[5x01; I Know What You Did Last Summer]

Lucilla had risen late that day. The sun was not yet up but the sky was light enough to know that it would be coming any moment. She rushed to get dressed for the day, making sure that her veil and headpiece were tight in place as to not show off her hair and the bottom of her face, and ran out of the service headquarters. She passed Amara on the way, where she was dusting the stone walls—she was sure there was a smirk hidden under that veil; she and Amara were friends but Amara always felt the need to one up her—and entered the living area of the family in which they served.

The household of Atlas of Bennett were one of the head households that made up the village that they lived in. There was Atlas, the patriarch, his wife, his two sons, and his daughter, Qetsiyah. Qetsiyah was who Lucilla served; she helped her clean herself, laid out her clothes, and got her dressed for the day and did the opposite when she went to bed, while tending to the house in between. Amara, however, was Qetsiyah's companion, stuck to her side all day.

Lucilla wasn't surprised to see that Qetsiyah was already awake and waiting for her.

"Did you sleep restlessly?" Qetsiyah asked her as she got out of bed, a half-smile on her face. She and Lucilla were wait most considered friends but it was not to be known outside of the four walls that made up her room. "I could have sworn you went to bed early last night."

"I did, Miss," Lucilla answered with a lie, glad that the veil hid her blushing cheeks, while pulling one of Qetsiyah's dresses from the burrow. It was a beautiful yellow silk, one of which the family's seamstress spent a very long time on. She laid it on a chair and turned to Qetsiyah. "Do you wish to bathe today, Miss?"

"Not today," Qetsiyah replied. "Tonight, maybe."

"Yes, Miss."

Lucilla helped Qetsiyah get into her undergarments, dress, and jewelry, making sure every piece was set perfectly. Afterward, she brushed her long and beautiful black hair and secured a headpiece that matched the dress to it. Next came the beauty creams and balms; Qetsiyah was very beautiful so she did not require much, just some pigment on her lips.

Once Qetsiyah was all set, Lucilla escorted her to the dining quarters, where her family was waiting.

Atlas, her owner, scowled at her once Qetsiyah was settled in her seat. "You're late," he snapped. "What a wretched, nasty, and hideous abomination you are."

Lucilla was used to the insults. She simply bowed her head and did not speak. She wasn't allowed to speak to Atlas or his sons. His wife and Qetsiyah were the only people in the house, other than the servants, she was allowed to speak to.

With a wave of Atlas' hand, she was dismissed. She scurried out of the house and to the family's garden. It was a sort of safe haven for her; she tended to the plants, harvesting any herbs, fruits, or vegetables that the garden had produced and made sure that any extra that they would use for their own meals, was ready to sell at the village square. In her free time, she drew pictures in the soil, admiring them until she had to rake them away.

Today, she was working on a drawing of the chickens, living in the coop only a few feet away. They were making cheerful noises that made her smile, she was inspired to commemorate them.

"That is a beautiful picture, my love."

Lucilla stiffened as strong hands carefully set themselves on her waist, a smile blooming on her lips. "Silas."

"Who else would dare touch you like this, my sweet Lucilla?"

Lucilla giggled sweetly when she was turned by Silas, her stomach flipping as he quickly dived to place a chaste kiss on her forehead. She placed a soft palm on his cheek, feeling his stubble start to grow in, and sighed happily.

Lucy rolled over with a frustrated huff. She was sick of the dreams, the memories of her first life, that haunted her each night. They started up not long after Stefan had gone missing and each time she had them, her stomach became nauseous and her mood was ruined the entire morning.

Her life as Luciana was not actually her first life as she and everyone else had thought. No, her first life happened over a thousand years before she was Luciana Mikaelson. In her first life, she was Lucilla, servant of the Bennett house and bastard child of the village prostitute and high warlock. She was called an abomination because she was not born with magic like the others; she was a siphoner like all her other lives, one of the first of her kind.

And she was Silas' lover—well, one of his lovers. She betrayed Qetsiyah, her friend, and had an affair with her fiancé and she had loved him. In her memories she felt so much love and passion and she couldn't stand it, especially when it was all for Silas. Silas, who she had yet to see the face of, because apparently, her mind loved playing tricks on her. Honestly, it didn't matter much that she hadn't yet seen Silas' true form; she was more disgusted about the fact that Lucilla was the kind of person to sleep with a man who was to be married.

Yeah, she fell for Stefan when he was with Elena but she didn't do anything physical about it. If confessing her feelings counted as emotional, sure, she was a bitch but she never expected Stefan to have feelings for her, too. Not that she was upset about it, but…

She was going to pull herself into a panic attack if she kept thinking so much. She couldn't handle that today, not when there was so much to do. She was moving her school things out of her apartment and into her shared dorm room with Caroline and Elena, which was the biggest thing, but not what she was most concerned about. It was Jeremy who was her first concern; the poor kid would be on his own with Joel and Damon and he would be going back to high school. She didn't envy her baby brother, that was for sure.

Reaching for her phone, Lucy sent Caroline a good morning text and then got out of bed to get ready for the day. By the time she had gotten dressed, the rest of her stuff packed, and had her breakfast of B+ blood, Joel and Jeremy had already let themselves into the apartment and made themselves comfortable on her couch.

"All right," Joel sighed from his spot on the couch, staring at Jeremy expectantly. "Give me the cover story."

Lucy rolled her eyes at her older brother and picked up the last green apple she had in her fruit bowl, tossing it to Jeremy so he could eat it. She stood across from them, her arms folded on her chest as she listened to Jeremy grumble the story that Joel, Elena, and Damon had come up with when it came to explaining Jeremy's miraculous rise from the dead.

"There were issues at home," Jeremy rolled the apple in his hands, glancing away from its pale green flesh to look at her, as if she was his audience. "Ever since I lost my parents and my aunt, I've been acting out. Drugs, drinking…I was looking for attention, so I lit my house on fire and faked my own death."

Lucy winced and turned to Joel, narrowing her eyes at him. "Does he really have to say that?" she complained; Jeremy gave her a small but grateful smile. "Come on, the kids are gonna eat him alive."

"Shut up, Lou," Joel gave her a sour look before looking at Jeremy. "Really stress the drug thing and you should say that the fire was an accident. There's crazy and then there's Elena…Plus, if the insurance finds out it was on purpose, we lose all that money, so…"

Lucy threw him a scolding look. "Joel!"

"Sorry," Joel didn't look apologetic at all.

"I could just not go back," Jeremy suggested hopefully. "I mean, my school already had a memorial for me."

"I could homeschool him," Lucy agreed with him. "I'll stay home and everything."

"You're both going to school," Joel rolled his eyes, having heard both of their arguments many different times. "You are gonna suck it up," he pointed at Jeremy and then at Lucy. "and you are gonna have a normal college experience."

"I don't even want to go to Whitmore," Lucy huffed, sharing an annoyed look with Jeremy. "I only registered because I was sad and drunk and Care gave me her puppy-dog eyes."

"Well, no matter how cute Caroline's puppy eyes are, you still signed up for classes," Joel sighed and stood up. "Which means you're going. You need to be a responsible adult and take that interdisciplinary class so you can finally figure out what you want to do with your life—" Lucy rolled her eyes. "—you're gonna go to frat parties and socials, and you're gonna gain the freshman fifteen from cheap beer and cheese fries."

Lucy frowned and walked over to the couch, collapsing next to Jeremy, who laid his head on hers. "I can't gain weight and I don't like beer."

"Tough," Joel put his hands on his hips. "I can't believe you two are making me be the responsible one."

"You're the oldest," Jeremy pointed out.

"Yeah, well," Joel looked very disturbed by that, even though he'd had close to twenty-four years to realize it. "Shut up."

Lucy laughed at the look on his face but trailed off as she heard very perky footsteps approach her apartment. "Caroline's here!" she exclaimed, jumping off the couch. Just as she put a fake smile on her face, the door burst open. "It's moving day!"

Caroline jumped in excitement. "We're college students!"

"You dreamt about Silas again?"

"I had a memory about Silas again," Lucy corrected Caroline with a sigh, looking around at all the Whitmore students filing through the campus to move into their dorms. "There's a difference, okay?"

"Okay," Caroline nodded and gave her a worried look. "And how do you feel about that?"

"I feel like I want the memories to stop," she answered. "I don't want to be having memories of me being a homewrecker and having feelings for Silas when the man I love is somewhere out there being tortured, or worse."

"I'm sorry, Luce," Caroline frowned. "Well, did you try sending Stefan another letter?"

"No, because I know it won't work," Lucy made sure to tighten her hold on the box in her hands. "What did you put in here, an anvil?"

Caroline laughed and got the hint that she wanted to change the subject. "No, those are small appliances. The panini press is in there."

Lucy sighed in relief; they had picked out that panini press together and it was one of the things that she was most excited about when it came to college. "Thank God you remembered that."

"How could I forget it?" Caroline stopped walking and nodded ahead of them. "Look, there's Elena."

Lucy stopped, too, and watched as her sister approached them, a tentative smile on her face. She nor Caroline had a lot of contact with the doppelganger over the summer and the only reason they did talk on the phone or text each other in a group message was so they could coordinate their dorm suite. It sounded horrible, but it was kind of nice not having to worry about Elena and Damon all the time, especially when she was busy worrying about Stefan and everything happening down in New Orleans.

That being said, to say that she was looking forward to sharing a suite with Elena would be a lie. The only reason she was doing any of this—Whitmore, sharing a room with Elena, and getting out of the depressive cave she made her apartment into—was because of Caroline. She loved the blonde too much and of course, Caroline was a little too worried about her. She was such a mother hen sometimes.

"Hey, guys," Elena greeted them; Damon had dropped her off earlier since Joel and Jeremy had gone over to Lucy's apartment.

"Hi," Lucy nodded at her with a small smile, like a polite stranger would when walking past them on the street.

That's pretty much what they were now. Strangers who were half-sisters.

"Hi," Caroline chirped, unable to help the excitement that came over her. "We're in college, guys. We actually made it. We're here."

A little more than an hour later, both Lucy and Caroline had checked in with their dorm and resident advisor, moved all their big stuff—aka, the top of the line fridge that Elijah had gifted them; he said it was a smart investment, go figure—into their room, and were starting to get unpacked.

The four-person room that Lucy, Caroline, Elena were sharing with some random girl was technically a suite, but less than that, really. Sure, it consisted of three rooms, but it was weirdly configured. In the big room were two extra-long twin beds, a living area with a provided couch and armchair—Caroline had taken one look at them and almost screamed—a storage area for their kitchen appliances and food, four dressers, two desks, and a huge fireplace that was actually pretty nice. Just off the big room were two more rooms, the bathroom, and the smaller bedroom that had no door and only stored two more twin beds and desks. It was not the most ideal living situation but they were going to make the best of it and it wasn't like it was an ugly room. Fortunately for Lucy and Caroline, Elena allowed them to use the bigger room and she would share with the random roommate.

Currently, the three of them, plus Liz, were unpacking. Lucy, Caroline, and Elena were in the big room, setting up the built-in shelves around the fireplace, while Liz made sure that the bathroom was decorated just the way that Caroline and Lucy—but mostly Caroline—wanted it.

Elena opened the box that Lucy had been carrying and twirled around, holding the panini press. "You guys brought a panini press?"

"Mmhm," Lucy hummed and took it from her, carefully placing it on the shelf next to the coffee maker. "Small appliances by the fridge."

"Okay," Liz sighed as she exited the bathroom, which was actually pretty nice. "The bathroom shelves are color coordinated. Give me a goodbye hug before I change my mind and drag you home with me."

Caroline grinned as she turned away from her suitcase, placing the jeans that she was folding down on her bed, and turned to her mother to pull her into a hug. Lucy smiled at them and looked away before she got too melancholy about none of her parents being alive to see her off to college.

"You can call as much as you want, you know?" Liz was starting to get choked up.

"Mom, I'll be fine," Caroline assured her. "We'll all be fine."

"I'll keep an eye out for her," Lucy added, leaving her place by the shelves as Liz let go of Elena and pulled her into a hug. She was more than likely next in line for a hug and she wasn't missing out on a special squeeze hug from Liz Forbes.

Liz laughed and let go of Elena in order to hug her. "That's what I'm worried about," she squeezed Lucy tightly and Lucy made sure to hug her just as hard. She loved Liz Forbes, almost as much as her daughter. "This is where your mom fell in love with history," she pulled away with a smile. "You'll find something for you, too, Lucy."

"Thanks, Liz," Lucy gave her an appreciative smile.

Liz smiled back at her before heading back to Caroline for another hug.

"Okay, you have to go," Caroline said, getting a little choked up herself. "Before I change my mind and make you stay."

"I'm going, I'm going," Liz hurried off to the door, sniffling. "I love you. Bye, girls."

Caroline waved and once all three of them heard Liz start to make her way back down the hall, she turned to face Lucy and Elena with a huge smile.

"So, roomies," Elena grinned. "I think we should drink to something."

"I couldn't agree more," Caroline made her way to her bed and opened one of her suitcases; it was full of blood bags. She threw one to Elena and one to Lucy. "Here ya go."

Lucy caught it easy and smiled, holding her blood bag up to make a toast. "To finally getting moved in and to getting drunk at frat parties."

"To us, and college, and being functional vampires," Elena added.

"To the next chapter of our lives," Caroline finished.

Caroline and Elena giggled and knocked their blood bags together but Lucy was too caught up in what Caroline had said. When she graduated high school, she was ready to move on from the Mystic Falls chapter of her life; she was going to go to Duke, marry Stefan, have loads of married sex on an island somewhere, and be happy. Now, she was at Whitmore without Stefan at her side, her Original siblings a couple of states away, with Caroline being one of the only things holding her together. She didn't want this new chapter. She wanted to go back to the old one; that hour after graduation where Stefan had proposed to her, Alaric and Lexi were alive, everyone was happy.

A knock at the door startled her out of the negative thoughts swirling around in her mind. She, Elena, and Caroline hurriedly threw their blood bags back into Caroline's suitcase, and turned toward the door with innocent expressions just in time for the door to open.

A cute Asian girl with black-framed glasses and pigtails in her hair walked into the room. She had a couple of boxes in her arms and seemed nice enough, especially when she called out enthusiastically, "Hey!"

Because Caroline was not at all happy with having a fourth roommate who wasn't Bonnie and she didn't know how Elena felt about another roommate, Lucy decided that she would have to be the nice one.

"You must be Megan," she said, hurrying over to the girl and relieving her of one of the boxes she carried. "Nice to meet you. I'm Lucy."

"Hi, Lucy," Megan beamed at her. "Thanks for the help. And you guys must be Caroline and Elena, right?" she pointed to the others, mixing up their names.

"I'm Elena, that's Caroline," Elena pointed at herself and the blonde next to her. "So, you're our fourth roommate, huh?"

"Yep," Megan nodded and turned back to Lucy, pointing to the smaller room. "Is my bed in there?

Lucy nodded. "You'll be sharing with Elena," she led Megan into the room. "Don't worry, she's a good roommate. I would know, I lived with her most of my life."

"Really?" Megan asked, setting down her box; Lucy set the other one next to it. "You guys are sisters?"

"Half-sisters," Lucy answered. "So, where are you from?"

"Grove Hill. What about you?"

"All three of us are from Mystic Falls," Lucy paused when she felt her phone vibrate from the back pocket of her shorts. "Ah, hold on."

She pulled her phone out and blinked at the screen, not shocked to find that Katherine had texted her yet again.

Kit: I need your help. Again.

Lucia: I told you to go to my apartment

Kit: I lost the key

Lucia: Are you kidding me?

Kit: No and I don't know how to pick a lock, so…

Lucy sighed in aggravation. Ever since Elena force-fed Katherine the cure, her oldest doppelganger sister was pretty much helpless. It was yet another thing Lucy had to deal with that summer.

Lucia: You're gonna have to go to the Boarding House. I'm at Whitmore now. Damon's probably there

Kit: Got it, thanks xx

Lucia: Welcome xo

"Are you okay?" Megan noticed the frustrated look on her face.

"Family drama," Lucy sighed, pocketing her phone. "I have a big one."

She excused herself into the bathroom so she could call Joel and tell him what was going on with Katherine. He couldn't do much, as he had taken a full time job at the Mystic Falls police station as the resident computer nerd—and whatever else he explained that he did while she wasn't listening—but he would most likely be able to get in contact with Damon before Katherine could get to the Boarding House. By the time she ended the call with a very frustrated Joel, Elena and Caroline had caught Megan up on all the non-supernatural dramatics that went on in their lives—from Grayson and Miranda Gilbert dying all the way to Lucy's recent engagement, Elena and Damon's official relationship status, and Stefan's disappearance.

"So," Megan said as the four of them left their dorm in order to attend the majors fair out on the lawn just outside their building. "your current boyfriend, Damien—"

"Damon," Elena corrected her.

"—is your ex's brother, Steven, who Lucy is now engaged to—"

"It's Stefan, actually," Lucy said absentmindedly; she had been trying not to listen to the conversation that was still going on, but of course, the mention of Stefan made her turn her ears in.

"Right," Megan nodded. "but three months ago, he left without saying goodbye?"

"He didn't leave—"

"He went on a trip with his best friend," Caroline spoke up before Lucy got a little too heated about Stefan's disappearance—that they were both sure was actually a kidnapping.

"Okay," Megan perked up when Caroline spoke to her; Caroline had been giving her a hot-and-cold vibe and Lucy was sure that Megan just wanted the blonde to like her. "So, do you have a boyfriend, Caroline?"

"I do. His name's Tyler," Caroline confirmed. "He had to miss move-in day, but he'll be here for the first day of classes."

"Assuming he registers," Elena said pessimistically. "and picks a dorm, and buys books."

Caroline gave her a hard look. "Speaking of minding one's own business," she walked ahead of them and then abruptly turned, causing them to stop. Addressing Megan, she added, "let's talk roommate ground rules. Privacy is very important to me."

Megan nodded eagerly. "Same here."

"I have low blood-sugar," Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. "My diet's finicky, so keep your paws off my stuff."

"We'll split up the shelves," Megan was being very understanding about Caroline's rude behavior, which was more than Lucy would be able to say if she was the one meeting her for the first time.

"And if I suddenly get up to leave or disappear for a while, don't follow me or look for me."

"Okay, sounds good," Megan said reasonably.

"I only have two rules but they're pretty important," Lucy started off with a smile. "Don't touch the paintings when wet and if there's coconut cake in the fridge, no touch-y."

Megan laughed. "I think I can handle that."

"Great," Elena nodded with a smile. "So, we agree on everything."

"Excuse me, ladies," a tall, dark, and handsome guy, who had to be only a couple years older than them, walked up to them with a flyer in his hands. "Party at Whitmore house tonight."

The guy was super cute and became even more handsome when he smiled brightly at Caroline. She didn't take the flyer he was holding out to her, so Lucy took it from him with a smile. "We'll be there," she assured him. "Thanks."

The guy nodded. "I hope you guys come."

As the guy walked away and Caroline gave Lucy an unhappy look, Elena grinned happily. "I love college."

Lucy was sitting on her bed near the bathroom, painting her toenails a nice lilac color, when Caroline huffed loudly. She looked over to the built-ins just in time to see Caroline frown at the juicer that Megan had brought with her and walk over to the dresser that they assigned to her.

"Did you notice how Megan's juicer takes up all the small appliance space?" she said prissily, pulling open one of the drawers to dig around. "She has an entire drawer dedicated to organic linen."

Elena raised an eyebrow at her. "What happened to privacy?"

"Maybe if she didn't take such long showers, I wouldn't have time to go through all her stuff," Caroline shoved the drawer back in place and turned to face the Gilbert sisters. "How are you guys okay with a fourth roommate?"

"We've had a month to get used to it, Care," Lucy finished up her left foot and screwed the brush back into the bottle of polish.

"And we're trying to be functional," Elena added. "And being functional means we need friends."

"We also need personal space," Caroline retorted. "I mean, what if we suddenly get a craving and I want to eat her? What if Lucy has a nightmare and loses control of her magic," when Caroline pointed at her, Lucy put her hands in the air defensively; yeah, that happened sometimes. "What if our blood bags go bad because we can't store them in the fridge?"

"We can get another fridge?" Lucy suggested with a shrug. "I'm sure Elijah would think that it was sensible."

Caroline rolled her eyes at her best friend and opened the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water that Megan had put on her dedicated shelf. "And what the fuck is protein water?" both Lucy and Elena had no idea. "You know what? Maybe if I drink it all, she'll want to move out."

"Caroline, don't…" Elena protested as Caroline unscrewed the bottle and took a sip.

As soon as the water touched Caroline's tongue, her flesh started to sizzle and burn. Lucy jumped to her feet and ran over to Caroline as she began to cough and spit out the water, presumably because there was vervain in it.

"Oh, my God," she hissed, patting Caroline on the back and sharing a look with her sister. "Vervain."

The door to the bathroom opened and steam billowed out into the main room as Megan ran out in a towel. Luckily, Caroline had healed up before she saw her. "What's going on?" she asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine," Elena said hurriedly as Lucy helped Caroline to her feet.

"What happened?"

"Water just went down the wrong pipe," Caroline said shakily. "I'm okay, really. I shouldn't have touched your stuff, I'm really sorry."

"It's fine," Megan said kindly, taking the bottle that Caroline held out for her. "Just sounded like someone was dying out here," Lucy, Caroline, and Elena laughed fakely, waving her off. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

"Thanks," Caroline smiled at her. As soon as Megan went back into the bathroom, she turned to Lucy and Elena and hissed, "She knows who we are. She drinks vervain water."

"That doesn't mean that she knows about us," Elena tried to calm her down.

"Seriously?" Caroline blinked at her, shocked. "We share a bathroom with this girl. What if she's a hunter and she stakes us when we're in the shower?"

"Or steals our daylight rings while we're asleep," Lucy added, now doubting Megan's niceness; what if it was all a lie in order to get them to trust her? "and then we burst into flames when the sun comes up."

"Don't you think that if she's a hunter, we'd be dead by now?" Elena countered.

Lucy shrugged. "Not necessarily. I mean, we could probably overpower her."

Caroline pointed at Lucy in agreement. "I think we should lock her up," she suggested. "You know, let the vervain get out of her system, and then we'll compel her to forget about us."

"Guys, I'm not kidnapping our roommate," Elena was the only level-headed one in the room, it seemed. "The best way to convince her that we're normal is to act normal. Do normal, human, freshman-y stuff."

"Like what?" Lucy put her hands on her hips. "That party at Whitmore house?"

Elena nodded. "Exactly. We're going to that party."

Two hours later, once the sun had set and Lucy, Caroline, Elena, and Megan were dressed in some party clothes, they headed off to the Whitmore house. The Whitmore house did not hold a fraternity and was actually the home to many of the faculty offices on campus, but for some reason, they were throwing a party that involved cheap alcohol, drunk college students, and beer pong.

It wasn't a fraternity party, but it was close enough. At least Lucy would be making Joel proud; she could be wallowing in her bed back at the dorm, worrying about Stefan, Jeremy—who had not answered any of her calls—and Katherine.

"Hey," the guy who gave them the party flyer came up to them as they joined the line that stretched through the whole front yard. "I remember you."

"Hey," Elena greeted him. "Flyer guy."

"Jesse, technically," he introduced himself. "but flyer guy works too."

"I'm Elena," Elena smiled and then pointed to Lucy and Caroline. "That's Lucy and Caroline."

Lucy waved at him while Caroline smiled tightly. "Hi."

Jesse nodded at them, his eyes lingering on Caroline. "Nice to meet you."

Caroline turned right back around and stepped forward as the line shortened. Lucy gave Jesse an apologetic smile and hurried to her best friend's side. "Care, why aren't you playing nice today?"

"What?" Caroline shrugged as Elena joined them. "I'm with Tyler."

"Are you?" Elena wondered; Lucy shook her head at her—Tyler being gone was as bad of a topic to Caroline as Stefan was to her. "Because he hasn't called."

Caroline looked at her incredulously. "From the mountains of Appalachia?"

"I'm just saying, I don't want you to get your hopes up thinking that he's coming when he hasn't really shown much interest."

"Okay!" Lucy exclaimed before an argument broke out. "Let's change the subject. We should try the cafeteria food tomorrow to see if it's any good. Sound like a plan?"

"I'm not touching that food, even if my life depends on it," Caroline rolled her eyes but Lucy could see that she was appreciative of the subject change. They were at the front of the line now, and when they tried to enter the house, they were unable to. "What the hell?"

Lucy frowned at the invisible barrier that kept them out without an invitation. "This has never happened to me."

"You're new," Elena patted her shoulder. "Someone must own the place. We have to be invited in."

"Hey!" Megan, who had gone ahead of them because she knew the people throwing the party, greeted them just inside of the doorway. "I was wondering if you guys were gonna make it."

"You guys going in, or…?" Jesse appeared behind them.

It made Lucy feel like a trapped animal.

"Um, I left my inhaler in the dorm!" she quickly announced, coming up with the worst lie ever. She wasn't even asthmatic when she was a human. "I, uh, I need to go get it. Will you—"

"Yeah, we should probably—" Caroline started as Elena nodded frantically and said, "We'll come with you. Safety in numbers and all that."

Lucy smiled at Megan and Jesse as they stepped away from the door. "We'll be right back."

"Okay," Megan didn't look like she suspected anything but she didn't look like she would drink vervain water, either. "Well, I'm gonna go hang."

"Have fun," Caroline said enthusiastically; when Megan disappeared back into the party, she hissed to Lucy and Elena, "Like I said, she knows."

They waited outside of the party for a half-hour, trying to spot anyone who looked like they owned the Whitmore house, but they eventually gave up. After the vervain incident, Elena had been the only one with the guts to get Megan's number, so she was the one to call her to tell her that they were going back to the dorm room.

"Hey, Megan, it's Elena," Elena left her a message since she wasn't picking up. "Just calling to let you know that we're staying in tonight. Call me when you get a chance, bye."

Caroline sighed as Elena put her phone in her bag. "Okay, it's settled. When she comes back to the dorm, we grab her."

"Or we could just say that Lucy had an asthma attack before we got back to the dorm," Elena suggested.

"Megan saw us stuck outside the door," Lucy bit her lip. "I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure she knows about us."

"We might as well have flashed her our fangs," Caroline agreed with Lucy. "There's no way that out of the thousands of freshmen, we were randomly paired with someone who knows about vampires."

Lucy pointed at her and frowned, her paranoia feeding off Caroline's. "Maybe it wasn't random."

Elena sighed and picked up her phone when it rang. "Megan's calling," she answered the call. "Hey, Megan."

"Elena, you have to help me!" Megan cried into the phone, terror filling her voice. "He's chasing me!"

Lucy stiffened and glanced at Caroline, seeing that she had stopped to stare at Elena in shock.

"Megan, who's chasing you?" Elena asked frantically. "Megan?"

"Help me! Oh, my God!"

"We can't come inside," Elena bit her lip and glanced at the house; Lucy followed her gaze and saw shadows in the upstairs area that were quick and rushed. "The line's too long. If you come out—" Megan shrieked. "Where are you?"

"Elena, please help me!"

Caroline grabbed the phone from Elena and spoke into it. "Megan, can you hear me? Get outside and we can help you!"

There was another scream and then a body fell out one of the upstairs windows and landed on the ground right in front of them. Lucy gasped loudly, covering her hand over her mouth, as she smelt fresh blood pouring out of Megan's dead body.

"Oh, my God," she inhaled deeply, trying to control herself, as Elena kneeled next to Megan's body and checked her pulse. "the blood."

"Shh," Caroline grabbed her hand and turned her away from the body. "Just relax. Just breathe through it, okay?"

Lucy inhaled and exhaled methodically, breathing in sync with Caroline as Elena called the police. She fought her blood lust with her best friend's help and by the time that the campus authorities had arrived at the house and were clearing the building, it was practically gone.

"What is happening?" Elena asked as they stood a few feet away from the body, waiting so that they could give their witness accounts. "Our roommate is dead, there's a vampire at the party…"

"We don't know what she knew or who she told," Caroline stated seriously. "We should get out of here."

"It'll look more suspicious if we leave right now," Lucy shook her head, causing Caroline to sigh.

"Shit," Elena hissed suddenly. "Guys, I left that message in her voicemail."

"Don't worry, I took her phone."

Lucy looked at her like she was crazy. "You did?"

"Shh!" Caroline nudged her as an older woman with a security badge hanging around her neck walked up to them.

"Hey, girls. I'm Diane Freeman, head of campus security," she greeted them kindly. "Are you okay?"

Lucy nodded silently, adopting a shaken look on her face, while Elena spoke for them, "I mean, I think so."

"I understand Megan was your roommate," Diane glanced at Megan's body, which had been covered with a white sheet. "I'm so sorry you had to find her like this."

"Do they know what happened?" Caroline asked.

"We found a note," Diane answered. "Apparently, she was struggling with severe depression."

Lucy shook her head, confused. "What do you mean you found a note?"

Diane frowned slightly. "Your roommate took her own life."

"You think this was a suicide?" Caroline asked incredulously.

Why was campus security investigating a murder-slash-suicide, anyway? Why weren't they being questioned by the county police. There was no reason that Diane should have anything to do with the crime, right?

Diane nodded, looking at Caroline with pity; apparently, she thought that the blonde was in denial. "We're convinced it was a suicide but we can't seem to find her cell phone. Have you seen it?"

All three of them shook their heads.

"Okay," Diane nodded. "If it turns up, let us know?"

"We will," Lucy assured her; when she was out of ear reach, she asked Elena and Caroline, "What is going on?"

The door to their dorm was open when they got back. They searched through everything that they owned and it was all there. Megan's stuff in her room was untouched, as was her dresser and things on the built-ins, but her desk was clearly rummaged through.

"Megan's tablet is gone," Lucy announced to Caroline and Elena as she walked back into the main room.

"Along with her so-called suicide note?" Elena asked; Lucy nodded. "Can I see the phone for a second?"

Caroline nodded and pulled Megan's phone out of her purse, handing it to Elena. "It just doesn't make any sense," she sighed as Elena looked through the phone. "First our random roommate knows about vampires, then she happens to be killed by a vampire, and know the school's covering it up? Seriously, who is this girl?"

Elena paused and looked up at Lucy and Caroline, horrified. "Whatever's going on, it's not just about our roommate," she reported, handing the phone to Lucy. "It's about us."

Elena meant her and Lucy. On Megan's phone was an old picture, probably taken three or four years ago; Megan was in the photo and so was Lucy and Elena's dad, Grayson.

"What the hell?" she breathed, turning the phone to show Caroline the picture. "That's Megan with our dad."

The room was silent after that, all three of them pretty much shocked with the turn of events. Elena excused herself and headed to bed, and Lucy and Caroline got ready to sleep soon after that.

After changing into her pajamas and snuggling under her covers, Lucy couldn't stop thinking. What was her dad doing with Megan? Why would Megan have a picture of her dad? How did they know each other? Why was Megan specifically picked to be the roommate of two Gilbert women? That all couldn't be coincidence. It couldn't, not when Megan drank vervain and presumably knew about vampires. What the hell was going on at Whitmore? What did they just step into?

"Hey, Caroline," she heard Tyler's voice come from Caroline's phone; it was a voicemail that Tyler had left her while they were dealing with Megan's death. "Look, I put a lot of thought into this and decided to defer school for now. This werewolf pack I'm helping, they need me. I know it's lame to do this over the phone but I figure this way's harder for you to kill me. I'm really, really sorry, Care, but this is important."

Lucy frowned as Caroline started to sob, her heart aching for her best friend. She had been so supportive for Lucy when Stefan disappeared and now she was going through the same thing.

She climbed out of her bed and walked the few feet to Caroline's, lifting the covers and slipping behind her. As she wrapped her arms around Caroline, becoming the big spoon, she whispered soothingly. "It's going to be okay, Care. I'm so sorry."

Caroline sniffed and dug her face into the pillow, grabbing onto Lucy's hands and squeezing them tightly. "I'm really glad that you're here, Lou."

Lucy placed a kiss on her head. "I'm really glad you're here, too."