Elena was sitting by herself in the cafeteria for lunch. The day hadn't gone terribly, but it also wasn't fun. She almost wished she'd listened to her uncle and stayed home. Nothing overwhelmingly bad happened, but every time she saw Bonnie, the older girl was glaring at her. Stefan also gave her disapproving and angry looks all day. She didn't really care about Stefan, but Bonnie did bother her. Bonnie she still cared for.

Elena was pulled from her thoughts when someone sat down across from her. She looked up to see Caroline smiling at her.

"Hi," Caroline said with a smile.

"Hey. You don't have to sit with me," Elena said.

"I know. I want to. It's the first time I've had a chance to talk to you in about a week," Caroline said.

"Bonnie won't be happy that you're sitting with me," Elena said.

"Too bad. You're my friend too. If I want to sit with you, I will," Caroline said firmly.

"I…I don't want you to have to choose. I know I've put you in an awful position," Elena said.

Caroline grabbed her hand. "Elena, this isn't your fault. You didn't ask for any of this. I've tried to get Bonnie and Stefan to see that, but they won't listen."

"I don't care what Stefan thinks," Elena said.

"How come you seem to hate Stefan? I know he hasn't been himself lately, but that's because Klaus compelled him to turn off his humanity," Caroline said.

"No, his humanity is back on. It has been for a while. No humanity means no emotions. Stefan's blind rage towards Klaus is proof that his humanity was back on. It was certainly back on when he threated to drive me off of that bridge. Besides, even before then, it was getting harder and harder to look past his incredible stupidity," Elena said.

"I guess I didn't consider that, regarding his humanity. He shouldn't have done what he did to you. You probably also shouldn't have been dating him," Caroline said. At fifteen, she was too young to be dating someone Stefan's age, even taking away the fact that he was a vampire that was turned in the eighteen hundreds.

"Yeah, Elijah told me the same thing," Elena said.

"But I know at fifteen, I definitely would've found the attention of a seventeen-year-old boy very alluring. There was no one around to tell you it was a bad idea," Caroline said.

"There is now. Elijah says I can't have any more contact with Stefan. Not that I really want to," Elena said.

"How has it been with the Mikaelson's. They've been treating you okay, right?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah, it's been okay, except now I have a bunch of rules I have to follow. Elijah is really strict. He reminds me of my mom. It's nice in a way, but really annoying in a lot of other ways," Elena said.

Caroline laughed. "I can imagine. There's been no one to keep you in check for a long time. Ric and Jenna just let you do what you wanted."

"Yeah, it was nice," Elena said with a pout, causing Caroline to laugh again.

"Caroline, what are you doing?" an irritated voice called out.

Caroline turned to see Bonnie there. "Exactly what it looks like. I'm having lunch with a friend. You're welcome to join us if you can be friendly."

"She is not your friend! She is trespassing in our friend's body!" Bonnie snapped.

"Bonnie, stop it! Elena had no control over what happened. She didn't ask for any of it," Caroline said.

"That is not Elena!" Bonnie said a bit loudly.

"Keep your voice down!" Caroline whispered harshly before standing up.

"Why should I? What do I care if the entire world hears it? She's essentially a murderer!" Bonnie said.

Elena laughed bitterly, drawing their attention to her. "You're one to freaking talk! How about all the people you helped kill because of that device of John's? Like the Mayor?"

"They were vampires!" Bonnie snapped quietly.

"And that means they deserved to die? What about Mayor Lockwood? He wasn't a vampire," Elena said. True, most of those vampires did deserve it, but Bonnie damn well had no business calling anyone a murderer. Elena didn't hold what she did against Bonnie, but she was also going to defend herself when necessary.

"Okay, you both need to stop! We're in public," Caroline said as she glared at Bonnie. Elena wasn't innocent either, but Bonnie had provoked her, and Bonnie was much older than Elena. She should know better.

"Get her out of my face then," Elena said before getting up. She turned to walk away and came face to face with Stefan. "Oh, you people are just determined to make me break my uncle's rules on the first day, aren't you?"

"Elena, we need to talk," Stefan said.

"I have nothing to say to you," Elena said as she started to walk away.

Stefan grabbed her arm. "No! You don't get to walk away from me after what you did!"

"Let me go," Elena said in warning tone. She was seconds away from using her magic to break his arm if he didn't remove his hand from her arm.

"No, you owe me an explanation! You lied to me for months! I have a right to know why!" Stefan said angrily.

"Stefan, let her go now!" Caroline ordered before pulling his hand off of Elena.

"I don't know you a damned thing! Anything I might have owed you went away when you tried to drive me off a bridge! Not to mention the countless other times your stupidity almost got me someone I cared about killed," Elena told him.

"What is wrong with you, Stefan. This is completely inappropriate. You were told to stay away from her. Not only did you ignore that order, you put your hands on her! Are you truly that stupid?!" Caroline asked fuming.

"Me? She lied to all of us! She was a kid and she started a relationship with me," Stefan said.

"Yeah, you said it right, Stefan. She was a kid! She made a mistake. You are an adult. Deal with it. You feel wronged? Fine. I won't even say you're wrong to feel that way, but you don't get to put your hands on a child because of it!"

"It's a little much to call her a child, Caroline," Bonnie said.

"No, it's not," Carolien said before rounding on her friend once more. She walked over and spoke quietly. "You don't seem to grasp that for some reason. I get that you're hurting, so am I, but what you don't seem to grasp is that Elena is fifteen-years-old. She was twelve when all of this happened. Twelve-year-olds don't make decisions like body jumping! They barely make any decisions for themselves. Their parents do it for them. Can you really not understand that that is what happened? Elena's mother made a desperate decision to protect her."

"Yeah, I already know her mother was an evil bitch!" Bonnie snarled.

"Don't you talk about my mother!" Elena snapped as she raised her hand.

"Elena, no," Caroline said before grabbing her arm. "Come on. The bell is going to ring soon. We should go to class."

Elena glared at Bonnie before walking away with Caroline.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Elijah led his niece into the mansion. She hadn't said a word since he picked her up from school, which was enough to tell him something was wrong. Any attempt to get her to talk about it had failed so far.

Elena immediately headed for the stairs when they got inside, but Elijah stopped her by taking ahold of her arm.

"Not so fast," Elijah said as he turned her towards him. "Listen, you do not have to tell me what's bothering you if you don't want to, but I need to at least know if someone hurt you."

"I'm fine," Elena told him.

"That doesn't answer my question. Did anyone do anything to harm you?" Elijah asked.

Elena was reluctant. She didn't like Stefan much lately, but she wasn't sure she wanted him dead either, and there was a good chance he'd end up dead if she told Elijah what happened.

"Elena," Elijah said in a warning tone.

"Stefan grabbed my arm. Caroline pulled him off of me though," Elena said.

"Roll up your sleeve please," Elijah said. His voice was calm, but he was far from pleased. Stefan would suffer the consequences for that.

"Uncle Elijah…"

"Now," he ordered.

Elena did as her uncle asked and rolled up the sleeve to her left arm.

Elijah gently took her arm. He could see a handprint forming just above her elbow. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really," Elena said. Sometimes it was a little sore to the touch, but that was all.

"You will probably have a bruise, but you will be alright. Elena, I know I said no magic in public, but if someone puts their hands on you again, you have my permission to whatever is necessary to protect yourself," Elijah said.

"Okay. Can I go now?"

"In a minute. I know you don't want to talk about it, but I want you to know that you can. You can talk to anyone here about what's bothering you," Elijah told her.

Just then, Rebekah appeared from the doorway to the living room. "Go away, Elijah. This is girl talk."

Elijah looked at his sister for a minute before nodded. "Very well."

Rebekah reached her hand out for Elena. "Come on."

Elena took her hand and let her lead her to the living room. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Too bad. You need to, and I think you need a woman to talk to. Sit," Rebekah said before taking a seat.

Elena sat next to her.

"So, what did that Bennett bitch do?" Rebekah asked.

"What makes you think it was her?" Elena asked.

"Because you don't care enough about Stefan for it be him. Even him grabbing you, which he will pay dearly for, wouldn't cause you to be this upset," Rebekah said.

Elena explained to Rebekah what happened at school. She didn't really want to, but she knew Rebekah wasn't going to let it go.

"Little bitch. We'll make her pay for that. Honestly, she must have a screw lose to believe that a twelve-year-old has any control whatsoever in what happens to her," Rebekah said.

"She called my mom evil. I almost broke Uncle Elijah's rules when she did that and used magic," Elena said before looking at Rebekah apologetically. She now got exactly why her aunt was so upset this morning. "I…I'm sorry."

Rebekah didn't even need to ask what Elena meant. She knew what she was apologizing for. "I know you are. I heard your conversation with Elijah and I also talked with Kol. I know you didn't mean to be insensitive. The thing I have to remember is that you are not who I thought you were. You are not an adult who should know better. You're a child. You'll say and do things that maybe you shouldn't."

"I hate it when people say that," Elena grumbled. That's all she heard lately, that she was a child. She hated it, even if it was technically true.

Rebekah laughed. "I'm sure you do. I accept your apology. I know you weren't trying to upset me, and I also know that my mother has done terrible things that have impacted your life. I don't expect you to like her, but I would like it if you'd just be a little more aware of what you're saying from now on."

"I'll try. If you felt anything like I did today, I definitely understand," Elena said.

"Great. Now, let's talk about how we're going to get our revenge on the Bennett bitch," Rebekah said with a smirk.

"You'll do no such thing!" Elijah's voice called out.

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "He's always been a killjoy."

Elena chuckled. "My mom's a lot like him. I can picture her saying that. I should get to my homework. There's a lot of it, since I missed almost a week."

"I'll help you," Rebekah said as she stood up. "Hey, I was wondering something. You told us you never had any intention of Nik dying, so why did you try to get me to kill him. Why tell me that he killed my mother the first time?"

Elena stood up and smirked. "Because I get petty when people piss me off. Klaus killed Jenna and turned off Stefan's humanity. When I found out he killed your mom, I decided to get a little revenge through you."

Rebekah laughed. "Oh, Elena, we're going to get along so well," she said as they walked out of the room.