A/N: Just a (hopefully) brief comment from me before we begin this:

"Tensions & Hostilities" will be centered on the Caroline and Klaus pairing.

I wanted this to be more than simply "10 Things I Hate About You" with "The Vampire Diaries" character names; I wanted this to be more than Kat and Patrick with different names (in this case, Caroline and Klaus). I tried to morph the dialogue and actions to stay true to the TVD characters (minus the vampire or hybrid elements). But those who have seen "10 Things I Hate About You" will recognize some scenes and conversations.

And, of course, there will be some familiar TVD dialogue as well.

This is all-human, just in case that wasn't obvious.

This story will be much shorter than my previous story, "Jagged Pieces." Ten chapters seems amusingly appropriate for the length.

Disclaimer: Ownership here = nothing of mine.

Welcome to Mystic Falls High School, in Mystic Falls, Virginia, home of the mighty Timberwolves. It's your typical small-town high school — not as cliquey as the teenage drama-filled (or horror-filled) movies which centre around 20-somethings playing high school students, but this school is not without its cliques either.

Elena Gilbert, one of the more popular seniors at Mystic High, pulled into a parking spot in the school's student parking lot on this particular Monday morning. The beautiful brunette, with pin-straight hair, chocolate-coloured eyes, and olive skin, grabbed her book bag from the passenger seat and got out of her car.

"Hey, Elena!"

She raised her head and saw one of her best friends walking towards her.

"Morning, Bonnie." Elena greeted her with a smile and a hug, noting that Bonnie's brown hair had a bit of a curl to it today, as opposed to its regular straightness, and her caramel skin was glowing.

"Where's Caroline?" Bonnie asked as she turned her head from side to side, looking around the parking lot for their other best friend. "Running late, again?"

"No, actually, she should be here already. Dance committee is in full swing, with prom being only a month or so away."

"Right," Bonnie said with a nod. "Speaking of the prom, are you going?"

Elena gave Bonnie a look. "You know I can't. Not unless Caroline is going."

"She's planning it," Bonnie pointed out as the two of them walked across the school yard, heading towards the entrance.

"Exactly. Care plans dances, but never attends. I doubt I will be either. Plus, I don't have a date."

"There's still time to get a date, Elena."

"Says the girl who has a boyfriend and a steady date."

Bonnie smiled hugely as Elena nudged her side. "Yes, I do." Bonnie was glad she and Elena could talk openly about the fact that Bonnie was dating Elena's younger brother, Jeremy, a junior. It had been awkward at first, but now that they had been dating for a few months, everyone was cool about it. "You could always ask Matt. I'm sure he'd say 'yes.' "

"That would be incredibly awkward. 'Hey, Matt. I know I broke up with you, but since we're still friends, will you go to prom with me?' " Elena laughed. "No way, Bon."

"Yea, that would be awkward."

"Not to mention mean," Elena pointed out.

"Plus," Bonnie continued, "You can't ask him until Caroline gets a date."

"Right. But it doesn't matter; Caroline won't get a date because she doesn't want one, and there's no one at this school I want to date, anyway."

Bonnie gave a slight shrug. "Maybe someone new will transfer here."

The two were walking the halls of Mystic High now, heading towards their lockers.

"Doubtful," Elena scoffed. "This is Mystic Falls; nothing exciting ever happens here and no one new ever moves to town."

Elena looked over at her best friend and saw a sly look on Bonnie's face.

"Bonnie Bennett, what is that look for?"

"What look?"

"That look." Elena wiggled her index finger at her friend. "That one all over your face right now."

Bonnie shrugged nonchalantly. "I arrived at school before you did, and as I walked from my locker out to meet you in the parking lot, I passed by the main office where I may have overheard the words 'new students.' "

" 'Students'? As in more than one?"

Bonnie nodded. "Brothers."

"Really?"

"And for your sake, I hope at least one of them is hot. There is a serious lack of male real estate at this school." Bonnie eyed the school's male population that was within her eyesight; nothing but awkwardly low, baggy pants or overly-gelled-to-the-point-of-being-super-greasy hair, which only proved her point.

"Don't I know it."

Bonnie reached her arm out in front of Elena, bringing them both to a halt. Elena turned to Bonnie, but Bonnie was looking past Elena. She had stopped them right outside the doors to the main office.

"There they are," Bonnie whispered. "The new guys. And lucky for you, they are hot."

"What?" Elena tore her eyes from the new guys to look at her friend, but Bonnie was still watching them. "How can you tell? All I see is back."

"Yea, hot backs."

Elena laughed as the first bell rang. "I guess we'll have to find out if their 'hot backs' match their fronts later. Come on, we can't be late." Elena grabbed Bonnie's arm and dragged her away from the office doors.

As the two reached a point where the school hallway intersected with another, Bonnie and Elena caught sight of Caroline.

"Bonnie, Elena. Good morning." She hugged them both. "Happy Monday, girls."

Caroline was sunshine personified. She was a bubbly, radiant blonde with blue eyes and creamy, pale skin. Today her hair was straight, but she often wore it in curls.

"Only in the world of Caroline Forbes are Mondays ever happy."

"Yes, and be glad that you're a part of that world," Caroline responded with a laugh as they continued walking towards their lockers. All three girls' lockers were located in the same corridor.

"How's the prom planning coming, Care?" Bonnie asked her.

Caroline sighed. "It feels slow and I'm starting to stress. But when I look at my trusty checklist here, I see that we're actually nearly finished." When a school event was looming, as the prom was, Caroline never went anywhere without her checklist. Call her controlling if you want — she won't deny it — but her methods always produced amazingly wonderful results.

"That's great, Care," Elena said, encouragingly. "I'm sure it will be amazing."

Caroline reached her locker and opened it as she responded. "It had better be, with all the stress it's causing me."

"Do you think you'll actually go to this one?" Bonnie asked. Elena gave Bonnie a look. "What?" she asked. "This is our senior prom."

Caroline turned up her nose. "It's a ridiculous social custom, Bon."

"That you're planning, Care," Bonnie pointed out as she grabbed her notebook from her locker.

"Yes, because I'm a control freak who enjoys event planning. And I'm good at it. But just because I plan the event doesn't mean I have to attend it myself." Caroline turned to Elena. "Did you put her up to this?"

"What? No."

"Because it's okay if you want to go, Elena. Seriously. I won't be upset."

Elena shook her head. "No, Care. A pinky swear is a pinky swear. I'm not breaking that."

They all laughed as they closed their lockers and parted ways, each girl heading to her first class of the day.

At lunch, Elena sat down at her usual table in the cafeteria. Moments later, Bonnie joined her.

"Just the two of us today," Bonnie said as she sat down. "Care texted; she has more prom stuff to do."

Elena frowned slightly. "Too bad. I feel like we won't get to see much of her now until prom is over."

"Or at prom, if you can convince her to go."

Elena gave Bonnie a 'get real' look. "I'm not holding my breath for that."

"So what exactly is this deal between you two, sealed with a pinky swear?"

Caroline and Elena often referenced or spoke directly about this agreement between them, but Bonnie had never known the details of it. They had made the agreement when Bonnie was not with them.

"We've sworn off dating until graduation," Elena said simply.

Bonnie burst into a fit of laughter.

"We're serious about this, Bonnie."

"I know, I know." Bonnie paused to regain some of her breath. "It's just a little hard for me to imagine Elena Gilbert and Caroline Forbes not dating." She started laughing again.

"Well, you know Caroline dated Tyler and that ended badly. And I dated Matt and that ended…" Elena trailed off.

"Awkwardly?" Bonnie provided.

"To say the least." Elena sighed. "When I finally ended things with Matt, I went over to Caroline's house because you were out of town with your dad. Care and I had ice cream and complained about our stupid exes. I made an off-hand remark about how we should just focus on ourselves and not date until graduation and Care thought it was a great idea. We could be proud and independent, you know. And we could focus more on school and leave Mystic High with good grades. So we pinky swore, right then and there: no more dating until graduation."

"That sounds harsh," Bonnie said before taking a bite of her lunch. "Is there no loophole?"

Elena gave a hesitant nod. "One: we can date only if the other person is dating."

Bonnie furrowed her brow. "So you can only double date?"

"No. The two dates don't have to be together, just at similar times. Or on nearby days."

Bonnie nodded in understanding. Then she remembered something Elena had said earlier in their conversation. "When you and Care were complaining about your exes, did she give you details about what happened between her and Tyler?"

Elena shook her head sadly. "The most common words she used to describe him were 'stupid,' 'liar,' and 'asshole.' "

"Nothing we didn't already know."

Elena nodded and ate her lunch.

"And what happens if one of the Mr Hot Backs has an equally hot front and you two get all flirty?"

Elena laughed. "Then nothing happens, because if I break the deal, then my friendship with Caroline is over."

"Wow, harsh."

"Yea." Elena made a face. "I'm not sure which one of us came up with that aspect of the deal."

Bonnie was right: the new students were brothers. Damon and Stefan Salvatore. Damon was a senior and Stefan was a junior.

A/N: I had planned to wait and post this prologue once I had a more-complete version of "Tensions & Hostilities" so the posting process could flow smoothly. But I've found my inspiration is waning right now. I'm posting this chapter to gauge the interest level.

(And selfishly hoping that you will leave me a review, which never fails to inspire my writing.)

So please comment, or favourite, or follow — or any combination of these three — to let me know if you're interested, at all, in a story like this.