Brianna Byrne shuffles through the front door of her new house with a box in her arms, and more following in the arms of the people she hired to help.
A smile lit up her face as the boxes pile into her new house. It was much too large for her, but she decided she could have an extra room in case someone needed it, and a study she could do extra work in.
She had planned on moving to Mystic Falls for a little while. When the high school responded to her employment application with an urgent need for her; she felt ecstatic.
Brianna is an exceptionally smart, and organized person. Young and socially adept, she was perfect for 'behind the scenes' and interactive work.
The death of Mr Tanner, the history teacher, had created an opportunity for her.
The town of Mystic Falls has been plagued with so-called animal attacks, on and off, for many centuries.
Sweetly smiling at the movers, the dirty blonde offers them refreshment. Moving the last boxes, the movers politely decline.
"There is a Founders Day celebration," a man informs the green eyed beauty, "which is why it's so quiet." Brianna nods, absorbing the information.
"Mhmm, I got an invite. What else can you tell me about this town?" the curious woman asks.
"Well, there are quite a lot of parties," he starts, "and a few animal attacks. But that's pretty normal for a small town surrounded by some forest."
After a little more pointless conversation, the movers leave. As gracefully as possible, Brianna starts unpacking; sorting out her kitchenware, placing blankets and cushions on couches, moving furniture around, and placing books on the bookshelves.
Moving up the stairs, she sorts the simple guest bedroom, as well as the bathroom. The extra bedroom turned study takes slightly longer. Her work and personal laptops set on a desk, with a shelf of extra materials and papers she uses to tutor students.
The main bedroom is large, with a bay window, and more bookshelves. Her king sized bed in the centre of the room, and a walk in closet next to the en-suite bathroom.
The comfortable, and modern house had many bookshelves, but Brianna filled them all easily. She had works of fiction and nonfiction, ranging from folklore to crime mysteries, psychology to history, mythology to science. She had books on almost every topic, and had read most of them.
Dressing in a long sleeved floral black dress with a collar, she brings her long hair into a simple bun. Applying little make up, and wearing black heels, she stuffs her phone in a clutch to take with.
Her black '67 Chevy impala, that had been her father's, started up with a purr, and she left to the Lockwood mansion. Most people thought she looked strange with the car, and they were probably right. The small dirty blonde, who looked sweet and calm, didn't quite match the car.
Sure, she sometimes dresses like a badass, but her appearance would probably never match her cars.
Parking outside the large property, she gracefully slides out her car. She was on the later side of the arrival, only a small queue of people ahead of her. When she gets to the door, she is greeted by Carol Lockwood, who smiles widely at the newest person in town.
"You must be Brianna," the older female starts, "I'm Carol Lockwood."
Brianna shakes the woman's hand and smiles sweetly, "Nice to meet you."
Carol invites the girl in and walks and talks with her, finalising the details of her job.
"We need you to start at the high school as soon as possible," she states, and Brianna nods. The conversation comes to a close, and Carol leaves her to enjoy the party.
Brianna walks around the mansion, introducing herself to people. She comes across the sheriff, Liz, and the two converse about her the happenings of the small town, as well as the 'few' dangers in the small town.
Damon and Stefan Salvatore study the room when an unfamiliar, and slightly more delicious, scent arrives. They both spot the unfamiliar dirty blonde, and while Damon smirks and quirks his brow, Stefan looks over to his brother.
Damon had been walking with Elena to where Stefan and Caroline stood, but veered off towards where the strawberry blonde stranger studied the various antiques. Stefan watches, and listens, suspiciously as Damon 'accidentally' scares the stranger.
She jumps slightly, and spins towards the raven haired man behind her. In one hand, she carries a flute of champagne, and her clutch falls to the floor. Damon bends down to pick it up as she calms her erratic heartbeat.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to give you a fright," he says.
She shakes her head, laughing slightly, "It's alright. I don't usually scare so easily, but I was distracted."
He hands her clutch back to her, smiling charmingly, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Damon."
She smiles sweetly back, "Brianna."
Damon kisses her knuckles instead of shaking her hand, and Brianna's face goes slightly pink.
He hooks their arms together and starts leading her to a separate room with more antiques. Stefan watches on curiously.
"Are you new to town? I think I would remember seeing you around," Damon flirts.
She chuckles shyly, "I just moved here today. The school administration had an opening and I took it. I'd already planned the move and everything, even applied for work ages ago, and then got a response about being needed immediately."
He looks at her, slightly surprised, "You mean to tell me that you are a teacher?"
"Teacher, counsellor, administrative assistant, soon to be head of the Maths department," Brianna admits proudly.
As Damon continues to flirt with the dirty blonde, Elena sees bite marks on Caroline.
Elena marches over to Damon, and Brianna, noticing the mood arriving with the brunette, walks away.
As she's walking away, Brianna bumps into Bonnie, and Bonnie feels darkness deep in a ball of light. It wasn't like when she touched Stefan. It felt like life surrounding death, the death blanketed by the light of the life.
And as Bonnie looks at the unfamiliar dirty blonde and snapped out of her daze, she realised that her ears had been ringing.
"I'm sorry," Brianna starts, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
Bonnie shakes her head, "It's okay, I wasn't either. I'm Bonnie."
"I'm Brianna. It's nice to meet you."
Bonnie smiles at her, "So you're the new teacher everyone's talking about."
"I guess that would be me," Brianna nods her head, laughing.
"Are you taking over for Mr Tanner?"
"Only temporarily," Brianna says, "I'm actually being placed permanently as a counsellor, and as the head of the Maths department, as well as tutoring."
Shocked, Bonnie gapes at the young woman, "That's amazing."
After a little more idle chatter, they spot Elena consoling a shaking Caroline outside, and rush over to them.
"Hey, sweetie," Brianna says while moving closer, "My name's Brianna. Do you wanna tell me what's going on, or would you rather just talk to your friends?"
The dirty blonde is taken by surprise when the shaking blonde girl embraces her tightly.
"There we go," Brianna says, holding her just as tight, stroking her hair, "Get it out."
When Caroline calms down, all four girls introduce themselves, and head to the Mystic Grill. After ordering some food and drinks, they start to get to know each other.
"So, you said you're only temporarily taking Mr Tanners place," Bonnie says, catching the other two girls by surprise.
"You're a teacher?" Elena and Caroline exclaim.
Brianna starts laughing, and nods, "Yep. I'm going to be doing counselling and behind the scenes work permanently though."
"So," Caroline draws out, "you're like a glorified secretary?"
Bonnie's eyes widen, and Elena lightly hits Caroline, until Brianna bursts into a fit of laughter.
"Kind of. But I get paid more," she says, which causes the other three to laugh with her.
In that moment, they were not teacher and students, or banshee and witch and doppelganger and human.
They were friends, and they were happy and having fun.
The problems they had were currently forgotten as they sat there, joking with each other.
Authors note:
This is just a little introductory chapter.
I am going to change certain things about being a banshee, but the basics, of course, remain.
(±1370 words)