Caroline's POV

I groaned, hanging up.

Of course Damon couldn't watch Vicki for ten minutes without letting her escape.

I looked through the jack-and-jill bathroom into Jeremy's room, to see him bobbing his head to the music coming from his headphones.

"Elena, don't you think Jeremy should come with us to the Halloween thing tonight?" I asked, turning my attention back to Elena, who was getting dressed in her 'sexy' nurse costume. Bonnie and I decided to be twin witches – Twitches – like on that old Disney channel movie.

I slipped on my purple corset-like top I had borrowed from Bonnie, and turned around to ask Elena to tighten it for me.

"Yeah..." she said a moment later. "He does sort of need to get out of the house." she grabbed the two laces and yanked hard, sending the breath out of my lungs with a gasp.

"Dang Elena," I gasped out. "Easy."

"Sorry." she murmured and tugged one more time before lacing it up. The corset wasn't too tight, but it wasn't loose either.

I glanced into the mirror to see myself and smiled at the sight. I looked pretty decent. I looked at Elena next, and found her tightening her push-up bra straps to make her boobs spill out a bit more.

I shook my head before going into Jeremy's room and tapping him on the shoulder.

He hung up his phone, and looked at me. "Hey, so um, Elena and I were thinking that we should hang out tonight! We could go to the Halloween thing at school!" I smiled hopefully and Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"Hm." he mused aloud and thought for a moment. "Cool. Sure. Sounds uh...sounds fun. Can't wait." he smiled slightly at me and I smiled before nodding once. Elena walked in a moment later.

"Was that a yes I heard?"

When Jeremy nodded, she squealed. "I know you're upset about Vicki. I heard she called Matt. But you can't be with her. She needs to get better. The best thing you can do for me – I mean you – is let her go."

He scoffed. "What does that even mean, "let her go"? Oh, okay, sure."

"Jer," I interrupted. "I think Elena is trying to say that she thinks you should give Vicki some space so she can get better. That's all."

He glared at me. "Since we're all such experts on letting people go, right?"

I blinked in shock.

"Um..."

"I know you may not see it, but trust me Jer. It's for the best." Elena said as-a-matter of factly.

I felt tears start to pool in my eyes at the thought of my mom. She used to love the Halloween parties. She had fun dressing me up when I was younger. I quickly turned on my heel and went back into Elena's room.

~Later~

I walked in with Elena, who was getting stared at by a bunch of freshman, towards Bonnie, who said she was with Tyler.

"Bonnie!" I called with a grin, jogging over to my friend. She gave me a once over and grinned in response. "We look great!"

I nodded my head in agreement.

"Cider for the ladies!" Tyler smirked, holding two glasses out to us. "It's a Lockwood special." his smirk grew even wider when Elena walked up and took one of the glasses, downing it in one big gulp.

"I'm going to drink until someone is hot enough to make out with." she announced, earning a surprised look from all of us.

"What about Stefan?" I asked, and she shrugged. "He's been getting on my nerves. He won't care. He's been hanging all over Vi- some girl – making sure she's okay and a bunch of other bull." she took the second out of Tyler's hands and gulped that down too.

"Oh, you didn't want that, did you Care?" she looked at me and I shook my head.

"Lightweight." she giggled and chugged down another.

"No she's not." Bonnie interjected. "Last year we were hung over until Thanksgiving! It was terrible."

I groaned in agreement, rubbing my forehead at the memory. "I'm going to head to the grill really fast. I have to go to the bathroom." I announced. "See you guys later?"

Tyler simply shrugged, before turning away and trying to get some of the younger kids to drink his 'famous' spiked punch.

I walked by the haunted house, shivering as I heard screams come from inside. That place always gave me the creeps.

I quietly went into the Grill's bathroom and did my business.

When I came out a few moments later, I saw Damon and Mrs. Lockwood chatting at the bar, so I quickly ducked down behind the divider and pretended to fix the strap on my shoe. I heard them idly chat about the council, which I already knew about, and then she brought up Zack. He still hadn't returned yet. I was afraid he got into trouble, but he emailed me last night telling me he actually had business in West Virginia and he was going to stay there for a while. The word vervain was said, and I immediately perked up, listening closely.

"You know about the vervain?" she gasped, and I rolled my eyes. If she even knew the half of it.

"Well, I'm a Salvatore." Damon said in a charming voice. "Of course I do."

Mrs. Lockwood giggled and I heard a clink of a glass. "Of course."

I stood up and started to walk out, when I heard Damon say, "Hmmm. Cheers."

I heard Mrs. Lockwood excused herself, and suddenly Damon was in front of me. "Hello Blondie." He smirked.

I could smell the alcohol on his breath and I was suddenly thankful it took a lot for vampire to get drunk.

"Damon." I said. "Where's Vicki? Have you found her yet?"

At the mention of her name, he scowled slightly, waving his hand. "It's no big deal, Stefan or I will find her sooner or later."

I gaped at him. "It's no big deal?!"

My retort came out louder than I expected, and Damon grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the restaurant.

"Shh, little Blondie." he chided and pushed me lightly against the brick wall. "Don't get your thong in a wad!"

I furrowed my brows. "How do you know-" it clicked. I could just picture Damon rummaging through my drawers and pulling out one of my few lacy thongs and chuckling to himself. "HEY!" I exclaimed, slapping his arm. "Stay out of my room, you prick!"

He smirked even wider and held up his arms innocently. "Anyways!" he changed the subject quickly. "About Vicki. I heard Jeremy talking to her on the phone. I didn't catch where they were meeting, but he said 'okay I'll meet you there.'" he mimicked Jeremy and I rolled my eyes.

"Ok bye!" I stormed off and he grabbed my arm again, stopping me.

"No, 'thanks Damon?'" his voice went high as he mimicked me and he grinned.

"Nope!" I popped the 'p' and wrenched my arm out of his grasp and started to walk again.

He followed me, matching stride for stride.

"So, wanna go bobbing for apples?" he queried and I rolled my eyes, ignoring him.

"Not with a drawer-stalking douche!" I smirked at him, and he pouted before rolling his eyes.

"Fine."

"Fine." I retorted.

"Good!" he called, as he had stopped following me.

"GOOD." I called back, not bothering to slow my pace.

I went back to the carnival and roamed the strips, simply looking for Vicki or Matt.

"I see you didn't follow Elena's choice of last year's costume." a voice said behind me, and I jumped.

"Oh, Matt."

I smiled. "You scared the crap out of me!"

He chuckled. "Isn't that kind of the point, Care?"

I shrugged. "Have you seen Vicki? I think Jeremy was looking for her."

He nodded. "Oh, yeah! She came home earlier. I'm trying not to smother her, but part of me didn't want to let her out of my sight." he shrugged again, sipping a soda.

"Wait..." my heart thudded nervously. "She's here?"

A confused look passed over his face. "Yeah, you can't miss her. She's a vampire."

" WHAT?" I gaped. "What do you mean she's a vampire? How-"

He laughed, slapping my shoulder lightly. "It is Halloween." My face still had an alarmed expression, so he contineud. "It's a costume, Caroline." his blue eyes peered into mine. "How much have you been drinking?"

"Uh." I stuttered. "Nothing."

"Ri-ight." he shook his head. I saw Jeremy over by the entrance to the Haunted House, and groaned. The Haunted House? Really Jer? Just really?

"Hey, I think I see Jeremy. See ya, bye!" I mumbled before rushing off towards the enterance.