Chapter 5

Back at her newly acquired mansion, Katherine was analyzing the meeting with her new best friends in silence.
She was sitting at a large oak table in a massive dining room with her legs flung over the side of her chair whilst pseudo reading an old book about the Trojan War she had found in the library. She had been reading the first sentence over and over again and still had no idea what it said.
Her mind kept wandering off, keeping her occupied with other things.
Things she'd rather not think about, like the meeting with her brother, Klaus, which was going to happen eventually.
Katherine chucked the book aside and instantly regretted it. She flung her legs off the armrest and walked over to the window. While picking up the book, she checked to see if any pages where torn and then laid it on the table.

The white coloured mansion stood on a small hill overlooking a huge field which was supposed to be the front lawn. A few oak trees were scattered along the length of the driveway.
There were several tree stumps in the 'yard' where the beautiful oaks had been chopped down. Probably to make the massive oak table and the massive oak doors and the massive oak chairs and beds and book casings and most of the other furniture. This slaughter-scene of nature was only ever interrupted by an expensive designer vase or a badly assembled IKEA-coffee table. Katherine figured the guy whose house this was, before it got repossessed by the IRS (according to the notice on the front door), wasn't very handy and his decorator was shit.

Suddenly a black SUV was coming up the driveway. She could hear the gravel underneath its tires as she waited for it to stop. She hoped it wasn't the owner of the house or worse, the IRS. Compelling one person wasn't an issue but compelling one or more federal agents was another thing. Agents had paperwork. Paperwork could be traced. Complications. She wasn't in the mood for complications. When the car had finally crossed the long stretch of driveway and stopped in front of the house, she knew she'd been over thinking things again because a tall man wearing a black suit and tie stepped out. Elijah saw her looking at him through the window, smiled and walked towards the front door.

'I assume you've met with some of the Gilbert girl's friends?' Elijah said after sitting down in one of the old armchairs in the dining room. He'd helped himself to a drink from the bar. The 17th century oak Wainscot chair creaked as he readjusted himself, trying not to look like an idiot when his drink slipped out of his hand. Fortunately, his quick reflexes took over and he caught it mid-air without spilling a drop. The chair was beautiful and looked hand carved with complicated patterns on the back. Subtle flowers were etched into one side and were symmetrically etched into the other one. As beautiful as it looked, it wasn't nearly as comfortable.

'Gilbert? Now that you mention it, you hadn't even told me what the doppelgänger is called.' Katherine sat down on the wide windowsill and crossed her legs.

'The girl's name is Elena Gilbert. Now back to my question, Kat?' Elijah said.

'Elena...hmm... Oh right! Now I remember. Damon Salvatore mentioned her. But to answer your question: yes, I have.' Katherine said. 'I already knew the history teacher though.'

'Oh, how come?' Elijah asked. He was fidgeting with his expensive cufflinks. Needless to say he wasn't really interested in the answer and Katherine knew it so she ignored the question.

'You're holding out on me, Eli. What have you been up to while I was meeting... Elena's friends?' She spoke the name out carefully, like it was a foreign name. Making sure she pronounced it right and not sound like an idiot. She had always had trouble with names. Being around so many cultures over the years and people giving their children names which would haunt them for the rest of their lives had made pronunciations a difficult task. About 2 years ago, Katherine had spent a weekend at Comic Con surrounded by Spocks, Chewbaccas and Iron Mans. She'd started talking to a weird skinny guy wearing a fez (seemingly thinking this was cool now because he kept saying 'Fezzes are cool' and then looking at Kathy like she was supposed to recognize this as a valid response to 'What's your name?') and the meeting ended with her trying to pronounce 'Raxacoricifallapatorius' and him intermittently having to shout 'It's CAPTAIN Jack Harkness!'.

'Well...I might've...thrown some pennies.' Elijah hesitated, realizing how ridiculous that sounded.

'Thrown..pennies? Like the actual coin? Or just girls named Penny?' Katherine said.

'Yes, Katherine. I threw girls named Penny through the window of a restaurant.' He said with a heavy sarcastic undertone.

'Jeez, what did they ever do to you?' Katherine said. When Elijah looked at her with that blank expression which made clear that 'enough is enough' she continued. 'Okay fine. Explain.'

'The Salvatore-bloke killed me and his new best friend, Rose is helping him. So I had to show them that that was not a wise decision.'

Bloke? Katherine thought. His inner Britishness is coming through. This isn't a good sign.

'Oh come one.' Katherine said. 'What did you expect? I'm not deliberately quoting a Schweppes-commercial here. First of all: He's Damon!
Second: That Rose girl is probably still pissed because you've been hunting her down for over five-hundred years.'

'And I killed her best friend.' Elijah stepped in.

'AND you killed her...what? Why would you do that?' She asked.

'He's the one who let Katerina go in the first place, is he not?' Elijah stated.

'Oh please! You've fancied her since day one. Don't pretend you weren't glad she escaped Klaus.' Katherine said.

This caught Elijah off guard. He didn't know his little sister knew that. An embarrassing thought.
Deciding to ignore Katherine's observations, he changed the subject.
'Can I ask what you're plans are in Mystic Falls?'

'Plans?' Katherine laughed. 'I think you know me well enough to know I never have a plan for anything. Let's just see what happens.'