A/N: Here's the next installment. I've been really bad about updating, because I've been out of the country. But school starts on Wednesday, and I always post more in term time, so expect more out of this story. Once again, I own nothing but the story line, so go ahead and enjoy!
The next day, Veronica grills Logan on his father's schedule, so that she can begin tailing him. Logan is less than helpful, and the pair are finding it hard to keep their cool and their voices down in the deserted girls bathroom that Veronica refers to as her office.
"All I'm saying is that if you want my help then you're gonna need to cooperate!" Veronica yells.
"And all I'm saying is that I don't give a crap what my father's schedule is and not all of us are as close to our daddys as you are and so I don't know where he'll be all day tomorrow!" Logan shouts back.
The pair of them continue yelling, and Logan is moving towards Veronica, trapping her against the sink.
"I'm not expecting you to have a great rapport with Aaron, just to be a bit useful! It's your case, so maybe you should take an interest!" Veronica shows no signs of being intimidated by the much taller boy towering over her.
Just as she thinks that the fight is going to get violent, a crowd bursts into the toilets, the doorstop finally giving way under the weight of the people listening behind it. Wallace and Lilly stride towards the fighting pair, who are now just glaring at eachother.
"Woah woah woah, V, what's going on?" Wallace asks, trying to come between them. Logan's hands tighten on the sink, one on either side of Veronica's body.
"This jackass doesn't want to cooperate for the good of the case." She replies, icily, her eyes never leaving Logan's.
"And this bint won't realise that I don't know the answer to her queries." Logan growls.
"Well, I think that the easiest way to solve this is for Logan to come with me and just forget whatever the hell he is doing with the slut." Lilly announces, tugging on Logan's arm. The three of them ignore her, and the crowd around the bathroom door is shocked by the lack of respect shown for the Queen of Neptune.
"I think you should mind your own business and let me deal with these two." Wallace replies, squaring up to the girl who has done nothing but torment him since his first day. "Come on, Veronica, maybe you should give Logan a chance to explain."
"I'd let him if I thought he had a valid explanation." Veronica snaps, still looking at the boy towering over her. "After seventeen years he ought to have some idea of his father's routine, regardless of how good their relationship is. I could tell you Sheriff Lamb's routine, and I make it a point to avoid him."
"Yeah, well according to you I only think about myself, so why would someone as egotistical as me notice anything about other people?" Logan said, sarcastically.
"Sadly, I actually thought that you behaved differently towards your family and the people you care about." Veronica snarks. "After all, you've known my schedule by heart since we met. Well, up until last year anyway."
Logan starts at the realisation that he knows Veronica's schedule this year, too, even though they aren't friends. He doesn't know why he knows and is careful not to let Veronica know. But he could tell anyone who asks what class she has after lunch, and the knowledge worries him slightly. Veronica notices his change in manner, and hers changes too.
"I get that this isn't easy for you, and that you're uncomfortable about the case and all that stuff, but I expect you to have some semblance of a schedule written up for me by the end of the week." Both she and Logan have forgotten about the crowd of people watching their fight from the doorway, and as she moves his suddenly slack arm, and walks out of the bathroom she is surprised at having to push past the staring teenagers.
Veronica and Logan steer well clear of eachother for the next few days. The fact that he knows her timetable is now useful to Logan, although still deeply disturbing, and he finds that he is deliberately dodging the corridors where she she has classes, and the block where her locker is. Veronica's method of avoidance is simpler; if she sees him she hides, or just cuts him down without a word.
Logan has spent several hours placating Lilly for ignoring her during his fight with Veronica, where she complained bitterly about being overshadowed by 'that skanky attention seeker' and he just sat nodding, his mind somewhere else. He was worried by the fact that most of the time, the somewhere else was wherever he thought Veronica would be; Mars Investigations, her apartment – wherever that was nowadays – detention. He just wishes she wasn't so sexy. He hadn't really noticed her in that way when they were friends. He'd liked her, cared about her, thought she was pretty enough, but she's had to come out of her shell for him to really find her attractive.
On Friday he's once again tackled into the bathroom, a different one this time, so that people are less likely to know where they are. She looks at him expectantly, and he starts rattling off the little information he's been able to find out.
"He plays tennis everyday. Trina says he does it for 2 hours, starting from like 9 or 10 in the morning, and then meets his agent in the clubhouse for a pre-lunch drink and business talk. My mom meets him for lunch at a restaurant somewhere, and then he does all of his actor shit; script reading, celebrity appearances, all that crap. That's all I know until he gets home at about 7 every night." He recites it as if it's French verb conjugations, looking bored.
"Good." She says nothing else, just walks out of the bathroom into the bustling hallways of Neptune High.
"Wait!" He runs after her, and grabs her arm. "My dad has a bodyguard. If he catches you following Aaron then he'll turn you into the Sheriff, or just take care of you himself." She is staring at him quizically, unsure of why he's telling her this. "Just…be careful."
"Well there's something I never thought I'd hear; Logan Echolls worrying about my safety." She smiles wryly, and walks over to her locker. "Relax, Logan, I'm a pro at this stuff. I'll be fine."
He watches her saunter into a classroom. He knows without looking at the teacher entering or the books that were in Veronica's hands that she's got Spanish now, with Miss Hernandez. 'I'll be fine.'
"I sure hope so." He whispers, as he walks into his own class.