A/N All recognizable dialogue belongs to RT-RT sandbox I am just creating chaos
Chapter Two
If a school bus, traveling forty miles per hour, drives off a cliff and plunges ninety feet into the jagged coastline, how many seconds did the five high school students, their teacher, and bus driver have to contemplate the fact that they're about to die? Two Mississipis' worth of screams, life flashes, and prayers, maybe? i just wish the prayers had worked.
"Veronica, go home." her manager says coming over to her. "No one seems to be able to concentrate. I'm closing early."
She nods and goes to collect her bag thankful. Everyone has been messing up orders today and more than once she ignored customers waiting to be seated.
"Ummmm..Veronica, right?" she hears behind her.
"Yeah." she turns to find Cervando's mother. She had seen her a couple times when she had dropped him off.
"Hi..." she says nervously putting her bag over her shoulder.
"I wanted to thank you." she says clutching a box of Cervando's things from his locker.
"Thank me? I..."
"My mijo. He talked about you all the time...How you treated him like a person not ..." she starts to cry.
She maneuvers the woman to one of the tables and sits with her while she cries.
"I'm sorry we're closing." she hears the manager saying to some girl that is at the door. Turning she watches as the girl tries to come in.
"Oh, but you're still open, could I get a macchiato?"
"Sorry but..." the manager starts.
"Look you're still open and I am the customer." the girl snarks.
"Well I am the manager and I say I am closed so you are out of luck." she says turning around ignoring the girl, whose mouth dropped open.
She smiles softly before turning back to Cervando's mom. Not knowing what to say she just holds her hand and lets her cry.
She enters the bathroom the next day and the bus driver's daughter is there.
"You know who I am?"
"Yeah."
"Did you know who I was last week?"
"Not really..."
"I doubt you'll do this but I want to hire you."
"What?" she turns to face her.
"I want you to prove my dad didn't commit suicide and take our classmates with him."
"I...don't know what to say."
"See, I have a mother and a little brother. We've gotten use to having a place to live and food. Insurance companies don't pay out if it's ruled suicide."
"I wouldn't even know where to start."
They are interrupted by some 09er clones.
"Hmmm, I'm surprised you are even showing your face around school. If I was you I would run and hide..." whatever she was going to say next is cut off when Jessie punches the girl. She pulls her off and agrees to help.
"I'll help, okay. Not sure where to start but I'll help. So, you need to chill."
After school, the two of them go to the crash site, which has become a memorial.
Stooping down, she helps a man light a candle.
"I guess my dad doesn't rate a votive candle." Jessie snarls when she comes over to her.
"Jessie..."
"If you were on that bus, you would want your pile to be the biggest." Jessie cries out getting other peoples attention.
She pulls her back to her car and they leave.
She drops Jessie off at home before running to the office to run Jessie's dad through the search sites.
Unfortunately her dad has nothing in his history that she can find that would help prove he didn't drive off the cliff on purpose.
Back to square one.
She's working on her homework when her dad comes home with Chinese food for supper.
She gets plates while he turns on the TV for some background noise.
They hear a woman's voice on the TV talking about the bus driver. Duane, a worker at the gas station convenience store, tells the reporter that Ed behaved oddly when he came into the store. He bought some things, started to leave, then came back, bought a St. Christopher medal, and threw it away.
"I can't imagine where I'd be if you had gotten back on that bus." he tells her.
"You'd be sad for a while, and then you'd probably turn my room into some sort of sewing nook or yoga studio." she jokes.
"Veronica..."
"I wonder what else he bought. If he got some Red Bull or something like that it would mean that he was tired and might have gone off the road because he fell asleep."
"Honey, this isn't something that you are going to be able to make sense of."
"I know his daughter and she wants to understand this. I'm going to try to help." she says. Not just for her but for me too..
She isn't surprised that Weevil is at the convenience store when she gets there the next day.
"V." he says coming over to her as she gets out of her car.
"Weevil..what are you doing here?"
"I know you. I've seen you talking with the driver's daughter. What are you doing here?"
"Honestly."
He nods.
"Jessie wants proof that her dad didn't kill himself and take Cervando plus everyone else with him. I want this to be an accident." she says softly.
"Umm.. I didn't realize that you and Cervando were friends." he says rubbing a hand over his head.
"We didn't really talk outside of work. He was loyal to you but he was nice to me. Made sure I got home safe more than once."
"I knew he was working just didn't know where." he says rubbing the back of his neck. "You okay?"
"Just have lots of conflicting emotions lately."
"Like what?" he asks.
"I feel grief for everyone that lost someone, guilt that Cervando was on the bus and joy because I'm alive." she breaks down slightly. He steps closer to her and after debating, places his hands on her arms and runs his hands up and down her arms.
"Okay, time to work." she says moving away from him otherwise she isn't going to want to move.
They head in and the first thing they find are crash souvenirs. Weevil turns and goes back outside. Don't blame you...
She is trying to keep her anger under control when her phone starts ringing.
"Hey, Wallace."
"What you doing?"
"Remembering why I'm a misanthrope. They're selling souvenirs. Crash souvenirs."
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Did you need me for something"
"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it myself."
Taking a few deep breaths to get herself under control she goes over to the counter where the same worker, Duane is working.
She talks to him and asks for the bus driver's last meal, which was a Slurpee and bag of peanuts.
Noticing the no change sign and payphone she figures out that he needed change for a call and bought the cheapest thing he could get.
Who did he call, and why doesn't anyone know about it?
She walks out of the store to find Weevil waiting by her car. Holding his hand.
"What did you do?" she asks noticing that his knuckles are bruised.
"Nothing." he says shrugging his shoulders.
"Whatever you say. You okay?" she asks softly.
"Been better. Find anything?" he asks standing.
"Possible. Have to go check something out. I'll see you."
He nods and walks off as she gets in the car.
She pretends to be filling out an application for a receptionist position at the station and when she convinces Sacks to leave her alone She gets access to the payphone records.
She has luckily gotten everything she needed when Lamb burst in and pulls her out.
She goes to see Jessie.
"Your dad made a call to someone named Cotter. Whoever they are live nearby."
Jessie doesn't recognize the name.
Sheriff Lamb shows up with a search warrant.
Wallace shows her an article about Cervando the instant she walks through the door of Sac-n-Pac.
"That annoys me." she says reading the article "He cried when he fist saw 'Stand and Deliver'. God, this is utter bullshit." she says reading the article quickly. "I know none of PCHers or his mother have talked to any reporters, where did they get this junk?"
"I overheard some girl talking about him in homeroom. This new girl was eating it up..."
"Yeah, and blabbed what they thought they knew for a couple minutes of fame."
"Don't worry about it, supafly. Making any progress in your case?" he asks.
"Maybe. In fact I am on my way to see the people that he called. Hopefully they will be some help. See you later." she says throwing the paper in the trash as she leaves.
Jeff Cotter answers the door.
"Hi, I was wondering if you know Ed Doyle?" she asks.
"I know who he is, but I didn't know him." he replies.
Dammit.
"Ed called your house about 15 minutes before he drove off the cliff." she tells him.
"I wasn't home. Carla!" he yells turning.
Carla comes to join them at the door.
"You remember getting a call from Ed Doyle?" Jeff asks.
"No but we did have a wrong number it could have been that day."
Her phone starts ringing so she thanks them and leaves. She's not that far when she answers her phone.
It's Jessie.
"Veronica, you can stop now. Lamb found a suicide note on my dad's computer."
She doesn't even think and rushes over to Jessie's.
Jessie lets her in on to find her mom screaming at the little boy on the couch.
"Stop crying for him! He didn't care about us!" the woman yells before stalking out of the room.
Jessie comforts her little brother before sending him out to play.
She pulls the note out of her pocket and reads it to her.
"I'm sorry to leave you this way but I truly believe in my heat that its for the best. I can't go on like this. I can't stay just for the kids even though they mean more to me than anything. This isn't good for them."
That doesn't sound like a suicide note.
She goes back to the Cotter house and finds Mrs. Cotter.
"If it was a wrong number, why did it last for four minutes?" she asks.
"I..."
"I think that Mr. Doyle was going to be leaving his wife and kids for you..."
"Come inside." she opens the door and has her come inside.
She convinces Jessie to meet her at the Hut.
"What's going on Veronica?" Jessie asks.
"There's someone I want you to meet." she says and the two of them walk over to Carla.
"Carla, this is Jessie."
"Hi...you look just like you photo." Carla says.
"Veronica..what's going on?"
"I loved your dad...and he loved me. He called me to tell me that he was running behind but he would meet me that day." Carla tells her.
Jessie just stares at her.
"He didn't want to leave you and your brother with your mom...he loved the two of you so much." Carla says as she stats to cry.
Jessie is upset, but sits down.
"I wish I had been a little more selfish. I didn't get enough time with him." Carla tells Jessie as she walks away.
She gets home that night to find her dad cooking supper.
"What's the occasion?" she asks with a grin.
"I am going to be running for Sheriff." he says putting the food on the plates.
"Really!?" she asks.
He nods and she excitedly cheers before giving him a hug.
Senior year. College applications due in three months, scholarship applications in six. Since most of my extracurricular activities cannot be divulged under state law, my guidance counselor, who just happens to be my dad's ex, strongly suggested I indulge in a little resume packing. So as of now, Veronica Mars is a Future Business Leader of America.
She enters a classroom just behind Meg as Mr. Pope introduces Mr. H. Richard Casablancas, C.E.O. of Casablancas Enterprises.
Oh joy... Both my ex-boyfriends and other people that hate me.
Meg sits down next to Duncan, who pulls her desk close to him before kissing her.
"I think I just lost my appetite." Logan scoffs pushing the rest of his lunch away.
Ditto..
Big Dick talks to them about real estate. He explains the principle of real estate investment trusts, or REITs, where smaller investors pool their money to buy a share in property.
She looks through the Casablancas, Inc. brochure and notices the Sandpiper Hotel, a high-class, expensive piece of real estate.
"Here's a chart of our market capitalization versus earnings over the last two years. Now how's that look?"
"Awesome." Duncan exclaims.
It looks like it's always looked, the rich get richer and everybody else hopes for scholarships.
"Veronica, hold up a minute." Beaver calls out to her.
"What's up, Beavs?"
"You still looking into things for people?" he asks.
"Why what's going on?" she asks stopping to look at him.
"I think my gold-digging stepmom is already cheating on my dad."
"Really? What makes you think that?"
"Found a condom wrapper in the living room."
"Could have been Dick's or..."
"Dick hates condoms, he gets that from dad. It's not mine so that leaves Kendall."
"There a prenup?"
"Of course. I'll pay you a grand to get a picture of her violation her prenup."
"I'll need her schedule." she says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls one out.
"Figured."
"Ten o'clock brunch with other trophy wives. Twelve o'clock Pilates class. Three o'clock spa reservation for Shiatsu massage, organic enzyme facial ... Maybe I should consider a career as a Neptune trophy wife." she mutters looking over the schedule as she walks to her car at the end of the day.
She stops when she sees Deputy Sacks in her way. Leaning against a cruiser.
"Lamb wants to ask you some questions, Veronica." he says opening the back door.
"My answer has not changed from last time. I will not go to prom with him." she snarks as she gets into the car. She notices Sacks try very hard not to laugh.
"So I guess you know why you're here. You wanna tell me about it?" Lamb says staring at her.
"I confess... I have no idea why I'm here." she snarks. "Though I'm sure my dad will like to know that you just ordered me here for no reason."
"You're eighteen now, kiddo. You're an adult. I don't need to get your daddy's approval."
"Well at least one of us is an adult. So are you going to tell me why I'm here, or should I see if my mind reading powers have finally awakened."
"What can you tell me about your relationship with this man?" Lamb says placing a open file on the table.
"Don't have one." she asks looking at the guy, that she saw at the cliff when she went with Jessie.
"You sure about that."
"I helped him light a candle at the bus memorial but I wouldn't call that a relationship."
Lamb holds up an evidence bag. "Missing an earring?"
"Not a diamond kinda girl." Looks familiar though, where have I seen that before?
"This was found outside the Road Hog, a known biker bar...the last place Curly here was seen alive."
"What does that have to do with me?" she asks.
Lamb shows her more pictures: one of Curly's body and another of Curly's hand with "Veronica Mars" written on it.
"He washed up on the beach, beaten to death with your name on him. Still don't think this has anything to do with you."
She looks at him in utter shock.
It's official, hell has frozen over, because Lamb might actually be right about something.
She comes home to find her dad and Alicia on the couch.
"Child in the room! Hands where I can see 'em." she jokes and heads to her room quickly.
She turns on her laptop and looks up Kendall and Curly.
Kendall Lacey Casablancas. Use to be Shifflet. Just another college dropout turned music video background dancer turned Laker girl living off a ten thousand dollar a year salary, a purse full of credit cards, and a string of boyfriends. Until a twice-divorced white knight swept her away to bimbo paradise. And for a true Hollywood story without the happy ending, David "Curly" Moran: one time stuntman who crashed his career in the '80s.
"So what's up, kiddo?" her dad asks before he enters the room. She quickly closes her laptop.
"None of your beeswax. ..." she says with a smile as he sits down."So, now that you've filed the official divorce papers for Mom...are you taking Wallace's mom to Chicago to propose to her?"
"Honey..."
"Don't think I won't go through your luggage to check for a ring." she says with a grin.
"No ring."
"Promise bracelet? Pre-engagement necklace? Earrings? Anything that can be qualified as bling?"
"Honey, can't a guy just take his special lady friend on a romantic..."
"A guy, yes. You, no."
"I promise, as soon as Alicia and I know what the next step is, you'll know what it is. Okay?"
"Okay." he kisses the top of her head before heading out.
She follows Kendall around. Making sure to snap photos when some random guy joins her for lunch.
Kendall leaves the gym with the guy.
She continues to take pictures from her car as Kendall and the man go into a room on the second floor of a hotel.
She sitting at the table during lunch when Wallace joins her.
"What you lookin' at?" he asks as she closes the folder with the pictures she was examining.
"Work stuff."
He waves at Jackie, and she smiles and walks over to join them.
"You've met Jackie right?"
"We haven't been introduced. I just didn't know you were lunch buddies."
"I'm working for lunch buddies with privileges." he says with a smirk. "I like her, okay? Retract claws."
"Claws? What claws?" she says looking at her nails.
Jackie sits down, placing her food tray and book on the table.
"So have the two of you met?" he asks.
"No." Jackie says with a smile. She just smiles in return.
"No matter how many schools I end up at, I never seem to escape that." Jackie says pointing at the book, Pride and Prejudice.
Alright, how's this for a wing girl.
"You know I'm going to be renting the movie with Colin Firth and tons of Chinese food. The two of you are more than welcome to join me." she says.
Jackie accepts, and Wallace mouths 'thank you'.
She sits down to take break with Beaver to show him the photos.
"This doesn't work." he says frustrated. "Her and some guy switching bags isn't proof."
"Okay, load this with all the music she listens too. I have an idea." she says handing him a blank iPod that looks like the same one Kendall has.
She pulls into the parking lot of Curly's work.
Please have left something that gives me a clue why the hell you had my name on your hand.
"Sorry we don't service those kinds of cars." a guy says motioning to her car.
"I called earlier, Curly's niece."
"Yeah, this way." he says turning to have her follow him. He shows her a box on an empty area. "This is everything." he says before walking off.
Grabbing the box she leaves. Placing it on the seat next to her, she digs through. There are a few framed pictures in there, including one of Curly with Aaron Echolls. Aaron signed it saying, "All these years still on 'The Long Haul.'"
So we have a a psycho in common, great.
She walks into FBLA and finds a seat as far from Duncan and Meg as she can get.
Logan sits down next to her. Yeah someone hates me.
"Congratulations! You are now worth exactly one million dollars." Mr. Pope tells them when he enters the class.
"What? You mean I've lost money?" Logan snarks.
"No, Logan. Every year I play a little stock market game with my class. Now, you may invest your money any way you see fit, as long as it's legal." Mr. Pope says looking right at Dick.
"The student with the most valuable holdings at the closing bell on June 1st will claim a small shiny plaque with his or her name on it and all attendant bragging rights. Also, anyone that can beat my income gets a cash prize."
"How much real money did you make?" Logan asks.
"Enough to retire in exactly nine months. I would've retired earlier, but actually, the, uh, the restoration's been tricky. We had to re-seal the hull.
"Didn't plug her right, huh?" Logan smirks looking right at Duncan.
Duncan just glares at him as Meg places her hand on his arm.
I don't think they are going to be friends again any time soon.
"Hey come on in." she tells Wallace and Jackie when they get to her place that night.
"Chinese food and a movie, my kind of night." Wallace says grinning.
"Any night with tons of food is your kind of night." she jokes as they sit down to watch the movie. Them on the couch and her in dad's chair.
They have just started the movie when there is a knock at her door. Pausing she gets up.
"Hey V." Weevil says coming in.
"Umm, what's up?" she asks.
"Can we talk?" he asks. "Privately?"
She nods and has him follow her to her room.
"Wondered what your room would look like. Kinda what I thought." he says looking around.
"Weevil, what's going on?"
"Normally I wouldn't care but I promised Abuelita that I would graduate this year... You're smart, could you help me?"
"In what?" Not speaking for weeks and now suddenly you want me to tutor you. Stuff like this can give a girl whiplash.
"Everything." he says unable to meet her eyes.
"Can I think about it?"
"Yeah...sure." he says and starts to leave the room.
"We're watching Pride and Prejudice. It's part of English. Stay." she says swallowing.
He nods and they go back into the living room and she restarts the movie as he takes off his jacket as he sits on the floor in front of her.
"There's plenty of food left if you're hungry." Jackie says.
Weevil nods and grabs a container and starts eating. Leaning back so that his shoulders brush against her knees.
This is weird but I like it.
Wallace helps Jackie with her jacket as Weevil helps her clean up.
"See you later, Supafly." Wallace with a look in his eye that he wants an explanation.
She nods getting the message.
"Nice to meet you." Jackie tells her.
She just smiles as the two of them walk out.
"I got this if you want to head out." she tells him taking the empty containers out of his hands.
"Abuela would have my hide if I let you clean up on your own." he says putting the few plates into the sink. They work in silence cleaning the living room and getting the dishes done. "V..thanks."
She looks over at him as he puts on his jacket. "For what?"
He just smirks and leaves, not answering her.
This is a good time to catch her.
She gets off the treadmill next to Kendall. Knowing she can't hear her she starts making up a story to exchange the iPods.
"What?" Kendall asks taking the earbuds out of her ears.
"Sorry, my iPod is acting up but I'm not sure if it's the earbuds. So I thought since we have the same one I could do a quick test."
"Whatever, make it quick." Kendall says unplugging her earbuds and handing the iPod over.
Making the switch, she hands over the iPod with the hidden camera and walks off.
She follows Kendall to the cheap hotel with the same guy.
She picks up her phone and dials Beaver, only to get his voicemail.
"Made the switch, now it's up to you to grab the iPod and meet me at work tonight."
She takes her camera out again and snaps a picture of the hotel name, Sandpiper Hotel. Oh shit She pulls the Casablancas real estate brochure out of her bag and flips to the page that had an expensive five-star hotel on it called the Sandpiper Hotel. She looks at the hotel again and sees the man leave.
She follows the guy to the county assessor office. Only to find out that the guy is the assessor.
Feeling uneasy, she swings back to school and luckily finds Mr. Pope in his classroom.
"What can you tell me about real estate fraud?" she asks walking into the classroom.
"Well it's hard to do since most people wont buy sight unseen." he tells her. "There are safeguards in place, such as a assessor making sure the property is sold fairly."
"What if you bribe the assessor?" she asks.
"You'll still need to find a buyer that has no clue what's happening. You could borrow against an inflated property to buy more property and inflate its value..."
"Sell your stock." she says pulling out the brochure and photo she just took of the Sandpiper.
"This has to be a mistake." he mumbles.
"I'm sorry. Get rid of your stock."
"I can't. I would have to sell it to someone and I can't do that to someone else."
Without a word she leaves him alone, hating her job at the moment.
Taking a short break, she sits down next to Beaver and turns on her laptop.
"I can't even see the camera." he says handing her the iPod.
"That's the point. Now there is going to be a lot of photos. I set it up to take a photo every fifteen seconds." she says taking it and plugging it into her laptop.
"Umm, Veronica." he says pointing out that people are waiting.
She leaves to take care of them while he continues to look through the pictures.
She's annoyed to find Jackie standing there with some random guy.
"Oh, hey Veronica." Jackie says.
"Hey Jackie. Just the two of you."
The guy nods and pulls Jackie closer to him. CLenching her jaw she leads them over to an emtpy booth.
"Veronica wait a second." Jackie says as she turns to leave.
Turning to face her, "Yes."
"Listen I just moved her. I'm having fun. Wallace is just a friend, he knows that." Jackie tells her trying to justify her being out with another guy.
"Alright, but the instant you become more than friends and I see you out on a date with someone that's not Wallace. We will have a problem, clear?"
"Crystal." Jackie says and turns to go back to her date.
She goes back over to where she left Beaver, not looking forward to telling him what she found out about his dad. Unfortantly, Beaver and the iPod are long gone.
She turns the laptop towards her to find pictures of a shirtless Logan with Kendall reflected in a mirror unbuttoning her shirt. I really have bad karma.
Once again hearing Logan's voice mail message she just barely stops herself from throwing the phone.
Pulling into the driveway, she's annoyed to see Logan's car. Not bothering to knock, she goes right in.
"I love the changes you've made." she snarks when she looks around his bedroom, Logan standing in the doorway of his private bath.
"Yeah, well now you know what you missed out on."
"Is your little girlfriend still here?" she asks ignoring his remark about not having sex with him.
"Girlfriend, uh, you're going to have to be a little more specific." he says drying his hair.
"Alright, the one whose husband is gonna murder you when he finds out that his son's best friend is secretly screwing his wife."
"Oh, her. She's less of a girlfriend and more a...playmate." he jokes with a smirk on his face.
"God, Logan. What if I had been her husband? What would you have done? Just stand there in your towel with your room still reeking of his wife's cheap perfume?
"Well I guess it's a good thing that I have an ex-girlfriend that cares so much about me." he snarks.
"It was a job, nothing else." she says turning to leave the house.
On her way out of the house, she stops when she sees several framed movie posters on the wall. She notices one poster of a movie called The Long Haul.
What did Aaron write. 'All these years still on The Long Haul'. It had a stunt where a truck was sent over a bridge. Supervises by..David 'Curly' Moran.
"You know if this is storming out..."
She glares at him and walks out, quickly getting in her car and driving off.
She pulls up in front of his house and sits in her car unsure why she came here.
"Hey, V. You stalking me now." Weevil says leaning into her open window.
"It was me." she says as the tears start to fall.
"Que?"
"The bus crash. It was meant for me. They're dead because of me."
He opens her door and pulls her out of the car. He wraps his arms around her as she cries.