ELEANOR WAS ENJOYING A PEACEFUL DAY AT SCHOOL WHEN CAROLINE RAN UP TO HER. She looked panicked and scared, like someone was dying, and she needed the Chetwood girl to perform CPR. She stopped in front of the girl right before she was about to enter the cafeteria, and she told her, "I need you to do something for me."

"Yes?" Eleanor questioned, raising her eyebrows, slightly scared.

Caroline looked at her with pleading eyes, and the Chetwood girl wondered if she knew that she would never be able to say no to her when she looked at her like that. The Forbes girl asked, "Is there any way you can come on a triple date with me, Matt, Stefan, and Elena tonight?"

"That's a double date and a fifth wheel," the brunette pointed out. She really did not want to spend her evening hanging out with two couples fighting over who was cuter, but she guessed she would if she had to.

"I was going to find someone for you, but you always say no when I offer to set you up. You can bring whoever," Caroline informed her, and when she hesitated for a moment, the blonde just shot her a pleading look. "Please. I need backup in case things go south. I would owe you forever and ever and ever."

"Fine," Eleanor sighed finally, and the Forbes girl squealed before bouncing off down the hallway excitedly. The girl left behind laughed at her and then took her lunch outside so that she could scout for people she might want to bring that evening. It did not necessarily have to be a girl, just someone she could talk to in case things got awkward.

All of a sudden, she felt a presence beside her, and her head whipped around when she heard, "Whatcha doing?"

"Why are you sitting with me?" she quizzed, watching with raised eyebrows while Tyler Lockwood moved to sit next to her on top of the table with his lunch. She had interacted with him a weird amount of times, and she had enjoyed none of them.

He responded annoyingly, "I asked a question first."

"I'm looking for a date for this thing tonight," she answered reluctantly, turning back and continuing to glance around the campus at people walking by. None of them seemed interesting enough for her to bother letting them think that she liked them. "Now, answer my question."

"You looked like you had no friends," he informed her, trying to make it seem like he had noble intentions. The rich, popular kid sitting with the lonely new girl. What a sight to see!

She just shot him a short glare, not having the energy to deal with him. "Well, I'd rather have none than you."

"You know, I'm free tonight," he said to her in a suggestive tone. She knew what he wanted, and there was no way that she was going to let him get it. She would honestly rather watch Caroline fawn over Matt than hang out with him, especially considering the fact that she was pretty sure the majority of the people going were not very fond of him. She just scoffed and shook her head, praying he was joking, but he continued, "It doesn't have to be a date since I know you don't swing that way, but we can just hang out."

"Doesn't everyone hate you?" she questioned. She had definitely not heard fond things of him, and she had not seen him do anything nice. He ditched his date at the Founder's Party, the same girl that he had tried to force himself onto in the woods, and he had beat up Elena's brother.

He shrugged. "Not everyone. Just a lot of people."

"Ugh, whatever," she groaned, hoping that it would just make him go away. He was friends with Matt, so made they would hang out together. Then, Eleanor could talk to Caroline, and all would be well. "Wear something nice, and try to talk to me as little as possible."

"At least they're having fun," Caroline commented as the six teenagers stared across the Grill over at Kelly, Jenna, and Damon, who were sitting at the bar and drinking like it was their last day on earth. To be honest, Eleanor was fairly sure that Damon was at least a little drunk all of the time.

They were all standing around the pool table, split into groups. Tyler, Eleanor, and Caroline were on one team while Stefan, Elena, and Matt were on the other. Caroline was clearly displeased by the fact that her boyfriend was on his ex-girlfriend's team, but she tried to smile through it. Matt chuckled all of a sudden. "Remember when Elena's parents busted us here after the homecoming?"

"Oh my god yes!" Caroline exclaimed excitedly, and Tyler laughed. Eleanor looked up at Stefan, who seemed to be the only other person who did not know what they were talking about.

"Well, we were wasted; it was the first time I ever got drunk," Elena explained to Stefan, glancing over at Eleanor ever once in a while. She then shot a pointed look at the Donovan boy. "I blame Matt."

Tyler jumped in and added, "Her parents got seated at the next booth." He spoke to the Chetwood girl, making sure that she was not left out of the conversation. She would appreciate the gesture if he was not such a dick.

"And Matt had me pretend that I was choking so we could get away," the Gilbert girl continued with a giggle. Eleanor smiled along with them, listening to the story intently like a good date should do.

Matt then informed them, "Except that her dad was a doctor so he jumped up to save her."

"And I ran, slipped on the wet floor and bit it in front of everyone. Do you remember that? 3 stitches, a hangover for days," Elena said, and she looked over at Matt, sharing a weirdly dreamy look with him that was hard to ignore. "And I was grounded from seeing this one for a week."

"I'm gonna go to the restroom. Elena?" Caroline called, standing up and gesturing for the girl to follow her. Eleanor made eye contact with her and shook her head frantically, knowing that nothing good would come out of the Forbes girl confronting her in the bathroom.

However, they seemed to be on all right terms when they came back, and their next stop was the Salvatore Boarding House. Eleanor pretended like she had never been inside before while the others marveled at the large building that Stefan and Damon were living in. Caroline sighed, "This is much better than watching Damon visit cougar town. No offense."

"Don't remind me," Matt groaned, stepping into the living room and spinning around in circles, clearly in disbelief. "Man, I've always wanted to see what it looks like in this place. My entire house could fit in here. like twice."

"And I thought my house was big," Tyler muttered.

Caroline tossed her jacket onto the couch and put her hands on her hips while she looked around. She seemed confused. "Feel like I've been here before. It's weird."

"Do you guys want to watch a movie or something?" Eleanor asked, clapping her hands together. She hated lying to Caroline, but she would be so heartbroken and traumatized if she knew everything that had happened with Damon.

All of a sudden, Matt spotted some toy cars on display, and he immediately moved toward them, peering through the glass at them in shock and wonder. Eleanor had never seen a teenage boy more excited about something other than sex. "Whoa! These are great! I did the entire Mustang series when I was nine."

"You like cars?" Stefan questioned, raising his eyebrows and joining his side.

Matt scoffed like that was the most obvious thing that anyone could have guessed about him, like it was all that he talked about all of the time. Honestly, Eleanor could see it, especially since she had not really hung out with him that much. "It's an understatement."

"Come with me," Stefan told him, and they all followed the Salvatore man out into the garage where something was covered with a tarp. It was quite obvious that it was a car, or maybe Eleanor just knew because she had seen the car plenty of times before. "Prepare yourself, my friend."

He removed the tarp, and Matt went into complete and utter shock, like a fan girl who had just met her celebrity crush. Even Tyler seemed impressed, and he questioned, "Wait, how do you have this?"

"Got passed down through the family," he answered with a shrug, opening the door and looking inside while Matt continued to gawk at it. "It doesn't run. I mean, it's not something that I could figure out."

"Why would you keep a car that doesn't run?" Caroline asked, confused. Even Eleanor was shocked that she said that because she had always been jealous of Stefan's car. It was really cool, and she had lost her 1972 Chevrolet in a fire.

Matt chuckled, looking up at his girlfriend. "Be more of a girl right now?" She just laughed sarcastically before rolling her eyes.

"Hey, want to come take a look at this for me?" Stefan asked the Donovan boy, and Tyler looked kind of awkward because he did not seem to know that much about cars. Matt practically jumped at the chance to help him fix it, and he ran over to join the Salvatore boy's side.

While he poked his head around the engine, he glanced up at the Gilbert girl. "Elena, remember the old Camaro you're dad used to have?" When she nodded, he informed Stefan, "I built and rebuilt that engine twenty times."

"I don't like sports cars. They're too hard to make out in," Caroline informed them with a smirk, and Tyler shot her finger guns that made Eleanor slap him upside the head and cringe in embarrassment. She was really regretting her decision to bring him.

"It wasn't that bad," Matt chuckled, glancing up at Elena, and everyone in the room froze in shock, even him. He did not seem to realize that he said that until Caroline nodded slowly before spinning around and walking away. He called, "Caroline—"

Elena was already after her, however, and Eleanor was on her tail. However, the Chetwood girl stopped and ducked behind a tree before the blonde girl could see her and know that she was there. Caroline needed to learn how to stand up for herself, but she was there in case things went south. Elena approached her and breathed out, "Caroline..."

"I don't want to talk about it," the Forbes girl said, cutting her off.

Elena just scoffed, and Eleanor was pretty close to coming in and shouting at her until she cried. But she kept her position as the Gilbert girl groaned, "You're being ridiculous."

"And insecure and stupid," Caroline finished for her because that was always what people said to her. "But that doesn't change the fact that Matt's always gonna be in love with you, and I'm always gonna be the back up."

"You're not the back up," Elena insisted, but if she had seen the way that literally everyone treated Caroline, she would know that that was not true. Everyone in Caroline's life seemed to have someone they liked more.

Caroline crossed her arms. "Yes, I am. I'm Matt's Elena back up, I'm your Bonnie back up."

"Now it's about me and Bonnie?" Elena questioned with raised eyebrows, and Eleanor was wondering why the hell she was acting like she was the one that was offended. She should be comforting her friend.

"You don't get it. Why would you? You're everyone's first choice," the blonde girl told her. What she said next surprised everyone, even herself. "Eleanor is the first person in my entire life to make me feel like she doesn't want to be anywhere else when she's with me, and she's only known me for a couple months! She doesn't make me feel like I'm ridiculous or insecure or stupid. She makes me feel like I'm amazing the way I am, and I thought that that would be something I could expect from someone I've known since I was born."

Eleanor stood frozen behind the tree after that, and she smiled slightly to herself, glad that she could make Caroline feel that way. However, she felt her stomach drop because she had lied to her so much, and if she ever found out...

She did not deserve Caroline. No one did.