It was another beautiful day for Jasmine Lillian Saunders. Why? Because she was finally going to get out of this small town and take epic adventures with her best friend around the world. She got up from the guest room bed and readied herself for the day.

     Downstairs, the Salvatore brothers were slightly bickering at where they might head off to. Oblivious to her entrance, the vampire walks over to the small table that held the Salvatores' liquor and helped herself.

     “So, any idea of where you’ll go?” Stefan looked at his older brother as he crossed the living room.

     “I don’t know. London, maybe visit some friends?” The eldest Salvatore looked outside the window, shrugging.

     Jasmine barks out a laugh and settles herself on the couch, bourbon in hand, “what friends? I’m pretty sure I’m the only one, jackass. Plus, you have Stefan.”

     Damon quickly turns around to face her with an amused smirk on his face, “You’re right, Jasmine. I only have you two. So, where are we going?”

     Quick to shut his brother down, Stefan glared at him before responding, “You aren’t coming with us. I’m gonna live my life as far away from you as possible.”

     “Aw, Stefan. We could be a team! Travel the world together!” Jasmine held her arms out wide to symbolize the world itself.

     “Hey, we could even try out for ‘The Amazing Race’.” Damon looked over to his best friend with an amused grin as she shook her head laughing.

     Stefan rolled his eyes and gave the pair an unamused smile, “Hmm, that’s funny. Seriously, where are you going? Because we’re not staying in this town.”

     The bell being rung made all three vampires turn their attention to it. Stefan sauntered over to the door and opened it, revealing Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes. Jasmine tilted her head to the side as she sported a smirk on her lips.

     “I’m here to see Damon?”

     Surprised, Stefan blinked a few times to compose himself before nodding, “Uh, sure. Okay.”

     Damon quickly walked over to the door and smiled at the serious officer, “Sheriff, what a surprise.”

     “Sorry to bother you, but we need to talk.”

     “Come in.” Without glancing at the two confused vampires in the room, Damon led her straight to the back courtyard.

     Stefan turned toward his best friend with his eyebrows furrowed, “what do you think that’s about?”

     Smirking, Jasmine patted the seat beside her, “there’s only one way to find out.”

     They sat by each other and focused on the conversation that was taking place outside, not liking being out of the loop. Especially since the sheriff was involved.

     “So, what do you need?”

     The sheriff sighed before looking at the vampire, “There’s been another attack. A female victim, her throat torn out, completely drained of blood. It fits the pattern.”

     Stefan glanced at the raven-haired vampire sitting next to him and gave her a disapproving look. Jasmine scoffed and threw her hands in the air, “it wasn’t me, I swear.”

     "I-I'm sorry. I don't understand. I thought we solved that problem when I ran the blonde one out of town?"

     The confusion was evident in the sheriff’s voice, “what blonde one?”

     Jasmine sheepishly smiled and turned her head to face Stefan, “oh yeah, I probably should’ve told y’all I wiped her memory of that night. That’s my bad.”

     A scoff was heard from outside, signifying that Damon heard, “never mind.”

     “Anyway, the story for the town is another animal attack, but I’m not sure how long we can keep lying to them. The council is in an uproar.”

     Jasmine gritted her teeth when she realized her plan to distract the council from straying back onto the vampire matter didn't go as planned. Whoever this vampire was, was going to have a nice little chat with the infuriated vampire herself.

     “So, uh, what do we do?”

     “You’re the only one who’s said they’ve taken on a vampire before. We were hoping you could tell us?”

     The eldest Salvatore scratched the back of his neck as he looked away from the concerned sheriff, “Well, um, at the moment, no, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Don’t you worry, sheriff, thank you for stopping by.”

     He led Elizabeth through the living room again, escorting her towards the door, “Let me know what you come up with then.”

     “Absolutely.”

     Damon closes the door as soon as the sheriff steps foot outside. Jasmine was, purposefully, too slow to stop Stefan from slamming Damon against the wall.

     “What is wrong with you? You killed somebody?”

     The older brother easily pushed his younger brother off of him and walked past him, “Get off of me. A, don’t touch me. B, if I had I wouldn’t have been so obvious about it. C, there’s another vampire in town.”

     Stefan shook his head as if the possibility of another vampire being in town was absurd, “That’s impossible.”

     Jasmine rolled her eyes as she looked at the pair, “obviously not.”

     “Then, who could it be?”

     Damon sighed, “What do we care? We’re leaving anyway, right?”

     Standing up, the eldest vampire clapped her hands in glee and smiled widely at the two, “right! So, let’s get packing so we can hit the road and kiss this sad town goodbye!”

     Shaking his head, Stefan looked at his best friend with disbelief, “No, I can’t leave now and you know that. How are we supposed to find this person?”

     Smirking, Damon turned to face Stefan before walking away, “Let the adults handle this, Stefan.”

     “So, what do we do now since you’re thinking about staying in a town that we should already be miles away from?” Jasmine looked at her best friend with utter annoyance. Already knowing his answer, she scowled at him before heading towards the door.

     “I have to see Elena.”

     "Yeah, I kinda figured that."

▪▪▪▪

     The car ride to the high school was spent in complete silence, which was odd for the pair since they always had something to do or talk about.

     Deciding he should break the ice, Stefan sighed in annoyance, "What's wrong?"

     "Nothing that we can't argue about later." Jasmine stepped out of the car when they parked, only telling Stefan to message her when he was done before she went to look around the student body once more.

     A familiar voice drew her towards a small make shift basketball court. There she spotted Matt with a dark haired guy. They were talking about a girl, it was obvious by the dark haired boy's teasing.

     "'We can't make it to the party.' 'We'll never miss a game.' 'We don't like the color red.'"

     Matt smiled at him and shrugged, "we hung out, like, twice."

     Laughter caused the boys' attention to immediately land on the vampire leaning against the basketball pole.

     She stood straight before walking closer to the pair. One's eyes were filled with amusement and a smile grazed his lips. The other's eyes were filled with curiosity and attraction while an arrogant smirk grazed his lips
 
    "Like he said, 'we people.'"

     "See? Even the new hot girl sees it." He turned to look at the raven haired vampire before extending his hand, "I'm Tyler Lockwood and who might you be?"

     Jasmine smirked at Tyler before shaking his hand, "Jasmine Saunders. Lockwood, as in founding families?"

     "That's the one." Tyler kept his gaze on the vampire while she made a mental note to assume he shared the same gene as his ancestors.

      "So, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't going to attend?" Matt gave her a playful smile as she narrowed her eyes at him.

     "I'm not, but curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to check out the school." Shrugging, she took the ball from the boy's hands and threw it towards the net, successfully making the shot.

     "Well, you do know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat." Tyler's smirk seemed to never leave his face.

     "Hmmm, but satisfaction brought it back."

     Matt belted out a laugh as he shook his head, "and then you end up with a zombie cat."

     "I'd prefer a cat over a dog." Jasmine's hidden remark went unnoticed as she looked at the Lockwood descendant. Both boys laughed before announcing they had to head on home.

     Jasmine remembered the time she had discovered about the werewolves. It was while she was traveling with the family that helped her. One of the brothers told her that he didn't share the same father as the rest of his siblings, that his mother was unfaithful when he was conceived. That in reality, he was of a werewolf bloodline, but never got to know more about it since his stepfather slaughtered the lot of them. She never understood how someone could do such a thing, but then again she didn't personally know their father, just through stories the siblings sometimes warily shared.

     She understood having your father hate you. She had suffered the same fate with hers. Different scenarios, but nonetheless, all the feelings were the same. Feeling like an outcast in your own family, like an abomination, wondering what you could have possibly done to make your own father hate you with every fiber of his being. Then, hating yourself more because you couldn't do anything to change the thing that he hated about you.

     She shook herself from her thoughts when she received the text from Stefan. As she started walking back to their meeting place, she groaned knowing that he would still want an answer to his question.

     Stefan sarcastically smiled at her when she came into his line of vision, "so, are you going to tell me what's wrong? Or are you going to give me another half assed answer?"

     He pulled out of the parking lot and started driving back to the boarding house before she sighed, "you're going back to her. Back to this town."

     "Why would that upset you?" Stefan's eyebrows were furrowed and his hands gripped the steering wheel a bit.

     “It annoys me, Stefan. For the past couple days, you’ve constantly changed your mind on whether you were staying or not. And as much as I hate the bitch, you can’t keep doing that to her.”

     "Doing what?" Jasmine scoffed, she knew Stefan wouldn’t see what he was doing as a bad thing.

     “You keep giving her false hope. Hope that you’ll stay long enough to mend your relationship. Hope that you both have a future together.”

     Jasmine had never seen Stefan so caught up in a girl since the 1860s. It was obvious that he wanted to find true love. A love so pure and passionate that makes everything in the world seem right. He wanted a family, which he couldn’t have, that he could grow with. He wanted to believe that a future with Elena was possible.

     “Hate to break it to you, Stef, but it’s not possible. By the looks that Elena gives Damon and me when we let it be known that we’re vampires, it’s obvious to see that she would never want to become one.”

     Stefan pulled up next to the house and turned off the ignition. His eyebrows were furrowed as he considered the truth in his best friend’s words.

     “We could still be together. She can grow old and I’ll still love her with everything I have.”

     “I don’t doubt that, but you don’t age, Stefan. It’s why we’re always constantly moving. Why we never stay in the same place for too long. Do you really want Elena to carry the burden of not getting attached to people and leaving her loved ones behind just so no one would suspect that you’re a vampire?”

     She hated the expression that was on his face. Jasmine never liked hurting his feelings or crushing some of his hope. But seeing as he wasn’t letting this go, she had to make him see all perspectives on the matter.

     “And you know what happens when humans are too involved with us. They die or they become vampires themselves and I know you don’t want Elena to suffer neither of those tragedies.”

     Stefan leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and nodded his head. “You’re right.”

     "It's a burden. Always being right."

     Laughter echoed throughout the car.