Title: Notice

Author: Katy

Rating: T

Disclaimer: All characters from One Tree Hill are property of Mark Schwahn and those at Tollins/Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. All stories, original plotlines and characters are property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Primary pairing: Nathan/Haley

Summary: Everybody notices him but not everybody is as noticeable as others and when he opens his eyes and takes his first real look at his surroundings, what catches his eyes is someone who will change his life forever.

Prologue

Have you ever looked at a stranger- someone you never noticed before and wondered about them?

I never did. Until that fateful day, the first time ever in my entire life I was late for basketball practice, I saw her.

And I had no idea that just another day of my life was one of the worst of hers.

I was at my locker, speedily shoving my book bag in the locker that was annoyingly located on the side of the school that was furthest away from the gymnasium, and the damn door wouldn't close because my bag was overloaded with school books, as if I ever used them but that's a completely different, boring story.

Unfortunately for me, I had to take the time to pull my bag out, in the process, I accidentally emptied its contents all over the floor so I had to pick them up, putting them away one by one in my locker.

As I bent down to reach for my biology textbook, I heard a shrill voice scream, "You damn well better believe I am pissed off!"

Intrigued, I turned around to see who the voice belonged to, and to my surprise, Lucas Scott was in the very same hallway with a petite brunette.

Lucas is my half-brother, the product of my dad's relationship with his high school sweetheart, Karen Roe, who also happens to be the fiancée of my uncle Keith. Anyways, Lucas was conceived the summer after senior year of high school and my dad had been offered a prestigious scholarship to one of the top colleges in the state and on the advice of his former coach plus his own selfish motivations, he ultimately decided to honour his scholarship.

That top college is where he met my mother, Deb Lee Scott, the daughter of successful engineer turned businessman Freddie Lee. They hit it off, start dating and after a few months I was conceived. Dear old dad was in the same position he was before. Now, any person who believes the saying, "History repeats itself", might assume that my dad kicks my mom to the curb and went off on his merry way.

But he didn't.

He stuck around, married my mom and helped raise me. Aren't we a lucky bunch? Well, we were until my dad decided to move to Tree Hill, the town where he grew up and left his old flame to raise his son all by her lonesome.

So Lucas and I don't like each other very much for obvious reasons but for the most part, we manage to keep the drama down to a minimum. He joined the basketball team, I was pissed, I hazed him and then I stopped.

Of course, the fact that my girlfriend Peyton Sawyer dumped me for him might have persuaded me to reconvene the hazing but there's only one thing you need to know about that relationship- it was convenient. She is a cheerleader and I am a basketball player. It only made sense for us to spend time together because, hell, it beat being alone. It wasn't an epic at all.

Now that the history lesson is over, allow me to get back to issue at hand.

The petite brunette standing with my half brother with a cell phone attached to her ear and one hell of a furious expression on her face.

"You cannot be serious!" The brunette spat in the phone.

My brother stopped what he was doing and glanced at his companion curiously.

"Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?" The girl demanded of the other person in a very ferocious tone.

Her face suddenly went pale and then she pulled the phone away from her ear to glare at it in disbelief.

"Problem, Haley?" Lucas asked of her.

Haley was still glaring at the phone. "She hung up on me!" she exclaimed.

"Who did?" Lucas asked.

"My mother," Haley replied.

"You were talking to your mother like that?" Lucas asked in alarm.

"Damn right I was," she retorted.

"Why?"

"They sold the house!" Haley exclaimed.

Lucas dropped his books on the floor and stared at her. "Are you talking about the house you live in?" he asked.

"The very one," Haley replied. She put her phone back in her purse and helped Lucas pick up his books.

"Why would they do that?" Lucas asked.

Haley scoffed. "They said that they couldn't afford to keep paying the bills for the house and the RV with gas prices being what they are these days so they had to let one go."

"But you live in the house," Lucas pointed out.

"Oh, but I have a job so I can get a place of my own," Haley replied sarcastically.

"They expect you to rent an apartment?" Lucas asked.

"Yes, they do, and it's ludicrous because I can't pay rent and live off of my damn café cheque!" Haley exploded.

"Well, there's got to be time to talk them out of it," Lucas said.

Haley shook her head. "Oh, no, they sold the house, moved out and put my stuff in storage all in the span of a weekend. I knew I shouldn't have slept over at Peyton's to help cover for the two of you!"

Lucas looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry but how were we supposed to know your parents were going to evict you?"

"Because they're not parents, they're my parents!" Haley retorted.

The girl had a quick mouth that was for sure.

Haley groaned as she slumped against the lockers. "This cannot be happening," she said a dozen times as she sunk to the floor.

Lucas sat down beside her and put his arm around her. "I'm sure my mom will let you stay with us," he said.

"I will ask her and be eternally grateful if she says yes, but that's not what I was talking about," Haley replied, leaning into him for comfort.

"Your parents," Lucas guessed.

"Uh-huh," Haley murmured, hugging him back now. He tightened his arms around her before she finally pulled away and they both stood up again. "I mean it is one thing for them to be absentee parents. That I can deal with because my parents are crazy and when they are around, nine times out of ten, I wish they weren't."

Lucas cracked a smile as he locked his locker up, knowing they were going to start to leave soon.

"But to actually pack up their things and sell the house while I still have at least one full year of high school ahead of me is taking things a little too far," she said.

"Your parents have never been around," Lucas reminded her, probably trying to get her to think more positively.

"Yes, but at least before, I had a house to live in and they did the occasional pop-in," Haley said. "Now I'm homeless and practically an orphan to boot!"

"My mom loves you like a daughter. She will most definitely take you in," Lucas tried again.

"But Karen is not my mother, she's yours," Haley said.

"Don't you love my mom?" Lucas asked, stopping dead in his tracks and turned to glare at her.

Haley glared back. "Of course I do but for god sakes, Luke, my parents just abandoned me so you'll have to forgive me if I'm not exactly counting my blessings right now!"

"What do you want me to say?" Lucas asked.

"What?" Haley asked.

"What could I possibly say that would make this situation any better for you?" Lucas asked.

"Luke," Haley started to say as she realized she had really hurt her friend's feelings.

"I'm doing the only thing I can think of and that is to make you see that you'll survive without your parents because I don't know what I'd do if my mom ever walked out on me," Lucas said.

"I'm sorry," she said.

He nodded and shrugged. "We're certainly a pair, aren't we?"

"I hope you mean a pair of friends, Luke, otherwise you're in big trouble," Peyton Sawyer said when she snuck up from behind them.

"Oh, don't worry, Peyt, you're still the only girlfriend for him," Haley said.

"Please, Hales, I'm not worried about you taking him away," Peyton said.

"Like she could," Lucas said.

Haley cringed at the thought. "As if I would ever want to," she said.

Then something seemed to occur to Peyton because she turned to look at Lucas with a curious look in her eyes. "Shouldn't you be at practice, babe?"

Lucas' brow furrowed as he began to shake his head with the idea that practice wasn't about to start for another fifteen minutes until he glanced at the clock and realized that practice had already started. "Damn it, I gotta go!" he said as he pecked Peyton on the cheek, clapped Haley on the shoulder and ran down the hallway.

I still linger to watch the interaction between Haley and Peyton. I knew I had a few more minutes until my coach would kill me and even then, there wasn't much he could do about it.

"So what was that ruckus I heard while I was walking down the hallway, something about your parents selling something?" Peyton asked.

"That would be the house," Haley replied, gathering her own things out of her locker and shoving them into her book bag.

"They sold your house!" Peyton exclaimed in a screech that seemed to pierce my eardrum.

"Yep, they sure did," Haley said, swinging her bag onto her shoulder and shutting her locker, forcefully locking the lock on it.

"What are you going to do?" Peyton asked.

"Not sure exactly but a friend told me not to lose hope," Haley said and their chatter began to fade as they rounded the next hallway, now fully out of earshot.

That happened last week and I still can't stop thinking about her.

Since then, I've learned that her last name is James and I've noticed she's in three of my classes.

Noticing people was something I've never really had to do.

I've always been noticed by other people first.

Now for the first time in my life, I've noticed someone and I intend to find out more about Haley James.