𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

- - -
❝So, before you go
Was there something I could've said
To make your heart beat better?❞

Before You Go
~ Lewis Capaldi
- - -

When you offered the banner of 'best friend' to a person you find close, it essentially meant that you had license to all the moments in their lives - the best, the worst and the ugly.

But high school friendships of Mystic Falls held a completely different idea. Caroline hadn't stopped grouching about Bonnie stealing 'her' necklace - the amber colored witchy pendant that Damon had 'borrowed' stealthily from the dance. Though Bonnie had been giving everyone radio silence, Kat understood she had reason for it. Moreover, she was willing to be more than supportive since it would piss off Damon.

Kat could think about another person who had been giving her radio silence. Stefan.

Stefan I-wanna-murder-my-brother Salvatore. It had been a week since Lexi - the person who had known Stefan the longest - had died at the hands of Damon. And that meant it had been a week since the last time Kat saw or spoke to Stefan.

He wouldn't answer any texts or calls, shutting out both Elena and her. Kat couldn't forget the look in his crumbling eyes when he buried Lexi. It wasn't often that Kat saw that look on Stefan but once was enough to make her wish nothing bad happened to him ever again.

Kat had tried everything she could - visited the boarding house, called him, texted him, left him voicemails begging him to just tell her what she could do. The bottom line was, that Stefan had managed to avoid existing for all this time. Maybe he was scared, Kat thought, maybe he was scared to find hope that Lexi dying was all just a hoax - a grand elaborate plan for Damon to toy with his emotions like ages ago.

But as much as Kat wished that too, Lexi was no more. Kat knew because she would visit the lump of earth over her coffin everyday. It kept her grounded to reality, that Stefan was the one who needed her and not her moaning sister who pulled back every time things got rough.

"I understand you need space, just tell me how much to give you." Kat sighed into her phone, wondering how else she could fit all her concerns into a 2-minute voicemail. "If you want to talk, we could talk. If you just want to go away..." her breath caught in her throat, "Well, if you want to go away, I would understand. I mean it won't be.... Please let me be there for you Stefan."

She ended the horrible voicemail with a beep, coming back to the world bustling around her.

The morning sun was barely over the horizon while the people were up and at it. The lawn of Mystic Falls High was pressed down by the rushing steps of other high schoolers. Caroline and Elena were walking a few feet away, Elena scratching her head as she patiently listened to the blonde talk her ear off about her latest fight with Bonnie.

"No, I'm mad at her. She needs to make the first move. I won't make the first move, why should I make the first move?" Caroline grudgingly kicked grass, immediately letting out a sound of disgust at the pieces of earth that stuck to her sandals. "She's a thief. It's not about the necklace anymore, it's matter of principle!"

"Need I remind you of a tragic story of a teddy bear named Ms. Cuddles?" Kat raised her brow at Caroline, watching in building amusement at her at her lapis eyes widen.

Caroline turned around in a 360, on the lookout for the ghost of Bonnie's brown teddy bear to jump up at her for the murder.

"Alright." Elena said, "Well, I tried. I'm officially out of it-"

Caroline turned to her, "Good. Your turn then. Where's Stefan? Have you talked to him? Why is he not coming to school anymore?"

Elena looked to Kat with veiled panic, only to realize she wouldn't be getting any help from her twin. Settling for an 'it's complicated', Elena bolts towards the open doors of the building leading to the corridors where she could disappear into a throng of tall teenagers.

Caroline rolled her eyes, mocking the quick exit. Kat elbowed her in warning. Everyone knew Elena was the kind of girl who reveled in ignoring shit until it hit the fan. Caroline was the hands-on type, putting a band-aid on a problem before it even become one. It, however, did not give either of the girls to mock each other the way they did.

Caroline huffed, raising her hands up in surrender as they made their way from the sunny lawn into the hallways.

They would have done that quickly too, if it wasn't for the crowd of jocks passing by across their path from early morning practice. Matt was at the edge of crowd, completely washed up and donning one of his signature plaid checkered shirt as he pulled on his bag strap over his buffy shoulder.

Caroline froze at once, her eyes waiting for him to notice her.

It was a barely noticeable game of 'will they, won't they' - Matt almost went by without sparing the blonde one glance. But at the last moment, he looked sideways with a smile, "Hey."

"H-Hey!" Caroline's voice was an octave higher.

What irked Kat wasn't that the people she actually wanted together since third grade now had feelings for each other that were so obvious. No, it wasn't that at all - it was the awkwardness in Matt's smile and the desperation in Caroline's.

His smile barely pulled at his cheeks, his dimples hidden behind some sort of gentleman's code while Caroline's smile was like she was looking to escape her mother's cooking. No no no, with both of these people holding out on expression, chipped some hope off Kat's wall with each breath.

Finally the awkward second was over and they saw him rush into History like his life depended on it.

Caroline let out a long breath, scratching at the strap of her bracelet. Kat took her hand carefully, rubbing circles over it as the bell rung. She could have said many things, none that could help heal the disappointment in Caroline's eyes. So she gave the blonde a sad smile, "I could kick his ass if you don't want to."

At least that made Caroline laugh. 

Kat was tired playing pacifier, and the day had barely started. She sat between Caroline and Bonnie, passing on Bonnie's sympathetic looks and brushing off Caroline's glares before they reached the Bennett girl. Elena was sitting behind Kat, staring at the three exchanges like she was watching a tennis match.

Kat couldn't take the passive silence between them anymore. The rest of the class was purposely avoiding setting off Caroline. The teacherless class was raising its din by the second, intermediate conversations becoming more excited with the passage of every unsupervised minute.

They were all waiting for the new History teacher. After Tanner was compelled to leave town, Kat's class was subjected to the most boring of substitute teachers.

She had to admit that the football team had it worse. It had been a month of seeing Tyler try and fail to hold the team together, what with Stefan MIA and the boys lacking the opportunity to play for championships. Well, she hoped the new History teacher at least covered his end of the bargain. Caroline had told Kat that he was new to Mystic Falls, having no teaching experience before. The Sheriff had apparently spent one whole day touring him around town to help him fit in.

Her attention towards her inner thoughts broke when the entire class fell silent in sync. The dim in the roar was alarming, gathering everyone's gazes to the head of the classroom where there stood a new face.

Within a second of taking him in, Kat swore she heard half of the class let out of excited sighs, some from the boys, most of it contributed by the girls who practically had stars in their eyes.

Kat knew the replacement teacher was young. But she didn't know he was that young. He looked merely in his late twenties, sand and pepper hair shaggily falling over his pale forehead as he made his way in. Clearly this was his first teaching experience, glaringly obvious by his semi-formal dark blue button down shirt and trousers. He had one book and a few papers in hand, which he set down to glaze over the students with his light blue eyes.

"Good Morning everyone." he declared with a smile.

No one said anything, too struck by how much and how well he stood out from their other teachers.

"Alrighty..." He wrote his name on the board, dusting off the chalk with brought out many other fan reactions from the back of the class.

His stance was confident enough to face the crowd, but Kat felt some her nerves twinge when his look found hers. He was nervous, she could read it in the waves of panic that struck her. So she sent him a nod of encouragement, followed by a small 'good morning sir'.

The rest of the class followed her cue and erupted into an eerie synchronized greeting. Caroline raised a suggestive brow when no one was looking, earning a kick to the shin from Kat. He was a teacher geez!

Mr. Saltzman smiled before launching into an explanation, "Alaric Saltzman." he pronounced his name for the students, "It's a mouthful, I know. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue... You'll probably want to pronounce 'Alaric'," he stresses the first A, making it sound weirdly American "but it's 'Alaric' okay? So, you can call me Ric. I'm your new history teacher..."

And that's how Kat met one of the most important people of her life.

The school day dragged on both too quickly and excruciatingly slowly at the same time. None of the teachers gave any leeway with their piles of assignments and on the other hand, Stefan still hadn't replied to her thousand and seven voicemails.

It all came to a stop when she was summoned to the History classroom by Alaric Saltzman. While the rest of her friends were busy swarming out of the hellhole, Kat found herself sitting in a creaky chair in an empty classroom, lying in wait for the new teacher to waltz in and reveal his reasons.

With all the supernatural revelations being dumped on her shoulders, and dealing with the death of Vicki and now Lexi, Kat realized that she was barely holding her academics together. There was only so much all-nighters she could pull before contemplating a trip to the asylum.

If it might not have been the reason why she was called, Kat felt a weight drop in her gut. What if this was about her dressing choices? Elena often reminded Kat that she dressed like an insecure teenager on the verge of going slutty. But truly, it wasn't like that for Kat.

A majority of her closet was borrowed from Jenna's high school outfits and Miranda's very very old clothes. Kat liked pairing them all together and Elena's words often pricked the part of hers that struggled to be just like the women she looked up to.

Her inhibitions were interrupted when Alaric entered with her brother in tow.

"Oh good you're here! Nice to see you again Ms. Gilbert." she got up, shaking his hand with a wobbly smile.

Catching onto her worry, Alaric shook his head, "Don't worry I haven't called you here to speak about you. Your submissions are pretty perfect. You are here for your brother."

Jeremy flopped down somewhat roughly on the chair beside hers, expertly averting his gaze from either of their pointed eyes.

Kat frowned, realizing this could go either which ways, preferably an amicable path since Jenna was already trying so hard. "Yes Mr. Saltzman?"

Alaric sat behind the desk, bringing out a bulky file that Kat had tried to steal from Tanner quite too many times.

"You know that your old teacher had a jackass file? No joke." He held it up, the label 'JACKASS' glaring crystal and clear. "It's typed on a label. It has all the troublemakers in it. But really it's just an opus-- to you" he pointed to Jeremy.

Kat saw fear snake into her brother's indifferent look.

"I'm not him." Mr. Saltzman states abruptly, dropping the file directly into the dustbin beside the table. "Clean slate. Now, let's talk about grades."

Jeremy winced. Kat had finished his assignments for him over the summer when he was too busy getting shitfaced, but there was nothing she could have done when it came to all the tests that he had missed. "I know it's been a rough couple of months Mr. Saltzman, but I've been trying to turn them around and..."

Kat was mildly surprised at her brother's effort. Though miniscule, she tried to remember a time before the accident when Jeremy Gilbert was this eager to suck up to a teacher.

"What can we do to change that?" Kat asked him gently. Her hand had already snaked its way onto Jeremy's, offering a silent string of support as she posed the question. No matter what, they both knew they agreed on one thing - Jenna shouldn't have to face another parent's meeting like the one with Tanner.

"I'm glad you asked," Alaric smiled, "How do you feel about extra credit?"

"Yeah, yeah, totally!" Jeremy nodded.

"Write me a paper, then. History. Pick a topic, keep it local, and no Wikipedia-regurgita. These old towns have a rich history, so just get your hands dirty, make it sing and your back on track. Deal?"

Kat answered for her brother this time, "Deal"

Heaving a sigh of relief, Kat and Jeremy got up. Alaric shook Jeremy's hand this time, patting him on the back as if he was a friend rather than his failing student. "Great. Looking forward to it Jeremy. Now, excuse me for a minute, I have to talk to your sister. Alright?"

No matter how much she tried to assure herself, the familiar pit returned to her. She frowned, looking between the teacher and her exiting brother. Jeremy looked to her for confirmation, eliciting a nod from her.

After he left, she sat back down, "What did you want to talk about Mr. Saltzman?" 

He pursed his lips before smacking his lips in indecision. He looked like he didn't want to do it, but something finally pushed his words out, "Ms. Gilbert... I would understand if you don't want to talk to me about this, but... I, um, I heard Mr. Tanner got hurt under, tragic circumstances..."

Kat went rigid at the memory of that night, closing her eyes. Why would he want to know that?

"They um," Kat found a string at the edge of her top to twist, "They said it was an animal attack right?" She hoped Alaric would leave it at that.

But in which world would any curious person new to town settle for anything vague when they had a direct witness sitting right before them?

Alaric grimaced slightly, "But did it seem like... Anything else? Something abnormal maybe?"

His blue eyes were piercing through her with focus, waiting for an answer as she tried to wrap her head around a story she might weave. "I'm sorry, it's just... I-I was one of the people who first found him-" not completely false "-but I didn't venture that far as to what happened. It was, um... was hard for me to- oh God I'm sorry Mr. Saltzman I wish I could..."

He nodded vigorously, raising his hands to convincingly apologize, "I'm sorry. I understand that, it was rude of me to ask you something like that..." He got up as soon as she did, continuing politely, "If you ever want to talk about something like that, you know I can keep a secret".

Leaving the room and rushing out the corridors with her breath hitched low in her throat, Kat looked around the parking lot to find Caroline's car gone from the parking lot. She walked around a bit, calling Tyler to hitch a ride when she noticed the last figure she wanted to see for the day, probably for the rest of her days.

Damon Salvatore waltzed into the far side of the parking lot, blocking Bonnie from getting into her car.

"-I'm gonna scream" Bonnie grit out threateningly but Damon seemed unfazed.

"Oh no, Don't do that. Let's stay on point. I want my necklace-"

Without preamble, Kat shoved him against Bonnie's car, careful not to make a dent with her supernatural strength. For just a moment, she wished that Stefan had gotten through to kill him.

"Well, boohoo princess, you can't have it." she gave a menacing smile.

Damon looked at her from the corner of his eyes against the car, letting out a huff of frustration as he wriggled out of her grip.

"I can't take it, but you can give it to me," he told Bonnie, "I'm trying to help you, here"

"I don't want your help." Bonnie glared.

"You do want my help, and you don't even know it. You know why, you little witch? 'Cause you've stumbled into something you need to stumble out of-"

Kat growled, stepping closer to her friend, "Leave her alone or I'll finish what I started in that alley."

"Don't." Damon pouted, no real fear in his tone, "No threats. Look little witch: A, you hurt me last time. B, I wish you no harm. Believe it or not, Bonnie, I wanna protect you. Let me help you get Emily off your back-"

"How do you know about her?"

Damon smiled at Bonnie's panicked question. Kat did not know which Emily they were talking about, but she assumed it was one of the many things she had to catch up with in her friend's life.

"I know a lot of things, and I know more about that crystal than you do, and I know that she's using it to creep inside of you... See how scared you are? And, you should be, because I will get that crystal, even if I have to wait for Emily to give it to me herself. So, next time she comes out to play, you tell her that a deal's a deal"

Bonnie pushed Damon off her car, rushing into the driver's seat. Kat helped close the door just as hastily before turning to Damon.

Holding him by the collar, she grit out, patience worn thin, "What game are you playing Damon?"

He shrugged, "You want to get rid of me. This is it. This is how you do it Katherine. Ciao" He waved to her with a knowing lilt in his smile, watching with hawk-eyes as Bonnie sped off.

Before she could say anything, Damon was out of sight and in front of her stood Tyler with his car.

"You alright?" he frowned as she hurriedly got into the passenger seat.

Kat bit her lip at all the nefarious situations she expected Damon to benefit from. But she settled for a reassuring nod over the sound of AC/DC playing on the radio. "I'm fine. Thanks a lot for the ride Ty."

irene's corner

So... uh 👉🏽👈🏽. yeah,

i got back to edit this chapter. the wattys are open and guess who wants to submit Allure? me.

also, i read one of the comments mention that Kat dresses like a young teen trying too hard to seem like an adult (paraphrasing) and i'm saying this honestly, the dressing style was preplanned. Jenna's dressing style swung between decent and pretty wack, and so that is why Kat dresses that way.

oh btw, keep loving Paul Rudd.