Being eighteen is a brand new world. Bonnie's a legal adult. She can go to clubs. She has no curfew. She can pick up and move to another state if she wants to, because eighteen-year-olds have the right to do that. She and Elena and Caroline already have road trips planned and clubs to party in, but…for once she needs a break from all the excitement.

She takes the next few days to lick her wounds, get on the court with Kai, and pick out a dress. When Homecoming starts she'll be back to her normal, fabulous self. In the meantime she drags Kai to the mall with her and makes him sit for hours until she finds just the right gown.

He dutifully holds out his arms while she piles on various colors in tulle, organza, and satin, until he's buried.

"Are you feeling better?" He asks, voice muffled from behind all of the dress material.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" She replies in her best southern belle voice, even though she knows exactly what he's talking about. She flounces into a dressing room with the first dress, avoiding Kai's twisted up facial expression.

"I told you not to do it," His voice is sour, with an I-told-you-so edge to it.

Bonnie sighs from inside her stall. The last thing she needs is a lecture. "And you were right, Kai. I don't plan on putting myself through that, ever again. Let's just forget about it," She calls to him.

"Okay, then how excited are you for tryouts?" His demeanor totally changes. She can tell he's smiling his slyest. Bonnie actually jumps up and down, her hair fanning out around her, the heels of her pumps clacking on the department store floor.

"I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!" she gushes like a big kid. "I'm ready to really run this team."

She comes back out in a neon pink number. "What do you think?" she quizzes him, her face already saying that she doesn't really like it.

"Too pink," he replies, wrinkling his nose.

"Same thing I thought," she sighs, heading back into the dressing room.

"I wonder who's gonna make a fool of themselves and who's going to actually step up."

"I know my girls are ready." Of course, Liv, Elena, and Caroline are also on the team.

"Well, yeah, you've got a lot of seniors and juniors on varsity this year. I'm working with a ton of fresh meat. "

"I don't envy you," She answers in a low voice. She really means it. He doesn't mention it but Damon's going to be on the team, without question. It could only end in tears; she doesn't know what form it will take, but there's going to be a showdown between them for sure.

What's worse in, for the first time in her life, she finds herself looking forward to seeing Damon play. Not because I've stopped hating him, never that. We'll call it morbid curiosity. No big deal. She shrugs to herself as she slides on another dress. Of course, she'll never tell Kai that. It's her job to be supportive, no matter what. She starts again in an upbeat tone, "But, that gives you all the more time to shine."

"True that. We gotta look sharp. I heard scouts are coming down from Michigan state."

"Ooh, Big Ten."

"I'm more of a SEC kind of guy."

"Everybody is. The Big Ten isn't what it used to be. Michigan State would still be a hell of a team to play for, though. The green and white." She steps out of the dressing room, hands on her hips. She lifts one eyebrow and bats her eyes at her boyfriend, a cat-line smirk on her face. "Speaking of green." It's an emerald organza gown with veins of silver running down its folds, a sweetheart neckline, bejeweled bodice with a belt around the waist. She can tell by Kai's face that she picked a winner.

"Woooooooow. Green always was the perfect color on you."

"I feel like the princess I am."

"You're the queen, remember?" He winks at her and gives her the look that always makes her melt. He kisses her as she slips her arms around his waist. "I have the hottest girlfriend on the planet," he mumbles into her hair.

"And don't you forget it," she sighs into his hard chest.

"Please, just forget you ever saw me the way you did," Bonnie tells Damon when she sees him the next Wednesday.

"I get it, you have an image to uphold. Your secret's safe with me, Basketball Barbie." So she smiles. "By the way, I hear that approximately eighteen years ago a curse was laid upon Earth and its name was Bonnie Bennett. Happy birthday."

She furrows her brow in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Heard it through the grapevine." He does a bit of a Temptations dance move that makes Bonnie scream with horror; but she has to admit, it's charming. Still, she has to give him a hard time.

"Do yourself a favor, and never do that again, ever." Damon continues to catch her off guard and pulls a chocolate candy bar out of his pocket and wordlessly offers it to her. Bonnie's eye widen. It's favorite of hers from junior high, and they weren't in convenience stores like they used to be. "Oh em gee, I love these! I haven't had one in forever! How did you know?"

"Well, you're a girl, sort of," he shrugged and rolled his eyes, "and girls like chocolate. The plan is to ensure you can't fit into your homecoming dress." She pressed down her smile and snatched it out of his hand.

"You're getting to be a little too nice, Salvatore, I'm starting to get scared."

"It's been like two days. Two days won't kill us."

"It's been like seven."

"Okay fine, I'll turn my humanity back off. That makeup looks disastrous. Did you escape from the freak show?"

"That's more like it," Bonnie finds herself giggling. She quickly silences it, but can't help the happy feeling in her chest. Such a small thing, but so thoughtful. Suddenly her day felt much brighter.

After her session with Damon comes the big moment; it's time to get suited up for the very first day of basketball tryouts. She's nervous, but at the same time she's never feel more ready to shine. She changes and gets on the court in no time. Kai is already there, shooting around.

"Who's this handsome man on the court?" she calls out, and when he turns and sees her standing there he grins wide, his smile perfect and white, and he looks so good in his black and red jersey with his biceps bulging and standing so tall, she can't help but throw herself at him. They give each other good luck kisses -or maybe have an inappropriate make-out session that their coaches have to call them out on- for good luck before the girl's tryouts begind. "Knock em dead, Gorgeous." He pats her on the butt, and she grins shyly. The men' team sits on the bleachers and Kai joins them, watching and waiting for their turn.

Moments later Bonnie's watching the hopefuls fall in line as their senior captain. Her arms are crossed and her face is fixed into a no-nonsense scowl. She has no real competition from any of them, and she feels so much more confident as the one who runs the team. She glances at the freshman and JV teams, practicing in another corner, with mild disinterest. Children, she thinks. When she sees the possible new additions to varsity she thinks, these are my daughters. They need to be taught, and they need to be kept in line, and know they can't take my spot.

From the corner of her eye she sees movement. Here come the cheerleaders. They're lead by non other than Katie Pierce.

"Bitches," Bonnie curls her lip as they walk past. Katie and Bonnie exchange nasty looks. They're like ticking time bombs, anyone could see they're on the verge of going off on each other.

At the end of the court Katie flashes someone a flirty look. She follows her line of sight and sees…Kai. He lowers his chin and smirks at her. Is he biting his lip? Impossible.

Bonnie is taken aback. I couldn't have seen what I thought I saw?

Hearing someone call her name brings her back to reality. "Bonnie, would you like to say a few words to your new team as the captain?" Her head coach, Bonasera, asks her. Bonnie's rattled, and suddenly embarrassed and enraged. She takes the opportunity to take it out on her new teammates.

She picks up a basketball and claps it between her hands, hard. It makes loud smack sound that echoes throughout the gym. The girls snap to attention.

"Understand this, kids, you're all my daughters. Stay in line and follow directions because I have every intention of raising you right. I didn't get this far by letting my team run wild. If you do as you're told we'll get along just fine. If you step out of line best believe you will be punished swiftly and severely. Was that in anyway unclear?" There was only silence and wide eyes staring back at her. "I didn't think so. Let's get to work." She chest passes the ball to the girl nearest to her without warning, and the girl oomphs as it hits her in the stomach and knocks the wind out of her. Bonnie see Liv and Elena hiding smiles and Caroline snorts a laugh that she pretends is a cough.

"Not what I was expecting," her coach mumbles, "but okay." This was Bonnie Bennett, she thinks, it could have been worse.

"MOVE!" Bonnie roars, and the hopefuls jump do follow her orders. They start jogging around the gym to warmup, Bonnie following on their heels barking orders.

Her scare tactics work and the first day of tryouts for the women's team go very smooth.

Kai''s watching her from the bleachers, and she sees him smile and nod encouragement. She smiles back with more confidence than she feels, unable to shake the thought of what she thought she saw.

She throws herself into practice, hoping to sweat away her suspicions and clear her head. It's quickly apparent who will not make the team and Bonnie does not waste her time on them, except to criticize them to discourage them from coming back. Instead she focuses on those who have potential. At the end of the two hours, although it has gone by fast, Bonnie feels more invigorated than she had before she started. It's time to get off the court so the men's tryouts can begin.

Most of the men's team is already there and has been watching from the sidelines. Kai comes down, leading the pack. He stops her with his fingers curled in her jersey. "Looking good out there, Babe. I could see the fear on their faces from all the way at the top of the bleachers." He kisses her forehead, and Bonnie's eyes close, comforted by the familiar gesture, reminding herself that this is still her boyfriend.

"You go do the same, Handsome." She stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his neck, her palms flat on his heart yes. She sees movement over his shoulder and sees none other than Damon Salvatore, passing a ball back and forth to Stefan. He sees her eyes peeking over Kai's shoulder and a sickening grin crosses his face and he winks at her with his devilish blue eyes.

Bonnie feels a strange rush when she sees him. First of all, it isn't hate, and that's what she SHOULD be feeling. No, instead, she feel a sort of excitement, almost like she's perking up at the sight of him. It's…wrong. She needs it to end right now.

She digs her fingers into the dark hair at the base of Kai's skull and pulls him in for something more substantial; something with a bit more tongue. When he pulls back her looks at her in surprise.

"A little extra motivation?" He asks.

"You could say that," she answers, trying to sound sure and certain.

All of the potential men's team players go all out, putting on a show from the start. Damon is no exception. She'll be damned if he isn't good; he's showing why he was the starting PG at West.

"He's making all of his shots," She says quietly.

"He's gotten even better since last year. You better tell Kai to get on his game," Caroline whispers in her ear, and Bonnie elbows her. She watches as Damon does a spin move and flips the basketball up for an easy layup. It drops in the hoop with a swish. One thing's for sure, and it's that he'll be on the team.

"Stefan's kind of hot," she hears Elena mumble under her breath. Bonnie turns to give her a look.

"What? I'm just saying," she says sheepishly.

I should be watching Kai, she thinks. She swings her attention back to him, clapping for him and calling his name, the way a good girlfriend should. She purposefully avoids looking at Damon in anyway shape or form. It's such a foreign feeling to her; ever since he comforted her on her birthday after her mom's screwup, she has been unable to hate him the way she used to. She finds that she might even think him to be a decent human being. The thought makes her shudder. How gross.

Kai and Damon stay on separate ends of the court as much as possible, and the tension between them is so thick you could cut it with a knife. When their coach calls for a scrimmage, they can't avoid each other any longer. Of course, they're on opposite teams. They play the same position, so they will square off against each other. Bonnie finds herself holding her breath as she watches the two men who have consumed so much of her life these past few months, whether for good or for bad, go against one another.

Damon's team has the ball first, and Bonnie watches as Kai plays defense against him. Their bodies bang into each other much harder than is necessary as Kai tries to block Damon from dribbling forward and Damon puts his shoulder down to shove him back.

"Can you believe Coach Brown is letting them play that rough?" Liv says in her ear. Bonnie says nothing because she's too caught up in watching the drama unfold. Damon calls a play and signals the forwards to run it. Without looking, he passes the ball to the forward who's running past Kai. Kai's caught off guard, and swats at the basketball. The sounds of his hand slapping Damon's skin is loud, and everyone waits to here the coach call a foul. He dosn't.

"They're really lettin' em play," Liv says, her voice hinting that she knows Kai is getting away with murder right now. In the span of a few seconds, Damon runs past Kai and his teammates passes him the ball back right as he gets next to the hoop. He lays the ball in just as easily as he had during warmups. Bonnie's eyebrows go up in shock, and she hears everyone around her whispering. Damon just showed Kai up something serious.

Kai is not a happy camper. He's talking a lot of shit and hacking Damon, and by all rights he should have been called for a foul many times. Maybe the coach is just letting Kai do what he wants because he's the star. Maybe he wants to see what Damon's made of.

Kai now has the ball and is bringing it down the court. Damon jumps in front of him to D him up. Kai goes to drive past him, and faster than anyone can blink Damon pokes the ball out from his fingers. Bonnie can't help but gasp. She tries to cover her mouth before anyone sees. For a moment Kai is stunned as Damon charges down to the end of the court and drops in an easy lay up.

No people are really talking, and many are looking her way to see her response.

"It's okay Babe, shake it off," she yells, trying to seem level-headed, acting like it was no big deal. But is a big deal. It's a huge deal.

Kai gets in Damon face. "That shouldn't be a basket. You fouled me."

"Dude, you've been acting like this is the WWF but now you want to talk about fouls? How about you man up and beat me straight up, Captain?" Damon spits out the last word in a mocking voice.

Kai shoves him. Damon shoves Kai back. Shit. They couldn't even get through five whole minutes without a shoving match. Bonnie stands up, ready to run down although she's not sure what she would do. Before it would be her and Kai against Damon; now she just wants them to stop fighting. Coach Brown and the other players come to break them up before fists start flying. They stand there staring each other down until they're separated, and end up in different corners like boxers in the middle of a match. Round one is over, but there would be many more to come, from the looks of things. Those two on the same team means a lot of trouble on the horizon. Bonnie is not looking forward to it.

With that, the first day of tryouts is officially over. Kai is clearly livid. Of course, it's not something new for him, but she knows he feels upset at being shown up in front of so many people. She comes down to talk to him, he is definitely pissed.

"Forget about him, Kai. Remember how he said he wanted to push our buttons? He just wants to get in your head. Don't let him." Kai doesn't seem to really hear her.

"Don't worry about waiting up for me, Babe. I'm just gonna blow off some steam and go home." He marches into the locker room, leaving her standing there. Bonnie hears what he says, but she doesn't believe that he would want to be alone.

"I'm going to wait for him," she tells Caroline and the girls.

"All right Bonnie, let us know if you still want to hang tonight."

"Probably not, I think he's going to want to vent." Elena smiles while Caroline rolls her eyes.

"You're always trying to baby him." Bonnie just ignores her.

"Alright, we'll be in town getting burgers and shakes if you change your mind." Liv tells her. She knew she wouldn't.

"Bye, you guys."

She waits as the stands empty. People straggle away slowly, and the boys teams winds towards the locker rooms. Bonnie knows that Kai typically talks to his team for a few minutes and takes a quick shower, so he should be done in about ten or fifteen minutes. The time goes past and she sees his teammates go out but not him. "Where is Kai?" She asks Mark, the 6'11 center who rides with Kai all the time, ever though he can barely fit into the Charger. He shrugs.

"I don't think he's come out yet."

"Have you seen Kai?" She quizzes Tariq, the forward who's typically riding shotgun in all of her boyfriend's capers. Tariq gives her a look, something about it strange but she doesn't know why. "I, uh, I think he went out the back way."

"Okay, thanks, Ty." Bonnie goes around to look for him.

She finds him.

He's in a corner where the lights are dim, leaning against the wall. Although she's already plenty close, Katie Pierce is strolling up to him, swinging her long legs, a flirtatious smile on her face. Bonnie watches in horror as Katie comes closer and closer to him. Soon she has her tits smashed up against him, and the front of her is plastered to the front of him, and she's running her hand down his pecs the way Bonnie herself always does, and he's not pushing her away, he's smiling

Bonnie's stunned to silence. She tries to think of what to do, but her brain isn't cooperating with her. She can't stay. She can't watch. I'm not seeing this, she thinks to herself. I'm not seeing what I think I am. She backs away quietly and walks away fast, shaking her head as if trying to wake from a nightmare.