Hello, my lovely readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter because it's more about the boys. Although a certain tiny blonde creature may be in the next chapter… ;) On with the show…

Chapter 28: Fun and Games

Two weeks. It was two weeks until Caroline came home. I had it marked on my calendar. I would have no problem with taking a long nap until she arrived. And this was one of those days when it was scorching hot again. There was no way that I was going to get up and do much of anything today.

"Yo, Klaus," Tyler Lockwood called, walking into my bedroom without an invitation. But that was Tyler. "Man, are you still in bed. Get your lazy butt up. I'm stuck going to some stupid event today that my mom came up with and everyone else is busy. That means we're stuck together."

"No way," I snapped. "I'm going to sleep all day. Find someone else to drag along with your scheme, Ty."

"Oh, no, you don't," Tyler replied, jerking the bed sheets off of me. "Your mom is coming, too. And if I have to come because my Mom is hosting then that means one of the other dare club members has to come."

"Why?" I asked petulantly.

"Because I dare you," Tyler told me with a wide grin and then I knew I was screwed. "Besides Care's mom is going to be there and she'll be lonely because Care's not there. So, you can score points with the parent."

"What do you mean?" I was curious about Tyler's logic as I forced myself to get out of bed and walk over to my closet.

"I don't really know," Tyler said, sitting on the corner of my bed. "My Dad says it's a good idea to make points with the family and friends of the girl you like. It's funny because he hates my grandmother and she REALLY hates him. Maybe he should take his own advice."

I snickered as I pulled out a suit and glared at it. I hated dressing up. That was Elijah's thing. Not mine. "So, is this a fancy dress wear party?"

Tyler nodded slowly. "Yeah, dude, it sucks."

Shaking my head, I wondered if I could find a way out of this thing. But Elijah, Finn and Kol were up to other things and Henrick was a baby. "Does it have to be a boy?"

"Yeah, it's some kind of mother son thing," Tyler shrugged. "I guess it was another one of my mother's great ideas. I'm sure we can think of a way of thanking her," he informed me with a wide grin.

Sighing heavily, I took my clothes to the bathroom. "I'll be out soon," Walking into my bathroom, I decided to take a shower. If I was going to this thing with my Mother I might as well make an effort. She seemed to be feeling better. More than likely it was the presence of Henrick that was bringing her spirits up for the moment. However, I wanted to do my part to help keep her happy. That meant I had to behave.

Coming back into my room, I observed Tyler looking at my sketch pad as I adjusted my tie. "Do you draw?" I asked him. I still didn't know that much about Tyler and we had been here for nearly three years. It seemed funny to know someone all that time and to not truly know them.

"Yeah, a little bit. My dad says that it's stupid. When I become the mayor I won't have time for drawing. ALL I'll have time to do is sit around the office and fill out paperwork." Tyler told me glumly before closing my pad and laying it on the bed. He got up and began to walk toward the door. His hand was on the knob when I stopped him.

"Do you want to be the mayor?" I asked Tyler and his shoulders slumped.

Turning his head to face me, Tyler shrugged with a sad grin. "I don't know. I'm seven."

"But what do you think of doing when you grow up?" I pressed him. I wasn't sure why his answer was so important to me. Maybe it was this feeling that we were being fitted into these little images of who our parents wanted us to be and not letting us make up our own minds. I wanted to fight back. There was no way that I was going to allow anyone to tell me how to live my life.

Tyler looked like he was thinking about what I said before he blew out a long breath. "I don't know, Klaus. We're just kids. I don't think they would listen to us. Maybe when we're older they'll listen to us."

Feeling annoyed, I opened my mouth to reply when there was a knock on the door. Then my Mother opened the door and my words stuck in my throat. My Mother looked elegant and happy. Right now, nothing really mattered. "Mother, you look lovely." I told her, feeling a sense of pride fill me for some reason. Escorting my mother to this stupid event might not kill me after all.

"Thank you, Niklaus," Mother whispered, pressing her hand to my cheek. "You look dashing my darling." Taking my tie, she adjusted it, she then patted it lightly before waving for Tyler and I to lead the way out of my room and down the hallway. When we left the room, I offered my Mother my arm and we walked down the stairs together. I wondered if my son would do this with Caroline one day.

Mother drove in relative silence before we arrived at the Lockwood's. The heat was unsettling as we walked up the drive and to the front door. Tyler's mother opened the door and kissed my Mother on the cheek before escorting us inside. "Tyler," Mrs. Lockwood called and Tyler rolled his eyes before trudging off to listen to his mother.

My Mother and I walked through to the ballroom. Jeremy Gilbert was with his mother and pulling at his tie. I wished Damon was there but by the looks of it he was not. Matt wasn't there either which surprised me because I thought he would be there with his mother. Alaric wasn't there either. Mason was there. But he didn't look happy as he hid in a corner.

"Nik," Damon called and I looked up to see him walking toward me with Caroline's mother on his arm. My jaw tightened for some reason. I was supposed to be the one taking care of Care's mother. Why was Damon even here?

"Klaus," Caroline's mother addressed me with a happy smile. "You must be excited because Caroline will be home soon. Damon was just telling me how much the two of you miss playing with her."

Damon smirked and winked at me. "Yeah, we've all missed her a lot. It just doesn't feel right being in Mystic Falls without Caroline Forbes."

"You are so sweet, Damon," Liz told him. "Why don't you try being like that all the time?"

I started to laugh at the blush that colored Damon's cheeks a hot pink. "Well, I would but then I would ruin my rep as a bad boy in the making." Damon replied smoothly.

"I thought that was a competition between you and Klaus," Liz teased, looking between the two of us.

Damon chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder. "You got us. We're the bad boys of Mystic Falls."

Liz shook her head, laughing with us, "I do not look forward to your adolescence. Just promise me I won't have to arrest the two of you when you're older."

"Of course you won't," Tyler called as he came to stand beside us. "I'll keep them out of trouble. What good is being the mayor's son if you can't bail your buddies out?"

Liz opened her mouth while her eyebrows rose when Mason came to stand with us. "Hey, you guys having fun? Hello, Deputy Forbes."

"Hello, Mason," Liz greeted Mason.

"Isn't that Miranda Gilbert waving at you?" Mason asked, pointing toward the other woman and the minute Liz looked in that direction Mason waved for us to make a run for it. We hurried out to the backyard and ditched our jackets while loosening our ties. "I feel like an adult. I never want to feel like that again."

Grimacing, Tyler shook his head. "This party is so lame. I don't know why my mom likes to do this stuff all the time."

"It's cause she's a girl," Damon said with a nod. "Can't you just see Kat hosting one of these things?" He waved in the direction of the party.

"According to Lijah she plans on winning Miss Mystic this year and then she'll be hosting lots of stupid parties. Maybe even at my house." Groaning, I flopped down on a chaise, wanting to put the ideas of being dragged off to boring parties out of my mind. "Let's get out of here," I addressed the group, feeling tense.

"Yeah, I doubt they'll miss us," Tyler replied, taking his tie off and throwing it aside.

"Where should we go?" Damon wondered while he looked around. "Hell, we forgot little Gilbert. We can't leave the tike here by himself? Or can we?"

Tyler laughed until Jeremy appeared. He was running toward them. "Help me. All the ladies want to kiss me and pinch me and pat my head like I'm some kind of freakin' pet."

We all cracked up at the look of misery on Jeremy's face. "Okay, Jer, we've got your back," Damon told him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Now, we're going to… the park…"

"Yeah," Tyler agreed. "My mom will kill me when I get dirt all over these clothes. Race you," and with that he was running ahead of us. I wondered for the longest time how he could be so fast. I would get my answer in time.

"Dibs on the tree," Damon called.

"Huh?" I asked.

"He doesn't know about the tree yet?" Mason looked shocked, eying Damon curiously as Damon shrugged.

"It's that big a deal," Damon replied.

"Yeah, it kind of is," Tyler replied.

"No, it's not," Damon snapped at Tyler who held up his hands in surrender.

Damon heaved a sigh and looked at me. "Okay, Nik, it's like this, whoever climbs the tree the highest is supposed to be able to have what he or she wishes for the next year."

"It's an old wives tale," Jeremy whispered.

"You say that because you can't get very far up the tree," Damon told him with a smirk.

"I will when I'm bigger," Jeremy snapped at him, jutting his chin out.

I looked up at the tree. It was a pretty impressive tree, standing at least ten feet. I wondered if what Damon said was true. "So, you want to climb it first?" I questioned my best friend.

"Yup," Damon replied.

"Why?" I asked Damon.

Damon stared up at the tree. "Because I have plans."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise," Damon informed me with a grin before he began to climb up the tree.

"Be careful," I whispered, watching him almost miss a tree limb. In the back of my head, I had all these images of Damon falling out of the tree and cracking his head open like a watermelon. Only I didn't think that the inside of his head would look the inside of a watermelon after I was watching a medical special with Lijah and Finn. Brains were disgusting things to look at.

When he was almost to the top of the tree, Damon whooped triumphantly before climbing down. Tyler was the next to go but he got about a quarter of the way up before he decided to come back down. He looked pale as he came to stand beside Jeremy and did not utter a word. Mason got father up than his nephew but he did not get as far as Damon.

Jeremy refused to try to climb up the tree because Damon would make fun of him. So, I went up and up and up. Before I knew I had done it, I was at the top. This was unintentional. My desire was to allow Damon to get what he wanted. However, I found myself at the top looking around at the scenery with a feeling of amazement. This was one of the coolest moments of my life. Then I looked down and panicked. I was too far up.

I did something I had not done in a long time. I screamed so loudly it made my own ears pop. Or maybe that was because I was up so high. "Get down," Mason yelled at me.

"No," I yelled back and I hated myself for being a coward. This was awful and I expected Damon to laugh at me. But from what I could see of him, which wasn't much, he looked concerned.

"Just come down slowly," Damon told me.

"No," I replied, clinging to the tree.

"Come on, Klaus," Tyler called. "My mom is going to figure out we left soon and we're going to get in to trouble."

"I thought you didn't care about getting in trouble," Damon snapped at him.

Tyler shouted back, "I say a lot of things. It doesn't mean I mean them."

"Stop it," Jeremy shouted. "Somebody go and get him."

Damon began to climb up the tree and I could only hug the tree, knowing that he wouldn't get to me. He had already proved that he couldn't get to the top before. Looking down I was shocked when Damon appeared across from me. "So, are we going to stay up here all night? I mean if you want to I guess we can," he said giving me that smirk that would make me laugh or want to punch him over the years.

"Down," I whispered.

Damon nodded, "Okay. Focus on me. Not the ground. Okay?" I nodded. "Now, we're going to go down together. One branch at a time." Continuing to nod, I felt for the branch below and stepped down when we made it to the bottom and jumped down, I hugged Damon like he had saved my life. I suppose in a way he did.

"Whoa there, man," Damon patted me on the back. "You're okay. We're going back to the party and you can forget ever climbing that tree again," he said with a chuckle. Of course, we climbed the tree every year after that on the same day just because I had not agreed to stay away from it and it became a challenge.

It was cut down years later after an unfortunate incident in which a child climbed up but was not lucky enough to have friend like Damon to help them back down. We walked back to the party that day and to our shock none of the mothers seemed to notice that we had gone anywhere. They had been laughing when we walked back in.

"I wonder what's so funny?" Tyler wondered aloud.

"I think it's whatever is in those glasses," Mason told him, nodding toward the champagne glasses in their hands.

"Remind me not to drink when we're older," I told Damon who nodded but did not speak. That was another promise that would not be kept. Thankfully because champagne and laughter turned out to be Caroline's and my thing.

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Peace and see you all next week,

LL