"Because I wanted to. This place seemed interesting. I mean, how often does a teenage girl solve the murder of her best friend, said murder committed by the father of her boyfriend, her own secret lover, and uselessly untalented actor, those last three all pertain to one singular jackass by the way. This place is fascinating, and besides, there might be some useful contacts I might make here." 

Even though she's nearing 150 years on this earth, today is one of those days that she acts like the teen she was before she got married. Before her true life began. Which is probably what clues in her perceptive friend on the thoughts rollicking through her head.

"This is about the letter from the boys isn't it? Or the most recent letter from Zach?"

"It isn't... Okay, so maybe it's a little combo of both. You've seen that sweet little girl, Juliet, she's adorable, and between that and Damon begging me to follow him around America and Stefan's yearly begging for me to even speak to him, I'm just a little tired of being pulled in all of the directions but the one I want to be going in. So I found a direction I wasn't being pulled in, and I bought us a great big fancy house for us to play family in there. Can't you just, I don't know, be happy to be somewhere new?"

Toni skips around her oldest living friend's large room childishly, using the infantile abandon she hadn't had a chance to use in her actual childhood.

"Usually, yes, but this place has a seedier underbelly than a bad noir film. Goddess, it reminds me of our time in the 40's, and that didn't end well either, if you remember? But fine, you adorable little thing, I'll pretend to be your older, legal guardian so you can play rich teen amongst these pathetic plebeian masses. Now come on, I desperately need coffee, and apparently best place for that is some horrifically named place called 'Java The Hut' so let's go."

Ari lights a cigarette as she leads the way to the car, a powder blue 1951 Chevrolet Truck, beautifully redone.

Toni follows behind, pulling out her wallet and handing all the major cards to the adult, for all human intents and purposes, following the motions quickly with producing and lighting her own cigarette.

"You know, it's not that bad a name, punny, light, this place clearly is not that bad."

"Put that out, you're meant to be 17 little miss. Try blending in for once."

"I'm meant to be a spoilt rich kid, so the smoking in public and complete disregard for the law is pretty much par for the course around here apparently." Their witty back and forth repartee between the two continues through the drive from their new 09er mansion all the way to the coffee house, whereupon, they get greeted by your go to Hostess there, Veronica Mars herself.

The short blonde greets the tall leggy blonde, and the equally short dark brunette at the front, leading them to an empty booth near the back, letting them know a waitress would be with them shortly. Apparently even the great hinky radar of Veronica Mars can't detect a vampire and a witch sitting in a booth at her work. Then again, she's immediately distracted by another waitress letting her know her boyfriend is there, which leads to the blonde tackle hugging a brunette male.

"I thought she was dating the son of that actor guy? Y'know, the one who got accused for murder." Ari watches Veronica kiss her apparent boyfriend, which is definitely not the tall blonde Logan guy that she'd seen in the news.

"Yeah, after everything that happened this summer, I guess they just didn't last. Something about her dad throwing him out. Anyway, that's her new slash ex boyfriend, Duncan Kane, son of the Jake Kane. The CEO and creator of Kane Software, King of Neptune." Their waitress, Emilia according to her nametag, answers the question that clearly wasn't for her, but she has a comprehensive answer nonetheless.

"What do you mean 'everything that happened this summer'?"

"Yeah, and define 'new slash ex boyfriend."

"Well the same night that Veronica and her dad finally figured out Aaron killed Lilly, Logan got in to a whole bunch of hullabaloo on the same bridge his mother jumped off of. All anyone really knows is he got jumped by the PCH'ers, the local biker gang, and they're all saying he stabbed and killed this kid from the 02 zip code. Since then, the dead kids friends have been harassing him, and all I know, from back when he was still with Veronica, apparently Logan's not the type to take it lying down. So now there's a whole class war, the rich versus the poor, 09ers versus 02ers, and Veronica had enough. And with the other thing, well, Duncan and Veronica were together before Lilly died, broke up before, and whatever kept them apart back then clearly isn't now, so, like, he's new, but he's also her ex."

Emilia pops her gum and her hip as she catches the two up on everything going on in Neptune, inside, she's wondering if they've just been out of town for a while, or if they're new, which, given the nosy waitress life that she lives, means that that very question slips from her lips.

"So are y'all back from a summer getaway or new here? I'm guessing new, 'cause the Lilly Kane incident meant Veronica was pretty much the talk of Neptune for a while there, and if you don't know every public detail, then you're probably new."

Toni takes this moment to switch on her happy face, the one that makes humans more comfortable around her.

"Yeah, I'm Toni Salvatore, this is my guardian, Ari. We just moved here. We kinda know some stuff because of all the media coverage, and we just moved back from Sicily so, this seemed like the place to be."

Ari, being the emotion having bitch that she is, feels no need for such human niceties.

"Ariadne, not Ari. And we'll have two Caesar salad's, seafood, not chicken, a diet coke, and a cup of coffee. Wait no, scratch that, Americans make terrible coffee. I'll have a tea, bring the pot, and a side of cold milk."

"Right, uh, coming right up." Emilia has a smidgen of emotional whiplash between the sweet teen and the rude brush off she got from her guardian, so she backs away to give the kitchen their order.

"You didn't have to be so rude to the poor girl."

"You're right, I didn't. I guess I just wanted to."

Toni rolls her eyes at her oldest friend, and smiles politely each time the waitress comes back, both to drop off their drinks, and to drop off their salads. They sit there in amiable silence, which, given the many years they've spent side by side, is very soothing for them. It is especially so for Toni, who, when with her soul bond, doesn't ever have to turn on her human personality, the emotion having teen she's perfected since long before she died. Their long perfected art of silence is distracted by their attention being dragged to the entrance of a young man.

Logan Freaking Echolls himself. He looks forlorn, awkward, and a fair bit like he doesn't want to be there, which would be odd, considering its a public place and he could have chosen not to be there, but the next young man to walk in is explanation enough to the hostess standing there.

"Veronica Mars! You're still here? Would have thought this place 'let you go' long ago for your prickly personality, but whatever. Table for three." Dick Casablancas Jr, a thoroughly rude imbecile greets the short blonde the same way he had before her relationship with his best friend, with contempt. Inside, he wants to verbally eviscerate her for the permanent look of heartbreak that Logan sports. But, given Logan has mostly called off any sort of cruelty towards his ex, the best he can do is thinly veiled insults to her customer service.

"Hi Veronica." Dick's meek younger brother waves politely from behind the two larger and older boys that he spends all his time with.

"Hey Cass. Dick." She spits out the boys name like a curse. "Logan. I'm afraid you'll have to find some other place to go, we're all full up."

A factual statement, they don't have any room for the group of three as it is, and Veronica knows they could find a way to fit them, but she's feeling petty. Her veiled revenge doesn't last, because the two girls watching this interaction have intervened.

"Hostess! They can sit here with us if they're okay with that? Two people to a whole booth is a bit illogical."

Dick just now looks at the two sitting in the booth, and judging by their clothes, they're the ones moving in to the old Kane mansion, which means hot rich 09ers and definitely people that are cool enough for him to sit with.

"See Ron, some people are actually nice, some even nice enough to do your job for you."

Dick leads his friend and his brother to the booth, sitting down directly beside the grumpy yet obscenely hot blonde.