PROLOGUE
I used to think you could tell who somebody was by the people they had around them. I was Veronica Mars — peppy, all-American-girl, straight outta' Oregon. The daughter of a well respected county Sheriff turned private dick, who's mother had been a third grade teacher before she was a runaway.
Then my father died and my world as I knew it came crashing down.
It hadn't been all roses and chocolates to begin with, not since my mom left in the middle of the night for reasons that to this day remain undisclosed. But it was something. I loved my dad with everything I had and he loved me, I knew he didn't do the things they were saying. The police, the media, people we thought were our friends. It's all lies, every little thing. Everyone from my dad's dentist to my history teacher got their 15 minutes of cable news fame.
In the beginning it wasn't so bad. Three days after the incident we held a funeral, dad's sister Emily came out from Washington to watch over me. She left her husband and job behind — some desk jockey junk I had no interest in hearing about, at least she'd had the common sense not to push. The social worker appointed to my case assured her that they'd get everything cleared up soon, it hadn't even registered what she meant at the time. I'd been too worried about lowering the only present parent i'd ever had into the ground.
The whispers came later, a month to be precise when I was back at school after an 'extended vacation' with family in Virginia. Everyone knew by then or at least they thought they did. The media had caught wind of it, I hear it even made its way into the LA Times and our very own quaint little Oregon Enquirer, local gossip rag for all the petulant housewives in the area. The mocking started when the interviews did, the destruction of property too but I didn't care as much about my puke yellow locker as I did my car. The very last present my dad had gotten me, it wasn't exactly the pony I'd been hoping for but the sleek, black Le'Baron was a close second. My friends turned against me, one by one siding with those who sought to slander what had been the good name of Keith Mars — protector of the little guy, seeker of truth, hero to tiny blonde daughters everywhere. Even Piz, steadfast Stosh Piznarski who'd been my best friend for as long as I could remember, practically sandbox buddies, didn't believe me when I told him it was a mistake. A huge misunderstanding that I'd figure out one way or another, just like my dad did. Instead he shook his head and looked at me with something akin to pity, murmuring some lame excuse for an apology and ran to catch up with Parker Lee — the bubbly blonde who was coincidentally the one running the crusade against my father. We used to be friends, a long time ago. It was unfortunate for both of us I guess that my dad had been the one to catch hers embezzling from the insurance company he worked for.
While I was at school toying with the idea of burying my head in the sand Emily had been at home with Sharon White from Human Services. She couldn't stay in Oregon any longer without getting fired and after my 'trial run' in her home court it had been unanimously decided that we weren't compatible. Turns out Emily's husband Robert wasn't thrilled by the idea of raising the hellspawn of Keith Mars and I hadn't been afraid to show him the business end of my trusty taser — another gift from my deceased father, if he uttered a certain string of expletives in association with my father's name again and that had pretty much been that. Time to call it quits. It wasn't long before they told me they'd found my mother in some podunk beach town just south of Los Angeles. I didn't want to see her, she hadn't even contacted me when dad died and there was no way she didn't know, not when she was a mere 14 hours away by car. They didn't know about her issues or why she left us, just that she had a few speeding fines and was renting a small apartment in the lower income part of Neptune, California. As my mother she was still my legal guardian, I didn't have much of a choice as Sharon not so kindly pointed out to me upon my initial refusal. Within a month all my things had been packed up, the door to my house boarded up and my father left behind in a cemetery on the other side of town. With regularly scheduled court appointed visits to the local therapist, James something? I was thrust upon my mother and Neptune, California. As it turns out, a town without a middle class.
A/N: I know this is like my third (unbeta'd) WIP to be posted but this pretty much totally AU idea popped into my head and I had to expand on it. Will incorporate aspects of the series and begins a month and a half or so into her junior year which began the first week or so of September, timeline wise that puts chapter one in the second or third week of October I think. The time she spent in Washington was during the summer holidays between her sophomore and junior years. They began in June and ran until September, I'm not sure if this is accurate for the region but I'm Australian and frankly doing the best I can with your wacky academic system northern hemisphere. Keith's mysterious death took place sometime in July, I will be looking back on an American '03/'04 calendar to nail down the dates in question then will layout a more structured pre-fic timeline to help you along. Also I know squat about Oregon, or anywhere else for that matter. To me America is mostly, Florida, California, New York, Baltimore and Texas. Texas takes up like half the U.S map. Sorry guys.
This will be a LoVe story but it's a long, unpaved road yet. I'm really looking forward to this one. I have what I hope are some original ideas that'll keep you coming back. There's far more to come!
P.S sorry for the appallingly long author's note but the story will make for an easier read if I help you hammer out the timeline details in your mind. As always, thanks for reading - H. :).