Title: "On Top"
Author: Rebekah
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot bunnies.
Feedback: Yes, please!
Summary: This strays from the plotline starting after the second episode.
It's just a little rambling thing I wrote at 1 in the morning. Haley POV.
**
See, today was supposed to be a good day. For starters it was a Friday.a Friday!
Now maybe Luke is willing to break the sacred teenage oath that nothing bad can happen on a Friday but I like that tradition, in fact I pretty much like tradition on principle. Less mess, less fuss, no missed signals, no confusion - I crown myself the Tevya of Tree Hill - I live by tradition, well except when Luke has a problem and then everything gets turned on its head.
I had my whole day planned. I had to tutor Brandon for a half hour after school and then work at Karen's until six-thirty, but after that I had the whole night worked out. I was going to do my Haley things: pull my hair back into pigtails, change into my Old Navy relaxed fit overalls, pop some popcorn, watch BBC America until my eyes went cross-eyed and maybe, if I was lucky enough, the Discovery Channel would replay the Vikings special before I went to sleep so I could have wonderful dreams about beautiful blonde Norwegian boys.
I would have had so much fun too, but at three fifteen this afternoon Luke decided to fill me in on the little plan he cooked up for Nathan after his charming younger brother and his cronies threw him in the mud and left him there to rot - all in the spirit of team togetherness - and now because of this little plan, my weekend is essentially ruined.
I would be less dramatic but when you're sixteen and you're life is usually very simple, you get used to it being like that. So of course you desperately despise when [that person you can't say no to - a beautiful blonde with searing blue eyes and his heart always on his sleeve] comes to you and is all: [I]Haley, you need to help me[/I] - you desperately try to think of anything that will, essentially, deter him from wanting to be around you so you can run away and go back to traditions and BBC America.
(Luke, you know how I get that time of the month and oh yea guess what!)
Why do you do this - because [I]Haley, you need to help me[/I] is always followed by the kicker and you hate listening to his voice crack when he follows up with the kicker:
Haley, don't you know you're the only one I can count on.
[B]You're the only one.[/B] With those four words Luke turned my perfect T.G.I.F into P.M.I.M (please-make-it-Monday) O.S.O.P (on-some-other- planet).
He knows what he wants to do is wrong. He figures that if he can demoralize me and get me to agree with him that [I]he must do what he has decided must be done[/I] then he doesn't have to feel bad about [I]the plan to destroy his baby brother[/I]. He also knows that I can't ever say no to him so really this is the most foolproof scenario Luke has ever come up with.
It's never going to work even though the plan is pretty simple - because - I am the entire plan. I canoodle myself into Nathan's life - I - I really don't know what I can do to Nathan Scott that will in any way disrupt his life since I'm just a metaphorical lowly peasant and he is the aristocratic bastard.but Luke wants me to agree to help Nathan with tutoring (why oh why did I tell Luke about that) since Nathan did already ask me. But then again I already have a full load and I'm not going to let my schoolwork suffer because my best friend is having a Revenge-of-the-Nerds moment.
Luke's so-called plan is for me to meet Nathan for a tutoring session this weekend and "act feminine" and.no that was really all he had to say about it, "act feminine" and like what, put on a skirt and invite Nathan to a tea party?
Seriously I want to strangle Luke sometimes.
I guess it could work though. Nathan hates Luke but I bet he just loves a good challenge. I'm Luke's best friend, and therefore a pretty big challenge to Nathan. So I guess I'll tutor him - to find out his weaknesses, to gather information Lucas can use against him, [I]Too bad this wasn't against everything I stand for, huh?[/I]
Then again, I have to think of it this way: the guy hurts Luke. On purpose. Repeatedly. For no reason. On purpose. Just to break his spirit.
When I think about it that way - Luke doesn't even have to lay into the kicker again because I already have agreed to help him.
**
I have to admit - I'm [I]really[/I] good, even if I felt terrible doing this. A lump the size of Texas was lodged in my throat the entire time I was talking to the Neanderthal but I think he was too busy looking at my chest to notice.
Luke told me to "act feminine" so I tried my best - which meant not wearing a loose sweater. Apparently it did the charm because he surprisingly didn't walk away from me. It's a little funny - he has a hidden agenda, I have a hidden agenda. Makes me wonder who's going to end up on top.
Though, I don't wonder long because I know it's going to be me. There is no chance of me falling for his bullshit charm since I see right through his game - and I have my eyes set on the prize, securing Lucas's happiness.
See, Lucas isn't normally like this and at first I was confused as to why he was sinking to Nathan's level, and then dragging me into it; then I realized, with each passing stunt Nathan is taking Lucas's pride and shoving it into the toilet and that is something Lucas will never stand for.
So I met with Nathan. I knocked on his front door and told him my stipulations for tutoring. He better do the work and he better not try and sass me. He wasn't too keen on either of the prerequisites but he agreed nonetheless. I stayed at his house and we started reading Catcher in the Rye. I was glad to find out that the boy actually can read, I wasn't too sure of it to be honest. He participates so infrequently in class that it was a plausible worry.
He's kind of smart, when he tries and when he's not just sassing me. Though, he's also kind of dumb because over the next few meetings (one a day but not like a healthy vitamin) he started let a few things slip.like where he was going to be hanging out that night (so Luke could go and slash his tires) or when he and Peyton had a fight (so Luke could bring her a CD and a book to cheer her up).
It wasn't really fun watching my best friend let his anger take hold of him. She'd witnessed a few of his fights with Karen, so she knew firsthand that Lucas had a temper, but he was a textbook "sitcom" case - always hugging and making up with his mother before the fight went too far.
With Nathan though - Lucas was headstrong.
Then, one day, I found out what Nathan had been planning and I had to make a decision.
**
It's not like I became friends with Nathan Scott. I didn't - far from it really. I could tolerate being in the same room as him, and occasionally we had nice conversations, but that was the extent to it.
I witnessed him planning some calculating torture for Lucas with Tim on the phone. "I have this tape of his mom and my dad.it's hysterical Tim and it will mortify him." He laughed then, and I knew I was doing the right thing by helping Luke.
I found the tape and I took it home and burned it. It had been in his underwear drawer and I seriously had to hold my nose as I went through his clothes and other various disturbing items (I hate clowns boxer shorts?).
The next day we had a showdown. Unfortunately he wasn't stupid enough to know it wasn't me - and we had it out. He frightened me a little bit - the boy is an entire head taller than me and is probably twice my weight - but I did good and held my own. Even when he called me a bitch I didn't cower.
"You think we're done?" he asked. "We're not even close."
**
See, I hurt his pride too. Boys and their stupid pride; I wish it was like in Operation where you could just stick one of those tweezers into them and just remove their pride. That way I would be free to go back to my traditions of overalls and popcorn and BBC America and not get dragged into the Scott family feud.
Because dragged in I certainly did.and I never really was able to escape perfectly unscathed.
Nathan made sure of that. There were a lot of very unflattering rumors started about me. Obviously, the tutoring stopped. Though, Daddy Dan was going to put a stop to that anyway. Doing schoolwork was taking far too much time away from his sports and we couldn't have that happening.
It was all about the Daddy Dan dynamic. The lack there of in the situation with Lucas, and the way too much in the situation with Nathan, and apparently it's like the U2 song "With or Without You" because apparently neither boy knows how to live with or without him.which I find horrible since the man is a terrible pig (but that is only my opinion).
So time went by. Karen found out that Lucas had been acting up (thanks to a lovely phone call from Nathan), punished him, and Luke realized that he would either have to be a lot more careful about not getting caught or give up. He decided to give up, but only because I got to burn Nathan one last time, and it was a big enough burn to keep Luke's pride safe for a good while.
**
I want to apologize. I want to really badly for everything that happened ever since that ruined T.G.I.F. It bothered me to sit there across from Nathan and listen to him honestly struggle with his homework when I knew I wasn't there with honest intentions. But I guess you can't expect people to be honest with you if you aren't honest with yourself, and if you act cruel out of misguided resentment when deep down you know there is no reason to be feel any of it.
So I didn't apologize when I ruined his future. When I listened to Peyton tell Brooke that Nathan cheated on her, and knocked up some girl but wasn't going to tell his dad. I made the call. I got Nathan sent away to private school.
He doesn't bother Luke anymore. Sometimes I get a postcard with a lot of expletives on it but that's the extent of it. They ruined each others lives for a while and now its over; so pointless.
I'm back to my traditions, although I added a new one. I volunteer at the soup kitchen now, because truthfully I needed to do something to clear my conscience just a little. Luke needed me, so I helped him out.but sometimes I pull out those postcards and I wonder.I just wonder what will happen to Nathan Scott and whether or not we'll ever meet up again - and who in the end - will be the one still on top.
**
See, today was supposed to be a good day. For starters it was a Friday.a Friday!
Now maybe Luke is willing to break the sacred teenage oath that nothing bad can happen on a Friday but I like that tradition, in fact I pretty much like tradition on principle. Less mess, less fuss, no missed signals, no confusion - I crown myself the Tevya of Tree Hill - I live by tradition, well except when Luke has a problem and then everything gets turned on its head.
I had my whole day planned. I had to tutor Brandon for a half hour after school and then work at Karen's until six-thirty, but after that I had the whole night worked out. I was going to do my Haley things: pull my hair back into pigtails, change into my Old Navy relaxed fit overalls, pop some popcorn, watch BBC America until my eyes went cross-eyed and maybe, if I was lucky enough, the Discovery Channel would replay the Vikings special before I went to sleep so I could have wonderful dreams about beautiful blonde Norwegian boys.
I would have had so much fun too, but at three fifteen this afternoon Luke decided to fill me in on the little plan he cooked up for Nathan after his charming younger brother and his cronies threw him in the mud and left him there to rot - all in the spirit of team togetherness - and now because of this little plan, my weekend is essentially ruined.
I would be less dramatic but when you're sixteen and you're life is usually very simple, you get used to it being like that. So of course you desperately despise when [that person you can't say no to - a beautiful blonde with searing blue eyes and his heart always on his sleeve] comes to you and is all: [I]Haley, you need to help me[/I] - you desperately try to think of anything that will, essentially, deter him from wanting to be around you so you can run away and go back to traditions and BBC America.
(Luke, you know how I get that time of the month and oh yea guess what!)
Why do you do this - because [I]Haley, you need to help me[/I] is always followed by the kicker and you hate listening to his voice crack when he follows up with the kicker:
Haley, don't you know you're the only one I can count on.
[B]You're the only one.[/B] With those four words Luke turned my perfect T.G.I.F into P.M.I.M (please-make-it-Monday) O.S.O.P (on-some-other- planet).
He knows what he wants to do is wrong. He figures that if he can demoralize me and get me to agree with him that [I]he must do what he has decided must be done[/I] then he doesn't have to feel bad about [I]the plan to destroy his baby brother[/I]. He also knows that I can't ever say no to him so really this is the most foolproof scenario Luke has ever come up with.
It's never going to work even though the plan is pretty simple - because - I am the entire plan. I canoodle myself into Nathan's life - I - I really don't know what I can do to Nathan Scott that will in any way disrupt his life since I'm just a metaphorical lowly peasant and he is the aristocratic bastard.but Luke wants me to agree to help Nathan with tutoring (why oh why did I tell Luke about that) since Nathan did already ask me. But then again I already have a full load and I'm not going to let my schoolwork suffer because my best friend is having a Revenge-of-the-Nerds moment.
Luke's so-called plan is for me to meet Nathan for a tutoring session this weekend and "act feminine" and.no that was really all he had to say about it, "act feminine" and like what, put on a skirt and invite Nathan to a tea party?
Seriously I want to strangle Luke sometimes.
I guess it could work though. Nathan hates Luke but I bet he just loves a good challenge. I'm Luke's best friend, and therefore a pretty big challenge to Nathan. So I guess I'll tutor him - to find out his weaknesses, to gather information Lucas can use against him, [I]Too bad this wasn't against everything I stand for, huh?[/I]
Then again, I have to think of it this way: the guy hurts Luke. On purpose. Repeatedly. For no reason. On purpose. Just to break his spirit.
When I think about it that way - Luke doesn't even have to lay into the kicker again because I already have agreed to help him.
**
I have to admit - I'm [I]really[/I] good, even if I felt terrible doing this. A lump the size of Texas was lodged in my throat the entire time I was talking to the Neanderthal but I think he was too busy looking at my chest to notice.
Luke told me to "act feminine" so I tried my best - which meant not wearing a loose sweater. Apparently it did the charm because he surprisingly didn't walk away from me. It's a little funny - he has a hidden agenda, I have a hidden agenda. Makes me wonder who's going to end up on top.
Though, I don't wonder long because I know it's going to be me. There is no chance of me falling for his bullshit charm since I see right through his game - and I have my eyes set on the prize, securing Lucas's happiness.
See, Lucas isn't normally like this and at first I was confused as to why he was sinking to Nathan's level, and then dragging me into it; then I realized, with each passing stunt Nathan is taking Lucas's pride and shoving it into the toilet and that is something Lucas will never stand for.
So I met with Nathan. I knocked on his front door and told him my stipulations for tutoring. He better do the work and he better not try and sass me. He wasn't too keen on either of the prerequisites but he agreed nonetheless. I stayed at his house and we started reading Catcher in the Rye. I was glad to find out that the boy actually can read, I wasn't too sure of it to be honest. He participates so infrequently in class that it was a plausible worry.
He's kind of smart, when he tries and when he's not just sassing me. Though, he's also kind of dumb because over the next few meetings (one a day but not like a healthy vitamin) he started let a few things slip.like where he was going to be hanging out that night (so Luke could go and slash his tires) or when he and Peyton had a fight (so Luke could bring her a CD and a book to cheer her up).
It wasn't really fun watching my best friend let his anger take hold of him. She'd witnessed a few of his fights with Karen, so she knew firsthand that Lucas had a temper, but he was a textbook "sitcom" case - always hugging and making up with his mother before the fight went too far.
With Nathan though - Lucas was headstrong.
Then, one day, I found out what Nathan had been planning and I had to make a decision.
**
It's not like I became friends with Nathan Scott. I didn't - far from it really. I could tolerate being in the same room as him, and occasionally we had nice conversations, but that was the extent to it.
I witnessed him planning some calculating torture for Lucas with Tim on the phone. "I have this tape of his mom and my dad.it's hysterical Tim and it will mortify him." He laughed then, and I knew I was doing the right thing by helping Luke.
I found the tape and I took it home and burned it. It had been in his underwear drawer and I seriously had to hold my nose as I went through his clothes and other various disturbing items (I hate clowns boxer shorts?).
The next day we had a showdown. Unfortunately he wasn't stupid enough to know it wasn't me - and we had it out. He frightened me a little bit - the boy is an entire head taller than me and is probably twice my weight - but I did good and held my own. Even when he called me a bitch I didn't cower.
"You think we're done?" he asked. "We're not even close."
**
See, I hurt his pride too. Boys and their stupid pride; I wish it was like in Operation where you could just stick one of those tweezers into them and just remove their pride. That way I would be free to go back to my traditions of overalls and popcorn and BBC America and not get dragged into the Scott family feud.
Because dragged in I certainly did.and I never really was able to escape perfectly unscathed.
Nathan made sure of that. There were a lot of very unflattering rumors started about me. Obviously, the tutoring stopped. Though, Daddy Dan was going to put a stop to that anyway. Doing schoolwork was taking far too much time away from his sports and we couldn't have that happening.
It was all about the Daddy Dan dynamic. The lack there of in the situation with Lucas, and the way too much in the situation with Nathan, and apparently it's like the U2 song "With or Without You" because apparently neither boy knows how to live with or without him.which I find horrible since the man is a terrible pig (but that is only my opinion).
So time went by. Karen found out that Lucas had been acting up (thanks to a lovely phone call from Nathan), punished him, and Luke realized that he would either have to be a lot more careful about not getting caught or give up. He decided to give up, but only because I got to burn Nathan one last time, and it was a big enough burn to keep Luke's pride safe for a good while.
**
I want to apologize. I want to really badly for everything that happened ever since that ruined T.G.I.F. It bothered me to sit there across from Nathan and listen to him honestly struggle with his homework when I knew I wasn't there with honest intentions. But I guess you can't expect people to be honest with you if you aren't honest with yourself, and if you act cruel out of misguided resentment when deep down you know there is no reason to be feel any of it.
So I didn't apologize when I ruined his future. When I listened to Peyton tell Brooke that Nathan cheated on her, and knocked up some girl but wasn't going to tell his dad. I made the call. I got Nathan sent away to private school.
He doesn't bother Luke anymore. Sometimes I get a postcard with a lot of expletives on it but that's the extent of it. They ruined each others lives for a while and now its over; so pointless.
I'm back to my traditions, although I added a new one. I volunteer at the soup kitchen now, because truthfully I needed to do something to clear my conscience just a little. Luke needed me, so I helped him out.but sometimes I pull out those postcards and I wonder.I just wonder what will happen to Nathan Scott and whether or not we'll ever meet up again - and who in the end - will be the one still on top.