There he was. Damon Salvatore.

Everything about him just reeked of overconfidence and arrogance. The way he walked. The way he sat. Also the way he snapped his fingers at Matt and wouldn't call him by his name instead he would say 'Donovan' or 'Quarterback', which pissed Mia off even more.

Her eyes hardened and her brows furrowed as she watched him. The person who was responsible for Lexi's death was sitting less than 10 feet away from her and she couldn't do anything about it. Yet.  

"Mia?" Caroline waved a hand in front of her face. "Mia!" she spoke louder "Are you okay?" This caused her to break her stare.

Mia looked down at her hands and saw that they were clenched into fists which caused her nails to dig into her palms. She relaxed her hands and watched as the cuts healed.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she returned her attention back to her friend.

"You didn't answer my question" Caroline said wondering if she had done something to upset her new friend. "I asked if you can dance, or at least cheerlead."

"Yeah, i can. I was captain at my old school" Mia replied. This was a lie, she'd never been to school until now. When she was younger the idea of learning and education disgusted her and she wouldn't concentrate when her tutor would come to teach her and Ariana. She would doodle on the papers or turn them into planes, it got to a point where her tutor was so frustrated that she refused to teach her and insisted that Ariana would be her only student. Mia didn't care though, it just gave her more time to visit Jesse.

"That's great" Caroline clasped her hands together and spoke excitedly "You have to join the team then, we used to be really good but since summer break the girls think it's okay to be mediocre." She pinched the bridge of her nose and huffed in frustration. "Oh my God, don't even get me started on Elena, she was on the team but she missed cheer camp this summer because of her parents and stuff which meant she totally sucked and couldn't keep up then she just quit which meant...." she rambled on whilst Mia looked over Caroline's shoulder at Damon who was sat behind her.

In order for her plan to begin she had to make sure he noticed her. This wouldn't be difficult, if there's one thing she knew about Damon Salvatore it was that all it took was a pretty face and nice body to get his attention.

"You wanna stay over at my house today?" Caroline asked "Don't worry about clothes you can wear something of mine." She gasped "We can do makeovers."

Mia smiled at the blonde, she liked that Caroline spoke without a filter and said what she really felt. It was easier that way so she wouldn't have to guess what she was thinking.

"That'd be great." she felt bad for lying to the Forbes girl about who she was. Maybe there was a chance that she could tell her the truth.

Mia are you crazy?! You just met her today, get it together and focus on the plan.

"Hi Bonnie" Caroline waved to the girl who just walked in but when the girl saw Mia she turned around and walked back out. When Caroline saw the confusion on Mia's face she reached across the table and ran her thumb across the brunette's hand. "Don't worry, I'm sure it had nothing to do with you. Her grandma just died so she's going through a bit of a rough time."

Or Elena must've told her not to speak to me.

The two girls got up to leave and as Mia walked past Damon she made sure to brush her arm against his shoulder. She briefly saw him turn his head and whilst she was walking out she knew that he was watching her.

Damon watched the girl through the window. She was beautiful and had an amazing body. She was with Caroline which meant that there was a possibility she went to school with her.

"Hey Donovan" he called the blonde boy over "Who's that? he said pointing at her.

"Oh, that's Mia, she's new. She just moved here from..." he started but Damon cut him off.

"I asked for her name Quarterback, not her life story" he waved him off and continued drinking. Now that he wasn't allowed to go near Caroline, or else Stefan and Elena would go crazy on him, he was in need of a little fun.

~~~~

"Aaah" Caroline squealed "You looks so hot." 

The two girls had spent the night gossiping and watching movies until they fell asleep. They then went to school together and Caroline gave Mia a cheerleading uniform.

"Are you sure?" Mia tightened her ponytail as she looked in the mirror. "The skirt's a bit short."

"Duh" Caroline rolled her eyes whilst she smoothed out the creases in Mia's clothes. "That's the whole point, besides you have the body for it. Might as well show it off." She placed her hands on Mia's arms and rested her chin on her shoulder. "Embrace the sluttiness."  The two laughed as they looked in the mirror admiring each other. 

At lunch Caroline was running late so she told Mia to meet her at the car. Whilst Mia was walking alone in the parking lot she heard a whoosh sound and turned to see Damon Salvatore standing in front of her.

"Hey there" he smirked. 

There it is. The famous Damon Salvatore dickhead smile. 

"Hi" the main part of the plan had officially started. She had a feeling that he would approach her but she didn't think it would've been so soon.

"I'm Damon Salvatore" he held his hand out and she shook it.

"Mia Pierce" The plan was to draw him in. Which meant Mia had to flirt, this was something she was quite talented at. Years of Lexi teaching her all the tricks had made her an expert but only when she had no interest in the guy. And she was certain that she had no interest in Damon Salvatore.

"I'm surprised Blondie let you on the squad" he motioned to the uniform she was wearing. "She can be a bit of a bitch."

"You mean Caroline?" she questioned and he nodded. "No, I think she's really sweet."

"Well, you must be really special if you got her to like you" he took a step closer to her.

"I like to think i am." she pulled at her top gently to make it look like she was just fixing it but in reality she'd done this to show more skin. "I have really good people skills"

"Yeah i bet you do" he rasped staring unabashedly at her breasts. He looked down and noticed the daylight ring on her hand. "You're a vampire?" His facial expression hardened.

" Yeah" she moved a bur that was on his shoulder then ran her hand down his arm, stopped at his ring and traced her finger around it. "You're one too"

"When were you turned?" he asked. This may have seemed like a normal question vampires would ask each other but Mia knew the true reason why he asked her this. Vampires grew stronger with age which meant that older vampires were at a bigger advantage.

Lie. Make him think you're a lot younger. Make him think he's in control.

"1997" she watched as another smirk grew on his face.

"I thought you were human, i was hoping for a bit of fun." 

She took a step closer to him, their chests touching. 

"Don't worry" she glanced at his lips as she watched him do the same. "We can still have fun."

~~~~

Elena and Stefan were at the Salvatore Boarding House sat on the couch when Damon walked in. "You two, scram. I need the house tonight."

"Why?" Stefan hated when his brother tried to order him around, the two weren't on the best terms after recent events.

"I got myself a little date." Damon poured himself some bourbon and sat on the couch opposite to them.

"With who? I thought no one in this town could stand you but us." Elena giggled.

"And we're barely hanging on by a thread." Stefan remarked, he kissed the top of Elena's head whilst she laughed at his joke.

"Hilarious" Damon snapped back "Well if you must know, i have a date with the new girl, Mia"

"What?" Elena lifted her head from Stefan's shoulder. "Damon you do know that she's a vampire right?"

"No Elena, the daylight ring on her hand didn't give that away at all." he hit back with sarcasm laced in his tone. Stefan and Elena both stood up, Elena crossed her arms over her chest whilst Stefan poured himself a drink. He felt as if he had seen Mia before but he couldn't remember where, he'd spent ages racking his brain trying to come up with an answer.

"What makes you think you can trust her?" she scoffed in disbelief.

"Relax." Damon looked up at the doppelganger who was standing in front of him. "She's a kitten, perfectly harmless."

"Her last name is Pierce." Stefan told his brother. "You don't think its a bit suspicious how she turns up right after we found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb."

"You think i haven't thought about that Stef." Damon snapped, Katherine was a sensitive topic to talk about about. "Of course i thought about it, theres no way she's related to Katherine. She died in '97." Elena raised her eyebrow. "1997" Damon added when he saw her face. "Which means unless Isobel had a little sister or cousin that we don't know about Mia has nothing to do with Katherine."

He stood up and began walking out the room "Also do you know how many Gilberts there are in the world? A lot. And I'm sure i can find you a couple hundred Salvatores too. Her last name means nothing." And with those words he left, unaware how wrong he was.

~~~~

Mia stood outside the Salvatore House quickly fixing her hair before she knocked on the door. She had taken a taxi to the house and compelled the driver to wait outside the drive, this was because there was a bag in the trunk with all the things Mia would need to carry out her plan.

The door swung open revealing Damon. "Hey." he stood there wearing his signature smirk. "Come on in" he moved aside as Mia walked in.

She was impressed with the outside of the house but even more with the interior. It was beautiful, well decorated considering two guys lived there. 

"Your house is beautiful" she spun around taking in her surroundings. "Who'd you live with?"

"My brother, his girlfriend stays over sometimes but other than that its just us." 

"This huge boarding house for just two people?" Every part of her wanted to kill him right on the spot but she couldn't, although she lied about her age he was still older than her which meant he was potentially stronger and she needed him to be weak. She sat on the end of the couch, hoping he wouldn't sit near her.

"We like to have a lot of space" he walked over to the table "Drink?" she nodded, he sat next her and handed her the glass.

Why do bourbon drinkers just assume that everyone else drinks bourbon too?

"I wanna know more about you" he placed his arm on the back on the couch almost as if he was trapping her.

"What do you wanna know?" she leaned in closer. She had spent the day preparing all the lies she would say. She needed a full story, one that wouldn't raise suspicion.

"How'd you turn?"

It was easy to lie about this because the truth was that Mia couldn't remember how she turned. The earliest memory of her being a vampire was in 1922 when she found herself stood outside a club in Chicago and she had the sudden urge to go to the train station. When she arrived at the station she saw that Jesse was there and he had also turned. It was something that plagued the two for a long time until they gave up trying to find the answers and just saw it as a blessing.

"Well" she started then she threw her head back and laughed whilst Damon stared at her breasts. "Its a silly story, probably one of the dumbest deaths ever. You have to promise you wont laugh" she pointed at him warningly.

He held his hands up "I promise i wont."

"Well, Titanic had just come out in theatres so i got ready to go see it but when i was coming down the stairs my heel broke and i fell down 2 flights of stairs and hit my head. Boom dead. I had a vampire friend and he'd given his blood that morning because i had like a huge paper cut so next thing i know i woke up a vampire. Ate my family." Damon's eyes widened as he listened to the story.

She paused and watched his expression, nervous in case he didn't believe her. With a story like that it was quite possible, a weight lifted from her when a smile appeared on his face.

"Wow, that really is a stupid death" he raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

"Hey dick, you promised." she nudged him with her foot and he wrapped his hand around her ankle. "Well now I'm trapped in this body forever."

"Trust me" his hand was now on her calf slowly travelling up her leg. "you could do a lot worse."

Mia understood how Damon drew girls in. How he drew Lexi in. He was charming and although she hated to admit it ,he was ridiculously good looking. If they had met in different circumstances she believed that she could find herself attracted to him but they hadn't and she wasn't.

Noticing that his hand was moving a lot higher than she was comfortable with Mia stood up and grabbed Damon's glass. "You want a refill?"  he nodded silently cursing at the interruption.

"I'll put some music on" he walked passed her brushing his hand against her lower back. 

Seeing that his back was turned Mia grabbed the capsule that was in her bra and emptied its contents into Damon's glass. It was concentrated vervain, the bourbon would mask the burn from it. It would cause him to pass out shortly after ingesting it.

Music started playing and Mia handed the glass to Damon.

She walked away from him and tried to dance to the music. She swayed her hips whilst she ran her hands over her body. Damon watched her, biting his lip, his eyes trailing across her body. His stare was intense, she turned around and kept eye contact with him and watched as he took a sip of the drink. He gave her a suggestive smile to which she playfully rolled her eyes and turned back around. His lip started to bleed and he clenched his hands, he wanted to touch her but also wanted to keep on watching.

Mia carried on until suddenly she was pushed up against the wall as Damon crashed his lips onto hers. He licked her bottom lip, asking for entrance and when Mia didn't respond he gripped her left breast in his hand which caused her to gasp. Everything about it felt wrong. She felt the kisses getting sloppier and knew the vervain was kicking in. After a short while Damon passed out landing on Mia as she leant against the wall.

She pushed him off and onto the floor. "Ew, i need to go sanitise my mouth" she grimaced as she returned to the car to get her things. The bag contained rope which she used to tie him to a chair by his arms and legs. There were also stakes and knives.

She waited for a while until she saw his eyes slowly opening.

"Have a nice nap?" she smiled innocently as she twirled the knife between her fingers.

Damon looked down and saw that he was tied up. He tried to move but he was still weak from the vervain. "What'd you do to me? Why do i feel like this?"

"Oh, that's the vervain in your system." she replied brightly. She walked around him, circling him as if he were prey.

"Look girlie, if you're a past one nighter trying to get revenge just know that I always leave before morning. It's nothing personal, I'm sure you're a great gal. I mean you clearly have some anger issues that you might want to talk to someone about but other than that I'm sure you're just as nice as any other girl."

Mia stared at him in disbelief. Is this guy being serious. Here i am about to kill him and he's still tryna find something funny to say.

He winced as she sliced his cheek with the knife. It then hit him that he was screwed, she was going to kill him and there was nothing he could do about it. He watched as she picked up a stake.

"Please" he pleaded "If you're going to do it, just get it over with." He looked into her eyes with desperation and fear, this is what caused Mia to pause. It was almost as if she snapped back to reality. The fear in his eyes made her think of Lexi and how she wished Damon would've spared her.

What the fuck am i doing?

Damon noticed the change in her facial expression and saw the tears welling up in her eyes. He saw this as an opportunity to try and stop her. "Look" he spoke softly "I can see you don't wanna do this, i mean for someone who wants to kill me you're not doing a lot of killing."

"You don't understand" she whispered "If i don't do this then I'm letting her down."

"Who's her? I haven't killed anyone meaningful in years." This sentence is what caused all Mia's rage to return, almost as if it was a switch. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back.

"You don't deserve mercy" she eyes blazed with fury, she pressed the tip of the stake into his chest and listened to him groan in pain. She began to twist it and his screams got louder and more intense. Hearing him in agony made her smile, she wanted him to feel the same pain Lexi did.

All of a sudden Mia was violently pushed back. Without having time to process what had happened she was thrown to the wall as someone pressed up against her. She opened her eyes to see that it was Stefan Salvatore.

He looked down at the stake that was in her hand and gripped her wrist. "Drop it." She felt the pressure in her wrist increase forcing her to open her hand and release the stake. He picked it up and pressed it against her chest. "Why are you trying to kill Damon?" he spoke coldly.

Mia ignored his question, looked over his shoulder and saw Elena untying Damon from the chair and helping him sit on the couch. They'd both had a bad feeling about the date and had snuck in from the back door.

"Who are you?" Stefan yelled at her, she ignored him again. He sighed in frustration "I'm sorry, i don't want to do this but you leave me no choice." He was about to push the stake into her chest when she finally spoke. "How can you side with him?"

"How can you protect him after what he did?" her voice got louder. "After he killed her!."

"Who?" 

"Lexi!" she shrieked.

It hit Stefan where he had recognised Mia from. She was the girl from the photo, the photo that Lexi kept in her wallet. He had always been drawn to the picture, not only because of the girl's beauty but because of how happy she looked. The girl standing in front of him now however looked different, her eyes were filled with rage and tears instead of love and joy.

"You're Mia?" he questioned his voice a lot softer "Lexi's Mia?" She nodded, Lexi would always tell Stefan about Mia just as she would tell Mia about Stefan.

"He killed her" she started to speak but her voice began to break as tears rolled down her face. "He killed her and you did nothing. I just wanted him to feel how she felt."

Stefan's heart broke as he watched the girl, he knew all about her and knew that she wasn't a violent person by nature. "Look believe me, i tried to hate Damon for what he did but he's my brother."

"I knew you wouldn't do it, so i had to. If I don't do it then theres no one else than can avenge her. It means she died for nothing" she tried to control her voice from breaking but it was consistent. She knew that she looked pathetic stood there crying.

"Lexi wouldn't want you to do this" Elena spoke up from the back.

"Don't try and give me the same bullshit speech you gave Lee. You didn't even know Lexi" Mia shouted back at her.

Damon's fists clenched, every part of him was restraining himself from shoving Stefan out of the way and ripping her heart out. They'd warned him that Mia wasn't who she appeared to be but he dismissed their suspicions and now here they were trying to bargain with the woman who'd almost taken his life.

"Killing Damon wont make it feel better" Stefan wiped a tear from her face. "It didn't make it feel better last time did it?" Mia knew that he was referring to when she killed the werewolf that killed Jesse. "Lexi told me all about it, you let the guilt crush you for a year. There was no one there to stop you last time" he placed his hands on her shoulders "Let me help you now."

He waited for a response and sigh with relief when she nodded. "I'm sorry" she rasped, she looked back at Damon who was staring at her with anger "I'm so sorry." Stefan wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug. He rubbed her back soothingly and whispered to her "Its going to be okay Mia."

He knew he had to help her. Not just because Lexi would've wanted him to but because he wanted to. "Where are you staying?" when she gave him an answer he pulled away from the hug "I want you to come live here, you can't stay in a B and B." He heard Damon and Elena make noises of disagreement so he held a hand up to silence them then told Mia to wait for him in the car.

"Have you lost your mind?" Damon stood up walking towards his brother "She just tried to kill me."

"Well you're alive aren't you" Stefan snapped back. 

Elena stood between the two boys "What makes you think you can trust her Stefan, she did just try to kill him."

"She was Lexi's best friend okay." he rubbed his temple hoping that they would understand. "Lexi told me that she trusted Mia more than anyone, including me. Am i just supposed to let her suffer because Damon took away the only person she had left in her life."

Elena sighed, if Stefan trusted Mia than that was good enough for her. She turned to Damon and placed a hand on his arm "Come on Damon, you killed her best friend so she tried to kill you. I'd say its even."

"Fine" Damon threw his hands up " call it even, she can stay here." Stefan looked at him warningly "And you wont try to kill her?" he questioned to which his brother nodded.

~~~~

Mia, Elena and Stefan were sat together, the couple had helped her move in. Stefan carried her things and Elena helped put her stuff away.

"So you're a Petrova? That means we're related" Elena was happy that she had a new family member. "And all it took was you trying to kill Damon to finally get us to meet" she laughed.

"Actually i met your mom when she was pregnant with you." This made Elena and Stefan both sit up. 

"You knew Isobel?" Stefan asked.

"I know all the Petrova descendants, i had to so i could keep track of the Petrova curse."

"What's that?" Elena asked. What could be a bigger curse than being a doppelganger.?

"Well since the 15th century every Petrova girl has gotten pregnant when they were a teenager including me. But you're dating a vampire so i guess that's why it hasn't affected you."

"So you're like my great great great" Elena paused trying to figure out how many greats she would need to add but she gave up "grandma?"

"No" Mia shook her head and laughed "That would be my sister, my baby was still born so...."

Elena looked at Stefan who was just looking at Mia sadly. He felt so bad for her and what she had to go through. He'd always wanted to meet her but never had the chance to, she was never there when he visited Lexi.

"Hey" he began, Mia hummed a response. "How come we've never met, I've visited Lexi in Georgia a few times but you were never there."

"Oh" she was hoping he wouldn't ask her this, he would either find the answer weird or endearing. "Lexi told me about the whole thing with you and Katherine. How it messed you up so i thought that if you met me you would be reminded of her and go back down that spiral. So whenever you would visit i would just leave and come back when you left."

Stefan's mouth parted in shock, he couldn't believe that this was the same girl who was trying to kill his brother two hours ago. "You did all that for someone you didn't even know?"

"I did it for someone that Lexi cared about." she replied smiling at the boy and Stefan smiled back. It was clear that they could trust her and they wanted her to stay.

For the rest of the evening Stefan and Elena had filled Mia in on all the Mystic Falls drama including the tomb vampires, Katherine, Bonnie and the council. What they didn't know was that Lexi was watching them from the Other Side with tears in her eyes as she watched her two best friends grow closer, it was what she had always wanted.

That night after everyone had gone to sleep Stefan had a strange feeling that something was wrong. He slowly walked to Mia's room and found Damon stood outside her door with a stake. After arguing with his brother and getting him to leave, he still didn't feel safe leaving Mia on her own so he sat outside her door all night.

When Mia opened her door in the morning she saw the younger Salvatore brother sat on the ground, leaning against the wall and asleep. She smiled as she watched him. 

Mystic Falls was her home now.

A/N: HELLO MY DARLINGSSSS

A message from Via 22/10/22. Ew, just ew. Wtf is this chapter, thank the lord that my writing got better after this bc this is disgraceful

This chapter is longer than the others because i had more to write. Hope you read all of it and enjoyed it.

Sooo Mia is staying in Mystic Falls now .

IMPORTANT: Im skipping to the season 2 plot bc theres not much she can do with the season 1. I will write references to the season 1 plot so its easier to understand.

The next chapter will be Founder's Day.

Dont worry, this isnt going to be an enemies to lovers with Mia and Damon, im focussing more on the friendships BUTTTTT she will have a love interest later on.

Can we appreciate the beautiful being that is Stefan Salvatore

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter

See you soon 

LOVE YA xxx

Published: 4th January 2022