Damsel In Distress Diaries
Chapter 1: Quoth the Raven
A/N: So… After much contemplation I came to the realization that, not only was Sidney a semi-Mary Sue, the original version of this story was cliched, dry, and featured quite a few plot holes. So, with that in mind, I edited and revised until I was blue in the face, and came up with this. Please enjoy! And if you'd like some background music to the chapter, I'd recommend listening to You- Ha Ha Ha by Charli XCX.

September 15th, 2012
Dear Diary,
Elena is forcing me to be happy. I swear, sometimes it's like she's the older sister. Which she isn't. I am, I mean. But- as usual- she's forgetting that. Maybe I should just do what Aunt Jenna does, and pretend to be all responsible and mature and stuff.
Anyways. Elena says she's tired of me moping around all the time, and that she wants to see me smile and take pictures again. I mean, I guess I can see her point. She's making an honest effort to move past everything, and here I am, just sitting in my bedroom, staring at the wall for three hours straight. I haven't even touched my camera since the accident happened. Can you believe that?
So, yeah. I'll try. It's the least I can do after everything I put Elena, Jeremy, and Jenna through, after all. I'll try to be happy. For them.
Sincerely,
Sidney

"Sidney, come on. We're gonna be late!" my younger sister's irritated voice called from the hallway, rapping her knuckles against my door.

I felt a streak of annoyance at Elena but brushed it aside, getting to my feet and calling, "I'm coming. I'm coming."

Sometimes Elena forgot that she was my sister (my younger sister, as I constantly felt like reminding her) and not my mother. She may have been just as good at nagging as our mom, but that didn't mean that I had to appreciate it. It was really just plain annoying.

I groaned, cracking my back, and closed my leather journal. One of the thick pages sliced through the pad of my finger with a sting. "Son of a…" I muttered, sticking the finger in my mouth and carelessly tossing the much-abused notebook into my school bag.

"Did something happen?" Elena called.

With a heavy sigh, I jerked the bedroom door open and popped my finger out of my mouth, holding it up for her to see. "Paper cut," I grumbled, and then shrugged. "No big deal."

Elena nodded quickly, eyes falling down to my chest. "Oh, my God," she exclaimed dramatically. "You're wearing it!"

I grinned and rolled my eyes, playfully nudging her as we tramped down the stairs. I knew she was excited to see the camera again; It had been conspicuously absent all summer. Usually, I was taking a million pictures at once, the shutter on my Canon constantly clicking. But after the accident, I'd practically given up taking pictures for months. With the camera back in its rightful place, hanging on a strap around my neck, I finally felt like myself again.

"Someone's awful happy today," I hummed as we strolled into the kitchen.

Elena shrugged and leaned against one of the bar stools. "I'm trying," she said simply.

Jenna pulled her head out of the refrigerator and asked, "You girls hungry? I can make toast."

"Ew, food." My stomach churned unpleasantly and I wrinkled my nose, sticking out my tongue. Ever since the marathon of projectile vomiting after our parents' funeral, my appetite had been pretty much nonexistent.

"I think you might be going anorexic," Elena mumbled. She narrowed her eyes at me before frowning and turning back around, busying herself with pouring a mug of coffee. "It's all about the caffeine, Aunt Jenna. Want some, Sid?"

"Is there coffee?" Jeremy asked, strolling into the kitchen and grabbing an apple out of the basket on the counter. He took a sloppy bite out of it, grinning with a mouthful of fruit at my disgusted expression. I'd stopped asking Jeremy to chew with his mouth closed a long time ago. It was pretty much pointless since he kept doing it anyways.

Jenna lunged for her purse, digging through it for one thing or another. "It's your first day of school, and I'm totally unprepared," she mumbled to herself. Smiling in success, she pulled three bills out of her purple wallet and offered them to us. "Lunch money?"

"I'm good," I said immediately, grabbing my car keys from their hook next to the door. Elena shook her head, focused on adding the right amount of creamer to her coffee, and Jeremy took the liberty of stuffing all three of the five-dollar-bills into his hoodie pocket.

"Anything else?" Jenna asked nervously. "A Number 2.0 pencil? What am I missing…?"

I frowned and bit my lip, glancing at the messy calendar hanging from the side of the fridge. "Didn't you have that big presentation today?"

Jenna blew her reddish bangs out of her face. "I'm meeting with my thesis adviser at…" She checked the plastic watch on her wrist. "Now." She blew out another deep breath and yanked her hair out of its bun. "Crap!"

"Then go," Elena urged, setting down her mug and handing Jenna her purse. "You'll be fine."

With a grateful smile, Jenna grabbed her bag and dashed out the door, calling, "Have a good first day of school!" over her shoulder. I sighed, watching our Aunt go, and released my bottom lip from between my teeth.

I turned to Jeremy. "You okay?" I asked thoughtfully. He didn't look too good this morning. His eyes were blood-shot and ringed with dark circles. He looked pale and slightly green, and a sweet, cloying smell clung to the black hoodie he'd been living in these past few months.

He'd been smoking again.

"Don't start," he sneered at me, following Jenna out of the house.

"Hey, I didn't mean-" I tried to say, but the kitchen door slammed shut and Jeremy was gone. Elena and I heard a car engine rev, and through the living room window, I saw Blake's (one of Jeremy's friends) red pickup truck roll down our street and out of sight.

Elena put a cautioning hand on my shoulder. "Let him go," she said pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

I sighed and nodded in defeat. She was right; first thing in the morning probably wasn't the best time to have the drug-talk. "Yeah," I said. "Okay. Yeah. I can do that." My gaze fell on the camera and I grinned, bringing it up to my eye. "Say cheese."

Elena laughed and ducked her head, trying to shield her face with her hands. "Sid, no!" she giggled.

Sticking my tongue out, I lowered the camera and glanced at the TV over Elena's shoulder. The morning news was playing, and I frowned when I saw the story. "Darren Mallory and Brooke Fenton," I muttered. "Ages twenty-two and twenty-four. Found dead outside of town, bodies drained of blood…"

Elena shrugged and tugged on a lock of my hair. "Let's go," she said. "Bonnie's waiting for us. And remember, no negative thoughts today. Alright?"

I nodded. Elena, not looking very convinced, put her hands on my shoulders. "Alright?"

"Alright," I finally said, rolling my eyes. I pulled away from her and bit my lip, twirling the car keys around my index finger. I hated it when Elena treated me like that- like I was some little kid she had to look after. I was the older sister; not her. My eighteenth birthday was in just a little over a month or so, and Elena still acted like she was centuries older than me. I loved her, but the girl seriously got on my nerves sometimes.

We made our way out of the house, Elena securely locking the front door behind us, and buckled ourselves into my beat-up Toyota. I pulled out of the driveway and cranked up the radio, going on autopilot as the car wheels tread the familiar path to Bonnie's mom's house.

Bonnie Bennett was not my best friend. She was Elena's. But at the same time we were close, even if it was kind of weird considering I was a year older than her. Bonnie and I understood each other in a weird way. I thought maybe it was because of how similar we were personality wise.

"Happy school year, chicas," she said happily, sliding into the backseat. "Ready to kick ass and take names?"

"Someone's been watching Charlie's Angels again," Elena sing-songed, staring out the window as Bonnie's street blurred by us.

"Hey Bonnie," I said with a grin, glancing at her briefly through the rear view mirror to make sure she buckled her seat belt. After what had happened last spring, road-safety had become something of an obsession of mine.

Bonnie grinned back at me. "So, Grams is telling me I'm psychic," she told us, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "Our ancestors were from Salem. Witches and all that. I know. Crazy! But she's going on and on about it, and I'm just like 'put this woman in a home already'!"

I knew Bonnie didn't actually mean that. Her dad didn't like her visiting her Grams very much, but Bonnie loved it. She loved hearing about her ancestors and sorcery and all of her Grams' wild teenage years. The one time I'd visited Grammy Bennett with Bonnie and Elena had been a fun time. The old lady let us stay up all night, sipping on the peach schnapps she saved for special occasions while she told us stories about the ancient druids of the highlands.

"But then," Bonnie continued, "I started thinking. I mean, I predicted Obama."

"And you predicted The Hunger Games," I added, making eye-contact with Bonnie in the rear view mirror.

"Thank you, Sid. And I still think Kim Kardashian is going to break the internet someday," Bonnie said with an affirming head nod.

We laughed as the car stopped at the perpetual red light on the turn-off to Main Street. I sighed under my breath and tapped my fingers against the steering wheel, glancing over at a jet-black bird perched on top of the street sign. Crows weren't an odd sight in Mystic Falls. They were our version of the pigeons in Atlanta and the seagulls in Florida. But something about this particular bird just set me on edge, and I didn't really know why.

"'Quoth the raven, nevermore'," I mumbled, recalling lines from the short story we'd read in Honors Language Arts the year before.

A car horn honked, snapping me out of my reverie, and I sheepishly drove the car past the now-green light. If I had looked out the window again, I would have seen the crow staring after my Toyota before taking off and following after it with a piercing caw.

"Elena!" Bonnie snapped, leaning through the crack between the two front seats. I glanced over and saw that my younger sister was anywhere but in the car, staring at the old cemetery with a frown. I sighed. She was channeling her inner Bella Swan again.

"Back in the car, please?" Bonnie pleaded.

Elena turned back to us and blinked. Then she reddened and ducked her chin sheepishly. "I did it again, didn't I?"

I shrugged, easing the car onto Main Street. "Yep," I said, popping my p.

Elena groaned and knocked the back of her head against her seat. "I'm sorry, Bonnie," she apologized. "You were telling me that…?"

"That I'm psychic now," Bonnie said with a cocky grin.

"Right." Elena shot her a dubious look. "Then predict something about me."

I watched with a wide grin as Bonnie screwed her eyes tightly shut and smiled, saying loudly, "I see-"

There was a thump and I whipped my head back around in time to see something big and black smash against the windshield. The wheels skidded across the road. I shrieked, brakes squealing along with me, and jerked the steering wheel hard left as we skidded dangerously close to the large tree in the center of the square. My arm whipped out, stopping Elena from crashing into the glove compartment, as the car tail spun to the side of the road and finally came to a stop.

There was stunned silence for a few minutes while the three of us caught our breaths again. Blood was pounding in my ears. My chest heaved up and down. I could still feel the ice-cold adrenaline racing through my veins, and I cursed myself for being so careless. Hadn't I learned anything from my parents? How could I be so careless with my little sister and my close friend's lives?

I gulped down a few breaths and turned to look at Bonnie and Elena. They seemed shaken, but okay. "Is everyone alright?" I asked, just to make sure.

Bonnie nodded and released the white-knuckled grip she'd had on her seat belt. "We're fine," she assured me, and glanced out the window. "What was that?"

"I don't know," I whispered.

Elena looked like she was about to have a panic attack again. I immediately felt guilty and wondered if I needed to call Aunt Jenna and tell her to pick up Elena's prescription again. My younger sister had been suffering from anxiety ever since the accident, and had only recently been able to stop taking her medication. I worried this might have brought on another bout of anxiety attacks.

"Elena," I called. She didn't seem to realize I was there. "Elena!"

She sucked in a deep breath and then just sort of deflated in on herself like a popped bouncy house. I watched in concern as she wrapped her arms around her chest, like she could hold herself together from the outside, panting shakily. "It's okay," she told me. "I'm fine."

I didn't believe that for a second, but I knew Elena, and I knew she wasn't about to admit that she was hurting. "Are you sure?" I asked. "I can take you home-"

"I'm fine, Sidney!" she snapped at me, keeping her eyes tightly shut. "Just let me catch my breath. I'm fine, I promise."

"If you say so," I muttered, and then started the car again. Thankfully, it didn't seem like anything had been broken when I lost control, but I would still ask Matt Donavon to take a look under the hood the next time I got the chance.

There were a few minutes of tense silence, and then Bonnie, probably trying to relieve some of the awkward, said loudly, "I predict that this year is going to be kick-ass. And I predict that all the sad and dark times are going to be over and done with. And that you two are going to be beyond happy."

Elena grinned and chuckled under her breath. "Thanks, Bonnie," she said. "I'll keep that in mind."

Bonnie smiled cheekily, surveying the front lawn of the school through the windows as we passed it. "Major lack of male real estate," she commented with a pout.

I rolled my eyes, pulling into the spot that I had paid for in the crowded senior lot. "Come on," I said, cutting the engine and grabbing my bag. "Let's head in. Can't be late for the first day."

Elena nodded in agreement and hopped out of the car. We ambled across the cross-walk and onto the school's front lawn, dodging a pack of stick-wielding lacrosse players and entering the building with ease.

Bonnie grabbed my arm and jerked me down to her height. "Did you see the shower curtain on Kelly Leach?" she whispered in my ear. "She looks like a hot, tranny mess."

I bit my lip and stared at the floral-print dress Bonnie was talking about. Now that I thought about it, didn't I own one that looked a lot like that? "I have a dress like that!" I said defensively, biting my lip again.

Bonnie stared at me for a second and then shrugged, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Then throw it away. It does absolutely nothing for your figure. My God, the thing is absolutely shapeless."

Elena rolled her eyes at the two of us and stopped at locker 422. She pulled a folded piece of paper from her back pocket, stared at it for a second, and then spun the dial on her lock. The door swung open and she stuffed her packed school bag in, shutting the locker again with a metallic clang. "Thank God." She sighed in relief, cracking her back. "That thing must've weighed one-hundred pounds."

"You two do know you're in for it, right?" I asked with eyebrows raised. "Junior year is the hardest one. And Mr. Tanner definitely packs a punch on you guys."

Bonnie groaned dramatically and leaned against the wall. "We know, Sidney!" she said. Her eyes focused on something across the hall from us and she nodded, a sly grin on her face. "It's a busy year."

I looked in the direction of her stare and smiled. Matt Donovan was standing there, ear buds in, staring right at us. And then I noticed that, more specifically, he was staring at Elena. Not Bonnie or me.

Elena smiled kindly at him and he just stared at her for a minute with deep, blue eyes, before giving her a short nod and turning back around. She sighed. "He hates me."

"Not hate," I tried to say. "He doesn't hate you! He, um… He just needs time. That's all."

Elena shrugged and I bit my lip, knowing I hadn't convinced her in the slightest. "Sure," she said with another sigh. "Whatever."

"Elena! Sid! Oh, my God."

A blonde blur rushed up to us and squeezed me around the stomach, pointy nails digging into my back through my green shirt. Elena wheezed for breath beside me and patted Caroline Forbes on the back awkwardly. "Hey Caroline."

Caroline pulled back and grinned, surveying us with concerned blue eyes. "How are you?" She turned to Bonnie when we waited too long to answer. "How are they? Are they good?"

Elena raised an eyebrow. "Caroline, we're right here. And we're fine." She stomped down hard on my foot, and I yelped in pain. Those sneakers could really hurt when Elena tried hard enough.

"What?" I demanded. Elena shot me a pointed look and I turned to Caroline with a sigh. "We're cool," I promised. "Really, you don't have to worry."

Caroline pouted at me and pulled me into another hug. "You poor thing."

"Mm hm," I hummed, glaring at Bonnie, who was chuckling, over Caroline's shoulder.

I loved Caroline, I really did. But there were times when she was just… too much for me to handle. Maybe it was just the cynical senior in me, but I'd been noticing how immature she was lately a lot more than I had in the past. Caroline was sweet, and I knew that- deep down- she wasn't as insensitive and vapid as she tried to appear. That was an easy thing to forget though, most of the time.

She finally pulled away and gave the three of us a genuine, hopeful smile, hitching the strap of her bag higher up on her shoulder. "See you guys later?"

Elena smiled her signature, closed-mouth smile. "See you later."

"We could meet up at the Grille for dinner," I suggested. "Fries, chicken salad, iced tea, the usual?"

"Sounds good," Caroline said. She waved and rushed off, and I turned to Bonnie and my younger sister with a rueful grin.

"It's good to see Caroline again," I hedged. They didn't comment, which I was grateful for, and I pulled my crumpled-up schedule out of my back pocket. "Photography with Mr. West first," I said. "I'll see you guys for lunch?"

Bonnie nodded and then frowned, reaching up and patting down some frizzies that stuck up stubbornly from my fluffy brown waves. "I'll text you," she said. "Let you know if anyone magically became datable over the summer."

I had to laugh at that. "Doubt-able, but the consideration is appreciated."

Elena was staring at the wrinkled piece of paper that was my schedule in distaste. "I can't believe you can stand treating your things like that," she complained. "You're so messy."

I shrugged. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I've gotta go. 'Stasia is in that class with me, and you know how she gets around people she isn't friends with."

"Good luck," Elena called after me as I strode down the main corridor and into the tech-hall.

I had to admit, being a senior was pretty awesome. Freshmen and sophomores parted before me like the Red Sea, and I reveled in the high that was my very last first-day-of-school. This time next year, I'd be far, far away in that magical institution called Wake Forest College. Or at least I hoped so. I still had to get through college applications, which I knew was going to be a nasty, stressful process.

Mr. West's classroom was a familiar one to me. It was a bit like my sanctuary at school. I had been in the Photography class since freshman year, and Mr. West had been my mentor and favorite teacher the entire time. He was the teacher in charge of the yearbook committee, which Anastasia and I were both a part of, and had had his photos featured in The Mystic Times, National Geographic, and Time Magazine. I appreciated his opinionated nature and taste for different cultures. He was a very worldly man, and had been to pretty much every country you could ever think of wanting to go to.

I grinned at him as I walked into the room and he waved at me, dressed in a knit poncho, his skin a lot tanner than it had been the last time I had seen him. "Hola, senorita Gilbert," he said. "Greetings from Machu Picchu."

"Hi, Mr. West. How was your summer?" I asked.

He shrugged and waved his hand in the air. "So, so. Not as good as Budapest was, but hey." He shrugged again. "What can you do?"

"Well, good morning then, I guess," I said, taking the open seat next to my best friend, Anastasia Graham.

She turned to me and smiled softly, giving me a quick hug. "Sid! Hi," she said. "I missed you!"

I smiled ruefully and pulled away. "I'm sorry," I apologized. I had sort of disappeared off the face of the planet over the summer. Anastasia had respected my need for privacy and kept her distance, which I loved her all the more for- especially because I knew that it probably hadn't been the easiest thing for her to do. "But I'm here now, and I'm making it up to you tonight. We're all meeting up at the Grille for dinner. Wanna come? I can give rides."

Anastasia chuckled and rolled her blue eyes. "And by all, you mean…?"

"Me, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and you. If you're coming," I rattled off quickly.

"Then, I'm in," Anastasia said with a nod. "Pick me up at seven?"

"I'll be there," I told her.

Just as the bell rang, my phone buzzed with a text. Mr. West got to his feet and welcomed us to his class, and I discreetly pulled my phone out of my bag and checked it. One new text from Bonnie: Hottie alert. And he's got his eyes on Elena.

As they tended to be on the first day of school, our classes were pretty much the same thing over and over again: "Hi, welcome to boring, pointless class. My name is generic teacher name that you'll never be able to pronounce or spell. This class will be absolutely useless in your future, but you have to make an A in it or you'll never get into college, and I'm going to make it as hard for you as I possibly can. You'll probably have fifteen mental breakdowns before Thanksgiving break. Ninety-five-percent of modern highschoolers are under more stress than mental hospital patients in the 1950's. But hey, what do I care? I'm the teacher after all, so I automatically know everything!"

Luckily for me, it was my senior year, which meant I'd never have to hear any of this ever again. Except, perhaps, in college. But that was going to be stupendously different from high school, right?

Another thing that helped pass the time were Bonnie's constant updates on Elena and the new boy: some kid named Stefan Salvatore. Apparently, they had been making eyes at each other all morning, and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that. I knew Elena was moving on from our parents' deaths (or at least, that's what she wanted me to think), but I also wasn't sure if she was ready for a relationship again after her messy break-up with Matt. For that matter, I didn't think Matt was ready for Elena to get a new boyfriend, either. But in the end, it was Elena's decision and I knew that I was going to support her no matter what. At the same time, I needed to find out more about this Stefan guy. Whoever he was.

"Tell me everything!" I demanded the second I sat down at the picnic table Bonnie and Elena had claimed for lunch. Anastasia tended to eat in the Orchestra classroom, my teammates crowded around the boys' soccer team, and Caroline usually went with a group of her other friends off campus, so it was just me, Elena and Bonnie most of the time.

Bonnie nodded eagerly and leaned forward, ignoring Elena's groan of exasperation. "Bonnie!" Elena exclaimed. "You told her?"

"What? It's not like she wasn't going to find out eventually," Bonnie scoffed.

Elena reddened and stared down at her hands, rubbing them together methodically. "Yeah, I know. But you probably made it out like Stefan and I proclaimed our undying devotion to each other, or something."

"You didn't?" I teased, raising my camera to my eye and taking a quick shot of the bustling parking lot. I glanced down at the screen and frowned. The picture was all blurry. Shaking my head, I set the camera aside and said, "Well? Spill, Bonnie!"

She nodded and glanced around furtively before saying, "His name is Stefan Salvatore. Just moved here from Seattle."

"You don't know that," Elena insisted sourly.

Bonnie shot her a glance. "Shut up, sweetie. We both know I'm right. I'm psychic, after all."

"Whatever you say, Bonnie," Elena mumbled. She bit down on a carrot stick and chewed with a grouchy frown wrinkling her blemish-free brow. Bonnie smiled triumphantly when Elena didn't say anything else, and turned back to me.

"Like I was saying," she continued. "He's gorgeous. And I mean gorgeous, Sid! Like, better than Ansel Elgort and Chris Pine."

"Get out," I gasped.

Bonnie nodded eagerly. "It's true," she insisted. "I could drown in those eyes. And that voice?" She sighed dramatically. "Like dark chocolate!"

I raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Dark chocolate?" I repeated. "Bonnie, are you sure you're feeling all right?"

She shot me a scathing look. "Oh hush, Sidney," she chided. "Anyways, this guy is watching Lena all day- and I mean all day. And there's a ton of sexual tension, and I'm just like, 'just screw each other already'!"

Elena gasped so hard she inhaled a carrot stick and started choking. Bonnie lunged over and smacked her back, hard, and the carrot popped out and rolled across the pavement of the courtyard. Elena wheezed and gulped down some water from her bottle. "Bonnie!" she screeched, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Bonnie shrugged. "What? It's true. I haven't seen that much love in a room since Tyler got that hand-mirror from Caroline's purse."

I snorted under my breath and unscrewed the cap of my Lipton iced tea, taking a long sip of it before looking at my younger sister imploringly. "Well?" I asked. "What do you think about all of this, Miss Elena?"

She opened her mouth to say something and then faltered, just staring at me for a minute before shaking her head and then glancing back down at her half-eaten lunch. "I don't know," she admitted. "I mean, he's hot and all, but I've barely talked to the guy. And his first impression of me probably wasn't the best."

"What's she talking about?" I whispered to Bonnie.

"He was walking into the boys' bathroom as she was walking out."

"Wait. What?" I said, glancing at Elena. "When and why were you in a boys' bathroom?"

Elena groaned again and shot a glare at Bonnie. "Why did you tell her that?" she demanded through gritted teeth, turning back to me with a sigh. "Look, it's… It's a long story. Just- just drop it, okay?"

I shrugged and took another sip of iced tea. "Fine," I said. "Is Mr. Tanner still PMSing like crazy?"

I let it drop for the moment. But, back then, if I had known what Stefan was bringing with him, I would have grabbed Elena and run screaming.

The second half of the day passed along the same tangent as the first, and before I knew it, the last bell was ringing and I was rushing out of my Honors European Literature class to meet up with Bonnie and Elena so I could take them home. The plan was for us to chill at our respective houses for a few hours before regrouping with Caroline and Anastasia for dinner at the Grille at seven. I was excited for some social interaction after spending practically the entire summer in isolation, and I knew Elena was too.

"Hey!" I called, spying Bonnie standing at the juncture between the Language Arts and Math hallways.

She turned and grinned when she spotted me, brushing an errant, shiny black curl behind her ear. "Sidney, hi," she said.

I smiled at her and then glanced around for my younger sister. "Where's Elena?" I asked when I couldn't spot her. "Didn't you say that you had Algebra 2 together?"

"About that…" Bonnie trailed off, raising her eyebrows at me sheepishly.

I sighed and started walking for my locker, Bonnie following along behind me. "She's visiting Mom and Dad again," I said, "isn't she?"

"Yeah," Bonnie said with a nod, watching as I grabbed the dial on my locker and yanked out the paper with the combination on it. "She told me to let you know. I was gonna walk home anyways, so you can go pick her up if you want. She said she'll wait until four if you need her to."

"No, no. It's fine." I frowned at my locker and tugged down on the latch, trying to open it. It didn't budge. "I just worry about her sometimes, ya' know?"

"I know." Bonnie nodded knowingly. "She spends a lot of time in the cemetery, but you just have to give her some space, Sid."

"Yeah, I guess. I just…" I sighed and slumped against my locker when it once again refused to open and reveal its secrets. "She's been so… so morbid lately, Bonnie. You know? It's like all she can think about is death and sadness, and I hate seeing her like that! She was so carefree and innocent before this all happened, and… and I…" I faltered.

What did I want for Elena? For all of this to never have happened? For her to go back to the vapid, naive, self-serving air-head she had been before this past spring? The truth was, I liked this side of Elena a lot more: The side that loved Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway, and rushed into my room every now and then to read me some of a poem that she had just written. I liked this more mature side of her; I just wished she could learn to be happy while being responsible at the same time.

"I just want her to be happy again," I decided, reaching up to try and open my locker again.

Bonnie watched with an amused smile as I spun the dial again and tugged on the latch, only for it to refuse to swing open with an angry whine of metal. The tumblers on the dial clicked again, refusing to line up, and I groaned in exasperation, kicking the door with the toe of my boot. "This. Dang. Thing. Won't. Open!"

"Maybe I can help," a deep voice suggested.

I glanced up, cheeks burning, to see a guy I didn't recognize staring down at me with his thick eyebrows raised, hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket. His caramel-colored hair was tousled deliciously, and his brown eyes stared down at me in concern. I didn't know him. But whoever he was, he was hot.

"U- Um," I stuttered. "Sure." I stepped aside and the guy took the combination from me, reading it with a frown. "Be my guest."

Bonnie and I watched in impressed silence as the guy spun the dial a few times, somehow getting the numbers to line up with the gears of the lock, and pulled the latch. My locker whined again and whoever-he-was forced it open, smoothing out the hinges of the rusted door again. He grinned at us sheepishly and ran a hand through his already-messy hair. "There you go," he said.

I closed my mouth with a snap and glanced at him for a minute, seriously impressed. "Thanks," I said. I opened up my bag and stuffed my Literature book and Oceanography binder in the locker, taking out my Trig notebook instead.

"It's no problem," the guy said, sticking out a hand for me to shake. "I'm Stefan. Stefan Salvatore. I just moved here."

I blinked at him a few times, and then it hit me.

Mysterious new boy? Check. Extremely attractive? Check. Chivalry? Check. Magical voice that made every girl in a ten-mile radius swoon? Check.

This was the boy who had been staring at my younger sister all day.

I bit my lip and took Stefan's hand, making sure to grip it firmly. "I'm Sidney Gilbert," I said carefully, narrowing my eyes up at him. "Elena's older sister. Maybe you've met her. She's in your grade."

I hadn't meant for that to sound friendly. I had wanted to intimidate Stefan because I really didn't think Elena could handle any boy drama at the moment. But Stefan just chuckled and let go of my hand, saying, "It's nice to meet you, Sidney. And may I just say that your sister is very beautiful."

I shot Bonnie an incredulous glance over Stefan's leather-clad shoulder, but she just shrugged at me and mouthed, Told you so. She had been right. This Stefan guy really was something else. I hadn't thought there were still boys like him out there.

"Well, thanks for your help, Stefan," I said, closing my locker again and biting my lip. "But Elena's waiting for me. I should probably go."

Stefan nodded and took a step back, opening up a path for me to the front doors of the school. "Of course," he said. "Goodbye, Sidney. It was nice to meet you."

"Likewise, I'm sure," I mumbled awkwardly. Was this guy for real? "Bye, Bonnie," I called, walking down the hall and out the door.

"Later, Sid!" I heard her yell.

I waved a hand over my head and then burst through the doors and into the sunshine, unable to stop myself from taking deep breaths of the fresh air and smiling up at the clear, blue sky. The weather channel that morning had predicted for rain, but I knew from experience that our meteorologists weren't to be trusted. I could still remember crying in disappointment at six years old when the white Christmas they had promised had turned out to be a fluke.

I made my way down the sidewalk until I was off-campus, dodging cars and bicycles as I turned the corner off of Main Street. I only slowed when the tall, black spires of the cemetery gate came into view. It had been four months, and I still hated being near this place. It just brought back too many bad memories. Besides, graveyards always had been creepy and always would be. It was just the way the world worked.

"Elena?" I called, reaching for the gate and pushing it. It swung open with a loud screech, and I saw a few of the crows that always crowded the cemetery take off with squawks of surprise.

My feet automatically found the familiar path to my parents' grave-site. It looked like the only one to be used for quite some time: The old cemetery was reserved for when members of the Founding Families died. It was a stupid tradition, but Gilbert graves as old as 1792 could be found here, and when my parents had passed that past Spring, this was where they had been buried.

Like I said, I hated going anywhere near the old graveyard. It was just plain creepy- especially in the more historic section, where the original Founders were buried, which was back near Fell's Church. This time though, the cemetery seemed a lot more foreboding than usual. It felt like the closer I got to the grave-site, the thicker the white fog became until it got to the point where I could barely see a foot in front of my face. I was seriously starting to get freaked out by this point.

"Elena!" I called again, a little bit louder this time. My voice sounded shaky. "Seriously, Lena. Where are you?"

I listened, but she didn't answer.

With a sigh, I let my bag slide off my shoulder and drop to the damp moss surrounding my parents' grave-site. I tried not to let my eyes flicker over to the names marking the headstone, but they did anyways.

Here lies Jason and Miranda (Sommers ne) Gilbert. Loving parents and friends. 1962 (63)- 2011. Rest In Peace.

There was this thick lump in the back of my throat and I forced myself to turn away. I didn't understand how Elena could put herself through this practically every day. Didn't it hurt her to see their names carved into a cold rock like that? Didn't it hurt her to see their long, full lives condensed into four, meaningless sentences? It definitely hurt me.

I bent down to pick up my bag and then turned, tears stinging at my eyes. Perched on the row of headstones directly in front of me was something black and feathery. It gave a loud cry, shocking me, and then took off into the mist. I screamed shrilly, stumbled a few steps back, and then succeeded in tripping over a stray stone and ended up sprawled out across the ground.

"You alright?" an amused voice asked me.

I glanced up and then flushed bright red. Standing over me was a lean, tall man with a mop of black hair. His jacket clung to his broad, sculpted shoulders like a cape of awesome, and dark jeans hugged his calves. I thought he might have been somewhere in his early twenties. Whoever he was, though, I hadn't seen him before. And in Mystic Falls, strangers were practically unheard of. Not to mention that I hadn't even heard him come up behind me, even if I had been distracted by that demon-crow.

"I'm fine," I said shortly, hopping to my feet, brushing moss and mud off the seat of my jeans. "I'm cool, I'm great, I'm… Who are you, again?"

The man grinned, a (what I thought was) calculating look in his eyes that I didn't think I liked all that much. "I'm Damon," he said simply. "You sure you're okay? It looked to me like you took a nasty fall a few seconds ago."

"I'm fine," I insisted. "Thank you."

Damon shrugged. "If you say so." He stared at me for a few seconds with that calculating look, and I couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious in my too-small, green shirt and now-mud-covered jeans. I knew my hair was probably a fluffy mess, too. "What's your name?" he asked.

I bit my lip hesitantly and then said, "It's Sidney. I mean- I'm Sidney… Why are you here?"

"Can't a guy just walk around a historic graveyard if he wants to? Do I really have to have a reason?" Damon asked innocently.

"Yes, you do."

"And why, may I ask, is that?"

"Because if you don't that means you're suspicious, creepy, and probably some kind of criminal."

I was expecting for Damon to be offended, but instead, he tilted his head back and laughed for a few seconds. He looked at me again and grinned. "You're right," he said.

"About which part?" I asked uncertainly, thinking that maybe I was about to be murdered by a serial killer.

"This probably looks pretty suspicious to someone who doesn't know what's going on." Damon turned and started walking up the path again. "I'll see you around, Sidney. Try not to trip over the side of a bridge, or something."

I stared after him for a full minute, mouth agape, until the mist swallowed him up whole and I couldn't see him anymore. I wasn't quite sure what to think. This entire trip to the graveyard had been weird, freaky, and felt like something out of a bad, young-adult, paranormal-romance novel. I was suddenly reminded of why I hated coming to the cemetery in the first place.

"Sidney?" my younger sister's voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Elena limping up a ridge, the hem of her pants stained with mud and one leg rolled up so I could see the skinned knee she was sporting. She grimaced at me, and I gasped and rushed over to her.

"Elena, what happened?" I demanded with a concerned frown. I grabbed her hand and pulled her down to sit on a fallen log, examining her knee anxiously.

"It's nothing, Sid," Elena said. She got to her feet again, waving off my administrations, and let the leg of her jeans drop back around her ankle. "I'll just put some Peroxide on it when we get home. It's fine. I just thought I saw something by Fell's Church so I went down to check it out. I tripped and fell. That's all."

I was still suspicious, but I knew better than to probe Elena when she was in one of her moods. "If you say so," I muttered, casting one last look around the graveyard. "Come on," I finally said. "Let's get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."

Elena nodded and got to her feet. "I couldn't agree more."

And together, we got the heck out of that place as fast as we could.