A/N: Wow, you guys got those 15 reviews in fast! Pretty glad I already had this chapter queued up! Enjoy!

I didn't hear from Rebekah for days after the blow out, which scared me more if she had burst into the bakery the day after. According to Kol, she had taken some time off work and had taken a trip with her mother to Greece, which gave me a little time to evaluate what I would do when I saw her, and how I would protect myself.

I was glad that she wasn't around because Elena had drafted me to help with the annual Winter Wonderland event, which was a Christmas art show/ party/ auction/ something I had no interest in doing.

I had successfully been able to avoid every town activity—movie in the square, the Halloween party, the carnival, any and all of the Founder's events. However, my luck had run out in December when Elena had become too overwhelmed with the jobs the Founder's Council had given her for the party.

"Care, can you please put numbers on the paintings?" Elena asked, bustling to arrange the food on a long table. "The paper with the titles is on the check-in table."

Elena had been put in charge of art show part of the auction, which was taking place in The Hunter. She had wanted it in the bakery, but Carol Lockwood had, apparently, shut that down very quickly by saying it was too small. Elena pretended to be okay with it by saying Jeremy and April could run the bakery for part of the day, but I knew she was disappointed. She loved being able to show the bakery off.

I bustled over to the check-in table. There were over thirty painting up for auction. They ranged from kiddie paintings that would sell because they were cute to paintings by the well-to-do people in town that would sell because someone would want to get on their good side to just terrible paintings that wouldn't sell.

I don't usually like art. I don't feel like I ever get it. Everything I think is cool, everyone else says is "motel art," whatever that means. Everything critics like I feel like I could throw paint on a canvas to do better, so I'm not a big fan of art.

That being said, I don't think any of the paintings at the auction fell into either of those categories. Aurora Fell had painted a particularly disgusting scene of animals in a forest. I didn't know Bambi was bigger than a tree.

I had labeled all the way to 26 when I finally saw something I liked. I don't even know why I liked it. I didn't look anything like me. I'm not even sure I could describe it. It was a darkly painted scene in the underbrush of the woods. Behind all these broken, rotting limbs, branches, and trees, was this lone snowflake that looked like it was sparking through. While the snowflake was obviously the centerpiece of the painting, it looked sad somehow. I wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean or why I liked it.

I trailed by finger down my list until I got to #27. Niklaus Mikaelson—"The Dead of Winter." I felt my face screw up in distaste. Of course the only painting I would like would be Klaus's. I slapped the number on the painting and moved on.

"Care!" Elena shouted, startling me. "We have fifteen minutes before the doors open! I still need to mix the punch and put it in the bowl and get everything ready for the sign-in table. Oh, no! The auction numbers are still in my car, and I haven't even started to organize those! We have to get them out in order-."

I walked across the room to her spinning in a circle, obviously not knowing what to do first.

"Lena, calm down," I said, settling my hands on her shoulders.

"Calm down?" she asked in outrage. "I don't have time to calm down."

"Elena," I said a little more sternly, "you need to calm down. It's not good for the baby."

Was I living in a parallel universe? Caroline Forbes was the one responsible for calming someone down while they were planning a party? Weird. I was so used to it being the other way around.

She took a deep breath and touched her stomach gently for a moment.

"See," I said, removing my hands from her shoulders, "that's better."

She nodded before she said, "It's just…I'm the youngest person on the Council. It took so long for me to get everyone to take me seriously as a member. This is the first time I've been trusted to actually run something like this by myself. What if I mess it up?"

She was biting her lip and looking particularly downcast.

"Elena," I said, calling her eyes up to mine, "everything is so perfect that it's annoying. You have Katherine and me to help, so if anything goes wrong, you can blame it on one of us. We're used to it."

Elena exhaled a laugh and nodded.

"Now," I said, "give me your keys so I can get the numbers out of your car, and you deal with the punch. Everything going to be awesome."

Elena tossed me the keys from the pocket of her dress. "Thanks, Care," she said.

I smiled before I walked outside.

"Woooo, look at that ass," a voice said from behind me as I was trying to decide how to get the box out of the back of Elena's car.

I turned with a hard face until I saw that it was Katherine leaning with her arms crossed against the hood of the car parked behind Elena's.

"Lookin' good, Forbes," she said, straightening up and walking over to me.

I looked down at my white and cream dress and my new nude-colored heels. I had put a lot of effort into getting myself ready. I had even fixed my hair was a clip I had gotten from my grandmother a million years ago. I knew I looked good, but I still smiled and stood a little straighter.

"Not so bad yourself, Gilbert," I said.

Katherine was wearing a dark blue dress with black lace that looked like it was painted on her body. It bordered the line of trashy, but on her, it looked good.

"I know," she said with a shrug and a wink.

I snorted.

"So how badly is my dear sister freaking out?" she asked, moving me over to get to the box out of the car. For being so skinny, she hoisted that box like a body builder.

"How did you know?" I asked, closing the trunk and following her to the bar.

"Len's always had a short fuse when it comes to the Council," she said, as I pulled the door opened to let her in.

That was true about all the kids that came from the "founding families" of Mystic Falls. We had always been involved in Council events, and we had basically been trained to take them over. Some took that responsibility more seriously than others.

Katherine slammed the box down on the sign-in table, and I began to sort through them.

"So how did she get you here?" I asked.

"I just love her and Council events so much," she said sarcastically, helping me sort the numbers.

I snorted.

"She told me if I didn't come help she would make sure to wake me up at eight every morning when she comes into the bakery," she said, taking the final numbers out of the box and shoving the box under the table.

I laughed.

"This was also one of my mom's favorite events," she continued, not looking at me but sorting the numbers. "I haven't been in town when it was going on for years, so it's not a big deal to work it."

I continued to work, but I watched Katherine out of the corner of my eyes. It was so weird to hear Katherine talk about her parents. Elena and Jeremy talked about them so often that I was almost used to it. However, Katherine hardly ever brought up her parents in causal conversation. When the Gilbert parents were killed in a car accident in the spring of our sophomore year, it was a big shock to the entire town. Katherine had just really entered her rebellious, teenage-angst phase, and she was in the midst of a stupid fight with them when they passed away. That's why I figured she never talked about them. She felt guilty, and Katherine never showed those kinds of emotions.

"Kat! Thank, God, you're here!" Elena said, bustling over to us.

"She must be losing it," Katherine whispered to me. "I don't think she's ever said that to me."

I snorted, but kept my eyes on organizing the numbers.

"I need you to help Caroline run the front table while I take care of the refreshments," Elena explained, gesturing to her perfectly decorated refreshment table.

"You trust me to greet people?" Katherine asked in mock shock.

"Don't start, Katherine."

Wow, she already had that mom voice down. Shiver.

"All you guys have to do is register people for the auction—write their name and number on this legal pad—and give them a program," Elena said, grabbing the programs she and I had spent all of Thursday folding.

"Sounds super hard," Katherine said, throwing herself into one of the two chairs behind the table. "How will I ever remember?" She pretended to swoon.

"Please, Kat," Elena said, looking down at her sister. "Just one day. Just take one day seriously. For me. For mom. Please."

There was a moment where I stopped sorting to look between the two sisters—Elena with a face of pleading and Katherine with a tense jaw.

"God, I was kidding," Katherine said, regaining herself.

That was when Elena looked down at her watch. "It's time, guys. Good luck!"

I strangely found myself having fun working with Katherine at a town event. When I was in high school, I was involved in every town event, and I was in charge of most of the high school events. I was awesome; I'll just say it. I was Miss Mystic Falls. It comes with the territory.

However, since I had been back, I had been almost afraid to show my face. I was supposed to be a Mystic Falls success story, not a failure. I was afraid everyone would judge me. That's what Mystic Falls was good for—gossip and judgment.

Tonight, though, I was with a fellow failure, and we were enjoying ourselves. We were laughing, joking, and pointing. I was actually laughing with Katherine. It was weird. I had been worried because it was just the two of us tonight. Bonnie was with Jeremy working the kids at the kids' festival, and Stefan and Damon were at the Lockwood Mansion getting ready for Founders' meeting after all of the festivities.

We had seen a few people we knew from high school (they all made us feel much better about ourselves) and of course all of the Council members. Even my mother.

"I never thought I'd see you at one of these things again," she said when said stopped by the table.

I sighed. "You going to bid on anything tonight?"

"Just here to support the town," she said, waving and smiling at someone over my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. My mother always in character.

"Have a good evening, Sheriff," Katherine said with a fake, glossy smile.

"Thank you, Elena," my mom said, going over to talk to Mr. Fell.

Katherine snorted. "So, she hasn't changed."

I straightened some programs. "Of course not."

Katherine laughed, but stopped suddenly when the door blew open.

"Good evening, ladies," Klaus said, sauntering to the table.

Katherine scowled down at the table and made herself busy looking at the people on the auction list.

"Hello," I said, pretending not to notice who it really was. "Welcome to Winter Wonderland. Are you interested in registering for our auction tonight?"

Klaus smirked. "I believe I would be."

"Fantastic," I said, reaching for the next number paddle. "I'll just register your name to this number, and if you make a purchase, come up after the auction to make your payment."

Klaus took his number from me, but not before grazing my fingers with his own.

"Enjoy your night," I said, finally allowing myself to look him in the eyes.

He grinned. "I believe I will." He turned to walk towards the display of paintings.

"What a cocky bastard," Katherine said, writing his name on the list.

I looked at his back as he was talking to Mayor Lockwood. I couldn't disagree with her, but for some reason, I couldn't believe it with the same distain, even after all the efforts he had made towards me lately.

"Guys," Elena said, coming up to the table with a wide-eyed look that I wasn't sure had disappeared since the beginning of the day. "I've got April coming in to keep an eye on the food, but I need one of you to help me during the auction. Ric's here to get the paintings on and off stage, but I need someone to keep track of the bids while the other stays at the sign in table."

Katherine and I look at one another. Neither of us wanted to do it.

"Guys, please!" Elena said. "We have ten minutes until the auction is supposed to start, and Carol Lockwood has been already been giving me the evil eye all night."

I looked over at Mayor Lockwood and his wife. For the longest time, I thought they were going to be my in-laws, but now that I could look at them objectively, I realized I was a lucky to avoid marrying into that family. The mayor was verbally abusive when he paid attention at all, and Carol was a lush who hated me. However, in the public eye, they seemed like a perfect couple. Tyler and I might have ended up the same way.

"I'll help you," I said.

Elena blew me a kiss before walking away to talk to Ric, who looked extremely awkward in the corner by the food.

"You owe me," I said to Katherine.

Katherine grinned up at me.

A/N: So, not a wholly exciting chapter, especially considering the last two, but this is the first part of the auction. Trust me, drama happens once again next chapter! Thank you all for reading, and review, if you'd like!