The Good Daughter

Twenty one

It was actually kind of overwhelming.

There were so many people.

I took a tentative seat in the back of what is my history class. It'd be kind of interesting to see how accurate it would be. Even if I was on the run and doing my best to stay hidden, I was alive for a lot of recent history.

The bell rang, a jarring sound, and students flooded in.

Tyler spotted me, and made a beeline for my seat. "Didn't take you for someone wanting to repeat their senior year." He dropped into the desk next to mine. 

"Can't repeat something I've never done." I dug around in the backpack, surprised to find an AP American History textbook inside. Elijah had apparently done his research.

"You're telling me you've never been through high school? Not even once?"

"Elijah was always protective and he personally tutored me until I 'graduated'. Imagine having your dad as your teacher for every class."

Tyler laughed. "I'd be happy to show you the ropes."

"Thanks but won't your friends find it a little odd you're helping me?"

Said friends entered the classroom and chose seats toward the middle of the room. They kept glancing my way and whispering. That is until Stefan made some poor kid move. Then he had their attention.

He was acting strange.

"Welcome back seniors. Let's turn our brains back on..." The teacher paused when he saw me. "Starting with this country's founders. The native Americans."

I bit my lip, but couldn't stop myself. "What about the Vikings?"

He blinked, and so many people turned to look my way. I shrunk back into my seat. "Well there's no evidence that Viking explorers actually settled in the United States... who are you?"

"Morgan. I'm new."

He glanced at Elena. "I don't know where you learned that, but I'm sticking to the textbooks. Which, class, if you would turn to page forty eight, we can continue."

There was a rustle of paper and the thud of textbooks hitting the faux wood desks.

Great. I'd managed to embarrass myself on the first day, even if I were right. Elijah taught me about how his family came with a huge group of people and settled this particular area.

Though there were still the wolves who were native to Virginia.

"Will you come to football practice after school?" Tyler whispered.

The blonde, Caroline's head turned slightly. She was listening.

"I'm not really into sweaty boys running around a field and tackling each other." The noise level in the class would help, but vampire hearing, especially one who knew how to use it, could pick up our conversation in its entirety. "Plus I'm not sure when I'm expected home. We didn't exactly discuss curfew this morning when he dropped the bomb that I was going to school."

"So that means you could find out?" Those brown eyes of his almost made me feel bad for even thinking of saying no to him. "You don't have to be on the field, you could sit in the bleachers."

"Fine."

He grinned.

The bell rang again, and I jolted. Had that much time really passed? "I'll see you later." I dumped the textbook in the backpack and slung it onto my shoulder. It wasn't really my style, maybe I'd find something better after Tyler's practice.

On my way out of the classroom, I felt my arm being grabbed and before I could react, I was in the girl's bathroom.

Caroline stood there with her arms crossed. "What are you doing with Tyler?"

"Good morning to you too." I gave myself some much needed room.

"I heard you."

"Darling, all you heard was him asking me to watch him play football. We're just friends." That'd be a good cover so that Tyler and I could be seen together in public areas, though not necessarily within the line of sight of Elijah. "There's no nefarious plot to take down your little friend group."

Her eyes narrowed. "Stay away from us."

"I can't control what Tyler does any better than you. I didn't want to be friends with him and yet here we are." I held myself tall. "I'm well aware of what would happen if news of our friendship got out and reached Mikaelson ears. You'd better pray it doesn't. The more people that know, the more danger Tyler is in."

Caroline paused. "What could happen?"

"Well for starters, when I was still human, any person that got within ten feet of me, that wasn't approved of, got dismembered." She paled. "I'll let you in on a little secret. They didn't approve of anyone. Now hopefully with the conversation I had with Elijah this morning, he's going to allow me some breathing room to make friends. If Nik shows up, all bets are off." Even Rebekah, with all her raving about Nik not letting her have suitors, would gladly tear out the throat of any who she deemed too boring of a friend for me.

God forbid I actually have an interest in someone.

"So keep this a secret if you want Tyler to stay alive. I'll have to talk to him." Again. "Please."

Her brow furrowed. "You care about him."

"He was the first person I talked to here. He's the one who told me my brothers were alive." Why did I feel the need to explain myself to her? "Maybe I have a soft spot for the guy."

"Okay."

"Just like that?"

"I care about him too. He's my friend."

Oh.

"You weren't what I expected." She clutched her books to her chest.

"How do you mean?"

Caroline shifted on her feet. "Well for a girl raised by Klaus, you're not at all like him."

"Did you think I'd be a mini me?"

"Kinda." She laughed. "You were at that party, you knew Elena was alive and something tells me you didn't say anything."

"Maybe I didn't. It wasn't for her."

"Still, you inadvertently bought us more time. And you want to protect Damon and Stefan. Two members of our group, plus Tyler, that's three. If you're not careful you might just become friends with us all."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." The more people I liked, the more that could be used against me. "Now are you going to let me through or do I need to move you?"

I'm not going to go against Elijah's expectations and possibly get shadowed.