(act one, chapter three: friday night bites)

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"Honestly, I'm still surprised about Vicki Donovan and Jeremy. She's, like, four years older than him." Caroline said as the two blondes rode to school in her car.

"I had suspicions about them, but I hoped it wasn't true. I like Vicki but she has a bad influence on my brother. If it wasn't for her he wouldn't even have touched these pills." Buffy sighed as the two got out of the car and walked over the schoolyard.

"Personally, I don't like Vicki at all."

Buffy spotted Bonnie walking fast toward them. When she glanced in the direction Bonnie came from, she saw Stefan and Elena.

"Bonnie the speed train." Buffy joked, and Bonnie shot her a look.

"I don't like Stefan. He's weird and I don't have a good feeling about him."

"Who are we talking about?" James asked, appearing out of nowhere, kissing Buffy on the cheek.

"Stefan," Buffy replied before taking Bonnie's hands. "Bon-Bon, Stefan is not a serial killer. If he was, we'd already know. Plus, Elena really likes him. Give him a chance, okay? I swear, if he's a danger to my sister, we'll kick his butt personally."

Bonnie gave a small nod.

"Come on, we're gonna be late for class." Caroline said, looping her arm through Buffy's and pulling her inside.

"Since when does Caroline Forbes care about school?" James asked Bonnie as they followed the blondes.

"She doesn't." Bonnie shrugged.

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"World War II ended in...? Anyone?" Mr. Tanner asked. "Ms. Juan?"

Buffy glanced over at Anna, who shook her head.

"1945." Buffy answered.

"Correct, Miss Sommers. Finally, a right answer from you." Buffy rolled her eyes and caught sight of Bonnie's paper. It was covered in the numbers eight, fourteen, and twenty-two.

"Miss Gilbert? Pearl Harbor?" Tanner's voice made Buffy look up.

"December 7, 1941." Stefan answered for Elena, seeing that Elena wasn't going to answer since she didn't knew the answer.

"Thank you, Miss Gilbert." Tanner said sarcastically as Elena looked gratefully at Stefan.

"Anytime." Stefan replied, smirking.

"Okay, then. The fall of the Berlin Wall?"

"1989. I'm good with dates," Stefan said, and Buffy perked up. Seeing Tanner embarrassed was always fun.

"Are you? How good? Just the year."

Stefan better get all of these right or I swear to God.

 Stefan nodded. 

"Civil Rights Act."

"1964."

"John F. Kennedy assassination."

"1963."

"Martin Luther King."

"'68."

HEY, I knew that one! I'm so smart.

"Lincoln."

"1865."

"Roe vs Wade?"

"1973."

"Brown vs Board?"

"1954."

This is getting better by the second dude.

"The Battle of Gettysburg."

"1863."

"Korean War."

"1950 to 1953."

Tanner laughed. "It ended in '52."

"Actually, it was '53." Buffy spoke louder.

"Look it up. Somebody. Quickly."

"It was 1953." Mathew spoke and Buffy laughed at Tanner's bewildered face.

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"Oh my God, you're here!" Buffy said, hugging Elena as she walked onto the field.

"Yep. I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to normal is to do the things I used to do." Elena started stretching. "Oh, and you're both coming to dinner tonight."

Buffy nodded, but Elena looked at her like she was waiting for more.

"You, me, Buffy, and Stefan." Elena clarified, and Bonnie raised an eyebrow, clearly not thrilled about the idea.

"You promised to give him chance, Bon." Buffy reminded her while stretching her legs.

"Tonight's no good."

"You're going to be there." Elena said.

"Fine, I'll go."

"Good." Elena smiled satisfied at them both. 

"Hey, Buf have you seen Caroline anywhere?"

"Yeah, she's in the bathroom. She told me to already come here. Look there she is." Buffy pointed to Caroline who came walking towards the team.

"Sorry I'm late, girls. I was busy. Alright, let's start with the double-pike herkie hurdler. What do you say?"

They started the routine. With Bonnie and Buffy went everything all right but with Elena it didn't. Buffy heard Caroline tell her to stand in the back today because of it.

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"You explain it. Last night, I'm watching 9 and commercial break comes on and I'm like, "I bet it's that phone commercial" and sure enough it that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture." Bonnie spoke as the girls were preparing dinner.

"Oh, come on. That commercial's on a constant loop." Elena laughed.

"Fine. Well, how about this? Today, I'm obsessed with numbers."

"Eight, fourteen and twenty-two?" Buffy questioned.

Bonnie's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"

"I'm psychic." Buffy joked, smiling at Bonnie, who shot her a look.

"Maybe we should play the lottery." Elena suggested but stopped seeing Bonnie's glare. "Have you talked to your grams?"

"She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't wanna be a witch. Do you?"

"I don't wanna be a witch." Elena answered while Buffy enthusiastically spoke.

"I wanna be a witch so badly. Just imagine how cool things could be if we were?" Her mind already picturing how they were going to turn the house into Hogwarts.

"And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody." Bonnie spoke to Elena who was putting some pasta from a pack into a bowl.

"Okay, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?"

"Middle drawer on your left."

And two seconds later Elena pulled out two serving spoons. But Buffy saw the worry on Bonnie's face. "Okay, you've been in this kitchen a thousand times."

"Yeah, that's it."

The bell went off. "Okay, he's here." Elena turned to Bonnie. "Don't be nervous. Just be your normal loving self."

Buffy gave Bonnie two thumbs up.

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As they sat at dinner later, Buffy wedged between Bonnie and Stefan just in case Bonnie lost her patience and tried to stab Stefan with a fork (though Bonnie was more of a spoon kind of girl), Elena turned to Stefan. "You should've seen him today. Tyler threw a ball right at him and—"

Bonnie cut her off. "Yeah, I heard."

Buffy gave an apologetic smile to Stefan and got one in return.

"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" Elena suggested and Buffy looked weirdly at her.

Why would Stefan be interested in Bonnie's family?

"Divorced. No mom, live with my dad."

"No, about the witches."

Buffy noticed Stefan stiffen. Stefan's head shot towards Elena when she said it.

"Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool." Elena explained.

"Cool isn't the word I'd use." Bonnie spoke, definitely.

"It's certainly interesting. I'm not too versed, but I do know there's a history of Celtic Druid that migrated here in the 1800s." Stefan said to Bonnie.

"My family came by the way of Salem."

"Really?"

No, man, they're from the Minions Ice Cave. Ha, I wanna see him dressed as Kevin for Halloween.

"Salem witches?" Bonnie nodded.

"Yeah."

"I'd say that's pretty cool."

Bonnie laughed. "Really? Why?"

"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity." Stefan explained.

"Yeah, they are."

Suddenly the bell went of again.

"Did you invite someone else, Lena?" Buffy questioned looking towards the door.

"No." Elena answered before walking over to the front door and opening it, to see Amy Williams.

"What is she doing here?" Bonnie asked her and Buffy shrugged her shoulders.

"Surprise. Buffy said you were having dinner, so we brought dessert."

"And who is he?" Buffy asked, seeing a raven black haired man. Bonnie shook her head.

"Hope you don't mind."

Suddenly Stefan stood up and walked over to them. So did Buffy and Bonnie. "What are you doing here?"

Amy shoved the cake into Elena's arm before walking towards Buffy and wrapping her arms around the blond.

Buffy didn't understand what was going on. Amy was a nice person and she would never invite herself to a dinner. She smiled at Amy softly, none the less.

"Waiting for Elena to invite me."

Elena went to invite him in but Stefan stopped her. "No, he can't stay. Can you, Damon?"

"It's fine. Just come on in."

Damon smiled at Stefan before passing through the front door. He walked towards the kitchen but stopped halfway. "You have a beautiful home, Elena, Buffy."

"Thank you." The two sisters replied in union.

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"I cant believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething, but good for you? Go for it." Amy said, as they all sat down in the living room. Amy and Damon, who Buffy by now found out was Stefan's older brother.

Elena and Stefan together and on the opposite of Damon and Amy where Buffy and Bonnie together, sipping some tea.

"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come. You have to go get it."

"Since when is Amy so loud and talky?" Bonnie questioned softly at Buffy who just shrugged not understanding the Williams, either.

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's because she missed summer camp. I don't know how you're gonna learn. Buffy missed it too but she caught up with it."

"We'll work with her, she'll get it." Bonnie said, pointing towards her and Buffy. She didn't understand why Amy was voicing her opinions towards Elena, when she wasn't even on the team herself.

"I guess if Caroline puts her in the back."

"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon spoke and Elena smiled at him before drinking.

"Oh, it's just because her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going though a blah phase. She used to be way more fun. And I say that with complete sensitivity."

Bonnie wrapped her hand around Buffy's mouth, knowing the blonde was going to say something.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I know what it's like to lose both of your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched every single person we've ever cared about die."

"We don't need to get into that right now." Stefan said.

"Oh, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up."

Elena exchanged an uncertain look with Buffy, who smiled encouragingly at her after Bonnie had taken her hand off. She'll be dammed if she let her sister think she is not better than whoever 'her' is. But to be honest she was curious about who 'her' was. She seemed important to both of them. Or more important who dated her first?

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"Let's be honest here, in the past we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us." Boo's were heard all over the place of the first game of the year.

"But that is about to change. We've got some great new talent tonight starting on offense and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore."

More cheering was heard now as Buffy watched Elena and Stefan exchange lovely looks, but there was only one thing on her mind.

WHERE THE HELL IS JAMES?

He was supposed to be here. He had been a player for the team since freshman years.

She had been excited to be back on the team with her sister but if her sister didn't want to be in, she didn't blame her. It was Elena's choice to participate after all and Buffy didn't think anyone else should say something about it.

"I have only one thing to say to you. We're Timberwolves, we're hungry."

Once more the crowd started to cheer but it quickly stopped when Tyler and Jeremy started to fight, but before Buffy could reach it, Stefan had already stopped it.

When Stefan walked over to the field, Buffy went to Elena. "What's wrong with you?" She asked, seeing Elena's worried but also confused face.

"The glass cut his hand but there was nothing. I saw it happen. how could there be no wound?"

"You sure it hit him? I mean, if there was nothing. If it did cut him there would be some deep cut and you say there wasn't."

"Can I ask you a question? And you give me a really serious no-joke response?" Elena asked as the two walked over to Bonnie with some questions.

"Of course. What is it?" Bonnie replied.

"The bad mojo. When you touched Stefan and you had that reaction."

"You know forget I said that. Your little dinner-party plot won me over."

Well that's good for Bonnie but why does Elena look so worried?

"No, Bonnie, seriously. What was it? Did you see something, or-?" Elena kept asking making Bonnie sigh.

"It wasn't clear like a picture. Like today, I keep seeing those same number I told you about."

"Eight, fourteen and twenty-two?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah." Bonnie answered.

"Yeah?"

"When I touched Stefan, it was a feeling. And it vibrated through me, and it was cold, and-." Bonnie stop talking.

Now don't leave us hanging like this.

"And?" Buffy asked.

"It was death. It's what I imagine death to be like."

OH MY GOD! MY TIME HAS COME!

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Words: 2135

Posted: January 14, 2024

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Updates are gonna be on Wednesday and Sunday. If I'm too busy with school it will only be on Sunday.

x Kat