A Different Way
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Pairing: LoVe, maybe some Duncan/Meg
AN: I don't have a beta for this fic so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors.
Chapter two: Back to School
Students around her were hurrying to their first period class while Veronica just stood, looking at her locker from a distance. She hadn't brought herself to go anywhere near it yet. The locker adjacent to it was, or at least it had been, Lilly's.
The surface of the locker was no longer visible. Pictures and cards now covered the yellow paint, even taking up the space of the unused bottom locker. Unlit candles and flowers were on the floor below the locker.
The late bell rang and the students around her quickened their pace as an attempt to not be marked tardy. Veronica just stood there. She didn't know what to do. Was she supposed to go to her locker and ruin the untouched makeshift memorial the students had set up for her late best friend?
Memories flooded her mind and she couldn't take it. It seemed like the walls of the school were closing in on her and she couldn't breathe; she had always been a little clausterphobic.
It was a Friday and Veronica thought that going back, even for one day, may help. So that she wouldn't have to face school for the first time on Monday. Veronica was wrong.
She had done all of her make-up assignments already. Meg Manning had brought them over for her, as well as Logan and Duncan's. It was another one of those mindless tasks that she had done to replace her thoughts of Lilly.
Veronica turned back around and left school. Once home, she climbed back into her bed and Logan's arm immediately fell across her waist, pulling her to him. She hadn't slept without him since the night of Lilly's funeral.
Veronica felt the tears well up in her eyes and didn't do a thing to stop them from cascading down her face. Somehow, Logan knew to pull her closer, and for that, she was thankful. Her father would have a fit if he walked in on this and she didn't care. She found that she needed him to sleep.
Veronica decided that she would try school on Monday.
The three of them ate dinner in a comfortable silence that was surprisingly broken when Keith Mars returned to his home. He had been sleeping at the office for a while, ever since Lilly Kane's murder.
There was always another piece of evidence to catalog, a form to fill out, or another statement to make to the press. Although, to tell the full truth, him spending more time at work and less at home had started when his wife left him a month ago. It was odd, really. She left to 'discover herself', to get away from Neptune; when moving to Neptune in the first place was her idea, her demand actually. It took him a few weeks before she left to realize why. Neptune was where Jake Kane was.
It had hurt, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Like the song goes, you can't make someone fall in love with you. But still, he was still mad with Lianne. How could he not be? Because of Lianne, Keith had had to doubt weather his daughter was, in fact, his daughter.
She was though. It took a simple paternity test to clear that up. Being Sheriff had its benefits.
"Logan, Duncan," Keith greeted.
"Sheriff," they replied in unison.
Keith grabbed a slice of pizza from the cardboard box in the middle of the round table and sat at between Duncan and Veronica.
"How was school?" Keith asked.
The three teens shrugged. "I guess we'll find out on Monday," Duncan mumbled.
Keith nodded and decided to stop his attempt at small talk. He could see the three teens were content in pretending to eat their pizza.
"Well, I have to go. I'll be back sometime tomorrow," Keith said, grabbing another slice for the road.
As Keith Mars drove to his office, he realized he had been home for less than fifteen minutes. He decided that after all the commotion died down, after things got back to normal (whatever that was), he would be better.
As for now, however, he had to go to work.
Duncan Kane wasn't stupid.
He could sense something between his best friend and Veronica. He had seen him in her bed and, yeah, it hurt. Ever since his mother had told him that Veronica was his sister, he had started to realize the similarities between her and Lilly.
They both had blond hair. They both loved chocolate-chip mint ice cream. They tended to like the same music. And they had two opposite personalities, yet got along perfectly. It seemed only natural that they share the same taste in guys.
He knew they weren't together. But he knew that Logan loved her. Maybe not romantically, at least not yet, but he loved her.
His eyes traveled over to his ex-girlfriend and saw how she had barely touched her pizza. Duncan realized that, while Veronica had been taking care of him and Logan for the past week, no one had been taking care of her. She had lost weight which worried him that she wasn't eating. Then he saw something that broke his heart.
Logan had just moved her plate of practically untouched pizza closer to Veronica. She shook her head but Logan pushed the plate closer. Duncan knew that Veronica had no choice but to eat. Logan could get you to do anything once he put his mind to it. It seemed Veronica had this piece of knowledge as well, which was why, Duncan presumed, she picked up the piece herself and started to eat.
The door bell rang and Veronica looked to the front door. She was about to get up when Logan said, "I'll get it, you eat."
Veronica did have someone who was taking care of her. And his name was Logan.
Celeste Kane was there when Logan opened the door.
"Mrs. Kane," Logan whispered in greeting.
"Logan," she replied stoically.
He moved out of the doorway and closed the door behind her after she entered the foyer. Wordlessly, he led to the table and sat back down. Duncan had already gotten up to greet his mother and he took this time to inspect Veronica's plate. He had realized a few days ago that he hadn't seen her eat much and he could guess why. Seeing your best friend's dead body didn't really do much for your appetite.
"Hello Mrs. Kane," Veronica greeted her.
Celeste had come to bring Duncan home with her. Before Lilly's death, she would have marched right in and demanded that he come with her. But now she was different. She was timid and unconfident. She looked broken. It scared Veronica that the Ice Queen actually showed feeling.
Duncan, once again, was torn between Veronica and his mother.
His mother's new attitude had taken him by surprise. He hadn't seen her since the funeral. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. Duncan was suddenly overwhelmed with guilt that he hadn't been with his parents, even though he knew that being at the Mars' was only way for him to survive this whole ordeal. His parents were going back to their house on Saturday and he would be going back to school on Monday. It made perfect sense that Duncan go home.
On the other hand . . . .
Leaving mean Logan would be the only one left with Veronica. They would be all alone without adult supervision (considering Mr. Mars was never home anymore) and that scared Duncan.
"You don't have to worry, Duncan. I won't be alone," Veronica told him.
Ahh, so she thought that the thought of her being alone was troubling him. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
He didn't really remember packing his bag or leaving the Mars' residence. The image of Logan's arm wrapped around Veronica's waist as they slept was still burned into his brain as his mother drove the familiar route to the Kane estate.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night Veronica had tried to sleep alone. Every night she ended up crawling into his bed. She didn't want to be dependant on him. Dependence makes you weak and sets you up for disappointment. Veronica had been dependent on her mother, and look what that led to.
It was Monday morning; the morning that she, Logan, and Duncan were returning to Neptune High School. She let Logan drive Big Bird, which had been in her drive way for the past week and a half.
Veronica went to her locker and she was relieved to find that the memorial was no longer there. However, when Veronica opened her locker, she found herself looking at pictures of herself and Lilly. Veronica and Lilly in Cancun, Veronica and Lilly at beach during homecoming, Veronica and Lilly in the le Baron on the day that Veronica got her license.
Veronica grabbed the books necessary for her first class and slammed the locked shut. She took a deep breath and refused to let the tears in her eyes overflow. The bell rang and Veronica wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"Veronica!"
Veronica stopped for a minute to let the person calling to her catch up with her. It was none other than Meg Manning.
"Hi," she said quietly.
Veronica gave a weak smile in return. Other than Lilly, Meg had been her best girl friend of the 09ers. It was always a tie between Veronica and Meg of who was the least corrupt. Meg usually won on the account of Veronica was corrupt by association. Meg was the one she had most classes with, considering Logan didn't really hold academics to the greatest importance and Lilly was a grade above her.
"I took notes for you in class. I know it must be the furthest thing from your mind right now but-," Veronica interrupted her.
"Thank you. For the notes and for bringing my assignments over. It was nice to have something to take my mind off . . . things," Veronica whispered.
"It was no problem," Meg assured her.
They were just outside of the classroom when Veronica spotted Logan and Duncan by Logan's locker. Meg seemed to notice it to because she said, "Go ahead, I'll save you a seat."
Meg disappeared into the room and Veronica walked over to the two boys. "Well, this sucks," she said dryly.
Duncan laughed humorlessly, "Yeah."
"What do you say to going home and trying school next week?" Logan asked. Veronica couldn't tell if he was serious or not.
"I'll see you guys second period," Veronica said before walking across the hall into her English classroom.
It was lunch time.
Veronica had taken her place on the center table on the highest platform of Neptune's outside eating-area. She tried to keep her eyes from going to the spot next to her where Lilly should be sitting.
"Veronica?" Caitlin Ford called her name.
Veronica looked up to the table to find everyone's eyes on her. "Sorry?"
"My parents are going out of town this weekend so I'm having a party. Are you coming?" she asked, her voice held a twinge of concern
"Um . . . I don't know. Probably. I'll get back to you." Veronica started to gather her stuff. "Actually, I have to go see my teacher about something. I'll see you guys later."
Without any further explanation, Veronica got up and walked away from the table. She heard someone calling her name but chose to ignore it.
Veronica walked as quickly as she could to escape the eyes of her peers. She needed to be alone. She was sick of people coming up and asking her if she was okay, of being looked at as if she were going to break down any moment.
"Ms. Mars!"
Veronica wanted to ignore the voice, but it belonged to the one and only Principal Clemmons. He had only been principal for a few weeks, on account of the last principal was fired for having an affair with a student. Veronica could tell that he was highly uncomfortable.
"Yes Mr. Clemmons?"
"I know this isn't the best time, but I was wondering if you knew Ms. Kane's locker combination. We have them all on record, but it seems Ms. Kane was somehow able to change her lock. I figured that since you are, I mean were . . ." Mr. Clemmons trailed off.
"You want me to clean out Lilly's locker?" Veronica asked uncertainly.
"I know it seems rather insensitive to be asking you this, but I figured that you would know what to keep or not," Mr. Clemmons replied.
And that was how she ended up looking at a yellow locker for the remaining of the lunch period. According to her schedule, she was supposed to be in Algebra 2 right now, but she could go. It was the one class she had had with Lilly; math being Veronica's best subject had but her in a junior class. She didn't know how long she had been standing there and looked to her watch only to find that fifth period was almost over.
With a shaky hand, Veronica began to turn the lock. For the first few days of school, Logan was an office aid. He had switched around all the lockers combo's for all the 09ers.
She opened the locker and had to catch her breath. No, not because a wave of nostalgia had just hit her, but because someone had just grabbed her elbow and forced her to face them.
"What are you doing in a locker that isn't yours?" a guy Veronica didn't know asked.
The she recognized him. He was Eli Navarro, more commonly known as Weevil. The look on his face let Veronica know that he had realized who she was as well. Veronica knew that he and Lilly had had something. Lilly hadn't told her, but Veronica had seen him at the funeral service, in the back.
"Sorry," he mumbled as he let go of her.
"Its fine," Veronica whispered.
"What are you doing?" he asked candidly.
"Clemmons asked me to clean out Lilly's locker. He didn't know the combination," she replied.
"Oh," Weevil nodded.
"You need something Paco?" Logan, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, asked.
"Besides world peace?" Weevil retorted.
"Logan," Veronica spoke up. "He wasn't doing anything."
"Yeah, I was just standing here. Haven't you heard, I'm the new hall monitor? I get to make sure you white boys don't get lost on their way to class." Weevil added.
"Hey, the ESL classroom is on the other side of the school. Don't you and your 'amigos' have class, or did you finally flunk out?"
The bell rang and kids started filing out of the classrooms; Veronica, Weevil, and Logan stayed exactly where they were.
"How's your Dad?" Weevil asked. "Did he screw this one yet?" Weevil motioned to Veronica.
Logan threw the first punch.
Within seconds, a crowd had gathered to watch the leaders of the schools two infamous cliques fight. Veronica was just glad that she was able to close Lilly's locker before it was noticed. The rest of the PCH bike gang started to make their way to front of the crowd when Dick pulled her out of the way of the fight and went in to hold back Logan. Logan shrugged off Dick as Weevil pushed off his friend and the two were at it again.
It wasn't long before Principal Clemmons and Coach Weltz showed up. Clemmons got a hold of Logan by pulling back on his shirt while Coach subdued Weevil. They were both dragged off to the office
By the end of the day word had gotten around that a) Veronica had seen entire thing with Weevil and Logan and knew why Logan punched Weevil in the first place and b) Logan and Weevil had detention every day for the next week. And since Logan had driven her to school this morning, she had to wait for Logan to get out of detention before getting home.
Not wanting to empty out Lilly's locker, she walked around school for a bit before she decided to sit at the bleachers and watch football practice. It was where some of the 09er guys hung out, but Veronica hoped that they wouldn't be there today.
Luck just wasn't on her side today.
"Hey Ronnie," Dick greeter her cautiously as he, Cassidy, Casey, and Sean came up to the bleachers. The last time she saw all of them together was when they were at her house; at Lilly's funeral.
Veronica gave them a weak smile in return. They all took a seat in the bleachers around her; far enough the give Veronica her space but close enough so that she would be included in their conversation. She knew they wanted the real story of what went down today from her, someone who actually knew what happened, instead of relying on some story concocted by Susan Knight and Carrie Bishop.
"So what was that fight about?" Dick asked to no one in particular (Although they all knew it was for Veronica).
"Very subtle," Cassidy commented sardonically.
"What do you think it was about?" Veronica asked in a tone that let them all know that she thought the answer should be obvious.
All she got were blank stares in return.
"Lilly. It was about Lilly . . . and his Dad . . . and me . . . sort of. Look, Clemmons asked me to clean out Lilly's locker. Weevil was there, we started talking, then Logan came and started talking to Weevil," she said in one breath. She thought it would be best to leave out the part where Weevil grabbed her, knowing that whatever she said would somehow get back to Logan.
"But what did Weevil say to make Logan punch him?" Casey asked.
"Something he shouldn't have said," Veronica whispered.
They were all silent for a while.
"Do you need a ride home?" Dick asked.
Veronica shook her head, "I'll wait for Logan to get out of detention."
"I don't want to talk about it," were the first words out of Logan's mouth as he approached his yellow SUV, where Veronica was waiting for him.
He got into the car and slammed the door shut before Veronica even had a chance to respond. She followed suit and got in the car. She had barely buckled her seat belt before Logan pulled out of the school parking lot.
"Are you mad at me?" Logan wanted to know when they were about halfway to her house.
"I would have liked it if you hadn't punched him, but I'm not mad," Veronica answered.
"Yeah, well, he deserved it. What were you even doing talking to him anyway?" Logan asked.
Veronica sighed, "Clemmons asked me to clean out Lilly's locker today and when Weevil saw me opening her locker he thought I was breaking in or something. He didn't know it was me. It wasn't like he was hurting me or anything. We were just talking."
"Lilly used to say the same thing," Logan said.
"I'm not Lilly," she said immediately after him.
"I know," Logan replied. "I know."
Hope you this chapter. Please review.