The hustle bustle of the Monday afternoon is everywhere, the honking cars trying to get out of the traffic, moving slowly but steadily towards the downtown in the streets of Manhattan. People are walking with a cup of coffee in their one hand and the briefcase on the other shoulder, coming out of the subway-station and heading towards destined workplaces. It's the same old, same old Monday, and nothing is new about this morning, except for the fact that Bonnie is one of those who has to reach early and stuck in the traffic.

"Come onnnn…" She honks for the gazillion time, shouting at the driver in front of her. "This isn't good." The clock on her car system says it's 11.30 a.m. And usually the roads shouldn't be packed like this at this time of the day. But, turned out she is having the unlucky day, and the luck not being on her side on her interview day is not a good sign.

Bonnie Bennett is a 25 year old girl who has been working for The Legacy company in the small town named Mystic Falls in West Virginia. All her life, she had dedicated and concentrated only on her studies and then the job. Manhattan is kind of new, big and scary for her, but it's a place for opportunities. And it could be a new challenge, and a scope for her to learn a lot. She had saw the job description online, and submitted her resume, since she was submitted for every single job advertisements present on the Job search engine site. Although out of all the opportunities she had applied for, this one was the least she was expecting a call from. She knows the magazine Strings, it's the top fashion magazine of New York City, and even if personally she haven't read any of the editions, she had seen girls in her previous office being obsessed with the articles on it. And interviewed personally by the Editor in Chief of the Magazine herself is intriguing.

"Hello, can I talk with Ms. Bonnie Bennett?"

"Yes, this is she."

"Hi, I am Jenna Scott, and we have your name on our system that you applied for the post of the secretary for the Magazine Strings."

"Uh, yes I did submitted my resume."

"I wanted to check if you are still available for the job?"
"Oh, sure. Yeah I am still available."

"That's awesome. We would like to schedule an interview with the company. Which day and time can suit you?"

It was going too fast, and her heart-rate was raising higher and higher.

"I can do it in the weekdays between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m."

"That's cool. I have one time slot my boss suggested. Does 12 p.m. on Monday works for you?"

"That sounds great."

"Awesome, I will send you the details of the interview and the location for the meeting in the email shortly. You can respond on that e-mail."

"Thanks for the call."

"No problem, have a nice day. And all the best for your interview."

Within few minutes she got the details.

Interviewer- Caroline Forbes.

Time- 12 p.m. at the Olive Garden.

Interview type : Face to face.

She hurriedly looked her up on google. Caroline Forbes age - 26, a well known face in the world of fashion, occupation- The famous editor and co- founder of the Magazine Strings. Well organized, highly talented and inspired a lot of aspiring designers in such a young age. Her background says that she had a degree in fashion design from the New York design school. The more Bonnie read about her, the more she was starting to admire her. They were practically of the same age, and yet Caroline had achieved a really high goal in her life.

That was three days back when she got the schedule, and here she is, stuck in the traffic. Even if she has like half an hour in hand to reach at the restaurant, it looks quite impossible to reach in time, with the traffic, and the time she will have to put in looking for the parking spot.

"I shouldn't have come in the car."

She is somewhat right, because that might have made things a little bit easier for her. Bonnie have always been an easy going girl, simpleminded with simple goals of having a job which can provide her an efficient amount of money, and a small house to live in. Looks like she has to bid a goodbye to that dream.

Five minutes are left to twelve in the afternoon, and she is still circling the parking lot.

"I am so dead." she mutters, and out of the blue she finds the free spot.

Bonnie locks the car and runs towards the entrance.

"I have a booking here. Is Ms. Caroline Forbes already here?" She asks anxiously to the waitress.

"Yes, she is inside. Please, come with me." Even if she made it at exactly 12 to be inside the restaurant, she will be considered late for not starting the interview on time.

"This is your table. I will bring you the menu."

"Thanks."

Once, the waitress was out of the sight, she turned towards Caroline and smiled. "I am so sorry for making you wait here, I was stuck in the traffic and I am new in the city-"

"That's totally fine." Caroline cuts her in. "The traffic today is pretty bad here, and since it's the lunch time, the roads are pretty packed up. Beauty of New York City." She laughs at her, and Bonnie can feel her nerves loosen up a bit, the muscles starts to relax in her body. "Please you can have a seat." Caroline pointed at the chair opposite to her.

"Thanks, Ms. Forbes."

"Oh, call me Caroline."

Bonnie smiles at her, and scans her from tip to toe. Caroline looked like a barbie doll which got life in her and came out of her pink box. She could see her checked black shirt matched perfectly with the skirt she was wearing, her hair was was pinned up perfectly, with her red colored totes bag hanging on the right arm of the chair. Bonnie couldn't see her legs, but she could imagine a six inch high branded heels on her feet.

"So, Ms. Bennett I can see that you have worked with a cosmetic company before."

"Yes, the Legacy. I have worked there for almost four years as the secretary of Mr. Robin Fell."

"Hmm… I can see a good recommendation letter from him over here."

Bonnie smiled. Mr. Fell was generous to write so gallantly about her.

"You also have a degree in Library science. Quite an unusual choice of course, I must say."

"Yeah, science of organization… what's not to like." Bonnie laughed nervously, but by the face of Caroline Forbes, she could surely say that she is impressed.

"That's quite impressive, Ms. Bennett." Caroline said, while scanning the rest of the content on her resume.

"Fine, everything is good on your resume, but why should I hire you? Give me a valid reason and the job is yours."

The question looked fairly simple, but it got Bonnie confused. Everything is right there on her resume, and she could ask anything related to her resume, or her work experience. But, she threw the ball in her court. And Bonnie had no clue what exactly she was looking for.

She took a deep breath, and looked at Caroline. "I will admit that I don't know much about the fashion world. All of my life I have worked hard to achieve high grades in class. So, I can say that I am not only a hard working person, but also very organized. Before applying for this job, I had no idea who you are." Caroline raised an eyebrow, so Bonnie re-modeled her words. "I mean, I knew who you are, but, I didn't know much about you. So, in this four days I did my research on you, and I know that you are super organized, control freak kind of a person, you started this magazine with Miranda but, your aims are different from her. You wanted to find yourself through writing, to show the world who you really are. The girl whom people think are obnoxious but in reality, she is kind and just finding her way in this world, looking out for her little sister, who thinks that her big sis is always hard on her, a best friend who wants to protect him because she thinks that he might fall into traps of people since he doesn't fight back with the world, a girl who even though says that she hates them, doesn't hate them at all."

Caroline looked at her with her mouth open. She cleared her throat before speaking. "You got all of that on internet?"

"Nope." Bonnie smiled, because she knew she had it under control. "I got the basic information on internet, like about your school, your friends, your family. The things I said right now was all based on my instinct."

"Your… your instinct?" Caroline laughed disbelieving her.

"Yup."

"How?"

"I will give you my secret. My ancestors are from Salem, so I am pretty sure I have that witch blood inside me. So, what I am saying is, I can read faces. I get this vibe from the touch."

Caroline smiled.

"And you really think that you got everything right?"

"I think I did, but it depends on whether you will agree in front of me or not."

"Bonnie… can I call you Bonnie." Caroline said, and without waiting for her response, she continued. "I was already really impressed with your caliber written out here. But, I can also see that you are pretty good with words, and know how to impress the person. And trust me, impressing me is the toughest thing in the whole world."

Bonnie blinked at her twice. "So, are you saying…?"

"Ms. Bonnie Bennett, welcome to Strings. You are officially hired as my personal secretary."

They shook their hands, and Bonnie still couldn't believe that this happened.

"You can start from tomorrow."

Bonnie nodded. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"The advertisement wasn't officially from Strings, so how did a management company was marketing for this job?"

Caroline laughed. "So much for the research you did huh."

Bonnie looked away, smiling embarrassingly.

"Well, you are right, I didn't posted this job. Stefan did."

"Is this Stefan Salvatore?"

"Yep."

"Oh my god, so my assumption was correct. He is the same Stefan Salvatore who had published these amazing best selling books. I have read almost all of his book, and they are so motivational. I am kinda waiting for his next one which is due probably by the end of this year or so."

"Well, he was pretty impressed by you too."

"Really?"

"Mhmm…"

Bonnie is elated, because it's probably the first time that someone is actually praising and noticing her work. And coming that from someone so noteworthy like Stefan Salvatore is a big deal.

"Can you thank him for picking my resume?"
"Well, you can personally do that. We usually hang out a lot, so there might be a day when you will meet him."

Bonnie had a huge grin on her face, because it was surely a new beginning of her life in this big city.

[***]

Caroline was quite happy with decision, and Bonnie looked pretty well deserving candidate. She can read people pretty well, and in the conversation with Bonnie, she could say that Bonnie is fun, and pretty much what she had been looking for. All thanks to her best friend. She wonders what would happen if he wasn't there in her life. It might be what it is now, but still not the same. She laughed at the thought of what would have happened if she wasn't present in the park near the swing.

Caroline was playing with Cindy in the park with their dolls. She had created the giant sand castle, and even if it was made of sand, she wanted to live in that forever. A 2 feet tall castle enclosed in a ford with window at the top of one of the pillar section. She could see herself in that room, waiting for the prince to come and play with her. She could imagine the humble and kind prince, the most handsome in the kingdom, riding a white royal horse towards her, like the one she read about in the fairy tales. For a five a year old, she had done a pretty decent job of making such a beautiful castle.

"What's that big mouth?"

"Nothing."

"Since when did you started talking, you skunk."

She could hear the vague sound of the voices coming through across the park. But, she was enjoying her play so much that she intended to ignore it.

"Leave me alone." She heard one of the voice mumbling.

"Why? So that you can stink more. Now get up from the swing!"

That irritated her, because whoever the voice belonged to, it was giving her a bad vibe. And she was more annoyed when the other kid agreed and got up from the swing.

"What's that in your hand? Is that a girl's bracelet?"

"My… my mom gave it to me."

"I want that."

"But, it's my mom's."

"Argue back and I will punch you, you-"

"I think he told you to leave him alone." Caroline couldn't resist anymore. Her mother is in the police department, and she knows there are bad guys out in the city. Probably that's where her strength was coming from.

They were standing in sections. At one side, there were a four kids who looked like seven years old to her, and on the other side, there was this other kid who looked like of same age like hers, but he was pretty scared. She joined him on his side.

The seven years old kids started to laugh at her.

"Or what? You will rescue him?"

Their laughs irritated her even more. Even if she dream about the prince, she didn't consider herself the kind of princess who needed the rescue. Maybe in her case, she would be the one who would rescue others.

"Yes. I will." She was confident that she could take them.

"What can you do? Huh? You can't do anything but cry like a girl. Maybe he can join you, since he is a girl too." The kid pointed at both of them.

"Yeah, maybe that's what I will do."

She cried, and shouted so loud that her shrieks could be heard across the whole city.

"What are you doing?" The kids were panicked, and baffled.

But she didn't stop.

"They are gone." A soft voice echoed in her ear. She stopped and looked at him. His hand was on her shoulder, trying to stop her shriek.

"And that's how you save yourself."

He smiled at her, which made her smile too because she had never seen anyone smiling like that before. His eyes looked like the sparkly green.

"Thank you… for saving me."

She laughed at him, not because he was thanking him, but because it was the first time that she was someone so calm even after getting bullied. Anyways she didn't like the boys in her class. Because they all were mean.

"You don't look like someone who can be scared of those boys."

"I wasn't scared."

"Then why didn't you fight back."

"Because I don't fight." He said as if it was self explanatory. "But, I liked your style of scaring them away." He chuckled.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"Five, but I am turning six next month." He said proudly.

"Which means you are an year older than me. Where do you go to school? I have never seen you here."

"Yeah… i am kind of new in the city."

"I am Caroline Forbes… and I will be starting St. Joseph school after the summer vacation."

His eyes glowed once he heard the name of the school.

"What?"

"I will be going to the same school."

"That is awesome.. I have to go now, but see you around, and be safe from the bullies."

She shouted while running towards her friend.

Caroline laughed at the memory, because their first meeting was lame, but it's one of the best memory. That was the day when Stefan was shy, and never even told her his name, and now is the day, where nothing has changed much about him, but she can tell that the only people with whom Stefan talks about anything and everything is her and his brother.

Remember the devil and the devil calls.

She thought when his name flashed on her phone screen.

"How was the interview?"

"I loved her… Oh my god, I really can't believe she impressed me."

"Ha…. see I told you her profile is pretty amazing."

"Whatever… what are you upto?"

"I have a meeting with the editor of Vorb in about an hour."

"Oh." She frowned because he has been meeting this editor quite a lot lately. The other day he met her for a coffee, and now he is meeting her again.

"Looks like you two are hitting it off lately." She faked her laugh on the phone.

"Caroline… it's just a professional meeting."

"Where are you going to meet?"

"Southside Grill."

"That's more like a drink place."

"I know that Caroline."

She wasn't buying his casual act. The Grill is no place for "professional meets". People hang out there, or go for dates at that place. And she is having a bad feeling about all of this.

"How come you selected a place like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you usually go for coffee house or something like that."

"She suggested the place, so I thought why not give it a try."

Aha, so it was her who suggested it, and why not. Probably a best place to be more "casual" with him. She thought.

"Have fun, then."

"I will see you later."

She cut the phone, but she was worried for him. And it's nothing new for her, she has an urge to protect him since she met him. She had seen a lot of girls making a move on him, but if they want to date him, they have to get a pass from Caroline Forbes. She had a printout of the If and else statement flowchart for the girl suitable for Stefan, and no one had actually passed it. It comprises of different scenarios, drills, and the best case answers. Stefan is aware of that flowchart as well, but whenever she brings up the list of questions, he never holds her back. More like, he has no say in it, so he goes along with it.

"I need to know more about this editor." She muttered to herself.