When I woke up the first thing that I noticed was that Damon didn't seem to be at the boarding house. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that he was a murderous vampire. Him not being there made me think that he might have killed someone else. I supposed the only thing that I could do was hope that I was wrong about it. I was wearing a grey long-sleeved tee shirt and a blue pleated miniskirt. My legs were a little bit cold, but it wasn't super cold, and I was pretty sure that it wouldn't ever get as cold as it did in Ohio.

Once at school, I met up with Bonnie and Elena. Bonnie looked a little uneasy.

"I'm not saying don't date the guy but I think you need to be careful." Bonnie remarked. Was she talking about Stefan? I supposed she had to be because I was pretty sure that Elena was not dating anyone else at the moment.

"Yesterday you told me to go for it." Elena pointed out. I couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with her touching him last night.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Now I'm saying take it slow." Bonnie responded.

"Why the about face?" Elena questioned. I was pretty sure that she didn't know he was a vampire though.

"It's not about face. You're 17. I think you should play the field a little longer." Bonnie stated. Elena really didn't give me that kind of vibe.

"I'm not that kind of girl." Elena remarked. "I want to be monogamous. Seriously, what's up?"

"Have you seen Caroline?" Bonnie asked as she began to look around the parking lot. Actually that was a good question. Where was Caroline?

"Don't change the subject Bonnie Bennett." Elena scolded her.

"Okay, I touched Stefan and I got a really bad feeling, like really, really bad." Bonnie explained.

"Bonnie, you don't have to worry about Stefan." I lied. He seemed to have pretty good control of himself and if he thought that he could date Elena, I would support his relationship.

"Is this a witch thing?" Elena added. I was pretty sure that it was, even if Bonnie didn't fully understand her powers yet. It might not be a good idea to try to date her because of my family, even though I didn't even know if she liked me.

"You know what, I'm concerned. This is me showing concern about my friend's new boyfriend." Bonnie argued.

"I love you for that, but I want to be with Stefan." Elena replied. At that point, Stefan walked over. I probably should have come with him, but he was fine coming by himself. He greeted Elena with a peck on the lips.

"Hello, Bonnie." He greeted. Bonnie immediately tensed up when she saw him.

"I have to go find Caroline." Bonnie replied as she walked away suddenly.

"She doesn't like me very much, does she?" Stefan asked. He seemed mildly upset by it, but I knew that he knew why she was being uneasy about him. I wasn't sure what the plan for that was.

"She doesn't know you." I declared.

"You know I have an idea." Elena piped in. "I'm going to host a dinner party at my house and you two and Bonnie are invited."

"That sounds fun." I remarked. It wouldn't be my first time over at Elena's house, but it would be the first time I went there since the summer, and I only went there because Zach suggested I try to spend time with her.

"Great, be there tonight at 8:00." Elena replied. Suddenly, a football flew toward us and Stefan caught it. I had noticed that some of the guys had been throwing it around. I was still a bit surprised by his reaction. Tyler and Matt both looked surprised that he caught it as well. Stefan smiled at them.

"Let me throw it back." I replied. I wanted to see if I could still throw a football and seeing it made me feel a bit nostalgic.

I took the ball and threw it back over to them. I remembered what Coach Beiste had told and managed to get it over to them. Tyler didn't seem like he was expecting me to be able to throw a football because he didn't catch it.

"I never knew that you could throw it that far." Elena gushed. "How did you learn how to do that?"

"My dad taught me." I lied. I didn't even know if Zach liked football. As far as football teams in the area, I was a bit conflicted. First that there was the Ravens, but I didn't think I could root for them as a Bengals fan. There was also the Redskins, but their name was kind of racist.

"You should join the team." Elena quipped.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm too short to see over the linemen." I commented. "Maybe Stefan can."

"I don't think that's a very good idea." Stefan declared. Of course, his vampire abilities could cause some problems.

"Why not? Do you not like football?" Elena questioned.

"No, I love football. I just don't think football likes me." Stefan replied.

"What?" I retorted.

"You saw Tyler and we already know how Matt feels." Stefan explained. The main thing that I was thinking about was why the football season was starting so late in the year.

After school, I wanted to go home but I couldn't. One thing that I had learned over the summer was that I was a cheerleader. Yes, I was actually a cheerleader. I didn't know a lot about cheerleading. I did have to go a camp during the summer and that was interesting. Being surrounded by all of those girls was kind of weird and at the same time I was still very uncomfortable as a girl. So, I had to go to locker room to get changed into a tank top and shorts. As I walked outside, I saw Elena also dressed in a tank top and shorts.

"Are you going to practice?" I asked her. She hadn't been at the camp, so I assumed that she had quit the squad after her parents died.

"Yeah." She declared.

We then went to meet the rest of the girls for practice. One thing that I noticed was the school seemed to think it was a good idea to not have a cheerleading coach. I didn't like Sue, but she still created a sense of authority.

"Oh my god! You're here!" Bonnie declared as she gave Elena a big hug.

"I can't be sad girl forever." Elena replied. It kind of felt like there was a conversation that I had missed somewhere.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asked. I was still a bit nervous about doing this. I didn't know if I was good enough.

"Well things are going to go great today." Elena remarked as she began to stretch. I began to stretch as well, even though I had no idea what I was doing. "By the way, you're coming over for dinner at my house."

"I am?" Bonnie replied.

"Yes, me, you, Faith, and Stefan." Elena explained as Bonnie scowled.

"Tonight's no good." Bonnie said. "Seriously, where is Caroline?"

"Bonnie, you're coming if I have to drag you." Elena declared authoritatively. You know she could be a little bit scary when she raised her voice. Though, Bonnie still did raise a good point about Caroline. I hadn't seen her all day.

"Fine, I'll go." Bonnie pouted before Caroline showed up in Damon's car and gave him a slobbery kiss. She was also wearing an ascot around her neck. Well, I supposed it was good that she wasn't dead. "That must be the mystery guy."

"That's no mystery guy. That's my cousin Damon." I explained.

"I didn't know that you had another cousin." Bonnie remarked as Caroline got out. I thought that Elena would have told her about that part.

"I got the other brother." Caroline stated as she walked by. "Sorry I'm late girls. I was…busy. Okay, time to stop standing around. Let's start with the double pike perky hurdler."

I wasn't sure know, but somehow, I managed to know how to do the complicated cheer. It was like it was ingrained in my brain. However, it looked like Elena was struggling with it.

"Elena, Sweetie, why don't you just observe today?" Caroline suggested. She didn't need to call her out like that.

I met Stefan at home, feeling worn out. I never knew how much hard work cheerleading was. I went up to my room and found Damon reading my diary.

"Did you know that you and my brother are a lot alike?" He asked. I hadn't really written in it lately because I didn't really know how to write in a diary. "You both love to write. So, a little birdy told me that Stefan was trying out for the football team. You on the other hand looked adorable in your little short shorts."

"Stop that!" I told him with a blush on my face.

"You know I happen to have a cheerleader of my own." He stated. "That reminds me. I have a date. Wish me luck. I've got sweaty palms."

He walked away before I could even say anything. In any case, I was glad that he was gone because I needed to get in the shower. I was pretty sure that Elena would not want me coming to her house smelling like I did. I didn't feel like finding something else, so I washed my shirt in the sink and put my old clothes on.

"So, Damon is kind of feeding on Caroline." I told Stefan.

"Well, he must have some sort of plan for her because otherwise she would be dead." Stefan remarked. I was pretty sure that Caroline was another one of the main characters, so she wouldn't be dying any time soon. "We should probably get going."

The two of us went to Elena's house and it was pretty nice. It wasn't a very big house even though I was pretty sure that her family still had money. It was probably just because they didn't need a big house. Stefan and I stood outside. He didn't need to be invited in, but we still needed to wait.

"Hi, come in." She invited. She seemed to be pretty careless with inviting vampires in. We both stepped into the house and into the kitchen. The first thing that I noticed was that the food appeared to be take-out that was awkwardly put into a bowl. Once we got to the dinner table, there was an awkward silence.

"So did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked Stefan.

"Well, he let me on the team so I must have done something right." Stefan replied.

"Bonnie, you should seen it." I interrupted. "Tyler through this ball and…"

"I heard." She cut me off. Had she also heard about how I had thrown the ball back to him?

"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" I suggested.

"Divorced, no mom, I live with my dad." Bonnie answered. That was definitely not the answer she had been looking for. I was pretty sure that she wanted Bonnie to tell him about the witches, even though he already knew about that part. Apparently, he knew an ancestor of Bonnie's during the Civil War who was also a witch.

"No, the witches." Elena told her. "Bonnie's descended from a line of witches. It's really cool."

"Cool's not how I would describe it." Bonnie argued. Something told me that she would like it when she discovered that she had magic.

"Well, it's certainly interesting." Stefan pointed out. I couldn't help but wonder where he was going with it. "I'm not exactly the best versed, but I do know that there was a group of Celtic Druids that migrated to this area."

"My family's from Salem." Bonnie explained.

"Salem witches, that is pretty cool." Stefan agreed.

"Why?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"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. That was also a great strategy. He was trying to tell her how cool being a witch was so she would be more okay with being one. "They were heroes."

"I guess they were." Bonnie agreed with a smile. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"I wonder who that could be." Elena replied as she went to the door. She opened it and Caroline and Damon were there. She had traded her ascot for a scarf. She was also holding some kind of cake.

"Surprise!" Caroline chirped. "Bonnie mentioned dinner, so we brought dessert."

"I hope you don't mind." Damon added.

"Sure c…" Elena started before Stefan cut her off.

"No." Stefan responded. He was probably trying to stop her from inviting him in. "You can't stay, can you Damon? We were just finishing up."

"Get in here." Caroline declared. I was pretty sure that she couldn't invite him in.

"It's fine. Come in." Elena replied as Damon walked in and smirked. I hoped that wouldn't cause problems later.

"You have a lovely home, Elena." He commented as Stefan sighed.

"Thank you." Elena replied before we all went to the kitchen to have the dessert. Okay it was delicious, probably even better than the pasta Elena had served us.

After dessert, we headed to the living room. There was only barely enough room for all of us.

"I cannot believe Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must have been pissed." Caroline gabbed. You know I haven't seen much of him other than him throwing the ball. "But good for you."

"That's what I tell him. You have to go for what you want." Damon added.

"Elena wasn't so lucky." Caroline explained. "I don't know how she'll ever learn the routine."

"I'll teach her." Bonnie remarked in annoyance. I wondered if Caroline always had the tendency to put her foot in her mouth.

"You know you don't really seem like the cheerleader type." Damon remarked. What did that mean? Did he mean that she didn't seem that cheerful? If he did, that was fair.

"That's only because she missed summer camp and she's going through a blah phase because her parents died…ow." Caroline declared before I kicked her in the shin. At that point, she seemed to notice that she was saying too much. "And I say that with utmost sensitivity."

"I'm sorry Elena, Stefan and I have watched most of the people we love die too." Damon declared. As far as I could tell, neither of them really had any loved ones except for Katherine.

"We don't need to go into that, Damon." Stefan remarked.

"You're right, Stefan." Damon agreed with a smirk. "The last thing we need to do is bring her up.

Soon after Elena and Damon were in the kitchen doing dishes while Bonnie was in the bathroom, leaving Stefan and I with Caroline.

"You don't need to be so mean to Elena." I told her.

"I'm just trying to help her." She pointed out. She then seemed to notice Stefan staring at her. "What are you looking at?"

"I was just admiring your scarf." Stefan told her.

"Thank you." She responded. Stefan then gave me a look.

"Can I try it on?" I requested. I hoped that I got the cue right.

"I can't take it off." She answered.

"Why not?" I inquired.

"All I know is I can't take it off." She explained. Damon must have mind controlled her to always keep her neck covered or something.

"What are you kids talking about?" Damon interrupted as he came into the room.

"I was just admiring her scarf. It's pretty, isn't it, Damon?" Stefan asked.

"Why don't you go see if Elena and Bonnie need help with the dishes?" Damon suggested to Caroline.

"Do I look like I do the dishes?" Caroline replied with a scoff. At least she wasn't totally submissive to him.

"Go and help them with the dishes." Damon ordered, looking her in the eye.

"I'm gonna see if they need help with the dishes." Caroline announced before she left the room.

"She's not a doll, Damon." Stefan chided. Come to think of it, she did kind of look like a human Barbie doll…just without the tan.

"Sure she is. The world is my dollhouse." Damon argued.

"I think it's time for you to go." Stefan declared.

"Okay. But I can come back whenever I want because I've been invited." Damon stated before he headed out the door.

In the morning, I looked at the cheerleading uniform. It was pretty much the antithesis of the ones that the girls back home wore. It showed a lot of skin, maybe due to the warmer weather, even though it wasn't that much warmer. I still couldn't believe that it was mine. I found it hard to believe that any school would allow a uniform like this. It seemed like something you could only get away with on a TV show and probably only cause all of the actors were over 18. Also, another thing that didn't make sense was the uniforms had no letters on them. There was the school's name or logo. It was like they bought generic uniforms and didn't think to put anything on them because it would take too long or something.

I put it on and found Zach was in the living room with a camera.

"You have to be kidding me." I muttered.

"I know it's a cliché, but I want to take a picture of you before your first game." He told me. "Your mother would've been so proud."

I couldn't help but wonder if that would be true whenever I saw her. I just didn't know how long that would take. It was also good to have a father at all, especially one who seemed to care about me so much.

One thing that would probably be the weirdest about cheerleading is that I would be watching the game from the sidelines. I had seen a few games from the stands, but never from sidelines and obviously never wearing such a short skirt before.

I walked over to meet the other cheerleaders only to see that Elena wasn't wearing her cheerleading uniform. Also, she was now wearing a necklace that I had never seen before, but I didn't take inventory of her jewelry so could have already had it."

"Why aren't you dressed?" I asked her with a blush.

"I'm a quitter." She stated. "I quit."

"Elena, is there a reason that you quit?" I responded. "Did it have to do with what Damon said?"

"It's not only that. It's just that I don't know the routine either." She pointed out.

"So, you don't even want to try?" I challenged. If I had to wear this uniform, I was going to make sure that she wore it too.

"D…do you think I still have time to go change?" She asked.

"You should." I declared. I figured since it was a TV show she would.

So, a little bit later, I was with her and the other cheerleaders during the pep rally. If there was one that Tanner seemed to be good at was making a rousing speech. If he was anywhere as good of a coach as a public speaker, the team could be great. However, I heard that the team was not good, so he probably wasn't. I wondered if we would get a coach of the same caliber as Coach Beiste.

The speech was cut short by Jeremy and Tyler fighting and then Stefan breaking it up and subsequently getting sliced across the hand.

"I'll take care of this." I volunteered as I took Stefan away so no one could see that he was healing instantly.

"So that was a close call." I remarked.

At that point, Caroline came over to me.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Stefan responded as he hid his hand behind his back.

"I'm just going to help get him bandaged up before the game starts." I lied.

"Well don't take too long because you need to be out there as well." She stated. I was pretty sure that I didn't need to be there until halftime or at least the end of the first quarter. You know I didn't really think there was a point of having cheerleaders at games other than just being pretty. I had seen some of the competitions though and those were kind of crazy. I couldn't help but wonder if we were going to do that. At that point, Caroline walked away.

"Well, it looks like we're in for a little sis boom bah." Damon interrupted. I blushed once again.

"I don't want to hear it, Damon." I told him.

"You know you're pretty clever. Vervain in the necklace. It's been a while since any girl has been able to resist my persuasion." Damon remarked. It was then that I realized that it must've been a new necklace and also Damon had tried to mind control Elena. "Where did you get it?"

"Does it matter?" Stefan retorted. I couldn't help but wonder if he had gotten it from Zach.

"I guess I could just seduce her the old-fashioned way." Damon mused. "Or maybe I could just kill her."

"You're not going to hurt her." Stefan declared. "Because hidden deep down is a part of you that wants me to be happy and you won't do anything to jeopardize that. I didn't think that you had any humanity, but I was wrong. You are feeling protective of me and Faith, feeling angry because of Katherine. Those are emotions. You are not a monster."

"Sure I am." He argued.

"Why don't you kill us then?" I questioned. I seriously hoped that he wasn't going to convince Damon to kill me because I was pretty sure that I had already died once, and I really didn't want to do it again.

"I might." He responded.

"No, you won't because you're afraid of being alone without me. That's why you've kept me around for all these years. Katherine is dead, but you hate me for me. That's another emotion and it's because you loved her. And that Damon is your humanity."

"Salvatore?" Tanner interrupted. I had a bad feeling about him being there. "What the hell is going on? We have a game to play."

"If that's my humanity then what's this?" Damon asked before ran over and started to drink Tanner's blood until he was dead. Well, if we were going to have a new football coach, it would have to be pretty soon. Damon, however, looked particularly monstrous with red eyes and fangs out. "I'll kill anyone, any time, any day."

At that point, he ran off.

"This is a problem." I declared. I don't know why I felt the need to say such a thing because I was pretty sure that he already knew that it was.

After they found Tanner's body, Elena was really freaking out and I knew that I needed to be the one to comfort her. I slipped my jacket over her shoulders.

"What kind of animal just comes out into a school parking lot and attacks someone?" She questioned with tears in her eyes. Yeah, it seemed like that was pretty hard to believe.

"Elena, this animal isn't going to get away with this." I assured her.

When I got home, I decided to do something. For the first time I wanted to write something down.

Dear Diary
Damon is out of control. I don't know how to fight him, but I'm going to find a way. I'm going to find a way to fight him and also find a way to kill him.

I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be successful, but I was pretty sure that what someone in my position would write. I then changed for bed and washed my face and went to sleep.

So Faith found out that she's a cheerleader, but she's not going to have to do much of that. Also she got to see Damon kill someone in front of her. Please don't forget to review.