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SO, ARWEN HAD just listened to something about spirits and shit before letting an elderly actress take her to her role's house while she was acting as Sheila Bennett but without any recording equipment and team around them. Yeah, that's normal. Maybe the old lady is finally losing her marbles. Though, Arwen was definitely grateful for the mocha Sheila had made for her – even if it didn't have milo in it and just some different brand of powdered chocolate. And yes, Arwen was calling the woman by her character's name considering she couldn't remember her name.
Speaking of, Sheila had sat down in an armchair in the loungeroom whilst Arwen gratefully drank her mocha and devoured some premade croissants. The older woman stared at Arwen as the blonde ate, her lips twitching in amusement as the girl tried to not get any crumbs on anything but her plate. She appreciated her efforts.
"So," Sheila began. "Tell me, how long have you been in Mystic Falls, Arwen?"
Arwen washed some croissant down with her hot drink and licked her lips. "Uh, since yesterday morning when I woke up at around 4am, I think. May have been 5. But it's weird because all my phone numbers are gone from my phone and I have no mobile data which makes zero sense since I paid for it last week." She then added, "My best guess is that this is a prank Melanie and Sierra pulled on me and my real phone is in their possession." Yep, that was her theory. Melanie or Sierra switched Arwen's phone with the exact brand – same red-and-black cover with the exact same scratches and the exact same game of thrones sticker on the inside. Yep. Definitely a replica, just like this town.
"You think this is all some elaborate prank on you?" Sheila frowned. "How so?"
"Look," Arwen said. "I get it, you're an underpaid actress whose looking for easy money by collaborating with my friends to pretend I am in the real world of the vampire diaries. Joke is over, it isn't funny anymore..." Arwen trailed off at the warning glare Sheila gave her. "Or not?"
"Please, Arwen, do not waste your breath," Sheila said. "This is no prank or scheme for easy money. This place is real, I am real and so is the magic that brought you to us."
Arwen swallowed thickly. I can almost believe her, she's that intense.
"Okay... so why me?" Arwen asked, deciding to just play along.
"I don't know," Sheila said. "But I trust the spirits. You are a wonderling, brought here for a reasons unknown."
The blonde blinked at the woman. "A wonderling?" she echoed, trying out the word. "You called me that before. What in the world is that?"
"A magical creature known to travel through worlds," Sheila said. "Usually not by choice. In your world this world may be some sort of fiction, but everything thought up in a human mind and brought to life on a TV screen or in a book is not just coincidence."
"Hold the fucking phone-"
"Language!"
"Sorry – does this mean Bella Swan from Twilight is real?"
Sheila sighed, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Unfortunately. Most likely, yes."
"Fuck me- I mean... uh, damn." Arwen was starting to believe things a little more, though she has had no proof of magic existing yet. Of course, she always believed that some sort of magic was out there, but she'd love to see it with her own eyes just for confirmation.
Arwen peered over at Sheila. "Hey, uh... can I see some magic?"
Sheila stared at her for a moment before shaking her head with a sigh. With a single wave of her hand, all the plates and croissants and cups and pillows in the room rose into the air and began to whirl around the room, floating around like a bunch of invisible people had grabbed everything and were going crazy.
Arwen gaped at the sight, dropping her half-drunken mocha on the floor. Arwen watched with wide eyes as Sheila slowly lowered everything back to their original spots again.
"There is the proof you apparently so needed," Sheila said. "Since you have no where else to go and no one else to turn to, you will stay with me and take the spare bedroom upstairs." Getting up from the armchair, Sheila glanced down at the mess on her carpet and shook her head. "Clean that up, will you? I have to make some calls."
With that, Sheila Bennett left Arwen in the lounge, mouth open and eyes wide in complete shock.
Motherfucker! She's actually stuck in another universe.
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WHEN ARWEN WOKE up the next morning she didn't expect to still be in the spare bedroom of Sheila Bennett's house. In all honesty, Arwen was hoping to at least wake up on the couch of her and Melanie's shared apartment – the Originals show still running on Netflix because Melanie had woken up three hours earlier and put it on again. But Arwen wasn't home – in fact she was a wonderfuck who had woken up in the middle of a fictional woods and wandered a whole day around a fictional town in a world full of fictional supernatural beings.
Arwen reached over to the side table to find her phone. When she turned it on it was on 40%. Thank fuck her phone didn't die easily. Arwen pursed her lips at the sight of her lock screen, it was her and Melanie and their other friend, Adrianne, their upper lips covered in whipped cream after going to McDonalds to get flurries. Arwen didn't really like flurries but ate one anyway for the sake of her friends.
Going through the gallery on her phone, Arwen realised now how she hasn't searched through her gallery in a really long time. She saw a lot of selfies with friends and pictures of animals she would come across. What she also discovered is that none of her apps like FNAF and snapchat were there. It's most likely due to the fact its 2008 and these apps hadn't been invented yet.
Eventually, when the blonde realised her phone was probably less than an hour from dying, Arwen got up and looked through the closet Sheila gave her. The woman apparently had done some shopping after settling Arwen in the house. It's been 2 days since Arwen met Sheila and the blonde still wasn't used to waking up in a stranger's house, in an American town, IN America.
Arwen sifted through the many clothes Sheila had made her fold and hang neatly in the closet, finally choosing a pair of jeans, white tank-top and a black jumper. It wasn't very cold today but it wasn't too hot to not wear a jumper. Arwen slipped on her black-and-white converse shoes that she got yesterday with money she earned doing chores around the house. Arwen kind of felt bad just sitting around all day so she offered to do chores and Sheila said she'd pay her $20 a chore – which was a very generous offer.
Coming downstairs was something comforting to Arwen for some reason. It reminded her of her apartment back home and the feeling of someone else in the house was really comforting. Arwen hated being alone – there were times she felt completely hopeless and just... downright depressed because she felt alone.
However, when Arwen went in the lounge room, she almost choked. Her body stilled unexpectedly and she almost barrelled over and into the coffee table.
Bonnie fucking Bennett was there, sitting with her grandmother on the couch. She looked really pretty, too. Her dark hair was long like in the start of the show and she was dressed in what Arwen described as popular girls early 2000s clothing. When the girl saw Arwen, her eyebrows furrowed and she looked at her grams, very confused. "Who is this?"
Sheila smiled and stood up. "Bonnie, meet Arwen Steele. I forgot to tell you but I have taken in an exchange student from Australia. She will be living with me from now on." It was a lie. A damn good one. Arwen was impressed on how smooth Sheila was, how she made it look so easy to lie to her granddaughter. Well, it wasn't hard to lie as everyone made it out to be. It's all morals.
"Oh," Bonnie said, blinking in surprise. "That was not what I was expecting today." She looked at Arwen and stood up with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah, you too," Arwen replied.
"Wow," Bonnie giggled. "I also didn't expect your accent. I mean, I heard Grams say you were Australian... I will just shut up."
Arwen smiled, amused. She looked at Sheila. "So... uh... breakfast?"
Sheila nodded and smiled. "I got strawberry jam and some bread while I was out yesterday."
"Thanks." Arwen went into the kitchen and started to prepare her breakfast.
Sheila's kitchen was really nice and cosy. The island had a bowl of fresh fruit and the two salt and pepper shakers. There was a big refrigerator that reminded Arwen of her grandma's place back home. Arwen grew up eating a lot of good foods, she was one of the lucky ones who always got Italian and German and more varieties of meals for dinner. She wasn't like most kids which grew up eating chicken nuggets and cheap sausages with a side of anti-nutrient steamed vegetables.
"So," Bonnie said, coming into the kitchen. "What's Australia like?"
"It's okay," Arwen replied. "Mostly full of kids acting like eshay's, and there's random possums and parrots everywhere."
"Esh-what?" Bonnie asked, confused. Right. The term hadn't been invented yet.
"Nothing." Arwen said, walking over with her toast and sitting at the island, spinning the chair around to face Bonnie. "Just a private joke."
Bonnie nodded. "To be honest whenever I picture Australia, I think of a lot of beaches and deserts with heaps of dangerous animals."
"Well, excuse me, psychic wonder," Arwen said, laughing. "You're not wrong, but the animals are rarely seen unless you go out into the said deserts and beaches."
Bonnie nodded, smiling. "You ready?"
"Ready for what?"
"School. Duh. First day is today."
What. The. Fuck. She was going to school, since when?
Arwen blinked at Bonnie once, twice, and then three times before she nodded. "Uh, yeah. I don't have my requirements yet, though, so-"
Sheila popped her head into the kitchen. "I got you a new bag with the necessary school items in it yesterday. It's by the door." She then disappeared. Random?
"Oh," Arwen said, slowly, finding this entire situation strange. "Okay, yeah, then I am ready." Not that she had a choice.
"Cool," Bonnie said, smiling. "Meet you in the car then." The dark-haired girl then walked out of the kitchen and Arwen heard the front door open and then shut.
Walking in the lounge where Sheila was sitting, the blonde spotted her new bag by the door and gave the Bennett witch a glare. "School? Really?"
"You are an exchange student," Sheila said. "It would only be less suspicious if you actually went to school."
"But I am going to be stuck in stinky classrooms, surrounded by immature idiots and the classic 'I hate my life' teachers," Arwen complained, rolling her eyes. "I dropped out because I gained nothing from my last few years but misery."
"Boo-hoo, your life is so hard."
Arwen was silent and Sheila stood up with a sigh.
"I'm not saying you have to get the best grades," Sheila said, stepping around the coffee table and standing in front of Arwen. "It's just a cover up. Just don't fail, make friends, live your life and we can train."
"Train?"
"You really didn't think you wouldn't live with me just because you came from a different world, did you?" Sheila raised an eyebrow.
Arwen pursed her lips and shrugged. "Yes?"
"A wonderling is not only a creature who can change her world, but the things around her, too."
The blonde blinked at the older woman with great confusion.
The witch shook her head. "You'll know more in due time."
"O-kay, well, I will let you ponder on that 'til I get back – I'd rather go to school than get a headache." Wait, I'd just get an even worse one at school. Bloody hell, fuck this I am staying right here.
Arwen was prepared to drop her bag and turn back up the stairs but some sort of magical force had pushed her out of the house and shut the door behind her.
Fucking witches.
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IT WAS WHEN Arwen felt the car start moving and the pop music from the early 2000s lightly blast through the stereo did Arwen actually comprehend fully that she was no longer in her own world. Arwen silently panicked – but she covered it up well enough for the dark-haired teen beside her not to notice.
Oh, fuck... Arwen was in the vampire diaries universe. They're probably gonna pick up Elena Gilbert like they had done in the Pilot, not to mention that somewhere in town lurked those two hot vampires, Steven and Darren or something. Nah, just kidding. Stefan and Damon. Arwen wasn't that dumb about the show.
Arwen tried to recall all the information she had gained so poorly from the show. Elena Gilbert is super annoying for obvious reasons. Werewolves and vampires and witches were a thing. Klaus and Elijah kind of look like monkeys, and Caroline has a really flat ass... Wait, when did Arwen get so judgy? There was so much more important information, how could she barely remember?
The blonde teen wanted to slap her own face off. This seemed to be real now, not a dream – so this was a good time as any to start recalling anything important.
Wait, fuck, what about her life back at home? Arwen's friends and family? Would she ever see her best friend, Melanie, again? Fear struck her. She had never been so far away from Melanie since they met – in fact, Arwen hadn't been so far away from anyone before. Even if this turned out to be just her in America, Arwen still broke that personal record. But one glance at Bonnie Bennett in the car beside her re-convinced Arwen that this was real.
"Hey, Bonnie," Arwen said, breaking the silence between them. "I'm so bad with dates that I am having a blonde moment, what year is it again?"
Bonnie laughed. "That is a blonde moment. It's 2008."
Arwen would have only been three years old in Adelaide in this year – probably exploring and mildly destroying her grandad's garden. Arwen's heart ached at the thought of him.
Arwen wasn't one to hyperventilate and make a scene, she'd just keep it all in until she eventually would cry in her own silence. Though, Arwen wished she could just... I don't know, leap out of the car and run until she was too exhausted to go on? Honestly, she'd probably make it past 3 buildings before she was too desperate to rest to go on.
"Hey," Bonnie said from the driver's seat... which was on the left. Fucking America. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Arwen said. "Just miss home." I mean, I'm not technically lying.
"I get it," Bonnie said with a small smile. "I went on holiday to California once, and I was so home sick I vomited everywhere. It was a nightmare."
Looking at the Bennett witch, Arwen smiled. "I didn't know that." It was never mentioned in the show, at least Arwen hadn't heard that part.
"You wouldn't?" Bonnie said confused. "We just met today."
"I meant," Arwen stammered, remembering that Bonnie didn't know she was from another world. "Your grams didn't mention this."
"I hope not!"
The two girls laughed. Bonnie wasn't too bad; Arwen didn't think she'd like her – she always found her annoying for some reason. Actually, Arwen found all the characters from the show annoying. Always whining about something inconvenient and trivial. Perhaps Arwen should have paid for extra attention to this show?
"I got to pick up Elena today," Bonnie said. "She's my friend since childhood – I promise we won't be late."
Oh, great. Bella Swan 2.0.
"No, I don't mind," Arwen said. "When you get there I'm gonna move to the backseat to let you two have the front."
Bonnie smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem."
Eventually, around five minutes later, Bonnie pulled up outside of a really nice-looking American two-story home in a quiet, sweet suburb. Bonnie sent a text to Elena on her phone and Arwen moved to the back of the car by squeezing her body backwards between the two front seats.
Bonnie gave her an odd glance and Arwen shrugged. "I was too lazy to open the door."
"You're weird," Bonnie said.
"And you're boring," Arwen said with a joking smile. "Might as well stick that in your juice box and suck it, Bonnie, because it's the honest truth."
Bonnie playfully glared at her. "Yeah, yeah." She then looked sombre. "By the way, Elena's parents had died a couple of months ago so try and be a little sensitive when she's around, okay?"
Arwen already knew the brunette girl's parents had drowned or had a car crash or something like that, but she nodded anyway and pretended to look surprised. "Sure thing."
Suddenly, the door opened to the front passenger seat and a slim, pretty brunette got into the car. "Hi, Bonnie."
"Hey, Elena," Bonnie said with a sympathetic glance at her friend. Yeah, very subtle Bonnie. Arwen rolled her eyes.
Elena Gilbert nodded to her friend before catching Arwen from the corner of her eye and looking at her with a surprised expression on her face. "Oh! Um, hi."
"Elena, this is Arwen, she's an exchange student my grams has taken in. She comes from Australia."
"What's up?" Arwen said but didn't take out her hand to shake Elena's. She was too used to not touching people because of COVID. Oh, great. Now that the reminder of the virus has dawned on her she realised that in a few years its just gonna start all over again and she'd have to get injected.
"Wow, you do sound Australian," Elena said. "It's nice to meet you."
"You, too." Now I know how a tourist feels.
Bonnie pulled out of the gutter and began to drive in the direction of the school. When they reached the centre of town, it was then Bonnie decided to break the awkward silence in the car.
"So, grams keeps telling me that I'm psychic," Bonnie announced.
That's because you probably are.
"Our ancestors were from Salem, witches and all that."
Again, true. Arwen rolled her eyes, again. Actually, I'm not sure if that was exaggerated or not.
Elena gave Bonnie a raised eyebrow and Bonnie nodded. "I know, crazy, but she's going on and on about it. I'm like, 'Put this woman in a home already'," Bonnie laughed. "But then I started thinking, I predicted Obama, and I predicted Heath Ledger, and I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands."
Arwen noticed how Elena seemed to be half listening and half in her own thoughts; looking out longingly at the graveyard they drove past. Arwen couldn't blame Elena. No matter how annoying the brunette got, she didn't deserve to have both her parents die.
Bonnie seemed to notice Elena's lack of attention because she told Elena to get her head out of the clouds.
"I'm sorry, Bonnie – you were telling me that...?"
The dark-haired girl smiled at her best friend and Arwen. "That I am psychic now.
"Right, okay, then predict something about me," Elena suggested, and Arwen could tell Elena was just trying to keep Bonnie happy by talking. Could no one else see Elena's kind-of depressed state but her? Or was everyone just ignoring it?
Bonnie sighed and smiled. "I see-"
"Bird!" Arwen shouted, suddenly remembering what happened next.
Immediately after a crow had slammed into the windshield of Bonnie's car and the girl had gasped, slamming on the breaks, causing them to swerve and crash and die. Nah, Arwen was just kidding. But they had nearly crashed into another car but had stopped just in time.
"Oh, my god..." Elena gasped, clenching her hand to her heart.
"What was that?" Bonnie asked, her eyes wild.
Arwen glowered at the two girls, mumbling how she wished she just could defy magic and stay with Sheila at her house.
Bonnie put her head in her hands. "Elena are you okay?" she asked, looking up.
The teen nodded reassuringly to her friend. "It's okay. I'm fine."
"It was a bird or something, it came out of nowhere."
"Really, I can't be freaked out by cars for the rest of my life."
"Sensitivity, Bonnie!" Arwen called mockingly from the backseat.
Bonnie wrinkled up her nose at Arwen and gave her an eyeroll. The Bennett witch then turned to her best friend and smiled confidently. "I predict this year is going to be kick-ass. And I predict all the sad and dark times are over and you are going to be beyond happy."
Meaning beyond stressed with the supernatural, Arwen thought. She really needed to work on her positivity, seriously.
As they continued to drive along, Arwen dug deep into her memory of what was supposed to happen the first few episodes of the vampire diaries, because so far she just remembered during the spur of the moments. First, she thought of the Salvatore brothers. Arwen had to admit, they were hot. Let's be honest, the only reason Arwen watched the entire show was because she may have developed a mini crush on them. But let's be real here, they'd soon be head over heels for Elena.
Suddenly, a thought struck her. Now that Arwen semi-knew most of the important events that happened, she could have so many chances to change some things – like unnecessary character deaths. Arwen thought of people like Stefan's bestie, Lexi, and that one guy, Kai – who tried to be good when he got some cool emotion stuff after killing his half-brother. Rethinking this, Arwen wasn't sure she wanted him alive because he deserved it or because she thought he was hot.
But seriously, while the brothers are too occupied with Elena, Arwen was pretty sure she could effortlessly and easily lurk in the shadows and just hang around. Arwen was starting to doubt her Ravenclaw loyalty – she may have to switch to Slytherin soon the way she's going.
Arwen's thoughts ran all the way to when Damon had discovered Katherine was not in the tomb. It was after that things had become completely blurry. She remembered some teacher's death, a football fight or something, etcetera.
After finally pulling up at the school, all of Arwen's confidence was immediately washed away when she saw the building and all the students.
"You ready?" Bonnie asked both girls.
Elena and Arwen glanced at each other and nodded.
Fuck.
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(3810 words)
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Okay, hear me out. I love Caroline... sort of. Personally, I found her extremely annoying in the beginning of the show and even later when she's a mature vampire, she's still kind of irritating. It's just a personal preference, and personal preference is one of the inspirations for Arwen's character. I am trying to make Arwen to not be every other basic OC out there and to give her opinions that even readers don't agree with. So, if Arwen says Caroline's ass is flat? Have a cry and move on, because news flash, it is.
Anyway, I enjoyed writing this chapter. I had to rewrite it a couple of times because I was anxious that it might have sounded rushed with how Arwen meets the few characters that appear here. I'm already adoring Bonnie and Arwen's dynamic. I think I'm going for a 'sort of' sisterly approach but at the same time, I don't want to rush way into that bond. They did just meet. I also don't see Arwen being so... familial with anyone. Not yet, anyway. She has a lot of character development to go through, my sweet baby child.
Anyway, it's time for school, let's go attend Mystic High! Quick, before the bell rings!
- DUCKY