1978

Rachel and I were out at a bar. It was the height of the punk era and we were both dressed up in our punk outfits. Mine was a little bit risqué as I wasn't actually wearing a top, just a leather jacket over my bra and black leather shorts. We were at the famous CBGB. Rachel on the other hand might have embarrassed if anyone saw a picture of her cause she used a lot of hairspray.

"So anything you want to do tonight?" I asked.

"Well this looks like it would be the perfect place to get fucked." Rachel said. "If I'm wearing clothes by the end of the night, it'll be a failure."

I rolled my eyes as the two of us walked inside.

Present

In the morning, I woke up with Elena in my bed. It was a little weird due to the fact that we hadn't had sex the night before. She wanted to sleep in my bed specifically so she wouldn't be tempted to have sex with Stefan or something. Thankfully Rachel had spent the night with Caroline again. I still wasn't sure if the two of them were together or not. Rachel could do a lot worse than Caroline. It wasn't like she was dating Damon or anything. Maybe she just didn't want another relationship or something but it would be good for her.

"Good morning." Elena said.

"Hey." I retorted.

"Well this wasn't what I expected to see when I got home." Rachel interrupted. The two of us jumped. I wasn't expecting her to be back yet.

"What are doing here?" Elena asked. That probably wasn't the smartest question.

"This is my room." Rachel pointed out. "So what did you two do last night? Did Brandy show you her strap-on? Did you love it?"

"We didn't do anything." I said with a blush. I wasn't entirely sure if Elena knew what a strap-on was.

"So are we looking for the journal today?" Rachel asked. "Since it's a Gilbert journal, there might be some information at your house that we can use."

"Yeah, we can do it today." Elena agreed.

"This is going to be a lot of fun." Rachel said. "I so want to find this before Damon does. Now get out because I want to get changed."

I was going to point out that she was wearing more than the two of us, but I didn't think that it would be any use. I sighed and the two of us left the room.

1978

I was seated at the bar while Rachel was mingling. A lot of the time, I just went out to be her wingwoman. I did occasionally hook up with people myself, but most of the time I was trying to make sure that she didn't hurt anyone or do anything stupid. I had a glass of whiskey in front of me.

"This is from the woman at the end of the bar." The bartender interrupted as I noticed that he was holding his bleeding wrist over a glass for me. I looked over and saw a blonde woman there smirking at me. I smiled back at her.

Present

After a little while, Elena took Rachel and I back to her house. Stefan was on standby until we found out where the journal was. I was wearing a black tank top with a leather jacket and white tulle skirt while Rachel wore a tight blue tee and white miniskirt with sneakers. Once we got there, we started to look through some boxes of old stuff. I was surprised that they had so much old stuff.

"So why are we helping to open this tomb again?" Elena asked.

"Because Damon is going to try to do it anywhere and it's better to help him then to let him do it himself." I replied. "It also means that the vampires besides Katherine won't be able to get out."

"I don't think he trusts us. I don't trust him." Rachel remarked as she ate an Eggo waffle.

He may have trusted me. It would be weird if trusted me more than his own brother. Then again, Stefan had probably done more to make Damon distrust him. I then noticed Elena was looking at an old photo before she took out what looked like a muzzle.

"What's this?" She asked. I would bet that it wasn't being used on dogs. I was pretty sure that I read something about that. However, before I could say anything Jeremy walked into the room.

"What are you guys doing with all of this stuff?" He asked.

"We were looking for something in particular." Elena explained. "I heard that Dad had this old journal from the Civil War. Have you seen it all by any chance?"

"Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" He asked. Did he know about it? That was definitely an interesting coincidence. He took a seat on the counter.

"You know about it?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I just finished doing a History paper on it." He explained. That was convenient.

"So where is it now?" Elena questioned.

"I gave it to Mr. Saltzman." He said. The three of us all looked at each other. "What?"

I realized that it might look suspicious if we all left, so I texted Stefan. He and I were going to get it. I wasn't sure how we were going to do that. The only idea I had was to check the school since we couldn't get into his house or apartment or whatever.

I didn't know why he would be at the school on a Saturday. I liked to imagined that teachers had lives, but this town was so small, it was kind of hard to imagine anyone who worked at the school having a life instead of…well I knew how I was going to get into the school now. I texted her too. Yes I had her number. No it wasn't weird.

"You need me to do what?" She responded.

"I need you to let me into the school so we can see if Mr. Saltzman is there." I replied.

Later, Stefan and I were waiting for her to let us into the school. I hoped it wouldn't be too long.

"So, Mr. Saltzman has it?" He asked.

"Yes and I think that's his car." I said. "Kelsey should be here soon to let us in."

"I don't know if I'm okay with you letting her know about us." He told me.

"Well she's going to know about us. I'm not going to compel her and I don't want you to do it either." I explained. That was ignoring the fact that he wasn't able to properly compel her and we saw what happened when he tried to compel Vicki.

"How do you plan on getting this journal from Mr. Saltzman?" He retorted.

"Easy we ask him nicely and that doesn't work, we compel him." I answered. You'd be surprised how often simply asking someone to do something for you would work. It obviously wasn't perfect but it was worth a shot.

"You know if he's read the journal, he might actually believe some of the stuff in it." Stefan pointed out as Kelsey arrived.

"Hey." I greeted her.

"I can't believe you're breaking and entering in the school." She said.

"It's not breaking and entering if nothing's broken and we're invited." I replied. "Thanks for doing this."

"Just don't tell anyone I let you in if you get caught." She remarked before she opened the door.

1978

"Are you just going to sit there?" I asked as I took a sip from the glass. The woman was hot, but I thought about at least playing hard to get a little. She obviously also knew that I was a vampire and since she had compelled the bartender, I knew that she was one as well.

"I wasn't sure if you were interested." She stated. "You seem to have no idea who I am."

Present

After Kelsey let us into the school, Stefan and I started to look around. Logically, the ideal place to look for Mr. Saltzman would be in his classroom, but that didn't have to be true. Of course things weren't always as obvious as they seemed. This was case in point by the fact that the teacher was not in his classroom when we got there.

"Are you sure he's here?" Stefan asked before I could answer that, a stake flew threw the air, past my face. Fortunately Stefan caught it. I then saw Mr. Saltzman holding the gun. You know I was starting to think that he knew about vampires and also that he knew about them before reading the journal. I had to be brave though, so I ran over and grabbed the weapon from him, broke it and threw him against his desk, not hard enough to break it though.

"You shouldn't have done that." Stefan replied. He looked scared and he probably needed to know that we weren't going to hurt him. The school did not need to replace another History teacher.

"Let's talk." I stated. He sat down. He still seemed to be afraid of us. Apparently he was intimidated by my unintimidating appearance.

"Is this compressed air? Did you make it yourself?" Stefan asked. He didn't say anything. "Who are you?"

"We're not going to hurt you." I assured him as I looked at Stefan. I wasn't entirely sure how I would be able to stop Stefan from hurting him but I would find a way and I figured it would help.

"I'm a History teacher." Mr. Saltzman declared. Stefan scoffed. I mean it was true. He definitely was a History teacher. "I'm also a historian and through my research, I found some interesting things about your town."

I never thought about of Mystic Falls as my town, probably because I spent the majority of my life in New York. Mystic Falls was where I grew up but all of it was in a body that seemed foreign to me. The thing is if I lost my memories and someone told me that I used to be a boy, I probably wouldn't believe them.

"So now you're Van Helsing?" Stefan asked in disbelief. "We want the truth."

"My wife was a parapsychologist." He admitted. "She spent her life researching supernatural activity in this area. It was her work that led me here."

"Where is she now?" I asked, even though I had a pretty good idea since A: he was having dinner alone on his first here and B: he used the past tense to talk about her.

"Dead." He stated. Called it. "A vampire killed her."

"Just because that happened doesn't mean you can take it out on all of us." I pointed out. Of course we needed to get back to the reason why we came here. "Where's Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"

"Why do you want it?" He retorted. That wasn't any of his business.

"Where is it?" Stefan demanded.

"It's on my deck." He declared. It was definitely not on his deck.

"No, it's not." Stefan pointed out. The teacher then looked at his deck to discover that it was not on the desk. I was pretty sure that it was safe to assume that whoever else was looking for it managed to get it to it first.

"It was on my desk." He said. I sighed. I just wished that I knew who took it.

1978

"So do you have a name or should I just call you Pretty Little Thing?" She asked me as she came over to me.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you my name. Knowing names can lead to attachments." I pointed out.

"That's only if you allow yourself to get attached." She retorted. "Personally, I don't plan on staying in town for very long. I was just following a lead that seems to have gone dead. I thought I would have a drink before I go but I see something that I want to taste even more than alcohol."

"I might just be interested in that." I told her before taking another sip of my drink.

Present

So I decided that since Mr. Saltzman didn't seem to know where the journal was, I would go back to Elena's house while Stefan continued to talk to him. I was pretty sure that Stefan wasn't going to hurt him. I found that Rachel was still there and Damon was also. I decided to go upstairs to talk to Elena and Rachel.

"Did you get it?" Rachel asked me.

"No, Stefan was going to talk him to see if he knows where it is." I replied. The main reason we were upstairs was because I didn't want to Damon to know what we knew because I was pretty he would hurt Mr. Saltzman.

The three of us then went to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Jeremy was in the living room playing some sort of video game.

"Hey, we're making dinner." Jenna said. It looked like Damon was making dinner and she was watching. "I was just telling your brother about all of the losers that I've dated."

I would have thought Elena would have told her that he wasn't my brother.

"Perhaps you should stop dating losers." Rachel suggested. I rolled my eyes at that.

Later, Jenna was changing her shirt because she spilled wine on it, so Elena was helping Damon serve the food. It didn't take long before he bumped into her.

"Stop that." Elena replied.

"Stop what?" Damon countered.

"Don't do that. That move was deliberate." Elena replied. You know it was considered tacky to flirt with your brother's girlfriend, regardless of whether or not she had previously kissed you.

"I was deliberately trying to get to the sink." Damon argued. "So is this renewed sense of family with Stefan and Brandy real?"

He did know that I could hear him, didn't he?

"Yes." Elena answered.

"Can I trust them? Specifically can I trust Stefan?" He asked.

"You can trust him." Elena answered. Damon then sped in front of her.

"Can I trust him?" He repeated.

"I'm wearing vervain." Elena pointed out. I didn't think he was trying to compel her.

"I'm not compelling. I just want an honest answer." He replied. I couldn't help but wonder if he had trust issues.

"You can trust him and Brandy too." Elena assured him. You know I wasn't completely sure if I trusted Stefan with this.

1978

"Before we go somewhere else, I do want to know your name." She told me.

"How about we make a deal." I offered as I took her to the pool table. "We're going to play a game and if you win, I'll tell you my name."

You know having a pool table in a bar didn't seem like it was a very good idea. Drunk people probably shouldn't have been allowed to be around things that could be used as weapons. Of course a lot bars still allowed guns back then too. I took the cue stick and hit it at the balls.

Present

After dinner, I was doing the dishes with Jenna because Damon had volunteered me to do so. He was playing the video game with Jeremy.

"Your brother's so hot." Jenna whispered.

"He's not my brother." I whispered back. I would definitely not allow her to date Damon. "Besides, he's an ass."

At that point, the doorbell rang and both Damon and I, along with Elena and Rachel headed outside to see Stefan. I couldn't help but wonder if he felt like he was being mobbed.

"Well, where is it?" Damon asked.

"Someone else got it." Stefan stated. I was pretty sure that there was more since it had taken Stefan so long to get here.

"Who took it?" Damon asked. "I bet it was that teacher. There's definitely something off about him."

"No, it wasn't him." Stefan argued. "Someone else must have gotten to it while he was out of his room."

"Well who else knows about it." Damon asked. Elena looked inside at Jeremy and Damon went inside to talk to him. A few minutes later, he took Jeremy away.

Meanwhile, Stefan had a secret that he didn't want Damon to know. Mr. Saltzman had made a copy of the journal. Okay, being at the school to use the copier was a valid excuse, but that would still require him to believe that someone was trying to steal it.

We all started to read through the pages to see if we could find anything related to the location of the spellbook. It turned out that there were a lot of pages and this book only covered a very short period of time.

Elena was the one who ended up finding something about the spellbook. It turned out that the Fells wanted to give Emily's spellbook to him but he was afraid of being haunted by her. So he was afraid of ghosts but not vampires? However it was Giuseppe Salvatore that relieved his fear by offering instead to take the book. He even said that he would take the secret location of it to his grave. Okay that seemed like it was pretty straightforward, but everyone else seemed to be confused by it. I don't think it was meant to be a metaphor.

"I know where it is." Stefan said.

1978

The blonde and I were playing an intense game of pool. She was definitely better than I thought that she was. I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to distract her a little.

"Is it hot in here?" I asked as I took off my jacket leaving me in my bra.

"You should know that it's not that easy to distract me." She replied. "I happen to be wearing one of those as well."

"Do I get to see it?" I asked with a smile as she prepared to take a shot. Though, I was probably more interested in what was under it.

"We'll see." She replied as she took her shot and effortlessly hit the 8-ball into the pocket. It looked like she had beaten me. "So it looks like I win and I believe we had a deal. So tell me your name."

"My name is Brandy Salvatore." I told her. Since she knew mine, I kind of wanted to know hers.

Present

It turned out that exactly as I expected, it was literally in his grave. Rachel and I went with Stefan to get it. I felt kind of guilty that we were doing it without Damon.

"So why isn't your father is your family crypt like Brandy's?" Rachel asked.

"It wasn't built yet." Stefan said.

"Alright, let's do this." I said as I took the shovel and started to dig.

1978

"Brandy, that's definitely something that I want to drink." The woman declared as she pushed me onto the pool table. Part of me wondered if we were going to have sex right there. I wouldn't be opposed to it. No one was really paying attention to us which was a bit surprising. Of course it was the bar scene of New York, so I was pretty sure that people were used to gay stuff.

"So are you going to tell me your name?" I asked.

"Like I said, I'm surprised that you don't already know who I am." She said. "My name is Klaudia."

Present

We kept digging until we hit a box. Stefan opened it and pulled the book out of his father's skeletal hands.

"Well…this is an interesting development." Damon interrupted. He was also holding a shovel.

"I'm not letting you bring Katherine back." Stefan replied. Simply put, Damon looked betrayed. Also the fact that he didn't want to open the tomb was news to me. "I'm sorry."

"No I'm sorry for thinking for a second I could trust you." Damon replied. He then looked at Rachel. "I never trusted you… but you had me fooled."

That made me feel really bad.

"The fact that you're here means that you planned on doing this without us." Stefan pointed out.

"Of course I was because the only person I can count on is me!" Damon shouted before he put me in a headlock. "Now give me the book or you will regret it."

"You won't hurt her." Stefan replied. Damon then let me go before he raced over to Rachel and plunged his hand into her chest. She screamed out in pain.

"But I will kill her." He argued. I actually thought that he meant. "Now give me the book."

"Give him the book, Stefan." I ordered. I was pretty sure that he would spare if we did what he said. I could not lose Rachel. Stefan gave put the book on the ground and let Rachel go before he snapped her neck. It looked like I would have to wait to hug her. Well, at least she wasn't dead.

Stefan took her unconscious body home while I decided that it would be a good idea to check on Elena and fill her in on what happened. I had a feeling that she wouldn't be happy about that. I kind of wanted to tell Damon that I didn't know that Stefan planned on destroying the book, but I wasn't sure if it would have helped. He seemed like he was so angry and betrayed that he was unable to be reasoned with at that point and probably would be for at least the rest of the night. I would have to wait until later to tell him.

"Hey, can I talk to Elena?" I asked Jenna.

"Yeah, sure. Did you want to spend the night since it's pretty late?" Jenna asked. I was pretty sure that she liked me.

"Where'd she go?" Jeremy interrupted.

"Where'd who go?" I asked.

"He has a friend over." Jenna explained. I didn't know Jeremy had friends.

"Anna." Jeremy explained.

It was at that point that I realized something. It all seemed to click. I couldn't believe that I hadn't considered any of that before.

1978

I woke up in a building alone in the morning. I really hadn't been expecting any more but I was still kind of surprised that Klaudia had just left me. At least the night had been good. To be honest, It had been good sex, probably even the best sex that I had ever had. It definitely was the best that I had had up to that point. I would have to think if it was the best sex that I had ever. It was definitely pretty good if I was still thinking about it about 31 years later.

Present

I couldn't believe that I missed the signs that Anna was a vampire. She really had been that girl from the Met Gala. I ran upstairs to Elena's room only to find that there was no one inside.

So just like in the original story, Brandy hooked up with Klaus, only this time Klaus is a woman. She's played by Aimee Teegarden. Also she found out that Anna is a vampire. That's going to make their next meeting awkward. Please don't forget to review.