CHAPTER ELEVEN | OUR TOWN
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CAROLINE'S BIRTHDAY WAS CELEBRATED AS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY. Caroline Forbes's birthday was an event that required much planning and preparation, and Klara couldn't wait. She and Elena were outside Caroline's locker decorating it while Bonnie showed up with a banner in her hand.
"Hey. Sorry, I'm late. I—uh, got held up." Bonnie stated, her eyes shifted toward Klara, who knew why she was late. She met her at the Old Witch house with Damon and Stefan to try and open the locked coffin Klaus had been keeping.
"Don't stress. I'm actually the only one that managed to get here on time." Klara waved it off as she hung a banner over the front of Caroline's locker with a smile.
"Can you hand me the balloons?" Elena asked as Bonnie grabbed the four balloons that were tied together from the ground. "Thanks. What got you running late?"
"I was—" Bonnie awkwardly shuffled as she watched the brunette hang the balloons over Caroline's locker. "—working on some new spells. You?"
"Working out with Alaric." Once Elena had turned back around to face her friend, she saw Bonnie holding up a card that read Happy Birthday Caroline in big letters.
Klara rolled her eyes. She and Elena had a conversation about Damon compelling Jeremy to leave town, to ensure his safety but the girl didn't know how to bring it up to Bonnie. Especially since Bonnie and Jeremy's break up was rather tense. "Okay, so. Elena has something she needs to tell you and she's worried you're gonna freak out." Elena let a small gasp of irritation escape her lips while Bonnie's eyes widened. "What? Look, you need to tell her, Elena."
"Jeremy's going to be leaving town for a while. He'll be staying with some old family friends in Denver until this whole Klaus thing blows over."
The witch furrowed her brows with confusion over her face. "Jeremy wouldn't just leave you to deal with Klaus on your own."
Elena nodded slowly and looked down at the floor guiltily, while Klara folded her arms across her chest. "Damon's compelled him. Elena thinks that it's not safe for him here anymore and, to be honest, I agree."
"The only reason I'm telling you is because I know that you two haven't really worked out your stuff. And I thought maybe you'd want to say goodbye."
Bonnie looked at the two girls and then toward Jeremy who was stood just outside his locker with a friend. The Bennett witch moved past both the two girls and headed over to him.
"That went well." Klara kept her eyes fixed on the girl while Elena pulled her phone from her pocket and groaned. "What? What is it?"
"Caroline." The doppelganger responded simply. "She's not feeling school today and she's heading home. So this—" Elena gestured to the work of art she and Klara had just created on the outer of Caroline's locker. "—was just a massive waste of time."
"Since when does Caroline miss school?" The Adams vampire asked. "She's been talking about her eighteen birthday for as long as I can remember. Something's wrong."
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It was Klara's idea to gather around and had over to Caroline's house. They hurried inside with a collection of balloons and party hats and hid in the living room. Once they had heard Caroline's sigh from the hall, they all jumped out with balloons in hand, party hats, and the sign that Bonnie had previously shown the girls. "Surprise! Happy Birthday!"
Stunned, the Forbes girl turned to look at her friends. Klara couldn't tell whether Caroline was truly shocked, or annoyed they had all turned up to celebrate her birthday. "What're you guys doing here?"
"Well, you blew off school and missed our work of birthday art, so—" Elena began with a smirk once Klara removed the purple, fluffy tiara from her head and placed it onto Caroline's.
"Change into warmer clothes, we're going to the falls." Bonnie joined in with a light smile. "S'mores, campfire."
"Oh, and cake," Klara called out with a devilish grin on her face. "Let's not forget the cake."
"Except with Tequila." Matt sang from behind the girls while a chuckle left Caroline's lips.
"Thanks, guys, really. Um, I'm just not really feeling my birthday this year." A nervous chuckle and a look of sadness washed over Caroline's face.
"I'm sorry, what?" Bonnie scoffed in shock. "You've already claimed your birthday as everyone's favorite day of the year."
Caroline's face immediately hardened. "Yeah. And now it's just a reminder that, technically, I'm dead. Look, I didn't even like seventeen. The only point to seventeen was to get to eighteen. It's a filler year. I am stuck in a filler year."
"Oh, Care." Klara tilted her head, sympathetically. "You're not stuck."
"I am, but it's okay. You know, it's all good, I'll be fine. I just need some time to wallow in it."
"Okay." Elena nodded her head, inhaled deeply, and smiled toward Caroline. "Well, I think I have another idea."
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"There it is," Elena yelled out. The group headed through the forest and toward the Fell crypt, their flashlights illuminating the path through the darkness.
"This is creepy," Bonnie announced with a lantern in one hand as she pushed the crypt door open with the other. "Even for us."
"Elena, what's your plan then, huh?" Klara asked as she wandered around the dusty old crypt. "I mean, you've gathered us here, in the cold."
"Well, Caroline was right. Technically, she's dead." The doppelganger pointedly spoke, but immediately felt guilt when she saw Caroline's face soften. "Sorry. But you don't need a birthday, you need a funeral."
"A funeral?" Klara echoed with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah." Elena encouragingly clapped her hands together with a smile as she turned back to Caroline. "You need to say goodbye to your old life so that you can move on with your new one."
Elena's idea actually gained some stature as everyone looked around with smiles on their faces. "Okay." Caroline removed the tiara from her head and took a breath. "Here lies Caroline Forbes."
Elena continued on from the female, while Klara began planting candles on top of Caroline's birthday cake. "Cheerleader. Miss Mystic Falls, third-grade hopscotch champion—"
"—Friend. Daughter. Overachiever." Bonnie contributed with a light smile.
"Mean girl, sometimes," Matt added but held his hands up in defense when all eyes fell on him. "No offense."
"Ah. None taken."
"Caroline was seventeen years old when she died, and she had an amazing life." Klara carried on while she shot Caroline a smile. "But that part of you needs to rest so that you can move forward."
Elena took the cake from Klara and walked over to Caroline with it held out in front of her. "That's what you really need. What we all really need. Amen, or cheers, or whatever." Chuckles escaped her lips as Elena looked to Bonnie. "Bonnie?"
"Oh," Bonnie mumbled shortly and then set her sights on the candles, with she lit with her powers.
"Time to make a wish, Care," The blonde announced as soon as the candlelight began to light up Caroline's face. Elena held the cake forward as the blonde closed her eyes and blew the candles out.
Once the candles were blown out, the party had begun. They all ate the cake and drank the bottle of tequila Matt had brought along with him. After Klara had taken some she handed it to Matt, but Elena snatched it away from him. "Ah-ah. I need it more than you do, trust me."
Caroline was stood a short distance away from the group, her phone in her hand with her back to her friends as if she was concealing her actions. "Caroline, what are you doing over there?"
"What? Nothing." She immediately stopped texting, held her hands down in front of her while she tried to hide her phone.
"Okay. You're a bad sober liar. You're an even worse drunk liar." Elena rolled her eyes.
"I might have texted Tyler." Caroline trailed off once a few groans echoed throughout the crypt. "What? I'm delicate."
Bonnie rolled her eyes, clearly still irritated with Elena's decision to make Jeremy leave town. "Give her a break. You can't control what everyone does all the time."
"Ooh." Klara awkwardly chuckled to herself with her head on Matt's shoulder. "That was awkward."
"Ouch, Bon." The Donovan boy joined in.
"Sorry, I know it's Caroline's birthday— funeral, or whatever. But, I just feel it's really wrong that you compelled Jeremy to leave town."
Elena let her attention fall on Bonnie. "I'm doing it to protect him, Bonnie. I want to give him a chance at a halfway normal life."
"He should be able to choose how he wants to live it." The irritated witch pressed once more with hard eyes. "You're taking his choices away."
Elena noticed a look in the girl's eyes as if Bonnie would really tell Jeremy that he had been compelled to leave. "Bonnie, you can't tell him."
"Why? Are you gonna compel me not to?"
"Can you guys just stop fighting, please?" Klara lifted her head up from Matt's shoulder and sighed. "It's Caroline's funeral. Have some respect. Please."
"I'm sorry. I'm just gonna go sleep it off or something." Bonnie lifted herself up to her feet with a sigh and glanced at Caroline. "Happy Birthday." She smiled before she finally left the crypt.
Klara raised an eyebrow when she saw Damon's caller ID pop up on her phone. She stepped outside of the crypt and accepted his call. "Damon, what's u—"
"—His switch is fried, Klara" Damon frantically spoke down the other end of the phone which caused Klara to immediately halt. "Stefan. He's going after Klaus's Hybrids."
"What—Why would he do that?" Klara yelled back out of frustration. "He knows that Klaus will retaliate."
"He doesn't care! He told Klaus to get his Hybrid's out of town, Klaus didn't listen so now he's gonna say it louder. Meaning: leave their bodies like a road map to his door."
"No. Damon, you have to stop him," Klara grunted. She wanted to be with her best friend on her birthday, but she had to stop Stefan. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"No!" Damon yelled back at her just before she could end the call. "No. I need you to stay with Elena. Klaus will come after her. I'll handle things this end, you just make sure she's safe. You got that?" Before Klara could even respond to Damon's simple request, Klara's neck was snapped and her body dropped at Stefan's feet.
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Klara was furious. She knew that there was only one person that could've snapped her neck, and that was Stefan. Once she lifted herself up to her feet, she vowed to find him— and she did. As he drove her red Porsche down the road which led away from Wickery Bridge, she stepped in front.
Stefan slammed the brakes on as soon as he caught sight of the blonde in the middle of the road. He shook his head as their gaze met. "Get out of my way."
"What you gonna do? Snap my neck?" Klara tilted head toward him as he slowly got out of the car and folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah, it wasn't too hard to work it out."
"Right, so you're here to give me a speech about how snapping your neck was a dick-move." Stefan rolled his eyes. "Okay. Great. Will you get lost now?"
Klara could see the broken look in his eyes as she looked toward him. "Look at you. This trying to get a Klaus-thing. You're gonna end up losing yourself." She stepped closer with furrowed brows.
"Don't you get it, Klara, I'm already gone." He shook his head. "The sooner you, Elena, and Damon accept that— the better."
"You're in there. You always have been." The blonde vampire knew that just below the careless exterior was her best friend. Klara extended her hand and placed his against his cheek, her thumb danced against his cold skin as she gave him a faint smile. "Please... I just need you back."
Stefan felt her touch and he immediately felt home. In that same night, as he felt the familiar touch of humanity, he had lost everything in the process. He threatened to drive Elena off of Wickery Bridge— the same bridge she almost died going over. He knew in himself that maybe, to spite Klaus, he would've actually gone through with it.
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