sixwordstories | (no subject)

"Sorry."

Lavinia looks up from her tablet, not realizing that she had been talking to herself. "I had only swore in French."

"Oh," Caroline says before give the other girl a small smile. "And, if I had paid attention in French class, I might have known what you said."

She shrugs a shoulder. "If I had not been talking to myself, perhaps I wouldn't have interrupted you. It is not a very good habit," Lavinia admits, pursing her lips to the side. She is normally a girl of few words, after all.

Closing her device, she tries to smile apologetically. "I'm Lavinia."

"Don't worry, I talk to myself a lot. I think it's a habit a lot of people have," Caroline says as she gives the other girl a soft smile. She then sits down at the table and grins.

"I'm Caroline. It's nice to meet you Lavinia. That's a very...unique name," she says.

"I expect that it's oftentimes easier to sort thoughts out that way," she muses, reaching for her coffee, black with a sprinkle of sugar.

"It is of Roman origin," she explains with a wry smile, accustomed to name commentary. "My father is a scholar and my mother is an avid reader, so, naturally.."

"It is. I actually had a teacher who said talking to yourself was the best way to solve problems," Caroline says. She wraps her hands around her own coffee cup before taking a sip of the black liquid. She doesn't need it for the buzz, but drinks it so she doesn't feel so cool to the touch.

"It's lovely, nonetheless. Sometimes I wish I had an unique name, and not one that every old woman in town has," she says with a chuckle.

Lavinia, on the other hand, has been on a train all night and she and her parents have just arrived -- they have dropped into Mystic Falls for investigational purposes -- the undead is their specialty after all. And little does she know she has lucked out with this chance meeting.

"You're very kind," she replies modestly, bowing her head, "Caroline has a charm, still. And it certainly has more potential for a nickname."

"There was a time when I thought it made me different until I found out my sixth grade teacher was named Caroline, too. It sort of lost its charm after that," Caroline said before giving a smile.

Even though they had long since learned to be wary of new people to town, she couldn't help but to be friendly. "What brings you to Mystic Falls, then?" she asked before taking a sip from her cup.

"We - that is, my parents and I - are passing through town, briefly, staying at the inn, of course. We have some time to go before we reach Washington, DC," she replied easily. With lies she had told since childhood, each became easier and easier to tell.

It eased up casual conversations, anyhow. Mother did not like to lie and father lied to everyone else but she and her mother. She took a sip of her coffee. "It is a very nice town - I've grown fond of learning about the histories of quaint towns in America."

"I guess Mystic Falls is a good place to stay for a few days. Just stay away from the woods. We have a wild animal problem here," Caroline says. It's a lie, of course, and she's use to telling them in order to protect the town and her friends.

"Mystic Falls has a lot of history. Not all of it is good, and some of it is downright cruel, but I think all some towns have skeletons in their closet," she said.

Naturally, the woods will be Lavinia's first stop after this coffee break. Mother and father needn't know about her whereabouts while they were doing research, anyway.

"I've learned quite a bit about the Middle Ages to know that many villages in my home continent weren't as adorable as they seem." It's a joke, but she delivers it so seriously. The only hint of humor is on the quirk of her lips.

"Sometimes I wonder why they think lying about the past is so important. I can see them lying when it happens, but not over a hundred years later. The people involved are all dead," she says.

Well, sometimes they were dead. The Salvatore brothers were around when the founders locked all the vampires inside the church, and burnt it to the ground.

"Where are you from?"

"Studies have proven that your brain is able to alter the truth in your head so that even you begin to believe the lies." Which had been, actually, the article she had been reading on the train before falling asleep the night before. Good bedtime reading.

"I was born in Switzerland, but I have lived -- in may places. Too many to count on my fingers," she chuckles, lightly tapping her right fingers with her left index.

"That's interesting, and would explain why some people in town are so stubborn about things that aren't even the truth," Caroline said.

"Is Switzerland as beautiful as it looks in pictures? I have a friend that went there once for a skiing trip, and she seemed to really like it. She said it's beautiful and the people are nice."

"It certainly explains some delusions of many, many people."

Suddenly, a fond smile fills her face, looking almost unnatural on her angled features. 'It is beautiful. I consider it to be my home. The snow capped mountains and the green fields... I miss it at times."