Rebel Just For Kicks: Kol Mikaelson [1]

28: Plan B

It'd been a few days since MJ had gotten her hands on the moonstone, and in that time, she'd drawn herself a chessboard. She knew Katherine wasn't playing chess, but it was a useful outline. Chess had too many rules for MJ's taste, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to play well. Chess, games; they'd always been her mother's thing. She and her brother used to play together as a way to stay in contact. Eventually, he'd stopped making moves, and it had turned into something she'd done as an extracurricular club—that and mahjong and card games.

She'd stayed up all night to create a list of people who were at risk, or manipulatable, and then she'd written a list of things she needed to do to work out what spell was in the moonstone. Every time MJ touched it, she felt like she was going to lose control, which wasn't helpful considering she needed to touch it to get a reading on the magic.

Hitting a bit of a wall at around 3 a.m., caused her to take a break.

She sat at her sewing machine, letting herself lose control there.

The fabric moved through her hand, the sound of the needle going up and down, taking her away until she found a momentary peace. Her mind switched off, body taking over for a suspended moment as layers were pulled together, turned, and smoothed out. As she embroidered pink into black, as she made a cuff around the top, as MJ stopped the machine to handle the more delicate material with her hands, she relaxed.

She'd started the dress a few days prior, and the satisfaction she found in finishing it made breathing feel light and natural.

She blinked.

Her apartment had become a mess of fabric and string. There was a teacup on her left, half-finished and balancing precariously on the edge of the table.

She'd forgotten it was there.

She snapped her fingers, everything tidying up around her, and then she stepped away. MJ didn't know how long she'd been sewing, but she knew she didn't have a day off. She had work in the morning, and then she was helping set up for the Founder's Month Masquerade in the afternoon.

She showered, drank a special 'Wake Me Up' concoction to try and push back the lack of sleep feeling, then headed out.

Work was good for her. Having something to do where she could be unobserved allowed her to exist at ease. Tobias Fell still hadn't noticed her use of magic to organise the store, which helped her do homework while still appearing like a perfect employee. Homework or reading. Working in a bookshop was basically the only reason she did any wider reading because costumers were always recommending things.

Once she entered the Lockwood Mansion, she had to put her face back on. Carol's eyes were still following her from a distance, Tyler needed a friend, Elena and Stefan were fighting, and Bonnie was back in their lives after what felt like forever. Caroline's mother was being held in the Salvatore Basement until the vervain was out of her system because she'd learnt the truth about everything at the Volunteer Day.

A lot was going on, and MJ was keeping track of all of it in her Katherine Battle notebook.

The Liz in the basement thing was awful. Stefan had texted MJ about the things she'd said about Caroline, and about vampires, and MJ couldn't believe that all hell had managed to break loose at the Park right after she'd left it.

She'd also been told about Damon doing good by Caroline and Liz...which was nice to hear.

Maybe he was finally starting to realise he couldn't just do nice things for Elena if he wanted to work with the group.

"I can't believe there are more of these events," Tyler groaned to Matt and MJ as they helped him rearrange a room in the house.

"Dude, a masked ball is cool," MJ shook her head at him.