Hello, my lovely readers. This chapter is a bit angsty and moving us closer to the teenage years. Oh, and there's a bit of Kol and yet another character from TO. For answers to reviews and other comments please check the end note. On with the show…
Chapter 41: I love You a Little Less
2000:
"I hate you," Caroline snapped at me and I glared.
"I hate you more," I snarled back.
"You're not worth my breath," Caroline hissed.
"You're not worth my bothering to lift the phone," I informed her.
"Whatever," Caroline scoffed. "As if you have better things to do."
"I do have many better things to do," I replied hoarsely. "I have a ton of homework," I told her.
"Then get off the phone if you have better things to do," Caroline said sullenly. "I have to go shopping with Lena and Bon."
"So? Shopping is stupid. What do you need, love? Another pink purse or a tiara to remind the commoners that you're another bloody queen of Kat's court?" I inquired, hoping that it would enrage her.
"You're a petty, little man, Nik. I think I'm going to go out with Matt to this dance tomorrow night," Caroline announced.
"Why don't you, sweetheart. Then I can go out with Enzo and one of the tarts from the local girl's school," I spoke slowly so that Caroline would hear every word.
"Why don't you?" Caroline replied icily. "Why don't you marry one of them?"
"Maybe I will," I retorted.
"Maybe I'll marry Matt. Or Stefan. Or Tyler. Or Elijah," Caroline told me.
"Whatever," I snapped.
"I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve?" Caroline inquired with a nasty little giggle.
"No, Caroline, you did not. I was just thinking of how much I would like to take your friend, Bonnie, out to this dance at my school next month," I murmured and Caroline gasped before recovering.
"I think that you should date Damon. I always thought you two would make a cute couple," Caroline hissed at me and I smiled. Yes, I had finally pushed her to her limit.
"You're right. I know that we would make quite the fetching pair," I whispered, pushing her just a little further. Then there was the sound of the click in my ear and I smiled.
Walking back down the hall, I headed into my room. "Did you and Caroline have a nice talk?" Damon asked me and I shrugged.
"No," I told him.
"What else is new?" Marcel said. "I tell you, man, you need to find a new chick to crush on," he waved at the growing wall of pictures of various girls from the all girl's school. "See all these cuties. They are all starved for attention from fine looking men like the four of us."
"Here, here," Enzo cheered. "I say that we go out tonight and look for girls to distract ourselves with from our worries."
"We have an exam tomorrow morning," I reminded him.
"And, your point is?" Enzo asked me.
Rolling my eyes, I sat down on my bed. "Do as you wish, Enzo." I did not look up while Enzo, Marcel and Damon left the room. I was too buy plotting revenge upon my Father for sending me away. He could not do this to me. I had not killed anyone. Nor was I a criminal of any type. Whereas he was. He had not paid his taxes for quite some time and that information could cause him quite a bit of harm. He could even go to prison. However, the chances that Mikael would not find out who had him sent to prison were minimal. And did I truly want to send my Father to prison?
Forcing myself to my feet, I began to pace my room. It was far too small. Walking out the door, I headed down to the next level and walked down the hall. Tapping on the door, I did not wait for a response. This was my school now. I could bloody well do as I pleased here. "Kol," I addressed the boy lying on his back with a small amphibian on his lap.
"Yes, Nik," Kol replied, picking up the frog which rebited and set it on his knees as he sat up. "What do you want?" his eyes were puffy and I groaned internally. He had been crying again. The other boys were going to be on him about it if he did not learn to act like a man. His outbursts during the first week of classes had become knowledge of the entire school and I had had to scare a few of the upper class boys to make sure they kept their mouths and their fists off of Kol.
It was a good thing that Kol spent most of his time with either one of the bloody frogs or with Stefan because he would probably be in the infirmary by now if he did not. "The other boys hate me," Kol announced, patting his frog. "They say that I am a cry baby. But I'm not. Nik. I don't mean to be." Looking at his frog, Kol's lower lip began to tremble and I groaned aloud. "See, even you think it," he cried.
"I think that you need to accept that we're stuck here, Kol. You have to make the best of a messy situation," I told him. "Let's go outside and do something. Shall we?"
Kol nodded. Picking up his frog, he sat the creature on top of his science text and walked out the door with me. We exited the building and I took him to the pond where the girl with the pebbles had taught me how to skip stones was. I had not seen Genevieve in months and from time to time I thought that I made her up in my head. But as we walked down to the pond I found her under the tree. That was quite odd. And she was still wearing that dress, the one that I had seen her wearing the day we met.
"Hey," she cried when she saw me and dusted her dress off, just like last time. "I was hoping that I would see you again."
"Hey, Genevieve," I greeted her with a smile. "This is my brother, Kol."
"Hi, Kol. It's very nice to meet you," Genevieve said, holding out her hand, she shook hands with Kol who grinned up at her displaying a gap where his two front teeth were missing. "How old are you, Kol?" she asked and Kol held up seven fingers. "You're seven. Well, look at that. You're nearly a man."
"I am?" Kol's eyes widened as he thought about this concept. "Cool." Turning to me, he grinned happily. "Nik, I'm going to be a man soon," he announced proudly.
"Rightly so," I replied, ruffling his hair. "Now, would you like to learn how to skip stones because we have an expert in our very midst," I informed Kol who turned to look at Genevieve skeptically.
Scratching his head with one hand, Kol placed his free hand on his hip and tipped his head upward to examine Genevieve. "You know how to skip stones? But you're a girl."
Genevieve gave Kol a mock horrified look. "I am?" she began to pat herself down and then looked at her body. "My God. You're right. I am a girl. Oh, dear. All these years I wondered about that."
Kol began to laugh. "You're odd," he told her. Looking up at me, he smiled happily. "I like her."
"Yeah," I replied. "She's not too bad."
"Now for the stone skipping event," Genevieve announced, picking up a handful that she never seemed to be without, she tossed a stone and watched it dance along the water. "So, how are you treating the little blonde girl?" she asked conversationally and I looked at her feeling startled while Kol looked for stones to throw.
"How do you know about her?" I demanded more harshly than I had intended.
Genevieve looked amused as she pursed her lips and threw another pebble. "You can't keep a secret in this area for long."
"I thought you were visiting?" I replied quickly as Genevieve took a third pebble and threw it, watching it skip almost endlessly across the water as the sun set. She flicked her gaze in my direction with a half-smile on her face that told me she knew much more than she was going to tell me. I wondered how much more and from whom.
"Oh, I think you should relax. Life is far too short to worry about details," Genevieve told me. "Now, Kol, come here. It's time to skip your first stone." Kol came over to her and she stood behind him, taking his small wrist in her hand, she moved it at an angle and then threw the stone. Kol clapped when it skipped five times and then sunk.
"I want to do that again," Kol announced. Taking another pebble from the pile he had laid aside, he tossed and it bounced along the water numerous times before it sank to the bottom.
"Why are you still here?" I asked Genevieve who was ignoring me as she tossed pebble after pebble over the water's surface.
"Why aren't you back at home with the little blonde girl?" Genevieve shot back.
"Because Elijah did a bad thing," Kol announced. "Now, we're all in trouble 'cause Father is angry."
"Oh, and what was the bad thing you brother did?" Genevieve asked and I looked at Kol who kept his mouth shut for once. Straightening up, Genevieve shrugged. "And, see, I thought that we were friends and friends tell each other things…"
"Yes, well, you are not telling me why it is you are still here," I pointed out.
"I can't leave," she told me matter-of-factly. Blinking, I looked at the girl. "I can never leave. I get to spend eternity watching other people living their lives and skipping stones. It gets lonely sometimes but at least now you're here to keep me company once in a while. That makes it a little less horrible."
"How can you be stuck here?" I asked her, feeling confused.
"Because I'm dead, silly," Genevieve replied with a laugh as she shook her head and skipped another stone.
I shook my head. "That is impossible. You can't be dead. You skip stones. You touched me. You touched Kol for God's sake," I said, my voice rising as I waved at Kol who looked from me to the girl who proclaimed herself to be a ghost. Kol took his stone and threw it at the girl and I opened my mouth to yell at him when it passed right through her.
"How?" I said and stared at Genevieve in astonishment.
"I touch what I wish to touch and I do not what I don't want to touch. You could shoot me and even if the bullet stuck there wouldn't be any blood and it wouldn't kill me," she told me and I could only shake my head.
"Kol, we're going. Now!" I shouted, taking ahold of my brother's hand, I began to drag him away.
"But I want to skip stones with the pretty ghost," Kol complained, digging in his heels.
"Too bad," I snapped, picking him up, I set him on my hip and carried him kicking and screaming back to the main building. After entering, I walked up to my room and then I sat Kol on my bed before heading back to my door and slamming it closed. "Do not ever talk to that girl again. Do you hear me," I demanded as I stood over Kol who was gulping down sobs but nodded.
Turning around I headed for the door. "I need to make a phone call. Do not move a muscle," walking down the hallway, I grabbed the telephone receiver and pressed it to my ear before I hit a number. "Hello, Mrs. Bennett. I'm well. Thank you. May I speak to Bonnie? Yes, I know that it is late but it's rather important."
Waiting for Shelia Bennett to wake her granddaughter, I leaned against the wall and slumped down on the floor. "Klaus?" Bonnie called into the phone. "Do you know what time it is?" she asked, yawning.
"Yes, I do," I replied shortly. "Have you ever met a ghost?"
"No, why, did you?" Bonnie asked and I could hear voices in the background.
"I hope it gobbles him up," Caroline huffed in the background.
"I wish it would come and gobble up Elijah," Elena muttered. "I don't like him."
"Yes, Elena, we know that," Bonnie snapped before coming back on the line. "Where did you meet it?"
I was not sure I wanted to tell her for some reason. "Close by," I replied.
"Oh, and did it speak to you?" Bonnie inquired.
"Yes, but it did not have anything special to say," I told her.
"Then why do you care?" Caroline snapped and I realized that Bonnie had placed me on speakerphone.
"I don't," I snapped back. "Just wanted to know what a witch might think about it, not what a want-to-be prom queen thinks."
"Shut up, Klaus," Elena yelled.
"With pleasure," I yelled back and hung up. 'The girls are really beginning to become obnoxious,' I thought as I strode back to my room. When I got there, Kol was gone. Looking under the bed, in the closets and the bathroom, I could not find him. Racing down to his room, I found that Kol was not there either. "Damn it," I snarled, running out of the room, I nearly slammed into Diego.
"Klaus, your friend, Bonnie, called. Said something about a ghost problem you were having," Diego told me and I felt my anger rising.
"Tell her to call me back. Or take a message. I don't care. Just get out of the way. Kol is missing," I yelled before shoving him out of my way and storming down the hall. Kol was my responsibility. I had to find him. Yes, he could be a pain in my arse but he was my brother. That meant when I found him I intended on thrashing him within an inch of his life.
Heading down the stairs, I ran back toward the pond and found Kol sitting on the bank. His face was wet from crying again. "She's gone," he whimpered.
"What?" I was too confused to understand what he was going on about.
"The ghost girl with the pebbles. She's gone, Nik. You were mean and she left," looking up at me, he began to sob. "She reminded me of Mother. I want my Mother," he cried and I sat down and gathered him close to me.
"Kol," I whispered, rubbing his back. This was not like Kol. He was the prankster, not the one who cried all the time. What had happened to my fun loving kid brother?
"They don't love us any more, Nik," Kol moaned. "They have Henrick and they think he's better because he's all new and shiny and doesn't piss on Mother's plants like I used to," he moaned, pulling off his shoes and throwing them into the pond.
Sighing, I picked Kol up and carried him back to the main building again. He was half asleep when I carried him back to his room and laid him down. Stefan was already sound asleep in his own bed. Walking up to my room, I noticed that the phone in the hallway was ringing. Walking over to it warily, I plucked the receiver up and answered. "Hello?"
"Nik," Caroline replied and this time she only sounded concerned. "I've been calling for the last twenty minutes. Where have you been? Did you find Kol? Diego told Bonnie that you said he was missing and I thought it was a bad practical joke but then I thought about it and then I got worried. Is he okay? He didn't fall in the pond, did he? And is it cold there because I know that last year he didn't wear a sweater one night and got a really bad cold and -"
"Caroline," I called, cutting her off mid-sentence. "Kol is fine. I found him and he's tucked into his bed as we speak."
"Oh, good," Caroline replied slowly and I could almost hear her smiling. "Okay. Good-night, Nik."
"Night, Caroline," I said and hung up. Walking back to my room, I had my hand on the door knob when the phone rang. Pausing, I looked at it before I trudged back over to it and answered. "Hello?"
"Nik…" Caroline began and then stopped. "Did I say good night?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Okay," Caroline said. "That's it."
"Alright," I said and hung up. Walking away, I was five feet toward the door when the phone rang. Walking back toward it, I picked it up. "Yes, love, what is it?"
"I don't hate you," Caroline whispered and then she hung up again. Holding the receiver in my hand, I shook my head and then set it in its cradle. Standing beside the phone, I watched it for thirty seconds before it rang again. Not bothering to speak when I grabbed the receiver I waited for Caroline to. "Is the ghost a girl?" she asked quietly.
"I don't hate you either, Caroline. Good night," I replied and hung up before she could reply. This time when the phone began to ring, I picked it up and then set it down on the floor. It was far past her bed time and she was running up Mrs. Bennett's phone bill. Walking into my room, I found that there was someone else in my bed with short, brown hair. Pulling back the covers, I laid down and did not protest when Kol laid his head on my chest and threw a leg over mine. Tomorrow I would make him sleep in his own bed but tonight I knew that he needed to know that someone wanted him around. And so did I with our family split across the country and the girl who was part of my mental family was too far away to reach.
I want to take this time to repeat to readers that I was not angry about the response to chapter 39. People get busy. I don't review every single thing I read as much as I would like to.
My disappointment stemmed from my fear that readers could not see past their dislike of Hayley and actually see that what was important was the subject. That a young girl was being sexually abused and if not for Caroline's interference the girl would have continued to be abused. In other words the core of the chapter was trying to shine a light on a topic that many people cannot find words for. I wrote it as a survivor of said abuse and writing chapter 39 was one of the hardest things that I have written. (Btw, the chapter is not autobiographical, but it is someone's story and that is the frightening part because that girl may not be lucky enough to have a Caroline in her corner.) And that is the last time I am going to talk about this subject. At least in this story. Although it is revisited in the sequel.
Thank you to everyone who has read, faved, followed and reviewed this chapter.
Answers to reviews:
Alexis2106: Thank you. I wanted to lighten things up after the previous chapter. I really try to think about what to have these kids say and they're a little bit crazy. We will get some Kalijah moments later in the story.
cchavli: You're welcome. Yes, Kat will still be in the story. It's just that mini Nina said she really needed to take a break from playing two parts and it's so confusing to play a child of ten and another at age sixteen. I think all that stooping over to play Elena is giving her a back ache…
Guest: I completely agree with you which makes it difficult to answer questions at times when people insist that a character is out of character. Then I shake my head and try to understand what in the hell they're saying to me. I love Caroline as she grows up and she's still innocent about things in spite of things that she knows about in the world.
CB4389: Answer to the review of chapter 39: Yes, Hayley's adoptive father was abusive and, yes, he did rape her. repeatedly until Liz Forbes took her in with no knowledge of what was happening to the girl she was taking in.
Answer to chapter 40: "The talk." Oh, it is a grand time in one's youth. Eeekkkk. Cringe. Shudder. Caroline was terribly excited about her new "boobs" or lack thereof and she did need to keep them to herself. There will be more Kat in later chapters. I can't say when Nik and some other characters will be going home because then I will spoil the story.
tippy093: Okay, so the story started in 1996 and I need to post that. Honestly, I can not keep their ages straight so I'll have to PM you sometime, probably next week.
Rose: Klaus does have Kol but as you can see that means that he also has someone to take care of. Elijah will try his best and I can't tell you whether Bekah is going away because then I'l ruin it for you. Well, the story is already written so there isn't really going to be compelling Mikael into anything. And sometimes life needs to fall apart for people to learn life lessons, in this case the hard way. I know. There was a part of me that was like "Why in the hell am I splitting this group apart?" And, again, it's about growing up.
Caroline was happy and it says something about the way that women are taught to value themselves in American culture, even today. Klaus is becoming a bit out of control and that is something that he will have to deal with as he grows up.
I completely understand that everyone has ships that they prefer and characters that they prefer to read about. The only thing I will say is that I started to read fics about other pairings, some I'm not fond of such as Stelena because I became so sick of the shipping wars that I was like, "Hello, we're losing the point here, people. We're fans and we should respect others' right to ship whoever the hell they want to ship. But sometimes that is a little more difficult to actually do than to say. And the saddest part is that there are some really talented writers out there and we don't read their works because we're like "Ugh. Shiver. I hate that pairing," and then we miss that truly wonderful story.
As for my personal feelings, I only get pissed off when reviewers start writing hate. Like so and so is a - and - and a -. You get the point. Then I get a little testy especially if I ask readers to not do that and then they start insulting me personally. That's a bit much and it did happen on one occasion and most of the hate was directed at Lena and Kat. But I've received hate about most of the characters at some point.
And I do not want to make any readers feel as if I'm trying to force them to like a character. I stopped liking Katherine during season five and that's my prerogative but I still write about her because she was in this fic and others so I try to remember her when I did like her.
You did not insult me. However, one tiny request would be that I get you don't like Hayley i. e. that sentiment does not bear repetition.
ScarlettRose: Hello, That's cool. I completely understand that people have lives.
As for the review thing, I've seen those reviews and I've even read stories where people wrote things that made me stop reading due to "Oh, my God, that is a bit much!" And you know that I do not shy away from dark themes. But I agree with Bekah in TO, "We don't hurt children!" You have to have a line that you don't cross. Sounds funny given some of the content in this story, right?
We don't get to choose who we care for and I think that Katherine and Damon could have had an interesting friendship. As for Klaus and Kat as a couple, I think they would have been like the Tudors, only scarier. Which could be interesting to read about.
I think Klaus would like to pretend that Stefan never said he was going to have sex with Bekah, at least for now.
I used to ship Kalijah because I felt like they really ought to have a right to at least see whether they could work as a couple. The problem that I had with them was that they were both so damaged by the time that they tried that they could not trust each other and be open. Or maybe that's all because they needed to put an end to Kalijah due to TO. But, honestly, that did not make sense given that Nina could always do a crossover. Joseph did.
I get what you mean by seeing Elijah and Hayley needing each other because they had no one else to talk to, more or less with Klaus trying to scare them both most of the time. But I think, and this is just how I read them, that Hayley was more open and learned to be honest with Elijah. (Of course, because Klaus was looking forward to seeing Caroline he kind of helped that along. Can't remember what episode of TO that was though.) Anyway, I will shut up about them now.
I don't want Jackson to die because he can always become Cami's new love interest. That's a joke.
I love Marcel. He's fun to look at and he's funny and I just love him. Someone said something about Ian wouldn't work on TO because he's too much like Marcel. And I was like "What the F-? Seriously! They would be absolutely awesome together!" And, yes, Josh would die all over again from going. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Davinnnnnnnaaaaaaaaa. I'm in love! Please, let him be gay or at the very least bi? Oh, please!" I miss Rebekah and am looking forward to her appearances next season. I reallllllyyyyyy miss Rebel. They were fun.
Thank you. I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing with Enzo and Benzo or Bonenzo or Bonzo or whatever are going to be a lot of fun to write about.
I can see what I can do with Silas and Kat. Thank you for the idea. That could be fun, too.
I can't make any promises about Bekah because it's been written. I can't go back. Too many other stories.
I will work on updating TL and thank you for remembering that Jeremy is hot. All I have to do is see him without his shirt or listen to my friend, Forbes Fabulous go on about him or Kol. She's in love with both of them and I have to make fun of her every time I can.
Peace and thank you for reading,
Jessica