Just A Girl (TVD)

Founders Day

Damon Salvatore. Semi-friend to history teachers and 14 year old smart asses. After everything that's happened, I wouldn't necessarily call him a friend, but he hasn't been as horrible of a person as he usually is in the past few days. This is why I wasn't surprised to see his name on the screen when my phone started ringing in the middle of watching a movie with Charlie.

"What's up?" I asked after pausing the movie. "I'm with Charlie right now and we're having some really good popcorn so this better be good."

"Remember that tomb full of vampires with a serious grudge against the founding families?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well, they're at the founders day parade. A lot of them." He seemed stressed. "And I don't think they're here for the party. Do you have any piece of wood that's remotely stabby with you?"

"I mean... we have pencils."

"Good enough. Now stay inside, lock the door and don't let anyone into the house." He hung up.

Charlie looked at me, then looked at the phone, then looked at the popcorn, and then looked back at me and groaned. "We're gonna go to the parade, aren't we?"

I grinned. "Hell yeah."

"You're gonna be the death of me." Charlie said as we got on our bikes. It was already dark out, so we had to sneak out of his house through the window, which was a challenge considering the fact that his bedroom was on the second floor. Thankfully, the trellis wasn't as unstable as it looked and the worst injury I got was a few cuts from the rose thorns of the plant that climbed up the wall as we climbed down.

Town square was filled with people enjoying the festivities. Throughout the crown, I spotted a few people glancing violently at anyone who passed. I looked down to see the bloodstone on my necklace glowing. It almost felt like it was burning against my chest so I unclasped the necklace and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans.

About ten feet away I saw Bonnie, looking around nervously and pulling out her phone every few seconds as if she was expecting a single text that could magically lift the weight off of her shoulders. It never seemed to come though, so I called her name and ran over, pulling Charlie with me. "Bonnie! Hey!"

"Nora, Charlie!" She turned to face us then lowered her voice. "You guys shouldn't be here..."

"Yeah, we know." Charlie said. "Why do you think she dragged me here?" I lightly - okay not really - punched his arm. "Ow!"

"What's going on, anyway?" I asked Bonnie.

"Well, you know," She started. "Vengeful tomb vampires, magical inventions that expose said vampires that I was supposed to disarm."

I nodded slowly but then paused for a moment. "Well... did you disarm it?"

She shifted nervously and sighed. "That's a problem for later." Her eyes lingered on me for a while before her face returned to its panicked state that it had been in a minute earlier. "Where's your necklace?" She demanded.

"Oh, it's in my pocket." I said absentmindedly. "I took it off earlier cause-"

"No, no, no," She cut me off. "That necklace is gonna keep you safe, alright? You need to be wearing it at all times."

"But I-"

"Nora..." She gave me one of those looks I usually got from Jenna when she knew I was about to steal her leftover takeout.

"Fine..." I grumbled, taking the bloodstone necklace out of my pocket. By the time I looked back up, she had started walking off. I rolled my eyes and turned to Charlie.