"Table for three?" Veronica asks, menus in hand as she expectantly looks at the newly arrived customers. They murmur their agreement, shuffling forward as she starts to direct them to their table. "Right this way."

Normal. That's the watchword. Sounds good, doesn't it? Senior year begins tomorrow and all appears hunky dory. Best friend? Check. Boyfriend? Check. Lilly's attacker behind bars? Check.

Veronica passes out their menus once the group is seated and tells them, "A waitress will be right with you."

She turns around, her ponytail swishes side to side as she walks back to the front and stands behind the host desk.

Normal job, just like other people my age. I just wish fewer of my classmates showed up here.

"Veronica Mars," the chipper voice of her best friend calls out and Veronica turns around with a smile.

It's been nine months since Lilly Kane had woken up. The news spread through town like wildfire.

"I'm Neptune's Sweetheart? If they knew what really happened," the Kane heiress snorted, laughing.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Veronica was quick to assure her best friend.

Logan arched a brow from his chair at her quick defence. Lilly flashed the petite blonde a smile, grateful to have her there. "What is going on with the world besides, you know, me?"

Beaming, Veronica scoops the girl in a hug, "Lilly. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on your way to New York by now."

"Just making my rounds," she shrugs. "Let's get something to eat."

"Extra crispy chicken, anyone?" Veronica held up the white paper bags with a smile on her face.

"Ooh! Gimme, gimme, gimme," Lilly excitedly waved her hands toward herself, taking in the aroma. "This must be the food of the Gods. Like on the list of things I've missed while in a coma, it'd be below you but above hot guys."

Veronica tried for a smile but she's left with a strained crooked grin that felt awkward and wrong. She stayed silent as she took out the rest of the food from the brown paper bag and set it beside Lilly.

"Where's lover boy?" Lilly quizzed, immediately digging in. "He's usually attached to your hip."

Veronica's smile tightened, she swallowed. "He's just surfing or something."

The green eyed heiress cocked her brow. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Everything's fine," Veronica dismissed with a quick wave of assurance. She pulled out a tiny plastic bag and said, "Look what I got you!"

"Ooh lip gloss," she cooed enthusiastically. "Have I told you how much I love you for keeping me pretty while I was like undead?"

The comment left the petite blonde feeling cold, her smile disappears into a thin line for a split second before pulling herself together. She understood that the blatant remarks helped Lilly deal with what happened but every time she was reminded of the hospital, there's the unsettled feeling that clogged her throat.

One hand on the half eaten chicken wing and another on the lip gloss, Lilly observed, "Who would have thunk that fruity lip glosses had some merit, huh?"

"I know right?" Veronica agreed, taking a plate of chicken wings for herself.

Lilly sniffed the lip gloss. "I like the pear flavor."

"It does have a subtle sweetness but Logan hates pears so I don't use it much." The moment she completed her sentence, she stilled because she hadn't meant to bring up Logan. He was always just there at the back of her mind, at the tip of her tongue, the reason for her unsteady beating heart.

"Kiwi is better," Lilly commented as she sniffed more of the flavors, leaving with Veronica whatever space she needed.

Minutes passed with Lilly talking about one thing or another but all Veronica could do was think about her fight with Logan.

He'd told her that she was suppressing her feelings.

He was wrong, she was focusing on the bright side.

He'd told her that life was fucked up while Lilly was in a coma and that she was pretending it didn't happen.

He was wrong, again, she was moving on.

...the thing she hated was that sometimes Logan knew her better than she knew herself.

"Why'd you do it, Lil?" The question slipped through her lips in a quiet and distant voice while Lilly was mid-rant about why she should have her own reality show.

Lilly quieted for a long moment, her eyes focused on Veronica. "So we've stopped with the pretense."

Veronica swallowed, she almost wished she could take back her question. Almost. "Lilly."

A long sigh expelled from the green eyed girl, more resigned than anything else. "If you expect me to give you some philosophical reason, Veronica, then you're out of luck."

Veronica blinked. Because yes, she had expected that or something. Anything.

"All I know was everything was fucked up and I wasn't the one doing the fucking, it was our parents," the bitterness is fresh in her voice and it hit Veronica that while it'd been a long time since she'd had to deal with her mother and the Kanes, it was all still raw to Lilly.

"So I went to a bar," Lilly reiterated.

Veronica remembered curling up into her friend and crying her sorrows away, she hadn't realized that Lilly had been doing the same in a different way.

"Liam thought I was pretty and didn't care that I wasn't eighteen. I got drunk. And it became a delicious secret until I got in over my head and blackmailed the fucker."

"You were trying to help," Veronica offered assurance.

Lilly swallowed. She wasn't. Cassidy Cassablancas was no one to her. She'd wanted to have power over Liam Fitzpatricks. She wanted excitement in her life. "Yeah," she sighed.

"I'll be back in five minutes, okay?"

"Better make it fast, Veronica Mars. I've got a secret," she sings with twinkling green eyes. "A good one."

Veronica chuckles heartedly and makes her way back to the counter.

In Neptune High's quad sat Logan Echolls; sun hitting his face, legs parted and arms spread open as he tilts his head and looks at his favourite blonde beside him when she lets out in a raspy voice, "You a bounty hunter, boy?"

His grin is wide and his eyes crinkle as he looks at her and sees her mimicking his very position. A soft chuckle escapes his lips and he remarks, "I really shouldn't have pushed for the Clint Eastwood marathon. Now I've ruined you. I didn't think it was possible to make you more butch. Stupid, stupid Logan."

Her lips spread into a grin of her own, eyes focusing on him and he continues, "Well, you wanna feel like a man, walk me to class?"

She leans over to him, blue eyes staring into his brown ones and she quips, "Carry your books?"

He shrugs, entirely taken by her. "Why not?" He leans into her, giving her his books and giving her a quick kiss. She sighs into him, nudging her nose to his and captures his lips for a second longer. He hums against her lips before they part and stand up.

As soon as they're up, Logan comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist. She smiles, leaning into his chest and tilting her head to give him way to press a kiss against her cheek. He obligingly does so, hand settled on her waist as they walk and the sound of the quad is drown out by his warm whispers against her ear and her soft giggles as she presses her lips to his mouth.

Here it is, senior year. A fresh start. Try not to screw it up, Veronica.

YEESSS I'VE COMPLETED THIS. FINALLY.

I've been absolutely terrible with updates so thank you so much to everyone that made it to the end. I had planned a lot more for this story but I kind of just wanted to end this because it's been sitting as incomplete for years now. I will be editing this sometime in the future and posting it as a new story and maybe in that version it will continue into the storylines that I had planned out but never got to writing. Thank you again to everyone!