Caroline was awakened in the morning by an alarm clock blaring obnoxious music. She groaned as she got up, rubbing her head in hopes of delaying the head ache that was sure to come.
"What is that?" she complained as Bonnie calmly went to turn it off.
"As a witch I need serenity and concentration to thrive and practice. This ringtone is neither and motivates me to wake up to turn it off." Bonnie explained tiredly. She must really need that motivation because she was nothing like the cheerful girl Caroline had met last night. "We have orientation today, Care."
Caroline flopped back down on her bed. She stared at the ceiling wondering how she was possibly going to do this. Twins who could duplicate and witches she could handle. Probably. But who knew what these other kids could do? Caroline wasn't even sure what she could do for christssake.
Caroline pulled her covers over her head and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe this was all just one really crazy dream. Yeah, that's what was happening. Witches and angels and doppelgangers don't really exist.
"Get your ass up, Barbie." Katerina sing-songed as she and Elena entered the room, fully dressed. They both wore a cute black dress with a gold belt and matching black wedges.
Caroline relented, deciding to just go along with the dream, and got up to join Bonnie in the closet. Bonnie was already dressed in a white top and jeans; she was just stuck on which shoes she should wear. Eventually she decided the black and white sneakers were better than the red and white. Caroline sighed and carelessly plucked out a blue top and white skirt with matching blue heels. She had to make an impression, sure, but she was too tired and overwhelmed to properly dress herself. Simplicity would do for now.
The girls, once ready, left to grab some breakfast before orientation. It was sure to be a lengthy one considering the size of the campus, they'd regret it if they didn't eat.
"This is a good chance to introduce you to the others, Caroline." Elena remarked conversationally. "We're a bit of an odd bunch but there's lots of love."
"Please, sister, don't make her puke before she's even had the chance to eat." Katerina said sarcastically. Caroline and Bonnie giggled as the twins began a light bickering match that continued all the way to the breakfast bar.
Caroline and Bonnie grabbed fruit salads, Elena had French toast, and Katerina enjoyed some bacon, sausage, and eggs. Caroline allowed her roommates to lead her to a slightly occupied table. There was a blonde girl about their age with pretty brown eyes and a welcoming smile and next to her sat a shy looking dirty blonde guy.
"Care, this is Lexi. She's an elemental. And that over there is her little brother Matt. He's a jinx." Caroline stared at Bonnie incredulously. That wasn't very nice of her. The guy caught her look and laughed heartily.
"Not like that. Not really anyway." He began to explain. "I inflict bad luck."
"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Caroline joked. She wasn't joking, but no one really needed to know that. "Lexi what do you do?"
Lexi gave her another kindhearted smile and swallowed whatever she was chewing before answering. "Oh you know the usual. Set fires, cause floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and the like."
"Damon and Stefan aren't coming to breakfast today. But they said they'll meet us at orientation." Elena piped up. She was frowning at her phone. She hadn't been able to see Damon all summer long and now he was making her wait even longer. Asshole. Elena snapped back into reality when she felt Kat elbow her in the ribs. She glared at her sister and turned her attention to whatever it was that Kat wanted her to see so bad.
"Isn't he swoon worthy? So suave." Kat was talking to herself more so than Elena but Elena nodded anyway to sate her sister. She was staring at Elijah Mikaelson who, along with his siblings, had just entered the caf. "What I wouldn't give for him to give me the time of day, sister."
"Then why don't you go talk to him?" Elena was confused. Kat was brave, headstrong, brazen, outspoken. Surely she had no qualms just going up to a guy and saying hello. Kat shot her sister a look. She swore Elena was missing vital brain cells sometimes. One does not simply approach a Mikaelson. "Okay, okay I know why but I think it's stupid."
"What's stupid?" Caroline asked from where she sat across from the Katerina and Elena.
"The Mikaelson's." Elena rolled her eyes.
"Their parents are omnipotent's. It didn't pass to their children-"
"As far as anyone knows anyway." Matt interjected only to be met with a look from his elder sister.
"But it's still enough to make them act like they own the world." Lexi finished.
"Because they technically could." Bonnie argued. She turned to Kat with interest. "Which one have you set your sights on, Kat?"
"Elijah." She mumbled. She didn't want to talk about it. Not here anyway. Katerina redirected the conversation and soon the topic was dropped and forgotten.
The girls, and Matt, chattered about their mutual dread and excitement for the upcoming school year. Caroline even joined in a few times. It wasn't like she had much to say though. Everyone else at the table had been attending schools like this since they were little. Eventually a bell rang and everyone began filing out of the caf towards what Caroline presumed was the courtyard for orientation.
Caroline fiddled with her iPad until she managed to find her schedule. Eventually she pulled up the proper app and looked through. She had a lot of odd classes that she'd never heard about or dreamt could actually exist and then some fair classes. First up she had Mortal History. She assumed they just meant social studies and shrugged. It wouldn't kill her to play along like this wasn't the weirdest boarding school ever.
She looked over her locker, quickly checking her watch to make sure she wasn't going to be late her first day. She still had plenty of time to finish decorating and color coding everything. Once she was done and had taken the appropriate books for the next hour or so of classes she attempted to dash off in the direction Bonnie pointed out to her. Bonnie has Mortal History with Caroline but Care insisted she go on without her. She wasn't really in the proper mood for any pre-class chatter.
Caroline dashed around a corner only to be brutally rebuffed. She, and all her things along with her, crashed to the ground. Caroline groaned and rubbed her head a bit. She must have run into a locker or a brick wall.
"My bad." A slightly amused, gruff male voice reached her ears. She looked up to see a very man reaching out to help her up. Caroline took it gladly, flushing an adorable shade of pink when the guy then reached own to gather her things for her. "All set there?"
"Yeah, thanks." Caroline smiled flirtatiously and tucked a small piece of her golden locks behind her ear.
"My pleasure." He tilted his head slightly in her direction. Caroline nodded and continued on her way to class.
God, she thought to herself, that boy is caliente hot. When Caroline got to class everyone was still chatting idly while the, surprisingly young looking, teacher flipped through several books up front. Either class had yet to start or everyone here could seriously give less of a shit. She hoped it was the first of the two presumptions.
Bonnie spotted her roommate and excitedly waved her over. Bonnie had been starting to worry about her new blonde friend. From what Bonnie knew, call it a witch's intuition, Caroline had lived a completely bland life, never knowing about or learning how to use her immense power. True, Caroline wasn't among the most powerful but by no means was she among the least. Not even close.
"Care, this is Stefan Salvatore. Empath extraordinaire." Bonnie introduced the stoic male sat in front of her. Caroline plopped in the seat on Bonnie's left.
"Ah, yes, my innate ability to be even more of a pussy than I already am through undeserved empathy." Caroline shook his hand whilst racking her brain trying to find the empath in her internal dictionary. She could recall that apathy was a complete and utter lack of care or feeling so empathy would have to mean feelings and shit.
"So you can tell when people are happy or sad?" Stefan quirked and eyebrow and nodded his head with a shrug. He turned his attention on Bonnie then who in the next five minutes began to bawl uncontrollably.
"That too." Caroline smiled appreciatively and gave Stefan a small round of applause.
"Impressive. Have you ever used your abilities for selfish reasons?" if he wanted he could overwhelm someone with as many emotions as he pleased. It would potentially cause a severe mental break. Caroline supposed it could even drive someone to extreme measures.
"No, but if I didn't have such an annoying morality complex the first person I'd fix is fucking Rebekah." Stefan rolled his eyes and jerked his head at a blonde vixen halfway across the room. She didn't catch how clearly and non-quietly Stefan had said her name. She was too busy talking to some guy. He was quite handsome. He had a confident air all around him and he seemed like he'd be a natural charmer. Caroline made a side note to stay away from him.
"Rebekah Mikaelson has been after him for years now. He totally called her on her shit and basically rejected her." Caroline's eyes widened slightly. What a basketcase. Caroline didn't know much about the Mikaelson's, and everyone was making it seem like she didn't want to, but were they really so big and bad that one of them couldn't handle a little rejection.
"So? Everyone's got to face a little rejection sooner or later. C'est la vie." Bonnie rolled her eyes playfully.
"Yes, but broody over here didn't just reject a Mikaelson. He rejected a siren." It took all of Caroline's might not to burst out laughing. A siren? Like the mermaids that sing songs to get men to love them?
"Well excuse me if I'm not into overly controlling, insecure, neurotic females." She shot the blonde in question a sideways glance. "But I will admit that she has a lovely rack."
"Alright," the teacher finally spoke up. "Time to actually teach I guess. I'm Alaric. This course is for those of you who either had to fill in one last time slot or will actually be dealing with mortals in the future. Pick your travel partners."
Caroline looked around confusedly. No one moved an inch. In fact everyone looked bored out of their wits. Caroline doubted they'd heard a word that Alaric had said. Bonnie leaned over and explained that Ric was a time traveler and to time travel we all needed partners. Safety purposes and all that.
"Whatever. Since you're all apparently less enthused than I am right now, I'llpair you off." He rolled his eyes and picked up a clipboard. "Witchy you're with Barbie. Broody you've got Lucifer. Wolfie you've got Goldilocks. Anna you've got Brett….."
Alaric went on until the entire class was paired up and then assigned a small project for them all to work on. He sat at his desk and continued to scour through the piles of books. Either this was one weird teacher or he had something way more important. Care turned to Bonnie expectantly but Bonnie was already packing up her stuff, prepare to move chairs.
"You're goldilocks, Care. You've got Tyler Lockwood." Bonnie scoffed. "I've been stuck with Rebekah."
"Don't for a second steal my pity cloud, Bon. I'm going to work with Satan." Stefan took in Caroline's appalled expression and laughed. "He's actually a demon, Caroline. Spawn of Satan."
Caroline shook her head and waved at them both as they left towards their respective partners. Caroline looked all around the class searching for this Tyler Lockwood, or wolfie as Alaric called him. She guessed he was some kind of shape shifter or just very aggressive.
"Ah long time no see, sweetcheeks." Caroline looked to her side to see the hot hallway guy. He was flashing a blindingly white smile. Caroline silently thanked the higher powers. Her luck was going in the right direction if she was going to have such a cute guy as her class partner all year. That meant she could punch in a ton of flirting time.
"Let's get to work then, Rico Suave."