Mr Tanner was an ass.

He loved to just randomly pick on students in the classroom, expecting them to be able to answer his questions when he hadn't even taught them the syllabus yet. Thankfully, Mari had yet to fall victim to Mr Tanner, or be "Tannered" as the students liked to say. It was a benefit of being a founding family, her mother and father expected her to be well versed on the town's bizarre history.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms. Bennett?" Mr Tanner asked, focusing his full attention on the girl.

"Um... a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot." Bonnie mumbled in response, clearly a little embarrassed about being put on the spot.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett." Mr Tanner jeered, as he turned his attention to his next victim. "Mr. Donovan? Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

Matt smiled smugly, "It's okay, Mr Tanner, I'm cool with it."

Mr Tanner nodded, annoyance flashing across his face at the blasé response, "Hmm. Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?"

Elena glanced up abruptly, stuttering a reply, "I'm sorry, I-I don't know."

Mr Tanner stopped pacing, "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena. But the personal excuses ended with summer break."

Elena looked so sad, and that was enough to have Mari rising from her seat, "What did you just say to her?"

Her tone was ice cold and Mr Tanner actually had the decency to look afraid of her. She continued, "Who the hell do you think you are talking to students like that?"

Mr Tanner blinked at her, as if unsure what to do. Mari scoffed angrily, "Apologise, or do you not care about keeping your job?"

Being the Mayor's daughter had some perks, Mari had already got a creepy gym teacher fired in her sophomore year. Mr Tanner clearly did not remember this fact as he made no move to do anything, which just made Mari angrier. The Lockwoods were known for their temper, so she was surprised Tanner was pushing her. She was about to tear him a new one when she was interrupted by the new kid, Stefan Salvatore, "There were 346 casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians."

Mr Tanner looked relieved to have escaped, turning his attention to Stefan, "That's correct. Mister...?"

"Salvatore." Stefan replied, filling in the pause obviously left for him to introduce himself.

"Salvatore?" Mr Tanner sounded interested, and used the topic to avert the attention he had drawn to himself. "Any relations to the original settlers of Mystic Falls?"

Mari positioned herself in a some-what predatory perch on her desk, she wasn't going to sit back in her seat. She wanted Mr Tanner to see that she was not backing down, he could try to move the conversation on but it wasn't going to happen on his terms.

"Distant." Stefan hummed.

"Well, very good. Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle." Mr Tanner said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Actually," Mari interrupted with a smirk, waving her fingers tantalisingly to catch his attention, "There were 27."

Mr Tanner turned back towards Mari, having begun to walk back to the board. There was a small silence, so Stefan continued, backing up Mari's point. "Exactly. Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss."

Mr Tanner looked mildly aggravated at Stefan's response. Seeing the opportunity to get back at him for being so rude to Elena, Stefan smugly added, "The founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts. Mr. Tanner."

"Hmm." Mr Tanner grumbled and Mari was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.