❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖲𝖳𝖤𝖥𝖠𝖭 𝖫𝖮𝖲𝖤𝖲 𝖢𝖮𝖭𝖳𝖱𝖮𝖫 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟐𝟎. ❝ 𝖬𝖨𝖲𝖲 𝖬𝖸𝖲𝖳𝖨𝖢 𝖥𝖠𝖫𝖫𝖲 ❞ ── .✦

          ❝ OKAY, THIS WEEK we're gonna set outside our regular curriculum for a lesson in local History as we approach Founders' Day.❞ Alaric spoke to his class, "Apparently the community leaders feel it's important that World War 2 but hey, what do I know?"

"Sorry, I'm late." Bonnie rushed into the classroom, casting a smile towards Anastasia as she took her seat.

"Well, it looks like we will be at fully occupancy today. Welcome home, Bonnie." Alaric spoke.

Bonnie smiled over at Elena but once she caught the eye of Stefan, her smile disappeared as she turned his head, both he and Elena looked at each other in confusion.

彡☆

          "BONNIE." ELENA RAN after Bonnie where she was walking with Anastasia, both of them going over some of the stuff that the Bennett witch had missed during classes while she was gone.

"Hey."

"Hey, I tried to grab you after class but you had already taken off. How are you? How's your family?" Elena asked, glancing at Anastasia who had pulled her phone out to text Caroline where she and Bonnie were at.

"We're dealing. It's been hard."

"Everyone here really missed you." Elena tells her.

"Yeah, I just had so much to deal with after Grams' funeral and, honestly, after you told me the tomb spell failed, I just didn't really want to come back." Bonnie tells the Gilbert girl.

"I hope you understand why I called...I wanted you to know before you came home." Elena says.

"I understand why." She glanced at Anastasia, "I just..shouldn't know."

"I know it's really hard..."

Caroline interrupted Elena as she walked over to the three girls and pulled Bonnie into a hug, "Bonnie! Bonnie! Thank God you're home! I know, me, you and Anastasia talked everyday, but we missed you!"

Elena glanced between the three girls with an upset look on her face.

"How are you doing?" Caroline asked.

"Better. Better. You know, glad to be back and trying to keep myself busy." Bonnie said, "And looking over the notes El took for me, even thought I can't ready her really, really, really, neat handwriting."

Anastasia pouted slightly. "I can't help that my handwriting looks like I'm a hundred years old."

"Well, we can help with keeping you busy." Caroline said, "Major wardrobe problems. You need to help me pick up the perfect dress for the Founders' court. Anastasia has really great taste, but I do not look good in red."

"Everyone looks good in red!" Anastasia exclaimed.

"No, you look great in red." Bonnie let out a laugh.

"The Founders' court?" Elena butts in, "Did I miss something?"

"The Founders' Day court!" Caroline exclaimed. "You know, Miss Mystic Falls. They announced it today, and you and I, are both on it."

"Oh, my god! We signed up for that so long ago...I completely forgot." Elena says.

"So, are you dropping out then?" Caroline asked, hopefully.

Elena looks over at Bonnie, "I can't."

"No?"

"Her mom is the one who wanted her to enter." Bonnie tells their blonde best friend.

彡☆

          "HOW WAS SCHOOL?" Damon asked as his daughter and his brother walked into the house.

"Fine."

"Yeah? Same old, same old? Nothing new? No stories to bring home?" Damon asked, confusing Anastasia as she looked between her dad and uncle.

"You're making small talk, why?" Stefan asked.

"You seem awfully chipper lately, less doom and gloom, a little more pep in your step."

"And you think it's because I drank human blood again." Stefan stated the obvious.

"I don't want to brag but I would definitely take responsibility for this new and improved you." Damon tells him.

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm clean."

"Yeah, not possible."

"Not only is it possible, but it is quite true." Stefan, pointing at his brother.

"Stefan, just be serious for a second. You spent the last century and a half being a poster boy for Prozac and now you expect me to believe that this new you has nothing to do with human blood. Nothing."

"He has a point." Shrugged Anastasia.

"I'm clean."

"You're lying!"

"Believe what you want." Stefan said before leaving.

彡☆

           ANASTASIA SAT ON the couch in the house, texting Jeremy about what he had found in Elena's journal.

At first, the Gilbert boy had been pissed at Anastasia because she hadn't told him the whole story about Vicki, but he couldn't really stay mad at her since she was the one who wanted him to keep his memories that Elena had whipped away.

And he couldn't stay made at her because she had been the one to tell him the truth about vampires, even when she knew that she could possibly piss off not only his older sister, but her uncle and dad also.

"Did you not hear the doorbell?" Damon asked his daughter as he walked towards the door.

She kept her eyes locked on her phone, fingers dancing across the screen, "It's too far away."

"Hey partner!" John Gilbert walked into the house as Damon pulls the door open.

"Partner?" Anastasia raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry about it." Damon tells his daughter, looking at John, "What do you want?"

"You haven't returned any of my calls." John tells him.

"Most people take that as a hint."

"Where do we start looking for vampires?" John asked, glancing over at the girl sitting on the couch.

"Don't look at her. Eloise, your room." Damon snaps his fingers at his daughter, "Right now."

"What? No! I'm nosy, I wanna listen." Anastasia stares at him in disbelief.

"God, you are my daughter!" Damon rolls his eyes, "How do you act, John? You obviously don't care about catching vampires, you're here talking to me."

"Actually, I care very much." John stated.

"What does Isobel say about that? I mean, considering that she is one." Damon's hand rested on his hip.

"Isobel and I share a mutual interest." John tells him, "The original Jonathan Gilbert has an invention that was stolen by a vampire. That vampire was then burned alive in Fell's church, or so Jonathan thought and the invention was lost forever. But then the vampires weren't killed, were they? They were trapped and now they're free, thanks to you which means the invention is retrieval."

"What is it?" Damon asked.

"The only thing that matters is that I want it back and you're going to help me if you want your secret safe." John tells him, "And your daughters. I mean what would Jeremy think if he knew that his girlfriend was a blood drinking monster?"

Anastasia looked up from her phone, sending a smirk in John's direction.

"Why bring me into it, John? I mean, I don't know what you are talking about, much less who has it." Damon said.

"Oh, come on, Damon!" John turned back to look at the eldest Salvatore, "You were around back then, you know who these people are, what they look like. He was friendly with a woman who turned out to be a vampire. Her name was Pearl. Does that ring a bell?"

"I'm not playing anymore." Damon says after a long pause, "Get out. Get out."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know, I only entertain this whole blackmail scheme thing of yours because I thought that you and Isobel could lead me to Katherine but see, now I know you have no idea where Katherine is, because if you did, you would know that Katherine and Pearl were best friends." Damon tells the Gilbert man.

"See, you don't know everything, do you John?" Anastasia asked with a smirk on her face from where she was still seated on the couch.

"I'll tell the entire council what you are." John threatened.

"Go for it. I'll kill every last one of them." Damon said, "Then, I'll sever your hand, pull your ring off, and I'll kill you, too. Do you understand that?"

彡☆

          "YOU AREN'T WEARING a fancy dress?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend as she walked into his bedroom, dressing in a pair of black ripped jeans, a baseball tee and her leather jacket with a pair of white converse covering her feet.

"I'm not doing it, don't need to wear a dress." She shrugged, "How pissed at Elena are you?"

"Very." Jeremy pecked her hips before pulling her out of his bedroom.

"Jeremy can ride with you." Jenna says as she walks down the stairs, soon followed by Jeremy and Anastasia.

"No deal." Jeremy shook his head, holding up the keys to his girlfriend's car, "I'm driving with Stacie."

"When did you take my keys?" She looks up at him in shock as he held the door open for her.

"When I kissed you." He smirked, slapping her on the ass as she walked out the front door.

"Jeremy!" She exclaimed with a laugh.

彡☆

          "I'M GONNA GO help Jenna with Elena." Anastasia tells Jeremy as Jenna tugged on the girls arm.

"Don't break my girlfriend, Jenna!" Jeremy called out to his aunt, who waved him off as the three girls went inside the house.

"Not making any promises!"

彡☆

          "THANKS FOR HELPING me." Elena tells Anastasia and Jenna as both of them did her hair and makeup.

"Don't thank us until you're sure your hair isn't gonna burn off and Lulu there doesn't poke your eyeball out." Jenna tells her niece, Anastasia nodding agreement as she concentrated on doing Elena's eyeliner.

"You know, I remember when my mom and I were first applying for this, she was so excited." Elena tells them.

"So were you if I recall." Jenna comment.

"I was. She just made it sound like so much fun." Elena says, "Lots have changed since then."

"I hate to break it to you, but it's a little late for cold feet." Anastasia put the makeup brush down, and crosses her arms over her chest as she looked at Elena through the mirror.

"I don't have cold feet. I just...I think I'd be enjoying it a lot more if she was here."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing, your hair would have a better chance if she was." Jenna tells her.

"Okay, I should go put my dress on. Be careful with that thing." Elena pointed to the curling iron her aunt waved around, "Don't hurt anybody."

彡☆

          "SHOULDN'T YOU BE more dressed up?" Anna asked as she walked over to where Anastasia stood, "Isn't that what this is all about?"

"Well, I hated these things when I was four and I hate them just as much now, so no." Anastasia shakes her head.

"Do you tell Jeremy about what I did?" Anna asked her. "Because he cornered me a few minutes ago."

"I compelled him to remember that I compelled him to forget about vampires. And then he found out that Elena was hiding more than just being compelled to forget about Vicki by reading her journal." Anastasia lowered her voice, looking around to make sure that her dad and uncle wasn't anywhere near her to hear their conversation, "He's kind of pissed at her, but can you blame him?"

彡☆

         "YOU'RE MISSING ELENA'S introduction." Anastasia walked over to her boyfriend, and wrapped her arms around his neck while his arms went around her waist.

"I don't care." Jeremy shook his head, "I talked to Anna earlier."

"Yeah, she told me." She says, "Asked me what I told you. We should really be watching your sister instead of talking about this. It's why we came."

Jeremy shrugged, "Or we could get out of here."

"As tempting as that sounds....." She grinned, pecking his lips. "I really want to watch Uncle Stefan dance."

"Alright, alright." Jeremy playfully rolled his eyes, "We will watch my sister and your uncle dance. And then we can leave?"

"And then we can leave."

彡☆

          "HAVE YOU SEEN your uncle?" Damon walked over to his daughter and her boyfriend.

Anastasia looked at him in confusion, "I haven't seen him since I left this house this morning."

Damon huffed, looking around. "Come with me."

"I'll be back!" Anastasia called out to her boyfriend, who nodded his head, "What's going on?"

"Your uncle is still drinking human blood and there's a girl missing." Damon tells her as they make it back to Elena.

"What is it? Did you find him?" Elena asked the two of them.

"Anastasia hasn't seen him since this morning." Damon tells her, "There was a struggle in the upstairs bathroom. There was blood and that Amber girl is missing."

"Oh, my god! He wouldn't hurt her, he won't!" Elena shook her head.

"Let's just find him, okay? Let's get your coat, come one." Damon said and the three of them leave, Bonnie following behind.

彡☆

          "STEFAN!" ELENA YELLED as the four came to a stop where Stefan was biting into Amber's neck, draining her blood.

He released the girl, turning to look at them.

Stefan locked eyes with those of his niece, finding her looking at him with sadness and fear, never wanting to have seen the emotions in her eyes because of him.

"Stefan. Come on. Get control of it." Damon tells his brother as he holds Elena back, "Come on. Breath through it, man."

Stefan chases after his brother, throwing him into a tree.

"Stefan, stop it!" Elena cried out.

Anastasia looked behind her at Bonnie, and nodded as they both started to give him an aneurysm.

"It's okay, Stefan." Damon said.

"Uncle Stefan." Anastasia cried before the Salvatore boy runs off.

彡☆

     "SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER what happened." Liz walked over to Damon and the three girls as she finished checking on Amber.

"It's a good thing the girls got here when they did, she lost a lot of blood." Damon tells her.

"You didn't see anything?" Liz looked at the girls, Anastasia being tucked under her father's arm.

"No, we just found her and called Damon." Elena said after She and Damon looked over at Bonnie.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Elena asked.

"It looks like it, yeah. Why don't you girls get back to the party?" Liz says, "Damon and I can take it from here."

"Okay."

彡☆

         "I NEED MY keys." Anastasia walked over to her boyfriend and Anna, holding her hand out for her keys as tears rolled down her face.

"Hey, what the hell happened?" Jeremy quickly grabbed his girlfriend's face with a frown, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She sniffled as he wiped away another set of tears that fell from her eye, "Uncle Stefan lost control and I just want to go home and forget that I witnessed what I had to fucking witness."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Jeremy asked, pulling her keys from his pocket.

Anastasia shook her head, "No. I just wanna go home."

"I'll come with you." Anna tells her, "Just to make sure you don't crash your car or anything."

"I don't need a fucking babysitter."

"Hey." Jeremy pulls her back to him, leaning down to peck her lips a couple of times, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

彡☆

          ANASTASIA WALKED DOWN to the cellar in the basement where Damon and Elena had put Stefan. She saw her dad and Elena sitting down on opposite sides of the wall as they checked on Stefan.

"Come here." Damon holds his arms out as he noticed the tear stains on his daughters face.

The green eyed girl sat down next to her father and leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes as she felt him kiss the top of her head.

Elena smiled softly at the interaction between the two, taking notice that Damon only ever showed his softer side to his daughter.