"Nothing is with me now but a sound,
A heart's rhythm, a sense of stars"
- W. H. Auden, Compline
In which Charlotte Salvatore wakes after a 145 year slumber and is thrust into a supernatural world before she can cope with the modern one.
(THE VAM...
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Charlotte Salvatore was wearing a modern dress for the first time and it felt bizarre.
There was a homecoming dance coming up, Charlotte hadn't planned on attending it, she was obviously older than school students but Matt had invited her to come with him and when she found out Damon would be going too despite being even older than her, she agreed. It wasn't a date between the two of them, it wasn't like that, Matt and Charlotte just got along. They were good friends who needed each other, human allies in a world of supernatural chaos.
Once she agreed however she realised there was a whole host of other problems she hadn't even considered. For one, Charlotte had been unconscious for a century and a half and not only was she ill equipped to dress for a high school dance, she didn't even really know what she should wear even if she had options. Although Damon had organised a closet full of clothes in her absence, she still felt uncomfortable in certain elements and continued to pilfer looser clothing from his closet.
Charlottes confession to Matt that she literally didn't have anything to wear was solved when he made a referral to the organised one of the group. Caroline, thankfully, had been more than happy to loan her a dress when Charlotte explained that her only other options were going shopping or digging through the box of clothing that women had left behind after a night with her brother.
The dress was shorter than she expected but not as short as the dress Rebekah had tried on in the store when she'd first woken. It was black and silky coming halfway down to her knee with a cinched in waist and short sleeves which fluttered lightly as she moved. She felt out of place in a dress so small but she liked the way it made her look, she liked the feeling of the fabric fluttering along her thighs as she moved and she liked how light the dress made her feel, she felt confident.
Caroline had attempted to lend her high heels too but they was less of a success than the dress. In Charlotte's day they wore slippers not heels for balls and when she'd tried on the ones Caroline lent her the fall she took nearly broke her nose. Damon and Matt had nearly cried with laughter as they watched before agreeing it would be best if she wore flats instead.
She hadn't expected to be bothered, but Charlotte was surprisingly nervous to actually attend the dance. Although she felt nice when she tried on Carolines dress and put on Elena's makeup, once the actual time came she felt out of place, from too old a world to fit into this new one. She was half considering tapping out when Tyler called to tell them the gym was flooded. Elena had asked to tag along with the pair and the two girls had both watched Matt with curiosity as he and Tyler spoke on the phone.
"Keg stands and beer pong for Charlie's first homecoming," Matt had told them with a laugh causing Elena to grimace and Charlotte to shrug, half relieved with what felt like a lighter homecoming.
Arriving at the Lockwood residence was bizarre, Charlotte couldn't believe that so many people attended a school in a town so small. The people around them seemed older than she would've expected at a high school dance too. That being said, she and Damon were older than high schoolers and here they were, so perhaps that was normal in a town like this.
