A/N: So this is my second fanfic. I wanted to write something that would make the Matt Davis proud, but I realize it would have to be pretty twisted to do that haha. Not quite sure I'm capable of that since I'm just starting out. I do hope you enjoy what I come up with though, and I look forward to going through this journey with all of you ;)

So…this was it. The big day where she left the home her and Jeremy had been living in for the past two years with their Aunt and went off on her own. It was college move-in day.

Elena had said her goodbyes to Jenna and Jeremy this morning, driving the fairly boring three-hour drive to get to Mystic Falls University afterward. Jeremy only had one more year before he went off to college, but until then, he needed someone to look out for him while Elena was away. So Jenna had said there was no choice in the matter. She was going to stay with him for as long as he needed her. It was one of the things Elena loved about her Aunt.

The school was kind of small. Unfortunately, all of her friends from high school didn't want to go to a college that was just as small as her old school had been. Even her best friend, Bonnie, had gone all the way to Florida. The warm weather and beaches sounded perfect right now. Especially considering it was about to rain. Elena felt the first drop on her shoulder, quickly gathering her stuff and walking briskly to her building.

Her dorm was room 4726…of course it would be all the way on the fourth floor. At least the buildings were nice though, they all looked as if they had just been redone. She quickly walked in through the entrance just as she heard thunder pound outside and the rain fall harder. Thankfully, there weren't classes until tomorrow. So going out in this storm was something she didn't have to think about.

The elevator was in perfect working condition, so reaching the fourth floor wasn't difficult for her. The hallways were pretty empty, since most students were either touring campus or decorating their dorm rooms. She continued down the hall until she finally reached a maroon door that had the golden numbers of her dorm room on it. From outside, she could hear loud music playing from inside the room. Her brows furrowed together as she slowly opened the unlocked door. Inside, a bouncy little blond haired girl was dancing around to some girl band that was playing through her stereo speakers.

Elena's eyes widened and a smile appeared on her lips as she knocked on the wall nearby. It was loud enough for the other girl to hear and she turned her head, jumping a little in surprise. She pranced over to her stereo to turn the music off.

"Hi!" The girl said enthusiastically.

"Hey."

"So…I'm guessing you're my roommate?"

"Apparently so. I'm assigned to room 4726."

"Then you've come to the right place! My name is Caroline. Caroline Forbes." She grinned, sticking her hand out to Elena.

"I'm Elena Gilbert." Elena smiled and shook the girls hand. Thank god Caroline was nice. One of her biggest fears over the summer had been having a roommate she couldn't stand. The other girl had potential to be a really good friend.

"Nice to meet you, Elena! Have you checked out the campus yet? It looks so quaint and homey to me."

"I haven't had the chance yet," she sighed as she put her stuff on the side opposite Caroline, "it started pouring outside as I got here."

Caroline looked outside the window, shocked as she saw how hard it was raining. "Well I guess it is. I couldn't hear from the music."

Elena chuckled and began unpacking her stuff. The dorm room was a pretty nice place. It was just big enough to give the two girls enough space. They had their own bathroom, so there would be no community shower for her. They had a small closet space that the girls would share and each of them had a desk and a dresser on their side. The bed sheets were maroon for the school colors. It wasn't a bad set-up at all. About halfway through unpacking her clothes, Caroline took a break from hanging her pictures to turn around and face Elena.

"So what classes do you have? We might get lucky and have a couple together." Caroline jumped onto her bed, pulling her schedule out of her oversized purse.

"Just general classes mostly. English, History, Math, Speech, and Italian." Elena had always wanted to speak Italian, but high school had never offered it. They were all general classes because she still hadn't decided on a major. It was scary not knowing what she wanted to do, but wasn't college the time to figure all of that out anyway? Experience things and experiment? The year held promise, and it was still a while before she had to pick something to major in anyway.

"Well we could possibly have two classes together. Who do you have for English and History?"

"Um…for English I have Martin and for History I have Saltzman."

"Looks like we have English together roomie!" Caroline squealed, clapping her hands together.

Caroline's mouth suddenly formed a big "o" and she ran over and jumped on Elena's bed. The girl looked as if she was about to burst with excitement over what she had to share.

"I almost forgot. I met this sophomore on my tour of campus earlier. His name is Tyler Lockwood. He asked me if I wanted to go to a club near the campus later tonight. I told him I would love to go with him. You could come along if you wanted to. It would be a good chance for you to get out there and talk up those fellas." Caroline winked, a sly little grin playing at her mouth.

"I would hate to intrude on your time with him though."

"Nonsense! In fact, he said something about a friend of his named Matt. I could text Tyler and tell him to invite that guy as well! It would be like a double date!" Caroline squeaked, grabbing her phone in a rush to text Tyler. Elena shook her head, realizing there was no way she was getting out of this. It could be fun though, couldn't it?

The music pounded against the speakers as the DJ played some dance mix. Caroline and Elena entered the club titled The Howler and headed toward a booth in the back where two boys sat beside each other. Elena could only assume that the two boys were Matt and Tyler. Caroline grinned brightly as she walked over to the two men, waiting for Elena to scoot to the inside of the booth so that she was across from Matt. Caroline continued to stand though, only placing her purse down beside Elena.

"Tyler, will you come dance with me? I'm too hyper to sit right now." Caroline winked and Tyler followed like a little puppy, smiling the entire time. Elena narrowed her eyes at Caroline, who only smiled slyly back at her. She would be getting an earful back in their room.

"Well that was subtle." Matt said from across the booth. Elena couldn't help but laugh.

"I only met Caroline today, but her intentions seem to be in the right place."

"She seems like a sweet girl. I hope Tyler doesn't screw it up."

"He has a bad history with girls?"

"Kind of. Tyler is a good guy and all, but he never keeps a girl for long. His attention span is short."

"Well, let's hope Caroline can get through to him then."

"Sure hope so."

They both laughed, albeit a bit awkwardly. Matt seemed like a nice guy, but she couldn't help noticing he also seemed…distracted. Like his heart wasn't in this little setup tonight.

"Is everything ok, Matt?"

"Me? Yea, yea I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious. You know…if you have a girlfriend or something, I would completely understand. I'm only here because Caroline wanted me to go, not because I'm looking for a date."

Matt sighed, realization dawning on his face that he probably couldn't keep up whatever façade he had going.

"Her name is Rebekah. She isn't my girlfriend, but we've kind of been talking. I haven't told Tyler about her yet. I don't want him knowing right now, so that's why I came along. So he wouldn't suspect anything." Matt confessed.

"Then I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you," Matt smiled, "You seem like a great girl. If I wasn't talking to Rebekah, I really think we might have had a shot." He spoke genuinely. Elena liked this guy.

"I agree. But, you have your girl, and I don't want to be the cause of a break-up. I think you and I could still be good friends though. I don't really know anyone on campus yet. I got here just as the storm started earlier, so I haven't had a chance to really tour the place."

"I would be honored to be your friend, Elena." Matt gave a bright smile, taking a sip of his water.

Elena grinned back, using the comfortable silence that followed as a chance to look around the club more. It seemed like it was the popular place to be. Caroline and Tyler were out in the middle of the floor, bumping and grinding with the rest of the students to whatever music was blasting over the speakers. This place was honestly just not her kind of hangout. The music was too loud and the people were a little rude. At least the ones she could see at the moment. Not to mention how rowdy they were. It brought some bad memories to mind, ones she quickly shoved away.

There was a couple dancing on the bar, the mans hands were roaming up and down the girl's sides as her hands came up to lay on each side of his face, occasionally running through his raven colored hair. They were a good-looking couple, at least in Elena's opinion. Below them, actually sitting at the bar was a man with a drink in his hand, throwing his head back to ingest the alcohol. He slammed the glass down and got up to dance around by the couple. They looked old to be in a place like this though.

"Hey Matt, does that group over there seem a bit old to be in a place like this? All the kids here look around our age."

"Well, that's because they are older. The man dancing on the ground by the couple is Alaric Saltzman, he's twenty-five years old."

"Saltzman? Doesn't he…"

"Yup, teaches a history class at the university. His buddy dancing on the table, Damon Salvatore, is his roommate. The guy is a dick and a complete party animal. He's only a couple years younger than Saltzman. Both of them are grad students and have an apartment somewhere near the campus. As for the girl, I have no idea who she is."

"How do you know so much about them?"

"Word about Salvatore gets around fast, therefore word about Saltzman does as well. Honestly, I feel bad for him. Man comes here with Damon all the time and dances with a number of girls, but he never leaves with any of them. No clue why though. Seems kind of lonely to me."

"Wonder why." Elena said sarcastically. The man looked positively hammered right now. He hung out at a place with kids who weren't grad students. She wasn't all that surprised that girls didn't want to go home with him. He was just the creepy older guy who would hang out with the undergrads. How was he supposed to even teach a class tomorrow?

Before she had a chance to ponder the matter further, Caroline and Tyler walked back to the booth. Both were breathing heavily as they tried to catch their breath after their dancing. Caroline was all smiles as she sat next to Elena.

"You two should get out there! This place is so much fun!"

"I think I'll pass, Caroline. I may just go back to our room. I'm pretty tired after moving in and I just want to get some sleep before class tomorrow." Elena gave a small smile.

"Well you can't go by yourself! There are creeps out at this time of night, Elena. I'm going with you." Caroline nodded her head as if there would be no discussing the matter and that was final.

The girls said their goodbyes to the boys. Elena gave Matt a heartfelt hug, thanking him for the nice chat. Caroline and Tyler were whispering to each other, but Elena couldn't hear what it was about. After everyone said their farewells, the girls headed back to their dorm. It was late by the time they got back, and Elena's first class was Italian the next morning. Followed by English, and then History. Her classes were kind of late though, at least compared to her high school schedule. Italian didn't start until ten o'clock. English was at eleven, and History was at noon. Now she had the chance to sleep in just a little bit, so maybe she would be able to stay awake in class. Hopefully the day would be eventful. She had already made two friends today. Who knew the people she might meet tomorrow.

A/N: Tell me what you think! I'm always up for constructive criticism. I can't get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong. If you like something I do, tell me that as well and I'll keep it in mind for later chapters. Thank you! =)