Is This Hell?

Ripples on a Pond.

The morning dawned way too early for Elenas liking, she just wanted to kill her alarm clock and go back to sleep!

Jeremy had convinced her to go to the back to school party yesterday. She had avoided Stefan and Matt and spent her evening with Jeremy. Then Vicki had been attacked in the woods and Stefan had disappeared, seems like Damon had arrived in town.

After forcing herself out of bed and into the shower, where she contemplated staying for the rest of the day, Elena stood in front of her wardrobe, trying to decide what to wear while the moisturizer cream she was wearing, made the room smell pleasantly like warm vanilla and coconuts.

In the end she decided to go with a pair of dark blue jean shorts, a black spaghetti strap top, thigh high black socks with two white stripes at the top and a pair of sneakers. Then she made her way to her dresser and chose a pair of black earrings that looked like zippers and a necklace with a red stone. As usual the only makeup she wore was mascara and eyeliner, she never really had the energy to get up forty-five minutes earlier in the morning just to put on a face full of makeup.

Elena made her way to Jeremys room while pulling her hair into a high ponytail, knocked on the door and waited for him to either open it or call out for her to enter. One of her biggest pet peeves was when people knocked on someone's door but didn't wait for them to open said door or even wait for permission to enter and just barged in.

Jeremy opened the door with a mumbled "Lena?" in just sleep pants while rubbing sleep dust from his eye.

"Have you been working out, Jere?" Elena asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Trying to impress someone?"

"What do you want, Lena?" Jeremy asked with a blush.

"Don't worry, you look good." Elena continued to tease.

"Lena!" Jeremy called out with an embarrassed laugh.

"Sorry, sorry." Elena threw her hands up in mock surrender. "I just wanted to know if I could borrow another hoddie?"

"Of course!" Jeremy smiled brightly at his older sister. He opened the door completely and walked over to his dresser. It made him feel warm knowing that Elena felt safer when she used his hoddies.

After their parents had died Elena had changed, at first, she was just depressed and wouldn't talk just spent her time writing in her diary all the time and the doctor said that it could be survivors quilt. But after a while Elena started to try to act like she had before the accident but at the same time she was trying too hard and it made it awkward and stilted.

Then the week before school Elena had become quiet again and had complained about headaches and light sensitivity. After that it was like she had decided to stop pretending to be the same person she was before the accident and Jeremy liked this version of his sister. It almost felt like he could take care of her and protect her, especially when she asked to use his hoddies to feel safe.

"Here, I hope this works." Jeremy smiled as he handed over a black hoddie with a dark blue tribal wolf on it.

"Thank you!" Elena beamed as she pulled the hoddie over her head. "By the way, wanna walk with me to school?"

"Aren't you getting a ride from Bonnie again?" Jeremy raised an unsure eyebrow.

"Nope I decided to walk today." Elena shrugged, she then turned to reassure Jeremy. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I want to, just let me put on some clothes." Jeremy hastily told her, wondering if her choice to walk had anything to do with her still feeling freaked out in a car.