"This is it," Bonnie said, she opened the door. She stepped aside so that Aliza could enter.

The rest were escorted to their respected rooms by Stefan. Aliza liked the guy, he was sweet and polite and was a teacher here in the school. Aliza's room was a little away from the rest of them, maybe because she was a kid and they decided to give her the dorm room of one of their students. Aliza didn't mind, technically she was here to learn.

Bonnie was a nice woman, so far by Kol's weird greeting, Aliza figured she was a witch. She was warm and welcoming, sharing a mutual dislike for Kol.

Aliza liked her too.

The room was smaller than her room in New Orleans and India but was spacious and cozy, with a bed situated in the middle. The faint smell of wood and dust lingering in the air.

A typical room of a teenager, except a lot messier than she expected. Aliza wasn't a neat freak but she kept her room fairly organized. Although by the looks of it, whoever stayed in that room, could use a lesson in cleaning. The bed was shabby, the sheets crumpled and the pillows scattered. There were piles of books dumped in the corner that made Aliza wince. A few clothes lying here and there.

Some serious lessons in cleaning.

"I'm sorry for the mess," Bonnie said in an embarrassed voice, she walked further into the room and started to pick the clothes up from the ground. "I swear I told Hope to clean up before she leaves. Her room isn't usually this messy, trust me."

Aliza recognized the name and said, "Hope as in Hope Mikaelson?"

Bonnie looked at her, "You know who Hope is?"

She shrugged, "Yeah. Azure, my friend, she told me."

"Azure, the girl with crazy chess skills?"

Aliza smiled proudly and nodded, "Yep, that's her."

She stood in the middle of the room, inspecting it with interest. Hope must have been in a hurry because it looked like she stormed into the room, threw her stuff in her bag, and stormed out. Aliza couldn't blame her, if she was told she could go home this second she wouldn't waste another second to make a run for it.

The room seemed indeed comfortable, there was a window on one side, just a few steps away from the bed. The bed looked soft and fluffy with four pillows. There was a lamp on the nightstand beside the bed, post-it notes of different colors stuck on it. A cozy chair was situated near the window.

A painting stand that stood in the other corner of the room caught Aliza's attention. It reminded her of Niklaus, though she hadn't seen his paintings herself she knew he was good. The corners of her lips twitched in amusement.

Like father, like daughter.

"So you are a witch?" Aliza asked, as a conversation starter, which made her bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing.

Bonnie said, without taking her eyes off the bed she was cleaning, "Yeah. I'm a Bennett witch."

That piqued Aliza's interest, "Wait. You're a Bennett witch?"

"You know about them?" Bonnie asked, sounding impressed.

"Yep. I've read about them. They are a very powerful coven. Your ancestors migrated here, in Mystic Falls in 1692, from Salem, Massachusetts to escape the witch trials. Your coven was dominated by women and your family is also descended from a Traveler bloodline. The Bennett family has been linked to both the Salvatore family and the Petrova family since the 1st century B.C."

The books Freya had let Aliza borrow were so interesting to the point where Vincent had to snatch the book out of her hands and threatened to hide all her Marvel action figures and her DVD collection because she refused to get up from the couch and go to sleep.

Bonnie stilled for a moment to regard Aliza with a surprised look. She hadn't expected her to know so much about her family. She liked Aliza, after hearing the nickname she had assigned to Kol, there was no questioning.

"Somebody did their reading."

Aliza turned around to see Caroline standing outside the room. She shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Here, done," Bonnie announced and took a step back to see if she missed anything.

"Hey, Bon. Can you go check on the She-devil?" Caroline asked.

"What makes you think I want to?"

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Come on, Bonnie. You and I both know that she likes you better than me."

Bonnie sighed and shook her head. She patted Aliza's shoulder, smiling at her, and said, "Tell me more about what you read, later?"

Aliza nodded and watched as Bonnie exited the room.

"We haven't met properly. I'm Caroline." She stretched her hand out and Aliza shook it eagerly.

"Aliza but you can call me Ali."

"You're the lion warrior," Caroline said as if it was the most common fact in the world.

"I guess so." Aliza shrugged. She still was not comfortable with who she was, her importance was hard for her to accept. With everything she had read about herself, she realized that she was a pretty big deal, but Aliza still found it rather surreal.

"Finding it hard to accept yourself?" Caroline's soft voice reminded Aliza of her mother.

Aliza sighed, "I just want to go home. I miss my parents." Her voice broke a little, she scratched the back of her neck. She wasn't expecting to get sentimental. Aliza was getting desperate, she wanted to wrap this up sooner than later and go back to her home.

Hell, she didn't ask for any of this crap.

Caroline placed a hand against her jaw and for a vampire, her hand was warm instead of stone-cold like Aliza thought it would be, her smile soft like she understood what Aliza was feeling. Her eyes were tender as she gazed at Aliza. Usually, she would feel awkward if someone were to do something like that when they first meet. But somehow the compassion in Caroline's eyes made the knot in Aliza's stomach lose.

"You will be fine. Once this all will be over you will go home. Why don't you rest? I'll see you in the evening. Okay?"

Aliza smiled and nodded. She could use a few hours of a nap before dinner. And since it was the middle of the night in India, Aliza decided to call her parents the next day.

She closed the door after Caroline walked away. She turned around, leaning against the wood.

Aliza sighed.

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"I like her," Caroline said when she walked into the room where Bonnie, Enzo, and Stefan were hanging out together. She sat on the chair beside Enzo.

"Yeah. Me too." Bonnie said in an amused tone, "She told me, my family history in seconds. Stefan, you didn't tell me our families were related from the 1st century B.C." She turned her head to look at him.

"I thought you already knew that." Stefan frowned.

"When I first met her, Klaus introduced me as his friend. Aliza was laughing." Enzo said, grinning at the fond memory.

"Why?"

"She found it hard to believe that Klaus has 'friends'."

Caroline stared at him for a few seconds and said, "I like her even more."

"I still find it hard to believe that we are Klaus' friends," Stefan said. It was odd, it really was. Somedays when he would get a phone call from Klaus asking about the school, or questioning if they need anything, Stefan would stare at his screen with the only thought that could describe their relationship.

What the ever-loving hell?

"I know right?" Bonnie wondered out loud, "I mean we did try to kill them, quite aggressively if I may add."

"That was years ago, wasn't it?" Enzo asked, "The time when your worlds revolved around the golden-hearted Gilbert?" He added dryly.

"Which reminds me, Stef, where are Elena and Damon?" Bonnie asked with disinterest.

Stefan shrugged, "Don't know. They still won't answer my calls."

"Geez, how long are they going to act like selfish assholes? I mean come on." Caroline twisted her face.

Bonnie shook her head, "Caroline, don't bother. They are always welcome to visit anytime. If they don't want to, that's their problem, not ours."

"Wow, it's still surprising to see be so bitter towards Elena."

Bonnie smiled, "It feels nice to not put my life in danger every now and then because of someone else's stupidity."

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Caroline is my favorite TVD character, for multiple reasons.

She was the only one on the show other than Tyler that had reasonable character development. I could relate to her on so many personal levels. She was this self-conscious, self-centered, insecure girl and after all she went through she became this grown-up, smart, and confident woman who decided to help others.

There were tons of things that pissed me off regarding the way she was treated by her friends. By Damon and Elena especially. Damon abused her in all ways possible. I still cannot believe her so-called 'friends' didn't do shit to protect her or save her. 

I strongly dislike Elena Gilbert, as a character and even as a person. I am not saying she was bad in general, but she was indeed horrible in many different ways.

Anyway, this chapter is a lot shorter but don't worry.

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