Redeeming LoVe
Chapter 12: Resolutions
Veronica
I hated that the school was awarded the stupid grant yet again that brought Ms. James back into my life. I didn't understand why anyone would want to talk with her, but this was something half forced onto us by her since several of the student body was affected by Lilly Kane's death. Ms. James was supposed to use her time to study the long term effect of grief in young people. I thought I was rid of her once my dad broke up with her, but I guess I was wrong. I was totally feeling weird with the guy sitting next to me who was playing chess against himself. I couldn't even understand the game let alone want to play it by myself.
"Well there's something you don't see every day," I joke as streakers run down the full hallway while being chased down.
"Yeah. I cannot wait to get out of Neptune. I hate how this place seems to suck people in," he says as I notice he is wearing an MIT sweater.
"You must be excited MIT, huh?"
I questions as he gives me a huge grin.
"I got early admission" he says proudly.
"I guess you won't be missing all the glamorous life of Neptune High then will you," I ask in mock disbelief as he shakes his head.
"Yeah, not really," he says as he goes back to playing his game.
"You're the lucky one," I mutter as I hear footsteps coming up toward me.
"Veronica?" Ms. James says as she stands in front of me with a file folder in her hand.
"Why don't you come on in, I was busy sorry for making you wait," she says as she extends her hand toward her office. "Veronica I know you probably don't want to be here, but I think you would really benefit from someone to talk with. Do you remember when we talked last year, right after Lilly's death? You were…inconsolable," she asks as I pick up the stapler off of her desk. I totally did, but would never admit to her that she might be right about needing someone to talk with.
"Yeah, sort of, but I am totally fine now," I snap annoyed with her as I being to open and close the stapler.
"Veronica, you're never going to come to terms with Lilly's death if you keep all that pain of losing her bottled up inside of you. It's just going to bubble and fester until it drives you to do something you can't undo," she continues as I half listen. I didn't need someone who didn't know me to tell me what to do and not to do.
"Wow. I have that exact same platitude-a-day calendar. It's how I know beauty comes from within," I say trying to change the subject or for her to get the hint this was a waste of both our times.
"Veronica, I get this sense that you don't like me or care for me very much, so if you prefer talking with someone else, that's…" she starts but I decide to stop her from rambling. I snap the stapler in my hand causing her to sigh.
"That was rude, sorry. It's not you really. It's the idea of talking. I don't really want to waste my time trying to talk away my grief. I want to turn it into something else like fuel" I say still messing around with the stapler as I open and close it several times before looking up at her.
"Veronica!" she snaps annoyed with me. I stop fidgeting with the stapler and go to place it on the top of the desk.
"Yeah, sorry nervous habit of mine," I say as I let the stapler drop instead of setting it correctly on the desk. I then switch it out for the exact same one in my bag only difference is I hid a bug in it to listen in on her sessions with the other students effected by Lilly's death like Duncan, Logan and anyone else.
"Please tell me how you're going to find, appropriate…closure?" she asks as I move the stapler over a little.
"I know that I will not feel better about all of the Lilly issues in my life until Lilly's real killer's rotting away in prison," I say as I watch her eyes go wide. Yes, this wasn't what she was expecting.
***LoVe***
"Wow, sending out the big guns this early in the morning. Should I be flattered," I smirk as I move toward Lamb and Clemmons who were waiting at my locker. I had to admit the locker searches weren't supposed to be this week, but next.
"Veronica, the sheriff here wants to have a peek inside of your locker" Mr. Clemmons says as I move to my locker and look at the two men.
"Right, of course he does," I say as I turn the knob to unlock my locker. "Out of curiosity, what do you two gentlemen hope to find in here? Al Capone? The Lindbergh baby? I mean I have nothing to hide," I say as I turn it to the last digit but haven't opened it just yet.
"We have reason to believe that you are manufacturing and distributing fake driver's licenses" Lamb snaps as he chews his piece of gum.
"Well that's a new one, and a low for you," I say as I feel like this is a waste of my time.
"It's also a second degree felony, with prison time even for high school girls," Lamb smirks as I shake my head.
"Lord knows I love chatting with you, but I hate to disappoint you boys…" I say as I open the locker but stop as blank ID's spill out. What the hell? I watch in horror as Lamb bends down and picks through them. "Wait a minute, seriously those aren't mine" I say as I try to think of who would have it in for me to set me up. Lamb holds one of the ID's in his hand as he stands back up with a smirk plastered on his face.
"Veronica in light of this," he says holding up an ID. "I'm gonna need to search your purse as well. "We can either do this here…" he says as I interrupt him.
"Or down at the station?" I finish his sentence as his smirk flatters slightly. I had no choice so I hand my bag over. He opens it pulling my wallet out. He found all of my fake ID's I had made. This wasn't going to look good for me at all. "Those are mine though," I admit as hard as it was. Lamb pulls out handcuffs. "There is no reason you really have to use those," I say as I see his look of pure pleasure at my discomfort.
"Yeah, you're right about that. But I think I'm going to anyway" he says smirking as he twirls his hand for me to turn around.
"Just so you know Veronica, don't bother coming back to school for the next three days. You're suspended," Clemmons says as I couldn't believe my luck as the bell rings. Yes, the look on Lambs face was gleaming as he got to haul me off or parade me out with a throng of people to watch.
"You better call your daddy, Mars!" someone yells out as Lamb slaps the cuffs on my wrists making the bit a little into my wrists as I grimace.
"Ah, it's your turn, huh?" Logan says as I pass him. He gives me a nod of his head as he enjoys the moment giving me a salute. Several students take pictures as I am passing by them. I was thinking they better use the shot in the yearbook. I could get a conjoined page with Logan and any other student hauled off by the cops during school. As Lamb was placing me in his car I saw Troy staring at me with a huge grin on his face. He was totally enjoying this.
I was in one of the interrogation rooms waiting on Cliff. I look up from the table where I had my head as the door opened up Cliff walks in clearing his throat followed by Logan
"Know of any good lawyers Cliff?" I ask as Logan eyes me up.
"Cute. I know an adequate one, but Mr. Echolls here just posted your $500 bail and wants to talk with you," he says as he hands me a piece of paper.
"Thanks, Logan," I finally say as he nods his head.
"Alright, this is all part of my full service legal counsel," Cliff smirks as he chuckles at the tension in the room.
"Right, is there any way you could not tell my dad about this?" I ask knowing that Cliff was able to get me bailed out and Logan is the one who paid for it.
"I just don't understand why you didn't call him," Cliff questions as I see Logan look up from where he was staring at the tile floor.
"He's busy chasing a bail jumper in Arizona" I say as Logan gives me a tight expression.
"Your dad's gonna find out one way or the other. Besides, I might have to sic him on you if you don't show up at the courthouse next Tuesday, 9am," he jokes as I wonder how my dad would react to this info.
"What are the odds of beating this rap?" I question as I stand up getting ready to walk out of the room. He goes onto to tell me that it was all iffy. It really depended on the guy who was in a coma and the one who ratted me out.
"What other kid?" Logan asked speaking up for the first time.
"Your buddy…Rick," he says as he points a tall brown haired kid out that I didn't even know. I walk past a shocked Logan and Cliff as I jerk Rick and slam him into the wall.
"Howdy, Rick. Do I know you? No. So why'd you sell me out to Sheriff Lamb as the person who sold you a fake ID when you know it's a lie?" I question as I see him flinch slightly.
"It's…it-it's what they told me to say," he mutters pushing me away from him as Logan joins us. I watch as Rick walks out the door while Logan holds me back. I was livid that someone would go to this much effort to destroy me.
"Ugh!" I snap as I feel the warmth of Logan's touch calming me down slowly. I jerked my arm out of his hand because I wanted to be ticked off since I was being set up.
"Veronica," Logan says softly as we are exiting the Sheriff's station only to run into Troy.
"What the hell?" he snaps seeing the two of us together.
"Troy, I'm not in the mood," I snap as I push past him. I feel his hand reaching out to grab mine, but I was pulled closer by Logan when Troy tried to grab me.
I was sitting beside of Logan looking up information on my laptop when Wallace came into the office. Logan wasn't paying much attention to anything but his little game console.
"If it isn't my favorite La femme. The rumor that I heard is it took three officers and a stun gun to haul your scrawny butt outta school" Wallace says as stops when he notices our little addition by pointing at him then back to me. I shrug my shoulders.
"I don't think he is willing to leave my side for the time being. You have got to be the only student who didn't see my walk of shame in person," I snap as Logan moves next to me when he sees me reaching for my water it was strange how he moved when I did.
"Veronica's friend," Logan says as he nods his head taking the ear buds out of his ears to finally pay attention as if this was a very normal thing for all of us.
"I grabbed your books," Wallace says with a smile as he slides the strap of my bag off his shoulder leaning the book bag against the couch. "Also made sure to get the work that you'll be missing since you got expelled," he says smirking at me.
"Really, I was trying to go for no work and just returning in all my glory," I say as I hear Logan chuckling next to me. "I need to ask you for another favor," I reply as I feel Logan shaking next to be as I elbow him.
"Gosh, Veronica I was only joking," Logan says as he rubs his side.
"I'm all ears as long as this mission involves me somehow getting a date with a hot cheerleader," Wallace says as I see Logan perk up to that comment.
"As long as you poke around and see if you can find out where to get a fake ID. If this mission does take you seducing a hot cheerleader in order to accomplish your mission, so be it," I say as I catch Wallace smirking at that thought.
"No problem, now how do I do that?" he asks as I hear Logan cough loudly next to me.
"Use whatever guys do, play on her insecurities," I say as he looks from me to Logan.
"I meant how to get the fake ID," he says as I see Logan is now amused with our conversation.
"Okay let's see if I can break it down for you in little steps. Let's pretend for a moment that this mythical hot cheerleader of yours has just asked you out on a date. In exchange for her time you must get her into the hottest nightclub in Neptune. The stakes are high, Wallace Fennel. Think, now. How would you do it?" I say as I see him look past me to Logan, and then as he is thinking of what to do he falls onto the couch next to me and places his arm around my shoulder. Logan tenses up next to me.
"Hey, Veronica?" Wallace whispers into my ear as I feel the urge to push him.
"Yeah?" I questions unsure of where he was going with this whole thing.
"I need you to get me a fake ID so I can get some fake action from a fake cheerleader," he says as he laughs beside me causing Logan to burst out laughing as well.
"Seriously, Wallace, Logan?" I snap as they both stop and look at each other.
"Yeah?" he mutters softly.
"Find the person who is selling them at school," I snap as he gives me a smile and gets up leaving me behind with Logan.
"I think he is actually someone I could be friends with," Logan says breaking the silence that had come over us as we were left alone.
"Wallace is loyal like your friend Dick," I say as I feel Logan shake his head.
"Maybe, but Wallace has your back. He never asked you one question of why you needed his help. He assured you he would help you without even knowing the details as to why. He is a god friend," Logan says softly before returning back to his game. We spend the next hour do our separate things before I decide it was time to head home.
"Thanks for the ride," I say as I open the door to the apartment after he walked me to the door.
"Veronica," he whispers as I see him leaning in closer. "Can I stay?" he softly says as I look up to his face. He was dead serious.
"Umm," I mutter as I try to find a nice way of saying no, but came up empty handed.
"I'll sleep on the couch," he says as he softly pushes me into my apartment and closes the door behind him. An hour later I was cleaned and showered walking to the kitchen as I looked over to Logan who was lying awkwardly on the couch. I couldn't understand him sometimes, but just knowing he was there made me feel safer.
***LoVe***
Logan
I hated leaving Veronica home alone, but I thought it was best if I wasn't there when her dad returned. I also knew I needed to go to school. I made sure to have one of our drivers pick up her car and drop it off at her apartment. I was having a rough time with all the news as I pulled my Xterra into the schools parking lot.
"If you're breathing, then you've heard about Aaron Echolls getting gin sued at his own Christmas party. Someone please explain to me why a guy who's married to the hot Lynn Echolls would want to bang the frigging help. It's like the old saying goes, show me a hot chick and I'll show you a guy who's tired of hitting that," the radio person says. I can't believe the crap that was being said. Aaron always worried about how my actions reflected on his career how the hell was him cheating on my mom helping it. I quickly turn the radio off and pull my keys out of the ignition.
"Logan!" John Enbom says as he taps on my window.
"Be right there," I say shaky as I try to compose myself. I watch as John joins a bunch of our 09er friends. I had a flock of people around me, but I didn't really have a friend like Wallace. I envied Veronica for that. I pass my so called friends as I head to the school entrance. I am headed for my locker when I see a crowd around it.
I was flabbergasted by the childish shit people did, as I saw all the newspaper and magazine clippings about Aaron, Lynn and Aaron's attacker plastered to my locker. This was something I would have done to Veronica, but I knew she wouldn't stoop this low to do this to me. I see one of the biker guys reading the things intently as he looks up at me.
"If you'd like in my humble opinion, your mom's totally hotter," he moans toward me.
"Shut the hell up, don't say that about my mom," I snap losing all reason as I grab onto his shirt and throw him against the lockers.
"You just made your big mistake there, son," he laughs as he lunges for me kneeing me in the groin. I couldn't see clearly as he lifted me off of my feet shoving me backwards into the lockers opposite of mine as he starts throwing punches at me.
"Break it up! Break it up," one of the teachers yells as he grabs a hold of me pulling me away from the PCHer as another teacher grabbed him.
"Get the hell off!" I snap as I shove the teacher.
"It's enough," he mutters as I struggle a little more before holding up my hands in defeat and he takes me away.
I was waiting outside of the administration offices for Aaron to come out. He was inside talking with Clemmons about the fight. I knew this would cost me, and I guess standing up wasn't the right thing to do as I watched his expression through the glass. My whole body tenses as Aaron walks toward the office doors. This was the moment of truth, and from his look I was already dead.
"Thanks, I appreciate it. Logan, let's go," Aaron says as he shakes hands with Clemmons. I stand on shaky legs as I follow after Aaron walking as briskly as he was.
"How long did I get suspended for?" I snap as we exit the school building and he turns in my direction.
"You're not being suspended, Logan. Clemmons wants all three of us back here on Friday for a disciplinary conference," he mutters as he begins to ponder what to say next, "Listen. I'm not happy that you were fighting, but I am very proud of you for sticking up for your mother the way you did," he says softly as stops walking.
"Oh my god, the great Aaron Echolls is proud of me!" I contemptuously say as I halt a foot from him.
"Yeah," he mutters with the one word that I knew didn't even feel right coming from him.
"That's great. Good to know. I can die happy now," I sneer toward him as I turn to walk away, but he is faster as he grabs my arm jerking me back toward him. He places his one hand around my wrist and the other on my shoulder squeezing hard at both spots.
"You keep smarting off to me, and I'll help arrange for it to happen," he sneers as I look past him and swallow my pride as I shakes his grip off of me as my mom smiling approaches us.
"Are you alright, Logan?" she questions as she moves to stand beside me.
"Were you having your afternoon drink?" Aaron sneers at her as she turns to look at me.
"No, I was looking into a boy toy. I mean you have so many toys, that I think I should have one," she says as I see the vain in his neck throb as he seems like he was going to say something but his phones rings and he walks off as he answers it.
***LoVe***
Veronica
I wasn't surprised when I found Logan MIA this morning. I did find it very sweet that he made sure I had my car to get to and from. I did the one thing I wasn't supposed to do and I headed to Neptune High to listen in on Ms. James and the people she spoke with. I thought I might get a lead in the case. I pulled into a spot close enough to get a good signal and covered my car up with a trap and hung out listening to the musing of Ms. James.
"To tell you the truth, I-I…I really don't remember that week," I hear Weevil say as I sat up in my seat to make sure that I was recording the conversation.
"Eli, you don't remember being in this office? You slammed that chair you're sitting in against the wall. The last time we met it seemed like Lilly's death had affected you in a very profound way," Ms. James says softly as I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I heard Weevil talk openly about how he cared for Lilly in a way that made her get transferred out of his PE class. I didn't even know Lilly was seeing Weevil. I wondered as they ended their conversation if Weevil was the big secret that Lilly was dying to tell me. Was he her mystery revelation?
"I never would have hurt her. Look, the cops already rubbed my nose in those letter so what-what…" I hear Weevil say as I just can't believe my ears. My dad knew that Weevil could have been linked to Lilly and he never told me.
It was hard to hear him talk about Lilly as if he really knew her. I mean if what he was saying was true I didn't even know her. "Lilly and Logan had just broken up. And uh, Lilly-Lilly swore to me that she'd never go back to him but then…one day that punk snaps his fingers and…all of a sudden it's like, like, we don't even know each other anymore. And…she was someone I could have loved, you know? And she felt it too, I know she did," Weevil says with such passion and expression. I had to feel sympathetically for him because it was just like Lilly to fool so many people.
Ms. James was quiet after Weevil and her meeting so I decided to call Rick and have him meet me. I needed to know why he turned me in for something I didn't even do. I was even more confused after talking with Rick. He told me that some secret society at school called the Tritons was behind the whole incident. Rick told me a little background information for me to go one, but a lot of it was just hearsay. I did like the fact that the other pledges were either into sports or academics. The only name that stood out to me when he listed some of the other pledges that he knew was Duncan Kane. I dismissed him until I would need him again. 'So if I follow Duncan, I can find the Tritons'. I thought as I planted a tracking device onto the bumper of his car.
***LoVe***
Cliff sits at Veronica's desk with his feet up, reading the Neptune Register. Veronica enters.
"I'm so sorry Cliff, I'm late, I was in the middle of something," I say as I walk into Mars Investigation to see Cliff with his feet up on my desk reading the Neptune Register. I stop my speech as he motions with his head towards the small kitchenette just as my dad walks out of it, I quickly turn back to Cliff with a worried expression.
"Dad, I didn't do anything wrong their case is fuzzy and at the least very circumstantial," I respond out of worry and frustration only for him to laugh as he takes a sip from his coffee.
"Wow, Oddly enough if I remember right those were also her very first words, except with officer at the end," he says smirking but not laughing.
"Dad, I honestly didn't do anything wrong. The kid who said it was me said he did it because some sort of secret society at school called the Tritons bullied Rick into pointing the finger at me," I say as I see he is weighing what I just told him.
"Veronica I hate to say this but the criminal part of the case is the least of our problems right now," he says as he looks over at Cliff.
"Tim's parents are suing," he says as he hands me a document.
"Us?" I question softly as I scan through the page.
"You, and pretty much everyone else involved in their son's night of debauchery. Every bar in town is gonna be named in the suit. This whole case could be worth millions" Cliff says as he whistles softly. I couldn't believe that I was being sued by some kid I didn't even know. I decide to head out leaving my dad since Cliff had already left. I see Aaron Echolls getting out of his fancy cars carrying several magazines as he walks toward my dad's building. Ugh! I hated that man for too many reasons to list them all.
I just headed home to walk Backup and get some of the homework Wallace picked up for me done. I also wanted to check up on where Duncan was. I knew if the Tritons where going to get any pledging done they would need to do it soon. I had done everything I could, so I decided to do some light reading as I curled up on the couch with Backup and a book. I was reading about Triton the son of Neptune when someone knocked on the door. I was about to get it when Wallace walked in.
"Trick or treat, my fragile looking jailbird," he jokes as he gives me a huge grin as he pounds his fists together.
"Seriously, jailbird, what's the news?" I say as I shake my head while he laughs at his own joke.
"I couldn't get anyone from school to give anything up about the fake ID's," he says still grinning. I sigh out of frustration that he couldn't get anything and he was still grinning. "Oh, but then, this afternoon, some kid from my biology class, comes into Sac'n'Pac, buys a six pack from my boss. My boss looked at his ID like it was no problem," he says as he continued his story.
"Did you figure…" I started when he held his hand up to quiet me.
"Slow down, girl. This is my story I followed him out and asked him all about it. The guy claimed that there's a mystery locker at school" he says as he looks over at me.
"Okay, I like it already," I say as I motion for him to continue.
"So he said you put your name and $250 in locker 110 first thing in the morning. Then in the afternoon a fake ID appears in your locker stating that you were born in 1983," he says as he flops down beside me.
"So tell me my dear Wallace are you willing to put $250 into some strange locker just to see if this works?" I question as he shakes his head at me.
"Oh hell, no. I'm using your money," he laughs as he gives me a smile. Of course he would say that. I would be the one to pay for this endeavor. Once I got Wallace the money he would need I decided to head back to the school to set up some camera equipment.
I snuck into the hallway as a janitor was waxing the floor. I was walking toward the display case when I looked down and just noticed that there was a seal on the floor outside the administration office. It was a large circle with the outer part saying, "Neptune Pirates" in green printed around it. The inside of the circle had what looked like water. Yet over both of them was a star compass and the very center of the compass Triton's conch shell. 'How many times have I walked through the main hallway? And how many times have I not noticed that our school's insignia includes Triton's conch shell?' I couldn't believe I had walked through this hallway several times and never saw this sign, or maybe I had but never paid too much attention to it.
When the janitor goes around the corner I head to the case in question. The case was next to the administration building and had a very clear angle to the locker in question. I quickly jimmied the lock as I thought about what Wallace said, 'According to Wallace, locker 110 isn't assigned to anyone in school, but clearly someone has the combination. If all one has to do in order to procure a fake ID is slip cash into locker 110,' it stands to reason all I have to do is see who opens said locker. The sneaking around wasn't something new for me, but had to do since I was on suspension from school. I moved the items in the display around as I added several cameras and set one to record locker 110. Once I was done I headed home to get some sleep. I wanted to listen in some more on Ms. James's conversations. Plus I had to give Wallace the money for the locker.
***LoVe***
I just gave the money Wallace needed to him and pulled the tarp over my car hiding inside of it. I heard that Ms. James was going to meet with Logan and thought about not listening in, but I was curious to get an inside look into his mind.
"Thanks for coming in this morning, Logan," I hear Ms. James say as I also hear the door open and close.
"Well, thanks for getting me out of a calculus test, Becky," I hear him sass back. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see his expressions.
"Logan you need to refer to me as Ms. James, please," Ms. James corrects him. They bickered a little more until Ms. James decided to redirect the conversation.
"You probably didn't know this but the week Lilly died it would have been our second anniversary together," he says softly and if he wasn't sitting close to the bug I wouldn't have heard it.
"We had been together since junior high," he continues as I feel a part of my heart breaking thinking about this conversation.
"Off and on?" Ms. James questions as now all I wanted to do was smack her for making that comment as if she was digging into him about it.
"Yeah, off and on," he replies softly.
"What were you two at the time of her murder you were-" she questions as I feel like it was getting harder to breath because everyone knew they were off due to something Logan did.
"We were off!" he snaps harshly as I hear Ms. James takes a deep breath.
"Why?" she asks as I hear Logan give a soft chuckle.
"Uh let me see, we were supposed to go to this party. Lilly was pissed at me for something, I can't even remember what, you know. Lilly just stands me up. I end up getting pretty hammered and I end up kissing this other girl for like three seconds, it wasn't that big of a deal, he mutters as I remember walking in on him kissing Yolanda.
"Did Lilly see you two?" she questions as I know how he might respond.
"Nope god I wished she had I could have dealt with her, but someone else did. You must know her. Word is you're real close with her dad. You could do better," he mutters the end very darkly.
"You need to leave my personal life out of this, Logan" she snaps back at him.
"Yeah, right let's not get personal about this," he says sarcastically.
"You know what it sounds like you blame Veronica about what happened to Lilly," she says as I totally have to keep myself sitting in my seat instead of barging into her office and smacking her.
"Well, you know I thought Veronica was my friend too," he mutters once more. I couldn't believe it; I was stunned into silence thinking back on how things were for us before and after Lilly died. I was his friend because I was friends with the Kanes, but I never really thought about it as if he wasn't my friend. To me he was, but he was second guessing me back then.
"You know what if she hadn't ratted me out…," he starts but stops as I know he is probably trying not to cry. It was beating me up hearing him broken up like this. "Then Lilly and I would have stayed together. Lilly wouldn't have been alone that day. I would have been there. So, yeah, I blame Veronica," I hear him say as I feel like I had been stabbed all over. I was finding it hard to breathe once again. "I blame myself for being stupid and I blame Lilly for being a bitch that week," he continues, but I was still reeling over the revelation of my part in this situation.
"Logan, I understand all of that, but you know there is also another way of looking at this. If you'd still been together, you might be dead too," Ms. James says softly as my eyes widen in shock as I hear Logan laugh mirthlessly.
"Tell me Becky, what is so great about living?" he retorts as I hear silence before the slamming of a door. I wanted to reach out to him, but thought better of it. I got out of my car and pulled the tarp off as I headed home. I needed warm fuzzy pajamas to make me feel better.
I had scrubbed myself red and cried about what kind of friend I was to both Lilly and Logan. I had hurt him more than Lilly, but at the time I thought what I did was looking out for her, but now knowing she was also seeing Weevil made me telling her about a 3 second kiss worse. I decided to check up on Duncan to keep myself from calling Logan and telling him how bad I felt. I heard someone knock on my bedroom door, but didn't look up since I was concentrating on the tracker I planted on Duncan's car.
"Wallace. How was practice?" I ask following the red dot on my computer screen.
"I was on fire out there. Three point line, hand in my face, fade away like Jordan! Boom!" I barely heard a word he said. It all sounded like blah, blah.
"Great," I say jotting down an address.
"'Course you're not listening to word I say. So I might as well have said, "blah blah blah, blah, blabbity blah blah." He mumbles as I finish writing the address down.
"Okay that sounded like fun. How'd you like to go on a little field trip? Duncan's on the move and if we hurry, we might be able make it for the branding and the blood sacrifice," I say as he gives me an arched eyebrow letting me know I was busted.
"Um actually, I have plans. I am planning on hitting a few bars since I found this little beauty in my locker after seventh period," Wallace remarks as he holds out an ID card. This gets my attention right away as I reach for it.
"Give me," I snap as I examine it. It is a worthless piece of crap.
"This isn't a great ID, the ink is bleeding at the edges, the hologram is missing and…," I stop as I look closely at the photo which was his yearbook photo, "The photo...is that your yearbook picture, Wallace?" I question as I bend it from side to side.
"So I got an ID," he says.
"Now I'm not just falsely accused, I'm genuinely offended. Wallace anyone who was truly paying attention would see it as a fake or should I say a $250 piece of crap," I retort as he snatches it out of my hand looking closely at it before shoving it in his pocket.
"I'm going home," he snaps as I shake my head.
"No we are going on a field trip," I say as I pull him out the door toward my car. The drive to the club was pretty quiet. I hated it because I was tempted to think about my situation with Logan, but when I would go to I would instead switch the radio station for a distraction.
"All right, all I've heard, these guys are bad news, so I want you to be careful," I mutter as I feel like I am walking into a trap.
"I'm afraid, Veronica! I'm afraid!" Wallace mutters in a little boy's voice smirking as he hides behind his hands. I can't help but just shake my head at his silliness at the moment. I could hear someone signing and that wasn't good. The singer was way off key, and I also knew the voice.
As we stepped down I saw the singer was none other than Duncan. 'I'm sure the Triton leaders consider this initiation painful for their pledges but honestly, aren't we the true victims?' I think as I want to gag at the screeching off his singing. As he finishes his song I decide to confront him.
"Nice performance, Duncan. So do you mind letting me know who your buddies are," I question him as he just looks to the left side.
"Brawny gods just flocked up to quiz and vex him," he says not making any sense at all.
"Veronica, you want me to beat it out of him," Wallace asks as he smacks his fists together. Duncan looks slightly green at that thought.
"Not yet, I just want to know who all you Triton buddies are," I snap as Duncan tries to pass me, but I pull him back to face me. "I just want to personally thank him for making some kid put fake IDs in my locker just to get me hauled off to the sheriff's department," I sneer at him as he looks directly at me for once.
"Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim, I…" Duncan rambles on as I just want to punch him out.
"Well that is all fascinating, let's forget about my situation and focus on the Sunday night binge drinking that landed a kid in the hospital. The Triton's are responsible for that, and you're hiding behind them as well," I snap as I jab at him, he just shakes his head. "Your friend Tim is in a coma right now because of what your secret club forced him to do. I hope you can you live with that, Duncan because that will be on all you and your new friends?
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog, I…" he continues almost frustrated himself.
"Ugh!" I snap as I shove past him in disgust while Wallace follows me. "Let's get out of here. This is going nowhere," I finally say after about an hour of just watching Duncan and the rest of the people.
"V, heads up. Looks like your boy's having some second thoughts," Wallace says motioning to Duncan as he walks toward us.
"Are you finally ready to talk?" I question as he doesn't make any move at first, but then hands me a note. He quickly retreats back to his little area after passing me the note.
"The judges hold the vital scores. You shall hear my voice once I've heard yours. The Great Triton," I read out loud as I look up at Wallace unsure of what this meant.
"Aw, what's up? What's up?" the announcer says after the last person was booed off the stage. "Next up we have…Veronica Mars!" he say as I finally realize what the note meant. I look around as people start to chant for me to sing. I hated being put on the spot.
I make my way up to the stage as quickly as I could. I wanted this over as fast as it could be. I motioned for the judge as to what song I was going to sing to. I chose, One Way or Another since it was a song Lilly and I sang together all the time. "This song goes out to my friends in the Tritons," I say as clearly as I could. I catch Wallace giving me two thumbs up from the crowd.
I sang my heart out thinking about Lilly and all the fun times we had when we danced and sang. I was getting very involved as I began to move around on the stage eating up all the noise. As I sang I wondered if this might have been something Lilly and I would have done together or not. As I ended the song I felt like a heavy burden had been lifted. I finally saw that things weren't always black and white. I needed to talk with Logan at some point about how he was really doing. The crowd goes crazy, particularly Wallace who was jumping all around, and the judges all give me nines and tens. I noticed that Duncan was truly smiling at me.
"Thank you," I say breathlessly as I hand the mic back to the announcer and walk over to Wallace who had a bottle of water out for me.
"Let's hear it for Veronica Mars!" the announcer says.
"Nice job, V," Wallace says as I am handed a note from another person. It told me to meet them in the bathroom. I turn around and head right for the bathroom.
"Hello?" I call out as I look around at the junk all written over the walls and stall.
"The Great Triton is listening," a voice says coming from one of the closed stalls.
"Tell me why you planted all those fake IDs in my locker," I snap.
"The Great Triton did that to you because he's great," the voice retorts which ticks me off since I was being set up.
"Right, you're a real pal unless you need a ride to the hospital after over drinking," I mutter.
"The Great Triton…doesn't really know what you're talking about," the voice says as I decide to end this little game and kick the stall door open. The boy on the other side looks like I just walked in on him doing something bad.
"Who the heck are you?" I snap knowing this guy wasn't The Great Triton.
"Jeff," Jeff says.
"Why don't you tell me why you are here," I question as he fidgets with his watch.
"I work here. A guy gave me twenty bucks. He said he wanted to pull a prank on one of his friends," he responds as I watch him smirk up at me. I slam the door to the stall scaring him and walk out. Wallace and I headed back to my apartment and then he headed home. My dad was out once again chasing a bail jumper as I was left home alone. I thought about calling Logan, but wanted to really think about what I was going to say to him before talking with him.
**LoVe**
I headed to the school bright and early to retrieve the digital camera disk to see who owned the locker in question I was just about to get to my car when Rick attacked me.
"Veronica! They found out. I don't know how but they must have found out that I've been talking to you," he jumbles up his words as I try to think of a way to keep him from blowing my cover.
"Rick, what happened?" I say as I move toward my car.
"There was a knock on my door and when I opened it there was a rat nailed to my door," he mutters, "It was still alive," he snaps as I want to slap him to keep his voice down.
"You need to pull it together, Rick," I say as nice as I could.
"We've got a seven figure lawsuit to worry more about than a rat. There isn't any way we are doing this thing halfway. You and I have to make sure what happened they did to Tim never happen again," I say as I watch him back away from me a little scared.
I watch him leave as I head to my car to see what was new in Ms. James's office. She was meeting with Duncan. I learned several things from his conversation with her that he couldn't remember anything between Lilly's death and the day of the burial. He was missing three days worth of memories. He was also taking some form a medication other than anti-depressants. He was also having some sort of episodes. I was wondering what all this meant. It was good to hear he was finally thinking about Lilly.
As I am still jotting down notes about Duncan there is a knock on my window. I am a little peeved as I didn't know why I would be bothered right now unless it was Wallace.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Wallace? The secret knock?" I mumble as I go to unlock the door as it is wrenched open. I am jerked out of the car by 3 hooded figures as I try to straggle out of their grasp. "Let me go," I mumble as I lose conciseness. When I open my eyes again I am in a small space. I wiggle out of the loosely bound rope that was holding my hands. I flip my phone on to see I am in the trunk of my own car. I call Wallace to come get me. All I had to do now was wait for him.
"Thanks, Wallace," as he opens the trunk for me. I jump out hating being cooped up in such a small space for too long.
"Uh, Veronica? I'm assuming you didn't accidentally lock yourself in the trunk?" he says as I go to get into the car.
"I'll tell you the funny story another time," I say as I hear chanting from my laptop. I guess I found the Tritons after all. I looked over to Wallace as I tell him what I was planning on doing. He made sure that I was set to go as I made my way back into the school building. I enter the building looking around every corner to make sure I am not caught.
"Oh great one. With your horn, we summon you from beneath the terrible waves. With your horn, we summon your awesome powers. With your horn, we summon your unrivalled wisdom," I hear the voices chanting together as I creep closer to the action. I see all the figures and pull my camera out. The group is in two different colored robes. I notice the green and beige robes.
"Congratulations. When you began this journey twelve days ago, you were told that it would be perilous. I am pleased to say that this year, all the pledges have passed the Great Triton's test," the leader says as I just shake my head. 'Oh yeah? Except for kid who almost drank himself to death. And the kid that you almost scared to death'.
"Now that our sacred number is again complete, you may look upon the other Tritons as your brothers," the guy says as things begin to click in my mind. I watch as the guiys all begin to remove their hoods. I see the kid who had the MIT hoodie the other day in the office next to Duncan. I quickly make the choice in what I was going to do as I set my camera to mutiflash.
"Say repressed homosexuality" I call out as I begin to take several pictures all at once. I took the guys a moment it realize what I was doing. "Well I gotta boogie!" I yell as I put my camera away and begin to run back to where my car was waiting for me. The guys are hot on my tail as I run out the school door and jump on the trunk of my car before sliding into my passenger seat with Wallace at the wheel speeding off.
"Man! Did you see me lay rubber in that Le Baron?" Wallace cheerfully says as I just laugh.
"Don't get all carried away," I say as I sit down and begin to load the photos I took. I was also going to check out who was operating the mysterious locker 110. I am having no luck as Wallace half sleeps in my beanbag chair. I was beginning to get annoyed.
"This just doesn't make sense. Someone had to open that locker. How else could they have gotten the money? How else could they have gotten Wallace's name?" I mutter as I see Wallace slowly raise his hand.
"Veronica, I'm still here, you know laying right here," he says as he gestures with his hand.
"Is 110 a top locker?" I ask as I look at the feed slowly.
"Yeah," he mumbles as I just can't lay my finger on it.
"No one goes near it though," I say slowly as I hear what the MIT kid says as it finally dawns on me who was behind it. "Awe, I know how it all went down," I smile as I look over at Wallace who looked like he could crash at any moment.
"Great, now I can head home to my bed," he mutters as I walk him to the door. I shower quickly and then set up what I am going to do first thing in the morning.
***LoVe***
I picked up some donuts as I headed to the Sherriff's department. I saw Sacks as I walked in to Lambs office. I dropped the box of donuts on his desk and laid my plan out to him. I pulled out my gossip magazine and began to look through it. I was sure that the ID marker was so greedy that they wouldn't even stop to think that I was onto them. I had spent much of the morning just lounging in his corner chair as I flipped through aimlessly the magazine.
"The thing about a felony charge is, it doesn't get wiped off your record just because you turn eighteen. It's like this black eye that you have the whole rest of your life," Lamb sneers toward me. I ignore him and his little jabs at getting under my skin.
"Ooo," I say as I tear a picture out of the magazine of Logan just as Rick knocks on the door and walks in.
"Is he here yet?" Rick questions as I finally get up out of my chair.
"Yes, he just arrived," I finally say as Deputy Sacks enters the office.
"Uh, it's just like she said. Found the fake in his locker," Sacks says as he hands it to Lamb who looks at it closely.
"Rick it was all a process of elimination. I didn't do it," I say as he looks from me to Lamb.
"What, me? Are you crazy?" he mutters angrily.
"Well how would you explain the $250 in your wallet?" I say as he looks back at Lamb.
"Hand me your wallet," Lamb mutters not liking where this situation seemed to be going.
"Big deal, this money's mine. It doesn't prove anything," Rick snaps as he hands his wallet over to Lamb.
"Sure, why don't you take a closer look at the one on top," I say as I smile with delight as I know what is going to be said.
"Veronica Mars is...smarter than me," Lamb mutters in a grimace as he snatches the money from Rick. I slap him lightly on the arm.
"Oh, you stop it!" I joke as I see that Lamb doesn't think this is amusing at all.
"Locker 110 belongs to Rick since that is where Deputy Sacks put the envelope in this morning?" Lamb questions as I shake my head.
"Not exactly," I say as I go into how Rick pulled off his crime.
"The night that Tim was dropped off at the hospital they were celebrating their success with their own fake ID's. It was the profits from their little scam. It was all them no one else. Rick blamed me because he knew people would believe I did it. I though don't understand why," I snap as I turn toward him.
"No, It was because last year your dad was hired to track down a hedge fund manager for embezzlement. That was my father. Only the newspapers never mentioned that his company cheated him out of his bonus three years running. They took our house, they took our cars. Eventually, my parents got a divorce. You must be proud," he snaps viciously at me. Was I proud no, but that wasn't my fault I think as I leave the station sadly.
***LoVe***
Logan
My mom and I were waiting to talk with Clemmons as Aaron seemed to be running late once again.
"So…tell me what was the plan?" Aaron snaps causally toward my mom when he sits down beside me. "Embarrass me? Destroy my career? Soften up public sentiment for a generous divorce settlement? Turn me into Costner?" he sneers at her making me very angry.
"Of course, you'd think of your career and your money before you'd think of the obvious. Did it ever occur to you, I just wanted to hurt you like you've hurt me?" she snaps back at him as it finally dawns on me. I am devastated that all this mess in the rag mags was my mom's doing. I just look back and forth between the two of them.
"You had private detectives following me around like some common criminal," Aaron snaps at my mom.
"Only on location. The women here I've always known even the ones you thought I might not know about," she retorts as I see a glimmer of something odd in her expression.
"Gosh, Mom. Gee, Dad. Will I be going to live with Grandma?" I snap as I try to get them to pull it together. I mean I thought Aaron wanted this big happy family. He sure wasn't portraying the dotting dad at the moment.
"Listen to me. If you try to divorce me, I will leave you with nothing. No house. No career. No club memberships. No maid and no friends-"Aaron is pointing his finger at my mom and I just feel that it wasn't right for him to do that to her. It was one thing for him to hurt me, but he couldn't do it to her.
"Dad, you say another word to her and I will kill you," I explode as I sneer at him as I see red in the way he was speaking to my mom. It was wrong.
"I cannot take this anymore," my mom says softly as she gets up and storms off followed closely by Aaron. I am left alone. I don't understand the feeling, but I felt like there was nothing keeping me here anymore. I slowly get to me feet and walk toward the exit. I no longer had any reason to stay alive. I just wanted it all to be over with.
I watch as Duncan and Veronica talk. I hate watching her interact with him after the way he treated her. Veronica deserved so much better than him, but I knew when I wanted to date her Lilly set the two of them up. I was so angry with her after she knew what I had planned on doing.
"Logan," Veronica says as I see her at my window. I wasn't even aware she had come around to my SUV.
"I'm not in the mood," I snap as I fumble around looking for my keys. I am putting them in when I hear the passenger door open and a little pesky blonde jump in.
"Get the hell out," I snap, but she stays in her seat. I don't wait for anything more as I peal out of the parking lot. I can see out of the corner of my eye she looks frightened. I don't slow down as I drive past the Coronado Bridge. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I needed to get out of town.
"Hey, no," I hear Veronica say as I look over at her only to see her phone up to her ear. "Dad, I am going to stay over at a friend's house. No it's not Wallace. Yes, I am safe. I love you too," she says softly as I hear her sigh softly beside me.
"I can take you home," I mumble as I feel her hand on my knee. I want to slap it off, but for some reason it felt good there.
"Logan, I'm sorry for being a crummy friend to you when Lilly was alive," she blurts out as I slam on the brakes. She lurches forward and slams back into the seat. What the hell?
"What are you talking about?" I snap trying to keep my tone even, but I was livid only one person knew I blamed her. There was only that person who I told how I felt about her and us being friends.
"It was an accident, I wasn't trying to…." She begins but her phone rings distracting her as she answers it. "Dad slow down, no I'm with him right now. What? No, dad," she says slowly as she turns on the radio.
"We are coming to you live where dispatch requested assistance for a possible jumper on the Coronado Bridge. People here on the scene are saying that a Red Dodge Viper with the license plate ECHOLLS 2 was abandoned on the northbound lane, blocking it causing a small delay in traffic. They also believe that there might be a possible jumper involved as well since the owner Lynn Echolls has not been seen at the scene. We will bring you all any updates as soon as we get them," the radio guy says as Logan switches it off.
"They were fighting at school," I mumble as I try to process what I had just heard.
"Maybe it wasn't her," Veronica says softly reaching up to touch me. I flinch away from her trying to get away. "I'm sorry for listening in. Please don't shut me out," she says even more softly as I turn away from her jamming the car into drive and slamming down on the gas. I drive for several miles before I pull into a flea in the wall motel.
"Get out," I snap as Veronica does what I say. I get out closing my door and walk into the lobby of the motel. "I need a room with two beds," I request as the man behind the counter shakes his head.
"I only got singles with a queen," the dirty man retorts as I see Veronica pulls a water out of the soda machine. I pay the man and take the key card heading in the direction of the room. I flop on the bed the moment I close the door.
"Logan, you wanna talk," Veronica asks as she sits down on the edge of the bed.
"Not really," I say bitterly as I see her wrap her arms around herself like she did right after Lilly died. "Can we just lie here," I say really softly as I watch her get up and pull her jeans off as well as the hoodie she had on. I got up removing my jeans and slipped under the duvet as she followed.
"I am sorry," she whispers as I just pulled her closer to me burying my head in her shoulder.
"We'll talk about privacy later," I mutter as I feel her hands wrap around my arms. For some reason this just felt right. I never wanted to let this girl go, she was more than just a friend.