CHAPTER 18: MEMORY LANE

The Woods

"What are we doing here?" Caroline complained as she walked through the woods with Natalie, who was carrying a bag.

"I just want to try something out." Natalie shrugged before stopping, making Caroline stop with her.

She opened her bag, only to reveal her bow and some arrows.

Caroline's eyes quicky widened at the fear of that she might shoot her. "What are you going to do with that?"

"I just bought some new arrows, but I have no idea what they do, so I'm going to check it out with you." Natalie smiled.

"Please don't shoot me!" Caroline exclaimed fearfully as Natalie pulled out an arrow out of her bag.

Natalie quickly started laughing at Caroline. "I'm not gonna shoot you, Care. Concider it part of your vampy training. If anything goes wrong and I'm close to dying then you need to speed over to me to save me."

"I can do that." Caroline nodded confidently.

"Good." Natalie sighed before pulling the bowstring back with her arrow and aiming towards the closest tree.

Natalie took a deep breath as she aimed, and then she shot the tree, only for the tip of the arrow to explode into amazingly sparkling sparks.

Caroline's eyes widened at the small explosion. "Well, that was fun. Any more lethal weapons you want to try out?"

"If you insist, I can shoot you." Natalie shrugged.

"No thank you."

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The Gilbert House

"Alaric" had come up with the amazing idea that Jenna should host a barbeque. Of course, he didn't mention that it was all Damon's idea to put silver in Mason Lockwood to prove that he was, in fact, a werewolf. Natalie and Elena were of course invited, but as Natalie had decided to take on the mentoring role for Caroline she decided that it would be a good idea to invite Caroline.

"Thanks for letting me invite Caroline. She could use a day of distraction." Natalie told Jenna as the two were in the kitchen.

"Well, she's not the plus one I'm worried about. Why is Damon coming?" Jenna asked in disgust, her disliking Damon was evident.

"Because my dad's a dumbass." Natalie sighed annoyedly.

"Amen to that!" Jenna laughed-

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"Good news! I found the shot glasses!" Mason smiled as he walked into the living room where Natalie, Alaric and Jenna were sitting.

Mason, Alaric and Jenna's stares moved to Natalie.

"That's your cue." Alaric reminded her.

"But Elena and Caroline are probably talking about some relationship things and I know nothing about relationships I haven't had one in way too long." Natalie complained.

"It's only been a year since that Scott kid in California." Alaric reminded his daughter.

"Yeah, a whole year." Natalie said.

"Well, food's almost ready so you can go get them then get back, okay?" Jenna rolled her eyes.

"Fine then." Natalie nodded and walked out to get them but heard Caroline say some things she shouldn't say.

"The desire to rip out your jugular every time he's with you? Trust me, it's there. It's why I had to break up with Matt." Caroline rambled.

Natalie's eyes widened at Caroline's insensitivity, and she knew that it hurt Elena to hear that, so she had to break into the conversation. "Guys! Food's ready."

"Finally, I'm starving." Caroline said before putting down the big bowl of food she was eating out of.

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After the vampires, the werewolf, the hunters, the doppelganger and Jenna finished eating, they were playing pictionary.

And Damon was really bad at it.

He was drawing some dog-ish shape with a tutu.

"Dress! Ballerina!" Natalie called out desperately.

"Puppy! Puppy with a tutu!" Caroline guessed loudly.

"No, no." Damon dismissed.

"A dog! Hound-dog!" Jenna yelled.

""Dances with Wolves"." Mason said calmly.

"Mason wins...again." Damon said annoyedly.

"How is that a wolf?" Natalie asked, squinting her eyes at it as if that would help her see it.

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Caroline, Natalie and Elena were basically thrown out of the adult's stuff.

Thrown out to the living room.

But Elena was basically a little sack of worry as Stefan hadn't called her back all day. "Would I be the worst friend in the world if I abandoned you two and went to Stefan's?"

"You want to leave?" Natalie complained.

"It's just that he hasn't gotten back to me and I'm starting to get this bad feeling." Elena explained worriedly, a frown appearing on her face. You get why. She loved Stefan so much. He saved her life more times then she could count in only about six months of time together. He may have grown feelings for Natalie, but that wasn'y about to keep Elena away from him. If anything it made her want to be with him more.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Elena." Caroline spoke up, trying to keep up the facade that Katherine asked her to have, to occupy Elena and Natalie.

"Damon's got it under control here. I don't really see why not." Natalie agreed, pushing the sad feeling she got when she thought about Stefan and Elena together away.

"Take it from me, there's nothing worse than a clingy girlfriend." Caroline said being incredibly insensitive.

"I'm not being clingy, I'm just concerned. You understand, right?" Elena said, trying not to be angry at Caroline, knowing the blonde was going through her own stuff.

"How about I drive you?" Caroline offered.

"Yeah, okay, that'll be great, thanks." Elena sighed gratefully.

"I'm coming too. I'm not letting Caroline go out without me yet. It's the whole mentoring thing." Natalie stated.

"But I'm doing really good." the Forbes girl complained.

"Which means I'm a good teacher. And I want to continue with it." Natalie retorted.

"You can come too, Nat." Elena agreed and the twins walked towards Caroline's car together. And Caroline did follow. She just did something no one noticed.

She deflated one of the tires.

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Caroline's Car

Whilst Elena and Natalie had argued about who was going to sit in the front seat, Natalie eventually won on the argument that she needed to be there in case anything went wrong with Caroline.

"Thanks for this, I appreciate it." Elena said from the back, seeing as Caroline was driving.

"Here we come, to the rescue." Caroline said snippily.

Natalie rolled her eyes at Caroline's attitude. "You're awfully snippy today." she commented.

"That's my own drama. I'm sure that Stefan and Elena will beat the odds. Not that there is any study to pull odds from. What is the ratio of success for vampire-human couplings?" Caroline asked rhetorically.

"Okay Caroline." Elena chirped annoyedly, giving Caroline the hint to shut up.

"Sorry." Caroline apologized sheepishly.

The silence was awkward for a while, so Natalie decided to turn up the radio, not that she was complaining seeing as she loved the song. "I love this song."

Caroline pressed one of the buttons on her steering wheel. "What's playing?"

The radio voiceover replied, of course. "Playing "We Radiate" by Goldfrapp."

"Ta-da!" the blonde exclaimed.

But then the tire that Caroline inflated decided that it was the perfect moment to burst.

"Oh crap." Caroline said, still trying to keep up her facade.

Natalie and Elena just sighed in annoyance.

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Caroline had asked the towtruck she called to be extra slow, just so she could keep Natalie and Elena away from Stefan for Katherine's bidding. So, as it was nighttime, the towtruck still hadn't shown up.

"Are you sure the tow's coming? We've been waiting forever." Elena asked tiredly.

"I know, it's weird. They said they'd be here by now." Caroline lied.

"Yeah,-" Natalie said making Caroline smile for a moment. "-no." then the smile faded. "I'm just gonna call my dad."

"No! Just let me try the tow people again. And I'll use my agro voice." Caroline tried to coax them into not leaving.

"We can just walk from here." Elena suggested.

"I can't just leave my car." Caroline dismissed the idea.

"We'll come back for it." Elena retorted.

"Just give me a minute, Elena!" Caroline snapped.

Elena's face started morphing into a glare. "Caroline, what part of "I'm worried about Stefan" didn't sink in?"

That's when Caroline had to go to desperae measures."What's the rush? Why are you hurrying to get to a relationship that will never work?"

Elena and Natalie's eyes widened at Caroline's hurtful words. "Okay, look. I know that you're upset over Matt but will you stop projecting it onto me and Stefan please?" Elena said, scarily angry.

"I'm not projecting anything! You're human, he's a vampire. You're gonna be 70 and in diapers and he's still gonna be smoking hot and you will never have his children, Elena! And you are too maternal to not have children!" Caroline rambled desperately.

"Where is this coming from?" the brunette Gilbert girl asked. hurt evident on her face.

"I'm just trying to be your friend." Caroline said, amd she wasn't lying. She was keeping Elena away from Stefan so Katherine wouldn't hurt her. So, basically she was keeping Elena out of harm's way.

"Okay, well, do me a favor and stop trying." Elena spat.

"You know what? That's it!" Natalie spat. "You are both acting exeptionally bitchy today, and I am so sick of it! You guys have been best friends when you were little and I have no idea why you are trying to ruin it. Because you're both at a time when you both need each other immensely, and pushing each other away isn't going to help either of you! But trust that I'm sure as hell not going to sit around and watch you destroy your friendship. So, I'm walking home, and don't you dare follow me!"

And that's what she did.

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A/N: This chapter was like, half as long as the last one and I apologize. But this was kind of a Natalie/Caroline centric chapter for me, so there wasn't any Statalie, sorry. And I know Natalie is ranting alot lately, but, come on, wouldn't you?

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.