𝟏𝟓

☆═━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ━═☆

Charlotte let out an awfully loud groan as her body collided with the ground, "This is torturing, not training. You were going to kill me."

"Oh, c'mon. You are too dramatic."

Charlotte was brave enough to practically order Damon to train her for after the latest incident with the tomb vampires, she didn't feel safe walking around with the inability to defend herself. She was a centuries-old vampire for speaking out loud and knowing the times she lived at, she had to nail being one.

"Get back up," Damon said as she huffed out, rubbing a hand over her sweaty forehead before she rose to her feet.

"I take it back. I can't do this."

"Of course you can," He chuckled, circling her before he grabbed a wooden stake and she eyed him with a raised eyebrow, "You already know how to kill a vamp, right, Char?"

"Yeah... But that's not what I train for. I don't want to kill someone," Charlotte shook her head, signaling it was a final no and without a discussion in order.

Damon huffed, rolling his electric blue eyes, "Well, sometimes you will have to."

"How? How does one even put themselves in a position where they have to hurt someone else?" The brunette questioned, unable to understand where he was coming from. All her life Charlotte never allowed her emotions to dive out to where she would want someone physically or emotionally hurt, she let it out each time and never held up anything for anyone so it was almost impossible to think of anyone's hatred getting the best of them to do something as horrendous as becoming a murderer. She didn't want to think of how someone could attempt to take a life that could make a change if given a chance.

"It's not 1864 anymore, Charlotte. People are not the same and even then, they weren't. You just didn't have the stomach to see their true colors," Damon claimed, spinning the wooden stake in his hand, "The easiest way to kill a vampire is through the heart."

"I don't need to know that or use it against anyone," She sighed, crossing her arms, "Just teach me how to defend myself so I won't be a joke to the supernatural community."

"You are a joke to the vampire community if you don't kill whoever crosses your way," He shot back, coming up to her.

"I can't do that, Damon. I am not like those tomb vampires... I am not blinded by revenge," She shook her head at him, grabbing the wooden stake from his hand and throwing it aside, "I don't have to kill someone so I would be safe if that's how I lived then trust me I would have been in a very different place right now."

"So what? A vampire comes for your head and you will talk him out of it?" Damon scoffed out, shaking his head at the nonsense he was hearing. He knew Charlotte becoming like him or a tad like Stefan was nearly impossible, she could barely down half a cup of blood daily, and by that track, defending herself against a threat or a vampire hunter was a delusional dream.

"If I can then I will--"

He cut her off, "And if you can't?"

"Then I will cross that bridge when I get there. I am living a safe human life, and I don't want anyone to be harmed because of me," She reasoned, shrugging her shoulders, "Isn't that enough for people to trust me?"

"That's what you think because you convince yourself every day that people are as good as you can be, Char... And that is the biggest lie you have ever told yourself," Damon finished, by the time he was done, he might have accidentally raised his voice more than usual as the shorter brunette stepped back.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have come to train with someone who doesn't believe in me or my way of thinking things out," She apologized, picking up her bottle and towel.

The Bernard could understand his point of view, he had been up and running much longer than her and it was obvious that she can't outrun his knowledge but she couldn't put her beliefs aside either. She had nothing left of her life but the morals her parents taught her to never let go of, they always said that what made one who they are is how they choose to treat people and deal with situations.

She didn't have a thing with Damon's personality or way of dealing with things, for all she knew maybe if she had been alive for the time he was and given the same options, she might have turned out like him. But as of now, she wasn't Damon Salvatore.

No, she was Charlotte Bernard, raised to help others before herself no matter the cost and nothing, not even heartbreak, loss, actual death, rotting under a tomb, or being tortured for a few hours could ever change her.

If she could, she would limit the care down but killing and embracing vampirism like some blood-sucking monster was in no way something she wanted to go through or explore.

✵ ✵ ✵

"Yes, Serena, I am on my way," Charlotte rushed, sprinting down the street and to the school, adjusting her bag from time to time on her shoulder.

"No, I didn't forget the m&ms or the flashcards," She shook her head, opening the bag to check on the contents of the bag, just to be sure, "Okay, maybe I forgot the flashcards."

Charlotte mentally facepalmed her face as Serena screeched threw the phone, "What? How are we going to revise now?"

The brunette was bawling with guilt as she offered, "I could go back to get them."

"Hey, you could use mine? Caroline gave them to me before she went to see her Dad," She heard, using her supernatural hearing, Matt offering as Serena sighed, "Alright, Cher. Don't go back, just get here on time for the quiz."

"Okay, okay," The Bernard sighed before hanging up and quickening her pace to try and be there. Now if any human was around, knowing who she was, they would have been wondering why in the hell she wasn't using her supernatural speed.

The answer to that was Charlotte wanting complete normal and normal means waking up late to school, barley being on time, making mistakes, and working hard. In the body of a vampire, Charlotte still treated herself as though it was just the same old human her from 1864.

It wasn't settling but it was nice.

She smoothed out her brown leather jacket after wrapping her hair up in a bun before it came to her notice that Damon was driving his car just right beside her, "You forgot to wake your drive."

"I didn't forget. I just didn't want my drive, I could perfectly walk there without your help, thank you very much," Charlotte turned to him, speaking lowly, careful not to draw any attention to her, "Now if you would be so kind to leave, then it would be really nice."

"Charlotte, c'mon."

"That didn't sound like an apology," She stated and he scoffed, shaking his head.

"A what, now?"

"An apology, you said somethings that I took with offense and you shouldn't have said those things. When you do something that you shouldn't have done, you simply... Apologize for it," She clarified, quickening up her pace once again. Serena was definitely going to kill her.

"I am definitely not apologizing," He huffed out and she shrugged.

"Well, don't talk to me unless it's to apologize and claim that you were wrong. Other than that, have a lovely day," Charlotte smiled, taking a right where the school's grounds were before she sprinted inside.

"I am here. I am here." She ran through the corridors, coming to a halt in front of her niece and Matt Donovan.

"Finally, you guys have any idea what Caroline would do to me if you missed this test?" Serena rolled her eyes, dragging Matt and Charlotte to the classroom where Mrs. Gibbons was already distributing the exam papers, "Sorry, Mrs. Gibbons, we were just getting Charlotte, the new student."

"It's ok. Just take your seats," The teacher dismissed before Charlotte took a seat in correspondence to Elena's and started her quiz.

The Bernard girl was too engrossed in her quiz, scrambling down the way she solved them and the final results just as quickly. It was a miracle that she understood Mathematics as fast as she did and in time for her first school quiz and she could proudly admit it was all for Serena and Caroline's efforts.

Pulled out of the last question by someone psst-ing, she looked up to find Elena looking her way. Charlotte raised an eyebrow, looking dumbfounded.

Apparently Elena was stuck on question seven and needed help and she turned to the only one in the classroom who was writing so fast that you could hear her pen making an annoying sound for scratching the paper a few times.

"Yeah, what's wrong with question seven?" Charlotte asked, whispering as the girl sitting beside her rolled her eyes.

"She is asking you for the answer, dummy," She said and Charlotte raised both of her eyebrows, she was sure cheating is against school guidelines, "By the way could you move your elbow a bit?" Callie, her classmate, asked and Charlotte did as though, noticing the blonde's eyes scanning her paper for answers, "Thanks."

"It's 89.4," Charlotte whispered the answer for Elena who nodded thanking her before she wrote it down.

In a few seconds, Charlotte's paper was done and she was curious as to why someone like Elena would be cheating in an exam, she seemed like - Urban Dictionary called it, the stereotype of a good girl with perfect grades.

Unable to munch down her curiosity, she pulled out a blank paper from her notebook, writing down, "Why didn't you study?"

Before she let out a deep breath and threw it on Elena's desk. The Gilbert turned around for a few seconds before she opened the paper then mumbled under her breath, knowing Charlotte could hear her clearly, "It's been a rough week."

Charlotte nodded, looking back at her paper to revise for the last time before she handed Mrs.Gibbons the paper and walked out of class. She might have had a few more classes before she would call it a day but she chose to wait for Elena outside and her eyes lit up as the Gilbert made her way out of the class.

"Hey, considering it's been a rough week for the both of us, would you, maybe, like to go to the Mystic Grill and sustain the pain by a lot of burgers and french fries?" Charlotte purposed, smiling widely, "Plus it would be really nice to have an understanding friend to talk with about the whole," She whispered out, "Vampire thing."

"That would be great, Charlotte," Elena nodded, smiling, "But some other day, since I have to check on Jeremy and I am planning on spending the day with him."

"Sure," The Bernard nodded, "Call me whenever."

✵ ✵ ✵

Getting a ride to just a few blocks away from the Salvatore Boarding House, Charlotte walked the rest, thinking her day over as the brunette neared the porch, she could sniff out the sulking in the air. It was like the air screamed, 'brooding!'.

She found Stefan roughly pouring himself a drink, noting on how off he had been lately since he had a few gulps of human blood. He kept downing a drink after another as she walked to the couch, commenting, "Eliminating blood addiction with newly found alcohol addiction? Unexpected."

"I just drink when I am bored," He shrugged nonchalantly, putting the glass down as he walked upstairs.

"Hey, Stefan?" She called, rising to her feet as he turned around, "I am ready to talk about a few things."

✵ ✵ ✵