Hey there! Quick author's note, I have no idea what I'm doing with this website aka wattpad was my method of writing up until now where I have decided to upgrade, and I am also doing this spur of the moment kind of thing. As in...planning? Who is she? I haven't really seen the actual vampire diaries show in a hot minute but hey, with all the fanfiction I've read about it how hard can it be to remember the plot? Also, I'm from the UK so if I mess up on any American lingo then lmao I'm sorry.

Feel free to tell me how much of a mess this is or eventually will be, I highly appreciate it ^.^ Also, I'm trying a new style of writing? Let me know if it's enjoyable or shit? Listen, this is permission to just go off in the reviews #plsroastme x

In any case, I hope you enjoy!

8:00 am

Whoever decided that school should start this early really didn't take into consideration that I and the majority of the youth in this nation are not about this life. Did not miss getting up at 6 am at all...

It is during my walk to my locker that, mid-yawn, I feel my ponytail being pulled and ultimately yanking me backwards.

"Oi!"

"Morning, sleepyhead." says the one and only Tyler Lockwood, grinning down at me. Ah, this boy, what can I say about him? Well, ever since we got paired up to dance together for one of Mystic Falls' many, many formal dances as mere pre-teens, dancing our way to the hearts of our adoring fans, we became inseparable. It's good for the image our mother's want us to portray in this town, so we ended up spending a lot of time together over many summers.

"It's too early for this, my dude," I say, yawning again for emphasis.

"Aw, come on." he says, "Aren't you excited for the first day back at school? And what about your favourite class, what was it you called it last time? Tanner Time!"

Groaning, I smacked my head against my locker as we reached it. "God, I hope he doesn't remember that. I got dragged sooo hard for that last year. I'm pretty sure the reason I almost failed that class is because of that comment!"

Yeaah, Tanner and I left things on not the best of terms last semester. You know, you ask for a little consideration, a little bit of a hand with the work because you don't understand something fully, and then get completely eradicated in front of everyone. I normally don't feel embarrassed, but that day I had never gone so red. So yeah, coining the term "Tannered" and "Tanner Time" got around the school real quick, and of course he wasn't happy when he heard and well...I'm sure you can imagine how my marks were treated (hint: poorly).

My locker was as messy as it was when I left it last year, I don't know why I thought it would miraculously be neat and clean after months away but here we are, still disappointed. Tyler was struggling to open up his locker once more, it always was a bit jammed, and ends up hitting it hard enough for it to fall open.

Looking around the halls for a tall, blonde boy, I come up empty. "Have you seen Matt yet?" I asked.

"Not yet, why?" Tyler said.

"Well, first day back at school since him and Elena...you know," I said, beating round the bush. Not something I usually do, but it's still a sensitive subject for the student population.

You could practically see the wheels working in his head as the realisation slowly hit. "Oh yeah...man, this is gonna be a rough day, huh?"

"Yeah, for both of them."

A quick recap is in order I think. So, over the summer our good friends Matt and Elena who had been dating since what felt like forever broke up. It was a shock to everyone really, Matt especially. But that couldn't prepare anyone for came after...

I take a deep breath and take out a half-empty energy drink from my locker, and finish it off. Hopefully, despite it being flat, it will keep me awake for the rest of the day. "Okay," I say, slamming my locker shut, "You go check on Matt, I'll go check on Elena, and we can hopefully make sure our friends are as good as they can be."

"Sounds good." Tyler agrees, checking his phone, "I'll see you later."

"Catch you later!"

And then we walked in the same direction.

"Later has gotten a lot shorter since I last checked."

"Oh, shut up." I laughed.

We did end up parting ways, but, unfortunately, it seemed like we were too late. Matt was looking dejected by his locker and I could see one Caroline Forbes going past us at a rapid speed, incoming towards Elena and Bonnie. Probably not the best first thing on this stressful morning for one Elena Gilbert. I promptly decided to leave Tyler to go comfort our boy Matt and join the girls. I can check in with Matt in class later.

"Hey, guys!" I greeted, interrupting the very caring but very coddling Caroline.

"Skye!" Caroline greets, throwing her arms around me. I can't help but laugh when she flings herself at me. This is the kind of reaction I loved and missed from her. "It's been so long! You missed so much, how was Canada?"

"It was great, loved seeing my family, all that jazz," I said, unable to stop smiling at her. "We only got back a couple of days ago, so I'm sorry for my absence but no fear! I have returned!"

"Hooray, what would we do without you," Bonnie says, bringing herself into a hug with a smile.

"You'd be too bored, Bon. And you know it." I say, pulling away to face the last of the group.

Elena smiles sheepishly. "Hey, Skye."

I shake my head and say "None of this now, come on bring it in." I wrap my arms around the girl quite easily considering she is a twig. I wonder if she's been eating properly. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you over the summer, if you need anything now though, I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Skye."

"Aw, group hug!"

"Caroline!"

And it's days like these which I look back upon, wondering when things got so complicated. And then I remember, it all started with the back.

"I'm sorry, you're a what now?"

"A witch, or so my grams says," Bonnie replies, promptly stopping us in front of the office before she can properly explain what she means by a witch. "Hold on, who's this?"

Elena and I look in and there stands a guy with his back facing us. Leather jacket, some jeans, fresh haircut and is that sunglasses? Indoors? Oh hell no.

"All I see is back." Elena shrugs.

"That's a hot back." Bonnie insists.

"The guy's wearing shades indoors, not so hot," I say, shaking my head, arms crossed over my chest.

"Oh come on," Bonnie says rolling her eyes, "It's a sunny day."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "Yeah, outdoors. Anyone who wears sunglasses indoors is either blind or a creep, and only one of those things is okay."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the pair share a glance. "I'm sensing Seattle," Bonnie says confidently, staring this poor guy down. "And he plays the guitar."

Elena laughs, "You're really gonna run this whole psychic thing into the ground, huh?"

"Pretty much."

And then Elena's smile drops. I glance behind me, as I'm not completely absorbed in this guy's back, and see Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's little brother, making his way to the bathroom in a pretty shady fashion. Oh boy. "I'll be right back," she says, taking off without second thought. I watch as she then goes into the boy's bathroom! Okay, even I haven't had the balls to try that, mainly because I have no interest seeing anybody else's junk.

Bonnie, meanwhile, is pretty much hypnotised by this dude's back. "Come on," she says, almost pleading, "Please be hot."

"Five dollars says he's a creep." I nudge her teasingly, making her nudge me back in the same manner.

And then he turns around.

And it was at that moment...

...I lost five bucks.

"Well," I say as he walks by us and down the hall, "shit."

Bonnie spins on me so fast, a grin spreading on her face. "Pay up! Oh my god, did you see him? And you said he was going to be a creep!"

"Hey, hey, hey, he still could be," I say, grabbing my purse from my bag and handing her five bucks. "You can be hot and a creep at the same time. Man was wearing shades indoors, I don't trust him."

"Oh, come on," she says, linking my arm with hers and dragging me to our first class.

Unfortunately, it isn't long until it's Tanner Time. And that includes both Matt and Tyler chanting behind me "Tanner time! Tanner time!" on the walk to his class. To be honest, despite the idiocy I'm having to stand right now, I'm glad Matt has cheered up enough to be able to royally piss me off.

"Will you two knock it off?" I glare, rounding on them, making them grin and not deterring their act at all. "Come on, his classroom is right there, please don't remind him of - "

"Tanner time! Tanner time!"

"I'm gonna end myself."

Thankfully they stopped right before we walked in, sniggering at my expression. I took my seat next to them up at the back and, speaking of backs, realised that the new 'back boy' was sitting in front of me. Huh, he's kind of tall. This is gonna be a hard year to see the board but at least it gives me a decent cover from Tanner. Hopefully.

"Welcome back students," the man himself says, and it's at this moment I'm praying that he has forgotten what happened last semester. "I'm sure you have had a relaxing summer but it is time to get back to business." And here I thought I was in the clear "Or, as some of you called it," Nevermind. "Tanner Time." I was wrong.

Thud!

Oh, that's the sound my head made when I hit it on my desk as many of my fellow students sniggered, trying to stifle their laughs. Some were successful, you can imagine neither Matt nor Tyler were among them. First day back and already I felt like I had been Tannererd. Not a great start to the year. But class began, and Tyler and I were exchanging notes, playing tic-tac-toe to pass the time. So far, I had won almost every game, except the ones we had drawn on. And he was not happy about it.

"... the battle of willow creek took place at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle?" Tanner asked and oh boy he's gonna start picking on people, isn't he? "Miss Bennett." Go on Bonnie, do us proud.

"Um." Nevermind. "A lot. Like, a whole lot."

People around us are smiling or sniggering at the response, and I can't help but shrug in a half-agreement because technically she isn't wrong. Unfortunately, this isn't good enough for Tanner.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant," he says, making me wince. "Mr Donovan," and Matt wakes up from his mini-nap. "Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your jock stereotype?"

Matt, ever the charmer, responds with, "It's okay, Mr Tanner. I'm cool with it."

"Good for you, stay true to who you are," I say quietly, in my most motivational tone. While this may be amusing for the few of us up the back, Tanner doesn't seem to appreciate my humour if that look he's giving me is anything to go by. "Ugh oh..."

"Ms Hampton. Care to venture a guess?"

"Well," I start, putting on my most confident-sounding voice, making Tyler snigger beside me because I am most certainly not confident at all right now, "Firstly, I believe Miss Bennett was technically correct in her answer and should, therefore, be given a half-point at the very least."

"Not happening," Tanner said, unamused.

"And secondly, if you want me to guess then that means you don't think I know the answer. However, did it ever occur to you that maybe I do know the answer?" I tell him, and if I can keep this up for another five or ten minutes then maybe he'll forget to hand out any homework. "Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, you have underestimated me all these years? That perhaps I was just playing the fool so you would let your guard down?"

Tanner rolls his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "Get to the point, Ms Hampton."

"I believe the issue here does not, in fact, lie in the question you have just presented but in how many times you have underestimated me, underestimated us, the students you claim to care about!" I speak clearly and begin to rise from my seat, drawing the eyes of everyone in the class. Back Boy seems very confused by it all, but everyone else looks amused, and this fuels me. I see Tyler and Matt silently losing it beside me, Elena and Bonnie sniggering with each other, and Caroline slyly hiding her phone under the table. Ah, evidence for later. Fantastic. "And another thing - "

"That's enough."

"The students of Mystic Falls shall not be silenced by the underestimation of man!" I declare.

"The students of Mystic Falls shall be given detention if they don't sit down."

And so I sit.

Tanner, looking quite fed up despite it still only being the first day of high school, sighs and turns to the rest of the class. "Elena, surely you can enlighten about one of the town's significantly historical events?"

Elena shakes her head, and I can tell despite not being able to see her face completely that she is very uncomfortable in the spotlight. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Again, this isn't good enough for Tanner as he goes on to say, "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break."

My jaw drops, and I share shocked glances with Tyler and Matt who also look like they've been punched in the face. He did not just say that. Surely we must have been mishearing? Tanner is a dick but he honestly didn't just say something like that, in front of everyone as well.

"What the hell?" I mouth.

And then, for the first time today, I hear Back Boy speak. "There were 346 casualties." He says. "Unless you're including local civilians."

Tanner for a moment seems shocked. "That's correct. Mister...?"

"Salvatore." Backstreet Boy replied.

"Salvatore," Tanner repeats, "Any relation here to the original settlers here in Mystic Falls?"

"Oh," he says, and I can see his back that Bonnie likes so much tensing. "Distant."

"Well, very good except of course there were no civilian casualties in this battle," Tanner says with a smug smirk and turns around, getting ready to present the next topic only to be interrupted once more.

"Actually, there were 27, sir. Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church believing it to be housing weapons." Salvatore explained sadly, "They were wrong. It was a night of great loss." I would have focused more on the way he spoke about these casualties, the way he sounded as if he may have known them or had some personal attachment to them, if he hadn't come out with, "The founders archives are stored in city hall if you want to brush up on your facts."

And for the second time that day in that class, my jaw dropped because oh my lord we just witnessed a murder. Everyone sat in shock until eventually Tyler snorted in laughter and everyone finally managed to process what we just saw.

"Tanner just got Tannered." I whispered excitedly, hitting Matt and Tyler's arms in excitement. "This is the best day at school, hands down ever!"

However, Tanner was not too pleased with getting owned, pursing his lips as he glared at Salvatore. Thankfully for everyone, the bell rang and with Tanner being too humiliated to do anything else, the class were left without homework.

Standing up, I quickly grabbed the guy before he could leave the class. "May I be the first to say, congratulations. You absolutely owned Tanner, played him at his own game, like a fiddle!"

"Get to your next class, Ms Hampton," Tanner says and I cringe, not realising he was still here.

I cringe, not realising that he's still here and listening. Salvatore seems amused by the whole ordeal and I wonder if a new friend has been acquired. Matt and Tyler have already gone on ahead, eager to get out of here rather than to their next class, so I quickly grab my bag and denim jacket and walk out with the new student.

Once we're outside of the class, I feel like it's not safe to hold out my hand and introduce myself. "I'm Skye."

"Stefan," he says, shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you, how's your first day been?" I ask, wondering how it must feel being the newbie in a new school in such a close-knit town.

Stefan shrugs his shoulders, "It's been alright, everyone seems nice enough. Most drama I've had so far was what you just saw. And also seeing a girl walk out of the men's bathroom."

And it clicks in my mind who that must have been. "Was she just in our class? Elena?"

"Yeah," he says, his interest obviously peaked. "You know her?"

"For many, many years." I proclaim proudly. "And, for her benefit, I would just like to say that she doesn't have a habit of going into the men's bathrooms. She's just looking out for her brother. It's been kind of a rough time for them both, to say the least."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Stefan says. He's silent for a moment but I can practically hear his thoughts. He has that look in his eye whether or not he should ask what he clearly wants to ask.

I smile because I think I know what he's wondering and I can't help but think some fresh looks might help Elena to get back into the swing of things, or maybe work as a worthy distraction for a bit. "She is single by the way."

Stefan seems shocked. "Excuse me?"

"That's what you were wondering, right?" I confirmed, hoping I hadn't just royally screwed up. "Sorry, I thought you were interested in her. She's great, really. If you wanted to I could introduce you both?" And here comes the word vomit. "You know, even if you aren't interested in her like that, she's still a good friend. I could introduce to the whole group! And you know what, this town is pretty accepting of queer folk so if you wanted to I could try set you up with Tyler? I dunno if he's gay, to be honest, but he has a lot of pent up rage that I can only suspect is the pain of having to be in the closet with a homophobic father. Stop me if I'm rambling but - "

"Stop." Stefan laughs. And it isn't a loud laugh that has everyone paying attention to the joke or some funny-sounding laugh that ends up being more entertaining than the actual joke. It's gentle and it's probably at this point that this guy has become certified cinnamon roll. Sunglasses indoors has been completely forgotten, he has been forgiven for his crimes against humanity.

"Sorry," I apologise, "I tend to ramble if I'm nervous. But - " And the bell rings. "Shit, I gotta go to my next class. I'll see you later though, Stefan!"

And that was, unknowingly, my first interaction with a supernatural creature, a vampire. It certainly wasn't going to be the last either, but hey, I didn't know that at the time now, did I?

Word Count: 3,360
Proofread?: Nope

Don't forget to review!
Let me know what you thought of this and if I should continue or not! Probably gonna continue whether you want me to or not but I enjoy the motivation, both good and bad.
I promise things will get more interesting with more chapters but hey, gotta start somewhere!

Cheers folks!