Lilly scared him; she always had, even when they were younger. Of course he loved her; everybody loved her. She was so full of life and fire, but there was always something dangerous about her. The girl had no fear, shame, and barely any conscience. He preferred to hang back a bit, while she wanted to lead every misadventure. He used to wonder about Veronica Mars. He never could understand why the two of them were so inseparable. Veronica was innocent and sweet to everyone, and sometimes even cautious. She was the only one who could ever talk Lilly out of anything. He liked these things, these things that were so different from Lilly, most about her. He never understood why Lilly was always going on about kindred spirits. Now he does and he kind of wishes he didn't. Her transformation seemed abrupt and unexpected, not that he didn't understand the cause of it, but he just hadn't known she was capable of it, though he suspects Lilly wouldn't have been surprised. He can practically see her clapping her hands with glee and rambling about realized potential. Maybe she never showed him that side that Lilly had always sworn was there, or maybe he willingly ignored what was now glaringly obvious.

This Veronica Mars acted more like Lilly than he was comfortable with. This Veronica said bitch in class, and went toe to toe with bikers. No caution, no quivering with fear, just sarcastically referring to his size and inviting him to the prom. He could hardly associate her with the girl who used to blush at everything that came out of Lilly's mouth. He wondered where the sweet innocent girl he fell in love with was, and who was this girl with the short hair and the sassy attitude that carried around her face. But he didn't dwell on it, because if he did he'd have to acknowledge that the last time he saw that girl was in the guest room at Shelley Pomeroy's one December morning.

But Duncan doesn't like uncomfortable thoughts. He tears his gaze away from that short blonde girl he barely knows as she mouths off to the vice principal, and turns back to his table. It's then that he notices for the first time how sweet it is when Meg Manning ducks her head and smiles shyly.