Miss Mystic Falls - Part 3

"Tori!" Elena called out from the hallway, her voice drawing out Victoria's nickname as long as she could. "Have you seen my shoes?"

"Have you looked underneath your bed?" Victoria shouted out from Jeremy's room, where she was standing in front of a sitting Jeremy Gilbert, trying desperately to tie his tie correctly. The teenage boy was dressed up in his suit, looking downright handsome (as handsome as a guy could be when Victoria thought of him as a younger brother), and yet his tie had caused both himself and Victoria extreme amounts of trouble. The next time Kelly insists that we need to help the Gilberts before a big event, remind her that together, all five of us are a hot mess and none of us can get anything done. "You mentioned something about stashing them away in a box so you wouldn't forget them! In your closet, I think?"

"Aha! Found them! Thanks, Tori!"

"You're welcome!" Victoria said back, letting out a growl of frustration as she dropped her hands to her sides in defeat. "I give up. I can't figure this stupid tie out!" This is why we need YouTube.

"Allow me."

Victoria didn't bother hiding how she tensed up at the sound of John Gilbert's voice, but she did step to the side, allowing John to take the place she had been standing in. She dropped down beside Jeremy on his bed, watching silently and with contempt as John easily undid her tangled mess of a tie and redid it the proper way. Victoria stared unabashedly at his hands, doing her best to study the way they moved so she would be able to replicate his work at a later time.

"And done," John stated, clapping his hands together. He placed his hands on Jeremy's shoulders and twisted him to the side so he was angled towards Victoria. John took his right hand and gestured towards the tie. "You were doing good, but you needed to put the other tail in. That would have gotten you here instead of where you ended up."

"Oh, I see," Victoria hummed, biting her lower lip as she stared at the tie quizzically. It did make sense, she guessed. Not that she enjoyed being taught how to tie a tie by John (would rather have preferred it being taught to her by Zach). "I guess thanks, John."

"No problem, kiddo," John chuckled. "Hey, Jeremy, I think Jenna was looking for you in the kitchen with Kelly."

"Oh, really? I didn't hear them calling for me at all," Jeremy hummed. He stood up and brushed his hands off on his pants before he ducked out of his room and headed down the hall.

Victoria leapt to her feet as soon as Jeremy was out of the room and she took a large step away from John, her hands moving to clench into fists at her side. John held up a hand, not at all concerned about the literal tension leaking out of Victoria's pores. "Relax, witchie. I'm not here to hurt you."

"You poisoned me at the Founders' Hall party," Victoria hissed, risking a glance towards the hallway. Hopefully Jeremy and Jenna were both downstairs still; she knew that Kelly could get up to her if need be, but she really wanted to go to the Miss Mystic Falls celebration. "You knew that I was badly allergic to wyrmwood and you spiked my drinks!"

"Can you prove it?" John asked.

"I only ingested one thing at the party and it was the non-alcoholic drinks. You could have easily passed off the wyrmwood as some extra flavoring to get it in," Victoria snapped. "So yes, John, I can prove it."

"It was just a scientific experiment -"

"- I am not an experiment!"

"You're not dead, so no harm, no foul," John continued, shrugging his shoulders. "That's not why I wanted to talk to you."

"I'm not sure I want to talk to you."

"One question," John offered, gesturing widely with his hand. "I ask you one question, and maybe, you can ask me one. We answer honestly and then, we can pretend like we never spoke to each other for the rest of the night. Do we have a deal?"

Victoria paused, before asking. "One question each?"

"One question each."

"And then you don't bother me for the rest of the night?"

"I'll be like a ghost. You won't even know that I'm there."

Victoria frowned, but consented. "Yeah, we have a deal. Ask me your stupid question."

"What are you?"

Victoria paused again, blinking in disbelief. She had not been anticipating that as a question. "E-Excuse me?"

"There's no way that you're just a White Witch," John said, explaining his reasonings. He took a leisurely step forward and Victoria flinched backwards, her hands snapping up into a defensive position by her chest. "With the water, I was maybe a little convinced, but that doesn't explain the extreme wyrmwood issue. I've seen you, Elena, and Jeremy playing in the woods when you there were children, and you faceplanted right into the middle of a patch of wyrmwood and got up without a problem. Yet, you ate a little bit of flour and you were on the floor wheezing on the floor only a week ago. So, I think you're something more than a White Witch. What are you, Victoria LeBlanc?"

"Getting creeped out," Victoria answered honestly. She gestured towards John. "Just...stop moving."

John paused and just tilted his head so he could observe Victoria with a silence that made her skin itch.

Victoria didn't want to tell him that she was the Immortalis. That was too dangerous. Who knows what kind of chaos he could ensue with that kind of information? So, she decided to go with her next best option, which still wasn't that great of an option. "I'm a Wanderer."

"A what?"

"You never asked for a clarification," Victoria interrupted, pointing a finger aggressively at him. "Therefore, I will not give one to you. You want to know more, you have to look for it. Now answer my question: how do you and Isobel know about the White Witches in the first place? Trudie Peterson mentioned that Isobel looked into the LeBlanc family history. I'm more than positive that my family has been incognito enough to not reveal to anybody that they were witches, so how do you two know?"

"I don't know how Isobel knows," John began, studying Victoria with a quizzical look. He smirked and chuckled. "But I know because Kelly told me."

He flipped around and stalked out of Jeremy's room, leaving Victoria standing dazedly in the center, wondering what the hell just happened.

There was a knock on the front door and Elena shouted, "Tori! Can you get it? I'm still trying to find my concealer!"

"Y-Yeah!" Victoria stammered out, shaking herself out of her daze.

Victoria jogged out of the room, taking the steps two at a time, and headed towards the front door. She opened the door without checking who it was (she knew it would be Alaric).

"Afternoon, Ric," Victoria greeted, stepping aside to let Alaric into the room.

"Hi," Alaric said in response, stepping inside of the room.

Victoria shut the door behind them and dusted her hands off on her pants. "You're driving, right?"

"Yeah, I am. You and Elena got dresses ready?"

"Right here!" Elena called out, coming down the stairs with two large dress bags in her arms. One of the bags dragged enough that she would have tripped down the stairs, but Victoria quickly flicked her fingers and a burst of white magic grabbed the offending bag and swept it out of the way before Elena's foot could catch on it. Elena reached the bottom of the stairs safe and sound and passed the bags over to Alaric. "Here you go. You're driving, yeah?"

"Yep," Alaric repeated, this time to Elena. "Hey. I meant to ask you earlier at the school; both of you, actually, but...how is Stefan?"

"What do you mean?" Elena asked curiously, tilting her head to one side. Victoria knew instinctively what Alaric was asking.

"You know, he seems on edge," Alaric continued, trying to state the obvious without pushing the boundaries of what was socially acceptable.

"He went through a lot," Elena justified, looking slightly offended on Stefan's behalf. "He was in bad shape for a while but he's bouncing back now."

Victoria cleared her throat, drawing Elena's attention to her. She smoothly lied, "Hey, can you go upstairs and grab my earrings? I think I left them in your bathroom."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Elena questioned, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at Victoria.

She raised her hands up and gave the most realistic laugh she could manage; that being said, she was more dancer and singer than actress. "You caught me. I have a History question to ask Alaric and I'm really embarrassed at not getting this subject down so I'm trying to save face."

Elena shook her head, chuckling a little, and then nodded. "Sure. You want me to put it into your makeup box on top of my bed?"

"Yes, please."

Elena nodded and took off, jogging up the stairs. Victoria waited until Elena was out of her line of sight before she flipped around to face Alaric. Alaric sensed the urgency of Victoria's movements and asked hurriedly under his breath, "What's going on with Stefan?"

"Without revealing too much of his past for privacy reasons, Stefan has a history of addiction to human blood," Victoria explained rapidly, looking over her shoulder every once and a while to make sure that no one was walking in and overhearing her. "It's bad. Real bad. It's like someone who's addicted to drugs. He relapsed after our...incident with the tomb vampires. He's not in the right mental state at all, and it's changing his behaviors."

"What do we do about it?"

"There's not much we can do," Victoria sighed, shaking her head. "But I do need your help today. There's a girl who's participating in the contest. Amber Bradley. You and Kelly need to be on her like...like..."

"Like Damon on you?" Alaric snorted, and Victoria's brow furrowed a little.

"I mean, yeah, I guess. Damon is super protective, so yeah, that analogy works well."

Alaric's mouth opened and closed quickly and his lips pressed tightly together. He grunted out a "Right" before their space was invaded by one John Gilbert.

John looked upon Alaric with slight surprise and commented, "Alaric. Hey buddy, what are you doing here?"

"I'm the chauffeur," Alaric offered up.

Something flashed past John's eyes. If Victoria didn't know any better, she would say that John looked...hurt at Alaric's explanation. "I thought I was driving."

Jenna and Kelly both came sauntering from the kitchen, their arms filled to the brim with snack bags and random makeup boxes. Their arms were so full that Kelly was carrying the two singular roses that she had gotten Caroline and Victoria as gifts...in her mouth (Elena already had hers in a vase in her rooom).

"Looking fierce, Mom," Victoria couldn't help but call out. Kelly sent Victoria a playful wink and the adult-turned-teen laughed at her mother.

Jenna spoke to John, cocking an eyebrow at the man. "No need for you to drive; we're going with Ric."

"Are we ready?" Elena asked, speaking loudly from the top of the stairs. She held hers and Victoria's makeup boxes in her hands and her hip was cocked to one side.

"Yep!" Jenna called out to her niece. To John, she added frostily, "Jeremy can ride with you."

"Hey Care-Bear!" Victoria called out as she and Elena entered the upstairs room at the Founders Hall that was dedicated for the Miss Mystic candidates. She bounced over to Caroline's side and plopped down into the open seat next to her. Caroline was already halfway through her makeup, and it was looking really good. "You're so good at that. Do you think you could maybe do mine if you get the chance?"

"Sure," Caroline chirped, smiling widely at her friend. "What's the color of your dress?"

"Red," Victoria admitted, giggling awkwardly. "I was desperately trying to find a color that you weren't wearing or that Elena wasn't wearing, and it ended up being the only color available that wouldn't make me look washed out."

"It's your go-to safe color," Caroline defended, giving Victoria a look. "Nothing wrong with that."

"Okay, baby girl," Kelly said, coming into the room with Jenna right on her tail. Jenna made a beeline for Elena, a curling iron in hand. Kelly turned and came to Victoria's side, dropping both hands onto her shoulders as she looked at her daughter through the mirror. "What are we thinking for hair?"

"Half-up and half-down," Victoria explained. She used her hands to try and gesture what she was thinking. "You know, like the bangs braided back and then down, and then curl all the other hairs out of the way."

"I see it," Kelly murmured, narrowing her eyes as she conjured up the image in her head. "Perfect." She then turned towards Caroline and asked, "Do you need any help with your hair?"

"I'm good," Caroline replied. "Thank you though."

Kelly nodded and then set to work on Victoria's hair. Victoria hurried through her typical makeup routine (though she had Caroline handle her eyeliner, because she was infinitely better at that than Victoria was). It wasn't like she really had to impress anybody, especially since she knew she was no longer in the running for Miss Mystic. She did add a smooth dark red matte lipstick to the look and it made her hair seem redder than before. She loved it. Victoria had always enjoyed her hair when it was normally brown-blonde, but there was something about it being slightly red-tinged that she adored.

"Hey, Mom?" Victoria asked, reaching over to grab one of the complimentary chocolates that had been offered up to all the candidates. She popped a piece into her mouth and munched on it happily. It was really delicious chocolate, though it had a slight tang to it. It kind of tasted like plastic, but not bad enough that Victoria didn't reach for a second piece.

"Yeah, baby girl?"

"I need to ask you something," Victoria said, keeping her voice low as she plopped another piece of chocolate into her mouth. If anybody heard her, it would make the conversation irrefutably awkward. "Something about the White Witches."

"Oh, go ahead," Kelly offered, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she tried to get a particularly difficult piece of hair to curl. Huh, so that's where I get that trait from. "I need something to distract me from burning your hair to the ground."

"John said that you told him about the White Witches."

Kelly flinched, as if she had been struck, and she pulled back from Victoria like she was trying to avoid a crocodile. She set the curling iron down on the tables the girls were using for getting ready and said with a throat tight with emotions, "I need to go stalk Stefan." Kelly turned and basically ran out of the room. Victoria pushed back her chair, it making an audible screech as it moved, and stood up, moving towards the door with purpose and confusion.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Victoria questioned as she stepped out into the hallway. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. Victoria blinked her eyes, surprised at her mother's agility, and confused as hell. What was that all about?

"Tori?"

Victoria flipped around and saw Elena peeking her head out of the room, looking down where Kelly had run off in confusion. The teenager turned her gaze back towards the Immortalis and asked hesitantly, "Is everything okay?"

"I have no idea," Victoria breathed, shaking her head. "I-It's fine, I think. I don't know. Let's go grab our dresses."

Elena nodded, albeit slowly and cautiously, but she stepped out into the hallway and the two girls walked down towards the changing room shoulder-to-shoulder. They reached the room where they had deposited their dresses quickly and slipped inside. There was a girl inside that Victoria only faintly recognized as Amber Bradley. She was tall, around Victoria's height, with dirty blonde that looked like the color Victoria's had been. She was dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and athletic jacket with a dressing gown on top. She was pacing back and forth in front of the mirrors, looking nervous as hell and her green eyes flashing.

"Are you okay, Amber?" Elena asked, fluttering over to Amber's side. She, too, picked up on Amber's nervous energy.

"I hate being the center of attention," Amber explained, her voice sounding breathier than usual. She looked terrified. "I get panic attacks."

"Do you need some privacy so you can change?" Elena offered.

"Actually, I'm just...I'm gonna go get some air," Amber stammered, flipping around to stalk out of the room.

Victoria made a quick sidestep and gently grabbed Amber's shoulder before she could pass her. She looked into Amber's eyes with kindness and asked, "Do you have any exercises you can do to help you control your breathing? If you leave to get air, who knows what might happen and you might not be here for the celebration?"

"M-My therapist gave me some, but t-they don't work usually," Amber stuttered, her breathing getting more erratic.

"Can I try one?"

"S-Sure. A-Anything will help at t-this point."

"Name five things you can see."

"Y-You, E-Elena, the dresses in bags, the r-ridiculously sized windows, and the spiderweb in the c-corner that everyone is ignoring."

"Four things you can touch."

"The fuzziness of my s-slippers, the cold air on my skin, the s-soft edges of my dressing gown, and wooden floors."

"Three things you can smell."

"Wood stain, about seven different perfumes, and roses."

"Two things you can hear."

"You speaking and the girls chatting faintly in the room down the hall."

"And one thing you can taste."

"Panic," Amber admitted sheepishly, and Victoria laughed. Amber took a deep breath and let it out, her eyes widening in surprise as the breath came easily. "Oh my gosh. It worked!"

"I found that after my accident, when I was going to meet with my therapist, that not all of their tactics to get me out of my panic worked," Victoria explained, smiling warmly. "I had to find which activities worked well for me. The same goes for you."

Amber laughed happily and threw herself at Victoria, wrapping the girl up in a warm hug. "Thank you so much, Victoria!"

"No problem," Victoria replied, squeezing her tightly. "Are you good now?"

"For sure!" Amber cheered, pulling back from Victoria and nodding her head rapidly. She frowned. "Though I left my shoes back at my table spot. I'm going to go grab those. Be back soon!"

Amber waved goodbye to both girls before ducking out of the door. Victoria heard her run into someone and yelp, "Whoops! Sorry about that!" before her footsteps could be heard as she raced down the hall.

A moment later, Damon slipped into the dressing room, shutting the door audibly behind himself.

"Hey, you can't be back here," Elena huffed, folding her arms across her chest as she glared at Damon.

"We need to talk."

"Does it have to be right now?" Elena demanded, flipping around to grab two dresses off the rack. She passed one off to Victoria, who took it gratefully. Victoria darted behind one of the privacy walls, watching Damon's and Elena's conversation through the little open space by her face.

Victoria hung up her dress on the hook on the wall behind the privacy wall and unzipped the dress bag as Damon grunted, "Normally I would have a completely different outlook of what I'm about to tell you, but since it could really inconvenience me and half the people you know, I'll squeal."

Victoria, who had come in only some leggings and an old ratty t-shirt (which part of her swore was Zach's), started to peel off her layers, squatting behind the privacy wall to ensure that no one saw anything they weren't supposed to. Elena spoke just as Victoria yanked the shirt off of her body, "What are you talking about?"

"Stefan's still drinking human blood," Damon revealed as Victoria slipped off her leggings.

"What?" Elena shrieked.

Victoria doublechecked that neither of them were looking over her way before she undid her bra and quickly stepped into her gown, pulling up as quick as she could to ensure her modesty. The dress seemed chilled, which was odd. Almost damp. Huh. The dress itself was gorgeous, a dark red that was the color of blood (an unfortunate color that Victoria was very acquainted with). It was off-the-shoulder, giving the world a beautiful glimpse at her shoulders and collarbone (which she had dusted with a light body glitter to give it an extra shimmer). It was like a mermaid-styled gown, except this gown had a handy leg slit on her right leg that went up to right above her knee for extra mobility. Was it a little much for a beauty pageant? Maybe, but Victoria had taken one look at it in a dress shop and just couldn't resist getting her little greedy hands on it. The dress also had a built-in bra, which was phenomenal. There were also sleeves that were tight against her arms and traveled down to her wrists, ending with little Vs on the back of her hands. She quickly zipped herself up, glad that she had bought a size down. Since the dress hadn't come with a built-in corset, Victoria had moved down a size to ensure that nothing would slide down.

"Yeah, a month ago I would have rejoiced, but with the council back on alert, it is not a good time for Stefan to fly off the handle."

"I know he's been a little edgy but he said that was normal."

"He has a fridge full of stolen blood bank contraband in the house."

Elena collapsed onto the couch just as Victoria exited the privacy screen. She hadn't changed yet and was looking as if her whole world had just exploded. Victoria frowned.

"He has no idea what normal is," Damon said, continuing on without sparing a glance towards Victoria. "His entire existence isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood but he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning to control it and now, it's controlling him instead."

"I can't believe this," Elena breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. "I mean, it's Stefan that we're talking about here!"

"Stefan on human blood, Elena," Damon clarified sternly. "He'll do anything, he'll say anything because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me."

"Don't worry, Elena," Victoria piped up, figuring that was as good as any time to interrupt their conversation. "Alaric's been alerted to the situation and he knows what to look out for, and Kelly said that she was going to stalk Stefan before leaving the room for the candidates, which if any other adult had said that, I would be really concerned, but since it's Kelly, you know that she'll take care of him."

Elena bit her lower lip and nodded, still looking extremely uneased by the situation. Victoria turned towards Damon, about to ask him to keep an eye on his brother for all their sake, but the question died on her lips.

Damon was looking at her with an expression that Victoria couldn't quantify with just one word. He looked at her like she was an oasis and he was a man who had been left for dead in the desert. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful sculpture ever created and he was the sculptor who had crafted her with his hands. He looked her...well...

Before Victoria could figure out just what he looked at her like, Damon was grabbing Elena by the arm, lifting her out of the seat. Elena let out a squawk of confusion and displeasure as Damon manhandled her out of the comfortable couch.

That jolted Victoria's out of her state of shock and confusion. "Damon!" Victoria gasped, disturbed at his actions. "What the hell are you doing?"

"This room is off-limits," Damon growled, forcing Elena towards the door. He ripped open one of the doors and said, his voice low and rough, "Come back in five minutes." With that, Damon shoved Elena out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"What the hell, Damon?" Victoria hissed, grabbing his shoulder and whipping him around so his back was to the door. "What the hell was that even for -?"

Victoria didn't get to finish the rest of her sentence before Damon started to move.

One moment, he was at the door with his back against it, Victoria standing in front of him with displeasure and disappointment. The next, Victoria was against the far wall, pinned against the rough plaster with Damon pressed against her front. Victoria felt a blush instantly light up her cheeks and collarbone at the close proximity. Damon only a few inches of height on her, but he rested his forehead wearily against hers, as if he was suddenly exhausted.

"You're making this very hard, Mama Bear," Damon murmured, his voice low and sultry. It sent a tingle down Victoria's spine and she didn't know why.

"I'm making what hard, Damon?"

"Oh, that sounds so dirty when you say it," Damon purred. He ducked his head down to the side of Victoria's face and his breath was hot against her neck. Victoria fidgeted against the wall. The way things were progressing was...interesting was a word that Victoria could use. "You need to stop moving."

"Why, Damon?"

"Because if you don't stop, then I'm not going to be able to stop and you have a pageant to be in," Damon grunted. Victoria stilled dramatically and inhaled sharply when she felt Damon's lips press up against her neck. What the hell was he doing? Was he drunk or something? "The things you do to me, Mama Bear."

"D-Damon -"

"Shh, shh, shh."

"D-Damon, you're making me nervous."

"You smell delectable," Damon hummed, and with his lips pressed against her throat, his words made her whole body buzz. "Like a feast just waiting for me to reach out and devour."

"Damon -"

Damon pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss onto Victoria's neck and she let out a shuddery gasp. Part of her warmed intensely at that action. However, that part of her was quickly shut down by the terrifying memory of Logan Fell from months ago.

Victoria's eyes widened in distress when the feeling of Logan's nose was replaced by the feeling of his lips, brushing just barely against her throat. Tears sprung to her eyes and she took a shaky breath, biting her lower lip again as she struggled not to cry.

"No!" she cried out, shoving her hands out. They connected with Logan's torso and he went staggering back, gasping as if she had knocked the wind out of him. Victoria cowered against the open space, her eyes wide as she struggled desperately to breathe.

Logan stood in the center of the open warehouse room, looking confused and dazed. He reached up and palmed his sternum, wincing as he did so. "What the hell, Mama Bear?"

"D-Don't touch me," Victoria warned, holding up a shaking finger. "Don't you dare touch me and don't call me that."

"Mama Bear?" Logan snorted, giving her a look of disbelief. "That's your nickname. I call you that."

"N-No, you don't call me that. You don't get to call me that."

Logan's gaze narrowed at her as if looking hard enough would help him figure her out. His eyes widened like knowledge had been gifted to him from up above and he straightened up. "Who are you seeing?"

"Who am I seeing?" Victoria sneered, glaring at Logan. "What, have you just lost your sense of identity? Do you need me to explain what kind of monster you are?"

"Victoria? Is everything okay?"

Victoria gasped and her gaze flickered to the shelf she had just been hiding behind. Carol Lockwood stood there, her hand on the shelf as she peered around it. There was a look of concern on her face and she was constantly glancing between Victoria and Logan. "M-Mrs. Lockwood? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? Victoria, are you feeling okay?"

"Carol, you need to leave," Logan ordered, gesturing with one hand without taking his gaze off of Victoria. "Victoria is not in the right headspace."

"What's happening to her?"

"W-Why are you not freaking out right now?" Victoria questioned, looking towards Carol. She staggered forward one step. "Why are you not calling for help?"

"Victoria, you're starting to scare me," Carol murmured. She looked towards Logan. "What's happening, Damon?"

"Why are you calling him that?" Victoria whispered, her mind racing. That wasn't Damon. That was Logan Fell, the man who had kissed her neck because she smelled delicious...

Oh.

Oh.

Victoria's shoulders dropped and she felt a rush of emotions burn behind her eyes. She swallowed heavily and squeaked out, "D-Damon?"

Logan nodded slowly and Victoria squeezed her eyes shut tight. It wasn't Logan Fell in front of her. It hadn't been Logan Fell who had kissed her. It had just been Damon. She was fine. She was okay.

She was fine.

"Carol, we need water. Right now."

"There's a bathroom next door."

There was a set of footsteps leading away from Victoria and the not-so-Logan Fell. She squeezed her hands into fists and kept her eyes shut. She focused all of her efforts on breathing and trying to keep calm. She didn't move, she didn't make a sound, not until she heard Carol's footsteps returning. A moment later, a glass of water was pressed into her hand. Victoria threw the water back like it was a shot of alcohol and when she opened her eyes...

Everything was back to normal.

Well, as normal as it could be after a terrifying hallucination.

Victoria was standing against the wall and Damon was on the opposite side of the room, guarding the door like a guardian angel (she winced; it was too soon to be thinking about "angels"). Carol stood a little ways off to the side, her hand still outstretched from when she had handed the water to Victoria.

Victoria took in a shaky breath and stumbled to the couch, collapsing onto it. She faintly heard Damon ordering Carol to find John Gilbert and to bring him up to the room immediately. She sucked in a deep breath and held it for a few moments before she let it go. Her whole body felt like it was vibrating; almost numb, in a sense. Her throat burned with irritation and the lights just seemed a tad too bright for her sensitive eyes.

Damon didn't move from where he was located on the other side of the room, though he did ask in a gruff voice, "What did you eat today?"

"I didn't eat anything," Victoria grunted, shaking her head. "I've been so stressed about the pageant all day. The only thing I had was some leftover chicken that we had for dinner last night, and I didn't have a reaction to that then, so I doubt I would have a reaction to it now if it was spiked with wyrmwood. And then some chocolates that were bought and wrapped at the store for all the candidates."

"Did you drink anything?"

"Just water straight from the tap. Again, doubt that John would take the time to go to the water supply plant here in Mystic Falls just to spike me."

"Did you lick anything you weren't supposed to?"

"That's gross, Damon!" Victoria snapped, shaking her head. "And just to sate your curiosity: no, I didn't."

"Just trying to cover all the angles, Mama Bear," Damon shot back as there came a knock on the door. Damon twisted around and yanked it open.

On the other side of the door stood John Gilbert and Carol Lockwood, both of whom looked equally as confused as to why Damon had ordered John's presence in the dressing room. Damon reached forward and grabbed John's shoulder tightly, yanking the man into the room. He leaned out for half a tick, saying to Carol, "Victoria will be ready to go in a hot second." He shut the door immediately afterwards and turned towards John with murder in his eyes. "'Fess up, Jackass. Why'd you spike Victoria again?"

"Spike her? What the hell do you mean?" John demanded, flipping around to face Victoria so she could deliver the answer. His face paled considerably when he saw Victoria's weakened appearance. "Holy shit. Victoria, are you okay?"

"We don't know," Victoria sighed, so exhausted that she was willing to put up with John's presence without even the smallest trace of fight in her. "I had another hallucination."

"Like the one that you had back at the house," John recalled, and Victoria nodded. "That comes from ingesting wyrmwood. Given how terrible of a reaction you had last time, I figured you wouldn't eat it willingly."

"She didn't," Damon snapped, narrowing his eyes in an even more fearsome glare. "Someone poisoned her."

John's eyes widened and then narrowed as the weight of the accusation hit him. He flipped around and glared into Damon's icy blue eyes, matching his look of terror with the same amount of energy. "I didn't poison her, if that's what you're lowkey implying."

"It's not what I'm implying; it's what I'm stating as fact," Damon growled. "No one else who knows about Victoria's allergy would have willingly hurt her except you. Guilty until proven innocent."

"Victoria and I reached an agreement this morning," John retorted, folding his arms across his chest. "I wouldn't bother her for the rest of the day and she wouldn't bother me. Case in point, I haven't gone near her since I got here. Not that I wanted to, but nobody but the attendees should be allowed up here."

"If you didn't poison her, then who did?" Damon demanded, flinging his arms out wildly to the sides.

"I guess that's the question, isn't it?"

There was another knock on the door and both Damon and John looked towards the door with annoyance and hissed, "What?" really loudly.

Carol pushed the door open and hissed back, with equal intensity, "I don't know what kind of macho manly alpha male bullshit is happening right now, but both of you need to take this downstairs. We need the girls to start lining up, so skedaddle."

"Miss Tina Fell, escorted by Bartholomew Whitmore," Mayor Lockwood announced from the bottom of the stairs, gesturing with his arm towards the stairs where Tina began strutting down like she was a model for Vogue. Seriously, this is just a small-town beauty pageant. Nothing that severe.

"Hey, Victoria?" Amber whispered, drawing Victoria's attention down the long line. Amber was going next after Tina, while Victoria was placed at the end of the line. Amber reached over and grabbed Victoria's hand on the railing of the balcony, not caring in the slightest that she was reaching over Elena and Caroline. Amber gave Victoria a large, dazzling smile that made her green eyes glow. "Thanks again for helping me calm down from what could have been a total disaster."

More than you know it. "You're welcome, Amber," Victoria said honestly, nodding and grinning in return. She was feeling stronger by the minute, but her throat was still kind of achy (not great when she had to sing the whole of Mystic Falls right after their competition dance was over). "Remember: breathe. You'll be fine."

"Breathe. Right. Oh! Also, I really like what color you dyed your hair. I don't think I ever told you that after the Decade's Dance."

"Oh. Thanks!"

"Miss Amber Bradley, escorted by Wilmer Torres."

"That's me," Amber whispered hurriedly, moving to her position at the top of the staircase. She took a deep breath and sent a thumbs-up and smile towards Victoria before she started her descent, dressed in a beautiful gossamer purple dress.

"Do you see Stefan down there?" Elena asked, glancing towards the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. They could only faintly see some people (Victoria noticed that Zach and Damon were both at the front of the group, so they were visible, and Lee was closer towards the staircase, so he was more visible than the other two).

"More like have you seen my boring fill-in escort?" Caroline whispered, her eyes frantically searching the crowd.

"What happened to Matt?" Elena asked, turning towards their blonde friend with confusion.

"They wouldn't let him out of work and apparently, the guy they got to replace him is now nowhere to be seen," Caroline said distractedly, still searching the crowd. She glanced over to Victoria. "Where's Jeremy?"

"He's not down there?" Victoria gasped, leaning as far as she dared over the ledge. She scanned the crowd again. The younger Gilbert boy was nowhere to be seen.

Zach caught her eye as she was looking frantically about and he murmured under his breath to her, though Victoria really had to strain her ears to hear him. Thank goodness for super hearing. "Everything okay?"

"Do you see Jeremy?" Victoria spoke aloud at her normal volume. She caught Elena sending her a confused look, but Victoria promptly ignored her.

Zach glanced around the group and when Damon sent his nephew a confused look, Zach tapped his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The two started twisting and looking around (Damon even going up on his toes to try and spot Jeremy's shaggy head of hair over the crowd). In the end, the two Salvatores looked up to Victoria and shook their heads.

"Great," Victoria grumbled, shaking her head. "I guess all three of us got ditched by our dates."

"What are we doing?" Elena sighed. "We never should have gone through with this."

"What do you mean?" Caroline demanded, grabbing Elena's shoulder tightly.

"I need to find Stefan," Elena huffed, sounding like she was about to fall into her panic. "This isn't me; this isn't Tori. Neither of us are the same person who signed up in the first place." Speak for yourself, Elena.

"No, no, no way, no!" Caroline hissed. She reached out and grabbed Victoria's hand and yanked her so she was standing with Elena and Caroline in a little huddle. It reminded Victoria of a football huddle, where she and Elena were the players and Caroline was the coach. "You two listen to me: both of you had your chances to drop out and believe me, I was all for it in the most friendly way because there is no way that I could beat either of you." Caroline swung her head so she was staring into Elena's eyes. "Elena, you're doing this because it was important to your mom." Then, Caroline turned her gaze so she was watching Victoria. "Tori, you're -"

"- I'm not having doubts," Victoria interjected, giving Caroline a tight, but worried smile. "I'm planning on seeing this through; I may be distracted because I'm thinking of holes to hide in after the embarrassment that will be today and ways that I can kill Elena's brother, but I'm going to do this."

"Perfect," Caroline stated, smiling. She gave Victoria and Elena both a squeeze. "We got this. If we're going down, at least we're all going down together."

With that, Caroline straightened up and hurried to the top of the stairs, since she was the next to go. She took a deep breath and Victoria could see that her best friend was trying to do her best to not let the panic show through.

"Miss Caroline Forbes and her escort, Alexander Ledger."

"What?" Victoria gasped, racing back to the railing.

Lee stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching as Caroline descended the stairs with a wide grin on his face. He looked both like a proud father and an ecstatic boyfriend who was waiting for his girlfriend before they left for a high school dance. Caroline got halfway down the stairs when Victoria caught Lee's eye. Victoria gave him a confused, "What?" look that she hoped portrayed just how confuzzled she was that it was Lee standing at the bottom of the stairs for Caroline. Lee picked up on the emotion. He subtly shrugged his shoulders and whispered, "I never got to go to prom." With that, Lee offered his hand out to Caroline, who took it with a visible wave of excitement and relief.

The two sauntered off, moving through the Hall to go outside, and Victoria swung her gaze around until she caught Damon's eye. Damon raised an eyebrow in silent question and Victoria murmured, so Elena wouldn't hear her, "You need to escort Elena. Stefan's not going to get here in time."

"What about you, Mama Bear?" Damon grunted, glancing towards Elena who was starting to move to the top of the stairs. He looked behind his shoulder and added, "I don't see Gilbert anywhere to escort you."

"Better I dance alone than Elena," Victoria shot back, giving Damon a look. "I can make it work better than she can, without sounding too...presumptuous."

Damon's jaw clenched and there was a visible tick in his jawline that Victoria could spot from up on the balcony. He sucked in a sharp breath and exhaled and grunted, "You owe me, Mama Bear."

"I'll make it up to you somehow."

Damon swam through the crowd, moving as fast as he could without drawing too much attention to himself. He made it towards what Victoria assumed was Mayor Lockwood and a moment later appeared at the bottom of the stairs as the mayor announced, "Miss Elena Gilbert and her escort, Damon Salvatore."

Victoria gave Elena a gentle push to get her moving, not waiting to see Elena's gobsmacked reaction. She watched Elena glide down the staircase and the look that Elena shared with Damon at the bottom of the stairs was filled with heat. The two turned and started walking away and Victoria got into place at the top of the stairs.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. You got this. You can fake a partner dance. Can't be too hard, right? You almost had to do it at the Halloween dance that your pseudo-sister died at, but you got saved there. Maybe that'll happen this time. Oh for goodness' sake, that's not going to happen, Victoria. Get your head out of the clouds.

"Miss Victoria LeBlanc and her escort, Zach Salvatore."

Say what now?

A/N: Hey y'all.

Sooooooooo this was supposed to be the chapter where Victoria had her first kiss, but then the chapter turned out to be freaking long, and we haven't even gotten all the things that I wanted to have happen in the chapter happen, so this is going to be our first 4-part episode! Hehe.

Also, my favorite Elijah/OC fanfiction just started regular updates again, so y'all should pop over and give that story some love, because that story and its OC really helped inspire Victoria's creation. It's called "Game of Chance" by MadameMagic and it is soooo good. 10/10, would recommend. (It's not for Damon lovers or Elena lovers. There's a lot of Damon and Elena bashing in the story).

Another thing, I mentioned previously that if you guys ever decide to take a hiatus from the story to just do it and you don't need to tell me at all. I wanna make an amendment to that: please tell me if you're taking a hiatus if you are someone who reviews frequently on the chapters. If you have, like, reviewed every chapter without fail and then fall off the grid, I tend to worry, cuz I care about y'all and I don't know if you're taking a break, if your internet sucks, or if you're dead, and that's scary (I'm looking at you, Lime. I really hope you're okay!).

And sorry this wasn't out yesterday: I had a reaaaally jam-packed weekend that involved seeing a friend I hadn't seen in 4+ years, which was super exciting!

THE SHIPPING WARS! (feel free to keep on voting (you can vote for more than one ship!); 1 full point for if you choose one ship, two half points for two separate ships, more than 2, smaller decimals. Anything that is not a full point will be italicized. This will not decide the final pairing; I already know who Victoria will end up with, I just want you all to be able to guess):

ROMANTIC:

Team Stetoria {Victoria/Stefan} (18.5): insert name here XD, sammyleann's dad, TikiKiki, Maistryia, Don't-Say-It-Feel-It, another guest, Lime, herewegoagain, K, emma, just another guest, heyyeah, Guest (3), guest4ithinklol, Guest (6), Guest (9), guest (1), theappleseed, Anaidiana, Hayden, Takinginspiration1, Serena Salvatore, Prometo, Lolita, MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime, Vogiatzis

Team Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (52.5): Sciave, Guest, ArganRose, CrystalAris, Marine76, Assenavira, CarlaPA, Guest (1), Maistryia, emma, just another guest, Freeshavacahdoh, Guest (3), Guest (4), Guest (6), sabrinaannpierson, Guest (7), Guest (8), Guest (9), guest (1), hfgfgfrdr, lillen20, Yolo, theappleseed, Guest (10), Juko, Bulma, Ellay, V, Ghest, charlievini, Guest (13), Guest (14), Guest (15), TrembleB4DietCoke, dhariti, Hayden, Guest (17), Elyse1821, Dannn, Yukihino-Sama, Dede, 4day, jazica, Guest (20), Unnisa, MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime, Tik, 00esoteric00, Hariana Halone, jenniferchase2402, Guest (23), garbolaughs39, Angel, Guest (24), bubbieluv21, MayMayMay, Guest (25), Ali

Team Vilijah {Victoria/Elijah} (51): guest, Guest, SoraLover987142, insert name here XD, sammyleann, Orange keys 25, LoyalElijahFangirl, Hinata Megumi, A. G Herz, Aryabloodlust, ferallahey, AngelColdHeart, BlueDragibus, dreamwalkerlisa, Guest, Stachelbeere, Guest (1), jocillyria, Guest (2), BookwormStrawberry, Ieviheichu, Teghan-Potter1370, karenc0r, Hachiko33200, Guest (11), Anaidiana, Dalia2009, wolfcorgi, Nia, Rory, Teghan-Potter1370, Guest (12), Shiro7, alessandra92, Guest (16), Guest (18), Karina, Serena Salvatore, xrysatsan, Lolita, jazica, Guest (19), MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime, TheLadyO, jjaejjae, Guest (21), Guest (22), NovemberSagittarius, RandomRivers, Frida Claire, Muskan Jain, sabrinachalamet, alexaguamenti, bubbieluv21, Chestney

Team Klatoria {Victoria/Klaus} (6): Tayla141, TikiKiki, Guest (9), Mythology216 the Beard King, thisIsNotATest, Guest (10), Tris Hart

Team Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (2.5): DreamerPop, MelissaMorningstar, Guest (11)

Team Vinn {Victoria/Finn} (1): silentmayhem

Team Vioble {Victoria/Noble} (2.5): Shiro7, Child of Dreams, Goodboiii

New Followers!: geeklily, Holly Brenna Davies, Child of Dreams, okuhleqotyiwe, Lady of Silentia, BookNinja93, Alsynea, melodywenzl, jtcat305

New Favoriters!: northride1738, Holly Brenna Davies, Child of Dreams, okuhleqotyiwe, alealereyes, Lady of Silentia, jtcat305

Onto reviews!:

MarinaBee7462: Awww thank you! Half the teasers apply to this chapter, because I didn't realize how long this event was going to actually be. There's like, five other biggish events that have to happen and so I figured I would just write that in the next chapter.

Child of Dreams: Howdy! I really am pushing myself to try and have a good, decent weekly updating schedule. Awww, thank you for rereading it so many times! Think of the voting like this: Each person (theoretically) gets one point that they can use on voting. If you vote for one person, they get that full point. If you vote for two different ships, they each get half a point. It gets tricky when you get to voting for three different ships (as some have done), and in that case, then each of your voted ships get a half point (even if the math doesn't really add up cuz I'm lazy and don't want to add 0.3 points to everything). You may vote for more than one ship, but anything past one ship and your point gets lower. Does that make sense? Hopefully. Here's the responses to your other reviews!: Can't reveal who Kelly's former boyfriend (and/or current boyfriend) is cuz that would spoil it, but he will be revealed near the start of Season 2. Yes, you may have Noble is Victoria doesn't end up with him. Logan believed that Victoria was a vampire cuz he's an idiot and thinks that her moving faster than an average teenage girl equates to her being a vampire rather than her being agile cuz she's a dancer. "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden is really good, and the lyrics really match up up with Vioble. I really like "Lightweight" by Demi Lovato too for those two. It's a little inside joke between Lee and Lexi, but the answer to that question will be revealed in a chapter, I promise. The vampire blood thing (aka Victoria being unable to drink vampire blood because it's fatal to her as the Immortalis) only activates after the Immortalis has started the Transitioning Phase (aka, after the first death, which was in Ch34). Kelly did die from COVID. I realized that some people may be sensitive to the subject of death by COVID, so I did my best to just keep it a little ambiguous and had readers fill in the dots. I have referred to Lime once as Key Lime Pie, so yeah, that does work as a good nickname. That idea of Mind Vicki is really good. I should have thought of that. No, she's not. Mind Vicki is important to the story, but not in that way. Great guess though; that would have made a very good subplot. I love Noble's protective nature too! A lot of people are indecisive on Noble being Elijah because of the outfit choices. I'm not saying he is Elijah and I'm not saying he is not Elijah, but make sure you're taking a look at Noble's history. If he is Elijah, that could change some of his actions from canon.

KEZZ 1: Aww thank you! Here's this chapter for you (albeit, a little late)!

MayMayMay: I see where your loyalties lie. Your vote has been added (Nice evil laugh, by the way)!

DBZFAN45: Well, we won't know what Damon has to say until the next chapter XD. That's entirely my fault. Yes, I do love teasing you guys! I know? Victoria's almost all-grown up now XD. For sure, if Kelly hadn't found Tori, I'm pretty sure Carol would've been all-over having Tori as a daughter. Mrs. Fell (the aunt of Logan Fell) is a random, throwaway OC that I decided to just throw in for some spice. Damon mentions once seeing and provoking Stefan into a Ripper binge once in like 1912, I think it was, so I decided to add some more depth and emotion to that moment cuz I feel the need to prove that Damon isn't still a heartless jerk. Oh my gosh, Season 2-4 is literally the Backstabbing Seasons. That could be their unofficial title. So. Much. Backstabbing. It started to frustrate me when I saw how much backstabbing happened (both figuratively and literally). The Originals (though violently at first) just wanted to live in peace and then they had to go and stab my boy Finn. Ugh. Seriously.

Chestney: Your vote has been added! Thanks for reading!

Guest: Voting is not closed. I'll be sure to say at the top of the Author's Note in capital letters when voting shuts down. The blanket fort scene was cute, wasn't it? You are Guest (25) if you ever want to change your vote!

Elyse1821: All the Datoria cuddles. You'll have to wait one more chapter until the kiss, cuz I could not fit it in in this chapter. Oh my gosh, you're totally right. Lady Katherine Pierce won't be happy when she hears about that.

Ali: Awww, thank you! An unintentional slow-burn triangle (a lot of things about this story were unintentional and then they just happened). No matter what happens, whether they end up together or not, Victoria and Damon will still have that amazing cutesy BFF relationship that they have right now, so don't worry!

Lime: I really hope you're doing okay, Limabean! If you're super busy or there's been some big catastrophe in your home life, I totally understand! Even if you just drop a little "Hi -Lime" as your review just so I know you're alive, that would be swell. Remember, we got those internet friendship bracelets for a reason! You're my friend now whether you like it or not.

Okay. I think that that is it. Gosh, I'm so busy and life has been moving so incredibly fast, you would not even believe it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! John's slowly growing on me and is not as douchey as he was originally intended to be.

Until next time,

Stay healthy and stay safe!

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