Chapter 1: Pilot
"Where do you want me to put this?" April asked Caroline with a smile.
"The corn stays in that big table where all the drinks are." Caroline answered while looking up briefly from the table that she was fixing. "The meat stays here because it's under the trees where the sun can't reach it." she smiled at April before looking over at the table where she just sent the girl. "Wait... where are the drinks? Elena was in charge of the drinks." Caroline pointed at the table worried.
"I saw her leave with Damon an hour ago." April brought the big bowl with the beautiful yellow corn closer to her. "But don't worry, I called Jeremy and he is on his way from The Grill."
Caroline pressed her chest with a sigh. "Crisis under control."
"This will be the best End of Summer Barbecue that Mystic Falls has ever had." April said excited.
"You weren't around for the others." Caroline reminded her with a cocked eyebrow.
"I'm still sure of it." April walked away with a big smile.
Caroline took a look around the square, everything looked perfect except for a few friends who were missing, which was basically everyone at this point.
She checked for any missed calls or messages, there was nothing new and she decided to try Bonnie's number again but just like it happened during all summer all that she got was a disconnected message which really troubled her.
When she saw Jeremy arrive with a card box full of bottles she immediately drilled him. "I still haven't been able to talk to Bonnie, all I keep getting is a disconnected message, over and over."
Jeremy smiled but kept walking to avoid a conversation that required looking at Caroline in the eye. "I talked to her yesterday."
"Really? And what did she say?" Caroline went after him like a dog chasing a bone.
Jeremy started unpacking the bottles. "That she's loving her summer getaway, she was very drained after all those spells and the Expression thing so she needed a break."
Caroline nodded exasperated. "And you called your family in Denver and they agreed to let her spend the summer there. I know this by heart now Jeremy, because you've spent all summer repeating it."
He gave her another smile. "Because you spent all summer asking me the same questions."
"I just don't get why she left without a word." Caroline tried Bonnie's number again.
Jeremy grabbed the box that was now empty. "Have you heard from Tyler?" he tried to change the subject.
Caroline's mood was not improved. "He found a pack on some forsaken mountain and they have been bonding or whatever it is that werewolves do." she shook her head distressed. "He promised me that he would be back last week."
"I'm sure that he will surprise you soon." Jeremy headed back to The Grill for another liquor pick up.
Caroline walked with him gloomily. "It's just like last summer with Elena, she is spending all of her time with Damon while Stefan is away unreachable but at least last year I had Tyler with me."
"I'm living at the Boarding House with Damon and Elena and their really loud sex life... it's been the summer from hell." Jeremy confessed with a doomed voice.
Her phone started ringing but Caroline didn't answer it, instead she sighed at Jeremy. "Matt is in Europe with the Original she-devil and Bonnie isn't here either..." Caroline shoved her hands inside of her summer cardigan ignoring the caller with the harsh move. "I just want summer to be over so that everything goes back to normal again."
Jeremy's smile was a sad one. "Yeah..."
Caroline shook her soft curls but determinedly raised her chin. "Well my part in here is done and the party is good to go so I'm going home to change. I still have a few things to pack before we leave for college as well."
Jeremy returned her wave with a nod, then he clutched the empty card box in his hand, for months now that he had been dodging Caroline's growing suspicion and leading her on because he had no idea how to tell Caroline and the others the truth.
Liz came inside of the house dropping her keys on the table. "Caroline? Honey, are you home?"
"I'm in my bedroom."
Liz smiled heading there, she stopped by the threshold watching Caroline pack a few books into a card box. "I think that the money that dad left you for college covers the access to the library at the university as well."
Caroline giggled closing the box. "You know that I wouldn't go anywhere without my Dickens and Jane Austin."
Liz frowned with a very heavy expression. "This is that awful day when I have to watch my daughter pack for college and it all dawns on me, I have to get used to the empty house next week."
"You could come with me." Caroline said while packing her beloved teddy bear, the one that she had since she was 2.
"I don't think that I will ever be able to leave this town." Liz came inside of the room now filled with boxes and already looking ghostly to her.
"I don't like the idea of leaving you here alone." Caroline admitted.
Liz laughed taking a better look around the empty room, it needed some paint. "Mystic Falls has at least 5 thousand inhabitants. They will keep me company."
"Are those numbers official? Because I doubt it, with all the deaths happening every other day."
"Well Klaus left town, so the official numbers are steady for now." Liz mused.
Caroline smiled but she wasn't too euphoric about it, his name left such a heavy touch in the air.
"I need to get ready." Liz touched Caroline's wet hair with affection before leaving the bedroom. "The Mayor insists that I attend this thing."
"There's still time to apply for the Campus Police if you ever change your mind." Caroline adorably told her.
She heard Liz laugh and that made her chest warm, she truly hated leaving her mother behind, alone in this damn town that was nothing but a death sentence knocking on everyone's door.
Caroline packed a few more things that she surely wouldn't need but she wanted to make her dorm as cozy as she possibly could.
Her eyes drifted to the drawers that she hadn't touched yet and with a slow move Caroline opened the one in the bottom, she took a piece of paper that she kept under a bunch of other random stuff, there it was, the one thing that she was unable to throw away no matter how wrong it was to keep it, she couldn't help the genuine smile that showed just now either.
Slowly Caroline traced the picture that Klaus made of her with the honesty comment under it, this was a sin, just like everything else that she slowly gave in during the summer.
Caroline grabbed her phone next but restrained from even unlocking it. "Ugh Caroline, get a grip!" she huffed and shoved the drawing back where it was, closing the drawer with a lot of force.
After dropping the phone on the bed it started buzzing but she shook her head and instead grabbed the dress that she was going to wear at the party, she still had to decide what she was going to do with her hair and she glanced at the bed one last time before disappearing into the bathroom.
"I'll be in the back." Jeremy waved the box in his hand to the guy behind the counter. "I need to get more for the party."
The guy now replacing Matt nodded busy with his hard task of cleaning glasses.
Jeremy came into the storage room making sure that he was alone, he locked the door from the inside and then focused. "Bonnie?" he called with his eyes closed.
"Hey Jer..."
Her sweet voice made him open his eyes. "Bonnie!" he came closer with a big smile but it soon faded when she touched his cheek and he couldn't feel it. "This is getting harder to handle Bonnie and Caroline is closing in on me."
"I know, I've tried to stay away but it's not as easy as I thought and I have seen her a few times, she looks sad."
"She was really busy with the all the arrangements for college during summer but now she's getting restless."
"That's an alert sign for Caroline..." Bonnie crossed her arms stroking them, wishing that there was something that she could do for her friend.
"We should tell her Bonnie, and Elena as well."
"No!" she stated determined, that's the one thing that she was certain about. "It would crush Caroline to know that I'm not coming back."
"Maybe we could find a way, if we all tried to think of something..." Jeremy started but she cut him off like always.
"It's not a choice." she said with sheer resolve.
"It is to me, if I had known that you would sacrifice yourself for me, I would have never allowed you to do it."
Bonnie shook her head. "I was already dead, and you are important Jeremy. Elena has lost too many already... I have no one left." she attempted a small smile. "You have a long life ahead of you."
"Bonnie... no, don't go." he begged but she vanished from his sight, Jeremy tossed the box away mad and grabbed his head distraught.
Bonnie cleaned her tears, this should be getting easier by now but it was everything but that, she was on the outside now unable to help her friends and she couldn't be with the boy she loved.
She watched Jeremy leave the room, she was still here with him but now that she had learned how to break the connection he lost the ability to see her whenever things got too painful for him.
Bonnie turned around for another surprise that she was still learning how to handle. "Leave me alone." She instantly scolded him.
"It's so endearing to see you with him." Kol smirked leaning against a shelf.
She glared at him. "Stop following me around."
"I was in the dead neighborhood." he shrugged.
"Is there any chance that you might go bother some other ghost besides me?"
He shook his head serious. "You are the only one I know around this Dead Kingdom."
Bonnie smiled. "Too bad." she vanished from inside of the room.
Kol smiled disappearing as well, he showed up next to her on the public square. "A very sly trick darling but I learned that one a few weeks ago myself."
She kept her steady pace, there were so many familiar faces that looked right at her without seeing or sensing her at all. "You are a really old vampire, how come you don't know anyone on this side?"
"Are you referring to my martyr brother who is making up for lost time with his ghost girl? Or perhaps you are speaking of my parents... I am deeply conflicted between trying to find my mother who linked us all so that she could kill us or reaching out to my father who hunted us down for centuries. But what am I rambling about? It's been three very long and dull months stranded on this magical dead land with you darling and I haven't seen you with any company either."
"I can't find my Grams..." Bonnie mumbled, when she saw Caroline she smiled, how much she missed hugging her friend but that was out of the question and so was getting rid of the Original who stepped in front of her with a smile that she wanted to slap away from his face.
"Did you have time to regret your decision yet, little witch?"
"It kept you away from Elena... so no." she smiled at him.
"Ah yes, sweet innocent Elena, the everlasting victim unless she decides to bend the rules and make the Gods favor her side by having your boyfriend turn me into an eternal flame."
"Nice and crispy." she pushed him with a bigger smile.
Kol flashed grabbing her neck. "I haven't figured a way to get my hands on the Gilbert hero yet but since we are both stuck on this side... where I can actually touch and hurt someone..." his face changed and his fangs appeared.
"Funny thing about that actually..." she narrowed her eyes sending a gush of pain to him. "Other things are stronger on this side as well."
Kol was forced to release her but unlike what she expected, he didn't try to hurt her again.
He tilted his head instead with a sly smile. "I've had time to adjust in here and to figure out a few house rules... they are not very fond of wicked witches."
"They?" Bonnie asked slowly looking around, everything was becoming dark, like night was creeping in on them and she couldn't see anyone or hear them any longer, when a big dark smoke surrounded them she faced Kol with a puzzled look.
"Time for me to exit and to leave you with The Shadows, call it my small retribution knowing that at least one from the execution team is in pain." he said before disappearing.
Bonnie was alone with a sinister smoke that was wrapping itself around her, then as it reached her hand it began to crawl under her skin and Bonnie couldn't breathe, she tried to scream but the pain was paralyzing as it reached her shoulder and then covered her completely.
Caroline straightened the lemonade stand with a sigh, she could hear Damon and Elena approaching with their annoying public romance display.
"Hey Care..." Elena tried to win her friend over with a sweet smile. "Sorry for bailing on you earlier... Damon can be very persuasive when he wants to."
Caroline didn't bother looking at her, she added the ice to the lemonade with a smile. "Don't worry Elena, I took care of it."
"And it looks incredible." Elena glanced around. "Like always."
"I know." Caroline simply replied.
"You're upset..."
Caroline cleaned her hands looking at the brunette wearing a casual ponytail. "Nonsense... this is what I do, I organize events Elena."
"You also dealt with everything regarding college, including my application and where we are going to live and everything else..." Elena rubbed the back of her neck giving Caroline a very apologetic look. "I didn't do anything besides hanging out with Damon and Jeremy."
"You had a rough year."
Elena frowned slightly, Caroline didn't sound as genuine as she expected. "Well... yeah..."
"And like always, we're all here for you."
Caroline sounded so serious that Elena felt uncomfortable. "I'm very grateful for the friends that I have." Elena wasn't sure what was happening right now.
"That's great... enjoy the party Elena." Caroline swiftly turned around. "And nice ponytail by the way."
"Care..." Elena called but it didn't stop the blonde from walking away, she touched her hair not sure if she looked too casual for the town event.
"What's with Barbie vampire?" Damon asked while handing Elena a beer.
"I think that she really misses Tyler..." Elena answered taking the beer and focusing on Damon's blue eyes with a smile.
"Beautiful picnic party Caroline." Rudy said enchanted with the flawless organization.
"Thank you... Mayor, have you heard from Bonnie?"
"She sent me an email last week, she is in love with Denver." he answered with the biggest smile.
"An email?" Caroline asked on edge.
Rudy wasn't oblivious to her subtle judging. "I'm still trying to recover the shaky relationship that I have with my daughter, if she chooses to only get in touch with me by email, I have to respect her wish Caroline. I'm hanging on to everything that I can so that I don't lose her again."
Caroline tried to tame her witty tongue and smiled politely. "I just really miss my friend."
The Mayor smiled warmly at her and then touched her arm patronizingly. "The summer is almost over and then the three close friends will focus on the new important phase of their lives, save that determination for then."
Caroline kept her small smile as the Mayor walked away, her phone started buzzing again and she was about to take the call this time when she saw April rushing to her, reluctantly she kept her phone inside of one of the pockets of her new cream dress.
"Everything is under control and we are on schedule, the firework show will start right on time." April informed her.
"Thank you for everything April, I wouldn't have pulled it off without you." Caroline confessed with honesty.
April was taken by the compliment and blushed. "It was an honor... you... are all sorts of amazing."
Caroline laughed. "Well I hope you learned everything properly because from now on, you will be in charge of the town events."
"Me?" April cupped her burning cheeks.
"I'm Caroline Forbes and I still have power in this town, I also get to choose who will carry on with my legacy and I think that the current Miss Mystic Falls is the perfect candidate."
April's chin fell in astonishment. "I'm so flattered Caroline."
"Those are big stilettos that you are filling in April Young." Caroline gave her a stern side look. "I expect great things from you."
April simply nodded in a daze watching Caroline leave, she gulped down nervously but Caroline was trusting her with this, so she composed herself and took a deep breath, when one of the kids who belonged to the event committee went by her she quickly grabbed his arm. "I see a lot of empty bottles scattered around."
The kid gave her a funny look.
"We need to do something about that." she tried to sound stern, she had to prove herself to Caroline after all.
Caroline leaned against the tree looking at her watch, it was almost time.
"Pathetic..."
The grouchy voice said close to her and Caroline looked back with a heavy frown. "What do you want?"
Katherine dryly answered. "A ticket out of this petty town that has picnics like everyone is normal and sadly pathetic."
"Oh, you mean like you are now? A dull human?" Caroline asked with a stinging smile.
"Have you thought about my proposition?"
Caroline started laughing. "I'm not turning you Katherine."
"Why not?" she smiled. "Here's your chance to get back at me for pushing a pillow against your face while you slept and for killing you coldly and ruthlessly. Just feed me with your blood and then snap my neck."
Caroline neared Katherine. "And miss out on my one chance to give back all that misery and pain that you've put me through in the beginning? Never."
"Klaus will come for me once he finds out that I'm human and able to provide him with blood for his hybrids."
Caroline had one last look at Katherine with a cold smile. "You've been human for months now and he hasn't come for you yet. Your important status in all of our lives has been revoked."
Katherine swallowed her anger.
"Besides, you were human once and you found your way around it then."
"No one will turn me..." she said deeply upset. "I've tried." she added sourly.
Caroline shrugged. "Those are the perks of being collateral damage, no one cares about what you want."
As Caroline walked away, precisely at 9pm the firework show started, enchanting everyone who looked up at the sky in wonder and making Katherine pierce holes in her back.
She smiled happy that her last town event ended in such a beautiful and poetic way.
Caroline sat on the bench outside The Grill and reached for her phone, she checked on all of his missed calls and she was hesitant about touching his name on the screen so that she could return them, after a brief deliberation she gave up and searched for Tyler's name instead.
After a few rings the recorded message answered instead of him and Caroline sadly left him another message that he would take hours to reply.
"Hey, I'm leaving tomorrow and I still need to know if you're planning on fixing the small detail that you haven't officially ended high school because I need to know if my boyfriend is either attending college with me or going all Dancing with the wolves on me." she ended the message furious.
This was just annoying, scratching on the insufferable from him, Tyler was taking his quest to get in touch with his werewolf side a bit too far and she wasn't sure if the juvenile act was something that she could take much longer, it's not like she didn't know that basically Tyler spent his summer having wild parties in the woods and hunting with packs that he worshiped now.
Still she encouraged him as a way to get over the loss of his entire family, but when her phone started buzzing again she had a big duel with herself.
Part of her unconditional support and biblical patience regarding Tyler's behavior lately went a bit further than the love that she felt for him, it was painfully attached to the movement her finger made across the green mark on her screen.
It was plain overcompensation for the little sin that she secretly had been committing all summer.
"I was beginning to consider that you were set on ignoring my calls."
Caroline played with her hair that she was wearing straight tonight. "I was busy."
"How was the perfect town event that you spent your week planning to the last detail?"
Caroline happily grinned. "Perfect Klaus!" she smugly answered, there was a soft laughter from the other side and the guilt began to nag her again. "You need to stop calling me..."
"Then you need to stop accepting my calls, sweetheart."
Caroline looked down on the ground accusing the accuracy in his mocking tone, since that night when they first talked on the phone that he had called her every other night during the summer and every time with a guilt that was becoming less and less powerful, she accepted his attention. "Well I wanted to thank you because the best dorm in all of Campus just miraculously became available after I told you about it."
"It was the only one that was remotely able to answer your high standards." he teased her blatantly.
Caroline huffed crossing her legs and twirling her foot lazily. "It was the only room big enough to fit the three of us and there was a very big list ahead of me, I tried compelling my way into that list unsuccessfully and then you did something and I got the room..." she stopped her movements harshly. "Wait, did you kill everyone on that list?" she winced aghast.
"Occasionally, I do the atrocious and use money."
Caroline rolled her eyes, Klaus' voice was becoming familiar, she was able to pinpoint the occasional genuine softness in him or the blunt scorn by now, she also could tell when he was being serious and she picked up on his changing mood.
"I have an important issue to discuss with you Caroline, one that I rather resolve in person."
Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Is this another try to make me go to New Orleans Klaus?"
"I'm afraid that it's a bit more gory than that Caroline but perhaps I should let you enjoy your dreadful first day at college before we cover the subject that requires some subtlety."
She grimaced. "You are not making me nervous or anything..."
"You've skimmed through high school, college should be a fairly easy challenge for you."
Caroline would never admit that she was fearful of the new changes about to happen in her life, but scarier than that was the fact that over the summer she got used to his calls and to the long talks that mostly consisted of her silly ramblings that he never complained about. "There's a tiny iny thing that I need..." she also felt fairly at ease to ask for a favor.
"You have a request." he solemnly stated.
Caroline took a deep breath. "I need you to track Bonnie down for me. I know that she's not in Denver, I called Elena's family and they never got a call from Jeremy at all so I don't know why he is lying to me but I can't shake the feeling that Bonnie might be in trouble."
"I will have someone on it at once."
Caroline smiled, actually meaning it for the first time all day. "Thank you Klaus." she could picture the smile on his side as well.
"We are friends, are we not?"
And just like that, he made her smile again and like all other calls he made her feel less lonely and gloomy. "Oh my God!" she gasped suddenly. "Can you believe that Katherine asked me to turn her again? Like seriously? If I ever choose to breed a lineage, I am not going near that cold bitch."
"You could always sire her and get poetic retribution."
Caroline burst into a bubbly happy laughter.
"I was serious Caroline..."
He clarified but it only made her laugh louder.
Soundtrack:
Around you - Ingrid Michaelson