CHARLIE HAD NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY IN HER LIFE. That entire summer had been spent with her friends and Jeremy, doing anything and everything before the older people went off to college. They had picnics and parties all of the time. The only downside was that Bonnie had been traveling all summer with her dad, so they had not seen her. She did not even say goodbye.

She was currently lying on her bed as Jeremy paced back and forth in front of her, ranting about his sister's new relationship with Damon. He groaned, "The amount of times I have walked in on them having sex is insane."

"Well, at least she's happy," she reasoned with a shrug.

He glared at her, mad at her for being all nice and sweet and trying to guilt him into being happy with the relationship by using how much he wanted his sister to be happy. He argued, "Happy with Damon Salvatore."

Charlie thought about it for a moment, and she realized that she never would have guessed that Elena would fall in love with Damon. She and Stefan seemed so perfect for each other. They had not seen Stefan for a while either. He must not want to hang around the house with the happy couple. "That is a bit odd, isn't it?"

"It's more than odd," Jeremy argued, and he seemed to shudder at the thought. Seeing your sibling on top of someone that you're not the biggest fan of is pretty traumatizing. That was why the Lockwood girl made sure that she never entered Tyler's room without knocking. She even waited for him to come open the door for her.

"I mean, he is pretty hot," she told him, and he whipped around so fast that she was scared he was going to get whiplash. He stared at her with incredulous eyes, wondering how the hell she could say that to her own boyfriend. "What, I'm just speaking facts."

He raised his eyebrows at her in shock, still not believing what she had just said to him. If he said that about another girl to her, she probably would have smacked him. "By telling your boyfriend that his sister's boyfriend is hotter than him?"

"I never said that he was hotter than you," she defended, and her eyes scanned over his face and his body as she smiled. "He is definitely not hotter than you."

"Oh, really?" he quizzed with a smug smile, his demeanor completely changing as he moved forward a bit and leaned on the foot of her bed, looking down at her. He loved it when she looked at him like that.

She then shook her head, trying to not play into his ego as she blushed slightly. "If you keep smirking at me, I'm gonna take it back."

"I don't think so," he sang, and he made his way to the side of her bed before doing some dorky ninja roll so that he was doing a plank over her, his elbows on either side of her head. She grinned up at him as he leaned down and kissed her, smiling into the kiss.

"Hey, we have to get to school. It's your first day back. We can't be late," she reminded him. They had to go back to school that day, and he was not about to trick her into letting him skip. However, that plan went out the window when she felt his lips on her neck. She sighed, "Okay, maybe we can be a bit late."

Half an hour later, they were standing in front of the school, and they somehow managed to get there on time. Almost everyone that passed them was either glaring or whispering about them because he was the guy who 'faked his death.' She just sighed, "You ready?"

"N," he groaned. For the past two years, no one had messed with either of them because the were friends with cool upperclassmen, but now, those people were gone. All they had was freaking Damon. "I could just stay at home, bit I'm stuck here with you."

"Well, I could be helping Caroline and your sister unpack for college, but I'm stuck here with you," she snapped back, rolling her eyes.

He then grabbed her hands and moved in front of her so that they were looking at each other. He raised his eyebrows at her in question, like he was a little kid trying to convince his mother to buy him candy at the drugstore. "Well, how about we both be stuck together at your place?"

"Nice try, but you're going in," she responded, and she turned him around and placed her hands on his back before trying to shove him toward the school. However, he was still jacked from his Hunter days, and this not only made her pause to feel his muscles under her hands. It also meant that he very easily stopped them from going anywhere. "You're only delaying the inevitable."

"It doesn't have to be inevitable," he said. "What am I going to do without you?" he asked when she just glared at him.

She furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what the hell he was talking about when they were literally going into the school together. He was not going to be all alone. "I'm literally going with you."

He sighed, and she tried to stop him as he just sat down right there on the lawn before laying down and staring up at her. "Yeah, but we don't have the same classes because you had to go and be smart and not die."

"I'm sorry, but you'll be okay," she informed him, and she stared down at him as people around them looked at them like they were absolutely insane. At that point, Charlie was not entirely sure that they were wrong. He was rolling around on the ground in front of their school. "You have other friends, right?"

"No, I actually don't," he informed her, and she realized that she was kind of limited on friends now that her brother, Caroline, Elena, Bonnie, Stefan, Matt, and everyone else graduated. She did not bring that up to Jeremy because she knew he would use it as an excuse for them to go home.

She shrugged, "Well, it's okay. Your goal today is to make at least one new friend."

"You sound like a mom," he told her. He seemed reluctant, but he allowed her to pull him to his feet as he picked up his backpack that he had dropped and faced the school.

"Go, my baby boy," she joked, patting him on the head before pushing him toward the school again. This time, he let her shove him through the door. "Have fun on your first day of school!"

☾❄☽

HOW CHARLIE ENDED UP IN A CAR WITH KATHERINE, SHE DIDN'T KNOW. It had been a very chaotic day. Jeremy had ended up in a fight with some kid, and he got expelled. However, Damon came in and compelled the principal into settling for a suspension. Charlie was not even sure where the hell they were going, but she was throwing Nerds into her mouth in the passenger seat with her feet on the dash, ignoring Katherine and hanging out with Jeremy.

"Where are we going?" the Pierce woman questioned, they just glanced at each other before remaining silent just to annoy her. It seemed to work because about ten seconds later, she asked again, "Are you deaf? I said where are we going?"

After a second, Jeremy's phone rang, causing them all to shut up and listen in as he answered it. He handed it the Charlie so that he could talk and drive safely at the same time. Damon's voice came through the device, and Katherine just rolled her eyes. "How far'd you get?"

"You said not to tell you," the Gilbert boy reminded the man, and Charlie wondered when the hell they had this conversation because Jeremy told her to get in the car right after school. She had not even heard about the fight until 6th period, and when she called her boyfriend afterwards, he said he would explain later.

The hybrid could practically hear Damon roll his eyes. "You pick now to listen to me?"

"We just passed Old Miller Road," Charlie informed him after Jeremy just groaned and nodded at her to figure out where they were. They were having a pretty pleasant car ride until he had to ruin it with the sound of his voice.

The Salvatore man paused for a second, like he was trying to picture where they were in his head, and then he told them. "Good. Turn around, bring her back."

"What? No!" Katherine protested when she head that. Silas really wanted her because her body had the Cure in it, and he did not wish to be a vampire. "What are you doing? Jeremy, stop! You can't take me back there, Jeremy. Damon wouldn't just hand me over. Silas clearly got in his head. Charlie, you have to get him to stop."

"Shut up, Katherine!" the Lockwood girl snapped, and she watched the doppelganger in the mirror of the car, and she saw the woman looking around desperately, trying to figure out something to do. She was no longer a vampire, so she did not have as much power as she used to.

She reached forward and began jabbing her hand at the seatbelts of the couple in front of her. Charlie was too busy with her Nerds to notice until Jeremy shouted, "Hey, what the hell?"

He tried to swat at her hand, but the way he twisted his body caused him to start to lose control of the car. Nerds went flying everywhere as Charlie's seatbelt was unbuckled. She dove for the steering wheel, but Katherine beat her to it. The tires squealed as the Pierce woman spun them around and drove them straight into a utility pole.

The impact of the car hitting the pole and the position that the Lockwood girl was in caused her to lurch forward rapidly and shoot out Jeremy's open window. She was already halfway out of the window, and her shock caused her weight to shift so that she fell on her head onto the asphalt.

There was smoke and blood everywhere. Actually, there was just blood all over her face, and her head hurt like hell. Her hair was sticky and head, signalling that the blood was coming from her own head. She could feel the wound healing, but she couldn't see anything. She wiped her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows when she saw the open car door next to her.

Her eyes widened when she noticed some familiar jeans hanging out, and her head shot up when she heard his voice whisper, "Please." She glanced over and realized that he was speaking to Katherine who was hobbling away.

Charlie could not even think about Katherine when she saw the state Jeremy was in. She climbed to her feet and frantically opened the door before hauling him out so that he was lying on the street. His eyes were closed then, and she freaked out when she heard his heartbeat slowing down at a really alarming rate.

"Damn it," she murmured to herself. She bit hre wrist and held it to his mouth, but he was unable to drink it. "Drink it, Jer, please. I'm not losing you again." She tilted his head and shook her wrist so that blood fell into his mouth.

Her breathing was heavy, and her eyes were teary. She could not lose him again. When he died before, it was like a piece of her was gone. He completed her. He was her soulmate. She was not going to let him die, especially not because of Katherine Pierce.

She glanced back when she heard a car speeding, and she noticed Damon's Chevy screeching to a halt in front of them. He got out of the car and ran over to them as she sobbed, "Damon, he's not waking up. He's not breathing."

"Jeremy! Gah!" he exclaimed, and he grabbed Charlie's wrist and forced it further into Jeremy's mouth. "Open your eyes, Jer. You do not get to die on me, you hear me? I'm supposed to be taking care of you, you little punk! Wake up, or I'll kill you myself!"

Finally, the boy opened his eyes, and Charlie fell back on her hands in relief. Jeremy looked up at the Salvatore man like he was scared that he was going to kill him. "Katherine... is gone."

"I don't care," he answered, and he grabbed the Gilbert by the head and hugged him. Charlie laughed slightly and wrapped her arms around both of them. They sat there for a moment, all hugging, and it was honestly kind of nice — three broken families finding each other, even though Damon was just doing it for Elena.