Clair de Lune - K.M.

c h a p t e r f o r t y n i n e

Tyler and I spend the rest of the evening expecting the veil to be put back up just like Bonnie said, but it never happens. Mason never vanishes in a puff of smoke or anything like that. He's still here when the sun rises in the morning and despite the fact that it probably means something went horribly wrong, I can't even bring myself to complain. I almost don't even want to talk about it.

Maybe if we don't do anything, he'll get to stay even longer. Maybe my favorite uncle will get to see me graduate after all.

I meet Caroline the next morning at the school at nine a.m. sharp, as ordered. The two of us get busy handing out caps and gowns to seniors as the halls are filled with my classmates for the final time.

It's clear that Caroline is resisting the urge to ask about last night. When she eventually does, I tell her that Mason is still here and the expression on her face twists into one of confusion and concern.

I continue to hand out caps and gowns as she steps away to call Bonnie and it only takes a minute for Caroline to grab my arm and yank me backwards into the conversation. The two of us huddle around the phone and speak low voices so that no one else can hear, not that they'd be paying attention anyway.

"I hit kind of a snag," Bonnie's voice says from the phone as Caroline holds it between us.

"A snag?" the vampire responds. "A snag is a bad yearbook picture. You hit a tsunami. Where are you?"

"Trying to fix it. I'm running into some trouble."

"Are you alright?" I ask her.

"I'm fine. I just need to wait until the full moon tonight to have enough power to put the veil back up."

"Are you telling me that we might graduate right smack in the middle of a ghost filled expression triangle?" Caroline asks.

"I think that's exactly what she's telling you."

"Maybe we should just cancel," Bonnie suggests.

"No! We are not going to cancel," Caroline whines stubbornly, practically stomping her foot. "Graduation is the most important event of our lives. The last ceremony of our youth. It is our rite of freaking passage! Hell will freeze over before I let anyone cancel graduation."

"Can you not make jokes about hell freezing over? We're not that far off from that already."

Caroline makes eye contact with me and I can tell that we're both thinking the same thing. Despite what she might claim, Bonnie doesn't sound like she's fine. There's something that she doesn't want us to know about.

"Just... promise that today is a friend day, okay?" Caroline asks, deciding not to press the issue.

"Okay," Bonnie sighs. "I promise. I love you guys."

"Love you too."

"We'll talk to you later, Bon," I tell her as Caroline hangs up the phone.

She lets out a long breath before placing the phone back into her pocket and moving over to the table to resume handing out graduation supplies. I follow and lean back against the table next to her, earning an eye roll at my lack of effort to help out.

"You're worried about this afternoon," I observe, taking in her furrowed brows and panicked body language.

"Of course I'm worried, Stella," Caroline huffs. "Do you have any idea how many people we've killed that would want to come back to haunt us?"

"So we just kill them again. Sounds good to me."

"You've been spending too much time with Klaus," she says, bumping me out of the way to reach something on the other side of the table. "If you're not here to help then at least get out of my way."