CHAPTER THREE
friday night dinner!

As the girls arrived at school, Bonnie stepped out of the car, followed by Elena and Iylah before the former spoke, continuing their conversation from the car. "Listen, I'm not saying don't date the guy, I'm just saying take it slow." Bonnie advised Elena. Ever since the vision Bonnie had the night before at the Grill, it seemed that her opinion had changed.

Elena looked at the girl with furrowed brows, and pointed a finger. "You are the one who said to go for it." She reminded Bonnie, clearly confused on her friend's change of opinion on her dating the Salvatore boy.

"Now, I'm saying take it slow."

"Then, why the about-face?" As Iylah didn't know much about what Bonnie had seen through that vision that made her change her mind about her friend dating Stefan, the Hale witch was curious to know why.

"It's not an about-face." Bonnie said, disagreeing with her cousin before gesturing to the Gilbert at her next words. "Elena is single for the first time in her entire high school career. It's the perfect time to play the field."

"Oh, because I'm so that girl." Elena laughed, not believing her friend's words as she looked back at her and questioned. "Seriously, what are you not saying?"

"It's stupid." Bonnie, not wanting to put Elena in any worry, shook it off and tried to walk away to avoid further questions, but both Iylah and Elena stopped her before she could. "What?"

"Spit it out, Bon-Bon." At her cousin's words, the Bennett girl sighed before looking between Elena and Iylah as she finally admitted. "I accidentally touched Stefan and I got a really bad feeling."

Elena stared at Bonnie for a second before tilting her head. "Is that it?" She asked and reached her arm out to grab Bonnie's arm when she tried to escape again. "Bonnie."

"It was bad-bad."

"Is this the whole witch mojo thing again?" Elena wondered, making Bonnie sigh before feigning a smile. "You know what? I'm just concerned. This is me expressing concern about my best friend's new boyfriend." She said, though mainly trying to reassure herself that she wasn't going crazy.

"Oh, yeah? You gonna be like this when I start to date someone?" Iylah found herself smiling when Bonnie turned to her with a scoff. "You bet your ass, I will."

Iylah and Elena chuckled softly before the Gilbert girl grabbed Bonnie's shoulders, returning to the previous subject of conversation. "Bonnie, I love you for it, I do. But I feel good." The girl finally started to admit about her feelings. "It's been a hard year, and I'm starting to kind of feel like things are getting back to normal again. And you know what? Stefan is a big part of that."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

The first class was over for the students, however, Caroline Forbes was yet to be seen. But seeing as Quinn lived in the same house as her, the fifteen-year old only assumed she had overslept or had left the house before her, reason why she walked to school that morning.

Different groups of students each covered an area of the field — this included the football team, the cheerleading squad, and Iylah and Quinn, though not part of any of the teams, but liked to practice soccer as part of their physical activity.

Bonnie sat on the floor, stretching with the other cheerleaders, whilst Iylah and Quinn stood near her as words exchanged between them about the Forbes girl's whereabouts. That kept going until they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind them, and they turned in that direction to see Elena, dressed in her sportswear.

"Oh my God. You're here." Bonnie quickly got up to her feet and pulled her friend into a hug, while the sophomores exchanged smiles.

"Yep. I can't be sad girl forever." She mainly told herself. "The only way to get things back to the way they were, are to do things that were." Elena crouched down on the floor to join the others in stretching. "Oh," She looked back up at the girls when she remembered something. "and you three are coming to dinner tonight."

"We are?" Iylah bounced the ball that she carried under her arm, back onto the ground and turned around so she was in line of the net where she would kick the ball into. With her eyes on the net, Elena watched as the ball went straight in before confirming. "Mm-hmm. You three, me and Stefan." She looked back at Bonnie just in time to see her face drop at the mention of the Salvatore joining them for dinner. "You have to give him a chance."

"Tonight's no good." Bonnie glanced at the dirty-blonde before she decided to bring her into the lie. "Besides, Iylah and I were planning on having a FRIENDS marathon tonight."

"As fun as that sounds, no we weren't." At Iylah's words, Elena tilted her head and gave Bonnie a pointed look.

"Have you seen Caroline?" Bonnie asked, quickly changing the subject to avoid anymore pressure into going into this dinner. "I texted her like a hundred times."

"Don't change the subject, Bonnie!" Quinn firstly pointed out before the smile on her face was replaced with a pout. "Even though, I am worried about her, too."

"Exactly." Elena referred to what Quinn just said before looking back at Bonnie. "You're going to be there."

"Fine, I'll go." Bonnie finally sighed in defeat and Quinn chuckled before taking the ball from Iylah so she could have her turn at kicking the ball into the net.

"Good."

As time went on, the girls had finished stretching and the Captain of the cheerleading squad still hadn't shown her face. Bonnie looked around the field, her worry growing as she asked herself once again. "Seriously, where is Caroline?"

"I don't know." Elena shook her head, swallowing the water that was in her mouth before putting her drink bottle back, next to her. "It's not like her."

"I'll try her again." Bonnie grabbed her phone to dial Caroline's number yet again as Elena sighed before looking over Bonnie's shoulder when the sound of rock music playing on the radio was heard as a car was pulling up.

"Who's that?" Quinn and Iylah returned to Elena and Bonnie's side, with their eyes glued onto the pair as Caroline kissed the driver.

"Oh, my God. That must be the mystery guy from the Grill." Bonnie assumed, at the same time, she answered Quinn's question.

"That's not a mystery guy." Elena started to stand up to her feet as Caroline was getting out of the car. "That's Damon Salvatore."

"Salvatore? As in Stefan?" Bonnie looked shocked at this information, following Elena's action and stood up. But before Elena could respond, they were interrupted as the blonde came over with a grin on her face, directing her words towards the Gilbert. "I got the other brother. Hope you don't mind."

"Sorry I'm late, girls. I, uh, was busy." The Forbes girl dropped her sunglasses on the grass. "Let's start with the double-pike herkie hurdler. What do you say?"

"I'm so confused." Quinn still looked bewildered as Iylah kept her suspicious gaze on Damon as he drove away before gently pushing the Henderson girl forward, splitting from the cheerleading team to head back to soccer practice. "You're always confused, Quinny."

Quinn scoffed. "What? No, I'm not."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Later that night, the Bennett-Hale cousins, along with Quinn, was at the Gilbert residence, helping Elena set the table up for dinner, meanwhile, the Bennett girl decided to use this time before the guest arrived, to ramble on to the girls about her new obsession.

"You explain it. Last night, I'm watching Nine-o, a commercial break comes on and I'm like, I bet it's that phone commercial. And sure enough, it's that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture."

"Oh, come on." Elena laughed and with her next words, she spoke with reassurance. "That commercial's on a constant loop."

"That's what I said when she woke me up, telling me the same thing." Iylah grumbled softly, which amused the girls more.

Bonnie sent a look towards her cousin and sighed before carrying on the conversation. "Fine. Well, how about this?" She had a different situation in mind, still relating to the topic of her new psychic abilities. "Today I'm obsessed with numbers. Three numbers. I keep seeing eight, fourteen and twenty-two. How weird is that?"

Quinn playfully gasped, sharing a look with Elena before she pointed out. "If that's the case, maybe we should play the lottery. What?" She shrugged, seeing the look Bonnie was giving her. "You have your theories, and I have mine."

Iylah and Elena chuckled before the latter looked back at Bonnie, continuing to prepare the food as she asked. "Have you talked to your Grams?"

Bonnie started pouring the food onto the plate as she assumed. "She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch. Do you want to be a witch?" She looked over at the girls, waiting for a reply.

Quinn shrugged. "I don't know. They seem kinda cool."

"I don't wanna be a witch." As Elena agreed with Bonnie, this put Iylah in an awkward position as she found herself pulling a face away from their view, seeing as she couldn't have a choice in the matter of being the supernatural creature.

Quinn glanced over at the Gilbert who was in the middle of pouring the fries into the bowl, making her let out an amused sigh. "Elena, you know that isn't fooling anybody by putting it in a nice bowl."

Elena gave the girl a look as if she was saying 'not funny' before looking back at the table. When she spotted something missing, the girl sighed before starting to look around the kitchen while asking herself. "Okay, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?"

"Middle drawer on your left." Bonnie pointed out to the girl who paused for a moment before she opened the drawer and pulled out the serving spoons. "Okay, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times."

Bonnie looked at her incredulously. "Yeah, that's it."

"Yet, you live in this house, but you couldn't even seem to place where they were yourself." Iylah reminded Elena who opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when the doorbell rang. "Okay, he's here." Knowing it was Stefan, Elena first looked back at the Hale. "Shush you, and second," She turned to Bonnie in attempt to calm the girl's nerves. "Don't be nervous. Just be your normal loving self."

Elena sighed before turning around and left them in the room to open the door. Meanwhile, Bonnie looked down at the table in thought, almost as if she was testing something out, when she said her guess. "Birthday candles." She opened the drawer and sighed when her theory appeared to be right.

As Stefan finally settled in, the boy sat himself at the head of the table with Elena and Bonnie on either side of him, Iylah next to her cousin and Quinn sat opposite her.

And it could not be more awkward.

Finally having enough of the awkward tension at the table, Quinn sighed before being the first one to break it as she looked towards the guest. "So, Steven, I heard you joined football, did Tanner give you a hard time today?"

At the first two words, Iylah instantly placed her cutlery down and put her head in her hands with a sigh. After a moment, she looked back up and towards an awkward Stefan to explain on Quinn's behalf before the Salvatore boy could correct her on the name. "Just a thing to know about Quinn here, she knows your name, she just likes to mispronounce them on purpose sometimes for comedy purposes."

"Ah, okay." Stefan nodded and glanced at the girl who gave him an innocent smile. "Well, he let me on the team, so I must have done something right."

Elena chuckled before she looked over at Bonnie who still hadn't said a word. "Bonnie, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and—"

Bringing the awkward tension back, Bonnie was quick to interrupt. "Yeah, I heard."

"Wow." Iylah mouthed before taking another bite of her food.

Striking another conversation, Elena looked back at Bonnie. "Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" She tried to encourage her to talk more with Stefan, which she received a look in return before Bonnie eventually sighed. "Um, divorced. No mom. Iylah's my cousin and we live with my dad."

"No, about the witches." Elena corrected the girl on what she meant before she turned to look at her boyfriend and elaborated. "Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool."

"Cool isn't the word I'd use." Shaking her head at her friend, Bonnie continued to keep her replies short and to the point, seeing as she still wasn't comfortable talking with Stefan yet after what she saw in that vision. But, she suddenly looked confused as Stefan started speaking. "Well, it's certainly interesting." He subtly took a glance at Iylah before looking back at Bonnie, continuing with his words. "I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic Druids that migrated in the 1800's.

"My family came by way of Salem." The Bennett girl mentioned to Stefan who looked impressed at that. "Really? Salem witches?" He echoed and turned to the others who nodded. "I'd say that's pretty cool."

"I told you, Bonnie." Quinn hummed.

Bonnie ignored the girl, now looking at the boy in confusion. "Really? Why?" She shrugged, looking for an explanation as to why he thought different, and then he answered. "Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity."

Bonnie smiled slightly. "Yeah, they are."

The doorbell rang unexpectedly, causing Elena to furrow her brows in question. "I wonder who that could be." Seeing as she wasn't expecting anyone else, the Gilbert girl got up from the table before heading towards the door.

"Probably Jeremy." The Henderson girl shrugged out of tiredness before looking up at Iylah who gave her a strange look. "What?"

"If it was Jeremy, why would he ring the doorbell to his own house?" The Hale witch tilted her head at her friend who huffed out a breath, looking at her plate while mumbling. "I don't know. I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm tired."

Meanwhile with Elena, she opened the front door to see Caroline and Damon stood outside — the blonde first to speak. "Surprise! Bonnie said you were doing dinner, so we brought dessert." She held out the sweet food as a gesture, making the Gilbert girl let out an 'Oh' in surprise.

"Hope you don't mind." Damon smiled at Elena as Caroline was first to step through the door and passed the dessert onto her, just as Stefan came out from the hallway, with his eyes on his brother as he didn't hesitate to ask. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for Elena to invite me in."

"Oh, yeah, you can—" Elena went to do so, before Stefan cut her off out of fear. But she didn't know that. "No, no, no. He can't, uh, he can't stay. Can you, Damon?"

Caroline also looked confused. "Get in here."

"We're just...finishing up." Stefan tried to excuse once again, afraid what his brother might say or do in Elena and Iylah's presence. But since Elena couldn't see through his fear, she simply waved him off. "It's fine. Just come on in." She told the raven-haired Salvatore.

Damon looked down, trying to hide his smirk as he slowly stepped into the house and walked into the hallway as Elena looked back at Stefan, now confused by his behaviour. "You have a beautiful home, Elena." Damon looked back at the Gilbert who thanked him before shutting the door.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

They all sat in the living room, a few of them with drinks in hand as they listened to Caroline gush about Stefan joining the team. "I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething. But good for you. Go for it."

"That's what I always tell him." Damon piped up from beside Caroline. "You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it."

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today." The blonde-haired girl referred to cheerleading practice that day, how Elena was struggling to keep up. "It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines."

"I'll work with her, she'll get it." Bonnie spoke up, making sure to tell Caroline.

"I guess we can put her in the back." The Forbes girl muttered to herself, making Iylah and Quinn look at each other with furrowed brows. As Elena turned her head to Caroline, Damon opened his mouth to speak. "You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena."

Clarifying for Damon, Caroline spoke next. "Oh, it's just 'cause her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun." Noticing the looks she received from the girls, Caroline added. "And I say that with complete sensitivity."

"I'm sorry, Elena." Damon told the girl. "I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die."

Before he could say anymore, Stefan was quick to interject, in favour to Elena and Iylah. "We don't need to get into that right now, Damon."

"Oh, you know, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry." The raven-haired Salvatore sighed. "The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up. Ha."

"Excuse me." Iylah whispered to Quinn to let her feet down so she could pass, and excused herself to leave the room and go to the bathroom. Soon following Iylah, Elena had left the room to start washing up while everyone else was still finishing off their drinks.

Damon was next to leave the room, with the last dirty glass in hand to give to Elena, and help her put the leftover dishes in the dishwasher. As the two spoke, the topic of conversation went from Stefan, to Katherine, to Damon encouraging the Gilbert to quit cheerleading, before the Katherine subject returned due to Elena expressing her condolences about Damon losing her too.

Then they were interrupted when Bonnie entered the room, volunteering to help after Quinn fell asleep on the chair, not hearing Caroline discuss with Stefan about Matt and Elena.

"Matt tries," She started off. "but he's just having a really hard time. You have to understand that they were each other's first. You know, like, from the sandbox."

Stefan smiled slightly, although his focus was on something else when he gestured to the accessory around Caroline's neck. "That's a really nice scarf."

Caroline followed his eyes and hummed. "Thank you, it's new."

"Can I see it?" The blonde furrowed her brows at Stefan's question, tilting her head as she watched the Salvatore scooch across the couch to sit closer to her. "I mean, would you mind taking it off?"

"Oh, I can't." At Caroline's immediate response, Stefan looked at her in question. He already had a theory in mind, but he still needed to be sure that he was right. "Why not? You ok?"

"Um... All I know is that I can't take it off." That was another sign. Before Stefan could comment on it though, Damon had walked through into the room, almost on time, as if he knew what he was interrupting. "What are you two kids talking about?"

"I was just commenting on her scarf." Stefan told his brother who sat down on the arm of the chair that Caroline was sitting on. Damon hummed in reply, checking Quinn was still asleep before he looked down at the blonde. "Hey, you know, um, Elena and Bonnie are finishing up the dishes. Why don't you go see if you can help?"

"Does it look like I do dishes?" She scoffed out a chuckle, glancing at Stefan who sent her a tight-lipped smile.

"For me?"

Caroline stopped laughing and looked back up at Damon. "Hmm. I don't think so." She declined once again, leaving a fed up Damon, who brought her back through mind compulsion. "Go see if Elena needs help in the kitchen."

To none of their surprise, the blonde didn't argue with Damon, her response echoing what he had said. "You know what? I'm gonna go see if Elena needs some help in the kitchen."

"Great." Damon smiled sarcastically and watched as Caroline grabbed her mug before getting up to her feet and walked past him and out the room, giving the two brothers the freedom to talk about the supernatural subject.

"They are people, Damon." Stefan began to scold his brother once he made sure Caroline had left the room. "She's not a puppet. She doesn't exist for your amusement, for you to feed on whenever you want to."

However, Damon had disagreed. "Sure she does. They all do. They're whatever I want them to be. They're mine for the taking."

"All right, you've had your fun." Stefan started to get more annoyed. "You used Caroline, you got to meet Elena and Iylah, good for you. Now it's time for you to go."

"That's not a problem. Because...I've been invited in," Damon moved places in the living room, now sat on the chair as he looked at his brother. "and I'll come back tomorrow night and the following night and I'll do with your little cheerleader whatever I want to do. Because that is what is normal to me."

Stefan sighed and rolled his eyes before excusing himself out the room, and passed by Iylah in the hallway who sent him a small smile before going into the living room, completely ignoring Damon as she tapped Quinn on the arm to wake the girl up. "Quinny, it's time to go home now."

"What? Where are we?" Quinn mumbled sleepily under her breath, causing her friend to let out a chuckle before helping her out the chair. "Still at the Gilbert's, you missed dessert though."

"Aw, man."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Reaching the next night, all the students crowded around on the field, the marching band playing their instruments and everyone cheering as they watched the fire light up. Jeremy was off with his own group, and his two girl-best friends were left stood next to Elena, who wore her normal clothes after deciding to quit cheerleading that day.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Tanner spoke in the microphone, finally getting the students to quiet down so he could continue. "Let's be honest here. In the past, we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us." The students in the crowd booed. "But that is about to change." Everyone started to cheer again. "We've got some great new talent tonight starting on offence, and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore!"

Everyone grew happy as Mr. Tanner continued to hype up the crowd. "I have only one thing to say to you, we're timberwolves, we're hungry."

The sound of cheers and applause from everyone, increased in volume, until they were interrupted by the sudden start of commotion coming from behind them. Though not all at the same time, when it got their attention, the students turned in that direction to see two people fighting as Vicki Donovan called out. "Tyler, stop! You're hurting him!"

As the teenager continued to shout for Tyler who carried on punching Jeremy, Stefan quickly came to the rescue in attempt to stop the fight and grabbed the Lockwood's fist. "He's down! That's enough!"

As Tyler turned around to Stefan, he sent a single punch to his stomach and failed to get a reaction from the Salvatore. At this point, the girls closest to Jeremy, pushed through the small crowd of people to get to them, just as the Gilbert boy had reached out for the broken glass bottle that laid on the grass.

He stood back up, ignoring the voices of protests as he went to strike the bottle towards Tyler, but instead, the glass ended up cutting Stefan's hand just after Tyler moved away in time.

As Tyler was tackled away by Matt, Jeremy stared in shock after what he had just done before being approached by his sister first. "What the hell, Jeremy. Put your head up, you're bleeding." She attempted to check his injuries.

"I'm fine!" Jeremy quickly pushed Elena's hands away from him, as she scoffed in response, not believing a word he was saying. "Yeah, you smell fine."

"Hey!" Iylah was next to approach the boy, softly placing her hands on both cheeks to bring his attention to her. "Hey, listen to me. Are you ok? Come here." She grabbed his hand and he let her pull him away from everyone as Quinn followed.

Looking in gratitude towards Iylah for being the one to calm Jeremy down, Elena finally turned to her boyfriend and gasped. "Oh my god, your hand!" She rushed towards Stefan to inspect his injury, but he was quick enough to pull his hand behind his back.

"No, no, no, it's fine." Stefan shrugged her off as if it was no big deal, but his girlfriend eventually managed to tug on his hand closer to her so she could pry it open. "Is it deep? How bad is it?"

Confused, Elena stared down at his hand, seeing no cut, just blood. "But, I saw it, it was—" She went to remind herself, when Stefan cut her off before she could finish. "He missed. It's not my blood. See? I'm fine."

"No, no, no. I saw it." She was still convinced that the glass cut Stefan's hand and there was a lot more blood than there was now. "The glass cut your hand—"

"It's okay. I'm okay." Stefan interjected, trying to reassure his girlfriend, but most likely, he wanted to avoid any suspicions the Gilbert had, of him healing so quickly. "It's almost kickoff time, all right? So I'll see you after the game."

Elena nodded, letting Stefan walk past her before she found her way walking over to Bonnie who stood with the other cheerleaders. "Can I ask you a question?" She asked after Bonnie approached her. "And you give me a really serious no-joke response?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"The bad mojo." The Gilbert girl recalled. "When you touched Stefan and you had that reaction—"

"You know, what? Forget I said that. Your little dinner-party plot totally won me over." Bonnie waved her off, but she didn't see what happened during the fight. "Plus, the girls seem to trust him as well."

"No, Bonnie, seriously. What was it?" The brown-haired girl sighed. "Did you see something, or...?"

Bonnie sighed and thought about it for a moment before telling her. "It wasn't clear like a picture. Like today, I keep seeing those same numbers I told you about, eight, fourteen, twenty-two."

"Yeah?"

"When I touched Stefan, it was a feeling." Bonnie began to explain. "And it vibrated through me, and it was cold, and..." She seemed to struggle to finish the sentence, which Elena noticed as she looked at her in question. "And what?"

"It was death." Bonnie finally admitted. "It's what I imagine death to be like."

"Whoa." Quinn and Iylah approached the girls at the wrong time, it showed. "Hey! What did we just walk into?" As Quinn looked more confused, Iylah glanced at her cousin and frowned. "Are you okay, Bon-Bon?"

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Obviously this was not how the students expected their night was supposed to go. The game being cancelled, along with coroner vans and police cars surrounding a crime scene that took place right outside the back of their building.

Students crowded the area past the tape, as they watched Tanner's dead body being taken in by the coroners. Iylah stood next to Bonnie who had tears in her eyes, when something had caught the Bennett girl's attention. Her eyes slowly moved from the number 8 on the building, towards the licence plate that included the number 14, and last but not least, the parking space number was twenty-two.

At this realisation, Iylah squeezed the girl's hand and slightly rested her head on Bonnie's shoulder as a form of comfort. Little did they know, what the supernatural world had coming for them.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

megan speaks!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! i adore quinn and iylah's friendship.

and please don't be a ghost reader! i love reading your comments and seeing that you are enjoying the chapters, it makes more more inspired!

thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33