𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙮 𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙚—"𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮"

———

"𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙀𝙓𝘾𝙄𝙏𝙀𝘿?"

𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙍𝘼 𝙒𝘼𝙎 staring at herself in the full body mirror that was leaning up against her white wall. She was wearing a light grey, purplish dress that reached just about her knees, with an open back that showed off her coming along tan. It had a spaghetti strap top, and the strapless bra she was wearing felt awkward without a support.

Over her dress, she was wearing her bright red graduation cap and gown. She let out a rather loud sigh as she stared at herself, and she always imagined her mother and father standing on each side of her — broad smiles, echoing laughs, and straining tears. 

"Clara, love, did you hear me?"

Clara snapped out of her distracted mind and turned her attention to Kol, who had now placed a soft hand on Clara's shoulder. He looked a bit concerned as to why the girl never answered his previous question, and she shook off the weird feeling she had.

"Uh, yeah," Clara nodded unconsciously, really lying because she hadn't heard what Kol previously asked her.

"What'd I say?" Kol questions, raising one brown eyebrow suspiciously at the blonde.

Clara's pink lips parted as she tried to come up with a quick comment that he probably would've asked the girl; but her mind came up blank. She closed her mouth and sent him a genuine apologetic face, with a light shrug.

"I asked if you were excited," Kol stated, turning to Clara so now they were staring right at each other instead of in the mirror. "What's on your mind?"

"It's just," Clara let out a rather big sigh, glancing from the hovering Kol to her wooden floor. "I didn't think I'd be alone on my graduation."

"Alone how?"

"My parents are dead," Clara choked out the best she could without letting her voice crack. "My brother has to be thousands miles away because your brother wants to kill him, and I missed registration for Whitmore."

Kol looked at the girl with a sorrowful love, and he wanted to do absolutely anything to make his girl happy. So, he pulled her into the tightest hug he could do, wrapping his arms around her frail shoulders, and leaned his chin to rest of the top of her blonde locks.

"Whatever you go through, whatever happens, I will always be by your side," Kol comments, sucking in a deep breath. "You won't even be alone, not while I'm alive."

Clara hugged Kol by pressing her face, careful of her subtle makeup to smear on his v-neck, softly on Kol's chest.

"Thank you, Kol."

"Of course, love," The original smiles, showing off his bright white teeth. "C'mon, you're gonna be late."

•••

"I'm here! I'm here!"

Clara, breathless may I add, ran up to the group of people she called her best friends. Everyone looked amazing in their red caps and gowns, and Clara smiled to herself at the sight of them all.

"Where have you been?" Caroline hissed softly, more as a genuine question than annoyance.

"I, er, got ready super late," Clara shrugged softly, which wasn't exactly true since Kol wanted to have some fun before the event. "Where's Elena?"

"We can't do this without her," Bonnie adds, searching the many teenagers in the same matching red cap and gowns.

"I'm here!"

Clara looked over her shoulder to spot the brunette and Stefan walking up, and she sent a friendly smile as the girl stood by her. Next to Clara was Stefan, who didn't look particularly happy, probably because he's graduated about twenty times. Then went Caroline, Matt, and Bonnie.

"I can't believe it. We're actually all here. We are all here together," Caroline smiles brightly, examining the human witch, and three vampires in front of us. Then her face turns in amusement as she spots Bonnie beside her sniffing. "Bonnie Bennett, are you crying?"

"I thought I was supposed to be the super emotional one!" Clara joked, looking at the witch with a certain gentleness.

"It's our last hurrah before you go to college," Bonnie smiled sadly, trying to hide the tears but it wasn't exactly working out since they slipped down her cheek.

"Before we go off to college," Caroline corrected, punching Bonnie softly on her arm.

"I kind of sort of missed the deadline, you know, being an emotionless bitch," Elena pinched up her face, and Clara mimicked the same way.

"Hey, me too," Clara stated, pointing her index finger at Elena as the two shared a short laugh.

"The perks of being a vampire, we can go wherever we wanna go," Caroline said with excitement bubbling in her tone. "We can choose our own roommates. We could get a quadruple room!"

Clara laughed and smiled with the rest of the group since Caroline had enough excitement for them all. But something tugged at the bottom of Clara's stomach, because deep down she knew that college wasn't what she wanted right now.

Now that she's a vampire, she has eternity to go to college. So, why not explore the world and travel and meet new people and try the most exotic food? But now wasn't the time to tell the girls she didn't plan on going to college, since they seemed so genuinely happy today.

"I'm happy we're all here," Bonnie pursed her lips as tears started brimming her eyes again.

"Aw, group hug!"

"Uh, I don't — I don't hug," Stefan cringed up his face as everyone wrapped their arms around each other.

Clara made sure that her arm was hung strongly around Stefan's, forcing him to join the group hug against his own free will.

"Get over yourself!"

The group of teenagers stayed like that for a few seconds, soaking up the fact that high school was done and over with. Even though the world seemed scary, that they had each other to get through it all.

And that was the most fantastic thing.

As all of the graduates were now seated, and Bonnie's dad was standing in front of the podium, Clara thought about every little thing that has happened in her life. She was now an orphan, but she still had a life. She had a caring brother, the most spectacular best friends, and an amazing boyfriend. So yes, life is going to be hard, but she figured as long as she had the people she loved by her side, she could get through anything.

"Bonnie Bennett..."

Clara smiled broadly and cheered as she saw her friend walk across the stage, shaking hands with her dad.

"Matt Donovan..."

Clara let out a "whoop!" as she saw the boy cross the stage, and when his eyes landed on her, he sent her his famous toothy grin.

"Caroline Forbes..."

Clara pounded her hands together as the perky blonde waltzed onto the stage, looking as put together as she usually was.

By now, Clara was standing in line to walk across the stage. A million emotions were flying throughout her body, but she was immediately calmed when she spotted the familiar brown haired original sitting in the crowd of people. He flashed her a smile, and Clara replied with an even bigger grin.

"Clara Lockwood."

Clara sucked in a deep breath, and rose her foot so she would be on the wooden, black stage. She smiled as she felt all the eyes on her, and the crowd cheered as she walked. She heard Matt call out, along with Caroline and Bonnie, but the most disguised of them all, was Kol. He was clapping so hard that China could probably hear, and he was whistling just as loudly.

"Your mother would be very proud of you," Bonnie's dad smiled down at the small girl, and he held out his hand to shake it.

Clara flashed a polite smile, and took it as she was handed her diploma. She walked past the podium, careful with her short, black heels she was completely unused to, and walked back down the stairs.

Just as soon as Clara exited the stage, she titled her head a bit with knitted eyebrows as she saw both Elena and Caroline signaling for the girl to follow them rather than go back to her seat. Her eyes wavered to Kol, still sitting in the stands, and his eyes hadn't left the girl.

She nodded her heard towards her two girl best friends, and Kol understood what she meant simply. He rose from his spot on the stands, and slowly pushed through people, many complaining about him getting in the way.

Once noticing Kol was making his way towards her, she followed Elena and Caroline as they guided her to the back of the very busy stands.

"What's up?" Clara asked, raising an eyebrow at either girl. When she turned the corner, she also spotted Stefan on the phone, Caroline on the phone, and Elena looking with an uneasy glance. "What's wrong?"

"Damon..." Elena trailed, swallowing gently as her eyes wavered. "He got werewolf venom in his system, we don't know how much longer he's got. He's refusing to take the cure."

"That's because he'd rather die than be human," Clara growled, mostly to herself because of her stubborn best friend. "I'm guessing that's who Stefan's on the phone with?"

"No, Alaric."

Clara's annoyed glance disappeared at the name of her infamous drinking but not actually drinking buddy. Her pink lips parted as her mind fluttered back to the day that he died, along with Elena, and she had to swallow all the emotions back to focus on the problem at hand.

"Force him to take it," Clara orders towards Stefan, and she could hear Alaric yelling over the phone asking whether or not he shoves the cure down his throat. In that harshness, were the words I can't lose him.

In that moment of complete and utter chaos, a searing pain was sent throughout every vampires skull. Each of the three girls and one boy let out a dreadful groan as their hands and fingers rose to their heads, clutching the pain doubling.

Clara squeezed her eyes shut, but she heard a faint "remember me, Caroline?" through her ears. Just as soon as that voice was heard, it was silenced as Clara heard flesh tearing right open. She flashed opened her eyes with curiosity and concern as the pain faded immediately, and a frown appeared on her face as she recognized the duo who stopped the awful witch.

Klaus and Kol Mikaelson, both standing with red caps in their hands with triumph written all over their smug faces. Everyone seemed excited to see Klaus, mostly meaning that Damon would soon receive the cure and he would be alright.

But whenever Clara saw the older Mikaelson boy, she could almost hear her heart breaking.

a/n: i am so utterly sorry for not posting in what, almost two weeks???? school started as you could tell, and it's my junior year. i need to focus on the sats, my two ap classes, my soccer team, and on top of that all, work. this is gonna be an extremely stressful year, and i absolutely love writing this book (thank you for 52K & almost 2K votes!!!!) but i really hope you all understand that there will be extremely slow updates. thank you guys, and don't forget to vote & comment!!!