Sweet but Psycho

Chapter 1: Pilot

(This chapter will contain assault and rape! Be warned!)

Dear diary,
Today will be different. It has to be. I will smile, and it will be believable. My smile will say 'I'm fine, thank you', 'yes, I feel much better'. I will no longer be the sad little girl who lost her parents. I will start fresh, be someone new. It's the only way I'll make through.

Elena Gilbert sighs as she reads over her day's entry and closes the little green book. She slips it into her bag before she heads down the stairs where she finds her aunt, Jenna Sommers, busting around the kitchen in a hurry.

Jenna opens up the fridge as her niece enters the kitchen. "Toast. I can make toast."

"It's all about the coffee, aunt Jenna," Elena states.

"Is there coffee?" The youngest Gilbert, Jeremy, asks as he saunters into the kitchen fully dressed.

"Your first day of school and I'm totally unprepared," Jenna claims, already exhausted. "Lunch money?" She holds out a wad of money.

"I'm good," Elena claims as Jeremy snatches the cash.

"Anything else?" Jenna asks. "A number two pencil? What am I missing?"

"Don't you have a big presentation today?" Elena asks her.

"I'm meeting my these advisor at..." Jenna holds her wrist up and she checks her watch. "Now. Crap!"

"Then go," Elena insists. "We'll be fine."

When Jenna rushes out, Elena turns to her brother and asks if he's okay. Jeremy just brushes by her and he walks out.
<><><>

Ryan Gilbert looks at her step-dad, Alaric Saltzman, as he gets ready for work. She lives with him in Boston, Massachusetts. She was living with him and her mom, Isobel, but she's went missing. That's what Alaric and Ryan want them to know.

"Do you have to go?" Ryan asks Ric. "I'm homeschooled, and you know I get lonely when you're at work."

"I know, Ryan, but I have to in order to support our alcoholic ways," Alaric muses. "You like you're bourbon, correct?"

"I get that from you, papa Ric," Ryan teases. "I might call my dad later."

Alaric nods. "That will be good for you."

Ryan smiles and she grabs her history text book. "I have work to do, papa Ric. Get to the high school."

Ric smiles at her. "Ryan, the adoption should final within the next few days and you'll officially be mine."

"I know, and I can't wait to change my last name to Saltzman," Ryan says.

Ryan and Alaric agreed when the adoption process started before Isobel went missing that once its complete and Alaric has fully and officially adopted Ryan as his, Ryan could change her last name to Saltzman. John Gilbert, Ryan's biological father, agreed to let Alaric to adopt Ryan. He even signed his rights over, and they'll be gone as soon as the adoption's final.

"He's your dad until this case is finalized," Alaric says. "John better enjoy it."

Ryan grins and she nods. "He does." She opens her history book before pulling her wavy, brown hair into a messy bun before diving into her studies.