ELEANOR WAS JUST TRYING TO HAVE A NICE TIME AT THE PARADE. The Miss Mystic Falls Court had a float, and the guys had reenacted some battle. She was enjoying her time when all of s sudden, Jeremy freaking Gilbert walked right up to her and questioned, "You're a vampire, right?"

"Dude, keep your voice down!" she exclaimed, immediately whipping around to make sure that no one had heard him. What the hell was wrong with him? She knew it was a matter of time before he found out, hanging out with Anna and all, but she thought he would be smarter. "God, can't anyone have a secret in this stupid town? I'm just trying to have a nice time, God."

"Sorry," he winced, and she watched as Caroline got off her float and headed over to Matt.

She just scoffed and threw her arms in the air like she was giving up completely. "Why do I even try to hide it anymore? I might as well just jump on a float and announce it to the whole freaking town."

"To be fair, you're pretty good at hiding it," he assured her, trying to calm her down so she didn't do something she would regret. She sounded like she was being sarcastic, but he was not totally sure. "I've hardly ever seen you talk to Damon and Stefan, which would be a kind of dead giveaway. And you seem fairly normal."

"Thanks, I guess. Was there something you wanted to add to that?" she questioned with a sigh, wondering if there was something else that he wanted to say to her. He did not seem angry or anything, so he clearly did not remember. He just knew that he had forgotten something.

"Nah, I was just asking because I'm mad at my sister right now," he replied, shaking his head and waving her off. "She lied to me and had Damon erase my memories about Vicki."

She just nodded slowly, knowing that he would hate her if he ever found out that she was the one that had killed Vicki. She was not sure whether it was best to just tell him or hope he never found out. It wasn't like she was keeping a secret from a friend. She barely knew the guy, so she just replied, "That's messed up."

"Yeah. Want a drink?" he asked, and he pulled a flask out of the pocket of his soldier uniform.

She stared at him in disbelief as he took a swig from it, and she looked up to make sure that it was still light outside and that she was not going crazy. "Dude, it is ten o'clock in the morning. You have a problem."

They remained out there until the sun went down, and there was some sort of party going on in the town square. Eleanor was sitting with Caroline, Matt, and Tyler — the boys had seemingly made up, at least a little bit — on a picnic blanket, eating and talking. The humans had all changed out of their old clothes earlier, and they were just hanging out when Mayor Lockwood came running over to them.

"Mayor, is everything okay?" Caroline asked because he looked worried about something.

"Tyler, I need you to go home, now. Take your friends with you," he ordered, and they all stood up. Eleanor reached down and began packing up the blanket while they all looked at him in confusion. He shook his head. "I can't explain. All of you need to get home, now. Please."

Tyler nodded as his dad handed him the keys. Whatever it was, it was urgent. "Yeah, okay."

"Here, take my car, it's out back. Caroline, Matt, all of you go with him," he told them, and Eleanor was really suspicious. What the hell was going on? She contemplated staying to find out, but she knew that would be weird and most likely would not end well. So, she followed them to the car and got in the back seat with Matt.

The Lockwood boy was speeding down the road, trying to get them all to his house before whatever was going to happen went down. However, all of a sudden, he started groaning. "What the hell is that?"

"What's the matter?" Caroline asked, and almost as soon as she said it, Eleanor felt it too. She was normally amazing at hiding her pain, but it felt like her head was splitting in two as a high-pitched ringing echoed through her ears.

Her hands flew to the side of her head, and she screamed, causing Matt to grab her and try to figure out what was going on. Caroline looked between her and Tyler, wondering what the hell was going on. Eleanor couldn't think or feel anything other than pain. She did not even notice that the car was spinning off the road or that they collided into a wall. She did not hear the shouts and yells. She was seconds away from passing out.

And then it stopped.

She looked up slowly, her ears still ringing, and her eyes widened when she realized that the car was on its side. Matt was coughing beside her, and Tyler was unconscious on the ground outside. Her eyes immediately searched for Caroline, and she breathed out a sigh of relief when she heard the girl groaning.

Eleanor unbuckled her seat belt, holding onto the door so that she did not fall on Matt, and she punched a hole in her window that was large enough for her to climb out. She heard an ambulance coming down the road, and she made sure that no one had any major injuries before helping them out of the car. She then stumbled over to Tyler, kneeling beside him.

"Tyler. Tyler!" she shouted, slapping him lightly across the face, but he was out cold. She heard a distant heartbeat, meaning that he was still alive. But he was going to need medical attention.

Once the ambulance arrived, the paramedics swarmed around him, and Eleanor headed over to check on Caroline. She was definitely shaken up, and she was really confused about everything that happened. But she seemed to be doing okay.

"That was insane," she murmured as she and the brunette girl stood under a nearby tree. Eleanor just nodded slowly, and they stared at the Lockwood boy on the ground. His eyes had opened, and he was slowly sitting up. Eleanor was beyond confused. She assumed that the pain that she had gone through was why the mayor wanted them to get out of there. It detected vampires, so why was Tyler affected? She would know if he was a vampire, right?

However, Eleanor's attention shifted when all of a sudden, Caroline's eyes fluttered shut, and she began falling. The Chetwood girl was fast enough to catch her, and she lowered her slowly to the ground, turning back and shouting, "Help! It's Caroline! She needs help!"

She needed surgery, and there was a lot of internal bleeding. It would be a couple of hours before she was out, and Eleanor needed to change and take a shower. Matt said that he'd call her if anything happened, so she headed back to her apartment

As soon as she stepped inside, she felt another presence in there. She looked up to see Elena standing in her living room. She turned back, looking at her with her usual 'damsel in distress' look, but as soon as they made eye contact, the Chetwood girl knew that it was not Elena.

"You're back," she pointed out, trying to act unfazed by the fact that Katherine Pierce was standing in her apartment.

A smirk spread across the woman's face at that, seemingly pleased that Eleanor had not mistaken her for Elena. "I knew you'd recognize me, Nora. You and Stefan were always my favorites."

"You'd think that the woman that was by your side for four hundred years wouldn't be put on the same level as the man you knew for all of a few months," the younger girl commented, placing her bag and keys on the counter before crossing her arms.

"Jealous?" Katherine just shrugged, tilting her head slightly in amusement. "You'd also think that the woman that was by your side for four hundred years wouldn't stab you in the back, and yet here we are."

Eleanor wasn't sure if she was scared, angry, annoyed, or all three. She had too much on her plate to be worrying about Katherine. "You could've come for me at any time. Why now?"

"Oh, Nora, I haven't come for you. I honestly couldn't care less about you," the Pierce woman informed her, taking a few steps forward. Eleanor refused to back down and remained in place. "Your betrayal stung, sure, but I just had to remember that you were nothing without me. And then, I was over it. I'm in Mystic Falls because I have other business to attend to."

"Can I ask what kind of business?" the Chetwood quizzed. She would be lying if she said that the woman's words did not sting at least a little bit, but she would not let her know that.

Katherine just grinned. "I would tell you, but where's the fun in that?"

"Leave, Katherine. There's nothing here for you anymore," Eleanor told her. There were people in that town that she cared about, that did not deserve her wrath. Well, it was really just one person in particular, the one who was in surgery as they spoke.

"I've only been here a couple of hours, and I already caused so much drama." She was inches away from the girl now. Eleanor knew what she was trying to do, and it wasn't going to work. She had gotten over Katherine a long time ago. "Think about all the fun I can have if I stay."

Eleanor then took her own step threateningly, and she sneered, "I will run a stake through your heart if that is what it takes. You've seen me do it plenty of times, even before you turned me."

"You wouldn't kill me, Nora," Katherine scoffed.

The Chetwood raised her eyebrows, challenging her former best friend. She had attempted to do it before, and she wondered if Katherine was confident enough to go up against her again. "Wanna find out?"

"As amazing as that sounds, I have better things to do. I'll come visit soon." 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

sorry if this chapter feels rushed. it was really late, and i wanted to go to sleep. that's the end of act one, though!