Chapter 13 - Bonding Trips and Raffle skipping
Gilbert Residence
Alright you know those early mornings where you just wanna stay in bed forever ? That's what I'm feeling right now. But I do get to meet Harper today, he's at the Salvatore's. Hopefully Damon is doing ok, maybe I'll drag him to another Blanket fort thing.
Well I get up for the day regardless of my hopes to forever sort of possibly sleep out my dream that isn't a dream.
I take a shower and dress, today I'm wearing a pair of black leggings with combat boots, a tee shirt with a long red knitted sweater over it.
Today is the raffle thing, that means that things are probably going to be a tiny bit boring, so I'll have to make it more entertaining, I can't have a boring death dream right?
I am not going to meet Trudy, Stefan is probably going to bump into Alaric and they'll have the whole 'yup she is Isobels daughter' thing. Boring.
I know! I'm going to walk into Tyler's house and demand. . . Pastries? Eh, a disrupting of the raffle? Eh, or maybe a. . Uh I got nothing, I'll bring Jeremy and Anna and Damon and maybe Pearl and Harper and it'll be a weird mix matched search for pastries or something.
I hop down the stairs and I see Jeremy conveniently dressed already, I grab his sleeve and pull him out of the house. . .
"Lena, lena, where are we going goofy sister?" He asks with a laugh.
"I was thinking we'd pick up Tyler and some others and go pastry shopping cross country, it is Friday after all and skipping school can be healthy right?" I ask him with a happy smile as we get into the car and start driving to the Lockwood manor-house-museum place.
"Sure, sure Lena, to bad we didn't have a bus" he laughs out.
"Do you think Pearl would mind uh, commandeering one?" I ask him curiously.
"We haven't forced her into the Blanket Fort club so it's hard to say" Jeremy says honestly.
"True" I agree, he's got a point there, blanket forts equal friendships.
"I can see it now! We are The Traveling Blanket Fort Party! Hehehe, The madness we'll bring, the destruction, the uh?" I pause and then Jeremy laughs
"The Fun" Jeremy says while laughing at me.
"The fun works" I tell him with a smile.
————————————————
Outside Lockwood Manor/Home
We get to the driveway of the Lockwood home. I walk up to the door and knock. Mrs Lockwood opens the door.
"Hi, can I help you?" She asks me confused.
I smile and say happily "Hello, is Tyler here?"
She smiles and says "I'll go get him."
She turns and walks back into the house, it's maybe 5 minutes and Tyler is opening the door. He looks at me and blinks and asks confused, "Lena? What are you doing here?"
"We're taking you with us!" I tell him with a smile as I grab his hand and drag him out of his door towards the car. He lets out an amused huff as he lets me drag/pull
"Where?" He asks curiously.
"Well, first we're going to pick up a few more people, then we may or may not steal/borrow a bus and go for an adventure!" I tell him happily.
I climb into the car, I see Jeremy has moved to sit in the back seat now, so Tyler sits in the front.
"Who else are you picking up?" Tyler asks me as we buckle in.
As I start to pull out of the driveway I say "Anna, Pearl, Damon and Harper probably"
——————————————————
On the Road
"I only know two of those people." He tells me.
"Me too, and that's why it'll be so much fun!" I tell him happily.
"Wait, do you go and hang out with people you don't know at all often then?" He asks in disbelief.
I think for a bit and say a little shyly "Well, no, but I mean, maybe sometimes?"
His mouth pops open in disbelief "But what about Stranger-Danger?" He asks starting to sound worried.
I think for a moment then say "True, but I know Damon and Anna and You and I can't be expected to do nothing you know."
Jeremy pips up "But you didn't when you had a fort party with Damon and Stefan."
I nod "Very true, plus they're vamps, I know they by all means could have hurt me badly in that situation."
Tyler says in disbelief "But you did it anyways."
I nod.
"I understand why they're so protective of you now, you are kind of reckless huh?" He asks me with a raised eyebrow.
My eye twitches as I keep my eyes on the road "cheeky brat" I mutter quietly.
"I'm the brat? You're the tiny Gilbert." He says to me with mock anger.
Jeremy starts chuckling in the backseat.
—————————————————
Outside of Pearls place
We arrive at the place Pearl and Anna are staying. I walk up to the door and knock.
I wait patiently and I see Anna with her mother close behind her.
"Elena?" Anna says confuses when she opens the door.
"Yup, we're going to go on a trip, sorta anyways or maybe we'll dominate the world one pastry place at a time! However you and your mom are invited, it's a Friday and skipping school is healthy for field trips!" I say practically skipping in place.
"Why would we go with you?" Pearl asks me with a raised eyebrow.
"Because, it'll be fun, not massacre type fun of course, but the 'I have to do that again even if some of it was awkward because it was so awesome' type of fun!" I tell her with a smile.
She's looking me over curiously "you're different then I imagined, you look like her, but then you don't do you? Your eyes I see a completely different and your hair is shorter and lighter."
I grit my teeth and say sharply "I am not her, I'M ME, I have My own faults and they don't belong to her."
She looks at me longer and then she starts to smile "I think I like you a bit already."
"Splendid" I tell her happily
"Come on now, we have to get Damon and Harper too you know." I tell them as I shepherd them towards the car.
Pearl looks curiously as she climbs in to the car after Anna I hear Anna say "Hey Jeremy" after getting in and away they talk.
"Alright, to the Salvatore's place then, we have two more people to drag along and possibly a bus to commandeer!" I say excitedly, practically bouncing in my seat and we leave the driveway.
——————————————————
On the Road Again
"Hopefully Frederic will behave while we're away." Pearl says.
"He'd kill me if I dragged him along huh?" I ask her curiously while turning a corner.
"Probably, you look like her, that'd be good enough for him." Pearl says bluntly.
I nod and shrug my shoulders, Eh, could be worse right?
——————————————
Salvatore Boarding House
I get out the car and shout out "Day-Day, we're going on a trip and your new friend Harper is invited, we may need to commandeer a bus or a bigger vehicle though."
I reach the door and before I can knock Damon has the door opened and Harper is next to him looking curious.
"Danger Magnet." Damon says to me with a nod.
I snort and grumble out "I am not. Besides we have pastry restaurants to over take or roads to travel and possibly slight trouble to get into." I tell Damon excitedly.
Damon Groans While running his fingers through his hair "Last time you almost started a fight with a New Orleans Vampire Lena."
I shrug my shoulders and say "Eh"
He groans again and asks "Why today?"
"Cause they have that stupid raffle thing and I'm not going to let you antagonize my somewhat Step-Dad named Alaric who is a vamp hunter cause you turned my birth mother." I tell him flatly.
Before he says anything I say "And because it's been awhile since we've done it and it was lots of fun last time, maybe we'll go to New Orleans again just for kicks too."
He laughs then, "One of the reasons I love you" he tells me with a wink.
I snort and say with a laugh "Sure you do Casanova, get your ass in the car, we'll to New Orleans just to annoy Marcel then"
I look at Harper and say "Come on Harper! Join us! It'll be fun and adventurous and possibly eventually if the situation calls for it World Domination!"
"I don't know ma'am." He says looking at me curiously.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to Harper, but I do know that you and I are going to become friends and if I have to I'll teach you how to have fun!" I tell him excitedly.
He gives a small smile and he follows Damon when he leaves. Yay!
———————————————————
On the Road Again
Alright so now we're on the road again, we did stop and Damon picked up a bigger vehicle so that we could do this trip without commandeering a vehicle.
The ordering in the Van goes
Damon- Harper
Me -Tyler
And Pearl-Jeremy-Anna.
The whole ride so far has been entertaining, Damon is teaching Harper about jokes and explaining how to have the most fun.
Me and Tyler at the moment are discussing different things at random, one minute it's about swimming and next thing it's space and sometime we're having a heated argument about planting gardens and why it'd be necessary for me to have a dozen different fruit barring plants when I get my own land and why he'd need 50 different cars/trucks if he only plans on using two of them.
Behind us Pearl is occasionally asking Anna and Jeremy about the world and how it's changed and Jeremy and Anna occasionally ver off and discus which games they like best and which movies they want to see or have seen.
———————————————
Pastry Place 1
As we were driving past it I asked Damon to stop at the pastry shop, and true to word with Jeremy this morning we all walked in and bought about 10 boxes of pastries and told them to give them to those that want a box.
————————————————————
Okay so by saying we'll take over the world with it is more like we'll be buying it and 10 costumers will have a free box of pastries. Damon thought it was unnecessary and me, Jeremy and Tyler thought it was nice to do.
———————————————
Pastry Place 4
We're almost at New Orleans now and Harper has decided that he loves pastries and the shops so he'd prefer to own one.
"Are you sure you want to own it?" I ask me curiously.
"Yes ma'am, besides it's close by and I can always leave one of them in charge!" He says with a smile.
Well he probably won't be killed then right? So of course we'll support him! Even if he technically owns it because he compelled the original owner to sign it to him and now the owner is the head manager but that's all in the details.
—————————————————
New Orleans Rousseau's
Okay so we may have went straight there after Harper bought a pastry store but I mean, we were excited.
We walk into the bar together and we pick out a table that's not blocked by the walls and sit down. Damon, me, Tyler and Harper on one side and Anna, Jeremy and Pearl on the other.
Of course if we were paying attention we might have noticed the vamps watching us curiously, or maybe only everyone else noticed that but I.
"Dance with me Anna!" My brother-mine says to her.
She jumps up happily and follows him to the dance floor. Aww!
Next thing I know Tyler has my hand and is pulling me to the dance floor, Damon looks a bit put out by this but he also looks very amused.
I hear Tyler say "Yeah, you and me? We're going to dance right now."
I shrug my shoulders, dancing is fun.
The music is a bit dull though.
"Hold on Lockwood, we need better music!" I tell him excitedly. He rolls his eyes with a smile and follows me up and I start messing with the music.
I decide on Life Again by Decyfer Down
So I turn it on and I start moving my arms above my head to the music as I shake my hips and sing along probably horribly to the music
I don't remember the last time I could say
I was where I wanted to be
Still you see through this mask
Hiding all my flaws
I move along occasionally spinning around the floor as Tyler attempts to be goofy and dance with me. He'll grab my hand to move with me but he's not to close.
You see something down deep in me...
Bring me back so that I can feel you again
Take me to that place I was before
I hold my head up high as I shake my hips, my hands near my head
All I want is to hold my head up high
So take this life and set aflame again
Still I linger around
A life unchanged
I start moving my hands and swaying my hips to the music a short time later Harper is by us copying Tyler moving around the floor with us.
I just cant break the cycle now
I feel I've lost my hope
Trapped in my own mind
Tyler grabs my hand and swings me towards him and sways with me a bit, then he spins me out and I land into awkwardly Marcel. But I can roll with that, so I move away and start dancing again swaying and moving.
Break these thoughts that are clouding me.
Bring me back so that I can feel you again
Take me to that place I was before
All I want is to hold my head up high
So take this life and set aflame again
Again, Again
I spin in circles because circles are fun,
Set my life aflame again...
I sway my hips and move my arms around me as I dance to the music some more- singing badly along as I go.
Bring me back so that I can feel you again
Take me to that place I was before
All I want is to hold my head up high
I continue dancing to the music, Damon grabs my hand and spins me into him then spins me out to Tyler
So take this life and set aflame again
Tyler catches me and I can't help but laugh as he sways his hips with me and I'll admit it's fun and all I need to do is be able to fly and it'd be like complete freedom
Bring me back so that I can feel you again
I'm dancing alone again and I can't help but enjoy how freeing dancing feels to me.
Take me to that place I was before
All I want is to hold my head up high
So take this life and set aflame again
After the song is done I'm basically a dancing ball of excitement as I skip across to the bar as a random song comes on.
I see Cami and I smile happily, Tyler comes up behind me as I say excitedly to her.
"Can I have an ice water please!"
"Sure, is that guy your boyfriend?" She asks gesturing to Tyler.
I snort but before I can say no Tyler grabs my hand and says "Yes, I am."
I yank my hand out of his and put it on my hip and turn to him and say "No, I'm not and you know it." I spin back around to Cami and roll my eyes.
"Idiot boys" I whisper out, not noticing that not only did Tyler notice but all the vampires in He bar heard and were holding back snickers.
She hands me my ice water and I head to our table, Tyler is still following behind me, you'd think he would've wanted to drink something too but whatever.
Tyler looks like he's thinking about something as he sits down, I see Pearl still sitting, she's watching Anna and Jeremy dance and have fun with a small smile on her face. "Are you having fun Pearl?"
She looks at me "Yeah, they're having a lot of fun too!"
I smile at her and I get back up to dance again the beat is good.
Tyler grabs my arm and asks "Where are you going?"
I blink at him and say while gesturing to the floor "Dancing, duh"
He gets up and I raise an eyebrow "I'm dancing with you" he says
I roll my eyes and shrug, whatever, as long as we're all having fun I think as I see Damon dancing on the floor with a lady and Anna and Jeremy having fun dancing. "Kay, but you don't have to dance if you don't like to dance you know."
"I know, but I have fun doing it with you." He says. I blink, huh, I shrug it off, him and Caroline will be together in what? Three to five weeks or something probably.
So we all continue dancing on the floor, eventually Pearl joins too, she's dancing with Marcel, aww! They're kind of cute!
Occasionally Tyler's hands or arms touch me while we're dancing, but I mean we're dancing and as long as I ignore that I won't react to it. He's just being weird anyways.
Though Jeremy keeps looking at Tyler thoughtfully, maybe they had a conversation I missed?
Damon is occasionally glaring at Tyler though maybe they had a fight or something.
We all go sit down and I'm enjoying my ice water, and the others their drinks, Marcel is sitting beside Pearl right now.
"So what's this visit for Elena?" Marcel asks me.
I blink at him, I wasn't paying attention. I blink again "Huh?" I ask with a tilt of my head.
Tyler and Jeremy ask amused "You weren't paying attention were you?"
I reply instantly "Nope."
Tyler and Damon snort, glare at each other then look at me and chuckle. I roll my eyes amused "idiots" I whisper loudly, fully aware that they can both hear me along with like everyone else too.
"So why are you uh, 'Visiting' again?" Marcel asks again.
"Oh, there was a stupid raffle thing, if we stayed Day would've killed my somewhat of a step dad that isn't a step dad. Sure he'd come back and then they'd become drinking buddies but I was SO bored, so we're here and Harper bought a pastry place!" I say happily.
"You know things." Marcel says as he's looking me over then he adds "but, you're not a witch."
I feel excited as he continues his analogy. "Yup" I say cheerfully!
He raises an eyebrow at me, I say "What? I like to have fun, this is fun, it's not my fault you just happen to be one of my possible Blanket Fort Candidates."
His eyebrows raised higher, can they fall off? Then he whispers, "Blanket Fort Candidates?"
"Yup" I say cheerfully with a clap. "We meet Friday nights, Stefan couldn't make it tonight though, he's spending time with my somewhat, not step dad or whatever." I say with a wave of my hand.
Marcel blinks "what's the purpose of this . . . Group?" He asks curiously with his arms crossed.
"For friends of course. 'Blanket Fort Parties' and group meetings are for fun and creating bonds and also discussing problems. Besides if you argue or fight with someone then having a fort party afterwords can make your bond as friends or family stronger then before. I mean sure we could try to use it for world domination but EVERYBODY does that and it's just dreadfully BORING. If we want to take over the world we'll do it in such a way that no one will notice until we've actually captured it and they're having to much fun to ruin it." I tell him passionately.
Everyone is just staring at me, except for Jeremy, he's been nodding along agreeing with me, but then again he is the only one who knows EVERYTHING.
Marcel is rubbing his eyes and sighing, then he grudgingly says "I'll consider it."
I clap happily while almost everyone just stares at me with their mouth open.
"We do have some place to be though, let's go ladies and gents" I say happily as I'm followed curiously to the van.
"Where are we going Lena?" Tyler asks as I open the van door.
"A mausoleum in Charlotte, North Carolina" I tell them all.
"What's there Lena?" Damon asks.
"Someone I'm going to stake" I tell them.
——————————————————
Mausoleum in Charlotte, North Carolina
When we arrive I'm the first to get out. Damon steps out and blocks my path. "Who are you going to stake without a stake?"
"Mikael Mikaelson, He has a stake already and he's desiccated so I'm going to stake him and then I'll be all done and we can head home." I tell him.
"Can I come with?" Tyler asks from behind me.
"Me too." Damon and Jeremy say at the same time.
"Sure" I say with a shrug.
We walk into the mausoleum and I look around I hear Tyler say "he's here"
I follow his voice and I see Mikael and turn to Tyler and say happily. "Good job, Tyler."
I search inside the coffin for the stake, I find it inside his coat and remove it, I place it over his chest and slam it into him and then his whole body catches on fire as he burns away.
"Yay!" I say happily as I clap.
The boys just chuckle and shake their heads "Do we want to know who he was or what he did?" Damon asks.
I shrug "Maybe, he was hunting his own children you know."
Damon's face turns solemn and he nods.
"I think he was a bastard. No one should treat their kids the way he and his wife treated theirs." I tell them as we head back to the van and go home.
——————————————
Alright, this is now done. And yes she found going to the raffle would be boring and that searching for a mom that isn't much of a mom who's going to show up anyways would be pointless and of course she wanted to go to New Orleans and she then decided to get rid of Mikael before they made it back.
It's safe to say they were probably gone from Mystic Falls until Sunday instead of being back by Saturday morning though.
