MYSTIC FALLS HIGH SCHOOL

For the first time in... well ever, Caroline Forbes actually liked school, and the reason for that sudden change of heart? The deliciously soft lips of Matt Donovan as he kissed her against his locker after homeroom.

Since the day Vicky's body was discovered Matt had a tough time dealing with everything, and Caroline had really stepped up, especially on discovering that his Mom, Kelly Donovan, still couldn't be contacted and had no clue her daughter was dead. Vicky couldn't even have a funeral until the official investigation had been completed. Caroline had snooped through her mom's laptop when she was home, for once, and having a long relaxing bath. Aella had of course been on the phone to her the entire time, which to anyone watching would have been hilarious, with the exception of Caroline who just got stressed out. But by the time Elizabeth Forbes exited the bathroom an hour later, the laptop was back in Liz's work bag, and the girls had discovered that Vicki's postmortem had officially declared her wound to be an accidental wound, and in the coroners case, no foul work was at play. Aella and Caroline didn't have to be geniuses to recognise that even the coroner was in on keeping the knowledge of vampires a secret.

Caroline's hand smoothed through the soft, blonde, tresses of Matt's hair as he kissed her firmly, not caring about the other students of Mystic Falls High staring at the two of them with a mix of lust, interest, disgust or boredom; but both parties didn't have a care in the world. Matt and Caroline had grown especially close due to Aella being off school, and Matt's lack of interest in doing anything other than chilling at home watching movies. She, Tyler, and Jeremy had been the only ones to stick by Matt while he was in this rut; unfortunately the football team had just left Matt alone to grieve, Elena chose to back away from Matt out of respect for Caroline's feelings for Matt, and even Bonnie had been too busy researching her necklace to spend anytime with Matt. But Caroline was proud to call Aella her best friend, even when helping Stefan go through his struggle with drinking human blood, and the troubles with Damon, she and Stefan facetimed Caroline and Matt when they were between exercises, fight training, and drinking blood to check on them... Caroline could see that Matt had really appreciated it.

But what Caroline did not appreciate, as she moaned into Matt's delicious kiss, was the sharp pull on her arm as she was dragged away from Matt arms and lips, and only when she regained her footing she recognised the back of her best friends head... and really disliked her when she waved and shouted over her shoulder to a stunned Matt, "Sorry Matt, BFF trumps BF or whatever the hell you two are today!"

Matt only stuttered for a moment as he waved back to her back bewildered, "Good to see you back, A. I'll meet you later Caroline."

Caroline mouthed back to him, 'I'm sorry.'

Matt just waved her off with a small smile, knowing after her annoyance wore off she would be ecstatic to have Aella back with her in school... but now was not that moment:

"What the heck, A?" Caroline pulled her arm back which made Aella stumble a little before she turned to face her best friend. "For someone so little you have a strong grip."

Aella smirked, "That'll be thanks to these guns," Aella showed off her biceps proudly... working out had done wonders to her small from. "Muscles!"

Caroline didn't ask as she pulled up Aella's top, ignoring the Full House reference, "Do you have abs?" When Aella's newly muscled midriff was revealed Caroline awed at it as she stroked the muscles, as Aella smiled on proudly like what they were currently doing was normal in a high school corridor, "They are amazing!"

Aella was about to agree when a wolf whistle echoed down the corridor, and the two best friends didn't even have to look up to know Tyler was said whistler, and instead the two just held up their middle fingers back to him, then started walking again.

"Glad to see things haven't changed," Aella chuckled when they reached her locker.

Caroline leant back on the locker next to Aella and rolled her eyes, "Yup, Tyler the douchebag hasn't changed at all." She then looked down to her best friend, "What's so important you pulled me away from Matt's deliciously soft lips?"

"Okay, ew," Aella scowled as she opened her locker. "That's way too much information about Matt's lips for me to know, and what's so important?" Aella pulled out her books, and then quickly threw her bag in her locker and shut it tightly before turning to Caroline, "What's important is that at 6am, while you were getting your precious beauty rest, Stefan and I were running through the woods looking for Bonnie who had been, somehow, put there by our dead ancestor Emily Bennett, who was burned at the stake over 100 years ago... how's that for important?"

Caroline could only stare at her best friend for a moment, her mouth opening and closed as she thought of a way to reply to Aella's rant, but she could only come up with a typical Caroline Forbes statement:

"You think I'm sleeping at 6am when I look this good!"

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Aella rolled her eyes, "Nice to see where your priorities lie, C."

Then Caroline clicked on as she gasped, "Wait! Bonnie was put where?"

"Now you got it," Aella chuckled, squeezing Caroline's cheek.

"Is this a vampire problem?" Caroline was quick to ask and all Aella could do was shake her head negatively which had Caroline's brow raised, "Is that even possible?"

The 5 minute reminder bell rang and Aella pushed herself off the locker making her way to Caroline's locker, noticing her lack of books, Caroline quick to follow her, "Apparently so..." Aella shrugged around her books, "From speaking with Stefan, Bonnie and Damon; it seems like this is all witch related."

"Wait a minute," Caroline halted her best friends movement with her brow raised expertly again, "You and Stefan asked Damon?"

Aella grimaced, "Yeah, that was fun..."

Caroline nodded, and they began walking again, "Too bad Damon is so Damon, cause we all like a bad boy really."

It was now Aella's time to stop Caroline, with her own brow raised, "Yeah, but not a fucking Psychopath who's in love with a murderous bitch that was burnt alive, Caroline!"

Caroline thought over Aella's answer and hummed to herself for a moment before she nodded like it was a typical question, "Yeah, your right."

Aella's didn't think her eyes could widen anymore as Caroline agreed with her, "Thank you for thinking like a normal human being... Now can we return to the fact that my cousin is being haunted by my very dead ancestor?"

Caroline nodded and they started walking again, but couldn't help but screw her face up over their whole conversation, "You know, our lives are SO strange now..."

"Amen sister," Aella held up hand up, and Caroline hit it with hers. "Amen."

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Caroline opened up her locker in confusion, pulling out her books, as she mentally went through what Aella had explained to her on the walk from her locker to Caroline's, "So Emily is like haunting Bonnie?"

"Essentially," Aella mumbled as she rubbed her dry lips. "Do you have lip balm?"

Caroline moved away from her open locker, and pointed to her bag, "First pocket." As Aella searched for lip balm as Caroline continued to question her, "And we have no idea why? Or how she's doing it?"

"Yup," Aella said through pursed lips as she applied the balm with the help of Caroline's locker mirror. It was because of this mirror she was able to spot Elena making her way over, and stopped Caroline's next question with a bump.

"Hey, E," Aella greeted the brunette, massaging the lip balm into her lips.

"Hey!" Elena smiled as she adjusted her books, "It's great to see you back, we really missed you here and at home."

"I really missed you too," Aella stressed, simply because she had. She missed Elena's smiley face in the morning, her late night conversations with Jeremy when he struggled with his parents deaths, Jenna trying to push them all out of the door in time for school then shouting them back because she forgot lunch money.

Elena playfully bumped Caroline's hip with hers, "I know Caroline really missed you..."

"Oh I don't know about that," Aella playfully pouted. "She and Matt were either studying really hard about the function of the mouth, or Caroline got herself a boyfriend and doesn't need me anymore..."

Caroline snorted, "Like that'll ever happen!"

"I know," Aella smirked and turned back to Caroline's locker to put away her balm.

"So how's Stefan?" Elena asked.

Aella was so happy to be back with her best friends that she had completely forgotten about the lie they had made up to explain his and her absence from school, "Oh he is great!"

Elena frowned at the answer, and luckily for Aella, Caroline was on the ball this morning and jumped in before Elena could question why Stefan was great since he lost a very close family member, "Great...ful to have had Aella's support these past weeks."

Aella eyes widened in Caroline's locker, wincing at her slip in memory, she turned to Elena with a slightly toned down voice, and expression, "Yeah, like C said, grateful to have had all our support."

Elena didn't look convinced, and her tone didn't sound it too as she nodded her head, "Riiiight..."

Aella and Caroline smiled strainedly at the brunette, and before Elena could question them the bell for first period sounded. Elena looked up at the sound and missed the sighs of relief from the two girls and the look of 'thanks' that passed from Aella to Caroline.

"History class!" Caroline exclaimed way too happily. "Let's go A-" she pulled on Aella's sleeve desperately so to remove them from the awkward situation, "-Can't be late for your first class back."

Elena watched the two girls walk away as Caroline, what looked to be, scolded her best friend, and Aella apologised. Bonnie had updated her in homeroom what had happened to her that morning, and how Aella and Stefan had rescued her from the woods, but Bonnie had unknowingly set a trailblaze of questions alight in Elena's mind; why Stefan was able to carry Bonnie so far so easily, why Stefan was still off if he was able to help with Bonnie, why Caroline and Aella hadn't told Elena any of this when they just talked, and Aella's slip up that Stefan was actually great... until Caroline tried and failed to save her slip up.

Elena started to tear up that she felt so distant from the girls she considered sisters, and they had no clue she felt like this, when in the past they would have known instantly.

But Elena was now determined to find out what she needed to, and if that meant being sneaky... then she would have to.

HISTORY CLASS

"I know, I'm sorry," Aella groaned out for the tenth time as Caroline scolded her again.

Caroline smiled proudly as they entered History class only to see a handsome man writing on the board, Caroline's eyes quickly scanned his buff body as she walked over to her seat, but Aella's eyes had focused on only one thing... his ring. The tacky silver and black ring had Aella's eyes captivated until her eyes were bumped away from the ring,

"Can't run off now, A," Matt smirked as he made his way in.

Almost she was in a spell the thoughts and feelings of the large ring vanished from her mind and she smirked at Matt, "Oh ha ha. You only want me back because I take the attention away from you as the worst listener."

Matt only shrugged with a small smirk on his face as he made his way to his seat, but both knew she was right. Aella took her seat but couldn't help but look back at Matt who was now watching Caroline as she set her desk up neatly before the start of class, a soft smile on his face as he watched her best friend. Aella spun back with her own soft smile, happy that Matt had someone amazing as Caroline to rely on. Her eyes glanced at the empty seat beside her where Stefan usually sat, and she sighed softly... she missed her dorky vampire boyfriend.

Bonnie and Elena quickly made their way to the seats, and Aella smiled brightly at the two of them before turning her head back to the board to see the name written on the board, missing the sadness in both eyes there for the exact same reason; lies.

Aella's mouth tried to work out the first name on the board, Al-ar-ic? Ala-rick? Al-aric? Confusion pure on the brunette's face, which only deepend as he wrote his surname. What the hell did this guy do to get the kinda name!

"Alaric Saltzman," the teacher dropped the chalk and wiped his hands as Aella's confusion morphed to understanding once he had revealed the translation of his name. "It's a mouthful, I know."

"You can say that again," Aella mumbled, but Alaric Saltzman's eyes drifted towards her with a slight smirk.

"Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue," he continued looking pointedly at Aella, who missed the look as her eyes were still staring at the name on the board in strange fascination, but Caroline had and was already rolling up a ball of paper to throw at her best friend in case she started mouthing off and make another History teacher hate her guts.

"You'll probably want to pronounce 'Ala-ric' but it's 'Alar-ic,' okay?" Aella did a mini fist pump that she'd gotten it right, "So, you can call me Ric. I'm your new history teacher."

Aella watched him let out a nervous deep breath, and raised her hand without thought, ignoring the groans and snickers coming from the class... Caroline's groan the loudest. Even Bonnie, and Elena couldn't help the small chuckles that came out at the fact that Mr. Saltzman's true test of the successfulness of his teaching career at Mystic Falls High would be set out by the tiny brunette girl smirking in his direction, "Yes," he pointed to her.

"So, Ric!" She emphasised the name he allowed them to call him. "What's your opinion of smug, egotistical, mean educators who are fans of alternative facts?"

The class snickered at Aella's very detailed description of William Tanner. Dead or not, he was exactly how Aella described. Caroline's paper ball hit Aella's head as she hissed at her best friend, "This is the reason Tanner hated you!" Aella waved her off as she watched the smirk spread across Ric's face. Caroline looked over to Matt, "Was she dropped on her head as a baby?"

Ric couldn't help the slight chuckle as the blonde teennager fumed at the brunette, this seemed to be quite the usual occasion from the reaction to the other teenagers, Sitting on the corner of the desk he looked towards the girl who had so proudly criticized her former history teacher, "You must be Aella..."

Aella's body strightened as Ric pronounced her name correctly the first time, no one had ever done that before... even her uncle had supposedly called her other names when she was a newborn until her mother had hit him.

Ric reached back and pulled a rather large folder off the desk and held it out to the class, but his eyes were fixed on her, "Mr. Tanner had a very large file all about you. It was a-uh... an interesting read."

Aella's eyes stared at the large folder, she knew the rumours that Tanner had folders for students he hated was 95% true, but to see the folder, and the teacher holding it, she felt a little unnerved. Tanner had really hated her, could this new teacher be swayed by a petty man's words?

Aella nervously looked to Ric, "And your opinion?"

They had a stare off until Ric allowed the folder to slip out of his hands and into the trashcan next to his feet, "I'm not him, and I hope we can start with a clean slate... both ways?"

Aella's smile blossomed as soon as that folder hit the trash with a loud thump, and once Ric finished speaking she knew deep down that she would have a great relationship with him, "Mr. Saltzman, you have just become my favorite teacher."

Ric chuckled at the confusion on the teenage faces surrounding Aella, "I'm not sure if I should be proud or scared?"

And almost in unison, with the exception of Aella and Ric, the entire class chimed back, "Scared!"

MYSTIC FALLS WOODS

"Shablam!"

Aella dived out of the tree line and onto the beaten path, allowing her magic to push Stefan back enough for her to gain a lead on their run.

"Shablam?" Stefan laughed and used his vamp speed to catch up with Aella.

"Yes," she laughed over her shoulder at him, but when she saw his distance between them had shortened she frowned, "Hey! No vamp speed allowed!"

Stefan ignored her orders and pushed again so he could wrap his arms around her and spin her around, smiling brightly at her giggles. When he placed her down she huffed and not so forcefully pushed his shoulder, "Cheater."

"Hey," Stefan shrugged, allowing Aella time to even her deep breaths. "You Shablam-ed! I had to have one advantage."

Aella's brows raised high on her forehead, "Advantage? You're a vampire who doesn't get tired and get run faster than the speed of light!"

"Technicalities," Stefan smirked, but was quick to dodge Aella's shove with a short laugh, and pull her into his arms again. "I missed you today."

Aella forgot their disagreement and held Stefan tighter, "I missed you too."

"How was Bonnie?"

Aella shrugged and let go of Stefan walking over to a fallen tree and sat down, "Quiet... not Bonnie."

Stefan was unsure whether to raise the fact that Bonnie had lied to Aella during their meet-up with Damon, her heart had skipped on a certain questions and he was 99% sure Damon knew what she was not being truthful about. Instead he thought it best to deal with the devil then upset the bond that Aella and Bonnie had by something that could be nothing.

Stefan took a seat next to Aella and took hold of her hand, "Just be there for her like you always are."

Aella nodded and smiled gratefully at him, her eyes then lit up, "Did I tell you we have a new History teacher?"

Stefan shook his head, and Aella turned to him, her smile bright once again, "He's called Alaric Saltzman, but he said we can call him Ric, and he knew my name, and he doesn't hate me and he totally threw away the file which Tanner had which was wayyyy too thick to be just mine an-"

Stefan laughed as Aella rambled on, and was quick to silence her with his own lips before she passed out from lack of breath, as he pulled away Aella's eyes were still closed as she grimaced, her nose wrinkling so cutely Stefan could have kissed her senseless then, "I started rambling didn't I?"

When her eyes opened Stefan nodded amusedly, "So he has your approval?"

"Mhhmm," Aella grinned. "He also had this ring that I couldn't keep my eyes off the entire class. It felt familiar."

"Ring?" Stefan questioned. "What? In a familiar 'you've seen it before' way, or a magic way?"

Aella thought about the ring again, and shook her head at Stefan's questions, "Not really, it just had my attention, like i'd...."

"...seen it before?"

"Felt it before," Aella stressed. "I can't explain, but deep inside it felt familiar."

Stefan stroked the hair from her face, his thumb also massaging away the frown lines that appeared on her forehead, "Well those feelings have always played a part in our future, so maybe we should see if we can find anything in your grimoire or Jonathan's diary?"

"Maybe," Aella shrugged and stood up before her body cooled down, and started stretching to avoid aches the next day.

Stefan watched on, his mind now going between Bonnie and Damon, and now the new History teacher that seemed a little too perfect. He stood up and held out his palms to Aella, so turned to face him and held her fists up tight to her face, her elbows tightly locked protecting her upper body. Stefan started their random hand to hand combat work they had started when Lexi had deemed him okay to exercise, it was a great way to deal with the cravings, and also spend 1-to-1 time with Aella; he also used this time to teach her self defence. She had her magic, but if ever that magic failed her, or if she was ever in a public position and she couldn't use her powers then she would have these lessons to protect her.

Aella ducked underneath Stefan's as he aimed an upper cut at her face, before avoiding the second one in the opposite direction, then allowing herself to straighten as he continued jabbing forward again. His arm aimed to her right leg and she was able to kick away from the shot, turning to block another shot to the face again.

"Are you sure we can trust this, Ric?"

Stefan's questioned shocked Aella from their little bubble that he nearly hit her face, as she paused for a second when the questioned entered her brain, but was able to pull back a little further than usual to counteract the jab that quickly was then aimed for her opposite leg.

"I don't not think so?" Aella gasped and kicked out of the jab on for Stefan to take hold of her arms so she couldn't spin in a full circle again, and holding her tight against him by her shoulders so he had control of her.

"Maybe we should be cautious around him?" Stefan asked in her ear before she made her escape.

"Okay," Aella nodded before using her small stature to her advantage as Lexie taught her. She held tight to Stefan's arms around her shoulders and turned her head so she could move her entire body front the front of Stefan to the side and slightly behind him, before taking hold of his legs and using her ability to manipulate the air, forcing Stefan onto his back, and kneeling over him. "Okay," she nodded again, "We'll be cautious around him for now."

"Thank you," Stefan smiled but then raised his brows at their position. "That was a good move."

"Thanks," Aella wiped the non-existent dirt from her shoulders smugly. "Lexi showed me."

Stefan pulled her closer to his face, "Speaking of Lexi," he grinned as his eyes moved back and forth from his eyes to her lips.

Aella allowed the pull, noticing the switch in his voice as he pulled her closer, "Yessssss."

Stefan's nose softly stroked her own with eskimo kisses, "The house is back to ours, no Lexi to interrupt..."

"But what about Damon?" Aella questioned breathlessly.

"Who?" Stefan smirked and finally pulled her the small distance so their lips met.

The small peck on the lips quickly transitioned as Stefan deepened the kiss, rolling her onto the ground without breaking the kiss. Aella paused for a breath and he littered small, quick kisses on her cheeks, nose, chin, and forehead. Just as he was about to pick her up and speed then to the house, Aella's phone chimed out loud which he knew was dedicated to Caroline's texts.

Stefan rolled off Aella with a groan, and she couldn't help but chuckle at his theatrics as she wiggled her phone out of her leggings zip pocket, she read the message quickly and looked over to Stefan with an apologetic smile.

"What?" Stefan only asked with slight disappointment mixed in with humour at the face Aella was making at him.

"Caroline's called an emergency sleepover," Aella smiled guiltily that she was messing up their moment. She looked down to her phone and read what Caroline had wrote, "Apparently Elena is acting off, and with what happened to Bonnie this morning; a sleepover is needed to rid them both of their funk!"

Stefan snickered as he stood up, brushing the leaves and dirt off his clothes, "Caroline actually said funk?"

Aella mocked a melancholy sigh and sad eyes, "Only when the situation calls for it... and it did."

Stefan held out his hand, and once his girlfriend took a hold of it he pulled her up, "Maybe this will be good for Bonnie, and from what it sounds like, Elena too."

Aella wiped off her own soiled clothes, "But what will you do?"

"It didn't feel like Damon was being completely honest this morning," Stefan briefly explained his feelings of that morning. "I think Damon and I need time, just us, and to find out what he knows."

Aella nodded and without saying anything they started walking back to the house, their hands meeting in the middle, "That sounds like a good idea." Aella thought to the vision she had of Damon and Lexi, especially Damon's emotive words for her to help Stefan. No matter what followed, if that was that most hateful Damon was at the time and still wanted someone to help his brother, that speaks a thousand words. "Rather than getting him to go out for just information, maybe you could go out and get to know each other again?"

"I don't know, El," Stefan sighed softly. "Haven't we been through too much to go back to being brothers again?"

Aella squeezed his hand, "You can only try Stefan, as you said, he's your brother... if you can't try for him, then who can you try for?"