The book of Ellie (remake)

One

  I stare at myself in the mirror. I just finished straightening my hair and putting on a little makeup. Today is the first of school and I look amazing.

  But I don't feel amazing.

  I feel like I should be dead. I feel like I should've drowned that night.

  I can still remember the feeling of water flooding through my lungs. The feeling of gasping for air that isn't there. That's probably why I won't step anywhere near a swimming pool.

  My older twin sister, Elena, and I somehow got lucky. When our car went over the bridge, we somehow made it out of the car. Our parents though...weren't as lucky as us lucky.

  I believe that somebody pulled us out of that car. Except when I tried to tell Sheriff Forbes, she said that it was impossible. But what is impossible, is the fact that Elena and I just happened to get out of the car.

  "Ellie!" Elena yells at me. Her voice and her urgency both knock me out of my trance.

  "What?" I ask clearly annoyed. I look at her through the bathroom mirror. She's already dressed and ready for school. I am too, but I haven't completely finished getting ready.

  "Hurry up! Bonnie's going to be here soon," she rushes me.

  "Okay! I'm almost done," I reassure her. She walks out of the bathroom with a pep in her step. If only I could be as peppy as her.  

  I quickly walk out of the bathroom and head downstairs.

  As I'm walking down the stairs I hear my Aunt Jenna arguing with herself about what to feed us. After our parents died, she became our legal gaurdian. She put her entire life on hold to take care of us. I'm so thankful for her.

  "Toast. Toast is good," she reassures herself.

  "Toast is fine," I say walking up behind her and give her a quick hug. While I hug her I grab a piece of toast from off of the plate she's holding.

  "It's all about the coffee," Elena says walking into the kitchen too.

  Elena grabs herself and I a cup of cup of coffee. She hands me mine and begins drinking hers.

  I sit my cup down and begin to rip off pieces of the toast I stole. 

  "Okay...Oh God I'm late for a meeting. Who's going to take you to school?" Jenna worries. She takes her hand and combs through her strawberry colored hair.

  "Bonnie's going to take us. Don't worry about us Jenna," I give her a reassuring smile. 

  "Now go! Before your super late," Elena rushes her.

  Bonnie is our best friend. We all grew up together. She has beautiful brown skin, long beautiful brown hair, and a smile that lights up the room. She also believes that she's psychic all because her Grams told her that she's a descendant of a long line of witches.

  It could be true...who knows? 

  I look over at Jeremy, my younger brother, whose standing in the kitchen doorway. I give him a small smile. He halfway returns it.

  "I've got to go. See you all later," he announces. He comes and gives me a sidways hug, that I return. He then leaves out the door. He doesn't even bother to make eye contact with Elena or Jenna.

  Jeremy's grieving in a different way from everybody else. Instead of turning to family, he turned to drugs and alcohol. And he's pretty much a stoner now.

  Him and Elena haven't been seeing eye to eye lately. Elena wants us to move on. Which Jeremy and I have no problem with, except she's being a hypocrite. She wants us to move on, but she sits in the cemetery writing in her diary every afternoon. Which isn't healthy for somebody who's supposed to be moving on.

  I look and see Bonnie's car through the window. She waves for us to come out.

  "Bonnie's here," I announce quickly shoving the rest of the toast and coffee into my mouth. I then grab my backpack and books before heading towards the door.

  "Bye Jenna!" Elena and I yell simultaneously. And we both head out to Bonnie's car together.

  I race Elena to the car. Sadly, she beats me. Forcing me to sit in the backseat.

  "The youngest always sits in the back," she jokes.

  "Your only older by like 30 seconds." I joke back. And we both get into Bonnie's SUV giggling.

  "Hey guys! How's your morning going?" She asks us both in a cheery tone.

  "It was fine. Jenna was having a hard time though, she overthinks every little thing," I sigh. 

  "Well she put her whole life on hold to take care of 3 teenagers," Elena says.

  "Yeah I know. But I just wish she knew how thankful we are for her," I add.

  "I think she knows. She just doesn't want to mess up. She's new at parenting. Just give her some time," Bonnie chimes in.

  "True," I agree. Before I can add more to the subject my phone chimes. I look down at it and see it's a text from Tyler.

  Tyler's my semi-boyfriend. He's got a massive crush on me. But he's got serious anger issues. And his target of aggression is Jeremy. So I can't date him. It'll be a betrayal to Jeremy. And plus, I'm not even sure how I feel about him just yet.

  I unlock my phone to read the text.

  Tyler:
  Hey...how are you feeling? 

  I feel like I should have died along with my parents. And I feel guilty. But I can't say that. If I say that, then everybody will treat me differently. Like I'm a timed bomb. Going to explode at any minute. Which I'm not...but still.

  The car suddenly stops and my head slams against the passenger seat.

  "Ow!" I yelp. My hand immediately flies up to my forehead, where my scar is. I got it from the accident, but you can't see it because I always cover it with makeup.

  "Oh God! I'm so sorry. It must've been a crow or something," Bonnie apologizes frantically whilst looking for a dead bird.

  "It's okay Bonnie really," I reassure her panting a little.

  "No it's not. I know that you don't like riding in cars and I-" Bonnie starts but Elena cuts her off abruptly.

  "We can't be afraid of riding in cars anymore," Elena turns and looks at me. I know exactly what she means. After the accident, Elena and I both made a pact.

  That we would not let the accident be a reason to fear cars.

  "Let's just get to school yeah?" I chime in.

  "Yeah," Bonnie let's out a shaky sigh and begins driving again.

  This is a great way to start off the first day of school. A normal day in Mystic Falls.