CHARLOTTE LANCASTER WAS, FOR THE MOST PART, exactly like other girls, a fact she was proud of. As the only child of the Lancaster founding family, she couldn't afford to grow up too odd. She had to be well-rounded, well-behaved, and well-liked.

Her friends bestowed nicknames such as Lottie and Charlie to her. Pink was her favorite color, and she always cried while watching scary movies. She was a romantic at heart and wasn't embarrassed about the home videos of her dancing around the living room of the Lancaster estate, standing on the toes of an older, middle-school-aged Mason Lockwood while the Barbie in the Nutcracker movie played in the background — Mason, however, was embarrassed.

Lottie strived to be perfect for her parents, knowing that she carried the Lancaster name. At times, though, it was incredibly difficult. Especially with how unconventional some of her upbringing had been.

When Charlotte was nine years old, her mother let her put a single pink streak of dye in her otherwise blonde hair. It wasn't long before Caroline Forbes, who was two years younger, was begging for her mother to let her do the same, who strived to be like Lottie — Liz compromised and did the old Kool-Aid trick.

It was when Lottie was ten that things really changed, though she never let anyone know. Her father took her to Dr. Grayson Gilbert's clinic, needing to discuss something urgent. Given that his daughter was so well-behaved, Mr. Lancaster thought nothing of it when Lottie wandered off on her own.

Really, it was Grayson's fault for not locking the door that led to his secret lab meant for torturing vampires.

So, when Lottie was ten years old with a fading pink streak in her hair, she met Lorenzo St. John, who was a vampire captive that was being experimented on. He was strapped to a metal table, and his kidney sat in a box, twelve feet away. The girl was horrified by what she saw and could never look Grayson in the eye again.

She found ways to keep visiting Lorenzo — who, after three months of getting to know the girl that kept him sane while imprisoned, allowed her to call him Enzo and he called her Charlie. And Enzo told the child all about vampires and other supernatural things. Admittedly, he tried to compel her to give him blood during their first few meetings, but for whatever reason, it didn't work on her. So, he settled for companionship instead of dinner.

At eleven years old, Lottie decided to take up cheerleading, which pleased her mother greatly. Her parents even enrolled her in a gymnastics class to help her be the best she could be at the sport.

It wasn't until she was twelve that Lottie finally hatched a plan to free Enzo. Jeremy Gilbert helped without knowing, as he was the distraction. Lottie had to wait until it was winter and the sun went down early so that Enzo wouldn't burn. Then she stole the bolt cutters from the garden shed. After a lot of prying and encouraging words from an ecstatic Enzo, the chains around him broke and the man was free for the first time in years.

Lorenzo had to flee for his safety, but that's how Lottie made the best pen pal she'd ever had — she told her parents that she met "Len" while away at the summer camp in North Carolina she spent two weeks at every year.

Thirteen was a simple year. She was still in middle school, and the Lancasters joined the Lockwoods on a family trip to Disneyworld over Christmas break. Tyler thought it was terribly funny how scared Lottie was on the Tower of Terror ride. Lottie thought it was terribly funny how his uncle Mason made him wear princess ears for the rest of the day to make up for his jokes.

Enzo liked the Polaroids she sent him. Once he found a daylight ring, he'd have to take himself to the theme park.

But everything changed at fourteen when two men appeared out of thin air in front of Charlotte. The men looked odd — one wore a dated outfit with a dark waistcoat and the other looked like a Disney prince, complete with the long, fluffy hair. Both were handsome, but that didn't stop Lottie from screaming and throwing a pom-pom at the taller one.

The sparkling object flew right through his head like he was a ghost. That made the other one laugh, though he didn't laugh long, because Lottie then grabbed an old T-ball bat and swung it at his chest. Like with the other man, it passed through him completely.

Their names were Finn and Kol Mikaelson — Finn didn't speak much English at first and it took a long time for him to become fluent in the language.

It helped that Lottie already knew about vampires, but Enzo had definitely been corporeal — she'd held his hand in comfort enough times to know. But now, Finn and Kol were telling her about being the first vampires and witches and mystical daggers when she should've been worrying about the newest episode of America's Next Top Model.

She was the only person that could see and hear them. And while the two could leave Lottie's side — they often wandered away for weeks at a time to give the younger girl time to grow up and have a sense of privacy — they couldn't leave Mystic Falls, it seemed. They were trapped to a large radius around the human girl. Finn and Kol weren't undaggered and out of their coffins — they knew as much when the pom-pom flew through Finn's head.

It all made Lottie's head spin, who had no idea why they were sent to her or where their actual bodies were.

The brothers knew, though — even if they weren't sure who sent their forms to Charlotte.

Life was different with Finn and Kol, who quickly became staples in her life. There was a lot of updating the brothers on the modern world, especially for Finn, who was trapped for some odd nine hundred years. They repaid her for her knowledge with knowledge of their own.

Any time Lottie helped Finn with his English, he'd teach her something in his native tongue — then he'd have to chastise Kol, who likes to teach her the more inappropriate words. And Kol loved to boast about his adventures over the centuries. He loved how Lottie's eyes would shine, imagining such fantastic destinations. Finn ensured he left out any gory details.

When Charlotte reached the age of fifteen, things got complicated. There was no better word to describe having equal crushes on the immortal, vampire, brothers that were basically ghosts that you were only ninety percent sure actually existed physically somewhere in the world.

Complicated.

Lottie quickly found her first boyfriend with hopes of chasing such embarrassing feelings away. But any time Axel Solomon shot her a flirty smirk, she thought of Kol's handsome face. And when she kissed him and placed her hands on his shoulders, she found herself wishing they were broader like Finn's.

For whatever reason, Finn and Kol didn't like Axel much, but that was okay, as they broke up after only a few months.

Lottie didn't give up, though. It was when she was sixteen that she stirred up quite a scandal in Mystic Falls when she dated two people at the same time. But both Allison Sanchez and Dean Webber had feelings for the girl, and though they weren't Finn and Kol, Lottie cared for them both. So, despite the fact that everyone knew Allison and Dean hated each other, they agreed to both date Lottie and split their time fairly evenly.

When Lottie was seventeen, she won the Miss Mystic Falls competition, to no one's surprise. Enzo had flowers delivered since it wasn't safe enough to bring them himself.

Everyone thought she was a natural at dancing, but in truth, she'd practiced in her bedroom for hours with Finn — it worked in their favor that most of the dance required no contact. And she'd never forget how Kol's dark eyes took in the form-fitting red gown she wore to the event.

As silly as it may have seemed, she ended things with both Allison and Dean because she knew they'd never make her feel like the brothers did. Nothing would compare to how caring and gentle Finn was or how playful and charming Kol could be. They didn't even have to touch her to make her feel like the most adored person on the planet.

And god, did she want them to touch her. Lottie could only assume that they wanted the same with how often Finn complimented her tenderly and Kol let his eyes shamelessly wander when watching her at cheer events. But she was far too shy to bring up the subject of feelings for brothers she couldn't really be with.

Eighteen was the biggest year for Lottie. In some ways it was good, but in others, it was her most painful.

After so long, Lottie finally graduated high school. It was after her graduation that Finn and Kol sat the girl down to tell her the truth — that they'd known all along why they were sent to Lottie even if they didn't know by who.

Charlotte Lancaster was the shared soulmate of both Finn and Kol Mikaelson. Lottie listened with wide eyes as Finn gently explained how she was made for them, chosen for them by some higher power of nature. Kol added that some witch must have sent them to her to give them a real chance at knowing her while still daggered by their horrid brother.

Though Lottie always thought it was possible to love more than one person, it was still hard to wrap her head around the fact that she was meant for them. Meant for two brothers that she couldn't even touch because their other brother kept them trapped in coffins with mystical daggers in their chests.

The admission that she was both their mates eased any guilt she had about feelings for both of them — they made their plans to share her once undaggered very clear. Charlie found that she wasn't bothered by the notion. She was excited by it.

But Lottie couldn't be excited for long, and a week and a half later, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert died in a car crash. Four months later, the Salvatore brothers came to town. Thanks to Kol and Finn's knowledge, she knew to protect herself around them.

After graduating, Charlotte was offered the job of the cheerleading coach at the high school, which she happily took. And had she not slipped drops of vervain into each girl's water bottle after catching Damon lurking, he no doubt would've made a desperate-for-male-attention Caroline Forbes into his compelled little plaything. Damon quickly traced the vervain back to Lottie, realizing she knew about vampires.

There were a few empty threats before he left her alone and went back to tormenting his little brother. From then on, Finn and Kol knew they'd always hate Damon, as they'd hate anyone that would threaten their mate.

Year eighteen continued to get worse. It wasn't long before Vicki Donovon turned into a vampire and killed Lottie's parents after escaping the Salvatore Boarding House.

Deep down, she knew it wasn't Damon or Stefan's fault, but it was hard to move past it, as they were in charge of watching the newly turned girl. They didn't manage to kill her until she went after Elena Gilbert.

What followed was a lot of lonely nights in an empty house, crying as Finn and Kol could only comfort her with words instead of touch, and more vampire drama. More people died — Bonnie Bennett's grandmother, Logan Fell, Mayor Lockwood. Though Lottie would never be cruel enough to say it, the deaths were because of Elena and the two vampires that stuck by her side.

And then when nineteen came, Katherine Pierce came, somehow making the new year even worse than eighteen as she tormented everyone in town while wearing the exact same face as Elena Gilbert.

Upon her arrival, Finn — against Kol's wishes — told Lottie all about the curse over their brother. They'd never mentioned their siblings by name before. They informed her about how Elena would no doubt die on a sacrificial altar one day, and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it once their brother caught wind of the Petrova doppelgänger.

Lottie was the only one that knew the truth. She was the only one that knew it wasn't really the Sun and Moon curse, which had vampires and werewolves fighting to break it. She knew that the sacrifice didn't just require some of Elena Gilbert's human blood — it required all of it. And she was the only one that knew Klaus was coming, aside from Katherine who was remaining just as tight-lipped as Lottie was.

No, Lottie didn't relish the thought of Elena Gilbert dying. She hated it. But as selfish as it seemed, maybe, just maybe, if Klaus came to town, he'd bring the bodies of his brothers with him. Maybe Lottie would finally be able to feel Kol's fingers in her hair and Finn's lips on her skin.

So far, nineteen had Katherine, Caroline Forbes turning into a vampire, an ancient curse, and the death of Mason Lockwood at Damon's hand.

And Lottie had a sinking feeling that nineteen had a lot more in store for her. She just had to wait.