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"I know you're still getting used to 21st century technology, Kiara, but when you see my name pop up on your phone accompanied by an excessive ringing. You answer the bloody phone." Nik's voicemail rattles on. I'm about to stop the phone when I realize the message isn't over. "This is Nik by the way."
"Should I call him back, or let him wait?" I ask Kol, he chuckles walking out of the bathroom drying his hair with a towel after having showered.
He walks over and grabs the phone out of my hand and throws it on the bed in the hotel room we have been staying in. "Let him ponder, we have work to do. Especially you." He goes over to one of the drawers and pulls out a T-Shirt putting it on.
"I really don't want to do this." I told him but I knew he didn't really care.
"We all have to do things we don't want to do in the name of always and forever or whatever." He explains.
I continue my pouting plopping back on the bed. "I never much cared for that vow. I much prefer it being just you and me."
He plops down right next to me, sighing loudly as if to get my attention. "It's not like this is your first trip to high school."
"But I hate high school, like I'd rather do just about anything." He grabs my arm, making me sit up and get off the bed.
He reached back, taking my phone back from where he had thrown it and placed it back in my hands. "I'm only a phone call away."
"For someone who hates high school almost as much as I do, you seem awfully chipper." I comment, annoyed at his cheerful demeanor. His smile only grew wider disregarding my words which only made an unsure feeling in my stomach grow. "You're scaring the hell out of me, you know.
"We have to get going, Kiara. Or you'll be late for your first day." Kol tries to ignore me, I'm sure laughing internally but I had no intentions of leaving this room.
I shake my head sporadically, "Over my cold desiccated body."
"Don't make me carry you out of here." He threatens.
"You wouldn't dare." I challenge not expecting him to do anything but he challenges my challenge, throwing me over his shoulder while I kick him repeatedly. He keeps walking anyway all the way out the door. He doesn't set me down till I'm in the passenger seat of the car he had compelled us the other day. "I hate you."
"You love me, remember? It's just you and me." He responds, getting into the driver's side buckling his seat belt.
"I'm starting to hate that vow too." I mutter knowing he can hear me.
I waited for him to pull away from the hotel but it never came. I turned my head to see him staring at me. "Why the hell are you staring at me?"
"You should really buckle your seat belt." Thinking he was joking I laughed at the comment until I noticed he wasn't laughing with me. "I'm serious, Kiki. If we were to get in an accident, you'd fly right through the window."
I roll my eyes feeling a headache forming in the already early day. "Hey, Kol, sweetie. You do realize we are immortal right. We can't die."
"Just because you don't die doesn't mean it doesn't hurt." He continued staring at me until I inevitably got annoyed with the action and buckled the seat belt across my chest. "Glad to see you came to your senses."
With that he finally pulled away and headed towards the bland looking high school down the street from the hotel.
When we arrived at the school we both got out and walked into the principal's office so that Kol could get me enrolled. "Hello, I'm Kol Mikaelson. I called you last night about registering my little sister into your school."
"I'm sorry for whatever miscommunication you received, but it's the middle of the week. Your sister won't be able to start here until at least next Monday." The poor secretary told Kol, unaware of what was about to happen to her.
I watched from the chair closest to the door wanting to have a quick escape at any moment, my eyes drifted to Kol as a small smirk grew across his lips. He makes the women look into his eyes before he decides to speak another word. "I'm sure you can make room for my darling, little sister. You can arrange her schedule as well so that she has every class with a sophomore who goes by the name of Jeremy Gilbert."
The woman looks away from Kol to type at her computer. "I'm so glad your sister is able to join our school! I'm just gonna need some information for my files if you don't mind, Kiddo." She directs towards me, forcing me to stand up and walk next to my brother.
The women went to the back through one of the doors, probably to get the papers she printed off. "Kiddo? I'm easily a thousand years older than her." I whisper angrily to Kol watching as the receptionist walks back into the room.
"Let's start simple, young lady. Can you tell me your name?"
"Kiara Mikaelson."
"Any middle name?"
As I am about to respond with the true answer of 'no', Kol jumps in first. "Yes, it's Isabella. Kiara Isabella Mikaelson. She was just so beautiful when she was born that our parents wanted to name her something that said that."
I rolled my eyes as the receptionist began to ask me more questions. "Birthday?"
"July 14, 1995." I responded after looking up the right year earlier this morning.
"Grade?"
"Whichever one Jeremy Gilbert's in?"
"That's not really how this works-" I cut her off before she could keep rambling and asking me questions.
I look deep into her eyes and use one of my favorite tools for an easier life, compulsion. "You, young lady, are done asking me stupid questions. Fill in the rest of your charts with whatever you want. Have my brother here, sign whatever needs to be signed and give me a schedule that is identical to Jeremy Gilbert's. Understood."
My compulsion ends and the lady goes back to typing on her computer. I go back to my chair with Kol eyeing me as the lady goes to get something else off the printer. "Someone's a little cranky today?"
"Shove it, asshole." I responded as the secretary placed a paper on top of the table.
Kol took it and passed it back to me. "Now you little delinquent, get to..." He looked at the schedule reading the first period. "Art class. Wow, this kid really is a nerd."
I took it out of his hand and made my way into the stupid high schools stupid hallways, to Mrs. McKinley's Sophomore art class.
This is gonna be a long day.
When I finally found my way to the room I walked straight in, the sound of the door making everyone turn to me. "Uh, hi. I'm Kiara. I'm new here." I tell the teacher showing her the schedule in my hand.
"Find an empty spot, we're just getting started. I'll get you what you need." I look around the room for one specific face that belonged to a certain Gilbert boy and luckily for me when I found him, there was an open spot right next to him.
I walk over and sit in the chair, putting my small bag on the floor beside me. The teacher came back with some supplies and placed it in front of me before explaining the assignment. "Ok class. Today we are going to be learning how to interpret your subject, because art is more than just drawing what you see. You have to draw what someone feels." She explains fitting my description of a typical art teacher.
Nevertheless she managed to keep a group of high schoolers attention on her for more than a minute so I was intrigued. "Look at the person next to you." I look at the Gilbert boy and he faces me, his big brown doe eyes looking into my hazel ones, a small smile growing on his face. "Your assignment is to talk to this person. Learn as much as you can about them and once you think you've learned enough, learn more than draw them as their soul, not just their face."
She heads back to her desk clearly drawing a picture of her own design. "I'm Jeremy Gilbert." He sticks his hand out for me to shake.
"Kiara Mikaelson." I smile while taking his hand. "So it seems we are going to get to know each other quite well, Jeremy Gilbert."
"So where are you from? You said you were new."
"Well I move around a lot. I was born in Virginia but I've lived with everyone from Europe to New York." I try to respond as truthfully as possible hoping that if he sees me opening up then he will as well.
"Really, your accent made me think you've spent your whole life in England? I'm from a small town in Virginia called Mystic Falls."
"I was born in that town. Weird coincidence" I laugh trying not to go into much more detail about that. "Do you have any siblings? Family?"
"I have an older sister named Elena but she's back in Virginia. I've been staying with a family friend" He tells me his face slightly dropping almost as if he was afraid I'd ask a follow up question about the topic. "What about you? Any family?"
"My parents aren't really in the picture. My dad was an abusive prick, and my mom was a manipulative bitch." We fall into an awkward silence so I decide to fill it. "I have a lot of siblings though. I have 6 brothers and 2 sisters."
"Dang. Must be a busy house."
"Not really, it's very rare that we're all in the same place at the same time." I respond as Jeremy picks up his pencil, moving his sketchbook away to start drawing.
"Tell me about them." He comments not taking his eyes off the sketch book.
I pick up my own sketchbook, looking at the blank page trying to figure out Jeremy Gilbert. I might not be as good at art as Nik, but you pick up a thing or two watching from afar for a thousand years.
"Well there is Freya. She died before I was born, but my brother Finn used to tell me stories about how much like her I was." I open up. "Finn refused to believe our mother's intentions, so he's kind of lost inside himself. Then there's Elijah, he has always taken care of me and made sure I was happy."
Jeremy nods his head along, interested in my words. "Nik can be a lot to handle but he cares so much about all of us that you can't help but stand by him." I explained. "My brother Kol is my favorite though, I tell him everything. He knows more about me than anyone else."
"Bekah is my little sister. She loves to dress up and party. She has quite the temper though." I laugh. "Then there's Henrik. He died a long time ago, it was an accident that finally made my mother hit her breaking point."
He looked up from the paper, saddened, showing he was indeed listening. "I thought you said you had 6 brothers, I only counted 5."
I pondered for a moment before realizing what I was missing. "There was this one kid that my parents took it to a while back. He was like my little brother. I used to love messing around with him. His name was Marcellus, but I usually just called him Mars."
"You keep using past tenses when you talk about him, does that mean-"
"He died. Yeah." I cut him off. "I guess death sort of just has a habit of following me."
His eyes droop not necessarily in sadness but a feeling of relation. "You're not the only one." He put down the sketchbook and I followed paying very close attention. "My parents died in a car accident a couple years ago, and after that it's just kind of like everything around me never lasted long. My Aunt Jenna, Vicki, Anna, My Uncle John."
"So, let me guess. You pushed people away to protect them." He nodded his head once looking down in embarrassment. "I tried that once. Tried to ignore my feelings and shut everyone out who cared about me. I don't recommend it. I lost a lot of time with the people I love because of it. No one on this Earth is immortal, death is bound to follow everyone."
He smiled at me, making me smile back. "What?"
"It's nothing...just, I like you. You're normal, and trust me. Nothing else is."
"Me? Normal?" I've never heard anyone use that word to describe me." I laughed.
"You just have this aura around you, it's just made of light and joy, and it's unlike anything I've ever seen before."
My smile grows. It seems that staying close to Jeremy Gilbert won't be as bad as I thought. "Are you hitting on me Jeremy Gilbert?"
His face turns pink with a flush of fear and embarrassment. "Maybe I am. If you want, I'm going to the batting cages after your school. My sister and her friends are coming up. You can bring your brother, Kol?"
"Our older siblings accompanying us on our first date?" His smile drops as he sees flustered but I just laugh and he joins in. "I'd love that."
"Good. Here." He hands me his phone with a new contact opened. "Put in your number and I'll text you a time."
I do as instructed and put my number in before handing him back his phone. We continue to laugh as we ask each other the most random questions we can think of when the landline in the teachers room rings. She picks it and responds to the person before holding it against her chest. "Kiara can you come here for a minute. It's your brother."
"What does he want now?" I mutter under my breath as I stand up while the teacher hands me the phone. "What do you want Kol? I'm busy."
"Call Nik back, Kie." He talks through the phone with a sad expression, sort of scaring me. "You're going to want to hear it from him."
With that the line goes dead and I put the phone back on the machine. I don't even ask the teacher as I go back to my desk, grab my phone and walk out of the classroom.
I waited exactly three rings before Nik answered. "What happened? Kol told me to call you. He sounded upset."
I hear him take a deep breath before responding to me. "There was white oak left in Mystic Falls. Rebekah thought she burned it all, but the Salvatore's managed to find some."
I panicked thinking of the possibilities. Rebekah, Elijah, Finn. Any one of them could be dead. "We got most of the stakes back, but there was still some left that Damon Salvatore had given to members of his merry band of misfits and one of the local boys. Rebekah's ex, Matt Donovan," He paused. "He killed Finn. Finn is dead."
I didn't even notice the tears going down my cheeks until one fell on my hand. "But we can't die. We've been alive for a thousand years. It's impossible. He can't be dead, Nik."
"He's dead, Kiara, and so is his entire sire line." I fell to the floor, no longer being able to hold myself up anymore. Finn might never have been my favorite brother but he was still my brother and after a thousand years with him, he was just gone. "Finn might be dead, but the world still turns, and the Salvatore's still have the white oak, so I need you more than ever. Damon and Elena are heading to Denver as we speak, and they still have white oak. I need you to help protect our family."
I sniffled, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. "I'm not like you, Nik. I don't know how to compartmentalize my feelings for a different moment. I just feel what I feel and I can't stop it."
"Then feel it. Feel all of it." He tells me, only confusing me. "Feel the sadness, it's what lets you know you love someone. Feel the fear, it's what keeps you alive. Feel the anger, Kie, and use it, use it as a way to remember what you're fighting for. Do you understand?"
I nod my head before realizing he can't see me. "Yes."
"Good. Keep your chin little sister. There's a whole world out there waiting for you, remember that." With that Nik hangs up leaving me alone in the middle of the hallway on my knees with tear stained cheeks.
I had decided to hide out in the bathroom for the rest of the period, trying to give myself time to make it look like I hadn't cried at all. When the bell rang I went back into the art class to grab my bags only to find Jeremy Gilbert standing there holding my bag. "I knew you'd have to come back eventually." He laughed, making me grow a small smile.
I took the bag out of his hand and put it over my shoulder. "Maybe chivalry is still a thing." This makes Jeremy blush as we walk out the art room door and head towards our next class.
–
"Come on, Kol!" I yell from the car leaning over to honk the horn a few times.
He finally makes his way out of the building and walks over to the car. "You know you're not actually 15, right? You can drive."
"Why drive when I can be a passenger princess?" I laugh as Kol begins to drive to the address Jeremy had texted me.
"More like a passenger peasant." Kol laughed, making me glare at him until he stopped. "Come on, that was funny."
We pulled into the parking lot and went over to the area of batting cages just as Jeremy hit one really hard into the back net. "Nice hit." He turned around smiling, realizing it was me. "Jeremy, this is my brother Kol. He's kind of a dick."
Jeremy and Kol both laughed, shaking hands, oblivious to my seriousness. "Just wait till you meet the guy my sister's bringing. Now he's a dick."
We all laugh as a small awkwardness arises around us. "Hey Kol, Why don't you get us some bats?" I try and he nods, walking away to the inside of the building to get two bats."
"So, this guy your sister's bringing, do you two not get along?" I ask knowing it was Damon Salvatore, aka the reason my brother is dead.
"He's not really terrible, like I know he wouldn't hurt my sister. Him hurting everyone else though, you never know with that guy." I nod actively while listening. "You wanna give it a try?" Jeremy asks, passing the bat to me.
"I've never really played before. I probably suck." I laugh.
"I'm sure you'll do better than you think. Here, do this." He puts his hands on my arms moving my body so that I am standing sideways. He moved his hands down to mine, correcting where they were placed. "Now when you see the ball just swing the bat as hard as you can."
He clicks the button to the machine making it shoot a ball out. I swang the bat and missed the ball. "You'll get it, just try again." I get back in the stance I was in before, but before Jeremy could push the button I hear the voice of Jeremy's older sister.
I step back out of the brunette's eye line. "Hey Jer!" She ran up hugging him tightly. "We need your help with something."
"We need to find out who sired Klaus so that we can find out if we can kill him without all of us dying. We know Katherine sired us, Rose sired Katherine, now we need to know who sired Rose." Damon cuts in explaining without all the sappy crap giving me everything I needed to know about their plans.
I turn around revealing my face to the two as I see Kol walking my way with two bats, a wood one and an aluminum one. "Well, I know it wasn't me."
"Kiara?" Damon wonders.
"Wait, you two know each other?" Jeremy asks obliviously while Elena moves him behind her.
"She's an original." I smile wide, taking a little bow.
"Don't start the party without me!" Kol comes up, taking the wooden bat and beating Damon aggressively with it till it breaks.
Jeremy's face was full of confusion and betrayal, I couldn't help but feel bad. Kol picks up the other bat admiring it. "You know, I'll never get used to aluminum. But hey, at least it won't break." Kol goes back to hitting Damon with the bat but is stopped when Damon catches the bat, taking a piece of the broken wood one, shoving it in Kol's heart.
I use it as my opportunity. I grab a different piece of the broken bat and shove it into Damon's chest only a few inches away from his heart. "You just had to keep pushing didn't you. Had to have the upper hand."
"What are you even talking about? You're going to kill him!" Elena gabbed.
"Really? I didn't realize princess." I responded mockingly. "If you hadn't had to find a way to kill Nik, then my brother would still be alive. Your friend Matt might have shoved the stake in his heart, but you gave it to him and that's why I'm gonna kill you. I will be the last thing you ever see Damon Salvatore."
Damon coughed up some blood as my eyes watered but I didn't dare let a tear slip down. "Finn never did anything. He hated what we were, he didn't want to be a monster like the rest of us. So, you killed him."
I take the wood out from his chest and about to shove it in his heart before someone grabs my hand in the air stopping me. "Kiara don't."
Jeremy's look of betrayal was gone, he related to my feelings for rage and sadness and it's because of that he had the courage to stop me. "Get out of the way Jeremy or I'll kill you too."
I hit his hand away but he persisted. "I don't think you will." He pauses staring into my eyes. "But I can't let you kill Damon, either. I'm sorry." My face shifts into confusion until I feel hands grasp my head turning it quickly and then everything goes black.
–
I woke up with the taste of blood in my mouth. I opened my eyes to find Kol's wrist against my mouth. "It's about time, Sleeping Beauty." He puts his hand out, helping me off the floor. "They got away. Stabbed me and broke your neck."
"I guess it's a good thing I heard where they're going then." Kol smiled widely, letting out a relieved sigh.
"I'm so glad I brought you." I roll my eyes as we walk over to the car. "They're trying to trace their sire line back to one of us."
"Well, I know it wasn't me." He responds.
"It's not me either, which leaves Rebekah, Elijah, and Niklaus, and with their luck it will be Nik."
"Isn't that a good thing, they can't kill him if he's their sire because then they die too?" He asked me.
I roll my eyes once more, my headache coming back after only a short interaction with my brother. "If they know for sure then there is nothing stopping them from killing the rest of us.
"Let them try. A couple baby vampires against a whole family of originals." He laughs. "It's basically suicide."
"None of this will matter if we stop them before they find out." I express as Kol begins driving even though we have no idea where we're going. "Elena was sired by Damon, who was sired by Katherine, who was sired by Rose-Marie, and that's where the trail stops."
We both sat in comfortable silence trying to think of who it could be and only two names came to mind for the both of us. "It's either Mary Porter who was turned by Niklaus or Benjamin Clerx who's from your line." Kol tells me.
Like I told Damon and Elena, I didn't originate their bloodline. I know 100% that it wasn't Benjamin who turned Rose, but Kol didn't know that and I needed to use that to my advantage. "From last I heard, Ben's in Colorado, but Damon and the Gilbert's are already ahead of us, so we need to split up. You go to Kansas and kill Mary before she can tell them anything, and I'll Ben."
He didn't seem suspicious of my plans at all. We pulled over to the side of the road and Kol let me out of the car as the plan was for me to compel myself another one. "Be careful. Keep your guard up, white oak is still out there."
"Since when am I not careful?" Kol smirked driving away. "See you soon, Kie!"
I walked into the middle of the road standing there until a red convertible slammed on its brakes, nearly avoiding hitting me, but I sped out of the way before he could look back up, making him think he hit me. When he got out of the car to see if I was ok. I ran up behind him and plunged my teeth into his neck, just enough so that he was left unconscious.
I let go of the man letting him fall to the ground. I stepped over him, using my thumb to get the small bit of blood off the corner of my lip. I got in the drivers side of the convertible and drove off towards the motel Jeremy had been dumb enough to text the address of to me.
–
I pulled into the parking lot and walked around the building up to the back window where I saw Jeremy in a room with headphones on, on the second floor. I use the agility I get from being a wolf to jump between up over the balcony.
I watch him sit on the bed, doodling in his sketchbook. I just couldn't help but smile. I leaned against the wall by the window and knocked quietly. He looked over at me and smiled which surprised me a bit because of our last interaction.
He walked over and opened the window before walking back to the bed. I just stand by the window, not being able to come in. "You do realize I'm a vampire right?" I ask him. He nods still not understanding what I'm trying to say. "An you are currently renting this motel room which means it has a temporary owner which means that-"
"You need to be invited in." He finished. "I know. I'm still trying to decide if I can trust you or not."
"Fair enough." I sigh sitting on the rail of the balcony looking at the stars.
"If you're worried about me killing you or your sister, you shouldn't. I don't kill people who don't deserve it." I say not bothering to look back as I hear him come out onto the balcony.
It was an awkward silence as Jeremy stood on the ground next to the railing. "So you're an original."
I nod my head. "I'm hybrid too. Like Klaus." I'm trying to break it to him now before it comes out later.
He takes a deep breath not knowing how to respond, so I just continue. "I'm not like him though. We had very different experiences that made us who we are." He still didn't say anything and I couldn't really blame him. "I didn't lie to you about anything. If that's one of the worries in your head. Every little thing I told you was true."
It was still oddly silent and I was starting to get agitated so I turned to face him. "I get if you never want to see me again, I just thought you should- "I get cut off as Jeremy Gilbert's lips connect to my own."
At first I didn't kiss back, unsure of what was going on but when he released me, I pulled him back. This time both of us kissed each other before releasing seconds later. "Kol's on his way to kill Rose-Marie's sire so you can't find out who turned her." I spouted out. "And I have to meet him there."
"That has nothing to do with me. I just wanted to live my life here, away from everything back home. I could care less who sired them." He responds making me smile a little bit not expecting the response.
"Well she lives in a farmhouse in Kansas if Damon and your sister want to try to get to her before Kol, and I have to meet up with him so that we get this over with and go home." I tell him and he smirks.
"I'll let them know." He nods, staring into my eyes. "You know, I never lied to you either. You have a light around you Kiara Mikaelson, you're not like any other vampire I've met."
I smile, no one's ever been this kind to me after finding out what I was. "I have to go, catch up with Kol and then I'm going back to Mystic Falls. Maybe I can see you there."
We both lean in giving each other one last kiss for the night. "I won't let Kol hurt your sister."
"I know," he says, holding up a folded piece of paper, handing it to me." I thought you should have this seeing as neither of us will ever be back in Ms. McKinley's art class again."
I take the paper and put it in my pocket before thrusting myself off the railing and landing on cement. "See you around, Jeremy Gilbert." I smile walking all the way back to my car and heading towards Kansas.
Once I got to the farm, I saw Kol's car in front of, I walked through the door to see a massacre of vampires. "Well you've had some fun!" I yell nowhere in particular knowing he was around here somewhere.
I walk up the stairs into one of the rooms I hear Kol moving around in to see Mary pinned to a wall with a stake through her heart.
Kol stood looking at her with the aluminum bat in his hand. "You really brought the bat."
"I have to get my revenge somehow." He grinned, admiring his kill. "And everyone calls Nik the artist. I mean, this is pure beauty."
"This is a murder scene." I deadpanned, making his smile drop.
"Well you're no fun." He responded like a small child.
Just then we both instantly shut up hearing the front door of the house open. They walk upstairs, slowly and quietly until they see Mary staked to the wall. "Shame about Mary. She used to be a blast. Don't quite know what happened. I fear all the time she spent with my family might have ruined her. She was a bit of an Original groupie." He comments, making them curious about Kol as the sire.
"And were you her favorite?" Elena asks, digging.
"You mean, did I turn her?" He puts his hand to his chin pretending to think. "I think I did. But no, wait, maybe it was Rebekah. There was a Klaus period. And let's not forget about the Elijah affair. Oh and don't get me started on her gay awakening with Kie."
"I do have that effect on people." I answer sarcastically. "We spoke to our brother, we know you're trying to figure out who you descended from. Now you never will."
"So where did we leave off." Kol messes with the bat in his hand before hitting Damon in the leg with the bat making him fall on the floor before he continues to hit him.
Elena watches in horror. "Elena, get out of here!" Damon yells.
She moves quickly to the door but I get there first blocking her. "I made a promise to a quite cute teenage boy that I wouldn't let you be harmed, don't make me break my word, Elena." I push her back towards Damon who rushes up to try a play at Kol.
"Don't touch her!" He yelled, but Kol threw him right back down on the floor.
"Oh dear, I've hit a nerve." He chuckles. "Relax, darling, I want us to be even. You snapped my neck, staked me, killed my brother. Not to mention your little girlfriend here hurt Kie and that's a big no, no for me." Kol takes the bat hitting Damon some more until his little heart's content. "There, now we're even."
"Let's get out of here. It's starting to smell like death here." He laughs, sticking out his arm for me to grab which I take as we make our way out of the house and back to the car so that we can finally go back home.
I sat in the back of Kol's car so that I could lay across the back seat and sleep. It had been an hour or so and I was listening to music through my headphones when I felt a small piece of paper in my pocket.
I grabbed it out and unfolded it to see a beautiful picture of a multicolored sunset. I turned to the back of it which had something written on it. "Kiara Mikaelson's soul is full of light. She cares so deeply about everyone that it can be a lot for her but she knows what she wants and even the end of days won't stop her from getting it."
There was a small note in the corner of the paper that looked like an update. "Will you be my date to the decade dance on Friday?"
I smile to myself, taking out my phone and simply texting 'Yes.'
A/N
Sorry this is a long but it was too short to split in half so I guess you guys just got a really long chapter today.