Chapter 2

Caroline woke up to the sweet sounds of birds outside, the sunlight just shining through her window, and the aroma of fresh coffee in the morning. She was still upset that her dad was gone. She finally understood why he had to do it, but even after the things he'd said and done to her, having her daddy gone was a heavy burden.

She knew she had to get out of bed, and she walked into the kitchen where her mom was leaving for work. Liz looked at Caroline and smiled, but Caroline could see the hidden sorrow in her eyes that they both felt.

"Good morning, sweetie. I'm glad you're up." Liz said gently as Caroline went to pour herself a cup of steaming coffee.

"Yeah, I figured I should probably get out of the house, and Elena said last night that she wanted me to come over to talk about something," Caroline was trying to get back in her regular morning routine, anything to feel like things were back to normal again. Normal, what was normal, anyway? Her dad was dead, Tyler was still gone and hasn't said a word, and frankly, Caroline was exhausted of trying to keep herself in check. She quickly forgot about it and decided she would have to move on, any way she could.

"Alright, well I'm going back to work today, I made coffee and there's leftovers in the fridge if you want any," Caroline just nodded and Liz walked up to her and gave her a big hug, making Caroline start to feel pins in her throat, about to cry. "I love you, sweetie, don't worry, everything will be okay," Liz gave her a quick kiss on the forehead as she started to walk toward the door. "Oh, by the way, you got some mail, I left it on the counter for you, I'll see you tonight," and with that she drove off to work.

Caroline was a little puzzled when she saw the envelope with her name on it. No one ever sent her any mail, that was so old fashioned. She didn't examine it too closely before tearing it open.

Caroline Forbes

Please join the Mikaelson family this evening

For a magical ball like no other

At their newly renovated mansion in Mystic Falls

Bring this invitation tonight at 10pm

Caroline's puzzlement turned into full-blown confusion as she grabbed her keys and bag and headed to Elena's.

When Caroline got to Elena's house, she walked in right as Damon was walking out, looking a little bit more pissed off than usual. "Hey, Damon," she tried to be polite to him; they'd gotten closer in the past year since he started to show some more morals, but sometimes it was still a little bit awkward.

"Hey," he said quickly as he brushed passed her, and then he remembered her dad and stopped. "Hey blondie," Caroline turned back around, looking slightly hurt. "Sorry about your dad. I would've stopped by with Elena but I'm sort of…distracted," he said as he did that thing with his eyes that only Damon could do. She smiled, knowing that he was really trying to be sincere, as sincere as he could be, considering he was still Damon, and Damon wasn't the type to get too sentimental.

"Thanks," she said as a smile slowly grew at the corner of her lips. Damon nodded and went back to walking away.

Caroline could hear Elena say something, so she walked toward the living room and started to say "Hey Elena, did you happen to get something weird in the ma-" She stopped in her tracks as she awkwardly found Elena in some sort of intense stare down with Stefan, who was leaning against the opposite wall.

"Umm, sorry, I just remembered you wanted to talk to me about something, so I thought I'd come over." Caroline said as Elena and Stefan broke their looks and Elena nudged past him.

"Yeah, it's totally fine, Damon just left he and Stefan came over because we got the same mail." Elena moved over and walked away from Stefan, who seemed annoyed with the whole situation. She walked up to Caroline and gave her a big hug, "Are you okay?" Elena asked and Caroline wasn't really enjoying all of the hugs that she was getting, but she knew she should probably get used to that.

"I'm fine, thanks," Caroline replied, thinking that Elena might be the one person to understand that she didn't really want all that attention at the moment. Then suddenly Stefan pushed himself from the wall and spoke.

"Well as much as I'd love to sit here and watch you guys have your sentimental moments, I have more important things to do, so I think I'll be going now," Caroline studied his face and couldn't help feeling frustrated with him, but that was no new feeling.

Elena rolled her eyes, "Bye, Stefan," and with that he walked away.

Caroline reached into her bag and pulled out the envelope she received in the mail. "So, do you kow who the Mikaelson family is?" she asked, trying to change the subject before Elena asked her anything more about her dad.

"It's Klaus' new family. Now that they're all in town, they're throwing a ball for Mystic Falls; we can't figure out what it's really about but everyone is invited," Elena explained and Caroline soon remembered what seemed so familiar.

"Oh my gosh, the writing…" she said as she immediately recognized the way Klaus had written her name in his unique calligraphy. She didn't pay much attention before, but now she could easily figure it out, suddenly conjuring up tons of questions. She felt somewhat irked that Klaus was entering her thoughts again. She hadn't thought much about him since her dad died that night, and she hadn't seen him since he fed her blood, but she knew that this would lead to many more interactions, whether she wanted it to or not.

"What?" Elena seemed incredibly curious; Caroline hadn't realized that she mentioned the writing out loud.

"It's just…really cool," Caroline could tell Elena was weirded out, but decided not to make a fuss about it.

"Yeah, well Damon thinks that it would be the perfect opportunity to maybe find out what's going on with the new family, so we've decided that we're going to go tonight, what do you think?" Caroline didn't know whether she wanted to or not. For one, she was curious to figure them out, but at the same time she was in a fragile place and she might want to keep away from any chaotic and dramatic original vampires and hybrids who quite obviously had some hidden agenda.

"I don't know, maybe I'll go see how Bonnie's doing, instead," Bonnie and her mom had been injured from opening the last coffin, and even though they were both almost healed, Caroline saw it as a good excuse not to make up her mind right away.

"Okay, well I should probably get going; I'm going to meet up with Alaric and then go out to find a dress, so I'll see you tonight after the ball, or I'll let you know what happens as soon as I can," Elena said as she and Caroline started to walk toward the door. They hugged one last time before Elena left and Caroline realized she left her bag inside.

She found it on the table and slid it back into her hands with one stride, and that's when she noticed another piece of paper fall out of the envelope. She picked it up, nervous because she knew right away what that cryptic writing would say,

I do hope that I see you tonight accompanied by the bracelet I left you

Sweet Caroline,

It would truly make the night one to be remembered.

-Klaus

Caroline didn't know how she should be reacting, but she knew that if she didn't go, Klaus would end up finding her somehow, especially now that he was invited inside. She felt frustrated, because she wanted anything but to indulge him, but she knew she had no choice. And besides, she was never one to turn down a party, now was she?

"It's time to go, Elena, vampires may live for eternity but they won't wait forever, we have to go if we want to get their before it's over," Damon snapped with impatience.

"Just go, Damon, I have to wait for Caroline anyway, she told me she changed her mind, I'll meet you and Stefan there once we're ready," She hissed back.

Damon didn't want to read too much into why Caroline changed her mind, but he had a bad feeling about it. He hated when things didn't go the way they were planned. He left, though, and Caroline arrived soon after.

"Elena?" Caroline walked inside, hoping that she hadn't already gone.

"I'm up here, are your ready to go?" Elena started to walk down the stairs in a dark blue gown and Caroline smiled, starting to feel better about her decision, and much more anxious.

"You look SO gorgeous!" Caroline said while she hugged Elena, already used to it by the hugs she got from her mom, Elena, Bonnie, and Matt the entire day.

"So do you! Where did you find that dress?" Elena looked at her gorgeous blue dress and silver shawl, and Caroline did a little spin,

"I've had it for a while, but I never got a chance to wear it," she said as she brushed her fingers through her curly blonde waves. That's when Elena noticed something,

"Oh my goodness, Care, where did you get that bracelet, it's gorgeous!" She took Caroline's hand and didn't notice the hint of panic as Caroline tried to think of an excuse.

"Um…it was my mom's." She said, and after a quick chat and some last minute touches, they were on their way to the Mikaelson mansion…

Okay, so I wanted to get straight into the action since I might not be able to update until next weekend. I didn't want the chapter to be too long, so I broke it up into two peices, and Chapter 3 is coming, if not soon after this, then tonight. Enjoy! Please review, I love the feedback(: