I Will Never Leave You

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The sun was beating down on Elena as she walked across the field with her water bottle in hand. It felt weird going to practice even though last year cheerleading had been a big part of her life. Now changing into the tank top and shorts she always wore for practice felt foreign to her and each step towards the group of girls busy stretching was getting increasingly more difficult to take.

She remembered her conversation with Stefan that morning. Trying to talk him into joining the football team had brought her old passion to the front of her mind and she hadn’t been able to shake it all day. If she really wanted things to get back to the way they were before then she had to get back to doing what she had before.

Even though there were butterflies in her stomach about joining in on practice after missing summer camp she couldn’t help but smile when she thought of Stefan. They had been walking around the front of the school when Tyler had thrown a football directly at the back of Stefan’s head. Somehow Stefan managed to turn in time to catch it and his pass back even impressed Matt who was the quarterback.

After that at her locker Elena told Stefan about who she was before her parents had died. She hadn't been lying when she said she used to be really involved, and now she was kind of looking forward to getting back to that.

“Oh, my god! You’re here!” Bonnie squealed in excitement when she saw her friend walk up.

Elena couldn’t help but smiled as Bonnie pulled her into a tight hug and told her, “yep, I can’t be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were are to do things that were.”

The words were mainly to keep herself convinced to stay, as she bent down to start stretching Elena remembered something. On the ride to school Bonnie who had previously been over the moon about Stefan had completely changed her perspective. Now instead of encouraging her to go for it she was basically warning her away. Since she was only getting closer and closer to Stefan Elena wanted him to be on terms with her best friend, which meant they had to get to know each other. Thus her idea of having them both over for dinner was born.

“Oh, and you’re coming to dinner tonight.” Elena said.

With a smile Bonnie returned to her stretching and asked, “I am?”

“Mm-hmm,” Elena told her, “you and me and Stefan.” When she saw the smiled disappear off her friends face Elena immediately added, “you have to give him a chance.”

“But tonight’s no good.” Bonnie replied. After she and Elena exchanged a look she asked, “have you seen Caroline? I texted her like a hundred times.”

With a shake of her head Elena said, “don’t change the subject, Bonnie Bennett. You’re going to be there.”

Bonnie scowled and said, “fine, I’ll go,” with a slight chuckle.

“Good,” Elena said before she focused all her attention on stretching.

After five minutes passed Bonnie looked up and scanned the group of girls. As head cheerleader Caroline was usually here before them all shouting out direction but no one had heard a single word from her even though practice officially started a couple minutes ago.

“Seriously, where is Caroline?” Bonnie asked her voice tinged with worry.

“I don’t know,” Elena said with a shrug after taking a drink of water, “it’s not like her.”

“I’ll try her again,” Bonnie said moving to grab her phone out of her bag.

However before she could even unlock it they were both distracted by the sound of an engine and music. They looked towards the parking lot where a blue camaro convertible was pulling up. Bonnie dropped her phone back into her bag with surprise when she saw the familiar blonde head in it.