CHAPTER ONE: And each town looks the same to me,

the movies and the factories

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me,
And just forget the world?

I had my earphones plugged in, listening to the beautiful track as I lay on the River Court. It was a basketball court by the river in the small town of Tree Hill. It was pretty unimaginative on the part of whoever had named it so. I had heard stories about when my half-brother, Lucas and his half-brother, Nathan had gone head to head in one-on-one basketball wars. I hadn't seen them play off against each other because right after I was born, my mother and her husband, Andy Hargrove, had decided to travel the world. We were joined for quite some time by Lucas, his wife, Peyton and their baby daughter, Sawyer.

We flitted from place to place like nomads and I was homeschooled for the longest time. Then I had to go to regular school but every new turn, had another new adventure. Until the very last stop, I had gone along with this plan of living like nomads. I had quite enjoyed it. But our last move…things happened….and it made me beg my mother to let me return to Tree Hill.

"For once, I want something for me. I want to move to Tree Hill," I had practically cried. My mother had almost cried too, because that had been a life she had dreadfully wanted to escape from. She said the place was too heavily laced with memories for her: both good and bad.

She had tried her best to coax the truth about my wanting to move there out of me but she couldn't. I was as obstinate as my brother when it came to wanting something. Finally, Andy came to our rescue, saying he'd been offered his old job back at the Tree Hill Community College and he'd like to very much try it out for a year.

"A year is all I ask," I had said.

Finally, mother had given in saying, "Just as well. I suppose you deserve to see the lives your brother and I lived before you came along. Besides, there's no dearth of family in Tree Hill."

So we moved to Tree Hill and the late afternoon found me lying on my back in the River Court listening to Chasing Cars. I had lost count of how many times I had heard the song. It had been a month and I had kept the same playlist on loop. A shadow fell across on my face and I squinted up.

A dirty blonde boy was grinning down at me. The family resemblance was quite uncanny, and I smiled back at him.

"Cousin Lily!" he said, "So the rumours are true. You have returned home."

"I thought I was Aunt Lily to you," I answered, and sat up with quite some difficulty, "Yes. I moved back to Tree Hill."

"No. It's Aunt Karen and Cousin Lily," Jamie said, "That's what Uncle Lucas told me anyway."

"Lucas is my older brother, you know," I reminded him.

We looked at each other and laughed.

"What a screwed up family we have!" We exclaimed in unison.

Jamie sat down in front of me, meaning all business and started, "So. I hope you know school's going to start in about a week's time. And we have the annual bonfire night too once school does open. I am the star basketball player and…."

"Woah! Slow down, Jamie," I said, "Why are you giving me the play-by-play of school?"

"Because mom and dad said you're going to be joining school? We'll be in the same grade even though you are a few minutes older than I am."

I laughed, "Jamie. You really don't have to be here if you don't want to be. I'm not going to force you to hang out with me."

"Actually, I kind of want to be here," Jamie said, pointing to the basket, "I came out to shoot some hoops."

"Then I'll play you, if you shut up about school." I said, "Just like old times."

He flashed me a smile, "You mean the time of Uncle Lucas' wedding to Lindsey? That's not exactly like old times now, is it? I got kidnapped."

"Well, you were an annoying kid."

"How would you know? You're just a few minutes older!"

But part of the charm of being around family is how easy it is to forget everything else. For an entire evening, time stood still as we played one on one basketball. For some joy, the love for the game pretty much ran in our family. And I loved Jamie for letting me play basketball with him despite us being sixteen-year-old teenagers. It was nice to have a simple friendship when everything else in my world was completely falling apart.

I opened the door to my room from the outside and entered saying, "Someone needs to tell me why Lucas thought an outdoor attached to his room was a good idea!"

"Maybe he thought he could sneak in easily that way," Jamie suggested.

Despite my protests, he had tailed me home, saying he wanted to meet Aunt Karen and Andy.

"Mom, we're home," I called, loudly, "Where are you?"

"In the kitchen," she called back, "Who's we?"

Jamie practically raced past me and I followed him to find my extremely startled mother engulfed in a hug by Jamie.

"Aunt Karen!" he squealed, "I always dreamed this day would come!"

"You dreamed you wanted to hug my mother?" I asked, confused.

"No, silly girl," he scoffed, "I dreamed all of my family would move to Tree Hill someday."

"Well unless Lucas moves back to town, I'd say your dream is just half true," I said.

Jamie looked from my mother to me in utter confusion and asked, "Wait. Doesn't Lily know?"

"Know what?" I asked, sharply.

"Maybe we should head out into the café?" my mother said, gently, "Come on, Lily."

As I entered Karen's Café, people seemed to spring up from everywhere and yelled in unison, "SURPRISE!"

A banner hung across the room that read, "Welcome home, The Scott Family!"

Among the many faces that I had vaguely seen during my brief visits to Tree Hill and innumerable post cards for many occasions, there stood my brother Lucas with his family, beaming at us. Before I could say anything, the door opened and Andy came bursting in saying, "Did you guys already start? Oh no. I'm sorry, Lily. I wanted to get here early."

"It's okay," I found myself saying, "I'm just a little confused. Mom?"

"What's the matter, little sis, aren't you happy to see me?" asked Lucas, coming forward and giving me a hug.

I hugged him back, "I am, I am. I thought you and Peyton decided to never come back to Tree Hill. I'm confused."

"We did," said Peyton, now giving me a hug, "But your brother's got a major case of writer's block. And he thought with Karen moving back to town, maybe family could inspire him."

"Brilliant," I said, mechanically.

There were just too many people. I couldn't deal with human beings at the moment. But I couldn't show it either. Everyone in the café meant well. Everyone loved the Scott family. Because now Haley was hugging me, telling me she cannot believe we're supposed to be cousins-in-law and Nathan giving me an awkward one-armed hug. It had always been rather weird between us, with Lucas always smoothing over the tension.

Brooke and Julian were crossing over from the Bakerman and coming into the café now. I could feel my throat closing up, as I stumbled a little trying to talk to everyone and peddling hugs as well. Before I could collapse onto the floor though, someone gripped me tightly by the arm and I heard Jamie say, "Aunt Karen, do you mind if I take Lily out for a bit? I promise we'll be back in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes, Jamie," my mother said, cottoning on at once, "We'll start dinner then. Everyone should be here by then…all of the other guys from Nate and Luke's basketball team."

He steered me out of the café and I let him. I don't quite remember how but suddenly we were on the rooftop. The rooftop I'd heard Lucas go on and on about. The rooftop Jamie had once sent me pictures of. It had so many memories from the past. He made me take a seat and told me to catch my breath.

"What's going on with you?" he asked, casually.

"Nothing," I said, a little too quickly.

"Sweetheart, I invented nothing. Look, if you don't tell me, I cannot help you."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"Yeah, and you'd have passed out downstairs if I'd not helped you escape five minutes back."

"I owe you. Thank you, Jamie."

"Look – if you ever need to talk…"

"I'll come looking for you."

Author's Note: I recently started watching One Tree Hill again and realized the tremendous potential it had to have a spin off series with the children. Now since Jamie and Lily are much older than the others, this story is set during their Junior Year in Tree Hill high. If I write another spin off, the babies on the show would get to be a lot older. :) Let's see.