I Will Never Leave You

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

“Good morning everyone,” an unfamiliar voice said. A man who looked like one of those middle aged guys who are still considered young with sandy brown hair followed the last student into the classroom and closed the door behind him, “alrighty,” he said after setting down a pile of papers that he had carried in.

He turned immediately to the blackboard and began writing, once he was done he finally turned to face the class and read what he had written, “Alaric Saltzman.” With a smile he continued and said, “it’s a mouthful I know, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Saltzman is of German origins, my family immigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I however was born and raised in Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great grandfather who I will never be able to thank enough. You’ll probably want to pronounce it Aleric but it’s Alaric, okay? So you can call me Ric, I’m your new history teacher.”

The class exchanged looks, he had a way of capturing their attention without inspiring the same terror as Mr. Tanner always had. Judging from the way he was beaming at all of them while judging their reactions he seemed nice enough.

Elena looked over her shoulder at Bonnie who smiled and waved. She had been one of the last students to arrive and Elena hadn’t had a chance to talk to her yet today. Having everyone mad at her was getting old and she was going to make good on her promise to herself to make amends before their relationships were ruined for good. And even though Bonnie wasn’t technically mad at her, she was definitely on her list of people to talk to.

Mr. Saltzman or as he had said Ric began his lesson immediately. He picked up right where Mr. Tanner had left off and began explaining how the Civil War had ended. However Elena wasn’t listening to a word she said because when she glanced to where Stefan usually sat she just saw an empty desk.

So Stefan still wasn’t coming to school. In all reality there was no reason for her to be so surprised; he was after all a vampire who was over a hundred years old. He probably had better things to do than go to high school again.

For the rest of the talk she tried to focus on facts about the period of time immediately following the Civil War but kept finding herself getting distracted. Her mind would slowly drift to either think about how she was going to repair her friendships, whether her and Damon would actually be able to find Sadie and whether or not this Sadie would have any answers. By the time the bell signaling the end of the period rang Mr. Saltzman could have been talking about waltzing dinosaurs and she wouldn’t have been the wiser.

The halls were filled with everyone filing out of their classrooms and to their lockers to dump their books before lunch. It didn’t take Elena long to do this and luckily right when she closed her locker she caught sight of a familiar blonde head.

“Caroline,” Elena shouted desperate to be heard over the chattering students, “Caroline please wait. I just want to talk.”

The blonde suddenly whipped around and despite the death glare she was sending at Elena she didn’t back down. It was obvious that the time and space Elena had been giving one of her best friends hadn’t eased or taken away any of her anger.

“What do you want Elena?” Caroline asked with a sharp edge to her voice. Elena had no idea why but something about Caroline was making her feel uneasy. Although she had every right to be mad she had never seen her friend like this and she thought that she might be as desperate to make up as she was.

Quickly Elena shook her head to get rid of these thoughts. Making up with Caroline was going to be hard enough without all these unnecessary worries and doubts running through her mind.

“I wanted to apologize Care,” Elena said as gently as possible, “I know you’re probably still mad at me and I don’t blame you, but I hate fighting. Is there anything I can do to make it better?”