A/N : Wow, the response to my first chapter was phenominal! Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment. I really hope you all continue to enjoy the story :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 2
Here we are again at Neptune High, a school of extremes. On the one side you have us; the elite, the rich and pretty, commonly known as the 09ers because of the prestigious zipcode in which we live. On the other side of the divide you have your ordinary people, whose parents have 'real' jobs and whose cars are held together by the proverbial spit and string.
Sometimes I crave to trade places with the unknown and unnoticed, though I know they're probably sitting across the quad, staring at me from behind their pudding cups and wishing they were here, crammed into the corner by my brother and sister, along with Dick Casablancas, Madison Sinclair, and various other idiots and bitches that have social status.
Maybe those words are a little strong. Dick and the guys really aren't so bad, in fact some of them, like Casey for example, could be quite sweet. For the girls though, with them I have to stand by my first description, they really are bitches! I'm afraid to say my sister, Lilly, is quite capable of being the queen of the crowd, and as such the nastiest of the nasty girls. It's not like it's me she's talking about or to most of the time, and I have no real reason to care for the boys and girls that are shot down by her venom, but once in a while, it bothers me.
"Hey, V" Lilly demanded her sister's attention, snapping her fingers in the younger girls face, "You gonna sit there scribbling away in your little book all day or actually talk to us?" she rolled her eyes, as Veronica closed up her book and folded her arms on top of it.
"Something in particular you want to talk about, Lilly?" she asked, squinting against the suns light as she looked up at her sister who was now sat on the table instead of the bench around it, "I mean, if you needed a sisterly gossip-fest, I was available all weekend"
"Oh please, Veronica!" Lilly complained, "Do not start ragging on me for my partying!" she urged her sister, "As if I don't get enough of that from Mom and Dad" she sighed dramatically.
"Your folks are wound pretty tight" Dick laughed, "But hey, you at least got to meet the new guy before anybody else, right?" he said, sliding along the bench to squeeze in close to Veronica who was less than impressed.
"Some of us met Logan Echolls, yes" she smiled sweetly up at Lilly who just laughed, faking an over-dramatised yawn.
"Been there, done that" she said with a glint in her eyes that the gang knew only too well.
"Lilly!" Duncan's tone was reprimand enough, but his sisters weren't exactly the easiest too control, not even Veronica.
"Cool down, little brother" Lilly urged him, "Honestly, you're getting as prudish as Mom and Dad" she said tiredly as she hopped down off the table into the waiting arms of the nearest nameless guy, offering him favours if he bought her lunch.
Veronica shook her head as she watched Neptune's good time girl, also known as her sister, walk away with a giggle and a wave over her shoulder.
"Dude, she is so cool" Dick laughed, his arm going around Veronica's shoulders of it's own accord.
"Cool?" Veronica echoed with an unimpressed look, "Yeah, not the word I would've used" she rolled her eyes, stuffing her book into her bag and preparing to move.
"Hey, what's up, Ronnie?" he asked as she pushed his arm away and urged him to get up so she could get out.
"Nothing" she smiled, after all it really wasn't his fault she wanted out, "I just... I have to go... to the bathroom" she lied easily as she hurried away.
"Dude, what's her deal?" the blond shook his head as he watched her go, turning to Duncan for explanation.
"I don't know, man" he admitted, wondering if it was worth going after his twin.
They'd been closer as kids, but as they'd got older had steadily grown apart, maybe because when boys and girls hit puberty things changed, but he wasn't so sure that should apply to siblings in quite the same way as friends or whatever. All Duncan knew was that neither of his sisters seemed overly thrilled to have him around lately, and both, in their own special ways, seemed to like to embarrass him in company.
This is one of many places that might be called my Fortress of Solitude. Okay, so I'm not exactly alone here beneath the bleachers, with unknown numbers of students and faculty members passing over head, the football team and cheerleaders having practice a few yards away on the field, and the rest of the school within spitting distance of me, but in spite all those crowds of people who wish they knew me or were me, down here I feel much more at home.
The older I get, the more I find I like my own company better than that of my family and/or so-called friends. Maybe it's because I'm sub-consciously telling myself it's true, maybe there's another better reason that I just haven't found yet, maybe...
"Maybe I underestimated the sneakiness of you Neptunians" said a voice a few yards away, and Veronica looked up sharply from her book to see Logan Echolls standing there.
"Since you're the one who just appeared out of nowhere in a place I've been coming to for a couple of years, I'd say you were the sneaky one" Veronica said smartly, capping her pen and pushing her things back into her bag.
"Touche" Logan smirked as he came to lean on a wooden post right beside where she was sitting, "So, since I'm not allowed to ask about the mysterious big book you seem to spend all your time scribbling in" he said, as he stared down at her, "How about we start with why you might be hiding under the bleachers at lunch?" he asked her.
"I could ask you the same thing" Veronica shot back, "Though I think before that I'd like to know why you're even here at all, at this school" she pressed, "I didn't see you in any classes, and nobody made any kind of announcement..." she mused, with a shake of her head.
"It's easier when you're a well-known to keep your head down" Logan told her, "Though honestly I don't know why I'm telling this to the daughter of the wealthiest and most famous man in town"
"Maybe not anymore" she shrugged, moving to get up and considering just a moment before taking the hand he offered to pull her to her feet, "You don't think the great Aaron Echolls matters more to a town than a business tycoon?" she asked him, "People are more shallow for looks than money" she smirked, brushing dust from her butt and picking up her bag, "Just ask my sister" she muttered to herself as she walked past her latest acquaintance.
"Ooh, do I sense a little jealous streak, Veronica?" he checked, and the smirk which appeared to be his trademark was ever present when she turned around to face him with indigence in her eyes.
"I would never be jealous of Lilly" she shook her head, almost amused by his words when she thought about it a moment, "Especially after what she just told me about you and her"
"Me and her?" Logan frowned, looking entirely oblivious to her meaning.
Veronica didn't know whether his indifference and confusion were real or not and though she wished she didn't care either way, a part of her did, and she stopped herself from walking away as originally planned.
"C'mon, Logan" she smiled, "I do sometimes read magazines, and I watch TV" she told him, "Your reputation proceeds you where girlfriends are concerned"
"You believe everything you hear or read?" Logan asked her, as if it were more of a challenge than just a simple question.
"That depends on the source and the topic" Veronica shot back, hitching her bag further onto her shoulder, "Teenage boys are what they are, and I should know, I do have a twin brother"
"Are you always so quick to judge, Veronica, or should I feel special?" Logan smirked as he leaned his back heavily against the wooden post beneath the bleachers, and folded his arms across his chest as he observed her.
"Do you always have to answer every question you're asked with another question?" she checked, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Do you?" he replied, as they stared each other down, not really knowing why they were even having this conversation.
Veronica considered answering him with something witty and clever but nothing really came to mind, a fact she attributed to the way he was looking at her. His eyes felt they were burning into her, but not in a bad way, whilst a smirk sat on his lips that ought to be just annoying but instead was both that and kind of sexy.
"I don't have time for this" she said eventually with a shake of her head and a smile borne more out of amused confusion than anything else.
She hurried out from her hiding place, careful not to be spotted, after all, she didn't want everyone knowing where she spent her time. The whole point of being down there was to be alone, and yet it seemed she was to expect at least one visitor once in a while.
Logan Echolls. Here's the skinny on the new boy in town, if you believe the girly magazines and the E! Hollywood stories, son of movie stars Aaron and Lynn, Logan Echolls was born to fame and fortune, and took to it like a duck to water. Though at the tender age of sixteen he has yet to star in any of his own movies, he is already predicted to be one of the brightest stars of our generation. With the fame and the fortune comes fast cars, wild parties, and girls... lots of girls, which may or may not include my sister, Lilly.
So, that's what the news reporters say, it's what seemed to be the likeliest option for his character, and yet, there might just be a little more to it than that. Growing up in a high class and privileged family, I'm used to judging and being judged. I try not to work off first impressions too much, they can be unfair, but most of the time it's only human to go on the information that's available and not worry too much that you might not have all the evidence.
I know I sound like a woman of the law right now, I guess I hung around the Sheriffs station a little too much over the Summer. It's all pretty interesting there though, and Sheriff Mars never complains when I ask questions or whatever. Mom and Dad have no idea that's where I was everytime they couldn't find me. They never liked the Sheriff all that much, though he never did anything to us as far as I know. There's no possible way my Dad could ever have had any trouble with the law, he's way too straight for that.
Anyway, I had a point when I started writing here, and it wasn't about Sheriff Mars or my family, it was about Logan Echolls. Given the apparent size of his ego and the fact he seems so interested in what I write here, his head would probably swell to the point of explosion if he knew he was the main topic of just one entry, but then I highly doubt I'll ever be telling him about this.
He seemed weirdly shy about joining the ranks of Neptune High's 09er elite, which is actually interesting for a person who was having photo ops lined up for him whilst he was being bottle-fed champagne. Still, the boy has spirit, and that's not a bad thing. Sometimes those that surround me can be a little to eager to please. A conversation with someone that doesn't either think of me as boring same-old Veronica Kane, or some kind of princess that should be stared at like something under a microscope instead of talked to, well, it's nice, I guess.
"Hey, V!" Lilly called for a second time from the half open doorway, "Honestly, little sister, you're getting way to into the contemplative writing thing" she shook her head.
"Look at it his way, Lilly, if I'm writing down what I think instead of saying it, at least I'm not bugging anybody" Veronica smiled, as she put her book and pen away, and Lilly came further into the room.
"You don't bug me" she said quickly, almost as if she might have been offended by the almost-accusation that she didn't want her little sister around, "You know if you wanna talk to me, about anything, it's cool" she said, sitting herself down on the end of the bed and kicking her feet like a child, "I know we've both been kind of doing our own thing lately but we're still best friends, right?"
"Sure" Veronica nodded her agreement.
She did love her sister, and Duncan too, it was just that lately it felt as if something was missing. It was nothing they'd done, or that she'd done come to that, things were just different, and the older they got the more noticeable it was.
"I ran into Logan Echolls today" she said, mostly for something to say, though there was a point to it, Veronica realised as she continued, "After I left you guys, at lunch"
"He was at Neptune High?" Lilly checked, "I didn't see him"
"It turns out our resident movie stars son is not such a fan of big entrances as you'd think" she shrugged, "And if you make the disgusting joke that could follow that sentence, I will throw up rather spectacularly" she added, holding her hand up to hold her sisters words just the moment Lilly opened her mouth.
"If you knew what was coming, Veronica, dear, then your mind's not as pure as everybody thinks" Lilly grinned.
"You should never trust what other people think or say about a person" the younger blonde said, realising as the words fell off her lips that it was very similar to something Logan had said to her just a few hours ago, "Which reminds me, did you meet Logan before like you said? Or was that just for the benefit of our celebrity loving friends?" she asked with an eye-roll.
"I met him, kind of" Lilly admitted with a smile, "but we didn't..."
"Uh-huh" Veronica nodded, not sure why she'd even cared enough to ask, but there it was, the truth from her sister.
Lilly Kane really didn't care much for the truth most of the time, gossip and rumour and the like were much more her thing, but if there was one person she would always be honest with when asked, it was her little sister. She was her only ally and most trusted friend. In that role, at least, Veronica Kane felt as if she belonged.
To Be Continued...