Double Trouble

8

During the next four weeks, Elle and Lena slowly got used to living their twin's life. Elle tried her best to be cheeky and to speak more in general, since she found her Dad, aunts or uncles being irritated by her being silent and shy from time to time. At the same time, she spend a lot of time with Chester, in order to make the little dog like her. That part turned out to be rather easy, since Lena had told her everything about Chester in a mail, after Elle had called out to her twin for help in the situation. And after being spoilt by Elle with snacks and cuddles, Chester quickly started following Elle around with the same enthusiasm he had always shown Lena.

Lena had other difficulties. The cooking situation was not a problem anymore, since her Mom was still helping her, letting her slowly and secretly learn how to cook, pretending she had done it before. There was, however, another difficult thing about being Elle, as Lena had found out about a week after coming to Mystic Falls. Elle, as it turned out, was quite a genius when it came to mathmatics. In school, she always received good grades and her teachers were proud of her. Lena was different. She loved to play the piano, so she could easily ace the music lessons at school, but mathmatics had always been a nuisance to her. She hated it. And now that everyone was suddenly expecting her to excel at it, she sometimes felt like she was walking on hot coals.

One evening, Elijah came home bearing news. First, he greeted Freya who had been taking care of 'Lena' throughout the day so far. Elijah and Freya could hear Lena practicing her play on the piano in her room.

"She plays wonderfully." Elijah said, impressed and proud.

"Yes, she does! I heard you finally signed her up for the children music contest next month." Freya replied.

"Yes, I did. And hearing her play like that, I'm sure she would win right away." he said. "Although... this is strange. Chester isn't barking."

Freya frowned. "You're right! He normally always barks when someone plays the piano. Odd."

"Hmm. Well, I have to talk to her anyway, I'll go and see her." Elijah said and started walking towards Lenas room.

Elle, who had been looking through the door, trying to understand what her Dad and aunt said, got startled. She had put a CD in Lena's player and let it play a piano piece, in order to make her aunt think she was practicing. Now, she saw her Dad approaching her room through the keyhole.

With a feeling of pure adrenaline rushing through her veins, she quickly turned off the CD Player and then ran to sit on the stool in front of the piano making it look like she had been playing. Elijah entered her room in the same second she quickly sat down.

"Dad? Is something wrong? I was just practicing." she said, trying to sound normal.

"Everything is fine, honey. There are just two things I wanted to tell you, or, ask you. First, I wanted to tell you, I finally found the time to sign you up for the music contest we were talking about. The one in Richmond, remember?" he said and smiled, looking at his daughter to see her reaction.

Elle hid her panic behind a smile. "That's great! Thank you!" she said, just a little too high.

"And second, I want to ask you whether you would like to come to the opera this evening. I am conducting the concert tonight." he added, smiling.

Elle nodded. "Yeah, I'd absolutely love to come! I've never- I mean, I haven't been to the opera in a long time!" she said cheerily. Never having been to any opera herself, Elle was thrilled. Her excitement about it had no limits.

"Great! Alright, I'll let you practice some more. Your playing amazingly."

Having said those words, her Dad left the room again. Elle let out a huge sigh of relief. He hadn't seen through her act yet. She still had time to find out about him and her Mom. So far, she had had no luck. She had already searched the entire house for clues, anything that indicated her mother's involvement with her father. But there was nothing. No pictures, no old clothes that might have been her Mom's, no letters, nothing. Asking about her mother directly was something she had avoided until now, because she was afraid of raising suspicion. But now, it was the only possibility she still had left. And given that everyone would only talk about the concert later, certainly noone would talk about her having asked Freya about her mother. Therefore, Elle decided that now was a good time to have a talk with her aunt.

Hi there, 😊
I hope you're liking this story so far! As usual for me, I will be updating this story on a daily basis until the 10th chapter, the chapters after that will take a bit more time than that.

Please let me know what you think of this story! I always appreciate your feedback! 😊