"Here we are." I told Rachel as we arrived at the boarding house. I didn't know what was going on there.
"I still can't believe that you wanted to come to this small town. This is like the exact opposite of New York. I bet nothing ever fucking happens here." Rachel told me.
"I told you. This is where I grew up." I explained as I rung the bell and a man with short brown hair and blue eyes opened the door.
"We're not open for visitors anymore." He told us. So the boarding house had closed and it apparently had closed recently.
"What's your name?" I asked. I hoped that the boarding house was still in the family.
"It's Zach Salvatore." He answered.
"Zach, you're Colton's son right?" I replied.
"How did you know my father?" He asked in surprise.
"He was my brother." I declared.
"That's not possible. My father didn't have a sister." He stated. I could have told him that there were a number of illegitimate children in the family, but I needed him to invite me in.
"Yeah, that was me." Rachel said as she raised her hand. "My name is Rachel and this is Brenda Salvatore, formerly known as Brandon Salvatore."
"But I go by Brandy." I remarked. "If you invite us in, I can show you which room was mine."
"How do I know I can trust you?" He retorted.
"If you can't trust your family, who can you trust?" I challenged.
"Both of you may come in." He told me as we stepped inside of the house. We walked upstairs and to my room. It really didn't look much different from the rest of the rooms, so I would have to redecorate. I would also need to do some clothes shopping because move a full wardrobe was not something that my small car could handle. I loved my car but it only had room for two people and one bag in the trunk.
The two of us then heard a sound that sounded like someone jumping off the roof. Well I heard it and I assumed Rachel heard it too. I looked outside and saw a familiar face. So he was a vampire too.
"Cousin Stefan?" I asked after open the window. He then did something surprising. He leaped in through the window and grabbed me by the neck. It hurt.
"Who are you?" He demanded.
"I know it sounds strange but we met before. You came here when my dad died." I told him.
"You know it would be a lot easier if you led with the fact that I turned you into a girl." Rachel pointed out. Stefan loosened his grip in surprise.
"I was Brandon Salvatore. So I guess you're not my cousin then," I told.
"Why are you here?" He asked.
"I wanted to come back to my old home. I didn't think anyone would have a problem with that." I told him. I had to admit I was a little annoyed.
"So are you single?" Rachel asked. Why did she have to flirt with every guy that she saw?
"Both are you are coming to school with me tomorrow." Stefan stated before he went back out the window. Why didn't he just use the door?
"He's cute." Rachel remarked.
"Did you miss the part where he wants us to go to school?" I questioned. "We both have college degrees."
"Yeah, but we're both really short." She declared. I didn't like being reminded that I was vertically challenged. "And we both look young. It would probably raise more questions if we didn't go to school."
In the morning, I had a hard time figuring out what to wear. I didn't know teenagers wore to school these days since I was not a teenager and hadn't been to school for a long time.
"Rachel, I need help." I told her as I looked over what we had, standing in my bra and panties. "I don't know what to wear to school."
"Well not that." She told me as I rolled my eyes. "That top is cute and it will go well with that skirt and your jacket. Now hurry up so we're not late."
I put on a purple V-neck tank and a black pencil skirt before putting on my jacket. Rachel was wearing a white button-up blouse and jeans. Wearing heels was basically a must due our lack of height.
We went downstairs where Stefan was eating breakfast.
"So how are you getting to school? My car only has space for two people and I'm guessing you don't want to ride in the trunk." I said.
"I was going to walk." He said. By walk, he meant run because we were able to get her there at top speed. It might have been faster than driving, but I liked to ride in style.
Once we got to school, it felt like all eyes were on us. Just like when I lived here, it seemed like the town didn't get a lot of new people. Most people were born and raised there. A big question I wondered was how we were going to get into the school. We literally had no records. We walked into the office and Stefan proceeded to compel the secretary. Oh. Yeah that would work. I supposed it never crossed my mind that we could use compulsion.
"All I see is backs." A girl behind us said.
"They're hot backs." Another girl replied, Apparently we were the talk of the school. The thing was ever since my change, I felt an attraction to guys, but that didn't mean that the attraction to girls wasn't also still there. I actually had slept with Rachel, but the two of us decided that we were better as friends. I didn't really have any relationships because I was a vampire and I didn't like to do that. I mean aside from dating other vampires, I wouldn't have a future with anyone.
As I was walking to my class, I collided with coming out of the bathroom. That was not a good location for that. It was a girl with brown hair and brown eyes. She was on the tall side but she didn't tower over me.
"I'm sorry." She apologized as I got up off the ground. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"Isn't that the boys' bathroom?" I asked as I looked at the sign. I could tell by her appearance that she didn't seem to be hooking up with someone in there.
"Yeah…I was just…it was just…it's a long story." She babbled. I was a bit distracted because this girl was really hot. "I should get to class."
The two of us started to move but we seemed to want to go the exact opposite ways at the same times making movement impossible. Eventually I decided to stand against the wall. I was new, so I had more leeway to be late than she did. I then realized that I didn't even ask her name. It was probably just as well. I wouldn't want to date her anyway. At that time, a guy came out. He looked like he was high to be honest.
"Are you okay?" I asked. He didn't say anything and just walked away.
Near the end of the day, Rachel and I went to our Theatre class. I wasn't sure why she was so insistent on us taking the class. I also noticed that the brunette from the bathroom was there.
"You're staring." Rachel told me.
"No I'm not." I replied as I looked away.
At that point, the teacher entered the room. At least I was pretty sure that she was the teacher. She looked pretty young.
"Good morning, everyone." She greeted us. Even though it was a later class, there was a half day on the first day. "My name is Kelsey Rogers and I will be your Drama teacher. We will be learning all about the stage and screen in this class. There's just one rule. We don't talk about Twilight."
I knew as a vampire, it got pretty much everything wrong, but I also didn't see the harm in it. It seemed more like people hated it because it was popular to do so. I did have some gripes with the books, but it was actually not the vampires that gave me issues.
After school was over, I headed to the cemetery. I needed to pay my respects to my dead brothers. I couldn't help but think what they thought when they stopped hearing from me. They might have thought I was dead. I mean I was dead, but I also a person who didn't legally exist. I probably could have written to them, but it wouldn't have been the same.
Anyway, as I was leaving the crypt, I saw the same girl fall down a hill. She seemed like she was okay though. Maybe I should finally introduce myself to her.
"Hi." I greeted her.
"Did you follow me here?" She asked.
"No, but I saw you fall." I replied.
"And you just happened to be chilling in a cemetery?" She retorted. Had I done something to make her mad at me?
"I was visiting someone." I stated.
"Wow, I'm a bitch." She muttered. "I'm sorry. It's just the fog is making me foggy and there was this bird and a man and…I'm Elena."
"Brandy." I replied.
"I know we have Drama together." She said. You know I probably should have been paying attention to her name but I wasn't good at learning names in passing. At that moment, I smelled blood. I needed to breathe but the urge was strong. I looked away from her.
"Did you hurt yourself?" I asked.
I heard her pull up her leg and the smell got stronger.
"Oh wow that is fucking disgusting." She said.
"You should probably clean that off." I retorted before I bolted. I had to get away so I didn't do something I would regret. Though, as I was passing by a tombstone, I noticed a book. It looked like a diary. The tombstone said Grayson and Miranda Gilbert on it.
"What took you so long?" Rachel asked me when I got home. I didn't think that there was a timer for visiting dead relatives.
"I ran into that girl from Drama. Her name is Elena." I explained.
"You mean the one you're crushing on?" She questioned.
"I'm not crushing on her." I said with a blush. "But I have to find out where she lives because I need to return her diary to her."
"Did you read it?" Rachel inquired.
"No, I didn't read it. It's impolite to read someone else's diary." I pointed out. "I wonder if Zach knows where she lives."
"Where who lives?" Stefan asked as he came downstairs.
"Elena Gilbert." I answered.
"She's on 2104 Maple St." Stefan answered.
"How do you know this?" I asked.
"Because I saved her from drowning." He declared. I didn't see how that would lead to him knowing where she lived. "Right, you two don't know the backstory."
He took us to his room and showed us what looked like a picture of Elena that was printed on a piece of metal.
"This is Katherine Pierce. She's the vampire who turned me. When I found Elena, I thought they were the same person, but I did some digging and was able to confirm that they are not."
"Well before you take this back to her, we need to do some shopping." Rachel told me.
After a trip to the store, I took the book and took it to Elena's house. However before I could ring the doorbell, the door opened suddenly and there she was.
"I was about to ring the doorbell." I explained. "I wanted to apologize for disappearing on you earlier."
"It's fine. It's okay if you have problems with blood." She said. I usually didn't but she caught me off guard.
"Something like that. So did you get it cleaned up?" I asked.
"I managed to save it," She quipped. "But did you really come all the way out here to check up on me?"
"No, I have this." I said as I took the diary out of my bag.
"Oh my God, I thought I lost it." She remarked as she took it from me. "How did you know where I lived anyway?"
"I…uh…asked my uncle." I improvised. Apparently Zach was my uncle now. "Oh and I didn't read it."
"Why not?" She asked.
"Because it's rude to read someone's diary." I declared.
"I'm gonna put this up." She said. "You don't have to stand out there."
Since that wasn't an invitation, I didn't have a choice. She then came back out.
"I'm sorry were you going somewhere?" I asked.
"Yeah I was about to meet my friends at Mystic Grill." She answered.
"That's funny because I about to meet my friend Rachel there. Do you want to go together?"
"Sure." She agreed.
We headed to the restaurant and it seemed to be kind of crowded. I saw Rachel and Stefan were also there. We all ended up getting a table together including her friends the African-American Bonnie and blonde Caroline.
"So were you born in Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked. She had a pretty obvious crush on Stefan.
"Stefan was and I was, but I met Rachel in foster care." I explained. It was a bit challenging because Stefan and I had to act like we hadn't basically just met.
"What happened to your parents?" Bonnie asked. I hung my head low, hoping I wouldn't have to say anything.
"They died when I was young." Stefan answered.
"I'm sorry." Elena said. "Any other siblings?"
"We're not siblings." I stated. I could not pull that off. "We're cousins."
"None that I talk to." Stefan answered. Did that mean that he had siblings that he didn't talk to? I didn't talk to my one living brother, but he was old and didn't know anything about me.
"So Stefan…" Caroline started. She seemed to be ignoring us to focus on him. "If you're new you don't know about the party tomorrow night."
"It's a back-to-school thing at the Falls." Bonnie explained.
"Are you going?" Stefan asked Elena. He saw her first and I didn't want to date her anyway.
"Of course she is." Bonnie answered for her. Seemed like she didn't have a choice.
The following day, Rachel and I were in our Sophomore History class. Even though Stefan and I weren't supposed to be siblings, he still thought that we shouldn't be in the same grade. At least I was still old enough to have a driver's license. He was asking about the Battle of Willow Creek, maybe it was just me but they wouldn't shut up about that when I was in school. I was taught that several times and it stuck with me. Our teacher, Mr. Tanner wanted to know how many died. No one seemed to know.
"Jeremy, I know you can enlighten us on one of the town's most important events." He said. Jeremy was the guy I had seen at the bathroom and also Elena's little brother.
"There were 346 casualties." I interrupted. "Not counting civilians that is."
"Very good…Miss?" He replied before he realized he didn't know my name.
"Salvatore." I declared.
"Salvatore, any relation to the town's original settlers?" He asked.
"Yes." I replied.
"Very good, but of course there were no civilian casualties." He replied.
"Actually there were." I argued. "Confederates set a church on fire believing it to housing weapons and 27 people were killed."
If he wanted to make fools out of people, he deserved to made the fool himself.
That night, I was wearing an orange dress with butterflies on it and black flats. Rachel wore a red velvet minidress with matching heels.
"Why are you wearing heels to a party in the woods?" I asked.
"Because I always have to look my best." She answered. "You know this party would be great for finding people to hook up with. You know it's been a while since you got laid."
"And I'm not looking to do it." I countered as I had a sip of blood.
"I know you want to fuck Elena." She told me. I nearly spit out my drink, which I knew Zach would not have happy about.
"No I don't and even if I did, Stefan likes her and I'm not looking for any drama with him." I pointed out.
We then headed to the party. As soon as we got there, Stefan got intercepted by Caroline. I headed over to Elena because I still wanted to talk to her. We could still be friends.
"Hi." I replied. Her back was turned and she didn't see me walk up to her, so she jumped. "I have to stop doing that. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just glad that you're here." She told me. I did feel kind of nervous with everyone looked at me. I liked parties, but usually I was not the center of attention.
"Can we get away from the crowd?" I requested.
"Yeah, let's go see the Falls." She replied.
I had seen them before. They look amazing at night. We stood on a bridge that gave a good view of them.
"So you three are big news here." She said. "Especially you and Stefan. There haven't been any Salvatores at the school in years. Not to mention you're here mysterious."
Was that really true? I knew Zach didn't have any kids, but where did they all go?
"Well you're mysterious too." I replied. "You have this dark aura to you."
"What makes you think I have a dark aura?" She inquired. I wasn't sure if she knew what an aura was.
"Well did meet in a cemetery." I pointed out. Well we officially met there.
"Actually we met out of the boys' bathroom." She argued. "It was something with my brother. You don't want to know. It's not really party talk."
"Well I'm not very good at party talk." I declared.
"Okay, so last spring my parents were taking me home from a party like this one when the bridge gave out. I survived and they didn't." She explained.
"Is that why you didn't want to come here?" I asked. At least that was what I felt like. Maybe I read it wrong.
"No, I wanted to come here. It's just that since then, everyone keeps asking me if I'm okay every fucking day." She stated. I realized that I should probably change the subject.
"Who's that guy that keeps looking over at us?" I asked.
"That's Matt. He's that friend that you've known forever and you try to date but it never really works out." She explained. So he was like Rachel for me, even the two of us didn't actually date.
"It's going to get better Elena." I told her.
"Your eye." She remarked. Crap, why did this keep happening? She wasn't even bleeding? I had to come up with something fast.
"There's something in it? Do you want another drink? I'm going to get another drink." I babbled as I hastily exited.
I probably did need a drink because for some reason, I was craving her blood. I headed over to find Rachel.
"You know for someone who says that she's not interested, you were sure flirting up a storm with her." Rachel told me.
"I was not." I remarked with a blush. I then chugged a bottle of beer. I wished they had something stronger.
I then noticed Stefan was talking to Elena. Apparently he had broken free of Caroline. However it didn't last very long because Elena walked out into the woods to follow Jeremy. I had a bad feeling that something bad was about to occur.
I was right. Within a few minutes, Elena and Jeremy came out of the woods carrying a girl's body. She was bleeding from her neck and still alive.
"Somebody call 911!" Elena shouted. Stefan looked at me, apparently wanting me to come with him. I didn't need to be told twice.
"Stay here. We can't all leave at once." I told Rachel. I noticed that she was looking at a guy. I didn't have time to deal with that. I headed back home with Stefan. Zack was downstairs when we got there.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Someone else was attacked and it wasn't us." Stefan explained. I was pretty sure it wasn't Rachel either. She had better control than that. I followed Stefan to his room. We heard a crow and that was when I saw him.
"Damon." Stefan replied.
"Hello, Brother." Damon responded.
"The crow's a bit much, don't you think?" Stefan asked.
"Wait till you see what I can do with the fog?" Damon boasted. How was doing any of that? "So I see you have already met our little descendant. Your hair's different. It looks nice."
You know I didn't really feel a need to tell him about what happened to me because he hadn't known me before I was girl.
"It's been 15 years Damon." Stefan remarked.
"I'll say that awful grunge look didn't suit you." Damon commented. Why did everyone hate the grunge look? I thought it looked nice. "Remember Stef, you're supposed to stay away from fads."
I could immediately tell that the two of them had a lot of issues.
"You know you left that girl alive tonight." Stefan remarked. "That's very clumsy of you."
"Yes, that could be a problem…for you." Damon retorted.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, Brenda." He replied. "I know why Stefan is here: Elena. Seems like both of you have taken a liking to her though. Did you know that she is a dead ringer for Katherine?"
"Elena is not Katherine." Stefan argued.
"Let's hope not." Damon declared. "So what are you doing going to these high school parties? We both know the closest you'll ever be to humanity is when you feed on it."
"Stop." Stefan replied.
"Oh maybe we could just go straight to Elena's. Imagine how her blood tastes." Damon replied. I was starting to feel hungry just thinking about it.
"I said stop!" Stefan declared as he tackled Damon through the window. I decided to go outside to check on them. Stefan was on the ground but Damon was nowhere in sight. Where did he go?
"Not bad. I give it a 6. The landing could use work but the face was scary." Damon said.
"Everywhere you go, people die." Stefan remarked. There were a lot of issues there.
"That's a given." Damon stated.
"Well not here. I won't let you." Stefan replied with authority.
"Where's your ring Bro?" Damon asked. I then noticed Stefan's fingers were bare. "You better find that soon if you don't like being dust. Relax. I have it."
He gave it back to Stefan before he proceeded to throw him into the garage. I realized that I probably needed to do something and went to talk him, but he moved out the way and I crashed directly into a pole. Ow. So Damon was faster than me. I mean I shouldn't have surprised since I knew that vampires got stronger with age.
"You should think twice before you try to challenge me. You decided a long time that you wouldn't be as strong as me." Damon declared. At that point, the lights turned on. "Oops, I think we woke Zach up. Sorry Zach."
I waited for Rachel to come home. After a few minutes, I realized that she was probably hooking up with someone. There was something else that was bothering me. I had to go see Elena. I wasn't sure if Damon would actually go to her house but I felt like I needed to know she was safe.
I drove over. I was pretty sure she saw me because she opened the door before I could ring the doorbell.
"What are you doing here?" She asked me.
"I just wanted to be sure that you were okay." I remarked. I then realized something. "And I'm so sorry because you probably don't want to hear me ask you that. So what happened with that girl?"
"Paramedics came and took her. She's Matt's sister Vicki." She answered. "You know I'm glad you're here. I didn't want our conversation to end the way that it did. So would you like to come in?"
"Sure." I replied before I stepped into the house.
So there are a few new changes. First Brandy is not in denial about her sexuality and Rachel is Team Brelena from the beginning. They're still not going to end up together though. Also there's a new character. Kelsey is played by Ashley Greene. I haven't decided what she's going to be yet. And most importantly, there's nothing on between Brandy and Tyler. Anyway, please don't forget to review.