Hey guys! So I had this story written out for a while now, I just found it on my laptop and was surprised that I forgot to post it. It's just a cute little idea I had going on in my head for a little while so here's this oneshot! Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill
Smells Like Teen Spirit
I blew my whistle loudly gaining the boys attention. After a devastating loss in the semi-finals last year ending the Raven's season short the boys were more determined than ever to take it all the way. I had earned quite a reputation for being a hard ass – not half as bad as Whitey though. But hey, that's what it took. Whitey taught me how to be a team player… a concept this team wasn't grasping last year.
"Take a seat boys." I pointed over to the bleachers and looked down at my clipboard before addressing them.
They looked at me expectedly with tired eyes. I remember sitting in their seats not too long ago dreading whatever tirade Whitey was about to go on and now here I was the roles reversed. Funny how life works out sometimes.
"I'm proud of you boys, you've worked hard this season…we've had some highs and we've had some lows but we made it to the playoffs." I looked at each of them and felt like I was staring at a mirror of my former self. "This isn't like last year, we aren't going into the post season undefeated, we're the underdogs but that's a good thing boys. People always love to see the underdog overcome adversity."
The boys nodded at me intently. They busted me up from time to time but I know they respect me and my opinion. "Hit the showers, I'll see you for a conditioning run tomorrow morning 6am."
The boys groaned and I had to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, yeah, get out of here." I smiled while shaking my head.
One by one the boys walked down from the bleachers and into the locker room so they could shower and head home for the day. One of my players caught my eye and I called him towards me. "Thompson! Not so fast." I noted that the boy seemed to internally groan before making his way closer to me. That was unusual, he was normally a blubbering idiot around me.
"Yeah, Coach Scott?" He asked when he was in front of me.
"Have you seen Lydia?" I asked cutting to the chase.
"Nope." He answered.
"Aren't you two usually joined at the hip?" I retorted someone painfully. It was hard coming to grips with the fact that my little girl wasn't so little anymore but Haley was always telling me to give Gavin a shot, that he was a "nice boy" – nice boy my ass, that's what Haley's mom said about me when we were in high school and by that definition I sure as hell didn't want a nice boy going after my little girl.
Gavin shrugged and looked at me. "Can I go take a shower? My shift at the café starts in an hour."
That was another thing that bothered me. The kid was always around. I coached him, Lydia always had him over, and he worked at the café with Haley busing tables. I at least had Jamie on my side, he had played the overprotective big brother card, well at least he had at first but the more he hung out with Gavin the more he seemed to like him.
Traitor.
"Yeah." I nodded. "Do you need a ride?" I asked knowing that Lydia would've hounded me about not being nice to her boyfriend.
Ugh. Just the word pissed me off.
"No, I'm cool Coach Scott, thanks though." He nodded appreciatively and scurried out of the gym. I was so engrossed in his weird behavior that I didn't notice the presence behind me.
"Think I can get a ride?" Lydia walked up to me and popped a quick kiss on my cheek.
"What are you doing here?" I questioned. "I thought you would've left with Sawyer by now."
"I had to stay after and talk to Mrs. Kelly about a grade." She said while leaning down to pick up an abandoned basketball. "Sawyer had to help out Aunt Peyton and Red Bedroom and she couldn't wait for me." She shot the basketball from the three point arc. Nothing but net.
I knew I taught her something right. That's my girl.
"You just missed Gavin." I pointed out. "Your boyfriend is weird Lydia." I teased.
Nothing.
Something was going on.
"So how about that ride?" She questioned walking over to me. She was like Haley in that way, she had his impeccable need to change the subject in awkward situations.
"I'll do you one better." I said while throwing my arm over her shoulder and leading her towards the exit of the gym. "How about I take my little girl down to the docks for some ice cream."
"Dad." She whined. "I am not a little girl."
"Lydia Scott." I stated sternly. "You will always be my little girl, no amount of teenage angst you throw my way can change that."
She laughed deeply before ducking out from under my arm. "Teenage angst? Me, Sawyer, Davis and Jude have head the stories about you, Mom, Uncle Lucas, Aunt Peyton and Aunt Brooke in high school. Hate to break it to you dad but I think you school me in the teenage angst department."
"Funny." I replied dryly.
I don't know why we tell our kids anything.
"I'm all for the ice cream though."
"Good." I nodded.
"But I won't be spilling any details of this so called teenage angst you think I have going on in my life." She replied resolutely.
We'll see about that.
"So you had that meeting with your guidance councilor today?" I questioned while handing her cup full of mint chocolate chip. She was so much like Haley.
"Yeah." Lydia nodded enthusiastically. "She said she could see me getting into NYU, said it seems like the perfect fit." She smiled at me cheekily and I had to suppress my incessant need to roll my eyes.
My baby girl was smart, like genius smart. Granted I may be biased but like I said, she's just like Haley. However, according to her those smarts were taking her to New York. A whopping 500 miles away from North Carolina.
"Why can't UNC be a perfect fit? Or Duke like Jamie?" I questioned in a higher tone of voice than I would've like.
"Nice try dad." She chuckled. "Jamie went to Duke because of a basketball scholarship, it had always been his dream…well that and the fact that Charlotte was going to Duke too." She said referring to Jamie's now fiancé.
"What about Gavin?" I questioned. Jesus Christ. I wanted to punch myself in the face for bringing him up, for even suggesting that he be a deciding factor in her decision to stay in North Carolina. But being her boyfriend's basketball coach had its perks, one of them being that I knew for a fact that Gavin wasn't looking at any schools in New York to play basketball. Nope, in fact all the schools he was looking at were stationed right here in good ole North Carolina.
I was grasping for straws here.
"What about Gavin?" She scoffed.
"Ha!" I yelled out triumphantly. "Two words Lydia Scott: teenage angst."
"Dad." She looked around embarrassedly.
Who knew I'd be the one embarrassing my kids? I always thought that'd be more of Haley's thing.
"Spill." I stated while stabbing my spoon into my cup of rocky road.
"What is it with you and Uncle Lucas always wanting to know every little thing in mine and Sawyer's lives?" She questioned incredulously.
Now her temper, she got that from me.
"We meet once a week for the 'fathers with beautiful daughters' club. We talk about punks that screw with our daughters hearts and find out ways to make them regret it." I answered back wanting to laugh at her blatant eye roll. "How else do you think we gather information…gotta do some recon kiddo." I continued.
"Just drop it Dad, please." She groaned, her cup of ice cream suddenly becoming much more interesting than me.
"Lydia." I looked over at her the joking tone in my voice gone. "If Gavin hurt-"
"God, Dad." She mumbled interrupting me. "I really don't need you going after Gavin like you went after Tyler." The mention of Lydia's ex-boyfriend immediately brought a scowl to my face. He cheated on her. It wasn't pretty. Let's just say when ever he saw me in the hallways of school he always ducked into the nearest classroom.
"Lydia, I'm not going to apologi-"
"And I'm not asking you too!" She called out interrupting me once again.
What did I tell ya. Just like Haley.
"The asshole deserved it." I made no effort to reprimand her for the language. Mostly because Tyler is an asshole. "It's not like that with Gavin." She explained.
"Then what's it like?" I questioned not stepping down.
"Dad this is so weird." She placed her head down on the picnic table we were seated at dramatically. I scoffed and made a mental note to thank Haley later tonight for passing down all of her melo-dramatic genes. But then I figured that'd probably get me in the doghouse and Haley had been feeling extra attentive lately so I decided against it.
"It's not weird!" I defended. "Besides your Uncle Lucas is the same way with your cousin Sawyer."
"Yeah." She let out an exasperated breath. "And all we do is talk about how weird it is!"
"Lydia."
"Okay, okay." She shrugged. "We got into a fight."
"Yeah, I figured that out when I asked him where you were and he didn't know. Most of the time it's like you two have a GPS tracker on each other."
"This college thing is just stressing us out." She explained. "Gavin wants to play at UNC and-"
"And UNC is a great school!" I encouraged. I didn't like my baby girl dating but even I had to admit Gavin wasn't horrible and if sucking up my over-protective instinct by pushing her and Gavin together was going to keep her a nice 30 miles away instead of an unthinkable 500 then call me a sucker.
"But it's not my dream school Dad." She replied softly.
"NYU is." I stated knowingly.
"I don't know, this is just all way too confusing." She closed her eyes and in that moment I just wanted to wrap my arms around my baby girl and protect her from the realities of the world. It was the same feeling I got when she fell off her bike the first time she rode it without training wheels and her howling cries wouldn't subside for half and hour. It was the same feeling I got when she came from home from school crying in the 6th grade because some girl had made of her for her braces. And it was the same feeling I got when I found her the night Tyler cheated on her furiously wiping at her tears on the steps to the front of our house trying to regain her composure before coming in and facing me and Haley.
It was the feeling that the world had hurt my baby girl and I couldn't do a damn thing to protect her except to be a shoulder to cry on.
I reached out and grabbed her hand placing a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry Lyd, I know I keep pushing the North Carolina school thing but it's only because I'm afraid of losing you…but you my sweet daughter are going to do great things in this world and you deserve to follow your dreams without having anyone hold you back." I looked at her softly. "Not Gavin and not me."
She looked at me and nodded. "I got mad at him because he doesn't want me to give up NYU for him."
"You got mad at him because he wants you to have your dream." I stated.
"It sounds stupid, but I was hurt." She retorted.
"Would you want him to give up UNC for you?" I asked.
"Of course not." She replied definitely.
"Well, then there you go…you can't get mad at him for that baby girl. I know life seems so uncertain after high school but if you and Gavin are meant to be you'll make it work."
I couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. The thought of Lydia with a boy drove me crazy and yet here I was giving her advice on her boyfriend. I loved that girl too much for my own good.
"I guess, I mean Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas weren't together after high school and look at them now." She shrugged.
"Yeah!" I nodded. "Just look at Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas."
"And I mean you and mom got married when you were my age."
I looked at her dumbfounded, words not being able to make their way out of my mouth.
"And look how happy you too are! I mean-"
"Lydia Scott are you trying to kill me?" I choked out.
She burst out laughing at the look of horror on my face and I let out a sigh of relief.
"You are too easy sometimes." She laughed out.
"Not funny." I replied sternly.
"I'm not the one who got married in high school." She responded a smirk planted firmly on her face. A mirror image of my own. "I reserve the right to bust you and mom about it every chance I get."
"Yeah, yeah, you can bust your butt back to the car…we'll be late for dinner if we don't head home soon."
Lydia stood up throwing her empty ice cream cup in the trash next to the picnic table. I followed suit and then walked in step with her back to the car.
"You know you'd be a total hypocrite if I did want to get married." She pointed out while looking over at me.
I cocked my brow at her and laughed. "Then call me the biggest hypocrite in all the land because there is no way you are getting married at 17 Lydia Bob Scott."
"Ugh." She whined. "You're really pulling out the middle name right now?"
"Honey, I'm home!" I smiled as I heard Haley's voice ring out throughout the house. Lydia was sitting in the chair next to me reading a book and I was looking over some plays for the basketball team on the couch. Haley walked into the living room placing a bag of Chinese food on the table. I smiled at her as she leaned down to kiss me. God, my wife is hot. She pulled away from the kiss but I had other plans and I pulled her down next to me on the couch never breaking contact until I heard a gagging noise from beside me. Both Haley and me looked up to give Lydia an amused look.
"You two are gross." She closed her book and made her way upstairs to her room.
"Love you too sweetheart!" Haley called out with a laugh.
I looked over at her once Lydia was upstairs and smirked. "Now where were we?"
Haley giggled and leaned closer but I jerked away when I heard a loud thud from upstairs. "What was that?" I questioned moving to get up but Haley's hand held me firmly in place.
"I'm guessing that is Gavin seeing as how he left the café half an hour before his shift was up claiming he had an emergency."
"What-"
"Well, that and the fact I saw him scaling the house up to Lydia's room when I pulled into the driveway."
That's all I needed to hear. I moved to stomp my way to Lydia's room and break up whatever makeup session was going on but Haley stopped me once again.
"Leave them alone." She reprimanded.
"Haley!" I looked at her like she had grown a second head. "I'm not leaving my teenage daughter and her punk of a boyfriend alone in her room."
"Do you trust Lydia?" She questioned.
"Of course I trust Lydia." I answered quickly. "It's every teenage boy on the planet that I don't trust."
Haley laughed. "Calm down, what's gonna happen when she lives in New York? You're just gonna have to get used to it baby…our little girl isn't so little anymore."
"I will never get used that." I sighed relaxing once again into Haley's arms.
"I wonder if we were that obvious when we were teenagers." Haley questioned.
"Please." I scoffed. "According to your parents they knew I was a 'horney cat burgler' the moment they met me."
"Mmm." Haley moaned with a small smile playing on her lips. She inched closer to me and it took everything not to close the short distance between us and take her right there on the couch.
Whoever the hell said marriage gets dull was obviously not married to someone as hot as Haley James.
"We did have some good times in my room after hours." She smirked reminiscing of our teenage selves.
"Yeah." I agreed with a grin at the innuendo - memories of our younger years filling my mind. I immediately looked up at Haley to find her looking at me the small smile now gone from her lips.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She questioned quickly.
"Yeah." I nodded. Moving to get up from the couch and make my way up the stairs Haley hot on my heels.
"LYDIA BOB SCOTT. DINNER, NOW!" Haley shouted up the steps.
"YOU BETTER CLIMB BACK OUT THE WINDOW THOMPSON!" I yelled.
It was true, my baby girl wasn't a baby anymore. But hey that didn't make me any less of an over protective father.
The End.