𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 || 𝐣. 𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Charlie finished getting ready and headed out the door. She froze in confusion when she stepped out the door and saw a car in the driveway. She could not be sure, but she thought it was Elena's car. She had seen it a couple times. That's weird, she thought. Why would Elena leave her car here? She shook it off, figuring there was probably an explanation for it, and headed off to school.

Once she got there, she went up to Jeremy who was at his locker. When he saw her approaching, he smiled and greeted. "Hey, Charlie. What's up?"

"Hey," she responded before looking up at him in question to ask about his sister and make sure that she was all right, "Is Elena okay? She left her car at my house last night. I figured she just hitched a ride home with you and Bonnie."

"Um, she didn't come home last night. Her bed hadn't been slept in," he informed her.

She furrowed her eyebrows at that because that did not sound good, especially when it was about someone that got taken by people frequently for some crazy reason. "That's really weird."

"She probably just got back together with Stefan and spent the night at his place. There he is now," he told her, and she turned around to see the Salvatore man walking past them, so they joined his side.

He smiled at them in greeting. "Hey, guys."

"​​Look, Elena's got to let me know if I'm supposed to cover for her," the Gilbert boy said to him. "Jenna's cool with the two of you but you guys are pushing it."

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked in confusion, and that made Charlie start to think that he had no clue what they were saying.

Jeremy did not seem to take the hint and just kept trying to explain to him, "You and Elena. Look, I'm glad you guys are back together but if she's gonna sleep over—"

"Wait, wait...hold on a minute," the other guy cut him off, stopping in the hallway so that they could look at each other while they talked. Charlie pulled both of them over to the side so that they were not blocking the entire path to classes. Neither male seemed to notice, though. "We're not back together."

"So, she didn't stay at your place last night?" the Lockwood girl questioned.

He shook his head, and they could tell that he was starting to get a little worried for the his ex-girlfriend. Charlie had no clue why they were not back together now that Katherine was trapped, but that was not really important at that moment. "No, I mean I saw her at the party but that was it. She didn't sleep over."

"Jeremy said that her bed hadn't been slept in, and she left her car in my driveway," the brunette girl informed him, letting him know why they were wondering if she had stayed at his house. "If she didn't spend the night at your place, where is she?" The two guys looked at her, and she groaned. "Oh, God. Not this again. We should just tie her down and lock her in her house so that no one can take her. All right, let's get this over with."

"How does this work?" Jeremy asked Bonnie as he placed a map on the table in front of them. He, Bonnie, and Charlie were all in Alaric's history classroom, and the witch was trying to perform a spell that would help them find Elena.

As she lit some candles — which was definitely not allowed in school because it was a fire hazard, but they did have a teacher with dozens of weapons in his office and locker — she explained, "I'll use your blood to draw energy for the tracking spell. You're blood related; it'll make the connection stronger."

"All right, Alaric said we've got to clear out of here within ten minutes. I've got weapons, he stocked me up," Stefan informed them as he walked into the room, closed the door, and threw the weapons bag on the teacher's desk before walking over to them to watch the spell. He then looked up at the Lockwood girl. "Oh, and he told me to tell you that ou can keep the gun."