SOUTH SIDE, the vampire diaries

one

Twan laughed, trying to keep her balance. "You gotta warn me next time, girl." She put Chanel down. "You got shorter."

"Says the one wearing platforms," Chanel folding her arms over her chest. "Ain't those your mom's?"

Twan put her finger up to her mouth. "You know she hear damn near everything. Shh!"

"Nellie," Vera called, holding up a letterman jacket. She didn't even give her child a second glance as she sipped on her coffee. "You left it in the car last night. Hurry up, y'all will be late." Chanel smiled, grabbing the jacket and the car keys.

"I'll drive," she beamed.

Lana groaned. "Lord, help us," she rolled her eyes, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "We're gonna die."

"Do you wanna drive?" Chanel asked, holding the door open. She knew full well that Svetlana couldn't drive to save her life. Lana threw her hands up in surrender. "What I thought."

Ebony shook her head. She chugged the last of the coffee before kissing her mother goodbye.

Ebony sat in the front seat of her aunt's car, laughing with her sisters and cousin. "Girl, I ain't been here in years." She sighed. "This place ain't change at all."

"'Cause Mystic Falls is ancient," Chanel said, turning left. A blue Toyota was in front of them. "And it's boring. Ain't nothing new here."

"Is it really that bad?" Lana asked, though she new the answer. She'd lived in Mystic Falls at the start of the DuBois bloodline, she just didn't know it. The town was pretty dull. Not much ever really happened. Well, not much she could remember. Her memory was fuzzy if she tried to remember anything past fourteen years ago.

"Total snoozefest," Chanel told her. "We get no fun, no thrill, no-whoa!" She slammed on the brakes as the car in front of her swerved to the right, nearly hitting a parking meter.

"What the hell, Chanel?" Twan whined, grabbing her phone off of the phone of the car. "You should've let Ebony drive."

"Y'all okay?" Chanel asked, looking at the two in the backseat. "It wasn't my fault. The car in front of me almost crashed." Twan rolled her eyes, fixing her hair.

"That was probably the most thrill this town has had in...forever," Ebony commented. Chanel laughed.

"Should we see if they're okay?" Lana asked.

Ebony looked out of the window. "No blood, no damage. They look fine." She eyed the side of the driver's face. It was a brown-skinned girl with straight dark brown hair. That was the most Ebony could see, but just off of those minor details, she could tell the driver was cute. "Real fine."

"Girl, just drive," Twan scoffed.

"Mystic Falls High," Ebony said as Chanel pulled into the student parking lot. "Not a black person in sight." She watched the bustling students, in search of someone, anyone, with the same skin tone as her that wasn't in the car with her already. "Wait, no, there goes one," she spotted a football player, leaning against the building, entertaining a couple cheerleaders.

"Girl, get out the car," Twan chuckled.

The four girls headed into the main office to get checked in.

"That's where you went," a voice said as a pair of arms wrapped around Chanel. Ebony looked over, preparing to tell him off, until she saw that Chanel was fine. He rested his chin on Chanel's head, slowly rocking side-to-side. "Was starting to think you ditched."