"If you keep going like this, you'll be drunk in no time." Emma shook her head at Rebekah, watching the blonde take a large sip from the red plastic cup in her hand. The two sat together on one of the logs near a fire. When she met up with Rebekah in the school parking lot before the bonfire, Emma expected the blonde would want to socialize much more. But surprisingly, aside from some small talk here and there, Rebekah mostly stayed with Emma.

"Oh trust me, I doubt a couple of cups will have much of an effect. I need something stronger than cheep beer for that." Rebekah reassured with ease.

"When the night ends with me putting you to bed, I'll make sure you remember that." Emma teased, making Rebekah laugh in amusement. Looking down into her almost empty cup, Rebekah guessed that if she were normal, she probably would be feeling the effects of the alcohol by now.

"I'm going to go get another one. So I can prove you wrong." The blonde suddenly stood from her seat, downing the remaining contents from her cup as she did so. "You're sure you don't want some? Your water bottle won't last forever."

I'm driving, remember?" Emma fixed the blonde with a pointed look, standing to her feet as well as she continued to speak. "While you get a refill, I'm gonna go check in with my mum. It's not a request, but a demand."

"It's sweet, that she cares so much." Rebekah commented, smiling as she watched Emma do an imitation of what the blonde assumed was her mother.

"She can be a bit overprotective, but I love her all the same." Emma said with a smile as she pulled her cellphone out of her bag, checking to see if her mother had already texted. And just as she expected, she did. Emma knew some people her age would find her mother's overprotective nature irritating, but Emma could understand. After all, it's not like Marissa Park had no reason not to worry about her daughter.

With Rebekah walking off to the drinks table, Emma started heading away from the crowd in search of a quieter place where she could make a phone call. There was a chance her mother wouldn't answer since she was currently working. Her shift at the hospital extending beyond the afternoon and into the night. But then Emma would just answer her mother's text with one of her own.

And that was how it turned out too in the end. Focused on her phone as she typed out her text, letting her mother know she was okay and the party was nothing too special, Emma didn't notice the sound of a person coming up to her until the moment he spoke up.

"Hi there."

The voice, suddenly so close, made Emma yelp in surprise, her right hand squeezing her phone so she wouldn't drop it as she jumped in her spot. But her water bottle wasn't as much of a priority and so it cluttered down to the ground.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The boy quickly apologized, bending down to pick up the fallen item before handing it back to her.

"It's alright." She reassured him, taking the bottle from his hand and unscrewing the cap so she could keep a cough at bay by clearing her throat. Once she was done, she let her focus turn back to him. he was cute, his dark hair and eyes matching together nicely, but Emma assumed he was younger since she hadn't seen in any of her classes.

"I'm Jeremy, by the way. You're one of the new girls, right? He seemed friendly as he extended his hand towards her, and so Emma accepted it with a small smile stretching over her lips.

"Yeah, I'm Emma. It's nice to meet you." She answered, pulling her hand back after a couple of moments. She felt her phone vibrate, her mother's reply arriving, but as Jeremy continued, she didn't check it instantly.

"So what brings you to Mystic Falls of all places?" He asked curiously, and Emma wasn't really sure about the answer. When her mother announced they were moving again, she didn't really have much of an explanation as to why.

"I guess we just needed a change if you ask me. I suspect my mum got tired of big cities." Emma explained in a joking tone, she knew this wasn't the time or place to vent about her grievances with the excessive moving around the country.

"Cities? Multiple?" Jeremy asked, letting his curiosity lead the conversation. But Emma didn't mind, it was what people usually did when they found out how much she moved around in the last few years. She wrote it off as simple interest, not even suspecting that Jeremy might be digging for some kind of particular information.

"New Orleans, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, and now Mystic Falls." Emma listed off casually before adding on. "But hopefully next place is the last."

"Next place?" Jeremy didn't understand the meaning behind her words for a moment before he remembered. "College, right. You're a senior like my sister."

"Who's your sister?" Emma asked in an interested tone, wondering whether she could put the face to a name already. And since Jeremy seemed really nice, if his sister was the same, maybe it'd be great to meet another person within her class.

"Elena Gilbert, she's right over there." Jeremy said, pointing towards a beautiful brunette standing among the crowd of teenagers. As she caught sight of her, Emma found that she did recognize the girl as well as who as was walking to.

"Ah, the girl with the 'You're in my seat' ass." Emma described the sandy haired senior Elena was standing with. He was hard to forget from the moment she saw him in AP History at the start of the day.

"Yeah, Stefan had been a bit prickly lately." Jeremy let out a small chuckle, Emma not even aware of just how true that statement really was. But before she could ask, Jeremy continued, aiming for what he truly came over here for. "But you seem like someone who can handle prickly."

"What makes you say that?" Emma questioned, confused by what could have brought on that comment. After all, this was only their first conversation.

"Rebekah? Did you two know each other before coming here?" Jeremy seemed curious, just as with all of his previous questions, and maybe he was a bit tipsy, just like everyone else. However, Emma couldn't stop a small frown from appearing on her face as she heard his questions.

"She can be forward, but you make it sound like she's a total bitch. I met her today, so maybe it's a bit early to get the whole picture, but right now she seems better than your friend over there." Emma huffed out with a small glare.

While she may have known Rebekah for just a day, and she couldn't deny, the blonde did have her bitchy moments, having experienced one herself already, Emma could see Rebekah becoming a good friend with time. And she wasn't the type to let people badmouth someone she considered a friend.

"Right, sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Luckily, Jeremy knew when to take a step back. "I'm gonna go get another drink." He said after a couple of moments passed in an awkward silence. Emma watched him go with a sigh.

"So much for making friends." She mumbled to herself, letting her eyes turn away from Jeremy's retreating form and search through the crowd in hopes of locating Rebekah again.

It didn't take too long to spot the blonde, sitting by one of the fires. And she wasn't alone. Emma didn't recognize the guy Rebekah was sitting with, and whether the blonde new him already or had just met him, the way the two were so obviously flirting made them seem quite cosy.

Reaching for her phone, Emma first read her mother's message in which she complained about being reduced to hospital food for dinner. Letting out a small laugh, she moved on to the next task.

Need an intervention?

She sent the text to Rebekah, her eyes looking back to the blonde as she stopped her conversation with the dark-haired guy to check her phone. However, instead of sending a text back as Emma expected her to, Rebekah looked up and without issue looked at Emma with a small smile of reassurance.

Taking it as a sign Rebekah knew what she was doing and having no doubt that Rebekah could take care of herself, Emma sent on last text, informing the blonde that she was going to head on home. Doing so now, meant that she still had time to surprise her mother with some delivery burgers and fries.

Walking through the woods, Emma really hoped she was on the right path to reaching the high school parking lot with only her phone flashlight as a guide. Luckily, as the sounds of the bonfire faded out behind her, she started to see the streetlights in the distance.

Wanting to be out of the woods already, Emma ran the rest of the way to the parking lot, letting out a small breath as she finally made her way out of the tree line and onto the paved ground of the parking lot.

Having to go around the building to get to the spot where she parked, Emma started the search for her key early. It was a bit harder as the lack of light limited her vision, but Emma finally felt her fingers brush against the cold metal settled on the bottom of her bag. She pulled the keys out, finally looking up to the nearly empty parking lot in front of her.

And as she did so, she finally noticed the odd smell hanging in the air, and the source of it. The smoke emitting from the burning car spread over her quickly, making Emma cough as it got into her lungs, but before she could do anything; move away or call 911, the car exploded and Emma was thrown backwards to the ground.