CHAPTER FOUR: disturbing behavior

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"I just don't know why you want to bring chili to a potluck. Everybody brings chili." Damon complained. When Alaric walks in, the Raven-haired vampire looked up. "Hey, Ric."

"What's up?" Alaric asked back.

"What time do you want to go to the Lockwood party?" Elena asked the history teacher.

"Ah. Those founders parties aren't really my thing," Alaric says.

Jensen laughed. "Ha. He thinks he had a voice. How funny is this guy?"

"Just make your damn Chili," Damon says, he turned to Alaric. "Show up, there's going to be nine other people that brought chili."

"It's an old family recipe, okay?" Elena snapped at him.

"I'm not making chilie! I'm making chicken soup and a cake. Dumb shit," Jensen muttered.

"Yeah! I know. I knew your old family. They made sucky chili," Damon says, moving over and gently hip-checking Elena. He smiled down at her. Which had caused her to laugh.

Both Alaric and Jensen looked at the two, then looking at each other, then back at Damon and Elena. Alaric was the one to question them. He looked at Damon. "Why are you here, exactly?"

Damon turned his head. "She knows."

"He thinks I'm going to break," Elena explained. "I'm not going to break. I am just going to keep making chili, pretend like I didn't just spend the entire summer looking for someone who didn't want to be found."

"She's in denial," Damon whispered

Elena glared at him, also whispering. "I'm not in denial."

"No?" He then moved closer and touched her necklace, he lifts it up. "You're still wearing this necklace. Isn't this the reminder of your unbreakable bond with Stefan?"

Alaric watches them. Jensen glanced back and forth, still chopping the ingredients for the soup up.
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The doorbell had been rung, Elena going to answer it. "I'm back!" Bonnie's voice rang out through the house.

Jensen turned the stove off, quickly walking over.

"Bonnie!" Jeremy called out. Then Bonnie and Jeremy kissed.
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So, Caroline had helped Jensen and Elena with everything they had cooked.

"The problem with my dad's normal side of the family is normal made for a really boring summer," Bonnie speaks.

"After the last few days, I would kill for a normal family," Caroline replied as she helped Elena switch the pots for the chili. "Since when did you learn how to cook?"

"Damon helped a little," Elena admitted.

"Damon's helping you cook now?" Bonnie asked, suspiciously.

"Thank you," Jensen speaks, sighing in relief when someone had noticed it.

"All three of you stop judging. He's just trying to be a good...ow!" Elena winced.

Caroline moved back quickly, pulling the pot back. "Did I splash you?"

"No, no, my necklace," Elena winced, she pulls the pendant of the necklace off her skin. Her skin has a burn mark where the pendant touched her skin.
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"It burned me," Elena says, showing the odd burned mark that was underneath the necklace.

"How the fuck did it burn you?" Jensen asked, confused.

"Maybe it's a sign you shouldn't be wearing it," Caroline says.

Bonnie sighed. "Caroline..."

"What, I'm just saying. If you're going to be "cooking" without Stefan," Caroline says.

"Let me see it," Bonnie says.

Elena holds it out while Bonnie looks at the pendant. Bonnie examines it, furrowed eyebrows, she then reached over and took a hold of the pendant but it had shocked her.

"Okay!" Jensen snatched it away from Elena by the chain. "No one touches the necklace!"

Jensen then dropped it onto the counter.
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They had gone to the Lockwood mansion, which had the entire town-or almost the entire town-residence attending the party. Elena, Caroline and Jensen all sat in away from the party, on a bench. They waited for Bonnie.

When Bonnie finally arrived, the three we glad and relief to see her. Bonnie joined them on the bench, hiding out the grimoire. "I have an identification spell that might be able to tell me what magic affected the necklace."

Elena gives Bonnie her necklace.

"It's going to take a while, so tell me if anyone's coming, okay?" Bonnie tells them.

Caroline looks at Elena. "So you're not, like, switching Salvatores, are you?"

"What?" Elena asked in disbelief.

"Caroline..." Bonnie started.

"Stay focused," the blond-haired vampire told the witch. She looks back at Elena. "As your friend who worries for you daily, what is the deal with you and Damon?"

"Yeah. I agree with Caroline. You two have been....odd." Jensen settled on.

Elena huffed. "There is no deal. He's been just as focused on finding Stefan as I have."

"Yeah, but that doesn't make him any less Damon. If my own father, who I love dearly, can't change me. No one's changing Damon. Not even you,"  Caroline told Elena.

"Look, why are we even talking about this?"

"Hey guys." Bonnie called, showing that the necklace pendant is levitating and rising slowly in the air.

"What are you doing?" Caroline questioned.

"I'm not doing anything. It has its own magic," Bonnie replied, amazed.
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At the Lockwood mansion, Jensen approached Elena, Caroline and Alaric. "There he is. Finally, we're leaving."

"Where's Damon?" Elena asked.

"Probably off somewhere doing bad things to good people." Caroline smiled. "Consider me the honesty police." But then Caroline steps to the side, looking upset.

"What is it?" Elena asked.
"What the matter?" Alaric questioned.
"Are you okay?" Jensen inquired of.

"It's my dad."

All three turn around and see Bill in the adjoining room.

"Why would he even show up here?" Elena asked.

"I don't know. But I can't..."

"I'm gonna go kill him," Jensen says, walking forward.

Elena nodded. "I get it. I'll call you later." Elena stoped Jensen. "You'll get hurt."

Caroline leaves and goes upstairs.

"Okay, what was that all about?" Alaric asked.

"Speaking of doing bad things to good people..." Elena gestured for Alaric to follow. She pulled Jensen along, as the brunette haired glared at the man. The three walked out of the house, only for Damon to be hot on their tails.

"Wait, wait, Houston, we have a problem," Damon says.

"Where have you been?" Elena questioned."

"Managing Bill Forbes. Apparently he's impervious to compulsion." Damon announced.

"How?" Alaric inquired of.

"I have no idea. But he threatened to out me. Don't get me started on the irony of that."

"What did you do to him? How do you know the compulsion doesn't work?" Elena asked.

"That's not the most important piece of information I mentioned, Elena."

"What does he want?" Alaric asked.

"He wants to control the council. Says it's been compromised."

"It has been," Jensen says, as if he needs to punt it out.

"He wants to put vervain in the town's water supply."

"Guess you and Stefan need to stalk up on deodorant," Jensen snickers.

"You are not funny." Damon tells him.

"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Elena speaks. "I mean, it'll help you keep yourself in control now that Stefan's not here to..."

"To what? To keep me in check? Make me behave? I should have killed him this morning." Damon stepped in front of them.

Jensen hummed. "Didn't think I would agree with Damon."

"He's Caroline's dad," Elena says, as if she needed to remind the two. "Jensen, Damon."

"Yeah, and when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than we do," Damon says.

Alaric stepped in front of him, stopping him. "Oh, come on, Damon!"

"You're repeatedly killing my buzz today, Ric. Step aside."

"Yeah, it's not going to happen."

Damon glanced down at the hand Alaric had placed on his chest. "Your temporary funeral." He then quickly snapped Alaric's neck.

"Damon, no! What is wrong with you?!" Elena exclaimed as Jensen caught the history teacher and stopped him from hitting the floor.

Damon leaves.

"I'm getting him out of here incase anyone sees him," Jensen says, pulling the history teacher away.  Plus, he kinda hoped that Damon would kill Caroline's father.
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Apparently, Caroline had stopped Damon from killing her father. Which Jensen, made sure to not show how disappointed he was by the news.
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Jensen had gone to the Grill, thinking of texting the rest of his friends so they could all spend a non life-threatening- hopefully-day together.

He was completely wrong.
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