Book One: Panacea (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Sixteen

At the high school, the bell rings signaling the end of class, students get up from their desks and start to leave the classroom. Jeremy is packing up his stuff when a paper is thrown down onto his desk by Alaric. Jeremy looks down at the paper and picks it up. A giant red "A" is marked on the paper. Jeremy smiles, stunned by his grade.

"Surprised?" He asks Jeremy who nods. "It's a good essay. Your thoughts are clear, and your argument is well laid out. It's just, uh, you don't actually think there are vampires in Mystic Falls." Alaric sits down behind his desk.

"No. I mean, I think statistically there's been more animal attacks, mysterious deaths, uh, people gone missing, more than any other place in the whole commonwealth of Virginia."

"It's conjecture, but creative, which is why you got the 'A'. I just wouldn't get too, uh, caught up in the whole conspiracy theory of it all."

"Ah, I won't." Jeremy gathers up his stuff, gets up, and starts to exit the room.

"Oh, uh, Jeremy, the source that you cited for the 1860s info, uh, Johnathan Gilbert...?" Jeremy stops and looks back at Alaric.

"Oh, my ancestor's journal?"

"I'd really like to see that sometime."

"Really?"

"A first-person account of the Civil War? That's like, uh, porn for a history teacher." Alaric admits.

"I gave it back to Diana" Jeremy admits. "She's kind of nuts about it, to be honest, but I can ask her"

"No, it's fine, I can do it" Alaric assures him, Jeremy nods a little. "Well done" Alaric adds, Jeremy smiles and then leaves the room. Alaric lets out a breath, he had been looking for an excuse to talk to her, to see her. Even just to check she's still alive after her interaction with Damon last night.

...........

Later, as Diana's class leaves history behind them, Alaric glances up from the front of the class and to Diana who packs away her things.

"Diana" Alaric states as the rest of the class leave the room. "You got a second?" she glances around, sees that they are alone, then nods.

"Sure" She moves towards his desk as he closes the classroom door behind the last student. He takes a breath and makes his way back to the desk.

"Jeremy said you have a journal from the Civil War" He offers, Diana frowns but nods.

"Yeah, I do" She answers.

"Would you let me borrow it?" he asks her. She sighs and retrieves the journal from her bag. She holds it up at her side and raises an eyebrow.

"It's just some rambling about vampires and monsters" She offers as she searches his eyes. "You don't believe in that stuff, do you?" she asks him, he lets out a small laugh and shakes his head.

"No, of course not" he assures her, her smile falls as he lies to her. She hands over the journal to him. "Thank you," he tells her warmly, she nods and looks down, her fingers playing with the zip on her jacket. She takes a breath and then walks away from him, leaving the room. She was kind of hoping for something more. Just something. But.....nothing. And the lie. She gets it now. Why being lied to by someone you care about hurts. Because that did. He didn't even hesitate in lying to her. She closes the classroom door behind her. He glances at the door and lets out a breath.

.....................

Diana stands in front of her bedroom mirror as she fixes her hair, voluminous curls bounce as she moves. It's probably as good as it is ever going to get. She lets out a breath and moves to grab some shoes from her wardrobe. Elena walks into the room and looks at her.