.

"So this is your bedroom?" Bonnie asked, looking up at the posters adorning the walls. She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and examined the posters a tad bit closer. One side of the room was decorated with a life-sized poster of the great Houdini and other black and white pictures of Edgar Allen Poe. The other wall was decked with posters of a football team and a framed football jersey with logos from various teams. She cast her eyes down at the two single beds and chewed on her lower lip as if trying to ascertain which side of the room he slept in. Stefan rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and followed her green eyes as they examined the room. He was actually grateful that Aaron had thought to tidy up the place before he left because he knew how he and Liam liked to commiserate over their love-lorn lives in his room.

"Is that a hair dryer?" Bonnie asked, startling him. She took two strides and moved to the small study desk to pick up the metallic object. Stefan winced and prayed that she didn't open his drawer because the last time he checked that's where he and Aaron kept their hair gels.

"So that's how you get your hero hair." She chuckled, glancing at him over her shoulder. Stefan straightened his back and ran a hand through his hair.

"That belongs to my roommate." He smiled sheepishly, feeling the blush creep into his cheeks.

"Who's your roommate?"

"Aaron Whitmore."

"As in Whitmore College?"

"Yup. He's also an Alpha Zeta Pi legacy."

With furrowed eyebrows, she advanced toward him, "What's a legacy?"

"His father and his grandfather were Alpha Zeta Pi." Stefan explained, watching as she planted her hands on his shoulders. Pressing her lips tightly together, she lifted her eyes and narrowed them at him.

"Are you also a legacy?" she asked, biting her lower lip.

"Yes. Marcel Gerard only accepts the best pledges after all."

"You know I never got the appeal for Greek life and sororities. They always seemed vapid to me." Her hands moved down his t-shirt, splaying them across his chest before fisting the material. Stefan's gaze dropped to her questing hand and the attempt to seduce him in his bedroom. His eyes darted to the door and he tried to remember if he had locked it or not. He'd waited weeks to make love to her and had often fantasized about what it would finally be like to feel her skin against his.

"And yet you're rushing a sorority tonight?" Stefan's hand slid under her Tank top, his fingers cool against her heated flesh. He wondered if she was wearing a bra because she really didn't need one. She was much less endowed than Caroline but he liked her breasts nonetheless. Jeez, he needed to get out of his head and focus on the moment. He shook his head, his trembling hands tracing the underside of her breasts. He felt the smooth, warm cotton under his fingertips and smiled.

"That's just part of my bullshit college experience. I 'm doing a college bucket list." Bonnie hummed, her hands now feeling for his zipper.

"Would a heavy make out session in my room constitute as part of your bucket list?" Stefan's thick brows furrowed. He was alert to every movement now, every hitch of her breath and the tingle of his skin under her finger pads.

Lifting his shirt, she pressed her cold palm against his quivering stomach muscles, "Hmm…I guess we could check that off my list."

"Are you ready to serve it to me piping hot?" she asked, pulling his shirt over his head.

"You don't even need any reservations." Stefan cocked his head and smiled.

"I am strangely hungry right now." She purred, her breath quivering against his lips.

"Oh yeah?"

"No I mean actually hungry…like for actual food." She chuckled lightly, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"Bon, if you're not ready I understand. I want to remember being with you for the rest of my life. I want it to be special."

"Wow, that's heavy…I mean we've only known each other for a month and technically we only spent two weeks together in the Maldives." She smirked, preening his t-shirt with her hands.

"That doesn't change the fact that you make my heart race. It doesn't change the fact that I've fallen in love with you." He snagged her left hand and placed it on his chest so that she could feel the beat of his heart. With light from the window illuminating her brown hair, Stefan marvelled at her heart-shaped face and her beauty. Tracing her cheek with his fingers, he inched closer to her and before she could say anything, claimed her mouth with his. They broke the kiss to look at each other and Stefan opened his mouth to say something but the peal of her phone made her spring back from his embrace. Wordlessly, she rifled through her bag and pulled out her cell phone.

"It's my dad." She said, meeting his gaze.

"You should get it." Stefan cleared his throat, pulling his shirt back over his head. The moment was gone, he thought as he swallowed his disappointment. It wasn't really a matter of wanting to make love to her because clearly she wasn't ready but still he wanted to feel like she belonged to him and only him. Meeting a gorgeous girl in the Maldives who just happened to have been accepted at Whitmore was nothing if not serendipitous especially with everything he had been going through with Caroline.

"No. I'll call him back later; it's probably just his secretary trying to find out if I arrived safely." Bonnie shrugged and dropped the phone back into her bag, muffling its shrill sound.

Clapping his hands together, he plastered a smile on his face and tried to sound cheerful, "Okay before we crash some crazy fraternity party let's go get you settled into your dorm."

"You would take me to a fraternity party swarming with hot, sexy boys?" she laughed as he threw an arm around her shoulder, swinging the door open.

"Do I strike you as the jealous type?" Stefan chuckled softly and rested his chin on her head, before smelling her lustrous hair.

With her arm wrapped around his waist, she bumped her hip against his, "You strike me as a boy who likes a girl."

"Good answer, besides the guy-girl ratio will always work to my favor. This is college remember."

.

.

"Where have you been?" Caroline cried abandoning the flower arrangement she had been preening over to rush to Rebekah, "My life is practically falling apart and my bestfriend is nowhere to be found!"

"Don't be so dramatic. Is this about rush?" Rebekah scoffed, looking strangely irritable. She scanned the room with girls in a panic as they prepared for the rushees tonight.

"No it's about Stefan breaking up with me." Caroline countered, hardly able to hear herself think with all the commotion.

"Its sad but you two were mismatched, you can do much better than Stefan Salvatore. Rebekah shrugged and guzzled the rest of her Starbucks coffee.

"Better than Stefan, what's better than Stefan Salvatore?" Caroline pouted, wrinkling her nose at the other blonde.

"You really love playing the damsel in distress don't you?" Rebekah looked her up and down then shook her head.

"Stefan was a dreadful bore with all that relentless brooding, you'll get over him. Just ask Jesus to take the wheel." Rebekah replied, flicking her gaze back at the elegant decorations.

"That's easy for you to say, you have the memory of a goldfish." Caroline shot a glare at her friend because she was acting like a cow this afternoon, "You don't have relationships, you have flirtationships. What I have with Stefan is real."

"I don't like relationships, too much drama and it's what you had with Stefan, past tense. Oh and the next time you go stalking me, do me a favor and don't run to Alpha Zeta Pi. I don't want to make it glaringly obvious to my brother that I'm fucking his best friend." she sashayed out of the crowded room, bouncing her golden locks.

.

.

Stefan angled his car into a small parking space as they pulled up next to Bonnie's new dormitory. She heaved a sigh, her nerves jangling and helped her boyfriend with her bags. She was finally here in Mystic Falls, the same town her mother grew up before moving out to DC and meeting her father. She wondered which dorm her mother had stayed in.

"You okay?" Stefan asked, jerking her from her thoughts. She smiled dutifully and pecked his cheek to assure him that she was indeed fine. Once inside the dorm, Bonnie looked down at her room assignment sheet then at the room numbers on the doors. When they finally found the correct door, Stefan tapped the wood and a short while later the door flew open, blaring music drifting out into the busy hallway. A small brown haired girl holding a turkey sandwich in her right hand greeted them and signalled them to enter the microscopic room. Turning the music down, she placed the sandwich on a plate sitting on her study desk and brushed crumbs off her dress.

"You must be my roommate." She mumbled, placing a hand over her mouth before she swallowed.

"Hi, I'm Bonnie" Bonnie smiled, thrusting out her hand.

"Elena Gilbert" she said, darting her gaze between Bonnie and Stefan while she shook Bonnie's hand.

"Stefan Salvatore." He nodded and offered her his hand.

Elena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and grinned at him "Hi."

"I better head out, will you be okay?" he directed his attention back to Bonnie and set her bags on top of the bed.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Text me when you're done with rush so we can go out for dinner." He traced a finger down her jaw, cupping her chin before opening his arms wide to her.

"I like the sound of that." Bonnie smiled easily, melting into the hug.

"Bye." He said, letting her go and nodded to Elena before he opened the door.

"Bye." Bonnie and Elena said in unison and watched the door close behind him.

"You're from Washington DC" Elena said as soon as Stefan left.

"Yup. What about you?"

"Right here, Mystic Falls." She shrugged and picked her sandwich back up from the plate.

"So you're rushing a sorority tonight?" Elena asked again, her mouth poised over the bread.

"Yes. What about you?"

"Yeah, I got my letters of recommendation right here," she patted a drawer with her hand, "You obviously don't need them because you're a senator's daughter."

"Shhh…not so loud, I have a reputation to protect." Bonnie chuckled, plopping down on her small bed. Jerking open the door to her bed side table, she checked the size of the space and wondered if she could pile her books inside it.

"This is gonna be so much fun." Elena said, finally tearing into her sandwich.

.

.

The servers carried trays of champagne as they weaved around the crowd and Caroline snatched a flute, taking a big hearty gulp. She pulled at her white strapless dress and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Tonight she couldn't keep her head straight, she just couldn't focus, and her world had literally fallen apart. She wondered if this was how Jen felt after that Mr. & Mrs. Smith disaster. She wasn't in the mood for the social. What she needed was a warm candle lit bubble bath, a much needed tub of Ben & Jerry ice cream and her laptop. She had to know who B was. She had to know the name of this nobody who had suddenly catapulted her popularity by dating Stefan. This is why celebrities had PR teams and assistants; it would have been much easier to delegate the B project.

She was still contemplating her dilemma when Rebekah swept into the room clad in a bronze brocade dress with Lexi and Liv Parker following closely behind her.

"I love the first semester. It always feels so cleansing." Rebekah stated, tossing her flaxen hair over her shoulder and the rest of the girls nodded in unison. The rest of the girls gathered around the staircase listening to her speech.

"Remember, no discussing boys, religion, politics or sex with the rushees. We have a reputation to uphold." Rebekah addressed them, her hands flying to her hips.

"Caroline, your job tonight is to land the senator's daughter, Bonnie Bennett." She pointed at Caroline who nodded vehemently.

"I'm on it." Caroline grinned, squaring her shoulders.

"I expect nothing less from you. There is no room for error on this one."

.

.

Bonnie strolled past towering flower arrangements, her eyes swinging up to take in the crystal chandelier suspended from the ornate ceiling. The cocktails flowed while the sorority sisters interviewed the pledges and her cheeks already ached from smiling too much. After her second glass of champagne, she needed an escape. She pulled out her phone from her clutch and scrolled down the screen to Stefan's name.

"I'll be right back." She told some redhead who had cornered her for ten minutes to discuss the merits of pledging Gamma Phi Beta. Her eyes honed in on the open French doors leading out into the terrace and she could see a forest of drooping trees thick with gray Spanish moss. Bonnie started toward the open doors but stopped short when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder.

"You must Bonnie Bennett. I'm Caroline Forbes, vice president of Gamma Phi Beta." She stuck out her hand for a handshake and Bonnie obliged.

"Nice meeting you." The brunette said, her green eyes taking in the blonde who looked prim and angelic with her curls and her sparkly white teeth.

"Are you having fun?" Caroline asked, leading her back into the crowd.

"The best." Bonnie lied.

"We do a lot of philanthropy work and they're usually centred on animal shelters and hospices." Caroline blurted, her words running into each other but Bonnie was no longer paying any attention because something unexpected was in her line of vision. She crept closer to the rows of pictures decorating one pastel wall.

"Is something wrong?" Caroline called behind her.

"That's my mother." Bonnie said, her voice raw as she pointed to one of the pictures on the wall.

"Your mother was Gamma Phi Beta?" Caroline asked and walked up to stand next to her, clasping her hands in front of her the way pageant or debutante girls always did.

"It would seem so" Bonnie response was distracted as she leaned closer to the photo of a young beautiful woman with perfectly coifed raven hair and a silver necklace. She looked down at her chest and groped the same necklace that her mother was wearing in the picture.

"Congratulations, you're a legacy." Caroline said cheerfully forcing Bonnie to glimpse back at her.

"Uh…thanks." She responded.

"I'm also a legacy. My mother and my nana were both Gamma Phi Beta." The blonde said following Bonnie's hand to the necklace resting on her chest.

"Care!" someone called behind them prompting Caroline to turn her head around. She grasped Bonnie's shoulder and told her that she would be right back. Bonnie focused her attention back to the picture on the wall and she reached out her hand to touch the glass. The idea that her mother had lived this sorority life intrigued and excited her. It had been six years since Abby's passing but there was not a day that went by that she didn't think about her.

"I see you've met the Barbies and their minions."

Bonnie pivoted around, her hand still resting on the necklace to look at the new intruder.

"Hi, I'm Katherine Pierce."

"Bonnie Bennett."

"So, you're the political princess."

"Is that my new name?"

"Oh yeah, that's what they're calling you behind your back."

"And what's your trope, rebellious princess?" Bonnie arched a brow, giving the girl a short club-dress once over.

"No but bitch will do just fine." Katherine smiled, crossing her arms against her chest.

Returning her smile, Bonnie gave a nod and said "Then bitch it is."

"There's a party at Kappa Tau Beta if you want to join me. Lots of hot, naked frat boys and loads of tequila body shots." Katherine said when they started walking toward the exit.

"As exciting as that sounds I have a dinner date with my boyfriend."

"First day and she already has a boyfriend. I thought I was ambitious."

"Rain check?"

"Guess this means more hotties for me tonight"

"Have fun." Bonnie said as she stepped over the threshold. She heard a dissonance of dins from a number of cell phones as she left and felt a shift from inside the house and from the girls standing outside on the terrace.

A few of the girls looked up at her as she passed them and whispered to each other. Every time the phone dinged, a girl would stare right at her and pass a comment to her friend.

Bonnie tried to shake off the eerie feeling that the messages were about her, she needed to get back to her dorm and get ready for her dinner date with Stefan.

.

.

"How about a beer?" Damon tossed his younger brother a smirk, "I heard about your situation with Blondie."

"I don't wanna talk about it." Stefan picked up a white Styrofoam cup rimmed with red lipstick then set it back down on the table. When he whipped back around, Damon stretched out his hand and handed him a fresh paper cup filled with beer.

"Klaus know about your party?" Stefan asked, examining the frothy contents of the red container before touching its rim to his lips.

"It's a secret party, Stefan." Damon smirked, motioning to the girls clad in skin-tight daisy dukes sprinkling dustings of salt on their exposed bits so that they could do body shots. Stefan peeled his gaze away from them, past the fraternity boys bobbing for apples in beer filled containers, the group involved in a feverish game of arm-wrestle and finally to the Sigma Gamma Rho girls led by Vicky Donovan, the vice-president of the sorority house and an inebriated Valerie Tulle.

"You wanna try a body shot?" Damon pointed at some random girl lying on a table with a group of frat boys licking salt off the body and taking a wedge of lime from her lips with their mouths.

"Oh wait, that would be considered cheating and we know how self-righteous you are brother."

Stefan's phone chimed and he retrieved it from his pocket, scrolling down to check his messages.

"You better answer the hero's call to adventure." Damon snorted, "But then again call me crazy but this party seems way more titillating than whoever is at the end of that phone call."

"You haven't met Bonnie." Stefan shrugged with a smile and flicked a glance ta his brother before dropping his gaze back down to his phone. He tensed as his eyes ran over the message.

"It's not a message from Bonnie, "he looked up at Damon's ice-blue eyes, "It's a Burn-book blast."

.

.

"Klaus Mikaelson, pretender to the throne." Caroline slurred a greeting, her blue eyes raking over Klaus's form in a dishevelled looking parka jacket, tee-shirt and jeans.

"Drowning your sorrows, love?" he raised his voice over the loud music and inched closer to her.

"Drinking to drown one's sorrows is for pathetic losers like you." Caroline sneered, her gaze flitting back to the barman behind the bar.

"They say the surest cure for vanity is loneliness…but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Klaus said calmly.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked. She shrugged as a form of a non-committal response and looked back at her glass, examining its contents before picking it up. Klaus beckoned the barman as he slid into the bar stool next to hers.

"Scotch on the rocks, please." He ordered then looked back at her, "May I say how charming you look this evening?"

When she said nothing, he continued, "Now, what can I say to rescue this damsel in distress?"

"What do you want, Klaus?" her voice was low, throaty but she didn't look up at him.

"I'm simply seeking some amusement and a drink" Klaus's eyes lingered on her lips.

"At the Whitmore Grill?" she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Don't you have some Alpha Zeta Pi party to attend?" she spat, stealing another heated glance at him.

"I'd rather attend to you tonight, love. Anything else you fancy?" he gestured to her empty glass.

"More whisky." She pointed, looking up from the glass.

"I heard about you and Stefan. The guy's a fool for letting you go."

"I'm the fool, I actually put in a bid to the girl he left me for. I asked the other woman to join my sorority."

"Oh wait, you've probably already seen the Burn Book." She whipped out her phone and scrolled down to the blast then read it aloud to him.

"That awkward moment when your rushee is hooking up with your ex-boyfriend. Sorry Care-Bear but Political Princesses trump Barbies any given rush day…anonymous."

"Yeah, I saw the blast." He admitted.

Finally knowing the born identity of the infamous B didn't have the effect that Caroline had predicted. She thought she would have been content just knowing but this revelation complicated matters even more.

"Look at it this way, should she accept your bid then you have the right to make her life a living hell when she's a pledge."

"You're smarter than you look." She told Klaus although it pained her to admit it.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Do you think she's an upgrade, I'm talking about the girl Stefan dumped me for?" she asked, her lips forming a pout.

"She's a senator's daughter and she's really pretty." She explained with a shrug.

"You're really pretty, " Klaus leaned closer, his mouth barely touching her flushed ear, "in fact dare I say, you're beautiful."

"Said the Alpha Zeta Pi Grinch." Caroline's cheeks burned at his complement and she downed her glass in three swallows to appease the growing knot in her throat.

"You're much more than a spoiled debutante, you know that right?" he said softly and she tensed, her eyes drifting down to his lips and his incredible dimples. A scream from one of the sorority girls holding a corner booth punctuated the air, interrupting the thick silence between them and whatever her stupid brain was starting to think about Klaus Mikaelson. They both snapped their heads around to look at the cause for the sudden commotion but realized that it was just a bunch of drunken girls sporting pink t-shirts with their Greek letters. They looked like they were having fun. When her gaze flitted back to him, she found his hand hovering over hers. Caroline stilled, staring at him over the rim of her glass. Slowly, he withdrew his hand without touching her and cleared his throat before taking another swig from his glass.

She felt a pang of something she didn't recognise and rolled her eyes, "Don't worry I wouldn't dream of ruining your reputation by telling anyone you actually had a heart."

"May I join you?" Hayley's big hazel-green eyes darted between the two of them. She had startled both of them, Caroline could tell by the twitch of muscle on Klaus's jaw and they shared a questioning look before directing their attention back to Hayley.

"My date is apparently a no show." She snapped, obviously oblivious as to what she had interrupted or not interrupted. Sweeping both hands through her thick dark hair, she slid into a chair next to Klaus. Caroline had always found the Sigma Gamma Rho president to be one of the most beautiful girls on campus even though she wasn't supposed to like her because of the rivalry between her and Rebekah but tonight she didn't need to be reminded about Hayley's beauty especially since she was loosing control of her own life.

"Hmm, wonder who would want to stand you up?" Klaus's lips edged into a smug smile but his eyes stayed focused on Caroline.

"That makes two of us." Hayley grinned, ignoring Klaus's sarcasm and tossed her bag on the counter. She signalled for the bartender and ordered a double shot of tequila. Caroline smiled tightly through the ensuing banter between the three of them and tossed another glass of whiskey down her raw throat but she was too wrapped up in her own stress to have a good time. There was also the issue of not wanting to upset Bekah by hanging out with her biggest rival. She rose from her chair and reached out for her bag.

"Going somewhere?" he asked anxiously, leaning forward toward her.

"I'm calling it a night." Caroline said, pulling out several bills from her purse and tossing them on the counter. She moved before he could say another word and weaved through the small clusters of intoxicated students.

She needed to get back to her room, binge on a packet of tortilla chips, a bar of chocolate and the Oreo cookies hiding under her bed. She'd be okay after that, right as rain after purging.

.

A/N: Thanks so much for the follows and the reviews my lovelies (heart eyes)…I'll be mixing a few tropes and possibly scenes from my fav shows in this fic. The only GG reference will probably be the Burn Book but it's not Gossip Girl but rather an anonymous app or site where random people or students post stuff. I'll also allude to Mean Girls and the show Greek now and then…Happy reading…