THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

CHAPTER ONE
━━━━ season one, episode one

pilot!
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It's been four months since the car accident that resulted in the death of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, which left their daughter and niece, to be the only survivors. Reeling from their death, the Sommers-Gilbert family became one after Jenna, while grieving over her sister and brother in-law, became Elena and Jeremy's guardian after her and her daughter, Athena, moved in. Elena, after having nightmares of the accident, she eventually reached the denial stage, Jeremy turned to drugs as a coping mechanism, and Athena, sometimes woke up screaming from her night terrors.

It was now the first day of Junior Year for Athena and Elena, and continuing the routine, since her daughter hadn't woken up from her slumber yet, Jenna knocked on Athena's bedroom door, which caused the said girl to awaken, with the sound of her own scream echoing in her ear being the last thing she heard before her mother spoke.

"Athena, are you up?" Jenna called from outside her bedroom door.

"Yep." Athena replied with a groan, giving her the confirmation she needed before Jenna had left her alone to get dressed. The seventeen-year old pulled the blanket off her, before she practically rolled out of bed and landed on the floor. Huffing to herself, Athena got up before heading towards her bathroom.

Now dressed for the day, Athena exited her room and made her way downstairs at the same time as Elena, where they met with Jenna approaching the fridge before opening it. She scanned inside it for a moment, tapping her fingers on the handle as she looked back at the girls. "Toast. I can make toast."

Elena hung her jacket that she was going to wear, over the top of the chair, before approaching the counter and picked up a mug. "It's all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna." Elena said, while she poured the liquid into the mug. Meanwhile, Athena stood next to the fridge, making her usual caramel iced coffee, when Jeremy walked in.

"Is there coffee?" He asked, heading towards his sister and took the coffee mug out of her hand as if it was for him. Elena sighed, throwing her free hand up in the air before turning to the drainer to grab herself another mug to pour the coffee in, to replace the one Jeremy took from her.

Jenna rushed towards her bag. "Your first day of school and I'm totally unprepared." She got what she needed before walking over to the teenagers and held out her hands. "Lunch money?" Jenna offered to the siblings, knowing her daughter was already sorted. Elena politely declined, however, Jeremy accepted the money with no hesitation.

"Anything else? A Number 2 pencil? What am I missing?" Jenna asked.

Athena approached her cousins, with her drink in hand as she furrowed her brows. "Don't you have a big presentation today?" She asked, reminding her mother.

"I'm meeting with my thesis advisor at—" Jenna cut herself off when she caught what time it was on her watch. "Now. Crap."

"Then go. We'll be fine." Elena reassured, before Jenna turned to Athena who nodded, telling her the same thing that Elena told her. Jenna smiled and kissed her daughter on the forehead before setting off to the meeting that she was already late for.

After Jenna ran out of the house, Elena turned to Jeremy, her face softening as she asked. "Are you okay?"

Jeremy grabbed his coffee mug, before looking at Elena and rolled his eyes. "Don't start." He let out a frustrated sigh as he walked past his sister and cousin, who smiled innocently at him.

"Have a good day at school." She teased, making the boy look back at the redhead, as he mirrored her mocking expression.

"You too." He replied, pretending to look amused for a second before his expression changed as he left the room.

Athena furrowed her brows and turned her head back to look at Elena. "We have Tanner. I already know today isn't gonna be good." She remarked, taking a sip of her iced coffee, when a smile made it's way onto her face upon seeing Elena snicker slightly.

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Since Athena's car was in the shop, she had to get a ride with Elena and Bonnie to school. She sat in the back seat in silence, with her eyes glued to the book she was drawing in. Elena was currently sat in the passenger seat, while she and her cousin listened to Bonnie start to tell both of them about what she had found out from her Grams.

"So Grams is telling me I'm psychic." Bonnie said at first. "Our ancestors were from Salem, witches and all that, I know, crazy, but she's going on and on about it, and I'm like 'put this woman in a home already'." The cousins stayed silent as they began to zone out at her words — though not on purpose. "But then I started thinking, I predicted Obama and then I predicted Heath Ledger. And I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands."

Bonnie first noticed Elena staring out the window before glancing back at Athena who looked like she was in a similar zoned-out state. "Girls! Back in the car!"

"We did it again, didn't we?" Elena sighed while glancing back at her cousin in worry. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. You were telling us that..."

Bonnie looked at them with a grin. "That me and Athena are more alike than we thought." The girl teased, causing the redhead to gape at her, which only amused her more. "I'm kidding. But apparently I'm psychic now."

Elena glanced back at Athena before looking over to Bonnie in thought. "Right, okay, then predict something about us." She requested, and Bonnie sighed.

"I see..." Her thoughts of predictions were cut off when something abruptly hit the window, which caused the car to skid to a stop when Bonnie had to slam on her breaks.

"What was that? Oh my god." Once she managed to catch her breath, Bonnie turned to the cousins in concern. Elena breathed heavily, with her head leaned back and rested on the seat. However with Athena, she had her hands pushed down onto the seats, with her lips pressed together like she was holding a scream in.

"Athena, you okay?" Elena asked, seeing her snap back to reality.

Athena nodded hesitantly. "I'm okay." She finally answered, and raised a brow slightly at her next question that was aimed at Elena. "Are you?"

"I'm fine." Elena simply answered to reassure her and Bonnie who was also wondering.

"It was a bird or something." Bonnie commented in shock. "It came out of nowhere." She looked at the cousins who were quick to reassure her once again that they were fine. The Bennett girl let out a sigh, before looking at her friends with a small smile. "I predict this year is going to be kick-ass, and I predict all the sad and dark times are over and you two are going to be beyond happy."

The three girls smiled at each other before setting off again. Just as they were nearing their high-school, Athena looked down at her drawing as it appeared to be finished, only to furrow her brows at the drawing of a bird. More specifically... a crow.

At that, Athena closed her book before slipping it into her bag once they had finally pulled into the parking lot outside their school. She quickly said her goodbyes to Bonnie and Elena as she got out the car, before heading towards the school to find Caroline who was waiting for her.

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Rumour has it, there was a new student at school, and he seemed to catch the attention of the girls at seeing him in the hallway. However, it seemed as though, Elena was the one to have caught his, after Athena spotted the... and in Bonnie's words, Mysterious Dude with the Hot Back, stare at her cousin during Tanner's class. But other than that, the day was pretty much how first days normally went for Athena — boring.

After school, Athena arrived at the shop to collect her car after it had been fixed, before driving over to the Grill since Elena said she was planning on meeting her there later after the cemetery. Once she got inside, Athena quickly ordered her usual at the bar, a cherry coke and waffle fries.

Once it was done, she grabbed her drink from the bartender, muttering a polite "Thank you", before turning to face her other cousin, Tyler Lockwood, who just approached her with an innocent smile on his face.

"Hey cuz! Can I—" Before he could finish what he was going to ask, Athena cut him off quickly with the shake of her head.

"No." She replied without missing a beat, causing Tyler to look at her with his mouth slightly open, though not surprised by her response, but he still scoffed. "What? Oh, come on, At. You don't even know what I was going to ask you."

Athena tilted her head and pretended to think for a moment before sighing. "Fine. Go ahead. Finish what you were going to say." She gave him a pass to do so, with the serious expression on her face not faltering just yet.

"Thank you. Now, I was going to ask you if you — my lovely cousin, could share some of your waffle fries with me when they come?" He politely asked the girl.

"You know..." Athena tutted. "since I'm so nice, I might let you have one or two fries."

At her offer, the Lockwood boy pinched his brows together in surprise. "Wait, really?"

Athena chuckled lightly, before shaking her head at him. "No." She repeated, making Tyler let out a groan when he realised he had fallen for her little game, yet again. "Come on, Ty. You should really know by now that I, like the amazing Joey Tribbiani, do not share my food." As she walked past him to leave, she let out a small laugh while Tyler playfully glared at the back of her head, and watched as she caught up with the girls. "So Care, what were you saying before?"

"His name is Stefan Salvatore." Caroline went on to tell them what she knew about the new boy as they started making their way towards one of the tables. "He lives with his uncle at the beautiful Salvatore boarding house. He hasn't lived there since he was a kid. Military family, so they moved around a lot. He's a Gemini," She turned around to face Athena and Bonnie with a smile. "and his favourite colour is blue."

At all the information the Forbes girl managed to gather, Bonnie raised her brows slightly, looking in disbelief. "You got all of that in one day?"

"Oh, please." Caroline waved the girl off. "I got all that between third and fourth period." She let out a breath and smiled at them. "We're planning a June wedding."

Athena shrugged. "Well whatever it is, I better be your maid of honour." She insisted, before taking another sip of her drink.

"Well, duh." Caroline replied, like it was obvious, before the three of them went their own separate ways. Athena went to the bathroom, before going to the pool tables where she met Caroline talking to Tyler, while Matt was talking with Bonnie at a table.

"Because... Attie," Tyler sent his cousin a pointed look as he scoffed out a chuckle. "you cannot play for shit." He reminded the girl who asked earlier if she could have a go at playing pool.

"Give me the cue." Athena spoke in a suspiciously calm tone, earning Tyler to furrow his eyebrows slightly.

"Why?" He made the mistake of asking.

"Because I want to hit you with it!" The Sommers girl snapped, causing Caroline to wrap her arms around the redhead and pull her away before she could tackle the Lockwood boy. Fortunately for him though, Athena's attention was quickly taken away from him when she moved her gaze over to the entrance doors, with the other two following her actions, to see Elena and Stefan had walked in. "Ooh, drama."

They watched as Matt stood up to his feet, before leaving Bonnie at the table as he headed towards Elena and Stefan. With his eyes on the latter, he put out his hand for Stefan to shake. "Hey, I'm Matt. Nice to meet you." He introduced.

"Hi." The Salvatore boy shook his hand, before he introduced himself. "Stefan."

Matt then turned to look at Elena who gave him a polite smile. "Hey."

"Hey." He responded, with the change in his tone very noticeable.

Meanwhile, Athena quickly turned her eyes away from the awkward conversation when she spotted a waiter putting her bowl of waffles fries down at the table where Bonnie was sat. She clapped her hands and squealed. "Ooh, my fries!" She giggled, before rushing towards the table, with Tyler and Caroline laughing as they followed her.

"Watch this." Tyler said to the blonde, and with a smirk at his lips, he quietly walked up to the table that Athena was sat at — as if he was making his way over to Matt, and as he passed by their table, he quickly reached his hand in Athena's bowl to grab one of her waffle fries. "Thanks, cuz." He put the fry into his mouth and smiled proudly at his own actions. As he made a quick escape, Caroline had joined the table.

"What?" The shocked expression on her face was quick to change into a more annoyed one as she scowled. "Oh, how dare he—"

As Athena was halfway to standing up to her feet, Bonnie pushed her back down in her seat. "Yeah, that's enough violence for today." She scolded the girl like a mother would, and sighed when Athena pouted at her. "You can get revenge later. Just eat your food before someone else takes a swipe at it and regrets their decision for doing that."

"Okay." Athena muttered, and put another waffle fry in her mouth as Elena and Stefan joined them at the table.

Once they got themselves settled down, the group got straight on with the questions, as they wanted to know more about Stefan. "So, you were born in Mystic Falls?" Caroline was first to ask.

Stefan hummed and nodded his head yes. "And I moved when I was still young."

"Parents?" Bonnie asked.

"My parents passed away." Stefan replied, which made the girls look towards Elena with a frown at his words.

"I'm sorry." The brunette said, sympathetically. It was unfortunate that she could relate. So because of this, she moved on and asked him something else. "Any siblings?"

"None that I talk to. I live with my uncle."

"So Stefan," Caroline spoke up, making him look over at her. "if you're new, you don't know about the party tomorrow."

The Bennett girl smiled at the boy, while chiming in to elaborate. "It's a back-to-school thing at the falls."

Stefan looked over at Elena. "Are you going?"

"Of course she is." Bonnie spoke for Elena with a beaming grin, causing the Gilbert girl to send her a look.

Athena looked up from her bowl of fries, opening her mouth as she went to speak, but Caroline cut her off. "You're going." She insisted, which got a groan from the redhead — especially because, she was planning on staying at home to watch Friends.

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"The Battle of Willow Creek took place at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls." Tanner started explaining to his students the next day in class. However, it wasn't like a lot of them were listening anyway. "How many casualties resulted in this battle?" He scanned the room for someone to pick on, and his eyes stopped on Bonnie, who currently had her eyes glued to her book. "Miss Bennett?"

At the sound of her name, Bonnie flinched as her eyes flicked over to Tanner, with her lips parted open slightly. "Um... a lot?" Her answer came out more like a question. "I'm not sure. But, like a whole lot."

While the class was amused by this, their teacher was not. "Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Miss Bennett." Mr. Tanner said, before looking over at Matt. "Mr. Donovan, would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your jock stereotype?"

"It's okay, Mr. Tanner. I'm cool with it." At Matt's answer, the students around him chuckled, while Tanner plastered a fake smile and nodded at him sarcastically, before looking away from the boy to call on someone else, when he noticed Elena also wasn't paying attention. "Elena?" The Gilbert girl turned back to the front when she heard him call her name. "Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most historical events."

Elena shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Tanner, not pleased with her answer, narrowed his eyes. "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena." He started off by saying, making Athena tilt her head. "But the personal excuses ended with summer break."

Athena clenched her jaw in anger, before clearing her throat. "Quite frankly, Mr. Tanner," The man looked over at the girl. "I find it funny how you think someone grieving over their parents' death is an excuse and you have to remind them of it, only because they didn't know the answer to your question, which may I also remind you that most of the people in here didn't know either." She let out a sigh. "I guess that just shows what kind of teacher you are, hmm."

Elena smiled back at her in gratitude, while their teacher glared at the Sommers girl, showing how displeased he was with her attitude. "And if you must know," Athena tutted, while she carried on talking. "there were 346 casualties, unless you're counting the local civilians."

"That's correct." Tanner nodded at first. "Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle." He believed he was correcting her, and as she was about to reply with her own correction, Stefan did it for her.

"Actually, there were 27, sir. Confederate soldiers fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. And they were wrong. It was a night of great loss." Stefan explained. "The founder's archives are in Civil Hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts... Mr. Tanner."

At this interaction, everyone smirked once again, feeling amused as someone else stood up to their teacher, before the lesson resumed. Athena then looked back at Stefan. "Dude," She called out in a hushed tone. "you just took the words right out of my mouth."

"Well, you've already said your part and I kind of wanted to join in on the fun." Stefan shrugged his shoulders. "I guess you'll just have to be quicker next time."

Athena chuckled. "You're on."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

After the disaster of a bonfire party, starting from Bonnie's fear of her psychic abilities and ending with the Gilbert siblings carrying a blood-covered Vicki Donovan, Athena found herself driving over to the Grill in her jeep, after Jenna let her go, as long as she was back for a certain time.

"Are you sober yet?" Bonnie asked. The girls were sat down at a table, having a drink of their own as they tried to sober up Caroline.

A drunk Caroline tiredly looked up at the Bennett girl and grumbled. "No."

"Keep drinking." Athena said, looking at Caroline who had her head in her hands. "Bonnie's gotta get you home. I gotta get me home." She let out a sigh and took another sip of her water. Her plan was to only stay for one drink — that's if it helped her get what happened at the party off her mind.

Caroline was sniffling, before she looked back up at the two. "Why didn't he go for me?" She began to question, still slightly drunk. Athena furrowed her brows at the blonde, her face softening when she realised that the conversation her and Stefan shared earlier at the back-to-school party, must have bothered her more than she thought. "How come the guys that I want, never want me?"

"I'm not touching that." Bonnie declined, shaking her head. She didn't want to get involved, whilst Athena frowned at her friend's words.

"I'm inappropriate. I always say the wrong thing. And Elena always says the right thing." Caroline continued to spill out her thoughts, through her drunken state. "Ugh. She doesn't even try, and he just picks her. And she's always the one that everyone picks for everything. And I try so hard... and I'm never the one that..."

Bonnie shook her head. "It's not a competition, Caroline."

Caroline stayed quiet for a moment, with her eyes glued to the ground, before she looked back up at Bonnie. "Yeah, it is." She voiced her opinion.

Athena put her drink down, before turning to the Forbes girl. "Hey, Care, why are you crying over a boy? It's not worth it. You know why?" She spoke rather softly. "Because Caroline Forbes, you are beautiful, and you are going to find someone one day that loves you for you, just like I do." A small smile crossed her lips as she shrugged. "However, if not, then you know where to find me." Athena winked at her, and the smile on her face widened when she managed to make Caroline laugh. Then looking at the time, Athena sighed. "Alright then, I better get going before my mom worries." She announced, and turned to her friends. "Will you two be alright?"

"Yes, don't worry. I'll text you when I've dropped her off and I'm at home myself." Bonnie gave her a soft smile, while reassuring her. She knew that ever since the accident, Athena had a thing where she always wanted reassurance from her friends for when they were home safe after hanging out with her.

"Thank you, Bon." She smiled appreciatively, and finished up her drink before getting up. Quickly, she grabbed her coat to pull it over her shoulders, before saying her goodbyes and she finally left.