It was never a good sign that you were sick of school by day three. It wasn't her fault. She walked down the hallway and headed towards the front door. She figured she could just blame her teachers for her lack of enjoying school.
"Casablancas, Wynne."
She raised her hand from her seat at the back of the room. Science. She knew she wouldn't like the class. The teacher gave her a look then, glanced back at his attendance sheet.
"Any relation to Dick Casablancas?" Wynne nodded, then pointed to herself, "Sister." It was only the third class this happened in. How come no one asked if she was related to Cassidy?
"Do you happen to take after your brother?" Wynne stared at him for a bit. Why was he still droning on and on about her when he still had a full list of names to call?
"My mother taught me to be my own person." She said simply, rolling her eyes and laying her head down on her folded arms.
Once outside the school, she quickly scanned the parking lot for the massive yellow school bus. There it was, right in front of her. She watched as she walked. That Kane boy and the snarky girl getting hassled for a quick moment by Logan. Cassidy getting on the bus, followed by Dick, who was laughing at who knows what. She passed Logan and was almost at the door when she was stopped. By words.
"Oh Chipper." She knew that voice. And that voice shouldn't be calling her that. She turned on her heel and faced Logan, a look of contempt on her face.
"You don't look very happy to see me. After all, without me, you wouldn't have made it to your English class yesterday." He smirked, and she quickly glanced at the bus.
"You can't call me Chipper." It just wasn't right to her.
"Isn't that what nicknames are for, Chipper? You don't have nicknames to not be called them. That just wouldn't make sense." There sat that smirk, not budging. She wanted to get on the bus. She wanted him to go back to not knowing her name. She wanted to.. kick him.
"Chipper is a family nickname. You can't call me Chipper unless you know what it means. Or know my full name." she paused, then looked him in the eye, "Do you even know my first name?"
Before he could answer, Dick stepped in.
"Logan, stop flirting with my sister, she's ice. Chipper, get on the damn bus."
Now she had someone else to kick.
--
Gum. She needed gum. She could chew out her anger. A nice package of cinnamon gum would suppress her great feelings of hatred.
That limo had been paid for by their father. By Richard Casablancas, the first. But apparently that didn't matter. Dick chose not to tell her about it, she assumed. It would have been simple. 'Chipper, pops got us a limo. Now only the lower class need to ride on the stank bus.' Plus, it's not like Wynne took up a lot of space. Nor did she have tons of friends that would beg to tag along.
But, no. Here she was stepping out of a vile smelling school bus to take five minutes at a gas station. It wasn't even worth it. The tour of the baseball stadium was one of the stupidest things she would have to endure. No one seemed to enjoy it, everyone was looking forward to the buffet following the tour.
And, to add to her misery, Cassidy was probably calling to tease her. He was calling and calling. Sending text message after text message. She didn't answer once, or reply. Even when he tried using Dick's phone, she just left it be. If he was really that concerned about 'how she was', why didn't he check to make sure she was in the limo?
She didn't need her brothers. She needed gum. She could just rant to her dad about it later. That won't get her anywhere, but he would probably talk to Dick about it. Again, that wouldn't do much at all. All Wynne and her brother Dick had in common was their dad and Beaver. Nothing else. Sure, Dick loved girls but he just wasn't a big fan of his little sister. At least if he had been at one point, he wasn't anymore. He was there to attempt an overprotective side, but mainly he teased and ridiculed. In his dumb way. It wasn't a big deal.
Wynne shook her head and slowly scanned the rack of candies and chewing gum. Where was that bright red package she was looking for? Ah ha. She snatched the last pack of cinnamon gum and placed it on the counter. As the clerk scanned it, she fished for money in her pockets.
"I should be in a limo right now..." she said to herself.
"And I should be in the Play Boy mansion. Everyone has their dreams. That'll be a buck eighty four." She didn't want or need that remark from the thirty or older guy working behind the counter. She hand him some money and grabbed her gum.
"Hey, kid, there's like.. ten bucks here." The clerked called to her as she turned away.
"Like I said, I should be in a limo right now."
--
The air conditioning of the limo was really nice to Beaver. Bu that didn't stop him from sweating. A lot.
"Dick, w-why didn't you tell Wynne about the limo?" There was desperation in his voice.
He took a moment to answer, processing what his brother had just asked. Beaver guessed he'd forgotten their sister's real name.
"Chipper? Slipped my mind, I guess," he laughed a bit, "She'll be fine on the bus anyway, just prepare for her shrill ranting at dinner."
"Did you at least say bye to her?" His throat was dry, it was hard to talk.
"Cool your jets Beav. Who cares if I said bye to her? We'll see her at school when we got back." Dick then turned his attention away from his younger brother and went back to laughing with his friends.
Beaver shut his eyes and breathed.
Was it too late?
--
No. No. No.
Wynne ran out the door of the mini-mart just in time to see the school bus driving away. Damnit. For a quick moment she wondered why someone hadn't mentioned to Miss Dumb-Ass that all her students weren't there? She laughed. Maybe she shouldn't have told Meg to "stop carbo-loading" while standing in the buffet line.
"This is just fabulous." She swore a few times under her breath and considered calling her brothers.
No, they forgot about her. They wouldn't care anyway.
Wait. She did have her rollerblades. She shook her packsack off her shoulder and took out her escape. Just as she sat down on the curb, Veronica Mars appeared ahead of her.
"You too, huh?"
Wynne simply nodded, not wanting to break into conversation. While Veronica stood near her talking on the phone, she heard the roar of a motorcycle. Ironic. Her good friend Weevil Navarro.
He gave Veronica a quick look, which made her quickly end her conversation. He was offering her a ride. Just as she moved towards him, he saw Wynne sitting there. She gave him an innocent smile and continued to do up her rollerblades.
"All-Star, you stranded too?" he asked her, taking off his helmet.
"I have really great brothers." she said simply, scoffing a bit. She did her best to get up on her wheels but the sudden movement caused her to slip and stay down.
"And apparently, I'm destined to stay here too." She sighed and looked at the pavement.
"Hey." Weevil started, cause her to look up. His hand was outstretched, an offer to help her up. She graciously grasped his hand and he pulled her up.
"Thanks." She said simply, pulling her bag over her shoulders again and brushing off her jeans.
"Seeing as it would be stupid to do this, but I know you're going to anyway, start rollerblading back to Neptune. And after I drop Veronica here back at school, I'll come see how far you got, alright?" His eyebrow was raised, and a pleasing smirk was on his face.
"You better be careful Navarro, or word might get out about this nice side of you."
--
"Woah, what's with the sudden stop?"
"Oh my god.."
In moments, everyone who was in the limo, was out of it. The school bus had gone over the cliff. Those gutwrenching screams were the last they would hear from all those people.
Cassidy was sure he stopped breathing now. His lip was quivering, tears close. Had his sister just gone over the cliff, in a bus, sentenced to death?
Dick was standing next to him, close enough for their arms to be grazing each other. He knew he should. He quickly extended his arm and wrapped it protectively over his brother's shoulder.
"I can't believe it.. I can't fucking believe it.. Chipper.." Dick mumbled. He wasn't feeling anything. He couldn't hear anything, even the motorcycle pulling up. He did watch as Veronica and Duncan consoled each other. Veronica lived. But his Chipper was gone.
It all seemed to stop.
--
Wynne traveled smoothly down the side of the not so lively road. It wasn't one of her best ideas. Two steps to the left and she could be side-swiped by a vehicle.
She wished she had her iPod with her, but no. It was at home charging. Instead, she listened to the voices in her head. Just as she glanced down to check the time, she heard the framilar sounds of a motorcycle. She slowed down as he pulled up to her. He took off his helmet and quickly handed it to her.
"That was fast. What? Did you ditch her-"
He cut her off.
"C'mon, hurry up and get on. Something happened.." She did as he said and hopped on, securing her arms around his waist. He'd barely given her time to shove her rollerblades into her packsack and now she was riding on a motorcycle without her shoes on. Her dad would be pleased.
About four minutes later, they were pulling up to the black limo on the side of the road. Had it been in an accident? Wynne suddenly got worried. She then noticed everyone who was in the limo was standing on the edge of the road, near the cliff. They were all looking in the same way, down. At that point, she noticed her brothers. They were hugging and if she could tell, tears stained their cheeks. What was going on?
She hopped off the motorcycle just as Weevil stopped, and looked over at him.
He simply said, "The bus."
The bus? The bus. She thought for a moment, then it clicked. The bus had gone over the edge. Her brothers were crying because.. "she was in the bus". She gasped, and brought her hand over her mouth. She couldn't believe it. She was supposed to be in that bus. If she hadn't missed it at the gas station, she would be dead right now. And that's what her brothers both thought.
She raced over to them quickly.
"Cass! Dick!" Their heads both perked up a bit to the call of their names. She noticed Cassidy was looking so pale, so sick. And now Dick just had a shocked look on his face. She ran to them and before she could say anything it seemed they were all hugging. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been involved in the same hug as Dick.
It was moving. And life-changing.
Almost.
--
Shocked? Yeah, I know. Me too. But it just flowed out of me. PLEASE review and let me know what you think. I'm averaging like.. 2.5 reviews per chapter, and this story is on 7 people's alerts! Please let me know what you thought, and if you have any ideas. I'd take them into consideration for sure. And I don't know if Logan is gonna go for Chipper, because I am all for Veronica/Logan. But I dunnnnnnno. Review!