Caroline Forbes was the kind of person that got along with everyone pretty easily. Sure, she was a little judgmental, and sometimes she could be overbearing, but as a general rule, she was very well liked. People enjoyed being around her and she liked being liked. It was part of the reason that she had agreed to be a tour guide for new students at Mystic Falls High School. She was almost guaranteed to gain their affection from the very start.
It had only been two weeks since the Winchesters had “moved” to Mystic Falls, but Caroline had yet to stop meeting Sam in front of his locker every day. He knew his way around now, of course, but that didn’t matter to either of them. Unlike most of the people that Caroline led around town, she actually liked Sam. He was funny and witty and kind of geeky, but still completely confident. He had an air about him that she appreciated.
It was a Thursday in March, and she was in the midst of planning the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Mystic Falls High had only implemented this new dance for the year to replace Valentine’s Day ball that had been canceled due to the “animal attack” that claimed the life of their principal. The same attack had been the reason John had uprooted the Winchesters to the small Virginia town, and Sam couldn’t help but smile when he thought of the irony of it all when he saw the posters plastered around campus.
The blonde was pinning up yet another flyer for the dance when Sam rounded the corner and saw her. He smiled the same stupid smile that he always had on when he was around her before walking up and leaning against the wall that she was staring at.
“Hey you,” he said, biting his lip after speaking. Sam had to admit that he had a little bit of a crush on the girl. She was so easy to like that it just seemed natural to fall for her. He knew that about a million guys in school also felt the same way, and there was no way she’d ever like someone like him but still…it was fun to play pretend sometimes.
“Hey back,” she said, leaning in to hug him when she finished with her work. Her arms wrapped around him tightly and Sam breathed in deeply as they embraced. That smell…the scent of coconut and vanilla had never been so intoxicating.
“How are you holding up?” she asked when they’d parted. She threw her bag over her shoulder and started to walk slowly to chemistry, the only class that Caroline had with Sam. “Has anyone bothered to learn your name yet, or are they still all calling you new guy?”
Sam laughed, shaking his head as he looked down at her. “Well, your friends have all been great. I mean, Bonnie saved my ass in calculus the other day and Elena partners with me in PE even though we’re both incredibly uncoordinated. But other than that, it’s still just a bunch of strange looks and murmuring when I walk in the room.”
Caroline rolled her eyes at Sam’s tale as they walked into class and took their seats next to each other. When Sam had moved to town, she had asked her teacher if it would be possible to switch lab partners so that she could make Sam more comfortable. It had worked like a charm, and it made the normally boring morning class much more tolerable. “People in this town are dumb,” she whispered as Mr. Morgan began to write on the board. “They’ll get over themselves soon, I promise.”
“If you say so,” Sam whispered back, pulling a notebook out of his bookbag and a pencil from his pocket.
“Of course I say so, and I’m always right. You should listen to me more often,” she whispered, only to get hushed by an annoyed Mr. Morgan.
Caroline held her hands up, feigning innocence, and her teacher only pursed his lips and turned his attention back to the board. Sam grinned at her, slipping a piece of paper to her. She raised an eyebrow as she looked down to read the note. “Yes, following your lead seems to be a brilliant plan,” it read. She glared at him, pushing him lightly and pulled out her own notebook. It was time to focus.
When the hour was over and the bell rang to release students into their second class of the day, Caroline turned to Sam. “Do you feel like maybe following my bad influence some more?” she asked, a coy smile on her lips.
“That depends,” the boy said, hitching his bag higher up his shoulder. “What are we talking about, here?”
Caroline bit her lip and walked down the hall to her locker, opening it quickly and slipping her books inside and pulling her purse out. “Well, I honestly only came to school today because I needed to advertise for the dance tomorrow. I was planning on joining a bunch of others down at the swimming hole, but we can do something else, if you want. I just don’t really want to be still for eight hours today. I mean, it’s gorgeous out!”
Sam laughed as she rambled, and then raised one eyebrow. “So you’re asking me to skip with you?”
“It’s more of a command masquerading as a request,” she explained and Sam laughed again.
“Well, sure,” he said, leaning against the cool metal of the locker. “Why not?”
The smile that she shot him could have passed for sunshine. Caroline grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled him quickly down the hall and out of the building, slamming through the doors and sprinting through the stoner pit. Over her shoulder, she called, “Jeremy, Vicki! Swimming hole!”
They didn’t stop running until they were at her car and only then did Caroline look up to see if Sam was freaking out. But he was the picture of calm. Completely collected and smiling at her as if she was the only girl in the world. “You break a lot of hearts, don’t you, Sam Winchester?” she asked jokingly, unlocking her car and sliding into the driver’s seat.
Sam slipped into the passenger’s side, a knowing grin on his face. “Less than you’d think,” he told her honestly.
Instead of responding, Caroline just put on her sunglasses and hit the gas pedal, tires squealing as she sped out of the parking lot. They were flying by everyone else on the road, and it was only then that Sam started to get nervous. “Um, Care? Don’t you think you should maybe slow down?”
Caroline scoffed and patted his leg, her hand lingering on his thigh for a little too long before returning to the wheel. “You have so much to learn, Sammy. My mom is the sheriff in town. No one pulls me over.”
For some reason, news that she was related to a law enforcement officer made Sam relax and he settled in for the short ride to the swimming hole. The silence between them was comfortable, though it gave Sam more time to think about how much he’d like to reach over and just grab her hand. He had to fight the thoughts off and the fact that he could see her peeking at him from the corner of his eye didn’t help. Every time that he was sure that she wasn’t interested, he started to question her all over again. It was a vicious cycle and it was only about to get worse.
When they arrived at the swimming hole, Caroline parked pretty far away from everyone else. There were more cars than she’d expected and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to be around that many people. After all, she was a newly turned vampire. Just being around Sam was hard enough for her sometimes. If she was around that many people at once in such a close proximity…she wasn’t sure she could keep a hold on herself. So she turned to Sam and smiled. “On second thought, do you want to get out of here? We could do something just the two of us?”
Sam nodded, a grin plastered on his face. “I’d like that.”
And then, on a whim, another question escaped Caroline. “Well, would you maybe want to go to Sadie Hawkins with me too?”
“Sammy! C’mon, your girl is here!” Dean called from the main area in their motel room. Sam could barely breathe as he looked himself in the mirror one last time. His suit was clean and pressed. It had taken everything in him to get up the courage to ask his dad for money to get something like this, but John had relented quicker than Sam had expected.
“Coming!” he yelled back, opening the door to see Caroline in a dark blue dress. The skirt ended just above her knee and the top was fitted and she looked…
“Beautiful,” Sam whispered, before pulling himself together and walking to greet Caroline. “Hey, Care,” he said, grinning the goofy grin that only she could pull out of him.
“Hey, Sam. Are you ready to get our Sadie Hawkins on?” she asked, a joking tone to her voice, though Sam knew that school events were anything but a joke to her.
“I’m ready if you are,” he said with a smile. Caroline nodded, slipping her hand into his and pulling him towards the door. “It was nice to meet you, Dean.”
Dean nodded, his eyes cold, and he held up his phone as Sam took one last look. “Check it,” he mouthed.
Sam sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He had one unread text, and the young boy was almost afraid to see what his brother had to say. “Something seems off about your girl. Also, I put a condom in your wallet while you were getting ready just in case.”
Sam rolled his eyes, ignoring the message. All he wanted to do was focus on Caroline. As they got to the car, Sam opened her door for her, even though she was the one doing the driving. They drove in silent anticipation to school, and remained silent and still for a moment after they parked.
“This is my first school dance,” Sam told her, breaking the silence.
“Then let’s make it a good one,” she said, turning to smile at him. And when he turned to look at her too, their lips met. They both pulled apart quickly, cheeks red and sore from all the smiling.
“I think I like that plan,” Sam murmured, kissing her once more, quickly before getting out of the car and offering her his arm.
They walked inside and Sam was amazed by how she had been able to transform the gym in only a day. “Are you a magician?” he asked her jokingly.
“Not quite,” she said with a sly smile, before pulling him onto the dance floor.
They danced together for hours. There wasn’t much talking, but they didn’t need conversation. As long as she was in his arms, they could communicate wordlessly. When a slow song came on, and she laid her head against his chest, Sam was convinced that this was what true joy felt like. It was the perfect night and he never wanted it to end. So when the teachers began to shoo them out, and they began their walk to the car, Sam was prepared to ask her if they could stay out a while longer. He hadn’t expected for his hand to be ripped from hers as he was thrown backwards by his own brother.
“I knew there was something wrong with you,” Sam growled, pushing Caroline into the brick wall, smashing her pretty face against the rough stone. “Fucking vampire. I saw your eyes flash when that girl took a spill on the dance floor. Just the smell of blood had you excited.”
“I’m not like that,” Caroline proclaimed. “Sam! Tell him I’m not like that!”
“I…” he started. He couldn’t speak. It was a choice between his brother and the girl that made him feel normal.
Even when Sam had made a decision to fight for Caroline and push Dean off of her, it didn’t matter. Because before he had a chance to speak, Dean had shoved a stake in her heart. She never had a chance.
