In the house of a stranger

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries. Characters and cannon are only used in this story for the sole purpose of entertainment.


Prologue: The Acceptance Letter

Caroline didn't quite know what to do with the letter in her hands. She turned it over trying to wrinkle the expensive embroiled paper, she quickly bent her knees to retrieve the envelope as it had fallen to her feet in her hasty attempt to open the letter she had received. It was official then; she inspected the equally expensive and refined seal which only held two capital letters in a beautiful cursive she found most elegant. She decided to set the envelope over the table, in case it touched the floor again, her hands were shaking a lot more than she had anticipated.

-"Mom!"- she screamed to the top of her lungs, her mother, predictably, came down the stairs in a rush, always in a business-like sheriff fashion, she seemed to inspect her overall state of being and afterwards she asked in a very annoyed tone what had her interrupting her nap time. Caroline didn't even bat an eyelash at her mother's harsh tone, but her smile did widen.

- "well?"

-" It's here mom!"- she said, a step away from bouncing around the room like an easter Bunny

- "what? Caroline, you're making no sense, what are you talking about?"

- "the acceptance letter"

-"well?"

-" I'm going to Europe!"

Caroline couldn't really blame her mother for her lack of enthusiasm, or the aspirin she might have swallowed for the headache she had gotten over her overly-exited daughter. No, she couldn't blame her either when she went back to her room and left her to her own devises. It was a little disappointing, yes, but Caroline couldn't care less. She'd always dreamed of travelling, meeting the world and getting away from the oppressive hellhole that was Mystic Falls. And she was going to be one of those exchange students. Really, at the moment she could really care less about any other thing.


Caroline raced to the stairs and slammed open the door without a care in the world for her mother's naptime. Another time, she would worry about that, later. Right at that moment, she needed to talk to Elena.

She picked up the phone and clicked 3 on the speed-dial (her mother had always insisted 1 and 2 be for emergencies) waiting for the phone to click. At the fourth ring, came the breathy sound of Elena's voice over the speaker. She tried not to think of what she had been doing that had her sounding like that.

-"hello?"

-"Elena! I got it! I got it!"- she squealed in the speaker, barely managing to wait for Elena's greetings before dropping the news

- "Caroline, It's very early in the morning; I think you'll have to be a little more specific than that"- Caroline checked the clock on the wall.. Pfft.. 6:37 was not too early

- "Oh my god! What is it with everyone today?! The exchange program? The scholarship? Awesome Britain?"

-" Isn't it supposed to be Great Britain?"

- "Elena, you're not helping!"

- "Right! Oh my good Care! That is so great!"- she heard the fumbling of fabric on the receiver and a soft slap noise before Elena whispered a furious 'Damon, stop it!'. followed by a string of noises she would rather not classify. Yes, she still denied she had a thing going on for the older Salvatore and she thought the rest of the world was so stupid no one was aware of it. Caroline decided however, that given how early it was, she probably wouldn't be able to talk to anyone else for another two hours. She could ignore Elena's less-than-subtle affairs for the time being.

- Yes! Oh my gosh! I'm going to be in the United Kindom for a year! Can you believe it? next to that, I'll visit Paris and have really dark chocolate in front of la tour Eiffel and then I'm going to go to Spain and try some paella, and then to Italy for a real pizza and gelato, Oh my god! I'm so excited!

-" I'm so happy for you, Care, I knew you were going to get it!"- Caroline was too happy to bring up the fact that Elena, like everyone else, had been pretty much skeptical about her application to one of Britain's most prestigious schools. Let alone her special request to get a scholarship during her stay, seeing as her mother's salary wasn't nearly enough to keep her studying abroad and Caroline hadn't worked a day of her life.

- "Oh Elena, I wish you guys could come with me!" – Elena didn't comment, but it was obvious she thought that was a lie, 'If Caroline had wanted to stay with her friends, she wouldn't have applied to a snob school on the other side of the Atlantic', she had said once to Bonny. Caroline knew she was hurt, but she did need some time away for herself. All the supernatural drama of Mystics Falls had been weighting down on her lately, and it seemed no beauty sleep could keep it at bay.

There was a small pause on the other side of the phone and Elena sighed, trying to choose carefully her next words.

"So, I take it you already talked to Tyler?"- She spoke quietly and carefully in a way Caroline interpreted to say she was quite certain she hadn't. Elena thought She and Tyler were meant to be, so naturedly, she had been trying to let on (a lot more subtly than with her relationship with Damon) that she needed to speak to Tyler for their love to survive all through the ordeal.

Caroline sighed quietly and her bright moods suddenly seemed to dampen just a little- "No, I haven't spoken to him. Do you think he's going to take it the wrong way?"

"I don't know care, but if someone I loved were leaving me behind for a year, I think I would want to know before it was too late to say goodbye".

"Geeze Elena, you make it sound as If I'm dying"- a very unhelpful voice in her mind reminded her she was already dead, in fact.

"I just… you're my friend and I don't want to see you get hurt by your own decisions"- Despite all her faults and her (sometimes unknowing) selfishness, Elena did care a lot about her friends. She could do nothing more than listen to her.

"I know… but this is something I need to do for myself".

"I know. Just don't take too long ok? At the very least, you own him that"- Caroline swallowed the need to spill to one of her friends exactly what she thought of Tyler at that very moment. He had said he loved her, yes. And then he constantly went out of his way to prove the exact opposite. She had enough drama in her life as it was to deal with his as well. The answer was short and polite, if a little cold, by her standards.

"Bye Elena"

"See you, Care"- she didn't wait to hear the click of the phone.


For all she had been trying to avoid it when she had secretly (to the knowledge of Tyler at least) made her application, she certainly didn't expect what followed. Tyler hung up on her the moment she told him she would be leaving for a year and then had stormed into her house not 5 minutes after the call to try to convince her not to go to one of the most important life experiences she would ever have. Then, when that didn't work, he tried bulling her into staying with him, going so far as to insult her to get her to stay. She had tried to hide it, but the disappointment she felt must have been so evident in her face, the next thing she knew, he had turned on his feet and left her house with a finality she'd only ever seen the day her father had decided to walk out on her mother and her to live with his new lover. She had cried enough for her father's abandonment and it had nearly consumed her. At that moment, when the door finally slammed behind him, Caroline made an oath to herself not to cry over Tyler ever again, so she let everything flow that night and by the next day, the incident was all but a bad memory.


Caroline fumbled through her application forms as she moved her feet impatiently under the desk. The librarian shot her a nasty look which she promptly ignored. She had stuff to take care of, plus it wasn't like there was anybody else in the library to begin with. This had been her one and only place for sorting her papers for the last month when she'd decided she wanted to be a part of the exchange program in her school.

The table in front of her felt a little small with all the travel books, itineraries, schedules, forms and her laptop sitting over it. She'd made her decision to go to Britain and that had been quite easy (after all, she didn't speak any other language and she had always dreamed of going to Europe) She wasn't sure of the exact location yet, though. She had a soft spot for Oxford, but then again, she liked to think of the possibilities of living in a big city like Edinburg or London. And then there were the towns so full of history like York or Durham. She was having a really hard time choosing, so she decided to leave it to chance. The new Caroline Forbes would not be afraid of taking a chance.

She finished her housing requests and hit sent. The first to answer her, would be the one to have her for a full year in their house, either way, the school she was going to be attending had sites all over the United Kingdom, so that, at least, wasn't so much of a problem. She ignored the fear that usually came from knowing nothing at all. She'd made a pact to herself to be more laid back, to be a little less responsible. She would take the chance, wherever it might take her.

She closed her pink laptop with at click and got it into its case as she then proceeded to methodically organize the massive assembly of very heavy books over the table for the librarian to pick up after she left. Before doing that, though, she would send the sour woman a blinding smile that was sure to make her feel bad for treating her like a pest. She was probably the only thing keeping her from coming home to a room full of cats.

The librarian didn't return the smile though; If anything, her glare turned meaner than before. She wondered exactly what she had done to upset the lady like that.

She sighed. Again, she was thinking too much into things. Wasn't that what Tyler had said to her just a few months ago?

Tyler. The name alone reminded her there were still a lot of things to be wrapped up before she left mystic falls. They had been dating for three years up until that moment, but things weren't the same anymore. She had gotten tired of the heated discussions they had all the time and yet, she couldn't help but do it, since it seemed it was the only way to actually connect with her longtime boyfriend. Things were not what they used to be. She knew this and she knew she had to tell him sometime, but they had become such good friends and they had gone through so many stuff together, she didn't know if she had it in her to break up with him. Instead she decided to just let him believe she still felt something for him, romantically speaking.

She knew the exchange would buy her time to find herself, figure out what she wanted, what was missing. It was really only an added bonus that she got to distance herself from him without having to break his heart in the process. He had not been very satisfied when she told him about it in the first place, so she could only hope in time, he came around.

Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her jacket and she brought it in front of her eyes to see that it was Elena calling her; apparently, Damon had finally flipped out on her and left her somewhere in the middle of nowhere. She signed as she made arrangements to pick up her friend. She knew Elena meant no harm to either one her lapdogs (as she sometimes called them) and she'd even been thrown into the whole mess a few times, but even though she had always stood by Stefan's side, she couldn't help feeling a little bad for Damon. The guy might be a douche, but it was painfully obvious he was in love with Elena and she just kept playing with him, whether she realized it or not.

To think of Damon like that made her feel a little better about her decision to let Tyler be free of her. She didn't want to do to him what her friend was doing to the eldest Salvatore. No matter how much they sometimes deserved it.


She went out for the next two weeks to get everything in order for her one year trip and left her phone in her house, pointedly ignoring any calls made from Tyler's Matt's or even Bonnie's cell phone, as she figured her boyfriend would probably turn her own friends against her if he needed to.

She had worked hard (no matter what everyone though) for this and she was not going to stop just because she had apparently offended someone's feelings over her decision to, for once in her life, do something for herself.

It was exactly a month and a half after the little incident with Tyler that she found herself in a bus driving out of mystic falls to take her to the airport of Saint Francisco. While she was a little scared, she was also overly excited to the point she didn't know exactly what to feel anymore.

All her friends (minus Tyler) grouped in front of the bus right before her as each one of them took their chances to say goodbye. Some more enthusiastically than others, she noted, as Damon provided his usual bitter/sarcastic remark she never knew whether to interpret as teasing or as an insult. She didn't think she would miss him that much.

Stefan had been a little friendlier, even in his now-constant mopping mode. He was also not blind to the particular stare Elena had seemed to develop specially for his brother. Matt, as always, provided the take-care speech before he hugged her between his bulky arms. Her two best friends had both launched at her at the same time, encouraging her (even in the not-so-sincere fashion) to have fun and see the world and make friends and not to worry about them.

Her mother, had never been much for words, but it spoke volumes the fact that she had called off the day at work just so she could be with her daughter before she left for another continent. Her mother wrapped her in a hug at least a little less awkward than the one they had shared a month prior and it was all Caroline needed to understand the meaning- Be safe, I'll miss you

The bus driver got in his seat and turned on the vehicle that would be taking her away from the only home she had ever known. She grabbed her flowery hand bag from the ground and turned to get on the bus, waving one last time as it slowly drove off too her next big adventure.


-.-