Veronica went to work that morning tailing her favourite Cheerleader clique, she had heard rumours of a new designer drug circulating in the 09er club scene.
Drugs and 09er Parties. Not her favourite kind of case, give her a grisly autopsy report any day but her father had asked for her help after a young woman ended up in hospital.
If anyone was going to be loose lipped enough to mention who was bringing it into her city, she knew it would be one of those botox gloss-covered Celebutantes. Of course it was a lot easy watching them when Logan Echolls wasn't acting like their own personal head of security sneering in her direction. There was no way she could get close enough proximity to play tag with any of them while he played guard dog. Perhaps she could place a bug on Kelsies Pom Poms or Madison's backpack in their next class, the soaked clothes in the toilet incident meant she rarely shared athletics hour with them anymore.
Veronica watched as the girls walked into their first period, Logan was right behind them. She turned to walk in the other direction when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Hey watch where you're going." He said with a sneer. Veronica turned around to face him, he had a smug look on his face and she could tell he was enjoying this. "What do you want?" She asked trying not to sound too angry or confrontational. He shrugged his shoulders and smirked at her before walking away. Pamela nudged Kelsie on the arm and they both burst out laughing in her direction, Logan's taunts rarely occurred without an audience.
Ever since the death of her best friend Lily Kane, her interactions with the youngest Echolls had her itching to get up close and person with the jackass and her taser.
Oh how the sparks would fly.
The worst part was, she understood his anger, she'd had a similar rage building up inside her since Lily's funeral, ever since she stood in the rare Southern Californian rain storm as they buried her best friend.
Veronica had always been the smart one, Lily's brains and Logan's looks had drawn all the attention in their small town. But Veronica was just as sharp as her father, she could talk circles around most people and when it came to math or science she was practically a genius. She knew that Logan resented her for it, but there was nothing she could do about it, she was still in the top 20 contenders for the Kane Scholarship whether he liked it or not.
That Scholarship was the only reason she endured as much of this Hellscape as she did, because ever since her mother ran off and her dad lost his job, this was the best she had at building any kind of future.
Sometimes her grades, were the only thing in her life she felt within her control.
"Hey Mars." He called out from his seat in the back of the newspaper room. "Mind if I sit with you?" Veronica turned to face him, studying his features for any sign of anger.
"What do you want Logan?" She asked, her voice tired.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." He said, his voice low as he leaned against the corner of her desk. Veronica's heart softened at the sincerity in his voice, turning her gaze away from her work and into his familiar handsome face.
"For what?" She asked, her voice gentle. Logan shrugged his shoulders, a small smile touching the corners of his mouth. "I hired professionals to clean up after my party." He said, "I deprived you of your favorite weekend past time, and I know that now."
Veronica's lips drew into a thin line, looking up into the taunting smile on his face before he lifted the trash can his best friend Dick Casablanca's passed him and emptied the contents all over her homework.
"You're lucky I don't have a better sense of humor than that Logan." She said, her voice low and furious.
Things like this were the reason she always kept a backup assignment stored on the Mars Investigations cloud drive, Mr Faust wouldn't be happy at her emailing it- again, the Dinosaur thought paperless education was just coded language for getting unauthorised extensions on assignments.
Veronica refused to cry.
She refused to give Logan the satisfaction. She picked up her pen and started writing again, trying not to think about how much she would definitely be losing some points for this. Logan had begun hiring a private cleaning service to tidy up after his underage parties after two 07er classmates recruited her services to locate a missing phone last month. Veronica had "borrowed" the familiar maids uniform from The Dirty Nickel Laundrette, she'd found the phone eventually and about 25 other stolen items from the 09er communities own High School Bling Ring. Amanda Hollisworth was busted going out with influential jocks, and filling her faux Gucci bag with the expensive electronics of her classmates.
Veronica's hands shook as she typed in the password to her cloud drive. She clicked on the backup assignment and started attaching her assignment.
Logan leaned back in his chair, watching her. She was so tense, he could see the muscles in her neck working. He smirked and started to type on his phone.
Logan: It must be some kind of cosmic joke that I have to deal with her every day at school.
Logan felt something being passed his way but shook his head when he realised it was a silver hip flask. Most of the reasons he hated Veronica Mars were fabricated, the rumours they'd spread about the disgraced former Sheriffs Daughter were lies, and he knew it, but some small part of him relished the idea of punishing her.
Very few could read Veronica like Logan could. He hated her, strolling around the school like Painkiller Jane.
Why couldn't she just leave?
The D: You sip, I'll slurp.
"What?" Veronica said, glariing up from her computer screen. Dick grinned and took a long pull from the flask. "Just trying to make your first day back a little more comfortable."
She gathered up her books and thanked Wallace silently for the absence slips he'd "misplaced" from the office last week. Ms James had insisted she spend a few days off last week after the clothes in the toilet incident, but of course, no leads were ever found. Veronica would rather listen to the surviellence coms or review Camelott footage from the Bird Watching camera's they were trialling. No better mental body armour than making sure the adultrous in Neptune were served divorce papers.
"Where you going Ronnie?" Logan chuckled.
"Anywhere You're not." she growled under her breath.
Veronica tried to drown out the echoing laughter which drove her from the classroom, the loudest most familiar being the one which gripped her heart and squeezed the most. They used to be friends a long time ago, now Logan Echolls was one of her biggest enemies at school.
Pulling a piece of trash from her blonde hair, she made a dignified exit, days like this, she really missed Lily.
