AN: Hi! I'm back with a new story. Basically, Elena meets Stefan and instantly dislikes him because of his boringness. She meets Damon, and, well… you know how it goes. As usual, don't read if swearing offends you.

Also: All the characters are like the ones in the book, not the TV show. I saved a couple from the TV show, though, so it's easier to understand for those of you who haven't read the books. Meredith isn't in this story (her sensibleness pisses me off.)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.

Chapter One

Today was the beginning of a whole new school year—the beginning of a whole new year of competition.

Being the most popular girl in school, it was automatically my position to take down the second most popular girl in school: Caroline Forbes. She had bronze hair and cat-like green eyes that guys drooled over, but my golden blonde hair and piercing blue eyes had boys running after me when I walked through the hall.

Everything I did was automatically a competition. And I was up for it every time.

"Hey, Bonnie," I yelled from my window as I saw her approach my house. We had walked to school together for everyday since first grade.

Bonnie was my best friend. She was extremely pale with soft, big blue eyes and a shock of red hair. In summary, she looked very, very Irish.

She waved and walked in the door, and I heard Aunt Jenna ask her if she wanted any pancakes.

"I do!" I yelled, in a hurry to get to them before Jeremy ate them all. Jeremy, my younger brother, was pretty average looking: tall, brown hair, brown eyes. Not to sound bitchy, but I honestly don't see how we were related. You see; Jeremy's also a stoner. He doesn't have a girlfriend, and he's not popular, and he hardly has any friends.

You see what I mean? I seriously don't see how we're related!

I got two pancakes and some eggs before Jeremy—just as I predicted—swarmed into the room and destroyed the rest of it.

"Ewe, Jeremy! You're going to throw up if you eat all that!" I scolded him, to no avail.

"Actually, no, he won't," Aunt Jenna piped in. Aunt Jenna was the coolest parent on the planet. My parents died when I was two, and when Jeremy was, like, three weeks old. They crashed their car into a river and didn't make it out alive.

Of course, it still hurts to talk about it. But I go to the cemetery where they're buried everyday with Bonnie, so it's not like I have to cry myself to sleep every night thinking about them. They wouldn't have wanted that.

After Bonnie and I finished eating, we were out the door and on our way to school. Along the way, I saw the most beautiful, huge, black crow staring me down with deep green eyes. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Bonnie, look!" I whispered, pointing at the bird. By the time Bonnie turned around, though, it was gone. Like it vanished into think air.

"Did you see it?" I asked her. Maybe I was just going insane, after all.

"See what, Elena?"

I shook my head. I must've imagined it; there was no way a bird could've moved that fast. "You know what? Never mind. We should hurry or we'll be late."

Of course, this wasn't true. We always left early so we could get good spots in homeroom, so time was never an issue. When we got to school, everything seemed the same: the ugly lockers, most of which were falling off their hinges; the drinking fountains that didn't even work because it would shoot the water way above your head; the white marble floor that was always slippery from the drinking fountain; and, of course, the mean, ugly secretary that would give you a detention if she caught you looking at her. I knew that from experience.

"Good morning, Ms. Summers," I greeted her pleasantly, determined to get on her good side this year.

"Yeah. Here's your schedule, Gilbert. Don't be late."

I struggled not to roll my eyes. "Thank you."

I found my locker combination written at the top of my schedule and got it opened almost immediately, which was always a good way to start the day. I arranged my books and makeup until it looked nice and tidy, and taped all of my pictures along the outside walls.

Once I was happy with my final product, I grabbed my Chemistry, Trigonometry and English books and was ready to start the first day of my senior year.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a new boy talking to Ms. Summers. He was tall, with light brown hair and a strong jaw. His eyes were green, like leaves in the forest, and his full lips were set in a tentative smile, like he wasn't sure what he was doing here.

"Bonnie, look!" I hissed at her. "Hot guy alert!"

She raised her eyebrow at me skeptically, before looking where my hand was pointing.

"Wow," she mouthed. I knew what she meant. Finding a hot guy in Mystic Falls was like winning the lottery; it just didn't happen.

The hot guy walked in the opposite direction of where we were standing, and I quickly recovered from my awe.

"Okay, let's get to class," I sighed, not in the mood to go anywhere.

Along the way, I ran into none other than Caroline Forbes, queen of all things bitchy.

"Caroline!" I forced out from between my clenched teeth.

"Elena," she greeted me coldly. She couldn't even find it in herself to smile.

"Are you running for Miss Mystic Falls this year?" I asked her, trying to make conversation. We both ran every year; I won every year.

"Of course. I do every year." She stared me down suspiciously. "Why? Aren't you?"

"Of course I am." I forced another smile, but it probably turned out as a grimace.

"Well, I should get to class…"

"Yeah." She walked away. The only thing I liked about Caroline was that she was blunt and to the point.

"Bitch," Bonnie muttered under her breath.

I nodded. "Let's go."

We walked into the classroom to find it practically empty, give or take a few nerdy kids that wanted to get a spot in the front row. Because they're so coveted every year…

I picked a spot in the second to last row, which was far enough back for the teacher to not bother me, but far enough forward to read all the notes on the board and projector.

Bonnie, from her chair next to me, let out a tiny squeal and pointed to the door, where the hot new kid walked in.

"Yes," I muttered. Now I could taunt Caroline by having the hottest boy in school.

He walked right past me, without even blinking when he saw me (very unusual) and sat in the middle of the very back row. He must have good eyesight, I noted to myself.

By the time all the rest of the kids had walked in, the bell had already rung and Mrs. Sasquatch hadn't showed up yet.

Mrs. Sasquatch was the meanest and ugliest teacher in the school. She didn't talk; she screeched, like nails on a chalkboard. Her ass swung around behind her like a bulldozer, always hitting people. She wore these skirts and blouses that looked like they were from a different century—but not in a pretty, antique sort of way.

I think I accidentally muttered, "Ewe" under my breath as she walked by me, studying each student carefully.

"We have a new student," she finally announced, once she had been around the entire classroom and dragged her fat butt up to the front again. "Say hello." That's another thing about her: she doesn't ask; she orders.

"Hello," we all greeted him in monotone voices.

"Stefan, is it?"

"Yes, ma'am. Stefan Salvatore."

She rolled her beady eyes. "Yeah. Whatever. Tell us something about yourself, please."

"I'm from Italy."

"Awesome." She didn't say it like it was "awesome"—quite the opposite, in fact.

Bitch.

The rest of class was fairly uneventful, consisting of her telling us all about how amazing Shakespeare was.

Once English finally ended, we were released from her evil claws and moved on to our new classes. I didn't see Stefan or Bonnie again until lunch came, and, for the first time in…ever, I didn't have any gossip whatsoever to share.

"Bonnie!" I shouted, grabbing a table for us. I always packed a vegetable sandwich on whole wheat bread with an apple and a cookie, everyday. I sat down and immediately started devouring the less than tasty sandwich, starving.

"Excuse me?" a quiet voice asked. I looked up to see Stefan Salvatore leaning over me (not in a creepy way; it was just because he was tall).

And I had a slice of carrot hanging out of my mouth. In my haste to get it out, I made a desperate noise and slapped at it, causing it to go into my bra.

"Oh, fuck," I whispered to myself, before answering, "Um, hi".

"Hello. Is this seat taken?" he asked, pointing to Bonnie's chair.

"Um, yeah. You can sit in this one, though." I pointed to the one that was next to mine.

"Thank you." He sat down, and I noticed that he didn't have any food.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked.

He smiled, like he had some kind of inside joke. "No. Not particularly."

Bonnie plopped down across from us, eyeing Stefan like he was a piece of meat.

"Hey, Stefan." She had her flirty voice in full force.

"Hello…Bonnie, is it?"

She looked miffed for a second before her face smoothed out. "Yeah. Where are you from?"

Did she miss the entire conversation in English? Bonnie was so unobservant.

I don't mean to sound rude, but…Stefan was boring. He droned on and on and on about how amazing Italy was, and Bonnie sat there, literally drooling like she was in a trance.

"Yeah, I love Italian sports cars!" she shouted. I snorted; she didn't even know the name of one Italian sports car.

"How about you, Elena?"

"Yeah, I'm not really into cars." I hope I didn't sound cold and rude.

He shrugged. He continued talking to Bonnie for the rest of lunch, trying to involve me whenever he could.

"I'm going to go get some water…" I finally said, desperate for an excuse to get out of there. His presence made me feel sort of uncomfortable.

Now, I went through boys faster than Ms. Sasquatch's teaching when she was in a hurry to get out of the English classroom, so lust was not exactly foreign to me. This didn't feel like lust; it felt like a dull sort of connection. Maybe I was supposed to learn something from him or meet someone through him.

Shuddering, I walked back into the cafeteria, bracing myself for what was to come. They were still sitting there, debating about some topic that I completely zoned out on.

Bonnie giggled every three seconds, making it impossible to completely ignore them. I did my best to focus my mind on the Trig homework that Mr. Goff had assigned us.

Mr. Goff was a short old man that walked like the hunchback of Notre dam. He had gray-white hair, wore plaid golfing shorts and polo shirts, and had a big brown mole on his left cheek. Still, Mr. Goff was sweet and actually took the time to explain things to us, which was something that I honestly couldn't say about the rest of the teachers.

"Elena?" Stefan asked me, looking down curiously.

"Yeah?"

He pointed to the empty cafeteria. "The bell just rang."

Wow. I really had embraced my math. "Oh. Thanks."

"Where are you off to?"

Ugh. Why can't he just be gone already?

"Um, history. You?"

He smiled. "History." As I stood up, he was kind enough to pick up my books for me and stack them on top of his.

"Oh, Stefan, you don't have to do that!"

He grinned. "It's my pleasure."

I sighed and followed him as he swiftly exited from the cafeteria, trying to hurry so we wouldn't be late for class. Mr. Brown hated me; so hurrying not to be late wasn't an issue for me.

We walked into the classroom to find it about half full, meaning that we could've taken our sweet time walking if we'd wanted to. I didn't really want to, though.

"Thank you so much, Stefan," I told him as he neatly stacked my books on my desk.

"Of course. Maybe I'll see you around, Elena."

Hopefully not. "Yeah, totally."

I sat down and felt guilty for hating on Stefan for the rest of class; he had been nothing but kind, polite and respectful to me and all I could think about was hoping that I wouldn't see him around? I was such an asshole!

When the final bell for the day rang, I was out the door before anyone else was out of his or her seat. I hid my face in my locker, feeling like I was being watched for some reason. It was ridiculous, of course; who could possibly be watching me?

I looked around and saw the same crow out the window that I had seen earlier that day. My eyes widened considerably, causing a couple of people to stare at me before carrying on down the hallway.

So I hadn't been imagining it?

Bonnie came up from behind me and said, "You ready to go?"

I distractedly answered her, "Yeah. Just one second."

I turned around, only to find that the crow was gone again.

I found myself in the kitchen, with Bonnie and Aunt Jenna, after I had walked home in a daze. What were the odds of seeing such a beautiful, unique crow only to have it vanish before anyone else could see it, twice in one day?

I knew that the odds weren't likely and that someone was either going on or I was going insane; and I also knew that it was probably the latter.

I picked up one of the peanut butter balls Aunt Jenna had made and shoved it in my mouth, staring out the window in search of the bird.

"What are you looking at?" Aunt Jenna finally asked.

"Oh…nothing." I didn't see a need to share with her my supposed insanity.

As I chewed the sticky peanut butter, my mind was on how much I had instantly disliked Stefan.

"Aunt Jenna? Have you ever met someone that you just instantly disliked for some reason? And you can't figure out why?"

She snorted. "Yeah; one too many of them. Why?"

"Oh, no reason."

Bonnie started drabbling on about how amazing Stefan was, and I sipped from my glass of water to prevent myself from saying anything I would regret.

Aunt Jenna looked at me. "What do you think of him, Elena?"

"Uh, you know…" I was never able to lie.

"Uh-huh. Enough said." She closed a random drawer with her hip and gave me one last knowing glance before gracefully stalking out of the kitchen.

"How could you not like him, Elena? He's, like, so hot!"

"I never said I didn't like him. And I guess I just don't see it." At first, I had thought he was attractive; when I looked closer at him, I realized that there were just certain things that I didn't like about him. His nose was this square thing that looked like it had been stuck on his face because no one knew what to do with it. His hair had these weird curly-spike things, making his face look rounder than it would if he actually had a flattering haircut.

The list would go on and on if you got me started, so please don't. I need to continue on with my awesome story.

"You're secretly crushing on him, aren't you?" She let out this girly little squeal that belonged in a horror movie and started hopping up and down.

"No, Bonnie. I'm not."

I walked upstairs, and she used her short height to duck under me and run up the rest of them. Apparently she had decided to go into hyper mode without telling me about it.

"Hurry up!" she shouted.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. Some of us aren't nimble little pixies that come from Never Land."

"Where the hell is Never Land?"

Wow. "Never mind. Look, let's just get our homework done before dinnertime, okay? I don't want to be behind on the second day."

"Since when did you start caring about homework?" she muttered, plopping down on my floor.

"Since I have to beat Caroline Forbes at everything this year. Even though she's obviously stupid as hell, we have to insure that there won't be any issues."

Bonnie was never one for competition, so she didn't completely understand why I had to be better than Caroline at everything, even if she did share my intense hatred towards her.

"Whatever. I don't understand this problem…"

We sluggishly completed our homework; we had a surprisingly large amount, even if it was senior year. When Aunt Jenna told us that dinner was ready, we had our nails painted and gossip exchange completed. For the first time either, neither one of us had exciting news: Matt, the captain of the football team and my former boyfriend, was going out with Caroline, captain of the cheerleaders. How very cliché.

We both decided that, despite my obvious dismay, I should go out with Stefan. Just because he wasn't interesting didn't mean he wasn't hot, which was all anyone really cared about.

Aunt Jenna somehow managed to burn the spaghetti (it would be fair to say that she's not the best cook), so we ordered a big pizza with cheese and ate it while watching television. Jeremy made stupid comments about how ugly people were on MTV, and Aunt Jenna laughed whenever someone danced inappropriately; and that, sadly, was more often than not.

Bonnie squealed with delight when Justin Bieber came on. The rest of us groaned as he went on about his 'baby, baby, baby, oh', over and over again, until Ludacris finally came in. Apparently, Jeremy enjoyed his songs, "Move, Bitch" and "My Chick Bad". Personally, rap wasn't my favorite.

When that torture finally ended, it was nearing ten o'clock. Bonnie packed up her stuff and headed home, calling over her shoulder that she would be there at the same time tomorrow morning; I don't even know why she bothered, though, because we all already knew that she would be.

"Jeremy, do the dishes," Aunt Jenna ordered him.

"I just did them last night!"

"Actually, I did them last night." It never hurts to point a fact like that out, as I have learned over the years.

"Night, Aunt Jenna," I called over my shoulder.

" 'Night, kid."

I trudged up the stairs, tired from a long first day back at school.

It was late at night. I was running through the cemetery that my parents were buried in, and I was running from something; the problem was that I had no idea what that something was.

"Here, Elena," a creepy voice called it. It sounded vaguely familiar.

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Stefan?"

My subconscious realized faster than my brain did that I was speaking with Stefan Salvatore, the new boy from school. Was he who I had been running from?

"Hello, Elena."

Literally out of nowhere, he was standing in front of me, taking a casual but obviously dominant stance. "How are you?'

"I…I'm fine, thank you. What are we doing out here?"

He chuckled darkly. "Well, Elena, that's kind of a long story…"

He transformed into an ugly, demonic looking thing, lunging at me. I felt my bones snap and heard myself scream before waking up in a cold sweat, feeling terror and adrenaline rushing through my veins. I felt my arms and legs, breathing in a sigh of relief when I felt that all of my bones were still healthy and in tact.

Still heavily panting, I forced my numb legs to quickly walk to the bathroom, flipping on the light switch and turning on the water faucet. I filled up one of the paper cups that we kept in the shelves behind the mirror and drank it deeply, the cold water running down my dry, warm throat calming my nerves instantly.

Still, as I braced myself by leaning over the sink, something didn't feel quite right: reality or a nightmare.

For obvious reasons, I was wide-awake and ready when Bonnie walked through the door. I had already packed all my books in my bag, taken a shower and had done my makeup before five o'clock, which was about two hours ago.

My body was heaving and limping heavily as I dragged myself down the stairs, exhausted from my small panic attack last night. I had never fallen asleep after that, and drinking coffee only made me feel hyper and jittery, as opposed to the calmness it usually brought me.

"Elena, you look exhausted!"

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Bonnie. I thought I'd done a good job with the concealer."

"You can never hide what's there completely."

"Aunt Jenna…that actually sounded wise and smart." THAT was a rarity.

She smacked my ass as she passed me, getting some milk from the refrigerator. "I've been known to be wise and smart every once in a while."

"When?" Bonnie murmured, earning a glare.

"Did you guys get all your homework done?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nice parenting skills; very stern. Anyways, yes, we did. I have to get straight A's to beat Caroline Forbes this year."

"Caroline Forbes? I heard she was stupid."

"She is. That just makes it easier for me to win."

"You seriously need to lay off the competition for once, Elena. High school is actually supposed to be fun, believe it or not."

"Oh, yes. School filled with mean bitches that can't keep comments to themselves, teachers with asses like bulldozers and creepy new students. What a joy it is."

She frowned. "Who's the creepy new student?"

Oops. I probably should've kept that to myself. "He's not creepy; he's super hot. And his name's Stefan Salvatore."

"Shut up, Bonnie. We're going to be late."

"No, we're not."

Aunt Jenna snorted. "Bonnie, the art of subtlety is obviously lost on you. Elena's trying to tell you that you need to leave before the old lady asks you for any details on the hot new guy."

"Thank you, Aunt Jenna. Let's go."

"But you didn't eat anything…"

I dragged Bonnie away from her cereal and out the door, shaking my head at the stupidity of the conversation I had just participated in and ignoring my rumbling and angry stomach.

I scowled at the crow that was, once again, staring at me.

"Shoo!" I shouted at it, so beyond done with its strange appearances. "Go on! Get the hell out of here!"

"Elena," Bonnie hissed, looking around for people watching us. "You're making a scene! And what are you yelling at?"

I made the mistake of taking my eyes off the bird for a split second, and that was all it took; the crow was gone.

"Damn it!" I screeched, trying to find it.

"Let's go, Elena." Bonnie sounded nervous as she dragged me all the way to school, like she was afraid I was going to bite her or something.

"What's going on?" she demanded, pulling me to my locker. I pulled my wrist free and massaged it, not pleased with how this fucker of a day was turning out.

"It's nothing." Nothing really didn't cover it, but I didn't want her to think I was going insane; and I probably was going insane.

"Nothing, my ass." If there was one thing Bonnie wasn't, it was stupid. "Now tell me what's going on."

"No." I grabbed my books and shoved my bag into the locker, stalking off to English and leaving a hurt and betrayed Bonnie in my wake.

When I walked in the classroom, Stefan Salvatore was already sitting down, staring at the front of the classroom, and looking bored. Right away, I started getting flashbacks from my dream that last night. I instantly felt sick to my stomach, and I sat down before I could throw up all over the desk.

I clutched my stomach, dry heaving at the memory of how I imagined my bones breaking as he crushed me, relieved that I hadn't eaten anything. I closed my eyes and laid my head on the table, concentrating on not looking at him.

"Take out your assignments," Ms. Sasquatch yelled as she walked in the classroom, not bothering with niceties. People did as they were directed, but I felt too sick to bend down; I felt claustrophobic, like Stefan was leaning over me and not letting me breath.

"Miss Gilbert, I don't have your assignment."

I looked up at her and her eyes widened. "Oh, my. Why don't you go to the nurse?"

I simply nodded, even though I had no intentions of going to the nurse, and ran for the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw a disgusting green tint to my skin, which was the final straw in making me throw up all over the sink.

I felt the tears running down my cheeks, but I couldn't understand why they were there. Stefan had been perfectly nice to me…why did I have to have that horrid dream?

I sat down, putting my head between my knees and counting to ten over and over again. There was no need to be afraid of Stefan Salvatore and I needed to get that in my brain that very moment.

I stood up, needing the support of the sink because my knees were weak and wobbly, and cleaned up the counter while holding my breath; I didn't want to get sick again.

I fixed up any blemishes that had become clear and headed back to class. I kept my head down, avoiding anyone's eyes as I made my way to my desk. She didn't ask me for my assignment again and I didn't offer it; we had a mutual understanding.

When the bell rang, I shot out of my seat and fled for my next class, which equaled freedom.

I continued like this for the rest of the day: head down, not talking to anyone as I made my way through the day. Bonnie didn't sit next to me at lunch, and I didn't bother her. History was the worst, but I got through it by closing my eyes unless I needed to look at my worksheet.

My new goal for the year was to avoid Stefan Salvatore.

As I walked home, for the second time that day I saw the crow.

AN: Is our favorite vampire playing mind games with Elena? Please take the time to review, if you have a chance. I would really appreciate it! New update next Monday.

-Evangeline