Stefan drove us both to school. It was the logical option- stick together, avoid suspicion. The longer I stuck with him, the more I could learn. Hopefully Damon would use the day to figure out a solution for my ring.

According to my timetable I had History on Mondays and Fridays which I guess I didn't mind. It just felt repetitive.

"Morning, Valerie," Mr Saltzman greeted me, "Please take your seat."

"Morning, Sir."

I happened to glance to my left, the boy with the dark brown eyes intently watching me again. I smiled once before not looking again.
During the lesson, I quickly checked he wasn't staring.
He wasn't.
He had his head resting in his hand; the other carrying his pen across the page. It was too loose for latin syntax and as his pen arced up the page I realised he was drawing. Teddy Roosevelt's presidency clearly didn't pique his interest.

"Tyler, have you written this down?" Mr Saltzman asked loudly. My head snapped forward, looking at him in panic. Did I just get Tyler in trouble? The look Mr Saltzman gave me suggested I had.

"Yes, Sir," Tyler replied, shifting in his chair.
Mr Saltzman didn't look like he believed him.

"Can I see it then." Tyler paused looking hesitant. Clearly he hadn't and Mr Saltzman knew this.

"You'll stay until it's written down."

Tyler grimaced, "But sir, I have training!"

"Well, write really quickly." Mr Saltzman shrugged his shoulders before carrying on with the lesson. I shrunk a little lower in my desk, hoping he didn't work out it was my fault. Once the bell rang for recess, I expected someone to mention it but everyone couldn't care less as they all milled out.

Biochemistry followed History. I entered the room, greeted by partnered students standing at separate tables. Each were buttoning up lab coats and acquiring gloves. 

"You must be Valerie." A balding man said from his counter.

"Yes, Sir." He passed me a folder of papers.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Mr Collins. The class is doing a practical exam today which I obviously don't expect you to do seeing it is midway through the school year. I'll get you to fill out some paperwork then do some work from the textbook instead." He walked to a desk that was unoccupied, ushering for me to take a seat.
"Okay Class, today we're finally extracting DNA from a living organism." He shouted excitedly. I propped forward. What did he just say? I could help. I was very good at extracting DNA from living organisms.
"From these strawberries I prepared earlier." STRAWBERRIES!? I think I almost cried. An assistant wheeled in a cart with strawberry punnets nicely arranged. Mr Collins started focusing on the class, and with me no longer involved, I opened the folder he provided.
There were a couple of forms for use of school property and the other was a worksheet instructing textbook chapters I had to read for the new subject.

I looked to what everyone was doing. Some were blending their strawberries whilst others were still filling their blender with ingredients. It sucked I couldn't participate. It was probably best though. Who knew what chemicals I was 'allergic' to in here? This whole room was potentially a hazard to my life span.

I skipped the forms and went straight to the textbook. The chapter was an overall analysis of human genetics vs plant genetics.

Nearing the end of the lesson, the chapter reached the topic of DNA. My stomach all of a sudden felt alarmingly empty. Facts on blood filled the page. My throat grew dry as I imagined it filling my stomach. Younger the better... no, no, NO! I couldn't think like this. Not here! I brought a hand to my face, rubbing my eyes, trying to stop the monster under the skin. I was supposed to be blending in. Snacking on the class on the second day wouldn't help me. Maybe I could compel them to forget? I groaned. I should have eaten breakfast.
I was saving my last blood bag for desperate times. Was this desperate enough? I needed to talk to Stefan for more.


The Bell rang. I shuffled my papers into my pile and scurried out of there. The sounds and smells heightened now; the urge had been semi-awaken. A girl bumped into me, her denim jacket sounding like sand paper against my arm. I almost grabbed her; almost attacked her. My blood was pounding, the high of bloodlust becoming too much.

"Valerie?" I swung around. Stefan stood in the hall.

"Hi, Stefan." My voice came out forced. I had more control than this.

"Are you okay?" Oh, I'm fine, Stefan. I'm about to eat a cohort. His brow furrowed but his face still wore a lazy grin.

"Yep. Never better." My attention switched to a group of girls walking past.

"You sure? You seem a bit... twitchy." I leant forward, Stefan moving closer.

"I am really hungry," I whispered. It came out like the whining of a five-year-old. He chuckled.

"Lucky, we're going now." I jumped on the spot. I couldn't wait to eat! Wait! We couldn't leave yet.

"Don't we have more classes?"

"Not today."

I grabbed my stuff out of my locker and headed for the car. I could see Stefan already there in student parking, throwing his bag in the boot.
I was halfway there when chills stopped me in my tracks. Was this an afterburn of the hunger?
It felt familiar though. I spun around. It felt like I was being watched again. Tyler must have been staring.

If he kept this up, I was going to give him an imminent and very good hiding.
Surely enough, there he was, his dark eyes intently on mine. He was at the basketball courts. Why did I only notice when he stared? I'm sure dozens of teenagers had already stared at me today but his was like an invisible ray to my nerves.


"What's wrong?" Stefan called. He was probably worried I was going on a hunting frenzy triggered by a grazed knee. I continued to the car,

"Why does he keep doing that?"

"Who?" Stefan asked before following my line of sight. Tyler quickly spun back to his game as Stefan looked.

"Him. He keeps giving me this super intense scowl."

"Think nothing of it." Stefan hopped into the car in which I followed suite.

"He keeps staring at me though," I said, throwing my bag in the back then made myself comfy in the leather seat.

"Maybe he likes you." I tapped his shoulder. He didn't know me to like me.

"I'm about to make him my personal blood bag or rather yet, I might rip his head off entirely. Talking about blood bags, you don't mind do you?" I reached behind, opening the zip of my bag.

"It's fine. I don't want you to desiccate but, I suggest you don't rip off the head of the Mayor's son."
I exhaled loudly. Of course, he was the Mayor's son. Stefan turned the car onto the main road, heading for the house as I pulled out my last surviving blood bag, keeping it just below the dash.

We were both silent till we were just outside the boarding house's gates, mostly because I was finishing my snack. It really hit the spot. I was looking up into the canopy of the oak trees as we drove past.

"This school thing is a little odd at first, but you do get used to it."

"Do you have people running away from you too?" I asked, licking the last of the blood from my lips.

"What? No, Why? Valerie, what did you do?" I shook my head. It was nothing like what he was concluding.

"On Friday, I shook a girl's hand and she couldn't run away fast enough." He chuffed. It did seem petty after I said it. It was probably a normal teenager thing. You would think being stuck as a teenager would give you that knowledge but it really didn't.

"...and let's not forget, Tyler." His mischievous grin was going to get him in trouble.

"Firstly, she was really nice, then she freaked out and ran off. Him... don't get me started on him."

                                                                                           ∞

"How was school!?" Damon yelled out over the music blaring through the stereo. The walls pulsed with the beat as he turned it up higher, jumping around to the chorus.

"What are you doing!?" I yelled back. I didn't have time for this.

"Having fun. You two should try it!" His version of fun and mine were two completely different things. I took a step toward him, in which he skittered back playfully.

"You're supposed to be fixing my ring!"

"What's the rush!?" He shouted back. I scowled at him.

"I need it for when I find my brother!"

"You didn't know where he was a few months ago. Has something changed?" He yelled over the raucous cacophony of RnB once more.
I picked up his glass, its weight welcome in my hand. Damon rolled his eyes, trudging to the stereo system. Deathly silence followed as my ears adjusted to the now lack of noise.

"Please don't throw that." I had almost forgotten that Stefan was still behind me. He aimed irritation in Damon's direction then gestured for me to follow.

"You said that 'humans' got your brother in 1932."

"Correct. I've been searching for the crypt since but every lead becomes a wild goose chase."
Stefan led me into a large office study where he pulled a dusty old book from its nook in the shelf. He placed it down on the heavy mahogany desk. Turning on the lamp, he started rummaging through the yellowed pages.

"What's that?"

"It's one of my father's journals. Damon said your last name is Inverno. I remember reading about that name." My breath hitched. My last name was in his father's journal? Why was my family in there? He stopped his skimming abruptly, poking a discoloured page. He spun the book to face me.
The page's intricate border housed the title, '1844'. The cursive scrawl was still legible, in which Stefan said,

"Here, my father refers to a family who lived north of Lynchburg; The Inverno's." A lump caught in my throat. How did a man of Mystic Falls get this?

"I was 16. My parents were in Germany. We never met any Salvatore's, especially not in 1844."

"They didn't directly meet. Here he speculates. He's written about how the young daughter of the Inverno family was the sole survivor of a horrific accident..." My hands went numb; clenched so tight they were starting to throb. This man, Mr. Salvatore wrote ABOUT me, but why?

"He potentially thought you were a vampire, but he wasn't directly involved in your brother's detainment. He died in the 1860's." I heard him but had stopped listening. How many people knew other than Mr. Salvatore?

I couldn't sleep that night. The journal surged forth terrible nightmares.
For the first time in decades, my mind conjured me back to the carriage; back into the shrill cries of the horses as they laid broken. The screams invaded once more, the space constricting; crushing me, tangling my limbs. My lungs refused to work.

Her face appeared. She was so frightened. Her screams echoed over the horses. The cacophony of fear becoming all too much. My heart thumped in my ears again counting down my death.
Thump
thump
thump
thump
thu...
Light showered the room, burning white behind my eyelids. I hissed, waking up to Damon standing by the curtain. I rubbed the sweat from my face, letting my undead heart calm.

"Do you know how much sleep someone gets when all they hear is you all night?" Damon said in irritation. I threw a black velvet pillow at him,

"Close the curtain, idiot!"
He dodged the pillow which thudded against the window pane. He craned his head to the side slightly, a devilish grin on his face,

"oops."

"Do you want to become a blood bag?"

"You need me but otherwise go ahead." I hissed at him once more, reaching for another pillow. Looking back up to take my aim, he had vanished. I slammed the pillow onto the duvet. Why did he get so far under my skin?

"Could you turn your humanity off while you sleep at least?" He suggested from the door. I threw the pillow again. This time he caught it and walked off.

My anger was interrupted by the obnoxious buzz of the alarm clock next to me. School time, again. I decided after last night, I was riding my motorbike.

It was freedom. I never felt that with the countless cars I had in the past. They were always just a carriage.