Summary: Super short Dan/Karen one-shot that came out. I was watching deleted scenes from season 4 and in one Dan is having a weird dream sequence brought on by his guilt and at the end he walks up to a pregnant Karen who is wearing a Ravens cheerleading uniform and she tells him "you left me alone again." Maybe this came from that, I don't know.
If you ask, she'll tell you she hates him, Dan Scott. She won't mention the other boy though; it hurts too much to think about him. She misses him everyday.
Lucas has his smile. Not that new evil grin; that is part of some mask he's been donning for the last sixteen years. No Lucas has a wide smile, the kind that makes your heart flutter. It's the same smile and they are the same blue eyes as the boy she fell in love with when she was fifteen. She loved that boy, loved him so much it was almost scary.
She had been a sophomore staggering through the four-day cheerleading audition process on one half of the gym as he ran drills and shot free throws on the other. She had spent all summer perfecting her backhand spring and all morning twirling curls into her hair and tying it up intricately in blue and white ribbons. The senior captains watched her with what she could only interpret as boredom and she was so nervous she never even saw the basketball coming, only felt when it thumped on the back of her head, into her nest of curls, and sent her tumbling forward messily.
The laughter of dozens of teenagers echoed in the gym and her face went hot with embarrassment. She'd been scooping out the nearest exit when a hand shot into her line of vision. He'd been tall, lean, jet-black hair and those blue eyes that girls giggled about in the bathrooms.
He would sweet talk the senior captains and she would find herself with a spot on the squad. He'd offer her a ride home from school. Later he would ask her to homecoming and when she didn't even make the court for queen he would pull her out onto the dance floor anyway, balance his crown on her head and leave Sherry standing alone in the spotlight. On their one-year anniversary while they walked on the pier he would admit that he'd intentionally thrown the basketball ball her way that day. "I didn't mean to clobber you in the back of the head," he would laugh, " I was just trying to find a way to get close to you."
She remembers the last time she saw him, Danny Scott.
"I'm pregnant", she'd been clutching wads of brown bathroom paper towel, all soaked through with her tears. She wore her cheerleading uniform, her hair all done up in curls.
"We can't talk about this now," he'd stuttered backing away from her, further down the dimly lit tunnel that led from the locker rooms to the basketball court on the other end, "This is the state championship Karen. This is big deal."
Her hands had cradled her still flat belly as she suddenly saw the future of her and her baby projected in his eyes.
""And our baby isn't?"
"We'll deal with this after the game."
Danny Scott had walked onto the basketball court that day and he'd never come back. And if you ask she'll tell you she hates Dan Scott, her son's father, her best-friend's brother. The truth though is that she's always going to love that boy; she's going to be crying in that dark tunnel for the rest of her life, waiting for him to come jogging back towards her, telling her that everything is going to be okay.