Hey, my lovely readers. Okay, so I know the previous chapter was a bit upsetting, at least in my opinion. So, I can tell you that this chapter starts on a lighter note but there will be follow up from the last chapter. On with the show…
Chapter 21: Once More with Feeling
Standing in line the first day of Spring term, Caroline felt odd. She had to compel a lot of people and not get caught. Thankfully, she had her two Besties to cause lots of distractions. "Oh, dear, I think it's spreading." Rebekah cried out, beginning to scratch at herself and the people in the line began to walk away. Caroline grinned as she walked up to the window of the Bursar's office. Having to compel people that her scholarships were still intact was a rigorous process. It was also annoying to have to register for classes the day they began.
"What should I take?" Caroline questioned her friends as she peered at her phone. Learning how to read during the three months she was missing was challenging but fun in a way. She was also able to write pretty well. Vampirism has its benefits at times like these.
Caroline had to sign up for Biology again so she could finish one of the three required courses. There was also English. She signed up with someone other than her former Prof. She decided to sign up for a geography class to fulfill one of her history requirements. The acting class she had been in was filled up. But she thought the teacher might make an exception. She also needed to take a class on the study of theater which left her with two more classes so she would not get farther behind.
"I'm taking a women's studies course," Rebekah announced.
"Maybe you should try yoga. I think you're stressed enough." Hayley pointed out with the spoon from her yogurt cup.
"Yoga. Sounds like fun," Caroline said, finding the class that Hayley was pointing out. "And the Women's Studies, so, Bekah won't be alone when she provokes someone."
Rebekah opened her mouth to protest and then looked at the phone. "And the study of Medieval art," she pushed the buttons registering Caroline before Caroline could speak up. "Bookstore, ladies," Rebekah ordered, waving a finger and then led her troops into the fray.
They headed through the overly crowded bookstore as Rebekah elbowed people out of her way. "Why do these people wait till the last minute?" She looked disgusted as she tried to shove a man out of the way, who was standing between her and the theater books Caroline needed.
The man turned around and Rebekah gasped, backing up into Caroline. "Rebekah Mikaelson, I see you're alive after all," Marcel said with his lazy grin. Then he looked at Caroline. "And if it isn't my other favorite absentee student. Did I scare you two off? I mean rumor has it I'm pretty laid back and not too hard a grader. So, what happened? Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Perfectly ordinary," Hayley spoke up stepping in between Rebekah and Marcel. "You know the old freshman problems: guys, booze, eating disorders, drama everywhere." Shrugging, she looked around him. "I think Caroline will be needing to know which books she needs for when you sign her into your drama class, again. And the study of theater."
Marcel's eyebrows lifted. "Oh, that's it. You don't write and you don't call and then you blame freshman life. Now, you want me to just go ahead and sign you back in like nothing ever happened? I mean, ladies, you could give a man a serious complex from picking him up and setting him down like this. I have feelings, too, you know."
"Oh, give it a rest with the theatrics. Marcel, are you going to let her take the class or not?" Rebekah snapped, placing both her hands on her hips.
"And that is the Bekah Mikaelson I missed. Woman with so much spunk it's dripping out her ears. Pun intended. Of course." Marcel retorted as Rebekah blushed.
"Which books, Marcel?" Rebekah snapped at him with a look of contempt.
Marcel turned around and grabbed a handful of books. He handed them to Caroline and then picked the extra study of theater book off the top. Taking Rebekah's hand, he placed it in her hand, never breaking eye contact. "I will see you in class," he said quietly before walking away.
Rebekah was shaking with fury. "The nerve of that man," she exclaimed, waving the book in her hand. "He is beyond reason," she led Caroline to the checkout counter and scowled as the line moved slowly. "We're going to be late for class," she complained. "Do you hire turtles here?" She shouted at the manager, who frowned.
"This is a long line," Hayley said. "I'm going to go find something to eat."
"Is that all you do?" Rebekah shouted. "They call it the freshman fifteen but they're going to call it the freshman fifty in your case." Hayley lifted her middle finger and pointed it at Rebekah as she looked for snacks.
"She's gained weight, yes? I saw her struggling into her jeans this morning," Rebekah told Caroline eyeing Hayley, who had grabbed a bag of Fritos.
"Maybe she's pregnant," Caroline replied, looking to see if the line was moving yet.
Rebekah scoffed loudly and then her eyes narrowed. "Father will have her killed. He'll say she's a money grubbing little trollop and then he will have her killed."
"Are you pregnant?" Rebekah shouted when Hayley came to stand with them. People turned to stare at the three girls. Lowering her voice, Rebekah hissed out her question. "Hayley, are you with child?"
Hayley shrugged, opening the bag. "It's not yours," she replied, shoving Fritos into her mouth.
Rebekah yanked the bag away. "Hayley Marshall, I demand to know if you are carrying my brother's child or not?"
Holding up a finger, Hayley placed a hand to her mouth and then began to shake her head before she vomited Fritos on Rebekah's new heels. "Maybe," Hayley whispered as her shoulders heaved.
"Oh!" Rebekah squealed, looking down at her shoes. "I really liked those shoes and now your little bastard made you vomit on them," Rebekah swore, staring at the damage. "You will pay for those, even if you have to work in the cafeteria. I just can't believe you were so irresponsible. And Lijah doesn't even have a job anymore because he had sex with Caroline."
"Okay. Let's back up," Caroline held up her hands. "First of all. I am not a slut. And I only slept with Klaus. Second thing is that this is a hypothetical baby. Not something to have to freak out about."
"We weren't irresponsible," Hayley added. "We used a condom every time."
"Therefore more than likely you are not going to be laying on your back and pushing something that vaguely resembles me out from your woman parts," Rebekah said thoughtfully.
"Condoms are not one hundred present effective," Caroline pointed out, taking a Frito out of the bag and pointing ahead of them. "I think Hayley's possible baby induced vomit made the line move. Let's go."
"And thanks for the classy description of child birth, Bexs," Hayley told Rebekah. "You know, it makes me proud to be called your friend."
"What are you talking about? Condoms are not a hundred percent effective?" Rebekah asked, ignoring Hayley and looking freaked out.
"Seriously, you didn't know that?" Caroline asked as she handed her purchases over to the young boy, who was gawking at them.
"Will you be using your student card or cash?" The boy asked, staring at Rebekah.
"Sod off," Rebekah snapped. "Now, we were talking about what you said about the condoms. That should be on the box."
"It is," the kid waiting on Caroline snapped, who seemed to not like the way that Rebekah was talking to him. When he was finished with Caroline's order, he looked at the book in Rebekah's hand. "Are you purchasing that?"
"What? Oh, this," Rebekah looked down at the book.
"Yes, she is," Hayley said, taking the book and laying it on the counter with the now half empty bag of Fritos. Pulling out her card, Hayley paid for the chips and the book. "You can pay me back later," she said later and then she looked down at Rebekah's shoes. "Or consider it the first payment for you shoes. We have to get going if we're going to get those changed before class." They hurried back to the dorm grabbing extra books for classes and Rebekah's back up heels.
"Ow!" Rebekah whined as they ran across the quad. "These shoes are killing me."
"I'm going to kill you if you don't move faster," Caroline snapped.
"Hayley, could you, please, stop eating," Rebekah yelled as Hayley sucked down a Go-Gurt.
"Nope," Hayley replied. "And by the way I'm not gaining that much weight. So you can bite me, Mikaelson."
"As you wish, darling," Kol called as he caught up with them.
"Oh, not you. Tell me you're not in the Geo class," Hayley moaned as Damon appeared beside Kol.
"Guilty as charged," Kol replied with a wide grin.
"Drat," Rebekah swore. "I grabbed the wrong shoes. I meant to grab the white ones with the green strap not the white ones with the blue."
"No one cares, Strumpet," Kol remarked lightly when Rebekah's face darkened.
"Go to hell, Kol," Rebekah yelled at him and then ran inside the building.
"Rebekah," Hayley shouted running after her.
Caroline turned to Kol. "You need to stop with the crass jokes for a while, Kol. Maybe forever."
Kol laughed. "Why?"
Caroline shook her head. "Just do not call her those names anymore. Okay. You seriously have to stop. She's going through enough; she doesn't need your insensitivity."
"Me? Insensitive? I have lots of sensitivity. It is not my fault if Bekah can't take a joke," Kol retorted. "She just needs to stop riding every man she meets and then I'll lay off her. Not that I ever laid on her. She is my sister. And I do have some boundaries."
Growling in frustration as they entered the building, Caroline grabbed Kol by the shirt collar and dragged him into an empty room. "Hey, Caroline. If you plan on killing him, do you want me to play lookout?" Damon called but Caroline ignored him.
"Look you little punk, your sister, Bekah was raped three weeks ago and she really needs you to be a supportive big brother and shut your hole," Caroline yelled at Kol, who paled visibly.
"What?" Kol demanded. "Who is he? I will kill him, the bastard."
"She already did," Caroline told him and Kol sat down on top of a desk, staring into space.
"That's why she's been like that this last couple of weeks. Shit," Kol ran a hand over his face. "I've been a complete arse toward her lately."
"You just have to not treat her like she's made of glass. But choose you words a little more carefully," Caroline explained and Kol nodded.
"Are you sure that he is dead?" Kol asked.
Caroline nodded. "That's what Bekah said."
Kol stared at the ceiling, looking pensive. "Should I talk to her about it?"
"No, if she wants to open up to you, she will, when she's ready," Caroline told Kol, who nodded slowly.
"Right, I suppose we should get to class then," Kol said, walking past Damon.
Damon walked beside Caroline to the class. "Good for Bekah."
"What's good for Bekah?" Caroline asked, staring at him.
"Killing the jackass. It's cathartic," Damon told Caroline. "But it won't make the anger go away. She's going to be pissed for a long time and she may be a ticking time bomb about to explode. BOOM!"
Caroline jumped and then glared at Damon. "She's going to be fine," she argued.
"I'm sure she will be, in about, fifty years from now. You just wait. She's going to lose it. It's just a matter of time," Damon replied as he held the door open for Caroline.
"You're not helpful," Caroline snapped as they walked down the stairs of the room together.
"I try," Damon whispered with a smirk.
Rolling her eyes, Caroline claimed a seat between Hayley and Rebekah. Kol was sitting in front of his sister and was subdued for the moment. Damon came to sit in front of Caroline. Then another familiar face, who Caroline had mixed feelings about, came to sit in front of Hayley, waving at Caroline. Caroline waved back and then leaned into her seat not knowing what to think about the appearance of her other best friend, Stefan, who was also in this class. They still hadn't really recovered from earlier proclamations of love and heartbreak. Caroline was no longer with Klaus. They had been apart for three months. She had unofficially broken up with Klaus. The question was, did they need to talk about it? Have an official breakup talk. She had never broken up with someone before, she needed to talk to someone about this. And Stefan needed to stop staring at her. It was making her uncertain about a lot of things.
When class was over Stefan caught up with Caroline on her way to her English class. "Hey, Caroline, wait."
Caroline felt her body stiffen slightly and then she smiled. "Hey, Stef, what's up?"
Looking at his feet and then smiling at Caroline with that Stefan Salvatore 'I look like a nervous little boy' look. "I was hoping you would get a cup of coffee with me sometime. You know, when you're not busy?" Stefan looked hopeful and Caroline didn't know what to say.
"Sure. Why not," Caroline replied with a light laugh. "I have to get to class. So I'll see you later."
"Great. I'll see you later," Stefan said, rocking on his heels. The walking away with a certain bounce in his walk that made Caroline smile and shake her head.
Walking into her English class, Caroline was relieved to not have to see anyone she knew, for once. Sitting down in the back of the room, she pulled out a notebook and looked for the clock. 12:30. The class ended at 1:25. She could deal until the class ended and then deal with all the other chaos. But this hour was drama free. She hoped.
Hurrying across the quad, Caroline ran into the theater and down the steps just as Marcel walked in. "Ah, Miss Forbes, we meet again. Okay. Give me the paper and we'll get you all signed up." Marcel said, pulling a pen out from his jacket pocket and signing her paper.
"Thank you, Mother," Caroline said sweetly.
"Get your butt in a seat before I change my mind," Marcel retorted with a grin as he waved her away. Caroline sat down and watched in fascination as the class began. "Good day, people. Thank you for choosing to take Acting 101. That must mean that you're either a drama major. Or you would like to be one. This course is rigorous. You need to give full attention to what we're doing here because this is the beginning of four years of study. You have to live, breath and possibly drink, acting. Although I would not take that last part in a literal sense. All I'm saying is you need to be dedicated. You don't want to, then there is the door with that big, red exit sign. I'll close my eyes. Anyone who wishes to leave, go ahead."
Popping an eyelid open, Marcel smiled widely. "No takers. Good. I'm glad my revised speech didn't scare you off. A few of my favorite students took off on me last term and I just hate to see that happen. I also hate to see these seats taken up by people who don't care. So, please, keep in mind that there are people who didn't get to take this class who would have loved to."
Clapping his hands together, Marcel grinned. "Okay. Let's have a volunteer get up here to sing us a song. Caroline, I saw your hand up. Up we go," he waved both his hands and Caroline rolled her eyes. She hadn't raised her hand. But what else was new. "I would like you to sing 'New York, New York,'" Marcel informed her, folding his arms over his chest.
Sighing, Caroline stared out at the audience and began to sing.
Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
"Whoa, little lady, lovely breath control. You blow me away with your hidden talents. Let's hear a round of applause for Miss Caroline Forbes, who I am sure we will be seeing on Broadway one day after that performance." Marcel shouted and Caroline's fellow students began to clap loudly. A few jumped up and shouted compliments to her. "Encore," they shouted and Caroline grinned. Well, if it was what her public wanted, who was she to say no?
Caroline still had two more classes and both were fairly uneventful. Bio with Dr. Wes again. She really did not like this guy. She needed to ask Stefan about him. He was just too weird.
Walking into her Study of Theater class, Caroline was only slightly surprised to see Rebekah, who was reading the text book. "Fancy meeting you here," Caroline teased, sliding into the seat next to Rebekah.
"Shut up," Rebekah muttered before sitting up straighter when Marcel walked into the classroom. Caroline sat back and listened to the lecture not missing Rebekah's foot which was tapping the floor lightly and the way that she took very careful notes trying to not look their teacher in the eye.
Okay, so by now I'm sure that it's clear why I labeled this story a drama rather than comedy or humor fic. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter or whatever word you would like to use for it.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, faved, followed, read and, in general. put up with the wild ups and downs, twists and turns of this story and there is so much more in store.
Alexis2106: Thank you for the support. Due to the fact that there is a supernatural element in the story there were a number of ways that I could play out what happened to Rebekah including saying someone conveniently came in and saved her. But I wanted to be true to the turn in the story that popped into my head. Rape is not an easy subject to discuss and my heart broke a little bit when that part came to me and there was part of me that wanted to write it some other way. However, like when I killed Caroline in the story, which also was a hard chapter to write, I had two choices: either be true to the story or make it some trite piece of junk. So, again, thank you for appreciating what I'm doing here.
And there will be more Elena and Delena along the line of the story. I promise.
Pleasesaycaroline: Thank you, L. Yes, I agree, poor Rebekah. That was not a particularly easy chapter to write but the bonding of these women was one of my favorite parts of the chapter. It would be nice if everyone who went through hell had someone who would be standing at their side when their world was crumbling.
Guestreader: I know that this story can be confusing. It was confusing to me sometimes. However, if there was not a supernatural component then Caroline would have died many chapters ago. Part of adding vampires and the supernatural was to keep certain characters alive because that's why we keep watching the show, right? Because we love certain people and we don't want to see them go.
As for Klaus and Caroline. They love each other. That is a fact in the story but it's not easy. Nothing worth having is ever truly easy and life is hard in all parts. And as much as there is a part of me that would like to write a story in which Klaus and Caroline never questioned each other or fought or hurt each other that would not be true to either life or the story.
Redbudrose: Yes, this was a heartbreaking chapter for Rebekah and it was really, really hard to write due to the sensitivity of the subject. I understand why you don't like that Hayley blurted Rebekah's secret out. However, I'm going to argue with you and you can tell me if this makes sense. We see everything from Care's POV so we don't see how many times Hayley bites her tongue when she's around the other people in the group or answers the phone and tells the others that Rebekah is not home because her friend in sitting curled up on her bed and refusing to speak. So, Hayley has been watching one of her best friends retreating from the world and it scares the hell out of her so when Care comes home it's like they reunited with their sister and she can't hold it in anymore and she can't try to support Rebekah by herself anymore because Bekah is on the edge and it takes a team effort to drag her back.
Then there is Caroline who comes home and has no idea what is going on with Rebekah but she feels like Hayley does: that Rebekah is the strongest woman in their group and if she is falling apart that is not a good sign. She probably wouldn't have threatened to compel Rebekah if she had known but it's like if you don't know then you don't know.
In the end I don't think that there is any "right" way of helping a friend through an experience like Rebekah's. Everyone reacts differently and when you write fiction then it's truly difficult to navigate certain topics because there is the possibility of people acting on the way that you write a story as if this is some kind of advice column. In the end I hope that I can broaden others' perception of the world and the many ways in which we can act and react to them.
Lavanya: I know. It would be nice if both Klaus and Caroline could be respectful of each other. The problem is Klaus has spent too many years treating women like toys so sometimes he slips and does things that make Caroline want to tell him to leave her alone forever. As for Caroline. This is her first relationship and even though she loves Klaus and wants to trust him she has nothing to compare their relationship to. So, they're going to have ups and downs and they're going to hurt each other. It's never going to be a one sided issue.
Peace,
Jessica