Head Office, Clothes/Bros – nightfall.

It's been a year after graduating Tree Hill High. Brooke is making it into the big leage with her fashion line and has moved to The Big Apple, New York City. Eventhough she's busy with the opening of the second C/B store, she still manages to take some time off to keep the promises she made to her friends.

While leaving her desk, she walks up to her secretary, a young woman named Veronica. "Veronica, can you please not forget to make the security updates on the computer, oh and while you're at it, can you also make a backup disk of the latest lines stored? It would suck if they had to be put back on because one or the other idiot decides to delete them".

"Will do." Veronica replied. As she saw her boss walking towards the elevator that would eventually get her outside of the classy building. Then she whispered to herself: "It's not like I have something else to do on my free time."

As Brooke stepped outside of the elevator, she suddenly realised that she was turning into a person that she once said she'd never become. A royal pain in the ass that only worries about business.

She decided to go back upstairs to appologise to Veronica, maybe even give her the day or the week off. She didn't know yet, but she was gonna do something.

Once upstairs, she saw Veronica taking a CD-rom out of its box and planting it inside the computer. "Veronica?", Brooke said a little nervous and emberassed. As she waiting for a reply, she closened up on her secratary.

When she reached her desk, she repeated: "Veronica?".

The woman looked up from her computer screen. "Is there anything else you wanted me to do Miss Davis?". Brooke quickly formed an answer. "No, not at all. I just wanted to appologise.'"

"To appologise?" Veronica aksed, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I know I haven't been the best person to be around lately. It's just that this is all kind of new to me, you know? I am turning into this person I never wanted to be and I"m not liking it very much myself. Therefore, get up and take the week off."

Veronica looked up from her computer screen again. She looked straight into Brookes eyes. "Take the week off? But what about the backup file you told me to make just minutes ago?"

Brooke looked up, rolling her eyes. She knew she wasn't good at these kinds of things but she also knew that, if she wanted to find herself again, she had to do this.

"Forget about the backup disk. There are things more important that work or backups. Just go home, relax for the week and we'll see what comes next. I would be very surprised if someone would be so interested in my designs that they would find a way to repell down from the rooftop all the way to the 9th floor to steal them from the computer. I'd be surprised if someone even took the elevator up to do the same. Point is that all of that can wait." Brooke said self secured.

"Okay." Veronica replied, still surprised by the sudden sense of amicallity from Brooke. "I guess I'll head on home than."

"You just do that." Brooke replied.

Tree Hill, North Carolina – Karens Café

Hundreds of miles away from the squirming streets of New York, there was a small croud gathering in front of Karens Café in Tree Hill, North Carolina. Best-selling author Lucas Scott, who was also the son of the woman that ran the café, was in town for the week. As he entered the café, he thought of the time when he was still pretty much a nobody in the world of literature. The time he could just walk the streets of his hometown without anyone asking for his signature or asking for a picture with him. He missed those times.

As he entered the café, he saw his mother and his little sister sitting behind the counter. "Hey Mom.", he said as he approached the two. "Long time no see."

Karen, Lucas' mother looked up towards her son. "Hey stranger, what a surprise!". She knew she sounded a little too exited but didn't really care. She stood up from her stool and went over to Lucas. "You look good." She said, as she embraced him. "You look like you gained a little weight over the past few months, but you look good." She repeated, hoping for a positive reply.

"You're not looking too bad yourself." Lucas said with a grin on his face. "How are my two favorite women in the world doing?" he joked to his little sister. He knew that she couldn't give her a correct reply, she was only one year old. But he liked the way she reacted everytime he asked her that question.

"So, have you seen any of the others?" Lucas asked his mother as he poored in some coffee. "They're supposed to meet me here."

As it was staged, a woman and a baby came inside the café.

"Oh my God, Haley! Look at you!" Lucas heard his mother say to the woman behind him. "You look great." She continued as she walked towards the woman to give her a hug.

Lucas turned around and looked at the woman. It was Haley, one of his best friends from highschool. She also married his brother Nathan, but he wasn't with her.

"Hales!" Lucas yelled. He ran towards her and gave her a hug.

Eventhough she looked a little surprised at first, Haley quickly spread one of her arms to reply to the huggings. Since she was holding a baby in the other arm, she knew it wouldn't have been smart to spread that arm as well.

"Hey guys." She said a bit doubtfull. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good." Lucas replied his friend as he rubbed over the blonde hair of the baby. "Look at how much he has grown."

"Tell me about it. I have to wake up every night because of his growpains." Haley said confirmingly. She looked at her son lovingly as she continued: "The doctor says it's normal for them to wake up so often when they're in this stage, so I guess I'll just deal with it." She laughed. "But enough about me. How have you been these past couple of months. It seems like I haven't heard from you in...forever."

"Yeah, I know" Lucas said, seemingly emberassed. "I've been under a lot of pressure to get the new chapters of my book written. My editor is giving me quite a hard time over it so I pretty much don't spend any time outside. Just behind my PC."

"Better You than me. I think that I'd kill myself if I didn't have some "me-time" from time to time, you know. Especially now with Jamie, sometimes its neccesary to just hang loose. Or, that's what I think about it." Haley said firmly.

"Where's Nathan?" Karen asked Haley. "I gotta say that I'm quite surprised that he's not here with you and Jamie. Is everything alright?"

Haley pondered a bit about the answer she was going to give. "Yeah we're doing...okay." "That doesn't sound too positive," she heard Lucas say, "what's going on?"

"Nothing much." Haley answered with a deep sigh. "Things are just a little rough at the moment."

"Why?" Karen asked.

"You know, because of Nathan's "trick" last year, there weren't any big colleges that wanted him to play for them. He ended up playing for Whitey's team but than they got into a little altrication so he quit."

"He quit?!?" Lucas asked amazed. "What do you mean, he quit?"

Haley continued: "He just did. He walked off the court during a training session and didn't go back anymore." "Oh My..." she heard Karen say as she continued: "After that happened, Whitey and the press pretty much ate him alive."

"So I take it your year hasn't exactly taken a positive turn then?" Lucas wondered.

"That's the very least you can say." Haley replied to him sarcastically. "But hey, what's done is done, right?"

Annapolis, Maryland – 5 A.M. (L.T.)

A group of people has gathered on Navy Peer. They're all very busy dragging things towards expensive looking pieces of equipment. At the very top of the peer, a girl in bikini is being make-upped and getting her hair done. It's Tree Hill's own fiesty redhead, Rachel. When the makeup artists and hairdressers are done, a photographer approaches them.

"So, do you think you're ready?" he asked Rachel while she was trying to find the correct point to stand.

"I think so." She replied nervously.

The photographer continued his questioning: "You've done stuff like this before haven't you? I mean, the shots in your portfolio looked good. Young, perky, not too experienced, but good."

Rachel didn't know how to reply. After all, she was doubting wether or not that last one was a bad remark or a compliment. She decided to stay neutral. "Thanks, I guess."

The photoshoot went on, practically in silence. The only sound you could hear was the occasional "click" from the camera, the "flash" and the photographer pointing out where Rachel had to stand next.

When she was done, Rachel put on a robe and went to her rental car. She got in and took her cellphone from the glove compartment. A big smile appeared on her face as she looked at the tiny screen. She had missed 4 calls and had also received 3 text messages.

She first checked the calls she had missed. Two of them were from Brooke and one of her mom. She was exited to hear that the last one was a call from her agent telling her that she had an apointment with an executive of Calvin Klein later that week. Apointments usually lead to new jobs, and a job with CK would look good on her resume.

After she had checked the phonecalls she had missed, she went on to the inbox of her cellphone. She had received 2 texts from Brooke and one from Mouth.

She read the one Mouth sent her first.

"Hey Rach, what's up.
Srry for not calling, been kinda busy,
'll call ya later.

xxx.

Mouth"

Eventhough she was fairly dissapointed at the text Mouth had sent her, she still wrote a simple "Okay" back to him, out of courtasy.

The 2 following ones were from Brooke.

The first message read:

"Rachel

busy day today. I've been a total bitch
against pretty much everyone.
Ended up sending Veronica home.

I'm so tired!!!!

Xoxo
Brooke"

Rachel had to smile when she read Brookes message. Eventhough she had known Brooke for almost 3 years, sometimes she was still surprised at the things she did.

The second message was something completely different.

"Hey Rach

Listen, what time do you think
you're gettin' off the plane tomorrow?
I don't have anything to do so I can pick'ya
up the at the A.P.

Send back if yu get this

Love

Brooke"

After reading the message, Rachel replied that she would arrive at about 4 P.M. She knew that Brooke would be sleeping so she didn't expect an answer straight away.

After she had put her cellphone in her pocket, one of the photographer's assistants ran towards Rachels car. she opened the drivers-seat window. "Hey, the boss asked me to tell you that he'll email your agent a good recomendation." The assistant blurred out, clearly tired from running towards the car. "Oh, really? Thanks!" Rachel replied to her. "Does he have my agents email address?".

"Eughm. I don't know." The assistant answered confused. "I'll ask."

The assistant took a walkie-talkie out of a bag she was carrying with her and asked the photographer if he had the contacting information for Rachels agent. When she heard the man say "No, I don't" over the radio, she took a piece of paper and wrote the email address down. Afterwards, she gave it to the assistant.

The assistant didn't say much after that. A small "Thank you." And that was it. Rachel saw the girl walking away and looked at the sunrise. The orange glow was covering the water, the boats and the peer. Rachel couldn't help but to feel poetic. She took her cellphone and took a picture of the beautiful sighting. Than, she closed down the windown, sighed and looked forward.

She turned the car key and the engine started running. When she put her foot on the gas, she suddenly felt something shaking in her jeans. She stopped the car and was quite surprised to learn that it was a text message from Brooke.

END OF CHAPTER 1