Title: Home Sweet Home
Author: SWChick57
Pairing/Character: Logan/OC Friendship, LoVe eventually, a little V/D, Beaver/OC, Ensemble
Word Count: 3,040
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Carly Hayes is a freshman at Neptune High, and she's an old family friend of the Echolls Family. Slight AU. Season 2.
Disclaimer: I do not own Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas does. Though I wish I owned Logan… Oh well!
October 21, 2005
"Oh so the great Carly Hayes is sick of us already, too bad, I thought we were going to have fun this year," Karen Moore taunted loudly as her and her group of brain dead minions passed Carly in the hallway. It was Carly Hayes' last day attending New Hanover High School in North Carolina. Two weeks ago, her mother, Julia Hayes, broke the news that they were moving back to Neptune, California. Now why wasn't Carly so heart broken?
As Carly cleaned out her locker, she heard the slew of rumors about why she was leaving only after two months. She only smiled at the thought of leaving this school once and for all. She didn't have any reason to stay. She didn't have any friends, she didn't have the best teachers, nor did she even have the best classes. Her classmates didn't like her, her teachers didn't like her, and she had to say it, she didn't like them either.
"Finally, I'm finished!" Carly said to herself as she finished cleaning out her locker. She grabbed her backpack, jacket, and skateboard as she walked to the administration office. She was going to say a heartfelt good-bye to everyone on the intercom, or loud speakers, or whatever they called them. All Carly cared about was getting in and out. She had written down the corniest speech ever, and she was actually pretty proud of her accomplishment.
Carly was practically famous at the school. She was the richest girl in school, even though she didn't like to flaunt it. She was the buzz at school, and she was a rumor waiting to happen.
As she walked into the office, she looked around to find only Mrs. Henley, the school secretary, there. "Uh, excuse me.
The principal wanted me to uh..." but before she could finish, Mrs. Henley just pointed to the intercom on her desk. "Oh, okay," Carly said gritting her teeth. She didn't want to say a farewell speech, but her mother forced her, saying that it was a good idea. Damn.
"Hello, teachers, students, and staff, this is Carly Hayes. I am deeply saddened to announce that this is my last day attending New Hanover High. First, I would like to say to that I will miss you all, and thank you all for the memories. Oh the sweet, sweet memories! I've only attended this school for about two months, but in that short amount of time I've been exposed to the most nicest and caring people. You all will be near and dear to my heart, and I thank you again for the best experience of my life. Good-bye New Hanover High School, so long for now." She said as she pretended to sob. She wasn't an actress, but she sure was good at it. During that speech, she actually thought she was going barf all over Mrs. Henley.
Once she was done "sobbing" she sat down in one of the chairs as she waited for her mom to pick her up from school early. They had a lot of packing to do. A few minutes later, two sophomore girls walked into the office, not noticing that
Carly was there. They were in a deep conversation about lipstick, sex, and music. One was a red head, and the other had brown hair.
"Oh my god Rachel, can you believe that Echolls family? Like oh my god! They are seriously messed up," the red head exclaimed loudly.
"Oh my god, I totally agree. Wow, Logan Echolls, I didn't know him to be the murdering type." The other girl said.
"But he is super gorgeous," the red head said smiling.
"Yeah, plus he's super rich, do you think he's good in bed?" the other girl asked winking.
Carly sighed loudly so the two girls would acknowledge her presence.
"Oh sorry, didn't know there was a child in the room." The brunette said coldly. The red head only stared at Carly finally realizing who she was.
"Uh Rachel, that's Carly Hayes, she actually knows Logan Echolls." The red head said, while ironically turning red.
The other girl just stared at Carly for a while with a shocked look on her face, then she shook it off. "Oh, whatever," she said as she walked out of the office, the redhead right behind her.
Carly laughed to herself, Logan, hot? She smiled to herself, she couldn't wait to tell him.
Present
"Please, Miss Hayes, take a seat." Mr. Clemmons said motioning to a chair in front of his desk. Carly sat in the chair and put her things on the floor as she waited for Mr. Clemmons to continue.
"Okay well, before we start let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Van Clemmons, and I am the vice-principal of Neptune High," he said extending his hand. Carly shook his hand and smiled. You couldn't blame him for trying.
"On behalf of the school, I would like to say welcome to Neptune High. Your sister enjoyed it here, so I hope you will too." He said smiling.
"Yeah, I bet I will," Carly said as she stared intently at the stapler on his desk.
"Very well then, um… here's your standard information. Your locker number, combination, class schedule, ect. Any problems and you can straighten it out with Mrs. Winters, the school secretary." He said handing her the information.
"Okay, thanks." She said taking the papers and stuffing them in her backpack.
"Miss Hayes, just as a word of caution, we have a strict code of conduct. I know you are buddies with Logan Echolls, and I sincerely hope you pick a better role model than him. I've seen your permanent file, and it does not indicate any behavior problems. I trust that you'll have good judgment in your decisions. You can get your school books at the front desk. We're done here, so once again welcome to Neptune High, and make sure you stay out of trouble. You should get to class now," he said motioning to the door.
"Okay, thanks, and don't worry, I will." Carly said as she picked up her stuff and walked to the front desk in the administration office.
"Hi, I'm Carly Hayes, and I'm a new freshman. Yeah, well Mr. Clemmons told me to get my school books here." Carly said to the school secretary.
She smiled and replied, "Well, welcome to Neptune High, I'm Mrs.Winters and I'm the school secretary. I hope you enjoy it here. Can I please have your book list?"
"Oh, yeah hold on. Let me get it." Carly said as she reached for the paper in her backpack. Once she found it, she handed it to the secretary.
"Thank you dear, wait here while I go get them," she said smiling as she walked to a stack of books jumbled up next to a wall. 'This will take a while.' Carly thought to herself as she sat down in an empty chair. She might as well get comfy.
Twenty minutes went by and Mrs. Winters had only retrieved five of her needed books. Carly sighed and looked at the clock. "Great, it's the first day of school and I'm already missing class," she mumbled to herself.
A few minutes later, a brown haired boy who looked like a junior ran into the office. He looked oddly familiar to Carly. Man, Carly must've thought everybody looked familiar!
The secretary looked up and said blankly, "Ah, Cassidy Casablancas. You're late for school, again. You know what that means don't you?"
"Sorry, Mrs. Winters, it won't ever happen again. See, my brother decided not to wake me up this morning, and he left for school without me, so I had to call a cab to take me to school," the brown haired boy explained.
"Okay, Mr. Casablancas, I''ll excuse your tardy due to your situation, but I hope this doesn't happen again." Mrs. Winters said as she finally found all of Carly's needed school books.
"You have my word, Mrs. Winters," the brown haired boy said solemnly.
Carly started to think about why this boy was familiar. Then she realized that the secretary had called him Cassidy Casablancas. That was one of Dick Casablancas' sons.
"Okay, well you should get to class," Mrs. Winters said before realizing that Carly was still in the office, "um... Cassidy?"
"Yeah?" he said as he turned around.
"Could you stay here for a second?" she asked.
"Okay," he replied puzzled.
"Miss Hayes here you go," she said as she handed Carly her long awaited school books. "Cassidy, could you show Miss Hayes her locker and take her homeroom?" she asked as she went back to her work.
"Uh, sure. Where?" he asked as he stared at Carly. He was fairly intrigued and amazed by Carly. She looked new, and he was going to take advantage. He wasn't like his older, more confident brother, Dick, nor was he like witty, charming Logan. He was just the straggly, younger brother, and nobody would let him forget it.
"Locker number 322 and Miss Colin's homeroom," Mrs. Winters answered plainly as she typed in her computer.
"Okay, come on," he said as he motioned Carly to follow him.
As they walked in silence for a few minutes, he finally decided to start up a conversation.
"Hi, I'm Cassidy Casablancas." he said nervously as he extended his hand.
"Oh, you don't have to introduce yourself, I already know who you are," she said staring at the ground.
"What?" he asked, clearly confused by the statement.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Carly Hayes. We went to the same elementary school, I used to live next to Logan Echolls, and my father owns Hayes Cosmetics," she replied glancing at him for a second. They went to the same elementary school together. Cassidy was two years older than her, but she knew him in the hallways and at the parties all the 09ers' parents would throw.
"Oh yeah, now I remember. Wow, little Carly Hayes all grown up," he said smiling as he looked at her from head to toe.
She laughed at the remark and said, "You don't look too bad yourself, Cassidy." He looked up and smiled at her. She had said his name. She didn't say Beav, or Beaver, she said Cassidy. He knew right then and there, that she was different from any other girl he had ever met.
She looked up and saw him smiling at her. "What? Why are you smiling at me?" she asked slightly confused.
"No reason, so how've you been?" he asked casually as they made their way to her locker.
"Haven't you read the tabloids?" she asked sarcastically as he helped her open her locker.
"Yeah, I've seen a couple. Sorry about your parents' divorce. I know what it's like," he said helping her load her locker book after book.
"Thanks, so anyway, how's your brother... uh... what was his name again?" she asked putting the last book in her locker.
"Dick, his name's Dick and he's fine. He's an asshole, but he's fine," Cassidy replied shutting the locker for her.
"Oh sorry, bad memory. Are you guys still friends with Logan?" she asked as they started walking to her homeroom.
"Well, Dick is, but we don't hang out that much anymore, why?" he asked bitterly. After the whole Kendell situation, Beaver didn't want to hang out with Logan. Dick was more than happy to congratulate Logan on his conquest, but that wasn't Beaver. Sure, he was mad at Logan, but he knew that somehow his anger would pass. Beaver got angry, but he always seemed to be the bitch that seemed to forgive and forget. Even if he ever forgave Logan, he wasn't sure he could go back to the way things were. This was complicated. His life had gotten tougher due to his dad's situation with the law. He was in the middle of it, too. It seemed that when everybody else got lemons, Beaver ended up with the seeds.
"I just wanted to know how he is these days," she answered as they made it to Mrs. Colin's homeroom.
"Yeah, well, I guess this is it," he said sadly as they stood outside the door to the classroom.
"Yeah, well it was nice to see you again, Cassidy. Thanks for the help. I hope to see you around sometime." she said smiling.
"Same here. Well, see you later," he said as he started to walk away. Then he glanced over his shoulder and saw her about to open the door when on impulse he asked, "Hey, do you want to sit with me at lunch?"
He stood there waiting for her to respond. He was seriously scared that she would say no, or that she would make some lame excuse.
She was honestly taken aback by the invitation. She should be looking for Logan, but she couldn't miss a great opportunity to hang out with a sincerely cool guy. "I would love to," she answered smiling.
Beaver just smiled and asked, "Can I meet you at your locker?"
"Yeah, sure," she answered.
"Great, see you later," he said grinning as he walked to his own class.
Carly stood there for a moment as she watched him walk away. She couldn't believe that in less than one hour on her first day at a new school, she had managed to get a lunch date with a billionaire's son. Wow, this was going to be an interesting year. She shook the idea out of her head as she opened the door to Mrs. Colin's homeroom.
Carly had enjoyed most of her classes so far except for her last class before lunch. Her math teacher, Mr. Wright, went on and on. She was anxious for the class to end. She didn't want Beaver thinking that she had stood him up.
Once class ended, she was the first out the door. She ran to her locker, which was coincidentally located at the other side of the building. As she ran, she noticed a guy digging through his locker. She kept running, but all of a sudden she stopped. The little voice in her head told her to see who the mystery guy was. She contemplated the idea, but decided to give in. She slowly walked to the corner of a locker to take a peek. As the mystery guy closed his locker, she almost stopped breathing. It was Logan Echolls. She slowly followed him to where he was heading. She thought about if she should say something or not. She took a glimpse at his appearance. He had gotten taller, his facial features had matured, his spiky highlighted hair had grown a few inches, and she could tell he had been working out. She bit her lip as she decided to say something.
"Hey, you're Logan Echolls, right?" she asked disguising her voice with a very preppy, cheerleader voice.
He didn't bother to turn around. "Yeah, so?" he answered plainly.
"Oh well, I was wondering if you're free later, you could come over my house and clean my pipes?" she asked trying to ignore the urge to laugh.
He stopped dead in his tracks. "What the..." he started to say in disbelief as he turned around. Instead all he did was stare at her like he had seen a ghost.
"What? The invitation doesn't interest you? Oh too bad, I'll just have to pass the invite to a certain junior. What's the matter, don't you recognize me?" she asked innocently.
"Oh my god. Carly?" he asked in disbelief of who was before him.
"Yeah, in the flesh," she answered smiling.
He smiled and hugged her tightly. "Oh my god, Carly, I've missed you so much," he said still hugging her. After a few more moments, it seemed that he was not going to let her go.
As she slowly broke the embrace, they both stared at each other in silence. He looked at the image before him. He couldn't believe that this girl was Carly Hayes. Wow things do change.
"When did you get back?" Logan asked finally breaking the silence.
"Oh right, we just came back yesterday. We're staying at the Neptune Grand until my dad gets some paperwork straightened out. Then we're moving back into our old house," she replied smiling.
"You're moving back next door?" he asked grinning.
"Yeah, where else?" she asked teasingly. Then she looked at the clock on the opposite wall. Holy shit! She was late for her lunch date with Beaver. "Hey, I'm sorry, but I got to go. I'm meeting someone for lunch, and I'm already late. Can we catch up later?" she asked.
"Yeah sure, um... afterschool at my house sound good?" he asked.
"Perfect," she answered then remembered her sources of transportation. "Um ... does that invite include a ride?" she asked sheepishly.
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, it does," he said smiling.
"Great, I'll meet you out front afterschool," she said as she started to walk away.
Logan smiled to himself as he watched her walk away. Good old Carly Hayes was back, and his life was about to get a whole lot better. Or was it?
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading, remember to review. All I would really like to say is that Logan owns all your asses! lol. Also, just as a heads up, New Hanover High School is a real high school in North Carolina. So for anyone out there who actually goes to that particular high school, I'm sorry that I made it seem like a terrible place. Honestly, I just needed a name for Carly's old high school. I hope I didn't offend anyone. Well, anyway, I hope you enjoyed the fanfic.
Ally