The next school day, Estella entered History again. She always ended up just in time for the worst subject ever.
"Pearl Harbor." Mr Tanner ends.
Estella perked up, this is it. The moment she was waiting for. Tanner vs Salvatore.
"Miss Gilbert?" "Hmmm" "Pearl Harbor?"
Elena looked panicked for a moment, but wait for it, Stefan Salvatore saves the day.
"December 7, 1941." "Thank you Ms Gilbert" Tanner says trying to embarrass him. "Anytime." "Very well. The fall of the Berlin wall." "1989. I'm good with dates, sir."
"Really. how good? Keep it to the year." Here we go.
"Civil Rights Act."
"1964"
"John F. Kennedy assassination"
"1963"
"Martin Luther King"
"68"
"Lincoln"
"1865"
"Roe vs. Wade"
"1973"
"Brown vs. Board"
"1954"
"The battle of Gettysburg"
"1863"
"Korean war"
"1950 to 1953"
Thinking he got him, Tanner lets out a triumphant yell, "Ha! It ended in '52"
Estella raises her brow and answers, "No William, it was 1953." Tanner scowls as the latina, "Look it up, somebody. Quickly." Estella keeps her smirk on her face whilst mouthing the words another student says at the same time, "It was 19....53"
The whole time, Estella was saying the answers at the same time as Stefan and the only one to notice was the Salvatore himself. He was impressed but also curious as to how she knew the answers.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Elena and Bonnie were stretching and getting warmed up for cheerleading practice, "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. Oh, and you're coming to dinner tonight." Bonnie looks confused, "I am?"
"Yes. You, me and Stefan. You have to give him a chance." When Elena says those words Bonnie's smile falls not really wanting to be in the presence of the Salvatore. Before Bonnie could reject Elena's offer a blonde comes up to them. "Have you seen Estella, she said she would be here to watch practice." Caroline looks around while asking.
A car pulls up to school and the cheer and football team both look who it is. Estella steps out still laughing from the joke Damon had told her a few moments ago. "Oh, my God. That must be the mystery guy from the grill." Bonnie says not really knowing how Estella knew him. "That's not a mystery guy. That's Damon Salvatore." Elena says, a weird feeling in her stomach seeing the blue-eyed Salvatore with the equally as beautiful brunette. "Salvatore, as in Stefan?"
Estella walks off after kissing Damon on the cheek, sunglasses being put on her head, "Hey girls, sorry I'm late, we got a bite to eat." Stefan ears perked up in curiosity and a bit of worry when he heard 'bite' but he was sure it was nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan enters his room to see his brother sat on his desk, feet perched up onto the table, his diary in hand. "How were tryouts? Did you make the team? Very Emerson, the way you reveal your soul with so many...adjectives." Damon smirks devilishly at Stefan's obvious frustration. "What are you doing here?" Stefan interrogates whilst snatching the diary out of his brother's hands.
"I've come to apologise. I've been doing some thinking, some soul searching, and...I want us to start over. We need to put the past behind us. You're my little brother, and if you want to live a normal, happy human life, then I want that for you. Maybe I can do it, too. That I can learn to be a non-living living person. Maybe there's hope for both of us." Stefan seems like he believes his words, but Damon couldn't keep his face straight and ends up laughing.
"You know, it doesn't have to be this way, Damon." trying to reason with his brother. "Of course it doesn't. I saw Elena today, BTW. That means 'by the way.' She was at cheerleading practice. She looked so perky in her little short shorts." Stefan looked about to attack Damon, but the older Salvatore raises his hands in mock surrender. "Just...simmer down, I didn't even go near her. I've got Star to keep me company. Ooh, that reminds me...I gotta run. I got to meet her for dinner."
Stefan is left in the room alone, at that moment he wasn't thinking about Damon's interest in Elena, but his interest in Estella or Star.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asks trying to diffuse the tension in the room between her best friend and the boy she was currently dating. "Well, he let me on the team, so I must have done something right' 'Bonnie, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and-"
"Yeah, I heard." Bonnie cuts off Elena, she didn't know why she did not like Stefan, she simply had a bad feeling and wanted to warn her best friend about it.
"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" Elena tries again to make conversation, she really wanted Bonnie to like Stefan. "Um, divorced. No mom. Live with my dad." The witch answered in an unbothered tone. "No, about the witches. Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool."
"Cool isn't the word I'd use." Bonnie says trying to change the subject. Stefan tries to cheer Bonnie up by the use of his knowledge of History "Well, it's certainly interesting. I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s."
"My family came by way of Salem."
"Really? Salem witches?" Bonnie nods in response. "I would say that's pretty cool." "Oh really why?"
"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity." Bonnie finally cracks a smile and agrees to Stefan's description. Elena joins her when she sees Bonnie starting to warm up to him.
They were interrupted when the sound of the doorbell rang, "I wonder who that could be" When opening the door, Elena was met with a trifle in her face and a gleaming smile from Estella Santos. To the right of the shifter was Damon Salvatore and to the left was an oblivious to the situation, Caroline Forbes. "Hola, Bonnie said you were doing dinner, so we brought dessert. It is unfortunately store bought, I can't cook for the life of me." Estella walks in, designer heels clicking on the wooden floor, followed by Caroline.
"Oh" Elena answers awkwardly, it's not that she didn't like Estella it was simply that she felt that Estella didn't like her. She wasn't wrong.
Damon speaks up sensing Elena's confusion. "Hope you don't mind?" After hearing his brother's voice Stefan gets up seeing him standing at the door. "What are you doing here?" "Waiting for Elena to invite me in" Damon said nonchalantly. Stefan immediately disagrees when Elena was about to, "No, no, no. He can't, uh...he can't stay. Can you, Damon?"
A low whistle sounded through the house, turning to the brunette who made it, "Damn Stefan relax, we're only here for a bite to eat, nothing messy." Damon tries to hide his amusement to the way his friend was teasing his brother, Stefan oblivious to it all. Elena having enough of the secret looks between Damon and Estella, "It's fine, just come on in."
Later they were all sat in the living room eating the dessert Estella had brought. "I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething. But good for you. Go for it." Caroline opened up the conversation, she wasn't being compelled by Damon this time, but she was a little bitter about not being invited to this dinner.
"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." Damon says. "Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines."
Bonnie coming to her friend's defence, "I'll work with her, she'll get it."
"I guess we could put her in the back" During this whole interaction Estella was trying to hide her amused smile behind her flask that she had brought, what she was not going to do this night sober. She may have not liked the way Caroline spoke to Elena during this scene but oh well.
"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon says not really wanting to be here, but it was a part of Estella's plan. "Oh, it's just 'cause her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun. And I say that with complete sensitivity." Estella winced slightly at the mean comment.
"I'm sorry, Elena. I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die." Stefan stiffens and tries to change the subject. "We don't need to get into that right now, Damon."
"Oh, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up. Mmm." Says in reference to Katherine.
Estella decides to speak just cause she was bored, "Well my mom is dead too and my dad is.. well dead to me. So cheers to dead parents." She lifts her flask up ignoring the concerned look on her friend's faces and the curious one on a certain green eyed Salvatore.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst Damon and Elena were in the kitchen talking about the brother's common ex-girlfriend. Stefan approached Caroline and Estella. Caroline was having another serving of dessert and Estella on her phone. A scarf was wrapped around the brunette's neck so Stefan went to her. "That's a really nice scarf." Stefan says making Estella look up from her game of Candy Crush. "Oh thank you, it's new." It wasn't but she wanted to make Stefan think she was being compelled.
"Can I see it? I mean, would you mind taking it off?" She feigns a look of confusion before answering, "Oh, I can't" Stefan looks at her in worry, "Why not? You ok?"
"Um...All I know is that I can't take it off." Estella keeps in character just in time for Damon to come into the conversation. Damn someone give her an award. "What are you two kids talking about?" Estella answers, "Nothing important, can we leave I need a real drink I ran out of bourbon like halfway through this shitshow." Damon snorts a little handing her the keys to his car, "Yeah why don't you wait in the car I meet you in a little bit"
When Estella leaves Stefan turns to Damon in anger. "They are people, Damon. She's not a puppet. She doesn't exist for your amusement, for you to feed on whenever you want to." Damon resists the urge to laugh in his face at Stefan's accusation. "Sure she does. They all do. They're whatever I want them to be. They're mine for the taking."
Stefan sets his face into a hard glare, "All right, you've had your fun. You used Estella, you got to meet Elena, good for you. Now it's time for you to go." Damon smirks at his little brother, "That's not a problem. Because...I've been invited in, and I'll come back tomorrow night and the following night and I'll do with your little cheerleader whatever I want to do. Because that is what is normal to me." Damon left his brother worried for his girlfriend but also the brunette he believed Damon was feeding from.
Estella hears the door on the drivers side open, Damon getting in. She faces him, "So you give you little brother huge paranoia." She laughs when he just gives her a knowing look and drives off.
Driving off Estella was making a plan in her head, she was going to skip the Founders party tomorrow to save someone, but first she was going to inform Damon that his past is about to haunt him.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sitting in the parlour of the Salvatore Boarding House, Damon looked at his friend that he could have even considered his best friend, in that moment he could see something was bothering her. "Spit it out, Star" Estella looked up and sighed heavily knowing it was time.
"1953"
Thats all she said and Damon tensed up remembering that time, the worst 5 years of his life. "What about it? I know you know what happened so why are you asking?" Estella decided to just rip off the bandaid, "Enzo is alive, still stuck at Augustine after all this time." That is what got Damon's resolve to break, his emotions began to come through, the guilt and regret he had for leaving his old friend behind. His humanity shone through the cracks.
Estella leaned forward and said in a firm tone, "And you are going to help me break him out tomorrow"
--------------------------------------------------------------