' ' ' '

Grace chose to ignore Esther's ominous words, instead wandering through the house to see if she could not find Nik or Elijah.

Esther was planning something and she was not doing a very good job of being inconspicuous. Or maybe... she did not want to hide it.

Grace did not think about her anymore for awhile. She unfortunately realized that with a ball, meant a dress. Though she was in no mood to dress up, she supposed it could not hurt.

Roaming the halls of the Mikaelson manor, she was becoming frustrated with not being able to find anyone. Had they all left her here with Esther? Surely, they would never.

"Nik!" she called rather hopelessly, pushing open the door to the drawing room.

Niklaus was already approaching the door, thus causing the two to bump into each other.

"Grace. Back already?"

She rolled her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You know about this 'ball' that you and your family are hosting, I assume?" Grace asked with a bit of an annoyed tone.

Nik gave a small smirk.

"Are you here to ask me to be your date-" "Nik," she said, trying to remain serious but unable to hold back a smile.

"I- Do I have to dress up for this?"

"Of course, love. I'm not escorting a ragged looking date."

Grace rolled her eyes once more at Niklaus' cheeky remarks.

"When is it?" "Tomorrow evening. I thought it was a little quick to try and get all of this together, but my mother did not seem to care all that much."

He paused and looked away for a moment, then back to Grace.

"You can make yourself useful and deliver invitations. Oh, and get yourself a dress."

Grace raised an eyebrow, saying, "Oh, you're making me get my own dress. How uncordial of you, Mr. Mikaelson."

They shared amused smirks, until Grace took the invitations and set out to get them delivered. She would first stop by a rather interesting one: Elena Gilbert.

Despite having been in Mystic Falls for a good while now, Grace did not believe she had exchanged two words with the Gilbert girl.

Did not matter, as she would now have something to say to her as she walked up the steps to the presumed residence.

With a sharp knock, Grace waited patiently for a moment.

At once, someone came to the door.

The doppelganger herself. Grace tried not to show her disdain upon seeing the Katherine lookalike, but it was something involuntary.

"Uh... can I help you? Wait- you're the vampire-witch hybrid, aren't you? You're with Klaus-" "Elena. Hi. I'm not here to kidnap you, so please don't freak out. Here," she said, handing over the neatly sealed invitation.

With some hesitation, Elena took it and stared, confused.

"Right, well I guess I'll see you there. Goodbye."

Grace disappeared in a flash, making her next stop at Caroline's home. She followed the same routine and politely knocked, then waited.

At once, Caroline came to the door, pleasantly surprised.

"Grace, what are you doing here? Are you doing okay, now?"

She returned Caroline's warm smile, nodding softly.

"Yes, I'm in a lot better of a mood. Uh, I came to give you this. Surprise," Grace said, trying to sound somewhat enthused. Caroline should have been excited about this.

Except, she was not.

Caroline frowned, looking up to Grace.

"The Mikaelsons... are hosting a ball. Tomorrow."

Grace gave a curt nod. "Undoubtedly. Thanks to Esther, who just got here and acts like she owns the place-" "Esther?" she interrupted, drawing in a breath.

A frown flickered across Grace's face and Caroline's, wondering what the other one knew.

However, the moment passed and Caroline spoke up, "Well... I have to get a dress. I- I have to get my hair and makeup done! Oh, please say you'll get ready with me. Please?"

Grace furrowed her eyebrows, a soft expression on her face.

"Well- of course I will. And I know you're gonna love to hear this, but... I need help finding a dress, too."

Caroline's face lit up in an instant.

"Yes, yes yes! Hold on, let me get my purse and my keys and my phone..." Caroline turned and hurried upstairs, while Grace was left outside.

She sighed, until Caroline came rushing back and they got in her car, heading to a dress shop.

Once inside, Caroline went a little crazy. Grace simply sat and watched, as Caroline brought up dress after dress.

Grace did not really care much for any of them.

"Care. Why don't you look for your dress. I can wait, I promise."

Caroline stopped mid-sentence, frowning. "Because I want you to look good, too. You know... for Kla-" "Okay, whatever. Look, if you go and look for a dress, I'll go look for one, too. Deal?"

Narrowing her eyes, Caroline thought for a moment, then nodded with a satisfied smile.

"Alright, fine."

The next day

"Grace, excuse me! You're in the way."

Turning sharply, Grace made eye contact with Rebekah, who she had been stuck with to prepare the ballroom.

"All this room in here and you just so happen to be in the same place I am?" Grace retorted, going back to her business, setting up the bar.

"It's not my fault you're making everything look bad and I have to fix it after you," Rebekah sassed back.

Grace clenched her jaw, but did not respond. Rebekah rolled her eyes with a smug expression, and oh how did Grace want to knock it right off of her.

But Grace liked to play games.

Yet, she looked at the time on her phone and saw that she had to meet Caroline in a few minutes.

Thankful for an excuse, Grace announced this to Rebekah.

"I've got to go and get ready, I'll be back in a bit. And adjust those streamers, will you? They're so damn sloppy."

Grace left the house and got in her car, for once, instead of going by foot. It always proved to be much quicker, but Grace was feeling rather tired.

Pulling into Caroline's house, she braced herself to be bombarded with makeup and hair extravaganza.

She went inside, making her way upstairs with her dress in her arms.

"Caroline!" Grace called, unsure of which room was hers.

A blonde head popped out of the door, followed by a grin.

"Welcome to the Mystic Falls salon, miss Fredricks," she invited in, to which Grace appeared in the doorway, her facial expression dropping upon seeing Elena. She hoped.

Elena looked up, giving a somewhat awkward smile to which Grace tried to return.

Not many words were exchanged between them, being that only a few days ago, Grace was out to get her. Now would have been a perfect chance, really.

"Hey, Grace, how are you doing your hair?"

Grace looked over to Caroline, giving a small shrug.

"I want a look that says, 'I might kill someone tonight.' What d'ya got?"

a/n: grace 🤝🏽 internally projecting her hatred for katherine onto elena
also i'm sorry i haven't updated in a hot second but i have a new book out!! it's called 'not his eyes' and i'm personally biased but i think it's really good plus- timothee chalamet & ansel elgort love triangle