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Chapter Five:
Brave New World
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Hailie woke up earlier than normal she wanted to drop by and see Caroline before she headed to the school since she and Nat had decided to stay in Mystic Falls they both were going to be going to Mystic Falls High School.

Hailie got up and showered before she got dressed.

Once she was happy with her outfit she grabbed her keys and walked out into the kitchen grabbing some breakfast as she waited for Nat to get ready and join her since she was driving the two of them to school. A few minutes later Nat walked out dressed and ready for the day as well the Mikaleson witch wanted to meet Caroline so she was going with Hailie to see her.

The duo made their way to the hospital, once they were there Hailie killed the engine and looked at Nat "alright let me walk in first and talk to her, and then I'll tell her I want to introduce her to someone and that is when you walk in and boom I'll introduce you to her."

"All right, Hails sounds like a plan to me." with that the two got out of the car and made their way inside.

Hailie walked up to the door and knocked lightly before she walked into the room the door closing behind her she looked around and saw Caroline huddled in the corner out of the sunlight and she knew what happened.

She smiled softly at her "hey Care-Bear?"

The blonde looked at her "Hails?" but if you looked closely enough you could see just a slight look of fear in her eyes, not that it was her fault but she was killed by someone who had the same face as her best friend.

The girl nodded "yeah sweetie it's me, why are you trembling in the corner over there?"

She looks at Hails with tears in her eyes "the sunlight it burns me... it hurts." Caroline was so confused, Hails nodded it was just like she had thought Caroline was a vampire now, so she walked over and closed the blinds, eliminating the sunlight from the room and that cause the newly turned vampire to relax a little.

"I am so sorry this happened to you Care-Bear... can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

The blonde looked at her confused but nodded "last night Elena stopped by but she was different and she said her name was Katherine, she said 'game on', and then she shoved a pillow over my face and everything went black.

Hailie sighed and muttered "Nat..." Caroline looked at the witch surprised since she could hear it with her new vampire hearing.

After that, the door opened, and in walked another girl "what is it Hails... since that was not the signal we agreed on in the car?"

Hailie sighed this was not how she had planned for the introduction to go "well uhh Care this is Natalyia and Nat meet Caroline," she looked back at the Mikaelson witch "Nat, Katherine was here last night."

The hybrid gave Hailie a look "no..."

"Yeah..."

Caroline looked between the two of them "what are you talking about... do you know what's happening to me Hails?"

The Doppelgänger witch nodded sadly at the new vampire,

"Yeah, Care we do and I'm afraid it may be my fault that this is happening... though had we not done it, they would have let Damon so guess it would have happened either way."

The blonde just looks at her confused "what is it?"

Nat took over and explained what was happening to the blonde, "Caroline you're a newly turned vampire, the night of the accident after Hails and I got here, I fed you vampire blood to heal you to make sure you would be okay, Hailie asked me too, she wanted to be sure that her best friend was gonna be okay, and then when Katherine came last night she suffocated you with a pillow and you died with vampire blood in your system so you are now a vampire, but I can help you learn to control yourself and we will make sure that you get a daylight ring or necklace or whichever you would prefer."

The newly turned vampire looked at Nat "so you're a vampire too? What's a daylight ring?"

The Original nodded "yeah I am and I've been at this for a long time, so teaching you the ropes wouldn't be that hard... it lets you walk in the sun without it burning you." Nat held up her hand showing Caroline hers "I've also got a necklace but the ring is a family thing and all of my siblings have one so I usually just wear it."

Hailie looked at Caroline "so Care-Bear which one do you want a ring or a necklace?"

The blonde nodded at her, Caroline was grateful to have someone willing to teach her "okay, thank you, a necklace... so how did you two meet?"

Hailie smiled at her best friend "alright you'll have it by tomorrow and well after I left I drove for a while and then bought a map when I needed to stop for gas and I ended up in New Orleans, I was out exploring the city and little and ran into Nat, she mistook me for Katherine at first and then we just got to talking after that and we hit it off, Nat took me under her wing and here we are."

Caroline smiled at her best friend, she could see that something was different but it wasn't bad, "thank you and you seem different Hails and I don't mean that in a bad way, you seem more confident than before and it looks good on you."

Hailie smiled at her "Nat taught me how not to be a pushover." The blonde nodded knowing that was something that the doppelganger witch had problems with before.

"Like I said Hails, it looks good on you."

The three talked a little more before Hailie looked at the time and smiled at her best friend "we've got to go Carebear, or we'll be late for school."

The blonde nodded "okay I'll see you guys later oh and Hails since I can't be there right now will you make sure everything goes perfectly for the carnival tonight?"

The doppelganger witch nodded "of course Care, you can always count on me."

"Thank you, Hails, love you."

"You're welcome Care, love you too." with that Nat and Hail left the hospital and headed back to Hailie's car.

"Okay so I was right Caroline and I are going to be great friends."

Hailie smiled at her she was happy the two got along, her two best friends were gonna end up being best friends she just knew it, "yeah I'm glad that you two get along." Hailie drove the two to Mystic Falls High.

After they got there and got their schedules sorted (thanks to Nat's compulsion) the two were on their way.

<----------->

After school Hailie stuck around to help set up for the carnival just like she promised Caroline she would, she had a clipboard in her hands and was walking around making sure everything was in its place.

She found her brother and smiled at him "hey Jer." she ignored the Salvatore that was with him for the moment.

He smiled at her "Hails, I'm surprised you're here."

She gave him a teasing grin "Jer, Caroline left me in charge of making sure the carnival is perfect. This morning so of course, I'm here, lord knows Care-Bear would kill me if tonight's carnival wasn't up to her standards" she winked at him "but it will be since it's me overlooking it all, so if you could be a dear and set up the goldfish toss, it would be very helpful."

Jeremy hugged her "of course Hails I'll get right on that."

"Thanks, Jer, you rock baby bro."

A little while after her encounter with her brother Hailie walked upon Bonnie and Elena, "hey guys." the sudden appearance made the two jump, making Hails smirk.

"Hails, what are you doing here?"

The brunette gave her sister a raised brow "Lena it's a school carnival, Care is out of commission for this one so she asked me to make sure everything went off without a hitch, I stopped by the hospital to see her before school this morning and she left me in charge." She gave her twin and the Bennett witch a look "but since I found you the prizes in the ring toss need to be stocked could one of you handle that while I see if the other prizes are stocked?"

Bonnie smiled at the doppelganger witch "of course Hails, one of us will handle it."

"Thank you, I'll see you guys later." She called over her shoulder as she walked away from the two of them.

Nat walked up to her "wow Hails, that's impressive."

She laughed "well Nat, Care and I have been doing this basically the two of us running everything since freshman year so I do have some practice." the two laughed.

"What do you want me to do boss?"

"I only have one last booth to check, so you can come with me, and if it's not stocked help me stock it." Nat nodded at her and the two made their way towards the water pistol booth, the one where you have to shoot as many targets as you can in a certain time limit. Once the duo got where they were going Hailie nodded satisfied that the prizes had been stock already. "Alright then that was the last booth on the checklist, everything is ready for tonight now."

<----------->

The carnival was in full swing and Caroline would be pleased that everything was going off without a hitch, Nat and Hails were walking around just chatting when Nat heard a commotion and grabbed Hailie by the arm and vamp sped them where they were both standing protectively in front of Caroline when vamping them in front of the blonde Nat had managed to knock the raven-haired vampire off balance and distract him when Damon turned to stake Caroline, he comes face to face with Hailie and Nat glaring at him.

The doppelganger witch caught the drift pretty fast when she saw Caroline on the ground with blood on her face and Damon with a stake in hand "try it... I dare you, I will make your life a living hell if you touch a hair on my best friend's head." She tilted her head to the side the glare still on her face as if saying 'try me'

That is when Stefan, Elena, and Bonnie arrive at the same time. Elena looked at her sister "Hails?"

"Caroline?" Bonnie asked at the same time. The Bennett witch noticed the blood on her face and her eyes widened "No, you're not; you can't be." then she rushed forwards and touched her and is horrified by the truth.

The blonde looked at her "Bonnie?"

Bonnie sees Carter's body "Oh god."

"Bonnie..." Caroline looked at her but the witch ignored her.

Hailie sighed turning around "come on Care-Bear let's get you cleaned up." The new vampire nodded and Hailie led her inside with Nat and Stefan both following them, she brought her to the bathroom and grabbed some paper towels and wet them, helping Caroline wipe the blood off her face.

The blonde looked at her best friend with tears in her eyes "She hates me Hails! Bonnie hates me."

"Oh sweetie, no she doesn't, she's just in shock that's all, from what Lena's told me she's still new to all of this."

Caroline starts crying "and what about Matt? what am going to do about him?"

Hails pets her head comfortingly "we will worry about that later alright, let's just focus on one thing at a time, let's focus on getting this blood off okay?"

Caroline nods still teary-eyed as they clean off her face "I'm a monster, a murderer."

Nat laid a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, making Caroline look at her through the mirror. "you're going to be okay Caroline, you're emotions are just heightened right now, and that's normal it's part of the transition, trust me it's normal, it happens to every new vampire." Stefan stood there watching the two girls console Caroline, he was surprised that either of them knew anything about the supernatural. But he had to admit that they were doing a really good job.

Caroline sees her face changing in the mirror and starts to panic. "Why does this keep happening to my face?!"

Nat smiled at the girl gently "it's okay Caroline, that's normal too, look at me." Caroline looked at Nat who made her face change and it looked just like Caroline's which also surprised the green-eyed Salvatore. "now you just need to take a few deep breaths and focus on it going away." Nat demonstrated first and then nodded at Caroline "now you try."

Caroline listened to the instruction from Nat, she took some deep breaths and focused on her face going back to normal and it works.

Hailie runs her hand through her best friend's hair comfortingly "that's it, sweetie." Stefan left seeing as the two had it under control.

Caroline looked between the two, "Why did Katherine do this to me?"

Hailie and Nat shared a look, Nat at least had an inkling of an idea, but she wasn't completely sure so she gave Hails a slight shake of her head before answering the blonde vampire "It's hard to tell, with Katherine, Caroline, she could have done it for any number of reason but Hails and I won't let anything happen to you."

Hails pulled her into a hug "she's right Care-Bear, I promise you that we won't let anything happen to you." Caroline hugged her back and Nat joined the hug as well. At that moment Caroline knew that Hailie and her new friend would have her back. It was good to have her best friend back.

The duo made sure that Caroline got home okay, Hailie offered to stay with her but Caroline assured her that she would be okay and so Nat and Hails made their way back to their shared apartment after Caroline's insistence that she would be fine.

Hailie looked at Nat "this has to do with your brother and the curse doesn't? Katherine wants to bargain her freedom by handing over everything he would need to break it."

Nat sighed "I think so, but what I told Caroline was true it is hard to tell why Kat does things, she could have turned her for any number of reasons, we'll just have to keep an eye on Kat and see what's she's planning."

Hailie nodded "okay because I will protect Caroline, always, she's my best friend and I would do anything for her."

Nat smiled at the doppelganger witch "I know Hails which is why I will make sure that Kat knows Caroline is off limits now or else I'll call Nik myself, friend or not because Hails you are my best friend and I will ensure that your other best friend will be safe."

The two hugged "thank you, Nat, you're my other best friend that I would also do anything for."

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I know this went way off script but it's just where my mind went when I was working on this so yeah enjoy the chapter (: it's been a while since I've updated this.

Also, the trio that is Nat, Hails and Caroline>>>> everyone else.