Dark Heretic (E. St. John)

Chapter 05

Nick looks at the flier on the wall at school and he exhales slowly. The Miss Mystic Falls event. Caroline has started dating Matt after she was done with Damon, or Damon was done with her, so she asked him to dance the event with her.

"I'm sorry you can't dance with me," Caroline says as she walks up beside Nick.

"Don't worry about it," Nick replies. "I look forward to seeing you lead Matt."

Caroline giggles and she nods. "Right?" She puffs out her chest. "I'm the lead."

Nick chuckles at her theatrics. "Okay, Caroline," he muses. "I bet you're excited."

"Uh, yes!" Caroline exclaims. "Matt works during the practices. Can you fill-in for him there?"

"Yes, I'd love to," Nick replies. "I'll see you at lunch." He offers Caroline a charming grin and he walks away.

Caroline watch as girls and boys still stare at him. She smiles in amusement and she walks to her own class, not even remotely jealous.

"Hey, Mr. Saltzman," Nick greets the history teacher who replaced Mr. Tanner: Alaric Saltzman.

"Hey, there, Mr. James," Alaric says.

"Mr. Saltzman, it's Nick," Nick corrects before he goes and sits beside Matt. "Hey, man."

"Hey!" Matt greets. "Dude, in football, they replaced Tanner with Coach Killman. He's from Richmond."

"Is he better than Tanner?" Nick asks.

"Oh, hell yeah," Jared, one of the football players, replies immediately from Nick's other side. "Much more efficient."

"Good," Nick replies. "As long as he doesn't pick favorites like Tanner did, we'll get along."

Tanner's favorite player was Tyler, even if Nick's good. 

"Tanner liked to bully Tyler because he's an easy target - being a bully himself," Jared says. "You're the best player we have who's actually played. Salvatore did good at practice, but Tanner was killed by that animal before the game even began." He laughs. "Man, animals didn't even like the man."

Nick snorts. "Your sense of humor worries me, Jared," he muses.

Jared smirks. "It worries everyone, man," he replies.

Matt chuckles this time and the bell rings. That's when they notice that the class is full, all but one is here.

"Man, we need to pay attention to our surroundings more," Matt comments and the other two nod their heads in agreement.

"Okay," Alaric begins, "this week, we're gonna step outside our regular curriculum for a lesson in local history as we approach Founders' Day. Apparently the community leaders feel it's more important than World War II, but hey, enshrined do I know?"

Nick smirks a little at Alaric's sense of humor and the door opens. Nick perks up when Bonnie enters. They have been practicing magic together, or they were until Sheila died. If they'd have come to him about that tomb and Katherine, Sheila would still be alive because they wouldn't have ever opened that damn tomb, but no one thought to come to him.

"Sorry I'm late," Bonnie says. She walks and she sits in front of Nick. "Hey, Nick."

Nick reaches up and he touches her arm. "Welcome back," he mutters and he sits back.

"Well, it looks like we'll be at full occupancy today," Alaric says. "Welcome home, Bonnie."

Bonnie sees Elena look back at her and she smiles, but that smile fades when Stefan looks at her. She doesn't blame her grandma's death on Nick because he didn't know about the spell and the tomb until after the funeral. Bonnie feels hands squeeze her shoulders and she exhales deeply.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-