Cecilia had a rough time sleeping the previous night because she was busy trying to figure out what had attacked Mr. Tanner because what animal just comes into a high school parking lot, attack a man, then leave. It was worse especially when it was on the neck and nowhere else, according to Elena who talked to Matt who had gotten the information from Vicki.

So she was heading to the tree that she always sat under with her friends when Ricky stopped her.

Cecilia nearly groaned, but they were trying to be friends, so she forced a smile, "What is it?"

"I wanted to get your notebook from math," said Ricky. Cecilia handed it over to him. "I'll bring it back to you during lunch."

Cecilia nodded and they went separate ways.

Jack looked at her, "Damn bitch, you look like you got dragged out of the gutter at a metal concert."

"Thanks, asshole, you look like a hung over member of Korn," Cecilia said, sitting down, before stretching her legs out.

Jack stuck his backpack on her legs and laid down on them.

"So, who's going to teach history now?" Cecilia asked Jack.

"Obviously some sub, you dumb bitch," said Jack.

"Oh, excuse me, you asshole," replied Cecilia. "If you're so smart, then you can tell me what really killed Tanner."

"A vampire, you idiot," Jack replied.

"Hey, come on man, lay off the insults," Alex said sitting down with them.

Cecilia was confused. Alex never even cared about how she and Jack insulted each other until recently. It was kind of weird and confusing to the both of them.

"That's how we bond," Jack told Alex. He looked at Cecilia, "Isn't that right, asshat?"

Cecilia nodded, "Yeah, that's true, dickweasel." She poked his nose, and Jack tried to bite her finger. Cecilia laughed because she really loved her best friend.

"Hey, are you going to that stupid Founder's Day ball thing?" Jack asked Cecilia.

"Yeah, Elena wants me to go," Cecilia admitted. "She has things that she's loaning to the Lockwoods for Founder's Day."

She would've asked Jack if he was going, but she knew that his parents weren't really big on that. Yeah, they did stuff for the community, but they weren't big on going to formal events.

"Do you want one of us to go with you to it?" Alex asked.

Cecilia considered it. She wanted to take all three of her friends, but Jack wouldn't want to dress up, Dylan would just be highly unenthused about the situation and probably fall asleep at a table, and Alex will eventually dive into talking about some horrific killer again because he'll get bored. Also, how the hell was she going to find someone to date if everyone thought she was seeing three dudes at the same time?

"Nah, I think I'll be fine," Cecilia said.

"What did Rosenberg want anyway?" asked Alex.

"He just wanted to borrow my math notebook," said Cecilia. "He'll give it back to me to at lunch."

"Hey, doesn't he play guitar?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, why?" asked Cecilia.

Alex eyed how Jack was sleeping on Cecilia's legs. "I think we need another guitarist. We should give him a trial-run to see if he fits in with the band."

Jack watched the vampire walk through the bookstore, before he came up to the counter.

The vampire looked at Jack, "Do you have any books with vampires in it?"

Jack looked at the bookshelves, "I don't know, man. Do we have any books with vampires in a bookstore?" The vampire didn't look amused. "There's some in the horror section." He pointed at the section and the vampire went to it.

He took out a book to read, only to put it down when the vampire came back.

"Do you have Twilight?" the vampire asked.

Jack looked at the vampire. This guy wore a leather jacket and looked to be in his twenties. He motioned to a section, "Dracula and Interview with The Vampire is over there."

"Yeah, I know. My girlfriend was talking about it, and I wanted to see what is so great about it," replied the customer.

"There's nothing great about it. My best friend threw the book out of her bedroom when she got two chapters in," Jack said. The customer looked at him. Jack sighed, "It's in the romance section."

The customer went over to the section.

Jack's mother walked in, carrying two boxes, "Jacky, dear..."

Jack went to help, but the vampire was there, taking the two boxes with ease.

"Oh, thank you," Jennifer said. "Can you put the boxes on the counter by my son, please?"

"Sure," said the vampire, carrying the boxes over to the counter. "Here you go."

"Thanks," replied Jack. He took out a box cutter and cut open the box to take out the books.

"Can you turn the volume up?" Jennifer asked Jack.

Jack turned the volume up on the TV that was hanging in the corner.

"The animal terrorizing Mystic Falls has been caught. Top repeat, the animal terrorizing Mystic Falls has been caught," the news anchorman said on the TV.

Jennifer scoffed and Jack nodded.

The both of them knew that it had been a vampire.

And the vampire responsible for it was standing in their bookstore.

"Scum ball," Aunt Jenna said. "Scum bucket."

"Why are you insulting Celia?" Elena asked, coming into the kitchen with Dylan following behind her.

"She's actually insulting Logan Fell," Cecilia said, motioning to the TV.

"Why are you insulting the news guy?" asked Dylan sitting down at the table.

"Did your mother ever tell you why I moved away from Mystic Falls?" asked Aunt Jenna.

Cecilia was surprised, "You dated him?"

"He's cute," replied Elena.

"He is not cute," Aunt Jenna said. "There's nothing cute about him."

"He cheated on you, didn't he?" Dylan asked.

Aunt Jenna looked at him, not impressed, and looked at the jewelry box that Elena had. "What are you doing with that?"

"Celia knows that I went and got it from the safe deposit box," said Elena.

"Mom told Mrs. Lockwood that she was going to loan it to founder's council for their heritage display," Cecilia explained.

"Oh," replied Dylan. "I forgot about that Founder's Ball."

"Are you going to that thing?" Aunt Jenna asked Dylan.

"No," replied Dylan. "Not after that whole mess with my mom running away with my ex-girlfriend. It wouldn't be a fun time with them spreading gossip about what they think happened. Add in the whole witch hysteria situation...definitely not a fun time."

Aunt Jenna looked in the box while Elena polished something and took out a ring. "Is that Grandma Beth's wedding ring?"

"Originally it was great-great-grandma Mary's wedding ring," Elena said.

Cecilia almost took Jeremy's armpit to the face as he reached over her head. "Jesus, Jeremy. I'm getting flashbacks to when Jack took his mother's boob to the face."

"You weren't even there when that happened," Dylan pointed out.

"Hey, Dylan, how much do you think this stuff is worth? You know, like on eBay?" Jeremy asked, looking at something. Elena took whatever Jeremy picked up, away from him.

"Why are you asking me?" Dylan asked.

"You both aren't gonna find out," replied Elena. "And when did Dylan somehow became your buddy?"

"That stuff is Mom and Dad's," Jeremy said, walking away from the table. "You can't just give it away."

"I'm not giving it away," replied Elena. "It's called a loan, Jeremy."

Cecilia looked in the box and took out the pocket watch that she knew that her dad was supposed to give to Jeremy.

The doorbell rang and Elena went to answer it. She noticed how Jeremy looked at the pocket watch that she was holding.

She held it to Jeremy, who snatched it and she looked at Dylan, "You saw nothing."

"Saw what?" asked Dylan.

Cecilia couldn't tell if he was playing 'dumb' or he had just been staring into space and didn't notice.

It was strange, spending time with Jeremy and Dylan. Dylan just didn't seem that interested and stared into space a lot, while Jeremy tried to teach Dylan how to play some video game, but gave up after Dylan lost a few times too many.

"Hand me the controller," said Jeremy.

Dylan handed it to him and Jeremy passed it to Cecilia, "Here. At least you won't let me die."

Cecilia took the controller, "You are my brother. I don't want you to die...virtually or in real life."

"Thanks...I think," Jeremy said.

They played for a minutes before the doorbell rang. Jeremy groaned, pausing the video game, and Cecilia went to answer the door. It was Lockwood.

"I'm here for my mother. I was supposed to pick up a box of stuff," said Lockwood.

"Okay, let me go get it," said Cecilia. She looked at Jeremy. "Wait here."

She went to get the box of stuff from the kitchen.

"Who's at the door?" Elena asked, coming into the kitchen.

"Lockwood," said Cecilia.

"Oh," said Elena. She turned and hurried out of the kitchen and into the living room. Cecilia followed after her with the box of stuff they were loaning to Tyler.

Elena was still in the living.

"Hey, would it make a difference if I told you I actually like Vicki?" Tyler asked.

"Don't give a shit about that anymore," Jeremy said as he walked away.

Dylan sat and watched as Jeremy and Cecilia played some video game together, a little while longer, before he decided to go home. Halfway home, he turned and went to the local pet store. He walked in and looked at the cats. When he was younger, he always wanted a black cat, but his parents told him to wait 'til he was older, so he stopped asking.

Now he went to the pet store, wanting one to curb his loneliness, which was ridiculous considering how he was around his two friends and his boyfriend, who doesn't act like a boyfriend most of the time.

He found a fluffy black cat that he decided he wanted and proceeded to get some stuff that he knew that the cat would need, before paying for it. He took the cat home.

"Fuck!" he yelled, seeing Alex at his apartment door, looking impatient.

Alex looked at him surprised and went to the bags that Dylan had on his arms, since he was cradling the cat to his chest.

"I bet your neighbors hate me," said Alex smiling.

"Every Wednesday they go down to the building manager and try to get you banned," Dylan joked.

"Cool," said Alex, watching as Dylan unlocked the door. "I thought your parents wouldn't let you get a cat."

"My dad can yell at me later," Dylan said with a shrug. He wouldn't care, as long as it was spending time with his dad.

"Did you have that talk with your dad?" asked Alex.

Dylan paused as Alex set the bags on the couch. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it. "Yeah, it went fine. I ate breakfast and dinner with him, and we had some midnight snacks together." He smiled.

Alex started, "If that was a ploy to—"

"I'm not doing this shit to get my dad to pay attention to me," Dylan interrupted. "I'm not that smart to plan that shit ahead and maybe I'm just not as hungry like I was."

"You do need to eat, you're growing," said Alex.

"I'm 5'8. I haven't grown since sixth grade," Dylan said. "And get off my back about my screwed up eating habits, you're not my dad."

Alex seemed to grit his teeth and looked away focusing on the Roomba that Dylan's dad insisted they get. It was bumping into a wall, so Alex had to turn it around.

He looked at Dylan who was putting a DVD in a player.

"What are we going to watch?" Alex asked.

"I was going to rewatch Psych but it's not horror," said Dylan. "It's more of a comedy."

Alex shrugged, "Good enough for me. What did you name your cat?"

"Halloween," replied Dylan.

"That's Jack's birthday," replied Alex.

"So?" replied Dylan with a shrug. He got things set up for his cat. "Did you want to the first season?"

"Sure," replied Alex, getting the DVD ready. It looked interesting, he'll give Dylan that. "What is this show about?"

"A fake psychic detective," Dylan said. "They go around solving crimes."

"Sounds...interesting," said Alex. It didn't.

So, Dylan played the first episode and proceeded to pay attention to Halloween the cat. He was scratching Halloween behind the ears, who was lying on top of Dylan's chest.

Alex could hear the cat purring all the way to his spot, which was in the middle of the couch.

"Two minutes in and we're already getting a sex scene?" asked Alex incredulously.

"Nothing explicit is ever shown. Unless you count Shawn and Gus shown wearing boxers as explicit," said Dylan. The cat head-butted Dylan's chin, before rubbing his face on Dylan's face.

Dylan smiled at the cat and it kind of warmed Alex's heart to see how fond his boyfriend became of the feline. The cat head-butted Dylan's face again and Dylan kissed the top of cat's head.

"I'm never doing anything blindly with you again. I've learned that at the Mexican border. Twice," said Gus.

"Do we ever find out what happened at the Mexican border?" asked Alex.

"No," replied Dylan, still scratching Halloween behind the ears. Halloween rubbed his face on Dylan's face again.

"How did they become friends anyway? He looks to be the most mature one and Shawn is just an absolute fucking goofball?" asked Alex.

"How are Jack and Cecilia friends? You have the grumpiest guy who is friends with a cheerful girl," Dylan pointed out.

Alex nodded, "True."

Jeremy and Cecilia continued playing video games a little longer, before Bonnie came by to get ready to go the stupid founder's ball with Elena.

Cecilia decided that it was time to go upstairs to get ready, even though she didn't even want to go to it.

Elena barged in Cecilia's room.

"What the hell?"Cecilia asked. She looked at Elena from her desk.

"Did you let Jeremy take the pocket watch?" asked Elena.

"No," said Cecilia slowly.

"Don't lie to me. Why did you give to him?" asked Elena.

"It was supposed to go to him. I don't know why Mom would loan it to the Lockwoods if it was supposed to go to him, and she knew that," Cecilia defended. "I doubt that he's going to sell it for drug money."

"Mrs. Lockwood said that she specifically asked for it for the display," said Elena. "Either way, I got it back."

"Good for you," Cecilia replied, refraining from rolling her eyes at her sister's smugness.

She loved Elena, she truly did, but sometimes Elena drove her up the wall.

"Here, if you're going to wear that dress, use this red lip gloss," said Elena, picking up a tube of red lip gloss. It matched the red, knee-length strapless dress Cecilia picked out. The dress had a a black sash around the waist.

It was weird third-wheeling Elena and Stefan as they arrived at the Lockwood residence. Apparently Elena had given Jeremy the pocket-watch back though. Cecilia wished that she stayed at home.

Elena and Stefan went one way, and Cecilia went to look at the first registry.

"You look very familiar," said a guy.

Cecilia looked at him. "Do I know you?"

"Damon, Stefan's brother," said Damon.

"I think Elena told me that Stefan has a brother," Cecilia said. Damon grabbed two champagne flutes from a passing waitress. He held out to Cecilia and she took it. She looked at the names on the first registry. She spotted Forbes, Croft, Lockwood, and... Damon and Stefan Salvatore. "It's interesting..."

"What?" asked Damon.

"How names run in the family," said Cecilia. "I think at one point there were two Cecilias in the family."

"Yeah," replied Damon, smirking. "Where's your best friend?"

"He's at home," replied Cecilia. "How do you know he's my best friend?"

"I'm a firm believer that guys and girls can be best friends without falling in love," said Damon. "My brother and his best friend, Lexi, have been friends for a long time. My ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth, became extremely close friends with a guy, William. Everyone, including me, thought Elizabeth and William would get married, but that didn't happen."

"How did Elizabeth and William meet?" Cecilia asked, curious.

"They met in town. It's was like, once they looked at each other, they hit it off," said Damon sounding bitter. "They were very close friends after that."

"Same with Jack and I. I like to think that Jack is my platonic soul mate," Cecilia admitted. "I don't know what I would do without him in my life."

"Funny, Eliza said that she wouldn't know what she would do without William in her life," said Damon.

"What happened to Elizabeth and William?" Cecilia asked.

"They both died," Damon said. "Elizabeth took her own life after William was murdered. She said she couldn't see a life without him in it so she ended hers."

"I'm sorry," Cecilia said. "It must be horrible having someone you love do that. You found her body, didn't you?"

"I found both," said Damon. "I found William's body and then I found hers."

"I'm sorry," Cecilia repeated. "It must've been tramuatic for you."

Damon stayed silent. "She wasn't that great of a person to begin with. She was...sociopathic in a way. Her twin sister, Katherine, wasn't that much better. I think William was Eliza's heart and conscious. He made her kinder."

"Either way, she shouldn't have to take her own life, even if she was a bitch," Cecilia said.

"I guess that's the difference between you and I," said Damon. He turned and walked away.

Cecilia felt a little bewildered by the encounter. She set the undrunk champagne glass on a waiter's tray as he walked by before she moved to another exhibit. Something about Damon's story bothered her. She needed to talk to Jack about it or at least Stefan.

She spent a few more minutes at the party, before she told Elena that she was leaving, before she actually left. She headed towards the bookstore. At least she had put some comfortable shoes in her bag.

Someone was just leaving the bookstore when she went in.

"Hey, ass-wipe," Jack greeted. "Got bored?"

"Pretty much, shit-bag," Cecilia replied. She sat down in a chair. "Damon told me—"

"Who's Damon?" asked Jack.

"Stefan's brother," Cecilia answered.

"He's the vampire that killed Tanner," replied Jack. "I know who you're talking about. He came by looking for The Twilight Saga."

"You're still on that vampire shit?" Cecilia asked him.

Jack obviously rolled his eyes at her, "Tell that to the vampire your sister is dating. What did Damon tell you?"

Cecilia recounted the stuff Damon told her.

Jack shrugged in response. "He's a vampire. He met a lot of people in his life. Besides, whoever Elizabeth is, she's allowed to have male friends, even if it was a hundred years ago."

"To the point that her boyfriend thought that she was going to marry this guy?" asked Cecilia.

"My parents used to think that we're going to get married one day," Jack said.

"Mine too," admitted Cecilia. That had been a constant source of annoyance for her.

Jennifer came into the lobby. She seemed surprised to see Cecilia, "CeCe. Where are you going dressed up like that?"

"I came back from the Founder's Day Ball," replied Cecilia. "I was there but got bored."

"That's one of the reasons why I stopped going," said Jennifer. "Do you want to go with us out to eat?"

"Yes," replied Cecilia.

"Okay, let us close down the shop before we get going," said Jennifer.

Cecilia nodded. "Do you want any help?"

"No, we got it," Jennifer said.

They went to a small retro-themed diner that Cecilia actually liked going to. In her opinion, it had better food than the Grill. It was always felt cozy to her. She thought that they had the best onion rings and milkshakes. Everything else was good though. It really sucked that only a few customers were in it.

When they got their food, Jack reached over and took a few onion rings from Cecilia's plate. Cecilia took some fries from him.

Jack's dad, Michael, rolled his eyes, used to their antics.

Once, on April Fools' Day, Cecilia and Jack took each other's usual orders.

Jennifer reached over and grabbed a bottle of ketchup. She kind of rubbed her breast on Cecilia's shoulder. She brought her hand over, accidentally grazing Cecilia's breast while at it.

"Sorry for the boob grazing, Cece, dear," Jennifer said.

"It's okay," Cecilia squeaked out. It was the first time someone touched her breasts. The first person to touch her breasts was a woman. And that woman was her best friend's mother. And it was an accidental boob grazing. And she wore a strapless dress.

Michael had his head in one hand and his shoulders were shaking from laughter.

"Mom," Jack said, sounding disgusted.

"It was an accidental boob graze," said Jennifer. "I apologized for it. No harm, no foul."

"Yeah, no harm, no foul," Cecilia said, shrugging. "It was an accidental...boob grazing. Now, if it had been a full-on grope, I would've had a problem."

"As you should," Jennifer said. "I'm sure my son would give you an alibi."

"I would keep an eye out and then provide an alibi," Jack said.

"That's the spirit," Michael said smiling.

Jeremy was playing a video game when Cecilia and Jack got to Cecilia's home. Jeremy held up a controller to one of them, but Jack took the controller before they sat down. Cecilia was sure that Jeremy saw Jack as a brother-figure, considering that Jack was the only one that would pay attention to him.

When they were younger, during the summer, they would put a tent up in the backyard and sleep in it. Jack would invite Jeremy to sleep in the tent with them. Elena's friends on the other hand, didn't really pay attention to him, sure they talked to Jeremy every now and then, but didn't really hang with him, like how Jack did.

"You got bored?" asked Jeremy.

"Yup," replied Cecilia, "Very bored. I went, I saw, and I got bored."

"Sounds like school," replied Jeremy.

"How are you doing in school, anyway?" Cecilia asked.

"I have a lot of shit to catch up on," Jeremy said. "It's a pain in the ass."

"Don't worry, if you need help, I'll help you," Cecilia said.

"I know," grumbled Jeremy.

The doorbell rang and Cecilia had to pause the game to answer the door. Dylan and Alex were standing there. Cecilia said, "You can come in."

"We wanted to speak to you," Alex said. He seemed to look over Cecilia's shoulder. He added, "In private."

Cecilia stepped out of the house and looked at her friends. She knew that they knew she liked them. To be fair, she hadn't thought about her feelings for them in a while, and she hadn't thought about the conversation that they wanted to have with her. It must be time to have this conversation, even though she didn't want to have it. She could be overreacting though.

"You look nice," Dylan said.

"Thank you?" Cecilia said confused.

"I asked Rosenberg to be in the band and agree to join," Alex said.

"That's good," Cecilia said.

"It's only for a trial run though," said Alex. "See if he meshes with us and how our fans take him"

Dylan nodded, "Yeah." He was messing with the sleeves of his jacket.

Cecilia nodded, "Okay, cool. Is that what you wanted to tell me? You could've told me inside."

Alex seemed to shift and looked at Dylan. "Should you tell her?"

"You do it," said Dylan. "I'll fuck something up and upset her, and then Jack will punch me in the eye for it."

Alex looked at Cecilia, "We know that you have a crush on us. You didn't really hide it well. So, Dylan and I got to talking..."

He had to be dragging it just to make her nervous, wasn't he? Cecilia swallowed. "Talking about what?"

"We want you to join our relationship," Dylan said rather bluntly.

That was something that she wasn't expecting. "I'm sorry, what?"

"We want you to our girlfriend," Alex said. "You date the both of us while Dylan and I are together."

That sounded weird to Cecilia. She couldn't even date one guy, but dating two at the same time?

"You don't have to join us," Dylan said. "We thought it would ne nice to give you an offer."

Yeah, Cecilia felt like she missed out when Dylan and Alex got together, but this was a whole new situation. She could date the both of them, at the same time, with their knowledge.

"Or you could ignore this whole conversation and we can go on our way and pretend this conversation never happened," Alex said.

But this was something she wanted. She wanted to date the both of them and here they were, offering her a way to date the both of them.

"Sure," Cecilia said.

"'Sure' to what?" asked Alex.

"Sure, I'll take up the offer," Cecilia said. "To date the both of you, I mean." Alex and Dylan both looked like they relaxed a little.

"Okay, good," said Alex. "But Dylan is right, you do look nice in that dress."

"Thanks," Cecilia said, playing with the black sash that was around the waist. She spotted Elena coming up the driveway. She looked upset and mad. "Who do I have to punch in the face for you?"

"Stefan and Damon," Elena said.

"Why?" asked Dylan.

"That's a private matter between Celia and I," Elena said. She took Cecilia's arm and dragged her inside. She closed the door on Alex and Dylan, apparently letting them know that they were going home now.

Jack and Jeremy looked at the twins.

"Why are you dragging my best friend?" asked Jack.

"She was my sister first, before she was your best friend, Winters," Elena said, dragging Cecilia upstairs.

Once inside Cecilia's room, Elena turned to Cecilia, "I don't want you near Stefan or Damon ever again."

"I don't have any intention on going near Damon ever again. How come I not allowed near Stefan?" asked Cecilia bewildered.

"Damon is hurting Caroline and Stefan knew about it," said Elena.

Cecilia blinked, "Hurting Caroline...?"

"Abusing her," Elena said. "Stefan said he had it taken care of, but I don't trust him because he says that I don't understand what's going on, and he won't clear it up for me."

Jack calling them 'vampires' came to Cecilia's mind. "Hurting her how?"

"Bruises, bite marks, he has her all messed up in the head," Elena said.

"What did the bite marks look like?" asked Cecilia uneasily.

Elena said, "Well, they looked like holes. Why?"

"Vampires," Cecilia whispered. She spoke louder, "Jack is right. He's always right. He told me that our parents were going to die, which is why I tried talking you out of the party. Why did the moutain lion attack Vicki on the neck? Or bit Tanner's neck? They're vampires."

"Oh," Elena whispered.

"We're so fucked," Cecilia said.