AN: Okay, so I'm starting this fic because I have total writers block on my others. This story is AU, so here are the things that have changed:
Lucas and Nathan are twins, but are totally fraternal. Karen is both of their mother, and Dan and Karen were married, but are now divorced. Peyton, Haley, and Brooke live in a little suburb in California, and have been best friends since birth. Jake, Nathan, and Lucas are best friends, and always have been.
It was the summer before junior year in high school that everything changed. We were small town girls from California looking to escape our pasts, our families, and our memories and struggling to hold onto each other. They were small town boys from North Carolina, and the six of us were going to turn each other's worlds upside down.
My best friends were Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis. Peyton was a moody, tortured artist type with short, curly blonde hair and a dad who was never around, plus a dead mother. Brooke was a long haired brunette vixen with a devious smile and sparking green eyes. In our freshmen year, and half of sophmore, she had been a hard-partying, cold hearted bitch, but she had had her reasons. We stuck by her through that bad phase and we were helping her get back to good old Brooke Davis. And me? I'm Haley James, the girl with long blonde hair and the brains. The three of us had been best friends since we were born; our crazy ass moms had been best friends in high school.
In a moment of reckless abandon, we decided on something crazy, something spontaneous, to define our summer. With Brooke's parents off in Spain, Peyton's dad in the middle of the ocean somewhere around Japan, and my parents traveling the country in an RV, we had no parents to drag us back home. We jumped into Peyton's red convertible, with suitcases full of clothes, a guitar for me, a canvas bag of art supplies for Peyton, and a two notebooks, one for her designs, and another for her thoughts, for Brooke, and began to trek across the country, to a place where we had spent a summer when we were in the third grade.
It was Tree Hill, North Carolina, and Brooke's family owned a huge house there. In just an hour, we had made the decision to go there, to get away from everything we knew, and to start a fresh summer.
I worked out the travel schedule, Peyton supplied the perfect mix of music for all three of our personalities, and Brooke packed all of our clothes. According to my itinerary, if we drove non-stop and stopped every hour for twenty minutes, we would get there in four days. Brooke suggested taking her dad's private jet, but we decided against it, wanting to feel the wind in our hair and see the road stretching before us.
The three days of travel sped by in no time at all. Brooke was driving the last leg of the trip, and she pulled into a long driveway of a huge house with a big red door. Brooke grinned.
"This feels more like home then anywhere else," she smiled.
"You're the girl behind the red door," Peyton laughed, jumping out of the car. "Let's do this then!"
Brooke stopped with the key in the door and our bags around our feet. She held her hand into the middle of our little circle.
"To a great summer and a great friendship," she said.
"To starting new and sticking together," Peyton added, putting her hand over Brooke's. I put mine on Peyton's.
"To creating new memories and forgetting old ones," I said. Brooke put her other hand over mine with a smirk.
"To finding a summer love."
"To finding a boy that's different."
"To finding ourselves..." I said, and quickly added, "And the perfect guy."
We all laughed and threw our arms up, shouting and giggling happily as we stumbled into Brooke's house. She led the way up the stairs to the main hallway. She immediately told us which rooms we should go in. Her room was eggplant purple with gold and burnt orange accents. Mine was a mix of blues and jades, and Peyton's was burgandy and black.
"My mom let me decorate when I was thirteen," Brooke shrugged in explanation. "I drew the inspiration for the rooms from you two. My mom hates this place, so she let me."
I gasped. "How could she hate this place? It's gorgeous!" I ran to the window and looked out at the town that seemed to glitter in the morning summer sun.
"What do you say we get dressed and cleaned up, then hit the town? There's this really great cafe down the road."
Peyton and I nodded, and we all got showered and ready to go. Brooke drove, since she was the only one who really knew this town, but when she grabbed a set of keyes off of a hook, she led us to the garage.
"We're taking my car," she explained, opening the garage. There were four cars in the space, and Peyton and I raised our eyebrows.
"Woah, there, Tigger," I said. "Rich much?"
She stuck her tongue out and climbed into the driver's seat of a light blue convertible Bug, while Peyton took the front seat and I hopped into the back. In a couple of minutes, we pulled up to a little restaraunt that read "Karen's Cafe".
Brooke led the way, like she always did, and immediately stopped, staring at a table full of guys. They were all dressed in basketball stuff.
"Summer training sucks," a dark haired boy complained. He had piercing blue eyes and some of the best arms I had never seen.
"C'mon, Nate, it's not that bad," said a brown haired cutie. Peyton's eyes were glued to him and I smirked at Brooke.
"You guys wanna hit up the Rivercourt?" a blonde haired, blue eyed guy said. He caught Brooke's attention slightly, but she shook herself and walked to the counter.
A woman with curly, short black hair took our order. "Are you new here? I don't usually see many different people around here. It's a small place."
"Yeah," I said. "We're here for the summer."
"I'm Karen," she introduced, shaking our hands.
"Brooke Davis, and that's Peyton Sawyer and Haley James. My parents own a house out here, so we decided to take a road trip."
"Davis? I went to school with your father!" Karen said. Brooke's smile faltered for a moment, and she closed her eyes before replacing her grin.
"Really? What a small world!"
"Like I said, it's a small town," Karen said. "Let met introduce you to my sons. Lucas! Nathan! Come here!"
The blonde and the black haired guy from earlier loped over to where they were sitting. "Yeah?" they asked in unison.
"These girls are here for the summer. Maybe you could show them around a little bit."
"Sure," Nathan said, grinning cockily. I suddenly didn't like him that much.
"I'm Brooke," Brooke took control, "And these are my friends Haley James and Peyton Sawyer."
"YES!" I suddenly shouted triumphantly. They all looked at me, confused. "You actually introduced me before Peyt."
"Congrats, Tutor Girl," Brooke said cheekily. She turned back to the boys. "Don't mind her, she's a little...special."
"Hey!" I protested, slapping her lightly. Lucas was looking at Brooke in an annoyed manner, and I blinked, slightly surprised. Peyton raised her eyebrows, looking between me and Nathan and then Lucas and Brooke. The brunette, who was sitting with the brothers, approached carrying...a baby?!
"Hi, I'm Jake," he introduced, "And this is Jenny."
Peyton cooed at the baby while Brooke and I burst into laughter.
"P. Sawyer! You have a heart!" Brooke said incredulously. Peyton growled at her jokingly and we all laughed again. The boys looked uncomfortable.
"Anyway," I said awkwardly. "Is there anything fun to do around here?"
"We hang out at the Rivercourt for the most part," Lucas shrugged.
"Oh, and our mom owns an underage club called Tric. It's really fun."
"Oh, yeah, it's a total blast," Jake said. "We were heading over there tomorrow night. You should join us."
"A club? Count me in!" Brooke said, bouncing up and down. Peyton looked wary and I shook my head.
"I think I'll pass," Peyton said. "I don't want to listen to crappy pop music and babysit good old B. Davis."
"They actually hire some really kickass rock bands," Jake said, bouncing the little girl on his hip.
"Well, then count me in," Peyton smiled.
"How about you?" Nathan asked me. I bit my lip, and Brooke spoke.
"She's in."
Wait...what?
Author's Note: Okay, so it was kind of a bad and kind of short chapter, but it's just to kick the story off. Next chapter will be Tric, and there will be some Brooke/Lucas fighting (they're not gonna like each other at first). There'll also be some sweet Haley/Nathan fluff kinda stuff and some Jake/Peyton bonding.