So she climbed in the back of the Ferrari and perched on the back seat if you could call it that, so Stefan sat in the front. They drove back to her Dad's house within the speed limit she noticed, but she kept her mouth shut about Damon putting his foot down earlier, as she had a feeling Stefan wouldn't have been best pleased.
This time there was a parking space and Damon managed to squeeze the Ferrari in it, Stefan got out and helped her out. She said goodbye to Damon and then to Stefan, Stefan noticed that she looked at him with sadness and sorrow in her eyes, she knew what the night would bring but he was determined not to let her think that he would regret seeing her today and hearing about the books, so he winked at her and told her not to worry, "I haven't survived this long to be upset over a few teenage novels Tasha."
"I know, but even so, are you sure you want to read them?"
Damon lent over and wound down the window of the passenger side. "He'll be fine! They're only books, are you coming brother?"
Stefan sighed at his brother's impatience, "see you tomorrow Tasha," she waved as Damon sped off down the road, then turned and let herself back into her Dad's house.
She shut the door and switched the lights on, she went to pull the curtains across when the Ferrari sped past with a toot, she laughed as she heard it screech to a stop at the top of the road and another car tooted him. She shut the curtains and made herself a cup of tea, then while the kettle was boiling she jumped around the kitchen squealing with delight.
That night when her father and his wife came home from work and asked about her day, she told them what a wonderful time she'd had at the Palace, she'd learnt a lot of history (true) and had managed some dancing (also true) and that was it (not true). Her Dad's wife gave her a look as if to tell Tasha that she knew there was more to it than that, but Tasha ignored her and was delighted when her Dad offered to take her to the cinema to see Back to The Future part 3 which she thought was okay but nothing fantastic, her Dad was laughing and joking with her when he came out, which was probably the most embarrassing thing that had happened all day bar none, at least meeting Damon and Stefan made up for it.
The next morning her Dad brought her up a cup of tea before he left for work at around 6am, as usual his wife had left slightly earlier and so shortly afterwards Tasha had the house to herself.
She hadn't been able to sleep that night, just the prospect of meeting Damon and Stefan again was enough excitement to keep her awake. She was still sure she liked Damon the best though, especially when he had mischief in his eyes, she was surprised he let her drag him in the dance yesterday. In fact, the more she thought about yesterday, the more surprised she was that he was so nice to her.
She drank her tea slowly, mulling it over in her mind from the warmth and comfort of her bed, but she still didn't know why and she couldn't exactly ask him. Perhaps it was because she flattered him, or perhaps it was because she stood up to him when she was talking about the Night World and let slip that clanger about Las Vegas and didn't let it slide.
Whatever the reason, she was just glad she hadn't upset him, unlike Stefan. Tasha loved the way the colour of his eyes changed and the way he looked after her yesterday, he had been very kind to her. Then she remembered Damon giving her the money to get something to eat and telling her to keep the rest, so she clambered out of bed, grabbed her jeans and counted out the rest of the money. She had exactly ten pounds left after she bought the guidebook and the meal yesterday, just enough for one or two books she thought to herself.
Tasha pulled on her jeans, a t-shirt and finally a jumper, she took her cup downstairs and began to mix up some porridge for breakfast when she heard a knock at the door. She couldn't see anyone through the bay window so she ran across the open plan living room to the front door, she opened it a crack and was surprised to see Stefan on her doorstep.
"I wanted to talk to you about the books, I figured you'd have some questions," he looked sad and Tasha hated to see him so upset.
"Come in," was all she managed to say,
"I'm not disturbing your breakfast am I?" he asked as the microwave timer went off.
"No, it'll be too hot at the moment, you're okay. Was it very bad?" she asked him, her eyes wide.
He smiled a sad smile at her, "it hurt. I can't deny that, especially reading about the things that Damon did to her and the fact she couldn't tell me about them."
"But you know why she couldn't tell you, you'd have gone ape," Tasha said to him.
Stefan looked at her confused for a second. "Going Ape. That means going mad?"
"Oh. Um, yeah." Tasha hadn't realised that he didn't know what it meant, good job to as the other word usually associated with it was a rude one.
"Tell me Tasha, why do you like the books? Aside from Damon," even at the mention of his name Tasha broke into a grin, there really was no hope for her, Stefan realised.
"It's just such a great book. I wasn't sure at first, I don't like romance books, but it's just really cool. I like the way at first it's about you and Elena fighting Damon, I loved the cliff-hanger at the end of The Awakening, I didn't even know I liked it that much 'till then. I mean, Damon's so bad doing those things to Elena and then I wanted Elena to tell you everything, but when she thought about it she couldn't because you'd go ape and if you fought Damon he'd kill you. But then Katherine came back and I was, like, Oh My God! I've heard that pigs flesh is the closest thing to human flesh, they've done tests on it to try and recreate SHC, so it made sense! And the way the owl kept getting mentioned, I knew there was something up with the owl and then right at the end it all made sense, the owl, the kitten, Elena's dream!"
She was getting excited now, she was nearly shouting at him and the lack of sentencing. Stefan smiled a bit and told her to calm down, "what's SHC and what's it got to do with pig's flesh?"
"Oh, sorry. Spontaneous Human Combustion. I read a book with it in, it had a picture of this old woman's leg with tight and slipper still on it, but from the knee upwards the rest of her body had just burst into flames. They experimented on pig's flesh to see what sort of temperature was needed for the human body to combust and if it was caused by sitting too near an electric fire."
Stefan raised any eyebrow at her, "you understood all that?"
"Some of it," she confessed, Stefan looked at her long and hard.
"Isn't your porridge getting cold Tasha?" She'd forgotten all about it, she'd been so busy talking to Stefan. So she went and got her porridge from the microwave, it was just about edible, so she took back with her and sat next to Stefan on the sofa.
He was looking at her Dad's books, while she threw the porridge down her neck. "Do you hate Katherine now?" She just came out with it, but she fully expected him to turn around and tell her that he didn't want to talk about it.
"No, I don't hate Katherine. I don't think she was all there, I think she was too young when Klaus turned her into a vampire," cue the awkward silence.
Finally Stefan asked her "I still don't understand why you like Damon so much. You know what he's capable of doing, you said yourself he was bad."
Tasha shrugged, "I dunno, probably because he's so bad, you want to know what he's going to do next. I guessed right at the end that the other power was Katherine, but then Damon had disappeared and when Elena screamed his name I thought I'd got it wrong. I really like the fact that he was looking out for you by getting the diary back and he helped you at the end, he does love you and he loves Elena as well."
Stefan smiled with a corner of his mouth, she was smart for her age, there was no doubt about it and he knew that she wouldn't forget the day she had with them for a very long time, if she forgot it at all. "Come on you, it's nearly nine and we have to meet Damon at ten," he smiled at the girl who immediately stopped eating the gruel like substance that she called porridge and went to dispose of it in the kitchen. "What time's your flight?" she called out to him.
"Two o clock, so we have to check in at half past eleven."
She reappeared with a worried look on her face, "that's not a lot of time."
There was another knock on the door, she went to answer it and Stefan could feel her surprise and joy at seeing Damon standing on the doorstep. "Indeed, there isn't going to be much time, so I thought I'd come early. You don't mind do you?" he smiled at her and Stefan heard her heart start to thump louder and faster, time to be going.
"Tasha and I were just getting to go, I'll meet you outside." Stefan told her with a meaningful look as he practically shoved Damon out of the house.
Tasha sighed and hurriedly put on her baseball boots, she heard Damon telling Stefan to get his hands off him and that was the moment when she realised that Stefan really wanted to hurt Damon for what he'd done to Elena. In her mind that was all the more reason to get out there, so she scrambled to her feet, tucked her laces into her boots and slammed the front door shut. Both of them turned to stair at her as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, she shut the porch door and looked at them with a what are you staring at look, Damon opened the car door and pulled forward the passenger seat so Tasha got in, then he went round to his side of the car, leaving Stefan to push the passenger seat back by himself, glaring at Damon.
"Where are we going?" she asked as Damon fired the engine into life, "for a drive."
"Oh, cool, okay then." Damon wasn't saying anything, this is bad thought Tasha.
"I'm sorry if the books upset you. When I realised who you were yesterday, I was going to grab the book and run, but you got there first Damon." Damon glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.
"If it makes you happier Tasha then I can pretend I never met you, how about that?" Ouch, she thought.
"Is that like yesterday Damon, when you pretended you didn't know anything about the Night World?" she retorted back, ignoring Stefan's plea to calm down. Damon pulled over to the side of the road and got out, he pushed the seat forward and Tasha knew for certain the fun was over. "Damon! Don't do this to her, it's not her fault so don't take it out on her!" called Stefan, but Damon wasn't listening.
"Go back home little girl. You've had your fun, now leave the grown ups to theirs." He snarled, Tasha couldn't help it, she blew her top at him.
"Why? are you going to threaten another five year old Damon? Or try and steal someone else's girlfriend?" Stefan looked shocked and horrified, Damon had her up against the car and she could clearly see his fangs. "If you were as smart as I thought then you'd keep your mouth shut!"
Tasha's temper gave her the courage to stand up to him, "fine! I'm sorry I lent you the books, I'm sorry that Elena's dead and I'm sorry I ever met you!" Tasha tore herself away from Damon who was momentarily distracted by Stefan trying to prise him away from the girl and she took the opportunity to run away from them back towards her father's house, Stefan shoved his older brother against the car in frustration.
"Well done brother! That girl trusted us and she hero worshipped you. She lent us the books and you repay her by threatening her?" Damon opened his mouth to say something but Stefan snarled at him "I don't want to hear it Damon, I've got to go and clean up your mess!"
Stefan took off after the girl, leaving his brother standing by his car. There was no sign of her when Stefan reached the house, his powers weren't strong enough to speak to her with his mind and although he knew she was in there she ignored his repeated knocking, he could hear her crying and he hated his brother for what he did to her.
Tasha laid on her bed and cried, she was so stupid to think he'd actually want to be her friend. Stupid, stupid Tasha! She didn't even know why she was crying anyway, it was her fault for lending them the books in the first place.
There was a tapping sound at the window and she looked up to see a big crow standing on the windowsill, she threw her books at him in anger but the crow didn't move. Open the window Tasha, I just want to talk to you came his voice in her head, so she got up and shut the curtain. But the tapping continued and the voice came again just open the window. I'm not going to hurt you.
"Tasha!" came a faint voice from downstairs, Stefan, she thought. "Leave me alone!" she yelled at Damon.
Just then she heard the sound of the lean to door scraping on the drain cover, it wouldn't close properly and she suddenly remembered that she'd left the back door unlocked. She ran downstairs and flew into the kitchen to find Stefan closing the door behind him. "I wanted to make sure that you were okay! He shouldn't have said those things to you, but you shouldn't have lost your temper with him either!" he scolded, then as soon as he realised she about to cry again, he quickly added; "I'm sorry Tasha, it's not your fault. We're just not the best people to be around at the minute." Tasha nodded, wiping her tears away with her sleeve.
"Is someone going to invite me in? Or do I have to stand out here while you two have a cosy chat?" Came Damon's voice from outside.
"You have to stand out there, there's no way I'm letting you in now." Tasha yelled, Stefan told her to not to aggravate matters even more and he managed to persuade her to step out into the lean to where Damon was waiting outside, "it's alright Tasha, he wants to apologise to you, that's all," he said.
Tasha gave Stefan a sarcastic look and refused to go any further than the kitchen doorstep, "I'm not stupid Stefan, your brother never apologises to anyone, I don't trust him." Stefan sighed, this was going to be very hard.
Damon and Stefan glared at each other before Damon's mouth turned into a sneer, Tasha knew Damon could hear what Stefan was saying and that they were having something similar to a conversation in their heads and over her. She also knew that it was about her and she didn't like the sneer that Damon had on his face, "it's fine Stefan, he doesn't have to do anything except to go away. They're stupid kids books anyway." she mumbled causing both pairs of eyebrows to shoot up.
"Don't be stupid. You're not fooling anyone but yourself Tasha, my brother's right for once in his miserable life. It's not your fault- there, I've said it. Now the dramatics are over and done with are we still going for a drive? Or did you want to stay here all day?"