Elena
"Okay everyone, settle down. There is one more project I'm wanting you all to do." Mrs. Lincoln tells the class. Everyone turns around to listen and groans when she says there's one more project. "No don't groan, this is a fun project. I want you guys to make a collage of your entire life, milestones, accomplishments, and dreams. Start with pictures from when you were babies, up to what you look like now. It will be due in 2 weeks." She writes something on the board before we leave the room.
I gather up my stuff and grab my keys. I wave at Caroline as she rushes past me to her car. She just started her new job and I barely get to see her now.
"Elena! Wait up." I hear Stefan call from his car. I stop and wait on him to catch up. He smiles and leans down to kiss me.
"Hey babe, everyone's heading to the swimming hole. Want to go?" He says. He moves his hands down my arms and I shake my head.
"I can't. I have too much homework tonight." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.
"Elena you always have homework. Summer break is almost here. Live a little." He says and I shrug out of his embrace. He sighs when I start walking towards my car.
"If you change your mind, you know where to find me." He calls out and I keep walking.
"Hey sweety, how was your day?" My mom asks as soon as I walk in the front door. I put my backpack on the steps and walk in the living room, sitting down beside her. I'm glad I decided to stay in town for my first 2 years of college. I like coming home to my mom.
"Mom, do you think I'm boring?" I look up at her.
"What? No? Why would you ask such a thing?" She says and I shrug my shoulders. Thinking back on what Stefan said earlier.
"Stefan, he told me to "live a little" and that I'm always doing homework. Sorry I want to make sure I get good grades." I say and mom puts her hands on my shoulders.
"Elena, you are not boring. You're just a girl with different dreams. You like to study, so what? You're smart and beautiful. Don't listen to Stefan." She says. I look out the back doors and see my brother playing basketball.
"I'm going upstairs." I say. I grab my backpack and head up to my room.
"Oh mom, can I get out the old photo albums, I have a project and need baby pictures of myself." I call out from my room and wait for her to answer. I hear her walking up the stairs and she comes in my room.
"Elena, we don't have any of those. Remember? The fire?" She says and I nod. Always forgetting.
"What about any other ones? I just need pictures from my childhood." I say and she smiles.
"Let me go in the attic and grab the boxes. I'll bring them down." She says and I nod. I clear my bed off and make room for the stuff.
"Theres 6 boxes, I'm not sure what's in what, but everything's in these." She brings them all in with separate trips. I open one of the lids and look at everything in it.
"Thanks mom." I say. She kisses my cheek and walks out of my room after bringing the last box in.
I spend an hour looking through so many pictures I fall back on my bed, exhausted. My leg accidentally kicks one of the boxes and it falls off my bed. "Shit." I get up and go to pick everything back up. I pick up a folder and a few papers fall out.
"Katherine Lane Gilbert." Katherine? Who's Katherine? I look at the birth certificate and drop it when I see the birth date.
June 22, 1992. Same as me.
