Chapter 2: Bonfire.
Caroline groaned as she rolled over in bed, flopping onto her back and staring up at the pale white ceiling above her. When she was younger the roof of her room at the beach house had been cluttered with press on glow in the dark stars her mother had bought at a 99 cent store. When ever she couldn't sleep she would count every star on the ceiling above her. But the stars had been pried off the roof years ago and the ceiling and walls had been repainted.
The sun was just coming up outside but Caroline still couldn't bring herself to look at the clock across the room on the dresser. She knew that as soon as she did she would be sealing her fate of not getting back to sleep. She had returned from sitting at the pool the night before and climbed into the soft white sheets on her bed and day dreamed about the boy she had seen.
This was a hobby of Caroline's. She would create and work up a back story of a person in her head, it didn't matter who and imagining every possibility that that person's life could hold. Her thoughts were often far fetched and unrealistic but it didn't matter in the end. The people she passed on the streets could become more than strangers for the time being. In her head they were characters to her story if only for moment.
Caroline finally gave up and looked at the clock. She groaned audibly. 6:45 am. It was summer for christ sake! Wasn't she supposed to be sleeping until noon and taking long naps throughout the day. She slide her feet onto the floor and stood up heading for the small bathroom connected to her room. Her fingers ran across the sea shells that stood on the tiny shelf by the sink as she twisted the knobs to start the shower. She let the water heat up and walked over the sink, staring at herself in the mirror that hung over it. She rubbed her face in her hands and examined her own reflection. Her hair was a mess from air drying poorly and the bags under her eye's from her near sleepless night made it seem as if she had just rolled out of the grave rather than bed. The steam was rising from the shower now causing the mirror before her to fog and the light blue walls of the water room to collect tiny beads of water.
She relished standing under the scalding hot water, knowing that in only a few hours the sun would be high in the sky and she wouldn't be able to step outside without breaking a sweat. By the time she had toweled off her hair and body, gotten dressed and brushed her teeth it was well past seven. Caroline had heard her father and Steven leaving for work fifteen minutes earlier. It was odd to her that she'd be spending so much time alone in this house. When she had come there in the past it had always been with large amounts of family. Her parents and a revolving door of family friends, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but now she was practically living alone.
…
The sun was full in the sky while Caroline sat on one of the loungers by the pool. She had spent the morning putting about the house, making breakfast and going through the books on the shelf in the living room.
Now she was content to sit out by pool all day, read her book, drink buckets of iced tea, and melt in the sun. She was halfway through her book when she began to doze off.
"Rise and shine." Someone shouted as the book that had been covering her face was snatched off. Caroline squinted through the sun and saw three tall slim figures standing over her.
Bonnie Bennett, and Elena and Katherine Gilbert. She sat up and rushed to embrace her friends.
It had only been a few weeks since she had seen the Gilbert twins due to the fact that they lived in Mystic falls as well, but it had been over a year since she'd seen bonnie who summered at the beach but lived in DC.
They caught up while drinking the massive pitcher of iced tea Caroline had brewed before.
"So you're coming tonight right?" Katherine pushed, scooping a large amount of salsa onto a tortilla chip and shoving it into her mouth.
" Coming to what?" Caroline asked confused.
"There's a Bonfire tonight, out by the sand bar. Tyler lockwoods uncle always buys a ton of beer so you don't even have to bring your own booze. It's a win win." Katherine clarified.
" It doesn't really get good until after 10 so we can come and pick you up then." Elena offered leaning back in her chair and soaking up the sun.
Just then there was a light splash in the pool. The girl's head snapped up and saw that a bright green frisbee had landed in the water in front of them. Caroline stood up and stooped to grab the disk.
"Sorry about that" Caroline stood up quickly at the sound of the surprisingly accented voice.
The boy from the night before was standing at her fence, clearly having offer thrown the frisbee. Standing farther down the beach was another boy from the same table, presumably his brother, waiting impatiently.
Caroline tossed the frisbee back to him.
"Thanks" He said shooting her a smile.
"Anytime." Caroline turned back to face her friend to see them all smirking at her.
"What?" She asked as she plopped back down beside Elena.
"Nothing." Bonnie said innocently, exchanging knowing looks with her other two friends.
….
It was approaching 10 o'clock that night and Bill and Steven had long since gone to bed. Caroline stared at her reflection in the full length mirror in her dimly lit bedroom. She was wearing the same frayed cut off shorts and faded tank top as that afternoon, in fact she hadn't even bothered to take off her bathing suit. She moved closer to the mirror stroking the side of her cheek thoughtfully, hoping the redness there was a trick of the light and not a sunburn blooming.
Caroline jumped when the silence of her room was broken by the loud bleep of a car horn. She grabbed her sweater from where it hung on the post of her bed and hurried over to her window. She slide the glass pane up and hoisted herself up onto the sil. In theory Caroline could just walk out the front door, she didn't really think that her dad would care about her going out with her friends, but she'd rather skip the whole conversation all together. Besides it was much more fun this way. It was a short drop from her window to the ground and Caroline's feet landed lightly on the sandy grass. She dashed by the side of the house and around to the front where a slate grey chevrolet convertible was idling in front of her house, music blaring from its speakers. As she approached the car the door flung open and she slide into the crowded back seat.
As soon as she was mostly in the car Katherine, who was driving, pressed her foot hard to the gas pedal and they shot off into the night, throwing the car's occupants backwards hard against the seat. In the front seat Elena twisted the knob on the stereo down and twisted in her seat to look back at Caroline shooting her a blinding smile. At that moment they took a sharp turn causing everyone to tilt left.
"Jesus Kat! Ease up on the fast and furious" Jeremy exclaimed rubbing his shoulder that had just smashed against the side of the car. Katherine rolled her eye's and shot a glare over her shoulder at her little brother who was squished in the middle of the back seat between Caroline and Bonnie.
"Can it kid. You're only here so you can DD home." Kat snapped back at him. Jeremy huffed sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms.
"So" Bonnie began as both she and Caroline leaned forward so they could hear each other and Katherine and Elena over the wind.
"Which Salvatore brother are you going after this year Kat?" Katherine rolled her eye's again. Katherine had been running back and forth between the two boys her whole life trying to decide which one to go after but never making up her mind enough to actually go after one.
"Catch up Bon!" Katherine stated reaching over to shove her sister's arm.
"Damon seems to be off the market now thanks to the less attractive version of me." Kat joked. Elena scoffed at her.
"Please! We're not dating, were just.."
"What? Having sex?" Bonnie asked a smirk on her face.
"No! We're just talking!" Elena defending herself. Katherine rolled her eye's yet again.
"Please he goes to Witmore now, and i swear to god every single weekend he drives back to town and you climb into that Chevy Camaro and i don't see you for the rest of the day." Kat trumped. Elena opened her mouth to answer and then closed it knowing there was no way to win this conversation.
…
They pulled up to the far end of the town's beach where clusters of teenagers were gathered around a pile of burning pallets that someone had stolen from the back alleys of the local shops. Katherine took a wide swing and parked the car by the others that were gathered there. They all piled out of the car and Kat tossed the keys to her younger brother.
"If you scratch my car, i will rip your throat out." Katherine said sweetly and slapping her brothers face lightly strutting away towards the fire.
Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline set off after her, walking down the small sandy hill to the beach. The air around them had a slight chill in it, but as they approached the fire the heat radiated to their bodies. Someone was playing music out of their truck speakers that they had driven down onto the sand, and Caroline thought it was a good thing that there were no houses nearby to make a noise complaint.
"I'm gonna go find a drink." Bonnie stated, patting her friends on the shoulders and sauntering off towards one of the several coolers positioned around the fire.
Around twenty minutes later Elena and Caroline had found their own drinks and had migrated around the party. People had been steadily trickling onto the beach until the party had grown to nearly double it's original size. Looking around Caroline was amazed, it hadn't felt like there were that many children around the beach when she was growing up, but suddenly there seemed to be an abundant amount of other teenagers.
Just as Caroline looked up she saw another group of teenagers descending down the small sandy hill down to the beach. Her jaw went slack and she spun around to face Elena.
"Oh my god." Caroline whispered. Elena looked into her friends face, confused.'
"What?" Elena asked, bringing girl beer to her lips.
"He's here." Caroline clarified.
"Who's he?" Elena asked again.
"That guy from earlier today. The who lives down the guy i've been seeing everywhere!" Elena rolled her eyes.
" I don't think seeing someone twice in one night counts as seeing them everywhere." Elena joked.
"Oh shut up." Caroline snapped rolling her eyes at her friends.
"Well" Elena began, "You're about to see him one more time because he's walking over here." Caroline jaw dropped again.
"What?" Elena smirked at her friend.
"Yeah he's headed right this way." Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat, suddenly nervous.
"What do i do?" Elena rolled her eyes at her friend, and pointed at the bottle in Caroline's hands.
"Well finish that and i'm going to go over here." She stated pointing her thumb over her shoulder and backing up slowly.
"Elena get back-" She stopped speaking when she heard voice speak behind her.
"Hello." Caroline spun around slowly and smiled up at the boy awkwardly.
"Hi." The boy grinned down at her and extended his hand to her.
"We've never been introduced. I'm Nik, or Klaus, whichever really." Her awkward smile turned genuine as she took his hand and shook it lightly.
" Caroline."