I have lived in Mystic falls all my life. It was a quiet town where everybody knew everybody, no secrets, no mysteries, no excitement. Or so I thought until the Salvatores.
Rumors started and people disappearing to turn up dead, talks about things that go bump in the night and most the adults radiated tension.
Not that I really cared. I had enough on my plate already to worry about supernaturals in little old Mystic Falls. I had bills to worry about, rent, medical bills, my job at the Grill and my studies. I had no time to even get curious about vampires and the like. However, working at the Grill, you are bound to hear rumors and gossip whether you liked it or not.
The Grill was owned by Charles Bryant, an old friend of my grandpa who moved into Mystic Falls over 40 years ago. I knew him since I was a child and he was always nice to me. When my grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer a couple of years ago and I dropped out of college to take care of him and get a job to pay for his medicine and doctor checkups, Charles immediately offered me a job at the Grill.
Since then I have been working as a manager, handling the finances, expenses, managing the stock, the staff, the suppliers, you name it. Charles would come in a couple of times every month to check on things but otherwise, he left me in charge of the place.
The job paid enough for me to pay for grandpa's medical needs and hire a nurse who would take care of him in my absence.
Once I was able to get my head above water, I decided to continue my education so I applied to an online college that I could afford and tried to keep up as much as I could while juggling everything else.
Sometimes, things got too much and so unbearable that I could hardly breathe and felt like crumbling. I wished there was someone to ease my burden but I had no one besides my grandpa. My mom left us when I was 2, she fell out of love with my dad and in love with some guy who took her away from Mystic Falls. She never looked back and I haven't heard from her nor about her since. My dad couldn't recover from the break up and resorted to alcohol to try to forget her until one night, he was in an accident when he was driving drunk. I was ten at the time.
It has been my grandpa and me ever since. He loved me with all his heart and we were best friends. He supported me, was there when I was sick or sad, celebrated my birthdays with me and when I graduated high school. He was my whole universe and I was his. And then he got sick. It was small things at first, he would forget what he was going to buy, or to add some ingredient to the food, then it got worse, he would forget some names, events or he would get lost. After several tests, the doctors said that it was Alzheimer, and my little uneventful life was no more.
I had to learn how to be brave, how to be tough and how to push myself to the limits. I changed from a shy naïve little girl to a young woman who has a close control over her emotions and would only open up to a select few she considers friends.
Some people would even call me cold, but I didn't care. I only cared about surviving and helping my grandpa. Sometimes though it gets lonely and I would wish I had someone to lean on. Tonight was one of those night. I could see from the office window the rest of the Grill and particularly the table in which Elena Gilbert and her friends were sitting. Elena was a really beautiful girl, therefore it was no surprise to me that many boys would fall in love with her, but the devotion that is showing in the eyes of the Salvatore brothers whenever they look at her was so achingly beautiful. I knew they were vampires and the fact that these two supposedly soulless monsters felt so much for this human girl made it even stronger.
Deep down, I really wished someone would look at me like that. I shook my head to get rid of this yearning and got back to the numbers in front of me working on the day's finances when Matt Donovan, a waiter at the Grill, Elena's ex-boyfriend and now friend, knocked on the door and said: "Val, sorry to bother you but there is a French couple outside and I can't make heads or tails of what they are saying."
Smiling softly to him, I got up from my desk and followed him to the couple in question. It was no secret that I was a bit of a language buff so this situation was not really unusual when a foreigner drops by Mystic Falls.
"Bonsoir, soyez les bienvenus au Grill. Je m'appelle Velentia et je serai ravie de vous assister avec le menu ou prendre votre commande », I said smiling to the young couple.
« Enfin, quelqu'un qui parle français », said the woman smiling widely, « on est passé par ici par tout hasard et c'est très joli donc on a décidé de passer la nuit à l'hôtel mais leur nourriture est horrible donc nous sommes venus ici »
« D'accord, est-ce que vous avez décidé ce que vous voulez manger ? »
« Oui, on vaudrait une salade César, deux steaks medium et pour le dessert, deux tranches de gâteau au chocolat s'il vous plait. »
« Entendu, on va les préparer tout de suite pour vous. N'hésitez pas à faire appel à moi si vous avez besoin de quoi que ce soit. »
« Merci beaucoup, vous êtes un ange. »
« Je vous en prie ! J'espère que vous trouverez votre séjour à Mystic Falls agréable ! » I nodded my head and turned to leave.
I barely made a few steps when I heard a voice saying "That was really good French, love. I am impressed!"
Turning around, I saw that the owner of the voice was Klaus Mikaelson. The Mikaelson family was new to town, some kind of really old evil vampires or so I heard and the Salvatores hated them with passion. I have never spoken with any of them before so his comment was rather surprising, so I nodded my head at him neutrally and said "Thank you!"
"I mean it, love, that was excellent, no accent whatsoever! Where did you learn it? I am a bit of a linguist so I am intrigued!"
I would have believed him had I not seen the way he was looking at the table where the Salvatore brothers were sitting and how he was smirking at them. Predictably, the older brother, Damon, jumped from his seat and came to us saying "Leave the girl be Klaus!"
"Oh? I was just asking a question, no need to get all ruffled about it!" Klaus replied feigning innocence.
I had no intention to be part of a tag war between two vampires, so I ignored the two males who were glaring at each other and went to Matt saying "Matt, please serve the couple Cesar salad, two steaks medium and chocolate cake."
Then I left all the drama and went back to the office not realizing the many looks that followed me.