I'm so sorry this is so late! I had writers block then I just sort of lost interest in Vampire Diaries/The Originals for a bit. But good news! I'm back into them so I should be getting a couple of chapters out within the next month or two! I've already started on the next one since I'm really excited for it. This chapter is more of a set up for next one. And you'll see some more changes that she'll be making starting next chapter too!
Sorry there's not Kol or Klaus or really any Original in this one, but they'll, hopefully, be here soon! No promises when, but soon. ;)
Thank you for taking the time to read! And if you want to, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on how the story is going!
Previously on 'Ghost of Lifetimes Past'
"Anyway!" Damon sat his drink down on the table next to the doorway, clapping his now free hands together and he turned towards the couches. "You're in luck. I can help you with your abysmal social life. I have two freshly transitioning vampires that need instructions. And you, my dear, are being tasked with explaining the life to them."
"I'm not being your…wait. Did you say two?" She shoved Damon out of the way as she sped towards the two couches trying to see what changes she'd inadvertently caused.
There on one couch was Vicki, mouth red from the blood Damon had obviously given her. But it was the person on the opposite couch that caused her to gape in shock.
"Oh my God. You fucking changed Kennedy?"
"Wait, so let me make sure I understand everything." Lissa sighed while scowling at the smirking vampire, "You mentally called Kennedy to you so she'd free you. Then you drained her dry but thought to leave her alive only with her memories as to fuck with Stefan."
Damon nodded, sipping on his glass of bourbon, eyebrow slyly arched as she recounted his story.
"So, you waited until it was dark enough and went to committed mass murder against some druggies in a cemetery, which is where Vicki comes in."
"Mm-hmm"
"Then after you came back from your feast, you compelled Kennedy and Vicki to party with you, during which you fed both girls your blood."
"Spot on."
"Finally, after getting bored of the two girls, you figured you'd just casually snap both their necks causing both of them to transition."
Letting out a hum of agreement, the dark haired man tossed the rest of his drink in his mouth. "Great recap, Snow Princess. Now, those two should be up soon. Are you going to explain what they are to them or just let them go wreak havoc? Personally I vote for the latter."
Lissa's head fell to smack against the wooden table they were sitting at, shoulders slumping as she groaned. Who would have expected killing Zach early would lead Damon to change two teenage girls into vampires? Okay sure, she could see it causing Kennedy to die, hell that's what she expected to happen. Just…why did Damon have to get creative in his revenge against Stefan? That was the root of the problem, Damon wanting to get back at Stefan. If he had just drained the girl all Lissa would have had to do is make sure Vicki died. But, no, he had to be creative.
Lissa growled to herself, ignoring the chuckling that her table partner let out as she did so, and tried to think about what to do.
She could deal with this. She could still follow the plan of letting Vicki die, so if the addict tries to leave Lissa wasn't going to stop her. She knew her brother wouldn't get hurt, not physically at least. Vicki was just the first girl to really spend time with him so Jeremy thought he was in love with her. Plus she put out. Lissa wouldn't really meddle in that one much, if she could help it. Once Anna gets to town, Jeremy should start getting over Vicki's 'disappearance'.
It was Kennedy that was going to be the problem. When Damon got with her instead of Caroline she had expected the girl to die or be dropped quicker than lightning. How was she supposed to guess Kennedy would be changed and so early too? She'd have to talk to Enzo about helping train her because Damon sure as shit wouldn't do it, and Stefan was all about that animal diet since his self control was on par with a toddler's. Depending on how the girl took to vampirism would let Lissa know if getting her a daylight ring would be worth it or not.
And it wasn't like Lissa couldn't kill either girl if they did something she didn't like.
She let out another exasperated sigh before she lifted her head to meet Damon's gleeful eyes. He was enjoying her pain. "Vicki can do whatever she wants, I doubt she'll make it as a vampire and if she does it'll be as a ripper cause the girl's an addict as a human. Who knows how bad that'll be as a vampire. More than likely someone is going to have to kill her soon." She shrugged, as if to say 'eh, what can you do'. "Kennedy? Now she I can deal with. As annoying as she is, I think I can talk Enzo into helping train her. It'll give him something to do besides wallow in his hatred of you."
"Oh," He said. "You actually made a plan.".
Lissa clenched her jaw as she realized he never actually expected her to help him. "Why did you call me here if you didn't actually want me to deal with it?"
"Just to see how you'd react to me killing and changing two girls around your age," Damon flopped his hand at her flippantly. "Honestly I thought you'd freak out like any other teenager would. But once again you surprise me."
AKA Damon was testing her. She shouldn't be hurt by that, especially after ambushing him right after he was betrayed by his brother, but she was. Which was insane, since they'd met not a couple of weeks ago.
She swallowed her hurt, narrowing her eyes into slits, blue eyes resembling ice chips as she spoke, "I'm helping you solely because I don't want two newbie vamps running around Mystic Falls unchecked. Especially one that has a hard on for my brother."
Before he could give a retort of his own, they heard twin groans of pain come from the living room.
Lissa let out a swear before stepping around the smug vampire to greet the two girls that had finally woken up. Or had revived, she didn't know the correct term nor did she really care.
"Damn, whatever we had I cannot have it again." Kennedy muttered.
Vicki nodded in solidarity. "All I remember is dancing and then-"
"And then I killed you both." Damon said.
"Shut up." Lissa shot an icy glare up at him. "He's not wrong. But it's a bit more than just being killed. He changed you."
"What the fuck are you two talking about?" Kennedy asked. "And Damon, why is the albino here?"
"You know what? No." Lissa stated. "No I'm not putting up with both of you and Damon. I was going to be nice about this, but frankly, I hate your guts. Vicki, sorry but you get Damon to be your Yoda. And Damon, fuck you." She stomped over and grabbed Kennedy's arm roughly dragging her to her feet and towards the front door without a backwards glance. "Come on, I'm bringing you to someone who will be a hell of a lot better at explaining everything."
Kennedy, not used to people just straight manhandling her, started jerking her arm trying to get the pale girl to let go. Despite her small stature Lissa's grip was solid. She was going to have an ugly bruise, which was so not cute paired with Damon's bites, but at least those were in easy to cover places. It may have been October but it was still warm enough that she wasn't planning on wearing long sleeves! Now she would have to if only to cover that bruise.
Plus she felt funny, whatever Damon had given her and that druggie he had brought back had clearly messed with her in a bad way. She couldn't even look at the sun without her eyes feeling like they were going to burn away. And she had a horrendous crick in her neck since her useless boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? Whoever he was to her just left her to sleep on the uncomfortable couch instead of bringing her to his bed.
She let out a huff as she was, again, roughly shoved somewhere. This time into the front seat of an SUV she begrudgingly admitted was sleek looking with its dark tinted windows blending into the black paint. It made her feel like she was some important person being escorted somewhere instead of being kidnapped by some pierced emo freak. Considering the other girl wasn't answering her very important questions of where she was being taken and if she could please fix her makeup, Kennedy decided the silent treatment may get the other girl talking.
It didn't.
Lissa side-eyed the newly transitioning vampire(even if she didn't know it yet) as she finally parked in front of her and Enzo's house. Kennedy had stopped rambling on about halfway through the drive which was nice cause it gave her a second to cool down. She may have panicked a little when she saw Damon had changed Kennedy and her hangover sure didn't help. That plus Kennedy's general Kennedy-ness meant she had just given up trying to contain the fallout of Damon's actions.
Lissa shook her head, treating her thoughts like an etch-a-sketch. "Stay here. I'm going to explain what happened to the person I think could help you. I'll be back out as soon as I can." She grabbed Kennedy's wrist. "I'm serious, Kennedy. Stay here."
Much like a toddler, the girl just let out a humph and crossed her arms, she didn't seem like she was going to go anywhere so Lissa went ahead and headed inside. Just in case though she took the time to lock the car and turn the child lock on. Kennedy would be okay there for the time being.
Now inside, Lissa was greeted by a scene that really made her second guess bringing Kennedy to Enzo to train and complete her transition. Enzo laid across the couch, arm over his eyes, and dried vomit down the front of his shirt. If he wasn't a vampire she'd have thought the guy had died via choking on said vomit. Instead she just crinkled her nose at the disgusting smell that filled the room. The woman he'd left the bar with was nowhere in sight, so either she already left, probably whenever Enzo vomited on himself, or she's never made it to the house.
She really didn't care either way.
Groaning, the white haired girl stalked to Enzo's room, taking the time to launch a pillow from the ground at the sleeping vampire's face.
Enzo was still cursing her and her entire lineage by the time she had made it back to the living room with the clean clothes she had gone to find. She was honestly impressed enough with the creativity that went into them that she actually waited until he had gotten it out of his system to throw his clothes at him.
"You need to change, like now. Shits happened and I need help dealing with it." She said ignoring the enraged glare that was being shot at her.
At her words Enzo looked down at the vomit and frowned before taking his shirt off and putting the clean one on. "What could have possibly happened in one night? This is a small town, Snow White."
"Damon went on a murder spree, brought a teenage drug addict back to his place to party with him and his high school plaything, and then proceeded to change them. I have one of them currently sitting in the SUV outside."
"Oh…okay then."
"Yeeaahhh"
Lissa rocked back and forth on her boots as she watched Enzo's mouth open and close. It wasn't often she left him this speechless. The only other time had been when she'd told him about her "visions" of the future. That silence had lasted probably an hour before he'd started in on the questions. Anytime Enzo encountered something he thought was interesting he would obsess over it until he either learned everything he could or he got bored. It was something they had in common.
Enzo gave a sharp sigh, pulling her from her thoughts, and stood up. "Alright. So why exactly did you bring this person here? And which one did you bring? The drug addict or the plaything?"
"I left Damon with the drug addict. Sure Vicki and I are acquaintances, hell, even friends, but she's quickly gonna turn into a ripper and I'm not dealing with that." Lissa shrugged. "So, as much as I wanna kill her half the time, I brought Kennedy here because she, at least, has some chance of making it as a vampire." Even if she wasn't originally supposed to be one, Lissa thought to herself.
Nodding in agreement about Vicki, Enzo looked out their front window to the SUV outside and took in the girl still sitting inside it. She was the stereotypical high school popular girl from what he'd seen since being free. Or she would be if her makeup wasn't smudged to hell and back, curls on her head flat on one side, and blood on the neckline of the blue lacy shirt she was wearing. All in all she looked pretty pathetic but something told him she could make it as a vampire. Maybe not thrive as one but she could at least live.
"Smart. Drug addicts never make good vampires. Never enough self control." Enzo said. "Why don't you go get the girl in the car. Then you'll need to fuck off somewhere. Your bedroom, The Grill, wherever."
"What? Why?"
Enzo subtly rolled his eyes at his best friend. Her need to control everything was annoying at times. "You literally told me not a minute ago that you two's relationship was bad. Do you think being here will help the girl accept anything about what's happening to her?"
Lissa pursed her lips at his words. Yeah the reasoning made perfect sense but she didn't like not knowing what was going on with Kennedy's change. It was the first big change and she hadn't even planned it. Heaving out a sigh, she agreed with Enzo's plan and headed back out to her SUV to grab Kennedy.
"Come on." She said, grabbing the older girl's wrist once again.
"No!" Kennedy jerked her wrist out of Lissa's hold, frustration making her muscles taut. "If you don't tell me right now what's going on I swear I'll call 911 and get you arrested for..for kidnapping!"
Not in the mood to deal with Kennedy acting all haughty and still nursing a hangover headache, Lissa stepped into the taller girl's space, teeth bared and eyes dark. As she did so she could see the bravado seep out of Kennedy as she tried to step away from the pale girl and hit the front of the SUV. "I am trying to help you, despite my patience being at an all time low. So either get inside to have everything explained to you or I kill you right now. Either way, you'll be out of my hands within seconds."
"Lissa!"
Lissa narrowed her eyes before looking away from the now scared girl to a concerned Enzo. He had apparently been paying enough attention to what was going on outside to know when to intervene before she committed murder right out in the open. She let out a growl before shoving Kennedy towards the porch. "In. Now."
Nodding, Kennedy scrambled away and towards the rather attractive man that had saved her by getting Lissa's attention. "Oh my God! She's insane!"
Enzo struggled to keep his lips from curling into an amused smile. It would be counterproductive to let the other girl know he found her fear of his tiny friend funny. "Not insane, just tired and cranky." Enzo raised his voice just a tad to make sure Lissa herself heard him. "She'll be going to bed while we talk about what's going on with you."
Lissa sauntered up to the front door, smirking as Kennedy leaped away from her as she passed. "I get it Mother Enzo. I'll go take a nap. Have fun with Ms. High Maintenance."
As hard as it was, Lissa really did go to her room and ignored what was being discussed in the living room. It wasn't that she didn't trust Enzo to explain everything, hell he was probably the only one besides herself she did trust to do it. It was the fact that she didn't have any input to anything. Of course, if Kennedy decided not to transition then all her worrying would be for naught.
She wasn't sure how long she laid in her bed, thoughts swirling around as she tried to plan and think of everything that could happen, all the while straining her ears in an attempt to hear what was being said just down the hall. Of course, she was just a human so besides murmurs she didn't really hear anything of importance. Despite her intense desire to stay awake to hear what would become of Kennedy, Lissa, somehow, managed to fall asleep at one point between her tossing and turning.
When Lissa opened her eyes, she'd thought she'd be opening them to either a newly vamped out Kennedy or a remorseful Enzo. That did not happen. No, instead she opened them to the exact same white corridor with a shit ton of doors again. Except one door about halfway down the hallway on the left now seemed to have a golden doorknob instead of the painted white of all the others.
Lissa was about a third of the way to that door before she stopped herself. This was clearly a result of the mindscape spell she'd done. And she very much doubted Kol Mikaelson was a part of her mindscape, so clearly she'd translated something wrong. And she really wanted to find her own mindscape instead of whatever she found before. She glared at the tempting golden knob, teeth chewing on the dried bits of her lips long enough she started tasting blood.
Cocking her head to the side, Lissa smacked her lips together. How did she taste blood when she was, essentially, a ghost inside her own mind? Was it psychosomatic? Like she was so used to biting her lips that she expected to taste blood so she did? Or did her mindscape body affect her physical body and she now had a bloody lip in the real world?
She was starting to think doing this spell without actually researching it was probably one of her more stupid ideas. Who knows what it was really doing to her?
Lissa tapped her foot as she weighed the pros and cons of figuring out why she had some version of Kol Mikaelson in her head before finding her mindscape. On one hand she was insanely curious on what the hell she'd unleashed on herself. But on the other, Kol Mikaelson was the most unpredictable of The Originals, trying to deal with him was like playing with dynamite in one hand and a match in the other while hoping you didn't get blown up.
Cursing to herself, Lissa turned away from the golden doorknob. After the mess with Kennedy is settled she'll go into that room. Until then she needs to find her actual mindscape and not whatever that room/ house is.
Figuring the only way to find her own mindscape would be to at least touch the doorknobs in an effort to find a warm one like before, that's exactly what she did. She didn't know how long she went around touching doorknobs but eventually one, when touched, filled her belly with a warm happiness. She'd found it. Steeling herself just on the off chance this wasn't her mindspace but a dangerous trick, she slowly etched the door open.
"Holy shit" she whispered.
In front of her was her home. Her dream home from her last life stood in front of her as beautiful as the day she finished it.
Her home in her first life had been her pride and joy. Over 150 years old, with 20 acres of land, Lissa, then Lindsey, had taken one look at the derelict place and knew she had to rebuild it to its former glory. And she did. It had taken her 10 years of on and off renovations, but soon the rotting wood, bugs, old broken furniture, and everything else wrong with the place made way for comfort and warmth.
The exposed wood beams stained black in the ceiling with cream walls really came together to make the place feel homey yet kept her need for a dark aesthetic well. That paired with her rather dark but retro( for her time) aesthetic made it look like an angsty grandma lived in the house, which wasn't bad, just a bit strange. Which described her pretty damn well, 'not bad just strange'.
Though considering she killed people now that may need to change to 'kinda bad, and strange'. Eh, she didn't really care if she was honest.
Ignoring the melancholy that had overtaken her thoughts, Lissa bound into her old home and immediately went towards her wall bookshelf. While she had a decent memory there was absolutely no way she remembered every book she had there and everything inside them, yet the bookshelf was full. It was the first thing she noticed after pushing her emotions away.
Without even pausing to think if it would be a good idea to mess with anything in her mindscape just yet, Lissa tore a random book off the shelf and opened it. And immediately finding herself with a front row seat to some random memory back when her parents were alive.
It was dinnertime and their mom was once again determined to have them be a perfect happy family without any issues, so there they all sat. Their mom on one end of the table and their dad on the other while Jeremy, Elena, and her were left to sit in the middle. Elena had immediately taken a seat next to their mom, already 5 minutes into telling her all about the routine she was planning on doing to her first cheer tryouts. That left Lissa and Jeremy to fight over who would have to sit next to their mom, who would drag them into the cheer conversations, or who would get to sit next to their dad in silence.
With a sneaky foot, Lissa sent Jeremy tripping into the banister on their chairs and stole the one next to their dad. Jeremy, once he'd righted himself, sent her a scathing glare as he sat down and, just like they thought, was dragged into the conversation of cheerleading and other clubs.
Lissa and her dad shared an amused grin as they made eye contact.
Blinking harshly, Lissa stared down at the book with a grin slowly forming. Oh this was great. Each book was a memory or maybe each book had a series of memories. She was going to have so much fun experimenting with everything. She was also curious if it would just be her life as Melissa Gilbert or if it included Lindsey Martin's life too.
Looking up at the wall, she realized there were probably at least a thousand books here, so it had to include Lindsey too. She didn't have that many memories as Lissa to warrant that many books.
As she went to grab another book, she realized her hand, which had been solid the whole time, was now transparent.
How weird, I really do look like a ghost now, was her last thought as her eyes snapped open.
"Are you okay? What are you doing to make you sleep so deeply?" Enzo's eyes swam with concern as he stared down at her from beside her bed. "This is the second time I've had trouble waking you up."
Lissa shook her head at him as she sat up. "I'll tell you when I figure it out but don't worry. It's nothing I can't handle." She stood up and grabbed the black overalls she'd taken off to sleep, not really worried about Enzo seeing her in her underwear, and put them back on. "So what happened with Kennedy? Tell me everything."
Enzo snickered as she jumped back on the bed after getting dressed, not unlike a five year old. "Well first off, we now have a newbie vamp in Mystic Falls."
"I figured. Girl's too headstrong to just give up." Lissa shrugged. "I may not like her but I can respect her stubbornness."
"Exactly. So I gave her a couple blood bags we have in the kitchen and she completed the transition. Once it got dark she went back to her house after I gave her a few tips to deal with the bloodlust." Enzo said, leaning back onto the doorway to get comfortable.
Lissa glanced towards her windows and blinked in surprise at how dark it had gotten. She must have been more tired than she thought if she slept all day. "You trust that she won't drain anyone tonight?"
Enzo clicked his tongue as he thought. "I think she'll try not to. Will she succeed?" He shrugged, just as unconcerned at the idea of Kennedy murdering her parents as her. "Who knows. You gonna try and get her a daylight ring if she makes it a couple days?"
She let out a groan at the idea of going through the multiple hoops in an effort to get another one of those. She'd already had a time and a half getting one for Caroline in case she got changed despite Lissa trying to stop it. But, if she was being honest, she kind of owed it to Kennedy. After all it was her actions that caused her to be changed in the first place. Sure, Damon might have pulled the metaphorical trigger, but Lissa was the one to keep Caroline from Damon's 'evil' clutches.
Not that she regretted it. Caroline was one of the very few people that Lissa would go to the ends of the Earth for. If that meant Kennedy or any other person suffering? So be it.
"I'll look into it. But only if she can handle the bloodlust. I won't have a ripper being able to walk around whenever."
"Yeah, that's fair. I'll let her know next time she asks." Enzo said. "I told her to text me in the morning if she didn't snap and kill her whole family."
"I'll be sure to be gone, then. You can be the suave vampire teacher. Just make sure you don't fall for the girl." Lissa joked.
Enzo snorted and flipped her the bird before turning to leave, deciding her poor humor didn't deserve a reply.
"Aw! Enzo! Don't run away! Student teacher relationships may be frowned upon but I'm sure you can get it to work." She choked out through her laughter. Grunting at a pillow came sailing through the door and smacking her in her face, not that that stopped her giggles. "You're not getting the pillow back now!"
The birds were chirping, worry and sorrow was in the air around the Gilbert residence, and Lissa couldn't give two fucks. Well, okay she gave one, but only because Jeremy was really worried about Vicki despite her words that she'd ask around to see if any of her questionable acquaintances had seen the girl. Not that she expected they had.
She had gotten lucky since it seemed like when she left Damon's yesterday with Kennedy everything else had happened like it did in the show. Including Vicki completing the transition and hiding out at the Salvatore Boarding House. She'd eavesdropped on Jeremy's and Elena's conversation about the search party that morning before they knew she'd come in and the guilt on Elena's face afterwards spelled out she knew where the newbie vampire was.
Deciding not to interfere with anything that happened during the day, she decided to text Caroline agreeing to go to the Halloween thing as an apology for bailing on her so much recently. And maybe to keep an eye on what all was going on with Vicki but mainly for Caroline. All she got was an excessive amount of exclamations points back and a demand for her to meet her and Bonnie the minute she arrived at the school.
Lissa couldn't remember the last time she'd gone to a school event, especially a Halloween one. She tapped her barefoot as she glared at her closet. Turns out not celebrating Halloween by dressing up really limited her choices of costumes. The only things she could use for a costume was either cosplay, which was a hard no in this town, or a witch. Her dressing up as a witch was about as cliché as a vampire dressing up as a vampire. The only thing worse would be if Bonnie did it too.
That's what she got for deciding last minute what to do. Heaving a sigh, Lissa pulled out the stuff to put her witch costume together. The main piece was her long black velvet dress with bell sleeves, she put that on and pulled out an equally black underbust corset with dark red silk ribbon. Once she got it all laced up and her lace up boots on, she spun around a couple of times in front of the mirror. Good enough for a last minute costume. All she needed was a witch's hat.
Her eyes lit up as she thought of the perfect way to get one. Diving towards her bed, she quickly called Enzo.
"Go to a Halloween carnival with me!" She said the second he picked up.
"What?" Enzo asked, confusion coloring his words.
She rolled her eyes. "My school is having a Halloween thingy and I hate it but as an apology I told Caroline I'd go. She's been wanting to meet you and things are going to go down with Vicki there tonight so I figured you'd want to be there."
"What about Kennedy? I figured since she lasted the night I'd try to train her on feeding on people."
"That can be done tomorrow night. She has blood bags right?" She was half certain Enso had told her Kennedy had taken a stash of blood bags back to her house in a cooler. "Then she can hold off one more night and you can keep me from going insane at a high school function."
"Alright, fine. What are you going as? I'll try and match if I can."
Lissa beamed at his agreement. She loved him, truly. Besides Caroline, who adores these types of things, who else would suffer through teenager bullshit?
This was going to be so fun. There were a few things that she'd been worried about being able to change. Now she'll be able to slip away with Enzo without people questioning her. And by people she meant Caroline. "I'm a witch. And I still need a hat too, so if you could, pretty please, go by the store and pick me up a hat? You'd be the bestest vampire in the whole wide world."
"You are so lucky I love you."
"I know!" She ended the call with 'mwah' and grabbed her velvet drawstring bag to put her phone, wallet, and a tiny vial of vervain in.
With a skip in her step, Lissa made her way to the SUV and to the school.
As the albino girl pushed her way through the throngs of teenagers she was again reminded why she hated school events. Not only did no one respect personal space, they were so damn loud. She could feel a headache forming as she searched for Caroline. Finally spotting the blonde, she sped towards her while sending a text to Enzo on where she was. He had apparently been looking for her in the parking lot.
Grinning at a thought she got, Lissa slowed down to a crawl and crept behind her best friend. It was Halloween and what was Halloween without a good scare?
"Boo!" She screamed once she'd gotten directly behind the girl and let out a cackle as Caroline seemed to jump five feet in the air.
Spinning around, Caroline started slapping her evil best friend's arm in anger. "You bitch! That wasn't funny! Bonnie, stop laughing." Despite the violence though, she couldn't stop the smile that formed on her face. Lissa had been pretty MIA lately so seeing her actually come to a school event, which she despised, just to apologize and spend time with her? That definitely made up for it. Not that Caroline would be telling her that anytime, after all, she learned from the best to milk any and everything for what it was worth. And a guilty best friend? That gave her a lot of wiggle room.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Lissa giggled, hands up in the universal sign for forgive me. "I just couldn't help myself! Plus I figured in the Halloween spirit a harmless scare would be perfect."
"Scare shmare! Matt saw me. He probably thinks I'm a baby now."
Bonnie and Lissa shared a look before rolling their eyes. "Considering we've both seen you pig out during some of the goriest movies I've ever heard of, I doubt he'll think you're a baby."
"Talking of boring Matt, what's going on with you two?" Lissa asked, glaring slightly at the blonde boy across the carnival. At his slight gulp she let out a tiny smirk. Good to know that he was still scared of her.
"Nothing!" Caroline said, eyes shifting as she did. She was horrible at lying to her friends. It was Lissa that taught her to lie anyway, so she was certain she'd left a tell that only Lissa herself would know about. No point in trying her hardest to cover up what she couldn't. "I mean we may be talking but it's nothing serious. He's just been really nice, especially with you and everyone else being so busy."
Lissa winced at the blonde's words, noticing Bonnie do the same out of the corner of her eye. She'd been so caught up in the start of all the vampire stuff and making sure she stayed on top of school that Caroline got pushed to the side. And she knew Bonnie and Elena had done similar things. What kind of best friend was she? "I'm sorry, Care. I got so distracted with other stuff that I haven't really been the best friend lately."
"Me neither. Sorry, Caroline." Bonnie apologized, her own remorse written on her face. "Grans been on my case about that witch stuff for some reason. I just got sidetracked with it. Forgive us?"
Caroline rolled her eyes at her two friends. "Of course I forgive you. Though that doesn't mean you don't have to grovel!" She grinned as she wrapped her arm around Lissa.
"Well isn't this sweet?" Enzo's voice came from behind Lissa, causing the albino girl to twirl around in excitement. Time to introduce my best friend to the vampire brother.
Caroline and Bonnie both eyed the man that had come up to their little trio. He was clearly European, they didn't need the accent to understand that, though it did help. He towered over their tiny friend. Add in the dark hair and tan skin, he was basically everything Lissa wasn't. That clearly didn't stop her from being close to the guy if her reaction was anything to go by.
Bonnie stared wide eyed at them. Lissa had never been close to any guy, besides Jeremy at least. Sure, she would occasionally talk to people and she knew that Lissa had at least slept with one or two people but she didn't know who. And she doubted they went to their school. So to see her be so buddy buddy was throwing her off. She'd have to ask Elena if she knew anything.
In contrast to Bonnie's shock, Caroline immediately went on the defense and glared at the laughing man. Lissa told her everything, or as close to everything as she could. So the fact that some random guy turns up and she doesn't know him? Suspicious. She kept the glare on her face as the two turned to them, just as a warning to Mr. European that she was watching him.
"Caroline! This is Enzo, you know, that Enzo." Lissa kept her smile hidden at her blonde friend's protectiveness. If anyone was the protector in their relationship it was her, not that that stopped Caroline from trying. And it was nice to know that she had Lissa's back if anything happened.
Caroline's glare slipped from her face as she gaped at the man. Now that she thought about it, Lissa had told her that her foreign friend had moved to the area. She just hadn't expected him to come to a high school carnival! He was clearly older, so he must care about her best friend a lot to put up with teenagers. "Enzo as in the mysterious friend that I've heard about since elementary school yet never got a picture of? That Enzo?"
"Wait, you know him too?" Bonnie asked.
"Eh, kind of. You remember when we did those penpal things in elementary school? Well, turns out Enzo was Lissa's penpal and they kept in touch. She told me he moved here last week, but I hadn't expected to meet him tonight."
Lissa sheepishly grinned at Caroline's words. She'd honestly forgotten what exactly she'd told her years ago to explain her talking about some random dude. Of course, Caroline and Jeremy were the only two people she told about Enzo. She couldn't have trusted Elena not to go to their mom and dad and if their dad had heard Enzo's name he know for a fact she'd been sneaking into his office.
"You'll have to forgive us for the impromptu meeting. I felt like if I waited to meet Ms. Caroline here anymore then she may never warm up to me." Enzo held out his hand to the two girls, kissing both their hands as a greeting. He smirked at the slightly red cheeks it left them with. "I've heard horror stories of Lissa's best friend so I didn't want to start off on the wrong foot."
"What have you been telling him about me!?"
The three laughed at the blonde's scandalized tone. "Don't worry, Care, I didn't tell him anything too embarrassing."
"Oh my god, you've told him everything."
"Not everything, just close to it." Lissa teased. "Now come on, Enzo has promised to win each of us at least one prize tonight. "
"I have?" Enzo looked down at the tiny girl as she shot him a pointed glare. "Oh, right. Yes, I did."
Lissa hooked her arm around Caroline's as the blonde took charge to show them the games that she'd help set up.
And yes, Enzo did win them each a stuffed animal. Thank you, vampire reflexes.
It was as Bonnie was having a contest with Enzo on who could make the most basketball hoops that she saw Vicki weaving her way through the crowds and her sister at the other end clearly searching for the wayward baby vamp.
She heaved out a sigh. Well, at least they got a nice start to the night. Now to deal with the supernatural.
So I wanted to explain why I didn't have her actually go meet Kol since my test reader didn't seem to understand. Lissa is impulsive, prone to violence, at times, childish and selfish, but she is still an adult that knows when something is a bad idea. And meeting Kol Mikaelson before she even has a grasp on what spell she did and how it affects her? That's a bad idea. Hence, the exploration into other parts of the mindscape. Sorry if that disappointed some people!
But again! Thank you for reading and any reviews you leave! They really do keep me coming back to this story!