I was in the parking lot at school when Stefan drove up in his car. He had actually driven in his car. I was starting to get concerned about the fact that he hadn't been coming to school, but I assumed that was over since he was here now.
"Nice car." I told him. I actually didn't get the appeal of the car. It was supposed to be a sports car, but I really didn't see anything sexy about it. Of course, I didn't want to tell him that I liked Damon's car better than his.
"I figured it was too nice to leave in the garage." He explained before he gave me an open-mouthed kiss. He usually didn't do public displays of affection and it made me feel hot when he kissed me like that.
"So, are you better now?" I asked him. He looked better. I hoped that he was better I wanted us to be able to get back to normal even though I kind of wanted to skip school with him. I hadn't considered doing that because I didn't really see the point. It wasn't like we would be able to do anything while he was mopey.
"Yeah, I'm all better." He confirmed. He seemed to be telling the truth and he said that he wouldn't lie to me anymore.
"Well, I have to get to class, but I'll see you at lunch." I told him before I walked off. I couldn't help but admit that being kissed like that before school had made me feel all bubbly inside. I also wished that we had some classes together. Why did I have to be a sophomore still?
"What's got you in such a good mood?" Anna asked me later in History. She had been there while Stefan was gone. I was lucky to have both of them in my life.
"Stefan's back in school." I explained. At that point Alaric walked into the room, which also meant that I would have to stop talking.
"Okay, so in light of Founder's Day, we will be studying local history." He announced. That was kind of lame that they could get him to just change his curriculum like that. He probably worked really hard on it. "Apparently the town's leaders think that is more important than World War II, but hey what do I know?"
I did really like how he managed to install some humor into his lessons. There were definitely worse people to have as a stepfather, like in that movie, The Stepfather. That guy was a total murderous psychopath, worse than Damon. Yes, I sometimes watched horror movies that weren't supernatural.
After school, Anna was preparing to give me a ride home when Caroline came up to me. I thought maybe about asking Stefan for a ride, but I was pretty sure that Anna liked hanging out at my house more.
"Mary, Mary, Mary!" She said to me in excitement to get my attention. "Did you hear the news?"
"No…" I responded, wondering what she could be talking about.
"The Founder's Court was announced this morning and you and I are on it." She explained. What was the Founder's Court again? I was pretty sure that it was something that I was supposed to know but, I had no clue what she was talking about.
"The Founder's Court?" Anna asked. I was glad that she asked because it would make sense for her not to about it.
"It's for Miss Mystic Falls." Caroline told her. No. A pageant? I didn't know if I could be in a pageant. I had mostly come to terms with being a girl, but that would really be pushing it. "It's huge. I have to find Bonnie so she can help me pick out a dress."
She then ran off and Anna smiled at me. Seeing her smile helped me feel better.
"What's wrong?" She asked. She seemed to realize that I was a little uneasy about everything. "You don't need to be nervous. It's going to be fine."
"I'm not sure that I can do a pageant." I stated. Part of me wanted to tell her the reason why, but I didn't think that I would be able to do that. The only person that I had been able to tell was Stefan and I didn't know how I managed to do that.
When I got home, I decided to call Stefan about it. I hoped that he would be okay with it. Even though I was pretty sure that it would be hard, at least with him there I would feel better.
"I'm sorry this is on such short notice. I didn't sign up for this. I guess this is just another part of me becoming a girl that I don't understand." I declared.
"This doesn't seem like something that you would have signed up for." He pointed out. He also had a point there. I didn't think that I was a particularly popular girl before.
"It was probably my mom's idea. I bet she had me and Elena both sign up." I guessed. It was the only reason that I could think of, and I also wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have a choice. "She was really big into this stuff. She actually won the pageant when she was my age."
"Well, I would glad to be your date." He told me.
"Technically, the term is escort, which makes it sound like I'm paying you." I declared. That was probably not something that I needed to say. I could really run my mouth when I was nervous. "I'll see you soon."
I knew that I needed to find a dress. I really wished that they gave us more time to plan for this. It made sense why they only picked girls from Founding Families because they were the only ones that afford to get an expensive dress in two days. The other problem was I had no idea how to shop for such a dress. I wondered if Elena would be able to help me.
"Hey, Elena do you wanna take me dress shopping?" I called up to her room.
"No." She responded as I frowned. I began to text Anna to see if she could help me. We didn't get to do a lot outside of school together. I hoped that her mom would let her go out with me. Maybe Anna had been able to tell her that I wasn't a threat to her anymore. I still had a bit of a crush on her even though I knew that I shouldn't.
The next day, I was going to meet with the Miss Mystic Falls board which was Mrs. Lockwood and two other women. One of them would've been my mom if not for the accident. As it stood, I wasn't sure who the other women were.
"This year's queen will have the special honor of representing the town at the 150th anniversary celebration." Mrs. Lockwood explained. "Before we crown our winner, we'd like to get to know a bit more about each of you."
"To be honest, I don't know why you picked me." I admitted. It was really all that I could think about. Why had they picked me instead of Elena? Did they not like how Elena had been acting? "I'm definitely not the right girl for this, but my mom would want me here, so I have to give it my best."
After the interview process was over, I finally got the chance to look over the other girls. There was Caroline, Tina Fell, the wild child with a heart of gold. She seriously was one of the nicest girls in the school and the only other one my age. There was her cousin Blair who somehow got nominated again despite winning last year's pageant and Amber Bradley, who was not from a Founding Family. I seriously couldn't believe that they didn't give Elena the other spot instead of wasting it on an outsider. That was probably why she was mad at me. It seemed like a pretty trivial thing to be mad at me for when it was something that I had no control over.
Anyway, we had our partners come in and we had to rehearse this stupid dance from the 1800s. I couldn't believe that something like this actually existed. It was a bit hard for me to keep a straight face while I was doing it.
"This dance sucks." I whispered to Stefan.
"You're just saying that because you don't know how to do it." He pointed out. No, it sucked. There were old dances that made sense, but this was just stupid.
"I'm sorry that I'm not old enough to have been around when it was invented." I quipped before he grabbed me and dipped me. At that point, Mrs. Lockwood rushed over and I blushed a little.
"Stefan, there's no touching in this part." Mrs. Lockwood scolded him. "It's all about the thrill of the near-touch."
"If you ask me the near-touch is overrated." He whispered once she was gone. I giggled at that. Yes, I didn't want him to near touch me. I couldn't help but wonder when we were going to be able to have sex again, but I would have to wait until he was ready.
During the break, I couldn't help but notice that Caroline had brought Bonnie with her. I didn't know that she was back and I realized that I needed to talk to her. We hadn't actually talked since her grandma died.
"Hey Bonnie, do you have a minute?" I asked her.
"We only have five minutes." She pointed out. Did she not want to talk to me?
"Please, I really need to talk to you." I insisted. It seemed to work because it got her to go into the hallway with me. I wasn't sure what to say. I probably should have tried to plan it better.
"So, I haven't really seen you since your grandma died." I explained. "How was everything where you went?"
"Boring." She answered. She then said something that I didn't expect her to say. "Listen, Mary, I don't think it's a good idea for us to be friends. My Grams is dead because of you. You're the one who wanted to open the tomb."
"She had a choice, and she chose to open it." I pointed out. It wasn't like I forced her to do it or anything.
"Still every time I look at you or Stefan or Damon, that's all I'm going to see." She told me. I realized that it might have not been a good idea to tell her that I was friends with Anna.
"When did you become such a bitch?" I snapped at her. It still had a bit of a temper, and I didn't appreciate her talking to me like that or talking about my boyfriend like that. "Do you really think blaming me is going to make it better? I could have blamed Elena for my parents' death but in the end, it was all a choice. The bridge would have given out eventually anyway, and if it wasn't my parents, someone else would have died."
When I got home, I was mad. I had to text with Anna to vent my frustration because her mom wouldn't let me see her. It wasn't good but it would have to do. I also noticed that Elena was back to not speaking to me. Was she mad about the thing at the Founder's Party or something? Or was it because of the pageant? It wasn't like I could apologize to her for it because it was not something that I could control and I also didn't even think that I could drop out.
On the day of the pageant, I heard a knock at the door. I had my dress in a bag in my hands and opened it to reveal my only known human relative. Well, Isobel's parents were probably alive, but I didn't know them. He took my bag with my dress in it from me.
"Hi." I greeted him. He looked a little bit weird in a suit. Yeah, he wore ties to work sometimes, but seeing him in a tux was different.
"Have you talked to Stefan lately?" He asked. "He seems like he's a little bit on edge."
Before I could respond, John walked into the room. I liked him less since I found out that he was a vampire hater. I needed to come up with a better term for that, but it was the best that I could think of at the time.
"Hey, Alaric." He greeted the teacher. "What are you doing here, Buddy?
"I'm the chauffeur." Alaric answered. I was pretty sure that he did not consider John a friend. He also was missing a hat.
"Huh, I thought I was driving." John declared.
"No need." Jenna said as she came down the stairs. "You can take Elena if you want."
So I rode to the Lockwood house. When I got there, I saw that Anna had been invited in. Like I said, they were completely unable to detect a vampire. I also had to admit that she looked beautiful in her black dress with her hair up. I knew that Elena had definitely made a mistake by messing their relationship up. She was talking with Damon for some reason.
"No offense, Jenna, but I think I'd rather get ready with Anna if you don't mind." I told my aunt.
I then grabbed Anna and took her upstairs with me. I gave her a curling iron and let her work on my hair, since she had obviously had success with her own.
"So what were you and Damon talking about?" I asked her. I was a bit nosy but I assumed that if Damon wanted to know something, it was important to me as well.
"John wants this item that my mom stole from your ancestor." She told me. "No one knows what it is or what it does but he wants it and Damon wants it so John can't have it."
"So has anyone told you how pretty you look today?" I questioned.
"You're going to be even prettier when I'm done with you." She replied
Once she was done, my hair was braided into a single braid and swept over my shoulder.
"So I need to go put my dress on." I told her. I was still nervous about changing in front of other girls. "I don't really need your help with that."
I went to the dressing room and found that Amber was there. She didn't look so hot. Well, she looked hot, but she didn't look like she was having a good day.
"Hey, Amber, are you okay?" I asked. Those were the first words I ever said to her. Our circles really didn't intersect that much. I still couldn't figure out why she had even been chosen for the pageant.
"I don't want to do this." She said. "I hate being the center of attention. I get really bad panic attacks."
"Do you want to be alone?" I asked her.
"No, I just need some air." She replied before she left the room. I wasted no time in putting on my dress. It was silver and sleeveless. It wasn't very sexy, but I was okay with it not being sexy and it was probably more appropriate for the pageant because I was pretty that my breasts weren't supposed to be the focus. Not even three seconds after I had it on did Damon walk into the room.
"You can't be in here." I told him, still glad that his timing was good. I did not want Damon to see me like that even though he had seen me in less.
"We need to talk about Stefan." He replied. I realized that it was important. "He's still drinking human blood."
"What?" I asked in disbelief. Had Stefan been lying to me when he said that he wouldn't lie to me anymore?
"Normally, I would rejoice at this, but his timing could not be any worse right now." Damon explained. "The council is up our throats and his actions are causing problems for everyone now."
"I know that he's been a little on edge recently but he said that was normal." I declared.
"He's Stefan on human blood. He'll say anything or do anything as long as he doesn't have to stop." Damon pointed out. "I'm really worried."
At that point, Stefan walked in.
"Hey, what's going on in here?" He asked.
"I was just telling Mary about your extracurricular activities." Damon replied. I didn't know why he had to be so cryptic about it.
"What are you talking about?" Stefan responded.
"I know that you're drinking human blood, Stefan." I declared.
"I'm just gonna go." Damon said as he crept out the door, leaving us alone.
"I was gonna tell you." Stefan told me.
"When?" I asked. It was a pretty big not to tell me about.
"It doesn't change anything. So I'm drinking human blood. It doesn't make me any different. I'm still the same person." He rambled. It was definitely making him different. I had never seen him act like that. It was like he had a completely different personality.
"It's changing you." I replied.
"Mary, I was going to tell but your reaction is making it completely justified that I didn't." He tried to explain. What the fuck did he mean by that?
"Do you even hear what you're saying right now?" I questioned.
Before he could respond, the door opened again. I couldn't help but wonder why I hadn't locked it. It was Mrs. Lockwood.
"Mary, the lineup is starting." She stated. "Escorts wait downstairs, Stefan."
I headed out into the hallway and to the top of the stairs where the other girls were, except for Amber who seemed to be mysteriously absent. I really wished that my parents could be here to see this. I was pretty sure that my mom would be happy, even though I still didn't really want to do it. That was probably one of the only good parts about being in a pageant.
"Do you see Stefan down there?" I asked Caroline. I probably could have looked myself. I didn't like that I couldn't have my phone at the moment.
"Nope, just my boring fill-in escort." Caroline explained.
"What happened to Matt?" I questioned.
"He couldn't get off work." She answered. Who would go to the Grill today? It seemed like everyone in town was here. "What happened to Stefan?"
"I don't know." I replied. "I'm not going to have an escort. What the hell am I going to do?"
"Mary, you need to calm down." Caroline told me. "Someone will be there for you."
"Miss Caroline Forbes and her escort Jeffrey Lockwood-Hamilton." Mayor Lockwood said before she went down the stairs. I had no idea how he and Tyler were related.
"Mary, you're next." Mrs. Lockwood instructed.
"Miss Margaret Gilbert, and her escort, Stefan Salvatore." He called. I began to descend the stairs and saw that Amber's escort was there, but Stefan still wasn't. It was then that Damon walked over to me.
"Please tell me that you know the dance." I whispered to him in embarrassment. I also couldn't help but be worried about Stefan.
"Of course I do." He explained. "We need to get this over with and then we can find him.
We danced together to the music, which was oddly some alternative song. I couldn't help but wonder who had chosen it. I was grateful not to be alone.
I stood next to the rest of the girls, except for Amber. I had a really bad feeling about her disappearance. I really hoped that we wouldn't find her body somewhere.
"Where's Amber?' Caroline whispered to me. I wasn't sure why she thought that I would know the answer to that.
"I don't know." I whispered back.
"Now before we name our winner, I'd like to give a round of applause for these lovely ladies and all of the work that they do together in this community." The mayor declared before people clapped. "And now for our winner. This year's Miss Mystic Falls is…Miss Margaret Gilbert."
How the hell did I win? I thought I made it pretty clear that I didn't want to be there. Had someone compelled someone so I would win?
A little bit later we found Stefan trying to feed from Amber. I supposed it made sense that their disappearances were linked. Damon tried to fight him, but he was a lot stronger. Then Bonnie showed up and cast some sort of spell, giving Stefan a migraine or something. He then bolted from the scene. I thought about talking to Bonnie about it, but I was pretty sure that she was still mad at me.
I decided that I needed to go to the boarding house to see if I could get Stefan to talk to me once again. Before I got there, I found Anna at the door…with Pearl. I couldn't believe that I was finally going to get to talk to her. I was a little bit scared to be honest, but I was pretty sure that Anna would not let her hurt me.
"I mean you no harm." The woman stated. "My daughter says that you are her friend. She wants to stay here with you. I want to stay here. So, I'm giving you this. I hope you give it to Damon."
"What is it?" I asked as I looked over the round object. I wondered if Anna had told her that she kissed me. I hadn't even told Stefan about that. In fact, I hadn't told anyone but Elena.
"I have no idea." She explained. "I thought I was stealing his vampire-detecting device, but I was wrong."
I then walked into the house and put the thing on the table before heading into Stefan's room.
"You shouldn't be here." He told me.
"You say that a lot." I pointed out. I knew what I needed to do, even though I was nervous about doing it.
"You know I could hurt you." He stated. "You're pretty stupid being here."
"Well then love made me this way." I told him. I was not going to let him push me away when he obviously needed help. "I love you, Stefan and all I want to do is make you better."
"Get out of here, now." He replied before he pushed me into a wall and bit my neck. I then I had to do it. I stabbed him with the needle and he passed out. He really was out of control. It meant that Damon and I would have to fix him. Together we took him to the cellar and locked him up.
"Can I have some of your bourbon?" I asked him. I really needed a drink. I probably also needed something to clean my neck with.
"Not without me." Damon replied before the two of us went to the living room.
So Mary and Damon are drinking together yet again. Also Mary ended up winning the pageant, despite the fact that she didn't want to. Tina is played by Chloe Moretz. Please don't forget to review.