The Sacrifice

The Last Dance - 1

I kid you not, that I could not sleep, waiting with anticipation to sign the papers. It's been a good two weeks to get everything ready but today is the day.

Elena and Bonnie sit on the couch while Mr. Henry, the lawyer, looms over me, pointing with a pen everywhere I have to sign.

"Please sign here and here." he says, pointing with his pen. 

I take the pen and start signing.

"So this place is all yours? They just gave it to you?" Bonnie questions, getting in the loop.

I glance up at her as I sign. "Yup. As sole owner, I'm the only one who can invite a certain type of person in here, if you know what I mean." I said, I can't exactly say vampires or Mr. Henry will think that we're crazy.

"Your own personal safe house." Bonnie adds.

Elena nods beside her. "That's the idea."

Bonnie looks around. "Wouldn't want to clean it."

...............

Elena and I show the door to the lawyer.

"Thank you, Mr. Henry." I say with a smile as I shake his hand and he leaves.

Elena and I both turn and stop when we realize we're forgetting something. Stefan and Damon walk to the threshold but an invisible force keeps them out.

"I'm sorry. I completely forgot." I exclaim and look at Stefan.

"Stefan Antonio Salvatore I hereby invite you to my house" I say and let him in.

He gives me a puzzled look, "Thank you." Stefan says as he enters, I motion a forward to Elena so she can invite Damon in herself, stepping back with Stefan.

"What are we, twelve?" Damon says,

"One of us is" Elena says mockingly.

"How did you know my middle name?" Stefan whispered to me as Elena and Damon squabbled.

"I found your journal" I whispered back to him, standing on my tippy-toes to reach his ear. 

"You went through my journal?"

"I was bored" I said with a shrug as I crossed my arms and looked back at Elena and Damon. 

"You read my journal because you were bored?" Stefan questioned, whispering in my ear. 

Not going to lie, it sent a shiver down my spine "Well that's what happens when you leave you leave me bored and unsupervised" I shoot back as I straigten up. 

"Then please, come in." Elena finally says, opening the door wider for Damon to enter. 

He enters and looks at Stefan who's smirking at him "Shut up" Elena closes the door behind him.

Bonnie appears and hands our jackets to me and Elena. "Thanks" we say as we slip them on.

"Wait, where are you going?" Stefan asks as he takes a few steps toward us.

"To school." I said in a "Duh" tone.

"Huh?" Stefan asks dumbfounded.

"No, no, no. We didn't create a safe house for you to leave it." Damon retorts.

"Yeah, guys, Klaus is out there. We know that."

"Right. But where?" When the boys stay silent Elena continues.

"No one knows. Look, I really appreciate what you guys are doing. And I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that I'll be safe here, but I'm not going to be a prisoner."

She looks at Damon warningly.

"Tsk. Your way, Elena."

Bonnie looks at them. "Don't worry, I'm ready. If he shows his face, I can take him. Know how."

"The way I see it, next to Bonnie is the safest place that she can be. Come on." I comment.

We exit and Stefan calls out after us,

"Wait, um, coming."

Everyone sits down in their seats before class starts. I take my seat behind Bonnie and Elena takes the poster for the 60s decade dance out of her bag and shows it to Stefan with a smile.

He shakes his head in disapproval. Then, she shows it to Bonnie and me. We nod our heads in agreement and Elena looks back at Stefan smugly.

"Hello, class. What are we learning today?" Alaric greets when he enters the room with books in hand.

Dana answered, "With the decade dance tonight, we've been covering the sixties all week."

Alaric nods. "Right. The sixties."

He looks forward for a second confusing most of us.

"The, uh, ahem..." He snaps out of whatever trance he was in and writes on the board.

"The sixties. I wish there was something good I could say about the sixties, but...Actually, they kind of sucked. Except for the Beatles, of course.

They made it bearable. Uh, what else was there? The Cuban missile thing, the...we walked on the moon. There was Watergate-"

"Watergate was the seventies, Ric." That makes everyone look back at Elena, I mean he did say we could call him Ric when he first came here, but no one ever does that. " I-I mean, Mr. Saltzman." She corrects himself.

Alaric chuckles. "Right. It all kind of mushes together up here, the sixties, seventies. Thank you, Elena."

When the bell rings, I linger a bit till everyone empty's out.

"Hey Ric" I greet, walking up to him. "Oh, uh hi Ariel"

I give him a sympathetic look "How are you? You know, with Isobel dead and everything"

He coughs into his palm "I'm Uh, dealing. Thanks for the concern"

"You know if you're free after class we can do some training. Maybe some sparring" I said, trying to coax myself in.

"Uh you know what, I'm going to have to do a rain check. I have loads of assignments to do"

I sighed "Alright I guess, I was looking forward to improving my technique. I'll see you later then"