For What You Are

“NO WAY!”

“That is my worst possible score ever,” Damon said with distain.

Kara shot him a death stare as he put his plastic guitar aside.

“Good job though,” he added with a mocking smile.

“How can that be your worst score ever,” she said. “You got a hundred percent of the notes!”

“But you distracted me and I strummed accidentally at the beginning.”

“Bullshit,” she replied. “There is absolutely no way you can beat that.”

“Oh I have,” he said. “You just don’t want to admit that if I can do better then you’re never going to beat me.”

“I can beat you,” Kara said confidently. “Right after I’ve had a drink.”

Walking through the house towards the kitchen, Kara got her glass and filled it with water from the tap. As she drank it she tried to figure out how Damon’s fingers had moved so fast. Kara knew that every normal person wouldn’t have been able to beat her. That was the hardest song on the whole game, the highest level, and yet Damon Salvatore had beaten her by one, that’s right, ONE percent.

She was annoyed with herself, but other than that, she was also curious. Kara finished her drink before coming back into the room, flexing her fingers.

“All right,” she started. “Game on.”

The next song, she made sure that every move she made was exact and yet somehow, he still beat her. “You’re rigging this somehow,” Kara stated, sinking into a sofa. “I have no idea how, but you are. You can’t possibly be that good.”

“Well, I’m not cheating,” he replied. “Believe me, if I was, you’d know.”

“That’s impossible,” she muttered, knowing full well that she was saying that partly because she was a sore loser. But there was definitely something fishy going on here. Mind you, it definitely wasn’t anything to do with fish because the house smelt like anything other than that. It smelt old, really old…

“How old is this house?” Kara asked, standing up and looking around.

“Er…ancient?”

“You don’t think you’re getting away that easy do you?” Kara continued attempting to get past him.

“Look if you really want to know,” Damon replied, blocking her way again, “Talk to Stefan.
The little nerd is more likely to know about this house than I am. He probably knows when the foundations were laid. Don’t you Stefan?”

It took Kara a moment to realise that Stefan was in the same room. Glancing behind Damon and up the stairs, she saw him leaning on the banister wearily.

“Yes,” Stefan started. “I do.”

“Well of course you do,” Kara huffed. “You’re superb at history.”

“You are too.”

“Pssht,” she said, recalling the history class where she’d had all the answers. “Even I have no idea how I knew that information. Honestly, I’ve never set foot in Mystic Falls before in my life.”

“You sure?” Stefan said. “Not as a child or anything?”

“Nope,” Kara continued, turning back to Damon to see him hastily cover up a ‘Stop-speaking-now’ sign that he was giving Stefan.

“What’s not being said?” she asked him.

“Nothing,” Damon said. “I’m just absolutely astounded with your knowledge, Stefan tells me it is quite amazing.”

“Meh,” Kara responded, sinking back into her seat and picking up a random book from the table. “I don’t know how I know all that crap. You know history, you seem intelligent enough. You figure it out ‘cause I got absolutely no clue.”

The book she’d picked up appeared to be written in a different language and yet she had absolutely no trouble reading it. But so many things had gone weirdly today it didn’t particularly make much of a difference to her rapidly deteriorating mental health.

“Why are you reading a book about…Katerina Petrova? Who the hell’s she?”

“Nobody,” Damon snipped, whisking the book away from her. “Some girl from a few centuries ago.”

“Why are you interested in the history of this particular Bulgarian family?”

“Why do you care?”

“There are too many whys in the air,” Stefan interrupted. “I’ll be in my room.”

In other words, Kara thought, don’t tell her too much because I can still hear.

“Just a little something to do when I’m not pestering you.”

“So you’ve admitted that you do actually annoy me,” Kara said. “Finally.”

“No point in denying it,” he replied, sitting down next to her.

“So, who is this girl?” Kara asked, snatching the thick volume back and opening it at a picture of the girl who looked a lot like Elena. “I don’t think Elena is ‘Just some girl from a few centuries ago’ ’cause I saw her yesterday.”

“It’s not Elena,” he replied. “Even though they look the same, this is Katerina Petrova. By the way, how did you know the family was Bulgarian.”

“I can read, write and speak over twenty-eight languages,” Kara blurted out before clapping her hand over her mouth in shock. Why had she said that? As far as she knew she could only speak English and a bit of Japanese. But why had she read and comprehended the Bulgarian? “I, er…”

“Need to go?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, dropping the book onto the table and picking up her bag. “I’ll catch you later.”

“See you,” Damon responded as Kara walked out and shut the door behind her. But with her freaky superhuman hearing she did hear Stefan saying to Damon, as clearly as if he was standing next to her, “We need to do some checking up on her.”