Alive with you

Chapter one:

Elise Salvatore was always sure of herself. She always knew exactly how she did on a test, she always knew what she wanted, and whom she wanted and why she wanted it, she always knew what new shoes was a better investment and what book would be more fun to read. Indeed, Elise Salvatore was always, always, sure of herself.

Except for now.

She'd been trying on outfits for at least an hour, trying to decide what to wear to her first day of junior year at Mystic Falls High. She usually never made a big deal about what she wore, every other year she just wore whatever her Mom said looked nice on her (even though she said that about everything, Elise always just went with the first one she tried on), but this year was different. This was the first time since school let out for summer break that she'd get to see most of her friends (those who hadn't gone off to college, anyway).

Her best friend and cousin, Klara Salvatore, had gone off to Spain for the summer to study Spanish with her older sister, Beth, before Beth left for college this year along with Elise's brother, Lucas. Klara was exactly a year older than Elise, so she was going to be a senior this year, and off to college herself next fall.

Next, Greyson Gilbert, her buddy from the belly, as their Mom's used to say, had gone to Africa with his Mother, who was a doctor, on some volunteer work, along with Ricky Saltzman (he was a totally different story that we'll get into in a minute), whose Mother was also a doctor. Greyson was born on December thirtieth, so he was two months younger than Elise and had just made the cut to be going into junior year, instead of sophomore year, like the last link to their friend group.

Finally, Lawson Salvatore, Klara's younger brother, had spent his summer at an overnight soccer camp that he went to every year. Even though he was born in February, a mere four months between himself and Elise, and only two between himself and Greyson, he was going into sophomore year. Not only was Lawson the youngest, but he also harboured the biggest secret kept from his parents; he was gay. Their entire friend circle knew, but he'd refused to tell his parents, even though everyone knew they wouldn't care and would love him just the same.

Their friend circle consisted of Elise's two older brothers, Mason (who was going into his third year at Whitmore college) and Lucas (who was going into his first year at the university of Virginia), Klara and Lawson's older siblings, Jasper (who was going into his third year at Radford University) and Beth (who was going into her first year at Marymount University), and Ricky's twin sisters, Callie and Merissa (Callie was starting her third year of college at Radford with Jasper while Merissa was in her third year of the University of Virginia).

For as long as Elise could remember, the ten friends had been inseparable since birth. Obviously, there were groups within the circle (the first group being Mason, Jasper, Callie, Merissa, Lucas and Beth, the second being Elise, Lawson, Greyson, Klara and Ricky), but for the most part, before six of the ten went off to college, they all hung out together, and obviously had relationships with each other.

Merissa had been soundly dating Jasper for nearly three years, Lucas had been dating Callie for a year, Mason had been dating a mystery girl for five years (all he'd said was that she was blonde, blue eyed and two years older. He didn't want their parents to know so he kept the information he told Elise limited), Elise had a major crush on Ricky since she was about ten years old, and Klara had a crush on Greyson, but refused to tell anyone other than Elise because she believed dating a sophomore would give her a bad rep.

It was safe to say that they'd taken after their parents, considering they had once been a platonic friend group as well.

Now, onto the matter everyone seems to want to know about, but no one really knows about.