Clair de Lune - K.M.

c h a p t e r f o r t y t h r e e

I don't have much experience with vampires who've shut off their humanity. The last time I dealt with one was when Klaus forced Stefan to flip his switch almost a year ago and back then I didn't really have it in me to worry about what he was like without his emotions. I was a newly turned hybrid with lot of other important things on my mind.

Because of my lack of experience, I've been trying to give Elena space during a time like this. The Salvatore brothers know a lot more about how to keep her under control, despite the fact that they argue constantly about the best way to deal with her, and to be honest I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole situation anyway.

Initially I agreed with Stefan and thought that Elena flipping her humanity was a terrible idea but now I'm not so sure. She seems to be doing alright other than her tendency to feed on innocent people.

I think it's normal. She's a vampire, vampires eat people. But Elena doesn't. Damon is determined to keep her under control so that when her humanity does come back, the amount of guilt she has to deal with is minimized. He wants to keep her from teetering on the ledge which is why he uses the sire bond to make sure she no longer feeds on people. I think that its been working.

Truthfully, with trying to avoid Elena, I've been focusing on other things. Like how the hell all of this happened in the first place. Turns out that Tyler's old buddy Hayley made a deal with Katherine to help her get information on us. Now Katherine is doing her best to tie up all of her lose ends and that includes sending people to kill the werewolf girl.

Klaus promised to protect her if she helped him find Katherine. He's been unsuccessfully hunting the vampire for centuries so I'm not sure how successful he's going to be but I'm not complaining. I want to locate her almost as much as he does, which is why I encourage him to find Hayley and bring her back to Mystic Falls safe and sound. I want to go with him to help with the search but my mom catches up to me and informs me that I'm going to school instead.

"Mom, I'm not going to class," I tell her as I pack up a bag with a change of clothes.

"Why not?"

"Because!" I answer in a frustrated voice. "There are more important things than school going on right now."

"Not for you. Hey, Stella. Stella!"

"What?" I ask, finally turning to face her.

"I know that you have a lot happening in your life that I'm not a part of but I also know how important graduation is to you. You think I don't know that the second you get your diploma you're leaving me? Leaving this town?"

"It's not like that," I tell her but I'm only half telling the truth. I am planning on leaving but it's not because of her.

"I know more than you think, Stella."

I narrow my eyes slightly at her. My mom gets overlooked a lot by me, often being too involved in my own life and my own troubles, but maybe she's right. Maybe she's not as oblivious as I think.

"You can't leave without a diploma."

"I'm not going to college so technically that's not true," I say. "Besides, if I need to I'll just compel the principal to let me graduate. Perks of being a hybrid, remember?"

"Oh really?" my mother asks, crossing her arms and staring at me. "And you're going to be fine with living the next thousand years knowing that you never actually graduated high school? Knowing that no matter how smart you think you are you'll never actually have anything to prove it?"

I glare at her and she simply raises her eyebrows in response.

Shit.

She's got me. Graduation is just around the corner and if I don't start going to school I will have to compel myself a diploma. Not to mention that she's right. It'll always bug me if I don't really earn this. It'll prove that I'm no better than all the worthless idiots in this town that I despise.