The Wish Factory

Chapter 6

The next morning, Ryleigh was extremely nervous, but she knew that if she wanted to stay, she needed to confront the situation head on to move past it. She didn't even bother dressing up, just pulled on a pair of designer jeans, cute top, and sandals. She left her hair free-flowing; there hadn't been enough time to do anything else with it. She grabbed her phone and saw a text from her aunt asking how she was. She quickly responded that she was fine and headed to school. The kitchen was empty when she got there, meaning her dad had already left for work. She left in a rush to try and avoid being late. She found a parking spot relatively quickly, and after taking a deep breath, she ventured towards the school. She saw Tyler and Matt standing off in a huddle talking to each other. They stopped once they saw her, but she ignored them and kept walking. She wanted to work things out but wasn't quite ready. When she walked into her history class, Alaric greeted her with a smile, but that was it. Elena, Bonnie, and Stefan were already in their seats and the only open spot left was the one she'd occupied yesterday. She kept her eyes forward as she slid into it, feeling their eyes on her back. She also noticed the looks that Mr. Saltzman was exchanging with them. It was as if he was asking them what the hell they were going to do about her. She struggled to pay attention and luckily, he didn't call on her. Once the bell rang, she made a beeline for the door, but she wasn't fast enough. Elena grabbed her arm to stop her and followed her out into the hallway.

"Please don't avoid us, Rye, we seriously need to talk about this." She stared at Elena and then glanced at Bonnie, both were looking at her in a hopeful way. Stefan was scarce as if he knew his presence would only intimidate her more. She started to walk away when she froze. She saw a figure that she'd been hoping wouldn't be there yet. The hunter from the show, Connor was standing behind them, talking to Matt. The difference in this situation from the one on the show, Matt didn't have Elena's bite mark on his neck. When he looked their way, she averted her eyes and looked at Caroline who was walking past him. He stopped her, his arm outstretched, so before she could stop herself, she ran over to her.

"Caroline, there you are, I've been looking for you!" Caroline, startled, jumped in her direction and gave her a big smile. Without thinking, she reached forward and hugged her, whispering in her ear.

"Don't touch him, follow me." She pulled away from her and kept her hands in hers, and surprisingly she didn't feel afraid of her anymore.

"Geeze, Care, you just disappeared with your boyfriend yesterday and didn't even say goodbye." Caroline was the master of this sort of thing and laughed.

"I know, and I'm sorry about that, but you know Tyler and how he can get." She turned and waved at the hunter who nodded and headed in the opposite direction. Caroline turned back to her a look of concern and confusion on her face.

"What the hell was that?"

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Ryleigh couldn't believe that she was back in the Salvatore mansion, they'd opted on skipping the rest of the day. It was classic TVD though, they skipped a lot of school and never seemed to get into trouble because of it. They were waiting on Stefan and Damon before she explained herself. Tyler, Matt, Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline all assembled in the living room, where the day before she couldn't wait to escape. She paced trying to figure out why Connor was at the high school. She remembered from the show that he'd come to Mystic because of the explosion at the farm, so it made sense that he was there. If she was in the season where they were going to meet Silas, she was so done and not going there. She heard the door open and a few seconds later a very confused Damon, Stefan, and Alaric rounded the corner into the room. Elena stopped upon seeing Ric; he was a teacher, how the hell was he there? He seemed to know her question without her voicing it, and he explained he had a free period. Stefan walked towards her but kept his distance to make her feel more comfortable.