Elena woke up on the first day of the new school year with a smile. The plan had been for Damon to call Kathrine and say that they wanted to help her with the whole Mikael thing because Klaus had turned Tyler into a hybrid 'against his will' and compelled Stefan to turn his emotions off.

Thanks to Damon's amazing ability to lie convincingly and Kathrine's creepy obsession with Stefan, she had bought it, hook, line and sinker. So now, Kathrine was doing her best to wake Mikael up while the Mystic Falls pack planned for every single thing that could happen.

Elena jumped out of bed, quickly took a shower and put on her chosen outfit for the day; black skinny jeans with ripped knees, black top, black boots and a blue leather jacket. The blue leather jacket had been a gift from Harper, Anna and Pearl, that they had bought in France when they had been there.

As Elena walked out of her room, she met Alaric on the stairs and smiled. "Good morning, Ric."

"Morning, Elena." Alaric smiled back. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling pretty good." Elena said and then she smirked. "And form the hickey on your neck, so do you."

"Elena!" Alaric called out in embarrassment.

The only thing he got in response was laughter as Elena made her way to the kitchen. She made herself and Jeremy a sandwich each and walked up to his room to wake her little brother.

"Waky waky, little brother." Elena pulled the curtains apart, making Jeremy groan and try and hide his face under his comforter.

"Nooo, don wanna." Jeremy whined and tried to burrow further into his bed.

"I brought breakfast." Elena coaxed as she waved the plate close the were his head was.

"What's on it?" Came Jeremy's muffled voice.

"Your favorite." Elena hummed and sat down on his bed as Jeremy sat up and accepted his plate with an adorable pout.

An hour and fifteen minutes later she was standing arm in arm with Caroline and Bonnie in front of the school.

"Here we are." Caroline said. "Senior year."

"Anyone else think it should feel slightly more empowering?" Bonnie asked, sounding disappointed.

"Okay, so prank night was a bust." Caroline looked down, but then she straightened up again. "But we are accepting it and moving on."

"You're right." Bonnie nodded with determination. "This year is going to be awesome!"

"Last time you predicted an awesome year we found out about vampires, witches and werewolves." Elena pointed out with a chuckle.

"Shut up!" Bonnie and Caroline chorused with laughter.

"Didn't Rebekah say she might start school today to?" Caroline wondered with an exited smile.

"I think so, yeah." Elena nodded.

"Then when she has arrived, we shall rule this school like the amazing queens we are." Caroline declared and the three of them walked in to the school while laughing, ignoring the appreciative looks they were getting from most of the boys and even some of the girls.

A few minutes later they split up so they could go to their lockers and Elena was almost done putting her books in when a guy from the football team walked, almost swaged, up to her.

"Hey Elena." Jake leaned against the locker as he looked her up and down.

"Hello Jake." Elena said back as she closed her locker and turned to walk towards her first class.

Jake started to walk with her even though she was quite sure his first class was in the other direction. "So, you wanna get dinner at the grill sometime?"

Before Elena could turn him down the bell rang and Jake started to hurry off calling over his shoulder that he would talk to her later. Confused Elena walked into her math class and sat down at an empty desk, deciding to push Jake out of her mind and focus on her class.

The rest of the time until lunch was equally confusing for Elena. Several jocks came up to her and talked to her, some of them even asked her out and Elena had no idea what was going on. As she walked towards the cafeteria to meet Caroline and Bonnie for lunch another jock came up to her.

"Hello beautiful." The jock, if Elena remembered correctly his name was David, put his arm around her shoulders.

"Kindly take your arm off me." Elena said darkly.

"Oh, don't be like that, baby." David pulled her closer to his side.

"I'm serious," Elena tried to shrug him off but he just tightened his hold on her.

"You can stop playing hard to get and just agree to go out with me." David said with an arrogant smirk.

"Get your hands of my sister." Jeremy growled darkly from where he had stepped into David's path.

"What are you going to do?" David laughed. "You're just a junior."

"True but this junior was taught to fight by Mr. Saltzman and Stefan's older brother Damon." Jeremy glared. "If your tiny little ape brain doesn't understand what that means I'll spell it out for you; I can and will fuck you up if you do not let go of my sister."

"Fine." David let her go and she made her way towards Jeremy, but before she got far David slapped and grabbed her ass.

Then before David could do more than laugh, he stumbled back with a broken nose and Jeremy was on him, raining blows faster than David could defend against. The fight continued for a while until some teachers came and dragged Jeremy of David.

"You ever touch my sister again, I'll beat you unconscious!" Jeremy screamed at David.

"Both of you, principal's office, now!" Mr. Brown told them sternly.

Elena walked up to Jeremy and linked her arm with his, small tremors going through her body. The ass slap/grab had somehow made her have a flashback to Mr. Tanner and she needed Jeremy close to calm down.

"Not you Miss. Gilbert." Mr. Brown said. "You can go to the cafeteria for lunch."

Elena just shook her head and pressed closer to Jeremy, feeling her body start to tremble. Jeremy just glared at Mr. Brown and pulled Elena closer as they walked to the principal's office.

Mr. Brown led David, Jeremy and Elena into the office and proceeded to tell Principal Grey about the fight. Elena curled tighter into Jeremy's side and tried her best to banish the flash backs from her mind.

"So, Mr. Ford, can you tell me what happened?" Principal Grey looked at the jock.

"I was just talking to Elena when Gilbert went postal and attacked me." David said as he held an ice pack to his broken nose, making Jeremy scoff in disbelief.

"You don't agree with Mr. Ford's recount of the event, Mr. Gilbert?" Principal Grey turned to Jeremy.

"No." Jeremy shook his head.

"So, what happened according to you?" Principal grey interlocked his fingers as he looked at Jeremy.

"I was walking down the hall when I saw Ford refusing to take his arm from around Elena's shoulder, even though she tried to get away." Jeremy glared at the jock. "I walked up to him and told him to let go but at first he refused until I threatened to punch him if he didn't."

"And then what?" Principal Grey coaxed.

"He let her go but when she was walking towards me, David slapped and grabbed her ass." Jeremy growled. "I saw the fear and panic on Elena's face and I just reacted."

Principal Grey got an understanding look in his eyes and turned to Elena with kind eyes. "Are you okay Miss. Gilbert?"

Elena looked up and nodded slightly with a shrug, feeling off kilter and anxious.

"Mr. Gilbert I will let you off with just a warning this time because I know why you reacted the way you did." Principal Grey said and silenced Mr. Brown's protests with a look.

"Mr. Ford, you will have detention after school for the rest of the week for touching another student without their permission." Principal Grey decided, then he let the students go so he could explain to Mr. Brown why he made the decisions he did.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jeremy asked after they had left the principal's office.

"No, but I will be." Elena said quietly. "You can go to class."

"Elena!" Caroline walked up to them and quickly pulled Elena into a hug. "Here, help me put these up, that might get your mind on other things."

Elena accepted a punch of papers and chuckled slightly. "I forgot about the bonfire."

"You have to go." Caroline gazed pleadingly at Elena. "It's our first spirit squad event and it sets the bar for the whole year."

"Of course I'll be there." Elena assured with a smile.

"Thank you." Caroline relaxed with a smile.

"Hey guys." Tyler walked up to them and kissed Jeremy, not caring about who saw. "Happy first day!"

"Tyler, are you wearing your breakfast?" Elena laughed as she saw the blood on his shirt.

Tyler looked down, then he looked back up with a sheepish smile, "Oops."

"Did you eat one of your class mates?" Jeremy chuckled.

"Nah, not this time at least." Tyler smirked. "It's from a blood bag."

"So Rebekah managed to hook you up then?" Caroline smiled.

"Yeah and it's a relief that I don't have to worry about that." Tyler shrugged and pulled Jeremy closer to him by the hips.

"We are just going to go." Elena laughed and pulled Caroline with her out as she walked away.

They giggle as they leave but the giggles quickly stopped as they ran into Stef outside of the bathroom.

"Hello Elena." Stef smirked.

"What are you doing here?" Elena glared; she wanted her best friend back, not the thing wearing his face.

"What do you mean?" Stef gave a mock look of confusion. "I'm going back to school. Go Timberwolves!"

"What? Why?" Caroline asked.

"Klaus has run with his tail between his legs but I know that he'll be back for his little doppelgänger, so as long as I stay close to said doppelgänger, I'll have my shot at killing him." Stef chuckled darkly. "And from what I've heard, I'm not the only one who wants Klaus dead anymore."

"I'm going to be late for class." Elena huffed and tried to leave but Stef grabbed her by the arm and stopped her.

"Oh, class is this way." Stef started to pull her along.

"Let go of me, Stef." Elena demanded, starting to feel the panic grow in her chest again.

"Elena, do you think I want to be here? Want to be a senior when I have Stefan's memories of being a senior a few hundred times?" Stef asked huffed in annoyance. "No. But I don't have a choice since I need to stay close to you to get to Klaus."

"Please just let go off me." Elena actually begged as her throat started to close up in panic.

"Let go of her." Alaric said from behind them.

Before either Elena or Alaric could react, Stef had Alaric pushed against the lockers.

"Stef, stop it!" Elena called out, worried.

"You're not gonna want to get in my way." Stef glared darkly at Alaric. "Okay, Ric? I will see you both in history."

Stef walked away from them without looking back and Elena did her best to breathe through the anxiety and panic.

Half an hour later Elena and Alaric were standing in the empty history class room.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Alaric asked.

"Because Klaus left, Stef decided that he would stick close to me." Elena explained softly. "Apparently, Stef is convinced that Klaus will be back for me or something like that."

"So, he has picked up stalking/bodyguarding?" Alaric looked at her.

"Seems like it." Elena muttered and walked over to her seat as the bell rang. "We are trying to find a way to banish Stef and get Stefan back, Bonnie has been reading all her family's grimoire's and we have even called Bree and asked her to help."

The students started to trickle in and Elena smiled as Caroline sat down text to her. When a jock sat on Elena's other side, she didn't know how to feel about it but gave an annoyed sigh when Stef walked up to the jock.

"You're in my seat." Stef glared and when the jock moved, he smiled at Elena and sat down. "Hey you."

Alaric wrote 'AP AMERICAN HISTORY' on the blackboard in chalk. "Welcome back, seniors. Let's turn our brains back on, starting with this country's original founders... The Native Americans."

"What about the Vikings?" Rebekah asked as she entered the classroom.

"I'm so happy you are here." Elena whispered so only the vampires could hear her.

"There's no evidence that Viking explorers actually settled in the United States." Alaric said and Elena saw that he did his best not to smile. "Who are you?"

"My name's Rebekah, I'm new." Rebekah introduced herself, mostly for the benefit of the rest of the class. "And history's my favorite subject."

Rebekah took a seat in front of Elena and received smiles from Elena, Caroline and Tyler.

After class Elena and Caroline linked their arms with Rebekah as they walked through the school.

"You're joining cheerleading, right?" Caroline asked with a smile.

"Sure, if you want me too." Rebekah smiled a little hesitantly, unused to people wanting to be friends with her without an ulterior motive.

"Yes!" Caroline hugged Rebekah and then she started to drag her and Elena towards the female changing rooms.

After the three girls had changed into their training clothes they split up, Rebekah and Caroline walked off towards the rest of the cheerleaders while Elena walked over to the track.

Elena had decided to wear her new training outfit which Jeremy had help her pick out when they had gone back to school shopping a week ago. Dark red tights with black seams, a red sports bra, a lose grey top with the letters GRL PWR and light grey running shoes.

After stretching she started to run down the track, silently cursing herself for forgetting her headphones at home, running was much more fun with music.

"Look at you being all fit." Stef ran up alongside her and kept pace with her. "Hey, you going to the bonfire tonight? Sounds like fun, right?"

"Leave me alone, Stef." Elena growled and turned to run in the opposite direction.

"You think I'm annoying now?" Stef ran backwards do he could look at her as he talked. "Wait till homecoming. Wait, who you bringing, by the way? I don't want to be weird."

A guy bumped into Elena on accident and quickly apologized. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Elena smiled a little before her smile transformed into a frown when Stef pushed the guy to the ground.

"Watch it, dick!" Stef glared.

"Stef?" Elena smiled sweetly. "Get fucked."

"Wanna help?" Stef leered at her.

"Ugh." Elena walked away with a glare.

"Was it something I said?" Stef called after her with a laugh.

XOXOXOX

It was night time and Alaric, Damon, Enzo, Elena, Rebekah and Caroline were meeting in Alaric's classroom trying to plan how to deal with the whole Stef mess.

"I'll lure Stef away from the bonfire." Elena told them. "Then when he's distracted..."

"I'll shoot him." Alaric nodded.

"And we'll just keep him locked up until Bonnie and Bree can figure out how to destroy Stef and we get Stefan back?" Damon sounded scared for his little brother and Enzo squeezed his hand in silent support.

"We will find a way to get Stefan back!" Elena declared strongly. "I will not rest until we do."

"Agreed." Caroline spoke up with determination and Alaric nodded.

They talk about the plan for a bit longer before they all split up to go to the bonfire, Caroline excitedly dragging Rebekah with her so they can eat some marshmallows seeing as Rebekah never had any before.

An hour later Caroline and Damon are teaching Enzo and Rebekah how to eat marshmallows the correct way while Elena watched with a smile, not noticing Stef walk up behind her.

"Having fun?" Stef spoke up behind her making Elena jump around.

"I was." Elena sneered, determined not to let Stef scare her.

"Am I ruining your night?" Stef smirked.

"You are frankly pathetic and I detest your very presence." Elena huffed and turned to walk away.

Before she could react, Stef had a hand around her throat and her back against a tree outside of the bonfire light while he glared at her with his vampire visage on full display.

"Don't think I won't kill you." Stef growled. "The only reason I'm not doing it is because I need you alive to get Klaus back to town."

Surprisingly enough, instead of getting scared, Elena got mad. She was so fucking tired of people manhandling her, thinking they could use her body and her for their needs and wants without even thinking about what she wanted.

So, with anger burning in her eyes Elena brought her foot up, kicking Stef so hard between the legs that she wouldn't be surprised if his ball ended up in his stomach. As Stef let her go and actually fell to his knees and puked because of the pain, Elena felt a little sorry but only because it was Stefan's body.

"I am so done with being the fucking victim!" Elena snarled as she glared at Stef.

She turned to walk away but before she could get far, Stef was behind her and sinking his teeth into her neck with a growl. Elena struggled as best she could but she felt herself grow weaker until the world went black.

Elena opened her eyes and saw that she was in the place where she had first talked to Death. "Did I die?"

"No, but it was a very close thing." Death spoke up from beside her.

"Hi dad." Elena hugged him and felt him hug back hesitantly.

"How are you, daughter?" Death asked gently as they pulled back.

"I... I..." Elena felt her throat clog up. "I miss Stefan and it hurts to see a thing walking around with his face."

"Shh, daughter, shh." Death pulled her close as she started to cry. "Everything will work out."

"So there is a way to save Stefan?" Elena asked hopefully.

"Yes, there is." Death smiled at her. "But it will take time and effort."

"I'll do anything." Elena declared quickly.

"You'll have to destroy Esther Mikaelson's soul." Death said seriously.

"What?" Elena looked up at him. "How will I do that?"

"I will tell you everything when it gets closer to be able to be done." Death stroked her cheek gently. "She's the one who created 'Stef'."

"Why would she do that?" Elena asked. "I mean, I know she was a complete bitch but... why?"

"Because you prevented her from getting her claws into Finn." Death explained softly. "From the moment you first started visiting Finn, he has been protected against Esther. through you."

"But what about Kol?" Elena asked, then she frowned. "How come I can remember everything when I'm here with you, but when I'm 'awake' or whatever, I forget the connection between Finn and his siblings? How can I know who Kol is right now but as soon as I leave, I'll forget?"