Chapter One – Beginnings & Introductions

A/N: The prologue was rather short; to make up for that, Chapter One is more than twice as long. :)

My goal, from here on out, is for weekly updates. (Goal, of course, being the key word here.)

"Okay, here are you class schedules, your locker information, and a school map. My door is always open, unless of course it is closed. I do have a life, too, you know," the guidance counselor told Stefan and Damon Salvatore as they sat in her office on the morning of their first day at Mystic Falls High School. The brothers looked at each other, not sure if they should laugh because the guidance counselor had made a joke or if she was actually serious. "Now scoot, I have delinquents to see."

She ended their conversation with an unenthusiastic 'Welcome to Mystic High.'

As the Salvatore brothers left the office, Stefan nearly bumped into Klaus Mikaelson, who was waiting outside the guidance counselor's office.

She sighed and motioned for him to enter her office. "Mr Mikaelson, I see we're making these meetings a weekly ritual now."

Klaus smirked. "Of course." He spoke with a British accent. "I can't go too long without seeing you; I'd miss you too much," he said as he entered her office.

As the guidance counselor's door closed, Damon turned to his brother.

"Relax, Stef." He put his hand on his brother's perpetually-tensed shoulder. "You know, if you stopped looking so scared and spineless all the time, people wouldn't have nearly as many reasons to pick on you."

Stefan shrugged off Damon's hand. "Whatever, Damon."

Before Damon could further ridicule his brother, they were interrupted by a sandy-haired student.

"You must be the new guys."

"Apparently…" responded Damon.

"I'm Matt Donovan. I'm supposed to give you the tour."

As Stefan shook Matt's outstretched hand, Damon put his own hands up in the air. "No thanks. I can find my own way around."

And with that, Damon walked off.

"It says here you exposed yourself to a group of freshman girls," the guidance counsel said after she and Klaus concluded the staring match that always took place at the beginning of their meetings. It was an odd start to a meeting between a guidance counsel and a student, but it was the norm between this particular guidance counselor and this particular student. The counselor never won these stare-offs.

He scoffed. "It was a bratwurst. I was having lunch. It was a joke."

"And you were, what, eating with the teeth of your zipper?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Next time, keep it in your pants."

"So what's your story?" Stefan asked Matt as they walked down a hallway. "Mine is fairly obvious: new guy who just moved from one small town to another. Yours has to be more interesting."

Matt shrugged. "It's not. I was born here in Mystic Falls. I work part-time at the Grill — that's a restaurant and bar in the downtown section. And I'm the quarterback for our school's team."

"Quarterback? They typically aren't the ones who give school tours to new people."

Matt gave Stefan a half shrug. "You know the stereotype of a dumb jock?" Stefan nodded. "Well, it rings very true in my case, for the most part. There are a couple of classes that I'm not nearly failing. And to help improve my grades in any way, at all, in the classes that I am nearly failing, I often volunteer for the lame duties." Matt paused when he realized that he had just said. "No offense."

Stefan shook his head. "None taken."

They stopped outside a set of double doors. "This is the cafeteria. The food is terrible, but as it seems to be with most high school cafeterias, the food is irrelevant; the important thing is where you sit."

They walked past the doors, not entering; hardly anyone would be in the cafeteria in the morning anyway.

"This school is easily divided into your basic cliques," Matt explained. "We have your beautiful and popular people, the jocks, the loners, the nerds, the losers, the outcasts, and the stoners. The groupings are rather logical: the beautiful people hang out with the jocks, the losers hang out with the stoners, the nerds mostly spend time with other nerds, and the loners keep to themselves. And the outcasts aren't even on the social radar."

Stefan nodded. "That makes sense. I'd ask where you fit in, but high school quarterback? The answer seems obvious."

"Not quite. There are a few people, myself included, who hover around and hang out with different groupings, but most people stick to their clique. It's lame, but that's how you survive your time at Mystic High."

Stefan spent the remainder of the day wondering how quickly he would be sorted into a clique. At his old school, he was a nerd. But this was a new start, and he wanted to be with the popular people.

And hanging out with the quarterback would be a good start, right?

He already knew which group Damon would fit in with.

Caroline had to work on more prom stuff over lunch. She was currently painting a banner — a task she would have preferred to do at the end of the day, what with the messiness of paint and the likelihood of winding up covered in it and ruining her outfit, but after school she had cheer squad practice. And as cheer captain, she couldn't exactly skip a practice.

Caroline had thrown herself into her cheerleading practice after breaking up with Tyler. When she first auditioned, she was the only freshman to make the cheer squad. Since then, she's been proving herself as an amazing cheerleader.

She spent all summer working on it. When school started this year, Caroline was ready. And she was the clear choice when she auditioned for head cheerleader.

She slacked off and nearly abandoned cheerleading altogether when she dated Tyler — just another example of how bad of an influence he was — but she spent the months since their breakup working on her skills and the basic routines.

Caroline had finished painting her banner halfway through the lunch period. She gave it a quick once-over with her critical eye and nodded at how great it looked.

She walked over to the other side of the room, to see how Chad was progressing with the other banner.

"Chad?!" Caroline practically screeched. "This is all wrong! It's not supposed to look like a snake!"

He groaned. "I warned you that I suck at drawing."

"Ugh, never mind then. Give me the brush."

He handed the paint brush over to Caroline and she shooed him away. He turned and left the room.

"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself," Caroline mumbled. And here she thought she might actually get to see Elena and Bonnie over lunch today.

Thanks for nothing, Chad.

He had completely messed up this banner. Caroline immediately saw that she would be better off starting over completely.

Elena waked down the hallway at school on Tuesday morning, carrying her books to class, when she felt her phone vibrate with a text. As she shifted her books to one arm so she could pull her phone out of her pocket, she collided with someone. Her books went flying.

"Oh, no," Elena said with a sigh as she sunk down to the floor to grab her stuff.

"My apologies," said a smooth voice that was unfamiliar to Elena.

She looked up and met the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She was momentarily stunned.

Once she managed to pull her eyes from his face, she noticed that the stranger was tall with dark hair and that the front of his shirt was stained and dripping. She then noticed the cup in his hand.

"Oh my gosh, your coffee. I'm so sorry."

The stranger shrugged. "It was lukewarm, anyway. No harm, no scald."

Elena laughed, despite herself. The stranger helped pick up her books. They stood and he handed them back to her.

"Thanks. I'm Elena."

"I'm Damon."

They shook hands and Elena felt butterflies in her stomach when their skin touched.

How clichéd, Elena. I thought that only happened in movies and cheesy romance novels.

Just then, the second bell rang, making them both officially late for class.

"Sorry, again, about your shirt."

"It's no big deal. I've been meaning to add a coffee-like colour to it anyway; you must have read my mind."

She laughed and suddenly became aware of how empty the hall was around them.

"I should get to class."

He nodded. "Nice to meet you, Elena."

As Elena walked away, she couldn't help but turn her head to get one more glimpse of him as they parted. She couldn't not do it.

But he caught her not-so-subtle glance because he, too, was watching her leave.

Caroline was sitting in her English class that afternoon. Everyone was bored, including the teacher. Caroline doodled in her notebook. Some of her classmates were staring off into space. And a few were trying really hard not to fall asleep.

The teacher spoke in a near monotone. "I guess that brings us to an end for our analysis of 'The Old Man and the Sea.' Does anyone have any final comments?"

Caroline raised her hand.

"Yes, Caroline."

"Why did we have to read this?"

The teacher seemed taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"The book was all about a guy and his fishing habit. That's not exactly an important topic."

Some of the other students rolled their eyes. Hearing Caroline Forbes speak out against something in class wasn't exactly new for them.

"Why are we supposed to worship Hemingway?" Caroline continued. "He was an abusive, alcoholic misogynist who had a lot of cats."

Tyler Lockwood, the cocky jock sitting two seats over from Caroline, spoke up. "As opposed to a bitter, self-absorbed prude who has no friends?"

A few of their classmates giggled. Caroline narrowed her eyes, ignoring him. This was the commonplace dialogue between these two ever since they broke up. Commonplace, but not lighthearted chatter.

"That's enough, Mr Lockwood." The English teacher tried to intervene.

But Tyler's words just fuelled Caroline's already blazing fire.

"I guess being male and an asshole makes one worthy of our time."

The muttering in the classroom stopped.

"Why can't we read something decent from a female writer?" Caroline continued. "How about one of the Bronte sisters? Or Simone de Beauvoir? Or even Jane Austen?"

Klaus, who was lounging in the back row, raised his head from the paper in front of him long enough to suggest "Mother Goose?" before returning his attention to the drawing he was working on.

And the drawing was good. It was really good. It wasn't the typical I'm-bored-in-class-so-I'll-doodle-shapes-and-scrib bles-in-the-margins kind of drawings. This was an actual, proper drawing. Klaus Mikaelson had artistic talent. His art had a Renaissance feel to it.

The class tittered nervously at his comment; they were unsure if they should laugh at what he said, since he was someone Matt would have classified as outcast.

Caroline was the only one not fighting against a laugh. She wore an expression of intolerance.

Bonnie's father, a travelling salesman, was having car troubles and needed to borrow his daughter's car until his was fixed. ("Which should take only a few more days," her father had said.) Caroline gladly offered to carpool with Bonnie to and from school, when she wasn't held late from dance committee or cheerleading.

On this particular day, Caroline didn't have any prom committee meetings or cheer practices to keep her late after school, so she and Bonnie left when the majority of the student body was leaving.

Just as Caroline went to back out of her parking spot, Bonnie spoke.

"Is that Elena?"

Caroline stopped trying to back up and looked in the same direction as Bonnie. She saw their friend. And she wasn't alone. She was talking to a tall, unfamiliar guy with dark hair.

"Who is she with?" Bonnie wondered aloud.

"That's Damon Salvatore," Caroline explained, not taking her eyes off Damon and Elena. "He just moved to town with his father and his brother, Stefan. Both brothers were born in Italy, but moved over to the states before either of them started school."

"He's one of the new students?"

Caroline nodded.

"I knew they were hot." Bonnie paused. "How do you know so much about them? It's only their second day here."

"Please," Caroline scoffed, giving Bonnie a look. "I learned all that before second period yesterday."

Bonnie laughed.

"What can I say? I'm the sheriff's daughter; I'm a natural investigator."

"You say investigator, I say gossiper."

"Whatever. Information is information."

"Wait. If you knew that much about the new guys, the…"

"Salvatores," Caroline provided.

"Right, the Salvatores. If you knew so much about them yesterday, why am I just hearing that 'information' now?"

"Just because I hear the information, or gossip, doesn't mean I repeat it, Bon. I only pass along what I find interesting. And they do not interest me."

"What if they interested me?"

"You could have asked. I had no idea you wanted to know about them. And why do you? You have a boyfriend."

"A girl with a boyfriend can still appreciate the good looks of other guys."

They both laughed.

At that moment, both girls shifted their gazes back to Elena and Damon. They saw Damon reach over to Elena's face and tuck some of her hair behind her ear.

"That's a charming new development," Bonnie said.

Caroline watched it happen, but she didn't comment. Part of her was delighted to see Elena looking so happy with a guy. But another part of Caroline was worried. If Elena wanted to do more than flirt with Damon Salvatore at school, she was going to come after Caroline, wanting her to date someone, too.

Ugh! That stupid deal.

Caroline wanted her friend to be happy, but she didn't want to date some loser just so Elena could find that momentary happiness. She liked being single and focusing on herself. She felt so much better because of it.

She didn't need a guy in her life right now.

Ugh!

She knew she's eventually come to regret this 'deal' she had made with Elena.

Stefan was forced to wait by Damon's car at the end of the day. His brother was just a few feet away, flirting with some girl he had met. Matt just so happened to walk by while Stefan was waiting.

"Hey man. How was the rest of your day?"

"Typical new guy stuff. People staring at me but not speaking to me."

"It'll pass," Matt offered. "You're just new and exciting right now; we don't get a lot of new people around here."

Stefan scanned the area. "I've been categorizing everyone I see into the categories you mentioned. Is everyone's classification really as obvious as it seems."

"Yep. The beauty of small towns."

"Like that guy," Stefan said as he gestured to Tyler Lockwood, who was leaning against his fancy, expensive convertible. "Jock, definitely. Rich, obviously. And a pig, seeing as how he's ogling every girl who walks by him."

"Pretty much spot on. That's Tyler Lockwood, only son of the mayor. He's got a fancy football scholarship all lined up for when he graduates. But he's not as dumb as he'd let you believe."

"Does he always have that shit-eating grin on his face?"

Matt laughed. "Yea, perma-shit-grin. But he's also my friend, so you'd better stop stereotyping him now before you cross a line."

Stefan smiled and nodded.

"Hey, Matt. Who's that with my brother?"

Matt looked over and saw Damon with Elena.

"Elena Gilbert."

"One of the beautiful people, obviously."

"Definitely. But not the rude ones; Elena is the sweetest person you'll ever meet."

Stefan noted the look on Matt's face. Rejection and hurt, but the still-lingering feelings from a crush.

Stefan caught Matt staring. "Your ex?"

Matt shifted his gaze to the ground and muttered a "Yep."

Stefan was quite for a moment. "My brother is an ass."

Matt laughed and looked at Stefan again, but before he could say the 'Yep' that he planned to say, Damon spoke.

"I heard that, brother."

Stefan hadn't noticed that Damon and Elena had made their way over to Damon's car.

"Hi, Matt," Elena said.

"Hey," he responded, stiffly. He turned to Stefan. "I'll see you around, Stefan." And with that, Matt walked away.

Elena sighed as the Salvatore brothers turned to face her. "He hates me," she explained.

"I don't think he hates you," Stefan offered. "I think he's still heartbroken."

"Your ex?" Damon asked.

"Yea," Elena nodded. "We've been friend all our lives and dating just felt like something we should try. But it wasn't right. We didn't have any…" Elena trailed off, unable to come up with the appropriate word.

"Chemistry?" Damon offered.

Elena smiled. "Exactly. We didn't have any chemistry. We're better off as friends."

"Tell that to Matt," Stefan muttered. But Damon and Elena were too focused on each other again to hear Stefan's comment.

Caroline found herself having dinner at the Gilbert house the following evening. Caroline's mother, Sheriff Liz Forbes, was hardly ever home and Elena's mother took pity on Caroline, giving her an open-ended invitation to have dinner with them.

Caroline loved spending time with the Gilbert family — it gave her an up-close, in-person view of a regular, functional family. Doctor Gilbert ran the town's only family practice and always made it home just in time for dinner. It was the Gilbert family rule: everyone had to be present for dinner each night. Caroline usually joined them two or three times a week and she loved the Gilbert family dinners; they always made her feel included.

The seemingly idyllic setting and function of the Gilbert family was a stark contrast to what Caroline experienced in her own home. No one would ever consider the Forbes family as perfect or ideal; it was far from it.

But Caroline's childhood had been idyllic. At least, she considered it to be so. As an only child, she was adored by both of her parents. She was happy.

She was especially close with her father. Bill could always tell what his 'little princess' was thinking, and they were inseparable. Bill's job allowed him to work mostly from home, out of his home office, while Caroline's mother, Liz, worked hard to become sheriff of the Mystic Falls police station. She often worked late nights and early mornings, leaving lots of time for Bill and Caroline to bond, but not much time for Liz and Caroline to form much of a bond, and hardly any time for Liz and Bill to continue growing in their marriage.

So instead, Bill and Liz grew apart. Over the years, they became two completely separate people who hardly knew each other, but who lived together and were connected by only their daughter and a marriage.

Caroline never noticed how the relationship between her parents changed, though. She was too young and too delightfully oblivious.

Liz was given quite the shock, though, when Bill confronted her with the truth: he was gay.

"What? Bill, no. You're not. You can't be. We're married."

"I am. I'm gay. I think I've known for a few years, but now I'm finally ready to admit it. Out loud. I'm gay. And I'm moving out."

If Liz was being honest with herself, she had expected the part about her husband moving out or wanting a divorce. But gay? She never saw that one coming at her. "What about Caroline?"

"She'll stay here with you," Bill said, deciding for everyone in the family. "No sense in uprooting her away from her friends and school."

"So you're leaving town." Liz wasn't asking; she could tell by his words and his expression.

But Bill answered anyway. "Yes."

And very shortly after that, Bill moved in with his 'friend' Steven.

Caroline was 11 and felt as if her entire world was crashing down around her. She cried when her father moved out, and she cried every day after school for the next two weeks — she never cried at school; she refused to let anyone see her cry — not even Elena or Bonnie, and certainly not Liz. She cried while her mother was too busy working to see how Caroline was handling the divorce of her parents.

When he first moved out, Caroline saw Bill every other weekend. And she lived for those weekends — she would count down the days, and then the hours, until she would get to see her father. But then the visits eventually faded to once a month. Then only on special occasions — Thanksgivings, Christmases, Steven's daughter's birthdays, etc.

He only lived four towns over, but Caroline hardly saw her father anymore.

With Bill gone, Caroline was left with just her mother. Liz still worked crazy and long hours. The two became even more distant than they already were. They never really knew each other.

Now, Caroline's relationship with her mother was tense, emotionally distant, and sometimes hostile. Perhaps that's another reason why the Sheriff chose to work the hours that she did. Work must have been easier that dealing with an annoyed teenager.

That's why Caroline so treasured her dinners with the Gilberts. They made her feel welcome and a part of the family.

But at the same time, a part of Caroline also felt like an outsider amongst them, no matter how welcoming they were to her.

She did not fit in with them completely. She was not a Gilbert, after all.

After dinner, the girls went up to Elena's room, on Mrs Gilbert's orders, to do their homework. Bonnie came over shortly thereafter and joined them.

But they were doing anything except homework.

"Caroline drove me home after school today. And yesterday," Bonnie said, casually. She was trying to ease Elena into dishing about Damon.

"Oh, right. Your dad still has your car?"

"Yes," Bonnie replied with a groan. "He keeps telling me 'only a few more days, hun; my car will be fixed in a few more days.' " Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I say, 'Right, dad. Sure.' "

"Well, if Caroline can't drive you any time, you know you can always call me, right?" Elena verified, thinking that was why Bonnie had brought up the subject.

"Thanks, Elena."

Caroline rolled her eyes at her friend. "Ugh, no Elena. That's not what Bonnie was hinting at." Caroline turned her gaze to Bonnie. "I told you; subtlety will get you nowhere fast."

Bonnie and Elena both chuckled at that.

"We saw you yesterday, Elena, after school. You were totally flirting with Damon Salvatore."

Elena sputtered. "I — Uh — Well — I."

Caroline and Bonnie laughed as Elena blushed.

"I made a fool of myself in front of him at our first meeting, but he didn't go running off."

"So what happens now?" Bonnie asked.

Elena turned to Caroline. "I really like him, Care."

Caroline smiled at her friend; she hadn't seen Elena smile like that since she ran over to Caroline's house to tell her that she and Matt had their first kiss.

The room got quiet as no one responded to Elena's comment.

Bonnie tried to bite back at the wave of jealousy that always threatened to come over her whenever she heard of Elena and Caroline's 'deal.' If the three of them formed a triangle out of their friendship, it would not be equilateral. Bonnie knew she was closer to Elena and to Caroline that the other two were to each other. That was just the way their friendship worked. They were all best friends, but Elena and Caroline would always confide in Bonnie before going to each other.

Their friendship was best represented by an isosceles obtuse triangle, where the Caroline point was of equal distance from the Bonnie point as the Elena point was, but both the Elena point and the Caroline point were as far away as possible from each other without actually forming a straight line with the Bonnie point. They were all best friends, but of varying degrees.

And now Caroline and Elena had something that was bringing them closer, while pushing Bonnie slightly further away.

The shape of their friendship triangle was shifting.

Bonnie shook her head slightly to dispel the jealousy and decided to break the silence. She looked to Elena as she spoke. "Well, Elena, now all you need to do is get a date for Caroline and then you can date Damon. Doesn't he have a brother?"

Caroline scoffed. "Please."

Elena instantly warmed to the idea. "That's not a bad idea, Bonnie."

"Oh my gosh, Elena. No. I'm not going to date the brother of the guy you like. That's all kinds of weird."

"Okay, fine then. I'll find someone else for you, Care."

"No! Don't you dare!"

"Care, please. Can't you just find some random someone to take you to the movies so I can have one date with Damon?"

"I'm sorry. I guess you'll have to miss out on all that is the mysterious, charming new senior."

"You suck."

" 'You suck,' " Caroline responded, lovingly mocking her friend. She looked around the room and suddenly noticed how dark it was outside. "I had better get home before my mother suddenly becomes a concerned parent and sends out a search party." She quickly gathered her belongings, said goodbye to her friends, and left for home.

Caroline had only been gone for a few moments when Elena turned to Bonnie.

"Help me, Bonnie. Please," Elena was almost whining. "What can I do about this?"

Bonnie laughed and shook her head. "Nope, sorry Elena. This is your deal with Caroline; I am not getting involved."