𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣—"𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙨 𝙤𝙧 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨?"
———
"𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙉'𝙏 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙉 𝙏𝙊 𝘾𝙊𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙂𝙀 in decades, I definitely do not miss it."
Clara glanced up from staring at her lap to Kol, who was sitting beside her. Currently, the two were in Damon's car with him, Elena, and Bonnie. Damon and Elena were sitting in the front seats, with Bonnie and Kol on the outside by the windows and Clara in the middle.
Now, being stuck in a small car with the tension between Elena and Damon, the awkwardness from Bonnie, and then the emotions between Kol and Clara was definitely not ideal.
"Well, thanks for coming, Romeo," Clara smiled at the boy, and she traced her hand from her thigh to place it on Kol's knee. He intertwines their hands, his thumb rubbing against her skin.
"Of course, Juliet."
"Hey! Hands to yourself!" Damon shouts from the drivers seat, looking at the back through the rearview mirror. Both Clara and Kol send the boy a deadpan look, which made Bonnie and Elena laugh together. "I got my eye on you, Mikaelson."
"Have I ever told you how good I am at killing old vampires?"
Clara rolled her eyes at her best friend being overprotective, and she slaps the front of Kol's chest for joking around. "Oh, c'mon, can't we just skip the super protective brother part and you two can be friends?"
"No!" They both yelled at the same time, and Clara let out a huff of annoyance while folding her arms over her chest — taking her eyes off the boys and instead on the scenery outside.
They were close to Whitmore, because by the sight of a whole bunch of college age kids and the huge buildings. So after a few more minutes, they arrived at the building where Bonnie's grams used to teach.
Everyone was excited to pile out of the car, Bonnie filed out of Elena's door and then Clara and Kol went out Damon's. And this is why Clara suggested taking her white ford explorer, it was big enough to fit the five of them yet they'd still have space. But no, Damon wanted to take his beautiful convertible.
"Thank God," Clara mumbles, mostly to herself, but both Damon and Kol heard her. "So, you're sure you're okay with this, Bon?"
"If I could spell you guys out of wanting blood, I would," she replied, nodding her head softly. "But I can't. So better you learn now than at freshman orientation."
"Something tells me that college isn't in my future anymore," Elena sighs, and Clara points her index finger at her while bobbing her head up and down.
"You and me both, girl."
"Oh, stop with the pity party," Damon rolls her bright blue eyes, and Clara suddenly gets the need to smack him in the back of his head. "If I can go to college, you can go."
"You went to college?" Bonnie asked, tilting her head a little bit.
"Sure, plenty of times," Damon states, and a sly smirk appeared on his face as he continued. "Always had a thing for sorority girls."
"Ay, me too mate," Kol agrees, smacking Damon on the back of his shoulder, but the smirk on his face slowly fades away as Clara sent him an annoyed glance. "Of course not now, love."
"You two disgusting," Bonnie deadpans, and the two girl standing on both sides of her starting giggling.
"We know," Damon smiles proudly, looking towards Kol as the two exchanged a look.
So, the four vampires and witch made their way to the building where Professor Shane, the one who replaced Bonnie's grams, and piled into the large classroom. The lights were dimmed down, because of the presentation that was on the front board. Clara had to admit, she thought the first time she'd be in a college classroom would be her first day as a freshmen there, not trying to learn control with her bloodlust as a vampire.
"When I say the word "witch" what pops into your head? Halloween costume? Villain of a fairy tale? Maybe an ex-girlfriend? Whatever image it is, it's probably not Taniel Sosso of Manjo, Cameroon..."
Clara eyed the professor up and down, and pursed our her lips a bit as a small smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. How much fun would it be to make Kol, jealous?
"Is that him?" Elena asked, apparently having the same reaction as Clara.
"Yeah.
"Wow, he's like really—"
"Hot?" Bonnie finishes Clara's statement, and she nods as they all take their seats. Bonnie on the end, followed by Elena, Damon, Kol, and lastly Clara on the other end.
"I'm an admittedly crappy photographer. Now, in reality, or in this reality, at least, witches have appeared across every culture in history. They're the architects of the supernatural responsible for everything that goes bump in the night from ghosts to vampires to doppelgängers..."
"What is this guy, Witchipedia?" Damon jokes, but she's shushed by Clara and Elena while Bonnie mutters a 'shut up.'
"Now, if you're a skeptic, you'd call that a coincidence. But if you're a true believer, you know there really is no such thing. It scares the crap out of us."
"What if I'm a ripper?"
"What if we're rippers?" Clara corrects Elena, leaning forward a bit so she could look at the brown haired girl.
"You guys aren't rippers," Damon shakes his head, but the two girls seemed unsure.
"What if we are?"
"Well, then pick someone and we'll find out," Damon replies, but Clara cringed up her face a little bit. She didn't like that idea.
"I'm good," she states, placing herself fully back in the seat while crossing her arms.
Damon and Elena continued talking while Clara seemed to be listening to what this Professor Shane was going on about. Surprisingly, Kol dug his elbow into her ribs as he gently nudged her, earning her attention.
"How do you find this man so enticing?"
"I mean, what he's saying seems pretty cool," Clara shrugs as a response, glancing back from looking at Kol to the professor.
"I know just as much as him," Kol huffs, and Clara let's out a small laugh as he seemed quite annoyed by her interest in the man. "Probably more."
"I'm sorry, am I just crazy or are you jealous?" Clara smirks, and Kol parts his lips as he knits his thick eyebrows together.
"I do not do jealousy."
"Oh, it looks like you do."
"Am I interrupting you guys? Or is it maybe the other way around?"
Clara immediately perked up as she realized that the professor was talking to her and her friends, and instantly mumbled a 'sorry' along with Elena.
"I was just saying how much I love witches," Damon flashes his signature smirk.
"You and me both, brother," Professor Shane replies, and then pays his attention back to the rest of his class. "Listen, we should probably talk about the readings none of you did."
•••
"I can't believe Kol is trying to find somebody I can, up, feed on and control and shit," Clara huffed, folding her arms over her chest. She wasn't one to swear a lot, but she didn't really mind right now.
"Damon's trying the same thing with me," Elena responded, rolling her eyes a bit.
The duo were walking slowly behind the two boys — who were having some type of conversation about sorority girls — with Bonnie in the middle of the brown haired girl and blue eyed girl. They were just about to walk out of the classroom along with the rest of the class being dismissed, until Bonnie spoke up.
"I have to talk to Professor Shane about my grams stuff, so I'll text when I'm done," Bonnie adds, and both girls nod as she turns around to walk back into Professor Shane's classroom.
"Ready to leave, darling?"
Clara glances up from staring at the ground to Kol, who was now standing right in front of her. She abruptly stopped, almost slamming right into his chest, and swallowed the whole anxiety fit and nodded slowly.
"There's the blonde from class," Damon interrupts the two, pointing to a proceeding blonde who was walking away busy on her phone texting. He then looks towards Elena, basically asking if she was ready, which she had the same reaction as Clara — nodding slowly.
The two start walking away, just a few yards away from the blonde they were preying. Clara bit down on her lower pink lip, and the nerves were cracking up like fireworks in her stomach.
"Are you sure you're up for this, Lara?" Kol asks, placing a gentle hand on Clara's shoulder for comfort, but she flinched under his touch as she was a bit surprised.
"Sorry," Clara sighs, running a hair through her blonde locks in hopes it'll calm her, but it didn't help much. "I don't know why I'm stressing so much about this."
"It's because you're kind and caring, love, and you can't even think of ever hurting anyone," Kol smiles softly at the girl, his brown eyes showing sympathy. He wraps the girl into a quick hug, planting a kiss on her forehead before doing so, and rubs her back for a moment, then pulls away. "But this is your lifestyle now, our, lifestyle. You need to learn this now so it doesn't come and haunt you later on."
"Yeah," Clara nods, feeling a bit more reassured. "You're right, I can do this. It's not like I'm killing anyone."
Kol turns around, glancing over his shoulder for a bit while scanning the whole area. Currently, the two were standing on the sidewalk while being surrounded by patches of grass with plenty of students to pick from. Kol stops looking as his eyes fall on a brunette petite girl who was just as tall as Clara, maybe an inch or two taller. She was wearing a brown long sleeve with a pair of black leggings, and had big brown glasses resting on her nose.
"She's great," Kol comments, and then turns his attention back to his girl. "She's talkative, so all you have to do is gain her attention and then snatch, eat, erase, as Damon likes to put it."
"Okay."
Clara starts walking, slightly jogging, to catch up with the beautiful brunette. She takes in a deep breath, focusing all her attention on this.
"Hey!" Clara shouts, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear as a smile appeared on her face.
The brunette turns around, three colored books grasped in her hands, and she tilts her head a bit at the blonde. She flashes a bigger smile as she hears Kol a few feet behind her.
"I'm Clara, you're in Professor Shane's class, right?" The blue eyed girl states, raising her arm to point her index finger at her, and she bobs her head up and down. "I lost the book list, could I take a picture of yours?"
"Yeah," The brunette girls smiles, adjusting her glasses on her face. "I'm Caitlin, it's nice to meet you!"
The brunette immediately embraces Clara in a hug, completely taking her off guard, as she wraps her frail arms around her body. She didn't hesitate to return the hug, and smiled a bit at the girls friendliness. As the two separate, Clara's smile fades from her face as she realized it was now time for her to snatch, eat, erase the poor girl.
"Um, actually, I can get it from someone else," Clara cringes up her face a bit, and Caitlin knits her eyebrows together in confusion.
"Oh, it's really no trouble I—"
Clara grips the girls shoulder as she looks deeply into her eyes, "Leave now, forget ever talking to me."
Caitlin nods slowly, and then turns around with another word and walks back down the sidewalk. Clara sighed loudly, and she looked over her shoulder to see Kol with an unamused face on with arms crossed.
"Look, she was just so nice!" Clara defends, flailing both her arms up in the air.
"Clara, baby," Kol places both his hands on Clara's shoulders. "You need to learn control."
"I will! I will, but with someone mean so I don't feel bad," Clara sends her best puppy dog face, and she feels Kol cave in.
"Fine, we'll find someone mean that you can feed off," Kol rolls his eyes, but then he looks past Clara to Damon, Elena, and Bonnie walking up behind her.
Clara notices this, and then spins around to find them, and she waves gently. By the disappointed face on Damon and the annoyed glance on Elena's, she assumed that her hunt didn't go as well as they had hoped; just like Clara and Kol.
"Ah, so you backed out too?" Clara fake smiles, pointing at Elena, who didn't seem entertained. "Okay, I'll stop."
"Damon suggested we go to this frat party," Elena stated, passing a yellow flyer to Clara, who took it with curiosity. She pursed her lips at the idea of it, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Sounds like fun, you up for it, Kol?"
"Of course, people covered in fake blood? Perfect for real blood," Kol smiles brightly at Clara, who rolled her eyes at the boy.
"So, what should we go as? Victims or killers?"
a/n: finally updated agh, i've been super busy and school hasn't even started!! hopefully i'll be posting within the next few days because i've got nothing planned :-)