Of Boyfriends and Bloodshed

Chapter 1 - Back to School

Stefan Salvatore and his younger sister, Isabella (more fondly known as Bella) walked into Mystic Falls High School side by side. Bella side-eyed him curiously.

"You know," she spoke so only he could hear, "There are way better things we could be doing than going to high school."

"Like what?" Stefan asked, not feeling too amused.

"Like, we could go find-"

"No."

She held up her hands in surrender, "Jesus, okay, don't get your panties in a twist. But I still don't get why we had to come back here after all this time."

"Because I wanted to. Now can you please shut up?"

The siblings walked into the office and Bella smiled brightly at the receptionist, "Hi. We're Isabella and Stefan Salvatore, the new students? Our old school faxed our info."

"Ah, yes," the elderly woman nodded, pulling something up on her computer, frowning when a window popped up, "Your records are incomplete. You're missing immunization records, and we do insist on transcripts."

Stefan removed his sunglasses and looked the receptionist in the eye, "Please look again. I'm sure everything you need is there."

The secretary began looking through the computer again and Bella turned to Stefan, whispering lowly, "I thought you were against compulsion, Stef."

"And I thought you were going to shut up."

"Well, you're right," the receptionist interrupted their bickering, "So it is. Let me just print out your schedules and locker information."

Bella heard two female voices whispering outside, one of which sounded oddly familiar. She listened to their conversation without turning around. They were whispering about how hot they found Stefan. This amused Bella for all of ten seconds before she tuned them out. The siblings snatched their schedules out of the receptionist's hands and checked to see if they had any classes together, walking out the door.

"Only calculus," Bella noted, staring at her brother, "Finally letting me leave the nest, brother?"

"Quiet," Stefan answered, patting his sister's head, "Try to make some friends, okay?"

"I make no promises," she grumbled in response, shrugging his hand off.

"Just be yourself," Stefan smiled and they headed to their first classes of the day, Stefan to history and Bella to English.

Bella walked into the room a minute late, feeling nearly all of the students' eyes on her. She snickered to herself, half-embarrassed and half-exhilarated, and handed the teacher a slip the receptionist had given her to have her teachers sign. She walked to take a seat right in the middle of the classroom, behind a boy who looked around her age with floppy brown hair and dark brown eyes. He reeked of marijuana - something Bella was itching to get her hands on. She was hoping to get her hands on any substance she could, really; Stefan was driving her crazy. She seriously needed an escape.

After the teacher had started his lecture, she leaned forward and whispered in the boy's ear, "Don't turn around, but I know you've got weed. Can I pick up from you later?"

He nodded, mumbling without turning around, "Meet me at the Mystic Grille after school today. I'll hook you up."

"It's a date," Bella grinned slightly, knowing he couldn't see.

"Miss Salvatore," the teacher snidely interrupted their conversation, making all heads in the classroom snap towards her, "Since you seem to be so uninterested in what I have to say and more interested in talking to Mr. Gilbert, perhaps you can enlighten me as to what the sea symbolizes in Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'. It was your summer assignment to read it, after all," his long-winded tirade finally came to an end with a final reprimand, "Just because you're new doesn't mean you are exempt from class requirements."