The rain fell down on the window, it made the same hypnotic noise over and over without an end. I was sitting on the window shelf, looking at the blurry world outside. So this is how fish in a bowl saw everything, I thought. I'd been sitting there for so long that I didn't feel my butt anymore so I stood up, checking whether I still had it. Deciding to do a little research, I wandered around the house.

The first room I passed was Rebekah's. I looked inside, it was cleaner than my belly button with not one thing coloured pink. Rebekah must've been gone away without telling me, because she had been here a couple of minutes ago. I shrugged and while I was walking to the next room, I gave our old painting another, automatic glance. It showed us, the boys standing, me and Rebekah sitting on a chair in front, six vampires. Well, five and me, I didn't know what I was exactly.
I didn't need blood to survive, I could live on human food, I slept, in contrary to my siblings, I wasn't unnecessarily strong nor extraordinary beautiful, I was just not getting older. End of story. I wished that I was stronger though, that I was at least able to defend myself, then Elijah wouldn't freak out so much if I went somewhere alone, which according to me was never and according to him too often. The painting had been made around 1800, when a camera didn't exist yet, one of the few things we took with us whenever we moved.

I walked further and stood in front of Stefan's closed door. He didn't like to be disturbed, especially when his door didn't stand open, so I knocked. No answer. I knocked twice. Again no answer. I tried to open it but it was locked, which made me curious of the reason. The next door on my way was Klaus's. It was wide open, like usual, and showed a very messy room. Because I had nothing better to do, I snooped around, my scent was probably already all over his stuff from the day before yesterday. After a couple of minutes, and finding nothing, I hid some of his stuff, in his own room, out of boredom. I chose some things I had never seen before, one was a triangle with an eye on it, another was a portrait from a girl he had loved. The date was on the back, 1658. It was a cute heart shaped necklace that was easy to hid between his underwear, which I refused to touch with my hands. The last thing I hid was a beautiful key, it had curls all over it, at the top shelve behind his pants. I was curious whether he would even notice it missing.

My tour through the house wasn't over yet, I had two more rooms to search in, even though I wasn't exactly looking for something. Damon's room was next. It had been a long time since I had a sneak in there, I couldn't even remember how it looked. He liked his privacy a lot so the door was never open and I nor , I thought, the other siblings knew anything about his life outside the house. Sometimes I accidently heard him on the phone, the things he said made me think he had a girlfriend. I once asked him about it but he just said it wasn't my business and that I needed to stop eaves dropping, which I didn't. Damon has a very loud voice. Standing in front of his door, I got nervous. If Damon saw me doing this...His door was probably locked, but it still felt like I betrayed him by even feeling if it was open or not. I started to place my hand on the door when another hand grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.

'' What do you think you're doing?'' Damon asked. I didn't even try to look not guilty, I'm not that good of an actress. I just looked down to the floor and saw all the dirt on Damon's shoes. It looked like mud and blood.

''Where have you been?'' I asked, actually curious but also to distract him from the fact that I was doing the thing he hated most: invading his privacy.

''Don't try to-'' he started to say but I interrupted him.

''Don't you try, where have you been? There is blood on your shoes.'' He crossed his arms and looked annoyed.
"I am a vampire, when I drink, I sometimes-'' Damon was cut off by Elijah, who apparently had entered the house which I would've known if I had vampire hearing. Fuck my life.

"Damon!'' Elijah warned.

''I can handle it. '' I said, even though I didn't want to hear how he killed someone but I couldn't let Elijah win on this. ''Go on.''

Damon raised an eyebrow, looked at Elijah who was taking the groceries out and started whispering. ''I ripped her throat-'' but he couldn't finish because Elijah already had his hand over his mouth.

''You should stop talking.'' The voice of my oldest brother cold as ice. Damon punched his hand off like it was nothing and I was jealous. I wanted to be able to do that.

''She said she could handle it.''

''And I say she doesn't. I'm the eldest and what I say counts. Help me with the groceries, Elena. There are still a few more in the car. Thank you.'' I sighed, walked down and did what I was asked while I heard them mad whispering at each other. I was curious about the things they were saying. I literally knew almost nothing about everything that comes with being a vampire. Violence was against the rules of Elijah, talking about blood or anything that had something to do with it was forbidden. The reason? Because I wouldn't be able to cope with it. Of course it was just because I never got to deal with it that I wouldn't be able to cope. But as always, nobody listened to me. I put the heavy bags filled with vegetables and fruits on the kitchen island.

''How was your day?" Elijah asked, coming back from upstairs.

''Boring as hell because you didn't let me out of the house."

"You know why."

' "Because it's dangerous right now." ' I quoted him. ''But what is? And for how long? Why won't you tell me?" I nagged, for the fiftieth time.

"Because, " he sighed, "that's all you need to know." I rolled my eyes and pouted.

''Please!'' I begged.

''No, and that is the last thing said about it. '' Elijah gave me that cold look he only gave people when he was as serious as an alcoholic is over his alcohol, which is pretty serious. I never knew anything, they kept everything from me. It wasn't fair, just because I was the youngest and not a vampire.

Most of the time, I was glad not being one of them but sometimes, it made me feel like an outsider, like I wasn't a part of my own family. I wanted to be as strong and as fast as they were, helping them solve things, helping them to defend the citizens. But I was useless, a waste of time, the helpless baby they needed to babysit day and night, for the rest of their lives.

My second day of not going anywhere and doing nothing. I couldn't do it again.
As soon as Elijah would walk out the door, I'd be gone too, I promised myself. I had human needs, which vampires of course didn't understand. But until Elijah left, I needed something to do so I started reading The Catcher in The Rye. We needed to read it for English and even though I had already read it when it was popular in the '50s, I wanted to read it again. Maybe I'd forgotten something. You never knew.

At page twelve, Elijah announced he was going to do some business stuff with the leader of the wolves. I told him to be careful because of their ability to kill him with a single bite but he reminded me that we had Klaus, our hybrid, who could cure him. I told him again, to be careful. Five minutes after he left, I put the book down and took my coat. The keys of the house were still in its pocket and with every step I took they rattled. Closing the door, I changed my mind about taking my bike and decided to make a walk. It wasn't long before I got to the woods that surrounded our house, the air thick and the rocks slippery. I loved the fresh air, not the here-have-two-vampires-been-letting-farts-on-purpose air from the house. I closed my eyes and sat down on a fallen tree but not for long because when I opened them, I saw something red by a big oak tree a couple of feet further, it was hard not to see. I narrowed my eyes but couldn't figure out what it was so I walked closer and the shape started to get more familiar. It was a bike, a red one. How had it gotten here? This was private ground so nobody was allowed to enter, nobody could enter. We had gates all around the woods. I looked around but saw nobody, no movements nor sound.

''Hello?" was the only thing I could think of to scream. It was what people screamed in movies, and honestly, I now got why they did it. It wasn't to get an answer, it was just hoping nobody would actually answer.

"Above you." A male voice said. I looked up and saw a handsome, muscled guy sitting on the third branch which was the longest of the tree.

''What are you doing? Do you happen to have a secret monkey-wish?'' I asked, crossing my arms. The stranger laughed and jumped on the branch right under the one he had gotten off.
''Who knows, maybe I'd rather be a bird.''

He hopped down as if he had been doing it as long as he lived. He jumped of a little bit too easy. ''What are you? A Wolf?'' I asked, forgetting that not everyone knew about their existence.

''Apparently, I'm a monkey. Or a bird, I don't know. '' He answered and smiled but when I didn't smile back, he sighed. ''I could be a vampire.'' He said with a shrug. ''What makes you think I'm not a dead one living?''

''Because you wouldn't have come by bike. Vampires are fast runners.'' The wolf, so I thought, looked at me.

''So are wolves.''

''In wolf form, which means you're a know-it-all, bird, monkey, wolf, vampire and a liar.''

''Because I can't be all of those things?''

I nodded and crossed my arms, wondering what smart-ass answered he was going to give me now.
In normal circumstances, I would've gone back to the house, told this guy to get off our land and watch TV. But I was so bored that I liked having someone to talk to.

''You still haven't answered my question.''

''Which one?''

''All of them.''

He sat down on the ground, leaning to the tree with his hands behind his back.

''You feel easy at home, don't you? I'm going for monkey.'' I sat down as well, on one of the lower branches but made sure I was still higher than him. The guy had his eyes closed and a smile formed on his face but disappeared quickly.

''I'm a wolf, as you expected.'' His eyes opened again and they narrowed, focusing on my face. As if examining my reaction to the fact that he's a wolf. Was I supposed to be surprised? Why did he look at me like that?

''I know what you're thinking. And I'm definitely not proud of it. But I want you to know that it wasn't my fault, I had to.''

I was confused, what was he talking about?
''Hold your horses, what am I thinking?'' I asked him.

He started laughing but it was not long before he got serious again. ''I've never heard anyone use that expression.''

I looked at the ground, ashamed. He was the first wolf I ever met and he was just laughing at me.

''Hey, don't feel so embarrassed. I was just joking. Anyway, '' he started again
''where was I..'' he wondered out loud, tapping his finger at his chin.

''You apparently know better than me what I was thinking.''

''You really have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?'' he asked, looking at me with a curious look. Now it switched from expecting to curious. He had more emotions than crayons had colours.

''No , I don't.'' I refused to look in his eyes. I moved from a sitting position to a lying position so that I had a view of the sky and the leaves on the tree.

''I'm a wolf.'' He said, again. As if I were stupid.

''Really?'' I pretended to be shocked.

''You have to do something before you become a wolf.''

I frowned, thinking about everything Elijah had told me about wolves.
''Aren't people born as a wolf?''

''No, we are born with the genes to become a wolf but that's it. You still have to activate it.''

I had never heard of that, I just thought they were born and transformed at the full moon since they were a baby. ''And how do you do that?'' I asked when a long silence fell.

''Kill someone.'' I didn't know what to say so I stayed quiet. Neither one of us felt like talking, so we listened to the sounds of nature, the wind blowing leaves of the trees, animals jumping from one branch to another, birds singing.

Suddenly a hand was shaking my arm, and I fell of the branch where I, apparently, had been sleeping on.

''Ouch.'' I said, rubbing my arm.

''You fell asleep on a tree?'' Rebekah said while giving me the you-can't-be-my-sister look. I rolled my eyes and stood up. Ignoring her, I looked around. No sign that a wolf/monkey/bird/vampire/know-it-all had been here.

''Why did it smell like wolves there?'' Rebekah pulled up her nose, like it smelled very bad.

''I don't know.'' I said, too quick.

For some reason, I felt like I wasn't allowed to speak about…him. I was lying for someone whose name I didn't even know. Great.

''Well if you don't want Elijah asking questions about it, I suggest you take a long shower. Even your clothes smell like it. '' She winked like we had a secret together and walked with me to the house, human speed. As soon as we got in, I took a shower and changed, hoping nothing was left of the smell, what couldn't be washed away were the questions that were going through my head.