Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill. It belongs to the Mark Schwahn and the CW. The story I have written is based on the series, and events from my own life. I have found that writing has made getting through the events a lot easier.

Summary: Haley lives with her mother, sister's Taylor and Quinn and younger brother Matt. Her father has just left because he has been seeing someone else for a few months. Haley is left heartbroken. Her family decide it is time for a fresh start and move to Tree Hill where they actually know people. Haley spends every waking moment with her best friend from camp, Lucas Scott, after moving to Tree Hill. Couples include Naley, Jeyton and Brucas.

Facing the inevitable

Prologue

It wasn't often that heartbreak occurred in Haley's life, it was usually in her sisters, but then again they usually brought it on themselves by causing the drama, be it with friends or boyfriends or friends being boyfriends.

Haley lived in North Carolina with her mum, dad, sister's Quinn and Taylor and younger brother Matt. Her other siblings had already moved out. Well, they had lived in North Carolina. They had been a family. Had being the operative word. Had. That is what caused the heartbreak.

Her "father" (if you could even call him that) had left them. No, he had been kicked out of the former family home. Why? He was busted for have an affair with a shallow whore from another town across the way. That was the heartbreak. Haley thought their parents were in love. The whole 'head-over-heels,' 'jump in with both feet; nothing can stop them' love. Apparently not. Haley now began to doubt the existence of such love in the universe. If her "father" could suddenly disregard the prior 30 odd years for some "new model" then why even bother? Why even enter in with two feet, when you may end up drowning instead of floating. Why risk it?

Jimmy attempted to apologise, but Haley saw right through it. He wasn't sorry for shagging the whore, he was sorry for being caught, being forced out of the home and for being embarrassed in front of everyone for another thing. Haley had made sure of that.

Haley acted calm and collected for months – she tried to make out like nothing had affected her. But underneath the surface she was slowly diminishing. Her bright light was fading. Disappearing into oblivion. No one registered this downward spiral. Not her mother, her sisters, her brother or best friends. She began to shut them out. Staying in her room with her iPod blearing at an ear-splitting volume. She would barely eat, and if she did it was because she was forced to, not because she wanted to. Haley saw no way forward, but no way back. She was stuck. She knew she had to acknowledge the past to progress with the present, and day-dream about the future.

Her mother grew concerned.
The doctor confirmed the suspicions.
Haley was in far deeper than they realised.
The depression had snuck up on her without any key systems.
A change of scenery, a new town, a new start was the general consensus. It was agreed. To shed the events of the past, leave the place where it all occurred, even if there were happy memories there too. Create a new image or a new beginning.

Haley's mum decided to relocate to Tree Hill. They already knew some on the residents – Karen, Lucas and Keith Scott. Haley had befriended Lucas at a summer camp four summers ago, and they had been best friends ever since. Lucas was the only person that Haley opened up to about everything. About her pain. Her struggle. Her fears. Her nightmares. Lucas knew pretty much everything that was going on in her head. He helped keep her sane in the months following her parents separation. They needed some familiar faces around, who knew what happened, but weren't emotionally involved like many people in the small North Carolina town.

A week had passed since the divorce settlement had been agreed upon between both parties. Her father would get the house, and he would move in with his whore Carla the same day they left. How considerate he was. But what he didn't know was that they had slowly, but surely sabotaged the house – "accidentally" rearranging everything; "accidentally" jumping up and down on the stairs, causing minor cracks on the hard-wood floor; "accidentally" losing all the keys and having to replace the locks, though they had yet to inform Jimmy of this change. Therefore, when Jimmy would arrive it would take him a few hours, at the least, to get inside the house and that would no please Carla.

"Haley, have you seen the masking tape?" Taylor called across the landing. "Haley! Haley! Haley! Earth to baby James!" Taylor called entering Haley's, slightly disorganised room which was quite unusual for the 'Tutor Girl' of the family.

Haley was lying on her bed. Eyes closed. IPod on. Music blearing. She wasn't really in the packing mood at the moment. She had packed most things, but unintentionally coming across photos of her former life had just made things even harder. Apparently she hadn't destroyed all the photos with her "father" in the night he had been kicked out. Typical. Trust him to leave his mark, no matter how hard she tried to run away from it. It was typical of Jimmy James. Absolutely typical of him.

Haley was drawn out of her silent bitch-fest by a sharp tapping on her shoulder.

"Taylor?"

"Baby James, you were out of it. Have you got the masking tape?"

Haley merely turned her iPod off and walked across the room to her desk. She picked up the masking tape and threw it directly at Taylor's head. Though she didn't really mean for it to hit her in the forehead. She was going to pay for that latter, but she didn't want to even think about that.

Taylor brushed that hard, thumping feeing in her forehead aside. Haley was never like this. Never in a million years. She wasn't violent. Never. Then Taylor noticed the source of her anger. Some photos were strewn across the floor. Ones of her family on the last trip to Disneyland, two months before they discovered that truth about their father's secretive behaviour. Things had definitely changed in the past five months. Thank goodness it was holidays now, and in a month they would be starting at Tree Hill High.

"Haley. Sweetie. It is okay. We are leaving tomorrow morning, and besides aren't you looking forward to look on the bitch's face when she can't get into the house" Taylor laughed, sliding down to wall to sit next to Haley. She was curled up in a ball, clutching her teddy bear, Mr. Waffles.

Taylor was right, though Haley really did hate to admit it. The look on Carla's face when the door wouldn't budge was absolute gold. She looked like she was about to throw a hissy fit, and she did within seconds. Even Jimmy couldn't calm her down. Once she was in the hissy fit mode, she had to have a new handbag and pair of heels, at least, to actually calm her down. Everyone in the car was laughing, crying with tears of joy. What made it even more funny, was before they pulled out of their driveway for the last time, Matt rolled down the window, pulled himself out so his torso was outside the car, and launched half a dozen water balloons in the direction of Carla. And each one met their targets. It was hilarious. She screamed, in her thrill, horrible voice. The sort of voice that made dogs howl. The sort of voice that made animals run to the hills because they feared a disaster was about to hit. The sort of voice that would start an avalanche. She screamed that her Gucci coat was now ruined. Her suede shoes would not be able to be fixed. She screamed and screamed and screamed. Even Haley's iPod would not drown out her noise as they drove away, crying with laughter. Taylor was right. That was totally worth it.