A/N: New Klaroline AU/AH. Will write of a normal blurb whenever I feel like it.
FIrst chapter unedited and awful just for you.
"This has to stop." Liz Forbes said, throwing the spatula she had been holding at the kitchen counter to emphasise her point.
Caroline widened her eyes and took an innocent- or at least what she hoped was innocent- expression even though she knew very well what her mother was talking about.
"Caroline, I'm worried about you. It's already been three weeks and you have barely left the house." her mother said, looking her daughter dead in the eyes with this scary sheriff look that was able to make even the worst of criminals feel uncomfortable.
Caroline jumped off the stool where she was sitting and walked towards her mother, sticking her finger into the bowl of dough and licking it clean just to she would avoid her scrutinizing look.
"Wrong. Two days ago I went out to buy milk, and before that I went to the park for a whole morning." Caroline said while she busied herself with the uncooked dough.
"You only went out because I made you. Can't you tell that me and your father are worrying about you? Half the summer break has gone by and you haven't went out to meet your friends even once. You just sit inside, watching tv. This isn't normal, darling." Liz said, worry seeping into her voice, and Caroline instantly felt guilty for having worried everyone in her family, but it wasn't like she could do otherwise.
"Everything is fine, mom. There's nothing to worry about." Caroline said, brushing her mother off and struggling to retain her voice cheerful even though it came out sort of strained.
Liz wasn't buing it, and Caroline's face fell at her mother's next words. "I'm not listening a word. Today when your brother goes outdoors, you're going with him."
"But-" Caroline tried to reason with her, but Liz cut her.
"There's no but. I have already talked to Damon and he has agreed to let you join him and his friends and that's final."
Caroline knew that there was no use trying to tell her mother that Damon and his friends did the craziest of things when they were away from Liz' radar, and the only reason they never got in trouble was because Damon, a future criminal mind, was somehow able to hide his misadventures from their mother, something Caroline always considered a small wonder.
"Fine." she said irritably, stalking out of the kitchen since she knew when a fight was already lost.
Once in her room, Caroline face-planted into her bed, exclaiming against her pillow "Seriously?"
One hour later when Damon came into her room to tell see if she was ready to leave, Caroline hadn't left her bed at all. He gave her a quick once-over, his eyebrows shooting up in his forehead and then spun around. Before he left her room, Damon, classy as always called over his shoulder "You'd better get dressed. I don't want to be seen with someone who looks like a zombie."
Caroline looked down at herself. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, still clad in her blue pajamas with the cloud prints.
"Dick", she murmured and she was ready to yell at Damon that she didn't look that back, but when she looked at herself in the mirror, she did a double take.
Her blond hair, uncombed and pulled into a careless ponytail, had managed to escape from the little strap and now hung in dull locks around her face. Her face had no trace of makeup, her skin paler than usual.
Oh God, is this how I have looked all summer? Caroline thought to herself as she grabbed her comb and started attacking her hair. Maybe it is time I got outside. She opened her wardrobe, and after a moment of hesitation she chose a cute floral summer dress and white sandals to match.
She untangled a particularly stubborn strand of hair, and after hearing Damon's annoyed voice calling from downstairs for her to hurry, she applied a thin layer of make-up and mascara. Grabbing her purse, Caroline hoped down the stairs, feeling lighter and in a better mood than she had been in a while now.
No more hiding at home, but it better be damn worth it, Caroline thought as she and her brother left the house.
However, she took that back when, a little while later she and Damon waited outside the train station to meet with his friends and she learnt what they were doing for the day.
"Seriously? So we're just going to hop on a train that goes God knows where and then, what? Disembark in the wilderness and watch you guys make a fool of yourselves until the next train comes?" she asked, incredulity seeping in her voice.
"Come on, Care, live a little. We've done it before and it's fun. Don't be a buzz-killer." Damon said. His expression was one of a child at Christmas, and Caroline couldn't help snorting in a less than elegant manner.
Damon put a hand on her shoulder and made her look at him. His voice was, for once, sober when he spoke and his eyes held something almost like concern instead of their usual playful glint or mocking mischief. "Look, I don't know what is going on with you, but whatever has happened you can't let it bring you down. I promise that you'll have a good time and tha I'll-"
But Caroline never learned what her brother was about to tell her because his two friends arrived. Damon tore his gaze reluctantly from her, and Caroline followed suit.
His friends were laughing loudly and shoving each other, earning disapproving frowns and glares from the crowd gathered in the train station, but they seemed oblivious to it. Just like her brother, insensitive and most of the time jackasses, Caroline thought to herself with a small, fond smile.
Her smile grew wider when she noticed that one of the two guys she would have to spend the whole day with was Stefan. However, it fell from her face altogether when she spotted Mason Lockwood walking right beside him, the cousing of the person she couldn't bear hear about, much less see since the last few months.
Caroline kept her eyes glued on him as he and Damon exchanged a weird guy handshake. When Mason turned to look at her, a part of her that was going crazy with panic screamed at her that he knew, before the most rational part of her scolded her.
It wasn't like Tyler Lockwood would go around telling everyone what had happened between them, much less tell his cousing.
"Caroline, hey. I didn't know you were joining us." Mason said.
His smle was genuine enough, his shoulders relaxed and his posture confident. There was nothing indicating he was faking his friendliness. He was just acting like he would act around the sister of any of his mates.
'Yeah." Caroline said, her voice sounding a little hoarse and she wanted to laugh at her subconscious for acting all panicky and unreasonable, but it came out the wrong way, more like a choked sob.
Mason gave her a weird look but didn't say anything else. Caroline breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the train rapidly approaching the station, and Mason turned his attention back towards Damon, who was telling him an undoubtedly crude joke and making him howler with laughter.
A voice sounded beside her ear, making her jump, only to realise that it was just Stefan.
"What was all this about?" he asked her, taking hold of her elbow as they boarded the train.
Geez, you need to calm down, Caroline thought to herself before she turned to her friend. Making her voice sound flippant and lighter than she felt and forcing a cheerfulness she hadn't felt in a while, she brushed off Stefan's words "Nothing. I didn't know you were coming."
Out of all of Damon's friends, Stefan Salvatore was by far Caroline's favourite and it wasn't a secret. One year older than her, with messy light brown hair, perfectly defined muscles and strong features, Stefan was the dream of every girl, but that wasn't the reason why Caroline liked him so much. It was the kindness in his bright green eyes, the promise of reliability and the easy-going aura surrounding him that made.
When he first moved to Mystic Falls to live with his uncle at the boarding house that had been unused for years, there was a shroud of mystery around him. He started hanging out with Damon in the first grade of middle school, and Caroline couldn't help feeling flustered and self-conscious every time he was around. However, soon this childish crash developed into a strong friendship, and Caroline realised that he loved him like a brother.
Stefan arched one eyebrow as if to tell her that what she was telling him was just a load of bullshit to distract him, but he let it go as they took their seats in the vagon that stopped closer to where they were standing in the station.
Damon and Mason moved a few seat overs where they could shove their heads out of the open window as the train sped in the open, yell and generally act like five years old- their mental age. Stefan soon joined them after being reassured by Caroline that she would be alright, because the whole point of their little daily adventures was to have fun and act like children while they still could, before they would have to go to college in exactly three weeks.
And despite all of Caroline's initial protests, she was surprised when she found that she was indeed enjoying herself. This was one of the less crazy ideas her brother had had, and as the train left the city behind and started passing vast fields of grass with the tops of the trees appearing in the distance, Caroline felt like she was also leaving her problems behind her.
When she fixed her gaze on the clear sumemr sky, she started daydreaming like she hadn't been able to do in months, and with a start she realised that what she had told Stefan, what she always told people as an instinctive response- the only acceptable response, really- was true. At that moment, she was alright.