"Like OMG… Actually kill me… my ex Brad is here…" Alexandra Cantrell's voice whined as Veronica listened to the small mp3 player that held the recordings from the Homecoming Bug Pins. So far her digital recon had her convinced that if it were not for the buds in her ears, her brains would slowly be dribbling out of them. "I swear it's like he just follows me or something…." The recording continued.

Or it could just be you both attend the same school genius?

"Ugh… I decided this year that I was going to like go Drama Cold-Turkey… but what can you expect in Neptune High?" Pam retorted over the muffled sound of a locker being opened.

"Yeah, I don't do teen drama" Alexandra agreed.

"Speaking of Drama… I cannot believe what went down at the Boardwalk yesterday!" a third female voice declared but she couldn't identify it right away.

"Oh Please… I've had to listen to Caitlin bitch about that all morning" a fourth girl scoffed, and Veronica quickly recognised it as Faith Schultz.

"What happened?" Alexandra pressed as Veronica strained to hear over the sounds of the other students in the hall who were positioning the props for her photoshoot for May and Natalie for the recruitment pamphlets for the drama department.

"Echolls and Ms Spaced Out were on a date together. Kimmy and Jax – that total hottie from six period German class? saw them making out on the beach" the third girl explained.

"No way!" Alexandra and Pam gasped in unison.

I'm trapped in chick-chat hell… send help!

"Yeah… and word is that Ms Mindless turned down going to the Dance next Friday with Troy Vandergraf because the two of them are going as like a couple…" the girl continued.

"Gabriella is there some kind of point you want to be making?" Faith snarled.

"Only that that must mean Caitlin was right all along… the guy IS obsessed with her" Gabriella pouted. "I mean… I can't believe he waited until she lost her damn mind before dating her… wasn't he the one who told Murphy Richards that she had screwed half the midfielders on the lacrosse team?"

Veronica winced at the rumour. Murphy Richards was the son of one of her father's clients whom she had gotten close to when the business had opened up last year just after Lilly's death. They were in the same study hall and he often walked her to class. He'd been the first boy to really show an interest in her after the break up with Duncan and her move into the Sunset Crescent Apartment's with her dad… then seemingly for no reason at all he just started giving her the cold shoulder. She had always suspected that Logan and Dick had had something to do with it… that her disaster of a love life had been the result of their cruel reign of terror… but to have it confirmed so directly still hurt.

She had hated him with a vengeance after their argument in the library... She was convinced that his sole purpose in life was to break her down to nothing… and one more than one occasion… Logan had succeeded.

"Caitlin was screwing Chardo Navarro since before those two were even dating…" Pam replied dismissively. "Logan was just a meal ticket and that bullshit with Whore-ronica is a horrible brainwashing disaster… I mean she wanted to be all tough and badass now she just looks like an idiot most of the time"

Was she nothing more than a butterfly caught in his net? They made it sound like this was all some sick game of coercion and control. Somewhere in the clouded fog that was her brain, she knew that if this was a game she was going to lose...

"Well I love my men possessive and bat shit crazy" Alexandra drooled wistfully.

"You're just saying that because you hooked up Echolls last New Years" Kimmy Dalton interrupted. "He's basically your vagina's kryptonite."

Veronica winced at the sound of his name… they were finding themselves on a collision course as they both seeked to bring down whomever had killed Lilly, but they seemed at odds with how exactly to go about it. Could she really do this? Forgive, forget all the unforgotten hurts and move on with Logan? After Shelley Pomeroys party last year she had chosen to box herself off from people in an effort to keep herself from future hurt. If she didn't befriend people, talk to them or acknowledge them in any way so they would leave her alone just like she wanted.

Wallace and Meg had been the only exceptions…

"I don't know why Mr Clemmons even lets her stay enrolled here… she is incredibly spiky and practically snarls at anyone who gets close" Faith sighed and there was the sound of books ruffling and the locker closed again. "No wonder Duncan ditched her ass"

Well this was a train wreck, ten car accident and helicopter crash all rolled into one plan…

"Well who would have dated him last year anyways?" Alexandra scoffed. "Let me string you along while I sort out my shit? Duncan was booty benched last year for a REASON"

"Yeah… it was Boy Bye!" Faith agreed.

"Aren't you going to Homecoming with him though?" Pam asked.

"Yeah… so?" Faith retorted, and they had. Faith and Duncan had been named this years Homecoming King and Queen, and they were currently dating.

Veronica was almost starting to miss the recordings from the boys soccer team the conversations were crude, and had her cringing multiple times as they had discussed the various positions they would like to screw her classmates in but it lacked the vitriol of the cheerleading squad. For a bunch of jerks who had bullied her relentlessly for the last year because of Lilly's murder, they hadn't had many nice things to say about the memorial fountain dedication either.

I'm a glutton for punishment until I've had enough…

Veronica became lost in her thoughts as she remembered the last time she saw Lilly Kane during the car wash fundraiser. Tessa Corelli returned and tapped her on the shoulder, hinting that they were ready to begin taking the pictures now that the drama club were in their costumes and she took out her headphones, grateful for the break.

"Okay, what is more likely Sue that the lighting is going to be too much on my face… or that your monolith of a frame is going to eclipse the rest of us?" Tammy Forrester grumbled at her companion and pointed at her to move. "Like… what is more likely?"

"Sorry" Sue apologized as she moved into a position in the back of the group while Veronica bit her tongue. If she wouldn't make such a big deal out of it afterwards, Veronica would gladly make sure Tammy's head would be cropped out of every single frame.

"It's like actually though… if you can't handle me at my best… you don't like…" Tammy complained before she began to fluff and primps her hair for the camera that Veronica would have gladly thrown at her face in frustration. This afternoon had been dragging by. She would be meeting Logan here soon, and then they were going to meet up with Weevil and the other PCH Motorcycle Club—baddest of the bad boys. She wasn't worried about Weevil. Behind his womanizing façade, hid the pain of losing his first love, Lilly, the deceased daughter of a prominent family rocked by scandal.

How could she meet with Becca and promise to investigate Daisy's death when she hadn't even confessed to her father everything he needed to know to work the case?

"Marcus… be careful with your Chino's near those props. I'm not sure they are all the way dry and we need those for the Falconry Dedication Ceremony" Tessa advised the taller boy in the corner.

After she met with Weevil and Felix tonight, she was going to have to tell her father everything…

Revenge was a dish best served cold but she would serve it up white hot. Whoever had done this to her friends was not going to get away with it Veronica seethed, her grip on the camera was a little too tight when she realised she had been holding it too firmly and hadn't taken the picture yet.

"Say Clemmons!" she chirped sarcastically in a singsong voice before snapping the picture.

The shoot went on for a further twenty minutes, and Veronica watched as Tessa fussed around the sets and organized the drama club. She was naïve, young and filled with hopes in dreams… this elite privileged 09er worshipping town would chew her up and spit her out. Veronica finally handed over the approved pictures on the data card to Ms Dent as she entered the Navigator Newspaper office to see Duncan standing over the table with articles and several of the sophomore classmates.

"Thanks Veronica" the teacher smiled, and the sound of her name snapped his head up in her direction and she couldn't help but map all the similarities she was recalling that he shared with his sister. Their gazed meshed awkwardly for several heartbeats and she felt a trickle of apprehension. He turned back to the young freshmen Sandra who was waiting for his approval. He nodded and stepped away from the desk. She regarded him carefully; they hadn't really spoken much beyond that first day at lunch when she had come back to school the weekend after Homecoming.

Dear Diary,

The Duncan Defence Shield is at full power Captain…

If an angsty soup of push-pull, love-hate, first love and second chance love stories based on trust & forgiveness issues were your thing, then you'd love this shit... I should just stick to the art and cookie business… leave the murder and intrigue… and complicated romances to someone else… but sadly, no… as Weevil would say…. It's just Mi Vida Loca…

The opposite of love isn't hate, It is indifference. Love and hate...they weren't that far from one to the other… its someone eating you alive… because it means someone got under your skin and consumed you.

You never had a chance…

Duncan Kane. Lilly's Brother. Billionaire. Her first love... the man who completely ignored her existence.

What made him tick? Why was he the way he was? What happened to him in the past to shape the man he was today that he had completely cut her out of his life?

It was hard to think that at one time they had been the school's golden couple. Hi body was made for sin, and his icy blue eyes could still scorch her with feelings too intense for a heart as scarred as the one he had left her with.

She'd listened to recordings of conversations most of the 09er's who'd known Duncan, his friends, his classmates.. team mates… and no one else seemed to have a clue either.

Duncan Kane was an enigma and getting lost into the depths of those blue eyes was like free-falling a hundred stories… maybe that was part of her fascination with him? He'd been a puzzle she had been unable to crack… There are two sides to every story. His. Hers. And the truth.

She wanted his truth… and she couldn't ignore the most glaringly obvious one… she didn't love him anymore…

"Did you have a brain tumour for breakfast? We walk through doors to be either in or out of a room.. we don't block them unless you are auditioning to become a door" Caitlin Ford snarled as she barged her way inside the Navigator Office with Kimmy Dalton following closely behind. She was a delectable prissy princess in her pantyhose and pencil skirts, her father was a was a millionaire… a hotelier … a somebody. Which made her part of the Neptune High Elite… unlike Veronica… and she used every opportunity to remind her of it. She was also Logan Echoll's former girlfriend.

"In this school we do not talk to each other that way… even if it is after the final bell" Ms Dent scolded her.

"Sorry…" Caitlin clipped before she handed over the student recruitment surveys from the various club members, a scowl on the cusp of breaking free.

"My dislike for her is instant. From the moment I lay eyes on her, she ignites something in me. She makes me feel things I thought I was incapable of feeling. I don't like it, not one bit… I don't even know why I fricking care… she's just his favourite toy… a little ragdoll he gets to throw around." Caitlin had complained to Pam during the recordings that Veronica had listened to this morning. She'd been talking about her. "I should hate him for the way he treats me, but surprisingly I don't. If anything, I feel sorry for him. I want to help him find peace… but his unhealthy obsession for Veronica Mars is what brings him to his knees.. He hates her with such a passion and at the same time craves her like a drug… he is a complete a bastard and she is falling for it… for the monster, bully, tormentor, whatever you want to call it… he tortured her… Not simple little things, but real psycho shit… He's down right mean… he kept telling me that he has a plan for her, a plan to destroy her… now he's playing the dutiful boyfriend... a sexy multimillionaire who loves her...too much."

Caitlin's little monologue made her freaked her out, pissed her off, made her laugh and made her want to cry with frustration. Was she right? Was she the lamb to Logan's lion?

Logan knew every inch of her, but she knew almost nothing about him… he was a crafty chameleon. He always had been. He had thought she betrayed him when she'd told Lilly about that kiss was he still out for revenge? Did he have a hidden agenda, and has secretly been stalking and keeping tabs on her?

If he is so impressively fucking twisted my-eyes-just-dropped-out-of-my-sockets from the emotional turbulence. My very own Mr. Tall, Dark and deliciously dangerous… and everything could go so so wrong…

Veronica was trying to align the Logan she was hearing about in the cacophony of fragments of conversations she had been collecting as she picked up the photo paper for the copier to print out some of the pictures when she was assaulted with a zingy feeling shimmering across her skin and something cold seeping into her hair and down her back.

It was like a scene from Carrie but instead of animal blood it was a rainbow glittery sticky mess.

"Oh Fudgickles! Are you okay? I am so sorry Veronica!" May lamented from the ladders above her. Her big wide eyes were round in shock peering out from the redhead girls as she climbed down from the ladders. "Did the bucket hit you?" she asked, her pale hands grabbing Veronica's face and shaking her head from side to side to inspect her.

"Everything okay?" Ms Dent asked as she responded to the noise.

"Uh yeah… just an accident… but it's okay… the bucket hit the shelf and I just got covered" Veronica assured her.

"There was glue mixed in with the paint… that needs to come out like now…." Natalie advised as she joined them.

"I am so sorry Veronica.." May sobbed.

"I'm fine.. it's okay… I'll hit the showers…here it will be fine…" she promised, trying to soothe the other girl.

"I didn't do it on purpose… I promise… I wasn't expecting anyone and you startled me…." She continued.

"May… it's alright…" Veronica repeated and gave her a smile as she shook some of the glitter off her shoulder. Her dad was working late at the office but it should be fine, she still had a change of clothes in the trunk of her car from the last overnight assessment at the Hospital. Sighing she ignored the amused giggles of Pam and Caitlin as she peeked their heads out of the Navigator office. Most of the cars had already left, many of the clubs had finished up for the evening and cheerleading practise was over, so thankfully she wouldn't have an audience.

It had taken about 10 minutes and acceptance of May's own personal stash of shampoos that she promised would absolutely get the glue off of her blond hair before she finally convinced Meg and Natalie to take May home so she could get her shower without interruption.