Chapter 13
Pleasantly Screwed… That Didn't Come Out Right

"How'd he get in?" Damon asked Elena.
"He was invited in."
"Well dur." I said, "But how?"

Stefan answered, "He posed as a pizza delivery guy last night."
"Well he gets points for that."

"It's a classic move." I said.

Damon looked at me intently and mimed zipping his lips, then turned back to Elena, "Did he say what he wanted?"
"No, he was too busy trying to kill me." She said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"And you have no idea who this is?"

Damon shrugged at Stefan, "No." then he caught a look of disbelief on his face, "Don't look at me like that, I told you we have company."
"You think there's more than one?" Elena asked in fear.
"We don't know."

I rolled my eyes, "Of course there are. Vampires are like ants, you never find just one."

Damon gave me a look and I mimed zipping my lips in mock innocence. We all sat in silence for moment, until Stefan chimed in, "Damon. He was invited in."

"Then we go get him tonight." I nodded to myself in agreement as he asked Elena, "You up for it?"

"What do I have to do?"

"Let your boyfriend take you to the dance, we'll… See who shows up."

"I take it that means I'm coming too?" I asked stepping closer to them.

"No, he's after Elena not you." Stefan said sternly, "Besides, it's a high school dance, you're staying put."

"No. She should be there, Jeremy will be there too he can watch her." She turned to Stefan, "It's better than having her be left here so he can get to her to get to us."

Damon took a deep breath, "Fine. She comes, but Emo Teen watches her."

"It's a bad idea." Stefan warned.

"Till we get him this house isn't safe, for anyone who lives in it." He turned to Elena again, "It's worth a shot."

"I'll do it." She replied, continuing in a reassuring tone when she saw Stefan's face, "I'll be with the two of you. I'll be safe."

Everyone got a silent look of agreement on their face; if we didn't stop him tonight, this was only the beginning. But to me, it felt like it had begun a while ago.

Once we got to the dance, Elena clung to Stefan's arm for dear life, whilst Damon and I scanned for any suspicious characters. Then again they're almost all dressed as people from 'Pleasantville' maybe we should have found a new tact.

Suddenly, Damon started ushering me over to where a teenage boy was manning the punch table.

"Hey Jeremy. Do you remember me? I'm Damon." He said quickly.

Jeremy nodded, "Yeah, Stefan's brother." His eyes turned to me as I waved.

"Katy. Yes, I'm aware I'm twelve." I said, holding out my hand.

He smiled only slightly, "Jeremy." and shook my hand quickly.

I took a good look at him, "Nah, you look more like a Steve to me."

He gave me a weird look, but nonetheless smiled, probably scared to make any sudden moves around the crazy girl.

"Well, now that we're all friends, I have some chaperoning to do." Damon said, "Watch her."

Alright, alright here comes the obvious lame joke; I'm beginning to feel like I'm being watched.

With that, Damon left Steve and me to an awkward- but albeit brief- staring contest.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit in the corner over there and mumble to myself." (A/N: Props to anyone who knows where that's from! May you have the BEST DAY EVER!)

So we ignored each other most of the time and I sat dutifully in my corner, looking around for the suspect.

Of course an obvious approach in this crowd, is generally to look for anyone dressed in dark colors-as they will stand out more, and this dumbass I'm assuming didn't comprehend that. However, at a high school dance there is generally five to ten teens dressed in dark colors, who show up at this kind of party to prove how 'cool' they are.

Side note: as I've noticed, these groups tend to be made up of wide-eyed freshmen and sophomores trying to get in with the 'rebels' and just a few seniors who are so shnockered at this point they're telling people they're Batman and think they're believed.

So when my attempt to find this guy was proven bleak, I started looking around for anyone I recognized to see how their night was going.

I managed to spot Damon who was approaching two girls, one was Bonnie and the other was the blonde girl from the party when-well, you know.

"Hey Bonnie." He greeted, his wide smiled battling with her look of disdain, "Wanna dance?"

That was quick, I thought, Well I have to admit he gets to the point.

"I'm outta here." She said, starting to retreat but was stopped by Damon.

He tried to look charming and asked for 'another chance', whatever that means, and was met with a harsh glare before she finally left. He turned to the blonde who told him to back off and stomped off after Bonnie before he could wink.

"Where did they go?" Elena asked as she and Stefan walked up to him.

He shrugged, "I don't know."

Stefan seemed to mimic his shrug and asked, "What did you say to 'em?"

"I was perfectly polite." He turned to Elena, "Elena, would you like to dance?"

Wow, pretty ballsy for a guy hitting on a girl whose right next to her boyfriend-who is also your brother mind you.

"I would love to." She smiled sweetly, then turned to Stefan, "May I have this dance?

Owned.

I smiled and walked up to Damon as they walked off, "Three in under a minute." I said referring to my wrist, "I'm so proud!"

"I thought I told Jeremy to watch you."

I gave him a look, "Yes Damon, because in all this time you've known me, I just really seem like the kind of kid to go and sit in a punch corner at a dance."

"As a matter of fact, you do." He said, smirking.

I snorted and we quietly watched the dance floor for a bit.

"So you and Stefan are helping each other now?"

"Why do you ask? Trying to get an excuse to break out the milk and cookies?"

"Okay, when in the entire time you've known me have you actually seen me eat a cookie?"

"So you'd reject a cookie if I offered one?" he smirked.

I paused and said with defeat, "No." I smiled a little bit-which was the most I'd come to laughter- and I could almost swear I saw him twitch into a smile slightly before he went stone-faced.

"What is your plan? At least, what do you plan on doing with me?" I asked finally.

Damon didn't answer but looked at me for a moment before having a thoughtful look on his face.

"I've already told you that I want a say in where I go. So why don't you tell me your plan so I can reject it and come up with my own." I said the last part as more of a command.

"Miss the orphanage that much huh?"

"No."

"Hate your school that much?"

"It's getting better."

"Hate me that much?" he asked, not looking at me now.

"I have an intense burning indifference."

"Then why are you so keen to go?" He asked, now looking at me with a look that said 'You're being stupid and we both know it.'

I paused. With all that in mind, I really couldn't conjure up a reason, at least one that mattered to me.

He doesn't like me: Sure, but at least neither of us has killed each other, in fact he saved my life.

You're only a prop to this town until they get better evidence of vampires: When was I not a prop when it comes to vampires? Next.

He's psycho: Not so much anymore, but he's honest and he doesn't sugarcoat. I think this is really the first time an adult has been straight out with me. What a breath of fresh air.

He killed Lexi: …

That was where I couldn't find a contradiction, nothing he had done had actually made up for that; he never apologized, showed any remorse, or did anything that suggested he was trying to make up for it.

And yet, that didn't seem to register in my mind. For some twisted reason, it didn't seem to be an actual factor in why I didn't want to be here.

That thought scared me, for many reasons: Is this part of some compulsion? Or worse, do I just not miss Lexi?!

Surely if his killing her in cold blood had no impact on my reason for wanting to leave, I must not have cared enough! I should be making plans to stake this bastard, or hand him over to the authorities in some way! Why am I not upset?!

Why do I feel complete apathy towards this fact?

The more I thought on it the more it freaked me out-more precisely, scared me.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I said quickly, rushing away.

Once I got to the bathroom, I turned on one of the sinks and splashed a little water on my face. It did well to cool me down, but did nothing by way of fixing anything.

I took a deep breath and then walked back out of the bathroom and heading towards the gym. I stayed close to the door though and looked around, not ready to go back and face any possible awkward chit-chat.

As I looked around in no particular direction, until I say a guy exactly parallel to me and approximately four large steps in distance.

He had dirty blonde hair that was shaggy and in his face, slightly tanned skin, small eyes that from a distance seemed to be a light brown, and a full oval face.

He was looking to his left, wide-eyed and unattached to his environment, like he didn't really care where he was but he had a favorable indifference to it.

He turned his head forward and saw me, looked for a second and then went to looking back around him. I did the same, but looked back after a minute, and a few seconds after I looked so did he.

Not really interested in just continuing a staring contest, I waved slightly and twitched my lips into a one-sided smile. He waved back quickly as his eyes softened from their original widened glance and he returned a half smile as well before returning to his former stance.

For some odd reason, my inner voice (figurative not literal) kept telling me: this person is going to play an interesting role in your life, he'll be a part of it constantly.

My only responses were: Yeah right. And If I end up having a crush on this guy I'm gonna laugh, because that's just too easy.

I started smiling to myself at that last one, and saw he was looking at me again, then he seemed to get distracted by something else.

Alright this is ridiculous.

So I walked towards his direction, looking around me and not daring to look at him until I was almost right next to him.

He was off in his own little world until I greeted him with a simple "Hi."

He looked at me and smiled, "Hi."

I stuck my hand out, "Katy Weston."

"Nathan Brown." He replied, shaking my hand and smiling at the ground.

"So you like these dances?" I asked, trying to start a conversation. He nodded, his eyes widened as he responded,

"Yeah I guess, what about you?"

"I like 'em. Music is catchy, outfits are fun to look at."

He nodded, smiling slightly, "Yeah, they put together some interesting outfits."

"Yeah." I laughed slightly.

We sat in silence for moment as we looked on into the crowd.

"So," I started, 'What kind of subjects are you learning?"

"Um, just the usual history, math, science, a few language courses." He said.

"Really? How many languages do they teach here?"

"Not many, but I've always liked learning new things, languages especially."

"Well, my mom taught me a little French when I was younger; Je parle un peu le français, parlez-vous français? Parlez-vous anglais?" I said the last sentence jokingly.

He seemed to get a spark in his eyes as he stepped up to the challenge and replied, "Je parle anglais, français, russe, chinois, espagnol et un peu de latin."

I gave him an impressed look, only vaguely understanding that he basically spoke many languages and replied, "Oui?"

He smiled proudly and replied, "Oui, oui."

We both laughed at the short conversation and I said finally, "Well forgive me if I'm not as well-taught as you are my friend, I'm only twelve."

He quickly got a shocked look on his face and shook his head quickly before he asked, his eyes wide with clear astonishment, "You're twelve?!"

"Yeah, what grade are you?"

"Freshman, um, sorry but you just look like-well- a freshman." He said, still seeming to be in slight confusion but laughing it off all the same.

I smirk slightly and say with an amused tone, "Thanks, I appreciate that."

He smiled dramatically and nodded his head in a 'gentlemanly fashion'.

I can't believe it, I thought to myself, I actually got through a conversation with a person I've just met, and I didn't even think about resorting to sarcasm and I haven't thought of an actual judgment about him… Yet.

What is wrong with me?

I looked around the room for Damon and the rest of the gang, finding only Elena in the crowd, and from what it looked like she was very distressed about something.

I suddenly saw the phone she was talking into and realized this was probably the vampire; even worse, I didn't see Stefan anyway near Elena, and she was heading for the door already-probably not to get Stefan though.

"I have to go find my-guardian. It was nice meeting you Nathan!" I shouted as I started running through the crowd to find anyone who could help me.

"Damon?" I called, pushing my way past a few teenagers, "Damon!"

I was about to shout a third time until I saw him dancing with some girl, I pushed my way towards them and shouted again when I got near, "Damon!"

He and his temporary date looked at me and he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Elena. Doors. Over there." I pointed as I started towards that direction; he got the hint quickly and ran towards where I led him, pushing my shoulder slightly to make me go faster.

When we got to a certain point where I didn't know where to go, I stopped to look around and listen for anyone; that was too slow for Damon because he sped off when I turned around. I groaned in aggravation, until I heard some screaming in one direction.

I ran off to find myself in the cafeteria, once I got in there I saw Stefan manage to impale creeper vamp on a stake.

Walking in their direction, I pulled out my own stake from my jacket and stood next to Elena.

"Now you feel like talking?" Stefan asked.

"Screw you." The vampire said, prompting Stefan to shove the stake in deeper.

'Wrong answer." He told him, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because it's fun." I looked away from him in disgust and glared at Damon when I saw him smirking.

"What do you want with Elena?" Stefan questioned as he shoved the stake further then ever.

The vampire paused and then said, "She looks like Katherine."

I looked back at him finally, with the same look of slight shock as everyone else, well mostly everyone else.

"You knew Katherine?" Damon asked, mostly in disbelief.

"Aww," the vampire replied, "You thought you were the only ones. You don't even remember me."

Damon ignored him and demanded, "Tell me how to get into the tomb."

"No." Once again Stefan twisted the stake, making the vampire respond, "The Grimoire."

"Well where is it?"

I listened in closely, waiting for an answer-which had to be yet again prompted by a twist of the stake.

"Check the journal." He said, "The journal. Use Jonathan's journal. Jonathan Gilbert's."

I looked from the vampire, to Elena, to the guys, and back to the vampire.

"Who else is working with you?"

He didn't answer.

"Who else is there?" Damon asked.

"No." he said, "You're gonna have to kill me."

Damon rolled his eyes, then turned to Stefan and gave a look, after which Stefan finally staked him in the heart.

I looked away once he started completely drooping to the ground. I'd seen this more than enough times in my opinion.

After a minute, the three of them started talking again but I was deaf to it, I just suddenly felt very tired. Probably just the slowing of my heart rate maybe.

I only noticed them again when Damon ran off out of the cafeteria, leaving me Elena and Stefan with the body.

Stefan hugged Elena for a minute and then looked at her, "Hey, I've got to take care of this. Why don't you go take Katy back and enjoy the rest of the dance?"

She shook her head, "No, I can't go back there right now."

He nodded, "Okay, well then why don't you both go and wait in the car?" He suggested, taking out the keys from his pocket and handing them to her, "Here, I'll be out in a few minutes, keep your phone on you."

She nodded and turned around coming towards me, "Come on Katy, let's go." I only nodded and followed her to the car.

Once we got into the hallway I spoke,

"That was the vampire Stefan just killed on the phone a few minutes ago wasn't it?"

She looked stunned and stood in her place, she scrambled for words but I interrupted before she could speak, 'I saw you going in there, out of the gym. I got Damon when I saw you leaving."

She nodded.

"What were you thinking? Why is it that I, the twelve year old got an adult in a clearly dangerous situation before you!?" I demanded in a tone that started even and then jumped towards the end.

She sighed and looked at me intently, "He was going to kill my brother."

I stopped, understanding but still kind of upset at the situation for some reason I couldn't quite fathom, but I took a breath and replied,

"Oh. Well," I held my stake out in front of her, "God forbid you're put in that situation again, take this."

She started shaking her head in confusion, "Oh no Katy-"

"This isn't an early birthday gift, it's a weapon you clearly don't have, take it." I said sternly then sighed, "I have plenty more I made at home, just take it and hopefully you'll have better luck next time."

I promptly knocked on one of the wood door frames of a classroom after I put the stake in her hand, and saw Elena started laughing slightly.

"What? After tonight of all night can we really afford to be picky about our superstitions?"

"No," she laughed slightly, "It's not just that it's…"

"What?"

"You just called the Boarding house 'home'." She smiled.

I felt myself twitch slightly at the realization that I had been referring to that place as 'home' more and more now. I quickly shook it off though and replied,

"Okay Dr. Phil, let's get to the car." I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed her in the direction of the door.

A/N: Translations below

Katy: I speak a little French, do you speak French? Do you speak English?

Nathan: I speak English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and a little Latin.

Katy: Yes?

Nathan: Yes.