The Perfect Storm

Friday Night Bites

I'm hanging out with Jeremy in the stoner pit before school starts. I'm halfway done with a blunt before Vicki comes up to us. I tried passing to him but, Jeremy's been feeling down and moody lately because of Vicki changing her mind and running back to dick face, I mean Tyler.
"I rock, I scored two tickets to the Posers Saturday night. They're playing at The Rat." Vicki said walking up happily. I was sitting on the table to Jeremy's right, the opposite side of where Vicki was now standing, one of Jeremy's ear buds in my left ear.
"You and Tyler have fun." Jeremy snarked at her, done with the back and forth.
"Don't be like that. Come on. I want you to go." Vicki pleads while grabbing Jeremy's forearm. He just looked down at her hand, her shaking his arm.
"You're not worried everyone's gonna know you're screwing the stoner geek? Oh wait, everyone already knows." Jeremy said sarcastically. I snort and take another puff.
"Yeah, but it's not like that anymore so now we can be friends and just hang." She says as if that's what's he needed to hear. I shake my head, continuing to smoke.
"Tell me something, was it, was it the drugs? Were you, were you sleeping with me because of the drugs?" Jeremy stuttered out incredulously.
"Screw you." Vicki said offended.
"He did that already." I deadpanned not even looking at them.
"Well, no, if there's another reason please, I'm-I'm all ears." Vicki just looked at him not saying anything. Sad, Jeremy got up and walked away.
"Really Vic? Nothing?" I shake my head, saying it in a monotone. I just passed the rest of my blunt off to someone next to me and walked off to meet up with Stefan and Elena for the football throw. I totally wanted to steal his thunder, and throw it back at Tyler. When I had found them, Bonnie was walking off.
"She doesn't like me very much." Stefan stated matter-of-factly.
"She don't know you." I said finally catching up to them. Not even saying hi.
"She's my best friend. She's just looking out for me." Elena told Stefan, referring to Bonnie. "But when she does...she's will love you." Elena said and we started walking.
"Let's hope not, that'd be incredibly awkward." I joked and they chuckled.
I heard Tyler and Matt talking about Stefan and Elena, when I hear Elena say, "here's what we're gonna do. Are you free tonight?" She asked Stefan.
"Yes." Stefan said after a pause making it seem like he was thinking.
"Perfect. Dinner, my house, 8 o'clock. You, me, Bonnie and Lina. You two will spend some quality time and she'll get to see what a great guy you are." Elena said as if a dinner is going to fix everything. "Mission accomplished."
"I'm not cooking." I deadpanned. Knowing she would try to talk me into it. 'Showtime.' I smirked at Elena, who just pouts a little.
I hear, "Ty, don't! Ty!" And then the ball is thrown at Stefan who turns supernaturally fast and catches it just before it hits his head. He lifts it in acknowledgment. Then, I snatched it out his hands and dropped my bag to throw it. I took a few steps back and turned to throw it. It spiraled through the air, hitting Tyler in the chest, him catching it and falling on his ass in the dirt. Everyone laughs and he just looked freaked out and in a little pain.
Elena scoffs out a laugh and Stefan just smiles amused. Since the 3 of us had first period together I just third wheeled with them. Honestly, you get used to it after a while, not my first time being the third wheel, not only in this lifetime.
We're walking down the hallway to Elena's locker. "That catch, and that throw, was insane." She said looking at Stefan, then looking at me, then looking at Stefan, her standing in the middle of us. "I didn't know you played football?" She asks Stefan.
"I used to. It was a long time ago." He said solemnly.
"Why don't you try out for the team?" Elena suggested.
"You should." I encouraged. Not looking at them, but saw Elena point in my direction and nod in agreement with me
"Yeah, I don't think so." Stefan said discouraged from earlier. Stretching the first word.
"So you don't like football?" Elena asked confused. We got to Elena's locker and she moved to open it, with me and Stefan on her left, Stefan closer than I was.
"No, I love football. I think it's a great sport. But, in this case I don't think football likes me." Stefan explained.
"You saw Tyler back there." I supplied, voice monotone, and my face expressionless. Right hand holding the strap to my bag, that was on my right shoulder.
"Yeah, and we all know how Matt feels." Stefan said immediately after me, leaning in closer to Elena to be a little quieter.
"They don't know you, to them you're mysterious loner guy." Elena reasoned, taking off her leather jacket. "Wouldn't hurt to be part of. Make some friends."
"Says the girl who spends her alone time in a cemetery." I deadpanned turning to look at Elena from looking at Stefan. Stefan smiles at Elena as if I just proved his point, tilting his head to the side.
"Hey~, come on. There's more to me than just...gloomy graveyard girl." Elena tells Stefan. "There's a whole other Elena that you have yet to meet. She was into everything, very busy." She said with spunk.
"Well, I look forward to meeting her. And when will that be?" Stefan asked.
"Soon." She answered shortly. She closed her locker, still looking at Stefan. I just stood there with my hands in my jeans pockets, looking around at nothing in particular. "She's working on it." She told Stefan, Elena speaking jn the third person, all of us walking away from her locker.
"I don't know...I think I like gloomy graveyard girl better." I told her sassily, walking behind her and Stefan into class. Tanners. 🙄
After everyone sat down and the bell rang he started his lesson. "World War II ended in?" Tanner asked the class. "Anybody got anything? Miss Juan?" He paused waiting for an answer that he didn't receive. "1945."
"Psst. FYI..our team sucks. They could use you." Elena whispered to Stefan, not exactly being that quiet. I sat to Elena's right, in front of Stefan cause some asshole stole my normal seat.
"Pearl Harbor." Tanner asked in the background of their conversation.
"Can't. I'm a loner." Stefan whispered back to her. When Tanner started looking over I just cleared my throat to alert them, but I guess neither of them heard me.
"Miss Gilbert?" I smirked at the fact that he doesn't single her out by her first name anymore.
She turned to him, "hmm?"
"Pearl harbor?" Tanner reiterated.
"Um..." she trailed off not knowing or not remembering the date.
"December 7th, 1941." Stefan supplied in her place. They both look at each other briefly.
"Thank you, Miss Gilbert." Tanner sassed. I snorted a laugh and covered my mouth. Stefan poked me in the back which just made it harder to hide my laugh. "Something funny Miss Williams?" I shook my head biting both my lips to hold in the giggles.
"Anytime." Stefan replied to Tanner's sass earlier.
"Very well." Tanner relented. "The fall of the Berlin wall?" Tanner asked looking around smugly thinking he didn't know the answer.
"1989." Stefan answered quickly. "I'm good with dates, sir." Stefan explained at Tanner's shocked face.
"Are you?" Tanner asked sarcastically, not believing him. "How good?" He looked around the classroom making sure everyone was watching so he could humiliate Stefan. Which backfires. "Keep it to the year. Civil Rights Act." He swooped his gaze to Stefan then started listing.
"1964."
"John F Kennedy assassination."
"1963."
"Martin Luther King." Tanner kept listing taking a step forward. I decided I wanted in on this action just to fuck with Tanner.
"'68. Come on give him a hard one Tanner." I taunted.
"Lincoln." He looked at me then back to Stefan. They started the rapid fire Tanner taking steps closer to Stefan with each event in question.
"1865."
"Roe vs. Wade."
"1973."
"Brown vs. Board."
"1954."
"The battle of Gettysburg."
"1863."
"Korean war."
"1950 to 1953." Stefan supplied.
"Ha! It ended in '52." He scoffed thinking he got him. He chuckled moving to walk away.
"Nope. It ended in '53." I corrected Tanner.
"Look it up, somebody." He demanded of the class, looking frustrated. "Quickly!"
"It was 19......53." The dude to my right supplied chuckling holding his phone in his hand. He held his hand out to me facing up at the ceiling and I dapped him up, slapping his hand and sliding my hand down to clasp our fists, then harshly pulling away, with a smirk.
"And you call yourself a history teacher." I said sarcastically causing everyone to applaud both Stefan and I and laugh. Then the bell rung and we left pretty quickly.
"How did you know all of that?" Elena asked surprised at his knowledge. While the 3 of us walked down the hall.
"Years and years of crossword puzzles. It's, uh, a loner thing." Stefan said sounding a little sarcastic.
I waited at school after classes had finished, I hadn't seen Caroline all day so I wanted to see if she would show up to cheer practice as she is the squad's captain.
The football team was practicing and Tyler was getting yelled at by Tanner. I see Stefan just sitting on the bleachers, watching the players longing to play. So I walked up the bleachers to encourage him.
"You should try out. It might be fun." I suggested with a smirk. Emphasis on the 'might'.
"I don't know." Stefan denied weakly playing with his ring.
"What's stopping you?" I ask.
"What of I get 'hurt' and then just get up like nothing happened?" He worried.
"You'll think of something. Or just don't get hurt." I said like it was simple. Which it kind of was. "No regrets Stefan. You're 161 years old. Why don't you live a little." I suggested getting up and walking by the cheerleaders who started gathering near the football field.
Elena walked up to practice for the first time since her parents died. I walked up to her and Bonnie a few seconds after Elena had arrived. "Yup. I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were are to do things that were." She said when I walked up, I waved at them before they started stretching. I just stood there with my hands in my back pockets my book-bag in my locker cause I don't need it. "Oh, and you're coming to dinner tonight." She informed Bonnie.
"I am?" Bonnie asked happily, getting down to stretch, too.
"Mm-hmm. You, me, Lina and Stefan." She declared. Bonnie grimaced which I snorted at and looked down at the grass. "You have to give him a chance."
"Tonight's no good." Bonnie lied horribly. Elena just tilted her head giving her a 'really?' look.
                  "Have you seen Caroline, I called her like 100 times." Bonnie asks Elena and I.
                  "That's what I wanna know." I said in a low tone that indicated I was starting to get mad.
                  "Don't change the subject Bonnie Bennett. You're going to be there." Elena said in a semi-commanding tone. The two sitting down after their first stretch.
                  "Yeah babe, if I have to go so do you." I said with a smirk looking at Bonnie.
                  She blushed a little at my term of endearment, and looked down while continuing to stretch. After a pause, I nudged her foot with mine. "Fine. I'll go." She relented.
                   "Good." Elena said grinning at us. They went on to finish their warm ups. Their practice was about to start but Caroline was still a no show. At least I wasn't the only one concerned.
                   "Seriously, where is Caroline?" Bonnie asked, also getting frustrated. The girls were sitting on the grass taking a water break and waiting for their fearless leader.
                   "I don't know." Elena answered with a shake of her head, then taking a drink from her water bottle. "It's not like her." She said closing the bottle and putting it down.
                   "I'll try her again." Bonnie said going for her phone. Then Damon drove up to the side of the field with Caroline riding passenger.
                    "Uh..." Elena trailed off pointing at the car. Bonnie and I turned to where she was pointing, Caroline in Damon's car, them making out.
                    "I think I found her." I said sarcastically.
                    "Oh my god! That must be the mystery guy from the grill." Bonnie said standing up and turning to face Caroline's direction. Elena stood up too.
                    "That's not a mystery guy." I said sighing afterwards.
                    "That's Damon Salvatore." Elena said spitting out the name like a curse.
                    "Salvatore, as in Stefan?" Bonnie asked incredulously.
                    Caroline got out of Damon's car finally done with their suck-fest and she sauntered over. "I got the other brother." She said going to walk between Bonnie and Elena, standing to the right of me. "Hope you don't mind." She sang as she passed us on her way to the front. "Sorry I'm late girls. I, uh, was busy." She said peeking over at Damon. "Alright let's start with the double pike herkie hurdler." She went into captain mode.
                     "I'll see yall later." I said in a low tone. I made my way over to Damon's car, and stood on the driver side. I crossed my arms over my chest, glaring at Damon. He smirked and just leant back in his seat. I scoffed and bent down to rest my folded arms on the driver's door. "Really Damon?" I asked rhetorically, in a low pitched voice.
                     "Why're you fuckin little girls, Damon? Can't find anybody your own age?" I taunted him. "If I find out you hurt one inch of that perfect porcelain body, you'll be begging me for death." I said seriously with an expressionless face then smiled dubiously at him.
                    "Oh yeah? And what're you gonna do? You gonna kill me?" He mocked.
                    "Oh I'm not gonna kill ya. I'm just gonna hurt ya. Really, really bad." I said doing my imitation of The Joker from my past life. He gulped at how crazy I looked right then. I backed up and he sped out of there so fast there were tire marks on the pavement.
                     I had decided to just wait for Bonnie and Elena to get done with their practice and leave with them since I was going to Elena's for the dinner tonight. I sat on the bleachers watching the football team practice. I mean they're horrible but I want to see some people get trucked (tackled hard).
                    "Blue lady! Blue lady! Set, hut! go!" Matt called out and they ran the play. Stefan faked right then broke left, swerving around Tyler. Matt threw the ball and Stefan caught it.
                   "Come on, Tyler, cover it!" One of his teammates yelled. This happened about 7 times before they took a water break. I laughed every time Tyler failed. Elena had walked up to stand next to the bleachers, next to where I was sitting. 'Guess she's not gonna be a cheerleader anymore.'
                   "I think you should quit cheerleading." I told her, speaking all of sudden after just sitting there not saying anything to her while the boys practice.
                  "What?" She asked confused. "Why?" She then asked defensive.
                  "You're trying to go back to the person you were before your parents died, but the truth is you're not the same person. No one stays the same after losing someone they love, let alone two. Not everything is gonna go back to like it was before, and that's ok. Plus, you suck and the routine isn't even hard." I dropped some knowledge on her and then chuckled trying to lighten the mood.
                  "Yeah, you're right. I was thinking about it this morning too. I'll do it tomorrow." Elena said still watching Stefan while I'm leaning back against the row behind me looking up at the sky. When I looked back to Stefan, cause he got his shit rocked by Tyler, I saw he was hesitant to get up. Then I see it, his pinky is bent. Sideways. 'I don't think it's 'posed to do that.' He looks at me like 'the fuck do I do?! I told you this would happen!' I hold up my hand away from Elena's line of sight and motion putting the pinky back, straight. He faces away from everyone and discreetly puts it back in place. I roll my eyes.