Double Trouble

6

New Orleans

Elle arrived at her father's house, together with her father and her aunt. She looked at it in awe. In Mystic Falls, her Mom and her only had an apartment, big enough for the two of them, but nothing special. This house, however, was something else.

Elle brought Lena's things which would be hers for now, to her room. A little dog came to her. She recognized him from Lena's pictures. It was Chester, the family dog. According to Lena, Chester had two unusual habits: he slept too much and he always barked when someone played the piano in his presence. He came happily tapping to Elle, sniffing on her leg. But after smelling that Elle was not Lena, he left again, losing interest.

"Doesn't he recognize you?" Elijah asked surprised.
"Really? He doesn't recognize his best friend?" Freya asked, no less surprised.

"He's probably mad at me because I've been gone for so long. He will get used to me again in no time!" Elle reassured them, nervous.

Her Dad shrugged. "You're probably right!" he then looked at his daughter and smiled. "But onto other matters, I have good news! We are going to your favourite restaurant tonight, to celebrate your return."

"We're going to Gaspar's?" she asked, exited now. She rarely ever went to any restaurants with her Mom and Lena told her that Gaspar's was heaven.

Elijah lovingly brushed his fingers through her hair and said: "Yes, honey, we are. Go get ready, we wouldn't want the others to wait and let the food to get cold, would we?"

She shook her head and turned around, wanting to go to her room. Then she realized she had no idea where that room of hers was, since she had never been in this house before. Hot panic shot through her like an arrow. She did a few steps, thinking hard. Then she turned around again and said: "Aunt Freya, can you help me carry my suitcase to my room?"

"Of course! Come on, squirt, give me that." Freya said. She took her niece's suitcase and headed to Lena's room with it. Elle followed her, relieved.

Elle changed into a new pair of jeans. Her first instinct was to put on something nice and pretty, like a dress, but she knew that was not Lena's style, so she resisted that instinct. After she changed into those jeans, she looked at the list of things to remember; the twins had each made such a list. On Lena's list it said: 'my favourite food is shrimps with garlic butter. I always have them at Gaspar's'.

Quietly, Elle cringed her face in disgust and thought: 'Ugh, why does it have to be shrimps?'. This surprise dinner suddenly sounded a lot less appealing to her. Elle hated sea food. But it could not be helped.

Luckily, the only other comment for Gaspar's was  'I always sit next to uncle Kol, he is the funniest'. So she did. And Lena had been right, Kol was super funny. Elle found him a bit intimidating at first, but she soon started to relax as she realized that her uncle actually loved her, or at least he loved Lena.

Besides Kol, Elijah, Freya and her, there were also Rebekah and her husband Marcel present, together with their daughter Davina, and Kol's wife Sophie. Davina was a shy girl of six years. Elle liked her newfound cousin immediately which made up for the disgust the food made her feel. She really hated shrimps. But, since she was pretending to be Lena at the moment, she ate them. But after one plate full of shrimps, she stopped.

"Lena? Are you sure you don't want any more? You usually eat at least three of those plates." Elijah said.

"Yeah, but seriously, I'm full. I can't eat any more."

"Maybe her stomach has to get used to all that garlic butter again, after three weeks of healthy summer camp food." Rebekah said and fondly patted her niece's arm. Elle nodded.

"Alright then. Anyone care for some piano music?" her Dad asked and looked at Elle smiling. He stood up and walked to the piano standing in a corner of the restaurant. He sat down on the stool and started playing. Elle listened to her father's play holding her breath. He was a master at the piano. He played with passion and at the same time, seemed to be completely at ease and even having fun.

Rebekah leaned over to her. "Hey, you! Do you wanna play too when your Dad finishes with his play?" she asked.

Elle felt a new surge of heat going through her body. This was another point on Lena's list of things she still had to figure out. Lena loved playing the piano, but Elle had never played before. She had been growing up without a piano expert for a Dad.

"No, not tonight. Tonight, I just want to come back and have some fun." she quickly replied.

"Okay, suit yourself!" Rebekah shrugged.

While Elle was listening to Elijah's play, her uncle Kol secretly stole a piece of the garlic bread on her platter. Elle saw it and wanted to scold him, but then she saw that Kol did not eat the bread himself; he fed it to Sophie who was sitting next to him.  The teasing but loving atmosphere between her uncle and his wife stopped her from complaining. So, she just stole the rest of his chicken instead.