A/N: Took some liberties with Casey's character since he is not very fleshed out in the series. The idea got stuck in my head after re-watching 1x09.
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Pilot
"Hey Veronica." Veronica's head snapped up from her lunch tray at the sound of the unexpected voice. Wallace, the new guy, had just left to find his next class and Veronica expected to spend the rest of lunch alone, glaring at whoever got too close.
"Casey, I can ask someone to scoot over if you want to sit." She offered gesturing towards the empty table as if there was no room left.
"I think there's an open spot right here." He replied smiling and sitting next to her. "So, history was pretty interesting today."
Veronica gave him a puzzled look but decided to bite. She didn't have anything else to do. Normally 09ers avoided her, by order of his majesty Logan Echolls, apparently Casey had missed the royal decree.
"Yeah. is pretty awesome. I love learning about the Spanish Inquisition. Bloodshed, religious fervor, fear. It's just uplifting." She quipped taking a bite of her salad.
"I ordered some Chinese. If you want to share or something." Casey offered gesturing at her sorry looking salad.
"Did you get Sweet'n'Sour Chicken? Fried Rice? Egg Rolls?" Veronica asked excitedly. "You know the classics."
"Check, check, and check." He replied, waving the delivery boy over. "Here, chopsticks." He opened the white boxes and they dug in.
Veronica glanced at the table where the rest of the 09ers were sitting. They were all whispering and gesturing towards her and her unexpected lunch guest. Apparently the rest of the court weren't very happy about one of their own eating lunch with the infamously disliked Veronica Mars.
"We have an audience." Veronica whispered to Casey gesturing to his "friends".
"Well, all they have to talk about normally is daddy's money, mommy's botox shots, and how high they're going to get after school so they need something more interesting to discuss." Casey replied winking at her.
"Um...not to sound rude or anything but why are you being so nice? I'm like a social pariah. You'd think I had leprosy or something with the way people avoid me." Veronica said taking a bite of her chicken.
"I don't really care what anyone else does." He replied. "They only like me because I'm rich and my parents own a house in a certain zip code. There's more to life then that." Casey's honesty surprised her. Most of the 09ers would brag about their money and what it got them. He seemed unaffected or at the least indifferent.
"Did you forget to take your brainwashing pills this morning?" Veronica teased him.
"Yeah, I gave them to Madison. She seemed to be thinking extra hard today didn't want her to hurt herself." He replied. "Here have the last piece." He picked up the last piece of chicken with his chopsticks and gently fed it to her. Veronica blushed.
"Thanks for lunch. I've got to get to class." She said hurriedly.
"Here let me carry that." Casey offered taking her backpack from her. "So, look I heard about your mom and I just wanted to say that sucks. You know if you ever want to talk I'm here."
"Thanks but I think I can handle it." Veronica replied sharply, slipping her tough outer shell back on.
He nodded slowly handing her backpack back to her as they reached the door of her class.
"I said that too when my mom left." With that Casey started down the hallway. Veronica watched him. She hadn't knows Casey's mom left. He turned around before rounding the corner. "You know where to find me." With that he was gone and Veronica was left staring after him.
"Apparently Casey forgot where his table was at lunch." Logan sniped coming up behind her. "Good thing I drew him a map." Logan pulled out a piece of paper. "See here's acceptable lunch table, it has a smiley face. And this skull and bones here means social suicide, that's you." He smiled at Veronica and went to take his seat.
"Gee Logan you should be an artist. It would fit so well with your tortured soul." Veronica replied. She walked away from him and took her seat. Still puzzled over Casey's actions. It wasn't that she didn't like having him join her at lunch, it was just a little unexpected.
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A/N: So my plan is to do short little chapters for each episode up to episode 19 of season 1. They would focus on Veronica/Casey and will all be pre-LoVe. Let me know what you think.