Once again, I was in a good mood in the morning. Stefan seemed to have a habit of doing that to me. It felt weird because I didn't think that being friends with a guy would make me feel like that. Not to mention, he didn't seem to be very personable. It was just that being around him made me feel good. I walked into school with a smile on my face. I noticed Elena and Bonnie in the parking lot.
"Hey, Mary, I need to talk to you." Bonnie remarked. What did she need to talk to me about? Bonnie never wanted to talk to me.
"What about?" I questioned. We hadn't really talked since well…ever, so I didn't know why she wanted to now.
"Stefan. I heard that you're dating him now." She stated as I glared at Elena. "I'm not sure if it's such a good idea. I'm not saying don't date the guy, I'm just saying take it so slow."
"Well, I'm not dating him." I pointed out. I couldn't help but wonder if that rumor was ever going to die. "The two of us are just friends."
"I think I have to agree with her on this one, Bon." Elena chimed in. "Why don't know want her to date him?"
"I touched Stefan the other night and I got this really bad feeling." She explained. That didn't make any sense.
"What?" I responded in confusion. "Not to mention, I'm still not dating him."
"Bonnie apparently has witch powers." Elena said. Why had I not heard about this before? "According to her Grams, anyway."
"I'm just concerned. I've known you so long and I don't want to see you get hurt." Bonnie argued. That was kind of thoughtful and it would have been more thoughtful if I was actually dating him.
"Bonnie, I've been depressed a lot less since I've gotten to know Stefan. You can't ask me to give him up." I told her. If she was going to suggest that I not be friends with him, I would tell her to fuck off.
At that point, Stefan walked over to us.
"Hello, Elena, Bonnie." He greeted them. I couldn't see why she wouldn't like him. He was polite and funny. She could date him. I didn't know if he was interested in her like that, but I wasn't dating him, so he was fair game.
"I have to go do something…somewhere." Bonnie announced before she walked away. Why did she just bolt like that? And why did she use such a flimsy excuse to leave?
"She doesn't like me very much." Stefan noted with a bit of a frown. Did it matter if she liked him?
"She doesn't really know you." Elena pointed out. I had a feeling that Elena was going to push me to date him even though I wasn't interested in him like that. "I like you. You know I have an idea. How about you come over for dinner and I can invite her?"
"Is that what you want to do?" Stefan asked me. I had a feeling that he would be a pretty good boyfriend, but I didn't want a boyfriend.
"Yeah, I guess we can do that. I didn't have any plans." I told him. "I mean I don't need anyone to approve of you, but I guess it wouldn't hurt."
Suddenly, a ball came flying at us. Stefan managed to instinctively turn around and catch it. How did he do that? I then noticed that Tyler was the one who had thrown it. I looked at him angrily as Stefan prepared to throw it back.
"Let me." I offered as I took the ball from him. It was nice to know that I still knew how to throw a football. Unfortunately, I didn't have quite the arm strength to get it to go where I wanted it to. Instead of hitting him in the groin, I managed to hit him in the gut. I wondered if that was something that I could work on.
We then walked into school together. It would probably be the last time that I saw him until school was over.
"That catch was amazing." Elena gushed. "You should try out for the team."
"I don't think so." Stefan replied.
"So do you not like football?" I asked him as I headed to my locker.
"No, I love football." He answered. What was the problem then? "It's just in this case I don't think that football likes me. You saw how Tyler was, and I don't think Matt likes me very either."
"Fuck them. If you want to play football you shouldn't let something like that stop you." I argued. I didn't think anyone should be able to tell him what to do or not do. "Plus, it might be good to get involved in the school."
"I don't see you joining the cheerleading squad." Stefan quipped. I blushed at that. I didn't know how to be a cheerleader and I really didn't want to be one.
"Well Elena is the cheerleader, and I couldn't join if I wanted to." I pointed out. Thankfully, that was true. "Our team sucks, so they could really use you. Anyway, I'm thinking about actually going to class today, so see ya."
I didn't do much in school, but I did notice that Tanner seemed to be particularly pissed off. I couldn't help but wonder why. No one seemed to know the answers to any of his questions. Maybe that was because we were his only sophomore class. I couldn't help but laugh at his pitiful attempts at sarcasm. I was pretty sure that I managed to get his attention.
"Miss Gilbert, I see you decided to grace us with your presence today." He remarked. "Since you seem to be such a Smart Alec, how about you tell us about the Berlin Wall?"
"Communism. The Russians wanted Germany to be communists, but only half of the Germans liked it. So, they built a wall dividing the city and Ronald Reagan later yelled this guy named Gorbachev to tear it down." I explained. I really was smart. I just didn't care about school. Not to mention, I wasn't challenged by this stuff. "Is that enough?"
He seemed unhappy. Did he not like that someone actually knew the answer to something? I just smirked at him. I was glad to know that I could get under his skin. He was such a tool that he deserved to be made a fool of.
I wasn't exactly sure what I should do after school. It seemed like Stefan wanted to try out for football. There seemed to be just one problem. Tanner was the football coach. Apparently, he thought the secret to being a good coach was yelling at people. Hadn't he seen Friday Night Lights? The secret to being a good coach is obviously being compassionate toward your players like they're your children, even when your star quarterback ends up getting paralyzed in the first game of your career. That was probably why the team hadn't won a game in two years. Or maybe it was just because we didn't have any good players. I couldn't help but notice that he finally let Stefan on the field.
It turned out that Stefan was more athletic than I thought he was. He kept catching passes and he really showed Tyler up, which I also happened to like. As long as Tyler was an asshole, I didn't care what happened to him. Though there was one ball where Stefan went up in the air for it and Tyler hit him before he even caught it. That was pass interference! I looked at Stefan, who looked like he was in a little bit of pain. Tyler was really started to get on my nerves.
I then looked over on the side of the bleachers where the cheerleaders were practicing. I couldn't help but notice that Elena was really out of sync with the rest of them. She used to be a great cheerleader, but it was kind of her first time doing since Mom and Dad died, so was obviously a bit rusty. She used to make me practice with her. This was even before I got turned into a girl. There was a little bit after as well.
That night, I noticed that Elena had gotten some takeout and was putting it in a bowl. I was pretty sure that making dinner for someone meant actually cooking. It wasn't even like she was a bad cook. It just seemed lazy to me.
"Do you really think that he won't be able to tell the difference between homemade and takeout?" I questioned. It probably wouldn't be reasonable for Elena to have the skills of a professional chef.
"I want to at least pretend that I made this for you." Elena responded. She didn't even tell Stefan that she would be cooking. The thing was she didn't seem to be too particularly interesting in dating him. It was probably because wanted me to date him, which wasn't going to happen. "Now where are the serving spoons?"
"They're in the second drawer." Bonnie answered before I could. That was weird.
"You've been here like a thousand times." Elena reasoned. That was definitely true, but I didn't think she had been in the kitchen that much.
"Well last night I was watching 90210 and I'm like I bet it's that phone commercial." She responded. I did kind of like 90210. Annie was my favorite, even though I was pretty sure no one else really liked her.
"That's because everyone wants to sell us a phone or a car." I pointed out. I would probably like a car, but I wasn't old enough to drive. I still needed to talk to Jenna to see if she would let me get a motorcycle.
"Well today I'm obsessed with numbers. I've got 8, 14, and 22." Bonnie then explained. 8 and 14 added up to 22.
"Let's play the lottery." Elena suggested cheekily. A few minutes later, Stefan arrived.
"Hey." I said as I gave him a smile "You're right on time."
"Well, I figured it was good to punctual." He replied.
"So, I need you to pretend not to notice that Elena bought the food." I told him. "She wants you to think that she's this master chef."
We sat down at the table, and it was incredibly awkward. Bonnie didn't really seem to like Stefan anymore and no one was saying anything. I still didn't understand why she needed to like him. He was my friend, not hers.
"So did Tanner let you on the team?" Elena asked him. If she had been watching, she would have known he did. She also would have seen him showing Tyler up, which I actually wished that I had filmed.
"Yes, so I must have done something right." Stefan responded. He had done a lot right. I still didn't know if one receiver would help the team win since they had a lot of problems on offense and defense.
"Bonnie, you should have seen it. Tyler threw this ball…" Elena started.
"I heard." Bonnie interrupted disinterestedly.
"Maybe you should tell Stefan about your family?" Elena suggested. I was pretty sure if she had to try this hard, it's probably not meant to be. Bonnie just wasn't going to like him, and she didn't need to.
"Divorced, no mom, I live with my dad." Bonnie muttered. There really wasn't anything interesting about that. Well, I did wonder what happened to her mom sometimes, but not enough to really look into it.
"No, the witches." Elena responded. I supposed I did want to know more about that. "Bonnie's descended from a line of witches. It's really cool."
"Cool's not the word I would use to describe it." Bonnie declared. Weird seemed to be a more appropriate one. Her Grams was probably just nuts. Actually, she was nuts. Jenna took her class once. I couldn't help but wonder what it was like to go to her class stoned. I wasn't going to do it, but I would like to hear about it from someone else.
"Well, it's certainly interesting." Stefan commented. That wasn't the reaction I was expecting. Did he share a love for the supernatural like I did? "I'm not entirely versed but I do know that a group of Celtic druids migrated to this area."
"My family's from Salem." Bonnie responded. I can't help but wonder why no one thinks of Salem, Oregon. It was a bigger city. It was probably because it didn't have anything memorable about it.
"Really, Salem witches, that is pretty cool." Stefan agreed with a smile. I was pretty sure that there were no real witches in Salem…except maybe that one woman. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the children were witches and just wanted to get rid of the adults they didn't like. Also, The Crucible was totally untrue.
"Why exactly?" Bonnie asked in confusion.
"Because Salem witches were about nonconformity. They would rather die than admit to gross accusations because they knew that God knew the truth." Stefan explained. It was brave, but pretty stupid, though probably not as stupid as the people who thought they were witches. "They were heroes."
"I guess they were." Bonnie agreed with a smile. Suddenly the doorbell rang.
"Who could that be?" Elena asked as we went to the door. She opened it and there was Elena's friend Caroline…and she had Damon with her. Were they dating? Caroline tended to avoid me even though I had had a crush on her. I don't think she knew about that back then.
"Surprise!" The blonde chirped as she stepped inside. I supposed that she thought she could just enter uninvited because she was Elena's friend. "Bonnie said you were having dinner, so we brought dessert."
"Hope you don't mind." Damon added. He did not enter uninvited.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked his brother.
"Waiting for Elena or Mary to invite me in." Damon replied. You know I didn't picture him as a gentleman.
"Sure, come…" Elena remarked.
"No, he can't stay." Stefan interrupted. What the hell was going on? "Can you Damon?"
"Get in here." Caroline told him. He said he was waiting for one of us to invite him in.
"Just come in so we can stop this useless conversation." I instructed. Damon smirked before he stepped into the house. After dessert, we sat in the living room with me. There wasn't a lot of room, so I was on the floor and Caroline was on Damon's lap.
"I cannot believe Tanner let you on the team." Caroline remarked. She could really talk a mile a minute. "Tyler must have been pissed, but good for you."
"That's what I tell him. You have to go after the things you want." Damon remarked.
"Elena wasn't so lucky, but it's only because she missed summer camp." Caroline explained. "I don't know how she'll ever learn the routine."
"I can teach her." Bonnie said in annoyance as Caroline thought out loud about putting her in the back.
"You know you don't really strike me as the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon commented.
"That's because she's going through a blah phase because her parents died." Caroline piped in. At that point I decided that I needed to shut her up. "She used to be…ow."
I kicked her in the shin and she seemed to understand that she was saying things that she shouldn't. I was pretty sure that she didn't mean any malice when she said it. She just had the tendency to put her foot in her mouth.
"I'm sorry you two." Damon apologized. "Stefan and I have watched just about every we've ever loved die."
"We don't need to go into that, Damon." Stefan told him. Now I was curious. What had happened to their parents?
"You're right, Stefan." Damon agreed. Aw, I really wanted to know "The last thing that we need to do is bring her up."
Later I found that despite the fact that Elena had only ordered food, I still had to do the dishes. Fortunately, Damon volunteered to help. Who was I to resist his offer of free labor?
"So, were you talking about Katherine earlier?" I asked curiously. He nodded. I couldn't believe she was dead. I thought she just dumped him. "How did she die?"
"Fire, tragic fire." He explained. There was also something else on my mind.
"You both dated her, didn't you?" I asked. I hoped I was correct in that assumption. I also wondered why Damon was dating high school girls. I was pretty sure that was illegal.
"You're very perceptive." He noted. "Ask Stefan. I'm sure his version differs from mine."
After he and everyone but Elena left, Stefan and I were alone in my room. To be honest, I'd never had a boy in it before Stefan. We began to talk before we began to kiss, and he began to undress me. Then suddenly, he turned into Damon. I woke up in a gasp, wondering why I had had such a nightmare. I mean even me kissing Stefan would have been a nightmare.
The next day, I went to school and was immediately grabbed by Caroline. I couldn't help but wonder if I was being kidnapped.
"I need you to put this in." She told me as she handed me some clothes. Specifically, it was a cheerleading uniform.
"Um, why?" I asked in confusion.
"Because Elena quit the cheerleading squad and now, I'm one cheerleader down. Please I'll make it up to you later." She begged.
"I don't know how to be a cheerleader." I argued. I knew one of the other things about Caroline was she could be very persuasive. I had to stand firm.
Within a few minutes, I was a cheerleader, or at least looked like one. I pulled on it because it showed my bellybutton, and I didn't like people seeing it because I had an outie. I felt so uncomfortable like this. I couldn't believe that she managed to talk me into wearing it. I then found Stefan in his jersey.
"Whoa, this is unexpected." He commented. I blushed even more because I didn't really want him to see me like this. I supposed it could have been worse. It could have been Tyler.
"Caroline begged me to do it." I told him with a blush on my face. "Can you just not look at me?"
"You have nothing to be ashamed of Mary." He explained. "You look good. By the way I have something for you."
He pulled a small box out of his pocket and inside was a necklace. I couldn't believe that he got me a necklace.
"I know this is a little weird since we're just friends, but I've had this for a while and thought it would look great on you." He explained. I supposed you could give a friend a gift. I didn't know if I would wear it, even if it did look really nice. God, I felt so much like a girl at the moment.
"It's beautiful." I replied before I let him put it around my neck. There was a scent to it. "What's that smell?"
"It's an herb." He told me.
"So, we're not exactly the quarterback and head cheerleader." I joked. I didn't know why I felt compelled to make such a joke. "I barely even know the routine."
"We're a work in progress." He told me with a smile as I smiled back at him. "I should go get with the team."
So, if there was one thing that Tanner was good at, it was riling up a crowd. He had a lot of praise for Stefan and his hands. Suddenly, Tyler walked away and a few minutes later, he attacked Stefan. I went towards him ready to punch him, but he shoved me off. I then noticed a broken bottle on the ground and swung it at him but missed accidentally slicing Stefan's hand.
"What the hell, Ty?" Matt asked his best friend. I then looked at Stefan who had his hand behind his back.
"Stefan, I'm so sorry." I apologized as I reached for his hand. "Is it bad? Do you need to see a doctor?"
I then looked at his hand saw…nothing. What? That didn't make any sense.
"What the fuck? I know I hit you." I replied as I looked it over.
"You missed. I'm fine." He told me. "I need to go to the locker room."
I then realized that there were tissues in Elena's car as I began to wonder if I needed glasses or maybe contacts. After I closed it, I noticed Damon was there.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. He looked kind of creepy just standing there.
"I'm hiding from Caroline." He said. "I didn't know you were a cheerleader too."
"I wasn't until today and Elena's not anymore." I told him. "Why would you need to hide from her?"
"She talks more than I can listen and she's also awfully young." He explained. "She's really annoying."
"That's why you shouldn't date girls in high school, and I don't want to hear you talking about her like this." I responded angrily.
"I'm sorry if I upset you." He apologized. "That's not my intention."
"Yes, it is." I argued. Maybe it was because of how I was dressed, but I couldn't help but feel extra-pissed off. "Everything you're saying has this weird double-meaning."
"You want to kiss me right now." He declared, looking me in the eye as he leaned in. I took the opportunity to kick him in the groin. I was not going to kiss him. I kind of felt like I should tell someone about him hitting on me. I really made me feel uncomfortable.
"I don't know what kind of issue you have with your brother, but you are a creep." I told him before I walked away. I wanted to tell Stefan about it right away, but he was getting changed.
As I was about to head to the field for kickoff when I heard some sirens. I then noticed someone lying on the ground. It was Tanner with a bite mark on his neck and his eyes were open. Oh my god, I was gonna be sick. I didn't like the guy, but I didn't want him to die.
Stefan found me shortly after in the parking lot and wrapped his coat over me. He was really sweet.
"I don't understand how this happened?" I stated. I was freaking out. It had to be an animal. It wasn't like it could be anything else. "How did an animal get all the way out here without anyone noticing it?"
"It's going to be alright." Stefan consoled. "Let me take you home."
"I was positive that I hit you." I told him as I looked over his hand. I still understand how there could be no mark.
"I'm not gonna let anything hurt you." He promised me. I didn't know what he meant by that, but at least I felt safe.
So Mary ended up on the cheerleading squad. Also she and Stefan are starting to grow closer. Please don't forget to review