Pageant Queens

Chapter 2

Peyton Sawyer had always had one motto in life and that was that hard work and perseverance would get her anywhere if she believed hard enough that it would. At least that was what she would always tell herself as she worked on yet another coat of paint for the house that she was helping remodel for her dad's company. Sighing, she stepped off the ladder and immediately mis stepped as she got flung into the arms of her partner of the week Lucas Scott. Great. As if she needed anything else to be distracted with today.

"You okay there?"

"I'm fine. Can you put me down please?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Lucas said with a certain ease on his face while putting her down as gently as possible.

"Thanks." She said looking at the disarrayed state of the grass where she had almost fell on.

"Shit. My dad's going to kill me for all the paint I spilled. These cans aren't that cheap."

"Do you need help cleaning up?"

"No, I think I got it, but can you do me a favor and tell my dad I spilt some paint and need to clean up."

"Anything for you." Lucas said with a smile.

Peyton gave him a wary smile as Lucas went along to go find her dad leaving Peyton to deal with the mess at hand. She really had no idea how the hell she was going to clean this up.

"Need a hand?" an unfamiliar voice said as Peyton looked up to see the cutest boy she had ever seen.

"I don't think it'll be much help to get paint off of grass, but you can try."

"Hi. The name is Jake."

"Peyton."

"Do you work for the company? I haven't seen you around very much."

"Ugh, no. I juts help out for extra money sometimes. My dad owns the company."

"I thought I noticed a family resemblance. So, what brings you out today?"

"It's stupid."

"I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think anything you say could be stupid."

"I'm saving money for a pageant."

"Really? I wouldn't peg you for the pageant type."

"I'm not really, it was more my mom's thing. I'm doing this for her actually."

"Well if that's the case I hope you win."

"I doubt it, but thanks for the consideration. Speaking of wish I should go. I need to go home and shower before I meet with the pageant committee."

"That's actually a thing."

"Yep. And if I don't leave now, I'll be late. Catch you later?"

"Later." He said with a smile as Peyton left to see what this pageant life was really about.