It has been a whole year, and each day was as hard as the one before.
365 days since my mum died.
I tried not to think about it too often, I just lived every day as normal as was possible, but sometimes I would lose focus and she would always be the first thought in my head without any hesitation.
And now I’m on a plane flying from my home in England all the way to Virginia.
A change is what my dad had said. We needed a new start; erase everything that we were and what we had, and just start again. We had decided what we would do a month after my mum died, but dad didn’t want to leave until a year had passed. "It’s like New Year’s Day, we all wait for that day to change things, make the New Year different." Is what my dad had said, so we waited a whole year and just like he promised, we left our home for the last time.
I slept most of the flight and woke when I heard the seatbelt sign 'ding'. I looked next to me and saw that my dad was also asleep. I nudged him awake.
"Dad, were landing." I said as my dad look disorientated around him.
"Oh good." He yawned.
Two hours later and we passed the town sign 'Welcome to Mystic Falls.'
I smiled to myself as I watched out the car window as dad drove us to our new home.
"That’s the high school over there, Sadie." He said as we drove past a big, two story building.
After fifteen minutes driving we pulled up in front of a gorgeous house, it was very modern looking but has an old style. It was the last one on the street and it stood next to a small forest, not very thick but it still looked deep. We walked into the house and saw that the most of our things had been unpacked such as all of the kitchen things, living room furniture and Bedroom furniture.
I went up to my new room as dad went through the house moving things and rearranging things to how he liked them. I smiled when I saw my room, it was fairly big, had an on suit bathroom and a wooden balcony that overlooked the forest. I didn’t bother moving any of my furniture; I liked it just the way it was. I spent the rest of the night unpacking everything I owned then helped dad.
The next day was a Sunday, so I had a shower and got dressed. It was sunny out so I decided on dark denim shorts, black vest top with a thin white cardigan and black converse shoes. I left my long dark red hair fall loosely down my back, running a brush through it.
I went downstairs and saw a note on the kitchen counter. 'Sadie. I have gone to my new work place to have a look around. Maybe you should have a look around town and get the feel of it. Here’s a key, look in the garage." I put the note down and picked up the key that was next to it and went outside to the garage. What was inside took my breath away, a shiny red Audi convertible.
I allowed my inner girl to come out as I squealed and jumped a bit. Then after composing myself I got in and drove off.
The town wasn’t that big, I had pretty much covered the whole place in forty five minutes, and on my second go around I noticed a small cafe called the grill. I decided to check it out and pulled into the car park. I walked in the doors and practically fell over something.
I managed to catch myself before I hit the floor, and looked around to see it was someone’s foot I fell over; I stood up straight about to carry on walking when the person spoke. "I’m really sorry, that was my fault."
I turned around, and saw that he was very good looking... VERY good looking. He had short floppy sandy brown hair and lovely green eyes.
"Oh, erm its okay, I should look where I’m going, sorry."
He smiled at me. "Your new here I take it?" he asked me, pushing a chair towards me, I looked at the chair and then at the table, there was a girl sitting opposite him smiling up at me, she was very pretty. I sat in the chair he offered me.
"Yeah, I moved here yesterday." I answered.
"My names Stephan and this is my girlfriend, Elena." He gestured to the pretty girl. I smiled at her.
"Nice to meet you both." We carried on talking for what seemed like ages. I looked over to the window and saw that the sun was going down. "Oh, I better go, my dad will be wondering where I am. Thank you so much for this!" I said, smiling at Stephan and Elena.
"No problem, hey do you start school tomorrow?" Elena asked me.
"Yes I do." I answered.
"Do you want to ride with us?" Stephan asked.
I said I would love to and gave him my address, said goodbye and left. When I got in, dad was asleep on the couch. I woke him and we told each other about our days. I then had a shower and got in bed, and that’s when the nervousness hit me... Going back to school. In England I had already left school so this just seemed like a repeat of that horror. Slowly I drifted off into sleep where the same familiar nightmare greeted me.
I woke to the sound of tapping on my window, confused I walked over to it and opened my curtains. It was just a branch of a tree that stood close to the house waving in the wind. I rolled my eyes and looked at the clock. Half five in the morning, school started at nine.
I climbed back in bed to warm up a bit and waited for the sun to come up, it never did, today was miserable, rain and wind.
I sighed heavily and got in the shower, I now had two hours to waste.
After my shower I got dressed, I wore my skinny jeans, blue t-shirt and grey zip up hoodie with my grey boots. I left my hair down, hoping it would make a good curtain when people realised I was new and started staring.
I looked at the clock; it was quarter past eight so I went outside onto the porch to wait for Stephan and Elena.
I watched the rain fall for about five minutes when a car pulled up in front of my house. Elena poked her head out of the window and waved me over. I got in the car and said hello to her and Stephan.
We drove to the school and got there at quarter to nine. Elena pulled into the school parking lot next to a shiny black car, it looked majorly expensive, and it made my car look second hand.
Stephan looked at the car then to Elena. "Damon." He sighed angrily. Elena smiled softly at him then got out of the car, I followed her and Stephan over to the posh car, the windows were blacked out but Stephan seemed to know someone was in it because he knocked on the window.
The car door opened and a tall guy wearing dark jeans and a black leather jacket got out. Elena and I were on the other side of the car so I only saw his back. "What are you doing here Damon?" Stephan asked him, with his arms crossed.
Damon leant back on his car and said lazily. "I got bored sitting at home, I thought I would join you and your little girlfriend today."
"Do you think that’s such a good idea?" Elena asked him, causing him to turn and face us. I was stunned at how gorgeous he was, he had longish dark brown hair, smooth skin, perfect lips that were pulled into a smirk and piercing blue eyes. I didn’t let the shock show on my face, I learnt how to conceal emotion, but Damon looked over at me, raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, as if he knew I was checking him out.
"Well Elena dear, I think I will behave myself. Who knows, I might surprise you." He answered.
Elena just looked at him, bemused. Stephan walked back over to us and put his arm around Elena.
"You better Damon, I mean it." Damon chuckled a little. "Alright little brother, I get your warning. Now, who's your friend?" He nodded in my direction. I looked at him blankly, making sure I had control of myself, no smiling, no blushing, just neutral.
"This is Sadie. She's new." Elena answered him.
Damon walked over to us and came quite close to me, he was taller than me by quite a bit, and I looked up at him. He was smiling down at me. "Nice to meet you, Sadie." He pulled my hand slowly to his lips and kissed it. I just nodded at him, already understanding his game. "Elena, can you show me where to go?" I stepped past Damon and looked at Elena. "Sure, come on."
Damon’s POV
I saw Elena’s car pull up next to mine but I didn’t get out of mine just yet, there was something different, I could smell something other than Stephan and Elena. Someone else was in her car, it wasn’t Bonnie or Caroline, I recognised those scents and this one was new, so I waited to see who the smell belonged to. I couldn’t figure out if I liked it, it smelt really good, but in a bad way, a tempting way.
Then Elena got out of her car, Stephan doing the same, then the back door opened and a girl got out.
The first thing I noticed about her was her hair, it was long, a very dark red, and had loose ringlets. Her eyes almost matched her hair; they were an orangey brown, amber almost. She was about the same height as Elena but she was slightly curvier, in a good way.
Then a knock on my window brought me back to the real world. It was Stephan; I got out of my car.
Stephan didn’t seem too happy about me being here and neither did Elena, which made me more intent on staying, I loved irritating both of them.
A voice filled my head, it was the other girl, and she was looking at me, thinking about how I looked. I looked at her and smiled. Her face became blank, blocking out any emotion. I introduced myself to her, kissing her hand, letting my charm surround her. She showed nothing, she just stepped away and went into school with Elena.
Stephan looked at me and did a smug smile. "Too difficult for you Damon?" he asked.
"I like a challenge." then we both walked into the school.
Sadie’s POV
Elena walked me over to the office where I got my schedule from. She compared it with her own. "We have third lesson together, History, and last lesson, physical education."
I groaned. "What a great way to end the day." I said, my sarcasm obvious.
Elena laughed as she walked me to my locker; it was two away from hers. I put my other books in and took out my first lessons book, Italian.
I knew Italian already so I wasn’t all that nervous. Stephan walked over to us, Damon following behind. "Hey. What have you got first?" I held up my text book. "Italian." He smiled at Elena as she came over to us. "I have science first with Elena." I sighed. "It would have been nice to know one person in my first class."
Damon was leaning against the lockers. "You do. I have Italian as well." He stated. Stephan glared at him which Damon returned with a smile.
The bell rang and Elena and Stephan said goodbye and went to their class. I pulled out my school map, avoiding eye contact with Damon and everyone who scrambled past us. I started to walk down the corridor when a hand grabbed my wrist lightly.
"Wrong way." Damon said to me, smiling.
"Well if you know where you’re going, show me." I said, taking my arm out of his hand.
He smirked at me and walked in the other direction; I had to walk quickly to keep up with him. We came up to the class room. "After you." he said as I walked past him into the room. It was filled with twin desks that were all mostly full with students chatting to each other, no one had noticed me.
I went to an empty desk at the back and sat down. Most of the talking stopped when Damon walked in, I noticed only the girls stopped talking, and they all watched him walk down to the room to my desk.
"This seat taken?" he asked, already sitting down without an answer.
Some of the girls then looked at me; I let my hair fall over my shoulder so I could hide behind it. Then the teacher came in and the talking stopped. Half way through the lesson we all had to talk to our partners in Italian. I listened around the room, no one was very good at it, there were plenty of mistakes.
I turned towards Damon who was already facing me, smirking.
I started the conversation.
"Quel piccolo trucco di il vostro funzion a spesso?" (Does that little trick of yours work often?)
He raised his eyebrows.
"Parlate italiano fluente?" (You speak fluent Italian?)
"Non avete risposto alla mia domanda." (You didn’t answer my question.)
He smiled at me. "il mio trucco e altrettanto buono quanto il vostro." (my trick is just as good as yours.)
Just as I was about to answer him, the bell rang. Damon got up and left the classroom. I followed him.
"Wait! What do you mean?" I asked, moving in front of him so he stopped walking.
He looked down at me, not smiling or smirking. "That little wall you put up. You stop everybody from seeing inside. But the question is, why do you need to, what are you hiding..." He said taking a step closer to me. I refused to back up. I looked up at him, glaring. "That ridiculous. I don’t stop people from knowing me, I have nothing to hide." I answered, stubbornly. But I knew he was right, but how did he know.
"You can’t block everyone out; your mind is an interesting place." He said, smirking again. Then he walked off.
The rest of the day went by quickly, I didn’t see Damon again throughout the day and when Elena dropped me off home I went straight to bed. Today was exhausting! I kept thinking about what Damon had said. What did he mean; my mind is interesting?
I just lay there confused until sleep took me.
I was expecting my usual nightmare, I have had it every night since mum died, she would just sit on a chair in a pitch black room and sing to me, then a hooded figure; Death walk out of the shadows and she would fade away like smoke, then Death would point his bone finger at me.
It wasn’t really a nightmare anymore; I was so used to it by now.
But this time it was different, I didn’t dream about my mum or Death, I didn’t dream of anything.
