Ruin ° DAMON SALVATORE

II

"The battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the War in our very own Mystic Falls," Mr. Tanner started class immediately after the bell rang, diving right into the civil war, "How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms. Bennett?"

"Uh, which one?" Bonnie and I looked towards each other, and Mr. Tanner looked between us for a second, obviously forgetting, yet again, that there were two Bennetts in his junior history class.

"Bonnie," he clarified after a moment.

"Uhm," Bonnie hesitated, obviously unsure of the answer, " A lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot."

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett," Mr. Tanner was unimpressed as he moved onto his next victim. "Mr. Donovan. Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

"It's okay, Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it," Matt didn't bother trying to answer, a couple of students laughing lightly. Mr. Tanner didn't bother saying anything, moving on yet again. "Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events? "

"I'm sorry, I - I don't know." Elena automatically responded, being honest with him.

"I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break," Mr. Tanner was practically scolding her, and I watched sadly as Elena sadly glanced down, knowing he was right.

"There were 346 casualties," someone called out the answer, everyone turning to look at Stefan, "unless you're counting local civilians."

"Finally someone knows their stuff," Mr. Tanner nodded towards him. "What's your name?"

"Stefan Salvatore."

"Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

"Distant," Stefan nodded.

"Very good, except there were no civilian casualties in this battle," Mr. Tanner went on.

"Actually, there were 27, Sir," Stefan said, "confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss."

Mr. Tanner looked down, embarrassed and surprised that someone actually knew something that he didn't. 

"The Founder's archives are stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner," Stefan muttered, knowing that he outsmarted the history teacher.

The whole class paused, watching Mr. Tanner for a response, but all we got was a "hmph," and that was all that was said in response to Stefan.

:_:_:_:_:_:_:

The moment that Bonnie, Caroline, Elena and I arrived at the party, Caroline easily split off from us, heading toward a group of girls that were too dressed up to be at a bush party. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at them as Bonnie, Elena and I headed toward the beer keg, the three of us easily filling up a cup each. We huddled together by the fire, staying warm as the night air started to cool.

"So, Jaz," Bonnie looked at me, "What did you and Stefan talk about on that run of yours yesterday?"

"Nothing really," I shook my head, not being able to really say anything about the conversation with the Salvatore boy yesterday. Bonnie still didn't believe our Grandma about the whole witch thing, and though she tried her hardest. It was always really tempting to spill the beans, but Grams made me promise not to say or do anything until Bonnie believed it on her own, even if it took years. This also meant that I had to keep the secret from Elena and Caroline.