"So, you haven't seen her since the Halloween party at the school? Where you had a fight?" Sheriff Forbes asked Jeremy. "What was the fight about?"

"She wanted to get back together but I didn't want that." Jeremy shrugged, only telling half the truth. "She shouted at me for a while and then she stormed off."

After the interviews were done, they met up outside the police station, Matt walking off without saying anything but they didn't blame him. Jenna walked over to her car while Elena and Jeremy stayed to talk to Stefan for a little bit.

"You two okay?" Stefan asked them.

"I think so." Jeremy murmured.

"I'm fine." Elena smiled a bit awkwardly. She couldn't really come to terms with Stefan still having feelings for her, she didn't lead him on, right?

"Would you two want to come over later?" Stefan asked hesitantly. "I really want to introduce you to my best and oldest friend.

Elena and Jeremy agreed even as they walked towards where Jenna was waiting, "We'll be over later." Elena called back towards him with a wave.

XOXOXOX

Elena was sitting on the couch, crocheting, while Jeremy sat behind her at the kitchen table writing something, when Jenna sat down beside her.

"What are you making?" Jenna asked, still slightly shocked that her niece had picked up crocheting as a hobby.

"A jellyfish." Elena smiled. "You are wallowing."

"My wallow is legitimate." Jenna pouted. "I was dumped."

"Well, Logan wasn't even that good looking and you can definitely do better." Elena smiled at her aunt and put away her crocheting to be able to focus on Jenna.

"Thank you." Jenna murmured then she frowned. "But you didn't get a brush-off e-mail saying; 'I'm leaving town. See ya!'"

"Want me and Jeremy to find him and rip his balls off and make earrings out of them for you?" Elena smirked.

"We can even rip his intestines out of his ass so you can have a matching necklace." Jeremy piped up from behind them. "But that'll have to wait until I'm done with this."

"Why?" Jenna looked over at him. "What are you doing?"

"Homework." Jeremy muttered as he wrote something down. "I gotta finish this, I'm way behind and I have a quiz tomorrow so..."

Elena and Jenna looked at each other and then Elena smirked mischievously. "What do you think? Alien?"

"Some sort of replicant or pod-person." Jenna added.

"Well this alien/replicant/pod-person can hear you." Jeremy chuckled quietly.

They all laughed and when the doorbell rang Elena went up to answer it.

"Bonnie." Elena smiled at the person on the other side of the door.

"Hey Elena." Bonnie looked slightly awkward. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." Elena held up the door and waited for Bonnie to pass. "We can talk in my room."

"I'm sorry." Was the first thing Bonnie said as they sat down on Elena's bed. "I know I have been pushy and controlling and I promise to stop but I really miss my best friend."

Elena noticed that she didn't say anything about her judgy nature and her always thinking she knew best but still Elena smiled and hugged her. "I forgive you."

"So, what has been going on with you?" Bonnie asked after a while.

"Well everyone seems to think me and Stefan are dating, which we are not, we are just friends." Elena groaned. "I just want to think of something else."

"Just remember you asked for it." Bonnie smiled and got up to close the window, then she grabbed one of Elena's pillows and ripped it, emptying all the feathers on the bed.

"You owe me a new pillow." Elena deadpanned.

"Be patient." Bonnie reprimanded. "I have to swear you to secrecy."

"I do hereby swear not to speak about what Bonnie Bennett is about to show me to anyone not already in the know." Elena promised somnolently.

"There are no windows open right?" Bonnie asked.

"Right." Elena agreed.

"No air-conditioning or fan?" Bonnie asked again.

"None." Elena nodded.

"You ready?" Bonnie waited for Elena to nod then she slowly levitated a feather in front of her face. And as Elena watched in shock and amazement, Bonnie levitated several more feathers.

"That's amazing." Elena breathed out. She knew about Bonnie being a witch and the whole floating feathers thing but seeing it on a tv screen in her last life and now seeing it in real life are two different things.

"Everything my Grams told me is true, Elena, it's impossible and it's true, I'm a witch." Bonnie looked at her with a smile, then she frowned. "It's weird, huh? After all this time joking about being psychic, I really am a witch. You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

"Bonnie I could never think of you as a freak." Elena reassured. "It is kinda cool actually."

"You are my best friend." Bonnie pulled Elena into a hug with a bright smile.

XOXOXOX

A few hours later when Bonnie had left, Elena made her way to Jeremys room to get another hoddie to match the dark red jeans she was wearing.

"Hey Jere, can I borrow the black hoddie with the tribal wolf on it again?" Elena called out as she knocked on Jeremys door.

"Sure." Jeremy held it out with a smile as he opened the door. "Where are you going?"

"Stefan's." Elena pulled on the hoddie with a happy sigh. "Wanna come with?"

"Yeah, I need a break from the studying anyway." Jeremy followed her down stairs.

"Hey, you wanna drive?" Elena dangled the car keys in front of Jeremys face.

"Absolutely." Jeremy grabbed the key and almost ran over to the car.

As Jeremy drives them to the boarding house, he is very careful, not wanting Elena to freak out or anything. He parks the car outside the boarding house and together they walk up to the door and knock.

"It's open!" A female voice call out from inside. "Come on in!"

When they enter and walked down the hallway, they bumped into a beautiful blond woman in a towel who looked very shocked.

"Oh My God!" The woman gasped. "How...how...who?"

"I'm Elena and this is my brother Jeremy." Elena smiled kindly, knowing why the woman, Lexi one of her favorite characters, is so shocked but at the same time can't really put her finger on it. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lexi, a friend of Stefan's."

"Nice to meet you." Elena smiled again. "Is Stefan around?"

"He's in the shower." Lexi told them. "Do you want to wait?"

"When Stefan said he wanted us to meet his best and oldest friend I didn't think he meant that sort of friend." Elena laughed.

"No, no, no, not that sort of friends." Lexi snorted and shrugged. "I took a shower before him and just haven't gotten around to putting clothes on yet."

"Elena doesn't really have room to talk." Jeremy chuckled. "She can walk around in just one of my shirts for hours after she's done in the shower."

"What?!" Elena asked with a smirk. "Your shirts are comfy and it's freeing to walk around in them."

"Anyway, did you want to wait?" Lexi asked after her laughter had calmed down.

"No, that's okay." Elena shrugged. "We just wanted to know if he had any plans with his friend, you, or if you two might want to go to this party that a friend is throwing at the grill."

"We were planning on going actually." Lexi smiled, then she smirked and looked Jeremy up and down. "And if you two are going to I'll at least have something good to look at while Stefan broods."

"You can look all you want as long as I'm allowed to look back." Jeremy smirked back, trying to hide his blush.

"It's a deal." Lexi chuckled.

"How about we meet at the grill?" Elena asked. "Jeremy and I can go there now and you and Stefan can come over there when your both ready?"

"Sound like a plan." Lexi smiled and started to walk up the stairs. "See you guys at the grill."

XOXOXOX

When Elena and Jeremy arrived at the grill the party was in full swing. Elena saw Damon sitting at the bar and walked over, time to put her plan to save Lexi into motion. "Hey Damon."

"Elena." Damon smirked at her.

"How good is a vampires hearing?" Elena asked as she leaned towards him to be able to speak quietly. "Could a vampire here me speaking from across the room right now?"

"Not with the music and all the people talking." Damon looked at her neck and licked his lips. "Why the questions?"

"I think there's been a vampire following me for a couple of days." Elena admitted, and it wasn't a complete lie, she had seen a man following her. "He is at this moment standing at your seven o'clock."

"Why are you telling me and not Stefan?" Damon asked even as he turned round and threw an arm around Elena's shoulder to be able to subtly look at the vampire she was talking about.

"I was going to talk to him about it but decided against it." Elena murmured. "No offence to Stefan but he seems a little...how to put it, unwillingly to accept what he is and that makes me believe that he won't do what it takes in this instance either."

"I'll take care of it." Damon told her as he looked at her in a new light.

"Thank you." Elena kissed him on the cheek and walked over to were Jeremy was talking to Stefan and Lexi who had just arrived.

"Hey guys." Elena smiled.

"Hey Elena." Stefan grinned at her, looking a lot more relaxed than usual.

Jeremy was checking Lexi out and Elena couldn't blame him, Lexi was dressed in all black with a low-cut top and pants that hugged her figure, hell even Elena was looking.

"Elena." Lexi grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's dance."

"Okay." Elena laughed as Lexi pulled her out to the dance floor.

Elena and Lexi danced together for a while, rejecting anyone who tried to cut in and, in the end, they were pretty much pressed together and grinding against each other.

"I need to take a break." Elena laughed. "Not all of us are vampires and can keep dancing for hours."

"Fine." Lexi sighed then she perked right up. "I'll just go beat Stefan and your pretty brother at pool." Then she bounced off towards the pool table that Jeremy and Stefan were occupying.

Elena stood watching them with a smile for a while, happy that Jeremy and Stefan seemed to get along.

"Stefan smiled." Damon's voice piped up behind her. "Alert the media."

"I have seen him smile quite a lot, actually." Elena smiled up at Damon, and seriously was she cursed with being surrounded by tall men?

"Of course, you have." Damon smirked at her. "He's ridiculously in love with you."

"We are just friends." Elena reminded him.

"Never said you weren't." Damon kept smirking at her and walked away.

A few minutes later Lexi walked up to her carrying three shots. "Want one?"

"Sure." Elena smiled and accepted one of the shot glasses. "But you do know I'm not legally allowed to drink this?"

"So?" Lexi asked and down a shot as Elena did the same.

"Huh. Not as bad as I thought it would be." Elena shrugged. "I didn't know you guys could drink."

"Oh yeah, it helps curb the cravings, but also makes for a lot of lushy vamps." Lexi laughed as she downed her second shot.

"I have never seen Stefan drunk." Elena admitted. "He must be hilarious when he's drunk. I mean, sober he is so..."

"Uptight?" Lexi chuckled. "Yeah, he can be but give it time and he'll loosen up a bit."

"So, do you two always go out and party when you meet up or?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, but this is a special occasion." Lexi smiled. "It's Stefan's 162 birthday."

"What?" Elena looked shocked. "And he didn't tell me?!"

"Oops." Lexi chuckled and stood up to go back to Stefan and Jeremy.

"Hit him over the for me and tell him it was for not telling me it was his birthday." Elena grumbled. "And tell him he is still getting that walker and cane for Christmas!"

A few minutes later, Elena slowly made her way to the bar to get a coke but someone grabbed her arm and started to pull her towards the back exit. Luckily Damon sees what's going on and walk over to help.

"Let go of her!" Damon demands.

"No." The man growled and his eyes turned black with veins underneath.

Lexi, Stefan and Jeremy came over to just as Elena's arm started to go numb from the tight grip the man, vampire, had on her.

"Hey, let go of my sister." Jeremy tried to pry the vampires' hand of her.

At that point Sheriff Forbes walked over with two deputies and inject the man with vervain.

"Thank you for the vervain." Sheriff Forbes murmured to Damon. Then she and her deputies dragged the vampire out with Damon following behind.

When Stefan, Elena, Lexi and Jeremy tried to follow they were stopped by some officers blocking the exit.

The four of them managed to sneak out the back just in time to see Damon staking the vampire to protect the Sheriff. As the vampire goes down, he asked. "Why?"

"It's part of the plan." Damon whispered so only the vampires could hear. "And you tried to take Elena."

"I didn't expect that." Lexi hummed.

"Me neither." The others agreed.

"I think it's time for me and Jeremy to go home and sleep." Elena admitted as she yawned. "Lexi, it was really great to meet you and I hope we can be friends."

"Absolutely." Lexi pulled Elena into a hug. "I'll just steal your number from Stefan's phone and we can text."

"I had fun tonight." Jeremy smiled. "But Stefan, I do want a rematch someday soon."

"Any time." Stefan chuckled.

When Jeremy and Elena finally made it home, Elena chucked off her clothes, brushed her teeth and crawled into bed, her last thought before sleep claimed her was, 'I'm so happy I managed to save Lexi.'

XOXOXOX

Caroline and Elena were walking towards the school, talking about Caroline's feelings for Matt.

"I think I really like him." Caroline said slowly. "But I think he's still hung up on you."

"He just needs to realize what a great catch you are, Care." Elena smiled at her best friend

"So, you are not weirded out by me wanting to date your ex?" Caroline asked hopefully.

"I'm actually very happy for you both." Elena reassured when the bell rang.

As Elena walked into the history classroom, she shuddered a little and had to suppress memories of Tanner.

"You okay?" A voice asked and she noticed she had stopped in the doorway.

"Yeah, sorry." Elena tried to smile at Alaric Saltzman, who was the one who had asked.

Elena hurried to her seat besides Bonnie, mind going into overdrive. Alaric Saltzman, the man who used to be or technically still was, married to her biological mother. Does that make him her stepfather?

"Good Morning, everyone." Alaric writes his name on the board at the front of the room. "Alrighty."

"Are you okay?" Elena mouthed to a tired looking Bonnie and Bonnie shrugged.

"Alaric Saltzman, it's a mouthful, I know. Doesn't exactly roll of the tongue." Mr. Saltzman started to introduce himself. "Saltzman is of German origins, my family emigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I, however, was born and raised in Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great-grandfather I will never be able to thank enough." There was a smattering of chuckles in the room. "You'll probably want to pronounce it 'Alaric' but it's 'Alaric' okay?" So, you can call me Ric to make it easier on you and I'm your new history teacher."

When class was over Elena overheard some of the girls talk about how gorgeous Mr. Saltzman was and had to chuckle. As her and Bonnie made their way outside Bonnie finished her explanation. "And then, I ended up at the remains of old Fell's church before I woke back up in the woods."

"And you always see your ancestor Emily?" Elena asked.

"Mhm. Do you believe in ghosts?" Bonnie looked her in the eyes.

"With the right circumstances?" Elena hummed. "Absolutely! And, I mean, your ancestor was a witch."

"I think I'm being haunted." Bonnie confessed.

"I don't get it." Elena stopped walking. "Why would she haunt you?"

"Grams said that she was a powerful witch back in the Civil War days, and that this medallion was hers. A witch's talisman."

"And it all started when you got the necklace?" Elena wondered.

"I think she's using it to communicate with me." Bonnie mumbled slowly.

"What does Grams say about it?" Elena asked.

"I can't call her!" Bonnie burst out. "She's going to tell me to embrace it. I don't want to embrace it; I want it to stop!" The she stormed off.

Elena looked after her but decided to find Jeremy instead, feeling anxiety gnawing low in her stomach for some reason and if Elena remembered correctly Jeremy would recently have had history so she made her way towards the history classroom.

When she arrived at the hall going to the history classroom, she saw Principal Grey, Sheriff Forbes and her deputies being showed into the classroom by Mr. Saltzman. She slowly walked closer to listen in.

"Why did you call us here, Mr. Saltzman?" Sheriff Forbes asked.

"I wanted to know why one of the cabinets is basically a shrine with half naked pictures of one of my underaged female students?" Mr. Saltzman sounded upset as he opened something.

"Dear Lord." Principal Grey gasped, while Sheriff Forbes cursed.

"What is going on?" Mr. Saltzman demanded to know.

"This doesn't leave this classroom, am I clear!" Sheriff Forbes ordered and the others must have showed some sort of agreement because she continued. "The last history teacher, William Tanner, had an unhealthy obsession with Elena Gilbert. He tried to force himself on her but luckily one of her classmates and his brother came to her rescue. We later found his bedroom full off pictures of Miss. Gilbert and on his computer, we found several videos of her in the shower."

Elena couldn't hear anymore, there was a rushing sound in her ears and she couldn't breathe. She stumbled her way outside and her vision was getting blurry.

"Elena?!" Someone called her name but it was like she was under water, she forced her head up and saw Jeremys blurry but worried face. Elena stared at his mouth as he tried getting her attention, everything was just swirling and twisting.

Then there were a second pair of hands on her and she thought she saw Stefan before everything went black.

"Ugh, what happened?" Elena groaned as she sat up.

"You passed out form a panic attack." Nurse McKinnie said softly as she came over from her desk. "I sent your boyfriend off to class but your brother refused to leave."

"Boyfriend?" Elena looked to her left where Jeremy was sitting holding her hand.

"She's talking about Stefan." Jeremy chuckled weakly.

"Oh." Elena hummed.

"We called your aunt and she should be here soon." Elena flinched at the unexpected male voice coming from the corner off the room.

"Why do I feel sorta...floaty?" Elena mumbled.

"That would be the Xanax." Nurse McKinnie smiled kindly at her.

"Elena? Jeremy?" Jenna rushed into the room. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine aunt Jenna, Elena is the one who had a panic attack and passed out." Jeremy told his aunt softly.

"What happened?" Jenna asked Elena gently.

"I was looking for Jeremy, I had started to feel a bit of anxiety and Jeremys presence helps." Elena explained slowly, squeezing her brothers' hand. "I remembered that he would have recently had history so I decided to look for him there. When I arrived, I heard sheriff Forbes talking to someone inside the room."