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Alicia meets Dave at the rear parking lot of the school.  "So, what was so secret that a phone call wouldn't have worked?"  he asks after she gets in.  The engine is running and the heat is on.

Alicia plonks herself down on the passenger seat and closes the door. "Hello to you, too," she sallies back impishly, then stops to look at Dave and says contritely, "I'm sorry. Did I mess something up by asking to meet you?"

Dave's blank stare rests on her for a while.  Then he waves for her to get on with it.  "Stereotype."  he says.  "What did you need?"

Alicia bites her lip for a moment. This was not going the way she'd expected. She'd planned to meet up with Dave, chat him up, be all friendly and s**t, then slip in Logan's name and find out what Dave knew about him. So much for that.

She mentally decides, F**k it, and slouches back on the seat, bringing her feet up to rest on the dilapidated dashboard.

She starts off, not bothering to give her voice any animation. "When Hamilton started going apes**t on Tuesday, he went off to talk to this guy, Logan Darklighter, that Sylvia knows. I asked her about him and she told me he used to run with you. What can you tell me about him?"

"He and I were close.  Things changed.  He does his thing I do mine.  He's super popular, is ion a ton of school clubs, and he's scary smart.  Were you looking for something specific about him?"

Alicia sighs. "I'd written a note to Hamilton, one of those 'I know what you did' type of things, and he'd stormed off to yell at Logan, thinking he'd written it. The thing is, from what I overheard, Logan acted like he understood a hell of a lot more about what was going on than just a bystander would."

She frowns. "Sylvia acts like it's all cool, that Logan is, like, playing Switzerland, not joining with the bad guys even though they want him on board, and that that way he can give her info on what's going on. But I don't know how much I can trust her on that, since she's..." She trails off as she realizes she may be speaking out of turn.

She shakes her head slightly. "Anyways, I guess I was hoping to get a second opinion, something that can help me figure out how much of a threat Logan is, or could be."

"He could be a huge threat.  And I'm not sure how solid Sylvia is.  She's a little twitchy in my opinion.  Logan is playing at being neutral.  I've got my own opinion about that, but it's my opinion.  Could he be a threat?  Hell yes, a huge one.  Is he?  Not sure.  He warned us about some stuff, him and Sylvia have something."  He stops.  "Well, I actually don't know what that is, but they have it."

He had Alicia's full attention. "Yeah, I noticed that too. I guess she must've realized it was Logan Hamilton was going to, 'cause she got all freaked out. That's when the s**t started hitting the fan."

She's quiet for a moment. "Do you... do you think we'll need to do something about Logan?" she says, quietly, as she looks out the fogged windshield at nothing in particular.

"Like what?  That I know of he hasn't directly moved against the group.  But, he knows things he's not sharing.  Things about some of the stuff that's been happening at school.  It's hard to not think he's part of the mess."

Alicia lets her frustration show. "I know! All this bad s**t is going on, and we're walking around blind. All we can do is hope we stumble onto something and don't get blown up in the process."

She shuts up, still staring unseeingly out the window, her body taut as a bowstring.

She continues, her voice stiff. "If Logan knows a name, we need to get it. But I don't know how."

Yes, you do, the voice in her head taunted. You're just too chicken to admit it.

"Have you talked to Sylvia about this?  She knows him better than I do now."

Alicia shrugged, looking obviously chagrined. "I talked to her first. That's why I knew he and you used to run together, remember?

"Sylvia's pretty much all 'he's a good guy' and 'don' worry 'bout him,' but I'm not sure she's thinking straight..."

She trails off as a thought blossoms in her head. Sylvia's words play back in her mental recorder. "--he got pretty, and life changed for him."

"Dave?" she asks slowly. "Was Logan always scary-smart and popular?"

"Scary smart, yes.  His acne cleared up, and his voice changed, and he got his teeth fixed.  Then people started to treat him differently.  After that he seemed to change, started acting all fake.  Like most of the vacuum heads."

"Oh," Alicia replied, resting her chin on her knees. "I was sorta hoping it was an all-of-a-sudden thing, like maybe he got an origin or something." She shrugged. "Stupid idea, anyway."

She turned her head so that her cheek was now pressed against her legs. "You said you had an opinion about Logan being neutral. Care to share?"

"Not really."  Dave says.  "I'm sure it's heavily prejudiced, so I'd rather not.  And Sylvia is sort of biased.  So you'll just have to make your own opinion of him."

Alicia continues looking at him, her expression unreadable thanks to her sunglasses.

After a few seconds she says, in an apparent non sequitur, "I think you're a cool guy who's fun to be with."

"You know that drug and alcohol abuse can cause brain damage.  Right?"  He smiles, and turns the stereo up some.

Alicia makes a rude noise and pretends to smack her forehead on her upraised knees, hoping her dusky skin hides her blush.

"Zángano, she throws back in friendly reproof. "I'm just sayin' you are cool, and stuff, y'know, probably more than that Logan chulo." Her attempt at flattery is as clumsy as her body is graceful.

Dave shrugs.  "I am a king among certain people."  Dave offers, "You want a life home?"  he asks, pulling out of the parking lot.

Alicia smiles. "Sure."

She settles back on her seat, feet still up on the dashboard. Her head absently bobs to the rhythm of the song playing on the radio.

She turns to Dave and, again, out of the blue, it comes from left field. "And wat'choo mean calling me a stereotype?" She grins at the intentional irony of her question.