A.N I don't know what Java applications Mac used in high school or if they had programming in computer lab but in my high school we used jGrasp. Don't worry about it though, I just thought it'd be nice to have a different take on the messages, it was something my friends and I used to do in school when we first started programming because it was just so new and fascinating.
P.S This site is totally cutting my coding so just know that there's not supposed to be spaces between System. out . println. Also I don't think I should use coding in fanfiction again x_x
Thank you so much for all the positive feedback and I'm really so happy that you like this story. Your words keep me motivated.
"Veronica Mars," Lilly cheerfully called out to her best friend.
The petite blonde turned around with a bright smile and chirped, "Lilly!" She embraced her best friend in a hug.
When they pulled apart, Lilly dug out a pink pen and wiggled it around. "Look what I found in my cereal box this morning. It's a spy pen." She grinned deviously.
Veronica played along with widened her eyes and conspiratorially asked, "What's a spy pen?" Her best friend proceeded to pull off the cap and showed her the hidden message compartment. Veronica gasped with amazement and exclaimed, "How covert ops of you!"
Lilly laughed light-heartily and whispered, "I'm gonna use it to pass secret messages to all of my lovahs."
She chuckled along and remarked, "This is going to be a very busy little pen." Lilly waggled her eyebrows and grinned mischievously.
A hand slid around Veronica's waist, for a moment she stilled at the touch and soon relaxed when she saw that it was Logan. "Hey Ronnie. Lil."
Along with Logan, came Dick. He swung his arm around Lilly and said, "'Sup Ronster. Lilkins."
"Urg. Dick get off me," Lilly demanded and shoved the blonde surfer away. Dick grinned and Lilly rolled her eyes. "Shut up, you perv."
Veronica giggled at the pair, she turned to Logan and softly said, "Hi."
His warmly smiled back and let out, "Hi."
Her lip curved higher and her hand lazily twirled a lock of her hair. He leaned against her locker and they locked gazes for a moment before Lilly started talking to Veronica again. Veronica shook, startled at her best friend's hand on her arm. She swallowed and Lilly looked at her quizzing, "You OK, Veronica?" Lilly's eyes darted to Logan and a knowing smile crossed her face.
Logan swallowed when he noticed Lilly's knowing look while Veronica assured her best friend that she was fine.
Moments later, Duncan joined the group, Logan and Dick began to relentlessly tease him about his flustered face and unrelenting grin. Duncan's cheeks flamed at the taunts while Lilly and Veronica rolled their eyes and continued to talk to each other.
Duncan's eyes caught the sight of a new face that was walking around utterly confounded and so he drew attention away from himself and pointed out, "Whoa! New student alert."
Lilly arched an eyebrow and remarked, "Glad to see you guys are equal opportunity oglers."
"Hey, I judge not by the colour of the skin but by the content of their sweater," Logan laughed and Duncan and Dick giggled along. Veronica shook her head while Lilly rolled her eyes.
The bell rung and they head off to their classes while Veronica moved toward the new girl. "Dying to figure out what goes on behind the scenes in the teacher's lounge?"
The new girl bit her lip and gestured to the door with an unsure look, "This isn't English? Mrs Murphy?"
"Not even close," the blonde smiled. "I'm Veronica. You're…"
"New," she smiled back, somewhat more relaxed. "Yolanda Hamilton."
Veronica smiled and said, "Lemme show you."
When the petite blonde entered computer lab, the brunette with a blue stripe in her hair turned to her friend with a frantic look on her face. Taken my surprise, Veronica asked with concern, "You OK?"
Mac swallowed, eyes wide and mouth dry. "If your definition by okay is terribly confused."
The blonde blinked and let out, "It's not."
The computer whiz sighed. She'd never been faced with a problem she couldn't solve. But this was definitely beyond her. When their teacher entered and assigned them their tasks for the day, Veronica sent Mac a piece of paper with the word, spill.
Mac glanced at teacher, writing notes in computer lab was much more suspicious than not writing at all. She clicked on the jGrasp application and disguised her message in her coding. Veronica edged her chair over to Mac and peered at the computer.
public class HelpMe {
public static void main (String[ ] args) {
System. out .println ("Dick Casablancas asked me out to the dance.");
}
}
Mac gawked at Veronica's unsurprised expression and accusingly whispered, "You knew!"
Veronica bit her lip. "Technically no, but he did ask about you. I didn't know he was going to make a move this soon."
Mac cast a quick glance at the teacher, she quickly deleted the message and proceeded to add in a few more lines of coding to complete the assigned task. She ushered Veronica to read her message, Well, he did. I don't know what to do.
Veronica moved her hands to the keyboard and typed in her question, Do you like him back?
Mac wailed helplessly, I don't even know him!
Veronica bit her lip. She wasn't sure if she should encourage Mac to date Dick since his track record wasn't the best and they barely knew each other but if he was serious, she didn't want to get in their way.
Do you wanna get to know him?
Mac gave her an exaggerated pout. Of course, she'd noticed Dick Casablancas. How could she not? He was a very eccentric presence. And he was really, really, good-looking. Every time he spoke in class, he'd made some kind of joke that she really should not find funny but she did. Why would he be interested in her though? They barely even spoke to each other. It reminded her of one of those horrible romcoms that her mother raved about.
Mac swallowed and typed, How do I know that this isn't some prank he conjured up or like a bet or something?
Veronica understood Mac's concern. She wasn't too sure about what they guys got up to on their own but if she ever found out that they decided to pull a stunt like that, they'd be sorry.
I warned him not to hurt you. Even told him you could wipe his bank account clean.
Mac let a small chuckle pass her lips, she arched an eyebrow at her petite friend and typed in, Do you really think that Dick fears you?
Veronica nit her lip and inputted, I'll talk to Logan. Make sure Dick isn't making any dick moves.
She nodded, that would be the best possible course of action. Check legibility. She bit her lip and quizzed, What do you think of Dick?
The blonde sucked in her breath. They were both her friends but she didn't want to mislead Mac. She had grown quite close to the girl with the blue streaks over her disability to go beyond basic programming and Mac being able to create magic with the computer. Veronica really envied the girl's skills.
Decided on honesty is the best policy, she truthfully informed, He's not exactly straight on the moral compass. He's excessively rude. He does questionable things. But he's funny at times. Loyal to a fault. He's straightforward. And he can be nice when he's not being annoying.
Mac swallowed and pointed out, The good does not out way the bad there.
Veronica chewed on the inside of her lip. Mac seemed disappointed with her answer which meant that Mac was more inclined than not on the premise of dating Dick Casablancas.
I didn't mean that. He can be a good guy... given the proper motivation. I don't think anyone really cares how he behaves which is why he behaves that way.
Mac let out a long, heavy sigh and a single thought ran across her mind, 'Dick Casablancas, when did you become complicated?'
Veronica stopped short of her pursuit for Logan to question him about Dick's intentions when she spotted a lone Meg Manning grinning into her locker. She looked at the cheerleader with amusement and walked over to her.
When the blue eyed girl peered over, she noticed the bouquet of roses and saw that Meg was grinning at a card. "Ooh," Veronica coed. "Somebody got asked to the dance."
Meg beamed. "Isn't this just the sweetest."
Veronica smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. "Who's the lucky guy?"
"Duncan Kane," Meg let out dreamily.
Veronica's mouth dropped opened. "I cannot believe this. You both are two of my best friends and nobody even told me!"
Meg giggled. "I didn't really know anything either. He sometimes sends me notes in class and then today he told me that he thinks I'm super cool. And suddenly," she cheerfully gestured to the flowers, "This!"
Veronica smiled, happy for her friend. She couldn't believe that she didn't figure it out. How had Meg noticed that she'd been getting notes from Logan but she didn't notice Duncan and Meg passing notes to each other? Had Logan's little notes really engrossed her that much?
"Did Logan ask you yet?" Meg's words pulled her out of her thoughts.
Her smile lost it's curve and Veronica deflated. "Logan? No." Her frown deepened and her eyebrows creased when she realized that the dance was a week away and she was yet to be asked. "Actually, no one's asked," she admitted, disheartened now that she's acknowledged that she didn't have a date.
A small sigh left Meg, what was taking Logan so long? If he didn't ask Veronica soon, she might just have to have a talk with him. Veronica deserved more than little notes in class. Meg gathered herself with a reassuring smile and softly said, "I'm sure he will."
Veronica shrugged, she didn't want to get her hopes up. Unlike Meg, she wasn't as certain that Logan felt anything but friendship toward her. She bit her lip, well, she had to admit there was moments. But did those moments mean anything to him?
Soon enough, Veronica spotted the boy of their discussion and said, "I need to talk to him, see you later alligator." She saluted her cheery friend.
Meg giggled and hollered, "In a while, crocodile."
Veronica chuckled with a shake of her head and when she neared Logan, she grabbed his arm and yanked him into the girls bathroom.
She checked the stalls, and was glad that no one was in there. Logan stared at her in bafflement. "A guy in a girls bathroom? It's so wrong."
Veronica tilted her head and he had a sudden jittery feeling.
She sucked in a breath. And he stared expectantly. She sighed and politely asked, "So how are you?"
He gawked at her, dumbfounded. "You pulled me in here to ask me that?"
"No," she pouted. "I didn't think it'd be this awkward."
He shook his head and pointed out, "I'm a guy in a girls bathroom. What part of that didn't scream awkward to you?"
"Well!" She petulantly stomped her foot. "I couldn't talk to you about this out there! Dick draws to you like a moth to a flame and I didn't want him to hear."
At her words, his lips curled into a grin. "Wait. So you got me in here to get me alone?"
"Yes," she declared. "Obviously."
His eyes widened in surprise at her easy admission, his grin widened. "My Miss Mars, you didn't have to go to such extremes to have your way with me. All you had to do was ask. I do appreciate the effort though."
"Logan!" She blushed furiously. "That's not what I meant!"
"Okay. I'm officially confused. Mind letting me in that brain of yours?"
"Dick asked Mac to the dance," she blurted out.
He arched an eyebrow. "And you care why?"
She licked her lips and explained, "Because I need to know if he's being genuine or if he's going to be an asshat."
He let out a breath. Relieved that this hadn't affected her personally. The thought of Veronica and Dick together was absurd but well, this was Neptune and absurdities occurred. "As far as I know he genuinely likes her."
Veronica took in the information and quizzed, "Do you think that there's anything going on that you don't know about?"
Logan frowned. Why was Veronica suddenly so against Dick? Dick was her friend, why wouldn't she want him to get the girl? He then realized that this was Mac. Mac was her friend. And Veronica was protective of her friends. "Dick might be a dick but he wouldn't take the time to elaborate some kind of prank. He's not the manipulative type."
"He'd do it to get laid," she pointed out.
His forehead wrinkled and he told her, "He's always straightforward with sex, Veronica."
She took in a breath and admitted, "Mac doesn't know if she should take the risk."
"She should," his words were deliberate as he stared intently at her.
She shifted nervously and nodded. "I'll let her know that he has your vouch."
"Yeah," he whispered, his eyes lingering on her.
She licked her lips and met his gaze. "We should get out of here."
"Yeah," he let out, unmoving.
For a moment they stared at each other, his soulful chocolate brown eyes stared into her ocean blue eyes and in that moment Veronica didn't care that they were in the girl's bathroom and she all of her thoughts flew away because he was looking at her like that. With that smouldering look. With that you're-the-only-girl-in-this-world look. With that drop-everything-down-and-just-kiss-me-now look. And the thing was that she really, really wanted to kiss him. She swallowed, her heart thumped against her chest and she was sure that her cheeks felt as though they were on fire. She edged closer and Logan leaned in when suddenly the bathroom door opened.
"Urg, in the girls bathroom," the blonde's lip curled in disgust. "How cliché. Really, Logan, you could do so much better."
"Shut up, Madison," Logan growled, never in his life had he hated Madison Sinclair more than he did now because he was ninety percent sure that Veronica Mars was going to kiss him. And goddammit! He wanted to kiss her, so badly. But there's one thing he learned, Veronica Mars wanted to kiss him too.
Veronica hadn't waited to hear another word, she just raced out of the bathroom.
Madison rolled her eyes. "You're the one in the girl's bathroom."
