A/N: Howdy!

Well, this is my first One tree hill fanfiction :) I've only just started watching the programme, even though it's finished now *sniff sniff* but I'm working my way through dvds hehe. I'm only on season two at the moment, but even through the first episode, I could feel the cogs working in my head lol :D

Disclaimer: I only own Cassie. No one else :)

I'm not totally sure about this story, but I've written about three chapters so far, and if people show some interest I'll definitely carry on! So please please PLEASE drop me a review. I'm perfectly happy with receiving ideas/suggestions/criticisms and I'll try my hardest to take on board everything that is said. :)

My plan for this story is to pretty much follow the programme, with some differences while slotting Cassie into the storylines. :)

Yeah, so I'm going to stop rambling now haha :D please R+R! It'd make me smile lots and lots :)

Thanks,

xoloveJBox

Cassie stuffed her hands into her jacket pocket, nervously looking around. She wasn't supposed to be there and she knew it. She had come straight from school, and her plain black backpack was still slung casually over her shoulders. Her father had always told her that it wasn't safe for little girls to walk around alone and most of the time she listened to him, but she knew that he would never have said yes if she'd have asked permission first. Especially where she was heading.

One of her father's main rules was that Cassie was never allowed to go to Uncle Keith's garage unless either her dad or Nathan was with her. Her mother wasn't really around for the rule to apply, and Nathan and Dad hardly ever went either. Usually, this didn't bother Cassie; Uncle Keith dropped in from time to time, and she saw him around town, so she didn't need to go to the garage.

But he worked there.

Cassie had heard the whispers about her family, about the older brother she didn't know. She hated that kids in her class often knew more about Lucas than she did, and she didn't even know which parts were true. Cassie couldn't get her head around the fact that Nathan paraded around proud as a peacock just because he was good at throwing a ball through a hoop, while Lucas was ignored.

But Cassie wasn't sure she could do that anymore. She didn't think she could see him around town and not acknowledge who he was. It wasn't fair to anyone, and she was sick of pretending, and she was perfectly willing to deal with whatever was going to come her way because of her actions. She wasn't even sure if Lucas would know who she was, never mind want to talk to her.

Cassie pushed back her dark hair and slid her glasses a little further up her nose with fingers that were barely visible from the end of her sleeves. To distract from the little stabs of anxiety she felt from walking by herself, Cassie listened to her feet on the pavement, the soles of her sneakers tapping on the cement. She smiled and let out a small sigh of relief when she spotted her uncle's garage.

She wondered in casually, listening to the soft sounds of the radio filtering in and the buzzing of tools, as if it were no big deal that she was even there, but when Keith spotted her, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"H-h-hey Uncle K-K-Keith." Cassie had spoken with a stutter for as long as she could remember, and in a lot of situations it was paralysing humiliating, stopping Cassie from talking to people on a social level, but Keith was so used to it now that he barely even noticed.

"Kiddo, what are you doing here?" he asked, looking around for his brother and becoming even more disconcerted when he was nowhere in sight.

"I w-w-wanted to see you." She replied with an overly sweet smile to hide her little white lies. Well, she thought, it wasn't completely a lie; it was just a stretch of the truth.

"Did your dad or Nathan drop you off?" he asked, trying to hide the hopeful undertone in his voice.

"Nope." Cassie answered nonchalantly, though she was mentally waiting for the bomb to go off. "I w-w-walked here from school."
"Alone?" Keith asked in bewilderment.

"Yep."

"But you're ten."

"Oh really Uncle K-K-Keith? Thanks for c-c-clearing that up for me." She replied sarcastically. She had always been quick-witted, and even Keith had a hard time suppressing a smirk. But while he was muttering things like 'little smart-ass', Cassie subtly looked around, searching for a glimpse of the Pandora's box that formed Lucas. Though she thought she had been fairly attenuate, Keith saw her and a flicker of realisation appeared in his eyes.

"I guess it's not me you're here to see." He murmured softly; not a question, but a definitive statement. Cassie looked at him, a little taken back that she had been found out so easily, but she should have known that she wouldn't be able to keep anything from Uncle Keith. She never could.

"I really wanna see him Uncle Keith." She admitted quietly, looking down and inspecting her feet to avoid Keith's searching gaze.

"I knew you would eventually." Keith told her, rubbing his face with his hand, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do. "Well, he's not here. He's playing basketball, but I don't think there would be too much of a problem if you went over there instead."

It took Cassie a second to realise what Keith had just said. She had expected him to tell her that she couldn't see Lucas, or that Lucas didn't want to see her, but when what Keith had told her finally hit her, she raised her eyes, now glittering, and beamed. However, she had to quickly reign in her excitement to make sure that she would remember the directions that Keith was suddenly giving her to the court that Lucas played basketball.

She arrived at the small riverside playground within a few minutes; Cassie had pretty much run from the garage, though she really had no idea what she was going to do once she got there.

The sun shone warmly on the tar of the court, and Cassie scanned the small group of boys, quickly spotting Lucas darting in and out with such extreme strategy and precision. None of the boys noticed her, and Cassie started to try and work out exactly what her next stage was. She considered calling him over, but then what? What was she supposed to say? When she realised that she had no idea what the answer to those questions were, she decided that the best thing for her to do was to wait for him to be finished and see what happened. Comforted by her solid decision, Cassie moved to sit under a tree to the side of the court. The grass was dry and genially inviting when she ran her fingers through it, and there was a light breeze that made her hair dance around her face.

For a few minutes, Cassie sat and watched him. Lucas was taller than the rest of them, and they weren't all playing. Some of them were perched on the bench at the edge of the court, but they seemed content to be there, as if it were a routine. The first, most striking thing that Cassie noticed was that Lucas was good. Like, really good. He got the ball away from his opponents like he was strolling through the park, like it was the easiest, most natural thing in the world to him, like breathing. As Lucas sneakily slipped the ball away again, he let out a sudden loud laugh that took Cassie by surprise. She couldn't remember ever hearing Nathan or her dad laughing when they were playing. For the two of them, basketball was always so serious, as if what happened on the court was actually life or death. It wasn't fun for them, it was necessary; a way of life that might end in disaster if everything wasn't absolutely perfect.

Cassie slid her bag from her shoulders and set it on the floor next to her before bringing her knees up to her chin. Looking at him, she didn't think that Lucas looked much like her dad, or any of her family really. Lucas's hair was a dirty blonde; a lot lighter than any of Cassie's other relatives. He was tall and wiry, while all of the other Scott men she knew tented to be broader, and not quite so tall. He was wearing sweatpants and a grey hooded sweater, and Cassie could make out the name 'Scott' on the back of it, but she knew that it was Keith, not Dan or any other Scott she knew. But there was just something that erased all the doubts she had ever had about whether Lucas really was who everyone said he was. There was just something about the way he moved.

It was just like Nathan.

Suddenly catching herself staring a group made up of potential strangers, Cassie quickly turned away and pulled out a worn, dog-eared paperback from her bag and began to read, slipping into another world that was a lot less complicated than the one she resided in, and a lot easier to deal with when she knew she could confine the difficulties within the covers.

Cassie found herself being abruptly dragged from the fantasy world of the pages when a loud thud resounded on the tree trunk just centimetres above her head. Jumping, Cassie looked around and saw the basketball rolling away slowly, and she grabbed it before it could go too far. She tucked the ball under her arm and slipped the book mark into the page; when she looked up she saw one of the boys jogging towards her. She had to do a quick double-take before she realised that it was Lucas, and she wasn't sure what was going to happen next.

"Oh Jesus Christ, I'm sorry." Lucas called as he approached, with Cassie pulling herself up from the ground "Did it hit you?"

Cassie's heart was beating in her throat. She opened her mouth to speak but no sound escaped. He came closer and Cassie could finally see what made everyone so sure.

His eyes. They were the same as hers.

Aware that she was gaping like an idiot, Cassie shook her head.

"The game just got a bit out of hand, that's all." Lucas explained, still sounding apologetic. Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm f-f-fine." Cassie assured him quietly, though she was mentally cursing herself for her inability to speak like a normal person, reaching forwards with the ball. Lucas gave a lop-sided grin in thanks when he took it, and as he turned away, he spotted the paperback lying in the grass.

"What are you reading?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, err," Cassie stammered, slightly caught off-guard by the seemingly random question. Nerves and anxiety always made her speech pattern worse, and she could feel her cheeks growing pink from the undiluted attention. "H-H-Harry P-P-Potter."

Lucas smiled again. If he noticed Cassie's stutter, which she knew he must have done, he was really convincing in not showing it. "I remember reading those. Anyway, I'm sorry again, and thanks."

Cassie watched as Lucas gave her a quick, friendly wave and jogged back to his friends. She didn't think that there was anything else that could or would be said at that moment, so she grabbed up her bag and, with an unbreakable secret smile, she started walking home.

When he returned to the group, Lucas didn't notice everyone looking at him, and he was ready to give straight back into the game.

"Come on, you guys ready?" he asked when no one moved to be prepared to play.

"You know who that was?" Skills asked with a small frown, nodding his head towards the descending figure.

"Who? The girl?"

Skills nodded, but he could already tell what the answer was.

"Dude, that's Cassidy Scott. She's your sister."

It took a second for Lucas to fully register what his friend was telling him. The information slowly ebbed into his brain and, bewildered, he looked back just in time to see the young girl turning around the corner, out of sight.

A/N 2: If you're reading this, you read the whole first chapter so THANK YOU MILLIONS!

xxx