"I missed you guys after 8th." Heather Duke says as she comes up behind both of them as Heather McNamara and Veronica talk before class starts with a smile on her face and Heather's red scrunchie in her hair.

"Yeah, that's cause we were avoiding you." Veronica responds standing to face the green girl with a scowl on her face, still not over the fact that two days ago Heather had almost killed herself and Duke was one of the people who pushed her to that point, followed quickly by McNamara.

"What you did yesterday was not cool, Duke." Heather adds hanging close to the blue girl.

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes, "here, I need you two to sign this." She says handing Veronica a clip board

"What's this for?" She asks hesitantly, trying to find the top of the petition to figure what she's supposed to be signing.

"A petition for the governor to declare a day of mourning for the suicide victims."

"I'm not signing that." Veronica replies, "and you shouldn't either." She says to both Heathers, directing it more towards Mac than Duke.

"Why are you pulling my dick, Veronica? Besides, it was your boyfriend's idea, I got everyone to sign it, even the geeks and losers."

"JD?" She asks ignoring the fact that he's now her ex, she looks it over closer, what the fuck is he up to, "Look I don't know what he's up to but it can't be good." She tries to convince Duke

"You're sure, Ronnie?" The yellow girl behind her asks

"Yeah." Veronica nods, "I'm not signing that. And if you know what's good for you, please just… destroy that thing."

"I'm not signing that either, Veronica knows JD more than any of the rest of us, if she says don't listen to him, I'm not going to." Mac shakes her head

"Fine, I'll just fake your guy's signatures like I did Martha Dumptruck. She's not in any condition to sign anything today." Duke smirks

The yellow girl sees Veronica's face drain, "What- What are you talking about?"

"She took a dive off the old mill bridge last night."

Veronica is now pale enough to resemble a piece of printer paper, "Oh my god. Is she-" her mouth hidden by cupped hands

"Dead? No, just a couple broken bones. Just another geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably."

"Ronnie," Heather asks putting a hand on the blue girl's upper arm, "are you okay?"

"No." She whispers before shaking her head "Yes, I'm- I'm fine. I have to- have to go." She looks up at the clock on the wall, three minutes before class starts, no time for a note, "I'll be back before the rally, okay?" She asks pulling her arm away from Heather and running out of the English class with her bag.

"Congrats, Veronica, you're finally a Heather." Heather Chandler says, Veronica swipes at the apparition as she continues her run to her car. She tosses her bag in the passenger seat and pulls out, tires squealing as she pulls out of the lot.

She gets all the way to the hospital before she freezes, dropping to the ground burying her head in her knees, "Martha, I'm so sorry." She manages between tears. She's unsure how long she stays like that, she just knows she can't go into the hospital and see the state she put her friend in.

"Come on 'Rrrronica." Kurt begins

"Come join us." Ram continues

"In Hell." Heather finishes, offering her hand to the living girl

She hits at the ghosts through the tears, standing and running back to her car, the blurt numbers on the dash tells her it's almost the end of second period, not having the stomach for school she starts driving to her house, needing some time to collect herself before heading back to school for the rally.

"Where have you been?" Her father demands as she shuts the door behind her

"We've been worried sick! The school called and said you weren't in any of your classes. Then your friend JD showed up and told us everything!" Her mom rants, pulling Veronica into a hug

"Everything?" She asks, there are no police officers arresting her so there's no way he told them everything. She attempts to calm herself

"That you're depressed again, having suicidal thoughts. He even showed us your copy of Moby Dick." Her mother continues as her father hands her a book that is not her copy, she had been one of the last ones to get to the library to get the book as she had been on a school trip, so her copy had half the cover was torn off and a spine barely holding onto the pages.

"Gotta give My Chemical Romance credit, he can certainly copy the forger's handwriting perfectly." Heather mutters behind her

"Mom, Dad, I'm fine." She tries to make them listen, though they are convinced JD was telling the truth.

"Please honey talk to us."

"No, you wouldn't understand." Veronica mutters seeing movement out her window, JD.

"Try me." Her mom tries to talk to her.

"Mom, Dad, I swear, I'm fine." Veronica moves to the stairs, "But I need to change and get to school, I'll explain everything later, okay?" She needs to get up to her room now and try to keep her psycho ex out of her room and her house. She runs upstairs without waiting for a response.

She takes a quick right turn into her room she slams the door shut before looking up, only to see her window wide open and standing there in his trench-coated glory is JD, "Sorry for coming through the window, dreadful etiquette, I know."

She runs to her closet, slamming it shut and locking it from the inside? "Get out of my house!" She yells hoping for some way to get out of this mess as he rants behind the door, he's going to fucking bomb the pep rally and kill everyone, but there's no way for me to stop the bastard here.

She sees her freshly folded sheets on the shelf near the door and an idea begins to form, she'd have to be quick, she grabs the sheets and throws them over the rafter, tying a noose that won't tighten. Suddenly the sound of the destruction of her room stops and three gunshots ring out, looking over quickly she sees three holes in her wall. Pulling down, the noose is done and she knows the last thing to make it believable, grabbing a marker she writes two words on the wall behind her before stepping back to the noose "VERONICA, open the door, please, I don't want to fight anymore." She hears him say as she puts the sheets around the neck, her feet hang almost two inches above the ground and she forces her body to relax as much as possible, "I'm gonna count to three! One two, fuck it!" And another gunshot rings out and JD opens the door "Veronica, no, you, you can't leave me, I can't do this alone." He pauses, kneeling at her feet, "They did this!" He yells, "They'll pay for this, Veronica, I swear." He growls sweeping out of her room and back through the room. She remains hanging there until she can't hold her breath anymore and drops to the ground, slamming her closet door shut and walking out of the house, grabbing her croquet mallet as she heads to her car, praying she could stop this madness.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

Heather McNamara was worried, she was able to calm herself for the first three periods, but then the whispering started during fourth, even then she could ignore them. That was until she begins walking to lunch, two more periods than the pep rally and game than the weekend. She reminds herself as she walks down the hall. Then she starts to listen to the whispers and the eyes on her as she passes.

"Hung herself."

"Her boyfriend told Mrs. F. Or was he her ex now? Do you know if they broke up, what's his name, Jack Davidson?"

"In her closet."

"He's a total psycho, I would've done it sooner."

"Veronica. No, I'm sure it was Sawyer." At that last one, she turns to the girl who had said it, it was Megan… something, she was a Junior and one of the drum majors in the band.

"What are you talking about, Megan?"

"Oh you haven't heard, Heather? After Veronica Sawyer ran off this morning, no one knows where she went for an hour and a half, but then she headed home and hung herself in her closet, JD told Mrs. Fleming during the transition between third and fourth."

Heather steps away from the Junior, "No." she whispers, there's no way Ronnie would do that to her, she would've told her, she promised, she runs to the lunchroom, grabbing her phone out of her pocket, calling Veronica with the number still easily readable on her forearm.

Ring

Ring

Voice mail

"Veronica, please call me when you get this, people… people are saying you killed yourself after you left, but that's bullshit, right? Call me please." She tries calling a few more times before messaging her several times, after almost twenty minutes, of nonstop attempts to get a hold of her, a pit forms in her stomach. She promised the thought echoes through her head in her pointless attempt to calm herself. Deciding to give it a few minutes, she attempts to eat, the only thing she brought that she thinks she could stomach was a couple yogurt cups, she eats them slowly, forcing herself to swallow and not vomit with each bite.

"I'm impressed, Heather, less than two days around you and you have Veronica hanging herself." She says with a cackle

"What do you want, Heather?" The head cheerleader mutters glaring at the girl with the red scrunchie.

"Oh, just wanted to be sure you knew about the bitch, wouldn't want you waiting on a dead girl before the pep rally."

"Don't call her that." Heather mumbles standing and walking out of the room, half running to the bathroom, grabbing out of her bag a yellow pill vial, attempting to open it.

"Don't." A voice behind her says, looking up into the mirror she sees Veronica, "You promised." The voice begs.

"So did you." She snaps at the dead girl, "you said it would stop, Ronnie, but you just made it keep going."

"Please, Mac, don't do this, not now, trust me, it's not worth it." Veronica tries again

"In the middle of the school bathroom, that's like the least private thing I can think of." Veronica's voice argues, she drops the pills in the sink, resting both hands on the edge of the sink, leaning on them and letting a few tears fall, "You promised, Veronica."

"Heather?" A voice asks by the door, Jen, next year's almost guaranteed cheer captain, "Coach is looking for you, she says it's time to dress out, the assembly is in 30 minutes."

"Yeah, I'll be right there." Heather nods, wiping ring the tears off her cheeks, grabbing her phone trying to call Veronica once more. Voicemail again. Shaking her head, knowing she just has to get through this rally, then she can leave, "Please, Ronnie, call me." she tries before shutting off her phone and throwing it in her bag before walking to the locker room, "Okay, ladies, ready?" She asks with a wide plastered on smile, as she quickly changes into her uniform, "Hey, Jen, think you're ready to lead the team?"

"Um, yeah?" She answers softly.

"Good, I'll take beginning and end, you're leading the ones during the assembly." Heather told her, as she fixes her hair in the mirror, hoping it wasn't obvious she had just been crying.

"You're sure?"

"Yes. Unless you don't think you're able?" She smirks.

"You can count on me, Captain." She smiles back.

"Good," she sighs, sounding perhaps sadder than she had intended, "Everyone ready? She asks clapping loudly and plastering the smile back on her face.

"Yes, Captain." They all nod.

"Good, let's go." She leads them out of the locker room, all of them spread around the gym, "Come on, Westerberg! Here we go, here we go now!" She begins the battle cry as pep band finishes setting up, then they can cycle so none of the cheerleaders lose their voice. As she looks through the crowd flooding through the doors, for a few seconds she swears she sees Veronica talking to Mrs. Fleming, but there's no way that's correct, the thought is confirmed when she doesn't go into the gym.

Slowly the crowd finishes filling in as the band plays the fight song before everyone goes silent for the anthem, one of the few traditions people in this school that are listened to by all. The choir begins. then when they get half way through something happens.

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.

And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in-

Suddenly there's a loud boom, the windows shatter, and a cloud of dirt and white powder covers the entire building, students scream rushing towards the exits despite the teacher's attempts to get them to sit again. The dust pores in the gym as the doors a pushed open,

"What the hell happened?"

"a bomb?"

"Is everyone okay?"

"So much smoke!"

"Someone brought a bomb?"

"What's that smell?"

Heather pushes her way up to the front of the crowd, as the dust clears she sees a figure sitting by one of the trees by the football stadium, leaning heavily on it, it's quickly becoming clear the stadium was the epicenter of the blast, moving closer to the figure she sees the figure is "Veronica?" She yells, breaking out of the crowd running up to the figure, who sure enough was the blue girl, she kneels, brown eyes flutter open to meet hers with an apologetic smile as she pulls Veronica into a tight hug, "Where have you been, Ronnie?" She pulls back, keeping on hand around the other girl, gently resting on her back, the other cupping her cheek, "People were saying you killed yourself after you left this morning."

Veronica opens her mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by Heather Duke, "You look like hell." Looking her over, Heather has to agree, soot, blood, dirt and grass cake the other girl's entire body, and even with that mess, Heather could clearly see a hand full of burns and cuts on her arms and legs, and a bad cut on her forehead How close to the blast had she been? How close had she been to actually being the next death at the school.

"I just got back." Veronica mutters slowly standing, shrugging Heather off her.

Heather notices she's clearly favoring her left side as she walks towards Duke, "What are you doing?" Duke asks as Veronica puts her right hand on the other girl's shoulder, snaking her left hand around the green girl, pulling the red scrunchie out of her hair and holding it up like a prize, kissing Duke on the cheek, leaving a mark of soot and dirt and blood on the green girl's face before she limps to the center of the crowd.

"LISTEN UP!" She yells causing a hush to fall over the crowd, "There's a new sheriff in town, and I've got something to say." She motions to the destruction all around them, "See what being assholes, being dicks, being evil gets us? We're all broken, damaged, terrified, freaks. But we'll survive it, we have to. We can't keep killing each other, the world will attempt to do that to us enough without us doing it to each other. Seniors, this is our last year to be kids, after this year, who the hell knows what comes next, so let's just be kids, because this is the last year we've got." At that she stops talking to the group, hoping she's gotten through to them, suddenly she sees a wheelchair close to the front, Martha, "Hey, Martha, are you free tonight?" She asks softly

"What?" She asks not believing her ears

"Well my date to the pep rally kinda blew..." Veronica coughs then sighs, shaking her head "Me off, I was hoping if you weren't busy we could do a movie night? Something with a happy ending?"

"Do those exist anymore?" Martha asks with a frown.

Veronica kneels so she can look the other girl in the eye "Martha, I can't promise no more clicks or that high school will ever end. But I miss you, and I could really use a friend if you let me be one?"

"I think I'd like that. I missed you too, Veronica." She nods, "How does the 'Princess Bride' sound?"

"It sounds perfect." Veronica nods, "Is it okay if I invite someone else to our movie night, I think she could really use some friends." She asks softly

"Yeah. Sounds good."

"Hey, Mac?" Veronica calls the cheerleader over, slowly standing and meeting her a bit away from Martha, "What are you doing tonight?"

"Well we had the football game but that doesn't look to be happening, so nothing." The yellow girl smiles

"Martha and I were going to do a movie night. You want to join us?"

"Really Ronnie? I was awful to both of you, especially Martha, for years. Do you really think she wants to watch a movie with me." the yellow girl almost seems to curl into herself as she admits how mean she had been, not that she wasn't anymore, but she didn't want to be anymore.

"Yeah, I asked her already, come on, it'll be fun."

"Then I'd love to." She hugs the taller girl, only for Veronica to let out a small hiss of pain, Heather quickly lets go, taking a step back, "Oh my god, are you okay, I'm so sorry, Veronica."

"It's fine, Heather, I'm just a little burnt and bruised."

"'A little' is an understatement, Veronica." Martha interrupts, "Before we do movie night you have to go get checked out."

"I'm fine." Veronica mutters

"Ronnie, you can hardly walk, Martha's right, we can't have you bleeding out on the couch cause you insist you're fine." Heather responds, "And if you really are fine, it'll be a quick trip."

"Okay, fine." She agrees they weren't wrong that she should probably have her ankle and right hand looked at at the very least.

"Can you take her?" Martha looks towards the cheerleader, "My parents want me home before I do anything tonight."

"Yeah, I'll call you as soon as we're done, okay?" Heather puts a steadying hand on Veronica's shoulder, "Ronnie, you can't drive like this, and I don't have a car, can I see your keys, I'll drive us there, okay?"

"Yeah." Veronica reaches into her pocket, pulling them between two fingers and dropping them into the cheerleader's hands.

"I need to grab my bag, we'll walk through the school to the student lot, okay?" She asks softly

"Yeah." The new leader of the school nods as the cheerleader makes the remaining crowd part for them, "Hell of a day, huh?"

"Yeah, hell of a day." Heather echoes, she turns and smiles at the blue girl, "I'm so happy you're okay though."

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Mac."

"Just, please, don't do it again." She begs, turning to look at the taller girl.

"Yeah, I promise." She responds, giving the other girl a loose hug, everything will be okay now. Heather runs her hand down Veronica's arm to her hand, squeezing it before twisting around a bit, not letting go of the Blue girl's hand as they go through the locker room nor when they finally leave the school through the rather crowded parking lot, and to the car.