SHE'S SPECIAL | 3

ELENA

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WE WERE all out at the front of the school, waiting to board the busses. It was almost six-thirty in the morning, we had to get here early so that we can arrive at the camp before lunch.

We boarded the bus and I sat next to Matt, Caroline sat next to Klaus, and Bonnie and Enzo sat next to each other. It took just over four hours to arrive at the camp, we got there just before lunch.

"Okay everyone, come get your key to your cabin. You can all head there and unpack or walk around and check the place out, just don't go too far. Make sure everyone meets over here." Mr. Saltzman said pointing to a large building which must be the cafeteria.

We all lined up to get the keys to our cabin.

"What cabin are you in?" Caroline asked me.

"Number 23, you?" I replied while showing her my key's number.

"7, what about you Bonnie?" She asked Bonnie as she sighed.

"Number 20..."

"You're close to me Bonnie," I said trying to cheer her up a bit. She wasn't as excited for this week as we were. She would rather be home chatting with her Grams. She put on a small smile.

It wasn't long before Mr. Saltzman handed me my cabin key. "Elena, I talked to some of the other teachers about your bunking situation, and as it turns out we have an odd number of boys. There are no other cabins, so you and Mr. Salvatore will still have to share a cabin. I'm sorry, I know this isn't ideal. But please let me know if there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable." I gave him a small smile and walked away.

I got to my cabin and Stefan wasn't here yet. Hopefully, I can just quickly put my stuff in here before he arrives. I'll unpack later. I walked inside and checked the cabin out. They weren't very big. It was just one room, there were single beds on opposite sides of the wall, a small set of drawers at the end of each bed, and a lamp placed at the sides of the beds.

How is all my stuff going to fit in that? I wondered. At least there were two separate toilets and shower blocks placed in the center of all the cabins. I wish that the cabin had a bathroom, I didn't want to shower in some block.

I quickly placed my bag just inside the door. I'll let Stefan choose a bed, gotta stay on his good side, remember. As soon as I went to leave Stefan entered.

"Oh, you're already here Elena," he said placing his bag on the ground next to mine.

"Which bed is yours?" He asked.

"I don't mind, you can choose."

"Hard choice." He laughed.

"Left or right, they're both the same." I chuckled.

"Yeah, they are."

"Well, I'll take this one it looks way better," He said and sat on the bed, looking up at me. He doesn't seem too bad, maybe we might get along.

"Well I'm going to look around I'll see you later." I went to leave.

"You're not unpacking?" He asked. I turned around to face him.

"You know you won't want to do it later."

"Maybe, but I want to check the place out before lunch." I didn't know what to talk to him about if I stayed.

"Okay then, see you." I then left and headed to Bonnie's cabin.

"Hey Bon, you want to come and check the place out with me?" I asked after I arrived at her cabin.

"Yes, please." She seemed in more of a hurry to leave her cabin, than I was.

We then headed towards where Caroline's cabin was.

"Nora would not stop talking about how excited she is to be here. She's driving me crazy already. I don't think I'll last a week." I laughed.

"You'll be alright, she's not in our activity group is she?"

"No, thank god. You know Stefan is."

"Stefan is in our group?!"

"Yeah, didn't you check the list?"

"Only for our names."

"Well, he is, how is your roomie anyway?"

"Okay so far. I got out of there real quick, didn't know what to talk about plus he kinda scares me."

"He scares you?"

"Yeah, you've heard all the stories of him getting into fights and stuff."

"True, but I haven't seen him in one. I did hear he knocked a boy out with one punch though."

"Thanks, that makes me feel better." We just arrived at Caroline's cabin.

"Hey, Care you coming for a walk?" Bonnie asked her.

"Yeah coming, let me finishing unpacking," she replied.

"At least one of us got to unpack," I said.

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WE HAD walked around the place a bit more before heading to lunch. Caroline, Bonnie, Klaus, Enzo, Matt, and I were all sitting at a table. The food here wasn't as bad as I initially thought it would be.

"So what's everyone doing tonight?" I asked.

"Well I'll be stuck in my cabin with Nora." Bonnie groaned.

"And I'll be stuck with Julian," Enzo muttered.

"Wait till they're asleep and sneak out," I told them.

"What if they wake up?" Enzo asked for both him and bonnie.

"Ask them to come."

"I'm sick of him already, I don't want him to come to hang out with us." Bonnie nodded in agreement.

"At least then you will be with us."

"True. maybe tomorrow night." Bonnie said.

"Okay," I replied. I didn't want Bonnie to miss out on the fun.

"What about you two?" I asked looking at Caroline and Klaus.

"We are definitely sneaking out, but you won't see us." Caroline smirked.

"Gross, just what I didn't want to know," I said.

"Enzo, you?"

"No, I don't think I'll risk bragger tagging along or worse being a nark. So I'm just gonna fall asleep when I get back."

"Okay. and what about you?" I asked turning to face Matt.

"I'll be out. I'll meet you at your cabin?" He smiled.

"Sure." I smiled back.

We finished our lunch and headed to our first activity.

━

I HAD been out with Matt but not for long, we fought. I snuck back into the cabin trying not to wake Stefan up.

"You weren't gone long." He was still awake. He turned on the lamp next to his bed.

"You okay?" He asked, I must have looked upset. Which I was because I had just fought with Matt.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just the usual, boy troubles." I hadn't seen Stefan in a relationship but I did know that most of the girls wanted to be with him.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"With you?" Why would I talk to him about it.

"Yes, me. I'm a good listener, believe it or not." He sighed. "You know you don't have to be scared of me." How does he know I'm scared of him?

"I'm not scared of you." I lied.

"Yes, you are. I could tell earlier today when you were trying to leave. I'm not a scary person." He smiled sadly.

"Home on, let's go for a walk." He got up from his bed.

"A walk?" This person that I don't know well, wants me to go on a walk in the middle of the night.

"Yeah, you snuck out before to go and have fun. So let's go and have fun." He started to tie up the shoes he had on.

"I don't know, it's pretty late."

"Elena I am going to prove to you that I am not someone to be scared of, well not someone that you need to be scared of." He got up and headed to the door.

"Come on!" I got up and followed not knowing why, I guess I needed to take my mind off my fight with Matt.

We were walking through the woods, not talking. I decided to break the silence.

"You're pretty good at football." I didn't know what else to talk about.

"You're pretty good at cheering." He laughed. "I hadn't seen you at a game before."

"Yeah, that was the first game I've watched in months. I'm not really into sports but Caroline wanted me to watch her and our friend Enzo."

"You're dating her brother, right?"

"Yeah, you have a girlfriend?" I wondered whether someone like Stefan, a boy who most girls wanted to get with had an actual girlfriend.

"No, I don't do relationships." He stopped walking and we were at the side of the lake but away from camp. He walked over and stuck his foot in.

"Not too cold," he said before taking his shirt off.

"What are you doing?" I asked confused.

"Going in of course. you wanted to have fun, what's more fun than a late-night swim in a huge lake." He had now taken his pants off and was only in his underwear. he was fit. he had a defined chest and abdomen and one of those v lines that most boys in town lacked. He jumped in the water.

"There is no way I'm going in. You can't even see the bottom and we don't know what's in there."

"That's the fun of it." He smiled.

"You're crazy." I turned and looked back at the camp. It was pretty far away. I turned back to Stefan but couldn't see him.

"Stefan?" I walked closer to the water. Where the hell did he go?

"Stefan?" I said again a bit louder this time. I started to freak out. I walked in the water so that I was just below waist-deep. I couldn't see him anywhere. I felt something grab my feet from under me and I fell backward. Stefan surfaced, laughing.

"What the hell Stefan? You scared the shit out of me, and now my clothes are soaked."

"Well, you were taking too long. thanks for making me hold my breath for so long, I almost died under there." He laughed.

"This isn't funny," I said splashing water at him. I started to laugh as well after a while. It was kinda funny and the water was nice. I started to remember my fight with Matt.

"You know, you can talk to me." How does he know what I'm thinking about? "I won't tell anyone."

"Ha! Yeah right, you'll probably go and tell your friends straight away tomorrow."

"I'm not like that. anyways they're not my friends," he replied.

"They're not your friends?" I asked confused.

"No, not really. I swear they only hang out with me because my parents have money. I don't even see any of them outside of school."

"But you're the popular boy, surely you have friends." His life seemed perfect. Every girl wanted to date him, and every guy wanted to be him or his friend.

"I only have one friend, Lexi. She's a year older though and has finished school. So now you know I won't tell anyone." Stefan said.

"I don't know if I can trust you, you did just pretend to drown just to get me in the water," I smirked.

"Fair enough, I guess you will just have to find out."

"Okay, I'll tell you. It's personal though and no judging." He nodded in agreement.

"Well, I met Matt as planned and everything was going fine, we were kissing and then he tried to take it further but I stopped him and he got angry."

"So you two haven't..."

"No, not yet. He wants to and has for a while but I'm not ready. It just doesn't feel right. I don't know why."

"You have to be ready, that's something you can't rush." I didn't expect him to say that.

"Have you?"

"Yes, but I wish I hadn't..." he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Why not?"

"Because your first time is supposed to be special and with someone special. Someone you love, I didn't have that special connection, not once."

"So you have done it more than once." He seemed like an open person. I no longer found him scary either.

"Yes." he nodded.

"Maybe I don't have that connection with Matt." I know I loved Matt, but was I in love with him?

"Maybe, that's for you to figure out." We sat in the lake for a little longer.

"We should start heading back," Stefan said, getting out of the water.

"Yeah probably." I got out of the water too. Stefan started to put his clothes back on while I just stood there, soaking.

"Sorry, I got your clothes wet."

"It's okay, not like I was going to wear them again while I was here." I waved him off. we started to walk back towards camp.

"You know you're not so scary after all." I smiled at him.

"I told you I wasn't. people think I'm scared because I've been in fights. I only get into fights when I'm protecting someone, I don't just randomly decide to hit someone."

"Still, you've been in fights. I could never hit someone." He didn't say anything back.

We got back to our cabin, and I took my wet clothes off and put some pajamas on. Stefan changed out of his wet clothes too. We faced the other way so that no one could see the other change. One of the worst things about sharing a one-room cabin, no privacy.

After I got changed I laid in my bed and checked my phone, the time lit up. One-thirty in the morning. Crap, me and Stefan were gone for almost two hours. I'm going to be tired in the morning. I noticed I also had a text from Matt.

from: matty blue (mobile)
—HEY I'M SORRY ABOUT TONIGHT. LOVE YOU, TALK TO U TOMORROW

I didn't write back, I knew he would be asleep and I also didn't know what to write. I was thinking about what Stefan said about feeling that connection with someone and I don't think I have that connection with matt.

"Thanks for tonight Stefan. It was fun." Stefan was now in bed.

"No worries. I had fun too." I smiled and fell asleep.