4 years, 6 months, 2 days.

Emma Scott had just finished her first week as a sophomore and to be honest, she was exhausted. Even though she it was nothing new and this was her second year, walking the halls of Tree Hill High was strange. People still stared at her, and she could still hear the whispers. She was someone people liked to talk about, someone that people enjoyed assuming they knew went on in her life.

Maybe it's because everyone knew her story. I mean, Tree Hill was small, and her family took up about half the town. People knew that she was the daughter of Dan and Deb Scott. People knew that her brother's were Lucas and Nathan. They knew that when Emma was only 9, Nathan filed for emancipation and later that year got married. They also knew that her parents had an ugly divorce, her dad was mayor, and they knew that he was a murderer. People knew that Deb wasn't really great a being a mom, so Emma got shuffled around a lot between her Aunt Karen's and her brother's apartment. And they knew that when Nathan, Luke, and Haley went to college, Emma went with them – because Deb just didn't know how to be a parent. People knew that one brother was a best selling author, and he was now the coach of the Tree Hill Ravers. And that the other was about to be drafted into the NBA when there was a terrible accident, and when the glass of that window shattered – so did all of Nathans dreams. I'm sure they knew, that in the big house Emma lived in with her brother and sister-in-law – things hadn't been easy the last four months.

She was popular, and she had tons of friends. She was a co-captain of the dance team, and an honor student. She was nice to everyone, and her teachers loved her. But, people still talked. But Emma knew that if she were a stranger looking in, she would have talked to. So, at the end of the week, with all the new freshman gawking, and the fact that now, this year – her brother and Haley were both working at the school, Emma was tired. She was tired of people talking, she was tired of being spied on by her siblings, she was tired of not getting her dance routines right, and she was tired of going home to Nathan at night.

"Hey little sister" Emma heard, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hey" she replied, looking up and seeing her older brother.

"I'm taking you home, I want to check in on Nathan anyway." Luke said, "Plus Haley wants to stay behind and work on some things."

"Okay" she said, following him into the gym.

Emma noticed the team still hanging around after practice, and she noticed Skills looking, well, upset. She didn't blame him. The team wasn't as good as when her brother and Skills played.

"What's the matter, Skills?" she asked, "Don't know if you can fix this mess?"

"Oh I'll fix it baby Scott." He replied, "Why aren't you playing this year?"

"We don't even have a girls team at this school, there's no interest. The only interest is in the boys, us girls have to stick to dancing and cheering." Emma replied, as she grabbed the ball from his hand, and made a shot. It went in.

Then she noticed Quentin, the star basketball player walking towards her. He grabbed the ball she had just put up.

"You play?" he asked

"I dabble" she replied, "but I could probably give you a good run for your money, Q."

He smirked at her, Quentin had always noticed Emma. Who hadn't? She was a Scott, but she was also beautiful.

"Oh really?" he asked, "Let's go then, girl."

"Not this time" Lucas interrupted, causing Emma to roll her eyes. "Go home Q, come on Em. See you tomorrow, Skills"

Emma followed her brother out of the gym and to his car. She didn't say anything, but she was quite annoyed that he had interrupted her time with Quentin. That was just like Lucas, to get involved in something that was none of his business. She planned on staying quiet the car ride, just to let him know how annoyed she was.

"He is not a good idea." Lucas said, as though reading her thoughts.

"Who?" Emma asked, pretending to be confused.

"Q. That guy is trouble, I don't even want him on my team – But I certainly don't want my little sister dating him."

"Who I date or don't date is none of your business Luke, we were just talking."

"Um. One, I beg to differ, it is my business. Two that was not just talking. And Three, drop the attitude before it gets you into trouble."

Emma just rolled her eyes. That's the thing when your brothers are raising you, they have to take over the parent roll from time to time, so yelling at them or giving them attitude like a normal little sister would doesn't always go over well.

"How was your first week?" Luke asked, trying to salvage some of the car ride.

"Fine." Emma grunted

"Wow, you've really painted me a picture."

"It was fine, Luke! I don't know, I'm tired. I'm not in the mood to talk about my feelings."

"Look, I know things haven't been easy –" Luke started.

"Luke. I'm fine. I promise. If you want to worry about someone, worry about Haley. Or Jamie. Or Nathan. You don't have to worry about me. You forget, I lived with Dan Scott."

"I've never forgotten." Luke said, shortly as he pulled up to his little brother's house. Before he could say anything else, Emma jumped out of the car and was already making her way into the house. Luke turned off the car and followed.

The last four months had put everyone on edge, but Emma didn't like to talk about her feelings. And that worried Luke. Emma and Nathan had always been very close, and the last four months had torn him apart from everybody, but it was Emma who Luke worried about. She listened to Nathan, they understood each other. And the truth was, Luke didn't think he could get Emma through her teenage years unless Nathan was helping him out.