Anna and I were currently in the kitchen making some chili. I was currently wearing a grey polka-dot halter dress. She was handling the cutting so I wouldn't cut myself. I was getting better at cooking, but it was still better not to take unnecessary risks when I didn't have to.
I was on the phone with Damon, who had called to check up on me. I was pretty much over Stefan, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to try to start a relationship with Anna yet. For all I knew, she wouldn't even want to start a relationship with me. It was probably too soon for that.
"Are you seriously bringing chili to a potluck?" He asked. The Lockwoods were hosting a picnic. I wasn't entirely sure why but I wanted to try to make something. "Everyone brings chili."
"It's an old family recipe." I argued. It was my first real attempt to cook by myself and I wanted to do something that was relatively easy to do.
"I knew your old family." Damon countered. "They made sucky chili."
Even if they were kind of racist against vampires, it still was rude to insult their cooking like that.
"Goodbye Damon." I said before hanging up. I then looked at Anna, who was adding cayenne. "What are you doing?"
"I'm diverting from the recipe a little." She remarked. She probably more experience cooking, so I could trust her judgment. Plus I did like things a little spicy. "Trust me. It will be better this way."
At that moment, Ric entered the kitchen. He had moved in with us, which meant the burden of paying the bills wasn't entirely on me and Anna. I did still wish Elena would work, but technically we couldn't force her to.
"So, what time do you want to head over to the Lockwoods?" I asked him. It would also mean we could take his car.
"I don't think that's really something that I want to go to." He admitted.
"Come on, being social is a great way to make friends." I told him before I took a sip of the chili. He could use more friends that were closer to his age that also weren't Damon. "You're right, this is better."
"I told you." Anna remarked. "I know my stuff when it comes to cooking. I can even make authentic Chinese cooking."
"Have you ever been to China?" I asked curiously. I wondered where her mother had met Klaus. It was likely somewhere in Europe. Klaus was a German name, but he had a British accent, Welsh if I was correct, so I didn't really know where he was from.
"Yes, and what they serve there is a lot different from what we call Chinese food." She explained. I wasn't sure if the rumors about them serving cats and dogs were true. If they were, I knew I wouldn't want to eat anything there that I wasn't sure what it was. "You got some food on your hand."
"What, are you going to lick it off?" I teased her. I knew that would be kind of weird, but I was she wouldn't actually do it.
"I will if you want me to." She shot back. I giggled before I wiped it off. "Ric, please come with us. You wouldn't be a very good guardian if you let us go by ourselves."
"I'm a bit surprised that you haven't tried to find my liquor." Ric stated. He seemed to be pretty good at hiding his liquor. I didn't know why he had a problem with me drinking it. I was pretty sure that I couldn't even damage anymore now that I was werewolf. On that note, I still hadn't told anyone other than Elena. Well I would probably tell Caroline, but I hadn't seen her since her father had abducted her. She was fine now though.
"I already made it past the drinking the stage." I stated. He just looked at me. I supposed he saw through my lie. "Okay…so I didn't know where you hid it, but I'm going to try to make it through this breakup without alcohol."
"She'll probably only last a few hours." Anna remarked. I wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. I really hoped that she wasn't making fun of me.
"I can do this." I argued. "Just because I spent the entire summer looking for someone who didn't want to be found doesn't mean that I'm going to give up on my life. It's time to move on and face the fact that I'm never gonna see him again."
He then went upstairs to take a shower. At that time, I heard the doorbell ring. I went to the door to see Caroline with a pot. Well, this would probably be a good idea to tell her.
"I come bearing gifts." She announced.
"Please tell me that's not chili." I requested. She frowned before Bonnie stepped out and I gave her a hug. Also, behind her was…Cassie? I was pretty sure that was her name.
"Is it okay that I don't know why she's here?" I asked.
"Cassie is a witch too. She helped find me." Caroline explained.
"Yeah, but I just found out about the whole witch thing and that are vampires and werewolves around, so I may need a refresher." Cassie explained. Had this happened while I was in Chicago? Why did no one think to tell me about this? "So, you feel like that Tyler guy did."
"What?" Caroline asked.
"Oh, I'm kind of a werewolf now." I explained. "I don't know how, but I think that it might have something to do with the curse."
"What curse?" Cassie questioned. She really needed to have all of this explained to her. I hoped that it wouldn't take too long.
Elena then came downstairs and also gave her girlfriend a hug before going back upstairs. We then headed into the kitchen to combine our chili into one dish.
"The worst part about my dad's normal family is that things can get boring easily." Bonnie explained.
"Well after the last few days, I would kill for a normal family." Caroline pointed out.
"I would kill for any family." Cassie remarked. Well that made things very, very awkward.
"So where did this food come from? I didn't think you knew how to cook." Caroline replied. I supposed it was a good idea to change the subject.
"Anna helped me." I answered nonchalantly.
"So, you two are cooking together now?" Caroline asked suspiciously. I couldn't see what the issue with that was. Anna and I did a lot of things together.
"Yes, what's wrong with that?" I replied, noticing the look on her face. "Why is everyone looking at me like I'm going to break? I'm dealing with it."
"We should work on this chili." Anna replied. I grabbed our pot to hold it into place while Caroline began to pour.
"I'm going to be fine, guys. Let's explain everything to Cassie." I explained before I suddenly felt a great pain in my chest. "What the fuck?"
I noticed it was coming from my necklace and tore it off quickly. At that point, the burn mark started to heal itself.
"Did I splash you?" Caroline asked in concern.
"No, it's my necklace." I remarked. "It burned me."
I looked it over on the counter, wondering how it could do that. Anna touched it and sparks came out of it.
"That doesn't look right." Anna commented. I was pretty sure that we knew that already. It also meant that we might have to hold off on telling Cassie for the moment because we had other things to worry about.
Once we got to the Lockwood house, I went and met Caroline and Bonnie over by a tree while Anna was getting something to eat. Bonnie brought her grimoire with her. I didn't really think we wanted to involve Cassie with this kind of magic.
"Okay, so it looks like the necklace is a talisman." Bonnie explained. "I can do a spell to find out what kind of spell someone else used on it."
I handed her the necklace and Bonnie began to chant.
"So, you're not like sleeping with Anna, are you?" Caroline asked me. What? How did she even come to that conclusion? I wasn't doing it right now. I had only done it once before. I really hadn't told anyone else about it other than Stefan.
"What?" Bonnie questioned.
"Focus." Caroline told her. I didn't how she could focus when Caroline just blurted that out.
"No, Anna and I are friends and that's it." I explained, still wondering why I needed to. It also wouldn't be any of her business if I was.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to be with someone else." Caroline pointed out. I knew that, but I had just gotten out of a relationship, and it was too soon.
"Guys." Bonnie interrupted. We both turned to look at her and saw that the necklace was floating in midair. "It has its own magic."
All I knew was that I definitely didn't want to wear it anymore. What were the odds that the necklace that Stefan gave me a little less than a year ago was actually a magical artifact that hadn't shown any of its power until just today? How long did Stefan just have it lying around wherever he had it?
I decided to go to the table and noticed that Damon was right. Everyone had brought chili. I wished that I had been more creative but I didn't have my dad's cooking skills because I wasn't his daughter, even though I wasn't sure if that stuff was genetic. Science wasn't one of my stronger points. It was also the only thing that I could think to make.
I grabbed myself a bowl and sat down with Anna. Cassie had decided not to come to the party because she didn't really know anyone in town.
"So, what's the deal with the necklace?" She asked.
"It's a talisman that contains magic inside of it surprisingly." I explained. "I love it, but now I can't wear it anymore."
"Well sometimes things just don't work out." She remarked. I debated whether or not to talk to her about what Caroline had said. It really wasn't something that we needed to talk about because she might not still like me like that, even though there was history between us. And once again, it was too soon so it was a moot point.
I did think that I needed to consider the possibility of moving on. But it would also be kind of weird to date Anna after everything that happened. I decided to think of what other options I had/ Tyler was now dating Caroline, so I didn't really have a shot with him anymore, and I didn't want to date him anyway. I definitely didn't want to date Damon because I was still 16 and I didn't care about what Isobel said because I thought it would look creepy regardless of whether or not he was a vampire. That essentially left Matt as the only available bachelor and I still didn't think that he was too keen on the vampire stuff. There was also the fact that he dated my older sister which would make things more awkward. On top of all that, Matt just really was not my type. I didn't know what my type was, but it wasn't him. I might've had to wait to see if there would be any interesting new students that showed up.
I could also try dating Cassie, but didn't know if she would be interested in that. She might not even like girls. I could tell her that I used to be a guy, but I didn't know if that would factor in at all.
Another thing that I felt was that I was still kind of interested in becoming a vampire. It wasn't for Isobel's selfish reasons, but the main reason was that I wanted to stay friends with Anna. We could possibly be like Stefan and Lexi were. The idea of best friends forever actually being literal was exciting. Not to mention, I would also have Caroline. The idea of changing for someone else seemed like a better idea than doing it for myself. The biggest problem was since I was a werewolf now, I would have to become a hybrid and I didn't know how to do that. He had only turned Anna into one because she must have also been affected by the curse since she was from his bloodline and that other hybrid didn't look right.
"So, you know it's okay to be upset about Stefan being gone, don't you?" She asked. "The first cut is the deepest just like I told Cat Stevens."
"So, you're saying that you could have had a career as a songwriter?" I responded.
"I wrote a bunch of songs, but I never put my name on them." She explained. Now I wanted to know what songs she had written. "But that's not the point."
"Well I just don't want to be the girl who gets upset over a breakup. Even though it's been over a year, I'm still not completely comfortable just being a girl." I explained. "Don't get me wrong, it hurts that he chose his brother over me, but it's not like I can do anything about it."
"Well, you have a long life ahead of you." She declared.
"Do you mean that literally?" I asked.
"I'm not gonna turn you." She replied. "At least, I won't right now. Maybe I'll do it after you graduate. I just hope that you don't want to do it so you can still be the same when Stefan's 10 years are up."
"That makes it sound like he's in prison." I commented. Well, he kind of was and Klaus was one hell of a warden. I also couldn't help but wonder that if Anna was a hybrid like Klaus, maybe she could turn a werewolf into a hybrid. I was pretty sure no one knew the rules with hybrids. "No, the reason that I wanted to turn was to be with you actually."
"It was?" She asked in surprise.
"You know so we can still be friends without having to worry about aging." I explained. There was also the possibility of a relationship in the future, but I wasn't thinking of that at the moment.
"Oh, well I still don't want to turn you right now." She admitted. It was at that time that we noticed that Damon was talking to Ric about something.
"What are they saying?" I asked curiously.
"Damon's telling him about how the parties are basically just a cover-up so the council can meet." She explained. "You know you should be able to hear these things too if you tried to listen to them."
The council seemed like it was kind of a joke these days. The leaders were Damon, Sheriff Forbes and Mayor Lockwood, who didn't really have a huge problem with vampires. The town didn't have a huge problem with vampires since Klaus had left.
At that point, Sheriff Forbes appeared and took Damon away. I assumed that meant the meeting was about to start. I couldn't help but wonder what they were going to talk about.
"So I can't believe that Caroline's father would just torture her like that." I stated.
"Well he does have more restraint than some people." Anna remarked. "In 1864 if you were turned into a vampire, there wouldn't be any correctional therapy. The only remedy that was suggested was to give God a chance to judge them."
"You know I can't believe that they thought to burn the vampires in a church." I admitted. Where were they going to worship after the church was destroyed?
"It was the largest building in town." She told me. I hadn't thought of it like that. When I looked at it that way, it made sense. It still left the question of where they were going to worship though.
"So have you noticed anything strange about Elena recently?" I questioned after finishing my food. I thought she had been acting weird lately.
"What do you mean?" She asked. "I haven't seen her smoking lately."
"Well she just seems kind of out of it at times." I told her. I supposed that could have been from marijuana, but if it was then it didn't have a smell to it. I knew the smell from hanging out with Vicki. "I thought that Bonnie being back would change things, but she still seemed the same."
"It's probably something that she needs to talk to Bonnie about." She suggested. I was her sister, and she could talk to me about it as well "She's probably still spooked about the fact that she died."
"I died too." I pointed out. "I'm not freaking out about it."
"Well, you were able to focus your feelings into your search for Stefan." She reminded me. "Elena's not as good with dealing with her feelings as you."
"We should probably find Ric so we can go." I stated. She probably needed to try to become better at dealing with her feelings. I couldn't help but wonder if there was like a supernatural therapist we could go to.
Pretty much at that exact moment, he came outside.
"There you are." I explained. The main reason I wanted to go was because I was bored. "I think it would be a good time for us to go."
"No, you can't leave yet." Damon replied as he suddenly appeared.
"Where have you been?" I asked. Also why couldn't we leave?
"Managing Bill Forbes." Damon answered. "It turns out that he's impervious to compulsion. He threatened to out me. Don't even get me started on the irony of that."
"Well, what does he want?" I asked. I did have to admit the irony of a gay person threatening to out someone was interesting though.
"He wants to put vervain in the water supply." Damon explained.
"Maybe that's not such a bad idea." Ric opined. I was pretty sure that it was a terrible idea.
"No, I'm with Damon. I want to be able to take a shower without having to go through agonizing pain." Anna stated. Vervain did still affect her even though she was a hybrid, also his daughter was a vampire. "We need to find him and stop him."
"And kill him." Damon added. Why did Damon always have to say the first thought that came to his mind?
"No, we're not going to kill Caroline's dad." I argued.
"And when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than we do." Damon reasoned. Anna still had one parent. We didn't want him around, but he was still alive.
"Damon, cut it out." Ric ordered. He then looked at the ring on Ric's finger and snapped his neck. I could not believe that he did that.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked him before he headed into the house.
I decided to call Caroline to tell her in hopes that she could stop him because she would definitely be angry. Even though I was stronger, I probably wasn't strong enough to stop Damon at the moment.
In the end, Damon went after him, but Caroline managed to stop him. It was all a big headache. Anna and I had to take Ric home and we were currently waiting for him to wake up.
"So, there's something that I need to talk to you about." I replied. "Do you like me?"
"Of course I like you." She stated.
"You know what I mean. So do you still like me?" I repeated.
"Yes…" She answered nervously. "But I know that you don't feel the same and I don't want to ruin our friendship."
"Anna, I think it's too soon. I don't think that we can do right now." I stated. "Did you still like when you were with Tina?"
"As I remember correctly, I made it perfectly clear that I liked you when I kissed you." She argued.
"I didn't know that you still felt that way!" I shouted. I didn't know why I was so angry all of a sudden. Maybe it was a wolf thing.
"I'm sorry for how I feel." She quipped before storming upstairs. That was when Ric awoke.
We didn't talk for the rest of the night. The next day, I was at work with Cassie while Caroline was also there.
"So, I can't believe that Anna has liked me this entire time and not and said anything about." I remarked. "I thought she was the one who wanted to move on."
"Mary, I don't think that you really have room to be mad at her." Caroline suggested. Another thing that I found out was Elena was seeing ghosts. She was seeing Vicki and also, she had seen Luca and also possibly others.
"Yes, I do." I responded.
"Okay, it's been a long week, and I can't take this anymore." Caroline interrupted. "Just admit it already, Mary. You are attracted to Anna."
"I mean I really only met the two of you a few weeks ago and I think it's pretty obvious that you two like each other as more than friends even if you won't act on it." Cassie commented.
"It's because we have acted on it. I kissed her a few times while I was still with Stefan, and we even took a shower together." I told them.
"And she knows that you used to be a guy?" Cassie asked. I had told her that before Caroline came in.
"Wait? What?" Caroline asked in shock. "You were never a guy."
At that point, I didn't feel like anything was stopping me from telling her. Perhaps I was no longer affected by Katherine's compulsion since I had died or something.
"I was. Katherine had a witch turn me into a girl and she changed reality so everyone else and all the computers thought I was always one." I explained. "She also compelled me to not be able to tell anyone that I knew, which did not include Stefan or Anna. But I think that since I died in the sacrifice, that compulsion doesn't affect me anymore."
"You are going to have to explain this compulsion stuff to me too." Cassie told us.
"Okay that is a lot to take in. Have you told Elena about it?" Caroline asked. I shook my head. I probably did need to do that. "Since you're not working tonight, how about you come to the school with us tonight for prank night?"
"That's a senior thing." I pointed out.
"We're not seniors." Cassie added.
"Just come." Caroline instructed. I had a feeling like I wouldn't have a choice. "It'll be fun."
So Mary found out that after dying she's no longer bound by Katherine's compulsion and can tell people about her past life. Also Cassie is going to be at the senior prank night. What's Klaus going to do when he finds out that she's a werewolf? Please don't forget to review.