Chapter 1: Farewell Fair England ~~April 10, 1912~~

Haley's POV:

Stepping out of the car I adjusted my white hat to block the morning sun from my eyes. However, I still had to give my eyes time to adjust before I could clearly make out the thousands of people rushing around.

My fiancée was barking orders at the men who had rushed over to help load our trunks. I rolled my eyes, especially when my fiancée referred to himself yet again in the third person.

"Young man, Chris Keller would hate to find anything missing."

Ignoring Chris I turned to where all the fuss was directed to. There before me was the grandest ship ever created. Or so I had heard. The Titanic was massive, deemed "unsinkable" by many. Had I been there for any other reason I may have been more excited to take this voyage, however to me the Titanic appeared nothing more than another prison that would hold me in this sham of a life that I live.

I felt an arm drape over my shoulder, "So darling, what do you think? It's pretty impressive, huh?"

"It's alright. Looks like any other ship." I said.

"Haley, quit being a twit this is the most expensive, massive ship yet built." My older sister, Vivian, snapped from behind me.

Agreeing with Vivian Chris continued, "Titanic is 883 feet long, 92 feet wide, and weighs approximately 46, 330 tons. It would take the hand of god himself to take down that ship."

"I don't know, I kind of agree with Haley. Looks just like the same old boring ships we've been on before." My other sister, Taylor piped up. Taylor enjoyed getting under Vivian's nerves and would do or say almost anything to do so, even if she agreed with Vivian.

"Shut up Taylor. You should be lucky we even let you set sail with us. If I had half a mind I would leave your sorry rear end behind in Southampton." Vivian said, staring daggers at Taylor.

"Oh you two enough is enough." I said, lowering my voice so Chris could not hear me. "We all know the terms I agreed upon to do this. The only way I'm going through with it is if you two are right beside me. So if anyone should be complaining it should be me!"

Both looked as if they had more to say but chose to keep quiet. I was glad, to be perfectly honest, I can barely stand either one of my sisters. Vivian is the oldest of the three of us. She is 30 years old. Our parents passed away when I was 10 so Vivian was stuck raising me and trying to control Taylor. Viv, as we like to call her, has only been married once to a man named Thomas Leery. Thomas was a cold, heartless bastard. He was a perfect match for Vivian. Their marriage had been an arranged one and that was just fine by both of them. During their short marriage they didn't have any kids. About a year ago, Thomas caught a horrible cold and passed away in his sleep. He left Vivian with a modest amount of money to survive on her own with; however that is where my other sister Taylor comes in to the story. Taylor is without a doubt a wild child. She is three years older than me, just turning 21. She racked up a sizeable debt gambling and Vivian was forced to pay it off. Vivian wasn't going to pay it off until they threatened to kill both her and me. That left us flat broke.

It didn't take long for Viv to come up with a plan. She remembered that her late husbands' younger brother Dawson had a friend named Chris Keller that had shown an interest in Haley in the past. The Keller family is one of the wealthiest families in Southampton. They own several factories throughout England and are opening a couple in America. They appointed Chris to be in charge of the factories in New York City. Hence the reason why we are all being shuttled off to New York. Viv pretty much sold me over to Chris, told him I would agree to his hand in marriage if he promised to take care of our family. He readily agreed and a wedding date of May 15th had been set.

I really didn't care for Chris all that much, he was an alright looking guy. A little too skinny for my taste and so conceited it was sickening. But I've always been the kind of person that doesn't want to disappoint anyone and the James family name pretty much depends on my marrying Chris.

The only good thing that came about my meeting Chris is that I gained a new best friend. Thomas Leery's younger brother, Dawson, is married to a girl named Josephine, or as she preferred Joey Potter. We formed a quick friendship and a bond I've never had with any of my other friends. Joey was a lot like me, a victim of circumstances beyond her control. Joey's mother died of cancer when she was a young girl and her father was rotting somewhere in prison for many a different offence. Having no siblings or family to rely on Joey had no place to go.

However, her attractiveness left her with one option: to marry quickly. To her luck she happened to run into business tycoon Dawson Leery. Dawson's family was pretty wealthy and had been pressuring him to take a wife. Dawson, who always kind of seemed aloof, was never really good with women. So when he found this beautiful girl in need of a husband, he proposed and they married shortly after that.

Joey liked Dawson well enough. She said he was quiet and didn't really talk all that much. She did, however, complain about the lack of passion in their love life. Dawson is a by-the-book kind of guy and he keeps with that in everything he does. He follows Chris around like a little puppy dog, doing or saying whatever Chris tells him. Chris takes pleasure in this and enjoys bossing Dawson around.

I was heartbroken when Chris said we would be leaving Southampton and going to America, but was pleased when he said Joey and Dawson would be accompanying us. Dawson wanted to meet a director about getting involved in the motion picture industry. Silent movies were becoming quite the rage and Dawson took a shining to them.

So here I am boarding the grandest ship in the world with my fiancée, two sisters, best friend and her dopey husband. This sounds like its going to be an adventure.

Nathan's POV:

"Lucas get your ass in gear, we are going to be late." I yelled to my big brother.

"Why must you always yell, Nathan?" Brooke Scott, my sister-in-law, demanded doing the classic one hand on hip and giving a death glare that could kill.

"Just making sure my niece or nephew knows how his or her dad can be so slow sometimes." He said, gently patting her large belly. He knew if he mentioned the baby, she would soften. You don't want to piss Brooke Scott off, she'll have your head on a platter, but you mention the baby and she becomes such a softie.

"I guess you're right, we don't want to be late." Brooke said, looking at the clock. "Is Pacey ready?"

"Yes, he's outside waiting on us." I said, right as Lucas bounded down the stairs. Pacey Witter is my best friend. He was orphaned at the age of six. My parents Karen and Dan Scott took him in and raised him as one of their own.

"I'm ready. Nathan can you help me grab those bags over there so we can get on our way?" Lucas asked.

I grabbed the bags and followed Brooke and Lucas to the door. The three of us took one last look at the small cottage Lucas, Pacey and I had called home nearly our entire lives, Brooke for the past three years. Every childhood memory was tucked away in this small house. Every happy moment and every heartache. Both our mother and father had died in this home. My mother passed away when I was twelve. She had caught pneumonia and after two miserable weeks she passed away. Our father had it rough after Mother died, he didn't know what to do with himself. He kept on going for us but it was a struggle for him. He passed on two weeks after Brooke and Lucas got married. The doctor told us he had cancer but Lucas believes it was because his heart longed to be with our mother.

It was going to be sad leaving the only place I had ever called home but I was ready for a new start.

Lucas threw his arm around Brooke's shoulders and guided her on. Slowly I closed the door to our past.

"Suck it up Scott!" Pacey said, slapping me on the back. "We're going to America, the land of promise and happiness."

"Let's hope." I mumbled, knowing our little family was nearing total bankruptcy. We had heard that if you needed a new start America was the place to go, a place full of opportunity.

We arrived just in time for lice check. Once we were checked over we all finally got a chance to check out the grand ship that would take us to our new life. It was beautiful. It was huge, the biggest ship I'd ever seen. This would be our first time sailing on a ship this big and I was very excited. Since we arrived late we were quickly escorted on the ship and pointed in the direction where 3rd class passenger's rooms were.

The four of us shared a small room with the beds in a bunk bed style, two on one wall and the other two on the opposite wall, with two small dressers for our clothing. It wasn't much but it was clean and big enough for us.

After unpacking the few articles of clothing we brought with us we decided to go check out the 3rd class deck. The ship was just setting sail when we got out there. The deck was full of people waving farewell to their loved ones and friends they were leaving behind. I couldn't help but picture mother and father standing there, looking as they had when I was a child when both of them were healthy. I pictured my beautiful petite mother standing next to my father who always seemed to tower over her, she had her arm wrapped around his waist and they were both waving, their eyes full of happy tears for their children. I smiled a sad smile and turned to look at Luke and Pacey. They both looked as if they were imagining the same scene.

I was knocked out of my trance when Brooke let out a squeal.

"Luke, our peanut just kicked!" Brooke had begun calling the baby peanut because she hates it when people call the baby "it".

Luke put his hand on top of Brooke's belly and let out a jolly laugh when his hand moved slightly. "That is so neat. Guys come feel this." Luke told me and Pacey. We did and felt peanut kick hard inside Brooke's belly.

"I think its going to be a boy." Pacey said. "That's a strong kick, it just has to be."

"Girls can kick just as hard as boys." Brooke snapped back.

"No they can't Brooke Penelope Scott!!!" Pacey argued back a twinkle in his eye and a sly grin on his face. Pacey loves nothing more than to argue with Brooke.

"Oh yeah, you want to see about that." Brooke said pushing Lucas back and preparing to give Pacey a good kick. But Pacey jumped back in time. "You're lucky I'm as big as a whale, Pacey Witter, or you would have just gotten your rear end kicked."

"Sure, in your dreams." Pace joked back.

I took a seat on one of the white benches and began to examine my scenery. There were many different people of many different cultures aboard. Many of the people were with their families. Since it was 3rd class deck they were all just as poor as we were but you couldn't tell by looking at the happy expressions on their faces. I bet many of them were hoping for a fresh start as well.

My eyes wondered up to the 1st class deck when I saw one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. She had dark blonde hair that was piled on top of her head. Her lips were full and pouty and from what I could tell the rest of her was just as beautiful as her face. She was looking out over the ocean and I longed to see what color her eyes were. She was standing next to a pretty brunette girl and they appeared to be having a serious discussion by the somber expressions on their faces.

The brunette took the blonde's hand and appeared to be comforting her. I couldn't help but feel the need to fight my way up to the 1st class deck and ask the beautiful blonde what was wrong. I knew I could never do that because I was only a 3rd class citizen with no rights to mingle with the likes of the two women standing there. But my heart felt a tug almost like it was being pulled into action.

I stood up thinking to myself how I was going to get onto the first class deck when Pacey grabbed my arm. "You know we can't go up there Nate."

I looked at him surprised. He had noticed the beautiful girls as well.

Pacey continued. "I wish we could, I would love to introduce myself to the brunette one. But for one thing they are 1st class and second they are probably married."

Hiding my relief that he wasn't interested in the blonde I agreed with him. "You're right Pace. I sometimes forget my station in life."

I sat back down and we watched as two men approached the girls. Both men were tall, blonde and lanky and of course dressed in expensive suits. Of course she's with someone, I thought. A girl like that doesn't stay single long. Though I took notice that neither girl looked happy to see their escorts, rather they seemed melancholy. Both girls linked their arms with their suitors and walked away.

Figuring I would probably never see the girl again I turned my attention back to Lucas and Brooke's discussion on whether their peanut was a girl or a boy. But deep in my heart I yearned for a chance to meet the mystery woman.