Only a Year

And You Are?

I step out of my red Toyota Corolla onto the hot pavement and with a slam of my door, I sigh. "Senior year. This is not as fulfilling as I thought it was going to be."

Caroline and Bonnie exit my car as I speak.

"Come on Elena, this year is going to be great!" Caroline says optimistically.

"Yeah, we can finally put all of the bad things that happened last year behind us." Bonnie adds.

Sighing again, I give in. "You're right. It's just hard to think of things being normal around here."

"Ladies, are we excited for the first day of senior year?" a familiar voice quips, breaking into our conversation.

"Stefan!" Caroline squeals running into her boyfriend's arms and kissing him.

It was still weird to see Caroline and Stefan together, knowing that he and I were together just last year. But, I'm happy for my friends. I know Stefan isn't the one for me,considering both Stefan and Caroline are vampires. When I'm human, it just works out better thisway.

"New year, new life," I breathe.. "Let's do this."

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By the time the final bell rings, I am more than ready to escape these walls. Caroline and Bonnie are getting a ride from Stefan, leaving my car free and all to myself.

As I put my keys in the ignition, I decide to make my way to The Grill. I place an order to go over the phone on my way there. Cooking is the last thing that I want to do right now.

When I get to The Grill and make my way inside, I immediately feel sick to my stomach. The normalcy overwhelms me; people laughing, having fun, relaxing. The pit in my stomach grows, but I get to the counter before I feel like passing out.

As I'm walking back to my car, a sharp pain at the back of my head overwhelms my senses, and then everything goes black.

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As I slowly regain consciousness, I can feel the crick in my neck from where it had fallen forward. I open my eyes, but my vision is foggy, and all I feel is the pain radiating from my skull. I try to raise my hand to check the back of my head for blood, but I realize that my arms and legs are tied to a chair. "Help! Help me!" I cry out before receiving a back-hand to the face.

"Shut up, you stupid bitch." A voice I don't recognize hisses at me.

For a moment I let my head hang, and I slide my tongue over my lip – it's busted. As I raise my head, my vision starts to clear a little, and I look around the room. It looks like some kind of bar, but not one that I've seen before. Directly in front of me is a circle of six people, which surrounds another two, who look terrified.

All of a sudden, the eyes of everyone in the outer circle change to black. A gasp escapes my lips, but no one pays attention to me.

"Man, you really walked into the wrong place," the man in plaid taunts. Suddenly his eyes fall on me, and he asks, "Who the hell is that?"

My eyes grow wide with fear, but I don't dare speak again. I didn't really feel like another swipe across the face."I like her. I think I would rather wear her than this." A blonde woman standing before me gestures to her own body. With a smirk on her face, she says, "She's much prettier."

"I can think of about a thousand things I'd like to do to her." Another man, this one red headed, replies, licking his lips at me.

The only man whose eyes didn't turn black finally speaks up. "You're not gonna lay one filthy finger on her!"