So, this is my first attempt at fanfiction, and I chose to go with Vampire Diaries, since it has been killing me to see this show go down such a wrong (in my opinion) road.

In order to fix that problem, I went all the way ot the beginning and altered a few things here and there, completely changing the course of how things will go. Also, I'm a huge Stelena fan, so don't expect any Delena things happening here, not even minor ones.

Any characters from the show sadly belong to Julie Plec, though I would gladly take Damon for me if she would let me. My OCs however, have been branded with my copyright, since my weird imagination created them, and are all mine to do what ever I want with.

This story is on M rating mostly because I plan on creating some very naughty scenes whenever Damon is involved, sexual or otherwise, but don't worry, any chapters with such material will have notices at the beginning. Other than that, a few violent scenes and some swearing are the other reasons for the rating.

PS: I have chosen certain actors for my OCs, I will introduce them at the beginning of the chapter they first appear on.

So, no more boring notes, on with the story!

Rayna Silverstone - Lucy Hale

Albert Silverstone - Billy Zane, Titanic style

Olivia Evans, former Silverstone - Diane Kruger

September 4th, 2009

The sun was shining brightly as I drove down the wet road to the small town I was going to call home from now on. It must have been raining yesterday, yet the warm sun now climbing towards the top of the sky was going to dry the road in an hour or so. I passed the sign that welcomed me to the lovely town of Mystic falls, and I felt a little relieved that I had finally arrived at my safe haven. This was the one place I knew nothing bad would ever happen to me, no matter what.

As I hit on the gas of my black and red Ford Mustang GT down the road, images of this past year's events flashed through my mind. It all seemed a blur, yet all had started almost a year ago. My life was running along smoothly, or relatively smoothly I guess. You see my father, Albert Silverstone, comes from one of the founding families of this little town, the Silverstones, who, amongst others, had come down south from Salem almost 300 years ago, during the Salem witch trials. Most of the families simply wanted to get away from the evil influences and the mayhem that occurred up there, while others simply had to get away from the hunters before someone discovered their dark little secret.

Several families had magical people among them, but chose to hide and relocate before things got ugly. My family was among them. My great grandmother, whose name I had inherited, Rayna Silverstone, had quite a few abilities with the magical arts, so she convinced her husband, who had no idea of his wife's abilities, to leave Salem along with a few of their close friends to avoid the evil that apparently had overcome their hometown and start a new in a place untainted by the evil. She passed down the secret to each daughter that was born, with the promise to never reveal it unless it was absolutely needed. I was the fifth of the bloodline to inherit the gift and grandma Felicia had taught me every summer we came for vacation to Mystic Falls about the magical world and the supernatural beings that lurked around, both good and bad, up until she passed away when I was barely 12. Mother had never wanted to come here, she preferred a nice weekend in Miami, but Daddy always insisted. He always loved this town, growing up here before he left for Washington to work for the Washington Post as a journalist, and a really good one at that.

That was when he met his wife and mommy dearest if mine, Olivia Evans. She worked at the legal department of the newspaper. At first, their love was strong, like a bright fire, but somehow, Olivia had grown disinterested in her husband and his ambitions and chose to simply ignore his excitements and get on with her own goals in life. When I came along, their mutual love over their daughter had rekindled their marriage but soon she grew jealous over little old me and my talented spirit. I had inherited my father's adventurous quirks and the natural dark beauty of the Silverstones. Nothing had come down to me from my mother's side, apart from her fiery temper, which I learned to control, most of the time. Mommy Olivia, being a natural blond, hated my long dark brown curls and the way my dark brown eyes seemed to enchant every person that was at the same room with me.

I couldn't understand at that time, thinking that I had done something to disturb her, even going as far as suggesting to dye my hair blond so I'd be more like her, but that had angered her even more. Soon, as we started passing our summers at Mystic falls, Mommy grew bitter, despite the recognition the family had among the community members. She was always the outsider, the one that would never understand the beauty of the abandoned houses that now lay empty around the thick forest and had even received a few glares when she suggested that one of the oldest houses in the area, the Salvatore Boarding House would make a very nice hotel. The Gothic styled mansion was something of a relic for the town and her very thought was considered sacrilege. Even Dad had reprimanded her for that. And the problems didn't stop after that.

While I was in middle school, a new neighbor came to our neighborhood in Washington. That man was bound to be the beginning of the end for my parents' marriage. My mom started seeing the charming Thomas Devon, a manager at a big pharmaceutical company. I never even knew a thing until I came home from school one day, almost one year ago from today and found my parents fighting. Their shouts could be heard all the way from around the corner, and I hid myself under the side window to eavesdrop on their fight.

"How could you do this to me Olivia?" my dad yelled at her, fuming. He was always so quiet, it almost frightened me to hear him shout like that, even if the target was someone I didn't quite like. I had never seen him getting mad at anyone.

"You stopped caring about me a while ago Albert. You really thought I wasn't going to find someone to really care about me?"

"I always cared about you Olivia; you just couldn't get enough attention to yourself. You even grew jealous of our daughter for goodness sake! What kind of a mother are you?"

"Oh shut up with your perfect daughter! She always tried to outshine me ever since I brought her to this world. She is a useless silly thing, always trying to be the center of attention."

"No Olivia, you are the one who always tries to get everyone's attention. You are not the center of the universe you know," my father said in a bitter tone.

It pained me to hear him speaking in that tone, but it pained me even more to hear my mother saying how much she hated me. I had no idea. All these years, I had tried countless times to earn her love, but to no avail, and I always wondered what I was doing wrong, but now everything seemed clear. I took a deep breath and made my way to the front door, opening with my key. They both stopped when the heard me coming in the living room, my father rather frightened and my mom simply casting a disinterested glance at me.

"Rayna, when did you get here?" my dad asked me, a bit uncomfortable with me standing by the door, silent as the grave.

"I've been here long enough to listen to my dear mother and how much she hates me," I commented bitterly. I turned to face her, rather angry now. "All my life, I tried to earn your trust, your love and appreciation, and you hated me because I was born? If I had known sooner, I wouldn't waste so many nights crying because my mother didn't like me. As for what you did to daddy, I won't even comment on that. You are pathetic."

As I finished, I stomped my way to my room and locked the door. I plugged my earphones on and didn't even consider going back out there to see what my parents where doing. When I finally gave in to my stomach's protests and went to the kitchen to get something to eat, there wasn't a living soul in the house. I went to my parents' bedroom and saw my mother's things missing, the closet door open and half the clothes missing. My dad had left a note on the fridge, saying he'd be back tomorrow. I had no idea where he had gone, but I understood he needed time to lick his wounds.

Three months later, the divorce had been finalized and mom had officially moved out. I never saw her again after that, and she didn't even call, not that I would talk to her if she did. She became a taboo subject and I was more than happy to forget about her and the pain she caused to both me and daddy. Soon, our life went back to a normal looking routine and as I was getting ready to start into my final year of high school, my dad told me we were moving to his parents' home so I packed my stuff, loaded them on the trunk of my car and had driven the three-hour ride to our new home. My dad had a few more things to settle and he would join me the next night. At least we had sold our furniture and nothing would remind us of my mom at our new place.

I had two days to clean up our rooms and bring some life into the old place before school started on Monday. I dreaded the moment when I would have to face my old friends, especially Elena Gilbert. She had been the closest one to me, and I hadn't been there when her parents had died in a car crash, not even three months ago. I had called her of course, tried to console both her and her little brother Jeremy, but I should have been here. I just hoped I could help them with their grieving now.

As I reached the old house, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I was so anxious, I felt a knot forming in my stomach. I parked right outside and got out, the rich scent of pines from the trees nearby welcoming me back. I looked around; the place needed some serious TLC. It would take days to get it to its normal glorious state once again. I sighed and made my way to the front door. I unlocked the huge double doors and let myself in. Despite being closed for over seven years, only the lawn outside showed that no one was living in here. Sure, there was dust covering every surface of the hardwood floor and the expensive furniture was covered with large white sheets, but that could easily be dealt with. I went back outside, grabbed my bags and made my way to the second floor, where the bedrooms were. I knew daddy would want his old bedroom, the one he had ever since he was a kid, so I decided to take the master bedroom on the other side of the house. It would be nice to listen to my music as loud as I wanted without bothering him. Not to mention the room was large enough for me to practice my dancing moves. I loved dancing, all forms of it, but ballroom dancing was my favorite. I always required a well-practiced partner though, which was part of the reason why my boyfriends never lasted more than a month. They couldn't keep up with me on the dancefloor and eventually I grew tired of them, among other reasons.

I opened the door and a wave of musty air washed over me. I placed my bags on the bare mattress and went to open the windows. As I unlocked the shutters, the warmness of the sun and the cool breeze made me smile. The view was always magnificent from this room. The misty forest that surrounded the mansion always gave away a sense of grandeur and mystery. I quickly changed to my work clothes and plugged my stereo to the outlet by the bed. At least the electricity and the water were running. Loud pop music filled the room as I went to the private bathroom to fill my bucket with water and start cleaning.

Two hours later, both my bathroom and bedroom were sparkly clean, the mattress was outside on the back porch, waiting for me to give it a good whipping to get all that dust away and my clothes were hanging in the huge pine dresser from the hangers. I looked at the clock that always hung from the wall next to the bed, it read 10.30. I had made great progress in just two hours. I grabbed my cleaning gear and made my way to my dad's room. After an hour, I had cleaned that as well and decided to take a break and eat a little something. I realized that all I had was that sandwich I had bought on the way and made a mental note to go grocery shopping later today. We would need food if we wanted to survive out here.

I ate my lunch and started with the kitchen. By the time the sun started lowering on the sky, I had finished half of the house. After a quick shower to make myself decent again, without any dust bunnies and dirt on me I dressed in a pair of light jeans and a black and red cotton T-shirt, slipped my feet in my black sneakers and grabbed the list of necessities I had made earlier on. I locked the house and got in my car, happy that I had at least managed to make the house look half-decent. The outside of the house was left for tomorrow, and that was if I could manage to get the old lawnmower to work. As I drove across town, I found myself staring at the familiar shops that I had come to know so well all these years. I reached the old grocery store and parked on a spot right next to the entrance. The police cruiser was parked right next to me, and I could see Sheriff Forbes coming from the store, holding two brown paper bags in each hand. Though I liked her, her daughter was not among my favorite people in this town. Caroline Forbes was always trying to outshine everyone around her, pretending she was the live reincarnation of Barbie, perfect in every way. As I locked my car, I almost collided with her, since she wasn't looking in front of her.

"Be careful!" I yelped as I got out of her way just in time. She yelped in surprise and almost dropped one of her bags, but I was quick to catch it before it fell on the road. She steadied herself and then turned to look at me.

"Thank you so much. And to think that as a Sheriff, I'm supposed to be careful."

"It's alright Sheriff Forbes; we all get clumsy at least once in our lives. I know; I have been way too clumsy and I'm only 17." She placed the bags on the back of the cruiser before she turned to look at me as I handed her the bag I had caught.

"Do I know you? You don't look familiar, and yet you know me."

"You do know me, it's just that the last time I was in town, I still wore cut-off jeans and ran around in my grandparents' house causing mayhem," I chuckled. She looked even more confused.

"I'm Rayna Silverstone, the girl your daughter never really liked as she said?" Realization lit her eyes as a smile graced her pink lips.

"Little Rayna Silverstone, running around like a boy, picking roots and playing mud wars with the boys."

"That's me. Though I don't play mud wars anymore, at least not unless I'm provoked."

"Oh yes, I do remember the day Caroline threw that mud pie at you and tried to get away with it. It took me three hours to scrub all that dirt from her." "Like I said, I was provoked."

"I know. What are you doing here in Mystic Falls all by yourself though, where are your parents?" I frowned at the sound of that.

"My parents got divorced three months ago, so Dad and I decided to move back here. I'm already enrolled in high school here. He's coming around tomorrow; he had a few last things to take care."

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry about your parents."

"Don't be Sheriff; my mom brought this to herself. They're better off separated. Maybe now my dad can smile a little without her grudging about it."

"I have to admit your mother never really liked our town."

"Because she couldn't understand the beauty of a small town like Mystic Falls. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to do a little grocery shopping. It's better to get home before nightfall."

"And try not to go into the woods at night, will you? We've had several animal attacks lately, and we still haven't managed to catch that thing."

"I will Sheriff. I hope you catch that animal quickly."

"You and me both," she said as she climbed on the cruiser and backed away from the spot before turning to leave, waving at me. I waved back and turned around to go into the store.

As I was debating which pasta I should make for dinner tonight, another hand reached out to grab the same package as I did. I turned to see who that was and came face to face with a boy that looked a lot like Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's younger brother, though he looked a lot different now. Black nail polish, black clothes, and all the light was lost from his eyes, replaced by a dull grey something that looked sickening. What had happened to the happy boy I remembered?

"Sorry," he muttered as he turned to look at me and his eyes widened. He stared at me for a moment before he spoke again. "Excuse me, but you look a lot familiar. Have I seen you around here?"

"It depends. I just came back to the town today, and you look familiar as well. You wouldn't happen to know a boy named Jeremy Gilbert who used to sneak up on me and his sister as we played by the lake, trying to scare us, but he always ended up in the lake, do you?" I teased him with a smile.

His face changed almost immediately and eyes almost bugged out of their sockets as he looked at me with a slightly agape mouth. "Rayna?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"You know it little Jer," I chuckled, remembering his nickname from our early days. He lunged himself at me, hugging me with surprising force. He had certainly grown up these past few years.

"What on earth are you doing here? Better yet, why didn't you call us to let us know you were coming?"

"Because it was kinda spur of the moment thing. Besides, I've been around only for a few hours, the majority of which I spent in my grandparents' house, trying to get the dust out of the rooms and make it habitable. I would have called you tomorrow." He smiled that brilliant smile I remembered from our childhood and I couldn't help but smile back. Though a bit younger than me, Jeremy was one of my best friends whenever I came here.

"Jeremy, have you found the pasta yet?" a female voice said as a woman with beautiful caramel colored hair and green eyes rounded the corner with a cart and a teenage girl with dark hair and dark eyes beside her. Both of them looked at me and their eyes widened, Elena's more than Jenna's. As they approached us, Jenna smiled a bright smile, Elena was still frozen in a state of utter surprise.

"El, you might wanna close that gaping mouth, flies don't taste that good you know," I chuckled as I got closer to them. That got her out of her trance as she came to hug me tightly. I returned the embrace, so happy that I had found one of my closest friends again.

"Is it really you?" Elena muttered as she took a step back to look at me.

"No, it's my ghost that has decided to come here and say hello. Of course it's me you silly!" I exclaimed happily.

"It's so nice to see you again sweetie," Jenna said as she hugged me as well. It had been years since I last saw her, and despite she was not exactly family to Elena and Jeremy, I always called her aunt. She always said it was a bit weird, since she was not that much older than us, but it had stuck with me.

"What are you doing here all by yourself, where are your dad and that annoying mother of yours?" Jeremy said as he threw an arm around my shoulders.

"Jeremy, manners!" Jenna exclaimed, throwing a glare at him.

"It's alright Jenna, he's absolutely right. In any way, long story short, my parents split up, and dad arrives here tomorrow. At least I got half of the house clean before school starts on Monday." That got Elena to widen her eyes once again.

"Please tell me you are staying here permanently," she said, eyeing me warily.

"You know it. Dad decided that the environment around here is perfect for inspiration on the book he's writing, so we are moving here for good. I finally get to stay here without my mother's constant nagging," I tail-sang. Elena jumped to hug me again, which was not so easy with Jeremy already hugging half of me. We ended up in a weird three-way hug.

"I have an idea. Why don't you come home for dinner tonight, so we can all catch up and you don't have to stay alone in that house, huh?" Jenna offered as we untangled ourselves from the hug. I thought about it for a second and nodded.

"Sure, I have cleaned half of that place anyway. The other half can wait until tomorrow." Elena squealed and hugged me again.

After I was done with my groceries, Elena came with me to my house to help me unload my goods and pack a few things for me to spend the night at her place.

"You know, this place sure is creepy without your parents and your grandparents around."

"It's nighttime El, that's why you think that. Wait until school starts for good, I'm gonna throw a kick-ass party and this house will light up like a Christmas tree." She chuckled at the comment as I locked the door and we made our way to my car.

As I opened the door, I saw a large black crow sitting on top of the tree by the main door. I looked at it for a minute and almost shivered at the sensation it gave me. It felt as if it was not an ordinary crow. I shrugged the feeling off and caught up with Elena, ignoring the black bird that remained perched on the tree. Maybe my sixth sense was on overdrive these days.

The night went by wonderfully, and despite Jeremy's complaints that we were cutting him out of our gang, Elena and I retired to her room to discuss our private girl stuff. We both sat on her bed, clad in our pyjamas, as I waited for her to speak first. She was really silent, and I wasn't sure what I should say to comfort her. Her parents had died only a few months ago. I decided to move on to lighter topics and leave that discussion for later.

"So, how are Bonnie and the crazy girl Caroline these days?" I asked, making her snort. At least I managed to get her to crack a small smile; that was great progress.

"They're both fine. Bonnie is having small problems with her dad, but her grandma is always there to comfort her and Caroline is busy trying to develop the newest routine for the cheerleading practice. By the way, are you going to try out for the cheerleaders this year? I remember you saying that you went to a dancing academy for quite some time."

"Yes I did, but I'm in no mood to start a blood feud with Caroline. Even I have to admit she is good at being the cheerleader captain. Besides, those routines are not really my thing. I do remember though that you are also a part of the team. Are you going to continue this year?" She frowned at that. "I'm not really sure. I'm not exactly all that concerned with the tryouts."

"Well, at least if you are going to join, you can cheer for Matt, your boyfriend." Another frown and an uncomfortable silence.

"What is going on El?"

"Matt and I broke up a while ago, I needed some space for myself," she uttered. Ouch, that must have hurt Matt's feelings. Him and Elena have been together since middle school, the perfect couple as most of the students had dubbed them. I had known Matt since we were practically infants, so I knew that he was a great guy to have as a boyfriend. "Well, it's your decision, and if he respects it, he is really a great guy. How about the rest of the students, any new admissions to the school body?"

"Not that I know of. The same old ones you remember from your summers here. But I think we spoke enough about me. What about you, you haven't told me anything about your life in Washington. Any boyfriends that I should know about?" she winked. I had to give it to her; she was really trying to be in a good mood for me.

"Not anyone of importance, otherwise I wouldn't have moved. I had my fair share of heartbreaks, but nothing too serious. The last one was the worst of them, but he left no scars on me to lick. I was too preoccupied with my stupid mother."

"What about her, you said your parents broke up. Why?"

"My mom started seeing a guy that lived next door. No one knew about it until about a year ago, when my dad somehow found out and I came home one day to find them fighting."

"Wow, I can't imagine your dad yelling, he was always so calm as far as I can remember."

"I was pretty shocked when I heard him from around the corner to our house, so I decided to eavesdrop a little. What I heard was not so good." "What was that?"

"My mom didn't even try to explain her actions, only accused him that he wasn't paying enough attention to her, and the fact that I always had his full attention. She hated me from the day I was born El, I was just a nuisance to her," I finished with tears threatening to spill. I tried my best to calm down. I didn't want to breakdown in front of her; that was the last thing she needed right now. Nevertheless, she came to hug my shoulders and rub my back soothingly.

"I'm so sorry Ray."

"It's okay; I have long since come to terms with it. New page, new life. It gets me sometimes, but I will learn to bury it in the back of my mind. With my dad, Jenna, you, Bonnie, Jer, even Caroline sounds like a good idea for a friend right now. Impossible, right?" I chuckled and so did Elena.

"You never lose your spirit, do you?"

"Only when I'm really bad, which is not so often, thank goodness for that."

We laughed and soon the mood changed to the town's gossip, even to those mysterious animal attacks. No one had been killed so far, but the attacks were quite frightening. We went to bed soon after, both happy that we had found the other.

The next morning, as Elena and I woke up, we decided to go wake up Jeremy in our own special way. We snuck to his room and both jumped on him as he lay asleep, snoring slightly. He all but jumped up, all disheveled, looking around to find out what was going on, causing us to lay down laughing at his expression.

"You two are such babies," he muttered as he dragged the covers over his head again. Jenna came in the room, probably alerted by Jeremy's yells, but she just stood on the doorway smiling when she saw us trying to tickle him, keep him awake. He decided to retaliate and unfortunately, chose me as his target. I had to give it to him, he really knew how to find his targets and my soft spots. At least Jenna took pity on us a few minutes later and yelled at us to come down for breakfast, sparing me of any further torment.

After breakfast, we drove back to my place along with Jenna and a grumpy Jeremy, in order to get everything set up straight. "Come on Jeremy, time to flex those muscles of yours," I joked at him as we got out of the car. He threw me a mild glare and followed me inside, only to stop at the entrance.

"I think I prefer to take on the garden. This task requires some talent with the machines, which none of you have," he scoffed as he changed course and turned to the garden shed. "Whatever floats your boat Jer," I yelled as we got inside and started our work.

After three hours, and with the help of my friends, the house had returned to its former glory. Jeremy had even managed to get the old lawnmower working and had all but cleaned the entire garden. As he was finishing the last of the front lawn, I went to the kitchen to help Jenna with lunch. She had made steaks and potatoes, Jeremy's favorite, a sort of reward for all the hard work he had done. Since Elena was up in my room, choosing through my collection of CDs, I took the chance to talk to Jenna alone.

"How have they been coping Jenna?" I asked her as she peeled the potatoes.

"Not that well. Elena is still on the silent grieving part and Jeremy doesn't even talk to me about anything. I heard that he is involved with some really bad characters, and I have no idea what to do to stop him. But the whole event is fresh, so it's gonna take some time for them to get used to the idea. It's a great thing that you came back here though, it's gonna help them a lot to have another friend around to support them, particularly Elena."

"I'll do my best," I responded as she put the potatoes in the pot to boil. I went back upstairs to check on Elena, and I found her on my bed, still trying to sort through the CDs. Well, I had a vast collection so it's expected to take this long to go through them. "Hey, who is that?" El asked me as she held up a photo of me with my last boyfriend, Chris Timmons.

"That is my ex-boyfriend Chris. We broke up two weeks ago."

"May I ask why, or is it too painful to talk about?" "He wanted me to try and get my parents back together so we can be together, among other things. When I told him that my mother didn't even want to see me, he asked me what I had done to upset her. Noting here that I had told him about everything my mom has done to me since I was born."

"Talk about sensitivity," she chuckled as I took the picture from her and tossed her on the other side of the room. "He's in the past, and shall remain there forever. I just hope there are a few cute guys around here to drag my interest," I winked at her. Elena chuckled at the sound of that as we went down to eat with Jenna and Jer.

That night I slept with ease, smelling the clean air all around the house, but I had that feeling you get when you know that someone was watching you, hidden away somewhere in the dark. I woke up sometime in the night, and the same crow I had seen before was perched at my window frame, staring at me. "Go home sweetheart, I don't have anything to feed you with," I smiled at it. It just kept staring at me, and after a while exhaustion took me over and I fell asleep once again.