"Yeah, I'm not a huge sports fan. Unless Juliet's playing."

"I do like sport. I'm hoping my dad will let me try out for the swim team or track, maybe. Non-contact type stuff. Can't hurt anyone that way, right?"

To Matt: "You did say you were going to try out for lacrosse."

"Good luck. It must be hard having a strict dad."

"He's not so bad. Just a little over protective. I'm working on it."

"How long do you have to go to school before he realizes everything's fine?"

"Until I have a long track record of not- having an episode. Maybe a month or so."

Fullmoon is on the weekend, so. Not really a chance to show any sort of improvement during school hours.

"I pretty much broke out of the house yesterday without speaking to him about it."

"It sounds like a lot, though."

"My parents didn't want me to go to high school either. I had to beg to come."

"...you begged? Even though..."

"I wasn't going to miss out on high school."

"I begged and bribed and was a model daughter for a whole year. Worst year of my life," she jokes. "Stefan had my back though."

She looks to Erica.

"You have a thing too?"

"Epileptic seizures. People poke fun, laugh in the hallways, the usual. I wasn't going to let that stop me."

She frowns. "Me roughing them up probably wouldn't go well for any of us, right?"

"If you want to burn all your bridges now, you can try it. I was planning on keeping my head down."

"It's always been like that. That's what kids do."

"I don't care about bridges with idiots on them. Mostly I was talking about taking away any chance of being able to convince my dad of staying in school. Still tempted though."

"Beating people up won't help," he says firmly.

"The voice of reason," she sighs.

And then they must move on from lunch.

The rest of the day passes with little incident.

Juliet heads back to Damons apartment after school, texts Matt with her new phone and attempts to work out all her excess energy. The treadmill is boring, but better than running out in the street where anyone can see her. She gives his punching bag a workout.

Eventually frustration wins out and she speeds through her homework and leaves the house to take a long walk to the Preserve. There she can transform and run.

She heads back to the apartment just after midnight, though not before snapping a picture of the moon and surrounding trees and sending it to Matt.

Sleep takes her quickly. She does not think about her father. Nope.

She wakes up to a photo of his room, apparently taken from the window.

His bookshelf is too distant for her to see any specific books, but her view of his photography equipment is much clearer. There are posters on the wall. Most of the imagery is either gruesome or depressing.

Matt himself is sitting on his bed, fiddling with his camera.

She stares at the picture for a few minutes, fondness blooming in her chest. Since she has a little while before she needs to leave for school, she takes another picture. This one of the view from the balcony of the apartment, the sun rising and the town spread out behind her. She's still in her pajamas. They have little cartoon sushis on them.

She sends it off to him and then quickly has breakfast, gets dressed and starts on her walk to school.

She receives no further texts.

Instead, she receives a surprise kiss when she walks into school.

She is suprised!

"Hello to you too," she laughs. "Did you miss me that much?"