Hello, my lovely readers. Klaus is about to have an out-of-body experience. On with the show…

Chapter 7: Freaky Monday

My plan to divert Enzo's attention from Caroline to Bonnie Bennett had worked out far better than I could have ever expected. By the end of the weekend, I'd begun to relax and blissfully fallen asleep without a worry about whatever toll the witch might extract from me. My mind slipped into a dark haze. My dreams were filled with romantic plans for Caroline and myself and new dares for the club. Upon waking, I stretched my limbs, still feeling serene. Rubbing my eyes, I yawned and flipped my feet over the side of the bed and walked into the bathroom.

My mind was still half in my dream world. The sight of Caroline's warm smile made my heart beat a tiny bit faster. Blinking in front of the mirror, my heart began to race for an entirely different reason.

"What? Noooo!" I shouted. My hands ran over my straight dark locks. My brown eyes widened comically at my face. Not my face… Not my hands… Not my voice shouting in horror. Then my own body came running into the room and my hands went to my hips to scowl at me in an all-too-familiar manner.

"Niklaus, what have you done?" Elijah demanded. I felt a laugh bubble up in my new throat at the sound of my voice making his demand. "Get out of my body! This instant!" He continued. "I have to get to work in…" Elijah strode out of view. Correction, my body strode out of view. Then reappeared, seconds later, "I'm ten minutes late for my shift!" Elijah shouted at me. "That means I'm, in fact, half an hour late."

Glancing in the mirror, I rolled Elijah's eyes. "Correction, brother," I mimicked Elijah's tone. "I can be there in the next ten minutes."

"How?" Elijah demanded, tapping a foot which made me raise his eyebrows. "You still have to shower. Shave. Dress. And then drive to the Grill."

"No. All I have to do is drive to the Grill," I replied with a grin. I waltzed his body past my own and then looked around the room. "Where are the keys?"

"You don't drive, Niklaus!" Elijah cried.

"How would you like to do this, then?" I inquired. Smirking at my brother, I watched Elijah roll my eyes. "You're supposed to be at school in the next fifteen minutes. "And you haven't showered, dressed, or shaved."

"As if you care!" Elijah snarled at me. "This is not funny, Niklaus! I have matters to attend to! Bills to pay! A small child to raise! And…and…and…" Seeing my face with Elijah's usual look of frustration made me take pity on him.

"Alright. Don't worry. I'll call in and tell them I have the flu," I told Elijah. Elijah shook his head.

"That won't work," Elijah cried. "They depend on you! You're working toward becoming a manager!"

"Oh, so your new aspirations are to become a townie? Managing the Mystic Grill and never leaving this small town life?" I shook my head. What had happened to my big brother and all of his dreams?

The phone on Elijah's nightstand rang. "And that will be the manager, wanting to know where the bloody hell I am," Elijah muttered, half to me, half to himself as he made his way over to the nightstand to pick up the receiver.

Using my slightly longer legs—for the moment—I hurried after Elijah and snatched the phone up. "Hello?" I called into the receiver in my most Elijah-like tone. Elijah glowered at me and I had to look away. The sight of my own face, with that look would set me off.

"Give me the phone!" Elijah snarled out. My hand thrust forward, attempting to jerk the phone out of his hand. I batted it away. Again, I almost laughed at the sight of using Elijah's own limb, playing keep-away with him.

Elijah let out a groan as his manager began to speak to me, "Elijah, where are you? You're about to be late."

Nodding Elijah's head, I smirked at my brother before turning my head away and summoned my most Elijah-like response. "I'm terribly sorry. I must have forgotten to tell you that my son's mother is coming to collect him and somehow I lost track of time. You see, she's taking him all the way to New York and I won't see him for at least six months. It will be the first time we've spent this much time apart. I swear to you, this will not happen again…"

"Oh? Really." The manger let out a cough and I glanced at Elijah. My face had gone flushed and my fists were balled at my sides. Yes, he would be have lost it already if he didn't worry for this sorry excuse of a job. "Sorry to hear that. Did you want me to call around and see if anyone could cover the shift?"

"No. No. It's alright. I'll come in." I paused. "However, if there was any way I might be able to leave a bit early. Say around three…" Elijah grabbed me by the shoulder and shook his head.

The manager paused. "You've covered for so many people this month…why not. I'll ask around and let you know when you make it. See you in about twenty?"

"Make it fifteen," I retorted with a smile. Hanging up, I turned to Elijah, "See, not so bad. Now was I?"

Letting out a growl, Elijah turned my back on me and began to pace. "You're a fool, Niklaus. You have no idea why I've been doing what I've been doing…" Gritting my teeth, he raised my head to shoot me a fiery glare. "Find out how this happened and make sure it is reversed by tomorrow."

"Right," I replied. "Got to shower!" I called out, moving toward the bathroom and stripping Elijah's shirt as I went. "And you might want to hurry up. You're going to be late for school…Klaus." Now, I really did laugh. Today, I had three exams. No doubt I would see As for each one with Elijah taking a ride in my body.

"No more lies!" Elijah called to me as I turned the shower on. "Hayley is coming tomorrow."

I nodded. Elijah's mouth twisted into a smirk and I began to hum while I stepped into the shower. Today, I was an adult. It felt good and I thought I was going to have much more fun than being stuck at school today.

~0~

Once I arrived at the Mystic Grill, I found that the breakfast crowd had hit the place in force. The poor manager seemed over whelmed when I came in the door. "Elijah, thank God you're here. The new kid just started a fire. Arlene had the flu. And there are five tables who don't have their drink orders yet." He told me, shoving a stack of menus into my chest. "Can you seat these nice people while I check to make sure the place isn't burning down, again?"

With not so much as a "Thank you," the manager left me alone with the patrons who stared back at me. And while I'd seen Elijah wait on many a patron at the Grill, I'd never actually done this kind of job. "Hello," I said to them with a cheerful smile. "Let's see." My eyes went over the tables. "Looks like we've got to find some booths free," I told them.

"We actually need a table. Well, more than one. We've got more coming," one of the two people informed me.

"Right…" I looked around. "Okay. How about over here!" I moved across the room and had almost had a collision with a waitress. "Sorry," I muttered.

The waitress gave me a big grin. "That's not a problem," she told me with a wink. Ah, it seemed someone liked Elijah.

Grinning, I continued on my way. Two tables were set close together. "These look free," I told them. They sat down at one and the man stared at me. It took me longer than a second to realize they expected me to push them together. Handing them their menus, I pushed the tables together and then turned to leave.

"Don't you want our drinks order?" the young male asked. He looked to be about Elijah's age but acted like he was thirty and ran a Fortune-Five Hundred company. Given the state of his jeans, I'd say he was lucky if he ran the local hardware store. But Elijah's grin stayed in place.

"Yes, sir," I replied. Patting Elijah's apron, I found I did not have a pad of paper or a pencil on me. "Just a moment. I need something to write on."

"You can't remember it?" the male laughed and the female glanced at me and then at the table. Her lips fought to not curl into a smile. What a –

"Elijah!" the manager called, waving to Elijah from behind the counter. "I need you to pick up the orders for tables ten and sixteen!"

"Sorry. I have to go," I told the couple who just stared when I turned on Elijah's heel and walked away from them. I thought I heard something like, "Good luck with the tip, buddy," and decided they could go be attacked by werewolves for all I cared.

~0~

After three hours of Elijah's shift, I decided I'd rather return to the school and take the ACTs, the SATs and the LSATs, every day for a month, than endure one more minute of this toxic environment. People had no respect for how hard he worked. The manager of the Grill was going to keel over from a heart attack and the waitress who had a crush on Elijah stole my tips.

As if the day could not get worse, Wes Maxfield and his cronies decided to stop by during lunch period. They sat down at an outdoor table which happened to be in my area for the afternoon rush. Rush. That was a nice way of putting it. More like a marathon. Elijah's feet burned. His lower back felt like it might be in traction. And I didn't truly know what that was until now. And his stomach growled every couple of minutes. Wasn't he due a lunch break, too?

"Mikaelson!" Wes called out.

"Yes?" I replied, coming to the table.

Wes glanced at his buddies. "We'd like three milkshakes. Three orders of fries. Make sure they're fresh this time. Three burgers. And three cokes. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," I wrote all this down and started to walk away.

"Hey, man!" Atticus called after me. He held up his hands when I turned to face him. His big smile did not give me comfort. "You didn't ask what kind of milkshakes we wanted. What if you brought one of us strawberry and we're, like, allergic, and shit?"

"Sorry. Which kind of shake did you want?" I asked.

Atticus chuckled. "Whatever's on tap." He glanced around Elijah at the thieving waitress.

Tapping the pad of paper, I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I don't think she's on the menu. We do have strawberry. Vanilla. Chocolate."

"What about mint?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know," I replied.

"You don't know? Haven't you worked here for, like, forever?" Jesse asked, leaning into the table and squinting his eyes at Elijah. "Hey, lady, you got mint on the menu?" he called to the waitress.

"No," she called back without looking up. "You know that's only around St. Patrick's." She walked away.

"Damn," Atticus groaned, biting his lower lip. "Not on the menu."

Wes chuckled. "I'm getting hungry, Elijah. Why don't you get that order in?"

Turning away from the table, I made my way back inside and shoved the order onto the turn-y thing and spun it back to the cook who might have set another fire. I found other customers to deal with until the order was up and then made my way back to the table with the Trio of Fools.

Offering them a wide smile, I began setting down plates and baskets. Wes peeled the top of his burger off as if I'd brought him something from the dumpster behind the Grill. He peered at the burger with of disgust. "It's over-done."

"And this one has tomato on it," Atticus cried.

"Sorry." Swallowing back my desire to tell them to shove the bloody food up their collective arses, I continued to smile and said, "Let me take it back."

"Ugh," Atticus took the slice of tomato and tossed it away from him. It hit another customer who turned to shoot them an offended glare.

Wes shook his head at his friend. "Sorry, sir. He was aiming for the incompetent help." His friends let out hoots of laughter before they high-fived each other.

Wes turned to who he thought was Elijah. "You were taking these back?" He waved a hand at the plates.

Inhaling and exhaling with effort, I took the plates and started to turn around when Wes called after me. "Ex-cuse me! I asked for Diet Coke. This is re-gul-ar!" Again, hoots of laughter.

Body stiffening, I returned to the table and moved to place the "wrong" drink on the platter when Wes upended it onto Elijah's work shoes. There was a whoosh of air and then nothing happened until Atticus cried out, "Looks like you've had an accident. Might want to get a mop for that." He began to laugh like a hyena and I glowered down at them.

About to cause Elijah to lose his job and thoroughly enjoy myself in the process, I opened my big brother's mouth to tell these idiots what I truly thought of them when another voice joined them.

"Hello, boys." My head swiveled and I took in the sight of Hayley Marshall. She'd cut her long locks off. Her hair now hung to her shoulders and she wore a skirt and a light jacket. But her don't-fuck-with-me smile was familiar. "Wesley. Jesse. Atticus. How nice to see you're all still hanging out together." She placed a hand on the back of the boy who no one else called anything other than Shane. He gulped.

Hayley grinned at the three. "Have all you been behaving yourselves? Or are you giving poor Elijah a hard time?" she tilted her head to the side. "Jesse, do I need to call your mom? I still have her number?" Removing a cell phone, Hayley waved it in Jesse's direction. His eyes went to the table top.

"No, miss," Jesse mumbled.

"And, you, Atti?" Hayley asked, pinching his check.

Shane did not look up. "No," he mumbled.

"Good. 'Cause you remember that time I was babysitting and you pinched my butt. You remember what happened, don't you?" Shane's face turned red and my eyes widened as a something liquid began to trickle around his shoes.

"I have to go. Now!" Shane cried out, jumping to his feet. He took off at a run.

Wes looked unimpressed. "Good to see you, Hayley. Hope you're taking a bite of the Big Apple. There aren't too many places that are as accepting of your kind."

Hayley's smile turned lethal and I took hold of her arm and spun her away from Wes at the same time that the manager came out with the man who got assaulted with a tomato slice. For a moment, I thought Elijah was about to get yelled at when the manager went toward Wes. "Maxfield, I told you, more than once that you, and your friends will be banned from the Grill—for life—if you don't stop this kind of thing." He waved at the other customer.

"Sorry," Wes shrugged. "How much for the dry-cleaning?" He removed his wallet and removed a hundred dollar bill. "That should cover everything. Correct? Although it will do little to make up for the sub-par food and the horrible service." He shot Elijah a look. "He's having a real off day. Such a shame." Moving past me, Wes patted Elijah's chest. "See you tomorrow."

He would not be seeing me tomorrow. But he might be seeing Elijah. The thought made my stomach—no, Elijah's stomach—turn.

"Elijah, take a break. It's been a long day. Catch up with your friend," the manager told me.

I nodded. "Thanks."

"Happy I showed up a day early?" Hayley asked with a smile.

Nodding, I hoped that I could convince her I was Elijah for the duration of the break. Otherwise, there would be a lot of explaining to do.

~0~

Thankfully, Hayley spent most of the half-hour break filling in Elijah about life in New York. After that, I just had to get through the rest of the shift which meant a lot of cleaning up after customers before the manager approached me. "If you want to leave now, you're covered," he told me.

He was still speaking when I jerked the apron off and started toward the door. "You don't mind covering Dean's second shift, tomorrow, do you?"

Thinking on that for a moment, I tried to think of what Elijah would say. "Yes. Of course," I replied. Hopefully Elijah wanted to take the second shift tomorrow. Although I could not understand why.

~0~

Finally arriving at my house, I entered the living room and jerked off Elijah's shoes. Wriggling my toes, I could think of one thing, and one thing only: bed.

Of course, that was too much for the universe. Something came clamoring down the stairs and Elijah's eyes widened as I saw Caroline come running toward me. "Caroline?"

"Klaus!" Caroline cried, cupping Elijah's face. She studied me closely. "Are you in there?"

"Yes." I nodded. I could not help but smile. "You knew it wasn't me?"

"No. Damon figured it out first. But I would have…" Caroline rolled her eyes. "Elijah works too hard in school to pass as you. And he just… He's not you." She smiled up at me. "I have to tell you about what happened today."

"Alright." I allowed Caroline to lead me back to my own room where I fell down on the bed. She sat on the end, talking fervently about the day's events, "Elena and Damon had another fight. About Wes. And I think you're right. Wes came back after lunch and he was acting just weird toward Elena. He caught her by our lockers and he said he had extra tickets to a concert and wanted to know if she wanted to come with him and his friends."

"Elena said she had plans for that weekend. Then Wes starts talking about another party. Something special. But there was just something wrong there. Anyway, I made an excuse and dragged Lena to Chem lab. And Bonnie made something explode. But it wasn't because of the chemicals in the experiment. And the teacher was kind of freaked. That part was funny. Oh, and Bon said you should be you, by tomorrow morning." Nodding, Caroline offered me a smile. "Although I have a theory about how to get you back to your own body quick."

"What is it?" I inquired. At this point, I'd do most anything to be me again.

"You have to close your eyes. Well, Elijah's eyes. And trust me," Caroline said. Closing Elijah's eyes, I waited. "It's true love's kiss breaks most spells. So, I figure it's worth a try. Right?" Caroline whispered before her lips met, well, Elijah's. I couldn't help myself. I missed kissing my girlfriend and I hadn't been able to all day which is much longer than we were used to these days.

I lifted Elijah's hands, wrapping them around Caroline's back, tugging her closer. Caroline let out a quiet moan and threw her arms around a neck that wasn't my own. How long did True Love's kiss take anyhow? I wondered idly as Caroline pressed closer and closer.

"What the hell are you doing to my sister!" Hayley's shout made me jerk away from Caroline.

Caroline's cheeks were flushed and she slapped her hands to her cheeks. Turning her head, she looked at Hayley who had Aiden on her hip. Aiden looked like he might begin to cry as Hayley's lips peeled back from her teeth like she might bite me. "It's not what it looks like, Hales!" Caroline cried.

But Hayley wasn't listening. Marching over to the bed with supernatural speed, she took Caroline's wrist and jerked her off the bed and then strode into the hallway. "Go downstairs and watch him!" she ordered Caroline, "Now!"

I could hear the clatter of feet as Hayley came back into my bedroom and slammed the door closed. She flipped the lock. When she turned around, her eyes were yellow and she was sporting fangs. "You have five seconds to explain. One. Two. Three," she hissed out, seconds from wolfing-out on me.

"I'm Klaus!" I shouted. "Bonnie did a spell! I'm NOT Elijah! He would never do that!" I waved a hand at the bed and waited.

Hayley shook her head and returned to her human features. "So, that's why you kept sitting there and had nothing to say about New York."

"Why would I say anything about New York?" I retorted.

Hayley rolled her eyes. "Ask Elijah. Speaking of, he's going to kill you when he finds out you were making out with Care in his body. And that you were totally screwing up his job today."

"Why do you want to not talk?" I demanded.

Hayley turned and grinned at me. Why? Oh, why did I keep ending up on the wrong side of a dare? Karma, I suppose.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

-J