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CHAPTER ONE
school sucks
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( pilot )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Monday, September 7, 2009

Harper's POV.

I rapidly blink my eyes in order to adjust them to the newly put-in contact lenses. When the discomfort in my eyes bypasses, I take a moment to stare at myself in the mirror. I hardly recognize the girl staring back. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement, but still, the switch from glasses to contact lenses has been the highlight of my summer break. I feel like a whole new person now, even though all that's really changed about me is the ability to see my face without the obstruction of plastic rings around my eyes.

That's all I ever saw my glasses as, annoying little plastic rings that turn guys away. . . not that it really matters. I'm not allowed to date until I turn eighteen, and not until I get a job and finish college most likely. My parents are strict like that, but I know they only want me to succeed in life. Dating would be an unnecessary distraction from more important matters, like schoolwork and job interviews. Why waste your time with heartbreak when you're young when you have a whole life ahead of you?

Now that my contact lenses are in, I'm pretty much all ready for school. Today is the first day of junior year at Mystic Falls High School. To be honest, I've been dreading this day all summer.

Why you ask?

Well, everyone knows that junior year is the most difficult year of high school. Apparently, even senior year is easier. And me being the overachiever that I am of course requested to be in all the most rigorous classes available. In other words, my school weeks are going to be jam packed with stress.

Sometimes I wonder why I torture myself like this, but hey, one day it's all going to pay off, right?

With a final check of myself in the mirror, I grab my backpack and head downstairs. Since I still haven't learned to drive yet, my mom is the one taking me to school today. My dad would have taken me, but he's at work today. He works as a police officer down at the Mystic Falls Police Station, which is kinda cool, I guess.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I make my way to the kitchen. I find my mom grabbing the car keys off their respective hook on the wall. She notices my presence. "Are you ready?" she asks.

"Yeah," I say with little to no enthusiasm. I've been through this rodeo before. A new school year is really nothing to be excited about.

In silence, we go into the garage and hop in the car. I'm usually more talkative than this when I'm with my mom, but I'm not much of a morning person, especially if it's a school morning. My mom is usually more talkative than this even if it is the morning. I suspect that she's keeping quiet this morning because she knows I will need some quiet time to just mentally prepare myself for the hellhole I'm about to go into.

The drive to school feels extra short, and before I know it, we've already driven up to the front of the school. As soon as my eyes land on the front building, a pit forms in my stomach. I always get like this on the first day of school, and sometimes even on just regular days of school.

Gosh, I can't wait to just graduate already. Just two painful years left, and I'll finally be free.

I unstrap my seat belt and shrug my backpack on.

My mom turns back to look at me. "Bye, have a good day," she says with an encouraging smile.

"Bye," I say in return before opening the car door and getting out. She drives away as soon as I shut the door, so she doesn't hold up the cars that were behind us.

In no rush at all, I start walking towards the school. I'm glad I got to school kind of early today. I hate having to stress about making it to class on time.

There's a sea of students hanging out in front of the school. Friends are greeting each other with hugs. Girls are gossiping up a storm. Couples are embracing while others are checking out who got hotter over the summer. It's a whole jungle around here.

Since I don't see any of my friends in the crowd, I head inside the building. I immediately make my way to the hallway where my locker is located. Much to my disappointment, I have a bottom locker this year. Then again, it's not all that bad. I have it better off then some other people. A, because my locker is on the end of the row which means I don't have to worry about being squished between two people, B, the locker above mine belongs to my cousin Elena, so I at least know the person who I have to work with in order to reach my locker, and C, I discovered that the lock on my locker is broken, so I don't even have to waste time putting in a combination to open it.

So maybe I do have it pretty good after all, even if it is a bottom locker.

As I crouch down in front of my locker and take out my binder for Spanish III Honors, I hear the voice of my friend Bonnie Bennett approaching. "She looks like a hot — can I still say 'tranny mess'?" I hear Bonnie ask someone.

After shutting my locker, I rise to my feet and turn around to find Bonnie with Elena, the person Bonnie had asked the question to.

"No, that's over," Elena responds to answer Bonnie's question. She averts her eyes forward and they land on me. "Hey," she says.

"Hey," I respond back somewhat awkwardly, looking between both Elena and Bonnie. I can tell that the death of Elena's parents is still weighing down on all of us. Not only were they her parents, they were also my aunt and uncle. The tragedy of their deaths is probably going to haunt us all for a long time. But we're just going to have to make do for now and go back to living our lives like normal, or as normal as we can make it.

Bonnie's eyes flicker to my face. "Oh wow," she says. "Did you get contact lenses?"

I nod. "Yeah, just last week."

"Nice. I like the look," Bonnie compliments with a smile. She clasps her combination lock in her hands when suddenly her attention is drawn down the hallway. Her smile deflates.

Elena and I follow her line of sight to none other than Matt Donovan, Elena's and my childhood friend. He also happens to be Elena's ex now, so, yeah . . . awkward.

Poor Matt is staring at Elena with an emotionless expression. It's obvious that he's still hurting from their breakup. Trying to diffuse the awkwardness, Elena gives him a reluctant wave, but he just ignores the gesture. We watch as he takes his history book out of his locker, shuts it, and leaves.

Seeing him act like that makes my heart ache. I turn to Elena. "Should I go talk to him?" I ask her. Normally I wouldn't be the one volunteering to go talk to someone, but this is Matt Donovan we're talking about. I've known him my whole life. We literally used to share a crib.

"No, it's fine," Elena sighs. She crosses her arms and leans against her locker. "He hates me, doesn't he?"

Bonnie shuts her locker. "That's not hate," she disagrees. "That's 'you dumped me, but I'm too cool to show it, but secretly I'm listening to Air Supply's greatest hits'."

"Elena!" calls the voice of our dramatic friend Caroline Forbes. She wraps Elena in a tight hug. "Oh, my God. How are you?" She lets go of her and looks her over. "Oh, it's so good to see you." Caroline turns her attention to Bonnie and me. "How is she? Is she good?" she asks us.

Before we get a chance to answer, Elena intervenes. "Caroline, I'm right here," she reminds our quirky friend. "And I'm fine. Thank you."

"Really?"

"Yes," Elena confirms. "Much better."

Being the sappy girl that she is, Caroline pulls Elena in for another hug. "Oh, you poor thing."

"Okay, Caroline," Elena says, obviously trying to get her to move on to something else. We love Caroline, but sometimes she can be a little too much.

Caroline takes the hint and lets Elena go. Clasping her hands together, she says, "Oh. Okay, see you guys later." And with that, Caroline takes her leave.

I make a mental note to remind myself later to ask Caroline about our plans to start reading the second book in the Twilight Saga, New Moon. Ever since the vampire romance movie came out last year, Caroline and I have been die-hard Twilight fans. We've held off on reading the rest of the series since later this year the second Twilight movie is supposed to come out. But now, since the movie is coming out in a few weeks, the two of us have made plans to start reading New Moon so that we will be prepared to watch the movie when it releases in theaters.

Once we gather all our things for our first periods classes, Elena, Bonnie, and I start to make our way to the stairwell. All of us just happen to have our first period classes on the third floor this year. I have Spanish III Honors. Elena has Honors Speech, and Bonnie has ASL III.

As we're making our way past the office, Bonnie comes to a halt. "Hold up. Who's this?" Bonnie asks.

I take a look inside the office to see who she is talking about. Standing with his back to us is a boy wearing a black leather jacket, sunglasses, and jeans.

"All I see is back," Elena says.

"It's a hot back," Bonnie emphasizes.

Elena and I laugh at our boy-crazy friend.

Bonnie narrows her eyes at the new boy. "I'm sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar," she predicts.

Elena scoffs before shaking her head at Bonnie. "You're really going to run this whole psychic thing into the ground, huh?"

"Pretty much." Bonnie grins.

"What psychic thing?" I question, looking towards Elena in confusion. I have no idea what my cousin is talking about.

Elena turns to me. "Oh, Bonnie just claims that since her Grams told her she's related to some Salem witches, she's 'psychic' now." Elena chuckles.

"Psychic, huh?" I muse. "That's new."

"Oh," Bonnie says, "you just wish you were as cool as me." She flips her hair back for dramatic affect.

I laugh at her antics.

"I'll be right back," Elena says suddenly. She sighs heavily before walking off.

"Where's she going?" I ask.

"No idea," Bonnie says not taking her eyes off the new boy. "Pleassseeee  be hot," she begs. She continues staring at the new boy's back like her life depends on it.

I shake my head and laugh. "You're too funny, Bonnie."

At that very moment, the boy turns around, and when I say my heart fluttered so fast I almost had a heart attack, I'm not kidding. The new boy is gorgeous with a pale complexion, a broad forehead, angular jawline, deep-set, forest green eyes, and straight, short, dark brown hair that appears perfectly gelled. He literally looks like he just stepped right out of a teen model magazine.

For a brief moment, for a mere fleeting moment, I wonder what it would be like to have a conversation with him, even better, to actually have his attention. And when he starts walking out of the office and towards us, apart of me jumps at the idea of him just saying a simple "hi" in greeting.

My cheeks flame red as he exits the office, but he doesn't give me and Bonnie even a glance. He walks right passed us and down the hall. My face falls almost immediately, but I brush it off. He isn't the first boy I've developed a crush on, and he won't be the last. Besides, it won't matter anyway. I'm not allowed to date yet, so any boys I set my sights on right now are irrelevant. By the time I turn eighteen, they'll probably be long gone out of my life.

I turn to my left only to find that Bonnie is no longer at my side. I search for her down the hall, and am not surprised when I find her following the new boy like a lost puppy. There's no doubt that he's going to be popular with the female population of this school. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a girlfriend within just one week.

*Evening After School*

"So you're really not going out with your friends tonight?" my nosy mother asks with a disappointed sigh.

I was right about to head upstairs to prepare for bed when she stopped me at the foot of the staircase.

"No, Mama, it's a school night." I shake my head.

My mother tosses her head back exasperatedly so that her hair falls behind her shoulder. "So how come your friends have time to go out, and you don't?"

"Mama."  I have to force myself from rolling my eyes. "It's the start of junior year. I don't have time to stay up late. Besides, there's a back to school party tomorrow. I'll see them then, and I'll also see them at school anyway."

"Okay."  She nods. "I just don't want your friends to think that you're blowing them off. I know that grades are important, but so is your social life."

I let out an annoyed sigh. "I know, Mama, but it's fine. Trust me. It's fine. They won't care if I miss one get together when I'm just going to see them the next day anyway."

"Alright, I was just making sure," my mother says, turning to walk away. "Goodnight."

With that awkward conversation over, I go back to preparing for bed. I change into my PJ's and brush my teeth. After saying my prayers, I hop into bed and curl up with my copy of the book New Moon. I plan on reading the first chapter before I fall asleep.

As I'm flipping to the first page, my phone dings. I reach and grab it off my nightstand. It's a text from Bonnie.

BONNIE BENNETT: You missed out on a crazy night. the new boy showed up at the grill. his name is stefan salvatore and i think he likes elena

A knot forms in my stomach. Suddenly, I regret the decision I made not to go tonight.

HARPER LACY: Wait what?! how do you know he likes elena?

BONNIE BENNETT: he showed up at the grill WITH her. he also kept looking at her and even asked if she was going to the party tomorrow

The knot in my stomach turns into a bottomless pit of jealousy.

HARPER LACY: Wow, does she like him back?

BONNIE BENNETT: She does. it's pretty obvious, oh i gotta go, goodnight!

HARPER LACY: Goodnight!

My arms flop down onto the bed as I stare up at the ceiling, feeling nothing but sorry for myself. Bonnie's text messages just had to ruin my night.

I know I told myself not to think too much about the new boy, but he is not what's really bothering me. What's really bothering me is my oh-so-perfect cousin Elena. I don't like to be jealous of my cousin, but sometimes it is impossible not to be. We're both honors students and well respected girls in Mystic Falls, but that is where the similarities end. Elena's popular and a cheerleader. I'm not that popular, and no way in heck would I ever be a cheerleader. I can't even imagine how awkward and silly I would look trying to dance to some cringy routine.

And now my cousin has caught the attention of Stefan Salvatore, the new hottie at school. She already had Matt, one of Mystic Falls' star football players, wrapped around her finger for two years, and now, just four months later, she already has another guy lined up.

I shouldn't be jealous, since I can't even date yet, but I still am because Elena is allowed to date. She hasn't been single her whole high school career. I've read tons of romance novels, but I have never gotten to experience myself what it's like to be in a relationship.

Once again, I need to remind myself that it's better off this way. Part of the reason I think I get higher grades than Elena is because I have never had to deal with relationship issues. If just thinking about being in a relationship is distracting, I can't imagine how distracting actually being in a relationship would be.

Now that my mood has been brought down, I don't feel like reading any Twilight tonight. The last thing I need is to read about another mushy couple being painstakingly adorable. So I close my copy of New Moon and lay it down on my nightstand. With one flick of a switch, my lamp turns off, and the peace of the night swallows me whole.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

*Annual Back To School Bonfire Party in the Woods Down by the Falls*

Music blasting, underage drinking, couples making out . . . and just like at every party I go too, I'm sticking to my friends' sides like glue. Caroline is off somewhere while Bonnie, Elena, and I are hanging out by the bonfire. Bonnie and Elena have drinks in hand. I don't, however, since I'm not allowed to drink yet (yeah, something else on my parents' long list of "no-no's"). So instead, I'm drinking a can of Sprite.

"Just admit it, Elena," Bonnie presses.

Elena caves in. "Oh, okay, so he's a little pretty."

"A little pretty?" I question teasingly. "Come on, Elena. He's hot stuff."

"He has that romance novel stare," Bonnie adds.

"Oh my gosh! He does!" I agree a little too enthusiastically. Whenever books get brought up, I always tend to get a little too excited.

" 'Stefan looked deep into her eyes'," Bonnie pretends to quote jokingly, " 'piercing her very soul.' "

We all lose it and start laughing. I may not be drinking like everyone else, but joking around with my friends always helps to loosen me up a bit.

Bonnie takes a look around us. "So where is he?" she asks.

"He is new in town," I say. "Maybe he's just having some trouble getting here."

"Maybe," Elena says. She turns to Bonnie. "Hey, Bonnie, maybe you can find out where he is. Aren't you the psychic one?"

Bonnie grins. "Right, I forgot." She composes herself. "Okay, so give me a sec. Grams says I have to concentrate." Bonnie rolls her eyes playfully at her own antics.

Elena puts up a finger to stop her. "Wait, you need a crystal ball. Uhhh." She turns away from us and looks around for something to be Bonnie's "crystal ball." She leans down and picks up an empty beer bottle before turning back to us. "Ta-da." Elena smiles triumphantly. She holds the beer bottle out to Bonnie.

Bonnie laughs then wraps her fingers around the bottle. She's silent for a moment before abruptly letting go.

Elena looks Bonnie in the eyes. "What?" she questions.

"Did you see anything?" I laugh, thinking that Bonnie is just trying to be dramatic.

Bonnie's face grows serious. "That was weird. When I touched you, I saw a crow."

"What?" Elena says, her face growing serious as well.

I turn my head to the side in scrutinization. "When you touched Elena, you thought you saw a crow?" I say in disbelief.

"A crow." Bonnie nods. "There was fog . . . a man." She stops abruptly. "I'm drunk. It's the drinking. There's nothing psychic about it." She shakes her head in disbelief at herself now. Bonnie takes the empty beer bottle from Elena. "Yeah, okay, I'm gonna get a refill," she says before walking off.

"Bonnie!" Elena calls after her.

"Well . . . that was weird," I say.

Elena turns around to face me. She blinks her eyes in surprise at something behind me.

"What?" I say as I turn around to see what she's looking at. When my eyes land on him, my heart stops.

Stefan Salvatore.

"Oh," I stutter, "oh, I'm so sorry." My breathing starts to get a little too heavy. What the heck did I just apologize to him for?! I'm such a clutsy mess!

"Sorry for sneaking up on you," Stefan apologizes, looking down at me with a polite smile. He looks behind me at Elena. "Hi," he greets her with a nod.

A huge smile forms on Elena's face. "Hi," she says in return, not taking her eyes off him for a second.

Yup, my cousin is head over heels in love with Stefan Salvatore.

Stefan turns his attention back to me. "You must be Harper. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I find myself staring into his emerald green eyes. I feel like they're staring right into my very soul. Talk about "romance novel" stare.

I open my mouth to speak. The words come fumbling out. "Hi, I'm Harper. It's nice to meet you." God, did I just repeat what he already said?

Stefan chuckles at my flusteredness.

Before an awkward silence can arise, Elena steps forward to stand evenly with me. "You're here." She smiles at Stefan.

"I'm here." He grins back at her and only her.

Suddenly, I get hit with a wave of third-wheelingness, and a choice surfaces in my mind. Should I stay or should I go? I really don't want to go because this could be my first chance to ever talk to Stefan . . . but then again, it's very clear from his body language that he's only interested in Elena. Bonnie was right. It appears that Stefan Salvatore has fallen for my cousin, the beautiful Elena Gilbert.

"Hey," I say in a slightly louder voice.

Elena and Stefan simultaneously turn their heads in my direction. They already got lost in their own world. How nice.

With my thumb, I point behind me at nothing in particular. "I'm gonna go find Bonnie," I say. I turn on my heel and walk away without looking back. I really need to stop pining after Stefan. It's not like anything good was ever going to come out of it.

I look around in the darkness until my eyes land on Bonnie. She's standing with a drink in her hand over by a picnic table. I approach her quickly, so I don't have to be standing by myself like a weirdo for any longer than I already have. "Hey," I say to get her attention.

Her green eyes flick up. "Hey," she says. She scans our surroundings for a moment. "Where's Elena?"

"She's with Stefan. He just got here."

"Oh," Bonnie says.

"And you were right. They are totally into each other."

"Wait,"  Bonnie stops me. She looks into my eyes as if she's searching for something. "I know that voice. You aren't jealous, are you?"

I immediately shake my head. "No, of course not, I'm not allowed to date until I turn eighteen. You know that. Besides, why would I waste my time on a guy right now? It's not like high school relationships last that long anyway." I look away, so I don't have to look Bonnie in the eyes anymore. Sometimes she can read me like a book, and I don't like that, especially when it comes to my personal matters.

I hear footsteps approaching. I turn around to see that it's Caroline and Matt, and just like everyone else, they have drinks in hand. "Hey," I greet them.

"Hey," Matt says walking up to me, "have you seen Elena?"

Of course, everyone wants to know where Elena is, no surprise there.

"She's with the new boy, Stefan Salvatore. I don't know if you know him," I answer.

"Oh," Matt sighs, "I think I know who he is."

"There she is," Caroline says. She points a finger off into the distance.

I follow Caroline's gaze to the bridge over the falls. Elena and Stefan are leaning against the rail awfully close to each other, probably having a deep conversation. A pit forms in my stomach, and I quickly look away.

After taking a sip of her beer, Caroline turns to me. "So, have you started reading New Moon yet?" she asks me. Caroline seems a bit off. I think she's trying to make conversation while also being occupied with something else. When I catch her taking a quick glance at Elena and Stefan in the distance, I get my answer. Just like me, she wishes it was her up there with Stefan and not Elena.

"No, I was gonna read the first chapter last night, but it got too late," I say to answer her question.

"Oh," she says. "Well, maybe we can talk about it over the weekend then?"

I nod. "Yeah, the weekend will work better for me cause of school and stuff."

Caroline sighs. "Always the overachiever, aren't you?" She grins.

"Yeah," I say tearing my gaze away from her as I feel an embarrassed blush creep to my cheeks.

The four of us, Matt, Bonnie, Caroline, and I, talk for a while until Caroline and Matt break off back to the main party area.

I let out an exhausted sigh. "I'm so tired," I sigh dramatically, folding my arms behind my head. If there's one thing I hate about parties, it's how long they can go on. Maybe the first two hours are fun, but after that I usually just wanna go home already and sleep. And tonight's a school night, so I really do have to get home soon.

"I think I'm ready to go home now," I say, looking at Bonnie. If it were my choice, I would have gone home a long time ago, but since I don't have my driver's license yet, I have to wait on my cousin Elena to take me home whenever she's ready to leave the party.

"Go find Elena," Bonnie suggests. "I think I saw her by herself a few minutes ago."

"Alright." I say. I throw away my can of Sprite into a trash bin by the picnic table and begin walking back to the main party area. I look around, but Elena is no where in sight. At first I wonder if she went back to Stefan, until I see him alone at the side of the gazebo.

A guilty thought creeps into my mind. What if I just went over and talked to him for a while? There would be nothing wrong with that . . . except for my motive. I wouldn't be talking to him with the goal of finding Elena. I would be talking to him for myself, even though I very well know that Elena likes him, and he likes her back.

I shake my head. I still need to get home though, and in order to do that I have to find Elena. If asking Stefan is my only option to find her, then so be it. After taking a deep sigh, I approach Stefan. He has his back to me which is extremely annoying because that means I will have to awkwardly get his attention, and I HATE being awkward.

"Hi," I greet in a loud enough voice for him to hear.

Stefan turns around and looks down at me. "Hi," he says with a warm smile.

His cute smile distracts me for a moment, making my heart flutter involuntarily. "Um," I quickly compose myself, "do you know where Elena is?"

"Uh, yeah," Stefan nods, stepping to the side. "She went to go talk with her brother that way." He gestures with his head into the woods.

"Thank you," I say. I take one step towards the woods before the sound of Elena's panicked voice stops me in my tracks.

"Somebody help!" Elena cries. She comes out of the woods with Jeremy right behind her. He's carrying the body of a limp girl in his arms.

It takes a few seconds for the sight to register in my brain. My mouth drops open. "Oh, my God."

Wanting to get a better look at who the girl is, I push past the growing crowd until I'm close enough to get a visual. The girl's long, brown wavy hair gives her away. It's Vicki Donovan, Matt's older sister.

She and I aren't close, but like Matt, I've known Vicki my entire life. The sight of her bloody neck makes my stomach twist in an unnatural way. My body automatically takes control of itself, and I immediately take my eyes off her. If there's one thing I can't handle it's blood. I HATE the sight of blood. It always makes me feel all wrong inside.

The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. "What happened?" I ask to no one in particular. Either no one heard me or everyone is too concerned about Vicki because no one answers my question.

Some time passes before an ambulance and police officers arrive. The night has taken a complete 180 turn—from carefree party to disturbing incident. No one seems to really know what to make of what happened to Vicki. The word is that it was an animal that attacked her. But what animal could have done such a thing? It doesn't make any sense.

I go over and stand next to Elena. "I really need to get home," I complain to her. Sometimes I feel like such an uncaring person. Something terrible just happened to a family friend, and all I can think about is how tired I am. Then again, it's not like I can do much for Vicki right now, other than pray for her recovery.

"Hey," Bonnie says, coming up to us. "We're gonna go to Mainline Coffee, wait for news."

In the back of my mind, I know that there is no way I'm going out for coffee at such a late hour, but I wanna wait and see what Elena has to say about it first before saying anything myself.

"I gotta take Jeremy and Harper home," Elena says.

Good girl.

"Yeah," I speak up. "I can't go even if I wanted to. It's a school night."

Bonnie suddenly grows serious, as if our answers aren't really what she was concentrating on. "Can I tell you guys something?" she asks.

Elena and I nod our heads, but neither of us really know what she's getting at.

"There's no way I'm psychic," Bonnie begins slowly. "I know that. But whatever I saw . . . or I think I saw . . . I have this feeling . . . "

"What are you talking about?" I interject before hastily shutting my mouth. I have this bad habit of interrupting people sometimes. I guess it's cause I'm such a quiet person, so whenever I do have something to say, I like to get it off my chest as soon as possible.

Elena shakes her head in confusion. "Bonnie, what?"

Before answering, Bonnie takes a moment to stare into our eyes, switching between the two of us. "That it's just the beginning."

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

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a/n:

Fun fact: The title of this chapter "school sucks" is a nod/reference to the TVD saying "love sucks." Also, I just started school myself in real life, and it really does suck.

-- roxy

( word count: 5.2k )