When Veronica made her way downstairs to the kitchen area, she was surprised to find that almost everybody was awake and eating breakfast. Casey was preparing bacon and eggs, and Veronica gave him an appreciative pat on the back, already feeling the scent of the food easing her hangover.

"You're a god, Casey," she joked, as she grabbed the plate that he had just dished up for her.

"That's what we like to hear! I always knew you were a morning person, Mars," he replied with a smile.

As Veronica took a seat at the table, she could tell that Duncan was avoiding looking at her, or anyone who had walked in on him and Meg, but particularly her. Meg, however, was sending an apologetic look at Veronica; embarrassment was still apparent on her face shown by the slight pink in her cheeks.

When Dick entered the room and everyone around them launched into several different arguments, all concerning Dick's state of drunkenness last night and its consequences, Meg took the seat next to Veronica.

"I just wanted to apologize for last night, Veronica. I'm so, so, so, so, so, so-" Meg began, but Veronica cut her off.

"Don't apologize," she said with a laugh, "If I were you, I wouldn't be sorry, I'd be damn embarrassed."

"Oh but I am," Meg said quietly. Veronica patted her friend on the back for comfort. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure we've all done embarrassing things…"

"Ha! Yeah, everyone but you," Meg countered. "I should have told you myself that Duncan and I were sharing a room, instead of just kicking you out on your ass. It was a really uncool thing to do. I mean, you might have had a real problem with sharing with Logan, and I didn't even consider you. I'm a bad friend."

"No, you're not," Veronica said. "Don't worry about it, Meg."

"Are you sure? I feel really bad about the whole thing."

"Don't," Veronica said, standing up. "Now I'm going to get some more of Casey's instant hangover cure. And we'll just forget that the whole thing ever happened, right?"

Meg heaved a sigh of relief, "oh please."

Veronica laughed, "I somehow doubt that Lilly will forget as easily as me though."

"I'm not surprised. She doesn't like me very much, does she?" Meg asked timidly.

"…What? That's not true…Lilly likes you," Veronica said unconvincingly.

"You're a terrible liar, Veronica," Logan said, as he walked past and heard the passing conversation. Meg frowned at Veronica, who wrinkled her nose at Logan.

"I disagree. I'm a fantastic liar, but some people can just read me a little better than others," Veronica argued, which earned a chuckle from Logan.


As much as Veronica tried to deny it as much as she could, seeing Duncan and Meg together all the time bothered her somewhat. It's not as if she said anything to anyone; certainly not Lilly, as even a small comment would surely trigger Lilly off on a Meg bitch-a-thon.

And it wasn't even the fact that Duncan and Meg were together; she had gotten over that a long time ago. It was the fact that sometimes, if she was willing to admit it, she was a little lonely, and seeing as most, if not all of her friends were or had been in a relationship - even Meg "the Virgin" was not looking as if she was going to stay that way forever (especially since her and Duncan would be sharing a bedroom all week) Veronica felt even more pathetic, and more insecure.

"You know the downside of sharing a room with you?" Logan asked as they were sitting on the dock, dangling their feet in the water. The summer heat had finally got to its peak and the rest of their friends were happily swimming and splashing around in the lake. Veronica had inconveniently forgotten to pack her swimsuit and had declined a swim. Logan had decided to join her, just sitting on the deck and keeping her company.

"What's that?" Veronica asked, turning around to face him, pushing her sunglasses off of her face for a moment.

Logan looked down at the wood of the dock, "well, I won't be able to bring any girls back to the room now," he said, looking up at her with a smirk on his face.

Veronica flicked some water at him, "ha! Like a girl would want to go back to your room. You haven't been with anyone since Lilly gave you the flick," she said, emphasizing her words by flicking more water at Logan.

"Well, Lilly cheated on me with Weevil; and if that's not a complete libido killer, I don't know what is," he joked.

"Do you miss her?" Veronica asked quietly. Logan looked at her, "Lilly?" he asked. Veronica nodded.

"We're still friends, Veronica. It's not like we don't talk anymore or anything," he said, showing defence at Veronica's question. He took a breath, "sorry, that was uncalled for. But you mean…I know what you mean, and nah, I don't really miss her at all. When we were dating, I thought that we were perfect for each other, but now I look at her, and she doesn't seem anywhere near as special. I mean, we have nothing in common and her morals are completely out of wack…its kinda crazy that we even dated to begin with when I think about it," he replied, using his hands as he did when he talked.

"Why do you ask?" Logan asked suspiciously.

"No reason," Veronica said quickly, tucking a long piece of hair that was particularly bothering her in the heat, behind her ear. "I mean I was just curious to know whether seeing her with other guys bothered you."

"Does seeing Duncan with Meg bother you?" Logan shot back.

"Ha! Like my opinion even matters anyway. But not so much; I thought it would bother me more, but if Duncan was to hook up with anyone, I'm glad it was Meg," she said truthfully.

"It's hot out here," Logan said after nodding his head in response to what Veronica was discussing. Logan began to take off his sweaty t-shirt and Veronica found herself unconsciously oogling her friend. She inwardly scolded herself when she realized what she was doing; but damn! She'd never taken the time to appreciate just how good-looking Logan was without a shirt.

"Veronica!" Logan said, clicking his fingers in front of her face to gain her attention.

Oh god, please don't let me be drooling.

Veronica averted her gaze back to Logan's face, "huh?"

Logan laughed, "Where'd you just go? I asked you whether you were hot. It must be close to 100 degrees out here."

"Yeah, something like that," Veronica agreed absently as she felt her cheeks burn just a little.

She didn't see it coming when Logan pushed her into the lake, fully clothed. Veronica emerged from the water, feeling refreshed, yet angry and annoyed, while Logan laughed at her.

"I'll get you back for that!" Veronica vowed, as she climbed back onto the dock. For a moment, she considered pushing a laughing Logan into the lake as payback, but decided that it would be more difficult considering his size, and that if she waited, her revenge would be better.


"Veronica, are you up for some mud football – except without the mud?" Casey asked with a smile the next day.

"An excuse to kick the guys asses? Do you even have to ask?" she joked, getting up from a lounge chair that was set up under a large tree. Veronica clapped her hands together in preparation.

"I'm playing too!" Lilly said, jumping up from her own lounge chair and joining Veronica on her way over to the other side of the yard, where the boys were marking out the field, leaving the other girls and Sean lounging behind them.

"You just want to play so the guys have an excuse to touch you without getting berated by Luke," Veronica accused as she walked over.

"Veronica Mars! You have a very dirty mind!" Lilly replied. She lowered her voice a tone before continuing, "but congratulations for figuring out my master plan," she half-joked with a giggle.

"So whose team am I on?" Lilly asked loudly to the guys.

"Lil, are you sure you want to get involved?" Luke asked hesitantly. "I mean, it can be a little rough."

"Ha! Rough schmugh! I think I can handle a little football, Luke. And anyway, Veronica is smaller than me, and nobody is telling her to get lost."

"Only because we know what Veronica is capable of…I don't think that my leg is the same since that last time we played two on two at our place," Duncan said, Veronica poised her fist ready to strike his arm painfully until she heard Dick Casablancas quietly comment, "two-on-two…kinky," and her blow acquired a new target, earning a yelp from the perpetrator.

"Okay," Cole said, clapping his hands together and taking charge of the game. "Casey, Dick, Duncan, Troy and Veronica on one team and Lilly, Enbom, Kaz, Logan, Luke and me on the other…wait, the teams are uneven."

"Well you could ask Sean to play but he's even worse than Lilly, so that would be more like losing a player rather than gaining one," Troy said, eliciting a "hey!" from Lilly. "I said worse," Troy defended. Lilly scowled at him.

"I'll play if you guys are stumped for players," Meg offered, as she walked out from the house and overheard their conversation.

"Great, you're on my team," Veronica said brightly, as she dragged Meg over to where her teammates were beginning to huddle. Veronica swore she heard a groan from where Lilly was standing in response to the new addition to the team opposing her own.

"Okay guys," Duncan started, as Veronica and Meg approached the huddle and a gap emerged for them to join in. He had obviously been appointed captain for the game. "Man up, because we want to beat these guys. If we lose…" he looked stressed for some reason.

"What?" Meg asked with raised eyebrows, after seeing the nervous look on her boyfriend's face.

"Then I take a skinny dip in the lake," Duncan muttered, causing a few of their teammates to laugh. "Break!" Duncan said loudly, before the whole team moved over to their positions in the middle of the field.

Veronica immediately saw Lilly making her way over to Meg; Lilly's intentions made clear by the wicked look in her eye, and Veronica hoped that Meg's cheerleader training had included sprints.

"Logan?" Veronica asked uncertainly as one of the tallest players of the opposite team made their way towards her.

"Mars," Logan replied professionally, as he stooped down in position for the game.

"Wow. I have to say; I am a little impressed. Little old me required a defender like yourself? I'm about to burst with self-pride," she joked.

"Ha ha," Logan chuckled, "see, that's the foil. You may have fooled us before with your seemingly unobvious small size and physique, but not this time. I'm not going to let you get away and score four touchdowns like last time," he smiled.

"We were on the same team!" Veronica said.

"Yeah, but this time is different; I know all of your dirty tricks," he said, waggling his eyebrows at her.

"Hey, I hear you and Duncan have a little bet about the outcome of this game. Loser takes a nice little skinny dip in the lake tonight? Well I'm just ensuring that you're the one who ends up embarrassed in the long run. You deserve it after pushing me in the lake yesterday."

"You just want to see me in the nude," Logan smirked. Veronica scoffed her reply. "In. Your. Dreams."

The two were so involved in their little sparring contest that neither Veronica nor Logan had realized that the game had started. Duncan alerted them to the fact by yelling, "Veronica!" as he threw the ball in her direction.

Veronica's reflexes kicked in as she captured the ball at the last minute safely in her hands and continued to run with it. Logan, who was still reeling at the sudden movement on the field, was unaware for a second about what was going on. He only noticed Veronica running away with the ball a second later. Luckily for Logan, his legs were a lot longer than hers, and he caught up within a moment.

Veronica, out of the corner of her eye, saw Logan approaching and passed the ball off to Troy. Logan thought it would be fun to tackle Veronica anyway, so he did, making sure that she didn't get hurt in the process, Logan stooped down and wrapped his arms around Veronica before hurtling them both to the ground.

"Logan! Logan let me go!" she squealed, squirming to get out of his grip and back on her feet. "Come on, Logan, I don't even have the ball," she countered, going limp in his arms. Logan released Veronica slowly, and when she was free, she got up straight away and ran to the ball, scoring a touchdown for their team before Logan had even realized what had happened and gotten off of the ground.

Whilst Veronica's team ran over to congratulate her, Logan's team came over to berate him.

"She's a girl, man, and you couldn't even stop her?" Enbom started.

"If you weren't rolling around in the dirt like a pig…" Kaz said, as he bumped into Logan with his shoulder on his way past. Slowly, the rest of the team walked back to their starting positions. Veronica was also on her way back to the center, taking courtesy to poke her tongue out at him as she made her way over.

"Well you certainly excelled at rolling around with Veronica," Lilly said softly whilst Veronica was still out of earshot. Logan rolled his eyes at her. "Don't even try to deny it," she added, as she went back to her position, which was trying to lay a hard tackle on Meg.

"You're a really good defender, Logan," Veronica said sarcastically as she lined up facing him.

"Shut up," he grumbled, which made Veronica giggle. "That was a freebie. There's going to be no mercy from now on, Mars, so you'd better watch out."

"I'm so scared!" she teased.

"You should be," he added, before the game started and Veronica tried to make a run for it; however, Logan wouldn't have any of that, and ran straight after her.

Duncan's quarterback-esque pass was headed straight for its target; Veronica, who, in turn was headed straight for the touchdown line. As Logan tried to catch her, Dick Casablancas, crashed into him, suddenly hitting him ferociously on the side.

Logan immediately went to ground, and the rest of the spectators and players; save Veronica, saw the sickening knock.

"Touchdown!" Veronica shouted as she put the ball down. "Suck on that--" She was cut off when she saw the scene at hand; Logan was lying limp on the ground whilst Dick lie next to him. Everyone else was watching on in shock and slowly approaching their injured friends.

Veronica immediately ran to the crowd.

"Fuuuuuck man. Did you see that hit? You'd better appreciate the sacrifice I'm making here for the team, Duncan," Dick commented, as he rubbed a small egg that was forming on the side of his head. "Is Logan okay?"

At that moment, Logan groaned loudly, slowly lifting himself off the ground and, like Dick, rubbing the egg that was forming on the side of his head.

"And this is why guys shouldn't play football…why couldn't you just sit on the sidelines and look pretty like you're supposed to?" Veronica quipped.

"I'll get some ice," Meg said, heading towards the house as their friends slowly began to dissipate back to the sun chairs under the tree.

"Let me take a look at that," Veronica offered when Logan groaned loudly again. He bowed his head towards her to give her access.

Veronica winced as soon as her hand found the lump amongst Logan's hair. "Ouch," she commented simply as she rubbed it gently.

"You could say that," he replied quietly.

When Meg returned from the house with two ice bags, Veronica immediately reached out for one, applying it to Logan's head as Meg handed the other bag to Dick.

"What? Don't I get any special treatment like Logan? This is rigged," he commented loudly, slapping the bag onto the side of his face. Veronica rolled her eyes at him as she continued to hold the bag onto Logan's head.

"Let's lie down," Logan said, looking out of the side of his eyes for her response. Veronica nodded before handing the bag back to Logan so that he could walk into the house normally, following behind him as he made his way.

As soon as Logan and Veronica were inside, with the front door closed, Lilly came up with a 'fabulous' idea.

"Okay people, hook-up bets are on!" She said excitedly to the few people who were still gathered in the middle of the field.

"Fifty on Logan and Marsie doing the do right now in the bedroom," Dick said, opening his wallet and taking out a 50 dollar note.

"Please," Lilly said, rolling her eyes, but she took the fifty from him anyway.

"Lilly, what are you doing?" Duncan said, walking up to the group with a lazy arm resting on Meg's shoulder.

"Relax, Donut. I'm just making a little spending money now that Celeste cancelled my Platinum. Gah! She's such a hormonal bitch," Lilly replied.

"Twenty on Casey and Veronica," Shelley piped up. Lilly once again rolled her eyes, but practically snatched the money away from her friend.

"Okay then Lilly, you think you're so smart, let's see you try and grovel your way back into your daddy's wallet when you have to pay all these people back. Dick and Veronica," Troy said, rubbing his hands together before taking out his own wallet and slamming down a one-hundred dollar note.

"No bookie in their right minds would take on that bet," Lilly countered, eyeing the note.

"It could totally happen!" Dick tried to convince everyone.

"Good thing you aren't an actual bookie then, are you?" Meg commented to Lilly, earning an appreciative grin from Duncan and a death glare from his sister.

"Well why don't you give it a whirl then, Meg?" Lilly asked loudly, emphasizing the name Meg.

"Okay then," she said, reaching into the pocket of her skirt and taking out a twenty, all while never losing eye contact with Lilly. Duncan was impressed; Meg was taking on Lilly. "Caitlin and Troy."

"Duncan and Meg," Sean said, placing a forty tenderly into Lilly's lap.

"It's a hook-up bet!" Lilly said in her 'duh' voice. "Not a hooked-up bet, you doosh," she threw the money back at him.

"Ahh, okay then, um…Casey and Carrie," Luke said, handing Lilly a twenty. Lilly gave her boyfriend a big smile.

"Madison and Dick…again," Cole laughed, earning a punch in the arm from Dick as he passed through with a twenty.

"I guess that's it then?" she asked, putting all of the notes she had acquired into her pocket. "No more bets?"

"I've got one," Duncan said in a booming loud voice. Lilly looked at him with a surprised expression on her face. "One grand… on you and Logan."

In the background, both siblings were aware that everyone else was either in awe about the money, or who he'd placed it on but the Kane's simply continued to stare at each other intensely.

"Oh this is going to be easy, little brother," Lilly said, only loudly enough for Duncan to hear.

"Easy for you to keep your hands off of Logan for a week? I think I know you a little better than everyone else, Lil. I know that most nights he sneaks into your room, and vice versa. And I also know that it is going to kill you to see him going sweet on Veronica," Duncan countered, not backing down from his bet.

Lilly stepped back with a sort of victorious look on her face, "Really think so? Game on, Duncan. Game On."


A/N So Duncan knows something that perhaps everyone else doesn't know? Well it certainly makes things a little more interesting. I guess you'll have to wait and see...part three is on its way, all I ask for in exchange is a review. They rock my world. Thanks for reading!