[3x06; Smells Like Teen Spirit]
It was dark when Lucy woke up, her eyes aching from lack of sleep. She rolled out of bed and put on her workout clothes before heading downstairs to eat a granola bar for breakfast. She passed a grumbling Alaric on the way to the kitchen and greeted Elena quietly before grabbing a granola bar and chowing down.
After the events last night—which Lucy now knew included Klaus compelling Stefan to turn off his humanity and drink from Elena and Klaus leaving Mystic Falls with two full bags of Elena's blood—Elena was determined to start learning self-defense like Lucy had during the spring and summer. Lucy was going to join her for support but work with Joel separately so they could develop her spell casting skills and try to make her siphoned magic last longer while still being effective.
She hated feeling useless all the time since the only thing she could do was fry someone's brain. After talking to Joel, he confided that he had been thinking about her skills as a siphon. He didn't want to offend her but he was pretty sure that once she siphoned magic from a person or her necklace, she forgot about it and that magic was being wasted. Lucy agreed; she pretty much siphoned, did magic, and siphoned again. She didn't usually stop to make sure there was still magic flowing through her veins.
That was how she found herself in the middle of the woods, watching her brother carefully for any of his sudden moves. She had siphoned magic from him fifteen minutes ago and when she concentrated, she could still feel the tingle in her limbs.
Joel didn't warn her as he lunged for her so Lucy only had a second to react. She narrowed her eyes and gave him an aneurysm; Joel flinched in pain but kept walking toward her. Lucy gritted her teeth and held out a hand toward him, trying to strengthen her spell.
Joel still didn't react the way she wanted to; he reached out her hands and grabbed her shoulders.
"Got you," Joel breathed as Lucy stopped her useless spell. "Okay, so your spells weaken around fifteen minutes depending on how much you siphon."
Lucy huffed, aggravated with her lack of progress. "Do you think I'll get better?"
"I'm not really sure, Lou," Joel shrugged thoughtfully. "I've never really worked with a witch—other than Bonnie—much less a siphoner."
Lucy's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
"But," Joel added, nudging her shoulder. "I think that if you practice, it's gonna be like any other skill, yeah? Like, it took you a while to get the hang of watercolors but you did it, right?"
"…Right," Lucy reluctantly nodded.
She was a perfectionist; she always had to make sure she was doing her best at everything. She was trying her best now, sure, but she wasn't doing and that's what frustrated her.
A loud boom that came out of nowhere caused them both to flinch.
Lucy looked toward the sound worriedly; that was where Alaric was teaching Elena self-defense. "Are they okay?"
"Ric was teaching Elena about vervain grenades," Joel smirked faintly. "And now he's giving her a pep talk."
"She's really messed up about Stefan," Lucy stated sadly.
"He hurt her and she doesn't want it to happen again," Joel clenched his jaw. "Has he talked to you yet?"
"Uh, no," Lucy lied; her conversation with Stefan the night before was not something she could exactly share with anyone but Caroline. Joel didn't know about her feelings for Stefan or the fact that she actually confessed to him and she planned to keep it that way.
Joel hummed and when Lucy turned her back to him to start running back to their house, he gave her a suspicious look. She had lied straight to his face.
"Does the scarf cover the…"
"Yes," Lucy said immediately, noticing Elena's hesitation as she gestured to where the bite mark from Rebekah and Stefan sat on her neck. "You look beautiful, Lenabug."
"Thanks, you too," Elena sighed as she grabbed her bag from the backseat of her car and opened her door; Lucy followed her lead, hopping out of the passenger seat and straightening out the skirt of her sundress. "Did Caroline text you?"
"Yeah, she's meeting us in the front with Bonnie," Lucy informed her as they started walking out of the school parking lot. "I can't believe she wanted us here an hour early."
"I believe it," Elena grinned slightly and Lucy chuckled in agreement.
It didn't take long for them to find Caroline and Bonnie. The four friends immediately exchanged hugs and compliments on their first-day-back outfits before setting their sights on the building.
"Here we are," Caroline sighed happily. "Senior year."
"Anyone else think it should feel slightly more empowering?" Bonnie asked, looking over at Caroline, Lucy, and Elena.
Lucy shrugged, kind of getting Bonnie's point. It did kind of suck that the previous night—and the whole summer—put a damper on the first day of school.
"Okay, so prank night was a bust," Caroline acknowledged. "but we are accepting it and we are moving on."
"You're right," Bonnie agreed as the four of them started walking toward the school. "I mean, why should I let the fact that my boyfriend is seeing the ghost of his dead girlfriend hinder this experience?"
"Exactly," Lucy nodded. "I can't let the fact that two sets of my siblings are basically at war with each other affect the start of a new year?"
"Yes!" Caroline exclaimed, nudging Lucy excitedly. "And why should I let the fact that my boyfriend was turned into a hybrid put a damper on this otherwise fabulous day?"
Elena stopped walking. "Today's our anniversary," she said flatly, making the others turn to look at her. "Technically, Stefan and I met on the first day of school last year."
Lucy frowned, knowing that her sister was having a hard time. There was nothing that Lucy could really do and that made her feel horrible. She didn't like when the people around her were hurt or sad—especially her sister.
The fact that she had met Stefan one year ago had completely slipped her mind. It felt like she knew him forever.
"Yeah, you win," Caroline admitted.
Lucy privately disagreed; while Elena's problem was more significant than hers, it wasn't worse than Bonnie's or Caroline's. Tyler died and became the second hybrid in existence, so that was a pretty big deal. Lucy thought that the fact that Klaus was using her blood to make more minions was a bigger deal than her relationship problems with Stefan.
"Are you sure you want to be here?" Bonnie asked her sympathetically.
"I have to be here," Elena declared, summoning her inner strength. "I have to put it behind me. New year, new life."
Lucy, Caroline, and Bonnie gave Elena supporting smiles but as soon as Elena walked ahead of them, they gave each other doubtful looks. In the nicest way possible, Elena's life was currently a mess.
Nevertheless, they followed her into school. New freshman lined the hallway, looking around unsurely, while sophomores, juniors, and seniors caught up with their friends they hadn't seen over summer. Lucy looked around hopefully; she wanted to have a good year.
"I'll catch up with you," she told Caroline, who had asked her to help put up the flyers for the back-to-school bonfire. "I gotta head to my locker."
"If you're not by my side in fifteen minutes, I'm coming for you," Caroline promised with a smile as she headed to her own locker.
Lucy chuckled and walked down the hallway, approaching the same locker she had since she started high school. Her blue combination lock was already in place and Lucy sighed, setting her backpack down so she could give it all of her attention.
She murmured under her breath as she attempted to unlock her stupid locker. Unfortunately, her combination skills did not improve over summer. No matter how many times she read instructions, she just couldn't get it until she tried ten times.
Freshman year she hadn't even used her locker.
Familiar hands brushed hers out of the way, flawlessly spinning the dial and opening her locker without a care.
"You're really useless without me, huh?" Stefan commented, leaning against his own locker. "I mean, I forgot how bad you were at that. Perfect Lucy has a flaw."
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, ignoring how attractive his stupid smirk was, and picked up her bag so she could unpack her supplies. "Good morning to you, too, Stefan," she rolled her eyes, trying to hide the fact that what he said was something that affected her. "And I have plenty of flaws, thank you."
"Ah…"
"What are you doing here?" she put her numerous notebooks and folders into her locker, not sparing him a glance. "I'm surprised you're not gorging yourself on some sorority girls."
"Why, jealous?" when she turned to him with an annoyed glare, he winked. "I already had sorority girls for breakfast. Alexandra was pretty tasty."
Lucy grabbed her designated notebook for history and shut her locker, facing him head on. "Seriously, why are you here? It's not the best place for you at the moment."
"Oh, Klaus compelled me to protect you and Elena," Stefan sighed like it was such a burden to keep watch of his girlfriend and best friend.
"Klaus compelled you to protect me?"
"Yeah, I have to do everything he says, remember?" Stefan rolled his eyes. "And he said something about you being practically defenseless without your necklace."
Lucy gulped as he reached out and pressed a gentle finger against the pendant he gave her months ago. His eyes took an admiring hint as he stroked as his fingertip left the diamond and trailed up the silver chain.
She wouldn't be surprised if he was enjoying how much her heart was racing.
She had to remember that he was probably trying to get a rise out of her. She slapped his hand away from her collarbone, looking around to see if anyone spotted their interaction.
"Would you stop that?" she hissed.
"Why? Are you afraid people might find out your feelings for me and tell Elena?" Stefan asked and then shrugged casually. "I'm not bothered with it. I can go tell her right now."
Lucy clenched her teeth and grabbed Stefan's hand when he tried to walk away, keeping him in front of her. "You're a real dick without your humanity, Stefan," she snapped. "Those feelings are long gone, by the way, so we're not telling Elena anything."
"Sure," Stefan put his hands up defensively. "You're pretty hot when you take charge, you know."
"You know what? I'm walking away now."
Lucy turned around, ready to practically sprint away from Stefan but he grabbed her arm, clicking his tongue impatiently.
"Come on, Luce, don't be like that."
Tears of frustration filled Lucy's eyes at she stared up at who was supposed to be her best pal. Without his humanity, Stefan wasn't even Stefan. He was an arrogant asshole who liked to hurt those around him and play with their feelings.
This strengthened her resolve, though. She was going to get Stefan back no matter what. She wasn't giving up on him. The Stefan she knew wouldn't want her to sit back and let him destroy his life.
"Let me go," she grunted, allowing herself to siphon from him.
Stefan hissed and let go of her, narrowing his eyes.
"What's going on?" Caroline's perky voice came from behind Lucy. "Oh, hey, Stefan."
Stefan's forest-green eyes left Lucy and glanced up at her blonde best friend. "Caroline."
"I'm gonna have to borrow Lucy for the moment," Caroline grabbed Lucy's hand and started to pull her away from him. "We'll see you later."
Caroline wrapped her arm around Lucy's shoulders as they turned the corner, handing her half the pile of flyers she had carried over with her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Lucy blinked rapidly, trying to dry her eyes. "Stefan's a humanity-less asshole with loose lips."
"Loose lips?" Caroline glanced at her as she stopped at a bulletin board, pinning a flyer to the corner. "What does that mean?"
They moved on. "It means that I think he's gonna tell Elena about what happened before he left."
Caroline sighed heavily, pouting thoughtfully. "I thought you didn't do anything but tell him you…"
"I didn't," Lucy assured her. "but what I did do was horrible. I shouldn't have said anything. Hell, I shouldn't have fallen for him in the first place. He's my sister's boyfriend. Oh, my God, I'm a horrible person."
Caroline stopped in the middle of the hallway, putting her hands on Lucy's shoulders to ground her. "You're not a horrible person," she said firmly. "You're human and you have feelings and sometimes humans have feelings that are hard to control. What matters is that you didn't act on these feelings."
"But I—"
"You thought you'd never see him again," Caroline consoled her. "I think you get a pass. Now, don't let him ruin your day, okay? It's a new year, remember?"
Lucy sighed and tried to relax. Caroline was right; she couldn't let Stefan ruin her first day of senior year. She deserved a relaxing year.
"Okay," Lucy agreed. "Let's get these flyers up before class starts."
Caroline beamed at her and they continued on their mission, pinning up a flyer on every bulletin board or display case they saw. Finally, they were down to their last flyer and as Lucy pinned it up, Elena walked over to them.
"I forgot about the bonfire," she commented, frowning at the flyer.
"You have to go," Caroline ordered. "It's our first spirit squad even and it sets the bar for the whole year."
"Relax, Caroline, I'll be there," Elena smiled.
Lucy giggled as Caroline sighed in relief. "Thank you," she breathed. "It's just that—"
She was cut off by Tyler who swooped in and pressed his lips on her. He pulled away with a happy grin. "Happy first day."
"Uh, is that blood?" Elena spoke up, her eyes glued to a stain next to the collar of his shirt.
"Oh, my God!" Caroline gasped, grabbing his elbow and pushing him into the nearby bathroom.
Lucy followed them into the boys' bathroom and immediately started checking to see if the stalls were empty. She didn't want anyone to overhear Caroline scolding Tyler about his blood-drinking habits.
"What's going on?" Tyler was bewildered by his girlfriend's change of attitude.
"Vampire 101, don't wear your breakfast to school!" Caroline poked the stain.
"Chill out," Tyler shrugged. "It was just a blood bag."
"From where?"
"Rebekah hooked me up."
Lucy grimaced, knowing that Caroline was not going to like that. There was no one in the bathroom so she went to the paper towel dispenser and pulled out a few sheets. She ran them under the faucet while Caroline scoffed indignantly.
"Rebekah? And what are you even talking to her for?"
"Klaus told her to keep a watch on me," Tyler smiled cockily. "Protect his new asset."
Lucy raised an eyebrow at Tyler as she rung out the paper towels. "His what?"
"Why are you so amused by this?" Caroline demanded, narrowing her eyes at him.
"I'm his first successful hybrid, Caroline. Don't you think that's the tiniest bit awesome?"
"Oh, wow! I cannot believe you just said that."
Lucy cleared her throat and handed Caroline the damp paper towels. She did not want to get in the middle of a lover's spat. "Yeah, I'm gonna go…"
She hurriedly left the bathroom, thinking she was going to get away from an argument, only to walk straight into one. Stefan was pressing Alaric up against the lockers while Elena looked on with an angry expression.
"What the hell?" she groaned, stomping toward them.
Lucy nodded at Elena, who gave her a grateful look, and grabbed Stefan's arm, using all of her force to pull him away from Alaric. Stefan didn't fight her much but he did send Alaric a threatening look.
"You're not going to get in my way, you hear me?" he said harshly before smiling pleasantly at him and Elena. "See you both in history!"
Lucy scoffed angrily and pulled him further down the hallway. "You are insufferable," she snapped. "Do you want everyone to hate you?"
"You don't," Stefan shrugged as they turned a corner. "Hey, class is the other way."
"Okay, that's enough," she peeked into Joel's computer lab and when she saw that it was empty, she swung the door open and pushed him inside. Luckily, he decided to go along with her because she knew his strength far outweighed hers. If he wanted to get away, he would have.
"We're gonna be late for class," Stefan informed her, casually putting his hands on his hips.
"Shut up," Lucy frowned at him. "What exactly did Klaus compel you to do?"
Stefan just stared at her, his mouth set in a silent line.
"Stefan!"
"You were there."
Lucy rolled her eyes; he was like an angry toddler who wouldn't answer her questions. "Okay, other than his compulsion in the gym and when he told you to turn off your humanity, did he saw anything else?"
"Just to protect you and Elena," Stefan told her. "Why?"
Lucy didn't answer; she reached forward and grabbed his arm to begin siphoning his compulsion away from him. She made sure to only get Klaus' compulsion—which felt different than the actually magic in his body. Stefan didn't bother to struggle as he stared at her with furrowed eyebrows.
The red glow faded from Lucy's hand as she pulled it away from Stefan. She looked at him expectantly. "Well?"
"His compulsion's gone," Stefan confirmed after a few seconds. "When'd you learn to do that?"
"Over the summer," Lucy shrugged.
"Well, I don't think Klaus is gonna be happy that his compulsion's gone," Stefan stated the obvious.
"So, act like it isn't gone. You can continue to watch over Elena and do what Klaus says," Lucy advised. "You have your free will and you're safe. If you choose not to flip your humanity back on, that's your prerogative."
Stefan gave her a look of disbelief. "Really? You don't care if I leave my humanity off?"
"It's your choice and if that's how you want to deal with your problems, I have no say in that," Lucy twisted her lips thoughtfully. "Just know that they're still gonna be there afterwards."
Stefan stared down at her and she made sure to keep eye contact with him. She wanted him to know that it really was his choice and she was not gonna force him to do anything. She just hoped that he would be smart enough to see that he was delaying the inevitable. He would someday turn his humanity back on and he was going to feel horrible.
"Okay, nice session, Dr. Phil," Stefan stepped away from her—Lucy saw that he almost looked bothered. "Are we done here, or?"
"No, I want you to do something for me?"
"What's that?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Since you are clearly sticking with the no-humanity thing, I don't want you telling Elena about what I said to you before you left," Lucy said honestly. "In fact, I want you to forget about it."
Stefan rolled his eyes. "Since you took away Klaus' compulsion, fine. I won't tell Elena or anyone else," he gave in surprisingly easy. "but I still get to bring it up if we're alone."
Lucy pursed her lips but nodded anyway; if she had to deal with the humiliation of Stefan teasing her about her feelings for him, that would be a lot more tolerable than ruining her relationship with her sister.
"Fine."
"Wonderful," Stefan gave her a dimpled smile that would have melted her if it wasn't so sarcastic. "Should we go to class then?"
Lucy nodded and they left the classroom just as the warning bell for first period rang. Students rushed from the hallway, heading toward their classes with little complaint, though there were a few stragglers.
Lucy was surprised to see that Rebekah was one of them.
"Good morning," she greeted Lucy perkily as she fell into step beside her and Stefan.
"Morning," Lucy nodded politely. "Nervous for your first day?"
"Not really," Rebekah told her honestly. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? You gave me an aneurysm."
"You bit my sister."
Rebekah gave her a calculating look while Lucy kept her gaze firm. She had missed Rebekah so much but she wasn't going to let her get away with hurting Elena.
"Nobody's perfect," Rebekah eventually admitted with a small smile
Lucy beamed at her and patted her arm as they got approached Alaric's classroom. Stefan opened the door for Lucy and Rebekah but the blonde waved him off.
"I want to make an entrance."
Lucy laughed and shook her head, walking into the room with Stefan close on her heels. She took the seat in front of Caroline and gave her a I'll-tell-you-later look to placate the curious one she was giving her while Stefan walked over to the taken seat next to Elena.
"You're in my seat," he snapped at the guy. The kid hurriedly moved seats and Stefan sat down, shooting Elena, Caroline, and Lucy an innocent smile.
Alaric, who was at the board and had been writing the title of the class, set down his chalk and slapped his hands to get rid of the dust. "Welcome back, seniors. Let's turn our brains back on, starting with this country's originals founders…the Native Americans."
"What about the Vikings?" Rebekah asked as she entered the classroom, taking a seat next to Lucy. '
"There's no evidence that Viking explorers actually settled in the United States," Alaric stated, giving her a confused look. "Who are you?"
"My name's Rebekah," she introduced herself. "I'm new and history's my favorite subject."
The day passed quickly, with only a few teachers—Alaric being one of them—assigning back-to-school homework. As seniors, everyone got their pick of classes out of all the students at Mystic High, which led to most of Lucy's friend group being in the same classes—excluding the advanced math and chemistry classes Lucy and Caroline were in—which meant, of course, Rebekah and Stefan were in them, too.
Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena were very not happy with Rebekah's appearance but Lucy didn't say a word. She was not picking sides in this part of this weird stand-off between her Mystic Falls friends and family and her original family. Of course, if someone was injured or if there was anything that Lucy truly objected to, then she would intervene.
Cheer practice was upon them and with the start of the new year, Bonnie had decided to quit the squad, leaving Lucy and Caroline as the only ones out of their group. It was disappointing but not devastating—they knew Bonnie had a lot going on and didn't fault her for stepping away from something she wasn't really passionate about.
As Lucy set the boom box down on the grass where the squad was meeting and Caroline went over the roster for attendance, Ashley, one of their teammates, walked up to her and Caroline.
"Have you guys seen Dana?"
Lucy faltered for a second, shocked and disappointed with herself for forgetting about what happened to Dana the previous night, but Caroline stepped up. She informed Ashley that they hadn't heard anything about their teammate but she would contact her parents soon.
Ashley seemed to believe Caroline's explanation and settled back in line with her friends.
"Sounds like you have an opening on your squad," Rebekah practically appeared out of nowhere, dressed in appropriate clothing. "Mind if I join?"
Lucy shook her head with a smile but Caroline looked like steam was about to come out of her ears.
"What are you doing?" she asked the Original harshly. "You can't just come here and infiltrate all our lives."
"I'm only interested in yours," Rebekah replied evenly, her eyes glinting threateningly. "Your spark, your popularity, your best friend," she glanced at Lucy before looking over at the football field where Matt and Tyler were practicing with the rest of their team. "maybe even your boyfriend."
"Okay, okay," Lucy sighed, breaking up their intense glaring contest. "Rebekah, join the girls, okay? We're getting started."
Rebekah grinned at Lucy and bounced over to the girls, settling in line. Turning to face her, Caroline looked at her incredulously.
"What is wrong with you?" she exclaimed. "We're talking about this later because I'm pretty sure she and Klaus have you under their thumbs."
"Caroline!" Lucy gave her a hurt look.
"I'm sorry," Caroline sighed and shook her head. "Let's just start."
Lucy nodded and stood back, as Caroline addressed their squad. She laid down some ground rules and the schedule for practice, which was laid back during the fall for football season and picked up intensity in the spring for competitions. She was halfway through dress code when she got distracted, turning her head toward the football field.
"Uh, Lucy start with the routine," Caroline told her. "I'll be right back."
"Got it," Lucy nodded as she left and made her way to the football field. "All right, girls, we're gonna start with the routine we learned at camp. Rebekah, you can watch for a few minutes but I think you'll pick it up quickly."
Rebekah nodded with a small smile.
"And one, two, three, four…" Lucy started counting and she and the squad started going through their routine.
It looked like the girls had been practicing, which was pleasing, and Lucy was right when she said that Rebekah would pick the moves up quickly. Before long, Rebekah was doing better than most of the girls.
Caroline still wasn't back by the time they got to the tumbling, so Lucy started off. She did the double back handspring back tuck that she and Caroline did at the beginning of the routine, smiling happily when she nailed it.
"Can I give it a go?" Rebekah asked when Lucy straightened up and joined the girls again.
"Sure, go ahead," Lucy shrugged.
The girls cheered Rebekah on as she warmed up and then she ran, copying Lucy's movements perfectly. Lucy clapped, impressed, and the other girls shouted with excitement.
"Nice, Bekah!" she complimented her sister. "All right, girls, next round!"
Joel leaned against Alaric's desk, waiting to hear Elena's great idea to capture Stefan and force him to turn his humanity back on. Currently, his sister was arguing with Damon about how she wanted to be in charge and Damon was rebuffing her, annoying everyone else in the room.
Frankly, Joel didn't care which plan they were going to use. If he was honest, as long as Stefan didn't hurt his siblings, Caroline, Alaric, or Bonnie, he didn't care what the older vampire did. The only reason he was taking part in this was because Elena asked him to.
Finally, Damon gave in and Elena focused.
"I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire," she stated, looking around at Joel, Alaric, and Caroline. "Then, when he's distracted."
"I'll shoot him," Alaric volunteered.
"And I'm back up," Joel added.
Elena nodded, satisfied with the plan.
"Can't Bonnie just juju him or something?" Damon complained from his spot by the window.
"I'm trying to keep Bonnie out of this?" Elena glanced at him. "I don't trust that Stefan won't hurt her."
"What about Twitch, then?" Damon persisted as Elena narrowed her eyes. "We know Stefan would die before hurting her."
"Lucy's with Rebekah right now," Joel spoke up, remembering the message Lucy sent him. "Which actually works in our favor because Rebekah follows Stefan around like a little puppy."
"And you know she won't hurt Stefan," Caroline said knowingly.
"Fine, we can't count on Twitch," Damon sighed.
Elena nodded and turned to Caroline. "Are you covered?"
"Yes!" Caroline beamed cutely. "I will make sure that the old Forbes jail cell is prepped and ready."
"Wait, wait, wait," Damon interrupted again. "What if Lucy doesn't stay with Rebekah the whole time? We can't risk her coming to Stefan's rescue."
"Which is why it's your job to keep them away," Elena turned to him with a coy smile.
"How?" he gave her a look of disbelief. "She's an Original. Last time I checked, we're out of daggers."
"So, then preoccupy her with your charm."
Alaric scoffed. "Might have better luck finding a dagger."
Damon rolled his eyes at him. "Are you ever not going to be mad at me, Ric?"
"Doubtful."
Tyler took that time to enter the classroom, a whole half-hour late to their planning session.
"Sorry, I'm late," he excused himself. "What's going on?"
"We need you to raid your mom's vervain supply," Elena informed him. "Enough to keep Stefan down for a while."
"You can't do that to Stefan," Tyler objected, shaking his head.
Joel narrowed his eyes at the hybrid and straightened up while Elena gave him a curious look.
Caroline looked at him in disbelief. "Why not?"
"Trust me, Tyler, it's in his best interest," Elena added.
"It's not in Klaus'."
Caroline scoffed in confusion. "But Klaus is the bad guy, Tyler," she stated the obvious. "You know, why are you acting like some freaky hybrid slave minion?"
"Uh-oh," Damon hummed, jumping off the desk he was sitting on; Joel and Alaric gave him questioning looks.
"Klaus made me who I am, Caroline," Tyler explained himself while everyone looked at him like he was crazy. "I owe him everything."
"Oh, boy."
Caroline spun toward Damon. "Okay, can we cool it on the commentary, please?"
As Damon grabbed a vervain dart off Alaric's desk, Joel gave Tyler a contemplative look. "What's going on, Tyler?"
Tyler's eyes bounced off everyone, taking in the judgmental looks they were giving him. "I'm just gonna go…"
Damon didn't let him leave the classroom; he blurred over to Tyler and plunged the vervain dart in his neck. Caroline gasped in shock as Tyler dropped to the ground from the poison currently shooting through his blood.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed, crouching down next to her boyfriend.
"He's been sired."
"What?" Alaric asked.
"Sired," Damon repeated himself. "He feels loyal to Klaus because Klaus' blood created him."
Elena furrowed her eyebrows. "Loyal how?"
"He'll seek acceptance from his master," Damon sighed. "It's really rare but maybe not so much in hybrids."
"Maybe because werewolves come in packs," Joel thought out loud, making Damon shrug.
"So how do I fix him?" Caroline looked to Damon for an answer.
"Get a new boyfriend."
Caroline sighed and picked Tyler up into her arms. "I'll get him home," she looked at Elena before she left. "I'll make sure the cell's ready. Good luck."
Luck wasn't all they needed; Joel was pretty sure they needed a miracle to pull this off.
The back-to-school bonfire started an hour ago and it was already way more fun than last year's party. For starters, there hadn't been a vampire attack—so far—and people were generally livelier. None of her friends were around at all but Lucy stuck by Rebekah's side, helping her assimilate to the new teenage culture.
Currently, she was watching in amusement as Rebekah tried, for the fifth time, to get beer from the keg. The previous times she had Lucy do it for her but Lucy decided that she should try herself this time. Rebekah very clearly had no idea how to work the spout and she was growing frustrated.
And then Super-Stef came to the rescue, taking the spout from her and filling her cup. "You all right there?"
"Lucy wouldn't help me with the keg," Rebekah frowned and Lucy made an indignant noise. "and I thought Tyler would be here."
"Tyler's with Caroline, I told you that," Lucy sighed; she thought that if Rebekah was just nice and didn't try to steal Caroline's life, she would be partially accepted by her best friend. Being petty and trying to steal her boyfriend was not the way to go.
Stefan raised his eyebrows at Lucy before glancing at Rebekah. "You're into Tyler now?" he hummed. "That's kinda fickle."
"When you're willing to give me the time of day again, then we'll talk," Rebekah muttered. "Until then, a girl has needs."
Lucy looked between them. "Wait, again?" she asked, confused. "Did you two…?"
Stefan smirked at her while Rebekah nodded, oblivious to the reason why Lucy was asking. "In the 1920s before Klaus compelled him to forget us," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Our brother is a controlling jackass, Luci, you know that."
"You're joking," Lucy said flatly. When Rebekah shook her head, Lucy slapped her hand to her forehead and groaned, "No. Why does God hate me?"
Rebekah gave her a confused look as she took a sip of her beer while Stefan rolled his eyes. "You're being dramatic," he stated. "Oh, hi, Elena."
Lucy immediately dropped her hand and looked to her right, where she hadn't noticed Elena. Elena smiled shortly at her and grabbed the keg spout out of Stefan's hands, filling her cup to the brim.
"What are you doing?" Stefan asked.
"I'm having fun, Stefan," she snapped. "Do you have a problem with that?"
She gulped down her beer, emptying the cup within seconds.
"All right take it easy," Stefan scoffed as Elena filled her cup up again. "We all know you're kind of a lightweight."
"Uh-huh, really?" Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I'm going to let a blood addict tell me how to drink?"
"Elena!" Lucy gasped in shock.
"What? It's the truth," Elena shrugged and started to walk away. "See ya."
"You know what?" Lucy exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "All this stress is not good for me. I'm going to get gray hair. I can't pull that off."
She was being a bit dramatic but she was close to going crazy. She felt like she was being pulled back and forth and forward between Elena and her friends, Stefan, and her Original siblings. It was all so hard to keep up with, especially with Luciana's memories and her memories fighting for control of her emotions.
"I think it'd be cute," Stefan told her with a small smile.
Lucy glared at him; stress eating it was. "Okay, I need something to eat," she turned to Rebekah. "Have you ever roasted marshmallows? Let's roast marshmallows."
Lucy had stuffed her face with ten marshmallows by the time Damon approached her and Rebekah. He immediately started flirting with the blonde Original so Lucy quickly gave an excuse to leave to try to find anyone else to hang out with.
The problem was, she couldn't find any of her friends. Joel and Alaric weren't at the bonfire—something about not wanting to party with high schoolers—and she couldn't find Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, or Matt anywhere. Even Stefan seemed to be gone now.
This bonfire turned out to be sucky, too, she guessed.
She had entered the parking lot and was searching for her car when she heard a commotion and smelt smoke. She saw a fire and ran toward it, pulling her phone out of her pocket in case she needed to call 911. To her shock, it was Alaric's car that had burst into flames.
"What the hell is going on?" Lucy shouted at Alaric and Joel as they pounded on the windows; she gasped when she saw that Elena was stuck in the car. "Elena?"
"The fucking car won't open!" Joel called to her, using all his strength to break the passenger window.
"Then someone is making this making this happen," Lucy declared, walking over to the SUV. She looked around for a place where there weren't any flames and slammed her hands against the hot metal, crying out from the burning in her palms.
She quickly siphoned the magic keeping Elena in the car and the back floor flew away from the vehicle. Lucy immediately ripped her hands away from the burning side as Joel and Alaric helped Elena and Stefan out of the car.
"Hurry!"
They were only fifty feet away when the SUV exploded.
Elena had suffered a small burn on her cheek from the fire and Stefan was groggy from the vervain Alaric put in his system—apparently they had a whole plan to capture Stefan and she hadn't even known about it. By the time the five of them got to the Boarding House, Lucy's right palm had begun to blister and her other hand was a medium shade of red.
Damon swept Elena away to tend to her wounds and Joel went to get himself and Stefan a few blood bags while Stefan, surprisingly, started to help Lucy clean her hands.
Lucy watched him carefully, wincing once in a while, as he cleaned her palms and gently rubbed numbing cream all over them. "Why are you doing this?"
Stefan looked up, having heard her quiet question. "I was a paramedic a while back."
"Yeah, I know that," Lucy nodded. "I mean, why are you helping me. That doesn't seem like something a vampire without his humanity on would do."
Stefan pulled away from her hands and reached for the bandages he had set to the side. He opened one up and gently put it on her right hand. "You do something for me, I do something for you," he smoothed the bandage down and then reached for the other one. "Seems like you're always saving me."
"Well, you are my best pal," Lucy smiled slightly. "even if you are a damsel sometimes."
Stefan scoffed and shook his head; Lucy swore there was a happy glint in his eyes but it faded to snarky amusement as he finished bandaging her left hand.
"Stefan?"
Stefan hummed and looked back up at her.
"You know that you still have me, right?" she said softly, hoping that saying this wouldn't bite her in the ass. "I think that you think when you turn your humanity back on, you won't have anyone. But you do. I'm always going to be there for you."
Stefan stared at her for a few quiet seconds, his eyes searching her face. Eventually he nodded and he was gone in a blur.