I stood in the middle of the cafeteria, amongst hundreds of other people, wondering where to sit. I never had this problem last year. I am a naturally friendly, outgoing, funny, and easy to talk to person. On the first day of freshman year, I walked over to a group of kids I recognized from my Biology class and sat down next to them and talked about computer science, something I knew nothing about. I started a conversation with my 09er locker neighbor about some shoe brand. I had a very deep discussion about whether or not the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls was a good idea with some theatre geeks. I had at least one good friend in every clique on campus, and yet here I was, standing among hundreds of people, looking for a place to sit.

I walked over to a table of a few people that I had English with. "Hi! Your name's Carmen, right? I'm Sam, we have English together." I started to sit down but Carmen's group huddled together and looked at me like I just bombed an orphanage. Okay… I thought. One table, a bunch more to go. But I didn't really believe that. Larissa Echolls terrified the entire Student Body. If she said that I was not allowed to have any contact with anyone because of my dad, then that was what happened.

Larissa Echolls and I despised each other since we first made eye contact. I hated her whiny and spoiled personality just as much as she hated my outgoing and quirky one. Even though our siblings were friends, we could not stand the sight of each other. Just thinking about her sickly sweet Chanel perfume makes me want to vomit. Since middle school, Larissa has tormented me, or at least tried to. I have a confident attitude that makes it hard for insults to get to me, but if your dad accuses the king of Neptune, California of murdering his own daughter, people tend to think that you're as much of a lying asshole as they think your dad is. (Which he isn't, for the record). Larissa's father is the famous Aaron Echolls, the billionaire award-winning movie star. The girls at my school fawned over him and Larissa uses this admiration to take advantage of them and make them become her little band of empty-headed minions. Unfortunately, these followers had parents who owned real estate businesses, hotel franchises, and restaurant chains. They lived in huge mansions and held wild parties where people lost their virginity and puked on top of thousands of dollars' worth of carpeting. They run the social scene and if they want me ostracized, boy the ostracize me.

Anyway, I had just been rejected by the majority of lunch tables and was seriously considering eating in a bathroom stall when I saw Veronica sitting at a brightly colored yellow table. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't sit down with my upperclassman sister. I mean, she was a Junior and I was just a lowly Sophomore, but the Jake Kane issues not only affected me, but Veronica as well. I worried about Veronica. I mean, it was her best friend Lilly who died. Not only that, but our mom couldn't take all the harsh publicity surrounding our dad and she left. I didn't really care. I hated her. To me, she was nothing but a drunken alcoholic whose sole purpose in life was to keep drinking. She stormed around the house in drunken fits yelling at me and sometimes inanimate objects, but Veronica loved her. (Granted, she never saw Mom at her worst). Veronica's friends also abandoned her. She hung out with the junior upper class, such as Dick Casablancas and Logan Echols. She even dated Duncan Kane, but they all abandoned her. She used to be more like me, in terms of "happy", but now she was downright bitter.

I walked over to Veronica and noticed that she in fact was not alone, but was sitting with a boy I didn't recognize.

"Whose this?" I asked. "Doesn't he know that the Mars family is the equivalent of whale vomit at Neptune High School?"

The boy grinned. "Mars family? There is more than one Veronica Mars?"

"Oh don't mistake us for being like the other," Veronica butted in, "She's outgoing and weird, while I'm serious and smart." I slapped Veronica in the shoulder.

"I'm Sam Mars and you must be an incredibly brave person to be sitting here with Veronica."

The boy chuckled. "I'm Wallace. Your sister untaped me from a flagpole."

"This story sounds intriguing. Would you care to enlighten me?" I asked Veronica.

"I don't know," she replied, "I was just about to ask him how he got duct taped by the PCHers with the word snitch written across his chest." Wallace told his story. I listened for a little bit, but then my mind wandered and I found myself staring at a group of sophomore 09ers. Larissa Echolls sat on the lap of her boyfriend, Sebastian Yogo, laughing as some terrified freshman scrambled around looking for the non-existent ice cream bar that she must have demanded that he fetch for her. The table was surrounded by Larissa's and Sebastian's lackeys. Tiffany Rhodes, daughter of Stefanie Rhodes, the Victoria Secret model, Bethany Lewinson, whose father owned a world renown talent agency, Sonny von Sigil, the grandson of the owner of the San Diego Chargers, and Julius Grant, whose parents owned half of the stock market. They were the lords of Neptune High, Larissa and Sebastian were the queen and king. They sweat credit cards and grew dollar bills like hair. They wore designer clothing and travled to places like Naples, Italy during the Summer. Sebastian Yogo's family owned Yogo's, a popular Frozen Yogurt chain. He treated non-09ers like me as if we bathed in his shit. He disgusted me and every other non 09er, but most were to terrified to do anything about him.

"Earth to Mars," Veronica interrupted my day-dreams. "you there?"

"Yeah, sorry." I said. Wallace just finished his explanation. I only registered some of it, like how he was at the

Sac-n-Pac or something like that. Veronica was telling Wallace about the social pyramid of Neptune when the bell rang. "You don't have to drive me home today. There's soccer tryouts after school. I'll walk home." I told Veronica. I rushed out of the cafeteria to my next class. Waiting for me at my locker, stood the the most human like ass I've ever seen, Sebastian Yogo.