-1Title: Why Me?
Chapter: 10
Rating: T
Reasons for rating: nothing too major
Ships: Veronica/Logan, Lilly/Dick, Duncan/Meg
Summary: AU. Veronica Mars is not your typical Neptune High Student. She has straight A's and a perfect family and life. That is, until Logan comes along. What happens to Veronica when he shakes things up?
Word Count: 2833
Disclaimer: I do not own Veronica Mars or any of the Characters.
Shout out: Thank you Mary0112 and MusikLuver for being my Betas! J
Author's Note: So it took me so long to update. I guess the real world got in the way. This story is almost over, and I want to thank everyone for sticking to this story and loving it.
XOXOXOXOX
Wallace trailed behind as Veronica and Mrs. Sanchez sped down the hallway. In the chemistry lab, everything was at wheelchair height. The tables, the racks of test tubes, the counters and sinks. And all of the students were stilt-walkers, as Aaron put it. "How many kids in wheelchairs go to this school?" Veronica asked.
"Right now there are four. Last year there were six, but two graduated." Mrs. Sanchez said.
"Doesn't the school board hate spending money to make changes for a few students?"
"Once we adapt something, it's done. It's good for any new students who need it, or faculty, or visitors even. One of our seniors this year, her father had a stroke. He'll be able to attend her graduation with no problems." Mrs. Sanchez continued.
They rode the elevator with two freshman girls who were carrying giant poster papers. Mrs. Sanchez was right, the elevator was helpful to everyone, even for non-wheelchair users.
After a peak into an English lit discussion and a Spanish class, they rode back to the ground floor. "Let me show you the gym. We are all really proud of it." Mrs. Sanchez said.
"Gym? I Can't take gym, can I?" Veronica wanted to know.
"It's a requirement. Two years minimum." Mrs. Sanchez teased.
The gym was partitioned into three sections. In the first, a bunch of guys were shooting hoops. Veronica recognized Brandon, the one who wanted to try out for varsity. He was really good. She hoped he would make the team. In the next section of the gym, several girls were doing cartwheels as the gym teacher cheered them on. Music came from the third section where a class of modern dance was taking place. As they paused to watch, her heart leaped in excitement. Among the dancers, sitting in a streamlined silver wheelchair, was Aaron.
"I know him!" Veronica whispered as she pointed to Aaron. "We went to Hamilton Hospital together."
"He just transferred here this fall. Watch how he dances." Mrs. Sanchez said.
As they watched, two boys and a girl formed a triangle. As they bowed, and twirled on their feet, Aaron zigzagged between them. His chair was light and quick, and his arms and shoulders mirrored the movements as if he was standing up. Aaron was dancing just like the others.
"That's so cool!" Veronica whispered in excitement. "Could I learn to do that?"
"Sure you can." Mrs. Sanchez said. "We are starting a program for people in the community. It's for anyone interested.
Veronica had automatically assumed she would never dance again. If Aaron can do it, well then so could she. As soon as the music stopped, Aaron sped over to join them.
"Veronica!" He said excitedly. "Are you going to switch to this school?"
"I'm starting to think about it." Veronica answered truthfully.
"You're going to love it here!" Aaron insisted. "I never thought I would say that I love school, but I love it here!"
"See how he tries to smooth talk me?" Mrs. Sanchez laughed. "Try talking to him when I'm not around, then you'll get the real scoop.
"This is real." He persisted as he turned back towards Veronica. "Remember what I said last summer? How the rest of the world isn't like Hamilton?"
She nodded. How could she forget?
"This place has everything, and you can go anywhere." Aaron stopped as he struggle for the right words. "Nobody acts like they are doing you a favor. It's like you're here with everyone else as a student."
Wallace spoke up for the first time. "It's nice here. Wish I could sign up myself."
Aaron reached over and squeezed her hand. "Veronica you have to come here! You're needed in the dance program!"
The rest of the tour went by quickly. They ended back in the office, where Mrs. Sanchez shook their hands. "It was a pleasure meeting you two. If you decide to join us here, we'll be glad to have you."
Veronica thought of Neptune High, where everywhere she turned there was another barrier blocking her way. She thought of Mr. Clemmons and the board, with all their safety talk. How could she stay there when she just seen Open Door?
"I think you'll be seeing me again."
XOXOXOXOX
Because classes already began, Mrs. Sanchez suggested that she finish out the quarter semester at Neptune High. She had another four weeks to complete the academic part of her life at school. Most importantly, she had four weeks to say good-bye to her friends, and to let go of her old life once and for all. Even if that meant hiding from the pain.
Sometimes Veronica felt like she chose the easy way out. After all, Open Doors wasn't the real world, the world where she would live for the rest of her life. But why should she stay at a school filled with so many painful memories? At her new school she could focus on her classes, and try to start over. She was trying to move forward, not hide. She was transferring to a school where she would be excepted.
But she didn't want to leave Wallace. He was her only best friend left. Her other friends abandoned her, and Lilly...Veronica swallowed the lump in her throat as she tried not to choke on her unshed tears. Then there was Logan Echolls.
Why should she care about leaving him behind? If anything she should rejoice at the prospect of getting away from him. But then she remembered him hunched over on the window sill in the music wing. And she remembered what he and his mother did for her when she lost everything. He was there for her every step of the way. Surely that should make up for it...right? Then again, if it wasn't for him and this accident, she wouldn't have to be considering transferring schools. She would still be popular, Class President, and Lilly would still be there.
XOXOXOXOX
The next morning Wallace brought her to school. She called the principal, and he agreed to let her finish the term. She spent all morning looking for Logan. She finally found him in the library. He was in the back at table, writing in a notebook. Again, it was the least likely place she would find him. Maybe he really was changing.
If she stopped to think, she knew she would lose her nerve. She didn't give herself time to plan. She put her hands on her wheels and pushed her way up beside him.
"Hey. I was hoping I'd find you." She said.
Logan dropped his pen and jumped in shock. He turned and stared at her, speechless.
"You sent me a letter last summer, remember?" She asked cautiously.
"Of course I remember. I never received an answer." Logan replied.
"I know. That was stupid of me. I'm sorry." She hadn't expected to say that. Logan was the one who owed the apologies.
"How about we talk about it now."
Veronica thought about it. Now was as good a time as ever. "Sure."
"There isn't much to say, really. I was a jerk last year. I felt I could get away with anything, and I had to prove myself to everyone. I mean I was Logan Echolls, and I wanted everyone to envy me. So I thought the only way to do that was to show off. But I should have never done what I did." His voice shook a bit. "You got hurt, and it was all my fault."
Logan had changed. Veronica could see it in his face. He seems older than he was last spring. Not only in months, but in experience. His bravado and cockiness was gone, and in it's place was a gentler version. The kind who was there for her and bought her a puppy. Veronica wanted to reach out and take his hand, to reassure him that it was going to be okay.
Her thoughts went back to that night of her Sixteenth Birthday. She remembered her dash inside for the pizza, and her rush back to the car. Again she felt the sickening lurch as the car sped forward to race the Casablancas brothers. She heard her own voice saying, "Slow down!" She was hanging onto the pizza boxes that threatened to slip off of her lap, holding with both hands as if nothing else mattered. The big awkward boxes kept both her hands busy from the moment she scrambled back into the passenger seat.
The room grew unbearably hot. She heard a roaring in her ears, like the ocean. She could hear Logan asking her if she was ok.
"Logan, it wasn't all your fault. It was my fault too." Veronica said slowly.
"What?" He demanded. "I'm the one who was speeding!"
"Yeah, but I was the one who didn't fasten my seatbelt."
"That doesn't matter. You would have been fine if I drove right." He protested.
"But if I had my seatbelt on, I wouldn't have flown out the window, and broken my spine."
For a while neither of them could find anything to say. They just sat there looking at each other and trying to understand the truth. Something deep inside of her was easing, uncoiling, and letting go. She wasn't angry at Logan anymore. Even more strangely, she wasn't mad at herself. She had relived that moment a thousand times, reworking it over and over again in her imagination so that she got up and walked away on her two feet. But she never got to the point where she clicked her seatbelt together. She had never let herself look at her own share.
She was looking at it now, and no amount of fantasy, or regret could erase what happened. She couldn't spend her life crying over the past. She had the future to look forwards too.
"I'm not mad anymore." She told him. "It feels better when I'm not wound up in blaming anybody."
"It feels better just talking." He said. "I had to tell you how sorry I am."
"It's okay. I shouldn't have been so mean to you when we first met. But everything is going to be fine now. And I wanted to thank you for what you did this past month. Without you there to help me, I don't know what I would be like now."
Veronica could feel the tears start to surface. She cried every time she just thought about Lilly. Good or bad. And this time she didn't think about it as she took his hand. They sat there together in the Library, computers beeping in the background, and the warmth of his hand flowed all through her. Even when the bell rang, they didn't move for a long time. Neither one of them wanted to break the spell.
XOXOXOXOX
After school the next day, Wallace and Dick took her out to the Hut for lunch. This was the first time she was hanging out with Dick, and even though nostalgia settled in, it was still nice to sit with him and talk. They found a booth and Veronica transferred from her wheelchair to the padded bench.
"I can't wait to get one of those neat chairs like Aaron and Mrs. Sanchez have. They're lightweight, and they fold up really small."
"Where can you get one?" Wallace asked as he rolled her clunker out of the way and into a corner.
"Some woman builds them over in San Diego. She uses a chair herself, and she got sick of the yucky hospital kind."
"Are you glad about going to Open Door?" Dick asked with a frown on his face. Gone was the teasing look.
I wouldn't say glad, but it makes sense. I guess I'm ready."
"If Clemmons came around, would you change your mind?" Wallace wanted to know.
She shook her head. She's been through this before, and had nothing new to say. She picked up her menu and studied it.
But Wallace would not be dismissed so easily. "We've been thinking, and we came up with an idea."
"Who's we?" Veronica wanted to know.
"A lot of us. Did you know Madison Sinclair's Uncle works for the Daily Newspaper?" Dick said.
"That's nice, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"The power of the press." Wallace input as if he were giving a speech. "The media can turn the tide!"
The words slowly made there way through her mind. "Tide of what?" She was confused.
"The tide that's pushing you out of Neptune," Dick said. "If we got a story in the paper, the board would have to think some more."
"But I don't want to be in the paper anymore than I already was!" She groaned. "I had enough of that last spring!"
"This will be different," Wallace said. "It'll have a purpose to it."
The waitress came for there orders, but as soon as she was gone, Wallace got back to his argument. "The school is being stupid! We've got to let people know."
"The board is people, and it already knows," She pointed out. "Even Clemmons is people."
"That's debatable." Dick teased and they all laughed.
"We can talk about the elevator key. Talk about stupidity!" Wallace continued.
They were so eager, brimming over with good intentions. But to her, the whole idea was mortifying. She searched frantically for an escape.
"You can't make a story out of an elevator key. Talk about petty!"
"That's the point! Wait till people find out their tax dollars are paying for that kind of petty attitude!"
Veronica tried a different approach. "Even if it does get put in the paper, it'll probably just be some small paragraph on the back page. Nobody will see it."
"My mom says we should do what they used to do in the sixties," Wallace continued. "We'll make a story. We'll demonstrate."
This was getting way out of hand. "Wallace!" She pleaded. "I don"t want people carrying placards for me! It's so embarrassing!"
"Guess I didn't think about that." He said.
"It would be awful! It's bad enough getting hauled up and down the stairs! I wouldn't want a picture of it in the paper!"
"It's not about making people feel sorry for you, it's about getting them to put in a ramp." Dick tried helping Wallace out.
She thought about Mrs. Sanchez. She remembered what Mrs. Sanchez said about Open Door, how she hoped other schools would follow it's example. "If they did build one," She thought slowly, "it wouldn't be for me. It'd be there for everyone who needs it, even after I graduate."
"Exactly!" Wallace and Dick said at the same time. “We can demonstrate for - what's it called - Access? Access for everyone." Dick continued.
"For other kids who might come later on," She mused. "Or even a teacher, or somebody's parents."
"Maybe even a new principle!" Wallace said with a grin. "Wouldn't that be nice?"
The waitress returned with there food. For a while there attention was taken up with there food. Now it was her turn to pick up the demonstration topic again. "When did you two get this idea? You sound like you've got it all worked out."
"What makes you think it was our idea?" Wallace wanted to know.
"Then who?" She asked curiously.
It was Dick who spoke up first. "It was Logan. Duh."
Veronica reeled back in her seat. "What? Logan Echolls?"
"Yes Logan Echolls. Who else? He, like the rest of us, doesn't want you to leave?" Wallace said.
"You don't? But what about the class election? I used to be Class President, but they didn't want me this time."
"That was all Duncan. He did that himself. He asked Logan's dad to help make that presentation, and it was Duncan who rigged the class votes. He had the ballots switched." Dick told her.
Veronica was shocked. "But - why?"
"Because he's sick and twisted. And I guess in some way he's mad at you."
"Whaat! He what?" Veronica couldn't help her voice from shouting. Chatter around her stopped as everyone turned to stare at her. She wanted to rise up out of her seat and storm out of there. But she knew she couldn't and it wasn't her company she was mad at.
Instead, she took a deep calming breath. "I want to stay at Neptune High. I want to prove I can make it. With the help of my friends." She said with determination.
"Then let us help you. We want to." Wallace said.
"Deal." Veronica said. "And guys, thank you. For being there for me."
XOXOXOXOX
Thanks to FanFictionFairy514, SatisfactoryInfluence, gabster07, moustrich, milly, LoVe23, JaysBaby, xosummerxo, VMars13, Katie 05, LoVe-Fanatic.