the other line. "How's London treating you? Better than Idaho?"

"So much better," I agreed. "How's Aunt Sophie?"

"She's doing great," Matt answered. "She just got a new job coaching the local girl's soccer team. She's determined to take them to the top."

I smiled. "I'll be rooting from London."

"Thanks. I'll tell her that."

Conversations with Uncle Matt got awkward very fast, which was why I was against calling him. I huffed a little as I said, "I made a new friend!"

"Already? That's great," Uncle Matt said. "What's their name? What are they like?"

"Her name's Jenna," I answered. "She's a little weird, but I like her. No one else at the school seems to like her, though. I keep getting weird looks from people when I was with her."

"Ignore them. High school kids have no power unless you give it to them."

"Words to live by, I'm sure."

"Very good words," Matt said. I could hear a far off voice, and Matt scratchily said, "Okay, I'll be there in a minute." His voice became clearer when he said, "Oh, Rachel needs me to help her with her math homework. I should go."

"Yeah, we all know how hard fifth grade math problems can be."

"Oh, I talked to your Mom about your birthday, and I think that we'll be able to make it this year."

"It's not every day your technical daughter turns seventeen."

"Goodbye, Lexi."

"Bye, Matt," I said as I hung up. I blew air out of my lips as I tossed my cell phone to the side and threw myself backwards so that I was laying on my bed. I looked up at the dark blue ceiling. I had picked a fairly large room, since this place used to be a hotel, but I hadn't had the time to decorate it. I had finished my homework before my parents came home for dinner, so I guess I had a bit of time to set up a little. After all, I could put things up without having to think of taking them down after a few months.

I flipped on this age old radio I found and began setting my room up, starting with putting proper sheets and blankets on the bed. I didn't have much but what I mostly had was pictures. I'd gone back to visit Mystic Falls by myself a couple years back (because Mom and Dad couldn't get away from work), and I made sure to get lots of pictures of my family when I went there. I stayed with Uncle Ivan and Aunt Caroline, though Uncle Damon insisted that I stayed with him and Aunt Bonnie for at least one night. According to Aunt Bonnie, after Aunt Elena died and when I was born, I was all that Uncle Damon cared about for a while because Aunt Elena was so excited for Mom to have kids and he knew that it would have meant so much to Aunt Elena.

When I put up one of the few pictures I had of Aunt Elena, I heard footsteps outside of my room. I poked my head outside of the door. "Mom? Dad?" I called out, but no one answered. I was going to pull my head back in and do some more work before bed when I heard the footsteps again.

Now, what a normal person would do was grab their flashlight and try to look and see what happened.

But I was a smart person. When I lived in Germany, I became friends with a couple of German girls who were obsessed with horror movies. I don't know if you've seen German horror movies, but they were downright terrifying. I had learned my lesson very well from them so instead of investigating, I shut and locked my door and jumped into bed as I opened up a book on my iPad.

I fell asleep sprawled against my bed and listening to the radio, my bed cluttered with pictures and my iPad sitting on my lap.

When I went to school the next day (Mom was kind enough to leave home a little later than she was supposed to to drive me to school), I prepared myself for Spaghetti Girl comments, but surprisingly, everyone-and I did mean everyone- was greeting me by my first name.

"Did you do something online so that everyone knows your name?" Mom asked as we walked towards the front doors of the school. I shook my head in answer. Nothing as far as I was concerned.

When I got to my first period chemistry class, I was suddenly hit with the reminder that I would be seeing Archer again. The reason that that realization came was because Archer was sitting in his seat, looking through his binder.

I gulped as I shuffled forward and took my seat next to him. He didn't look up to acknowledge me but after I took out all my stuff, he turned his head to me and said, "Good morning."

I looked over at him as I said, "Let me guess: nobody calling me Spaghetti Shirt was your doing?"

Archer shrugged a bit. "I told you I could do it. Now you can't call me a liar."

I huffed as I turned back to face the front, determined not to give into his dreamy eyes...

That was enough of that.

I heard some whispers behind me and turned my head to see two people sitting three rows behind me sharply look up, halting their conversation. I furrowed my eyebrows but couldn't question it further because Mr. Brown had started the lesson.

Jenna was waiting outside for me when I walked out. I held out her pink hoodie. "One freshly washed, smells like lavender sweater. Thanks again for letting me borrow it."

"No problem," She said as she accepted it. "How was chemistry?"

"Confusing," I answered. "Not in the sense that the class was confusing, but what was going on was."

"What was going on?" Jenna asked as we walked to English.

"People kept staring at me," I told her. "I mean, I get the shock of a new girl, but this wasn't new girl stares. Usually people get that out of their systems my first day. Second day people start ignoring me when they realized I was nothing special."

"That's weird," Jenna agreed. She bit her bottom lip when we came to the front of the classroom, and I knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Jenna, do you know something?" I asked her. "Jenna?"

She sighed a little. "I didn't want to tell you on your first day because I thought it'd freak you out."

"What'd freak me out?"

She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the way a little. "Did you wonder why there was an empty seat in chemistry class when lab partners are set up at the beginning of the semester?"

"I did, actually. What's up with that?"

"Just before you moved here, a girl-Christine-died," Jenna whispered, and I felt my stomach drop. "Which is why there is an empty seat in chemistry."

"Are you telling me that the reason that people are giving me weird stares is because I'm sitting in a dead girl's seat?" I whisper shouted.

She winced. "Yeah. Look, we'll be late for English, but I promise to explain everything during lunch." And with that, she strolled inside of the classroom.

I barely paid attention in Math (which was going to bite me in the ass later) which was why the period went by so fast. When I caught up with Jenna in the cafeteria, I grabbed her arm and shoved her in the seat that we were at yesterday. "Please spill! What's up with the dead girl?"

"Christine Perry," Jenna began as she took out a container of tomato soup. "She was one of the most popular girls in school, but she got into a car accident. It was weird though, because while her car crashed into the tree, there was evidence that Christine had gotten out of the car and stumbled out. Then, she got attacked by an animal, but animal attacks are uncommon in London. At least, in the area that Christine was in when she died."

"So you don't think that she was killed by an animal?" I asked in confusion.

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know what I think. But what I do know is that this isn't the first animal attack that's happened. There were reports of it back in the summer. My Dad is friends with the local chief of police who tells him this kind of stuff when he's just the right amount of drunk."

"What else could be attacking someone so badly that they died?" I thought aloud.

Jenna shrugged a little, though the air around her shifted. "I don't know. Did you get the hang of Shakespeare last night?"

I groaned as I shook my head. "No! I have absolutely no idea what he's saying. Apparently, 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo' doesn't mean 'Romeo where the hell are you?'"

Jenna laughed at me. "It's okay, I can help you."

"Thanks," I smiled as we got up to go to the library.

But all I could think about was the seat of the dead girl that I was occupying in chemistry.

Tonight's dinner was pizza, and Mom was serving everything on paper plates. "Jules, we can't live like this forever," Dad pointed out as Mom set the box on the table.

"Finally! You're starting to see sense!" I exclaimed.

Mom gave Dad a look. "We can certainly live like this for a while, or you can learn to live on the couch every night."

Dad hesitated before looking over at me. "I think we can live like this forever."

"Pushover," I said pointedly at him when Mom went to go grab the paper cups.

"Rebel child," He retorted.

"Lexi's insult was better," Mom said as she took her regular seat next to Dad. I would have thought that all these years of moving around and teaching would wear Mom out, but she looked as perfect as the day that she and Dad got married.

Dad flipped the box open-half was plain cheese, the other half had green peppers, onions, and red peppers- and we all reached in to grab some food for us.

"How was school?" Dad asked as he put two slices of veggie pizza on to his plate.

"Okay, I guess," I answered as I grabbed two cheese. I cleared my throat a little as I brought up Christine. "Did you know a girl at my school died just before we moved here?"

"No," Mom answered after she was finished chewing and swallowing. "That's horrible. Do you know what happened to her?"

"Jenna told me that she got attacked by an animal, but she doesn't think it's an animal," I said as I bit into my own pizza.

I didn't miss the brief exchanged between my parents as they looked to each other in mild fear and knowing. "What does she think it was?" Dad asked cautiously.

I shrugged a little. "I don't know. She wouldn't tell me."

"How did you find this out?" Mom asked as she poured herself some 7UP.

"I sit in her spot in chemistry class," I responded. "I kept getting weird looks from the kids in my class, so I asked Jenna and she thinks that's why they look at me funny."

"That's curious," Dad commented, and then changed the subject about something that happened at work.

"Yeah," I agreed, but I knew there was something up.

I heard the same footsteps outside of my bedroom around the same time as last night. I poked my head out the door again and looked both ways. "Dad, if you're trying to scare me, I am not afraid to pepper spray you," I warned, but when no one responded, I brought my head back in and shut and locked the door once more.

I turned around and jumped when I saw the cat that was sitting on my window sill. I was lucky that I hadn't screamed, or Dad would have busted in here and broken my lamp like he had done in Romania when I was watching a horror movie.

It was weird. I had a stare off with the cat. Normal cats would flee as soon as you saw them, but it challenged me as I held its stare. I walked over to my window. The cat moved over a little as I opened the window. I continued to stare at it until I sighed a little. "Do you have an owner?" I asked, not expecting a response. I checked it for a collar or tags but there was nothing. I felt bad just leaving it out there. Maybe I could keep him, just until I found out if it had an owner or not. Besides, I was now fully in the clear to set down roots. "It's kinda cold out. Do you want to stay in here with me for the night until I can figure out what to do with you?"

The cat meowed before leaping into my room, landing softly on my bed. I laughed a little as I shut the window. "Sure, just make yourself at home," I said to him-was it a him?- as he curled himself into a ball. I shook my head a little as I turned on the TV I had set up in the room for a background noise as I jumped onto my bed and pulled out my homework.

The cat purred softly as he watched the TV that was playing the TV show "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". I tilted my head a little as I said, "I need to call you something. How about Salem? Like him?" I nodded my head to the cat on the TV.

The cat, of course, didn't answer me, but I nodded my head. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna call you Salem. Well, Salem, you've got to stay quiet and hidden until I can explain you to Mom and Dad."

No answer again as he closed his eyes, falling asleep. "Right, you must be tired," I said as I bit the cap of my pen. I shook my head before returning to my chemistry homework.

I tried to focus on it but not even the chemical formula for sodium bicarbonate could distract me from the sound of footsteps outside of my room that I chose to ignore.

I had settled into school quite nicely, definitely a lot better than I had in the past. I guess it was because I knew that I would be staying here, so I had a reason to not make myself look a fool.

Technically by Erica's definition, I was a fool for hanging out with Jenna. Even though no one was calling me Spaghetti Shirt, that didn't mean that everyone was suddenly my friend. Erica still had the whole school wrapped around her little finger.

To my unfortunate delight, Archer was one of the only people (or guys, really) completely immune to her. Well, not completely-even I knew that Erica was a really hot girl. She would sometimes show up to the classroom before class started and flirt with him a bit and some days he'd play along and some days he'd tell her to back off. Archer Mercer was a very confusion boy, which was exactly one of the reasons that I wanted to ignore him.

Damn him being so cute. God did a good number on him.

I tried doing a little research into Christine's death (just to feel a little better about the stares I was still getting from people in my chemistry class) but I couldn't find anything other than what Jenna already told me. All news outlets and the police department ruled the death as an animal attack.

I tried not to let it bother me but it was Jenna and my parents' reaction that wouldn't let me let it go.

The footsteps outside of my door had stopped too, so I didn't feel the need to mention it to my parents. It probably wasn't even footsteps at all. It was probably just my imagination cooking things up because I was living in an old hotel. That had to be it.

I held out my BLT to Jenna at my locker a week later. "Do you want a bite?"

She shook her head, looking up from where she was tying her loose shoelace. "I'm good but thanks."

I shrugged a little as I bit into the sandwich. I didn't have time for breakfast this morning, so Mom made me a quick BLT (one of the only things that she couldn't possibly mess up) and handed it to me so that we could get to school on time. Before I left the house, I left a piece of bacon and a small bowl of water for Salem. I knew that feeding animals people food was a bad idea, but Mom had a staff meeting after school today so hopefully I could sneak off to the pet store and buy some cat food. If not, he'd have to settle for the tuna in our fridge until I could get my hands on some food for him. Either way, Salem wasn't necessarily a house cat-a lot of the time he'd disappear and turn back up at night seemingly full. Hey, as long as Mom and Dad didn't find out yet and he was eating, I was fine with that.

"What class do you have first, Jenna?" I asked after I swallowed.

"Law," She answered as she stood up. "I heard there's some big experiment going on in Brown's class. Are you excited?"

I shrugged a little. "Mr. Brown likes to make a big deal out of lots of things. But I'm a little nervous."

"Why?" Jenna asked.

I hesitated. While Jenna didn't exactly support my stupid growing feelings for Archer, she didn't disapprove of them, either. "This is the first experiment where Archer and I really have to interact. The most we've talked is a few remarks before Mr. Brown starts the lesson."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Jenna assured me as the bell rang. I crammed the rest of my sandwich into my mouth and gave Jenna a wave in goodbye as I headed towards Mr. Brown's classroom. Of course, Archer was already there, so I just slid into my seat and took out my binder and a pencil.

"Morning, Salvatore," He greeted.

"Morning, Mercer," I responded like I did every morning.

Archer looked at me funnily. "All right, I'll bite. What's up with you?"

I gave him a look. "Nothing."

"Come on, don't give me that," He dismissed. "You've been looking freaked out in this class ever since your second day here. What gives?"

Archer noticed that I was freaked out in chemistry? Moreover, he cared?

I huffed a little. "Looks like people failed to mention the dead girl who sat in this seat before me."

He winced a little. "Someone told you about Christine?"

I nodded. "Yup. Hence the 'freaking out' part. I just feel a little uneasy over sitting in the chair of a dead girl."

"Well, ghosts don't exist, so you don't have to worry about Christine haunting that seat," Archer assured me as Mr. Brown walked into the classroom and demanded the attention of the class.

"All right, class! Today, we're going to be doing H2O and magnesium," Mr. Brown said.

"That's ridiculously easy," Archer whispered to me. "Do you think Mr. Brown's hungover?"

I wasn't really around people who drank to the point where they were seriously hungover in the morning, but I'd seen movies and by the look on Mr. Brown's face... "Oh yeah, definitely."

We got everything that we needed and put on our goggles on. "Your goggles are way too big for your face," Archer commented as he pointed to them.

I gave him a look. "As if yours makes you look like Einstein."

"I've always strived to look like him," Archer joked as he measured the amount of magnesium we needed. He gestured to his head. "I tried growing my hair out like him but my Mom didn't like it so I had to stop."

"I'm sure the look would've been great on you," I allowed as poured water into the beaker.

All of a sudden, the beaker started glowing and shaking as it began reacting with whatever was in the beaker. But it couldn't've because Archer and I hadn't put anything into the beaker yet...

Archer must have realized that we could be in serious danger because eyes widened as he yelled to everyone in the class, "Get down!"

But idiotic me didn't get down. I was too mesmerized by what was going on in the beaker and the impossibility of it. I wasn't down on the ground until I felt a hard push into my side as the beaker finally exploded.

I groaned a little as I was knocked to the ground and was surprised to see Archer laying down on top of me, shielding my body from the flying glass and product of the explosion with this. My eyes widened a little as we waited for the explosion to finish. Once it did, he looked over to where our table was at the remnants of the explosion. Then he looked back at me. "Are you okay?" He asked as he got off of me. He offered me his hands, and I took them as I stood up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered as I looked at the beaker.

Mr. Brown ran over to us. "Are you kids okay? What happened?"

Archer and I shook our heads. "We don't know. Lexi just added the water into the beaker and it exploded. We didn't add the magnesium or anything."

Mr. Brown furrowed his eyebrows. "That's very odd. Well, you two should get down to the nurse and get checked out just in case."

I grabbed my backpack as I followed Archer out the door, my eyes not leaving the spot where our beaker was before it exploded.

Something wasn't right. The beakers were washed right after usage whenever something was put into it. What could have made that happen?

I think I needed to start looking for answers. And I know just who to help me.

TBC...

Really excited for the plans for this story!

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