DEAD GIRL WALKING
( 01. ) The New Boy in Town

RORY HAMILTON LOVED CAROLINE FORBES. It was a well-known fact that the two were like twins separated at birth, attached to the hip since they were old enough to talk, the cheer co-captains like the yin and yang of Mystic Falls. Despite being a group of four, including Bonnie Bennett and Elena Gilbert (whenever she decides to start talking to Rory again ... things are complicated), Caroline told Rory quite often that she thought the ginger was the only person in this world who understood her. (Rory always made the argument that there were other people that did understand her and she just didn't give them time to, but Caroline was always persistent in her words; she knew that there was not a person on this planet that nurtured her the way Rory did, and she would stand by that statement until she died.)

   That said, it was no surprise that the blonde-and-ginger duo showed up to school together this morning, a tradition they have kept since they began high school. In order to move things along faster, thanks to Caroline taking far too long to get out of her house this morning, Rory ended up dropping Caroline off at the front while she found a parking spot. Luckily enough, there was a nice and open one right next to Matt's bright red truck which she took no time in snagging for herself.

   Rory makes sure to check both sides of her car before officially putting it into park and pulling her keys from the ignition. She takes one last look in her rearview mirror for appearance's sake before she hooks her keys around her belt loop and zips her backpack shut in the passenger seat. Her eyes then close for a moment as she takes in a calming breath.

   Today will be a good day, Rory.

   It was the start of a new school year, which meant a new chapter as Class President and as a junior in high school; officially, she and Caroline would start scouting for a new captain of the cheerleading team and the two of them would also need to work with the newspaper/yearbook crew to start planning for senior year. There was so much to look forward to and to be excited for, yet Rory could not stop thinking about Elena Gilbert — the best friend who stopped speaking to her shortly after her own parents died earlier in the summer.

   The ginger shakes her head somberly, hoping to make the thought of her brunette friend disappear into the back of her mind, at least until the end of the day. (She prayed she shared no classes with her, but she doubted she'd get that lucky.) Opening her eyes at the same time as she forces her door open, Rory feels the door come into contact with something solid. In a panic, she hops out of her car to make sure she didn't mess up the only car Matt Donovan will likely ever have; however, instead of a dent in Matt's truck, her startled brown eyes fall on an unfamiliar head of dirty blond hair and a beautiful set of green eyes.

   Of course, she didn't know the person she just whacked with her car door.

   "I am — so sorry!" Rory rushes out an apology, slamming her car door shut. "I wasn't paying attention when I opened my door, I totally didn't mean to slam into you like that."

   The boy before her doesn't immediately respond. He just kind of stares back at her with this stunned look on his features, and Rory's frown deepens the longer he doesn't speak back to her. This was so not how she wanted to start her first day back to school. Her hands tighten around the straps of her yellow backpack, a nervous smile making its way across her lips as another apology forms on the tip of her tongue; but just as she's about to say it, he finally speaks.

   "No, it was my fault," he addresses the situation. Rory decides she likes the sound of his voice — like vocal velvet for her ears. "I should have been paying better attention myself, this is a parking lot."

   Rory shakes her head in disagreement. "No, you were just walking past. I totally should have been looking, so really — I'm sorry," she reiterates her apology. "But, um, I'm Rory Hamilton," she then introduces herself. "You should probably know the name of the girl who just hit you with her car door."

   "Stefan Salvatore," the boy hesitantly responds. "I just moved into town, I live in the Salvatore Boarding House with my uncle."

   Rory's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Zach has a nephew?" she questions. "I didn't know that."

   "We're not very close. I have a military family, so we move around a lot," Stefan replies easily, the lie slipping from his tongue like raindrops on a flower petal. Rory nods her head in understanding, unaware of the deception in his words. He then asks, "Do you know my uncle well?"

   "Pretty well. I live in the Hamilton Mansion near the boarding house," Rory answers. She can feel herself becoming more calm the more she speaks with this mysterious new boy, the once tense smile becoming more genuine. "Since our houses are on the edge of town, we interact more often than not. Me and Zach have a garden that we share; it overlaps our backyards."

   Stefan nods, remembering vividly the flower and vegetable garden he saw in the back of the boarding house when he first arrived a couple of days before. The smell of vervain hidden amongst the strong smells of Rory's flowers caught his senses, though the organization of it all was to be admired as well. Stefan did wonder, however, if Rory knew about vervain and what it was used for. "I noticed when I got here a couple of days ago," he recalls aloud. "I think it's nice, especially the selection of flowers."

   Rory beams at the praise of her side of the garden, eyes twinkling in delight. Stefan feels himself getting lost in the swirl of joy pooling in her brown hues. "Thank you!" she responds cheerfully. "I put a lot of effort into the floral arrangements, although I did have some help in the process." The ginger then looks down at the time on her phone: 08:10 AM. She needed to get inside to find Caroline so she could get her schedule. Rory returns her attention to Stefan. "I can show you to the main office if you'd like?" she offers. "It's not a hard find, but I feel like I should offer something in lieu of hitting you first thing in the morning."

   Stefan smiles once more. "I'd like that."

❧

"I CAN'T BELIEVE we're finally getting some new boy candy around here," Caroline Forbes gushes as she and Rory stand at the blonde's locker. Rory found herself leaning on the locker next to Caroline's, a few notebooks and her pencil case held loosely against her chest. A small smile rests on her lips as her best friend continues to ramble on about the new student — Mr. Stefan Salvatore. "I mean, how long has it been? Tommy Wheeler in seventh grade?"

   Rory's lips pucker in a thoughtful manner. "I think so," she replies. "But I wouldn't really count Tommy as new. He just moved back here to live with his dad after his mom took him to California."

   Caroline rolls her eyes. "I can't believe he moved back here from California," she exasperates, distaste clear in her tone. "If my mom took me to California, I would forget Mystic Falls ever existed."

   "Awe, what about me, Care?"

   Caroline briefly side-eyes her best friend. "What do you mean? I'd drag you and Xavier with us, hello." Rory laughs at Caroline's response, knowing very well how serious she is. The blonde girl closes her locker door, leaning on it so that she and Rory mirror each other. "Have you seen Elena today?"

   Rory shifts uncomfortably against the lockers. Great. "No, she's still not talking to me," she answers timidly. "I went over to her house last night to see if she wanted to talk about things, but she didn't. She ... kinda slammed the door in my face? But it's fine, you know ..." Rory takes a deep breath before she adds more quietly, "I don't wanna push her or anything."

   Caroline winces, a frown placing itself firmly across her pink, glossy lips. "I'm sorry, Rore — I forgot you two weren't talking," she apologizes softly. "I guess I still can't believe she's pissed at you. Like, no offense, but she's being a bitch about it. I mean, she can't seriously blame you for what happened that night, right?"

   "Apparently so," Rory sighs. "But what am I going to do? Like I said, I don't want to be pushy. Whenever Elena feels like she wants to talk, I've made it abundantly clear that I'm here."

   "Ugh, Rory!" Caroline bounces off of the lockers, staring down her best friend in a scolding manner. "You're just too damn nice! What would you do if you didn't have me to protect you?"

   Rory chuckles, her too bouncing off of the locker she's leaning on. "People aren't out to get me like you seem to think they are, Care." The five-minute bell then rings throughout the hallway, alerting the two friends that they have a short time before their first period. "Well, I've got Tanner first hour and you know how he is about timeliness."

   "Yeah, I somehow got Trigonometry first period," Caroline complains, a huff escaping her at the thought of her doing this for an entire quarter. She turns away from Rory, already beginning to walk off to her class. "Mrs. Moore must be out to get me."

   An amused smile forms on the ginger's lips as she watches her best friend sadly walk away from her. "I'll see you in third period, Care!" Caroline just waves her hand over her shoulder, far too depressed to think about third period at the moment. Rory twirls around in her spot to head to Mr. Tanner's classroom, only to collide with something for the second time this morning.

   "My god —"

   "This is our second time bumping into each other this morning, huh?"

   Rory immediately recognizes the sound of Stefan's voice. She curses herself as she takes a step back from him, brown eyes looking up from the floor to once again be met with his emerald green gaze. "Yes, it is," she eventually breathes in confirmation. "I'm really not always this clumsy. Well, maybe."

   Stefan smiles in amusement. "We'll have to test that theory." He nods his head in Caroline's direction, having heard quite a bit of their conversation. "Who was that you were just with?"

   Rory subconsciously looks behind her, Caroline's blonde tresses still not too far away to see. "Caroline Forbes," she answers after a few seconds. The smile returns to her features. "She's my best friend, I love her to death. I'm sure you'll run into her today." She turns around to face Stefan. "Anyway, if I remember right, you have Tanner first hour with me, which means the two of us need to haul ass." She lightly tugs at Stefan's leather jacket. "Come with me."

   HAVING NOT BEEN that far away from the infamous history teacher's class, Rory and Stefan reached it within no time. Whilst on their way to the gloomy classroom, Rory asked Stefan if he would prefer to stay with her or be free to find his own seat once they arrived; he casually replied that wandering seemed lonely in comparison to staying close to her, as long as she was okay with that. She wasn't expecting that answer, but accepted it rather fondly and with a small smile on her lips.

   Once they got inside, however, Rory's joy was replaced with anxiety as the doe-eyed gaze of Elena Gilbert landed squarely on her. She had forgotten that Mystic Falls High couldn't even grant her the chance to breathe before making her face the biggest problem she's had since she and Tyler Lockwood broke up last spring. Being in the same room with Elena felt like a fever dream for Rory, and if anyone had been watching (which Stefan and Bonnie Bennett had been), she probably looked like a deer caught in headlights. Elena, Stefan noticed, looked no better.

   When the tension became too thick, Rory abandoned him and made a beeline for the seat right next to Bonnie without saying a word. Stefan was hardly startled by her sudden exit given the pace of her heart and managed to trail closely behind and snagged the seat behind her. She had merely given him an apologetic smile before turning to face Bonnie with a look of indecipherable despair.

   "Once our home state of Virginia joined the Confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. People in Virginia's northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional Deep South. Then Virginia divided in 1863, with the northwest region joining the Union."

   Rory gazes lazily at the chalkboard at the front of the room, twirling her purple pen between her fingers as she partially listens to the words coming out of Mr. Tanner's mouth. The pen in her hand would meet the notebook paper on her desk if she felt she needed to write something down, but in the meantime, the pen simply twirled between her red-painted fingernails.

   Despite her boredom with Mr. Tanner most of the time, History was one of Rory's favorite subjects — something she shared with Bonnie over the years of their friendship. The two of them would watch documentaries all of the time together, from war docs to David Attenborough talking about the planet. Opposite of her best friend, however, Rory also enjoyed her fair share of supernatural lore — legends behind witches and werewolves given their town's own history (the parts they liked to keep quiet), and sometimes vampires when she felt like giving herself nightmares (don't ask). Bonnie claimed she didn't like it because it freaked her out, but Rory thinks it's more so because her grams, Miss Sheila Bennett, liked to talk a little bit too much about witches from time to time.

   The teen blinks twice as she feels someone tapping on her shoulder. She turns her head around to face the culprit, eyebrows raised in question.

   "You're not paying attention," Stefan whispers.

   Rory sighs. She turns around for a brief moment to scribble something down on her notebook paper, then quietly passes it behind her for Stefan to read.

You'll learn that you really only need to pay attention to Tanner when he's talking about something he doesn't like. That means it's something new!

   Stefan grins at the message before passing the notebook back to Rory. "Clumsy and a little funny, huh?"

Rory just winks back at him before returning her attention to the front of the classroom, continuing to listen to Mr. Tanner drone on about the Confederacy.

❧

ONE MORE CLASS before the end of the day. Rory holds her notebooks close to her chest as she walks down the busy hallway of her small high school. She swiftly dodges a freshman running past her before she slips right into the classroom she's headed for, thankful to be out of the crowds. The familiar scent of paint and crayons enter the teen's nose and she sighs in contentment at finally being inside of her favorite classroom.

"Rory!"

The happy but tired teen turns her head at the sound of her name being called, spotting the teacher for her class sitting at the desk at the front of the classroom. She smiles widely. "Miss Callaghan!" she responds just as happily. "It's so nice to be back in this classroom. I feel like it's been too long."

"It's so nice to have my favorite student back in here," the older woman says with a small smile. Rory bounces on her toes at the compliment. Miss Callaghan's grey eyes travel behind Rory as someone else appears behind her. "And you brought the new kid with you, huh?"

Rory tilts her head to the side in confusion, her loose red waves falling off of her shoulder at the motion. She then turns around, only to see Stefan standing behind her for the third time today. This is beginning to become a bad habit of his. "Stefan?" she questions. "You didn't tell me you had this class last period."

"It was a last minute switch," he confesses. "Bonnie told me about it during fourth period, and I figured this was much better than AP Chemistry. Plus, we talked about you, and she told me you always have this class last, so ..." He awkwardly scratches the back of his neck, "... yeah."

Rory blushes. Well, now she's feeling a little embarrassed. "Oh, okay," she says, voice just barely above a whisper. She then clears her throat. "Well, uh — luckily for you, I typically sit alone during this class, so ..." Rory begins walking towards her usual table, Stefan following closely behind her, "... if you want to, you can sit with me again? Or you can sit with someone else, it's totally up to you."

Stefan just smiles. "I would really like to sit with you, as long as you don't mind."

Rory merely gestures to the seat next to her as she places herself down in the seat next to the window. Stefan follows in her motions, sitting down in the seat next to the aisle and placing his backpack beneath his chair. They both turn their attention to the front of the classroom, though Stefan's gaze lingers a bit longer on Rory than he'd care to admit.

"Alright, now that everyone is settled down," Miss Callaghan projects her voice to the classroom, "we can go ahead and get started. For those of you who aren't familiar with me, I'm Miss Callaghan and this is our Creative Writing class. Now, the class name is just the classification for it; we do creative everything in here. Drawing, writing, painting — if you can convey a story and follow the guidelines of my assignments, I don't really care. This class is meant to release stress through creative work and I know every one of us does that differently."

The older woman points to her collection of art towards the back of the classroom, each piece a unique representation of the many students she's had over the years. "Drawings, sketches, and paintings usually get displayed on or in that general area back there that I like to call my Wall of Wonders, but I always ask before displaying. Shorter writings like poems or comics can be published in the school newspaper — and again, that's only if you want them to." Miss Callaghan moves her hand so that it is pointed in the general direction of Rory. "My point person for newspaper stuff is Rory, so she's who you'll go to if you want publishing or if you have questions."

Rory raises her hand so that any students who aren't familiar with her match the name to her face. "My cell is on the syllabus if you ever have any questions for me and you can't find me around school," she informs her classmates. "I'm also one of the cheer captains, so you can find me after school near the football field most days."

Miss Callaghan nods her head in acknowledgement of Rory's words. "And Rory's a sweetheart too, so don't be afraid to ask her any questions. Anyways, first day back means no real assignment. Today is a day for you to do whatever you feel like doing, just have it done by the end of class so that you can show it to me. I'll give you your first real assignment tomorrow. Have fun with it!"

Many students begin to move from their seats to head to the back of the classroom where the easels and other painting supplies are located. A few students go over to the section with color pencils to grab some to work with, whilst others aim for Miss Callaghan's abnormally large pen collection nearby. The remaining students pull out their own supplies, including Rory, who grabs her pencil case and her sky blue sketchbook from her pile of supplies.

"Drawing, painting, or writing?" she questions the boy next to her.

"I'm more of a writer," Stefan answers, pulling out a small book from his bag. Rory side-eyes it, admiring the vintage appearance of the brown journal. She'd have to ask him about it sometime soon. "What about you?"

"I like to paint a lot," Rory responds, picking up her favorite purple marker. "But I do like to draw and write sometimes. Painting is my favorite because it helps me relax, but writing has its moments too. I just don't like to keep everything written down I guess." The ginger pulls out a sheet of paper from her sketchbook and closes it, placing the paper on top of it. "Feel free to borrow a pen if you want. As you can see, I have plenty to offer."

Stefan chuckles lightly. "I'm okay, but thank you."

Rory just nods and gets going with her work. Stefan takes a moment to observe his table mate, watching as she draws what looks like the beginning of some calligraphy writing. Her lips begin to pucker the more she gets into her work, and Stefan finds himself smiling as he recalls Bonnie saying that once Rory gets into her creative state, she all but forgets about the world around her. There is a certain peace radiating off of her, any nerves she previously had about Stefan showing up unexpectedly gone now and replaced by the tranquility art provided her.

Her relaxed state transfers to Stefan as he pulls out his black pen and opens his journal to a free page. He knew exactly what to write about.

31 August '09
Today, I officially started over. Today, I met Aurora Hamilton. I think she might make things better for me being back home.

❧

YELLOW FUZZY SOCKS cover Rory's small feet as she heads down the stairs of her home, her steps light on the grand wooden staircase. Her ponytail sways from side to side as she hums some song that was in her dream the night before, slipping her feet into her house shoes at the bottom of the staircase before making her way to the kitchen. There she finds her uncle unpacking the food she brought home from the Grill, where she ended up dropping Caroline off after school upon the blonde's request. Rory had stayed for a while to hang out herself before she told everyone she had to get home for the night; and even though Caroline begged her to stay for some more time, Rory protested on the grounds of getting food home to her uncle, who often failed to eat a decent meal all day while working at the shop. Rory would be back later to pick Caroline up when she was ready.

"I'll murder someone at that place if they got my burger wrong again," Xavier's gruff voice comes out as he senses his niece in the room. She lets out a delicate laugh at Xavier's dramatics. "I'm serious," he exasperates, opening his black to-go box with his food inside. "I mean, I don't understand how hard it is to remember to not put tomatoes on an order and to make sure the egg is sunny-side up and not cooked all the way through. It's crazy."

"A bunch of teenagers work at the Grill, Xavi," Rory replies, sitting down at one of the bar seats in front of the island in the large kitchen. "Kids my age and a couple of adults stuck working above them. You can't expect a whole lot from that place."

"But I tip well!" Xavier cries. He examines his burger, making sure his order is right this time. Thankfully there were no tomatoes, and even though his egg was a little more cooked than he would have preferred, it would do for now. "At least they got it somewhat right this time ..." The young man sits down in the stool next to his niece, taking a bite out of his food. "How was your first day back, kiddo?"

Rory pops a fry into her mouth, humming in content at the taste of the salty food. "It was good," she answers honestly, picking up another fry to eat. "I have Miss Callaghan again for my last class, so that's really nice. Care's in a few of my classes too, which is cool because it means she's stepping up to the classes she should be taking and not trying to make it easy. Oh ... and I met the new kid that moved into the boarding house."

Xavier takes another huge bite from his burger, taking a second to chew before asking, "What's the kid's name?"

"Stefan Salvatore," Rory answers, probably quicker than she meant to. Xavier raises his eyebrows at that, but decides against saying anything. "Apparently he's Zach's nephew, but Stefan has a military family so they move around a lot and I guess that's why Zach's never mentioned him before."

"He seem like a good kid?"

Rory smiles, likely brighter than Xavier's seen since she and Elena stopped talking over the summer. That was good sign at least. "He's really nice and I think he'll fit in pretty well around here," is her response before she snags a couple more of Xavier's fries to eat. "He's got every girl in the school drooling over him, but Care's definitely taken a particular interest in him."

"Sounds like Caroline Forbes."

Rory laughs. "Yeah, but I don't think he'll hold her interest for very long," she admits. "It's only because he's new and Care loves all things new — people included." She then sighs. "She's had her eyes on Matty Blue since he and Elena broke up."

Xavier rolls his eyes at the mention of Matthew Donovan. "I hope she gives up, that kid's still depressed over Elena and I don't think he's gonna be over it any time soon. He just sits there at the garage with those pouty blue eyes like his whole world's over, it's honestly a little pathetic." He takes the last bite of his burger, picking up a few fries and stuffing them in his mouth too. He then swallows the food down with the can of Coke he grabbed from the refrigerator earlier before continuing on, "Either way, I'll have to meet the new kid soon. I could go over right now and have Zach introduce me to him right quick?"

"I think I saw Stefan at the Grill so he might not be home right now," Rory replies. The doorbell then rings and she hops up from her seat to answer it, while Xavier grabs their trash from off of the counter to throw away. "But I can ask him to come over tomorrow to meet you after school!" Rory semi-shouts over her shoulder so that her uncle can still hear her clearly. She hears a faint 'Yeah' from him in return, which satisfies her enough to allow her to open the door to see who's there.

She's surprised to see the boy on the other side of it. "Stefan?"

The green-eyed boy places his hands firmly in his jeans' front pockets. "Hi," he speaks a bit sheepishly (which Rory finds very cute). "I'm sorry to pop up on you like this ..."

"No, no — it's okay," Rory reassures, though she's suddenly a little self-conscious about her current attire (faded gray shorts; a very old, used-to-belong-to-her-uncle AC/DC t-shirt; her signature yellow fuzzy socks, and her bunny slippers). "My uncle just finished eating so he's probably going into his usual five o'clock comatose state until dinner time." Rory opens her front door wider, inviting Stefan in. "If you want, you can come inside. I baked some cupcakes last night and I haven't gotten a chance to dig into yet — well, assuming Xavi didn't devour them while I was asleep last night."

Stefan chuckles lightly, stepping over the threshold of Rory's home with a bit of hesitation. He felt somewhat out of place in the home he used to be so familiar with as a human; and despite the fact that only two people lived in the mansion now, it felt much more like a home than it ever did in the past to him. "Xavier is your uncle, right?"

Rory hums in response as she walks back towards the kitchen, knowing Stefan will be able to easily find his way behind her. The boy takes his shoes off by the door out of courtesy for the carpet he sees lining every room on the main floor except for the entryway and the kitchen area before doing exactly that. "Yeah, Xavier's been taking care of me since my parents passed away," Rory eventually ends up saying as she opens the refrigerator to grab her container of cupcakes. "He's the best uncle anyone could ask for."

Stefan nods his head before hesitantly asking, "How'd your parents die ... if you don't mind talking about it?"

Rory pauses as she goes to grab a second paper towel for Stefan's cupcake. She blinks a few times as the question registers to her, finding herself a bit startled by it given how long it had been since she last spoke about it with someone. It still makes her feel sick like it was just yesterday, even though it had now been over two years now since the incident occurred.

Stefan instantly notices the change in Rory's demeanor and panics. "I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it —"

"No, it's okay," she interrupts him before he can finish. She opens the container of cupcakes as she clears her throat. "It's just — I haven't been asked about that in a while so it caught me a little off guard." Stefan merely nods his head, not wanting to push any more than he felt like he already had. "My parents died in a plane crash the summer before I started high school," Rory explains, placing a cupcake on each piece of paper towel. "Something went wrong with the mechanics or something on the plane, and the pilots lost control of it and it ended up crashing. There were no survivors — at least, none that they found." Rory sucks in a sharp breath before she almost whispers, "We didn't even have any bodies to bury for the funeral."

Stefan frowns, noticing Rory's irregular heartbeat as she speaks about her losses. How awful never being able to bury her own parents must have been for her after hearing how they died. "I'm sorry, Rory," he says lowly, gently placing his hand above hers on the counter. "That must have been really difficult for you."

The ginger smiles sadly. "It's okay," she dismisses. She softly pulls her hand from beneath Stefan's and grabs his cupcake from her other side, handing it to him. He takes it with a silent smile back as a 'thank you.' "I miss them, but it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. Xavier's been my rock and I wouldn't trade him for the world." Rory then guides the two of them to the den on the opposite end of the house from where her uncle is sleeping so as to not disturb him.

"It's good that you have him," Stefan replies. Once they reach the den, Rory takes a seat on the soft gray-colored couch, immediately tucking her legs beneath her body so that she's sitting on them comfortably. Stefan follows suit in sitting down, taking a spot on the opposite end of the small couch so that he's not invading Rory's space. "Having that kind of support when you lose someone is really important."

Rory nods in agreement, licking some of the strawberry frosting off of her cupcake. "I wouldn't have survived without it," she ends up saying once she's swallowed the frosting in her mouth. "So, what made you come visit me? I thought I saw you at the Grill with Elena and Bonnie."

"You did — um, I was there with them at first," Stefan admits, seemingly embarrassed from being called out for coming here. "After you left though, Caroline came to join us and she was talking about this party thing happening at the falls tomorrow ... Do you know about it?"

   Amusement flickers across Rory's features as she tilts her head to the side slightly. "The back to school party at the falls that happens every year?" she questions, and Stefan can sense the teasing in her tone at his asking. "Of course I know about it. If you don't go, you just might be considered a loser by everybody in town."

   Stefan lets out a quiet laugh. "Yeah, that's the impression I was getting from Caroline when she was talking about it. She said the likelihood of you not being there was low but that you might need some convincing this year."

   "Mmm, well ... she wouldn't be wrong," Rory says airily, suddenly finding the fireplace across from them more interesting than Stefan's emerald eyes. "Some stuff happened over the summer that's kind of made me weary of parties at the falls. Why do you bring it up?"

   "Well, I guess I came to see if maybe I could be the one to convince you to go out to the party with me?" Stefan questions, a bit less confidently than he originally intended, though he recovers by adding, "But if you don't want to, I understand. I'm on the fence about it myself, so maybe we can just be considered losers together."

   Rory cracks a big smile. "Ah, so he's a little funny himself, huh?"

Stefan merely shrugs at her with a little smile, finally taking the first bite of his cupcake. She lets the question linger in the air for a while as they both get through their cupcakes, Rory taking a bit longer due to her wanting to enjoy the frosting and the cupcake as their own separate entities; opposite of Stefan, who all but inhaled his own cupcake after his first bite, much like Xavier did any time she baked something. Rory found the sight rather endearing but it did make her feel a bit pressured to finish her own cupcake sooner, so she didn't get to spend as much time enjoying it as she might've liked.

   Still, Stefan's presence made rushing through the cupcake a bit worthwhile. The ginger finishes chewing the last of her dessert before crumbling the paper within her paper towel and crushing it between her left fist. She clicks her tongue, "If I become a loser, Caroline will be so disappointed in me," she finally declares, "and I hit you with my car door this morning, so I guess the least I can do is make sure you don't become a loser too."

   Stefan stares thoughtfully at her. "Hmm. I would definitely consider us even if that's the case."

   Rory smiles cheekily. "Perfect."

🖇️ a note from juno,
Stefan and Rory are so 🥹🥹 for me. Like truly they are going to be the mushiest ship I've ever written.

Aside from that, I don't have much to add! The dynamic between Rory and Elena is shaky right now but Stefan's presence will alleviate that pressure as you'll come to see. I'm planning to be much more consistent in my updating now that I am out of school and I have more familiarity with this series from past fics :) The length of this chapter is pretty much what I'm aiming for, for each chapter going forward so hopefully this is okay!

Let me know your thoughts :) 🖤