‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 5 spoilers: First photo of Nina Dobrev, Candice Accola in premiere

For season 5 of “The Vampire Diaries,” some of the ladies formerly of Mystic Falls are off to Whitmore College, and this means a few simple things. There will be a more mature tone to the show, a chance for some of the characters to start over yet again, and the possibility for all new sorts of drama to start up.

While we’ve already heard about everything from a creepy new professor entering the fold to some problems between Damon and Elena after she realizes that a surprising person is staying at the Salvatore home with her boyfriend, you don’t get a sense of any of that in the first photo below from the new season. Instead, you get a rather happy pair of college students in Elena and Caroline.

First of all, this image of Elena (via “Entertainment Tonight“) seems to prove that at least one vampire can get a summer tan, and that she seems to have no problem at all in taking part in the age-old tradition known as college laundry.

Not only will these two be happy at first during the season, but they will also be blissfully unaware of the fate that has befallen a certain one of their friends in Bonnie Bennett. The show’s popular witch is only going to be around in ghost form when we pick back up, and eventually, we do expect that they will be clued in on the truth. The end result of that? Let’s just say that it is probably pretty devastating.

This episode of “The Vampire Diaries” will air starting on Thursday, October 3 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Photo: The CW