Lucas Scott was sitting on his bed with his legs crossed reading Julius Caesar when the outside door to his bedroom opened and in ran an excitable Haley James. She jumped onto the bed, disturbing Lucas completely in the process.

'Hey Luke, how's the book?'

'Not bad Hales.' Lucas responded in an emotionless tone. His face was a little angered, his blue eyes had lost their normal sparkle.

'Luke, what's up?'

'I saw HIM today.' Lucas dropped the book through his hands. 'He was talking to Keith, and you know what he said…' Haley didn't say anything, she just waited for his answer.

'Its not my fault this kid exists. And he came out with this other bunch of other crap too.'

'Don't listen to him, we both know he isn't worth time or effort.'

'Yeah well sometimes id like to prove to him that I am worth the time and effort, that I'm not a waste of space.' Haley laughed.

'I'm sorry Luke but I don't say things like this often cos it sounds weird but, you're definitely not a waste of space. You are one of…come to think of it, the best person I know. Why do you think you're my best friend, huh? And you don't need to prove anything to him or to Nathan for that matter. You're not thinking about challenging him are you? He doesn't deserve it. None of them do, all of them high and mighty, better than everyone else, looking down their noses at us. You're better than all of them Luke, you know it and I know it. As a person you're great, you've got great friends, a great mom. What'd you need those people in your life for?' Lucas smiled at her.

'Hales you can stop now, thank you but you can stop. I know I don't need them in my life, hell I don't want them in my life but they're not all bad.'

'Oh ok Luke, Peyton Sawyer. Am I right?' Lucas frowned at her playfully.

'Yeah actually, we spoke for the first time today.' Haley clapped her hands together in front of her excitedly and squealed mockingly.

'Oh I bet that was great for you.'

'Actually I think she's more like you and I than you think.'

'Whatever you say Luke, so are you going to challenge Nathan?'

'I dunno Hales, I wanna know if I'm good, but at the same time you're right. I owe those people nothing.'

'Well if you do it Luke, do it for you and not for Dan, Nathan or anyone else. I'll support you either way but you wanna know what I think?'

'I'm sure you're gonna tell me anyway.' Lucas joked.

'Sure I am, you are the best person I now and whether you go for this or not, that wont change and by beating Nathan and joining the team, you wont be changing their opinion of you either. Anyways I gotta head to work. Cya later?' Lucas nodded.

'Thanks Hales, but im not the best person you know.'

'Oh yeah, then who is?'

'You are.' Lucas smiled at her as he got up and opened the door to show her on her way.

'Oh such a gentleman.' Haley said as she skipped out of the house happily.

Later that day Lucas decided that he wanted to challenge Nathan, he thought about what Dan had said and it had him so riled that he couldn't get it out of his head. He made his way to the gym where he knew Nathan would be. He challenged him.

'Midnight. At the riverfront.' Nathan merely smirked and nodded his head slightly.

Midnight came, and Lucas walked onto the river court and began practicing instantly. He shut everyone out in his mind, this was one on one and he was determined not to lose. He had friends there on the sidelines, Mouth, Jimmy, Junk, Skills, Fergie, and Haley to name a few. Nathan had what seemed like the whole school turn up, all the popular kids were there including Peyton.

The game began moments after Nathan had turned up, it looked to be a tight fought affair. Lucas was predominately shooting from a long way out, his game was mainly jump shots and making space for himself to score, he could dunk too but it wasn't his strong point. Nathan on the other hand got physical at every opportunity driving to the basket and dunking.

Lucas had just tied the scores up at 12 before he shot for the hoop from the three-point line and in went in 13-12 up. He received the ball back and shot again, this one hit the rim and went wide. Nathan had the ball back. He faked left and drove right. It was Nathan's favourite move, and he was damned good at it. 13-13. Nathan drove right before changing direction to the left and taking a step back and shooting, Lucas slipped before he could get the block in and the ball went in. 14-13 down. Nathan needed this next one for the game. The crowd were restless, cheering for their friend, be it Lucas or Nathan. Nathan smirked at Lucas before charging to the left, Lucas knew he would change direction at some point but chose to shadow him to the left, Nathan carried on going before changing direction and going for the lay up keeping the ball to the right on his stronger side. Lucas couldn't get a block in and that was it 15-13. He had lost. He looked dejected and collapsed to the ground, Haley was the first there hugging him. She positioned herself in front of his eyes so he couldn't see the popular congratulating Nathan. His friends were all around him, words of comfort came from them. Loving gestures toward him, including Haley's protective arms around his neck, she stared into his eyes trying to gauge his reaction. Lucas couldn't look at anyone, he felt like he'd been stabbed. He really was just the bastard spawn.

The next morning Lucas awoke and didn't know what to feel.

'Hey buddy, how're you this morning?'

'Not bad considering.'

'Good, ready to go then?'

'Gimme five minutes.'

Twenty minutes later Lucas and Haley walked to his locker. They kept hearing whispers on the way there, things like;

'Did you hear that Lucas nearly beat Nathan in a one on one game? He pushed him closer than anybody ever has'

'Were you at the riverfront last night to see the bastard play Nathan?'

Lucas didn't particularly like what he was hearing as most of it was insulting. But he could take it, the people whose opinions he cared about were there with him last night, they knew what happened and wouldn't say anything like that which he had just heard.

Lucas made his way to class just like he would have any other day. He had English, Haley was in his class so at least he didn't have to go through the torture of hearing the whispers on his own. He sat down and took out his books when Nathan walked through the door and grinned at him, winking too. Haley saw it and put a hand on his forearm.

'Ignore him, before any of this you would have so just go back to doing that.'

'I cant Haley, everybody knows about it, you know how rumours spread like wildfire. I never should have challenged him.'

'What? Why do you say that?'

'Who was I kidding, I don't fit in there, and you were right, I was fine the way I was.'

'Luke youre still the same guy, in the same place, just like the way you were. People are just saying different things about us now, instead of old insults, they've got new ones. Though I have to say some of them are compliments, some of them think you could have beaten him, and as a matter of fact so do I.'

'Yeah well, lets just get on with this assignment. At least that will be normal.'

The rest of the day was like a dream or a nightmare, or a bit of both. But it was over soon enough and Lucas went down to the river court with Skills, Mouth, Junk, Jimmy and Fergie. Haley went to work at the café. He spent the evening playing just like he did every other night and looked much the same person as he had been every other day of his life. At least basketball hadn't changed like the atmosphere at school had.