Okay, so… here is the latest endeavor for me… I'm bound and determined to go through and write a fic about Lucas and Peyton growing up together, and so far, I feel like I'm getting it. I'm trying not to jump too far in any given spot, so this first chapter takes us to about 6th gradeish… we shall see how I feel about the whole thing as I get going!
Let me know what you are thinking and Review! Let me know if there are some things that you would like to see happen and see added in. A lot of stuff that I'm adding in are just random things that I wish I could have seen, or things that make the friendship between the pair grow a little bit closer.
They were four when they first met. Karen Roe had overcome everything to be a successful café owner in town, and Anna Sawyer had overcome everything to finally be a mother.
When Anna first walked into Karen's café with a little blonde girl at her side, she didn't know that she was meeting someone who would always be there for her and her daughter. With her husband gone so often on drudging trips, it seemed like she needed to know there was someone there for her.
"Hello!" Karen says, welcoming the woman she had seen in passing around town.
"Karen, right?" Anna says, gesturing to the front sign with her free hand.
"Right, and who might this be?" Karen says, leaning over the counter to acknowledge the little girl with an iron grip on her mother's hand.
"Peyton…" she says in the smallest voice possible.
Karen comes around the corner, and kneeling next to the little girl holds out two cupcakes and gestures over to the table in the corner, where a little boy sat with legos and blocks strewn about. "Well, Peyton, that is Lucas. Would you like to sit with him and have a cupcake?"
The little girl looks to her mother for permission and after receiving a nod makes her way over to the little boy.
He smiles and puts out his hand to shake hers just like his mom taught him, proclaiming his name to be Lucas Eugene Scott. This sends her into a fit of giggles that he is mesmerized by. He soon finds himself giggling too, and the two mothers look on with smiles.
That became a weekly ritual for Anna and Karen as well as Peyton and Lucas. The kids would play at the corner table while Karen and Anna had their adult conversations at the long bar in the café.
When the kids started elementary school, it was no different, only that they switched from the middle of the week to Saturdays. The kids did their weekend homework, ate their cupcakes, and played.
When Anna needed a moment to herself, she called Karen to take Peyton for a bit, and vis versa. Keith soon became a great father figure in both the kids' lives, but was also good friends with Larry Sawyer. Larry viewed him as a good man who could keep an eye on Anna and Peyton while he was away at sea.
The rest of the week found the pair always together as well, staying at each other's houses after school nearly every day while they were younger. They all joked at the table about who was going to foot the bill for the inevitable Sawyer/Scott wedding somewhere down the line. In the second grade, it was Lucas who first brought up the fact that he was getting married to Peyton while they were playing with each other after school. His only explanation was that she was the only cool girl that he knew, so he better tell her now before someone else takes her away from him.
"Well, that explains that." Anna says, laughing as Lucas heads back outside after his proclamation of marriage to the other seven year old.
"What are we going to do with those two?" Keith asks from his spot by the door as he watched the two kids play out in the yard after school.
"I think it's sweet. Peyton said that there was a boy who stuck his tongue out at her the other day, and when she told Lucas he took care of it." She says with the last few words in air quotes.
Karen is the first to raise an eyebrow, "What exactly does that mean?"
"I don't' know, but she says the boy won't even look at her anymore."
"Nice." Keith says with a smile. "I guess that means I taught him well about protecting his girls.
"Does protecting include, fixing things around the house, like the pipe in the bathroom that you seem to be stalling about?" Karen says and laughs as he retreats back into the house.
"I've got a nasty pipe over at our place too, and Larry isn't due back for a few more weeks… you think you could spare your handy man?"
"I'm sure that he'd come and help out. I think that he'd do anything for you and that little girl. She's got both of them wrapped around her little finger."
"And what about you?" Anna says, with a glint in her eye.
"What do you mean?" Karen asks, completely confused by the question.
"Oh come on Karen, I've known you for what… three years now, and you're going to sit there and act like you don't have Keith wrapped around your little finger too?"
"Anna, come on…"
"I'm serious! You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
"I haven't noticed what?"
"The fact that he's in love with you." She says with finality before going outside to yell for Peyton to come in so they could go home and get homework done before bed time.
"MOM! We're playing!" She screams back at her mother.
"And I'm sure that we'll hear the same argument tomorrow after school, so why don't we get you home and get that work done, and maybe I'll be nice enough to read you a story before you go to bed."
"Will you make one up instead? I'd like that." Peyton says, finally coming to the door, standing beside a very dirty Lucas.
"What did you do to Lucas?" she asks her daughter, looking the boy up and down.
"We were playing a game!"
"And again, I say, what did you do to Lucas?" Anna says with a matter of fact tone to her voice.
"Oh! Yeah, he lost." She says, before hi-fiving Luke and running through the house screaming goodbye to Karen and to Keith.
Karen came to the door to see just what Anna saw. It was a seven year old boy covered head to toe in dirt. "Lucas Eugene, what did you do?"
"Well, she did win."
The two adults laugh before Karen instructs Lucas to strip at the back door before even thinking about coming into the house for the evening.
It was like this nearly every day after school. They would go over to one of their houses, and the other parent would eventually come over when they noticed that they were missing their child. A few hours and a few cups of tea later, the adults would get the kids back into their houses for homework, dinner, and showers before bed.
"So what is the story about this time?" Anna asks her daughter who is wrapped up in covers and surrounded by fifteen different stuffed animals.
"I don't know… something really good though."
"How about a brave prince rescuing his favorite princess from the dragons of the day?" she says, trying to make her voice sound spooky to entice the girl's interest.
"No, that's boring… too much lovey dovey stuff." Peyton replies, sticking out her tongue.
"You know, one day, when you grow up, you are going to be all lovey dovey with a boy and you're going to get married and you're going to have your own babies."
"I know." The seven year old replies easily.
"You know? How do you know?"
"Cause I'm going to marry Lucas."
Anna's eyebrows go up, and she realizes that Lucas' random outburst of the day was not just Lucas thinking about these things, but Peyton and Lucas having their own little discussion.
"Oh, you are? And why is that?"
"Cause he's the only boy that isn't gross… they all have cooties and stuff."
"Well, I think Lucas is a good choice then. But we still have to pick out our story for the night."
"You know what mom? I'm tired… we don't have to do a story tonight." She says with a yawn and an air about her that seemed much older than her years.
"All right then, I love you and your dad loves you, so sleep sweet my little Peyton Elizabeth."
She leans down and gives the little girl a kiss on her nose before retreating to the hallway and smiling to herself. Oh, it was wonderful being a parent.
That time was cut short though, and everything changed just a year later when Lucas came home with no Peyton.
"Where's Peyton?" his mom asked when he came in without the curly blonde.
"She said that her mom was picking her up to run an errand after school, and then she was bringing her over here."
"All right, then why don't you get your work done before she comes over?"
He shrugs his shoulders as if there is nothing better to do without his best friend anyways.
It was a few hours later when Karen started getting worried, and called the Sawyer house. The other woman had quickly become a best friend to Karen, so to not hear from her all afternoon was not typical. Larry had been home for a few weeks, so it was surprising to her that no one picked up the phone. It was even more surprising when she found out that that was the day Anna Sawyer died, running a red light because she thought she would be late picking up Peyton from school.
Lucas climbed the stairs to her bedroom that next day, in search of his friend, knowing what had happened the day before.
"Peyton?" he says, seeing her laying on her bed with her back turned toward the door.
"I don't want to talk, so can you just go away?"
That wasn't Peyton. Peyton was always smiles and never ending talking… she never turned Lucas away.
"Nope." He said, plopping on the bed next to her, just sitting there, waiting for her to turn and talk to him.
It was an hour before she said another word. That was a long time for an eight year old, but he knew that she would talk if he just waited for her.
"It's my fault…" she finally says in a small voice again unlike the little girl he has known for four years.
"No, it's not."
"She was coming to pick me up though, Luke."
"I know."
"Then it's my fault."
"When I asked my mom about it, she said that God just needs people early sometimes up in heaven."
"Really?"
"yeah…"
"Can I still be sad?"
"Yeah… my mom said that she was really sad. You know that if you need a mom, you can borrow mine?"
"Thanks, Luke."
That's how it went for the next few years, Peyton leaning on Karen as a second mother, and Lucas staying by her side through it all.
"Dude, you were AWESOME!" Peyton says, giving Luke a big hug and a high five.
"She's right Luke, you did a great job." Keith says, also giving the boy a high five.
"It was so much fun, and we were so good, and it was fun, and did you see my baskets! I was so much faster than everybody else, and I even got my free throw, and it was so cool!"
After years of playing one on one with his uncle, Lucas had finally been convinced to try out for a traveling team when he was in fourth grade. He was clearly a natural on the court, making the majority of the baskets for his team, but still being the team player that Keith had always told him he should be.
"I wish mom could have been here though."
"I know, bud, and we'll tell her all about it, but the oven couldn't be left another day. You understand that, right?"
"Yeah, I get it… it's okay."
"All right, then let's go grab some ice cream and go see how the oven repair is going at the café, sound good?"
The two kids were obviously excited about the idea as they make their way to Keith's truck, replaying the major plays of the game as how Peyton saw it and how Lucas saw it on the court. They were stopped though when a man came up to Keith that neither of them recognized.
"Hey, Keith, what are you doing here?" the man said, coming up to Keith and not noticing the two children walking near him.
Keith turns quickly, telling the kids to meet him at the car and tossing the keys to Lucas.
"What are you doing, Dan?"
"I didn't realize you were on babysitting duty for Karen… the boy's got some talent."
"Yeah, well, he doesn't get it from you."
"huh… well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then."
Lucas decided that day that his life would be consumed with basketball. But this ended up leading him to the realization of who his father really was. Apparently in some grand scheme that God thought was highly amusing, Lucas ended up on the same team as another boy, Nathan Scott. Nathan was a pretty good player, but after he figured out who his father really way, it led to the realization that the other boy on the team that was doing such a great job was his half brother. And he wanted nothing to do with him.
"Lucas!" Peyton says, loudly while banging on his bedroom door after he ran out of his basketball game.
Karen knew what it was about, in fact she locked herself away in her bedroom because of it, not wanting anything to do with anyone for a few hours. She knew that she wasn't teaching Lucas the right thing to do, but it was her only way of dealing as well.
"Go AWAY!" he screams back at her through the door.
"I'm not going away…" she says.
A few hours later, long after Peyton had stopped knocking on his door, the phone rang, finally causing a smile to grace his face.
He opened the door, and there she sat, with her sketch book in her lap and a pencil in her hand. She looked up only briefly when he opened the door to her, and finally allowed herself to stop after a few minutes of him sitting next to her on his small porch.
"So…"
"You didn't go away."
"Well, I told you that I wouldn't. How did you figure it out?"
"Your dad just called cause you hadn't come home yet."
"What did you tell him?" She asked, kind of worried that he said he was sending her home.
Home had become a sad place for Peyton. Her dad was great, but he was just one person. He couldn't cook, and he couldn't help her with her homework, and he certainly didn't understand sixth grade girl drama. She could talk to Karen about a lot of things, and the pair had also found a friend in another Tree Hill girl, Haley James. The James family was a big one, so Haley explained that her house was full enough, and theirs wasn't. It seemed like days later, Haley was a fixture at the Roe house or Sawyer house on a daily basis.
"I told him that you were eating here tonight… which is probably going to be frozen pizza, cause my mom hasn't come out of her room all night."
"Why?"
"You know why, Peyton."
"I do, but I need you to explain to me what you're thinking, Luke, cause I don't get why it's such a big deal."
He takes a big breath before launching into his explanation. "He couldn't have a piece of me, when I didn't know who he was, he had no part of me. Now I find out that he's got another kid who plays basketball just as good as me, and it's like he has a part of me. It was the first time that I realized it. I said something to my mom, and she got upset, which is why she's all stuck in her room tonight. It just made me mad, so I'm done."
"You're done? You're just going to quit basketball?"
"I'm not going to quit… there are some guys that play on the River Court all the time. I'll join them, and then I don't have to deal with him."
"Have you ever thought about what he thinks of this whole thing?"
"He doesn't have a clue. I'm pretty sure that I gave him the death glare a few times, and the look I got in return was pure confusion."
"Maybe he's just stupid…" she says, trying to getting him to smile.
Of course she succeeded and the two grabbed Peyton's things, and walked into the house to make some pizza for dinner. Peyton didn't need to go home, and Lucas needed her anyways.
Once his mom came to, he explained his blow up, and she explained everything that he needed to know about. She understood how he was feeling about everything and, like Peyton, tried to convince him to still play basketball on the league he was in.
The River Court was enough for him. For the next few years, it was perfect. Skills, Junk, Fergie, and Mouth… and Lucas Scott. Occasionally, Peyton and Haley came to watch the boys play. Peyton came more often to sketch the happenings on the river. Lucas grew to love every square inch of the pavement, craving it every day. As long as he was happy, Karen was happy, so she never pushed the idea of organized basketball again.
