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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
the bachelor raffle
╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

( a few good men )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Friday, January 8, 2010

Harper's POV.

*Harper's Bedroom*

"Ugh, Bella Swan is so annoying," I rant into the phone. "I swear she cares more about becoming a vampire than actually being with Edward."

"I know right?!" Caroline says from her end. "And can we talk about how she handled her depression? I am so not going to let myself turn into a zombie just because my boyfriend dumped me."

"Same," I agree. "Bruh, Bella Swan is so weird. I swear, if I were depressed like her, I would definitely be rocking out to music all day."

So, New Moon finally came out in theaters. Caroline and I saw it about a week ago, and we're still ranting about it. Don't get me wrong, we both loved the movie and are looking forward to the next installment in The Twilight Saga — Eclipse. However, it's always fun just to rant about the main characters and get a kick out of it.

"Speaking of boyfriends," I begin teasingly, "how are you and Matt?"

"Well," she drawls out, "we're actually doing pretty good. He invited me over to his house tomorrow before the bachelor raffle. We're going to have the whole house to ourselves since, you know, no one's home." She giggles.

"Sounds fun," I say. To be honest, I'm growing disinterested. I just can't relate to my friends in their dating lives. I have no experience with boys and hearing them rave about their boyfriends is only making me long for something I've been deprived of.

"So you're not going to the bachelor raffle?" Caroline changes the subject.

"No." Taking my phone with me, I get up off my bed to go find some pajamas to put on. "My parents won't even let me watch The Bachelor. They're not gonna let me go to a bachelor raffle."

"Well, I have to be there. My mom wants me to sell tickets for the raffle. I can give you all the juicy details on who won a date with who," she says suggestively.

I laugh. "Sounds good. Thanks."

We talk for a bit longer until Caroline has to hang up so she can pick out an outfit to wear for her date with Matt tomorrow. It's nice that life has been slowly going back to normal. There haven't been any vampire problems in days, and Damon hasn't caused any trouble either . . . at least, not that I'm aware of. I'm still not completely okay with the fact that he's decided to stay here for a while longer though. I don't get why he doesn't just leave. Wouldn't it be a good idea to get as far away from the thing that has caused you the most pain and disappointment? Aka, for Damon being the tomb that his long lost love wasn't even in.

Furthermore, Bonnie's been away staying at her aunt's house. A funeral was held for her Grams not too long ago, and she needed a break from Mystic Falls. I get it. Sometimes I just wanna throw something hard and break it whenever I think about her Grams' death. Sheila died for nothing, and we're all going to have to carry that guilt with us for the rest of our lives . . . like Damon would care though, despite him being the main reason we were even going in there in the first place other then to destroy the rest of the tomb vampires.

Then there's Elena and Stefan. My cousin and her boyfriend are still going strong so not much to say there. Finally, there's Alaric. I'm still working for him as his student aid. Every once in a while, when I get comfortable enough, I'll ask him questions about vampires. But I usually try to keep talk about vampires to a minimum since I know it's a touchy subject for him. Helping out Alaric after school has sorta become my own personal scheduled wind-down time.

So yeah, life right now is pretty decent.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

3rd Person POV.

*The Bachelor Raffle for the Founders' Day Fundraiser*

*Mystic Grill*

"You are quite the charmer. Aren't you, Mr. Salvatore?" Sarah Lacy says as she takes a sip of her drink.

Mrs. Lacy and her friend Carol Lockwood had been cornered by the dark-haired Salvatore, and neither one of them minded. Carol didn't mind because she harbored a crush on him, but Sarah didn't mind for a different set of reasons. She has an ulterior motive for wanting his attention. She's doing some digging for her husband, and what better way to do that than flirt with the man who clearly has a thing for her and her friend.

Smoothly, Damon leans a hand against the pillar they're standing next to. Not so subtly positioning himself closer to the two women. "I've got the big date planned," he boasts. "It's a romantic dinner, secluded spot, somewhere woodsy."

"You're making me think I should buy a ticket." Carol smiles, flattered.

"Well, you are in charge," Damon reminds. "You could always rig it." He flashes her a sly smirk before taking a sip of his drink.

A light twinkles in Carol's eyes that does not go unnoticed by Sarah. Mrs. Lacy is very aware of her friend's attraction to Damon. While she does not approve of Carol's behavior around him, she knows that Carol would never actually do anything stupid to ruin her reputation or marriage to her husband Richard.

Damon removes his hand from the pillar. "Mmm. Pardon me," he excuses himself, sending Carol a polite smile then rubbing Sarah's shoulder before walking away.

Sarah keeps a steady eye on him as he walks over to Liz Forbes. Liz and Damon retreat into a corner, and Sarah notices a folder in the sheriff's hand. She assumes it's for Damon.

Upon this realization, Sarah searches the crowd with her eyes until they find her husband in police uniform. She makes eye contact with him then gestures with her head towards Liz and Damon.

Jack nods his head in response to his wife's observation, giving her a smile to let her know he can take it from there.

Having succeeded at getting the message across to her husband, Sarah nods in return. She composes herself as if nothing had happened then takes another casual sip of her drink. Her eyes scan the Grill when they land on a familiar face she hasn't seen in months.

"Kelly," Sarah greets with a pleased smile, walking up to her old friend.

Kelly Donovan does a once-over of Sarah. "Well, if it isn't Sarah Clara. You look good," she muses, eyes scanning their surroundings. "Where's that scrumptious husband of yours?"

Sarah chuckles good-naturedly. "He's on duty tonight."

"Shame," Kelly says. "He still working with Lezzie Forbes?"

"Mm-hmm." Sarah nods. "Going on ten years now."

While Sarah and Kelly catch up, Jack Lacy waits for Damon to finish talking to Liz.

"What was that all about?" Jack asks Liz, approaching her in the same corner she and Damon were just in.

"Oh, I just owed Damon a favor," Liz answers nonchalantly.

"What did he want?" Jack inquires.

"You know the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman? He requested a background check on him."

Jack raises a brow. "Harper helps him out after school. Is there anything I should know?"

"Well," Liz says, her voice becoming slightly serious. "Other than a few speeding tickets, there was one thing." She pauses, looking Jack in the eyes. "His wife went missing a few years ago in North Carolina."

Growing concerned, Jack crosses his arms but maintains his calm composure nonetheless. Alaric Saltzman, a man whose wife went missing. This is the man he's being letting his daughter hang around after school this whole time?

"What was the verdict?" Jack questions.

"The North Carolina police department left it as a cold case," Liz explains. "They never found his wife's body or the culprit."

"Mm-hmm." Jack nods, taking this information in. He searches the Grill for the history teacher. He spots him small talking with two women.

Damon isn't the only suspicious newcomer anymore.

*Time Skip*

Carol is introducing each of the bachelors on stage. "And what do you do, bachelor number three?" she asks, holding the microphone up to the man's mouth.

"Yeah, I'm a plumber," the man responds.

"Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers." Carol flashes the crowd a fake smile.

Some ladies in the crowd laugh.

Standing next to Kelly in the audience, Sarah smiles up at Carol on stage. Her friend has always been good at working a crowd.

"Moving on," Carol announces. She flips her note cards to the next one then walks over to the next bachelor. "Number 4, Alaric Saltzman. Wow. That's quite a mouthful." She laughs. "What do you do, Alaric?"

"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High," he responds.

"Oh," Carol gushes. "Beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper." She turns back to Alaric. "What do you teach?"

"History."

"History," she repeats. "Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy."

From within the crowd, Jack awaits Alaric's answer. He's been watching Alaric carefully ever since Liz informed him of the history teacher's past.

For a second, Jack's attention is drawn to Damon, who's standing next to Alaric in the bachelor line. Damon places his hand up to his ear, appearing to be sarcastically anticipating Alaric's response.

When Jack brings his focus back on Alaric, something shiny on Alaric's finger catches his attention. Jack didn't notice before, but now he is aware of the ring on Alaric's finger.

It looks exactly like his own ring.

Jack glances down at his hand just to double check, and sure enough, the ring his wife Sarah gifted him looks exactly like Alaric's ring.

Becoming confused, Jack wrinkles his brow. Either his wife and Alaric shopped at the same jewelry store or something is up.

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

( word count: 1.7k )