CHAPTER FIVE
━━━━ season one, episode five

you're undead to me!
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"Jenna." Elena whispered, calling out to her aunt as she and Athena entered the kitchen. Pointing a finger to gesture towards upstairs, the Gilbert girl wanted to ask. "Are you aware of what's going on upstairs?" She was referring to how they had just found Vicki Donovan standing in their bathroom, brushing her teeth, after staying the night in Jeremy's room.

Jenna simply nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And you have no objection?" Athena followed up with a question, arching a brow at her mother.

"He could be craftier about it." The woman began to share her thoughts with Elena and Athena. "At least make an effort to sneak her in and out. Oh— and uh, just so you girls know, I won't be home for dinner."

"Oohh." Elena's eyes lit up, intrigued. After what happened at the Founder's party, Jenna had told the girls about what went on with her and Logan, and mostly how he wouldn't leave her alone until she accepted his offer to go on a date. "So you're actually going to do it. You're gonna go out with Logan."

"I'm gonna show up and torture him, yes." Jenna corrected, making Athena grin and point at her in a way of saying: That's my mom! "And have you heard from Stefan?"

"Not since he left that very vague message 3 days ago." Elena answered, holding an open cereal box of Bran Flakes that she was going to pour into the bowl but paused for a moment to share what his message said, while imitating his voice. "Hi. Um, Elena, I, um— I have something I have to do. I'll, uh, explain in a few days."

Jenna smiled as Athena finally returned from the kitchen, with a plate that contained her breakfast in her hand. "Well, have you called him?" Athena asked her cousin while taking a bite out of a slice of toast that she made.

"Nope." Elena sighed. "Not going to either."

"And you're okay with everything?" Jenna looked up at her niece as Athena took a seat at the other side of the table to continue eating. While, Elena slammed the milk carton back down on the table before flicking her eyes down to Jenna. "No, I'm not okay with any of it. But, I'm not gonna cry about it either. You know, I was gonna write in my diary this morning and then I thought, what am I going to write? Honestly, I'm not gonna be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy."

"Okay, then."

"I'll be fine." Elena added before making her way out of the dining room with her cereal.

Athena chuckled softly, looking back at her mom who smiled at her. "Anyways..." Jenna trailed off to get her daughter's attention, wonder sparking in her eyes at her question. "how are you doing, sweetie? Have you had any more of those weird dreams? You know, perhaps one where you are thinking of someone with a British accent." She whispered the last two words in a teasing manner which caused Athena to shoot her a look.

"Mom..." She groaned playfully. "I am not gonna talk about this with you." Athena stayed silent for just a moment, fiddling with the slice of toast she was currently holding, whilst Jenna stared at her, waiting for her to answer. "But, I guess you could say that." She muttered shyly as she thought back to the dream she had the night before, however, there was something strange about it. Somehow, while she was sleeping, Athena felt like she was seeing someone else's memory.

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Elena, Athena and Bonnie stood by the lockers in the hallway, talking amongst themselves until the three of them heard their best friend's voice come from across the hall, and the each of them turned their heads in that direction to see the Forbes girl handing out flyers to people as she passed by, for the Sexy Suds Car Wash, with a blissful smile on her face like nothing had happened.

"Unbelievable." Elena spoke incredulously. "It's like nothing happened."

Athena exhaled deeply, almost looking concerned for the blonde as Bonnie made a comment. "She's in denial."

"Hey." Stefan approached the girls just then, with his eyes glued to his girlfriend who turned to him in shock, surprised to see him there as she hadn't seen him since the Founder's party, when he left so abruptly.

"Hey. Uh, you know, we gotta go..." Bonnie began to excuse herself and Athena, sharing a look with the strawberry-blonde girl. "...uh, be somewhere right now." Bonnie latched onto Athena's hand to pull her away from the pair, earning a yelp from her friend.

"I'm so sorry I haven't called."

Elena pursed her lips with a sigh, wanting to stick to what she had told Athena and Jenna, when she promised herself that she wasn't gonna be one of those girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy. "No worries. I'll live."

"I was dealing with Damon." Stefan continued.

"And did you...deal with Damon?" Elena arched a brow at the Salvatore boy who nodded.

"Yes. Yeah."

Elena tilted her head, sending him a questionable expression. "For four days?" Unaware of the real reason behind it, she found it hard to believe that it took him multiple days to do what she assumed was just a normal fight between siblings.

Stefan remained understanding. "You have every right to be upset with me. But, can I explain it all to you? Please." He gave her an offer, hoping she would accept and be able to hear him out.

Elena nodded. "Sure. When?"

"I gotta be home after school—" Stefan started to say, "—but the Grill around 4 o'clock?"

Elena contemplated it for a second before giving him an answer. "Okay."

"Thanks."

"Stefan, where's Damon?" Caroline asked Stefan when she approached, with a cheery smile grazed across her lips. "He has some serious apologising to do." She chuckled.

"He's gone, Caroline." Stefan stated nonchalantly to the blonde, and the smile on her face instantly faded.

"When is he coming back?" Caroline asked.

"He's not coming back. I'm sorry." He apologised and gave Elena one last look before brushing past the girls and he left them alone.

Elena turned to her now spaced-out friend before rubbing her shoulder, showing her comfort. "This is a good thing, Caroline." She reassured the girl, trying to remind her of the things Damon put her through.

"I know that." Caroline answered softly, nodding her head slightly, when Elena moved her hand to her back and tapped it.

"Come on. Let's go find the girls." Elena began to guide her out the hall, "Athena's probably talking Bonnie's ear off right now."

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As this Car Wash fundraiser was organised by the lovely Caroline Forbes, the blonde was practically in charge of everything and her fellow classmates who were stood around her, looked out for cars they could wash as they started pulling up.

Caroline sat at the table, facing Athena and Elena as she gave out instructions for her two friends to follow. "No friend discounts. No freebies. No pay-you-laters. We are not running a charity here."

The girls pursed their lips and repeated what she had just told them. "No, we are not."

"Hi." Stefan came up from behind them, looking down at Elena who was the first to look up at him and smile at her boyfriend.

"Hey." She replied, standing up from the bench.

Athena and Caroline followed, the latter crossing her arms over her chest as she looked them both up and down. "Uh, the event is called Sexy Suds, you know?" She plastered on a smile and walked away, leaving the three of them amused.

"Did we just get scolded?" Stefan asked, receiving a nod from his girlfriend and Athena.

The Sommers girl snickered. "And judged, yeah." She chimed in, placing a hand on Elena's back to get her attention. "Alright, I'll catch up with you guys later."

As Elena nodded, Athena started heading over to Bonnie, who was in the middle of washing one of the cars with Matt. "Hi Bon." She greeted the girl and nodded towards the car in front of her, "You guys need any help?"

"Umm, I think we're good, uh—" In the middle of answering, Bonnie directed her eyes over to Matt to see how he was doing, but instead, they found him staring at Elena and Stefan. "Uh-uh. No. None of that tortured pining stuff."

Matt resumed washing his side of the car, putting on a smile as he shot them both a look. "I'm just observing."

"Uh-huh." Athena hummed, nodding her head at him with an arched brow — like she didn't believe a word he was saying.

Just then, another car had pulled up, and Bonnie let out an "Oh," and turned around, calling out to Tiki, another cheerleader on the team. "Tiki, this one's yours." She said, gesturing to the red car.

Tiki took one look at the man who stepped out of his vehicle and made a face. "Why do I always get the homely ones?" She grumbled nastily, and the girls immediately frowned before taking a glance back at the insulted young man. "Just to be clear, your car's a POS. I mean, we can wash it, but it's still a POS."

"You don't have to be rude." Athena chided, with her eyes narrowed before she added, "Unlike you, I'm happily fine with doing it myself."

However, Tiki ignored her offer and continued to criticise the model of his car. "No, rude is uglying up the road with that junker." She bent down and dipped the hose into the bucket filled with water as Athena turned to the man, trying to apologise for Tiki's discourtesy. All of a sudden, the water burst out the bucket and splashed onto Tiki who squealed. "What the—? Oh, my God. What the—?"

"Whoa. Hey." Matt came rushing in with a towel hung over his shoulder. Athena directed her eyes over to Bonnie who stared at the scene, surprised by what she managed to do. "Whoa!" Once Matt was able to grab a hold of the hose, he placed his thumb over the top, covering the hole the water was spraying out of and handed her the towel to dry herself off with, and chuckled. "Wet and wild, Tik."

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After Elena had informed Caroline about running out of towels, the latter stood up, telling her she'd get more as she left her with Athena to stay at the table and look after the money. "That'll be twenty dollars." Elena said, looking up at the man stood in front of her, when her brows pinched together upon recognising him. "I saw you last night. You were talking to a friend of mine. At the Grill." She reminded him, as Athena looked between the two curiously. Elena had told her what happened the night before, when the man came into the Mystic Grill and appeared to have recognised Stefan and mentioned how he hasn't aged a day — which of course, raised more questions that she didn't get any answers for, only arousing more suspicion on Stefan that he was hiding something from Elena.

"Well, I— I thought it was somebody I knew." He pointed out, thinking it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

"Stefan Salvatore."

"No, it can't be." The old man shook his head and shrugged softly as he spoke, "It was just my mind playing tricks on me."

"Where do you think you'd seen him before?" The Gilbert girl continued to ask him questions about her boyfriend, wanting to know what it was about him that made him nervous.

"When I first moved here," The elderly man went on, beginning to share his story with Athena and Elena. "I stayed at the Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan was just passing through to visit his uncle. I mean, none of us knew he was even here until the attack."

Athena furrowed her brows. "The attack?"

"His uncle got killed." He explained. "Mauled by an animal in the woods."

Elena's brows knitted, making a noise, obviously confused by this since the first night she met the Salvatore boy, when the girls asked him multiple questions while getting to know him in the Grill, one of his answers was that he lives here with his uncle. "His uncle? Zach?" She raised a brow.

"Mm-mm." He shook his head, correcting the girl on the name. "Joseph."

Elena stared at the man, puzzled. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't think I'm familiar with the story."

"Oh, how could you? I mean, this happened years ago." He stated towards the confused girls, when his granddaughter, Tiki, came over and called out to him. "Grandpa, you gotta go. Mom wants you home, okay?"

He stared at his granddaughter before he made a noise and dropped his head, slowly walking away from the table as Tiki looked down at the cousins and asked. "He wasn't bugging you, was he? He's a little alzy-heimer."

"No— don't worry, he was sweet." Athena told the girl, standing up to follow her cousin who eagerly caught up to the grandfather, wanting to double check something.

"Hey, sir," Elena called out. "I'm sorry. Umm, are you sure that the man you saw— that you knew, his name was Stefan Salvatore?"

"Yes." He nodded, looking pretty sure about what he remembered about that day. "I remember his ring and his brother—"

"Damon?" Athena asked.

"Yeah." The man confirmed. "Stefan and Damon Salvatore."

"When was this?"

He thought back to the day of the attack. "It was early June, 1953. Yeah. June, 1953." He answered Elena's question before eventually walking away, leaving Athena to excuse herself for a moment to get back to the table while Elena turned around and found Stefan in the middle of washing a car.

As Stefan met Elena's eyes, he was quick to make an excuse and told the other guy who was helping him with the car that he would be right back, and dropped the wet cloth back into the bucket before making his way towards Elena, shaking the water off his hands. "Caroline finally freed you, huh?"

Elena brushed her hand through her hair, putting on a smile as she breathed out her response, "Uh, I don't know where she went. She abandoned me and Attie." As she held his hands, her eyes flicked down to the ring he wore on his finger and spoke again. "Hey, I realised earlier, I had no idea that your family was from Italy."

"No? Last name Salvatore didn't— uh— didn't do it for you?" Stefan looked back at her, wearing an amused grin on his face.

"Right. Duh." Elena pulled a face during her act, using this as her opportunity to ask Stefan, "Are there any other Salvatores in Mystic Falls?"

"My uncle Zach." Stefan stated, but she knew that already.

"Where did everyone else go?" She inquired, and shrugged softly, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Kinda just spread out." Was the answer that the Salvatore boy gave her, earning Elena to let out a hum. Stefan furrowed his brows, wondering why she was asking all these questions. "Why?"

Elena smiled innocently. "I'm just trying to learn more about you."

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After Elena walked away from Stefan, the Gilbert girl returned to the table and quickly muttered to her cousin, "Come with me." Not giving Athena a chance to reply, Elena latched onto her hand and dragged her away from the table. As they reached the front of the school, the two girls found Jenna sat down on a bench.

"Mom?" Athena scrunched her brows, wondering what her mother was waiting for. "You know your car was done an hour ago, right?"

Jenna stood up to her feet and turned to face her girls. "You're saying that out loud why?" She sent her daughter a look just as Logan Fell walked out from behind the news van.

"Hi. Athena and Elena, right?" The news reporter put his hand out for them to shake. "I think I met you both once when you were nine." Elena let out an "Oh" as she shook his hand, while Athena put a smile on her face in attempt to act polite.

Jenna turned to her former friend, looking rather amused. "Your emotional maturity level when we were friends." She couldn't help but remark, and Logan faced her, pretending he was hurt.

"Ouch." He feigned a wince at her words, "Here I thought we were making progress."

Elena crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Jenna, wanting to know: "Is he enough in your good graces that we can ask him for a favor?" She asked, wondering if she could use his materials as a news reporter to dig further into the June, 1953 attack.

Logan looked over at the Sommers woman, as his eyes lit up at this offer, hoping that by lending a helping hand to them both, it will help him get in Jenna's good books. "If I do them a favor— will I get back in your good graces?"

Jenna sighed, hesitantly glancing between Logan and Elena. "Uh, a very reluctant maybe to both."

"Done." Logan accepted her offer before taking a brief pause and looked back to Jenna. "Wait. One condition: dinner, tonight, your house."

The Sommers woman glanced over at Athena and Elena, her daughter pulled a face while her niece smirked. "Fine." Jenna soon gave in. "But you're eating leftovers."

The corners of Logan's lips tugged up slightly and he made a noise, before diverting his eyes back to the girls. "What do you need?"

Elena had her hands folded together and pursed her lips. "Do you have access to old news stories, say... fifties?" She queried, and Logan nodded at her.

"Yeah, at the station." The Fell man answered her question. "Between the archives and the Internet, we pretty much have everything."

"We have this report, way past due." The brown-haired girl lied for the both of them, causing the Sommers woman to arch a brow towards Athena in confusion, knowing her daughter would always hand her reports in on time, but Athena ignored her mother's befuddled stare. "It'd be a lifesaver."

"I'm heading there now. Let's go." Logan said and walked away, leaving the girls to turn to Jenna.

"If anyone asks..." Elena started to say before the woman could question anything. "you don't know where we went. We don't want Caroline to know that we left." Then she dragged Athena away for the second time as they followed Logan.

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"We digitised all our archives last year." The Fell man started explaining to the girls while leading the two through the TV news station building and towards one of the separate rooms. "You can pull all the remote footage right up on screen." As he opened the door, he looked back to ask, "What is it exactly you're looking for?"

"An incident from 1953..." Elena replied, walking into the room and took a seat as Athena stood by her side. "if it even happened—" His phone began to ring and Logan pulled it out of his pocket, "at the old Salvatore Boarding House."

"Sorry, one second." Logan excused himself so he could accept his call. "Yeah? Fire? All right, I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and informed Athena and Elena. "I gotta go. You believe there's actual news to cover in this town?" The reporter smiled slightly, slipping his phone back into his pocket before nodding towards the computer that was stationed on the desk right in front of them and explained. "All right, use keywords to search the database. It's pretty easy to navigate, and—Brady down in Tech will help you two out with anything you need."

"Okay." Elena sighed.

"All right." Logan nodded, and just as he went to exit through the door, he stopped to turn back to the girls — like he had forgotten something. "Oh, hey. Could you put in a good word for me with Jenna?"

Elena glanced up at her cousin who smiled tightly at him, before looking over at Logan and she sent him a kind smile. "You got it." She said, speaking for the both of them, though not really.

"All right." Logan returned the grin and stepped out the room, "Good luck." He called out and he shut the door behind him.

Athena sighed loudly. "So..." The seventeen-year old turned away from the door and over to Elena who started typing on the computer. "remind me again why you dragged me with you? I mean, is it because I'm your partner in crime or something, so that's why—" She was wondering, saying it like a joke, however Elena cut her off.

"Well, yes." She stated, causing the Sommers girl to make an 0 shape with her mouth.

"Oh, okay." Athena nodded, leaning closer to the screen to get a closer look as Elena searched for any kind of clues , typing in the keywords: Joseph Salvatore + animal attack, and only one match was found. A video popped up on the screen with the name, Joseph Salvatore, and underneath was the date: June 12, 1953. Clicking on it, the video loaded and an old news reporter was the first to appear standing outside the Salvatore Boarding House. "This is Franklin Fell reporting to you from the Salvatore Boarding House, where a brutal animal attack has ended in tragedy. Hey, they're bringing out the bodies, see if you can get closer." The man looked back at the camera with raised brows. "Is that the nephew?" Sirens wailed in the background as the cameraman zoomed in towards the entrance of the Salvatore Residence, and shockingly, there stood a figure who looked exactly like Stefan Salvatore at the same age he is now.

Athena blinked at the screen. "Holy—"

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author's notes!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! finally, athena and elena know and the truth expands next chapter. honestly, i cannot wait until s2 in this book where athena's storyline also expands, and i will tell you this, ghost kol will appear in s1, but it will most likely be after athena knows more about the supernatural then and she has had more dreams about him.

anywaysss, please don't be a ghost reader as i love reading your comments and knowing if you guys are enjoying this book! thanks for reading, i love you all! <33