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Mystic Falls High School
Jack pulled up to the school in his fancy sports car. The moment he stepped out, heads turned. His striking looks combined with his Half-Asian features drew curious glances — especially from the school's fangirls, who whispered to each other as he passed.
"I have the potential to be a K-pop idol. Hehe~"
Following the signs, Jack wandered around for a while before finally finding the transfer office. Two girls were standing at the door, their backs to him, whispering about a boy inside.
"Excuse me, could I get through?" Jack said politely.
"Oh! Sorry, of course." The two girls stepped aside, a little embarrassed.
"Thanks." Jack flashed a friendly smile, walked past them, and handed his file to the office.
"Your documents aren't complete. There's no immunization record, and we still need to see your transcripts," the teacher inside said to the boy.
"Could you please check again? I'm sure everything you need is right there."
The boy took off his sunglasses and looked at the teacher.
Jack felt his nerves buzz. The Rabbit Talisman didn't just give him speed — it sharpened his reflexes too. He noticed something strange: the teacher's expression seemed... off, almost dazed. And from the look of the thin file in her hands, it clearly wasn't enough to transfer someone.
"Actually, you're right. Everything's here," the teacher said after a beat — and just like that, she processed his papers without another word.
Jack's mind raced. 'Was that mind control?'
'If people in this world can just Jedi mind-trick their way through life, that's a problem. I don't even know if my talismans could block something like that.'
'The Horse Talisman cancels magical damage to my body, sure, but mental influence? That's a whole other story. If I get mind-controlled, I'm screwed. Better keep my head down for now. If only I had the Sheep Talisman — that one boosts your soul and even lets you astral project. Then maybe I wouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing.'
Keeping his expression neutral, Jack queued up behind the boy to do his own paperwork.
The boy finished and left. Jack stepped forward as if nothing unusual had happened, got his transfer processed quickly, and turned to go — spotting one of the girls from before still waiting near the door.
"Hi, I'm Jackie Chan, but please call me Jack. Just transferred here," he said, smiling as he held out his hand.
"Hi, I'm Bonnie Bennett." She shook it politely.
"Sorry if this is awkward, but could you tell me where the bathroom is? The layout here's pretty different from what I know, and I've been wandering around for a while."
He would have preferred not to ask — who wants to greet someone new with a bathroom question? — but he was genuinely about to burst. On top of that, running into a possible supernatural creature earlier had spooked him enough that he didn't dare secretly use the Rabbit Talisman to find his way faster.
"Follow me," Bonnie said with a small smile and led him down the hall.
When they reached the bathroom, Jack noticed the same boy from earlier standing with a girl near the doorway, both looking a bit awkward.
"Thanks, Bonnie. I'll just be a minute."
"Sorry, let me squeeze by," Jack said as he passed the pair and went inside.
The boy came in a moment later. After taking care of business, Jack glanced over his class schedule, then headed toward his first class. By coincidence, he and the boy ended up walking in the same direction and arriving at the history classroom together.
Spotting Bonnie and the same girl from before, Jack gave Bonnie a quick nod before taking an empty seat.
The teacher droned on about how Virginia joined the Confederacy in 1861, the split between western Virginians and southern traditionalists, and so on.
Jack zoned out almost immediately. 'I hate history. Wait... no, I hate education.'
He muddled through the morning classes, barely paying attention, until near the end of the day he remembered something: he'd just arrived in this world, and the last relative of this body had recently passed away. It felt wrong not to at least visit his uncle's grave.
After school, he hopped in his sports car, set the GPS, and drove to the cemetery. It wasn't far, but Jack was worried about getting lost. At least with a car, even if he took a wrong turn, he could quickly reroute.
Mystic Falls Cemetery wasn't big, but Jack still struggled. He parked outside and started climbing the hill, searching carefully.
It didn't take long to find the grave. After all, his uncle's was the only one with a full asian name.
Standing in front of the grave, Jack felt... nothing, really.
Maybe it was because he didn't have a strong emotional connection to this "uncle" — the man was more like a quest NPC whose sole job was to get him here. Besides, Jack had no such uncle in his previous life and his parents died when he was young.
Family bonds, friendship, love — those things had always felt kind of foreign to him.
He was still lost in thought when the mountain was suddenly covered in a thick, eerie fog.
Not daring to recklessly use the Rabbit Talisman, Jack just turned and started running back down the hill.
And, of course, he got lost.
Again.
The fog made it impossible to tell which way was which. He kept running, hoping he was at least headed downhill, when he spotted a girl stumbling on a side path.
As the fog got denser, he sprinted forward — at normal human speed — and grabbed her arm before she could fall completely.
"You okay?" Jack asked, helping her to her feet — and realized it was the same girl who'd been with Bonnie that morning.
"Are you following me?" she asked suspiciously. She could have sworn someone had been watching her earlier, before the fog rolled in.
"No. I just saw you about to fall."
As he spoke, Jack's senses tingled. Someone nearby was moving — fast. Faster than a normal person, though nowhere near Rabbit Talisman fast.
"Uh-huh. So you just happened to be hanging out in a cemetery too?" she said, clearly unconvinced.
"My uncle passed away recently. I didn't make it in time for the funeral back home, so I came to pay my respects."
"And if you think someone's following you," Jack added, glancing over her shoulder, "maybe it's him."
Sure enough, the boy from earlier stepped out of the fog, now standing just to her right.
"Sorry, I was being rude. This fog's got me completely turned around," the girl said, glancing back.
The boy must have overheard, because he came closer.
"You two okay?" he asked.
"We're fine. Hey, did you run into a strange guy earlier?" Jack asked. "She thought someone might have been following her."
"No. I was just visiting a family grave. Saw you two and came over because it looked like someone might've fallen," the boy said, frowning slightly.
"There were some birds earlier, and with all this fog... the whole vibe got creepy, kind of like a horror movie. I probably just imagined things," the girl admitted. Recognizing the boy, and remembering he'd also just lost his family recently, her suspicion softened.
"I'm Elena Gilbert," she said after a beat, breaking the awkward silence.
"Stefan Salvatore," the boy said.
"Jackie Chan, but call me Jack," Jack added.
"I know. We're in history class together. Bonnie mentioned you," Elena said.
"And English and French class," Stefan added.
"You wouldn't happen to know which way leads back down the hill, would you?" Jack asked, sheepishly.
'Wait, I'm taking French?' he thought to himself. 'Whatever. Stefan doesn't seem dangerous, so I'll leave him and Elena to do their brooding vampire-romance thing. I just need to find my way out of here and get some food — I'm starving.'
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