Lucas slams the trunk of his mom's old red Toyota Corolla shut, rubbing his palms along the top of his faded blue jeans. He takes a deep breath while taking one last look at his surroundings. Leaning against the trunk, he turns to face his house causing memories of his childhood to flood his mind. He is quickly shaken from these thoughts when he hears his mom yell, "Come on Lucas, we better get going if we want to beat the traffic." Lucas slowly walks to the front of Karen's car, opening the door and plopping himself into the seat.
Karen looks over at him and frowns inwardly at the expression on her son's face, an expression that has troubled his face every day for the past 3 months. It was an expression of grief, helplessness, and she swore she even saw a hint of guilt line his features. She wanted so badly to talk to him, to make him feel like everything was going to be alright. She knew better though. Whenever she attempted to talk to Lucas about his feelings it always ended in a fight.
Karen started her car and pulled out of the driveway of the small yellow house that has grown to mean so much to her. It was the house that she raised Lucas in, and although they were some of the hardest years of her life, it was completely worth it. Karen loved Lucas more than anything in the entire world. She knew that moving was the right choice for her son. What Karen wanted most right now was for the old Lucas she knew and loved to come back to her, and maybe getting out of Sun Valley was exactly what he needed. She wanted his sky blue eyes to once again display the hope and happiness they once obtained.
She began to focus on the road as she and Lucas reached the highway, the scenery now passing by at a faster pace. Lucas sighed before turning to look at his mom noticing her seemingly deep in thought. He could tell by the way her brow always furrowed. "I'm sorry Mom," he said softly as her face turned towards him with her always warm smile. "You have nothing to be sorry for Lucas. Sun Valley just wasn't the place for us anymore honey. I think you will like Tree Hill, and it's really great that you have so many people that care about you and want to be wherever you are. Nathan is a good friend," Karen says before reaching over and patting Lucas's knee lightly.
Lucas nods his head, knowing his mom is right. But he still can't help but feel guilty; guilty for being such a problem. If it wasn't for him his mom wouldn't feel the need to put her life on hold so he would have a chance at being happy again. God, and it wasn't only his mom, but his half-brother Nathan too. As soon as Lucas gave him the news that he was leaving town, Nathan told Lucas he was coming with. Hell, no one, not even Nathan, wanted to be stuck with Dan and Deb and they were his own parents. Ever since high school Lucas and Nathan had each other's backs and Nathan told him that wasn't going to change now.
Lucas ran his hand through his shaggy, sandy blond hair as he felt his eyes begin to close. He hoped he would be able to get some sleep although lately sleeping wasn't the easiest task for him. All Lucas wanted was to be happy again, and he desired with all his heart that Tree Hill might be the town to make that happen. Tired of thinking he let his mind slowly drift off.
Nathan rolled his eyes as he carried the last of his boxes to the moving truck. He had pretty much packed up the whole house by himself. Deb was already wasted and it was only noon, big surprise. Dan on the other hand refused to help completely, saying that since Nathan was the only one that wanted to move he could pack the house up himself, which is exactly what he did. He walked into the house and yelled to his parents, "Come on you guys I'm not trying to be on the road all damn day!"
Dan smirked as he walked into the room. "Why don't you cut the attitude, son. You're lucky your mom and I care enough about you to move 3 hours away to some hick town, just because your screwed up brother can't handle himself. Life is tough and maybe one day he will realize that," he said spitefully. Nathan chuckled and said, "Nobody invited you and alchy to come along for the ride. I said I was moving. Karen and Keith were more than ready to let me live with them."
"Yeah, just what you need. Living in a house with Keith the ultimate boozer, Karen the woman I abandoned, and my depressed son. I don't need you getting distracted from basketball Nathan. You're going to be a senior and this is your last chance to impress the scouts. Hopefully my other son won't ruin the Scott name," Dan spits out in his usual shameless way. Nathan balls his fist trying his best not to lose his famous Scott temper.
"Dad, just shut up already. You and I both know that Lucas is an amazing basketball player. Maybe you're just pissed that both your sons are going to be more successful than you ever were," Nathan states while glaring at his father. Dan chuckles sarcastically before saying, "Think whatever you want Nathan. You're just lucky Tree Hill plays some good teams this year. Let's get going, you need to hit the gym tonight before your first day of tryouts tomorrow. We can't have any of those Tree Hill boys showing you up." Nathan rolls his eyes, slowly saying "Yeah, whatever."
Lucas woke up the next morning to the sound of his annoying alarm buzzing in his ear. He turned to his clock with his eyes barely open to see that it read 7am. "Ugh…" Lucas groaned into his pillow, not excited for his first day at a new school. Hitting the snooze button he pulls the covers up over his head hoping his mom will forget about him, but no such luck. "Lucas Eugene Scott, you are not missing your first day of your senior year. Get your butt out of bed. The next time I have to come in here I'm pulling covers."
Lucas moves his head towards his mom and says, "I'm up, I surrender. Don't do anything drastic," with a small smile lighting his features. However, as soon as the smile is there it's gone, almost as if it didn't happen at all. "Good, now get in the shower and I'm going to get some breakfast going. You'll need a lot of energy if you and Nathan are going to go show these Tree Hill boys how to play basketball." Karen walks out and starts on breakfast as Lucas slowly hops into the shower. "This is going to be a long day," Lucas thinks to himself before letting the hot water hit his tanned skin.
As soon as Nathan steps out of the shower that morning, he gets dressed in a pair of Nike basketball shorts and puts on one of his many basketball t-shirts before jogging downstairs. He looks at his phone and notices that it reads 7:30am. "Shit," he curses, fixing himself a quick bagel not wanting to be late for school, considering he still needed to pick up Lucas. Nathan had offered to give him a ride to school since he was on the way and they hadn't seen each other for a couple days.
Nathan gets his basketball stuff together and shoves it into a duffle bag that reads "Scott: 23" across the side in green lettering, the color representing his old school. "Dad I'm leaving!" he yells up the stairs hoping to dodge a morning encounter with Dan. However, just like Lucas, Nathan had no such luck. "Hold up, son," Dan told Nathan before walking down the stairs to talk to him. "How far did you run this morning?" Dan asked with a stern look on his face.
"I ran 3 miles Dad, I woke up late," Nathan told him. Dan shook his head and said, "3 miles won't get you a state championship, son. Hell, it won't even get you to the playoffs. Tomorrow morning I want no less than 6 miles. I'll run with you to make sure you're not slacking off. We will see if you can still keep up with your old man." "Yeah, okay Dad. I'll be home after tryouts, and DO NOT show up. I'll do just fine without you there breathing down my neck," Nathan says before walking out the front door with a slam, not wanting to have to deal with Dan's shit that early in the morning. Nathan steps into his black convertible, courtesy of Dan Scott motors, and drives off towards Lucas's house.
Luke and Nathan pull into Tree Hill High School's parking lot minutes before class is supposed to start. As they are walking towards the school Lucas turns to Nathan and says, "Thanks man, for having my back." Nathan simply nods his head and tells Lucas, "It's cool. I couldn't let you get away from Dan that easily," laughing as he hits him in the arm. Lucas lets a smile grace his face before walking in the front doors of the school. "This is so weird," Lucas says looking around at his new surroundings.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Nathan says completely agreeing with Lucas. The last high school he and Lucas attended was huge, and Tree Hill definitely was not. "What class you got first man?" Nathan asks as he pulls out his schedule, Lucas doing the same. "Um, I have English. What about you?" Lucas questions as he looks around the empty hallway for his classroom, obviously being late for class already. "Calculus, great just what I need for my first class of the day," Nathan says sarcastically.
Lucas smiles. "I'm happy I have English first, maybe it will keep my mind off everything for once," he confesses. Nathan nods his head and says, "Yeah, you better keep that small brain focused today if we're going to prove to these Tree Hill kids that basketball shouldn't have to be painful to watch. I'll see you later man." Nathan and Luke bump fists before heading their separate ways.
Luke finds his classroom and takes a deep breath before reaching for the door knob and slowly opening up the door. He notices immediately that everybody's head quickly turns towards him and he thinks to himself jokingly, "Wow this isn't uncomfortable." The teacher gives Luke a quick nod and says, "Ah, Lucas Scott I presume?" Lucas simply says, "Yeah, sorry I'm late," before finding a spot empty in the middle of the room.
Luke notices that his teacher is talking about the one of the books the class was apparently supposed to read over the summer, and lucky for him it was one of his favorite books, The Great Gatsby. He looks around at everybody spacing out as usual in an AP English class. However, not Lucas. He loves English. There is something so soothing and calming about being able to read a book and feel as though you are in a completely different place for awhile. Novels allow you to escape your own reality for a little while, and this is an aspect that Luke has greatly appreciated over the past 3 months.
Being caught up in his own thoughts, Lucas doesn't notice that the bell has rung and that students all around him are filing out of the classroom. He is broken from his trance when he feels a gentle hand tapping his shoulder. He looks up and sees a cute girl with honey brown hair and brown eyes looking down at him with a small smile on her face. "I've never seen anyone want to stay in English longer than needed," she tells him. Lucas smiles and immediately notices how caring her tone of voice is.
"Oh, yeah sorry. I guess I was in another world," Luke says smiling up at her. He grabs his books and tosses them into his bookbag, standing up and slinging it over his shoulder. She sends him another one of those heart-warming smiles and says, "I was just in that world a couple minutes ago. I may be a tutor but that doesn't mean I enjoy an hour lecture on the symbolism in The Great Gatsby. I'm Haley, by the way," the small girl says as she extends her hand towards Lucas.
He smiles when she says she doesn't enjoy their English class lectures because that is exactly what Luke would consider fun. He decides to keep that information to himself before taking her small hand in his saying, "I'm Lucas, but you can call me Luke." She laughs and says, "I'm so honored," before walking out of the class at Lucas's side.
Lucas had a couple more classes with Haley that morning and he was starting to think that they could become pretty good friends. She seemed really sweet and was really funny too. She had managed to make him laugh more than a couple times which had been a hard feat for most the past months. However, no matter how much he laughed, he couldn't get his mind off of a certain thing, a thing that seemed to have a permanent place in his head. Not wanting to get upset he shook these thoughts.
He sat down at an empty lunch table and took out his brown paper bag. He pulled out a sandwich and began to eat, only to look up when he heard an unfamiliar voice speaking. "And I thought I was the only loner at this school," she said in a confident tone. The voice belonged to a girl with curly blond hair that fell right past her shoulders. She was very tall for a girl, and pretty skinny too, but not in a bad way. Anybody could tell that the girl standing in front of him had broken a couple hearts in her day.
"What, cat got your tongue?" she asked staring into his blue eyes. Lucas realized how stupid he probably looked just staring at this girl and he finally managed to get his voice to work. "Oh, no sorry," he said shortly. The girl rolled her eyes and sat down across from him at the metal lunch table. "Is that really all you're going to say? You're more of a loner than I thought. I'm Peyton," she told him with a smile on her face. For some reason he had a feeling that this girl wasn't as confident as she made herself seem, but he wasn't about to say that to her.
"I'm Lucas Scott," he said giving her a small smile. She chuckled lightly when he told her this and said, "Ah, I'm assuming you're Nathan's brother?" Lucas looked at her questioningly, not knowing how his brother could have already made a name around this school and it wasn't even noon yet. Noticing his confused look, Peyton added "He was in a couple of my classes this morning. He was… interesting." Luke couldn't help but laugh at the description Peyton offered about his brother.
"I guess you could say that," Lucas said giving her a small smile before returning to his sandwich. He could tell Peyton was about to say something but before she could, he heard a familiar voice say, "Peyton, get away from my new best friend. You're being traded in." He smiled when he saw Haley walk up to the table and sit next to Peyton, Peyton's reply being, "Yeah right, you could never replace me and you know it." Haley simply shrugged and looked to Lucas and with a wink said, "That's what she thinks."
Luke looked at Haley and then to Peyton, not seeing how these two could be such good friends considering they seemed so different. Then again, he and Nate were as different as night and day but they were best friends. Lucas looked up in time to see Nathan walking over to the table with a stupid grin on his face.
"What are you smiling about?" Lucas asks him, and Nathan says, "Dude, I just met the hottest girl. Her name is Theresa, and she is fine." Luke rolls his eyes but can't help but smile. He knew Nathan found a new girl every day, but he decided to go along with him and say, "Whatever you say Nate." He sat down next to Luke and looked across the table to see Peyton there, whom he already had a couple classes with, and a cute girl he hadn't seen yet.
Nathan reaches his hand out to the girl he hadn't met yet and says, "Sorry Luke is so rude, I'm Nathan." Haley just rolls her eyes, already taking a liking to Luke way more than his brother. He seemed the same as the rest of the guys at Tree Hill. However, Haley didn't want to seem rude, so she extended her hand to him as well, taking his in hers and simply saying, "Haley," before returning to her food. Nathan turns his head to Peyton and goes, "You couldn't keep away from me, huh?" as he moves his eyebrows up and down in his cocky manner.
Peyton gives him a "Ha!" before returning to her food, rolling her eyes as well at the dark-haired Scott brother. She turns to look at the blond Scott as he quietly eats his sandwich, seemingly lost in his own world. She has a feeling that there is more to this boy than meets the eye, and she kind of wants to figure out more. Peyton notices him not paying attention and take it as an opportunity to get a better look at him. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt that brought out his eyes and a pair of dark blue jeans. She'd be lying if she said he wasn't hot.
Haley nudges Peyton with her arm saying, "Earth to Peyton," causing her to pull her eyes away from Lucas, looking down embarrassed and hoping he didn't catch her staring at him. "For the third time, do you know where Brooke is?" Haley asked laughing. Peyton looks around and says, "No idea, I know she's here she was in my Calc class earlier." Hearing this, Nathan looks to Peyton and says "Is that the hot brown-haired girl you were sitting next to in Calc? I think she was even hotter than Theresa," Nate says excitedly.
Peyton shakes her head and says, "Yeah that's her. Try to keep it in your pants cocky." Lucas smiles when Peyton says that and Haley simply ignores him, not wanting to listen to his stupid immature comments. "I think we should introduce him to Tim," Haley mumbles under her breath to Peyton, to which she retorts, "They'd be the perfect bromance." The foursome continues to talk until the bell rings signaling the end of lunch. Nate and Luke stand up and start walking towards the school with the girls. "Alright man, I'll see you at tryouts," Nathan says to Luke before pounding fists with him and walking off towards the school.
Haley and Peyton give each other a look before looking to Lucas. "By tryouts, you wouldn't mean basketball tryouts would you?" Peyton asks Luke. Luke nods his head and says, "Yeah, why?" Peyton smiles and says, "Oh, no reason," conveniently leaving out the fact that she is a cheerleader. "Haley, look what time it is, we better get going. See you later Lucas!" Peyton says quickly before walking away, pulling Haley with her. Lucas shakes his head and smiles, not knowing what is with these Tree Hill girls. He heads towards his next class, wanting the school day to be over so he can play basketball and get his mind off things.
The rest of the day went by pretty fast, and now it was time for basketball tryouts. While Lucas and Nathan were in the locker room getting ready, the cheerleaders were busy in the gym stretching for cheer tryouts. "P. Sawyer who knew you were so bendy!" Peyton hears the voice of her best friend yell. She rolls her eyes and says, "Whatever B. Davis, don't act like you're not jealous." Brooke then turns her head to Haley and says, "Hey tutor girl, glad to see you came to cheer us cheerleaders on. One of these days I'm going to get you on my squad."
"Yeah yeah," she says, knowing Brooke has been trying to get her to cheerlead for the past two years. "Where were you at lunch today Tigger?" Haley asks watching as Brooke begins to stretch as well. She rolls her eyes and says, "I got in trouble in English today. Stupid teacher made me stay after and do an assignment on The Great Gatsby, which I didn't read. Now I have to turn in the stupid assignment by the end of the week. Why is the world out to get me Haley?" Brooke asks as she pouts, being completely over-dramatic.
Haley steps off the bleachers and walks over to Brooke. She takes Brooke's face in her hands and says, "Brooke, nobody is out to get you, I promise." Brooke continues to pout and says, "What do you know?" Looking over Brooke's shoulder Haley sees the basketball boys start to walk out of the locker room and she smiles when she sees Lucas. "Oh look, there's my new best friend," Haley says smiling, causing Brooke to turn around. Brooke sees Nathan and says, "Tutor girl, I know you can't be talking about that cocky boy," as she notices the smirk that is constantly plastered on his face.
Smiling, Haley says "Please Brooke, like I would associate with THAT Scott. I'm pretty certain he's from hell, never mind that, he's actually Satan himself." Brooke laughs and says, "Then who are you talking about?" but before she gets an answer, Haley has already walked off towards Nathan. Nathan smiles and says, "Haley, I didn't know you cared that much about me already, give me a hug!" as he reaches his arms out towards her.
"Ew, gross! I was actually coming to say hi to your better half, thank you very much," she exclaims before pushing past Nathan to see Luke. "Haley, I'm hurt," he says smiling before spotting Theresa across the gym, quickly walking off to talk to her. Haley walks up to Lucas and says, "Hey buddy, how are you doing? Are you nervous?" Luke shakes his head and says, "Nah, not really. Basketball has always kind of calmed me down. Are you really a cheerleader?" he asks completely shocked. Haley smiles and responds with a "Yeah, right. That's not really my kind of thing. Peyton is though," she adds on. Lucas thinks for a second and says with a shrug, "I don't see it," before Haley agrees.
Across the gym Brooke watches as Haley walks up to a tall, blond-haired boy, with what she can already tell are amazing blue eyes. She grabs Peyton's arm and says, "Peyton, who the heck is that fine boy our Haley is talking to?" not being able to keep her eyes off him. Peyton smiles, staring at the cute boy herself. "That would be Lucas, Nathan's brother," she informs Brooke. Brooke kinks her eyebrow and says, "Well I think it's time that Lucas is introduced to me," before walking across the gym towards Haley, Peyton walking closely behind her.
Walking up next to Haley, Brooke nudges her shoulder and says, "Haley, introduce me to your new friend." She watches as he turns his head to her, giving her a small smile that immediately makes her melt. She looks into his blue eyes and for some reason feels her heart speed up. She hears Haley laugh and say, "Oh, of course. Brooke, this is Lucas, Lucas, this is Brooke." Brooke reaches out her hand to Lucas, to which he quickly places it in his own giving it a small shake.
Lucas smiles at the brown-haired girl in front of him, taking her small soft hand in his bigger hand. He can't help but notice the small spark that runs through his body when he does this, but he quickly pulls his hand away, pretending it didn't happen. "Nice to meet you, Brooke. You can call me Luke, by the way," he tells her smiling, not wanting to look away. "Luke it is," she replies in her soft raspy voice. Haley notices this exchange between the two but decides not to say anything to Brooke about it, for now.
"Anyways!" Haley says in a loud tone, trying to break the two out of their little trance. Both Luke and Brooke turn to her with a questioning look and she says, "Luke you better go warm up or something. I don't want you to suck," she says bluntly which causes Luke to chuckle in return. "Alright, thanks Haley," he says to her. "Bye guys," he says looking from Haley, to Peyton, and lastly to Brooke, before picking up a basketball and dribbling onto the court. The girls watch as he dribbles towards the three-point arc and effortlessly sinks a three pointer.
Haley turns to Brooke with a smirk on her face, arms folded across her chest. "What!" she exclaims with a huge smile on her face. "You know what, Tigger. I've seen that look on your face before, the look you get when you've just seen your next victim." Brooke pretends to act surprised and says, "Haley, I'm shocked you would say something like that about me, your best friend!" Peyton just rolls her eyes and says, "Brooke, I have a feeling Lucas isn't that type of guy. I wouldn't try if I was you," she warns Brooke.
"Listen P. Sawyer, I am not trying anything. I haven't said two words to him!" Brooke says trying to defend herself. "Whatever you say," Peyton mumbles under her breath, to which Haley laughs. "Time to go sit through a painful cheer tryout," Peyton says sarcastically before grabbing Brooke's arm and dragging her over to the other side of the gym. "Just what I need, kill me now tutor girl," Brooke pouts as she tries to prepare herself for another first day of cheerleading. "There's no way I'm missing this, why do you think I'm here?" she says smiling before sitting herself down on the bleachers.
Two hours later, Lucas and Nathan were done with their first tryout and they played really well, as usual. Coach Durham had put them on the same team during the scrimmage, causing their team to kill the other by more than 20 points. "Nice shooting today Nate," Luke said as practice ended, walking up next to him and pounding fists. "You too, man. I told you we'd be running this team in no time," Nathan said confidently, Lucas's response being to simply roll his eyes and smile.
"So, I saw you talking to three hot girls earlier, what was that about?" he asked, knowing girls were a sore subject for him over the past couple months. Luke sighs and says, "They are just friends Nate, you know it's not like that," wanting to leave it at that. Nathan nods his head knowing not to push it any farther. "Speak of the devils," he says as he spots the three girls talking outside of the gym. Lucas and Nathan walk outside and up to the girls. "How was practice?" Luke asks as he looks at Peyton then to Brooke with a sweet and genuine look on his face, opposite of the one his brother is wearing before he says, "See ya, guys!" running across the sidewalk to talk to Theresa who was calling him over. Luke just smiles not surprised at all by his actions, after all it was Nathan.
"Ugh, do not get me started on how uncoordinated all of the freshmen were. I didn't think it was physically possible to be so bad at cheerleading, but once again I was proved wrong," Brooke rambles on with a frustrated look on her face, accompanied with arm movements that Luke thought were almost unnatural. Peyton laughs at Brooke, knowing how dramatic she is. Brooke returns her a glare saying, "Thanks for finding my suffering so humorous, skank."
"Retract the claws Brooke, I don't want that to be the reason I call you Tigger," Haley adds on smiling at the two. "And to top it all off, I have to do some stupid assignment on The Great Gatsby, a book I never read! Please told me you read it, tutor girl," Brooke pleads with her best friend. Haley smiles to herself and lies to Brooke saying, "Actually, I didn't, surprising I know. But you know, I think Luke has read it before haven't you?" she asks looking towards him.
Luke laughs and says, "I might have read it once or twice," watching as a huge smile graces Brooke's face. "Oh my gosh Luke, please help me with me with it! I'll do anything you want," she says smiling at him, making Luke stuff his hands in his pockets, a nervous habit of his. "Um, yeah I will help you. Maybe during lunch tomorrow or something?" he asks her curiously. She nods her head quickly and says, "Ah perfect! Thanks Lucas you're a life saver," she says to him, her hazel eyes meeting his baby blues once more.
"Yeah, no problem," he says smiling at her before looking down at his phone. He notices the time and says, "I better get going, I don't want my mom to get worried or anything. I'll see you guys tomorrow," he says giving them all a smile before walking off towards Nathan's car, dragging him away from Theresa on the way. Meanwhile, all three girls turn to watch the two brothers going towards their car. "Did you hear that? He has a parent that worries about him! That's how you know he isn't from Tree Hill," Peyton states with a laugh.
"Isn't that the truth," Haley says smiling. Brooke however doesn't hear a word her two friends say, because she is too wrapped up in the boy himself. She has a feeling there is something different about Lucas and she can't wait to find out what. "I said BYE BROOKE," Haley yells to Brooke, snapping her out of whatever world she was in. "Geez Haley, I'm not deaf," she says glaring at her. "Yeah, yeah. I gotta get going, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Haley says, and with that, the girls part their separate ways for the night.
Nathan dropped Lucas off at home, and after a long shower and dinner with his mom, Lucas headed into his room to relax. He turns on his T.V. only to find his mind drifting towards a certain raven-haired, hazel eyed girl. He turns his television up, hoping to drown out his thoughts of Brooke. Sighing, he leans over to his bedside dresser and opens the front drawer. Piled under a huge stack of random papers, he pulls out what he was looking for. He holds the picture in his hands and closes his eyes, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. Knowing that staring at this worn-out picture wouldn't do him any good, he gives it one last look before putting it back into his drawer, back under his papers.
He knew he needed to stop thinking about what happened, that it wouldn't help him get over it any faster, but sometimes he couldn't help it. He thought about it every day no matter how much he tried to block it from his mind. Luke knew his family was worried about him but he couldn't help it. He was trying, and that was the best that he could do for now. He finally let his eyes close, hoping that tomorrow would go as well as today had.
**Review Please! Let me know what you think and if I should continue or not! Thanks!**